Water Imagery Research Articles

Symbolic and Affective Dimensions of Human-Animal Relationships in Anuradha Roy’s "The Earthspinner"

"The Earthspinner" (2021) is a multi-layered work in which the dog Chinna acts as an emotional link between all the characters. This paper aims to examine the novel through the lens of affective ecocriticism, focusing on how Roy relates imagery of fire, water and earth to emotions of loss, longing and hatred in the novel. Following a polyhedral analysis, I have chosen to focus on the lives, vicissitudes and misadventures of the novel’s three main characters, paying attention to the affections that move and guide their lives and to the different axes around which Anuradha Roy has constructed this novel. Finally, and given the symbolic richness of The Earthspinner, I will offer a global hermeneutic analysis along with the final conclusions.

A Study on the Water Imagery in Ban Yu's Novels

As a new generation of novelists who have received much attention in recent years, Ban Yu's works mainly focus on the vivid individual experiences in the context of the Northeast Era of China, reflecting the living conditions of people in specific historical periods. The Water Image in Ban Yu's novels has appeared multiple times and is unique. This paper aims to classify and explain the types of Water Image in Ban Yu's novels, in order to further explore the aesthetic connotations behind the Water Image in Ban Yu's novels.

New simulations improves interpretation of high-resolution satellite imagery of surface water

Researchers investigate dynamics of surface ocean turbulence at the submesoscale.

‘Inbetweenness’, Tanah Air and Nusantara in Dain Said’s Bunohan (2012), Interchange (2016) and Dukun (2018)

ABSTRACT This article examines three films by Malaysian Dain Said; Bunohan: return to murder (2012), Interchange (2016) and Dukun (2018). Particular attention is paid to the use of land and water (tanah air) imagery, cinematic qualities, and the richness of the cultural practices of Nusantara from which the films arise. Dain’s films explore arguments around national identity in the areas of the dramatic and the semantic. Additionally, the cinematic style of these films denotes a struggle between transnational identities and the logics of rigid national cultural boundaries. I argue that the films bring to fore a way of thinking that sees the people of Nusantara living in the interspace and moving smoothly across the archipelago. By perceiving films as ‘a liminal site of modern society’ and reflecting on ‘inbetweenness’ as the premise for everything that drives the narratives of Bunohan, Interchange, and Dukun, I maintain that the three films represent a Malaysian interstitial future that emerges between the claims of the past and the demands of the present. These films challenge and explicitly expose the conservative notion of a Malaysian monoculture, and they highlight the complexities of associative relationships through the subjects’ fractured sense of belonging. Dain creates images of Nusantara life, characterised by elements of mise en scène with which regional populations can relate. These transnational non-state-centred representations show that the land and the water have defined societies living in the in-between region of Nusantara, and focus on features that reveal the connection between peoples rather than the cultural biases and discrimination that are so often part of national discourses in the region.

Tlacoqualli in Monequi "The Center Good"

Tlacoqualli in Monequi "The Center Good"

Making use of water: Safia Elhillo’s diasporic hydropoetics

This article engages with multivalent ways in which Sudanese-American poet Safia Elhillo employs water in her poetry. I argue that studying Elhillo’s use of water imagery and settings in her work offers valuable insights into her intertextual and metatextual poetic method, as well as her thematic concerns with identity, “race,” gender and migration. Her poems with oceanic settings resurface historical traumas associated with slavery, while other poems explore more recent oppressions, such as the flooding of Nubian people’s lands during the building of the Aswan Dam. Water is also used as a metaphor for the loss of language or blurring of identity entailed by migration. Furthermore, Elhillo’s participation in multimodality through creative YouTube videos contributes additional layers to the meanings of water in her work. Comparisons are made throughout the article with poets such as Warsan Shire and Koleka Putuma, underscoring Elhillo’s participation in a wider milieu of contemporary African women poets.

Precarity and Healing: On the Role of Grief in Edwidge Danticat’s The Farming of Bones (1998)

"Edwidge Danticat’s The Farming of Bones (1998) is a fictional account of the undocumented Parsley massacre of 1937, when black Haitian migrant workers were killed by Rafael Trujillo’s government in the Dominican Republic. The paper places the novel in the African diasporic tradition of writing about the traumatic past, with the Parsley massacre being one such traumatic event of Haitian diasporic writing. The paper highlights the critical problem that unlike most post-colonial fiction, this Haitian diasporic story about gaining voice and agency fails to provide a satisfactory therapeutic valence or an explanation for individual suffering. The paper proposes an application of Judith Butler’s concept of precarity in order to reconsider the problem of healing the wounds of the past in Danticat’s novel. For Butler, social relationality makes subjects vulnerable within the social structure they inhabit, but this vulnerability may also carry a potentiality for the experience of social vulnerability to be shared in makeshift acts of solidarity. The paper claims that precarity does have a limited potential in the novel, which can be detected through the analysis of the water imagery. Amabelle Désir, the protagonist, is already living a precarious life before the Parsley massacre, but the brutality to which she is subjected isolates her socially even more afterwards. She is unable to bear her testimony, living in the past, mourning her lost lover. The representation of precarity in the novel’s water imagery indicates that making contact with her former employer in 1961 brings a momentary sense of connection and community that enables her to commit suicide eventually. This element of truncated healing can be read as the limited potential of precarity available in the Haitian diasporic context. Keywords: Edwidge Danticat, Toni Morrison, Judith Butler, Haitian diasporic women’s writing history, empowerment, healing, precarity, grief "

The Overflow of Contained Emotions in Anita Rau Badami’s The Hero’s Walk

In this article, Anita Rau Badami's second novel, The Hero’s Walk (2000), is analysed through the perspective of the field of affects. This analysis examines how the author, through the imagery of water, presents the non-physical reality of feelings and emotions. Water is the most receptive of the elements, a source of continuous, intimate and transitory metamorphoses. In the form of storms, floods, and other types of natural phenomena related to this element, it is possible to observe how Badami makes use of a metaphorical conceptualisation of intense emotional states related to the psychological trauma that arises from the loss of a loved one. For the purpose of analysis, several important sources in the field of affect theory and water symbolism will be considered. Special emphasis will also be placed on the body (and the house as an integral extension of it) as a receptacle for contained emotions in the processing of pain.

Elizabeth Bishop and the Watery Discourse: The Semiotic Chora at play

This paper theorizes the use of water imagery in Elizabeth Bishop’s selected postmodern poetry namely, “The Map”, “The Imaginary Iceberg” and “The Man-Moth”. Speaking in the language of tears, lake, bay, river, strait, sea and ocean, Bishop personifies water for culture and its language. It is on this basis that Bishop comes close to the French psychoanalyst and linguist, Julia Kristeva’s concept of the semiotic chora. Kristeva calls it a space of maternal discourse, where the fluid realm of mother’s body called chora celebrates the fluidity of semiotic desires and expresses them through the symbolic language of the world outside her body. Bishop revisits this bodily space, time and again, to acquire subjectivity through the mother/child bond. Bishop’s poetic language celebrates this relationship between the semiotic (maternal) and symbolic (paternal) realm of language. The symbolic enables the semiotic to express itself, and the semiotic shatters the rigidity of the symbolic meanings through an ongoing process of signification. This reciprocity, through the semiotic chora, makes Bishop’s identity fluid and always in motion towards multiplicity. This plurality brings newness to Bishop’s poetry and engages the researcher with fresh perspectives of outer vision, inner perception, structural patterns and make her poetry eventful.

Assessing the Legacy of “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” on its Centennial

Abstract Langston Hughes published his first poem, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” in June 1921 in The Crisis magazine. The poem helped inaugurate the Harlem Renaissance, became Hughes's calling card, and established certain core themes of the vast body of work he would publish in the next half-century: the positive affirmation of Blackness; the deployment of a collective “I”; the catalog of place names evoking both global solidarity and historical particularity; and the use of water imagery to denote worldwide interconnection and link the world's oppressed populations to the human community. One hundred years after “Rivers” was first published, the Langston Hughes Review is devoting two issues to celebrating and assessing this important milestone in twentieth-century literature and the legacy that began with this single poem. This foreword contextualizes “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” and assesses its significance on its centennial. The poem feels topical and urgent in part because it was born into a time of crisis that resonates powerfully with our own moment.

The Weight of Water: Some Implications of Textual Fluidity for the Study of Comparative Literature

This article looks at the role that water and fluidity can play within the field of comparative literature. Using the example of two recent novels, it explores the idea that water imagery in a narrative can act as a signal towards a wider sense of fluidity within the form of the text. The article looks specifically at three properties of water which can also be traced within literature: its perpetual motion, its shapelessness, and its connective potential. Through an exploration of these properties, this article aims to demonstrate how a fluid reading can help us to find new points of comparison which work at both an intertextual and an intratextual level.

Suya İşlenen Edebiyat: Kanunî Sultan Süleyman’ın Su Vakfiyesi Örneği

The charitable allocation of a property or income to a foundation in the form of a trust dates to the first years of Islam. This foundation tradition influenced Islamic regimes intensely and continued in the Ottoman Empire, where it always retained a special place. In the 16th century (December 24–31, 1565), Sultan Suleiman established a foundation for water in the Ottoman Empire that was named after him. The charter for this organization, called a vakfiye or vakifnâme, is the main subject in this study. Words, expressions, descriptions and imagery, compliments, metaphors, etc., all of which pertain to water, are present in the vakfiye text. These can be taken as evidence of how water culture emerged and lived in social memory and of the direction in which it developed. The main purpose of this article is to describe how water imagery reflects both language and culture. Accordingly, numerous references to water in the subject matter of the study are examined, for example: ocean, sea, river, fountain, rain, April rain, spring water, pure water, rain drop, heavenly waters, River of Kagithane, water of life etc. Some relevant architectural terms are also considered; water arch, bridge, bath, haunch, public fountain, fountain, and pool.

Water in the Llibre de Fortuna i Prudència by Bernat Metge

In his Llibre de Fortuna i Prudència (end of 14th c.) Bernat Metge makes ample use of the water imagery. The main character departs from the port of Barcelona in a small boat and is lost at sea in the midst of a furious storm; he spends time in a remote island surrounded by dangerous waters and criss-crossed by rivers; and returns to the safe haven of the Barcelona waters.

‘And makes it indistinct / As water is in water’: The melting away of the heroic subject in Antony and Cleopatra and All for Love

Premising the structural importance of water imagery in William Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, Antony’s ‘liquefaction’ reflects the core of his interiority, which is identified with his love affair with Cleopatra. Their desire requires a third party, Rome, in relation to which a seemingly self-enclosing erotic universe is built, and against which Antony fights for ascendancy, as a ghostly heroic self. In John Dryden’s All for Love, the historical flux vanishes, Antony’s heroic past figures as a residue and history as an embarrassment to love. In contrast with Shakespeare’s heroes, the lovers’ domestication foregrounds the compatibility of love and eros within marriage.

Aquatic Motifs in the Perspective of Christian Theology in the Poetry of Wojciech Kudyba

This article discusses the strategies of using aquatic motifs as evocations of Christian thought. Such imagery of water, rivers or streams has a deeper meaning, allowing an interpretation focused on theological refl ection about the setting of the poems. The analysis will be based on two poems by Wojciech Kudyba: Kowaniec and Dunajec, as well as their translations into English: The Dunajec River and The Kowaniec Stream, published in the anthology City of Memory. A bilingual Anthology of Contemporary Polish Poetry, edited and translated by Michael J. Mikoś with an introduction by Andrzej Niewiadomski. This anthology includes translations of many important contemporary authors, such as Wojciech Bonowicz, Przemysław Dakowicz, Krzysztof Koehler, Marcin Świetlicki and Tomasz Różycki.

Water Imagery in George Sand’s Work. Edited by Françoise Ghillebaert and Madeleine Vala

Water Imagery in George Sand’s Work. Edited by Françoise Ghillebaert and Madeleine Vala

THE WATER OF LIFE: THREE EXPLORATIONS INTO WATER IMAGERY IN REVELATION AND THE FOURTH GOSPEL

This article is comprised of three separate yet related explorations regarding the image of water in Revelation and the Fourth Gospel. It first explores the attempt to tabulate examples of water terminology in the New Testament and how that tabulation has proven incomplete. A fresh assessment is provided that includes an expanded lexical domain for water and notes its high frequency of usage in Revelation and John when compared to the rest of the New Testament. The next section examines four pericopae in Revelation and in the Fourth Gospel where water imagery is prevalent. Old Testament backgrounds for language are examined along with the intertextual relationship between texts in Revelation and John. A theological understanding of water imagery for Revelation and the gospel is proposed. In the final section, the Asian cultic practice of using water—the hydrophoros in the Artemis cult—is presented. While a Jewish background is commonly posited as the background for understanding water imagery in Revelation and the Fourth Gospel, the Greco-Roman polytheistic cults are posited as the primary religious background for Gentile believers in the Asian congregations.

Water Exposure and the Risk of Contact Lens-Related Disease.

To describe the association of water exposure with contact lens (CL)-related disease and explore the guidelines regarding water exposure to CL wearers, provided by CL manufacturing industry, global public health, and CL-related professional associations. A review of the literature was conducted by searching PubMed, MEDLINE, and Web of Science databases up to September 2017 for articles published or translated in English using keywords: contact lens* AND tap water OR swimming OR showering OR water exposure AND microbial keratitis OR Acanthamoeba keratitis OR corneal infiltrate* OR ocular adverse event*. References in all relevant publications were also reviewed. Water exposure during CL wear is associated with complications ranging from sterile corneal infiltrative events to sight-threatening infections. Despite the documented risks due to water exposure, water-related habits are common among CL wearers. This suggests a lack of awareness and understanding regarding the risks among CL wearers and potentially CL practitioners. Discrepancies exist in guidelines for CL hygiene and compliance provided by the CL manufacturing industry, global public health, and CL-related professional associations. There is also widespread use of water imagery within CL marketing and packaging materials. These factors may give rise to confusion among wearers and may contribute toward risk-taking behaviors. Consensus among stakeholders about water and CL care is needed. Guidelines should unequivocally advocate for the avoidance of any water exposure including handling CLs with wet hands, rinsing CLs or storage cases in tap water, showering while wearing CLs and swimming with CLs without wearing goggles.

Multi-source global wetland maps combining surface water imagery and groundwater constraints

Abstract. Many maps of open water and wetlands have been developed based on three main methods: (i) compiling national and regional wetland surveys, (ii) identifying inundated areas via satellite imagery and (iii) delineating wetlands as shallow water table areas based on groundwater modeling. However, the resulting global wetland extents vary from 3 % to 21 % of the land surface area because of inconsistencies in wetland definitions and limitations in observation or modeling systems. To reconcile these differences, we propose composite wetland (CW) maps, combining two classes of wetlands: (1) regularly flooded wetlands (RFWs) obtained by overlapping selected open-water and inundation datasets; and (2) groundwater-driven wetlands (GDWs) derived from groundwater modeling (either direct or simplified using several variants of the topographic index). Wetlands are statically defined as areas with persistent near-saturated soil surfaces because of regular flooding or shallow groundwater, disregarding most human alterations (potential wetlands). Seven CW maps were generated at 15 arcsec resolution (ca. 500 m at the Equator) using geographic information system (GIS) tools and by combining one RFW and different GDW maps. To validate this approach, these CW maps were compared with existing wetland datasets at the global and regional scales. The spatial patterns were decently captured, but the wetland extents were difficult to assess compared to the dispersion of the validation datasets. Compared with the only regional dataset encompassing both GDWs and RFWs, over France, the CW maps performed well and better than all other considered global wetland datasets. Two CW maps, showing the best overall match with the available evaluation datasets, were eventually selected. These maps provided global wetland extents of 27.5 and 29 million km2, i.e., 21.1 % and 21.6 % of the global land area, which are among the highest values in the literature and are in line with recent estimates also recognizing the contribution of GDWs. This wetland class covers 15 % of the global land area compared with 9.7 % for RFW (with an overlap of ca. 3.4 %), including wetlands under canopy and/or cloud cover, leading to high wetland densities in the tropics and small scattered wetlands that cover less than 5 % of land but are highly important for hydrological and ecological functioning in temperate to arid areas. By distinguishing the RFWs and GDWs based globally on uniform principles, the proposed dataset might be useful for large-scale land surface modeling (hydrological, ecological and biogeochemical modeling) and environmental planning. The dataset consisting of the two selected CW maps and the contributing GDW and RFW maps is available from PANGAEA at https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.892657 (Tootchi et al., 2018).

Water Imagery in George Sand's Work dir. by Françoise Ghillebaert

Water Imagery in George Sand's Work dir. by Françoise Ghillebaert