Comparative Literature Commons^™

Fiction, Biography, Autobiography, And Postmodern Nostalgia In (Con)Texts Of Return, Patricia D. Fox

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

Patricia D. Fox discusses in her article, "Fiction, Biography, Autobiography, and Postmodern Nostalgia in (Con)Texts of Return," the meditations, in novel and essay, of variously positioned writers and protagonists as each contemplates return to a never glimpsed or long-lost geographical and cultural center. Attempting to decipher the grounding in place and time, by heritage or tradition, Fox's analysis juxtaposes selected texts: Hungarian Rhapsodies: Essays on Ethnicity, Identity and Culture (Richard Teleky, 1997); Out of America: A Black Man Confronts Africa (Keith B. Richburg, 1998); Dreaming in Cuban: A Novel (Cristina García, 1992); The Hundred Secret Senses (Amy Tan, 1995); Next …

The New Comparative Literature: A Review Article Of Work By Bassnett, Bernheimer, Chevrel, And Tötösy, Joseph Pivato

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

No abstract provided.

Popular And Highbrow Literature: A Comparative View, Peter Swirski

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article, "Popular and Highbrow Literature: A Comparative View," Peter Swirski discusses the role and status of popular fiction in contemporary culture. Starting with the basic question, "Who needs popular fiction?," he surveys select sociological evidence and prevailing aesthetic arguments in order to take stock of the ways in which highbrow literature and popular fiction relate to each other. He begins with statistical and socio-economic data which casts a different lights on many myths prevailing in scholarship as well as in general social and cultural discourse, such as the death of the novel, the alleged decline of the reading …

A Comparative Approach To European Folk Poetry And The Erotic Wedding Motif, Louise O. Vasvari

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article, "A Comparative Approach to European Folk Poetry and the Erotic Wedding Motif," Louise O. Vasvari posits that while the corpus of folk poetry in any one area of Europe always differs from neighboring traditions, of greater interest is the existence of a large amount of related material across the continent. Nevertheless, while research in folk poetry has been rich in field collecting and cataloguing, there exists little in-depth comparative study of folk poetry. Doubtless, this is owing in part to the fact that the great majority of the texts are accessible only in the original language or …

A Comparative Analysis Of Text And Music And Gender And Audience In Duke Bluebeard's Castle, Andrea Fábry

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

Andrea Fábry discusses in her article, "A Comparative Analysis of Text and Music and Gender and Audience in Duke Bluebeard's Castle," the image of Bluebeard as a metaphor for gender relations. Béla Bartók's opera and its libretto represent a prime example of the metaphor that in turn can be found in a range of text types, from fairy tales through novels to films. In the article, Fábry analyzes Bartók's contribution to the metaphor, namely with his opera, Duke Bluebeard's Castle. She relates the opera to the text of the opera's libretto, written by film theoretician Béla Balázs, and places her …

Literature, "In-House" Writers, And Processes Of Success In Publishing, Frank De Glas

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

Frank de Glas discusses in his article, "Literature, 'In-House' Writers, and Processes of Success in Publishing," the fact that too many studies of twentieth-century publishing practices concentrate on individual case studies while neglecting more general patterns and that too little use is made of theoretical concepts developed in the sociology of cultural production. He argues that one of the contributing elements in the economic and artistic success of a publishing house is the bringing together of a productive group of "in-house authors." To build up and to maintain such a group, publishers steadily launch new authors who they hope will …

Western Mediations In Reevaluating The Communist Past: A Comparative Analysis Of Gothár's Time Stands Still And Andonov's Yesterday, Roumiana Deltcheva

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

Roumiana Deltcheva's article, "Western Mediations in Reevaluating the Communist Past: A Comparative Analysis of Gothár's Time Stands Still and Andonov's Yesterday," offers a comparative analysis of two films, Peter Gothár's Time Stands Still and Ivan Andonov's Yesterday. Both films appeared in the 1980s, in Hungary and Bulgaria, respectively, and were highly acclaimed by the critics and the audience. Both films deal with the Communist past of these two countries. In her analysis, Deltcheva's adopts the perspective of "in-between peripherality," a particular manifestation of the post-colonial paradigm in its application to East Central and Central Europe. The two films use similar …

Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient, 'History,' And The Other, Steven Tötösy De Zepetnek

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article, "Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient, 'History,' and the Other," Steven Tötösy discusses the historical background of Michael Ondaatje's novel, The English Patient (1992). The historical background and its analysis extend to selected aspects of Anthony Minghella's and Michael Ondaatje's adaptation of the novel to film (1996) and the ensuing controversy after the release of the film. From the historical background Tötösy designates as the "Almásy theme" of the novel and the film, he relates Ondaatje's engagement of the protagonist -- Central European Hungarian László Almásy -- to the notion of the Other as a historical and fictional …

Théophile Gautier And The Orient, F. Elizabeth Dahab

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article, "Théophile Gautier and the Orient," F. Elizabeth Dahab discusses the function of the Orient in general, and in particular, the function of Ancient Egypt in some of Gautier's contes fantastiques written between 1835 and 1857. Gautier and many of his contemporaries including Baudelaire wanted to escape from a society dominated by the idea of progress. They expressed deep doubt in many of their texts and strived to find solace in the notion of permanence in art characteristic of Ancient Egyptian architecture and mortuary customs. They also believed that Ancient Egypt may provide an answer to humanity's quest …

George Eliot Birthday Luncheon: The Toast To The Immortal Memory 1999, Kathryn Hughes

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

It is a tremendous honour to be talking to you today. When I first started work on my biography of George Eliot back in 1993 I never imagined that I would one day be celebrating her birthday with the people to whom her life and work mean so much, the members of the George Eliot Fellowship.

Of course, when I began my research all those years ago, I knew that I would be learning about one of the greatest literary artists of the nineteenth century. But what I hadn't anticipated was just how modem and relevant George Eliot's work would …

Reading Space As Time In Great Plains Recollective Architecture, Paul A. Olson

Department of English: Faculty Publications

It is a long way from Black Elk's tipi to the Stuart building. Clearly most cultures and periods impose one or more narrative plots on time and space (I have written of four that were part of the recent past of this state). It may be that we will need soon to return again to a celebration of the cyclical in our architecture. If the ethos of domination that goes with linear, progressive notions of time is as destructive to our environment as the Club of Rome (and other successor study groups looking at the future of the planet) have …

Jared Diamond. Guns, Germs, And Steel: The Fates Of Human Societies., Laina Farhat-Holzman

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

Towards The History Of Hungarians In Alberta, Steven Tötösy De Zepetnek

CLCWeb Library

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Globalization And The New Media On The Notion Of World Literature, Ernst Grabovszki

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

Ernst Grabovszki discusses in his article, "The Impact of Globalization and the New Media on the Notion of World Literature," aspects of communication and scholarship in the humanities in the context of social processes resulting from globalization and the impact of new media. The author suggests that the process of communication, the processes of creativity, and the study of literature and the changes these areas are now experiencing owing to the impact of globalization and new media should be studied from a systemic and empirical point of view. Further, the article is an exposition of changes we observe with regard …

Nietzsche And The Knowledge Of The Child At Play: On The Question Of Metaphysics, Johannes F. Welfing

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his paper, "Nietzsche and the Knowledge of the Child at Play: On the Question of Metaphysics," Johannes Welfing raises the question of a Nietzschean metaphysical presence (did Nietzsche define the essence of life and of being and thus also implicitly establish an imperative about the way in which one should lead one's life, or did he refrain from all definition, truth, system or law whatsoever?). The controversy continues: while for some critics Nietzsche's philosophy is animated by a desire for truth, others emphasize the novelty of a philosophical project that questions the very premises on which it is based. …

New Ways In Comparative Literature: A Review Article Of New Work By Tötösy And Tötösy, Dimic, And Sywenky, Ernst Grabovszki

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

No abstract provided.

Identity Politics In Atwood, Kogawa, And Wolf, Jean Wilson

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

Jean Wilson's article, "Identity Politics in Atwood, Kogawa, and Wolf," is a comparative study of three texts published in the early 1980s: Atwood's "Significant Moments in the Life of My Mother," Kogawa's Obasan, and Wolf's Cassandra. Identity politics figure prominently in all three literary works, whose common poetic project is one of demythologization and of enabling at the same time the emergence of a new, liberating articulation, a language perhaps "never heard before." These writings interrogate the construction of identities in a patriarchal culture and contribute to a more complex understanding of identity formation. All three works, albeit in different …

Review Of Didier Souiller And Wladimir Troubetzkoy's Littérature Comparée, Thomas Pavel

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

No abstract provided.

Familial Autobiography And The World: A Review Article Of Work By Kenzaburo Oe, Manuel Yang

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

No abstract provided.

From Comparative Literature Today Toward Comparative Cultural Studies, Steven Tötösy De Zepetnek

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "From Comparative Literature Today Toward Comparative Cultural Studies" Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek proposes a theoretical approximation of already established and current aspects of the discipline of comparative literature and the field of cultural studies. "Comparative cultural studies" is conceived as an approach with three areas of theoretical content: 1) To study literature (text and/or literary system) with and in the context of culture and the discipline of cultural studies; 2) In cultural studies itself to study literature with borrowed elements (theories and methods) from comparative literature; and 3) To study culture and its composite parts and aspects …

Another Person's Skin: Imagining Race In The Works Of Crane, Dunbar, Cather And Stevens, Lisa M. Durose

Dissertations

This study is interested in the motivations behind certain authors' attempts to, in the words of Willa Cather, "enter into another person's skin"~in the desires compelling writers to cross, transgress, or perhaps transcend those barriers that have historically divided people in the world: barriers of color, class, and gender. In particular it seeks to examine the works of four early twentieth century writers who undertake what these days is considered risky: transracial and transethnic crossings. By relying on biographical, cultural, and historical sources, I explore the strategies American writers Stephen Crane (1871-1900), Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872- 1906), Willa Cather (1873-1947), …

The Zhang Yimou Model, Tonglin Lu

Journal of Modern Literature in Chinese 現代中文文學學報

No abstract provided.

Re-Dreaming The Butterfly Dream, Xinda Lian

Journal of Modern Literature in Chinese 現代中文文學學報

No abstract provided.

David Der-Wei Wang. Fin-De-Siècle Splendor : Repressed Modernities Of Late Qing Fiction, 1849-1911, Tze Lan D. Sang

Journal of Modern Literature in Chinese 現代中文文學學報

This article reviews the book "Fin-de-siecle Splendor: Repressed Modernities of Late Qing Fiction, 1849-1911" written by David Der-wei Wang.

Sheldon Hsiao-Peng Lu. Transnational Chinese Cinemas : Identity, Nationhood, Gender, Ru Shou, Robert Chen

Journal of Modern Literature in Chinese 現代中文文學學報

This article reviews the book "Transnational Chinese Cinemas: Identity, Nationhood, Gender" edited by Sheldon Hsiao-peng Lu.

Maghiel Van Crevel. Language Shattered : Contemporary Chinese Poetry And Duoduo, Paul Manfredi

Journal of Modern Literature in Chinese 現代中文文學學報

This article reviews the book "Language Shattered: Contemporary Chinese Poetry and Duoduo" written by Maghiel van Crevel.

Wang Shuo And The Chinese Image/Inary : Visual Simulacra And The Writing Of History, Carlos Rojas

Journal of Modern Literature in Chinese 現代中文文學學報

No abstract provided.

略論海外華文小說中的"文革敍述", Zidong Xu

Journal of Modern Literature in Chinese 現代中文文學學報

No abstract provided.

旅行與異樣現代性 : 試探吳濁流的《南京雜感》, Ping Hui Liao

Journal of Modern Literature in Chinese 現代中文文學學報

No abstract provided.

Zheng Yi. Scarlet Memorial : Tales Of Cannibalism In Modern China, William A. Lyell

Journal of Modern Literature in Chinese 現代中文文學學報

This article reviews the book "Scarlet Memorial: Tales of Cannibalism in Modem China", written by Zheng Yi, translated and edited by T. P. Sym.