The Monstrous Cosmos of Jeanette Winterson’s Frankissstein

In her 2019 novel Frankissstein: A Love Story, Jeanette Winterson weaves an intricate transtemporal and trans-spatial multiplicity, the coding of which is governed by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818). Through the double first-person narrative of Mary Shelley and her 21st-century reincarnation, Ry Shelley, Winterson approaches the literary phenomenon of Frankenstein in its entirety, seamlessly traversing and fusing the levels of the novel’s production, thematic and formal structuring, and reception. This paper argues that by employing the patchwork nature of Shelley’s monster as the principal metaphor for the creation of her own textual hybrid, Winterson upgrades the essentially Cartesian device of metafictional referencing into a bona fide world-building device that functions according to the governing principles of the post-Cartesian, i.e., postmodern, ontological order.

Aljamiado Literature: The Problem of Definition

The scope of the term “aljamiado literature” is still open to discussion because it is defined differently by scholars in Russia and beyond. In the ‘strict’ literal meaning, the term “aljamiado literature” covers the literature in Spanish written in Arabic script. Its texts were mostly created by the Moriscos (or crypto-Muslims for Spanish people) after the Reconquista and before their expulsion (1609–1614), i. e. mainly during the 16th century.In a broader sense, “aljamiado literature” is defined as the literature of Spanish Muslims in general, and in this case it is meant to include both Arabic and Latin scripts. And it refers therefore not only to the literature of the Moriscos before their expulsion, but also relates to that written after their expulsion in Latin script, as well as to the texts produced, also in Latin script, by the Spanish Muslims before the Reconquista known in literary culture as Mudéjars. This broader definition covers the period from the mid-15th century until late 17th century.Sure, using the term “aljamiado literature” to denote the texts of both the Mudéjars and the Moriscos, i. e. all the texts of Spanish Muslims that had to live outside Al-Andalus, is absolutely correct, but at the same time this raises doubts about whether we may employ the terms “aljamiado literature” or “aljamiado literature of the Moriscos” for describing all the phenomena mentioned above. In this article, taking into account relevant cultural and historical circumstances which shaped this literary phenomenon and related concepts we have described in detail this contradictory usage of the term “aljamiado literature” and suggested a more adequate definition of its scope.

Where the Dialogue Ends: Problems of Reception of Russian Literature in China

The article is devoted to the phenomenon of the conflict of interpretations in the perception of the text by a foreign recipient. The study explores reasons for the difficulty of understanding unrealistic works in the Chinese readership and proposes a variant of improving the commentary as an intermediary text. The research is based on the methodological approaches and provisions of the theory of intercultural communication, discourse theory, receptive aesthetics and hermeneutics. As a result of the analysis of the judgments and assessments of Chinese students and specialists in Russian, we identified their main receptive difficulties: difficult understanding of the tropes, omission of allusions, lack of mastery of the language of a particular literary phenomenon. The reason for the latter is the absence of interpretive reading models, which have not been formed due to the long-term ignorance in China of Russian modernist literature. As a result, even today there are conflicts of interpretations, attempts to interpret an unrealistic text in a realistic paradigm. The outdated, ideologically «correct» intermediary texts should be replaced by a new type of commentary. Its model, proposed by the authors of this article, includes the following structural elements: information about the cultural and literary context; clarification of the semantics of words that are important for understanding the text; designation of national stereotypes that can lead to false interpretation and assessment of the text; step-by-step algorithm for working with text; list of references. Such a commentary will allow not only to remove lexical difficulties, but also to form interpretation skills

Canon Breeds Canon

In this article, I explore the relationship between the reproduction of hegemonic discourses of national representation in the reception of literature in translation and processes of canonization. I argue that World Literature as a paradigm hinders our efforts of overcoming the burdens of canonization. As a case study, I analyze the implications of building and reproducing a canon of Japanese literature in translation in the United States for the way Japan has been represented in public discourse in the last thirty years. I will focus on the reception of Murakami Haruki as the contemporary representative of the canon of Japanese literature in translation. My goal is to examine how the circumstances of Japanese literature in translation perpetuate mechanisms of canonization in their engagement and legitimation of an ongoing logic of representation that is non-confrontational with agents in power. I aim to test the extent to which studying the reception of East Asian literature in translation can help us promote a broader discussion on the appropriateness of such frameworks in our understanding of the contemporary literary phenomenon.

YURI KUZNETSOV AND THE WORLD LITERARY PROCESS: THE POET’S WORK IN THE CONTEXT OF MAGICAL REALISM

Ю.П. Кузнецов во многих отношениях непростой поэт. Еще при жизни автора не утихала полемика о месте его произведений в отечественном литературном процессе. Однако ценность его творчества, как и любого талантливого поэта, не ограничивается рамками исключительно русской литературы. Отдельные особенности поэзии Ю.П. Кузнецова указывают на необходимость рассмотрения его в контексте литературного явления, которое основывается на переплетении в сознании героев мифологического, мистического и реалистического типов мировосприятия, - магического реализма. В рамках данной статьи произведен анализ как отдельных произведений поэта, так и общих тенденций его творчества с точки зрения присутствия в них элементов магического реализма. Y.P. Kuznetsov is in many ways a complicated poet. Even during his life, the controversy around the place of his work in the national literary process did not subside. However, the value of his work, like the one of any talented poet, is not limited to the framework of exclusively Russian literature. Certain features of Y.P. Kuznetsov’s poetry indicate the need to analyze it in the context of a literary phenomenon that is based on the intertwining of mythological, mystical and realistic types of hero’s perception of the world - magical realism. This article deals with an analysis of specific poems and the general tendencies of Kuznetsov’s work that include the elements of magical realism.

The East in the Western Perception: Orientalism in some selected Poems of Lord Byron

Orientalism as a literary phenomenon has been recently focused on by different writers all over the world. Many of those who write about Orientalism have not the same understanding, and the divergences are reproduced due to different attitudes toward Orientalism. From various studies concerning Orientalism, there are apparent tributaries confronting the understanding of the concept of Orientalism from different perspectives. Edward Said is one of those who, according to what many Western and Eastern writers say, represent the negative attitude towards Orientalism, and tries only to make it appear ugly and offensive. Many writers, Arabs and non-Arabs, take, more or less, the same approach Said used towards the subject of Orientalism. Others have, to some extent, tried to give excuses for the writers, especially the Romantics, for the negative impression their writings reflected on the readers when going through what is supposed to be Oriental works. Nigel Leask, Sari Makdisi, Emily Haddad, Martin Bright, Tripta Wahi and Naji Oueijan are the significant writers of this group. British orientalists did not use the right approach to look or write about the East. What irritates Said is that these orientalists did not pay attention to find any possibility by which they could bridge the gap between the European and Asiatic parts of the world. This paper tries to trace and to define Lord Byron’s type of Orientalism in some of his oriental works and his chief work Don Juan.

Creativity of L.N. Andreev in the reception of D.V. Filosofov (based on the material of literary and critical articles 1907)

The author examines the peculiarities of the reception of L.N. Andreev, reflected in the literary-critical articles of D.V. Filosofov, written in 1907. The features of his critical method are characterized. It is shown that the interpretation of Andreev’s works in these works of Filosofov was subordinated to the concept of building a “new religious consciousness”, developed by him together with his spiritual allies — D.S. Merezhkovsky and Z.N. Gippius. In 1907, the creative personality of Andreev was still characterized by Filosofov as a “background” figure, in comparison with the personality of Gorky and the cohort of realists united around the publishing house called “Knowledge”. The critic saw the damage to Andreev’s world outlook in the writer’s rejection of “culture”, “consciousness” and “religious community”. At the same time, he strenuously tried to “cut off” Andreev from the “philosophy” of Gorky and the realists of the Gorky circle. In addition, Andreev’s ideological and artistic quest was investigated by Filosofov in the context of such a complex literary phenomenon at the turn of the century as “mystical anarchism”. In general, the critical assessments of Andreev’s work presented in the articles of Filosofov in 1907 are ambiguous and dialectical. Revealing the “strength” and “weakness” of Andreev the artist, Filosofov in many ways showed himself as a critic and “educator”. He not only waged a struggle with Andreev, the singer of pessimism, despair and “nothingness”, but also tried to direct this talented writer along the “correct” ideological path, turn the vector of his creative movement towards “religious revival”, that is, “new Christianity”.

The East in the Western Perception: Orientalism in some selected Poems of Lord Byron

Orientalism as a literary phenomenon has been recently focused on by different writers all over the world. Many of those who write about Orientalism have not the same understanding, and the divergences are reproduced due to different attitudes toward Orientalism. From various studies concerning Orientalism, there are apparent tributaries confronting the understanding of the concept of Orientalism from different perspectives. Edward Said is one of those who, according to what many Western and Eastern writers say, represent the negative attitude towards Orientalism, and tries only to make it appear ugly and offensive. Many writers, Arabs and non-Arabs, take, more or less, the same approach Said used towards the subject of Orientalism. Others have, to some extent, tried to give excuses for the writers, especially the Romantics, for the negative impression their writings reflected on the readers when going through what is supposed to be Oriental works. Nigel Leask, Sari Makdisi, Emily Haddad, Martin Bright, Tripta Wahi and Naji Oueijan are the significant writers of this group. British orientalists did not use the right approach to look or write about the East. What irritates Said is that these orientalists did not pay attention to find any possibility by which they could bridge the gap between the European and Asiatic parts of the world. This paper tries to trace and to define Lord Byron’s type of Orientalism in some of his oriental works and his chief work Don Juan.

METAFICTIONAL FEATURES IN MUṢṬAFĀ AL-RĀFI‘Ī’S “RASĀ’IL AL-’AḤZĀN (LETTERS OF SORROWS)” ملامح ميتاقصّيّة في "رسائل الأحزان" لمصطفى الرافعي

This study traces the signs of metawriting or metafiction as a phenomenon in a literary sample written by al-Rāfi‘ī in 1924. More specifically, the study investigates the features of this phenomenon in al-Rāfi‘ī’s book “Rasā’il ’al-’Aḥzān (Letters of Sorrows)”. The study attempts to answer the following questions: How did al-Rāfi‘ī work with metafiction before it appeared as a literary phenomenon at the end of the twentieth century? And how was metafiction reflected in his literary writings? We do indeed find that al-Rāfi‘ī talked about the author, the narrator and the implied author. He also talked about metalanguage and about writing as a craft, discussing its processes, purposes, methodologies and expressive techniques as well as exploring the relationship between the author and the implied reader. All of these are considered metafictional features, thus proving our hypothesis that metafiction as a phenomenon had existed before the end of the twentieth century, and that al-Rāfi‘ī used various metafictional features in his writings. نتتبع في هذه الدراسة إرهاصات لظاهرة الميتاكتابة أو الميتاقص، في نموذج أدبي للرافعي من عام 1924. حيث تستقصي الدراسة ملامح الظاهرة في كتابه "رسالة الأحزان". تحاول الدراسة الإجابة عن السؤال: كيف اشتغل الرافعي بالميتاكتابة قبل أن تكون ظاهرة أدبية كما ظهر في نهاية القرن العشرين؟ وكيف انعكست الميتا كتابة في كتاباته الأدبية؟ نجد أن الرافعي قد تحدّث عن المؤلف والراوي والمؤلف الضمنيّ، وعن الميتالغة وعن الكتابة كصنعة، سيرورتها والغاية منها، منهجيتها وأدواتها التعبيرية، كما تحدث عن علاقة المؤلف بالقارئ الافتراضي المروي له. يعتبر كل ذلك ملامح ميتاقصية، مما يثبت فرضيتنا أن الظاهرة الميتاقصية وجدت قبل نهاية القرن العشرين، وأن الرافعي استخدم بعضا منها. <p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0880/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

The Poetics Of Munojots In The Epic Of “Saddi Iskandariy”

Munojats is a literary phenomenon in Uzbek literature, which consists of an introduction to devons and poetic balls, a thematic classification of lyrical works, and introductory chapters of large-scale epic poems. In the introductory chapters of Alisher Navoi's “Khamsa” epics, prayers are accompanied by praise and glorification, and are a means of expressing the author's philosophical-mystical, divine-mystical views, personal experiences: confessions of the heart to the Creator, repentance for sins. The article states that the content of the munojats in the preface of “Saddi Iskandariy”, the final epic of Alisher Navoi's “Khamsa”, is formed in harmony with the content of the work; they cover issues such as the author's mystical-philosophical views and the artistic expression of his ideological purpose. The article also shows the importance of the art of obedience in the expression of prayers in the epic, as well as the poet's artistic skill in creating prayers on the basis of analysis and interpretation.