Comparative Literature Commons^™

Course Syllabus (Fa18) Coli 110--World Literature I: "Worlds Of Absurdity And Nothingness", Christopher Southward

Comparative Literature Faculty and Student Scholarship

Course Description:

An approach to the question of absurdity through world literature and a few philosophical and critical texts with a view towards possible modes of resolution

Editor's Note, Joseph Drew

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

Policies Through Which Central Eurasian Nations Are Promoting Their Civilizational Experiences: An Exercise In 'Soft Power' And Global Image Making, Alicia Campi

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

48th Annual Iscsc Conference

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

François Guizot, The History Of Civilization In Europe. Liberty Fund Inc., 2013, Mariana Tepfenhart

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

Comparing Post-Expansion Integration Policies Of The Early Roman Republic And The Early Chu State From A Geopolitical Perspective, Pengfei Su

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

Comparative Civilizations Review No. 79 Full Issue, Comparative Civilizations Review

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

Poem As Space For Artistic Contestation: Finding Multiple Voices Of Female Writers Through Artistic Vocabularies, Edil Hassan

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This project is a creative piece that consists of ten poems and a critical analysis of artistic vocabularies utilized by women writers: Aicha Bassry, Furugh Farrukhzad, and Fatima Mernissi. I argue that their speaking together, especially through multiple voices, is a political act that can be privileged above normative discussions of art currently. This comes from the common worlds they build in their poetic and scholarly work, which despite differences in voice and vocabulary, centralize women. I define artistic vocabulary in this project as the transformation that takes place when image is translated into word. I explore this idea of …

Abuse Or Be Abused: Traumatic Memory, Sex Inequality, And Millennium As A Socio-Literary Device, Kate Rose

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

This article applies the research of French psychiatrist Muriel Salmona to literary analysis of Stieg Larsson’s protagonist, Lisbeth Salander, in the Millennium trilogy (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, 2008; The Girl Who Played with Fire, 2009; The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, 2010). It suggests that Larsson’s novels may be useful in raising awareness of childhood sexual abuse, through reading neglected signs linked to the neurology of traumatic memory. In the tradition of Nordic noir novels, hyperboles in Salander’s sensationalized identity serve to magnify and bring to light a misunderstood social problem. The article …

Telling The Story Of A Forgotten Martyr: Step One, Caleb Deppermann, Stephen Bay

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The purpose of the our research was to establish the date of the authorship of the ancient martyrdom Passio Sanctorum Adriani et Nataliae. This text is an early Christian martyrdom account that was widely read in antiquity and in the middle ages. The two martyrs featured in the text, Adrian and Natalie, were canonized in both the Roman Catholic and the Orthodox Christian communities and the text was widely represented in medieval art. Regrettably, however, the text has received almost no scholarly attention in the modern era. This is especially unfortunate because the text is a fascinating literary document in …

Antiochus Iv And The Origin Of Jewish Martyrdom Literature, Allen Kendall, Stephen Bay

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The study of ancient martyrdom literature has typically revolved around early Christian literature. Many scholars view the concept of martyrdom as a Christian construct, which borrowed only minimally from earlier literary traditions.¹This assumption exists largely because Christian writers first used the term “martyr”—originally a Greek legal term referring to a witness in court—to refer to someone who died for their witness of Jesus Christ.²When reading Jewish literature, however, it becomes evident that although no term for martyrdom yet existed, the ideologies of martyrdom were nevertheless prevalent in Jewish thought. The aim of this project was 1) …

A Look At Peruvian Theater: A Translation Of And Reflection On No Hay Isla Feliz, Rachel Draut, Marlene Esplin

Journal of Undergraduate Research

No hay isla feliz (1954) is a significant part of Sebastián Salazar Bondy’s repertoire and a valuable work of Latin American literature that deserves to be known to the English-speaking world. The play’s author was one of most influential Peruvian authors of his time and a North American audience would benefit from getting to know his brilliance. I was instantly intrigued by No hay isla feliz , with a captivating plot full of social commentary about modern Peruvian life and compellingly tragic characters. However, I found that this play had not gotten much attention: it had neither been translated into …

Investigating The Black Hours: Finding Deeper Significance, Caroline Ferrell, Dr. Elliott Wise

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Created around 1470, the Morgan Black Hours (MS M.493) is part of a rare group of manuscripts with black pages, gold lettering, and luminous miniatures painted in blue, green, and pink (see Fig. 1). My initial paper, which led me to this project, examined the way this unique and enigmatic color scheme contributes to the spiritual argument of the prayer book.

Sea Squad, Liam Geary Baulch

The Goose

The Sea Squad is a band of cheerleaders against climate change. Taking action as a team in formation, they gather momentum, inviting all people to cheer with them, mimicking the infinitely expandable nature of the seas' molecular structure. The work was developed and performed as a bilingual project at Est-Nord-Est in Saint-Jean-Port-Joli, Quebec, Canada, and has since been performed and exhibited internationally. The following poems are some of the chants that Sea Squad use to get a crowd cheering together against climate change.

The Herculaneum Papyri: A Paleographic Approach To The Latin Library, Jordan Rawlings, Roger Macfarlane

Journal of Undergraduate Research

In the 1750’s AD, military engineers commissioned by the Bourbon rulers found many black, chalky chunks while excavating an underground Roman villa. Initially these lumps were thought to be coal or other detritus and were thus handled with little care. Later, some workers noticed that these black lumps were manmade and actually preserved traces of writing. Early attempts at deciphering and unrolling these papyri scrolls proved unfruitful and resulted in the destruction of many papyri. Eventually a meticulous approach applied by Antonio Piaggio, an experienced ancient manuscript and document worker, proved successful. Although it preserved the papyri, Piaggio’s method worked …

Maoist Aesthetics In Western Left-Wing Thought, Jun Zeng, Siying Duan

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In their article “Maoist Aesthetics in Western Left-wing Thought,” Jun Zeng and Siying Duan discuss a terrain of knowledge called “Maoist aesthetics,” which is the creative misreading of Mao’s “On Contradiction,” the theory and practice of “Cultural Revolution” and other revolutionary literature and arts of Mao’s time by Western Left intellectuals. Scholars and academic communities inspired by Maoism include Bertolt Brecht, Herbert Marcuse, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Louis Pierre Althusser, the Chinese period of Tel Quel, Fredric Jameson, Arif Dirlik, and Contemporary Radical Left intellectuals such as Alain Badiou and Slavoj Zizek. Comparative study of the mutual influence of …

Mapping Out Chinese Modernity And Alternative Modernity, Song Li

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article, “Mapping Out Chinese Modernity and Alternative Modernity,” Song Li reviews the writings of Kang Liu, particularly his Aesthetics and Marxism. Kang Liu studies the intellectual trajectory of Chinese Marxism from its inception to its post-Mao phases of transformation by comparing it with the cultural and aesthetic thinking of Western Marxism. It provides not only a new perspective for the study of Marxism in general and Chinese Marxism in particular, but also opens up a new space for mapping out Chinese modernity and alternative modernity. Its 2012 Chinese translation makes it more accessible in China, and it will …

Introduction: Rethinking Critical Theory And Maoism, Kang Liu

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article, "Rethinking Critical Theory and Maoism," Kang Liu reviews the existing literature in English on the relationship of Critical Theory and Maoism and discusses the need to explore and reconstruct a genealogy of Critical Theory and Maoism within the global context of political, ideological, and intellectual currents and trends. The special issue will focus on three clusters of issues: first, the western invention of Maoism as a universal theory of revolution; second, the reception of Critical Theory in China and its relationship to Maoism; and third, the relevance of Maoism and Critical Theory today. Liu raises the question …

Maoism In Culture: A “Glocalized” Or “Sinicized” Marxist Literary Theory, Ning Wang

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his essay "Maoism in Culture," Ning Wang discusses the importance to literature and art of Mao's famous "Yan'an Talks" as one of his most representative works. Maoism, or Mao Zedong Thought as is generally called in China, is a "glocalized" or "Sinicized" Marxism initiated and developed by Mao and his comrades in arms and successors in China. Wang argues that although Maoism is not a dogmatically "imported" Marxism from the West, it has indeed grasped some fundamental Marxist principles in combination with the concrete Chinese literary and critical practice. Thus a "glocalized" or "Sinicized" Marxist literary theory has contributed …

Mao's "On Contradiction," Mao-Hegel/Mao-Deleuze, Kenneth Surin

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

Mao Tse-Tung's famous 1937 essay "On Contradiction" is regarded as a significant attempt to redefine and reapply Marx's notion of a "dialectical contradiction" to the Chinese revolutionary conjuncture of Mao's time. I set out the principles outlined in Mao's essay, before arguing that the revolutionary conjuncture of his time no longer exists in the era of globalization and neoliberalism. I conclude that a new conception of "antagonism" is needed, and revise Mao's position with the aid of the philosophy of Deleuze and Guattari.