Women's Literature

The many travels of Dopdi Mejhen: Women, borders and the Indian state

by Abhijit Roy

Essay to be published in a collection tentatively titled 'Women & Literature: Different Faces Different Voices' ed. Nandini Jana and Swati Mitra, Stree, Calcutta. (forthcoming, 2012)
                                                             

Extract:
The grand discourse simultaneously legitimizing coercion and communicative rationality in dealing with... more Extract:
The grand discourse simultaneously legitimizing coercion and communicative rationality in dealing with the forces threatening the state apparatus is the statist discourse of ‘security’. While coercion is endorsed in the name of security for the citizens, the communicative (and reformative) modes of negotiation with the ‘other’ are apparently also for the security of the outlaw, enabling the state to pose as ‘democratic’ or sensitive to the rights of both the ‘citizen’ proper and the outlaw willing to be part of a citizenizing process. It doesn’t take much strain to identify the imbalance in such apparently symmetrical propositions: the right and privileges of the citizen proper are unquestionable and due, while the same on the other side of the line are debatable and a matter of generosity. Brutal state repression can then be justified by the double logic of citizen’s security and parallel “humanitarian” negotiation. In a majoritarianist system that is Democracy, the project of communicative rationality and reform in the negotiation with a minority group, parallel to coercion, would therefore always more successfully legitimize state violence than contradicting it.

Nineteenth-Century Women's Writing in Wales: Nation, Gender and Identity

by Heike Bauer

“Very far from being dark and affectedly mysterious”: women, philosophy and the interpretation of Genesis 1-3 in seventeenth-century England

by John Flood

in Helen Cooney and Mark S. Sweetnam eds, Enigma and Revelation in Renaissance Literature. Dublin: Four Courts Press, (2012) pp. 216-40.

“Aberrant Decoding and Witness in Isobars.”

by David Callahan

Janette Turner Hospital. Ed. Selina Samuels. London: Sir Robert Menzies Centre for Australian Studies/University of London, 1998: 39-51.

“Dispossessed Languages: The Piano from Film to Novel”

by David Callahan

Violence and Possession: Contemporary English Studies. Eds David Callahan, Maria Aline S. Ferreira & A.D.Barker. Aveiro: Universidade de Aveiro, 1998: 119-126.

“Becoming Different in Janette Turner Hospital"

by David Callahan

Ariel: A Review of International English Literature. 28.2. April 1997: 23-34.

“Acting in the Public Sphere and the Politics of Memory in the Work of Janette Turner Hospital.”

by David Callahan

Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature. 15.1. June 1996: 73-81.

Less Work for "Mother": Rural Readers, Farm Papers, and the Makeover of "The Revolt of 'Mother

by Ellen Gruber Garvey

'We'll Wear Out Great Ones': Maria Pickersgill, Letitia Landon and the Power of the 'Improvisatrice'

by David Moberly

Romantic Textualities, 20 (Winter 2011): 7-23.

Maria Pickersgill, whose largest work, Tales of the Harem, was published in 1827, was the wife of Henry William... more Maria Pickersgill, whose largest work, Tales of the Harem, was published in 1827, was the wife of Henry William Pickergill, the most prominent London portrait artist of his day. Maria's well-connected husband and their London home provided her with several contacts who aided her in her desire to publish. Her first poetic work, “The Oriental Nosegay,” was printed in 1825 as part of a collection of poems in Letitia Landon's The Troubadours. Maria's husband had completed Landon's portrait after several long sittings in 1822 or 1823, at which time Maria likely met Landon and showed her some of her work, which Landon later published. Thereafter, Landon seems to have heavily influenced her work. Landon's poetry, in fact, is Maria's works'closest analogue. Maria embraces Landon’s depiction of the woman poetess’ role as that of an “improvisatrice,” whose poetry flows spontaneously out of emotion in something more like performance than poetry (if one strictly follows Wordsworth’s definition of the term). Maria uses the performances of harem women in Tales of the Harem as a metaphor for the way in which women’s poetry can subvert and “wear out” the patriarchal powers that be. As such, this interdisciplinary paper offers a detailed view of the way in which one London woman negotiated her poetry into publication, and what that negotiation reveals about her poetic style and the place she carved for herself in the London art world.

"sancta mulier nomine Mechtildis". Mechthild (von Magdeburg) und ihre Wahrnehmung als Religiose im Laufe der Jahrhunderte, in: Beginen. Eine religiöse Lebensform von Frauen in Geschichte und Gegenwart, hg. von Marco A. Sorace und Jörg Voigt (erscheint in der Reihe: Studien zur christlichen Religions- und Kulturgeschichte) (in Vorbereitung)

by Balázs J. Nemes

These:
Mechthild von Magdeburg macht Karriere - als Nonne (und Begine?) in Mittelalter und Früher Neuzeit, als... more These:
Mechthild von Magdeburg macht Karriere - als Nonne (und Begine?) in Mittelalter und Früher Neuzeit, als Begine (und Nonne!) in der Moderne

Der involvierte Leser. Immersive Lektürepraktiken in der spätmittelalterlichen Mystik-Rezeption, in: Immersion im Mittelalter, hg. von Hartmut Bleumer (Zeitschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Linguistik 167, 2012) (in Druckvorbereitung)

by Balázs J. Nemes

The article approaches the immersive potential of Mechthild von Magdeburg's “Fließendes Licht“, dispensing the reader... more The article approaches the immersive potential of Mechthild von Magdeburg's “Fließendes Licht“, dispensing the reader from his role as a spectator and turning him into a participant, something which has frequently been claimed by the new German medieval studies. This particular kind of recipient is, certainly, an ideal-typical reader, a literary construct with the function to display the strategies of persuasion in “Fließendes Licht“ and the special literacy or the functional inclusion of the text. It should be all the more interesting to have a look at a specific historical recipient as this allows making the text's calculated aesthetic impacts plausible or outlining them with regard to the history of receptions. The instructions by Heinrich von Nördlingen from the first half of the 14th century, addressed to Margareta Ebner and the Dominican nuns of Maria Medingen near Dillingen, which told them how to incorporate and read „Fließendes Licht“ will be the centre of my analysis. This particular example and the recourse to circulating thoughts about the phenomenology of immersion shall show which requirements have to be fulfilled in a special religious context of reception to obtain the effect of immersion. Heinrich's directives are perfectly suitable for this line of questioning as they create the model of an involved reader, amounting to the requirement to get into the diegesis of the text and to identify with the literary figure.

Im Beitrag geht es um das in der neueren germanistisch-mediävistischen Forschung vielfach behauptete immersive Potential des „Fließenden Lichts“ Mechthilds von Magdeburg, den Leser seiner Rolle als Beobachter (spectator) zu entbinden und ihn zu einem Teilnehmer (participant) der textuell entworfenen virtuellen Realität zu machen. Freilich handelt es sich bei diesem Typ vom Rezipienten um einen idealtypischen Leser, ein literaturwissenschaftliches Figurenkonstrukt also, dessen Funktion darin besteht, die im „Fließenden Licht“ verfolgten Persuasionsstrategien und damit die besondere Literarizität bzw. funktionale Einbindung des Textes sichtbar zu machen. Umso interessanter dürfte es sein, den Blick auf einen konkreten historischen Rezipienten zu lenken, ermöglicht er doch, die von der Forschung beobachteten kalkuliert wirkungsästhetischen Effekte des Textes zu plausibilisieren bzw. rezeptionsgeschichtlich zu perspektivieren. Im Mittelpunkt meiner Untersuchung stehen die an Margareta Ebner und die Dominikanerinnen von Maria Medingen bei Dillingen gerichteten Anweisungen von Heinrich von Nördlingen aus der Mitte des 14. Jahrhunderts, wie sie das „Fließende Licht“ aufnehmen und lesen sollen. An diesem Fallbeispiel und im Rückgriff auf die kursierenden Überlegungen zur Phänomenologie der Immersion gilt es zu zeigen, welche Voraussetzungen speziell in einem religiösen Rezeptionskontext erfüllt werden müssen, damit es überhaupt zum Effekt der Immersion kommt. Heinrichs Direktiven eignen sich für diese Fragestellung insofern bestens, als sie das Modell des involvierten Lesers entwerfen, laufen sie doch auf die Forderung hinaus, sich in die Diegese des Textes zu begeben und sich mit der Textfigur zu identifizieren

The Road Not Taken: Shedding Xenophobia, Embracing the Other in Umm Zakiyyah’s If I Should Speak

by Arezou Zalipour

This is a co-authored paper.

In Umm Zakiyyah‟s If I Should Speak (2000), the protagonist, African American Christian Tamika Douglass experiences... more In Umm Zakiyyah‟s If I Should Speak (2000), the protagonist, African American Christian Tamika Douglass experiences travelling down the road not taken when she befriends her two minority Muslim American college flatmates, Dee @ Durrah and Aminah. Raised in a predominantly Christian society, Tamika develops a great mistrust of Islam and Muslims. However, her close and personal encounter with the two Muslims transforms her appreciation of the religion. Through Tamika‟s dialogue with them and personal observations of their daily living, Tamika journeys into the road less travelled by most Americans, one which is foreign albeit close to home. In the course of the narrative, Tamika learns to shed some of the xenophobic attitudes she has adopted growing up in the predominantly non-Muslim environment and embrace the internal conflicts that have crippled her awareness of the “other.” This paper considers the motif of the road as a metaphor for life and explicates how in journeying the road less travelled, Tamika finds a new sense of appreciation of herself and the other.

The Un-becoming

by Lindsey Grace

written by Lindsey Rundlett. 2011.

This is a paper about Jean Rhys' novel, Good Morning, Midnight. This is a paper about Jean Rhys' novel, Good Morning, Midnight.

andrew king, origins of ouidas pascarel anglistica pisana VI 2009 77-86

by Andrew King

Originally published in the special number of Anglistica Pisana dedicated to Ouida in 2009, vol VI. 1/2, pp. 77-86

Sainte Brigitte de Suède et Alfonso de Jaén : une "amitié spirituelle" / saint Bridget of Sweden and Alfonso de Jaén : a Female-Male friendship in Late Medieval Italy (Language : French)

by Giulia Puma

published in Arzanà. Cahiers de littérature italienne médiévale, n. 13, juin 2010, p. 329-364.

Ecritures et pratiques de l'amitié dans l'Italie médiévale
Describing and experiencing Friendship in Medieval Italy

Publications de la Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris III.

Par « amitié spirituelle », on entend au Moyen Âge l’unisson des amis dans l’amour du Christ, qu’en est-il d’une... more Par « amitié spirituelle », on entend au Moyen Âge l’unisson des amis dans l’amour du Christ, qu’en est-il d’une amitié mixte, entre une femme et un homme ? Les mots employés par sainte Brigitte de Suède (1303-1373) dans ses Révélations pour décrire son rapport à son dernier confesseur, Alfonso de Jaén (1329-1389), constituent des documents précieux pour la connaissance de l’amitié mixte. Ils se rencontrent à Rome en 1368, puis séjournent ensemble auprès du pape. Alfonso sert à la fois à Brigitte de confesseur et d’interprète lors de son entrevue avec Urbain V, visant à le persuader de rentrer d’Avignon à Rome. Alfonso a une très bonne connaissance du latin, ce qui conduit Brigitte à rendre encore plus étroite leur collaboration. Elle reçoit plusieurs révélations où Marie et le Christ lui ordonnent explicitement de confier à l’ermite espagnol le travail de révision et de publication des Révélations. Brigitte est ainsi la dépositaire de la parole divine et Alfonso le récipiendaire de ce précieux trésor. Si l’ami est traditionnellement un alter ego, la relation de Brigitte et d’Alfonso, qui présuppose une profonde similitude morale, aboutit à l’altérité pragmatique de leurs rôles, complémentaires mais hiérarchisés : leur amitié mixte est légitimée, formalisée, codifiée par les interventions divines, qui président en même temps à sa mise en pratique, pour que le message oral des Révélations accède au statut de livre.

After her husband's death in 1344, Bridget of Sweden (1303-1373), a mother of eight, starts having divine revelations and decides to dedicate her life to God, promoting the return of the pope in Rome, city where she lives from 1349 until her death. The paper focuses on the nature of her relationship to her last confessor, the spanish ermit, former bishop, Alfonso de Jaén (1329-1389), also known as Alfonso Pecha da Vadaterra. The documents of her canonization process as well as some of her revelations, edited in Latin by Alfonso, point out their different but complementary role as "amici Dei", God's friends but also friends through God. Bridget and Alfonso seem to be good candidates for what recent research (Sahlin 2001, Coakley 2006) has identified as "amicitia spiritualis". Spiritual friendship, a particular form of Female-Male relationship, would typically tie a charismatic/mystical woman to her confessor, acting both as a spiritual guide to her and as a promoter to the external world of the divine messages she would receive.

Partial translation of Moa Martinson's _Kyrkbröllop_ (_Church Wedding_)

by Mara Egherman

Moa Martinson, a Swedish proletarian feminist novelist, wrote an autobiographical trilogy starting in 1936 with _Mor gifter sig_ (_My Mother Gets Married_) that tells her life story from age 6 to age 8. Available in English. This is the start to the translation of the second volume, _Kyrkbröllop_ (_Church Wedding_).

This translated excerpt, including explanatory historical and cultural endnotes interspersed when necessary to aid the... more This translated excerpt, including explanatory historical and cultural endnotes interspersed when necessary to aid the non-Swedish reader, is an appendix to my MA thesis.

Entre tourisme et engagement: autour de L'Amérique au jour le jour

by Yan Hamel

Dans KRISTEVA, Julia (dir.). (Re)découvrir l’œuvre de Simone de Beauvoir du Deuxième sexe à La cérémonie des adieux, Paris, Éditions Le bord de l’eau, 2008, p. 239-247.

Visualizing the Jewish body in Aline Kominsky Crumb's Need More Love

by Tahneer Oksman

Principles and Privilege: Two Women's Lives on a Georgia Plantation

by Melanie Levinson

" My Own Design": Finding Identity in Anne Roiphe's Writings

by Melanie Levinson