Double-Edged Imitation : Theories and Practices of Pastiche in Literature

This study concentrates on the contested concept of pastiche in literary studies. It offers the first detailed examination of the history of the concept from its origins in the seventeenth century to the present, showing how pastiche emerged as a critical concept in interaction with the emerging conception of authorial originality and the copyright laws protecting it. One of the key results of this investigation is the contextualisation of the postmodern debate on pastiche. Even though postmodern critics often emphasise the radical novelty of pastiche, they in fact resuscitate older positions and arguments without necessarily reflecting on their historical conditions. This historical background is then used to analyse the distinction between the primarily French conception of pastiche as the imitation of style and the postmodern notion of it as the compilation of different elements. The latter s vagueness and inclusiveness detracts from its value as a critical concept. The study thus concentrates on the notion of stylistic pastiche, challenging the widespread prejudice that it is merely an indication of lack of talent. Because it is multiply based on repetition, pastiche is in fact a highly ambiguous or double-edged practice that calls into question the distinction between repetition and original, thereby undermining the received notion of individual unique authorship as a fundamental aesthetic value. Pastiche does not, however, constitute a radical upheaval of the basic assumptions on which the present institution of literature relies, since, in order to mark its difference, pastiche always refers to a source outside itself against which its difference is measured. Finally, the theoretical analysis of pastiche is applied to literary works. The pastiches written by Marcel Proust demonstrate how it can become an integral part of a writer s poetics: imitation of style is shown to provide Proust with a way of exploring the role of style as a connecting point between inner vision and reality. The pastiches of the Sherlock Holmes stories by Michael Dibdin, Nicholas Meyer and the duo Adrian Conan Doyle and John Dickson Carr illustrate the functions of pastiche within a genre detective fiction that is itself fundamentally repetitive. A.S. Byatt s Possession and D.M. Thomas s Charlotte use Victorian pastiches to investigate the conditions of literary creation in the age of postmodern suspicion of creativity and individuality. The study thus argues that the concept of pastiche has valuable insights to offer to literary criticism and theory, and that literary pastiches, though often dismissed in reviews and criticism, are a particularly interesting object of study precisely because of their characteristic ambiguity.

Investing in Africa: the WorldFish Center's African strategy in summary

Across much of Africa, freshwater and coastal fisheries provide an important source of food and livelihood for many millions of people. In addition, the aquaculture potential of the continent has only recently begun to be developed. To help sustain these capture fisheries, support the emergence of aquaculture and foster the contribution of both to sustainable livelihoods and improved food security, the WorldFish Center is increasing its investment in Africa. The framework for this investment is provided by a new Strategy for Africa and West Asia 2002-2006 that identifies priorities for the Center’s work in rivers and floodplains, lakes and reservoirs, coastal fisheries, aquaculture, policy research and capacity building. The present article summarizes the issues being addressed by the Center and describes initial research priorities.

Jung’s cultural writing: spiral essays and performing symbols (in literature)

Performance is a key ingredient of Jung’s writings on culture and of the function of the Jungian symbol in literature. This paper will compare and contrast Jung’s performance of cultural analysis and healing in his essays with the way his notion of the symbol works in literature to knit the individual psyche into the collective. It will explore Jung’s unique essay form of the spiral as a literary innovation, and look at the way a Jungian reading of literary reveals a significant contribution to cultural studies. [From the Author]

"All Have to Live in Me...": A Study of the Use of English Alongside Other African Languages in a Kenyan School

The purpose of this paper, which builds on an earlier paper published in this Journal (Vol. 20, No. 6), is to develop the discussion around how English has been taught, used and perceived in Kenya, using data gathered from a small second-level English-medium school in Kenya. The complex relationships between language and identity are at work in the everyday routines of both staff and pupils within such a context. The paper seeks to set out a clear methodology for gathering data which could help describe these relationships with more clarity while also subjecting the data to analysis informed by the growing body of research and theory that focuses on language policy in post-colonial and neo-colonial settings. Finally, these pieces of data are used as the basis of a further exploration of the implications for classroom practice in teaching English in this environment.

A.J. Raffles and Arsène Lupin in Literature, Theatre, and Film: On The Transnational Adaptations of Popular Fiction (1905-1930)

As a consequence of the accelerating technological development and the impact of cultural globalisation, the transnational aspects of the process of adaptation have become increasingly crucial in recent years. To go back to the very beginnings of the twentieth century and research the historical connections between popular literature, theatre, and film can shed greater light on the origins of these phenomena. By focusing on two case studies from turn-of-the-century crime fiction, this paper examines the extent to which practices of serialisation, translation, and adaptation of literary works contributed to the formation of a transnational market for popular culture. Ernest W. Hornung’s A. J. Raffles and Maurice Leblanc’s Arsène Lupin were the heroes of two crime series that were immediately translated, imitated, and adapted into countless theatrical plays and films all over the world. Given the resemblance between the two characters, the two franchises frequently ended by overlapping. Their ability to move from a medium to another as well as from a country to another was the result of the logic of ‘recycling, remaking, retelling’ (Brian Naremore) that guides not only the process of adaptation but also the creation of any work of popular culture.

Transnational Migrants and Transnational Spirits: An African Religion in Lisbon

Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Vol.34, n.2,pp. 253 — 269

Asian/Pacific Americans in Iowa: 2013

Demographic profile of the Iowa population Asian and Pacific Islander descent.

Foundation studies in literature

UANL

Historical Justice, Nationhood and African Americans

The intelligibility of historical justice is linked to matters of agency and causation. This article presents an account of historical justice limited to transgenerational collective agents which is immune to the agency and causation problems affecting traditional theories of diachronic justice. The novel theory is applied to the case of African Americans, to whom no reparations for past wrongs have been made up to now. When conceived as a transgenerational collective agent – i.e. as a nation–, the African Americans are shown to be owed reparations by the American polity. These reparations are deemed necessary to the goal of reconciliation and to the establishment of relations of mutual respect, which are construed as preconditions to effective distributive justice, here and now.