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Author

Maria José Canelo

Title of the Article

Redefining the Terms of National Belonging in War and Peace in Randolph Bourne’s Critique of the Great War

Abstract

This paper looks into Randolph Bourne’s cultural critique at the time of the United States entry into World War I. As one of the few intellectuals who opposed the war, Bourne brought into light the interdependence between war and the State: “War is the health of the State” is his phrase and has resonated ever since. He looked well beyond nationalist hysteria and economic imperialism to examine the reasons for the State to support militarism, but he also sought concrete pacifist alternatives to the U.S. intervention in the war that involved the intellectuals in particular. This paper sheds light on these alternatives based on Bourne’s anti-war writings, namely his proposals for an educational service to prepare the nation for creative rather than destructive action, and the intellectuals’ renewal of the dialogue between democracy and pacifism en route to a transnational understanding of community and belonging.

Keywords

Randolph Bourne, The Great War, pacifism, trans-nation, intellectuals, the War State

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Author

Jozef Pecina

Title of the Article

Dalton Trumbo’s Johnny Got His Gun and the Centenary of the End of the Great War

Abstract

In November 2018, the centenary of the end of “the war to end all wars” was commemorated all around the world. World War I affected millions of people and had a profound impact on literature and culture. The paper discusses Dalton Trumbo’s 1939 pacifist novel Johnny Got His Gun and its late 20th century legacy. Although the novel was published long after the war’s end, it remains one of the most powerful anti-war statements. Contrary to more famous World War I novels it does not deal with the disillusionment of the post-war generation. The story of a quadruple amputee which takes place entirely in the main protagonist’s head is a claustrophobic and nightmarish journey into the mind of a young boy trapped in himself, imprisoned in darkness. The novel
frequently fell out of favor during the 20th century but it enjoyed its share of popularity in Czechoslovakia, thanks to Trumbo’s communist sympathies.

Keywords

World War I, Dalton Trumbo, Johnny Got His Gun, anti-war novel, pacifism, nightmare

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jozef.pecina@uniba.sk

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Author

Anna Mikyšková

Title of the Article

Virgin or Wife? St Dorothy’s Legend on the Late Restoration Stage

Abstract

Although the early modern and the Restoration periods in England mark two distinct theatrical traditions, theproduction of English Restoration playwrights was to a great extent characterized by a conscious reliance on the legacy of their early modern precursors, which resulted in the high number of adaptations of old plays written and staged well into the 18th century. The canons of the two dramatic traditions are, thus, intertwined, and their parallel study provides valuable insight into the then dramatic conventions and the development of English drama in general. The present paper analyses the late Restoration adaptation Injured Virtue, or The Virgin Martyr (1714) by Benjamin Griffin and compares it with its early modern source, the tragedy The Virgin Martyr (1620) by Philip Massinger and Thomas Dekker. After addressing Griffin’s motives for choosing this particular Jacobean play, the paper discusses the most significant differences between the two texts and argues that Griffin’s alterations in the list of dramatis personae and his rhetorical transformation of the play’s main protagonists (especially that of the story’s heroine, St Dorothy) lead to the inevitable conclusion that, with the two periods in questions and their dramatic conventions being so different, not every Restoration adaptation managed to translate the early modern material successfully.

Keywords

Early modern and Restoration drama, adaptation, theatre, Benjamin Griffin, Philip Massinger, Thomas Dekker, St Dorothy, martyr, comedy of manners, dramatic decorum, rhetorical convention

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Author

Ivona Mišterová

Title of the Article

Shakespearean Adaptations for Young Adults

Abstract

Shakespeare’s plays are undoubtedly among the most frequently translated, staged, adapted—both for stage and screen—and (over/mis)quoted. His plays and sonnets are widely read and are generally considered canonical, with their appeal crossing thematic, geographical and chronological boundaries. Each generation of recipients responds to Shakespeare’s work in a different way. The present paper discusses Shakespearean adaptations which aim to encourage young recipients to engage with Shakespeare through the use of young people’s language. First, the article examines how emoticons, textual portrayals and hashtags are used to render Shakespeare’s plays in new ways. The OMG Shakespeare series, which has been both criticized and praised, represents a transformation of Shakespeare’s plays into new forms, e.g. srsly Hamlet (Courtney Carbone, 2015), YOLO Juliet (Brett Wright, 2015), Macbeth #killingit (Courtney Carbone, 2016), and A Midsummer Night #nofilter (Brett Wright, 2016).
In addition, attention will be devoted to the representations of and allusions to Shakespeare and Shakespeare’s characters in popular culture. The paper concludes by discussing how new, non-traditional interpretative choices may impact the reception of Shakespeare and his work on younger audiences.

Keywords

William Shakespeare, adaptation, appropriation, reception, SMS language, popular culture

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Author

Lilia Miroshnychenko

Title of the Article

Literature and the Post-secular: The Case of Julian Barnes

Abstract

The recently emerged post-secular literary studies is a response to what Jürgen Habermas dubs as ‘postsecularisation.’ While the definition of the term remains obscure, a post-secular criticism of literary texts overcomes this elusiveness by identifying the possible areas of scholarly interest and attempting to establish a scope of interpretive frameworks. The body of post-secular texts constantly grows, and this paper suggests yet another one, by contemporary writer, Julian Barnes, whose fiction and non-fiction contribute to the makeup of post-secular moments. The present paper takes as a focus The Survivor, the fourth chapter of A History of the World in 10½ Chapters; Nothing to be Frightened of is also considered along with the interviews with the writer. In this reading of The Survivor, based on existing interpretive models, a ‘revisionary return’ (McClure) in the life of the central female protagonist, a secular doubter, is presented as provisional and non-final. In resisting master narratives and challenging the secular/religious binary, Barnes uses postmodernist poetics and invokes the practices of Pyrrhonism, such as the suspension of judgement, or what has been called epochē. Furthermore, the literary manifestations of the post-secular are put in a broader context, as the paper also discusses ways of amplifying the theory of ‘post-secular,’ suggesting similarities between the contemporary post-secular and the
early modern, and thus emphasising the tradition of religious scepticism and doubt in English literature since the time of the Renaissance.

Keywords

post-secular literary studies, scepticism, secularisation, religious belief, Pyrrhonism, English novel

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Author

Petr Chalupský

Title of the Article

The Gift of Stories – Imagination and Landscape in Jim Crace’s The Gift of Stones

Abstract

Jim Crace is known for his compelling, parable-like stories written in rhythmic prose and for his distinctive diction, which combines poetic figurativeness with the precision of exact description. As a writer with an exceptional sense of observed detail, Crace’s narrative power lies in his ability to render places, especially various kinds of landscapes, which, in spite of their wholly fictitious character, evoke a strong feeling of plausibility and familiarity. Nevertheless, his imaginary milieux are never devoid of human experience and his stories examine the close interconnectedness between his protagonists and the places they occupy or move through. Crace likes to depict what the critics have termed “communities in transition”, i.e. groups of people who need to face up to an imminent socio-economic change and adapt to the newly emerging circumstances, which is why his fictional landscapes always reflect the protagonists’ disturbed psyches as they project into them the anxieties and frustrations that result from the process of revising and restoring the essentials of their shattered identities. The Gift of Stones (1988) not only explores such a transition, but also elaborates on the significance of making up stories in human life. This paper demonstrates how the novel’s physical environments intertwine not only with the main protagonist’s mental world but, above all, with his talent for imaginative storytelling.

Keywords

Jim Crace, The Gift of Stones, storytelling, landscape, geocriticism

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Author

Daniela Šmardová

Title of the Article

Love, the Clock Keeper: The Elusive Nature of Time in Jeanette Winterson’s Work

Abstract

Discussions on the nature of time represent a significant theme in Jeanette Winterson’s novels. The author repeatedly challenges the generally accepted notions of time as chronological and measurable by the clock and she offers alternative perceptions of temporal reality based primarily on subjective experience. The aim of this paper is to examine this alternative approach to time and discuss the ways in which the categories of the past, the present and the future are deconstructed in Winterson’s work, particularly in the novels The Passion, Sexing the Cherry, The PowerBook and The Stone Gods. This article argues that Winterson’s stories encourage the reader to withdraw from everyday distractions and turn inwards towards his/her inner self in order to see and understand these new layers of time. Moreover, Winterson repeatedly portrays love as an all-powerful force defying spatial and temporal boundaries and thus allowing the emergence of an alternative, timeless reality bound by no rules or limitations. In Winterson’s novels, it is love that determines the course of time rather than the clock. The paper discusses this special significance of love in the novels and examines Winterson’s unconventional conception of the world, one in which the mind is freed from social expectations and where time is meaningless, since different temporal layers can operate simultaneously.

Keywords

Jeanette Winterson, time, history, simultaneity, storytelling, love

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Author

Alice Tihelková

Title of the Article

Victims of Austerity or Feckless Freeloaders? The Stereotypes of the Deserving and Undeserving Poor in the Debate on Britain’s Food Bank Users

Abstract

Once a rare sight, food banks are fast becoming an established feature of Britain’s social security system, their number having increased from around a hundred in 2010 to over two thousand at present. In 2017, as many as 1.2 million emergency food parcels were given out to individuals and families, with demand continuing to grow. The unprecedented dependence of British households on donated food is a disturbing phenomenon
raising many questions not only about the government’s welfare policies but also about poverty and the poor themselves. Using framing analysis, this paper aims to explore the ways in which food bank users are portrayed in the public sphere, with special emphasis on media coverage and political discourse across the left-right spectrum. The competing depictions of food bank users are shown as a continuation of the age-old debate
on the causes of poverty and its understanding as either individual or systemic failure.

Keywords

food banks, austerity, deserving poor, undeserving poor, framing

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Author

Eman K. Mukattash

Title of the Article

“Self-Wrought Homemaking”: Revisiting the Concept of the “Home” in the Poetry of Naomi Shihab Nye and Lisa Suhair Majaj

Abstract

The study aims to investigate the changing perception of what constitutes the home in a number of selected poems by the Palestinian-American poets Naomi Shihab Nye and Lisa Suhair Majaj. As the home is constructed as a literary space rather than a physical place in their poetry, the traditionally established notion of the home as a “‘safe place’ that can exist unchanged by shifts of time or space” is refuted and is constructed as a “fertile site of contradictions demanding constant renegotiation and reconstruction.” The fixed perception of the home as a lost object in some of their poems, as well as the more realistic perception of the home as a substitute for the lost object in other poems are eventually replaced with a self-motivated realization of the need to free their perception from the essentialist categories of old and new, lost and retrieved through language. This realization on the part of the two poets is clarified by tracing, comparing and contrasting the change in the two poets’ perception of the home in a selection of their poems.

Keywords

Palestinian-American poetry, Lisa Suhair Majaj, Naomi Shihab Nye, home, substitute, process, loss, homemaking

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Author

Ayman Al Sharafat

Title of the Article

Language Planning and Policy Issues in Speeches and Addresses of the United States’ Presidents from 1789 to 1901

Abstract

This study analyzes language policy and planning (LPP) in the US through presidential communications and speeches during the period from 1789 to 1901, i.e. the period from the George Washington administration ending with the William McKinley administration. The study examines documents of 25 presidents in the target period.
It addresses the question of how LPP were understood in presidential documents during the early years of the US foundation. To examine the LPP issues which appeared on the presidential agenda, the searchable “Public Papers” archive of “The American Presidency Project” (http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/), maintained by
John Woolley and Gerhard Peters, was used. For clarifying LPP statements the study uses Wiley (1999) and Ruiz (1984) classifications. The study finds that in the examined period, conflicts of values between “national unity” and “equality” were not yet appearing in presidential communication. Discourse in the period is more closely
associated with internationalism and pluralism, i.e. nativism, Americanism, “English-only” and human rights movements were still beyond the LPP field. Language policy and planning in the oratory of the first century of the US presidency were oriented towards international relations, treaty negotiations and linguistic accommodation.

Keywords

United States, presidential speech, presidential address, language policy, language planning, LPP

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Author

Andrew L. Giarelli

Title of the Article

From Murder to Miscegenation: Mark Twain’s Nevada Newspaper Hoaxes

Abstract

Mark Twain’s 21 months as a reporter for the Virginia City, Nevada Territorial-Enterprise (1862-64) were marked by a series of hoaxes that tested even Nevada frontier journalism’s loose standards for accuracy. Close study of these hoaxes in their progression reveals Twain at work on multiple narrative frames, twinned voices, and meta-plots — the stuff of his later fiction.

Contact

Anglo-American University, Prague

andrew.giarelli@aauni.edu

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Author

Marek Gajda

Title of the Article

The Role of African American Music in E. L. Doctorow’s The March

Abstract

This paper explores the role of African American music in E. L. Doctorow’s historical novel The March (2005), with a focus on selected scenes in which this type of music occurs. It examines the emotions elicited in the protagonists as well as the atmosphere created or underlined by this music. Furthermore, it takes into account which musical instruments are employed and considers their significance in the book with regard to their symbolic meaning. It also investigates the extent to which African American music contributes to the development of the story. The name of the book refers to Sherman’s March to the Sea, which took place towards the end of the
American Civil War and when numerous former slaves were freed by Sherman’s troops. The fate of the freed slaves, however, was rather complex, which is reflected in the characteristics of the music that they perform in certain scenes. The relevance of African American Music to Doctorow’s work is highlighted by the fact that the
author himself became world-famous chiefly for his novel Ragtime (1975), whose main protagonist Coalhouse Walker is a pianist of African American origin. The character’s fictional father Coalhouse Walker senior appears as an African American banjo player in The March.

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Author

Petr Anténe

Title of the Article

Justly Forgotten or Unjustly Overlooked? Reconsidering Howard Jacobson’s Coming from Behind

Abstract

Howard Jacobson is a British Jewish writer, journalist and former professor of English literature who has authored sixteen novels, starting with his 1983 comic campus novel Coming from Behind, as well as six works
of non-fiction. In all his works, Jacobson communicates insights into a variety of cultural as well as social topics, often motivated by his own experience. While Jacobson received more credit as a writer after being awarded
the Booker Prize for his eleventh novel The Finkler Question in 2010, this recognition does not seem to have initiated a significant interest in his early writing. This paper thus aims to re-evaluate Jacobson’s first novel by
contextualizing it within the author’s oeuvre as well as in the tradition of the British campus novel. Devoting close attention to the portrayal of British Jewish identity, intertextuality, and the use of comic and satirical elements,
this article seeks to answer the question to what degree Jacobson’s debut novel laid foundations for his later fiction.

Keywords

British Jewish literature, Howard Jacobson, Coming from Behind, campus novel, comic novel

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Author

Tereza Bambušková

Title of the Article

Towards a Definition of the Victorian Ghost

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to contribute to the definition of the Victorian ghost story by defining the specific kind of ghost that is typical for the genre. It is not enough to define a ghost story through the mere presence of a ghost or a supernatural event, since that would also include other genres such as fairy tales, legends, folklore and mystery stories. Furthermore, the entities that appear in stories up to the eighteenth century are significantly different from the new kind of ghost that emerges only in the nineteenth century. In order to define the Victorian ghost, I turn to Jacques Derrida’s theory of the spectre as articulated in Spectres of Marx. I argue that the specific
characteristics he considers to be key to the spectre, most importantly its ability to destabilize both ontology and semantics, may be used to set apart the Victorian ghost from other kinds of ghosts. Furthermore, such a definition also means that events or entities which are not supernatural in nature but fulfil the same role as the Derridean spectre may be included within the definition of the Victorian ghost story, which would significantly redraw the boundaries of the genre.

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Authors

Hossein Mohseni, Kian Soheil

Title of the Article

Formable Fluidity: The Key Consequence of Information Flow in Cyberpunk Fiction

Abstract

Cyberpunk is one of the most recent subgenres to emerge in science fiction. In the represented world of this subgenre, information is the constituting element of all the flows, frameworks and interactions. Within the cyberpunk world, information exercises both fluidity and formability in its manipulations. The fluidity occurs when information manipulates different aspects of the represented world through commodifying and simulative operations, and the formability and containment of the fluidity occur when the conventional conceptualizations of aspects such as time and labor resist losing ground to simulations and its various informational manipulations. As a result, an uneasy coexistence of formability and fluidity is materialized in various aspects of the cyberpunk world, a coexistence which the present study will address as formable fluidity. Through reviewing some key works in the subgenre, the present study investigates the impact of the formable fluidity on the temporal and the occupational aspects of the presented world in cyberpunk fiction. The study assumes that due to the highly fluid and  speculative nature of information in cyberpunk fiction, time loses its durational historicity. This subgenre also favors modalities of ownership, capital and labor which have the highest level of mobility and networking, with the commitment to conventional fixities and centralities in the occupational aspects becoming contingent, unstable and temporary.

Keywords

Cyberpunk, fluidity, information, capital, occupational, temporal

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