World Literatures

The Village and Its Story : Indigenization of the 'Alien' Language in Raja Rao's Kanthapura and Ignazio Silone's Fontamara

by Stefano Mercanti

The Guru-Shishya Relationship in R.K. Narayan's The Guide

by Stefano Mercanti

Ironic Partnerships in R.K.Narayan's Malgudi

by Stefano Mercanti

In Partnership Id-Entities. Cultural and Literary Re-Inscription/s of the Feminine. Udine: Forum, 2010, pp. 95-105.

Going beyond the conceptual geography of Malgudi as a fossilized Hindu ordered cosmos, this paper highlights the... more Going beyond the conceptual geography of Malgudi as a fossilized Hindu ordered cosmos, this paper highlights the distinct blend of Indian and Western influences which animate Malgudi's dynamic life, thus signalling the complex transformations of an imaginary town polarized between the cultural twilight of the modern and the traditional.

The Divine Vessel and the Flowering Consciousness in Raja Rao's The Serpent and the Rope

by Stefano Mercanti

In The Goddess Awakened. Partnership Studies in Literatures, Language and Education. Udine: Forum, 2007, 113-124.

The paper shows how the partnership model provides an effective co-operative paadigm for a new understanding of Raja... more The paper shows how the partnership model provides an effective co-operative paadigm for a new understanding of Raja Rao's novel 'The Serpent and the Rope' in which the worship of woman as an embodiment of the Feminine Divine constitutes the experience for higher consciousness.

Over the Barricades of Indian Nationalism in Raja Rao’s Short Stories

by Stefano Mercanti

Colonial Narrative and Indigenous Consciousness in Raja Rao’s Kanthapura and Ignazio Silone’s Fontamara: A Partnership Study

by Stefano Mercanti

Voice and Memory: Indigenous Imagination and Expression
G. N. Devy, Geoffrey V. Davis, K. K. Chakravarty (Eds.)

An Approach for the Study of Poetic Imagination

by Arezou Zalipour

Abstract of my PhD thesis that was completed in 2008. Please feel free to contact me if you are interested to know more about my PhD thesis. I am trying to publish it as a book. Your kind suggestions are most welcomed.

An Approach for the Study of Poetic Imagination

Arezou Zalipour, PhD
more An Approach for the Study of Poetic Imagination

Arezou Zalipour, PhD
arezouzalipour@gmail.com


This study examines notions of poetic imagination towards exploring its contemporary representations. It takes its initial point of departure with a historical and conceptual survey that traces the concepts and theories of both imagination and poetic imagination. The literature survey demonstrates that poetic imagination has not been featured in the theories of modern and contemporary poetry, barring the Romantics who celebrated the creative nature of imagination. Therefore, the existing concepts, ideas and theories of poetic imagination are largely unstructured and incoherent concepts inherited by contemporary poets. However, there are some researches on the concept of imagination in poetry in modern and contemporary philosophy and psychology. In the twentieth century, the use of poetic image in philosophical studies as well as the relations between imagination and reality have provided some insights into modern conceptions of poetic imagination. This thesis examines, discusses and collates the principles and concepts relevant to imagination to discover whether these notions can explain and define the nature of poetic imagination in contemporary poetry. Fundamentally, the thesis develops an approach for the exploration of contemporary notions of poetic imagination. The approach is drawn from the existing concepts and theories of imagination and poetic imagination. The approach is constructed featuring the elements of types of images, features of poetic imagination and modes of imagination.

These three categories shape the components of the theoretical framework and also form the three levels of the analytical procedure of the approach. In level one, we look at types of images in a poem which leads us to draw conclusions about features of poetic imagination in level two. In level three, the findings in levels one and two will then help us to determine the apparent and dominant mode of imagination in the poem/text. What should emerge by the end of the analysis is a special opportunity to look at how (creative) imagination is manifested in a poem/text. The approach was applied to a corpus of contemporary poetry in order to show the application of the approach and the way analysis is carried put. The assessment of the approach on a corpus of contemporary poetry was also in an attempt to elucidate the dimensions of relationships between the imagined, the imaged, and the real.

The research identifies that imagination in contemporary poetry moves more towards imaging rather than poetic imagination. In other words, imagination shows greater affinity to imaging in contemporary poetry. The significant contribution of the thesis is that it offers a continuum called Imaginiuum with one end as imaging, and poetic imagination as the other. Imaginiuum is a paradigm that describes contemporary notions of imagination in poetry.

When Will We Nominate the Classroom Teacher for a Nobel Prize?

by PADMORE AGBEMABIESE

From Poetics to the Romantics: Conceptual History of Imagination In Poetry

by Arezou Zalipour

The starting point of the history of imagination in poetry can be traced to the early attempts to define poetry, as in... more The starting point of the history of imagination in poetry can be traced to the early attempts to define poetry, as in Aristotle’s Poetics. My investigation in the studies on imagination shows that there is no comprehensive work on the conceptual history of imagination in poetry. However, there are some comprehensive books that provide a chronological survey of the idea of imagination as it appears in various other disciplines. This paper aims to explore the general developmental trends in the concepts of imagination in poetry up to the Romantic period. The concepts are organized according to features that I consider significant to the conceptual history of imagination in poetry. The survey of available literature in the studies of poetic imagination will manifest the various treatments that poetic imagination receives over different periods of time. In the process, this paper will convey mainly in an indirect manner, the gaps and inadequacies in the studies of poetic imagination in an inside-out history of some of the most significant developments in the concepts of poetic imagination.

Phenomenological Studies of Imagination in Poetry: An Introduction

by Arezou Zalipour

Published in 3L The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies, July 2010

The broad and dominant discipline of phenomenology has produced many studies of imagination. Phenomenological studies... more The broad and dominant discipline of phenomenology has produced many studies of imagination. Phenomenological studies examine imagination as a dimension of language
and explore the creative role of imagination in the creation of new meanings in language. This exploration has many implications in poetry where language is used creatively and
new meanings emerge from the creative and unexpected use of language by the poet. This paper aims to describe a phenomenological account of  magination in poetry by introducing the concepts that appear most relevant to imagination in poetry within the domain of phenomenological studies. In order to do this, the study focuses on the main tenets of phenomenological studies relevant to imagination in poetry, namely the concepts of ‘metaphor’ and ‘intentionality’. The discussion highlights the level of creativity of imagination in poetry in comparison with the reduction of imagining to perceiving in language. Likewise, the poetic image in poetry is also introduced as an image which is not a resume of the old meanings of perception. Phenomenology of imagination in poetic creation takes us beyond the pervious analyses of the characteristics of imagination as a creative faculty and helps to establish a link between creativity, meaning and imagination.

Reality Over Imagination in Muhammad Haji Salleh’s Rowing Down Two Rivers

by Arezou Zalipour

Zalipour, Arezou. 2010. Reality Over Imagination in Muhammad Haji Salleh’s Rowing Down Two Rivers. Journal of Malay Literature. Vol. 23, No.1.

Please don't hesitate to contact me if you need the full article.

One important function of imagination is to understand reality. Imagination and reality are inherently related and... more One important function of imagination is to understand reality. Imagination and reality are inherently related and poetry is one zone where imagination and reality meet. Complementary changes in the nature of reality, as well as cultural and ideological configurations, especially in postcolonial writing which aim to reconstruct a sense of nationalism and nationhood, call for a re-evaluation of the concept of creative imagination perhaps differently from its earlier configurations. Having said that, this paper aims to raise the issue of the difference between the two ideologies of poetry with reference to the imagination and reality, and argues that the difference is related to the concept and state of imagination in the poem. This paper focuses on Muhammad Haji Salleh’s Rowing Down Two River (2000) to investigate the dominance of reality over imagination. The relevant concepts that relate reality to imagination in the domain of artistic creation will be used as the conceptual framework of this study. The analytical procedure will consist of examining the types of images and their associations in the selected poems in order to explore Muhammad’s mode of conveyance of the elements of reality. The analysis demonstrates that Muhammad’s overreliance on sensory images and idea images results in the dominance of reality over imagination in his poetry. The significant motifs in his poems in Rowing Down Two Rivers such as road, journey, the traveller, home, quest, and identity are embodied in words or descriptions denoting sensory experience which leads to familiar associations with Malaysian reality. Imagination in poetry is considered to be a human faculty concerned with creating autonomous aesthetic artefacts which can represent directly or indirectly the human experience. This study identifies that for Muhammad, this notion has now been turned into an agency that is used solely for nurturing and insulating the intellectualism and idealism of social Malaysian identity and life.

WORLDING SPACE, WORLDING TIME: On the Making of “The Worlding Project”

by Rob Wilson

From Poetic Imagination to Imaging: Contemporary Notions of Poetic Imagination in Poetry

by Arezou Zalipour

Arezou Zalipour. 2011. “From Imaging to Poetic Imagination: Contemporary Notions of Poetic Imagination”. Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities. Vol. 3, No. 4, pp. 481-494.

When we consider what constitutes the essence of poetry, we are confronted with a variety of questions none of which... more When we consider what constitutes the essence of poetry, we are confronted with a variety of questions none of which may be answered with final satisfaction. One feature that seems to emerge repeatedly through time is the notion of imagination and the term ‘poetic imagination’ to depict the emotional, imaginative, intellectual and the expressive language used to reflect the writer’s consciousness. This paper primarily discusses the core finding of my research in the concepts, theories and ideas of poetic imagination. The research characterizes a series of modes of imagination in contemporary poetry. These modes have been drawn from the existing notions and concepts of poetic imagination. The research identifies that imagination in contemporary poetry moves more towards imaging rather than poetic imagination. In other words, imagination shows greater affinity to imaging in contemporary poetry. This paper aims to present the significant contribution of the overall research which is the conceptualization of a paradigm of various modes of imagination in contemporary poetry, with imaging and poetic imagination as its two ends. Other modes of creative imagination reside between imaging and poetic imagination.

[Keywords: contemporary notions of poetic imagination, modes of imagination, imaging, creative imagination, poetry, theories of imagination]

Prosaic Imagination in Contemporary Personal Poetry

by Arezou Zalipour

Arezou Zalipour. 2011. “Prosaic Imagination in Contemporary Personal Poetry”. Asian Journal of Literature, Culture and Society, Vol. 5, No. 3, pp. 68-86. ISSN 1905 - 856X.

Note: this paper was originally published in Asian Journal of Literature, Culture and Society. I was granted the permission to upload it on Academia.edu.

Contemporary poets are inspired to write about their personal lives and experiences. This can be considered as a... more Contemporary poets are inspired to write about their personal lives and experiences. This can be considered as a reaction to T. S. Eliot’s idea of a poem as “impersonality,” or the trend of hiding a personal life behind a poem’s mask. The willingness to write personal poetry goes back to the breakthrough of the American Confessional Movement of the late 1950s. It established a tradition in poetry that has evolved and survived until today. Personal poetry is an attempt to express concerns about the individual’s worth and the value of life in a modern and seemingly strange world. The contemporary poet’s choice of writing about himself and his life has influenced the nature of creative imagination in contemporary poetry. This tendency affects and limits the manifestations of creative imagination in poetry.This paper aims to investigate and discuss this phenomenon. The conceptual framework consists of the
examination and discussion of types of images and features of poetic imagination in the selected samples of contemporary personal poetry. The significant contribution of the study is conceptualisation of the prosaic imagination as a dominant mode of creative imaginatio

The Renaissance of the Bantu Languages in Literature

by Susanna Iacona Salafia

Madness, Literature, and Culture

by Michelle Peele

Pavel Kohout: Můj život s Hitlerem, Stalinem a Havlem (recenze)

by Klára Soukupová

Recenze, Revolver Revue 2012/1

Pinocchio, Giufà, il Pellegrino Russo. Tre figure contro il lavoro.

by Pietro Piro

Parte prima: Pinocchio.

Nella prima parte di questo lavoro, si analizza celebre la favola di Carlo Collodi, Pinocchio. In questo saggio... more Nella prima parte di questo lavoro, si analizza celebre la favola di Carlo Collodi, Pinocchio. In questo saggio Pinocchio è interpretato alla luce del suo iniziale rifiuto del lavoro. La sua "redenzione" attraverso la sofferenza e l'umiliazione lo trasformeranno in seguito in un lavoratore instancabile. Pinocchio si adeguerà alla morale borghese del proprio tempo. Pinocchio, è un libro che può essere inserito nella corrente della pedagogia nera. L'intento narrativo (più o meno occulto) è di intimorire e di normalizzare.

En la primera parte de este trabajo, se analiza el famoso cuento de de Carlo Collodi, Pinocho. En este ensayo Pinocho es interpretado a la luz de su negativa inicial a trabajar.Gracias a su "rescate" a través del sufrimiento y la humillación más tarde se transforma en un trabajador incansable. Pinocho se adapta a la moral burguesa de su tiempo. Pinocho es un libro que se puede insertar en la corriente de la pedagogía negra. La intención de la narración (más o menos oculta) es intimidar y normalizar.

"Con su constante deseo de trabajar y su incansable actividad, no sólo conseguía atender cumplidamente a todas las necesidades de la vida, y especialmente a las de su padre enfermo, sino que había podido ahorrar hasta unas cuarenta perras chicas para comprarse un traje nuevo".

Carlo Collodi, Pinocho.

Il était une fois... la grande nuit du conte

by Yan Hamel

Revue jeu, no 142, 2012.1, p. 158-161.

Review: Many Peoples, Many Faiths: Women and Men in the World’s Religions, 9th ed. (Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2009), by Robert S. Ellwood and Barbara McGraw.

by Richard Greydanus

Book review. ARC 38 (2010): 189-191.