Comparative Literature Commons^™

Ambivalence, Foremourning, And Displacement In The German Translation Of Marie Bonaparte's Topsy, Kooper Wilson

University Honors Theses

This paper offers a reading of Sigmund Freud’s German translation of Marie Bonaparte’s book, Topsy: The Golden-Haired Chow, in which the author attempts to both delay the death of her dog and mourn it in advance through what I call foremourning. I argue that the manifest subject matter of Topsy should not be interpreted away as a projection of merely human concerns, but rather that close attention to Freud’s translation introduces themes from his analytic experience which engender an appreciation of Topsy’s atopia (intractability). I draw from recent psychoanalytic theory, literary criticism, and deconstruction, especially Jacques Derrida’s seminars …

Analyzing National War Propaganda Through Comparison Of Diverse Case Studies, Ike Sugitani

Dissertations and Theses

In the build-up to war, national governments utilize propaganda to gather public support for the war effort. In some instances, propaganda campaigns are conducted but war does not occur. This begs the question as to why war follows propaganda campaigns in some cases, but not in others. I argue that propaganda efforts that lead to war can be generally characterized through three major strategies based on a patriotic participatory social structure, a claim to moral authority, and the blending of individual concepts of the state, government and nation. In this study, I analyze the major historical case studies of the …

Dinesen’S Diana: The Transformative Power Of Symbols In Ehrengard, Aishwarya A. Marathe

Anthós

This analysis of Dinesen's Ehrengard aims to illuminate the subversive transformation of the titular character of the novel, using the literal and symbolic application of artistic power.

The Objectives Of The Literary Translator: Translating A Science Fiction Nouvelle, Aishwarya Marathe

University Honors Theses

Language cannot be separated from its sociocultural context, given that it is a foundational tool with which humans communicate, understand, and connect with one another. This complicates the act of translating literary works from one language to another because the translator is translating more than words, she is transposing a cultural context into another. In addition, literary translators are faced with editorial expectations, the target language audience, and the demands of the source text itself, factors that are not always in agreement and can pose challenges during the translation process. In this paper, I present my original English translation of …

Reflections On A Fellowship And Time As A Dei Coordinator With Oscar Fernandez, Oscar Fernandez

PDXPLORES Podcast

In this episode of PDXPLORES, Dr. Óscar Fernández, a contingent faculty member in University Studies at Portland State University, discusses his work during a diversity fellowship at UC Irvine. That work resulted in the forthcoming essay, "Queering a Coordinator's Diversity, Equity, and Illusion (DEI) Work in Academe: Disappointments, Self-Deceits, and Hopes Disclosed," to be published by the University of California Humanities Research Institute's journal Foundry. Fernández opens up about his experiences as a DEI officer for University Studies, how that experience informed his essay, and thinking about DEI efforts within the context of higher education.

Click on the "Download" button …

A Comparative Examination Of The Hyperbole In Men Without Women By Haruki Murakami And Fudotoku Kyoiku Koza By Yukio Mishima, Jitsuya Nishiyama

Student Research Symposium

This presentation is on a comparative analysis of two prominent Japanese authors' works of literature. The presentation is about a comparative study of hyperbole in Men without women by Haruki Murakami and Fudotoku Kyoiku Koza by Yukio Mishima. Both authors have significant positions in the history of Japanese literature with readership overseas. The rhetoric of hyperbole seems to be significant for both Murakami and Mishima since there are many examples of hyperbole in their works. Murakami’s Men without women is a lamenting short narrative for the loved one while Mishima’s Fudotoku Kyoiku Koza is an entertaining social satire. Regardless of …

Teaching Australian Literature In A Class About Literatures Of Social Reform, Per Henningsgaard

English Faculty Publications and Presentations

This article presents an intriguing thesis about proximity and identification, distance and empathy based on the experience of teaching Sally Morgan’s My Place to American university students alongside Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle and Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin in a class examining literature as an agent of social change. Indeed, its response to the question, “How does the Australian production of My Place influence its American reception?” will surprise many people. Students more readily demonstrate empathy with characters and are prepared to ascribe their unenviable life circumstances to social structures that propagate oppression when reading literature about cultural groups …

Rebirth And The Body: Ca Conrad And The Book Of Frank, Sean Hennessey

Anthós

There are many ways to look at the word "body." It can signify a physical body or a body of work; it can be the framework of a text (the body of the piece) or it can represent an organized group of people (a regulatory body). Taken as a whole, each of these facets of the word seem to signify a singularity that is created by the collective sum of its parts—the body is made up of limbs, trunk and head; a body of work is a collection of an artist’s output; the body of a text is made up …

Le Développement Du Moi Et Le Procédé Thérapeutique Dans Les Œuvres De Chrétien De Troyes, Clément Guillaume

Dissertations and Theses

While we can easily acknowledge that many aspects the texts written by Chrétien de Troyes have been studied and discussed through the centuries, it is always possible to apply a new reading to the author's work. Like many authors of the same time period, the author of Le Conte du graal and LeChevalier de la charrette was not only writing for the audience of his time but was also openly targeting an audience set in a different century and social context. This timeless aspect of Chrétien's work is part of what makes his texts intricate and still relevant to this …

Tokuya Higashigawa's After-Dinner Mysteries: Unusual Detectives In Contemporary Japanese Mystery Fiction, Jessica Claire Kindler

Dissertations and Theses

The detective fiction (tantei shōsetsu) genre is one that came into Japan from the West around the time of the Meiji Restoration (1868), and soon became wildly popular. Again in recent years, detective fiction has experienced a popularity boom in Japan, and there has been an outpouring of new detective fiction books as well as various television and movie adaptations. It is not a revelation that the Japanese detective fiction genre, while rife with imitation and homage to Western works, took a dramatic turn somewhere along the line, away from celebrated models like Poe, Doyle, and Christie, and developed into …

Beyond The Trauma Of War: Iraqi Literature, Yasmeen S. Hanoosh

World Languages and Literatures Faculty Publications and Presentations

A decade after the U.S.-led coalition invaded Iraq, we cannot approach Iraqi literature today without recognizing the multiple shifts and varieties in its expression. In a matter of ten years, the post-Ba'thist era has witnessed the sudden fall of a long-lasting dictatorship, an encounter with Western occupation, and an unprecedented upsurge in sectarian discourses, to name only the most prominent events. In addition to these influences, the development of contemporary Iraqi literature is the product of several fluctuations in cultural expression that span the bulk of the twentieth century. The abrupt transitions from the Hashemite monarchy (1932–58) to 'Abd al-Karim …

Operatic Observation Of The Audience: Examining Chapter One Of Edith Wharton's The Age Of Innocence, Andréa René Franke

Anthós

The act of observation, as defined by Professor Lawrence Wheeler’s Fall 2012 Syllabus for his course titled "Theatron", is "a morally complex act undertaken by qualified agents, operating through recognized and formalized practices, in a specific venue, and in possession of a carefully delimited vocabulary of discourse." Throughout many disciplines this formalized practice can be identified in many forms while still prescribing to this narrow definition. This essay will show how this definition of observation is applied to early 20th century American literature in Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence (1920) by examining the first chapter of Wharton’s museum cultured …

Jacques Ranciere’S Politics Of Literature, Writing And Aesthetics In The Letters Of John Keats, Darcie Hart Riedner

Anthós

Through his numerous works on the philosophy of aesthetics, literature and writing Jacques Rancière has crafted a body of work based on the premise of equality as recognized through aesthetics. In the introduction to the English translation of Rancière’s The Politics of Aesthetics, author Gabriel Rockhill writes Rancière supports abolishing "any presupposed inequalities of intelligence". Rancière argues against any "privileged position usurped by philosophy in its various attempts to speak for others, be it the proletariat, the poor, or anyone else who is not 'destined to think'" Rancière's political positioning of aesthetics finds "those who have no name, who remain …

The Teaching Of 'Book History' In English And Cultural Studies Units, Per Henningsgaard

English Faculty Publications and Presentations

Book history is a field of study concerned with 'the influence of manuscript or printed materials on the development and transmission of culture', typically concentrating on six related topics: 'authorship, book selling, printing, publishing, distribution, and reading' (West, 2003). This article evaluates the teaching of book history in English and Cultural Studies units at the University of Western Australia (UWA), which ceased offering a stand-alone unit on the subject in the late 1980s. Since then, book history is only ever addressed in English and Cultural Studies units as an ancillary to other themes and theoretical inclinations, in particular text based …

Türk Edebiyatı Kanonu Ve Ulusal Kimliğin Sınırları (The Canon Of Turkish Literature And The Limits Of National Identity), Pelin Basci

World Languages and Literatures Faculty Publications and Presentations

The article is written in Turkish.

Written for the special issue of the journal Pasaj Edebiyat on the canon of Turkish literature, the article explores the relationship between the formation of the literary canon and the forging of the national identity. It argues that the modern canon of Turkish literature, much like other national literatures in the Balkans and the Middle East, has been politically constructed after the break with the Ottoman past. Turkish literature has been fashioned through a "literary exchange," much like the 1924 “population exchange” between Greece and Turkey, insulating and sanitizing it from other literary traditions …

Review Of Virtual Americas: Transnational Fictions And The Transatlantic Imaginary, By Paul Giles, Oscar Fernandez

University Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Book review of Virtual Americas: Transnational Fictions and the Transatlantic Imaginary by Paul Giles, published by Duke University Press in 2002.

Balkan Influences On The Eastern Sephardic Romance, Steve Nelson

Dissertations and Theses

The present study examines the local influences on the ballads on the Eastern Sephardic Jews. With very few exceptions, these influences are from the Turkish language and from Modern Greek folk balladry. Therefore, I have divided the results of my findings into these two categories.

In the section concerning Sephardic ballads influenced by Greek folk poetry, I synthesize and expand upon the findings of Samuel Armistead and Joseph Silverman, who have combed through more than one hundred different Greek ballad collections to determine how these have influenced the Sephardic romancero. I combine with their results the Peninsular and Turkish …

Le "Devenir Féminin" Dans La Sociéte Moderne Occidentale À Travers Les Deux Romans De Virginie Despentes, Nadia Louar

Dissertations and Theses

Les deux premiers romans de Virginie Despentes, Baise-moi (1995) et les Chiennes Savantes (1996), attestent de la mutation socio-culturelle qui affecte la societe contemporaine. Son style insolent, son langage corrosif et volontairement Prosaïque confirme et signe I 'évolution dans le monde occidental des valeurs, des désirs et aspirations de 1'homme, et plus crucialement de la femme des années 90. Plus qu'une révolution des moeurs, on assiste dans ses deux premières oeuvres á une véritable mutation culturelle qui bouleverse les rôles et modéles traditionnels des individus dans la société. Ce bouleversement qui s'exprime dans la vie banale, mais définitivement violente de …

Translation As Interpretation: Siegfried Lenz' "Motivsuche", John F. Disterheft

Dissertations and Theses

It is the purpose of this thesis to show that literary interpretation and translation are closely interrelated, that the translator cannot pursue his goal, the transfer of a work of literature from one language into another, without interpreting that work as literature.

The Story In Kierkegaard And Newman, Laura Gill

Anthós Journal (1990-1996)

Kierkegaard and Newman might seem strange bedfellows, but both draw on stories from the Bible to inform their moral and ethical arguments. This paper shows how both philosophers use storylines and figures from the Bible to "gain a better understanding of the concept of faith for themselves as well as others." While both philosophers use the storylines to differing ends, this paper argues that the understanding of both philosophies is enhanced by viewing them both through this particular lens.

A 'Meta-Constructive' Reading Of Ursula K. Le Guin's The Hand Of Darkness, Annette M. Matthews

Anthós Journal (1990-1996)

Ursula K. le Guin’s fascinating and controversial novel, The Left Hand of Darkness, constructs meaning in multiple ways and at multiple levels. Using Todorov’s theory of “Reading as Construction,” this paper posits that le Guin’s novel requires the reader to be aware of their own reading in order to understand the text. The paper traces the idea of construction throughout the novel and ultimately suggests that the novel uses its differing points of view to force the reader to construct for themselves in order to understand the construction of the novel and its characters.

Nineteenth Century French And German Interpretations Of The Early Medieval Germanic Invasions, James N. Owens

Dissertations and Theses

Various interpretations of the Germanic invasions of the early Middle Ages have been advanced. These present to the student of historiography a fertile field for inquiry. In this thesis the interpretations of the Germanic invasions propounded by Jules Michelet (1798-1874) and Gustav Freytag (1816-1875) are examined with a view to establishing the cultural context in which their mutually exclusive versions were formulated, and the extent to which that context lent the interpretations of both writers a perceptible national and aesthetic bias.

"Myth Of The River Kwai", Ian P. Watt

Special Collections: Oregon Public Speakers

No abstract provided.

A Theory Of The Perception Of Character, Donna C. Brown

Dissertations and Theses

In this thesis, the critical term "character" is defined from a reader's perspective as a process involving three elements: (1) syntactical character, the printed words that delimit character in the order in which they occur; (2) spatial character, these printed words organized in the reader's mind into a pattern. These two together are called grammatical character; and (3) a mental image that results from reading these printed words.

"Responsibilities Of The Writer: A Display Of The Resistance To Communication", Ivor Armstrong Richards

Special Collections: Oregon Public Speakers

Nina Mae Kellogg annual lecture, given at 1:00 p.m. in the Old Main Auditorium, Portland State College

"The Divine Comedy And Tradition", Chandler Baker Beall

Special Collections: Oregon Public Speakers

No abstract provided.