Showing papers in "Neohelicon in 2003"

Postcolonial Witnessing - and Beyond: Rethinking Literary History Today

Abstract: Paper presented at the conference 'Literary Histories and the Development of Identities' sponsored by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada involving members of the I.C.L.A. Coordinating Committee at Queen's University, Canada, in the Fall of 2001.

Narrativity in text construction and self construction

Abstract: The paper tries to suggest parallels between the study of narrative organization in psychology and the philosophical trends towards a decomposed view of the human mind. It starts off from an analysis of narrative organization in modern memory research. The substantial message of this research from the point of view of narrative studies is threefold: it emphasizes the importance of schematization in memory, as opposed to mere associative structures; it shows that among the possible schemata narrative organization is the most available and most universal one; as to the content of narrative schemata it shows that they are closely tied to our naive theories of human action. In a psychological sense, the cohesion of narratives is tied to their use of intentional attribution. We apply our schemata of human action to understand the plot of narratives. The Hume-Mach style empiricists, and later on modern novelists have been struggling for a long time with the place of Subjects in a totally decomposed vision of the world and the mind. This modern emphasis on a lack of coherence is recently becoming connected to the issue of narrativity in non-trivial ways by philosophers like Daniel Dennett. This trend accepts the idea of decomposing the self and other unifying constructions. However, the human need for coherence is accepted by them, and rather than proposing cohesion based on solid Egos, they propose different varieties of narrative theories regarding the self. These proposals have a strong Humeian flavor with their emphasis on the constructed but useful nature of the self concept. Their intellectual novelty is, however, that they try to find the sources for constructed coherence in narrativity. The paper argues that the philosophical and psychological narrative theories of the self have relevance to the study of literary narratives. Part of modern literature in this regard can be seen as a human experiment in facing the lability and soft construal of human integrity.

The mexican corrido and identity in regional, national, and international contexts

Abstract: Considerations of literary histories and their contributions to the development of identity often overlook the important role played by oral forms of literary phenomena in this important process. The rich, oral heritage of predominantly illiterate cultural regions as well as the interaction of this heritage with written forms of literary expression is overlooked in the unfolding of identity at local, regional, national and international levels. In his essay, The Storyteller, Walter Benjamin points out that for many in contemporary Western culture “the storyteller in his living immediacy is by no means a present force. He has already become something remote from us that is getting even more distant” (83). However, in Mexico and many parts of southwestern United States today, the ballad, or corrido, not only survives but also continues to flourish as an important mode of fictional and historical narration. Since its arrival as the corrido de relacion in 16 th century New Spain, this ballad’s continued vitality in America for almost five-hundred years can be attributed, in part, to the role it has played in configuring a sense of identity by telling the stories that communities have come to hold as true expressions of their character in both a metaphorical and an historical sense. This study aims to bring the oral literary tradition into consideration within the parameters of identity configuration. Although the corrido has contributed to the development of identity, its own definition as a narrative genre remains the subject of lively scholarly debate and there have been many attempts to enclose it within a neat, scientific definition. In 1997, Mexican historian and scholar, Antonio Avitia Hernandez, described the corrido as “a multi-thematic, lyrical-narrative genre that may be sung or not and is used to narrate stories both real and fictive expressing the affective or ideological perspective of the group or alliance to which the author is affiliated; its configuration conforms to popular poetic forms prevalent in the area where it is produced” (1: 23). Almost half a century earlier, Vicente T. Mendoza had defined the corrido as, an epical-lyrical-narrative genre presenting four-lined strophes of variable rhyme scheme, with either assonant or consonant even verses; a literary form supporting a musical phrase that is usually composed of four parts and telling of events that have a strong impact on a people’s sensitivity; its epic dimension derives from the Spanish romance and it normally maintains the romance’s general form and conserves its character of narrating war and battle exploits,

Rethinking the Scale of Literary History

Abstract: Paper presented at the conference 'Literary Histories and the Development of Identities' sponsored by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada involving members of the I.C.L.A. Coordinating Committee at Queen's University, Canada, in the Fall of 2001.

Comparative Literary History as an Elitist Metanarrative

Abstract: It is an ambiguous comfort to know that we are still debating the grand issues that were in the foreground when the International Comparative Literature Association was founded half a century ago as an offshoot from the Federation Internationale des Langues et Litteratures Modernes. FILLM’s Fifth Congress in 1951, focusing then exclusively on the European, considered modern literatures “in their relations with the fine arts” over a series of supposed great cultural and/or stylistic periods starting from the late Middle Ages. FILLM’s Sixth Congress in 1954, the birth year of ICLA, dealt with “Literature and Science” over a comparable series of supposed epochs in intellectual and technological history. Noticeable on the methodological front in 1954 are the decline of positivistic historicism and, in juxtaposition, the triumph of newer psychology and anthropology plus the first inroads of linguistic structuralism. FILLM’s Ninth Congress in 1963 grappled with the task of relating “Literary History and Literary Criticism”, pursued all the basic epistemological questions therefrom resultant, and introduced the comparison of Asian and European approaches, while giving some consideration to the particularities of other regions. This expansion of horizons by FILLM occurred just four year’s before the daughter organization ICLA approved the creation of the series A Comparative History of Literatures in European Languages. Does all this sound familiar? And here we are again, in the aftermath of postmodernism and poststructuralism, and constructivism, various -isms and post-isms which have meanwhile come and gone; but we are generally unable to believe in the death of literature, the arts, history, or even science – dyings often proclaimed in recent decades in European and Euro-American circles. ICLA has sailed on despite America’s and Europe’s postmodern and other doubts and pioneered the investigation of huge intraand inter-regional complexes of cultural and literary life; and the CHLEL series has acted as the ice-breaker of the ICLA flotilla, ploughing forward to demonstrate how much can be achieved in actual practice. But despite evident pride in these advances we do feel certain misgivings. Scholars involved in the CHLEL series are perhaps foremost among

Geography and Literature; On a Comparative History of the Literatures in the iberian Peninsula

Abstract: Paper presented at the conference 'Literary Histories and the Development of Identities' sponsored by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada involving members of the I.C.L.A. Coordinating Committee at Queen's University, Canada, in the Fall of 2001.

Theorizing Collective Identity

Abstract: The essay rejects the idea that 'collective identity' and 'cultural identity' are necessarily the same. Its aim is to preserve the usefulness of the former notion, by introducing 'the integrative circle of collective identity' as a terminological toolbox. This diagrammatic formula may help us find a common terminological language with which to handle the multitude of concrete variations on the theme of the collective in literary works. The second half of the paper demonstrates the theory in E. L. Doctorow's World's Fair and Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony by focusing on their representation of ceremony and ritual. Although the textual analysis cannot take up all the implications of the model, it hopes to propose a new and fruitful form of analysis.

Literary History and National Identity

Abstract: Paper presented at the conference 'Literary Histories and the Development of Identities' sponsored by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada involving members of the I.C.L.A. Coordinating Committee at Queen's University, Canada, in the Fall of 2001.

The Literature of World War I and Conflicting Female Identities

Abstract: Paper presented at the conference 'Literary Histories and the Development of Identities' sponsored by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada involving members of the I.C.L.A. Coordinating Committee at Queen's University, Canada, in the Fall of 2001.

Post-final thoughts on goytisolo and his impossible autobiography

Abstract: Paper presented at the conference 'Literary Histories and the Development of Identities' sponsored by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada involving members of the I.C.L.A. Coordinating Committee at Queen's University, Canada, in the Fall of 2001.

Storms, Sea Crossings, the Challenges of Nature, and the Transformation of the Protagonist in Medieval and Renaissance Literature

Abstract: In medieval and early modern literature the motif of crossing borders of water or crossing wild, wintry forests assumes a major function, as it provides an influential framework for the protagonist to experience a metaphorical transformation. Heroic literature hardly ever uses this motif, as neither Beowulf nor Siegfried nor Roland ever change in character and do not face any significant challenge when traveling from one location to another. Both the courtly protagonist and the narrators in many of the Renaissance novella collections, however, such as in Boccaccio’s Decameron and Marguerite de Navarre’s Heptameron, are faced with major hurdles in nature and realize at the end that their struggle to win the other shore or to find their way through the threatening forest or mountain leaves a profound impact on them.

Towards an Experimental View of Literary History

Abstract: To characterize literary history as at least potentially experimental is probably not a concept invented by the undersigned, though she may be coining the actual expression. After decades of reflection on the flaws of literary history, it appears to be generally accepted that it is, like any other form of discourse, always a discourse of its own time. As in literary theory, so in the theory of literary history, there have occurred within a few decades a number of chain reactions, each of which was designed to shed light on what literary history was not, and what it should have been. One generalization that can be safely made about the past fifty years is that there has been a strong reaction against the monolithic, but even that statement can be deceptive or only partially true, For example, it used to be that literatures in some of the major languages of Europe such as that of France would define as national literature, and would treat historically, all writing in that language, annexing as “peripheral” – that was the expression used – works produced outside the borders of the Hexagone – whether in Quebec, the Cameroons or Martinique. Occasionally even Belgian and Swiss writers were annexed in that category. Decolonization tore apart the monolith to some extent, but not quite, since the formerly colonized or at least supposedly dependent literatures of the past quickly became subjects of postcolonial national histories, forming new monoliths around their identities. Nationalisms old and new, as well as ideologically motivated ethnicities, are powerful motors of monolith formation. At the same time however, many monolingual national literatures have seen their monolithic character modified by multiculturalism, claims of immigrant and native languages and literatures, importation of writers in exile. It is perhaps the literatures of exile that constitute the greatest challenge to the monolithic phenomenon: their writers and works can be claimed in turn or even simultaneously by the literature of their country of origin, and that of their exile. Such is the case of the works of Skvorecky, Mongo Beti and countless others.

La Nouvelle Héloïse de Jean-Jacques Rousseau et la Pauvre Liza de N. M. Karamzine

Abstract: Toward the end of the 18th century the Russian writer Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin introduced the artistic movement of sentimentalism and the literary genre of psychological short story. These literary innovations demanded the creation of new artistic formulas capable of expressing the whole complexity of the inner world of a literary hero. Karamzin found these necessary formulas and means in the exalted eloquence and lyricism of Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s New Heloise. Rousseau’s masterpiece became for Karamzine an important example of the new psychological and sentimental literary aesthetic. However, Karamzine did not remain a simple imitator. In his literary works, he created a real « Russian short story », full of national originality as well as his own innovative methods and artistic individuality. Karamzin’s literary creations profoundly influenced Pushkin and many other great Russian writers of the 19th century.

Cultural Translation: Globalization or Localization?

Abstract: This paper aims to trace the cumulative trajectory of the 'Cultural Fever' that started in the early 1980s in China and to offer a cogent, broad analysis of it as a transitional phase of development into a new period of Chinese cultural history. Translation of massive writings of Western critical theories played a pivotal role in prompting the Great Cultural Discussion in China at the time. By and large, Chinese intellectuals were overwhelmingly responsive to Western critical theories, which seriously challenged the Chinese 'traditional' mode of creating and writing about literature, namely realism, or its variations: socialist realism and critical realism. Many literary critics and practitioners alike were eager to explore new approaches to literature in a bid to effect a radical cultural repositioning as well as to revitalize Chinese literary discourse. Nonetheless, the author questions the prevailing characterization of Chinese literary scholars and critics as submissive to this 'cultural invasion'. The borrowings are of a selective and eclectic nature and systematic introduction is rare, thereby leaving little chance of serious cultural colonization. This study brings together hitherto fairly fragmentary evidence of not only epistemological resistance but also of political resistance to Western critical theories, while conducing a careful investigation into the various forms and patterns of resistance that were motivated in substantially different ways. It can also be argued that resistance need not be viewed negatively, because it may mean critical acceptance and rational rejection of Western ideas. Meanwhile, resistance has undergone a traumatic but also exciting stage of development from nativity to maturity, from prejudice to rationalism. No reconstruction is possible unless it is based on some degree of resistance rather than indiscriminate acceptance.

Intercourse as discourse: the calculus of objectification and desire in the novel and film versions of les liaisons dangereuses

Abstract: The calculus of objectification and desire in both the novel and film versions of Choderlos de Laclos's Liaisons dangereuses is derived in two principal ways. The first derivation, that of the Sadean will to objectify the other for erotic and intellectual satisfaction, precedes the second, that of the overarching wish to produce a written object announcing the conquest of the human object. Limited by the medium, the film adaptations of the Liaisons dangereuses cannot place as great an emphasis on the composition of letters. Nevertheless, they make allusions to it in such a manner that underscores this type of objectification process. This article examines the film adaptations of Letter XLVIII, where Valmont, after sleeping with a mistress, composes a sardonic but unwittingly revealing missive to the Presidente de Tourvel. Specifically, it is this mise a nu of Valmont as a libertine in Letter XLVIII that commands the attention of filmmakers. I contend that Stephen Frears (Dangerous Liaisons, 1988), Milos Forman (Valmont, 1989) and Roger Vadim (Liaisons Dangereuses, 1960) choose to adapt this scene not only because of its presumable entertainment value, but because its visual exploitation allows for a quick, cogent means of highlighting, if not simplifying, the complex motif of sexual objectification as it relates to issues of power and libertinage. From the standpoint of film as it relates to the novel, what adaptations of this scene show is that the necessary representational departures from the novel still ingeniously depict the way in which language and sex conspire to create and destroy Valmont and Merteuil's libertine universe. The scene becomes especially useful when considering questions of cinematic variation because each director's rendition serves as a microcosm of his version of Laclos's text. Consequently, viewing what I will call the 'writing table scene,' provides a summary of Frears's, Forman's and Vadim's interpretive style. In addition, the scene, as represented in the films, gives a modern commentary on female libertinage. Laclos's novel suggests that female libertinage has no chance of validation, let alone survival. By contrast, twentieth-century filmmaking seems to compensate by presenting scenarios which intimate that the will, pleasure, and intellect of female libertinage - if they cannot win - can at least live on or manifest themselves in some form beyond that of their creator, Merteuil. All the films emphasize the development of Cecile as a libertine who, with varying degrees of success, will carry on Merteuil's legacy.

Ekphrasis and Cultural Discourse

Abstract: Paper presented at the conference 'Literary Histories and the Development of Identities' sponsored by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada involving members of the I.C.L.A. Coordinating Committee at Queen's University, Canada, in the Fall of 2001.

History, Historicity and the Self

Abstract: Paper presented at the conference 'Literary Histories and the Development of Identities' sponsored by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada involving members of the I.C.L.A. Coordinating Committee at Queen's University, Canada, in the Fall of 2001.

Mexico's Oral Narrative and Global Contexts

Abstract: The first question that comes to mind when considering the role of the corrido and oral traditions in the re-writing of literary histories is whether or not it has a place at all within a new global context. Certainly, the topic of oral traditions has surfaced with insistent frequency at literary conferences somewhat like an illiterate grandmother turning up at a cocktail party for sophisticated young writers. She may have helped build the house but she seems out of place, her presence a bit embarrassing, and the problem of where to sit her at the table an uncomfortable one. Although most are quick to recognize the foundations of national literatures in epic narratives such as El Cid or Le Chanson de Roland, the oral tradition that produced these works is often dismissed as a distant point of departure from which to hurry forth in order to examine more relevant written works. In spite of suggestive yet cumbersome terms such as “orature”, the concepts of “literature”, “history”, and “globalization” are not readily associated with oral narrative traditions. Oral compositions are too often associated with pre-history not history proper, with the assumed simplicity of low culture not the complexity of high culture or with an assumed confinement to local contexts like the fairground, coffee house, or cantina not the open, world stage. The view held by the Marques de Santillana (1398–1458) in the fifteenth century that oral compositions could only please “gente de ‘baxa y servil condicion’”, people of low and servile condition, continues to hold considerable sway even today (Mariscal 120). The view that oral narrative offers a point of departure, a prehistoric basis from which more noble, more sophisticated works could evolve is well illustrated by Domingo F. Sarmiento’s La vida de Juan Facundo: Civilizacion y Barbarie (1845). Here he reduces the rich oral tradition of the Argentine pampas to a medieval European anachronism: