scholarly journals A Shadow of Truth: Honor Klein in Iris Murdoch’s A Severed Head

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-34
Author(s):  
Barbora Kašpárková
Keyword(s):  
Julius Caesar ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Female Protagonist ◽  
Real Person ◽  
Central Characters ◽  
Narrative Function

Abstract Iris Murdoch’s novel A Severed Head (1961) is an example of convoluted relationships that may appear hilarious upon superficial analysis. A close reading, however, reveals the suffering triggered by the behaviour of the central characters. The most mysterious female protagonist, the sexually ambivalent Honor Klein, deploys a wide range of possible interpretations. Honor’s powerful figure is like an axis around which the rest of the characters rotate and without whom the plot would fall apart. The question is, nonetheless, if she is a real figure or not. This paper argues that this pivotal character is not a real person but a dreamy and ghostly concentration of elements in relation to the protagonist Martin Lynch-Gibbon. Honor Klein is a force, is suspicion, and fear, and seems to be an external projection of Martin’s subconscious imaginary fears and trauma. She has a similar narrative function as Shakespeare‘s ghosts in, e.g., Macbeth, Hamlet and Julius Caesar.

The Carpet as a Text, the Writer as a Weaver

2020 ◽  
pp. 279-304
Author(s):  
Khalid Lyamlahy
Keyword(s):  
Close Reading ◽  
Islamic Art ◽  
Oral Culture ◽  
Artistic Creation ◽  
Specific Approach ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Spatial Composition

“One must look at a beautiful carpet as one reads a page by Aristotle, that is, with the same acute attention”. For Khatibi, the Moroccan carpet is not only a decorative piece that reproduces motifs of Islamic art and combines sophisticated techniques of dyeing, tattooing and painting. It is also a living text, an intricate narrative that requires a specific approach to unravel its hidden symbols and meanings. In From Sign to Image: The Moroccan Carpet, a collective art book written with Moroccan anthropologist and museologist Ali Amahan, Khatibi explores the aesthetics of the Moroccan carpet in relation to ornamental patterns, spatial composition and oral culture. By combining a wide range of references to Islamic texts, Arabic appellations, Berber alphabet and Western writings, Khatibi offers a dynamic conception of the Moroccan carpet as a multifaceted space where artistic creation hinges on the interlacing of coded, fragmentary and imaginary signs. Khatibi’s reading of the Moroccan carpet as a lexis of “intersigns”, which he developed in a conference in 1985, offers a striking illustration of how Moroccan art informs his own process and theory of writing. The circulation of signs in the Moroccan carpet, which is mirrored in the kaleidoscopic composition of Khatibi’s and Mahan’s volume, is enriched with a compelling reference to the idea of desire in creation and reading. Based on a close-reading of this volume in relation to Khatibi’s works, this chapter demonstrates that the Moroccan carpet can be read as a metaphor for Khatibi’s aesthetics that fosters the encounter and weaving of forms, languages, and cultures.

scholarly journals War Memories and the Refusal of Male Dominance in Shakir's "Oh, Lebanon"

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 118
Author(s):  
Hassan Ali Abdullah Al-Momani
Keyword(s):  
Gender Identity ◽  
Short Story ◽  
Female Gender ◽  
The United States ◽  
Male Dominance ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Arab Culture ◽  
Female Protagonist ◽  
War Memories

This study investigates the role of the war memories in the construction of the female gender identity in Evelyin Shakir's "Oh, Lebanon," in which the female protagonist refuses to belong to her Arab identity when she lives in the United States because of the brutal war memories she witnesses in Lebanon. Such memories make the protagonist unable to accept her submissive gender role in the Arab culture. In other words, these memories of war motivate the protagonist to revolt against her father's will and to choose her own way of building her identity away from the influence of her Arab culture and traditions. The methodology of this paper is based on a close reading analysis of some quotations from Shakir's short story which will be analyzed to see how the war memories in Lebanon have influenced the construction of the protagonist's gender identity. The study concludes that the trauma of war motivates Arab female gender to react against the male dominance and traditions because war, with its dark memories, might uncover that hidden desire in female's subconscious mind to feel unlimited or constrained with the male dominance.

Gender, Genre, and the Idea of the Nation

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 549-558
Author(s):  
Saradindu Bhattacharya
Keyword(s):  
Indian Subcontinent ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Narrative Structure ◽  
National Identities ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Moral Integrity ◽  
Popular Cinema ◽  
English Class ◽  
Female Protagonist ◽  
Sociopolitical Context

Abstract This article examines the construction of and contestation over the idea of the nation through contemporary popular cinema in India. Building on his experience of discussing the Bollywood spy thriller Raazi (2018) in an English class, the author proposes that “reading” the film in terms of gender and genre can not only help students apply modes of textual analysis to narratives in other media but also alert them to the location of such narratives within larger discursive frameworks of defining national identities. Raazi presents a critical and ideological counterpoint to the generic conventions of the spy thriller within the increasingly polarized sociopolitical context of the Indian subcontinent. The film presents an unlikely female protagonist as both the physical agent and the psychological subject of the violence integral to the “action” of an espionage film. It also interrogates the oppositional relation between the patriotic “self” and the foreign “other” that lies at the basis of the militaristic conception of the nation and ultimately reveals the shared human vulnerability of both to the traumatic effects of pursuing the idea(l) of nationalism at the expense of individual moral integrity. Thus a close reading of the film's narrative structure and conventions, as well as a critical engagement with the historical context of its production and reception, can be pedagogically fruitful ways of understanding and critiquing the processes through which a nation is collectively imagined into being.

A Hard Day’s Write

2021 ◽  
pp. 188-210
Author(s):  
Mark Duffett
Keyword(s):  
Identity Politics ◽  
Fan Fiction ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Reading Practice ◽  
Unrequited Love ◽  
Public Figures ◽  
John Lennon ◽  
Real Person ◽  
Central Characters ◽  
Practice Community

Fan fiction is, ordinarily, nonprofessional writing—premised thematically on media texts, celebrities, or artistic creations. Some fanfic uses public figures as the basis for characters and is called real person fiction (RPF). Bandfic is a subgenre of RPF involving rock musicians. Slash fiction is a subset of fanfic involving same-sex intimacy between central characters. Real person slash (RPS) is a fanfic subgenre that hybridizes RPF with slash and can involve pairs of musicians. One typical Beatles fanfic story on Archive of Our Own, is listed as male-to-male romance between John Lennon and Paul McCartney and tagged with angst, love confessions, rejection, unrequited love, and period-typical homophobia. In academia, discussions about such fanfic have covered copyright, fan labor or play, fan literacy and reading practice, community-created archives, world building, identity politics, or subversion and censorship. This chapter considers a less-discussed question: how does RPF about the Beatles relate to celebrity fandom?

Comedy in an Age of Close Reading

2020 ◽  
pp. 25-51
Author(s):  
Calista McRae
Keyword(s):  
Mental States ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
John Berryman ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The World

This chapter focuses on John Berryman, who situates himself at the center of what he calls “the world” and uses everything else in the world to define his self. The chapter includes a poet reacting to the critical atmospheres in which Berryman developed, which is described as having been spoken by someone who seems to have chosen the wrong form and genre. The chapter also examines how Berryman flouts the canonical expectations of mid-century formalist criticism and suggests how he breaks and defaces his form to depict an unusually wide range of mental states. The chapter points out an iridescence between a lyric reading of The Dream Songs and the ways Berryman undermines that reading. It then explains how Berryman transcribes the less-than-perfect mind, such as its irrationality and obsessions.

Historical basis for designing tourist programs “Spain during the reign of Gaius Julius Caesar Octavian

Servis plus ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 47-54
Author(s):  
Татьяна Спатарь-Козаченко ◽  
Tatyana Spatar-Kozachenko
Keyword(s):  
Iberian Peninsula ◽  
Business Environment ◽  
Julius Caesar ◽  
Economic Changes ◽  
Social Events ◽  
Northern Areas ◽  
Culture History ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Historical Basis ◽  
Regional Character

Sightseeing, or cognitive, tourism includes visits to historical, cultural and natural attractions. Historical basis for designing the tourist-excursion programs is topical nowadays. One of the interesting regions is the Iberian Peninsula with the Roman monuments that have survived to the present day. The article reveals the origins of the foundation and formation of territorial entities. The beginning of these formations belongs to the reign of Gaius Julius Caesar Octavian. The article is about the rise to power of Octavian, the conquests of the Roman army, fight of North of the Iberian Peninsula peoples for independence, the development of new colonies and cities, administrative reorganization of the territory of Spain, the formation of Conventions. The author shows the real changes in the Northern areas of the Peninsula. They gave the territory, which natives originally occupied, to military units for building bases and the business environment; traffic and communications developed. There was a need in the minting and use of coins as a measure of exchange. This led to political, administrative, social and economic changes in the community. The author demonstrates the different forms of government, organizing cultural and social events. This article contains historical and regional character, devoted to the development of civilization in the Iberian Peninsula, architectural monuments of the Romanera. The article can be interesting for students, teachers of secondary and higher educational institutions, as well as a wide range of persons interested in culture, history and tourism of Spain.

The Clockmaker’s Cosmos

2021 ◽  
pp. 131-152
Author(s):  
Suzanna Ivanič
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Central Europe ◽  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Devotional Practices ◽  
Historical Moment ◽  
Protestant Books

On one level confessional distinction began to define material culture in the first decades of the seventeenth century, but a microhistorical approach reveals the persistence of plural devotional practices and beliefs. A close reading of the 1635 inventory of a court clockmaker, Kúndrat Šteffenaúr, reveals the complex intersections of confessions in Central Europe. It indicates an environment in which a wide range of devotional options were available. Analysis of Kúndrat’s possessions as individual items, and how they were kept together, shows the need to think across and beyond confessional boundaries of Protestant versus Catholic in order to understand lay religious beliefs and practices at this historical moment of confessional rupture. This chapter examines the inventory from two perspectives: first, it surveys the confessional spectrum of objects—Protestant books, Catholic devotional jewellery, clocks, and charms—contextualizing them and exploring why they may have come into Kúndrat’s possession; second, it offers an interpretation of the objects as items that formed Kúndrat’s individual cosmos, as ‘fragmented religion’.

scholarly journals “Our Bravest and Most Beautiful Soldier”: Pola Negri, Wartime and the Gendering of Anxiety in Hotel Imperial

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-176
Author(s):  
Elisabetta Girelli
Keyword(s):  
Gender Roles ◽  
Sigmund Freud ◽  
Domestic Space ◽  
Home Front ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Hollywood Film ◽  
Female Sex ◽  
Dramatic Shift ◽  
Narrative Function

This article focuses on Pola Negri, one of the most iconic stars of the silent era, and concentrates on her performance and image in the Hollywood film Hotel Imperial (Mauritz Stiller, 1927). Assessing Negri's character within the wartime context of the plot, her screen presence and narrative function are analysed in relation to wartime anxiety, gender roles, and the role of the home front. Specifically, this article argues that Negri's exceptional display of anxiety, in contrast to the acting of her male co-protagonists, can be fruitfully understood as a distinctly “female”, empowering quality, aiding her role of main agent in the film. In the light of selected texts by Sigmund Freud, Charles Bachelard, and Lindsey Stonebridge, this article offers a close reading of Negri's performance, showing that Negri productively unblocks and mobilises the inherent anxiety of the film's time and place. Positioned in traditionally female locations, the home front and the domestic space, Negri acts upon the former by controlling the latter, enabling not only her own rescue, but also that of her menfolk: her soldier lover and, indirectly, the whole Austro-Hungarian army. This discussion is linked to the dramatic shift in Negri's image in Hotel Imperial, a shift which has traditionally been criticised as a weakening of her persona; this article instead argues that, far from being “tamed” by the shedding of her vamp connotations, Negri emerges as the film's strongest presence, gaining agency and power while explicitly rejecting patriarchal constructions of female sex-appeal.

scholarly journals Of Emptiness and Revolution

Prism ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-56
Author(s):  
Yiju Huang
Keyword(s):  
Dominant Mode ◽  
Buddhist Philosophy ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Lu Xun ◽  
May Fourth Movement ◽  
Wild Grass ◽  
Fourth Movement ◽  
Modern Chinese ◽  
Wide Range

Abstract Lu Xun 魯迅 (1881–1936) has remained a most prominent figure in modern Chinese literary studies, but not so in modern Buddhism scholarship. This article shows the interlacing of Lu Xun's revolutionary vision with Buddhism on three primary terrains: his indebtedness to his teacher Zhang Taiyan 章太炎 (1868–1936), his immersion in a wide range of Buddhist texts before the May Fourth movement, and a close reading of selected poems from Yecao 野草 (Wild Grass) in light of Buddhist philosophy. The author argues that Yogācāra conceptions promoted by Zhang, wanfa weixin 萬法唯心 (all phenomena are nothing but mind), bushi 佈施 (the bodhisattva ideal of sacrificial giving), and kong 空 (emptiness as boundless potentiality), greatly influenced Lu Xun's aesthetics. Ultimately, this article shows how revolution, the dominant mode of secularism, is theistically conditioned. The Buddhist notion of emptiness, rather than an impediment to modernity, informs the worldly action of revolution and the phenomenal possibility of change.

The Not So Pokey Hokies

2017 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 81-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mollie T. Adams ◽  
Kerry K. Inger ◽  
Michele D. Meckfessel
Keyword(s):  
Independent Contractor ◽  
Research Skills ◽  
Collegiate Sports ◽  
Organization Management ◽  
For Profit ◽  
Real People ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Tax Research ◽  
Real Person ◽  
Athletic Scholarship

ABSTRACT “The Not So Pokey Hokies” is a running club comprised of runners based on real people who participate in a wide range of running activities including charitable race participation, not-for-profit running organization management, nationally competitive racing, pacing, competitive team membership, coaching, and collegiate sports. This case requires students to identify tax issues related to the running club members' running activities and address the issues using tax research skills. Each runner in the case is based on a real person and is presented as a separate scenario with some common concepts across the scenarios. Specific concepts included are hobby versus for-profit activity classification, independent contractor versus employee role classification, income recognition, expense deductibility, charitable contribution deductions, and athletic scholarship taxation. The modular nature of the case allows the instructor to assign specific tax issues or entire scenarios, depending on the nature of the class. As the students complete the case, they are required to use critical thinking to identify and build tax research skills to address the issues. In addition, students gain technical knowledge through exposure to a variety of tax concepts and written communication skills through completion of a written analysis of the case.

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