scholarly journals The Image of the River in Kazuo Ishiguro’s A Pale View of Hills

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 74-93
Author(s):  
Ria Taketomi
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Japanese Buddhism ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Special Meaning

Abstract This essay focuses on the theme of the river in Kazuo Ishiguro’s A Pale View of Hills which will be analyzed in relation to the nuclear devastation of WWII. Rivers have a special meaning to the inhabitants of Nagasaki since the rivers were filled with the corpses of people who were exposed to radiation after the atomic bombing. It is also known in Nagasaki that unidentifiable fireballs called onibi float over marsh ground at night in summer. Especially in his first novel, A Pale View of Hills, the river evokes the image of Sanzu No Kawa, a river which, in Japanese Buddhism, the souls of the dead are believed to be crossing on the seventh day of afterlife. The river imagery signifies the boundary between life and death, and it has been used as a metaphor for the transience of time. As such, the river displays an ephemeral texture. In A Pale View of Hills, the protagonist Etsuko reminisces about her days in Nagasaki. In her memories, she becomes friends with Sachiko and her daughter Mariko. One night, Mariko confesses to Etsuko that she sees a ghostly woman coming from the other side of the river. Ishiguro also writes about the rivers in other novels. For example, in Never Let Me Go, he uses the river as a metaphor for Kathy and Tommy’s fate. In The Buried Giant, at the end of the novel, Axl sets Beatrice free and lets the boatman carry her alone to the island, which can be read as Beatrice’s departure from life. My analysis explores Ishiguro’s intentions when using the river and various apparitions in his novels, with a special focus on A Pale View of Hills.

The Philosophy of the Myōken: The Ethics of the Dead and Bodhisattvas

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-73
Author(s):  
Fumihiko Sueki ◽  
Anton Luis Sevilla
Keyword(s):  
Human Existence ◽  
The Other ◽  
Value Systems ◽  
Religious View ◽  
Japanese Buddhism ◽  
Lotus Sutra ◽  
The World ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Mahāyāna Buddhism ◽  
The Way

AbstractToday, the modern value systems that once held sway have fallen apart, and people throughout the world are wandering in an aimless state. Amidst this, we are pressed to ask, “What kind of a new ethics might we construct?” We need to consider the possibility of an ethics that focuses on the religious view of humankind (previously ignored by modernity), that goes beyond this life, and includes the next life. In this article, I examine the way of being of bodhisattvas in Mahāyāna Buddhism via the Lotus Sutra. According to the Lotus Sutra, human existence is one that necessarily relates with the other, and this relationship is not confined to this life, but continues from past lives to future lives. Here, I refer to this as “bodhisattva as existence.” On this basis, it is possible to think of an ethics of “bodhisattva as praxis” that considers the benefit of others even after death. This view of bodhisattvas in the Lotus Sutra lives on in Japanese Buddhism and can be said to point to a new possibility for ethics today.

scholarly journals STUDYING THE ARTISTIC DETAIL (based on Donna Tartt’s novel «The Goldfinch»)

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (192) ◽  
pp. 80-84
Author(s):  
Olha Kozii ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Adult Male ◽  
Defense Mechanisms ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Main Character ◽  
Time And Space ◽  
Part D ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Critical Situation

«The Goldfinch» is a story of a boy and later an adult male Theodore Decker who accidentally obtains a masterpiece. The writer, as a surgeon, separates one second of expectation from the other, detail from detail. The reader is presented not just a frightened child but deep sorrow of the loss of the whole world. In the second chapter of the first part D. Tartt reveals herself as a skillful psychologist, skillfully accustoms herself to the inner state of the main character, with him she travels through the memories, tracks associative relationships he makes. The writer brilliantly follows all defense mechanisms of a man who is faced with the inevitability. The author uses gradation way of describing while stringing visual and auditory details, retards artistic time. The writing of D. Tartt is characterized by the unique skill in the detail describing. The role of artistic detail in the process of inner state depicting is investigated. The author touches upon the problem of the depicting of critical situation in the novel. The attention is paid to the writer’s skills in showing main character’s feelings, memoirs, thoughts, associative relations and human nocifensor in critical situations. It is admitted that in case of such temporal and space detail the most suitable way of analysis is «in succession to the author». Thus, in the novel The Goldfinch D.Tartt declares herself a talented master of words, subtle psychologist and philosopher. As a surgeon, the writer separates one second of expectation from the other, detail from detail. Therefore, the reader can observe not just a frightened child but deep sorrow of the loss of the whole world. This is achieved by the skillful combination of visual and auditory details that create convex emotionally saturated images filled with heartbeat of life. The author dowers the main character – both a teenager and an adult man – with the ability to see deep philosophical maxims in small details, to decipher the message from the artist, to understand the dialectical interpenetration of life and death. Because of such careful author's treatment to the artistic time and space the most appropriate way to study seems to be the analysis «in succession to the author».

scholarly journals Offervilje. Om ret og rimelighed blandt venner og fjender og om at komme og dømme levende og døde i Max Kestners film "I am Fiction"

2013 ◽  
Vol 28 (70) ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise Brix Jacobsen ◽  
Henrik Skov Nielsen ◽  
Rikke Andersen Kraglund
Keyword(s):  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
Publishing House ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Main Character ◽  
Artistic Collaboration ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The Dead ◽  
The One ◽  
Alleged Victim

Louise Brix Jacobsen, Rikke Andersen Kraglund & Henrik Skov Nielsen: “Selfsacrifice. On Right and Reasonableness among Foes and Friends, and on Judging the Living and the Dead in Max Kestner’s film I am Fiction”In 2011, the performance artist Thomas Skade-Rasmussen Strøbech lost a lawsuit against his former friend and collaborator Helge Bille Nielsen and the publishing house of Gyldendal. This led to a debate about copyright, freedom of expression, identity, and the line between fiction and reality. In 2008, Nielsen or Das Beckwerk published the novel The Sovereign where Strøbech – seemingly without his knowledge and apparently against his will – is the main character. About a year after losing the lawsuit Strøbech and film director Max Kestner gives his version of the events before, during, and after the trial in the film I am Fiction (Identitetstyveriet). This article analyzes I am fiction in order to show how the film on the one hand outlines Strøbech’s version of the events as a story about a victim but on the other hand undermines this version with humor and irony and points towards an artistic collaboration between alleged victim and villain.

scholarly journals Barthelme's Twisted Fathering

2006 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Márta Asztalos
Keyword(s):  
Power Relations ◽  
Psychoanalytic Theory ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
The Dead

This paper approaches Donald Barthelme's The Dead Father along the dual, paradoxical, and seemingly mutually exclusive terms of quest and anti-quest, murder and rescue, life and death. Its objective is to show how these antonyms exist inseparably and interwoven in the novel, successfully resisting logically coherent binary orders. The master trope of the analysis is chiasmus, the trope of deception, which seems to open a fruitful and "untrodden" path for reading the novel. The first half of the essay examines the chiasmus taking place on the thematic level of the novel, in the power relations between Thomas and the Dead Father and the possible twists of this twisted trope. The second half examines this chiastic inversion of power relations as an ironic inversion, as a reversed Oedipal situation and tries to read the interplay of psychoanalytic theory and Barthelme's novel in terms of irony, ironical inversion, and parody.

The Unity of Faulkner's Light in August

PMLA ◽  
1958 ◽  
Vol 73 (1) ◽  
pp. 155-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Hugh Holman
Keyword(s):  
Common Ground ◽  
The Other ◽  
Character Traits ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Light In August ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Southern Religion

The nature of the unity in William Faulkner's Light in August, in fact, even the existence of such unity, has been seriously disputed by his critics. The debate has ranged from Malcolm Cowley's insistence that the work combines “two or more themes having little relation to each other” to Richard Chase's elaborate theory of “images of the curve” opposed to “images of linear discreteness.” Those critics who see a unity in the novel find its organizing principle in theme or philosophical statement—“a successful metaphysical conceit,” a concern with Southern religion, the tragedy of human isolation, man's lonely search for community—but they fail to find a common ground for the unity they perceive because they neglect properly to evaluate the objective device which Faulkner employs in the novel as an expression of theme. That device is the pervasive paralleling of character traits, actions, and larger structural shapes to the story of Christ. Viewed in terms of this device the novel becomes the story of the life and death of a man peculiarly like Christ in many particulars, an account of what Ilse D. Lind has called “the path to Gethsemane which is reserved for the Joe Christmases of this world.” However, that account is in itself perverse, “a monstrous and grotesque irony,” unless the other strands of action in the book—the Hightower story and the Lena Grove story—are seen as being contrasting portions of a thematic statement also made suggestively by analogies to the Christ story. This essay is an attempt to demonstrate that such, indeed, is the basic nature of the novel and that it has a unity which is a function of its uses of the Christ story.

scholarly journals Fictional Creature Pronominalization – The Use of He/She/It in Reference to Zombies, Vampires, Fairies, and Trolls in Guillermo del Toro’s Literary Work

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda Flores Ohlson
Keyword(s):  
Literary Work ◽  
Consistent Pattern ◽  
The Other ◽  
Personal Pronouns ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Clear Tendency ◽  
Subjective Perceptions ◽  
The Dead ◽  
The One ◽  
Shed Light

In this paper pronominalization is analyzed in reference to the fictional creatures in the literary work of Guillermo del Toro’ in order to study whether the choice of pronoun serves the function of expressing attitudes towards fictional creatures, such as zombies and vampires, in a way that makes the contexts and the characters’ subjective perceptions the dominant factors and consequently puts aside the semantic or grammatical status of the referent. The paper also investigates whether inanimate pronouns (it/its, which), are used in association with detached appraisal, callousness and dehumanization, and whether personal pronouns (he/his, she/her, and who/whom) are used with attachment, closeness and humanization. These two categories of pronouns (personal and inanimate) are normally distinct, i.e., in most contexts they cannot be used interchangeably. The study of the characteristics of fictional creature pronominalization can shed light on how we use pronouns in order to create creatures that exist only in our imagination, and how a variety of different attitudes towards them is expressed through this specific linguistic tool. In relation to del Toro’s zombies and vampires, it can be argued that the pronominalization serves a certain purpose in order to dehumanize them, differentiate the dead vampire/zombies from the living humans, and to point out the before and the after of the transition between life and death. The pronominalization in reference to fairies, although complicated and not completely consistent, shows a clear tendency towards a correlation between animal–like creatures and inanimate pronouns. In regards to del Toro’s trolls, the pronominalization follows a more consistent pattern, which clearly serves the function of expressing different kinds of attitudes towards the creatures such as detached appraisal and dehumanization, on the one hand, and friendship and alliance, on the other. 

scholarly journals THE CONCEPT ‘TEA’ IN THE NOVELS ‘THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD’ AND ‘CRIME AND PUNISHMENT’ BY FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 81-88
Author(s):  
Ivan V. Burdin ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Mental State ◽  
Internal Clock ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Absolute Value ◽  
Fyodor Dostoevsky ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Crime And Punishment ◽  
The Dead

The article deals with the concept ‘tea’ in two works by Fyodor Dostoevsky – the novels The House of the Dead (1860–1861) and Crime and Punishment (1865–1866).In these works, the concept ‘tea’ includes both traditional representations – ‘tea as an element of everyday life’, ‘tea as part of a meal’, ‘tea as an attribute of friendship and communication’ – and new ones created by Dostoevsky, such as ‘tea for thought’, ‘tea as medicine and a source of strength’, ‘tea as a source of spiritual balance’). An important representation for the psychological line of the works is ‘tea as a chronometer’ – when the heroes check their internal clock with the tea time, as well as with the temperature of tea as it is becoming cold. The paper gives particular attention to the representation ‘tea as a marker of wealth’. In the novel The House of the Dead it is presented through the scenes where guests are being entertained to tea and through descriptions of the quality of the drink, in the novel Crime and Punishment – through the representation ‘tea as luxury’.The paper establishes the role of the concept ‘tea’ in conveying the main author's idea in the works by Dostoevsky. Along with other concepts presented in the text, such as wine, tobacco, food, cards etc., tea in The House of the Dead is intended to show readers the contrast between freedom and prison, contributes to the translation of the idea of freedom as absolute value. Meant to depict a special state of life – on the border of the light and darkness, life and death, wealth and poverty, the representations of the concept ‘tea’ in Crime and Punishment greatly contribute to the depiction of Raskolnikov's mental state, fit into the semantics of St. Petersburg of Dostoevsky.

scholarly journals Collapsing Structures of Life and Death in Mike McCormack’s Solar Bones

2019 ◽  
Vol 60 ◽  
pp. 145-157
Author(s):  
Wit Pietrzak
Keyword(s):  
Economic System ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Present Essay ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Mode Of Life ◽  
Structural Coherence ◽  
The One ◽  
The Way

In the present essay I argue that that Mike McCormack’s acclaimed latest novel Solar Bones (Brit. 2016, USA 2017) thematises two impulses: on the one hand, the narrator, Marcus Conway, is seeking an order and structural coherence to his world, an order that throughout assumes a distinctly religious tint; on the other hand, the novel features various images of collapse of structures, ranging from the economic system all the way to actual buildings, all of which thwart his efforts. It is those twin movements, towards order and chaos, that reveal an association with Heidegger’s idea that only by becoming aware of death as one’s sole personal mode of life, does one begin to apprehend the essential structure of life, even if the glimpse of that structure is only ever available in its constant deferral.

scholarly journals Representation of the World in the Novels of Arzhan Adarov

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 320-337
Author(s):  
Margarita S. Dedina
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Structure ◽  
The Other ◽  
Individual Choice ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Historical Reconstruction ◽  
Fictional World ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Difficult Time ◽  
The World ◽  
Other World

The fictional world in A.O. Adarov’s novels corresponds to several levels of narration. First, there is the “real” time of the novel’s events; second, historical reconstruction given through subjective focalization; third, the realm of the unreal conveyed by visions and dreams. The novel shows the modeled reality from the perspective of a particular person, a survivor of political repressions. Through the categories of life and death, love and fate, honor and dignity, the novel speaks of the eternal ontological values and the importance of self-identification in a very difficult time, a time of re-evaluation of old values and the search for moral guidelines. According to the author’s concept, traditional folk constants play a crucial role in the worldview and perception of the world and turn out to be crucial for individual choice. The sacralization of space and the presence of a symbolically charged topos in the center of the fictional world, itself an infinite mosaic of various local territories, supports the idea of the spatial structure of the novel as a single cosmic whole. Conventional chronotopic boundaries as well as the theme of death as a pass to the other world present in all the novels of this author, together with the motif of the “eternal return,” support his conception of the soul’s immortality.

scholarly journals Тема старости в романе Гайто Газданова „Ночные дороги”

2017 ◽  
Vol 163 ◽  
pp. 203-212
Author(s):  
Maria Giej
Keyword(s):  
Old Age ◽  
Elderly Woman ◽  
Meaning Of Life ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
The Past ◽  
Individual Traits ◽  
The One ◽  
Emigre Writers

A theme of old age in the novel Night Roads  by Gaito Gazdanov In his literary works, Gaito Gazdanov — arepresentative of ayounger generation of the first wave of Russian émigré writers — has made frequent references to the theme of old age. Very often he analyzed the old age in the context of the meaning of life and death. His novel “Night Roads” is essential in this respect as the theme of old age and the attitude thereto is presented against the backdrop of the experiences of an owner of acafe, aprostitute Raldi and an elderly cab driver. The protagonists possess specific individual traits precisely described by the narrator. The theme of old age provides, first and foremost, an opportunity to discuss the meaning of life and death, to present the dichotomy between limitations, senselessness of human existence, on the one hand, and experiencing the beauty of nature, music etc., on the other. This provides an opportunity to recollect the past, notably the young age. This resembles ahymn to life. The story starts with adescription of alife of an elderly woman on awheelchair and finishes with adescription of anewborn infant: this way the young new life supersedes the old, and life goes on as before.Temat starości w powieści Gajto Gazdanowa Nocne drogiDo tematu starości niejednokrotnie zwracał się w swojej twórczości przedstawiciel młodszego pokolenia pierwszej fali emigracji rosyjskiej, Gajto Gazdanow, najczęściej rozpatrując starość w kontekście sensu życia i śmierci. Ważna w tym zakresie jest powieść Nocne drogi, w której temat starości i stosunek do niej zostały zrealizowane głównie w historii właścicielki kawiarni, historii prostytutki Raldi, staruszka-kierowcy itd. Wszyscy bohaterowie mają cechy indywidualne, precyzyjnie uchwycone i wyrażone przez narratora.Temat starości dla Gazdanowa to przede wszystkim możliwość rozważania o sensie życia i śmierci, pokazania kontrastu pomiędzy ograniczonością, bezsensem istnienia i przeżywaniem w tym życiu piękna przyrody, muzyki, możliwość powrotu we wspomnieniach do minionej epoki, do młodości. Jest to swego rodzaju hymn życia. Powieść zaczyna się od opisu staruszki na wózku inwalidzkim, znajdującej się na granicy życia i śmierci, a kończy narodzinami dziecka: starość stare ustępuje miejsce młodemu nowemu, a życie trwa dalej.

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