Imaginative Interpretation Research Articles

Translating Difference: Reflections on the Interface between Novelistic Discourse and World Literature

The present essay examines two moments from the evolution of the modern Malayalam novel, in relation to the reception of two classics in world literature, namely Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables translated into Malayalam between 1925 and 1927 and García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude translated in 1984. The translation of Hugo’s novel energized the scene of Malayalam fiction by infusing new modes of representation and widening the intellectual horizons of writers in general, and novelists in particular. The echoes of Les Misérables could be heard in Malayalam fiction well into the 1950s. The struggles against colonial and feudal authorities in Kerala, provided a fertile context for the imaginative interpretation of Hugo’s humanist vision. The paper illustrates this point through close readings of critical essays, autobiographical narratives and debates on the nature of translation. The fascination of Malayali readers with García Márquez has resulted in the translation of his entire corpus into Malayalam. Magic realism as pioneered by García Márquez liberated the Malayalam novelistic narrative from social realist and modernist dogmas. The colonial disruption of oral narratives, the consequent cultural amnesia and the struggle to reclaim one’s forgotten past are themes that struck a chord in Malayalam writers of fiction. Through a detailed discussion of the novel, Moustache by S. Hareesh, the interface between novelistic discourse and world literature is mapped in the latter part of the essay.

“LOOK HERE, UPON THIS PICTURE, AND ON THIS”: MYTHOLOGICAL AND LEGENDARY SOURCES IN THE MIRROR OF SHAKESPEARE'S “HAMLET”

The article is focused on the intertextual level of metatextuality in William Shakespeare's “Hamlet”. Contemporary Shakespeare studies have formed a clear idea of the complete list of possible plot sources that the English playwright could have used when creating his masterpiece. However, the question of how exactly the medieval legendary revenge story is transformed by the Renaissance genius into the tragedy of a reflecting personality seeking to comprehend the essence of existence and put right the time that is out of joint still remains open. In this context, the application of the theory of metatext seems to be productive, since Shakespeare not only significantly modifies, to some extent modernizes and conceptually upgrades the borrowed folklore and literary material in accordance with his own creative vision, but also resorts to its imaginative interpretation, preserving some elements while transforming or even leaving others out. Therefore, the purpose of the article is to explore the complex dialogical relations between the Renaissance as a text and the literary text created in this era as a result of Shakespeare's original reinterpretation of a number of mythological motifs, semi-legendary storylines and works of his predecessors. The relevance of the topic is due to the permanent actualisation of the metatextual potential of Shakespeare's tragedy in the literature of the following epochs and the need to understand the complex system of its metatextual connections with the primary sources. The analysis demonstrates that Shakespeare’s play has almost completely re-accentuated the semantics of the medieval legend. Shakespeare's borrowing of the legendary plot made possible the collision and dialogue of differently charged cultural layers – the medieval and Renaissance ones – within one literary work, which, in turn, largely determined the extremely complex ambivalent nature of the character of Hamlet.

Performance of Ṭhumrī in Kathak Dance

Abstract: During the eighteenth century, Lakhnau, the capital of the royal state of Awadh, emerged as the refined center for the arts. Over the next centuries, kathak maestros and elite tavāifs (soiree singers and dancers) enthralled patron connoisseurs with their exquisite ṭhumrī performances, receiving lavish rewards. Ṭhumrī exemplified an aesthetic synthesis of the devotional (bhakti) and worldly themes based on undifferentiated love situated in the śṛṅgāra rasa (amorous, erotic sentiment). This essay is an attempt to highlight the infinite performative possibilities improvised by the dancer through imaginative interpretations of the ṭhumrī song-text and the connoisseur spectator’s interactive response in culturally specific meaning-making. Ṭhumrī performance epitomized the poetic “nāyikā,” who dominated prolific classic and regional literature over the millennia.

Le storie sulla morte di Ippolito Nievo: tra fatti, cospirazione e finzione

The article aims to describe the stories about Ippolito Nievo’s death, as depicted in various genres of texts from the 1960s to the present. These texts exhibit a combination of essayistic and narrative elements, incorporating both factual information and the authors’ imaginative interpretations. The popularity of the topic is closely tied to the prevalence of conspiracy theories, which have gained significant traction in recent decades. Furthermore, it should probably be placed within the Risorgimento revisionism current that radicalized in the seventies of the last century and represents a broader trend of revising official historical accounts. Among the texts identified, four were selected for an in-depth analysis both from the point of view of the content and from the point of view of the authors’ approach and their formal choices. These texts do not lend themselves to a simple classification of the literary genre, falling somewhere along the continuum between a narrative essay and a novel.

The Slow Singing Approach

For many actors in training, aural and/or video recordings of the original stage productions often serve as the principal source to learn a new song quickly and easily. They do so without having to look at a score, work with a vocal teacher or rehearse with a pianist, which often results in the actor copying the recording. While there are some vocal coaches who advocate that this aural based mimicking is a positive pathway to both learning a song and overcoming any associated vocal challenges, I argue that the vocal muscle-memory it creates dominates so strongly that the actor’s imaginative interpretation is impeded. Imitation prevents the actor from being able to experiment creatively with a range of interpretative options, it stops them from connecting with and reacting in the moment to their scene partner, and it does not allow them to characterise with authenticity. Yet, given that so many actors find the reading and writing of music an inaccessible foreign language, how do music theatre teachers follow the advice of experts like Millie Taylor and enable their students to learn holistically through, with and in their creative, imaginative bodies (2008)? Over the past two years, I have been working with acting students, many of whom do not have traditional music literacy, at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) on what I have come to term the Slow Singing Approach. This embodied focus enables students to take their time to learn a new song, while using their vocal technique effectively, but not at the expense of their authentic acting abilities.

Márta Font. Jason Vincz (trans). The Kings of the House of Árpád and the Rurikid Princes: Cooperation and Conflict in Medieval Hungary and Kievan Rus’

Márta Font. Jason Vincz (trans). <i>The Kings of the House of Árpád and the Rurikid Princes: Cooperation and Conflict in Medieval Hungary and Kievan Rus’</i>

Biography and biofiction: Seeking women’s voices from nineteenth-century Australia

From the mid twentieth century, second-wave feminism prompted interest from both historians and novelists in recovering the voices of women from the past. Where only sparse archival records were extant, a revised practice of biography was necessary, but differences arising from disciplinary approaches have led to debate on how this is best achieved. This essay analyses two contemporary publications that draw attention to lesser-known women’s experiences in colonial Australia: Melissa Ashley’s The Birdman’s Wife (2016) and Kiera Lindsey’s The Convict’s Daughter (2016). Marketed as fiction and biography respectively, these two texts nonetheless use similar techniques to recover the voices of these women from the archives and to share their stories with broad audiences: Immersive research; imaginative interpretation of documented records; character development through dialogue, emotions, thoughts and sensory details; use of literary techniques of imagery and dramatisation as signposts of fictionality. Through these techniques, and despite their generic differences, Ashley and Lindsey’s works evoke a powerful sense of their female subjects’ experiences and inner lives.

Художественное осмысление национальной истории в татарских романтических поэмах начала ХХ века

The purpose of the research is to identify the particularities of imaginative interpretation of national history in Tatar romantic poems of the early XX century. Scientific novelty of the paper lies in the fact that the poems selected for analysis are considered as a part of a continuous literary process and in this vein, the issues of preservation and development of literary traditions belonging to previous periods of Tatar culture development, as well as ideological and topical, thematic and poetic features conditioned by the change of cultural and historical reference points in the early XX century are studied in more detail. As a result, it has been proved that interest in national history, which is one of the ways of constructing romantic two-worldness, is one of the trends of the literary process in the early XX century and poets, recreating the past of the Tatar people in an imaginative manner, idealise it as a time of nation-building and independence.

Sterne, Laurence. The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. Ed. Melvyn New and Joan New. Illus. Tom Phillips.

Sterne, Laurence. <i>The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman</i>. Ed. Melvyn New and Joan New. Illus. Tom Phillips.

Transparency and mirroring of literary translations of fairy tales by the English writers

The subject of this research is the English-Russian translation of fairy tales from the perspective of transparency and mirroring. The goal of this research is to determine the strategy for literary translation of the English fairy tales. Linguostylistic and comparative analysis is conducted on B. Zakhoder's translations of such fairy tales as &amp;ldquo;Alice in Wonderland&amp;rdquo; by L. Carroll, &amp;ldquo;Winnie the Pooh and All, All, All&amp;rdquo; by A. Milne, and &amp;ldquo;Mary Poppins&amp;rdquo; by P. Travers. The modern theory of translation largely focuses on the various aspects of equivalence and adequacy of the original and translated texts; describes the requirements for the quality of translation, including literary translation. Russian and foreign researchers show heightened attention to the concepts of transparency and mirroring in translation, namely literary translation of children's literature substantiated by the specificity of the target audience. The scientific novelty consists in application of the modern postulates of the theory of translation to children's literature, which broadens knowledge in this scientific field. The main conclusion lies in following the theory of translation transparency for the child reader in translation of children's literature. As a result of the analysis of B. Zakhoder&amp;rsquo;s translations of fairy tales by L. Carroll, A. Milne, and P. Travers into the Russian language, it is noted that they reflect the general patterns of translation children's fiction, take into account psychological characteristics of the audience, text is adapted to be comprehensible for children, considerable attention is given to the emotional component, expressiveness, and humor. Although B. Zakhoder&amp;rsquo;s translations are not the full interpretation, he follows the theory of transparency. Imaginative interpretation of the text demonstrates the specificity of translator&amp;rsquo;s individual style.

“We were at this crossroads”

People and societies are guided by what they imagine to lie beyond the present, by what can and should be the case in the future. Yet people do not always agree about the form, content or path to realisation of a given imagined future. As a result, conflicts can arise over something that does not exist yet. In this paper, I propose to integrate theories of social and alternative representations with a sociocultural psychological interpretation of imagination, in order to explore the addressivity of futures and to call for more studies that explicitly take into account the future’s role in the present. I draw on a dialogical case study that was carried out on the Faroe Islands, more precisely on the island of Suðuroy. Whereas the Faroe Islands are experiencing a rapid acceleration in growth, Suðuroy has failed to keep pace and has witnessed decades of emigration and a worsening of its population’s relative socio-economic situation. Islanders liken the current situation to standing at a crossroads, while being unable to agree on which path must be taken in order to reinvigorate a shrinking future. By analysing how one of the two major social representations constructs the other – its alternative representation – I suggest that the absence of transformative dialogue results from incompatible futures. Furthermore, in line with a sociocultural psychological perspective, I also attempt to move beyond the homogenising force inherent in social representation theory by introducing Ingolf and Karin, whose stories illustrate how social and alternative representations are not uniformly shared and enacted, but take different forms in light of unique life experiences.

Imaginative interpretation of the problem of fratricide in prose of Eugene Grebinka

Imaginative interpretation of the problem of fratricide in prose of Eugene Grebinka

On the essence of systems in general and social systems

The concept of system has been the basis for deepening the analysis of many natural, mechanical and social phenomena. However, its applications and developments have been based on a very simple definition: complex of interacting components; on which free and imaginative interpretations of the meaning and nature of the components and interaction have been used. The exaggerated and lax use of the concept of system has not only led to many false conclusions, but it has deteriorated its true value and usefulness. In this paper a stricter definition arises and accurate picture of what is a system, in order to limit its application and constrain its use to those phenomena that contain the elements that make up a system and its application is analyzed in the study of systems created by human beings, social systems and natural systems.

ВООБРАЖЕНИЕ И МЕТАФОРА В ТЕОЛОГИЧЕСКОМ ЯЗЫКЕ

The paper investigates the religious language interpretation in the contemporary continental philosophic theology. The author presents the central role of the imagination and metaphor in theological language. The diacritical hermeneutics of Richard Kearney is analyzed as an example of the theological language transition from the theologics to theopoetics. Modifications in the theological language are associated with transformations in the understanding of theology itself, which becomes a topological and tropological study. It considers the interpretation of imagination in Kearney’s early works, his attempts to describe “paradigmatic shifts” in the human understanding of imagination in different epochs of Western history. The author highlights mimetic paradigm of the pre-modern imagination, productive paradigm of the modern imagination and parodic paradigm of the postmodern imagination. Analysis of Kearney’s “biblical” interpretation of imagination allows one to understand the imagination as the point of contact of God with humanity. She also considers how Ricoeur’s theory of metaphor influences the development of the poetic language in postmodern Christian theology and demonstrates that poetic and religious languages are brought together by an “imaginative variations”. The author argues that turning to imagination in religious language allows theological hermeneutics to move from the static to kinetic images of God.

Neo-impressionistic traits in the creativeness of Eugene Bozza (on the example of wind solo’s compositions)

The purpose of this represented scientific article is revealing the most character-logical traits in relation to composer style of the French master E. Bozza, which are binding with the particularities of the neo-impressionistic vector in the European academic art from the second half of the 20th century. The series of methods concerning this signified investigation are making from the applying of comparative, axiological, structurally analytical, as well as functional approaches relatively studying of the designated theme. The utilization of methods such as performing analysis and synthesis are having the specific importance. The scientific newness of denoted article is stipulated by designation of style traits regarding little investigated compositions for wind professional instruments by E. Bozza, which were written in performing form of academic instrumental solo (wind solo). That is stage-single musical process, a namely „Improvisation and capriceˮ for saxophone-alto solo, „Imageˮ for flute solo as well as Etude-caprice № 5 for saxophone solo. Conclusions. First of all, the local grinding of the specific musically expressive color, artistic paint on the motive differentiation, separation, peculiar intonation divisionism belong to the most characteristic, maximally singular traits of E. Bozzaʼs neo-impressionistic style in the professional compositions of academic wind solo. In this way, the clear sounding of determined wind academic instrument with the particular motive intonation locality, with concentration on the precisely denoted artistic expression create maximal characterization for neo-impressionistic development of musical material. Artistic content of concentrative motive evolution in relation to musical thought of E. Bozza is intensified by dominant signification of generalizing type of musical program. The flexible possibilities concerning free ideally imaginative interpretation of artistic content as a performer and listener is created by using of that program kind.

Ethics, politics and embodied imagination in crafting scientific knowledge

This article explores ‘research-as-craft’ as a sensitizing concept for disclosing the presence of ethics and politics, as well as embodiment and imagination, in the doing and representation of scientific activity. Routinely unnoticed, marginalized or suppressed in methodology sections of articles and methodology textbooks, research-as-craft gestures towards messy, tacit, uncertain, yet rarely thematized, practices that are central to getting science done. To acknowledge and address the significance of research-as-craft in knowledge production, we show how it relates to three forms of reflexivity – constitutive, epistemic and disruptive. Through this we demonstrate the craftiness that is required when struggling with the indeterminacy that is endemic to the production and communication of scientific knowledge. By showing how empirical situations require imaginative interpretation by embodied researchers, we argue that our conception of research-as-craft facilitates appreciation of scientific inquiry as an indexical activity that involves the crafted object and the researcher in an ethico-political process of co-constituting knowledge.

A Journey to/through Family: Nostalgia, Gender, and the American Dream in Reyna Grande's The Distance Between Us

A Journey to/through FamilyNostalgia, Gender, and the American Dream in Reyna Grande's The Distance Between Us Alicia Muñoz (bio) and Ariana E. Vigil (bio) The US-Mexico border is a prominently contested site not just of nationality and migration but also of history, memory, and identity: a heterotopia of fluctuating meaning and status that imparts scars, both physical and psychic, upon individuals and families. Reyna Grande's memoir The Distance Between Us (2012) explores this multidimensional space through her family's experiences of separation, deprivation, and longing.1 Grande stakes out her painful and searching tone by beginning with a comparison between the United States and a frightening figure of Mexican folklore: "Neither of my grandmothers told us that there is something more powerful than La Llorona—a power that takes away parents, not children. It is called The United States."2 The invocation of La Llorona, or the Weeping Woman, who threatens children throughout Mexico and Central America, broaches two significant aspects of the text: the separation of children and parents, and the child's voice. In addition, the specter of La Llorona raises gendered transgressions and threats; the folk figure pushes back against idealizations of motherhood while also illustrating the consequences for women who do not fulfill these ideals. In this essay we consider the way that gender impacts Grande's separation from, and relationship with, her mother and father. Placing questions of gender, nostalgia, genre, and narration in conversation, we argue that the narrative framing allows readers to join Grande as she struggles to construct an identity out of a family fragmented by migration, haunted by a father alternately absent and abusive, and grasping for connection across distance, border, and economy. Our attention to the construction and articulation of the memoir affirms the writer's process as an "active and imaginative interpretation … of home, history, and memory."3 We concentrate specifically on the feeling of nostalgia that Grande exhibits, somewhat surprisingly, for her difficult childhood in Mexico and her neglectful mother. She displays ambivalence in her recounting of both; the privation she faced living in Mexico is described [End Page 219] via painful and wistful details, and echoes of the archetype of the bad mother accompany an adult recognition of the severe choices her mother faced. Reproducing the "often-tangled relationships between discourses on motherhood and nation," the narrative feminizes home, associating it with her mother and Mexico; at the same time, the abuse and neglect she suffers from these sources preclude them as wholly adequate sites of comfort and belonging.4 Moreover, the home that she inhabits in the US with her father is ruled by fear—of his abuse and of their undocumented status. As we explain, the narrative associates Reyna's father with opportunity, the United States, and the American Dream. But the limitations the family experiences in the US, and the father's abuse, also suggest the inability for Reyna to make these sites and people a basis for her identity as she grows and matures. Between these two poles, Reyna has one constant—her elder sister Mago. Ultimately what Grande longs for is not her mother, Mexico, or the opportunities in the US represented by her father, but rather the belonging, love, and possibility of successfully negotiating a transnational identity offered by her sister. gender, nostalgia, and narrative The importance of nostalgia in Grande's memoir is an echo of its status in Chicana/o and Latina/o cultural production. Catherine Wiley explains that Chicana/o culture in particular is dependent on Mexico for its "origins" and "essential meaning" but that this dependence "fosters a dual nostalgia for and resentment of the homeland as a territory of desire and impossibility … and material poverty."5 Looking at Mexico's position within contemporary Chicano teatro, Wiley explains how nostalgia permeates texts and performances shaping "characterization, plot and theme."6 For Chicana/os, nostalgia for Mexico is complicated by the fact that many reside in areas that correspond to Aztlán, the homeland of the Aztec peoples. Composed of both mythical and historical importance, Aztlán is often thought to coincide with land in northern Mexico and/or the southwestern United...

Thinking with pictures: memory, imagination, and colour illustration in Victorian teaching and learning

ABSTRACT Through a close reading of five nineteenth-century instructional books in the Osborne Collection of Early Children’s Books, this essay examines the relationship between new print technologies, memory, teaching, and learning. The article beings with a discussion of Comenius’s seventeenth-century Orbis Pictus, considered the first instructional picture book, in order to provide a brief overview of print technologies and their relationship to changing ideas about memory in teaching and learning. This is followed by analyses of two examples of hand-coloured books and three books illustrated by chromolithography, all from the Osborne Collection and published between 1857 and 1887. Reading the books alongside selected texts in educational psychology, the essay demonstrates the role that images could play in revising and transforming information imparted by books and teachers in order to provide opportunities for imaginative interpretation. This essay shows that pictures can indeed offer valuable evidence of historical pedagogical practices when pictures are used as “objects to think with”.

Picture in Children's Story Books: Children's Perspective

&lt;p style="text-align:justify"&gt;The aim of this study is to collect and analyze children's comments on the pictures in children's story books. Four students studied in the first grade of a public primary school in Adana participated in the study. The research model is an example of phenomenology among qualitative research patterns. Focus group method was used as the data collection tool and observation method was used in a second exercise to support the first method. In focus group discussion "The City on the Wind" by Behic Ak, selected as the Book 1, was reviewed along with 4 participating students. In the second exercise, the book named "The Little Match Girl" selected as Book 2 was reviewed. Descriptive analysis and document analysis methods were used in the analysis of the research data. Students' comments on the pictures were collected under four different themes. "Description" among these themes was the most common in student expressions. The sentences for the themes of superficial interpretation, imaginative interpretation and critical understanding were less frequently used by students. Another finding of the study is the number of words students used to describe the picture. Students built short sentences not exceeding 2-3 words. &lt;/p&gt;

IKONOGRAFI SEBAGAI LANGKAH KERJA KREATIF CIPTA SASTRA ANAK DARI RELIEF CANDI

Relief as a form of local wisdom comes in one form as a tool to immerse moral values in antiquity. However, the difference is too long to make relief is no longer popular in this increasingly digital era. Therefore, effort is needed to popularize the stories in relief into children's stories so that they are more easily digested, enjoyed, and used as media of character building that has been mandated by the law. The method of reading works of art that is still rarely used to reconstruct relief stories. Relief stories are only confirmed through the search of written documents that are now increasingly rare existence. The theory in question is iconography. Through this theory, the reliefs can be read and then the reading results are combined and become a story. In the preparation of the story, this theory requires several steps of work, namely, factual description and expressional descriptions. This is understood by identifying the basic shape, the arrangement of a particular line and color, or the unique shape of a piece of bronze or a stone, a natural picture such as man, animal, plant, life-aid and identifying relationships among them as an event. Some things that have been connected are connected, then character expression is exposed through poses and or gesturenya. This is called an artistic motif. The second stage is iconography, which is the process of reading the secondary meaning of the textual aspect (visual traits / artistic motives), by looking at the relationship between the visual features of a work of art with themes and concepts based on the interpretation of imagination or images, stories and allegories or symbols). For that, it takes literary studies as supporting in the form of various theories such as anthropology, sociology, socio-culture, or lifestyle, literary works, and philosophy in the context of the work studied. A specific theme or concept is expressed by the objects of art and events in the work. Keyword: iconography, relief, child literature