Patterns of Binary Oppositions in Yousef Al-Mohaimeed’s Wolves of the Crescent Moon

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Laila M. Al-Sharqi
Keyword(s):  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Driving Force ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Contemporary Society ◽  
Narrative Strategies ◽  
Binary Opposition ◽  
Cultural Changes ◽  
Contemporary Novel ◽  
Binary Oppositions

Yousef Al-Mohaimeed’s Wolves of the Crescent Moon is a rich contemporary novel that deploys several effective narrative strategies and themes. Binary oppositions provide the novel’s most unifying thread. This paper examines how binary opposition is used as a structural device in the novel to explore the interplay between modernity and culture in Saudi Arabia by challenging previously unquestioned aspects of life in the contemporary society. The paper focuses on the manner in which binary oppositions inform the novel’s rhetoric of displacement, which becomes a driving force determining variation in values and notions within the privileged elite. Corresponding cultural changes emerge from this elite set, whose members pursue modernity in an exclusionary manner in their rapid assimilation into modernization. They appear incapable of understanding indigenous members of Saudi society who adjust less rapidly and who perceive changes in norms and traditions as evidence that the elite regard them as inferior ‘Others’.

scholarly journals Oposisi Biner dalam “Lettres de Mon Moulin” Karya Alphonse Daudet

2022 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 105-116
Author(s):  
Rifqi Ayu Everina
Keyword(s):  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Binary Opposition ◽  
Modern Life ◽  
Human Reason ◽  
Binary Oppositions ◽  
Alphonse Daudet ◽  
Exclusive Category ◽  
Clear Line

Binary opposition is the most important aspect that can reveal how humans think, how humans produce meaning and understand reality (Culler, 1976). Therefore, the discovery of binary oppositions is useful in providing clues to the workings of human reason. In the context of narrative analysis, binary opposition can reveal how the logic behind a narrative is made. Based on this, this study highlights how the formation of binary opposition contained in the novel "Lettres de Mon Moulin" by Alphonse Daudet uses Lévi Strauss's theory of binary opposition (1955) and structural analysis using Freytag's plot theory (1863). The corpus of the research consists of six stories contained in the novel forming a binary opposition. After doing the analysis, it was found that a pair of words with binary opposition were included in the exclusive category and two pairs of words that were included in the non-exclusive binary opposition category. From these findings, it was found that the author of the novel, Daudet, gave directions on what was good and bad by giving a clear line of separation. This is in line with the context of making stories during the industrial revolution, which mapped the world into two things, namely traditional and modern life.

The homeland and the city: Rural and urban decolonization in Patricia Grace’s Potiki

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pia Brückner
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Academic Disciplines ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Binary Opposition ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Rural And Urban ◽  
Binary Oppositions ◽  
Urban Rural ◽  
The City

Over the last decade, studies from multiple academic disciplines have started to examine the city’s role as a place of decolonization for Māori people in Aotearoa New Zealand. This article uses those multidisciplinary findings as a basis for literary criticism by re-examining the role of the city in Patricia Grace’s second novel Potiki (1986). Indigenous urbanites are generally deemed impossible and ‘unnatural’ within the inherited colonial ideology. And even though the novel foregrounds a Māori family’s return to their ancestral land, this article argues that the very success of this return is based on the interrelation between ‘rural’ and ‘urban’ strategies of decolonization. While the colonial urban–rural binary often seems reinforced, the novel inverts the power positions between colonizer and colonized, thereby promoting decolonization. At the same time, some characters become unconsciously entrapped in a romanticized pre-migration idyll, which the harsh reality of agricultural working life cannot satisfy. In order to assess the effectiveness of the different decolonizing strategies employed by the characters, my analysis utilizes the postcolonial key concepts of binary opposition, the liminal, the interstice, ambivalence, double consciousness and cultural appropriation, and examines the degree to which inherited binary oppositions are either maintained or defied by Pākehā and Māori within the novel.

scholarly journals Binary Opposition as the Manifestation of the Spirit of Meiji in Natsume Sōseki’s Kokoro

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 78
Author(s):  
Richard Ahadi Christanda Christanda ◽  
Ni Luh Putu Rosiandani
Keyword(s):  
Primary Source ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Digital Form ◽  
Binary Opposition ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
Meiji Period ◽  
Library Research ◽  
Unique Identity ◽  
Binary Oppositions ◽  
Research Problems

<p><em>Every period in history has its own unique identity. Meiji period in historical Japan is no exception to this, having its own identity called the spirit of Meiji. This research attempts to reveal this identity, which present in the story of Kokoro, by using binary opposition. Binary opposition allows comparing and examining contradicting elements. Since the spirit of Meiji is defined as having “two contradictory elements”, therefore, binary opposition is suitable for revealing the spirit of Meiji.</em></p><p><em></em><em>The goal of this research is to show how binary opposition constitutes as a crucial element to the unique identity of Meiji period, which is the spirit of Meiji. In order to achieve this, two research problems are used as guides. One is how story of Kokoro presents the binary oppositions and two is how the spirit of Meiji manifests in the binary oppositions.</em></p><p><em>In this research, library research was conducted in order to collect the relevant data. It uses texts in both printed form and digital form. The primary source for the research is the novel Kokoro by NatsumeSōseki while the secondary sources are taken from various books and articles.</em></p><p><em></em><em>The first step in explaining the spirit of Meiji is to examine the binary oppositions within in the story. The binary oppositions itself are revealed through the characters and the setting of the story. Through these two elements, five binary oppositions are revealed. They are past against present, old against young, rural against urban, community against privacy, and family against individual. These binary oppositions are then compared to the situation in real-world Meiji period in order to validate whether they really are the spirit of Meiji or not. It is then, through this direct comparison, the binary oppositions are found mirroring the situation in the real Meiji period. Therefore, it can be concluded that binary opposition is the manifestation of the identity of Meiji period, which is the spirit of Meiji.</em></p><p><strong><em>Keywords:</em></strong> binary opposition, Meiji period, spirit of Meiji.</p><p>_________________________________________</p><p>DOI &gt; <a href="https://search.crossref.org/?q=10.24071%2Fjoll.2019.190208">https://doi.org/10.24071/joll.2019.190208</a></p>

scholarly journals BINARY OPPOSITIONS AS THE RESULT OF DECONSTRUCTION ANALYSIS IN THE GOLDFINCH NOVEL BY DONNA TARTT

JURNAL BASIS ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 65
Author(s):  
Cheristine Aprilia ◽  
Tomi Arianto
Keyword(s):  
Jacques Derrida ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Binary Opposition ◽  
Binary Oppositions ◽  
Qualitative Descriptive ◽  
The Difference ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
Descriptive Method ◽  
Existing Data ◽  
People’S Perceptions

This research is aimed to analyse the binary opposition in the “The Goldfinch” novel by Donna Tartt. The problem that analysed in this research focused on binary opposition of major character in the novel. The approach to analysing binary opposition used Derrida's concept, namely the theory of deconstruction by Jacques Derrida which is categorised as a poststructuralist approach. Deconstruction theory is understood as a theory that dismantles existing general views. The concept of binary opposition is directed to analyze the difference between two things which are considered to produce a new perspective and can be accepted by many people. The method used in this research is qualitative descriptive method, namely the author described and analysed existing data. The data is from the quotation of the novel. The result of the research is there are five binary oppositions, they are good – bad, valuable – worthless, honest – dishonest, caring – ignorant, and crowded ­– silent. The binary oppositions are found in the characters of the story. The characters in the story represent some of the characters of other people in the real world. People's perceptions about certain human characteristics can be explored deeper and have opposite sides.

scholarly journals Critiquing Anthropocentrism in Henry Ole Kulet’s Vanishing Herds

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-55
Author(s):  
Pushpa Raj Jaishi
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Degradation ◽  
Physical Environment ◽  
Critical Issue ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Contemporary Society ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
East African ◽  
To Come

Vanishing Herds (2011) is Henry Ole Kulet’s novel that hovers around the ecological depletion caused by the anthropocentric attitude of the human beings. Set in the East African Savannah, the novel grapples with the critical issue of anthropogenic environmental degradation. The novel is based on the tribulations of a young Maasai couple –Kedoki and Norpisia whose epic journey through the wilderness provides a window through which the destruction of the physical environment can be viewed. Additionally, the text catalogues the challenges faced by a pastoralist community’s attempt to come to terms with the socio-economic realities of a fast-evolving contemporary society. The paper is an attempt to study this novel under the surveillance of green lens and throw light on the ecological destruction especially the clearing of the forest by human self centered endeavors and to critique the anthropocentric attitude of the human beings that render the environment at the verge of destruction.

Helping the novel: Neoliberalism, self-help, and the narrating of the self in Mohsin Hamid’s How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia

2016 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 139-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angelia Poon
Keyword(s):  
Modern Technology ◽  
The Self ◽  
Individual Choice ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Historical Contingency ◽  
Narrative Strategies ◽  
Important Place ◽  
Realist Novel ◽  
Self Help ◽  
Vantage Points

Self-help books sell the myth of self-determinism, empowerment and the eternal hope of reinvention, reasons no doubt for their enormous popularity. In this article, I examine Pakistani-born Mohsin Hamid’s latest novel, How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia (2013) which, with its catchy, hyperbolic title signalling its masquerade as a self-help book, openly and ironically advertises itself as a satire. The object of the novel’s satire is the capitalist, neoliberal notion of the self that is predicated on an overweening sense of control and complete agency. Neoliberal subjectivity endorses the care and transformation of the self in order to take best advantage of a market economy, since the means to achieving material affluence is seen simply as a matter of individual choice and personal will. In the novel, Hamid brings into productive tension the conventions and assumptions of the self-help genre with those of the more traditional realist novel in order to interrogate not just the neoliberal self but the very ways in which the self is narrated and constructed. Engaging in particular with the affordances of technology in his novel as a thematic, Hamid appropriates the vantage points and perspectival positions made possible by modern technology to undermine the solipsistic self of the self-help book. He further exploits the narrative energies of the novel form to foreground a sense of historical contingency to lay bare various modes of self-constitution and self-narration. Through his use of metatextual narrative strategies, Hamid raises fundamental questions about the genre of the novel itself and the ways in which it is intimately invested in the insinuation of the development of a self. These questions, I argue, ultimately underline his affirmation of the novel’s important place and the ethical role it can play at this contemporary moment of late and global capitalism.

scholarly journals Indestructible Pasts and Paranoid Presents: John Franzen against Active Forgetting in Purity

2019 ◽  
pp. 21-34
Author(s):  
Cristina Garrigós
Keyword(s):  
Traumatic Event ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Contemporary Society ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
Personal Archives ◽  
Conscious Process ◽  
Unconscious Desire ◽  
Selection Of

Forgetting and remembering are as inevitably linked as lifeand death. Sometimes, forgetting is motivated by a biological disorder, brain damage, or it is the product of an unconscious desire derived from a traumatic event (psychological repression). But in some cases, we can motivate forgetting consciously (thought suppression). It is through the conscious repression of memories that we can find self-preservation and move forward, although this means that we create a fable of our lives, as Nietzsche says in his essay “On the Uses and Disadvantages of History for Life” (1997). In Jonathan Franzen’s novel, Purity (2015), forgetting is an active and conscious process by which the characters choose to forget certain episodes of their lives to be able to construct new identities. The erased memories include murder, economical privileges derived from illegal or unethical commercial processes, or dark sexual episodes. The obsession with forgetting the past links the lives of the main characters, and structures the narrative of the novel. The motivated erasure of memories becomes, thus, a way that the characters have to survive and face the present according to a (fake) narrative that they have constructed. But is motivated forgetting possible? Can one completely suppress facts in an active way? This paper analyses the role of forgetting in Franzen’s novel in relation to the need in our contemporary society to deny, hide, or erase uncomfortable data from our historical or personal archives; the need to make disappear stories which we do not want to accept, recognize, and much less make known to the public. This is related to how we manage information in the age of technology, the “selection” of what is to be the official story, and how we rewrite our own history

scholarly journals Deconstructing the Portrayal of Adults’ Superiority towards Children in Frances Hodgson Burnett’s "A Little Princess"

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 24-31
Author(s):  
NUR INAYAH ◽  
Bambang Purwanto
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Method ◽  
Reading Strategy ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Binary Opposition ◽  
Frances Hodgson Burnett ◽  
Descriptive Qualitative

This study discusses how the portrayal of adults’ superiority towards children in the novel A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett is deconstructed by the work itself. The adults’ superiority is portrayed in the novel, in which the adults are depicted as more superior figure than children. However, the perfect descriptions of the children as portrayed by Sara in the novel show that the hierarchy in child-adult relationship is able to be reversed. This study uses descriptive qualitative method supported by Structuralism’s binary opposition and Derrida’s Deconstruction reading strategy. The aim of this study is to destabilize the novel, A Little Princess, by applying Deconstruction reading strategy. This study shows that the novel deconstructs its portrayal of adults’ superiority towards children. So, by destabilizing the binary opposition in the novel, that is an adult opposes a child, the child-adult hierarchy is reversed. Keywords: adults, children, deconstruction, superiority

scholarly journals Ambient Media as a New Trend in Socio-Cultural Space of Russian City

2019 ◽  
pp. 355-363
Author(s):  
Ekaterina Golubkova ◽  
Elena Grunt
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Contemporary Society ◽  
Trauma Symptoms ◽  
Ambient Media ◽  
Cultural Changes ◽  
Cultural Space ◽  
Contemporary World ◽  
Communication Processes ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Advertising Communication

This paper explores the reasons for emergence and the features of ambient media in an urban socio-cultural space. Global socio-cultural changes in the contemporary world lead to informational oversaturation, trauma-generating factors and, as a consequence, search for new adaptive mechanisms for an individual to accept the social reality. Ambient media become an unobtrusive advertising communication built into the environment and people’s daily practices in the contemporary society. To analyze ambient media as a new form of communication, the authors applied the method of structural and functional analysis and a systemic approach. The paper argues that ambient media are a breakthrough, new and comparatively young advertising communication disproving traditional views of advertisement types, methods and forms. This is a communication offering innovative patterns of interaction with the consumer and the environment and changing individuals’ notions of a socio-cultural space where they exist. The authors identified the main features of ambient media, as well as the human trauma symptoms that can be caused by communication processes in the contemporary society: It is demonstrated that ambient media as a new type of communication are in all respects integrated into the urban space of European countries and the USA. For contemporary Russia, however, ambient media as a type of communication are a new trend in the socio-cultural space of Russian cities.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document