Redefining Nationhood and Nationality through Historiographic Metafiction in the Shadow Lines

Purpose: Postmodernism is a general movement that developed in the late 20th century across the arts, philosophy, art, architecture, and criticism, marking a disappearance from modernism. The term has been more often used to describe a historical age which followed after modernity. Postmodernism is a period of uprising which refers to ups and downs in each walk of life and the different disciplines of knowledge be it literary work, philosophy, or science. Postmodern literature revokes some modern literary methods by transforming them. Historiographic Metafiction is a contradictory term that consists of two opposite categories such as history and metafiction. It is having dual representations because such writings reflect the reality as well as fictional position. An attempt is made by the Post-colonial Indian English writers to liberate Indian English literature from the foreign bondage. Historical events such as agitations, migration, movements, refugees, colonial hegemony; social-economic and cultural problems like encounter of the east-west, caste, and class became the concerns of the writers. Design/Methodology/Approach: This paper is prepared by making a study of Primary source and accumulating secondary data from educational websites and written publications. This qualitative research is carried out by studying and interpreting the existing knowledge on the subject. The paper tries to analyze the historiographic metafictional features as depicted in The Shadow Lines by Amitav Ghosh. Findings/Result: After reviewing many articles, books and thesis it has been found that the paper aims to study Amitav Ghosh's notions like ‟ Nationhood and National distinctiveness in "The Shadow Lines” as a reminiscence novel, highlights a few historical happenings like the Second World War, the Swadeshi movement, and the Partition of India in 1947 and communal uprisings in Bangladesh and India. The ardent nationalism upheld by the protagonist that is the narrator’s grandmother is questioned and re-analysed. Ghosh searches for appropriateness of traditional identity such as nation and nationalism. Originality/Value: This paper makes a study of the major character Thamma with special reference to her concerns of Nationhood and Nationality. The identity of Thamma in the novel is given prominence being a woman she stands for her thoughts and identifies her as an individual who faced tragedy but still who had the courage to raise her voice till the end. Paper Type: Analytical Research paper.

Literary Techniques in Journalism Essay Writing

To what extent does the press article rely on Literary Techniques to direct content on the Saudi National Day? Applied study on Al-Yaum newspaper, from January – July 2020. The main objective of this study was identified that to what extent does the press article rely on Literary Techniques to direct content on the Saudi National Day?,The descriptive method is used to describe the situation and analyse the results. Observation and content analysis sheets were used as tools of this study. 27 opinion essays were represented an Intentional sample, from content analysis population. The results were: All the articles published on the 89th National Day in the digital newspaper Al-Youm used literary methods except for the assonance style that was not used by the writers. The types of opinion essays that dealt with themes of patriotism are the most essays used the rhetorical methods. The published articles aimed to enhance the value of patriotism.

“Us them”: trends in the development of Russian and Belarusian dramaturgy of the last third of the XX ― beginning of the XXI century

The article focuses on the features of the dramatic process in Belarus and Russia, studied in a comparative aspect of the Soviet (1970s-1980s) and post-Soviet (1990s 2010s) periods. Our goal is to identify common and different in the dramaturgical systems of related literatures through the prism of thekey topos of the artistic structure of the works of Russian and Belarusian authors hero, conflict, chronotope. Methods of comparative studies (comparative analysis of the literary process), as well as historical and literary methods are used to implement the tasks set. The material includes the works of more than 200 Belarusian and Russian playwrights. Russian literature (A. Vampilov, L. Petrushevskaya, N. Kolyada) and Belarusian literature (A. Makayonok, E. Popova, A. Dudarev), separate directions (new wave of Russian dramaturgy of the 1970s-1980s), stages of dramaturgical life (new drama of the 1990s-2010s), aesthetically controversial development intentions (dramaturgical practice of netuteyshy in Belarusian post-Soviet dramaturgy) are given special attention. The scientific novelty of the research is predetermined by the fact that for the first time in literary studies, a comparative analysis of the dynamics of the dramatic process in Belarus and Russia has been undertaken for such a long time the last four decades.

http://www.folia.ac.me/image/38/Dora%20Kelemen.pdf

This paper analyzes female characters in two early works by Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky– Poor Folk (1845, Bednye liudi) and The Double (1846, Dvoinik). It considers the literary methods used to represent those characters, as well as their relation to the male main character and some aspects of gender construction in these works. It is shown that the importance of female characters in these two works is directly connected with their (real or imagined) influence on the male main character. Consequently, a female character can play an important role in the novel even if she doesn’t personally appear in it. Women are fatal for both male characters, albeit for different reasons. Drawing on the research of Neuhäuser (1979), this article shows some further similarities in the basic structure of both works. They share the form of a love affair accompanied by intertextual references, as well as a narrated previous relationship of the male character, both of them serving as an additional explanation of the current love affair. The epistolary form of Poor Folk leads to self-representation being the main way of showing Varvara Dobroselova’s character, while Klara Olsuf’evna of The Double is depicted both from the perspective of the auctorial first-person narrator, as well as from Goliadkin’s perspective. The auctorial narrator of The Double ironizes not only Klara Olsuf’evna, but also other characters and social practices of the Petersburg society. The internal monologues and the free indirect speech of Goliadkin, however, show signs of a negative, even misogynistic attitude towards the character of Karolina Ivanovna and partially also to Klara Olsuf’evna. Lastly, Poor Folk introduces themes to Dostoevsky’s work, which occupy him until the end of his life and manifest themselves in their more recognizable form in his later works.

Refleksje o powieści milicyjnej (na marginesie książki Doroty Skotarczak „Otwierać, milicja! O powieści kryminalnej w PRL”)

The paper is a set of thoughts on the milicja-novel, inspired by the book Otwierać, milicja! O powieści kryminalnej w PRL by Dorota Skotarczak. This book, being a work of a historian, treats the milicja-novel as a specific historical source, transformations of which are a reflection of changes in the social and political environment of the Polish People’s Republic. The author of the paper suggests other methodological possibilities, showing via chosen examples, that using methods of literary studies, e.g. considering the category of the literary convention or the rhetorical formation of the discourse, allows one to find complete responses to many research questions. Considering the literary methods of forming the message can also prevent an oversimplified view of the milicja-novel as a historical source. As a conclusion, further research on this genre of popular literature is postulated, while the author considers an interdisciplinary approach, connecting methods of at least two sciences: history and literary studies, and additionally others (e.g. bibliology), to be the most appropriate.

Introduction

After staging the stakes of the mid-century turn towards psychography in W.H. Auden’s “The Unknown Citizen,” the Introduction provides a pre-history of “psychography,” a term coined in the Victorian Era to describe a series of disparate practices of recording and materializing individual psychology. These practices—including telepathic communication, automatic writing, and the literary methods of Stracheyan psychobiography—demonstrate “mind-writing” as an emergent literary concern long before the invention of modern polling. Even in this protean stage of psychography, writers worried these new practices might empower malignant actors to weaponize psychographic power against the nation. Invoking Bram Stoker’s Dracula as an exemplar of this phenomenon, I highlight that the vampire frightens not only because he will feed on London’s “teeming millions,” but also because his infectious power will “create a new and ever-widening circle of semi-demons.” In effect, Dracula weaponizes his telepathic power to execute psychological control over the masses. At the time Stoker was writing his novel, the science of public opinion was understood by sociologists only through such tropes of spiritualism, disease, and contagion. The chapter traces the transformation of this early modernist vision of psychographics to its reprisal in the mid-century institutionalization of public opinion polling, using Auden as a touchstone to demonstrate the radical and rapid institutionalization of group psychology into everyday discourse and institutions.

Kürzlich entdeckte karaimische Übersetzungen der Hebräischen Bibel: Geschichte und Textbeziehung

Recent research results have substantially broadened our knowledge regarding existing translations of the Hebrew Bible into Karaim. In the past few years numerous Biblical texts have been discovered that are among the oldest texts written in this moribund language. In this paper, the author presents the oldest known Karaim texts as well as recently discovered Karaim translations of the entire Tanakh and attempts to draw some preliminary conclusions on the relationship between them. Namely, the textual and stylistic similarities between Biblical manuscripts created separately in Karaim communities located far from one another in the regions of Crimea, Lithuania, Volhynia, and Galicia (including a considerable number of shared errores significativi) highlight the close affinities between these manuscripts and suggest that a common tradition of Bible translation must have existed among the Karaims. Moreover, the textual complexity and the use of sophisticated translation techniques and literary methods in the oldest known texts suggest that they could have been based on older texts or on a well-established oral translating tradition.

„Astra. Roman epistolar” de Dito şi Idem – un caz de istorie literară

The literary collaboration between Carmen Sylva and Mite Kremnitz under the pseudonym “Dito und Idem” was a real accomplishment in the 19th century not only in Romania, but on the whole European continent. After a series of individual projects on translations of Romanian literature into German, Carmen Sylva and Mite Kremnitz began their literary collaboration (1882-1889). The main aim of the literary project was to promote the Romanian literature and culture in Western and Central Europe. Therefore, the project produced two epistolary novels (Aus zwei Welten, Astra) with a real success on the book market. As a result of their attainment, only one novel was translated in Romania. The epistolary novel Astra was published in 1886 in German and translated and printed in feuilleton, in Romania, the same year. Taking everything into account, the study looks into the manner in which Carmen Sylva and Mite Kremnitz managed to use literary methods characteristic to the feuilleton-novel (pickling technique, narrative “seduction”, sensational plot etc.) which assured a consistent distribution of the novel. Furthermore, the comparison between the feuilleton-format and book format of the novel Astra offered us a new perspective on the transition of translated novels into the pages of a feuilleton. All in all, the literary collaboration between Dito and Idem represents a whole page in the literary history of the Romanian novel.

Folklorismus of the works of I. I. Bashmakov in the context of “third culture” (almanac “In-Between Time”)

The subject of this research is folklorismus of the works of I. I. Bashmakov, namely in almanac “In-Between Time” (“Mezhdudelye”). I. I. Bashmakov (Ivan Vanenko) is one of the representatives of mass literature of the 1830s – 1850s. The goal of this article is to demonstrate the peculiarities of using folklore plots, motifs, and images in the poetic and prose texts of the people’s writer. Bashmakov uses a thematic diversity of fairy tales, pastiche of folk songs, epic poems, and anectodes. His texts also feature traditional elements of the combination of peasant and urban culture (“third culture”). Analysis is conducted on the almanac “In-Between Time” (“Mezhdudelye”) by I. I. Bashmakov, using the cultural-historical and historical-literary methods. The novelty lies in consideration of folklorismus of the works of I. I. Bashmakov in the context of “third culture”. The works contained in the almanac “In-Between Time” (“Mezhdudelye”) are introduced into the scientific discourse. Folklorismus of the works of I. I. Bashmakov is associated primarily with application of folklore plots and images, as well as folklore artistic and stylistic peculiarities, based on which his works are attributed to aesthetic row of the “third culture”.

Russian Emigration's Literary Heritage in China: a Cultural Code

The article is devoted to the literary heritage of the Russian emigration in China and the Russian cultural code, which was preserved in the works of emigrants. A brief overview of the scientific literature, which formed the basis of the research methodology, and a description of the centers of Russian emigration in the Middle Kingdom - Harbin and Shanghai, the living conditions of emigrants are given. The relevance of the topic is due to the attention of modern researchers to the insufficiently studied literary heritage of the “eastern branch” of the Russian emigration.The material for the research was the works from the ten-volume “Literature of Russian emigrants in China” published in 2005 in Beijing. In this work, an integrated research approach is used, when various literary methods are combined with general scientific, linguistic, and private ones. The ten-volume collection includes the works of almost a hundred of Russian writers and poets in China, who for various reasons found themselves in emigration in Harbin, Shanghai and other Chinese cities. This work reveals the frequency themes of emigre creativity: Motherland, China-stepmother, historical events, faith in God, separation, longing for the Fatherland, etc. Basically, these are cultural codes, encoded information transmitted to us by our ancestors and allowing us to identify Russian culture: “Motherland”， “Holy Russia”，“Faith”，“God”，“Icon”，“Love”，“Home”， “Family”，“Soul”，“Hope”，“War”，“Separation”，“Foreign”， “Longing for the Homeland”，etc., as well as concepts (code units) that make up the concept sphere of the Russian picture of the world.The peculiar cultural mission of the Russian writers and poets of the “eastern branch” is that their literature is as much a cultural monument of their time as the works of emigrant writers of the “western branch”. Russian emigrants not only preserved their native culture, language, traditions, religion in exile but also increased the cultural heritage of Russia. The literary work of Russian emigrants in China should become a full-fledged part of the great Russian literature. Keywords: Russian emigrant literature, Russia, China, cultural heritage, cultural code, theme