scholarly journals The Vow to Testify: On the Gulag and Intertextual Economy of Literature (Karlo Štajner, Varlam Shalamov, Danilo Kiš)

2019 ◽  
pp. 341-360
Author(s):  
Danijela Lugarić Vukas
Keyword(s):  
Literary Studies ◽  
Testimonial Literature ◽  
Intercultural Exchange ◽  
Symbolic Meanings ◽  
Danilo Kis ◽  
Varlam Shalamov ◽  
The One ◽  
The Voice ◽  
Economic Foundations ◽  
Literary Appropriation

The Vow to Testify: On the Gulag and Intertextual Economy of Literature (Karlo Štajner, Varlam Shalamov, Danilo Kiš)Departing from the “aesthetics of unrepresentability” of testimonial literature and implied “belatedness and collapse of witnessing” (G. Agamben, Sh. Felman, D. Laub), the paper engages in the economic foundations of literature through analysis of symbolic meanings of economic metaphors in Štajner’s memoirs Seven Thousand Days in Siberia and Shalamov’s story Lend-Lease, and through illuminating different aspects of intertextual and intercultural exchange between Štajner’s memoirs and Kiš’s “pseudo-factual” fiction A Tomb for Boris Davidovich. What is testimony and can it be – considering the nature of the one who testifies and the language in which he testifies – “valid,” “valuable,” “useful,” to use the language of economy? Can we think about Kiš’s literary appropriation of Štajner’s memoirs as an outlet for reclaiming the voice not only of Štajner, but also of Kiš’s father, who perished in Auschwitz? What are the uses of economic hypothesis in literary studies? Zavjet svjedočenja: o Gulagu i intertekstualnoj ekonomiji književnosti (Karlo Štajner, Varlam Šalamov, Danilo Kiš)Polazeći od “estetike neizrecivosti” književnosti svjedočenja te implicirane “zakašnjelosti i kolapsa svjedočenja” (G. Agamben, Sh. Felman, D. Laub), rad prilazi složenoj problematici ekonomskih temelja književnosti kroz analizu simboličkog značenja ekonomskih metafora u Štajnerovim memoarima 7000 dana u Sibiru i Šalamovljevoj znamenitoj priči Po Lend-Leasu te kroz intertekstualni i interkulturni upis Štajnerovih memoara u Kiševu “pseudočinjeničnu” fikciju u djelu Grobnica za Borisa Davidoviča. Što je svjedočenje i može li ono biti – s obzirom na status svjedoka kao subjekta izricanja i jezik na kojem svjedoči – “valjano” i “korisno” (iskoristimo li jezik ekonomije)? Može li se o Kiševoj aproprijaciji Štajnerovih memoara razmišljati kao o jednom od načina vraćanja prava glasa ne samo Štajneru, nego i Kiševom preminulom ocu, stradalom u Auschwitzu? U čemu je epistemološka korist ekonomskih analiza u proučavanju književnosti? Przysięga świadectwa: O gułagu i intertekstualnej ekonomii literatury (Karlo Štajner, Warlam Szałamow, Danilo Kiš)Wychodząc naprzeciw koncepcjom mówiącym o „poetyce niewyrażalności” literackich świadectw oraz założeniu o „spóźnieniu i upadku świadectwa” (G. Agamben, Sh. Felman, D. Laub), artykuł podejmuje problematykę ekonomicznych podstaw literatury poprzez analizę znaczeń (symboli) metafor ekonomicznych w pamiętniku Siedem tysięcy dni na Syberii Karlo Štajnera oraz opowiadaniu Z lend lease’u Warłama Szałamowa, a także poprzez wskazanie na różne aspekty intertekstualnej i międzykulturowej wymiany pomiędzy wspomnieniami Štajnera a fikcyjną literaturą „pseudo-faktu” Danilo Kiša w książce Grobowiec dla Borysa Dawidowicza. Czym jest świadectwo i czy może być – biorąc pod uwagę to, kim jest świadek i język, w którym daje świadectwo – „ważne”, „wartościowe”, „użyteczne”, używając języka ekonomii? Czy możemy zinterpretować literackie przywłaszczenie wspomnień Štajnera dokonane przez Kiša jako jeden ze sposobów przywracania prawa głosu nie tylko Štajnerowi, ale także ojcu Kiša, który zginął w Auschwitz? Jakie są zastosowania hipotezy ekonomicznej w literaturoznawstwie?

Indonesian Literature’s Position in World Literature

TEKNOSASTIK ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Dina Amelia
Keyword(s):  
World Literature ◽  
The Other ◽  
National Literature ◽  
Western World ◽  
The World ◽  
The One ◽  
The Voice

There are two most inevitable issues on national literature, in this case Indonesian literature. First is the translation and the second is the standard of world literature. Can one speak for the other as a representative? Why is this representation matter? Does translation embody the voice of the represented? Without translation Indonesian literature cannot gain its recognition in world literature, yet, translation conveys the voice of other. In the case of production, publication, or distribution of Indonesian Literature to the world, translation works can be very beneficial. The position of Indonesian literature is as a part of world literature. The concept that the Western world should be the one who represent the subaltern can be overcome as long as the subaltern performs as the active speaker. If the subaltern remains silent then it means it allows the “representation” by the Western.

The problem of woman’s emansipation in the feuilleton “Amazonia: a very inept story” by Mykola Chirsky

2020 ◽  
pp. 71-76
Author(s):  
Iryna Rusnak
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Understanding ◽  
The Other ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
Ethical Guidelines ◽  
Compositional Structure ◽  
Urgent Task ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The One ◽  
Artistic Heritage

The author of the article analyses the problem of the female emancipation in the little-known feuilleton “Amazonia: A Very Inept Story” (1924) by Mykola Chirsky. The author determines the genre affiliation of the work and examines its compositional structure. Three parts are distinguished in the architectonics of associative feuilleton: associative conception; deployment of a “small” topic; conclusion. The author of the article clarifies the role of intertextual elements and the method of constantly switching the tone from serious to comic to reveal the thematic direction of the work. Mykola Chirsky’s interest in the problem of female emancipation is corresponded to the general mood of the era. The subject of ridicule in provocative feuilleton is the woman’s radical metamorphoses, since repulsive manifestations of emancipation becomes commonplace. At the same time, the writer shows respect for the woman, appreciates her femininity, internal and external beauty, personality. He associates the positive in women with the functions of a faithful wife, a caring mother, and a skilled housewife. In feuilleton, the writer does not bypass the problem of the modern man role in a family, but analyses the value and moral and ethical guidelines of his character. The husband’s bad habits receive a caricatured interpretation in the strange behaviour of relatives. On the one hand, the writer does not perceive the extremes brought by female emancipation, and on the other, he mercilessly criticises the male “virtues” of contemporaries far from the standard. The artistic heritage of Mykola Chirsky remains little studied. The urgent task of modern literary studies is the introduction of Mykola Chirsky’s unknown works into the scientific circulation and their thorough scientific understanding.

Definiteness and Voice in the Interpretation of Active and Passive Sentences

1975 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 323-330 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michel Hupet ◽  
Brigitte Le Bouedec
Keyword(s):  
General Rule ◽  
Grammatical Subject ◽  
The One ◽  
The Voice

In Experiment I, subjects were given active and passive sentences where the definiteness of nominals is varied and about which uncertainty was expressed, e.g. “I thought that the policeman had been injured by a gangster, but I was mistaken, in fact.”. Their task was to decide what was the target of the mistake by completing freely the sentence in such a way that the account would be corrected. When the nominals are differentially determined (a-the, the-a), the pattern of responses indicates that, for both active and passive, subjects were more likely to conclude that it was the non-definitely marked nominal that had been involved in the mistake rather than the definitely marked one. When both nominals are similarly determined (a-a, the-the), subjects were more likely to indicate the event itself as having been involved in the mistake. This supports the hypothesis that subjects are able to utilize definiteness to determine the relation between presupposed and assertional information. In Experiment II, subjects were given paired active and passive sentences with differentially determined nominals and were required to choose between the two syntactic forms of each pair the one they would prefer to use. The pattern of responses clearly shows that subjects were more likely to choose the voice allowing the hypothesized preferential order “Definitely marked grammatical subject-non-definitely marked grammatical object”. Passive transformational rule is thus interpreted as a particular case of a more general rule specifying the ways in which what is made known (comment) is nested on to what is already assumed to be the case (topic).

Indian and Russian Tolstoy: one among strangers and a stranger among one’s

2021 ◽  
pp. 27-35
Author(s):  
Svetlana M. Klimova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Sphere ◽  
Indian Thought ◽  
Russian State ◽  
Lev Tolstoy ◽  
The One ◽  
The Voice ◽  
The Church ◽  
Peculiar Phenomenon

The article examines the phenomenon of the late Lev Tolstoy in the context of his religious position. The author analyzes the reactions to his teaching in Russian state and official Orthodox circles, on the one hand, and Indian thought, on the other. Two sociocultural images of L.N. Tolstoy: us and them that arose in the context of understanding the position of the Russian Church and the authorities and Indian public and religious figures (including Mahatma Gandhi, who was under his influence). A peculiar phenomenon of intellectually usL.N. Tolstoy among culturally them (Indian) correspondents and intellectually them Tolstoy among culturally us (representatives of the official government and the Church of Russia) transpires. The originality of this situation is that these im­ages of Lev Tolstoy arise practically at the same period. The author compares these images, based on the method of defamiliarisation (V. Shklovsky), which allows to visually demonstrate the religious component of Tolstoy’s criticism of the political sphere of life and, at the same time, to understand the psychological reasons for its rejection in Russian official circles. With the methodological help of defamiliarisation the author tries to show that the opinion of Tolstoy (as the writer) becomes at the same time the voice of conscience for many of his con­temporaries. The method of defamiliarisation allowed the author to show how Leo Tolstoy’s inner law of nonviolence influenced the concept of non­violent resistance in the teachings of Gandhi.

scholarly journals Gdy Europa choruje, Rosja nie jest lekarstwem

2020 ◽  
Vol 72 (4) ◽  
pp. 41-57
Author(s):  
Marek Menkiszak
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
The European Union ◽  
European Policy ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
The Face ◽  
The One ◽  
New Situation ◽  
The Voice ◽  
Ambiguous Position

In the face of a new serious crisis in Europe caused by the coronavirus pandemic, Russia has taken an ambiguous position. On the one hand, it was spreading fake news and, on the other hand, it was providing Italy with symbolic support. Russia’s immediate goal was to persuade the European Union (EU) to reduce or lift sanctions. The new situation provides a new argument to those participants of the European debate who are in favour of normalisation and even reset of relations with Russia. Among them, the voice of France is particularly clear since its President Emanuel Macron has taken up the initiative to build the ‘architecture of trust and security’ with Russia. These proposals, which are now quite vague, are based on questionable  assumptions and deepen divisions in Europe and the crisis in transatlantic relations. By rising Moscow’s hopes for some form of (geo)political bargain, they in fact encourage Russia to continue its aggressive policy towards its European neighbours. An alternative approach based on several principles is needed in the debate on EU policy towards Russia: developing all five Mogherini’s points; maintaining sanctions against Russia until the reasons for their introduction cease to exist; symmetry of commitments and benefits related to limited cooperation with Russia; inviolability of key interests, security and sovereignty of EU and NATO member and partner states; and balancing the dialogue with the Russian authorities by supporting Russian civil society. Europe can survive without Russia but Russia cannot survive without Europe, which is why European policy needs consistency and strategic patience.

scholarly journals The Voice of the Ulema and Dilemma of the Indonesian Ulema Council’s Fatwa among Low Literate Society

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-51
Author(s):  
Fariz Alnizar ◽  
Achmad Munjid
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Approach ◽  
The Other ◽  
Main Question ◽  
Islamic Movements ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
National Movement ◽  
The One ◽  
The Voice ◽  
Literate Society ◽  
Research Show

Some Islamic movements in Indonesia make the fatwas issued by the MUI as a reference for their actions. They recently found their momentum after the defence movements called 411 and 212. The proponents of the movements called themselves as Gerakan Nasional Pengawal Fatwa Majelis Ulama Indonesia (GNPF-MUI/The National Movement of Guardian of Fatwa of the Indonesian Ulema Council). Employing a qualitative approach coupled with historical-causal paradigm this article examines the main question: Do the proponents of these movements substantially understand the fatwas they defend? The results of the research show that the fatwas have a dilemmatic position. On the one hand, there have been movements which insist on making the fatwas as “sacred opinion” that must be protected and guarded. On the other hand, people do not substantially comprehend the fatwas they defend. This problem has been caused, among others, by the cultural basis of the Indonesian society which put more preference on orality than literality or, explicitly, written tradition.

Body Resonance and the Voice

2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 137-157
Author(s):  
Vita Heinrich-Clauer
Keyword(s):  
Self Efficacy ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Other ◽  
Therapeutic Approaches ◽  
Important Distinction ◽  
Vocal Expression ◽  
Psychotherapeutic Process ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The One ◽  
The Voice

This article focuses on bioenergetic principles and the link between emotions and the voice, discussing various approaches to vocal expression in the psychotherapeutic process. There is an examination of the idiosyncrasies of bioenergetic work with the voice in contrast to therapeutic approaches that work solely with the body. There is an important distinction for practical bioenergetic work between liberating vocal discharge on the one hand and the build-up of tone, boundaries and self-efficacy on the other hand (cf. Shapiro, 2006, 2008, 2009).

Entgrenzte Figuren – bewegte Erinnerungen. Migration im Spannungsfeld von Literatur und Begriff

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 109-139
Author(s):  
Hamid Tafazoli
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Production ◽  
Cultural Memory ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Other ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
Aesthetic Perception ◽  
Migration Literature ◽  
External Space ◽  
The One

Abstract My paper discusses the controversial relationship between literature and literary studies by using the example of the term ›migration literature‹. It demonstrates in the first part that ›migration literature‹ as a term in literary studies does not expose explications of rational reconstructions of a conceptual content in Harald Fricke’s and Klaus Weimar’s understanding. In its history (Adelson 1991; 2004), ›migration literature‹ goes back to a chain of different terms and definitions as Gastarbeiter- or Ausländerliteratur and reflects strategies of homogenization and exclusion. From the 1980s forward, those terms produce in cultural contexts a semantic field that propagates culture based on a definition of ex negativo (Tafazoli 2019). The first part of my paper describes an outline of influences of homogenization and reductionism on the discourses of migration in literary studies and explains in the second part an asymmetrical relationship between motive on the one hand and terminology on the other. The term ›migration literature‹ seems to dominate this relationship by determination of a source of ›accepted truths‹ related to the life and background – specifically to the place of birth and the origin – of the author (Bay 2017). By prioritization of criteria beyond narrative reality, literary studies led in the 1980s and 1990s discourses on migration on the sidelines of canon of German speaking literature (Weigel 1991; Wilpert 2001). With regard to terminological determination in order to produce interpretative sovereignty (Foucault 1994), my paper exemplifies in the second part that the term ›migration literature‹ collects selected and limited fields of social, historical and political knowledge in perspective adjustment and in order to classify literature beyond aesthetic criteria. By this means, inductive standards (Müller 2010a; 2010b) classify the literary object ›migration‹ ontologically and regardless of factuality of the author’s life on the one hand and fictionality of narrative text on the other. The ontological classification has been used, for example, in contexts that replace the figure of stranger (Fremder) by the figure of migrant and determines the latter as figuration of external space of culture. The replacement suggests a perspective rigidity in the cultural production of knowledge that flows into a terminological classification and claims with the term ›migration literature‹ sovereignty over culture. From this point of view, the author and his work should be located in the external space of canonized literature. The second part of my paper comes to the conclusion that the term ›migration literature‹ has been developed in politicized frames of external-textual ›accepted truths‹ and bases its stability on cultural essentialism and exclusion regardless of heterogenetic appearance (Bhatti 2015). With regard to theories of »literature on the move« (Ette 2001), my paper understands that migration has always formed a considerable part of literary production. Therefore, migration could be understood as a literary motive. This meaning would undermine an ontological understanding of culture. Narrative texts develop poetics of migration and create by figurations of migration a poly-perspectivity in which migration advances to a polysemantic motive. My paper discusses these thoughts in the context of cultural memory in the third part and understands varied and multifaceted constructions of cultural memory on all sides of cultural borders. This part confronts the asymmetrical relationship between motive and terminology with discussions on migration as narrative of cultural memory that belongs to cultural majority and minority equally, at the same time and in the same space. Based on this understanding, my paper argues that migration as a motive construct shapes and leads discourses of culture under the conditions of global re-formation. The shift of the perspective from conceptual classification to close-readings of literary constructions should lead us to considerations about the openness of the narrative in distinction to terminological unity and should also initiate a paradigm shift in locating migration in discourses of literary studies. The theoretical considerations will be exemplified in the fourth section by Mohammad Hossein Allafis Frankfurter Trilogie that is a collection of the novels Die Nächte am Main (1998), Die letzte Nacht mit Gabriela (2000) and Gabriela findet einen Stapel Papier (2012). The fourth part of my paper examines in Frankfurter Trilogie a reading that integrates migration as a motive into the discourse of cultural memory of global challenges. Using the example of the Trilogie, this part of my paper demonstrates that discussions on migration in the context of cultural memory could initiate a shift in the perspective of reception from conceptual homogenization to narrative openness. The shift of perspective shows that literature translates the questions of community into the aesthetic perception of the form of culture and civilization in which the community actually articulates and appears itself and shows also that reading of migration as a statement about one nation has lost its explanatory power. The last part of my paper resumes my thoughts and takes position in the current fields of research in literary studies.

Between Story and Narrated World: Reflections on the Difference between Homo- and Heterodiegesis

2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Simone Elisabeth Lang
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
Textual Interpretation ◽  
Different Types ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The One ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Special Case ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Theoretical Standpoint

AbstractIn describing the position of the narrator, research in literary studies generally follows Gérard Genette’s pioneering theory of narrative in distinguishing between the homo- and heterodiegetic type of narrator. This categorization is not sufficient to allow the position of the narrator to be described properly. The different ways in which the terms are used in literary studies reveal a shortcoming in the distinction behind them. Even in Genette’s work, there is a contradiction between the definition and the names of the two categories: Genette defines homo- and heterodiegesis with reference to the narrator’s presence in the narrated story, whereas he elsewhere states that the diegesis (in the sense of FrenchThe present article aims to do just that, starting from a theoretical standpoint. Thus, the different types of narrator that are possible are sketched in outline, and then explained with the help of examples.I begin by exposing the problems that result from using the terms in Genette’s manner (1), in order then to develop a list of possible narratorial standpoints based on the one hand on the involvement of the narratorial instance in the narrated world and on the other on its involvement in the story. By establishing separation of the two aspects as a ground rule in this way, a number of misunderstandings that are due to the varied ways in which the terminology has been used to date can be overcome.There follows a description of those cases that are unambiguously hetero- and homodiegetic (2), after which the problematic cases are considered (3), yielding the different types of homodiegetic narration that are possible. This latter set of distinctions will, like the others, shed light on the contours of the different narratorial positions and thus be capable of being put profitably into practice in textual interpretation. Accordingly, what is suggested is a way of using the terms that is first unambiguous and second beneficial to the interpretation of works, thus doing justice to the heuristic importance of narratology (see Kindt/Müller 2003; Stanzel 2002, 19).Thus, whereas the concept of diegesis provides the foundation for a distinction based on an ontological criterion that divides homo- and heterodiegesis from each other, the relationship between story and narrator is used to describe various types of homodiegetic narration. In the process, there come to light two types that are distinguished from each other by involvement in events (›homodiegetic, in the story‹ and ›homodiegetic, not in the story‹ narrators). If the narrator is not involved in events, the question arises of whether it would in principle have been possible for him to be involved in events, which is the norm with ›homodiegetic, not in the story‹ narrators, or whether a physical impossibility is the reason for his lack of involvement in the story. A special case of the ›homodiegetic, not in the story‹ narrator can be derived from this: peridiegetic narration: whereas narratorial instances of the ›homodiegetic, in the story‹ and ›homodiegetic, not in the story‹ types could in principle have been involved in the action and those of the ›homodiegetic, in the story‹ type actually were, peridiegetic narrators are marked by the fact that they cannot have been involved in the events.In summary, it will be shown that the concept of homodiegesis – in particular in the form in which it has previously been used, where links with the action and appearance in the story were not kept distinct – is in effect an umbrella term that brings together a number of possible forms. There is a prominent distinction between the ›homodiegetic, in the story‹ and the ›homodiegetic, not in the story‹ types of narrator (these types are represented in the present article by the old lawyer in Leo Perutz’s »The Beaming Moon« and the narrator who is a friend of Nathanael in E. T. A. Hoffmann’s »Sandman« respectively). The different degrees of homodiegetic narrator, which have often been mentioned in previous research and are defined by the strength of the character’s presence in the narrated world (from an uninvolved witness to an autodiegetic protagonist), are also to be situated between these two poles.It will also be shown in the process that the case of the narrator who is, for reasons of physical difference, not involved in events (the peridiegetic narrator) should be treated as a form of homodiegesis (for instance the schoolmaster in Theodor Storm’s

Small Business Still Speaks with the Same Voice: A Replication of ‘The Voice of Small Business and the Politics of Survival’

1986 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 335-356 ◽  
Author(s):  
Howard Aldrich ◽  
Catherine Zimmer ◽  
Trevor Jones
Keyword(s):  
Small Business ◽  
Political Attitudes ◽  
Social Promotion ◽  
Social Origins ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The One ◽  
The Voice

We replicated Bechhofer and Elliott's (1978) study of Edinburgh shopkeepers to answer two important questions. First, have political attitudes and behaviour changed since 1969–1970 when Bechhofer and Elliott collected their data? Second, are the Bechhofer and Elliott findings applicable only to the one city where their study was conducted? We collected our data in 1978 from the cities of Bradford and Leicester and the borough of Ealing, in grater London. Our replication supports Bechhofer and Elliott's findings in three of the four areas investigated. First, small shopkeepers are consistent Conservatives, although they are not terribly enthusiastic in their support. Second, shopkeepers are recruited from a wide range of social origins, especially from the lower non-manual strata and skilled manual workers. Third, small shopkeepers are highly individualistic politically, being strongly against big government and anti-union. Fourth, although Bechhofer and Elliott found that shopkeepers' optimistic beliefs in the possibilities of social promotion were apparently fulfilled in Edinburgh, such was not the case in Bradford. Ealing, or Leicester. The difference between our results and theirs may stem from differences in city economic structures.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document