scholarly journals Hamsun’s “mal du siècle”

Nordlit ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 155-170
Author(s):  
Eunike Nesby

My paper expands on several conference themes, specifically “geographical places” and “boundaries,” and will explore the elasticity and intertextual implications of both terms as they apply to national literatures and writers, as well as their porous nature in literary studies (including theory, history, and criticism, according to René Wellek’s classic and still widely accepted triptych of literary studies [Wellek x]). Specifically, I will examine the resonance of the Romantic malaise known in France as “le mal du siècle” and how it might inform a reading of Knut Hamsun’s novel Pan (1894) and shed light on the more than eccentric behavior of its main character, Lieutenant Glahn. The French Romantic writer Chateaubriand (1768-1848), whose slender novel René (1802), with which “le mal du siècle” is most closely associated, represents the epitome of the Romantic hero, who evidently had not drawn his last breath when Hamsun published Pan almost one century later. Upon a closer reading of the two novels, there is more than enough to warrant a comparison. Glahn and René are archetypes of a similar malady afflicting overly sensitive, generally upper-class young men of a nervous and indeed neurotic disposition.

2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 788-832
Author(s):  
Lukas M. Muntingh

Egyptian domination under the 18th and 19th Dynasties deeply influenced political and social life in Syria and Palestine. The correspondence between Egypt and her vassals in Syria and Palestine in the Amarna age, first half of the fourteenth century B.C., preserved for us in the Amarna letters, written in cuneiform on clay tablets discovered in 1887, offer several terms that can shed light on the social structure during the Late Bronze Age. In the social stratification of Syria and Palestine under Egyptian rule according to the Amarna letters, three classes are discernible:1) government officials and military personnel, 2) free people, and 3) half-free people and slaves. In this study, I shall limit myself to the first, the upper class. This article deals with terminology for government officials.


Author(s):  
Clark Colahan

La interpretación pan-europea de la personalidad de don Quijote empezó y siguió por todo el XVII enfocada en la comicidad de su locura, pero con el paso de los siglos ha vivido distintas etapas que reflejan las preocupaciones de las culturas que lo consideran hijo suyo.  Los existencialistas del XX, herederos de la exaltación romántica del rebelde individualista, lo veían cuerdo, un modelo moral para imitar en una sociedad corrupta, a pesar de que Cervantes, y con él la crítica historicista, ponía hincapié en la resequedad de su cerebro. En el XXI el posmodernismo, inmerso en rápidos cambios mundiales, lo considera un actor que astutamente transforma su personalidad según las circunstancias.  Madame d’Aulnoy, aristócrata de la corte de Louis XIV, conocía bien el Quijote y vivió un tiempo en España, pero empezó a escribir una historia de marco para una colección de sus cuentos de hadas con el típico desprecio de su clase por un burgués de sueños caballerescos que ambiciona colarse entre los ‘bien nacidos’.  Sin embargo, ella no pudo dejar de percibir las similitudes entre este y su propia situación como forjadora de historias fantásticas, y decide  que su protagonista va a triunfar.  Dando fin a la novela desde una auténtica perspectiva cervantina de haz y envés, se deja llevar, si bien a regañadientes, por el soñador que se imagina un mundo menos exigente.                                                                                                                                     The pan-European interpretation of Don Quixote’s personality began, and continued to be throughout the 17th century, focused on his comical madness, but with the passing of the centuries that view has shifted to various alternatives that reflect the concerns of the cultures that consider him theirs. 20th-century existentialists, heirs to the Romantic exaltation of individualist rebels, saw him as sane, a moral model to be imitated in a corrupt society, in spite of the fact that Cervantes, and with him historicist criticism, stressed that his brain had dried up.  In the 21st century postmodernism, caught up in rapid worldwide changes, consider him an actor who cleverly transforms his personality to fit the circumstances. Madame d’Aulnoy, an aristocrat at the court of Louis XIV, knew Don Quixote well and lived for a time in Spain, but still she began to write a frame story for a collection of her fairytales with typically upper-class scorn for a bourgeois with chivalric dreams whose ambition is to be accepted among the ‘well born,’ and so she decides to have her main character win out.  Writing an end to the novel from an authentically Cervantine perspective of seeing both sides of the coin, she lets herself be carried away, even though she fights against it, by the dreamer who imagines a less demanding world.


2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 100-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvia Bellezza ◽  
Jonah Berger

Abstract Trickle-down theories suggest that status symbols and fashion trends originate from the elites and move downward, but some high-end restaurants serve lowbrow food (e.g., potato chips, macaroni and cheese), and some high-status individuals wear downscale clothing (e.g., ripped jeans, duct-taped shoes). Why would high-status actors adopt items traditionally associated with low-status groups? Using a signaling perspective to explain this phenomenon, the authors suggest that elites sometimes adopt items associated with low-status groups as a costly signal to distinguish themselves from middle-status individuals. As a result, signals sometimes trickle round, moving directly from the lower to the upper class, before diffusing to the middle class. Furthermore, consistent with a signaling perspective, the presence of multiple signaling dimensions facilitates this effect, enabling the highs to mix and match high and low signals and differentiate themselves. These findings deepen the understanding of signaling dynamics, support a trickle-round theory of fashion, and shed light on alternative status symbols.


2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 38
Author(s):  
Ahmed Abdel Azim ElShiekh

<p>This paper attempts to shed light on some cultural and/or technical problems in the translation of religious terms from English into Arabic in the subtitles of movies, with particular reference to some Arab Gulf countries channels. Due to limitations of time and space, the researcher has taken two particular channels as representative, namely MBC Channel group and Dubai One. The data of the research have been collected from one film and one TV series as quite typical examples of works that may lead to serious problems in the subtitles translation with regard to religious terms. In both cases, the use of religious terms is not only obligatory but also focal. The researcher points the discrepancies in the choice of Arabic equivalents for the English religious terms in question as well as explores the possible reasons of and recommended solutions to such cultural problems in translation. The film, <em>Bruce Almighty</em>, is a light and comic treatment of the phenomenon of well-educated yet vain young men, doubting the wisdom of God Almighty. Jim Cary plays the role of the young man, while Morgan Freeman actually plays God! Hence, there is no easy way out of the necessity of tackling the problem of translating the religious terms involved. As for the TV series, <em>Supernatural</em>, the whole episode deals with God, angels, demons and Satan. It remains to be said that this paper does not claim to give decisive answers to the questions posed by the research, but only aspires to pave the way before further research on the topic and related issues.</p>


2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Simone Elisabeth Lang

AbstractIn describing the position of the narrator, research in literary studies generally follows Gérard Genette’s pioneering theory of narrative in distinguishing between the homo- and heterodiegetic type of narrator. This categorization is not sufficient to allow the position of the narrator to be described properly. The different ways in which the terms are used in literary studies reveal a shortcoming in the distinction behind them. Even in Genette’s work, there is a contradiction between the definition and the names of the two categories: Genette defines homo- and heterodiegesis with reference to the narrator’s presence in the narrated story, whereas he elsewhere states that the diegesis (in the sense of FrenchThe present article aims to do just that, starting from a theoretical standpoint. Thus, the different types of narrator that are possible are sketched in outline, and then explained with the help of examples.I begin by exposing the problems that result from using the terms in Genette’s manner (1), in order then to develop a list of possible narratorial standpoints based on the one hand on the involvement of the narratorial instance in the narrated world and on the other on its involvement in the story. By establishing separation of the two aspects as a ground rule in this way, a number of misunderstandings that are due to the varied ways in which the terminology has been used to date can be overcome.There follows a description of those cases that are unambiguously hetero- and homodiegetic (2), after which the problematic cases are considered (3), yielding the different types of homodiegetic narration that are possible. This latter set of distinctions will, like the others, shed light on the contours of the different narratorial positions and thus be capable of being put profitably into practice in textual interpretation. Accordingly, what is suggested is a way of using the terms that is first unambiguous and second beneficial to the interpretation of works, thus doing justice to the heuristic importance of narratology (see Kindt/Müller 2003; Stanzel 2002, 19).Thus, whereas the concept of diegesis provides the foundation for a distinction based on an ontological criterion that divides homo- and heterodiegesis from each other, the relationship between story and narrator is used to describe various types of homodiegetic narration. In the process, there come to light two types that are distinguished from each other by involvement in events (›homodiegetic, in the story‹ and ›homodiegetic, not in the story‹ narrators). If the narrator is not involved in events, the question arises of whether it would in principle have been possible for him to be involved in events, which is the norm with ›homodiegetic, not in the story‹ narrators, or whether a physical impossibility is the reason for his lack of involvement in the story. A special case of the ›homodiegetic, not in the story‹ narrator can be derived from this: peridiegetic narration: whereas narratorial instances of the ›homodiegetic, in the story‹ and ›homodiegetic, not in the story‹ types could in principle have been involved in the action and those of the ›homodiegetic, in the story‹ type actually were, peridiegetic narrators are marked by the fact that they cannot have been involved in the events.In summary, it will be shown that the concept of homodiegesis – in particular in the form in which it has previously been used, where links with the action and appearance in the story were not kept distinct – is in effect an umbrella term that brings together a number of possible forms. There is a prominent distinction between the ›homodiegetic, in the story‹ and the ›homodiegetic, not in the story‹ types of narrator (these types are represented in the present article by the old lawyer in Leo Perutz’s »The Beaming Moon« and the narrator who is a friend of Nathanael in E. T. A. Hoffmann’s »Sandman« respectively). The different degrees of homodiegetic narrator, which have often been mentioned in previous research and are defined by the strength of the character’s presence in the narrated world (from an uninvolved witness to an autodiegetic protagonist), are also to be situated between these two poles.It will also be shown in the process that the case of the narrator who is, for reasons of physical difference, not involved in events (the peridiegetic narrator) should be treated as a form of homodiegesis (for instance the schoolmaster in Theodor Storm’s


2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 361-382 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carl Cassegård

This is a paper on the transformation of campus activism in Japan since the 1990’s. Japan’s so-called freeter movements (movements of young men and women lacking regular employment) are often said to have emerged as young people shifted their base of activism from campuses to the “street”. However, campuses have continued to play a role in activism. Although the radical student organisations of the New Left have waned, new movements are forming among students and precarious university employees in response to neoliberalization trends in society and the precarization of their conditions. This transformation has gone hand in hand with a shift of action repertoire towards forms of direct action such as squatting, sitins, hunger strikes, and opening “cafés”. In this paper I focus on the development of campus protest in Kyoto from the mid-1990s until today to shed light on the following questions: How have campus-based activists responded to the neoliberalization of Japanese universities? What motivates them to use art or art-like forms of direct action and how are these activities related to space? I investigate the notions of space towards which activists have been oriented since the 1990’s, focusing on three notions: official public space, counter-space and no-man’s-land. These conceptions of space, I argue, are needed to account for the various forms campus protest has taken since the 1990s.


Author(s):  
С.Л. Лобзова

The article attempts to highlight the main romantic motifs that the modern German writer Patrick Süskind used in his novel Perfume: The Story of a Murderer. Symbolic for the contemporary cultural context figurative semantic constants (genius, loneliness, rejection, godlessness, etc.) are assigned to such motifs. The ways and means of rethinking romantic motifs in a modern novel are determined, the specifics of their transformation in a postmodern text is analyzed. The similarities between the work of Süskind and popular upbringing novels in the Enlightenment are noted: the main character of the modern German writer goes through the thorny path of formation, he improves his gift, thanks to which he hopes to change the world, subjugate other people to himself. The parody evangelical allusions that contribute to the deconstruction of the romantic figure of an unrecognized genius are analyzed. The postmodernist writer debunks and ridicules the hero, turning the imaginary king into a jester. Unlike the romantic hero, whose main function was to broadcast the divine will, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille refutes the truth of the Absolute by his existence and the ingenious gift inherent in him by nature. The article concludes that Süskind refers to a stable romantic model, implemented many times in literature and art, setting his own accents in his own way, bringing the romantic structure to its limit. This model goes through the second stage in its development, according to the Hegel’s triad, namely, the negation of negation, when any phenomenon turns into its opposite. Refuting the well-known Pushkin’s claim that “genius and villainy are two incompatible things”, the writer at the same time comes to the conclusion that evil, even without meeting a worthy opponent, is destructive to himself. We see further research prospects in the study of the novel in the context of the work of Süskind and modern German-language literature from the point of view of transforming the romantic tradition in the post-modern text.


Author(s):  
Наталья Евгеньевна Купцова

Введение. Представлена совершенно неисследованная тема в отечественном лермонтоведении – академическая рецепция романа М. Ю. Лермонтова «Герой нашего времени» в США. Автор статьи собрала наиболее представительные на сегодняшний день публикации, вышедшие в США за всю историю американского лермонтоведения и посвященные этому роману. Цель – провести исследование академической рецепции романа М. Ю. Лермонтова «Герой нашего времени» в США. Материал и методы. Поиск публикаций, посвященных роману М. Ю. Лермонтова «Герой нашего времени», вышедших в США, и их анализ по предложенной автором периодизации. Результаты и обсуждение. Предложена периодизация по трем периодам: публикации 1900–1960-х гг., публикации 1970–1980-х гг. и публикации 1900-х гг. по настоящее время. Особенностями публикаций 1900–1960-х гг. является прежде всего осмысление того, как М. Ю. Лермонтов изобразил русское общество 1830-х гг. и главного героя своего произведения, акцент на психологичности романа, а также сравнение с героями А. С. Пушкина. Среди исследователей нет согласия относительно жанра романа – так, Мерсеро относит его к жанру психологического реализма, а в предисловии к первому англоязычному изданию в США отмечен байронический характер Печорина. Для публикаций 1970–1980-х гг. наблюдаются совершенно другие акценты у американских исследователей. На первое место выходит интерес к внутреннему устройству романа: его фабуле, сюжету, структуре. Несмотря на то, что по-прежнему нет полного согласия относительно жанровой принадлежности романа, большинство исследователей считают, что именно в роман «Герой нашего времени» покончил с романтизмом в русской прозе, в чем и заключается его главное новаторство. Изменился и взгляд на главного героя романа – в Печорине видят уже не байронические, а демонические черты. На современном этапе изучения романа «Герой нашего времени» у американских исследователей появляются новые темы в изучении романа. Так, например, красной нитью проходит тема отражения в романе взаимоотношений между русскими и кавказскими народами. Кроме того, если раньше в центре внимания исследователей был только Печорин, то теперь изучаются и другие герои и героини романа. Интересно и то, что Печорина теперь считают постромантическим героем и сам роман большинство исследователей считают постромантическим. Заключение. Проведенный анализ и предложенная периодизация наглядно иллюстрируют эволюцию интереса исследователей из США к различным аспектам романа и его героев. Библиографический список статьи внушителен и сам по себе представляет значительный интерес и вклад в лермонтоведение. Авторы публикаций, вошедших в обзор, – филологи, публицисты, политологи и антропологи. Introduction. The article is devoted to the completely unexplored subject in Russian Lermontov studies – the academic reception of the novel “Hero of our time” by the scholars from the USA. In the article the most reputable and representative works published in the USA about this novel are outlined and analyzed in accordance with the following periodization: publications of 1900-1960s, publications of 1970-80s and the modern publications of 1900s until now. The goal. Research of the academic reception of the novel of M. Lermontov «Hero of our time” in the USA. Materials and methods. Search and analysis of the publications, devoted to the novel “Hero of our time” by M. Lermontov issued in the USA in accordance with the periodization proposed by the author. Results and discussion. The focus of publications 1900–1960s is primarily the understanding of how M.Yu. Lermontov portrayed the Russian society of the 1830s and the main character of his work, an emphasis on the psychological nature of the novel, as well as a comparison with A.S. Pushkin. Among the researchers there is no agreement on the genre of the novel - for example, Mercereau classifies it as a genre of psychological realism, and in the preface to the first Russian-language edition in the United States, the Byronic character of Pechorin is noted. In publications from the 1970s to 1980s, there is a completely different emphasis. First of all, the internal structure of the novel is in the focus. Despite the fact that there is still no full agreement on the genre of the novel, most researchers believe that the novel «A Hero of Our Time» that he put an end to romanticism in Russian prose, which is the main innovation of Lermontov. The view on the main character of the novel has also changed - in Pechorin they see not Byronic, but demonic features. At the present stage, American researchers have new topics in the study of the novel «Hero of our time”. For example, the topic of the relationship between the Russian and Caucasian peoples attracts a lot of attention. In addition, if earlier only Pechorin was in the center of attention of researchers, now other heroes and heroines of the novel are also being studied. It is also interesting that Pechorin is now considered a post-romantic hero, and most researchers classify the novel as post-romantic. Conclusion. The conducted analysis and the proposed periodization demonstrably illustrates the evolution of approaches and interest to the various aspects of the novel and its heroes. The bibliography of the article is impressive itself and makes a significant contribution to the Lermontov studies. The authors of the publications included in the review are philologists, publicists, political scientists, anthropologists.


Slovene ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 232-260
Author(s):  
Ulla Birgegård

The paper seeks to contribute to the discussion among historians about the value, as historical sources, of foreign diplomats stationed in Russia. Two young men, Hildebrand von Horn, an envoy extraordinaire of the Danish king, and the Swede Johan Gabriel Sparwenfeld, a student of the Russian language and Russian affairs on a scholarship granted by the Swedish king, met in the Russian capital during the summer of 1684. They had met before—in1682 inCopenhagen—but this time their roles were quite different, as they were in Moscow as representatives of countries with opposite political aims vis-à-vis Russia. Von Horn was inRussiafor the third time, knew many influential people at court and mastered the Russian language. He kept Sparwenfeld informed about what was going on behind the scenes at court. This information was written down by Sparwenfeld in his diary of the Russian journey, published by the author of this paper in 2002. In July 1684 von Horn told Sparwenfeld about the execution of “a noble and learned Pole, Negrebetskii”. This person, Pavel Negrebetskii, had had an important position at court during the reign of Fyodor Alekseevich but lost his influence after the death of the Tsar. In August the two friends once more discussed Negrebetskii, his torture, and the role of I. M. Miloslavskii in his fate. Negrebetskii was accused of having taken part in a conspiracy against Sof’ia and her supporters in the aftermath of the streltsy uprising in May 1682. The torture was stopped by Vasilii Vasil’evich Golitsyn, and Negrebetskii was hastily and secretly taken to theRed Squareand executed. Why was Negrebetskii executed in this way two years after his stated crime? After discussing various aspects of the question, this paper gives a possible answer. It seems that the real reason was that Negrebetskii did not stop trying to make the Polish king intervene on Naryshkina’s side in the struggle for power between the Miloslavskii and Naryshkin clans. In connection with the arrival of an Austrian embassy in Moscow in May–June1684, anew possibility for Negrebetskii to get in contact with Poland offered itself in the person of the Habsburg resident in Warsaw, I. Zierowsky. Negrebetskii, it seems, took advantage of the opportunity and tried to send a letter with Zierowsky to the Polish king, begging the king for help and support of Naryshkina and her son. The letter was intercepted, and Sof’ia and Miloslavskii decided to get rid of the irritating Pole once and for all. His execution also gave a clear signal to Peter’s supporters that their previous plans were known and that their activities were under surveillance. It was not possible to touch the main actors in the unrealized conspiracy for political reasons; the most active among them was Vasilii Vasil’evich’s cousin, Boris Alekseevich Golitsyn. So, the entries in Sparwenfeld´s diary about nightly conversations between two foreigners in the Russian capital help to shed light on how and when Pavel Negrebetskii died, and, hopefully, also why.


REPRESENTAMEN ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Irmasanthi Danadharta

This paper tries to describe the Marxist Feminist values that are embedded within themovie Suffragette. Suffragette is a movie created by Sara Gayron and was premiered bythe French cinema Pathé. Suffragette was inspired by a true story of the movement fromthe Radical Feminist group Suffragette led by Emmeline Pankhurst, in fighting for thewomen’s rights for political participation. Suffragette tells the story using the perspectiveof the main character Maud Watts, a laundry service worker who joined Pankhurst inraising the issue of sexual harassment and women’s rights to vote in front of theParliament; which mainly consists of upper class Caucasian men. This paper exhibits theinequality between the upper class and the domination of masculinity towards thelabors/female labors. This research adapt on Sara Mills’ Discourse Analysismethodology in order to provide description of the Marxist Feminist values which wasadopted within the character of Maud Watt, as the research subject, and the act ofresistance by Suffragettes as the object; in addition, placing the movie viewers as thereader and Sara Gavron as the writer. The values of Marxist Feminism were visiblethrough the scene which the character Maud Watts gave her testimony before the courtand within the Darby Horse Race scene which the group Suffragette performed theirprotest. The court scene showed the resistance from the female labor group, whichrepresents the rejection against the hegemonic masculinity values that’s projected by theupper class Caucasian men in parliament. In the final scene, the Darby, which wasconsidered as an activity for the elites and demonstrates masculine and competitivevalues, was chosen as a channel to demonstrate the labor class women’s resistance.Keywords : Representation, Marxist Feminism, Suffragette, Feminist Methodology, Movie.


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