scholarly journals Kristin Stapleton (2016). Fact in Fiction: 1920s China and Ba Jin’s Family.

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 156-160
Author(s):  
Ronald Torrance

There are few resources amongst contemporary Chinese literary criticism that manage to weave such insightful literary readings and incisive historical research as Kristin Stapleton’s Fact in Fiction: 1920s China and Ba Jin’s Family. The book accomplishes three feats, as set out by Stapleton in her introductory chapter, simultaneously incorporating a history of twentieth-century Chengdu (and its relevance to the developments in China during this period, more broadly) alongside the author’s biography of Ba Jin’s formative years in the city and the historiographical context of his novel Family. Such an undertaking by a less skilled author would have, perhaps, produced a work which simplifies the rich historical underpinnings of Ba Jin’s Family to supplementary readings of the novel, coupled with incidental evidence of the political and social machinations of the city in which its author grew up. Not so under Stapleton’s careful guidance. By reading the social and economic development of early twentieth-century Chengdu as much as its fictional counterpart in Ba Jin’s Turbulent Stream trilogy, Stapleton provides a perceptive reading of Family which invites the reader to consider how fiction can enrich and enliven our understanding of history.

Author(s):  
DIANE E. DAVIS

What constitutes modern Mexico? Is there a clear distinction between the historic and modern Mexico City? And if there are, does this distinctions hold up throughout the twentieth century, when what is apparent is a mix of legacies coexisting overtime? This chapter discusses the semiotics of history and modernity. It discusses the struggle of the Mexico City to find its own image including its struggle to preserve historic buildings amidst the differing political alliances that either promote change or preserve the past. However, past is not a single entity, hence if the preservation of the rich history of Mexico is pursued, the question arises as to what periods of history represented in the city are to be favoured in its future development. In this chapter, the focus is on the paradoxes of the Torre Bicentenario and on the pressures to preserve Mexico’s past, the ways they have been juxtaposed against the plans for its future and how the balance of these views has shifted over time. It determines the key actors and the institutions who have embraced history as opposed to progress, identifies the set of forces that dominated in the city’s twentieth-century history, and assesses the long-term implications of the shifting balance for the social, spatial and built environmental character of the city. The chapter ends with a discussion on the current role played by the cultural and historical authorities in determining the fate of the city.


Author(s):  
James Whitehead

The introductory chapter discusses the popular image of the ‘Romantic mad poet’ in television, film, theatre, fiction, the history of literary criticism, and the intellectual history of the twentieth century and its countercultures, including anti-psychiatry and psychoanalysis. Existing literary-historical work on related topics is assessed, before the introduction goes on to suggest why some problems or difficulties in writing about this subject might be productive for further cultural history. The introduction also considers at length the legacy of Michel Foucault’s Folie et Déraison (1961), and the continued viability of Foucauldian methods and concepts for examining literary-cultural representations of madness after the half-century of critiques and controversies following that book’s publication. Methodological discussion both draws on and critiques the models of historical sociology used by George Becker and Sander L. Gilman to discuss genius, madness, deviance, and stereotype in the nineteenth century. A note on terminology concludes the introduction.


2013 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 251-260 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine Hallemeier

For much of the twentieth century, literary criticism tended to be relatively dismissive of Anne Brontë's novels. While recent scholarship has argued for the complexity of gender and class dynamics in Agnes Grey (1847), there is little consensus as to what, precisely, those dynamics are. Elizabeth Hollis Berry suggests that Agnes “takes charge of her life” (58), and Maria H. Frawley argues that her narrative is a “significant statement of self-empowerment” (116). Maggie Berg and Dara Rossman Regaignon, however, highlight the continued subjugation of Agnes in the course of her narrative. These scholars’ divergent readings demonstrate how Agnes Grey and Agnes Grey can be read both as illustrative of what Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak has famously described as the nineteenth century “female individualist” (307), and as instructive of the social strictures that circumscribed this identity. In this essay, I outline how shame works in and through the novel to bridge these opposing readings.


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (3 (27)) ◽  
pp. 159-162
Author(s):  
Mikhail V. Shilovsky

The review provides a detailed analysis of the research of doctor of science S.G. Sizov, dedicated to the daily life of Omsk during the Civil war. It is noted that the author, using archival materials and a large volume of various periodicals, was able to give a detailed picture of everyday life in Omsk during one of the most difficult periods in the history of Russia in the twentieth century, when the city became the White capital of Russia. Despite some omissions, according to the reviewer, the monograph makes a valuable contribution to the study of everyday life not only in Omsk, but throughout Russia during the social cataclysm of 1917-1920.


Author(s):  
Susan Scott Parrish

This introductory chapter discusses the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927. It argues that although historians have uncovered the details of what caused the flood to unfold the way it did, less work has been done to explain how, what was arguably the most publicly consuming environmental catastrophe of the twentieth century in the United States, assumed public meaning. The chapter then sets out the book's purpose, which is to explore how this disaster took on form and meaning as it was nationally and internationally represented across multiple media platforms, both while the flood moved inexorably southward and, subsequently, over the next two decades. The book begins by looking at the social and environmental causes of the disaster, and by briefly describing the sociological certitudes of the 1920s into which it broke. It then investigates how this disaster went public, and made publics, as it was mediated through newspapers, radio, blues songs, and theater benefits. Finally, it looks at how the flood comprises an important chapter in the history of literary modernism.


Author(s):  
Vincent Azoulay ◽  
Paulin Ismard

This chapter specifically aims to find a path that traverses — or a midway point between — both approaches to the study of the Greek world influenced by Actor-Network Theory and more traditional Durkheimian approaches centered on the city. It considers the model of the choros (as it was conceptualized by classical authors) as capable of offering a productive paradigm for understanding the mechanisms of belonging at work within Athenian civic society during the classical period. The choral reference also refers to a certain way of writing history—one inspired by the models of the novel and the choral film— that seems particularly fitting for describing the complex way in which the Athenian social sphere functioned. The article formulates the following hypothesis: a choral approach, at the crossroads between the specifically Greek conception of the chorus and the contemporary conceptualization of the chorus in the field of fiction, makes it possible to stay as close as possible to the ways in which the social sphere was composed, the formation of groups, and the identities at the various levels of community life. This hypothesis to put to the test by examining a unique moment in Athenian history: the years between 404 and 400.


2014 ◽  
Vol 17 (17) ◽  
pp. 281-320
Author(s):  
Alexis Francisco Uscátegui Narváez

Este artículo sintetiza los resultados de un trabajo investigativo que busca, a través de la crítica literaria y la teoría de la subalternidad, repensar la historia de aquellas personas a las que se consideraba como subalternos en la sociedad latinoamericana. Este documento destaca los aportes socioculturales de dos razas (indígena y afrodescendiente), representadas por dos protagonistas de la novela Eclipse de luna, del escritor colombiano Ricardo Estupiñán Bravo, quienes por cosas del destino afrontan un apasionante universo de amor, dolor y muerte. En términos claves, erguido con firmeza sobre dichos supuestos, Estupiñán expresa, con esta maravillosa novela, la dolorosa y cruda verdad de la subalternidad en Nariño, el desarraigo y la miseria de Cumbal y Barbacoas. Por esta razón, se realizó una interpretación que desplaza los discursos coloniales al olvido y legitima la heterogeneidad cultural y literaria que presentan las letras de Nariño, el mundo sureño, en cuyo verbo prolifera la libertad.ABSTRACTThis article summarizes the results of a research project which seeks, through literary criticism and the theory of subalternity, to rethink the history of those who are regarded as subordinate in Latin American society. This paper highlights the social and cultural contributions of two races (indigenous and African descent), represented by two main characters in the novel entitled Lunar Eclipse by the Colombian writer Ricardo Estupiñán Bravo. These characters, for reasons of fate face an exciting universe of love, pain and death. In key terms, standing firmly on these assumptions, Estupiñán through this wonderful novel describes the painful and raw truth of subalternity in Nariño and the uprooting and misery of Cumbal and Barbacoas. For this reason, an interpretation that displaces colonial discourses to forgetfulness and legitimizes the cultural and literary heterogeneity expressed in the letters of Nariño - the southern world-, was performed-, in which the word freedom revolves.RESUMOEste artigo sintetiza os resultados de un trabalho de pesquisa que busca, através da crítica literaria e da teoría da subordinação, repensar a historia daquelas pessoas às quais são considerada como subordinados da sociedade latinoamericana. Este documento destaca as contribuições sociais e culturais de duas raças (indígena e afrodescendente), representadas por dois protagonistas da novela Eclipse de luna, do escritor colômbiano Ricardo Estupiñán Bravo, quem por coisas do destino diante de um apaixonante universo de amor, dor e morte. Em termos chaves, erguer-se firmemente sobre ditas suposições, Estupiñán expressa, com esta maravilhosa novela, a dolorosa e crua verdade da subordinação em Nariño, o desenraizamento e miséria de Cumbal e Barbacoas. Por estarazão, se realizou uma interpretação que move os discursos coloniais ao esquecimento e legitima a heterogeneidade cultural e literária que apresentam as letras de Nariño, o mundo do sul, no qual se dá a proliferação da liberdade.


Author(s):  
Graciela Mateo Pietro

“Al rico nunca le ofrezcan / y al pobre jamás le falten”. Estos versos del Martín Fierro -obra maestra de la narrativa gauchesca argentina- remiten al Monte de Piedad de Buenos Aires: por un lado, esencializan la función social como institución proveedora de crédito a los sectores desamparados de la sociedad, y por otro permiten identificar a su autor, José Hernández, como miembro del Consejo de Administración de la entidad y tenaz defensor de su continuidad.El presente artículo estudia, a partir de los antecedentes del crédito pignoraticio y del rol desempeñado por los montepíos nativos a mediados del siglo XIX, el origen y la trayectoria del Monte de Piedad de Buenos Aires, destinado a aliviar las penurias de los sectores vulnerados, tanto nativos como inmigrantes, evitando que sean víctimas de la usura. En tal sentido y desde una perspectiva macro que dé cuenta de la situación económico- financiera del país y particularmente de la provincia de Buenos Aires, se privilegia el análisis micro de las distintas etapas de la historia de este entidad y de su función social; desde su fundación en 1877 dependiente del Banco de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, su incorporación una década después al patrimonio municipal y su conversión en 1904 en Banco Municipal de Préstamos. El punto de partida es un estado de la cuestión sobre el tema. Las fuentes primarias (Libros de Actas, Memorias y balances, Cartas orgánicas, Reglamentos de la institución, Diario de Sesiones de la Legislatura bonaerense y del Consejo Deliberante de la ciudad de Buenos Aires) así como algunas publicaciones periódicas de la época, resultan sustantivas para lograr el objetivo propuesto. “Never offer to the rich /and may the poor never lack” These verses by Martín Fierro -a masterpiece of Argentine gaucho narrative- represent the Monte de Piedad in Buenos Aires and its development. In a way, they essentialize the social function of this institution that provides credit to the underprivileged sectors of society. Besides, this affirmation allows to identify its author, José Hernández, as a member of the entity’s Board of Directors and a tenacious defender of its continuity.This article is based on the antecedents of the pledge credit and the role played by the native montepíos in the mid-19th century. Its focused in the study of the origin and trajectory of Monte de Piedad in Buenos Aires, as an institution which alleviated the hardships of the vulnerable sectors, both natives and immigrants, and prevented them from being victims of usury. Both macro and micro perspectives converge in this analysis. Firstly, the argentine economic and financial situation is taken into account to get to Buenos Aires’ province evaluation. Secondly, the history of this entity’s social function is examined since it was founded in 1877 (under the Bank of the Province of Buenos Aires), to its incorporation a decade later into the municipal patrimony and its conversion into the Municipal Bank of Loans, in 1904.The article starts with a bibliographic review of this particular subject. The proposed objective is achieved by analyzing diverse primary sources (Minutes Books, Memories and balances, Organic Letters, Institution Regulations, Journal of Sessions of the Buenos Aires Legislature and the Deliberative Council of the city of Buenos Aires) as well as the main periodical publications of the time.


Author(s):  
Frances R. Aparicio

This chapter examines the stories of the first-generation, immigrant parents of the Intralatino/as interviewed for the book. I analyze their personal stories of migration from their home countries, the romantic encounters with their partners as National Others, and the emerging conflicts and resistance on the part of their relatives and family members that they faced as they decided to start a family with a partner who was not of their own national community. That Chicago was the site for these inter-latino encounters speaks to the rich history of immigrant arrivals to the city. Historicizing the social meanings and tensions produced by interlatino/a desire and romance in Chicago, I highlight the courage and resilience of these interlatino couples given the challenges most of them faced for marrying outside their national community.


Author(s):  
Louis Corsino

Chicago Heights was a twentieth-century city. The defining movements of the century—urbanization, industrialization, and immigration—tell much of the city's history and provide an understanding of the social conditions leading to the emergence of organized crime. This chapter takes a brief look back at these historical developments as they played themselves out in the Chicago Heights context. Following this, it traces the history of the vice operations in Chicago Heights from their beginning in the early 1900s, to their union with the Chicago Outfit in the 1920s, to their ascendance and decline throughout the remainder of the century. The chapter suggests that the rise development and decline of the Chicago Heights Outfit run parallel in many ways to the fortunes of the city.


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