The Novel in Zapotec and Maya Lands

Author(s):  
Gloria Elizabeth Chacón

Chapter 5 examines the first novel published by a Maya woman, X-Teya, U puksi’ik’al ko’olel/Teya, un corazón de mujer (Teya, heart of a woman), and the first published Zapotec novel, Wila che be ze lhao / Cantares de los vientos primerizos (Songs of the first winds), as a rejection of first and second world- system alignments. This final chapter argues that the novelists transgress the political landscapes sketched by political ideologies, beginning a contemplation and imagining of what autonomy involves. I propose that the authors reject the nationalist liberal emphasis of integration as well as Marxist discourses as answers to the so-poorly termed “Indian problem.”

Author(s):  
Raj Kollmorgen

This chapter considers post-socialist or postcommunist transformations as a subtype and historical wave of imitative societal transformations, i.e., system changes taking the form of disruptive, accelerated, and politically steered modernization projects which follow successful models of society in the framework of global hegemonies. Focusing on an international comparative overview of post-socialist change in the Second World system, i.e., the countries and union republics within the Soviet Empire, the chapter begins with a discussion of dynamics and factors of state socialism’s decline. Subsequently, it problematizes key dimensions, actors, and dilemmatic processes of the transitional phase in the narrow sense, concentrating on the political and economic spheres. Finally, the chapter deals with the long-term period of structuration and its ambivalent character, which includes a discussion of varieties and innovative aspects of postcommunism as well as post-transformative challenges.


Author(s):  
Elizabeth R. Covington

Storm Jameson was a novelist and critic born in Whitby, Yorkshire, and educated at the University of Leeds and King’s College London. Over her prolific sixty-year career, Jameson produced novels, autobiographies, short stories, poems, biographies, and critical essays. A lifelong socialist, feminist, and proponent of social justice, the political activism she waged in the street and in the committee-room infused her literary output. Jameson’s realist narrative style endeavoured to create a ‘documentarist’ fiction that portrayed common life without cataloguing the author’s emotions upon contact with the poor or downtrodden. Her experimentation with the form of the novel, however, divides her work from the merely factualist accounts of other documentarist writers and aligns it with the literary experimentation of the high modernists. Jameson was the first female president of the British PEN (Poets, Essayists, Novelists) organization, serving from 1938 to 1944. While a pacifist for most of her life, her anti-Nazi sentiments led her to support Britain’s role in the Second World War against Germany, and her work with PEN saved many writers and artists from the Nazis. During her lifetime, Jameson’s most influential works were her Triumph of Time and autobiographical Mirror in the Darkness trilogies, but it is her two-volume autobiography, Journey from the North, that has retained lasting influence.


2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 122-146
Author(s):  
Karin Wolgast

Abstract Introducing life and work of Janina Katz, the article undertakes an analysis and interpretation of her second novel, the autofictional Putska. Born on the second of March 1939, Katz belonged to a renowned Jewish family with numerous members, of whom, however, only her mother and she survived the Second World War. Their extraordinary family history may be traced in practically all of Katz’ writings, as can her Jewish cultural heritage. The novel Putska is no exception. Its composition, characters and the image it gives of life in Cracow are examined in order to make understandable the protagonist’s decision to exile herself from Poland and migrate to Denmark, much like the author herself. 1969, having fled from that revival of anti-Semite harassment which was launched by the political leadership of socialist Poland, Katz was granted asylum in Denmark, where she soon learned the language to a perfection which enabled her to unfold a widely acknowledged literary work which does not cease to speak of her unique life experience. Central perspectives on her life and work include migration, autobiography, Jewishness and social and cultural history of Poland.


Numen ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jimmy Sudário Cabral

Este artigo analisa a obra de Dostoiévski, Memórias do Subsolo, apresentando o universo filosófico e político no qual se deu a sua gestação. A pequena novela traz consigo o confronto entre as principais ideologias políticas da Rússia do século XIX, colocando frente a frente materialismo versus romantismo, oferecendo o cenário do encarniçado conflito entre os chamados homens novos, da geração de 1860, e os representantes da geração de 1840, reconhecidos como homens supérfluos. O artigo está dividido em dois atos e procura descrever os distintos núcleos narrativos que organizam a primeira parte da obra, intitulada “O subsolo”, e a segunda parte, “A propósito da neve molhada”. Após apresentar os singulares universos filosóficos e políticos nos quais a novela está inserida, o artigo procura demonstrar o lugar explosivo desta narrativa, que foi articulada como crítica religiosa e núcleo de desconstrução das virtudes estéticas e políticas da modernidade.The present article analyses Dostoyevsky’s Notes from Underground, presenting the political and philosophical atmosphere which conditioned its genealogy. This short novel highlights the conflict between the main political ideologies in Russia during the 19th century, putting face-to-face materialism versus romanticism and presenting the terrible conflict that took place between the so-called “new men” belonging to the generation of the1860s, and the representatives of the generation of the 1840s, known as the “superfluous men”. The article is divided in two main parts and it seeks to describe the distinct narrative frames which structure, on the one hand, the first part intituled “The Underground”, and, on the other, the second part intituled “On the Subject of the Wet Snow”. After describing the distinct philosophical and political contexts within which the novel is set, the article tries to demonstrate that the narrative is deliberately woven in order to function as a religious critique and an instrument to deconstruct the esthetical and political virtues of modernity.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-29
Author(s):  
Cristina Zimbroianu

Manning’s (1908-1980) novel The Great Fortune (1960) is the first Second World War novel of a six-part novel series titled Fortunes of War. Set in Bucharest, Romania, the novel portrays the historical events of the first year of the war (1939-1940) and how these affect Romanian society and the English community. The novel was well-received in England, and in 1987 was adapted to a television serial issued by BBC. In Romania, the response of the critics after the communist regime was rather harsh, accusing Manning of misinterpreting Romanian reality. Moreover, considering that Manning portrays not only the wealth of high society but also the misery and the political conflicts of those times with the fascist Guard in the background, it could be stated that in 1960 when the novel was reviewed by the censorship board, it might not have been positively evaluated. Therefore, this article analyses the reception of The Great Fortune in Romania during and after the Communist regime from a historical perspective focusing on critics and censors’ responses to determine whether censorship influenced the reception of the novel in Romania. To undertake this study the censorship files located at the National Archives in Bucharest, as well as articles guarded in various libraries in Romania, were consulted.   Keywords: Manning, Second World War, Romania, Bucharest, censorship, criticism, history, reception studies


Werkwinkel ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 93-122
Author(s):  
Willem Bant

AbstractIn 1949, the Dutch publishing house A.J.G. Strengholt’s Uitgeversmaatschappij N.V. published the novel Dorstig paradijs. Through the eyes of Evelien van Eerdhuysen, the young, Dutch, female protagonist, author Adriaan Hulshoff presented an image of postwar Curaçao. In general, Dutch reviews of Hulshoff’s novel were quite positive and mentioned, for instance, the realistic representation of the island. Reviews published on Curaçao were very negative. At the moment the novel was published, Curaçao was fully in the news, because of the deliberations about the political status of the Dutch islands in the Caribbean. The question can be raised whether the image of Curaçao presented by Hulshoff was widespread in the Netherlands and representative of the way the Dutch looked at their Caribbean colonial possessions. One of the reasons why the book got much attention had to do with the name of the author who was hiding behind the pseudonym Adriaan Hulshoff. Most probably it was the well-known female writer Jo van Ammers-Küller, who after the Second World War, was banned from publishing because of collaborating with the Germans.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-145
Author(s):  
İsmail Güllü

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. 


2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-66
Author(s):  
Julie Bates

Happy Days is contemporaneous with a number of seminal contributions to the concept of the everyday in postwar France. This essay suggests that the increasingly constrained verbal and physical routines performed by its protagonist Winnie constitute a portrait of the everyday, and goes on to trace the affinities between Beckett's portrait and several formulations of the concept, with particular emphasis on the pronounced gendering of the everyday in many of these theories. The essay suggests the aerial bombings of the Second World War and methods of torture during the Algerian War as potential influences for Beckett's play, and draws a comparison with Marlen Haushofer's 1963 novel The Wall, which reimagines the Romantic myth of The Last Man as The Last Woman. It is significant, however, that the cataclysmic event that precedes the events of Happy Days remains unnamed. This lack of specificity, I suggest, is constitutive of the menace of the play, and has ensured that the political as well as aesthetic power of Happy Days has not dated. Indeed, the everyday of its sentinel figure posted in a blighted landscape continues to articulate the fears of audiences, for whom the play may resonate today as a staging of twenty-first century anxiety about environmental crisis. The essay concludes that in Happy Days we encounter an isolated female protagonist who contrives from scant material resources and habitual bodily rhythms a shelter within a hostile environment, who generates, in other words, an everyday despite the shattering of the social and temporal framework that conventionally underpin its formation. Beckett's play in this way demonstrates the political as well as aesthetic power of the everyday in a time of crisis.


2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-183
Author(s):  
Mary L. Mullen

This article considers the politics and aesthetics of the colonial Bildungsroman by reading George Moore's often-overlooked novel A Drama in Muslin (1886). It argues that the colonial Bildungsroman does not simply register difference from the metropolitan novel of development or express tension between the core and periphery, as Jed Esty suggests, but rather can imagine a heterogeneous historical time that does not find its end in the nation-state. A Drama in Muslin combines naturalist and realist modes, and moves between Ireland and England to construct a form of untimely development that emphasises political processes (dissent, negotiation) rather than political forms (the state, the nation). Ultimately, the messy, discordant history represented in the novel shows the political potential of anachronism as it celebrates the untimeliness of everyday life.


2019 ◽  
Vol 74 (3) ◽  
pp. 305-331
Author(s):  
John Owen Havard

John Owen Havard, “‘What Freedom?’: Frankenstein, Anti-Occidentalism, and English Liberty” (pp. 305–331) “If he were vanquished,” Victor Frankenstein states of his monstrous creation in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818), “I should be a free man.” But he goes on: “Alas! what freedom? such as the peasant enjoys when his family have been massacred before his eyes, his cottage burnt, his lands laid waste, and he is turned adrift, homeless, pennyless, and alone, but free.” Victor’s circumstances approximate the deracinated subject of an emergent economic liberalism, while looking to other destitute and shipwrecked heroes. Yet the ironic “freedom” described here carries an added charge, which Victor underscores when he concludes this account of his ravaged condition: “Such would be my liberty.” This essay revisits the geographic plotting of Frankenstein: the digression to the East in the nested “harem” episode, the voyage to England, the neglected episode of Victor’s imprisonment in Ireland, and the creature’s desire to live in South America. Locating Victor’s concluding appeal to his “free” condition within the novel’s expansive geography amplifies the political stakes of his downfall, calling attention to not only his own suffering but the wider trail of destruction left in his wake. Where existing critical accounts have emphasized the French Revolution and its violent aftermath, this obscures the novel’s pointed critique of a deep and tangled history of English liberty and its destructive legacies. Reexamining the novel’s geography in tandem with its use of form similarly allows us to rethink the overarching narrative design of Frankenstein, in ways that disrupt, if not more radically dislocate, existing rigid ways of thinking about the novel.


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