scholarly journals Breach of Contact: An Intercultural Reading of China Miéville's 'The City and The City'

2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Elizabeth Hanna ◽  
Peter Cowley
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Models ◽  
The Other ◽  
Intercultural Training ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Intercultural Encounters ◽  
Training Courses ◽  
City States ◽  
City Relations ◽  
The City ◽  
Two Populations

China Miéville’s 2009 'Weird' detective novel The City and The City is a tale of two city states, culturally distinct, between which unpoliced contact is forbidden. While residents of each city can learn about the other’s history, geography, politics, see photographs and watch news footage of the other city, relations between the two are tightly monitored and any direct contact requires a series of protocols, some of which might seem reasonable, or at least familiar: entry permits, international mail, international dialing codes, intercultural training courses. What complicates these apparently banal measures is the relative positioning of the two cities, each one around, within, amongst the other. The two populations live side by side, under a regime which requires ostentatious and systematic disregard or 'unnoticing' of the other in any context but a tightly regulated set of encounters. For all that interculturality is endemic to everyday life in the 21st century, what is striking is that critical and popular uptake of this novel so frequently decries the undesirability, the immorality even, of the cultural separation between the two populations, framing it as an allegory of unjust division within a single culture, and thus by implication endorsing the erasure of intercultural difference. We propose an alternative reading which sees this novel as exploring the management of intercultural encounters, and staging the irreducibility of intercultural difference. We examine how the intercultural is established in the novel, and ask how it compares to its representations in prevalent theoretical models, specifically that of the Third Place.

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.

scholarly journals Monitoring the Unvisible: Seeing and Unseeing in China Mievelle's The City & The City

2013 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 222-236 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Marks
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Potential Value ◽  
Two Cities ◽  
The City ◽  
Do So ◽  
The Invisible

Visibility is central to surveillance, but the term is both complex and ambiguous. This article seeks to  add to that complexity and prdocutively investigate the ambiguity by putting forward the concept of the 'unvisible' represented in China Mieviile's recent dystopian novel, The City & The City. Mieville's fiction depicts a world in which characters live in two cities that occupy the same space--are, in the novel's terms, 'topolgangers'. In order to maintain this curious situation, people from one city are required to unsee those from the other, to make them unvisible.  Failure to do so incures punishment from a surveillance force. These and other inventive notions challenge what constitutes visibility.  Briefly addressing ideas on visibility by surveillance theorists, the article argues that The City & The City usefully tests out those ideas. Gary T. Marx has written about the potential 'gradations' between the visible and the invisible. Through a detalied reading of the novel, the article argues for the potential value of the 'unvisible' in those gradations.

scholarly journals El enigma de lo insignificante. Subjetividad y ciudad en "Jakob von Gunten"

2016 ◽  
pp. 289
Author(s):  
Juan Evaristo Valls Boix
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Robert Walser ◽  
The One ◽  
The City

El propósito del presente estudio consiste en analizar las relaciones entre subjetividad y espacio urbano a través de la novela Jakob von Gunten de Robert Walser. La novela desarrolla una tensión entre, de un lado, un instituto de enseñanza y una forma de subjetividad entendida como interioridad privada y normativizada, y, de otro, la ciudad como espacio de lo múltiple y lo irrepresentable y una forma de subjetividad entendida como intimidad o secreto. La tensión entre ambas relaciones espacio-sujeto supone una versión peculiar de la dialéctica entre modernización y modernidad tal y como Benjamin o Kracauer la relatan, y permite pensar formas alternativas y superpuestas de concebir la subjetividad y el espacio a partir de distintas lecturas de un texto. The purpose of the present study is to analyze the relations between subjectivity and urban space through the novel Jakob von Gunten by Robert Walser. The novel develops a tension between, on the one hand, an institute of teaching and a form of subjectivity understood as private and normative interiority, and, on the other, the city as a space of the multiple and the unrepresentable and a form of subjectivity understood as intimacy The secret. The tension between both space-subject relations supposes a peculiar version of the dialectic between modernization and modernity as Benjamin or Kracauer relate it, and allows to think alternative and superposed forms of conceiving the subjectivity and the space from different readings of a text.

scholarly journals Beyond the Margins: Identity Fragmentation in Visual Representation in Michel Tournier’s "La Goutte d’or"

Text Matters ◽  
2012 ◽  
pp. 250-263
Author(s):  
Richard J. II Gray
Keyword(s):  
Identity Construction ◽  
Visual Representation ◽  
The Other ◽  
Visual Images ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Spatial Property ◽  
Object A ◽  
Postcolonial Identity ◽  
Identity Based ◽  
The City

In the final scene of Michel Tournier’s postcolonial novel La Goutte d’or (1986), the protagonist, Idriss, shatters the glass of a Cristobal & Co. storefront window while operating a jackhammer in the working-class Parisian neighbourhood on the Rue de la Goutte d’or. Glass fragments fly everywhere as the Parisian police arrive. In La Goutte d’or, Tournier explores the identity construction of Idriss through a discussion of the role that visual images play in the development of a twentieth-century consciousness of the “Other.” At the beginning of the novel, a French tourist takes a photograph of Idriss during her visit to the Sahara. The boy’s quest to reclaim his stolen image leads him from the Sahara to Marseille, and finally to the Rue de la Goutte d’or in Paris. The Rue de la Goutte d’or remains one the most cosmopolitan neighbourhoods of the city. In Tournier’s novel, the goutte d’or also corresponds to a symbolic object: a Berber jewel. It is the jewel that Idriss brings with him, but which he also subsequently loses upon his arrival in Marseille. From the very moment that the French tourist photographs him, a marginalization of Idriss’s identity occurs. Marginality, quite literally, refers to the spatial property of a location in which something is situated. Figuratively speaking, marginality suggests something that is on the edges or at the outer limits of social acceptability. In this essay, I explore the construction of the marginalized postcolonial self (the “Other”) through an examination of the function of visual representation in the development of a postcolonial identity in La Goutte d’or. In the end, I conclude that the construction of a postcolonial identity is based upon fragmentation and marginalization, which ultimately leads its subject to create an identity based upon false constructions.

scholarly journals The City as a Vacuous Common Place / Space in John Dos Passos's Manhattan Transfer

2008 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Attila Gergely Mráz
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Interpersonal Relations ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Temporal Experience ◽  
Common Space ◽  
Spatial Aspect ◽  
The Common ◽  
The One ◽  
The City

This paper explores some possibilities of interpreting the motif of the city in John Dos Passos's Manhattan Transfer as a multiply vacuous common sphere. First, it is shown how the spatial aspect of the city can be characterized by its twofold rendition as a place endowed with intrinsic ambiguity on the one hand, and as a defective common space on the other. Second, a structurally similar duality is investigated in the temporal experience of Dos Passos's city dwellers by distinguishing between (vacuous) present time and historicity, each associated with attributes of the city as a place and a space. Finally, it is shown that the postulated spatiotemporal vacuity of the city correlates with the pervasively aesthetic character of the urban sphere, where interpersonal relations are inherently deficient. This leads to an ultimate, moral vacuity in the common urban space; the only aspect of the vacuity discussed which is not absorbed at the end of the novel.

scholarly journals Dystopian Reality in Frankenstein in Baghdad a novel by Ahmed Saadawi

2020 ◽  
pp. 7-22
Author(s):  
Shaima Muzher Abid Alreda Alsaedi
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Family Members ◽  
The Other ◽  
Modern Literature ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Dystopian Literature ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Government ◽  
Almost All ◽  
The City

Dystopian literature is important in old and modern literature. It depicts a world in which everything is imperfect, chaotic and distorted. It shows a nightmarish image yet it is true in some afflicted communities. It mainly deals with war, oppression and disastrous situations. Almost all the characteristics of dystopian literature are real in Ahmed Saadawi’s novel Frankenstein in Baghdad. These characteristics are real and tangible in the place where the events of the novel occurred. These characteristics are manifested in people’s fear from the government, the American troops and terrorism attacks. Also the unstable life that they are forced to adapt.  In addition, the lack of freedom and independence create a huge gap between citizens and the government. Baghdad was devastated by many oppressive factors like: American annoying troops, terrorists’ explosions attacks, incompetent government highly officials, and militias’ sectarian attacks. The only imaginative tool of dystopia that Saadawi use is the creation of Whatsitsname.  Saadawi tries to drag his readers’ attention to a magical-realistic world. All the other incidents are real and present in everyday life in Baghdad in 2005; like the unsafe capital, the disintegration of family members, the separated limps of victims. Saadawi virtually described the dark era in Baghdad at that time. The bloodshed, the torture and massive killing was overwhelming the city.  Dystopian fiction links elements of truth that is specific to the time in which it is written in with science or imaginary elements that represent the terrifying direction we are winding to. Frankenstein in Baghdad converses this classic formula: the dystopian fundamentals of the novel are not engrained in its hypothetical and mythical elements but rather in the very real, frightening violence that Baghdad witnessed in 2005.

Cast Money and Coins of Kerkinitis of the Fifth Century B.C

1996 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vadim A. Kutajsov
Keyword(s):  
Black Sea ◽  
Metal Content ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Third ◽  
Low Weight ◽  
Transitional Type ◽  
City States ◽  
Sea Area ◽  
The City

Abstract84 bronze cast coins of 5 previously unknown types, found in 1982-86 during excavations of the earliest layers of Kerkinitis, and here presented and discussed. The types are: i. narrow leaf-shaped arrowhead money, cast in double moulds (3 specimens dated to the first third of the 5th cent. B.C. ii. flat pieces imitating bilobate arrowheads (38 specimens mostly dated to 470-460 B.C.) iii. arrow money, with a representations of a fish on one side (27 specimens dated to 2nd-3rd quarters of the 5th cent. B.C.) iv. one piece with a fish/dolphin on one side and the city name KA on the other (first issued in the course of the last third of the 5th cent. B.C. but still in circulation in the first quarter of the 4th ccnt. B.C.) v. 8 small-denomination pieces of the same series as iv with a fish on one side and the ethnikon K on the other (first issued at the end of the third quarter of the 5th cent. B.C. but still found in strata of the early 4th cent. and 3rd cent. B.C.). All the coins were cast, but the matrices used have yet to be found. The provenance of the metal used is unknown, but the relatively low weight of the coins would seem to indicate that little importance was attached to their metal content. Kerkinitis seems to have begun production of the earliest coin type, the arrowhead money, in the first third of the 5th cent. B.C. when its circulation was on the wane in other cities of the NW Black Sea area. Dolphin-shaped money does not seem to have been circulated in Kerkinitis as it did in Olbia, where it became the main coin type. The author suggests that the emission of transitional type iii may have to be seen in the context of the contest in the region between the cults of Apollo the Healer (popular in Kerkinitis) and Apollo Delphinios (stronger elsewhere) and thus as an attempt to reconcile the demands of both trade and cult symbolism. The appearance of the ethnikon on the reverse of types iv and v clearly points to their civic origin. The presence of a fish/dolphin symbol on their other sides shows their continuity with the typology of earlier coin series. Monetary practice at Kerkinitis shows clear similarities with that of other Ionian city-states of the NW Pontic area, especially Olbia. However Kerkinitis did not issue slavish copies of arrowhead and fish coins, but produced original forms, which differed markedly from those of other Greek cities.

scholarly journals Representasi Perilaku Priayi Dalam Novel Gadis Pantai: Kisah Seorang Gundik Bendoro Santri

ATAVISME ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-44
Author(s):  
Purwantini Purwantini
Keyword(s):  
Social Status ◽  
Key Words ◽  
Life Style ◽  
City Council ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Traditional Authority ◽  
Colonial Government ◽  
The City ◽  
High Social Status

Di lingkungan masyarakat Jawa masih terdapat otoritas tradisional yang membawa kewibawaan dan mempunyai status sosial tinggi di mata rakyat, otoritas tradisional tersebut adalah golongan priayi. Golongan priayi mempunyai gaya hidup yang spesifik jika dibandingkan dengan kelompok masyarakat lainnya. Ciri­‐ciri gaya hidup golongan priayi antara lain berupa adat istiadat yang baik, perilaku sopan santun, dan selalu berbicara dengan bahasa yang halus. Secara fisik dapat dilihat dari bentuk rumah kediaman, pakaian kebesaran, gelar kekuasaan, ritualisasi, serta simbol­‐simbol yang melekat padanya. Jadi, golongan priayi adalah kaum bangsawan termasuk para bupati, pegawai pemerintah kolonial, serta keturunan raja-raja di pulau Jawa. Namun, kaum priayi dalam novel Gadis Pantai adalah seorang bangsawan yang berperilaku kasar, biadab, serta berbuat kekejaman terhadap wanita yang pernah dipeliharanya. Akhirnya, otoritas tradisional ini berubah menjadi carut marut tanpa terkendali karena kebiasaan memperlakukan para gundiknya secara tidak manusiawi bahkan agama digunakan sebagai kedok untuk melecehkan kaum santri. Abstract: Javanese society recognizes a traditional authority that shows esteem and possesses high social status in the eyes of the society. This traditional authority is called “priayi”. The life style of this priayi compare to the other group of society’s life style is specific. The natures of their life style among others are politeness, good conduct, and the use of fine language for communication. This group of society can be identified from their physical existence such as their houses, outfits, titles, rituals, and symbols attached to them. The priayi society group is the group of noblemen including the city council, employees working for colonial government, kings and their ancestors in Java. Nevertheless, priayi in the novel Gadis Pantai is unlike the typical priayi member. In this novel, the priayi is the group of people with harsh conduct, bad manner, disrespect, and cruelty to their concubines. At the end, this traditional authority went out of control and turned into disarray due to their inhumane treatment toward their concubines. To some extent, they even exploited religion as a tool to misjudge the group santri ‘strict adherent of Islam’. Key Words: priayi; santri; concubines

Göçmen edebiyatında din ve kimlik yansımaları -Fakir Baykurt’un Yarım Ekmek Romanında Din ve Gelenek-

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-145
Author(s):  
İsmail Güllü
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Cultural Shock ◽  
Turkish Literature ◽  
Socialist Realist ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Societal Structure ◽  
Immigrant Religion ◽  
Turks In Germany ◽  
The City

Yarım aşırı aşan bir geçmişe sahip Almanya’ya göç olgusu beraberinde önemli bir edebi birikimi (Migrantenliteratur) de getirmiştir. Farklı adlandırmalar ile anılan bu edebi birikim, kendi içinde de farklı renkleri de barındıran bir özelliğe sahiptir. Edebi yazını besleyen en önemli kaynaklardan biri toplumdur. Yazarın içinde yaşadığı toplumsal yapı ve problemler üstü kapalı veya açık bir şekilde onun yazılarına yansımaktadır. Bu bağlamda araştırma, 50’li yaşlarında Almanya’ya giden ve ömrünün sonuna kadar orada yaşayan, birçok edebi ve düşünsel çalışması ile Türk edebiyatında önemli bir isim olan Fakir Baykurt’un “Koca Ren” ve Yüksek Fırınlar” adlı romanları ile birlikte Duisburg Üçlemesi’nin son kitabı olan “Yarım Ekmek” romanında ele aldığı konu ve roman kahramanları üzerinden din ve gelenek olgusu sosyolojik bir yaklaşımla ele alınmaktadır. Toplumcu-gerçekçi çizgide yer alan yazarın, uzun yıllar yaşadığı Türkiye’deki siyasi ve ideolojik geçmişi bu romanda kullandığı dil ve kurguladığı kahramanlarda kendini göstermektedir. Romanda Almanya’nın Duisburg şehrinde yaşayan Türklerin yeni kültürel ortamda yaşadıkları çatışma, kültürel şok, arada kalmışlık, iki kültürlülük temaları ön plandadır. Yazar romanda sadece Almanya’daki Türkleri ele almamakta, aynı zamanda Türkiye ile hatta başka ülkeler ile de ilişkilendirmeler yaparak bireysel ve toplumsal konuları ele almaktadır. Araştırmada, romanda yer alan dini ve geleneksel unsurlar sosyolojik olarak analiz edilmiştir. Genel anlamda bir göç romanı olma özelliği yanında Yarım Ekmek romanında dini, siyasi ve ideolojik birçok yorum ve tartışma söz konusudur. Romandaki bu veriler, inanç, ritüel, siyaset ve toplumsal boyutlarda kategorize edilerek ele alınmıştır.  ENGLISH ABSTRACTReligion and identity reflections in literature of immigrant: Religion and Tradition in Fakir Baykurt’s novel Yarım EkmekThe immigration fact which has nearly half century in Germany have brought a significant literal accumulation (Migrantenliteratur) in its wake. This literal accumulation, which is named as several denominations, has a feature including different colours in itself. One of the most important source snourishing literature is society. Societal structure and problems that the writer lives inside, directly or indirectly reflect on his/her compositions. In this context, the matter of religion and tradition by way of the issue and fictious characters in the novel of Fakir Baykurt who went to Germany in her 50’s and lived in there till his death and who is a considerable name in Turkish literature with his several literal and intellectual workings; “Yarım Ekmek” which is the third novel of Duisburg Trilogy with “Koca Ren” and “Yüksek Fırınlar” are discussed sociologically in the study. The political and ideological past of the socialist realist lined writer in Turkey where he spent his life for a long time, manifest itself on the speech and fictious characters of novel. In the novel, themes of new Turks’ conflict, cultural shock, being in the middle, bi culturalism in their new cultural nature in Duisburg which is the city they live in. The writer not only deals with Turks in Germany but also personal and social subjects via comparing them to Turkey and even other countries. In the study, religious and traditional elements analyzed sociologically. Besides the speciality of being a migration novel in general, there are a lot of religious, political and ideological interpretations and discussions in the novel. These datum in the novel are examinated in the context of belief, ritual, politics and social categorisation. 

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.

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