 Subjects -> PHILOSOPHY (Total: 762 journals)
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- The pragmatics of blessings in Gedeo (south Ethiopia)
Authors: Tesfatsion Petros Golle, Ongaye Oda Orkaydo, Yetebarek Hizekeal Zekareas
Abstract: The Gedeo, a Cushitic-speaking group in southern Ethiopia, have a long tradition of blessing expressions ingrained in their native cosmology. The pragmatics of the Gedeo people's blessing utterances are examined in this article. Pertinent information was gathered from knowledgeable senior community members through interviews, and focus group discussions conducted between November 2020 and December 2021. The technique of gathering data also included non-participant observations. We have thematically analysed the data based on the situations in which the blessings are expressed and used to convey the intended meanings in the specific contexts, The expressive functions of blessings in Gedeo vary from context to context as would be expected, but, interestingly, they frequently revolve around praising Mageno ‘the Creator,’ shielding fellow community members from harm, boosting the land's productivity, safeguarding the environment, and upholding the general well-being of the community. We conclude that, while blessings have diverse meanings depending on the context in which they are expressed, their overall purpose is to preserve communal harmony and order.
PubDate: 2022-10-12
DOI: 10.13135/1825-263X/7070
Issue No: Vol. 26, No. 1 (2022)
- The kalivarjya concerning the prohibition of initiation during the
celebration of the Vedic sattra rituals
Authors: Igor Spanò
Abstract: The subject of kalivarjyas, their origin, and their place within Brahmanical ideology has attracted keen interest from various scholars. Indeed, the kalivarjyas constitute ‘exceptions’ to the dharmic norm that seem to invalidate the authority of the dharma itself. However, they allow us to verify how the dharma has been constantly adapted to the new requirements that have emerged with the transformations that have taken place in India over time in the religious and socio-political spheres. Among the kalivarjyas, some refer to the field of śrauta rituals, and the one concerning the prohibition of the sattradīkṣā, i.e., the initiation on the celebration of Vedic rituals of the sattra type, appears particularly interesting. Through the analysis of some ancient and medieval texts and based on the interpretations provided in the past by numerous scholars, in this study I attempt to offer some possible explanations to clarify the meaning and the origin of this kalivarjya. The explorations conducted will allow shedding new light on the way of interpreting the changes that took place in the centuries following the decline of Vedic religiosity from the ritual, juridical, and historical-political point of view. This will lead to clarifying what the bans are for, whether they are intended to preserve something from the changes themselves, and whether they are intended to preserve, or sanction established roles in society.
PubDate: 2022-10-12
DOI: 10.13135/1825-263X/7071
Issue No: Vol. 26, No. 1 (2022)
- Hariśaṅkar Parsāī’s Ham ek umr se vāqif haiṁ: A memoir of the
sufferings of an Indian literary satirist
Authors: Fabio Mangraviti
Abstract: The present work is an attempt at investigating Ham ek umr se vāqif haiṁ (‘I have known for a lifetime,’ 1989) a memoir by Hariśaṅkar Parsāī (1924-1995), commonly deemed as the most outstanding postcolonial Hindī literary satirist (vyaṅgyakār). The study aims at exploring the narrative strategies as well as the socio-cultural and ideological ends pursued by Parsāī in crafting this work. More precisely, much attention is given to the philosophical views of the writer, who consciously decided to avoid the autobiographical form in his writings. Indeed, he deemed the autobiography (ātmakathā) as a genre devoid of any social commitment. On the contrary, he considered memoirs as texts more suitable for conveying ideas on socio-cultural and political issues. Apart from this, considerable emphasis will be placed on the narratives Parsāī developed in this memoir in order to legitimize the socio-cultural function of the satirists, who are authors somehow marginalized by Hindī literary criticism. In order to focus on this issue, the study will engage with the analysis of Parsāī’s aesthetic relationship with the representatives of Nayī Kahānī, the major Hindī literary movement of the 1950s and 1960s.
PubDate: 2022-10-12
DOI: 10.13135/1825-263X/7069
Issue No: Vol. 26, No. 1 (2022)
- From loafing to dignity: The mise en scène of Guo Shixing‘s play Go
Home directed by Lin Zhaohua
Authors: Barbara Leonesi
Abstract: Guo Shixing is considered one of the most interesting playwrights in contemporary China. In his production, an important role is played by his two trilogies, the Loafers (1990s) trilogy and the Dignity (2000s) trilogy. After briefly analysing commonalities and differences between the two trilogies, this essay focuses on an analysis of the text and the mise en scène of the third play in the Dignity trilogy, Go Home. The essay will show that this play can be seen as a sort of point of arrival for Guo Shixing’s creative writing, concentrating the distinctive features that have marked his production from the beginning. In particular, the study will reflect on the close link between theatre and society, and on the function of dramaturgical writing as a mirror and at the same time a criticism of contemporary society.
PubDate: 2022-10-12
DOI: 10.13135/1825-263X/7067
Issue No: Vol. 26, No. 1 (2022)
- Aesthetics as a space of difference: The implicit sociology in Tanizaki
Jun’ichirō’s A Golden Death
Authors: Pierantonio Zanotti
Abstract: Tanizaki Jun’ichirō’s short story Konjiki no shi (‘A golden death,’ 1914) tells the weird tale of a friendship between two young aspiring artists in early twentieth-century Japan. Watashi, the narrator, is a diligent student, has conventional ideas and becomes a conventional writer, while his friend Okamura, who is extremely wealthy and free to pursue his wildest ideas, develops to the most bizarre consequences his own original aesthetics based on the senses and the beauty of the human body. This story can be read by adopting a perspective that brings out its implicit sociology. Konjiki no shi describes the social trajectories of the two protagonists by tapping into Tanizaki’s “sense of the social.” By resorting to some socio-critical tools and to Pierre Bourdieu’s sociological theory, I will investigate how this story constructs and narrates the relationship between the two main characters and its evolution. Secondly, I will show how aesthetics, as understood as a set of historically situated practices and discourses dispersed in the story, constitutes a significant aspect of the differential characterization of the two protagonists and an important element to interpret their conducts. Tanizaki succeeds in summoning before the readers’ eyes the intersection of two social and aesthetic trajectories that do not appear to be governed by chance or the whim of invention, but respond to his awareness of their social matrices and evolutions, their stakes and costs.
PubDate: 2022-10-12
DOI: 10.13135/1825-263X/7068
Issue No: Vol. 26, No. 1 (2022)
- Roberto Gaudioso, The Voice of the Text and its Body. The Continuous
Reform of Euphrase Kezilahabi’s Poetics. 2019.
Authors: Matthias Freise
PubDate: 2022-10-12
DOI: 10.13135/1825-263X/7072
Issue No: Vol. 26, No. 1 (2022)
- Cristina Nicolini. Clash of Epistemes: Knowledge of HIV/AIDS in Swahili
Literary Genres. 2022
Authors: Flavia Aiello
PubDate: 2022-09-15
DOI: 10.13135/1825-263X/7035
Issue No: Vol. 26, No. 1 (2022)
- Hans Lagerqvist. Four Essays on Semitic Grammar and Dialectology. Quatre
Essais sur la grammaire et la dialectologie sémitiques. 2020
Authors: Alessandro Mengozzi
PubDate: 2022-09-15
DOI: 10.13135/1825-263X/7036
Issue No: Vol. 26, No. 1 (2022)
- Elena Valdameri. Indian Liberalism between Nation and Empire. The
Political Life of Gopal Krishna Gokhale. 2022
Authors: Maurizio Griffo
PubDate: 2022-09-15
DOI: 10.13135/1825-263X/7037
Issue No: Vol. 26, No. 1 (2022)
- Marzia Casolari (edited by). Gandhi After Gandhi. The Relevance of the
Mahatma’s Legacy in Today’s World. 2022
Authors: Tommaso Bobbio
PubDate: 2022-09-15
DOI: 10.13135/1825-263X/7034
Issue No: Vol. 26, No. 1 (2022)
- A phonetically “unnatural” class in Central and Eastern
Shehret (Jibbali)
Authors: Janet C.E. Watson, Amer Azad Adli Al-Kathiri
Abstract: The set of consonants /b m y/ and historical *w in the Central and Eastern varieties of the Modern South Arabian language, Shehret (Jibbali), pattern together phonologically in the following ways: all are subject to intervocalic elision; between underlying /e/~/i/ and a stressed mid vowel, /b/ patterns with /m/ in being realised as [y]~[əy] in a range of words; /y/ is the reflex of historical *b in a closed set of lexemes; and /b/ realises historical *w, rarely *y, in pre- and post-consonantal position and in a handful of lexemes word-initially. Phonological interest in the set, /b m y/ *w, lies in the fact that the member consonants form a phonetically “unnatural” class (Mielke 2008): they do not include all and only labial consonants (lacking /f/, including /y/) nor all and only sonorants (lacking /l n r/, including /b/), including /b/), and two members of the set, /b y/, share no phonetic characteristics beyond ‘voice.’ Moreover, it is rare cross-linguistically for one obstruent to be subject to intervocalic elision to the exclusion of all other obstruents of that phonological class. Phonetically “unnatural” classes such as this are far from uncommon cross-linguistically (Mielke 2008), however; within Mielke’s (2008) Emergent Feature Theory, they can be accounted for by the pressures of phonetics and “external” factors. In this paper, we consider the patterning of /b m y/ *w, examine phonetic reasons for the inclusion of the plosive, /b/, in this set, and, based on Emergent Feature Theory, present a phonological account of the patterning of /b m y/ and *w.
PubDate: 2022-09-09
DOI: 10.13135/1825-263X/7023
Issue No: Vol. 26, No. 1 (2022)
- Polluted by a purifying text: The order of signs in a pre-modern literary
Malayalam world
Authors: Elena Mucciarelli
Abstract: Considered lost until the latter part of the twentieth century, the Tiruniḻalmāla, “The garland of sacred shadows,” has been defined as a “ritual text” and as an account of rituals performed in the Āṟanmuḷa temple of central Kerala. Yet the manuscripts that came to light were preserved in the northern part of Kerala. On the one hand “The garland of sacred shadows” raises fundamental questions about its composition and transmission, and more fundamentally about the relation between textuality and performativity. On the other hand, it invites a reflection on the interpretative and epistemic approaches that scholars adopt towards forms of text which include an oral and visual dimension at their core. In fact, this poetic work that has been dated to the 13th/14th centuries intersects with two ritual and performative practices from contemporary Kerala. The first is the Uccabali-Teyyam, a particular form of Teyyam or possession worship performed by low-caste communities in parts of costal Karnataka and northern Kerala, and the second is the deliverance ritual called Kanneruppāṭu. This article aims to analyse how the rituals are presented and reproduced within the Tiruniḻalmāla in dialogue with the contemporary rituals. By highlighting how the text’s author refers to a religious and social 0world altogether different from his own, I argue that the Tiruniḻalmāla as a whole might have been conceived as the poetic re-creation of a ritual. In this sense, the text can be understood as a linguistic endeavor to conjure up something that resembles a ritual while openly stating, by its own textual nature, its disconnection from the reality it is supposed to depict. In other words, I take the performative nature of this text to be understood in terms of reproduction and simulation. If the “Garland of Sacred Shadows” was conceived for the high caste communities, then its intended audience was allegedly meant to keep a distance from the same practices that represent the core of the text. In this sense, the text, which has at its core the purification of the main deity of Āṟanmuḷa, might act, by way of inversion, as a source of pollution for its audience.
PubDate: 2022-09-04
DOI: 10.13135/1825-263X/7016
Issue No: Vol. 26, No. 1 (2022)
- Investigating Chinese learner corpus research and learner corpora: Main
features, critical issues and future pathways
Authors: Alessia Iurato
Abstract: This article investigates the current state of Chinese Learner Corpus Research (CLCR) and outlines its main features and critical issues. Thirty years have passed since the compilation of the first Chinese learner corpus. Since then, the number of Chinese learner corpus projects has considerably increased in China and outside China, leading to a parallel growth in L2 Chinese studies as well. Despite the increasingly wide-ranging accessibility of L2 Chinese learner corpora and achievements in CLCR, there are no research which analyze the current state of this expanding field, defining its key features and gaps. This study therefore aims to fill this lack in the literature and sheds light on the learner-corpus based research in the Chinese context. The study also aims to provide an updated and useful reference of current trends and limitations in CLCR to help scholars better guide future research in order to address current gaps in the field. First, the paper introduces origins, development, and current trends in CLCR; main features and limits of learner corpus design, analysis, and annotation in CLCR are also analyzed. Second, the paper provides an overview of existing L2 Chinese learner corpora, by grouping them according to mode (written, spoken and multimodal) and size (large-scale and small-scale). Finally, the article directs attention toward challenges in this field, concluding with future directions for CLCR and its intersections with Second Language Acquisition (SLA) to support L2 Chinese teaching and learning.
PubDate: 2022-09-04
DOI: 10.13135/1825-263X/7017
Issue No: Vol. 26, No. 1 (2022)
- Masāne kī horī: Singing life in the cremation ground
Authors: Erika Caranti
Abstract: Named after the Hindu spring festival of Holī, horī songs generally portray the frolicsome play of the day with the throwing of coloured powders by Kṛṣṇa as the main protagonist pranking Rādhā and the gopī-s in Braj. The horī analysed in the present paper shows idiosyncrasies unveiling religious, theological, and ritual significance, besides offering precious insights into a ‘living tradition’: the celebration of Holī in the city of Banaras, at the cremation ground in Maṇikarṇikā ghāṭ where śaiva devotees enact and ‘actualise’ the horī. The song depicts Śiva playing Holī in the cremation ground with his retinue of ghostly creatures that are his favourite companions along with Aghorī-s. In place of colours, Śiva tosses the ashes from funeral pyres. In his divine dance and drumming, Mahādev uses the poisonous snakes adorning him as water-guns to squirt venom instead of gulāl. The atypical choice of Śiva in one of his fearful manifestations as the subject of a horī is discussed through references to philosophical and theological interpretations and specific symbolism. The apparent contradiction of the celebration of a lively festival in the setting of the cremation ground, resolved in the divine character of Śiva, is illustrated and contextualised starting from textual analysis.
PubDate: 2022-08-26
DOI: 10.13135/1825-263X/7001
Issue No: Vol. 26, No. 1 (2022)
- Toward a “global novel:” An ecocritical reading of Tawada
Yōko’s The Emissary
Authors: Francesco Eugenio Barbieri
Abstract: Aim of this paper is to re-read Tawada Yōko’s novel Kentōshi through the interpretative framework of the new literary category of the “global novel”. Moving from the description of environmental catastrophe my analysis will show how this novel by Tawada can represent not only the first work of this genre written by the author but, for the intrinsic value of Tawada’s literature itself, it can help shape and redefine the category of the global novel itself.
PubDate: 2022-08-26
DOI: 10.13135/1825-263X/7000
Issue No: Vol. 26, No. 1 (2022)
- A Musandam Arabic text from Lima (Oman)
Authors: Simone Bettega, Fabio Gasparini
Abstract: This paper presents a short unpublished text recorded in the town of Lima, a small settlement located on the eastern shore of the Musandam peninsula (formally an Omani exclave). The text is fully transcribed and glossed, and a discussion follows in which the main phonological and grammatical peculiarities of the informant’s speech are investigated. The analysis confirms the findings of the few existing studies on Musandam Arabic, and adds some previously undocumented features, discussing their possible relations with other dialects of the Gulf Area. In particular, the hypothesis is put forward that some of the traits typically encountered in Musandam Arabic may find their ultimate origin in the southernmost regions of the Arabian Peninsula.
PubDate: 2022-07-30
DOI: 10.13135/1825-263X/6961
Issue No: Vol. 26, No. 1 (2022)
- Offensive language in Chinese Buddhic discipline texts: The anectodal
preambles to the precepts
Authors: Paolo Villani
Abstract: Chinese Buddhic writings condemn verbal abuse since their very beginning, but it is the translations of Indic works about vinaya that offer a systematic discussion of the topic. The juxtaposition of passages of various monastic discipline texts shows slight yet not unimportant differences concerning both the worrisome details causing the Buddha to dictate the precepts as well as the parables the Buddha resorts to in founding the censure of offensive language.
PubDate: 2022-07-20
DOI: 10.13135/1825-263X/6919
Issue No: Vol. 26, No. 1 (2022)
- Impoliteness strategies at a Jordanian hospital Emergency Room
Authors: Ghaleb Rabab’ah, Rajai R. Al-Khanji, Muradi Bataineh
Abstract: Impoliteness as a natural phenomenon is observed in many face-to-face encounters. It is employed to cause offense and attack the face of the hearer and sometimes over-hearers. One of the researchers who was working at the University of Jordan Hospital noticed that patients and/or their relatives use verbal and nonverbal impolite behaviour when addressing the hospital staff and doctors. In order to investigate the various strategies utilised by Arabic speaking patients and/or their relatives to express impoliteness towards the Emergency Room (ER) staff at a Jordanian hospital, observation and note-taking were used to collect the impolite instances for a period of 30 days during April 2014. A total of 100 face-to-face interactions, which included impolite expressions were collected. The results of the study showed that the patients and their relatives used 208 impoliteness instances while interacting with the admin staff, nurses and doctors. The most used strategy of impoliteness was ‘bald on record impoliteness’ followed by ‘negative impoliteness’, ‘positive impoliteness’, ‘sarcasm or mock politeness’ and ‘withhold politeness’. The study concludes that the various types and strategies of impoliteness used by the patients and/or their relatives were aiming at offending and threatening the face of the hospital staff and doctors, and this behaviour, as observed in the various interactions that took place, could be attributed to their dissatisfaction of the health care services provided.
PubDate: 2022-07-17
DOI: 10.13135/1825-263X/6902
Issue No: Vol. 26, No. 1 (2022)
- A cross-cultural analysis of disagreement strategies in Algerian and
Jordanian Arabic
Authors: Nour El Houda Benyakoub, Sharif Alghazo, Abdel Rahman Mitib Altakhaineh, Ghaleb Rabab’ah
Abstract: This study aims to explore the use of disagreement strategies in two Arabic dialects: Jordanian and Algerian Arabic. It also investigates the effect of social status on the choice of disagreement strategies adopting Muntigl’s and Turnbull’s (1998) taxonomy. To achieve these objectives, 40 participants (20 Jordanians and 20 Algerians) were randomly recruited to respond to a discourse completion task (DCT). The participants were requested to read six situations and to react to them by making disagreements with people of higher, equal and lower statuses. A mixed-method approach was used to analyse the data. The results showed that the participants in the two study groups share similar preferences in the use of two main disagreement strategies that scored the highest in High to Low, Low to High, and in Equal statuses. The findings are discussed in the light of (im)politeness and provide implications for socio-pragmatic research in Arabic linguistics.
PubDate: 2022-07-17
DOI: 10.13135/1825-263X/6903
Issue No: Vol. 26, No. 1 (2022)
- Va tuje darvɑzeǃ Di Maria has been a pest all night: Evaluative language
in Persian and English live football commentary
Authors: Samir Hassanvandi, Maryam Golchinnezhad
Abstract: This paper explores the expression of evaluative language in live football commentary in Persian and English. The main focus of this study was to explore differences in the use of evaluation in three different modes of football live commentary provided in the UEFA Champions League (UCL) 2014 final match between Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid: live radio commentary (LRC), live TV commentary (LTVC), and live text commentary (LTC). The expressions of evaluative language were analyzed regarding Attitude. Attitude is one of three central components of the appraisal theory (Martin and White, 2005) in language, which is concerned with the use of evaluative language. The study showed that attitudinal resources were prevalent and varied in the extracts analyzed. They were mainly Judgment oriented and negative. The case study was an attempt to contribute to this growing area of research by exploring the live football commentary genre. The mode of live commentary had a crucial role in determining the number of words spoken during the commentary. Also, the commentator’s biased opinion was undeniable, especially in the polarity of the evaluative expressions they used. In each commentary, by nature, there was a predominantly focus on product or process. In LTC, since the commentator is watching the finished action, the focus is entirely product-oriented. LTC also has more frequent use of Affect resources due to the fact that Affect in general deals with evaluating objects and products or how products and performances are valued. In the other two modes of commentaries, given that the commentators are reporting the events happening in the game in real-time and in the spur of moment, the focus is mostly on the process.
PubDate: 2022-07-17
DOI: 10.13135/1825-263X/6905
Issue No: Vol. 26, No. 1 (2022)
- Mensural classifiers and traditional measuring tools used in Acehnese
(Indonesia)
Authors: Zulfadli A. Aziz, Yunisrina Qismullah Yusuf, Dini Hanifa, Mohammad Harun
Abstract: This study investigates the mensural classifiers along with various traditional measurement tools used by the Acehnese community in Pidie Jaya District, Aceh Province, Indonesia. The data for this qualitative research with an ethnographic approach was obtained from five sub-districts in Pidie Jaya District. Elicitation techniques and non-participant observation techniques were employed to collect data from 12 selected informants. Pictures of these tools were taken for documentation. It was found that there are 21 mensural classifiers for the volume measurement unit (kai, sukèe, ndhie, siblakai, cupak, arè, gantang, pacôk, kulah, naléh, gunca, kuyan, tayeun, gaca siarè, gaca sicupak, gaca sikai, glok, cawan, mok, cinu, and tima), one mensural classifier for width measurement unit (naléh) and three mensural classifiers for weight measurement unit (manyam, bungkai, and katoe). These traditional measuring tools are made from parts of plants, recycled goods, and even items sold in the market but are considered traditional by the community, as well as antiques that are believed to have originated from abroad. It is expected that the results of this research can be used as documentation of the Acehnese traditional heritage as an effort to preserve a regional culture in Indonesia. Future research on this topic should also investigate traditional measuring tools that use parts of the human body as measurements because they also exist in Acehnese society.
PubDate: 2022-07-17
DOI: 10.13135/1825-263X/6904
Issue No: Vol. 26, No. 1 (2022)
- “What’s in a name'” Swahili toponymy of past towns
on the East African coast
Authors: Monika Baumanova, Rosanna Tramutoli
Abstract: For the last century, archaeologists have surveyed and studied archaeological sites on the Swahili coast of East Africa, that represent the remains of past Swahili settlements and, in few cases, living historical towns. This paper is the first discussion of a collection of the names under which these past towns have been known, some of which may date back to the precolonial period. The present enquiry is concerned with the analysis of linguistic features, folk etymology and the conceptual content of these toponyms. It considers the recognised important themes in archaeology and history of the Swahili society, such as the political functioning of these towns as city states and the attested social and economic relevance of trade, the built environment and the ocean. Utilising this knowledge, it reflects on how the names contributed to place-making and defining the identity of these towns both as individual entities and as part of the Swahili cultural sphere. The interdisciplinary approach and perspectives (linguistic and archaeological) help to elucidate the connection between the socio-historical relevance of these sites with their cultural conceptualisations.
PubDate: 2022-07-12
DOI: 10.13135/1825-263X/6892
Issue No: Vol. 26, No. 1 (2022)
- A divisive disease: Clashing treatments for HIV/AIDS in Swahili literature
Authors: Cristina Nicolini
Abstract: The aim of this paper is to illustrate the historical evolution of the “clashes between epistemes in relation to the treatment of illness”, which characterize Swahili literary genres on HIV/AIDS (Nicolini 2022) through an exploration of Swahili novels. Therefore, I will investigate the epistemologies of a pandemic both analytically, by investigating both the knowledge of HIV/AIDS and the plural ways of treatment involved, as well as aesthetically and linguistically, by examining the metaphorical doubles of HIV/AIDS. Moreover, I will compare the metaphorical doubles of HIV/AIDS in Swahili literature to the metaphors in Anglophone literature from East Africa. Finally, I will conclude the study with a glance at the recent Covid-19 pandemic. The clash, between modern medicine and non-scientific knowledge(-s) in relation to the treatment of illnesses, seems also to be a continuous feature in the contemporary discussions dealing with Covid-19 circulating in the social media.
PubDate: 2022-07-12
DOI: 10.13135/1825-263X/6886
Issue No: Vol. 26, No. 1 (2022)
- Untying the Grotian Knot: How Tanaka Kōtarō’s Christian approach to
international law disentangled the moral quandary of the South West Africa
Cases
Authors: Jason Morgan
Abstract: The South West Africa Cases presented the International Court of Justice (ICJ) with a seemingly intractable problem. The Petitioners in the Cases, Ethiopia and Liberia, alleged that the Respondent, the Union of South Africa, was failing to abide by the Mandate System under which South Africa had come into possession of the former German territory of South West Africa (today, Namibia). South Africa, however, argued that the way in which the mandate was governed was essentially no concern of other states. This argument presented a serious, and seemingly unresolvable, problem for the ICJ. South Africa displayed flagrant disregard for human dignity in planning and enforcing a system of racial segregation, apartheid, which relegated millions of people to lower social strata. However, the secularized international law paradigm on which the ICJ relied had no way to counter South Africa’s arguments. While it was clear that South Africa was acting unjustly, the deracinated natural law system of Hugo de Grotius (1583-1645) on which international law was premised had no way to untie this Grotian knot and permit of more substantive legal arguments on the grounds of the dignity of the human person or human rights. Procedure, in other words, trumped morality. The case seemed stuck. However, ICJ jurist Tanaka Kōtarō (1890-1974), a practicing Catholic, deployed strongly metaphysical—that is, Christian—natural law reasoning in his dissenting South West Africa Cases judgment to untie the Grotian knot and solve the moral dilemma of apartheid within an international law framework. In this paper, I examine Tanaka’s rulings (in particular his now-classic 1966 dissent) and show that his application of Catholic natural law in the South West Africa Cases not only solved the problem at hand, but also allowed for a much more robust vision of the moral law to prevail in international relations in the future.
PubDate: 2022-07-12
DOI: 10.13135/1825-263X/6887
Issue No: Vol. 26, No. 1 (2022)
- The historical reality of the plural of paucity and the plural diminutive
in Classical Arabic: Evidence from kalām al-‘arab (Part Two)
Authors: Francesco Grande
Abstract: This study investigates the semantics of the plural of paucity and the plural diminutive, based on their attestations in the non-literary source of Classical Arabic traditionally known as kalām al-‘arab. In noun plural marking, the meaning of the diminutive is as elusive as that of the plural of paucity. What is known of both kinds of meanings is mainly derived from the indirect description of early lexicographers and grammarians. To assess the historical reality of this traditional semantic description, attestations from the kalām al-‘arab are collected, then compared to data from Arabic dialects, and finally subjected to a distributional analysis. The grammatical categories of the collective, inherent plural, and the pseudo-dual are also considered in this assessment.
PubDate: 2022-07-12
DOI: 10.13135/1825-263X/6891
Issue No: Vol. 26, No. 1 (2022)
- Congruities and incongruities in Arabic literary translation: A
contrastive linguistic analysis of “The Prophet” by Khalil Gibran
Authors: Narjes Ennasser, Rajai R. Al-Khanji
Abstract: Three Arabic translations of Khalil Gibran’s “The Prophet” are chosen among other available Arabic translations. Fifteen translated texts from the book were included for the analysis in this study. The three translations are by Basheer (1934), Abdelahad (1993), and Okasha (2008). The study investigates and analyzes different linguistic levels: discourse, stylistic, semantic, syntactic, and lexical among others as well as different choices made by the translators in rendering the same source text (ST) elements. The study found out that adopting different translation strategies by the translators led to different versions of the same ST. These strategies are based on the aesthetic ornamentation approach by As-Safi (2016). They include idiomaticity, stylistic considerations, cultural orientation, semantic/lexical accuracy, and syntactic accuracy.
PubDate: 2022-07-12
DOI: 10.13135/1825-263X/6895
Issue No: Vol. 26, No. 1 (2022)
- Prophet Muḥammad in Dante’s Divine Comedy: An anxiety of
influence
Authors: Balqis Al-Karaki, Mahmoud Jaran
Abstract: This article explores the century-long topic ‘Dante and Islam’ from the perspective of Harold’s Bloom’s theory of influence. It argues that Dante’s placement of Muḥammad in Inferno 28 could have been caused by an ‘anxiety’ incited by the Islamic influence on the Commedia as first suggested by Miguel Asín Palacios in 1919. With the intention of complementing the close readings of Maria Corti and Karla Mallette, the article’s analysis of the relevant verses in Inferno in light of Bloom’s theory reveals that there could be more to the famous scene of torture than the medieval antagonistic or ambivalent positions from Islam. The article also tackles the history of European and Arab scholarship dealing with the topic, showing that it has been filled with religious, political and nationalistic anxieties, not ending with the censorship of the scene in most contemporary Arabic translations of Dante’s Commedia.
PubDate: 2022-07-12
DOI: 10.13135/1825-263X/6894
Issue No: Vol. 26, No. 1 (2022)
- Tunis, ville double : les quartiers consulaires médiévaux comme
prémices de la ville européenne
Authors: Adnen el Ghali
Abstract: Thanks to the conclusion of the first trade and peace treaty between the Emirate of Tunis and the Republic of Pisa (1157), the central area called the “Frankish Quarter” of Tunis was established. Through the signing of new treatises with competing Christian powers, the ”Frankish Quarter” was gradually transformed and became a “Consular District”. At the centre of this process was the fondouk, soul of the Latin Christian quarter, located between the port and the city. In this area, consular institutions gave rise to a specific set of services and equipments intended for a specific and segregated community. After four centuries of existence (1157-1535), the “Consular District” was replaced by a military citadel, the Nova Arx, designed by Italian engineers under count Gabrio Serbelloni’s (1509-1580) command and constructed on the site of the hafsid arsenal. The Nova Arx existed for only one year (1573-1574), when it was dismantled by the Ottomans. With it, the memory of the consular presence in this part of the city vanished until the construction of the French consulate in 1860.
PubDate: 2022-07-12
DOI: 10.13135/1825-263X/6889
Issue No: Vol. 26, No. 1 (2022)
- Investigating the readability of literary texts translations: A step
towards formulating the ‘Nativity Hypothesis’
Authors: Mahmoud Afrouz
Abstract: The present study aims at formulating a tentative hypothesis for the issue of ‘Nativity’. It focuses on the readability level of the translations by source-language native and target-language native translators. The corpus selected for analysis was the Persian Modern novella The Blind Owl. The original work was written by the most widely-known Persian short-story writer Sadeq Hedayat (1903-1951) and it was translated by Bashiri (the SL native translator) in 2016 and Costello (the TL native translator) in 1957. The corpus was investigated in terms of total word number, ‘Long Words’ number, ‘Hard Words,’ ‘Gunning Fog Index’ and ‘Lexical Density’ in order to give a clear picture of the readability of the two translations. One principle in favour of the tentative ‘Nativity Hypothesis’ was found to be that TL native translators produce a wider, more domesticated, more target-reader friendly, more fluent and more readable translation than SL native translators.’ The study was just a single and humble step towards formulating the NH. Prospective researchers are encouraged to conduct confirmatory research focusing on different text-types, such as classical literary texts, and sacred texts. A researcher working on such subjects would hopefully take a further step towards the formulation of a somehow reliable ‘Nativity Hypothesis.’
PubDate: 2022-07-12
DOI: 10.13135/1825-263X/6888
Issue No: Vol. 26, No. 1 (2022)
- The path to a collective spirituality in the art of Mori Mariko
Authors: Federica Cavazzuti
Abstract: Among the most successful Japanese artists working internationally, Mori Mariko (b. 1967, Tokyo) has distinguished herself on the contemporary art scene for her multi-disciplinary practice that continuously experiments with different techniques and concepts. During her very active career, and particularly around the turn of the century, a shift can be noticed from the rather pop imagery of her earlier works to an exploration of religious, sacred, and spiritual themes, a progressive transformation that has developed in multiple directions until the present moment. The references included in her artworks often merge indigenous religions, Shinto, and Buddhism, doctrines that she perceives as ways to reflect on broader aspects of life, nature, and the humankind at large. This article traces an overview of some of the most important works realized by Mori during the past three decades, which are grouped both thematically and chronologically: the early photographs and performances; the pieces inspired by Tantric Buddhism, with strong connections to traditional Buddhist art; the big-scale installations, with a shift towards sacred architecture; the projects encouraging the interconnectedness between different people, as well as a rediscovery of their roots; and finally, the outdoor installations that celebrate nature and Earth.
PubDate: 2022-07-12
DOI: 10.13135/1825-263X/6890
Issue No: Vol. 26, No. 1 (2022)
- Tim Harper, Underground Asia: Global Revolutionaries and the Assault on
Empire. 2021
Authors: Jason Morgan
PubDate: 2022-07-12
DOI: 10.13135/1825-263X/6893
Issue No: Vol. 26, No. 1 (2022)
- Cuisine is not enough: Transformation of women in Indonesian short stories
in the 2000s
Authors: Harjito Harjito, Nazla Maharani Umaya, Yuli Kurniati, Sri Suciati
Abstract: Women’s attachment to the world of cooking is not without practical cause, but it is also an ideological process. This paper examines married women’s relationship with cooking and its ideological background in four Indonesian short stories. The stories serve as primary data, discussed through narrative textual analysis, from a feminist perspective. Married women are obligated to be good cooks, especially to earn their husbands’ loyalty and faithfulness, so their main role is in the kitchen. In the meantime, patriarchal ideology is passed on from mothers to daughters. Although not all texts describe women’s resistance to their role in the kitchen, some women resist by preparing food and marketing it with the aim of not relying on their husband’s income alone and gaining economic independence.
PubDate: 2022-03-17
DOI: 10.13135/1825-263X/6633
Issue No: Vol. 26, No. 1 (2022)
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