Politics and the Inadequacy of Words in Joseph Conrad’s Non-Fiction

The Polish-born English novelist, Joseph Conrad, once challenged the general public with a statement which stigmatized the printed word in wartime coverage as being cold, silent, and colorless. The aim of this article is to investigate the manner in which the writer himself applied words in his wartime non-fictional works in order to bestow a lasting effect on his texts. It is argued that irony renders his non-fiction memorable. Thus, the focus is first placed on the manner in which irony features in Conrad’s political essays, collected in Notes on Life and Letters, from 1921. It is argued that irony applied in his non-fiction represents what Wayne C. Booth termed stable irony. Further, it is claimed that, as a spokesman for a non-existent country, Conrad succeeded in transposing the Polish perspective into a discourse familiar to the British public. This seems possible due to the application of the concept of the body politic and the deployment of Gothic imagery. Finally, the paper examines the manner in which words are effectively used to voice the stance of a moralist on truth and the lie of the printed word in the turbulent times around the end of the 19th century.

The Spatiality of Politics: Cesare Battisti's Regional and International Thought, 1900–1916

This article concerns the conceptualization of political spaces in early twentieth-century European political thought. The main figure is the Italian geographer and political thinker Cesare Battisti (1875–1916). Drawing on his geographical knowledge of his native region of Trentino, then in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Battisti envisioned an alternative political order in Central Europe. In a series of geographical surveys and political essays, he described his idea of the region as a meaningful political space, that could become an alternative to both empire and nation-state as part of a continental democratic federation. The article argues that through this new spatial conceptualization of region and federation, Battisti sought to reinterpret the political categories of authority and community. The article examines Battisti's ideas in their historical and intellectual context, arguing that he offers original insights on the evolution of European international and regional thought in the twentieth century.

El laberinto de Octavio

Este ensayo propone una interpretación de las posiciones políticas de Octavio Paz, con el propósito de identificar su legado político. Para tal efecto, pone a discusión la idea de que Octavio Paz era un intelectual de izquierda socialista, a partir de la relectura de sus principales ensayos políticos. En esta lógica, lo conceptúa como poeta con posiciones políticas, que discursivamente defendía un tipo de socialismo democrático desde una posición nacional-revolucionaria.En la búsqueda de las reglas y estrategias discursivas utilizadas por Paz para hablar de la violencia, la izquierda, la democracia y el socialismo, es posible identificar su crítica teórica desde el campo literario, con claras intervenciones en los campos político e intelectual. Octavio Paz deseaba, evidentemente, ilustrar a la izquierda mexicana con la advertencia de lo acontecido en los regímenes socialista-burocráticos. El programa democrático de Paz, a mano para la izquierda de su tiempo y las actuales izquierdas, constituye una recuperación de la democracia liberal, un andamiaje para la sociedad mexicana, un proyecto de modernización no ensayado por el régimen priista y destruido, en su tiempo, por las burocracias socialistas del país.Palabras clave: Crítica, Izquierda, Democracia, Violencia Octavio's LabyrinthSummaryThis essay proposes an interpretation of Octavio Paz's political positions, with the purpose of identifying his political legacy. For this purpose, the idea that Octavio Paz was an intellectual of the socialist left, based on the rereading of his main political essays, is put into discussion. In this logic, he is conceptualized as a poet with political positions, who discursively defended a type of democratic socialism from a national-revolutionary position.In the search for the discursive rules and strategies used by Paz to talk about violence, the left, democracy and socialism, it is possible to identify his theoretical criticism from the literary field, with clear interventions in the political and intellectual fields. Octavio Paz, wanted, evidently, to enlighten the Mexican left with the warning of what happened in the socialist-bureaucratic regimes. Paz's democratic program, at hand for the left of his time and the current left, constitutes a recovery of liberal democracy, a scaffolding for Mexican society, a modernization project not tested by the PRI regime and destroyed, in its time, by the socialist bureaucracies of the country.Keywords: Criticism, Left, Democracy, Violence Le labyrinthe d’OctavioRésuméeCet essai propose une interprétation des positions politiques d’Octavio Paz, afin d’identifier son héritage politique. Pour ce faire, on met en discussion l’idée qu’Octavio Paz était un intellectuel de gauche socialiste, à partir de la relecture se ses principaux essais politiques. Dans cette logique, on se fait une conception de lui comme un poète d’idées et postures politiques qui défendait discursivement un type de socialisme démocratique à partir d’une position nationale-révolutionnaire.Dans la recherche des règles et stratégies discursives utilisées par Paz pour parler de la violence, la gauche, la démocratie et le socialisme, il est possible d’identifier sa critique théorique à partir du champ littéraire, avec des claires interventions dans les champs politiques et intellectuels. Octavio Paz désirait évidement, illustrer la gauche mexicaine avec l’avertissement ce qui est arrivé dans les régimes socio-bureaucratiques. Le programme démocratique de Paz, de la main de la gauche de son époque et des gauches actuelles, constitue une récupération de la démocratie libérale, une structure pour la société mexicaine, un projet de modernisation pas essayé par le régime du PRI, et détruit dans son époque par les bureaucraties socialistes du pays.Mots clés : Critique, Gauche, Démocratie, Violence

W obliczu (post)prawdy, czyli inna historia frankistowskiego Patronato de Protección a la Mujer w esejach Consuelo Garcíi del Cid Guerry

Facing the (Post)Truth or Alternative History of Francoist Board for the Protection of Women in Essays by Consuelo García del Cid Guerra The paper is an attempt at shedding light on the unknown actions of Spanish Board for the Protection of Women. In Francoist Spain, this organization was originally founded to control and to dignify morality of “fallen women” in order to reeducate them in accordance with the National Catholicism ideology propagated by the Francoists. Although the aim of this powerful institution was to reeducate young women, many of them were hidden away in interments and suffered from different kinds of abuse. The violence applied against them was covered up and their voices silenced by authorities. The history of young women, completely unknown among Spanish society, was revealed and denounced by García del Cid Guerra. A former victim, she is the author of three political essays: Ruega por nosotras (2015), Las desterradas hijas de Eva (2012), and La niña del rincón (2018), books on which this article is based to present a different history of the Board for the Protection of Women, remembered by its young victims.

ANALISIS WACANA KRITIS PADA KUMPULAN ESAI MUSLIM TANPA MASJID KARYA KUNTOWIJOYO

This study aims to determine the use of socio-cultural texts and practices in the text of the essay collection of Muslim Tanpa Masjid. This study uses a qualitative descriptive method, which is presenting data and not numbers. The data in this study were taken from the essay collection book entitled Muslim Tanpa Masjid the inform of essay text. The data is the text and socio-cultural practices in the essay text of theessay collection Muslim Tanpa Masjid. Sources of data in this study were 17 essay titles consisting of 6 religious essays, 5 cultural essays, and 6 political essays fromcollection of essays on Muslim Tanpa Masjid Kuntowijoyo's 2001. Based on the results of the study, it is known that in the representation in the sentence there are 18 forms of process consisting of 5 forms of events, 8 forms of action, 2 forms of process, and 3 forms of circumstances, and found 18 forms of participants consisting of 11 actors described as perpetrators and 7 described as victims. In addition, 20 explicit meanings and 16 implicit meanings were also found in the text of the collection of essays on Muslim Tanpa Masjid as well as socio-cultural practices which can be identified by connecting the text to the situation. With the results of the research, further researchers can use the book collection of essays on Muslim Tanpa Masjid as an object of study using hegemony studies because there are many essays that show the power of power. In addition, essay writers must be good at relating the text to the situation to be written. The essay should be easy for the reader to understand.

ARISTOTLE’S WORKS «DE ANIMALIBUS» IN RUSSIAN CULTURE (XVIII–XIX cc.)

The article is dedicated to the analysis of Aristotle’s heritage reception in Russian culture XVIII–XIX cc., especially to the problem of “De Animalibus” works’ reception. The research is based on the study of scientific, philosophical, fiction and social and political essays texts of the Russian authors in the men-tioned period, which contains some references to Ancient works. As a result we made a conclusion on the role of Aristotle’s works in Russian culture.

Frantz Fanon

Frantz Fanon was born in 1925 on the Caribbean island of Martinique. He died in 1961 from leukemia in a hospital outside Washington, DC. Trained as a psychiatrist, Fanon achieved fame as a philosopher of anti-colonial revolution. He published two seminal books, Black Skin, White Masks (1952) and The Wretched of the Earth (1961), that addressed the psychological effects of racism and the politics of the Algerian Revolution (1954–1962), respectively. He also wrote a third book, Year Five of the Algerian Revolution (1959, reprinted and translated as A Dying Colonialism in 1967), as well as numerous medical journal articles and political essays, a selection of which appear in the posthumous collections Toward the African Revolution (1964) and Alienation and Freedom (2015). Despite the brevity of his life and written work, Fanon’s analysis of colonialism and decolonization has remained vital, influencing a range of academic fields such that the term Fanonism has become shorthand to capture his interrelated political, philosophical, and psychological arguments. Through penetrating views and a frequently bracing prose style, the small library of Fanon’s work has become essential reading in postcolonial studies, African and African American studies, critical race theory, and the history of insurgent thought, to name just a few subjects. Fanon is a political martyr who died before he could witness the birth of an independent Algeria, his stature near mythic in scale as a result. To invoke Fanon is to bring forth a radical worldview dissatisfied with the political present, reproachful of the conformities of the past, and consequently in perpetual struggle for a better future.