Dominique Carnoy-Torabi; Marghrouri SHahrzad
Abstract
Introduction: In the course of one’s life, a person constantly changes due to various environmental and social factors and inevitably adopts new frameworks. One of the most radical changes that a person experiences is the transformation of beliefs and the development of a new identity. In this ...
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Introduction: In the course of one’s life, a person constantly changes due to various environmental and social factors and inevitably adopts new frameworks. One of the most radical changes that a person experiences is the transformation of beliefs and the development of a new identity. In this context, Pierre Bourdieu believes that human being is influenced by factors such as the family, the media, and the governing educational system, and thereby acquires and internalizes a set of schemas, dispositions, and habitus. Serving as a reflection of the realities of the world, literature narrates these developments. Joris-Karl Huysmans’s cycle of four novels—Là-bas (1891), En route (1895) and La cathédrale (1898), and L'Oblat (1903)—is a salient instance of this literature. The author seems to represent the course of spiritual transformations of human being in these works. Drawing on Bourdieu's theory, the present research intends to show how the protagonist changes in these narratives.Background: Sociological criticism, as a method for approaching literary works, helps examine the social dimension of a text. Many researchers in this field such as Marcel Mauss and Bernard Lahire have explored habitus as one of the key concepts of this type of criticism. There are many literary works that exhibit the function of habitus. Prominent examples include Lost Illusions (1843) by Honoré Balzac, Man's Fate by André Malraux (1933), and Submission (2015) by Michel Houellebecq. This research analyzes Huysmans’s cycle of four novels to demonstrate the impact of habitus in triggering social and spiritual transformation in a person. By studying the protagonist—who is a consistent character and [seems to be] the author’s alter ego in all four works—and the actions of other characters as well as the impact they exert on him, and finally by citing examples from all four works, we will show how an individual undergoes personal, spiritual, and social changes when placed in different situations and socializing with people from different spectrums. MethodologyAs a way to decode human behavior and development, habitus is an important subject of social studies and has attracted the attention of many researchers. This paper draws on Bourdieu's theory of habitus, which he proposed to decode and interpret individual and social developments. In Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste (1979), he refers to habitus as a system of practical structures that directs the actions of social agents. In general, habitus means the set of schemas that a person acquires during their lifetime as a result of interaction with different environments. These schemas include how to eat, dress, and socialize, as well as one’s interests and preoccupations, among others. Conclusion:Analyzing Huysmans’s cycle of four novels with the help of Bourdieu's theory showed that the protagonist, Durtal, was transformed under the influence of society and cultural and religious domains as this character develops new habits such as performing religious acts and practicing spiritual meditation. Thus, our analysis highlighted the extent to which one’s identity, beliefs, behavior, and actions are subject to environmental and social conditions, which are marked by interaction with other social agents. Durtal’s interaction with clerics is a conspicuous instance in this regard. Huysmans has carved out the course of his spiritual development by representing himself through Durtal’s personality.
Fatemeh Pourjafari; leila Baradaran Jamili
Abstract
The present study is based on the interaction between aesthetics and ethics and by focusing on the rhetorical narrative theory and the ethical philosophy it aims to investigate the aesthetic representation of ethics in On Beauty by Zadie Smith. On this account, this study relies primarily on James Phelan's ...
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The present study is based on the interaction between aesthetics and ethics and by focusing on the rhetorical narrative theory and the ethical philosophy it aims to investigate the aesthetic representation of ethics in On Beauty by Zadie Smith. On this account, this study relies primarily on James Phelan's rhetorical approach to narratology and Charles Taylor's philosophy of ethics. According to Phelan, the study of narrative aesthetics deals with the analysis of the narrative techniques, employed by the author and the narrator. Free indirect discourse and narrative voice are two techniques that contribute to the aesthetic dimension of the narrative. Through free indirect discourse, the readers are given a chance to enter inside the characters' unconscious mind which is integrated within the narrative flow, while narrative voice is defined by Phelan as the synthesis of style, tone, and ethics. Furthermore, the ethical world of the story is analyzed concerning the characters' various attitudes towards the concept of beauty, and their tendency towards human connection and altruism as ethical goods. Smith’s characters search for their authentic selfhood within the pluralistic context of the globalized world while practicing concern for others. This article aims at exploring the ethical values embedded in the choice of using certain narrative frameworks in Smith’s novel, and their relation to the contemporary tendency in literature towards rejecting postmodern fragmented narrative world.
Maryam Shokouhi
Abstract
Zadie Smith, as a writer intimately associated with London, attacks the false concept of purity and unity in multicultural societies. In The Autograph Man (2002), she depicts the obsessions of Alex Li-Tandem who is half-Jewish and half-Chinese living in the suburban heartland of Jewish London, Mountjoy. ...
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Zadie Smith, as a writer intimately associated with London, attacks the false concept of purity and unity in multicultural societies. In The Autograph Man (2002), she depicts the obsessions of Alex Li-Tandem who is half-Jewish and half-Chinese living in the suburban heartland of Jewish London, Mountjoy. Alex is not a social person at the opening of the novel, and cannot relate to his Jewish background or people surrounding him. So, he starts collecting autographs to compensate for the lack he faces in life. A one- to-one relationship between the subject’s path from "marginalization" to "separation" and, "integration", reclaiming his identity and the role of the Other could be pursued in the novel. In other words, family, place of residence, friends, and religion are significant in the acculturation process that Alex goes through from childhood to adulthood. Con- trary to Smith’s previous works, the novel emphasizes less on the multicultural issues centered on the land and more on religious identity.
Bahman Zarrinjooee; Seyed Vahid Abtahi
Abstract
John Barth, among postmodern American novelists, is apt to be called the reviver of Pyrrhonist tradition in the Twentieth century. In his creation of Pyrrhonist characters, he criticizes the American value system and the empty life of contemporary man in a broad sense. The End of the Road, Barth’s ...
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John Barth, among postmodern American novelists, is apt to be called the reviver of Pyrrhonist tradition in the Twentieth century. In his creation of Pyrrhonist characters, he criticizes the American value system and the empty life of contemporary man in a broad sense. The End of the Road, Barth’s second novel is a successful example in which the marry traits of a protagonist give their place to the mean qualities of an antagonist. In the novel, the anti-hero characters suffering from a mental paralysis under the title “Cosmopsis” resort to “Mythotherapy” which means nothing but a distortion of identity. Among the consequences of this treatment are, of course, “Decidophobia” and “hyperbolic Cartesian doubt.” Interestingly, Barth’s description for the irrationality of such a man corresponds to the definition of rationality in Pyrrhonism. On this basis, the main question of the research arises from the fact that Barth’s views are an embodiment of those historical thoughts regarded as Pyrrhonist skepticism, which have been developed through ages by different forms. Apart from the historical impressions on the formation of modern skeptical philosophy which was flourished first by Cartesian doubt and developed by Hume’s empiricism the research also examines Barth’s postmodern-skeptical cosmology which derives from his obsession with identity and meaning. The overall point inferred by the researchers is that how Barth in The End of the Road indicates human decisions rely most on “emotions” rather than “reason” and that the rationality of man take him nowhere but in itself.
Hossein Mohseni; Kian Soheil
Abstract
Cyberpunk is one of the latest genres in the development of science fiction. In it, characters deal with various cybernetic and technological advancements with futuristic affinities. In this genre, characters experience such futuristic advancements through a series of images and surface values. In the ...
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Cyberpunk is one of the latest genres in the development of science fiction. In it, characters deal with various cybernetic and technological advancements with futuristic affinities. In this genre, characters experience such futuristic advancements through a series of images and surface values. In the present study, it is asked what the status of characters’ knowledge and identity is in the cyberpunk world. Through utilization of ideas of Garfield Benjamin and William Haney, two well-known critics in Cyberculture and Posthuman/Cyborg Identity, the study believes that cyberpunk citizens’ knowledge and definition from their identities is shattered and non-essential. Cyberpunk citizens have fluid movement between their various identities and have a simultaneous sense of belonging and non-belonging to all of them. All these identities are formed around the hollowness and emptiness of the citizens’ identity core, which is the only essence of posthuman subjects.
Hoda Shabrang
Abstract
Immigration experience is always accompanied by tension and conflict. In other words, the immigrant is always under a double paradoxical command. The host asks the immigrant to assimilate into its culture, yet simultaneously it orders him to keep a distance which results in the “paradox of assimilation ...
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Immigration experience is always accompanied by tension and conflict. In other words, the immigrant is always under a double paradoxical command. The host asks the immigrant to assimilate into its culture, yet simultaneously it orders him to keep a distance which results in the “paradox of assimilation and difference”. Therefore, the immigrant will be in an impossible situation: on the one hand he has to actively participate in the assimilation process; on the other hand, he should keep his distance from the host culture. The Immigrant artist is not allowed to create a kind of art which is completely related to his culture because it is not readable and understandable in the host country, neither is he allowed to create some kind of art which is completely related to the host culture since that place is reserved for the artists of the host country. In this article, first the “paradox of assimilation and difference” and its consequences will be discussed, then the movie A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night by Ana Lily Amirpour, who is an immigrant Iranian-American director, will be analyzed. The aim is to show how her shattered identity as an immigrant artist is represented in her art. Although this impossible situation seems very painful at first glance, it is beneficial for the immigrant artist. In this hybridized space, she creates a kind of art which is innovative and unique, because she is not completely preoccupied with the hollywoodian clichés imposed by the host culture.
Dominik Carnox –Torabi; Monireh Akbarpouran
Volume 13, Issue 17 , October 2017, , Pages 79-99
Abstract
Imagology, as un approach in Comparative Literature for the study of images and representations of the alien ("other") in a literary work, may have a special relation with Epic genre; because only in this genre, representation of Other necessarily accompanies rejection, fear and exaggerated humiliation; ...
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Imagology, as un approach in Comparative Literature for the study of images and representations of the alien ("other") in a literary work, may have a special relation with Epic genre; because only in this genre, representation of Other necessarily accompanies rejection, fear and exaggerated humiliation; and in the trilogy of reactions to the alien, defined by Daniel Henri Pageaux, i.e. xenophobia, xenophilia and xenomania, this representation is placed in former category. The Epic genre, in fact, is an identity-based genre that, highlighting the differences and conflicts between Us and the Other, covers up the internal contradictions and conflicts and reconstructs social identity. This identity is certainly defined in relation to an otherness which monsters and ogres are examples. In this article, we would analyze the poetic of Other representation in the epic genre, study the mechanism of exclusion and deformation of the alien, and examine its relation with the intrinsic properties of epic.
Narges Montakhabi Bakhtvar
Volume 13, Issue 17 , October 2017, , Pages 245-268
Abstract
Ethics has undergone huge changes in postmodernism as many playwrights of the era have tried to capture the deep interconnection between language and subjectivity. The present essay is an attempt to unravel the new ethical dicta set forth on the American and British stage from the 1960s to 1980s. The ...
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Ethics has undergone huge changes in postmodernism as many playwrights of the era have tried to capture the deep interconnection between language and subjectivity. The present essay is an attempt to unravel the new ethical dicta set forth on the American and British stage from the 1960s to 1980s. The critical framework for this study relies on Giorgio Agamben’s thought and philosophical oeuvre. Agamben’s ethical renovations happen at the close proximity of language, ontology, and politics. He firmly asserts that experiencing the matter and being of language can be considered as an ethical act that questions cultural clichés imposed by power. Postmodern theater has witnessed an unprecedented shift in the role of language; it has forced the audience to venture the theatrical experience in order to be at the margins of communication and speech. This process can be deemed as ethical from Agamben’s point of view as it entices the viewers to see beyond and through the capitalist and ideological workings. Through such a limit experience, theater can find its true stance as a site for communality. The ultimate purpose of this study is to put forward the mechanisms through which performance can become an ethical gesture by installing the awareness of the fact that liminality of language can in itself be a new form of subjectivity.
Volume 7, Issue 1 , June 2014
Abstract
Kundera's novels depict a world full of thoughts and questions. These thoughts are always about the human being and his existence in this world of confusion and difficulty to live.
In this article we will look at the themes which are repeated in the works of Kundera, novel to novel, until the specifications ...
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Kundera's novels depict a world full of thoughts and questions. These thoughts are always about the human being and his existence in this world of confusion and difficulty to live.
In this article we will look at the themes which are repeated in the works of Kundera, novel to novel, until the specifications and features make the obvious highlights of his novels. Notions of identity and immigration and the influence they get one from another, are notions that Kundera develops by processing his characters to thereby achieve a general understanding of mankind.
One of the fundamental problems that Kundera follows in his novels is the concept of identity, how it is formed and its transformations which is shown off in a different way in each novel. In this article, based on the novel Ignorance the identity of the immigrant characters in their mother land and in the second country are studied and the question of the inevitable immigration which often raises paradoxical sensations in characters, is examined.
Volume 6, Issue 1 , October 2013