scholarly journals Invoking Flora Nwapa: Nigerian women writers, femininity and spirituality in world literature

10.16993/bbe ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paula Uimonen
Keyword(s):  
Women Writers ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
World Literature ◽  
Possible Worlds ◽  
Many Worlds ◽  
Literary Practice ◽  
Nigerian Women ◽  
Environmentally Sustainable ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Flora Nwapa

By invoking Flora Nwapa, this monograph draws attention to Nigerian women writers in world literature, with an emphasis on femininity and spirituality. Flora Nwapa’s Efuru (1966) was the first internationally published novel in English by a female African writer. With the establishment of Tana Press in 1977, Flora Nwapa also became the first female publisher in Africa. Although Flora Nwapa has been recognized as the ‘mother of modern African literature’, she is not sufficiently acknowledged in world literary canons or world literature studies, which is something this monograph aspires to redress, with the help of earlier studies, especially Nigerian scholarship. Drawing on the Efuru@50 celebration in Nigeria in 2016, this book explores the revival of Flora Nwapa’s fame as the pioneer of African women’s literature. Using an ethnographic rather than biographical approach, it captures Flora Nwapa’s literary practice in the context of the Nigerian literary scene and its interlinkages with world literature. The ethnographic portrayal of Flora Nwapa is complemented with an exposé of a select number of contemporary Nigerian women writers, based on interviews during fieldwork in Nigeria. The book uses concepts like creolized aesthetics and womanist worldmaking to advance scholarly understandings of world literature, which is conceived here as a pluriverse of aesthetic worlds. Exploring experimental ethnographic writing, the book combines the genres of creative non-fiction, descriptive ethnography and scholarly analysis, in an effort to make the text more accessible to academic as well as non-academic readers. Through travel notes the experience of fieldwork is shared in a candid manner. Detailed ethnography from the Efuru@50 literary festival is presented to show the expansion of Flora Nwapa’s fame. In-depth analyses of Flora Nwapa’s literary works and the cultural context of her literary practice cover a wide range of themes, from feminine storytelling and children’s literature, to publishing and digitalization. The theoretical discussion draws on anthropological, literary and African womanist theory to contextualize and explore the central themes of femininity and spirituality in world literature. Inspired by the social change perspective of African womanism and critical decolonial theory, the book makes a contribution to current efforts to explore a more socially just and environmentally sustainable world of many worlds. Paying close attention to gender complementarity and sacred engagements in Flora Nwapa’s literary worldmaking, it shows how world literature can help us create other possible worlds of human, spiritual and environmental coexistence.

Ivanova, E., ed. (2018). The biography in cultural history: Collected papers. Moscow: Ruteniya

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 270-275
Author(s):  
L. V. Egorova
Keyword(s):  
Cultural History ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
World Literature ◽  
Theoretical Interpretation ◽  
Criminal Proceedings ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
American Tradition ◽  
History Of ◽  
Case Files

A review of the collective monograph by researchers of the A. M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the RAS into the origins and evolution of the biography as a genre. The first section of the book discusses composing a writer’s biography with the examples of Shakespeare and Samuel Johnson, the myth and the truth in Camões’ biography, as well as the specific features of this genre in the Latin American tradition. The second section of the monograph covers the history of the genre in Russia. Here, the authors discuss a wide range of problems, from the historical and cultural context of Simeon Polotsky’s biography to attempts of the genre’s theoretical interpretation. Also considered is P. Furman’s project, a series of biographies adapted for children’s reading. The third section focuses on documents at the source of poets’ biographies, criminal proceedings of the Decembrists, and case files of our contemporaries who fell victim of the Stalin terror.

FLOTATION MULTISTAGE AND GENERALIZED MODELS OF THE PROCESS HARVESTERS OF KSENOFONTOV TYPE AND FOR SPECIAL PURPOSE

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Boris Ksenofontov
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Graduate Students ◽  
Water Purification ◽  
World Literature ◽  
Flotation Process ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
First Time

A multistage and generalised flotation model, suggested more than 30 years ago by the author, is considered in a wide aspect for the first time in world literature for reader’s attention in monography. The possibilities of its usage are shown in different directions of water flotation purification, sediment thickening and enrichment of minerals. We have shed a light widely on matters concerning new flotation equipment as flotation harvesters of KBS type and for special purposes, which are developed on the basis of flotation process multistage and generalized models. Perspectives and intensification ways of water purification flotation processes are pointed out. It is suggested for a wide range of readers, including researches, Higher education teachers, PhD students, Masters and Bachelors, Graduate students.

Stranger Fictions

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca C. Johnson
Keyword(s):  
World Literature ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Central Place ◽  
Arabic Literature ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Reading Practices ◽  
Global Circulation ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
History Of ◽  
Modern Arabic

Zaynab, first published in 1913, is widely cited as the first Arabic novel, yet the previous eight decades saw hundreds of novels translated into Arabic from English and French. This vast literary corpus influenced generations of Arab writers but has, until now, been considered a curious footnote in the genre's history. Incorporating these works into the history of the Arabic novel, this book offers a transformative new account of modern Arabic literature, world literature, and the novel. This book rewrites the history of the global circulation of the novel by moving Arabic literature from the margins of comparative literature to its center. Considering the wide range of nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century translation practices, the book argues that Arabic translators did far more than copy European works; they authored new versions of them, producing sophisticated theorizations of the genre. These translations and the reading practices they precipitated form the conceptual and practical foundations of Arab literary modernity, necessitating an overhaul of our notions of translation, cultural exchange, and the global. The book shows how translators theorized the Arab world not as Europe's periphery but as an alternative center in a globalized network. It affirms the central place of (mis)translation in both the history of the novel in Arabic and the novel as a transnational form itself.

World Literature as a Speculative Literary Totality: Veselovsky, Auerbach, Said, and the Critical-Humanist Tradition

2021 ◽  
Vol 82 (2) ◽  
pp. 225-251
Author(s):  
Ben Etherington
Keyword(s):  
World Literature ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Distant Reading ◽  
Literary Practice ◽  
The Face ◽  
Humanist Tradition ◽  
Literary Experience

Abstract This essay revisits critical-humanist approaches to literary totality that have largely been sidelined during the recent revival of world literature studies. While there has been no shortage of defenses of close reading in the face of distant reading and other positivist approaches, this essay argues that it is precisely the hermeneutic attention to particular works that has allowed critical humanists to think about literary practice within the most encompassing purview. For those in this tradition, “world literature” can never be a stable object but is a speculative totality. The essay discusses three exemplary critical concepts that assume a speculative epistemology of literary totality: Alexander Veselovsky’s “historical poetics,” Erich Auerbach’s “Ansatzpunkt,” and Edward Said’s “contrapuntal reading.” Each, it is argued, is grounded in the distinctive qualities of literary experience, a claim for which Theodor Adorno’s account of speculative thinking serves as a basis.

scholarly journals Issue of Integrity of Art Education in the Context of Changes in Art and Visual Culture

Pedagogika ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 114 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-179
Author(s):  
Edita Musneckienė
Keyword(s):  
Visual Culture ◽  
Art Education ◽  
Contemporary Art ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Arts Education ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Education Programs ◽  
Creative People ◽  
Wide Range

This article examines a paradigmatic change of contemporary art education in the context of visual culture and focus to the integrity of arts in formal and informal art education. The article is based on an international research “Contemporary art and visual culture in education” which reveals the problematic aspects of contemporary arts and visual culture in education in general. The research method was the discourse analysis of the participants and researchers, who presented the insights in reflective groups and during the interview with teachers and educators.This paper explores how contemporary cultural context and the spread of visual culture provide preconditions for changes in art education. The aim of the article is to analyze theproblems and perspectives of integral arts education in formal and non-formal education: what the educational challenges and opportunities appear in the context of contemporary art and visual culture? How the integral arts could be realized in art education practice in different arts disciplines and areas of education?Contemporary art and visual culture is increasingly multidimensional, the wide range of visual art forms integral with per formative arts, new technologies and media merge the limits between the arts disciplines. That becomes relevant pedagogical problem with the fact that arts education is traditionally allocated to the separate arts subjects such as music, art, theatre, dance, which also can also be divided into separate areas. This subject segregation of the school curriculum and strong subject orientation limits multimodal contemporary arts education. Secondary Education programs provide opportunities for several options of arts education disciplines (photography, cinema art, graphic design, contemporary music technologies), but it needs special resources for the schools and professional teachers. Many schools follow on traditional model of teaching art and still focusing on simple interpretation of modern artworks, different media and technical skills.Contemporary model of teaching integrated arts and visual culture in education is challenging, because it is based on visual literacy and critical thinking skills, it emphasizes inquiry-based education, a critical understanding of contemporary art practices, problem solving and creating new valuable ideas. Knowledge and experiences came from various sources: formal, non-formal, accidental, individual.Great potential for contemporary art education has non-formal art education programs and projects. Successful project-based initiatives in art education have been excellent examples of arts integration.Artists and other creative people involved into a process of education, their collaboration with schools and communities could initiate some interdisciplinary and collaborative practices. Non-formal arts education environment creates more space for creativity, freedom and diversity. Additional arts education programs, museum and gallery education, artistic competitions and international projects allows for the wider development of arts education. Art education in the new age requires changing attitudes towards learning and teaching, changing roles of the educator and new learning environments.

Support programmes and the diversity of young farmers in Thailand: A good match?

2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 300-308 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kassirin Phiboon ◽  
Cécile Cochetel ◽  
Nicolas Faysse
Keyword(s):  
Rural Communities ◽  
Farming Systems ◽  
Farming Practices ◽  
Good Match ◽  
Chiang Mai ◽  
Environmentally Sustainable ◽  
Staff Members ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Building Activities ◽  
Support Programmes

Many countries have programmes to help young people start farming. However, some of the programmes have been criticized for not providing enough support, particularly because they do not adequately account for the diverse profiles of young farmers. The present study analyses the profiles of young farmers in Thailand and to what extent they benefit from support programmes. Eighty-four farmers under the age of 40 were interviewed in Chiang Mai and Prachinburi Provinces, along with 15 staff members of support programmes for young farmers. Five types of young farmers were identified, who differed in their motivation, farming systems and engagement in farming. Some farmers focused on economic profitability, while others considered environmentally sustainable farming practices to be important or were actively engaged in other activities at domestic or village level. This wide range of goals and situations entailed varying constraints during the first years of farming. The support programmes helped farmers overcome their lack of farming knowledge and helped them integrate into rural communities, but the support they provided in accessing land and capital was sometimes limited, and often non-existent. To improve support for young farmers in Thailand, the diversity of young farmers’ profiles should be accounted for not only in capacity-building activities but also to help them access other types of resources.

The Style of the Neo-Greek (Neo-Grec) in the Historical and Cultural Context of the Southern Region of Russia by the Example of the Cities of Rostov-on-Don and Yessentuki

2018 ◽  
Vol 931 ◽  
pp. 705-710 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eugenia M. Kishkinova
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Southern Region ◽  
Main Task ◽  
The South ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Insufficient Knowledge ◽  
European Architecture

In European architecture the Neo-Grec style, based on a revival of Greek principles and motifs, is an independent stage in rediscovering of classical antique heritage. It is one of the “new styles” of a historicist phase in architecture that claimed to find national identity in the architecture of independent Greece. In Russian architecture of the mid-19th – early 20th centuries this style is represented in a wide range of monuments that are mostly located in the South of Russia. However insufficient knowledge and research on the monuments of this style create difficulties for their maintenance and restoration. The purpose of the paper is to identify distinctive features of neo-grec in the region. The main task is to determine the reasons for a turn to neo-grec in the South of Russia, to identify and analyze neo-grec buildings in the cities of Rostov-on-Don and Yessentuki, to examine their composition and décor, to identify their ancient prototypes, to differentiate constant and variable elements in the architecture of the Neo-Grec.

Constructing the Impossible

2021 ◽  
pp. 141-163
Author(s):  
Kit Fine
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language ◽  
Possible Worlds ◽  
Formal Languages ◽  
Impossible Worlds ◽  
Possible World ◽  
Limited Role ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Degree Of Acceptance ◽  
Broad Role ◽  
Natural Way

Please keep the original abstract. A number of philosophers have flirted with the idea of impossible worlds and some have even become enamored of it. But it has not met with the same degree of acceptance as the more familiar idea of a possible world. Whereas possible worlds have played a broad role in specifying the semantics for natural language and for a wide range of formal languages, impossible worlds have had a much more limited role; and there has not even been general agreement as to how a reasonable theory of impossible worlds is to be developed or applied. This chapter provides a natural way of introducing impossible states into the framework of truthmaker semantics and shows how their introduction permits a number of useful applications.

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