Internal Chronotopic Genre Structures : The Nineteenth-Century Historical Novel in the Context of the Belgian Literary Polysystem

One of the most fundamental problems of systemic approaches to literature is the question of how systemic principles might be translated into a manageable methodological framework. This contribution proposes that a combination of functionalistsystemic theories (in casu Itamar Even-Zohar’s Polysystem theory – especially the textually oriented versions – and the prototypical genre approach proposed by Dirk De Geest and Hendrik Van Gorp 1999) with Mikhail Bakhtin’s chronotope theory shows great promise in this respect. Since I am primarily interested in literary genres, the prototypical genre approach assumes a central position in my theoretical framework. My main argument is that Bakhtin’s chronotope concept offers interesting perspectives as a heuristic tool within a functionalist-systemic approach to genre studies, enabling the study not only of the constitutive elements of genre systems, but also of their mutual relations. Bakhtin’s own vague definitions of the concept somewhat hamper the process of putting it into practice for this purpose, but with the aid of the distinction between generic and motivic chronotopes, that problem can be solved. A detailed, comprehensive account of the theoretical premises underlying my proposal can be found in Bemong (under review); here I restrict myself to the basics

Vernacular Religion, Contemporary Spirituality and Emergent Identities: Lessons from Lauri Honko

This article examines lessons which can still be learned from Professor Lauri Honko’s research and writings, particularly for those working at the interstices of folklore and religious studies who appreciate the mutually enriching relationship between the two fields which has been the hallmark of modern Finnish and Nordic scholarship. Three broad areas are considered here by way of illustration: the importance of studying belief and the continuing utility of genre as a tool of research; the use of folklore and material culture in the formation of cultural and spiritual identities in the contemporary milieu; and tradition ecology in relation to Celtic spirituality

A fragmentising interface to a large corpus of digitized text: (Post)humanism and non-consumptive reading via features

While the idea of distant reading does not rule out the possibility of close reading of the individual components of the corpus of digitized text that is being distant-read, this ceases to be the case when parts of the corpus are, for reasons relating to intellectual property, not accessible for consumption through downloading followed by close reading. Copyright restrictions on material in collections of digitized text such as the HathiTrust Digital Library (HTDL) necessitates providing facilities for non-consumptive reading, one of the approaches to which consists of providing users with features from the text in the form of small fragments of text, instead of the text itself. We argue that, contrary to expectation, the fragmentary quality of the features generated by the reading interface does not necessarily imply that the mode of reading enabled and mediated by these features points in an anti-humanist direction. We pose the fragmentariness of the features as paradigmatic of the fragmentation with which digital techniques tend, more generally, to trouble the humanities. We then generalize our argument to put our work on feature-based non-consumptive reading in dialogue with contemporary debates that are currently taking place in philosophy and in cultural theory and criticism about posthumanism and agency. While the locus of agency in such a non-consumptive practice of reading does not coincide with the customary figure of the singular human subject as reader, it is possible to accommodate this fragmentising practice within the terms of an ampler notion of agency imagined as dispersed across an entire technosocial ensemble. When grasped in this way, such a practice of reading may be considered posthumanist but not necessarily antihumanist.Ope

Graduate Catalog, 1981-1982

https://scholar.valpo.edu/gradcatalogs/1010/thumbnail.jp

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the Guillotine, and Modern Ontological Anxiety

Lacefield’s interdisciplinary analysis analyzes motifs of decapitation/dismemberment in Frankenstein and then moves into a discussion of the novel’s exploration of the ontological categories specified above. For example, Frankenstein’s Creature, as a kind of cyborg, exists on the contested theoretical “slice” within a number of antinomies: nature/tech, human/inhuman (alive/dead), matter/spirit, etc. These are interesting juxtapositions that point to tensions within each set of categories, and Lacefield discusses the relevance of such dichotomies for questions of modernity posed by materialist theory and technological innovation. Additionally, she incorporates a discussion of films that fuse Shelley’s themes with appeals to twentieth-century and post-millennium audiences

L’estetica dell’impossibile: lo strano caso del gotico e della fantascienza

In the history of human creativity, the act of imagining the impossible has always been at the core of the physical and metaphysical perception of the unknown. The scholarly debate regarding the nature of the impossible gained particular relevance in the context of British Enlightenment when the expanding sciences, along with literature, attempted to provide empirical validation to inexplicable and supernatural phenomena. In this way, the discrepancies between the overlapping ontologies of the Age of Faith and the Age of Reason became apparent as the ancestral literary practice of the fantastic merged with the rising genre of the novel. The assimilation of the conventional tropes of supernatural literature within the narrative frame of formal realism led to the development of two fortunate sub-genres: the Gothic and Science Fiction. The former evolved around the mutual disruption of the empirically-based conception of reality and the transgression of the moral code implied in the construction of civic order. The latter derived from the relocation of specific gothic features into a larger dimension of social anxiety concerning the abuses of reason concealed as a path towards common good and future progress. By exploring the evolution of the gothic imagery and its dissolution into the narrative horizon of Science Fiction, this article will trace the early modern roots of the dialogue between science and literature in the human quest for the impossible. The thesis that Gothic and Science Fiction are historically interdependent will be reviewed in light of the common matrix of fear and desire which characterises their ideological function.Nella storia della creatività umana, l'atto di immaginare l'impossibile si pone al centro della percezione fisica e metafisica dell'ignoto. Il dibattito sulla natura dell'impossibile ha poi acquisito particolare rilevanza nel contesto dell'Illuminismo britannico quando la nascente scienze moderna si unì alla letteratura nel tentativo di fornire una validazione empirica al dominio dell’inspiegabile e del soprannaturale. In tal senso, le discrepanze tra le ontologie sovrapposte delle cosiddette Age of Faith e Age of Reason trovarono ulteriore esplicitazione nell’intersezione tra l’ancestrale discorso letterario del fantastico e l’esordiente genere del novel. In particolare, l’assimilazione delle convenzioni tematiche della letteratura soprannaturale all'interno della cornice narrativa del realismo formale ha portato allo sviluppo di due sottogeneri romanzeschi piuttosto longevi e articolati: il gotico e la fantascienza. Il primo, evolutosi attorno ai temi della  trasgressione del codice morale implicito alla costruzione dell'ordine civico, il secondo legato alla trasposizione di specifiche strutture del gotico nella più ampia dimensione di ansia sociale relativa ai pericoli degli abusi della ragione celati dietro l’avanzata progressista verso il bene comune e il futuro.Esplorando le trasformazioni dell’immaginario del romanzo gotico e la sua dissoluzione nell'orizzonte narrativo della fantascienza, questo articolo mira a rintracciare le radici moderne del dialogo tra scienza e letteratura nell’umana ricerca dell'impossibile. L’interdipendenza dei due generi sarà analizzata alla luce della comune matrice di paura e desiderio caratterizzante la loro funzione ideologica

Polish Felieton and English Column in the Light of the Existing Research

Felieton and column are very difficult to characterize, inasmuch as one of their most prominent feature is the lack of consistency in form and structure. However, among the abundance of features, certain similarities may be found. This paper presents a juxtaposition of various scientific opinions about Polish felieton and English column and briefly describes their history. The goal of the paper is to highlight the similarities between felieton and column discovered on the basis of the existing sources in order to support the thesis about the family resemblance of the two phenomena. By making references to findings of other scholars, the paper points at the necessity of conducting further research concentrated on generic features of felieton and column supplemented by the pragmatic-functional aspect. As for its composition, the article consists of two main parts. The first part presents the existing state of research devoted to the two types of texts including their history, dictionary entries and other scientific sources. The second part presents a brief description highlighting the similarities between felieton and column.&nbsp

Introduction: magazines and/as media: periodical studies and the question of disciplinarity

No abstract available