Digital Commons Network^™

Memory And The Quest For Family History In One Hundred Years Of Solitude And Song Of Solomon, Susana Vega-González

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article, "Memory and the Quest for Family History in One Hundred Years of Solitude and Song of Solomon," Susana Vega-González explores similarities between the novels of García Márquez and Morrison with a special focus on the use of memory and imagination. Based on theoretical models, Vega-Gonzálezas proposes that fictional representations are a means of rewriting history, a particular aspect of literay discourse. The texts under scrutiny constitute true quest stories of characters who search for their family history along their own identity amidst the dangers of capitalism and its excessive desire for progress and class ascendance. The break …

Testimonial Poetry In East European Post-Totalitarian Literature, Albena Lutzkanova-Vassileva

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article, "Testimonial Poetry in East European Post-Totalitarian Literature," Albena Lutzkanova-Vassileva reexamines the belief that postmodern literature and deconstructive writing have parted literary and theoretical discourse from reality, thereby obstructing and annihilating our access to history. Lutzkanova-Vassileva exemplifies her prognosis in an inquiry into post-totalitarian and postmodern Bulgarian literature and its texts of poetry. Born in the turmoil of communism's debacle, the analysis is an attempt to illustrate that, contrary to denying reference, postmodernism solely rejects the reduction of reference to a world that is perceptible and cognitively masterable. Rethinking what many have seen as a self-referential literature, with …

Gender, Literature, And Film In Contemporary East Central European Culture, Anikó Imre

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article, "Gender, Literature, and Film in Contemporary East Central European Culture," Anikó Imre discusses gender, literature, and film in Hungary in the context of East Central European national cultures of the 1980s and 1990s. Anikó Imre analyzes the analogous gender structures that underlie both nation and literature in these transitional cultures. She challenges both social science studies of post-communist transitions and studies of East Central European literatures and cultures for their traditional neglect of gendered desire as a political factor. Thereby, Imre adopts a deconstructionist, feminist, and post-colonial approach to Hungarian "postmodernist" literature and film, which, similar to …

Globalization And Conferencing Comparative Literature In Egypt And Slovenia, Babis Dermitzakis

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article, "Globalization and Conferencing Comparative Literature in Egypt and Slovenia," Babis Dermitzakis discusses two recent conferences in the discipline of comparative literature. The former conference was held on the topic of literary criticism in Cairo and the latter on the genre of the romantic epic poem in Ljubljana. The implicit and explicit objective of both conferences was to discuss as well as to demonstrate a stand against globalization with specific reference to culture and literature. The conference participants as much as the organizers intended to show that cultures and countries peripheral to economic, political, and cultural centres -- …

The New Knowledge Management And Online Research And Publishing In The Humanities, Steven Tötösy De Zepetnek

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article, "The New Knowledge Management and Online Research and Publishing in the Humanities," Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek discusses the problematics of new media scholarship and technology and online publishing in the humanities today. He argues that while there are legitimate questions about scholarly material in the humanities online, the reality is that most undergraduate as well as graduate students today use the web for at least the initial stages of their research. In order to increase the quality of content of scholarship on the world wide web, scholars in the humanities ought to get involved with new media …

The Systemic Approach, Postcolonial Studies, And Translation Studies: A Review Article Of New Work By Hermans And Tymoczko, Louise Von Flotow

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

No abstract provided.

Examples Of The Motif Of The Shrew In European Literature And Film, Louise O. Vasvári

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Examples of the Motif of the Shrew in European Literature and Film" Louise O. Vasvári presents the shrew-taming story as a masterplot of both Eastern and Western folklore and literature concerned with establishing the appropriate power dynamic between a married couple. Vasvári firts reviews the comparative groundwork of the story she has documented in her earlier studies of the topic. In addition to tracing the bundle of motifs that make up the shrew story from medieval Arabic and European versions to the present, she then devotes attention to Hungarian folklore traditions. In the second part of the …

The Effects Of American Influence On British Culture, Gloria Jean Neely

Theses Digitization Project

This study notes similarities and differences between the United States (U.S.) and the United Kingdom (U.K.). Study findings suggest that while at first glance the United Kingdom and the United States may seem similar in many ways, the differences between these countries are great, making each one unique.

Harold Innis And 'The Bias Of Communication', Edward Comor

FIMS Publications

Fifty years after his death, Harold Innis remains one of the most widely cited but least understood of communication theorists. This is particularly true in relation to his concept of ‘bias’. This paper reconstructs this concept and places it in the context of Innis’ uniquely non-Marxist dialectical materialist methodology. In so doing, the author emphasizes ongoing debates concerning Innis’ work and demonstrates its utility in relation to contemporary analyses of the Internet and related developments.

Pelanggaran Etika Kewartawanan Di Malaysia 1994 : Kajian Kes Di Liputan Kepimpinan Gapena Dan Politik Abdul Rahim Thamby Chik, Che Yazid Che Seman

Student Works (2000-2009)

This study is referred to the Utusan Malaysia (UM) to observe whether or not the newspaper contribute to the violations of the ethics of journalism. Therefore, this study has selected two cases which considered most relevant for analysis; Study of the case of coverage of the leadership the Federation of National Writers Associations (Gabungan Persatuan Penulis National (GAPENA) an the politics of Abdul Rahim Thamby Chik (ARTC) who was accused of having secret affair with an under aged girls. ln both cases, the study applied social science discipline which focus more to historical and communication approach, how UM play their …

From Johnson To Nixon: Narrative Shifts In Gay Male Pornography, Jeremiah Smith

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

In Culture Clash: The Making of Gay Sensibility, Michael Bronski argues that dramatic differences occurred in gay male pornographic magazines around the 1969 Stonewall Riots in New York City. With a sample of gay male print pornography my partner and I have collected, ranging from 1966 to 1970, this article will explore the differences proposed by Bronski and ultimately prove their truth. On the surface, it does appear that the magazines prior to 1969 attempt to masquerade their gay prurience while the artifacts published after 1969 had shed the shame and secrecy of the closet rejoiced in …

Culture And Communication: A Study Focused On Chinese Characteristics, Jui Ching Tsai

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

.

Monday Morning And The Millennium : Cultural Studies, Scepticism And The Concept Of Power, Mark Gibson

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The thesis examines the use or the concept of power in cultural studies, offering a revisionist perspective on the history or this use. The dominant approach to questions or power in the field, it is argued, is a 'rationalist' one: the various phenomena comprehended under the concept are conceived ultimately as instances or the one phenomenon. This approach implies that positions in relation to power share a common referent allowing them to be assessed according to general criteria of 'correctness' or theoretical adequacy. It also allows developments in debates around power to be represented in terms or a narrative or …

Comparative Literature As Textual Anthropology, Antony Tatlow

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article, "Comparative Literature as Textual Anthropology," Antony Tatlow proposes textual anthropology as a critic's approach in the comparative study of literature. If anthropology is "behavioural hermeneutics" (Clifford Geertz) with the implication of self-reflexivity, the anthropologist will be disposed to fashion in the object of attention what is neglected and that can therefore be described as the unconscious of his/her own culture. In an application of his framework, Tatlow relates totemic and utopian thought through the use of animal signs. In his article, Tatlow shows how cultural demands both fashion the ethnographer-critic and select the perspectives he/she must transcend. …

Comparative Literature In India, Amiya Dev

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article, "Comparative Literature in India," Amiya Dev bases his discussion on the fact that India has many languages and literatures thus representing an a priori situation and conditions of diversity. He therefore argues that to speak of an Indian literature in the singular is problematic. Nonetheless, Dev also observes that to speak of Indian literature in the plural is equally problematic. Such a characterization, he urges, either overlooks or obscures manifest interrelations and affinities. His article compares the unity and the diversity thesis, and identifies the relationship between Indian commonality and differences as the prime site of comparative …

The Goethean Concept Of World Literature And Comparative Literature, Hendrik Birus

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article, "The Goethean Concept of World Literature and Comparative Literature," Hendrik Birus presents a new reading and understanding of Goethe's famous dictum: "National literature does not mean much at present, it is time for the era of world literature and everybody must endeavour to accelerate this epoch" (Eckermann 198, 31 January 1827). According to Birus, this dictum is not to be taken at face value today and argues that Goethe's concept of world literature ought to be understood in the sense that today it is not the replacement of national literatures by world literature we encounter; rather, it …

Comparative Literature And The Culture Of The Context, Jan Walsh Hokenson

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Comparative Literature and the Culture of the Context," Jan Walsh Hokenson poses a series of interrogatives around the question of what, as comparatists, we have learned about "literature in the context of the culture it represents" (Mario J. Valdés). She argues that in theoretical terms, culture has become the new vessel for the old wine of sources and influences, and that global intercultural contexts will change the analytical categories for comparatists in the coming millennium. In Hokenson's opinion, if comparative literature is to survive it must regain the panoptic view, and if it is to thrive as …

Theory, Period Styles, And Comparative Literature As Discipline, Slobodan Sucur

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article, "Theory, Period Styles, and Comparative Literature as Discipline," Slobodan Sucur attempts to answer the following question: Can a rapprochement be brought about between various, often antagonistic, literary-theoretical views and the concept of comparative literature itself, which requires accord, consensus, agreement, etc., for it to function as a concrete body and discipline? Sucur attempts dealing with this question in three parts of the paper: First, he establishes a relationship/link between the theoretical discord of today (humanism, formalism, deconstruction, etc.) and the high theorizing which began during the Jena-Berlin phase of Romanticism (Shelling, Hegel, F. Schlegel, etc.); secondly, he …

Comparative Literature And The Ideology Of Metaphor, East And West, Karl S.Y. Kao

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article, "Comparative Literature and the Ideology of Metaphor, East and West," Karl S.Y. Kao offers a comparative reading of the ideological function of metaphor within Eastern and Western thinking. Nietzsche is recognized as the earliest serious challenger to the concepts of meaning and truth within the West, whilst Derrida and de Man are discussed with respect to their conception that figurality is inherent within -- and integral to -- Western philosophical and literary discourse. Parallel to this conception of conceptuality is the Eastern view of language and literature. Kao notes that the Western opposition between logic and rhetoric …

Comparative Literature And Cultural Identity, Jola Skulj

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article, "Comparative Literature and Cultural Identity," Jola Skulj proposes a framework inspired by Mikhail Bakhtin's work. Skulj argues that the validity of cultural identity cannot be an equivalent to the measure of originality of an inherent national subjectivity in it. Such an idea of identity concept, quite acceptable in the nineteenth century, is insufficient to the views in literary studies today. From the standpoint of comparative literature, cultural identity exists only through its own deconstruction and permanent multiplication of several cultural relations. The identity principle of individual cultures is in fact established through the principle of otherness or …

Interliterariness As A Concept In Comparative Literature, Marián Gálik

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article, "Interliterariness as a Concept in Comparative Literature," Marián Gálik observes that the concept of interliterariness has a relative short history and limited application owing to geo-political reasons. He traces the history of the concept and cites instances of its use within the Central European scholarship of comparative literature. Dionýz Durišin is identified as the most prominent exponent of the concept and Gálik then locates the question of interliterariness within the context of its potential applications. The concept of interliterariness is defended as both a guiding and unifying principle in so far as it is irreducible, relative, and …

Concepts Of World Literature, Comparative Literature, And A Proposal, Marián Gálik

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article, "Concepts of World Literature, Comparative Literature, and a Proposal," Marián Gálik surveys the concept of world literature as it occurs within comparative literature based on Goethe's Weltliteratur. Given its recurrent yet problematic occurrence, he proposes a way in which comparatists can acknowledge and address the problems of the concept of a world literature. The concept is surveyed across various texts and studies and is mapped out in accordance with the ways in which it has been defined and discussed. The picture that emerges is the problem of national delimitations within the context of an international setting. Gálik …

Comparative Literature In China, Xiaoyi Zhou, Q. S. Tong

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In their co-authored article, "Comparative Literature in China," Xiaoyi Zhou and Q.S. Tong present a brief intellectual and institutional history of the discipline. According to Zhou and Tong, main features of the history of comparative literature in China include the fact that as an academic discipline and a mode of intellectual inquiry imported to China from the West in the early twentieth century, the discpline has always been a priori strategically political and the proposition that the development of comparative literature in China is closely related to the formation of China’s literary modernity includes the parallel issue of national identity. …

Comparative Literature In Slovenia, Kristof Jacek Kozak

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article, "Comparative Literature in Slovenia," Kristof Jacek Kozak provides a historical overview of the practice of theory in the discipline of comparative literature in Slovenia. Despite its small size and relative low profile, Slovenia is taken as an exemplar within comparative literature scholarship. Kozak observes that the development of comparative literature in Slovenia may be characterized by an attempt to both arbitrate and mediate between distinct poles. On the one hand, Slovenian scholarship has felt the need to secure or determine itself in accordance with its own interests and concerns. On the other hand, it has recognized the …

Comparative Literature In The United States, Manuela Mourão

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article, "Comparative Literature in the United States," Manuela Mourão offers a historical overview of the debates about comparative literature as a discipline, from the early years of its institutionalization in the United States until the present. Mourão summarizes the most pointed -- and anxious -- interventions of prominent scholars in the field and she discusses the permanent sense of crisis that has typically been part of the discipline. Further, Mourão links the permanent anxiety of the discipline with the prescriptive tendencies that have continued to endure until the present. She then looks at the debates that followed the …

Is Comparative Literature Ready For The Twenty-First Century?, Eva Kushner

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article, "Is Comparative Literature Ready for the Twenty-First Century?" Eva Kushner observes that throughout its history, comparative literature has internalized as part of its own objectives and directives a major challenge: The need to renew its problematics and curriculums in response to the inherent diversity of literature within culture. She emphasizes that the vitality of the discipline depends on an authentic pluralism capable of resisting the dominance of unanalyzed hierarchies and universals. Acknowledging that the entire history of world literature remains the potential material of comparative literature studies, Kushner favours an "open system" approach. The concept of an …

The Advantages Of Critical And Systematic Literary Taxonomies: A Review Article Of New Work By Cerquiglini, Juvan, And Zima, Kristof Jacek Kozak

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

No abstract provided.

Literary Skinheads? Writing From The Right In Reunified Germany, Jay Julian Rosellini

Purdue University Press Books

"Literary Skinheads? is a very nuanced, meticulously researched and vividly written study of a series of important debates in German literary circles since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the rapid political transformations that have accompanied German unification. No other book in the English-speaking world offers such a comprehensive survey of the legacy of radical conservative ideas in German political life. Rosellini not only offers trenchant interpretations of major political controversies of the last decade in Germany, but he also provides the necessary background information needed to make sense of these important public debates." Elliott Neaman, author of …

Naipaul's A Bend In The River And Neo-Colonialism As A Comparative Context, Haidar Eid

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article, "Naipaul's A Bend in the River and Neo-colonialism as a Comparative Context," Haidar Eid discusses the dialectical interplay between the political import and aesthetic qualities in Naipaul's novel. It contests Naipaul's conclusion that "Third World" peoples are not genuine and authentic human beings, like Westerners. Further, Naipaul's implication that political and social disorder is the unavoidable product of contemporary liberation movements, and that Africans are nothing and with no place in the world, are challenged and deconstructed. The independence of Third World countries, according to Naipaul, eliminates the last hope of resistance to ignorance, as well as …

A Comparative Post-Colonial Approach To Hedayat's The Blind Owl, Yasamine C. Coulter

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article, "A Comparative Post-Colonial Approach to Hedayat's The Blind Owl," Yasamine C. Coulter discusses post-colonial theories of Edward Said, Frantz Fanon, and Jalal ale Ahmad, and relates them to the major themes of Hedayat's novel. For the most part, the fact that the text's narrator is disillusioned with his country's traditional way of life makes him an outsider within his own society. However, he fails to find peace in his other, chosen, mode of being and this implies that he is unable to fully identify with Western traditions, either. It is at this point of the text that …