Comparative Literature Commons^™

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 …

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 …

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.

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 …

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

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

No abstract provided.

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.

Eating Babies Is Right And Wrong Or Neither Of The Above : Jonathan Swift And Huang Biyun, David Barry D. Asker

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

No abstract provided.

Comparative Literature In Spain Today: A Review Article Of New Work By Romero, Vega And Carbonell, And Guillén, Pablo Zambrano

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

No abstract provided.

Poetic Image And Tradition In Western European Modernism, José Manuel Losada Goya

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

José Manuel Losada Goya investigates in his article "Poetic Image and Tradition in Western European Modernism: Pound, Lorca, Claudel," aspects of poetic imagery in modernism. The analysis of the changes brought about by modern poetry involves just as much the study of content as it does of form. In the very beginning of modernity, the poet feels the necessity to invent another tradition, distinct in spatial-temporal parameters and in rhetorical procedures. In the article, attention is paid to both the re-modification of the phonological figures (especially in rhyme and rhythm) and the restructuring of lexical levels (especially in metaphor and …

The Innocence Of Children: Effects Of Vulgarity In South Park, Emily Ravenwood

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

Emily Ravenwood examines in her article, "The Innocence of Children: Effects of Vulgarity in South Park" the way in which the appropriation of low culture into high art can operate to simultaneously raise and lower the cultural capital of the art in question. Usually, in definitions of high and low art vulgarity is understood as a negative representation. This dismissal is rooted in the linguistic and political relationship between vulgarity and perceived "lower class" realities. In the context of artistic representation, however, vulgarity can be a powerful weapon to enforce attention and awareness of foreign realities in a middle class …

East Central Europe As A Politically Correct Scapegoat: The Case Of Bulgaria, Roumiana Deltcheva

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

Roumiana Deltcheva analyzes in her article "East Central Europe as a Politically Correct Scapegoat: The Case of Bulgaria" the mechanisms of image construction of East Central Europe in the West, taking Bulgaria as a case study as seen in literary and filmic texts. A historical overview of literary and theoretical texts which deal with the cultural semiosphere of Bulgaria is presented to demonstrate that contrary to widely held perceptions in North American (US and Canada) "politically correct" scholarship, Europe is not a homogeneous cultural unity. In fact, a clear centre/periphery situation is established and delineated along the geographical axis West/East …

Some Observations About The Suicide Of The Adulteress In The Modern Novel, Babis Dermitzakis

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

Babis Dermitzakis posits in his article "Some Observations about the Suicide of the Adulteress in the Modern Novel" that in three major male-authored European novels -- Madame Bovary, Anna Karenina, and Thérèse Raquin -- the protagonists are wives who commit adultery ending in suicide. In contrast, texts by women authors of the period show no similar description and perception of adultery by women. Dermitzakis suspects that the male writers did not simply fictionalize a specific social behavior or condition; rather, they likely imported their own prejudices about women's adultery -- and more generally about women's sexuality -- into their …