Comparative Literature Commons^™

Hell Reimagined: Dante’S Inferno And The Secular Afterlives Of Divine Punishment, Yara Mohamed El Hashimi

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines contrapasso and how it changes across different media and different sources of moral authority. In Chapter One, I examine four different cantos of Dante’s Inferno and rely on Teodolinda Barolini’s work to examine textual contrapasso. Chapter One also discusses how Dante’s work shows the sinner’s moral condition and makes it visible through the punishment inflicted. Additionally, Dante’s Inferno presents punishment as part of a divinely authorized moral order, which becomes important in Chapter Two when I examine how William Blake visually interprets and questions that system. In Chapter Two, I examine the works of Blake that correspond …

On The ‘Éowynization’ Of Sita In Ashok Banker’S And Amish Tripathi’S Ramayana-Based Fantasies, Sonali A. Chunodkar

Journal of Tolkien Research

The global popularity of J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings following Peter Jackson’s film adaptations led some English-language authors to adaptively retell Hindu religio-mythological epic narratives like the Ramayana in a Tolkienian fantasy vein. Ashok K. Banker’s eight-volumed Ramayana series, published from 2003 to 2012, is the first such fantasy series that displays a marked ‘Tolkienization’ of the Ramayana story. Both Tolkien’s and Banker’s respective fantasy series further left their discernable trace in Amish Tripathi’s four-volumed Ram Chandra Series, published from 2015 to 2022. This presentation focuses on the trajectory of a Tolkienian transformation of the …

Penggunaan Idiom Mandarin Dalam Kritik Tidak Langsung Di Media Sosial Weibo: Analisis Bentuk, Makna, Dan Fungsi Pragmatik, Vivianne Zara Kwang, Uti Aryanti

Multikultura

Weibo, a social media platform, has become a digital public sphere that facilitates discussions and the expression of criticism regarding various social issues in China. One linguistic strategy employed by users to convey criticism indirectly is the use of Mandarin idioms (chéngyǔ), fixed four-character expressions whose figurative meanings cannot be interpreted literally. The use of idioms allows speakers to express criticism implicitly, thereby reducing potential threats to the hearer's face. This study aims to identify the forms and meanings of Mandarin idioms used in indirect criticism on Weibo and to explain their pragmatic functions as off-record strategies within Brown and …

Comparing Picaresque Elements In Aravind Adiga’S The White Tiger And F. Sionil Jose’S Mass, Charles Dominic P. Sanchez

Akda: The Asian Journal of Literature, Culture, Performance

The colonial era of the past five hundred years, as instigated by European powers, eventually enabled the appropriation of canonically Western literary forms by writers from formerly colonized regions of the world. A concrete example of this is the picaresque novel, which originated in sixteenth-century Spain as a satirical mode aimed at the prevailing social norms and glaring inequalities of a time when that country was at the forefront of reaping wealth from newly established colonies in the Americas. In recent decades, postcolonial writers have utilized the pícaro, or elements thereof, as a means of shedding light on the many …

Music Subworlds, Disjointed Mind‑Style And Possible Selves In Hoda Barakat’S Ahl Al‑Hawā: A Cognitive Stylistic Analysis, Sarah M. Fayed, Amany Mohamed El-Shazly, Fatma Ismail

Computer Science

The representation of mental distress in fiction has been the subject of much research. Western fiction has produced numerous cognitive stylistic studies investigating how linguistic choices can serve as an effective analytical method; however, the use of cognitive stylistic tools to examine this phenomenon in Arabic remains much more limited. Furthermore, including theories such as mind-style, possible selves, and subworlds to assess mental distress is another under-researched area in Arabic fiction. Some notable work on these theories includes Emmott and Sanford (2012) on subworlds, Semino (2014) on mind-style, and Bak (2015) on possible selves and mental distress. This paper utilizes …

Scénographier La Mémoire : Le Costume Théâtral Comme Archive Vivante. Retour Sur L’Exposition « Tisser Le Temps », Mohammed Amin Boudrika

Regards

This article examines the role of theatre costume in constructing and transmitting the memory of the performing arts, drawing on the exhibition Tisser le Temps: Histoire et Création du Costume Théâtral Marocain (Weaving Time: History and Creation of Moroccan Theatre Costume), presented in 2024 as part of the National Theatre Festival of Tetouan. Given the ephemeral nature of theatrical performance, costume emerges as a material trace capable of preserving the memory of the production, of the actor's body and of the creative process. In this sense, it can be regarded as a genuine "living archive". The article also analyses the …

Archiver Le Théâtre Algérien : Itinéraire D’Un Chercheur, Ahmed Cheniki

Regards

Undertaking research on theatre in Algeria, the Arab world or sub-Saharan Africa is by no means an easy task; it is closer to an obstacle course. It is far from the simple "intellectual adventure" it is so often imagined to be. It is a gruelling experience, patiently built up over time: the outcome of a long and delicate process, a lengthy journey made up of rewarding moments, to be sure, and genuine discoveries, but also of trial and error, self-questioning, refusals, closed doors and, at times, decisive encounters.

Résumé
Entreprendre une recherche sur le théâtre en Algérie, dans le monde …

Interview – رحلة في أرشيفات المسرح العربي مقابلة مع أ.د سيد علي إسماعيل, Ons Trabelsi

Regards

This interview looks back on the career of theatre researcher and historian Sayed Ali Ismail and on his distinctive journey through the forgotten and marginalised documents of Arab theatre. The historian highlights the importance of archives in building a reinterpretation of the history of the performing arts in the Arab world, particularly in Egypt.

ملخّص
تتناول هذه المقابلة المسيرة المهنية للباحث والمؤرخ المسرحي سيد علي إسماعيل، بالإضافة إلى رحلته الفريدة مع الوثائق المنسية والمهمشة في مجال المسرح العربي. ويؤكد الباحث على أهمية الأرشيفات في إعادة قراءة تاريخ الفنون المسرحية في العالم العربي، ولاسيما في مصر

كلمات مفتاحية
الأرشيف، التوثيق، التاريخ، …

Palestinian Theatre Studies: The Emergence Of A Field, Noor Shihadeh

Regards

This article analyses the emergence of Palestinian theatre studies, a field of research bound to the modern history of Palestine and to the settler colonial violence that marks it. This violence strikes people, their cultural production and the very possibility of preserving it, shaping in turn how scholarship circulates and where it can be conducted. Studies on Palestinian theatre have nonetheless appeared since the 1960s. The article examines them through a multilingual literature review (Arabic, English, French, Italian, Hebrew) and identifies three main lines of research: a historical-documentary approach, a socio-political and anthropological approach, and a body of studies devoted …

Héritages, Mémoires Et Transmissions Dans « Augures (LaʿAllā Wa ʿAsā) » De Chrystèle Khodr, Najla Nakhlé-Cerruti

Regards

This article examines how Augures (Laʿallā wa ʿasā), a play created by Chrystèle Khodr in 2021 in Beirut and then presented in France, constructs an alternative historiography of the Lebanese civil war through theatre and its history. While the history of theatrical practice during this period remains largely unwritten in Lebanese historiography, the play draws on the intertwined memories of two iconic actresses, Hanane Hajj Ali and Randa Asmar had never converged before this production. Drawing on textual analysis, observation of the performance, and secondary sources, the article shows how Augures turns the stage into a space where history is …

L’Archive, Enjeu Et Miroir De La Structuration Du Mouvement Théâtral Indépendant En Égypte, Pauline Donizeau

Regards

This article examines the link between the archives of the independent theatre movement in Egypt and the movement’s difficult journey towards structuring itself, from its formation in the late 1980s to the present day. For the artists involved in this movement, who create outside the structures and funding of official institutions, the archives represent a major challenge in political, economic and aesthetic terms.

Résumé
L’article s’intéresse au lien entre les archives du mouvement théâtral indépendant en Égypte et sa difficile structuration, depuis sa formation à la fin des années 1980 jusqu’à maintenant. Pour les artistes de ce mouvement, qui créent …

نقد معاوية نور لمسرح أحمد شوقي (1929-1932): قراءة في أرشيف مجهول, Essam Abu Elgasim Abdel Wahid

Regards

Critiques of Ahmad Shawqi’s drama formed a prominent feature of the Sudanese critic Muawiya Muhammad Nur’s theatrical scholarship. Among the six articles he dedicated to analyzing theatrical works, Nur authored three pivotal essays on Shawqi’s theater published during the "Prince of Poets" life- time. The significance of these articles today lies in the fact that they remained "unknown" and absent from foundational references, leading to the omission of Nur’s contributions from studies documenting Arabic theatrical criticism in the pre-Mohamed Mandour era. This study serves as a call to re-read the history of Arabic theatrical criticism through a more precise and …

Introduction, Marianne Noujaim, Ons Trabelsi

Regards

L’histoire du théâtre arabe est une histoire traversée par des silences, des lacunes, et des discontinuités qui relèvent autant des conditions de préservation des spectacles que des modalités de la mise en place d’une historiographie rigoureuse. D’aucuns infèrent de ces lacunes la carence de production des arts du spectacle dans le monde arabe. Dans la préface de son ouvrage Al-Masraḥ al-munawwaʿ, Tawfīq Al- Ḥakīm (1966) déplorait ainsi le fait que « notre création théâtrale contemporaine surgît ainsi de rien ou de presque rien, de quelques rares expériences […], œuvrant par-delà un abîme vertigineux que les efforts fournis au fil …

Epic Heroism For The Ordinary: Tolkien’S Reworking Of Odyssean Heroism In The Hobbit, Jon Billsberry

Journal of Tolkien Research

This article explores The Hobbit as a narrative of two Odyssean homecomings: Thorin’s return to Erebor and Bilbo’s return to Bag End. Thorin undertakes the more direct nostos: as a displaced royal heir, he returns to recover his ancestral household, inheritance, authority, and public identity. Bilbo, by contrast, leaves a secure home and gradually acquires the cunning, adaptability, judgement, and independence that make Thorin’s return possible. Tolkien thus separates heroic position from heroic conduct. This separation produces conflict at Erebor, where Thorin’s defence of royal possession threatens violence and Bilbo uses the Arkenstone to challenge the king he helped …

Where The Stars Are Strange: Celestial Signposts And Symbolism In Tlotr: The Rings Of Power, Kristine Larsen

Journal of Tolkien Research

This conference paper presented at the Northeast Popular Culture Association on October 17, 2026, traces the use of prophecies and celestial signs in Amazon's TLOTR: The Rings of Power. Connections are made to Tolkien's use of the stars as signs and prophecies, including in the character of Earendil.

Identité Ambiguë, Mémoire Traumatisée, Et Discours Postcolonial Dans Petit Pays De Gaël Faye, Israel Adégòkè Owóṣení

Tête à Tête: Journal of Francophone Studies

Les écrits autofictifs et semi-autobiographiques de la littérature postcoloniale francophone sont encore à explorer et à discourir, surtout dans le contexte littéraire du XXIe siècle où apparaissent des motifs récurrents et nouveaux tels que l’ambiguïté culturelle, l’hybridité, l’altérité, l’inclusion, la liminalité, le traumatisme et l’effet négatif souillé du postcolonialisme à la mémoire dans une nouvelle ère. Ainsi, cette étude est conçue pour examiner l’ambiguïté identitaire de Gaby et les legs de la colonisation émanant des conflits intertribaux, de la guerre, du génocide et de la violence, qui ont largement miné la perception psychologique du héros - Gaby.

Cette étude a …

Beyond Words: Semiotic Decoding Of Rẹ́Rẹ́Rún (Catastrophe Au Rendez-Vous) By Ọládẹ̀Jọ Òkédìjí And The Rich Tradition Of Yorùbá Theater, Nafiu O. Oloore Mr

Tête à Tête: Journal of Francophone Studies

Many researchers have focused on analysing novels, poems, and drama in the French language while neglecting certain subgenres. Although numerous studies have been conducted on semiotic analysis in French, little effort has been made to analyze Yorùbá drama. Thus, this study aims to provide a semiotic analysis of Rẹ́rẹ́rún (Catastrophe au rendez-vous) by Ọládẹ̀jọ Òkédìjí. This study adopts a qualitative research approach and textual explanation as its methodology. The semiotics theory proposed by Ferdinand de Saussure is employed as the theoretical framework. Following the qualitative method, twenty signs relevant to this study were selected for interpretation. Semiotics is chosen because …

L’Éducation, Un Chemin Inévitable De L’Altérité À L’Inclusion; Un Récit De La Femme Africaine Dans Aya De Yopougon(1-3) De Marguerite Abouet Et Clément Oubrerie, Nkonye Lolita Nmorka

Tête à Tête: Journal of Francophone Studies

Le patriarcat en Afrique, ancré dans la domination masculine et la subjugation féminine, joue un rôle intellectuel depuis quelque temps. Cependant, la phase des mécontentements au sujet de la marginalisation des femmes s’efface progressivement, vu que le discours féminin s’oriente vers une revalorisation visant une inclusion constructive pour l’évolution meilleure de la société. Cette étude se concentre sur l’éducation des filles comme un déclencheur puissant pour le changement de paradigme nécessaire, passant de la relégation et de l’altérité à des réalisations monumentales et des représentations sociales remarquables qui offrent à la femme les connexions nécessaires pour s’épanouir. En appliquant la …

Les Voix Féminines Contre La Domination Patriarcale : Analyse De Rebelle De Fatou Keïta Et Modukpè, Le Rêve Brisé D’Adélaïde Fassinou, Ganiyat Omotola Adeniran

Tête à Tête: Journal of Francophone Studies

La littérature africaine contemporaine constitue un espace privilégié pour l’expression des voix féminines longtemps marginalisées dans un contexte dominé par le patriarcat et les traditions contraignantes. Le présent article propose une étude des romans Rebelle (1998) de Fatou Keïta et Modukpè, le rêve brisé (2000) d’Adélaïde Fassinou. Ces deux récits mettent en lumière les mécanismes d’assujettissement des femmes africaines à travers des pratiques comme l’excision, le mariage forcé, la résignation sociale et les interdits religieux. En mobilisant une approche féministe africaine, l’analyse montre que les héroïnes Malimouna et Modukpè incarnent deux trajectoires contrastées : la révolte et la quête d’autonomie …

Voix Proverbiales Et L'Esthétique Socioculturelle : Les Proverbes Africains Dans La Trilogie De Kouta De Massa Makan Diabate, Ademola Malick Adebayo, Israel Adégòkè Owóṣení

Tête à Tête: Journal of Francophone Studies

Dans les traditions orales africaines, les proverbes sont des paroles condensées de sagesse, mot d'esprit, de raisonnement social et d'esthétique culturelle. La véritable littérature africaine est l’oralité et elle démontre la richesse linguistique, la complexité culturelle et l’esthétique de la parole à travers les proverbes, les chansons, les épopées, les mythes et les légendes ainsi de suite. L’oralité reflète la richesse linguistique et l’identité culturelle du continent noir. Cependant, les proverbes sont des transporteurs particuliers de la sagesse, la morale, la valeur, les codes sociaux et la croyance d’une société donnée. Dans la trilogie de Massa Makan Diabaté, les proverbes …

Blending Oral Tradition And New Media In Digital Storytelling In Francophone Africa, Moses Chibueze Opara Odogwu

Tête à Tête: Journal of Francophone Studies

This paper investigates the dynamic convergence of oral tradition and new media within the context of digital storytelling in Francophone Africa. Grounded in age-old practices of communal narratives and cultural transmission, oral storytelling has experienced a resurgence through digital platforms, including social media, Tiktok, podcasts, and multimedia productions. This integration facilitates the preservation, revitalisation, and worldwide dissemination of indigenous narratives while promoting vibrant cultural dialogues across different generations. The study analyses how digital storytelling incorporates traditional African oral forms with modern technologies to develop hybrid narratives that transcend local limitations. It also tackles important issues that influence the changing landscape, …

Femo Loquens: Gendered Memory, Afrosofian Thought, And The Speaking Woman In Present-Day Burkina Faso, Diweng Mercy Dafong

Tête à Tête: Journal of Francophone Studies

In order to analyze how female Burkinabè writers and filmmakers contribute to the decolonial endeavor of recovering knowledge, voice, and historical agency following colonial disruption, this paper introduces the idea of femo loquens, a gendered extension of homo loquens as theorized by François Ngoa Kodena. I contend that fiction makers like Apolline Traoré in her movie Sira, Monique Ilboudo in her novel Carrefour des veuves, and Roukiata Ouedraogo in herr novel Le petit mari serve as sofian thinkers whose artistic creations interact with gendered memory and postcolonial realities, drawing on Kodena's Afrosofian philosophy, which emphasizes epistemic plurality, cosmological rootedness, …

L'Exploration Des Figures De Style Dans Maeva Et Les Nuages Du Passé De Fatou Fanny-Cissé, Oladeji Olayiwola Nureni Mr

Tête à Tête: Journal of Francophone Studies

Cette étude examine la figure de style dans les romans contemporains de Fatou Fanny Cissé, Maéva et Les nuages du passé, dans le contexte de la littérature francophone africaine. En s'appuyant sur des critiques littéraires récentes, l'analyse s'inscrit dans une perspective décoloniale, s'interrogeant sur le rôle des figures de style dans la tension entre oralité et écriture, ainsi qu'entre esthétique et engagement politique. L'approche qualitative repose sur une analyse stylistique des deux œuvres, en intégrant des théories de la stylistique textuelle, de la critique postcoloniale et féministe. Les figures de style, telles que métaphores, ironies et personnifications, sont étudiées pour …

Contextualizing Inclusion And Connection In An Absurd World: An Analysis Of Albert Camus’ The Plague, Peter Akongfeh Akongfeh Agwu Ph.D, Peace Onwanua Ph.D., John Ogidi Acha

Tête à Tête: Journal of Francophone Studies

Scholars have extensively analyzed Albert Camus’s The Plaque, while interpreting its narrative through existential and absurdist lenses. However, little literature is recorded on how the novel contextualizes themes of inclusion and human connection amidst an absurd world. This study addresses this gap by examining the dynamics of solidarity and shared resistance among the characters within the framework of Camus’s philosophy of the absurd. The aim is to ex-ray how Camus reconciles the tension between the absurd and the human need for meaning through collective action and emotional bonds. A qualitative methodology is employed, involving a close textual analysis of the …

Cultural And Social Inclusion In Sexe Et Mensonges: La Vie Sexuelle Au Maroc By Leïla Slimani: A Critical Perspective, Juliet N. Elikwu Dr.

Tête à Tête: Journal of Francophone Studies

Several published studies on Leïla Slimani's Sexe et Mensonges: La Vie sexuelle au Maroc have extensively examined the themes of sexual taboos and the challenges facing women in Moroccan society. But, limited attention has been given to her portrayal of cultural and social inclusion through the testimonies and narratives of marginalized women in academic discourse. This study seeks to analyze the dynamics of inclusion and exclusion within the framework of cultural norms and patriarchal structures depicted in the work. The study draws on a qualitative methodology centered on close textual analysis. The theoretical framework integrates Michel Foucault’s concepts of power …

Documenting The Ineffable: A Comparative Analysis Of Mystical Representation In Kimiavi’S The Garden Of Stones And Western Sufi Documentary, Hessam Abedini

Journal of Religion & Film

This article examines how documentary film attempts to represent mystical experience through comparative analysis of Parviz Kimiavi's The Garden of Stones (1976) and American documentaries featuring Samuel Lewis, particularly Sunseed (1973). Rather than assuming terms like "sacred" or "authentic," the study grounds its analysis in empirical definitions from William James, historical scholarship by Carl Ernst and Annemarie Schimmel, and literary theory from Fatemeh Keshavarz. Through detailed examination of specific scenes—Darvish Khan hanging stones from dead trees, Lewis leading ecstatic dances—the article demonstrates how different cinematic strategies approach documentary's epistemological limits when confronting ineffable experience.

The analysis corrects historical misunderstandings about …

On Black Speculative Feminisms: Memory And Liberated Futures In Black Women’S Fiction, Aisha Matthews

Criticism

Black Speculative Feminisms: Memory and Liberated Futures in Black Women’s Fiction by Cassandra L. Jones. Ohio State University Press, 2024. $29.95 paperback

Tolkien's Philological Imagination - On Aelfwine's Spelling, The Ab Language And The Inner Consistency Of Philological Reality, Andrew Higgins

Journal of Tolkien Research

This is a paper that was given and refined at the 2026 Tolkien at Kalamazoo, Tolkien and Leeds and Oxonmoot conferences.

“And When We Wished We Would Drive Away The Night”: Preventing The Disneyfication Of Aglarond, Kristine Larsen

Journal of Tolkien Research

It is well-known that two trips to the Cheddar Gorge Caves formed the basis for the “Glittering Caves of Aglarond” found in Helm’s Deep and described in The Two Towers. Tolkien explained a 1971 letter how that “the passage was based on the caves in Cheddar Gorge and was written just after I had revisited these in 1940 but was still coloured by my memory of them much earlier before they became so commercialized. I had been there during my honeymoon nearly thirty years before.” In April 1940, the Tolkiens and their three youngest children took an extended holiday …

Universalism And Exclusion: Immigrants Through The Lens Of French Law And Media, George Mikhael Taliak, Abellia Anggi Wardani

Paradigma: Jurnal Kajian Budaya

This research examines France’s Immigration Law LOI n°2024-42 du 26 janvier 2024 and its representation in three mainstream media outlets across the ideological spectrum: Le Figaro (right), CCFD-Terre Solidaire (left), and France Info (center). Using Critical Discourse Analysis (Fairclough, 1995) and Maurice Halbwachs’s theory of collective memory, the study explores how legal and media discourses construct symbolic and administrative boundaries of national citizenship. Findings reveal that integration is framed not as civic inclusion, but as the internalization of a singular national identity and memory. Media reinforce this framework through divergent but convergent discursive strategies. At the macro level, the law …