Western Literature Research Articles

“The Subtle Craft of the Devil”: Misogynistic Conspiracy Theories and the Secret Society of Pregnancy Cravings in E. T. A. Hoffmann’s Vampirism

This paper analyzes themes of male insecurities and distrust of the exclusive culture of female sexuality and reproduction in E. T. A. Hoffmann’s Vampirism, one of the earliest psychologically sophisticated female vampires in Western literature. The doomed heroine, Aurelia, escapes a life of maternal abuse and sexual trauma by marrying the wealthy Count Hippolytus, but his attraction warps into suspicion when she becomes pregnant and loses her appetite for his food. Worried that losing her virginity has activated promiscuity inherited from her late mother, he begins following her and thinks he sees her conspiring with a coven of female ghouls who train her to satisfy her pregnancy cravings by feeding on a male corpse. Real or imagined, this vision confirms his suspicions and leads to their mutual destruction. In my analysis, I explore vampire literature’s early history, its place within Gothic literature, the prominent role of female vampires, their relationship to gender anxieties exacerbated by the Romantic Era’s subversive political movements, and the way in which Hoffmann’s cynical story operates as a misogynistic conspiracy theory aimed at the secret female space of reproduction, symbolized by Aurelia’s cannibalistic pregnancy cravings. As such, it contributes to the destructive folklore of social distrust.

Everyday Activities of Older Adults in Tianjin, China: Coupling Constraints, Gendered Mobilities and Social Context.

Many Western studies have indicated that older women are generally more vulnerable in terms of mobility compared to older men, particularly regarding driving. However, the situation may differ in the context of China. This study, based on activity diaries and semi-structured interviews, focuses on the spatiotemporal behavior of older adults in Tianjin and explores how the constraints posed by activity companions (in terms of type, size, and composition) shape the mobilities of older men and women, including activity locations, travel distances, and transportation modes. The key findings are as follows: First, older women are more engaged with their families due to a higher percentage and longer duration of activities spent with family members. Second, older men tend to have more concentrated travel distances near their homes compared to older women. Third, older women exhibit a broader range of activities in different locations and engage in longer-distance leisure travel with family members when compared to older men. In the context of Western literature, this study discusses older women's enhanced social interactions, their earlier retirement in China, and the impact of COVID-19 as factors that help explain these findings. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of accompanied mobilities among Chinese older adults using geographical theory and methods, emphasizing the importance of flexible work schedules for the workforce and the organization of community-based activities to promote the social interactions and mobilities of older adults.

Problems of translation and multiple terminology in Arabic digital monetary studies

The investment of digital technologies and their multimedia in Western literary creativity has led to the emergence of a new type of writing known as digital writing, which is self-fulfilling based on digital intermediary algorithms and software, resulting in a revision of all the achievements of paper-based critical theory, especially concepts and terminology. By virtue of culture, digital writing has resonated with Arab criticism from the translation portal, where some Arab critics have been involved in the theorizing and translation campaign of theories established by early Western critics and digital. But their translations have produced major problems because of the nature of the Arabic monetary dictionary, which already suffers from the inherent problem of the term, This study is based on description and analysis. to conclude that the problem originated primarily from the idiomatic chaos that accompanied the first theoretical approaches of Arab critics, Each critic elected his own terminology, in addition to the complete absence of all forms of agreement and understanding between them on the philosophical and intellectual origins of new writing terms.

Reflexivity and New Metanarratives. Contemporary English-language Retellings of Classical Mythology

Abstract The turn of the millennium has brought a revival of interest in the ancient Greek and Roman texts. Obviously, the legacy of antiquity is a permanent feature of Western literature and visual arts; yet, its contemporary manifestation has taken a novel form, that of a retelling. It is a new trend in which a well-known text belonging to the canon is given an unorthodox interpretation, which exposes the ethnic, class, and gender prejudices present in the original. Mythological retellings are often written in an accessible manner containing features of genre fiction, which makes the revised version palatable to ordinary readers. A characteristic feature of mythic fantasy is the shift of focus from heroic exploits to private life as well as putting previously marginal characters into limelight. The retellings are a consequence of new, reflexive research angles that have appeared in the field of the classics.

괴테의 『서동시집』에 나타난 시인의 대담함과 월등함

In Goethe's 『West-östlicher Divan』(1819), ｢Derb und Tüchtig｣ and ｢Dreistigkeit｣ tell the poet's attitude in writing poetry. In ｢Übermacht, ihr könnt es spüren｣, the poet's 'superiority' is compared to that of a monarch, and in ｢Selige Sehnsucht｣, the poet's attitude of writing poetry at the risk of death is emphasized. In these poem, “strength,” “boldness,” “excellence,” and the poet’s mindset of risking death are emphasized in the poet’s general artistic act of “poetry writing.” The poet's boldness, superiority and even “arrogance” that appear in the “West-Eastern Divan” seem to have arisen from the feeling of liberation and confidence that Goethe felt when he traveled to Frankfurt (in July 1814) after the Napoleonic Wars. He went through a dark period during the Wars and so read Hafis' poetry and wrote Eastern-style poetry to shake off all the pressure around him via his “confidence/boldness” and “arrogance” as a poet. His decision dicision to write poetry in the Eastern style for the first time in the history of Western literature can be said to be Goethe’s “warning and commandment” about “writing poetry.”

Normative Data of Beta-2-Microglobulin and Plasma Proteins from an Agrarian Indian Community By a Door-to-Door Survey: Results of Simple (IMAGe-002B) Study

Introduction: Most diagnostic laboratories in India follow the reference intervals given in Western literature whose Caucasian reference population is entirely different from the Indian ethnic population (viz., dietary habits, lifestyle, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and environmental factors). Objectives: To collate normative data of beta-2-microglobulin (β2M) and plasma proteins from an otherwise healthy population from an agrarian Indian Community. The secondary objectives were to evaluate the correlation of β2M levels with age, gender, and BMI of these individuals. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in an agrarian village in India with a 24.76Km perimeter and 4588.3 hectares with an 89.2% population coverage for adults (>45y) spending 12096 man-hours. This was a part of SIMPLe (Screening Intervention for Myeloma and Prevention of Lifestyle diseases) study registered vide CTRI/2023/03/051220 after obtaining informed consent. Demographic details, medical history, and blood samples were collected after a thorough medical examination to ascertain the normal health status of the study participants. Hemogram, biochemistry (Liver and renal function tests), β2M, and serum protein electrophoresis (SPEP) were performed in all individuals. Only individuals with normal renal and liver function tests were included in the final analysis. Bivariate analysis (Fit Y by X) was done to study the correlations. Any p value < 0.05 was considered significant. The data was analyzed using JMP ver. 16.0.0. Results: A total of 850 individuals were included in this community-based door-to-door survey. The mean age of the study population was 57.6±10.5y, with a slight female predominance (56.3%). The distribution of β2M and various plasma proteins is mentioned in Table 1. The β2M significantly differed between males and females (χ 2-8.58; dF-1; p-0.0034). On bivariate analysis, β2M was significantly associated with age (correlation coefficient: 0.31; p<0.0001), and BMI (correlation coefficient -0.07; p-0.023). Conclusion: The data obtained from our studies would act as the first step in collating normative data for β2M and plasma proteins from Indian community.

Hodgkin Lymphoma - Mitigating Toxicity While Preserving Cure - Eight Year Data from MIOT International, Chennai, India

Background One of the most treatable cancers, Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL), has a 5-year survival rate of approximately 85%.We still see relapse and refractoriness in a tiny percentage of patients despite the fact that our disease is largely curable, and we also have additional issues including secondary neoplasia and long-term consequences on the heart. Our Hodgkin lymphoma statistics from 2011 to 2019 have been given in this paper. Methodology Between 2011 and 2019, data on patients with newly diagnosed classical HL (CHL) who received treatment were gathered. Analysis was done on the presenting characteristics, IPS risk classification, treatment procedures, treatment response, and 3-year outcome data. Results At presentation, there were 97 patients with newly diagnosed CHL, with a median age of 24 years (range, 11-72). The ratio of men to women was 1.62:1. Mixed cellularity, lymphocyte-rich, and lymphocyte-depleted CHL (LD, CHL) were histological subtypes that were present in 80.40%, 12.40%, and 7.20% of cases, respectively. At presentation, 52% of patients had advanced illness, and 80% had B symptoms. The Hodgkin IPI score was high in 58% of individuals with advanced stages. ABVD was given as the first line of therapy to 92% of patients. According to interim PET-CT scan findings, around 7 advanced stage Hodgkin patients were started with EscBEACOPP and then switched to ABVD prior to 2017. The front line treatment's overall response rate was 94.8%. Complete response rates for early-stage favourable and unfavourable risk groups were 94% and 86%, respectively, whereas they were 81% and 67% for advanced-stage low- and high-risk groups. The median duration of event free survival was 36 months. The 3-year EFS showed a significant difference between the early- and advanced-stage diseases, 93% and 81%, respectively (p 0.04). Relapse was found in eight patients, all of whom had BEAM Autograft post platinum based salvage treatment. Following interim PET negativity, we discontinued Bleomycin according to RATHL protocol. Three of our patients had bleomycin lung injury. Three patients had post-autograft recurrence, one of whom passed away due to a subsequent non-Hodgkin lymphoma. With the Brentuximab Bendamustine regimen, two patients were successfully salvaged and they had Haplo-identical transplant as third line salvage. Conclusions In early and late stage Hodgkin lymphoma, the three year EFS of 93% and 81% is equivalent to most western literature. In light of our little experience with Indian patients, the effect of Brentuximab is overwhelmingly favorable. At our facility, post-Autograft Brentuximab maintenance is being tested. There is no information on how Nivolumab will be useful in our context. Although there is little evidence to draw a conclusion that is statistically significant, frontline ABVD protocol treatment across risk categories and discontinuing Bleomycin after interim PET negative are helpful in our patients to enhance prognosis and decrease toxicity. Reference: Adapted Treatment Guided by Interim PET-CT Scan in Advanced Hodgkin's Lymphoma N Engl J Med 2016; 374:2419-2429 DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1510093Mohty, R., Dulery, R., Bazarbachi, A.H. et al. Latest advances in the management of classical Hodgkin lymphoma: the era of novel therapies. Blood Cancer J. 11, 126 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41408-021-00518-z

International Politics of Western Literary Theory: Literary Theory as Doctrine and as Discipline

International Politics of Western Literary Theory: Literary Theory as Doctrine and as Discipline

Intestinal fungal profile in healthy Saudi children

Background and study aimFungi have a well-established role in medicine. Herein, we describe the fungal profile and abundance in the gut of healthy Saudi children. Patients and methodsFecal samples from a random sample of 20 school-age Saudi children were collected, stored at −80 °C, and dispatched to the laboratory in the USA where fungal DNAs were isolated and shotgun metagenomic sequencing was performed. Abundance was presented as average percentage of fungal taxa. ResultsThe median age of the participants was 12.5 years (range: 7–16 years), and 35 % were male. Ascomycota were the most abundant phyla and Eurotiomycetes, Saccharomycetes, were the most abundant class. The average abundance of fungal genera were Histoplasma (36 %) and Saccharomyces (31 %). The most abundant species were Histoplasma capsulatum (36 %) and Saccharomyces pastorianus (23 %). Other less abundant but may be functionally important genera and species included Candida (2.6 %) and Saccharomycescerevisiae (8 %). ConclusionThe profile and abundance of the gut fungi in healthy Saudi children reveals important differences compared to Western literature. Accordingly, this report represents a more appropriate reference than Western data to use as controls for regional studies aiming to identify fungi associated with disease.

Restricted and repetitive behaviors and association with cognition and adaptive functioning in children with autism spectrum disorder in Singapore.

One of the core features of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests and activities (RRBs). RRBs are known to adversely affect cognition and adaptive functioning. We explored the relationship of RRBs with cognition and adaptive functioning in children with ASD in an Asian setting. This cross-sectional study was conducted at a tertiary developmental pediatrics center in Singapore from September 2019 to October 2021. Parent-child dyads (parents and their children ≤7 years old diagnosed with ASD) were recruited. Parents completed the Repetitive Behavior Questionnaire-2 (RBQ-2), which reports total score and two subscales - Motor/Sensory Behaviors (RBQ-2 MS) and Rigidity/Routines/Preoccupation with Restricted Interests (RBQ-2 RRPRI). Standardized assessments included Mullen Scales of Early Learning (MSEL) and Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales (VABS-II). Data analysis utilized descriptive statistics and Pearson's correlation. Parents of 113 children [75.2% male, mean (SD) age 5.0 (1.2) years] participated. Median (IQR) RBQ-2 score was 29.0 (11.0). Significant negative correlations (adjusted for age, gender and family history of ASD) were observed for total RBQ-2 scores with MSEL ELC scores (r = -0.248, n = 101, p = 0.014) and VABS-II ABC scores (r = -0.281, n = 88, p = 0.009). Specifically, these correlations of fair strength were seen only with the RBQ-2 MS subscale for both ELC (r = -0.321, n = 101, p = 0.001) and ABC (r = -0.3478, n = 88, p = 0.001). In children with ASD, severity of RRBs correlated with adverse cognition and adaptive functioning measures in our study, consistent with Western literature. While our study does not show causality, it adds to literature serving as a foundation for further research for both clinicians and researchers to target RRBs in improving outcomes with children in ASD.

A Gendered Analysis of Emily Dickinson’s Poetry and her Feminine Consciousness - Taking They shut me up in Prose - as an Example

Emily Dickinson was one of the greatest female poets in the history of Western literature and a pioneer of modernist poetry. Her reclusive life was considered eccentric at her time. Her poetry is unique in style and expression, and she wrote about women’s desire for freedom and independence, as well as her ambition of breaking the restrictions for women in a patriarchal society. She believed that poetry was a superior literary form compared to prose and that women could also express themselves through poetry. This essay focuses on the feminine consciousness expressed in Emily Dickinson’s poetry. By analyzing her poem, They shut me up in Prose - from a gendered or feminist perspective, this essay discusses the relationship between Emily Dickinson’s female identity and her career as a poet: Emily Dickinson’s feminist thought expressed in her poetry was influenced by the women’s rights movement in the 19th century America, as well as her own life and education experience, and poetry was her way to rebel against the patriarchal literary tradition.

L’apiculteur princeps de la littérature occidentale : Aristée entre poésie, politique et philosophie (Virgile, Géorgiques, IV, 281-558)

The episode of the beekeeper Aristaeus in Book IV of Virgil’s Georgics is the most striking manifestation of the generic complexity of this extraordinary work. The story of Aristaeus forms an enclave within the poem, yet is organically linked to it and plays a full part in the unity of the innovative literary object that is the Georgics. He deepens this graft by extending to the sublime a lyrical vein which culminates in the embedded story of Orpheus and Eurydice, and hybridizes in a fusion with epic verse, the didactic foundation and the bucolic antecedents of the work. Through the adventure of Aristaeus, the princeps beekeeper of Western literature, Virgil’s entire poetic, political and philosophical ideal is defined.

« À l’exemple des Abeilles » : Daniel Thaly poète-apiculteur

The purpose of this article is to introduce the West Indian poet Daniel Thaly (1879-1950), who was both a poet and a beekeeper. In his collection of poems L’île et le voyage, Thaly devotes the Fourth Chant to "La maison aux abeilles" (The house of bees), in which he celebrates the insects he cares for, which teach him both an art of living and an art of poetry. Thaly’s example shows how the practice of beekeeping informs poetry, particularly by renewing man’s relationship with the landscape. Beekeeping and the observation of bees also led the poet to set up these insects as poetic models: the motif of the bee is frequently used in poetry to represent the practice of innutrition. Like the bee, the poet gleans inspiration from his readings to produce his own honey, the poetic result of his influences. The case of Daniel Thaly is an interesting one, since we are dealing with a French-speaking poet in a colonial situation marked by the influence of Western literature and the force of assimilation. Thaly and the apiary metaphor invite us to examine the notions of imitation, innutrition and originality in the context of West Indian colonisation. Here, the prism of beekeeping offers a fresh look at a form of writing that for too long has been relegated to the category of servile imitation and stigmatised by critics as regionalist, exotic and doudouist literature.

Deliberately derivative: levels of decolonisation in Nnedi Okorafor's Akata Witch

Having written science fiction works such as Zahrah the Windseeker and Binti, Nnedi Okorafor is at the forefront of Africanfuturism. Akata Witch falls within the realm of Africanfuturism in offering a version of Africa outside of the stereotypical Western imagination. However, being set in present day Nigeria (and the spirit world), it is more fantasy than it is futuristic. While Okorafor takes umbrage at Akata Witch being branded the 'Nigerian Harry Potter', the parallels in plot and fantastical setting between the two stories are undeniable and go far deeper than is initially apparent (2020b). The level of correlation might even lead to Akata Witch being perceived as derivative of a Western literary phenomenon; nothing more than Harry Potter in an African setting. This article sets out to prove the opposite by exploring how, and more importantly, why, Okorafor made the familiar strange, and the strange familiar, by using the Harry Potter universe as starting point to tap deeply into Nigerian folklore and African indigenous knowledges. I further posit that Akata Witch can be divided into two distinct parts: the first, a mild but very effective form of decolonisation where Okorafor showcases Nigerian folklore and makes what is Western accessible to an African audience; and the other, a direct challenge in the face of the coloniser, touting not only the uniqueness, but also the superiority of Africa and African myth unchained.

From Guwen to Chinese Literature

This article examines the Sinologists’ conceptually mediated approach in their studies and translations of Chinese literature in the nineteenth century. Gems of Chinese Literature (1884), compiled and translated by Herbert Allen Giles (1845–1935), contains the English translation of 110 Chinese prose extracts and eight poems from fifty-nine Chinese authors. This article historicizes the genesis and construction of this translation anthology and argues that, though most likely derived from a Chinese guwen (classical prose) collection, it was designed to provide a more systematic view of Chinese literature informed by the concept of national literature. By analysing its organizational strategies, discursive paratexts, and how it deviated from its possible Chinese source, the author demonstrates that Gems of Chinese Literature reveals more complex questions concerning the (re-)conceptualization and representation of Chinese literature at the encounter of Chinese and Western literary paradigms.

German Theatre and Intercultural Cinema: A Study of the Japanese Film Adaptations of Gerhart Hauptmann’s Plays

In the 1920s Westernization and modernism characterized the cultural life of big Japanese cities, and the cinema quickly became the main entertainment of the urban masses. In this decade studios began to shoot movies following the cinematic techniques and narrative styles of European and American cinema, and increased production of film adaptations of Western literature works popular at that time. This paper focuses on the adaptations of German literature works, specifically of Gerhart Hauptmann plays, produced in Japan during the 1920s. While those films have been lost, stills and reviews of film magazines published at the time of screening have been archived. The study draws on these materials and examines the intertextual and intercultural relations between the films and the literary works. It provides a brief overview on the reception of German literature in Japan, compares the plays and films analysing the permutations in narratological elements, and offers insights on how cultural, political, and social context influenced the directors’ adaptation process.

A Quantitative Social Network Analysis of the Character Relationships in the Mahabharata

Despite the advances in computational literary analysis of Western literature, in-depth analysis of the South Asian literature has been lacking. Thus, social network analysis of the main characters in the Indian epic Mahabharata was performed, in which it was prepossessed into verses, followed by a term frequency–inverse document frequency (TF-IDF) transformation. Then, Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) word vectors were obtained by applying compact Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) on the term–document matrix. As a novel innovation to this study, these word vectors were adaptively converted into a fully connected similarity matrix and transformed, using a novel locally weighted K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN) algorithm, into a social network. The viability of the social networks was assessed by their ability to (i) recover individual character-to-character relationships; (ii) embed the overall network structure (verified with centrality measures and correlations); and (iii) detect communities of the Pandavas (protagonist) and Kauravas (antagonist) using spectral clustering. Thus, the proposed scheme successfully (i) predicted the character-to-character connections of the most important and second most important characters at an F-score of 0.812 and 0.785, respectively, (ii) recovered the overall structure of the ground-truth networks by matching the original centralities (corr. > 0.5, p < 0.05), and (iii) differentiated the Pandavas from the Kauravas with an F-score of 0.749.

Investigating the Use of Gestures Among Children with Down Syndrome in India

Introduction: Gesture is a form of non-verbal communication. Down syndrome (DS) is one of the most common congenital syndromes in which speech and language deficits are prominent. Earlier studies have revealed mixed results regarding the advanced use of gestures among children with DS in Western literature. Indian culture influences parent-child interactions and gesture use differently. This study aims to assess whether a gesture advantage exists among DS children in the Indian context
 Materials and Methods: In this case-control study, 5 Tamil-speaking children with DS and 5 typically developing (TD) language-age-matched controls were observed. Their spontaneous interactions with their mothers were analyzed for type and frequency of gestures and gestureword combinations using a checklist.
 Results: Except for the frequency of deictic (requesting, giving) gestures, all the other gestures, namely deictic (pointing, showing), symbolic and representational gestures, and word-gesture combinations (equivalent, complementary, and supplementary) were observed much less frequently in DS children, although only pointing had a statistical significance. Also, fewer types of gestures were observed among DS children.
 Conclusion: Children with DS in the Indian context do not exhibit a gesture advantage. This study highlights the importance of gesture assessment and intervention among these children.

Writing Orality: Australian Aboriginal Voices in Alexis Wright’s Carpentaria

ABSTRACT Australian Aboriginal stories have thrived for thousands of years through oral tradition and Aboriginal author Alexis Wright invokes this tradition in the construction of her novel Carpentaria. This article investigates the orality of Carpentaria, which stages “oral” narrators who speak differently to Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal readerships. First, using Bakhtin’s notion of “speech genre”, the article explores why Wright creates these two narrative layers. Second, it investigates the language use and tone of voice in the framing narrative that addresses non-Indigenous readers. Third, it looks closely at Wright’s linguistic experimentation in the embedded narrative, creating multiple oral effects through language and mobilising the storytelling dynamics of performance, spontaneity, rhythms and mnemonics. Finally, it discusses how her creative use of orality plays off and with its Western literary conceptions and enacts cross-cultural communication between the two readerships.

Vaivorykštė be saulės: tekstinė refrakcija sovietmečio vertimuose

Light waves change direction—refract—as they pass through different environments. Similarly, Western literary works, even after leaking through the barrier of the Soviet Index Librorum Prohibitorum, never reached the USSR reader in their authentic form. The most evident components of the unfavourable environment were the proxy of the Moscow Raduga and Progress publishing houses, ideologically committed literary criticism, the hunt for honorariums, the lack of reference books, and the poverty of printing technology. All these adverse factors together caused the chronic syndrome of texts that seemed authentic but in fact were not. So far, individual agents and effects of textual refraction have been researched, and interesting case studies have been carried out. However, there is a lack of both a systematic classification of the different agents of influence and an assessment of their long-term effects. The methodological study of refraction-affected editions tests the possibility of integrating the concept of textual condition with the assertions of the postcolonial theory regarding secondary cultural colonisation. The paper attempts to raise the hypothesis that the efforts of professional translators and editors to perform their work with the utmost craftsmanship had sometimes paradoxically reinforced the refraction of the overall meaning of major literary works. That resulted from the contrast between a relatively reliable translation and the implications generated by the bibliographic code and metatexts, as well as from the canonisation of translations that had become iconic in the Soviet-era.