Comparative Literature Commons^™

Humor As A Defense Mechanism In 19th-Century Women's Writing, Hannah Mae Shelby

Student Theses and Dissertations

Women in Western societies have been repeatedly placed into inferior, gendered roles by their patriarchal societies, which often left them with little hope of autonomy apart from a male companionship. Women writers during the nineteenth century, especially, were chastised for daring to write beyond the sentimental because many male critics and writers believed that women were not capable of complex writing. The women featured in this thesis weaponized humor—such as irony, sarcasm, and narrative quips—to create intriguing narratives while also commenting on gendered oppression. Works by women from the British Regency era to the American fin-de-siècle center on female characters …

Crossings Of Heritage, Memory And Archives: A History Of Moroccan Cinema In The Bouanani Archives, Sarah Dornhof

Regards

This article interrogates archival forms and practices in relation to remembering the “lost archives” of Moroccan cinematographic history.
It presents the Bouanani Archives — a private, fragmented, and still largely uncatalogued collection located in the Bouanani family apartment in Rabat, comprising a variety of texts, visuals, and objects connected to Morocco’s cinematographic and cultural memory.
The archive is the personal legacy of filmmaker, writer, and artist Ahmed Bouanani (1938–2011), his wife Naïma Saoudi (1947–2012), and their daughter Batoul Bouanani (1969-2003), all of whom worked for Moroccan cinema.
Today, it is preserved and cared for by his daughter Touda Bouanani and …

Towards A Decentered History Of Palestinian Revolutionary Cinema? Case Study Of The Film “Tall El Zaatar” In The Audiovisual Archives Of The Italian Communist Party, Hugo Darroman

Regards

The film Tall El Zaatar (1977, Abu Ali, Pino, Chamoun, Palestine/Italy), a co-production between the Palestinian Cinema Institute and the Italian Communist Party’s (PCI) audiovisual company, was considered lost for three decades and finally rediscovered in 2011.
Beyond the dramatic stories surrounding this film, Tall El Zaatar reveals the importance of considering the transnational dimension of Palestinian militant cinema.
In this article about Tall El Zaatar, I approach the history of Palestinian revolutionary cinema through the traces left within the archives of an institution with which the Palestinian filmmakers collaborated.
On the basis of a set of interviews and …

Ciné-Archivistes And The Metaleptic Archive Of Lebanese Cinema, Claire Launchbury, Marilyn Matar, Max Silverman

Regards

The article considers three Lebanese films – Il était une fois, Beyrouth (1995) by Jocelyne Saab, the short Le Liban à travers le cinéma (2003) and the documentary Cinéma de guerre au Liban (2003), both by Hady Zaccak – to explore the archival impulse in their composition.
We suggest that this impulse takes two major forms: the use of a montage of sequences from Lebanese films, or films about Lebanon, and crossovers between narrative thresholds and between fact and fiction.
We draw on Gérard Genette’s version of metalepsis to analyze the nature of these crossovers, and on the notion of …

Le Cinéma Maghrébin Entre Traçabilité Coloniale Et Déterminations Nationales, Malika Gueddim

Regards

This article focuses on the beginnings of cinema in the Maghreb countries (Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia), which suffered the same process of enculturation in favor of the culture of the French occupier.
From the end of the Second World War, the colonial authorities understood the importance of cinema, through fiction or newsreels, and the urgency of creating cinematographic centers: in Morocco in 1944, and in Tunisia in 1946.
Algeria, considered a French department rather than a protectorate, was provided with a cinematographic service by the Algerian governorate in 1947.
Then comes the period of independence, in which directors from these …

Iraqi Cinema Beyond The Screen And The Archives Of Leisure, Pelle Valentin Olsen

Regards

The emergence of new forms of leisure in Iraqi urban landscapes, such as cinemas, nightclubs, and theaters, unleashed debates about the dangers and potentials of leisure.
The result of this process is a vast, albeit scattered, archive of texts that deal with practices and institutions of leisure.
The archive of leisure, as it pertains to cinema, can be located across a variety of texts including memoirs, short stories, student essays, police records, official discourse, medical texts, and works by Iraqi historians.
Given the limited access to Iraqi film and cinema archives, the archive of leisure can offer an important addendum …

سيميولوجيا جمالية الفضاء في فيلم: "السنونو لا يموت في القدس" لرضا الباهي, Abdel Salam Shaaban

Regards

In this study, we aim to conduct a perceptual experiment and a semiological reading of the aesthetics of space in the film El Sounounou La Yamoutou Fil Kods by Tunisian director Ridha Behi.
This film, produced in 1994, came as a response to the accusation that Tunisian cinema ignored the Palestinian cause. It also combines three genres of cinematic practice: fiction, documentary, and political.
The film tells the story of the search for a mother who has been lost since 1948. A daily newspaper publishes a recent photo of this mother. The director takes her story as a starting point …

“Ore-Ganisms”: The Myth And Meaning Of ‘Living Rock’ In Middle-Earth, Kristine Larsen

Journal of Tolkien Research

This paper, presented at the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association National Conference, New Orleans, LA, April 3, 2015, surveys Tolkien's use of the term "living rock" and related language in both a literal and metaphorical sense. Topics discussed include the origins of the trolls, dwarves, orcs, and ents.

Smaug’S Hoard, Durin’S Bane, And Agricola’S De Re Metallica: Cautionary Tales Against Mining In Tolkien’S Legendarium And The Classical Tradition, Kristine Larsen

Journal of Tolkien Research

This conference talk discussed depictions of mining in Tolkien's legendarium, drawing comparisons to Agricola’s De Re Metallica.

Who Maketh Morwinyon, And Menelmacar, And Remmirath, And The Inner Parts Of The South (Where The Stars Are Strange): Tolkien’S Astronomical Choices And The Books Of Job And Amos, Kristine Larsen

Journal of Tolkien Research

Tolkien’s use of specific stars and constellations within the legendarium has been well-studied. There remain two related questions to be tackled: firstly, why did Tolkien use these specific real-world stars and constellations, and what was behind the seemingly sudden expansion of the celestial population in the legendarium in 1951? Given his well-demonstrated interest in and knowledge of astronomy, Biblical passages that describe the heavens may have piqued his interest and may have influenced his choices of astronomical references in creating Middle-earth. Popularized works published during Tolkien’s youth on the astronomy of the Old Testament may have also played a role …

Gabi Martínez, El Último Cronista De Marruecos Del Último Milenio, Mohamed Abrighach

Dirassat

Gabi Martinez the Last Moroccan Chronicler of the Last Millennium

In this article we attempt to analyze the representation by Gabi Martinez of Morocco and all that is Moroccan. His vision stands in midway thorough textual researches of typical stories to tell an exotism which exalts the sensuality which the country evolves in people. In both cases, the indifference of the author towards the culture, the history and the reality of Morocco remains considerable.

Le Relativisme Culturel Dans La Littérature Féminine Contemporaine: Mernissi, Djebar, Et Carter, Touria Nakkouch

Dirassat

Culture Relativism in Contemporary Feminine Literature: Mernissi, Djebar, and Carter

One of the literary phenomena which keenly attract the attention of researchers drawing on contemporary feminine literature is the very articulate return on the part of the woman writer to the origins of her culture. This return is addressed in particular to the fundamental components of a culture namely art, history, religion, and myth. Just to name some examples, one finds in the Maghreb feminine literature of the quotations of Koranic verses or passages of the Hadith as in Fatima Mernissi; adaptations of writings on art, theology or history as …

La Portée Sapientielle De La Maxime Chez Paul Valéry, Ou La Résurgence Des Modèles Moraux, Rachida Bouznakari

Dirassat

The firmness of maxim in Paul Valéry

Or the resurgence of moral models

This article is a thematic analysis of some maxims from the first volumes of the "Cahiers", where Paul Valéry engages in a real activity of moralist. His maxims enumerate the commonplace characteristics: life, happiness, morality, vices and virtues, love, death, individuality and humanity in general.

Quelques Réflexions Sur Le Périple D'Hannon, Mohamed Mustapha Boudribila

Dirassat

Some Thoughts on Hannon's Journey

Hannon's periple is considered, by some authors, as the birth certificate of the written history of the Marne. This observation is due to the almost total lack of written documents on the ancient Marne. Indeed, apart from the Libyan or Amazigh inscriptions and some indirect indications scattered throughout the ancient Greco-Latin and Egyptian works, we do not find any written documents on the ancient Marne. It is therefore very important to be interested in the document of Hannon's periple. However, this document raised and continues to raise several questions and interpretations that we will try …

Representation Of Terror And Terrorism In Two Arab Films: Paradise Now (2005) By Hany Abu-Assad And Horses Of God (2012) By Nabil Ayouch, Mustapha Hamil

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

Middle Eastern violence and terrorism are not novel subjects in world cinema, especially American cinema. The Arab or Muslim other in these films is always presented as someone who epitomises a culture of violence, directed mostly against innocent civilians. Against the backdrop of Hollywood’s stereotypical representation of Middle-Easterners as advocate of indiscriminate terror and terrorism, Arab filmmakers have turned in recent years to the representation of terror and religious extremism. Paradise Now (Abu Assad 2005) and Horses of God (Ayouch 2012) address the controversial issue of suicide bombing with the same motivation: to examine the choice of suicide bombing within …

Looking Back, Or Re-Visioning: Contemporary American Jewish Poets On “Lot’S Wife”, Anat Koplowitz-Breier

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

Although mentioned only twice in Genesis (19:17, 26), Lot’s wife has been a topic of much discussion amongst both traditional and modern commentators and exegetes. The traditional midrashim seek to explain why she chose to disregard the instructions she was given and the nature of her punishment. In doing so, they follow two principal directions, representing her a) negatively as a wicked sinner, a Sodomite who acted as such even before disobeying the divine decree not to look backwards—thus linking her disobedience with her intrinsic character (e.g., curious, greedy, inhospitable, faithless); or b) positively as a loving mother and daughter. …

Resisting Pacification: Locating Tension In G'Ebinyo Ogbowei's Poetry, Niyi Akingbe, Paul Ayodele Onanuga

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

No abstract provided.

Where Are The Women?: An Ecofeminist Reading Of William Golding’S Lord Of The Flies, Hawk Chang

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

The absence of female characters and their voices in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies (1954) has been previously examined. On the surface, this fiction focuses on the struggle and survival of a group of boys who are left alone on a Pacific island against the background of nuclear warfare. The only presence of women in the story seems to be the aunt via a boy’s narration. However, when approaching the fiction through the lens of ecofeminism, we can find a range of feminized entities which are metaphorically embodied in the natural surroundings of the secluded island. The boys’ interactions …

Vulgarity As Springboard For High Art—A Comparative Study Of Vladimir Nabokov And Qian Zhongshu’S Notions Of Vulgarity, Derong Cao

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

The discussion of vulgarity features prominently in both Nabokov and Qian’s creative writing. In this essay, their notions of vulgarity will be compared and contrasted. Nabokov and Qian have surprisingly similar understandings of vulgarity. To be more specific, both identify pretense/ affectation and triteness/ mediocrity as its fundamental characteristics. Moreover, both authors believe that the quintessential feature of vulgarity lies in its downplay of individual consciousness. The two authors’ understandings of vulgarity also differ in major ways. Qian’s Fortress Besieged, though showing deep social and moral concerns, did not seem to suspect a direct causal link between vulgarity and …

Strange Genre-Related Loops In A Novel-Short Story: The Tension Between The Genres And Their Cultural Context, Orna Levin

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

The goal of the current study was to examine the strange genre-related loops in the novel The Short Story Master, by Maya Arad (2009), through the tension between the two genres represented in the text and their cultural contexts. The plot of the novel tells of the professional and personal crisis of the master of the short story, who failed in his mission to write a novel. The text hints to the reader that the central conflict that moves the plot along is neither romantic nor existential, but rather genre-related, and thus the entire work is a manifestation of …