Literature In European Languages Research Articles

Hybridizing Gikuyu in the face of globalization: The case of Ngugi wa Thiongos novel Murogi wa Kagogo

African literature in European languages entrenches the marginalization of large communities who cannot use European languages. Therefore, the revolutionary move by the Kenyan writer, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, to write in Gikuyu is a bold step towards empowering marginalized groups in Africa. In his literary essays, Ngugi argues that in the era of globalization African languages should enrich themselves by entering into dialogue with other languages of the world. A reading of Ngugi’s novel, Murogi wa Kagogo, using insights from sociolinguistics, reveals that Ngugi achieves this through hybridizing Gikuyu with English, Kiswahili, Sheng and even Latin. The article, specifically, attempts to show how Ngugi has hybridized Gikuyu using strategies like codeswitching, borrowing and diglossia. Drawing on Murogi wa Kagogo, this article argues that literature in African languages must embrace the strategies of hybridity in order to make African languages relevant to new global realities. The article further seeks to problematize the tendency by postcolonial theorists to almost wholly exclude African literature written in indigenous languages from the orbit of their critiques. This article is also an attempt to add to the few studies that exploit sociolinguistic approaches to examine literary texts. Key words: Murogi wa Kagogo, hybridity, sociolinguistics, postcolonial theory.

On Writing a Comparative Literary History: Delocalizing Minor Literatures in European Languages in the Age of ‘Big Data’

Abstract “Minor literature” is an elusive concept in literary scholarship. Its widespread use stands in sharp contrast to the paucity of its theoretical development, which is limited to Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s 1975 seminal book Kafka. Pour une littérature mineure. We claim that a comparative history of minor literatures in European languages – a nonexistent project so far – requires three preliminary steps, namely, conceptual clarification, cross-pollination between comparative literary history and the digital humanities, and a bibliometric analysis of the minor-literature constellation. First, conceptual clarification is needed to show, on the one hand, how Deleuze and Guattari’s arguments on minor literatures significantly differ from those of what they posit as their source (Kafka’s discussion on kleine Literaturen) and, on the other hand, the existence of alternative genealogies. Second, by adhering to a Braudelian definition of comparative history, the massive data needed for addressing the production and reception of (minor) literatures in specific social and cultural contexts would immensely benefit from recourse to digital tools. Third, and as an example of approaching conceptual clarification with digital tools, a quantitative study of the minor-literature constellation must be performed using a key tool of international scholarship (the MLA International Bibliography). In the current paper, we may only provide an introductory survey of these three fields and, therefore, the results are tentative and further research is needed.

Writing the Transatlantic Imaginary in Agualusa’s Nação Crioula and Monénembo’s Pelourinho

This article explores the complex relationship between African literatures in European languages and the construction of the historical record in Agualusa’s Nação Crioula and Monénembo’s Pelourinho. It problematizes the idealised notion present in lusofonia of the Atlantic triangle as characterised by fluid identities and hybrid spaces, to argue that in both novels boundaries are ruptured but also reinscribed. In exploring unofficial acts of writing which diverge from official discourse: unpublished texts, secret correspondence, and ways of inscribing memory that do not involve writing, these two novels call into question the relationship between voice and writing and the way the historical record is constructed.By exploring the work of Agualusa and Monénembo in comparison, we can demonstrate some of the points of crossover between these two texts, which transcend both intra- and inter-continental boundaries. Such a comparative analysis allows for new readings of the texts to emerge, which may not be apparent when viewed solely from a Lusophone or Francophone canonical perspective.

Africa Antetranslation

The publication of African language literature is more firmly established in the 21st century than ever before. Yet as African language literature forges ahead, its translation lags behind. The greatness of African literature in European languages is inestimable, but how could African language literature, both in its original languages and in translation, be any less and not much more? Still, African language literature remains in a state of antetranslation—a small and not the main part, as it naturally could be, of African literature. Achebe’s “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness” (1977) relates the incalculably adverse legacy of colonialism and neocolonialism, but its near universal assent might also reinforce the antetranslation status quo. Achebe scorns the “African woman who has obviously been some kind of mistress to Mr. Kurtz,” but what if she were invoked as a patron saint or nkisi n’kondi to move beyond antetranslation?

Designing for Luxury on the Bay of Naples: Villas and Landscapes (c.100 bce –79 ce ) by Mantha Zarmakoupi (review)

Reviewed by: Designing for Luxury on the Bay of Naples: Villas and Landscapes (c.100 bce–79 ce) by Mantha Zarmakoupi Elizabeth Macaulay-Lewis Mantha Zarmakoupi. Designing for Luxury on the Bay of Naples: Villas and Landscapes (c.100 bce–79 ce). Oxford Studies in Ancient Culture and Representation. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014. Pp. xxi, 315. $160.00. ISBN 978–0-19–967838–9. The Roman villa has been the focus of much scholarship since the rediscovery of Hadrian’s Villa in the Renaissance and the excavation of the Villa of the Papyri in the mid-eighteenth century. This new study, a revised version of the author’s 2007 doctoral thesis, is an important contribution to the study of Roman villas, architecture, design, and cultural change. It will be particularly useful for scholars working on Roman architecture and gardens. In this book, Zarmakoupi examines how the intersection of Hellenistic and Roman cultural and architectural traditions resulted in the development of the luxury villa (villa expolita) on the Bay of Naples. In the first chapter, Zarmakoupi focuses on a design analysis of the villas, looking at specific aspects of their architecture and landscape architecture, while also considering the cultural significance of these aspects of the built environment. She looks at architecture as a culturally informed, dynamic process. Her focus on design and related cultural processes marks a new approach to the study of Roman villas. Previous studies of Roman villas have typically focused on economic aspects or on regional examples. Zarmakoupi briefly describes and discusses the architecture and landscape architecture of five specific villas—the Villa of the Papyri, Villa A Oplontis, Villa Arianna A, Villa Arianna B, and Villa San Marco—in chapter 2. This chapter should prove useful in an undergraduate or graduate course on Roman architecture or on Pompeii, where a concise English-language introduction to luxury villas is needed. Much of the recent literature in European languages is well digested here for Anglophone audiences. Chapters 3 through 7 focus on specific architectural and garden elements of the luxury villas and how these various different architectural elements (the cryptoporticus, the porticoed garden, water, triclinia, and other settings for dining) were original Roman creations that resulted from the cultural negotiation between Rome and the Hellenistic East. In each chapter there is a useful discussion of the architectural vocabulary of the key terms that the ancient authors and scholars have used to describe these spaces. These discussions highlight the complex and nuanced meanings of the ancient terminology, and also the problems that can arise when scholars use Greek and Latin words as technical terms. Chapter 4 and the appendix discuss the role of porticoed gardens in luxury villas. This chapter is a significant contribution because it places gardens and landscape architecture at the heart of discussions about luxury villas. [End Page 439] Zarmakoupi argues that landscape architecture in the form of porticoed gardens was integral to these villas, to their design, and also to their cultural and intellectual conceptualization by their Roman owners. The inclusion of porticoed gardens in the luxury villa was another Roman adaptation of Hellenistic culture and built environment. Her inclusion of the gardens continues the relatively new trend in scholarship that acknowledges the significance of landscape architecture in the Roman built environment. Chapter 5 focuses on the role and significance of water features in the villa. The discussion of water and gardens reminds us how ephemeral the luxury villa was; gardens and water features had to be maintained constantly even when a villa was not in use. Chapter 6 focuses on triclinia and dining facilities. Because convivial dining was important for building social and political ties, the staging of such dinners, especially their physical environment, was very important. Zarmakoupi argues that dining was set in multiple locations within a villa, allowing for the manufacturing and managing of a proper setting. In this regard, landscape was again fundamental to creating an interesting vista for diners to gaze upon or as a background for stage entertainment. Finally, chapter 7 considers the patterns that emerge within the “conceptualization of the architectural design of these villas” (213) and reviews the trends in the study of the luxury villa by...

Az összehasonlító irodalomtudomány és a klasszikusok

The fact that the ICLA’s book series, the comparative history of literatures in European languages, took the Renaissance as its point of departure suggests that the timespan of comparative literature does not go back further than that period. David Damrosch’s definition of world literature, however, includes all the classics as texts read outside their original culture. For a comparative approach we do not need to compare the classics to a different (e.g. modern or a non-European ancient) kind of literature: since all the western literary cultures developed some kind of relationship to the classics, they can be discussed as a code of western literature, which may make them a „language” of comparison.

Agency in translating "Une Vie de Boy" into English: Exploring translator identity and translation strategies

Recent research in translation studies has underscored the role of translators as agents. This implies that a translator is not just a neutral conduit of a message from one language to another, but someone who is very much involved in the power interplay that determines the decision making leading to the translation product. It is within this context that this paper seeks to analyse the concept of ‘agency’ in translation, with specific focus on African literature in European languages. It is worth mentioning that while this type of literature has been the subject of much research, less attention has been given to it in terms of translation. Focusing on a translation by the late John Reed of Ferdinand Oyono’s Une Vie de Boy , this paper seeks to show how an understanding of the identity of the translator can lead to an appreciation of his/her translation strategies. It should be noted that translating African culture from one European language to another can be quite a challenging task – especially if the culture is foreign to the translator – due to the fact that cultural value systems are difficult to grasp as they are intricately woven into the texture of the native languages (Bandia 2008). Such a task is even more intriguing since the original text is in itself a form of translation, initially conceived in the African language of the author before being rendered into a European language. In this case, the agency role of the translator would therefore be more significant given that s/he is dealing with a peculiar source text that is different from most source texts which are translated between relatively close or non-distant cultures. Through an ethnographic study involving an exploration of the context of the translation production, as well as an interview with Reed, this paper posits that the translator’s socio-cultural background tends to influence the nature and extent of his/her intervention in the translation process. This will contribute in shifting the focus of translation assessment from solely the end product to an inclusion of the translator’s identity.

European Romantic Prose: A Book Review Article of Comparative History of Literatures in European Languages

European Romantic Prose: A Book Review Article of Comparative History of Literatures in European Languages

He(art) of the metre: Poetry in the “vernacular”

Summary The historical rise of African literature in Europhone languages, particularly English and French, as a social and disciplinary practice directed at the recuperation of the fractured African persona and world view following centuries of (mis)representation in Western-authored texts, has conferred on it an adversarial tone that is generally viewed as the archetypal character of African literature that is productive of other categories of ethnic/national literatures including those in the indigenous languages of Africa. Protest (commitment) or agit(ation) prop(aganda) as this category of literature is variously called is more often than not seen as the hallmark of African literature irrespective of its linguistic orientation. Framed against the broad backdrop of the counter-hegemonic claims of postcolonial theorisation, this article discusses theme in Ironu Akewi [Thoughts of a Poet] and Emi in mi Emi in re [My Love Your Love] respectively by Olanrewaju Adepoju and Olatunbosun Oladapo, arguably two of the most prominent of contemporary Yoruba poets. Implicit in the article's explorative concerns is the repudiation of the displacement (marginalisation) of African-language literatures, their denigration in the academy and consignment to a secondorder cadre vis-à-vis African literature in European languages. Such writing “back to the Empire”, such reinscription of the indigenous and questioning of a master discourse conforms with the postmodernist blurring of the space between the “high” and the “low”, the global and the local – indeed the written and the oral. The article makes the point that the overtly political preoccupation of African literature – English and French – is neither a given of contemporary African literature nor was it the originary character of the literatures, particularly poetry, of pre-colonial Africa.

Romantic Prose Fiction by Gerald Gillespie , Manfred Engel , Bernard Dieterle (review)

320 Reviews The letters tellthestory of howRuskin gradually madeovertherunning, management , and evenownership of Brantwood toJoannaand herhusband Arthur Severn. 'Letters from Ruskin toJoanhaveonlypreviously beenpublished as excerpts and are not generally availableforresearch'(p. 4). The editorsof theLibraryEditionof Ruskin's works included onlya handful of theseletters, and theyfailedto keepthe idiolect, perhaps outofconcern for Ruskin's reputation. Thisreviewer, likeDickinson, finds theletters endearing rather thanembarrassing. Forinstance, Ruskin writes that he'wants hisdimatotakecareofhismoney for him' (p.215).He asks Joannato'please[. . .] beginkeeping mypockywocky money fornext year'(p.217).In Letter 210hesigns off: 'Me's oospoo oldDonie- ' (p.223).In Letter 206heshows hispoeticside: Ohdima,ifI only could build 00a palace with diamond windows andgolden doors, andput on a story [sic] every birth day, asthe shells dointhe sea,andfill itwith music like the seashells. and have my dimatosing tomeupatthe top. (p.218) Ruskin asks Joanna:'fot soodvehavedonetounderstand eachovyifvee'dnevy learnt babytawk?' (p.214). With its'Idiolectical Glossary' anda Chronology, this volume ofletters maybe seen tocontribute towhatone maycallRuskin's 'autobiography', including comments on painting, onfigures, someofthem public ones,andontheevents ofhisownlife. Rachel Dickinson has therefore performed an unusual,useful, and interesting service. The letters shedlighton Ruskin's ownpersonality and psychology, and on howhe saw himself. He insisted that noneofhisletters toJoannabe destroyed, which suggests that he mayhaveconsidered themtobe a partof his'autobiography', tocomplement or supplement whatDickinson describes as the'crafted andcensored' Praeterita. King'sCollege London WilliamGoldman Romantic Prose Fiction. EditedbyGerald Gillespie,ManfredEngel, and Bernard Dieterle. A Comparative History of Literatures in EuropeanLanguages,23. Amsterdam andPhiladelphia: Benjamins. 2007.xxi+ 733pp.€198.00; US$297.00. isbn:978-90-272-3456-8. Collections ofessays dealing with European Romantic culture facesomething ofa challenge :thetopicisdifficult tomap,thedatesoftheso-called 'period'aredisputed and inconstant flux, andthe'movement' continually crosses linguistic, generic, anddisciplinary borders. Asa result, suchvolumes canfallintooneoftwotraps: either they seek toencompass broader trends andendup lacking inclosetextual readings, orthey are sosharply focused that they maybe oflimited appealtomoregeneral readers. Atover 700pages,this volume ofthirty-six essays, together with an Introduction andConclusion ,is morethancomprehensive and makesa goodattempt at circumventing such pitfalls. The fact that thecollection belongs toanintegrated sub-series - theothers are dedicated toRomantic irony, drama, poetry, andnon-fictional prose- helpstoensure that nosingle volume takes ontoomuch. The collection openswith lengthy editorial deliberations, which track thegenesis of theprojectthatgave riseto thevolumeand also,moreusefully, offer conceptual YES, 40.1 & 2, 2010 321 reflections on thesub-series, theposition of thevolumewithin it,and therationale behindthebook'sinternal organization. The essaysare dividedintothreesections, dealing with Romantic prosethemes, thebroadnotion ofparadigms (including representative texts, issues ofgenre, andnarrative technique), andthelaternineteenthand twentieth-century reception of Romantic proseanditsinfluence on laterthought and writing. Throughout thesesections thediscussions traverse the Romanticproseof Germany, France, andEngland, although they alsochart thelegacy left bythis writing inScandinavia, Spain,LatinAmerica, andJapan.Similarly diverse isthetreatment of other mediaanddiscourses, or, more precisely, their intersection with thegenres, themes, andtechniques ofprose, suchas MihálySzegedy-Maszák's study ofrepresentations of the'sister arts'ofmusic andpainting inRomantic prose.Setagainst this richbackdrop are theessaysone might expect, although theyremainessential: thereare thematic contributions, suchas Gerhart Hoffmeister's analysis of howinternational Romantic prosetreats explicitly (Victor Hugo)andimplicitly (Goethe) theprogression andfailure of theFrench Revolution; and MonikaSchmitz-Emans's discussion of theirrational realms of madnessand dream,whichshowshowRomantic prosedealingwithsuch issues laidthefoundations ofkeyaspects of modern thought andwriting, suchas the rejection of'anysuperior levelofreasoning from which onecoulddistinguish between truth andlies'(p.165). Therearegeneric studies, suchasManfred Engel'sremarkably clearandlinear study ofthelabyrinthine genre oftheBildungsroman, andalsolessobvious discussions, suchas GeraldGillespie's treatment ofthecrime novel:whilecrime inliterature was'nothing new',Romantic proseinSpain,England, andelsewhere becametheforum for'a new genre inwhich crime fighters andcrime solvers werecentral' (p.345).Thevolume's third section is particularly illuminating, as shownbyElaineMartin's study of cinematic makesand re-makes of Romantic literary works, and Takayuki Yokota-Murakami's discussion of thecomplex reception and influence of EuropeanRomantic writing in Japan,characterized bybothenthusiasm andrejection, as thatnation openeditself to Western culture inthecourseofthenineteenth century. Sucha wideandinternational focus tiesinwiththeeditors' aims.AstheConclusion states, thevolume doesnotseek toimply that readings ofRomanticism as expressions ofnational experience arewholly irrelevant orevenspurious; rather, itsintention isto'explore strands ofliterary experiencethat often werecommon ona larger regional scale'(p.700). The texts arelucid, readable, andcontain valuablecontributions that simultaneously offer anoverview oftheir material, drawtogether important threads ofscholarship, and re-frame discussions infresh contexts. SabineRossbach, forexample, offers a fascinating sweepof the notionof 'mirroring' in English,GermanRomanticand postRomantic proseembracing E. T. A. Hoffman, Coleridge, and Poe: whilst...

Literature: What Kind of Literature for Ethical Education in Africa?

I attempt in this paper to answer the question “What kind of literature is needed for ethical education in Africa, especially in this era of globalization?” I proceed to examine three identifiable kinds of literature in Africa: Oral literature in local African and modern European languages, written literature in local African languages and written literature in European languages—to determine what role each is playing in our contemporary educational system. I then advance the view that, in spite of the progressive transition of Africa from the predominance of Oral literature in local languages to written literature in European languages, and in spite of the undue influence of European languages in the education of many Africans, Oral literature in African languages remains the most appropriate language of education for Africans. This is especially true at the lower primary level where the very foundation of ethics and all education is laid. Indeed, it is this aspect which calls for the efforts of each and every African country in the development of oral literature for these major reasons. In the first place, oral literature is an important component of African cultural heritage. Besides being the most vigorous and effective medium of reflecting contemporary ethical and cultural diffusion prevalent in Africa, oral literature provides a greater opportunity for the development of literary talent than does written literature in modern European Languages. I will use folktales and proverbs selected from different parts of Africa to underscore the role and function of oral literature as part of both national and global literature.

Aḥmadu Bamba's Pedagogy and the Development of ʿAjamī Literature

Abstract:While African literature in European languages is well-studied, ʿajamī and its significance in the intellectual history of Africa remains one of the least investigated areas in African studies. Yet ʿajamī is one of the oldest and most widespread forms of literature in Africa. This article draws scholars' attention to this unmapped terrain of knowledge. First, it provides a survey of major West African ʿajamī literary traditions and examines the nexus between the pedagogy of Aḥmadu Bamba and the development of Wolofal (Wolof ʿajamī). Then, with reference to excerpts from Sëriñ Masoxna Ló's 1954 eulogy, it discusses the role of Wolofal in the diffusion of the Murīd ethos.

Romantic Prose Fiction, vol. XXIII of Comparative History of Literatures in European Languages

Romantic Prose Fiction, vol. XXIII of Comparative History of Literatures in European Languages

L’Effet roman dans les langues de l’Afrique quelques réflexions comparatistes

In 2006 Xavier Garnier and the present author published a collection of essays derived from a three years long monthly seminar held at the CNRS in Paris on the coming of the novel in the languages of Africa (L’effet roman, Paris 2006). They considered the situation in 27 different languages, analyzing it in details in 20 of them. In the present article the author reflects upon the conclusion and prospects of this comparative enterprise. Quite often the production of fiction is seen as a symbol of cultural achievement in a language: little is known about the texts themselves, their messages, their style. Thomas Mofolo is widely held to be the first novelist writing in an African language, but his first novel, Moeti oa Bochabela, has rarely been read in a political and historical perspective. It is the story of questions posed by the coming of Christianity to Africa and this was a truly revolutionary at that time (1907). While diglossia and bilingualism are the rule in Africa, literatures in African languages are too rarely analyzed along with literature in European languages. The perspectives offered by the political content of the concepts of polyphonia and dialogic consciousness, presented by Bakhtin, acutely aware himself of these dimensions, are not taken with their philological implications in Africa. The novel is a new genre in many European languages, too, and it corresponds with an era of national consciousness. In many African languages careful historical study allows us to reach the same conclusions despite the colonial control, and the recent (second half of the twentieth century) domination of European languages. The paper concludes by a plea for translation, and quotes the recent work of Ngugi wa Thiongo as a new and positive direction for African writers.

The horizons of romanticism, two centuries later

The story of the Romanticism sub-series of the Comparative History of Literatures in European Languages illustrates the need for collaborative team efforts such as have actually been promoted by the International Comparative Literature Association to cope more adequately with the complexities of transnational cultural constellations over time. From its inception, the Romanticism sub-series has exhibited a spirit of pragmatic engagement, a will to proceed from concrete examples of literary works and cultural discourses, rather than to impose supposed norms based on pre-agreed paradigms or to privilege today’s theorizing over the past. The cooperation among some 100 researchers from some two dozen countries has yielded an intellectually open picture of how a multifaceted heritage gathers momentum and is blended into the flow of a larger cultural poly-system.

Nonfictional Romantic Prose: Expanding Borders (review)

Reviewed by: Nonfictional romantic prose: Expanding borders ed. by Steven P. Sondrup and Virgil Nemoianu Pere Gifra-Adroher Nonfictional romantic prose: Expanding borders. Ed. by Steven P. Sondrup and Virgil Nemoianu. (Comparative history of literatures in European languages 18.) Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2004. Pp. 477. ISBN 158811452X. $238 (Hb). Even though much of the best romantic writing present in the literary canon has been traditionally and predominantly circumscribed to poetry, over the past two decades many critics and scholars have turned their attention to a handful of lesser genres hitherto considered unworthy of critical scrutiny. The twenty-four essays collected here contribute to a textually richer notion of romanticism not only by examining multiple forms of nonfictional prose, but above all by doing so also from a comparatist perspective that illuminates the crosscultural nature of this movement. Virgil Nemoianu opens the volume with an introduction that charts the breadth of the terms romantic and romanticism; then several sections follow, each devoted to the main types of nonfictional prose writing. The longest in the book, Part 2, tackles romantic theoretical and critical prose. It begins with Monika Schmitz-Emans’s analysis of romanticism from a historical and transnational perspective, and continues with John Isbell’s argument on how romanticism was disavowed by some of its very originators. Gerhart Hoffmeister, on the one hand, and Manfred Engel and Jürgen Lehmann, on the other, subsequently study the influence of Hegel and German Idealism in European romanticism. To close this section Mary Anne Perkins reviews theoretical texts influential in the reassessment of several national languages and literatures, and Carolyn Buckley-Larocque probes the ethnological discourse behind Sir Walter Scott’s project of Scottish cultural recovery. Part 3, on political writing, features an essay by Michael Gassenmeier and Jens Martin Gurr that traces the influence of Edmund Burke’s conservatism, and another one where Steven P. Sondrup examines how the Scandinavian countries resorted to their ancient mythologies in their nation-building processes. In the geography-based Part 4, Mircea Anghelescu dissects the genre of the travel narrative, while Joselyn M. Almeida surveys the nonfiction produced in Spanish America between 1780 and 1850 and how it contributed to raising its independent consciousness. Two further sections focus on private and public matters. The genres that most relevantly developed the notion of romantic subjectivity are tackled in Part 5: Frederick Garber first examines the role of diaries, Eugene Stelzig then explores the autobiography, and Carol Strauss Sotiropoulos and Margaret R. Higonnet finally investigate several minor textual forms like teaching tracts, letters, and treatises that were used to shape women’s social roles. In contrast to this concern with the self, Part 6 expands toward the public sphere. While Frederick Garber considers the importance of the familiar essay, John Boening, Madison U. Sowell, and Monica Spiridon, respectively, concentrate on the periodicals, almanacs, and pamphlets that played such an important role in shaping civic opinion. Equally important was the short sketch, whose influence [End Page 231] in Spain and other European countries José Manuel Losada discusses. Relevant examples of scientific and artistic prose fall under scrutiny in Part 7. Alan Richardson and Joel Black document the connections between romanticism and early psychological and cognitive studies; Gerald Gillespie and Steven P. Sondrup likewise provide separate readings of significant texts on music and the visual arts. Finally, Part 8 concentrates on religious writings: Virgil Nemoianu examines several movements of theological renewal undertaken in the early nineteenth century, stressing their links to the aesthetic category of the beautiful, and José Manuel Losada in turn offers a comparative analysis of the myth of the fallen angel. Romanticism, as Virgil Nemoianu argues in the conclusion, was a turbulent yet extremely fertile cultural movement that, despite its contradictions, had a far-reaching impact beyond elitist circles. If its influence still remains so visible in today’s popular culture, it is not only...

Comparative Literary History as an Elitist Metanarrative

It is an ambiguous comfort to know that we are still debating the grand issues that were in the foreground when the International Comparative Literature Association was founded half a century ago as an offshoot from the Federation Internationale des Langues et Litteratures Modernes. FILLM’s Fifth Congress in 1951, focusing then exclusively on the European, considered modern literatures “in their relations with the fine arts” over a series of supposed great cultural and/or stylistic periods starting from the late Middle Ages. FILLM’s Sixth Congress in 1954, the birth year of ICLA, dealt with “Literature and Science” over a comparable series of supposed epochs in intellectual and technological history. Noticeable on the methodological front in 1954 are the decline of positivistic historicism and, in juxtaposition, the triumph of newer psychology and anthropology plus the first inroads of linguistic structuralism. FILLM’s Ninth Congress in 1963 grappled with the task of relating “Literary History and Literary Criticism”, pursued all the basic epistemological questions therefrom resultant, and introduced the comparison of Asian and European approaches, while giving some consideration to the particularities of other regions. This expansion of horizons by FILLM occurred just four year’s before the daughter organization ICLA approved the creation of the series A Comparative History of Literatures in European Languages. Does all this sound familiar? And here we are again, in the aftermath of postmodernism and poststructuralism, and constructivism, various -isms and post-isms which have meanwhile come and gone; but we are generally unable to believe in the death of literature, the arts, history, or even science – dyings often proclaimed in recent decades in European and Euro-American circles. ICLA has sailed on despite America’s and Europe’s postmodern and other doubts and pioneered the investigation of huge intraand inter-regional complexes of cultural and literary life; and the CHLEL series has acted as the ice-breaker of the ICLA flotilla, ploughing forward to demonstrate how much can be achieved in actual practice. But despite evident pride in these advances we do feel certain misgivings. Scholars involved in the CHLEL series are perhaps foremost among

African Literature in European Languages

The above postulate raises critical questions about postindependence African literature in European languages. Two schools of thought have emerged out of debates on this issue. There are those who consider the use of European languages in African literary expressions from a pragmatic standpoint. There are also those who consider it not only as alienating the writer from his natural African audience but also subordinating African cultures to those of Europe. Since the attainment of national independence, the issue of African literature in European languages has been debated without any tacit agreement among the African writers. It was raised at the Conference of African Writers in English Expression at Makerere University in Kampala in 1962, but it was to no avail, probably because of Achebe's skepticism (1996, p. 379). The issue had been discussed during the 1959 Second Congress of Negro Black Writers and Artists in Rome. In its resolution, the Commission on Literature somewhat recommended translations into autochthonous languages, wherever possible, of works by African writers in French, English, Portuguese, Spanish, and so on (Achebe, 1996, p. 231). There is no need within the scope of this article to get into the historical factors that landed us in this paradoxical and contradic-

Women Readers as Agents of Social Change among Eastern European Jews in the Late Nineteenth Century

This article draws on autobiographies and memoirs, polemical articles from the contemporary press, and bellestristic literature to illuminate the growth of a female reading public in nineteenth‐century Eastern European Jewish society. The exclusion of women from religious study and the emphasis on women’s responsibility for managing family businesses which characterized traditional Jewish culture created conditions that permitted some women to receive a secular education. Reading canonic literature in European languages and non‐canonic literature in Yiddish, some women became catalysts of socio‐cultural change toward the modernization, Europeanization and secularization of Jewish society.

West Indian Literary History: Literariness, Orality and Periodization

main subjects in this presentation are orality in West Indian writing, and periodization in the constructing of a comparative history of Caribbean literatures in European languages. A proper approach to any comparison requires that each of the things to be compared should be seen as itself first. There are, moreover, practical reasons for beginning with an attempt to define or declare some of the main features and elements of what is called West Indian Literature. In the free-for-all that followed Columbus's accidental entry to the New World, the Caribbean area was carved up and shared out, and then shared over and over again by the European powers. Although there have been new cultural and linguistic influences and new political realities since the decline of the Empires, we still think of these places as French-, Dutch-, English-, or Spanish-speaking. On the surface, at any rate, each of these groups continues to use a variant of the language of the colonizer. When the English-speaking territories formed themselves into a political federation in 1959, the name chosen for the nation-to-be was The West Indies. federation broke up almost at once, but the name has remained to signal a reality stronger than any political institution. Three cultural institutions exist to keep alive the federal idea: the University of the West Indies, the all-conquering West Indian cricket team, and West Indian literature.