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Articles 211 - 240 of 602

Full-Text Articles in Comparative Literature

Innovation And Multimedia In The Poetry Of Cummings And Mayakovsky, Svetlana Nikitina Dec 2009

Innovation And Multimedia In The Poetry Of Cummings And Mayakovsky, Svetlana Nikitina

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Innovation and Multimedia in the Poetry of cummings and Mayakovsky" Svetlana Nikitina discusses how e.e. cummings and Vladimir Mayakovsky foreshadowed the digital revolution of today in their multimedia experiments in poetry. Although they spoke different languages and lived in different societies, the two modernist poets display similarities in their modernist aesthetics. Both are artists as well as poets who blur the line between the two forms of art. Their synesthesia inoculates them against postmodern disintegration of meaning or form. Although cummings is a staunch individualist, and Mayakovsky the tribune of the collective, they both rebel against traditional …


Russian Magical Realism And Pelevin As Its Exponent, Alexandra Berlina Dec 2009

Russian Magical Realism And Pelevin As Its Exponent, Alexandra Berlina

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Russian Magical Realism and Pelevin as Its Exponent" Alexandra Berlina seeks to enrich magical realism studies as a field of comparative literature and culture by showing that, although largely ignored in scholarship, such a thing as Russian magical realism exists and provides an interesting field for analysis. First, Berlina provides an overview of relevant scholarly works on the genre, tracing mentions (as well as striking omissions) of Russian influence, followed by a discussion of the few publications which deal with Russian magical realism, concentrating on Erika Haber's The Myth of the Non-Russian. Berlina then discusses Viktor Pelevin …


Necropolitics And Contemporary Hungarian Literature And Cinema, Ryan Michael Kehoe Dec 2009

Necropolitics And Contemporary Hungarian Literature And Cinema, Ryan Michael Kehoe

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "Necropolitics and Contemporary Hungarian Literature and Cinema" Ryan Michael discusses aspects of the concept of necropower (Mbembe) applied to contemporary Hungarian literature and cinema. Kehoe argues that his analysis provides models of postcolonial "aesthetic acts" that disrupt, destabilize, and ultimately subvert the global regimes to which Achille Mbembe refers. Accordingly, Hungary's status as a postcolony is discussed within the context of Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek's and David Chioni Moore's contention that the parameters of postcolonial cultural analysis need to be expanded to account for Central and East Europe's transition out of the Soviet sphere of influence. Further, …


A Talk Show In Hungary And The Question Of "Proper Distance", Lajos Császi Dec 2009

A Talk Show In Hungary And The Question Of "Proper Distance", Lajos Császi

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "A Talk Show in Hungary and the Question of 'proper distance'" Lajos Császi discusses the phenomenon of the talk show in its specific post-communist Hungarian context. During the past few years, Hungarian commercial television programs have been the target of frequent ideological attacks. At the same time, they have become increasingly popular among audiences. In my study I focus on the "Mónika" talk show, one of the most popular programs. Analyzing this new media phenomenon, I attempt to combine the political-economic and the socio-cultural perspectives of tabloid media, which are often opposed to each other. I ask …


Variations On The Brazilian Orpheus Theme, Marília Scaff Rocha Ribeiro Sep 2009

Variations On The Brazilian Orpheus Theme, Marília Scaff Rocha Ribeiro

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her paper, "Variations on the Brazilian Orpheus Theme," Marília Scaff Rocha Ribeiro discusses Vinícius de Moraes's play Orfeu da Conceição (1956) together with two of its filmic adaptations, namely Marcel Camus's Black Orpheus (1959) and Carlos Diegues's Orfeu (1999). Ribeiro's analysis is located in the context of the race debates of the second half of the twentieth century in Brazil. Ribeiro argues that the periodic resurfacing of a musician from the favelas as a special being who is able to chant and enchant speaks to the appeal both of popular music and of the thematic of race, issues that …


From Diaspora To Nomadic Identity In The Work Of Lispector And Felinto, Paula Jordão Sep 2009

From Diaspora To Nomadic Identity In The Work Of Lispector And Felinto, Paula Jordão

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "From Diaspora to Nomadic Identity in the Work of Lispector and Felinto" Paula Jordão analyzes Clarice Lispector's A Hora da Estrela (1977; The Hour of the Star, Trans. Giovanni Pontiero, 1992) and Marilene Felinto's As Mulheres de Tijucopapo (1982; The Women of Tijucopapo, trans. Irene Matthews, 1994). Despite being stylistically different, Lispector's A Hora da Estrela and Felinto's As Mulheres de Tijucopapo depict protagonists who share the same social and ethnic background and diasporic identity as women from the Northeast of Brazil. A closer look at the narrative trajectory of these two main characters shows us that …


Bibliography Of Works On Lusophone Culture And Identity, Patrícia I. Vieira Sep 2009

Bibliography Of Works On Lusophone Culture And Identity, Patrícia I. Vieira

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

No abstract provided.


Guimarães Rosa's "São Marcos" And Race And Class, Paulo Da-Luz-Moreira Sep 2009

Guimarães Rosa's "São Marcos" And Race And Class, Paulo Da-Luz-Moreira

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "Guimarães Rosa's 'São Marcos' and Race and Class" Paulo da-Luz-Moreira analyzes a pivotal short story in João Guimarães Rosa's oeuvre. Published in Sagarana, Guimarães Rosa's first short fiction collection, "São Marcos" has an extremely complex structure in its juxtaposition of layers of idiosyncratic and careful ethnographic and literary erudition, making the story a challenge to critics and readers alike. Guimarães Rosa worked exhaustively on this unique piece that touches with disconcerting openness on issues of strained racial and class relations in Brazil and expounds on the power of language and on the delicate point upon which one's …


Truth As Ideology In A Revolução De Maio, Patrícia I. Vieira Sep 2009

Truth As Ideology In A Revolução De Maio, Patrícia I. Vieira

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Truth as Ideology in A Revolução de Maio" Patrícia I. Vieira analyses the different understandings of propaganda at work in the Portuguese New State. According to the leader of the regime, António de Oliveira Salazar, truth is self-evident and the role of propaganda is merely to convey truthful information to the citizens. Conversely, António Ferro, the first president of the government's National Secretary of Propaganda, suggested that truth is pliable and sees it as the task of propagandistic artworks to shape reality and to define the public's understanding of what is true and false. These contrasting views …


Aesthetics And Ideology In Queirós's A Cidade E As Serras, Pedro Serra Sep 2009

Aesthetics And Ideology In Queirós's A Cidade E As Serras, Pedro Serra

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "Aesthetics and Ideology in Queirós's A Cidade e as Serras" Pedro Serra contributes to the study of Eça de Queirós's post-naturalist fiction, offering an in-depth view of traces of utopian socialism -- a major ideological influence in Queirós's intellectual generation -- in the aesthetic fabric of A Cidade e as Serras (1901) (The City and the Mountains). According to Serra, who reads this novel in light of Oliveira Martins's socialist idearium, Queirós's post-naturalistic writing exposes a complex network of late nineteenth-century cultural predicaments: the collapse of liberalism and realism paves the way to an ideological and aesthetical …


Rhetoric And Context In Saramago's Levantado Do Chão, David Frier Sep 2009

Rhetoric And Context In Saramago's Levantado Do Chão, David Frier

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "Rhetoric and Context in Saramago's Levantado do Chão" David Frier analyses the 1980 novel by Nobel in Literature 1998 José Saramago. The novel, as-of-yet not translated to English, Risen from the Ground, achieves its success as a key text of the Portuguese post-Revolutionary period in part through its resourceful rhetorical development of textual conventions and echoes derived from a wide range of high- and popular cultural contexts, ranging from the epic poetry of Camões's Os Lusíadas (The Lusiads) of 1578, through glamorized medieval battle-scenes to popular stories and beliefs and to the Fado music of Amália Rodrigues. …


The Geopolitics Of Amazônia In Souza's Fiction, Thomas O. Beebee Sep 2009

The Geopolitics Of Amazônia In Souza's Fiction, Thomas O. Beebee

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "The Geopolitics of Amazônia in Souza's Fiction" Thomas O. Beebee examines the ways in which the historical fiction of Brazilian author Márcio Souza (1946-) confronts prevailing notions of Brazilianness conceived as the unity of citizens within a fixed territorial space. Souza undermines this notion by frequently using non-Brazilians as protagonists of his novels that have as their theme the struggle over control of territory "within" Brazil. Beebee reviews the role played by the concept of national territorial control in theories of nationalism and the modern state, including in the Brazilian school of geopolitics developed by Eduardo Backheuser …


Introduction To Politics And Identity In Lusophone Literature And Film, Patrícia I. Vieira Sep 2009

Introduction To Politics And Identity In Lusophone Literature And Film, Patrícia I. Vieira

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

No abstract provided.


Borat As Tragicomedy Of Anti Us-Americanism, Alexei Lalo Jun 2009

Borat As Tragicomedy Of Anti Us-Americanism, Alexei Lalo

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

Alexei Lalo discusses in his article "Borat as Tragicomedy of Anti US-Americanism" the 2006 mockumentary in the context of stereotypes and clichés that exist about the United States and elsewhere, particularly in Europe. Anti US-Americanism is arguably at the core of this project, but Borat's creators seem to mock not only US-Americans, but also those who invent and practice clichés about the U.S. Lalo draws parallels between Sacha Baron Cohen's work and the legacies of Lenny Bruce and Charlie Chaplin (most notably his late film A King in New York). Of the numerous socio-cultural problems of the United States Borat …


Portrayal Of Physicists In Fictional Works, Daniel Dotson Jun 2009

Portrayal Of Physicists In Fictional Works, Daniel Dotson

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "Portrayal of Physicists in Fictional Works" Daniel Dotson analyzes how physicists (including professors, teachers, physics students, and amateur physicists) are portrayed in novels, films, and television programs. Eighty characters are analyzed to see if they possessed any of ten personality traits: obsessive, having major mental health problems, withdrawn, brave, timid, socially inept, arrogant, too career-focused, out of touch, and stubborn. Dotson lists a summary of the characters with their traits followed by an overview of the traits and select examples of how characters possessed that trait. Male and female characters are compared to determine if one gender …


Report On The 9th Biennial Conference Of The Comparative Literature Association Of India, Babli Moitra Saraf Jun 2009

Report On The 9th Biennial Conference Of The Comparative Literature Association Of India, Babli Moitra Saraf

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Report on the 9th Biennial Conference of the Comparative Literature Association of India" Babli Moitra Saraf presents her perception of the intellectual trajectories of the conference and discusses a number of selected papers read. The conference in the main addressed two issues: the institutional status of Comparative Literature and Comparative Literature as an academic discipline. A close third was the agenda of Comparative Literature to construct a World Literature.


The Gay Artist As Tragic Hero In The Picture Of Dorian Gray, Henry Alley Jun 2009

The Gay Artist As Tragic Hero In The Picture Of Dorian Gray, Henry Alley

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "The Gay Artist as Tragic Hero in The Picture of Dorian Gray" Henry M. Alley discusses the central artistic figure in Oscar Wilde's novel, Basil Hallward. As the novel's tragic protagonist, he commands the most pity and fear and serves as the most dynamic member of the dramatis personae. Alley contextualizes his discussion within Aristotle's Poetics, contemporary criticism, as well as Wilde's own comments. In addition, Alley looks at Hallward's attempt to hide or censor his gay feelings as parallel to Wilde's struggle with the various versions of the novel. Nevertheless, the characterization of Hallward celebrates the …


Literature, Ideology, And The Imaginary, Marcello Potocco Jun 2009

Literature, Ideology, And The Imaginary, Marcello Potocco

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his paper "Literature, Ideology and the Imaginary," Marcello Potocco analyses the elusive relation between literature and ideology. The notion of the "social imaginary" -- as developed by Castoriadis -- brings the possibility to reconsider the relation between the literary structure, its reception, and ideology. While ideology is seen as a radical expression of the social imaginary in modern society, it can only manifest itself through the ideological function, which does not necessarily destruct the aesthetic experience. In a literary structure, elements may exist that enable a strong identification with the extra-textual world, but this involves primarily identifications with significations …


About The Political Dimensions Of The Formation Of The King James Bible, Michael G. Rather Jr. Jun 2009

About The Political Dimensions Of The Formation Of The King James Bible, Michael G. Rather Jr.

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

Michael G. Rather Jr., examines in his article "About the Political Dimensions of the Formation of the King James Bible" the politics surrounding the formation of one of the most influential text in culture and politics in England and later in English-speaking countries. The translators and King exhibited a duality of beliefs emblematic of Jacobean society. These dualities of hierarchy and commonness, ceremony and purity, clarity and majesty were instituted in England followed by the Australian, US-American, and Canadian cultures. A better understanding of the people who were a part of this translation and the King who commissioned the translation …


Nietzsche's Influence On Bakhtin's Aesthetics Of Grotesque Realism, Yelena Mazour-Matusevich Jun 2009

Nietzsche's Influence On Bakhtin's Aesthetics Of Grotesque Realism, Yelena Mazour-Matusevich

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Nietzsche's Influence on Bakhtin's Aesthetics of Grotesque Realism" Yelena Mazour-Matusevich discusses Bakhtin's concept of grotesque realism in the light of Nietzsche's influence, particularly his notion of chaos and its expression of the Dionysian blended with and perceived through Russian religious thought and mythological consciousness. Mazour-Matusevich postulates that Nietzsche's influence on Bakhtin is most obvious in the latter's seminal work, Rabelais and His World. In order to demonstrate Nietzsche's influence on Bakhtin, Mazour-Matusevich provides an overview of Nietzsche's reception in Russia during Bakhtin's formative years as well as of the current state of research concerning the correlation between …


Undermining National Identities: A Review Article Of New Work By Gutiérrez Arranz And Barbeito, Feijóo, Figueroa, And Sacido, Montserrat Martínez García Jun 2009

Undermining National Identities: A Review Article Of New Work By Gutiérrez Arranz And Barbeito, Feijóo, Figueroa, And Sacido, Montserrat Martínez García

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

No abstract provided.


Obama, Africa, And The Post-Racial, Michael Janis Jun 2009

Obama, Africa, And The Post-Racial, Michael Janis

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "Obama, Africa, and the Post-Racial" Michael Janis examines aspects of U.S. president Barack Obama's election in the context of the epistemology and history of racism. Following an introduction to the history of racism in Europe and in the U.S., Janis discusses the media in the U.S. and in Africa in relation to African American and African politics. The debates on race ignited by the campaign are considered in the light of Africana perspectives on relations between Africa and the West and on the history of slavery and colonialism. Based on selected data in the media of the …


Representing Postmodern Marginality In Three Documentary Films, Robert Leblanc Jun 2009

Representing Postmodern Marginality In Three Documentary Films, Robert Leblanc

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "Representing Postmodern Marginality in Three Documentary Films" Robert LeBlanc traces the emergence of new epistemologies of documentary film experience within the cases of three recent films that explore the subject's experience of marginality as central to its constitution as subject. These films -- by Marlon Riggs, Chad Friedrichs, and Jessica Yu -- explore the crises of self-representation engaged by their documentary subjects as these subjects seek to define themselves despite -- and yet through -- their experiences of marginal status, while avoiding a reinforcement of that status that could arise through its continued placement into narrative. The …


The Meaning Of Myth In Ulysses And The Magic Mountain, Susan V. Scaff Jun 2009

The Meaning Of Myth In Ulysses And The Magic Mountain, Susan V. Scaff

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "The Meaning of Myth in Ulysses and The Magic Mountain" Susan V. Scaff discusses the proposition that Joyce and Mann combine in their novels myth and history and contradicts Joseph Frank's influential early view that modernist writers avoid history in favor of myth and the more recent verdict of Hayden White that this evasion amounts to an abrogation of civic responsibility mirroring fascism. Mann and Joyce recoil from the horrors of history while exploring the recovery of myth as amelioration. They realize that myths may lose their life bearing quality, and they portray a disoriented Europe lacking …


Images Of Liminality In Book Vi Of The Aeneid, Pouneh Saeedi Jun 2009

Images Of Liminality In Book Vi Of The Aeneid, Pouneh Saeedi

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her paper "Images of Liminality in Book VI of The Aeneid" Pouneh Saeedi discusses the concept of "liminality" in Virgil's The Aeneid and its potential in defying designated boundaries. The concept of liminality undercuts binarisms such as those separating winners and losers as well as heroes and monsters. In addition, an investigation of liminality as a zone of constant becoming continues to shed light on a vast array of new transitions. Aeneas's future success in the construction of a new empire and the rebuilding of a Roman nation, to a large extent, is indebted to his having ventured onto …


Rewriting Space In Ruiz De Burton's Who Would Have Thought It?, Bernadine M. Hernandez Jun 2009

Rewriting Space In Ruiz De Burton's Who Would Have Thought It?, Bernadine M. Hernandez

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Rewriting Space in Ruiz de Burton's Who Would Have Thought It?" Bernadine M. Hernandez analyses María Amparo Ruiz de Burton's text in the context of Mexican American and US-American literary history. After the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed in 1848, the place where Mexicanos lived became contested space and land of these Native subjects were conquered, penetrated, and colonized without the hope of regaining power or agency over land, status, or space. This newly deemed "opened" space was reconstructed via a literary legal document written to benefit Anglo Americans. Language is tied to the historical process …


The Practice Of Pr And The Canterbury Pilgrims, Jay Ruud, Stacey M. Jones Jun 2009

The Practice Of Pr And The Canterbury Pilgrims, Jay Ruud, Stacey M. Jones

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In their article "The Practice of PR and the Canterbury Pilgrims" Jay Ruud and Stacey Jones argue that the concepts of relationship management discussed by public relations scholars can be applied to the study of literary characters, specifically here to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, The Wife of Bath, and The Pardoner. Essentially, what PR scholars call the expression of communal relationship values in the Wife's performance is rewarded, while behaviors like the Pardoner's that focus merely on a zero-sum win-lose relationship are punished. The Pardoner is competitive in all phases of his performance, and consistently demonstrates a win-lose mentality in his …


Nature Vs. Civilization: A Review Article Of Films By Luhrmann, Vera Zubarev Jun 2009

Nature Vs. Civilization: A Review Article Of Films By Luhrmann, Vera Zubarev

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

No abstract provided.


Exile, Homeland, And Milieu In The Oral Lore Of Carpatho-Russian Jews, Ilana Rosen Mar 2009

Exile, Homeland, And Milieu In The Oral Lore Of Carpatho-Russian Jews, Ilana Rosen

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Exile, Homeland, and Milieu in the Oral Lore of Carpatho-Russian Jews" Ilana Rosen analyzes oral narratives of Central and East European Jewish communities. The Jewish people have spent most of their lifetime outside their promised land. Accordingly, their ethos, as reflected by holy teachings, expresses a yearning for a return to the holy land by divine agency once the nation is purified of its sins. In modern times, with the rise of nationalism, this creed changed into activist political Zionism, although traditional and conservative religious circles resisted this change. In the oral narratives of Central and East …


Visions Of Catastrophe In The Poetry Of Miklós Radnóti, Zsuzsanna Ozsváth Mar 2009

Visions Of Catastrophe In The Poetry Of Miklós Radnóti, Zsuzsanna Ozsváth

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Visions of Catastrophe in the Poetry of Miklós Radnóti" Zsuzsanna Ozsváth proposes that the poet's work shows an evolution of a set of visionary images auguring the Holocaust. This development followed on the heels of the poet's earlier interest in the socialist, populist, and left-oriented movements and ideas that drove a number of Hungarian artists and young intellectuals of the time. Immersed in social-cultural activities during his university years in Szeged (1930-35), Radnóti underwent a significant change when he moved back to Budapest. He recognized the threat posed by the Third Reich and watched with great consternation …