scholarly journals A Beginning to Existing: Understanding Colin Wilson’s “Outsiderism” in ‘Ritual In The Dark’ - An Eastern Perspective

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 37-48
Author(s):  
Sanjay Kumar
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Social Implications ◽  
Specific Reference ◽  
Human Being ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Complex Character ◽  
Religious Attitude ◽  
Non Fiction ◽  
Human Energy ◽  
Alter Ego

The phenomenon of “Outsiderism” found in the works of Colin Wilson has both individual and social implications which are intrinsically evolutionary. Wilson takes a stock of this ‘evolutionary man’ and concludes that ‘outsider is a god in making. The ‘Outsider’ is a state of consciousness which recognizes both duality and non-duality, but strives to leave the former and hold the later. Like an Eastern Yogi, these ‘outsiders’ have a strong recognition that life in its ‘ordinariness’ generates ennui which is bereft of any meaning and purpose. They indulge in all such actions, though momentarily, with intent of bringing intensity to their consciousness. Wilson contends that human energy can manifest in all possible negative and positive forms, but in the outsider state, these energies begin to integrate which leads to the realization that mankind’s freedom lies in religious attitude wherein a human being reconnects with its inner sources. It is interesting to understand the complex character of the “outsider” that Wilson has created in both his fiction and non-fiction and hold him as an alter ego to the eastern sannyasin, who having some glimpses of the other modes of being and torn by his own inner and outer conflicts is desperate to cast off the slough of his trivial worldly existence and metamorphose into a god.  This paper is an attempt to understand the Wilsonian outsider with specific reference to the novel ‘Ritual in the Dark.’ The study will be carried out from the perspective of Eastern mysticism so as to find out, whether such outsiders are Western sannyasins engaged in a similar self-quest, and who having traversed through myriad realms of their physical and psychological beings are beginning to exist.

La transposition profane de l’Exode dans Moïse fiction de Gilles Rozier

2013 ◽  
pp. 174-183
Author(s):  
Piotr Sadkowski
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
The Other ◽  
Jewish Tradition ◽  
Human Being ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Jewish Origin ◽  
French Writer ◽  
The World ◽  
Jewish Writers

Throughout the centuries French and Francophone writers were relatively rarely inspired by the figure of Moses and the story of Exodus. However, since the second half of 20th c. the interest of the writers in this Old Testament story has been on the rise: by rewriting it they examine the question of identity dilemmas of contemporary men. One of the examples of this trend is Moïse Fiction, the 2001 novel by the French writer of Jewish origin, Gilles Rozier, analysed in the present article. The hypertextual techniques, which result in the proximisation of the figure of Moses to the reality of the contemporary reader, constitute literary profanation, but at the same time help place Rozier’s text in the Jewish tradition, in the spirit of talmudism understood as an exchange of views, commentaries, versions and additions related to the Torah. It is how the novel, a new “midrash”, avoids the simple antinomy of the concepts of the sacred and the profane. Rozier’s Moses, conscious of his complex identity, is simultaneously a Jew and an Egyptian, and faces, like many contemporary Jewish writers, language dilemmas, which constitute one of the major motifs analysed in the present article. Another key question is the ethics of the prophetism of the novelistic Moses, who seems to speak for contemporary people, doomed to in the world perceived as chaos unsupervised by an absolute being. Rozier’s agnostic Moses is a prophet not of God (who does not appear in the novel), but of humanism understood as the confrontation of a human being with the absurdity of his or her own finiteness, which produces compassion for the other, with whom the fate of a mortal is shared.

scholarly journals Who is the other?

1970 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-190
Author(s):  
Marek Drwięga
Keyword(s):  
Emmanuel Levinas ◽  
Interpersonal Relations ◽  
Paul Ricoeur ◽  
The Other ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Religious Attitude ◽  
The Core ◽  
Ethical Discussion ◽  
Paul Ricœur

This paper deals with the problem of what otherness consists in, and what its foundation is, within the I–Other relation. In this way, the study also explores the limits of ethics and of a quasi-religious attitude, in order to establish what is required to shape interpersonal relations in a non-violent way, when faced with the radical otherness of another human being. Such an investigation also intersects with a broader ethical discussion that aims to take account of glorious or heroic acts, focused on the issue of supererogation. The aim of the present study is to demonstrate the degree to which a neglect of reciprocity and justice in the context of such philosophical research constitutes a risky step. To this end, the main aspects of the debate between Emmanuel Levinas and Paul Ricœur are introduced. After examining the position of Levinas, and how Ricœur interprets the I–Other relation in Levinas, an attempt is made to assess whether the latter’s line of criticism is pertinent and helpful for attempts to arrive at the core of the disagreement between the two thinkers.

scholarly journals Doświadczenie przemijania i starości w twórczości Wiktora Paskowa i Stanisława Stratiewa

2017 ◽  
Vol 163 ◽  
pp. 701-709
Author(s):  
Dorota Gołek-Sepetliewa
Keyword(s):  
Old Age ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
The Other ◽  
Human Being ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Human Relations ◽  
Literary Works ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The One

The experience of passing and old agein the works of Victor Paskov and Stanislav StratievThe literary works of famous Bulgarian authors Stanislav Stratiev 1941–2000 and Victor Paskov 1949–2009 may be viewed in terms of athorough study of the human being and the multidimensionality of its existence. Their reflections about existential problems also involve the experience of passing and old age that have ontological, social, cultural, symbolic and metaphorical dimension. The novel A Ballad for George Henig 1987 by Paskov and the drama On the Other Side 1994 by Stratiev include clear and ambiguous images of the end of the human life. The experience of passing and old age affects aparticular person as apersonality and its relationship with the other people. This subject reveals, on the one hand, the crisis of human relations and values in contemporary Bulgarian society, on the other hand it emphasizes the fragility of the human condition, expressed in the experience of pain, illness, passing, old age and death.Опитът на преходност и старост в творчествотона Виктор Пасков и Станислав СтратиевТворчествотo на известнитe български автори Станислав Стратиев 1941–2000 и Виктор Пасков 1949–2009 можe да бъдe разгледанo кaто по-задълбочено изучаване на човешкото същество и на множествотo измерения на неговия живот. Интересът към екзистенциалните проблеми включва и описание на опита на преходност и старост, който притежава онтологично, социалнo, културнo, символично и метафорично измерение. Романът на Пасков Балада за Георг Хених 1987 и драмата на Стратиев От другатa страна 1994 представят изразителни и нееднозначни картини зa крайния етап от човешкия живот. Опитът на преходност и старост засяга човешкия индивид като личност и отношенията мy с близкитe и по-далечнaтa социална среда. Тeматa разкрива, от една страна, кризата на човешките отношения и на ценноститe в съвременното българското общество, от друга страна — подчертава крехкостта на човешкото съществуване, което се изразява в опита на страдание, заболяване, преходност, старост и смърт.

scholarly journals LA NOCIÓN DE PERSONA Y EL CONCEPTO DE IXTLAMATKI EN LA VISIÓN DEL MUNDO DE LOS NAHUAS DE LA SIERRA NEGRA DE PUEBLA

2007 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Romero
Keyword(s):  
World View ◽  
The Other ◽  
Human Being ◽  
The World ◽  
San Sebastian ◽  
Human World ◽  
Other World ◽  
The One ◽  
Alter Ego ◽  
Sierra Negra

En la cosmovisión de los nahuas de San Sebastián Tlacotepec, municipio perteneciente a la Sierra Negra de Puebla, la noción de persona es uno de los ejes vertebrales para entender la forma en que es concebido elixtlamatki, el que sabe ver, especialista ritual encargado de los problemas de salud originados por la pérdida del alma, el daño al animal compañero y la brujería. A partir del análisis de los atributos otorgados al ixtlamatki, mismos que lo definen como un ser humano “especial”, podemos entender su función como intermediario entre el mundo humano y el “mundo-otro”, sus capacidades como “recuperador” de almas, su capacidad de transformarse en animal, la fortaleza de sus entidades anímicas y su facultad de actuar a voluntad durante sus sueños.   ABSTRACT In the world view of the nahua population of San Sebastian Tlacotepec, a village localized in the region denominated Sierra Negra in the state of Puebla, the “notion of person” is one of the principals elements necessary to understand the concept of ixtlamatki, “ the one who knows how to see”, ritual specialist in charge of health problems en cases like loss of soul, witchcraft or when the alter ego has been hurt. Beginning with the analysis of his attributes, which define him as special human being, we come closer to understand his function as intermediary between the human world and the “other world”; his power as “soul retriever” and other special abilities, for example, his capacity of transforming himself as well as his faculty to act intentionally in his dreams.

scholarly journals Parody of a Life which is Elsewhere

2015 ◽  
Vol 55 ◽  
pp. 35-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Javad Momeni
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Human Being ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Ontological Status ◽  
Middle Aged ◽  
Socialist System ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Historical Discourses ◽  
Two Stages

Life Is Elsewhere is a reflective introspection into the life of a young poet and of his demanding mother. Kindera depicts the mother as a woman feeling unworthy of love who relishes the fantasy of being Jaromil’s ethereal mother in order to escape from her actual bodily deprivation and resolve her psychological tensions. On the other hand, Jaromil’s portrait as a young poet involves his consonant, in Lacan’s terms, imaginary and symbolic identifications which lead him to an unending alienation in the context of a socialist system. Reading the novel in the light of Bakhtin’s ideas on parody and its polyphonic nature illuminates Kundera’s parodic treatment of motherhood, poetic, political and historical discourses, and especially his use of parody as a political means to oppose the domineering voice of totalitarianism. However, by giving parody an ontological status, Kundera considers it as the inevitable destiny of a human being who has forgotten his authentic “being” and ignored all his existential possibilities opened up to realization. Applying this notion to Kundera’s relation to his characters, Jaromil and the middle-aged man, implies that these two characters are, in fact, the parody of the two stages of Kundera’s own life and that of his generation’s.

Author's characters and the character of the author: The typical in fiction

2011 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tahir Wood
Keyword(s):  
Direct Relationship ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Other ◽  
Specific Reference ◽  
Fictional Characters ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Fictional World ◽  
John Fowles ◽  
The Social ◽  
The One

AbstractThis article situates the semantics of fictional characters within a broader framework of authorial communication. It argues that theories of character in the novel will be deficient to the extent that characters are not conceptualised as motivated creations of an author. The influential approach of Georg Lukács effectively excluded the point of view of the author in favour of a direct relationship between the fictional work and processes of history, as an instance of the particular related to the universal. But here it is argued that the notion of the typical should rather be seen as a relation between the social milieu of the authorial experience on the one hand and the figure-ground construction of character on the other. This constitutes part of a project to examine the question of realism on a renewed basis, particularly in terms of the authorial presence within the fictional world, and the case is argued with specific reference to a novel by John Fowles.

scholarly journals ON THE ISSUE OF NATIONAL EXILE AND SELF-EXILE IN FRANCE BEVK'S HISTORICAL NOVEL MAN AGAINST MAN

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 215-229
Author(s):  
Urška Perenič ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Historical Novel ◽  
Home Country ◽  
The Other ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Spiritual World ◽  
The One ◽  
Alter Ego ◽  
The Relationship

In the paper, the problem of exile is first understood in the way of national exile and persecution. The analysis will focus on the historical novel Človek proti človeku [Man against Man], 1930, by France Bevk, which thematizes the Middle Ages, but which should be read as a metaphor through which the author during the Italian occupation of Primorsko polemically and subtle confronted foreign rulers. In the novel the problem of national persecution is represented as the opposition between the representatives of ecclesiastical and secular/aristocratic authority on the one hand and the serfdom on the other, and is most thoroughly addressed through the relationship between patriarch and brave (bandit) nobles. With their bold opposition to the patriarch, secret conspiracy and efforts to remedy injustice and restore peace and order in their home country, the nobles also serve as a model for unification of the nation. Exile is also understood in terms of the individual's exile and the search for one's identity. More specifically, it is self-exile, which is at the same time self-awareness, as embodied in the central figure of Jerko, who is torn between the sword, the monk's habit and the poetry/art/spirituality. Jerko could be the alter ego of the writer France Bevk, who wrote the novel under conditions of house imprisonment and concluded it meaningfully with the symbolism of the falcon as the messenger of the spiritual world (and thus art).

Margaret Mahy: An Adlerian Reading

2008 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-199
Author(s):  
KATHRYN WALLS
Keyword(s):  
Young Female ◽  
The Other ◽  
Individual Psychology ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Alfred Adler ◽  
Female Protagonists ◽  
Magical Power ◽  
Margaret Mahy ◽  
The Individual

According to the ‘Individual Psychology’ of Alfred Adler (1870–1937), Freud's contemporary and rival, everyone seeks superiority. But only those who can adapt their aspirations to meet the needs of others find fulfilment. Children who are rejected or pampered are so desperate for superiority that they fail to develop social feeling, and endanger themselves and society. This article argues that Mahy's realistic novels invite Adlerian interpretation. It examines the character of Hero, the elective mute who is the narrator-protagonist of The Other Side of Silence (1995) , in terms of her experience of rejection. The novel as a whole, it is suggested, stresses the destructiveness of the neurotically driven quest for superiority. Turning to Mahy's supernatural romances, the article considers novels that might seem to resist the Adlerian template. Focusing, in particular, on the young female protagonists of The Haunting (1982) and The Changeover (1984), it points to the ways in which their magical power is utilised for the sake of others. It concludes with the suggestion that the triumph of Mahy's protagonists lies not so much in their generally celebrated ‘empowerment’, as in their transcendence of the goal of superiority for its own sake.

KONSEP DIRI “ I “ DAN “ME” TOKOH HIROKO DALAM NOVEL NAMAKU HIROKO KARYA NH.DINI

2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 109
Author(s):  
Besin Gaspar
Keyword(s):  
Point Of View ◽  
The Other ◽  
Self Concept ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Main Character ◽  
Fictional Character ◽  
Social Customs ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Village ◽  
The City

This research deals with the development of  self concept of Hiroko as the main character in Namaku Hiroko by Nh. Dini and tries to identify how Hiroko is portrayed in the story, how she interacts with other characters and whether she is portrayed as a character dominated by ”I” element or  ”Me”  element seen  from sociological and cultural point of view. As a qualitative research in nature, the source of data in this research is the novel Namaku Hiroko (1967) and the data ara analyzed and presented deductively. The result of this analysis shows that in the novel, Hiroko as a fictional character is  portrayed as a girl whose personality  develops and changes drastically from ”Me”  to ”I”. When she was still in the village  l iving with her parents, she was portrayed as a obedient girl who was loyal to the parents, polite and acted in accordance with the social customs. In short, her personality was dominated by ”Me”  self concept. On the other hand, when she moved to the city (Kyoto), she was portrayed as a wild girl  no longer controlled by the social customs. She was  firm and determined totake decisions of  her won  for her future without considering what other people would say about her. She did not want to be treated as object. To put it in another way, her personality is more dominated by the ”I” self concept.

Wacana Kolonial dalam Novel Max Havelaar: Sebuah Kajian Poskolonial

Metahumaniora ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 411
Author(s):  
Abu Bakar Ramadhan Muhamad
Keyword(s):  
Point Of View ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Colonial Discourse ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Voice

AbstrakHegemoni kolonialisme dalam budaya poskolonial merupakan alasan penelitian inikemudian mengkaji wacana kolonial dalam novel Max Havellar (MH) khususnya dampakditimbulkannya. Dampak dimaksud adalah posisi keberpihakan pemikiran tersirat darikarya tersebut. Hasil pembahasan menunjukkan, secara temporal maupun permanen MHmenyuarakan ketidakadilan dalam kondisi-kondisi kolonial menyangkut penindasan sangpenjajah terhadap terjajah. Hanya saja, upaya mengatasnamakan atau mewakili suarakaum terjajah terbukti mengimplikasikan ciri ideologis statis kerangka kolonialisme(orientalisme); yakni cara pandang Eropasentris, di mana “Barat” sebagai self adalah superior,dan “Timur” sebagai other adalah inferior. Dalam konteks poskolonialisme, MH dengan sifatkritisnya yang berupaya “menyuarakan” nasib pribumi terjajah, justru menampilkan stigmapenguatan kolonialitas itu sendiri secara hegemonik. Artinya, “menyuarakan” nasib pribumidimaknai sebagai keberpihankan kolonial yang kontradiktif, di mana stigma penguatankolonialitas justru lebih terasa, ujung-ujungnya melanggengkan hegemoni kolonial. Tidakmembela yang terjajah, tetapi memperhalus cara kerja mesin kolonial.AbstractThe hegemony of colonialism in the culture of postcolonial society is the reason this studythen examines the colonial discourse in the novel Max Havellar (MH) in particular the impactit brings. The impact in question is the implied position of thought in the work. The resultsof the discussion show that, temporarily or permanently, MH voiced injustice in the colonialconditions regarding the oppression of the colonist against the colonized. However, the effort toname or represent the voice of the colonized has proven to imply a static ideological characterin the framework of colonialism (orientalism); ie Eropacentric point of view, in which “West” asself is superior, and “East” as the other is the inferior. In the context of postcolonialism, MH withits critical nature that seeks to “voice” the fate of the colonized natives, actually presents thestigma of strengthening coloniality itself hegemonicly. That is, “voicing” the fate of the pribumiis interpreted as a contradictory colonial flare, where the stigma of strengthening colonialityis more pronounced, which ultimately perpetuates the hegemony of colonialism. No longerdefending the colonized, but refining the workings of the colonial machinery.

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