Klaus Stierstorfer

Rüdiger Ahrens

Symbolic representation is a crucial subject for and a potent heuristic instrument of diaspora studies. This special focus inquires into the forms and functions of symbols of diaspora both in aesthetic practice and in critical discourse, analyzing and theorizing symbols from Shakespeare to Bollywood as well as in critical writings of theorists of diaspora. What kinds of symbols and symbolic practices, contributors ask, are germane to the representation, both emic and etic, of diasporics and diasporas? How are specific symbols and symbolic practices analyzed across the academic fields contributing to diaspora studies? Which symbols and symbolic practices inform the academic study of diasporas, sometimes unconsciously or without being remarked on? To study these phenomena is to engage in a dialogue that aims at refining the theoretical and methodological vocabulary and practice of truly transdisciplinary diaspora studies while attending to the imperative of specificity that inheres in this emerging field. The volume collects a range of analyses from social anthropology, history and ethnography to literary and film studies, all combining readings of individual symbolic practices with meta-theoretical reflections.

[Special Focus – Symbols of Diaspora]

Symbolism 14

Yolanda Caballero Aceituno

Primavera Cuder

The early modern period in Britain was considered as instrumental in the formation of English identities. It has only recently been discovered that the conflicting influences of aliens and foreigners on this process have been highlighted. These 'others' were initially approached by the Saidian post-colonial analysis. The early modern episteme was read as an anticipation of the imperial mind: the English representing themselves in a certain way to further their (proto-) imperial aspirations. Yet, recent work has demonstrated the weaknesses of this approach, as early modern England, at least until the late 16th century, was very far from an expanding nation. Nabel Matar has convincingly explained how, for example, the relation of the early modern English with the Muslim other cannot be interpreted from the misconception of English colonial aspirations, since the 16th and 17th century Ottomans, Persians or Moroccons were as powerful as the English themselves. Consequently the texts dealing with these issues must be read from a new perspective, taking into consideration the conflicting (re-) productions of these others, who will simultaneously be absorbed and rejected, attracted and repelled. The essays contained in this volume develop these ideas from a variety of critical perspectives . Although most of the texts analysed are theatrical, other types of texts (such as narratives, historical accounts or even opera) will also be explored. Many of the essays are, to a greater or lesser extent, informed by cultural materialist and cultural semiotic (i.e. Lotmanian) criticism, although some other approaches are also taken into consideration.

Attraction, Rejection, Symbiosis

The Construction of the Other in Early Modern Britain

Die Beiträge dieses Sammelbandes, die auf eine gleichnamige Konferenz im Juni 2002 an der Universität Würzburg zurückgehen, behandeln die Probleme der Europäischen Sprachenpolitik aus verschiedenen Perspektiven. Zum einen wird die Europäische Dimension dieser für die Europäische Union hochbrisanten Frage aus dem Blickwinkel der Europäischen Kommission und der Mitgliedsstaaten betrachtet. Zum anderen werden die regionalen Aspekte und die Funktionen der Sprache, insbesondere des Englischen, auf der kommunikativen Ebene, der bildungspolitischen, juristischen, arbeitspraktischen und sprachenpolitischen Ebene analysiert. Insbesondere werden auch neueste neurophysiologische und behavioristische Forschungsergebnisse mit Bezug auf den Spracherwerb einbezogen. Auch der frühe Fremdsprachenerwerb wird im Gegensatz zum Muttersprachenerwerb ausführlich behandelt. Den Band schließt die "Würzburger Erklärung zur Europäischen Sprachenpolitik" ab, in der sich die Experten einvernehmlich für den Ausbau der Plurilingualität in der Europäischen Union aussprechen. Den Beiträgen, die vornehmlich in der englischen, aber auch in der deutschen und französischen Sprache abgefasst sind, sind kurze Zusammenfassungen in den jeweils anderen Sprachen beigefügt, so dass den Lesern auf jeden Fall die Hauptgedanken der Beiträge nahegebracht werden.

European language policy

Florian Klaeger

This special anniversary volume of Symbolism explores the nexus between symbolic signification and the future from an interdisciplinary perspective. How, contributors ask, has the future been variously rendered in symbolic terms? How do symbols and symbolic reference shape our ideas of the future? To what extent are symbols constitutive of futures, and to what extent do they restrain communication about what is possible and the imagination of fundamental change? Moreover, how have symbolic practices shaped not only artistic representations of the future, but also scientific attempts at forecasting and modelling it? What, then, is the relevance of symbolism for negotiations of the future in cultural and academic production? In essays ranging from literary and film studies to the philosophy of art and ecological modelling, the volume seeks to lay groundwork in theorizing and historicising ‘symbols of the future’ as much as ‘the future of symbolism’.

An International Annual of Critical Aesthetics

Symbolism 2020

Florian Kläger

The complex nature of globalization increasingly requires a comparative approach to literature in order to understand how migration and commodity flows impact aesthetic production and expressive practices. This special issue of Symbolism: An International Journal of Critical Aesthetics explores the trans-American dimensions of Latina/o literature in a trans-Atlantic context. Examining the theoretical implications suggested by the comparison of the global North-global South dynamics of material and aesthetic exchange, this volume highlights emergent Latina/o authors, texts, and methodologies of interest in for comparative literary studies. In the essays, literary scholars address questions of the transculturation, translation, and reception of Latina/o literature in the United States and Europe. In the interviews, emergent Latina/o authors speak to the processes of creative writing in a transnational context. This volume suggests how the trans-American dialogues found in contemporary Latina/o literature elucidates trans-Atlantic critical dialogues.

The Trans-Atlantic and the Trans-American in Dialogue

Symbolism 17: Latina/o Literature

While paratexts – among them headnotes, footnotes, or endnotes – have never been absent from American literature, the last two decades have seen an explosion of the phenomenon, including (mock) scholarly footnotes, to an extent that they seem to take over the text itself. In this Special Focus we shall attempt to find the reasons for this astonishing development. In our first (diachronic) section we shall explore such texts as might have fostered the present boom, from fictions by Edgar Allan Poe to Vladimir Nabokov to Mark Z. Danielewski. The second (synchronic) section, will concentrate on paratexts by David Foster Wallace, perhaps the “father” of the post-postmodern footnote, as well as those to be found in novels by Bennett Sims, Jennifer Egan and Junot Diaz, among others. It appears that, while paratexts definitely point to a high degree of self-reflexivity in the author, they equally draw attention to the textual and authorial functions of the works in which they exist. They can thus cause a reflection on the boundaries between genres like fiction, faction, and autobiography, as well as serving to highlight a host of pedagogical and social concerns that exist in the interstices between fiction and reality.

[Special Focus – Headnotes, Footnotes, Endnotes]

Symbolism 15

This special issue of Symbolism: An International Annual of Critical Aesthetics explores the various functions of metaphor in life writing. Looking at a range of autobiographical subgenres (pathography, disability narratives, memoirs of migration, autofiction) and different kinds of metaphors, the contributions seek to ‘map’ the possibilities of metaphor for narratively framing an individual life and for constructing notions of selfhood.

Special Focus: "Cranes on the Rise" - Functions of Metaphor in Autobiographical Writing

Symbolism 2018

Magic realism has become a significant mode of expression in Jewish cultural production. This special focus of Symbolism for the first time explores in a comparative and transnational approach the magic realist engagement of Jewish writers, artists, and filmmakers from the Diaspora and from Israel with issues of identity, oppression and persecution as well as the Holocaust.

[Special Focus – Jewish Magic Realism]

Symbolism 12/13

Essays in this special focus constellate around the diverse symbolic forms in which Caribbean consciousness has manifested itself transhistorically, shaping identities within and without structures of colonialism and postcolonialism. Offering interdisciplinary critical, analytical and theoretical approaches to the objects of study, the book explores textual, visual, material and ritual meanings encoded in Caribbean lived and aesthetic practices.

Rüdiger Ahrens

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