scholarly journals Tim O’Brien’s representation of the subjugated other’s voice against war in The Things They Carried

Ars Aeterna ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 20-33
Author(s):  
Ammar A. Aqeeli

AbstractTim O’Brien’s Vietnam-based The Things They Carried has been criticized for exclusively depicting the painful and traumatic experiences of the American soldiers in the war zone. Despite the limited number of Vietnamese characters in the novel, and despite their relegation to the role of powerless and voiceless onlookers, their presence shows the degree of the power imbalance between Vietnam and America. This article demonstrates how O’Brien infused sentiments in his stories to emphasize his opposition to the war and his concern for the dignity of the Vietnamese people. O’Brien asserts that the main purpose of the United States’s invasion was to make Vietnam a learnable and controllable place. Through his critique of the United States’s imperial ambitions in Vietnam, O’Brien provides a representative voice for the people of Vietnam to share their sufferings from an unjust war.

Author(s):  
Aleksei V. Makarychev

The article is devoted to the study of the “Shakespearean text” by Yuri Dombrovsky from the standpoint of Bakhtin dialogism. Clarifies the concept of “Shakespearean text” refers to and analyzes “Shakespearean text” by Dombrovsky, including artistic works – a trilogy of novels about Shakespeare (“Dark Lady” “Second-highest quality bed”, “Royal Rescript”) and two chapters of the novel “Dark Lady” (“Queen” and “Count Essex”), originally entered into its composition, but later was published separately, as well as two scientific and critical articles – “‘RetlandBaconSouthamptonShakespeare’: about the myth, anti-myth and biographical hypothesis” and “To Italians about Shakespeare”. The study author states that “Shakespearean text” by Yuri Dombrovsky dominated themes of tyranny and government that does not want to hear the people, of censorship, depriving the artist’s freedom of expression and the role of the artist in an unfree society. Special attention is paid to the problem of interaction between Shakespeare and monologue-authoritarian society in the artistic world created by the writer. The author hypothesizes that in the trilogy of short stories about Shakespeare, Dombrovsky addressed such problems of the totalitarian regime as censorship, cruelty and despotism of power from a relatively “safe” distance – the age of Shakespeare. The author notes the presence of a special situation of double dialogue in “Shakespearean text” by Yuri Dombrovsky: the dialogue is conducted through the Shakespearean era with the contemporary writer’s reality, power and culture. The article proves the similarity of Dombrovsky as a biographical author with the Shakespeare he portrayed, and notes the presence of common features in both writers (sacralization of creativity, impulsive character, addiction to alcohol, epileptic seizures, etc.). The conducted research allows us to conclude that Dombrovsky, attempting a dialogue with the monologue-authoritarian power, finds a voice through art, like “his” Shakespeare. Dombrovsky connects the ways of solving the problem of the artist and power with art as the only way to build a dialogue in the conditions of totalitarianism – not so much with the authorities, who are not able to hear it, as with themselves.


2015 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 175-190
Author(s):  
Ewa Bujwid-Kurek

The role of Aliya Izetbegović in shaping the national community of Muslim in Bosnia and HerzegovinaThe main problem of the research was to prove that ethnical background has the influence over the people who bear important political functions. For the subject of the research we chose the president of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Alija Izetbegović, who has Muslim roots. During the considerations of the research it was proved that provenience of him in this case seriously determined his attitude and political behavior. It is wondrous that with no trouble he could stay faithful to his beliefs and was officially expressing his religious doctrines, still holding civil functions. Unfortunately, it was all connected with traumatic experiences for hundreds of thousands of Serbian and Croatian people. It is deeply surprising that all his cruel actions as well as his contacts with dangerous separatist Muslims movements have been forgotten.


2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 43-52
Author(s):  
Valeria G. Andreeva ◽  

The article analyzes the family theme in the novel «Resurrection», examines the attitude of Leo Tolstoy towards the ideal family, the image of which in the work, in comparison with the previous work of the writer, only insignificant corrections associated with the idea of the role of the family in the spiritual ascent of man. The author of the article addresses the dispute between Tolstoy and Dostoevsky about Russian families, which unfolded in the 1870s. and shows that in the last novel, Tolstoy makes extensive use of the previously unacceptable image of a random family, described by Dostoevsky in the Writer's Diary and the novel Teen. The gallery of random families presented in «Resurrection» includes both noble families and families from the people, allows Tolstoy to enlarge the national crisis that unfolded in Russia at the end of the 19th century, to show its all-encompassing nature. The writer not only exposes the power, state and judicial systems, he shows how a lie accompanies a person coming from a random family, makes him incapable of compassion. The article examines numerous realizations of the family theme in the novel, analyzes the images of characters who are capable and not capable of family life, as well as the path of the protagonist, who in the final of the work not only approves the highest Divine laws as a guide for life, but also meets the example of a real family. contrasting with all previously presented random families. The author of the work demonstrates how, as the novel progresses, Nekhlyudov's life is getting closer and closer to the big popular world, correlates with the fate of the country – Nekhlyudov becomes a truly epic hero.


The article analyzes the novel by I. Franco “William Tell” through the prism of musical code and musical ecfrasis. So far, none of the French scholars has paid attention to the plot-forming role of the Rossini’s opera in the short story, but in the first part of the four-part short story the young couple is going to the opera, in the following parts Franco gradually reveals the heroine’s perception of the overture to the opera, and then its individual scenes. After the end of the opera, Olya novelistically unexpectedly, on the external-eventual plane of the novel, declares that she is not in love with Volodko, but on the internal, spiritual and psychological - thanks to the verbal description of the music and its perception by the heroes - this becomes natural. With the help of musical ecfrasis, the depth of Olya’s impression of the Rossini’s opera and the heroine’s psychological sensitivity to what she heard become clear. Moreover, Franco finds his “niche” in the image of the heroine's understanding of opera music: while foreign writers of the mid-19th century most often describe the feelings and emotions that heroes evoke in music, Franco, relying on picture programmability (landscapes of his native land and ideal representations of the heroine about family happiness), which Olya accompanies the heard music, reveals the rich inner world of the girl and her ideals. Rossini’s romantic heroic-patriotic opera “Wilhelm Tell”, her musical images and stage performance become a litmus test in the novel: the relationship of the characters to the opera performance, impressions of it become an important way of revealing their characters. Volodka’s superficial attitude to music as entertainment, on the one hand, and Olya’s ability under the influence of music to see the true meaning of life, correcting her worldview from pastorally romantic to heroic-romantic, on the other hand, make it possible to understand the different life positions of the heroes - the intellectual adaptive Volodka’s service to the people of Olya, and, in fact, the ideological and artistic concept of the writer himself.


Author(s):  
Nikita Jatai ◽  
Tanu Sharma ◽  
Karan Veer

All over the world, there is a new target of public health emergency looming the world along with an appearance and distribution of the novel coronavirus disease (2019-nCoV) also known as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). This Virus initially generated in bats and then after transferred to a human being over unknown animal playing the role of mediator in Wuhan, China in December 2019. This virus is passed by breathing or in contact with an infected person’s droplets. The Incubation period is between 2 to 14 days for COVID-19, that is the time between exposure of the virus (person becoming infected) and symptom on that person, is on an average of 5-6 days, however it can goes up to 14 days. Throughout this period, which can be also known as “pre-symptomatic” period, some of the infected patients or persons can be contagious. That is why, transferal from a pre-symptomatic case can happen before the symptoms onset. Where there is few number of case studies and reports, pre-symptomatic transferal has been documented via contact with someone who is diagnosed with virus and increase investigation of that particular clusters of total confirmed cases. The main problem is that the symptoms are just like the regular flu that are cough, fever, sore throat, fatigue and breathlessness. This virus is moderate or mild in most of the people, but in elder ones, it may proceed to pneumonia, multi-organ dysfunction and Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS). Coronavirus has significant consequences on the Health system, mainly on cardiovascular diseases and on the environment.


Author(s):  
Steven Earnshaw

In Venedikt Yerofeev’s Moscow Stations the character Venichka, a version of the author, takes an increasingly surreal train ride towards Petushki, a town at the end of a Moscow line which he believes to be like paradise. Unlike other drinker novels where the committed central drinker’s behaviour is regarded as outside social norms, Venichka is surrounded by like-minded Russian souls who also drink continuously. One of the central conceits of the novel explored in this chapter is thus the role of Venichka as a Russian everyman who is simultaneously alienated from the State, and paradoxically also from the people – drinking is his chosen vocation rather than a means of dulling self-medication. Venichka’s alienation is manifest in his ongoing argument with God, Russia and Fate. The chapter assesses how the novel refuses to privilege rationality, philosophy or empiricism in its determination to fully exist in a country/world which lacks any kind of coherence, and offers a comparison between this novel and Exley’s A Fan’s Notes in their treatment of the individual, drink, and the Nation State.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (2) ◽  
pp. 156-165
Author(s):  
Gulnur M. Nabiullina

A comprehensive study of the historical novel by the Bashkir prose writer Nuguman Musin revealed the axiological aspect of the work. The author uses the motifs of the folklore heritage, introducing truly folk features into his work, developing the traditions of national artistic prose, enriching it with new spiritual content based on the Islamic religion. The compositional center of the novel is the image of Aldar Batyr, who embodies the strength of the heroic spirit of the people, inherited from their ancestors. The religiosity of the characters determines their humane attitude to nature, where the forest is designated as a spiritual principle and consolidates moral forces, thus, nature becomes the most important object of testing a person for morality, performing the role of «spiritual substance». Religious relations in the novel are transformed and acquire a new artistic function, opening up the possibility of a long-term vision of the traditions of Islam in an axiological perspective.


Author(s):  
G.M. Nabiullina

In regard to the growing interest of the people in religion, the Bashkir literature is changing. Modern writers are passionate about finding new methods and ways to display the values of the Islamic religion. Among them is Fiyuza Gataullina, whose spiritual investigations are determined by ideological and aesthetic content of the works and are inextricably linked to the religious atmosphere of the last century. Life experience and knowledge of Islamic culture traditions helped the author to create an artwork from everyday scenes of people's life. The specificity of her style is expressed in epithets that reveal the spiritual state of the heroes of the story. In her opinion, people even with a traditional family structure can be deeply religious and give their children a religious education based on love. The writer considers religion as a part of the overall spiritual integrity, which becomes the main concept of her creative method. The skill of the author is revealed in the professional interpretation of the precepts of Islam. Her ability to express complex experiences and feelings of the characters through the elements of nature makes a strong impression. She helps the reader to realize the psychological and philosophical role of religion, awakening in man the hope for the future, testing him for morality. The tension and drama of the events are solved in an original way, with an attempt to focus the reader's attention on one of the pillars of Islam - the prayer, through which the character of the Muslim woman is revealed. Thus, the analysis of the novel By F. Gataullina helps to understand that dua, which has firmly entered the life of Muslims, has incredible powers and takes an important place in the religious system of people's views.


Literator ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 49-68
Author(s):  
J. Anker

This article is a contribution to the recent interdisciplinary discourse between psychoanalysis, trauma theory and narrative by discussing the traumatic experiences of characters in the novel “Fugitive pieces” by Anne Michaels, with a specific focus on the metaphorical style of this novel. The article addresses the role of metaphor in the memory of trauma while comparing the relation between trauma, narrative and memory with reference to the work of Cathy Caruth, Van der Kolk and Margaret Wilkinson. Recent neurobiological research in the working of the brain during trauma and the insights of Borbelly in the role of metaphor during therapy are discussed. Insights of Lacan, Modell and Laplanche are integrated with those of psychologists like Knox, Borbelly and Van der Hart to counter arguments against the criticism brought against some of the metaphorical themes in “Fugitive pieces”. Metaphor is seen as one possible way of saying the inexpressible and the progression in the use of metaphor by patient and character alike is seen as one of the signs of healing from trauma.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
AWEJ for Translation & Literary Studies ◽  
Shadi Saleh Ahmad Neimneh ◽  
Amneh Khaleel Hussein Abussamen

This paper sheds light on the possible hope for the Nigerian situation in Chinua Achebe’s A Man of the People (1966), away from bankrupt intellectuals, corrupt politicians, and an ignorant public. This novel portrays two schools of ineffectual native educators who seem to be antagonists: the traditional old school and the new modern intellectuals. Postcolonial/race theories of Fanon, Appiah, Du Bois, and Woodson as well as Gramsci’s notion of the “organic intellectual” are employed to get a clearer image of the role of intellectuals and politicians in shaping the future of a country in the post-independence era. The article concludes that intellectuals with European education may contribute to the corruption of their country due to reasons like divided loyalties, miseducation, and lack of communication with the public. Additionally, Achebe is critical of the current politicians and the excluded public. So, our analysis employs Woodson’s concept of “the miseducation of the Negro” because such “miseducation” produces incompetent politicians like Chief Nanga, weak intellectuals like Odili Samalu, and ignorant people like the public in the novel. Real hope against governmental corruption in Achebe's satirical novel can be found in integrating the class of intellectual/political leaders and the public and in a different kind of indoctrination, neither colonial nor neo-colonial. The truly educated class and the “organic intellectuals” produced from the public are key solutions for a better "Nigeria." Hence, this article highlights the role of politicized education in post-independence nation building and tackles the mishaps of nascent nationalism.


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