Western Literature Research Articles

The Development of Female Roles: A Comparison between Chinese and Western Literature

This paper describes the influence of western feminism on Chinese feminist literature in the 1980s. Through the research of the history of feminist literature development and comparison between western feminist literature and Chinese feminist literature, the shortages and differences of Chinese feminist literature are revealed to promote the development of modern feminist literature. The depiction and portrayal of female characters in the literature vary greatly between Western and Chinese literature. While Western literature often reinforces the submissiveness of women and the idea of a man-centric world, Chinese female literature is marked by its revolutionary significance and close relation to the movement of democracy and women's liberation. Both Western and Chinese literature works have addressed the issue of sex workers, but with different approaches. Despite personal fights, female characters such as Marguerite Gautier challenge traditional concepts and stereotypes of sex workers in Western literature. It is important to acknowledge the impact of female authors in both Western and Chinese literature and to recognize the importance of feminism in promoting gender equality worldwide.

Suzuki Izumi’s Escape from the World of Women

Suzuki Izumi’s (1949–1986) short story “Onna to onna no yo no naka” (A World of Women and Women) was published in 1976, at the time when the genre of separatist feminist utopia was flourishing in the West. Worlds of women in the context of Western literature have been viewed as part and parcel of the feminist movement and debates of the 1970s and 1980s and some attempts have been made to look at Suzuki’s story through the same lens. However, this essay claims that “A World of Women and Women” should be examined as an expression of discomfort experienced by women in society rather than as a possible blueprint for a better social order or utopian feminist vision. I contend that Suzuki’s work reflects the contemporary cultural atmosphere of disappointment both with the state and with protest movements, with what the philosopher Yoshimoto Takaaki called “communal illusion.” The story is a critique of a discursive space near and dear to Suzuki’s heart – the world of shōjo narratives (narratives aimed at girls and young women), constructed as an insular space that precludes real engagement with the reality of having to live in a world in which men do exist.

Critical Analysis of Advanced High-Grade Serous Epithelial Ovarian Cancer in Women: An Experience of 100 Cases from a Regional Cancer Center in Northeast India.

Debabrata BarmonOvarian cancer is the sixth most common cancer in women worldwide. Patients with ovarian carcinoma mostly present at an advanced stage with serous type of epithelial ovarian cancers, which is the most lethal of all pelvic malignancies. This study aims to critically analyze high-grade serous epithelial ovarian carcinomas in women from the Northeastern region of India and compare our data with Western literature to modify treatment strategies and improve survival outcomes. This hospital-based retrospective analysis involved data from the records of 100 women with high-grade epithelial ovarian cancer treated primarily with neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by interval debulking surgery in the department of gynecologic oncology at a tertiary level regional cancer institute from January 2018 to December 2019. The demographic, clinical and pathological profile, and survival outcome were evaluated using descriptive statistics. The overall survival of the study population was calculated using Kaplan-Meier curves using SPSS software (version 24). The majority of women belonged to 41 to 55 years age group. At first presentation to the hospital, 89 and11% patients were in stage III and stage IV of disease, respectively. Clinically, 95% of women had ascites, and 18% had metastasis to lymph nodes. Distant metastasis to lungs and liver was present in 10 and 3% of cases, respectively. A substantial percentage (98%) of women had raised serum Ca125 > 1000 at baseline, ranging from 1,745 to 10,987 IU/mL. Almost two-thirds of the cases had partial-to-complete response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (78%). In most of the women (72%), there was no residual disease at interval debulking surgery (R0), though 28% women had R1& R2 resection. The median overall survival time was 36 months. High-grade serous ovarian cancer is commonly seen in older age group, but its occurrence in younger population has also been observed. Early diagnosis is crucial in decreasing morbidity and mortality among these patients. Therefore, efforts should be made to identify risk factors for malignancy. Assessing each parameter of statistical information reflecting its own profile may be important for calculating the risk for the development of ovarian cancer, which can help in implementing preventive measures in the future.

First Days after Death - A Jungian Comparison between the Beliefs of the Serbian Orthodox Church and the Post-mortem Experiences in the Tibetan Bardo Plan

This study examines the psychological aspects of the Bardo Thodol according to C.G. Jung and its relationship with Serbian Orthodox Christianity. Through a comparison of Jung's work "The Seven Sermons to the Dead" (published 12 years before his encounter with Buddhism) and "The Tibetan Book of the Dead," the researcher identifies similarities between these texts, the Bardo Thodol and the writings of the orthodox Church (with an accent on the Serbian Orthodox Church) These similarities include the significance of the soul after death, salvation symbolized by a luminous element, and the presence of an initiator guiding the soul towards salvation (reminiscent of the Orthodox belief in angels). Additionally, the interval between the moment of death and deliverance, present in both traditions, is highlighted. Jung's postscript to the translation of "The Tibetan Book of the Dead" provides valuable insights into the psychological aspect of the book and the varying concept of the soul in Eastern and Western literature. He emphasizes that metaphysical assertions are expressions of the soul and, hence, psychological in nature. Jung describes the Bardo Thodol as a process of initiation aimed at restoring the divine nature of the soul, lost through birth. The Bardo Thodol is deeply rooted in the archetypal representations of the unconscious. Jung's concept of archetypes as universal and hereditary psychic structures helps to understand the connection between the Bardo Thodol and the collective unconscious. Furthermore, the journey through the Bardo of Reality can be seen as a representation of the process of individuation, seeking to achieve wholeness and completeness. Drawing parallels between Orthodox Christian mythology (mitarstva) and the Bardo of Reality, the researcher observes numerous similarities. This raises the question of whether mitarstva, with its well-organized structure involving demons, angels, repentance, and the 40-day journey of the soul after death, represents archetypal representations translating the layers of the collective unconscious in a Christian-pagan population. Therefore, this study sheds light on the intriguing similarities between the Bardo Thodol and Serbian Orthodox Christianity from a psychological perspective, deepening our understanding of the complex interplay between ancient religious traditions and the universal elements of the unconscious mind.

Aggressive Histology and Extensive Metastasis Characteristic of Very Young Gastric Cancer (Less Than 30 Years): A Retrospective Clinical Audit

Objectives Gastric cancer (GC) is an aggressive disease and remains one of the most common causes of cancer-related mortality worldwide. Incidence of gastric cancer in young (GCY) varies between 2 and 8%. GCY faces unique challenges such as biological variation, diagnosis at an advanced stage, issues related to fertility preservation, and psychosocial considerations. This study aimed to find the differences in clinical characteristics and treatment outcomes of GCY compared to gastric cancer in older adults (GCO). Material and Methods This is a retrospective study from a tertiary care center. We screened records from 2015 to 2020, identified 33 records of GCY (less than 30 years), and compared the data with GCO (greater than 30 years) during 2015 and 2018. Results We identified 33 patients with GCY with a median age of 28 years (21–30) and a female to male ratio of 2:1. In GCY, 60% of patients presented with metastatic disease. Diffuse-type histology was more common in the GCY than in GCO (66.7% vs. 41.7%, p = 0.001). In patients with metastasis, multiple metastases were common in GCY compared to GCO (45% vs. 15%, p = 0.003). The median duration of follow-up for all patients was 27 (24–29) months. In GCY, the median OS was not reached for patients treated with curative intent, and it was 13 months for those treated with palliative intent. Conclusion The incidence of GCY in our study was like the western literature. Female patients with aggressive diffuse histology and multiple extensive metastases were characteristic of GCY. The survival outcomes were identical to GCO.

EZRA POUND’S ENGLISH TRANSLATION PRACTICE OF LI BAI’S POEMS IN CATHAY BASED ON PIERRE BOURDIEU’S SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY

Pound’s Cathay is a vivid case of cultural exchange between China and English-speaking countries. The most translated Li Bai’s poems in Cathay not only promoted better reception of Li Bai’s poems in a foreign context, but also injected powerful vitality into the Western literary world. This paper investigated Pound’s translation practice of Li Bai’s poems in Cathay and specifically interpreted Pound’s internal and external motivations in the selection of source text, textual features formed through translation strategies and the reception of English translation of Li Bai’s poems by drawing on three main concepts: field, capital, and habitus in Pierre Bourdieu’s sociological theory. It was found that Pound’s selection of Li Bai’s poems was made under the influence of the combined force of utilitarian American sinology field and flashy literary field, which conformed to the mentality of the people in war, harmonized with his Imagist principles and reflected his emotional empathy with Li Bai. Pound’s habitus with cosmopolitanism and historicism shaped by American sinology and literary fields in a specific social background initiated his translation idea of “translation as creation”, which further formed such main translation strategies as the ideogramic method by image juxtaposition, formal freedom by using modern English in free verse etc., language energy by deletion or expansion, etc. Finally, Pound, with his wide social network and authoritative literary status carried great social, cultural, and symbolic capital, promoting better reception of Cathay, especially Li Bai’s poems. These results revealed the powerful interpretation of Pierre Bourdieu’s sociological theory in literary translation and shed light on the communication of Chinese translated literature overseas.

Science and Religion in Western Literature

Science and Religion in Western Literature

Vermeintlich unvermeidlich: Poetik und Psychologie der Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

Abstract The ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’ has become an influential concept in contemporary behavioral psychology and economics. It has not yet been systematically introduced to literary studies, however, even though prophecies count among the long-lasting motifs of Western literature. This article aims to differentiate the psychological model of the ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’ by first defining its basic narrative structure and identifying various formal realizations of the structure. A second section argues that these variants are historically dependent – they emerge and evolve with time. I will devote special attention to a typically modernist variant, which surfaces around 1900 in short stories by Oscar Wilde, Thomas Mann, and Arthur Schnitzler. These stories evince the general difficulty of distinguishing between the attribution of causality and its modes of narrative representation. As a third section suggests, a poetics of self-fulfilling prophecies might help to appreciate the role that ambiguity and perspectivism play in any cause-and-effect-narratives, may they be fictional or factual. In light of this, the article reflects more generally on the possibilities and challenges of a dialogue between social psychology and literary studies.

Tafakkur: A Contemplation of Students’ Spiritual and Emotional Intelligence (in The Perspective of Sufism & Transpersonal Psychology)

The phenomenon of the educational process creates students who frequently feel fatigue/boredom which has an impact on increasing levels of anxiety, suppression, repression, and depression. Various learning methods are applied to be able to overcome the boredom/burden of fluctuating thoughts and emotions, namely through implementing changes that tend to involve one's personal internal strength. The practice of contemplation is a training concept that is integrated with several schools. The purpose of this academic paper is to advance the concept of tafakkur in the discipline of education and establish a framework for developing instruments that enhance students' emotional and spiritual intelligence. Employing a qualitative research approach with a literature review and examination of information from Islamic scientific sources (the Qur'an and the Sunnah), as well as contemporary Islamic literature and Western literature for comparison. Description of a few previous research investigations on student therapy for anxiety and depression. Conclusions of the analysis of the concept of tafakkur from two perspectives, namely Sufism and transpersonal psychology, provide the foundation for thinking about school students' learning theory, which is inherent in the Islamic religious education curriculum because the content of tafakkur learning activities can present tawhid values, which function as the primary fundamentals of Islamic religious education. The utilization of tafakkur as a teaching tool will assist students to focus on their studies, which has implications for improving their spiritual and emotional intelligence. This provides students a strong soul and mentality as well as enables them to deal with the pressures and challenges of both the present and the future periods of globalization.

Decolonial Metatextualities: Strategies of Resistance in Three Contemporary Novels of Oceania

Decolonial thinkers have stressed that to decolonise is not to reject the colonial legacy, but to deal with it, and to centre First Nations’ perspectives in its critique and in decolonising knowledge. As a critical relationship of a text – with itself, other texts, literature, and culture – metatextuality is a literary device operationalized in contemporary novels to resist persisting colonial powers. In this paper, we present three works of fiction by Indigenous writers of Oceania, and analyse their political use of metatextuality: L’île des rêves écrasés (Island of Shattered Dreams), by Tahitian author Chantal Spitz (1991); The Yield, by Aboriginal Wiradjuri novelist Tara June Winch (2019); and After Story, by Aboriginal Eualeyai/Kamillaroi writer Larissa Behrendt (2021). Centred on First Nations’ characters from Tahiti and Australia, these novels expose how they are racialised, marginalised, and constructed as inferior in postcolonising societies; and how, at the same time, these Indigenous characters are legitimate knowers and storytellers, reflecting on Western literature (often ironically), on their own marginality, and on their ancestral knowledges and languages. Borrowing from decolonial theorists Tlostanova and Mignolo’s (2012) ‘border thinking’, we propose that these novels deploy a ‘writing from the border’.

Assessment of handgrip strength in healthy african subjects: Establishing age and gender stratified reference values.

The handgrip strength assesses hand function in traumatic and non-traumatic upper extremity conditions. It is also a surrogate marker for other systemic diseases unrelated to the upper limb. Various reference values have been established in different world regions, with few studies in our population. To determine the average handgrip strength by gender and age categories among healthy subjects in Nigeria. It was a cross-sectional study assessing handgrip strength by age category (ten-year bin width), gender, and handedness in 210 healthy persons aged 10 to 79 in Nigeria. Its relationship with age, height, weight, mid-arm circumference, triceps skinfold thickness, and mid-arm muscle area was evaluated using multiple linear regression. The mean handgrip strength in the dominant and non-dominant hands was 31.09 kg and 28.45 kg, respectively, P < 0.001. Males have higher values than females in all age categories. The grip strength peaked in the 30-39-year age group in both genders and declined afterward. Age exhibited a nonlinear pattern but had an overall negative relationship, while height was positively related to grip strength in both genders. In contrast, mid-arm circumference and mid-arm muscle area predicted handgrip strength only in males. Triceps skinfold thickness was excluded from the model because of multicollinearity with the mid-arm muscle area, while weight did not predict grip strength in either gender. The handgrip strength in this study is less than that in western literature. Hence, test interpretation should reference the values from this study.

The Historical and Political Portrait of Time in Tamar Hovhannisyan’s Poetry

Key words: politics-slaughter of life, woman-creator of life, poetic mirror of the face of time, poignant peer review, a woman’s heart, geopolitical warfare The light and shadow of time, harmony and ferocity are bipolar phenomena, the ebb and flow of spiritual emotions that determine the pulsating tension of historical and political poetry of Tamar Hovhannisyan. The main research issues in the article are the opposition of the woman-creator of life and politics-slaughter of life in Tamar Hovhannisyan’s poetry and the face of time reflected in a poetic mirror. The political rotation of the Earth in the historicopolitical and historicopsychological poetry of Hovhannisyan penetrates into the heart of a woman, varying from a personal model of psychological perception of time to an impersonal model, from individual to the universal poetry. Tamar Hovhannisyan’s poetry is women’s poetry, which embodies and reflects the tremendous pain caused by a man, the invasion of death into the valley of life, the victory of the hell over the heaven. In her works, the political course of the Earth wails like a stretched nerve string, with variations in voice and style, with the harmony of emotions. Tamar Hovhannisyan’s poetry transforms into the poetic mirror of time, in which her portraits are displayed, refracted and reflected. This is a dramatic poetry of the conflict between a woman and politics, the painful opposition of the life-giving woman to life-destroying geopolitics. Tamar Hovhannisyan's poetry is exceptional and engrossing with its original art of creating images, a unique rhythm of lines and feminine depths of thoughts and feelings. Combining the peculiarities of Western and Armenian literature, subtly integrating them or making smooth transitions, Hovhannisyan created a deeply personal, but also universal poetry, which is the subject of study for present and future philologists.

“A tumour registry initiative”

BackgroundPublished literature on epidemiological profile of paediatric brain tumours in India is limited. Aim: To present a retrospective analysis of the histological spectrum of 158 paediatric age group central nervous system tumours operated in a single tertiary care hospital in Coastal South India between January 2015 and December 2021. Material and methodsRetrospective analysis of the data regarding frequencies of various primary brain tumours among 158 paediatric patients (<18 years of age). The tumours were categorised according to the revised 4th edition of World Health Organization (WHO) classification of tumours of the Central Nervous system. ResultsPaediatric CNS constituted 8.5% of total intracranial tumours (158/1860) operated in the study period. The mean age of the patients was 10.2 years and a definite male predominance was noted (1.54:1) Astrocytomas, glioneuronal tumours, and neuronal tumours constituted the majority (72/158; 45.6%) followed by embryonal tumours (31/158; 19.6%) and craniopharyngiomas(24/158; 15.4%).Of the glial neoplasms majority were pilocytic and other astrocytic tumours(41.6%), followed by mixed neuroglial tumours (19.4%), diffuse high grade astrocytomas (Grade III/IV) (11.1%), diffuse low -grade astrocytomas (Grade II) (9.7%) and ependymomas (13.8%). Our series also included six meningiomas (3.8%), five germ cell tumours (3.16%), four nerve sheath tumours (2.53%), two choroid plexus tumours (1.26%), two pineal parenchymal tumours (1.26%) and one metastasis from a soft tissue sarcoma from the thigh. Supratentorial tumours (58.2%) were more common than posterior fossa (34.6%) and spinal tumours (7.6%) and visual pathway gliomas accounted for 5.6% of all our tumours. ConclusionsPaediatric central nervous system tumours are more common in boys and in the second decade of life. Astrocytomas are the most common paediatric brain tumours followed by medulloblastomas and craniopharyngiomas. Pediatric tumours affect the supratentorial compartment more often than the infratentorial compartment. The profile of paediatric brain tumours in our series is similar to that reported from other Indian centres as well as most western literature.

Justification of the right to subsistence in contemporary Western philosophy: challenges and solutions

The article discusses the views of modern Western philosophers on the isuue of socio-economic human rights, including the right to subsistence. The purpose of the work is to answer the question of whether the right to a decent life is morally justified. The work was carried out within the framework of the analytical approach and its inherent methodology. The author identifies several types of arguments expressed in Western literature against the right to a worthy existence. They are 1) actual impossibility of guaranteeing these rights; 2) denial of non-contractual positive obligations that could correspond to this right; 3) problematization of the imperfect nature of positive obligations corresponding to this law. It is shown that these objections in themselves are not sufficient to reject the right to a worthy existence, but they show that at the abstract level this right cannot be justified only in a “negative” sense, that is, as the right to which only the negative duties of others correspond. The author proposes to consider options for solving the problems that gave rise to discussions concerning the right to a dignified existence, outside of human rights discourse. Thus, the moral basis for the fight against poverty and other features of an “unworthy” existence can be formulated by applying to the public sphere (by analogy) the categories of civil law - condiction, tort and contract, as well as taking into account the classical conditions for the onset of legal liability. Moreover, the moral justification for securing some “decent” level of existence is achieved by referring to the general principles of fair distribution of material wealth (regardless of what is considered a “decent existence”). One of these principles is the Rawlsian principle of difference, which does not depend either on the idea of a person as a “moral agent” who requires some kind of minimum (“worthy”) level of well-being, or on understanding of the human rights nature.

ALFRED LORD TENNYSON’IN MARIANA VE SHALOTT LEYDİSİ ŞİİRLERİNDE EV SEMBOLÜNÜN KAPANA KISILMIŞ KADINI TEMSİLİ

The representation of home has remained in the forefront of studies from different periods in Western literature. When Victorian literature is considered, the poetry of Alfred Lord Tennyson stands out as it provides a fertile ground for the exploration of meanings home takes on to a serious extent. Two of his well-known poems, Mariana and The Lady of Shalott, can be regarded as illustrative of Victorian attitude toward women ensnarement through the symbol of home. More specifically, what makes the study of these poems somewhat special is that they enable contemporary readers to think critically about the ways in which home bears witness to traumatization of women by patriarchal restrictions. Therefore, this article will mainly show that home symbol in the selected poems is an essential component of a realistic representation of the status of women of the poet’s time thereby positing patriarchy as an unfair configuration of Victorian society.

Love, Knowledge, and Freedom in Pleasantville, Religious Scripture, and Wider Western Literature

Abstract Love has long been extolled as a route to human moral and spiritual progress and fulfilment, not only in much past religious literature and narrative but in the more recent work of writers such as the philosopher and novelist Iris Murdoch. In such texts, however, the sentiment (or virtue) of love is clearly more than just blind or brute passion and presupposes distinctive human capacities for knowledge and free agency. That said, the relationship between knowledge and (right or virtuous) agency seems highly problematic or ambivalent on many traditional (perhaps most notably Christian) religious conceptions. This paper addresses such issues and complexities via some exploration of Genesis and the modern movie Pleasantville—with further aid from literary works of Shakespeare, Blake, Heinlein, and others—to the end of a more realistic view of human love and its moral and spiritual implications.

The Distorted Image of the Mother-Daughter Relationship in Alice Munro’s “Boys and Girls” and Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl”

ABSTRACT This article answers questions about how patriarchy resists all the social and cultural changes during postmodernism and how it reinforces the distorted image of the mother in her relationship with her daughter. The questions’ answers will be critically investigated in relation to two postmodernist stories, Alice Munro’s “Boys and Girls” ([1964] 1968) and Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl” ([1978] 2003). According to the findings, patriarchal hegemony over the relationship between mother and daughter is not limited to traditional societies; it is universal and can even be traced in postmodernist Western literature. The patriarchal motherhood that puts daughters in a frame to meet society’s expectations, that raises daughters as copies of their mothers, that prepares daughters to marry and be good housewives, and that neglects daughters’ needs and deprives them of a model to identify with are all explored in this article. The role of women, among many others, is to lead, to create changes, to educate, and to prepare generations for a better future. Women should reject considering housekeeping as an area of competition and should pass this on to their daughters. They must realize their own individual identity and evaluate themselves away from their forced traditional role.

Figural Realism and the Politics of Literature: Hayden White and Jacques Rancière Read Erich Auerbach

Abstract Hayden White and Jacques Rancière both drew on the account of the history of European literature offered by Erich Auerbach to construct their own theoretical treatments of historical and literary writing: White conceptualized the figure-fulfillment model, modernist realism, and figural realism, while Rancière critically commented on the undemocratic character of the writings of the Annales school and sought egalitarian moments in Western literature. I will examine White’s and Rancière’s readings of Auerbach and partially compare the two theoretical endeavors. The purpose of this analysis will be, first, to critically compare some of the two authors’ proposals and, second, to include Rancière’s work into the English-language debate on historical theory. In bringing them together, I will primarily ask how White and Rancière have articulated the relationship between politics and historical and literary writing in their commentaries on Auerbach’s work.

A prospective study of inflammatory bowel disease phenotypes in extremes of age and comparison with adults.

Pediatric and elderly inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are less explored, often in retrospective studies. The pediatric group has a more extensive and aggressive disease phenotype requiring aggressive treatments, whereas the elderly group may have less aggressive diseases. We prospectively compared disease characteristics of a single center cohort of IBD patients (pediatric age ≤ 16years; adults 17 to 59years; and elderly ≥ 60years) seen between September 2018 and November 2019 with at least sixmonths of follow-up. Total 266IBD patients (137 males) included 47 pediatric, 175 adults and 44 elderly patients. Among ulcerative colitis (UC) patients, pancolitis was more common in the pediatric group (p = 0.018), while the elderly group had more indolent behaviors and infrequent extraintestinal manifestations (p = 0.005). Among patients with Crohn's disease (CD), the pediatric group had more often colonic diseases (p = 0.02) and the elderly, ileal diseases (p = 0.04). The disease behavior was similar in the three age groups. Perianal disease was least common in elderly CD patients (p = 0.03). There was no treatment difference among different age groups in UC. In CD, pediatric patients needed biologics more frequently (p = 0.005), while elderly CD patients less frequently required steroids, biologics, immunosuppressants and surgery (p < 0.05). We noted differences compared to western literature such as colonic location in pediatric CD and ileal location in elderly CD. Perianal disease was less frequent in the elderlyCD group. There was no difference in treatment in the three age groups in UC, while there were no inter-age-group disease behavioral differences for UC and CD.

“Eastern Literature” as Happenstance?

Abstract This essay examines how “Eastern literature” was perceived and presented in the making of world literature in 1980s China, an era of political and cultural opening-up, through the lens of Indian literature included in the magazine Shijie Wenxue. Although the magazine’s editors discursively championed the idea of geographic all-inclusiveness, the larger conjuncture brought “Western literature” to the forefront of attention. “Eastern” authors and texts, in contrast, were confined to a state of “happenstance,” due to the occasional manner of their presentation. However, by re-reading Shijie Wenxue on three levels, I argue that the magazine managed to produce a relatively eclectic and “thick” knowledge of Indian literature, which would have otherwise been neglected because of its tokenistic appearance and low visibility. Adopting a more creative and critical mode of reading, one can turn the seemingly Western-centric project of Shijie Wenxue into a useful archive for readers with a special interest in “Eastern literature.”