Literary Allusions Research Articles

Literary allusions serving as tools for comic effect in the works of Tertullian

AbstractThe overwhelming majority of early Christian authors considered humour and laughter inappropriate. A significant exception to this is Tertullian, who ‒ as a trained orator ‒ was well aware of the importance of verbal humour, particularly as manifested in his apologetic works. In his disputes with heretics and pagans Tertullian practically destroyed his opponents with the weapons of irony, sarcasm, and mockery. However, in this article, we only examine the role of literary allusions in Tertullian's humour. Both Cicero and Quintilian approved of the use of quotations from classical authors for the sake of humorous effect. To our greatest surprise, Tertullian went so far even as to quote from the low-down comedy writers (mimographoi) to achieve this effect. He did all this despite the fact that ‒ as a Christian moralist ‒ he deeply despised and condemned these lowly theatre plays.

Research on Li Shangyin Outside Mainland China Since 2010

In the last decade, research on Li Shangyin's poetry outside mainland China has notably shifted away from the traditional biographical interpretation method of "knowing the authors life and analyzing the work." A select few of these papers critically scrutinize the historical facts associated with Li Shangyin, unveiling fallacies in past biographical narratives and challenging the veracity of certain deeds. The majority of recent articles take a departure from the biographical approach, choosing instead to delve directly into the imagery, poetic artistic conception, and writing skills inherent in the text. These article provide in-depth analysis of the meaning and use of language, vocabulary and literary allusion. In some of them, emphasis is placed on the emotional and aesthetic value of Li Shangyin's poetry, with some scholars even regarding its "incomprehensibility" as an achievement rather than a shortcoming. In general, "what does the text of poetry express" has become an more and more important question.

The Translation of Joyce's Letters into Catalan

ABSTRACT: This essay focuses on the Catalan translation of a selection of James Joyce's letters, Cartes antologia . The essay discusses the main translation problems the translator encountered and the strategies and methods deployed to solve them. The difficulties analyzed center around the translation of 1) quotations from Joyce's own works, including those of works in the pre-publication stages of writing; 2) literary allusions to Homer's Odyssey and Joyce's Ulysses; 3) the combination of high and low registers; 4) wordplay; 5) idioms; and 6) metaphorical language. Natural, idiomatic language was required when translating idioms and metaphorical language. A sense of rhythm and poeticality was indispensable when translating the coalescence of high and low registers. Being able to create alliterations and near-homophones was of vital importance to convey wordplay. Familiarity with Joyce's works, especially Ulysses and its Catalan translation, was essential to translate urtexts. And, finally, a sound knowledge of the Catalan literary tradition, especially regarding the translations of the Odyssey , proved useful when translating literary allusions. In all, translating Joyce's letters is regarded as an act of literary translation, a creative process that demanded the ability to fashion a fresh, vibrant new text that had to live up to the original.

Diasporic Identity in Contemporary Sinophone Literature: The Role of Language and Cultural Elements.

Amidst the contemporary diasporic landscape in Sinophone literature, this research critically examines the nexus of language, culture, and identity. The study aims to analyze literary pieces composed in Sinophone languages across diverse diasporic communities and uncover the impact of language and cultural elements on the articulation and comprehension of diasporic identity. This paper used the following. comparative and typological research, an in-depth analysis of three Sinophonic texts, and contextual analysis. The subject of the study was three texts: The Joy Luck Club (Amy Tan), Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (Dai Sijie), and The Woman Warrior (Maxine Hong Kingston). The results showed that In The Joy Luck Club, language and cultural facets unveil the characters' dual identity struggles due to living abroad, exemplified through code-switching's psychological tension. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress utilizes language and cultural details to underscore the significance of preserving heritage within the diaspora, with literary allusions amplifying this endeavor. In The Woman Warrior, language and cultural elements reflect the heroine's inner conflict as she navigates her dual cultural allegiance. This scholarly revelation deepens comprehension of how these aspects influence identity formation in the diaspora. These findings broaden the understanding of Sinophone diasporic literature, spotlighting shared trends in identity portrayal through language and culture. The research has theoretical value for literary, cultural, and anthropological studies and practical significance, potentially informing educational initiatives on diasporic literature and cultural diversity. This study's outcomes hold relevance for students, researchers, and cultural scholars exploring the role of language and culture in diasporic identity expression.

A Socially Realistic Study of Crime and Corruption in P.D. James’ Works

P.D. James is a well - known author of both crime and mysteries who is recognized with enlarging the mystery subgenre. Even though she uses aspects of traditional detective fiction, James is particularly concerned in establishing the psychological motivations of her characters. James is renowned for her sophisticated written style, which is accentuated by literary allusions and quotations, as well as for the vivid, realistic characters and locations she creates. Writing detective fiction is one of James's passions and she strives to use the techniques that make "serious fiction" gratifying while still adhering to the genre's rules. She was interested in realism as early as her writings show. Her literary style is distinct from the classic "country house mystery" of conventional British detective fiction, in which static characters exist solely to further the plot of the mystery. Despite being constructed in the traditional "whodunnit" way, these novels rely on developed, convincing characterizations.

The Wisdom of Bacchus: Emblematic, Iconographic and Literary Allusions in the Hermitage Painting by P. P. Rubens

The painting “Bacchus” by Peter Paul Rubens (State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg) has frequently attracted the attention of both local and foreign researchers. In this article, we question the interpretation of the painting as a simple allegory of the autumn grape harvest and the celebration of production of young wine. Bacchanalian subjects since Antiquity have been loaded with additional meanings associated with regeneration and creative potentials. The latter aspect was picked up and developed by Renaissance artists. Rubens followed often that tradition. L. D. Davis saw in the Hermitage painting a metaphor of the creative method of the Flemish painter, who trusted intuitive impulses more than rigid rules. We share partially this point of view, but we propose to consider the named work in a broader sense than that scholar did. It seems to us that Rubens presented in “Bacchus” his allegorical self-portrait, emphasizing his love of life and his philosophical emancipation. Thus, the Flemish artist expressed his opposition to moralizing and short-sighted opinions in contemporary culture and his desire to return to the breadth of the Renaissance vision. As a consequence, the allusions contained in his painting to “The Andrians” by Titian, some emblems by Andrea Alciato, as well as the new Rubens interpretation of Comus, an ancient character, which John Milton used in his didactic mask a few years before the creation of Hermitage work, — don’t seem accidental. The portly Bacchus in the painting is presented as the lord of earthly diversity and boundless abundance, at the same time he is a wise mentor-judge, indicating how to properly handle all this wealth open to human race. The concept of the boon as the right disposal of freedom and desires, reflected in iconographic system of the Hermitage painting, fits with the ideas of Plato’s dialogue “Feast”.

ПОЗАТЕЗАУРУСНА ЛЕКСИКА У ТВОРЧОСТІ Н. КАЗАНДЗАКІСА ТА О. ЕЛІТИСА

Background. The article focuses on the analysis of certain lexical units repeated in the texts of N. Kazantzakis and O. Elytis, which, despite their apparently neological character and absence in major Modern Greek dictionaries, cannot be definitively attributed to the individual author's neology. Neo-Hellenic studies experience a dearth of dictionaries documenting the specific language of major Modern Greek authors and their writings — a lacuna still in need of careful research into vocabularies not yet found in major dictionaries. The tendency of both authors to create new words on the basis of or on the models of archaic (mainly O. Elytis) and dialectal (mostly N. Kazantzakis) words, the misclassification of certain lexemes as authorial neology, the impossibility of lexicographically cover all layers of the Greek lexicon and the versatility of such a concept as "undictionaried words" (out-of-thesaurus, non-dictionary words, words not codified by dictionaries) in Greek scientific literature necessitate further study of the issue. The aim of this research is to focus on the analysis of "non-dictionary words" in the texts of the collections of both authors, to define their poetic function and different shades of meanings in the textual environment. Methods. In the presented analysis descriptive and special research methods were applied: methods of contextual, comparative and structural-semantic analysis, techniques of component and intertextual analysis. The material was selected by the method of continuous sampling; among the lexical units' selection criteria were: stylistic coloring, complete or partial absence of particular lexemes and their components in the major (or newest) dictionaries of Modern Greek language. All the selected lexical material is illustrated by examples from the original texts. Results. The present analysis revealed that some lexical units, which, at first glance, had all the features of the author's neology, on further investigation turned out to be documented earlier - they are present in other texts, articles, collections of literary pieces written by different authors, archives and dictionaries of different periods of Greek language development. Conclusions. As a unique linguistic material, the poems of O. Elytis and N. Kazantzakis have repeatedly become the subject of scientific research, both in terms of direct literary allusions and mythopoetic, but despite the large number of notable works, the scientific interest of researchers has not yet shifted more systematically to the compilation of specialized dictionaries. This issue is particularly acute with regard to the inexhaustible amount of still unexplored linguistic material collected by N. Kazantzakis for his poem 'The Odyssey'.

Responsible Mischief: Roth as Reader

Abstract: Roth, as we know, had many identities, but he was always a reader. This paper explores how literature helped him forge an identity, starting in adolescence, his book-besotted college years, and beyond. Like all great writers, Roth was a great reader, consuming novels, stories, and essays in great, gluttonous gulps. Roth read for many reasons, some banal, some surprising, but in a life of flux, books were a constant. They offered pleasure, stimulation, and distraction. In a way, Roth's longest, deepest relationship was with literature. What he read nourished what he wrote; indeed, Roth's books would have many blank pages if one removed the literary allusions. The intimate connection between the man, his reading, and his writing is what we'll explore—in several ways. First, through a discursive peek into Roth's vast library, donated to the Newark Public Library and carefully preserved per Roth's instructions. Second, by reading Roth's own testimony, in interviews, public events, and private correspondence. By way of context, we'll consider libraries—what they reveal, what they conceal—and the paradoxical nature of reading itself. Finally, we'll shine a bright biographical light on Roth himself. Using his reading as a lens, we'll explore periods of formation and transformation, including the late-life changes that produced his haunted (and haunting) final novels. Throughout our investigation, we'll attempt to answer a single question: how was Roth-the-reader different from the other Roths we've come to know?

Художник-шпион в рассказе В. Набокова «Ассистент режиссера»: репрезентация сенсорного и эстетического опыта

he article is devoted to the analysis of The Assistant Producer, Vladimir Nabokov’s first short story in English. The study explores how V. Nabokov interprets the problem of the author’s identity in foreign readers’ audience. The structural-semiotic and intertextual methods are used in the paper to identify the narrative techniques organizing the intrigue in the short story: the exposure of the character as a triple agent and the narrator as an artist. The narrator focuses on the optical and sound effects of cinema as well as on the foreign accent in other characters’ speech. These peculiarities of the narrator’s perception show his perceptive and language sensitiveness inherent in an artist. The pseudo-documental cinema world includes the legends of Stepan Razin, portraits by impressionists and post-impressionists, and emigre literature. The artistic world is constructed through the images conveying the aberrations of perception, smells and the senses of touch, which are difficult to verbalize, unmotivated alliterations, allusions that are hard to interpret for foreign readers. Perceptive images and literary allusions construct the plot about the communicative mistake: from the narrator’s point of view, the cinema shows the world of Russian emigre inaccurately, but it reveals the banality of the intentions of the character-executioner. V. Nabokov assesses incompleteness as a key characteristic of intercultural communication, motivated by the differences in recipients’ sensorial and reading experience. V. Nabokov’s strategy is to highlight the inexpressible characteristics of his sensorial and creative (reading and writing) experience. Communicative mistakes inspire co-creative reading. At the beginning of his American career, V. Nabokov develops the idea that a genius writer can convey his sensorial, aesthetic, and language experience despite the communicative borders.

«Ополченский романс» Захара Прилепина: новое слово о войне

In the context of very controversial assessments of the works of Zakhar Prilepin, the proposed article sets the task, through an analysis of one of the writer’s last books, to clarify the features of his artistic statement about the state of the world and man in it. Militia Romance seems to be the first attempt at an artistic conceptualization of the conflict in Ukraine, marking the beginning of the ‘Donbass text’ in the history of Russian military prose. Prilepin strives to designate a new type, a new character in Russian life. In terms of form, this book is closely related to the improvisational forms of music genres, as indicated by the author’s genre definition – ‘14 tracks in different rhythms’. In different tracks, as is customary in musical improvisation, different instruments perform solos, i.e., motifs. The book is based on a complex contamination of the motifs of music and death, which is inextricably related to the theme of the Motherland and the oppositions ‘friend – foe’, ‘commander – subordinate’, ‘innocent – criminal’, ‘man – woman’, ‘adult – child’. The combination of motifs creates the unique poetics of Zakhar Prilepin’s ‘Donbass text’. The article examines cinematic techniques, novelistic endings of the tracks, one-word chapter titles, literary allusions to the works of Nikolai Gogol and Leo Tolstoy. The importance of the author’s polemics with the ideas of pacifism and non-resistance is emphasized. The modern writer personally involved in what is happening in Ukraine is convinced that ‘evil can only be defeated by force’. For him, war is a path to personal transformation while choosing the side of truth.

Dlaczego Małgorzata poszukuje Mistrza? Krótka historia w trzech aktach

The purpose of this article is to analyze and interpret a volume of poetry by Czech-Polish author Renata Putzlacher-Buchtova. The writer does not hide her fondness for the works of the Russian writer Michail Bulgakov, and it is to The Master and Margarita that she refers in a collection of as many as fifty-seven poems. Significantly, the poet changes her literary perspective and places a woman in the central plane of events: Margaret. She reinterprets her character, creating a “proud hag Margot”, rather than a “God-guilty creature, Gretchen”. Thus, the literary allusion became for the poet a form of “renewal” (or…, “reconstruction”) of the ingrained patterns in literary culture. The article is divided into three acts, consisting of a theoretical introduction, which introduces the reader (in a condensed manner) to the most important feminist theories. The second act is devoted entirely to the poems of the Czech-Polish author. The third, on the other hand, is comparative in nature, in which Virginia Woolf’s Own Room is the “new light” of comparison.

'Hard translation' in Stories to Enlighten the World

An illustrious figure of Ming-Qing fiction, Feng Menglong (1574-1646), compiled and edited a thought-provoking trilogy of short story anthologies towards the demise of the Ming (1368-1644) dynasty, which contributes to the thriving development of vernacular fiction. The first fascicle of the trilogy is an anthology entitled Stories Old and New (and subsequently Stories to Enlighten the World) that was published in 1620 and translated by Cyril Birch in 1958. In this research, I explore Birch’s rendering that has not attained enough academic attention. I propound that the translation abounds with literal translations and transliterations, which is consistent with the approach of ‘hard translation’ advocated by a renowned writer and translator Lu Xun, aka Zhou Shuren (1881-1936). The ‘hard translation’ strategies can be embodied by Birch’s translation of expressions pertaining to historical personages, religious and literary allusions, as well as sayings and idioms. Furthermore, Birch enriches literal translation and transliteration with illuminating notes and adopts the strategy of adaptation, so as to strike a balance between faithfulness and fluency.

Literature at the service of truth: Simone Weil and 'L’Enracinement'

The purpose of this article is to elaborate the many literary allusions that Simone Weil used in her ultimate work: L' Enracinement, translated as The Need for Roots, to achieve her goal of encouraging her fellow countrymen to create a new postwar society. Understanding how she used the riches of the French and Western Literary Cannon, less easily grasped by those not educated in the French Education system, enriches the understanding of Weil's purpose and skill in writing on many levels, simultaneously for different target audiences. Underlying her stress on the need for truth and honesty about a county's past and present, with discernable respect for every person, is her foundational belief in the spiritual destiny of every human being. Examining her literary allusions in detail to show her clever subversion of traditionally accepted interpretations brings a new dimension to Simone Weil studies, while underlining the relevance of this essay to contemporary dilemmas.

The wolf, the lamb, and the big "Oh!": voids, (w)holes, and epitaphic emptiness in Frances Burney's Hubert de Vere.

This essay explores the character of Cerulia in Frances Burney's dramatic play, Hubert de Vere, composed and revised in the 1790s, yet never published or staged in Burney's lifetime. Cerulia seems to eschew any easy dramatic categorization, as she cannot be identified with the heroine of the play. Undeniably, she is a victim, but of whom/what, we may wonder? Does attempting to define the nature of the hamartia of which Cerulia remains victim lead the "ideal" reader/viewer toward either fate/the gods or, rather, social apparatuses? And, finally, what about the eponymous protagonist Hubert de Vere? Is it correct to identify de Vere as the actant "hero", or perhaps as per the sub-category "villain hero" so popular in late eighteenth-century dramas? Burney's adroit exploitation of tropology and literary allusion in Hubert de Vere will be at the centre of this essay. In particular, I will examine the last act of the play, where the themes of confinement, imprisonment, and escape take on tragic hues. Though unpublished until 1995, these scenes are among the most vivid and, indeed, the most shocking Burney ever wrote. It is my contention that a long overdue appraisal of female characterisation in Hubert de Vere can shed novel light -at once both disturbing and liberating- on Frances Burney's oeuvre at large.

‘My Beloved the AVTHOR’: The Subtext of Ben Jonson’s First Folio Encomium to William Shakespeare

This paper examines the ingenious hidden allusions and double meanings that Jonson embedded throughout his famous tribute ‘To the Memory of my Beloved the Author Mr William Shakespeare’, shedding new light on misunderstood phrases such as ‘Small Latine and lesse Greeke’, ‘Sweet Swan of Avon’, ‘my gentle Shakespeare’ and ‘Shine forth, thou starre of Poets’, which reveal by number, pun, innuendo and learned literary allusion, that Jonson was alive to the fact that “William Shakespeare” was the pseudonym of one of the Age’s most revered literary patrons and concealed poets – Edward de Vere 17th Earl of Oxford.

The functioning of literary allusions and reminiscences in the novel "The Universal Storm" by Sleptsova-Kuorsunnakh

The article analyses the artistic specificity in the novel "The Universal Storm" by Elena Sleptsova-Kuorsunnakh, dedicated to the tragic fate of the Sakha intelligentsia. By its genre nature, this is a synthetic work that combines the features of an epic novel with a document-based family chronicle. Although the narrative in the novel is built around the Orosin clan, its distinctive feature is the depiction of a complex polyphony of individual destinies and characters that do not merge into a single mass, but give rise to real diversity. The article features the images of such historical figures as Vasily Nikiforov, Anepodist Sofronov, Platon Oyunsky, and Vera Davydova. The depiction of the real vicissitudes of their private lives not only confirms the novelistic character of the Kuorsunnakh's work, but also testifies to the presence of the features of psychological "genre generalization". In this regard, as shown in the article, the use of literary allusions and reminiscences by the author among the ways of mastering the artistic material seems to be successful.

Theocritus' Idyll 11

Perhaps the strangest feature of Theocritus’ Idyll 11 is the fact that the Hellenistic poet selects a mythological creature notorious for its barbarism and inhumanity, in order to validate his thesis that poetry is the only medicine for love, the most distinctively ennobling and human of all emotions. The aim of this article is to demonstrate that Theocritus has chosen Polyphemus as an exemplum for his premise because he had been consistently associated in mythology with being blinded. His intention is to show through an elaborate network of interconnected verbal repetitions, as well as literary allusions, which essentially create a subtext to his work, that love, at least as it is experienced by the main character of the Idyll, is a form of self-inflicted blindness, but that, nevertheless, it entails a kind of personal glory. Although Galateia does not respond to Polyphemus’ erotic call, his repeated singing incorporates her —irrespective of her will — into his life; in her absence she is always present, in his erotic failure the Cyclops artistically succeeds. This contiguity of opposites constitutes the core of Theocritus’ proposed medicine: he wants to remain perpetually in love and through his art to make this feeling a part of his everyday life. This is the only way he can control it. In true Hellenistic fashion his principal aim is not erotic gratification, but poetic success. And love exacerbated, but ultimately controlled through song, love condemned to remain unfulfilled, is his chief helper in this task. It is the “blindness” that leads to his glory.

A Cotton Mather Reader

A Cotton Mather Reader

Literary allusion in sociological analysis: Mass Observation mantelpiece reports as epic and drama

This paper experiments with the use of literary analysis for the interpretation of participants’ writing. The dataset comprises 56 ‘Reports’ in response to a 2019 Mass Observation Directive. Mass Observation is a British archive. Its aim is to record everyday life through correspondents’ responses to thrice-yearly Directives. The paper contributes to lyrical sociology with its development of ‘textural’ analysis. The 2019 Directive asked volunteers to submit reports on what was on their mantelpieces and also about their treasured objects. I found this writing highly allusive of two literary works: Tom Stoppard's play Arcadia, and the ‘Catalogue of Ships’ in Homer's ancient Greek epic poem, the Iliad. This led me not only to review the earlier reports but also to consider how literature can enrich the interpretation of participants’ writing. In conclusion, I argue that following up allusive ‘hunches’ can result in fruitful literary analysis, as a ‘textural’ approach to sociological method.

Seeing birds: Dr Casey Wood's (1856–1942) second career

In 1920, Casey Albert Wood (1856–1942), a prominent Canadian ophthalmologist and bibliophile, began what was essentially a second career as an amateur ornithologist and author. This paper examines the path Wood followed as he learned more about birds and developed a network of colleagues that aided his transition to a respected member of the American Ornithologists’ Union (AOU) and prolific author on ornithology. It also seeks to place Wood's ornithological writings within the contemporary scientific and popular literature on birds. After his retirement from medical practice in 1920, Wood and his wife Emma (née Shearer) (1859–1951) travelled extensively and Wood's ornithological observations were published in journals varying from scientific publications like the AOU's The Auk and the Cooper Ornithological Society's The Condor, to more popular magazines like the Audubon Society of the Pacific's The Gull. Wood's contributions often combined natural history observation with literary allusions and personal reminiscence. Towards the end of his second career, Wood turned to his bibliophile interests, publishing a catalogue of the McGill Library holdings in vertebrate zoology as well as a translation co-authored with his niece Florence Marjorie Fyfe (1892–1965) of Frederick II of Hohenstaufen's De arte venandi cum avibus. Wood was representative of an earlier generation of gentlemen ornithologists, eulogized in his obituary in The Auk as “probably the most broadly cultured and deeply learned of his generation in our Union”.