Paulo Coelho's novels call into question the nature of the literary text and the act of reading in a post-Einsteinian world. Amidst the debate over his popular writings (Albanese; Ndagano), the discussion turns to ...Paulo Coelho's novels call into question the nature of the literary text and the act of reading in a post-Einsteinian world. Amidst the debate over his popular writings (Albanese; Ndagano), the discussion turns to whether Coelho continues a poetics of narrative developed by Jorge Luis Borges. This paper explores how Coelho's work may depart from a reading of Borges, yet goes beyond it into what Bakhtin established as "the Einsteinian universe applied to literary studies", as posited by Stone (2008). Coelho's work is affected by hypertexts, new ways of connecting and perceiving subjectivities, and cross-cultural pilgrimages. A hermeneutic reading of his novel, The Zahir: A Novel of Obsession (2005b), allows us to delve into the Coelhian the notion of the zahir as a tensional metaphor (Ricouer) of world-making (Valdes). This underscores the postmodern assumption of the author as just another reader, albeit an ably active one. Through the courageous act of making his reading(s) transparent through writing, he invites other readers into the dialectical presumptions of his world.展开更多
The term "ontology" is used to describe the nature of reality and demarcates the parameters of existence. An understanding and description of ontology is crucial for academic pursuit as it unveils applicable realiti...The term "ontology" is used to describe the nature of reality and demarcates the parameters of existence. An understanding and description of ontology is crucial for academic pursuit as it unveils applicable realities, yet it is often disregarded. The general neglect of ontology provided three motivations for this paper: Firstly, the discussion of the ontological underpinnings in research papers is often neglected while the methodology and methods receive extensive review. Secondly, tertiary students in an academic research-writing course face tremendous difficulty to describe the philosophical ideas that support their interpretation of reality and existence. Thirdly, the philosophical underpinnings of contemporary ontological thought are further complicated by the epistemological challenges posed by the tension between modernism and postmodernism. This paper suggests the use of literature (novels) as a relativity accessible platform to initiate the development of ontological thought. Through a close reading of a sample of Dutch novels published during the last decade of the 20th century, three themes were developed to illuminate the nature of postmodem reality and establish a literary-based ontology. The following three themes were developed: reality as fragments of fiction, reality as dream of paradoxes, and reality as plethora of stories. By using literature as source, ontological thought can be developed to illuminate the extent of the realities acknowledged in research projects.展开更多
文摘Paulo Coelho's novels call into question the nature of the literary text and the act of reading in a post-Einsteinian world. Amidst the debate over his popular writings (Albanese; Ndagano), the discussion turns to whether Coelho continues a poetics of narrative developed by Jorge Luis Borges. This paper explores how Coelho's work may depart from a reading of Borges, yet goes beyond it into what Bakhtin established as "the Einsteinian universe applied to literary studies", as posited by Stone (2008). Coelho's work is affected by hypertexts, new ways of connecting and perceiving subjectivities, and cross-cultural pilgrimages. A hermeneutic reading of his novel, The Zahir: A Novel of Obsession (2005b), allows us to delve into the Coelhian the notion of the zahir as a tensional metaphor (Ricouer) of world-making (Valdes). This underscores the postmodern assumption of the author as just another reader, albeit an ably active one. Through the courageous act of making his reading(s) transparent through writing, he invites other readers into the dialectical presumptions of his world.
文摘The term "ontology" is used to describe the nature of reality and demarcates the parameters of existence. An understanding and description of ontology is crucial for academic pursuit as it unveils applicable realities, yet it is often disregarded. The general neglect of ontology provided three motivations for this paper: Firstly, the discussion of the ontological underpinnings in research papers is often neglected while the methodology and methods receive extensive review. Secondly, tertiary students in an academic research-writing course face tremendous difficulty to describe the philosophical ideas that support their interpretation of reality and existence. Thirdly, the philosophical underpinnings of contemporary ontological thought are further complicated by the epistemological challenges posed by the tension between modernism and postmodernism. This paper suggests the use of literature (novels) as a relativity accessible platform to initiate the development of ontological thought. Through a close reading of a sample of Dutch novels published during the last decade of the 20th century, three themes were developed to illuminate the nature of postmodem reality and establish a literary-based ontology. The following three themes were developed: reality as fragments of fiction, reality as dream of paradoxes, and reality as plethora of stories. By using literature as source, ontological thought can be developed to illuminate the extent of the realities acknowledged in research projects.