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Victims or villains? Open verdicts in Crime na Calle Relator

Sara Brandellero

in On a Knife-Edge: The Poetry of João Cabral de Melo Neto

This chapter studies João Cabral's collection Crime na Calle Relator (1987), giving particular attention to the poet's treatment of crime narratives and his use of anecdotal material. It gives ... More

This chapter studies João Cabral's collection Crime na Calle Relator (1987), giving particular attention to the poet's treatment of crime narratives and his use of anecdotal material. It gives particular consideration to how the collection deals with questions of culpability through a consistent disruption of rigid categorizations, particularly significant in the light of the political climate of post-dictatorial Brazil in which Cabral was writing. Borrowing critical approaches proposed by New Historicism theory, the chapter goes on to discuss Cabral's incursions into Brazilian history and the manner in which, through anecdotal narratives, official historical accounts are debunked, reflecting the poet's unwavering postcolonial perspective.Less

Appropriation and Resistance

James V. Wertsch

in Mind as Action

This chapter looks at a set of metaphors mainly in connection with written and spoken texts. This means that when considering the issue of whether one is operating in one's own or another's space, ... More

This chapter looks at a set of metaphors mainly in connection with written and spoken texts. This means that when considering the issue of whether one is operating in one's own or another's space, the concern is with whether one is operating with one's own or with the other's language, narrative, “social language” or other form of textual space. An example involving the production and consumption of historical accounts about a nation-state is reported. The chapter uses an episode from Estonian history as the focus of the analysis. This is the events surrounding the incorporation of Estonia into the Soviet Union in 1940. The historical accounts that were officially taught and learned in schools and promulgated through other institutions such as the popular media during the Soviet era rather than those that have emerged after independence are also addressed. Some elements of contextual variability associated with the use of cultural tools are presented. The notion of appropriation through various phases are elaborated and reformulated.Less

Narrativist History in the Poststructuralist Mode

in On the Future of History: The Postmodernist Challenge and Its Aftermath

For one group of scholars, poststructuralist postmodernism's influence on history came in the context of a long-standing debate: the one about the role of the narrative in history. The key issue in ... More

For one group of scholars, poststructuralist postmodernism's influence on history came in the context of a long-standing debate: the one about the role of the narrative in history. The key issue in the debate was the historians' insistence on a strict separation of historical from fictional accounts (in modern terms, of historiography from literature). Aristotle's dictum that poetics was superior to history because it treated general rather than specific human situations has reverberated throughout the centuries. Historians would protest that the dictum was at least half wrong. In the nineteenth century, the so-called literary historians considered language to be the neutral medium in which findings about the past were symbolically expressed. Via style, language was granted a limited active role in constructing historical accounts.Less

Introduction and historical background

Joel Bernstein

in Polymorphism in Molecular Crystals

This chapter provides a general introduction to the topic. It provides definitions of terms used by practitioners (e.g., polymorphism, solvates, hydrates, pseudopolymorphism) and conventions for ... More

This chapter provides a general introduction to the topic. It provides definitions of terms used by practitioners (e.g., polymorphism, solvates, hydrates, pseudopolymorphism) and conventions for naming polymorphs. Following a foray into the statistics of the occurrence of polymorphism, the criteria for determining if a material is polymorphic are presented, and then a survey of the historical and modern literature sources of examples of polymorphic systems. The latter part of the chapter consists of an historical account of polymorphism, dating from its discovery in the early 19th century to modern times. It closes with an account of the commercial and industrial importance of polymorphism.Less

Non‐finite Forms, Periphrases, and Autonomous Morphology in Latin and Romance 1

Nigel Vincent

in Morphological Autonomy: Perspectives From Romance Inflectional Morphology

This chapter considers the place of ‘pure’ morphology in the analysis of periphrastic members of paradigms, making particular reference to the Latin participles in ‐urus, ‐tus, and ‐ns and their ... More

This chapter considers the place of ‘pure’ morphology in the analysis of periphrastic members of paradigms, making particular reference to the Latin participles in ‐urus, ‐tus, and ‐ns and their subsequent history in Romance. We conclude that in most cases, even at late historical stages, a compositional analysis is available if the right theoretical tools are deployed, and consequently that the role of autonomous morphology in periphrasis is severely restricted.Less

The History of the Future: Spenser’s The Faerie Queene and the Directions of Time

J. K. Barret

in Untold Futures: Time and Literary Culture in Renaissance England

This chapter presents a reading of Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene. It argues that Spenser’s poetry unsettles the credibility of both historical account and consequence, serving as a hinge between ... More

This chapter presents a reading of Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene. It argues that Spenser’s poetry unsettles the credibility of both historical account and consequence, serving as a hinge between an inaccessible past and an unknown future. The poem’s presentation of history and prophecy emphasizes the unstable aspects of both while the present gives shape to gaps and missing links. Through his treatment of time, Spenser foregrounds England’s simultaneous awareness of a lack of access to its own past and its overwhelming desire to aggrandize its origins. The poet manipulates familiar devices like prophecy and providential patterning to emphasize contingency over inevitability, thus illustrating that he does not merely report the past, but also plays a significant role in creating it.Less

The Metanarrative Controversy

in On the Future of History: The Postmodernist Challenge and Its Aftermath

Since the 1980s, the term metanarrative has replaced the formerly used phrase philosophy of history. The prefix meta (Greek for beyond) indicated a narrative that overarched other narratives. Like a ... More

Since the 1980s, the term metanarrative has replaced the formerly used phrase philosophy of history. The prefix meta (Greek for beyond) indicated a narrative that overarched other narratives. Like a philosophy of history, it linked smaller historical accounts together to a single narrative that stretched over long periods of time, if not all of history. Yet the use of the term metanarrative indicated more than a mere change in terminology. It signified the ascendancy of a way to make sense of history in accord with the postmodernist concept of truth. Philosophers of history had seen their task as the discovery of the overall meaning inherent in past events by discerning the permanent structures and forces at work in them. Metanarratives were seen, like all concepts and narratives, as linguistic constructs, which disclaimed any link to objective schemes of order and meaning. Such a link was blamed for all claims to a privileged position, illegitimate in terms of the poststructuralist postmodernist concept of truth.Less

Silk and steel

Shahin Shah

in Re-Imagining Contested Communities: Connecting Rotherham through Research

This chapter features pictures produced by the author. They were commissioned in response to the ‘Imagine’ project's focus on the histories and cultures of Rotherham, particularly around the themes ... More

This chapter features pictures produced by the author. They were commissioned in response to the ‘Imagine’ project's focus on the histories and cultures of Rotherham, particularly around the themes of ‘silk and steel’. Furthermore, they offer a historical account of what it was like to come to the UK, but they also depict: a felt and embodied response to the hardships and loneliness of a young bride coming to the UK; the experience of a British Asian man working in the steel mills; a suitcase filled with special memories; and the visceral experience of racism for a young child. Taken together, these images are living history. The chapter describes them here in the context of the author's life in Rotherham.Less

A history of cognitive rehabilitation

George P. Prigatano

in The Effectiveness of Rehabilitation for Cognitive Deficits

This chapter provides a brief history of cognitive rehabilitation. It reviews how brain injuries sustained in war have provided great stimulus ... More

This chapter provides a brief history of cognitive rehabilitation. It reviews how brain injuries sustained in war have provided great stimulus both to the theoretical foundations of neuropsychology, and to some of the early formulations of the process of rehabilitation. Historical accounts are always shaded by the perspective of the historian who recounts past events: thus multiple perspectives are needed when attempting to obtain an accurate history of cognitive rehabilitation.Less

The Private Life of the Prime Minister? Politics, Drama and Documentary in Pääministeri and Palme

Anneli Lehtisalo

in Nordic Genre Film: Small Nation Film Cultures in the Global Marketplace

Palme and Pääministeri can be considered exceptional films in their respective national contexts. Politics and public figures have not been a typical subject for contemporary feature films in Sweden ... More

Palme and Pääministeri can be considered exceptional films in their respective national contexts. Politics and public figures have not been a typical subject for contemporary feature films in Sweden or in Finland, although similar topics have thrived in Anglo-American media culture. Films like The Deal (UK, 2003), Looking for Fidel (USA, Brazil, 2004), The Queen (UK, France, Italy, 2006) and Margaret (UK, 2009) have depicted the political past and present by portraying the experiences or actions of known politicians in different generic modes, such as documentary dramas, documentaries and fictional biographical films. The film Palme differentiates itself in the Swedish context with its extremely controversial main character and sensitive topic. In Finland, as well, politicians have rarely been depicted in recent years. The documentary drama Pääministeri exemplifies such Finnish films. Although the docudramatic mode was not unprecedented in Finland, Pääministeri exemplified a new, international trend in television production by depicting a dramatised account of a living person and a relatively recent political incident.Less

How to Tell a Story That Might Prevent a Hanging: Mary Blandy, Parricide, 1752

in Riding the Black Ram: Law, Literature, and Gender

This chapter explores three published accounts of the 1752 trial of Mary Blandy for the murder of her father: William Roughead's The Trial of Mary Blandy (the trial narrative, published in Notable ... More

This chapter explores three published accounts of the 1752 trial of Mary Blandy for the murder of her father: William Roughead's The Trial of Mary Blandy (the trial narrative, published in Notable English Trials in 1914); Henry Fielding's Examples of the Interposition of Providence in the Detection and Punishment of Murder (1752); and Mary Blandy's Miss Blandy's Own Account of the Affair Between Her and Mr. Cranstoun (1752). The juxtaposition of the three narratives discloses the official investment in certain privileged narratives of authority and the still-powerful influence of the religious in the construction of the nomos. Those concerns are also shared by Fielding's story of God's intervention in securing Mary's apprehension. Even Mary's own narrative romanticizes the same set of ideological beliefs, despite its insistence on her innocence.Less

The “Children of the Sea” Uncovering Images of the Botpippel Experience in Caribbean Art and Literature

Lizabeth Paravisini-Gebert and Martha Daisy Kelehan

in Displacements and Transformations in Caribbean Cultures

This chapter discusses and tries to uncover multiple meanings and alternative historical accounts implicit in paintings and literature that depict the ordeals of the Haitian “boat people” in their ... More

This chapter discusses and tries to uncover multiple meanings and alternative historical accounts implicit in paintings and literature that depict the ordeals of the Haitian “boat people” in their trans-Caribbean crossings. It investigates how Haitian painters have developed an iconography to create history paintings that seek to synthesize onto canvas one of the salient experiences of Haitian history, and how these images are echoed in Caribbean literature.Less

Conclusion: Reading Hannah Crafts in the Twenty-First Century

Tess Chakkalakal

in Novel Bondage: Slavery, Marriage, and Freedom in Nineteenth-Century America

This concluding chapter turns to a new, yet old, slave fiction: Hannah Crafts' The Bondwoman's Narrative(2002). According to its editor, the novel was written by a female fugitive slave in the 1850s, ... More

This concluding chapter turns to a new, yet old, slave fiction: Hannah Crafts' The Bondwoman's Narrative(2002). According to its editor, the novel was written by a female fugitive slave in the 1850s, though it was never published during the author's lifetime. The book's gripping, visceral depictions of slave life and an escape to the North are familiar to readers of the slave narratives. From here, the chapter returns to the tension between history and fiction that was raised in the introduction. By doing so, the chapter considers Crafts' novel not as historical fact but as a slave fiction, a form that presents experience through the eyes of a slave. This perspective, fictional though it may be, offers readers today insights into the past that was not, for various reasons, contained by historical accounts of slavery.Less

The Unlawfulness of Enslaving Humans

Thomas Clarkson

in Early Evangelicalism: A Reader

This chapter presents excerpts from Thomas Clarkson's An Essay on the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species, Particularly the African (1786). In 1785, Clarkson won the Latin prize for an essay ... More

This chapter presents excerpts from Thomas Clarkson's An Essay on the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species, Particularly the African (1786). In 1785, Clarkson won the Latin prize for an essay writing competition that tackled the topic: “Is it lawful to enslave the unconsenting?” To answer the proposed question, Clarkson studied the Atlantic slave trade, reading books on the subject such as the Quaker Anthony Benezet's Historical Account of Guinea (1771). Clarkson's research for this essay changed the course of his life. After winning the competition, Clarkson experienced conversion, gave up his quest to become a clergyman, and dedicated his life to ending the slave trade. His Essay on the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species significantly led to a formal anti-slavery lobbying committee spearheaded by William Wilberforce.Less