scholarly journals Losing Sight, Gaining Insight: Blindness and the Romantic Vision in Grimm’s “Rapunzel”

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 140
Author(s):  
Anna Wing Bo TSO

In Brothers’ Grimm’s fairy tales, the motif of blindness occurs quite frequently, each time with a different symbolic meaning. In “Hansel and Gretel”, blindness is represented as a body deformity, an abject feature of the red-eyed, half-blind cannibalistic witch who lives in the candy house in the middle of the forest, while in “Cinderella”, blindness becomes more: a brutal punishment for wrongdoings, such as when: the wickedly unkind stepsisters’ eyes are pecked out by pigeons as they are on the way to the wedding of the Cinderella and her handsome prince. Yet, in “Rapunzel”, blindness is not meant to be an abject feature nor a direct punishment. Rather, it opens the door to the Romantic vision and spirit. Through studying the earlier versions of the Rapunzel story and the Grimm’s later version, this paper explores how blindness represents the limitations of logic and reason and, through embracing the beautiful power of the female sensibility, welcomes the rebirth of insight, faith and Romantic sentiments.

Author(s):  
Andrew Erskine

Plutarch wrote twenty-three Greek Lives in his series of Parallel Lives—of these, ten were devoted to Athenians. Since Plutarch shared the hostile view of democracy of Polybius and other Hellenistic Greeks, this Athenian preponderance could have been a problem for him. But Plutarch uses these men’s handling of the democracy and especially the demos as a way of gaining insight into the character and capability of his protagonists. This chapter reviews Plutarch’s attitude to Athenian democracy and examines the way a statesman’s character is illuminated by his interaction with the demos. It also considers what it was about Phocion that so appealed to Plutarch, first by looking at his relationship with the democracy and then at the way he evokes the memory of Socrates. For him this was not a minor figure, but a man whose life was representative of the problems of Athenian democracy.


2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-215
Author(s):  
Somaye Sharify ◽  
Nasser Maleki

AbstractThe present study intends to examine the link between clothes and cultural identities in Jhumpa Lahiri’s “Hema and Kaushik” (2008). It will argue that Lahiri explores her protagonists’ cultural displacement through their items of clothing. We want to suggest that the protagonists’ clothes are employed in each narrative as signifiers for the characters’ cultural identities. The study will further show that each item of clothing could be loaded with the ideological signification of two separate cultures. In other words, it aims to demonstrate how ideology imposes its values, beliefs, and consequently its dominance through the dress codes each defines for its subjects. Moreover, it intends to suggest that the link between clothing and identity is most visible and intense in the case of female immigrant characters rather than men. Drawing on Luptan’s structure of the Cinderella line, we will explore Lahiri’s protagonists’ cultural transformation from simple ethnic girls to stylish American ladies through their items of clothing. The study will conclude that the “Cinderella line” does not work in Lahiri’s realistic stories the way it does in fairy tales and romance fiction.


2020 ◽  
Vol 202 ◽  
pp. 07022
Author(s):  
Oktiva Herry Chandra ◽  
Catur Kepirianto

Traditional food displayed and sold in the traditional market Gang Baru Semarang does not mean as the way to meet the basic need for people living nearby the location. These foods may also function to fulfill spiritual manifestation of people that buy and use the food for celebrating festival, feast and ritual tradition. This article aims to explain the naming system, function and the symbol behind the various kinds of food in this market. The data were collected by observing the activity conducted the buyer and the seller . The writer also interviewd some of them to get additional information related to values and norms that make people serve tese foods. The results show that the naming system applied is based on the ingredient, shape and also the way they peoduce the food. Besides, these foods and cakes are also servede as media for performing a ritual traditionon for Chinese ethnic. Behind the name, there are some symbolic meaning which is believed as the manifestation of their belief to the values inhertited from their anchestors. The symbol is represented through the shape, the color and the number. Each of them pictures how this community see food and snack sold in traditional market located in Gang Baru Semarang..


Author(s):  
Zeinab Sadeghi S. ◽  

The article is devoted to the study of the symbolic meaning of the image of the ring in the play by N.S. Gumilyov “Child of Allah”. The cultural semantics of “Solomon’s ring”, its rootedness in the traditions of the East, are traced. It is concluded that the ring in the play serves as a connecting link between the divine name and poetic inspiration. The article first pointed to a number of uses of the ring in Ancient Iran. Such a diverse semiotics of the ring found its refraction in the play N.S. Gumilyov “The Child of Allah”. In this play, the ring plays a key role. The ring defines the world poles of good and evil. Performed by Oriental motifs, Gumilyov’s play at the same time does not repeat or develop any of the semantic definitions of the ring mentioned in the article. In the article we turn to the mysterious meaning of the ring in this work. Thus, the ring in the play “the Child of Allah” has an Association with the magic rings of Eastern fairy tales.


2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 147-154
Author(s):  
Leonardo Vils ◽  
Gustavo Viegas Rodrigues

“Developing leadership” is a constant search for professionals interested on acting in a more assertively in the organizations they perform their roles. Leadership BS is another endeavor by Jeffrey Pfeffer that makes us think over the tenets which the leadership industry, as the author refers to it, imposes to us daily. In a work based on the urgent need to incorporate evidence to a practice that could cause financial damage and other harmful consequences to the society, Pfeffer easily succeed on demonstrating why, for instance, some behaviors which are assumed as role models are nothing but fairy tales that only exist on classrooms and courses which efficacy is doubtful – if efficacy is understood as educating better leaders. The author challenges his readers to rethink the way they act, by understanding how psychological processes such as confirmation bias and self-deceiving reshape the wished format of leadership, which is taught, but nor practiced.


2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 20-29
Author(s):  
A. A. Zaraiskiy ◽  
O. L. Morova ◽  
V. Yu. Polyakova

The aim of this article is to explore linguistic representation of the concept “way” in Irish fairy tales. Image, key lexeme, which is the core of the field, information content with its cognitive attributes and interpretation field, which is the periphery of the concept are elaborated. The results obtained show that the “way” in its direct and indirect meanings is the image and the key lexeme is “path”. It has been established that information content has seven cognitive attributes: exploration of new space, aim, distance, adventure, difficulties, destiny, and travel to afterlife world. Interpretation field includes two groups of proverbs with the first group presenting the “way” in its direct meaning and the second group comprising proverbs with the metaphorical usage of the “way”. Modelling the frame of the concept “way” allowed us to define the typical slots: subject of movement; the starting point of movement; trajectory; the environment of movement and the method of movement; locus; distance; driving power; and motivation. The concept “way” was structured using linguistic and cognitive approach, which made it possible to determine the image, information content and interpretation field. The study of the image of the concept revealed that “way” encompasses different aspects. The “way” is the basis of a person’s life. The “way” is considered not only as the road the person walks along covering big distances but as life in general that is associated with its ups and downs as well as with overcoming difficulties along the way. The idea emphasizes the importance of the “way” in people’s lives and culture, and specifically in Irish culture.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 13
Author(s):  
Simo Jia

Recently, there has been growing interest in the study on cohesion of texts, particularly in the aspect of anaphoric reference. The problem under discussion is within the scope of similar and different usages of anaphors in English and Chinese. Although much work has been done, more studies need to be conducted to ascertain the convincingness of the theories. This essay will demonstrate language materials in real situation in English text and its Chinese translations to prove, explain and enrich the theories about the distinction of English and Chinese anaphora. The thesis for this essay is the contrastive study of anaphora between English and Chinese texts that is the dissimilarities of anaphora in these two language texts and discuss the reasons that caused these differences. And for arguments, four cases of Han’s Andersen’s fairy tales and their Chinese translations and one example from New Oxford Dictionary are selected for the purpose. For methodology, quality analysis is employed. But in general, it is to compare and to contrast in the light of Halliday’s theory on cohesion. The way adopted is to compare broad wise, which means to list similarities and dissimilarities of things needed to be contrast -- anaphora in English and Chinese texts, and then conducts further analysis on them with the theoretical framework. In aspect of detailed analysis, the author adopts the way of illustration, combining language phenomenon listed above with arguments.


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Delia Chiaro ◽  
Giuseppe De Bonis

This paper examines the work of Billy Wilder whose rich cinematic production frequently involves the collision of different languages as well as the clash of dissimilar cultures. As an Austrian living in the USA, the director had the privilege of gaining insight into his adopted culture from the point of view of an outsider – a bilingual ‘other’ who made 25 films in almost 40 years of working in Hollywood. His films recurrently depict foreign characters at which Wilder pokes fun whether they are English, French, German, Italian, Russian or even the Americans of his adopted country. More precisely, the paper offers an overview of the multi-modal portrayals of diverse ‘foreigners’, namely Germans, Russians, French and Italians, with examples taken from a small but significant sample of Wilder’s films. The subtitling of dialogue in the secondary language for the target English-speaking audience and the specific translation solutions are not within the scope of this discussion, instead we focus on the comic collision of two languages and more importantly, on the way Wilder implements humour to highlight the absurdity of cultural difference. In other words, our main goal is to explore two or more languages in contrast when they become a humorous trope.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jo MINYOUNG ◽  

This thesis explains the characteristics of the simile concept and application of Uzbek and Korean, and the differences and similarities between the objects used as simile auxiliary ideas in Uzbek and Korean through simile example sentences. Humans have been vividly and efficiently expressing parts and various thoughts that are difficult to speak directly through the method of simile within a limited vocabulary for a long time. In particular, it can be seen that expressing animals, plants, and nature, which have always been together since the beginning of humanity, in relation to simile objects, occurs frequently in everyday life and in literary works. For a long time, many scholars around the world have found that metaphors are indispensable and important tools in human cognitive activity, and in particular, representing animals that are closest to humans is very effective in the way humans communicate.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 18-24
Author(s):  
PATRIK BAKA

In this paper we analyze the first story-book of the internationally renowned contemporary Hungarian storyteller, Csenge Virág Zalka. In the first section we investigate the differences between folktale and literary tale, storyteller and story writer, further-/retold heritage and own creation as well as how the boundaries between them destabilize if we note down the folktale originally living in the oral traditional form. Furthermore, we will be discussing the female horizon prevalent in the Zalkaian tale-variants as well as the all-time topicality of the stories by putting the contemporary social and psychological analogies and taboo-breaking procedures of the tales in the foreground. In the focus of our investigation the Ribizli a világ végén [Currant at the End of the World] stands as a literary creation, which although we (also) analyze with an approach coming from the relevant literature of folktales and remade fairy tales, we do this all the way through the analysis in light of the postmodern text-organizing strategies.


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