Comparative Literature Commons^™

Mao's "On Contradiction," Mao-Hegel/Mao-Deleuze, Kenneth Surin

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

Mao Tse-Tung's famous 1937 essay "On Contradiction" is regarded as a significant attempt to redefine and reapply Marx's notion of a "dialectical contradiction" to the Chinese revolutionary conjuncture of Mao's time. I set out the principles outlined in Mao's essay, before arguing that the revolutionary conjuncture of his time no longer exists in the era of globalization and neoliberalism. I conclude that a new conception of "antagonism" is needed, and revise Mao's position with the aid of the philosophy of Deleuze and Guattari.

Mapping Out Chinese Modernity And Alternative Modernity, Song Li

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article, “Mapping Out Chinese Modernity and Alternative Modernity,” Song Li reviews the writings of Kang Liu, particularly his Aesthetics and Marxism. Kang Liu studies the intellectual trajectory of Chinese Marxism from its inception to its post-Mao phases of transformation by comparing it with the cultural and aesthetic thinking of Western Marxism. It provides not only a new perspective for the study of Marxism in general and Chinese Marxism in particular, but also opens up a new space for mapping out Chinese modernity and alternative modernity. Its 2012 Chinese translation makes it more accessible in China, and it will …

Introduction: Rethinking Critical Theory And Maoism, Kang Liu

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article, "Rethinking Critical Theory and Maoism," Kang Liu reviews the existing literature in English on the relationship of Critical Theory and Maoism and discusses the need to explore and reconstruct a genealogy of Critical Theory and Maoism within the global context of political, ideological, and intellectual currents and trends. The special issue will focus on three clusters of issues: first, the western invention of Maoism as a universal theory of revolution; second, the reception of Critical Theory in China and its relationship to Maoism; and third, the relevance of Maoism and Critical Theory today. Liu raises the question …

Maoism In Culture: A “Glocalized” Or “Sinicized” Marxist Literary Theory, Ning Wang

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his essay "Maoism in Culture," Ning Wang discusses the importance to literature and art of Mao's famous "Yan'an Talks" as one of his most representative works. Maoism, or Mao Zedong Thought as is generally called in China, is a "glocalized" or "Sinicized" Marxism initiated and developed by Mao and his comrades in arms and successors in China. Wang argues that although Maoism is not a dogmatically "imported" Marxism from the West, it has indeed grasped some fundamental Marxist principles in combination with the concrete Chinese literary and critical practice. Thus a "glocalized" or "Sinicized" Marxist literary theory has contributed …

The Political (Un)Conscious: Rethinking Aesthetics From A Cross-Cultural Perspective, Xiaohong Zhang

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article, "The Political (Un)conscious: Rethinking Aesthetics from a Cross-Cultural Perspective," Xiaohong Zhang adopts a cross-cultural perspective, examining the cultural-specific nuances of critical terms like race, class and gender, all of which have bearings on our perception and conception of aesthetics. Drawing on Emory Elliot's groundbreaking book, Aesthetics in a Multicultural Age (2002), the paper probes into the aesthetic experience whose primary effect is to depragmatize. Along this line of thinking, the author draws attention to the aesthetic impetus of two Nobel laureates, Mo Yan and Gao Xingjian, whose rewriting of Western classics demonstrates Chinese authors' shared predilection for …

Self As Religion In Noviolet Bulawayo's We Need New Names, Lauren Randall

Best Integrated Writing

In this essay, Lauren shows how a breakdown in the belief in the Christian God in NoViolet Bulawayo’s novel We Need New Names leads to the protagonist’s renewal of faith in herself. As the world around her implodes and modern-day Zimbabwe collapses under the political regime of Robert Mugabe (who is never named in the novel but whose baleful influence is nevertheless assumed), “Bulawayo juxtaposes human endurance and the absence of a helpful god to achieve commentary on Darling’s fortitude and resilience.” The essay presents several original insights and offers a sensitive and highly nuanced picture of the divided colonial …

Self-Destructive Educationin Tsitsi Dangarembga’S Nervous Conditions, Sarah Miller

Best Integrated Writing

In this essay, Sarah examines Tsitsi Dangarembga’s 1988 novel Nervous Conditions, set during the colonial period in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). She argues that the novel portrays education in an ambivalent light: while it serves as a vehicle of liberation and progress for the black Rhodesian characters, it also reveals to them the injustices of colonial occupation. The essay uses excellent textual examples and good support from secondary sources to convincingly advance this thesis. I believe that Sarah makes us rethink the function of education in a critical light; when viewed in the African colonial context, education becomes a tool for …

Best Integrated Writing 2018 - Complete Edition

Best Integrated Writing

Best Integrated Writing includes excellent student writing from Integrated Writing courses taught at Wright State University. The journal is published annually by the Wright State University Department of English Language and Literatures.

Mumbai Macbeth: Gender And Identity In Bollywood Adaptations, Rashmila Maiti

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This project analyzes adaptation in the Hindi film industry and how the concepts of gender and identity have changed from the original text to the contemporary adaptation. The original texts include religious epics, Shakespeare’s plays, Bengali novels which were written pre-independence, and Hollywood films. This venture uses adaptation theory as well as postmodernist and postcolonial theories to examine how women and men are represented in the adaptations as well as how contemporary audience expectations help to create the identity of the characters in the films. Ultimately, this project hopes to fulfil the gap in scholarship on adaptations in Bollywood.

The Nature Of Influence: Fu'ad Rifqa's Wilderness Poetry At The Intersection Of Nation And Modernity, Delilah Clark

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Fundamental changes in the form and content of Arabic poetry occurred rapidly in the first half of the twentieth century, resulting in the development of free verse and prose poetry as well as the jettison of traditional requirements including end-stopped two-hemistich long lines, strict adherence to meter, and monorhyme. These changes draw from innovation within Arabic poetry, competing nationalist agendas, increased translation of European texts into Arabic, and the productive engagement of Arab poets with Western literatures. In 1957, Syrian poet Fu’ād Rifqa embarks upon a five-decade poetic project of intentional intertextuality that acknowledges these sometimes collaborative, sometimes competing narratives. …

Dayak Lundayeh: A Report From The Border, Luqman Hakim Zainuri

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his paper "Dayak Lundayeh: A Report from the Border" Luqman H. Zainuri explores the vulnerabilities and potential of national disintegration coming from indigenous communities in Indonesia. In particular, the paper focuses on one of the communities which has been largely ignored, the Dayak people, who have played an important role in the border between Indonesia and Malaysia in Borneo Island. The Dayak indigenous people which inhabit this highland plateau are known as the Lun Bawang, on the Malaysian side, and the Lun Dayeh (or Lundayeh) in the Indonesian side. Both groups are linguistically and culturally the same. This paper …

Portraits Of Jeju Haenyeo As Models Of Empowerment In The Korean Newspaper Maeilshinbo During Japanese Occupation, Seohyeon Lee, Soon-Ok Myong

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In their article "Portraits of Jeju Haenyeo as Models of Empowerment in the Korean Newspaper Maeilshinbo during Japanese Occupation" Seohyeon Lee and Soon-ok Myong analyze the life of Korean women divers, Jeju Haenyeo, portrayed in the news articles of the Maeilshinbo, the only Korean newspaper during Japanese occupation (1910-1945). In the past, the activities of Haenyeo have been considered the cultural product of Jeju Island. However, within a structure of female repression, Confucian feudalism and colonization, the Haenyeo can be seen as emancipatory pioneers and voluntary economic agents, displaying initiative and pro-activeness and protecting their rights and …

On The Culturalization Of Ethnic Economy In China, Yi Liu, Jiayan Xiao

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In their article "On the Culturalization of Ethnic Economy in China" Liu Yiand Xiao Jia-Yan examine the cultural impact of autonomous minority regions on national economy. This study surveys the internal factors that include geography and history as well as external factor such as govermental policy. The findings suggest that cultural factors should be taken into greater consideration, as they are an important aspect in the inner motivation to push forward the economic development of ethnic areas at a faster pace. The paper argues that culture can afford the most efficient pathway for these ethnic areas in terms of economic …

Introduction To The One Asia Foundation And Its Cooperation And Peace-Making Project, Asunción Lópezvarela Azcárate

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

No abstract provided.

Collective Memory In Advocating Peace. The Nanjing Incident As A Case Study, Idham Badruzaman

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his paper "Collective Memory in Advocating Peace. The Nanjing Incident as a case study" Idham Badruzaman provides an example of how to build a peaceful Asian Community. The Foundation is establishing forms of bilateral cooperation at the educational level; mostly in universities and higher education institutions across the world. These programs are contributing to create cross-cultural ties within the Asian Community and across the world, surpassing national interests and boundaries, fostering inter-culturalism, and promoting tolerance amid differences. By focusing on the Nanjing Incident, the paper provides an example of how the building of collective memory can help reconciliation, showing …

Innovations In Self-Consciousness. Towards Oneness With The World, Soon-Ok Myong, Byong-Soon Chun

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In their article "Innovations in Self-Consciousness. Towards Oneness with the World" Soon-ok Myong and Byong-soon Chun examine the limitations and vulnerabilities of modern civilization. Asia is a multiethnic, multilingual and multicultural territory of over 40 countries and more than 4.4 billion people, that is, almost half of the population of the world. The One Asia community seeks to question a world made up of strong egos that make up businesses, organization and nations, and embrace communal goals, helping Asia and the world to become 'one community.' Thus, the paper suggests ways of self-innovation through forms of transitional consciousness. Although the …

“More Human Than Human”: Lacan’S Mirror Stage Theory And Posthumanism In Philip K. Dick’S Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, Richelle V. Finn

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

In my thesis, Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is examined using French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan's mirror stage theory. In the novel, humans have built androids that are almost indistinguishable from humans except that they lack a sense of empathy, or so the humans believe. The Voigt-Kampff Machine is a polygraph-like device used to determine if a subject shows signs of empathy in order to confirm if one is an android or a human. Yet, should empathy be the defining quality of determining humanity?

In his article "The mirror stage as formative of the function of the …

Open Ears, Open Mind, Open Heart: Active Listening, Mia Nguyen

Service-Learning | Student Scholarship

Active listening is the act of listening with all senses– the body, the mind, and the soul. It means empathizing with another person and finding that place within ourselves where we can listen beyond our initial judgements and personal feelings. It is listening beyond words and allowing our souls to understand, connect, and accept one another. Active listening sparks internal purity eliminating all types of judgement and allowing us to truly take in what another person has to offer. It is “an experience of language as a bodily felt process” in which we have a felt understanding rather than a …

Forgotten Fairies: Traditional English Folklore In "A Midsummer Night's Dream", Alexandra Larkin

The Criterion

While the fairies shown in the play would have been known by Shakespeare’s audience, there was a clear difference between the fairies of traditional folklore and the fairies that Shakespeare describes in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In traditional English folklore, fairies were “made” for, and by, the middle and lower classes; their stories were most believed and the most encounters were experienced by these people. Fairies in folklore were alternatingly deadly and wildly helpful, giving humans who stumbled upon them presents or death. In the play, Shakespeare departs from more traditional depictions of fairies and instead characterizes these magical creatures …

An Adventure Concerning Identity: The Use Of Folklore And The Folkloresque In Murakami’S Hitsuji Wo Meguru Bōken (A Wild Sheep Chase) To Construct A Post-Colonial Identity, Jessica Alice Krawec

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This thesis examines the use of folklore and the folkloresque in Haruki Murakami’s novel Hitsuji wo meguru bōken, or, as it is translated by Alfred Birnbaum, A Wild Sheep Chase. Murakami blends together Japanese and Western folklore to present a Japan that has been colonized by a post-national, global capitalistic force. At the same time, Murakami presents a strategy to resist this colonizing force by placing agency onto the individual and suggesting that it is still possible to craft a meaningful identity within the Japanese/Western blended, globalized society in which these individuals now exist.

Alongside examining the use of folklore …

The Power Configurations Of The Central Civilization / World System In The 11th Century, David Wilkinson

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

The Phoenicians And The Formation Of The Western World, John C. Scott

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

Quo Vadis Pax Americana? The Continuing Battle For Dewey's Democracy, Michael H. Parsons

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

Contentious Cloud Chatter: A Comparative Analysis Of Aggressive Speech, Clea Patrick, Leah Hollis

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

What Must Exist Before You Have A Civilization?, The Northridge Discussion

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

Raghav Sharma, Nation, Ethnicity And The Conflict In Afghanistan: Political Islam And The Rise Of Ethno-Politics 1992-1996. London: Routledge, 2016, David M. Traboulay

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

End Matter, Comparative Civilizations Review

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

Letter From Germany And Russia, Vlad Alalykin-Izvekov

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

Odessa 1919, Ron French

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

Binding Ideologies: An Investigation Of Language Attitudes And Ideologies In The Moroccan Publishing And Book Sector, Ashley Coyne

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The interaction between author and reader is not as simple nor as direct as may at times be assumed. There are “gatekeepers” and middle men who mediate the transmission of ideas from writer to reader; these institutions and their ideologies determine the final product that will (or will not) be presented to readers. In Morocco, this author-reader interaction is further complicated by the language ideologies which pervade the realm of Moroccan literature. As Moroccan publishers and booksellers are the “gatekeepers” who arguably engage the most in language politics, this study examines their role in facilitating or inhibiting the Moroccan author-reader …