Imagining Africa’s futures in two Caine Prize-winning stories: Henrietta Rose-Innes’s “Poison” and NoViolet Bulawayo’s “Hitting Budapest”

2018 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 96-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aghogho Akpome
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Short Stories ◽  
Short Story ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Dominant Position ◽  
Literary Expression ◽  
A Site ◽  
Chemical Explosion

Since its launch in 1999, the annual Caine Prize for African short stories has assumed a dominant position on the continent’s literary landscape. It has been hailed for the exposure it provides for its winners who are mostly budding writers. Expectedly, it has also attracted stinging criticism, especially for what is perceived to be its legitimization of stereotypical narratives about Africa. In this article, I examine how the two winning entries of 2008 and 2011 represent contemporary African realities and in so doing reinforce the growing significance of the prize and the short story genre to modern African literary expression. I argue that, taken together, Henrietta Rose-Innes’ “Poison” (2007) and NoViolet Bulawayo’s “Hitting Budapest” (2010), both set in cities, contribute to problematic imaginings of African futures. Bulawayo does this through her representation of slum life and dystopian childhoods in Zimbabwe while Rose-Innes’s story speculates on the apocalyptic aftermath of a chemical explosion in post-apartheid South Africa. I highlight, also, how these two narratives reflect apparent relationships between the short story and the novel in contemporary African writing as well as the increasing role of the postcolonial city as a site from which unfavourable visions of postcolonial societies are generated.

scholarly journals Vision Versus Illusion: A Symbol of Reality in Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 15
Author(s):  
Emenyi Abang ◽  
Kalu, Kalu Obasi
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
West African ◽  
The Novel ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Invisible Man ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Literary Expression ◽  
American Society ◽  
The 1960S

Vision Versus Illusion: A Symbol of Reality in Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man attempts to x-ray Ralph Ellison’s portrayal of the struggles and experiences of the Negro in the American society. The work examines his plot, characterization and his artistry which are all geared towards the success of the novel. The paper examines the role of these literary elements employed by Ellison to dissect the American society showing the conditions and plights of the Negro living among the whites in America. America is in the midst of chaos. Her oppression and antagonism of the Negro has resulted in a blindness that is contagious, and everybody is affected. This work attempts to unravel the state of incompatibility hinged on racism and exploitation as practiced in America against the Negroes. This has been the hallmark of literary expression of the 1960s and beyond among nations that have experienced exploitation and oppression. The nations notably include: South Africa, Kenya, Zambia, and other West African countries. These conditions have engendered literary reactions among scholars across the Globe. 

scholarly journals THE PROBLEM OF THE CORRELATION BETWEEN SPIRIT AND REALITY IN T. MANN’S NOVEL “TRISTAN”

2021 ◽  
pp. 25-30
Author(s):  
T. KONIEVA
Keyword(s):  
Short Stories ◽  
Short Story ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Personal Attitude ◽  
Scientific Investigations ◽  
Review Analysis ◽  
Literary Process ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Cutting Problem

Short stories are an integral part of T. Mann’s creative heritage, which are distinguished by ideological, thematic and artistic richness, they give an idea of the evolution of the creative method and style of the writer. And although nowadays there is already a number of scientific investigations devoted to the review analysis of T. Mann’s creative path, there is a need to study the problem of culture “end of time” (in T. Mann’s terminology) in the novelistic work of the writer who went to political and social activities through art. The purpose of the article is to reveal the nuances of the relationship between spirit and reality in T. Mann’s short story “Tristan”.The article proves that within the cross-cutting problem of the relationship between art and life, which never ceased to bother the German writer, also the novel “Tristan” clearly distinguishes the related ones: art and beauty, art and morality, aesthetics and life, beauty and death, decadence and a disease of the spirit, the artist and reality, which allowed to clarify both the ideological concepts of creative individuality and the essence of its art. At the same time, the divergence between the views of the hero of the novel and T. Mann’s personal attitude to reality and art is shown. Enough attention is paid to identifying the role of the comic and the means of its formation in the novel. “Tristan” is interpreted in the context of the development of T. Mann’s work and the European literary process at the turn of the XIX - early XX centuries.The article identifies the place of the short story “Tristan” in the work of the German master of the word and outlines the ways of its further analysis.

POLIVARIABILITY OF THE BASTARD MOTIF IN THE SHORT STORIES BY GUY DE MAUPASSANT: CHARACTER IN SEARCH OF SELF-IDENTIFICATION

2018 ◽  
pp. 20-27
Author(s):  
Oksana Galchuk
Keyword(s):  
Short Stories ◽  
Short Story ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Guy De Maupassant ◽  
Traditional Values ◽  
The Social ◽  
Role Of It ◽  
Structural Methods

The theme of illegitimacy Guy de Maupassant evolved in his works this article perceives as one of the factors of the author’s concept of a person and the plane of intersection of the most typical motifs of his short stories. The study of the author’s concept of a person through the prism of polivariability of the motif of a bastard is relevant in today’s revision of traditional values, transformation of the usual social institutions and search for identities, etc. The purpose of the study is to give a definition to the existence specifics of the bastard motif in the Maupassant’s short stories by using historical and literary, comparative, structural methods of analysis as dominant. To do this, I analyze the content, variability and the role of this motive in the formation of the Maupassant’s concept of a person, the author’s innovations in its interpretation from the point of view of literary diachrony. Maupassant interprets the bastard motif in the social, psychological and metaphorical-symbolic sense. For the short stories with the presentation of this motif, I suggest the typology based on the role of it in the structure of the work and the ideological and thematic content: the short stories with a motif-fragment, the ones with the bastard’s leitmotif and the group where the bastard motif becomes a central theme. The Maupassant’s interpretation of the bastard motif combines the general tendencies of its existence in the world’s literary tradition and individual reading. The latter is the result of the author’s understanding of the relevant for the era issues: the transformation of the family model, the interest in the theory of heredity, the strengthening of atheistic sentiments, the growth of frustration in the system of traditional social and moral values etc. This study sets the ground for a prospective analysis of the evolution the bastard motif in the short-story collections of different years or a comparative study of the motif in short stories and novels by Maupassant.

scholarly journals TYPOLOGY AND STRATEGIES OF CREATIVE RECEPTION: A CASE STUDY OF ENGLISH POSTMODERNIST POETRY AND PROSE

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 110-119
Author(s):  
Maria S. Sloistova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Short Stories ◽  
Short Story ◽  
Reception Theory ◽  
Ivory Tower ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Literary Works

The paper focuses on complex research and description of creative reception theory and typology. There are provided definitions of such terms as reception, creative reception, creative reception strategies, and others. The author builds the typology of creative reception on the basis of works by E. V. Abramovskikh, S. Ye. Trunin, M. V. Zagidullina, V. I. Tyupa, and M. Naumann. This typology includes two types (or levels) of creative reception, defined as classic and postmodernist. Each of the types is characterized by a number of strategies, i. e. ways of representing an artistically received text in one’s own work. The classic type strategies (formal, authentic, neutral and antithetical) focus primarily on plot transformation. As for the postmodernist level, the author singles out two strategies: congenial and play. The theory and typology of creative reception is substantiated with some examples of reminiscences and allusions to English and world poetry. The examples under analysis are taken from the following prose works by the outstanding English postmodernist writer John Robert Fowles (1926–2005): the novel The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1969), the collection of long short stories The Ebony Tower (1974), the philosophic book The Aristos (1964), and also the lyric collection Selected Poems, published posthumously in 2012. The collection has not been translated into Russian yet. Therefore, the poem under analysis (Islanders) has been translated into Russian by the author of the present paper. The paper also deals with indirect Biblical reception which is found in the allusion to the ivory tower. The allusion gave the title The Ebony Tower both to Fowles’ long short story and collection as a whole. The author of the paper draws a conclusion about the dominant creative reception strategies in the literary works under analysis and also about the possible use of the presented creative reception typology in analyzing works by other writers.

scholarly journals Condemnation of Religious Concepts: An Examination of Chubak's "An Afternoon in Late Autumn" through Bakhtin's Theory of Grotesque Realism

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-67
Author(s):  
Sayed Mohammad Anoosheh ◽  
Muhammad Hussein Oroskhan
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Short Stories ◽  
Short Story ◽  
Lower Section ◽  
Persian Literature ◽  
Social Hierarchies ◽  
Late Autumn ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
Style Of Writing ◽  
A Site

The first traces of modernism in Iranian society can be found in the second decade of twentieth century which was deeply embedded with religious concepts. With regard to Persian literature, short story was developed as a new genre and a sign of modernism of that period by prominent Iranian writers such as Sadeq Hedayat (1903-1951), Mohammad Ali Jamalzadeh (1892-1997) and Sadegh Chubak (1916-1998). In this way a cultural clash was broken out between the traditional religious concepts and the new modern ideas. Among these writers, Chubak was more influenced by the doctrine of modernism. He expressed his message colloquially through his short stories to instigate the lower part of society. His naturalistic style of writing delved into the most gruesome details of people's life with the aim of shocking his reader in experiencing a new perspective previously ignored. To highlight Chubak's style of writing attempt is made to explore one of the highly praised short stories entitled "An Afternoon in Late Autumn" on the ground of the Bakhtin's theory of grotesque realism cited in Rabelais and His World. Grotesque realism is a site upon which religious and social hierarchies can be subverted and renewed. This study tries to reveal that Chubak followed the Bakhtin's grotesque realism to evoke a new outlook particularly in the lower section of society.

scholarly journals PLOT ELEMENTS AND MOTIVES OF THE NOVEL “CHEVENGUR” IN PLATONOV’S SHORT STORY “POTUDAN RIVER”

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-55
Author(s):  
N. Mikhaylovna Malygina ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Short Story ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Love Story ◽  
Planetary Scale ◽  
The Family ◽  
Analytical Review ◽  
Eugene Onegin ◽  
Intertextual Connections ◽  
First Time

The relevance of the article is determined by the researcher of the semantic poetics of Platonov’s story “Potudan River”. We carry out an analytical review of the lifetime criticism and articles of modern researchers about the story, on the basis of which we formulate the purpose of the study, due to the need for a new approach to the interpretation of the work and the identification of the principles of its poetics. The novelty of the article is determined by the identification of the multilayered symbolism of the title of the story, which allows to establish the insufficiency of the conclusions that the content of the “Potudan River” is limited to the family theme. At the level of micropoetics we reveal symbolic details that connect the content of the story with the motive of love for the distant, medical and construction subjects and revealing the planetary scale of the author’s thinking. For the first time, it was established that Platonov’s story “Potudan River” was written based on part of the plot of the novel “Chevengur” – the love story of Alexander Dvanov and Sonya Mandrova. We show that the heroes of the story “Potudan River” Nikita Firsov, Lyuba Kuznetsova and Nikita’s father are doubles of the characters in the novel “Chevengur” by Sasha Dvanov, Sonya Mandrova, and Zakhar Pavlovich. The connection of the image of Lyuba with the archetype of the bride is considered. The paper reveals for the first time the intertextual connections of the story “Potudan River” with the poem “The Bronze Horseman” and the novel in verse “Eugene Onegin” by A. Pushkin, in the texts of which the writer found material for modeling the ordinary fate of the hero. Multi-level connections of the content of the story “Potudan River” with Platonov’s artistic world, which is a complete metatext, are found, which opens up new opportunities for determining the role of the editing technique and the principles of returning to the plots and motives of the works of the 1920s, as well as their transformation in the writer’s work of the 1930s.

scholarly journals The problem of the dialogue in “Shakespeare’s text” by Yuri Dombrovsky

2020 ◽  
pp. 176-184
Author(s):  
Aleksei V. Makarychev
Keyword(s):  
Short Stories ◽  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
Epileptic Seizures ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Safe Distance ◽  
Special Situation ◽  
Totalitarian Regime ◽  
Common Features ◽  
The People

The article is devoted to the study of the “Shakespearean text” by Yuri Dombrovsky from the standpoint of Bakhtin dialogism. Clarifies the concept of “Shakespearean text” refers to and analyzes “Shakespearean text” by Dombrovsky, including artistic works – a trilogy of novels about Shakespeare (“Dark Lady” “Second-highest quality bed”, “Royal Rescript”) and two chapters of the novel “Dark Lady” (“Queen” and “Count Essex”), originally entered into its composition, but later was published separately, as well as two scientific and critical articles – “‘RetlandBaconSouthamptonShakespeare’: about the myth, anti-myth and biographical hypothesis” and “To Italians about Shakespeare”. The study author states that “Shakespearean text” by Yuri Dombrovsky dominated themes of tyranny and government that does not want to hear the people, of censorship, depriving the artist’s freedom of expression and the role of the artist in an unfree society. Special attention is paid to the problem of interaction between Shakespeare and monologue-authoritarian society in the artistic world created by the writer. The author hypothesizes that in the trilogy of short stories about Shakespeare, Dombrovsky addressed such problems of the totalitarian regime as censorship, cruelty and despotism of power from a relatively “safe” distance – the age of Shakespeare. The author notes the presence of a special situation of double dialogue in “Shakespearean text” by Yuri Dombrovsky: the dialogue is conducted through the Shakespearean era with the contemporary writer’s reality, power and culture. The article proves the similarity of Dombrovsky as a biographical author with the Shakespeare he portrayed, and notes the presence of common features in both writers (sacralization of creativity, impulsive character, addiction to alcohol, epileptic seizures, etc.). The conducted research allows us to conclude that Dombrovsky, attempting a dialogue with the monologue-authoritarian power, finds a voice through art, like “his” Shakespeare. Dombrovsky connects the ways of solving the problem of the artist and power with art as the only way to build a dialogue in the conditions of totalitarianism – not so much with the authorities, who are not able to hear it, as with themselves.

Jeanne Duval

2020 ◽  
pp. 307-313
Author(s):  
Mireille Rosello
Keyword(s):  
Short Stories ◽  
Charles Baudelaire ◽  
Safe Space ◽  
Edouard Manet ◽  
Gustave Courbet ◽  
Century Poetry ◽  
Historical Accounts ◽  
A Site

This particular attempt at imagining a site of memory made of words may appear irreverent at first, but it has been crafted as an homage to a formidable woman: Jeanne Duval. I have taken the liberty of fictionalizing a first-person narrator who will talk about ‘herself’, at the risk of usurping her voice and her identity. Jeanne (whose name was or was not Duval) was a woman of colour and she had a long-term turbulent relationship with the enfant terrible of French nineteenth-century poetry, Charles Baudelaire. As a result, historical accounts both magnify and marginalize her. Trying to do justice to a historical character who was so much more than a muse but may not have been happy to embrace the role of exemplary black foremother, this text puts together the numerous and often incompatible portraits of Jeanne Duval. She appears and disappears in biographies (Emmanuel Richon), novels (Fabienne Pasquet), short stories (Angela Carter), academic studies (Claude Pichois). She is both present and absent, celebrated and erased in the so-called ‘Black Venus cycle’ of Baudelaire’s Flower of Evil as well as in paintings by Edouard Manet (Baudelaire’s Mistress, Reclining) and Gustave Courbet (The Painter’s Studio). The objective was to question the process of memorialization that might silence or appropriate her instead of providing her with a safe space of memory. It remains to be seen to what extent Jeanne is here celebrated or betrayed.

scholarly journals Quantitative analysis of APP axonal transport in neurons: role of JIP1 in enhanced APP anterograde transport

2014 ◽  
Vol 25 (22) ◽  
pp. 3569-3580 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyoko Chiba ◽  
Masahiko Araseki ◽  
Keisuke Nozawa ◽  
Keiko Furukori ◽  
Yoichi Araki ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quantitative Analysis ◽  
Axonal Transport ◽  
High Frequency ◽  
Coiled Coil ◽  
Tetratricopeptide Repeat ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Anterograde Transport ◽  
Interacting Protein ◽  
A Site

Alzheimer's β-amyloid precursor protein (APP) associates with kinesin-1 via JNK-interacting protein 1 (JIP1); however, the role of JIP1 in APP transport by kinesin-1 in neurons remains unclear. We performed a quantitative analysis to understand the role of JIP1 in APP axonal transport. In JIP1-deficient neurons, we find that both the fast velocity (∼2.7 μm/s) and high frequency (66%) of anterograde transport of APP cargo are impaired to a reduced velocity (∼1.83 μm/s) and a lower frequency (45%). We identified two novel elements linked to JIP1 function, located in the central region of JIP1b, that interact with the coiled-coil domain of kinesin light chain 1 (KLC1), in addition to the conventional interaction of the JIP1b 11–amino acid C-terminal (C11) region with the tetratricopeptide repeat of KLC1. High frequency of APP anterograde transport is dependent on one of the novel elements in JIP1b. Fast velocity of APP cargo transport requires the C11 domain, which is regulated by the second novel region of JIP1b. Furthermore, efficient APP axonal transport is not influenced by phosphorylation of APP at Thr-668, a site known to be phosphorylated by JNK. Our quantitative analysis indicates that enhanced fast-velocity and efficient high-frequency APP anterograde transport observed in neurons are mediated by novel roles of JIP1b.

scholarly journals Essential Role of the Oocyte in Estrogen Amplification of Follicle-Stimulating Hormone Signaling in Granulosa Cells

Endocrinology ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 146 (8) ◽  
pp. 3362-3367 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fumio Otsuka ◽  
R. Kelly Moore ◽  
Xia Wang ◽  
Shweta Sharma ◽  
Tomoko Miyoshi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mrna Expression ◽  
Granulosa Cells ◽  
Essential Role ◽  
Primary Cultures ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Camp Production ◽  
Lh Receptor ◽  
Cell Responses ◽  
A Site

Abstract The establishment of dominant ovarian follicles that are capable of ovulating fertilizable oocytes is a fundamental determinant of female fertility. This process is governed by pituitary gonadotropins as well as local ovarian factors. Within the follicle, estrogen acts in an autocrine/paracrine manner to enhance FSH action in the granulosa cells. These effects include the augmentation of P450aromatase expression and estradiol production. This feed-forward effect of estrogen is believed to play a key role in follicle dominance. Here we found the essential role of the oocyte in this physiological process using primary cultures of rat granulosa cells. In the presence, but not absence, of oocytes, estrogen amplified FSH-stimulated increases in mRNA expression of P450aromatase, FSH receptor, LH receptor, and inhibin α-, βA-, and βB-subunits as well as cAMP production. Thus, oocytes mediate the estrogen enhancement of FSH action in the granulosa cells. In comparison with FSH, cotreatment with estrogen and oocytes failed to amplify the stimulatory effects of forskolin or 8-bromoadenosine-cAMP on granulosa cell responses including P450aromatase mRNA expression and cAMP production, indicating that estrogen/oocytes amplify FSH action at a site upstream of adenylate cyclase. These findings support the novel conclusion that communication between the oocyte and granulosa cells plays a crucial role in mediating estrogen action during FSH-dependent folliculogenesis.

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