Infernal Journeys in Marie-Célie Agnant’s Femmes au temps des carnassiers

2021 ◽  
Vol 71 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-132
Author(s):  
Susan Ireland ◽  
Patrice J. Proulx
Keyword(s):  
Political Violence ◽  
Significant Role ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
Crucial Importance ◽  
Bearing Witness ◽  
Haitian Women ◽  
Female Protagonists ◽  
Complex Relationships ◽  
The Demonic

The emphasis on testimony in the oeuvre of Haitian-Québécois author Marie-Célie Agnant attests to her recognition of the vital task of bringing truth to light. Indeed, most of Agnant’s works take as their focal point the far-reaching consequences of the Duvalier regime, underscoring in particular the crucial importance of giving voice to the terrifying events that occurred throughout this period. In the richly layered Femmes au temps des carnassiers (2015), a number of Haitian women recount their experience of political violence and testify to the “unspeakable” atrocities that turned Haiti into a “terre gorgée de sang” (Agnant 2015, 21). While this text addresses the complex relationships between history, memory, silence, and voice, it does so by emphatically equating the Duvaliers with the demonic and women’s trauma with a form of hell. Agnant’s deployment of the trope of hell characterizes her female protagonists’ trajectories as a grueling journey into an infernal realm with no guarantee of return. At the same time, however, the narrative strongly suggests that bearing witness, especially through art, can potentially play a significant role in bringing about healing after an unwanted descent into the underworld. Le thème récurrent du témoignage dans l’œuvre de l’écrivaine haïtienne-québécoise Marie-Célie Agnant souligne l’importance qu’elle attache à la nécessité de mettre en lumière la vérité sur des événements historiques troublants. En effet, la plupart des textes d’Agnant ont comme sujet central les conséquences du régime des Duvalier et insiste en particulier sur les événements terrifiants qui ont eu lieu pendant cette période. Dans le roman Femmes au temps des carnassiers (2015), plusieurs générations de femmes haïtiennes victimes de la violence politique racontent les atrocités “indicibles” qui ont transformé Haïti en une “terre gorgée de sang” (Agnant 2015, 21). Bien que ce texte traite des thèmes de prédilection d’Agnant - les rapports complexes entre l’histoire, la mémoire, le silence et la voix - il le fait en créant un parallèle frappant entre l’enfer et les traumatismes subis par les femmes. L’emploi du trope de l’enfer sert ainsi à présenter les Duvalier comme une incarnation du diable et les trajectoires des personnages femmes comme un voyage douloureux sans fin dans un monde infernal. En même temps, cependant, le récit suggère fortement que l’acte de témoigner, surtout à travers l’art, peut potentiellement jouer un rôle significatif dans le processus de la guérison après une descente aux enfers.

In a Glass Darkly? Narrating Death and the Afterlife in J. Sheridan Le Fanu

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alison Milbank
Keyword(s):  
Edgar Allan Poe ◽  
Feminist Theology ◽  
Female Protagonists ◽  
Female Gothic ◽  
The Demonic

Chapter 10 compares the work of J. Sheridan Le Fanu, Edgar Allan Poe, and Emmanuel Swedenborg. Le Fanu is closely connected to Maturin and copies a number of his tropes in ‘Spalatro’: mimetic contagion, blood for money, the demonic tempter, and suicide. Le Fanu, aware of the deathliness of his Anglo-Irish culture, seeks ways to engender life and movement through narrating and revealing death so that a transcendence beyond can be imagined. He is compared to Poe, whose female protagonists remain entrapped by materiality even as they seek to escape it, and shown to be more grotesque. He uses Swedenborg to render the afterlife itself material and real, especially through his spiritual creatures, and to make the transcendent the cause of the natural. A proto-feminist theology yokes female Gothic entrapment to the power of death, and the heroines of ‘Schalken the Painter’ and ‘Carmilla’ apocalyptically reveal the presence of death in its grotesque materiality, while the women of Uncle Silas act as agents of heavenly charity.

scholarly journals Review: Cercel, C.S. (2018). Towards a Jurisprudence of State Communism. Law and the Failure of Revolution. London: Routledge. 240 рp.

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 199-214
Author(s):  
Mikhail Antonov
Keyword(s):  
Political Violence ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
Legal Philosophy ◽  
Legal Rules ◽  
Legal Ideology ◽  
Present Essay ◽  
History Of ◽  
Procedural Autonomy ◽  
Legal Rationality ◽  
Good Contrast

The present essay is a review of the 2018 book by Professor Cosmin Cercel TowardsaJurisprudenceofStateCommunism.LawandtheFailureofRevolution. In reviewer’s opinion, this book is a good contrast to the books and articles written in the first post-Soviet years in the Central European countries, when the intellectuals glorified the Western ideals and condemned the socialist past of their countries and the ideological legacy of the communist regimes. The focal point of the book under review is to rethink the history of authoritarianism in Romania through analyzing the formalist legal ideology that was utilized by communist regimes for their purposes. In author’s opinion, the ideas of Soviet jurisprudence do not significantly differ from the bourgeois discourse about law that characterizes the modernity. In the perspective of this discourse, the formal and procedural autonomy of legal rules (the regime of legality) is opposed to the substantial exceptions from these rules which are justified with references to higher values. These latter underpin the legitimacy of the laws. There were different versions of postulation of such values in the Western and in the communist legal theories, but all these versions are equally based on the same dualist paradigm of legal thinking.The author contextualizes this analysis of the legal philosophy of the interwar period within theoretical attempts to understand law through its connection with the state represented a kind of psychological defense of the classical jurisprudence against the revolutionary changes of the first decades of the XX century. These attempts are considered by the author as a function of psychoanalytical replacement and ousting of the historical facts from legal mentality, as far as these facts undermined the legal rationality and demonstrated the triumph of political violence over legal order. This semantic background was important for legal and political changes in the postwar Romania after 1945 — the wide discretional powers of the regime were justified with reference to the principle of exception which allows avoidance of rules in the name of people, country or state. This theoretical construction was largely utilized by the authoritarian regime which did not invent anything new but just followed the theoretical paths protracted in the interwar legal philosophy and theory.

scholarly journals Crossing spatial and temporal boundaries: Three women in search of a future

Literator ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 23-36
Author(s):  
M. Wenzel
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
White Women ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
Nadine Gordimer ◽  
Female Protagonists ◽  
The Past ◽  
Family Saga ◽  
South African Literature ◽  
History Of

The past has become a focal point in contemporary South African discourse, in public debate, newspaper articles and various forms of literature. South African literature written during the eighties and nineties, in particular English and Afrikaans novels, effectively portray this climate of confrontation and reconciliation by engaging in dialogue with the past and history. This article traces the evolution of political consciousness in the female protagonists of A Sport of Nature (1987) by Nadine Gordimer, Die reise van Isobelle (1996) by Elsa Joubert and Imaginings of Sand (1997) by André Brink. All three novelists subvert the traditional stereotypes of white women: Gordimer in an ironic quasi-picaresque form, Joubert by staging a family saga that assumes a testimonial quality and Brink in a fictionalised meta-history of women interwoven with strands of magic realism. The novels all engage with history, and in particular the role of women in history, in a constructive manner and attempt to anticipate a positive scenario for the future.

Does using ‘imagefare’ as a state’s strategy in asymmetric conflicts improve its foreign media coverage? The case of Israel

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 290-305 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moran Yarchi
Keyword(s):  
Political Violence ◽  
Significant Role ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Asymmetric Conflict ◽  
Guiding Principle ◽  
Policy Making Process ◽  
Asymmetric Conflicts ◽  
Foreign Media ◽  
Conflict Strategy

In their 2014 article in Terrorism and Political Violence, Ayalon, Popovich and Yarchi proposed a different strategy for states to better manage asymmetric conflict, presenting the notion of ‘imagefare’ – ‘the use, or misuse, of images as a guiding principle or a substitute for traditional military means to achieve political objectives’ (p. 12). The current study tests their theoretical framework, and examines whether the use of imagefare as part of a political actor’s conflict strategy improves its foreign image as presented by its ability to promote its preferred frames to the foreign press. The study compares the foreign media’s coverage of two recent rounds of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, in one of which (operation ‘Pillar of Defence’) image considerations played a significant role in the Israeli policy-making process. Findings suggest that whenever a country uses imagefare as part of its strategy, it increases its ability to promote its preferred messages to the foreign press and to improve the country’s image.

scholarly journals A Concrete Approach: Recontextualizing Brutalism Through Threshold Design

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Kotewicz
Keyword(s):  
Significant Role ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
Design Strategies ◽  
Urban Fabric ◽  
Modern City ◽  
Human Scale ◽  
Point Line ◽  
Social Agendas

The overcrowding, pollution and sprawl of the modern city outgrows and distorts its original framework. The building, land, and street relationship becomes a focal point in designing for the human scale. The existing urban fabric shifts along with society. Built many years ago, the buildings lack evident design strategies that successfully integrate the surrounding context with its architecture. By redefining threshold as a three-dimensional human experience rather than a point, line, or moment in space, the threshold and surrounding framework becomes significant in adapting the building to meet contemporary social agendas. There becomes a necessity to blur the boundaries between its architecture and environment integrating both the interior and exterior to appropriate the human scale. The ability to preserve these decaying forms through the means of threshold design will effectively contribute to Toronto’s Identity as a whole and successfully play a more significant role in an ever-changing modern city

scholarly journals Students’ View on Grammar Teaching

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 57
Author(s):  
Hendrikus Male
Keyword(s):  
Significant Role ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
Grammar Teaching ◽  
English Grammar ◽  
New Approaches ◽  
Qualitative Approaches

The focal point of this paper is on the view of the fifth semester students of FKIP UKI on the teaching of English grammar which was gauged through a study conducted in November 2010. The findings of the study, obtained via quantitative and qualitative approaches, revealed that a majority of the respondents basically viewed grammar is important in their study of English. They also viewed knowledge of grammar plays an important role in writing, but has no significant role in speaking. In addition, the respondents seemed to prefer explicit than implicit teaching in their trial to master English grammar. The paper concludes by suggesting the need to explore new approaches to the teaching of grammar to enhance students’ autonomy in learning grammar.

scholarly journals A Concrete Approach: Recontextualizing Brutalism Through Threshold Design

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Kotewicz
Keyword(s):  
Significant Role ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
Design Strategies ◽  
Urban Fabric ◽  
Modern City ◽  
Human Scale ◽  
Point Line ◽  
Social Agendas

The overcrowding, pollution and sprawl of the modern city outgrows and distorts its original framework. The building, land, and street relationship becomes a focal point in designing for the human scale. The existing urban fabric shifts along with society. Built many years ago, the buildings lack evident design strategies that successfully integrate the surrounding context with its architecture. By redefining threshold as a three-dimensional human experience rather than a point, line, or moment in space, the threshold and surrounding framework becomes significant in adapting the building to meet contemporary social agendas. There becomes a necessity to blur the boundaries between its architecture and environment integrating both the interior and exterior to appropriate the human scale. The ability to preserve these decaying forms through the means of threshold design will effectively contribute to Toronto’s Identity as a whole and successfully play a more significant role in an ever-changing modern city

scholarly journals Maori Education in 1994: A Review and Discussion

1994 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathie Irwin ◽  
Lisa Davies
Keyword(s):  
Significant Role ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
Final Report ◽  
Ministry Of Education ◽  
Regional Study ◽  
Family Reunion ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
The Third ◽  
School Based ◽  
The Impact

This article comprises four main sections each of which explores “whanau” in a range of educational contexts. The first section draws from research published in the Journal of the Polynesian Society by Dame Joan Metge (1990) to comment on the meaning and changing use of the concept “whanau”. This overview is then followed by the second section which comprises reflections and analyses of the Te Kauru family reunion which I attended at the beginning of this year. The third section takes May 6th, 1994, the day the film Once were Warriors and the book Te Maranga a te Ihu a Hukarere were launched, as a focal point to illuminate and explore the impact of two of the main contemporary uses of whanau in their respective contexts. Section four highlights and discusses the findings of a major study completed in 1994 in which “whanau” played a significant role. The study, “What happens to Maori girls at school?”, is the final report of The Regional Study of the School Based Factors Affecting the Schooling of Maori Girls in Immersion, Bilingual and Mainstream Programmes in the Wellington Region, commissioned by the Ministry of Education.

Phra Payutto and Debates ‘On the Very Idea of the Pali Canon’ in Thai Buddhism

2009 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Seeger
Keyword(s):  
Significant Role ◽  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
Public Intellectual ◽  
Theravada Buddhism ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
Pali Canon ◽  
And Function ◽  
Meaning And Function ◽  
Pāli Canon

In this paper I investigate a number of public intellectual debates in current Thai Theravada Buddhism that are related to several fundamental questions regarding the meaning and function of the Pali canon. The focal point of this investigation will be debates in which the Thai scholar monk Phra Payutto (b. 1939) has been playing a significant role. In these debates, the Pali canon is regarded as a central text endowed with special normative and formative authority. I will look at contestations that concern Theravada-ness and, at the same time, and inextricably linked with this, at concepts of demarcation to systems of religious beliefs and practices that are believed to be ‘outside’ Theravada. This, of course, engages the question of inclusivism, exclusivism and pluralism within Theravada. In so doing, I explore and posit concepts on the meanings and functions of the Pali canon that position it either as the or an authoritative reference.

Youth Participation in Political Violence

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
David M. Rosen
Keyword(s):  
Political Violence ◽  
Great Plains ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Youth Violence ◽  
Youth Culture ◽  
The United States ◽  
Transformative Power ◽  
Youth Cultures ◽  
Adult World ◽  
Complex Relationships

Throughout history, young people have been involved in political violence and war; however, the way this involvement is constructed varies dramatically by culture. In the preindustrial world, youth cultures or subcultures that mark and honor violence held complex relationships to the values of the wider community. In the nineteenth-century hunting-and-gathering communities of the Great Plains of the United States, the values of youth reflected the values held by adults. Elsewhere, such as among the Maasai and Samburu of East Africa, elements of youth cultures sometimes embodied opposition to the adult world. Despite these differences, the experiences of youth usually serve as a passageway to assuming normative adult roles within the existing social order. An important shift took place around the beginning of the twentieth century when, at least in part, war and revolution were carried out not just by young fighters but in the name of youth. The emphasis on youth and its transformative power signaled and legitimized the hope of a new social order. Though these wars often harnessed the revolutionary energy of young fighters, when the revolutionary moment became institutionalized, there was often a disjuncture between the values of youth culture and the emerging post-revolutionary norms. However, youth violence is culturally and socially constructed, “youth” as a social category is temporally limited, so its usefulness as the basis of permanent political power is ephemeral. Thus, youth culture and its attachment to violence always remain politically excluded from the hierarchy of power.

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