![Ágnes Györke – Imola Bülgözdi (eds.): Geographies of Affect in Contemporary Literature and Visual Culture: Central Europe and the West](/api/image/getissuecoverimage?id=picture_2021_61494.jpg)
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How migrants students feel in new society, school, culture? How should we talk about the difficult experience of refugee? How to build cultural awareness and empathy among students – future young adults? The article is an attempt to answer these questions with the use of Nowhere Boy, the book of Katherine Marsh. The author of the article draws attention to the education about intercultural skills and encourages to reflect on supporting children with migration experience at schools.
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The comic book industry in India began in 1950. Back then leading American comic books like The Phantom, Flash Gordon and Rip Kirby started to be published in India and translated into local languages. Indian youngsters in no time became interested in the new medium, especially in superhero comics known from the American popular culture. The success of these translations encouraged local publishers and cartoonists to create Indian themed comic books, set in India with Indian heroes (and superheroes) − even though Indian comics were still strongly influenced by American ones, mainly in terms of esthetics. However, around 1950, American comics publishing companies also tried to attract adult readers by presenting more adult content in a form of horror and thriller stories. Publishers in India quickly adapted this trend launching a very popular comic book series in Hindi of thrill, horror and suspense. In this way horror – till then almost completely absent from Indian literature and popular culture – was introduced to the local audience. The question remains, how different are those local spooks from the American ones and finally: what are Indians afraid of?
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Published in Brazil on December 1, 1933, with 768 pages in its first edition, Casa- -Grande & Senzala had a very refractory reception in Brazil: the regionalism in the socio-historical cultural field was inaugurated or a historical lyrical treaty of the relations of colonial Brazil? Throughout these decades, from its reception to its first revisionisms, the common point in the observations of the technical construction of the work is: the plastic/ artistic character of the text. The relations of gender, geography, power, cuisine, folklore are taken not as pure descriptions of the catalog but rather the memory of memory, which has color, smell and temperature. Not only a collective memory, but also Freyre himself, who did not just want to share opinions, he wanted to share experiences.
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In this article, we reveal, through a stylometric reading, characteristics of Coelho Neto’s style in Miragem (1895). In addition, we compare the style of the writer with the style of three contemporary writers: Aluísio Azevedo, O Cortiço (1890); Adolfo Caminha, Bom-Crioulo (1895); and Machado de Assis, Dom Casmurro (1900). The research methodology adopted in this study is supported by stylometry (Brandão, 2006, Cúrcio, 2006, 2007, 2013, Freitas, 2007, Paiva, 2013, Assis, 2013 and Silva, 2014) and dialogues, whenever possible, with the literary criticism directed to Coelho Neto and his work, mainly in relation to his style. Among our findings, we have found that the uses of adjectives, verbs, and adverbs in Coelho Neto’s criticism of the composition of his style are apparently normal when compared to the style of other writers.
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The author analyses Hannah Arendt’s writings in search of inspirations for reflecting on the contemporary world’s problems in humanistic (school) education, finding such inspirations in the topics that interested the author of The Human Condition and in her perception of politics, citizenship and thinking as such. Koc’s thesis is that educational documents show a clear deficit of reflection on current challenges, often transnational, that need to be analysed from multiple angles. The article emphasises Arendt’s warnings about non-thinking as an attitude conducive to totalitarianism, which should unsettle anyone interested in the concept of educating young people. Reconstructing Arendt’s axiology of citizenship and emphasising the value of journalistic texts as stories that uncover ambiguity and ask key questions, the author calls for a reconsideration of the nature of Polish language education in contemporary school.
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The article is an attempt at capturing the relationship between the lives and creative attitudes of Rahel Varnhagen, Hannah Arendt and Judith Butler. Starting with Varnhagen’s biography written by Arendt, the essay’s author wonders about the philosopher’s writing strategy. Instead of a classic reconstruction of life, the biographer offers a collage of excerpts from Rahel’s letters with extensive commentary. This form encourages one to read Rahel Varnhagen as a narration about the author and her own struggle with Jewish and female identity. The second relationship analysed in the essay is the impact of Hannah Arendt’s texts on Judith Butler’s writings. Despite the criticism of the philosopher’s writings, Arendt remains an unquestionable inspiration to Butler. The article also emphasises the difference between the theoreticians: Arendt uses the strategy of mimicry (writing about identity in the form of a German Jew’s biography), while Butler writes a politically-engaged text, exposing herself and her identity.
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The article discusses the issue of changes introduced into reprints of pre-1955 American comics in order to adapt them to requirements of the Comic Code. Pre-1955 American comic books are characterized as “rebellious” — challenging norms and aesthetic rules of contemporary America – and the activities of Comic Code Administration as a form of their pacification. What follow next is a presentation of main strategies of adaptation of pre-1955 comics to the requirements of the Comic Code identified on the basis of analysis of fifty reprints. In the last part the author compares the original and reprinted versions of three comics books stories, shows how dramatically the plot of stories could change due to introduction of prescriptions of the Comic Code Administration.
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The comic adaptation of Richard Krafft-Ebing's Psychopathia sexualis adds nothing to the original, but the change of medium to comic from text to text-enriched series of images distributes accents differently. Equal frames, like the pedantic gallery on the cover, build contrast, the second element of which is the chaos prevailing in the lives of ôpervertsö whose fate is drawn by Robert Crumb. Their deeds can entertain or shock in the short run, but the impression that steadily builds up, and thus takes root deeper in the reader, is depression. The medicine turns out to be a character also derived from fantasy, the queen of the jungle, Sheena. Sheena, the heroine of the television series, is not only the imagined companion of young Robert Crumb, but also his phantasm, she combines the role of a sex project with the role of an erotic tutor instructing him in the subject of fantasizing (somewhat like Mrs. de Warens, Rousseau's „mummy” ). Sheena's way of life, her parameters as a fantasy center, sets out paths along which the boy's erotic imagination will take place. In later episodes of the autobiographical comic cycle My Troubles with Women, Crumb will describe his fellow women as Sheena's shadows, fetishizing not only the physical conditions of their partners, but also their openness.
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The Comparison between the comic books’ superheroes and gods often appears in the scientific discourse. This phenomenon is linked to the human need for creating new idols. In their comic book titled The Wicked and the Divine, Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie are going one step further and decide to create a whole new pantheon, designed to fit our century. Creators did not design new gods, they used various pantheons and reincarnated them in new, different bodies. In this article, I will be considering the role of divinity and its place in the modern world. In order to achieve this, I will use comparative analysis between the main series of The Wicked and the Divine and two special one-shots — first set in the twenties of the twentieth century, second in the beginning of the nineteenth century — to highlight the differences in the role of gods and divinity in different period of time. The article will also concentrate on the form of the bodies that the gods gain due to the reincarnation, and the impact of this phenomenon on the place that they take in society.
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The article deals with verbalizers of the phrasal concept REPENTANCE in the system of Christian moral values of the English language culture. In the proposed study, cognitive-matrix analysis was implemented as the main research methodology, the principles of which were developed by Yu. M. Boldyrev. It is based on the concept of matrix (nets) domains, in which the matrix can be illustrated graphically as a grid. It is understood as a simple set of conceptual areas, and the conceptual sphere or domain - as a context for updating the meaning of the word. The domains‟ matrix is identified in intelligence as a value system of Christianity verbalized through the system of biblical phraseology of American and British English. Scientific novelty. The exploration specifies the terminological scope of the term “biblical phraseology / biblical expression”; the essence of the method of cognitive-matrix analysis is shown, too. Conclusions. The analysis is underpinned by phraseographic sources and the conceptual component of the concept REPENTANCE has been characterized. This analysis has revealed the place of this linguistic essential quality in the structure of the integrative concept (matrix) of CHRISTIAN MORAL VALUES and the correlation of the concept of REPENTANCE with the domain of repentance is determined. The selected biblical expressions, verbalizers of this concept, are defined and characterized.
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The following article aims to expound the phenomenon of parodical genre of literary mashups (or novels-as-mashups). This recent pop-cultural trend, initiated by Seth Grahame-Smith and Quirk Classics’ series Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, has witnessed numerous followers and generated a new type of projected reader. This controversial, verging on plagiarism collaborative endeavour pairs contemporary writers and the authors of (mainly Victorian) classics. However, the latter’s participation is of posthumous nature. The following literary and cultural phenomenon has large intermedial potential, since several mashups have recently welcomed film adaptations. The main objective is to discuss the definition and typology of mashups, the origins of this pop-cultural phenomenon, its genological hybridity, commercial success, projected readers’ competences as well as ensuing nostalgic and ironic implications of literary mashups.
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In this article, the author explains the connection between literaturę and economy on a philosophical level, especially in case of logic of exchange and concept of mimesis in novels. Basic tools for his arguments are derived from Georges Bataille’s concept of Accursed Economy (from the essay “The Accursed Share”). The French philosopher argues that in our everyday reality we use logic imposed on us by capitalism, which means that the value of everything is measured by its utility and, at the same time, values of all things can easily be accumulated. Because of that blind belief something important is omitted – surplus, a particle which does not fit into the global system of exchange. In the author’s opinion this phenomenon (and all its consequences) can be used to interpret the novel Bartleby, the Scrivener by Herman Melville, showing the main character’s activities (or their lack) in different contexts. This interpretation also proves the usefulness of applying some tools and terms from the language of economics into literary studies.
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In her Earthsea cycle, Ursula K. Le Guin explores the finer nuances of itinerant heterotopias and the transitions and transformations they enable. Drawing mostly on Michel Foucault’s heterotopia of the boat/ship, but also on Margaret Cohen’s chronotope of the ship, this paper distinguishes between these two variations in Le Guin’s series. The fragile boats in which the young wizard Ged crosses the world of Earthsea and his own tormented mindscapes, in search of the shadow born of his reckless mishandling of magic, is a metaphor for the self, and the voyage is one of self-discovery and of passing from adolescence to maturity. By contrast, the majestic ship in which King Lebannen and his companions sail to parlay with the dragons represents a microcosm of Earthsea’s cultures and a union of previously disparate elements: a coming together which foreshadows the subsequent healing of an ancient rift. Thus, the different uses of the same heterotopic space in the first and last book of the series point to a shift in Le Guin’s focus, from the personal to the political, from magic to secular power, and from knowledge of the self to knowledge of the world.
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The Lockless estate in Ta-Nehisi Coates' fantasy neo-slave narrative The Water Dancer mirrors the United States in terms of their treatment of race. Both Coates's two autobiographical works introduce the concept of family, from his childhood and from his young fatherhood, which highlights the lack of healthy familial relationships in The Water Dancer. The Walkers bastardize fatherhood and brotherhood with the protagonist, Hiram, who constantly vies for their affection despite their unequal relationship. Looking at the novel through a CRT lens allows us to break down this relationship. The Dream of hope, of race relations and treatment getting better in every single way throughout history is often weaponized by the dominant culture in order to force forgiveness, as well as a gruesome idea of family, and drive out the memory of the past.
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This essay explores Joan Neuberger’s book This Thing of Darkness (Cornell University Press, 2019) as a work of cultural history. It praises Neuberger’s use of cultural-historical practices such as the history of mentalités and the study of reception to illuminate Sergei Eisenstein’s artistic process and his subjectivity during the creation of Ivan the Terrible. Neuberger’s work also illuminates the mentalités of the Soviet arts establishment seeking to restrain Eisenstein and keep him in line with Soviet cultural norms. Neuberger convincingly argues that Ivan the Terrible is a subversive critique of Stalin and Stalinism and she demonstrates that Eisenstein was able to assimilate to Soviet society while simultaneously criticizing Soviet power. It remains doubtful, however, whether Soviet audiences understood Eisenstein’s cinematically complex critique. One aspect of the film’s context, however, that might be explored even further is the effect of the cataclysm of the Second World War on the making of Ivan the Terrible. Neuberger addresses Eisenstein’s grief at the loss of friends and the immense difficulties of creating a film after being evacuated, but author wonders whether the intense violence of the film reflects, in some way, Eisenstein’s perceptions of the war. The strength of this book is that it operates on so many different levels of analysis, and while the war is not as fully fleshed out as it might be, this fact does not take away from Neuberger’s mastery of Eisenstein’s milieu.
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The note is about the place of Joan Neuberger’s monograph among books on Eisenstein’s Ivan the Terrible, and, more broadly, among writings on period films, be they by film historians or by historians proper. The book is a triple portrayal — of Eisenstein, his Ivan, and, indirectly, of Stalin, whose favorite pastime was to use historical novels, plays, and films on Russia’s historic tyrants as one might a vanity mirror. The virtue of Neuberger’s approach is that, rather than judge or define, she successfully captures the ambiguity of each of her three protagonists. It is as much an analysis of the movie as an ambivalent mirror as it is of the person that holds it and of the one who expects to see in it a flattering reflection of himself — to no avail. Instead of assuming a bird’s eye point of view on the Soviet film-land, Neuberger nose-dove into it like a kid-loving pelican, picked one film and brought it to us in a big beak of a book. That is not to portray Joan Neuberger as a shape-shifter, a historian-turned-film-scholar. Yes, film scholars do write book-length studies on a single movie while political historians rarely do, but the choice of this specific format does not turn Neuberger into a film scholar. There is a lot of superb film scholarship to be found here, but the stunt that makes Neuberger’s scholarship unique is that, for all its film-scholarship lenses, it remains a historical study par excellence.
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Changes that free indirect speech underwent in English, American, and Russian literature during the 20th century were investigated. Both general and more specific (qualitative and quantitative) trends in the free indirect speech development were discussed. Free indirect speech was considered from a diachronic point of view, i.e., the study aims to identify a correlation between the patterns that could be relevant for literary translation from English into Russian and vice versa. Based on the results of the quantitative and qualitative analysis of free indirect speech contexts, it was demonstrated that free indirect speech has evolved. A notable increase in the degree of textual interference and in the variety of models employed was observed. Interestingly, the frequency of occurrence of free indirect speech structures in literary texts varies from decade to decade. Although there are some common trends in free indirect speech usage following the global tendencies in literature, its evolution depends on particular national literary traditions as well. The data obtained show that the most intense usage of free indirect speech segments is typical for the English literature. From the translation perspective, it is important that the general frequency and functional models of indirect speech usage can slightly differ even in texts of the same period or among the writers.
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The article explores the narrative figure of the female caretaker represented in the novel The English Patient written by Canadian writer Michael Ondaatje, and in the film All About My Mother by Spanish film director Pedro Almodovar. The article attempts to show in which manner the character of the female caretaker influences the entire narrative structure of the novel and film, and how the character is portrayed. The article starts with the introductory theoretical part in which the ethics of care will be further discussed as a field of study vital to the understanding of the concept of the female caretaker. The central part of the article focuses on the analysis of female characters in both of the aforementioned narratives. The goal of the analysis is to show the significance of the female caretaker figure within postmodernist works, where stereotypical and traditionalist depictions usually serve as the opposite of what can be perceived in the selected narratives.
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