Sofiia Andrukhovych’s Felix Austria: the postcolonial neo-Gothic and Ukraine’s search for itself

ABSTRACT

Sofiia Andrukhovych’s 2014 novel Felix Austria (Feliks Avstriia) became Ukraine’s most critically acclaimed and commercially successful work of literature published in the immediate aftermath of the Euromaidan revolution of 2013–14. It combined an ambitious historical reconstruction of daily life in the year 1900 in a mid-size city in the Habsburg-ruled part of Ukraine and an engaging plot skilfully employing multiple devices associated with the Gothic tradition, especially in its latter-day and postmodernist reinterpretations. The novel’s success is especially telling in the context of the rising interest in the Gothic in Ukrainian culture. Told by an unreliable narrator, the novel prompts readers to interrogate their assumptions. In the context of Ukraine, it is particularly subversive in its engagement with the nostalgic myth of the Habsburg Empire as a multi-ethnic utopia of tolerance, and by implication it challenges all imperial myths. The novel’s emphasis on the quest for (self-)discovery strongly resonated with readers in the context of a socio-political crisis, which highlighted the relevance of the distinct postcolonial overtones in its message.     

‘Singing acts’ from the deep North: critical perspectives on northern exotics,contemporary ethnic music and language preservation in Sámi communities

This paper discusses the relationship of northernness and performances of contemporary ethnic popular music, within the context of critical geography and postcolonial theory. The focus is on the Sámi ethnic minorities of northern Finland. The North of Finland, ‘nature-Finland’, is understood here as an imaginative region which over the course of several centuries has been constituted through various forms of stereotyping, mystifying, exoticising and othering of Sámi minorities in accordance with the nationalist endeavours of Southern Finland. While these stereotypes and preconceptions of northernness have delimited northern cultural activity, contemporary ethnic music is conceived here as a strategic tool with which stereotypes of northernness can be contested and the work of the preservation of ethnic heritage put into action. The focus is on the works of Inari Sámi-singing rap musician Amoc, Skolt Sámi-singing heavy rock girl Tiina Sanila and the North Sámi-singing hard rock band SomBy. Their music is approached as ‘singing acts’ that work as tools for the preservation of ethnic culture and minority languages and for the deconstruction of stereotypes directed at northernness. The paper claims that contemporary contexts and genres within which singing in Sámi languages takes place may inspire the audience to ponder and reconsider their own ways of perceiving Sáminess and northernness.     

追寻遗失的美好--解读《追风筝的人》中的生态意蕴

《追风筝的人》是阿富汗裔美国作家卡勒德·胡赛尼的第一部小说。这部小说一出版便引起世界范围的关注，胡赛尼也因此获得了联合国人道主义奖。小说中不仅有感人至深的故事情节，还蕴含着作者对战争、社会和人性的思考。本文从生态批评的角度出发，揭示小说中所描绘的战争带给自然的破坏、阿富汗社会存在的问题以及由此产生的精神失衡现象，探讨其中的生态意蕴，探寻作者独特的生态伦理思想。     

《老人与海》中的自然生态初探

在《老人与海》中，海明威以含有丰富生态内涵的墨西哥湾海域为背景，塑造了老人圣地亚哥这一文学史上的硬汉形象。从生态批评的角度对这部小说进行解读，通过分析作品中体现出来的自然生态，可以使我们摈弃习惯性的二元论模式和人类中心主义价值观，领悟大自然所蕴含的人文意义，看到世界的真谛和价值正在于其丰富性和多样性。     

劳伦斯小说中的生态文化思想解读

自工业革命以来,人类赖以生存的环境问题日益加剧,引起了各界人士的关注。作为一种研究文学和自然环境之间关系的生态批评学迅速发展。运用生态批评理论对劳伦斯的作品解读,分析劳伦斯小说中所蕴含的生态思想,借以警醒当代社会,必须培养一种人类与自然和谐相处的生态观,以促进社会的健康稳定发展。     

从萨拉·朱厄特笔下的树木意象看其自然思想

萨拉.朱厄特是一位对自然充满敬畏的作家。她在作品中刻画的不少树木意象折射出其对人与自然关系的理解。遗憾的是,这些在过去的研究中未能得到足够的重视。在生态批评崛起,世人对朱厄特及其著作给予更多关注的背景下,对这些树木意象作一评析,从仁爱、抚慰之树,人与树木和谐相处,对破坏树木的资本主义工业文明进行批判等三方面,可以解读作品的自然思想。     

Un-imagining the local/future: cinematic engagement with the absence of hope

ABSTRACT

With reference to the 2014 Umbrella Movement and Hong Kong’s uncertain fate come 2047, I ask how one un-imagines the cultural future of inhabiting the locality. As people take prompts from the present predicament to cope with real possibilities about the future, they realize that a strong embodiment of local consciousness permeates the sociocultural space. I discuss how such engagement takes place through cinematic experience, and examine tactics of the spectator’s critique centring around the erosion of hope at the core of everyday, intellectual and affective imagination. I trace the ways in which postcolonial subjects engage with hope and with the shock of hopelessness in a lived social imaginary. Examining in detail three differently representative recent films, namely, The Midnight After (2014. Dir. Fruit Chan, The Midnight After Film and One Ninety Films), Overheard 3 (2014. Dir. Alex Mak and Felix Chong, Sil-Metropole, Bona Film and Pop Movies) and Ten Years (2015. Dir. K. L. Ng (‘Local Egg’, Boon-deh dan), J. Au (‘Dialect’, Fong-yin), K. Chow (‘Self-Immolator’, Jee-fun jeh), F. P. Wong (‘Season of the End’, Dong sim), and Z. Kwok (‘Extras’, Fau gua), Ten Years Studio), I depict the modes in popular imagination that invoke people’s engagement with the ‘local’, albeit in its affective state. Accordingly, in the context of ‘externalized’ social realities, I identify three interlocking modes of cultural engagement, which I characterize as figurative, performative and prefigurative, respectively. In their ‘future’ imaginary, I look for ordinary people’s ways to face the absurdity of the status quo and the performativity of local struggles with the self.     

民族、语言和宗教——解读《一个青年艺术家的画像》的三个关键词

詹姆斯.乔伊斯的长篇小说《一个青年艺术家的画像》表现了作者鲜明的民族观、语言观、宗教观及其反殖民主义的态度和立场。在乔伊斯看来,爱尔兰的落后与苦难不能单方面归咎于英国殖民政策,同时必须反思爱尔兰自身的堕落。正是这种强烈的民族意识与深刻的反思精神,才使得他能够最终走向世界主义,在自我流放的文化之旅中完成一位民族作家的文化使命。     

关于文学生态学批评的一点思考

文学生态学批评是后现代批评，因此从后现代视野出发就应重新理解该批评的本质内涵，并在此基础上提出文学生态学批评应该具备的形态，即文学生态学批评的关键在于把握存在于“生态性、文学性、宗教性与政治性”四者之间的关系。     

生态信仰与社会批判——生态批评视野下的迟子建小说世界

从白山黑土走向文坛的迟子建,由于童年时代的乡村生活经历,对自然产生了独特的爱恋;在对当下社会生态与精神生态中的废墟清理的同时,她自发地形成了一种生态信仰。虽然迟子建并没有明确的社会批判倾向,但是她小说世界中对生态理念的建构与执守恰恰在客观上构成了对当下社会的批判。