53 research outputs found
Literary Theory and the Challenges of the Present
Vladimir Biti, Tracing Global Democracy: Literature, Theory, and the Politics of Trauma. Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter. 2016, 394 pp
Croatian Leftist Critique and the Object of American Studies
The article argues that one possible way of understanding the United States at the disposal of American Studies scholars working in the region of ex-Yugoslavia is by
retrieving the leftist critique as it was articulated by members of the Croatian Praxis writers. The author begins with the contention that the prevailing representations
of the United States today present it as the exemplary country of capitalism. Arguing that extant Americanist paradigms let this reality slip under their screen, he goes
back to the said leftist critique and reads how they provide a conceptual frame with which to engage the United States. He elaborates this frame in three ways: first, he
recalls the Praxis groupās engagement with the United States when the journal was being published; second, he draws attention to Vanja SutliÄās and Ivan KovaÄiÄās pronouncements on the United States as the exemplary capitalist country; and third, he foregrounds the Praxis groupās Marxist engagement with Heidegger. It is this engagement that the author contends is of particular relevance for understanding the present mutation of capitalism and the place of the United States in the contemporary world. In conclusion, the author argues that a reading of the United States through Marx and Heidegger repositions the work of William Spanos within the archive of
the discipline
What Goes on behind Mason and Dixonās Backs in Pynchonās Novel?
The departure point of this article is the authorās opinion that every new encounter with a previously read text provides an occasion on which to re-think the act of reading, and to question disciplinary knowledge. After
a brief description of his earlier reading of Thomas Pynchonās Mason & Dixon, which was focused on the issue of territoriality, the author begins his description of his latest encounter with the text by indicating the
context in which it occurs, and concludes that in his first reception of the book he failed to note what he now recognizes as the novelās core theme. Designating Pynchonās economic thematics as that core, he analyzes it and shows how it produces a number of epiphanic moments in the text. In his conclusion, the author argues that the description of these epiphanic moments, or of what takes place behind the backs of Pynchonās protagonists, can be articulated if one incorporates certain discursive procedures from Karl Marxās writings into the analysis
MoÄ mjesta: primjer zapada Irske
The article deals with the spatial practice whereby nations privilege certain locales in
constructing and representing their identity. This strategy is illustrated by an analysis
of the function of the west of Ireland both during the process of decolonisation and
in the later period of state formation. Later in his argument the author shows, using
examples from literature, how this practice is not uncontested but is criticized by oppositional
voices within the cultural archive. In the conclusion the author delineates
the role of the west in the Irish tourist industry.U Älanku se opisuje spacijalna praksa uslijed koje nacije povlaÅ”Äuju odreÄeni lokalietet
u tvorbi i predstavljanju svojeg identiteta. Autor ilustrira tu strategiju analizom funkcije
zapada Irske u procesima dekolonizacije i u kasnijem razdoblju stvaranja države. U nastavku izlaganja autor pokazuje, koristeÄi primjere iz književnosti kako ta praksa nije bez
osporavatelja nego da je izložena kritici od strane oporbenjaÄkih glasova unutar kulturnog
arhiva. U zakljuÄku autor ocrtava ulogu zapada u irskoj turistiÄkoj ponudi
CAPITALIST REALISM, FINANCE AND DON DELILLO
The author begins his paper by recalling his qualms about the fact that the Split conference subsumed capitalist realism under the overall conference topic of Words and Images. His first step is to engage with Fisherās notion of capitalist realism. After a brief overview of what Fisher understands by this notion, the author argues that any discussion of capitalist realism has to take into consideration the changes that have taken place in the nature of money. It is only when these changes are taken into account, changes that have to do with the fact that we recognize money as a system if not the system of representation, that one recognizes how relevant words and images are to discussions of capital. After a discussion of the ascendancy of finance during the latest mutation of capitalism, the author proceeds to give a reading of Don DeLilloās short story āHammer and Sickleā in which he shows how the text deals with finance, how DeLillo thematizes the difficulty of understanding finance and how all of this has a bearing on the lack of an alternative to capitalism announced in Fisherās explanation of capitalist realism
Istosti i razlike starenja
The author proposes that ageing and old age can be seen as a universal process but also as something that can be differentiated both by time and place. In the central part of the article, the author contends that one way of approaching the topic, particularly if it is addressed as part of the United States polity, is through the lens of American Studies and, more specifically, through the work of R.W.B. Lewis and his idea of the American Adam. It is precisely the self-image of the United States as a country of youth that elides the significance of ageing from the disciplinary agenda. In addition, the author contends that the American socio-economic order marginalizes ageing as incompatible with its dynamics. In the onclusion, the author up dates the issue and shows how todayās pension schemes affect what as precisely designated as a time of retirement.Koliko god je starenje univerzalna kategorija autor ukazuje na Äinjenicu da taj proces nije podjednako registriran u razliÄitim kulturama. PiÅ”uÄi iz perspektive ameriÄkih studija i stavljajuÄi poseban naglasak na sintagmu āameriÄki Adamā C. S. Lewisa, autor Älanka ukazuje na osebujan naÄin kako ameriÄke identitetske strategije tretiraju starost kao neÅ”to strano naciji koja se poima kao āuvijek mladaā zemlja. U daljnjoj raspravi ukazuje se na meÄuuvjetovanost takvog poimanja ljudskog trajanja i ameriÄkog ekonomskog ustroja i kako se sve to odražava na procese u ameriÄkoj suvremenosti
Predjeli u poeziji Sjeverne Irske i postkolonijalna rasprava
The paper offers a reading of a number of poets from the North of Ireland and analyses them within the context of the current debate on the applicability of the postcolonial paradigm to Irish culture and history. The author\u27s intention is to make a contribution to this debate by focusing on the spacialities inscribed within the chosen poetic texts. The concept of spaciality is pursued in the readings of the poets through the issues of territoriability, sense of place and the border. On the evidence of the way these markers of space are inscribed within the poetic texts the author is able to take a stand regarding the postcolonial debate. Throughout the paper the author insists on the fact that his reading is positioned as a cross-cultural reading and that this accounts both for its possible shortcomings but also for a specific access it enables him to the Irish texts
Concerning the Spatial Turn
U radu autor prikazuje dva nedavno objavljena zbornika posveÄena onome Å”to se danas imenuje kao Ā»zaokret ka prostoruĀ«. Nakon Å”to je opisao kljuÄna pitanja koja zaokupljuju priloge sakupljene u zbornicima, autor koristi prigodu ukazati na problematiÄno izostavljanje njemaÄke tradicije promiÅ”ljanja prostora iz dominantnih teorijskih paradigmi koje izrastaju iz reÄenog spacijalnog zaokreta. Na kraju prikaza autor nudi nekoliko zapažanja o razlozima elidiranja problematike prostornosti u domaÄoj teorijskoj produkciji.In the article the author discusses two recently published collections of essays devoted to what is today designated as the āspatial turnā. After addressing the key questions that preoccupy the contributions collected in these publications, the author uses the occasion to point to the problematic omission of the German tradition of thinking space from the dominant theoretical paradigms which have emerged from the above mentioned spatial turn. At the end of the article the author offers a number of observations relating to the reasons for the elision of the spatial problematic in Croatian theoretical production
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