Yoko Tawada’s Kafka Kaikoku

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 454-474
Author(s):  
Arina Rotaru
Keyword(s):  
World Literature ◽  
Franz Kafka ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Temporal Dimension ◽  
Literary Theories ◽  
East And West

Despite the vast body of scholarship on Yoko Tawada, an author who writes in both German and Japanese, her work has not been examined in light of the question of modernity. Through a close reading of her play Kafka Kaikoku and an examination of recent world literary theories, this paper situates Tawada’s work in relation to a complicated nexus that features as protagonists two contemporaneous authors, Franz Kafka and Izumi Kyōka, engaging with their migrations between pre-modern and modern pasts. How does this complicated temporal dimension re-imagine putative divisions between East and West in relation to modernity and modernities, and how does that affect our understanding of world literature? My paper proposes the notion of “interlaced modernities” to address these questions and reflects on its implications for world literature.

World Literature as a Speculative Literary Totality: Veselovsky, Auerbach, Said, and the Critical-Humanist Tradition

2021 ◽  
Vol 82 (2) ◽  
pp. 225-251
Author(s):  
Ben Etherington
Keyword(s):  
World Literature ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Distant Reading ◽  
Literary Practice ◽  
The Face ◽  
Humanist Tradition ◽  
Literary Experience

Abstract This essay revisits critical-humanist approaches to literary totality that have largely been sidelined during the recent revival of world literature studies. While there has been no shortage of defenses of close reading in the face of distant reading and other positivist approaches, this essay argues that it is precisely the hermeneutic attention to particular works that has allowed critical humanists to think about literary practice within the most encompassing purview. For those in this tradition, “world literature” can never be a stable object but is a speculative totality. The essay discusses three exemplary critical concepts that assume a speculative epistemology of literary totality: Alexander Veselovsky’s “historical poetics,” Erich Auerbach’s “Ansatzpunkt,” and Edward Said’s “contrapuntal reading.” Each, it is argued, is grounded in the distinctive qualities of literary experience, a claim for which Theodor Adorno’s account of speculative thinking serves as a basis.

scholarly journals Herramientas e indicadores para el análisis de la temporalidad en el periodismo digital y el documental interactivo

2020 ◽  
pp. 25-37
Author(s):  
Pere Freixa
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Temporal Evolution ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Redes Sociales ◽  
Temporal Dimension ◽  
The Public ◽  
Active Reading ◽  
Digital Ecosystem ◽  
Digital Journalism ◽  
Methodological Reflection

Over the last two decades, digital journalism and interactive documentaries have produced works in which interactivity, multimedia, and participation articulate the access and consumption of information. These are basically multimedia and dynamic texts that delve into two-way communication and hypertext, and motivate active reading. These are informational pieces typical of the digital ecosystem that often mutate via social networks and present significant transformations in their temporal evolution. Reading, analyzing, and understanding these texts requires specific tools and methodologies that consider: (a) the dynamism of such pieces, as well as their temporal modification, (b) their multimodal dimension, and (c) their transmedia development. This article proposes a methodological reflection on the ways of reading interactive documentary audiovisual texts and proposes strategies and tools for their understanding and analysis based on detailed reading (close reading), and decoupage. This research focuses on an analysis of the temporal evolution of these journalistic pieces. The need to observe and analyze the temporal dimension of journalistic texts in the digital ecosystem has allowed the development of specific methodologies (Widholm, 2016; Karlsson; Sjøvaag, 2016; Buhl; Günther; Quandt, 2018) focused on the immediacy and mutability of journalistic news, its permanence in networks, and its temporal evolution. However, these tools do not consider the study of large-scale journalistic stories, typical of interactive documentaries, which require a specific multimodal approach (Hiippala, 2017; Van-Krieken, 2018, Freixa et al., 2014; Freixa, 2015). A detailed reading reveals how the interactive documentary considers the dimension, both temporal and of content and form, of the traditional documentary text, by becoming part of a transmedia framework as part of a dialogue with the public. Resumen Desde hace dos décadas, el periodismo digital y el documental interactivo produce obras en las que la interactividad, la multimedialidad y la participación articulan el acceso y consumo de la información. Básicamente se trata de textos multimediales y dinámicos, que ahondan en la comunicación bidireccional y el hipertexto, y que proponen lecturas activas. Se trata de piezas informacionales propias del ecosistema digital que, a menudo, mutan en las redes sociales y presentan significativas transformaciones en su evolución temporal. La lectura, el análisis y la comprensión de estos textos precisa de herramientas y metodologías específicas que contemplen: a) el dinamismo de las piezas, así como su modificación temporal; b) su dimensión multimodal y c) su desarrollo transmedia. En este artículo se propone una reflexión metodológica sobre las formas de lectura de los textos audiovisuales interactivos documentales, y se proponen estrategias y herramientas para su comprensión y análisis basadas en la lectura detallada (close reading), y el découpage. La investigación focaliza su interés en el análisis de la evolución temporal de estas piezas periodísticas. La necesidad de observar y analizar la dimensión temporal de los textos periodísticos en el ecosistema digital ha permitido el desarrollo de metodologías específicas (Widholm, 2016; Karlsson; Sjøvaag, 2016; Buhl; Günther; Quandt, 2018) focalizadas en la inmediatez y mutabilidad de la noticia periodística, su permanencia en red y evolución temporal. Estas herramientas, sin embargo, no contemplan el estudio de los relatos periodísticos de gran dimensión, propios del documental interactivo, que precisan de una aproximación multimodal específica (Hiippala, 2017; Van-Krieken, 2018, Freixa et al., 2014; Freixa, 2015). La lectura detallada permite observar cómo el documental interactivo cuestiona la dimensión, tanto temporal como de contenido y forma, del texto documental tradicional, al pasar a formar parte de un entramado transmedia en diálogo con el público.

scholarly journals Socio-literary Study of Robert Browning and Darwesh Durrani’s Dramatic Monologues: A Comparative Literary Approach

sjesr ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 125-143
Author(s):  
Raham Dil Khan ◽  
Dr. Khan Sardaraz
Keyword(s):  
Social Issues ◽  
Sampling Technique ◽  
Gender Violence ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Cultural Perspective ◽  
The Past ◽  
Literary Theories ◽  
Reading Technique ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
Dramatic Monologues

Previous literature is laden with research on Browning’s dramatic monologues from various perspectives. This paper will compare Browning’s dramatic monologues with Derwesh Durrani’s poetry from socio-literary perspective. Literary theories of analogy and variation will be used to find out similarities and differences in their poetry. Two poems from each poet have been selected for analysis through close reading technique on the model of theories of variation and analogy. Stratified sampling technique was used for taking the representative sample from the data. The findings reveals that Darwesh’s poetry exhibits most of the dramatic features of Browning’s dramatic monologues, but his poetry is more poetic, while Browning’s poetry is more dramatic; Browning invigorates the past, Darwesh recreates the present. In addition, Browning’s poems deals with domestic issues like gender violence, love and marriage, Darwesh’s poetry deals with social issues and patriotism, and contrary to Browning, he stands for women’s rights and sensibilities. This paper suggests further studies purely from socio-cultural perspective of Darwesh’s dramatic monologues, which will contribute to the existing literature on dramatic monologues.

The global process of thinking global literature: from Marx’s Weltliteratur to Sarkozy’s littérature-monde

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 395-412 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jernej Habjan
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
World Literature ◽  
Third World ◽  
Global Approach ◽  
Global History ◽  
Global Literature ◽  
History Of Research ◽  
Literary Theories ◽  
History Of ◽  
Post War

AbstractThis article outlines the history of research in global literature as a history that is itself global. This kind of global history of the theorization of global literature demands a departure from the existing accounts and their nascent gap between heated theoreticist debates and pacifying historicist anthologies. A global approach to the problematic can bridge this gap because it considers not only what the most influential studies on global literature say, but also where and when they say it. Whether these be Romantic assertions of world literature, post-war pleas for cosmopolitan literature, Cold War polemics about ‘Third World’ literature, or millennial theories of transnational, post-national, planetary, and, indeed, global literature, the article considers not only the object of these studies but also the studies themselves as an object; not only the text but also the context. Hence, a historicization of literary theories of globalization in effect bleeds into a historicization of globalization itself.

Narratology in the Twenty-First Century: The Cognitive Approach to Narrative

PMLA ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 125 (4) ◽  
pp. 924-930 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monika Fludernik
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Cultural Studies ◽  
Literary Theory ◽  
First Century ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Reading Practices ◽  
New Criticism ◽  
Cognitive Approach ◽  
Literary Theories ◽  
The Waves

Literary theory in the twentieth century was heavily influenced by linguistics. The structuralist model that set the waves of literary theories in motion originated in Saussurean linguistics and its Jakobsonian elaborations. One could argue that until the 1980s all literary theory, and all linguistics for that matter, was based on an analysis of langue, or the system of language or literature or text, to the detriment of parole, the practices, contexts, and negotiations of speakers, writers, and readers. The structuralist model, with its theoretical expansion of close-reading practices, already entrenched in the wake of the New Criticism, generalized the frame of mind that was soon to become the bogeyman of poststructuralist and cultural studies attacks. The formula could be summarized as No history, no ethics, no themes, no aesthetics, and no context—period.

scholarly journals “The point is to change it”: The Imperative for Activist Literary Studies

2020 ◽  
pp. 17
Author(s):  
Christian Smith
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
World Literature ◽  
Continental Philosophy ◽  
The State ◽  
Social Conditions ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of

The task undertaken in this paper is to discover a means by which the practice of literary criticism can derive an imperative for activism that confronts and changes the social conditions it critiques. The case of Karl Marx’s use of world literature in his critique of capitalism and the state, set within the history of the development of continental philosophy, is explored through a close-reading of its interterxtuality. Particular attention is paid to Marx’s use of quotations from and allusions to world literature, including Homer, Sophocles, Virgil, Shakespeare, Cervantes, Goethe and Heine, to register the harmful inversions caused by an economy based on money and commodities. If literature registers the contradictions of its time in its form and content, then the urge to resolve those contradictions sits restless in literature. When Marx inserts literature into his theoretical texts, he transfers into his text the impulse of the contradiction to resolve itself. Similarly, literary criticism is well-placed to unfold clear, obvious and necessary logic which leads to activism.

South-South Exchanges

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Thayse Leal Lima
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
World Literature ◽  
Book Publishing ◽  
Global South ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Transnational Literature ◽  
Intellectual Traditions ◽  
Latin American Countries

Abstract This article addresses circulation and exchange in the Global South by examining the case of Biblioteca Ayacucho (1973), a transnational collection of over 500 books from several Latin American countries. Conceived as an “instrument for Latin American integration,” Ayachucho sought to connect the region by assembling and disseminating its diverse cultural and intellectual traditions. I discuss Ayacucho’s strategies of transnationalization which, in addition to book publishing, also relied on networks of intellectual collaboration and exchange. Focusing on its Brazilian titles, I argue that Ayacucho articulates a model of world literature that employs a contextually grounded yet transnationally based framework. By engaging Latin American specialists and relying on local scholarship, Ayacucho offers an inclusive model of world literature that allies both distant and close reading in the construction of a transnational literature. As such, it defies established assumptions about literary circulation and center-based conceptions of world literature.

Theorizing the Temporal Exception: The Importance of the Present for the Study of War

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 543-558 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher McIntosh
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Temporal Dynamics ◽  
Security Studies ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Collective Violence ◽  
Temporal Dimension

Abstract Despite an increasing focus on the importance of temporality, time, and timing in international relations (IR) and security studies, there has been relatively less movement toward thinking about the temporal present as a conceptual area of inquiry. This article argues that taking the present seriously as a concept, method, and theoretical area of analysis offers unique value for the study of war. Paying attention to the manner in which the present time of war (wartime) is sociopolitically articulated as a space of temporal exception exposes how it is understood as diverging from representations of politics, past and future. It also foregrounds war's irreducible temporal dimension and exposes the relational bases of wartime's apparent universality. This article uses a close reading of Clausewitz's On War (1832) as generative dialogue and illustrative example, showing how an awareness of the importance of temporal dynamics—particularly, the concept of the present—is both valuable and workable in the study of war. A temporal imaginary of war centered on what Hutchings calls the “heterotemporal” present enhances inquiry into contemporary political violence, the ontology of war, and the emergent attributes of collective violence.

Intellectual Captivity

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-110
Author(s):  
Chen Bar-Itzhak
Keyword(s):  
Literary Theory ◽  
World Literature ◽  
Current Situation ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Unequal Distribution ◽  
Academic Field ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
The World ◽  
Recent Developments

Abstract This essay concerns the unequal distribution of epistemic capital in the academic field of World Literature and calls for an epistemic shift: a broadening of our theoretical canon and the epistemologies through which we read and interpret world literature. First, this epistemic inequality is discussed through a sociological examination of the “world republic of literary theory,” addressing the limits of circulation of literary epistemologies. The current situation, it is argued, creates an “intellectual captivity,” the ethical and political implications of which are demonstrated through a close reading of the acts of reading world literature performed by scholars at the center of the field. A few possible solutions are then suggested, drawing on recent developments in anthropology, allowing for a redistribution of epistemic capital within the discipline of World Literature: awareness of positionality, reflexivity as method, promotion of marginal scholarship, and a focus on “points of interaction.”

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