1,720,968 research outputs found
The ‘Rest Cure’ Revisited: Resisting the Neoliberal Myths of Individualism and Self-Betterment in Ottessa Moshfegh’s My Year of Rest and Relaxation (2018)
No full textThe aim of this presentation is to explore how My Year of Rest and Relaxation (2018)––American author Ottessa Moshfegh’s most acclaimed novel––exposes and opposes, by thematically engaging with the outdated medical practice of the ‘rest cure’, the hyper-individualistic myths of self-betterment and wellness inherent to the US neoliberal context. A customary medical treatment during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, the rest cure was primarily prescribed to women who were diagnosed with typically ‘female’ mental disorders, such as hysteria or neurasthenia; however, as American author Perkins Gilman already revealed in her semi-autobiographical short story The Yellow Wallpaper (1892), this cure was frequently detrimental to the patients who, instead of healing, generally manifested ulterior negative physical and psychological side-effects. Nowadays, the rest cure is considered an outdated medical treatment that (fortunately) no longer holds any value nor is prescribed. Yet, it is my intention to argue that, by revisiting the theme of the rest cure, Moshfegh’s novel not only questions quintessentially American myths of individualism, personal empowerment, and wellness, but it also engages with a specific American literary tradition of representation of female madness (thus, entering into dialogue with Perkins Gilman’s short story). Set in New York City in 2000 and 2001, My Year of Rest and Relaxation depicts the emotional spiral of an unnamed female narrator in her twenties who, hoping for recovery and physical/psychological rebirth, attempts to sleep for an entire year. Past feminist readings of fictional female madness (or, mental illness), typically rooted in psychoanalytical discourses, were usually oriented towards the criticism of patriarchalism (Gilbert & Gubar 1979). This presentation, however, whilst drawing from Foucault’s (1961) correlation between madness and power, intends to adopt a posthuman feminist perspective––a philosophical approach that, being materially grounded, insists on the embodied and embedded nature of subjectivities, as theorized by Braidotti (2022)––to shed light on the criticism to and the practices of resistance to these dominant American neoliberal myths as represented by the novel
Putting Your Traumas to Rest: Uncovering the Neoliberal Myth of Self-Betterment in Ottessa Moshfegh’s My Year of Rest and Relaxation (2018)
No full textThe relationship between different types of crises (collective and private ones), the trauma resulting from their experience, and literature has been widely investigated in the field of Trauma Studies since the end of the 20th century. As critics argue, literature can be considered a privileged space to uncover, negotiate and sometimes even resolve traumatic experiences (Pellicer-Ortín & Sarikaya-Şen 2020), thus providing readers with valuable perspectives on quintessential human experiences. Bearing this premise in mind, and focusing on Ottessa Moshfegh’s most famous novel, My Year of Rest and Relaxation (2018), my presentation will try to highlight how the fictional trauma experienced by the main character of the novel, while acting as a catalyst for the overarching narrative, simultaneously undermines conventional narrative modes by portraying a perpetual state of extreme distress. Set in New York City in 2000 and 2001, the novel depicts the emotional spiral of an unnamed female narrator in her twenties who, after losing her parents, attempts to sleep for an entire year, hoping for physical as well as phycological recovery––namely her rebirth. By believing that the solution to the protagonist’s mourning and psychological ailments is in her hands, this novel engages with and exposes––as I intend to argue by drawing on posthuman feminism’s critique to feminist liberal humanism (Braidotti 2022)––the typically-American neoliberal myths of individualism, self-betterment, and wellness. If in the US neoliberal context, traumatic experiences, as well as mental disorders become problems to be hidden and, most importantly, resolved, Moshfegh’s novel addresses the paradoxes and discrepancies inherent to this mentality, whilst implicitly reaffirming an ‘ethics of vulnerability’ and ‘care’, as theorized by Gilson (2013) and Braidotti (2022)
‘Food was an unspoken language between us’: Practices of Healing in Michelle Zauner’s Grief Memoir, Crying in H Mart (2021)
No full textThe relationship between different types of crises (collective and private ones), the trauma resulting from their experience, and literature has been widely investigated in the field of Trauma Studies. Literature can be a privileged space to uncover, negotiate and even resolve personal experiences of crises and traumas (Pellicer-Ortín & Sarikaya-Şen 2020), thus providing readers with valuable perspectives on quintessential human experiences. Bearing this in mind, my presentation will concentrate on Michelle Zauner’s literary debut, Crying in H Mart (2021), a poignant ‘grief memoir’ (according to Fowler 2007; Berman 2010; Małecka 2023’s definition of the term) recounting the author’s mourning in the aftermath of her mother’s death to pancreatic cancer. In this autobiographical account, the strict relationship between the loss of a loved one and the loss of one’s ‘sense of self’ or ‘identity’––as defined by modern bereavement theorists such as Silverman (2005) and Parkes & Prigerson (2010)––is pivotal, as Michelle, born in Korea and raised in the US, feels her ‘Koreanness’ (Zauner 2021) swiftly fading away the moment she loses her mother. If the act of writing helps Zauner to cope with her grief both on the diegetic and extradiegetic level of the narrative, it is the act of cooking and eating Korean food that allows her to reconnect with her late mother as well as with her identity as a Korean-American woman. Drawing on the anthropological literature on the relationship between food, trauma, and identity (Strand 2023), I also intend to emphasize the role of cooking as a coping mechanism within this autobiographical narrative. Lastly, this presentation, aims at highlighting the cultural relevance of this contemporary literary genre, as well as opening up a discussion on its potential therapeutic benefits, both for authors and readers alike
Vulnerable Body, Vulnerable Mind: 'The New Me' (2019) by Halle Butler
No full textThis paper aims to explore the representation of contemporary female vulnerability in 'The New Me' (TNM) (2019) by Halle Butler. Set in Chicago, TNM depicts the emotional spiral of a thirty-year-old antiheroine, Millie, who, whilst navigating the world of temp-jobs, constantly obsesses over the ways she could change herself and her life. The relationship between different types of crises (both collective and private ones), the trauma resulting from their experience, and literature has been widely investigated in the field of Trauma Studies since the end of the twentieth century. Literature can be considered a privileged space to uncover, negotiate and even resolve traumatic experiences, whilst exploring vulnerable identities (Pellicer-Ortín & Sarikaya-Şen 2020), and therefore can offer readers valuable perspectives on the human experience. Drawing from this theoretical framework, this paper argues that TNM can be read as a ‘chronic crisis novel’ (Fuchs 2022). While modern crisis narratives usually feature a crucial tipping point following a climactic build-up, chronic crisis novels dislodge the narrative modes and epistemological frames of modern crisis narratives by portraying a perpetual state of extreme distress. Despite her hoping for personal betterment and the so-called ‘good life’ (Berlant 2011), Millie is never able to achieve them by the end of the novel – capitalism and American consumer culture being two of the main reasons behind her failure. Stuck in a perpetual unhappy present, the novel forefronts – as this paper will try to argue – the connection between mental instability, psychological vulnerability, and the grotesque female body (McWilliam 2003, Clark 2023). Through this reading, the novel appears to be underlining the impossibility of resilience and the importance of vulnerability in contemporary American society
Navigating Foreign Spaces: Selin’s Journey in Elif Batuman’s 'The Idiot' (2017)
No full textThis paper intends to explore the relationship between space and gender in Elif Batuman’s debut coming-of-age novel 'The Idiot' (2017). Set in the 1990s, the novel follows a year in the life of Selin Karadağ, a first-generation Turkish-American woman, who is a freshman studying linguistics at Harvard University. Whilst the first part of the novel is set in the university campus and is characterized by a sequence of loosely connected chronological episodes that see Selin meeting new people and taking different classes, the second part – which starts with the end of the school year – recounts Selin’s journey across Europe, as she travels to Paris, then to Budapest and the Hungarian countryside, and ends up in Turkey, in Antalya, where her Turkish relatives live. Part of the contemporary Turkish American literary tradition (Furlanetto 2017), 'The Idiot' does not simply recount the experience of a first-generation migrant who tries to balance two cultural traditions in U.S. territory (Walkowitz 2006, 531); more accurately, I intend to argue that the novel can be considered part of the American literary tradition of the ethnic Bildungsroman and, as such, it unsettles the conservative closure of the traditional (and European) Bildungsroman by 'challeng[ing] from various perspectives the developmental narrative of assimilation' (Bolaki 2011, 12-13). Selin’s inability to understand and decode the surrounding world never finds a solution and the relationship between herself and the people around her becomes even more complicated as the plot moves forward. In fact, as Townsend contends, Selin is ‘idiotic’ in the Dostoevskyan sense since she is independent and alien to ‘the traditional structures of “Western philosophy” and the mainstreams of European and North American culture’ (Townsend 2021, 1). Unable to bridge the gap between herself and society, between language and the world, by the end of the novel, she becomes severely depressed, and chooses to give up on her dreams as a writer. By examining the portrayal of space – namely, the campus and elitist academic life (hence, America in the eyes of a first-generation immigrant woman), and her unravelling journey across Europe – this paper intends to shed light on the nuanced relationship between female identity/vulnerability and self-discovery in the novel, contributing to deeper understandings of contemporary female Bildungsroman narratives
Times of Contemporary Distress: 'My Year of Rest and Relaxation' (2018) as a Chronic Crisis Novel
No full textThe relationship between different types of crises (both collective and private ones), the trauma resulting from their experience, and literature has been widely investigated in the field of Trauma Studies since the end of the Twentieth century. As critics argue, literature can be considered a privileged space to uncover, negotiate and even resolve traumatic experiences and vulnerable identities (Pellicer-Ortín & Sarikaya-Şen 2020), and therefore can offer readers valuable perspectives on the human experience. Within this theoretical framework, this paper aims to explore the connection between literature and the concept of crisis through a reading of 'My Year of Rest and Relaxation' (MYoRaR) (2018) by Ottessa Moshfegh. Set in New York City in 2000 and 2001, MYoRaR depicts the emotional spiral of an unnamed female narrator in her twenties who attempts to sleep for an entire year in the hope that this will lead to a sort of rebirth. However, personal traumas and historical crises are here strictly interwoven. As Keeble (2022) argues, the novel can be read as an historical narrative questioning the myth of the social liberalism of the late ‘90s, whilst simultaneously addressing the historical, social, and cultural ailments leading up to 9/11. This paper argues that MYoRaR can be read as a ‘chronic crisis novel’ (Fuchs 2022). While modern crisis narratives usually feature a crucial tipping point following a climactic build-up, chronic crisis novels undermine the narrative modes and epistemological frames of modern crisis narratives by portraying a perpetual state of extreme distress. The protagonist’s desire to lose track of time parallels the plot’s impossibility to move forward (Greenberg 2021), its endless and frozen present mirroring the long-lasting permanence of crisis. This paper argues that MYoRaR fits Fuchs’s definition of the genre based on such features as the use of exhaustion and hopelessness as symptoms of broader social issues, the narrative technique of communicative silence, and the problematized relationship between present, inescapable past and inconceivable future
Catastrofemales of the New Millennium: A Posthuman Feminist Perspective on Twenty-First Century Antiheroines in Selected Works of Contemporary American Fiction
No full textLocated at the intersection of literary and gender studies, my PhD project focuses on the representation of female ‘madness’ (or, more properly, mental disorder) in contemporary female-authored American fiction. If past feminist readings of fictional female madness, usually rooted in psychoanalytical discourses, would be oriented towards the criticism of patriarchalism (Gilbert & Gubar 1979), this project, whilst drawing from Foucault’s correlation between madness and power (Foucault 1961), explores the concept of madness – hence, abnormality – as functioning in the contemporary Western world, where the emancipatory potential of technology and of the academic recognition of non-binary cultural practices promises change (Braidotti 2012, 2022). Based on the premise that posthumanism, redefining subjectivity/agency, renders some of the past dualisms – viz. mind-body, sanity-insanity – invalid, I revisit the question of how do novels entering into a dialog with post-human discourse portray mental disorders, and more importantly, to what end? It is my intention to argue that posthuman feminist approaches (aware of the proliferation of new Manifestos) can help us explore the present-day relationship between fictional madness and contemporary relations of power, by focusing, in particular, on the interconnection between mental illness, the female body (embodied experience of madness), and the phenomenon of shame (Szatanik 2011). Lastly, in this context, an intersectional approach can help us account for structural inequalities that affect women, both as fictional characters and as living beings. On this premise, I adapt Morrow’s (2017) intersectional perspective to my analysis of the selected corpus of texts, emphasizing the intersectional dynamics of madness, gender, race, and class. Such a strategy allows me to address the essential research questions of my project: how does the selected corpus of novels represent female madness (i.e., mental disorders) nowadays? How do the writers convey the experience of women in contemporary society? Are there differences within the corpus that account for existing structural inequalities? Why do twenty-first-century female authors, both white and non-white, still use clichéd characters as their literary archetype? And finally: can the ‘catastrofemale’ be considered the antihero of the new Millennium? Are these literary attempts representative of the birth of a new aesthetic position
Those Who Come Back: Ghosts Onstage from Aeschylus to Shakespeare
No full textToday a thriving area of research interest, the relationship between Shakespeare and the classics has aroused mixed feelings in the past. While never denying the indebtedness to the cultural and literary heritage of classical Rome and Greece, scholarship has long tended to present English drama as substantially free from the auctoritas of classical antiquity, and stress Shakespeare’s individual and original voice. This book grew from a Comparative Literature postgraduate seminar held at the Department of Studi Umanistici of the University of Torino, and devoted to recent studies in classical reception. The focus was Shakespeare’s reception of the Greek and Latin culture. Basing the work on the essays by Charles Martindale, A. B. Taylor, and Jonathan Bate, a group of young scholars explored how the various patterns of the classical world influenced Shakespeare’s thought, imagery and style, and his sense of performance. Resulting from a varied set of relationships, therefore, Shakespeare’s response to the classics testifies to a life-long engagement, which has certainly contributed to making his literary output stand out as multi-layered and open to different interpretations, just as the contributions collected in this volume show
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
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