DOCSLIB.ORG

Approaches to World Literature Weltliteraturen World Literatures

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Approaches to World Literature Weltliteraturen World Literatures Approaches to World Literature WeltLiteraturen World Literatures Band 1 Schriftenreihe der Friedrich Schlegel Graduiertenschule für literaturwissenschaftliche Studien Herausgegeben von Irmela Hijiya-Kirschnereit, Stefan Keppler-Tasaki und Joachim Küpper Wissenschaftlicher Beirat Nicholas Boyle (University of Cambridge), Elisabeth Bronfen (Universität Zürich), Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht (Stanford University), Renate Lachmann (Universität Konstanz), Kenichi Mishima (Osaka University), Glenn W. Most (Scuola Normale Superiore Pisa /University of Chicago) ,Jean-Marie Schaeffer (EHESS Paris), Janet A. Walker (Rutgers University), David Wellbery (University of Chicago), Christopher Young (University of Cambridge) Joachim Küpper (Ed.) Approaches to World Literature Akademie Verlag Cover picture: Typus orbis terrarum, copper engraving, colored, 1571. akg-images. Cover design: hauser lacour ACIP catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress, Washington D.C., USA. Bibliographic information published by the German National Library The German National Library lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de. This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, re-use of illustrations, recitation, broadcas- ting, reproduction on microfilms or in other ways, and storage in databases. For any kind of use, permis- sion of the copyright owner must be obtained. ©2013 Akademie Verlag GmbH www.degruyter.de/akademie Part of De Gruyter Printed in Germany This paper is resistant to aging (DIN/ISO 9706). ISBN 978-3-05-006271-6 eISBN 978-3-05-006495-6 Content Joachim Küpper Preface........................................................................................................................7 Jérôme David The Four Genealogiesof“World Literature”.............................................................13 Robert J. C. Young World Literature andLanguage Anxiety.................................................................... 27 Jane O. Newman Auerbach’s Dante: Poetical Theology as aPointofDeparture for aPhilology of WorldLiterature............................................................................ 39 AymanA.El-Desouky BeyondSpatiality: Theorising the Local andUntranslatability as Comparative CriticalMethod................................................................................ 59 David Damrosch GlobalScripts and the Formation of Literary Traditions ...........................................85 Vilashini Cooppan Codes for World Literature:Network Theory and the Field Imaginary..................... 103 C. Rajendran The Actualand theImagined: Perspectivesand Approachesin IndianClassical Poetics.............................................................................................. 121 Irmela Hijiya-Kirschnereit On Bookstores,Suicides, and theGlobal Marketplace: East Asia in the Context of WorldLiterature.............................................................133 6 Content Mitsuyoshi Numano Shifting Borders in Contemporary Japanese Literature: Toward aThird Vision ............................................................................................. 147 JoachimKüpper Some Remarks on World Literature.......................................................................... 167 Notes on Contributors ............................................................................................... 177 JOACHIM KÜPPER Preface: Approaches to World Literature The present volumecontains the revisedversions of papersreadatthe conference “Approaches to WorldLiterature,” generously fundedbythe German Federal Ministry of Educationand Research(BMBF), which took place at theDahlem Humanities Center andthe Friedrich SchlegelGraduate School of Literary Studies in June 2012. Both institutionsare based at theFreie Universität Berlin,Germany, and are dedicated to theinvestigation of theprinciples of culturaldynamics, as well as to an interna- tionally oriented type of comparative literary studies.1 The volumeisthe firstinaseries named“WorldLiteratures” (edd. Irmela Hijiya-Kirschnereit, StefanKeppler-Tasaki and Joachim Küpper),inwhich outstanding dissertations, “second books” written by post- doctoralresearchers, andselectedconferenceproceedings pertainingtothe topic emblematizedinthe series’ title willappearover theyears to come. Theconcept to whichthisvolumeand theseriesasawhole refer,“World Literature,” is frequently associatedwith Goethe’s name, thoughthe central figureofGerman liter- ary history did notcreate it,but ratherhelped popularizing it.Its basicidea, namely that the study of literaturewithin the limits of boundaries defined by specific languagesis largelyinsufficient, seemstobemorerelevant than everinanage of all-encompassing globalization. Present-day endeavors, however, have to go beyond the framesGoetheand his 19th century successors had in mind. They willaim at comprehending as “world literature” not only the texts produced in thelarger Mediterranean world(which reaches fromEgypt to Norway and fromPortugaltothe Euphrates, andhas ramifications com- prisingthe Americas and India); butratherintegrateintoliterary studies also East Asian literatures,especially Japaneseand Chinese. Thereseem to be twodifferentoptions of how to make suchavastcorpus of texts viablewithinliterary studies.One way is to deal withthe texts by way of translations and so-called “world literature readers.”Analternative approach consists in bringing together expertsinawiderange of national literatures, in order to focusonacross-dis- 1 For furtherinformation see:DHC: www.fu-berlin.de/en/sites/dhc; Friedrich Schlegel Graduate School: www.fsgs.fu-berlin.de/en/fsgs 8 JoachimKüpper ciplinary discussionofcertain theoretical tools andconcepts. Take,for instance, the dichotomy of fictional vs. non-fictional:Doesitexist—andifso, how is it shaped withintraditions other than theOccidental ones?Which ways of systematizingthe huge field of textualproductions and practices were developed by non-Western traditions, and how might these various modes of ordering have influencedeachother?Which are theconsequences of amorecalligraphic, or evenanideogrammicscript system on the opposition familiar in the Occidental traditionbetween text andimage?Theseand similar questions arediscussedinthe papers collectedhere. As willbeevident fromthe footnotes of many of the present articles, the discussion of “world literature in our time”has been mainly conductedinUSacademia. Hundreds of articles andsomedozenvolumes have been dedicated to thetopic overthe last thirty years. The reasons for this arenot astonishingatall.Right from its founding, theUnited States have been considering themselves apost-nation State whose constitutional basis is asecularized(Christian) universalism.Over thecenturies, theculturalhybridity of the country has increased in amost impressive way.Within aUSframework it would be dif- ficult to hold today that the literary canon consists onlyoftexts writteninEnglish—with some Classical, Romance andGermantexts added to the mix. Nevertheless, the USA—as the by farmostpowerfulactor on the international scene—are committedtoone specific idiom, namely English, and to astrictlydefined pattern of cultural normsand codes deriving fromCalvinism. It maybeseen againstthe backdropofthis constellation that discussions concerning world literature havesofar beenmarkedbyastrong tendency of countering allpossible reproachesalleging that propagatingsuchaconcept wouldbepart of an attempt to secure, or even strengthen, the dominance of Anglophone cultures in the present-day global arena. The corresponding attitude materializes in almost all publications available, namelyintheir stressingthe importance of includingtexts from non-Western, “minor” and “subaltern”backgrounds into thepanoramatobeconsidered. Frequently,the anti- hegemonic attitude reaches thepoint of conveying, in amoreorless veiled fashion,that the Classical Westerncorecanon better be excluded fromafuture study of world literature. The secondfeature characterizing the scholarly debates so far derives fromwhat I term thephase of Gramscianism in Western intellectual history.With the waning pros- pectsfor a“classical” socialist revolution, theidolofMarxbecamereplacedbyAntonio Gramsci—or rather, by his “new”theorizing of theway to be takeninorder to achieve the goal of an egalitariansociety. Gramsciheldthat, under 20th centuryconditions, the directway of expropriation is no longer possible. The revolution, thecontrol of physical as well as economicpower, has to be preceded by aprocess thatsecures thecontrol overdiscursivepower. Theway in whichasociety speaks andthinks is decisive for the way in which it evolves. Since themoreorless tacitadoptionofGramscianism as afirm groundfor Western (mainstream) intellectualdebates, politicization has become the commontrait of allof Preface 9 these discussions. There is no fieldofscholarshipthatwouldescape this tendencyto conceive thehumanities’research as abattleground, where it is all about conquering discursive terrain. One pivotalpoint of these controversies has been theconcept of identity, meaning that there is alegitimate way of self-conceptionwhich is notbound to the features of “Western,” “male,” “white,” “Judeo-Christian” and“normal” (in terms of sexual orientation). Untilnow,debates on canonhavebeenlargelyabsorbed into this all-encompassing syndromeof“identity
Load more

Recommended publications
  • ACTA KOR ANA VOL. 11, NO. 3, DECEMBER 2008: 235–269 BOOK REVIEWS Human Decency. by Kong Ji Yŏng. Translated by Bruce And
    A C T A K O R A N A VOL. 11, NO. 3, DECEMBER 2008: 235–269 BOOK REVIEWS Human Decency . By Kong Ji Yŏng. Translated by Bruce and Ju-Chan Fulton. Published by Jimoondang as part of the Portable Library of Korean Literature, Short Fiction no. 24. Oftentimes, contemporary Korean fiction takes the reader, sometimes by force, down the dark memory lane of modern Korean history. Because so many works of contemporary Korean fiction are highly referential, the reader is often enticed to consider a text’s social and political background. While this is not a unique phenomenon to Korea—works of literature from all corners of the world often deal to greater or lesser extents with pressing political and social issues—it seems striking that Korean works of fiction so frequently draw the attention of their readers to the political and social realities being depicted, and do so in a manner that come at the expense of poetic expression. Kong Ji Yŏng’s short stories, “Human Decency” and “Dreams,” included in the collection Human Decency published by Jimoondang, are both highly referential texts. Since her works are so fraught with political and social references, this review will first examine the historical context in which Kong Ji Yŏng writes, and will then examine the stories in greater detail. In the collection of essays, Twentieth Century Korean Literature , it is noted that “an important strand of thought regarding literature in 1980s Korea was that it should interrogate social concerns and articulate communal values... the eighties were, in many ways, an era of causes.
    [Show full text]
  • 6866 Intro Ug
    © Copyright, Princeton University Press. No part of this book may be distributed, posted, or reproduced in any form by digital or mechanical means without prior written permission of the publisher. INTRODUCTION What Remains of Our Loves? That Poor Socrates had only a prohibitive Demon; mine is a great approver, mine is a Demon of action, or Demon of combat. —Baudelaire, “Assommons les pauvres!” [“Let’s Beat Up the Poor!”] To parody a famous expression, “The French have no head for theory.” At least not until the upsurge of the sixties and seventies. Liter- ary theory then had its hour of glory, as if the faith of the convert had suddenly allowed it to catch up with nearly a century of foot-dragging in a split second. French literary studies were unfamiliar with Russian for- malism, the Prague circle, and Anglo-American New Criticism, to say nothing of the stylistics of Leo Spitzer, the topology of Ernst Robert Curtius, the antipositivism of Benedetto Croce, Gianfranco Contini’s crit- icism of variants, the Geneva school and the critique of consciousness, or even with the deliberate antitheory of F. R. Leavis and his Cambridge disciples. Weighed in the balance against all these original and influential movements that occupied the first half of the twentieth century in Europe and North America, the French had only Valéry’s “Poétique” [poetics]—the title of the chair he occupied at the Collège de France (1936) and an ephemeral discipline whose progress was soon interrupted by the war, and then by Valéry’s death—and perhaps the ever-enigmatic Fleurs de Tarbes by Jean Paulhan (1941).
    [Show full text]
  • Council on Religion and International Affairs
    COUNCIL ON RELIGION AND INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS Contents List Catalogued Correspondence (No series or box numbers) [14 Boxes] Series I: Individuals' Files Boxes Ia. Henry A. Atkinson l) Early files, 1923-1944 (A-Z) 1 - 35 2) Early files-Supplementary, 1923-1946 Organizational Correspondence (A-Z) 36 - 42 International Correspondence (A-Z) 43 - 44 Speeches and Articles 45 - 47 3) General Files, 1939-1953 (A-Z) 48 - 63 4) Scrapbook materials, ca. 1940-1959; Notes by the Way, a journal of an Eastern trip, 1928-1929 64 Ib. Linley V. Gordon Files, 1926-1931 65 - 69 Files, 1932-1940 70 - 73 Newsletter Writings, 1929-1935 (one volume) 73 Ic. Harry N. Holmes Files, 1924-1940 (A-Z) 74 - 78 Files, 1926-1948 (A-Z) 79 - 89 World Alliance for International Friendship Through the Churches - Annual Conventions, 1923-1942 90 - 94 Miscellaneous (A-Z) 95 - 96 Id. Richard M. Fagley Files, 1938-1945 (A-Z) 97 - 104 Files-Supplementary, 1944 (A-Z) 105 - 106 Ie. John R. Inman & G. S. Barker (Assistant Secretaries)* Files, 1922-1955 (A-Z) 107 - 114 Organizational Files (Inman), ca. 1951-1972: United Nations Association-U.S.A., Non-Governmental Organizations-U.N., United Nations, Shawnee, Conference Group, Hospitality Information Service, Miscellaneous, and Banks. 115- 124 Literature and Speech files (Inman) 125 *see also 1982 addition If. C. H. Voss Files, 1941-1948 (A-Z) 126 - 127 Files-Supplementary, 1942-1948 (A-Z) 128 - 131 Miscellaneous (A-J [No K-Z]) 132 - 134 Ig. A. William Loos 1) General Files, 1946-1950 (A-Z) 135 - 144 1 General Files, 1950-1951 (A-Z) 145 - 146 General Files, 1954-1970 (A-Z) 147 - 163 2) Policy Statements, ca.
    [Show full text]
  • Osu1199254932.Pdf (640.26
    FROM MUSE TO MILITANT: FRANCOPHONE WOMEN NOVELISTS AND SURREALIST AESTHETICS DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Mary Anne Harsh, M.A. ***** The Ohio State University 2008 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Professor Danielle Marx-Scouras, Advisor Professor Karlis Racevskis ______________________________ Advisor Professor Sabra Webber French and Italian Graduate Program ABSTRACT In 1924, André Breton launched the Surrealist movement in France with his publication of Manifeste du surréalisme. He and his group of mostly male disciples, prompted by the horrors of World War I, searched for fresh formulas for depicting the bizarre and inhumane events of the era and for reviving the arts in Europe, notably by experimenting with innovative practices which included probing the unconscious mind. Women, if they had a role, were viewed as muses or performed only ancillary responsibilities in the movement. Their participation was usually in the graphic arts rather than in literature. However, in later generations, francophone women writers such as Joyce Mansour and Suzanne Césaire began to develop Surrealist strategies for enacting their own subjectivity and promoting their political agendas. Aside from casual mention, no critic has formally investigated the surreal practices of this sizeable company of francophone women authors. I examine the literary production of seven women from three geographic regions in order to document the enduring capacity of surrealist practice to express human experience in the postcolonial and postmodern era. From the Maghreb I analyze La Grotte éclatée by Yamina Mechakra and L'amour, la fantasia by Assia Djebar, and from Lebanon, L'Excisée by Evelyne Accad.
    [Show full text]
  • A Performer's Guide to Minoru Miki's Sohmon III for Soprano, Marimba and Piano (1988)
    University of Cincinnati Date: 4/22/2011 I, Margaret T Ozaki-Graves , hereby submit this original work as part of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts in Voice. It is entitled: A Performer’s Guide to Minoru Miki’s _Sohmon III for Soprano, Marimba and Piano_ (1988) Student's name: Margaret T Ozaki-Graves This work and its defense approved by: Committee chair: Jeongwon Joe, PhD Committee member: William McGraw, MM Committee member: Barbara Paver, MM 1581 Last Printed:4/29/2011 Document Of Defense Form A Performer’s Guide to Minoru Miki’s Sohmon III for Soprano, Marimba and Piano (1988) A document submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Cincinnati in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts in the Performance Studies Division of the College-Conservatory of Music by Margaret Ozaki-Graves B.M., Lawrence University, 2003 M.M., University of Cincinnati, 2007 April 22, 2011 Committee Chair: Jeongwon Joe, Ph.D. ABSTRACT Japanese composer Minoru Miki (b. 1930) uses his music as a vehicle to promote cross- cultural awareness and world peace, while displaying a self-proclaimed preoccupation with ethnic mixture, which he calls konketsu. This document intends to be a performance guide to Miki’s Sohmon III: for Soprano, Marimba and Piano (1988). The first chapter provides an introduction to the composer and his work. It also introduces methods of intercultural and artistic borrowing in the Japanese arts, and it defines the four basic principles of Japanese aesthetics. The second chapter focuses on the interpretation and pronunciation of Sohmon III’s song text.
    [Show full text]
  • Understanding Criticism: an Institutional Ecology of Usamerican Literary Criticism
    Understanding Criticism: An Institutional Ecology of USAmerican Literary Criticism By Andrew Joseph Hines Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Vanderbilt University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in English August, 2015 Nashville, Tennessee Approved: Michael Kreyling, Ph.D. Houston A. Baker Jr., Ph.D. Dana D. Nelson, Ph.D. Jonathan Flatley, Ph.D. Copyright © 2015 by Andrew Hines All Rights Reserved ii For Keegan iii Acknowledgments Institutions and pedagogical actions play a pivotal, but often forgotten role in the development of literary criticism and theory. In some sense, the goal of this dissertation is to account for both the effects of and development of this gap in disciplinary history and in the process of doing literary criticism. Yet, if there is any genre of academic writing that is a consistent exception to this rule, it is the acknowledgments: a place where a critic tracks her encounters with institutional life and the unforgettable, invaluable actions of mentors, colleagues, and friends. Such entries are always woefully partial. Still acknowledgments remain the thing that many compose as they walk to and from campus. To imagine the ways we can give thanks to those who made the work possible is to imagine the completion of the work. Without this act of gratitude, the work could not be. I began this project as an undergraduate in the Department of English at the University of Pennsylvania. Herman Beavers introduced me to the Southern Agrarians and encouraged me to pursue how that group’s ideas impacted their literature and the literary criticism they would come to develop.
    [Show full text]
  • Curriculum Vitae Peggy Kamuf
    Kamuf Vita, 1 CURRICULUM VITAE PEGGY KAMUF Department of French and Italian University of Southern California University Park Los Angeles, CA 90089-0359 Tel.: 213-740-0101 Fax : 213-740-8058 email: [email protected] • EDUCATION B.A., French and English, Bucknell University, 1969 Ph.D., Romance Studies, Cornell University, 1975 • UNIVERSITY APPOINTMENTS 1975-80: Assistant Professor of French, Miami University. 1980-88: Associate Professor of French, Miami University. 1987-88: Visiting Associate Professor of Literature, University of California, San Diego 1988- : Professor of French, University of Southern California 1989-95: Directeur de Programme Correspondant, Collège International de Philosophie (concurrent appointment) 1991- : Professor of Comparative Literature, University of Southern California (joint appointment) 1998: Visiting Professor, Centre d’Etudes Féminines, Université de Paris 8, Vincennes- St. Denis 2001-2003: Guest Professor, Department of French, University of Nottingham, England 2001- Marion Frances Chevalier Professor of French, University of Southern California (named professorship) 2006: Visiting Professor, Centre d’Etudes Féminines, Université de Paris 8, Vincennes- St. Denis 2010- Distinguished International Fellow, London Graduate School, London, England 2015- Distinguished Visting Professor, Kingston University, London, England • GRANTS AND HONORS 1976: Sigma Chi Foundation Grant, Miami University 1978: American Council of Learned Societies, Research Fellowship 1980: Miami University Summer Research Grant 1983: Miami University Summer Research Grant 1991: Ida Beam Visiting Professorship, University of Iowa Kamuf Vita, 2 1995: Raubenheimer Distinguished Faculty Award, USC 1996-97: Mellon Dissertation Seminar in Literature and History (with Professor Marshall Cohen, Philosophy) 2002: Invited Senior Fellow, Society for the Humanities, Cornell University 2005: Colloquium grant, Albert and Elaine Borchard Foundation 2006: René C.
    [Show full text]
  • Don't Panic. the Apocalypse in Theory and Culture Ghosts in The
    Volume 6 Winter 2014-2015 Don’t Panic. The Apocalypse in Theory and Culture Failure and the Phantastikon: Ezra Pound and Apocalypse James Leveque: University of Edinburgh Contesting Capitalist Sorcery: ‘Peak Everything’ as Apocalyptic Prophecy Paul Reid-Bowen: Bath Spa University The Projection of an Ending and Systems Theory: a Sociological Reading of Apocalypse as a Genre Anita Dremel: University of Zagreb Apocalypse as Religious and Secular Discourse in Battlestar Galactica and its Prequel Caprica Diane Langlumé: University of Paris VIII Saint-Denis Ghosts in the Flesh Walking Dead April Lodge: University of Huddersfield From Hungry Ghost to Phallic Mother: Linda Lê’s Doubling of the Vietnamese Ancestor in French Exile Alexandra Kurmann: Macquarie University, Sydney ISSNISSN: 1758-2679 1758-2679 COVER IMAGE: ‘The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrha’ (1852) — John Martin (1789–1854) Volume 6 2014-15 APOCALYPSE & GHOSTS The Skepsi Editorial Board Marine Authier Melanie Dilly Rocío García-Romero Adina Stroia Honorary members Alvise Sforza Tarabochia Harriet Clements kepsi is an online research journal based in the School of European Culture and S Languages at the University of Kent (SECL) and is entirely run by research students. The aim of Skepsi’s editorial board is twofold: to honour the spirit of SECL by striving to take advantage of its unique position as a crossroads in academic studies in Europe and to become a forum for European postgraduate researchers and postdoctoral scholars by developing collective thinking processes in the context of academic research. Our title, Skepsi — which comes from the Ancient Greek ‘σεφς [skepsis]’ or ‘enquiry’ and the Modern Greek ‘σχέφς [sképsis]’ or ‘thought’ — symbolises our will to explore new areas and new methods in the traditional fields of academic research in the Humanities and Social Sciences.
    [Show full text]
  • The Pennsylvania State University
    The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School College of the Liberal Arts CONNECTING NORTH AND SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA THROUGH LITERATURE, FILM, AND MUSIC A Dissertation in Comparative Literature by Ziad Bentahar © 2009 Ziad Bentahar Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy August 2009 ii The dissertation of Ziad Bentahar was reviewed and approved* by the following: Thomas A. Hale Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of African, French, and Comparative Literature Dissertation Advisor Chair of Committee Thomas O. Beebee Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature and German Reiko Tachibana Associate Professor of Comparative Literature, Japanese, and Asian Studies Gabeba Baderoon Assistant Professor of Women‘s Studies and African and African American Studies, and affiliate faculty member of Comparative Literature Jonathan E. Brockopp Associate Professor of History and Religious Studies Mildred Mortimer Professor of French, University of Colorado at Boulder Special Member Caroline D. Eckhardt Professor of Comparative Literature and English Head of the Department of Comparative Literature *Signatures are on file in the Graduate School iii ABSTRACT An unresolved issue in African literary studies is whether North and sub-Saharan Africa are disconnected from one another, or whether they share elements that can further our understanding of the cultures from which they emerge. Since the mid-twentieth century, due to growing interest in Islam and the Arab world on the global scene, the Arab side of North African identity has been given paramount recognition. More often than not, North Africa is considered part of the Middle East rather than an integral member of an African community, although in spite of shifting political winds in recent years, the literatures that have emerged from North Africa have been firmly embedded in African literary traditions since antiquity, and share strong links with their sub-Saharan counterparts.
    [Show full text]
  • The Ever-Expanding UIC LETTER from the DEAN
    THE UIC SCRIBE Summer Edition: Vol.8 ED.2, 2013 STUDENT-ORGANIZED OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER OF YONSEI, UNDERWOOD INTERNATIONAL COLLEGE Snippets from Songdo: President Park Geun-hye SUMMER SMART CITY SONGDO & GENDER EQUALITY Must List The Ever-Expanding UIC LETTER FROM THE DEAN The Liberal Arts for International Minds ith this issue of The Scribe, we are launching a new motto for Underwood International College: “The liberal arts for international minds.” This phrase Wwill be joining our classic “Join tomorrow’s leaders at the hub of East Asia,” which will continue to be used. The new motto will be featured in our page in the Global Education section of Newsweek Asia (December 31, 2012 edition), as well as our new 2013 UIC brochure, due to hit the shelves sometime in mid-January. The idea of the “liberal arts” is particularly meaningful for universities in Asia in the twenty-first century. While a Confucian tradition does place great value on aca- demics knowledgeable in literature, philosophy, and the arts, Asia in the last century has seen an emphasis on pre-professional, career-driven higher education. Korea, in having high school students decide upon humanities/social sciences vs. science/ engineering tracks, continues this trend in early specialization with a major-focused, professionally purposeful college education, and the popularity of Business as a college major attests to this emphasis. But the liberal arts is striking back. Liberal arts has always been about the skills and tools necessary for success, rather than content, a quality much needed in our information age. Like the old saying that rightly values “teaching someone how to fish” over the gift of a fish, the liberal arts emphasizes the tools of critical thinking, close analysis, and an awareness of democratic citizenship.
    [Show full text]
  • Zusas Occasional Papers
    ZUSAS OCCASIONAL PAPERS Herausgegeben vom Zentrum für USA-Studien der Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg Heft 5 WERNER SOLLORS “Making America”: On A New Literary History of America Halle (Saale): Zentrum für USA-Studien, 2011 Bibliographische Informationen der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliographie; detaillierte bibliographische Daten sind im Internet über http://dnb.d-nb.de abrufbar. ZUSAS Occasional Papers ISSN 1867-2191 Sollors, Werner. “Making America”: On A New Literary History of America. Layout: Carsten Hummel © 2011 Zentrum für USA-Studien der Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg 06099 Halle (Saale) Germany http://www.zusas.uni-halle.de Druck: Reprocenter GmbH Halle (Saale) 5 “Making America”: On A New Literary History of America 1 The number of people who have read a single literary history from cover to cover may be smaller than the number of literary histories that have been published. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, such histories became popular, providing information about the lives, works, reception, and influ- ence of single authors, facts that were strung together chronologically in the form of long narratives that employed a limited number of available story lines, such as growth or decline, a golden age, a transitional period or a renaissance, lonely figures and literary movements, avant-garde and epigonal works, major and emergent voices, or currents and eddies coming together to form a main stream. Such reference works have been less often read than consulted by students who wanted to catch a quick glimpse of authors, works, movements, or periods in their historical contexts.
    [Show full text]
  • Yp001 003 「人文自然第5号」 0（横・目次）.Indd
    What Border Are They Crossing? ― A Few Sociolinguistic Issues with Foreign-born Writers of Japanese Li Jiang（李 絳） Since LEVY Hideo（1） made his debut with A Room Where the Star- Spangled Banner Cannot Be Heard in 1992, writers originally from other cultures writing in Japanese not only emerged, but have been rapidly increasing in number. That writers write in a language they have not grown up speaking is a widespread global phenomenon, and Japanese is by no means the only language that has witnessed it. However, so far, most of the writers writing in a so-called second or ʻforeignʼ language write in Western languages, such as English, French, or German. The fact that foreign-born writers are writing in Japanese indicates not only a linguistic and cultural influx, but also a communicative transflux between Japan and other parts of the world. Unfortunately, a satisfactory term has not yet been coined to denote these writers. I hasten to point out that personally, I do not automatically assume such a term is necessary. Writers of English who did not grow up speaking the language, like the literary masters Joseph Conrad and Vladimir Nabokov, or like the more recent Yiyun Li and Ha Jin, have not been put into a category that indicate they were/are not native speakers of English. It seems even more natural, for better or for worse, to read- ers of English-language literature that writers originally from former What Border Are They Crossing? 347 British colonies like Salman Rushdie, Ben Okri, and Michael Ondaatje should be writing in English.
    [Show full text]