Collected Papers of the XXIII Congress of the ICLA

Anonymity, Impersonation and Exile: Silenced Women Writers at the Dawn of Modernity in Spain

Assumpta Camps — 2024-12-18

With the purpose of showing the cultural contributions to the contem-poraneity of female writers and artists, so often silenced, and forgotten, we’ve seen recently a true (re)discovery of these protagonists of the Spanish Silver Age (1900-1936) from the Gender Studies, as well as from the Spanish Contemporary Literary Historiography. The recovery of female writers and artists of that period constitutes not only a way out of “anonymity” for these women, in a process that is, without any doubt, of absolute justice. It also involves necessarily a revision of the canon of the Spanish Silver Age, questioning the assumptions and interpretations consolidated in our critical tradition, incorporating a large amount of literary/artistic production that remained silenced and/or unpublished, as well as identifying the patriarchal nature of our cultural and artistic élites, at the dawn of modernity. One of the most striking cases of this group of “silenced” women of our Silver Age is María Lejárraga, an essential and very active literary figure of the Hispanic Modernism, who devoted himself prolifically to literary translation. Several circums-tances led her to become a true ghost, despite her great relevance for the Hispanic literature of the first half of the XXth century. This “ghostly” nature starts with her own decisions, since she assumed as pseudonym the name of her husband, “Gregorio Martínez Sierra” from the beginning. This fact was aggravated many decades later, during the Franco regime and the exile, when she even lost the rights on her works.

Translation and Transmission of John Keats in China (1949-1979)

Haiying Liu — 2024-12-18

The year of 2021 witnesses both the bi-centennial anniversary of John Keats’s death, and the centennial anniversary of the Chinese translation and transmission of his poems. The latter one-hundred-years history can be divided into three stages: the beginning in the first half of the twentieth century (mainly during the period of Republic of China), the development from 1949 (when People’s Republic of China was founded) to 1979 (when the Great Cultural Revolution ended), and the flourishing new stage since China’s Reform and Opening up. It is generally assumed that Keats’s works are underappreciated during the first thirty years after the founding of People’s Republic of China, and thus the translation and transmission of Keats in this period in China has been less discussed than necessary. This paper sorts out the data concerning Keats being translated, introduced, and transmitted in the years of 1949-1979, and makes comments on the achievements obtained by Chinese translators and scholars. It attempts to argue that Chinese translators and scholars have made continuous efforts, and contributed considerably in the following fields: the translation of Keats’s poems and letters, the composition and translation of literary history text-books and literary theory textbooks concerning Keats, the studies and transmissions of Keats’s poems and letters, etc. The translation and transmission of Keats in China (1949-1979) have inherited the tradition created by Chinese Keatsian scholars in the first half of the twentieth century (Stage I), and laid solid foundations for the translation and transmission of Keats in China’s New Era of Reform and Opening-up (Stage III).

Translation and Bibliotherapy as Healing: A Comparative Approach to Reparation

Stephen Zhongqing Wu — 2024-12-18

Translation and bibliotherapy, though they are cost-effective and ver-satile, can be deemed as a supplementary treatment to support the good mental health. This paper examines translation and bibliotherapy as healing with a comparison of uses in terms of their approach and effect to reparation for ensuring a good mental health. Their differences lie in that translation is vertical and output-based, whereas bibliotherapy is horizontal and input-based with the similarity of the use of mental and cognitive activities, such as translation and reading. The choice of the genres in literature also exerts differences on the effect of translation and bibliotherapy as a means of healing and reparation. Through qualitative research and a case study of Mr. Xiaoyu Jin, it is found that translation and bibliotherapy can be considered as a cost-effective and efficient supplement for supporting the good mental health.

Pour l'analyse géo-sémiotique d'un centenaire Espace et temps de la réception de la "Divine Comédie" en 1921

Nunzio Ruggiero — 2024-12-20

Le sixième centenaire de la mort de Dante Alighieri, en 1921, marque un paysage culturel complexe, dans lequel différentes instances, événements et stratégies se croisent, nous invitant à réfléchir à la double valeur du seuil spatio-temporel. Dans la perspective géo-sémiotique ici adoptée, le centenaire est une dimension intertextuelle qui implique certains mécanismes d'interaction – entre la politique et la littérature, entre les arts et les idéologies.

Parmi les nombreuses initiatives, l'édition bilingue des essais et des traductions de la Divine Comédie, réalisée par le jeune Alojzij Res, revêt une importance particulière: deux volumes imprimés en italien à Gorizia et en slovène à Ljubljana, accompagnés des planches du peintre croate Mirko Rački et du graveur slovène Tone Kralj.
Ma contribution vise à reconstituer les circonstances de la réalisation de l'oeuvre, alors que le dialogue entre l'Italie, la Slovénie et la Croatie devenait de plus en plus difficile, dans le transit décisif menant à l'ère du nationalisme et du totalitarisme. La présentation vise à mettre en évidence le rapport antithétique entre l'espace et le temps dans la réception de Dante en 1921 dans les villes frontalières de l'Adriatique, après la chute de l'Empire des Habsbourg (Trieste, Fiume, Gorizia): d'une part, la lecture nationaliste et anti-historique qui efface le temps pour exalter la valeur spatiale; d'autre part, la lecture qui dévalorise l'espace pour faire voyager le texte dans le temps et exploiter toutes les ressources qui libèrent le potentiel révolutionnaire et cathartique de la poésie.

Two Poets, One Moon: A Comparison of Su Shi and Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Lingyan Ke — 2024-12-18

Only a few decades ago, Western scholars of comparative literature tended to argue that any English-Chinese comparison was “futile or meanin-gless” (Yu, 162). As this discipline evolves, however, this previous notion is being replaced by the perspective that “a glimpse of the otherness of the other can produce new perspectives on our own faces in the great mirror of culture” (Hayot, 90). My thesis contributes to this stream of innovation by bringing into comparison the function of the moon in Su Shi’s “Water Melody” and in Samuel Coleridge’s “Dejection: An Ode”, finding that in both poems, the moon functions to foreground the poets’ psychological experiences and acts as an agent in the resolution of emotional conflict in the poems and lives of the poets. The purpose of this work is to broaden the field in which both English and Chinese poetry are understood to exist by examining each through the lens of the other. Both “Water Melody” and “Dejection” have been examined to the point of exhaustion in each of their relative traditions, but bringing them into new light may reveal previously unseen angles. For example, this research finds that Susan Stewart’s theory of eighteenth – century English nocturnes is highly compatible with twelfth-century Chinese nocturnes, and this foreign theory can breathe new life into an ossified conversation. In a dissonant example, the familiar Western associations of the moon as an evil omen, recalling vampires and werewolves, can feel bizarre when imagined from the perspective of Chinese associations of the moon with family reunion. This comparison, in addition to exploring these two poems and poets, ultimately creates a destabilizing
effect by which a reader may be induced to move beyond the traditions, to a point where Weltliteratur is no longer the goal, as it was for Goethe, but instead a starting point.

Translating the Dalit Experience: Agency, Editorial Mediation, and Epistemic Violence in Kallen Pokkudan's Autobiographical Narratives

Sruthi Sasidharan — 2024-12-18

Translation is not merely a simple neutral linguistic act; rather it is conceived as a cultural act with its own equations of power and dominance, centre and margin. Writing happens in a specific linguistic, cultural and political context and the process of translating texts from one cultural system into another is not at all a neutral, innocent, transparent activity. It is rather a political activity. The very act of translation and the politics behind it deserves more attention.

Spivak in “The Politics of Translation” speaks about how Englishing the third world eliminates the identity of the politically less powerful individuals and cultures. She also refers to how translation becomes a means of creating and articulating cultural, ethnographic or sexual Otherness. In her eminent work “Can the Subaltern Speak”, she asks, How can we touch the consciousness of the people even as we investigate their politics? With what voice consciousness can the subaltern speak? (Spivak, 1988, p. 285).

According to her any attempt from the outside to ameliorate the subaltern condition by granting them collective speech invariably will encounter more serious problems: a logocentric assumption of cultural solidarity among a heterogeneous people, and a dependence on (western) intellectuals to "speak for" the subaltern condition rather than allowing them to speak for themselves (spivak,1988, p. 308).

The translation of subaltern narratives from regional languages to English and other languages is an area of considerable academic interest. While the international audience achieved through translation provides broader exposure for subaltern narratives, the process of translation presents numerous challenges related to language, culture, and politics. The representation of the complex social structures of caste, gender, culture, and dialects within the context of local subaltern discourses in English is a subject of growing scholarly inquiry. The translation of subaltern narratives into English is often motivated by the commodification of subaltern subjectivity, experience, and culture to cater to literary and academic interests. Consequently, the transformation of translation as a literary event into a market-driven event dominated by the politics of publication and market is evident in the translation of these narratives. These political interventions happen at different points, possibly even before the conceptualization of the text itself. One of the major interventions is that of agents of translation, including transcribers, editors and publishers. This paper aims to explore the epistemic violence that rise as a result of these interventions in translating dalit experiences into written form, by examining dictated dalit life narratives published in Malayalam.

Perspectives and Problems of Regional Literary Histories

Aušra Jurgutienė — 2024-12-18

The article discusses the demand for renewal of the methodological approaches and narrative forms of national literary history in historical scholarship. With the recent growth of globalization and migration, the expansion of the European Union and with strong criticism of the metanarratives of national literature, the regional trend of modelling and researching literary histories has become increasingly relevant, especially for small literatures. We can see the attempts of many literary scholars to change the customary progressive ethnocentric model of historical narrative and to search for more contemporary forms of cultural identity, based on heterogeneous multicultural grounds. The intensive democratization processes in post-communist societies inevitably encourage their literary historians to move from closed national literary models to open pluralistic comparative cultural models. Several examples of this regional trend are discussed in the article. How important and promising are regional memory-building efforts for individual historians of small literatures? And what problems do historians of such research face? The report seeks concrete answers to these questions. But the questions don't stop there.

Georgian Symbolism: Reorientation of Cultural Centre and Redefinition of National Identity

Tatia Oboladze — 2024-12-18

After being part of the Russian Empire for more than a century, In the 1910s (1918-1921), Georgia obtained independence for a few years, but from 1921 was forced to become one of the members of the Soviet Socialist Republic. As for a cultural context, the beginning of the 20th c. is considered a period of stagnation. Subsequently, the significance of emerging the first symbolist group, “Blue Horns”, with clearly stated purposes and esthetic position was a significant event. As a result of the drastic transformation of the social formation, in parallel with the revolutions and World War I, Georgia faced the necessity of re-conceptualizing its national identity.

The main goal of the symbolist poets was a renewal of Georgian literature and its inclusion into the Western context. In the writings of Georgian symbolists, universal archetypes of mother and father were closely linked with the motive of the search and redefinition of National identity.

Politics and Poetics: Scientific Literature on Russian-Georgian Literary Relations in the Post-Soviet Period

Ivane Mchedeladze — 2024-12-18

In the post-Soviet period, literary relations did not remain beyond political influence. The place of reflection on the socio-political context of the collapse of the Soviet Empire proved to be the literary processes of the mentioned epoch. Relicts of political discourse can be found not only in fiction but also in scientific literature. Analyzing Soviet problems in this way has led to an expansion of the post-imperial / postcolonial study area.

In this paper, I will discuss the works created as a result of the fundamental research conducted by German Slavists, Mirja Lecke and Elena Chkhaidze “The Development of Russian-Georgian Literary Relations after the Perestroika”. This study was widely recognized in the Slavic world. The materials discussed are E. Chkhaidze's monograph “Politics and Literary Tradition: Russian-Georgian Literary Relations after the Perestroika” (2018) as well as several important publications by Mirja Lecke dedicated to these issues.

In her monograph, Elene Chkhaidze introduces the concept of “Imperial Literary Tradition”. Therefore, by analyzing artistic and scientific material, she maintains that this tradition is formed, developed and broken in parallel with the formation, development and disintegration of the empire. The literary process, as a full-fledged event, also depends on political factors. The scholar's work is based on the rich history of Georgian-Slavic studies. To analyze the current problem, she uses modern, interdisciplinary approaches of Western European and American scientific schools.

E. Chkhaidze's work contains many complex theoretical concepts – trauma, nostalgia, nations and nationalism, semiotics of the city (Tbilisi), the city as a place of struggle and life, a meeting place for people of different nationalities, hybridism, in the research special attention is paid to post-Soviet Russian conflicts.
Post-Soviet / postcolonial events in Georgia and Russia are viewed not in the “East-West” but in the “North / South” prism. The study covered works of art, critical literature and research by Georgian and Russian-speaking authors living in Georgia, Russia and abroad until 2014. A complete overview of the trends and scientific papers of the scientists of the Soviet and post-Soviet periods is given, on which the researcher relies. This is the first and only such study of the post-Soviet period.
It should be noted that this vector of German comparative literature, with its methodological concepts, will be of great help not only in the process of studying the inter-literary relations of not only Georgian-Russian but also of the former USSR republics.

Patriotism for Cosmopolitanism: Postcolonial Reading of Vazha-Pshavela’s Essay “Cosmopolitanism and Patriotism”

Hayate SOTOME — 2024-12-18

Vazha-Pshavela is known as one of the most important poets in the history of modern Georgian literature. His epic poems, “Aluda Keterauli,” “Guest and Host” are regarded as masterpieces until today and are adopted into a film, “Vedreba” (“The Plea”), by Tengiz Abuladze, which consist of his trilogy (the others are “Natvris Khe” (“The Wishing Tree”) and “Monanieba” (“Repentance”). Beside poems, he wrote short tales as well as ethnographic or philosophical essays. Today I would like to make my presentation based on his one of the most important essays, “Cosmopolitanism and Patriotism” (1905).

This essay tends to be understood that the poet supports for patriotism against cosmopolitanism especially when considering the context of that time. Before starting our discussion, I would like to introduce this historical context. In the second half of 19th century, Georgian students started studying in university in Russia and they formed a new group with nationalistic ideology to find the way to save the country from Russian colonial rule. The leaders of the group were Ilia Ch’avch’avadze and Akaki Tsereteli (we can see their statue on Rustaveli Ave.). Later they are called as “Pirveli Dasi” (The first group) and are considered as canonical writers. If the first group consists of nationalists, the second, “Meore Dasi” is utopian socialists, and the third “Mesame Dasi” is Marxists. The last one got active since 1898 and harshly criticized the first group and its leader, Ilia Ch’avch’avadze, blaming their nationalistic thought and aristocracy while insisting international and cosmopolitan movement. Finally, this opposition ended up with Ch’avch’avadze’s murder in 1907 while the essay we are now going to discuss is written in 1905–2 years before the murder. Therefore, from this context, it looks natural to understand that with the essay Vazha-Pshavela was supporting the nationalist movement, with which Ch’avch’avadze intended to decolonize Georgia, and it is also natural to consider Vazha-Pshavela as a member of “The First Group.”

Nationalism, of course, is a strong ideology and narrative to fight and struggle against imperialism and colonialism. However, when once decolonization is successfully accomplished, nationalism itself sometimes turns into nothing but a mean to oppress other ethnic minorities, or to cause conflicts with other nations. From this postcolonial point of view, we should be careful when treating nationalism as the idelogy for fighting against empires; we should recognize that nationalism has both sides. We can observe such political situations in African as well as Asian post-colonial countries, and, to some extent, the similar scene can be observed in the post-soviet nations including Georgia, which holds the nationalist ideology of “the First Group” as a core of national narrative as well as the Georgian literary canon until today.

Therefore, when reading the canonical works of Georgian nationalist literature, in our case Vazha-Pshavela, we should pay more attention to this postcoloinial admonish in order that we should not be trapped in the nationalist dilemma (or, in other words, chauvinism). The aim of this paper is to inquire how we can read Vazha-Pshavela’s works without a simple and direct understanding as a part of “nationalist” discourse.

The Black Sea in the Representation of the Coastal Population of Georgia

Mzago Dokhturishvili — 2024-12-20

According to François Bellec, the sea, vector of discoveries, exchanges, is also a powerful engine of creation and inspiration at the literary and artistic level. The objective of this article is to continue the study of the symbolism of the Black Sea in Georgian poetry, the subject to which we have already devoted two investigations, the results of which have fueled the publication of two articles. In the first, we carried out a comparative analysis of the symbolism of water [of the sea, in this case] in Georgian and French poetry, in the second, we studied the representation of the sea, in general, of the Black Sea, in particular, in the folk poems collected in the regions of Eastern Georgia, the population of which has no maritime experience. Therefore, in the poems analyzed, the sea is used to create different symbolic images expressed in metaphors and comparisons, more particularly, in hyperboles, without addressing the pragmatic side of the sea. Unlike the representation of the sea in the popular poems of Eastern Georgia, in the poems collected in the littoral regions of Western Georgia, the vision of the sea is rather commercial. As a result, the popular singers of these regions, in-cluding the Lazes, whose poems are the subject of our analysis, deal more particularly with themes of fishing and navigation, while offering the ambivalent symbolism of the sea., in these poems, we find the pragmatic functions attributed to the sea – to feed, to stock up, to trade.

When Literary Space Parts Ways with Physical Geography: Substitutions by Aksyonov and Morchiladze for Missing Islands of the Black Sea

Eyüp Özveren — 2024-12-20

Whereas numerous islands served as stepping stones in connecting the lands surrounding the Mediterranean, their conspicuous absence in the Black Sea became a formidable obstacle in an already notoriously inhospitable sea. The Black Sea has only very few islands, and fewer of them are inhabited by only a small number of people. Even so, this makes all the more relevant for us the important role the ‘missing’ islands can play albeit in a literary and not geographical space. This paper explores two path-breaking novels that deliberately contest the historical legacies of Black Sea geography by inventing and introducing islands that incite the reader’s imagination for a critical reflection on the other courses history could have taken, in other words, what the historians and social scientists call ‘historical alternatives’ or ‘alternative history’. This paper focuses on The Island of Crimea by Vassily Aksyonov (1981, 1983) and Santa Esperanza by Aka Morchiladze (2004, 2006). The former engages the reader on a counterfactual exercise with Crimea becoming an island off the coast of Soviet Russia, inspired by Communist China troubled by a maverick Taiwan at arm’s length. The latter has a more nuanced formulation where a British dominion of three islands comes into being after the Crimean War and survives as safe haven for multicultural coexistence despite the fragilities imposed upon it across the sea. Fictive islands can thus occasionally play a greater role than real islands in remaking history.

Sacred Rituals and Crisis of Faith in Requiem for the Living

Libin Andrews — 2024-12-18

Without risk there is no faith. Faith is precisely the contradiction between the infinite passion of the individual’s inwardness and the objective uncertainty (Kierkegaard, 1936). Faith which is the cornerstone of the religious life cannot be grasped by any means of concepts other than the religious experience of the faithful. The sacred rituals are the greatest exam-ple of one’s faith in God. It is the symbol of highest form of love – agape – the love to God and love to thy neighbour. Requiem for the Living presents a “Mother of Faith”, Juana Mammanji (Grand Mother), the matriarch of a Luso–Indian household, who were devout Latin Catholics. The novella presents a chain of faith spanning through generations that kept the whole community together, left broken with the present descendant Osha. Mammanji becomes the blessed in her community by helping her family and community to live a meaningful life by following the sacred rituals while Osha was possessed by the specter of the glorious past, losing himself in his fallen state. Mammanji becomes the God’s faith-ful by reviving her community with His sacred dictums as revealed through her when Osha becomes faith–less by abstaining from his path to be a beacon to his community. The customs and religious traditions of the community emerged out of Juana Mammanji from her lived-experience has been left with no heir when it comes to the present.

Aspect of Medieval Ideological-Political Discourse (King Deification or Theosis?) in Georgian Historical Literature

Ana Letodiani — 2024-12-18

Idea of the highest secular power equality with the divine has existed from the ancient time. King was regarded as a holy institute belonging to the divine sphere.

Royal power was regarded as Lord’s anointed in Georgian reality.

The idea of anointment of the royals by Lord was reflected in the stories about Queen Tamar as well.

In the above-mentioned context, we would like to focus attention on two fragments from the “Histories and Eulogies of the Sovereigns”. “… Thus, about Tamar, three time desired and elevated by Trinity as the fourth, who became the divine, of the kings…” then Nebuchadnezzar saw one of the three as fourth with three children, now, again, Tamar can be regarded as the fourth with the Trinity, equalized with them and elevated to them…”

We can see similar expressions and addresses to Tamar in the works of historians, though the offered citations are significant in the sense that based on them, in Georgian science there was adopted the view about deification of Queen Tamar, her acclamation as the fourth member of Trinity. Many scientists have considered this issue. Most of them regard acclamation of Tamar as the divine, “forth hypostasis of Trinity” as undoubted fact. But some researchers do not share this view.

We cannot accept the views of number of some scientists about accla-mation of Tamar as “divine by nature”.

In our opinion, words of unknown chronicler does not mean that Tamar was acclaimed as divine by nature, “fourth hypostasis of Trinity”. Here is implied that Queen Tamar was elevated by Trinity to equal position (i.e., due to her worthy reign and, hence, holiness) as the “fourth”, as saint; and this is due to her holiness, she is regarded as “four”, equalized and elevated (to Trinity).

In Georgia, according to Georgian traditions, the king was regarded as Lord’s anointed, but he has never been deified. Assumably, they clearly un-derstood Christian teaching about “deification by nature” and “deification by anointment” and provided and analyzed citations from Queen Tamar’s Chronicler apparently demonstrate this.

For the Re-understanding of the Kimenic Issue

Eka Chikvaidze — 2024-12-18

The beginning of Georgian writing is rightly connected with ecclesiastical writing. Its important and valuable flow is created by the hagiographic literature, about which a thorough assessment was made in the scientific circles at the very beginning of the philological research, which deals with genre identification, typology, stylistic features, frameworks, etc. of hagiography. Nevertheless, Georgian hagiographic material is rarely found in international studies, this rich and diversified literature is little reflected in medieval scholarly works. It is conceivable that in addition to the historical context, we should also look for the reason in the specificity of the terminology. According to K. Kekelidze, hagiography is divided into Kimenic and metaphrasical writings. Often this division leads to misunderstanding, as similar terminological divisions can not be found in hagiographic studies. By classical and admitted definition, Kimen is a term used in exegetical writing to refer to a specific explanatory text in any Bible book. Byzantine commentators used to call Kimen the text and thus separated it from their own commentaries. According to K. Kekelidze's observations and the opinion shared among Georgian scholars, this term later acquired a new meaning, first in Georgian ecclesiastical figures, and then – in hagiographic writing – it referred to the initially described and unadulterated life – martyrdoms. Therefore, the texts referred as Kimen in Georgian literature relate to hagiography before metaphrase Here, however, the difference is naturally noticeable: the former is characterized by simple style and composition, story and structure, while in the latter these markers are subtle and more complex. It is necessary to reconsider what we mean by the term Kimen. What corresponds to them in international studies; What are their chronological frameworks, which original Georgian texts do we consider as monuments of Kimenic hagiography and which translated texts should we attribute to it.

The Concepts and Realities of the Eastern Culture in “The Knight in the Panther's Skin”

Maka Elbakidze — 2024-12-20

To the present day the research on The Knight in the Panther’s Skin (“Vepkhistqaosani”) in connection with the Eastern Muslim world has been conducted in two main directions:

1. “Vepkhistqaosani” and literature composed in the Muslim world (for example, parallels with Nizami, Ferdowsi, Fakhraddin Gorgani etc.);

2. “Vepkhistqaosani” and the confession of the Muslim faith: this includes the works, which agree or deny the presence of the Muslim understanding of God, world, romantic love and the relationship between men and women in Rustaveli’s Romance.

When analyzing the concepts and realities of the cultures of the East in “Vepkhistqaosani” the most significant is the concept of mijnuroba (love). Substantiating his own understanding of mijnur in the Prologue, Rustaveli refers the reader to the Arab culture. Presenting the suffering from love as an incurable malady obtained a special literary and aesthetic meaning in the poetry of the Bedouin (Udhrah) tribes of Central Arabia in the 7th and 8th centuries, the poets of which wrote verses on a fatal and almost mystic love that could bring only ordeal, with death being the only possible way out of it. The main motifs of the Udhrī lyrics (loss of consciousness, shedding tears of blood, roaming the plains, etc) acquired greater meaning and depth not only in Sufi poetry, but in the “Vepkhistqaosani”.

Yet, the conventional motifs, which are typical for both concepts – Beduin and Sufi poetry – are encountered in Rustaveli’s work only as readymade formulae, which are given a different interpretation as a result of literary revision.

Homeland Concept In „the Knight in the Panther’s Skin“ by Shota Rustaveli and „Divine Comedy“ by Dante Alighieri

Lia Karichashvili — 2024-12-20

In The Knight in the Panther’s Skin by Shota Rustaveli, the syntagma “native land” was mentioned twice. It has binary meaning: directly it means the homeland (“the native land is mine”, 544) allegorically – the paradise (“They gave me the native land so desired for me” 812). The concept of the homeland has the binary meaning in the Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri as well. The poet defines its metaphorical sense: We should imply the heaven as the homeland (91).

In the both texts the biblical concept is apparent: the paradise was Adam’s homeland, once lost and returning to it became the eschatological aim of the humans. Naturally, there are deep internal ties between the worldly and heavenly homeland: the heaven is a divine idea of the worldly native land (archetype). “From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands” (The Acts of the Apostles 17:26). Thus, the individual is born at predetermined time and place, to seek for God. The purpose is mystic and its understanding takes place with the person’s self-comprehension (“who is he, where came he from, where is hi and where will he go” David Guramishvili).

In The Knight in the Panther’s Skin God is “who fixes the bounds” (792,3) and in the Divine Comedy the homeland and mother tongue is determined by Lord: the nature gives the men the mother tongue / and what kind of speech this should be, is ruled by the Lord” (127).

In the Christian literature the heaven is frequently mentioned as the divine Jerusalem or Zion and the world as Egypt. Dante also applies such paradigmatic eloquence as well: That’s why he was allowed to come from that darkness of Egypt here, to Zion (55).

For both poets, the invisible stairs from the worldly homeland to the heavenly one is the faith, realized in the lifestyle of the characters, serving to lord, homeland and human being.

Three Medeas – Modernist and Postmodernist Reception of Medea Myth in Georgian Literature

Lili Metreveli — 2024-12-20

Greek mythology has made character of Medea of Colchis the indivi-sible part of world cultural heritage. For centuries character of Medea has maintained its significance and comprised source of inspiration for the representatives of various spheres of fine arts. Of course, regarding the contexts of the epochs (conceptual and esthetic position) and author’s intent, some motifs of the Argonauts’ myth and character of the woman of Colchis have been changing. One part of the creators sees in it a murderous mother, the other part a vengeful wife or a traitor, while others see Medea as the first feminist woman.

Our aim is to consider, on the one hand, the first attempt at a literary interpretation of the Greek tragedian – Euripides' Medea – as a mythological hero, and, on the other hand, the modernist and postmodernist receptions of the Medea myth. In particular, we will analyze the texts of two Georgian writers working in Germany at different times: the novel by modernist author Grigol Robakidze „Maggie Georgian Girl“ and the play by modern author Nino Kharatishvili „My and Your Heart [Medea].“

Within the scopes of the report we we shall attempt to find out the conceptual relation and influences of the characters of Georgian writers using comparative analysis, on the one hand, with the mythological tradition of Medea and on the other hand, with the tragedy of Euripides „Medea“; Introduce both modernist and postmodernist reception of the Medea myth in Georgian literature and highlight the international significance of the Colchis for Georgian culture.

A Comparative Analysis of Qidian.com and Webnovel.com: From the View of Digital Humanities

Xinxia Liang — 2024-12-20

Web Novel has become an integral part of contemporary recreation for people living in the world greatly changed by the revolution in information technology and consequent social upheaval. Chinese webnovels, benefitting from the fast-growing digital culture industry, have developed a successful industrial model represented by “qidian.com”, a famous website for internet users to read and write original fiction, ranking 9087 in global internet traffic. The launch of its international version “webnovel.com” in 2017 marks a strong, well-tested, and sophisticated cyberliterature industrial model ent-ring the global cultural market. By comparing these two websites from the view of digital humanities, this research is expected to analyze differences between their scale, functions, sorts of works, and two versions (original and translated) of a specific text existing on both websites. Based on data analysis, several conclusions will be inferred such as the advantages, limitations, and influences of “qidian-mode” facing unfamiliar and complicated international surroundings. In conclusion, though encountering several problems while launching the international version, “qidian-mode” with Chinese characteristics and standards provides a practical model for the development and industrialization of online literature around the world.

European Girl Travelling across China: The Reception History of Little Red Riding Hood in China from the Perspective of the Variation Theory

Weirong Zhao — 2024-12-20

The European fairy tale, Little Red Riding Hood (LRRH), was first introduced into China in 1909. Over the next half-century, several translations and adaptations had emerged. Based on the original story, these new versions displayed conspicuous Eastern characteristics, including Confucian ethics, enlightenment thoughts and nationalism. Using the variation theory of comparative literature, this paper reviews the reception history of LRRH in China and analyzes the concomitant variations. We argue that the reception of Western fairy tales in modern China was not a simple translation on the linguistic level but an innovative re-creation based on the historical context, traditional culture and realistic needs. Chinese intellectuals never thought the perception of Western civilization was a passive one-direction process. In fact, they showcased initiative at every step and utilized the West as an intermediary to launch revolutions.

Experiencing the Abject Female Body and Writing the Female Self: Body Narrative of In the Heart of the Country

Juhong Shi — 2024-12-20

In the Heart of the Country, the second novel by J. M. Coetzee, has been traditionally read as a disembodied writing that focuses on the problem of writing per se instead of the reality. This paper contends that the work is actually a body narrative that explores the visceral pain suffered by Magda whose infertile body impedes her being a qualified subject. As the heroine in a postcolonial novel, Magda is not just a body that is restricted and constructed by the politics of the body, but also a thinking and writing body that consciously questions and resists the gendered bodily norms under whose yardstick her subjecthood is barred. Written in the metafictional manner, Magda’s narrative of the body is not just a record of her corporeal experience, but also a self-conscious negotiation with, and challenge of, the bodily norms under whose yardstick her body has been debased or, in terms of Judith Butler, abjected. Taking her female bodily experience as the starting point, Magda writes a feminine text that values passion, fluidity and non-linearity to disrupt the patriarchal discourse underpinned with logical reasoning. The feminine body narrative endeavors to achieve a new way of communication through which a reciprocal cross race/gender relationship might be established.

Literature as Event: Understanding Bakhtin's Event Theory

Yuanyuan ZHOU — 2024-12-20

Event Has been extensively pored over in literature in recent years. Some noted thinkers of our time, including Heidegger, Deleuze, Badiou, Žižek, Foucault, Eagleton, etc. have made great contributions to the framework of events. This article revisits Russian literary theorist M. M. Bakhtin’s event thoughts in his philosophy and cultural poetics. In his Act Philosophy, Bakhtin proposes ‘Event of Being’ to interpret existence in terms of ontology, epistemology and value ethics. From this starting point, Bakhtin in his cultural poetics conceptualizes literature as an event. Firstly, literature as an event perceives itself as an act or event that is temporally and spatially constituted, rather than a solid object. And as irregular occurrences, events of literature are destined to undergo a process of changes and transformations and predict new emergence. Secondly, featuring in its inherent discourse characteristics, literature as an event is internally intertwined with other social and historical events while at the same time self – sufficiently develops. That is, instead of being perceived as reflective and a passive recorder to its historical society, literature is actually active with its own subjectivity to enter into dynamic dialogue with other events, and in some cases serves as a spiritual power in forging society and history. Therefore, literature as an event places itself between concrete entity and dynamic process, textual discourse and social history context, etc.. This reflects an ‘intero logical thinking', that is, literature exists in the relationship with others as something ‘between’. Clearly, Bakhtin's thoughts on literature as an event would shed light on our understanding towards world literature and literary history writing.

On Anna Seghers' Acceptance of China in the 1920s and 1930s

Wei Xiaojin — 2024-12-20

Anna Seghers is a famous German anti-fascist writer in the 20th century and a famous proletarian revolutionary fighter, her work is notable for exploring and depicting the moral experience of the Second World War. Born into a Jewish family and married to a Hungarian Communist, Seghers escaped Nazi-controlled territory through wartime France. She returned to Europe after the war, living in West Berlin (1947–50), which was occupied by Allied forces. She eventually settled in the German Democratic Republic, where she worked on cultural and peace issues. She received numerous awards and in 1967 was nominated for the Nobel Prize by the GDR.

Throughout the life of Seghers, whether she studied Sinology in Heidelberg and Cologne in her youth, or joined the Communist International and paid close attention to the revolutionary movement led by the Communist Party of China, China's influence on her was manifold. As we can see, there are many descriptions of China in her works. Although she never visited China in the 1920s and 1930s, we can still feel her interest in the Chinese revolution in her work. Communicating across cultures has a two-way influence. On the one hand, we can clearly see her acceptance of China, whether it is the traditional Chinese ideology and culture or the creative inspiration brought by the Chinese revolutionary movement. On the other hand, when we read the literature of Segers, we see China a hundred years ago and the proletarian revolutionary movement in China. In this way, we can see ourselves through the eyes of the other, adding a different perspective to this great history.

Widowhood: A Cultural Study and Its Impact on Diasporic Female Identity

Shrimoyee Chattopadhyay — 2024-12-20

From the South-Asian perspective widows are considered as inauspicious and harbinger of bad luck. They are subjected to abusive practices, such as violation of human rights, and physical and emotional violence, under the pretext of social and cultural taboos. However, this paper explores how widows contest stereotypical norms, as established by the conventional South Asian society, in the diasporic context. Through a comparative analysis of the female characters in the novels of Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake (2003), Bharati Mukherjee’s Jasmine (1989), and Krutin Patel’s film, ABCD: It’s About Choices (1999), I argue that widowhood provides some sort of emancipation to these diasporic women. The narratives highlight the struggles that the protagonists, Ashima, Jasmine, and Anju undergo after the demise of their husbands. Women are considered to be the bearers of their home culture. When diasporic women migrate from their home countries to the host nation, along with their physical displacement, they also carry their cultural traditions with them. So, even when they are away from their homeland, these women are expected to abide by their native traditions. However, despite the struggles, these widows have been able to gain agency to a certain extent, which would not have been possible in the presence of their husbands owing to the stereotypical notion that men make all the important decisions in the family and women are expected to conform to them. Although it has to be acknowledged that the nature of their agency varies. While Lahiri’s protagonist, Ashima and Mukherjee’s heroine, Jasmine are able to adapt to the host culture, Anju, in Patel’s film, finds it difficult to assimilate in the American traditions. Furthermore, I will probe into the intersectional differences, such as differences in class, social status and age that exist among the widows, which have a significant impact on their identity formation.