Resisting Realism

2019 ◽  
pp. 38-64
Author(s):  
Cairns Craig
Keyword(s):  
The Novel ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The World

For Sartre writing has to be guided by an ethics of freedom. Characters in novels, however, may be representations of free human beings but they cannot themselves be free, since they are governed by the choices of their author and the nature of their medium. The world represented in novels is thus the opposite of a world of Sartrean freedom: it is a pre-determined world. It is a paradox that Spark employs to allow her characters to reveal their own status as the products of fiction and thus challenge the apparently mimetic medium in which they exist. All of her early novels – particularly Robinson and The Ballad of Peckham Rye – present her characters as explorers of the limitations of the mimetic tradition which was taken, in studies such as Erich Auerbach’s Mimesis and Ian Watt’s The Rise of the Novel, to be fundamental to the genre of the novel.

scholarly journals Pyotr Chardynin’s The Idiot as a Phenomenon of Creative Reinterpretation of Dostoevsky’s Novel

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 34-42
Author(s):  
Anastasia Ryabokon’
Keyword(s):  
Film Adaptation ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
National Cinema ◽  
Garden Of Eden ◽  
Human Personality ◽  
The World ◽  
The One ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Main Protagonist

The essay explores the artistic and expressive features of the world's first film adaptation of Dostoevsky's novel The Idiot, directed in 1910 by Pyotr Chardynin. The author substantiates the degree of influence of one of the most important philosophical concepts of the novel that of a split in the human personality on Russian national consciousness at the beginning of the 20th century. The analysis of the figurative system of the film shows that its semantics and the images of its characters were ahead of its time and, therefore, deserve closer critical attention.In the The Idiot the idea of Dostoevsky about a human beings separateness in the world is revealed in the four main characters Prince Myshkin, Parfyon Rogozhin, Nastasya Filippovna and Aglaya who are not complete, full-fledged personalities but separate components of a harmonious human personality. These characters, like puzzle pieces, possess mutually complementary qualities. Thus, Prince Myshkin, the bearer of the highest spirituality, is contrasted with the earthly and passionate Rogozhin. And the images of Nastasya Filippovna and Aglaya are connected, respectively, with the images of Heavenly Love and Earthly Love. If the characters of the novel could unite with each other in love and harmony, the world would get a complete harmonious person, like the one created by God for the Garden of Eden. However, such a merger seems impossible within the limits of earthly existence. In Dostoevsky's novel the individual parts of the soul could not unite into a harmonious whole. Egoism, passion, pride and imperfection of human nature do allow the protagonists to unite and lead them towards personal disintegration.In Russian national cinema, Dostoevskys idea of human beings separateness undergoes a number of transformations. The changes introduced by Pyotr Chardynin into the film adaptation of the novel mostly relate to the image of the films main protagonist Nastasya Filippovna, whom the filmmaker associates with a dying Russia. Chardynin also transforms other protagonists. Prince Myshkin is the only carrier of the highest spirituality, while Nastasya Filippovna, Aglaya and Rogozhin are earthly and passionate. At the end of the film, Nastasya Filippovnas murderer Rogozhin, dressed in a Russian folk costume, sobs at the bedside of the dead tsarina, while heavenly prince Myshkin who was not accepted by her in her lifetime, comforts the sinner. Chardynins film transforms the idea of a split in the human personality into the idea of the Russian separateness from God, the internal split within the Russian world and, as a consequence, that worlds inevitable death.

Circuits of Apartheid

Glimpse ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 15-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nyasha Mboti ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Unsolved Problem ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Digital Networks ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
American President ◽  
The World ◽  
Password Protection ◽  
Global Exploitation

This keynote address is about the supply, maintenance and allocation of fungible, vulnerable human bodies—what American President Donald Trump would categorize as the shitholes of the world. Underlying our modern times is a large, unsolved problem about what is really going on in the world. I use the novel theoretical lens of Apartheid Studies to appreciate how we have neglected to read, recognize and call out the persistent circuits of apartheid that are at the heart of global capitalist modernity. Our contemporary age, built on interoperable digital networks, tends to reinforce global forms of apartheid. Apartheid Studies is a new field of studies that makes it possible to expose these circuits. Whereas human beings are human because we all possess a kind of strongly encrypted password which we reserve to give or not to give—so that we feel relatively protected and free to be what we want—this password protection has been eroded by institutions and powerful elites. Modernity itself, by its very nature, emerges when we start to share our passwords with strangers. Passing on the control of the passwords of our being to strangers causes global apartheid. Global capitalist modernity, expressed in invasive technology, generally undermines human beings’ sense of self, immunity, inviolability, indivisibility, and replaces it with social media and an internet of things which are predicated on sharing our privacy with strangers. I propose new emphases on restorative forensics and literacies that are appropriate to the task of generating a scholarship of the future that is ethical and opposed to systemic injustice, that exposes global exploitation, racism, deception, and corruption, and that promotes just worlds.

scholarly journals Sunil Yapa’s Your Heart is a Muscle the Size of a Fist: Protest, Fiction and the Ethics of Care

2019 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 3-24
Author(s):  
Isabel Alonso-Breto
Keyword(s):  
World Trade Organization ◽  
World Trade ◽  
Ethics Of Care ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Life Conditions ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of

Sunil Yapa’s politically engaged first novel vindicates the massive pacific protests that occurred during five days in Seattle in November-December 1999. These protests were summoned against the World Trade Organization summit. The novel responds to the wish to inscribe in the history of fiction a crucial event which would inspire and inflect the later anti-globalization movement and protests, and which according to some has not yet received the attention it deserves by media or criticism. This article discusses Yapa’s work in the light of the Ethics of Care, and develops an exegesis, which, incorporating elements of Hardt and Negri’s ideas about the Multitude, understands the novel mainly as a reflection of the crucial preoccupation thathumans have for other human beings, and the innate wish to actively take care of the Other and improve his or her life conditions.

scholarly journals Ecological Perspectives in Linus T. Asong’s No Way to Die

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Danlami Amadou
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Crisis ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Ecological Vision ◽  
The World ◽  
Man And Nature ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Second Wave

Given the environmental crisis plaguing the world, this paper investigates the manner in which Linus Asong represents man’s link with nature in the novel No Way to Die. It attempts to provide an answer to the following question: how does Linus Asong portray the contact between man and nature? The work is based on the premise that the Cameroonian author depicts the relationship between human beings and other elements of the ecosystem with perspectives for improvement for the benefit of both man and nature. Second Wave Ecocriticism, as outlined by Lawrence Buell, is used to bring out novelist’s ecological vision which posits that human beings need to improve their relationship with, or treatment of, other elements of nature so that the rapidly degrading ecosystem is saved. Keywords: Environment, Fiction, Ecocriticism, Degradation, Protection, Vision

CHILDHOOD, WOMANHOOD AND FAMILY PERSPECTIVES ON THE EXAMPLE OF KHALED HOISSEINI’S WORKS

2019 ◽  
pp. 21-32
Keyword(s):  
The Novel ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Life Meaning ◽  
Afghan Women ◽  
Diaspora Literature ◽  
Family Perspective ◽  
The People ◽  
Family Perspectives ◽  
The World ◽  
Different Parts

The present research focuses on the analysis of the novels “The Kite Runner”, “A Thousand Splendid Suns”, “And the Mountains Echoed” by Afghan-born American writer Khaled Hosseini in line with the major characteristics of childhood, womanhood and family perspectives. Considering those perspectives found in this research, it is obvious that Hosseini globally demonstrates the real outlook of his nation and country, and moreover establishes that having peace and wealth is the life meaning for Afghan people the same as other, human beings. There are different literary perspectives in the studies of literature as archetypal, formalist, psychoanalytical, social-class, gender, feministic and historical. Hosseini’s works are interpreted, analyzed and criticized by using the historical perspective, which definitely show their contextual and discursive meaning in terms of diaspora literature. The childhood perspective is depicted in “The Kite Runner” via three personages of the novel Amir, Hassan and Sukhrob, moreover the writer describes the fate of Afghan people inside and outside of Afghanistan and can determine the problems of the people in diaspora. In “A Thousand Splendid Suns”, which deals with the problems of Afghan women, the author skillfully demonstrates the terrible conditions of females in pre-in-post Taliban periods on the example of two wives Mariam and Laila belonging to one man. The next work devoted to a family perspective “And the Mountains Echoed” gives the images of more than twenty various families from different parts of the world. Pariand Abdulla are the major characters of the novel and they are separated from each other in their childhood, yet reunited in their aged years when the value of memory and feelings lose their importance because of time and place correlation.

Nach der Postapokalypse: Thomas von Steinaeckers dystopischer Roman ,,Die Verteidigung des Paradieses“ (2016)

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 587-601
Author(s):  
KATHARINA GERSTENBERGER
Keyword(s):  
The Novel ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The World ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Present Writing ◽  
The Face ◽  
End Of The World

Abstract Thomas von Steinaeckers Roman Die Verteidigung des Paradieses greift literarische Katastrophennarrative auf, insbesondere Vorstellungen vom ,letzten Menschen‘, und entwickelt sie weiter, indem er gesellschaftliche Kontinuitäten vor und nach der Katastrophe beschreibt. Statt Weltende zeigt der Roman eine deutlich aus der Gegenwart abgeleitete Dystopie. Schreiben über die Katastrophe ist Handlungsmotiv und zugleich Metadiskurs über das Vermögen von Kultur angesichts fundamentaler Bedrohung.Thomas von Steinaecker’s novel Die Verteidigung des Paradieses takes up literary catastrophe narratives, in particular scenarios about the last human beings on Earth and develops them further by describing social continuities before and after the catastrophe. Instead of the end of the world the novel depicts a dystopian society with unmistakable roots in the present. Writing about catastrophe is both plot element and metanarrative about the power of culture in the face of a fundamental threat.

Assessing the Dilemma of a Nation at the Crossroads Protest as Landscape in Chinua Achebe's

Matatu ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-121
Author(s):  
Niyi Akingbe
Keyword(s):  
Social Protest ◽  
Mass Movements ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The World ◽  
The Way

This essay interrogates the mediation of protest and literature in Chinua Achebe's . It further evaluates the preoccupation of the novel as a veritable record of various forms of protest. Protest and literature are seen to be closely related in the way in which human beings perceive of their society and the actions that they take as a result of those perceptions. Social protest can be said to refer to those mass movements, private initiatives, demonstrations, and other activities which support or oppose specific developments or situations in a given society, with a view to changing it for the better. Literature, for its part, refers to that body of written, verbal, or performed work which exercises the imagination and seeks to offer insights into the nature of the world and the place of humans in it.

scholarly journals ARTISTIC THEODICY IN THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV BY F. M. DOSTOEVSKY

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 107-124
Author(s):  
Valentina Stepchenkova
Keyword(s):  
Research Study ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The Brothers Karamazov ◽  
God's Love ◽  
The World ◽  
Important Argument ◽  
Brothers Karamazov ◽  
Immortality Of The Soul

The aim of the research study is to explain the artistic theodicy of F. M. Dostoevsky. The justification of God before the world he created, in which evil forces are allowed to act, is one of the principal themes in the novel. In those scenes of the novel that raise the theme of innocuous suffering, Dostoevsky offers to comprehend the meaning of suffering. Dostoevsky sees it as not only as a result of the influence of an evil force, but also as a path to perfection for human beings and a way to experience communication with God. Dostoevsky shows that from a Christian spiritual perception of sorrows, one can find the strength to overcome them and see the highest sacred meaning in them. This conclusion is not based on the optimistic theodicy of Leibniz, but only reveals the goodness of God, who is capable of turning the evil, which entered the world along with the Fall, into an opportunity for a person to rise to a new spiritual level. The most important argument of theodicy is love: God’s love for man and man’s capacity to love, overcoming evil. Because of the lack of love, guided only by the “Euclidean mind,” Ivan returns his “entry ticket” to harmony. The logical conclusion of the research study states that Dostoevsky’s key to theodicy and the main value in the moral self-determination of man is the belief in the immortality of the soul and the all-goodness of the Creator.

Poshumanisme dalam Alkitab: Sebuah Renungan Biblis di Masa Covid-19

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Setio
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Book Of Revelation ◽  
Good Opportunity ◽  
Corona Virus ◽  
The World ◽  
Human Attitude ◽  
The Creation

Anthropocentrism has received many challenges since the publication of the famous article by Lynn White, Jr. in 1967. Yet, since then there has been no significant changes with regard to human attitude towards nature. Human beings still perceive nature as their tool whose existence is to serve their own interests. When the COVID-19 pandemic hits the world, the anthropocentrism is once again challenged. It should be a good opportunity to change the anthropocentrism. The novel corona virus has made people look powerless. It is just a tiny thing, but it has caused a great impact on human life. Despite the fact that the virus often outsmarts human beings, there is no sign that human beings want to admit their weakness. Through reading some biblical stories: the creation of human beings, the naming of animals, Job and the lamb in the Book of Revelation this article wants to deconstruct the view that sees human beings as superior to others in nature. This reading will use posthumanism as theory. It will allow us to see in the stories that human can be subjugated to animals. AbstrakPandangan antroposentrisme telah digugat sejak kemunculan artikel Lynn White, Jr. di tahun 1967. Tetapi sejak itu belum ada perubahan yang signifikan. Manusia masih menempatkan alam sebagai sarana untuk meraih kepentingan dirinya. Ketika pandemi COVID-19 melanda dunia, pandangan antroposentrisme kembali ditantang. Seharusnya ini menjadi kesempatan yang baik bagi manusia untuk mengubah pandangannya itu. Virus corona baru telah membuat manusia kalang kabut. Kehebatan manusia menjadi tidak berarti ketika menghadapi virus yang kecil dan tidak kelihatan itu. Tetapi bukannya menyadari akan kelemahan dirinya dan bersedia membuka diri terhadap kekuatan alam, manusia malah berupaya sedemikian rupa untuk meng-atas-i virus itu. Melalui pembacaan terhadap kisah-kisah Alkitab: penciptaan manusia, Ayub dan Wahyu, tulisan ini akan mendekonstruksi pola pikir yang mengistimewakan manusia di hadapan makhluk lainnya. Teori yang digunakan untuk menafsirkan Alkitab itu adalah poshumanisme. Poshumanisme melihat kedudukan manusia tidak lebih besar daripada makhluk-makhluk lainnya. Kebesaran binatang di hadapan manusia akan terlihat ketika kisah-kisah Alkitab itu dibaca dengan memakai teori poshumanisme.

scholarly journals The Christian Ideal and the Communist Ideology in the Novel by Eugenio Corti “The Red Horse”

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Historical Novel ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Italian History ◽  
Communist Ideology ◽  
The World ◽  
Post War ◽  
Great Love

The paper examines the phenomenon of creativity of the Italian writer Eugenio Corti, author of the historical novel Il Cavallo Rosso. Namely, it concerns the specificity of his artistic method and themes. The historical novel Il Cavallo Rosso, describes the 30-year period of Italian history from the pre-war period to the referendum on divorce in post-war Italy in the Seventies, so it points out many different and interesting features. This article will mainly focus the attention on the problems concerning the value of human life and humanity, from the point of view both of the Christian ideal and communist ideology. The novel is especially relevant for modern Ukraine, since it shows how the experience of the war can help rethinking national identity, the significance of history and of human life. Even the war represented for the author the possibility of realizing his own task, i.e. discovering the truth of himself and of the world. He could even say: «War can be an immense advantage. War makes men. The war teaches an infinite number of things because it shows us our fellow men as they are: it teaches us to truly know men». Accepting reality as it is represented to Corti the possibility of realizing its mission to be aware of himself and of man condition in general. The dynamisms of the narration in the novel Il Cavallo Rosso reflect the same dynamisms of life: life never goes on standby, human beings never renounce hope, they keep on looking for new and better answers to their existential questions. In this sense Corti's novel can be considered historical, not only because the author, fond of history, loved to be extremely faithful to the facts, but also because he admirably managed to make the same mechanisms of history and life. Through his great love for reality and his desire to know it better and let it known to everybody, Corti discovered his vocation in the world of literature: the vocation of being a Witness. And the novel we are talking about is a proof of this, as there are narrated his life experiences and those of his generation. Knowing better Man and History, the Life and its meaning, is the main goal of the big novel Il cavallo rosso, this is why the concepts of “experience”, “testimony” and “anti-testimony” will be highlighted as main components of both the author’s life and his literary vocation.

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