Literary Merit Research Articles

POLITICAL CONFLICT IN LAUT BERCERITA BY LEILA S. CHUDORI: INSIGHTS FROM NEW HISTORICISM

This research investigates the political conflict depicted in Leila S. Chudori's novel Laut Bercerita, focusing on the portrayal of the student’s movement and authoritarian regime dominated by military force in Indonesia during the New Order era. Drawing on the theories of Sociology of Literature and New Historicism, the study aims to analyze the socio-political dynamics embedded within the narrative. The qualitative descriptive method is employed to examine the text in-depth, considering its historical significance and literary merits. Through close textual analysis, the research reveals the intricate interplay between fiction and reality, shedding light on the experiences of activists and the repressive tactics of the regime. The novel vividly captures the determination, struggles, and sacrifices of student activists as they challenge authoritarian rule, providing valuable insights into Indonesia's socio-political landscape. Additionally, the study explores the ways in which literature serves as a vehicle for social critique and historical remembrance, emphasizing the enduring relevance of Chudori's work in contemporary discourse. This research contributes to a deeper understanding of Indonesian history and literature, underscoring the importance of literature as a tool for socio-political commentary and cultural preservation.

Baśń włoska. Pasaże radosne

Images of Italy by Pavel Muratov, the eminent Russian historian of art and the excellent writer as well, have been published over than one hundred years ago. This masterpiece seems to be very well known today and is commonly regarded as a very sophisticated guide of Italian art and architecture. The author presents that such kind of conceiving this legendary book is a typical form of misreading. On the contrary: he emphasizes its cognitive and literary merit. Finally, he reveals the real content of Images of Italy as a special form of Nietzschean gaya scienza, and at the same time, as a still vivid source of the existential joy.

Putting Flash in the Canadian Literature Classroom

ABSTRACT This teaching note considers the benefits of including very short stories or “flash fiction” in the (Canadian) literature classroom. Because the genre is relatively new and favors brevity, it can be attractive to students. Teachers can be sure the students will have read the story, or even find the time to have them read entire stories in class. As well, choosing very short works lets us introduce a variety of Canadian authors to our students. We begin by questioning the dominance of context-hunting and theme-searching among young readers, and point out that this mode of reading comes at the expense of an appreciation or serious consideration of form and language. While historical context and themes are of course important to understanding any story, students often privilege the extra-textual over the literary merits of fiction; they are not necessarily reading literature as literature. The latter part of the note zeroes in on classroom experiences we have had while teaching stories by John Gould, Carin Makuz and Douglas Glover.

Bàrdachd Baile – Ath-mheasadh

In the twentieth century, several prominent Gaelic scholars argued that nineteenth-century bàrdachd baile (‘township poetry’) was cliché-ridden, and therefore of limited literary merit. In reassessing such opinions, this article considers a representative sample of the poetry from two points of view. First, it demonstrates through close analysis that these local poets used a wide range of literary techniques to convey meaning and sentiment. Second – and perhaps more important – it shows how expressions which some have considered clichés are in fact vital to the effect of the poetry. The argument is informed by insights from the field of ethnopoetics, and by a detailed consideration of the imagery used. Finally, the author argues that proper evaluation of this poetry, much of it orally composed and transmitted in a society in which the oral traditions were still strong, requires different aesthetic criteria from those applied to poetry that depends upon the written word.

Śrīkhṛṣṭa-saṃgītā : William Hodge Mill’s Sanskrit Christian Purāṇa

In the wake of Christian missionaries’ arrival in India, a profound engagement with Sanskrit ensued, resulting in the emergence of ‘Church Sanskrit’ Literature. This genre not only witnessed translations of sacred texts like the Bible but also spawned original compositions centered on Jesus Christ, serving as a vehicle for propagating the Christian faith among the Sanskrit-knowing intelligentsia. Notably, figures like William Hodge Mill played a pivotal role, crafting monumental works such as the Śrīkhṛṣṭa-saṃgītā, which garnered acclaim for its literary and scholarly merits, transcending even revered indologists of the time. His mastery of Sanskrit reached such extraordinary heights that Kamlākānta Vidyālaṅkār, a prominent Bengali scholar, bestowed upon him unprecedented praise, elevating him above esteemed figures like William Jones, William Carey, and James Colebrooke. Vidyālaṅkār’s proclamation likened him to the rebirth of Kālidāsa, the revered ancient poet, affirming the unparalleled excellence of his Sanskrit scholarship. Meanwhile, the Śrīkhṛṣṭa-saṃgītā, while serving as a historical testament to the life of Jesus Christ, transcends mere documentation. Rooted in Western interpretations of the Gospels, it stands as a literary masterpiece, blending historical narrative with artistic expression in a manner reminiscent of the belletristic tradition. The research paper discusses the unique attributes of the Śrīkhṛṣṭa-saṃgītā through the lens of Sanskrit Poetics, exploring its historical narrative while elucidating its impact on nineteenth-century Indian society. Through meticulous analysis, it seeks to unravel the interplay between literary artistry and historical accuracy in this seminal work, shedding light on the cultural and intellectual landscape shaped by ‘Church Sanskrit’ literature. By synthesizing scholarly inquiry with linguistic and literary expertise, this paper aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of the profound influence of Christian narratives in Sanskrit form on the socio-cultural fabric of colonial India.

Waves of Pixels and Word-generated Algorithms: Drone Poetry as a Collaborative Practice between Machine and Human in Waveform by Richard A. Carter

The following article explores the creative collaborative practices in digital poetry between more-than-human agents. Richard A. Carter’s artistic project Waveform (2017–) makes one reconsider the ways in which multimodal and web-based encounters of image, word, sound and movement, and, in the case of Carter’s airborne drone, also the political and military, redefine “a literary text” via nonhuman extended perception. Drone-generated poetry challenges a human-centered (literary) perspective, raising questions about AI’s creativity and code’s generative and aesthetic, and not only functional, potential. The article, drawing upon Raichlen, introduces a comparative platform of waves’ mechanics to render the complexity of multimedial digital poetic writing. The focal analytical material provided by Carter results from the (human, machine) vision (of the moving waves) translated into words, generated by the drone, and edited by the human. The article studies the creative process in which the collaboration between more-than-human entities, as its outcome, produces poetic work of artistic value and literary merit.

Folding Time: Honorius Augustodunensis' 'Imago Mundi'

The Imago mundi or "Image of the World" was composed around 1110 by Honorius Augustodunensis, one of the most prolific authors of his age. Presented in the form of a mappa mundi, the Imago offers its reader a verbal 'image' of the cosmos, covering topics ranging from the atom to the heavenly spheres. Despite being one of the most popular works of the central Middle Ages, scholars rarely regard the Imago as a text possessing serious literary merit, dismissing it instead as a derivative exercise in compilation. This essay argues that the Imago is in fact an ambitious literary undertaking with a coherent spiritual agenda. While Honorius recycles (like many of his peers) earlier medieval and especially Neoplatonic cosmological ideas, his text shapes that material in new ways – into a spiritually transformative journey through and above the cosmos, and into the self. At the same time, throughout the work Honorius deploys a range of strikingly material metaphors to describe the world from the perspective of eternity – most notably, the rope of time. In this further literary sense, the ascent to eternity entails a recognition that we dwell in images.

MARY SHELLEY’NİN MATHILDA ADLI ESERİNİN EKOFEMİNİST ANALİZİ: KENDİ TABU KURGUSUNU YAZAN KADIN ANLATICI

Re-reading Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s novelette, Mathilda, in the twenty-first century from an ecofeminist perspective sheds a new light on contemporary criticism, opening up multifaceted perspectives. There was a critical moment in British literary history when Elizabeth Nitchie transcribed Mathilda from the microfilm of the manuscript and published it in 1959, which unveiled this piece of revolutionary taboo fiction suppressed for over a century by the author’s male relatives, chiefly Shelley’s father, William Godwin. Written in 1819-1820, Mathilda is the only work completed during Shelley’s lifetime. It is an artfully crafted epistolary work depicting the traumatic confessions and suicidal tendencies of the protagonist, Mathilda, a woman who isolated herself from society by integrating herself with nature due to her father’s confession for his incestuous passion towards her. Regarded as an underrated work, Mathilda has often been interpreted from biographical and incest-related perspectives by literary critics, which relegates its literary merits although it is in accordance with feminist and ecological theories and feminine writing. This paper, avoiding biographical accounts and the author’s life experiences and with theories consistent with those of ecofeminism, intends to show how nature functions as an effective instrument for the female writer to fictionalize her taboo story. By blending ecofeminism with feminine writing, this paper also investigates the interplay between woman and nature, and navigates how a female character courageously relocates her taboo story on a textual level from a feminist perspective in a natural setting, challenging the male-dominant Romantic tradition of the nineteenth century.

From Czechoslovakia with Nightmares

Abstract This study follows the origins of and search for “Clock Man”, from a nineteenth century Yorkshire folktale to a 2012 forum post about a lost 1976 Czechoslovakian stop motion film, and evaluates its merits as a piece of contemporary world literature. The internet has significantly altered how people communicate and share stories, allowing a range of texts to be instantly created, disseminated and discussed around the world. As the classification and study of ‘world literature’ are affected by changing standards of communication and literary merit, these new media communications can provide contemporary insight into how literature may be found in virtual public spaces. This paper blends theories of literariness, reception and new media with Deleuze and Guattari’s theory of deterritorialization to track the changes in the “Clock Man” story and observe broader trends of contemporary world literature in digital storytelling spaces.

A Singapore communist subaltern writes back: He Jin’s life stories as historical testimony

ABSTRACT He Jin, a lifelong member of the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) who was born in Singapore, produced two volumes of short stories which documented the subaltern lives he lived through. They were written thirty years apart but were published in the same year. He penned the earlier stories as a Chinese middle school student in 1950s Singapore and was a CPM soldier in the Thai-Malaysian jungle when he wrote the ones in the 1980s. He Jin also authored two retrospective “autobiographical novels.” The first provides the historical context of the 13 May 1954 protests he participated in against the colonial imposition of compulsory conscription while the second covers his long exile as a CPM member in Indonesia before being sent to fight in the jungle. His works, in particular the novels, have been deemed by a leading literary and academic critic as lacking literary merit and relevance. He Jin’s writings however falls into place as an oeuvre formed from plausible life experiences which are credible on a personal, human level, and which endow the author with a personality, world view and agency. His life as he tells it embodies his understanding of Singapore’s anti-colonial history and historiography and offers a testimony which challenges the dominant narratives of both the Singapore state and CPM.

Орфическая Аргонавтика

The publication presents a literary translation of the late Antique poem “Orphic Argonautica”, approximately dating from the 4th –5th centuries AD. This is a pseudepigraph, the author of which deliberately hid his name by signing the poem with the name of the mythical singer Orpheus. Along with the “Lithica”, the “Orphic Argonautica” is one of the two epic poems included in the corpus of orphic texts. From other versions of the epic on the plot of the myth about the Argonauts, it differs in length, being shorter, and in the special emphasis on the role of the ‘author’ and narrator, Orpheus; with attention to the sacred rites that he performs and with the description of the path itself. The love story of Jason and Medea, unlike other poems, is consigned to the periphery. In addition to the predictable coincidences with the “Argonautica”by Apollonius of Rhodes, in the “Orphic Argonautica” some intersections can be seen with the Latin epic poems: “Argonautica”: by Valerius Flaccus and “Punica”: by Silius Italicus, although the author can be not familiar with them he uses the same sources. The second part of the poem is of the greatest interest, in which the periplus of Northern Europe is given. The author follows the version of Timaeus from Tauromenium (4th century BC), according to which the Argonauts returned from Colchis through the Tanais, northern rivers and Ocean, and, having rounded Western Europe, entered the Mediterranean Sea. At the same time, he uses other geographical sources of Hellenistic time, thanks to which the narrative is basically plausible and testifies to the acquaintance of the Greeks with the northern sea routes. The literary merits of the poem are traditionally underestimated by scholars, but such an assessment is largely biased: the author pursues his own goals and chooses literary means in relation to them.

Nikolai Klyuev’s Epistolary Review of Sergei Yesenin’s Poem ‘Pugachev’: “Dark Places” of Multidimensional Evaluation

This article presents a historical and literary analysis of the epistolary review by the peasant poet Nikolai Klyuev (1884—1937) of the dramatic poem ‘Pugachev’ (1922) by S. A. Yesenin. The review, contained in a letter dated January 28, 1922, has been characterized in literary studies as an “enthusiastic greeting.” However, the authors argue that Klyuev’s evaluation of Yesenin’s poem contains “dark places,” specifically his deliberate omission of the imagist poetics of ‘Pugachev’ and his seemingly unmotivated comparison of Yesenin’s dramatic poem with Pushkin’s tragedy ‘Boris Godunov’. The authors demonstrate that Klyuev believed that ‘Pugachev’, which reflects Yesenin’s rapid growth as a poet, was the result of his connection to the traditions of folk poetry rather than the product of the imagist school. Klyuev’s judgment that Yesenin’s poem was “more necessary and desirable than ‘Boris Godunov’” may appear illogical and paradoxical at first glance, but the authors emphasize that his epistolary review expresses only his personal relationship with the younger poet and does not evaluate the literary merits of the two works. The book ‘Pugachev’, which was sent to Vytegra along with the letter, became a sign of trust from the donor, a gift, a tangible expression of love and friendship from the addressee, and evidence of the spiritual and creative devotion of the student to his teacher. For Klyuev, who sought to restore his relationship with Yesenin, ‘Pugachev’ was “more necessary and desirable” because its content resonated with the idea of sacrificial service to his people, which is a recurring theme in Klyuev’s work.

Why Lewis’ Poetry Matters

In spite of Lewis’ sustained, earnest, and determined efforts at writing poetry through the middle 1920s, his reputation will always be based on his prose, both fiction and non-fiction. That this is the case begs the questions: Does Lewis’ poetry matter? Why bother sifting through his verse if the real gold is to found elsewhere? Should not Lewis’ poetry simply be written off as so much adolescent self-indulgence? Did not his commitment to older poetic forms and traditions hopelessly date his poetry? While much could be said about the literary merits of Lewis’ poetry, here the discussion is limited to how his poetry reflects upon his spiritual maturation.

Critical Reassessments: “My Heart Laid Bare”: A Deep Rereading of Daniel Hoffman’s Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe

Critical Reassessments: “My Heart Laid Bare”: A Deep Rereading of Daniel Hoffman’s <i>Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe</i>

Literati Encomia on Embroidered Buddhist Icons, c.700-900 CE

Abstract This study examines all the surviving examples of short prose pieces written in praise of embroidery depicting Buddhist objects of worship between circa 700 and 900. The process whereby they were transmitted to the present is traced wherever possible, and the main themes are indicated by means of the identification of recurrent vocabulary items. Typically, the embroideries described are said to have been created by women for the posthumous benefit of their family members, both male and female; the male writers involved, whose work was generally deemed to possess literary merit, were usually connected by family or other ties to the creators of the embroideries. One or two pieces that seem to be less typical are also discussed, though the restriction of the total size of the corpus to a score of pieces by a handful of writers makes the task of establishing the scope of the conventions observed difficult to determine. But as a genre in which men praised the cultural production of women these texts may merit further research.

Prerequisites for the Reception of Herzen in China at the Beginning of the 20th Century

The article analyzes the economic, political and cultural exchanges between Russia and China before 1900 and at the beginning of the 20th century, which were the prerequisites and the basis for the spread of Herzen's work and Russian literature in China. The article deals with the humanitarian traditions of Russian literature and the free spirit of Russian writers, represented by Herzen, which were in demand in Chinese literature of that time as well as in Russian. The article reveals the phenomenon of the perception of Herzen's literary and social ideas by Chinese revolutionary leaders (Liang Qichao and Li Dazhao). The author analyzes the similarities and differences in their perception and understanding of Herzen's ideas. The analysis of the factor of Herzen's reception in China is significant for subsequent Herzen studies in China, the study of the Russian-Chinese literary dialogue and the prospects of world literary development in the context of globalization. The beginning of literary Herzen studies in China gave impetus to the gradual transition of researchers to the study of the content, artistic form and other literary merits of Herzen's works.

Elements of Intertextuality in “Was This Face That Launched a Thousand Ships” By Christopher Marlowe

Intertextuality is the connection between various texts, explicitly abstract ones. It is the way that texts allude to and impact different texts. Julia Kristeva initially utilized the term in her 1966 work Word, Dialog and Novel. Intertextuality (articulated in-terr-text-yoo-a-lih-tee) is certainly not an abstract or expository gadget, but instead a reality about scholarly texts – the way that they are on the whole personally interconnected. This applies to all texts: books, works of reasoning, paper articles, films, melodies, artistic creations, and so forth to get Intertextuality, it's urgent to comprehend this wide meaning of "text." Every text is influenced by every one of the texts that preceded it, since those texts impacted the creator's reasoning and stylish decisions, so in this way Intertextuality is Renaissance. Marlowe, at first raised the topic of his plays to a more significant level by giving gallant subjects that promptly spoke to the creative mind of the crowd. For example, we find in Marlowe's plays that Tamburlaine is incredible victor, that Faustus is an extraordinary searcher of information and influence, that Barabbas has the most grounded desire for limitless abundance and that Edward II has incredible honourability blended with uselessness and was the face that dispatched thousand boats depends on the set of experiences.&#x0D; Thus, Intertextuality is a powerful literary technique that enables writers to establish connections and references to other works, enhancing the depth and meaning of their own creations. This research article aims to explore the intertextual elements present in Christopher Marlowe's poem, "Was This the Face that Launched a Thousand Ships." Through a comprehensive analysis, we delve into the various references to Greek mythology, Shakespearean works, and historical events, shedding light on the intertextual nature of Marlowe's poem. By examining the significance of these intertextual references, we gain a deeper understanding of the poem's themes, character development, and overall literary merit.

The Literary Prestige of Censorship: The Case of Naked Lunch

By tracing the publication history of William Burroughs’ Naked Lunch, this article shows how the gate-keeping mechanism of censorship can facilitate literary prestige. The release of the Grove Press edition of Naked Lunch in 1966 after two obscenity trials marked the end of complete literary censorship in the US and was a crucial step towards the canonization of underground authors. By making it necessary to argue on behalf of the text’s form, the obscenity trials helped in framing Burroughs’s arguably “formless” text as both a coherent work and a work of high literary merit. The article offers a detailed account of the enabling role of censorship in the case of Naked Lunch, which consisted not only in generating the interest of underground publishers (Olympia Press in Paris and Grove Press in the US) but also in helping Burroughs’s formless, fragmented text take shape and as a novel.

Fostering Kaisertreue in the Austrian Empire: Literature on the Occasion of the Marriage of Emperor Francis Josef (1854)

This article explores poems devoted to the dynastic festivities of the ruling House of Habsburg as one of the multiple instruments of fostering loyalty and dynastic patriotism, primarily in in-school youth who were regarded as future citizens of the Austrian Empire. The concepts of dynastic patriotism, Kaisertreue (literally, faithfulness to the emperor), Huldigungsschriften (literally, homage writings), the Habsburg myth, pietas Austriaca, and Habsburg propaganda provide the theoretical and methodological basis of the research. The author refers to three poems devoted to the wedding festivities of Emperor Francis Joseph and Elizabeth of Bavaria in 1854. Two of them — one of which is written in Hungarian and the other in German — are examples of the panegyric ode and were authored by schoolteachers. The third one is a moral poem, easy to understand, with a heartwarming storyline. All the three poems in question are quite ordinary in terms of literary and artistic merit. Their choice is motivated by the author’s desire to demonstrate through those Huldigungsschriften her hypothesis that the Habsburg myth which emphasised the virtues and all-encompassing benevolence of the Habsburg rulers was being transmitted in various formats and different languages to in-school youth in the lands of the Austrian monarchy to foster loyalty and dynastic patriotism. Rather than studying the three writings for their literary and artistic merit, the article mainly focuses on discussing this kind of poetry as a historical phenomenon and an instrument of propaganda which was aimed at developing a loyal and faithful population of the polyethnic and multicultural Habsburg Empire.

American slave stories

American Slave Narratives are a genre of literature that emerged in the 18th and 19th centuries, providing first-hand accounts of the experiences of enslaved African Americans. These narratives were often written by former slaves themselves and aimed to expose the harsh realities of slavery, including the physical and emotional abuse, the inhumane living conditions, and the lack of basic human rights. The slave narratives were not only powerful tools in the fight against slavery but also served as a means of preserving African American culture and history. They provided a voice to those who had been silenced and erased from the official historical record. Through these narratives, readers gained a new understanding of the complexities of slavery and the resilience of those who endured it. Today, American Slave Narratives continue to be studied and celebrated for their historical significance and literary merit. They offer a window into a dark chapter of American history and serve as a reminder of the ongoing struggle for equality and justice.