“Without the power to dissent art ceases to exist”
Hédi Ben Abbes
University of Franche-Comté (Besançon), France
Abstract
It seems that the primary concern of the intellectual is not to accommodate but to embarrass, not to secure but to unsettle, not to bow and agree but to challenge and confront. At a time of growing hegemonic attitudes and hierarchy-ridden relationships – be them microcosmic or macrocosmic – dissent seems to be more relevant a “weapon” than ever. From Swift to Rushdie, from Gramsci to Said, dissent has always been the outcry of people’s hidden consciousness that lies lurking under multiple layers of social, political, religious and cultural dogmatic values.
Key words: dissent, fiction, truth, dialectics, polyphony, language
The Quest of Identity in Dylan Thomas’ ‘Before I Knocked’ and Edwin Morgan’s ‘Message Clear’
Florentina Anghel
University of Craiova
Abstract
Twentieth century poetry reveals its meaning and authorial awareness both in form and content, showing flexibility and ‘interchangeability’ at the level of language and idea, body and spirit, form and content. On their quest of artistic identity, both Dylan Thomas and Edwin Morgan challenge the reader: the former through his concrete words, the latter through the concrete form of his poem.
Key words: poetry, artistic identity, alterity, authorial evolution.
Strategies of Displacement in the Contemporary British Femine Novel
Olivia Bălănescu
University of Craiova
Abstract
Starting from a psychological interpretation of ‘displacement’, this paper analyses a series of strategies that contemporary women writers adopt in order to fight against culturally imposed marginality and dispossession. Since border crossing contains a certain utopian element, the fantastic plays a significant role in feminine fiction, functioning as a form of displacing desires and also as a source of subversive power.
Key words: body, displacement, gender, marginality, (women’s) speech
Metaphor and Power: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Metaphorical Models in Media Discourse
Edward Budaev and Anatolii Chudinov
Ural State Pedagogical University
Abstract
This article discusses the difference in cross-cultural understanding of presidential power. The comparative investigation of metaphors used in the Russian and US media during internal presidential elections (2000 and 2004) reveals culturally specific metaphorical models. A number of metaphorical models shared similarities, yet election as ‘selection of a manager’ was typical to the US media, while election as ‘coronation’ was used only in the Russian media.
Key words: discourse analysis, cross-cultural understanding, culturally metaphorical models
On Shakespeare in Murdoch’s The Bell
Felicia Burdescu
University of Craiova
Abstract
I. Murdoch’s novel The Bell proves the rightness of life metamorphosis and determines the nature or the structure of postmodern fiction.To her contingency had been defined as that form of art introducing somehow a false reality. The supreme example of thatart is Shakespeare, the world’s greatest novelist in her opinion, together with Tolstoy’s practicing contingency in the field of the novel. The author believed just like Shakespeare that her style is reality, contingency.
Key words: postmodern fiction, philosophy of language, moral psychology, intertextuality
The Dynamics of Words and Power in the (De)construction of Legitimacy. A Case Study
Marina Cap-Bun
Ovidius University of Constanţa
Abstract
Mankind has always associated words with all the possible forms of power: magical, religious, artistic, political etc. That is probably why the most prominent writers of all times were really fascinated by the mechanisms of generating or losing authority, and by the power of words to (de)construct different forms of legitimacy. In Romanian literature, the most fascinating meditations upon the dynamics of language and power are to be found in the plays of I.L. Caragiale (1852-1912). His works, bridging the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries, pointed a ruthless mirror to the Romanian society of that time, especially to political struggles to attain and uphold the power. All his plays are investigating the ways in which words are manipulated in order to construct different forms of power. The most spectacular of all is Caragiale’s best known comedy: O scrisoare pierdută (A Lost Letter, 1884), a provocative case study for our attempted investigation.
Key words: Romanian literature, power of words, dynamics of language
Some Considerations upon the Importance of Leach’s Ritual
Mădălina Cerban
University of Craiova
Abstract
This study presents Leach’s most important ideas arising from his work Ritual, ideas associated with the well-known theories referring to the ritual as presented by British anthropologists: ritual as social communication, ritual as power. The paper presents a short history of the usage of the terms ritual, ceremonial, custom, and it also aims at a parallel between the features of the ritual and of the myth.
Key words: ritual, social communication, myth
Emily Dickinson’s Work – An Open Window to Her Soul
Mihai Coşoveanu
University of Craiova
Abstract
Emily Dickinson related immortality with death and love, depicted its terrible isolation and examined thoroughly its effects upon the soul. We may say that at the very basis of her poetry, she is a religious poet whose concern with the fundamental issues of death, pain, immortality and love occasioned her finest lyrics.
Key words: death, soul, life, existence, nature
Contraria sunt complementa: Blakean Dialectics
Cătălin GhiŢĂ
University of Craiova
Abstract
One cannot properly understand William Blake’s hierarchy of visions and their internal polarities unless one examines the artist’s dialectics. By positing a conflict which is inherent in the development of any relationship on both material and spiritual scales, Blake simultaneously reaches his favourite mode of aesthetic composition and his primary method of understanding reality.More concretely, Blake’s visionary profile displays at its heart a series of clear-cut conceptual antinomies, which are subsequently transferred to the textual level, i.e. the prophetic books. It is for all these reasons that a scholar should analyse the scope and role of the abstract pairs of contraries in the artist’s formal ideology.
Key words: William Blake, visionary poetry, philosophy, dialectics
Some Basic Issues in the Analysis of Prepositions
Ioana MURAR
University of Craiova
Abstract
The paper discusses some basic issues involved in the analysis and description of prepositions in English in the last few years.The first part of the paper presents an evaluation of several syntactic approaches to analysis of prepositions. As a category, prepositions are a heterogeneous category, being represented by two main types: i. lexical prepositions (which have characteristics analogous to the other lexicalcategories, such as nouns, adjectives, verbs); ii. non-lexical prepositions (which have undergone some form of grammaticalization, such as case prepositions). There is a new approach to the category of prepositions, which makes it possible to combine prepositions and subordinating conjunctions into one class. The second part of the paper reviews some theories that highlight various aspects about the semantics of prepositions. Unlike the older theories dealing with the issue of prepositional semantics, those propounded in the 90s give more cognitively based accounts of prepositional meaning (especially those expressing location and motion). Cognitive theorists pay particular attention to the polysemous nature of prepositions, to the conceptual relationships of their polysemy, to types of mental images or image schemas.
Key words: prepositions, theories, syntax, semantics, cognitive
Criticism as an Individual Activity: The Approach through Reading
Victor OLARU
University of Craiova
Abstract
The author’s concern in this paper is primarily with the reading of literary texts. In the beginning we referred to a crisis of confidence in that current of literary criticism that saw the work of art as an object. Another theme was to bring to critical attention a neglected element, namely story, which takes us into our very apprehension of the novel. In connection to this issue, we referred to some important moments in three English novels (Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles, Bronte’s Wuthering Heights and Austen’s Emma), attempting to show the extent and repercussions of this element in our reading of them, and the contribution that story can make to our understanding of fiction.
Key words: literary criticism, English novels, story
Grimus and the Temptation of Science Fiction
Daniela Rogobete
University of Craiova
Abstract
Salman Rushdie’s first novel, Grimus, though criticised for being too difficult and full of cultural references, is, however, the novel that displays all those elements that are going to be developed in his future novels. This paper focuses upon the analysis of some of these elements ranging from various techniques taken from science fiction, different forms of the fantastic, intertextuality and magic realism.
Key words: science fiction, the fantastic, intertextuality, magic realism
To Communicate or Not To Communicate - Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot
Elka Iliescu
MA Student
University of Craiova
Abstract
Beyond the levels of communication detected so far in the text, we also find that neither the theatrical performance nor the dramatic text is independent. Any performance is likely to draw upon cultural, topical and popular references assuming various kinds of extra-theatrical competence on the part of the spectator. From this perspective we will try to look upon Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot and decide whether communication succeeds in making its message audible or not.
Key words: drama, theatrical performance, communication