Original Writer Research Articles

How Life Becomes Literature: Uncovering the Principle of Writing in Three Novels by Fritz Rudolf Fries

In the unified Germany of the 1990s, the East German writer Fritz Rudolf Fries attained brief fame as a highly innovative and original writer, and subsequently notoriety for his collaboration with the Stasi, which became publicly known in 1996. However, his earlier life was also marked by unique and often ambivalent aspects. This article examines three of Fries's fictional works: the novels Der Weg nach Oobliadooh (1966), Alexanders neue Welten (1982) and Der Roncalli-Effekt (1999) in order to show how the circumstances of his life informed not only his decisions about fictional content, but, more significantly, his strategic literary devices. Of the latter, his use of the picaresque and, within that framework, of dualistic pairings and an unreliable narrator, are of fundamental importance. While his early predilection for the picaresque can be traced back to his dual German-Spanish background, the evolution of his exploitation of the picaresque model can be ascribed more convincingly to his experiences as a writer working in the GDR and the new Germany. This article sheds light on the multi-faceted nature of Fries's creative imagination and on his ability to distance himself from even the most damaging personal pressures. Was ist schon Leben gegen die Möglichkeit, es zu beschreiben? 1

Readers Respond to Julian Edge's "Imperial Troopers and Servants of the Lord". The Author Replies. Of Displacive and Augmentative Discourse, New Enemies, and Old Doubts

0 When, on his deathbed, Voltaire was called upon to renounce the devil, he is reported to have replied, This is no time for making new enemies. As someone who has moved relatively peacefully so far through more than 30 years of a working life in TESOL, I feel much the same way. And yet, the informing ethos of the reader reacts/writer responds exchange-indeed, the unspoken assumption underlying academic discourse in general-is agonistic. Academics are trained in what might be called a displacive use of language, as though making a contribution is not sufficient; someone must first be shown to be wrong or lacking (Swales, 1990). The generic patterning of this displacive discourse in the TESOL Quarterly Forum takes the form of what Nicol (2004) calls intertextual critical exchange. It typically begins with a flourish that damns the original writer with faint praise and then goes on to state the reacting reader's position. The original writer then responds in kind. Purgason, for example, declares that Edge's text, prompted me . . . to do a great deal of reflection (this issue, p. 711). She emerges from this thoughtful state not only able to reconfirm the righteousness of her own previous thinking, but also to accuse me, the author, of simplistic argument, poor scholarship, unfitting choice of words, and alarmist rhetoric, all in the name of clarification' and an effort to keep the dialogue alive.., in a less polemical tone (this issue, p. 711). As a part of her clarification, and in apparently unconscious parody of rational argument, she suggests that the interest I declare (in my author statement) in using nonjudgmental discourse should somehow disqualify me from using evaluative expressions in my writing. Griffith takes a much less aggressive tack, albeit still in displacive mode. The core of his reaction is to dismiss the doubts and ambiguities that concern me with regard to the roles of TESOL in the contemporary world and to assure readers that people in the United States will only support a war if it has some idealistic rationale and that students of English gain access not merely to a linguistic code, but to outlook, a way of being, a culture rooted in human rights (this issue, pp. 715-716).

A pragmatic approach to the contrastive analysis of a literary work and two of its translations

There are two levels at which a pragmatic analysis can be carried out in relation to a literary work: the level of the narrative and the level of the text-production and reception. If the pragmatic analysis of a literary work is to be undertaken from a contrastive point of view, the picture becomes more complex, especially, if as in this case- the original literary text and the target texts are historically distant. The pragmatic analysis of Henry James’s Daisy Miller and two of its contemporary translations into Spanish that I intend to pursue here will be carried out in a contrastive way at the level of the narrative; the translated pragmatic actions in the narrative will be assessed in terms of the target readers’ new context of reception. The aim is to see whether and how the original writer’s intended meaning and interpretation has been kept in the target texts and if the pragmatic effect that these texts are likely to cause on the Spanish readership can be considered similar to the effect the source text is likely to provoke on contemporary source readers.

Illuminating and facilitating professional knowledge through case work

In the spring of 2002 the Ontario College of Teachers began a research project in order to foster awareness of the Standards of Practice for the 187 000 teachers in the province. Case work, in which 18 teachers representative of the College's membership wrote narratives describing their professional dilemmas, was the methodology chosen. Through reflection and collaborative group work these practitioners co‐created a set of cases, mapping them back to the standards in order to ascertain how the standards had been embedded or absent from their daily practice. To validate the effectiveness of this method, we used the cases in pre‐service, in‐service, principal and supervisory personnel venues. We also recorded the impact of the ‘case institute’ in a focus group session with the original writers. Augmented by commentaries from internationally known teacher educators, this text will be sent to all provincial school boards as part of a resource kit to educate teachers about the standards of practice. Au printemps 2002, l'Ordre des enseignantes et des enseignants de l'Ontario amorçait un projet de recherche ayant pour but de sensibiliser les 187 000 enseignants de la province aux normes d'exercice de leur profession. L'étude de cas rédigés par 18 enseignants membres de l'Ordre est la méthode qui allait servir à présenter divers dilemmes professionnels. Ainsi, ces praticiens ont réfléchi et travaillé ensemble pour présenter des cas et les rattacher aux normes afin de déterminer la présence ou l'absence des normes dans leurs pratiques quotidiennes. Pour valider l'efficacité de cette méthode, nous avons mis les cas à l'épreuve lors d'activités organisées pour les étudiants des facultés d'éducation, des enseignants en perfectionnement professionnel, des directeurs d'école et des agents de supervision. Nous avons également réuni les 18 rédacteurs pour discuter de l'impact des ateliers de rédaction de cas. Le texte, auquel s'ajoutent les commentaires d'éducateurs de renommée internationale, fera partie de la trousse de ressources qui sera envoyée à tous les conseils scolaires de la province pour initier les enseignants aux normes d'exercice de la profession. Im Frühjahr 2002, unternahm das Ontario College of Teachers einen Forschungsprojekt mit dem Ziel, das Bewußtsein der Normen der Praxis unter den 187,000 Lehrer des Bundeslandes Ontario zu fördern. Die gewählte Methodologie war die Untersuchung von spezifischen Fallberichten, in denen 18 Lehrer, die repräsentativ für die Mitglieder der Organisation dastehen, ihre Entscheidungen im beruflichen Alltag begründeten. In einem von Überlegung, Zusammenarbeit und Gruppenarbeit geprägten Verfahren schufen diese Lehrer und Lehrerinnen einen Korpus der Fälle, die sie anschließend zu den Berufsnormen zurückverfolgten, um festzustellen, wie die Normen sich in der täglichen Praxis eingebettet hatten oder das Gegenteil. Um die Wirksamkeit der Methode zu bestätigen, wurden Einzelfälle in vorberuflichen, beruflichen, Direktor‐ und Aufsichtsstellen‐bezogenen Umgebungen ausgesucht. Die Wirkung der Falluntersuchungen wurde auch in einer Diskussionsrunde mit den Autoren aufgenommen. Dieser Text, bereichert durch Kommentare von Lehrerausbildern von internationalem Ruf, wird an alle Schulverwaltungen im Bundesland Ontario als Bestandteil eines Ressourcen‐Compendiums versandt, mit dem Ziel, Lehrer über die Normen der Berufspraxis weiterzubilden. En la primavera del 2002, el Colegio de Profesores de Ontario inició un proyecto de investigación para crear conciencia entre los 187,000 maestros en la provincia sobre los estándares de práctica profesional. La metodología elegida fue el ‘Estudio de antecedentes’ en la que un grupo representativo de la membresía del Colegio, conformado por 18 maestros, redactó historias contando sus dilemas profesionales. Tras mucha reflexión y trabajo mancomunado de equipo, estos profesores crearon colectivamente un conjunto de casos, trazando un mapa vinculándolos a los estándares y así poder determinar de qué manera estos estándares habían estado arraigados en su práctica profesional cotidiana o si los habían dejado de lado. Para validar la eficacia de este método, aplicamos los casos en varios contextos docentes: estudiantes de la facultad de educación, capacitación profesional para docentes, directores de plantel y superintendentes de las juntas directivas escolares. También tomamos nota del impacto del ‘Taller para la redacción de casos’ en una sesión de enfoque grupal con los propios autores. Este texto, que ha sido complementado con comentarios de capacitadores de maestros conocidos internacionalmente, será enviado a todas las Juntas Directivas de las escuelas provinciales como parte del kit de recursos para educar a los profesores sobre los estándares de práctica profesional.

William Burroughs and the secret of fascination

Unraveling the mysteries of Naked Lunch, exploring the allure of fascination Burroughs is both an object of widespread cultural fascination one of America s great writers. In this study, Oliver elucidates the complex play of secrecy revelation that defines the allure of fascination. Unraveling the mystifications of Burroughs the writer, discovers what it means be fascinated by a figure of major cultural influence unearths a secret history behind the received story of one of America s great original writers. In William Burroughs the Secret of Fascination, Harris examines the major works Burroughs produced in the 1950s Junky, Queer, The Yage Letters, and Naked Lunch to piece together an accurate, material record of his creative history during his germinal decade as a writer. Refuting the junk paradigm of addiction that has been used categorize characterize much of Burroughs oeuvre, instead focuses on the significance of Burroughs letter writing his remarkable unsuspected use of the epistolary for his fiction. As Burroughs said Allen Ginsberg about Naked Lunch, the real novel is letters you. Drawing on rare access manuscripts, the book suggests new ways of comprehending Burroughs s unique politics aesthetics offers the first accurate account of the writing of Naked Lunch.

Paulina Crusat: una voz silenciada

The main purpose of this article is to rescue from oblivion the name of Paulina Crusat (Barcelona 1990-Sevilla 1981), translator, literary critic, and author of four excellent novels, who, unfairly, has not received much critical attention, and has been often ignored or considered by critics as “outside the canon”. The article reviews her biography and her literary work in order to evaluate her important contribution to the panorama of Spanish literature, based on the fact that she was an original writer who composed her work according to her principles, not subjected to the canon of that period.

What is new and what is Navya: Sanskrit Poetics on the eve of colonialism

plines, alamkarikas from about mid sixteenth-century onward adopted a new discursive idiom, composed in novel genres, demon strated a fresh interest in the history of their tradition, and worked across disciplines at a hitherto unknown rate. Moreover, they often had a clear sense of themselves as breaking new ground and were thus conceived by their colleagues. But of what exactly did their innovations consist? The new poeticians may have identified themselves and their fellows as new (navya) in contrast to their antecedents (prâcina), an act which, as Sheldon Pollock puts it, "appears to signify not just a different relationship with the past but a different way of thinking."1 Yet they seldom presented their theories as innovative, let alone as general theoretical breakthroughs, and mostly worked from within the conceptual frameworks of their predecessors. Indeed, many modern scholars see their work as simply redundant. One Indologist maintains that by the sixteenth century "the age of really original or thoughtful writers was long gone by."2 The utter discrepancy between the emic sense of innovation emanating from the works of post-sixteenth century alamkarikas and the etic evaluation of them as superfluous, is of less interest to me here. Modern judgments stem more from a biased picture of the history of Sanskrit poetics, with the ninth-century thinker Anandavardhana as its only apex, than from a careful and impartial examination of the late-precolonial texts. Far more interesting is the fact that even to a sympathetic reader, the sense of novelty is rarely accompanied by the ability easily to detect innovative agendas. New statements are often in the form of answers to age-old questions, and they are commonly grounded in some older-day view. Indeed, the new alamkarikas invoke and discuss the views of the "ancients" more often than ever before, and in ways not seen earlier a novel practice which concomitantly leads to a confusing sense of deja vu. In short, what novelty actually meant to poeticians of the period, and how it was related to a newly shaped interest in their tradition's

Commonalities between Researchmethods for Consumer Science and biblical Scholarship

This article focuses on the consumption/interpretation of the Bible, which is viewed as a complex, qualitative databank, requiring rigorous methodological tools to attempt the hermeneutical interpretive task. A positivist philosophical approach to Bible study is taken, posing questions like ‘What did the original writer intend the audience to understand?’ as a precursor to the question ‘How do we impart thatmessage today?’. Biblical scholarship is extremely sophisticated, and this article delves into many layers of techniques and rigorous analysis, including word studies, studies of phrases and paragraph structures, and sociological hypotheses about politicalagendas. It draws on critical textual, historical, and narrative schools of thought in biblical research. These different methods are presented both as an end in themselves (as tools of literary analysis) and also as means to study the content of the sacredas transcendent experiences of extraordinary consumption in consumer research.

Mikhail Bakhtin: An Aesthetic for Democracy

This book makes a radical break with earlier interpretations of Bakhtin's work. Using recent Russian scholarship, Ken Hirschkop explodes many of the myths which have surrounded Bakhtin and his work and lays the ground for a new, more historically acute sense of his achievement. Through a comprehensive reading of Bakhtin's work, Hirschkop demonstrates that his discussion of the philosophy of language, literary history, popularfestive culture, and the phenomenology of everyday life revolved around a lifelong search for a new kind of modern ethical culture. A detailed examination of the major works reveals the careful interweaving of philosophical and historical argument which makes Bakhtin at once so compelling and so frustrating a writer. Hirschkop treats Bakhtin not as a metaphysician or a philosopher for the ages, but as a writer inevitably drawn into the historical conflicts produced by a modernizing and democratizing Europe. As a consequence, Bakhtin becomes a more sober but also more original writer, with a striking contribution to make to the definition of the democratic project.

The Theatre of Sam Shepard: States of Crisis

This comprehensive analysis traces Sam Shepard's career from his experimental one-act plays of the 1960s to the 1994 play Simpatico. Curse of the Starving Class, Buried Child, True West, Fool for Love and A Lie of the Mind are all examined in depth. Concentrating on his playwriting, this book charts Shepard's various developments and shifts of direction, and the changing contexts in which his work appeared. Engaging, informative, and insightful, The Theatre of Sam Shepard is the definitive source on the works of this innovative and original writer.

The Poet and the Ambassador: Communicating Mak Dizdar's Stone Sleeper

Mak Dizdar (1917-1971) came to prominence in the Yugoslavia of the 1950s. Along with poets such as Vasko Popa, Ivan V. Lalic, and Slavko Mihalic, he formed part of the immense creative upsurge which followed the removal of Communist Party control of literature after Tito's break with Stalin. Dizdar is seen as the leading poet of twentieth-century Bosnia and Herzegovina,1 and most readers of what was once called Serbo-Croatian literature would regard him as a major European figure of the stature of Popa or Lalic, say, Holub or Pilinszky, Montale or Elytis. And yet, unlike the poets just named, Dizdar's vibrant and original poetic voice is unknown to a wider European reading public, nor has he had a fertilizing effect on other poets in the English-reading world. This article, a case-study of my own experiences in translating Mak Dizdar's key work Kameni spavac (Stone Sleeper, 1972), tries to examine why. In order to do so, and to isolate more general principles to explain how writers from 'small' languages/ cultures might find themselves barred from (or helped into) the mainstream of world literary culture, I use Erving Goffman's notion of the literary translator as an intercultural 'ambassador'. Ambassadors have two duties. The first is to pass on the words of their government, just as translators pass on the words of the original writer. The second is to negotiate on their government's behalf. Similarly, because they are often the only individuals in the receptor culture who can read the source language, literary translators from lesser-known languages usually find themselves not only discovering and evaluating 'new' writers, but also having to package and promote 'their' writers in such a way that publishers, journal editors, reviewers, and the public see them as worth publishing and reading. These two duties how to pass on Dizdar's words, and how to negotiate Dizdar's entry into the English-reading culture are the bases of the two main sections of this essay. Any discussion about the linguistic and cultural implications of a translation, however, is in itself an act of linguistic and cultural communication. This means that I first need to lay

Lewis Carroll – mathematician and teacher of children

It is well known that Lewis Carroll enjoyed the company of children and entertained them with fantastic stories, whilst on boating expeditions or on beaches, but his diaries also reveal that he enjoyed teaching children mathematics and other school subjects. On April 16th 1855, he recorded his concern with the education of his younger sister Louisa, who had an aptitude for mathematics: ‘Went into Darlington – bought Swale’s Chamber’s Euclid for Louisa. I had to scratch out a good deal he had interpolated, (e.g. definitions of words of his own) and put in some he had left out. An author has no right to mangle the original writer whom he employs: all additional matter should be carefully distinguished from the genuine text. N. B. Pott’s Euclid is the only edition worth getting – both Capell and Chamber’s are mangled editions.’ Three days later he recorded: ‘Advanced Louisa’s mathematics to simple Equations (third day of Algebra), and the first 12 propositions of Euclid.’ On the next day, he left his home at the rectory of Croft, and returned to Oxford for the Easter Term.

Instruments in Church: A Collection of Source Documents

Today, the use of musical instruments in the Christian church is so common as to be taken for granted. However, the history of the church reveals that it has had what might be called a serious love-hate affair with musical instruments. There have been periods, groups, and individuals that have rejected the use of instruments of any kind, while others have welcomed instruments with open arms. Even the question of which instruments may be played by which musicians have historically been at issue. This book guides the reader through some of these issues by letting the proponents and critics of instruments speak for themselves. Compiler David Music has carefully allowed the original writers' voices to come through, complete with whatever errors, misunderstandings, and harsh language they might have initially used. Historical documents are allowed to tell the story, but each one is presented with a brief introduction to set the context. All principal eras of church history and the major traditions are covered. Beginning with the Old Testament passages relating to the use of instruments in worship, Instruments in Church proceeds through the late 20th century. This book will be invaluable to church musicians (especially organists and ministers of music), and to students and teachers of church music history and philosophy courses.

Über den Einfluß der Schwerkraft auf die Ausbreitung des Lichtes [AdP 35, 898 (1911)

The two English translations appear to have been done independently, although much of the Princeton text is quite similar to the Dover text. Both just used “cut and paste” to produce the Figures. Neither translation seemed to me to be sufficiently accurate to fully convey what Einstein wrote. For these reasons I felt that a new, and freely available, translation would be helpful. In doing the translation I made substantial use of the Dover text, which seems somewhat better than the Princeton one. Where problems occurred I also checked the Princeton text. For anyone with reasonable familiarity with German it is, I think, still a good idea to download a copy of the original. Einstein was, as is well-known, a quite original writer. His exact choice of phrases and individual wording is often important. The purely technical content is, in any case, in the equations. Both translations almost always correctly transcribed the equations, although they both just transcribed typos of the math symbols in the text.

Unamuno et le krausisme

Unamuno and Krausism The work of the German philosopher Krause has fallen into oblivion. Instigator of a humanist as well as mystical doctrine, he was quite well known in spite of accusation of pantheism... Krause's philosophy had a large following particularly in Spain, where the polemic and original writer Unamuno developed principles close to those of Krause, but if Krause exalts the strength of reason, Unamuno magnifies feeling. However the two philosophers have a common project : humanism and pedagogy will contribute to the harmony of the universe and the realization of man in God.

Tester and testee: Two sides of different coins

This article is an expansion on and a continuation of the ideas presented in Statman (Statman, S. 1992. Convergent tests and the divergent student. System , 20, 2) and at the Academic Committee for Research into Language Testing in 1993. It was then argued that the kind of convergent tests used frequently in EFL programmes are biased against the divergent student and suggestions for alternative modes of testing were put forward. It was believed then that the divergent student was the exception. Subsequent research indicates that varied performance is the norm. This paper seeks to explain the reasons for the many divergent answers; it suggests that the different interpretations of the text as it passes from original writer through test-maker and test-taker to test-grader with the inevitable distortion of the text by the questions leads to multiple interpretations. The different test-constructor/test-taker/test-grader interpretations are explained by reference to Spolsky's “turtles” model and illustrated by reference to student responses to tests administered both in class and in final examinations. Other factors include the difficulty of creating items which relate to only one level of comprehension, the tendency of students to be distracted by irrelevant details, student test-taking styles and the pressure of time. If, indeed, varied performance is more common than has been hitherto realized (or admitted), can comprehension be measured in any reliable fashion? If so, how? The paper comes to the conclusion that a portfolio of student work, compiled and graded after discussion of student “errors” with the student may be the fairest indicator of student reading ability. Some suggestions for alternate modes of test-construction for the mass screening procedures are also offered.

:Renaissance Humanism at the Court of Clement VII: Francesco Berni's Dialogue against Poets in Context

This new exciting study is the first scholarly critical edition the first ever translation into English of Berni's Dialogue Against Poets. The original publication of the dialogue in 1526 set it historically in the highly charged context of Rome the court of the Medici pope, Clement VII. Not only is Berni presented here with reference to his historical literary status, but other contemporary figures are also sketched against the politico-cultural background of Rome in the 1520s: the humanist poet, secretary, envoy to Henry VII, Giovanni Battista Sanga; Bishop Giovan Matteo Giberti, Clement's datary Berni's patron at the time of composition of the dialogue; the notorious poet publicist, Pietro Aretino, indirect target of many of the barbs of the dialogue; Alessandro Ippolito de' Medici; Desiderius Erasmus; the printer publisher of the first edition, Francesco Minizio Calvo.Although there is a considerable literature on Berni's poetry, there is relatively sparse comment on his life as a letterato and no extended investigation of his first published work. This study seeks to redress this imbalance to illuminate the dialogue's literary historical dimensions. Berni's place in history is ripe for re-evaluation: Dialogue Against Poets reflects Berni's contemporary Italy in innumerable the high level of its literary allusiveness is a model of Renaissance humanist literary practice. This new presentation reveals the impact which Berni had upon his contemporaries. Berni was an original writer who thought deeply about the intellectual religious debates of the age who, as a humanist secretary resident in the Vatican palace, experienced its political other crises first-hand.

St Symeon the New Theologian (969-1022): Byzantine spiritual renewal in search of a precedent

St Symeon the New Theologian is, without question, one of the most original and intriguing writers of medieval Byzantium. Indeed, although still largely unknown in the West, he is surely one of the greatest of all Christian mystical writers; not only for the remarkable autobiographical accounts he gives of several visions of the divine light, but also for the passionate quality of his exquisite Hymns of Divine Love, the remarkable intensity of his pneumatological doctrine, and the corresponding fire he brings to his preaching of reform in the internal and external life of the Church. He was a highly controversial figure in his own day. His disciples venerated him as a saint who had returned to the roots of the Christian tradition and personified its repristinization. His opponents, who secured his deposition and exile, regarded him as a dangerously unbalanced incompetent who, by overstressing the value of personal religious fervour, had endangered the stability of that tradition. The Vita which we possess was composed in 1054, in an attempt to rehabilitate Symeon’s memory and prepare for the return of his relics to the capital from which he had been expelled when alive. This paper will investigate how he himself understood and appropriated aspects of the earlier tradition (particularly monastic spirituality), hoping to elucidate why he felt himself inspired to reformist zeal, and why many of his contemporaries (not simply his ‘worldly opponents’ as his hagiographer would have us believe) regarded him as unbalanced. It will end by attempting some reflection on what the controversy reveals on the larger front about how the Church ‘selectively looks back on itself, so to paraphrase our president’s description of the conference theme, and whether the model of tradition and its reception exemplified in this Byzantine writer can offer anything to the dialogue between history and theology which the doctrine of Tradition (Paradosis) inevitably initiates.

The Complete Short Prose, 1929-1989

Nobel Prize winner Samuel Beckett is one of the most profoundly original writers of our century. A tremendously influential poet and dramatist, Beckett spoke of his prose fiction as the important writing, the medium in which his ideas were most powerfully distilled. Here, for the first time, his short prose is gathered in a definitive, complete volume by leading Beckett scholar S.E. Gontarski.

An Interview with Carla Harryman

1 An Interview with Carla Harryman By Renee Gladman For a long time, I wanted to talk to Carla Harryman about her sentences, and, for about as long, I had no idea where to start. The questions I needed to ask were entangled in my own preoccupations with the sentence, and it seemed an insurmountable task to separate them out. But time passes; tangles become a recognizable shape, and suddenly there is a way in. The following exchange took place over email between December 2007 and August 2008. As will be apparent immediately, this conversation does not follow the typical interview format. Harryman’s responses are wondrous, “thinking texts” that take their time, that take your time, but give you, in return, passage through the mind and practice of one of our most original writers.