Toni Morrison's fiction may arguably be characterized as postmodern discourse on memory, history and culture. In her novels, the Nobel laureate frequently returns to the past to search for answers to the questions sh...Toni Morrison's fiction may arguably be characterized as postmodern discourse on memory, history and culture. In her novels, the Nobel laureate frequently returns to the past to search for answers to the questions she poses about African American realities in the contemporary United States. In doing so, Morrison often creates alternative histories or, more specifically, a usable past----one that allows her to engage in a literary (re-)construction of the Black historical and cultural material which traditional histories have chosen to ignore or disremember. Therefore, as a present-day writer of African American descent, Morrison attempts to reassemble all the fragmentary historical and cultural accounts available to her as a novelist and narrate them in the form of a convincing story. With regard to the above considerations, this article seeks to discuss some of the mechanisms employed by Morrison for weaving her postmodern, memory-filled narrative on the example of her eighth novel, Love (2003). In particular, the analysis focuses on the book's central figure, Bill Cosey, and his Southern ocean-side resort--both seen against the backdrop of the pre- and post-World War II racist America, followed by the 1960s decade of the Civil Rights Movement. Finally, it is also demonstrated how the author's use of split narrative as well as the "I" narrator-cum-character technique contribute to recounting in retrospect Love's main, historicized story---one viewed and judged from a present-time perspective.展开更多
Through comparison, this paper finds out that William Shakespeare (1564-1616), the most popular and wide respected writer in all English literatures and a great dramatist and humanist in the English Renaissance peri...Through comparison, this paper finds out that William Shakespeare (1564-1616), the most popular and wide respected writer in all English literatures and a great dramatist and humanist in the English Renaissance perio ly d, coincides in speaking highly of love, loyalty, intelligence, harmony, integrity, righteousness, friendship, and so on with Chinese Confucian values--the most precious treasure of Chinese traditional culture reflected in the Three Cardinal Guides and the Five Constant Virtues used by Chinese people in maintaining the stability and harmony of the whole nation and society--through vivid interpretation of human ethical relations in many of his works. At present, the world comparative literature studies have entered the third stage in the circumstance of globalization and internationalization, this finding is with paramount significance in construction of the mechanism of mutual recognition, mutual justification, mutual supplementation and mutual appreciation of heterogeneous cultures. This study, taking The Winter's Tale (1623) as a case, is about universality, unity, and shared values of the Confucianism and Shakespeare's plays in the perspective of the coexistence of multiple cultures. This paper is with four parts: (1) mechanism of mutual understanding, mutual justification, mutual supplementation, and mutual appreciation introduced in the first part; (2) the Confucian values addressed in details in the second part; (3) the third part is a case study; and (4) the last part shows how the Chinese and Western literatures and cultures can be understood, assisted, communicated, and appreciated with each other by the way of comparing the great works of Shakespeare and the Confucian values featured with universalism to a certain extent展开更多
文摘Toni Morrison's fiction may arguably be characterized as postmodern discourse on memory, history and culture. In her novels, the Nobel laureate frequently returns to the past to search for answers to the questions she poses about African American realities in the contemporary United States. In doing so, Morrison often creates alternative histories or, more specifically, a usable past----one that allows her to engage in a literary (re-)construction of the Black historical and cultural material which traditional histories have chosen to ignore or disremember. Therefore, as a present-day writer of African American descent, Morrison attempts to reassemble all the fragmentary historical and cultural accounts available to her as a novelist and narrate them in the form of a convincing story. With regard to the above considerations, this article seeks to discuss some of the mechanisms employed by Morrison for weaving her postmodern, memory-filled narrative on the example of her eighth novel, Love (2003). In particular, the analysis focuses on the book's central figure, Bill Cosey, and his Southern ocean-side resort--both seen against the backdrop of the pre- and post-World War II racist America, followed by the 1960s decade of the Civil Rights Movement. Finally, it is also demonstrated how the author's use of split narrative as well as the "I" narrator-cum-character technique contribute to recounting in retrospect Love's main, historicized story---one viewed and judged from a present-time perspective.
文摘Through comparison, this paper finds out that William Shakespeare (1564-1616), the most popular and wide respected writer in all English literatures and a great dramatist and humanist in the English Renaissance perio ly d, coincides in speaking highly of love, loyalty, intelligence, harmony, integrity, righteousness, friendship, and so on with Chinese Confucian values--the most precious treasure of Chinese traditional culture reflected in the Three Cardinal Guides and the Five Constant Virtues used by Chinese people in maintaining the stability and harmony of the whole nation and society--through vivid interpretation of human ethical relations in many of his works. At present, the world comparative literature studies have entered the third stage in the circumstance of globalization and internationalization, this finding is with paramount significance in construction of the mechanism of mutual recognition, mutual justification, mutual supplementation and mutual appreciation of heterogeneous cultures. This study, taking The Winter's Tale (1623) as a case, is about universality, unity, and shared values of the Confucianism and Shakespeare's plays in the perspective of the coexistence of multiple cultures. This paper is with four parts: (1) mechanism of mutual understanding, mutual justification, mutual supplementation, and mutual appreciation introduced in the first part; (2) the Confucian values addressed in details in the second part; (3) the third part is a case study; and (4) the last part shows how the Chinese and Western literatures and cultures can be understood, assisted, communicated, and appreciated with each other by the way of comparing the great works of Shakespeare and the Confucian values featured with universalism to a certain extent