Historical Criticism Research Articles

المضمر والظاهر في رواية حجاب العروس للروائي محمد الحمراني مقاربة في التاريخانية الجديدة

تقوم أطروحة التاريخانية الجديدة في هذا البحث على مقاربة الخطاب السردي في رواية (حجاب العروس) للروائي محمد الحمراني التي كتبت بعد الاحتلال الأمريكي للعراق في التاسع من نيسان عام 2003،والبحث في كيفية دخول آثار الماضي وتصوراته إلى الثقافة المعاصرة، وصولا إلى إدراك العمل الأدبي ضمن سياقه التاريخي، ومن ثمّ تأويل شفرات النص السردي، وممارسة الأعمال الحفرية للإمساك بالأنصاف الثقافية الكامنة في النص الجمالي، هذه الأنساق التي تتستر في النص الروائي في أثناء تصويره المتخيل للواقع تصويرا من وجهة نظر معينة قد تتفق مع الأحداث التاريخية وقد تختلف فيها؛ لذا سيعمل البحث على تقويض الخطابات المركزية السائدة في النص الجمالي للكشف عن جزء الجبل الجليدي الغاطس في خطابات النص.
 البحث مقسم على قسمين: الأوّل مهاد نظري، وفيه التمييز بين النقد التاريخاني التقليدي والنقد التاريخاني الجديد، ومدى اشتراك الأخير مع النقد الثقافي، أمّا الثاني فيتضمن مقاربة للنص الروائي الذي بُنيَ عليه البحث

‘Growing a World Wonder’: The Great Green Wall and the History of Environmental Decline in the Sahel, 1450–2022

This article offers a historical critique of the Great Green Wall Initiative of the Sahel and the Sahara (GGW) – an audacious project to stop the southern encroachment of the Sahara Desert by constructing a wall of trees across the continent. By situating the GGW within the longue durée of the Sahel’s environmental history, it examines how the narratives of environmental decline that underpin the initiative are not only misguided but born out of the transatlantic slave trade, imperialism and colonialism, and the neoliberal development projects of the postcolonial period. In doing so, it argues that narratives of environmental decline have not only served as a dynamic framework to rationalise Western exploitation of the Sahel’s environments over time, but have obscured, or even silenced, the effective practices of dryland regeneration of Sahelian communities.

Whimsical criticism

ABSTRACT For many decades, Virginia Woolf's reputation in the history of literary criticism has been as a heroic rebel and challenger to the dominant forms and institutions of literary criticism. This legacy has rightfully been celebrated. Yet this view tends to treat Woolf's idiosyncratic and whimsical writings in relation to and in opposition to the prevailing standards of academic criticism rather than as a serious, normatively coherent form of criticism in its own right. Thus, this essay takes up the hypothesis that Woolf's critical writing constitutes a methodologically coherent criticism, even while it understands the values of reading and literature in deeply different terms. Taking up Woolf's whimsical criticism offers an important alternative practice of criticism capable of mediating between professional and everyday forms of reading. Pursuing Woolf's criticism also allows the essay to unfold some of the values that subtend and continue to shape the hidden norms of literary criticism today.

The development of comparative Jewish hermeneutics of the Gospel of Matthew

The article examines the historical development of comparative Jewish hermeneutic studies of the Gospel of Matthew starting with the 17th century. The research pays special attention to the stages of formation, to obstacles and their overcoming, and to the nature of the development of comparative works. It introduces a comparison of two parallel traditions in these studies — Christian and Jewish. The main methodological approaches of Christian and Jewish scholars come from historical criticism and philology. They transcend religious boundaries and bring academicism to comparative studies. However, later historical criticism leads to a delay in the development of comparative Jewish studies due to the problems of anachronism, since rabbinic literature originates several hundred years after the New Testament, and therefore is not suitable for synchronous comparison. Another obstacle to the development of comparative analysis poses the philological principle of only one textual meaning. Jewish hermeneutics presupposes many meanings of the sacred text, which contradicts the principle of a single meaning. A revolutionary breakthrough in comparative Jewish hermeneutics occurs in the middle of the 20th century, thanks to the use of a literary approach that is not bound by the strict rules of historical criticism and the philological principle of a single meaning. Renee Bloch suggests the use of Rabbinic literature for the study of Christian and intertestamental literature, and even of the Bible itself, even though such a comparison is anachronistic. The cultural approach helps to see the uniqueness of the cultural contribution of the exegete and to overcome religious obstacles to comparative research. The article suggests a comparative Jewish hermeneutics of the Christmas story of the Gospel of Matthew.

МАССОВАЯ КРЕСТЬЯНСКАЯ ИКОНА В РОССИИ: ИСТОРИЯ КРИТИКИ И СЕМИОТИЧЕСКИЕ ИДЕОЛОГИИ

The paper is about the history of public criticism of the craft of so-called raskhozhaya (i. e. mass peasant) craft icons in the 16th – 20th centuries. Such icons produced most often by “lay icon painters” (that is, secular craftsmen from the peasants), were intended for the common people, and therefore were inexpensive, bright and quick to manufacture. The focus of attention is on the large craft center of the mass peasant icon – the so-called Suzdalshchina (Suzdal region), located in the east of the Vladimir province (Kholui, Palekh, Mstera and the surrounding villages). Already at the dawn of crafting the mass peasant icon such a craft had many opponents, primarily among manufacturers and consumers of expensive icons of the “high style” in icon painting. The production of mass artisanal icons as a socio-cultural phenomenon, was largely associated with Modern Times, was aimed at material and technological innovations (printed icons on paper, conveyor principle, the use of new cheap materials, capitalization of production, etc.). Therefore, public controversy was directed not only against the poor quality of the mass product or elements of Old Believer iconography, but also against the use of Western European innovations. Consistently, starting with the articles of the “Hundred–Domed Cathedral” and other texts of the 16th century, the author considers the history of criticism of craft icons, identifies several types of semiotic ideologies – primarily the protective (positive) and the critical (negative).

Pravoslavna crkva u raljama aktuelnih globalnih geopolitičkih promena - kanonska i socio-politička analiza

This paper points to processes that have been going on for a century and aim to change the modern image of the Orthodox Church. One patriarchy, the first in honour, is trying to impose itself as the supreme interpreter of traditions and theological narratives, as well as to change the canonical structure and ecclesial identity of all other autocephalous Orthodox Churches. The prehistory of the devastating processes starts with the restoration of national and church self-consciousness in the 19th century in the Balkans, which led to the emergence of the brainchild of restoring the autocephalous status of church communities in the liberated territories. The procedures for church independence were not initially approved by the Patriarchate of Constantinople. The leading patriarchate in honour, faced with the actual church situation on the Balkan Peninsula, confirmed the independence of the Athens Archdiocese and the Metropolitanate of Belgrade in the second half of the 19th century. However, the 20th century brought massive changes. The Balkan Wars, the Great War, the communist revolution in Russia, the disappearance of the Ottoman and Austrian empires, and the great tragedy of the Orthodox Greeks in Constantinople and Asia Minor led to changes in theological paradigms in the Patriarchate of Constantinople, which also initiated a change in its church position from Primus inter pares (The first among equals) to Primus sine paribus (The first without equals). This fact leads to the pretensions of this patriarchate to the entire Orthodox diaspora, as well as to the exclusive right to form criteria for granting autocephalous status to church communities that request it. However, the representatives of the Patriarchate of Constantinople very consistently continue to develop the theological assumptions of the new ecclesiological matrix, especially in the decades after the Second World War. Quite consciously and with the expected outcome, they are approaching the levers of power of the US political elite with the desire to strengthen their position in front of the repressive regime in Turkey. Soon, they began to use the established connections and increased political potential to impose their ecclesiological and canonical views on other Orthodox churches, especially since the fall of the Iron Curtain and the demolition of the Berlin Wall. The resistance of the new ecclesiological narratives of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, which give it a priority place in relation to all other churches and in the processes of accomplishing canonical and spiritual authority, not just honour, to all reasoned theological and historical criticism from Orthodox theologians, canonists, and archbishops, points to the fact that the theological turnover of this Patriarchate is well and studiously prepared. It is apparent that this church expects essential benefits from it, but also that the shaped narratives have a reflective effect on anticipated political situations that have been preparing for decades under the guise of the pseudo-ideological supremacy of the West. Since it is under massive transformative pressure from the Western power centres, it's evident that the Orthodox Church is in great turmoil, with painful uncertainty about its resolution. The processes that are mentioned are part of global geopolitical change. Rational interpretation of reality suggests they are synchronized from the same centre of power and political decision-making, as well as mutually compatible and complementary. This fact tells us that the mutual relations of the Orthodox churches are in a crisis that seems to be designed and managed for the purpose of more comprehensive intervention in the self-consciousness of the Orthodox peoples and their ecclesial, national, ethical, and political identity.

Dispersing the Devil’s Stench: Shifting Perceptions of Sulfuric Miasma in Early Modern English Literatures

Abstract: From approximately 1500 to 1650, English references to sulfur’s stench focused on sensory indications of hell, demons, and wickedness in worldly environments. Thereafter, most English references to the pungent rock turned proportionately to technics, medicine, and progress. The increasing presence of sulfuric miasma within secularizing applications for fumigations, gunpowder, and industry led to a limiting of the role of sulfur as a signifier of hell within English environments. Due to economic incentives, supernatural discourses on brimstone atmospheres faced semantic dispersion, as sulfur took on a growing number of connotations instead of remaining a significant environmental signifier of the scent of the devil and his toadies. These shifting literary associations for sulfur exemplify the fluctuating powers of the market, religious voices, biopolitical networks, and the state to define what is matter out of place , or what can be considered too environmentally toxic for economic consumption. Revising the prominence of synchronic work in Early Modern Studies that critiques the dis-enchantment thesis, and redeploying theory from Douglas, Jameson, Greenblatt, Eagleton, and Rancière, this essay highlights connections between the History of Ideas, Environmental Studies, and literary criticism through asserting that the sheer abundance of sulfuric substances in the environment, caused by increased uses for the rock in the coal-fired furnaces of the 18th century, added to a literary dislodgment of mystical definitions of sulfur’s smell as signifying evil. As the Industrial Revolution stuffed chimneys with additional sulfur compounds, material encounters with brimstone became common. Continuously taught that sulfur meant profit and purity, reformed English noses found less sin in the smell of acrid sulfur smoke. This analysis portrays that within literatures that included associations to sulfur, the impending Anthropocene was tested, greenwashed, and approved by the masses of the disenchanting English public sphere.

Две реминисценции из «русского романа» в очерке Марселя Пруста «Cыновние чувства одного матереубийцы»

The article aims to follow the complementary methods of the history of concepts and genetic criticism, firstly, to consider in general terms the genealogy of the essay “Filial Feelings of a Matricide,” and secondly, to focus on those of his motifs that could go back to the careful reading of Russian novelists. However, it is important for us not only to provide additional evidence of Proust’s active work with the “Russian Novel,” but also to try to understand from the material of this small but crucial text for the intellectual formation of the novelist how the leading themes of the upcoming novel could be formed, incorporating autobiographical, literary, mythological, psychological, sociological, philosophical motifs. It’s about themes of time and death, crime and redemption, art and life. The analysis suggests that the essay became a kind of trigger for a radical transformation of Proust’s position as a novelist, during which, on the one hand, the fixation on the amateurish autobiography of early creative experiences was overcome. On the other hand, an innovative strategy was tested by using first-person narration, in which the narrator’s “I” acquires partial autonomy from the “I” of the author. Finally, the article concludes that the essay establishes two significant elements of the poetics of the upcoming novel: the lexical and semantic circumscription of the narrative and the “telescopic vision” of reality.

REVISITING THE MARGINS OF LITERARY CRITICISM: MEDUSA REPLICATED

Literary criticism’s deep-rooted history, effortlessly traceable back to Plato, might be challenging to grasp without comparing the historical sequence of distinctive periods along with frequently shifting or diversifying perspectives. Several scholarly studies tend to elaborate on the distinct historical periods, aiming to conduct in-depth analyses for literary criticism. This practical albeit conventional approach carries the potential risk of overlooking the idea of revisiting earlier critical accounts to unveil novel insights. A classical understanding of historiography can also complicate the interconnection and flow of the various movements of literary criticism’s already broad history. As such, this particular research aims to revisit seminal representatives of the literary criticism throughout various epochs, constructing a chronological and intersecting narrative in a progressive sequence. The narrative originating from the artwork titled “The Raft of the Medusa” shall serve as the foundational basis for this research to further explore the interconnection existing between literary criticism and visual representations. This paper intends to narrate the historical journey of literary criticism by following the footsteps of several prominent figures and analysing the ways in which they intersect or conflict; while remaining committed to the chronological sequence of literary criticism. The fact that the article provides a discourse of that nature serves a consequential introduction to the history of literary criticism.

Defining Contemporary American Literature: A Study of Louise Gluck’s, The Seven Ages

This paper defines contemporary American literature with specific references to Louise Gluck’s The Seven Ages. Although a handful of studies have been done on the subject yet, a satisfactory definition of contemporary American Literature has remained a task. The reason for this challenge is tied to the diverse lenses with which scholars have examined the subject matter with special attention to issues of language composition, authorship, setting, culture, characterization, and geographical experiences. More so, separating contemporary American literature from other American literary periods, especially modernism. The significance of this present paper is hinged on the fact that it has demonstrated sparkling differences between contemporary American literature and other epochs, with glaring shreds of evidence from Gluck’s collection. The essay identified, transformation, experimentation, coming of age, technology, cyber literature, history and memory, intertextuality, identity, literature of voice, family and beauty, spirit, nature, and wit as major themes that dominate contemporary American literature. Also, the literature of self, isolation, disillusionment, and the world as characteristics that characterize contemporary American literature. In terms of style, the work examined monologue, free versification, and simplified diction as core literary patterns. The qualitative research method was adopted, while historical criticism was applied for analysis. Findings show that contemporary American literature is different from other periods in American literature, even though, it shares proximity with modern American literature. In the same vein, not all literature weaved in the 1950s belongs to this period, but those produced in the last twenty-two years between (2000-2022). The submission of this study is that further studies be done on the area of defining the nature and characteristics of contemporary American literature, using texts weaved in the last twenty-two years. ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE | Dec. 28, 2023

E. P. Shestakov-Erchimen as a literary critic

The article studies the literary and critical works by Egor Shestakov – Erchimen (1927–1996), a major and authoritative critic in the Yakut literature of the 1960s – 90s. His opinion was of great importance in the literary process of that period. The article reveals the problems, the genre originality of his works, the principles that the critic adhered to, as well as the methods and techniques of critical analysis of a work of art (the critic's tools). As a result, based on the analysis, the following was revealed: the main problematic issues of literary and critical articles and research works by Erchimen are the issues of evaluating the literary heritage of the classics of Yakut literature; controversial issues of the history of Yakut literature and criticism; issues of the critic's skill and the quality of critical analysis of a work of art. The Erchimen's literary and critical works represent the whole range of major genres of criticism: a review, article (review, problematic and polemical), literary portrait (anniversary article and a literary portrait per se and essay); his critical analysis methods include retelling, quoting, comparison, analogy, and a direct statement.

ალექსანდრე ცაგარელი და ახალი ქართული ლიტერატურის საკითხები

Aleksandre Tsagareli is one of the prominent figures among the Kartvelologists of the nineteenth century. The scholar working at the University of St. Petersburg is more famous for his linguistic and archeographical works, although his contribution as a critic of Georgian literature of the nineteenth century should not be forgotten. It is true that his critical heritage is not extensive, but it is noteworthy for the history of Georgian literary criticism.
 In 1870, Alexandre Tsagareli published in the newspaper “Droeba” (No. 2-7) an extensive cycle of articles “Our Unfortunate Literature in this Century”, which, although it is mainly aimed at discussing the work of Ilia Chavchavadze, at the same time offers an interesting characterization of Georgian literature of the nineteenth century, before Ilia Chavchavadze .
 Aleksandre Tsagareli is one of the first in Georgian reality to discuss the relationship between cosmopolitanism and nationalism based on literature and art. He takes the completely correct point of view that the work of art will gain a universal, cosmopolitan meaning when it is deeply national in nature. Nationality of culture not only hinders its cosmopolitanism, but on the contrary, without it it is completely unattainable.
 Alexandre Tsagareli is the first Georgian critic who periodizes the Georgian literature of the nineteenth century based on a certain conceptual basis. He distinguishes three main stages of the development of new Georgian literature and discusses the main representatives of these periods.
 In spite of numerous disputed provisions, Alexandre Tsagarli’s critical observations on the new Georgian literature are noteworthy for many reasons. The main merit of his cycle of letters is that the author tries to understand Georgian literature of the nineteenth century as a systematic process, which is evidenced by the periodization of the literature proposed by him. The views of the critic about the genesis and artistic form of the work of Alexandre Chavchavadze, Nikoloz Baratashvili, Giorgi Eristavi, Ilia Chavchavadze later became a creative impetus for many researchers.

Loss and Damage, Climate Victims, and International Climate Law: Looking Back, Looking Forward

AbstractAfter more than three decades of negotiations, the international response to climate change under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) appears to have come full circle. At COP27, parties to the UNFCCC agreed to establish a multilateral fund to address loss and damage from global temperature rise, an idea that was initially put forward by the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) in the early 1990s. Employing a historical critique, which draws upon archival and doctrinal research and interviews with key informants who participated in the early days of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee for a Framework Convention on Climate Change, this article examines the AOSIS proposal in its wider historical context, and provides reflections for the renewed endeavour to negotiate a multilateral fund on loss and damage, in particular with a view to achieving justice for climate victims.

Women’s knowledge and musical form: adapting historical identities in Martin Guerre

Abstract This essay assesses the afterlives in film, theatre, and scholarship of a sixteenth-century legal proceeding in which a Basque peasant named Martin Guerre was subject to identity theft. Focusing on the 1996 West End musical, the essay proposes that the conventions of musical theatre allowed this adaptation to revise earlier versions of the story in response to then-current concerns in historiography, in particular, those of new historicist criticism. It argues that the musical’s focus on the female lead’s knowledge and consent, informed by the cultural context of the 1990s, constituted a key intervention in the adaptive history of the Martin Guerre story. And it examines the musical’s engagement with new historicist ideas about the contingency of early modern identity, noting that the lyrics and structure present a contrast between a contingent identity reliant on property ownership, kinship bonds, and religious community with a more ‘modern’ identity based on psychological continuity and unique selfhood. In conclusion, the essay proposes Martin Guerre as a case study for broader questions about how historical individuals’ agency can be represented in adaptation.

Peran Perempuan dalam Politik Simbolis Pakubuwono X 1893-1939 M

In Surakarta Sunanate, women became the determinant of strength, resilience, and success for the susuhunan in achieving political endeavors. Women as wives, empresses, queens, friends, children, courtiers, and ordinary people play an important role in Surakarta Sunanate. The purpose of this study is to determine the involvement of women in Pakubuwono X strategy in achieving the goals and political stability of Surakarta Sunanate 1893-1939 M. The involvement of women influenced the social and cultural system in the Sunanate. This research uses the historical research method. The research went through the stages of topic selection, source collection, verification (historical criticism), analysis and synthesis, and writing. The sources used are written documents from various library sources, journals, scientific research, articles, documentation, and various sources related to the discussion. The results showed that the birth of Pakubuwono X brought progress to Surakarta Sunanate. The progress and glory of Surakarta Sunanate did not escape from Pakubuwono X policy of involving women in political affairs. Pakubuwono X achievements cannot be separated from women who play an important role in government defense, economic improvement, educational progress, Sunanate characteristics, and preservation of cultural traditions. 
 Keywords: Pakubuwono X; symbolic politics; role of women

The Shifting Faces of Epic Heroes: Unity and Diversity in Seventeenth-Century English Literary Criticism

Seventeenth-century England, renowned for its epic poems, stands as one of the most fruitful periods in the history of English literary criticism in terms of epic theory. One of the most significant topics of literary criticism during this era is the evolution of epic heroes. The critics at the time had comprehensive knowledge of the existing pagan and Christian traditions of epic heroes which were varied and interwoven. Moreover, the critics of the period were well acquainted with the literary criticisms of late Renaissance Italy and seventeenth-century France. However, they did not simply absorb influences from Greek, Roman, French, and Italian sources. Instead, English critics engaged in an active dialogue with these traditions, interpreting and adapting their ideas in light of their own cultural, historical, and theological context. This enabled critics to create individual approaches towards epic heroes, thereby making English literary criticism diverse but also too fragmented to form a cohesive group. This aspect of the period makes drawing the contours of the epic heroes immensely challenging. However, despite the overriding eclecticism inherent in the literary criticism of the period, this article indicates that there is a surprising degree of consensus on certain characteristics of epic heroes. Accordingly, this article examines the concept of epic heroes in seventeenth-century English literary criticism, focusing on four key aspects: the didactic role of epic heroes, their depiction as paragons of virtue, the significance of their lineage, and the intricate process of Christianising them.

The Making of a Shakespeare Critic: Partial English Translations of Goethe’s Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre in the Long Nineteenth Century

ABSTRACT Wilhelm’s reflections in Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre (1794/95) significantly influenced the history of Hamlet criticism. The belief that Goethe used his protagonist to present his own analyses was both reflected in and reinforced by partial English translations of the German novel that appeared in British periodicals and anthologies throughout the long nineteenth century. Due to their usefulness for critical discussions, and for British publishers targeting new audiences, Wilhelm’s disquisitions were repeatedly extracted, adapted and remediated by translators and editors who exploited Goethe’s shifting reputation in nineteenth-century Britain. At their hands, pieces of fictional dialogue were reconfigured into autonomous pieces of critical commentary that served specific agendas in the target culture. Building on recent work on remediation, this article analyses both how parts of the novel underwent changes on the textual, paratextual, material and contextual levels, and why translations made them cross the fluid boundary between fiction and literary criticism.

What Is Islamic History? Muslims, Non-Muslims and the History of Everyone Else

Abstract This is a work of historical criticism, not a research article or a book review. It re-examines what we mean by ‘Islamic’ when we speak about the discipline of ‘Islamic history’, the standard term for the history of the lands where Muslims were politically and, in some senses, culturally dominant, especially during the Middle Ages. It investigates the consequences of this implicitly religious label for who is included in the grand narrative (Muslims, chiefly Sunnīs) and who is not (non-Muslims and Muslim minorities). It then proposes an alternative approach that favours geography and political periodisation as ways of organising how we think about the past in a more neutral fashion.

‘Growing a World Wonder’: The Great Green Wall and the History of Environmental Decline in the Sahel, 1450–2022

This article offers a historical critique of the Great Green Wall Initiative of the Sahel and the Sahara (GGW) – an audacious project to stop the southern encroachment of the Sahara Desert by constructing a wall of trees across the continent. By situating the GGW within the longue durée of the Sahel’s environmental history, it examines how the narratives of environmental decline that underpin the initiative are not only misguided but born out of the transatlantic slave trade, imperialism and colonialism, and the neoliberal development projects of the postcolonial period. In doing so, it argues that narratives of environmental decline have not only served as a dynamic framework to rationalise Western exploitation of the Sahel’s environments over time, but have obscured, or even silenced, the effective practices of dryland regeneration of Sahelian communities.

Remembrance Undisciplined: Reading Paul Celan with Max Czollek

Taking Walter Benjamin’s critique of history’s “disciplining” nature as a starting point, this article reads Paul Celan in dialogue with the contemporary German-Jewish poet, playwright, and essayist Max Czollek to consider the undisciplining of remembrance in both their poetry. The article highlights two sites where poetry makes an undisciplined sense of the past felt: language and historical perception. Readings of Celan’s “Lila Luft” and “Mapesbury Road” and Czollek’s “von der wiederkehr” and “nachrichten aus marathon” show how both poets draw on the resources of poetry to produce perceptual openings toward the pervasive reverberations of the national socialist past in the present. In doing so, they convey a sense of time in the aftermath of National Socialism that recent debates around memory in Germany—drawing on theoretical accounts of postcolonial aftermaths—described as “post-national socialist.” Reading Celan with Czollek renders visible to what extent Celan resonates with this contemporary discourse, while also highlighting the historical specificity of remembering in the wake of the Nazi genocide.