Literary Value Research Articles

L’Afrique du Nord, un nouveau centre littéraire français entre 1940 et 1944 ? L’exemple de « Tunisie française littéraire » au miroir de la traduction

The German Occupation of France (starting in summer 1940) brought about a brutal reclassification of literary values and a redefinition of “center” and “periphery” in the French Republic of Letters. The outcome of this phenomenon is particularly interesting in North Africa between 1940–1944. Indeed, the periodical Fontaine (edited in Algiers by Max Pol Fouchet), as well as Tunisie française littéraire (edited in Tunis under the aegis of Armand Guibert and Jean Amrouche), express a strong desire to take over a Parisian “center” discredited by the Occupation and the Collaboration, and create new “literary capitals” on the fringes of the metropolis. This paper focuses on Tunisie française littéraire (a very influential publication in North Africa during the war, to which A. Camus and G. Stein contributed), analyses the role of cultural mediation played by literary journals geographically “peripheral” and their members in an attempt to redefine the contours of the “center” (Paris) and the “periphery” (the French colonial Empire) — an initiative where translations, particularly of indigenous authors, proved to be an important issue.

Making Space: Key Popular Women Writers Then and Now

Reclaiming lost or forgotten (Victorian) popular women writers and their works is still an important, ongoing aim of literary and gender studies. In this article, we take the Key Popular Women Writers series, published by Edward Everett Root Publishers and edited by Janine Hatter and Helena Ifill, as one example of a current series that continues and develops this feminist practice. By drawing upon the research, writing and publishing practice of current women academics, as well as related issues concerning literary value, canonicity and the popularity of the Victorian writers themselves, we showcase the methodological and pedagogical practice of finding motivation and inspiration beyond that which is established as the norm. Furthermore, through examining the current political, academic and publishing fields’ impact on researching and teaching (Victorian) popular fiction, we discuss breakthroughs, challenges and potential ways for the study of this area to move forward. Popular women’s writing continues to offer readers, students and academics, ways to challenge conventions, embrace the multi-faceted nature of our field and take our place on the landscape.

Men with Broken Backs and Other Infirmities: Unsettling Masculinities in Charles Mungoshi’s Fiction

Most of Charles Mungoshi’s fiction was written within a context of militaristic masculinities pre- and post-independent Zimbabwe, when the strong and healthy male body was valorised in Zimbabwean writing and life. His portrayal of men with physical infirmities, particularly spinal injuries, challenges the Chimurenga (war of liberation) rhetoric with its hypermasculine script that privileges the tough and healthy male body in service of the family and nation. Mungoshi’s calling on the corporeality of men’s bodies and the limits of physical ability exposes the conflicts and anxieties of maleness at a time when such “unmanning” was problematic and continues to be for some critics of Zimbabwean literature. Such critics view Mungoshi’s focus on men with infirmities as devoid of literary value, pessimistic, of little value to the liberation struggle and nation-building in post-colonial Zimbabwe. Yet through the trope of male bodily incapacitation, this paper argues, Mungoshi challenges a masculinism that demands that men should have strong bodies they can deploy to control familial and national space. By paying attention to the two languages that Mungoshi wrote in – English and Shona – this paper unpacks one of Mungoshi’s least acknowledged but most telling contributions to Zimbabwean writing – images of male infirmity that attempt to re-envision Zimbabwean masculinities.

All that is Solid Melts into Air: Borgesian Variations on Translation, Fidelity, Citation and Plagiarism

ABSTRACT This article considers Borges’s central role in the Argentine literary tradition of misattribution and false citations. It reassesses his subversion of normative perceptions of traditional literary values and practices such as originality and plagiarism and contextualizes his now familiar views on the relative merits of translation and ‘creative’ writing (reminiscent of his elevation of the reader above the writer) and investigates his preference for collaborative production over individual authorship. The essay reminds the reader of Borges’s joyful view of literature and ends by considering two contemporary Argentine writers (Tomás Eloy Martínez and Ricardo Piglia) whose largely divergent outputs find some common ground in their gravitation towards distinctively Borgesian motifs and techniques.

Literary Value and Social Identity in The Canterbury Tales

Literary Value and Social Identity in The Canterbury Tales

An Analysis Attempt on Beyimbet Maylin's Story “Shuganin belgisi”

The unique writer Beimbet Mailin made a significant contribution to the development of Kazakh prose in the early twentieth century. Obviously, a socialist-realistic approach prevails in his stories. The writer, who has been exposed to the difficulties of life since his childhood, described what he saw and experienced in his works with aesthetic expressions. In addition to this, it is seen that he takes care of minor issues in society, without going into the depths of history, expressing the mentality and changes of his age with deep feelings. In his stories, he not only realistic described the life of the lower and middle classes, but also critically analyzed the situation in society. In this study, we analyzed B. Mailin’s story “Shuganın belgisi” using a modern method of text analysis, which is widely used in Turkish literature, and tried to determine the literary value of the text and the views of the writer. In the course of the analysis of the text, the political and cultural views of the Kazakh people at the beginning of the twentieth century, the structure of the text, the concepts of character, time and space were analyzed, and the topic was determined. Linguistic features and writing style have been clarified.

Le Luxe de l’écriture: Writing Luxury in Annie Ernaux’s Passion simple and Les Années

Abstract This article examines the concept and experience of luxury in Annie Ernaux’s work, starting from an observation made towards the end of Passion simple (1991) that luxury no longer represents for the author ‘manteaux de fourrure, [des] robes longues et [des] villas au bord de la mer’, but ‘aussi de pouvoir vivre une passion’. Though the temptation, given Ernaux’s stated admiration for Pierre Bourdieu’s œuvre, is to approach luxury through a lens of sociological distinction, the article argues that a more intricate unfolding of the concept can be traced within her texts. Through readings of Passion simple and Les Années, I suggest that Ernaux’s search for a writing outside the self that stringently rejects bourgeois literary values echoes visions of writing — such as those found at various points in the work of Hélène Cixous, Roland Barthes, and Georges Bataille, for example — as a form of total expenditure that cannot be harnessed to late capitalism’s exchange economy. Additionally borrowing from the thought of Maurice Blanchot and Jean-Luc Nancy, I argue that the thrilling loss of sovereignty Ernaux finds in the experience of absolute eroticism and écriture in Passion simple is extended in Les Années into a sociology of writerly vacation, where the luxurious dispersal of the first person makes way for a situated, politically operative being-in-common.

Editor's Column

Editor's Column

Mad at the World: A Life of John Steinbeck

<i>Mad at the World: A Life of John Steinbeck</i>

Observation on value conversion of Disabled in Folktales and its literary value

이 연구의 목적은 구비설화 가운데 장애인을 대상으로 한 각편에서 장애인의 가치가 전가치화되는 것을 문제 삼았다. 따라서 이를 바탕으로 인문학적 가치에 대한 성찰을 중심으로 논의하는 것을 목적으로 한다. 이 설화의 심층에는 사회적 약자, 소수자 등과 같은 인문학적 가치와 연관되는 중요한 개념어들이 내재 되어 있었다. 그 속에 내면화되어 있는 장애인에 대한 인식의 성격과 내용을 비판적으로 검토하면서 장애인을 바라보는 설화 구연자의 시선에 중점을 두었다. 논의의 결과 다음과 같은 결론에 도달하였다. <구비설화 속 장애인의 전가치화와 인문학적 가치 성찰>에서 설화 속 장애인 인물에 대한 배타적인 시선과 반성적인 시선을 동시에 반영하고 있음을 알 수 있었다. 즉, 배타적인 시선에서는 장애인을 ‘우리’가 아닌 ‘남’으로 인식하기 때문에 신체적 기능장애를 웃음의 기저로 삼았고, 반성적인 시선에서는 그들의 지혜나 능력이 뛰어남을 기저로 삼았다. 따라서 구비설화 속 장애인이야기는 ‘우리 안의 이방인’이 되기도 하지만 ‘남에서 우리로’ 함께 하려는 의미가 있다는 것으로 해석했다.This study is about the value of the disabled being fully valued in each episode that targets the disabled among the stories. Therefore, the purpose of the discussion is to focus on reflection on humanistic values. In the depth of this narrative, important concepts related to humanistic values such as the socially disadvantaged, minority were embedded. While critically examining the nature and content of the internalized perception of the disabled, it focused on the perspective of the narrator looking at the disabled. The discussion resulted in the following conclusions. In < Observation on value conversion of Disabled in Folktales and its literary value>, it is obvious that the closed and reflective views of the disabled in the stories are reflected at the same time. In other words, because the disabled are perceived as the others rather than us in the closed view, physical dysfunction is used as the entry of laughter, and their wisdom or ability is excellent in the reflective view. Therefore, it was interpreted that the story of the disabled in the oral folktales becomes a stranger among us, but that they intend to be together from others to us. Thus, the story of the disabled was embedded with humanistic values that we can reflect on in depth in the modern society.

Conglomerate but not Homogenized

AbstractThe essays collected in “Literature and Publishing, 1945–2020” consider the ways the conglomerated global publishing industry has incorporated and commodified varied genres and target publics. The essays employ intensive archival, ethnographic, and computational methods, and they dive into often-neglected genres, in order to fill in this familiar narrative outline with vivid detail, complicating it and at times discovering countervailing trends that persist within conglomerate publishing’s pursuit of short-term economic profit. While the contributors tend to emphasize the dominance of an increasingly homogenizing corporate aesthetic inimical to experiment, they also acknowledge the potential for individual writers, editors, and agents to intervene in the market, shifting and diversifying the field and preserving literary values, even as they attend to the fiscal bottom line. This commentary stresses the variability of genre, publishers’ persistent search for novelty, and conglomerates’ desire to compete for prestige with small but influential independent presses in order to explain the continued efflorescence of a dazzling diversity of contemporary literary production within a field that continues to consolidate dramatically at its top end, and whose retail side is dominated by a single behemoth.

A “K” to bridge Korea and the world: the state-led formulation of K-lit and its contradictions

AbstractThis study examines the activity of the Literature Translation Institute of Korea (LTI), a South Korean state agency promoting Korean literature internationally through translation. Analyzing LTI programs and participants in LTI policymaking and implementation, I advocate reconsideration of the conventional theorization of the state as either “strong” or “weak” in its control over national culture, corresponding to the degree of liberalization of market and politics. Instead, the institutional strength of the state and the marginal status – globally – of a given literature are intertwined and mutually transformative for the global formulation of a national literature. This study articulates how LTI's embeddedness in networks of domestic and international literary actors, such as translators, publishers, academics, and critics, both enables and constrains LTI policy. Based on the analysis, I argue that LTI as an intermediary formulates Korean literature with multiple components, combining the marketization of prominent writers with cultural consecration of non-commercial works, and universal literary values with nationalist cultural pride. Consequently, this study reveals the contentious nature of the state-led literary project, under which a national literature in global context is shaped collectively by actors both within and without the state.

Literature as a Matter of Policy

Literature as a Matter of Policy

Analisis Tuturan Ritual Ngalap Semangat Suku Tidung Di Sebuku Ditinjau Dari Bentuk Mantra

This study discusses the form of the mantra in the ritual speech of the Ngalap Spirit of the Tidung Tribe in Sebuku. Mantra is a word or speech that contains wisdom and supernatural powers. The power of the spell is thought to be able to heal or bring harm. This research is focused on analyzing the form of the mantra in the speech of the Ngalap Spirit Ritual of the Tidung tribe as one of the oral literatures that needs to be developed and preserved because it contains high literary values. The research was conducted with the aim of describing the form of the mantra and the ritual tradition of ngalap the spirit of the Tidung tribe in Sebuku. The method used in this research is a field research method with a qualitative approach that is described descriptively. Data collection techniques used in this study were interview techniques, note-taking techniques and recording techniques. The data analysis technique used is a qualitative descriptive analysis technique. The results of the research obtained are (1) the form of the mantra: a. The form of the line in the first mantra consists of 5 lines, each line contains 2-6 words and consists of 3-10 syllables; b. The form of the first mantra stanza, that is, each stanza consists of 5 lines and contains 2-6 words; c. The choice of words used in the traditional mantra ngalap, the spirit of the Tidung tribe does not only use the Tidung language but also uses the Indonesian language. It's just that the Tidung language is more dominant in its use in the traditional speech of ngalap, the spirit of the Tidung tribe.

The Abbe Molina, the smallpox… and also Darwin

The Chilean Abbe Ignacio Molina (1740-1829) developed a brilliant career as naturalist in the University of Bologna, where he arrived when the Jesuit Order was expelled from the Spanish colonies in 1767, until he was accused of heresy because some ideas about evolution expressed in one of his late works, at the same time with Lamarck and 44 years before Darwin. In his youth Molina was affected in a severe way by smallpox, leaving us in two poems a vivid story of his suffering, not only by the disease itself but also for the useless therapeutic measures, some disagreeable, like enemas; other injurious, as bleeding and topic vinegar of the four thieves. A handful of the more significant verses from the two Latin Elegies "De peste variolarum" and "De peste variolis vulgo dicta" is analyzed: its literary value is scarce, its reading is bored, and its real merit only historic.

The Disillusionment of the American Dream Myth: A Comparative Study of The Great Gatsby and Martin Eden

This article compares The Great Gatsby and Martin Eden from the aspects of main character images and social values reflected. And it tries to explore their rich society Critical value and literary value to reveal the tragedy of American Dreams disillusionment. These two works are excellent representative works of American literature in the 20th century. They condense the author’s profound thinking about the current era and the painstaking exploration of literary creation. Comparing these two works is important for fully discovering the value of 20th century American literature.

The Stories of Proverbs in the Holy Qur’an, Prophet’s Hadith, and Arabs’ Sayings: A Literary Study

The Arab realized that proverbs and their stories had a great literary and linguistic significance, accordingly, they collected them from their sources and wrote them down. Thus, researchers went in studying them in different directions. The aim of the present research is thus to study the stories of proverbs in the Holy Qur’an, Prophet’s hadiths, and in the sayings of Arabs. Such a study helps to show the extent of the relevance of their stories to the proverbs, their literary values, the points of convergence between them and what they highlight, and the extent of their proximity to reality. It further helps to determine the factors that contributed to the transformation of Quranic verses, Prophet’s hadiths, and some phrases of stories into proverbs. Accordingly, the researcher has adopted the descriptive analytical approach to comparatively examine the stories behind these proverbs, sheding light on the different interpretations being highlighted by different narrators. As for the most important results of the study, they are: Behind most of the proverbs are stories written in a high narrative language that addresses their past events, and gives them an artistic taste of preaching senses. They also bear a lot of simple, artistic, and brief features. Proverbs are used in everyday and are as simply recalled as that of the Qur’anic verses in accordance with the events that people experience. Many proverbs are widely used by many people without knowing about their real stories, and have many interesting, concise and entertaining interpretations. Or, they might be used to describe real events or bases for such real events.

Lo sagrado en “La señal”, de Inés Arredondo

En la entrevista “Me apasiona la inteligencia”, con Mauricio Carrera, Inés Arredondo —escritora mexicana de Sinaloa, integrante de la generación de medio siglo— afirmó que “La señal” fue el primer cuento que le brindó la pauta en relación con la forma y el tema que le interesaron abordar en sus escritos posteriores; en este sentido, gran parte de la estética arredondiana se puede analizar en dicho relato; por lo que resulta conveniente su estudio por el valor literario que posee. En este artículo se retoma como eje el cuento mencionado y se analiza el tema de lo sagrado, lo numinoso, la intertextualidad con personajes bíblicos, así como el encuentro con lo divino.

The History Bubble

The History Bubble

Literary Reviewing and the Velocity of Book Histories in Times of Digitization

AbstractWeb 2.0 has enabled a wide variety of practices and processes involved in the production, dissemination and reception of literary works to take place in an interactive environment. Concepts of authorship, the book as such, but also literary reviewing have undergone significant changes as a result, leading, for example, to the rise of the amateur critic. The case of Kristen Roupenian’s short story “Cat Person” (2017), published both in print and online byThe New Yorkermagazine, and its “going viral”, illustrate the speed and alacrity with which literary works today undergo evaluation and how different these kinds of discursive practices are in comparison to more traditional notions of literary reviewing. In the light of this velocity of reception processes, this article re-examines existing theories of literary value and evaluation (as in the form of reviewing and as postulated, e. g., by Barbara Herrnstein Smith) and their relation to book history.