Pub Date : 2024-09-18DOI: 10.1007/s11059-024-00755-8
Simon C. Estok
Time is central to climate change fiction (cli-fi). One of the key challenges of the rapidly evolving genre has to do with bringing the future to the present and retaining a semblance of entertainment while using over-exposed material from the clutter of data and mass media narratives. People are numbed by it all, and offering effective narratives is no easy task. While some cli-fi writers look to the past for answers and others to the present and its hedonistic obsessions, it is finally all really about the future and understanding both how the future structures the present and how we need to reset our current trajectories. It is becoming increasingly clear that climate change is too big for what literary genres can currently handle. The changes will be tectonic, it seems, and Kim Stanley Robinson is a potent force pushing at the fault-lines and leading the changes to what may very well be a new genre—one sufficient to encompass the vastness that bringing the future present demands. If it is to push us to act meaningfully on the crises we face, then cli-fi indeed must bring the future present and compel understandings of how the future structures the present.
时间是气候变化小说(cli-fi)的核心。这种快速发展的小说类型所面临的主要挑战之一是如何将未来带入当下,并在利用杂乱无章的数据和大众媒体叙事中过度曝光的材料的同时,保留一种娱乐性。人们对这一切已经麻木,提供有效的叙事并非易事。虽然一些科幻作家从过去寻找答案,另一些则从现在及其享乐主义的迷恋中寻找答案,但最终所有的一切其实都与未来有关,都与理解未来如何构建现在以及我们需要如何重新设定当前的轨迹有关。人们越来越清楚地认识到,气候变化对文学流派目前所能应对的范围来说实在是太大了。金-斯坦利-罗宾逊(Kim Stanley Robinson)是一股强大的力量,他推动着断层线的发展,并引领着变革,这很可能是一种新的文学体裁--一种足以涵盖未来当下所要求的广阔性的文学体裁。如果要推动我们对所面临的危机采取有意义的行动,那么克利小说确实必须将未来呈现出来,并迫使人们理解未来如何构建现在。
{"title":"Future present: cli-fi’s representational challenge","authors":"Simon C. Estok","doi":"10.1007/s11059-024-00755-8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11059-024-00755-8","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Time is central to climate change fiction (cli-fi). One of the key challenges of the rapidly evolving genre has to do with bringing the future to the present and retaining a semblance of entertainment while using over-exposed material from the clutter of data and mass media narratives. People are numbed by it all, and offering effective narratives is no easy task. While some cli-fi writers look to the past for answers and others to the present and its hedonistic obsessions, it is finally all really about the future and understanding both how the future structures the present and how we need to reset our current trajectories. It is becoming increasingly clear that climate change is too big for what literary genres can currently handle. The changes will be tectonic, it seems, and Kim Stanley Robinson is a potent force pushing at the fault-lines and leading the changes to what may very well be a new genre—one sufficient to encompass the vastness that bringing the future present demands. If it is to push us to act meaningfully on the crises we face, then cli-fi indeed must bring the future present and compel understandings of how the future structures the present.</p>","PeriodicalId":54002,"journal":{"name":"NEOHELICON","volume":"22 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-09-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142251261","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-09-16DOI: 10.1007/s11059-024-00744-x
Xu Lian
This article explores the definition and nature of stream of consciousness in comic by drawing strength from discussion upon related topics in literary criticism and comics studies. It argues that stream-of-consciousness depiction in comics could be divided into three categories according to whether such depiction could be attributed to a character or not. In comics, impersonal representation of inner flows becomes possible by virtue of the monstrator which governs the pictorial sequence. Meanwhile, there are also in-between situations when it is difficult to determine whether the focused mind is that of a character or an impersonal extradiegetic narrator.
{"title":"Representing stream of consciousness in comics: definition and categorization","authors":"Xu Lian","doi":"10.1007/s11059-024-00744-x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11059-024-00744-x","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This article explores the definition and nature of stream of consciousness in comic by drawing strength from discussion upon related topics in literary criticism and comics studies. It argues that stream-of-consciousness depiction in comics could be divided into three categories according to whether such depiction could be attributed to a character or not. In comics, impersonal representation of inner flows becomes possible by virtue of the monstrator which governs the pictorial sequence. Meanwhile, there are also in-between situations when it is difficult to determine whether the focused mind is that of a character or an impersonal extradiegetic narrator.</p>","PeriodicalId":54002,"journal":{"name":"NEOHELICON","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142251264","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-07-02DOI: 10.1007/s11059-024-00749-6
Laura Sánchez Gómez
This article analyzes digital recycling as a cultural strategy through which it is possible to recognize the dialogue between popular digital culture and the most avant-garde electronic creation. Due to its experimental nature, electronic creation provides conceptual and aesthetic strategies to understand and analyze digital cultural processes. This work analyzes the processes in which recycling becomes a protagonist. The strategy of cultural recycling is not novel. It proposes a reconfiguration of the viewer's gaze in front of the work that starts from the historical avant-garde and has a critical intention towards the concept of authorship, the canon, and originality of creative processes. Nevertheless, through the study of the characteristics of the digital ecosystem, we show how the practice of recycling changes considerably, acquiring great prominence and becoming a defining feature of digital cultural behavior today through the naturalization and automation of its processes.
{"title":"Electronic literary creation: dialogues through cultural recycling","authors":"Laura Sánchez Gómez","doi":"10.1007/s11059-024-00749-6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11059-024-00749-6","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This article analyzes digital recycling as a cultural strategy through which it is possible to recognize the dialogue between popular digital culture and the most avant-garde electronic creation. Due to its experimental nature, electronic creation provides conceptual and aesthetic strategies to understand and analyze digital cultural processes. This work analyzes the processes in which recycling becomes a protagonist. The strategy of cultural recycling is not novel. It proposes a reconfiguration of the viewer's gaze in front of the work that starts from the historical avant-garde and has a critical intention towards the concept of authorship, the canon, and originality of creative processes. Nevertheless, through the study of the characteristics of the digital ecosystem, we show how the practice of recycling changes considerably, acquiring great prominence and becoming a defining feature of digital cultural behavior today through the naturalization and automation of its processes.</p>","PeriodicalId":54002,"journal":{"name":"NEOHELICON","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141524319","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-06-04DOI: 10.1007/s11059-024-00743-y
Alexandre Gefen
Contemporary experiments in Digital Humanities and distant reading tend to propose an empirical approach to literary facts. This development leads us to reflect on the place of quantitative analysis in literary theory, by asking whether data can replace literary theory in the age of Artificial Intelligence (AI)? By shifting from the status of emblematic fact to that of mere “noise” or statistical randomness in data, it is the entire theoretical conception of the literary work, supposedly individual and particular, that is called into question. This article attempts to reflect on these epistemological evolutions.
{"title":"The time of data. theoretical thinking, statistical thinking","authors":"Alexandre Gefen","doi":"10.1007/s11059-024-00743-y","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11059-024-00743-y","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Contemporary experiments in Digital Humanities and distant reading tend to propose an empirical approach to literary facts. This development leads us to reflect on the place of quantitative analysis in literary theory, by asking whether data can replace literary theory in the age of Artificial Intelligence (AI)? By shifting from the status of emblematic fact to that of mere “noise” or statistical randomness in data, it is the entire theoretical conception of the literary work, supposedly individual and particular, that is called into question. This article attempts to reflect on these epistemological evolutions.</p>","PeriodicalId":54002,"journal":{"name":"NEOHELICON","volume":"34 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-06-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141253803","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-06-03DOI: 10.1007/s11059-024-00747-8
Z. Gizem Yιlmaz
Climate change is all about the past, and fossil fuel narratives are critical in unearthing this past and providing the conceptual energy we need to survive our crises. The different cultural, geographical, and temporal spaces of coal point to not only the entanglements between human and nonhuman bodies but also to the intersection of different temporalities in the planet’s wider narratives. From this perspective, coal shows how the present only exists through its implications with the past. It brings with it the past. Coal’s overlapping temporalities are on display in the Charles Dickens classic Hard Times, where the insistence of the past in the present is inescapable. Coal, with its ancient subterranean temporalities, fires the flames of the present uni-directional industrial clock, and, despite its intertemporal composition, comes to signify uniformity. This is a direct result of the chronological discipline that factory production requires. Hard Times thus demands that we delve into what time actually is with its global, historical, and industrial networks. We will only be able to fully understand the present by linking cultural practices to the past. Coal is a good place start, and, through it, Dickens reveals overlapping temporalities and the past’s presence within the intertemporal networks of past Anthropogenic climate crises in Hard Times.
{"title":"Past present: Coal and Hard Times","authors":"Z. Gizem Yιlmaz","doi":"10.1007/s11059-024-00747-8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11059-024-00747-8","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Climate change is all about the past, and fossil fuel narratives are critical in unearthing this past and providing the conceptual energy we need to survive our crises. The different cultural, geographical, and temporal spaces of coal point to not only the entanglements between human and nonhuman bodies but also to the intersection of different temporalities in the planet’s wider narratives. From this perspective, coal shows how the present only exists through its implications with the past. It brings with it the past. Coal’s overlapping temporalities are on display in the Charles Dickens classic <i>Hard Times</i>, where the insistence of the past in the present is inescapable. Coal, with its ancient subterranean temporalities, fires the flames of the present uni-directional industrial clock, and, despite its intertemporal composition, comes to signify uniformity. This is a direct result of the chronological discipline that factory production requires. <i>Hard Times</i> thus demands that we delve into what time actually is with its global, historical, and industrial networks. We will only be able to fully understand the present by linking cultural practices to the past. Coal is a good place start, and, through it, Dickens reveals overlapping temporalities and the past’s presence within the intertemporal networks of past Anthropogenic climate crises in <i>Hard Times.</i></p>","PeriodicalId":54002,"journal":{"name":"NEOHELICON","volume":"72 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-06-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141253932","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-05-30DOI: 10.1007/s11059-024-00735-y
Zuzanna Raczyńska
This article proposes an alternative interpretation—with regard to the current state of research—of Madeline Miller’s Circe as a character claiming her agency. In it, I capitalise on Devi and Khuraijam’s linking witchcraft and agency in Circe as well as Alvin Goldman’s theory of human action. On this basis, I substantiate the thesis that, in Madeline Miller’s Circe, the protagonist claims her agency through developing her witchcraft skills. This process consists of manifesting traits pertinent to being an active character, such as intentionality, motivation through desire or beliefs, and the will to initiate. Circe gradually and slowly moves through these stages to reach her independence and self-assuredness, which she lacks in her childhood. Therefore, in order to reflect these stages, the analytical part of the article is divided into three sections. The first section deals with the rare moments of Circe’s first attempts at witchcraft, which reveal her resolution and intention, even if she fails to act on them. In the second section, Circe’s desires and beliefs are explored as they represent the eventual force behind her future decisions and use of witchcraft. Finally, in the last section, I explore how the previous two stages come to fruition in the shape of Circe actively exercising her will to employ her now superb witchcraft skills in defiance of the rules and conventions that have bound her into submission thus far.
{"title":"“Give me the blade. Some things are worth spilling blood for.” Madeline Miller’s Circe and the issue of claiming agency","authors":"Zuzanna Raczyńska","doi":"10.1007/s11059-024-00735-y","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11059-024-00735-y","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This article proposes an alternative interpretation—with regard to the current state of research—of Madeline Miller’s <i>Circe</i> as a character claiming her agency. In it, I capitalise on Devi and Khuraijam’s linking witchcraft and agency in <i>Circe</i> as well as Alvin Goldman’s theory of human action. On this basis, I substantiate the thesis that, in Madeline Miller’s <i>Circe</i>, the protagonist claims her agency through developing her witchcraft skills. This process consists of manifesting traits pertinent to being an active character, such as intentionality, motivation through desire or beliefs, and the will to initiate. Circe gradually and slowly moves through these stages to reach her independence and self-assuredness, which she lacks in her childhood. Therefore, in order to reflect these stages, the analytical part of the article is divided into three sections. The first section deals with the rare moments of Circe’s first attempts at witchcraft, which reveal her resolution and intention, even if she fails to act on them. In the second section, Circe’s desires and beliefs are explored as they represent the eventual force behind her future decisions and use of witchcraft. Finally, in the last section, I explore how the previous two stages come to fruition in the shape of Circe actively exercising her will to employ her now superb witchcraft skills in defiance of the rules and conventions that have bound her into submission thus far.</p>","PeriodicalId":54002,"journal":{"name":"NEOHELICON","volume":"17 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-05-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141192267","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-05-03DOI: 10.1007/s11059-024-00740-1
Alicja Bemben
In this article, I contribute to the discussion on the cognitive value of contemporary historical fiction as a means of understanding the past. Although such means typically come from the field of history and philosophy of history, and historical accuracy seems to be the most important means, this work is concerned with historical fiction being an inspiration for an auxiliary means of the sort. Drawing on Alison Landsberg’s concept of prosthetic memory, I propose the concept of prosthetic past. In order to elaborate on the idea with an illustrative example, I use Katherine Reay’s The London house (2021)—a work of historical fiction that explicitly engages with the issue of historical accuracy. With regard to this, I structure the article as follows: the text opens with a broad-brush discussion of the development of the idea of understanding the past in the field of academic history and mainstream historical fiction. In the next part, I capitalise on Landsberg’s prosthetic memory to give grounds to my idea of prosthetic past and refer to The London house as an example with which to elaborate on it. Subsequently, I propose a tripartite discussion of the concept-cum-novel to explicate the idea of prosthetic past. The article closes with my consideration of two implications of the presented findings.
{"title":"Historical fiction: From historical accuracy to prosthetic memory","authors":"Alicja Bemben","doi":"10.1007/s11059-024-00740-1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11059-024-00740-1","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In this article, I contribute to the discussion on the cognitive value of contemporary historical fiction as a means of understanding the past. Although such means typically come from the field of history and philosophy of history, and historical accuracy seems to be the most important means, this work is concerned with historical fiction being an inspiration for an auxiliary means of the sort. Drawing on Alison Landsberg’s concept of prosthetic memory, I propose the concept of prosthetic past. In order to elaborate on the idea with an illustrative example, I use Katherine Reay’s <i>The London house</i> (2021)—a work of historical fiction that explicitly engages with the issue of historical accuracy. With regard to this, I structure the article as follows: the text opens with a broad-brush discussion of the development of the idea of understanding the past in the field of academic history and mainstream historical fiction. In the next part, I capitalise on Landsberg’s prosthetic memory to give grounds to my idea of prosthetic past and refer to <i>The London house</i> as an example with which to elaborate on it. Subsequently, I propose a tripartite discussion of the concept-cum-novel to explicate the idea of prosthetic past. The article closes with my consideration of two implications of the presented findings.</p>","PeriodicalId":54002,"journal":{"name":"NEOHELICON","volume":"40 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-05-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140933175","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-04-19DOI: 10.1007/s11059-024-00739-8
Nina Marie Voigt
Understanding historical fiction as a hybrid space, both presenting the past and embracing the culture it is written in allows insights into the problems women face within the patriarchal society by setting them at a temporal distance. This paper explores the connections between witches, history, and medical practices in Amy McKay’s The witches of New York. It first looks at how the novel queers history by introducing a female perspective embedded in memory-sharing. The paper then moves on to show how the novel contrasts gendered medicinal practices and segues into explaining how this contrast is superficial. The above serves as the ground for my key claim that, although the novel seeks to present an alternative to what it depicts as male-centric Western medical practices harmful to women, it fails to offer an alternative way of thinking. Even if it relies on the postfeminist discourse by seemingly presenting empowered feminine characters, these, under closer inspection, are shown to reinforce conservative notions of femininity through idealization of the figure of the female healer and gendered tropes of care. The paper concludes with the assertion that, although the novel aims to offer a meaningful alternative to the prevailing system of medical practice through its centering on female experiences, it cannot escape patriarchal discourses.
{"title":"Always needed, always hunted. Witches, female healthcare, and the need for a female history in Ami McKay’s The witches of New York","authors":"Nina Marie Voigt","doi":"10.1007/s11059-024-00739-8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11059-024-00739-8","url":null,"abstract":"<p> Understanding historical fiction as a hybrid space, both presenting the past and embracing the culture it is written in allows insights into the problems women face within the patriarchal society by setting them at a temporal distance. This paper explores the connections between witches, history, and medical practices in Amy McKay’s <i>The witches of New York</i>. It first looks at how the novel queers history by introducing a female perspective embedded in memory-sharing. The paper then moves on to show how the novel contrasts gendered medicinal practices and segues into explaining how this contrast is superficial. The above serves as the ground for my key claim that, although the novel seeks to present an alternative to what it depicts as male-centric Western medical practices harmful to women, it fails to offer an alternative way of thinking. Even if it relies on the postfeminist discourse by seemingly presenting empowered feminine characters, these, under closer inspection, are shown to reinforce conservative notions of femininity through idealization of the figure of the female healer and gendered tropes of care. The paper concludes with the assertion that, although the novel aims to offer a meaningful alternative to the prevailing system of medical practice through its centering on female experiences, it cannot escape patriarchal discourses.</p>","PeriodicalId":54002,"journal":{"name":"NEOHELICON","volume":"201 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-04-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140627212","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-04-09DOI: 10.1007/s11059-024-00732-1
Katarzyna Myśliwiec
The paper is devoted to the study of three post-2000 novels appropriating Beowulf, whose common denominator is the amplification and humanization of the figure of Grendel’s mother and the reconstruction of her potential personal history. The paper argues that multiple ambiguities concerning Grendel’s mother in the poem render her a perfect vehicle for exploring modern assumptions concerning monstrosity, humanity, and femininity. By foregrounding the fact that the canonicity of Beowulf legitimizes the status quo that it represents, the paper elucidates the reasons for which modern female writers look to such an old and culturally remote text. They seem to recognize Beowulf as a carrier of cultural memory and, in their herstories, they often attempt to present the values that it espouses as the foundations of persistent objectification and oppression of women. The female authors also strive to point to the male appropriation of history and memory by presenting mechanisms leading to the dehumanization of Grendel’s mother such as defamation, exile, and oblivion. Identifying Beowulf as a text written by a man, for men, and about men, they offer its feminist reclamations written by women, for women, and about women. The paper also discusses the alternative morality and wisdom represented by women in these modern novels as well as their criticism of traditional gender roles as social constructs which fail to appreciate female self-efficiency, resourcefulness, individualism, psychological strength, and stamina.
{"title":"“You are the spawn of Cain!” Grendel’s mother’s literary appropriations","authors":"Katarzyna Myśliwiec","doi":"10.1007/s11059-024-00732-1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11059-024-00732-1","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The paper is devoted to the study of three post-2000 novels appropriating <i>Beowulf</i>, whose common denominator is the amplification and humanization of the figure of Grendel’s mother and the reconstruction of her potential personal history. The paper argues that multiple ambiguities concerning Grendel’s mother in the poem render her a perfect vehicle for exploring modern assumptions concerning monstrosity, humanity, and femininity. By foregrounding the fact that the canonicity of <i>Beowulf</i> legitimizes the status quo that it represents, the paper elucidates the reasons for which modern female writers look to such an old and culturally remote text. They seem to recognize <i>Beowulf</i> as a carrier of cultural memory and, in their herstories, they often attempt to present the values that it espouses as the foundations of persistent objectification and oppression of women. The female authors also strive to point to the male appropriation of history and memory by presenting mechanisms leading to the dehumanization of Grendel’s mother such as defamation, exile, and oblivion. Identifying <i>Beowulf</i> as a text written by a man, for men, and about men, they offer its feminist reclamations written by women, for women, and about women. The paper also discusses the alternative morality and wisdom represented by women in these modern novels as well as their criticism of traditional gender roles as social constructs which fail to appreciate female self-efficiency, resourcefulness, individualism, psychological strength, and stamina.</p>","PeriodicalId":54002,"journal":{"name":"NEOHELICON","volume":"86 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-04-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140566718","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-04-09DOI: 10.1007/s11059-024-00738-9
Christian Beck
In this article, I argue that the greenwood in the early ballad A Lytell Gest of Robyn Hode constructs a unique subjectivity that can inform contemporary forms of resistance. In contrast to the greenwood, the “civilized,” urban spaces found in the text are populated by corrupt individuals serving corrupt institutions. Robin Hood’s actions in both smooth and striated spaces serve as the spatial foundations for an ethics of socio-political action. Emphasizing the concepts of solidarity or felaushyp, I show how Robin Hood embodies a form of ethics derived from the category of the “outlaw” and serve the wider community. In the end, this article utilizes the late medieval text of A Lytell Gest of Robyn Hode to explore the spatial and ethical construction of resistance to oppressive and striated authority.
{"title":"Robin Hood and resistance: the spatial ethics of “felaushyp” in A Lytell Gest of Robyn Hode","authors":"Christian Beck","doi":"10.1007/s11059-024-00738-9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11059-024-00738-9","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In this article, I argue that the greenwood in the early ballad <i>A Lytell Gest of Robyn Hode</i> constructs a unique subjectivity that can inform contemporary forms of resistance. In contrast to the greenwood, the “civilized,” urban spaces found in the text are populated by corrupt individuals serving corrupt institutions. Robin Hood’s actions in both smooth and striated spaces serve as the spatial foundations for an ethics of socio-political action. Emphasizing the concepts of solidarity or <i>felaushyp</i>, I show how Robin Hood embodies a form of ethics derived from the category of the “outlaw” and serve the wider community. In the end, this article utilizes the late medieval text of <i>A Lytell Gest of Robyn Hode</i> to explore the spatial and ethical construction of resistance to oppressive and striated authority.</p>","PeriodicalId":54002,"journal":{"name":"NEOHELICON","volume":"44 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-04-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140566720","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}