Hungarian Journal of English and American Studies, 2023
The narrative-adventure game, Where the Water Tastes Like Wine (2018) is “a bleak American folk t... more The narrative-adventure game, Where the Water Tastes Like Wine (2018) is “a bleak American folk tale about traveling, sharing stories, and surviving manifest destiny,” whose objective is to introduce the player to voices formerly overshadowed or muted by the mainstream myth of the American dream. Players are tasked to find “the greatest stories,” that is “the ones people will tell you about their own lives,” meeting marginalized characters, like the migrant Mexican worker or the Navajo woman, as well as well-known figures of resistance, like Beat author Neal Cassady. Relying on Aubrey Anable’s definition of video games as affective systems, the article demonstrates that the player’s non-linear, rhizomic wandering results in a more accurate affective cartography of the USA and provides the opportunity to tap into the experience of becoming posthuman via a marginalized avatar. Where the Water Tastes Like Wine thus aligns with the objectives of Rosi Braidotti’s critical posthumanism: it facilitates a different, more democratic future achieved by actualizing as political subjects of knowledge the “missing people,” who did not qualify as fully human according to the humanist idea of “man.”
The aim of this essay is to explore one of the most controversial issues of American literature, ... more The aim of this essay is to explore one of the most controversial issues of American literature, a problem that has been haunting especially the authors of the American South since the days of slavery. The chosen perspective, namely the attitude of children, is doubly rewarding due to the opportunity to investigate different forms of prejudice and their internalisation with an eye to the psychological background, while the keen eye of women writers to victimisation and the children's need to conform to the expectations of the community is foregrounded. The short stories by various African American and white authors highlight diverse aspects of and sometimes the surprising lack of prejudice in a racist environment, and their main interest lies in the realistic representation of the personal dimension of these phenomena, which are incomprehensible for children in their abstract form. Nevertheless, by addressing the consequences of children's sensitivity to social hierarchy and their reaction to its inherent values and practices which come under the term of Foucauldian disciplinary discourses, these stories are part of a larger social reality.
Neill Blomkamp dél-afrikai rendező első nagyjátékfilmje nemcsak kasszasikerként, hanem 2010-es Os... more Neill Blomkamp dél-afrikai rendező első nagyjátékfilmje nemcsak kasszasikerként, hanem 2010-es Oscar-jelölései által is felhívta magára a figyelmet. Bár az előbbi nem meglepő, hiszen számos tudományos-fantasztikus film válik közönség kedvenccé, az, hogy Oscar-esélyesként indulhatott a legjobb film kategóriában, valóban figyelemreméltó, tekintve, hogy mindaddig csupán három alkalommal került sci-fi a kategória legjobbjai közé. 1 Blomkamp alternatív történelmi szálra épülő filmje a technológiai fölényt hódításra használó, és az emberiséget fenyegető földönkívüliek megszokott trópusát mellőzve, egyértelműen a délafrikai apartheid intézményének rasszista örökségéről mond kritikát, de újonnan felmerült szempontok miatt is érdemes megvizsgálni. A 2015-ös, Debrecent is érintő európai menekültválság releváns keretet ad a földönkívüliekkel kapcsolatos dilemmák újragondolására, és egy dokumentarista stratégiákat is alkalmazó mű esetében az "igazság" értelmezhetősége újabb bizonytalanságokat szül a posztigazság korában. Jelen tanulmány a tartalom és a forma közti feszültségből adódó kérdést kívánja körüljárni: a fiktív események feltárására párhuzamosan használt dokumentum-és játékfilmes stratégiák, valamint a nézői befogadásra kifejtett hatásuk mit is árul el az igazság mibenlétéről, és mediatizált reprezentációs lehetőségeiről? A District 9 a spekulatív műfajok más szubzsánerébe is besorolható, hiszen ál-dokumentumfilmnek, vagyis mockumentary-nek is tekinthető, amelyet Kapás Zsolt Zsombor így jellemez: a mű "dokumentarista eszközök intenzív alkalmazásával fikciós eseményeket jelenít meg," amelynek célja lehet kritika, megtévesztés, és "önreflexiót megcélzó szándék." Maga a műfaj jó száz éve jelent meg (lásd Rhodes és Springer), de az 1999-es Ideglelés-The Blair Witch Project révén került be a fősodorba-, amelyet a 21. században számos hibrid, tényeket és fikciót változó arányban és eszközökkel ötvöző film követett. 2 A dokumentumfilmek tényfeltáró szerepe egyértelmű a nagyközönség számára, ám érdemes
This chapter explores the megalopolises of the near future and their representation in cyberspace... more This chapter explores the megalopolises of the near future and their representation in cyberspace in William Gibson’s Sprawl trilogy, which laid the foundations of the genre of cyberpunk. Gibson’s portrayal of power relations sheds light on the fact that big money dominates the urban skyline, while the construction of humanised ‘place’ occurs at the margins, since the groups that provide identification to the individual are subcultures that colonise unused urban space. This tendency is also present in Gibson’s two cities in orbit, indicating that it is not the loss of contact with Earth that acts as a dehumanising factor but wealth and power. Gibson’s treatment of both virtual and physical cityscapes demonstrates their human dimension as places that are discursive constructs, even attributing sentience to the matrix itself.
Orwell: Ignorance Is Strength is a story-rich video game that casts the player in the role of a g... more Orwell: Ignorance Is Strength is a story-rich video game that casts the player in the role of a government official in a top-secret department of the Orwell surveillance programme created with the purpose of protecting the nation at all costs. Besides raising awareness of the spread of fake news, misinformation, and their use in propaganda, the game recruits the player to actively take part in the perpetuation of an unnamed totalitarian state masquerading as a democracy. This essay relies on Michał Kłosiński’s argument that video games, as an interactive medium, provide more room for the utopian impulse than traditional narrative media, such as novels, plays or films. It focuses on the player’s affective reactions to being implicated in upholding the system, and the possibilities for gaining agency. Orwell: Ignorance Is Strength replicates moral dilemmas that an average internet user is likely to face in the post-truth era, inducing the player to feel anger, disgust, and shame for being controlled and manipulated, ultimately leading to the desire to resist the system. The essay also demonstrates that the way this desire is achieved through the gameplay shows parallels with Megan Boler’s “pedagogy of discomfort”, which enhances the likelihood of transferring the insights gained and the utopian impulse to the real world.
1 The idea for this essay can be traced back to the fact that no female heroes seem to have impre... more 1 The idea for this essay can be traced back to the fact that no female heroes seem to have impressed Gideon Haberkorn enough to be discussed in "Cultural Palimpsests: Terry Pratchett's New Fantasy Heroes" (2008), although he claims that he will examine Pratchett's revision of the modern fantasy hero, who undergoes "a complete and thorough reinvention" (319). While he admits that Pratchett has created a number of new protagonists and links the witches of Lancre to the social and literary discourses on witches rather than on heroism, all he has to say about Susan Sto-Helit is that this character interacts with the discourse of the fantasy hero in a complicated way, which he does not elaborate on as it "cannot be adequately worked out in a paragraph, or a footnote (see, therefore, note 8)" (330). In order to prove that Pratchett's heroes are indeed palimpsests, since the creative process resembles the original meaning of the word, that is &quo...
Geographies of Affect in Contemporary Literature and Visual Culture, 2020
This chapter discusses the Southern African American migrant’s relationship with the city in Toni... more This chapter discusses the Southern African American migrant’s relationship with the city in Toni Morrison’s novel, and demonstrates that the main affect that structures this relationship and the protagonists’ response to the change of environment is fascination. Clearly a translocal journey, as the characters’ unresolved past is inscribed in their ability to emotionally navigate the city, the novel emphasises their simultaneous situatedness in both locations by their problematic spatial adjustment. Fascination, postulated by Schmid, Sahr and Urry’s as a significant element in the construction of new urban subjectivities, is more than aptly highlighted by the affects evoked by various forms of black music, likewise transplanted from a rural environment. The translocal experience and fascination become thus not only building blocks of the new black urban subject, but also that of the black metropolis.
Geographies of Affect in Contemporary Literature and Visual Culture Central Europe and the West, 2021
This chapter discusses the Southern African American migrant’s relationship with the city in Toni... more This chapter discusses the Southern African American migrant’s relationship with the city in Toni Morrison’s novel, and demonstrates that the main affect that structures this relationship and the protagonists’ response to the change of environment is fascination. Clearly a translocal journey, as the characters’ unresolved past is inscribed in their ability to emotionally navigate the city, the novel emphasises their simultaneous situatedness in both locations by their problematic spatial adjustment. Fascination, postulated by Schmid, Sahr and Urry’s as a significant element in the construction of new urban subjectivities, is more than aptly highlighted by the affects evoked by various forms of black music, likewise transplanted from a rural environment. The translocal experience and fascination become thus not only building blocks of the new black urban subject, but also that of the black metropolis.
Geographies of Affect in Contemporary Literature and Visual Culture
Geographies of Affect in Contemporary Literature and Visual Culture opens a dialogue between the ... more Geographies of Affect in Contemporary Literature and Visual Culture opens a dialogue between the literary and filmic works produced in Central Europe and in the Anglophone world. It relies on the concept of translocality to explore this corpus, offering new readings of contemporary Hungarian films as well as urban fiction and poetry in English. Calling attention to the role of affect in imagining city space, the volume investigates György Pálfi’s Taxidermia, Béla Tarr’s Family Nest, Teju Cole’s Open City, Toni Morrison’s Jazz, China Miéville’s Un Lun Dun, Chimamanda Adichie’s Americanah, and Patrick Neate’s City of Tiny Lights, among many other urban narratives. Contributors examine both widely explored emotions and under-researched affects, such as shame, fascination, and the role of withdrawal in contemporary literature and culture.
A tanulmány középpontjában Csokonai Lili, Esterházy Péter Tizenhét hattyúk (1987) című regényének... more A tanulmány középpontjában Csokonai Lili, Esterházy Péter Tizenhét hattyúk (1987) című regényének 18 éves cigány főszereplője áll, akinek történetét Érzékek iskolája címmel 1996-ban Sólyom András rendező vitte filmre. A Csokonai Lili álnéven írt könyv önéletrajzi írás, amelyben, elméletileg, egy sokszorosan hátrányos helyzetű egyén kap lehetőséget arra, hogy elmondja történetét. A regény és filmadaptációja összevetésével megvizsgálja, hogyan alakítja Csokonai Lili sorsát etnikai hovatartozása, neme és társadalmi osztálya, és ezek a tényezők milyen valós és elképzelt, sokszor transzgresszív szerepekben szabják meg az egyéni autonómia határait. Az egyéni autonómia határainak feltérképezésében a térbeliség kiemelkedő szerepet kap, hiszen különböző társadalmi csoportok dominanciájuk vagy alárendeltségük függvényében különböző módon használ(hat)ják ugyanazokat a tereket is, bepillantást engedve az etnikai Másik társadalmi konstruáltságába. Erre kiválóan alkalmas Csokonai Lili alakja, egyrészt mivel transzgresszív viselkedése révén kontrasztot képez mind a magyar középosztálybeli nők, mind a férfiak térhasználatával, másrészt, mivel marginalizációja fokozódik, tovább csökkentve egyéni autonómiáját: autóbalesete kerekes székhez köti. Ezen kívül a regény beszámol Lili arcát is eltorzító égési sérüléséről, amely nem került bele a filmváltozatba, felvetve annak a lehetőségét, hogy a „szép cigánylány” etnikai közhelyet a rendező nem kívánta megkérdőjelezni, de ugyanakkor arra is mutathat, hogy a főszereplő identitásába is beépült ez a túlszexualizált, sztereotíp kép.
Stephen, the King (1983), the most popular Hungarian rock opera, succeeded in bringing alive the ... more Stephen, the King (1983), the most popular Hungarian rock opera, succeeded in bringing alive the well-known foundational myth of the Hungarian nation state by means of a new genre and its political relevance as a covert protest against the Soviet military presence. The rock opera was also extremely popular among members of Hungarian communities beyond the borders. The article compares two, very different cases of trans-border Hungarian identities focused around Stephen, the King: the Transylvanian reception of the rock opera and, based on Réka Pigniczky's documentary Incubator, its American-Hungarian readings. The latter qualifies as a hybrid identity in progress, while Transylvania, a site of permanent cultural and political friction between Hungary and Romania, displays a cultural identity that is inherently mixed, a border-land identity. Capitalizing on Stuart Hall's understanding of cultural identities, we argue that the diasporic/minority reception of the rock opera enabled unique ways of imag(in)ing national belonging, which were, to a great extent, different from its reception in Hungary. Our case studies confirm that both diasporic and borderland identities have received a boost via the new popular genre, enabling both groups to forge bonds with the imagined community of Hungar-ians and what they perceived as Hungarian national culture.
The paper discusses Shakespeare's role in The Science of Discworld II: The Globe by Terry Pratche... more The paper discusses Shakespeare's role in The Science of Discworld II: The Globe by Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen.
'But I understood that these men had settled down and were immensely rich and powerful,' he said.... more 'But I understood that these men had settled down and were immensely rich and powerful,' he said. 'That's what heroes want, isn't it? To crush the thrones of the world beneath their sandalled feet, as the poet puts it?' Terry Pratchett, The Last Hero
'Barbarian Heroing' and Its Parody: New Perspectives on Masculinity
Any Conan the Barbarian comics fan would spot that Lord Vetinari misquoted the poet, more precisely the introduction to each Marvel Comics issue, which dates back to Robert E. Howard's very first published Conan story “The Phoenix on the Sword” (1932): “Hither came Conan, the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandaled feet” (23). However, this first glimpse of Conan, attributed by Howard to the fictitious Nemedian Chronicles, was to be overwritten in popular fiction by the 1982 Hollywood hit, Conan the Barbarian, which, in turn, led to the 1986 debut of the Discworld character Cohen the Barbarian in Terry Pratchett's The Light Fantastic. Although originally conceived as a parody of the movie character, as indicated by Cohen's first appearance among barbarian chieftains pondering “what is it that a man may call the greatest things in life” and answering toothlessly “Hot water, good dentishtry and shoft lavatory paper” (36-7), in Interesting Times (1994) and The Last Hero (2001) he becomes a far more complex figure, often displaying links with the original Conan of the short stories. Naturally, “a very old man, the skinny variety [...], with a totally bald head, a beard almost down to his knees, and a pair of matchstick legs on which varicose veins had traced the street map of quite a large city” wearing only a “studded leather holdall” and a pair of boots (Light Fantastic 75) is unquestionably comical, but “something seemed to have gone wrong with the ageing process there” explains Pratchett. “Cohen had always been a barbarian hero because barbaric heroing was all he knew how to do. And while he got old he seemed to get harder, like oak” (Interesting Times 70). Despite his 95 years he still is the Discworld's greatest hero, invincible, seasoned and cunning, making one wonder what has happened to the iconic figure of the barbarian, created by Howard in a period when much of the pulp science fiction and what would be later called fantasy was “escapist literature written for and about males” (Bogert 88). In my view, Ghenghiz Cohen, albeit a parody of the type of masculinity embodied by Conan the Cimmerian, not only provides insight into the naturalisation process of traditional male and female roles, constructed as gender oppositional, but also questions the seemingly obvious link between masculinity and the strong, well-built and muscled male body. As pointed out by Tim Edwards in Cultures of Masculinity, “male bodies are not necessarily very 'masculine'. One only has to think of the bodies of young boys, disabled men and elderly or frail men to realise that any such equation is not so simple” (123). With this in mind, this chapter explores Howard's conception of barbarian masculinity which, despite the pre-historic setting, incorporates both mythical and modern traits, while analysing how the figure of Cohen deconstructs this image at the end of the twentieth century.
Hungarian Journal of English and American Studies, 2023
The narrative-adventure game, Where the Water Tastes Like Wine (2018) is “a bleak American folk t... more The narrative-adventure game, Where the Water Tastes Like Wine (2018) is “a bleak American folk tale about traveling, sharing stories, and surviving manifest destiny,” whose objective is to introduce the player to voices formerly overshadowed or muted by the mainstream myth of the American dream. Players are tasked to find “the greatest stories,” that is “the ones people will tell you about their own lives,” meeting marginalized characters, like the migrant Mexican worker or the Navajo woman, as well as well-known figures of resistance, like Beat author Neal Cassady. Relying on Aubrey Anable’s definition of video games as affective systems, the article demonstrates that the player’s non-linear, rhizomic wandering results in a more accurate affective cartography of the USA and provides the opportunity to tap into the experience of becoming posthuman via a marginalized avatar. Where the Water Tastes Like Wine thus aligns with the objectives of Rosi Braidotti’s critical posthumanism: it facilitates a different, more democratic future achieved by actualizing as political subjects of knowledge the “missing people,” who did not qualify as fully human according to the humanist idea of “man.”
The aim of this essay is to explore one of the most controversial issues of American literature, ... more The aim of this essay is to explore one of the most controversial issues of American literature, a problem that has been haunting especially the authors of the American South since the days of slavery. The chosen perspective, namely the attitude of children, is doubly rewarding due to the opportunity to investigate different forms of prejudice and their internalisation with an eye to the psychological background, while the keen eye of women writers to victimisation and the children's need to conform to the expectations of the community is foregrounded. The short stories by various African American and white authors highlight diverse aspects of and sometimes the surprising lack of prejudice in a racist environment, and their main interest lies in the realistic representation of the personal dimension of these phenomena, which are incomprehensible for children in their abstract form. Nevertheless, by addressing the consequences of children's sensitivity to social hierarchy and their reaction to its inherent values and practices which come under the term of Foucauldian disciplinary discourses, these stories are part of a larger social reality.
Neill Blomkamp dél-afrikai rendező első nagyjátékfilmje nemcsak kasszasikerként, hanem 2010-es Os... more Neill Blomkamp dél-afrikai rendező első nagyjátékfilmje nemcsak kasszasikerként, hanem 2010-es Oscar-jelölései által is felhívta magára a figyelmet. Bár az előbbi nem meglepő, hiszen számos tudományos-fantasztikus film válik közönség kedvenccé, az, hogy Oscar-esélyesként indulhatott a legjobb film kategóriában, valóban figyelemreméltó, tekintve, hogy mindaddig csupán három alkalommal került sci-fi a kategória legjobbjai közé. 1 Blomkamp alternatív történelmi szálra épülő filmje a technológiai fölényt hódításra használó, és az emberiséget fenyegető földönkívüliek megszokott trópusát mellőzve, egyértelműen a délafrikai apartheid intézményének rasszista örökségéről mond kritikát, de újonnan felmerült szempontok miatt is érdemes megvizsgálni. A 2015-ös, Debrecent is érintő európai menekültválság releváns keretet ad a földönkívüliekkel kapcsolatos dilemmák újragondolására, és egy dokumentarista stratégiákat is alkalmazó mű esetében az "igazság" értelmezhetősége újabb bizonytalanságokat szül a posztigazság korában. Jelen tanulmány a tartalom és a forma közti feszültségből adódó kérdést kívánja körüljárni: a fiktív események feltárására párhuzamosan használt dokumentum-és játékfilmes stratégiák, valamint a nézői befogadásra kifejtett hatásuk mit is árul el az igazság mibenlétéről, és mediatizált reprezentációs lehetőségeiről? A District 9 a spekulatív műfajok más szubzsánerébe is besorolható, hiszen ál-dokumentumfilmnek, vagyis mockumentary-nek is tekinthető, amelyet Kapás Zsolt Zsombor így jellemez: a mű "dokumentarista eszközök intenzív alkalmazásával fikciós eseményeket jelenít meg," amelynek célja lehet kritika, megtévesztés, és "önreflexiót megcélzó szándék." Maga a műfaj jó száz éve jelent meg (lásd Rhodes és Springer), de az 1999-es Ideglelés-The Blair Witch Project révén került be a fősodorba-, amelyet a 21. században számos hibrid, tényeket és fikciót változó arányban és eszközökkel ötvöző film követett. 2 A dokumentumfilmek tényfeltáró szerepe egyértelmű a nagyközönség számára, ám érdemes
This chapter explores the megalopolises of the near future and their representation in cyberspace... more This chapter explores the megalopolises of the near future and their representation in cyberspace in William Gibson’s Sprawl trilogy, which laid the foundations of the genre of cyberpunk. Gibson’s portrayal of power relations sheds light on the fact that big money dominates the urban skyline, while the construction of humanised ‘place’ occurs at the margins, since the groups that provide identification to the individual are subcultures that colonise unused urban space. This tendency is also present in Gibson’s two cities in orbit, indicating that it is not the loss of contact with Earth that acts as a dehumanising factor but wealth and power. Gibson’s treatment of both virtual and physical cityscapes demonstrates their human dimension as places that are discursive constructs, even attributing sentience to the matrix itself.
Orwell: Ignorance Is Strength is a story-rich video game that casts the player in the role of a g... more Orwell: Ignorance Is Strength is a story-rich video game that casts the player in the role of a government official in a top-secret department of the Orwell surveillance programme created with the purpose of protecting the nation at all costs. Besides raising awareness of the spread of fake news, misinformation, and their use in propaganda, the game recruits the player to actively take part in the perpetuation of an unnamed totalitarian state masquerading as a democracy. This essay relies on Michał Kłosiński’s argument that video games, as an interactive medium, provide more room for the utopian impulse than traditional narrative media, such as novels, plays or films. It focuses on the player’s affective reactions to being implicated in upholding the system, and the possibilities for gaining agency. Orwell: Ignorance Is Strength replicates moral dilemmas that an average internet user is likely to face in the post-truth era, inducing the player to feel anger, disgust, and shame for being controlled and manipulated, ultimately leading to the desire to resist the system. The essay also demonstrates that the way this desire is achieved through the gameplay shows parallels with Megan Boler’s “pedagogy of discomfort”, which enhances the likelihood of transferring the insights gained and the utopian impulse to the real world.
1 The idea for this essay can be traced back to the fact that no female heroes seem to have impre... more 1 The idea for this essay can be traced back to the fact that no female heroes seem to have impressed Gideon Haberkorn enough to be discussed in "Cultural Palimpsests: Terry Pratchett's New Fantasy Heroes" (2008), although he claims that he will examine Pratchett's revision of the modern fantasy hero, who undergoes "a complete and thorough reinvention" (319). While he admits that Pratchett has created a number of new protagonists and links the witches of Lancre to the social and literary discourses on witches rather than on heroism, all he has to say about Susan Sto-Helit is that this character interacts with the discourse of the fantasy hero in a complicated way, which he does not elaborate on as it "cannot be adequately worked out in a paragraph, or a footnote (see, therefore, note 8)" (330). In order to prove that Pratchett's heroes are indeed palimpsests, since the creative process resembles the original meaning of the word, that is &quo...
Geographies of Affect in Contemporary Literature and Visual Culture, 2020
This chapter discusses the Southern African American migrant’s relationship with the city in Toni... more This chapter discusses the Southern African American migrant’s relationship with the city in Toni Morrison’s novel, and demonstrates that the main affect that structures this relationship and the protagonists’ response to the change of environment is fascination. Clearly a translocal journey, as the characters’ unresolved past is inscribed in their ability to emotionally navigate the city, the novel emphasises their simultaneous situatedness in both locations by their problematic spatial adjustment. Fascination, postulated by Schmid, Sahr and Urry’s as a significant element in the construction of new urban subjectivities, is more than aptly highlighted by the affects evoked by various forms of black music, likewise transplanted from a rural environment. The translocal experience and fascination become thus not only building blocks of the new black urban subject, but also that of the black metropolis.
Geographies of Affect in Contemporary Literature and Visual Culture Central Europe and the West, 2021
This chapter discusses the Southern African American migrant’s relationship with the city in Toni... more This chapter discusses the Southern African American migrant’s relationship with the city in Toni Morrison’s novel, and demonstrates that the main affect that structures this relationship and the protagonists’ response to the change of environment is fascination. Clearly a translocal journey, as the characters’ unresolved past is inscribed in their ability to emotionally navigate the city, the novel emphasises their simultaneous situatedness in both locations by their problematic spatial adjustment. Fascination, postulated by Schmid, Sahr and Urry’s as a significant element in the construction of new urban subjectivities, is more than aptly highlighted by the affects evoked by various forms of black music, likewise transplanted from a rural environment. The translocal experience and fascination become thus not only building blocks of the new black urban subject, but also that of the black metropolis.
Geographies of Affect in Contemporary Literature and Visual Culture
Geographies of Affect in Contemporary Literature and Visual Culture opens a dialogue between the ... more Geographies of Affect in Contemporary Literature and Visual Culture opens a dialogue between the literary and filmic works produced in Central Europe and in the Anglophone world. It relies on the concept of translocality to explore this corpus, offering new readings of contemporary Hungarian films as well as urban fiction and poetry in English. Calling attention to the role of affect in imagining city space, the volume investigates György Pálfi’s Taxidermia, Béla Tarr’s Family Nest, Teju Cole’s Open City, Toni Morrison’s Jazz, China Miéville’s Un Lun Dun, Chimamanda Adichie’s Americanah, and Patrick Neate’s City of Tiny Lights, among many other urban narratives. Contributors examine both widely explored emotions and under-researched affects, such as shame, fascination, and the role of withdrawal in contemporary literature and culture.
A tanulmány középpontjában Csokonai Lili, Esterházy Péter Tizenhét hattyúk (1987) című regényének... more A tanulmány középpontjában Csokonai Lili, Esterházy Péter Tizenhét hattyúk (1987) című regényének 18 éves cigány főszereplője áll, akinek történetét Érzékek iskolája címmel 1996-ban Sólyom András rendező vitte filmre. A Csokonai Lili álnéven írt könyv önéletrajzi írás, amelyben, elméletileg, egy sokszorosan hátrányos helyzetű egyén kap lehetőséget arra, hogy elmondja történetét. A regény és filmadaptációja összevetésével megvizsgálja, hogyan alakítja Csokonai Lili sorsát etnikai hovatartozása, neme és társadalmi osztálya, és ezek a tényezők milyen valós és elképzelt, sokszor transzgresszív szerepekben szabják meg az egyéni autonómia határait. Az egyéni autonómia határainak feltérképezésében a térbeliség kiemelkedő szerepet kap, hiszen különböző társadalmi csoportok dominanciájuk vagy alárendeltségük függvényében különböző módon használ(hat)ják ugyanazokat a tereket is, bepillantást engedve az etnikai Másik társadalmi konstruáltságába. Erre kiválóan alkalmas Csokonai Lili alakja, egyrészt mivel transzgresszív viselkedése révén kontrasztot képez mind a magyar középosztálybeli nők, mind a férfiak térhasználatával, másrészt, mivel marginalizációja fokozódik, tovább csökkentve egyéni autonómiáját: autóbalesete kerekes székhez köti. Ezen kívül a regény beszámol Lili arcát is eltorzító égési sérüléséről, amely nem került bele a filmváltozatba, felvetve annak a lehetőségét, hogy a „szép cigánylány” etnikai közhelyet a rendező nem kívánta megkérdőjelezni, de ugyanakkor arra is mutathat, hogy a főszereplő identitásába is beépült ez a túlszexualizált, sztereotíp kép.
Stephen, the King (1983), the most popular Hungarian rock opera, succeeded in bringing alive the ... more Stephen, the King (1983), the most popular Hungarian rock opera, succeeded in bringing alive the well-known foundational myth of the Hungarian nation state by means of a new genre and its political relevance as a covert protest against the Soviet military presence. The rock opera was also extremely popular among members of Hungarian communities beyond the borders. The article compares two, very different cases of trans-border Hungarian identities focused around Stephen, the King: the Transylvanian reception of the rock opera and, based on Réka Pigniczky's documentary Incubator, its American-Hungarian readings. The latter qualifies as a hybrid identity in progress, while Transylvania, a site of permanent cultural and political friction between Hungary and Romania, displays a cultural identity that is inherently mixed, a border-land identity. Capitalizing on Stuart Hall's understanding of cultural identities, we argue that the diasporic/minority reception of the rock opera enabled unique ways of imag(in)ing national belonging, which were, to a great extent, different from its reception in Hungary. Our case studies confirm that both diasporic and borderland identities have received a boost via the new popular genre, enabling both groups to forge bonds with the imagined community of Hungar-ians and what they perceived as Hungarian national culture.
The paper discusses Shakespeare's role in The Science of Discworld II: The Globe by Terry Pratche... more The paper discusses Shakespeare's role in The Science of Discworld II: The Globe by Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen.
'But I understood that these men had settled down and were immensely rich and powerful,' he said.... more 'But I understood that these men had settled down and were immensely rich and powerful,' he said. 'That's what heroes want, isn't it? To crush the thrones of the world beneath their sandalled feet, as the poet puts it?' Terry Pratchett, The Last Hero
'Barbarian Heroing' and Its Parody: New Perspectives on Masculinity
Any Conan the Barbarian comics fan would spot that Lord Vetinari misquoted the poet, more precisely the introduction to each Marvel Comics issue, which dates back to Robert E. Howard's very first published Conan story “The Phoenix on the Sword” (1932): “Hither came Conan, the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandaled feet” (23). However, this first glimpse of Conan, attributed by Howard to the fictitious Nemedian Chronicles, was to be overwritten in popular fiction by the 1982 Hollywood hit, Conan the Barbarian, which, in turn, led to the 1986 debut of the Discworld character Cohen the Barbarian in Terry Pratchett's The Light Fantastic. Although originally conceived as a parody of the movie character, as indicated by Cohen's first appearance among barbarian chieftains pondering “what is it that a man may call the greatest things in life” and answering toothlessly “Hot water, good dentishtry and shoft lavatory paper” (36-7), in Interesting Times (1994) and The Last Hero (2001) he becomes a far more complex figure, often displaying links with the original Conan of the short stories. Naturally, “a very old man, the skinny variety [...], with a totally bald head, a beard almost down to his knees, and a pair of matchstick legs on which varicose veins had traced the street map of quite a large city” wearing only a “studded leather holdall” and a pair of boots (Light Fantastic 75) is unquestionably comical, but “something seemed to have gone wrong with the ageing process there” explains Pratchett. “Cohen had always been a barbarian hero because barbaric heroing was all he knew how to do. And while he got old he seemed to get harder, like oak” (Interesting Times 70). Despite his 95 years he still is the Discworld's greatest hero, invincible, seasoned and cunning, making one wonder what has happened to the iconic figure of the barbarian, created by Howard in a period when much of the pulp science fiction and what would be later called fantasy was “escapist literature written for and about males” (Bogert 88). In my view, Ghenghiz Cohen, albeit a parody of the type of masculinity embodied by Conan the Cimmerian, not only provides insight into the naturalisation process of traditional male and female roles, constructed as gender oppositional, but also questions the seemingly obvious link between masculinity and the strong, well-built and muscled male body. As pointed out by Tim Edwards in Cultures of Masculinity, “male bodies are not necessarily very 'masculine'. One only has to think of the bodies of young boys, disabled men and elderly or frail men to realise that any such equation is not so simple” (123). With this in mind, this chapter explores Howard's conception of barbarian masculinity which, despite the pre-historic setting, incorporates both mythical and modern traits, while analysing how the figure of Cohen deconstructs this image at the end of the twentieth century.
The international journal, Hungarian Journal of English and American Studies (HJEAS) solicits pap... more The international journal, Hungarian Journal of English and American Studies (HJEAS) solicits papers on “Central and Eastern European Immigration to Canada” for a special issue to be published in 2022. The special issue will address a broad range of topics related to Central and Eastern European immigration to Canada; therefore, we are looking for essays that examine the topic from a wide range of perspectives, including, but not limited to, migration studies, history, literature, cultural studies, film studies, travel writing studies, etc. There is no chronological limitation in terms of the time of migration and the term Central and Eastern Europe is used in the broadest possible sense, also including the Balkans and Russia.
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Papers by Imola Bulgozdi
Relying on Aubrey Anable’s definition of video games as affective systems, the article demonstrates that the player’s non-linear, rhizomic wandering results in a more accurate affective cartography of the USA and provides the opportunity to tap into the experience of becoming posthuman via a marginalized avatar. Where the Water Tastes Like Wine thus aligns with the objectives of Rosi Braidotti’s critical posthumanism: it facilitates a different, more democratic future achieved by actualizing as political subjects of knowledge the “missing people,” who did not qualify as fully human according to the humanist idea of “man.”
Terry Pratchett, The Last Hero
'Barbarian Heroing' and Its Parody:
New Perspectives on Masculinity
Any Conan the Barbarian comics fan would spot that Lord Vetinari misquoted the poet, more precisely the introduction to each Marvel Comics issue, which dates back to Robert E. Howard's very first published Conan story “The Phoenix on the Sword” (1932): “Hither came Conan, the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandaled feet” (23). However, this first glimpse of Conan, attributed by Howard to the fictitious Nemedian Chronicles, was to be overwritten in popular fiction by the 1982 Hollywood hit, Conan the Barbarian, which, in turn, led to the 1986 debut of the Discworld character Cohen the Barbarian in Terry Pratchett's The Light Fantastic. Although originally conceived as a parody of the movie character, as indicated by Cohen's first appearance among barbarian chieftains pondering “what is it that a man may call the greatest things in life” and answering toothlessly “Hot water, good dentishtry and shoft lavatory paper” (36-7), in Interesting Times (1994) and The Last Hero (2001) he becomes a far more complex figure, often displaying links with the original Conan of the short stories.
Naturally, “a very old man, the skinny variety [...], with a totally bald head, a beard almost down to his knees, and a pair of matchstick legs on which varicose veins had traced the street map of quite a large city” wearing only a “studded leather holdall” and a pair of boots (Light Fantastic 75) is unquestionably comical, but “something seemed to have gone wrong with the ageing process there” explains Pratchett. “Cohen had always been a barbarian hero because barbaric heroing was all he knew how to do. And while he got old he seemed to get harder, like oak” (Interesting Times 70). Despite his 95 years he still is the Discworld's greatest hero, invincible, seasoned and cunning, making one wonder what has happened to the iconic figure of the barbarian, created by Howard in a period when much of the pulp science fiction and what would be later called fantasy was “escapist literature written for and about males” (Bogert 88). In my view, Ghenghiz Cohen, albeit a parody of the type of masculinity embodied by Conan the Cimmerian, not only provides insight into the naturalisation process of traditional male and female roles, constructed as gender oppositional, but also questions the seemingly obvious link between masculinity and the strong, well-built and muscled male body. As pointed out by Tim Edwards in Cultures of Masculinity, “male bodies are not necessarily very 'masculine'. One only has to think of the bodies of young boys, disabled men and elderly or frail men to realise that any such equation is not so simple” (123). With this in mind, this chapter explores Howard's conception of barbarian masculinity which, despite the pre-historic setting, incorporates both mythical and modern traits, while analysing how the figure of Cohen deconstructs this image at the end of the twentieth century.
Relying on Aubrey Anable’s definition of video games as affective systems, the article demonstrates that the player’s non-linear, rhizomic wandering results in a more accurate affective cartography of the USA and provides the opportunity to tap into the experience of becoming posthuman via a marginalized avatar. Where the Water Tastes Like Wine thus aligns with the objectives of Rosi Braidotti’s critical posthumanism: it facilitates a different, more democratic future achieved by actualizing as political subjects of knowledge the “missing people,” who did not qualify as fully human according to the humanist idea of “man.”
Terry Pratchett, The Last Hero
'Barbarian Heroing' and Its Parody:
New Perspectives on Masculinity
Any Conan the Barbarian comics fan would spot that Lord Vetinari misquoted the poet, more precisely the introduction to each Marvel Comics issue, which dates back to Robert E. Howard's very first published Conan story “The Phoenix on the Sword” (1932): “Hither came Conan, the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandaled feet” (23). However, this first glimpse of Conan, attributed by Howard to the fictitious Nemedian Chronicles, was to be overwritten in popular fiction by the 1982 Hollywood hit, Conan the Barbarian, which, in turn, led to the 1986 debut of the Discworld character Cohen the Barbarian in Terry Pratchett's The Light Fantastic. Although originally conceived as a parody of the movie character, as indicated by Cohen's first appearance among barbarian chieftains pondering “what is it that a man may call the greatest things in life” and answering toothlessly “Hot water, good dentishtry and shoft lavatory paper” (36-7), in Interesting Times (1994) and The Last Hero (2001) he becomes a far more complex figure, often displaying links with the original Conan of the short stories.
Naturally, “a very old man, the skinny variety [...], with a totally bald head, a beard almost down to his knees, and a pair of matchstick legs on which varicose veins had traced the street map of quite a large city” wearing only a “studded leather holdall” and a pair of boots (Light Fantastic 75) is unquestionably comical, but “something seemed to have gone wrong with the ageing process there” explains Pratchett. “Cohen had always been a barbarian hero because barbaric heroing was all he knew how to do. And while he got old he seemed to get harder, like oak” (Interesting Times 70). Despite his 95 years he still is the Discworld's greatest hero, invincible, seasoned and cunning, making one wonder what has happened to the iconic figure of the barbarian, created by Howard in a period when much of the pulp science fiction and what would be later called fantasy was “escapist literature written for and about males” (Bogert 88). In my view, Ghenghiz Cohen, albeit a parody of the type of masculinity embodied by Conan the Cimmerian, not only provides insight into the naturalisation process of traditional male and female roles, constructed as gender oppositional, but also questions the seemingly obvious link between masculinity and the strong, well-built and muscled male body. As pointed out by Tim Edwards in Cultures of Masculinity, “male bodies are not necessarily very 'masculine'. One only has to think of the bodies of young boys, disabled men and elderly or frail men to realise that any such equation is not so simple” (123). With this in mind, this chapter explores Howard's conception of barbarian masculinity which, despite the pre-historic setting, incorporates both mythical and modern traits, while analysing how the figure of Cohen deconstructs this image at the end of the twentieth century.
The special issue will address a broad range of topics related to Central and Eastern European immigration to Canada; therefore, we are looking for essays that examine the topic from a wide range of perspectives, including, but not limited to, migration studies, history, literature, cultural studies, film studies, travel writing studies, etc. There is no chronological limitation in terms of the time of migration and the term Central and Eastern Europe is used in the broadest possible sense, also including the Balkans and Russia.