Western Writers Research Articles

Malgudi a Fictional World: A Critical Study on R.K. Narayan’s Malgudi Days

Rasipuram Krishna Swami Iyer Narayanaswami, a leading writer of early Indian English literature famous for his works set in the fictional South Indian town of Malgudi. Malgudi is the fictional place of R.K. Narayan, like Wordsworth’s Lake District and Arnold Bennett’s Five Cities. It is the eternal source of pleasure and sadness for the characters of the novel. This article consists of four parts; such as introduction, setting, people and structure. It has its limitations, but it is hoped that it will help those who lead the same path. It analyzes and interprets the life of this city. This distinguishes the author’s approach to Indian life from that of some Western writers. It also shows a live image of configuration Malgudi. Additionally; it focuses on the people and structure of Malgudi.

Comparative Study of Chinese and Western Literature

The purpose of this paper is to comparatively study the differences and commonalities between Chinese literature and Western literature. First of all, the characteristics of the two are compared from three aspects, namely, presentation methods, thematic contents and literary forms. Chinese literature focuses on mood, ambiguity, and emphasizes the natural flow of emotions; while Western literature attaches importance to structure, logic, and pursues innovation in form. In terms of thematic content, Chinese literature tends to express personal emotions and expresses the harmony between human beings and nature and society; while Western literature focuses on the conflict between individuals and society and emphasizes freedom, equality and human rights. In terms of literary forms, Chinese literature coexists in various forms such as poetry, prose and novels, while Western literature takes novels, dramas and poems as its main forms. Secondly, this study explores the reasons for the differences between the two in terms of cultural background, writers' creative concepts and readers' acceptance. Chinese literature is deeply influenced by traditional cultural ideas such as Confucianism and Taoism, emphasizing moral education and philosophy of life; while Western literature is influenced by ancient Greek and Roman myths as well as religious beliefs such as Christianity, focusing on the inner world of man and exploring human nature. In terms of writers' creative concepts, Chinese writers tend to focus on social harmony from the perspective of traditional morality and ethics, while Western writers advocate the liberation of individuality and the pursuit of the realization of personal values. In terms of readers' acceptance, Chinese literature focuses on aesthetic experience and emotional resonance, while Western literature pays more attention to logical reasoning and thinking. The comparative study of Chinese literature and Western literature can help us better understand the diversity of world literature and enrich our concepts of literary aesthetics and creation. At the same time, by learning from the excellent achievements of Western literature, we can promote the innovation and development of Chinese literature.

Interconnectedness between Vedanta & Poetry of T.S. Eliot and W.B. Yeats’ Poetry

This paper studies the impact of Eastern philosophy on the writings of both T.S. Eliot and W.B. Yeats. The research demonstrates interconnectedness between the Vedic philosophy and the western writers particularly the thoughts pervasive in the writings of Eliot and Yeats. Eliot engaged deeply with Eastern philosophy in ways which significantly influenced his worldview and his poetry. Eliot’s PhD thesis was on the idealist metaphysics of F.H. Bradley, which he found appealing due to its affinities with Indian philosophical sensibilities. Eliot was influenced by both Hinduism and Buddhism, and especially by the Bhagavad Gītā, which he described as one of the greatest philosophical poems, and by the Mādhyamika or Middle Way Buddhist philosophy of Nāgārjuna. The references to Indian literature are particularly prominent in The Waste Land, several section titles of which they reference Indian imagery. For instance, ‘The Fire Sermon’ references the sermon of the same name delivered by the Buddha; ‘Death by Water’ engages with Indra’s slaying of Vṛtra to release the waters in the Rig Veda; ‘What the Thunder said’ references the eponymous episode from the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upanishad.

Dzieje kultury europejskiej i polskiej XVIII wieku w ujęciu polskich uczonych w XX stuleciu. Wybrane zagadnienia

The article discusses the dispute over the chronology of the Enlightenment in Poland and the views of Józef Gierowski and Jacek Staszewski regarding the assessment of the Saxon times and the origins of the Polish Enlightenment. The problem of the reception of Western cultures (French, English, Italian and German) in the times of the Enlightenment in Poland was also treated more broadly. After presenting various understandings of culture in Polish historiography, the positions of Polish researchers on the assessment of the Enlightenment in Europe (Emanuel Rostworowski) and then the culture of the Saxon times and the Enlightenment in Poland (Józef Andrzej Gierowski, Janusz Maciejewski, Jacek Staszewski) were discussed. The achievements of Polish historiography in the field of research on the reception in Poland of the works of the most eminent authors of the French Enlightenment (these were primarily Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot, Montesquieu), English (including Locke), Italian (Genovesi, Beccaria) and German (including Wolff, Gottsched) were shown in greater detail. The reception of this work would not have been possible without the appearance in Poland of an intellectual elite, often speaking French, who were able to evaluate and appreciate the innovative views of Western writers and philosophers.

The myth of the Others: Western representations of the Dan people and boat clusters in the island city of Guangzhou, China (1842–1900)

Abstract This article studies Western (primarily Anglophone) representations of the Dan people (boat people) and the boat clusters on which they lived, relative to the mainland, in the island city of Guangzhou, focusing on 1842–1900. A change occurred over time, as the Dan went from being in close interaction with Westerners prior to the Opium Wars to being peripheral to Western interests and activities. This shift is evident in Western writings, and negative representations of the Dan came to dominate in the late nineteenth century. This mirrored changing sociospatial power relations between Westerners and the terrestrial Chinese, as Westerners increasingly gained access to the onshore city of Guangzhou itself, in part from the colonial island enclave of Shamian. Changing crosscultural interactions affected how the Chinese Others were perceived and ultimately how the Chinese whole was intertextually constructed in Western colonial discourse.

Twilight of Reason Anti-rationalism in Islam and Europe

Islam has perennially been the subject of criticism by Western writers, journalists and commentators. Islam, according to one argument, has always advocated irrational views and opposes reason unlike Christianity and Judaism. No doubt, the revival of Islamic ideology on the global world stage as represented in the Salafi-Jihadi trend has reinforced this stereotype. Islam, as preached by Salafi view, stands against reason, prohibits philosophy and condemns logic. To validate this argument, Islamists and Salafists invoke Ibn Taymiyyah, al-Ghazali and their likes, as a pretext for the construction of a narrative opposing rationality. This view, however, appears in the mass media to be synonymous with Islam itself. ".

SO CLOSE, YET SO FOREIGN: AUSTRALIANS’ AMBIVALENT VIEW TOWARDS INDONESIA IN THREE POEMS

Literary works embody writers’ view, which is undoubtedly a product of their cultural background and values. Thus, when a western writer writes about eastern themes, his values and worldview as westerner might influence his view towards the East. In the case of Australian writers writing about Indonesia, this notion proves to be problematic. Australians’ ambivalent identity as a people and the stark contrast in sociological, cultural, and historical as well as unique relation between the two countries often result in ambivalence in their view towards Indonesia. Applying postcolonial criticism, this study was endeavoured to uncover Australians’ ambivalent view towards Indonesia portrayed in three poems about Indonesia written by Australian writers. Descriptive-qualitative analysis on the poems revealed that there are ambivalences in how Australians view Indonesia which transcend the dichotomy between the Occident and the Orient. Australians see Indonesia as ‘other’ and at the same time acknowledge the differences and diversities as part of universal reality.

Relevance of Nature in Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s The River Between: An Ecocritical Perspective.

In all his writings Ngugi wa Thiong’o focused on the historical aspects of the African continent particularly Kenya. Through his writings, he always tried to reestablish the notions and beliefs which have been misinterpreted by Western writers and thinkers about the African continent and its people. Ngugi’s motif was to make the entire world aware of the rich culture, tradition, religion, myths, customs, and social norms of African people. African continent has been blessed with the prosperity of natural resources. Vast landscapes, waterfalls, rivers, dense forests, and deserts are abundantly found in Africa. In the novels of Ngugi nature has significant relevance where characters of his novels establish harmony with nature. The characters of Ngugi mostly belong to tribal and rural areas where their lives are deeply engrossed with nature. The novel The River Between has an echo of an eco-critical phenomenon where multitudes of ecocritical aspects can be explored. The title itself indicates the importance of rivers in the novel. In this novel, the relationship between characters of novels with the ridges, valleys, landscapes, forests. and rivers is highly profound and helpful for Ngugi to develop the motif of the novel. The paper will explore the impact of nature on the Kenyan people and how the myths and social norms of Kenyan people are associated with nature. The paper will also seek the impact of colonization on the natural resources of Kenya. The paper will examine this novel and Ngugi wa Thiong’o as a writer from the perspective of Eco-consciousness.

Colonialism and a history of oppression in Africa: Scenes from selected African novels

Examining the African suffering during the colonialism period and describing the different miseries of the African people have been the core theme of almost all African and Western writers during the colonial age and post-colonial time. Undoubtedly, all of these writings fluctuate considerably between exaggeration and degrading the human sacrifices of those countries during this period. Then, the African writers started taking the responsibility of narrating their history and describing their suffering to correct many false ideas and assumptions, many false conceptions which were established in the minds of consecutive generations. Chinua Achebe is one of the prominent authors and thinkers who has received international recognition due to his creative style of telling the African story and has impacted African literature in different ways. Through his books, he exposed many of the negative colonial impacts on the African communities and how they did their best to invade these countries politically, economically, and culturally. Achebe tried to uncover their claims, like linking Christianity and commerce together, and the only way to African progress should be through the European gates. In his novel Things Fall Apart, he tried to expose the side effects of the colonizers’ intentions to redesign the African communities up to Western standards. He assured that all colonial actions resulted in the colonizers’ good interests and were against African people. On the other hand, Ngugi Thiogn’o is interested in examining the post-colonial impacts on the African nations and how the Western colonizers succeeded in producing loyal followers adopting their beliefs and concepts. Those followers replaced the foreign occupation with another type of occupation where the people’s acceptance should be evaluated by their adaptability to the Western criteria in all life aspects. In his novel, Pedals of Blood, Thiog’o narrated the impacts of using foreign languages to diffuse the indigenous culture and lose the African identity. Throughout the novel, he examined the political elite’s corruption in African countries during the post-colonial period and how they continued colonial suppression of their nations.

Orientalism and gender: the portrayal of the oriental women in frederick millingen’s wild life among the koords

In Orientalism (1979), one of his most prominent works, Edward Said lays out a critique of the West’s framing and perceptions of the East. It reveals how Eastern communities and individuals are being imagined and reconstructed by the authoritative gaze and ideals of Western imperialism. Said explains how Western writings represent the East as an inferior, the Other which, justifies the European Western power over the East. The depiction of the harem as exotic oriental women is a long-familiar trope found in various Orientalist writings. The paper examines the representations of Oriental women in Frederick Millingen’s Wild Life Among the Koords (1870). The theoretical framework draws on the formulation of the travel writer’s representation of Oriental women in the context of Orientalist discourse and feminist criticism. It explores how the Orientalist constitutes himself and his subjectivity through the agency of desire and supremacy. This paper argues that this is not a question of the other, but rather a question of the Western subject’s views to present his visions of himself within foreign landscapes. Moreover, the detailed description of Oriental women and the depiction of Oriental culture establish modes of reorientation where women are discriminated against and sexualized.

Book Review: MUHAMMAD THE ULTIMATE LEADER: FROM WESTERN BUSINESS PERSPECTIVES by Daud Batchelor

Daud Batchelor, Muhammad the Ultimate Leader: From Western Business Perspectives. Islamic Book Trust, Kuala Lumpur, 2019. 174 pp. ISBN 978-967-0526-70-6; eISBN 978-967-0526-71-3. The present book under review is rather appealing. Its message is quite simple yet profound. As its title suggests, the book is about knowing the leadership qualities of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) through the lens of Western business perspectives. The thesis of the book is that non-Muslim Westerners may be persuaded to embrace a more positive view of the traditional Muslim claim that "Muhammad is a perennial leader, whose message applies for all time and across multiple fields, and for all people since he was sent as God's final Messenger for all humanity" (p. xi) if only they could see parallels between Muhammad's leadership qualities and the "high leadership qualities cited by Western business writers" (p. xii). This thesis sets the general theme of the book. Thus, in the book, its author Dr Daud Batchelor, a Westerner who converted to Islam, took upon himself the task of identifying "commonly acclaimed corporate leadership attributes cited by Western writers" and then comparing them with the Prophet Muhammad's leadership qualities that are well established in the Islamic tradition.

Systematic Objectification of Eastern Women in Western Society: A Case Study of ‘The Optimist’ by Bina Shah

Patriarchy is deeply rooted in all societies of the world and many sociological, political and religious reasons are behind this ideology. This was not highlighted by western writers in the past but it exists in the western modern world is also as presented by Loius Tyson (2006). He has claimed that women are kept oppressed economically, politically, socially and psychologically by patriarchy, moreover, women are considered as the ‘other’, therefore objectified and marginalized. The writings of eastern writers like the short story ‘The Optimist’ written by Bina Shah verifies the claims of Tyson. The narrated story proves that oppression of women is not the issue of eastern western society but it is a universal problem that has strong roots in the societies of the men dominating societies. Pakistani writers have always tried to expose such ideologies through their writings, which allegedly justify the dominance of men over women. Human relations are reciprocal and cannot be directed from one side. The approach employed is qualitative with techniques of textual and thematic analysis keeping claims in mind, presented by Lois Tyson in his book Critical Theory Today. It was found, through the analysis of the story, that women are oppressed economically, politically, socially, and psychologically and they are treated as the ‘other’: objectified and marginalized, by men not only in the east but all over the world. However, the element of ‘revolt against biased ideologies’ is also very significant through the rebellious behavior of the character and emphasizes bringing change in the societies.

Systematic Objectification of Eastern Women in Western Society A Case Study of ‘The Optimist’ by Bina Shah

Patriarchy is deeply rooted in all societies of the world and many sociological, political and religious reasons are behind this ideology. This was not highlighted by western writers in the past but it exists in the western modern world is also as presented by Loius Tyson (2006). He has claimed that women are kept oppressed economically, politically, socially and psychologically by patriarchy, moreover, women are considered as the ‘other’, therefore objectified and marginalized. The writings of eastern writers like the short story ‘The Optimist’ written by Bina Shah verifies the claims of Tyson. The narrated story proves that oppression of women is not the issue of eastern western society but it is a universal problem that has strong roots in the societies of the men dominating societies. Pakistani writers have always tried to expose such ideologies through their writings, which allegedly justify the dominance of men over women. Human relations are reciprocal and cannot be directed from one side. The approach employed is qualitative with techniques of textual and thematic analysis keeping claims in mind, presented by Lois Tyson in his book Critical Theory Today. It was found, through the analysis of the story, that women are oppressed economically, politically, socially, and psychologically and they are treated as the ‘other’: objectified and marginalized, by men not only in the east but all over the world. However, the element of ‘revolt against biased ideologies’ is also very significant through the rebellious behavior of the character and emphasizes bringing change in the societies.

Daring to Dream: Contextualizing B. M. Bower’s The Eagle’s Wing with Colorado River Compact History

Daring to DreamContextualizing B. M. Bower’s The Eagle’s Wing with Colorado River Compact History Patricia J. Rettig (bio) For the seven US states of the Colorado River Basin, 2022 was to be the year for centennial celebrations of the Colorado River Compact, the multistate legal agreement that changed the West. Instead, as low river flows threatened water supplies for homes, farms, and power production, historical reflections were overridden by discussions of the increasingly urgent environmental and management challenges the Compact caused. Indeed, calls to renegotiate the Compact demonstrate the dire circumstances. An innovative document drafted and negotiated between January and November 1922, the Colorado River Compact, crafted to achieve solutions for its time, marked a turning point for the region. Most immediately the end goal for the seven southwestern states was to agree on how to share the river and thereby resolve the interstate conflicts impeding river development. By ensuring some level of certainty, the agreement enabled construction of dams for flood control, water storage, and power supply. Engaging creatively with this “subject of national importance and interest” the very same year, popular western writer B. M. Bower crafted a novel dedicated to the idea of damming the Colorado River. With the “timely” topic being an unconventional choice for Bower, The Eagle’s Wing: A Story of the Colorado became the first novel to depict the dam-building era of Colorado River development.1 In the book Bower presents a dramatic alternative approach to dam building, shaking characters out of their complacency and confronting readers with difficult questions. Contextualizing this otherwise obscure novel with primary sources conveying the history of the Colorado River Compact—especially [End Page 47] documents of originator Delph Carpenter—reveals how perceptively Bower commented on contemporary river issues. The novel generally aligned with the times but diverged in important ways as well. Examining The Eagle’s Wing in light of Colorado River Compact history shows the dominant interest in solving river problems through innovation, creativity, and action. This essay will draw on Colorado River Compact history after it first positions The Eagle’s Wing within the broader context of B. M. Bower’s work. Then, following a review of scholarship on Bower and The Eagle’s Wing, Delph Carpenter’s compact concept will be explored, primarily using a reflective essay he wrote. The successful process that brought about the Compact will be summarized through the Colorado River Commission meeting minutes and other historical documents. These contextualizing elements will then be used to illuminate how The Eagle’s Wing aligned with and diverged from its times, and what it can show us now. B. M. Bower and The Eagle’s Wing Though unknown to the public now but recently recovered by literary scholars, B. M. Bower (1871–1940) was, according to William Bloodworth, “the only woman to become an important writer of westerns” (95). Bower, whose complete name by 1921 was Bertha Muzzy Bower Sinclair Cowan,2 published more than one hundred short stories and nearly seventy novels between 1904 and 1941. Twenty years and more than thirty novels into her career with the publication of The Eagle’s Wing: A Story of the Colorado by Little, Brown and Company in 1924, Bower had built her nationally popular reputation on formula Westerns of the type involving cowboys, cattle, and conflict, where the good guy gets the girl. Having always incorporated less violence in her stories than did male writers, such as competitors Zane Grey and Clarence Mulford, Bower became comfortable with departures from the formula as her career progressed (Arbuckle 76; Baym 185; Bloodworth 101). In May 1922, when she was likely working on The Eagle’s Wing, Bower wrote to her publisher that she desired to “avoid that killing quality of sameness” across her novels.3 Though Bower wrote more than cowboy Westerns, these have been the focus for literary scholars recently recovering her work. [End Page 48] From the first to the most recent scholarship, Bower’s Chip of the Flying U (1904) and the related “Happy Family” books (fifteen in all) have garnered the most attention.4 These novels and stories, published over the course of thirty years, featured cowboy Chip...

Toni Morrison’s Politics of Feminist and European Literary Tradition: Discerning Feminist Matricentric Streaks in Morrison’s Work

This research investigates the Morrison’s novels, Sula and The Bluest Eye that how it depicts patriarchal explanation of motherhood in the Afro-American context and observe some Western / European dominant patriarchal literary tradition to explore a thrust of a feminist world view in every wake of life. The article establishes a relation of Toni Morrison’s writings with the feminist perspectives and mothering issues (particularly in black families) that led the change of minds and was highly applauded in European society. 
 The article deals with the Morrison theory on mothering to explore the experiences of black marginalized mothers that were absent in the white European patriarchal narratives on the motherhood. Drawing on Patricia Hills Collin’s concept of Black feminist Motherhood and Andrea O’Reilly’s theories on feminist mothering the study will investigate the impact of Morrison’s works that deconstruct the patriarchal discourse in western writings. Morrison’s novels playing a viable role in liberating mothering experience from suppression to rather intellectual and emotional development. This kind of mothering empowerment became a political and social act. The research follows the narrative approach and techniques of content analysis.

Говард Фаст и советские писатели. Статья первая. «Рука дружбы, протянутая через океан»: 1949–1955 гг.

The article tracks Howard Fast’s literary contacts with the USSR until 1955, when he met Boris Polevoy, the chairman of the Foreign Commission of the Union of Soviet Writers. Fast’s fame reached its zenith in the late 1940s – early 1950s, the period of the Cold War and fierce anti-American propaganda campaign in the USSR. The paper considers how and why Fast caught Soviet attention, what literary contacts he maintained, how much he had to pay for them, what compromises — reputational, political, he had to make to remain for the Soviet audience “the most widely read author of his century”. Obviously, Fast was acknowledged as a loyal friend of the USSR not only due to his literary achievements, i.e. historical novels, which brought him popularity both at home and around the world. Soviet propaganda perceived Fast’s disgraced experience (in 1950 he was sent to prison for contempt of Congress) as a valuable fact, a compelling proof of his active struggle for the cause of communism. Left Western writers were expected to take part in pickets, rallies, international congresses, demonstrations, and publish their nonfictional materials in the party press. Fast who was a delegate to World Congresses for Peace (Waldorf Conference 1949, Paris Congress 1949), the laureate of the International Stalin Peace Prize in 1953, perfectly met these requirements. Fast’s correspondence with P.A. Pavlenko from the funds of the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art is published in the addendum.

Western Historicization of Sarawak: Brooke's Imperialistic-Hegemonic Manipulation and Exploitation of the Dayaks

Most historical narratives of European colonization in the East are accounts from Western perspective, which justifies colonialism as an acceptable means to introduce western civilization into the colonized communities. Brooke's one-hundred-year-old dynasty in Sarawak was illustrative of European's imperialistic subjugation of land, which had long been occupied by local native inhabitants. Assuming the position of a white rajah, James Brooke being the so-called civilized white supremacist, justified his subjugation of the Dayaks in the name of bringing peace to an otherwise chaotic, savage land. Several war expeditions were launched by James Brooke and later Charles Brooke by enlisting the tamed Dayaks to exterminate other groups of fellow Dayaks deemed recalcitrant and rebellious causing high causalities among the Dayaks. This paper aims to revisit the extant historical narratives produced by Western writers and to critically examine Brooke's relations with the Dayaks from a Dayak writer's perspective. The paper employed two main historical research methods, namely, triangulation and hermeneutic approach to critically examine history texts on Brooke's rule. Based on the critical analysis of the historical accounts as produced by Western writers and even from Charles Brooke's own diary, there was cogent historical evidence to show that the white Rajahs though paternal, as portrayed by western writers, were actually responsible for manipulating and exploiting the Dayaks in order to sustain their hegemonic power over the Dayaks.

The Harmonisation of Shariah and Civil Law in the Area of Contract with Special Reference to the Remedies for Anticipatory Breach of Contract

The paper revealed that the contract law at the conceptual level is substantially similar in common law, civil law and Sharīah to the extent that the writers of Islamic law of contract do not explore, especially in the area of remedies for anticipatory breach of contractual obligations, beyond the boundaries of common law and civil law systems. However, the differences can be found in the application of the remedies. Thus, this paper suggests a method which can be employed to harmonise the area of divergence among these systems of law. Similarly, in the aspect of remedies for breach of contractual obligations, the research recommends that, in a scenario whereby damages are the only remedy to remedy anticipatory breach of contractual obligations, it should be on the ground of non-commitment of the breaker and not on the ground of expectation interest of performing party. The qualitative research methodology is utilised and the data gathered from the valuable literature of the Muslim and western writers were employed to accomplish the study.

Muhammad in The West: Analysis of the Historical Description of the Prophet Muhammad in Armstrong’s Writings

The main objectives of this study are to analyze and understand: (1) the general constructions of the Prophet Muhammad in the descriptions of Western writers; and (2) Armstrong's description of the Prophet Muhammad. This study is library research that uses a qualitative approach with a descriptive-critical method. Data were collected by reading various biographical literature on Prophet Muhammad from Western writers, which were grouped into three criteria: orientalist writers, revisionist writers, and popular writers. The results of the study show that: (1) there is a dynamic dialectic in the description of the figure of the Prophet Muhammad by Western writers, both from orientalist circles, such as W. Montgomery Watt, David Samuel Margoliouth, Edward Said, revisionists such as Patricia Crone, Michael Cook, Fred M. Donner, and popular writers like Karen Armstrong. This dynamic shows that the effort to understand the figure of the Prophet Muhammad is an important effort to understand Islam in Western society; and (2) Armstrong's description as the author of popular religious studies books about the figure of the Prophet Muhammad; made a major contribution to reducing various misunderstandings about Islam and the figure of the Prophet Muhammad in the eyes of Western society.

"Through the digits, through the fingers": Variations on the string figure as imaginary digital medium.

This article considers artistic engagements with string figure performance and collection as 'imaginary' articulations of digital media. As an object of anthropological inquiry, the string figure emerges in 1888 with a short paper by Franz Boas. Encouraged by more mainstream publications by Caroline Furness Jansen (2008) and Kathleen Haddon (1930), over the course of the 20th century the string figure would become a model through which largely western writers and artists have explored both the anxieties and dreams of ideal, embodied and networked communication technologies. The present article explores, specifically, the collecting projects and films of Harry Smith in the 1960s and 1970s; the video-performance piece of 1974, titled String Games: Improvisations for Inter-City Video, by the interdisciplinary artist Vera Frenkel; and the string figure exhibit at David Wilson's Museum of Jurassic Technology in Culver City, California. Through a media-archeological lens, the history of string figure fascination takes shape as a repository of dreams about (digital) communication, which, it is additionally suggested in a final section, might yet allow for the expansion and enlargement of conceptions of both digitality and media.