scholarly journals The Survival of the Unfit

Daedalus ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 150 (01) ◽  
pp. 134-146
Author(s):  
Wai Chee Dimock
Keyword(s):  
Single Individual ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Contemporary Novel ◽  
Theory Of Evolution ◽  
Herbert Spencer ◽  
Testing Ground ◽  
Poisonwood Bible ◽  
Survival Of The Fittest

Is there room for weaklings in Darwin's theory of evolution? The “survival of the fittest”–that muscular phrase taken from Herbert Spencer–would seem to suggest not. A more nuanced and counterintuitive picture emerges, however, when fitness is remapped: as a form of mutuality between the human and the nonhuman, rather than an exclusively human attribute vested in a single individual. I explore that possibility in the contemporary novel, a genre evolving steadily away from its Victorian antecedent, and circling back to the epic to reclaim an elemental realism, alert to the reparative as well as destructive forces of the nonhuman world. In Barbara King-solver's The Poisonwood Bible and Richard Powers's The Overstory, these nonhuman forces turn the novel into a shelter for disabled characters, granting them a testing ground and a future all the more vital for being uncertain.

scholarly journals A STUDY OF RELENTLESS SEARCH OF UTOPIA IN THOMAS HARDY’S TESS OF THE D’URBERVILLES USING JACQUES DERRIDA’S THEORY OF DECONSTRUCTION.

2020 ◽  
pp. 12-17
Author(s):  
Milind Solanki
Keyword(s):  
The Novel ◽  
Minor Characters ◽  
Darwinian Theory ◽  
Origin Of Species ◽  
Theory Of Evolution ◽  
Tess Of The D'urbervilles

This paper aims to read Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urberviless in the light of Jacques Derrida’s Theory of Deconstruction, Darwinian Theory of Evolution in his book on the Origin of Species and each character’s search of Utopia in the entire novel. All the major characters have been taken in the novel as well as some of the minor characters also to study the novel in a better in a detailed manner.

scholarly journals 'Always think of the objects': Ekphrasis as aesthetics in the contemporary novel

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Lucy Eleanor Alston
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Infinite Jest ◽  
Contemporary Novel ◽  
Critical Attention ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Temporal Qualities

<p>It is a commonplace that ekphrasis – the description in literature of a visual work of art – brings to the fore questions of representation and reference. Such questions are particularly associated with the ‘postmodern’; ekphrasis is thus often subsumed under the category of metafiction. There has been little critical attention, however, to how the ekphrastic mode might be understood in aesthetic terms. This thesis considers the nature of ekphrasis’s referential capacity, but expands on this to suggest a number of ways in which the ekphrastic mode evinces the aesthetic and ontological assumptions upon which a text is predicated. Two case studies illustrate how the ekphrastic mode can be figured to different effect. In comparing these two novels, this thesis argues that the ekphrastic mode makes clear the particular subject-object relations expressed by each. If Lukács is correct in asserting that the novel mode expresses a discrepancy between ‘the conventionality of the objective world and the interiority of the subjective one’, ekphrasis provides a fruitful but under-explored avenue for critical inquiry because, as a mode, it is situated at the point at which subject and object must converge. The first chapter of this thesis is concerned with Ben Lerner’s Leaving the Atocha Station (2011), a novel that includes both traditional ekphrastic descriptions and embedded photographs and references to critical theory that function ekphrastically. David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest (1996) provides a contrast: the novel makes continued reference to film – a medium defined by its temporal qualities – but as used in the novel the ekphrastic mode implies a fixed, ahistorical schema. The implications that such differences have on the novel mode and critical discourse are explored in the final section of the thesis.</p>

First Study

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Nikhil Govind
Keyword(s):  
Young Woman ◽  
Capital Punishment ◽  
Ethical Dilemmas ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Contemporary Novel ◽  
Television Media ◽  
Cultural Historian

The first chapter discusses the path-breaking contemporary novel Hangwoman (2016) written by K. R. Meera, and translated by cultural historian J. Devika. The novel focalizes the ethical dilemmas of capital punishment through the perspective of a young woman, Chetna. Chetna inherits the gruesome profession—however, the new factor is the presence of a sensationalist television media, which reduces what should have been a moment of crime and pathos to a lurid search for commercial visibility. The chapter allows the book to foreground the questions of injustice and ethics as they interact with the gendered perspective of a subaltern young woman. The notion of subjectivity finds an opening and horizon within these difficult questions of private shame and a determination to make one’s way in a hard and unforgiving world.

Mathematical contributions to the theory of evolution. VIII. On the correlation of characters not quantitatively measurable

1900 ◽  
Vol 66 (424-433) ◽  
pp. 241-244 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
A Priori ◽  
Coat Colour ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Theory Of Evolution ◽  
Theoretical Part ◽  
Thoroughbred Horses ◽  
Eye Colour

1. In August last I presented to the Society a memoir on the inheritance of coat-colour in thoroughbred horses, and of eye-colour in man. This memoir, which was read in November of last year, presented the novel feature of determining correlation between characters which were not capable à priori of being quantitatively measured. The theoretical part of that memoir was somewhat brief, but I showed by illustrations that the method could be extended to deal with problems like the effectiveness of vaccination and of the antitoxin treatment in diphtheria.

scholarly journals THE AESTHETIC OF INTERTEXTUALITY IN THE ARAB FEMINIST NOVEL"WOMEN IN HELL" BY " AICHA BENNOUR"AS MODEL

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 483-492
Author(s):  
Rabiaa HLITIM ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Research Work ◽  
Arab Women ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Literary Production ◽  
Contemporary Novel ◽  
Flexible Form ◽  
Holy Quran ◽  
The Holy Quran ◽  
Historical Writings ◽  
The Aesthetic

The corpus of the novel, through its different components and structures, has focused on the mechanism of intertextuality considering that the novel is the literary type that is most capable of absorbing different texts and reshaping them in its discourse, it therefore remains the most open and flexible form. The contemporary novel does not stand out if it is not bound up with variable discourses and various types of religious and historical writings. In this research work, we have tried to study the aesthetics of intertextuality in the Arab feminist novel, taking as an example the novel by " Aïcha Bennour" "Women in Hell ". This contemporary writer has taken the Holy Quran, history and literary production as a reference for her writings in order to express the Arab women′s suffering.

scholarly journals Lords of Terrorism in the Contemporary Novel: أرباب الإرهاب في الرواية المعاصرة

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammed Ahmed Abu Adel
Keyword(s):  
Common Ground ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Contemporary Novel ◽  
And Control ◽  
Western Media

This paper explores the psychological secrets of the terrorist character in the novel “Confessions of a Terrorist”, which rebels against the stereotypical view which is unable to grasp and control the phenomenon of terrorism to eliminate it, or at least reduce its dangers. This novel has a unique view of the character of the terrorist which is showed through a new and different perspective. The novelist tries to expose the failure of traditional strategies that are ineffective in stopping the growth and spread of terrorism. The language of excessive violence in dealing with terrorists, its use under the pretext of getting rid of the opponents and the lack of sincere intention are counterproductive, usually forgetting the language of dialogue as a means to finding a common ground to find a solution. This novel differs from the books and novels published in non-Arabic languages because it adopts a neutral and non-politicized view. Western societies need to know the reality of terrorism revealed by the novel. The reason is that these societies are prejudiced by western media films and what they hear and watch on TV. Therefore, this paper is keen to truly examine the ideological content that the novel poses for this kind of terrorism. - The paper is divided into three main axes: 1. Arab Terrorist from a westerner standpoint. 2. Western terrorism from the standpoint of an Arab Terrorist.3. Culture of dialogue and tolerance.

scholarly journals PHILOSOPHICAL AND GENOLOGICAL FEATURES OF ENGLISH POST-POSTOMODERNISTIC NOVEL: TYPOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (16) ◽  
pp. 150-159
Author(s):  
Dmytro Drozdovskyi
Keyword(s):  
Point Of View ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Contemporary Novel ◽  
English Novel ◽  
World Outlook ◽  
Psychological Point ◽  
First Time

The philosophical parameters of English post-postmodernistic novel have been determined. The influence of non-literary factors on the features of the novelistic chronotope and the worldview of characters has been described. The genre nature of the post-modernistic novel has been outlined. For the first time in Ukrainian literary studies, an array of features that makes it possible to determine the affiliation of the novel to post-posmodernism has been proposed. The experience of Dutch theoretical school in understanding the metamodernistic art has been generalized and the theory of metamodernism has been supplemented. Characterized by the peculiarities of world perception, post-postmodernistic thinking, which at the same time unites such features as irony and sincerity, has been explored. Besides, the specificity of autistic thinking has been spotlighted, which makes it possible to visualize the nature of the post-postmodernistic world outlook grounded on the principles of science, the pursuit of objectivity and emotional sincerity. From the psychological point of view, the concept of the multifaceted reality as one that denotes the perception of the characters of the contemporary novel has been explained. The genre and narrative features of English novel of 2000-20100s have been determined by the influence of the results of astrophysical and biological discoveries that have an impact on the structure of the narrative and actualize the spectrum of philosophical problems inspired by the views of F. Nietzsche, the discourse of multiculturalism in the thematic field of contemporary English novel.

Patterns of Binary Oppositions in Yousef Al-Mohaimeed’s Wolves of the Crescent Moon

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Laila M. Al-Sharqi
Keyword(s):  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Driving Force ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Contemporary Society ◽  
Narrative Strategies ◽  
Binary Opposition ◽  
Cultural Changes ◽  
Contemporary Novel ◽  
Binary Oppositions

Yousef Al-Mohaimeed’s Wolves of the Crescent Moon is a rich contemporary novel that deploys several effective narrative strategies and themes. Binary oppositions provide the novel’s most unifying thread. This paper examines how binary opposition is used as a structural device in the novel to explore the interplay between modernity and culture in Saudi Arabia by challenging previously unquestioned aspects of life in the contemporary society. The paper focuses on the manner in which binary oppositions inform the novel’s rhetoric of displacement, which becomes a driving force determining variation in values and notions within the privileged elite. Corresponding cultural changes emerge from this elite set, whose members pursue modernity in an exclusionary manner in their rapid assimilation into modernization. They appear incapable of understanding indigenous members of Saudi society who adjust less rapidly and who perceive changes in norms and traditions as evidence that the elite regard them as inferior ‘Others’.

scholarly journals Language and the novel in globalization

2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (16) ◽  
Author(s):  
João Cavalcanti Nuto
Keyword(s):  
The Novel ◽  
Cultural Issues ◽  
Contemporary Novel ◽  
Ferdinand De Saussure ◽  
Structural Linguistics ◽  
Theory Of Language ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
Globalized World ◽  
The Relationship

This essay approaches linguistic and cultural issues associated with globalization, language and the novel in order to demonstrate how the novel as a literary genre can express the tensions of globalization. The main theoretical basis is Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory of language and the novel. Concerning language the paper recalls the discrepancy between the linguistic thought of Bakhtin’s circle and the structural linguistics by Ferdinand de Saussure, emphasizing that a linguistic based on utterance enables a suitable link between structural system and society. The paper explains the difference between centripetal and centrifugal forces of language, according to Bakhtin and their relationship with globalization. It also explains Bakhtin’s concept of the novel, stressing the relationship of the genre as a dialogic plurality of discourses, in order to demonstrate how suitable the novel is to express the globalized world. Theories of globalization are confronted and the problems related to globalization are exposed. Following Milton Santo’s thought, the paper refl ects on the possibility of another globalization, not only expansive, but also integrative. By commenting the cultural situation of certain writers and their attempts to express it, this essay combines Bakhtin’s thought with theories of globalization in order to point out possible responses of contemporary novel.

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