The De Kretser case: a note on Sri Lankan writing in English

Abstract

How is the content of a literary canon, or tradition to be configured? What counts as a literary archive? More than 25 years after Edward Said’s Orientalism (1978 Said, W. Edward. 1978. Orientalism, New York: Vintage.  [Google Scholar]), it seems reasonable to assume, that central to such traditions, would be the work of those who live and work in the society that gives rise to it. In this review, such a location of Michele de Kretser’s new novel, The Hamilton Case, is offered, as a caution to metropolitan literary critics who continue to approach Sri Lankan writing in English, as Christopher Columbus approached ‘America’. It is argued that the novel owes much to, and can be read as echoing and elaborating the detective fiction of S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, who was, also, the fourth Prime Minister of Ceylon (Sri Lanka), 1956–59.     

The undulating contours of sōgō geijutsu (total work of art), or Hanada Kiyoteru's thoughts on transmedia in postwar Japan

This article provides an insight into the theorization of sōgō geijutsu or the work of total art during the postwar decades in Japan, primarily through the language of Hanada Kiyoteru, a notable communist critic during the 1950s, as a way to present a discursive precursor to what would be explored as intermedia in the 1960s. It is an attempt to trace the debates that were seen in journal Sōgō Bunka, which was established immediately after the war, and how the question of collectivity and collective production of art was discussed among the contributing critics, artists, and intellectuals. Totality as some may know already, is a problematic term that comes close to the wartime notion of ‘totality’, as it was employed for Japanese government's ideological deployment for its war efforts. Although the term has accrued a sinister ring, the critics mentioned in the article, especially Hanada, were determined to reclaim the term as a way of devising a postwar aesthetic-political platform. One important component of sōgō geijutsu was popular art and its relationship to the masses, as it was designed to relocate avant-garde art practices to the juncture of popular space and political praxis, while critiquing the modernist avant-garde art associated with high art. In addition to providing a fuller historiography of intermedia (or transmedia) in Japan, interrogating sōgō geijutsu also serves to shed some light on the complex and multivalent discourse of locating a ‘people’ and their communicative action. Through this history, the term totality gains a greater texture, no longer dismissible as a mere vestige of fascism in the minds of the Japanese artists and critics.     

难以逃离的瘫痪——从空间批评视角解读乔伊斯的《阿拉比》

空间批评关注空间的社会文化等属性,文本中的空间是一种蕴含多维意义的指涉系统。乔伊斯在其短篇小说《阿拉比》中分别从景观空间、社会空间和个体空间三个角度呈现精神瘫痪的都柏林。景观空间反映出都柏林社会的沉闷压抑、毫无生气、令人窒息;社会空间为情节提供了发展的广度;个人空间则折射出主人公压抑的心情。这三种空间成为小说中的一种指涉系统,成功地展现了都柏林这座瘫痪中心的全景。     

《Seven Types of Ambiguity》之＂ambiguity＂的译名研究

燕卜荪《Seven Types of Ambiguity》中“ambiguity”作为燕卜荪诗学的核心术语而广为人知，并对其后的新批评文论产生了极大影响。这个术语在中国的译名以“多义”为起始，又经历了“晦涩”、“朦胧”、“含混”、“复义”等多种译名的变迁，体现了国内学界对于新批评乃至整个西方文论的接受现状。本文通过对其译名变迁过程的梳理以及对各种译名的辨析，最终认为“复义”是目前对于“ambiguity”较为适合的译名，并希望以此为突破点，加强国内学界对于相关文论术语定义范畴的共同认知。     

艾青的新诗批评体系

艾青为中国现代自由诗的发展做出了突出贡献。他在总结自身创作经验的基础上进行的新诗批评,始终坚持现实主义方向,同时又不断探寻新诗自身创作及文本规律,关注时代大众的接受意识,代表了中国现实主义诗学发展的一个高度。艾青的新诗理论以“大众的精神教育工具”说为基准,是一个由诗人“苦役”说、新诗“散文美”和读者接受反“晦涩”三根支柱支撑的批评体系。     

开放的作品与多元的解读——现代文学文本教学的基本信念

现代文学文本教学,要在尊重文本的基础上,促进学生与文本的"精神相遇",启发诱导学生对文学文本的多元解读。教师的工作不仅体现在理论倡导与指引方面,更主要地体现在亲自"下水"示范方面。以《雷雨》、《围城》、《生死场》等作品为例,教改实验结果显示,学生大多能够很快掌握解读阅读方法。"多元解读"不仅可以培养学生创造性思维,也可实现真正意义上的师生互动。     

诗歌美如树——以新批评主义的角度解读乔伊斯·基尔默的《咏树》

当代部分文学评论认为乔伊斯·基尔默的《咏树》过于简单、不协调以及语言色彩单一,对此本文提出不同的观点并强调该作品在艺术上的整体性和美感。本文采用新批评主义者所提出的细读的方式,从反讽、词序、比喻、描绘以及语气方面对作品进行了剖析,发现在这些所有形式元素的共同作用下诗歌的意境得到了体现。     

社会历史批评发展概述

社会历史批评方法在历史的不断演进中得到确立和发展。不同时代的社会历史批评并非简单的新旧交替,而是多种文化的碰撞和社会生活交织而成的复杂更迭,其中有内在的规律和一致性。只有掌握了社会历史批评的发展轨迹和特征,才能对传统的社会历史批评进行扬弃,并赋予不断发展变化的社会历史批评新的时代含义。     

国际足联治理体系与治理能力研究

运用文献资料法、、逻辑分析、网络信息分析等研究方法对国际足联的治理体系和治理能力进行研究,认为国际足联治理体系存在先天的缺陷。     

女性主义批评课程设置难点及应对策略

目前国内很多高校开设性别研究课程,可见,女性主义批评作为一种理论,在文学研究中的作用举足轻重。但由于从事性别研究的人员专业繁多,使得女性主义批评在理论研究和批评实践的层面,都存在着概念误用的状况,甚至出现概念的含混不清、阐释的简单化和机械化等问题。鉴于此,采取关键词的课程设置方式,恰恰可以避免这个问题,不仅让课程条理清晰,而且学理性强,节约教学资源,彰显文艺理论专业特色。