Visual Narratives of History A Close Reading into the Portrayal of World War II in the Paintings of Paul Nash, Eric Kennington and Graham Sutherland: Aptitude for Report or Tendency to Mislead.

Abstract Louis Sohn was an émigré scholar who fled Poland for the USA in 1939, two weeks before the Nazis invaded. His most widely known work is World Peace through World Law, co-written with Grenville Clark, a vision for a reconstructed United Nations. Writing at a time when political realism was ascendant in the USA, Sohn was labeled an ‘idealist’. Yet a strain of pragmatism also runs through his scholarship, leading many to praise him as one of the architects of modern international law. As a scholar-practitioner with a mission to help build the post-World War II international order, little overt legal theorizing appears in his work. But a close reading reveals ideas that drew implicitly on extant theory or were developed by later theorists without reference to Sohn’s writing. To help frame the analysis, this article situates Sohn’s writing in two strands of theoretical literature: pre-positivist, positivist and ‘post-positivist’ approaches to law-making by international organizations; and functionalist, constitutionalist and deliberative approaches to the powers of, and constraints on, those organizations. Sohn does not fall neatly into any of those categories; instead, fragments of his work can be found at many points along each spectrum. While the fragments do not add up to a coherent whole, the theoretical contributions of this ‘pragmatic idealist’ are greater than meets the eye.

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The Heroine Concept in a Filipino Graphic Narrative

Notion: Journal of Linguistics, Literature and Culture ◽

10.12928/notion.v3i1.3870 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 3 (1) ◽

pp. 1

Author(s):

Estrella T. Arroyo

Keyword(s):

World War Ii ◽

Close Reading ◽

Real Character ◽

World War ◽

Lexical Meaning ◽

The Real ◽

Graphic Narrative ◽

Definition Of ◽

Pop Literature

This study explored the concept of “HEROINE” in the context of “Darna,” a Filipino graphic narrative written by Mars Ravelo that was first published on May 13, 1950 by Filipino Komiks. Extracted from the 27 episodes of “Darna” are realities of experience as well as innuendos related to the real character of Darna, the super heroine. Further, the study delved into a deeper meaning of heroine beyond its lexical meaning. As a result, the researcher formulated her own definition of “HEROINE” as “Humaneness and Equanimity in Reimagining Optimistic, Iconic, Novel, and Empowered” persona, which led to the findings that, indeed, Darna has reached her apotheosis as a superheroine. These insights were not fathomed had it not been for the researcher’s focus on close reading, application of Expressive Realism, and “Argustic” reading. Keen eyes are needed to enjoy reading a graphic narrative which is both visual and verbal. The study proved that in Philippine society, Darna is the most accepted, loved and idolized Filipino icon as savior of a devastated and crippled society after World War II. Lastly, it is aimed that this humble analysis will put itself into the realm of a body of Pop Literature and the Humanities.

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Fiction as Mapmaking: Moscow as Ivan Bunin's Russian Memory Palace

Slavic Review ◽

10.5612/slavicreview.73.1.0036 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 73 (01) ◽

pp. 36-61

Author(s):

Angela Brintlinger

Keyword(s):

World War Ii ◽

Cultural Memory ◽

Close Reading ◽

Soviet Regime ◽

World War ◽

Specific Memory ◽

Ancient City ◽

Memory Palace

In his fiction written from the 1920s through 1940s Ivan Bunin set a number of stories in Moscow, naming specific places, many of which were closed or destroyed after the 1917 Revolution by the Soviet regime or by Nazi bombing during World War II. In so doing, Bunin used Moscow to map the cultural memory of the Russian emigration, with the ancient city of Moscow standing as its “memory palace” while contributing to the “Moscow text.“ In his 1944 story “Cleansing Monday,” in particular, Bunin conducted this mnemonic project on three levels: historical, spiritual, and didactic. He did so for both a Russian readership—his compatriots abroad and potential (future) readers back home—and a foreign audience increasingly interested in Russia. Through close reading of the story, diary entries, and Bunin's biography, this article explores the idea of a memory palace and four specific memory images, comparing Bunin's depiction of Russia to a 1915 depiction by English traveler Stephen Graham.

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Between Socialist Modernity and Liquid Modernity. Vesna Goldsworthy’s Memoir Chernobyl Strawberries

International Journal for History Culture and Modernity ◽

10.18352/hcm.556 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

pp. 244-270

Author(s):

Gabriele Linke

Keyword(s):

World War Ii ◽

Western Europe ◽

The State ◽

Eastern Bloc ◽

Close Reading ◽

World War ◽

Ongoing Debate ◽

Liquid Modernity ◽

Special Cases ◽

Eastern And Western Europe

In modernity studies, there has been an ongoing debate about different forms and phases of modernity. Eastern and Western Europe present special cases in this debate because modernity developed unevenly, and differences became particularly obvious after World War II. While the ‘Eastern bloc’ strove for socialist modernity, Western Europe continued its route of classic capitalist modernity, soon entering the state of late, or liquid modernity, of which fluid and fragmented identities were a defining feature. These conceptions of modernity have been reflected upon in the life narratives of people who experienced different modernities, of which Vesna Goldsworthy’s memoir Chernobyl Strawberries is a compelling example. She grew up in Yugoslavia’s socialist modernity but, at the age of twenty-five, left for Britain, where she became a journalist and literary scholar. A close reading of her memoir reveals that she emphasizes the similarity of Western classic and Yugoslav socialist modernities but also constructs herself as a cosmopolitan subject with the flexible identity typical of liquid modernity.

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