نشریه پژوهش ادبیات معاصر جهان
سال هجدهم شماره 1 (پیاپی 68، بهار و تابستان1392)

Although America claims to be the savior of the world and its invasions of other nations have been justified as attempts to maintain peace and security، America’s international interventions have not always been without expansionist aims. America considers itself a Messianic force on the earth. This moral aloofness has served as a justification for imperialist projects. In the light of post-colonial studies، this article tries to discuss the manifestation of America''s messianic discourse in the works of a leading science fiction writer of the 1930s، Stanley G. Weinbaum. In his planetary stories، Weinbaum portrays Americans as the harbingers of peace، security and enlightenment to the lands they invade. Moreover، Weinbaum pictures Americans as those who bring about reconciliation and، having eliminated hostile criminals and vicious natives، save all the planets and its tame، pliable inhabitants. The results of the analysis show that the Messianic discourse of the US has been so pervasive that it has deeply affected its literature and culture.

This article endeavors to analyze how feminine language has been represented and subordinated in the Renaissance. A survey of different discourses during this period delineates the anxiety and fear of the Renaissance man from woman''s language. This anxiety is entrenched in the western and Christian narratives and myths. Analyzing the Renaissance culture through surveying some penal devices for controlling the tongue of women and reading Shakespeare''s The Taming of the Shrew، we have delineated how Shakespeare has satirized Renaissance man''s anxiety who shows his superiority by attempting to cut the female tongue and hence to make her silent. The comic figure، contrary to what people in Renaissance and some critics may think، are men، who try to control femininity by cutting her tongue، rather than the shrew.

The writers of this article seek to investigate the dramaturgy of Howard Barker in his The Castle، staged in 1985 by Royal Shakespeare Theatre، in order to discover and lay bare the baroque techniques of representation in this political paly. Relying on Deleuze’s idea of baroque architecture and Foucault’s theories of baroque representation، the writers try to introduce this play as the expression of the delicacy، intricacy and dread of the baroque architecture of the labyrinthine castle. The castle is the miniature image of the way the fictive world of the play takes shape. The article concludes that، Barker’s political theatre، unlike the popular notions of political drama which take representation of outer reality as the criterion of political art، views representation of representation as the only feasible kind of representation and by rejecting the possibility and even practicality of representing the real world، moves towards the creation of a play rich with the convolutedness of baroque architecture.

Nowadays، a well-known phenomena that influences the life style of many all around the world is “American consumerism” which can be taken into consideration as a global trend. The modern age is featured with the effect of technological advances in all aspects of life whether in life style or consumption pattern. The Mexican society and the youth in particular are not an exception in this regard. Having a long geographical border with the USA، and acting as a bridge connecting the Latin Americas with it''s northern neighbors، has intensified these trends of changes in Mexico. Therefore، taking into consideration the different and wide aspects of globalization; the present study surveys one of the indices of globalization namely “cultural globalization in line with Americanization” in Mexican society. To this end،the research theoretically of the present study is based upon ideas from Anthony Giddens and Ronald Robertson. In this way، and based on the symbols employed in the movie “The Season of Ducks”، Roland Barthes’s semiology method – preliminary and secondary reasons - were used. The main question of the study is to survey the effect of consumerist culture and American life style on Mexican youth’s life. The question is answered based on the analyses of the surveys of the available symbols.

From narratological point of view، among Jamalzadeh''s Old and New short stories، «Rotten Salt» has a significant narrator which can be nicely studied through the light of the theories of two narratologists: Gerard Genette and Robyn R. Warhol. Based on Genette''s proposed factors، the narrator of «Rotten Salt» changes so many times in the ''level'' and ''distance'' of narration that، based on Warhol''s theory، the gender of the narrator also changes throughout the story. So، some parts of the narrative are narrated by a female voice and some parts by a male voice. Thus، it is as if the narrative were written by a female author together with Jamalzadeh، while we know that it was just written by Jamalzadeh; however with more investigation، the aim and the reason of the employment of this multi-figured narrator is clarified.

One important aspect of The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery 1900 -1944) is a phenomenological approach on the story that needs to be analyzed for a clear understanding of the text. According to many searches in valid English and Persian data bases it seems that this aspect of The Little Prince hasn’t been of interest to domestic and foreign researchers. This descriptive- analytical study demonstrates that the personality of the little prince is indeed the philosophical inner child of the author (the narrator) which at first proves himself through a philosophical action. Analysis of the behavior، speech، mind and characteristic of the little prince and other positive characters of the story and also the portrayal of the little prince proves that this story has been written under the influence of phenomenological theory. Emphasize on the natural power of child recognition، disregarding the appearance of every concept and emphasizing of the little prince on its origin، non-compliance of the images of hat and box with their true signified، criticizing consciousness and diverting the reader’s attention to genuine recognition of phenomena and values and social norms are all some evidence-based signs of phenomenological approach in The Little Prince. Also some concepts such as domestication action، symbolic places like the planets and stars، Africa، natural forest، desert and oasis and so on can be analyzed in terms of phenomenological theory.

Translation is an activity that crystalizes borders. In a world with good translations، there are no borders but the wall is not made of concrete. There are boundaries but crystal walls that has emerged from the work of translators. In a world، where borders is inevitable translation is a way to cleanse borders of factious and desperate. If we translate in accordance to the theory of Antoine Berman، a translation of the idea of preserving the structure and identity of the source language، the culture، the land and the other in an attempt to open up where the alien is a lovely lived in. Thus we find that the study of comparative literature and literary translation is similar.

This article focuses on Zadie Smith’s The Autograph Man in an attempt to see whether Smith is for the multiculturalist discourse or criticizes it. To this end، two major themes of “identity” and “space” are examined. It is argued that Smith offers a counter-narrative to oppose rather than support multiculturalism. In fact، what is known as multiculturalist aspects of Smith’s work is just a mere reflection of the hybrid، postmodern world. By foregrounding the role of capital، race، religion، and gender، Smith tries to unmask the very policy this discursive practice tries to hide. She attempts to expose multiculturalism as a kind of “micro-colonialism” or a new version of capitalist imperialism by casting light on contradictions inherent in it. However، this is complicated by the fact that Smith herself is by and large under the impact of liberal humanism which has affected multiculturalism in different ways.

As a contemporary fiction writer، Bizhan Najdi is less appreciated despite the fact that his short stories are of significant depth and deserve close examination. Through the poetic language، “A Plant in Quarantine” creates a situation which provides a fertile ground to inspect the relation between past and present. A deep analysis of this relationship is the main focus of this paper. In this study، using the theories of Hegel، Foucault، and Hutcheon concerning Historical approach، and provided with the literary practice of Greenblatt and Montrose، the incidents and characters of the story are put into the intricate socio-historical context in which the writer lived، and then the active role of history is analyzed. The findings of the paper show that the unpleasant presence of the main character’s ancestral past is the cause of his predicaments. Such a reading of the story introduces history as an active agent of the present.

Thematic Criticism is a kind of approach in literary criticism، which was innovated in the 1950s. It is regarded as the prelude of New Criticism. The founder of such a criticism is Gaston Bachelard. Bachelard investigates the unconscious images of the text which have formed out of the imaginary concept of the material. In Bachelard''s opinion، four elements make up man''s fantasy. In the present paper، considering Bachelard''s approach we tried to study two themes of ''water'' and ''fire'' in «Nocturnal Harmony for Wood Orchestra». In this novel، water is the symbol of Death and Life and fire shows images of death and destruction and also punishment. But there are some instances of showing death by water.