The first of its kind, this volume collects more than seventy South African women’s voices, from 1652 until today. We share the joys and sorrows of these women through their entertaining, sometimes... Show moreThe first of its kind, this volume collects more than seventy South African women’s voices, from 1652 until today. We share the joys and sorrows of these women through their entertaining, sometimes disturbing texts. A testament to a significant segment of the linguistic and cultural history of the country, they speak in Dutch, then in different varieties of Afrikaans. The printing press arrived late at the Cape, and when it finally did, it took another century before the first publications by women appeared. Initially their writing bore a strong biblical influence, but gradually, as women began to have access to better educational opportunities, they began to produce literature of world stature in Afrikaans. Through this literature, we can see women’s perspectives on the tumultuous history of South Africa from colonisation to democracy as it unfolded. Show less
The Dutch writer Louis Couperus published De Stille Kracht (The Hidden Force), his classic portrait of life in the Dutch East Indies, within a year of the first publication of Joseph Conrad’s Heart...Show moreThe Dutch writer Louis Couperus published De Stille Kracht (The Hidden Force), his classic portrait of life in the Dutch East Indies, within a year of the first publication of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (1899). From at least the early 1890s, their careers and preoccupations converge to the extent that Couperus has on occasion been referred to as the Dutch Conrad. While the setting and style of their keynote works often contrast in distinct ways, they align through the subtle yet unmistakeable anti-colonial critique they deliver, not least in their representation of degenerate white protagonists. To this, The Hidden Force adds an overripe and decadent Wildean style which invites a queer or oblique postcolonial reading, as this essay will demonstrate. This style allows Couperus to adopt a more radical position vis-a-vis the Dutch colonial presence in the Indies than has hitherto been considered to be the case, or that the plot mechanics of white degeneration make possible – one compares in interesting ways with the inescapable ambiguities of Conrad’s colonial fiction. Show less
Barbarism, Otherwise is an interdisciplinary inquiry into the operations of the concept of barbarism and the figure of the barbarian in modern and contemporary works of literature, art, and theory.... Show moreBarbarism, Otherwise is an interdisciplinary inquiry into the operations of the concept of barbarism and the figure of the barbarian in modern and contemporary works of literature, art, and theory. The terms __barbarism,__ __barbarians,__ and __civilization__ figure prominently in politics, the media, historiography, cultural theory, and everyday language in the West. This study takes issue with the currently popular rhetoric of __civilization versus barbarism__ and interrogates contemporary and historical uses of the __barbarian__ in the West. Although __barbarism__ is traditionally viewed as the negative offshoot of __civilization,__ this study shows how it can be recast as a critical concept in cultural theory. The central issue is not __who (or where) are the barbarians?__ but what kind of critical operations barbarism can be involved in. This study thus proposes a shift from an essentialist to a performative approach to barbarism and the barbarian. How can the operations of barbarism in literature, art, and theory unsettle the concept__s violent uses in Western discourses? How can barbarism trigger new modes of knowing, comparing, and theorizing? Can it inspire alternative ways of relating to others that are not based on essentialist binary schemes? In order to pluralize barbarism and chart its complex operations, this study draws from theory, politics, history, literature, visual art, film, and philosophy, and engages cultural objects from various national contexts. Show less
**English Translation of this thesis can be found at : https://hdl.handle.net/1887/3245181 **Deze dissertatie gaat over hoe schrijvers en beeldende kunstenaars uit Equatoriaal Guinea door middel... Show more**English Translation of this thesis can be found at : https://hdl.handle.net/1887/3245181 **Deze dissertatie gaat over hoe schrijvers en beeldende kunstenaars uit Equatoriaal Guinea door middel van hun werk aandacht vragen voor de huidige (politieke) situatie in hun land; een voormalige kolonie van Spanje die in 1968 onafhankelijk werd met tot op heden een dictatoriaal regime. Onderzocht is, vanuit een politiek-filosofisch kader (Jacques Rancière en Alain Badiou) en door middel van een narratieve en visuele analyse, waar zich in de werken van de uit het land afkomstige schrijvers Donato Ndongo Bydiogo, Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel en María Nsue Angüe, en de beeldende kunstenaar Ramón Esono Ebalé, breukvlakken en leegten bevinden. Mijn onderzoek toont aan dat het bijzondere en de kracht van hun werken niet zozeer gelegen is in de hierin naar voren komende historische aspecten of bepaalde binaire tegenstellingen (zoals veel onderzoekers tot nu toe veronderstelden), maar juist in het poëtische van wat de in de werken gevonden breukvlakken en leegten blootleggen en openen. Dat maakt dat met deze werken een procedure in gang wordt gezet die de gesloten waarheid van het huidige dictatoriale regime overstijgt, waarmee die dictatuur als het ware wordt opengebroken en geleegd. Show less
In de loop van de eerste vier decennia van de twintigste eeuw dringt de poëzie vanaf 1880 door in bloemlezingen voor de hoogste klassen van gymnasium en h.b.s. In deze studie worden de overwegingen... Show moreIn de loop van de eerste vier decennia van de twintigste eeuw dringt de poëzie vanaf 1880 door in bloemlezingen voor de hoogste klassen van gymnasium en h.b.s. In deze studie worden de overwegingen om poëzie te bloemlezen en de keuzes die daaruit voortkomen van een vijftal bloemlezers (allen leraren) beschreven. Elk van hen propageert een methodiek om poëzie in de literatuurles te verwerken, van een open, globale kennismaking tot een intensieve analyse van een gedicht. Soms wordt een gedicht van een context voorzien maar doorgaans wordt een gedicht als zelfstandige tekst aangeboden. Naast deze bloemlezers brengt voordrachtskunstenaar Paul Huf ter ondersteuning van het onderwijs op een veertiental grammofoonplaten zijn gesproken bloemlezing. Zijn voordracht kan als voorbeeld dienen. Verder inventariseert deze studie de inhoud van 85 schoolbloemlezingen uit de periode 1898–1941 met in totaal 6758 gedichten van 254 dichters. Uit deze inventarisatie blijkt naast de voorkeur voor dichters uit de eerste jaren vanaf 1880 de vrij snelle popularisatie van anderen in de loop van de jaren 1920, 1930. Bloemlezers volgen op literair-historische gronden keuzes van voorgangers, daarnaast tonen zij een brede persoonlijke keuze. Schoolbloemlezingen representeren de voortgang van de contemporaine poëzieproductie en representeren het belang dat docenten voor de literatuurles hechten aan poëzie. Show less
Dit literair-historisch proefschrift volgt het innovatieve proces van de romancyclus A la recherche du temps perdu die zich, mede onder invloed van de avant-garde schilderkunst, ontwikkelt van het ... Show moreDit literair-historisch proefschrift volgt het innovatieve proces van de romancyclus A la recherche du temps perdu die zich, mede onder invloed van de avant-garde schilderkunst, ontwikkelt van het ‘classicisme moderne’, de poëtica van de Nouvelle Revue Française die de roman kenmerkt in de beginfase, tot een literair modernisme. De korte, autonome passage uit de roman Sodom en Gomorra, waarin tot tweemaal toe het woord ‘rosace’ genoemd wordt, is ons uitgangspunt en speelt de hoofdrol bij de bestudering van de ideale compositie zoals die Marcel Proust voor ogen stond en zoals de auteur deze ‘Roos van Rivebelle’ een rol laat spelen in het creatieve wordingsproces van de verteller, waar zij een essentiële schakel lijkt te vormen in het leidmotief van de witte en roze meidoorns. De ‘Roos’ niet alleen in de betekenis van de bloemen behorend tot het geslacht Rosa, zinnebeeld van schoonheid, vergan kelijkheid en liefde, maar tevens in de architectonische en Franse betekenis van de grote Roos van de kerk oftewel het cirkelvormige roosvenster. Show less
This dissertation describes for the first time in detail a manuscript held by the Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam, known as Izcatqui. This manuscript is written in Nahuatl or the Aztec... Show moreThis dissertation describes for the first time in detail a manuscript held by the Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam, known as Izcatqui. This manuscript is written in Nahuatl or the Aztec language, in the 18th century. This study has shown just how complex and multi-layered this book is. It contains Nahuatl translations of Spanish source texts from as early as the 15th century. These range from texts on the Gregorian calendar, liturgy, astrology, agriculture and medicine. Not only includes the manuscript a variety of sources, its content was also known in several manuscripts in other indigenous languages. This study showcases the interest and collaboration of people from local and non-local descent to translate and transfer knowledge from one cultural background to the other. Show less
The aim of this thesis is to explore in which way Latin American novels from the last decade of the twentieth century represent urban violence. These novele are: Plata quemada by Ricardo Piglia, La... Show moreThe aim of this thesis is to explore in which way Latin American novels from the last decade of the twentieth century represent urban violence. These novele are: Plata quemada by Ricardo Piglia, La pesquisa by Juan José Saer and La virgen de los sicarios by Fernando Vallejo. All three display extreme forms of violence. Frequently, this violence seems to position itself at the edge of reason or at least at the edge of what Jacques Lacan would refer to as symbolic order. These novels are urban stories and are constructed according to the pattern of the classical genres of the modern city: the detective, the urban chronicle and the so-called non-fiction. At the core, the novels on violence seem to be telling the same story: the failure of the modern project in Latin America and in any case the decadence of an imaginary, understood as a series of shared images that consolidate the community. There is a decline in them, an adversity, an “anthropological machine” that has finally exhausted itself after a hundred years. The reader is obliged to look again and reconstruct these texts through which he discovers the scandal of everyday violence and history’s hell. Show less
The Greek rhetorician and historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus was active in Rome at the end of the first century BC. In his rhetorical writings, he analyses the styles of classical Greek orators,... Show moreThe Greek rhetorician and historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus was active in Rome at the end of the first century BC. In his rhetorical writings, he analyses the styles of classical Greek orators, historiographers and poets, including Homer, Lysias, Isocrates, Demosthenes and Thucydides. Dionysius believes that careful study, evaluation and imitation of classical Greek literature should be the basis of eloquence and rhetorical writing. In his rhetorical writings, Dionysius combines theories and methods from various language disciplines (rhetoric, grammar, philology, philosophy, metrical and musical theory) and he integrates them into a coherent and effective programme of rhetorical instruction. A close examination of Dionysius’ works increases our knowledge of the language theories that circulated in the Augustan period, from which only a few fragments of grammatical and philological texts have survived. On the other hand, it illuminates the important connections between different ancient language disciplines. Careful analysis of his ideas and methods shows us that Dionysius is a learned scholar, who studied a large number of literary and scholarly works from earlier times. He acquired an impressive knowledge of language theories and effectively integrated these theories into a practical programme of rhetoric. Show less
Surimono reflect cultural and social facets of urban life in late Edo period Japan. Thus far, most surimono research was focused on the art historic qualities of the material, regularly also taking... Show moreSurimono reflect cultural and social facets of urban life in late Edo period Japan. Thus far, most surimono research was focused on the art historic qualities of the material, regularly also taking the interplay between poetry and image into account. The research presented here places surimono in a greater perspective by including the literary antecedents of the content, the cultural background of the kyōka world and the social networks of poets.Fundamental to the aim of this research is to expose how kyōka provided spheres where people with a cultural interest could join in a literary pursuit that allowed them to fully incorporate their appreciation for and knowledge of the classics. I argue that surimono and kyōka books are deeply rooted in a literary tradition and aimed at an audience of amateur poets who enjoyed honing their wit and culture, creating a world of their own with self-imposed regulations. Despite the initial mocking stance towards the classics seen in early stages of the renewed kyōka popularity in Edo, I contend that surimono, well as other kyōka related materials, show a specific rediscovery and reception of a literary past, which coincides with a period of cultural self-identification in Edo society. Show less
Prior to the abolishing of Apartheid rule in 1994 several major South African white writers wrote a novel set on a South African farm. Likewise, in the decades that preceded the institutionalising... Show morePrior to the abolishing of Apartheid rule in 1994 several major South African white writers wrote a novel set on a South African farm. Likewise, in the decades that preceded the institutionalising of Apartheid, several farm novels were published, but with an entirely different message. In Unheimlich moederland insights from several disciplines are used to show how major changes in social-economic relations, land rights and the construction of cultural identity in and between these two periods were reflected on farms and in farm novels. Das Unheimliche (The Uncanny) – those things within ones own realm that are strange and therefore frightening – , a concept coming from Freud, but also used by structuralists and cultural critics, proofs to be capable to explain certain effects of (post-)colonalism and interculturality. Uncanny for instance, were the rising dead or venging powers of nature that in late 20th century farm novels undermined white hegemony. Death is a plural metaphor: in a literary as well as in a social context, it refers to transgressing boundaries, change and chaos but also to land rights and patrimonie and from there to the establishing of spatial and identifying boundaries. In text as in real life, the structure of a rite de passage (separation, liminality, reintegration) is being used to link death to life, and thus to control it. Show less
Mian Mian pouring beer on Wei Hui's head in a Shanghai bar; Wei Hui baring her breasts at a press conference; mutual threats on the internet - self-labelled Beauty Writers Mian Mian and Wei Hui... Show moreMian Mian pouring beer on Wei Hui's head in a Shanghai bar; Wei Hui baring her breasts at a press conference; mutual threats on the internet - self-labelled Beauty Writers Mian Mian and Wei Hui fear no accusations in their public catfight over alleged plagiarism in turn-of-the-century Shanghai. The rivalry began after publication of their semi-autobiographical 'shock novels' portraying hedonists searching for love and self in Shenzhen and Shanghai. Plagiarism or not, Wei Hui's Shanghai Baby and Mian Mian's Candy are products of their time. Show less
In late medieval and early modern times, books, as well as the people who produced and read (or listened to) them, moved between regions, social circles, and languages with relative ease. Yet, in... Show moreIn late medieval and early modern times, books, as well as the people who produced and read (or listened to) them, moved between regions, social circles, and languages with relative ease. Yet, in the multilingual Low Countries, francophone literature was both internationally mobile and firmly rooted in local soil. The five contributions collected in this volume demonstrate that while in general issues of ‘otherness’ were resolved without difficulty, at other times (linguistic) differences were perceived as a heartfelt reality. Show less
Timmer, Nanne; Ruisánchez, José Ramón; Klinger, Diana; Cino, Waldo Përez et al. 2013
'Dit boek bundelt veertien essays over de culturele productie van de contemporaine Latijns-Amerikaanse stad. Vanuit diverse invalshoeken wordt de stad en haar schrijven geanalyseerd. De nieuwe en... Show more'Dit boek bundelt veertien essays over de culturele productie van de contemporaine Latijns-Amerikaanse stad. Vanuit diverse invalshoeken wordt de stad en haar schrijven geanalyseerd. De nieuwe en veelvoudige stedelijke routes die hierdoor ontstaan – door en over elkaar heen – zijn de lijnen die de chaotische postmoderne stad in beeld brengen. Die verbeelding voedt zich zowel uit vergane steden als futuristische beelden, en maakt zo verschillende vormen van interventie in de polis zichtbaar. De ruimte wordt opnieuw vormgegeven via kunst en literatuur. Romans met nieuwe cartografieën, performances in São Paulo en Santiago de Chile, performance poetry in México, getuigenissen van geweld en van migratie in steden als Medellín en Lima, blogs van virtuele gemeenschappen uit Havanna en San Juan, zijn enkele van de uitingsvormen die worden belicht in dit boek. Dit alles rond de onderliggende vraag: hoe de gemeenschap die komen gaat zichzelf betekenis geeft te midden van een onzekere tijd wat betreft belonging en identiteit.' Show less
This dissertation advances a new interpretation on the national formation of modern China through the lens of Chinese cinema. Primarily, this project explores how cinema—a modern invention imported... Show moreThis dissertation advances a new interpretation on the national formation of modern China through the lens of Chinese cinema. Primarily, this project explores how cinema—a modern invention imported from the West—has shaped China’s sociopolitical transition from a dynastic empire to a nation-state. It is argued that, the concurrence of motion picture’s arrival and nation-state’s advent in China at the turn of the twentieth century, is not to be considered as isolated events, but rather as a dialectical dynamism in which the imagined community of modern China has largely relied on cinema for its symbolic construction, and yet encountered constant resistance from cinematic representation. Viewing the formation of the Chinese nation-state from a cinematic perspective, this study centers on the conflicts between marginal figures and central categories in Chinese films. In approaching this unresolved dilemma, Jiyu Zhang dedicates his study to mapping out a dialectical relationship between China’s internal and external tensions. Through an extensive investigation of cinematic embodiment, Zhang hones in on four groups of characters that he terms the “central frontiers” of modern China’s cultural imaginary: children, women, ethnic minorities, and diaspora. Show less
The Rubáiyát by the Persian poet ‘Umar Khayyæm (1048-1131) is used in contemporary Iran as a resistance literature, symbolizing the secularist voice in cultural debates. While Islamic... Show moreThe Rubáiyát by the Persian poet ‘Umar Khayyæm (1048-1131) is used in contemporary Iran as a resistance literature, symbolizing the secularist voice in cultural debates. While Islamic fundamentalists criticize Khayyæm as an atheist and materialist philosopher who questions God’s creation and the promise of reward or punishment in the hereafter, secularist intellectuals see in him an example of a scientist who scrutinizes the mysteries of the world. Others see a spiritual master, a Sufi, who guides people to the truth. This volume collects eighteen essays on the history of the reception of ‘Umar Khayyæm in various literary traditions, exploring how his philosophy of doubt, carpe diem, hedonism, and in vino veritas has inspired generations of poets, novelists, painters, musicians, calligraphers and film-makers. Show less
