Comparative Literature Commons^™

Ang Dalumat At Parikala Ng “Liwanag” At “Dilim” Sa Loob At Labas Ng Lente Ng Kamera (The Concepts And Paradoxes Of “Liwanag” And “Dilim” Within And Beyond The Camera Lens), Jay Jomar F. Quintos

Akda: The Asian Journal of Literature, Culture, Performance

Sinisiyasat ng sanaysay na ito ang dalumat at parikala na nakapaloob sa “liwanag” at “dilim” sa imahinasyong pangkultura sa Pilipinas. Sa ganang ito, tinutukoy ko ang iba’t ibang balon ng sanggunian tulad ng epiko, pasyon, materyal na pangrebolusyon, at pelikulang katatakutan upang matunton kung papaano nabago ang kayarian ng mga elemento ng “liwanag” at “dilim.” Susuriin ko ang anim na episodyo mula sa serye ng pelikulang katatakutang Shake, Rattle, and Roll na tahasang naghahayag ng “liwanag” at “dilim” sa paraan nito ng pag-iilaw at pagsasalaysay. Sa ganitong konteksto ng pagsusuri maaaring makita ang mariing artikulasyon at pag-unawa sa kung minsa’y …

Fallen Kingdoms And Ancient Monoliths: The Influence Of Atlantis And Egypt In Tolkien’S Númenor, Charlotte J. Brockway

Journal of Tolkien Research

In light of the recent publication of The Fall of Númenor, my essay aims to focus on Tolkien’s, somewhat underappreciated, influences on Gondor; particularly Ancient Egypt. This essay looks at Plato's Timaeus and Critias, Ignatius Donnelly's theories, and examines the Atlantean and Egyptian motifs in Tolkien’s version of Westernesse, in particular, the remnants of Atlantean civilization survived by Egyptian colonists which mirror the Realms of Exile (Gondor and Arnor).

Fairy Tales In Service Of Political Projects: “Hansel And Gretel” In Changing Political Regimes, Polona Tratnik

Marvels & Tales

The production of fairy tales depends on political interests. The tales’ regimes of production and anticipated reception condition their inscribed ideological inclinations and erasures. I examine how Kinder- und Hausmärchen by the brothers Grimm contributed to nation-building and, focusing on “Hansel and Gretel,” how the changing regimes of production required omissions in the translations of the Grimms’ tales into Slovenian. I argue that the sui generis appropriation of the tale titled “Janko and Metka” by the writer France Bevk helped build a socialist nation. Finally, the article comments on some issues in capitalist regimes of fairy-tale production.

“A Fear Of Anything Large And Alive, And Not Easily Tamed Or Destroyed”: Kaiju In The Lord Of The Rings, Kristine Larsen

Journal of Tolkien Research

The publication of The Lord of the Rings (1954-5) coincided with the start of the so-called kaiju movement in popular culture, featuring giant, sentient, and destructive creatures. Famously originating with Godzilla (1954), kaiju films have persistently cornered a portion of the popular culture market over the past 70 years; therefore, the genre would be presumed to play a role in audience expectations for the depictions of such creatures in the Jackson adaptations of the novels. In light of the June 2024 limited run of remastered versions of Jackson’s LOTR film trilogy, I analyze four of his interpretations of …

Table Of Contents

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

Editor's Note, Joseph Drew Editor-In-Chief

Comparative Civilizations Review

Although the International Society for the Comparative Study of Civilizations was formally launched in 1961 via a scholarly conference convened in Salzburg, Austria, which brought together many of the world’s leading experts on the subject under the sponsorship of the Austrian government and UNESCO, regular annual meetings for those interested in comparative civilizations have been held subsequently by the society variously in North America, South America, Asia or Europe almost every year since that time.

Former Iscsc President Wayne Bledsoe: An Appreciation, Michael Palencia-Roth

Comparative Civilizations Review

About three weeks before Wayne Bledsoe died on the 2nd of June 2024, at 83, my wife Elaine and I commented to each other that we simply had to get in touch with him and Deb again, for too much time had passed since we had seen each other. We did not know that he was ill, and so the news of his death surprised and distressed us.

Cognosis And The Evolution Of Civilization, Ken Baskin

Comparative Civilizations Review

From the time when the complex states such as Egypt or Sumer emerged roughly 5,000 years ago, the civilizations they represent have generally become more populous, more socially varied, wealthier, and more technologically advanced. As a result, the innovations they produced would begin to change the conditions in which they existed, and their cultures have had to evolve to adapt to this ongoing change. For instance, the cultures of Bronze Age Egypt and the Iron Age Han Dynasty had to be quite different, even though both were agricultural societies. And, of course, the Electronic Age cultures of the United States …

Is Donald Trump A Modern-Day Catiline?, Jamie González-Ocaña

Comparative Civilizations Review

Could the story of a failed Roman politician who organized a plot to seize the Roman republic in 63 BCE be a metaphor for Donald Trump’s political persona — his initial presidential run against the establishment, his rhetorical effort to overthrow the status quo and the natural order of things in national politics, the love affair Trump has always had with the struggling working-class voters (with the “forgotten” Americans), his constant testing the Constitutional limits of our republican system of government? Could both figures be symptoms of times when a republic is in crisis and reminders of the perils that …

Niccolò Longobardo And The Early Modern Encounter Of Europe With China, Yu Liu

Comparative Civilizations Review

Writing in 1962 about the founding fathers of the early modern Jesuit China mission, Jesuit historian George H. Dunne famously called them the generation of giants “who, breaking with the dominant spirit of their times and recalling a distant past, restored the concept of cultural adaptation to a central position in the world mission of Christianity.”

Seventeen Crises In Western Civilization That Have Arisen Since The Dark Ages: A Cognition Science-Oriented Approach, Andrew Targowski

Comparative Civilizations Review

The purpose of this article is to synthesize those crises in the unfolding of Western civilization that are controlled by human knowledge and wisdom. The methodology is transdisciplinary, utilizing a cognitive science-oriented, big-picture view of civilization and main conflicts. The crises are investigated across three time periods; the Dark Ages (from the fifth to the fourteenth century), Modern Times (from the fifteenth to the twentieth century), and the present century. The findings reveal that today Western civilization faces seventeen significant crises. Knowledge is not sufficient to solve these crises; we need to employ knowledge-based wisdom. This approach presents a new …

What Lessons Can Be Learned From The United Nations Preventive Deployment Mission In North Macedonia, On The Border Of Two Civilizations: Nothing Fails Like Success?, Mary Frances Lebamoff

Comparative Civilizations Review

Preventive deployment as a conflict prevention tool has not recurred in the past several decades, despite the broadly acclaimed success of the United Nations Preventive Deployment in Macedonia, UNPREDEP 1995-1999, and of its predecessor missions, UNPROFOR/Macedonia, and UNPROFOR/M 1992-1995.

The United Nations in particular has continued with mainly first- and second-generation peacekeeping, peacemaking and peacebuilding actions even on civilizational borders. What may best explain why there has been no other engagement in preventive deployment missions? There has been much emphasis placed formally and informally on early warning, detection, mitigation, and prevention of conflict. There have also been increasing numbers of …

Book Review: Liberalism, Realism, Or … Integralism? Perusing John J. Mearsheimer’S Book The Great Delusion, Vlad Alalykin-Izvekov

Comparative Civilizations Review

The paper presents an analysis of the scholarly views of prominent American political scholar John J. Mearsheimer as set forth in his book The Great Delusion (Yale University Press, 2019). It also offers analysis of other existing approaches, as well as elaborates on a new Integralistic Paradigm which has a potential to integrate the field of International Relations (IR) Theory.

End Matter

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

Books Of Interest, Stephen T. Satkiewicz

Comparative Civilizations Review

The journal is adding this section since there are books that may be of interest to scholars of the comparative study of civilizations and that may add significantly to the body of scholarship in the civilizational field. The books listed below are also available to be reviewed in the Book Review section of future editions of Comparative Civilizations Review.

Book Review: The Americans: The Democratic Experience And The Creators, Robert Bedeski

Comparative Civilizations Review

Two classics by American historian Daniel Boorstin should be central in the analysis of civilization.

Civilizations From Toynbee To Coker: The Quest Of Christopher Coker (1953 – 2023) To Reinstate Comparative Civilizational Thinking In Western Scholarship, Greg Lewicki Vice President

Comparative Civilizations Review

In the gentlemen’s heaven, Christopher Coker must surely have his separate suite, one with golden busts of travelers, old-fashioned English furniture, and cold-toned walls resembling those of Athenaeum, a Pall Mall club in London, one of a few clubs where he liked to dine.

The Sociology Of Crisis: Pitirim Sorokin’S Scholarly Legacy And Current Problems, Resilience, And Community, Emiliana Mangone

Comparative Civilizations Review

In his writings on crises, Sorokin highlighted their complexity and their multiple consequences on a personal, cultural, and social level. In this paper, crises in the 21st century are analyzed from Sorokin’s incisive perspective. The significant points include:

1. the study of crises cannot be enclosed within the confines of individual disciplines but rather must incorporate interdisciplinary approaches.
2. the category “crisis” does not encompass only those conditions that are the consequences of specific disastrous events such as natural disasters, wars, and terrorism but also all those phenomena that produce the conjunction of harm to human beings and social disturbances.
3. successive crises …

Front Matter

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

Divergence Between The Teachings And Practice Of Islam: A Civilizational Analysis Of Muslims In Indonesia, Hisanori Kato

Comparative Civilizations Review

Indonesia is a country of cultural as well as religious diversity. Even before the advent of Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism were widespread in the region. Some think that Islam in Indonesia spread to the archipelago through interaction with local civilizations. Although Islam has become a majority religion in Indonesia today, long-standing local cultural traditions, ones that have existed throughout its recorded history, are often still maintained and practiced widely in Indonesia. These pre-Islamic traditions have a profound association with nature, and the people tend to appreciate animistic entities.