Autofiction and Self-Portraiture: Jenny Diski and Claude Cahun

This chapter argues that the contemporary British writer Jenny Diski and the Modernist French photographer and writer Claude Cahun are both literary self-portraitists, as this term is defined by Michel Beaujour. This is evident in their similar approaches to the themes of masquerade, narcissism, and naming. By reading Diski’s The Dream Mistress and Cahun’s Disavowals in the light of Julia Kristeva’s account of narcissism, as well as theories of autofiction and self-portraiture, the chapter further contends that self-portraiture arises from a distinct conception of the self, and of the psychological origins of artistic creativity. On this basis, it can be contrasted with autofiction, and autofiction and self-portraiture can then be seen to be related to each other as the two poles of contemporary life-writing.

CHILD CUSTODY: A RIGHT OR A DUTY (A STUDY OF AN APPROACH TO AMEND ARTICLE 57 OF THE IRAQI PERSONAL STATUS LAW)

The current century has witnessed a revolution in different fields which required some legal rules to be reformulated to adapt with the volume of challenges imposed by the contemporary life on marriage life in general, on the children, which are the most important thing that may result from marriage, and on the importance of caring for their needs. As God has divided the parents’ duties in caring for their children throughout the stages of their liv.es. He laid upon the mother the responsibility of caring for children starting from pregnancy, delivery, breastfeeding until infancy. While He, especially, assigned the father the responsibility of what comes after. But sometimes a child may lose one or both parents; and here the question arises about who shall take custody and what is the period required to satisfy that right. Article (57) of Personal Status Law No. (188) for the year 1959 has answered this question with its nine clauses and confirmed the necessity of caring for the child’s best interest and prioritizing it over the parents’ rights. However, the Iraqi Parliament has adopted an amendment of this Article in its latest proposals under the pretext of being in line with changes of everyday life with the assurance of applying the spirit of Islamic Law. It discussed the transmission of the child’s custody from the mother to the father after the age of seven in opposition to the current law that grants the mother this right until the child turns fifteen years of age; it also stipulated that the mother shall not get married in order to attain custody over the child which is regarded as a Statutory Offence represented in forcing the mother not to get married during which she holds custody over the child. Meanwhile, it did not stipulate over the father abstinence from marriage in order to attain custody over his children. The amendments have also showcased the entitlement of the grandfather’s right in custody rather than the mother in case the father died or didn’t fulfill the conditions of custody. By doing so, the rule would deprive the mother from her child upon turning seven years of age without attention being paid to the subsequential feeling of instability such decision causes to the child. The parliament should have tried to balance between the child’s right of maternal tenderness or paternal security. This is the aim of our research which will shed light on this subject in two scopes, the first of which focuses on educating the people of the right of custody and its period, and the second of which is dedicated to discussion of amendments and making proper recommendation.

W poszukiwaniu Bukowińczyków wśród społeczności polonijnej Brazylii. Kilka refleksji z badań w stanach Santa Catarina i Parana

The article presents an account of research among a group of immigrants in Brazil, con- sisting of people originating from Bukovina. The group is presented against the backdrop of history and contemporary life of the Polish community residing in the states of Santa Catarina and Paranaʾ. The article describes trajectories of people hailing from various parts of Poland, who migrated to southern Brazil at the turn of the 19th and 20th century following the so-called “Brazilian fever” (the economic bubble of the 1880s). It presents the results of field research carried out in 2016–2017 and 2019, most of which refer to the research participants’“ethnic condition” and identity.

Pauline Hopkins’ Literary Egyptology

Author Pauline Hopkins produced work in a variety of genres: short stories, novels, a musical, a primer of facts. Like other African Americans of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, she engaged with the history of the Nile Valley before the discipline of Egyptology was firmly established in the sphere of higher education in the US. Her serialized novel Of One Blood, published in 1902 and 1903, draws on a variety of sources, such as the English historian George Rawlinson, to tell a fictionalized story set in the contemporary present of the Upper Nile and to address issues related to the ancient past of that region. Her main character, Reuel, embodies links across time—ancient and contemporary—and space—the United States and the Nile River Valley. Through him, she shows the power and relevance of ancient history to contemporary life.

The Main Enterprise of the World

Education ought to be central to our lives—it should be, in Ralph Waldo Emerson’s phrase, “the main enterprise of the world.” In its broadest sense, education aims at three goals: to enable people to support themselves, to enable them to function as citizens, and to find fulfillment. In our times, changing features of the workplace environment provide opportunities to focus on the latter two goals, and to liberate education from supposed economic constraints. By doing so, we can improve the lives of individuals, and build more solid foundations for democracy. Philip Kitcher’s humanistic vision of educational reform is not, however, divorced from the realities of contemporary life nor doomed by any conflict with sound economics. After an accessible discussion of central philosophical questions, he examines the content of the curriculum, identifies the social changes required if a fully adequate education is to be provided to all, and considers how the proposals can be reconciled with financial stability. The Main Enterprise of the World renews classical pragmatism: with one eye on the ideal, and the other on the world, it presents a picture of education appropriate for our century.

GASTRONOMICAL CODE AS ELEMENT OF EVERYDAY LIFE POETICS IN DRAMA TEXTS (ANTON CHEKHOV’S THREE SISTERS AND BETH HENLEY’S CRIMES OF THE HEART)

The paper sets out to explore the functions of food discourse in the plays Three Sisters by Anton Chekhovand Crimes of the Heart by Beth Henley. Based on the critically established continuity between the two plays, the paperlooks at the ways the dramatists capitalize on food imagery to achieve their artistic goals. It seemed logical to discuss thealimentary practices within the framework of everyday life studies, moved to the forefront of literary scholarship by theanthropological turn in the humanities. Enhanced by semiotic approach, this perspective enables one to understand foodproducts and consumption manners as performing a variety of functions in each play. Most obviously, they are instrumentalin creating the illusion of «everydayness» vital for new drama. Then, for Chekhov, food comes to epitomize thespiritless materiality of contemporary life, while in Henley’s play it is predominantly used, in accordance with the play’sfeminist agenda, as a grotesque substitute for the lack of human affection. Relying upon the fundamental cultural distinctionbetween everyday and non-everyday makes it possible to compare representations of festive occasions in the twoplays seen through the gastronomical lens of «eating together». Despite substantial differences, the emphases on alimentarypractices in the plays serve to realize the inexhaustible dramatic potential inherent in the minutiae of quotidian life.

واقع الحرية في الحضارات القديمة ومنطلقات ممارستها في المجتمعات الإسلامية المعاصرة (The Reality of Freedom in Past Civilizations and Its Practices in Contemporary Islamic Societies)

Historical reading of the actual picture of freedom in ancient civilizations and today’s realities indicates that the values of freedom and human rights have been violated. It also indicates that people have been subjugated by authoritarian regimes. The purpose of this research is to reflect on the actual reality of freedom in contemporary Islamic societies. To this effect, the study adopted a descriptive and historical approach using a survey to review the opinions of academics about freedom in contemporary Islamic societies. The study suggests that freedom is not granted easily but is rather obtained by force. It also indicates that freedom is inherent in human nature and it is often enhanced by persistence, enriched by satisfaction, and prescribed by good legislations. The opinions obtained by the survey also suggest that there exists an utterly insignificant and limited space of freedom in Islamic societies. To yield fruitful results in our contemporary life, freedom must be originated from the servitude to the Almighty Allah by adhering to the Islamic constants in the Quran and Prophetic traditions and referring to Islamic legislation in which all rights are protected without favor nor exception.

The Radical Temporality of Drum and Bass

One of the key features of many genres within Electronic Dance Music (EDM) is the creation of simultaneous temporal layers. Genres such as drum and bass, dubstep, and future bass frequently use manipulation of rhythmic ostinati and subtle sonic shading to shift the listener’s perception between these multiple layers; for example, from a fast, intricate motion in the groove, suggestive of the ‘tensed’ experience of A-time, to a slow (or even a-temporal) motion in the vocals, pads, or instrumental lines, creating a sudden feeling of musical ‘space’, which might in turn connote a ‘tenseless’ B-time. This technique allows producers to create layered temporal narratives within the music, creating a complex landscape of musical momentum. Drawing on literature and methods from both sociology and philosophy, this chapter explores the complex relationship between these temporal systems, and in turn demonstrates how drum and bass offers a form of temporal resistance to contemporary life through both the sonic and social experience that the music offers. It concludes by arguing that, through the temporal ruptures caused by its uncertain shifting temporality, drum and bass provides clubgoers with a powerful ontological experience that illuminates the contradictions of time in a uniquely embodied way.

The Gender of Math

The politics of math are of newfound concern today, due to the outsize influence of algorithms and code in contemporary life. While only a few years ago, tech authors were still hawking Silicon Valley as the great hope for humanity, today one is more likely to hear how Big Tech increases social inequality, how algorithms are racist, and how math is a weapon. Do algorithms discriminate along gendered lines? Do mathematical systems harbor an essential bias? This essay shows that mathematics has long been defined through an elemental gendering, that within such typing there exists a prohibition on mixing the types, and that the two core types themselves (geometry and arithmetic) are mutually intertwined using notions of hierarchy, foreignness, and priority. The author concludes that whatever incidental biases it may display, mathematics also contains an essential bias.

Welcome to Whenever: Exploring Suspended Life in Cryopreservation Practices

Cryopreservation practices have become increasingly important within contemporary life sciences in recent decades, opening up the perspective of modifying and modulating temporal pathways and developmental cycles. Exploring the concept of “suspended life,” this article first focuses on temporal liminality as cryopreservation practices operate by extending the present. I rely on Niklas Luhmann’s account of time, which advances the idea of an enduring present bound to the principle of reversibility. The second part of this article engages with the emergence of cryobanks. Drawing on Martin Heidegger’s concept of the “standing-reserve” ( Bestand), I conceive of cryobanks as storing facilities that ensure the disposition of organic material. The third section discusses the advent of a “politics of suspension” based on the proliferation of cryogenic life in contemporary societies, which is defined by reversibility and disposition. The conclusion sums up the main argument and briefly points to the social and political repercussions of this mode of governing the future by prolonging the present.