The “Exaggerated” Colors of Black Narcissus (1947 and 2020)

This article explores the correspondences and differences in terms of color design between two screen versions of Black Narcissus, a popular novel by Rumer Godden published in 1939. Conceptual approaches drawn upon include ideas of “the figural,” intertextuality and hybridity as central to understanding how Black Narcissus operates on many complex levels, arguing that color is a key expressive mode in their articulation. Powell and Pressburger’s 1947 film and a 2020 television mini-series directed by Charlotte Bruus Christensen are for the first time compared in relation to landscape and the natural environment; interior spaces; costume; race. The texts’ experimentation with color, lighting and diffusion enables boundaries between exterior and interior spaces, as well as between characters’ memories and repressed desires, to be problematized. As “end of empire” texts, the literary and screen iterations of Black Narcissus are related to postcolonial theories in which a series of hybrid, “in-between” spaces and cultural attitudes are explored.

Authorial dialogue in Iris Murdoch’s “The Sea, the Sea”

В статье рассматривается роль авторского диалога в философско-психологическом романе Айрис Мёрдок «Море, море» (Iris Murdoch “The Sea, the Sea”, 1978) в раскрытии авторского замысла в целом и выявлении аспектов диалогичности художественного текста. На сегодняшний день отсутствуют лингвистические исследования данного популярного романа, который представляет прекрасный образец философско-психологического произведения литературы ХХ века и отражает актуальные тенденции работы с художественным словом, что обусловливает актуальность и научную новизну работы. Авторы статьи на материале романа А. Мёрдок анализируют диалогические маркеры речевого взаимодействия, опираясь на теорию, разработанную в исследовании Т. Ф. Плехановой, посвященную анализу художественного текста как дискурса в его диалогическом измерении, предлагают классификацию диалогических маркеров авторско-читательского взаимодействия, выявляют языковые средства, оформляющие непосредственный диалогический контакт, проводят подробный лингвостилистический анализ наиболее интересных фрагментов речевого взаимодействия, делают выводы об их роли в реализации авторского замысла. The article discusses the role of the authorial dialogue in the philosophical and psychological novel by Iris Murdoch “The Sea, the Sea” in revealing the authorial intent, namely aspects of the dialogic character of a literary text. The popular novel by Iris Murdoch is a perfect specimen of philosophical and psychological fiction of the twentieth century reflecting up-to-date literary trends; however, it has not undergone any thorough linguistic analysis so far. This fact determines the topicality and novelty of the research conducted. The authors investigate dialogical markers of speech interaction based on the theory devoted to the analysis of a literary text as a discourse in its dialogical dimension developed by T. F. Plekhanova. Based on the results of the Plekhanova research, the authors of the article offer a classification of dialogical markers of author-reader interaction; identify linguistic means that form direct dialogical contact, conduct a detailed linguistic and stylistic analysis of the most interesting fragments of speech interaction, make conclusions about their role in the implementation of the authorial intent.

ANALISIS ASPEK KEMASYARAKATAN MELALUI PEMIKIRAN A. SAMAD SAID DALAM NOVEL DAERAH ZENI DAN HUJAN PAGI

Abstrak Kajian ini dijalankan untuk menganalisis aspek kemasyarakatan melalui pemikiran oleh A. Samad Said dalam novel popular beliau yang bertajuk Daerah Zeni dan Hujan Pagi. Hal ini kerana aspek kemasyarakatan yang dibincangkan dalam novel oleh A. Samad Said dapat menggambarkan kekuatan pemikiran pengarang melalui kreativiti beliau yang dapat memberi sumber maklumat terkini kepada khalayak atau pembaca. Oleh itu, kajian ini juga dijalankan bertujuan mengenal pasti dan menganalisis aspek kemasyarakatan melalui pemikiran A. Samad Said dalam novel Daerah Zeni (1985) dan Hujan Pagi (1992). Di samping itu, reka bentuk kajian ini bersifat kualitatif melalui kaedah kepustakaan dan analisis kandungan teks. Selain itu, teori sosiologi dijadikan sebagai deduktif untuk memantapkan analisis perbincangan. Sebagai kesimpulannya, hasil dapatan kajian ini membuktikan bahawa A. Samad Said bijak mengutarakan cetusan idea dan kreativiti dalam usaha membincangkan isu semasa yang dapat diterima secara terbuka oleh masyarakat di dalam novel popular beliau. Abstract This study was conducted to analyze the aspects of society through the thinking by A. Samad Said in his popular novel titled Daerah Zeni and Hujan Pagi. This is because the societal aspects discussed in the novel by A. Samad Said can illustrate the strength of the author's thinking through his creativity which can provide the latest sources of information to the audience or readers. Therefore, this study was also conducted by aiming at identifying and analyzing the aspects of society through the thinking by A. Samad Said in the novels Daerah Zeni (1985) and Hujan Pagi (1992). This study is qualitative in nature by using the library methods and text content analysis. In addition, sociological theory is used deductively to strengthen the analysis of the discussion. This study has proven that A. Samad Said has wisely expressed the spark of ideas and creativity in an effort to discuss current issues that can be openly accepted by the community in his popular novel.

Unsettling Entitlement and ‘Ginx’s Baby’

This story traces the many adventures of a title, from Edward Jenkins’s 1870 novel, Ginx’s Baby, through colonial resistance to imperial copyright law in Canada, to the photograph of a distressed baby that Charles Darwin featured in The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals and that the art photographer Oscar Rejlander reproduced as popular cartes de visites. The reiterative use of the title across genres and oceans conjures an image of Victorian popular culture as an unregulated bazaar affording the surprising emergence of unintended creators. Copyright history, frame analysis, and name theory help explain how the title of a popular novel could lend itself to so many unrelated creative objects.

Analisis Formula dalam Novel Kami (Bukan) Sarjana Kertas Karya J. S. Khairen: Kajian Formula Sastra Populer

Abstrak: Novel Kami (Bukan) Sarjana Kertas merupakan salah satu novel populer dengan judul yang tampak serius dan belum pernah ada penelitian atas novel tersebut. Belum adanya penelitian atas novel tersebut menginisiasi hadirnya sebuah penelitian yang berjudul Analisis Formula dalam Novel Kami (Bukan) Sarjana Kertas Karya J. S Khairen: Kajian Formula Sastra Populer. Penelitian ini bertujuan menganalisis formula unsur intrinsik yang terdapat dalam novel dan mendeskripsikan bagaimana formula tersebut mempengaruhi popularitas novel Kami (Bukan) Sarjana Kertas. Teori yang digunakan untuk mendukung proses penelitian adalah teori formula. Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian deskriptif kualitatif. Artinya, data-data kualitatif yang telah dikumpulkan melalui studi pustaka dan teknik catat dijabarkan secara deskriptif. Objek penelitian sekaligus yang menjadi sumber data dalam penelitian ini adalah novel Kami (Bukan) Sarjana Kertas. Adapun tahapan analisis data dalam penelitian dilakukan dengan cara membaca novel dengan saksama dan menyeluruh, mencatat hal-hal yang dianggap penting, mengklasifikasikan isi novel berdasarkan formula unsur intrinsik, memberikan penjelasan, dan menarik simpulan. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa terdapat empat formula unsur intrinsik dalam novel Kami (Bukan) Sarjana Kertas yang menjadikan novel ini digemari oleh para pembaca sehingga termasuk ke dalam jajaran novel best seller di Indonesia. Formula unsur intrinsik tersebut antara lain tema, tokoh/penokohan, latar, dan gaya bahasa. Keempat formula dikemas secara kreatif sehingga tidak membosankan para pembaca ketika menikmati alur cerita yang disuguhkan dalam novel Kami (Bukan) Sarjana Kertas. Abstract: The novel Kami (Bukan) Sarjana Kertas is a popular novel with a little serious looking title and there has never been any research on the novel. The absence of research on the novel has initiated a study entitled Formula Analysis in Novel Kami (Bukan) Sarjana Kertas By J. S Khairen: Study Of Popular Literature Formula. This study aims to analyze the intrinsic element contained in the novel and describe how this formula affects the popularity of the novel Kami (Bukan) Sarjana Kertas. The theory used to support the research process is formula theory. This research is a qualitative descriptive study. This means that qualitative data that has been collected through literature studies and note taking techniques are described descriptively. The object of research as well as the source of data in this research is the novel Kami (Bukan) Sarjana Kertas. The stages of data analysis in research are carried out by read novels carefully and throughly, note things that are considered important, classify novel contents based on the intrinsic element formula, provide explanations, and draw conclusions. The results show that there are four formulas of intrinsic elements in the novel Kami (Bukan) Sarjana Kertas that have made this novel popular with readers so that it is included in the ranks of the best seller novels in Indonesia. The formulas for the intrinsic elements include themes, characters/characterizations, settings, and language styles. The four formulas are packaged creatively so that the readers don't get bored when enjoying the storylines presented in the novel Kami (Bukan) Sarjana Kertas.

Religion as Escape and New Shelter: Defamiliarizing History in Popular Fiction

The downfall of Realist Socialism in the post-communist environment of the Albanian speaking countries opened the way for the development of a variety of literary genres as well as for the growth of popular fiction. This paper focuses on the best-seller by Ben Blushi Living in an island (2008) which covers four centuries of Ottoman occupa-tion of Albania. The novel has provoked profuse debates within the Albanian speech-communities in the Region and was accused by the Muslim community for endangering the religious harmony and tolerance of Albanians. This paper argues that the blame derives from the interchange between the author and the narrator and from the inabil-ity to differentiate between different points of view within the narrative. Although literary critics have generally developed negative connotations about popular fiction as a kind of literature associated with industry, entertainment and escapism, the arti-cle claims that the popular novel by Blushi raises an important public debate about vital historical concerns such as whether the acceptance of Islam by Albanians was wilful or imposed. Rather than giving simple answers to these questions, Blushi’s novel provokes alternative ways of thinking about whether Albanians agreed to banish Christianism and accept Islam due to violent intrusion or due to free will, and if the conversion into another religion was a new way of survival and a shelter of self-protection.

The Role of Chapter Titles in Revealing the Authorial Intent in the Novel “The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden” by Jonas Jonasson

В статье рассматривается роль названий глав в юмористическом романе Юнаса Юнассона «Девочка, которая спасла короля Швеции» (Jonas Jonasson “The Girl Who Saved The King of Sweden”, 2014) в раскрытии авторского замысла в целом и создании комического эффекта в частности. На сегодняшний день отсутствуют лингвистические исследования данного популярного романа, который представляет прекрасный образец современного юмористического произведения и отражает актуальные тенденции работы с художественным словом, что обусловливает актуальность и научную новизну работы. Автор статьи на материале романа Ю. Юнассона анализирует структурные и смысловые особенности заголовков, опираясь на теорию, разработанную в своем диссертационном исследовании, посвященном контрасту как средству создания комического эффекта, предлагает классификацию названий глав по структурному и семантическому признаку; доказывает, что подавляющее большинство заглавий построены по принципу бинарной оппозиции, проводит подробный лингвостилистический анализ наиболее интересных, основанных на контрасте заглавий, делает выводы об их роли в реализации авторского замысла. The paper discusses the role of the chapter titles of the humorous novel by Jonas Jonasson “The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden” in revealing the authorial intent, namely the comic effect. The popular novel by Jonas Jonassson is a perfect specimen of modern humorous fiction reflecting up-to-date literary trends, however, it has not undergone any thorough linguistic analysis so far. This fact determines the topicality and novelty of the research conducted. The paper contains an overview of the functions of titles and a thorough analysis of the structural and semantic peculiarities of the chapter titles in the given novel. It also offers their classification due to several aspects. The research is based on the theory of the mechanism of creating the comic effect in humorous fiction developed by the author in her Ph.D. thesis, focusing on contrast as the key means of creating the comic effect in modern literature. Based on the results of the research, the author of the article concludes that the overwhelming majority of the chapter titles under analysis can be structurally defined as binary opposition clusters. To conclude, chapter titles play an integral part in bringing the author’s intent home to the reader.

Dream in Disguise: A Marxist Analysis of Presentation of Dream in Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist

This study investigates Paulo Coelho’s highly popular novel, The Alchemist (1988), in its English translation. Coelho’s The Alchemist has positively influenced millions of its readers worldwide as it inspires them to pursue their dreams or their “personal legends” in their lives without being afraid of failure. Santiago’s quest for his dream becomes a motivation for the readers to face challenges in their road to success in life. Coelho himself advocates for being aware of our “personal calling” which he says is “God’s blessing” or, “our own dream”. The current research questions the presentation of this dream by the author in this novel as it does not seem to be a simple dream. The dream is regarded as a metaphor not only by the author himself, but also by many critics who interpret this dream from a positivistic outlook to life. In this research, I would argue that this dream has its other metaphorical connotations too due to its way of presentation. Santiago’s dream and its pursuit highly resemble the pursuit of American Dream, a capitalist ideology. Santiago’s quest for his dream and the hidden treasure which he finds in the end has been argued as promotion of “rugged individualism” in this study. Thus, the paper, from a Marxist point of view, decodes the dream metaphor in The Alchemist, and tries to understand the operation of other capitalist ideologies in it.

Two Egoists (Dostoevsky’s Humiliated and Insulted and Dickens’ Barnaby Rudge)

The article is devoted to the reception of Charles Dickens by Dostoevsky, who was an ardent reader of Dickens. The author of the article shows that Dostoevsky’s Humiliated and Insulted clearly demonstrates the influence not only of Dickens’ The Old Curiosity Shop but also of his next, less popular, novel Barnaby Rudge (1841) which was published in Russian translation in the “Otechestvennye Zapiski” in 1842. The article reveals some similarities of the plot and, more importantly, between the characters of the two novels: Count Volkovsky and Sir Chester, who personify the type of antiromantic egoists which will be developed with more depth in Dostoevsky’s later works.