1,720,966 research outputs found
The Validity of the Vision: The Scholar’s “Fight to Find the Lost Element”
Full text linkIn the context of Anorld’s poetic landscape, the “forest glade” is gone and the “glimmering sea is far beyond the reach of people who are wandering in the “darkling plain” where the genuine self is buried. The inability to find the genuine self, brought about by loss of hope, made the inhabitants of the “burning plain” continue their oscillations between the frustrating world and what they unconsciously felt to be its essential existence. It is actually because of this lack of courage that Empedocles suspends his own life. The inhabitants of the “burning desert” wait passively, and the culture simultaneously wait for the light; they are shown as awaiting some revolution, but they are in a mood of “not being” or in a continual disappointment, without specific purpose. The aim of this essay is to show the changes in the passive, meditative mood of Arnold’s characters who begin the active life of the quest to find the genuine self. This quest begins with the story of “The Scholar Gipsy”.
Regressive Progression: the Quest for Self-transcendence in Western Tragedy
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Reimagining Elizabeth Alexander’s “The Antebellum Dream” through the Lens of Social Practice Theory
Full text linkThe present paper aims to examine Elizabeth Alexander’s The Antebellum Dream Book through the prism of Dorothy Holland’s ‘Social Practice Theory’ in an attempt to unravel how African American identity is built, disintegrated, and repossessed both as a legacy of the past and part of history and culture. The close examination of important poems like “Fugue”, “Visitor”, “Race”, and “Early Cinema”, underscores how Alexander has merged the memory, geography, and the surreal imagery to criticize and redefine the Black identity as a reaction to slavery, migration, and racial violence. Besides being a poetic record of trauma and struggle, the collection is also a place of active cultural formation and the construction of subjectivity. The paper illustrates how the poetic voice of Alexander involves collective memory, disrupts the dominant racial master narratives, and puts Black body and voice in place as both objects and agents of change through a socio-historical approach. In conclusion, the paper establishes the relevance of the anthology as a crucial literary place of expression of identity (both Black and personal), agency, recovery, and movement within the intersection of past trauma and the futur
The Tlonic World of Harry Potter: An Idealistic Version of Magical World
Full text linkConsidered as literary pieces of fantasy and secondarily a possible version of magic realism, J.K. Rowling’s seven Harry Potter (1997-2007) novels have been involving the readers of different age groups and succeeded in unleashing the target imagination. Taking into account the different probable associations, it is of novelty to draw comparisons between the magical world of Harry Potter (1997-2007) and that of Tlon in Jorge Luis Borges’ short story “Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis, Tertius" (1941). In both worlds there exist images and implied notions that serve to naturalize the supernatural and to blur the line between the real and the imaginary. Making use of Berkeleyan theory of idealism, the power of mind is emphasized upon due to its capability of bringing into existence any object, concept or incident that seems materially and logically impossible. Meanwhile, an abstract force that is Love is highlighted in the novels that could be assumed as functioning like the omniscient God of Berkeley holding the universe together with its mere presence. Therefore, a new perspective in discovering a truth of life would be dragged into view as a result of the products of one’s mind
Allegorized Subaltern: Subjectivity and Death in the Works of Bahman Ghobadi
Full text linkThe aim of the present study is to explore the reflection of the subaltern in the works of Kurdish filmmaker, Bahman Ghobadi. In order to do so, three periods in the development of the works of Ghobadi is analyzed. These periods include the time prior to the invasion of Iraq by United States and its allies when A Time for Drunken Horses (2000) and The Songs of my Homeland (2002) appear. The second phase is at the time of the invasion of Iraq including Turtles can Fly (2004), and the third period is after the invasion with Rhino Season (2012). These works deal with the neglected minority within Kurdish ethnicity and look through the ways in which there might be a possibility for this group to attain a sense of identity. Facing internal and external oppression, minority-within-minority section of the Kurdish society finds no way for resistance other than death where the power structures that are in a tacit concurrence in its subjugation are challenged and as a result, a space is created where the subaltern can speak
Borges’s “The Intruder” Remediated: Adaptation to Silver/Cyber Screens
Full text linkThe present article is a critical scene for studying Ghazal 1975, an Iranian film by Masud Kimiai and Natalie Bookchin’s videogame, The Intruder 1999, both adapted from Borges’s short story, “The Intruder”. Exploiting Linda Hutcheon’s A Theory of Adaptation (three modes of engagement in a story), the concentration is on showing how Borges’s story, as a telling mode (print), is remediated into showing (film) and interactive (video game). Ghazal exercises both fidelity criticism and appropriation regarding contextualization and adaptability, whereas The Intruder is a game of narration and interaction simultaneously, where the significance lies at studying the game’s “narrative mode” as a show case of Cyber Literature. The effort is aimed at scrutinizing how literary adaptations as forms of remediation are practically the manifestations of change in the storytelling narrative modes
Regressive Progression: The Quest for Self-Transcendence in Western Tragedy
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From King Lear to King James: The Problem of Ocularcentrism in Early Modern England
No full textThe present article explores how William Shakespeare’s King Lear thoughtfully challenges the primacy of sight among the senses, with implications for our understanding of the play’s relationship both to its immediate political context and to the history of ocularcentrism in early modern England. Adopting a new historicist approach, this article claims that writing King Lear in the midst of heated debates on the Anglo-Scottish Union was both a reaction to any possible ocularcentric behaviour by King James and a part of active criticism against the ocularcentrism of the period. Regardless of his personal opinion on James’s plan for the Union, Shakespeare was worried that the king would act according to his ocularcentric understanding of the two countries under his rule. Therefore, King Lear can be read as an advance warning to King James, who needs to be wary of superficial, sight-centred behaviours so as not to suffer the same fate as Lear.Cette étude explore comment Le Roi Lear de William Shakespeare remet judicieusement en question la primauté de la vue parmi les sens, ce qui a des implications pour notre compréhension de la relation que cette pièce entretient à la fois avec son contexte politique immédiat et avec l’histoire de l’oculocentrisme dans l’Angleterre de la première modernité. Adoptant une approche empruntée au « New Historicism », cette étude soutient que l’écriture du Roi Lear, en plein débat sur l’Union anglo-écossaise, fut à la fois une réaction aux éventuels comportements oculocentriques du roi Jacques Ier et une véritable critique de l’oculocentrisme de l’époque. Indépendamment de son opinion sur le plan de Jacques Ier pour l’Union, Shakespeare craignait qu’il n’agisse selon sa compréhension oculaire des deux pays sous son autorité. Par conséquent, Le Roi Lear peut être lu comme un avertissement au roi Jacques Ier de se méfier des comportements superficiels centrés sur la vue afin d’éviter de subir le même sort que Lear
From King Lear to King James: The Problem of Ocularcentrism in Early Modern England
No full textThe present article explores how William Shakespeare’s King Lear thoughtfully challenges the primacy of sight among the senses, with implications for our understanding of the play’s relationship both to its immediate political context and to the history of ocularcentrism in early modern England. Adopting a new historicist approach, this article claims that writing King Lear in the midst of heated debates on the Anglo-Scottish Union was both a reaction to any possible ocularcentric behaviour by King James and a part of active criticism against the ocularcentrism of the period. Regardless of his personal opinion on James’s plan for the Union, Shakespeare was worried that the king would act according to his ocularcentric understanding of the two countries under his rule. Therefore, King Lear can be read as an advance warning to King James, who needs to be wary of superficial, sight-centred behaviours so as not to suffer the same fate as Lear.Cette étude explore comment Le Roi Lear de William Shakespeare remet judicieusement en question la primauté de la vue parmi les sens, ce qui a des implications pour notre compréhension de la relation que cette pièce entretient à la fois avec son contexte politique immédiat et avec l’histoire de l’oculocentrisme dans l’Angleterre de la première modernité. Adoptant une approche empruntée au « New Historicism », cette étude soutient que l’écriture du Roi Lear, en plein débat sur l’Union anglo-écossaise, fut à la fois une réaction aux éventuels comportements oculocentriques du roi Jacques Ier et une véritable critique de l’oculocentrisme de l’époque. Indépendamment de son opinion sur le plan de Jacques Ier pour l’Union, Shakespeare craignait qu’il n’agisse selon sa compréhension oculaire des deux pays sous son autorité. Par conséquent, Le Roi Lear peut être lu comme un avertissement au roi Jacques Ier de se méfier des comportements superficiels centrés sur la vue afin d’éviter de subir le même sort que Lear
Fantasy, A Means to Propagate Ideologies: A Foucauldian Reading of Albee's The Zoo Story
Full text linkFantasy is a genre in literature which embodies wishes and desires of human beings. Due to such features, it has been turned into a means by which different discourses utilize fantasy as a way to propagate their ideologies. This happens because fantasy is capable of providing each discourse with a concrete image of their promises to their subjects. The aim of this essay is to delve into Albee’s The Zoo Story, using a Foucauldian reading, to show that American dream as a discourse is not the only existing discourse within the society of America, but there are other marginalized voices in the form of fantasies in which power circulates. Peter, the mouthpiece of American dominant discourse, has a fantasy created by that discourse which is in stark contrast to that of Jerry, the marginalized discourse existing along with the dominant one, which threatens the dominant discourse and struggles to reach the peak in the power structure
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