‘An Absolutely Private Thing’: Letters in Kate O'Brien's The Land of Spices

2018 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-96
Author(s):  
Kelly Sullivan
Keyword(s):  
Political Engagement ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Motivating Factors ◽  
Inner Life ◽  
World War ◽  
Public Writing ◽  
Ethical Imperative ◽  
Reading Experience ◽  
Individual Privacy

Kate O'Brien's 1941 The Land of Spices navigates spatial and emotional gaps through a series of letters that punctuate the narrative and offer evidence of the inner life of protagonist Helen Archer. Yet these letters also interrupt our reading experience in crucial ways, forcing us to consider the risks inherent in public writing, and the value of privacy a letter affords. Letters signal to us two motivating factors in the novel: a claim to absolute individual privacy, and, related to that claim, the ethical imperative to acknowledge social and political pressures and to engage with historical events. Through epistolary transactions and a twinned bildungsromane structure, O'Brien emphasizes that privacy and free will cannot be intellectually removed from social and political engagement. The Land of Spices uses letters to comment on the role of literature at a time of crisis, and the responsibility of Ireland in Europe as the continent descends into World War.

scholarly journals VIRGINIA WOOLF'S NOVEL “MRS. DALLOWAY”

2021 ◽  
pp. 80-90
Keyword(s):  
Virginia Woolf ◽  
First World War ◽  
The Novel ◽  
World War ◽  
The First World War ◽  
The World ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
First World ◽  
The Way

Following work is dedicated to the novel “Mrs.Dalloway”. The main characters are emotionally endowed Dreamer Clarissa Dalloway and humble servant Septimus Warren-Smith, who was a contusion in the first World War described only one day in June, 1923 year. In fact, the novel “Mrs.Dalloway” is the "flow of consciousness" of the protagonists Clarissa Dalloway and Septimus Warren – Smith, their Big Ben clock is divided into certain peace with a bang. Virginia Woolf believes that "life" is manifested in the form of consciousness, death and time, she focuses her essays on such issues as the role of a woman in family and society, the role of a woman in the upbringing of children, the way a woman feels about the world, the relationship between a modern man and a woman.

scholarly journals J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

2019 ◽  
pp. 59-68
Author(s):  
Sabah Atallah Khalifa Ali ◽  
Zaid Ibrahim Ismael
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Harry Potter ◽  
World Politics ◽  
The Novel ◽  
World War ◽  
Lord Of The Rings ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Phoenix ◽  
Invasion Of Iraq

Like J. J. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and many other fantasies, Rowling’s Harry Potter is rich with allegorical implications that reflect the political anxiety of the era in which it was written. The critics and readers found connections between the events of the early parts of the novel and the historical havoc in world politics, like Hitler and World War II, a thing which Rowling attested in many of her interviews. Still, the texts are still open for other readings. It is possible to draw political parallels with contemporary issues. For instance, the American and British readers have been unable to resist identification with the events which mirror the international campaign on terrorism. This study is a political reading of Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. It sheds light on the role of the Ministry of Magic in the novel and its relation to the governments’ policies to misguide the public about the terrorist threats to world powers, prior to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

scholarly journals Carnival Anthropocene: Myth and Cultural Memory in Monique Roffey's Archipelago // Antropoceno Carnaval: El mito y memoria cultural en Archipelago de Monique Roffey

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 41-55
Author(s):  
C. Parker Krieg
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Cultural Memory ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
Memory Studies ◽  
Natural World ◽  
The Novel ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World

      This essay examines the role of myth in and as cultural memory through a reading of the novel, Archipelago (2013), by the Trinidadian-British author Monique Roffey. Against conceptions of the Anthropocene as a break from the past—a break that repeats the myth of modernity—I argue that Roffey’s use of cultural memory offers a carnivalesque relation to the world in response to the narrative’s account of climate change trauma. Drawing on Bakhtin’s classic study of the carnival as an occasion for contestation and renewal, as well as Cheryl Lousely’s call for a “carnivalesque ecocriticism,” this essay expands on the recent ecocritical turn to the field of Memory Studies (Buell; Goodbody; Kennedy) to illustrate the way literature mediates between mythic and historical relations to the natural world. As literary expressions, the carnivalesque and the grotesque evoke myth and play in order to expose and transform the social myths which govern relations and administrate difference. Since literature acts as both a producer and reflector of cultural memory, this essay seeks to highlight the literary potential of myth for connecting past traumas to affirmational modes of political engagement. Resumen     Este ensayo examina el papel del mito en y como memoria cultural analizando la novela Archipelago (2013), escrita por la autora trinitense-británica Monique Roffey. Frente a la idea del Antropoceno como una ruptura con el pasado—una ruptura que repite el mito de la modernidad—este trabajo argumenta que el uso de la memoria cultural de Roffey ofrece una relación carnavalesca con el mundo en respuesta al trauma del cambio climático detallado en la novela. Basando mi argumento en la teoría clásica de Bakhtin sobre el carnaval como una ocasión para la contestación y la renovación, así como la llamada de Cheryl Lousely por una “ecocrítica carnavalesca,” este ensayo amplía el reciente giro de la ecocrítica hacia el campo de los estudios de memoria (Buell; Goodbody; Kennedy) para ilustrar cómo la literatura media entre las relaciones míticas e históricas con el mundo natural. Como expresiones literarias, lo carnavalesco y lo grotesco evocan el mito y el juego para revelar y transformar los mitos sociales que gobiernan las relaciones y gestionan la diferencia. Ya que la literatura actúa tanto como productora y como espejo de la memoria cultural, este ensayo busca destacar el potencial literario del mito para conectar traumas del pasado con modos de compromiso político más afirmativos.

scholarly journals “Looking ‘Foreword’ to Milton in Toni Morrison’s Paradise”

Religions ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 562
Author(s):  
Reginald A. Wilburn
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Literary Criticism ◽  
John Milton ◽  
Paradise Lost ◽  
American Studies ◽  
17Th Century ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Literary Influence ◽  
Reading Experience

Prior to the 2014 republication of Toni Morrison’s, Paradise, the novelist had not published any commentary about the role of literary influence John Milton might have had on her fictional writings. In a foreword to the republication of her 1997 novel, Morrison offers her first published acknowledgement of Milton’s influence on any work in her canon. My essay contends this Miltonic revelation constitutes a groundbreaking event in literary criticism. I explore the critical significance of this revelation by explicating the foreword, Milton’s significance within it, and its implications for reading the 17th-century epic writer’s (in)visible influential presence throughout Paradise. Placing particular emphasis on the interpretive significance of Morrison’s womanist critique of Milton’s portrayal of Eve, my essay turns to a focus on the Convent women as interrogated replicas of the first mother presented in Paradise Lost. This analysis of the novel enlarges the grounds of contention in Milton and African American studies, providing a richer interpretive reading experience that has never been cited or examined in existing literary criticism prior to now.

scholarly journals The Grand Narrative of the Mukhomor

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-184
Author(s):  
Dennis Ioffe
Keyword(s):  
Historical Background ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Cultural Significance ◽  
World War ◽  
Amanita Muscaria ◽  
Moscow Conceptualism ◽  
Russian Territory ◽  
Great Patriotic War ◽  
Russian Soil

Abstract This article addresses the complex role of mushrooms, particularly that of the fly agaric (Amanita muscaria) [Russian: Mukhomor], in the art of Moscow conceptualism in a broad setting. This paper explores the mythopoetic theme of mushroom-induced beliefs, which influenced the Moscow conceptualists, and employs background historical scholarship by R.G. Wasson, V.N. Toporov, T.J. Elizarenkova, and others. Aside from the mushrooms per se that were particularly important for Moscow conceptualism, this article also mentions various ethno-botanical entheogens (i.e. biochemical substances such as plants or drugs ingested in order to undergo certain spiritual experience, or “generating the divine within”). Apart from analyzing the ethnobotanical historical background of manifesting hallucinogenic mushrooms on the Russian soil (including Siberia), this article focuses on Pavel Peppershtein’s novel Mifogennaia Liubov’ Kast (The Mythogenic Love of the Castes), which was co-authored with Sergey Anufriev. As the narrative of the novel unfolds, its main character, the Communist Partorg (Party Organizer) Dunaev, is wounded and shell-shocked at the very beginning of the Great Patriotic War (World War II). Partorg Dunaev finds himself deep in a mysterious forest, where he inadvertently snacks on unknown hallucinogenic mushrooms. He subsequently transforms into an exceptionally strong wizard who is capable of fighting spectral enemies both on earth and in heaven. The reader discovers the so-called “parallel war” sweeping over the Russian territory where legendary Russian/Soviet fairy heroes are locked in combat with their opponents, the characters of the Western children’s tales, and books. A heroic mushroom-eater, Partorg Dunaev joins one of the sides in this fight and gradually reaches the “utmost limits of sacrifice and self-rejection.” This article contextualizes the fungi-entheogenic episodes of Moscow conceptualism into a broader sphere of constructed visionary/ hallucinogenic reality by focusing on psilocybin fungi, particularly the fly agaric/Amanita muscaria/Mukhomor, and their cultural significance.

scholarly journals The Role of the Motive of Reading in K. Paustovsky’s Novel Shining Clouds (1928)

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. 28-35
Author(s):  
Nalegach Natalya V. ◽  
Keyword(s):  
The Novel ◽  
Reading Experience ◽  
Inner World ◽  
High Level ◽  
Reading Circle

The article is devoted to the consideration of the artistic functioning of the reading motive in K. G.Paustovsky’s little-known novel Shining Clouds (1928). The motivational analysis undertaken in the work revealed the significance of the readers’ horizons of the characters of the work, not only for characterizing their inner world. In the case when it comes to the reading circle of the main characters, we can talk about the functions of plot prediction and create the pathos of romance. In this regard, mentioning the works by J. London, V. Hugo, E. T. A. Hoffmann, O. Henry, etc., is noteworthy. Since the plot of Shining Clouds is subordinated to the genre assignment of a detective-adventurous novel, the reading experience of such heroes as captain Kravchenko, Baturin and Berg allows you to actualize this form, performing the role of the genre framework in a work with a high level of lyrical digressions. Of particular note is the insertion text ‒ Nelidov’s diary, which simultaneously functions as the sought-after treasure and the actual text, in which engineering and art are organically combined. By virtue of this position in the structure of the novel, Nelidov’s diary enters into complex dialogical relations with other works read by heroes, which prompts a closer analysis of its fragments in comparison with the works of real writers. This comparison comes to the fore in the poem Galatea by L. Mei and the travelogue Journey to Arzrum by A. S. Pushkin, which allows you to see the place of the reading motive in the motif-thematic complex of creativity, as well as go to the author’s concept of a new person embodied in the image of Nelidov and a genuine value that encourages the heroes of the novel to go on a “treasure hunt”. Keywords: K. Paustovsky, motive, reading, novel, poetics

scholarly journals Rescued Music and Music which Rescues. About Wiesław Myśliwski’s Treatise on Shelling Beans

2016 ◽  
Vol 38 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Czyżak
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Human Life ◽  
The Novel ◽  
World War ◽  
European Culture

The article focuses on the interpretation of the last novel written by Wiesław Myśliwski: Treatise on Shelling Beans (Traktat o łuskaniu fasoli). The author presents a biography of the hero – a musician and homo viator. The novel describes his life and its connections with Polish history in the 20th century. Above all, it presents reflections on the role of music in culture after World War II. In his Treatise on Shelling Beans Myśliwski performs anti-logocentric turn – music is created as a sphere of art which has a/the power of salvation: it could save a human life from destruction and could stop the destruction of rudimental senses which formed European culture.

ROLE OF THE NOVEL INTRODUCED PAN-INTESTINAL CAPSULE ENDOSCOPY SYSTEM IN CELIAC DISEASE

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
F Foerster ◽  
K Mönkemüller ◽  
PR Galle ◽  
H Neumann
Keyword(s):  
Celiac Disease ◽  
Capsule Endoscopy ◽  
The Novel

John Cranko's Antigone (1959): A Ballet Lost and Found

2015 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Henrietta Bannerman
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Jean Racine ◽  
World War ◽  
Martha Graham ◽  
Detailed Consideration ◽  
Lost And Found ◽  
The Many ◽  
Tragic Drama ◽  
The Relationship

John Cranko's dramatic and theatrically powerful Antigone (1959) disappeared from the ballet repertory in 1966 and this essay calls for a reappraisal and restaging of the work for 21st century audiences. Created in a post-World War II environment, and in the wake of appearances in London by the Martha Graham Company and Jerome Robbins’ Ballets USA, I point to American influences in Cranko's choreography. However, the discussion of the Greek-themed Antigone involves detailed consideration of the relationship between the ballet and the ancient dramas which inspired it, especially as the programme notes accompanying performances emphasised its Sophoclean source but failed to recognise that Cranko mainly based his ballet on an early play by Jean Racine. As Antigone derives from tragic drama, the essay investigates catharsis, one of the many principles that Aristotle delineated in the Poetics. This well-known effect is produced by Greek tragedies but the critics of the era complained about its lack in Cranko's ballet – views which I challenge. There is also an investigation of the role of Antigone, both in the play and in the ballet, and since Cranko created the role for Svetlana Beriosova, I reflect on memories of Beriosova's interpretation supported by more recent viewings of Edmée Wood's 1959 film.

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