A Review of Kahlil Gibran’s Major Creative Works (Ulasan Hasil Karya Kreatif Utama Kahlil Gibran)

Kahlil Gibran is one of the most important writers of modern Arabic literature and one of the most successful poets of English in the twentieth century. He is undoubtedly a pioneer among Arab poets and novelists writing in English and the most important figure in the Émigré literary movement. His world-wide popularity is due in large part to his universal spiritual message of love and compassion. This study, focusing on both his Arabic and English works, seeks to explore the various contextual aspects that affect all of Gibran’s works since his birth in Mount Lebanon. It also presents a critical overview of all his works for readers and critics that seek a deeper appreciation and a more comprehensive understanding of this literary genius. The study highlights the spiritual element which serves as the link that unifies his Arabic and English works and propels them to enduring literary and popular success across cultures. Keywords: Kahlil Gibran, Āmigré Literature, Diaspora Writers, Spirituality, Perennialism. Abstrak Kahlil Gibran merupakan salah seorang penulis yang tersohor dalam kesusasteraan Arab moden dan salah seorang penyair Inggeris yang berjaya pada abad kedua puluh. Kredibiliti beliau tidak diragukan kerana beliau merupakan perintis dalam kalangan penyair dan novelis Arab yang menulis dalam bahasa Inggeris dan tokoh terpenting dalam gerakan sastera Émigré. Sebahagian besar popularitinya di seluruh dunia adalah disebabkan oleh mesej rohani universal cinta dan belas kasihannya. Kajian ini difokuskan kepada kedua-dua karya Arab dan Inggerisnya untuk meneroka pelbagai aspek kontekstual yang mempengaruhi semua karya Gibran sejak kelahirannya di Gunung Lubnan. Kajian ini juga memberikan gambaran keseluruhan yang kritis mengenai semua karya beliau kepada pembaca dan pengkritik yang mencari penghayatan yang lebih mendalam dan pemahaman yang lebih komprehensif tentang kehebatan sastera ini. Kajian ini juga mengenengahkan unsur kerohanian yang berfungsi sebagai penghubung yang menyatukan hasil karya Arab dan Inggerisnya dan mendorong mereka kepada kejayaan sastera dan popular yang berkekalan di seluruh budaya. Kata Kunci: Kahlil Gibran, Sastera Āmigré, Penulis Diaspora, Kerohanian, Perenialisme.

Evolution of the mystical metaprose by V. Nabokov (V. Sirin): Russophone period

In her second book, Professor Alla Vladimirovna Zlochevskaya continues her study of mystical metaprose, a literary movement of the early twentieth century, the most brilliant example of which is Nabokov’s prose. The author studies the Russophone period of V. Nabokov’s work, from “Mary” to “Gift” (1926–1938), and reveals general tendencies in the evolution of the genre model of Nabokov’s mystic metanovel. The book is addressed to a wide intellectual audience, primarily scholars and students of philological faculties, as well as to all those interested in Nabokov’s heritage and Russian literature.

Episodic Literary Movement and Translation: Ideology Embodied in Prefaces

This paper discusses translation practices from a historicist viewpoint, contextualizing them in their emerging “episode.” The latter is a concept drawn from sociology of literature and accounts for the rise of certain discourses and ideologies in a society. On the basis of the argument that translation practices are informed by the general literary and socio-cultural milieu in which they are produced and consumed (also known as ideology of representation), the paper studies the translators’ prefaces to three translations published between 1953 and 1978—a period dominated by Leftist and Marxist discourse in Iran. Drawing on a historically oriented model which holds that the translator’s ideology is revealed at the moment in which he/she chooses a text, and continues through the discourse he/she develops to translate that text, the research embarks on studying translation practices on two levels of choice mechanism and prefaces. Prefaces are discussed in the light of the dominant ideology of representation that is characterized by a revolutionary discourse. The research demonstrates that these translators opted for a strategy that incorporates the translations in the Persian cultural setting with minor changes in a way that politicizes the foreign literature.

Sea as a Multi-Meaning Symbol in Edgar Poe’s Poetry

The present article aims at determining the symbolic meaning of sea in Edgar Poe’s poetry. It deals with the essence of symbolism and symbols and is focused on Edgar Poe’s contribution to symbolism as literary movement, as well as different symbols used in his poems. From a great number of symbols sea has been selected as a less-studied and multiple-meaning symbol. It has been examined in view of the traditional associations connected with it, also its usage in the Bible, mythology and literatures of different epochs. The article contains analysis of several poems by Edgar Poe where sea symbolizes very different things. It has been stressed that since Poe’s works reflected his tragic life, the poet employed numerous symbols to express his own emotions, sea being one of them. In different poems, this symbol expresses the feelings that are very different and sometimes diametrically opposed to each other, and, respectively, acquires different meanings. With several other factors, its being a multi-meaning symbol became the main reason for choosing sea as an object of study.

Semiotic Analysis of Joyce Kilmer’s Poems

This study which is a semiotic analysis of the poems of Joyce Kilmer had discovered through the use of Barth’s Denotation-Connotation Theory the use of both literal and non-literal meanings of some important recurring words in Kilmer’s poems. The recurring words serving as leitmotifs were therefore subjected to semiotic analysis and interpretation. The study did explore, therefore, the signs (visual images in the poems) by giving the signifier and the signified of some word/s as signs. With the Denotation-Connotation of the word, it even led the researcher to a new level of signified – something higher in meaning than the two, connotative still. Moreover, the use of semiotic analysis of the poems even became a tool to= experience side benefits of the study – that is, giving a researcher a cue that Joyce Kilmer's poems revolved around nature, God as thematic content with emotion overflowing in the literary opuses. Thus, with the side benefits, the researcher was even led further to realize that the poet (Joyce Kilmer) belonged to the Romantic Era of the literary movement.

The Catholic Revival in English Literature

The article deals with research of the Catholic revival as a remarkable literary movement that amalgamated a number of authors who discussed problems of the Roman Catholicism in the works of various forms – from serious theological apologies to the popular genres like G.K. Chesterton's detective stories. Such Catholic novelists like Evelyn Waugh and Graham Greene appeal to the wide readership and interpret the problem of faith in its complex ambivalence, actuality, psychological depth. Whilst Evelyn Waugh is in search for a solid ground in the Old Faith as an alternative to the modern anarchy and chaos, Graham Greene emphasizes on the faith's conflicting ambiguities and contradictions.

In Tribute to the Kuwaiti Poet Ali Al-Sabti

This is a eulogy of the Kuwaiti poet and writer Ali Hussein Al-Sabti, who died at the age of 86. He was a prominent poet of Kuwait who contributed to the beginnings of the modern poetic movement in Kuwait, writing literary and social stories and articles subsequently published in Kuwaiti and Arab newspapers. He served as a member of the Writers Association and the Journalists Association and wrote for many Kuwaiti newspapers. He also won many awards and honors from authorities and institutions sponsoring poetry and literature, including the Abdulaziz Saud Al-Babtain Prize for Poetic Creativity. The National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters mourns this man who enjoyed a busy journey in literary and cultural work marked by elaborate poems and distinguished writings. The death of Al-Sabti, a great poet and writer, marks a loss for the cultural and literary movement in Kuwait.

France

Fin-de-siècle French decadence is one expression of the partial autonomy from political power in literature and the arts, both of which established their own frames of reference and legitimation. This article retraces the history of decadence in France in the 1880s. Envisaging decadence as both an infamous appellation and a literary movement embedded within a specific ecosystem of little magazines, it presents canonical works such as Huysmans’s À rebours and the poetry of Paul Verlaine and Stéphane Mallarmé, and explores some notable little magazines where decadent writings first appeared, paying attention to some of the quarrels that led to the emergence of symbolism and instrumentism originating from decadent works in the late 1880s. Literary decadence helped shape the little magazines of the 1890s while also heralding modern poetry.

The Odyssey of Eternal Love

The present manuscript is the review of Vakhtang Javakhadze’s long verse/mini-poem – Elegy: Necklace. During the analysis the hermeneutic method of text study, analysis and text research in the prism of literary sociology have been used. The verse is analyzed in view of poetry study too. Elegy: Necklace can be considered as part of long verse or mini-poem genre. When creating it, the author planned to write an elegy, although, the writing process prolonged and the text extended. Everyone agrees that Elegy: Necklace is the start of something new in Georgian poetry. When we speak about literary movement, which one of them the mini-poem belongs to, we presume that it is either postmodernism or neonaturalism. The lyrical “I” is represented as the true “I” and with all the clear and unappealable naturalism tells the story of eternal love, told either by items or life events; either ups or downs. The poem is led by Murman Lebanidze’s poem title – Getting Used to Being Without You! which precisely reflects its main mood; Murman Lebanidze dedicated this poem to his deceased spouse and speaks about struggling to get used to living without her. The “internal dialogue” of the author and his beloved one does not stop and it is spoken about by items, gravestone and in the final part of the poem, the blue dove, as the sign of eternal connection between souls in love, as the symbol of immortal love. For more naturalism slang, barbarism and neologism are used in the poem. It is noteworthy that the poem is conventional or traditional, despite the fact that current poetry mainstream is a verse libre. The poem is distinguished by amazing euphony and tempo-rythm. The poem expresses the unusual humor and irony, which are the signs of Vakhtang Javakhadze’s style. Therefore, here is Vakhtang Javakhadze’s masterpiece – Elegy: Necklace, which is the start of something new in Georgian poetry.

Artistic symbolism of I.Turgenev as a manifestation of romantic spirit of his works

The article considers the artistic symbolism of the writer as a reflection of the literary movement of his work, and analyzes it. The history of the issue on this topic originated a long time ago; it is quite extensive and causes undoubted interest. The peculiarity of the romantic view is associated with the personality of the writer and the inherent deep psychologism, psychophysics of his personality. The symbolic system in the Turgenev’s works is filled with Hegelian ideas about the inextricable relationship between the life of Nature and a man, which the writer adopted and developed. This relationship lies in the field of parallel processes occurring in them. A lot of attention in the work is paid to the forces of inertness and egoism, which, according to the author, are also engines of progress. This whole set of ideas, reflecting the various facets of human being and constituting the basis of the romantic system and the symbolism of his work, gives rise to a significant layer of symbolic details filling his works with a special artistic “sound”, where rich love symbolism has become a separate “ornament”.