NORLIT 2011 Conference on literature and politics, Roskilde, August 4.-6. 2011
Aesthetics, Politics and the Entanglement of Cognitive and Emotional Responses
How works of literature and film deal with political ideas and concepts like solidarity, equality, democracy and feminism is a pertinent question in literature and film studies today. And how the reader or spectator responds to such works is decisive when it comes to political impact. But do not the political effects of literature and film pertain just as much to qualities exceeding the cognitive or intellectual? Are not emotional responses equally important when it comes to enhancing the reader?s political responsibility and imagination? And is it altogether possible to disentangle cognitive from emotional responses? These and related questions will provide a framework for looking into a couple of examples from literature and film, mainly the Berwick Street Film Collective?s Nightcleaners (1975), an aesthetically groundbreaking documentary charting the 1970?1972 campaign to unionize the women who cleaned office blocks at night in London.
A Button is Never Just A Button: Nineteenth Century Realism, Fashion, and the Discovery of Society
The poetry and prose of the 1940s in Sweden represent one of the peaks in Swedish literature. Poets developed modernist lyric into an intellectually advanced, at the same time very intellectual and very emotive and very dense rhetoric poetry. At the same time a new kind of prose was developed. Stig Dagerman is the only author in this group whose novels have encountered an international audience. He is still very much read, especially in France and Germany. His first work was Ormen (The Snake, 1946), followed by De d?mdas ? (Island of the Doomed) in 1946, one of the most important novels of the 20th century. Dagerman had mixed feelings about the role of a journalist. He wrote 570 articles for various newspapers from 1941 to his death 13 years later. He was commissioned by the then fairly new evening newspaper Expressen to Germany in the autumn of 1946 to Germany to write a series of reports about postwar Germany. 13 articles were written and 11 were published. In 1947 these articles appeared as a book with the title Tysk h?st (German Autumn), a Swedish classic, reprinted i Collected Writings edited by the Dagerman scholar Hans Sandberg. Dagerman spent two months in Germany, from October 15th (Hamburg) to December 12th (Frankfurt) - five days in Berlin, a week in the Ruhr district, and everywhere he tried to come into contact with so many private persons as possible. Of course he despised the kind of journalist who stays at his hotel and only uses stuff from local newspapers in his report. The material must have been overwhelming and it is question of choice what to publish in the articles. My own aim is to discuss the articles from the view of a literary historian. How does the Germany of 1946 fit into the general aesthetics of the Swedish 1940s?
Europe and the Construction of the American Poet: Positioning of the Literary Self
In much of William Carlos Williams? (1883-1963) writing, there is a palpable self-consciousness, as if he were constantly positioning himself as an American poet, a writer of literary works. So much so, in fact, that we may speak of this as a role and a persona being constantly performed and thereby sustained. For example, The Great American Novel (1923) is filled with opposing voices which question the very project in which the speaker is engaged. I argue that this incorporated hostility allows Williams to position himself in the complex field of power relations which conditions his work and of which it forms part. Bearing in mind that The Great American Novel was written in an America of prohibition and frequent censorship, published in France and thus very rare in the US, we can see that Williams had good reason to engage in these acts of self-positioning and perform the role of the American author. For many of Williams? contemporaries, Europe, and especially Paris became a haven of artistic freedom. Paris offered an artistic environment which America was perceived as lacking. Williams stands out in his seemingly adamant decision to stay. Despite many setbacks in his native country, Williams remained rooted in an environment which often did not offer much acknowledgement of his work as literary. At the same time, his choice of location made it harder for him to be perceived as a truly literary figure in Europe as well. In his journals and letters, we can see that Williams was not always wholly sure why he chose to stay in the US, but in my paper, I demonstrate that his positioning of the literary self in America and therefore on the periphery allows him to perform the part of the American poet against the grain. Also, and most importantly, I claim that the act of staying in America does not make Williams independent of Europe. On the contrary, it is through the idea of Europe that Williams is able to perform the role of the American writer.
Da ?kajak RUC-erne? kom til Gr?nland. Politik, litteratur og solidariteten med de oprindelige folk
Hvad var det egentlig der skete, dengang ungdomsopr?rets generation forelskede sig i de oprindelige folk og drog ud i verden for at g?re godt? ?Kajak-RUC-ere? kaldte man i Gr?nland disse intellektuelle, som satte kursen nordover i deres s?gen efter en ny tids missionsmarker (navnet er et spil p? ?kajak-rockere?, samtidens ?genavn for gr?nl?nderne p? Christiania). Med romanen Hvis du fl?jter efter Nordlyset (Milik Publishing 2011) skriver Hans Jakob Helms sig ind i det postkoloniale felt. Samtidig giver han et helt nyt billede af forholdet mellem danskere og gr?nl?ndere, samt ikke mindst af de oprindelige folk, som muligvis nok fremst?r mindre noble, men til geng?ld langt mere kapable i forhold til den moderne, globaliserede verden. Hvor den nutidige gr?nlandske mand har glimret ved sit frav?r i danske gr?nlandsromaner (Peter H?eg, Kim Leine), tr?der de gr?nlandske m?nd i karakter hos Helms, i skikkelse af de politikere, der t?nkte og gennemf?rte Hjemmestyret. Hvor forfattere som J?rn Riel og Sven Holm omkring 1979 gjorde status over kolonitiden, som en lyk?nskning til hjemmestyret, markerer Hans Jakob Helms roman en tilsvarende milep?l p? gr?nsen mellem hjemmestyre og selvstyre. Helms har en lang karriere bag sig som ansat i den gr?nlandske administration, og romanen bringer, ligesom den tidligere novellesamling Dansen i Gen?ve (2005), l?seren med ind bag kulisserne i det storpolitiske milj?, hvor internationale aftaler forhandles, intriger planl?gges og kompromisser indg?s. Romanens personer har fiktive navne, men der er en stor grad af genkendelighed i forhold til virkelige personer og milj?er, og selv om forfatteren understreger, at der er tale om fiktion, l?gger han ikke skjul p?, at romanen er meget t?t p? en virkelighed, han i kraft af sit virke som embedsmand har haft en s?rlig adgang til. Som en kr?lle p? historien har forfatteren i forbindelse med udgivelsen af romanen kr?vet aktindsigt i en PET rapport, hvori der forekommer anklager mod en person, som muligvis kunne v?re ham selv. En fuldst?ndig tilsvarende rapport optr?der i romanen. P? den m?de indskriver forfatteren sig i tidens leg med gr?nserne mellem fiktion og virkelighed og tilf?jer den skrevne tekst et performativt aspekt. Mindst lige s? interessante er imidlertid en r?kke andre gr?nser, som krydses i romanen, og som er t?t sammenknyttet med dens politiske temaer. Hvem er for eksempel den moderne gr?nl?nder? Og hvor g?r gr?nserne mellem dansk og gr?nlandsk litteratur i dag?
Palimpsest, Memory and Agency in Faroese Memory Politics - National Stereotypes in the Canonization of a Faroese National Hero
In this paper I will analyse the politics of memory in relation to the canonization of the writer and captain N?lsoyar P?ll as a Cultural Saints in the Faroe Islands. Combining approaches from cultural nationalism studies, memory studies and imagology, we will investigate the use of cultural saints. I will argue, that narratives of heroes recycle earlier forms of remembrance and images as in the palimpsest seen through monuments and places of memory. N?lsoyar P?ll?s most famous poem is the Bird Ballad from 1807, where Danish governments officials were pictured as birds of prey, while he himself was the Oystercatcher fighting for the Faroese. Later the Oystercatcher became the national bird of the Faroe Islands. If we begin with memory a palimpsest is a manuscript page from a scroll or book that has been scraped off and used again. The palimpsest is a figure of both destruction and of creation. The term can be used to tie together complex forms of public memory as for example literary canonization (Jan Assmann). Huyssens (2003) driving metaphor is the palimpsest. Astrid Erll and Ann Rigney see literature as a medium of remembrance, and images of the past as well. It is my claim with the national hero N?lsoyar P?ll, that other media overtake the story in as a palimpsest in itself. In this way narratives recycle earlier forms of remembrance and can be seen as ?relay stations? in the circulation of memories. Imagology is the study of literary representations of national character. Combined with the study of memory, we will analyse, how literary stereotypes emerge and how they are determined by historical and ideological circumstances as literary and discursive conventions (Leerssen) as we see in the creation of an early national stereotype with the ?Bird Ballad? by N?lsoyar P?ll. In the paper I will put N?lsoyar P?ll in play in relation to memory and imagology and cultural nationalism. I intend to show - looking at the construction of national heroes, with the palimpsest figure - that national heroes follow ancient paths of early memory. Cultural Saints and cultural nationalism in the long 19th Century has shown striking analogies to a palimpsest on how ?national? artists and heroes were canonized and celebrated. Here we see, that the canonization of religious saints and cultural saints show some of the same patterns of confessing, martyrdom, fighting for ideas, enlightening, educating and cultivating the memory.
Hymns and scornful laughter ? forms of power in Finland-Swedish literary reviews in the 1920s and 1930s with focus on authors Jarl Hemmer and Elmer Diktonius
My paper examines how literary reviews perform not only aesthetic but also social power. In the 1920s and 1930s a quite offensive aesthetic struggle between the traditionalist and the modernist authors took place within the Finland-Swedish literary field. I analyze the ways in which the traditionalist writer Jarl Hemmer (1893-1944) and the modernist Elmer Diktonius (1896-1961) reviewed each other?s works in the 1920s and 1930s (altogether 6 reviews). While Diktonius reviews of Hemmers works are often extremely and obviously mocking and parodic, Hemmer uses quite, ironic understatements to question the works of Diktonius and his right to enter the literary field. One could say, that the first one screams, and the second one whispers their critical observations. I look upon the vocabulary and the stylistic strategies used by the authors to describe and evaluate the aesthetics of each other, but also how they portray each others as authors and at times even comment upon each other?s bodies. This way I grasp some of the practices used within the critical discourse by the time. I also show the significance of class within the Finland-Swedish literary field of the 1920s. The dominance of the upper class authors within the field has been observed, but no one has yet asked what the consequences of it are for the practices of the literary field and how it was, under the circumstances, actually possible for Diktonius with his very modest cultural and social points of departure to enter the field and to get a position within it? By taking a closer look at the power play exercised in the reviews I will be able to propose at least partial answers to the questions.
Political Acts and Others: Commitments of Literary Response
It is essential to distinguish between different kinds of political practice relevant to the writing and reading of literature as well as to inquire into the specific nature of other values that literary texts may possess: ethical, ideological,and aesthetic. Especially, one needs to be aware that these terms belong to various category types, not all of them mutually exclusive. Aesthetic value, for example, can also be political. This is the case when a writer like Toni Morrison reacts against the demand that she should document the culture of her perceived ethnic belonging. To take another example, since the 1970s it has become more common to speak of literature as political rather than ideological. This is justified when we consider the text as a form of practice or intervention as opposed to the encoding of a socially conditioned consciousness. The text constitutes a virtual act as performed in reading but also as extended into social practice. The political commitment of the literary scholar, as such, should be consistent with the production of knowledge within the expanded field of literature. The politics specific to literature as such emerges in consideration of literary function as situated within a moment of social conflict and change. With the use of various examples, I will in conclusion argue that reader responses focused on the virtual act are positioned to effectively engage its aesthetic and ethical issues as well as its specific political content.
From Auschwitz to Bosnia ? how can testimonies say something true, when they are at the centre of a political battle?
Interpreting testimonies has been a field in rapid development since the Second World War. The core of the debate has been how one can testify about something so gruesome as being in Auschwitz. What language could match the experiences of the witnesses and make them comprehensive to the reader? The Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben argues that the only ones that can really testify about survival ? deriving from the Latin word superstes: to bear witness to death ? were the so called M?selm?nner, the living dead. These persons were prisoners that had redrawn from life, all but in their bodily functions. The ultimate witness would be a M?selmann returning to the world of the living. They could communicate what survival was like, because returning to life would also mean the return of language. What could this tell us about recent testimonies of genocide? Few European countries have a political discourse and a storytelling tradition (all textual objects) so dominated by testimonies as Bosnia. Thus would it be natural to approach them with the theoretical tradition from Holocaust studies. But this poses some challenges. Testimonies from the war in Bosnia do not have any common history to rely on. The political discourse is on the contrary dominated by an ethnic battle for dominance over the testimonies. The aim is to prove that their version of history is true, as opposed to the claims of the other groups. It is a battle for dominance over the final historical conclusions from the war. Testimonies from Holocaust have an inevitable truth to rely on, and only due to this is it possible to pose the question of how the victims can ever tell their stories. In Bosnia, the testimonies are contested and repeated time and again ?continuously taking on a new significance. My paper will investigate how to deconstruct testimonies that originally have been given to the International criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, and then reappear in a literary context, for instance in Slavenka Drakuli?? books They would never hurt a fly(2004), and As if I was not there(1999). What does this transgression from a courtroom context, to the one of solely telling about one?s own survival do to the dynamics between a political discourse and a literary text?
Copyright (c) 2016 Mina Wiksh?land Skouen
Sagostunder f?r integration av arbetarklassens barn
?Sagan, gosse, det ?r f?en, / som v?r vardagssol f?rnyar, / brytande dess gr?a sken, / genom diktens bj?rta skyar. H?jer hon sitt trolska sp?, / vattenpussen blir en sj?, / och ditt skepp p? spegelflatan / far en mil tv?rs ?ver gatan.? S? inleds K. G. Ossian-Nilssons dikt ?Sagan?. Den handlar om litteraturens m?jligheter att f?rgylla ett fattigt barns liv. Dikten publicerades 1906 i barntidskriften Solstr?len, som var organ f?r den litter?ra r?relse, sagostundsr?relsen, som det socialdemokratiska ungdomsf?rbundet initierade i Malm? 1904.[i] Ganska snart n?dde sagostunderna Stockholm. Ett upprop till Stockholms arbetare markerar starten d?r 1906. Uppropet visar p? den centrala id?n om kollektivismens m?jligheter f?r enskilda individers upplevelser av konst och kultur. F?rst lyfts individen och kulturens betydelse fram: ?En t?nkare har sagdt att hvarje m?nniska beh?fver, f?r att lefva ett sundt lif, hvarje dag h?ra eller l?sa n?gra f?rst?ndiga ord, att hvarje dag se en vacker tafla eller en vacker bild, att hvarje dag h?ra en vacker s?ng eller musikstycke.? Sen betonas kollektivismen: ?Huru f? ?ro icke de arbetare som med enskilda medel ha r?d och m?jlighet att bereda sina barn n?gon dylik gedigen njutning. F?r de flesta blir detta dock en om?jlig uppgift. Det gifves dock en m?jlighet ? v?r gamla bepr?fvade v?g ? kollektivismen. Hvad icke en kan ?stadkomma det f?rm? vi gemensamt.?[ii] Med sagor och dikter ville den socialdemokratiska r?relsen integrera arbetarbarnen i kulturens sf?r. Dikten ?Sagan? ?r symtomatisk. Den gestaltar litteraturens kraft som ljusbringare f?r den enskilda individen. Sagostundsr?relsens m?l var dock inte enbart kulturellt. R?relsen innefattade ?ven en vision om att bygga det nya socialdemokratiska samh?llet. Initiativtagarna ville med hj?lp av sk?nlitteratur f?rbereda arbetarklassens barn p? den politiskt historiska uppgift som de skulle axla, man ville helt enkelt ?skapa f?r det kommande frig?relsearbetet en stam, mera mottaglig f?r de nya tankar, vilka i sinom tid komma att meddelas dem?.[iii] R?relsen var allts? ?ven politisk. Mitt paper visar hur socialdemokratisk ideologi kommer till uttryck i sk?nlitteraturens form och inneh?ll i tidskriften Solstr?len mellan 1906 och 1909. Fr?gor som besvaras ?r hur man med litteratur agiterade kring exempelvis nationalism och individualism. [i] K.G. Ossian-Nilsson, ?Sagan?, Solstr?len: Sagostundsbarnens tidning, nr. 1, 1906, s. 1. [ii] Till Stockholms organiserade arbetare! Ett upprop fr?n Socialdemokratiska ungdomsklubbens och Stockholms allm?nna kvinnoklubbs sagostundskommitt? 1906: Arbetarr?relsens arkiv i Stockholm, volym Sagostundsverksamhet, mapp Stockholms sagostunder. [iii] S. Luterkort, ?Studentf?reningen D.Y.G:s konfessionsl?sa s?ndagsskola i Lund.?, Solstr?len: Sagostundsbarnens tidning, nr. 1, 1906, s. 15.
Early Swedish Working-class Literature and the Literary (c.1910): The Case of Maria Sandel
Working-class literature, not unnaturally, is primarily investigated from political, ideological, and sociological points of view, while literary and aesthetic perspectives have been played down. Admirable efforts have been made, indeed, but they have been oriented towards modern and modernistic concepts of the literary, that have not always been compatible with the peculiarities of working-class literature - autodidactic and developed at the margins of canonized literary tradition as it often is. Therefore working-class literature often has been conceived as "artistically immature" or "aesthetically defective". But no thing is made for the sake of its defects but for the sake of its merits, as already the wise critic Thomas Thorild maintained. And each thing should be taken for what it is and never for what it is not (as he also maintained). The overarching issue of this paper is therefore: what kind of literature is working-class literature, and what are the particular merits of it? Since my space is restricted my discussion will focus on narrative prose. A case in point is a narrative by Maria Sandel, belonging to the first generation of Swedish working-class prose c. 1910-25. This prose is interesting, since in time it coincides with the most explosive phase of the Modernization process, a peak of industrialization, urbanization, proletarization, secularization, democratization, massmedialization, and the like. At the continent the various modernist movements are rising, but in Sweden we have fusty idealism and a new bourgeois realism, at the same time as popular mass literature, folk-high schools and above all popular movements. What kind of proletarian literature could grow from such circumstances? How does it relate to the literary, and how should it be described? I want to try the possibility of a new sensuous and pragmatic concept of literature, based on hybridity: concrete vivid depiction marked by mixture of style and genre and a strong address. The depiction presents the allegedly well known in a recognizable way, but - I imagine - simultaneously defamiliarizes it by displaying it in hybrid forms. This way the depiction also has a rhetorical function, a dimension of address aiming at internalizing ideas, conjuring up change of vision and founding pragmatic attitudes - rather than realizing Kantian principles of disinterested pleasure and literary autonomy. The theoretical perspectives that I want to try are mainly derived from Peter Widdowson (the concept of the literary), and Sara Danius/ Jacques Ranci?re (the concept of the sensuous).
The socialist devil. Swedish young socialist fiction at the beginning of the 20th century
When studying the early publications of the Swedish working-class movement, one is struck by how prominent the fictional elements were, especially in the newspapers, where poems were published in practically every number. Apparently, the appreciation of literature was so great, that the fictional texts could not be dispensed with. This interest in literature and fiction was especially marked in the Swedish social democratic youth league, a comparatively small but strident radical organization whose controversial propaganda attracted much attention at the beginning of the 20th century. In their official paper Brand (Fire), the members of the young socialist movement published a vast amount of poems and short stories. Although the explicit aim of the paper was to mediate the political standpoints of the organization to sympathizers as well as political opponents, it contained a conspicuous amount of fictional material along with news and argumentative articles. In my thesis, I analyze the fictional texts in Brand between the years 1898 - 1917, with the aim of discussing possible uses of fiction in a political context at the turn of the century. The thesis focuses on a range of different themes, symbols and narratives carrying literary as well as political meaning. One of the most controversial symbolic images present in the young socialist fiction was without a doubt the powerful figure of the devil, and in my presentation, I therefore intend to focus on the different uses of the devil in these radical left-wing fictions (and, to a certain extent, also in the broader social democratic tradition). In their fictional texts, the young socialists borrowed themes from a vast range of traditions associated with the devil. Their representations were inspired not only by the intimidating visions spread by the clergymen of the Swedish state church, but also the Enlightenment's idealization of knowledge and the romantic perceptions of the dark, tormented hero. When placed within a pronounced political context, the already contentious character of the devil, developed into an undeniably socialist devil, partly new and partly dependent on prior meanings and interpretations.
Den danske lyriks liv synes at ?ndres markant i disse ?r. Mens lyrikken er p? tilbagetog p? de store og veletablerede forlag, skyder den frem et utal af andre steder. Det g?lder ikke blot p? sm? forlag, der er kendetegnet ved nonprofit og en mere idealistisk satsning p? smal litteratur, men ogs? p? diverse elektroniske fora (f.eks. Afsnit P og DigteDK.com samt poesiblogs, net- og smsforlag) og litter?re scener som Poetisk Bureau, Poesiens Hus, Litteraturen p? Scenen, L?ve?s BogCaf? og LitteraturHaus. Med det digitale medie vinder nye tv?r?stetiske og interaktive former indpas, og i det hele taget ses en tendens til, at lyrikken s?ger ud over sit traditionelle medie, bogsiden, og indg?r i mere performancepr?gede sammenh?nge. I mit opl?g vil jeg give et indblik i samtidens danske lyrik, n?r den krydser gr?nserne fra bogsiden til elektroniske fora og performance, og jeg vil diskutere, hvordan lyrikken indg?r i et udvidet litteraturfelt, der f?rer nye former for kontekstualisering med sig.
Morten S?ndergaards Ordapotek indgik i efter?ret 2010 i udstillingen Love i Kunsthallen Nikolaj. Udstillingen handlede om ord og var bygget op omkring en r?kke installationer svarende til sprogets 10 ordklasser. I forbindelse med udstillingen har Morten S?ndergaard, sammen med WeArePopular, skabt et apotek best?ende af disse ordklasser. Det er kommet i to udgaver: udformet som et medicinskab i tr?, lige til at h?nge op i badev?relset, eller i en mere transportabel form: en stiv ?ske, som rummer 10 pille?sker med digte udformet som indl?gssedler: numeralier, verber, substantiver, adjektiver, pr?positioner osv. Indl?gssedlerne rummer oplysninger om, hvordan man skal omg?s ordene: her kan man l?se om virkning og anvendelse, bivirkninger, opbevaring osv. . Skulle der opst? problemer, tilr?des man at kontakte en forfatter, en ordbog eller et bibliotek. V?rket er udsp?ndt mellem litteratur og billedkunst og pr?senterer sig derved som en slags bogobjekt. Men det er samtidig underfundigt udsp?ndt mellem en lattermild omgang med sproget og en mere alvorlig understregning af, at omgangen med sproget forpligter: v?rket betoner hvordan mennesket erfarer verden p? sprogets betingelser, og hvordan sproget kan beherske verden. Som n?r apotekeren S?ndergaard siger om interjektionerne, at de ?er sm? ordbomber. De har nok i sig selv, de beh?ver ikke forklare sig. De b?rer deres betydning med sig, sammenklappet og klar. S? fat det dog!?. Eller n?r han skriver om, at man i forbindelse med b?rns sprogindl?ring skal dosere antallet af substantiver, og at man skal s?rge for, at ?en hest hedder en ?hest? og en hund hedder en ?hund??, s? er der ikke bare lagt op til en sprogteoretisk diskussion, men ogs? til en politisk, vedr?rende forholdet mellem ordene og d?t, der betegnes.
Between the Horror Show and the Wall of Silence : Reflections on fiction and truth in the transition processes of South Africa and Argentina
South Africa and Argentina are both extraordinarily rich in cultural production and moreover share a common experience of transition from a traumatic near past; in South Africa the system of racial segregation known as Apartheid and the culmination of violence in the ?interregnum years?; in Argentina the latest military dictatorship and its ?dirty war? on the militant left, which took the character of extermination. The concept of transition has different connotations in the two cases, primarily due to the diametrically opposed political experiences. The demise of the apartheid state was conceived as the victory of the liberation struggle, whereas Argentina?s return to democracy was in a way the result of a double defeat; the annihilation of the revolutionary guerillas was followed by the humiliation for their vanquishers in the disastrous war against Great Britain over the Falkland/Malvinas islands. The inventory of the cultural production of the transition distinguishes between reactive and proactive expressions with regard to the disputed near past. The first category applies to most of the books and films that were produced in the aftermath of the truth commissions. Like the contemporary media coverage of the Argentinean Conadep and the South African TRC, many of the early narrations had a sensationalist tinge and contributed to el show del horror, as it was called in Argentina. In South Africa, the horrors were to be played down for the reconciliatory purpose, whereas Argentina soon saw the emergence and prevalence of what could be regarded as another form of reactive response; the dissociation from ?the failed utopias?, through irony or mockery. The reactive expressions basically reproduce the fictions that are circulating in the society. The disputed past is signaled by common markers that tend to turn into clich?s; in Argentina the Mother come Grandmother of Plaza de Mayo, the adopted orphan come adolescent in search of his/her disappeared parents, and, as counterpart, the distinguished gentleman next-door with a shady past as torturer and murderer; in South Africa the disillusioned former freedom fighter come drug addict and petty criminals vs. the incompetent affirmative action beneficiary or the noveau riche black businessman in his conspicuous BMW. Generally speaking, these narratives are mirroring the transition in a way that may be interesting from an ethnographic point of view, but neither as art nor as social critique. The proactive strategy, by contrast, implies an interrogation of society and history by means of fiction (or documentary forms with fictional elements). Both South Africa and Argentina abound with examples of such interrogations that arguably have played a proactive role in the transition process, displaying public lies and self-deceptions, deconstructing prevailing myths rather than forging new identities.
Nationality, belonging and acceptance of national border transgressions. The example of Aino Kallas and Hella Wuolijoki
How do we understand identity historically? How do theories of identity depict historical change? Has our conception of who we are changed rapidly in the last century? Was there ever a time when identities were simple? This paper investigates representation and articulation of national identity in the works of two writers, Aino Kallas (nee Krohn, 1878-1956) and Hella Wuolijoki (nee Ella Murrik, 1886-1954). Aino Kallas was born in Finland and married the Estonian Oscar Kallas. In literary introductions and surveys she is described alternately as a Finnish and an Estonian author. Kallas wrote primarily in Finnish, but also in Estonian, in dialect and in archaic language. Her style can be placed in the realistic and neo-romantic literary tradition. Kallas was active in the Noor-Eesti movement [Young Estonia], a literary group that sought to formulate a modern Estonian identity, often through historical themes. Hella Wuolijoki, in contrast, was born in the Estonian town of Helme and received her education in Tartu, in an elite school in St. Petersburg, and at the University of Helsinki. She married the Finnish lawyer, journalist and social democratic politician Sulo Vuolijoki (divorced in 1923) and settled in Finland, where she made a career as a businesswoman, political activist, literary author and playwright. In the 1920s?? and 1930s Hella Wuolijoki hosted a political and cultural salon in Helsinki, which was frequented by many prominent artists, politicians, diplomats and international traders from both the eastern and the western block. Wuolijoki's leftist sympathies were a hindrance for her career and at first she was played mainly at workers theatres and initially she wrote under the male alias Juhani Tervap??. The cinema adaptations of her series on the women of the Niskavuori estate and its fate, has reached cult status in Finland, and a contributing factor to her popularity was her ability to capture (what was perceived as) the genuinely Finnish national characteristics. Clearly, nationality and nationalism, had meaning for Kallas and Wuolijoki. The paper takes a closer look at how the authors' nationality influences the interpretation of their aesthetic works in their new home countries, in situations of political and nationalist conflict.
Literature and literary studies now have one basis and goal: to nurture our common bonds to the planet ? to replace the imaginaries of exclusionist familialism, communitarianism, nationhood, ethnic culture, regionalism, globalization or even humanism, with the ideal of planetarism. These sentences written by the Japanese literary critic Masao Miyoshi show how the peril of the planet due to global warming is working its way into literary fiction and literary criticism. In fact it seems fair to say that the old idea of national identity and even the relatively new notion of globalization today is being challenged by a stronger feeling of planetary identity due to global warming, which is present in both literary fiction, literary criticism and cultural theory. So this raises two questions. How does this planetary identity or planetary consciousness present itself in contemporary literary fiction, literary criticism and cultural theory? And how do we as researchers in the field of comparative literature deal with the fact that global warming increasingly is becoming a motive in the cultural objects, we analyze and work with? In my presentation I will try to answer these two questions. First by presenting some of the reoccurring themes and discussion-points connected to the representation of global warming in contemporary literary fiction. This also involves examples of how the political, ethical and aesthetical dimensions of global warming are being addressed by cultural theory. Second I will argue that ecocriticism, even though it is gaining ground as a critical practice, yet haven?t provided the analytical tools that meet the challenges connected to the thematization of global warming in contemporary literary fiction. The main reason for this being that ecocritics find it hard to accept the literary value of science fiction, eco-thrillers and other kinds of disaster-fictions that do not present nature as a hermetic domain, but rather as territorialized by culture.
Ess?n mellan autonomi och engagemang: Sven Lindqvist v?ljer framtr?delseform
Sven Lindqvist ?r k?nd f?r sitt starka engagemang i samh?llsfr?gor, och de flesta k?nner honom som en f?rfattare av fackb?cker och politisk litteratur. Bilden ?r riktig, men lika riktigt ?r att han inledde sitt f?rfattarskap som en t?mligen renodlat "sk?nlitter?r" f?rfattare, fast f?rankrad i det litter?ra f?ltet. F?rst efter en v?ldsam kamp med f?rfattarrollen - p?b?rjad redan f?re debuten 1955 och intensifierad under det politiska 60-talet - r?rde han sig bort d?rifr?n. Ingenstans i Lindqvists f?rfattarskap ?r denna r?relse fr?n konsten ut i v?rlden, eller in i konsten och ut p? andra sidan, s? tydligt gestaltad som i Myten om Wu Tao-tzu 1967, d?r f?rfattaren st?ller dr?mmen om ett liv i konstens tecken mot det mardr?mslika tillst?ndet i v?rlden (?verbefolkning, sv?lt, naturkatastrofer). Om man p? allvar vill f?rst? uppg?relsen med en sk?nandlig h?llning i Myten ..., b?r man dock s?ka sig l?ngre tillbaka i Lindqvists f?rfattarskap. Veckan f?re sin debut, i april 1955, publicerade Lindqvist en debattartikel i DN med rubriken "Varf?r litteratur?". D?r undrar Lindqvist ?ver litteraturens v?rde: "Hur verkar litteraturen som kulturfaktor? [...] Kan man ge n?gra sk?l f?r att en annan m?nniska b?r l?gga sig till med vanan att l?sa b?cker, kan man f?rsvara att man sj?lv ?gnar sitt liv ?t att g?ra det?" Lindqvists tvivel beh?ver s?ttas i ett st?rre sammanhang. Fr?gan r?r litteraturens roll i samh?llet: ?r konstens viktigaste uppgift att endast vara konst, och d?rigenom ett f?rsvar f?r den autonomi som garanterar konstn?rlig frihet; eller b?r konstn?rerna att bryta den isolering fr?n samh?llet som m?h?nda ?r den negativa sidan av konstens autonomi? Om samh?llet undanber sig konstens inblandning och d?rf?r mer ?n g?rna l?ter den h?lla sig p? sin kant - varf?r ska d? konsten offra krut p? att f?rsvara sitt oberoende? Lindqvists f?rfattarroll formas i detta kraftf?lt mellan tv? v?rldar: det litter?ra f?ltet och den v?rld f?ltet avgr?nsar sig mot. I sitt tidiga f?rfattarskap s?ker Lindqvist desperat efter svar p? hur han ska finna ett tilltal som f?renar de krav som kommer fr?n dessa tv? v?rldar: Hur ska han, utan att g?ra avkall p? det litter?ra f?ltets sv?rk?pta segrar och utan att isolera sig fr?n m?jliga l?sare utanf?r litteraturens autonoma v?rld, lyckas skapa en angel?gen litteratur? Han pr?var och f?rkastar olika h?llningar. En sak h?ller han fast vid: id?n om ett nytt slags ess?form.
Roberto Savianos culture wars: notes on a literary quote
Roberto Saviano (b. 1979), the author of bestseller Gomorrah (2007; ed. orig. 2006), is arguably the most influential contemporary Italian writer and an icon of resistance to the perceived political and moral decline of the country. This success can be understood against the background of the current state of affairs in Italy and as part of a wave of 'postmodern commitment' (Antonello & Mussgnug, 2009) among Italian artists and intellectuals. Interestingly, Saviano has earned the respect of people with different political views, which is a remarkable achievement in a country traditionally plagued by ideological division. This paper investigates the connection of form and content in Saviano's public communication by focusing on one single example that we deem representative of his poetics and politics. In a TV-show by title Dall'inferno alla bellezza [From hell to beauty], Saviano performed a two-hour long monologue focused on stories of resistance against evil. A number of the nearly three-million viewers recognized as an especially pregnant moment a story - based on Varlam Shalamov's Kolyma tale 'Prosthetic Appliances' (1994:388-391) - about a prisoner who refused to give up his soul to a guard and, in Saviano's own addition to the original text, "nearly lost his life for something that he did not even know he had" (Saviano, 2009b).
Copyright (c) 2016 Francesco Caviglia, Leonardo Cecchini
In the introduction to Minima Moralia (1951) Theodor Adorno reflects on the dubious choice to set out from the (bourgeois) subjective experience. Adorno defends his enterprise, arguing (with and against Hegel) that what is disappearing is historically essential. Today the subject is the obvious point of departure not only for aphoristic philosophy, but also for literature and art in general, and even academic research. Autobiographical fiction has become so frequent that it is hard to find counterexamples. In a trivial sense the subject has obviously all but dissolved, as Adorno feared it would. If there is still a need to defend it is thus debatable. In the theoretical discourse of today, the discussion is normally centred on processes of subjectivation, performativity, storytelling, recognition etc. In a way this can be seen as a consequence of postmodern thinking: the subject is no longer a ?natural?, self-evident entity, but something constructed, something we are free to ?do?. On the other hand there is a tendency that this constructed subjectivity becomes as natural, positive, simple and good-natured as any ?pre-postmodern? subjectivity. The question is, in other words, if we in reality have come any further than Adorno; if our historical situation really differs from his. How then should we understand subjectivity today, in a literary context? In my paper I will discuss this in relation to the theories of Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, Judith Butler, Slavoj Zizek and Jacques Ranci?re. In the beginning of The Ticklish Subject Slavoj Zizek remarks that the Cartesian subject is a spectre that all philosophical schools are combating today ? somehow this is an ironic indication of the vitality of the Cartesian subject. To a certain extent I believe Zizek is right; on the other hand the need to rethink the form of subjectivity Adorno (or Descartes) presupposes seems obvious. In a way I think this is what Ranci?re does when he focuses ?an interval for political subjectivization? between man and citizen, rather than a fixed individual subject. These questions are both aesthetically and politically relevant. F x one could ask if the amount of autofiction published during the last decade is an expression of the dissolved subject, or on the contrary of a kind of hyper-individualism. Or do those options in reality amount to the same powerlessness?
Princely vs. economic power in Voltaire?s Zadig, ou la destin?e
When Voltaire published his first philosophical tale in Paris in 1748, Zadig, ou la destin?e, he expected it to be censured. But on the contrary, the oriental story was celebrated as exquisite entertainment. Why wasn't the narrative read as unacceptable political critique? And why had the author envisioned such a reaction? In this paper, I suggest that the tale's inscription of the reader and of an allegorical model of reading, deliberately mislead the recipients. The contemporary readers amused themselves comparing the Babylonian court with the Versailles of Louis XV, a comparison which did not seem to threaten the royal power. The reception has ever since been marked by an impulse to consider the story in a historical-biographical light - as an allegorical mirror image of Voltaire's personal experiences as a courtesan. In a critical edition from 1965, Zadig is symptomatically called "l'anti-Versailles". The focus on the allegorical link between the representation of the Babylonian court and the court of Louis XV, seems to have blinded scholars to the fact that most of the story actually takes place outside the court. Taking the representation of the outside world as my point of departure, I will argue that the narrative's critical agenda is not exposed through allegory. The tale's explosive political message is rather to be found in a comparative exposure of the contemporary political order, characterized by the breakdown of princely power and the emergence of a global power of money.
Copyright (c) 2016 Ingvild Hagen Kj?rholt
Reading Indian English Women?s Writing-Between Identification and Alienation
My paper addresses the challenges in cross-cultural reading. The ethical dilemmas we face when reading across cultural border are not simply a question of tensions between the "exotic", the "native informant" and reader identification. It is also a question of identifying a different or versatile reader position, which is not based on centralising the reader, but gives room for a variety of reader positions within the authorial audience. My paper will analyse Indian English women's writing through this lens and I will develop an argument, which considers the ethical dimensions of reading. How can we read fiction and understand the contextual dimensions of fiction, its impact and place in contexts that are alien to us? The gender politics in Indian English women's writing exemplifies my inquiry into cross cultural reader positions. In a comparative approach I analyse how Shashi Deshpande's novel The Long Silence (1988) and Githa Hariharan's novel The Thousand Faces of Night (1992) in different ways places gender at the for front of social reformulations. Yet a feminist reading, which focuses on agency, will lose sight of the gender politics in both novels. To identify exactly how these novels voice a feminist agenda becomes even more demanding in cross-cultural reading and most readings (Indian and non-Indian alike) of the novels focus on the 'doll house' syndrome. The reason why most readings fail to recognise the feminist interventions in the two novels are, I argue, because of an presupposed assumption of how politics and literature interact, and how this relationship is supposed to look like. I posit in my paper that cross-cultural readings need to address the question of context, politics and reading by ethically questioning the position of the reader as part of a versatile reader position.
Connecting the Crises: The Danish Constitution of June 1849 and S?ren Kierkegaard?s ?Attack on Christendom?
The tendency of 20th century French and German philosophers to claim S?ren Kierkegaard as the ?Father of Existentialism? has largely obscured not only Kierkegaard?s Danish identity but also the influential, though oblique, role he played in mid-19th century Danish society and politics. Although many of the pseudonymous texts from his early period offer veiled satirical critiques of particular individuals and institutions in Danish society, Kierkegaard?s final literary accomplishment, the series of articles known collectively as the ?Attack on Christendom? (1854-55), presents his most sweeping indictment of Danish society, a critique of the unity of state and church that had been an integral part of Denmark?s political structure for nearly a thousand years. The death and subsequent hagiographic treatment of Bishop J.P. Mynster is generally identified as having provided the impetus for Kierkegaard?s diatribe, but it is no coincidence that his work appeared just a few years after the establishment of religious freedom in Article 81 of the June Constitution of 1849. However, scholars have been slow to make the connection between Kierkegaard?s brilliantly insightful and stylistically masterful last work and the societal upheaval that both gave rise to and followed the granting of this fundamental civil right. In this paper, I examine Kierkegaard?s evolving view of the governmental regulation of religious belief and practice, both as it impinges upon his personal life and as it manifests itself in his literary texts, particularly, but not exclusively, the ?Attack on Christendom.? Far from being an ivory-tower intellectual with little interest in or contact with the common people of Denmark, Kierkegaard was passionately invested in the temporal and spiritual affairs of his countrymen and he used his literary talents to challenge both establishment practices and received truths. While his contributions to existentialist philosophy are undeniably important, his legacy of using literature to critique and reshape social norms is equally significant.
Landskapsdikten som politisk genre i 1700-talets Sverige
Mitt paper unders?ker hur den lantliga klassicistiska diktningen under sent 1700-tal gavs en politisk uppgift i den gustavianska offentligheten. Medan landsbygden fr?mst framst?llts i en pastoral eskapistisk form under tidigare delen av seklet, v?nder sig diktarna allt mer mot en slags imitation av Vergilius Georgica, l?rodikten om jordbruket. Denna f?r dock en relevans som g?r l?ngt ut?ver fr?gor om lantlevnaden. Genom att n?rma sig fr?gor om historia och politik kommer den n?rmast att utg?ra ett alternativ till eposet, som under samma period b?rjar uppfattas som en "d?d" genre. Resultatet ?r en kombination av lantlig idyll och realpolitiska reflektioner ?ver ekonomi, handel och krig, d?r det politiskt-didaktiska och det eskapistiska ofta samexisterar p? ett mots?gelsefullt s?tt. I dessa heterogena och genreblandande dikter blir det m?jligt att framst?lla relationerna mellan ekonomi, rikets f?rsvar och dygdiga medborgare som en meningsfull totalitet.
?Alle Nationers Undertvingelse? - Liberalitet, imperial mentalitet og anti-j?disk diskurs i Thomas Thaarups forfatterskab
Thomas Thaarup (1749-1821) var om nogen en politisk forfatter, selvom hans litter?re produktions politiske betydning var ekstremt sammensat og til tider endda selvmodsigende. I 1780?erne og 90?erne skrev han en r?kke lyriske tekster og syngespil, der stort set alle fungerede som en ideologisk overbygning til Kronprins Frederiks s?kaldte revolution fra oven, dvs. som en litter?r forst?rkning af det oplyste enev?ldes hegemoni. Bedst kendte er vel nok hans indskrifter p? Frihedsst?tten i K?benhavn, der hylder oph?velsen af stavnsb?ndet, samt Peters Bryllup (1793), der blandt andet priser Kronprinsens humane og liberale reformpolitik med reference til bandlysningen af slavehandlen i de danske kolonier i Guinea og Vestindien. P? grund af dette engagement blev Thaarups navn tiln?rmelsesvist synonymt med den politiske modernitet, der voksede ud af den europ?iske oplysningstradition, og som indsatte liberaliteten som det yderste m?l. I 1813 skrev Thaarup en r?kke anti-j?diske tekster, som tilsyneladende negerede og tilbagekaldte den reformvenlige og liberale linje, han hidtil havde st?et for. Hvor blev liberaliteten af, spurgte det undrende k?benhavnske dannelsesborgerskab sig selv, som i den efterf?lgende debat citerede vers fra Thaarups tidlige digtning som modargumenter mod Thaarup selv. At denne digter, der havde vist sympati med den ?stakkels Neger?, demonstrerede s? massiv en aggression over for j?derne, var for mange uforst?eligt. Denne manglende forst?else har litteraturhistoriografien sidenhen adopteret. Der findes ingen studier, der knytter forbindelse mellem den tidlige og den sene Thaarup og generelt forties hans antisemitiske engagement som en art ideologisk svipser. Mit paper s?tter udvekslingsrelationerne mellem Thaarups tidlige reformliberale og hans senere anti-j?diske produktion i forgrunden. Disse to modsatrettede understr?mme l?ber nemlig i sidste ende begge tilbage det samme kildeudspring, nemlig en s?rlig imperial diskurs. P? et alment historiografisk plan bidrager mit paper s?ledes til gennemt?nkningen af liberalitetens g?ld til prima facie non-liberale st?rrelser som magt, kolonialisme, antisemitisme og symbolsk vold.
Body monarch and monarchial body - a comparative study on the physiognomy of monarch in Italian and Chinese literary descriptions
As a mechanism to make communication between the body and the exterior world, Physiognomy is one of the most vivid perspectives to examine the relationship between the individual and the world. Just as G.B.Della Porta said, the physiognomic costumi corresponds with the worldly custom. The essay focuses on the physiognomy of monarch. In Italian and Chinese literary descriptions of monarch it exist the physiognomic features, or, the influence of physiognomy, which can be considered from two aspects. One is the monarchial body, or the confined monarch. The physiognomy reveals the identity. In both Italian and Chinese descriptions in particular epoch, the physical features of monarch are simile, which made the monarchs in one. The other is the body monarch, or the confining monarch. The particular physiognomy of monarch is stabilized and even legitimated exclusively in vocabulary and pattern of depiction, which thrusts upon the people the impression of the natural nobility of monarch thereby strengthens regal authority. The physiognomy thus becomes an expression of power. Both Italian and Chinese physiognomies of monarch present the two characteristics above, except for the specific descriptions according to the relative treatises respectively, for example, the extraordinary appearance of Chinese emperor. The essay seeks to make a comparison study between Italian and Chinese literature from the two aspects with detailed interpretation of physiognomic appearances of monarch-the signification and the implication-out of which one can see the similarities and differences of Italian and Chinese culture.
D?dens n?rvaro. Antropologi och eskatologi i H?l?ne Cixous politiskt-poetiska filosofi
H?l?ne Cixous (f 1937), fransk filosof k?nd f?r s?v?l (mer) teoretiska som f?r (mer) konstn?rliga uttryck, utmanar med sina genre?verskridande och politiskt drivande texter traditionella teologiska och filosofiska f?rest?llningar om existentiella dilemman som r?r m?nniskosyn, f?delse, d?d och, i n?gon mening, p?nyttf?delse. I Cixous diskussioner av fr?gor som relaterar till kropp och k?n, spr?k och text, skapande och sex finns m?jligheter till konstruktiva kritiska utbyten med teologiska och/eller filosofiska tolkningar av vad m?nskligt liv ?r, kan och b?r vara. I sina texter g?r Cixous till attack mot spr?k som f?r oss att h?lla oss till konventionella begrepp och motsatser. Ett ?kvinnligt? skrivs?tt (?l??criture feminine?), enligt henne sj?lv - i mina ?gon b?ttre beskrivet som ett poetiskt eller kroppsligt skrivs?tt - kan f? kroppen att r?ra sig in i spr?ket och m?jligg?ra f?r den f?rfattande personen att bruka sina undermedvetna tillg?ngar i ett p?g?ende utbyte mellan det medvetna och omedvetna. Det ?r b?de m?jligt och passande f?r s?v?l kvinnor som m?n att ta ett kliv bort fr?n det som ?r bekant och sant till det skr?mmande ok?nda. F?r Cixous ?r f?rlossning en central metafor f?r skrivande, och d?rmed skriver hon fram en bild av f?rfattaren som mor till skillnad fr?n den g?ngse v?sterl?ndske bilden av f?rfattaren som man, f?r Cixous ?r d?den st?ndigt (positivt) n?rvarande i livet, och d?rmed problematiserar hon f?rest?llningar om d?den som det onda, m?rka och vad som v?ntar efter d?den, f?r Cixous ?r det egna skrivandet ett tydligt tecken p? m?nniskoblivande, som den m?nniska man vill och kan vara, och d?rmed ifr?gas?tter hon normer f?r vad kvinnor och m?n ?r, f?r Cixous ?r f?rnuftets spr?k ett spr?k som har gl?mt att anv?nda spr?kets symboliska drag, och d?rmed problematiserar hon det rationella spr?kets giltighet. Cixous kreativa filosofi och politiska poesi har mycket att bidra med i diskussioner om antropologi, eskatologi och feministisk teori. Inte bara vad g?ller inneh?ll utan ocks?, kanske i synnerhet, vad g?ller form. Hur vi presenterar v?ra tankeg?ngar ?r betydelsefullt inte bara f?r det s?tt p? vilket de mottas, utan ocks? f?r tankeg?ngarnas faktiska inneh?ll. Vissa fenomen eller uppgifter kr?ver ett kreativt framst?llningss?tt, som exempelvis v?r eviga m?da med att beskriva och f?rst? oss sj?lva som levande d?dliga varelser.
Receptionen af samfundsengageret nordisk litteratur oversat til fransk
Den stigende interesse for nordisk litteratur har f?et antallet af udgivelser af nordisk litteratur til at boome i Frankrig, og der bliver i paperet fokuseret p? receptionen af disse tekster. Med udgangspunkt i en tematisk kategorisering af oversatte islandske, norske, svenske, danske og finske tekster oversat siden 2000 samt en analyse af et tekstkorpus best?ende af avisanmeldelser, blogartikler og kommentarer p? nettet, vil jeg p?vise, at specifikke teksttyper mobiliserer specifikke nordenbilleder hos fransktalende l?sere. Der vil blive lagt s?rlig v?gt p? receptionen af samfundsengageret litteratur.
Copyright (c) 2016 Margrethe Lykke Eriksen
Politik og religion i romanen: Klosteret som politisk-religi?s topos i J.-K. Huysmans' og Johs. J?rgensens romaner
Politik og religion i romanen: klosteret som politisk-religi?s topos i J.-K. Huysmans? og Johs. J?rgensens romaner. De politiske konflikter i Frankrig mellem katolicisme og sekularisering o. ?r 1900 aff?dte en helt ny romangenre, den katolske roman, som blev et v?sentligt forum for diskussion og refleksion over religionens status og funktion i samfundet. Genren udsprang blandt politisk reaktion?re, nykatolske intellektuelle med forfattere som L?on Bloy, J.-K. Huysmans og Paul Bourget, som i romanform polemiserede heftigt imod den tredje republiks radikalisme og antiklerikalisme og udviklede antidemokratiske samfundsmodeller baseret p? forestillingen om en gylden middelalder, hvor kirke og krone garanterede det kristne enhedssamfund. ? I Danmark var den samtidige Johannes J?rgensen, ligeledes nykatolsk antiradikal efter konverteringen i 1896, st?rkt inspireret af Bloys og Huysmans? romaner. Men der er en bem?rkelsesv?rdig forskel mellem J?rgensens og de franske nykatolske forfatteres samment?nkning af politik og religion: J?rgensens kritik af radikalismens og liberalismens individualisme er grundet i socialistiske sympatier; han er demokrat og finder derfor efter konverteringen sit politisk-religi?se st?sted i den demokratiske, sociale kristendom, som pave Leo d.13?s encyklika Rerum Novarum (1891) om kirkens sociale rolle ?bnede for. Den sociale kristendom, som udvikledes af bla. den engelske kardinal Manning og var drivkraft i den franske Marc Sangniers bev?gelse Le Sillon, vandt dog f?rst litter?rt indpas i den franske katolske roman i mellemkrigstiden hos f.eks. Fran?ois Mauriac. Men i Johannes J?rgensens katolske romaner har vi alts? et tidligt eksempel p? moderne, demokratisk og social katolsk t?nkning. Denne forskel i politisk og religi?s t?nkning vil jeg belyse ud fra Huysmans? En route (1895) og Johs. J?rgensens Vor Frue af Danmark (1900). Begge romaner er omvendelsesfort?llinger, som tr?kker p? selvbiografisk stof, og i begge romaner materialiseres en ideel samfundsmodel ud fra samme litter?re og religi?se topos: klosteret. Klosteret er romanernes omdrejningspunkt for forfatternes historiefortolkninger af middelalder og samtid, for deres sociale og politiske kritik og for deres visioner om relationen mellem kristendom og politik i samfundet.
The essay discusses the liquid spatiality that characterizes the activities of the pirate, the juridical liquid space that is created in his or her wake, and reactions to pirate activity that in various ways attempt to territorialize the open sea. The essay also considers the ways in which the activities of modern pirates affect the relationship between the juridical and the political. The focus is on le- gal, cultural, and political relationships between activities and spatialities, and in particular on the relationship between solid and liquid states. Although the perspective is mainly that of intellectual history, the essay also discusses some recent historical events, in particular the legal processes against the Swedish file-sharing site The Pirate Bay.
Posthukommelser over gr?nser: The Border Breaking Bunch og Apropos Opa som litter?re m?desteder
"Mine for?ldre er meget stolte af deres tavshed. Det var deres m?de at spare ... deres b?rn lidelser p?. I denne tavshed har der v?ret overleveret alt ud over en fort?lling. Og n?r man er tavs, kan man jo ikke ?ndre p? tr?de i den historie, der skjuler sig bag tavsheden," sagde den j?diske kunstner Bracha L. Ettinger (Pollock 1995), som repr?senterer anden generation efter dem, der overlevede Holocaust. Denne tavshed kan opfattes som b?de individuel og generationsrelateret. Der fort?lles ud fra en lignende tavshed i de to romaner: The Border Breaking Bunch (2008) af Maja Magdalena Swiderska og Apropos Opa (2009) af Julia Butschkow. De kan l?ses som litter?re (gen)fort?llinger af de fortiede historier, der har p?virket fort?llernes (og forfatternes) liv og identiteter. Swiderskas bog tager afs?t i for?ldrenes tvangsflugt fra det kommunistiske regime i Polen p? grund af j?deforf?lgelser i 1968, mens Butschkows tyske far i 60'erne "flygtede" til Danmark fra sin egen far, som havde v?ret nazist og ansvarlig for j?dedeportationer under 2. Verdenskrig. Begge romaner er fortalt ud fra en nedarvet traumatisk erindring og kan ses som litter?re bearbejdninger af posthukommelse (Hirsch 1997). Mens Swiderskas fort?lling er forankret i den grundl?ggende offer-erfaring (med Holocaust som et af de nedarvede traumer), konfronteres Butschkow med sin skamf?lelse. B?gerne kan samtidig ses som konstruktive genfort?llinger af Europas historie som en helhed, og derved som en del af en bredere tendens efter 1989 (Mohnike 2007). De bliver til litter?re m?desteder (Larsen 2007), hvor den gamle, bin?re (efter)krigsorden m?des med samtiden, og hvor krydsninger af adskillige gr?nser, b?de vertikalt og horisontalt, samt n?dvendigheden af aktivt at placere egen identitet, er centrale. "M?destedets gr?nser flytter sig i kraft af vores aktiviteter", skriver Svend Erik Larsen, og de to fort?llinger kan ses som gr?nseudvidende aktive handlinger - eller kreative bearbejdninger af tr?dene i "historien". I min analyse vil jeg fokusere p? disse forhold, som de konkretiseres i de narrative og ?stetiske strategier i b?gerne, hvor Swiderska opererer med en hybrid og flerstemmig fort?llem?de p? tv?rs af medier, genrer og registre, mens Butschkow bruger en nedtonet og minimalistisk stil.
Copyright (c) 2016 Anna Estera Mrozewicz
I paperet unders?ges forskellige forfattere og kunstneres opfattelse af terrorangrebet i New York 11. september 2001. Der fokuseres p? de eksempler, hvor terrorangrebet i al sin gru ?stetiseres og i sig selv anses for en slags "kunstv?rk": Det nok mest markante eksempel p? ?stetiseringen af 9/11 er komponisten Karlheinz Stockhausen, der kort efter angrebet beskrev dette som "det st?rste kunstv?rk" nogensinde. Ogs? kunstnerne Damien Hirst og Anselm Kiefers tanker om 9/11 analyseres. I paperet - som alts? er tv?r?stetisk anlagt - s?ttes det ?stetiserende syn ind i en historisk kontekst og dets etisk-politiske perspektiver diskuteres. Der ?bnes afslutningsvis gennem en kort pr?sentation af Don DeLillos roman Falling Man for en alternativ tilgang til 9/11, hvor begivenheden ikke i sig selv ses som et "kunstv?rk", men bearbejdes i et traditionelt kunstv?rk.
Politiske litteraturformer i Danmark i 00erne
?Min roman Indvandreren er den mest politiske bog der er udkommet i 2011? er journalisten Olav Hergel blevet citeret for at sige. Han har ret hvis man med politisk litteratur forst?r en bog der direkte tematiserer en problemstilling der spiller en vigtig rolle i den politiske debat. Det g?r indvandrersp?rgsm?let i Danmark. Til geng?ld er Hergels historie som roman betragtet yderst traditionel, ja konservativ i sin valoriserede skildring af the good guy and the bad guys. I sin form er Hergel reaktion?r, i sit indhold er han ?venstredrejet?. Hvordan skal man placere en roman som norske Abo Rasuls interart-eksperimenterende Macht und Rebel der udspiller sig i en polariseret subkultur? Jeg vil tale om forskellige tilgange til konstellationen ?litteratur og politik?. Politiske konfliktmateriale kan tematiseres i et v?rk men der er ogs? andre m?der et kunstv?rk kan give det politiske en stemme. Det afd?de das beckwerk udg?r en radikal pol, idet forfatteren gang p? gang afvikler forfatteren som institutionel kategori og han s?tter eksistensen p? spil ved at afvikle sit jeg og ved at g?re forfatterrollen til et performativt nummer. Dertil kommer at hans rejsende eksperimenter, b?gernes ?hvad?, ogs? har klar politisk tyngde ? parodiske indf?ring af demokrati i Irak fx Kunsten skal transformeres til ny v?ren: ?Det, jeg og das Beckwerk fors?ger, er ikke at v?re kunstner eller at producere kunst, men at opdage, udvikle og skabe nye handlings- og v?rensformer med en stor formbevidsthed?. En anden kunstnerisk strategi finder man hos Lars Skinnebach, der fx i digtsamlingen Din misbruger angriber og h?ner sin l?ser: Skinnebach fastholder v?rkenheden, mens das Beckwerk er tilb?jelig til at afvikle den. Til geng?ld tematiseres Skinnebach eksplicit interaktionen med l?seren. Det politiske kan ogs? ligge i en litter?r annektering af den relationelle ?stetik. Hvis det er rigtigt at litteraturen som udtryksform er ved at bliver begravet i mediekulturen og dermed marginaliseret ? og litteraturvidenskaben samtidig ser ud til at have stadig sv?rere ved at skaffe eksterne forskningsmidler ? hvordan kan litteraturen revitalisere sin dialog med l?serne om v?sentlige forhold ? herunder politiske omst?ndigheder ? og hvordan kan litteraturvidenskaben tilsvarende fokusere p? forhold som ikke kun er indlysende centrale for litterater?
Will Self's Walking to Hollywood and Satire
In his novels and short stories, British writer Will Self has employed a set of extraordinary conceits in order to satirize contemporary culture and politics. For instance, in /Great Apes/ (1997) he portrays human beings as the evolutionary unsuccessful species, in /How the Dead Live/ (2000) he posits that, after death, people merely go and live in a really dull part of London, and in /Dorian: An Imitation/ (2003) he re-imagines Oscar Wilde's famous novel in the context of the 1980s and 1990s. In my paper I take my point of departure in Self's fiction, in order to discuss the possibilities of satire in contemporary British fiction.
It is my general aim in this paper to study the political implications of linguistic and literary conventions, through theorists like Jean-Jacques Lecercle, Jacques Ranci?re, and Marjorie Perloff. My touchstone will be the poetry of Swedish contemporary poet Ida B?rjel. What interests me in B?rjel?s writing is her tendencies to use ?found objects?, and to question the representational function of language, as its primary function. These tendencies correspond well to e.g. Ranci?re?s thoughts on literature and its relation to life, as well as to Lecercle?s discussions on the barriers between what is inside language?s conventions, and what is left outside (?the remainder?). In my paper, I dwell on certain political dimensions of theories like theirs, from a perspective which might, at least to a certain extent, be described as culture-semiotic: What ideologies come with a certain semiotic understanding, with certain linguistic conventions? And what ideologies surface when these conventions, this understanding, is questioned in one way or the other? Concepts like parataxis and language materialism will be crucial to my discussion, since these concepts (or at least certain facets of them) stress functions of language and literature which are not representational. Lecercle?s theories on ?the remainder? of language prove very effective when applied not specifically as linguistic tools primarily, but as tools for literary analysis. Especially when one approaches a literature which tries to scrutinize, and even transgress, its own boundaries and conventions ? as does B?rjel?s. This concept also proves a useful complement in relation to Ranci?re?s more qualitative concept of the ?political?, and its relationship to literature specifically. Ranci?re speaks mainly of the novel, and Lecercle mainly of language (in more general terms). Within the habitat of Marjorie Perloff?s theories of experimental poetry, these two theoretical perspectives can find an environment where literary form and politics have a lot to say to each other. And the outcome of such a discussion would have relevance when it comes to the relationship between such politically radiant pairs as nature and culture, or ecology and economy.
Att s?tta medelklassens problem under debatt ? samtidspolitik, etik och klassmedvetande i Sara Kadefors F?gelbov?gen 32
Det talas allt oftare om en ny klassmedvetenhet i kulturanalysen. I de flesta fall handlar det om arbetarklass (eller i n?gra fall om ?verklass). Men varf?r ?r det s? tyst om medelklassen? ?r det f?r att mellanskikten dominerar den offentliga debatten och inte f?rm?r granska sig sj?lva? Eller ?r vissa normer och livstilsval s? naturaliserade inte vi inte l?ngre ser dem som klassbetingade? Johan Svedjedal fr?gar sig i en artikel fr?n 1998 om det finns n?gon svensk borgerlig litteratur. Han konstaterar att en hel del fiktionsprosa skrivs om och av personer som kan s?gas tillh?ra medelklassen, i vid mening. Men av denna litteratur inneh?ller endast en liten del ?element av aktiverat klassmedvetande?, d?r ?borgerligheten (eller medelklassen) reflekterar ?ver sig sj?lv som s?dan?. Ett drygt decennium senare kan vi konstatera att medelklassens liv och leverne dominerar kulturutbudet, b?de i seri?s och popul?r tappning. Fredrik Lindstr?ms och Henrik Schyfferts satiriska krogshow Ljust och fr?scht och TV4:s humorserie Solsidan, ?r tv? exempel p? det senare. Sj?lvhj?lpslitteraturen och livsstilsmagasinen riktar sig med f? undantag till samma m?lgrupp om ?n med andra tonfall. Men hur ?r det med sk?nlitteraturen? En v?sentlig del av den svenska prosautgivningen under senare ?r har en aning f?raktfullt kategoriserats som urbana sedeskildringar. Det handlar om mer eller mindre realiska ber?ttelser om medel?lders m?nniskor och deras arbete, familjeliv och fritid i storstad eller f?rort (l?s: Stockholm). Den ?vergripande fr?ga som ekar genom hela den h?r traditionen, som str?cker sig tillbaka ?tminstone till 1880-talet, ?r: hur ska vi kunna leva ett fullv?rdigt liv som frigjorda, lyckliga (och lyckade) och ansvarstagande m?nniskor? Men ?ven om merparten ?r vad vi med Svedjedal kunde kalla ?n?rblind?, allts? omedveten om sin egen klassposition, finns en del verk d?r ?den sociala tillh?righeten inte bara ?r milj?n, utan en del av sj?lva ?mnet?. Det ?r h?g tid att b?rja l?sa ?ven den h?r litteraturen politiskt. Vad s?ger den och hur talar den om klass, k?n, etnicitet i ett samtida Sverige? Jag ska i mitt paper utg? fr?n Sara Kadefors F?gelbov?gen 32 (2006) som ett represantativt exempel p? den breda svenska medelklasskildringen av idag, men ocks? lyfta fram hur den p? intressanta s?tt problematiserar de politiska, etiska och existentiella val och motstridiga krav som romanens huvudkarakt?r, gynekologen Karin, st?lls inf?r.
Mellem kynisme og kritik. H?bets og kritikkens status i Lars Frosts romantrilogi
N?rv?rende paper skal unders?ge den flertydige forhandling af relationen mellem politik og litteratur i Lars Frosts romantrilogi ?Smukke biler efter krigen?(2004), ?Ubevidst r?dgang?(2008) og ?Sk?nvirke?(2011). I de tre romaner kan vi iagttage en overfladisk bev?gelse fra det overvejende privatlivsorienterede perspektiv hen mod det eksplicit samfundskritiske og dystopiske blik. I retrospekt tegner der sig imidlertid et m?nster af systematisk civilisationskritik med specifik brod rettet mod det danske velf?rdssamfund i perioden 1970 til 2011. Frosts prosa er dog genneml?bet af ironi, lige som plotforl?bene ikke afgiver mulighed for nogle entydige eller reduktivt politiske afl?sninger. Dertil kommer, at fort?llerpositionerne i de tre romaner ofte artikulerer en kynisk antropologi, der synes at undergrave tiltroen til effekten af en litter?rt udformet iv?rks?ttelse af kritik af velf?rdssamfundet. Udfordringen bliver da dels at kortl?gge den gradvise gang frem mod apokalypsen i ?Sk?nvirke?, der tilsyneladende underminerer h?bet om forandring og selve grunden under samfundskritik, og dels dern?st at unders?ge implikationerne af de flertydige og selvbevidste m?der hvorp? forholdet mellem litteratur og politik bliver genstand for forhandling i Lars Frosts romantrilogi. Fokus og efterf?lgende perspektiv vil da v?re p? at afd?kke et muligt litter?rt begreb om kritik, der ikke g?r litteraturen til blot og bart instrument for et rent politisk ?rinde, men som p? den anden side fastholder litteraturens evne til kritisk engagement med en social og politisk omverden. I sidstn?vnte sammenh?ng vil der blive tale om at inddrage Bourriauds forestilling om mikro-utopien, og Adornos omtale (i ?Negative Dialektik?) af et ?presque rien?, en minimal v?ge der holdes ?ben i den forvaltede verden, med henblik p? at konfrontere Frosts tilsyneladende rent apokalyptiske og pessimistiske romantrilogi med henholdsvis Bourriauds og Adornos forestillinger om utopien. Dette sidste vil ske med sigte p? at afd?kke af et s?vel kritisk som mikro-utopisk element i Frosts prosa.
Copyright (c) 2016 Mikkel Bruun Zangenberg
Avant-Garde and Politics: The Case of the New Student Society in Copenhagen (1922-24)
A crucial problem in recent scholarship on the so called "historical" avant-gardes from the first decades of the 20th century (Futurism, Dadaism, Constructivism etc.) is how to account for the political radicalism and utopianism inherent to the avant-garde project. In his Theorie der Avantgarde (1974), Peter B?rger made an influential contribution to this discussion by defining the critical project of the historical avant-gardes as a will to "reintegrate art into the practice of life". In recent research, however, the activist pathos of B?rger's formula has been subject to criticism, and most contemporary scholars seem to look for new models for approaching the history of the early avant-gardes - either by simply addressing the avant-garde rupture in purely aesthetic terms (as artistic innovations or configurations of styles etc.) or by emphasizing the pivotal role of philosophical ideas (vitalism or occultist thought) for the emergence of avant-gardes. In my paper, I would like to reopen this old discussion of the role of politics in the avant-garde project by tracing the short and dramatic history of the Copenhagen activist and artist group known as The New Student Society (DNSS). The paper will account for the political radicalization of the group's activities in this critical phase of the history of the early Danish avant-gardes, in which the aesthetics of international Expressionism, Dadaism and Constructivism were transformed into social practice and Communist action.
Alltsedan de svenska folkr?relsernas framv?xt under den andra h?lften av 1800-talet har poesi utgjort ett viktigt inslag i r?relsernas verksamhet. Traditionen levde vidare inom de nya sociala r?relser som v?xte fram i Sverige under 1960- och 70-talet, med den nya kvinnor?relsen som ett exempel. Poesiuppl?sning var ett ?terkommande inslag i r?relseorganisationernas offentliga manifestationer och interna m?ten. Dikter trycktes ocks? i r?relseanknutna tidskrifter, informationsbroschyrer och diktsamlingar, liksom i dagspressen. Inom ramen f?r mitt avhandlingsprojekt i litteraturvetenskap studerar jag poesi som anv?ndes inom den del av kvinnor?relsen som fr?n slutet av 1970-talet engagerade sig starkt i freds- och milj?fr?gor, exemplifierad av r?relseorganisationen Kvinnor f?r fred. Denna poesi, som h?r ben?mns bruksdikt, har ett klart syfte ut?ver det rent konstn?rliga. Den blir till ett verktyg i kampen f?r social och politisk f?r?ndring. Genom olika retoriska grepp kan bruksdikten p?verka mottagarna till st?llningstagande, handling och identifikation med r?relsen. Bruksdikt definieras i avhandlingen som poesi som fyller persuasiva funktioner i ett specifikt socialt sammanhang. Dikterna analyseras i f?rh?llande till den retoriska situation som de anv?ndes i. I mitt paper avser jag att analysera dikten "Ot?nkbart" av f?rfattaren Ingrid Sj?strand (f. 1922). Ingrid Sj?strand var en av initiativtagarna till organisationen Kvinnor f?r fred 1979 och hennes poesi anv?ndes st?ndigt inom organisationen under ?ren som f?ljde. "Ot?nkbart" trycktes i Dagens Nyheter den 28 december 1979. Den utg?r en direkt reaktion p? det beslut som fattades inom Nato den 12 december samma ?r om att placera ut medeldistansrobotar i Europa som ett svar p? Sovjetunionens k?rnvapenupprustning. I dikten ?terfinns en rad konkreta faktauppgifter, h?mtade ur DN:s rapportering om Natos beslut och informationsmaterial om k?rnkraft och k?rnvapen. Analysen visar hur dessa faktauppgifter fyller nya argumentativa funktioner d? de flyttas fr?n sitt ursprungliga sammanhang in i dikten. Vidare analyserar jag hur diktens metaforer anv?nds f?r att karakterisera motst?ndaren och underminera de logiska argument som kalla krigets terrorbalans vilade p?.
Dansk poesi i 00'erne har mere end nogensinde tidligere ?bnet sig for politisk og socialt orienterede diskurser. Denne indoptagelse af forestillingsomr?der, der normalt i den centrallyriske tradition er blevet forvist fra det poetiske dom?ne, har haft m?rkbare konsekvenser for den poetiske form, der i de seneste ?rs flerstemmige interaktionslyrik afviger fra, hvad vi tidligere har set. I mit paper vil jeg give en skitse af, hvorledes dette konkret ytrer sig hos en r?kke af de mest markante danske lyrikere fra de seneste ?r s?som Naja Marie Aidt, Ursula Andkj?r Olsen, Mette Moestrup, Lars Skinnebach og Marius N?rup-Nielsen. I forl?ngelse af dette vil jeg give et bud p? lyrikkens betingelser i ?post-bog-tidsalderen?, hvor litteraturen bl.a. i stigende grad optr?der i interaktioner med andre kunstarter, som performance og som internetformidlede enheder. Jeg vil fremh?ve et alternativ til den ofte pessimistiske diskurs om dette emne, som lanceres i s?vel amerikanske (Dana Gioia, Marjorie Perloff, Virginia Jackson) som nordiske (Ari Behn, Niels Frank, Mikkel Thykier) kritikere. Min holdning er her, at den poetiske genre til trods for alle medie- og formidlingsm?ssige revolutioner stadig er intakt, hvad ang?r en r?kke af sine konstituerende tr?k og sin manifestation af s?vel kvalitativ som kvantitativ art.
Balladen om Brunel. Civilisationskritik og ny identitetstematik hos Heretica-bev?gelsen
I 1959 udkom hereticaneren Thorkild Bj?rnvigs meget l?ste, fort?llende digt "Balladen om Great Eastern" i samlingen Figur og Ild. Digtet er is?r blevet fortolket som en storstilet civilisationskritisk elegi, indlejret i historien om skibet Great Eastern, der var forl?ber for senere mastodontskibe som Titanic. Dermed er det kommet til at st? som emblem p? Heretica-bev?gelsens angiveligt reaktion?re og ensidigt afvisende holdning til modernitetens fornufts- og teknologistyring. Men "Balladen om Great Eastern" rummer ogs? en anden problemstilling, som er centreret omkring tekstens menneskelige hovedfigur, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, konstrukt?ren af skibet. Den udgr?nsning af de emotive og ikke-fornuftsbaserede aspekter af bevidstheden, som Brunel repr?senterer, er is?r blevet sat i forbindelse med hereticanernes generelle optagethed af eksistentialismen og dens angstbegreb, s?dan som det er udlagt og forst?et af den metafysisk-teologisk orienterede del af eksistentialismen fra Kierkegaard og fremefter. Hermed har dette niveau ligeledes bidraget til indtrykket af Heretica-bev?gelsen som ideologisk reaktion?r og antimoderne. Opl?gget skal argumentere for, at man ved at l?se den psykologisk-eksistentielle problematik, som kommer til udtryk i "Balladen om Great Eastern" og i andre Heretica-tekster, ud fra nyere socialteori og socialpsykologisk identitetsteori kan opn? en muligvis bedre og mere pr?cis forst?else af hereticanernes besk?ftigelse med det eksistentielle angst- og udgr?nsningskompleks. Med afs?t i Thorkild Bj?rnvigs digt, og med nedslag i centrale hereticanske programtekster som Bj?rn Poulsens "Elfenbenstaarnet" og Vilhelm Gr?nbechs "Angst", skal jeg fors?ge at argumentere for, at man ved hj?lp af bl.a. Erik Eriksons begreb om 'jegidentitet' og Anthony Giddens' begreber om 'ambivalens', 'refleksiv identitet' og 'senmodernitet' kan historisere og kontekstualisere bev?gelsens eksistentialistiske tematikker p? en m?de, s? de ogs? opleves som fremadpegende snarere end kun som bagudpegende.
When Petrarca received his laurels on Capitol in Rome on Easter Sunday in 1341 he took the event as inauguration of a renewal of ancient Roman culture, and he regarded Africa as his major poetic contribution. Africa is an unfinished Latin heroic epic poem in the tradition of Vergil, the hero is the young Roman general Scipio Africanus. All of this fits into the ideal of a renewal of Roman culture, yet after the crowning a procession walked from Capitol to the Basilica di San Pietro where Petrarca placed his laurel crown at the altar. The ceremony that Easter Sunday was not only about Roman culture, it was also about Christianity. And so was Africa.
Economic risk in 19th century literary discourse
When Ulrich Beck and others other contemporary scholars talk of the risk society, they refer to a culture that is permanently alert to the risks involved in being alive, and that is vainly trying to manage these risks. But while we today endeavour to calculate the risk of, let us say, eating organic versus non-organic food, the notion of risk is quite new. It is bound up with a bourgeois and by that a future oriented society. In that way, risk defines the boundary between modern times and the past. During the 18th and 19th century risk is becoming a dominant discourse, which is being negotiated in literature through topics as speculation and insurance. When speculation is made an object of literary study, it is often examined from an ethical viewpoint alone. My thesis is that literature participates in a much wider discourse. Aside from the ethical perspective, I will show how speculation and insurance are bound up with a secular world view, and how they represent a challenge to a rationalistic understanding of economy, much debated by sociologists and economists at around 1900. My point of departure will be Alexander Kiellands Skipper Worse, but I will give examples from others texts as well, both literary and non-literary.
Copyright (c) 2016 Tatjana Kielland Samoilow
Apparatets sammenbrud.?I straffekolonien? med Franz Kafka
Kafkas fort?lling "I straffekolonien" (1914) l?ses som en politisk kortl?gning p? flere planer: - Eksempel p? et stadigt tilbagevendende motiv i Kafkas fort?llinger: Et grusomt gammelt lovkompleks og samfundssystem er i krise eller bryder ?benlyst sammen, hvilket efterlader et tomrum og ?bner for en truende eller realiseret ny og v?rre lov/tilstand. Motivet lokaliseres i andre tekster af Kafka og placeres i en forgrenet litteraturhistorisk kontekst. - En i fremmedgjorte parabler udtrykt, men ret konkret kortl?gning af den intellektuelles politiske dilemmaer, som Kafka opfattede dem ved udbruddet af F?rste Verdenskrig og udsigten til Det ?strig-Ungarske Kejserriges opl?sning. Uanset det specifikke, for ikke at sige specielle, udgangspunkt har problemstillingen vide historiske og almene perspektiver. Paperet kan med rimelighed placeres s?vel sektionen Lov og litteratur som i en mere politisk sektion - med s?rligt henblik p? den intellektuelles politiske selvopfattelse og placering.
Early Globalization and Human Rights. On the Genreblending and Strategic function of the Discourse on Human Rights in the Spanish Baroque
The discourse of law differs from the discourse of literature in many ways but the two discourses share an equally big interest in the meaning of words and the codes that rule our life. In some especially dramatic historical situations this common interest becomes clearer. The conquest of America is just such a dramatic event. The paper discusses discourses on human rights in Spain in 15th and 16th Centuries after the discovery and conquest of the New World. It argues that the understanding of the historical dynamics of this early rights talk is essential for the understanding of human rights today and that human rights cannot be understood independently of the historical and political context of their development. Thus the paper thus discusses human rights as a vacillating discourse that can serve both a constructive purpose of protecting people and a more ambiguous purpose of legitimizing power. The paper is inspired by the recent discussions of the function of human rights in relation to the building of nations or empires (See for instance Costas Douzinas Human Rights and Empire, 2007, Ulrich Beck and Edgar Grande Cosmopolitan Europe 2007, and Etienne Balibar (We, the People of Europe? Reflections on Transnational Citizenship, 2004). But it will take its point of departure in writings by Bartolom? de las Casas and the ?trial? set up by King Charles V in 1542 in Valladolid, where Las Casas and his opponent Juan Gin?s de Sep?lveda presented their views on the nature of Indians, their rights and the authority and legitimization of the Spanish conquest, violence and domination in the New World. In the presentations in court, legal argumentation was mixed with religious, philosophical, anthropological, and literary vocabulary. Out of this uneven discourse and in a dramatic conflictual meeting in which the church and the king were involved on every level, modern ideas on human rights developed and gained a certain institutional standing, but they did so both for idealistic and strategic reasons. The paper discusses the double function of the discourse of human rights in the historical context and the genreblending of law and literature which is so preeminent in the Spanish context. In the paper, writings by contemporary literary writers like Lope de Vega (1562-1635) Luis de G?ngora (1561-1627) and Calder?n de la Barca (1600-1681) will be drawn in, primarily to shed some light on different conceptions of personal rights, authority and sovereignty.
Copyright (c) 2016 Karen-Margrethe Simonsen
Property and proprietor in the settecentesque nomos: an essay based on Daniels Defoe's Robinson Crusoe
Based on Daniel Defoe?s novel, The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner:Written by Himself, this essay tries to recreate a certain conception of Property Right that took place in the settecentesque Nomos. As shown in the article, this Nomos represents an axiological spin moment for the proprietor?s statute, that changed from a reicentric perspective to an anthropocentric one. Therefore we aim at reconstructing this perspective of Propriety Right with the elements provided by Defoe?s book, specially the narrative of Robinson Crusoe?s process to claim the island as his own.
The struggle for the re-publication of Mein Kampf - intellectual property, agency, enlightenment
In 2015 the rights to Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf falls into the public domain. The current copyright holder is the Bavarian state, owners of Hitler's estate as part of the Allies' de-Nazification program in 1945. While Nazi regalia such as the Swastika are outlawed in Germany under the postwar constitution, Mein Kampf was subject to a 70-year copyright lodged with the state authorities where the book was written. The Bavarian Finance Ministry aim to "pass the baton on" and achieve some means of banning the book in perpetuity, once copyright expires in 2015. However, the ambition to ban the book completely has caused some historians to object in the name of academic practice. And their arguments have received public support by Bavarian state education minister who urges a republication of the book in an annotated scholarly version. The transferral of copyright from Hitler to the Bavarian state is an interesting example of the way copyright as a private right can be used by the state as a means of enforcing censorship. Furthermore the censorship-copyright issue reflects the intellectual and political historical background for the inception of copyright as a means of controlling speech. And finally the discussion on Mein Kampf examines the dark sides of cultural heritage in light of EU's current cultural heritage digitization efforts in the name of access to common European cultural history.
Copyright (c) 2016 Nanna Bonde Thylstrup
Even if Umberto Eco's novel The Name of the Rose (1980) is a historical novel with a medieval plot, even if it was published long ago, it still resounds today. Eco wrote his novel not in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit but in the name of the Rose. In his epilogue of the novel Eco argues that a title should confuse the reader rather than bring order and in fact The Name of the Rose opens up for multiple interpretations. Eco has a lot to tell his age (and a later audience) and the best way he can do that is by means of fiction and more specific in a historical novel. The High Middle Ages is a sort of projective time and space for Eco's actual ideas. All literature is written out of and into the society where it has its offspring, no matter how hermetic, autonomous and fantastic it claims to be. Novels may be located in the past or the future, in a fairy world or a utopian society. Under all circumstances they bear witness of the temporal ethnic, national, social, cultural etc. context they are written in, one way or the other. They always have relations to society, even though their relations might be very complex. In fiction the social reality and the historical events are always interpreted, transformed, construed etc,. according to certain procedures of artistic kind, i.e. narrative, structural, symbolic, metaphoric, stylistic, and cognitive devices. This is abundantly the case in The Name of the Rose. Eco has several intentions built into his novel. He wants to challenge and revise the usual ideas of the Middle Ages as a cultural monolithic unity. He uses his semiotic approach first to suggest, and then to deconstruct religious explanations, in casu with the starting point in the Apocalypse. Instead he proposes a postmodern model to give an adequate understanding of society today. There is no single exclusive point of view from where the world can be surveyed and described. At the same time he states the hermeneutic situation of the historians: they are left with only fragments of the past. He gives a fictional explanation of the disappearance of Aristotle's book on the comedy and defends laughter and liberation (William) in contrast to seriousness and control (Jorge). He gives the Bachtinian bodily grotesque figure the name Salvatore (savior). He plays an intertextual game with Jorge Luis Borges (the blind librarian Jorge from Burgos) and others. And finally his anti- authoritarian critique of the power elite in Avignon anno 1327 reminds of Rome anno 1980 - and in fact today.
Berlin som nasjonalt erindringsrom ? Om storbyframstilling og nasjonal identitet i G?nter Grass? roman Ein weites Feld
Papiret tar utgangspunkt i sammenhengen mellom storbyframstilling, nasjonal identitet og romansjanger i G?nter Grass? roman Ein weites Feld. Romanen skapte stor debatt da den kom ut i 1995. Den ble oppfattet som en surmaget politisk kritikk av den tyske gjenforeninga og av den enhetlige tyske nasjonalstaten. Men fra f?rste stund var det ogs? stemmer som hevdet at dette var en altfor n?rsynt og n?rmest angstbitersk reaksjon p? en flerstemt og mangetydig roman som gir rom for helt andre lesem?ter enn dette sv?rt forenklete synet. Romanen konfronterer riktig nok landets traumatiske fortid og problematiserer forestillinga om en enhetlig tysk nasjonal identitet, men samtidig setter den ogs? i gang en gjenoppbygging av en slik identitet. Dette gj?r den ved ? ta utgangspunkt i Berlin: Byen f?r en hovedrolle i diskursen og en dobbeltfunksjon som metropol og nasjonal hovedstad, og romanen viser dermed at metropolen som pars pro toto for nasjonen fortsatt er gyldig. Grass bruker byrommet til ? styre og skape orden i diskursen, og ved hjelp av kronotoper og erindringssteder i det litter?re Berlin, binder han tid og rom sammen. Slik f?r leseren tilgang til den tyske historien. Diskursen b?rer preg av topografiske beskrivelser, og leseren kan f?lge karakterene p? et imagin?rt bykart. Med utgangspunkt i teoretiske tilganger fra Volker Klotz, Klaus Scherpe og Fredrik Tygstrup unders?ker papiret hvordan Ein weites Feld fungerer som storbyroman. Samtidig vurderes den i forhold til Franco Morettis krav til en nasjonsbyggende roman. Hvordan blir sammenhengen mellom storby og (nasjonal) erindring en forutsetning for romanens prosjekt om ? gjenskape et nasjonalt fellesskap?
Berlin 1930/1995: Fr? Alexanderplatz til Ein weites Feld
Papiret vil, med teoretisk utgangspunkt i ei kritisk lesing av G?nther Anders? essay ?Der verw?stete Mensch. ?ber Welt- und Sprachlosigkeit i D?blins ?Berlin Alexanderplatz??, gjera ein jamf?rande studie av livsverdframstillingane i D?blins roman fr? 1929 og G?nter Grass? Ein weites Feld (1995). Anders? essay vart trulig skrive alt i 1931, men publisert f?rst i Festschrift zum achtzigsten Geburtstag von Georg Luk?cs, Neuwied 1965. Storbysosiologisk st?r det innafor tradisjonen etter Simmel, litteraturteoretisk er det inspirert av Luk?cs? Theorie des Romans. Det som framleis gjer det ikkje berre interessant, men ogs? aktuelt, er for det f?rste Anders? spr?kfilosofiske refleksjonar som peiker like inn i det som i dag er ein r?dande tilstand i tekstteoretisk og diskursanalytisk metodikk, for det andre hans sosialpsykologiske teoriutvikling, delvis polemisk retta mot Heideggers Daseins-analysar. Han taler om eit ?Mensch ohne Welt? med meiningstap p? fleire niv?, praktisk og ontologisk: tap av arbeid, tap av herred?mme i ei forvalta verd, tap av haldepunkt i ei pluralistisk verd. Slik sett kan dette essayet trulig gi noen fruktbare innfallsvinklar ogs? til ei lesing av G?nter Grass? ?nach-der-Wende?-roman fr? 1995. Papiret vil derfor utpr?ve kor forklaringssterke desse innfallsvinklane er for denne teksten fr? den seine 1900-talsmoderniteten.
Engagement, handling og l?sning. Adorno vs. Oksanen
I sin polemik mod Sartres opfattelse af ?valgholdning? som etisk imperativ for den menneskelige tilv?relse generelt og for forfatterens virke specifikt, insisterer Adorno p? kunstens form som engagementets sted ( essayet ?Engagement? (1962), her citeret efter Kritiske modeller, Rhodos 1972). Sartes forestilling om holdning forbliver, mener Adorno, upr?gnant og subjektiv og fremmed over for kunstens egentlige forpligtelse. Den bestemmer han som en vilje, der ikke er lagt ind i v?rket, men er v?rkets ?egen gestus over for virkeligheden? og siger i forbindelse med sin analyse af Beckett, at ?ethvert engagement over for verden m? opsiges, for at ideen om et engageret kunstv?rk kan opfyldes?. Det drejer sig imidlertid hos Adorno ikke blot om at privilegere formen over indholdet, men ogs? om, at kunsten m? respektere sagforholdene, tilskuerens umiddelbare tilfredshed ved at se en j?disk pige i Chaplins Diktatoren sl? SA-m?nd i hovedet med en stegepande ? uden et modangreb, bliver for let en sejr, satiren er for letk?bt. Kunstv?rkets gestus er hos Adorno performativ, sp?rgsm?let er her som i alle andre diskussioner om relationen mellem kunst og politik, p? hvilke ?stetiske pr?misser denne handlen kommer til veje, og hvad og hvordan den betyder. Det sidste sp?rgsm?l implicerer ogs? l?sningen og kunstens sociale liv, herunder, formidlingen, kritikken, undervisningen og f.eks. biblioteket. Jeg vil diskutere engagementet som ?stetisk form, handling og reception gennem en l?sning af Sofi Oksanens prisbel?nnede roman Renselse (2008, d.u. 2010), der i sin tematik l?gger et dobbeltspor. Den handler om passionerne, om seksuel lidenskab, jalousi, angst, hemmeligheder ? og den handler om overgreb og forbrydelser, begge dele i t?t forbindelse ? men hvilken? ? med en politisk historie om nazisme, kommunisme og mafiaernes bev?gelser gennem det befriede, men i mange henseender stadig besatte, ?steuropa i de f?rste ?r efter murens fald. Handlingen bes?tter ogs? l?seren, med element?r sp?nding, med t?t og fysisk sansning og med en privilegeret men n?je udm?lt adgang til hovedpersonernes erindring og bevidsthed. Den handler ikke blot om, den handler med l?seren, og man kan sp?rge, med dens passionshistorier in mente, p? hvilken m?der engagement og politik indg?r som del af det litter?re v?rk og dets realisation i l?serens bevidsthed og litteraturens sociale liv.
Copyright (c) 2016 Anne Birgitte Richard
?r 1975 skriver den finlandssvenske f?rfattaren Henrik Tikkanen (1924 ? 1984), i Sverige d? k?nd f?rst och fr?mst som tecknare f?r Dagens Nyheter, den f?rsta delen (Br?nd?v?gen 8 Br?nd?. Tel. 35) i sin sj?lvbiografiska s k adresserie. I Br?nd?v?gen 8, som idag brukar betecknas som en av hans b?sta b?cker, beskriver Tikkanen sin barndom och ungdom i en finlandssvensk ?kulturfamilj? med kontakter i det h?gsta etablishemanget, som p? det glada 1920-talet ?gnar sig framf?r allt ?t att festa; intima detaljer ur ber?ttar-jagets f?r?ldrars liv saknas inte. N?r 20-talet g?r ?ver till 30-talet och vinterkriget nalkas blir atmosf?ren ?milit?rt infekterad? och familjemedlemmarna ?r m?nsternationalister. Den sexton-?rige ber?ttaren g?r senare frivilligt till forts?ttningskrigets front och f?r traumatiska erfarenheter f?r resten av sitt liv. I motsats till f?rfattarens tidigare verk gavs ut Br?nd?v?gen 8 i delupplaga i Sverige i b?rjan av 1976. Redan i de tv? f?rsta recensionerna i Svenska Dagbladet (G. Schildt) och Dagens Nyheter (B. Holmqvist) blir boken mycket v?lvilligt bem?tt. Den recenseras i forts?ttningen under den f?rsta h?lften av ?ret i 41 (!) rikssvenska tidningar och de positiva st?mningarna upph?r inte. Man b?de i v?nster- och h?gertidningar appl?derar h?gt till f?rfattarens uppg?relse med den finlandssvenska ?verklassen, Tikkanen blir ?ven j?mf?rd med Strindberg och betecknas som tidens b?sta prosaf?rfattare p? svenska. Litteraturforskningen har fram till nu sett orsaken till bokens positiva rikssvenska mottagande i recensenternas skadegl?dje i att se den finlandssvenska h?gborgerligheten degenererad. Min tes h?r ?r att orsakerna till sj?lvbiografins positiva riksssvenska reception m?ste s?kas p? v?sentligt flera niv?er och inte bara kan f?rklaras grovt tematiskt. De tv? viktigaste utg?ngspunkter f?r min vidare argumentering ?r att 1) mitten p? 1970-talet presenteras i litteraturhistoriorna som ett brytningsskede n?r en period g?r ?ver till en annan; tv? f?rv?ntningshorisont m?ter varandra. Den som ha f? framg?ng m?ste tillfredsst?lla b?de. 2) Samtidigt ?r 1970-talet i Sverige ett skede som ?r fattigt p? ?debuterande pura sjuttiotalister? och det ?r n?got som recensenterna inte ?r n?jda med. Mitt bidrag vill ge svar p? hur Tikkanens Br?nd?v?gen 8 f?rh?ller sig till detta.
?Jag klistrar. Jag klistrar.? Bergmans ber?ttelse om den inst?ngda kvinnan och den borgerliga familjens sammanbrott
Ingmar Bergmans Scener ur ett ?ktenskap utkom i bokform 1973, samma ?r som den f?rsta g?ngen visades i den svensk TV. Under de 38 ?r som g?tt sedan dess har TV-serien visats otaliga g?nger ?ver hela v?rlden. Scener ur ett ?ktenskap finna ocks? i en l?ngfilmsversion (1974) och har p? senare ?r satts upp p? teatrar i flera l?nder, bland annat p? Dramaten i Stockholm f?rra ?ret (som ocks? finns i en TV-version) och i ?r p? Aarhus teater i Danmark. Bergmans ber?ttelse om Johan och Marianne har uppenbarligen fortfarande n?got att s?ga till oss som ser, lyssnar och l?ser. Men vad s?ger den d? idag och p? vilket s?ger den det? Jag ska i mitt paper, med utg?ngspunkt i Bergmans text, diskutera vad det ?r som g?r att ber?ttelsen fungerar i olika samh?lleliga kontexter vid olika tider, fr?n det tidiga sjuttiotalet till idag. Diskussionen r?r sig huvudsakligen i tv? riktningar. Den f?rsta behandlar Bergmans gestaltning av bokens tv? grundl?ggande litter?ra motiv: ?ktenskapskris och den inst?ngda kvinnan. Jag analyserar h?r ocks? gestaltningen av ?ktenskapskrisens urscen i den svenska litter?ra traditionen och de b?da motivens gestaltning i n?gra av Bergmans ?vriga verk. Den andra riktningen behandlar verkets komposition. Hur f?rh?ller sig exempelvis de sex scenerna, eller dialogerna, till varandra? Resultatet av kompositionsanalysen s?tts sedan i relation till en analys av de kontextuella element ber?ttelsen spelar med och den funktion de f?r i verket. Funktionen ?r beroende av om vi s?tter Scener ur ett ?ktenskap i relation till den historiska tiden i b?rjan av sjuttiotalet eller i relation till v?r egen tid. Analysen av Bergmans ber?ttelse om ett ?ktenskap ?r t?nkt att ing? som en del i en st?rre unders?kning med arbetsnamnet Bergmans ber?ttelser. Studien ?r inriktad p? Bergman som f?rfattare och utg?r fr?n hans publicerade skrifter med s?rskilt fokus p? Laterna magica fr?n 1987.
Peter Handke's Reception of Cervantes's "Don Quixote" in "Der Bildverlust"
Peter Handke's novel Der Bildverlust: oder Durch die Sierra de Gredos (2002) is up to this date the last literary text by an Austrian writer that creatively refers to Cervantes's novel Don Quixote of la Mancha (1605). This paper proposes to examine similarities and differences between the two novels. To give an example, the third of Handke's three epigraphs is one of the many quotations from Miguel de Cervantes's work that are sprinkled throughout Handke's novel. This epigraph -- "But, perhaps, knighthood and enchantments nowadays must take paths different from those of the ancients" (5) -- indicates that Handke's novel probably will tell a modern, more political version of the old tale of knight-errantry and enchantments. Indeed, the 759-page-long text is an adventure novel. The main protagonist, a German woman, sallies out to cross a high mountain range in Spain to accomplish a business deal with an author who lives in the region of Cervantes's La Mancha. However, the "evil giants" she has to fight with on this journey are not windmill sails, but modern Western media images... Her adventurous journey across the Sierra de Gredos becomes a painful spiritual pilgrimage; her critical quest is a vision quest.
Mimesis af kulturelle erindringsprocesser. Doku- og metafiktion i den aktuelle spanske romans behandling af borgerkrig og frankistisk diktatur
I dette paper besk?ftiger jeg mig med den udvikling man kan spore i den historiske romans fort?lleformer i Spanien inden for det seneste 10-?r. Det er min hypotese at en betragtelig del af disse romaner bedriver det man kunne kalde mimesis af de kulturelle erindringsprocesser, dvs. at romanerne gennemspiller (dele af) de sociale, kommunikative processer som dialogerer og forhandler den kulturelle erindring om borgerkrigen (1936-39) og det efterf?lgende milit?rdiktatur (1939-77). Der er tale om romaner som i vidt omfang anvender sig af den historiografiske metafiktions opdeling af handlingen i to tidsm?ssigt forskudte planer, og som anl?gger en detektivisk, filologisk eller selvreferentielt-kreativ tilgang til nutidsplanet. P? dette plan arbejdes der med arkivmateriale, vidnesbyrd i form af interviews og diverse elektronisk kildemateriale samt tilg?ngelig offentlig og historiografisk dokumentation. Romanerne forholder sig s?ledes ofte dokumentarisk til historisk konkrete begivenheder og ?personer, som i st?rre eller mindre grad fiktionaliseres, hvorved traditionelle genredistinktioner og diskursmark?rer dekonstrueres. Romaner udkommer f.eks. med litteraturliste eller eksplicitte redeg?relser for deres kilder, mens historisk-dokumentariske essays udgives i romanformat og masseoplag. Autofiktion er et udbredt virkemiddel og igennem ?forfatterens? performative kommentarer udvikles ikke sj?ldent en hel metafiktiv litteraturteori om forholdet mellem litteratur og historieskrivning, litteraturens forhold til sandhed og reference osv. Den kulturelle kontekst skal findes i det forhold at den politiske offentlighed i Spanien (igen) er blevet st?rkt polariseret mellem h?jrefl?jen i Partido Popular og venstrefl?jen anf?rt af socialistpartiet PSOE. Samtidig med dette skifte er sp?rgsm?let om landets kulturelle erindring omkring borgerkrigen 1936-39 og 40 ?rs efterf?lgende diktatur blevet et overordentligt ?varmt? emne. De litter?re tekster med borgerkrig og frankisme som emne der udgives i disse ?r, b?r naturligvis l?ses i dialog med disse sociale processer, og det er min hypotese at netop den politiske polarisering af sp?rgsm?let om den kulturelle erindring har en afg?rende indflydelse p? fortolkningen af helt centrale aspekter af denne romanform.
Tradition, Modernization and Canon in XXth Century Spanish Poetry (1900-1940)
In this presentation we deal with the frame of the relationship between Modernity and Tradition in the Spanish Culture (low and high; poetry, cinema, mass media) in the first half of XXth Century. Spain as a peripherical country was put under tension in the own process of social and cultural modernization. When an avant-garde artist like Rafael Barradas (1890-1929) was painting his urban landscapes in Madrid 1919 ?under the influence of Futurism-, sheeps were around the Atocha railway station (as we can see at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sof?a, Madrid). Meanwhile, in rural Andalusia, a poet like Rogelio Buend?a (1891-1969) was writing in his provincial poems about Bessemer furnaces that were contaminating the ideal landscape sung before by the symbolist poet ?and Nobel Prize in Literature- Juan Ramon Jim?nez. This kind of contradictions marks the way toward Modernization of the cultural, social and political landscape in Spain. We will also consider the inter-war period, between the first avant-garde "ultra?smo" (1918-1922) and the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), and how this movement enters in a crisis in the Thirties: Great Depression, II Spanish Republic and Civil War. In fact, Literary Francoism is about a return to the ideological traditional symbolist canon, as opposed to modern world, machines and urban life, considered as a foreign influence that have to be purified. All of this, with a strong support of new cultural institutions, media (we consider Federico Garc?a Lorca?s poems in the "new country"'s mass media) and educational system. We'll be also talking about: Spanish Civil War as a car crash, the Spanish Anarchist Utopia and Catholic iconography (churches and department stores as spaces of political and cultural iconoclastic fight), the rise and fall of the Falangist Project in Spain, through cinema and popular culture, and high poetry as well, etc.
Nordiska bilder av islam: Snorre, Wallenberg, Guillou
Den politiska debatten kring islam har genom tiderna satt sina avtryck i den skadinaviska sk?nlitteraturen. Genom att studera hur islam framst?lls f?r man en ?kad inblick i den samtida debatten kring islam. Mitt nuvarande projekt, en bok med arbetstiteln Skadinavisk orientalism, belyser olika bilder av islam och muslimer i utvalda skadinaviska f?rfattarskap. Studien ?r tv?rvetenskaplig d? den behandlar samspelet mellan religion, litteratur och politik. Den teoretiska utg?ngspunkten ?r den imagologiska forskningen, som intresserar sig f?r bilder och f?rest?llningar om etniska och religi?sa grupper. Jag argumenterar f?r att bilden av islam och muslimer kan ha samma struktur och funktion alldeles oavsett om de f?rekommer i sk?nlitteratur, reseskildringar, eller politiska pamfletter, och att de ?r oberoende av geografisk kontext. Bilderna ?r l?nglivade och tillr?ckligt flexibla f?r att kunna figurera i m?nga olika sammanhang. Jag menar att dessa bilder kan ha ett politiskt syfte i det att de s?ker ?stadkomma en samh?llsf?r?ndring. F?redraget behandlar bilden av islam i texter av Snorre Sturlasson, Jacob Wallenberg, och Jan Guillou. Snorres teori om att asagudarna i sj?lva verket var utvandrade turkiska kungar visar p? den politiska betydelse det turkiska kalifatet uppfattades ha under Snorres livstid. Wallenbergs kritik av europeisk kolonialism och islam visar p? hur kristna f?rfattare som Wallenberg p? samma g?ng kan vara toleranta mot vissa folkgrupper och intoleranta mot andra. Jan Guillous skildring av muslimer under korst?gen, i synnerhet Saladin, visar hur en bild som kan anv?ndas i rent underh?llningssyfte (bilden av Saladin i Decamerone) ocks? kan anv?ndas f?r att argumentera f?r att islam ?r en tolerant religion. I samtliga dessa fall har bilden av muslimer i de anf?rda verken politiska implikationer. Det ?r denna koppling mellan litter?ra representationer och deras politiska implikationer som jag ?mnar ta upp i mitt anf?rande.
Politics at the Service of Aesthetics. The Case of Karen Blixen (with focus on her essay ?On Modern Marriage and Other Observations?)
Karen Blixen was by no means a passive observer of social and political processes that were taking place around her, as is testified by her essays and articles like ?Breve fra et Land i Krig? (1940), ?En Baaltale med 14 Aars Forsinkelse? (1952), ?Fra L?gmand til L?gmand? (1954), etc. The situation is different with regard to her fiction in which she completely avoided contemporary political and social topics, showing disapproval of realism in literature and the novel as its dominant form. Posing herself as another Scheherazade who neglected social questions and yet created immortal stories, Blixen has succeeded in establishing this image of herself as one of the most durable clich?s in her reception. However, this is not to say that political and social issues are totally absent in her fictional texts. In ?The Deluge at Norderney? and ?Babette?s Feast,? for example, we hear the echoes of the French Revolution and the Paris Commune with all the great political, social and ideological changes these processes have brought about, while ?Sorrow Acre? sets against each other two historical epochs and social structures ? the feudal and the liberal. Out of Africa is in its own turn full of comparisons and contrasts between the native African and the European world concerning their ethical values, mentality, social and cultural practices, which has naturally turned it into an object of scrutiny in postcolonial studies. This list can be continued, however, it is important to note that in Blixen?s texts, the highlighting of social or political issues never seems to be a goal in itself. They are integrated into the overall narrative design both as means of creating the atmosphere (when they are viewed from the distance of time), and also, as a background for expressing certain aesthetic concepts and approaches. Even Blixen?s essays, which address social matters directly, rest on aesthetic arguments. The present paper will investigate from this perspective one of Blixen?s early texts ? the essay ?On Modern Marriage.? It will be demonstrated that by combining together the discussion of different models of man?woman relationship and different artistic traditions, the essay opens itself up as metatext suggesting an original typology of art. It becomes impossible to decide which of the two discourses ? the social or the aesthetic one has the dominant voice in the text, and by foregrounding this ambiguity, the essay subverts the practice of reducing literature to its social function ? as simple manifestation of ideology.
Intethedserfaring og tanken om det udenfor
Litteraturen skaber sin egen realitet, sin egen verden, hvilket er et ganske centralt forhold indenfor den moderne litteratur, hvor sproget ikke kan komme "bag om sig selv". Uafh?ngigheden af andre diskurser bevirker ogs?, at sproget bestandigt tvinges til at henvise til sig selv, ligesom det tvinges til at fordoble og multiplicere sig i ?n uendelighed af variationer og indvendige forbindelser. Litteraturen bliver en verden indeholdt i sin egen struktur. I essayet "Pens?e du Dehors" ("T?nkningen af det udenfor") fra 1966 illustrerer Michel Foucault dette ved at analysere udsagnet 'jeg taler'. 'Jeg taler' kan omskrives til 'jeg siger, at jeg taler'. Udsagnet bekr?fter sit eget udsagn, idet genstandsleddet i 'jeg taler' er lig sig selv - uden passage til noget andet udenfor sig selv. Deraf litteraturens indvendighed, der ganske oplagt kan kritiseres for at fremst? som mere og mere fjern, kryptisk og fiktiv. Medmindre man alts?, som jeg selv, opfatter det tomrum, som litteraturen bev?ger sig i, som frugtbart og affirmativt i en s?dan forstand, at det virkelig udg?r og udtrykker 'n?gonting annat/ alltid n?gonting annat -", som Gunnar Ekel?f insisterer p? i og med sin paradoksfyldte digtning. Litteraturen vil da kunne l?ses og analyseres p? anden vis, fjernt fra repr?sentationernes tyranni, som en synligg?relse af 'det udenfor', som Foucault ben?vner det i sit essay, og som hos Ekel?f svarer til mystikkens intet. Mit opl?g tager afs?t i ovenn?vnte refleksioner i dialog med Ekel?fs prosatekst "I Fonden", og giver indblik i visse aspekter af unders?gelsesfeltet i kapitel IV af min igangv?rende afhandling At t?nke med Ekel?f.
Copyright (c) 2016 Neal Ashley Conrad Thing