Literary Axiology of Prison Camp Poetry by B. A. Ruchyov

The article determines that the concept of the mystical in contemporary literary studies is viewed upon in both narrow and broad senses. The beginnings of the integration of the mystical component into literary works date back to the Middle Ages, when the fundamental unio mystica served as a guiding principle for artistic and literary activities. According to the Western European medieval tradition, the understanding of the mystical was dominated by the search for refuge in the contemplation of Scripture or the need for the enjoyment of the inner rhythms of the soul in a state of grace, thus literature was regarded as a means of capturing mystical experience. The paper establishes that the formation of a broad definition of the mystical occurred as a result of liberation from religious-philosophical connotations and the gaining of priority by anthropological-psychological and aesthetic-symbolic tendencies. The mystical in a literary work is represented in two ways: the first one involves depicting it as a hermetic system (the mystical as a component of the author's consciousness), and the second one appeals to the creation of imagery and events where the irrational is not subject to doubt (the mystical is demanded by the readers and rooted in their (sub) consciousness). The reception of the mystical in various literary genres has affirmed that mysticism has transformed into a literary metagenre, and the mystical into a category of metapoetics (O. Chervinska). The article determines that the concept of the fantastic is a genus to the concept of the mystical. They share the motif of mystery, belief in the supernatural, and irrationalism as a means of understanding reality, based on creating an atmosphere of intensifying fear of the unknown. While the fantastic item involves deliberate invention, the mystical thing is characterized by objectivity. It has been noted that the mystical can serve both destructive and apotropaic functions, and the main features of mystical artistic discourse are mythological, ambivalent, and philosophical ones. In the process of interpreting a literary work, the mystical expresses its ideological-symbolic meaning, represented through symbols having a mythopoetic character: numerical symbolism, color symbolism, and a complex of symbols associated with the mystical motifs of a specific mystical cultural tradition.

English education stakeholders need ways of envisioning and advocating for transformative approaches to literacy teaching. In this inquiry, we consider the dynamic field of literary studies – one of the scholarly fields most directly linked to English education. We conducted a content analysis of 404 articles recently published in literary studies journals. These articles make up approximately 10% of all the articles published in literary journals (in the English language) worldwide in 2018. In reporting key patterns of contemporary literary studies, we argue that this field is an underutilised resource for envisioning, advocating for, and defending expansive and critical forms of secondary English education.

Close but not Deep: Literary Ethics and the Descriptive Turn Heather Love (bio) There is perhaps no term that carries more value in the humanities than “rich.” In literary studies especially, richness is an undisputed—if largely uninterrogated—good; it signifies qualities associated with the complexity and polyvalence of texts and with the warmth and depth of experience. There is, to be sure, no necessary connection between the intricacy of texts and the intricacy of human feeling and cognition. Nor is there a necessary connection between the capacity to interpret such texts and the ability to respond justly and empathetically to the ethical dilemmas represented in them. Even so, this is a busy intersection. The link between the richness of human experience and processes of textual interpretation can be understood, on the one hand, through the origin of philosophical hermeneutics in practices of divination and, on the other, through the significance of the communicative situation in defining hermeneutics. The text, in its singularity, is both an access to otherness and a message or call to attention. A belief in the aesthetic and ethical force of literature is evident in the work of midcentury critics like Cleanth Brooks (“The poet . . . must return to us the unity of experience itself as man knows it in his own experience”) and Lionel Trilling (“literature is the human activity that takes the fullest and most precise account of variousness, possibility, complexity, and difficulty”).1 It also appears in the work of Marxist critic Raymond Williams, for whom literature signals the inexhaustibility of human potential.2 It appears as well in recent arguments against theory and on behalf of New Formalism (“literature could pose the largest issues of social and personal destiny in a vividly human context”) and in the recent turn to ethics, which, as Dorothy J. Hale writes, “has been accompanied by a new celebration of literature.”3 If the encounter with a divine and inscrutable message was progressively secularized in the twentieth century, the opacity and ineffability of the text and the ethical demand to attend to it remain central to practices of literary interpretation today. [End Page 371] Given the subsumption of many aspects of religion into the concept of culture after the Enlightenment, it is not surprising that these sacred aspects of hermeneutics should survive into the era of secular modernity. What is more surprising is that its humanist aspects have such a continued presence in supposedly anti- or posthumanist literary studies. The rise of interpretive practices borrowed from Marxism and psychoanalysis, structuralism and poststructuralism, and semiotics and deconstruction has displaced the individual and consciousness from the center of inquiry, shifting attention to structures of language, desire, or economic capital. At the same time, political forms of criticism such as feminism, postcolonial studies, African-American studies, diaspora studies, and queer studies have critiqued humanism by pointing to its founding exclusions. Common to the rise of these theoretical and political fields is a disavowal of earlier critical movements—particularly the New Criticism—that are understood to embody the shortcomings of humanist philosophy. In critiques of the canon, the text, organicism, the nation, culture, and tradition—as well as the very concept of the human—the anchors of humanistic criticism have come under sustained and powerful attack in the past several decades. Still, despite widespread rumors of the death of humanism, key humanist values remain alive and well in literary studies. What to make of this persistence of humanist values in the context of a disciplinary milieu that often sees them as outmoded? It might be explained as a typical contradiction between intellectual conviction and lived practice—there are no doubt de facto humanists among posthumanists, just as there are Marxist heroes of consumption.4 More persuasive accounts of the persistence of humanism in contemporary literary studies can be found in histories of the discipline. While critics like Gerald Graff and John Guillory focus on the stabilizing role of universities, departments, and syllabi, Ian Hunter turns his attention to the role of teaching.5 In his essay “The History of Theory,” Hunter traces the persistence of humanist ethics in literary studies, suggesting that both “the New Criticism and the literary theory that displaced...

The article’s main goal is to present how the notion of overinterpretation functions in contemporary literary studies. The author reconstructs principal epistemological positions in the dispute about ways of establishing literary meanings, showing that the understanding of interpretation tasks and aims of literary research depend on the choice of one of these positions. She notes that today’s notion of overinterpretation has several homonymic meanings, and further notes important difference between interpretation in literary studies and colloquial or artistic interpretations. She emphasizes their nonidentical functions and procedures. Fifteen types of overinterpretation in literary studies are indentified, along with their causes.

The article discusses the functions of over-interpretation in contemporary literary studies, beginning with an attempt to defi ne the principal epistemological positions in the debate on the ways of establishing literary meanings. The understanding of the role of interpretation depends on the choice of a given position. Over-interpretation has several homonymic meanings. The article highlights the differences between interpretation in literary studies and colloquial or artistic interpretation. It identifi es fi fteen types of over-interpretation and their implications in literary studies.

Re-examining English and/in the Geography of (World) Literature

Political theory plays a subordinate role in contemporary literary and cultural studies. This is in error, because it can contribute to a differentiated understanding of the correlation of literary and political order, particularly when it comes to empire. This chapter unfolds this thesis on the basis of the political theory of Herfried Münkler and its application to the Habsburg Empire. Münkler’s theory of empire, seen as a major contribution to the developing field of critical imperial studies, as well as his writings on the subject of political myths and narratives prove to be a complex and coherent theoretical tool that allows us to link main concepts such as form, myth and narrative thereby strengthening the crossroads between political, cultural and literary studies. They also illustrate significant relevance for a comprehension of literary and political orders of the twentieth century. In three consecutive steps, the political theory of Münkler can be grasped in ways that are relevant to literary and cultural studies: empire and imperial mission; imperial mission, form and myth; and myth building and demythologising through narration. In regards to the last this chapter goes beyond Münkler in order to emphasise the epistemological power of literature, especially in the form of the post-imperial novel.KeywordsEmpire and literary theoryLiteratureHabsburg mythRobert MusilJoseph RothHerfried MünklerPolitical theory

Susan Howe, recognized as one of the most innovative American poets of our day, Susan Howe is noted for her radically experimental and fragmented poetic structures that disallow any smooth assumptions regarding the text, meaning, and history. Combining fragments of historical documents with memories and typographic experiments, Howe's works offer rich opportunities for multidisciplinary inquiry. Titled “From Fragment to Form: Multidisciplinary Insights in Susan Howe’s Poetry,” this paper proposes to read Howe's poetry by way of literary theory, Derridean grammatology, history, and cultural studies, as an act that illustrates how her recursive fragmentation of text peaks multiple layers of meaning. Howe with special attention to the interaction of form and content, the use of historical material, and the breakdown of linear narrative. Under the domain of Derrida's grammatology, the paper conceives Howe's deconstruction of language. Through a qualitative and interpretive study, the paper attempts the analysis of selected works of age as writing itself being the site for the creation of meaning. Besides, from a multidisciplinary standpoint, this paper illuminates how insights from literature, philosophy, and history intermesh, revealing the depth and complexity of her texts. This research argues that Howe’s poetry is not merely a literary experiment but a cultural and historical exploration; fragments become tools for reconstructing memory and interrogating the past. Further on, the study describes how the innovative use of typography, spatial configurations, and non-linear narratives demands that the reader actively participate in creating meaning. Bridging disciplinary boundaries, this paper argues that contemporary literary studies indeed are open to incorporating a variety of analytical lenses, thus supporting a truly holistic approach in the reading of a poetic text. The findings highlight the importance of multidisciplinary approaches in literary research and promote the adoption of philosophical, historical, and cultural approaches to experimental poetry. This study offers new insight for the rising debate in contemporary poetics, Derridean theory, and interdisciplinary literary criticism, reinforcing the ongoing importance of Howe's work for understanding the link of text to form and meaning.

<i>Thomas Leitch,</i> Film Adaptation and Its Discontents: From <i>Gone with the Wind</i> to <i>The Passion of Christ</i><i>Film Adaptation and Its Discontents: From <i>Gone with the Wind</i> to <i>The Passion of Christ</i></i>. Thomas Leitch . Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007. Pp. ix+354.

A Cultural Ambassador East and West: J. Hillis Miller’s <i>Lectures in China</i>

The main objective of this article is to analyze excerpts from two texts of contemporary Brazilian literature. The first is the short story “O cobrador” by Rubem Fonseca, and the second is the novel O matador by Patrícia Melo. Both works share very similar themes and styles. These narratives address the issue of urban violence, exposing the cruel side of human nature through acts of barbarism. The texts are written in a direct and objective manner, bringing their authors closer in terms of style. Based on the concept of intertextuality, developed by researcher Julia Kristeva in 1966 and grounded in the studies of philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin, we will discuss the various connections that can occur between texts. Our focus will then shift to the technique of mise en abyme, which originates from the early twentieth-century writings of André Gide. As our main theoretical framework, we will employ El relato especular by Lucien Dällenbach (1991), complemented by critical studies by Alonso (2017, 2024), Carvalho (1983), Ginzburg (2010), Goulet (2006), Labeille (2011), and Nitrini (2021). The objective is to identify and analyze the presence of this technique in the relationships of embedding and mirroring that can occur between distinct works or within a single text. In our analysis, we examine the interaction between the two aforementioned works, demonstrating that mise en abyme has the capacity to create a highly distinctive reading experience, enhancing key aspects of the selected narratives. Furthermore, this technique can serve as a valuable object of study not only in emerging literary texts but also in works published in previous periods, thus opening possibilities for further research. In this way, its versatility and relevance within contemporary literary studies become evident.

Edmund Spenser's A View of the Present State of Ireland has engendered considerable debate concerning its historical, political and aesthetic contexts.1 For example, in a recent edition of History Ireland (Autumn, 1994), Ciaran Brady reviewed Representing Ireland: literature and the origins of conflict 1534-1660, and he pejoratively commented that the contributors focus upon Spenser's View to the exclusion of other texts.2 Brady claims that the contributors, with the exception of the historian Brendan Bradshaw, demonstrate various degrees of methodological limitation and historical ignorance. In part, Brady appears to be irri? tated by the re-orientation in literary studies from the aesthetic analy? sis of canonical texts to the ideological analysis of discursive practices. A consequence of this re-orientation in literary studies is that Spenser's View is situated firmly within the new historicist field of inquiry. Historians and literary critics have previously read Spenser's View in relation to other Elizabethan texts, including The Faerie Queene. However, these readings have often been premised upon an inaccu? rate or a reductive examination of the View's historical contexts. For example, many critics interpret the View and the Faerie Queene as if the fictional voices are transparent mediators for Spenser's voice.3 The paradoxical oscillation between authorial self-promotion and absence is discounted by critics who overlook Spenser's privileged position within Elizabethan culture: Spenser is geographically marginal and symbolically central to the English metropolitan centre. The dialogue between Spenser's Irenius and Eudoxus is designed to complicate the authorial responsibility for what is spoken. It is naive and methodo? logically flawed to treat the opinions expressed by Irenius and Eudoxus as simply belonging to Spenser. New historicist literary critics treat textual voices as registering heteroglossia, locate texts within a historically contextualised sym? bolic order and examine texts as agents in constructing a culture's sense of reality. Louis Montrose has defined the new historicist enter? prise as 'promoting a reciprocal concern with the historicity of texts and the textuality of history'.41 digress into a cursory account of new historicism to provide a context for understanding the place that the View has assumed in contemporary literary studies: Spenser's View is 44

Critique and the Hermeneutics of Suspicion

Contemporary Drift: Genre, Historicism, and the Problem of the Present, by Theodore Martin; Minor Characters Have Their Day: Genre and the Contemporary Literary Marketplace, by Jeremy Rosen

In contemporary literary studies, the application of critical theories can provide deeper insights into complex narratives and their socio - cultural implications. This research paper examines Abdelrahman Munif's Cities of Salt through the lens of Mikhail Bakhtin's theories of dialogism and heteroglossia. By employing a close reading methodology and textual analysis, the study reveals how Munif captures the complex interplay of cultural, social, and economic forces shaping the transformation of a traditional society under the pressures of modernization. The paper explores how the diverse perspectives and linguistic variations within the novel reflect the socio - political dynamics and ideological conflicts triggered by the discovery of oil. Through a Bakhtinian framework, the research highlights the novel's depiction of the tensions between tradition and progress, the displacement of communities, and the resulting cultural disintegration. This study demonstrates how Cities of Salt serves as a polyphonic narrative that not only critiques the impact of industrialization on the environment and indigenous Bedouin but also engages in a broader dialogue about the costs of globalization and economic exploitation. By situating the novel within the context of Bakhtin's concepts, the paper provides an in - depth understanding of Munif's literary approach and its relevance to contemporary discussions on cultural preservation and socio - economic justice. This study will examine excerpts from the first volume, AL - Teeh1, which best align with the study's argument.