Making Things Strange: The Prehistory of a Literary Device

1996 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlo Ginzburg
Keyword(s):  
Literary Device

scholarly journals Pathographies and Epiphanies: Communicating about Illness

2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 278-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda Nesby
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Distress ◽  
Medical Staff ◽  
Severe Illness ◽  
Knowing How ◽  
Religious Person ◽  
Romantic Era ◽  
Literary Device ◽  
Patient Stories

Abstract Epiphany is a literary device bringing forth an experience of sudden wisdom or insight and is particularly applied to literature from the romantic era. However, epiphanies are also present within contemporary autobiographical patient stories (pathographies) expressing something that is difficult and perhaps otherwise left unspoken. Kristian Gidlund’s pathography I kroppen min. Resan mot livets slut och alltings början (2013) deals with the author’s experience of having severe cancer. Gidlund was a non-religious person but at the end of his life, his blogposts included epiphanies or visionary moments regarding his afterlife. In this article the author shows how the use of epiphanies can be a subtle means of expressing thoughts and feelings when facing severe illness. Knowing how to identify and interpret epiphanies in pathographies can improve the abilities of relatives and medical staff to communicate with patients about existential matters and emotional distress. KAKA I would like to thank Rachael Reynolds and Paul Farmer for their most conscientious proofreading, and Dr. Christopher Oscarson for the accurate translation of the quotes from Kristian Gidlund’s book.

scholarly journals Lurking Lions and Hidden Herds: Concealed Wisdom in the Hebrew Bible

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 492
Author(s):  
Scott B. Noegel ◽  
Corinna E. Nichols
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Wild Animals ◽  
Domesticated Animals ◽  
Divine Wisdom ◽  
Hidden Knowledge ◽  
Literary Device

This article presents evidence for a previously unrecognized literary device in the Book of Proverbs, in which texts that cluster references to animals also contain additional paronomastic allusions to animals. This device accords with the proverbs’ instruction to search for hidden knowledge, and resonates with their emphasis on the study of wild animals as a source of divine wisdom. The device also appears in psalms and prophecies, where it generally entails references to domesticated animals; here, the function appears to be rhetorical or performative. These groupings of concealed allusions to animals also add to the growing number of examples of the textual device of clustering.

Naaman’s Healing and Gehazi’s Affliction: The Magical Background of 2 Kgs 5

2018 ◽  
Vol 68 (4) ◽  
pp. 540-555
Author(s):  
Isabel Cranz
Keyword(s):  
Content Type ◽  
Literary Device ◽  
Land Of Israel

Abstract Scholars tend to view the healing of Naaman and the subsequent affliction of Gehazi in 2 Kgs 5 as polemic against magic and non-Israelite ideas about disease and healing. However, in analyzing the motif of צרעת as literary device it can be demonstrated that 2 Kgs 5 is not opposed to magic. My paper will show instead how the consultation between the Aramean and the Israelite kings, the depiction of Naaman’s healing, as well as the circumstances of Gehazi’s affliction draw from generic ideas about magic to bring into sharper focus the power of the prophet and the presence of Yahweh in the land of Israel.

scholarly journals Benjamin’s ‘flâneur’ and serial murder: An ultra-realist literary case study of Levi Bellfield

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 523-543
Author(s):  
Adam Lynes ◽  
Craig Kelly ◽  
Pravanjot Kapil Singh Uppal
Keyword(s):  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Criminological Theory ◽  
Serial Killer ◽  
Serial Murder ◽  
Realist Theory ◽  
Cultural Concepts ◽  
Literary Device ◽  
Literary Devices

This article seeks to develop criminological theory with the application of a literary device known as the ‘flâneur’ – an individual described as a ‘stroller’ – to serial murderer Levi Bellfield. With this application of the ‘flâneur’ to the phenomenon of serial murder, this article provides a fresh theoretical ‘lens’, and specifically sheds light on how particular serial murderers operate and evade detection in modern society. The importance of modernity to the phenomenon of serial murder is also considered utilizing Ultra-Realist theory, resulting in both a micro and macro examination into how the modern urban landscape has subsequently created an environment in which the serial killer both operates and comes to fruition. This synthesis between the application of literary devices, criminological theory and socio-cultural concepts not only raises important and previously neglected questions pertaining to serial murder, but also assists in forming the more sinister relative of the flâneur: the ‘dark flâneur’.

Eye Witnesses

2019 ◽  
pp. 194-208
Author(s):  
M. David Litwa
Keyword(s):  
Contemporary Literature ◽  
Fourth Gospel ◽  
Trojan War ◽  
Literary Convention ◽  
Literary Device

This chapter introduces the idea of an eyewitness as a literary device of authentication. It compares the use of such an eyewitness in the fourth gospel and other contemporary literature (namely the Life of Apollonius by Philostratus and the Diary of the Trojan War by Dictys of Crete). It is argued that the literary convention of presenting a fictional eyewitness authority is a well-attested device of authentication, and satisfactorily explains why and how the author of John employed it.

scholarly journals Love as a Liberation in Anchee Min’s "Wild Ginger"

2021 ◽  
pp. 185-192
Author(s):  
Ekaterina Karavaeva
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Revolution ◽  
Home Country ◽  
The Past ◽  
American Citizen ◽  
Communist Ideology ◽  
Religious Feeling ◽  
Communist China ◽  
Literary Device ◽  
The Times ◽  
Love Triangle

The article explores the motif of love in a totalitarian society in Anchee Min’s novel “Wild Ginger”. Though an American citizen, Anchee Min belongs to a group of modern Chinese-American writers whose interests focus around the past of her home country China. Childhood and teenage years which Min spent in Communist China provided her with a lot of material for her later novels. In Wild Ginger through a classic plot of love triangle the writer approaches the motif of love in the times of Cultural Revolution. The author examines love as a relationship between a man and a woman, and as a religious feeling and communist ideology. Grotesque becomes the main literary device. Over-exaggeration bordering on incredibility expresses the author’s rejection of the surrounding reality. Intertwining comical and tragical situations, the novels brings the reader to a conclusion that love is the only means of attainting personal freedom and maturity in a totalitarian society.  

scholarly journals Death and Dying as a Literary Device: A Reading of Selected Works by Contemporary Malaysian Writers

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-17
Author(s):  
Arbaayah Ali Termizi ◽  
◽  
Nurul Soleha Mohd Noor ◽  
Wan Iman Wan Salim
Keyword(s):  
Death And Dying ◽  
Literary Device

scholarly journals Periodicity: Interpreting Waves of Information in Osundare’s Harvestcall

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 42-70
Author(s):  
Taofeek Olaiwola Dalamu
Keyword(s):  
Time Frame ◽  
The Past ◽  
Systemic Analysis ◽  
Literary Device ◽  
Different Shapes ◽  
Analytical Tools ◽  
The Waves

The study investigated the waves of information of Osundara’s Harvestcall to show textual movements as layered by the poet. To achieve that objective, the poem of about 76 lines was collapsed into 44 clauses as a tradition that paves a way for systemic analysis of texts in different shapes, sizes and constructs. Halliday’s Theme and Rheme served as analytical tools that processed the text after which the investigation utilized tables and graphs as indicators of waves of information of Harvestcall. The analysis reveals three separate waves of the text, namely: (i) sectional organization – perceives Sections I, II and III are the Theme while Section IV is the Rheme; (ii) clause constructs – demonstrates multiple Themes that flow to rhematic structures; and (iii) time frame exposition – espouses the past farming commitment as Theme and its current neglect as Rheme. In addition, observation shows waves interference. That is, the switching of Theme 2 and Subject Theme in Sections I, II and III for Subject Theme and Theme 2 respectively in Section IV. As linguistic concepts can reveal so much meanings of a literary device, the study suggests their applications across the board of genres of literature.

scholarly journals Aracoeli di Elsa Morante

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvia Camilotti
Keyword(s):  
Personal Experience ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Elsa Morante ◽  
Literary Device ◽  
Literary Devices

I propose a close reading of Elsa Morante’s latest book, Aracoeli, drawing upon three key literary devices: escapism, metamorphosis and paradox, which I use in relation to both the principal characters in the book, Aracoeli and her son Emanuele. Moreover, my reading will also bring to light the author’s personal experience and how it is relevant to the novel particularly in relation to the literary device of escapism.

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