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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities

The Theoretical Basis And Framework Of Variation Theory, Shunqing Cao, Zhoukun Han Dec 2017

The Theoretical Basis And Framework Of Variation Theory, Shunqing Cao, Zhoukun Han

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In their article "The Theoretical Basis and Framework of Variation Theory" Shunqing Cao and Zhoukun Han re-examine the conclusions on variation theory drawn from Cao's The Variation Theory of Comparative Literature. Drawing on the past three decades of Chinese comparatist practice, the proposal of variation theory in that book is a scientific endeavor from China. China's comparative literature has sustained a focus on comparison of literatures Eastern and Western. And Chinese scholars have long been aware of the heterogeneity of civilizations and the variability in literature exchanges. By demonstrating uses and potentials of variation theory, this thesis attempts to …


Reconsiderations On The Crises Of Comparative Literature Study, Jie Lu Dec 2017

Reconsiderations On The Crises Of Comparative Literature Study, Jie Lu

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Reconsiderations on the Crises of Comparative Literature Study" Jie Lu discusses the three crises in comparative literature and reaches the conclusion that the discipline's significant changes are due primarily to the three misunderstandings of "comparative literature," that are "narrowing," "overgeneralization," and "trivialization." Narrowing is the over-regulation of study object and horizon, and a narrow understanding of comparability. Overgeneralization exists in cultural studies' aggression to comparative literature and a compromising abandonment of comparative methodology. Finally, trivialization exists in shallow comparison between X and Y, monologue-like discourse researches, and a lack of dual awareness of "world literature" as both …


Khaled Hosseini’S A Thousand Splendid Suns As A Child-Rescue And Neo-Orientalist Narrative, Abdullah M. Al-Dagamseh, Olga Golubeva Dec 2017

Khaled Hosseini’S A Thousand Splendid Suns As A Child-Rescue And Neo-Orientalist Narrative, Abdullah M. Al-Dagamseh, Olga Golubeva

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In their article "Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns as a Child-Rescue and Neo-Orientalist Narrative" Abdullah Mohammad Dagamseh and Olga Golubeva argue that the novel contrib­utes to hegemonic Eurocentric discourse by showing the superiority and benevolence of the West. In contrast to existing scholarly focus on Hosseini's portrayal of female characters, this article highlights how children of both sexes are represented. The authors' aim is to show how Hosseini's picture of children affected by war contributes to the neo-Orientalist and child-rescue discourses, jus­tifying the foreign involvement in Afghanistan's internal affairs. Moreover, Dagamseh and Golubeva argue that the use of universal …


The Suppression Of Satirizing Belgian Community Difficulties In Flemish Cinema And The Film Adaptation Of Will-O'-The Wisp, Gertjan Willems Dec 2017

The Suppression Of Satirizing Belgian Community Difficulties In Flemish Cinema And The Film Adaptation Of Will-O'-The Wisp, Gertjan Willems

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "The Suppression of Satirizing Belgian Community Difficulties in Flemish Cinema and the Film Adaptation of Will-O'-the Wisp" Gertjan Willems analyzes two film projects of Frans Buyens. In 1970, Buyens received a positive funding recommendation for Top-Hit Girl, a satire about community difficulties in Belgium. However, Minister of Culture Frans van Mechelen refused to support the project because it conflicted with his pro-Flemish views. The minister successfully swept this controversial decision under the rug by offering Buyens the option to trade his socially critical project for a film adaptation of Willem Elsschot's novel Will-O'-the Wisp. …


China And The Politics Of Cross–Cultural Representation In Interwar European Fiction, Carles Prado-Fonts Sep 2017

China And The Politics Of Cross–Cultural Representation In Interwar European Fiction, Carles Prado-Fonts

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "China and the Politics of Cross–Cultural Representation in Interwar European Fiction" Carles Prado-Fonts analyzes Joan Crespi's La ciutat de la por (The City of Fear, 1930) to illustrate the varied representations of China in interwar Europe. In the 1920s and 1930s, a plurality of views on China and the Chinese people became widespread across different parts of Europe, mainly shaped by English, French, and German representations. Contradictory images of China coexisted in literature, thought, and popular culture. Crespi's work exemplifies these contradictions: China appears as both an attainable reality and an unreachable fantasy, two tropes that prevailed …


Adoption, Cynical Detachment, And New Age Beliefs In Juno And Kung Fu Panda, Fu-Jen Chen Jun 2017

Adoption, Cynical Detachment, And New Age Beliefs In Juno And Kung Fu Panda, Fu-Jen Chen

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "Adoption, Cynical Detachment, and New Age Beliefs in Juno and Kung Fu Panda" Fu-Jen Chen situates his study within today's prevailing climate of global consumption to argue that the 2007 film Juno—featuring an unconventional portrayal of the adoption triad and a cynical detachment from public values—not only trivializes and depoliticizes the practice of adoption but also serves as an ideological supplement to today's global capitalism. Furthermore, Kung Fu Panda 1 & 2 (2008; 2011) provide two ideological messages of contemporary New Age spirituality—"the belief in nothing" in part I, and "the attitude of inner peace" …


A Comparative History Of Resurrection Plants, John Charles Ryan Jun 2017

A Comparative History Of Resurrection Plants, John Charles Ryan

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "A Comparative Literary History of Resurrection Plants" John Charles Ryan assembles a comparative history of resurrection plants through textual analysis of early botanical commentaries, herbal references, prose, poetry, and other sources. Resurrection plants include a diverse range of botanical species, typically of arid regions, that appear to come back to life after complete desiccation. Historical and contemporary observers—from sixteenth-century herbalist John Gerard to contemporary Australian poet John Kinsella—have expressed an abiding fascination for resurrection plants' capacity to survive harsh environmental conditions. The plants court their own deaths by paring down—then restoring—physiological processes in relation to shifting ecological …


The Indian Empire And Its Colonial Practices In South Asia, Yubraj Aryal Jun 2017

The Indian Empire And Its Colonial Practices In South Asia, Yubraj Aryal

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "The India, Empire and its Colonial Practices in South Asia" Yubraj Aryal claims that Bharatiya discourse supports colonization in South Asia. This discourse justifies oppression of institutions, practices, of the non-Bharatiya colonized. The article examines Indian Empire's colonialism toward the weaker, smaller nations along its border and the Bharatiya ideology at the heart of the repressive empire, which is taken to represent the South Asian subcontinent. The article looks at the way in which Bharatiya is perhaps a more oppressive ideology than Orientalism and gives a glimpse into how society, culture, history, and textuality work around power …