SOCIO-CULTURAL PARADIGM OF THE LIFE OF THE NON-METROPOLITAN WRITERS« COMMUNITY

Statement of the problem. The research focuses on the specifics of the modern Siberian writers’ understanding of their place in the social and cultural space, the process and mechanisms of finding this place both in practical (everyday) and existential (existential) aspects. The purpose of the article is to consider the forms and methods of organizing writers’ communities in Irkutsk, discourses of self-presentations and their correlations with worldview and geography. Review of the scientific literature on the problem. Humanitarian studies of writers’ communities are few and limited both by certain chronological frames of the object under study (literary communities of the nineteenth century, the turn of the nineteenth/twentieth centuries, the Soviet period) and methodology-wise. Modern writers’ associations, organizations specific both institutionally and ideologically, rarely fall into the prism of humanitarian studies. Methodology (materials and methods). The research is interdisciplinary, which determines the choice of its materials and methods: sociolinguistic (interviews and questionnaires, correlation analysis), discourse analysis, contextual analysis, and cognitive-discursive approach. This article is based on the materials of interviewing and surveying forty-five writers of Irkutsk and the Irkutsk region. Research results. Membership in a certain organization is used as symbolic capital due to the struggle of two discursive practices – explicit “traditionalist” and implicit “other” ones (not designated by its adherents, but, according to their opponents, “anti-traditionalist”). It is the institutional attachment, according to the conflicting parties, that determines the ways of interaction with the culturally significant concepts of “Writer’s Community”, “Reader”, “Russian Literature”, “Siberian Literature”, “Traditions”, and “Innovation”. In geographical and socio-cultural aspects, respondents, by an absolute majority, choose a “national” strategy of self-presentation, inscribing their creativity in the space of Russian literature, in such direction as realism. Conclusion. The analysis of the empirical material allows us to identify two main equivalent tools of self-actualization and self-presentation of the modern Irkutsk writer: 1. Institutional attachment to a particular writers’ community (the Union of Writers of Russia, the Union of Russian Writers, the representative office of the Union of Russian Writers, the Irkutsk Regional Writers’ Organization); 2. The concept of “Great Russian literature” and belonging to it.

Verses at the Court of the King: Shifts in the Historical Imagination of the Sanskrit Literary Tradition during the Second Millennium

This essay argues that the rise and circulation of large numbers of Sanskrit literary anthologies as well as story traditions about poets in the second millennium together index important changes in the ‘author-function’ within the Sanskrit literary tradition. While modern ‘empirical authorship’ and external referentiality in Sanskrit has long been deemed ‘elusive'by Western scholarship, the new forms of literary production in the second millennium suggest a distinct new interest in authorship among wider literary communities. This new ‘author-function’ indexed a shift in the perceptions of literary production and the literary tradition itself. Focusing on the famous sixteenth-century work known as the Bhojaprabandha as both an anthology as well as a storybook about poets, this essay further argues that the paradigmatic courts of kings like Vikramāditya and Bhoja (but particularly the latter), placed not in historical time but in an archaic temporality, became the mise en scène for the figure of the poet in the second-millennium literary imagination. They were courts where the finest poets of the tradition appeared and where their virtuosity could be savored and reflected upon by generations of readers.

Writing in Their Time: A Queer and Feminist Analysis of Vancouver’s 1979 Writing in Our Time Series

The 1979 Writing in Our Time series became Vancouver’s most attended reading series, bringing light to the viability and international status of the city’s literary scene. While it has largely been remembered as a celebration of Vancouver’s literary culture, more marginalized voices of Vancouver’s literary communities have highlighted the series’ implications for gay male and female writers in the city. This article considers whose time was actually represented by the Writing in Our Time series. I suggest that while it gave gay men the opportunity to be onstage and speak about their concerns, including the homophobic attacks against bill bissett in the House of Commons that prompted the series, Writing in Our Time provided women limited opportunities to publicly share their work while relying upon their invisible labour to succeed. Through the production of a new socio-cultural history of the series, including an analysis of printed publications, oral histories, and audiovisual documentation of the events, this article demonstrates that Writing in Our Time was catalyzed by attacks on a gay writer, relied on women’s invisible labour, showcased the androcentric relations of Vancouver’s literary scene, and sparked resistance from feminists to women’s peripheral position in the series. I argue that, due to their proximity to or distance from heterosexual white males in power within the scene, the series simultaneously supported gay writers in Vancouver’s literary scene and further marginalized women by reinforcing sexist social hierarchies. The effects of these androcentric relations led to greater dialogue about issues affecting gay men within the series and by women about sexism within and outside of the series at that time.

"Fandom's Pornographic Subset"

This article draws on content analysis method research (n = 78) that looks at a specific subset of fan fiction: anonymous kink meme communities where mostly women request and write erotic or pornographic fan texts. Reporting on an online survey, this article discusses what kind of role kink meme communities play in the lives of the respondents, how kink meme stories are situated in the larger framework of pornography, and how the respondents view the stories that incorporate unsettling or taboo subjects, such as sexual abuse of children, rape, or incest. This article views kink meme communities as a special subset of fan fic- tion, and in the article kink meme writing is compared to other forms of female- centric erotica or pornography. The article outlines how kink meme communities, like many other female-centric online communities, can function as places where women and gender minorities can write erotic material that better resonates with them and discuss and explore their sexualities and sexual preferences. Kink meme communities are also shown to utilise queer female writing practices in how they discuss and broaden the cultural view on female sexuality and women’s enjoyment of pornographic material. In addition to this, kink memes are also shown to function as literary communities where some fans can practise their writing.

Print culture in the digital era : the publishing industry in the 21st century

This thesis provides an examination of the impact of new technologies on the book publishing industry and literary culture; analyzing the ways in which digital technologies like the eBook and eReader are changing reading practices and the conception of the book as a physical object and cultural artifact, as well as the way in which the internet, and Web 2.0 applications in particular, are being used to create new literary communities. I posit that the communications circuit described by Robert Darnton is disrupted and reconfigured by new technologies that facilitate novel forms of communication between authors, publishers, booksellers and readers, but that these changes are an extension of existing practices within literary culture. Further, in significant ways, these changes signal a recuperation of collaborative forms of production and reading practices that predate the print era, and herald an era of renewed collaboration and communication amongst literary communities.

Print culture in the digital era : the publishing industry in the 21st century

This thesis provides an examination of the impact of new technologies on the book publishing industry and literary culture; analyzing the ways in which digital technologies like the eBook and eReader are changing reading practices and the conception of the book as a physical object and cultural artifact, as well as the way in which the internet, and Web 2.0 applications in particular, are being used to create new literary communities. I posit that the communications circuit described by Robert Darnton is disrupted and reconfigured by new technologies that facilitate novel forms of communication between authors, publishers, booksellers and readers, but that these changes are an extension of existing practices within literary culture. Further, in significant ways, these changes signal a recuperation of collaborative forms of production and reading practices that predate the print era, and herald an era of renewed collaboration and communication amongst literary communities.

Comics' reception as literature and the subjugation of the image

[Para. 1] Scholars disagree on how comics should be defined in relation to other media. Some, such as Barbara Postema, assert that comics are representative of a medium featuring unique formatting and iconography that sits outside the traditional considerations of art and literature. The counter-point, as proposed by individuals such as Thierry Groensteen, is that comics are a hybrid or mixed medium, representing the combination of the written word and fine art working in conjunction to convey different perspectives within a single narrative. Historically, comics have been rejected by both fine art and literary communities due to their failure to conform to the standards presented in either discipline. However, due in large part to the narrative elements of the prose present in a comic text, comics settled primarily in the domain of literary consideration, albeit with some negative critique initially directed at the content and marketing that popularized the medium. Once considered rudimentary writing supported by gimmicky illustrations, the ongoing discourse concerning their status as either a unique medium or hybrid media has coincided with comics gaining academic merit in recent years. One of the issues that complicates this debate is whether the text and image in comics to be given equal consideration when determining the function of a comic narrative, as “one of the significant consequences of the literary turn in the study of comics has been the tendency to drive attention away from comics as a form of visual culture” (Beaty, Comics vs. Art 18). Compounding this tendency is the suggestion that narrative is exclusive to the domain of literary prose. Comics’ inclusion of sequential art challenges literary tradition through the levels of signification applied to formatting, such as “the image, the layout, the sequence, word-image combination, and finally narrative” (Postema 105). Historically, the use of image in comics has been condemned for lowering the literary quality of the narrative through claims made by critics such as Fredric Wertham that will be explored at length throughout this paper. The assertion that image in comics had no narrative value was compiled with the art actively rejected by the “fine” art community as failing to attain the level of “high” art. This has led to the devaluing of the image and its influence on narrative in comics, as “comic[s], [as] many critics will tell you, are not art” (Beaty, Comics vs. Art 18). Instead, comics have stood in opposition to art: “largely ignored by critics and art historians, and consequently disdainful of the interests of those groups, comics have long levelled in their lowbrow, badboy image” (Beaty, Comics vs. Art 19). Without the support of the artistic community to help establish a standard of critical approach, the comics industry evolved to place more emphasis on the literary element, as seen in the rise of the 'graphic novel' as a legitimating label for rebranding of the medium. Although scholars and critics such as Barbara Postema, Bart Beaty, and Scott McCloud recognize the importance of the image when critiquing narrative, the tendency to emphasize the writer over the artist as primary contributor of narrative value to a comics work has put the image and text of comics in separate categories, causing one to rise at the expense of the other.

Comics' reception as literature and the subjugation of the image

[Para. 1] Scholars disagree on how comics should be defined in relation to other media. Some, such as Barbara Postema, assert that comics are representative of a medium featuring unique formatting and iconography that sits outside the traditional considerations of art and literature. The counter-point, as proposed by individuals such as Thierry Groensteen, is that comics are a hybrid or mixed medium, representing the combination of the written word and fine art working in conjunction to convey different perspectives within a single narrative. Historically, comics have been rejected by both fine art and literary communities due to their failure to conform to the standards presented in either discipline. However, due in large part to the narrative elements of the prose present in a comic text, comics settled primarily in the domain of literary consideration, albeit with some negative critique initially directed at the content and marketing that popularized the medium. Once considered rudimentary writing supported by gimmicky illustrations, the ongoing discourse concerning their status as either a unique medium or hybrid media has coincided with comics gaining academic merit in recent years. One of the issues that complicates this debate is whether the text and image in comics to be given equal consideration when determining the function of a comic narrative, as “one of the significant consequences of the literary turn in the study of comics has been the tendency to drive attention away from comics as a form of visual culture” (Beaty, Comics vs. Art 18). Compounding this tendency is the suggestion that narrative is exclusive to the domain of literary prose. Comics’ inclusion of sequential art challenges literary tradition through the levels of signification applied to formatting, such as “the image, the layout, the sequence, word-image combination, and finally narrative” (Postema 105). Historically, the use of image in comics has been condemned for lowering the literary quality of the narrative through claims made by critics such as Fredric Wertham that will be explored at length throughout this paper. The assertion that image in comics had no narrative value was compiled with the art actively rejected by the “fine” art community as failing to attain the level of “high” art. This has led to the devaluing of the image and its influence on narrative in comics, as “comic[s], [as] many critics will tell you, are not art” (Beaty, Comics vs. Art 18). Instead, comics have stood in opposition to art: “largely ignored by critics and art historians, and consequently disdainful of the interests of those groups, comics have long levelled in their lowbrow, badboy image” (Beaty, Comics vs. Art 19). Without the support of the artistic community to help establish a standard of critical approach, the comics industry evolved to place more emphasis on the literary element, as seen in the rise of the 'graphic novel' as a legitimating label for rebranding of the medium. Although scholars and critics such as Barbara Postema, Bart Beaty, and Scott McCloud recognize the importance of the image when critiquing narrative, the tendency to emphasize the writer over the artist as primary contributor of narrative value to a comics work has put the image and text of comics in separate categories, causing one to rise at the expense of the other.

Features and themes of poetry in KOPI (komunitas puisi Indonesia) facebook group

Going along with the development of technology, literary disciplines also have been developing. Cyber literature becomes popular in this digitalization era which explores the existence of the internet as the medium. One of the large cyber literary communities on Facebook is KOPI (Komunitas Puisi Indonesia) with 64 thousand members. Due to the insufficient research analyzing poetry in the Facebook group, this research analyzed the features of poetry and the themes of poetry in KOPI (Komunitas Puisi Indonesia). Descriptive and qualitative approaches were used in this research. Observation and documentation were used as the techniques in data collecting. The observation was done by reviewing the group’s situation and the documentation is done by reviewing the poetry collections that had been uploaded in this research from the beginning until the middle of February 2021. The data analysis techniques used Miles and Huberman techniques which include: (1) data reduction, (2) data serving, and (3) conclusion/verification withdrawal. The results of this research showed that the dominant poetry features were image illustration and the themes that were used by KOPI group members in writing poetry included the physical themes, moral themes, social themes, egoic themes, divine themes. Physical theme with the most widely used type of love. It can be concluded that the physical theme with the type of “love” is the choice of the theme that the author most favors.

The Revival of Poetry Declamation in Contemporary China: The Case of Fenchunguan Poetry Group (Guangzhou)

The paper presents a description of the contemporary practice of poetry declamation in one of the literary communities of Guangzhou, among the poets who associate themselves with the tradition of the informal Fenchunguan group. The members of the group are authors and performers of classical poetry. They take an active part in the movement for the revival of traditional declamatory practices which were widely popular until the first decades of the 20th century. Their example allows us to trace some features of the declamation (oral presentation) used to promote poetry in classical formats (written texts) and thereby expand our knowledge of the written-oral dichotomy functioning within the Chinese tradition. The paper details the genealogy of the Southern School of text presentation, related to Fenchunguan, and analyzes how authors and performers appeal to the traditional practice of verbalizing poetry to construct and maintain a distinct “southern” (Cantonese) identity. This practice is utilized to create a distinct subspace within the system of national and local literature: quite a significant contribution is made by the original performing techniques of the Southern School (truncation of duration at the beginning of beats; repetition of rhyming words at the ends of phrases that coincide with the end of a poetic line, with a transition to a different pitch; merging adjacent lines into one phonetic-melodic unit) and the deliberate use of a local lect (Cantonese). In the process of (re)discovering the declamatory phenomenon, it becomes loaded with new aesthetic, social, practical and personal meanings. Those who participate in its functioning, thus, contribute to the great come-back of the classical type poetry and the spontaneous nature of declamatory practice.