1,721,008 research outputs found
Review of Constellations: Children of Men by Dan Dinello
No full textAtasoy, Emrah. Review of Constellations: Children of Men by Dan Dinello (Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire: Auteur Press, 2019. 132 pp.). Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts 31.3 (2020): 453-456
The Portrayal of Family and Self-reflexivity in Luigi Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author
Full text linkLuigi Pirandello’s play, Six Characters in Search of an Author (1921, Sei personaggi in cerca d’autore)
portrays numerous significant and functional characteristics of metatheatre, a concept coined by Lionel
Abel. By drawing on such metatheatrical features and the play within a play technique, Pirandello’s play
presents six characters that are in search of an author. This study will, therefore, explain the concept
of metatheatre and present a critical analysis of the play, Six Characters as a self-reflexive play. In this
critical engagement with the text through specific references from the play and relevant secondary sources,
important themes in the play such as reality and illusion, life, art, and the representation of the family in the
play will be analysed. This analysis will ultimately demonstrate that Pirandello presents six characters that
are self-conscious of their position as dramatic characters that manage to act out their roles, which actually
reveal the family relationships between the characters
Translating Thomas More into Turkish: Domestication and Foreignization Strategies in Utopia (1516)
Full text linkThomas More’s seminal text, Utopia (1516), a highly significant text of utopian literature, or the founding text of the literary tradition of utopianism, as some scholars argue, has been translated numerous times into Turkish. More’s text has become crucial as an inspirational source in the quest for utopia, which the utopian scholar Lyman Tower Sargent describes as “a non-existent society described in considerable detail and normally located in time and space” (1994, p. 9). Although there does not exist a rich tradition of utopianism in Turkish literature, there has been a growing interest in the literary genre over the last decades, which has accordingly resulted in a substantial increase in the quantity and quality of such utopian and dystopian works to be produced and to be translated. More’s text has been translated from such languages as English, German, French, and Latin into Turkish, but there exists only one translation from Latin, the original language of the source text. In this regard, this presentation will seek to compare and analyze these different translations of More’s Utopia with specific references to the domestication, which can be described as “an ethnocentric reduction of the foreign text to target language cultural values, bringing the author back home” (Venuti, 1995, p. 20) and foreignization, which “allows the readers to experience the ‘otherness’ of a foreign text” (Ajtony, 2017, p. 96) strategies
Hope in Speculative Literature: Utopia & Dystopia on the Screen
Full text linkSpeculative fiction offers a possibility to look beyond the reality and to imagine alternative world scenarios, which enables us an opportunity to question the existing social order through its potential to break existing boundaries of normality and imagine the impossible and the unknown. Therefore, the figures who have been traditionally accepted as “abnormal” or socially excluded are given a voice in the imagined or fantastic realms of speculative works. Speculative texts, which have become especially popular with the COVID-19 pandemic, have a strong potential to function as warnings through their worldbuilding capacity, as they draw particular attention to numerous problems and issues such as ecological crisis, climate crisis, population problem, and the use of technology.
In this regard, utopia and dystopia, which can be categorized as the subgenres of speculative literature, have gained popularity both in academia and among the general public, as people are attracted more and more by dystopian futures and quests to discover utopian dreams. Dystopia, which the eminent utopian scholar Lyman Tower Sargent describes as “a non-existent society described in considerable detail and normally located in time and space that the author intended a contemporaneous reader to view as considerably better than the society in which the reader lived” is traditionally considered to be lacking in hope, as dystopian narratives illustrate nightmarish world scenarios but hope in dystopian fiction can be ascertained through a close reading of such relevant works (“The Three Faces,” 1994: 9). In this regard, the aim of this paper is to seek hope and utopian impulse in speculative fiction through the discussion of selected utopian and/or dystopian works, especially critical dystopias, and their screen adaptations
Problematizing the Definition of Utopia and Dystopia
Full text link“Problematizing the Definition of Utopia and Dystopia
Oppression and Control in Utopian and Dystopian Fiction
Full text linkThe themes of oppression and control play a highly significant role in dystopian fiction which illustrates alternative world scenarios. These fictional social orders portray possible worse scenarios unless certain necessary measurements are taken. In these portrayals, individuality is suppressed for the alleged welfare of the society and the collective interests of a ruling body are accordingly highlighted. The aim of this study is therefore to discuss the representation of oppression and control in dystopian narratives through the analysis of the three selected speculative texts, namely A Modern Utopia by H. G. Wells, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, and Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell with specific references from relevant secondary sources
Conflict between the Individual and Society in Jeanette Winterson’s Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
Full text linkJeanette Winterson’s novel, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (1985)
illustrates the story of a young girl, Jeanette, who experiences suppressive
upbringing at the hands of her mother and her surroundings. Through the
portrayal of her transition into adulthood, the novel touches on numerous
challenging issues such as gender, identity, and the reliability of the
mainstream patriarchal discourse. The main character’s gradual
transformation reveals the controversial aspects of her society juxtaposed
with her sexual orientation as a lesbian and her oppositional stance against
the ingrained doctrine of the Church. This study will, in this respect, discuss
Jeanette’s rebellion as an individual against her oppressive society in
Winterson’s Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit through specific references
from the primary source and relevant secondary sources in an ultimate
attempt to reveal how identity, gender roles, and truth are all discursive
practices
Epistemological Warfare and Hope in Critical Dystopia
No full textThis book focuses on the transition from innocence and ignorance to experience and knowledge in dystopian fiction, revealing that truth and knowledge in Katharine Burdekin’s Swastika Night, Anthony Burgess’s The Wanting Seed, and P. D. James’s The Children of Men are fictional constructs. These critical dystopias show characters’ journeys from ignorance to experience as a process of epistemological warfare. The protagonists’ initial ignorance is shattered through various symbolic transformations, increasing the utopian undertone within these examples of critical dystopia. The open-ended structure of these texts reinforces the hope of the utopian impulses and of revisionary epistemologies that might lead to more just, meritocratic societies
A CRITICAL INSIGHT INTO MATTHEW ARNOLD’S “THE SCHOLAR-GIPSY”
No full textMatthew Arnold, one of the representative figures of the Victorian age, a period of transition
and transformation as well as of scientific and technological developments, presents the
characteristics of his age by means of his poetry. In this regard, he illustrates a wide range of
topics such as isolation, alienation, frustration, the condition of the modern man, and faith in
his poems. His poem, “The Scholar-Gipsy” deals with such themes through the wanderings of
an Oxford student that joins the gypsies in order to learn their secret. It is a pastoral poem that
draws a detailed picture of the landscape and is narrated from the poet’s point of view. He
talks to the shepherd and addresses the scholar. Modern life is depicted in its negative aspects,
and the mortal men suffer in this modern life. The poet is presented as a figure that might
have psychological crisis and feels alienation, loneliness, and frustration. His personality is
split in a state of loss and looks for the spiritual harmony. This paper will in this respect
discuss Matthew Arnold’s attitude towards his age and the poet’s desire to escape from
modern life in the light of the critical analysis of Arnold’s poem, “The Scholar-Gipsy.
Spekülatif Kurguda Salgın Teması
No full textTARAMATRDİZİNSpekülatif edebî geleneğin, üretildiği toplumun gerçekliği ile yakın bir ilişkisi vardır. Spekülatif eserlerde, kurgusal mekânların kullanılması, zamanın uzak bir gelecekte olacak şekilde tasarlanması, hayal gücünün ön plana çıkması ve günümüz koşullarında gerçekleşmesi mümkün olmayan teknolojik ve bilimsel gelişmelerin sunulması gibi faktörler, bu geleneğin gerçeklikten kopuk olabileceği düşüncesini uyandırabilir. Ancak, COVID-19 pandemisi ile mücadele eden günümüz dünyasında, spekülatif kurgunun bağlamsal boyutu belirgin bir şekilde ortaya çıkmıştır. Covid-19 dünyasında insanların hayatları, distopyalardaki ve bilim kurgu eserlerindeki karakterlerin hayatlarına benzer hâle gelmiştir. Alternatif kurmaca senaryolarla, olası dünya düzenlerini işleyen bu edebî gelenek içerisinde, salgın temalı spekülatif eserleri bulmak mümkündür. COVID-19; bilim kurgu, apokaliptik ve post-apokaliptik kurgu ve distopya gibi spekülatif edebiyatın alt türlerine olan ilgiyi ulusal ve uluslararası seviyede artırmıştır. Bu noktadan yola çıkarak bu çalışmanın amacı, spekülatif edebî geleneğin gerçek dünya ile ilişkisini, salgın teması üzerinden ortaya koymak ve spekülatif kurgunun, günümüzü ve geleceği anlamadaki önemini, jenerik özelliklere göndermelerde bulunarak tartışmaktır. Sonuç olarak, spekülatif metinlerin olası gelecek senaryolarını anlamlandırmada yol gösterici ve uyarıcı metinler olduğu savunulacaktır
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