Wielkie tematy literatury amerykańskiej. Tom 8: Przemoc
The Great Topics of American Literature. Vol. 8: Violence
Contributor(s): Sonia Caputa (Editor), Agnieszka Woźniakowska (Editor)
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Keywords: American literature; violence
Series: Studia literackie
- E-ISBN-13: 978-83-226-3573-5
- Print-ISBN-13: 978-83-226-3572-8
- Page Count: 154
- Publication Year: 2019
- Language: Polish
Kij i marchewka – pożywienie jako narzędzie kontroli w narracjach niewolników
Kij i marchewka – pożywienie jako narzędzie kontroli w narracjach niewolników
(Carrot and Stick – Food as a Tool of Control in Slave Narratives)
- Author(s):Urszula Niewiadomska-Flis
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Language and Literature Studies
- Page Range:11-27
- No. of Pages:17
- Keywords:food; violence; slavery
- Summary/Abstract:The aim of the article is to trace the role of food as a tool of violence in shaping the relations between white plantation owners and their black slaves in the southern states of the USA. The subject of the analysis has been the use of food in a clash of oppressive domination of white people with disobedience of black slaves, both in “white” residences and in “black” huts. Slave narratives, published after the abolition of slavery, as well as interviews with former slaves conducted in 1930s within the scope of The Works Progress Administration’s (WPA) Federal Writers’ Project serve as a corpus for the analysis of methods of using food as a tool for controlling slaves that can be traced in literature.
- Price: 4.50 €
Czy można ufać dorosłym? Przemoc w czarnych społecznościach z perspektywy dziecka Pantery. The Beautiful Struggle autorstwa Ta-Nehisi Coatesa
Czy można ufać dorosłym? Przemoc w czarnych społecznościach z perspektywy
dziecka Pantery. The Beautiful Struggle autorstwa Ta-Nehisi Coatesa
(Can Adults be Trusted? Violence in Black Communities from the Perspective of Black Panther’s Child The Beautiful Struggle by Ta-Nehisi Coates)
- Author(s):Aleksandra Hołubowicz
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Language and Literature Studies
- Page Range:29-50
- No. of Pages:22
- Keywords:Paul Coates; Black Panthers; violence against children; Afro-American culture;Bildungsroman;
- Summary/Abstract:Black people in the United States, according to the mainstream racist story, are embroiled in violence. Pop culture, and in particular the influence of Hollywood productions, in its passive audience creates a perception that African-Americans are more likely than white people to be perpetrators of crime, and evidence is cited of higher criminal records of dark-skinned individuals (proportional to population). Gang wars, drug trafficking and participation in shootings are often mentioned in the discussion of black community problems. Poverty affecting families depicted as multi-children, in which the upbringing of offspring falls in many cases on a single mother, contributes to the criminal activity of this group of people and makes them vulnerable to domestic violence. Such stereotypes, although recognized by American liberals as untrue (after all, one can mention outstanding individuals involved in the civil rights movement, such as Martin Luther King, or artists, such as actor Morgan Freeman, or President Barack Obama, to whom people from various countries, including Western liberal democracies, have particular liking) – are at the root of the furious lyrics of rappers from Public Enemy. In his book, entitled The Beautiful Struggle. A Memoir Ta-Nehisi Coates, who grew up in the days when Public Enemy became famous, describes life in a patchwork family formed by the Black Panther activist, his wife, their common children, and the offspring of the father’s previous relationships. This brilliant prose written in the language of intelligent rap becomes the starting point for addressing the issue of violence as seen through the eyes of a child. The main issue discussed in the article is an attempt to answer the question to what extent minors can count on adults when they fall victim to unpleasant incidents. In the analysis, violence experienced by adolescent members of the community has been particularly taken into account.
- Price: 4.50 €
Historia, mit amerykańskiego Zachodu, przemoc. Wojenne i rewolucyjne reminiscencje w Tetralogii Pogranicza Cormaca McCarthy’ego
Historia, mit amerykańskiego Zachodu, przemoc. Wojenne i rewolucyjne reminiscencje
w Tetralogii Pogranicza Cormaca McCarthy’ego
(History, the Myth of the American West, Violence Reminiscences of War and Revolution in Cormac McCarthy’s The Border Trilogy)
- Author(s):Joanna Wildowicz
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Language and Literature Studies
- Page Range:51-68
- No. of Pages:18
- Keywords:Cormac McCarthy; violence; myth; Borderland; revolution
- Summary/Abstract:Blood Meridian, Or the Evening Redness in the West, All the Pretty Horses, The Crossing, Cities of the Plain, which are set on the southwestern edge of America, are the volumes of the brilliant Border Trilogy by Cormac McCarthy. Although none of the novels is set in a time of great warfare or revolution, the strong repercussions of a bloody and violent era accompany the protagonists, who try to get to know and understand the South of America and Mexico, stigmatized by the memory of historical events. The Mexican War (1846–1848) and the Mexican Revolution (1910–1920) form the narrative background for this prose. Reminiscences of destructive conflicts, which carry with them barbarity, suffering and death, haunt the protagonists, not allowing them to forget the atrocities associated with war and revolution. Some are burdened with the memory of a bloody wartime past, others are affected by the mere recollections of these experiences. McCarthy in the history of Borderland exposes the feelings and emotions of people affected by turbulent historical events, combining a fictional story with history, the past with the present. All the novels go deep into American history, face its facts and myths. McCarthy, in turn, tries to present the history of his country according to historical facts, thus destroying well-functioning myths. The writer’s revisionist approach to the restless and unruly history has turned the most recognizable symbol of America, the Wild West, into an American myth, which is deprived of its own raison d’être.
- Price: 4.50 €
Pomiędzy faktem a fikcją – reportaż z Operacji „Iracka Wolność”
Pomiędzy faktem a fikcją – reportaż z Operacji „Iracka Wolność”
(Between Fact and Fiction – a Documentary “Operation Iraqi Freedom”)
- Author(s):Anna Samborowska
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Language and Literature Studies
- Page Range:69-83
- No. of Pages:15
- Keywords:mimesis; Iraq; trauma; reportage; violence;
- Summary/Abstract:Presenting facts in the most faithful way possible deprives the history of emotions, colours and turns it into a bare report. According to the principles set by New Journalism, a trend that introduced the use of literary techniques in journalistic texts, a press article should evoke in the recipient as strong an experience as possible, thanks to which s/he will be able to feel the events described, even if the price is the loss of their status of “facts”. The aim of the article is an attempt to demonstrate the way in which David Finkel, a war correspondent who witnessed the implementation of “Operation Iraqi Freedom”, builds a narration describing difficult, violent events; how he shapes, through appropriate rhetoric, the reactions of readers to the content which they receive. The methodological background of the article has been built with reference to Paul Ricoeur’s triple mimesis concept, and an additional tool for analyzing trauma in literature are the results of research by Richard McNally and Joshua Pedersen. With the aid of the aforementioned theoretical tools it is possible to show the links between the rhetoric used in the narration and the horizon of the contemporary receiver, which stimulate the reader’s experience.
- Price: 4.50 €
„Krew patriotów i tyranów”: motyw przemocy w powieściach amerykańskiego nurtu patriotyczno-konstytucjonalistycznego
„Krew patriotów i tyranów”: motyw przemocy w powieściach amerykańskiego
nurtu patriotyczno-konstytucjonalistycznego
(“The blood of patriots and tyrants”: the motif of violence in the novels of the American patriotic-constitutional trend)
- Author(s):Eric Starnes
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Language and Literature Studies
- Page Range:85-105
- No. of Pages:21
- Keywords:Revolution; Constitution of the United States; justified violence; shame;anger;
- Summary/Abstract:The article discusses the problem of violence as a specific genre of American literature – the so-called “patriotic”, or “constitutional” novels. The intention of these novels is to issue a warning against the dangers of allowing the ideas of left-wing progressives, known in these novels as ‘left-wingers’, ‘socialists’ and ‘progressives’, to be rooted in American society. According to the authors of the constitutional novels, if the left wing occupies a place in society, there is a danger that the freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States will be inhibited, and thus the constitutional rights of all Americans will have to be defended by the constitutional patriots. Violence appears to be a natural form of defence against the potential loss of any freedoms, of which the first two amendments to the United States Bill of Rights have particular value for constitutional patriots: freedom of religion and the right to keep and bear arms. The actions to defend these rights described in the novels under consideration are presented as a struggle for justice and equity. Given that the United States was built on the foundation of violence (American Revolutionary War) and that since colonial times brutal revolts have regularly accompanied life on the western border, it can be said that violence is an integral part of American national identity. The article explores the issue of violence on the western border (frontier), and also discusses selected novels referring to the subject of armed uprising against overly far-reaching government or left-wing agitators. The analysis of the phenomenon of violence in these contexts includes the theories of forensic psychiatrist James Gilligan on the causes of violence and social psychologist Thomas Scheff on shame and the cycle linking shame and anger.
- Price: 4.50 €
Nie tylko romans – przemoc w wybranych utworach Chitry Banerjee Divakaruni
Nie tylko romans – przemoc w wybranych utworach Chitry Banerjee Divakaruni
(Not Only Romance – Violence in Selected Works of Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni)
- Author(s):Iwona Filipczak
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Language and Literature Studies
- Page Range:107-127
- No. of Pages:21
- Keywords:Indian-American literature; romance; immigration; domestic violence; confrontation of cultures
- Summary/Abstract:The covers of Hindu-American writers’ novels often suggest that romance, love, happiness and success are the main themes of the works. This is a clever marketing trick to increase the sales of the books. Frequently, however, the colourful and idyllic covers hide tragic stories, marked by violence on many levels. The article analyses the problem of violence in the early works of Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. The analyses of three novels: The Mistress of Spices, Sister of My Heart and Queen of Dreams, and stories from two collections: Arranged Marriage and The Unknown Errors of Our Lives, focus on domestic violence and violence resulting from cultural differences experienced by Hindu immigrants in America. Divakaruni’s prose reveals the difficult situation of women in traditional Hindu society based on patriarchal order, and points out that oppression against women is often transferred by immigrant communities to American soil, and thus has a global dimension. The selected works show the difficulties experienced by women who want to move from the position of a victim and object in the home to the position of a subject in the public sphere. It is complicated, because for women from ethnic minorities, the private and public spheres intermingle, and without a strict separation, one cannot go beyond any of them. The second part of the article shows the situation of an immigrant - an unwanted Other who has to face up to the hatred directed against him and verify his ideas about America.
- Price: 4.50 €
Przemoc nigdy się nie zmienia: obrazy przemocy w twórczości fanów gier wideo z serii Fallout
Przemoc nigdy się nie zmienia: obrazy przemocy w twórczości fanów gier wideo
z serii Fallout
(Violence Never Changes: Images of Violence in the Work of Fans of the Fallout Video Games Series)
- Author(s):Magdalena Bednorz
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Language and Literature Studies
- Page Range:131-146
- No. of Pages:16
- Keywords:digital games; fandom; fanart; violence; meta-narration;interactive entertainment;
- Summary/Abstract:Similarly as in the case of other, numerous video games, Fallout: New Vegas employs a motif of violence treated as one of the basic ways of interacting with postapocalyptic setting of the game. The omnipresence of violence in this game also translates into numerous fan meta-arrangements, i.e forms of creative expression referring to New Vegas. The author of the article focuses on the analysis of selected examples of fan practices in English-speaking fandom centred around social media platform called Tumblr. The purpose of the analysis is to outline the characteristics of violence representations in the selected works with respect to their subject-matter, such as, for example, the relationship between violence and the psyche of the characters, and explanation strategies adopted in these works, such as parody or gap filling. The text also discusses the aesthetics of the works, often romanticizing or exaggerating the violence of the source text. The analysis of these issues is aimed at showing the transformative character of fanworks and emphasizing the role of the motif of violence in shaping both the individual and the collective experience of the game.
- Price: 4.50 €