Abstract Book of the XXIII Congress of the ICLA

Post/de/colonial Strategies in Latin America’s Literary and Cultural Discourses

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Known as one of 20th century currents of thought which greatly contributed to Comparative Literature, Postcolonial Studies caused a rupture in the discipline’s main axis when they put into check its ethnocentric character, based on a center/periphery dichotomy that focused on European and non-European produc-tions from an uneven and hierarchic perspective. By refusing to approach the literary and cultural production of European ex-colonies as extensions of what was produced in their metropoles, Postcolonial critics have shaken the basis of Western academy and have raised important questions still present in the agenda of international debates. In this paper, we examine some of these issues, and discuss the role they had in a context as that of Latin America, where the political independence from European matrixes had already occurred since the first half of the 19th century, but cultural and economic dependence is still a heavy burden.

Rewrite the History of a Chinese-American Female: Narratology of The Lost Daughter of Happiness (Fusang)

2024-10-31T16:00:08+04:00

Chinese American writer Yan Geling depicts the life of a Chi-nese prostitute in the US society one hundred years ago in her novel The Lost Daughter of Happiness (Fusang). By analyzing the narrato-logy of the novel, this essay discusses the issues of male gaze as well as Orientalism in the perspective of postcolonial feminism. The resistance against the dominating male-Western narration in US history prevails between the lines. In the first chapter of her work, Yan evokes readers’ identification with her heroine in their cog-nitive experience by adopting the tactics of second-person narrative, which puts the reader at the site of an objectified Asian female. The trick turns the table on readers. Being different from the readers of American history books that record Chinese prostitutes, the readers of Yan’s novel are no longer the subjects of giving judgement. Instead, they are forced into a shocking illusion of being judged with nude body by an authority. And with the superimposed points of view, Yan intentionally keeps the superimposed underpainting of male gaze and Orientalism, and re-superimposes a new perspective to fight against those stereotypes of Asian females. The combination of first and second-person in Fusang creates a mutual gazing space by constructing an opposition between "you" and "I". This oppo-sition serves as the prerequisite for the inversion of their subject-object relation and the communication between them, and finally "you" and "I" manage to communicate in the visual space. In these ways, Yan rewrites the cultural history of Asian-American females by substituting “history” with“herstory”.

Rewriting the past in O Vendedor de Passados (2004) and Teoria Geral do Esquecimento (2012)

2024-10-31T16:06:21+04:00

The novels Teoria Geral do Esquecimento (2012) and O Ven-dedor de Passados (2004) by José Eduardo Agualusa feature charac-ters who, on opposite sides of history (a colonist and a colonized), reconstruct and reposition their identities in the tumultuous social and political context after the independence and the end of the civil war in Angola, between the 1970s and the beginning of the 21st century.
The problematic relationship of the characters with their memories is structured from, and around, concrete places such as Ventura's house and Ludovica's apartment in the “Invejados” (the envied) building, which becomes the ultimate location vis-à-vis the post-colonial reality. Life within these places is regulated and circumscribed by political and social phenomena linked to colo-nialism’s violence and its repercussions. Ludovica’s and Ventura's efforts to isolate and barricade themselves from the outside world, generates a tension between the space they inhabit and the world that surrounds them.
Throughout the action, the limits of these houses are disso-lved and invaded by the radical transformations that from the outside interfere with the inside, reorganizing and intervening in the characters' awareness of their identities and memories, forcing the recognition of their biographies and therefore a historical repositioning. This process takes place through the infiltration and contamination between colonial history, the civil war that follo-wed, and the characters' biographies.My reading of these two no-vels focuses on how the tension between colonial reminiscences and the new postcolonial narratives are materialized in the biographies of the protagonists. From the reclusion of their houses the protagonists rewrite the past in their walls, through their interac-tion with the visitors, the intruders, their neighbors, the books, the sounds of the radio that infiltrate the structures of the houses and transform their interior landscape and the events that they can watch through their windows.

Media Art and Wearable Technology: Re-Thinking Media and Art in Post-Mediatic Forms

2024-10-31T17:22:31+04:00

When Marshall McLuhan stated, 'Clothing, [is] an extension of the skin…' (Understanding Media, 129), the technologies were already out-running over imagination. Further, into the chapter, extensions of man, and media are extensions of our bodies and psy-ches. In the centuries before technology changed our perspective on media as a conceptual object. Thus, forcing us to accept the tech-nology to question; how to write traditions in post-mediatic turn in the Art.
This article discusses the roles and meanings of Friedrich Kittler’s “visual” media in the current mediatized society where in-ter-transmedial visual art mediums as creative methods. As well as examine how the performative motifs surface in contemporary arts and wearable technology in performance arts. A media installation & performance artist ‘Bill Shannon’ explores body-centric video installations through technology to incorporate the movement prac-tice of ‘extension of the skin’ as McLuhan stated. The two main as-pects of this discussion are; how media developed from the time of early cinema up to current new media as a form of Art; how techno-logy changed along with the post-mediatic turn in cultural forms. These two aspects will try to discuss through Bill Shannon, Yonghui Kim, Kieun Kim, and Ikeuchi Hiroto’s wearable media arts and look at the possible viewpoints of how digital media facilitate new approaches to wearable technology in the influence of media and hardware versus traditional concepts of Art.

Georgia as a Cultural Source for Arab writers – Moroccan Imaginary as a Model –

2024-10-31T17:16:32+04:00

Has Georgia become a cultural source for Arab writers, in the context of their Postcolonial perspectives towards cultural paradigms?
What space do Georgia and its culture occupy, among univer-sal cultures, in the Arab imaginary in general?
I will try to expand these two questions, by focusing on the Moroccan imaginary, keeping in mind the impact of translation as the sole tool of communication between the Arab writers and Georgian culture.

New Trajectories in Postcolonial Narratives: The Predicament of the Immigrant in the Host Country in Laila Lalami’s The Other Americans

2024-10-31T17:20:14+04:00

During the last few decades Postcolonial studies have evolved to a considerable extent. The abundance of Postcolonial writings and rising polemical debates among Postcolonial writers, scholars and critics are benchmarks that marked the evolvement of Postcolo-nialism in the realm of intelligentsia. Among the most prominent and innovative key-figures of Postcolonial and diaspora writers is Laila Lalami. This paper seeks to explore new routings in Postco-lonial writings. Therefore, the dynamic shift from locality to cosmo-politanism inscribed within Laila Lalami’s The Other Americans (2019) will be discussed. How the migrant’s moving identity is manifested in the Western host country through the prism of the Self and Other dynamics will be given much emphasis. Methodo-logically speaking, Mikhail Bakhtin’s dialogism will be used as a tool to discuss the polyphony of the novel; by the same token, this study draws upon Postcolonial theory; concepts such as displacement, moving identities, and Homi Bhabha’s third space will be used as tools of analysis.

Anonymous Characters, Function and Aesthetics: An Other Reading of Death in Venice

2024-10-31T17:00:26+04:00

Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice is an intensely lyrical and aesthetic stream-of-consciousness about Aschenbach who despera-tely loves a young and handsome boy in his trip to recuperate in Venice and ends up in death. In the novel, except for the characters with name, there are the anonymous and nameless characters, who are always neglected in the readers’ expectation and researchers’ consideration. Yet, all the characters in the novel are designed for some reason. So, this paper tries to decode the function and aes-thetics construction of the anonymous and nameless characters in the novel to reveal Thomas Mann’s writing techniques. It is found that there are mainly four catalogues of the anonymous and name-less characters in the novel and they are important and necessary for the fiction. They help develop the plot of the story smoothly and reasonably, outstand the protagonist in comparison, fulfil the intro-duction of the protagonist and construct a moving setting for the story, so as to beautify the story plot, enrich the depiction of the protagonist, purify the theme of the story and enhance the com-prehension of the story. It is hoped that more attention and research be paid to the anonymous or nameless characters in fiction.

History, Sociocultural Implications and Archetypal Characters of “Three Gu Six Po” in Traditional Chinese Novels

2024-10-31T17:09:20+04:00

Grannies with folk careers, literally translated into “Three Gu Six Po” in Chinese, are ubiquitous in traditional Chinese novels and colloquial stories. They may be nuns, midwives, or matchmakers from a relatively unprivileged status, seeking any temporary work opportunity and providing various services in and out of house-holds. The interesting dynamic between these characters taking on deeply nuanced positions in Chinese sociocultural traditions while also adhering to archetypal roles provides begs two assertions:
Firstly, we can learn about the career norms, social status and life patterns of these “Three Gu Six Po” during the Ming and Qing dynasties by delving into the stories and related reviews in histo-rical accounts. Noticeably, their roles can be simultaneously power-ful due to their social roles within the domestic politics sphere while marginalised and diminished because they are women and of a less respectable working class. And the development of social stereotypes and contemptuous attitudes towards “Three Gu Six Po” can be explored by studying these texts. Under the unnoticeable biased narratives of the elite literati during that period, this group of characters in literary works does not have a complete or identifying name and usually takes on relatively flat and templated personali-ties, with fixed impressions such as eloquence, greed, and lewdness, which suggests a concentration on the issues of gender and class inequalities in that period.
Secondly, as a representative member of “Three Gu Six Po”, “Granny Wang” has gradually become a typecast nameless character and is continuously being rewritten. Based on the basic profile of “Three Gu Six Po”, some writers have occasionally given the cha-racter more detailed and vivid portrayals, and in some cases have developed her into a round character with own agency who was aware of her domestic power and made use of it. The logic behind the empowerment of “Granny Wang” through service can be traced back to Chinese philosophy, which makes the character archetype very different from servants or witches in Western countries.

The Influence of Manchuria Experience on Abe Kōbō`s Post-war Novels

2024-10-31T17:13:03+04:00

Abe Kōbō is a prominent Japanese writer with international influence. He is often described as "mukokuseki," meaning stateless or without a national identity. Throughout his career, Abe was involved in various artistic groups such as Yoru-no-kai, Shimoma-ruko-bunka-syuudan, and Genzai-no-kai, to name but a few. The ideology of his pioneering work also shifted from existentialism to surrealism and communism. As a result, many scholars have attem-pted to capture consistent themes in the work of such a stateless and ever-changing writer. O'Michon (2010), for example, rationalizes the use of Abe's colonial experience to explain his post-war texts, and Kim Hyun Hee (2009) reveals the issue of 'home' in Abe's literature. And this essay attempts to describe how the colonial experience in Manchuria is at the root of the theme of hometown that runs through Abe's novels.

The hometown influences the customs, perceptions, and history of the native people and shapes the identity of the indivi-dual. However, while everyone has a hometown, the opposite phe-nomenon – "homelessness" – also exists, derived from the serious problems of migration and ethnic minorities generated by impe-rialism. For Abe, and many others who suffered the migrations and dislocations caused by colonialism in modern history, the model that "hometown" equals the "birthplace" does not apply. From this perspective, Abe Kōbō, who lived in China, which was invaded in World War II, and Japan, which was the aggressor, expresses in his work a special reflection on the question of "hometown" and "homelessness".

Manchuria or Man-chou is an exonym for a historical and geographical region in Northeast China today. It was here that Japan, through a combination of the Kwantung Army and the South Manchurian Railway Company, established the puppet state of Manchukuo. As early as after the Russo-Japanese War, campaigns to attract immigrants to Manchuria were publicized in Japan. Abe Kōbō was one of them. He experienced both advanced urban life and post-war anarchy, and his early memories induced a deeper reflection on his dual identity. This essay examines Abe's writing on the Manchurian experience, including the colonial experience, the return experience, the urban experience, and the post-war expe-rience; and analyses how Abe's colonial experience in Manchuria influenced his view of his "hometown", demonstrating a post-war writer's struggle with his own colonial experience.

Delineation of Inner Spaces and Angst: A Comparative Study of Amrita Pritam’s Pinjar and Bapsi Sidhwa’s Ice – Candy – Man

2024-10-31T16:29:14+04:00

The recent women writers from India, Pakistan, SriLanka and Bangladesh exemplify the issue of gendered self-representation and feminist concern. Their works realize not only the diversity of wo-men but the diversity within each woman. They are incorporating their experiences to make a new, empowering image for women, instead of limiting the lives of women to one ideal; they push the ideal towards the full expression of each woman’s potential. Indian land is known for its unity and diversity. It has been a witness to the most horrific as well as terrible atrocities that have ever been committed in the history of humanity. The harrowing situation of women during partition has been quite popular among the literary writers. The present study tries to delineate the wounded souls of women during the partition of India in 1947. It has described the condition of women as delineated by Amrita Pritamin Pinjar and Bapsi Sidhwa in Ice– Candy Man. It will also aim at presenting a comparative study as to how both the writers share different pers-pectives of women during partition in their masterpieces-Pinjar and Ice-Candy-Man respectively. In both the novels we get a clear glim-pse of the atrocities of partition and the ultimate tragedy shattering the lives of women across the boundaries. Both the novelists have described the pangs of women’s suffering in a realistic way. Amrita Pritam has tried to present an Indian identity in her description of Pooro’s journey of transformation from Pooro to Hamida, her loss of identity and agony while on the contrary Bapsi Sidhwa has given her own description through the character of Ayah, who was kidnapped by the Ice-Candy-Man.
Though both the novels centre around the theme of partition and the plight of women, their struggle and suffering due to the perpetrators of violence either in the name of culture, religion or societal norms during partition, the writers have tried to analyse the situation in their own way. Of course, in presenting the condition of women during and after the partition both the writers have the same views. However, Sidhwa has delved deeper by depicting the trauma in a more realistic way through her feminist lens. The pre-sent paper intends to present a comparative stance of both the cha-racters –Pooro on the one hand and Ayah on the other in terms of pangs and trauma they suffer in the hands of their near and dear ones against the background of partition.

Exploration of Womanhood and the Assertion of Self: A Comparative Study of Meghna Pant's One and a Half Wife and Bapsi Sidhwa's The Pakistani Bride

2024-10-31T16:38:15+04:00

Feminism emerged as a worldwide movement to secure women's rights on the one hand and love, respect, sympathy and understanding from males on the other. It focused on women's struggle for recognition and survival and made them realise that the time has come when they should stop suffering silently in helplessness. The images of women in South Asian novels have also undergone a change in the last three decades. Earlier women were conceived as a symbol of self sacrifice and suffering. In due course of time women writers affected by Western Feminism have exp-lored the alternative ideal of self assertion. The feminist writers have emphasised a new perspective of women. They have rebelled against stern patriarchy and male chauvinism. Meghna Pant's One and a Half Wife reveals the struggle and circumstances faced by a woman, Amara Malhotra, entangled in the Indian orthodox culture. Here she is caught in a tug-of-war between old beliefs and new ones, between parents who favour obedience and new friends who encourage independent thought. Bapsi Sidhwa's novel The Pakistani Bride poignantly describes the circumspect world of women in a world dominated by men where women are not individuals but objects to be possessed, nothing more than a piece of land and some-times a beast that can be traded with. Zaitoon not only defies her destiny but also challenges it by running away from the clutches of her tyrant husband. Women are like commodities in the tribal society to be bartered and traded. Once married they become part of the property of their husbands, which the latter must protect. Bapsi Sidhwa reinforces this macabre image of woman graphically in various sections of the novel. Both the writers have opined that women have occupied a subaltern position that is oppressed both by traditional notion of patriarchy and by colonialism. But their ways of treating the theme of womanhood are quite different – Meghna Pant on the one hand portrays the character of Amara in new light, showing her as a blend of traditional and modern wife, whereas Bapsi Sidhwa in her novel has delineated the character of Zaitoon as a subdued, submissive and obedient wife who shows her courage at the end. The present paper intends to make a comparative study of both the novels.

Focusing Cultural Affinity Among South Asian Cultures, Cutting Across Geo-spatial Barrier: Rabindranath Tagore and His Multi-dimensional Creativity

2024-10-31T16:46:37+04:00

In a jet – set globalized world where change is the only con-stant as an aftermath of phenomenal progress in science and tech-nology, we are at ease to interact with various cultures, pertaining to various countries, nations and groups. But it is indeed amazing that even in the nineteenth century, a poet and litterateur of as-tounding magnitude in British ruled – India – Rabindranath Tagore, the first Nobel Laureate of Asia could visualize the idea of a one world across geo – political boundary. Notwithstanding his multiple visits to Europe and America, his fascination for Asian countries has been revealed through his five trips to Japan, China, Ceylon, Persia etc. In his attempt to trace the root of affinity among these cultures of South Asian countries, he had imbibed inspiration from their literature, art and above all lifestyle and this cultural interaction has been delineated in his travelogues like Way to Japan, In Persia etc. The Japanese style of short poem Heiku composed in two/three lines had impressed him so much that he started writing Heiku poems in Bangla. Japanese drawing, flower decoration, tea ceremo-nies etc. were so favorite to him that he requested his nephews to visit Japan just to get training in that art.
The most poignant expression of this cultural interaction between Tagore and South Asian countries was reflected in the idea of Visva Bharati, his cherished institution where South Asian impetus is distinctly visible. The dance technique, choreography and music which he invented for his musical and dance dramas reflect the profound impact of Sri Lankan Candy dance and other techniques. In the same token, Sri Lanka, bent on westernization at the cost of their indigenous culture, could make a cultural revival under the influence of Tagore.
In the present paper, there will be a humble attempt to show how cultural pluralism among diverse South Asian cultures could materialize through the aegis of Tagore, how he could institutiona-lize these diverse influences in his institution through exchange programme of teachers and students and above all how this idea of ingrained oneness was permeated in his creative works, in essays, travelogues, art and fine arts like dance. Tagore’s reception in South Asian countries and the impact exerted by him vice – versa can be cited as an example of cultural assimilation.

Translation and Transnationalism: A Study of Memory, Migration and Spirit Translation

2024-10-31T16:51:24+04:00

Translation is often understood as a transfer of a text in a language into another. But is it the only type of translation that exists? What of something that can be described as a spirit trans-lation. A translation where the language does not change, but the spirit of one language is drawn into the corporeal self of another language. Quite often transnationalism becomes difficult to identify when only the conventional idea of translation is considered. What remains unexplored is the veritable treasure trove of transnational elements in works that are only translated in spirit. Such spirit translations can be found in several of the works of the early poets in India. Taking into consideration such poets who at the turn of the century are immigrants to a foreign land. A strong yearning for their motherland generates these spirit translated works. These po-ets now transplanted in a different clime and land write in alien languages acquired secondarily.
This study will primarily attempt to understand the nuances of such works that have the spirit of a language but the body of another. It will further explore the role that such works play in creating and fostering transnationalism. With special emphasis on the poetry of Toru Dutt, the study will juxtapose transnationalism and translation. The major aim of the paper will be to try to esta-blish the role of such spirit translations in fostering transnationalism in the Global South.

Web Novels as Vehicles of Cultural Transfer Across the Globe. Re-negotiations of Cultural Histories Between East and West

2024-10-31T16:23:13+04:00

The article explores the global circulation of web novels and their rising popularity in the 21st century. Moreover, the study analyses the close connection and relationship between web novels and transmedia storytelling. It focuses on the transformative dimen-sion and adaptive productivity of digital fiction, highlighting the collaborative efforts, which contribute to its fascinating quality and easy dispersion around the globe. Often closely linked to an interna-tional readership preferring a forum-based communication, web novels are at the same time firmly rooted in a cultural imaginary, which they also stimulate and expand.

Introduction

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Writing in a Time of Epidemic

2024-10-30T15:17:53+04:00

Prima facie, so far it has been and still is impossible to offer a proper study of the literary manifestation of covid19 – the epidemic is not quite over yet; one doesn't have yet an historical perspective of it; writing, and moreover publishing, require time.
However, there are early sprouts of writing on covid19. We shall focus on Dana Freibach-Heifetz's book, In the Desert of Things ("Numbers, Deuteronomy"), which was written in Hebrew during the first two months of the epidemic (2-3/2020).
The book is composed of 113 fragments in various genres, which spread a fan of voices, sights and feelings of life under the epidemic – from everyday details (e.g. the engagement with food) to more cultural and philosophical layers (like concepts of inside and outside), combining realism with a world of dreams and fantasy. These micro-stories create a collage of images that captures the new reality. The book was published in two versions: one is only textual, and the other incudes 36 color photographs by the artist Yoram Kupermintz, that create a rich dialogue with the texts.
The paper examines the relation between the stylistic charac-terizations of this book – the form of fragments, various genres, and the combination of the texts with visual images – and its nature as a book which was written right in the eye of the Covid's storm. Furthermore, it exposes the thematic means that literary writing in a time of epidemic can use, in order to confront the trauma of such an extreme experience: myths; fresh glance at daily life, humor and fantasy; alongside a critical examination of the ars-poetics of such a writing.
This paper is a rare collaboration of the author, who is also a philosopher, and a literary researcher. Together, they aim to bring new perspectives of literature under Covid 19 in particular, and life in a time of epidemic in general, and the unique attributes it brings.

Global Plague, Local Pain: Mourning the Tragedy of Covid

2024-10-30T14:57:45+04:00

The recent pandemic, originating in China but eventually spreading to every continent, highlighted the connections and tensions between the global and local, the collective experience and individual suffering. These tensions between the generic and the particular animate traditional dramatic tragedy. This paper therefore draws on the key features of Aristotle’s ideas of tragedy – hamartia, anagnorisis, catharsis – to attempt to “read” the tragedy of Covid. Our responses to the global pandemic both conformed to traditional tragic practices and also deconstructed them. But this resistance to tragic pattern and intelligibility positions the Covid event para-doxically in line with many tragedies, both dramatic and historical, in our past. Ultimately, it is argued, the tragic tradition carries a moral and political force. Setting individual events within a wider pattern of narrative has the merit of making intelligible what seems particular. It makes it recognisable and therefore grievable.

Song of the Dark Ages: Brecht in Exile and “Chinese Role Model”

2024-10-30T15:02:58+04:00

A close reading of the 20th-century German writer Brecht's works on Chinese elements, themes and subjects during his exile (1933-1947) shows that the “Chinese role model” had an important influence on Brecht's artistic creation and thinking about his life during his exile. The substance of Brecht's relationship with Chine-se culture remains to be examined in depth. Using comparative lite-rary methods such as figurative studies, this paper divides Brecht's references to Chinese culture into three specific ways: creative translations of the “exiled poet” Bai Juyi, imaginative manipulations of the “Chinese wise man” Lao Tzu, and the creation of The Good Man of Sichuan. Put the three together for investigation, we can not only see Brecht's courtesy to Chinese wisdom and recognition of Chinese culture, which is constantly developing and deepening. It could also be used as a mirror to further explore its underlying mo-tivation, so as to see how Brecht completed his thinking of survival and art by learning from foreign oriental culture during his 15 years of exile life, which also represents the survival path of the German generation of exiles in that dark era.

The Wu Wei (inaction) Thought of Daoism and its Influence on German Literature in the 1920s

2024-10-30T15:35:39+04:00

The thought of Wu Wei (inaction) is an important part of Daoism. In the aspect of governing the country, it means that the monarch should not act rashly but should try to reach the realm of “when you need do nothing, there is nothing you cannot do”. In terms of individual behaviour, it contains the thoughts of trans-cending opposites, conforming to the laws of nature and complying with Dao. Using the method of influence studies, this paper will study how Chinese culture, especially Taoist thought, influenced German literature and thought in the 1920s in terms of social his-tory and academic trends. Then, using the method of reception studies, this paper will take Hesse's Siddhartha and Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain as examples to explore the cultural factors and psychological logic behind the two different manifestations of Daoist "Wu Wei" thought in German literature in the 1920s.

Translation and Identity Formation in Transcultural Communicating Practice – Chinese Heterotopia in Kafka’s ‘the Great Wall of China’

2024-10-30T15:48:31+04:00

In this paper, I analyse the representation of China in the twentieth – century in the prose and poetry of two modernist authors through the textual tensions among utopia/ dystopia/hete-rotopia, specifically Franz Kafka’s ‘The Great Wall of China’ (1917) and Ezra Pound’s The Cantos (1885 – 1972) and Cathay (1915). Drawing on Foucault’s concept of heterotopia as a way of thinking about space in real and imaginary terms, as well as its political imp-lications, I consider the two writers to translate China into uto-pias/heterotopias for their own identity formation. This approach allows my paper to make observations about the poetics of each author, the modernist reception of China in terms of cultural trans-lation, and the translatability of Chinese thought in terms of inter-mediality. This paper identifies the atemporality in both authors’ approach to China, revealing the dispassionate identification of Chi-nese and Jewish culture in Kafka versus the subjective identification of real and imaginary China in Pound. I analyse the gaps between the superimposed factual plane and imagination, in order to exa-mine how they translate, accept Chinese culture and philosophy in the horizon and crisis of modernity, how they speak of ‘China’ (tex-tual China) for the aim of mirroring the self, how Chinese phi-losophy is transplanted as medicine (Pound) for the modern Euro-pean spirit. Drawing on a broad range of research, this paper syn-thesises and brings into dialogue scholarship on hermeneutics, aes-thetics, and cultural studies in several different languages. I propose to reinvigorate utopia’s inherently critical nature as critical utopias, heterotopia and meta – utopia being involved as emanations. The
synthesising remarks that compare Kafka with Pound will show that they are both conducting comparative studies, transcultural interpretations; they both reject unifying views of identity, and both accept Chinese poetics, philosophy in a formal and spiritual sense.

In Search of a Sky to Protect the Earth: Houellebecq’s Political Aesthetics Considering Sérotonine

2024-10-30T14:06:11+04:00

As an agronomic engineer, it is one of Michel Houellebecq’s personal endeavors to protect the environment and foster local and sustainable agriculture. It is therefore no surprise that he stresses the personal and economic disasters of industrial production in nearly all of his novels. Through the example of Serotonin (2019), this article will show how Houellebecq proceeds aesthetically through the staging of his characters to defend the cause of the farmers. On the one hand, there is the voice of Aymeric d’Harcourt-Olonde, depicted as a lovely, loyal, and moral friend and a coura-geous hero with deep historic roots and agricultural ideals, and Camille, Florent’s biggest love, shocked by animal husbandry. Both are complementary and embody a premodern state of civilization: medieval times and the 19th century. On the other hand, there is the narrator, Florent, who is uprooted, works for the state economy, and embodies industrial production based on profit. There are two parallel plots by which Houellebecq tries to explain our contem-porary decadence: the betrayal of the religion (Camille) and the attempt to get her back during the whole novel, and the decline of the medieval culture as our common roots (Aymeric), which ends in suicide. Through these characters, who are de facto incarnations, the whole parable of serotonin aims at depicting the relationship between the state and religion through time and its economic and human fallouts. By retracing the sacrifice and tragic fate of the medieval stage of civilization, its pre-industrial mode of production, and Christian culture, Houellebecq aims to arouse awareness among his readers of the necessity of transcendence, which, according to him, can only lead to a fair economic production. Until the very end, Houellebecq aimed at evangelizing the state economy to make it a more moral one (see also Anéantir, 2022) through his parables, which eventually could change society from within. The article will show how agricultural production remains a central aspect of Houellebecq’s whole poetics.

Analysis of the Concept of Reliability in The Origin of the Work of Art

2024-10-29T16:11:43+04:00

In Heidegger's article The Origin of Works of Art, "reliability" is an obscure but not easy to understand concept. By contrast with "usefulness", we can find that "reliability" is revealed because of the self–manifestation of the existence of the appliance. In this mani-festation, the existence of the farmer woman is also revealed, so that the farmer woman has a grasp of her own world and hears the silent call of the earth. Heidegger chose works of art to reveal the exis-tence of utensils because: First of all, although utensils can show their existence by themselves, such manifes-tation can only be realized at a specific moment;Secondly, the disclosure of the exis-tence of the appliance itself depends on abnormal behaviors or phe-nomena, and it is no longer the appliance itself that is playing a role.At the same time, the artistic work reveals the existence of the appliance depends on the image reproduction of the appliance.In addition, although Heidegger's division of the boundary between instruments and works of art appeals to the mystery of art, it does not lead to the elitism of art, because Heidegger's division is not at the level of existence.

Criticizing by Creating: Friedrich Schlegel’s Early Romantic Idea of “Criticism”

2024-10-29T16:15:59+04:00

Friedrich Schlegel is the main representative of early German Romanticism. His romantic poetics are not only important for the development of German poetry, but also for the change from Classic to Modern in European intellectual life. And at the center of his theory is the term “criticism” (Kritik). There is already a lot of re-search on this term, including Walter Benjamin’s doctoral thesis The Concept of Art Criticism in German Romanticism. Most of them put this term in the Cartesian and Kantian tradition and see it as an artistic expression of philosophical “reflection”. This is indeed one of the most important perspectives to view this term, but in Schlegel's case this is only the first step. In addition, most of these studies are limited to works from his romantic period only, and his earlier works on classical studies are usually not included, which makes the analysis of this term incomplete. Accordingly, this essay attempts to advance the discussion of Schlegel's romantic “Criti-cism” in two directions. First, apart from the traditional reflective dimension, this term will further be explored in a skeptical, pheno-menological and existential dimension respectively. Second, his classical studies, especially the studies of Greek poetry, will also be included in the discussion because they have also played an impor-tant role in the shaping of this term. Through these efforts, this essay intends to prove that literary criticism is actually another name for poetic creation in Schlegel’s romantic poetics, and more importantly, it also reflects the transformation from Classic to Mo-dern in European intellectual life.

From Street-Life to Cruising in the Park: Queers & the Dancefloor (1978-1988)

2024-10-30T13:59:42+04:00

It is only in recent decades that appraisal of pop music has gained footing in academic musicology studies. Intersections of pop and queer sexualities have since been well documented. However, this paper argues that comprehensive analysis of the role and impact on queer audiences, of the dance floor, and its musical soundtrack, has remained relatively uncharted. The paper commences in 1978, a point by which disco had saturated the lexicon of mainstream North American and European pop cultures (Echols, 2010). Outlining its trajectory, and the subsequent backlash provoked by its perceived challenges to heteronormativity, the paper questions the notion of the reputed ‘death of disco’. Here, the genre of Hi–Nrg is introduced and explored, as proof of disco’s musical evolution, and for its pio-neering embodiment of“ [...] gay life on the dancefloor” (Jones & Kantonen, 1999, p.145). The significant role pop music can play in relation to individual identity formation LGBTI/queer constructions (Dhoest, Herreman& Wasserbauer, 2015) is then considered. Its proven dexterity, as a fostering agent with the capacity to imbue a sense of mutual connectivity among audiences (Gill, 1995; Siegel, 2001), is also explored. Leading to further analysis, of the importan-ce and role of ‘safe spaces’ to queer audiences, and in offering examples of lyrical, pop artifacts from the period, the paper builds a picture of the dance floor’s transnational function, as vital space for queer audiences.

A Postcolonial Native in Colonial Africa: An Exploration of the Travelogue Kappirikalude Nattil

2024-10-30T14:16:14+04:00

would like to understand the Indian Migrants’ experiences of African colonialism in the
context of Kappirikalude Nattil (In the land of Kappiris); a Malayalam travelogue written by SK Pottekkatt in the 1950s. I also try to bring a comparative perspective of colonial experiences in the African and Indian contexts. Kappirikalude Nattil is a travelogue about Africa written from the perspective of an Indian writer in the post-independence period. The perception of concepts such as ‘state’ and ‘nationalism’ considerably vary for an Indian citizen who migrated to Africa which was still under British rule. Due to his Indian identity, his social position in Africa, and his approach to colonization are different from the Native Africans. Similarly, the tools of oppression used by the imperialist powers for colonization in Africa subtly differ from the hegemonic apparatuses they emp-loyed in India. Awareness of linguistic dominance, racial domi-nance, and racial discrimination plays a pivotal role in imperial oppression. Also, the colonial modes of power employed over the Indian immigrants are different from those employed over the Afri-cans. The main reason for this is the significant class differences among immigrant Indians and differences in the capacity for politi-cal transactions and economic inequality. The difference can be seen in the general life scenarios of Malayalees, Tamils, and Guja-ratis in Africa. According to Homi K. Bhaba's mimicry theory, the attitude of Indian immigrants towards African natives confuses British imperialism and results in a hybrid culture. This reading will give you a better idea of the defenses adopted by the British go-vernment against Indian immigrants to strengthen their colonial power.

Beware of Women: Analyzing the Market Literatures of Nigeria

2024-10-30T14:28:22+04:00

In the 1940s pamphlet literature burgeoned into a profitable industry in the market town of Onitsha, in Nigeria. As the pam-phlets, also referred as ‘chapbooks’, were printed, and circulated in the market town of Onitsha this genre of literature came to be po-pularly known as Onitsha Market Literature. According to scholars like Obiechina (1973) Onitsha Market Literature is the ‘literature of the mass’ and it soared to popularity due to its cheap retail price and the lucidity of language. Obiechina further argues that Onitsha Market Literature represented the ‘sentiments of an emergent urban culture’. The most interesting characteristics of these pamphlets was the didactic element, which dominated the thematic core of both the fictions and non-fictions, the central concern being to educate and guide the audience. The authorial intentions were sometimes clearly identified through the titles of the pamphlets; Beware of Women, Why Boys don’t trust their girlfriends? My seven daugh-ters are after young boys, A Woman’s Pride is her husband; etc. According to Stephanie Newel (1996) Onitsha pamphlets presented a ‘new female identity’, which was a product of ‘decolonization’ and ‘urbanization’. However, what structured this ‘new female identity’? Who were the authors of these pamphlets? Were there any women authors, who were also instrumental in creating this ‘new identity’?
Around the 1970s another form of ‘literature of the mass’ started making a mark in the urban areas of Kano, Sokoto, Katsina, Kaduna and Zariya. However, as Kano was the lead in the produc-tion of these texts the pamphlets, produced during this period, came to be known as the Kano Market Literature. According to Novian Whitsitt (2003) Kano market literature possessed aesthetic, thematic, and social similarities with the Onitsha ‘chapbooks’. Thus, like Onitsha Market Literature, did Kano Market Literature also aim at creating a ‘new female identity’? How did ‘decolonization’ and ‘urbanization’ affect the Market Literature of Kano? Therefore, through the methodology of Comparative Literature the proposed paper aims to find possible answers to the posed questions.

Dialogic Reading of African Literature in Bengali: A Study from Bangladeshi

2024-10-30T14:31:39+04:00

Translation is always dialogic as it requires dialogues between two different languages, cultures, texts and authors and literature is usually defined by its content and its attachment with the realities out of which it emerges, not by its language. Modern African litera-ture has reached the international readership mostly in the English language even though French and Portuguese languages have become a very considerable media of it. Africa, with its more than two thousand languages, can be comprehensible to a huge number of monolingual, bi-lingual and multilingual readers of the world through translation in the language of the local readership. In Ban-gladesh the majority of readers are mostly monolingual. So, to be comprehensible to the Bangladeshi readership African literature re-quires to be translated into Bengali. Many prominent translators have translated and are still translating a considerable number of African literary texts. But it is noticed that the speed and impulse which are invested in translating a European or American or even Latin American literary text are not employed in translating an African literary text. It may be because of the lack of communi-cation with African cultures and languages and the linguistic limi-tations to negotiate with the creoles and pidgins used in African literary texts or even colonial legacy. Besides, translation is never apolitical. It re-creates through intertextuality and negotiations bet-ween two diverse cultures and languages. Interaction today is possible to a remarkable extent through the internet and hi-speed communication media. But in a postcolonial situation in the context of neo-colonization and crony capitalism, economic realities and psychic boundaries deeply impact the process of fortification of the dialogues between two diverse cultures, inevitable for creative translatability of these phenomena. How the translators respond to the synchronic and diachronic contexts of the source texts is im-portant for the re-creation and at the same time authentication of the translated texts. This paper seeks to critically explore the factors related to the reading of African literature in translation dialogically in Bangladesh.

Plurality in Literary Reading: A Comparative Study of the ‘Goodreads’ Reviews of Moustache and Mama Africa

2024-10-30T14:35:18+04:00

The paper tries to address the plurality of ‘literary reading’ through a comparative analysis of the Goodreads reviews of Mous-tache. Inspired by Derek Attridge's idea of the 'event of literature', the paper considers a literary 'work' as an event performed in a reader's relation with the 'text'. The same 'text' can be read as diffe-rent 'works', and each review is about a particular reading which is a 'work'. The differences among these works attest to the plurality of literary reading. Additionally, the paper refers to Attridge's type/ token distinction to elaborate on the plurality of the reviews. Also, Maurice Natanson's idea of the 'temporal horizon' of reading helps to explain the commonalities and differences among the reviews. Similarly, each reading is singular as it happens through the 'com-plicity of a background' (Merleau-Ponty). Apart from the reviews, the paper also analyses the interviews of the author and the trans-lator to see how the understandings about the same 'text' can vary considerably according to the differences in the 'works'. The larger scope of the paper is to present the platform of Goodreads as a nostalgic space that reminds the academics in literary studies about the 'joy of reading literature' which stands in contrast to the 'pleasu-re of analysing literature'. The openness to pluralities embodies the joy of reading, and then the reader transcends the theoretical en-deavours to decode 'a fixed meaning'.