{"title":"Schizophrenic Border and Viral Optics in Raymond Williams's Border Country","authors":"Jiayan Mi, Jason Toncic","doi":"10.53397/hunnu.jflc.202301012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.53397/hunnu.jflc.202301012","url":null,"abstract":"This essay examines Raymond Williams’s autobiographical novel Border Country, the first novel of his ambitious “Welsh Trilogy.” The aim of the essay is twofold. Firstly, it analyzes the unsettling issue of how a bio-regional place (native place) shapes polyvalent identities in a historically changing environment and how the boundary that crisscrosses the passages of life is redrawn through narrative re-circumscription and optical revision. Secondly, the essay calls this trope of internalizing “border-crossing” into question in the context of global diaspora and critically problematizes Williams’s identity politics as schizophrenic split from British post-colonial empire.","PeriodicalId":65200,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Languages and Cultures","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43058834","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Worlds of World Literature and Worlds of Literary Scholarship","authors":"David Damrosch","doi":"10.53397/hunnu.jflc.202301005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.53397/hunnu.jflc.202301005","url":null,"abstract":"In this interview, David Damrosch ties the ends of his prolific and relevant contribution to literary studies. From the modern development of the concept of world literature to the organization of ambitious projects of World Literature anthologies; from the embracing of many worlds of world literary scholarship to the consideration of the emergence of A.I. and its possible consequences for the literary experience.","PeriodicalId":65200,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Languages and Cultures","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46250685","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Contentious Politics, State Repression and Civil Dissidence: The Discourse of Resistance in Utpal Dutt’s Nightmare City","authors":"Oliva Roy","doi":"10.53397/hunnu.jflc.202301011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.53397/hunnu.jflc.202301011","url":null,"abstract":"In the Post-Independence era, the prolific playwrights of India started using the aesthetic form of theater to contest authoritarian structures, and to voice their anti-establishment dissent. Utpal Dutt, a pioneering figure in Modern Indian Theater, used the medium of drama for propaganda and political conscientization of the oppressed. The indefatigable thespian contributed significantly towards the formation of modern Bengali theater, as his plays voiced his intransigent protest against the authoritarian government and concurrently, showed his impressive experimentation with different dramatic techniques, theatrical devices and theatrical genres. Dutt’s anti-establishment play, Nightmare City presents a fastidious account of the turbulent years of late-1960s and early-1970s Bengal gripped by Naxalite violence and police brutalism. Set against the backdrop of Naxalite insurgency, the play savagely exposes the ideological hypocrisy of the autocratic government leaders of the time and their violent hooliganism. However, the playwright, in sync with his earlier plays, has not only portrayed the tumultuous socio-political ambiance of the 70s Calcutta, but has also constructed a soul-shattering voice of resistance to the political oppressions perpetuated by the state apparatuses. The objective of this paper is to study the revolutionary propaganda of Dutt and redefine his concept of “political theater” with special reference to his intricately structured political satire, Nightmare City.","PeriodicalId":65200,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Languages and Cultures","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41403959","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Comparative World Literature as a Tool to Reconsider World Literature","authors":"H. Buescu","doi":"10.53397/hunnu.jflc.202301003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.53397/hunnu.jflc.202301003","url":null,"abstract":"In this interview, Helena Carvalhão Buescu develops her unique approach to comparative world literature, as she has proposed to reframe the concept. Within the scope of her approach, translation is given a new place in comparative literature, widening the horizons of literary experience.","PeriodicalId":65200,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Languages and Cultures","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45741272","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Thought in Motion: Helena Buescu's The Experience of the Uncommon and Good Neighborhood: Comparative Literature and World Literature","authors":"Simão Valente","doi":"10.53397/hunnu.jflc.202301004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.53397/hunnu.jflc.202301004","url":null,"abstract":"An analysis of Helena Buescu’s book The Experience of the Uncommon and Good Neighborhood: Comparative Literature and World Literature, published in Portuguese by Porto Editora, is undertaken as the best way of introducing her work to an international readership. A pride of place is given to the broadening of the concept of world literature as well as to the importance of translation.","PeriodicalId":65200,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Languages and Cultures","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44685515","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Nihilism and Desire in \"The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas\": Literature and Psychoanalysis","authors":"Andrea Almeida Campos","doi":"10.53397/hunnu.jflc.202301009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.53397/hunnu.jflc.202301009","url":null,"abstract":"Literature and psychoanalysis are put into dialogue in order to perform an innovative reading of Machado de Assis’s The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas, which is considered one of his masterpieces, alongside Quincas Borba and Dom Casmurro. The psychoanalysis of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan is used as a theoretical reference.","PeriodicalId":65200,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Languages and Cultures","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43092341","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Trans-vision of Robinson Crusoe: The Migration of a Literary Text Ren Haiyan","authors":"Haiyan Ren","doi":"10.53397/hunnu.jflc.202301002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.53397/hunnu.jflc.202301002","url":null,"abstract":"Robinson Crusoe is more than a myth of modern individualism as labeled by Ian Watt, it is an embodiment of Enlightenment ideology. Since this modern myth first arrived in China via Japan at the turn of the 20th century, it was intentionally appropriated. This paper proposes the use of the concept of trans-vision to examine the first published Chinese translation of Robinson Crusoe, Juedao Piaoliu Ji, to reflect on its migration into China and on how, in an attempt to continue the Chinese tradition of wenren (literati), translated discourses are expected to contribute to the renewal and transformation of society in a painful period of transition.","PeriodicalId":65200,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Languages and Cultures","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45511915","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"(World) Literature: Beneath and Beyond","authors":"Longxi Zhang","doi":"10.53397/hunnu.jflc.202301007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.53397/hunnu.jflc.202301007","url":null,"abstract":"In this interview, Zhang Longxi explores topics and approaches that have made him one of the leading scholars on cross-cultural studies in the world. Longxi’s innovative understanding of both the relationship between East and West and literary hermeneutics is clarified in his latest contribution, World Literature as Discovery: Expanding the World Literary Canon, which aims at suggesting that world literature may favor a productive way to return to the reading of literature.","PeriodicalId":65200,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Languages and Cultures","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48786393","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Hour of the Star: Life and Writing of Clarice Lispector","authors":"M. L. Serrano","doi":"10.53397/hunnu.jflc.202301010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.53397/hunnu.jflc.202301010","url":null,"abstract":"Clarice Lispector is one of the most important Brazilian writers of the 20th century. In her writings, she explores the limits of the Portuguese language and creates her own literary style. The article will map some of her aesthetic searches that are, at the same time, vital. The article is organized through two moments: a biographical one, in which relevant aspects of her life that will have an echo in her work are indicated; and another focused on her fiction writing, in which the aesthetic commitment of her books is highlighted. The Hour of the Star is the title of her latest novel, a title read by Hélène Cixous as an anticipatory metaphor for her own death. We return to it as a trope, no longer to refer to its finiteness but to celebrate its opportune rereading outside Latin America.","PeriodicalId":65200,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Languages and Cultures","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43198485","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Alexander von Humboldt in China","authors":"Jia Yi, Jinxian Wu","doi":"10.53397/hunnu.jflc.202301014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.53397/hunnu.jflc.202301014","url":null,"abstract":"The dissemination of Alexander von Humboldt’s ideas in China can be traced back to the late Qing dynasty, where a few articles in English-language newspapers served as the earliest means of exposure. However, the reach and availability of these articles were highly limited. It was not until the Republican era that Humboldt gained a relatively broader publicity through the translations of foreign academic works. The general public’s acquaintance with Humboldt mostly came from the extensive distribution of textbooks as well as biographical dictionaries of renowned scientists and explorers. Nevertheless, Humboldt’s reputation coexisted with a lack of comprehensive academic research. While his ideas were referenced in various fields, such as geography, social sciences, and humanities, there was a notable absence of in-depth exploration. The underlying reason can be the disparity between Humboldt’s global perspective and encyclopedic knowledge and the gradual subdivision of academic disciplines in the modernization process of Chinese universities. In recent years, Chinese literary researchers have taken the lead in revisiting Humboldt’s works, signaling a renewed interest. It reflects the growing recognition of interdisciplinary research in China and the significance attributed to holistic knowledge in fields like philosophy of science and anthropology. These developments offer an opportunity to dismantle the barriers that have impeded the blending of Humboldtian knowledge into the Chinese intellectual landscape.","PeriodicalId":65200,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Languages and Cultures","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43178431","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}