“Incarnational Art”: Thing Theory and Flannery O’Connor’s Wise Blood

2013 ◽  
Vol 17 (5) ◽  
pp. 507-522 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivia McGuire
Keyword(s):  
Close Reading ◽  
Thing Theory ◽  
Wise Blood ◽  
Traditional Sense

AbstractFlannery O’Connor’s fiction confounds contemporary critics and readers with its combination of grotesque, violent imagery, and a deeply consistent, thematic concern with religion. This article argues for a new methodology of reading O’Connor that will enrich this seeming incongruence, by first examining the role of objects, such as those inWise Blood, through the lens of thing theory. Heidegger’s idea of the thing and Bill Brown’s thing theory offer readers a mode of interpreting objects that expands the traditional sense of symbolism and encourages a broader understanding of the multiple layers of significance—both the functional and metaphysical—encompassed in things that play a major role inWise Blood, such as the car, gorilla suit, and mummy. Through a close reading ofWise Blood, the author demonstrates thing theory’s potential as a tool to account for O’Connor’s incarnational aesthetic, and to overcome the tendency to relegate her fiction to purely religious or secular spheres.

Patrick Kavanagh and the Authentic ‘Dispensation’: Rereading the Role of Narrator in The Great Hunger

2012 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 86-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine Kilcoyne
Keyword(s):  
National Literature ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Peasant Farmer ◽  
Nineteen Forties ◽  
Death Knell

This essay posits a challenge to the continued reading of The Great Hunger (1942) as a realist depiction of the Irish small-farming class in the nineteen forties. The widespread critical acceptance of the poem as a socio-historical ‘documentary’ both relies upon and propagates an outmoded notion of authenticity based upon the implicit fallacy that Kavanagh's body of work designates a quintessence of Irishness in contradistinction to his Revivalist predecessors. In 1959 Kavanagh referred to this delusion as constituting his ‘dispensation’, for indeed it did provide a poetic niche for the young poet. Kavanagh's acknowledgement of this dispensation came with his rejection of all prescriptive literary symbols. While this iconoclasm is widely recognised in his later career, the relevance of The Great Hunger to this question continues to be overlooked. In fact, this poem contains his strongest dialectic upon the use of symbols – such as the peasant farmer – in designating an authentic national literature. The close reading of The Great Hunger offered here explores the poem's central deconstruction of ruralism and authenticity. The final ‘apocalypse of clay’ is the poem's collapse under the stress of its own deconstructed symbolism; the final scream sounds the death knell to Kavanagh's adherence to his authentic dispensation.

Bad Dreams and Secret Artists: Translating Freud into Literature

2002 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 127-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Patterson
Keyword(s):  
Sigmund Freud ◽  
Ordinary Language ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Careful Attention ◽  
Popular Approach ◽  
English Reader ◽  
Creative Writer ◽  
The Many ◽  
The Way

This article addresses the increasingly popular approach to Freud and his work which sees him primarily as a literary writer rather than a psychologist, and takes this as the context for an examination of Joyce Crick's recent translation of The Interpretation of Dreams. It claims that translation lies at the heart of psychoanalysis, and that the many interlocking and overlapping implications of the word need to be granted a greater degree of complexity. Those who argue that Freud is really a creative writer are themselves doing a work of translation, and one which fails to pay sufficiently careful attention to the role of translation in writing itself (including the notion of repression itself as a failure to translate). Lesley Chamberlain's The Secret Artist: A Close Reading of Sigmund Freud is taken as an example of the way Freud gets translated into a novelist or an artist, and her claims for his ‘bizarre poems' are criticized. The rest of the article looks closely at Crick's new translation and its claim to be restoring Freud the stylist, an ordinary language Freud, to the English reader. The experience of reading Crick's translation is compared with that of reading Strachey's, rather to the latter's advantage.

Gedanken zu Genesis 46,8–27

2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-104
Author(s):  
Wilfried Warning
Keyword(s):  
Close Reading ◽  
Per Se ◽  
Distinct Distribution

Abstract In general, commentators consider Gen 46:8–27 as a secondary addition. Close reading brings to light the structuring role of verses 18 and 25 („these were the sons of Zilpah / Bilhah … and these she bore to Jacob, sixteen souls / seven souls”). In a ten-part outline based on the personal name (PN) „Jacob” v. 18 takes the fourth and v.25 the fourth from last positions. In Genesis 37–50 the noun נפש „soul” occurs thirteen times – now v. 18 takes the sixth and v. 25 the sixth-from-last positions. The thirteen-part table based on the PN „Ruben” stands out for two reasons: Firstly, in Genesis the term „Ruben the first born of Jacob” shows up only twice, namely in the first (34,23) and last (46,8) texts. Secondly, as regards content 37,22 and 42,22 are correlated. In the 13-part outline they take the sixth and sixth-from-last positions respectively. The distinct distribution of these terms indicates that the passage per se is well structured and, what is more, at the same time it has been skillfully integrated in Gen 37–50 and in the Jacob-Joseph cycle.

scholarly journals Between Sensorimotor Data and Conceptual Message: Embodied Simulation as an Approach to the Reading of Two Science Fiction Plays, Jennifer Haley’s The Nether and Peter Sinn Nachtrieb’s Boom

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 85
Author(s):  
Khaled Mostafa Karam
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Input Data ◽  
Cognitive Capacity ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Mental Process ◽  
Embodied Simulation ◽  
Thematic Content ◽  
Linguistic Input ◽  
Stimulation Of

This paper explains how the activation of the reader’s cognitive capacity of embodied simulation can improve the perception of science fiction and its interest in exploring the materiality of bodies. It offers an embodied cognitive interpretation of Haley’s The Nether and Nachtrieeb’s Boom, stressing the role of close reading of sensorimotor data in triggering the mental process of simulation and reinforcing the reader’s embodied involvement within the text. This paper also illustrates the cognitive link between linguistic input data in the process of reading science fiction and the stimulation of the capacity of embodied simulation. It argues that the more intensive the sensorimotor data is, the more appealing to the capacity of embodied simulation the text proves to be. The paper attempts to prove that the close reading of science fiction drama, abundant in sensorimotor data, is capable of generating an embodied simulative experience which guarantees a deeper understanding of the thematic content and an empathic engagement with the characters.

scholarly journals “Merde Alors!”

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 358-383
Author(s):  
Lorenzo Bernini
Keyword(s):  
Prime Minister ◽  
Judith Butler ◽  
Recent History ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Umberto Eco ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Deputy Prime Minister

AbstractIn recent history, Italy has repeatedly emerged as a successful laboratory for political experiments. After WWI, Fascism was invented there by Mussolini, and it quickly spread across Europe. In the 1990s, Berlusconi anticipated Trump's entrepreneurial populism. Today, there is a risk that Italy will once again perform the role of a political avant-garde: that it will export to Europe a sovereign populism of a new kind that is nonetheless in continuity with disquieting features of the worst past. The essay performs a close reading of the programmatic speech that Minister of Home Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister of Italy Matteo Salvini delivered in July 2018 at the thirty-second annual gathering of the Lega party. Its aim is to detect the presence in it of the politics of abjection (Judith Butler), a “Fascist archetype” (Umberto Eco) that affects both racialized and non-heterosexual people.

Biobank Participants’ Attitudes Toward Data Sharing and Privacy: The Role of Trust in Reducing Perceived Risks

2021 ◽  
pp. 155626462110552
Author(s):  
T.J. Kasperbauer ◽  
Colin Halverson ◽  
Abby Garcia ◽  
Peter H. Schwartz
Keyword(s):  
Health Information ◽  
Data Sharing ◽  
Healthcare System ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Knowledge Test ◽  
Consent Forms ◽  
Perceived Risks ◽  
Participant Understanding

Biobank participants are often unaware of possible uses of their genetic and health information, despite explicit descriptions of those uses in consent forms. To explore why this misunderstanding persists, we conducted semi-structured interviews and knowledge tests with 22 participants who had recently enrolled in a research biobank. Results indicated that participants lacked understanding of privacy and data-sharing topics but were mostly unconcerned about associated risks. Participants described their answers on the knowledge test as largely driven by their trust in the healthcare system, not by a close reading of the information presented to them. This finding may help explain the difficulties in increasing participant understanding of privacy-related topics, even when such information is clearly presented in biobank consent forms.

The Use and Abuse of Training “Science” in Philostratus' Gymnasticus

2016 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 86-125
Author(s):  
Charles H. Stocking
Keyword(s):  
Athletic Training ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Style Analysis ◽  
Ancient Medicine ◽  
Bodily Knowledge ◽  
Olympic Athlete

This article addresses how the sophistic-style analysis in Philostratus' Gymnasticus gives expression to the physical and social complexities involved in ancient athletic training. As a case in point, the article provides a close reading of Philostratus' description and criticism of the Tetrad, a four-day sequence of training, which resulted in the death of an Olympic athlete. To make physiological sense of the Tetrad, this method of training is compared to the role of periodization in ancient medicine and modern kinesiology. At the same time, Philostratus' own critique of the Tetrad is compared to Foucauldian models of discipline and bodily attention. Ultimately, it is argued that the Tetrad fails because it does not incorporate καιρός, a theme common to athletics, medicine, and rhetoric. Overall, therefore, Philostratus' critique of the Tetrad helps us to appreciate the underrepresented role that γυμναστική occupied in the larger debates on bodily knowledge in antiquity.

Viewpoint from Sociolinguistics and Contact Linguistics: On the Role of Dialectology in Modern Linguistics

2008 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 197-210
Author(s):  
Anna María Escobar
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Empirical Data ◽  
Linguistic Theory ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Complex Field ◽  
Contact Linguistics ◽  
Language Varieties ◽  
The Social ◽  
Traditional Sense

Abstract In the latter decades of the 20th century, historical, typological, dialectological, and sociolinguistic research all contributed to demonstrating the limitations of focusing exclusively on language-internal synchronic data, and these and other disciplines that share a bottom-up perspective acquired respectability as participants in theorybuilding. In the 21st century, there is a renewed appreciation of the potential for such research to address questions that are central to linguistic theory. Dialectology is today a field in which the social changes occurring in human societies are naturally taken into consideration, and includes not only the study of dialects in the traditional sense but also the study of social dialects and second-language varieties. Dialectology has thus evolved into a rich and complex field which is ideally positioned to make important contributions to the process of building theories of language that are firmly based on empirical data.

Part X Conclusions, 33 A Convergence of Agendas

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mccormick Roger ◽  
Stears Chris
Keyword(s):  
Risk Management ◽  
Financial Markets ◽  
Legal Advice ◽  
Management Objectives ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Expert Analysis ◽  
Traditional Sense ◽  
Managing Risk

This chapter ties together the loose threads of the preceding discussions. It suggests that the role of the in-house lawyer has become further involved with risk management rather than simply the provision of legal advice. It presents some legal and conduct risk management objectives as a starting point for legal departments planning to take a ‘risk-based’ approach to its function. The role of regulators will be also crucial in managing risk, not merely as ‘supervisor’ and ‘enforcer’ in the traditional sense, but also as an effective cross-pollinator of ideas. Moreover, it is important that the Financial Markets Law Committee (along with other similar bodies) continues to perform the valuable roles of: (1) identifying concerns; (2) providing expert analysis of the relevant law in relation to specific concerns; (3) acting as an informal ‘bridge’ to the judiciary; and (4) being an authoritative voice for City lawyers when representations need to be made.

Language Pangs

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ilit Ferber
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Philosophical Text ◽  
Origin Of Language ◽  
Pain Expression ◽  
The One ◽  
The Relationship

Language and pain are usually thought of as opposites, the one being about expression and communication, the other destructive, “beyond words,” and isolating. Language Pangs challenges these familiar conceptions and offers a reconsideration of the relationship between pain and language in terms of an essential interconnectedness rather than an exclusive opposition. The book’s premise is that the experience of pain cannot be probed without consideration of its inherent relation to language, and vice versa: understanding the nature of language essentially depends on an account of its relationship with pain. Language Pangs brings together discussions of philosophical as well as literary texts, an intersection especially productive in considering the phenomenology of pain and its bearing on language. The book’s first chapter presents a phenomenology of pain and its relation to language. Chapters 2 and 3 provide a close reading of Herder’s Treatise on the Origin of Language (1772), which was the first modern philosophical text to bring together language and pain, establishing the cry of pain as the origin of language. Herder also raises important claims regarding the relationship between human and animal, sympathy, and the role of hearing in the experience of pain. Chapter 4 is devoted to Heidegger’s seminar (1939) on Herder’s text about language, a relatively unknown seminar that raises important claims regarding pain, expression, and hearing. Chapter 5 focuses on Sophocles’ story of Philoctetes, important to Herder’s treatise, in terms of pain, expression, sympathy, and hearing, also referring to more thinkers such as Cavell and Gide.

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