The language of A Clockwork Orange: A corpus stylistic approach to Nadsat

2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 247-264 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benet Vincent ◽  
Jim Clarke

The 1962 dystopian novella A Clockwork Orange achieved global cultural resonance when it was adapted for the cinema by Stanley Kubrick in 1971. However, its author Anthony Burgess insisted that the novel’s innovative element was the introduction of ‘Nadsat’, an art language he created for his protagonist Alex and his violent gang of droogs. This constructed anti-language has achieved a cultural currency and become the subject of considerable academic attention over a 50-year period, but to date no study has attempted a systematic analysis of its resources and distribution. Rather, a number of studies have attempted to investigate the effects of Nadsat, especially in terms of the author’s claim that learning it functioned as a form of ‘brainwashing’ embedded within the text. This paper uses corpus methods to help isolate, quantify and categorise the distinctive lexicogrammatical features of this art language and investigate how Burgess introduces a new, mainly Russian-based lexicon to readers. In doing so, it clarifies the existing confusion over what Nadsat is, and also provides a roadmap for future studies into the construction, function and translatability of the created linguistic component of the novel.

2009 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-92
Author(s):  
Susan Jones

This article explores the diversity of British literary responses to Diaghilev's project, emphasising the way in which the subject matter and methodologies of Diaghilev's modernism were sometimes unexpectedly echoed in expressions of contemporary British writing. These discussions emerge both in writing about Diaghilev's work, and, more discretely, when references to the Russian Ballet find their way into the creative writing of the period, serving to anchor the texts in a particular cultural milieu or to suggest contemporary aesthetic problems in the domain of literary aesthetics developing in the period. Figures from disparate fields, including literature, music and the visual arts, brought to their criticism of the Ballets Russes their individual perspectives on its aesthetics, helping to consolidate the sense of its importance in contributing to the inter-disciplinary flavour of modernism across the arts. In the field of literature, not only did British writers evaluate the Ballets Russes in terms of their own poetics, their relationship to experimentation in the novel and in drama, they developed an increasing sense of the company's place in dance history, its choreographic innovations offering material for wider discussions, opening up the potential for literary modernism's interest in impersonality and in the ‘unsayable’, discussions of the body, primitivism and gender.


2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-35
Author(s):  
Joseph Azize

The various published biographies and biographical notices of G.I. Gurdjieff (c.1865-1949) are of diverse style, quantity and content. While some have made considerable contributions to the subject, most attempts have reacted for or against Gurdjieff’s status as what might call an ‘Enlightened Master’. Little biographical writing on Gurdjieff has questioned the scope, reliability and prejudices of the sources. Further, possible resources have been neglected. The development in Gurdjieff’s ideas is often overlooked, his life is not sufficiently related to that development, and the lack of comparative research has failed to highlight Gurdjieff’s unique contributions. This article is structured in four parts. The first is an introduction, followed by an overview of existing biographical studies of Gurdjieff. The third part addresses bias in these studies, and this is followed by suggestions for future studies. It is concluded that fieldwork regarding the biography of Gurdjieff has been hampered by imperfect methodology. However, with better use of the source material, some of which has only recently been discovered, and a rigorous use of sources, a more balanced and nuanced picture of Gurdjieff’s life, and the development of his ideas and methods, should emerge.


2020 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 297-319
Author(s):  
Aluaș Alina

"The Theatrical Potential in David Foenkinos’ Work. Analysis of the Novel, the Scenario and the Film “La Délicatesse”. Our interest, especially when it comes to the subject of literature, is to show the manner in which the text processing done by the author (script writer/director) brings to light the guidelines of the novelistic text’s semantics, which under careful analysis reveals a kind of personal myth of the novelist. The skewed, syncopated, interrupted writing which disrupts the chronotope serves the needs of the script as well as the director’s selective vision. Unconsciously, the novel seems to follow the structure of the theatrical model. These traits can also be found in the cinematographic structure of the film. Keywords: love, eroticism, delicacy, theatricality, scenario, film. "


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 121-130
Author(s):  
Julija Metic ◽  
Tim C. McAloone ◽  
Daniela C. A. Pigosso

AbstractThis study undertakes a systematic analysis of literature within Circular Economy (CE) in an industrial perspective, with a focus on understanding the consideration of the biological and technological cycles, as well as dual circularity. The paper articulates the key research differences, gaps and trends on the basis of publication evolution, key subject areas, influential journals and keywords co-occurrence mapping. The analysis shows the increasing publication trend with dominance of technological cycle and a wide variety of subject areas incorporated in CE biological, technological and dual cycles. Due to the multidisciplinary and transversal nature of CE, as well as its diverse interpretation and applications, an expansion and consolidation of the subject areas and journals are expected in the years to come. Analysis of co-occurrence on the authors' keywords underlined a limited focus of a business perspective research within the biological cycle, heterogeneous and proactive technological cycle but fragmented research on dual circularity. Further analysis of synergies and limitations is necessary to enhance business effectiveness towards enhanced sustainability.


2011 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
DEVIN O. PENDAS

When the late Kenneth Cmiel undertook the first systematic analysis of the emerging historiography of human rights in 2004, he surveyed a field that was ‘refreshingly inchoate’. In the ensuing seven years, the scholarship on the history of human rights has burgeoned considerably. Yet one might still reasonably characterise the field overall as inchoate. Like any new subfield of historical inquiry, there is a clear lack of consensus among leading historians of human rights about even the most elementary contours of the subject. What are human rights? When and where did they emerge? How and why did they spread (if, indeed, they spread at all)? Who were the crucial agents in this history? Few historians working in the field seem to agree in their answers to any of these questions.


2012 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chase Pielak

In George Eliot'sDanielDeronda, animal vitality figures prominently in shaping the human shell, to use an opening animal metaphor. Approaching the significance of the animal leads to a reading of Gwendolen Grandcourt's character as a responsible creature. Gwendolen is Eliot's heroine, one half of the pair of protagonists around whom the novel revolves. Eliot's fantastic character takes shape in three movements, each punctuated by its own animal metaphor: Gwendolen morphs from Lamia to mastered-animal to white doe. Animal imagery appears at the edge of the human, the point at which humanity gains and loses subjectivity, and Gwendolen's novel is fundamentally one of finding her place in the world, her singularity, her responsibility. Images of animals stand in the linguistic gaps – in the places words fail – to figure the subject.1Animals appear at the end of the ability of language to mean. Nevertheless, this analysis is not intended to encompass the complex range of animal representations in George's Eliot's oeuvre, or even to catalog every example inDaniel Deronda. Instead, it suggests the possibility of using animal metaphor as a map for reading a Victorian heroine.


1991 ◽  
Vol 7 (25) ◽  
pp. 77-96
Author(s):  
Richard Andrews

The regular community drama activity of the village of Monticchiello in Italy has been pursued for nearly a quarter of a century, but is still little known abroad. A full study of the phenomenon is as much a study of the community, past and present, as it is a piece of theatrical analysis, in the area where there is a complete interlock between social history and the theatrical activity which a society produces. Since the work and history of the Teatro Povero have too many ramifications for everything to be summarized or even alluded to in one article, Richard Andrews here sets out to introduce the subject to students of theatre ‘by example’ – aiming to dig a single trench into the strata, in order to convey the outlines of the subject, hopefully without damage to the evidence needed for a more complete survey. Richard Andrews is Professor of Italian at Leeds University, having previously taught at Swansea and Kent. For the past fifteen years his research interests have been mainly concentrated on theatrical material, and he is currently preparing a study of sixteenth-century Italian comedy for Cambridge University Press. His regular contact with Monticchiello dates from 1983, and has been supported by a systematic analysis of all the texts produced there since 1967.


2020 ◽  
Vol 76 (4) ◽  
pp. 149-155
Author(s):  
SVETLANA S. UZHAKINA ◽  

The classification of Russian culture-bound terms used in the novel “Quiet Flows the Don” by M. A. Sholokhov and in its translation into the English language. The novel “Quiet Flows the Don” by M.A. Sholokhov and its translation into English done by Robert Daglish have served as the source for the research of culture-bound terms. These terms have been classified on the basis of the subject division offered by S. Vlakhov and S. Florin. It is proved that the interest to the study of culture-bound terms is still important. The relevance of the research is determined by the fact that despite numerous research papers in this field the origin, classification and translation of these terms still need some investigation. The aim of the present study is to classify the culture-bound terms taken from the novel “Quiet Flows the Don” by M.A. Sholokhon and its translation into the English language. As a result, there have bben taken 407 samples of the lexical units with a cultural component which were classified according to the subject principal offered by S. Vlakhon and S. Florin. The culture-bound terms have a great influence on a foreign reader as they are cultural units that transmit the information of the daily routine and the historical epoch described in the novel. The culture-bound terms taken from the novel “Quiet Flows the Don” by M.A. Sholokhov and its translation are analyzed and classified. The division of the culture-bound terms according to the subject principal allowed to reveal that most terms refer to the daily routine, social and political life and military terms.


2007 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 166-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karla Shimura Barea ◽  
Leticia Lessa Mansur

Abstract Semantic memory seems to resist the effects of time, remaining stable even in more advanced ages. Objective: To verify the effect of schooling level on semantic knowledge (non-living items) in normal aged. Method: 48 aged individuals were divided into three groups (based on schooling) and evaluated. Three tests were applied: verbal fluency, naming and figure classification. Results: We verified that the group with greater schooling (>8 years) differed to the illiterate and low schooling groups in most of the tasks, evoking more items in verbal fluency, correctly naming more items and presenting a greater number of "formal categories". Discussion: In the verbal fluency test, this difference could be explained by the types of strategies used by the individuals to recall words. In relation to the naming test, the effect could be attributed to limitation in the vocabulary and cognitive processing skills needed to search for semantic attributes of the figures. In categorization, this type of classification is dependent on scholastic learning. Conclusion: We concluded that both illiterate elderly and those having a low schooling level, presented poorer performance in semantic memory tests compared to the aged with a higher level of schooling. The similar behavior evidenced between illiterate and low schooling groups is intriguing. It remains unclear whether the low schooling group behaved like the illiterates or vice-a-versa. This unanswered question remains the subject of future studies.


2016 ◽  
Vol 51 (4) ◽  
pp. 491
Author(s):  
Ana Cláudia Munari ◽  
Taíssi Alessandra Cardoso da Silva

A partir da análise dos romances de Ricardo Lísias e da sua produção autocrítica, este trabalho busca entender algumas relações entre a literatura de autoficção e a publicização do sujeito autor imerso no universo midiático. Partindo de uma revisão bibliográfica que conceitua os objetos aqui circunscritos e de uma apreciação anterior sobre a produção literária de jovens escritores brasileiros selecionados pela revista Granta em 2012, estreitamos nossa focalização no movimento do romancista em direção à escrita de si e à autorreferência. Nesse sentido, analisamos e contextualizamos a modalidade de escritura denominada autoficção, especialmente no que tange às aproximações entre as instâncias do narrador e do autor e entre biografemas e ficção (FIGUEIREDO, 2013; KLINGER, 2012), e evocamos estudos da Sociologia e da Comunicação de modo a caracterizar a sociedade da qual emerge o corpus deste estudo (LIPOVESTKY, 2004; SANTAELLA, 2012). A partir desse contexto, investigamos as obras literárias – O céu dos suicidas (2012), Divórcio (2013) e Delegado Tobias (2014) – e as narrativas midiáticas de Ricardo Lísias e identificamos nelas estratégias da publicidade.********************************************************************The novel by Ricardo Lísias: wide open windows to the subject hypermodernAbstract: Through the analysis of the novels of Ricardo Lísias and its self-critical production, this work intends to understand some relationships between the self-fiction literature and the popularization of the subject author immersed in the media universe. Starting from a literature review that conceptualizes the objects herein bounded and an earlier assessment of the literary production of young Brazilian writers selected by Granta magazine in 2012, we strengthened  ur focus on the novelist's movement toward the writing itself  nd self-reference. Pursuing this aim, we analyzed and contextualized the form of writing named autofiction, especially with regard to the similarities between instances of the narrator and the author and between biographema and fiction (FIGUEIREDO, 2013; KLINGER, 2012). We also evoked Sociology and Media Studies to characterize the society of which emerges the corpus of this study (LIPOVESTKY, 2004; SANTAELLA, 2012). From these premises, we investigated the literary works – Céu dos suicidas (Heaven suicide, 2012), Divórcio (Divorce, 2013) and Delegado Tobias (Tobias, the police chief, 2014) – and the media narratives of Ricardo Lísias and finally we identified his advertising strategies.Keywords: Self-ficction; Contemporary literature; Hypermodernity; Ricardo Lísias


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