Dead Girl Research Articles

Figures of the Resurrection in O Pai da Menina Morta [The Dead Girl’s Father], by Tiago Ferro

RESUMO Este artigo propõe uma leitura do romance O pai da menina morta, de Tiago Ferro, vinculada à temática da ressurreição cristã materializada no Evangelho segundo João. Os episódios bíblicos acerca da ressurreição de Lázaro e de Jesus Cristo são postos em diálogo com a narrativa do autor brasileiro, bem como os símbolos dessa temática condizentes ao pelicano e à própria celebração da Páscoa cristã, figuras pertencentes à ossatura da obra em exame. As análises postas em discussão promovem o entendimento de que Tiago Ferro, ao indicar o discurso religioso, refrata-o à constituição de sua voz narrativa, realocando-o ao nível secular, profano, próprio da condição humana. A fundamentação teórica que sustenta a leitura deste trabalho destaca-se nas contribuições de Mikhail Bakhtin e seu Círculo, de Frederico Lourenço, de Northrop Frye, dentre outros.

Figurações da ressurreição em O pai da menina morta, de Tiago Ferro

ABSTRACT This article proposes a reading of the novel O pai da menina morta [Dead Girl’s Father], by Tiago Ferro, linked to the theme of Christian resurrection materialized in the Gospel according to John. The biblical episodes about the resurrection of Lazarus and Jesus Christ are placed in dialogue with the narrative of the Brazilian author, as well as the symbolisms regarding the pelican and the celebration of Christian Easter, figures belonging to the structure of the work under examination. The analyses put in discussion promote the understanding that Tiago Ferro, when indicating the religious discourse, refracts it to the constitution of his narrative voice, relocating it to the secular, profane level, typical of the human condition. The theoretical foundation working as a support for the reading of this work stands out in the contributions of the Circle of Mikhail Bakhtin, Frederico Lourenço, Northrop Frye, among others.

A Postsecular Reading of Nonsensical Caring in Ali Smith’s Fiction

ABSTRACT Caring is the theme Ali Smith pursues consistently throughout her fiction. She seems particularly concerned with all kinds of nonstandard caring situations, care that apparently cannot make any difference included. In Like Kate offers her orange kangaroo to the dead girl living in the drain, in Hotel World Clare tries to intensely experience life for the sake of her dead sister, in How to Be Both George resolves to watch each day a porn movie for the sake of the actress presumably abused in its production. The paper suggests that such nonsensical − predictably ineffective − caring can be read as a typically metamodernist whole-hearted commitment to a cause that is doomed to failure (cf. Vermeulen and van den Akker’s “Notes on Metamodernism,” 2010). However, the caring in question also can be interpreted as a hopeful cooperation with intimated spiritual forces on the assumption of postsecularism (cf. McClure’s Partial Faiths, 2007). The paper argues that such postsecular interpretation of Smith is justifiable focusing in the analysis on How to Be Both. In all, the paper aims to contribute to research on ethical considerations in Smith’s fiction.

“The Incest Plot” in John Banville’s Ancient Light

Ancient Light (2012), the third and (to date) final book in the Alexander and Cass Cleave series by John Banville, is a text in which characters who died in the previous books are recycled and brought back as roles in a film, played by characters whose characterisation itself blurs with the roles they are playing. Banville’s established preoccupation with returning to the past and retracing old ground takes on an intriguingly excessive dimension in this novel. Ancient Light presents a heightened version of what Neil Murphy has referred to as an “interlocked intertextual Banvillean world” (86). This article will examine the book using Stephanie Insley Hershinow’s ideas around “the incest plot.” She calls this structure a “model of tautological self-enclosure – the embrace of self-sameness, repetition, even redundancy, over change” (150). My claim is that the novel’s very infrastructure is one of “tautological self-enclosure.” The features of “self-sameness, repetition [and] redundancy” are inescapable in this novel, and the “change” conventionally offered by third books in trilogies is simply not to be encountered in Banville’s relentlessly self-referential third instalment. In her discussion of incest as form, Hershinow contends that “highlighting form is the only way to see the ways that incest exceeds its literal manifestations” (156). She further suggests that incest “is a way for the novel to explore the minimal amount of difference required for narrative to continue to function as such, to experiment with narrative minimalism” (ibid.). The plot structure, as well as a more literal interpretation of ‘incest’ will be mined, given that the narrator’s desire for his dead daughter Cass is the primary animating force behind the narrative.

Mouldy Matriarchs and Dangerous Daughters

Mouldy Matriarchs and Dangerous Daughters

Duncan Tanner Essay Prize Winner 2020.

Between 1899 and 1907, the medium Rosalie Thompson-giving voice to her dead daughter, Nelly-participated in a number of experimental seances with the Society for Psychical Research (SPR), which were formative in the development of the society's theories of telepathy, personality and survival. Using the extensive séance notes taken by the researchers, and the range of published materials related to the case, this article situates psychical research as an intimate practice; its scientific method relied on the production of intimate evidence by the medium, including the intimacy of touch; its leading proponents were neighbours, friends and relatives, who began communicating via Thompson once key members began to die from 1900. By keeping the focus on the life of Thompson herself, however, the article seeks to use the 'small history' of Mrs Thompson to tell a bigger and more complex story about intimacy in early twentieth-century Britain.

Umbilical Cord Teratoma: A Rare Case Report

The state of the stroma, blood vessels and the anatomical features of the umbilical cord are of direct diagnostic value, and various pathological changes can become the primary cause of fetal death. The frequency of umbilical cord tumors is not reliably known due to a very rare incidence: in the available literature there were reported about 19 cases.The aim of the study was to clinically and pathohistologically analyze a case of umbilical cord teratoma and to give an analytical review of recently reported cases.The material was obtained from a healthy 35-year-old woman with a third pregnancy. Combined ultrasound screening at the 20th week of pregnancy revealed a solid structure with cystic inclusions along the periphery on the umbilical cord. In the solid component, hyperechoic inclusions giving acoustic shadows were visualized; in the color Doppler imaging mode the neoplasm was avascular. A dead premature baby girl was born at 35th week. The cause of intrauterine fetal death was mechanical compression of the vessels of the umbilical cord by teratoma. Microscopic examination of the umbilical cord neoplasm in the area of the solid component demonstrated a pronounced development of the sebaceous glands, adipose tissue, myelinic nerve fibers, hair follicles; in the cystic component – epidermoid cysts. This evidenced about organismoid mature teratomas. Due to their rare incidence umbilical teratomas should be reported to better understand their pathomorphosis and impact on infant morbidity and mortality. Given the increased risk of concomitant malformations, the detection of an umbilical teratoma should be accompanied by a detailed and comprehensive examination of the newborn for additional pathologies.

« Peu de bruit nous reste dans l’oreille ». Lecture d’Une petite fille silencieuse de James Sacré

“Little noise remains in our ears”. A reading of Une petite fille silencieuse by James Sacré The book of poetry Une petite fille silencieuse, published by James Sacré to collect the texts he wrote after the death of his young daughter, is a deep interrogation about the silence of death. The poet establishes complicated links between silence and time, inventing a subjective and singular temporality, departing from the law of chronology ; furthermore, he avoids asserting the existence of the next world while hoping to hear the voice of his dead daughter. This is why he tries to hear the silence in the words themselves, defining language as the very place of a vain pursuit of a meaningful silence.

The Grimrose Girls by Laura Pohl

Reviewed by: The Grimrose Girls by Laura Pohl April Spisak Pohl, Laura The Grimrose Girls. Sourcebooks Fire, 2021 [400p] Paper ed. ISBN 9781728228877 $10.99 E-book ed. ISBN 9781728228884 $9.99/US Reviewed from digital galleys R Gr. 8-10 An elite Swiss boarding school is the backdrop for this murder mystery laced with fairy tales. Ella, Yuki, and Rory are still reeling from the death of their other best friend, even more so because it is unclear whether it was a suicide, accident, or a murder. Enter Nani, a new student who gets thrown into their group because she [End Page 69] literally ends up with the dead girl’s bed, and this diverse, plucky foursome had better be quick about solving what is happening with an ominous fairy tale collection that has real girls’ names written as marginalia before more deaths occur. The isolation of the school and dark fairy tale references make for an unsettling backdrop, and while girls the girls themselves exist more as representations (the good girl, the new girl, the rich girl) rather than memorable protagonists, there’s certainly plenty of potential in future volumes for them to gain more depth and nuance. A chilling climax will keep readers engaged and anticipating the next volume. Copyright © 2021 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Three Stages in the Construction of Sethe’s Subjectivity in Beloved

Beloved is the work of a famous American writer-Toni Morrison, which told us how a black female slave named Sethe who was tangled by her dead daughter killed by her. By examining the construction of female black slaves’ subjectivity construction, this passage proposed there are three stages in Sethe’s subjectivity construction. She firstly experienced lots of oppressions which pushed the forming of her self-consciousness. Then she took actions to fight against the so-called destiny and gained the subjectivity. Three stages not only show the consciousness-production of Sethe, but also reveal the history-the miserable sufferings of black slaves.

Happenings and Story: A Response to Dan Shen's “Covert Progression”

Happenings and Story: A Response to Dan Shen's “Covert Progression”

Child Sexual Abuse as a Serious Issue in Reference with a Novel, Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott

Living Dead Girl story follows a prepubescent girl named Alice, who has been kidnapped by a pedophile named Ray. The novel takes place 5 years after Alice’s abduction when she was 15 years old. They pose as father and daughter, though they have no connections to anyone in the outside world. During the time they were inside home, he deprived her of food in order to retain her body as a child itself and he dresses her like a child and then he will rape her everyday. Alice refers to herself as a Living Dead Girl she is numb on the inside and is looking forward to the day when Ray will finally kill her, like before, Ray lived with the first Alice until she reach the age fifteen and her body had begun to mature, so he killed her, but he had never been suspected. As there are many types of sexual abuse, most dreadful abuse is child sexual abuse, where it is recognized as a serious violation of human well-being. CSA is unacceptable international problem that can affect children of both the gender.

Extending the Domain of Care in Philippe Forest

This article explores the connection between care and loss in Philippe Forest’s work by drawing on the etymological origins of care and on contemporary French writing on the ethics of care. On the one hand, care in Forest comes to stand for the technical taking care of a patient in the medical setting as well as for caring for and about his dying child specifically. On the other hand, the practice of writing about the loss of his daughter turns into a form of long-term caring for both his dead daughter and her surviving father. This continued attention to a relationship built around loss is, according to Forest, missing in practices of medical care supposedly meant to acknowledge death. The article argues that engaging with loss is key to the practice of care, even if, as Forest’s more recent work shows, this engagement also entails documenting a gradual forgetting of the dead.

“Daddy, can’t you see we are burning?” Traumatic Time and Parental Responsibility in Kenneth Lonergan’s Manchester by the Sea

In Kenneth Lonergan’s film Manchester by the Sea, screened in 2016, Lee commits a life-changing mistake: on his way to the mini-market, he forgets to put the screen on the fireplace. Upon his return, he becomes a numbed witness to the spectacle of his own family tragedy as the authorities remove his children’s bodies from the burning house scene. This significant event is represented through a sequence of flashbacks, which designates said cinematic device as one of the film’s most important features. Indeed, in The Trauma Question, Roger Luckhurst approaches the flashback as “the cinema’s rendition of the frozen moment of the traumatic impact . . . flash[ing] back insistently in the present because the image cannot yet or perhaps ever be narrativized as past.” Years after the incident, and still unable to address the wound of his parental negligence and child-death trauma, Lee dreams of his dead daughter suggestively asking, “Daddy, can’t you see we are burning?” The question echoes the one from Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams, where another father dreams of his dead child being burnt. In Unclaimed Experience: Trauma, Narrative, and History, Cathy Caruth examines Freud and Lacan’s analysis of this question as to the significance of grief articulation, trauma coping and trauma persistence in sleep and awaken reality. The purpose of this article is to examine anachrony as a feature which exalts the dysfunctional inertia of a present life and of a traumatized mind afflicted by events which have been impossible to either register, integrate or narrate. Secondly, the article will try to unearth the mechanics of Lee’s grief and guilt via his daughter’s question. Emphasis will be placed on Lee’s inability to assume what Caruth calls the “ethical burden of survival” when asked to be his orphaned nephew’s guardian. This will be viewed as a reminder of Lee’s failure as a parent and as a challenge and invitation for the character to recover from the vacuum of his current death-in-life.

Origen iconográfico y proceso de creación de la Niña muerta (1957) de Antonio López. La relación de la fotografía y la pintura bajo el signo del apropiacionismo

Este artículo propone una descodificación del cuadro Niña muerta (1957) de Antonio López. Una pintura clave de los años cincuenta que debe ser abordada desde varias perspectivas de interpretación para comprenderse en su totalidad. Con tal propósito este estudio plantea en su desarrollo el análisis tanto de su origen iconográfico como de su construcción morfológica, para así aclarar las diferentes tácticas que el artista asume en su estructuración ideológico narrativa. En este sentido, presentamos un texto en el que se evidencia, por un lado, el uso de la fotografía por parte del artista como fuente de inspiración para la creación de esta pieza, tratándose en profundidad el proceso apropiacionista que efectúa López para concebirla –bajo el parámetro de fusión de lo fotográfico con lo pictórico como estrategia representativa–. Mientras, por otro, se pone de manifiesto la clara convivencia idealizada de la realidad e irrealidad en la misma, manifestándose en consecuencia como una pintura esencial en la composición de su época surrealista.

Who I Was with Her by Nita Tyndall

Reviewed by: Who I Was with Her by Nita Tyndall Kiri Palm Tyndall, Nita Who I Was with Her. HarperTeen, 2020 [352p] Trade ed. ISBN 9780062978387 $17.99 E-book ed. ISBN 9780062978400 $9.99 Reviewed from digital galleys R Gr. 8-12 Publicly, high school senior Corinne is a popular, high-achieving cross-country runner, but in reality, she's struggling with her parents' divorce, her mother's alcoholism, and her girlfriend, Maggie, who wants to be out and proud while Corinne fears ostracism. Then Maggie dies and Corinne spirals out of control. From there, the first-person narration flips between the days and months before Maggie's accident to Corinne's drowning in the grief of the days following. This narrative structure is a poignant choice, realistic about the mental time-traveling one experiences after the death of a loved one. The bulk of Corinne's conflict is internal, as she curses her self-described cowardice at staying in the closet and mourns the absence of anyone who knows how much this dead girl from another school meant to her. As Corinne muddles through the expectations of her parents, teammates, and the late Maggie, she slowly comes to terms with her own desires and need for truth, as well as her budding feelings for Maggie's ex, whom she met at Maggie's funeral. There's no true resolution to Corinne's story; while she begins to let go of fear and accept herself, there's a long road ahead of her and an uncertain future. There's also, however, an opportunity to find her own way that rings true for teens on the cusp of adulthood and new adventures. This is a bisexual bildungsroman for fans of John Green or anyone wanting a good cry. [End Page 108] Copyright © 2020 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

You Were Never Here by Kathleen Peacock

Reviewed by: You Were Never Here by Kathleen Peacock Kate Quealy-Gainer, Assistant Editor Peacock, Kathleen You Were Never Here. HarperTeen, 2020 [400p] Trade ed. ISBN 9780063002517 $17.99 E-book ed. ISBN 9780063002531 $9.99 Reviewed from digital galleys R Gr. 7-10 When seventeen-year-old Cat returns to Montgomery Falls after five years, she's shocked to discover that her childhood friend Riley has been missing for three months, though the golden-boy jock people talk about seems like a far cry from the nerdy OCD sufferer she knew. Riley's older brother is convinced something nefarious happened to Riley and begs for Cat's help, knowing that she has the power to see people's deepest desires and fears just by touch—a power that Cat can barely control and that tore her and Riley apart in the first place. When a nearly dead girl is found in a river with no memory of what happened to her, Cat realizes she has to harness her visions to figure out who or what is attacking kids in Montgomery Falls. Paced with precision and rife with red herrings and blind alleys, this deliciously taut thriller delivers both in its supernatural intrigue and its ultimate exploration of the banality of human evil. Cat is a fully fleshed out character in the throes of late adolescence, struggling with family dynamics, future plans, and two potential love interests, and that all plays out organically next to the unfolding mystery. It's refreshing, too, that her abilities are not a given in their accuracy or interpretation, and her visions can be influenced by her own insecurities and perceptions, giving her character a relatable vulnerability. The revelation of the killer is not surprising, but Cat's narrow escape from him is edge-of-your-seat material. [End Page 97] Copyright © 2020 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Dressing The Ghost

Dressing The Ghost Emily Schultz (bio) None of my friends wanted to model a dead girl's dress, but after they did they all posted photos of it to their Instagram accounts. The outfit was black with a gold belt and black bows on each shoulder. A pleat ran across one hip, making the fabric of the skirt drape in a sexy way. I didn't remember having ever seen my roommate in it. When my roommate was killed, I'd been left with a stack of blue jeans and blouses and an empty room. Her name was Olive Baker. I met her through a friend on social media when I posted that I had an extra room. I didn't know the friend well and I hadn't lived with Olive more than three months when she was hit by a delivery truck while cycling home from work. Her parents, Stan and Jodi Baker, had that broad Midwestern stature, feet shoulder-width apart, standing tall and wide even in their grief, like very old trees. They came and collected some of her things—fit three boxes into their Toyota Corolla. They had driven nine hours to ID her body and make arrangements for her cremation. I cried a little and gave them milk and cookies, as if they were children, and told them I was sorry. They took Olive's vintage typewriter, some photographs in frames, her laptop, a couple pieces of pottery she'd made, a box of books, a teapot, and an old plush dog with a chewed-up ear. They asked me if I could look after the rest. "Of course." I didn't know what else to say. Olive died five days before rent day but I couldn't bring it up, and I found out it was hard to say no to people who had lost their child. Since moving in the only purchase Olive had made that wasn't edible was a bookshelf she ordered online from Dot & Bo. I took [End Page 233] a photograph of it, and sold it on Craigslist for $150 to a couple in Williamsburg. In Olive's closet I found vintage dresses: mostly unworn, probably because she biked every day across the Williamsburg Bridge to a publishing office in Gramercy Park. I struggled into a few different garments. The looser styles didn't look bad on me—I snapped pictures using the full-length mirror in her room. I posted them to my Etsy, Sue-Sue-Studios. I kept the descriptions brief. Wool cardigan with rhinestones, good condition, size small. Floral 1990s shirt-dress—cotton. And the measurements. A-line skirt with hot air balloon appliqué. I priced everything $30 more than I thought it was worth. The Etsy page was left over from my vase project—a couple years ago I collaged old black-and-white photos onto flower vases and mugs. It went awry when I pasted a grainy image of General Josip Tito of Yugoslavia onto a purple pitcher. He was a Communist dictator. I didn't know. My wares got reported as hateful and I was put on suspension. By the time the ban was lifted, I had tired of collage on objects, and now I mostly used my Etsy to sell stuff when I was short on cash. Electronics were what I really needed: the cold green digitalglow of cash. I looked on her shelves, but her mom had remembered to take her tablet. I tried on a pair of Olive's Mavi jeans, but they were too snug. She was a size 10. I texted my friend Gabi, who was small-waisted, and asked her to come over and help me sort. It was while I was waiting for her that I spotted the black dress. I could see right away it was too little for me. I laid it down on the couch and took a photo of it against the blue seating. I couldn't decide if it looked sad like that, empty and flat, so I picked it up and took it back in the bedroom. I tried to shimmy into it, but it was stiff—not a...

Théâtre de Michel de Ghelderode – un retour aux oeuvres « mineures » ?

The article is devoted to the recurrence of the same motifs in the creative oeuvre of Michel de Ghelderode over the whole period of his literary career. The analysis focuses on the recurrence and evolution of two characters in the dramatic works of the Belgian playwright. The first part of the article charts the evolution of the motif of the resurrection of a dead girl: the writer recollects a story, told by his mother in his childhood, to recreate his own stage version of the Biblical resurrection of Jair’s daughter. The second part deals with the motif of the battleaxe and her literary path in Ghelderode’s dramatic works, from a duplicitous gossip through a lecherous plain girl to a shrew, whose story is riddled with elements of the Belgian founding myth.

Midi by Cloé Korman

Reviewed by: Midi by Cloé Korman Jane E. Evans Korman, Cloé. Midi. Seuil, 2018. ISBN 978-2-02-140355-8. Pp. 224. Immature decisions can haunt us as we reflect on the consequences of our actions or inaction. Such is the premise of Cloé Korman's third novel, Midi, in which three acquaintances meet again fifteen years after having led a children's group, Théâtre d'Été, 2000, in Marseille. Both Claire, a medical student, and her friend Emmanuelle (Manu) had been Dom's girlfriends during that long ago summer. And Dom, who had previously coached the same program, magically transformed local ten- to twelve-year-old children into actors intent on performing Shakespeare's The Tempest. Told in the first person from Claire's perspective, Midi interweaves three temporal moments: her present life as a doctor in a Parisian hospital, a wife, and a mother; the recent past when she recalls the events of Dom's days as a terminally ill patient where she practices; and the remembered, younger Claire whom she plumbs in order to further understand the events of the more distant past. In this last persona, Claire possessed much knowledge and sensitivity regarding the children's health concerns, including Bastien's diabetes, and Joséphine (Jo)'s death because none of the youth leaders reported her to L'aide sociale à l'enfance. Claire's oversight of Jo's condition becomes the gauge in her own motherhood. Firm with her daughters about the family's rules on computer and cell phone use, for example, she also expresses her love by listening to matters that preoccupy them. When her elder daughter Lina confides that someone has been impersonating a dead girl by responding to the late teen's email, Claire visits the Facebook page in question while holding her daughter closely. She then caringly helps her daughter understand the misuses of social media. Because of the summer of 2000, Claire uses nautical imagery to liken her experiences to the shipwreck from The Tempest. For instance, in assessing the extra furniture in Dom's hospital room, she thinks, "C'est le luxe qu'on accorde aux patients qui sont là pour longtemps [...] Aux vrais naufragés" (46). She similarly compares Dom's desire to continue working at his father's company to rat-infested cargo ships "qui repartaient contents de faire du commerce sur de nouveaux rivages" (79). Whereas Claire's remembrances influence her present behavior, the past's effect on Dom remains unclear. Nonetheless, his imminent death provides the opportunity for Claire and Manu to finally analyze the weekend events before Jo's death. Manu visited the children's home where Jo could have been placed only to hear frightening comments about the foyer from one of the social workers. Discouraged and confused, Manu ultimately did nothing either. In detailing the leaders and the children of the 2000 summer theater, Korman's Midi recaptures the leaders' enthusiasm to make a difference in a child's life. The novel also addresses the difficult subject of unreported child abuse, out of immaturity, denial, and discouragement, and hints at the inadequacies of France's children's homes. Inasmuch as actions have consequences, according to the adage, so does inaction, as Claire, Dom, and Manu discover through Joséphine's untimely death. [End Page 236] Jane E. Evans University of Texas, El Paso Copyright © 2019 American Association of Teachers of French