An interregnum: masculinity and British fiction at the turn of the century

Author(s): Katarzyna Więckowska / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2015

The article offers a reading of the representation of the masculinity crisis at the end of the 20th century in selected British novels. The works by Irvine Welsh, Graham Swift, Niall Griffiths, and Ian McEwan are situated against the development of pro-feminist men’s writing and masculinity studies, as well as the mythopoetic men’s movement and Robert Bly’s bestselling Iron John: A Book About Men (1990). The article foregrounds the sense of an impasse that permeates the novels and that echoes the general feeling of in-betweenness characteristic for the turn of the century.

Geheimnis und Gewalt

Author(s): Georg Glaser / Language(s): German Issue: 037/1951

Novel about a youth in NAZI time by Georg Glaser, published as a serial in Der Monat in this and the following issues

Witnessing and Empty Empathy:

Author(s): Ștefan Ionescu Ambrosie / Language(s): English Issue: 22/2019

This article compares two graphic novels dealing with the subject of modern border crises, namely Joe Sacco’s Palestine and Jérôme Ruillier’s The Strange, by considering empathy creation in visual media. Ruillier’s The Strange, whose stated goal is to elicit empathy by presenting the viewer with as many narrative perspectives as possible, is a graphic novel dealing with the translation of a refugee in a nondescript fantasy world which only vaguely alludes to the recent refugee crisis in France. Ruillier gives passersby, police officers, activists, and the protagonist’s own smuggler equal self-representation, which results in a fragmented narrative structure that does not bring the refugee’s own voice to the fore. This technique, combined with the lack of a specific socio-political context for the protagonist’s translation, engenders empty empathy in the viewer’s reaction to the refugee’s trauma, mainly due to The Strange being a patchwork creation of refugee stories whose common denominator is personal pain, something which cannot elicit authentic empathy. This article proposes a comparison with Joe Sacco’s Palestine, which illustrates specific stories from Gaza and the West Bank, and whose events compel Sacco to throw in his lot with the refugees; this second perspective highlights the difference between empty empathy and witnessing, and in the process underlines what Ruillier’s work lacks in its treatment of borders and refugees.

Il revient quand, le cirque ?

Author(s): Simon Louckx / Language(s): French Issue: 25/2020

Dans un petit village du Hainaut belge, un père tente de créer des liens avec son fils. Un rituel s’impose entre eux : tous les ans, ils vont au cirque ensemble mais, cette année, la troupe semble ne pas arriver. Dans les rêves de l’enfance s’immiscent peu à peu, tels des grains de sable, les petites failles du quotidien devant lesquelles le père reste un observateur impuissant. In a small village from the Belgian Hainaut, a father tries to establish a relationship with his son. They establish a sort of ritual:every year they go together to the circus, but this year the circus does not come. Small slices of everyday life penetrate memories from childhood and the father contemplates them powerless.

Garance

Author(s): Michel Lambert / Language(s): French Issue: 25/2020

Deux amis se rencontrent à l’occasion d’une fête organisée par Bob. L’un ou l’autre doit l’informer d’une nouvelle qui va l’affecter considérablement. Mais qui ? Et de quoi s’agit-il ? Sans cesse ils se désignent mutuellement pour accomplir la difficile mission. Two friends meet each other at a party organized by Bob. One of them has to inform the other about troubling fact. But what is it all about? They incessantly push each other to accomplish this difficult task.

Titanic Disco (regényrészlet, Szőcs Imre fordítása)

Author(s): Radu Pavel Gheo / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 12/2020

Fragment of the novel Titanic Disco by contemporary Romanian writer Radu Pavel Gheo, translated by Imre Szőcs.

Swann (részlet)

Author(s): Marcel Proust / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 06/2021

STAZE MOGA ŽIVOTA (odlomak)

Author(s): Radosav Medenica,Dobrilo Aranitović / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 1-2/2020

Papírhajó (könyvrészlet)

Author(s): András Jeles / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 2-3/2020

Twilight from the Mormon perspective

Author(s): MARIA-ALEXANDRA STĂNESCU / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2021

Through the following paper, we intend to identify and investigate the notions related to the imaginary versus reality in the work of Stephenie Meyer, to inventory the elements related to the mythical imaginary, and explore the connection established between vampirism and lycanthropy in the famous Twilight saga series. We consider it necessary to map the universe of Twilight, because, from the perspective of our research so far, the aspects mentioned above have not been studied as we propose to do. Thus, we will emphasize the idea of guilt, manifested in some of the fictional characters, especially Edward Cullen and Carlisle, and then go on to explain the fact that the author’s choice of the age of seventeen for her protagonists is not random. This choice of age may be a symbol, a representation of incomplete childhood or prolonged adolescence, emphasizing a lack of maturity as intermediate phase. Furthermore, we want to analyze this series from the perspective of utopia studies, pointing out that we are here dealing with a narrative of the utopian alternate-world type: although for critics the Twilight saga wears the mask of dystopia, we contend that it is rather more plausible to regard it as an educational utopia, falling within the category of possible-world narratives as presented by Umberto Eco in Lector in fabula (1979).

Dracula Redivivus: Spatial Roots and Bloodlines

Author(s): Nicoleta Stanca / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2022

This article aims at reviving the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker after 125 years from its publication, paying attention to the two spaces that generated the birth of the Dracula myth: Ireland and Transylvania. Many studies have been devoted to the East European roots of the story, the gothic characteristics of the novel and the subsequent popular culture revisitations of the Dracula myth. This article brings together an interpretation of the novel through the lens of the Irish Famine, the background against which the novel may be read, and of the sources of inspiration related to the Romanian ruler, Vlad the Impaler, alongside more recent approaches to the Dracula cultural phenomenon in the Romanian space. Questions of the identity formation of the vampire, starting from Dracula, are also discussed.

A festő váratlan látogatása. Részlet a Lázadók című regényből

Author(s): Imre Goldstein / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 2/2021

ХУМОРОТ, САТИРАТА И СМЕАТА ВО РОМАНИТЕ НА ЛУАН СТАРОВА

Author(s): Afrim Redžepi / Language(s): Macedonian Issue: 79/2022

In this text we will explore the poetics of humor and satire in Starova’s modern novels; we will not only prove that fiction that reflects reality knows how to deeply criticize and re-evaluate the flaws of that same reality, we will not only prove that the novel is suitable genre for a comprehensive critique of reality, but we will also emphasize the need for research on satire and humor, which are not so explored in our country. Although humor and satire are different stylistic procedures, which generate new types of genres, as hybridized procedures, they are synonyms that within the text, along with irony, parody, grotesque, etc., we expect to function in a single aesthetic whole.The phenomenon of laughter will theoretically be determined as a product of the relation subject-object, meaning as an aesthetic relation, and not as an aesthetic object. Apart from the author and the work, the reader is also part of the aesthetic reach, so in order to realize laughter as a process, we will have to define it as an interaction of two actors: the funny object and the subject - the person who laughs. Everything will depend on the text, which in itself does not cause laughter, but there are cases when there is a deliberate intention by the author to provoke laughter in the reader.

The Discourse of Grief and Trauma in Karan Mahajan’s The Association of Small Bombs

Author(s): Eduard Vlad,Ayad A. Abood Al-Saymary / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2022

This paper addresses the representation of terror, grief and trauma in Karan Mahajan’s The Association of Small Bombs, both at individual and collective level. It imagines how terrorism, violence, and trauma may be linked in unexpected ways in the various associations artistically dealt with in the complex narrative. Following a catastrophic event, such as a massive terrorist attack, a whole culture would be at risk to suffer cultural trauma. Mahajan, however, focuses on a “small bombing” event that has a lesser effect worldwide, but which affects the lives of an “association” of people including, victims, their close relatives, and terrorists themselves.

Lisa titkos könyve

Author(s): Richard Wagner / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 852/2022

Novel by Richard Wagner - "Lisa titkos könyve".

ΤΡΟΠΟΣ ΚΑΤΑΣΚΕΥΗΣ ΤΟΥ ΧΑΡΑΚΤΗΡΑ ΤΟΥ ΠΡΩΤΑΓΩΝΙΣΤΗ ΣΤΗΝ ΚΑΓΚΕΛΟΠΟΡΤΑ ΤΟΥ ΑΝΤΡΕΑ ΦΡΑΓΚΙΑ

Author(s): Tamara Kostić Pahnoglu / Language(s): Greek, Modern (1453-) Issue: 2/2022

In this paper, we dealt with the way of constructing the character of the main character of the novel Iron Gate by the Greek post-war writer Andreas Frangias. The characteristic of his novels is the absence of clearly separated main characters, but in the novel Iron Gate, the Angelos link can be considered the main one from the aspect of the influence it has on the other characters of the novel. The aim of the paper is to analyze the procedure used by the writer to build the character of Angelos. The theoretical framework for the analysis is represented by Shlomit Rimon-Kenan's model, which includes direct definition and different ways of indirect representation in the construction of literary characters. Character indicators represented in indirect representation contribute to the synthesis of the character both by their presence in the text, but also by their absence from the text. The analysis showed that indirect representation through action and speech is dominant, but the use of description of external appearance, environment, as well as direct definition is also represented. The conclusion is that the author uses all character indicators from the Rimon-Kenan model to build the main character.

Minerul dispărut

Author(s): Constantin Abăluţă / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 5-6/2023

A fragment from the novel „The missing miner” by Constantin Abăluță.

Kirándulás a szakadékhoz (regényrészlet)

Author(s): István Szilágyi / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 873/2023

István Szilágyi's excerpt from the novel "Kirándulás a szakadékhoz"

Fake you

Author(s): Petru Cimpoeșu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 7-8/2023

A fragment from a novel by Petru Cimpoeșu named „Fake you”

ИЗЛЕГУВАЊЕТО НА МИТРА МИЛАДИНОВА ОД СЕНКАТА НА КНИЖЕВНИТЕ СПОМЕНИЦИ

Author(s): Ivan Antonovski / Language(s): Macedonian Issue: 82/2023

The paper refers to the novel Emerging from the Shadow by Macedonian author Dijana Petrova (Skopje, 2023) and the attitude of Macedonian literary science and historiography, and consequently the Macedonian cultural environment, to Mitra Miladinova, who, although being an exclusive figure of the Macedonian XIX century, so far, she has been generally neglected and undervalued. Highlighting, on one hand, the scientific research commitment of Slavcho Koviloski, and on the other, Petrova’s novel as a fiction/artistic achievement in which the central character is Miladinova (relying on the scientific insights of Koviloski in the creation of the story), the paper recognizes in them Miladinova’s emergence from the shadow of literary monuments and an opportunity for its valuable (re)actualization. The paper comments on the significance of Petrova’s novel in the context of trends in contemporary Macedonian prose, and as the only one of the newer Macedonian authors who accepts historical themes as a creative challenge. At the same time, the paper comments on the poetic peculiarities of this novel in comparison with other Macedonian literary achievements, which points to opportunities and the need for further analyses. At the same time, the paper points out the importance and the need for such creative endeavors, which will rectify the insufficient interest of literary science and historiography for some important topics.