The Pícaro at War: Vernacular Language and Violent Conflict in Grimmelshausen and Saro-Wiwa

PMLA ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 131 (5) ◽  
pp. 1284-1298
Author(s):  
Philip Joseph
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Structural Similarity ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Violent Conflict ◽  
Sovereign State ◽  
War Novels ◽  
Vernacular Language ◽  
Official Status ◽  
Postwar Culture

This essay compares Grimmelshausen's Simplicissimus (1669) and Saro-Wiwa's Sozaboy (1985), approaching them as picaresque war novels that tell the story of a vernacular language becoming literary through brutal war. Despite differences of language, nation, and time, the novels of Grimmelshausen and Saro-Wiwa share a structural similarity traceable to their respective postwar contexts. These novels rewrite the expected relation between war and language. Instead of privileging the damage done to speech, they authorize a spoken language through the medium of a highly mobile rogue protagonist. Grimmelshausen and Saro-Wiwa contend with the question of whether a language, lacking the official status guaranteed by a sovereign state, is strong enough to constitute and represent a territory divided by civil war. In their works, war tears apart a territory and lays the foundation for its autonomous postwar culture all at once.

scholarly journals Acordos de Sokovia e os Limites do Poder: Capitão América e Reflexões Sobre o Papel da Superpotência no Sistema Internacional

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 434-456
Author(s):  
Liliane Klein Garcia
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Civil War ◽  
International Relations ◽  
International System ◽  
International Relations Theory ◽  
American People ◽  
Sovereign State ◽  
Captain America ◽  
The Cold War

Ao observar o sistema unipolar que emergiu do final da Guerra Fria, é marcante o sentimento de insegurança geopolítica gerada pela existência de apenas uma superpotência global e as dúvidas da atuação do Estado soberano nessa conjuntura. Nesse paradigma, Capitão América: Guerra Civil é lançado com uma simbologia contestadora do papel do hegemon no sistema internacional. Com isso, inicialmente é exposto o enredo do filme, seguido das teorias liberal e realista das Relações Internacionais e da semiótica greimasiana. Com isso em vista, é feita a análise dos símbolos do longa-metragem e, por fim, se conclui que os autores do texto tinham como objetivo disseminar uma mensagem de união política entre os americanos.     Abstract: Observing the unipolar system emerging from the closure of the Cold War, is remarkable the sentiment of geopolitical insecurity generated by the existence of only one global superpower and the doubts about the role of the sovereign State in such system. In this paradigm, Captain America: Civil War is released with a contesting symbology about the role of the hegemon in the international system. Therefore, first it is exposed the movie plot, followed by the liberal and realist theories of international relations and the French semiotics. With this in mind, the symbols in the feature are analised and, in conclusion, it is stated that the authors wish to convey a message in bipartisan union amongst the American people. Keywords: International Relations Theory, Semiotics, Captain America.     Recebido em: setembro/2019. Aprovado em: maio/2020.

The Cat’s-Paw

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick J. Kelly
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Mexico City ◽  
New World ◽  
The United States ◽  
Western Hemisphere ◽  
Sovereign State ◽  
The Family ◽  
Napoleon Iii ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Death Knell

In the decades before the Civil War many Southerners argued that their slaveholding region should expand territorially beyond the boundaries of the United States into Latin America and the Caribbean, especially Cuba. Instead, during the Civil War the Confederacy renounced the capture any new territory in the Americas. Historians have neglected to explain fully the South’s failure to to fulfill its prewar ambitions to expand territorially in the New World after secession. Patrick J. Kelly argues that examining the Southern rebellion from the perspective of Mexico City, Havana, London and Paris reveals the stark geopolitical realities facing the Confederate nation in the New World. Instead of dominating the New World, the Southern rebellion served as a pawn, especially to the French Emperor Napoleon III, in hemispheric affairs. Ultimately, the Confederacy proved too weak internationally to to capture any new hemispheric territory or gain the foreign recognition it sought in order to operate as a sovereign state in the family of nations. In an ironic twist, instead of insuring the future of Southern slavery, secession marked the death knell of the South’s dream of creating an empire for slavery in the Western Hemisphere.

Bougainville

2021 ◽  
pp. 94-109
Author(s):  
Ryan D. Griffiths
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil War ◽  
New Caledonia ◽  
High Price ◽  
National Consciousness ◽  
Cautionary Tale ◽  
Sovereign State ◽  
International Recognition ◽  
Persuasive Argument ◽  
Two Sides

This chapter discusses Bougainville, an example of a strong combative movement, where there is greater symmetry between the capabilities of the two sides. Given the high price that Bougainville paid to win an autonomy agreement and legal referendum — roughly 20,000 people died in their ten-year civil war — the chapter presents another kind of cautionary tale. It offers a critique of the international recognition regime by showing how violence can be a useful tactic. The chapter shows Bougainville cannot make a persuasive argument that it, like New Caledonia, can and should achieve independence via the process of decolonization. It has therefore been relegated to the somewhat residual category of combative movements, where violence and the appeal to human rights are common tactics. The chapter then assumes that Bougainville is the most likely candidate for becoming the next sovereign state. Ultimately, the chapter illustrates the various factors that assisted Bougainville's development of secessionist drive and sense of national consciousness.

Missing in Action: Confederate Females in Civil War Novels

1991 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 15-26
Author(s):  
Elizabeth C. Clark
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
War Novels ◽  
Missing In Action

The Image of the Negro in the Pre-Civil-War Novels of John Pendleton Kennedy and William Gilmore Simms

1971 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-226
Author(s):  
Alan Henry Rose
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Mark Twain ◽  
Garden City ◽  
Social Forces ◽  
Crucial Issue ◽  
William Gilmore Simms ◽  
War Novels ◽  
Social Tensions ◽  
John Pendleton Kennedy

The crucial issue facing the novelists of the pre-Civil War South was the expression of the Negro in their writings. A fine balance had to be struck between the deliberate attempt to present, as William Taylor suggests in Cavalier and Yankee (Garden City, New York, 1961), a favourable image of the slave-holding society, and the subjective impulse to express the powerful forces of racial destruction that were covert in the ante-bellum South. Such a balance rarely occurred. Rather, as social tensions increased with the approach of the Civil War, the writers retreated from their confrontation with the image of the Negro. Kenneth Lynn, in Mark Twain and Southwestern Humor (Boston, 1959), shows a progression which finds the authors using increasingly younger narrators, which Lynn feels absolves them of the responsibility of maturely facing the issues. But the novels of John Pendleton Kennedy and William Gilmore Simms reveal rather different forms of evasion. Kennedy, the more didactic writer, as the war approached, increasingly removed his novels from the present. This simply relieved him of the obligation of expressing concretely documented reality, and allowed a shift into fantasy. The image of the Negro could be safely excluded from such a context. However, fantasy is, if anything, a more congenial environment for the expression of covert social forces. Thus, a curious irony occurs in Kennedy's later novels. The image of the Negro disappears from works such as Rob of the Bowl (1838), but the forces of demonic malevolence with which he is associated are transferred to the figure which replaces him, the indentured Indian. A racial equation emerges, and in this chiaroscuric world of night and fire the Indian offers a glimpse of the malevolence suppressed in the image of the Negro.

scholarly journals Kurdish problem against a background of the war in Syria

2017 ◽  
pp. 52-57
Author(s):  
Yu. Kudryashova
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Regional Government ◽  
National State ◽  
Territorial Integrity ◽  
Autonomous Region ◽  
Iraqi Kurdistan ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Official Status

Presently Kurdish motivation for the creation of a national state is showed more strongly than supreme power’s efforts on the centralization of Iraq and Syria. The regional government of Iraqi Kurdistan managed to seek after masses of powers which enabled to pursue an independent from federal establishment policy. Syrian Kurds checking the civil war in their territory aspire to the official legalization of autonomy. If areas populated by Kurds federate an autonomous region Syrian Kurdistan may be formed close to the border of Syria with Turkey. The federalization of Syria greatly endangers the territorial integrity of Turkey because at its south border the formation allied with Turkish Kurds will assume an official status. However, leading Middle Eastern and Western powers are concerned with the preservation of present Iraqi, Syrian and Turkish boundaries.

scholarly journals Post-nationalism and Recollecting the Nigerian Civil War Memories through Hero Beer Brands Marketing in Igboland, Southeast Nigeria

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Obinna U. Muoh ◽  
◽  
Uche Uwaezuoke Okonkwo ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Identity ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Indigenous People ◽  
Social Space ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
The Political ◽  
Sovereign State ◽  
War Memories ◽  
Ethnic Nationality ◽  
Nigerian Civil War

Since the failed attempt at secession from Nigeria in 1970, after a 30-month civil war, the Igbo ethnic nationality—who constituted the majority of the defunct Biafra Republic, have sought avenues to (re)create the memories of the short-lived country.In the political space, they attempted establishing Ohaneze Ndigbo—as an umbrella socio-political organization for recreating and projecting the Igbo agenda. This, to a large extent, has not achieved the desired objectives. Not surprisingly, militia groups have sprung up since 1999 when an Igbo failed to secure Presidential race ticket to agitate the actualization of the sovereign state of Biafra. These groups include Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), and recently the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). However, pop circle provided the much needed social space for Biafra nostalgic displays. In 2012, Hero Beer advert better known as O Mpa, a coined greeting style by Onitsha people for great achievers with reference to Ojukwu father figure in the Biafran struggle was launched. This study examines the nexus between beer advertorials and ethnic identity using the Igbo example. It argues that the advertorials successfully permeated into the psychology of Igbo beer drinkers, who attached ethnic connections to them and appropriated them as theirs, using the brands to recreate the memories of Biafran struggle of Independence from 1967-1970.

scholarly journals Przełamywanie barier komunikacyjnych (na przykładzie wieloetnicznej i wielojęzycznej sytuacji społecznej Zaolzia)

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irena Bogoczová ◽  
Jiří Muryc
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Students ◽  
Educational Institution ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Language Awareness ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Authentic Language ◽  
Art Schools ◽  
Official Status ◽  
Basic Level ◽  
Minority Ethnic

Breaking Communication Barriers (on the Example of the Multiethnic and Multilingual Situation of the Society in the Zaolzie Region)The present paper describes the language situation in several parts of Cieszyn Silesia (the Zaolzie region) in the Czech Republic. The research is based on authentic language material from two music (art) schools in Český Těšín and Třinec. The Třinec school has the official status of a bilingual Czech-Polish educational institution. These two establishments share several common features: both students and teachers come from either majority Czech or minority ethnic Polish communities; Polish children study in both institutions, although a larger group of these "foreign" students attends the school in Český Těšín. The authors analyze not only the spoken language itself but also the competence and language awareness of the respondents. They have come to the conclusion that interactions between the users of two (different) languages can be successful regardless of the fact whether each participant uses their own native tongue or that of their interlocutor, although they speak this language only at a basic level. Przełamywanie barier komunikacyjnych (na przykładzie wieloetnicznej i wielojęzycznej sytuacji społecznej Zaolzia)W artykule została opisana sytuacja językowa w czeskiej części Śląska Cieszyńskiego w Republice Czeskiej na podstawie autentycznego materiału językowego pochodzącego z dwóch szkół muzycznych (artystycznych) – jednej z Czeskiego Cieszyna, drugiej – z Trzyńca. Szkoła trzyniecka ma oficjalny status czesko-polskiej szkoły dwujęzycznej. Obie placówki łączy kilka cech wspólnych: zarówno uczniowie, jak i nauczyciele wywodzą się bądź z większościowego środowiska czeskiego, bądź należą do polskiej etnicznej wspólnoty mniejszościowej. W obu placówkach uczą się także dzieci z Polski, choć o wiele więcej takich „zagranicznych” uczniów uczęszcza do szkoły w Czeskim Cieszynie. Autorzy zajmują się nie tylko analizą samego języka mówionego, ale również kompetencją i świadomością językową badanych osób, dochodząc do wniosku, że interakcja między użytkownikami dwu (różnych) języków może przebiegać pomyślnie nawet wtedy, gdy każdy z nich używa własnego języka ojczystego (względnie gwary ojczystej) lub języka partnera komunikacji, chociaż język ten opanował tylko na poziomie podstawowym.

Modern Cambodia Since 1863

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Tully
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Mass Murder ◽  
Great Power ◽  
Democratic Institutions ◽  
Sovereign State ◽  
Territorial Integrity ◽  
15Th Century ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Cold War

Modern Cambodian history begins with the creation of the French Protectorate in 1863. Until the 15th century, Cambodia was a regional great power, but by the late 18th it faced extinction as a sovereign state. Although the Protectorate ensured the country’s territorial integrity, French ideas of governance and philosophy collided with Cambodia’s ancient traditions. By 1897, the French had prevailed: Cambodia had escaped its predatory neighbors, Siam and Vietnam, but had lost its internal and external sovereignty. After independence in 1953, Cambodia sat on the fault lines of the Cold War. Precariously neutral until 1970, it fell into a new dark age of civil war, foreign invasions, saturation bombing, and mass murder. Liberated from the horrors of Pol Pot’s Democratic Kampuchea (DK) by the Vietnamese in late 1978, the regime the invaders installed suffered a period of international ostracism that lasted until the end of the Cold War in 1991–1992. Cambodia is at peace today, but hopes that it would develop as a free, democratic, and more equal society have proved illusory. Cambodia is one of Asia’s poorest states; a kleptocracy ruled by the durable autocrat Hun Sen via a façade of democratic institutions. The economy, according to Sebastian Strangio, “is controlled by … [a] new quasi-palace elite: a sprawling network of CPP politicians, military brass, and business families arranged in vertical khsae, or ‘strings,’ of patronage emanating from Hun Sen and his close associates.”

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