Abstract: On the basis of a discursive reflection on postmodern approaches, the author of the study discusses the nature of the relationship between (artistic) text and reality, as well as the basic categories related to this issue. He formulates a (hypo)thesis about the homologous relationship between text and reality, which, however, according to the author, has an intertextual essence unlike traditional mimetic solutions. PubDate: Wed, 21 Dec 2022 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: Aphra Behn, a Restoration playwright of unprecedented success, lived by her pen and therefore was obliged to conform to the other literary production of that time (written mostly by men): comedies featuring libertines, coarse morals, debauchery and fortune-hunting protagonists. Behn wrote in this manner, yet adding a satirical spin to her work, by presenting the character of Angellica Bianca, a prostitute (actually a very ladylike companion to older wealthy men). Paradoxically, Angellica is presented as the most upright and generous person among the cast; lamentably, she believes in oaths, of which Wilmore, the double-dealing eponymous rover of the play, cures her mercilessly and swiftly, as soon as he meets a virgin, who comes with a large fortune attached. By this, Behn introduces a dark undercurrent to an ostensibly comic play. This paper pays homage to the elaborate ways Aphra Behn employed to present a prostitute as the most intriguing character of the play. PubDate: Wed, 21 Dec 2022 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: Taking an interpersonal pragmatics approach, this paper aims to view literary text as social discourse where conversational exchanges convey more than the content of talk. Applying the method of interpersonal pragmatic analysis, centred around the notions of implicatures and the concept of face in pragmatics, the social status of speakers is revealed via expressing their personal desires, preferences and professional ambitions. Combining the models of pragmatic stylistics analysis and the conception of interpersonal rhetoric (Leech, 1983) enables effective exploration of the interplay between characters, their efforts to comply with the cooperative and politeness principles, following particular communicative goals in conversations, making inferences and understanding implicatures. Focusing on the above-stated aims of research, the historical thriller The Interpretation of Murder by Jed Rubenfeld (2006) was chosen as the subject of analysis. In this novel, psychoanalysis and interpretation of a patient’s/victim’s responses, the unique application of professional expertise in psychoanalysis, palpable rivalry between scholars, as well as a desire for international recognition provide rich material for analysis. The presented research contributes new insights into the scholarly debate on interpersonal pragmatics, showing that approaching literary discourse analysis via a pragmatic stylistics approach is relevant and beneficial. PubDate: Wed, 21 Dec 2022 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: This article examines Tariq Ali’s novels The Stone Woman (2000) and A Sultan in Palermo (2005) to critique the question of identity discourse by drawing inspiration from various cultures rooted in a distinctively Islamic landscape and culture. Muslim identity, like any other, is separately constructed and determined by language, religion, sect, and various other roles. It examines the creation of Muslim identity and strives to comprehend the segregation they have demonstrated in the postcolonial context. This identity discourse emerged in colonial discursive practices that positioned Muslims as “Other” under colonial rule. This paper draws upon theoretical concepts of postcolonial theory to challenge the stereotypical representation of Islam often circulated in Eurocentric discourses. We do this by focusing on Tariq Ali’s ways of constructing Muslim identities through fictional representations. Through this discussion, we critique stereotypical tropes evident in Eurocentric discourses, which too often conflate professions of Muslim identity with religious fundamentalism. PubDate: Wed, 21 Dec 2022 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: Canadian children’s literature has a relatively short history, which is not surprising because Canadian literature itself is a recent and problematic category, struggling for a definition and identity of its own. The lack of national homogeneity is reflected in both CanLit and its counterpart for children, and rather than being a weakness, the multitude of voices that inhabit the Canadian territory has become its essence and strength. Lately, we have noticed a growing interest and market demand for picture books by Indigenous voices. Melanie Florence is one such voice, and she honours her past by bringing to the fore the inescapable dark weight of collective tragedies such as the residential school system and the disappearance and murder of Aboriginal women and girls, a hidden national crisis. In this article, we aim at getting to know and help readers discover Missing Nimâmâ and Stolen Words by this new picture book writer, who is speaking up and voicing First Nations’ concerns, bringing back memories, but also forging a space for dialogue and negotiation, a space where text and illustration are combined and provide a harmonious whole. In this space, difference and binarisms do not result in dualism, but in highly synergistic relationships. PubDate: Wed, 21 Dec 2022 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: The paper presents the contemporary phenomenon of synthetic textual media that write poetry. It describes the several stages of preparation, conceptualization and building of a neural network that generates poetry. The neural network introduced in this article, called Liza Gennart, is the author of the book Výsledky vzniku (‘Outcomes of Origin’, 2020) and of several other projects, among them an interactive multimedia installation. The author of this article uses a practice-led research method to write about her own collaborative project that was conducted in collaboration with the programmer Ľubomír Panák. PubDate: Wed, 21 Dec 2022 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: The prominent place that Eavan Boland occupies in the essentially male-defined and male-dominated canon of contemporary Irish literature is the result of the poet’s pioneering act of entering into a reconstructive and resituating dialogue with that tradition and which in turn has paved the way for numerous younger women poets to claim a place for their voices and redefine that tradition itself. The paper seeks to examine and explore a number of topoi with and through which Eavan Boland would negotiate her position in relation to the Irish literary tradition, from broad general motifs to ones peculiar to the Irish context. PubDate: Mon, 04 Jul 2022 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter can be read within the framework of postcolonial theory, with colonialism equating patriarchy. The anti-colonial reading of the novel is permitted through Hester’s struggle with what seem to be prevalent regulations regarding gender, culture and religion. The only way for females to be liberated from this patriarchy is by rejecting it. Hawthorne, in this novel, suggests that being a woman is in itself fighting back. Thus, it is only through womanhood that the female character is able to arrive at a reconciliation with themselves and with their consciences. PubDate: Mon, 04 Jul 2022 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: This article seeks to explore the parallels between the spatial turn embraced by contemporary literary theory and the so-called textual turn in architecture. More specifically, links between the contemporary developments of architectural theory and practice and literary criticism are established. In order to highlight the nature and origin of the connection between these two contemporary tendencies, this paper draws on a number of authoritative texts of both literary criticism as well as architectural theory, predominantly within the Anglo-American context. Architecture is presented from the viewpoint of the 20th and 21st centuries, which accentuates its liberation from a purely formal understanding by emphasizing the human involvement in its interpretation. The conception and structuring of physical spaces are therefore regarded as conditioned by processes similar to those involved in the construction of meaning in language and literature. Thus, while literary studies benefits from the extension of its field of study through the inclusion (and contemporary primacy) of the spatial point of view, architectural criticism invites active participation in the construction of its meaning, in other words, its reading. The processes of the mutual influencing and enrichment of both the textual turn in architecture and the spatial turn in literary studies is exemplified by means of contemporary architectural works that embody the synergic relationship of the two traditionally separate fields – (literary) text and architecture. PubDate: Mon, 04 Jul 2022 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: The so-called “trickster” is a special and important archfigure in the mythological and fairy-tale images of each civilization and cultural circle. The trickster is a controversial and often (seemingly) contradictory character that belongs to the “culture of popular laughter” (Bakhtin) or picaresque mythology (Kerényi). The aim of this paper is to present a brief initial analysis of the selected characters on a trans-genre and trans-cultural sample of ancient texts. PubDate: Mon, 04 Jul 2022 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: The article discusses humour as a form of communication and social interaction, which is not only based on sociocultural similarities, tolerance and solidarity among in-group members but also hostility or aggression towards out-group members. As humour is formed on binary oppositions, the female gender is often used as a popular “target” in humour discourse. It also represents “otherness” regarding the opposite gender and communicates social codes based on physical appearance, behaviour, or specific roles in society. Gender-stereotyping, which is used to categorize and understand the “outside” world better, is one of the most common and simplest approaches in humour discourse. The main aim of our research is to discuss the role of women and the way female identity, as a social construct, is defined and presented in humour discourse through stereotypes. More precisely, this article examines the evolution of women’s representation in the situation comedies with regards to their stereotypical portrayals and traditional social roles. PubDate: Mon, 04 Jul 2022 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: The paper contends that space envisioned in literature – which is always inextricably intertwined with time – has never been real. From the bucolic settings in Theocritus’s idylls (which have a pronounced mythical component) to the town in the heart of America in Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, which is narrated in the past tense to be as “once a town”; from the Ptolemaic concept of heaven and hell in Dante’s Divine Comedy to the “unreal cities” in Eliot’s The Waste Land; from the thatched cottages and country churches besides the vanishing village greens in Chaucer, Blake and Austen to the goings-on in the imagined county of Wessex in Hardy’s novels or the invented islands by Swift in Gulliver’s Travels to the retreat to the Walden Pond, to, the fading away of institutional space – whether in the phenomenal world or the space within the human heart – as in Larkin’s “Church Going”, literature worth reading has always been a complex record of what we were (the vanished time-space) to what might become of us in the dystopic time-space narrated with all the horror on the screen that collapses the boundaries between the actual and the virtual. The paper attempts to contemplate on some of these points. PubDate: Mon, 04 Jul 2022 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: Two leading articles of feminist hue – “The Laugh of the Medusa” (1976) and “Feminist Criticism in the Wilderness” (1981) – by two seminal figures, Hélène Cixous and Elaine Showalter respectively, grant a new look at Jean Rhys’s novel Wide Sargasso Sea. Two main themes that come to the fore from these two articles with reference to Rhys’s novel are the male-dominated female zone and the importance of female writing for women. Both critics mention the strong hold of patriarchy on women, which is quite obvious in Antoinette’s condition in Rhys’s novel. Next, both Cixous and Showalter claim that while men see the female domain as a dark space, women should stick to their female domain and express themselves through writing. And this is what Rhys does in her novel; she gives a voice to the mad woman in the attic, Antoinette, who has been put there and tagged mad by her husband. By exploring the similarities between feminist criticism in Cixous’s and Showalter’s articles and Rhys’s novel, this study aims to show that although Wide Sargasso Sea is a revolutionary novel with its ability to give the mad woman back her individuality, it is not strong enough to create a world where this woman can experience her individuality. PubDate: Thu, 30 Dec 2021 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: By conveying traditions and moral values fairy tales constitute an important part of our lives and cultural identities. Fairy tale motifs and allusions have been repeatedly employed for commercial and non-commercial purposes by advertisers around the world. This paper looks at the UNICEF anti-sexting advertising campaign that features two classic fairy tales, Hansel and Gretel and Little Red Riding Hood. Sexting is a growing problem among young people these days. According to the recent EU Kids Online 2020 survey carried out in 19 European countries, 22 percent of children aged 12-16, on average, have had some experience with receiving sexual messages or pictures. Through an analysis of the visual and verbal content of selected advertisements, the present study investigates how the advertisers creatively make use of the famous fairy tales to raise public awareness of the issue. PubDate: Thu, 30 Dec 2021 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: The paper focuses on the phenomenon of urban fantasy with a particular interest in the topos of a city, which assumes great significance as a thematic and motivic element in the subgenre. The authors touch upon the relation between (sub)genre and topos/topoi in general, but also more specifically, between urban fantasy and the city, regarding the urban area as a distinct setting with a specific atmosphere, character or genius loci. Within this frame, the paper seeks to exemplify the aforementioned relations through an interpretative study of Neil Gaiman’s novel Neverwhere, which breathes life into the London underground scene. London Below comes to personify, literally, the vices of London Above via the use of anthropomorphic strategies. Moreover, the spatial peculiarities of the novel not only contribute to the creation of the fantastical atmosphere but they also function as a vehicle of social critique and a constitutive element of the protagonist’s transformation. PubDate: Thu, 30 Dec 2021 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: The study presents the reader with an intermedial interpretation of the storybook Mimi & Liza written by Katarína Kerekesová – Katarína Moláková – Alexandra Salmela (2013). The storybook follows the story of the friendship of two little girls, Mimi, who sees the world proliferating in mad colours, and the blind Liza, who is immersed in inner seeing. The two girls are presented as each other’s opposites through the semiotics of two counterpointing colour schemes. The analysis is based on Mitchell’s conception of media (Mitchell, 1994), that is, it sets out by acknowledging the intermedial state of the culture of children’s books, and then it follows the unfolding of the visual elements up through the investigation of expressive visual effects created by the text’s rhetoric. The visualization happening with the help of language is the condition of the common worldview of the blind and seeing characters as well as the guiding principle and goal of the volume; therefore besides the visual representation characteristic of children’s books, an emphasized role is given to the validation of the ekphrastic perspective in the analyzed work. The ekphrases of the text are presented as intermedial references (Rajewsky, 2010) based on Irina O. Rajewsky’s interpretation of intermediality. A unique feature of the interpretation is that the ekphrases of the volume read as sort of imaginary/imagination ekphrases which create the special, children’s book version of ekphrasis. It is characteristic for this imagination ekphrases that the order of the imaginary image and its linguistic description create an undecidable symbiosis. These images, however, can also be interpreted as inverted ekphrases, since they function not merely as descriptions of imagination ekphrases, but also as the visual world representations of linguistic imagination. Through several examples the study introduces and analyzes the mechanisms of the visualization happening with the help of language as well as the scenery painted with words. PubDate: Mon, 27 Dec 2021 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: Within the solution of the project APVV-17-0071 Support of Reading Literacy in the Mother Tongue and Foreign Language, it is also important to reflect on outsidership as a certain ambivalent phenomenon, which appears after 1989 in contemporary Slovak literature for children and youth in various analogies. One of the aims of the study is to define the initial concept of outsider from various professional perspectives. We will also focus on the methodological basis of research of outsiders (social status, otherness, disadvantage, bullying, rebellion), not only in contemporary artistic texts but also in working exercises with regard to the learning language style. PubDate: Mon, 27 Dec 2021 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: In many ways, Ngũgĩ‘s collection Secret Lives and Other Stories (1975) foreshadows his latternovels and their thematic preoccupations as it portrays colonial encounters and social and political upheavals in (post)colonial Kenya. The paper focuses primarily on selected stories included in the second section of the collection which revolve around the theme of fighters and martyrs. Ngũgĩ‘s adoption of Christian imagery, on which he relies quite heavily in his novels as well, enables him to articulate the ambivalent position and conflicts of his characters, both African and European. The motif of martyrdom is associated both with the clashing worlds of Christianity and the Gikuyu religion (addressing primarily the subject of conversion), and the Mau Mau revolt which inevitably required communal sacrifices. The paper ponders on the various modifications of the motif and its potential functions. PubDate: Mon, 27 Dec 2021 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: Howard Phillips Lovecraft is widely considered to be one of the most influential writers of modern horror fiction and one of the main pioneers of the genre in its current form. One of the less discussed attributes of his work is his use of animal symbolism, despite how common it is, and serves several important functions. We will examine the different forms of animal symbolism in Lovecraft’s writing, their use and their respective functions. Our main goal will be to examine how animal symbolism in Lovecraft’s work was influenced by cultural and mythological sources and his own opinions towards different creatures and what they represent, in which case we will examine how his knowledge and beliefs may have influenced his depiction of animals. Our focus will be on the depiction of cats, dogs, snakes, aquatic, and amphibious animals as these play a significant role Lovecraftian fiction. We will also examine how animal symbolism connects to the key themes in cosmic horror, such as its negation of anthropocentrism. PubDate: Mon, 27 Dec 2021 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: The paper focuses on the strengths and virtues of Alexandra Bergson, the central character of Willa Cather’s novel O Pioneers! (1913). The novel deals with the harsh life of immigrants in America at the turn of the 20th century and describes the ways by which the pioneers sought to establish their existence and cope with their life’s tragedies. Using the VIA-IS (Values in Action Inventory of Strengths) classification, the paper attempts to show how Alexandra Bergson’s character strengths contribute to the value-based paradigm represented in the novel. PubDate: Mon, 27 Dec 2021 00:00:00 GMT
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