scholarly journals Sicily, the Classical Tradition and Interpretative Possibilities in John Barclay’s Argenis

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Parkes
Keyword(s):  
Classical Tradition ◽  
Volcanic Activity ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Selection Of

AbstractThis article explores reasons for the choice of Sicily as the main backdrop for John Barclay’s 1621 Neo-Latin novel Argenis. It suggests that the selection of Sicily is driven in part by the interpretative possibilities raised by this location, in particular, those fuelled by controversies regarding the rational and mythic which were attached to the island. It focusses on the rationalizing and mythic approaches associated with Sicily in the classical and post-classical tradition in the areas of volcanic activity and the discovery of gigantic bones. By means of a close reading of the episode in which King Meleander entertains Radirobanes in camp, followed by a wider discussion of the flaws of Meleander and Radirobanes and the theme of interpretation in the novel, it explores how Barclay exploits such approaches to showcase the failures of these leaders. It also dismisses the idea that the Argenis has a controlling divine framework which would run counter to the novel’s interest in the potentiality of interpretation.

scholarly journals Indestructible Pasts and Paranoid Presents: John Franzen against Active Forgetting in Purity

2019 ◽  
pp. 21-34
Author(s):  
Cristina Garrigós
Keyword(s):  
Traumatic Event ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Contemporary Society ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
Personal Archives ◽  
Conscious Process ◽  
Unconscious Desire ◽  
Selection Of

Forgetting and remembering are as inevitably linked as lifeand death. Sometimes, forgetting is motivated by a biological disorder, brain damage, or it is the product of an unconscious desire derived from a traumatic event (psychological repression). But in some cases, we can motivate forgetting consciously (thought suppression). It is through the conscious repression of memories that we can find self-preservation and move forward, although this means that we create a fable of our lives, as Nietzsche says in his essay “On the Uses and Disadvantages of History for Life” (1997). In Jonathan Franzen’s novel, Purity (2015), forgetting is an active and conscious process by which the characters choose to forget certain episodes of their lives to be able to construct new identities. The erased memories include murder, economical privileges derived from illegal or unethical commercial processes, or dark sexual episodes. The obsession with forgetting the past links the lives of the main characters, and structures the narrative of the novel. The motivated erasure of memories becomes, thus, a way that the characters have to survive and face the present according to a (fake) narrative that they have constructed. But is motivated forgetting possible? Can one completely suppress facts in an active way? This paper analyses the role of forgetting in Franzen’s novel in relation to the need in our contemporary society to deny, hide, or erase uncomfortable data from our historical or personal archives; the need to make disappear stories which we do not want to accept, recognize, and much less make known to the public. This is related to how we manage information in the age of technology, the “selection” of what is to be the official story, and how we rewrite our own history

scholarly journals Hope and equilibrium in the dystopian world of The Hunger Games

2021 ◽  
Vol 85 ◽  
pp. 227-244
Author(s):  
María Sandra Peña-Cervel ◽  
Andreea Rosca
Keyword(s):  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Hunger Games ◽  
Accurate Picture ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Hunger Games ◽  
The Status ◽  
Selection Of

This paper provides evidence of the fruitfulness of combining analytical categories from Cognitive Linguistics and Critical Discourse Analysis for the analysis of complex literary characterizations. It does so through a detailed study of the “tributes”, i.e. the randomly selected children who have to fight to death in a nationally televised show, in The Hunger Games. The study proves the effectiveness of such categories to provide an analytically accurate picture of the dystopian world depicted in the novel, which is revealed to include a paradoxical element of hope. The type of dehumanization that characterizes the dystopian society of Panem is portrayed through an internally consistent set of ontological metaphors which project negative aspects of lower forms of existence onto people. This selection of metaphors promotes a biased perspective on the poor inhabitants of Panem, while legitimizing the social inequalities the wealthy Capitol works hard to immortalize. However, Katniss undergoes a metamorphosis through her discovery of her own identity, which hints at an emerging female empowerment. This transformation, together with her identification with the Mockingjay, a supernatural being that voices her beliefs and emotions, contributes to disrupting the status quo imposed by the almighty Gamemakers and to purveying a message of optimism.

scholarly journals On freedom in the times of Economic Crisis – A Close Reading Of Margaret Atwood's The Heart Goes Last

2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-154
Author(s):  
Ewelina Feldman-Kołodziejuk ◽  
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Margaret Atwood ◽  
Civil Liberties ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Economic Experiment ◽  
Experimental Project ◽  
The Times ◽  
Far Future

In her fifth dystopian novel, The Heart Goes Last, Margaret Atwood portrays North America in the not so far future, in the wake of a global economic crisis. Parts of the country are in the state of complete chaos, subjected to a ruthless gang rule. The solution to the system's breakdown comes in the form of the socio-economic experiment that requires from its participants relinquishing their freedom as every other month they will spend in prison. The seemingly preposterous experimental project enables Atwood to explore principal questions about the limits of our freedom in the times of an economic crisis or a neoliberal model of economy. The satirical form the novel takes, especially towards its end, helps the writer to decry people's over-willingness to give away their freedom and civil liberties in exchange for happy, uninterrupted consumption. The following article aims to demonstrate that the notion of freedom and free will permeate The Heart Goes Last, which is, in that respect, a politically and socially engaged satire.

scholarly journals قضايا موضوعية في "أم النذور" للروائي عبد الرحمن منيف: دراسة تحليلية نقدية / Topical issues in the novel “Umm Nuzur” by Abdurrahman Munif: An Analytical and Critical Study

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nor Safirah Binti Ahmad Sufian ◽  
Mohammed Ahmed Al Qudah
Keyword(s):  
Social Issues ◽  
Arabic Literature ◽  
Critical Study ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Artistic Creativity ◽  
Critical Studies ◽  
Religious Issues ◽  
Critical Methods ◽  
Selection Of

ملخص البحث: تتطرّق هذه الدراسة إلى قضايا شتى في رواية "أم النذور" للكاتب عبد الرحمن منيف، وتهدف إلى إظهار إبداعية الكاتب في صياغتها في روايته. يعتمد الباحثان في هذه الدراسة على المناهج الآتية: الوصف والتحليل والنقد؛ إذ يقومان بعرض نبذة عن حياة الروائي في بداية الدراسة، ثم يقومان بالتحليل والنقد للقضايا المتوافرة في الرواية مع التنويه بمظاهر الإبداع الفني فيها. تحاول هذه الدراسة الإسهام في إثراء الدراسات النقدية في الأدبي العربي فضلاً عن توسيع المراجع المتعلقة بفن السيرة والتراجم. ومما توصّل إليه الباحثان من خلال هذه الدراسة أن رواية "أم النذور" تحمل في طياتها قضايا عديدة، وهي تنقسم إلى ثلاثة أقسام، أولها القضايا الاجتماعية، ومن أهمها الشعوذة وغيرها من أمور الغيبيات والمعتقدات الخرافية. وثانيها القضايا الإنسانية التي لها علاقة بشعور الإنسان وعاطفته، وثالثها القضايا الدينية التي ترتبط بالأبعاد الإسلامية، وفضلاً عن ذلك، وجدت الدراسة أن الكاتب وفّق في رسم الشخصيات، وانتقاء أسمائها، وبناء الأحداث في روايته، كما تبدو كذلك محاولته في تشويه سمعة الرجال المتديّنين.   الكلمات المفتاحية: رواية "أم النذور" – عبد الرحمن منيف – القضايا – الشعوذة – الجوانب الإسلامية.    Abstract: This study discusses various issues in the novel “Umm al-Nudhur” written by Abd al-Rahman Munif. It aims to highlight his creativy as formulated in his novel. The writers make use in the study descriptive, analytical and critical methods. The researchers present briefly an overview of the writer’s background at the beginning of the study and then analyze critically the various issues in the novel keeping in mind the artistic creativity of the novel. This study is expected to contribute to the existing critical studies of Arabic literature as well as to enrich the biographical references related to the art of biography wrting. In conclusion, the novel "Umm al-Nudzūr" is found to accommodate diverse issues which can be divided into three sections. First: social issues that encompass mystical belief such as witchcraft, sorcery and superstition. Second: human issues which are related to emotion and feeling of mankind. Third: religious issues that reflect the dimensions of Islam. This study also found the ability of Abd al-Rahman Munif to depict the characters through the selection of their name and building a successful plot. Apart from that, it could be seen indirectly that the writer attempts to defame the reputation of religious men in his novel.   Keywords: Novel “Umm al-Nudhur” – Abd al-Rahman Munif – Issues – Mystic Belief – Islamic Teaching.   Abstrak: Kajian ini membincangkan isu-isu yang dalam novel "Umm al-Nudhur" karya Abd al-Rahman Munif. Tujuan kajian ini dijalankan adalah untuk meninjau pemikiran Abd al-Rahman Munif, sekaligus menonjolkan cara penampilan kreativiti beliau dalam karya tersebut. Reka bentuk kajian ini adalah berdasarkan kepada metod deskriptif, analitikal dan kritis. Pengkaji mengemukakan biografi penulis secara ringkas pada permulaan kajian, disusuli dengan analisis dan kritikan terhadap isu-isu yang dipaparkan dalam novel yang dikaji di samping menekankan aspek kreativiti penulis dalam mengolah isu-isu berkenaan. Kajian ini diharap dapat memberi sumbangan terhadap bidang kritikan dalam kesusasteraan Arab selain dapat menambah rujukan tentang seni penulisan biografi. Hasil kajian menunjukkan bahawa novel “Umm al-Nudhur” mengandungi pelbagai isu dan persoalan yang boleh dikategorikan kepada tiga bahagian. Pertama: isu-isu kemasyarakatan melibatkan kepercayaan mistik seperti ilmu sihir, khurafat dan kepercayaan karut. Kedua: isu-isu kemanusiaan berkaitan emosi dan perasaan seseorang insan. Ketiga: isu-isu keagamaan yang memaparkan dimensi-dimensi ajaran Islam. Kajian ini juga dapat melihat kemampuan penulis dalam mempersembahkan jalan cerita secara baik, keupayaan beliau dalam menggambarkan setiap watak melalui pemilihan nama-nama sebilangan watak dan kejayaan beliau dalam menyusun plot yang berkesan. Selain itu, kajian juga mendapati bahawa Abd al-Rahman Munif cuba secara tidak langsung merendahkan reputasi golongan agamawan melalui novel tersebut.   Kata kunci: Novel “Umm al-Nudhur” – Abd al-Rahman Munif – Isu dan persoalan – Kepercayaan karut – Ajaran Islam.

scholarly journals Epilepsy, Forgetting, and Convalescence in Ondaatje’s Warlight

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Gresil S. Kahambing ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Medical Humanities ◽  
Short Circuit ◽  
Epileptic Seizures ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Health Humanities ◽  
Do So

Michael Ondaatje’s Warlight (2018), his latest novel to-date, contains nostalgic elements of strangeness and cartography. In this paper, I short-circuit such themes with health under medical humanities, which heeds a Nietzschean counsel of close reading in literature. To do so, I explore the case of Rachel’s illness, namely her epileptic seizures, as an instance that drives her impetus for active forgetting and eventual convalescence. A close hermeneutical reading of the novel can reveal that both of Nietzsche’s ideas on active forgetting and convalescence provide traction in terms of what this paper constructs as Rachel’s pathography or narration of illness. Shifting the focus from the main narrator, Nathaniel, I argue that it is not the novel’s reliance on memory but the subplot events of Nathaniel’s sister and her epilepsy that form a substantial case of medical or health humanities.

scholarly journals Giono, Translator or Reader of Moby-Dick?

2016 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-42
Author(s):  
Isabelle Génin
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Moby Dick ◽  
Reading Experience ◽  
Paradoxical Situation ◽  
The Status ◽  
Word Translation ◽  
Jean Giono ◽  
The One ◽  
Selection Of

The article discusses the interaction between reading and translating, in the case of the first unabridged translation of Moby-Dick into French by Jean Giono, Lucien Jacques and Joan Smith, published by Gallimard in 1941. After a brief survey of the status of that translation—an important cultural landmark in France—the paper examines what the paratext (Giono’s diary, notes and letters) and the typescripts reveal about a seemingly paradoxical situation: Giono’s keen reading of Moby-Dick on the one hand and the simplification and clarification strategies adopted in the translation on the other hand. A selection of stylistic analyses illustrates both the choices made by the translators and the part played by each participant in the project. It appears that Giono did not necessarily misread Moby-Dick, underestimating its scope and significance. Instead, after reading the novel, he grew indifferent to its translation and concentrated his energy on his own writing in which he re-invested his reading experience. As to the other co-translators, Joan Smith provided a word-for-word translation of the text that made no attempt at interpreting the text, while Lucien Jacques strove to re-write Smith’s literal first draft, in spite of his difficult position as a non-reader (albeit an enthusiastic one) of Moby-Dick.

scholarly journals The Trickster Hero in M. Frisch’s Novel My Name Be Gantenbein

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 74-95
Author(s):  
Ivan V. Kuzin
Keyword(s):  
Classical Tradition ◽  
Semantic Space ◽  
Methodological Principle ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Non Linear ◽  
Deception Game ◽  
Self Organizing

The article offers an interpretation and analysis of the novel My Name Be Gantenbein, allowing to find an explanation to the genre uncertainty of the work of the Swiss writer M. Frisch. Due to the non-linear stylistics of the narrative, the image of Gantenbein eludes an unambiguous classification in terms of moral and ethical problematics lying on the surface. The hero of the novel turns into a methodological principle that clarifies the fundamental existences of life. In classical tradition, these included the concepts of freedom and law, truth and lies, truth and deception, game and life. The complicated plot makes Gantenbein a functional representative of both freedom and blind law. They create semantic space of self-organizing life. As a result, the character is endowed with properties of a trickster, because he accepts the complexity of such a life at the level of his existence. The investigation reveals that the game, roles and masks create the ideological basis of the story. This framework directs the reader to perceive life in its everyday manifestations, contributing to the development of an antidote to escapism.

scholarly journals Dialectal words in the ballad novel “Blakytna Sarna” (“The Blue Chamois”) by M. Nesterchuk. ІІІ

Linguistics ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 71-78
Author(s):  
Hryhorii Arkushyn ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Detailed Analysis ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Careful Selection ◽  
Selection Of

In this article, the usage of dialectal words in the ballad novel „Blakytna Sarna” („The Blue Chamois”) by M. Nesterchuk, a native of Volyn oblast, has been analyzed. The detailed analysis of the microtoponyms and anthroponyms proves that fictional tumultuous Zatyshshia village is modern Sylno village (Kivertsi raion, Volyn oblast). In the novel, the vocabulary of the local patois is characterized according to the following plan: dialecticisms that have become the passive vocabulary of the speakers; widely used dialectal words; dialectal synonymy. By comparison with the local patois, it has been identified which dialectal features the writer preferred. It has also been emphasized that the writer accurately explains the meaning of dialecticisms. It has been demonstrated that the writer does not blindly copy the patois, but makes a careful selection of the most common dialectal words.

scholarly journals Aracoeli di Elsa Morante

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvia Camilotti
Keyword(s):  
Personal Experience ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Elsa Morante ◽  
Literary Device ◽  
Literary Devices

I propose a close reading of Elsa Morante’s latest book, Aracoeli, drawing upon three key literary devices: escapism, metamorphosis and paradox, which I use in relation to both the principal characters in the book, Aracoeli and her son Emanuele. Moreover, my reading will also bring to light the author’s personal experience and how it is relevant to the novel particularly in relation to the literary device of escapism.

scholarly journals “A distortive glass of our distorted glebe”: mistranslation in Nabokov’s Ada

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juliette Taylor
Keyword(s):  
The Novel ◽  
Free Translation ◽  
Family Chronicle ◽  
Selection Of

This article examines the theme of mistranslation in Nabokov ’s Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle in the context of the novel’s multilingual style. Focusing on a selection of deliberate mistranslations carried out by the cen-tral protagonists, Van and Ada Veen, the article demonstrates that such playful mistranslation serves a function that is much more significant than mere parody. Though, on the surface, the mistranslations parody those forms of ‘paraphrastic’ or ‘free’ translation that Nabokov and his cha racters consistently critique throughout Ada, each instance of deliberately ‘bad’ translation also contains extremely inventive forms of interlingual mutation and play which have aesthetically-productive defamiliarising effects. The article relates those instances of explicit mistranslation to the overall style of the novel, arguing that problems of interlingual transfer and communication are intrinsic to the multilingual aesthetic of the novel as a whole.

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