Language Traditions Research Articles

The Pantomimic Voice

Abstract Ovid’s Metamorphoses, as scholars have demonstrated, can be read in dialogue with Roman pantomime dance, and the tale of Echo and Narcissus is one of its most ‘pantomimic’ episodes. While others have focused on the figure of Narcissus in this vein, I turn instead to Echo, whose vocal mimicry can be seen as a mirror of the pantomime’s art, and whose juxtaposition with Narcissus seems emblematic of the body-voice relationship in pantomime. Echo’s desire for Narcissus engages with an existing lyric tradition of depicting the relationship between singing voice and dancing body in erotic terms. In such situations, the desire is fulfilled if the performers are both singing and dancing, uniting body and voice in performance. The thwarted union of Echo and Narcissus, however, embodies instead the dynamics of pantomime: the subordination or absence of the voice in favor of the body, and the connection created between dancer and audience.

Poems by Polish Female Poets and the Burning Issue of Religion

The aim of this paper is to show the presence of religion and the particular evolution of lyrical matrixes connected to religion in the Polish poems of female poets. There is a particular presence of women in the roots of the Polish literary and lyrical traditions. For centuries, the image of a woman with a pen in her hand was one of the most important imponderabilia. Until the 19th century, Polish female poets continued to be rare. Where female poets do appear in the historical record, they are linked to institutions such as monasteries, where female intellectuals were able to find relative liberty and a refuge. Many of the poetic forms they used in the 16th, late 17th, and 18th centuries were typically male in origin and followed established models. In the 19th century, the specific image of the mother as a link to the religious portrait of the Madonna and the Mother of God (the first Polish poem presents Bogurodzica, the Virgin Mary, the Mother of Jesus) reinforces women’s new presence. From Adam Mickiewicz’s poem Do matki Polki (To Polish Mother), the term “Polish mother” becomes a separate literary, epistemological, and sociological category. Throughout the 20th century (with some exceptions), the impact of Romanticism and its poetical and religious models remained alive, even if they underwent some modifications. The period of communism, as during the Period of Partitions and the Second World War, privileged established models of lyric, where the image of women reproduced Romantic schema in poetics from the 19th-century canons, which are linked to religion. Religious poetry is the domain of few female author-poets who look for inner freedom and religious engagement (Anna Kamieńska) or for whom religion becomes a form of therapy in a bodily illness (Joanna Pollakówna). This, however, does not constitute an otherness or specificity of the “feminine” in relation to male models. Poets not interested in reproducing the established roles reach for the second type of lyrical expression: replacing the “mother” with the “lover” and “the priestess of love” (the Sappho model) present in the poetry of Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska. In the 20th century, the “religion” of love in women’s work distances them from the problems of the poetry engaged in social and religious disputes and constitutes a return to pagan rituals (Hymn idolatrous of Halina Poświatowska) or to the carnality of the body, not necessarily overcoming previous aesthetic ideals (Anna Świrszczyńska). It is only since the 21st century that the lyrical forms of Polish female poets have significantly changed. They are linked to the new place of the Catholic Church in Poland and the new roles of Polish women in society. Four particular models are analysed in this study, which are shown through examples of the poetry of Genowefa Jakubowska-Fijałkowska, Justyna Bargielska, Anna Augustyniak, and Malina Prześluga with the Witches’ Choir.

The poetics of hope and frustration: young Egyptian poets interrogating the nation

Never has the timeless distrust of different generations been more manifest than these days where we see the Egyptian young revolutionaries who emerged in the wake of 2011 being marginalized and even silenced. The last few years in Egypt have witnessed numerous attempts to analyze and interrogate contemporary discourses within different forms of popular culture situating them as fundamental means of examining power and agency. Such contemporary discourses of power, hegemony, revolution, opposition besides concepts of nationalism and resistance in the wake of 2011 revolution and its aftermath, have been the subject of a number of studies on the literary output of the revolution, and notably in the field of poetry and songs. Most of these studies viewed the colloquial poetry produced by young Egyptian poets within the continuum of this rich poetic tradition. I argue that recent poems by young Egyptian poets represent a rupture rather than a continuity within this same tradition. The selected poetic voices are distinguished from both the Egyptian long established tradition of vernacular poetry but also from the poetry composed and sung in the early days of the revolution. This new generation of poets sing the pain and frustration of a dream that did not come true. As they interrogate the meaning of nationalism and the nation itself, one of the main themes in Egyptian vernacular lyrical and poetic tradition, a new corpus is emerging out of their poetry of resistance almost claiming a history of its own.

Centering blackness as freedom scholarship: case studies from freedom scholars

We center and unpack the American Educational Research Association’s (AERA) Commission on Research in Black Education’s (CORIBE) research validity principle, which emphasizes that the highest priority must be placed on studies of: (A) African tradition (history, culture and language); (B) Hegemony (e.g. uses of schooling/socialization and incarceration); (C) Equity (funding, teacher quality, content and access to technology); and (D) Beneficial practice (at all levels of education, from childhood to elderhood). We present four interrelated and overlapping critical case studies/stories which demonstrate the application, elasticity, and validity of Black emancipatory scholarship frameworks.

Hesiod’s Verbal Craft: Studies in Hesiod’s Conception of Language and Its Ancient Reception by Athanassios Vergados

Reviewed by: Hesiod’s Verbal Craft: Studies in Hesiod’s Conception of Language and Its Ancient Reception by Athanassios Vergados George Boys-Stones VERGADOS, Athanassios. Hesiod’s Verbal Craft: Studies in Hesiod’s Conception of Language and Its Ancient Reception. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020. xii + 370 pp. Cloth, $105.00 Starting from Hesiod’s “etymologies,” this work explores Hesiod’s relationship with language in general, and the language of the Greek mythological tradition in particular. In part 1 three chapters present worked examples of “etymology” in Hesiod: two mythological groups with contested histories and genealogies (the Muses, chapter 2; the Cyclopes, chapter 3), and others including Pandora in chapter 4. A significant result is that Hesiod shows himself to be more optimistic about finding stable meaning and objective truth in the study of names in the Theogony than in Works and Days where, as the slippery name “Pandora” shows, meaning can be more up for grabs. A corresponding division between these two works is discovered in the five chapters of part 2. Beginning with Hesiod’s famous “correction” of his Theogony account of Eris (in Works and Days 11–12 he says that there are two Erides, not one), Vergados asks us to see that, for Hesiod, discourse about the divine realm (in the Theogony) can achieve a greater stability than discourse aimed at the “complexities and ambiguities of the human condition in the Iron Age” (in Works and Days). “Eris” divides (in chapter 5 Vergados calls this a Begriffsspaltung), and with its division is no longer “absolute.” Further Hesiodic divisions and revisions are explored in chapter 6 and 7 (where the focus is on Dike). Chapter 8 looks at “kennings and riddles,” that is, the naming of things by riddling allusion, as when the ant is called idris, “the wise one” (Works 778). Chapter 9 looks at a case, the day called “Triseinas,” where Hesiod makes an explicit claim for the “truth” of this name (used, he says, by few; Works 818). In part 3 Vergados moves to consider Hesiod’s ancient reception as an intellectual, showing that he was spoken of in the same breath as mythographers such as Acusilaus and shares many of the characteristics of a historian like Hecataeus. His role as a voice of authority for the etymological inquiries of Plato’s Cratylus occupies chapter 11 (Vergados finds “a certain intellectual affinity” between Hesiod and the dialogue’s [End Page 644] eponym); and in chapter 12 his role in the Homeric scholia as a sort of authority—albeit not an incontestable one—is explored. The details and broad conclusions of this study are illuminating about Hesiod’s art—for example, in unpacking the “micro-narratives” embedded in the focus on names and in unwinding the tacit engagements with Homer. They also lend strong support to the trend for rehabilitating Hesiod as a serious player, even a pioneer, in the Greek intellectual tradition. Whether Vergados delivers on his promise of a Hesiodic “philosophy of language” is another question, though the aspiration clearly guides the work. The very word “etymology,” which Vergados uses for Hesiod’s interest in names, is applied in a way that leads him regularly to compare Hesiod to modern linguistic science (but Hesiod always gets “wrong” what it gets right), and also to attribute to him the view that name-origins ideally have their own philosophical authority, that is, reveal truths about the world. The more straightforward possibility that Hesiod thought that he was merely exploring the views of whoever gave his subjects their names is not considered here—although it might have given the basis for a more organic integration of the chapter on “kennings,” and it might have helped Vergados avoid some obvious missteps. Epōnumos is overtranslated as “true name”; Eris is not “relativized” because there are two “Erides” differing in moral valence (any more than “egg” is a relative term because there are good and bad eggs); Heraclitus is not “attacking” the epic poets when they use a word for “bow” that has the same written form as a word for “life.” Vergados argues that Hesiod’s ultimate aim is to establish his “authority” through what amounts to...

The Obligated Self: Maternal Subjectivity and Jewish Thought

The Obligated Self: Maternal Subjectivity and Jewish Thought

About the Chinese Book “The Book of Poetry”

“The Shi Jing’’(‘‘The Book of Poetry”） is one of the first poems in the world, including Chinese poems, from the 11th century BC to the 6th century BC. During this period, about 3 000 verses appeared, of which 305 poems were selected by Confucius. Poetic texts in “The Shi Jing’are divided into three categories: regional songs, odes, hymns. The composition of the poems uses such techniques as Fu, Bi and Xing. These poems constitute the creative source (source) of Chinese poetry. “Fu”，“Bi” and “Xing” are important artistic features of “The Shi Jing”. “Fu”” - direct narration, parallelism. “Bi” is a metaphor, comparison. “Sin” means “stimulation”， it first speaks about others, then about what the poet wants to express. Fu and Bi are the most basic techniques of expression, and Xing is a relatively unique technique in “The Shi Jing”， even in Chinese poetry in general. “The Shi Jing” is an excellent starting point for Chinese literature, which has already reached a very high artistic level from the very beginning. "The Shi Jing” affects almost all aspects of the early social life of ancient China, such as sacrifice, banquet, labor, war, love, marriage, corvee, animals, plants, oppression and resistance, manners and customs, even astronomical phenomena, etc. It became historical value for the study of that society. The overwhelming majority of the poems in “The Shi Jing”reflect the reality, everyday life and everyday experience. There is almost no illusory and supernatural mythical world in it. As the first collection of poetry in China, “The Shi Jing” laid the foundation for the lyrical and realistic tradition of Chinese literature. “The Shi Jing” also has a huge impact on the genre structure and linguistic art of Chinese literature, etc., which is a role model for writers of later generations. “The Shi Jing”has already been translated into the languages of the countries of the world. “The Shi Jing”has been influencing Chinese poetics; it has become the source of the classical realistic tradition and literature in China. Lively description is essential for historical, anthropological and sociological research. We expect that as the cultural ties between China and Russia deepen, as well as the popularization and spread of Chinese-Russian translations, more and more Russian people will read “The Shi Jing”， study “The Shi Jing”， the Russian translation of “The Shi Jing” will improve and play its role as the original classic of Chinese literature. “The Shi Jing”is a book that cannot be read or translated forever. Keywords: “The Shi Jing” （“The Book of Poetry” )， regional songs, odes, hymns, artistic features, Chinese unique cultural value

“Friendlesse verse”: The Poetics of Chapman’s “A Coronet for His Mistresse Philosophie” (1595)

Published in his second poetry volume, Ouids Banquet of Sence (1595), George Chapman’s “A Coronet for His Mistresse Philosophie” is often read as a sequel to the volume’s title piece. By attending to Chapman’s controversial dialogue with the Petrarchan lyric tradition in the England of his time, to his commitment to a didactic aestheticism that defends poetry’s enlightening powers, and to his preoccupation with proportional form, the present essay claims for this miniature sequence an autonomous status as a practical poetics. Chapman’s crown of sonnets—the first English instance of this form—is a programmatic defense of the amatory lyric as an instrument that warrants poetry’s dedication to the search for knowledge.

Wires, Mirrors, Tricks of the Light: Zoë Skoulding and Lyric Poetry

In this discussion, the earlier poetry of Zoë Skoulding is analysed as a case study for an expanded sense of the contemporary lyric genre. Through a fixation on visual apparatuses including eyes, lenses, binoculars, and mirrors, Skoulding's The Mirror Trade (2004), and her collaborative work with Ian Davidson, interrogates the subject–object binary, cutting across conventional assumptions of lyric poetry. Expanding on Jonathan Culler's recent work on the lyric, I evaluate and apply Käte Hamburger's Hegelian theory of the lyric ‘I’ as a statement-subject, which offers a useful way of including experimental poetries as a vital part of the lyric tradition. Through analysing Skoulding and drawing parallels with James Elkins's theories of vision, I suggest this approach risks overlooking contemporary poetry's complexities. Ultimately, I argue that the lyric must be viewed as a spectrum of possible formulations of the self, including the outmoded Romantic model alongside more radical possibilities.

Between Here and There: Lyricism and Zen in Sinéad Morrissey’s Japanese Poems

This article is devoted to the second section of Sinéad Morrissey’s Between Here and There (2002), which gathers poems written during the Irish writer’s two-year stay in Japan. The title of the collection alludes to the poet’s position, poised between her discovery of Japanese Zen culture and the Western lyrical tradition she was steeped in during her youth in Ireland. In the light of seminal essays on lyricism (J.-M. Maulpoix, J.-C. Pinson, M. Ueda, P. Volsik) and a selection of inquiries into the spirit of Zen (R. H. Blyth, N. W. Ross, D. T. Suzuki, C. Jung, J. Pigeot), our aim is to explore the interactions fostered between both traditions, and the way in which their collusion generates a unique body of poems, as “two worlds split open to each other, stars spilling from each” (“Pearl”). Between attachment and impersonality, Sinéad Morrissey’s Japan sequence cultivates the art of in-betweenness while advocating, in the poet’s own words, “the tolerance of transitions”.

"Un conejo dos conejos / tres conejos con el alba", la canción popular y el itinerario en Los pasos del cazador

En esta contribución se estudia la influencia de la lírica tradicional y de la canción popular en la génesis y en el desarrollo de algunos de los poemas de Los pasos del cazador (1980). Se parte del análisis del volumen como un itinerario en el que cada texto representa un hito en el camino del yo poético, un cazador que va exponiendo sus vivencias cinegéticas y amorosas a través de la reescritura de temas, géneros y motivos recurrentes en la tradición lírica española más antigua. Las versiones no publicadas de los poemas analizados son textos manuscritos y mecanogra"ados conservados en la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, en el Fondo José Agustín Goytisolo.

An Investigation about Entailment and Narrative by AI Techniques (Generative Models)

Many storytelling generation problems concern the difficulty to model the sequence of sentences. Language models are generally able to assign high scores to well-formed text, especially in the cases of short texts, failing when they try to simulate human textual inference. Although in some cases output text automatically generated sounds as bland, incoherent, repetitive and unrelated to the context, in other cases the process reveals capability to surprise the reader, avoiding to be boring/predictable, even if the generated text satisfies entailment task requirements. The lyric tradition often does not proceed towards a real logical inference, but takes into account alternatives like the unexpectedness, useful for predicting when a narrative story will be perceived as interesting. To achieve a best comprehension of narrative variety, we propose a novel measure based on two components: inference and unexpectedness, whose different weights can modify the opportunity for readers to have different experiences about the functionality of a generated story. We propose a supervised validation treatment, in order to compare the authorial original text, learned by the model, with the generated one.

Cernuda y la lengua poética: una revisión intencionada de la poesía española

El cambio de lenguaje poético que se produce en La realidad y el deseo a partir de Como quien espera el alba tiene su explicación no sólo en el interés de Cernuda por la poesía inglesa, sino, muy especialmente, en la labor de revisión de la poesía española a que le obligó su trabajo docente en Inglaterra. Partiendo de las propuestas de Campoamor sobre el lenguaje poético, Cernuda intentó definir una tradición lírica y teórica que le permitiera enmarcar la nueva dirección de su propia obra en una tradición literaria hispánica.

DAS SUBJEKT DER LYRIK ODER: FÜR EINE PHILOLOGIE DER DUNKELHEIT – LYRIK ALS (EIN) PARADIGMA DER MODERNE

AbstractWhen Hölderlin argues in favour of modernity in the Querelle des Anciens et des Modernes, he rejects the claim that the highest form of art is tragedy and proclaims the primacy of poetry. However, Hölderlin frames a very different concept of poetry from Hegel, for instance, one of the most prominent representatives of the notion of subjectivity. For Hölderlin, poetry is not the medium of subjective self‐reassurance, but first and foremost the genre of memory, of patient endurance ‘when times are hard’ and of writing against ‘eccentric excitement’. It is through writing that he expects to achieve a revolution in future ‘modes of thought’. Hölderlin wants not only to define a poetics of genre for modernity but also to imbue it with an autonomous aesthetic profile, independent of the worn‐out language of tradition. This is why the language of modern poetry can only be one of obscuritas. This struggle for a genuinely modern mode of speaking leads to changes in the old modes, to alienation from them and, as a result, to the estrangement of recipients. Firstly, this article will reconstruct how the paradigmatic genre of modernity shifts from tragedy to poetry. Secondly, it will analyse Hölderlin's nexus between critiques of the subject and critiques of poetic language and then trace the paths that lead from it to Adorno.

Word of Mouth: Gossip and American PoetrySomebody Telling Somebody Else: A Rhetorical Poetics of Narrative

Word of Mouth: Gossip and American PoetrySomebody Telling Somebody Else: A Rhetorical Poetics of Narrative

Exploring Chinese Poetry using Adobe Spark Video

This tutorial offers Chinese learners from lower-intermediate to advanced level a digital approach to exploring Chinese language and culture through poetry, using a free educational tool: Adobe Spark Video. Based on a multimodal (verbal, visual and textual) and transmedia (from abstract text to digital production) approach, it provides learners with a step-by-step guide to synchronising a selected Chinese poem with recorded recitation as well as corresponding images and music. Grounded in the concept of digitally mediated learning, this activity aims to enhance learners’ autonomy, creativity and participation in the process of foreign language acquisition (Hourigan & Murray). In following this process, learners will have the opportunity to improve not only precision in their reading, listening and speaking skills, but also their understanding of the aesthetics of Chinese literature. Such an approach is particularly relevant to the learning of Chinese, given that tone, prosody and melodic movements are considered distinctive and crucial in Chinese speech, notably in literary genres such as poetry, making poetry recitation an important cultural and pedagogical (though not often practised) aspect of studying the language. Furthermore, in producing an audio-visual illustration, learners are engaged in a process of cultural decoding and recoding linguistically and digitally, thus also deepening their understanding of Chinese cultural and historical traditions in which this poetry is embedded. While this tutorial makes its demonstration through a classical Chinese poem, ‘A Quatrain’ by Du Fu (712–770 ce), the digital tool and method can be applied to other types of Chinese literary text or to the learning of other languages and cultures. This tutorial can be used by learners independently for self-study or by teachers to complement other learning activities. It is adaptable for either university courses or non-accredited lifelong learning. The tutorial will explain the detailed technical process step by step and provides a demo video to showcase the product. It is recommended that the activity is further facilitated by input on the language and background of Chinese poetic traditions where appropriate.

Zhu Shenghao as a translator of Shakespeare

The article gives an account of life and work of Zhu Shenghao (1912–1944), primarily known for his translation of the complete works of Shakespeare, the first and one of the most influential Shakespeare editions in the Chinese language. Between 1938 and 1944, he managed to translate 31 and a half plays out of the 37 plays in the First Folio. His translation, still widely acclaimed today, grants elegance to its language and musical cadence to its prosaic style and contains poetic processing in typical scenes according to Chinese lyrical traditions. Besides, Zhu Shenghao is celebrated as a cultural hero for his effort in presenting Shakespeare’s dramatic works in a brilliant translation at a critical time when China was in urgent need of learning about the Western world. According to poly-system theory, it is fully illustrated in Zhu’s case that translation does play a significant part in shaping China’s modern cultural consciousness.

A Disciple of Malcolm X: Clarence 13X Smith’s Embodied Black God Rhetoric

This essay links Clarence 13X Smith and the Five Percent Nation of the Gods and Earths to Malcolm X’s rhetoric about the Black Man as God. Smith, one of Malcolm’s earliest students and chief lieutenants, demonstrates the use of Malcolm’s “Black Man is God” trope as an embodied rhetoric, highlighting its relationship to the African American freedom struggle. This essay illuminates the logic embedded in the language of the Black Muslim tradition.

Introduction: Scott Walker’s ‘new songs 2016/17ʹ

ABSTRACT The Introduction to the special issue on Scott Walker briefly highlights the different disciplinary engagements of the essays that follow and offers its own analysis of Walker’s last songs from the perspective of the tradition of lyric poetry. In this essay, Scott Wilson looks specifically at the ‘New Songs’ that were included in Sundog, Walker’s collection of lyrics and assesses them with reference to Jonathan Culler’s recent book Theory of the Lyric. Culler’s book outlines four parameters of the lyric tradition from Sappho and Horace to Williams and Ashbury: enunciative apparatus, hyperbole, ritual and event (rather than mimesis or representation). In this Introduction, Wilson examines the contention that Scott Walker’s lyrics mount a ‘silent defence of this forgotten logic of the lyric’ (Nicola Masciandaro) that has been displaced by the dominant novel-driven aesthetic whose fictional worlds and persona frame or showcase the implied subjectivity of the poet or novelist. In so doing, Wilson suggests that the lyrics of popular song have more in common with the ancient tradition of lyric poetry than modern or contemporary verse.

Formal and informal support at Icelandic universities: experiences of staff members and immigrant students

Due to increased migration in recent decades, universities must adapt their practices to meet the needs of a changing student body. Many immigrant students desire to complete their studies at universities, yet factors such as language of communication and cultural traditions limit their possibilities. This paper comes out of a study titled Educational Aspirations, Opportunities and Challenges for Immigrants in University Education in Iceland. The findings are based on individual interviews with immigrant students and university staff members and focus group interviews with immigrant students. The theoretical framework of the study draws from the ideas of culturally competent counselling. This helps to analyse immigrant students’ experiences of formal and informal support during their university studies (Arredondo et al., 1996; Maunonen-Eskelinen, Kaikkonen & Clayton, 2005). Formal support constitutes institutional support provided by the universities, such as orientation programs and social activities of various kinds. Informal support, in contrast, incorporates other means of assistance to immigrant students either through those whom they trust, such as instructors, or community members in the role of cultural brokers. Immigrant students also get support through their present and former friends and through their extended family members. The findings indicate that, despite the challenges that immigrant students face at Icelandic universities, the majority were quite positive about their experiences as they described different types of formal and informal support which they obtained throughout their studies.