A Reinterpretation of The Mill on the Floss

PMLA ◽  
1972 ◽  
Vol 87 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Hagan
Keyword(s):  
Spiritual Development ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Main Subject ◽  
Her Family ◽  
Mill On The Floss

Recent interpretations of The Mill on the Floss distort the novel's emphasis in two principal ways. According to one, it is a tragedy of repression and regression; Maggie is responsible for her downfall because she is flawed by her acceptance of Kempis' philosophy of renunciation and by a fixation upon her father and brother, both of which fatally pull against her legitimate desire for wider fulfillment. According to the other interpretation, however, this desire is itself Maggie's flaw, whereas her acceptance of Kempis and her family devotion are good; thus, the main subject of the novel is not her downfall, but her spiritual development, which is climaxed by her two rejections of Stephen and her attempt to rescue Tom from the flood. Although both contain valid insights, neither of these readings is satisfactory, for each oversimplifies George Eliot's complex outlook, which presents Maggie's frustrations and her ultimate defeat as springing from both the fact that she has intense and legitimate desires for a full and rich life which Tom and Tulliver cannot comprehend, and the fact that she is, at the same time, bound to them by an equally legitimate, indeed noble, love which makes her renunciation of those desires morally necessary.

scholarly journals Existentialist Perspective: A Study of Taslima Nasrin's Novel French Lover

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (7) ◽  
pp. 177-191
Author(s):  
Savita Yadav
Keyword(s):  
Real Life ◽  
The Other ◽  
Early Age ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Indian Woman ◽  
Her Family ◽  
Existential Crisis ◽  
Cover Up

Taslima Nasrin is a liberal humanist writer who struggles for freedom and continues to stand by people who face injustice in her writings. French Lover is the story of an Indian woman who in a traditional cover-up of patriarchy is submissive, conventional, and oppressive. The novel is a portrait of a woman who efforts to subvert the patriarchal traditions and come out from the shackles of stereotypical beliefs and conventionality. Nila, the protagonist, meanders her way in real life where she breaks and goes away from the mismatched marriage and rejects the experience offered by Benoir. Nila being a strong character retains her individuality against the destructive forces that challenged her existence. She faces an existential crisis when she detaches herself from her family, her husband, and her French lover. She undergoes the subsequent trauma and her successful exit from all the hurdles makes her realize that she has an existence of her own that is distinct from all others and She is free to choose and exist authentically. Danielle, the other character subjugated by her near and dear in her very early age, disowned her relations and denied conventionality where she lives via her way.    

THE RELIC AND THE RUIN: EQUIVOCAL OBJECTS AND THE PRESENCE OF THE PAST INDANIEL DERONDA

2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 855-874 ◽  
Author(s):  
Priyanka Anne Jacob
Keyword(s):  
Vantage Point ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Her Family ◽  
Daniel Deronda ◽  
The Past ◽  
Right Hand

Early in George Eliot'sDaniel Deronda, Daniel's life is set on a decisive new path by his fleeting attraction to an object in a shop window. He is turning into a side street off Holburn Road when:his attention was caught by some fine old clasps in chased silver displayed in the window at his right hand. His first thought was that [his aunt] Lady Mallinger, who had a strictly Protestant taste for such Catholic spoils, might like to have these missal-clasps turned into a bracelet; then his eyes travelled over the other contents of the window, and he saw that the shop was that kind of pawnbroker's where the lead is given to jewellery, lace, and all equivocal objects introduced asbric-a-brac. A placard in one corner announced –Watches and Jewellery exchanged and repaired. (344; bk. 4, ch. 6)Daniel then moves across the street to avoid the shopkeeper, and it is only from this new vantage point that he notices the name “Ezra Cohen” above the window – the name he's been seeking while wandering Jewish neighborhoods in London in the hopes of reuniting his protégée Mirah with her family. He will return to the pawnshop later and become acquainted with the Cohens, eventually finding through them his mentor and Mirah's actual brother, Mordecai. Although some discussion of the silver clasps ensues, they are neither purchased nor used in the space of the novel. Still, this seemingly inconsequential trinket proves to have a long history, one that raises questions about the lingering remains of the past, the equivocality of the object, and the dispossessions that hauntDaniel Deronda.

scholarly journals Recursos genéricos de la novela de ciencia ficción de Pedro Salinas

2011 ◽  
pp. 531
Author(s):  
Fernando Angel Moreno Serrano
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Spanish Literature ◽  
The Other ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Main Subject ◽  
The Future ◽  
Points Of View ◽  
Poetic Visions ◽  
Pedro Salinas

Un análisis sobre La bomba increíble, de Pedro Salinas, es interesante porque nos permite disfrutarla desde diferentes líneas. En primer lugar, no ha sido estudiada como el resto de sus textos literarios, aunque los valores de esta pequeña obra maestra merezcan una especial atención que no ha tenido. Por otra parte, es uno de los extraños casos de novela de ciencia ficción escrita por un autor canónico español. Por último, es sorprendente cómo el poeta mostró todas sus obsesiones, miedos y visiones poéticas con una novela con el futuro como tema. Un análisis de los mecanismos de construcción empleados por Salinas –especialmente ficcionales, pero también lingüísticos y simbólicos– nos permitirá entender y, por consiguiente, disfrutar mejor la novela, así como ponerla en el lugar que le corresponde.An analysis about Pedro Salinas’ La bomba increíble: una fabulación is interesting because we can enjoy it from different points of view. In the first place, it has not been studied as the rest of his literary texts, although the values of this little masterpiece deserve a special attention that has not taken place. On the other hand, it is a strange case of the science fiction novels in Spanish literature written by a Spanish canonic author. Finally, it is amazing how the poet showed all his obsessions, fears and poetic visions with a novel with the future as its main subject. An analysis of the mechanisms of construction used by Salinas –specially the fictional ones, but also the linguistic and symbolic ones– will allow us to understand the novel and consequently enjoy it more. Thus we will be able to put it in the place where it should be.

scholarly journals A fájdalmas és az ellenálló anya

2016 ◽  
Vol 55 (1-2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Teri Szűcs
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Her Family ◽  
Central Figure ◽  
The Status

The mother is a central figure in the works of Szilárd Borbély, and she usually appears as Mater Dolorosa, the sorrowful mother. The novel Nincstelenek is exceptional in this respect, because it also presents her as the resisting mother. The novel focuses on the aggressive attribution of identities, the exclusion of those who are considered Jewish – and thus: as the Other – from the community. This process stretches over several generations. The only character in the novel whose attitude towards this violent attribution of inferior identity consciously changes is the mother. While her husband and her children are stigmatized by blood lineage, in the case of the mother Jewishness is a choice. Thus she becomes able to understand the events that befall her family, their exclusion, their poverty. She offers this insight to her husband at the end of the novel, and he finally accepts the status of the Jew, and participates in the Shabbat ritual. The peculiar practice of the mother is an attempt to grasp agency.

scholarly journals Voice from the ‘Other’: A Feminist Reading of Doris Lessing’s The Summer Before the Dark

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 142-149
Author(s):  
Murugesan M ◽  
Dr. A. K. Muthusamy
Keyword(s):  
Literary Theory ◽  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
The State ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Human Race ◽  
Her Family ◽  
Patriarchal Society ◽  
The Status ◽  
Taking Care

The concept ‘the Other’is a literary theory, which defines one’s identity among others. It explains the state of a person who is neglected or subordinated and displays how one feels as an alien by gender, caste, religion, culture, appearance, geography, ideology and so on. Doris Lessing’s novels are mostly concerned with human race and criticize the patriarchal society, where female does not get the recognition she is due. Instead of taking care of women, appreciating their talents and providing them freedom of expression and movement, the society makes them feel ‘the Other’. Lessing has crafted the novel, The Summer Before the Dark as to expose the fate of women, who are always submissive and unassertive to their husbands and children, thereby becoming insignificant to the society. This paper examines the status of Kate Brown in her family and in the society, where she is neglected and deprecated by her ungrateful husband and children by the frame of ‘The Other’/ ‘Otherness’.

scholarly journals History in the Attic: Search for Roots in Ramabai Espinet’s The Swinging Bridge

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 82-96
Author(s):  
S. Asha
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Childhood Memories ◽  
Her Family ◽  
Diaspora Literature ◽  
Caribbean History ◽  
The Past ◽  
Conflict Situations ◽  
Plural Society ◽  
New Beginnings

In most of diaspora literature there is an attempt to retrieve the past. This makes one measure time in many ways, different calendars, change of seasons, past encounters narrated through wars, defeats, encounters and disasters. It is remembered through family history, ancestral heritage, nostalgia, memory and even through national disasters. This interaction portrays the immigrants caught in flight of memories, relationships and images. The relocation has its disgust for one thing or the other. The author has to live in the reminiscences, a collective memory representing a symbolic relationship between past and present. The Swinging Bridge  by Ramabai Espinet chronicles the multiple exiles that are part of the Indian experience in the Caribbean and Canada through two figures one from the past- great grandmother Gainder and the other from the present - Mona, the protagonist. The novel commemorates the maternal roots and routes of Indo-Caribbean history by establishing the subjectivity of widows and young girls from India who crossed the Kala Pani (Black waters of the Atlantic) in search of new beginnings in Trinidad and the great-grand-daughter who engages in an existential quest for selfhood in Canada. Grief motivates a flood of personal memories as Mona begins to remember intimate details of family life that had been repressed under the cover of migration. Bits and pieces of the past, fragments scattered in various places, childhood memories, overheard conversations, prayer songs, all come together in the attic. She explores the secret songs, photographs and letters giving her a powerful voice for her culture, her family, her fellow women and for herself. Mona’s drive to document history enables her to reveal the family’s carefully guarded secrets- domestic violence, drunken rampages, sexual abuse, illegitimate children, and even AIDS. This paper seeks to analyse the novel’s diasporic contents and find out whether this attempt at retrieval of the past brings about a change in the perception of today’s generation. The author brings to light the problems of a plural society calling for need for relationships and need for mutual respect- all to avoid conflict situations through this effective tracing of history in the novel.

Margaret Mahy: An Adlerian Reading

2008 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-199
Author(s):  
KATHRYN WALLS
Keyword(s):  
Young Female ◽  
The Other ◽  
Individual Psychology ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Alfred Adler ◽  
Female Protagonists ◽  
Magical Power ◽  
Margaret Mahy ◽  
The Individual

According to the ‘Individual Psychology’ of Alfred Adler (1870–1937), Freud's contemporary and rival, everyone seeks superiority. But only those who can adapt their aspirations to meet the needs of others find fulfilment. Children who are rejected or pampered are so desperate for superiority that they fail to develop social feeling, and endanger themselves and society. This article argues that Mahy's realistic novels invite Adlerian interpretation. It examines the character of Hero, the elective mute who is the narrator-protagonist of The Other Side of Silence (1995) , in terms of her experience of rejection. The novel as a whole, it is suggested, stresses the destructiveness of the neurotically driven quest for superiority. Turning to Mahy's supernatural romances, the article considers novels that might seem to resist the Adlerian template. Focusing, in particular, on the young female protagonists of The Haunting (1982) and The Changeover (1984), it points to the ways in which their magical power is utilised for the sake of others. It concludes with the suggestion that the triumph of Mahy's protagonists lies not so much in their generally celebrated ‘empowerment’, as in their transcendence of the goal of superiority for its own sake.

KONSEP DIRI “ I “ DAN “ME” TOKOH HIROKO DALAM NOVEL NAMAKU HIROKO KARYA NH.DINI

2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 109
Author(s):  
Besin Gaspar
Keyword(s):  
Point Of View ◽  
The Other ◽  
Self Concept ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Main Character ◽  
Fictional Character ◽  
Social Customs ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Village ◽  
The City

This research deals with the development of  self concept of Hiroko as the main character in Namaku Hiroko by Nh. Dini and tries to identify how Hiroko is portrayed in the story, how she interacts with other characters and whether she is portrayed as a character dominated by ”I” element or  ”Me”  element seen  from sociological and cultural point of view. As a qualitative research in nature, the source of data in this research is the novel Namaku Hiroko (1967) and the data ara analyzed and presented deductively. The result of this analysis shows that in the novel, Hiroko as a fictional character is  portrayed as a girl whose personality  develops and changes drastically from ”Me”  to ”I”. When she was still in the village  l iving with her parents, she was portrayed as a obedient girl who was loyal to the parents, polite and acted in accordance with the social customs. In short, her personality was dominated by ”Me”  self concept. On the other hand, when she moved to the city (Kyoto), she was portrayed as a wild girl  no longer controlled by the social customs. She was  firm and determined totake decisions of  her won  for her future without considering what other people would say about her. She did not want to be treated as object. To put it in another way, her personality is more dominated by the ”I” self concept.

BKR (BADAN KEAMANAN RAKYAT): Cikal Bakal Tentara Indonesia?

Metahumaniora ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 389
Author(s):  
Widyo Nugrahanto
Keyword(s):  
Armed Forces ◽  
Civil Defense ◽  
The Other ◽  
Main Subject ◽  
Japanese Occupation ◽  
Historical Method ◽  
New Interpretation

AbstrakPenelitian ini berjudul BKR (Badan Kemanan Rakyat):Cikal Bakal Tentara Indonesia?!. Penelitian ini merupakan interpretasi baru tentang cikal bakal TNI, yang umumnya banyak merujuk pada PETA (Pembela Tanah Air). Metode penelitian yang digunakan adalah Metode Sejarah.Metode Sejarah memiliki empat tahapan yaitu Heuristik, Kritik, Interpretasi dan Historiografi.Sumber-sumber penelitian ini menggunakan koran-koran sezaman, majalah sezaman, dan buku. BKR dianggap sebagai cikal bakal TNI didasarkan beberapa sebab. Pertama, atas dasar legalitas formal, PETA telah dibubarkan sehingga BKR adalah satuan militer yang pertama kali dibentuk setelah Indonesia merdeka. BKR selanjutnya melahirkan pembentukan TKR (Tentara Keamanan Rakyat), TKR (Tentara Keselamatan Rakyat), TRI (Tentara Republik Indonesia) dan TNI (Tentara Nasional Indonesia). Kedua, jika PETA dianggap sebagai cikal bakal TNI, maka KNIL dan beberapa satuan keprajuritan diabaikan. Padahal, beberapa bekas perwira KNIL memiliki peran penting di tubuh BKR hingga TNI.Kata kunci: BKR, Tentara, TNIAbstractThe main subject this study is BKR – Indonesian civil defense corps – as origin of Indonesian Military. This study is new interpretation about the origin of TNI (Indonesian National Armed Forces) now. Many opinion refer to PETA as civil defense corps in Japanese occupation era. Study emlpoys a Historical Method, which consists of four stage: Heuristic, Critic, Interpretation, Historiography. The study utilize some sources such as newspaper, magazine, and book. Main finding of this study is PETA had dispersed as legality and formally and BKR was formed as the firts corps after Independence of Indonesia. Futhermore, BKR changed to TKR (Tentara Keamanan Rakyat), TKR (Tentara Keselamatan Rakyat), TRI (Tentara Republik Indonesia) until TNI (Tentara Nasional Indonesia). If PETA is considered as origins of Indonesian Military, then it ignore KNIL – a colonial armed forces – and the other defence corps. Even though the eks KNIL’s officer have important role in military managenment of BKR until TNI.Keywords: BKR, Military, TNI

Wacana Kolonial dalam Novel Max Havelaar: Sebuah Kajian Poskolonial

Metahumaniora ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 411
Author(s):  
Abu Bakar Ramadhan Muhamad
Keyword(s):  
Point Of View ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Colonial Discourse ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Voice

AbstrakHegemoni kolonialisme dalam budaya poskolonial merupakan alasan penelitian inikemudian mengkaji wacana kolonial dalam novel Max Havellar (MH) khususnya dampakditimbulkannya. Dampak dimaksud adalah posisi keberpihakan pemikiran tersirat darikarya tersebut. Hasil pembahasan menunjukkan, secara temporal maupun permanen MHmenyuarakan ketidakadilan dalam kondisi-kondisi kolonial menyangkut penindasan sangpenjajah terhadap terjajah. Hanya saja, upaya mengatasnamakan atau mewakili suarakaum terjajah terbukti mengimplikasikan ciri ideologis statis kerangka kolonialisme(orientalisme); yakni cara pandang Eropasentris, di mana “Barat” sebagai self adalah superior,dan “Timur” sebagai other adalah inferior. Dalam konteks poskolonialisme, MH dengan sifatkritisnya yang berupaya “menyuarakan” nasib pribumi terjajah, justru menampilkan stigmapenguatan kolonialitas itu sendiri secara hegemonik. Artinya, “menyuarakan” nasib pribumidimaknai sebagai keberpihankan kolonial yang kontradiktif, di mana stigma penguatankolonialitas justru lebih terasa, ujung-ujungnya melanggengkan hegemoni kolonial. Tidakmembela yang terjajah, tetapi memperhalus cara kerja mesin kolonial.AbstractThe hegemony of colonialism in the culture of postcolonial society is the reason this studythen examines the colonial discourse in the novel Max Havellar (MH) in particular the impactit brings. The impact in question is the implied position of thought in the work. The resultsof the discussion show that, temporarily or permanently, MH voiced injustice in the colonialconditions regarding the oppression of the colonist against the colonized. However, the effort toname or represent the voice of the colonized has proven to imply a static ideological characterin the framework of colonialism (orientalism); ie Eropacentric point of view, in which “West” asself is superior, and “East” as the other is the inferior. In the context of postcolonialism, MH withits critical nature that seeks to “voice” the fate of the colonized natives, actually presents thestigma of strengthening coloniality itself hegemonicly. That is, “voicing” the fate of the pribumiis interpreted as a contradictory colonial flare, where the stigma of strengthening colonialityis more pronounced, which ultimately perpetuates the hegemony of colonialism. No longerdefending the colonized, but refining the workings of the colonial machinery.

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