scholarly journals Lucretius in the novel Crematorio by Rafael Chirbes

2016 ◽  
pp. 5-36
Author(s):  
Ángel Jacinto Traver Vera
Keyword(s):  
21St Century ◽  
Moral Reform ◽  
Human Being ◽  
The Novel ◽  
De Rerum Natura

This article explores the influence of Lucretius on the novel Crematorio (2007) by the Valencian novelist Rafael Chirbes (1949-2015). Considered one of the best Spanish novelists of the 21st century, Chirbes acknowledged in several interviews the Lucretian influence on his novel and, indeed, among the funds of his library, there was a De rerum natura profusely underlined by his own hand, which will guide us in the search for concrete resonances from the Roman Epicurean. Chirbes shares Lucretius’ materialistic view of universe and uses his writings to denounce the vices of society, with a purpose of moral reform. The main motifs adapted from Lucretius are the general materialist concept of life and universe, the human being as dust, the eternal recycling of the universe’s matter and of living beings, the violence in sex, the Hell in life, and the rebuttal of wealth as a factor of evils.

A Compact Embodiment of Pluralities and Denial of Origins: Atwood’s The Year of The Flood

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 141
Author(s):  
Rana Sağıroğlu
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Margaret Atwood ◽  
Rapid Change ◽  
The Novel ◽  
The World ◽  
Narrative Techniques ◽  
Why Questions ◽  
Near Future

Margaret Atwood, one of the most spectacular authors of postmodern movement, achieved to unite debatable and in demand critical points of 21st century such as science fiction, postmodernism and ecocriticism in the novel The Year of The Flood written in 2009. The novel could be regarded as an ecocritical manifesto and a dystopic mirror against today’s degenerated world, tending to a superficial base to keep the already order in use, by moving away from the fundamental solution of all humanity: nature. Although Atwood does not want her works to be called science fiction, it is obvious that science fiction plays an introductory role and gives the novel a ground explaining all ‘why’ questions of the novel. However, Atwood is not unjust while claiming that her works are not science fiction because of the inevitable rapid change of 21st century world becoming addicted to technology, especially Internet. It is easily observed by the reader that what she fictionalises throughout the novel is quite close to possibility, and the world may witness in the near future what she creates in the novel as science fiction. Additionally, postmodernism serves to the novel as the answerer of ‘how’ questions: How the world embraces pluralities, how heterogeneous social order is needed, and how impossible to run the world by dichotomies of patriarchal social order anymore. And lastly, ecocriticism gives the answers of ‘why’ questions of the novel: Why humanity is in chaos, why humanity has organized the world according to its own needs as if there were no living creatures apart from humanity. Therefore, The Year of The Flood meets the reader as a compact embodiment of science fiction, postmodernism and ecocriticism not only with its theme, but also with its narrative techniques.

The Political Impact of Affective Polarization: How Partisan Animus Shapes COVID-19 Attitudes

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Druckman ◽  
Samara Klar ◽  
Yanna Krupnikov ◽  
Matthew Levendusky ◽  
John B. Ryan
Keyword(s):  
21St Century ◽  
American Politics ◽  
The Other ◽  
Policy Discourse ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Political Impact ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
Citizens Attitudes

Affective polarization is a defining feature of 21st century American politics—partisans harbor considerable dislike and distrust of those from the other party. Does this animus have consequences for citizens’ opinions? Such effects would highlight not only the consequences of polarization, but also shed new light onto how citizens form preferences more generally. Normally, this question is intractable, but the outbreak of the novel coronavirus allows us to answer it. We find that affective polarization powerfully shapes citizens’ attitudes about the pandemic, as well as the actions they have taken in response to it. However, these effects are conditional on the local severity of the outbreak, as the effects decline in areas with high caseloads—threat vitiates partisan reasoning. Our results clarify that closing the divide on important issues requires not just policy discourse but also attempts to reduce inter-partisan hostility.

ISU FEMINISME DALAM NOVEL PUTRI KARYA PUTU WIJAYA

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 133
Author(s):  
Arriyanti Arriyanti
Keyword(s):  
Gender Stereotypes ◽  
Human Being ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Main Character ◽  
Ways Of Thinking ◽  
Women Rights

This paper discusses about issues of feminism in a novel titled Putri written by Putu Wijaya. The discussing about women issues will be analyzed by applying feminism ways of thinking. Issues of feminism will be seen by looking at the main character of the novel. Feminism issues in the novel appear because of the behavior and attitude of the heroine in struggling her will. The rejection toward different gender stereotypes which tends to cut women rights as human being and member of society is the reflection of the heroine‘s attitude.AbstrakTulisan ini mengkaji isu feminisme yang terkandung di dalam novel Putri karya Putu Wijaya. Pembahasan wacana perempuan ini dikupas dengan memanfaatkan kajian feminis. Isu feminisme ini diamati dari tokoh utama cerita, yaitu Putri. Isu feminisme dalam novel Putri muncul karena adanya sikap dan perilaku tokoh utama perempuan dalam mewujudkan dan memperjuangkan keinginannya. Penolakan terhadap perbedaan stereotip gender yang cenderung mengebiri hak-hak perempuan sebagai manusia dan anggota masyarakat merupakan wujud perilaku tersebut.

La transposition profane de l’Exode dans Moïse fiction de Gilles Rozier

2013 ◽  
pp. 174-183
Author(s):  
Piotr Sadkowski
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
The Other ◽  
Jewish Tradition ◽  
Human Being ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Jewish Origin ◽  
French Writer ◽  
The World ◽  
Jewish Writers

Throughout the centuries French and Francophone writers were relatively rarely inspired by the figure of Moses and the story of Exodus. However, since the second half of 20th c. the interest of the writers in this Old Testament story has been on the rise: by rewriting it they examine the question of identity dilemmas of contemporary men. One of the examples of this trend is Moïse Fiction, the 2001 novel by the French writer of Jewish origin, Gilles Rozier, analysed in the present article. The hypertextual techniques, which result in the proximisation of the figure of Moses to the reality of the contemporary reader, constitute literary profanation, but at the same time help place Rozier’s text in the Jewish tradition, in the spirit of talmudism understood as an exchange of views, commentaries, versions and additions related to the Torah. It is how the novel, a new “midrash”, avoids the simple antinomy of the concepts of the sacred and the profane. Rozier’s Moses, conscious of his complex identity, is simultaneously a Jew and an Egyptian, and faces, like many contemporary Jewish writers, language dilemmas, which constitute one of the major motifs analysed in the present article. Another key question is the ethics of the prophetism of the novelistic Moses, who seems to speak for contemporary people, doomed to in the world perceived as chaos unsupervised by an absolute being. Rozier’s agnostic Moses is a prophet not of God (who does not appear in the novel), but of humanism understood as the confrontation of a human being with the absurdity of his or her own finiteness, which produces compassion for the other, with whom the fate of a mortal is shared.

Umberto Eco's Reflections on Morality in the Context of Cultural Identity

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (44) ◽  
pp. 84-88
Author(s):  
Jana Pecníková ◽  
Anna Anna Slatinská ◽  
Genovaitė Kačiuškienė
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Studies ◽  
Cultural Identity ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Moral Identity ◽  
Research Paper ◽  
Italian Society ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Umberto Eco ◽  
Contemporary Writers ◽  
Identity Issue

The research paper focuses on the cultural and moral identity in Umberto Eco’s reflections. Attention is paid to the selected pieces. Umberto Eco is one of the most famous contemporary writers dealing with the issues of morality in Italian society. His works are devoted to the current perception of identity in the 21st century. The authors are interested in his view on values and identity in the selected chapters of his work. The aim of the paper is to analyse the identity issue in Umberto Eco’s works.The research objectives are based on recent doubts in cultural studies whether identity is fixed and firmly defined or acquired by a human being freely. Another question is the link between these two aspects. Although the origin of the word identity comes from Latin (idem – the same), nowadays it is more understood in its diversity as linguistic, cultural, national, moral identity, etc.

Calamitas terrena ou Poena divina : Une approche éliadienne de la peste dans le roman Sortez vos morts de Bruno Leydet

2021 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-96
Author(s):  
Ciprian Onofrei
Keyword(s):  
Human Being ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Bubonic Plague ◽  
Southern France ◽  
Mircea Eliade ◽  
Divine Will ◽  
French Writer ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Black Plague

"Calamitas terrena or Poena divina: An Eliadian Approach to the Plague in the Novel Sortez vos morts by Bruno Leydet. The article proposes a dichotomous analysis of the outbreak of the Black Plague in Marseille (1720), described by French writer Bruno Leydet in the novel Sortez vos morts, which appeared in 2005. According to the grid established by Mircea Eliade, the analysis is built on two levels: the sacred and the profane. The religious as well as the modern perception of the disease and the use of a relevant lexis allow the bubonic plague to transgress the historical space, passing into the literary one. The plague epidemic in southern France is, in our view, not only a manifestation of the divine will to punish the sinful souls of the dead, but also the incarnation of greed and vicious side of the human being. Keywords: plague, Bruno Leydet, Mircea Eliade, holy, unholy "

scholarly journals Forgotten Books: On the Making of Jane Porter’s "Thaddeus of Warsaw"

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 309-328
Author(s):  
Joel J. Janicki
Keyword(s):  
Great Britain ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
Moral Reform ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Cautionary Tale ◽  
National Hero ◽  
The Creation

This article attempts to identify and examine some of the factors and sources that led to the creation of a largely forgotten prose work of English fiction titled Thaddeus of Warsaw (1803) which became an immediate and extraordinary success. Jane Porter’s novel deals with a fictitious Polish patriot Thaddeus Sobieski, who is modelled on the Polish national hero Tadeusz Kosciuszko. The novel presents an excellent illustration of the cultural links between Great Britain and Poland towards the end of the 18th century and constitutes a cautionary tale for Porter’s English readers, one that creates a basis for moral reform and political engagement.

scholarly journals Conditions of effective self-management. “Manage yourself, be creative, achieve goals”

2021 ◽  
Vol 199 (1) ◽  
pp. 96-110
Author(s):  
Lesław Wełyczko
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Personal Development ◽  
Technological Development ◽  
Professional Life ◽  
Personal Life ◽  
Self Management ◽  
Human Being ◽  
The Social ◽  
Critical Aspects

The article addresses what seems to be the critical aspects related to the most important competence of a human being in the 21st century – the competence to manage oneself. Nowadays, when life and civilization and technological development have accelerated unbelievably, people find it increasingly challenging to fulfill the social roles entrusted to them. That applies to everyone, but especially to those who have to manage (lead) other people or even entire teams, often forgetting about themselves, their needs, life priorities, and personal development. One should be able to wisely and rationally plan professional development in his/her personal life so as not to lose himself/herself entirely in the surrounding reality, being absorbed only in professional matters and others’ problems. This article indicates the most critical aspects that should be taken into account when planning personal and socio-professional development since only in this way can one feel the fulfillment of both in personal (family) and social and professional life.

scholarly journals Laila Lalami’s The Moor’s Account: A Lost Narrative

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (7) ◽  
pp. 29-40
Author(s):  
Sanaila Ghufran
Keyword(s):  
Women Characters ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Current Paper ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Historical Account ◽  
Islamic Culture ◽  
African Slave ◽  
Muslim Population ◽  
Cabeza De Vaca ◽  
Western Woman

From the earlier times the voices of the minorities especially the Muslims have been subjugated by the forces. Many of the texts written in the olden times, whether fictional or non-fictional hardly have any mention of Muslims in them. One such text being the historical account of the Narvaez expedition that took place in 1527, which was chronicled by Cabeza de Vaca, one of the four survivors of the expedition. What is surprising is that one of the survivors was an African slave, Estabanico but he is hardly mentioned in the original, despite being part of the expedition that stretched to eight year. Fast forward to the 21st century which is the age of postcolonialism and where the once oppressed communities are finally speaking about their truth, Moroccan author, Laila Lalami through her novel, The Moor’s Account decided to give voice and a backstory to the African slave, Estabanico. The current paper deals with the complexities of the novel and tries to provide reasons as to why Cabeza de Vaca intentionally omitted the Estabanico’s account of the travels. The paper also discusses the ingenuine use of narrative tools made by the author in the retelling of the story of a forgotten Muslim slave. It also narrates the importance of women characters in the Islamic culture of those days, when the western woman was not as liberated as she is today. Lastly, the paper draws a parallel between Estabanico’s condition during the expedition and that of the Muslim population in the post 9/11 world.

“A New Type of Human Being”

Neo-Passing ◽  
2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lara Narcisi
Keyword(s):  
Human Being ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Genetic Condition ◽  
New Type ◽  
Secret Identities

Jeffrey Eugenides’s 2002 epic Middlesex uses its intersex narrator, Callie/Cal, to interrogate the process of radically changing identity. Cal is a guevedoce, possessing a rare but real genetic condition that transforms apparent girls into men at puberty. From butch schoolgirl to effeminate patriarch, never simply male or female, Cal’s life is passing. The novel questions, however, whether any categories need be so exclusive. Cal’s ambiguous identity echoes myriad others, in plot lines concerning incest, immigration, Islam, and more. Through shifting genres, secret identities, and dramatic plot twists, the novel demonstrates that when society demands strict categories, we are all essentially passing. The chapter gestures forward to a time when the pretense of passing will disappear, and we will all embrace our multifarious, uncategorizable selves.

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