How much more can be gained from a piece of World Literature when the reader is semiotically literate in the culture that produced the work？ What are the implications of introducing the element of cultural literacy i...How much more can be gained from a piece of World Literature when the reader is semiotically literate in the culture that produced the work？ What are the implications of introducing the element of cultural literacy into the teaching of world literature, and how might culturally contextualizing the narrative enhance the reading experience for those who may not be familiar with the national culture that produced the work？ This paper examines these questions using as a case study The Tale of Genji （n.d.）, a novel from llth century Japan and ＂La Troisi6me Jeunesse de Madame Prune＂ （1905）, a French text set in Japan at the turn of the 20th century. Using examples taken from each writer＇s text, the author will show how a knowledge of both the target culture and the time period in which the work was produced can serve as a critical tool for analyzing the text; the former text shall be used to argue for an integration of a cultural anthropology element into the teaching of world literature, while the latter example shall be used to argue for the importance of contextualizing a text within its historical creation period. In concluding, the author shall examine the ways in which including an element of cultural literacy can lead to a truly interdisciplinary, trans-national, and trans-linguistic understanding of a particular literary text.展开更多
The experience of＂The Other＂ has become a common one for people in the 21st century, and yet it continues to be a major problem for everyone involved. Increasingly, however, immigrants and their descendants adjust a...The experience of＂The Other＂ has become a common one for people in the 21st century, and yet it continues to be a major problem for everyone involved. Increasingly, however, immigrants and their descendants adjust and soon participate in and with the new culture（s）. At the same time, those who encounter ＂The Other＂ through the contact with immigrants, have also to adapt, to learn, and to realize considerable changes in themselves in that process. Recently, a new German novelist, Renate Ahrens, has created several major works in which she reflects on this intricate phenomenon typical of our times. The present study might well be the first critical analysis of her last two novels, Zeit der Wahrheit （Time of Truth, 2005） and Fremde Schwestern （Alienated Sisters, 2011）, which prove to be outstanding and first-rate literary treatments of the theme of＂The Other＂ in an intercultural context. As Ahrens illustrates in both novels, each individual carries a heavy baggage imposed on them by the own family history, and so in both cases the confrontation with ＂The Other＂ serves exceedingly well to break open the shell of self-isolation and self-alienation. Love finally overcomes ancient conflicts and paves the way for new integrative forces supporting the formation of the ＂global village＂ we all are really living in.展开更多
The paper offers a three-dimensional linguosemiotic study of similes, which implies integral analysis of their semantic, syntactic, and pragmatic aspects. Such an approach to the study of similes is quite new as they ...The paper offers a three-dimensional linguosemiotic study of similes, which implies integral analysis of their semantic, syntactic, and pragmatic aspects. Such an approach to the study of similes is quite new as they have been hitherto considered either from a literary viewpoint as one of the stylistic expressive means of language or in the philosophy of language in correlation with metaphor. The three-dimensional linguosemiotic methodology of research has enabled us： （1） to reveal the cognitive, psychological, and metaphorical essence of similes and work out the invariant conceptual model which remains unchanged throughout their structural-semantic variation in the text; （2） to single out pragmatic features of similes, the set of which defines their linguistic status as a language-in-use construct, i.e., textual phenomenon; （3） to study the denotational-cognitive aspect of similes pointing out the parameters according to which similes have been differentiated into semantic types and subtypes and （4） to generalize the syntactical aspect of similes and define the set of their structural modifications in the text conditioned both by the intralinguistic regularities and by pragmatic factors. Therefore, we have worked out an interdisciplinary theory of similes implying the synergy of the data of linguistic, literary, cognitive, and psychological studies展开更多
When we look through the world history, it can be seen clearly that language has a great role on culture, arts, and social movements, and the translation is an important player in this context. A commonly shared Europ...When we look through the world history, it can be seen clearly that language has a great role on culture, arts, and social movements, and the translation is an important player in this context. A commonly shared European culture together with its values has emerged as a product of such sociolinguistic dynamics. Following these encounters, whether at word borrowing level or morpho-syntactical level, European languages have had positive and/or negative effects on each other and have evolved ever since in this way as they have permeated themselves into culture. From the point of view on translation＇s intermediary role in enabling interaction between cultures throughout the history, the aim of the present study is to problematize the answers to the following questions： What are cultural ramifications that stem from linguistic encounter？ What are the contributions of translated language to acculturation and enculturation processes？ Can the new information through translation produce a culture translation phenomenon？ How the hybrid understanding functions？ Translation itself is a language encounter that makes impact on targeted languages as well as on its source. In this study, the dynamics that form this encounter space as a meta textual phenomenon has been problematized.展开更多
文摘How much more can be gained from a piece of World Literature when the reader is semiotically literate in the culture that produced the work？ What are the implications of introducing the element of cultural literacy into the teaching of world literature, and how might culturally contextualizing the narrative enhance the reading experience for those who may not be familiar with the national culture that produced the work？ This paper examines these questions using as a case study The Tale of Genji （n.d.）, a novel from llth century Japan and ＂La Troisi6me Jeunesse de Madame Prune＂ （1905）, a French text set in Japan at the turn of the 20th century. Using examples taken from each writer＇s text, the author will show how a knowledge of both the target culture and the time period in which the work was produced can serve as a critical tool for analyzing the text; the former text shall be used to argue for an integration of a cultural anthropology element into the teaching of world literature, while the latter example shall be used to argue for the importance of contextualizing a text within its historical creation period. In concluding, the author shall examine the ways in which including an element of cultural literacy can lead to a truly interdisciplinary, trans-national, and trans-linguistic understanding of a particular literary text.
文摘The experience of＂The Other＂ has become a common one for people in the 21st century, and yet it continues to be a major problem for everyone involved. Increasingly, however, immigrants and their descendants adjust and soon participate in and with the new culture（s）. At the same time, those who encounter ＂The Other＂ through the contact with immigrants, have also to adapt, to learn, and to realize considerable changes in themselves in that process. Recently, a new German novelist, Renate Ahrens, has created several major works in which she reflects on this intricate phenomenon typical of our times. The present study might well be the first critical analysis of her last two novels, Zeit der Wahrheit （Time of Truth, 2005） and Fremde Schwestern （Alienated Sisters, 2011）, which prove to be outstanding and first-rate literary treatments of the theme of＂The Other＂ in an intercultural context. As Ahrens illustrates in both novels, each individual carries a heavy baggage imposed on them by the own family history, and so in both cases the confrontation with ＂The Other＂ serves exceedingly well to break open the shell of self-isolation and self-alienation. Love finally overcomes ancient conflicts and paves the way for new integrative forces supporting the formation of the ＂global village＂ we all are really living in.
文摘The paper offers a three-dimensional linguosemiotic study of similes, which implies integral analysis of their semantic, syntactic, and pragmatic aspects. Such an approach to the study of similes is quite new as they have been hitherto considered either from a literary viewpoint as one of the stylistic expressive means of language or in the philosophy of language in correlation with metaphor. The three-dimensional linguosemiotic methodology of research has enabled us： （1） to reveal the cognitive, psychological, and metaphorical essence of similes and work out the invariant conceptual model which remains unchanged throughout their structural-semantic variation in the text; （2） to single out pragmatic features of similes, the set of which defines their linguistic status as a language-in-use construct, i.e., textual phenomenon; （3） to study the denotational-cognitive aspect of similes pointing out the parameters according to which similes have been differentiated into semantic types and subtypes and （4） to generalize the syntactical aspect of similes and define the set of their structural modifications in the text conditioned both by the intralinguistic regularities and by pragmatic factors. Therefore, we have worked out an interdisciplinary theory of similes implying the synergy of the data of linguistic, literary, cognitive, and psychological studies
文摘When we look through the world history, it can be seen clearly that language has a great role on culture, arts, and social movements, and the translation is an important player in this context. A commonly shared European culture together with its values has emerged as a product of such sociolinguistic dynamics. Following these encounters, whether at word borrowing level or morpho-syntactical level, European languages have had positive and/or negative effects on each other and have evolved ever since in this way as they have permeated themselves into culture. From the point of view on translation＇s intermediary role in enabling interaction between cultures throughout the history, the aim of the present study is to problematize the answers to the following questions： What are cultural ramifications that stem from linguistic encounter？ What are the contributions of translated language to acculturation and enculturation processes？ Can the new information through translation produce a culture translation phenomenon？ How the hybrid understanding functions？ Translation itself is a language encounter that makes impact on targeted languages as well as on its source. In this study, the dynamics that form this encounter space as a meta textual phenomenon has been problematized.
