Pub Date : 2023-12-05DOI: 10.46585/absa.2023.16.2509
Barbora Frizelová
Through an exploration of the comfort women system, this article analyzes how the female gender has been oppressed in history. It follows the story of Akiko, the main character of Comfort Woman (1998) by Asian American author Nora Okja Keller. Keller is one of the first authors to write about comfort women, gaining publicity for this issue. This article provides an examination of terms such as sex, gender, and gender issues. Certain concepts influencing American and Asian cultures and their stance towards gender are also analyzed, after which focus is placed on the portrayal of gender roles as illustrated in the novel. The article briefly mentions the history of the relationship between the United States and Korea. The characteristics of the comfort women system are described as well as the causes leading to its establishment such as patriarchy, Confucian traditions, and the exploitability of lower-class society. Additionally, the article highlights how the comfort women issue helped define feminist theory in the US and identifies the transnational nature of the issues involved.
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Pub Date : 2023-12-05DOI: 10.46585/absa.2023.16.2508
Dorota Osinska
The present article examines how Augusta Webster’s dramatic monologue “Circe” (1870), represents the problem of women’s boredom, frustration, and fantasy through the reinterpretation of the mythological Greek enchantress Circe. The analysis offers a close reading of the text supported by philosophical, historical, and cultural notions of boredom. Webster’s poem functions as an intriguing commentary on how loneliness and hatred towards domesticity are accompanied by growing sexual frustration and even misandry. My reading proposes a fresh look at Webster’s work, incorporating a number of critical, mostly feminist, analyses of the poem. Indeed, Webster’s “Circe” acts as a provocative glimpse into the psycho-scape of a bored woman who gradually reveals her incessant desires for change and a perfect lover.
{"title":"Frustration, Boredom, and Fantasy: Augusta Webster’s “Circe”","authors":"Dorota Osinska","doi":"10.46585/absa.2023.16.2508","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.46585/absa.2023.16.2508","url":null,"abstract":"The present article examines how Augusta Webster’s dramatic monologue “Circe” (1870), represents the problem of women’s boredom, frustration, and fantasy through the reinterpretation of the mythological Greek enchantress Circe. The analysis offers a close reading of the text supported by philosophical, historical, and cultural notions of boredom. Webster’s poem functions as an intriguing commentary on how loneliness and hatred towards domesticity are accompanied by growing sexual frustration and even misandry. My reading proposes a fresh look at Webster’s work, incorporating a number of critical, mostly feminist, analyses of the poem. Indeed, Webster’s “Circe” acts as a provocative glimpse into the psycho-scape of a bored woman who gradually reveals her incessant desires for change and a perfect lover.","PeriodicalId":158621,"journal":{"name":"American & British Studies Annual","volume":"136 19","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138598935","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-12-05DOI: 10.46585/absa.2023.16.2501
Alice Tihelková
Over the past twelve years, the UK has seen a marked increase in poverty and economic inequality. While numerous factors have contributed to this situation, an undisputedly important role has been played by the continuous program of welfare spending cuts designed and executed by a series of Conservative governments. To alleviate the potential for the unpopularity of austerity measures, the Conservatives have attempted to put a positive spin on their policies by making a series of core claims emphasizing the beneficial effects of the welfare reform. Using the method of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), this paper examines these claims and offers a critique of each of them. In doing so, the research seeks to expose the use of traditional stereotypes (especially that of the “deserving” and “undeserving” poor) in the government’s rhetoric. The paper draws on a corpus of political speeches and media appearances of Conservative politicians, as well as on sociological reports and newspaper coverage. The analysis is principally focused on the two governments led by David Cameron, although some attention is also devoted to subsequent Conservative administrations.
{"title":"Selling Austerity to the Public: Analysing the Rhetoric of the UK Government on its Welfare Cuts","authors":"Alice Tihelková","doi":"10.46585/absa.2023.16.2501","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.46585/absa.2023.16.2501","url":null,"abstract":"Over the past twelve years, the UK has seen a marked increase in poverty and economic inequality. While numerous factors have contributed to this situation, an undisputedly important role has been played by the continuous program of welfare spending cuts designed and executed by a series of Conservative governments. To alleviate the potential for the unpopularity of austerity measures, the Conservatives have attempted to put a positive spin on their policies by making a series of core claims emphasizing the beneficial effects of the welfare reform. Using the method of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), this paper examines these claims and offers a critique of each of them. In doing so, the research seeks to expose the use of traditional stereotypes (especially that of the “deserving” and “undeserving” poor) in the government’s rhetoric. The paper draws on a corpus of political speeches and media appearances of Conservative politicians, as well as on sociological reports and newspaper coverage. The analysis is principally focused on the two governments led by David Cameron, although some attention is also devoted to subsequent Conservative administrations.","PeriodicalId":158621,"journal":{"name":"American & British Studies Annual","volume":"130 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138599107","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-12-05DOI: 10.46585/absa.2023.16.2504
Ivona Mišterová
In her book on adaptation theory, Linda Hutcheon1 argues that “[n]either the product nor the process of adaptation exists in a vacuum: they all have a context - a time and a place, a society, and a culture.” Texts travel from their locus originis to other destinations, times, and contexts, crossing geographical, language, and genre borders, and creating their own palimpsestic identity. As Hutcheon2 states, “an adaptation is a derivation that is not derivative - a work that is second without being secondary.” The objective of the article is to examine two Czech adaptations of Shakespeare’s Hamlet: Claudius and Gertrude (2007) by Jiří Stránský and Jakub Špalek, which was inspired by Saxo Grammaticus and John Updike’s novel Gertrude and Claudius (2000), and Emodrink of Elsinore (2009) by Josef Prokeš. The two plays differ significantly. Stránský and Špalek retell the story that precedes the well-known events at Elsinore and remade the remake. Prokeš, on the other hand, transfers the action to an obscure nightclub, turning Hamlet into a bartender accompanied by a faithful dog (albeit embodied by a human) and incorporating some Czech allusions. The paper focuses on the intertextual aspects of the Czech plays and their vertical rather than horizontal existence.
Linda hutcheon在她关于适应理论的书中认为，“适应的产物和过程都存在于真空中:它们都有一个背景——一个时间和一个地点，一个社会和一种文化。”文本从其原址旅行到其他目的地、时间和语境，跨越地理、语言和体裁的边界，并创造自己的改写身份。正如hutcheon所说，“改编是一种衍生，而不是衍生——一种第二的作品，而不是次要的。”本文的目的是考察两部捷克版的莎士比亚《哈姆雷特》:由Jiří Stránský和Jakub Špalek改编的《克劳迪斯与格特鲁德》(2007)，其灵感来自萨克森·格拉姆蒂库斯和约翰·厄普代克的小说《格特鲁德与格特鲁德》(2000)，以及约瑟夫·普罗克什的《埃尔西诺的Emodrink》(2009)。这两部剧差别很大。Stránský和Špalek重新讲述了埃尔西诺事件之前的故事，并重新制作了翻拍版。另一方面，普罗克什把故事情节转移到了一个不知名的夜总会，把哈姆雷特变成了一个酒保，他身边有一条忠诚的狗(尽管是人)，还融入了一些捷克语的典故。本文着重研究捷克戏剧的互文性及其纵向而非横向的存在。
{"title":"Two (Postmodern) Czech Shakespearean Adaptations: Claudius and Gertrude and Emodrink of Elsinore","authors":"Ivona Mišterová","doi":"10.46585/absa.2023.16.2504","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.46585/absa.2023.16.2504","url":null,"abstract":"In her book on adaptation theory, Linda Hutcheon1 argues that “[n]either the product nor the process of adaptation exists in a vacuum: they all have a context - a time and a place, a society, and a culture.” Texts travel from their locus originis to other destinations, times, and contexts, crossing geographical, language, and genre borders, and creating their own palimpsestic identity. As Hutcheon2 states, “an adaptation is a derivation that is not derivative - a work that is second without being secondary.” The objective of the article is to examine two Czech adaptations of Shakespeare’s Hamlet: Claudius and Gertrude (2007) by Jiří Stránský and Jakub Špalek, which was inspired by Saxo Grammaticus and John Updike’s novel Gertrude and Claudius (2000), and Emodrink of Elsinore (2009) by Josef Prokeš. The two plays differ significantly. Stránský and Špalek retell the story that precedes the well-known events at Elsinore and remade the remake. Prokeš, on the other hand, transfers the action to an obscure nightclub, turning Hamlet into a bartender accompanied by a faithful dog (albeit embodied by a human) and incorporating some Czech allusions. The paper focuses on the intertextual aspects of the Czech plays and their vertical rather than horizontal existence.","PeriodicalId":158621,"journal":{"name":"American & British Studies Annual","volume":"14 7","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138598178","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-12-05DOI: 10.46585/absa.2023.16.2506
Roman Trušník
In the context of culture’s fascination with cats, the present article analyzes the use of felines in two pieces of fiction by the southern writer Jim Grimsley: the short story “The Cathouse Lovers” (1976) and his novel Comfort & Joy (1993 in German, 1999 in English). The two texts differ greatly in terms of the genre, period, as well as the role of cats in the story, yet both of them include the motif of cats that have a negative effect on the romantic and sexual relationships of their human protagonists.
{"title":"Cats Can Be Dangerous to Your Relationships: Cats in the Fiction of Jim Grimsley","authors":"Roman Trušník","doi":"10.46585/absa.2023.16.2506","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.46585/absa.2023.16.2506","url":null,"abstract":"In the context of culture’s fascination with cats, the present article analyzes the use of felines in two pieces of fiction by the southern writer Jim Grimsley: the short story “The Cathouse Lovers” (1976) and his novel Comfort & Joy (1993 in German, 1999 in English). The two texts differ greatly in terms of the genre, period, as well as the role of cats in the story, yet both of them include the motif of cats that have a negative effect on the romantic and sexual relationships of their human protagonists.","PeriodicalId":158621,"journal":{"name":"American & British Studies Annual","volume":"134 41","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138598659","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-12-05DOI: 10.46585/absa.2023.16.2495
Miroslav Černý
Ofelia Zepeda, an enrolled member of the Tohono O’odham Indian Nation (formerly Papago), is one of the most acknowledged Native American poets of her generation. Zepeda’s creative writing can be characterized as eco-poetry, for it is deeply connected with the natural environment of the Tohono O’odham traditional tribal territory in the Sonoran Desert of the American Southwest. The present paper focuses on the motif of language and speech as it is presented in Zepeda’s latest collection of verses Where Clouds Are Formed (2008). The paper maps the diverse forms in the work and in studies of individual poems (some of which are bilingual: English and Tohono O’odham), the significance of the traditional language within the context of so-called environmental (in)justice is explored.
奥菲利亚·塞佩达是托霍诺·奥哈姆印第安民族(以前的帕帕戈)的注册成员，是她那一代最受认可的美洲原住民诗人之一。塞佩达的创作与美国西南部索诺兰沙漠托霍诺奥奥达姆传统部落领地的自然环境有着深刻的联系，可以说是生态诗。本论文的重点是语言和言语的母题，因为它是在塞佩达的最新诗集《云在何处》(2008)中呈现的。本文描绘了作品和个别诗歌(其中一些是双语的:英语和Tohono O 'odham)的不同形式，探讨了传统语言在所谓环境正义背景下的意义。
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Pub Date : 2023-12-05DOI: 10.46585/absa.2023.16.2512
Simona Bajáková
Mrs. May, the main character in Flannery O’Connor’s short story “Greenleaf,” undergoes a personal apocalypse. Her destiny is foreshadowed throughout the short story in her struggle with accepting ecological thinking. This paper analyses “Greenleaf” through an ecocritical perspective and focuses on O’Connor’s unique employment of the trope of apocalypticism as well as nature metaphors. While previous research in O’Connor studies has delved into the theme of ecology, the concern of this paper is to discuss the author’s ecological poetics, which thus far remain under-researched. Building my analysis on Paul Ricoeur’s theory of metaphor, I will argue that Mrs. May’s personal apocalypse is metaphorical and expresses the theme of anthropocentrism as a cataclysmic force. My goal is to demonstrate how O’Connor’s ecological poetics become evident through apocalyptic tropology and nature metaphors.
{"title":"Personal Apocalypse: Ecological Poetics in Flannery O’Connor’s short story “Greenleaf”","authors":"Simona Bajáková","doi":"10.46585/absa.2023.16.2512","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.46585/absa.2023.16.2512","url":null,"abstract":"Mrs. May, the main character in Flannery O’Connor’s short story “Greenleaf,” undergoes a personal apocalypse. Her destiny is foreshadowed throughout the short story in her struggle with accepting ecological thinking. This paper analyses “Greenleaf” through an ecocritical perspective and focuses on O’Connor’s unique employment of the trope of apocalypticism as well as nature metaphors. While previous research in O’Connor studies has delved into the theme of ecology, the concern of this paper is to discuss the author’s ecological poetics, which thus far remain under-researched. Building my analysis on Paul Ricoeur’s theory of metaphor, I will argue that Mrs. May’s personal apocalypse is metaphorical and expresses the theme of anthropocentrism as a cataclysmic force. My goal is to demonstrate how O’Connor’s ecological poetics become evident through apocalyptic tropology and nature metaphors.","PeriodicalId":158621,"journal":{"name":"American & British Studies Annual","volume":"6 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138601165","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-12-05DOI: 10.46585/absa.2023.16.2498
Barbora Vinczeová
The paper addresses the narrative of mutual healing, grieving and resilience in Sigrid Nunez’s novel The Friend. The aim of the article is to determine whether in the presented narrative shared trauma among different species leads to improved resilience of humans and animals, as well as whether a shared experience of grieving and healing is beneficial for both sets of beings involved. An overview of the healing process in humans and animals which takes place after trauma is provided. Although based on a work of fiction, this paper seeks to be a contribution to the field of trauma studies, highlighting the benefits and therapeutic value of human-animal relations and reflecting approaches in fiction.
{"title":"Mutual Grieving, Healing and Resilience in Sigrid Nunez’s The Friend","authors":"Barbora Vinczeová","doi":"10.46585/absa.2023.16.2498","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.46585/absa.2023.16.2498","url":null,"abstract":"The paper addresses the narrative of mutual healing, grieving and resilience in Sigrid Nunez’s novel The Friend. The aim of the article is to determine whether in the presented narrative shared trauma among different species leads to improved resilience of humans and animals, as well as whether a shared experience of grieving and healing is beneficial for both sets of beings involved. An overview of the healing process in humans and animals which takes place after trauma is provided. Although based on a work of fiction, this paper seeks to be a contribution to the field of trauma studies, highlighting the benefits and therapeutic value of human-animal relations and reflecting approaches in fiction.","PeriodicalId":158621,"journal":{"name":"American & British Studies Annual","volume":"127 38","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138599167","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-12-05DOI: 10.46585/absa.2023.16.2502
Mădălina Elena Mandici
Despite the secure position of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights (1847) in academic and popular culture, the novel may not seem the first choice for a work that features both conventionally appealing characters and reliable narrators as well as modern delineations of class, gender, and race. This study argues that in Wuthering Heights reading, writing, education, and learning resist a unified interpretation, but nonetheless can provide a compass for navigating its unwieldy narrative. In the novel, the landed gentry is above the law of state, and women are at all stages disadvantaged. These depictions come in a continuous social spectrum: the woman who annotates sacred books to write her own story and chooses the cultured gentry but denies her own rough, wild nature (Catherine I), the woman exposed to culture from the cradle who educates the illiterate in a reconciliatory educator-disciple matrimony (Catherine II), the housekeeper born into the servile classes who moves beyond the limits imposed by gentility and social segregation, and has exclusive access to all the personal and social histories embedded within Wuthering Heights (Nelly Dean).
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Pub Date : 2023-12-05DOI: 10.46585/absa.2023.16.2494
Karla Rohová
This article explores Zora Neale Hurston’s short story “Sweat” (1926) from an ecofeminist perspective. When it comes to the role of nature in Hurston’s writing, ecocritical as well as feminist discussions often romanticize the role of nature in the lives of Hurston’s characters. Hurston’s short story “Sweat,” however, has generally been overlooked by ecocritics and ecofeminists, despite the fact that the story’s female protagonist Delia is repeatedly linked with nature or animals in the text. The aim of this paper is thus to examine the manner in which the main character Delia as well as her abusive husband Sykes are associated with nature, including animals, in order to critically assess the abuse Delia is subjected to. Particular attention is then devoted to three main parts of the story: Delia’s connection to her pony, the village men’s conversations and their subsequent comparison of Delia to sugar cane as well as Hurston’s reenactment of the fall from the Garden of Eden. Throughout the analysis, the focus is on the presence of dehumanization related to animalization or naturalization as well as on Hurston’s depiction of the dualistic character of the metaphors woman/nature and woman/animal along with the impact such associations have on Hurston’s characters.
{"title":"Let the Timid Speak: The Woman/Nature Metaphor in Zora Neale Hurston’s “Sweat”","authors":"Karla Rohová","doi":"10.46585/absa.2023.16.2494","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.46585/absa.2023.16.2494","url":null,"abstract":"This article explores Zora Neale Hurston’s short story “Sweat” (1926) from an ecofeminist perspective. When it comes to the role of nature in Hurston’s writing, ecocritical as well as feminist discussions often romanticize the role of nature in the lives of Hurston’s characters. Hurston’s short story “Sweat,” however, has generally been overlooked by ecocritics and ecofeminists, despite the fact that the story’s female protagonist Delia is repeatedly linked with nature or animals in the text. The aim of this paper is thus to examine the manner in which the main character Delia as well as her abusive husband Sykes are associated with nature, including animals, in order to critically assess the abuse Delia is subjected to. Particular attention is then devoted to three main parts of the story: Delia’s connection to her pony, the village men’s conversations and their subsequent comparison of Delia to sugar cane as well as Hurston’s reenactment of the fall from the Garden of Eden. Throughout the analysis, the focus is on the presence of dehumanization related to animalization or naturalization as well as on Hurston’s depiction of the dualistic character of the metaphors woman/nature and woman/animal along with the impact such associations have on Hurston’s characters.","PeriodicalId":158621,"journal":{"name":"American & British Studies Annual","volume":"126 38","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138599025","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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