Imperial Vanities: Mira Nair, William Makepeace Thackeray and Diasporic Fidelity to Vanity Fair

2018 ◽  
pp. 72-91
Author(s):  
Jerod Ra'Del Hollyfield
Keyword(s):  
British Empire ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
William Makepeace Thackeray ◽  
Item Number ◽  
Indian Cinema ◽  
Vanity Fair ◽  
Mira Nair ◽  
Indian Identity ◽  
Physical Presence ◽  
Indian Perspective

Mira Nair has built her career on films that contribute to the Indian identity in diaspora and attest to the prominence of Indian filmmakers in international cinema. For a filmmaker so concerned with the relationships between American and Indian heritage, Nair’s adaptation of William Makepeace Thackeray’s 1847-1848 novel Vanity Fair (2004) appears as an outlier. However, this chapter argues that Nair’s film maintains overarching fidelity to the source text’s plot as a strategy to imbue the narrative with an Indian perspective. Nair subtly rewrites the text by eliminating the novel’s omniscient narrator and his complicity with the imperial project in favor of her own postcolonial Indian position through her use of cinematic style and the camera’s point-of-view capabilities. In asserting India’s physical presence in her adaptation, Nair also incorporates elements of Bollywood cinema into the production, including an item number dance sequence that brings Hollywood and Bollywood convention in dialogue. As a result, Nair embeds images into the narrative that directly challenge the power of the British Empire and its agents as well as Hollywood’s continuing influence over Indian cinema.

Caricature

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine J. Golden
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Lewis Carroll ◽  
William Makepeace Thackeray ◽  
Book Illustration ◽  
Vanity Fair ◽  
Alice In Wonderland ◽  
Full Page ◽  
Book Illustrations

In its theatricality, caricature-style book illustration approximates the tableau style popular in the nineteenth century. This chapter examines book illustrations by George Cruikshank, Phiz, Richard Doyle, John Leech, and Robert Cruikshank that, like tableaux, capture a dramatic moment in works by Dickens, Ainsworth, and Thackeray. With lighting, props, clever casting, and detail-laden backdrops, the caricaturists staged scenes ranging from the sensational to the sentimental, from the deeply psychological to the broadly comic. “Caricature: A Theatrical Development” adds two Victorian author-illustrators to this list of recognized caricaturists. Better known as an author than an illustrator, William Makepeace Thackeray designed theatrical pictorial capital letters, vignettes, tailpieces, and full-page engravings for his best-known Vanity Fair (1848) and cast his heroine Becky Sharp in various stage roles. To dramatize Alice’s transformations, Lewis Carroll recalled popular caricature techniques in his illustrations for the first version of Alice in Wonderland (1865) entitled Alice’s Adventures Underground(1864) at a time when realistic illustration held sway. This chapter also examines artistic limitations and scandals (e.g. Robert Seymour’s suicide, Cruikshank’s claim of authoring Dickens’s works) that led to a dismissal or devaluation of the caricaturists and a privileging of the Academy trained artists who entered the field of illustration in the 1850s.

Religion and Politics in South Asia

Worldview ◽  
1965 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-5
Author(s):  
Donald Smith
Keyword(s):  
South Asia ◽  
British Empire ◽  
South Asian ◽  
Religion And Politics ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Geographical Region ◽  
Asian Countries ◽  
Christian Church ◽  
World Religions ◽  
The West

The relation of religion and politics in South Asia is a subject of unusual complexity, with a richness of phenomena which at once intrigues and embarrasses. In the West we are concerned chiefly with the major branches of the Christian church; in South Asia we find a compact geographical region which is the meeting place of three major world religions. The majorities in the three most important South Asian countries, India, Pakistan and Ceylon, profess respectively Hinduism, Islam and Buddhism. From a comparative point of view it is important to note that the three countries share a similar colonial background: all three were part of the British Empire. British policies with respect to religion in undivided India and in Ceylon were not identical, but they did follow the same general lines.

scholarly journals ЩОДО ПЕРЕКЛАДУ МЕТАФОРИЧНИХ МОДЕЛЕЙ ЦІЛЬОВОЇ НАЗВИ «ЛЮДИНА» УКРАЇНСЬКОЮ МОВОЮ

2021 ◽  
pp. 419-433
Author(s):  
Юрій ШЕПЕЛЬ
Keyword(s):  
William Makepeace Thackeray ◽  
Vanity Fair

Статтю присвячено лінгвокогнітивним особливостям лекси- ко-семантичних трансформацій у перекладі антропоцентричних продуктивних метафоричних моделей. Матеріальною базою послугували літературні та енци- клопедичні джерела, а також тлумачні словники. У статті досліджено та опи- сано особливості лексико-семантичних трансформацій. Автор ставить за мету провести й описати лінгвокогнітивний аналіз антропоцентричних метафорич- них моделей у мові оригіналу та перекладу з метою визначення адекватності перекладу. Об’єктом аналізу вибрано 50 концептуальних антропоцентричних метафоричних моделей із твору «Vanity Fair» by William Makepeace Thackeray. Предмет дослідження становлять лінгвокогнітивні особливості використання перекладацьких трансформацій у перекладі антропоцентричних метафоричних моделей з урахуванням їхнього конотативного потенціалу. Аналіз відбувається з використанням загальнонаукових методів дослідження: описово-аналітич- ного – для визначення закономірностей концептуального моделювання; концеп- туального та контекстуального – для формулювання рівнів еквівалентності перекладу згідно з антропоцентричними концептуальними моделями. У статті визначено, що тексти художньої літератури уособлюють процес вербалізації концептів. Концепти є здебільшого універсальними, осо- бливості концептуалізації та категоризації залежать від етнокультурних чинників. Автор доводить, що концептуальна проєкція в перекладі метафоричних моделей залежить від того, наскільки концептуальні картини світів мови оригіналу та мови перекладу близькі одна до одної. Показано, що вибір кон- цептуального співвідношення зумовлений творчою індивідуальністю перекладача, його знанням когнітивної бази культури, урахуванням особливостей реципієнта.

Language Contact and the Lexicon of Romance Languages

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
André Thibault ◽  
Nicholas LoVecchio
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Linguistic Community ◽  
Romance Languages ◽  
Rigorous Approach ◽  
Historical Factors ◽  
Physical Presence ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Theoretical Issues

The Romance languages have been involved in many situations of language contact. While language contact is evident at all levels, the most visible effects on the system of the recipient language concern the lexicon. The relationship between language contact and the lexicon raises some theoretical issues that are not always adequately addressed, including in etymological lexicography. First is the very notion of what constitutes “language contact.” Contrary to a somewhat dated view, language contact does not necessarily imply physical presence, contemporaneity, and orality: as far as the lexicon is concerned, contact can happen over time and space, particularly through written media. Depending on the kind of extralinguistic circumstances at stake, language contact can be induced by diverse factors, leading to different forms of borrowing. The misleading terms borrowings or loans mask the reality that these are actually adapted imitations—whether formal, semantic, or both—of a foreign model. Likewise, the common Latin or Greek origins of a huge proportion of the Romance lexicon often obscure the real history of words. As these classical languages have contributed numerous technical and scientific terms, as well as a series of “roots,” words coined in one Romance language can easily be reproduced in any other. However, simply reducing a word’s etymology to the origin of its components (classic or otherwise), ignoring intermediate stages and possibly intermediating languages in the borrowing process, is a distortion of word history. To the extent that it is useful to refer to “internationalisms,” related words in different Romance languages merit careful, often arduous research in the process of identifying the actual origin of a given coining. From a methodological point of view, it is crucial to distinguish between the immediate lending language and the oldest stage that can be identified, with the former being more relevant in a rigorous approach to comparative historical lexicology. Concrete examples from Ibero-Romania, Gallo-Romania, Italo-Romania, and Balkan-Romania highlight the variety of different Romance loans and reflect the diverse historical factors particular to each linguistic community in which borrowing occurred.

O dopuszczalności zdalnego głosowania w Sejmie na podstawie Konstytucji RP z 1997 r.

2021 ◽  
Vol 3(164) ◽  
pp. 111-125
Author(s):  
Janusz Roszkiewicz
Keyword(s):  
Electronic Communication ◽  
Comparative Method ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Physical Presence ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Republic

The subject of the article is to assess the admissibility of remote voting in the Sejm by means of electronic communication from the point of view of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, in particular Article 109(1) and Article 120. The aim of the article is to determine – with the use of dogmatic, historical and comparative method – the possibility of holding a valid sitting of the Sejm in the presence of deputies remotely participating in the sitting. The text takes the view that a purposive interpretation allows for the holding of a sitting of the Sejm in virtual form (by permitting remote voting) in exceptional situations, in particular when the physical presence of deputies in the plenary chamber is impossible or would involve a serious risk to their life or health. The technical means used for remote voting should ensure that all authorised deputies have a secure and effective connection to the voting equipment, i.e. that the voter can be identified, that it is tamper-proof and that the vote can be cast efficiently.

“International Migration” between empire and nation. The statistical construction of an ambiguous global category in the International Labour Office in the 1920s

Ethnicities ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 469-485 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yann Stricker
Keyword(s):  
British Empire ◽  
International Migration ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
International Labour Organization ◽  
National Archives ◽  
Immigration And Emigration ◽  
Historical Importance ◽  
History Of ◽  
Knowledge Perspective ◽  
Single Category

This article inquires into the historical conditions of the global category of “international migration” by analysing quantification processes in the International Labour Organization in the 1920s. Based on a history of knowledge perspective, it analyses how and why the categories of immigration and emigration were reduced to the single category of “international migration”. The paper interprets this epistemological change with a shift from an imperial to an international point of view that occurred in the 1920s. This argument is based on an analysis of negotiations between international administrators and functionaries of the British Empire that arose, when international categorisation and quantification of people on the move began. Drawing on sources from the British National Archives and the International Labour Organization, this article highlights the historical importance of debates about the categories of “nation” and “race”, in the making of what was stabilized only later in the 20th century as the category of “international migration”.

Accepting Dominion Status as a Way of Reconciliation of British-Irish Disputes?

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Jaroslav Valkoun
Keyword(s):  
British Empire ◽  
Precise Determination ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
British Colonialism ◽  
The World ◽  
Political Scene

The article is focused on an analysis of British-Irish relations in 1921. From the British point of view, the best solution to the conflict seemed to be the granting of Dominion status. It was based on the assumption that the British Empire represented the largest community of free sister nations in the world. On the contrary, Irish officials did not have the confidence to participate in various colonial or imperial projects because they considered themselves a victim of British colonialism. The question of the accepting of the Dominion status divided the Irish political scene into supporters and opponents of the Anglo-Irish treaty. Supporters of the agreement calmed their own sympathizers by claiming that freedom and equality derive directly from Dominion status. However, the lack of precise determination of the rights and duties of the Dominions was a complication of the situation. The question arises as to whether negotiations on reconciliation between Britain and Ireland led from the British and Irish perspectives, in the context of the then unclear situation of what precisely it means to be a Dominion, to a fair solution to the British-Irish Disputes.

Studying Indian Cinema

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Omar Ahmed
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Media Studies ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Historical Evolution ◽  
Indian Cinema ◽  
Mira Nair ◽  
Mise En Scene ◽  
Film And Media Studies ◽  
Satyajit Ray

This book traces the historical evolution of Indian cinema through a number of key decades. The book is made up of 14 chapters with each chapter focusing on one key film, the chosen films are analysed in their wider social, political and historical context whilst a concerted engagement with various ideological strands that underpin each film is also evident. In addition to exploring the films in their wider contexts, the book analyses selected sequences through the conceptual framework common to both film and media studies. This includes a consideration of narrative, genre, representation, audience and mise en scène. The case studies run chronologically from Awaara (The Vagabond, 1951) to The Elements Trilogy: Water (2005) and include films by such key figures as Satyajit Ray (The Lonely Wife), Ritwick Ghatak (Cloud Capped Star), Yash Chopra (The Wall) and Mira Nair (Salaam Bombay!).

From Documentary to Fictional Realism: Mira Nair’s Documentary Roots, Fictional Home and Production Politics

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Projansky ◽  
Kent A. Ono
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Documentary Film ◽  
Social Activism ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
Production Methods ◽  
Outreach Programs ◽  
Vanity Fair ◽  
Mira Nair ◽  
Working Practices ◽  
Production Company

This chapter demonstrates how the transnational figure and twenty-seven-year career of Mira Nair is prototypical of female independent practitioners who negotiate diverse issues of identity and politics in their films and working practices. As an Indian filmmaker with a production company based in New York City, Nair makes films that cross multiple borders, whether of nation, race, class, sexuality or genre, to promote social activism. Highlighting her documentary film production, methods and career-long investment in non-profit organisations, Projansky and Ono explore how even her popular fictional features such as Monsoon Wedding (2001) or Vanity Fair (2004) share political and socially confrontational methods with her outreach programs.

Indian Frontiers

2020 ◽  
pp. 256-287
Author(s):  
Kate Flint
Keyword(s):  
First Nations ◽  
British Empire ◽  
Travel Writing ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
American Frontier ◽  
The Social ◽  
Adventure Fiction ◽  
First Nations People ◽  
Indian Perspective

This chapter discusses the parallels that could be drawn between the American frontier and various frontiers in the British Empire, together with the apparent lessons that might be taken on board from America's treatment of her native peoples. To be sure, the romance of the American frontier played a significant role in adventure fiction—both homegrown and imported—and within travel writing, and the role of the frontiersman was co-opted into various versions of Anglo-Saxon manliness. But at the same time, concerns about American coarseness, brutality, exploitation, and greed, as manifested in different aspects of frontier life, raised issues about the social directions that country was taking and about the dangers of atavism on the borders of “civilization.” This anxiety held true for the edges of empire as well. Indeed, for the Victorians, the very term “Indian frontier” was highly ambiguous. The chapter then looks at how the visits to London of Catherine Sutton, a Credit Indian, and then of the poet and performer Pauline Johnson illuminate Britain's attitudes toward First Nations people from an Indian perspective.

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