Ìgbélárugẹ Èdè: Akinwumi Isola’s Model for Promoting African Languages

The ever-popular discussion in African literary circles is critically about language choices that African writers make in their creative endeavors. This is part of this write-up’s focus plus the plight of African languages with attention to the benefit and challenges for their empowerment. We set out to achieve two goals in this essay; first contributing to the ongoing discussions on African mother tongues, their vital roles in African literatures while characterizing pointers on proficiency and performance. Second, considering the use of Yoruba language in creative works of late Akínwùmí Oròjídé Iṣọ̀lá. Expectedly, the latter goal will exemplify the importance of indigenous languages to African writers. In pursuance of these dual goals, it is critical to highlight areas in which African writers, especially those writing in their native African languages, have endured to play crucial roles in promotion of African languages. These highlighted areas go beyond now fashionable and expressed goal of focusing on literature in African languages (splendor in African languages) onto push for fairness for languages and their speakers (linguistic justice).

Courtier and Swordsman

During the years 1610 to 1612 the threat of war returned to haunt Europe and James I’s critics looked increasingly to Henry, prince of Wales, as a future military and Protestant leader. Chapter 4 looks at Herbert’s engagement with courtly politics and support for his kinsman, Pembroke, who opposed the powerful pro-Catholic and pro-Spanish Howard faction and favoured providing military assistance to fellow Protestants in Europe and seeking alliance with France. It examines Herbert’s determination to secure honour and military experience by fighting as a volunteer in the Protestant army defending Jülich-Cleves in 1610 and the contribution of his military exploits in camp, where he learned the art of making war under Sir Edward Cecil, and his emerging chivalric reputation in England and on the continent. It considers his attempt to defend his honour in a series of duels, including most notoriously with Theophilus Howard, Lord Walden, and Sir John Eyre, and the reaction of the Privy Council and fellow courtiers to the fashion for duelling. It explores Herbert’s involvement in courtly and literary circles; the favour shown him by Anne of Denmark; his friendship with John Donne, Sir Robert Harley, and Sir Thomas Lucy; his commissioning of portraits by leading court artists; and his difficult relationship with members of the Howard family that led, following the rise of Robert Carr, earl of Somerset, as royal favourite and the deaths of Robert Cecil, earl of Salisbury, and Prince Henry, to his withdrawal from court politics.

The Neo-Futurists

Interest in the Russian Futurist poetry of the first two-and-a-half decades of the twentieth century was revived in Soviet literary circles in the mid-1950s. Initially focused on the work of Vladimir Mayakovsky, interest spread to other writers. At the turn of the fifties and sixties, this revival resulted in regular “unsanctioned” poetry readings at the Mayakovsky monument in Moscow, which were eventually banned by the authorities. Against this backdrop, several young poets tried to build on the creative strategies of the Futurists. Gennady Aigi, who debuted as a Chuvash-language poet, was the first of these poets to arrive on the literary scene. Vladimir Kazakov and Vadim Kozovoy, poets who came onto the literary scene in the sixties, consciously established their styles at the intersection of the Russian and international avant-gardes, trying to overcome the isolationism of Soviet poetry. In the seventies, poems by their elder contemporary, Elizaveta Mnatsakanova, claiming to complete the project of a revived Futurism, were published abroad. All four poets borrowed numerous formal features of their work from Russian Futurism and sought to see themselves as its successors, while setting aside the avant-garde’s socio-political agenda and its desire for a radical transformation of culture and society.

“Doctor Zhivago” by Boris Pasternak in Italian criticism of the 1950s: a discussion in the magazine “Il Ponte”

the article will focus on the history of the first publication of the novel “Doctor Zhivago” by Boris Pasternak, on its influence on the formation of opinion about Boris Pasternak as a truly major prose writer, as well as on the potential role in the further receipt of the Nobel Prize by the author in 1958. As one knows, the first publication took place in Italy. It is from Italian cultural figures Giangiacomo Feltrinelli (the first publisher of the novel) and Pietro Antonio Zveteremich (its translator) it depended on how the novel would be received abroad, where Boris Pasternak had not been well-known by the late 1957 – the Swedish Academy initially refused to nominate the writer as a Nobel laureate due to insufficient fame in wide literary circles. After the publication of “Doctor Zhivago”, it was essential to determine what the content of the first reviews of this work would be. The paper reviews the first reviews of the novel in the Italian press, in particular, the discussion that unfolded in the independent monthly magazine “Il Ponte”. Such well-known cultural figures in Italian literary circles as Guglielmo Petroni, Carlo Cassola, and Manlio Cancogni spoke out. Their opinions were not ignored, they were accepted by the general public.

Die Rolle der Presse und Zensur für die Literaturkreise in der kommunistischen Vergangenheit Rumäniens

The study takes on the role of the press, publishers, writers’ associations for the German literary circles in Romania in the period 1949-1989. These institutions endeavored to support young authors by publishing their literary creation but only under certain conditions which are detailed in the article. Another focus is on how censorship and self-censorship worked. The examples given show different effects of censorship on writers and poets. When some authors dared to slip texts with a subversive message, other writers preferred to stay away from the literary scene because they thought it was better to write literature for the desk drawer (Schubladenliteratur) and wait for better times to publish it. The result of these constraints referring to the writing process finally determined the authors to encode criticism in their texts, readers being forced to read between the lines.

Red Sanitary Enlightenment: Medicine, Culture and Society during the 1920s

Статья посвящена специфике санитарного просвещения в 1920‑е гг. как гибридного феномена на стыке истории медицины и истории общества. Вслед за Д. Биром и Л. Энгельштайн рассматривается соединение «социально-инженерных» подходов части медицинской интеллигенции с радикальными преобразовательными планами большевиков под знаком науки о человеке и его здоровье. Особенностями нэповского общественно-медицинского дискурса были прогрессизм, борьба с религиозными суевериями, атака на социальные болезни (туберкулез, алкоголизм, венерические заболевания) и их причины. В статье рассматриваются стилистические особенности и жанровое многообразие этой пропагандистской продукции: пьесы, агитационные материалы, псевдо-фольклорные тексты (М. Утенков, С. Заяицкий и др.), а также деятельность институтов: музеев медицины и гигиены, Домов санитарного просвещения. Особенное внимание уделяется «национальным» и региональным версиям этого дискурса, его трансформации и формализации уже в 1930-е гг. The article examines the specificity of sanitary education and propaganda in the 1920s as a hybrid phenomenon between the history of medicine and the history of society. To understand the specificity, one must refer to the history of cultural ideas and of mass sentiments in the post-revolutionary times, to the study of professional examinations, scientific conventions and academic as well as literary circles. Following D. Beer and L. Engelstein, the authors consider the combination of “social engineering” approaches of a part of the medical intelligentsia with the radical transformative plans of the Bolsheviks – under the sign of the science of man and their health. The features of the NEP social medical discourse were progressivism, the fight against religious superstitions, the attack on social diseases (tuberculosis, alcoholism, venereal diseases) and their origins. The authors analyse (1) the stylistic features and genre diversity of this discourse: plays, propaganda materials, pseudo-folklore texts (M. Utenkov, S. Zayitsky, et al.); (2) the activities of institutions: museums of medicine and hygiene, houses of sanitary education; (3) the biographies of the psychiatrist Lazar Sukharebsky (1899–1986) as the editor of a catalog of educational and scientific medical films and Alexander (Aetius) Ranov (1899–1979), a prominent enthusiast of sanitary education in the Ural region and in Ukraine. In the early 1920s, at the dawn of the NEP, both Sukharebsky and Ranov belonged to a short-lived yet assertive group “Nichevoki”, which was close to the experience of European Dadaism. The recipient’s activity was stimulated in every possible way and was not limited to a simple assimilation of the finished image - the literary tradition, stage techniques and visual innovation were attracted as allies. Mass publications of sanitary education plays often included guidelines on the desirable format of the stage version, “tips” for the director, advice to avoid exaggeration and stiltedness. The authors pay particular attention to the “national” and regional versions of this discourse, its transformation and flattening already in the 1930s. After the end of the NEP, the activities of the Red Cross Societies were maximally nationalized – participation in collective production, and especially defence, rather than the fear of illnesses of a person or their family, became the engine of sanitary propaganda. “Red sanitary enlightenment” still seems to be a characteristic “hybrid” manifestation of the complex, multidimensional and instructive, though relatively short, NEP period.

“Even here your uncle has been of use to you!” On the history of creative relationships of Fyodor Dostoevsky and Ivan Goncharov

The article is devoted to the study of literary and biographical connections between the collision of Ivan Goncharov's first novel “A Common Story” and the conflict between Fyodor Dostoevsky and his guardian Pyotr Karepin. Analysing biographical materials, the author hypothesises that Fyodor Dostoevsky, meeting with Ivan Goncharov, while the latter was working on “A Common Story”, could partly influence the creation of the main collision and central images of the novel. Noting the plot and figurative convergence, the author of the article also shows the ideological difference between Ivan Goncharov and Fyodor Dostoevsky in the presentation of the conflict between uncle and nephew – two different minds, worldviews and representatives of two different generations. The author of the work presents significant and interesting correspondences between the life and creative paths of Ivan Goncharov and Fyodor Dostoevsky, noting the similar literary influences experienced by both writers, and also points to salons and literary circles where they could meet.

Women and Da‘wah in the 20th Century: An Analysis of Maryam Jameelah's Contributions

Maryam Jameelah was a Jewish-American lady who, after embracing Islam, selected Pakistan as her adopted abode. Mostly her conversion to Islam and fierce criticism of western civilization became the topic of discussion among academics. However, her work for da‘wah, so evident since her childhood, did not find much attention in the literary circles. A study of her life and works can reveal answers to the questions such as how she engaged herself in this field, what is the methodology adopted by her, and how does her work is useful for the women interested in da‘wah. Analyzing her published books and articles along with the unpublished material found in her library, the current paper focuses on the practical aspects of her da‘wah activities. It is argued that being a convert, she was aware of the problems of people who either converted to Islam or had an interest in it. Thus, targeting an English-speaking audience, she did not only write a bulk of literature to disseminate her understanding of Islam in Euro-American communities, but also practically contributed to this field through her discussions with non-Muslims, correspondence, and economic support for Islamic organizations.