This Special Issue arises from the need to turn an increasingly evident fact, namely the ever more intense circulation of Chinese literature and culture within Western publishing, academic and mass media spheres, into a more rigorous field of inquiry, one capable of reading together both the benefits and the distortions that any cultural crossing necessarily brings with it. Its first aim, therefore, is to do so without collapsing the problem into a simple alternative between fidelity and betrayal, because what is at stake here is something more profound: the production of meaning that occurs when a text, an imagery, an aesthetic form or a symbolic constellation enters another regime of reading, another economy of attention, another grammar of recognisability. This Special Issue therefore takes as its object not China in the abstract, but the concrete interface between Chinese narratives and Western receptions: in other words, the filters, frames, expectations and interpretive codes that determine which aspects of a text come to the fore, which are neutralised, which are intensified until they harden into stereotype, and which, instead, succeed in generating ruptures, resistances and inventions. It is here that the notion of cultural translation reveals its full scope: to translate is not merely to move from one language to another, but to cross a threshold between worlds – one in which presuppositions shift, hierarchies of value are rearranged, aesthetic sensibilities are recalibrated, and even the very ways in which a work is recognised as ‘classic’, ‘modern’, ‘popular’, ‘minor’, ‘political’ or ‘spiritual’ are transformed.

This Special Issue arises from the need to turn an increasingly evident fact, namely the ever more intense circulation of Chinese literature and culture within Western publishing, academic and mass media spheres, into a more rigorous field of inquiry, one capable of reading together both the benefits and the distortions that any cultural crossing necessarily brings with it. Its first aim, therefore, is to do so without collapsing the problem into a simple alternative between fidelity and betrayal, because what is at stake here is something more profound: the production of meaning that occurs when a text, an imagery, an aesthetic form or a symbolic constellation enters another regime of reading, another economy of attention, another grammar of recognisability. This Special Issue therefore takes as its object not China in the abstract, but the concrete interface between Chinese narratives and Western receptions: in other words, the filters, frames, expectations and interpretive codes that determine which aspects of a text come to the fore, which are neutralised, which are intensified until they harden into stereotype, and which, instead, succeed in generating ruptures, resistances and inventions. It is here that the notion of cultural translation reveals its full scope: to translate is not merely to move from one language to another, but to cross a threshold between worlds – one in which presuppositions shift, hierarchies of value are rearranged, aesthetic sensibilities are recalibrated, and even the very ways in which a work is recognised as ‘classic’, ‘modern’, ‘popular’, ‘minor’, ‘political’ or ‘spiritual’ are transformed.

This article takes ‘reconstructing Orientalism’ as the core perspective to explore the structural misreadings produced by the West in the process of translating and accepting Chinese classical literary works such as The Dream of the Red Chamber and Chu Ci, revealing the ideological and cultural discipline mechanisms behind them. By combining text close reading with cross-cultural discourse analysis, this article analyses the different translation paths of The Dream of the Red Chamber by Jolly and Hawkes, as well as the poetic reconstruction of Chu Ci by Legge and Waley, pointing out the problems of semantic concealment and narrative assimilation in cultural conversion. Finally, it is pointed out that achieving cultural dialogue and structural participation from multiple perspectives can help open up new paths and possibilities for the global understanding of Chinese classical literature.

This Special Issue arises from the need to turn an increasingly evident fact, namely the ever more intense circulation of Chinese literature and culture within Western publishing, academic and mass media spheres, into a more rigorous field of inquiry, one capable of reading together both the benefits and the distortions that any cultural crossing necessarily brings with it. Its first aim, therefore, is to do so without collapsing the problem into a simple alternative between fidelity and betrayal, because what is at stake here is something more profound: the production of meaning that occurs when a text, an imagery, an aesthetic form or a symbolic constellation enters another regime of reading, another economy of attention, another grammar of recognisability. This Special Issue therefore takes as its object not China in the abstract, but the concrete interface between Chinese narratives and Western receptions: in other words, the filters, frames, expectations and interpretive codes that determine which aspects of a text come to the fore, which are neutralised, which are intensified until they harden into stereotype, and which, instead, succeed in generating ruptures, resistances and inventions. It is here that the notion of cultural translation reveals its full scope: to translate is not merely to move from one language to another, but to cross a threshold between worlds – one in which presuppositions shift, hierarchies of value are rearranged, aesthetic sensibilities are recalibrated, and even the very ways in which a work is recognised as ‘classic’, ‘modern’, ‘popular’, ‘minor’, ‘political’ or ‘spiritual’ are transformed.

This article takes ‘reconstructing Orientalism’ as the core perspective to explore the structural misreadings produced by the West in the process of translating and accepting Chinese classical literary works such as The Dream of the Red Chamber and Chu Ci, revealing the ideological and cultural discipline mechanisms behind them. By combining text close reading with cross-cultural discourse analysis, this article analyses the different translation paths of The Dream of the Red Chamber by Jolly and Hawkes, as well as the poetic reconstruction of Chu Ci by Legge and Waley, pointing out the problems of semantic concealment and narrative assimilation in cultural conversion. Finally, it is pointed out that achieving cultural dialogue and structural participation from multiple perspectives can help open up new paths and possibilities for the global understanding of Chinese classical literature.

The aim of this research is to explore how Western versions of The Orphan of Zhao and Farewell My Concubine transform Chinese storytelling. It argues that Western interpretations are shaped by translation, distribution, and selective exoticisation. Drawing on Orientalism and translation studies, the article shows how The Orphan of Zhao becomes a Western-style tragedy centred on the autonomous individual and resistance to tyranny, departing from Confucian relational values. Similarly, Farewell My Concubine is often read in the West as a queer melodrama and testimony of authoritarian violence, overlooking traditional theatrical and historical contexts. Through textual analysis and cross-cultural critique, the study shows that Western theories – including humanist tragedy, psychoanalysis, queer theory, and liberal critiques of state power – both illuminate and limit understanding. It concludes that Sino-Western literary relations should be treated as a bidirectional dialogue, in which Chinese narratives challenge and enrich Western paradigms rather than serving as mere material.

This Special Issue arises from the need to turn an increasingly evident fact, namely the ever more intense circulation of Chinese literature and culture within Western publishing, academic and mass media spheres, into a more rigorous field of inquiry, one capable of reading together both the benefits and the distortions that any cultural crossing necessarily brings with it. Its first aim, therefore, is to do so without collapsing the problem into a simple alternative between fidelity and betrayal, because what is at stake here is something more profound: the production of meaning that occurs when a text, an imagery, an aesthetic form or a symbolic constellation enters another regime of reading, another economy of attention, another grammar of recognisability. This Special Issue therefore takes as its object not China in the abstract, but the concrete interface between Chinese narratives and Western receptions: in other words, the filters, frames, expectations and interpretive codes that determine which aspects of a text come to the fore, which are neutralised, which are intensified until they harden into stereotype, and which, instead, succeed in generating ruptures, resistances and inventions. It is here that the notion of cultural translation reveals its full scope: to translate is not merely to move from one language to another, but to cross a threshold between worlds – one in which presuppositions shift, hierarchies of value are rearranged, aesthetic sensibilities are recalibrated, and even the very ways in which a work is recognised as ‘classic’, ‘modern’, ‘popular’, ‘minor’, ‘political’ or ‘spiritual’ are transformed.

This article takes ‘reconstructing Orientalism’ as the core perspective to explore the structural misreadings produced by the West in the process of translating and accepting Chinese classical literary works such as The Dream of the Red Chamber and Chu Ci, revealing the ideological and cultural discipline mechanisms behind them. By combining text close reading with cross-cultural discourse analysis, this article analyses the different translation paths of The Dream of the Red Chamber by Jolly and Hawkes, as well as the poetic reconstruction of Chu Ci by Legge and Waley, pointing out the problems of semantic concealment and narrative assimilation in cultural conversion. Finally, it is pointed out that achieving cultural dialogue and structural participation from multiple perspectives can help open up new paths and possibilities for the global understanding of Chinese classical literature.

The aim of this research is to explore how Western versions of The Orphan of Zhao and Farewell My Concubine transform Chinese storytelling. It argues that Western interpretations are shaped by translation, distribution, and selective exoticisation. Drawing on Orientalism and translation studies, the article shows how The Orphan of Zhao becomes a Western-style tragedy centred on the autonomous individual and resistance to tyranny, departing from Confucian relational values. Similarly, Farewell My Concubine is often read in the West as a queer melodrama and testimony of authoritarian violence, overlooking traditional theatrical and historical contexts. Through textual analysis and cross-cultural critique, the study shows that Western theories – including humanist tragedy, psychoanalysis, queer theory, and liberal critiques of state power – both illuminate and limit understanding. It concludes that Sino-Western literary relations should be treated as a bidirectional dialogue, in which Chinese narratives challenge and enrich Western paradigms rather than serving as mere material.

At present, the formal shaping of contemporary Chinese realist novels is deeply influenced by the Marxist paradigm of literary analysis. Marxist literary theory operates across four dimensions: language, characterised by a passionate utopian impulse; narrative style, which transcends fixed value systems; social circles, in which character structures break beyond their original confines; and a dialectical narrative perspective that foregrounds historical complexity. These four factors construct the creative nature of the intertextual history of Chinese realist novels, and their form presents a social critical dimension. In the process of translation and introduction, although the language style, character structure, narrative style, and narrative perspective have undergone cultural adaptation under the Western literary system, the social critical dimension of the novel form has been preserved as a whole, forming a disembedded reconstruction of literary symbols.

This Special Issue arises from the need to turn an increasingly evident fact, namely the ever more intense circulation of Chinese literature and culture within Western publishing, academic and mass media spheres, into a more rigorous field of inquiry, one capable of reading together both the benefits and the distortions that any cultural crossing necessarily brings with it. Its first aim, therefore, is to do so without collapsing the problem into a simple alternative between fidelity and betrayal, because what is at stake here is something more profound: the production of meaning that occurs when a text, an imagery, an aesthetic form or a symbolic constellation enters another regime of reading, another economy of attention, another grammar of recognisability. This Special Issue therefore takes as its object not China in the abstract, but the concrete interface between Chinese narratives and Western receptions: in other words, the filters, frames, expectations and interpretive codes that determine which aspects of a text come to the fore, which are neutralised, which are intensified until they harden into stereotype, and which, instead, succeed in generating ruptures, resistances and inventions. It is here that the notion of cultural translation reveals its full scope: to translate is not merely to move from one language to another, but to cross a threshold between worlds – one in which presuppositions shift, hierarchies of value are rearranged, aesthetic sensibilities are recalibrated, and even the very ways in which a work is recognised as ‘classic’, ‘modern’, ‘popular’, ‘minor’, ‘political’ or ‘spiritual’ are transformed.

This article takes ‘reconstructing Orientalism’ as the core perspective to explore the structural misreadings produced by the West in the process of translating and accepting Chinese classical literary works such as The Dream of the Red Chamber and Chu Ci, revealing the ideological and cultural discipline mechanisms behind them. By combining text close reading with cross-cultural discourse analysis, this article analyses the different translation paths of The Dream of the Red Chamber by Jolly and Hawkes, as well as the poetic reconstruction of Chu Ci by Legge and Waley, pointing out the problems of semantic concealment and narrative assimilation in cultural conversion. Finally, it is pointed out that achieving cultural dialogue and structural participation from multiple perspectives can help open up new paths and possibilities for the global understanding of Chinese classical literature.

The aim of this research is to explore how Western versions of The Orphan of Zhao and Farewell My Concubine transform Chinese storytelling. It argues that Western interpretations are shaped by translation, distribution, and selective exoticisation. Drawing on Orientalism and translation studies, the article shows how The Orphan of Zhao becomes a Western-style tragedy centred on the autonomous individual and resistance to tyranny, departing from Confucian relational values. Similarly, Farewell My Concubine is often read in the West as a queer melodrama and testimony of authoritarian violence, overlooking traditional theatrical and historical contexts. Through textual analysis and cross-cultural critique, the study shows that Western theories – including humanist tragedy, psychoanalysis, queer theory, and liberal critiques of state power – both illuminate and limit understanding. It concludes that Sino-Western literary relations should be treated as a bidirectional dialogue, in which Chinese narratives challenge and enrich Western paradigms rather than serving as mere material.

At present, the formal shaping of contemporary Chinese realist novels is deeply influenced by the Marxist paradigm of literary analysis. Marxist literary theory operates across four dimensions: language, characterised by a passionate utopian impulse; narrative style, which transcends fixed value systems; social circles, in which character structures break beyond their original confines; and a dialectical narrative perspective that foregrounds historical complexity. These four factors construct the creative nature of the intertextual history of Chinese realist novels, and their form presents a social critical dimension. In the process of translation and introduction, although the language style, character structure, narrative style, and narrative perspective have undergone cultural adaptation under the Western literary system, the social critical dimension of the novel form has been preserved as a whole, forming a disembedded reconstruction of literary symbols.

Since Water Margin was introduced to Japan during the Edo period (1603–1867) by its first Japanese translator, Okajima Kanzan, it has established a profound connection with the era's popular literature. The integration of this classic with Japanese culture was multifaceted. To expand its audience and accommodate illiterate commoners, illustrated editions of Water Margin emerged. These editions evolved, from initial rough translations with simplistic drawings during early Edo, to the widespread, popular picture books of the mid-Edo period, and finally to the distinctive, Japanised versions of the late Edo period. Examining the progression of Water Margin picture books reveals the dynamics of its transmission, reception and transformation in Japan, highlighting deep cultural implications. The impact on Edo literature was significant, particularly in novel writing, spurring a wave of creative adaptations. This trend also facilitated the spread of Chinese vernacular literature in Japan.

This Special Issue arises from the need to turn an increasingly evident fact, namely the ever more intense circulation of Chinese literature and culture within Western publishing, academic and mass media spheres, into a more rigorous field of inquiry, one capable of reading together both the benefits and the distortions that any cultural crossing necessarily brings with it. Its first aim, therefore, is to do so without collapsing the problem into a simple alternative between fidelity and betrayal, because what is at stake here is something more profound: the production of meaning that occurs when a text, an imagery, an aesthetic form or a symbolic constellation enters another regime of reading, another economy of attention, another grammar of recognisability. This Special Issue therefore takes as its object not China in the abstract, but the concrete interface between Chinese narratives and Western receptions: in other words, the filters, frames, expectations and interpretive codes that determine which aspects of a text come to the fore, which are neutralised, which are intensified until they harden into stereotype, and which, instead, succeed in generating ruptures, resistances and inventions. It is here that the notion of cultural translation reveals its full scope: to translate is not merely to move from one language to another, but to cross a threshold between worlds – one in which presuppositions shift, hierarchies of value are rearranged, aesthetic sensibilities are recalibrated, and even the very ways in which a work is recognised as ‘classic’, ‘modern’, ‘popular’, ‘minor’, ‘political’ or ‘spiritual’ are transformed.

This article takes ‘reconstructing Orientalism’ as the core perspective to explore the structural misreadings produced by the West in the process of translating and accepting Chinese classical literary works such as The Dream of the Red Chamber and Chu Ci, revealing the ideological and cultural discipline mechanisms behind them. By combining text close reading with cross-cultural discourse analysis, this article analyses the different translation paths of The Dream of the Red Chamber by Jolly and Hawkes, as well as the poetic reconstruction of Chu Ci by Legge and Waley, pointing out the problems of semantic concealment and narrative assimilation in cultural conversion. Finally, it is pointed out that achieving cultural dialogue and structural participation from multiple perspectives can help open up new paths and possibilities for the global understanding of Chinese classical literature.

The aim of this research is to explore how Western versions of The Orphan of Zhao and Farewell My Concubine transform Chinese storytelling. It argues that Western interpretations are shaped by translation, distribution, and selective exoticisation. Drawing on Orientalism and translation studies, the article shows how The Orphan of Zhao becomes a Western-style tragedy centred on the autonomous individual and resistance to tyranny, departing from Confucian relational values. Similarly, Farewell My Concubine is often read in the West as a queer melodrama and testimony of authoritarian violence, overlooking traditional theatrical and historical contexts. Through textual analysis and cross-cultural critique, the study shows that Western theories – including humanist tragedy, psychoanalysis, queer theory, and liberal critiques of state power – both illuminate and limit understanding. It concludes that Sino-Western literary relations should be treated as a bidirectional dialogue, in which Chinese narratives challenge and enrich Western paradigms rather than serving as mere material.

At present, the formal shaping of contemporary Chinese realist novels is deeply influenced by the Marxist paradigm of literary analysis. Marxist literary theory operates across four dimensions: language, characterised by a passionate utopian impulse; narrative style, which transcends fixed value systems; social circles, in which character structures break beyond their original confines; and a dialectical narrative perspective that foregrounds historical complexity. These four factors construct the creative nature of the intertextual history of Chinese realist novels, and their form presents a social critical dimension. In the process of translation and introduction, although the language style, character structure, narrative style, and narrative perspective have undergone cultural adaptation under the Western literary system, the social critical dimension of the novel form has been preserved as a whole, forming a disembedded reconstruction of literary symbols.

Since Water Margin was introduced to Japan during the Edo period (1603–1867) by its first Japanese translator, Okajima Kanzan, it has established a profound connection with the era's popular literature. The integration of this classic with Japanese culture was multifaceted. To expand its audience and accommodate illiterate commoners, illustrated editions of Water Margin emerged. These editions evolved, from initial rough translations with simplistic drawings during early Edo, to the widespread, popular picture books of the mid-Edo period, and finally to the distinctive, Japanised versions of the late Edo period. Examining the progression of Water Margin picture books reveals the dynamics of its transmission, reception and transformation in Japan, highlighting deep cultural implications. The impact on Edo literature was significant, particularly in novel writing, spurring a wave of creative adaptations. This trend also facilitated the spread of Chinese vernacular literature in Japan.

This article constructs an interdisciplinary paradigm integrating Yi aesthetics, Western academic interpretations of Chinese aesthetics, and Chinese American diaspora narratives. It aims to fill gaps in Western scholarship regarding the mysticism of the I Ching, tracing the cross-cultural transformation of Zhou Yi hexagram symbols into poetic forms and exploring the underlying cultural-political logic. Taking The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston as the primary object of analysis, the study examines how the writer constructs poetic anti-colonialism and shapes ethnic identity discourse through the creative reinterpretation of Yi aesthetics’ three core dimensions: image-thinking, philosophy of change, and holistic thinking. This aesthetic practice fundamentally deconstructs Western Orientalist stereotypes, offers a localized theoretical model for Chinese literary studies, and opens new avenues for contemporary comparative literature and ethnic identity research.

This Special Issue arises from the need to turn an increasingly evident fact, namely the ever more intense circulation of Chinese literature and culture within Western publishing, academic and mass media spheres, into a more rigorous field of inquiry, one capable of reading together both the benefits and the distortions that any cultural crossing necessarily brings with it. Its first aim, therefore, is to do so without collapsing the problem into a simple alternative between fidelity and betrayal, because what is at stake here is something more profound: the production of meaning that occurs when a text, an imagery, an aesthetic form or a symbolic constellation enters another regime of reading, another economy of attention, another grammar of recognisability. This Special Issue therefore takes as its object not China in the abstract, but the concrete interface between Chinese narratives and Western receptions: in other words, the filters, frames, expectations and interpretive codes that determine which aspects of a text come to the fore, which are neutralised, which are intensified until they harden into stereotype, and which, instead, succeed in generating ruptures, resistances and inventions. It is here that the notion of cultural translation reveals its full scope: to translate is not merely to move from one language to another, but to cross a threshold between worlds – one in which presuppositions shift, hierarchies of value are rearranged, aesthetic sensibilities are recalibrated, and even the very ways in which a work is recognised as ‘classic’, ‘modern’, ‘popular’, ‘minor’, ‘political’ or ‘spiritual’ are transformed.

This article takes ‘reconstructing Orientalism’ as the core perspective to explore the structural misreadings produced by the West in the process of translating and accepting Chinese classical literary works such as The Dream of the Red Chamber and Chu Ci, revealing the ideological and cultural discipline mechanisms behind them. By combining text close reading with cross-cultural discourse analysis, this article analyses the different translation paths of The Dream of the Red Chamber by Jolly and Hawkes, as well as the poetic reconstruction of Chu Ci by Legge and Waley, pointing out the problems of semantic concealment and narrative assimilation in cultural conversion. Finally, it is pointed out that achieving cultural dialogue and structural participation from multiple perspectives can help open up new paths and possibilities for the global understanding of Chinese classical literature.

The aim of this research is to explore how Western versions of The Orphan of Zhao and Farewell My Concubine transform Chinese storytelling. It argues that Western interpretations are shaped by translation, distribution, and selective exoticisation. Drawing on Orientalism and translation studies, the article shows how The Orphan of Zhao becomes a Western-style tragedy centred on the autonomous individual and resistance to tyranny, departing from Confucian relational values. Similarly, Farewell My Concubine is often read in the West as a queer melodrama and testimony of authoritarian violence, overlooking traditional theatrical and historical contexts. Through textual analysis and cross-cultural critique, the study shows that Western theories – including humanist tragedy, psychoanalysis, queer theory, and liberal critiques of state power – both illuminate and limit understanding. It concludes that Sino-Western literary relations should be treated as a bidirectional dialogue, in which Chinese narratives challenge and enrich Western paradigms rather than serving as mere material.

At present, the formal shaping of contemporary Chinese realist novels is deeply influenced by the Marxist paradigm of literary analysis. Marxist literary theory operates across four dimensions: language, characterised by a passionate utopian impulse; narrative style, which transcends fixed value systems; social circles, in which character structures break beyond their original confines; and a dialectical narrative perspective that foregrounds historical complexity. These four factors construct the creative nature of the intertextual history of Chinese realist novels, and their form presents a social critical dimension. In the process of translation and introduction, although the language style, character structure, narrative style, and narrative perspective have undergone cultural adaptation under the Western literary system, the social critical dimension of the novel form has been preserved as a whole, forming a disembedded reconstruction of literary symbols.

Since Water Margin was introduced to Japan during the Edo period (1603–1867) by its first Japanese translator, Okajima Kanzan, it has established a profound connection with the era's popular literature. The integration of this classic with Japanese culture was multifaceted. To expand its audience and accommodate illiterate commoners, illustrated editions of Water Margin emerged. These editions evolved, from initial rough translations with simplistic drawings during early Edo, to the widespread, popular picture books of the mid-Edo period, and finally to the distinctive, Japanised versions of the late Edo period. Examining the progression of Water Margin picture books reveals the dynamics of its transmission, reception and transformation in Japan, highlighting deep cultural implications. The impact on Edo literature was significant, particularly in novel writing, spurring a wave of creative adaptations. This trend also facilitated the spread of Chinese vernacular literature in Japan.

This article constructs an interdisciplinary paradigm integrating Yi aesthetics, Western academic interpretations of Chinese aesthetics, and Chinese American diaspora narratives. It aims to fill gaps in Western scholarship regarding the mysticism of the I Ching, tracing the cross-cultural transformation of Zhou Yi hexagram symbols into poetic forms and exploring the underlying cultural-political logic. Taking The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston as the primary object of analysis, the study examines how the writer constructs poetic anti-colonialism and shapes ethnic identity discourse through the creative reinterpretation of Yi aesthetics’ three core dimensions: image-thinking, philosophy of change, and holistic thinking. This aesthetic practice fundamentally deconstructs Western Orientalist stereotypes, offers a localized theoretical model for Chinese literary studies, and opens new avenues for contemporary comparative literature and ethnic identity research.

New Portrait of a Female Knight, the final novel by Malaysian Chinese writer Lee Yung Ping, draws on traditional martial arts novels but transcends the typical ‘heroic dream’. This article examines the narrative's underlying metaphors related to Chinese identity, cultural memory and the imagination of the homeland, through the lens of narrative of revenge, a nomadic cartography and a projected ‘Cultural China Dream’. Using human geography theories, it shows how martial arts evoke an idealised ‘Chineseness’. In this story, linked to the author's diasporic Chinese identity, the central theme is the relinquishment of the notion of ‘arrival’. The novel acknowledges that the ‘homeland China’ can only be approached, never fully attained, deconstructing the traditional ‘root-seeking’ narrative in overseas Chinese literature.” This nuanced perspective deepens the exploration of the relationship between overseas Chinese and their homeland, offering a fresh understanding of the diasporic experience.

This Special Issue arises from the need to turn an increasingly evident fact, namely the ever more intense circulation of Chinese literature and culture within Western publishing, academic and mass media spheres, into a more rigorous field of inquiry, one capable of reading together both the benefits and the distortions that any cultural crossing necessarily brings with it. Its first aim, therefore, is to do so without collapsing the problem into a simple alternative between fidelity and betrayal, because what is at stake here is something more profound: the production of meaning that occurs when a text, an imagery, an aesthetic form or a symbolic constellation enters another regime of reading, another economy of attention, another grammar of recognisability. This Special Issue therefore takes as its object not China in the abstract, but the concrete interface between Chinese narratives and Western receptions: in other words, the filters, frames, expectations and interpretive codes that determine which aspects of a text come to the fore, which are neutralised, which are intensified until they harden into stereotype, and which, instead, succeed in generating ruptures, resistances and inventions. It is here that the notion of cultural translation reveals its full scope: to translate is not merely to move from one language to another, but to cross a threshold between worlds – one in which presuppositions shift, hierarchies of value are rearranged, aesthetic sensibilities are recalibrated, and even the very ways in which a work is recognised as ‘classic’, ‘modern’, ‘popular’, ‘minor’, ‘political’ or ‘spiritual’ are transformed.

This article takes ‘reconstructing Orientalism’ as the core perspective to explore the structural misreadings produced by the West in the process of translating and accepting Chinese classical literary works such as The Dream of the Red Chamber and Chu Ci, revealing the ideological and cultural discipline mechanisms behind them. By combining text close reading with cross-cultural discourse analysis, this article analyses the different translation paths of The Dream of the Red Chamber by Jolly and Hawkes, as well as the poetic reconstruction of Chu Ci by Legge and Waley, pointing out the problems of semantic concealment and narrative assimilation in cultural conversion. Finally, it is pointed out that achieving cultural dialogue and structural participation from multiple perspectives can help open up new paths and possibilities for the global understanding of Chinese classical literature.

The aim of this research is to explore how Western versions of The Orphan of Zhao and Farewell My Concubine transform Chinese storytelling. It argues that Western interpretations are shaped by translation, distribution, and selective exoticisation. Drawing on Orientalism and translation studies, the article shows how The Orphan of Zhao becomes a Western-style tragedy centred on the autonomous individual and resistance to tyranny, departing from Confucian relational values. Similarly, Farewell My Concubine is often read in the West as a queer melodrama and testimony of authoritarian violence, overlooking traditional theatrical and historical contexts. Through textual analysis and cross-cultural critique, the study shows that Western theories – including humanist tragedy, psychoanalysis, queer theory, and liberal critiques of state power – both illuminate and limit understanding. It concludes that Sino-Western literary relations should be treated as a bidirectional dialogue, in which Chinese narratives challenge and enrich Western paradigms rather than serving as mere material.

At present, the formal shaping of contemporary Chinese realist novels is deeply influenced by the Marxist paradigm of literary analysis. Marxist literary theory operates across four dimensions: language, characterised by a passionate utopian impulse; narrative style, which transcends fixed value systems; social circles, in which character structures break beyond their original confines; and a dialectical narrative perspective that foregrounds historical complexity. These four factors construct the creative nature of the intertextual history of Chinese realist novels, and their form presents a social critical dimension. In the process of translation and introduction, although the language style, character structure, narrative style, and narrative perspective have undergone cultural adaptation under the Western literary system, the social critical dimension of the novel form has been preserved as a whole, forming a disembedded reconstruction of literary symbols.

Since Water Margin was introduced to Japan during the Edo period (1603–1867) by its first Japanese translator, Okajima Kanzan, it has established a profound connection with the era's popular literature. The integration of this classic with Japanese culture was multifaceted. To expand its audience and accommodate illiterate commoners, illustrated editions of Water Margin emerged. These editions evolved, from initial rough translations with simplistic drawings during early Edo, to the widespread, popular picture books of the mid-Edo period, and finally to the distinctive, Japanised versions of the late Edo period. Examining the progression of Water Margin picture books reveals the dynamics of its transmission, reception and transformation in Japan, highlighting deep cultural implications. The impact on Edo literature was significant, particularly in novel writing, spurring a wave of creative adaptations. This trend also facilitated the spread of Chinese vernacular literature in Japan.

This article constructs an interdisciplinary paradigm integrating Yi aesthetics, Western academic interpretations of Chinese aesthetics, and Chinese American diaspora narratives. It aims to fill gaps in Western scholarship regarding the mysticism of the I Ching, tracing the cross-cultural transformation of Zhou Yi hexagram symbols into poetic forms and exploring the underlying cultural-political logic. Taking The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston as the primary object of analysis, the study examines how the writer constructs poetic anti-colonialism and shapes ethnic identity discourse through the creative reinterpretation of Yi aesthetics’ three core dimensions: image-thinking, philosophy of change, and holistic thinking. This aesthetic practice fundamentally deconstructs Western Orientalist stereotypes, offers a localized theoretical model for Chinese literary studies, and opens new avenues for contemporary comparative literature and ethnic identity research.

New Portrait of a Female Knight, the final novel by Malaysian Chinese writer Lee Yung Ping, draws on traditional martial arts novels but transcends the typical ‘heroic dream’. This article examines the narrative's underlying metaphors related to Chinese identity, cultural memory and the imagination of the homeland, through the lens of narrative of revenge, a nomadic cartography and a projected ‘Cultural China Dream’. Using human geography theories, it shows how martial arts evoke an idealised ‘Chineseness’. In this story, linked to the author's diasporic Chinese identity, the central theme is the relinquishment of the notion of ‘arrival’. The novel acknowledges that the ‘homeland China’ can only be approached, never fully attained, deconstructing the traditional ‘root-seeking’ narrative in overseas Chinese literature.” This nuanced perspective deepens the exploration of the relationship between overseas Chinese and their homeland, offering a fresh understanding of the diasporic experience.

This article redefines Amy Tan's literary identity through a Western prism, focusing on her translingual practice that negotiates the cultural meaning across linguistic and ideological boundaries. It argues that Tan did not passively reflect Chinese culture in her English fiction but rather constructively re-created it through and against Western critical viewpoint. The study examines how Tan's cross-linguistic strategies constitute semantic interference, syntactic hybridity and code-switching, acts as cultural resistance. It also explores Western misinterpretations shaped by Orientalist bias which treat these strategies as questions of cultural authenticity rather than identity negotiation This study proves that Tan uses language in both The Joy Luck Club and The Hundred Secret Senses to challenge Western ideas of Chineseness and make writings as a location of intercultural dialogue. This article contributes to Sino-Western literary studies by showing how Tan's bilingual authorship crosses epistemological boundaries and uses translation to shape identity.

This Special Issue arises from the need to turn an increasingly evident fact, namely the ever more intense circulation of Chinese literature and culture within Western publishing, academic and mass media spheres, into a more rigorous field of inquiry, one capable of reading together both the benefits and the distortions that any cultural crossing necessarily brings with it. Its first aim, therefore, is to do so without collapsing the problem into a simple alternative between fidelity and betrayal, because what is at stake here is something more profound: the production of meaning that occurs when a text, an imagery, an aesthetic form or a symbolic constellation enters another regime of reading, another economy of attention, another grammar of recognisability. This Special Issue therefore takes as its object not China in the abstract, but the concrete interface between Chinese narratives and Western receptions: in other words, the filters, frames, expectations and interpretive codes that determine which aspects of a text come to the fore, which are neutralised, which are intensified until they harden into stereotype, and which, instead, succeed in generating ruptures, resistances and inventions. It is here that the notion of cultural translation reveals its full scope: to translate is not merely to move from one language to another, but to cross a threshold between worlds – one in which presuppositions shift, hierarchies of value are rearranged, aesthetic sensibilities are recalibrated, and even the very ways in which a work is recognised as ‘classic’, ‘modern’, ‘popular’, ‘minor’, ‘political’ or ‘spiritual’ are transformed.

This article takes ‘reconstructing Orientalism’ as the core perspective to explore the structural misreadings produced by the West in the process of translating and accepting Chinese classical literary works such as The Dream of the Red Chamber and Chu Ci, revealing the ideological and cultural discipline mechanisms behind them. By combining text close reading with cross-cultural discourse analysis, this article analyses the different translation paths of The Dream of the Red Chamber by Jolly and Hawkes, as well as the poetic reconstruction of Chu Ci by Legge and Waley, pointing out the problems of semantic concealment and narrative assimilation in cultural conversion. Finally, it is pointed out that achieving cultural dialogue and structural participation from multiple perspectives can help open up new paths and possibilities for the global understanding of Chinese classical literature.

The aim of this research is to explore how Western versions of The Orphan of Zhao and Farewell My Concubine transform Chinese storytelling. It argues that Western interpretations are shaped by translation, distribution, and selective exoticisation. Drawing on Orientalism and translation studies, the article shows how The Orphan of Zhao becomes a Western-style tragedy centred on the autonomous individual and resistance to tyranny, departing from Confucian relational values. Similarly, Farewell My Concubine is often read in the West as a queer melodrama and testimony of authoritarian violence, overlooking traditional theatrical and historical contexts. Through textual analysis and cross-cultural critique, the study shows that Western theories – including humanist tragedy, psychoanalysis, queer theory, and liberal critiques of state power – both illuminate and limit understanding. It concludes that Sino-Western literary relations should be treated as a bidirectional dialogue, in which Chinese narratives challenge and enrich Western paradigms rather than serving as mere material.

At present, the formal shaping of contemporary Chinese realist novels is deeply influenced by the Marxist paradigm of literary analysis. Marxist literary theory operates across four dimensions: language, characterised by a passionate utopian impulse; narrative style, which transcends fixed value systems; social circles, in which character structures break beyond their original confines; and a dialectical narrative perspective that foregrounds historical complexity. These four factors construct the creative nature of the intertextual history of Chinese realist novels, and their form presents a social critical dimension. In the process of translation and introduction, although the language style, character structure, narrative style, and narrative perspective have undergone cultural adaptation under the Western literary system, the social critical dimension of the novel form has been preserved as a whole, forming a disembedded reconstruction of literary symbols.

Since Water Margin was introduced to Japan during the Edo period (1603–1867) by its first Japanese translator, Okajima Kanzan, it has established a profound connection with the era's popular literature. The integration of this classic with Japanese culture was multifaceted. To expand its audience and accommodate illiterate commoners, illustrated editions of Water Margin emerged. These editions evolved, from initial rough translations with simplistic drawings during early Edo, to the widespread, popular picture books of the mid-Edo period, and finally to the distinctive, Japanised versions of the late Edo period. Examining the progression of Water Margin picture books reveals the dynamics of its transmission, reception and transformation in Japan, highlighting deep cultural implications. The impact on Edo literature was significant, particularly in novel writing, spurring a wave of creative adaptations. This trend also facilitated the spread of Chinese vernacular literature in Japan.

This article constructs an interdisciplinary paradigm integrating Yi aesthetics, Western academic interpretations of Chinese aesthetics, and Chinese American diaspora narratives. It aims to fill gaps in Western scholarship regarding the mysticism of the I Ching, tracing the cross-cultural transformation of Zhou Yi hexagram symbols into poetic forms and exploring the underlying cultural-political logic. Taking The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston as the primary object of analysis, the study examines how the writer constructs poetic anti-colonialism and shapes ethnic identity discourse through the creative reinterpretation of Yi aesthetics’ three core dimensions: image-thinking, philosophy of change, and holistic thinking. This aesthetic practice fundamentally deconstructs Western Orientalist stereotypes, offers a localized theoretical model for Chinese literary studies, and opens new avenues for contemporary comparative literature and ethnic identity research.

New Portrait of a Female Knight, the final novel by Malaysian Chinese writer Lee Yung Ping, draws on traditional martial arts novels but transcends the typical ‘heroic dream’. This article examines the narrative's underlying metaphors related to Chinese identity, cultural memory and the imagination of the homeland, through the lens of narrative of revenge, a nomadic cartography and a projected ‘Cultural China Dream’. Using human geography theories, it shows how martial arts evoke an idealised ‘Chineseness’. In this story, linked to the author's diasporic Chinese identity, the central theme is the relinquishment of the notion of ‘arrival’. The novel acknowledges that the ‘homeland China’ can only be approached, never fully attained, deconstructing the traditional ‘root-seeking’ narrative in overseas Chinese literature.” This nuanced perspective deepens the exploration of the relationship between overseas Chinese and their homeland, offering a fresh understanding of the diasporic experience.

This article redefines Amy Tan's literary identity through a Western prism, focusing on her translingual practice that negotiates the cultural meaning across linguistic and ideological boundaries. It argues that Tan did not passively reflect Chinese culture in her English fiction but rather constructively re-created it through and against Western critical viewpoint. The study examines how Tan's cross-linguistic strategies constitute semantic interference, syntactic hybridity and code-switching, acts as cultural resistance. It also explores Western misinterpretations shaped by Orientalist bias which treat these strategies as questions of cultural authenticity rather than identity negotiation This study proves that Tan uses language in both The Joy Luck Club and The Hundred Secret Senses to challenge Western ideas of Chineseness and make writings as a location of intercultural dialogue. This article contributes to Sino-Western literary studies by showing how Tan's bilingual authorship crosses epistemological boundaries and uses translation to shape identity.

Wesley Chu, an American-born Chinese science fiction author, establishes criteria to propagate the traditional cultural values of China using futuristic narratives. In the Tao trilogy, he discusses the underlying innuendos of creative practice by employing the creative growth of the protagonist, and the destiny of the world's future, to reinterprete or re-represent Chinese culture as understood by Western readers. The analysis of Tao series has demonstrated that the concept of Tao is appropriately used to create its own magical world, not patching the symbols of cultures on a superficial level. Tao's fantasy narratives reveal the powerful emotional experiences of the Chinese diaspora, including identity anxiety, cultural nostalgia and defiant rage. The appropriation and grafting disrupts the Orientalist narrative, the Eastern cultural subjectivity and historical experience central, and forming a principled dialogue about cultural power, colonial memory and identity politicsand stretching the intellectual frontiers of the science fiction/fantasy genre and its Orientalist nomenclature to a substantial extent.

This Special Issue arises from the need to turn an increasingly evident fact, namely the ever more intense circulation of Chinese literature and culture within Western publishing, academic and mass media spheres, into a more rigorous field of inquiry, one capable of reading together both the benefits and the distortions that any cultural crossing necessarily brings with it. Its first aim, therefore, is to do so without collapsing the problem into a simple alternative between fidelity and betrayal, because what is at stake here is something more profound: the production of meaning that occurs when a text, an imagery, an aesthetic form or a symbolic constellation enters another regime of reading, another economy of attention, another grammar of recognisability. This Special Issue therefore takes as its object not China in the abstract, but the concrete interface between Chinese narratives and Western receptions: in other words, the filters, frames, expectations and interpretive codes that determine which aspects of a text come to the fore, which are neutralised, which are intensified until they harden into stereotype, and which, instead, succeed in generating ruptures, resistances and inventions. It is here that the notion of cultural translation reveals its full scope: to translate is not merely to move from one language to another, but to cross a threshold between worlds – one in which presuppositions shift, hierarchies of value are rearranged, aesthetic sensibilities are recalibrated, and even the very ways in which a work is recognised as ‘classic’, ‘modern’, ‘popular’, ‘minor’, ‘political’ or ‘spiritual’ are transformed.

This article takes ‘reconstructing Orientalism’ as the core perspective to explore the structural misreadings produced by the West in the process of translating and accepting Chinese classical literary works such as The Dream of the Red Chamber and Chu Ci, revealing the ideological and cultural discipline mechanisms behind them. By combining text close reading with cross-cultural discourse analysis, this article analyses the different translation paths of The Dream of the Red Chamber by Jolly and Hawkes, as well as the poetic reconstruction of Chu Ci by Legge and Waley, pointing out the problems of semantic concealment and narrative assimilation in cultural conversion. Finally, it is pointed out that achieving cultural dialogue and structural participation from multiple perspectives can help open up new paths and possibilities for the global understanding of Chinese classical literature.

The aim of this research is to explore how Western versions of The Orphan of Zhao and Farewell My Concubine transform Chinese storytelling. It argues that Western interpretations are shaped by translation, distribution, and selective exoticisation. Drawing on Orientalism and translation studies, the article shows how The Orphan of Zhao becomes a Western-style tragedy centred on the autonomous individual and resistance to tyranny, departing from Confucian relational values. Similarly, Farewell My Concubine is often read in the West as a queer melodrama and testimony of authoritarian violence, overlooking traditional theatrical and historical contexts. Through textual analysis and cross-cultural critique, the study shows that Western theories – including humanist tragedy, psychoanalysis, queer theory, and liberal critiques of state power – both illuminate and limit understanding. It concludes that Sino-Western literary relations should be treated as a bidirectional dialogue, in which Chinese narratives challenge and enrich Western paradigms rather than serving as mere material.

At present, the formal shaping of contemporary Chinese realist novels is deeply influenced by the Marxist paradigm of literary analysis. Marxist literary theory operates across four dimensions: language, characterised by a passionate utopian impulse; narrative style, which transcends fixed value systems; social circles, in which character structures break beyond their original confines; and a dialectical narrative perspective that foregrounds historical complexity. These four factors construct the creative nature of the intertextual history of Chinese realist novels, and their form presents a social critical dimension. In the process of translation and introduction, although the language style, character structure, narrative style, and narrative perspective have undergone cultural adaptation under the Western literary system, the social critical dimension of the novel form has been preserved as a whole, forming a disembedded reconstruction of literary symbols.

Since Water Margin was introduced to Japan during the Edo period (1603–1867) by its first Japanese translator, Okajima Kanzan, it has established a profound connection with the era's popular literature. The integration of this classic with Japanese culture was multifaceted. To expand its audience and accommodate illiterate commoners, illustrated editions of Water Margin emerged. These editions evolved, from initial rough translations with simplistic drawings during early Edo, to the widespread, popular picture books of the mid-Edo period, and finally to the distinctive, Japanised versions of the late Edo period. Examining the progression of Water Margin picture books reveals the dynamics of its transmission, reception and transformation in Japan, highlighting deep cultural implications. The impact on Edo literature was significant, particularly in novel writing, spurring a wave of creative adaptations. This trend also facilitated the spread of Chinese vernacular literature in Japan.

This article constructs an interdisciplinary paradigm integrating Yi aesthetics, Western academic interpretations of Chinese aesthetics, and Chinese American diaspora narratives. It aims to fill gaps in Western scholarship regarding the mysticism of the I Ching, tracing the cross-cultural transformation of Zhou Yi hexagram symbols into poetic forms and exploring the underlying cultural-political logic. Taking The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston as the primary object of analysis, the study examines how the writer constructs poetic anti-colonialism and shapes ethnic identity discourse through the creative reinterpretation of Yi aesthetics’ three core dimensions: image-thinking, philosophy of change, and holistic thinking. This aesthetic practice fundamentally deconstructs Western Orientalist stereotypes, offers a localized theoretical model for Chinese literary studies, and opens new avenues for contemporary comparative literature and ethnic identity research.

New Portrait of a Female Knight, the final novel by Malaysian Chinese writer Lee Yung Ping, draws on traditional martial arts novels but transcends the typical ‘heroic dream’. This article examines the narrative's underlying metaphors related to Chinese identity, cultural memory and the imagination of the homeland, through the lens of narrative of revenge, a nomadic cartography and a projected ‘Cultural China Dream’. Using human geography theories, it shows how martial arts evoke an idealised ‘Chineseness’. In this story, linked to the author's diasporic Chinese identity, the central theme is the relinquishment of the notion of ‘arrival’. The novel acknowledges that the ‘homeland China’ can only be approached, never fully attained, deconstructing the traditional ‘root-seeking’ narrative in overseas Chinese literature.” This nuanced perspective deepens the exploration of the relationship between overseas Chinese and their homeland, offering a fresh understanding of the diasporic experience.

This article redefines Amy Tan's literary identity through a Western prism, focusing on her translingual practice that negotiates the cultural meaning across linguistic and ideological boundaries. It argues that Tan did not passively reflect Chinese culture in her English fiction but rather constructively re-created it through and against Western critical viewpoint. The study examines how Tan's cross-linguistic strategies constitute semantic interference, syntactic hybridity and code-switching, acts as cultural resistance. It also explores Western misinterpretations shaped by Orientalist bias which treat these strategies as questions of cultural authenticity rather than identity negotiation This study proves that Tan uses language in both The Joy Luck Club and The Hundred Secret Senses to challenge Western ideas of Chineseness and make writings as a location of intercultural dialogue. This article contributes to Sino-Western literary studies by showing how Tan's bilingual authorship crosses epistemological boundaries and uses translation to shape identity.

Wesley Chu, an American-born Chinese science fiction author, establishes criteria to propagate the traditional cultural values of China using futuristic narratives. In the Tao trilogy, he discusses the underlying innuendos of creative practice by employing the creative growth of the protagonist, and the destiny of the world's future, to reinterprete or re-represent Chinese culture as understood by Western readers. The analysis of Tao series has demonstrated that the concept of Tao is appropriately used to create its own magical world, not patching the symbols of cultures on a superficial level. Tao's fantasy narratives reveal the powerful emotional experiences of the Chinese diaspora, including identity anxiety, cultural nostalgia and defiant rage. The appropriation and grafting disrupts the Orientalist narrative, the Eastern cultural subjectivity and historical experience central, and forming a principled dialogue about cultural power, colonial memory and identity politicsand stretching the intellectual frontiers of the science fiction/fantasy genre and its Orientalist nomenclature to a substantial extent.

When Lao She's Teahouse moves from the Chinese stage to Broadway, something vital gets lost in translation. This article explores that shift, applying Adorno and Horkheimer's theories to show how the Western culture industry neutralises dissent; that is, to account for the bourgeois appropriation of the work. It is worth noting that the original drama's focus on twentieth-century class conflict is essentially flattened by the musical format, replaced by the kind of individual sentiment that sells tickets. So, by analysing this transition, I show how the political grit of the work is stripped away and repackaged as an exotic luxury. It is a classic case of how global markets can take non-Western radical literature and turn it into a harmless, consumable product.

This Special Issue arises from the need to turn an increasingly evident fact, namely the ever more intense circulation of Chinese literature and culture within Western publishing, academic and mass media spheres, into a more rigorous field of inquiry, one capable of reading together both the benefits and the distortions that any cultural crossing necessarily brings with it. Its first aim, therefore, is to do so without collapsing the problem into a simple alternative between fidelity and betrayal, because what is at stake here is something more profound: the production of meaning that occurs when a text, an imagery, an aesthetic form or a symbolic constellation enters another regime of reading, another economy of attention, another grammar of recognisability. This Special Issue therefore takes as its object not China in the abstract, but the concrete interface between Chinese narratives and Western receptions: in other words, the filters, frames, expectations and interpretive codes that determine which aspects of a text come to the fore, which are neutralised, which are intensified until they harden into stereotype, and which, instead, succeed in generating ruptures, resistances and inventions. It is here that the notion of cultural translation reveals its full scope: to translate is not merely to move from one language to another, but to cross a threshold between worlds – one in which presuppositions shift, hierarchies of value are rearranged, aesthetic sensibilities are recalibrated, and even the very ways in which a work is recognised as ‘classic’, ‘modern’, ‘popular’, ‘minor’, ‘political’ or ‘spiritual’ are transformed.

This article takes ‘reconstructing Orientalism’ as the core perspective to explore the structural misreadings produced by the West in the process of translating and accepting Chinese classical literary works such as The Dream of the Red Chamber and Chu Ci, revealing the ideological and cultural discipline mechanisms behind them. By combining text close reading with cross-cultural discourse analysis, this article analyses the different translation paths of The Dream of the Red Chamber by Jolly and Hawkes, as well as the poetic reconstruction of Chu Ci by Legge and Waley, pointing out the problems of semantic concealment and narrative assimilation in cultural conversion. Finally, it is pointed out that achieving cultural dialogue and structural participation from multiple perspectives can help open up new paths and possibilities for the global understanding of Chinese classical literature.

The aim of this research is to explore how Western versions of The Orphan of Zhao and Farewell My Concubine transform Chinese storytelling. It argues that Western interpretations are shaped by translation, distribution, and selective exoticisation. Drawing on Orientalism and translation studies, the article shows how The Orphan of Zhao becomes a Western-style tragedy centred on the autonomous individual and resistance to tyranny, departing from Confucian relational values. Similarly, Farewell My Concubine is often read in the West as a queer melodrama and testimony of authoritarian violence, overlooking traditional theatrical and historical contexts. Through textual analysis and cross-cultural critique, the study shows that Western theories – including humanist tragedy, psychoanalysis, queer theory, and liberal critiques of state power – both illuminate and limit understanding. It concludes that Sino-Western literary relations should be treated as a bidirectional dialogue, in which Chinese narratives challenge and enrich Western paradigms rather than serving as mere material.

At present, the formal shaping of contemporary Chinese realist novels is deeply influenced by the Marxist paradigm of literary analysis. Marxist literary theory operates across four dimensions: language, characterised by a passionate utopian impulse; narrative style, which transcends fixed value systems; social circles, in which character structures break beyond their original confines; and a dialectical narrative perspective that foregrounds historical complexity. These four factors construct the creative nature of the intertextual history of Chinese realist novels, and their form presents a social critical dimension. In the process of translation and introduction, although the language style, character structure, narrative style, and narrative perspective have undergone cultural adaptation under the Western literary system, the social critical dimension of the novel form has been preserved as a whole, forming a disembedded reconstruction of literary symbols.

Since Water Margin was introduced to Japan during the Edo period (1603–1867) by its first Japanese translator, Okajima Kanzan, it has established a profound connection with the era's popular literature. The integration of this classic with Japanese culture was multifaceted. To expand its audience and accommodate illiterate commoners, illustrated editions of Water Margin emerged. These editions evolved, from initial rough translations with simplistic drawings during early Edo, to the widespread, popular picture books of the mid-Edo period, and finally to the distinctive, Japanised versions of the late Edo period. Examining the progression of Water Margin picture books reveals the dynamics of its transmission, reception and transformation in Japan, highlighting deep cultural implications. The impact on Edo literature was significant, particularly in novel writing, spurring a wave of creative adaptations. This trend also facilitated the spread of Chinese vernacular literature in Japan.

This article constructs an interdisciplinary paradigm integrating Yi aesthetics, Western academic interpretations of Chinese aesthetics, and Chinese American diaspora narratives. It aims to fill gaps in Western scholarship regarding the mysticism of the I Ching, tracing the cross-cultural transformation of Zhou Yi hexagram symbols into poetic forms and exploring the underlying cultural-political logic. Taking The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston as the primary object of analysis, the study examines how the writer constructs poetic anti-colonialism and shapes ethnic identity discourse through the creative reinterpretation of Yi aesthetics’ three core dimensions: image-thinking, philosophy of change, and holistic thinking. This aesthetic practice fundamentally deconstructs Western Orientalist stereotypes, offers a localized theoretical model for Chinese literary studies, and opens new avenues for contemporary comparative literature and ethnic identity research.

New Portrait of a Female Knight, the final novel by Malaysian Chinese writer Lee Yung Ping, draws on traditional martial arts novels but transcends the typical ‘heroic dream’. This article examines the narrative's underlying metaphors related to Chinese identity, cultural memory and the imagination of the homeland, through the lens of narrative of revenge, a nomadic cartography and a projected ‘Cultural China Dream’. Using human geography theories, it shows how martial arts evoke an idealised ‘Chineseness’. In this story, linked to the author's diasporic Chinese identity, the central theme is the relinquishment of the notion of ‘arrival’. The novel acknowledges that the ‘homeland China’ can only be approached, never fully attained, deconstructing the traditional ‘root-seeking’ narrative in overseas Chinese literature.” This nuanced perspective deepens the exploration of the relationship between overseas Chinese and their homeland, offering a fresh understanding of the diasporic experience.

This article redefines Amy Tan's literary identity through a Western prism, focusing on her translingual practice that negotiates the cultural meaning across linguistic and ideological boundaries. It argues that Tan did not passively reflect Chinese culture in her English fiction but rather constructively re-created it through and against Western critical viewpoint. The study examines how Tan's cross-linguistic strategies constitute semantic interference, syntactic hybridity and code-switching, acts as cultural resistance. It also explores Western misinterpretations shaped by Orientalist bias which treat these strategies as questions of cultural authenticity rather than identity negotiation This study proves that Tan uses language in both The Joy Luck Club and The Hundred Secret Senses to challenge Western ideas of Chineseness and make writings as a location of intercultural dialogue. This article contributes to Sino-Western literary studies by showing how Tan's bilingual authorship crosses epistemological boundaries and uses translation to shape identity.

Wesley Chu, an American-born Chinese science fiction author, establishes criteria to propagate the traditional cultural values of China using futuristic narratives. In the Tao trilogy, he discusses the underlying innuendos of creative practice by employing the creative growth of the protagonist, and the destiny of the world's future, to reinterprete or re-represent Chinese culture as understood by Western readers. The analysis of Tao series has demonstrated that the concept of Tao is appropriately used to create its own magical world, not patching the symbols of cultures on a superficial level. Tao's fantasy narratives reveal the powerful emotional experiences of the Chinese diaspora, including identity anxiety, cultural nostalgia and defiant rage. The appropriation and grafting disrupts the Orientalist narrative, the Eastern cultural subjectivity and historical experience central, and forming a principled dialogue about cultural power, colonial memory and identity politicsand stretching the intellectual frontiers of the science fiction/fantasy genre and its Orientalist nomenclature to a substantial extent.

When Lao She's Teahouse moves from the Chinese stage to Broadway, something vital gets lost in translation. This article explores that shift, applying Adorno and Horkheimer's theories to show how the Western culture industry neutralises dissent; that is, to account for the bourgeois appropriation of the work. It is worth noting that the original drama's focus on twentieth-century class conflict is essentially flattened by the musical format, replaced by the kind of individual sentiment that sells tickets. So, by analysing this transition, I show how the political grit of the work is stripped away and repackaged as an exotic luxury. It is a classic case of how global markets can take non-Western radical literature and turn it into a harmless, consumable product.

In this article, we interpret the transformation processes of the Western literary reception of Chinese canonical classics revisited in Western visual texts. I question how converting traditional vernacular writing into global visual forms alters narrative logic, ethical orientation, and cultural value for Western consumption, bypassing medium-based technicalities. I examine the visual recoding of the Chinese canon to explain drastic ideological shifts in reading practices, framing the inquiry within a critique of Western-centred interpretive modes. My analysis focuses on how these masterpieces are stripped of their original cosmological, Buddhist, Daoist, and Confucian scaffolding in Ming and Qing novels, reinforcing Western-centric power structures. Through a literary-critical examination of case studies, this paper demonstrates the tense negotiation between preserving literary heritage and satisfying commodity fetishism in the visualisation of Chinese classics.

This Special Issue arises from the need to turn an increasingly evident fact, namely the ever more intense circulation of Chinese literature and culture within Western publishing, academic and mass media spheres, into a more rigorous field of inquiry, one capable of reading together both the benefits and the distortions that any cultural crossing necessarily brings with it. Its first aim, therefore, is to do so without collapsing the problem into a simple alternative between fidelity and betrayal, because what is at stake here is something more profound: the production of meaning that occurs when a text, an imagery, an aesthetic form or a symbolic constellation enters another regime of reading, another economy of attention, another grammar of recognisability. This Special Issue therefore takes as its object not China in the abstract, but the concrete interface between Chinese narratives and Western receptions: in other words, the filters, frames, expectations and interpretive codes that determine which aspects of a text come to the fore, which are neutralised, which are intensified until they harden into stereotype, and which, instead, succeed in generating ruptures, resistances and inventions. It is here that the notion of cultural translation reveals its full scope: to translate is not merely to move from one language to another, but to cross a threshold between worlds – one in which presuppositions shift, hierarchies of value are rearranged, aesthetic sensibilities are recalibrated, and even the very ways in which a work is recognised as ‘classic’, ‘modern’, ‘popular’, ‘minor’, ‘political’ or ‘spiritual’ are transformed.

This article takes ‘reconstructing Orientalism’ as the core perspective to explore the structural misreadings produced by the West in the process of translating and accepting Chinese classical literary works such as The Dream of the Red Chamber and Chu Ci, revealing the ideological and cultural discipline mechanisms behind them. By combining text close reading with cross-cultural discourse analysis, this article analyses the different translation paths of The Dream of the Red Chamber by Jolly and Hawkes, as well as the poetic reconstruction of Chu Ci by Legge and Waley, pointing out the problems of semantic concealment and narrative assimilation in cultural conversion. Finally, it is pointed out that achieving cultural dialogue and structural participation from multiple perspectives can help open up new paths and possibilities for the global understanding of Chinese classical literature.

The aim of this research is to explore how Western versions of The Orphan of Zhao and Farewell My Concubine transform Chinese storytelling. It argues that Western interpretations are shaped by translation, distribution, and selective exoticisation. Drawing on Orientalism and translation studies, the article shows how The Orphan of Zhao becomes a Western-style tragedy centred on the autonomous individual and resistance to tyranny, departing from Confucian relational values. Similarly, Farewell My Concubine is often read in the West as a queer melodrama and testimony of authoritarian violence, overlooking traditional theatrical and historical contexts. Through textual analysis and cross-cultural critique, the study shows that Western theories – including humanist tragedy, psychoanalysis, queer theory, and liberal critiques of state power – both illuminate and limit understanding. It concludes that Sino-Western literary relations should be treated as a bidirectional dialogue, in which Chinese narratives challenge and enrich Western paradigms rather than serving as mere material.

At present, the formal shaping of contemporary Chinese realist novels is deeply influenced by the Marxist paradigm of literary analysis. Marxist literary theory operates across four dimensions: language, characterised by a passionate utopian impulse; narrative style, which transcends fixed value systems; social circles, in which character structures break beyond their original confines; and a dialectical narrative perspective that foregrounds historical complexity. These four factors construct the creative nature of the intertextual history of Chinese realist novels, and their form presents a social critical dimension. In the process of translation and introduction, although the language style, character structure, narrative style, and narrative perspective have undergone cultural adaptation under the Western literary system, the social critical dimension of the novel form has been preserved as a whole, forming a disembedded reconstruction of literary symbols.

Since Water Margin was introduced to Japan during the Edo period (1603–1867) by its first Japanese translator, Okajima Kanzan, it has established a profound connection with the era's popular literature. The integration of this classic with Japanese culture was multifaceted. To expand its audience and accommodate illiterate commoners, illustrated editions of Water Margin emerged. These editions evolved, from initial rough translations with simplistic drawings during early Edo, to the widespread, popular picture books of the mid-Edo period, and finally to the distinctive, Japanised versions of the late Edo period. Examining the progression of Water Margin picture books reveals the dynamics of its transmission, reception and transformation in Japan, highlighting deep cultural implications. The impact on Edo literature was significant, particularly in novel writing, spurring a wave of creative adaptations. This trend also facilitated the spread of Chinese vernacular literature in Japan.

This article constructs an interdisciplinary paradigm integrating Yi aesthetics, Western academic interpretations of Chinese aesthetics, and Chinese American diaspora narratives. It aims to fill gaps in Western scholarship regarding the mysticism of the I Ching, tracing the cross-cultural transformation of Zhou Yi hexagram symbols into poetic forms and exploring the underlying cultural-political logic. Taking The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston as the primary object of analysis, the study examines how the writer constructs poetic anti-colonialism and shapes ethnic identity discourse through the creative reinterpretation of Yi aesthetics’ three core dimensions: image-thinking, philosophy of change, and holistic thinking. This aesthetic practice fundamentally deconstructs Western Orientalist stereotypes, offers a localized theoretical model for Chinese literary studies, and opens new avenues for contemporary comparative literature and ethnic identity research.

New Portrait of a Female Knight, the final novel by Malaysian Chinese writer Lee Yung Ping, draws on traditional martial arts novels but transcends the typical ‘heroic dream’. This article examines the narrative's underlying metaphors related to Chinese identity, cultural memory and the imagination of the homeland, through the lens of narrative of revenge, a nomadic cartography and a projected ‘Cultural China Dream’. Using human geography theories, it shows how martial arts evoke an idealised ‘Chineseness’. In this story, linked to the author's diasporic Chinese identity, the central theme is the relinquishment of the notion of ‘arrival’. The novel acknowledges that the ‘homeland China’ can only be approached, never fully attained, deconstructing the traditional ‘root-seeking’ narrative in overseas Chinese literature.” This nuanced perspective deepens the exploration of the relationship between overseas Chinese and their homeland, offering a fresh understanding of the diasporic experience.

This article redefines Amy Tan's literary identity through a Western prism, focusing on her translingual practice that negotiates the cultural meaning across linguistic and ideological boundaries. It argues that Tan did not passively reflect Chinese culture in her English fiction but rather constructively re-created it through and against Western critical viewpoint. The study examines how Tan's cross-linguistic strategies constitute semantic interference, syntactic hybridity and code-switching, acts as cultural resistance. It also explores Western misinterpretations shaped by Orientalist bias which treat these strategies as questions of cultural authenticity rather than identity negotiation This study proves that Tan uses language in both The Joy Luck Club and The Hundred Secret Senses to challenge Western ideas of Chineseness and make writings as a location of intercultural dialogue. This article contributes to Sino-Western literary studies by showing how Tan's bilingual authorship crosses epistemological boundaries and uses translation to shape identity.

Wesley Chu, an American-born Chinese science fiction author, establishes criteria to propagate the traditional cultural values of China using futuristic narratives. In the Tao trilogy, he discusses the underlying innuendos of creative practice by employing the creative growth of the protagonist, and the destiny of the world's future, to reinterprete or re-represent Chinese culture as understood by Western readers. The analysis of Tao series has demonstrated that the concept of Tao is appropriately used to create its own magical world, not patching the symbols of cultures on a superficial level. Tao's fantasy narratives reveal the powerful emotional experiences of the Chinese diaspora, including identity anxiety, cultural nostalgia and defiant rage. The appropriation and grafting disrupts the Orientalist narrative, the Eastern cultural subjectivity and historical experience central, and forming a principled dialogue about cultural power, colonial memory and identity politicsand stretching the intellectual frontiers of the science fiction/fantasy genre and its Orientalist nomenclature to a substantial extent.

When Lao She's Teahouse moves from the Chinese stage to Broadway, something vital gets lost in translation. This article explores that shift, applying Adorno and Horkheimer's theories to show how the Western culture industry neutralises dissent; that is, to account for the bourgeois appropriation of the work. It is worth noting that the original drama's focus on twentieth-century class conflict is essentially flattened by the musical format, replaced by the kind of individual sentiment that sells tickets. So, by analysing this transition, I show how the political grit of the work is stripped away and repackaged as an exotic luxury. It is a classic case of how global markets can take non-Western radical literature and turn it into a harmless, consumable product.

In this article, we interpret the transformation processes of the Western literary reception of Chinese canonical classics revisited in Western visual texts. I question how converting traditional vernacular writing into global visual forms alters narrative logic, ethical orientation, and cultural value for Western consumption, bypassing medium-based technicalities. I examine the visual recoding of the Chinese canon to explain drastic ideological shifts in reading practices, framing the inquiry within a critique of Western-centred interpretive modes. My analysis focuses on how these masterpieces are stripped of their original cosmological, Buddhist, Daoist, and Confucian scaffolding in Ming and Qing novels, reinforcing Western-centric power structures. Through a literary-critical examination of case studies, this paper demonstrates the tense negotiation between preserving literary heritage and satisfying commodity fetishism in the visualisation of Chinese classics.

Lilian Lee's works have a unique narrative style and profound cultural connotations, making them an important sample for studying Hong Kong literature and providing reference value for social changes in the postcolonial context. This article points out that Lilian Lee's works are rooted in the Chinese literary tradition and deeply influenced by Hong Kong's colonial history, the awakening of local consciousness, and the development of cultural industry by examining the social and cultural background of her creations. This article further analyses the creative modes of ‘New Stories’ and ‘Strange Writing’, revealing how these creative modes innovate on the basis of inheriting the spirit of Chinese literature, thereby promoting the widespread acceptance of Lilian Lee's works. Finally, this article analyses the complexity and contradictions inherent in the construction of Hong Kong cultural identity in her novel creation, and continuously criticises and reflects on modern issues such as urban consumerism and human alienation in Hong Kong.

This article discusses the need for discursive reading and creative writing practices aimed towards capable readers in prisons. It contends that prison book groups, particularly those with an embedded creative writing component and themed in considered ways – here ‘isolation’ and ‘loneliness’ – should be taken seriously to encourage incarcerated people to address their current circumstances and engage with the world around them. We argue that such initiatives should not shy away from reading materials presumed to be uneasy, as they may prove valuable for critical discussion and creative production. Fieldwork at two prisons revealed that challenging the protocols of reading as a presumed isolated experience, combined with reading materials and writing prompts that explore the complexities of being alone, can support skill development and self-development.

This article discusses the need for discursive reading and creative writing practices aimed towards capable readers in prisons. It contends that prison book groups, particularly those with an embedded creative writing component and themed in considered ways – here ‘isolation’ and ‘loneliness’ – should be taken seriously to encourage incarcerated people to address their current circumstances and engage with the world around them. We argue that such initiatives should not shy away from reading materials presumed to be uneasy, as they may prove valuable for critical discussion and creative production. Fieldwork at two prisons revealed that challenging the protocols of reading as a presumed isolated experience, combined with reading materials and writing prompts that explore the complexities of being alone, can support skill development and self-development.

This article is aimed at determining the role and function of folklore texts in the system of implementation of humanistic aspects of culture. The leading methods of researching this problem are the methods of analysis, comparison, generalization, abstraction, induction, classification and graphic methods of presenting information. The article reveals the content and functions of folklore and how it shapes culture and values. It reviews research on the role of folklore in forming individual and collective identity. The development of competencies in studying folklore genres in school and university is described. The anthropological model in the modern folklore paradigm is examined. The integrative approach to folklore research is outlined. The ethical, educational and aesthetic functions of folklore are explored in detail.

This article discusses the need for discursive reading and creative writing practices aimed towards capable readers in prisons. It contends that prison book groups, particularly those with an embedded creative writing component and themed in considered ways – here ‘isolation’ and ‘loneliness’ – should be taken seriously to encourage incarcerated people to address their current circumstances and engage with the world around them. We argue that such initiatives should not shy away from reading materials presumed to be uneasy, as they may prove valuable for critical discussion and creative production. Fieldwork at two prisons revealed that challenging the protocols of reading as a presumed isolated experience, combined with reading materials and writing prompts that explore the complexities of being alone, can support skill development and self-development.

This article is aimed at determining the role and function of folklore texts in the system of implementation of humanistic aspects of culture. The leading methods of researching this problem are the methods of analysis, comparison, generalization, abstraction, induction, classification and graphic methods of presenting information. The article reveals the content and functions of folklore and how it shapes culture and values. It reviews research on the role of folklore in forming individual and collective identity. The development of competencies in studying folklore genres in school and university is described. The anthropological model in the modern folklore paradigm is examined. The integrative approach to folklore research is outlined. The ethical, educational and aesthetic functions of folklore are explored in detail.

Angela Carter's Heroes and Villains reimagines the human–nature relationship in a post-apocalyptic world through a feminist and ecological lens. Drawing on the framework of ‘critical utopia’, this article explores how Carter subverts the binary between technological civilisation and natural primitivism. The novel juxtaposes the Professors’ enclosed enclave of rational control with the Barbarians’ fragile harmony with nature, exposing the failures of both totalizing systems. Through Marianne's movement between these spaces, Carter envisions an emergent ecological consciousness that transforms division into relational becoming. Her awakening signals a form of critical ecotopia – an open-ended rethinking of coexistence between the human and the nonhuman. By situating the narrative within post-apocalyptic and ecofeminist traditions, this article argues that Carter redefines utopian imagination as a site of ecological renewal and feminist critique, revealing how destruction may engender new modes of interdependence.

This article discusses the need for discursive reading and creative writing practices aimed towards capable readers in prisons. It contends that prison book groups, particularly those with an embedded creative writing component and themed in considered ways – here ‘isolation’ and ‘loneliness’ – should be taken seriously to encourage incarcerated people to address their current circumstances and engage with the world around them. We argue that such initiatives should not shy away from reading materials presumed to be uneasy, as they may prove valuable for critical discussion and creative production. Fieldwork at two prisons revealed that challenging the protocols of reading as a presumed isolated experience, combined with reading materials and writing prompts that explore the complexities of being alone, can support skill development and self-development.

This article is aimed at determining the role and function of folklore texts in the system of implementation of humanistic aspects of culture. The leading methods of researching this problem are the methods of analysis, comparison, generalization, abstraction, induction, classification and graphic methods of presenting information. The article reveals the content and functions of folklore and how it shapes culture and values. It reviews research on the role of folklore in forming individual and collective identity. The development of competencies in studying folklore genres in school and university is described. The anthropological model in the modern folklore paradigm is examined. The integrative approach to folklore research is outlined. The ethical, educational and aesthetic functions of folklore are explored in detail.

Angela Carter's Heroes and Villains reimagines the human–nature relationship in a post-apocalyptic world through a feminist and ecological lens. Drawing on the framework of ‘critical utopia’, this article explores how Carter subverts the binary between technological civilisation and natural primitivism. The novel juxtaposes the Professors’ enclosed enclave of rational control with the Barbarians’ fragile harmony with nature, exposing the failures of both totalizing systems. Through Marianne's movement between these spaces, Carter envisions an emergent ecological consciousness that transforms division into relational becoming. Her awakening signals a form of critical ecotopia – an open-ended rethinking of coexistence between the human and the nonhuman. By situating the narrative within post-apocalyptic and ecofeminist traditions, this article argues that Carter redefines utopian imagination as a site of ecological renewal and feminist critique, revealing how destruction may engender new modes of interdependence.

As the embodiment of distinction, the nonhuman animal being has frequently epitomized what it refers to as the ‘other’ in Western rationality. However, within the critical framework of post-humanist animal studies, the hegemonic conception of animals by humans has been constantly challenged through a radical shift from the autonomous, rational subject of humanist philosophy to relational ontologies and the distributed agency of the post-humanist cosmos. When analysed from this perch, William Shakespeare's (1564–1616) King Lear (1606) reflects the bard's fundamental insights regarding the intricate structure of human/animal division. Accordingly, this article maintains that Lear's tragic fall from power and sanity, which has a direct parallel with the crisis of the Renaissance speciesism and with the collapse of L'uomo universale, opens up a new route for his transformation from an exemplum of humanist ideals to an apt ‘animetaphor’, referring to Akira Mizuta Lippit. As Lear turns to his own animality, Shakespeare's deep scepticism regarding the legitimacy of normative Renaissance principles that rely on supposedly existing ontological and epistemological boundaries between the two species is heightened.

This article discusses the need for discursive reading and creative writing practices aimed towards capable readers in prisons. It contends that prison book groups, particularly those with an embedded creative writing component and themed in considered ways – here ‘isolation’ and ‘loneliness’ – should be taken seriously to encourage incarcerated people to address their current circumstances and engage with the world around them. We argue that such initiatives should not shy away from reading materials presumed to be uneasy, as they may prove valuable for critical discussion and creative production. Fieldwork at two prisons revealed that challenging the protocols of reading as a presumed isolated experience, combined with reading materials and writing prompts that explore the complexities of being alone, can support skill development and self-development.

This article is aimed at determining the role and function of folklore texts in the system of implementation of humanistic aspects of culture. The leading methods of researching this problem are the methods of analysis, comparison, generalization, abstraction, induction, classification and graphic methods of presenting information. The article reveals the content and functions of folklore and how it shapes culture and values. It reviews research on the role of folklore in forming individual and collective identity. The development of competencies in studying folklore genres in school and university is described. The anthropological model in the modern folklore paradigm is examined. The integrative approach to folklore research is outlined. The ethical, educational and aesthetic functions of folklore are explored in detail.

Angela Carter's Heroes and Villains reimagines the human–nature relationship in a post-apocalyptic world through a feminist and ecological lens. Drawing on the framework of ‘critical utopia’, this article explores how Carter subverts the binary between technological civilisation and natural primitivism. The novel juxtaposes the Professors’ enclosed enclave of rational control with the Barbarians’ fragile harmony with nature, exposing the failures of both totalizing systems. Through Marianne's movement between these spaces, Carter envisions an emergent ecological consciousness that transforms division into relational becoming. Her awakening signals a form of critical ecotopia – an open-ended rethinking of coexistence between the human and the nonhuman. By situating the narrative within post-apocalyptic and ecofeminist traditions, this article argues that Carter redefines utopian imagination as a site of ecological renewal and feminist critique, revealing how destruction may engender new modes of interdependence.

As the embodiment of distinction, the nonhuman animal being has frequently epitomized what it refers to as the ‘other’ in Western rationality. However, within the critical framework of post-humanist animal studies, the hegemonic conception of animals by humans has been constantly challenged through a radical shift from the autonomous, rational subject of humanist philosophy to relational ontologies and the distributed agency of the post-humanist cosmos. When analysed from this perch, William Shakespeare's (1564–1616) King Lear (1606) reflects the bard's fundamental insights regarding the intricate structure of human/animal division. Accordingly, this article maintains that Lear's tragic fall from power and sanity, which has a direct parallel with the crisis of the Renaissance speciesism and with the collapse of L'uomo universale, opens up a new route for his transformation from an exemplum of humanist ideals to an apt ‘animetaphor’, referring to Akira Mizuta Lippit. As Lear turns to his own animality, Shakespeare's deep scepticism regarding the legitimacy of normative Renaissance principles that rely on supposedly existing ontological and epistemological boundaries between the two species is heightened.

This article analyses Titus Andronicus in terms of the ideas of mimicry, hybridity and the Third Space proposed by Homi Bhabha. It suggests that the play may enact an early modern crisis of the racial and cultural representations. It revolves around Aaron the Moor, Tamora and Lavinia, and through these characters we see how Shakespeare addresses colonial ambivalence and the performance of identity. The hyper-articulate resistance of Aaron, the artificially emulative behaviour of Tamora and the discontinuous bodily state of Lavinia are all viewed as theatrical manifestations of subversion of the postcolonial. Relying on Bhabha, Hall, Gilroy and other important theorists, the article presents the argument that Titus Andronicus has created a proto-postcolonial space in which race and alterity are not a matter of representation, but of performance. In so doing, it adds to the larger discussion on early modern racial construction and the performative politics of otherness.

This article discusses the need for discursive reading and creative writing practices aimed towards capable readers in prisons. It contends that prison book groups, particularly those with an embedded creative writing component and themed in considered ways – here ‘isolation’ and ‘loneliness’ – should be taken seriously to encourage incarcerated people to address their current circumstances and engage with the world around them. We argue that such initiatives should not shy away from reading materials presumed to be uneasy, as they may prove valuable for critical discussion and creative production. Fieldwork at two prisons revealed that challenging the protocols of reading as a presumed isolated experience, combined with reading materials and writing prompts that explore the complexities of being alone, can support skill development and self-development.

This article is aimed at determining the role and function of folklore texts in the system of implementation of humanistic aspects of culture. The leading methods of researching this problem are the methods of analysis, comparison, generalization, abstraction, induction, classification and graphic methods of presenting information. The article reveals the content and functions of folklore and how it shapes culture and values. It reviews research on the role of folklore in forming individual and collective identity. The development of competencies in studying folklore genres in school and university is described. The anthropological model in the modern folklore paradigm is examined. The integrative approach to folklore research is outlined. The ethical, educational and aesthetic functions of folklore are explored in detail.

Angela Carter's Heroes and Villains reimagines the human–nature relationship in a post-apocalyptic world through a feminist and ecological lens. Drawing on the framework of ‘critical utopia’, this article explores how Carter subverts the binary between technological civilisation and natural primitivism. The novel juxtaposes the Professors’ enclosed enclave of rational control with the Barbarians’ fragile harmony with nature, exposing the failures of both totalizing systems. Through Marianne's movement between these spaces, Carter envisions an emergent ecological consciousness that transforms division into relational becoming. Her awakening signals a form of critical ecotopia – an open-ended rethinking of coexistence between the human and the nonhuman. By situating the narrative within post-apocalyptic and ecofeminist traditions, this article argues that Carter redefines utopian imagination as a site of ecological renewal and feminist critique, revealing how destruction may engender new modes of interdependence.

As the embodiment of distinction, the nonhuman animal being has frequently epitomized what it refers to as the ‘other’ in Western rationality. However, within the critical framework of post-humanist animal studies, the hegemonic conception of animals by humans has been constantly challenged through a radical shift from the autonomous, rational subject of humanist philosophy to relational ontologies and the distributed agency of the post-humanist cosmos. When analysed from this perch, William Shakespeare's (1564–1616) King Lear (1606) reflects the bard's fundamental insights regarding the intricate structure of human/animal division. Accordingly, this article maintains that Lear's tragic fall from power and sanity, which has a direct parallel with the crisis of the Renaissance speciesism and with the collapse of L'uomo universale, opens up a new route for his transformation from an exemplum of humanist ideals to an apt ‘animetaphor’, referring to Akira Mizuta Lippit. As Lear turns to his own animality, Shakespeare's deep scepticism regarding the legitimacy of normative Renaissance principles that rely on supposedly existing ontological and epistemological boundaries between the two species is heightened.

This article analyses Titus Andronicus in terms of the ideas of mimicry, hybridity and the Third Space proposed by Homi Bhabha. It suggests that the play may enact an early modern crisis of the racial and cultural representations. It revolves around Aaron the Moor, Tamora and Lavinia, and through these characters we see how Shakespeare addresses colonial ambivalence and the performance of identity. The hyper-articulate resistance of Aaron, the artificially emulative behaviour of Tamora and the discontinuous bodily state of Lavinia are all viewed as theatrical manifestations of subversion of the postcolonial. Relying on Bhabha, Hall, Gilroy and other important theorists, the article presents the argument that Titus Andronicus has created a proto-postcolonial space in which race and alterity are not a matter of representation, but of performance. In so doing, it adds to the larger discussion on early modern racial construction and the performative politics of otherness.

Ethical Literary Criticism provides a clear and manageable ethical line, by which the heroes of John Milton's trilogy can be decoded as three-level ethical knots from varied perspectives of the Miltonic Wayfaring-Hero Paradigm. First, Adam and Eve in Paradise Lost, representing ‘everyone’, particularly from the angle of marriage, can be understood as the primal level of the Wayfaring-Hero Paradigm who follows God's Word. Then, Jesus in Paradise Regained can be interpreted as the Prototype of the Paradigm who follows God's Way by concretizing the Word from the Scripture to specific circumstances and actions. Finally, Samson in Samson Agonistes can be viewed as the Wayfaring-Martyr Hero of the Paradigm, exemplifying the highest level and the most Miltonic of the Paradigm. Such ethical reading discloses that Milton lays out the heroes in his trilogy Adam and Eve, Jesus, and Samson in progressing tendency, which endows the Miltonic Wayfaring-Hero Paradigm with uniqueness and profundity, rendering his heroes ‘never to be surpassed’.

This article discusses the need for discursive reading and creative writing practices aimed towards capable readers in prisons. It contends that prison book groups, particularly those with an embedded creative writing component and themed in considered ways – here ‘isolation’ and ‘loneliness’ – should be taken seriously to encourage incarcerated people to address their current circumstances and engage with the world around them. We argue that such initiatives should not shy away from reading materials presumed to be uneasy, as they may prove valuable for critical discussion and creative production. Fieldwork at two prisons revealed that challenging the protocols of reading as a presumed isolated experience, combined with reading materials and writing prompts that explore the complexities of being alone, can support skill development and self-development.

This article is aimed at determining the role and function of folklore texts in the system of implementation of humanistic aspects of culture. The leading methods of researching this problem are the methods of analysis, comparison, generalization, abstraction, induction, classification and graphic methods of presenting information. The article reveals the content and functions of folklore and how it shapes culture and values. It reviews research on the role of folklore in forming individual and collective identity. The development of competencies in studying folklore genres in school and university is described. The anthropological model in the modern folklore paradigm is examined. The integrative approach to folklore research is outlined. The ethical, educational and aesthetic functions of folklore are explored in detail.

Angela Carter's Heroes and Villains reimagines the human–nature relationship in a post-apocalyptic world through a feminist and ecological lens. Drawing on the framework of ‘critical utopia’, this article explores how Carter subverts the binary between technological civilisation and natural primitivism. The novel juxtaposes the Professors’ enclosed enclave of rational control with the Barbarians’ fragile harmony with nature, exposing the failures of both totalizing systems. Through Marianne's movement between these spaces, Carter envisions an emergent ecological consciousness that transforms division into relational becoming. Her awakening signals a form of critical ecotopia – an open-ended rethinking of coexistence between the human and the nonhuman. By situating the narrative within post-apocalyptic and ecofeminist traditions, this article argues that Carter redefines utopian imagination as a site of ecological renewal and feminist critique, revealing how destruction may engender new modes of interdependence.

As the embodiment of distinction, the nonhuman animal being has frequently epitomized what it refers to as the ‘other’ in Western rationality. However, within the critical framework of post-humanist animal studies, the hegemonic conception of animals by humans has been constantly challenged through a radical shift from the autonomous, rational subject of humanist philosophy to relational ontologies and the distributed agency of the post-humanist cosmos. When analysed from this perch, William Shakespeare's (1564–1616) King Lear (1606) reflects the bard's fundamental insights regarding the intricate structure of human/animal division. Accordingly, this article maintains that Lear's tragic fall from power and sanity, which has a direct parallel with the crisis of the Renaissance speciesism and with the collapse of L'uomo universale, opens up a new route for his transformation from an exemplum of humanist ideals to an apt ‘animetaphor’, referring to Akira Mizuta Lippit. As Lear turns to his own animality, Shakespeare's deep scepticism regarding the legitimacy of normative Renaissance principles that rely on supposedly existing ontological and epistemological boundaries between the two species is heightened.

This article analyses Titus Andronicus in terms of the ideas of mimicry, hybridity and the Third Space proposed by Homi Bhabha. It suggests that the play may enact an early modern crisis of the racial and cultural representations. It revolves around Aaron the Moor, Tamora and Lavinia, and through these characters we see how Shakespeare addresses colonial ambivalence and the performance of identity. The hyper-articulate resistance of Aaron, the artificially emulative behaviour of Tamora and the discontinuous bodily state of Lavinia are all viewed as theatrical manifestations of subversion of the postcolonial. Relying on Bhabha, Hall, Gilroy and other important theorists, the article presents the argument that Titus Andronicus has created a proto-postcolonial space in which race and alterity are not a matter of representation, but of performance. In so doing, it adds to the larger discussion on early modern racial construction and the performative politics of otherness.

Ethical Literary Criticism provides a clear and manageable ethical line, by which the heroes of John Milton's trilogy can be decoded as three-level ethical knots from varied perspectives of the Miltonic Wayfaring-Hero Paradigm. First, Adam and Eve in Paradise Lost, representing ‘everyone’, particularly from the angle of marriage, can be understood as the primal level of the Wayfaring-Hero Paradigm who follows God's Word. Then, Jesus in Paradise Regained can be interpreted as the Prototype of the Paradigm who follows God's Way by concretizing the Word from the Scripture to specific circumstances and actions. Finally, Samson in Samson Agonistes can be viewed as the Wayfaring-Martyr Hero of the Paradigm, exemplifying the highest level and the most Miltonic of the Paradigm. Such ethical reading discloses that Milton lays out the heroes in his trilogy Adam and Eve, Jesus, and Samson in progressing tendency, which endows the Miltonic Wayfaring-Hero Paradigm with uniqueness and profundity, rendering his heroes ‘never to be surpassed’.

Following the passing of the first and second generations of Holocaust writers, whose works were deeply rooted in personal and familial experiences, the third generation has emerged with a distinct focus on commemorating the memory of those who perished. In this article, we analyse six representative Anglophone works (Foer, Krauss, Skibell, Chabon, Mendelsohn and Zusak) using a comparative narratological approach grounded in post-memory and trauma studies. We argue that mythic intertexts and genre hybridity (fantasy, detective and comics) reframe Holocaust memory for contemporary audiences while negotiating ethical accountability and market reception. This new wave of writers has brought a fresh perspective to Holocaust literature, using a variety of artistic approaches and aesthetic modes to represent the trauma, loss and resilience of the past. As a result, the genre has evolved from a niche field into a widely recognized and critically acclaimed body of work. These writers often incorporate myth, folklore and symbolism into their narratives, creating a space for imagination and cultural reflection. By moving beyond traditional family-centred stories and realist portrayals, the third generation expands the boundaries of post-memory Holocaust literature. Their works not only preserve historical memory but also explore the complexities of identity, heritage and collective trauma. In doing so, they offer new ways to engage with the past, ensuring that the stories of those who lived through the Holocaust continue to resonate with contemporary audiences.

This article discusses the need for discursive reading and creative writing practices aimed towards capable readers in prisons. It contends that prison book groups, particularly those with an embedded creative writing component and themed in considered ways – here ‘isolation’ and ‘loneliness’ – should be taken seriously to encourage incarcerated people to address their current circumstances and engage with the world around them. We argue that such initiatives should not shy away from reading materials presumed to be uneasy, as they may prove valuable for critical discussion and creative production. Fieldwork at two prisons revealed that challenging the protocols of reading as a presumed isolated experience, combined with reading materials and writing prompts that explore the complexities of being alone, can support skill development and self-development.

This article is aimed at determining the role and function of folklore texts in the system of implementation of humanistic aspects of culture. The leading methods of researching this problem are the methods of analysis, comparison, generalization, abstraction, induction, classification and graphic methods of presenting information. The article reveals the content and functions of folklore and how it shapes culture and values. It reviews research on the role of folklore in forming individual and collective identity. The development of competencies in studying folklore genres in school and university is described. The anthropological model in the modern folklore paradigm is examined. The integrative approach to folklore research is outlined. The ethical, educational and aesthetic functions of folklore are explored in detail.

Angela Carter's Heroes and Villains reimagines the human–nature relationship in a post-apocalyptic world through a feminist and ecological lens. Drawing on the framework of ‘critical utopia’, this article explores how Carter subverts the binary between technological civilisation and natural primitivism. The novel juxtaposes the Professors’ enclosed enclave of rational control with the Barbarians’ fragile harmony with nature, exposing the failures of both totalizing systems. Through Marianne's movement between these spaces, Carter envisions an emergent ecological consciousness that transforms division into relational becoming. Her awakening signals a form of critical ecotopia – an open-ended rethinking of coexistence between the human and the nonhuman. By situating the narrative within post-apocalyptic and ecofeminist traditions, this article argues that Carter redefines utopian imagination as a site of ecological renewal and feminist critique, revealing how destruction may engender new modes of interdependence.

As the embodiment of distinction, the nonhuman animal being has frequently epitomized what it refers to as the ‘other’ in Western rationality. However, within the critical framework of post-humanist animal studies, the hegemonic conception of animals by humans has been constantly challenged through a radical shift from the autonomous, rational subject of humanist philosophy to relational ontologies and the distributed agency of the post-humanist cosmos. When analysed from this perch, William Shakespeare's (1564–1616) King Lear (1606) reflects the bard's fundamental insights regarding the intricate structure of human/animal division. Accordingly, this article maintains that Lear's tragic fall from power and sanity, which has a direct parallel with the crisis of the Renaissance speciesism and with the collapse of L'uomo universale, opens up a new route for his transformation from an exemplum of humanist ideals to an apt ‘animetaphor’, referring to Akira Mizuta Lippit. As Lear turns to his own animality, Shakespeare's deep scepticism regarding the legitimacy of normative Renaissance principles that rely on supposedly existing ontological and epistemological boundaries between the two species is heightened.

This article analyses Titus Andronicus in terms of the ideas of mimicry, hybridity and the Third Space proposed by Homi Bhabha. It suggests that the play may enact an early modern crisis of the racial and cultural representations. It revolves around Aaron the Moor, Tamora and Lavinia, and through these characters we see how Shakespeare addresses colonial ambivalence and the performance of identity. The hyper-articulate resistance of Aaron, the artificially emulative behaviour of Tamora and the discontinuous bodily state of Lavinia are all viewed as theatrical manifestations of subversion of the postcolonial. Relying on Bhabha, Hall, Gilroy and other important theorists, the article presents the argument that Titus Andronicus has created a proto-postcolonial space in which race and alterity are not a matter of representation, but of performance. In so doing, it adds to the larger discussion on early modern racial construction and the performative politics of otherness.

Ethical Literary Criticism provides a clear and manageable ethical line, by which the heroes of John Milton's trilogy can be decoded as three-level ethical knots from varied perspectives of the Miltonic Wayfaring-Hero Paradigm. First, Adam and Eve in Paradise Lost, representing ‘everyone’, particularly from the angle of marriage, can be understood as the primal level of the Wayfaring-Hero Paradigm who follows God's Word. Then, Jesus in Paradise Regained can be interpreted as the Prototype of the Paradigm who follows God's Way by concretizing the Word from the Scripture to specific circumstances and actions. Finally, Samson in Samson Agonistes can be viewed as the Wayfaring-Martyr Hero of the Paradigm, exemplifying the highest level and the most Miltonic of the Paradigm. Such ethical reading discloses that Milton lays out the heroes in his trilogy Adam and Eve, Jesus, and Samson in progressing tendency, which endows the Miltonic Wayfaring-Hero Paradigm with uniqueness and profundity, rendering his heroes ‘never to be surpassed’.

Following the passing of the first and second generations of Holocaust writers, whose works were deeply rooted in personal and familial experiences, the third generation has emerged with a distinct focus on commemorating the memory of those who perished. In this article, we analyse six representative Anglophone works (Foer, Krauss, Skibell, Chabon, Mendelsohn and Zusak) using a comparative narratological approach grounded in post-memory and trauma studies. We argue that mythic intertexts and genre hybridity (fantasy, detective and comics) reframe Holocaust memory for contemporary audiences while negotiating ethical accountability and market reception. This new wave of writers has brought a fresh perspective to Holocaust literature, using a variety of artistic approaches and aesthetic modes to represent the trauma, loss and resilience of the past. As a result, the genre has evolved from a niche field into a widely recognized and critically acclaimed body of work. These writers often incorporate myth, folklore and symbolism into their narratives, creating a space for imagination and cultural reflection. By moving beyond traditional family-centred stories and realist portrayals, the third generation expands the boundaries of post-memory Holocaust literature. Their works not only preserve historical memory but also explore the complexities of identity, heritage and collective trauma. In doing so, they offer new ways to engage with the past, ensuring that the stories of those who lived through the Holocaust continue to resonate with contemporary audiences.

This article interprets music as a narration text and believes it to be a powerful witness to collective trauma and cultural memory. The cross-cultural comparison of Henryk Górecki's Symphony No. 3 and Wang Xilin's Symphony No. 4 probes how each composer has constructed a peculiar aesthetic of tragedy. According to this article, these works represent two paradigmatic forms of testimony to historical suffering: Górecki's ‘meditation’, an inward narrative of spiritual transcendence; and Wang's ‘outcry’, an external protest against historical violence. By examining the sound structures of the works, analysing their emotional strategies, and investigating their differing uses of national musical languages, we can see how these aesthetics are created. The composers’ differing attitudes towards tone clusters are at the heart of a significant finding. This is their different aesthetic. In Górecki's work, the diatonic cluster achieves a ‘meditative stasis’. For Wang, the chromatic cluster brings forth an agonistic cathartic cry. In the end, this article enriches our understanding of tragic music of the twentieth century by demonstrating how musical narratives testify to history on account of their cultural specificity and common humanity.

This study aims to examine the historical and present influence of foreign literary processes on Chinese literature, emphasising the integration of cross-cultural influences into Chinese literary forms. A mixed-method approach, incorporating historical, comparative and critical text analysis, was utilised to examine the adaptation and transformation of foreign components in Chinese literary works, notably evaluating contributions from India, Western Europe, Japan and Russia. Research demonstrates that foreign literary exchanges provided significant thematic and stylistic enhancements, including Indian mythological elements, Western realism and Russian psychological depth, each influencing unique literary trends in Chinese literature. Modern Chinese literature evolves through digital platforms, fostering cultural exchange and enhancing its global presence. Incorporating external elements deepens Chinese storytelling and positions it in global literary discourse. Globalisation enriches its cultural uniqueness while integrating universal themes, offering valuable insights for scholars and readers exploring Chinese literature's global significance.

This study aims to examine the historical and present influence of foreign literary processes on Chinese literature, emphasising the integration of cross-cultural influences into Chinese literary forms. A mixed-method approach, incorporating historical, comparative and critical text analysis, was utilised to examine the adaptation and transformation of foreign components in Chinese literary works, notably evaluating contributions from India, Western Europe, Japan and Russia. Research demonstrates that foreign literary exchanges provided significant thematic and stylistic enhancements, including Indian mythological elements, Western realism and Russian psychological depth, each influencing unique literary trends in Chinese literature. Modern Chinese literature evolves through digital platforms, fostering cultural exchange and enhancing its global presence. Incorporating external elements deepens Chinese storytelling and positions it in global literary discourse. Globalisation enriches its cultural uniqueness while integrating universal themes, offering valuable insights for scholars and readers exploring Chinese literature's global significance.

This study aims to identify the functions of the simulacrum in postmodern literature and to determine how it is used as a device to create effects and meanings. The study addresses the theories of postmodernism, emphasising the characteristics and features of this trend, such as fragmentation, paradox and play of meanings. It also analyses the techniques of postmodern literature, including intertextuality, metanarratives and deconstruction, which create fertile ground for the emergence and use of simulacra. The study identifies the functions of a simulacrum: creating the effect of hyperreality, using it as a means of criticism and irony, destabilising the perception and exploring subjectivity and identity. The study shows that the simulacrum serves not only as a tool for artistic expression but also for philosophical analysis.

This study aims to examine the historical and present influence of foreign literary processes on Chinese literature, emphasising the integration of cross-cultural influences into Chinese literary forms. A mixed-method approach, incorporating historical, comparative and critical text analysis, was utilised to examine the adaptation and transformation of foreign components in Chinese literary works, notably evaluating contributions from India, Western Europe, Japan and Russia. Research demonstrates that foreign literary exchanges provided significant thematic and stylistic enhancements, including Indian mythological elements, Western realism and Russian psychological depth, each influencing unique literary trends in Chinese literature. Modern Chinese literature evolves through digital platforms, fostering cultural exchange and enhancing its global presence. Incorporating external elements deepens Chinese storytelling and positions it in global literary discourse. Globalisation enriches its cultural uniqueness while integrating universal themes, offering valuable insights for scholars and readers exploring Chinese literature's global significance.

This study aims to identify the functions of the simulacrum in postmodern literature and to determine how it is used as a device to create effects and meanings. The study addresses the theories of postmodernism, emphasising the characteristics and features of this trend, such as fragmentation, paradox and play of meanings. It also analyses the techniques of postmodern literature, including intertextuality, metanarratives and deconstruction, which create fertile ground for the emergence and use of simulacra. The study identifies the functions of a simulacrum: creating the effect of hyperreality, using it as a means of criticism and irony, destabilising the perception and exploring subjectivity and identity. The study shows that the simulacrum serves not only as a tool for artistic expression but also for philosophical analysis.

Philip Larkin is known for his rejection of metaphysical consolation, and yet in some of his more philosophic and existentialist poems, such as ‘Absences’ and ‘Here’, many critics describe a desire for freedom that leads to a metaphysical transcendence that seems at odds with the vision of such a confirmed atheist. This interpretation of transcendence in these poems by Larkin is a misreading of his thought. What Larkin is describing in ‘Absences’ and ‘Here’ is freedom without transcendence, arrived at through the promise of the endless creation of new limits. The philosophic framework for this insight is from Nietzsche, an influence that is pervasive in Larkin though little acknowledged.

This study aims to examine the historical and present influence of foreign literary processes on Chinese literature, emphasising the integration of cross-cultural influences into Chinese literary forms. A mixed-method approach, incorporating historical, comparative and critical text analysis, was utilised to examine the adaptation and transformation of foreign components in Chinese literary works, notably evaluating contributions from India, Western Europe, Japan and Russia. Research demonstrates that foreign literary exchanges provided significant thematic and stylistic enhancements, including Indian mythological elements, Western realism and Russian psychological depth, each influencing unique literary trends in Chinese literature. Modern Chinese literature evolves through digital platforms, fostering cultural exchange and enhancing its global presence. Incorporating external elements deepens Chinese storytelling and positions it in global literary discourse. Globalisation enriches its cultural uniqueness while integrating universal themes, offering valuable insights for scholars and readers exploring Chinese literature's global significance.

This study aims to identify the functions of the simulacrum in postmodern literature and to determine how it is used as a device to create effects and meanings. The study addresses the theories of postmodernism, emphasising the characteristics and features of this trend, such as fragmentation, paradox and play of meanings. It also analyses the techniques of postmodern literature, including intertextuality, metanarratives and deconstruction, which create fertile ground for the emergence and use of simulacra. The study identifies the functions of a simulacrum: creating the effect of hyperreality, using it as a means of criticism and irony, destabilising the perception and exploring subjectivity and identity. The study shows that the simulacrum serves not only as a tool for artistic expression but also for philosophical analysis.

Philip Larkin is known for his rejection of metaphysical consolation, and yet in some of his more philosophic and existentialist poems, such as ‘Absences’ and ‘Here’, many critics describe a desire for freedom that leads to a metaphysical transcendence that seems at odds with the vision of such a confirmed atheist. This interpretation of transcendence in these poems by Larkin is a misreading of his thought. What Larkin is describing in ‘Absences’ and ‘Here’ is freedom without transcendence, arrived at through the promise of the endless creation of new limits. The philosophic framework for this insight is from Nietzsche, an influence that is pervasive in Larkin though little acknowledged.

This study analyses three categories of works by William Shenstone – Elegies, Levities; or Pieces of Humour and Odes – in terms of their poetic and cultural specifics. The findings are further applied to the process-oriented research of the poems’ translation into Chinese in order to explore their cultural implications. It is concluded that the most challenging category for translation is Levities due to the lack of an equivalent tradition in Chinese poetic history. As a result, the cultural expressions and certain references natural for Western literature are a complication. Nevertheless, the overall tendency of imitating the poetry of the past and deploying the said types of poetry by Shenstone make the cultural reverberations in the Chinese translations more vivid and vibrant.

This study aims to examine the historical and present influence of foreign literary processes on Chinese literature, emphasising the integration of cross-cultural influences into Chinese literary forms. A mixed-method approach, incorporating historical, comparative and critical text analysis, was utilised to examine the adaptation and transformation of foreign components in Chinese literary works, notably evaluating contributions from India, Western Europe, Japan and Russia. Research demonstrates that foreign literary exchanges provided significant thematic and stylistic enhancements, including Indian mythological elements, Western realism and Russian psychological depth, each influencing unique literary trends in Chinese literature. Modern Chinese literature evolves through digital platforms, fostering cultural exchange and enhancing its global presence. Incorporating external elements deepens Chinese storytelling and positions it in global literary discourse. Globalisation enriches its cultural uniqueness while integrating universal themes, offering valuable insights for scholars and readers exploring Chinese literature's global significance.

This study aims to identify the functions of the simulacrum in postmodern literature and to determine how it is used as a device to create effects and meanings. The study addresses the theories of postmodernism, emphasising the characteristics and features of this trend, such as fragmentation, paradox and play of meanings. It also analyses the techniques of postmodern literature, including intertextuality, metanarratives and deconstruction, which create fertile ground for the emergence and use of simulacra. The study identifies the functions of a simulacrum: creating the effect of hyperreality, using it as a means of criticism and irony, destabilising the perception and exploring subjectivity and identity. The study shows that the simulacrum serves not only as a tool for artistic expression but also for philosophical analysis.

Philip Larkin is known for his rejection of metaphysical consolation, and yet in some of his more philosophic and existentialist poems, such as ‘Absences’ and ‘Here’, many critics describe a desire for freedom that leads to a metaphysical transcendence that seems at odds with the vision of such a confirmed atheist. This interpretation of transcendence in these poems by Larkin is a misreading of his thought. What Larkin is describing in ‘Absences’ and ‘Here’ is freedom without transcendence, arrived at through the promise of the endless creation of new limits. The philosophic framework for this insight is from Nietzsche, an influence that is pervasive in Larkin though little acknowledged.

This study analyses three categories of works by William Shenstone – Elegies, Levities; or Pieces of Humour and Odes – in terms of their poetic and cultural specifics. The findings are further applied to the process-oriented research of the poems’ translation into Chinese in order to explore their cultural implications. It is concluded that the most challenging category for translation is Levities due to the lack of an equivalent tradition in Chinese poetic history. As a result, the cultural expressions and certain references natural for Western literature are a complication. Nevertheless, the overall tendency of imitating the poetry of the past and deploying the said types of poetry by Shenstone make the cultural reverberations in the Chinese translations more vivid and vibrant.

This article examines the depiction of failed masculinity in Kiran Nagarkar's Cuckold (1997). Within conventional gender standards, men are often regarded as privileged because hegemonic masculine ideals are inscribed upon them. Yet, despite holding powerful positions, such as kingship, the struggles of men who fail to fulfil socially appointed masculine roles have long remained unnoticed. The intricate interplay of historical, social, and political forces contributes to the rigid construction of masculine norms, marking any breach as a sign of unmanliness, emasculation, or failure. Nagarkar, an Indian author who fuses history and myth, explores this notion of failed masculinity through the fictional Maharaj Kumar, a sixteenth-century Rajput prince. The novel traces his failures across multiple spheres of life and his relentless attempt to align himself with the ideal of a ‘manly king.’ Through close reading, this article ultimately foregrounds the destiny of a failed man shaped through Maharaj Kumar's character.

This study aims to examine the historical and present influence of foreign literary processes on Chinese literature, emphasising the integration of cross-cultural influences into Chinese literary forms. A mixed-method approach, incorporating historical, comparative and critical text analysis, was utilised to examine the adaptation and transformation of foreign components in Chinese literary works, notably evaluating contributions from India, Western Europe, Japan and Russia. Research demonstrates that foreign literary exchanges provided significant thematic and stylistic enhancements, including Indian mythological elements, Western realism and Russian psychological depth, each influencing unique literary trends in Chinese literature. Modern Chinese literature evolves through digital platforms, fostering cultural exchange and enhancing its global presence. Incorporating external elements deepens Chinese storytelling and positions it in global literary discourse. Globalisation enriches its cultural uniqueness while integrating universal themes, offering valuable insights for scholars and readers exploring Chinese literature's global significance.

This study aims to identify the functions of the simulacrum in postmodern literature and to determine how it is used as a device to create effects and meanings. The study addresses the theories of postmodernism, emphasising the characteristics and features of this trend, such as fragmentation, paradox and play of meanings. It also analyses the techniques of postmodern literature, including intertextuality, metanarratives and deconstruction, which create fertile ground for the emergence and use of simulacra. The study identifies the functions of a simulacrum: creating the effect of hyperreality, using it as a means of criticism and irony, destabilising the perception and exploring subjectivity and identity. The study shows that the simulacrum serves not only as a tool for artistic expression but also for philosophical analysis.

Philip Larkin is known for his rejection of metaphysical consolation, and yet in some of his more philosophic and existentialist poems, such as ‘Absences’ and ‘Here’, many critics describe a desire for freedom that leads to a metaphysical transcendence that seems at odds with the vision of such a confirmed atheist. This interpretation of transcendence in these poems by Larkin is a misreading of his thought. What Larkin is describing in ‘Absences’ and ‘Here’ is freedom without transcendence, arrived at through the promise of the endless creation of new limits. The philosophic framework for this insight is from Nietzsche, an influence that is pervasive in Larkin though little acknowledged.

This study analyses three categories of works by William Shenstone – Elegies, Levities; or Pieces of Humour and Odes – in terms of their poetic and cultural specifics. The findings are further applied to the process-oriented research of the poems’ translation into Chinese in order to explore their cultural implications. It is concluded that the most challenging category for translation is Levities due to the lack of an equivalent tradition in Chinese poetic history. As a result, the cultural expressions and certain references natural for Western literature are a complication. Nevertheless, the overall tendency of imitating the poetry of the past and deploying the said types of poetry by Shenstone make the cultural reverberations in the Chinese translations more vivid and vibrant.

This article examines the depiction of failed masculinity in Kiran Nagarkar's Cuckold (1997). Within conventional gender standards, men are often regarded as privileged because hegemonic masculine ideals are inscribed upon them. Yet, despite holding powerful positions, such as kingship, the struggles of men who fail to fulfil socially appointed masculine roles have long remained unnoticed. The intricate interplay of historical, social, and political forces contributes to the rigid construction of masculine norms, marking any breach as a sign of unmanliness, emasculation, or failure. Nagarkar, an Indian author who fuses history and myth, explores this notion of failed masculinity through the fictional Maharaj Kumar, a sixteenth-century Rajput prince. The novel traces his failures across multiple spheres of life and his relentless attempt to align himself with the ideal of a ‘manly king.’ Through close reading, this article ultimately foregrounds the destiny of a failed man shaped through Maharaj Kumar's character.

The purpose of this study was to uncover the role and significance of the oxymoron in postcolonial literature. To fulfil the purpose of the study, a systematic approach to identify and classify oxymorons in texts was conducted. In addition, methods of literary analysis, analysing contextual factors and historical context, were used to contribute to the understanding of the meaning of the oxymoron in postcolonial literature. Oxymorons were found both at the level of titles of works and in the text itself. Not only do they convey the contradictory and unbalanced nature of the postcolonial experience, but they also help the authors to create deep and multifaceted characters. The study highlighted the specific features of oxymoron use in different postcolonial contexts and identified common thematic and stylistic features.

This study aims to examine the historical and present influence of foreign literary processes on Chinese literature, emphasising the integration of cross-cultural influences into Chinese literary forms. A mixed-method approach, incorporating historical, comparative and critical text analysis, was utilised to examine the adaptation and transformation of foreign components in Chinese literary works, notably evaluating contributions from India, Western Europe, Japan and Russia. Research demonstrates that foreign literary exchanges provided significant thematic and stylistic enhancements, including Indian mythological elements, Western realism and Russian psychological depth, each influencing unique literary trends in Chinese literature. Modern Chinese literature evolves through digital platforms, fostering cultural exchange and enhancing its global presence. Incorporating external elements deepens Chinese storytelling and positions it in global literary discourse. Globalisation enriches its cultural uniqueness while integrating universal themes, offering valuable insights for scholars and readers exploring Chinese literature's global significance.

This study aims to identify the functions of the simulacrum in postmodern literature and to determine how it is used as a device to create effects and meanings. The study addresses the theories of postmodernism, emphasising the characteristics and features of this trend, such as fragmentation, paradox and play of meanings. It also analyses the techniques of postmodern literature, including intertextuality, metanarratives and deconstruction, which create fertile ground for the emergence and use of simulacra. The study identifies the functions of a simulacrum: creating the effect of hyperreality, using it as a means of criticism and irony, destabilising the perception and exploring subjectivity and identity. The study shows that the simulacrum serves not only as a tool for artistic expression but also for philosophical analysis.

Philip Larkin is known for his rejection of metaphysical consolation, and yet in some of his more philosophic and existentialist poems, such as ‘Absences’ and ‘Here’, many critics describe a desire for freedom that leads to a metaphysical transcendence that seems at odds with the vision of such a confirmed atheist. This interpretation of transcendence in these poems by Larkin is a misreading of his thought. What Larkin is describing in ‘Absences’ and ‘Here’ is freedom without transcendence, arrived at through the promise of the endless creation of new limits. The philosophic framework for this insight is from Nietzsche, an influence that is pervasive in Larkin though little acknowledged.

This study analyses three categories of works by William Shenstone – Elegies, Levities; or Pieces of Humour and Odes – in terms of their poetic and cultural specifics. The findings are further applied to the process-oriented research of the poems’ translation into Chinese in order to explore their cultural implications. It is concluded that the most challenging category for translation is Levities due to the lack of an equivalent tradition in Chinese poetic history. As a result, the cultural expressions and certain references natural for Western literature are a complication. Nevertheless, the overall tendency of imitating the poetry of the past and deploying the said types of poetry by Shenstone make the cultural reverberations in the Chinese translations more vivid and vibrant.

This article examines the depiction of failed masculinity in Kiran Nagarkar's Cuckold (1997). Within conventional gender standards, men are often regarded as privileged because hegemonic masculine ideals are inscribed upon them. Yet, despite holding powerful positions, such as kingship, the struggles of men who fail to fulfil socially appointed masculine roles have long remained unnoticed. The intricate interplay of historical, social, and political forces contributes to the rigid construction of masculine norms, marking any breach as a sign of unmanliness, emasculation, or failure. Nagarkar, an Indian author who fuses history and myth, explores this notion of failed masculinity through the fictional Maharaj Kumar, a sixteenth-century Rajput prince. The novel traces his failures across multiple spheres of life and his relentless attempt to align himself with the ideal of a ‘manly king.’ Through close reading, this article ultimately foregrounds the destiny of a failed man shaped through Maharaj Kumar's character.

The purpose of this study was to uncover the role and significance of the oxymoron in postcolonial literature. To fulfil the purpose of the study, a systematic approach to identify and classify oxymorons in texts was conducted. In addition, methods of literary analysis, analysing contextual factors and historical context, were used to contribute to the understanding of the meaning of the oxymoron in postcolonial literature. Oxymorons were found both at the level of titles of works and in the text itself. Not only do they convey the contradictory and unbalanced nature of the postcolonial experience, but they also help the authors to create deep and multifaceted characters. The study highlighted the specific features of oxymoron use in different postcolonial contexts and identified common thematic and stylistic features.

The relevance of this study is determined by the need to understand the transformation of the concept of the tragic hero in the context of modern literature and its reflection in the works of Arthur Miller and Ernest Hemingway. The aim of the article was to analyse the images of the tragic hero in the works of these authors, allowing for the identification of both common traits and unique features that characterise the modern tragic hero. Using literary-stylistic and comparative analysis, the research looked at works such as Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea and Miller's Death of a Salesman. The results showed that, although the social and cultural settings of the writers vary greatly, both show sad heroes defined by inner conflict, existential problems and loneliness against society's alienation.

This study aims to examine the historical and present influence of foreign literary processes on Chinese literature, emphasising the integration of cross-cultural influences into Chinese literary forms. A mixed-method approach, incorporating historical, comparative and critical text analysis, was utilised to examine the adaptation and transformation of foreign components in Chinese literary works, notably evaluating contributions from India, Western Europe, Japan and Russia. Research demonstrates that foreign literary exchanges provided significant thematic and stylistic enhancements, including Indian mythological elements, Western realism and Russian psychological depth, each influencing unique literary trends in Chinese literature. Modern Chinese literature evolves through digital platforms, fostering cultural exchange and enhancing its global presence. Incorporating external elements deepens Chinese storytelling and positions it in global literary discourse. Globalisation enriches its cultural uniqueness while integrating universal themes, offering valuable insights for scholars and readers exploring Chinese literature's global significance.

This study aims to identify the functions of the simulacrum in postmodern literature and to determine how it is used as a device to create effects and meanings. The study addresses the theories of postmodernism, emphasising the characteristics and features of this trend, such as fragmentation, paradox and play of meanings. It also analyses the techniques of postmodern literature, including intertextuality, metanarratives and deconstruction, which create fertile ground for the emergence and use of simulacra. The study identifies the functions of a simulacrum: creating the effect of hyperreality, using it as a means of criticism and irony, destabilising the perception and exploring subjectivity and identity. The study shows that the simulacrum serves not only as a tool for artistic expression but also for philosophical analysis.

Philip Larkin is known for his rejection of metaphysical consolation, and yet in some of his more philosophic and existentialist poems, such as ‘Absences’ and ‘Here’, many critics describe a desire for freedom that leads to a metaphysical transcendence that seems at odds with the vision of such a confirmed atheist. This interpretation of transcendence in these poems by Larkin is a misreading of his thought. What Larkin is describing in ‘Absences’ and ‘Here’ is freedom without transcendence, arrived at through the promise of the endless creation of new limits. The philosophic framework for this insight is from Nietzsche, an influence that is pervasive in Larkin though little acknowledged.

This study analyses three categories of works by William Shenstone – Elegies, Levities; or Pieces of Humour and Odes – in terms of their poetic and cultural specifics. The findings are further applied to the process-oriented research of the poems’ translation into Chinese in order to explore their cultural implications. It is concluded that the most challenging category for translation is Levities due to the lack of an equivalent tradition in Chinese poetic history. As a result, the cultural expressions and certain references natural for Western literature are a complication. Nevertheless, the overall tendency of imitating the poetry of the past and deploying the said types of poetry by Shenstone make the cultural reverberations in the Chinese translations more vivid and vibrant.

This article examines the depiction of failed masculinity in Kiran Nagarkar's Cuckold (1997). Within conventional gender standards, men are often regarded as privileged because hegemonic masculine ideals are inscribed upon them. Yet, despite holding powerful positions, such as kingship, the struggles of men who fail to fulfil socially appointed masculine roles have long remained unnoticed. The intricate interplay of historical, social, and political forces contributes to the rigid construction of masculine norms, marking any breach as a sign of unmanliness, emasculation, or failure. Nagarkar, an Indian author who fuses history and myth, explores this notion of failed masculinity through the fictional Maharaj Kumar, a sixteenth-century Rajput prince. The novel traces his failures across multiple spheres of life and his relentless attempt to align himself with the ideal of a ‘manly king.’ Through close reading, this article ultimately foregrounds the destiny of a failed man shaped through Maharaj Kumar's character.

The purpose of this study was to uncover the role and significance of the oxymoron in postcolonial literature. To fulfil the purpose of the study, a systematic approach to identify and classify oxymorons in texts was conducted. In addition, methods of literary analysis, analysing contextual factors and historical context, were used to contribute to the understanding of the meaning of the oxymoron in postcolonial literature. Oxymorons were found both at the level of titles of works and in the text itself. Not only do they convey the contradictory and unbalanced nature of the postcolonial experience, but they also help the authors to create deep and multifaceted characters. The study highlighted the specific features of oxymoron use in different postcolonial contexts and identified common thematic and stylistic features.

The relevance of this study is determined by the need to understand the transformation of the concept of the tragic hero in the context of modern literature and its reflection in the works of Arthur Miller and Ernest Hemingway. The aim of the article was to analyse the images of the tragic hero in the works of these authors, allowing for the identification of both common traits and unique features that characterise the modern tragic hero. Using literary-stylistic and comparative analysis, the research looked at works such as Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea and Miller's Death of a Salesman. The results showed that, although the social and cultural settings of the writers vary greatly, both show sad heroes defined by inner conflict, existential problems and loneliness against society's alienation.

This article is an application of concepts to the reading of poetry borrowed from Jonathan Culler's Structuralist Poetics: Structuralism, Linguistics and the Study of Literature (Cornell University Press, 1975). I also use Roland Barthes’ language codes; hermeneutic, semantic, symbolic, actional and cultural-referential demonstrated in his well-known text S/Z, with slight modifications for their application as well. The discourse advocated by Culler was itself explored earlier and developed by Bulgarian/French historian Tzvetan Todorov in a reading method called Poetics, not to be confused with Aristotelian poetics. These concepts have been previously applied to literary fiction, though they have never been systematically applied to the reading of poetry. This is the sixth article in applied poetics published utilising this methodology since 2019.

butcher They are all in order, and march toward us.

cade But then are we are in order when we are Most out of order.

butcher They are all in order, and march toward us.

cade But then are we are in order when we are Most out of order.

The article establishes that Stevenson cast his Richard III in the same mold as his iconic pirate Long John Silver, and that both characters acquired some of their menacing vitality from Stevenson's one-legged friend and collaborator William Ernest Henley. More broadly, Stevenson's historical novel presents a corrective to the top-down perspective of the Shakespearean history play or rather its conscription by Victorian ‘Great Man’ historiography. The Black Arrow takes aim at the ‘Kings and Battles’ school of history by demonstrating that the reigns of the former and the outcomes of the latter often hinge on the unsung contributions of people who – due to their age, gender, class status, or ability – seldom feature in the official chronicles. Yet Stevenson also pathologises disability as a tragic predicament that must be overcome through heroic self-assertion. His novel thus redefines historical greatness while urging caution towards those who aspire to it.

butcher They are all in order, and march toward us.

cade But then are we are in order when we are Most out of order.

The article establishes that Stevenson cast his Richard III in the same mold as his iconic pirate Long John Silver, and that both characters acquired some of their menacing vitality from Stevenson's one-legged friend and collaborator William Ernest Henley. More broadly, Stevenson's historical novel presents a corrective to the top-down perspective of the Shakespearean history play or rather its conscription by Victorian ‘Great Man’ historiography. The Black Arrow takes aim at the ‘Kings and Battles’ school of history by demonstrating that the reigns of the former and the outcomes of the latter often hinge on the unsung contributions of people who – due to their age, gender, class status, or ability – seldom feature in the official chronicles. Yet Stevenson also pathologises disability as a tragic predicament that must be overcome through heroic self-assertion. His novel thus redefines historical greatness while urging caution towards those who aspire to it.

In his first tetralogy, Shakespeare presents a starkly pessimistic counterpoint to Thomas Nashes’ enthusiastic celebration of the early modern stage's renascence of chivalric ideals. Figures like Talbot – emblems of an older chivalric order – fade into irrelevance as their lofty self-conceptions clash with the cold pragmatism of a new political world: their outdated virtues are received with apathy by a rising generation of Machiavellian courtiers such as Richard III. As such, Shakespeare's portrayal of these older characters represents an irreparable disconnect between the medieval past and his own early modern present. England's defeat by France – a painful emblem of his time – is transformed from a straightforward military failure into a symptom of inexorable decline: Norbert Elias's “civilizing process”, framed as a moral unraveling rather than material progress. By sidestepping a blunt, mortifying reckoning with England's inadequacies against French power, Shakespeare's narrative becomes elusive and layered – less a chronicle of events than a haunting act of traumatography.

butcher They are all in order, and march toward us.

cade But then are we are in order when we are Most out of order.

The article establishes that Stevenson cast his Richard III in the same mold as his iconic pirate Long John Silver, and that both characters acquired some of their menacing vitality from Stevenson's one-legged friend and collaborator William Ernest Henley. More broadly, Stevenson's historical novel presents a corrective to the top-down perspective of the Shakespearean history play or rather its conscription by Victorian ‘Great Man’ historiography. The Black Arrow takes aim at the ‘Kings and Battles’ school of history by demonstrating that the reigns of the former and the outcomes of the latter often hinge on the unsung contributions of people who – due to their age, gender, class status, or ability – seldom feature in the official chronicles. Yet Stevenson also pathologises disability as a tragic predicament that must be overcome through heroic self-assertion. His novel thus redefines historical greatness while urging caution towards those who aspire to it.

In his first tetralogy, Shakespeare presents a starkly pessimistic counterpoint to Thomas Nashes’ enthusiastic celebration of the early modern stage's renascence of chivalric ideals. Figures like Talbot – emblems of an older chivalric order – fade into irrelevance as their lofty self-conceptions clash with the cold pragmatism of a new political world: their outdated virtues are received with apathy by a rising generation of Machiavellian courtiers such as Richard III. As such, Shakespeare's portrayal of these older characters represents an irreparable disconnect between the medieval past and his own early modern present. England's defeat by France – a painful emblem of his time – is transformed from a straightforward military failure into a symptom of inexorable decline: Norbert Elias's “civilizing process”, framed as a moral unraveling rather than material progress. By sidestepping a blunt, mortifying reckoning with England's inadequacies against French power, Shakespeare's narrative becomes elusive and layered – less a chronicle of events than a haunting act of traumatography.

Shakespeare's Richard III, like his other plays, aims to expose the flaws and shortcomings of the real world. This article adopts the perspective of Ethical Literary Criticism based on the theoretical framework developed by Chinese scholar Nie Zhenzhao to argue that Richard's ethical predicament arises from both internal and external factors within the play's ethical context. It analyses Richard's ethical identities and the motivations behind his irrational ethical choices, highlighting the potential consequences of disregarding ethical principles for individual gain. Additionally, it discusses Shakespeare's belief in human nature, exemplified through Richard's ethical consciousness and the moral emotions demonstrated by other characters. Finally, the article explores Shakespeare's ethical tendencies, emphasising his ideal of restoring sound ethical values through the portrayal of characters and plot arrangements in the play.

butcher They are all in order, and march toward us.

cade But then are we are in order when we are Most out of order.

The article establishes that Stevenson cast his Richard III in the same mold as his iconic pirate Long John Silver, and that both characters acquired some of their menacing vitality from Stevenson's one-legged friend and collaborator William Ernest Henley. More broadly, Stevenson's historical novel presents a corrective to the top-down perspective of the Shakespearean history play or rather its conscription by Victorian ‘Great Man’ historiography. The Black Arrow takes aim at the ‘Kings and Battles’ school of history by demonstrating that the reigns of the former and the outcomes of the latter often hinge on the unsung contributions of people who – due to their age, gender, class status, or ability – seldom feature in the official chronicles. Yet Stevenson also pathologises disability as a tragic predicament that must be overcome through heroic self-assertion. His novel thus redefines historical greatness while urging caution towards those who aspire to it.

In his first tetralogy, Shakespeare presents a starkly pessimistic counterpoint to Thomas Nashes’ enthusiastic celebration of the early modern stage's renascence of chivalric ideals. Figures like Talbot – emblems of an older chivalric order – fade into irrelevance as their lofty self-conceptions clash with the cold pragmatism of a new political world: their outdated virtues are received with apathy by a rising generation of Machiavellian courtiers such as Richard III. As such, Shakespeare's portrayal of these older characters represents an irreparable disconnect between the medieval past and his own early modern present. England's defeat by France – a painful emblem of his time – is transformed from a straightforward military failure into a symptom of inexorable decline: Norbert Elias's “civilizing process”, framed as a moral unraveling rather than material progress. By sidestepping a blunt, mortifying reckoning with England's inadequacies against French power, Shakespeare's narrative becomes elusive and layered – less a chronicle of events than a haunting act of traumatography.

Shakespeare's Richard III, like his other plays, aims to expose the flaws and shortcomings of the real world. This article adopts the perspective of Ethical Literary Criticism based on the theoretical framework developed by Chinese scholar Nie Zhenzhao to argue that Richard's ethical predicament arises from both internal and external factors within the play's ethical context. It analyses Richard's ethical identities and the motivations behind his irrational ethical choices, highlighting the potential consequences of disregarding ethical principles for individual gain. Additionally, it discusses Shakespeare's belief in human nature, exemplified through Richard's ethical consciousness and the moral emotions demonstrated by other characters. Finally, the article explores Shakespeare's ethical tendencies, emphasising his ideal of restoring sound ethical values through the portrayal of characters and plot arrangements in the play.

In his first tetralogy, Shakespeare interrogates his age's faith in technological progress as a triumph of the rational over the superstitious. In 1 Henry VI and Richard III, he dramatises an epistemological aporia: the overloading of the rational summons forth a future of ghosts. In keeping with Derrida's mystical foundation of law, the imposition of the material, more immediately represented as the gunpowder technology in 1 Henry VI, creates ruptures in meaning that resist assimilation into rational discourse. This material excess lingers into a putatively rational age in Richard III, where confidence in historical progress is consistently frustrated by representational enigmas. Even Richard, the play's arch-rationalist, finds himself unnerved by the ghostly other that fractures his carefully constructed economy of reason. Rather than reaching self-sufficiency, then, Shakespeare's vision of technological modernity remains inextricably bound to its repressed counterpart: the very superstition it seeks to erase.

butcher They are all in order, and march toward us.

cade But then are we are in order when we are Most out of order.

The article establishes that Stevenson cast his Richard III in the same mold as his iconic pirate Long John Silver, and that both characters acquired some of their menacing vitality from Stevenson's one-legged friend and collaborator William Ernest Henley. More broadly, Stevenson's historical novel presents a corrective to the top-down perspective of the Shakespearean history play or rather its conscription by Victorian ‘Great Man’ historiography. The Black Arrow takes aim at the ‘Kings and Battles’ school of history by demonstrating that the reigns of the former and the outcomes of the latter often hinge on the unsung contributions of people who – due to their age, gender, class status, or ability – seldom feature in the official chronicles. Yet Stevenson also pathologises disability as a tragic predicament that must be overcome through heroic self-assertion. His novel thus redefines historical greatness while urging caution towards those who aspire to it.

In his first tetralogy, Shakespeare presents a starkly pessimistic counterpoint to Thomas Nashes’ enthusiastic celebration of the early modern stage's renascence of chivalric ideals. Figures like Talbot – emblems of an older chivalric order – fade into irrelevance as their lofty self-conceptions clash with the cold pragmatism of a new political world: their outdated virtues are received with apathy by a rising generation of Machiavellian courtiers such as Richard III. As such, Shakespeare's portrayal of these older characters represents an irreparable disconnect between the medieval past and his own early modern present. England's defeat by France – a painful emblem of his time – is transformed from a straightforward military failure into a symptom of inexorable decline: Norbert Elias's “civilizing process”, framed as a moral unraveling rather than material progress. By sidestepping a blunt, mortifying reckoning with England's inadequacies against French power, Shakespeare's narrative becomes elusive and layered – less a chronicle of events than a haunting act of traumatography.

Shakespeare's Richard III, like his other plays, aims to expose the flaws and shortcomings of the real world. This article adopts the perspective of Ethical Literary Criticism based on the theoretical framework developed by Chinese scholar Nie Zhenzhao to argue that Richard's ethical predicament arises from both internal and external factors within the play's ethical context. It analyses Richard's ethical identities and the motivations behind his irrational ethical choices, highlighting the potential consequences of disregarding ethical principles for individual gain. Additionally, it discusses Shakespeare's belief in human nature, exemplified through Richard's ethical consciousness and the moral emotions demonstrated by other characters. Finally, the article explores Shakespeare's ethical tendencies, emphasising his ideal of restoring sound ethical values through the portrayal of characters and plot arrangements in the play.

In his first tetralogy, Shakespeare interrogates his age's faith in technological progress as a triumph of the rational over the superstitious. In 1 Henry VI and Richard III, he dramatises an epistemological aporia: the overloading of the rational summons forth a future of ghosts. In keeping with Derrida's mystical foundation of law, the imposition of the material, more immediately represented as the gunpowder technology in 1 Henry VI, creates ruptures in meaning that resist assimilation into rational discourse. This material excess lingers into a putatively rational age in Richard III, where confidence in historical progress is consistently frustrated by representational enigmas. Even Richard, the play's arch-rationalist, finds himself unnerved by the ghostly other that fractures his carefully constructed economy of reason. Rather than reaching self-sufficiency, then, Shakespeare's vision of technological modernity remains inextricably bound to its repressed counterpart: the very superstition it seeks to erase.

Romeo and Juliet (1597) is the most famous romantic tragedy written by William Shakespeare. Like other Shakespearean plays, it offers complicated personalities whose psychic intentions and motivations can only be unveiled through a deep psychoanalytic reading. As such, this article is an attempt to analyse the play in the light of Lacanian psychoanalytic theories such as the phallus, the Other, the split subject, objet a and the masquerade. We argue that while Juliet's faked death initially appears as an act of rebellion against the oppressive structures of her male-dominated society, it ultimately transforms her into a passive and silenced object of beauty, admired and objectified by both Renaissance patriarchal society and contemporary audiences. Through this portrayal, Shakespeare invites readers and audiences to reflect on how women's identities were shaped and constrained by Renaissance social expectations.

butcher They are all in order, and march toward us.

cade But then are we are in order when we are Most out of order.

The article establishes that Stevenson cast his Richard III in the same mold as his iconic pirate Long John Silver, and that both characters acquired some of their menacing vitality from Stevenson's one-legged friend and collaborator William Ernest Henley. More broadly, Stevenson's historical novel presents a corrective to the top-down perspective of the Shakespearean history play or rather its conscription by Victorian ‘Great Man’ historiography. The Black Arrow takes aim at the ‘Kings and Battles’ school of history by demonstrating that the reigns of the former and the outcomes of the latter often hinge on the unsung contributions of people who – due to their age, gender, class status, or ability – seldom feature in the official chronicles. Yet Stevenson also pathologises disability as a tragic predicament that must be overcome through heroic self-assertion. His novel thus redefines historical greatness while urging caution towards those who aspire to it.

In his first tetralogy, Shakespeare presents a starkly pessimistic counterpoint to Thomas Nashes’ enthusiastic celebration of the early modern stage's renascence of chivalric ideals. Figures like Talbot – emblems of an older chivalric order – fade into irrelevance as their lofty self-conceptions clash with the cold pragmatism of a new political world: their outdated virtues are received with apathy by a rising generation of Machiavellian courtiers such as Richard III. As such, Shakespeare's portrayal of these older characters represents an irreparable disconnect between the medieval past and his own early modern present. England's defeat by France – a painful emblem of his time – is transformed from a straightforward military failure into a symptom of inexorable decline: Norbert Elias's “civilizing process”, framed as a moral unraveling rather than material progress. By sidestepping a blunt, mortifying reckoning with England's inadequacies against French power, Shakespeare's narrative becomes elusive and layered – less a chronicle of events than a haunting act of traumatography.

Shakespeare's Richard III, like his other plays, aims to expose the flaws and shortcomings of the real world. This article adopts the perspective of Ethical Literary Criticism based on the theoretical framework developed by Chinese scholar Nie Zhenzhao to argue that Richard's ethical predicament arises from both internal and external factors within the play's ethical context. It analyses Richard's ethical identities and the motivations behind his irrational ethical choices, highlighting the potential consequences of disregarding ethical principles for individual gain. Additionally, it discusses Shakespeare's belief in human nature, exemplified through Richard's ethical consciousness and the moral emotions demonstrated by other characters. Finally, the article explores Shakespeare's ethical tendencies, emphasising his ideal of restoring sound ethical values through the portrayal of characters and plot arrangements in the play.

In his first tetralogy, Shakespeare interrogates his age's faith in technological progress as a triumph of the rational over the superstitious. In 1 Henry VI and Richard III, he dramatises an epistemological aporia: the overloading of the rational summons forth a future of ghosts. In keeping with Derrida's mystical foundation of law, the imposition of the material, more immediately represented as the gunpowder technology in 1 Henry VI, creates ruptures in meaning that resist assimilation into rational discourse. This material excess lingers into a putatively rational age in Richard III, where confidence in historical progress is consistently frustrated by representational enigmas. Even Richard, the play's arch-rationalist, finds himself unnerved by the ghostly other that fractures his carefully constructed economy of reason. Rather than reaching self-sufficiency, then, Shakespeare's vision of technological modernity remains inextricably bound to its repressed counterpart: the very superstition it seeks to erase.

Romeo and Juliet (1597) is the most famous romantic tragedy written by William Shakespeare. Like other Shakespearean plays, it offers complicated personalities whose psychic intentions and motivations can only be unveiled through a deep psychoanalytic reading. As such, this article is an attempt to analyse the play in the light of Lacanian psychoanalytic theories such as the phallus, the Other, the split subject, objet a and the masquerade. We argue that while Juliet's faked death initially appears as an act of rebellion against the oppressive structures of her male-dominated society, it ultimately transforms her into a passive and silenced object of beauty, admired and objectified by both Renaissance patriarchal society and contemporary audiences. Through this portrayal, Shakespeare invites readers and audiences to reflect on how women's identities were shaped and constrained by Renaissance social expectations.

The weakening of the chorus destabilises its symbiotic, triadic nexus with action and audience. In Hamlet, however, Shakespeare rejuvenates this quondam bond and strengthens and materialises this reciprocal connection between the chorus and the audience through the categorical utilisation of the chorus. Because of the sophistication of the Shakespearean audience, the chorus is designed to satisfy the varied demands of the privileged and the plebeian. Therefore, in Hamlet, a flattering chorus enchants a sophisticated audience, with vestiges of the classical chorus remaining; the privileged audience is consciously educated by the choral performance, while the vulgar audience can be musically inspired by the poetic chorus. Shakespeare innovatively revamps the chorus to recruit audiences of all stripes, and even for the vulgars, the chorus could awaken the ‘latent poetry’ therein. Moreover, in the process, the hazy subjective consciousness of the vulgars as ‘the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals’, is enlightened. Shakespeare revives the tragedy of humanity by contemporising the traditional elements.

butcher They are all in order, and march toward us.

cade But then are we are in order when we are Most out of order.

The article establishes that Stevenson cast his Richard III in the same mold as his iconic pirate Long John Silver, and that both characters acquired some of their menacing vitality from Stevenson's one-legged friend and collaborator William Ernest Henley. More broadly, Stevenson's historical novel presents a corrective to the top-down perspective of the Shakespearean history play or rather its conscription by Victorian ‘Great Man’ historiography. The Black Arrow takes aim at the ‘Kings and Battles’ school of history by demonstrating that the reigns of the former and the outcomes of the latter often hinge on the unsung contributions of people who – due to their age, gender, class status, or ability – seldom feature in the official chronicles. Yet Stevenson also pathologises disability as a tragic predicament that must be overcome through heroic self-assertion. His novel thus redefines historical greatness while urging caution towards those who aspire to it.

In his first tetralogy, Shakespeare presents a starkly pessimistic counterpoint to Thomas Nashes’ enthusiastic celebration of the early modern stage's renascence of chivalric ideals. Figures like Talbot – emblems of an older chivalric order – fade into irrelevance as their lofty self-conceptions clash with the cold pragmatism of a new political world: their outdated virtues are received with apathy by a rising generation of Machiavellian courtiers such as Richard III. As such, Shakespeare's portrayal of these older characters represents an irreparable disconnect between the medieval past and his own early modern present. England's defeat by France – a painful emblem of his time – is transformed from a straightforward military failure into a symptom of inexorable decline: Norbert Elias's “civilizing process”, framed as a moral unraveling rather than material progress. By sidestepping a blunt, mortifying reckoning with England's inadequacies against French power, Shakespeare's narrative becomes elusive and layered – less a chronicle of events than a haunting act of traumatography.

Shakespeare's Richard III, like his other plays, aims to expose the flaws and shortcomings of the real world. This article adopts the perspective of Ethical Literary Criticism based on the theoretical framework developed by Chinese scholar Nie Zhenzhao to argue that Richard's ethical predicament arises from both internal and external factors within the play's ethical context. It analyses Richard's ethical identities and the motivations behind his irrational ethical choices, highlighting the potential consequences of disregarding ethical principles for individual gain. Additionally, it discusses Shakespeare's belief in human nature, exemplified through Richard's ethical consciousness and the moral emotions demonstrated by other characters. Finally, the article explores Shakespeare's ethical tendencies, emphasising his ideal of restoring sound ethical values through the portrayal of characters and plot arrangements in the play.

In his first tetralogy, Shakespeare interrogates his age's faith in technological progress as a triumph of the rational over the superstitious. In 1 Henry VI and Richard III, he dramatises an epistemological aporia: the overloading of the rational summons forth a future of ghosts. In keeping with Derrida's mystical foundation of law, the imposition of the material, more immediately represented as the gunpowder technology in 1 Henry VI, creates ruptures in meaning that resist assimilation into rational discourse. This material excess lingers into a putatively rational age in Richard III, where confidence in historical progress is consistently frustrated by representational enigmas. Even Richard, the play's arch-rationalist, finds himself unnerved by the ghostly other that fractures his carefully constructed economy of reason. Rather than reaching self-sufficiency, then, Shakespeare's vision of technological modernity remains inextricably bound to its repressed counterpart: the very superstition it seeks to erase.

Romeo and Juliet (1597) is the most famous romantic tragedy written by William Shakespeare. Like other Shakespearean plays, it offers complicated personalities whose psychic intentions and motivations can only be unveiled through a deep psychoanalytic reading. As such, this article is an attempt to analyse the play in the light of Lacanian psychoanalytic theories such as the phallus, the Other, the split subject, objet a and the masquerade. We argue that while Juliet's faked death initially appears as an act of rebellion against the oppressive structures of her male-dominated society, it ultimately transforms her into a passive and silenced object of beauty, admired and objectified by both Renaissance patriarchal society and contemporary audiences. Through this portrayal, Shakespeare invites readers and audiences to reflect on how women's identities were shaped and constrained by Renaissance social expectations.

The weakening of the chorus destabilises its symbiotic, triadic nexus with action and audience. In Hamlet, however, Shakespeare rejuvenates this quondam bond and strengthens and materialises this reciprocal connection between the chorus and the audience through the categorical utilisation of the chorus. Because of the sophistication of the Shakespearean audience, the chorus is designed to satisfy the varied demands of the privileged and the plebeian. Therefore, in Hamlet, a flattering chorus enchants a sophisticated audience, with vestiges of the classical chorus remaining; the privileged audience is consciously educated by the choral performance, while the vulgar audience can be musically inspired by the poetic chorus. Shakespeare innovatively revamps the chorus to recruit audiences of all stripes, and even for the vulgars, the chorus could awaken the ‘latent poetry’ therein. Moreover, in the process, the hazy subjective consciousness of the vulgars as ‘the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals’, is enlightened. Shakespeare revives the tragedy of humanity by contemporising the traditional elements.

This article is a reassessment of Timon of Athens as a cynical critique of the ethics of economy and the destruction of human relations. Contextualising the play in early modern gift economies and indebted patronage, the play states that Shakespeare plays out the disappointment of mutual trust in a culture that relied on symbolic exchange and the display of virtue. The moral and philosophical price of betrayal in a morally bankrupt society is dramatised when Timon falls in a civic ideal as a misanthropic exile. The paper combines the insights of Stoic philosophy with economic anthropology and affect theory to analyze the disintegration of moral coherence and social definition, as indicated by the formal fragmentation of the play, its allegorical characters and its rhetorical surplus. Through following the tension between the spectacle of the mass and inner disillusionment, the article reveals Timon of Athens as an incredibly contemporary tragedy, one that reveals the weakness of generosity and the destructive possibility of an economy in which generosity becomes meaningless and insignificant like something under control.

In this article, I propose a theorisation of what I term ‘the writer's block subgenre’, a literary category comprising creative works shaped by and engaging with the condition of writer's block. Drawing primarily on the theoretical framework of Edmund Bergler, credited with first coining the term ‘writer's block’, I argue that in certain cases, this condition proves so enduring and traumatic for the artist that it can become, paradoxically, the idea or plot they previously struggled to find. Through close readings of Samuel Coleridge's ‘Kubla Khan’, Keith Douglas's ‘The “bête noire” fragments’ and Ted Hughes's ‘The thought fox’, I examine how these poems engage with creative inhibition and why they qualify as quintessential examples of the writer's block subgenre.

In this article, I propose a theorisation of what I term ‘the writer's block subgenre’, a literary category comprising creative works shaped by and engaging with the condition of writer's block. Drawing primarily on the theoretical framework of Edmund Bergler, credited with first coining the term ‘writer's block’, I argue that in certain cases, this condition proves so enduring and traumatic for the artist that it can become, paradoxically, the idea or plot they previously struggled to find. Through close readings of Samuel Coleridge's ‘Kubla Khan’, Keith Douglas's ‘The “bête noire” fragments’ and Ted Hughes's ‘The thought fox’, I examine how these poems engage with creative inhibition and why they qualify as quintessential examples of the writer's block subgenre.

This article argues that writer's block in Mahmoud Darwish's works is a reflection of the poet's experience of a creative block, a clinical condition that emerged after his surgery in 1998, and is also a metaphor for the ongoing block or impasse in the Palestinian political situation. The central thesis of this article is that writer's block in Darwish is akin to experiences like Heideggerian anxiety, the Sartrean attraction of the abyss, the Lacanian eruption of the Real, and Freud's neuroticism. In all these cases, the poet, through a momentary awareness of his impending death, experiences an ecstatic intensification of Being and an expansion of life possibilities, in the Nietzschean sense. This article further demonstrates that Darwish turns into a successful neurotic writer who utilises stuttering and his potential mental illness as a creative means to overcome the abject reality and invent a new reality, wherein unsatisfied wishes could be fulfilled.

In this article, I propose a theorisation of what I term ‘the writer's block subgenre’, a literary category comprising creative works shaped by and engaging with the condition of writer's block. Drawing primarily on the theoretical framework of Edmund Bergler, credited with first coining the term ‘writer's block’, I argue that in certain cases, this condition proves so enduring and traumatic for the artist that it can become, paradoxically, the idea or plot they previously struggled to find. Through close readings of Samuel Coleridge's ‘Kubla Khan’, Keith Douglas's ‘The “bête noire” fragments’ and Ted Hughes's ‘The thought fox’, I examine how these poems engage with creative inhibition and why they qualify as quintessential examples of the writer's block subgenre.

This article argues that writer's block in Mahmoud Darwish's works is a reflection of the poet's experience of a creative block, a clinical condition that emerged after his surgery in 1998, and is also a metaphor for the ongoing block or impasse in the Palestinian political situation. The central thesis of this article is that writer's block in Darwish is akin to experiences like Heideggerian anxiety, the Sartrean attraction of the abyss, the Lacanian eruption of the Real, and Freud's neuroticism. In all these cases, the poet, through a momentary awareness of his impending death, experiences an ecstatic intensification of Being and an expansion of life possibilities, in the Nietzschean sense. This article further demonstrates that Darwish turns into a successful neurotic writer who utilises stuttering and his potential mental illness as a creative means to overcome the abject reality and invent a new reality, wherein unsatisfied wishes could be fulfilled.

This article examines the complex relationship between crime, capitalism and drug-trafficking in Dope (1922) by Sax Rohmer, suggesting that the novel reveals how criminal empires are connected to global capitalism, private enterprise and imperial trade. Drawing upon a wide range of theoretical discourses, the article explores how while disciplinary regimes of surveillance, detection and policing attempt to reinstate the boundary between the legal and illegal, it becomes increasingly difficult in a highly globalised economy, where drug cartels operate like multinational corporations, intelligence agencies and intergovernmental organisations. In this sense, the novel demonstrates how the international drugs trade will continue to exist until the capitalist economy gazes at itself in the mirror and accepts the social and economic consequences of its ruthless exploitation, aggressive monopolisation and ever-encroaching corporate control.

In this article, I propose a theorisation of what I term ‘the writer's block subgenre’, a literary category comprising creative works shaped by and engaging with the condition of writer's block. Drawing primarily on the theoretical framework of Edmund Bergler, credited with first coining the term ‘writer's block’, I argue that in certain cases, this condition proves so enduring and traumatic for the artist that it can become, paradoxically, the idea or plot they previously struggled to find. Through close readings of Samuel Coleridge's ‘Kubla Khan’, Keith Douglas's ‘The “bête noire” fragments’ and Ted Hughes's ‘The thought fox’, I examine how these poems engage with creative inhibition and why they qualify as quintessential examples of the writer's block subgenre.

This article argues that writer's block in Mahmoud Darwish's works is a reflection of the poet's experience of a creative block, a clinical condition that emerged after his surgery in 1998, and is also a metaphor for the ongoing block or impasse in the Palestinian political situation. The central thesis of this article is that writer's block in Darwish is akin to experiences like Heideggerian anxiety, the Sartrean attraction of the abyss, the Lacanian eruption of the Real, and Freud's neuroticism. In all these cases, the poet, through a momentary awareness of his impending death, experiences an ecstatic intensification of Being and an expansion of life possibilities, in the Nietzschean sense. This article further demonstrates that Darwish turns into a successful neurotic writer who utilises stuttering and his potential mental illness as a creative means to overcome the abject reality and invent a new reality, wherein unsatisfied wishes could be fulfilled.

This article examines the complex relationship between crime, capitalism and drug-trafficking in Dope (1922) by Sax Rohmer, suggesting that the novel reveals how criminal empires are connected to global capitalism, private enterprise and imperial trade. Drawing upon a wide range of theoretical discourses, the article explores how while disciplinary regimes of surveillance, detection and policing attempt to reinstate the boundary between the legal and illegal, it becomes increasingly difficult in a highly globalised economy, where drug cartels operate like multinational corporations, intelligence agencies and intergovernmental organisations. In this sense, the novel demonstrates how the international drugs trade will continue to exist until the capitalist economy gazes at itself in the mirror and accepts the social and economic consequences of its ruthless exploitation, aggressive monopolisation and ever-encroaching corporate control.

The purpose of this article is to analyse the specifics of the world views of the characters in Anton Chekhov's novella Ward No. 6, revealed through existential issues. The following methods were used to achieve the research objectives: abstraction, generalisation, content analysis, comparative analysis and the method of artistic hermeneutics. Every character in this literary work by Chekhov follows a path of ideological searching, and the position taken by the author is expressed through the process of clashing two personalities that act as oppositional in their world views. The personification effect acts as the main mechanism for revealing existential conflicts, which in the process of revealing ideological content relies on the search for truth expressed by the work's characters and their unique way of looking at the world.

In this article, I propose a theorisation of what I term ‘the writer's block subgenre’, a literary category comprising creative works shaped by and engaging with the condition of writer's block. Drawing primarily on the theoretical framework of Edmund Bergler, credited with first coining the term ‘writer's block’, I argue that in certain cases, this condition proves so enduring and traumatic for the artist that it can become, paradoxically, the idea or plot they previously struggled to find. Through close readings of Samuel Coleridge's ‘Kubla Khan’, Keith Douglas's ‘The “bête noire” fragments’ and Ted Hughes's ‘The thought fox’, I examine how these poems engage with creative inhibition and why they qualify as quintessential examples of the writer's block subgenre.

This article argues that writer's block in Mahmoud Darwish's works is a reflection of the poet's experience of a creative block, a clinical condition that emerged after his surgery in 1998, and is also a metaphor for the ongoing block or impasse in the Palestinian political situation. The central thesis of this article is that writer's block in Darwish is akin to experiences like Heideggerian anxiety, the Sartrean attraction of the abyss, the Lacanian eruption of the Real, and Freud's neuroticism. In all these cases, the poet, through a momentary awareness of his impending death, experiences an ecstatic intensification of Being and an expansion of life possibilities, in the Nietzschean sense. This article further demonstrates that Darwish turns into a successful neurotic writer who utilises stuttering and his potential mental illness as a creative means to overcome the abject reality and invent a new reality, wherein unsatisfied wishes could be fulfilled.

This article examines the complex relationship between crime, capitalism and drug-trafficking in Dope (1922) by Sax Rohmer, suggesting that the novel reveals how criminal empires are connected to global capitalism, private enterprise and imperial trade. Drawing upon a wide range of theoretical discourses, the article explores how while disciplinary regimes of surveillance, detection and policing attempt to reinstate the boundary between the legal and illegal, it becomes increasingly difficult in a highly globalised economy, where drug cartels operate like multinational corporations, intelligence agencies and intergovernmental organisations. In this sense, the novel demonstrates how the international drugs trade will continue to exist until the capitalist economy gazes at itself in the mirror and accepts the social and economic consequences of its ruthless exploitation, aggressive monopolisation and ever-encroaching corporate control.

The purpose of this article is to analyse the specifics of the world views of the characters in Anton Chekhov's novella Ward No. 6, revealed through existential issues. The following methods were used to achieve the research objectives: abstraction, generalisation, content analysis, comparative analysis and the method of artistic hermeneutics. Every character in this literary work by Chekhov follows a path of ideological searching, and the position taken by the author is expressed through the process of clashing two personalities that act as oppositional in their world views. The personification effect acts as the main mechanism for revealing existential conflicts, which in the process of revealing ideological content relies on the search for truth expressed by the work's characters and their unique way of looking at the world.

Iris Murdoch's The Black Prince (1973) is a metafictional novel that has been deemed by many critics a literary expression of Murdoch's moral philosophy. However, by adopting different ethical approaches, one can unravel conflicts at the heart of the text that cannot be explained with conventional readings. The present article aims at studying the concepts of love and ethics in this novel based on Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari's poststructuralist thought. Contrary to previous readings, this article argues that, rather than being a purely Platonic love or a destructive experience, the protagonist's love is schizophrenising and in line with his immanent becoming. Accordingly, when he is finally sentenced to life imprisonment, instead of grappling with ressentiment, he actively and joyfully embraces his fate and becomes a Body without Organs via creating a minoritarian work of fiction.

In this article, I propose a theorisation of what I term ‘the writer's block subgenre’, a literary category comprising creative works shaped by and engaging with the condition of writer's block. Drawing primarily on the theoretical framework of Edmund Bergler, credited with first coining the term ‘writer's block’, I argue that in certain cases, this condition proves so enduring and traumatic for the artist that it can become, paradoxically, the idea or plot they previously struggled to find. Through close readings of Samuel Coleridge's ‘Kubla Khan’, Keith Douglas's ‘The “bête noire” fragments’ and Ted Hughes's ‘The thought fox’, I examine how these poems engage with creative inhibition and why they qualify as quintessential examples of the writer's block subgenre.

This article argues that writer's block in Mahmoud Darwish's works is a reflection of the poet's experience of a creative block, a clinical condition that emerged after his surgery in 1998, and is also a metaphor for the ongoing block or impasse in the Palestinian political situation. The central thesis of this article is that writer's block in Darwish is akin to experiences like Heideggerian anxiety, the Sartrean attraction of the abyss, the Lacanian eruption of the Real, and Freud's neuroticism. In all these cases, the poet, through a momentary awareness of his impending death, experiences an ecstatic intensification of Being and an expansion of life possibilities, in the Nietzschean sense. This article further demonstrates that Darwish turns into a successful neurotic writer who utilises stuttering and his potential mental illness as a creative means to overcome the abject reality and invent a new reality, wherein unsatisfied wishes could be fulfilled.

This article examines the complex relationship between crime, capitalism and drug-trafficking in Dope (1922) by Sax Rohmer, suggesting that the novel reveals how criminal empires are connected to global capitalism, private enterprise and imperial trade. Drawing upon a wide range of theoretical discourses, the article explores how while disciplinary regimes of surveillance, detection and policing attempt to reinstate the boundary between the legal and illegal, it becomes increasingly difficult in a highly globalised economy, where drug cartels operate like multinational corporations, intelligence agencies and intergovernmental organisations. In this sense, the novel demonstrates how the international drugs trade will continue to exist until the capitalist economy gazes at itself in the mirror and accepts the social and economic consequences of its ruthless exploitation, aggressive monopolisation and ever-encroaching corporate control.

The purpose of this article is to analyse the specifics of the world views of the characters in Anton Chekhov's novella Ward No. 6, revealed through existential issues. The following methods were used to achieve the research objectives: abstraction, generalisation, content analysis, comparative analysis and the method of artistic hermeneutics. Every character in this literary work by Chekhov follows a path of ideological searching, and the position taken by the author is expressed through the process of clashing two personalities that act as oppositional in their world views. The personification effect acts as the main mechanism for revealing existential conflicts, which in the process of revealing ideological content relies on the search for truth expressed by the work's characters and their unique way of looking at the world.

Iris Murdoch's The Black Prince (1973) is a metafictional novel that has been deemed by many critics a literary expression of Murdoch's moral philosophy. However, by adopting different ethical approaches, one can unravel conflicts at the heart of the text that cannot be explained with conventional readings. The present article aims at studying the concepts of love and ethics in this novel based on Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari's poststructuralist thought. Contrary to previous readings, this article argues that, rather than being a purely Platonic love or a destructive experience, the protagonist's love is schizophrenising and in line with his immanent becoming. Accordingly, when he is finally sentenced to life imprisonment, instead of grappling with ressentiment, he actively and joyfully embraces his fate and becomes a Body without Organs via creating a minoritarian work of fiction.

This article analyses the aesthetic evolution of the work 酒国 Jiuguo by Chinese author Mo Yang in the process of translating the work into English. The article employs Mo Yan's 酒国 Jiuguo and its English translation by Howard Goldblatt to analyse aesthetic transformation in literary translation. A comparative analysis identifies disparities in aesthetic elements and linguistic strategies, emphasising the translator's role in preserving or modifying the original aesthetics. The translator effectively conveys metaphors and symbols, such as ‘tea’ or the ‘wedding scene’, enabling English-speaking readers to maintain associations with Chinese culture. Preserving the depth of the original's cultural context may be less effective when translating colour and emotional nuances. This study may be useful for researchers in the field of linguistics, in particular for further research in the field of literary translation.

In this article, I propose a theorisation of what I term ‘the writer's block subgenre’, a literary category comprising creative works shaped by and engaging with the condition of writer's block. Drawing primarily on the theoretical framework of Edmund Bergler, credited with first coining the term ‘writer's block’, I argue that in certain cases, this condition proves so enduring and traumatic for the artist that it can become, paradoxically, the idea or plot they previously struggled to find. Through close readings of Samuel Coleridge's ‘Kubla Khan’, Keith Douglas's ‘The “bête noire” fragments’ and Ted Hughes's ‘The thought fox’, I examine how these poems engage with creative inhibition and why they qualify as quintessential examples of the writer's block subgenre.

This article argues that writer's block in Mahmoud Darwish's works is a reflection of the poet's experience of a creative block, a clinical condition that emerged after his surgery in 1998, and is also a metaphor for the ongoing block or impasse in the Palestinian political situation. The central thesis of this article is that writer's block in Darwish is akin to experiences like Heideggerian anxiety, the Sartrean attraction of the abyss, the Lacanian eruption of the Real, and Freud's neuroticism. In all these cases, the poet, through a momentary awareness of his impending death, experiences an ecstatic intensification of Being and an expansion of life possibilities, in the Nietzschean sense. This article further demonstrates that Darwish turns into a successful neurotic writer who utilises stuttering and his potential mental illness as a creative means to overcome the abject reality and invent a new reality, wherein unsatisfied wishes could be fulfilled.

This article examines the complex relationship between crime, capitalism and drug-trafficking in Dope (1922) by Sax Rohmer, suggesting that the novel reveals how criminal empires are connected to global capitalism, private enterprise and imperial trade. Drawing upon a wide range of theoretical discourses, the article explores how while disciplinary regimes of surveillance, detection and policing attempt to reinstate the boundary between the legal and illegal, it becomes increasingly difficult in a highly globalised economy, where drug cartels operate like multinational corporations, intelligence agencies and intergovernmental organisations. In this sense, the novel demonstrates how the international drugs trade will continue to exist until the capitalist economy gazes at itself in the mirror and accepts the social and economic consequences of its ruthless exploitation, aggressive monopolisation and ever-encroaching corporate control.

The purpose of this article is to analyse the specifics of the world views of the characters in Anton Chekhov's novella Ward No. 6, revealed through existential issues. The following methods were used to achieve the research objectives: abstraction, generalisation, content analysis, comparative analysis and the method of artistic hermeneutics. Every character in this literary work by Chekhov follows a path of ideological searching, and the position taken by the author is expressed through the process of clashing two personalities that act as oppositional in their world views. The personification effect acts as the main mechanism for revealing existential conflicts, which in the process of revealing ideological content relies on the search for truth expressed by the work's characters and their unique way of looking at the world.

Iris Murdoch's The Black Prince (1973) is a metafictional novel that has been deemed by many critics a literary expression of Murdoch's moral philosophy. However, by adopting different ethical approaches, one can unravel conflicts at the heart of the text that cannot be explained with conventional readings. The present article aims at studying the concepts of love and ethics in this novel based on Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari's poststructuralist thought. Contrary to previous readings, this article argues that, rather than being a purely Platonic love or a destructive experience, the protagonist's love is schizophrenising and in line with his immanent becoming. Accordingly, when he is finally sentenced to life imprisonment, instead of grappling with ressentiment, he actively and joyfully embraces his fate and becomes a Body without Organs via creating a minoritarian work of fiction.

This article analyses the aesthetic evolution of the work 酒国 Jiuguo by Chinese author Mo Yang in the process of translating the work into English. The article employs Mo Yan's 酒国 Jiuguo and its English translation by Howard Goldblatt to analyse aesthetic transformation in literary translation. A comparative analysis identifies disparities in aesthetic elements and linguistic strategies, emphasising the translator's role in preserving or modifying the original aesthetics. The translator effectively conveys metaphors and symbols, such as ‘tea’ or the ‘wedding scene’, enabling English-speaking readers to maintain associations with Chinese culture. Preserving the depth of the original's cultural context may be less effective when translating colour and emotional nuances. This study may be useful for researchers in the field of linguistics, in particular for further research in the field of literary translation.

This article analyses neologisms reflecting the realities of the COVID-19 pandemic in the English and Russian media discourse. Media discourse is currently the main platform for the emergence, testing and entry of new lexical units into the active vocabulary of languages. The research methodology includes content analysis and a continuous sampling method for selecting linguistic material, methods of structural and word formation analysis, comparative analysis, and semantic component analysis. The material for the study was English- and Russian-language web content from Great Britain, Germany, India, China, Russia, the USA and Estonia. The analysis of the neologisms that arose under the influence of the pandemic in terms of word formation demonstrated that in English and Russian the most productive models are addition and blending. Suffixation and clipping are models specific to the Russian language.

In this article, I propose a theorisation of what I term ‘the writer's block subgenre’, a literary category comprising creative works shaped by and engaging with the condition of writer's block. Drawing primarily on the theoretical framework of Edmund Bergler, credited with first coining the term ‘writer's block’, I argue that in certain cases, this condition proves so enduring and traumatic for the artist that it can become, paradoxically, the idea or plot they previously struggled to find. Through close readings of Samuel Coleridge's ‘Kubla Khan’, Keith Douglas's ‘The “bête noire” fragments’ and Ted Hughes's ‘The thought fox’, I examine how these poems engage with creative inhibition and why they qualify as quintessential examples of the writer's block subgenre.

This article argues that writer's block in Mahmoud Darwish's works is a reflection of the poet's experience of a creative block, a clinical condition that emerged after his surgery in 1998, and is also a metaphor for the ongoing block or impasse in the Palestinian political situation. The central thesis of this article is that writer's block in Darwish is akin to experiences like Heideggerian anxiety, the Sartrean attraction of the abyss, the Lacanian eruption of the Real, and Freud's neuroticism. In all these cases, the poet, through a momentary awareness of his impending death, experiences an ecstatic intensification of Being and an expansion of life possibilities, in the Nietzschean sense. This article further demonstrates that Darwish turns into a successful neurotic writer who utilises stuttering and his potential mental illness as a creative means to overcome the abject reality and invent a new reality, wherein unsatisfied wishes could be fulfilled.

This article examines the complex relationship between crime, capitalism and drug-trafficking in Dope (1922) by Sax Rohmer, suggesting that the novel reveals how criminal empires are connected to global capitalism, private enterprise and imperial trade. Drawing upon a wide range of theoretical discourses, the article explores how while disciplinary regimes of surveillance, detection and policing attempt to reinstate the boundary between the legal and illegal, it becomes increasingly difficult in a highly globalised economy, where drug cartels operate like multinational corporations, intelligence agencies and intergovernmental organisations. In this sense, the novel demonstrates how the international drugs trade will continue to exist until the capitalist economy gazes at itself in the mirror and accepts the social and economic consequences of its ruthless exploitation, aggressive monopolisation and ever-encroaching corporate control.

The purpose of this article is to analyse the specifics of the world views of the characters in Anton Chekhov's novella Ward No. 6, revealed through existential issues. The following methods were used to achieve the research objectives: abstraction, generalisation, content analysis, comparative analysis and the method of artistic hermeneutics. Every character in this literary work by Chekhov follows a path of ideological searching, and the position taken by the author is expressed through the process of clashing two personalities that act as oppositional in their world views. The personification effect acts as the main mechanism for revealing existential conflicts, which in the process of revealing ideological content relies on the search for truth expressed by the work's characters and their unique way of looking at the world.

Iris Murdoch's The Black Prince (1973) is a metafictional novel that has been deemed by many critics a literary expression of Murdoch's moral philosophy. However, by adopting different ethical approaches, one can unravel conflicts at the heart of the text that cannot be explained with conventional readings. The present article aims at studying the concepts of love and ethics in this novel based on Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari's poststructuralist thought. Contrary to previous readings, this article argues that, rather than being a purely Platonic love or a destructive experience, the protagonist's love is schizophrenising and in line with his immanent becoming. Accordingly, when he is finally sentenced to life imprisonment, instead of grappling with ressentiment, he actively and joyfully embraces his fate and becomes a Body without Organs via creating a minoritarian work of fiction.

This article analyses the aesthetic evolution of the work 酒国 Jiuguo by Chinese author Mo Yang in the process of translating the work into English. The article employs Mo Yan's 酒国 Jiuguo and its English translation by Howard Goldblatt to analyse aesthetic transformation in literary translation. A comparative analysis identifies disparities in aesthetic elements and linguistic strategies, emphasising the translator's role in preserving or modifying the original aesthetics. The translator effectively conveys metaphors and symbols, such as ‘tea’ or the ‘wedding scene’, enabling English-speaking readers to maintain associations with Chinese culture. Preserving the depth of the original's cultural context may be less effective when translating colour and emotional nuances. This study may be useful for researchers in the field of linguistics, in particular for further research in the field of literary translation.

This article analyses neologisms reflecting the realities of the COVID-19 pandemic in the English and Russian media discourse. Media discourse is currently the main platform for the emergence, testing and entry of new lexical units into the active vocabulary of languages. The research methodology includes content analysis and a continuous sampling method for selecting linguistic material, methods of structural and word formation analysis, comparative analysis, and semantic component analysis. The material for the study was English- and Russian-language web content from Great Britain, Germany, India, China, Russia, the USA and Estonia. The analysis of the neologisms that arose under the influence of the pandemic in terms of word formation demonstrated that in English and Russian the most productive models are addition and blending. Suffixation and clipping are models specific to the Russian language.

In an attempt to make sense of post-Brexit Britain, Ali Smith's Seasonal Quartet (2016–2020) refashions Shakespeare as a source that speaks to contemporary sociopolitical concerns by openly alluding to and pervasively engaging with his romances. Smith reworks the specifics of Shakespeare's plays in terms of their staging of the workings of time; the fallout from death, guilt and violence; the intersection of the supernatural and the oneiric; and the catastrophic drifts of forms of government manipulating factual truth. In this article, I suggest that the Quartet's multilayered Shakespearean subtext works as a paradigmatic tool to reflect on the social, political and cultural trials confronting post-2016 UK. Also due to the very nature of tragicomedy, Shakespeare's romances invite us to recognise and play experimentally with imaginable alternatives, thus strengthening our conviction that a different kind of world could actually be envisaged.

In this article, I propose a theorisation of what I term ‘the writer's block subgenre’, a literary category comprising creative works shaped by and engaging with the condition of writer's block. Drawing primarily on the theoretical framework of Edmund Bergler, credited with first coining the term ‘writer's block’, I argue that in certain cases, this condition proves so enduring and traumatic for the artist that it can become, paradoxically, the idea or plot they previously struggled to find. Through close readings of Samuel Coleridge's ‘Kubla Khan’, Keith Douglas's ‘The “bête noire” fragments’ and Ted Hughes's ‘The thought fox’, I examine how these poems engage with creative inhibition and why they qualify as quintessential examples of the writer's block subgenre.

This article argues that writer's block in Mahmoud Darwish's works is a reflection of the poet's experience of a creative block, a clinical condition that emerged after his surgery in 1998, and is also a metaphor for the ongoing block or impasse in the Palestinian political situation. The central thesis of this article is that writer's block in Darwish is akin to experiences like Heideggerian anxiety, the Sartrean attraction of the abyss, the Lacanian eruption of the Real, and Freud's neuroticism. In all these cases, the poet, through a momentary awareness of his impending death, experiences an ecstatic intensification of Being and an expansion of life possibilities, in the Nietzschean sense. This article further demonstrates that Darwish turns into a successful neurotic writer who utilises stuttering and his potential mental illness as a creative means to overcome the abject reality and invent a new reality, wherein unsatisfied wishes could be fulfilled.

This article examines the complex relationship between crime, capitalism and drug-trafficking in Dope (1922) by Sax Rohmer, suggesting that the novel reveals how criminal empires are connected to global capitalism, private enterprise and imperial trade. Drawing upon a wide range of theoretical discourses, the article explores how while disciplinary regimes of surveillance, detection and policing attempt to reinstate the boundary between the legal and illegal, it becomes increasingly difficult in a highly globalised economy, where drug cartels operate like multinational corporations, intelligence agencies and intergovernmental organisations. In this sense, the novel demonstrates how the international drugs trade will continue to exist until the capitalist economy gazes at itself in the mirror and accepts the social and economic consequences of its ruthless exploitation, aggressive monopolisation and ever-encroaching corporate control.

The purpose of this article is to analyse the specifics of the world views of the characters in Anton Chekhov's novella Ward No. 6, revealed through existential issues. The following methods were used to achieve the research objectives: abstraction, generalisation, content analysis, comparative analysis and the method of artistic hermeneutics. Every character in this literary work by Chekhov follows a path of ideological searching, and the position taken by the author is expressed through the process of clashing two personalities that act as oppositional in their world views. The personification effect acts as the main mechanism for revealing existential conflicts, which in the process of revealing ideological content relies on the search for truth expressed by the work's characters and their unique way of looking at the world.

Iris Murdoch's The Black Prince (1973) is a metafictional novel that has been deemed by many critics a literary expression of Murdoch's moral philosophy. However, by adopting different ethical approaches, one can unravel conflicts at the heart of the text that cannot be explained with conventional readings. The present article aims at studying the concepts of love and ethics in this novel based on Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari's poststructuralist thought. Contrary to previous readings, this article argues that, rather than being a purely Platonic love or a destructive experience, the protagonist's love is schizophrenising and in line with his immanent becoming. Accordingly, when he is finally sentenced to life imprisonment, instead of grappling with ressentiment, he actively and joyfully embraces his fate and becomes a Body without Organs via creating a minoritarian work of fiction.

This article analyses the aesthetic evolution of the work 酒国 Jiuguo by Chinese author Mo Yang in the process of translating the work into English. The article employs Mo Yan's 酒国 Jiuguo and its English translation by Howard Goldblatt to analyse aesthetic transformation in literary translation. A comparative analysis identifies disparities in aesthetic elements and linguistic strategies, emphasising the translator's role in preserving or modifying the original aesthetics. The translator effectively conveys metaphors and symbols, such as ‘tea’ or the ‘wedding scene’, enabling English-speaking readers to maintain associations with Chinese culture. Preserving the depth of the original's cultural context may be less effective when translating colour and emotional nuances. This study may be useful for researchers in the field of linguistics, in particular for further research in the field of literary translation.

This article analyses neologisms reflecting the realities of the COVID-19 pandemic in the English and Russian media discourse. Media discourse is currently the main platform for the emergence, testing and entry of new lexical units into the active vocabulary of languages. The research methodology includes content analysis and a continuous sampling method for selecting linguistic material, methods of structural and word formation analysis, comparative analysis, and semantic component analysis. The material for the study was English- and Russian-language web content from Great Britain, Germany, India, China, Russia, the USA and Estonia. The analysis of the neologisms that arose under the influence of the pandemic in terms of word formation demonstrated that in English and Russian the most productive models are addition and blending. Suffixation and clipping are models specific to the Russian language.

In an attempt to make sense of post-Brexit Britain, Ali Smith's Seasonal Quartet (2016–2020) refashions Shakespeare as a source that speaks to contemporary sociopolitical concerns by openly alluding to and pervasively engaging with his romances. Smith reworks the specifics of Shakespeare's plays in terms of their staging of the workings of time; the fallout from death, guilt and violence; the intersection of the supernatural and the oneiric; and the catastrophic drifts of forms of government manipulating factual truth. In this article, I suggest that the Quartet's multilayered Shakespearean subtext works as a paradigmatic tool to reflect on the social, political and cultural trials confronting post-2016 UK. Also due to the very nature of tragicomedy, Shakespeare's romances invite us to recognise and play experimentally with imaginable alternatives, thus strengthening our conviction that a different kind of world could actually be envisaged.

Grandchildren by Nellie Strowbridge

A Cramp In My Style by Nellie Strowbridge

I Can Do It By Jacob Rose

This article conducts a detailed examination of Peter Kimani's Before the Rooster Crows (2002), highlighting its portrayal of Kenya's relentless quest for liberation, justice and dignity within the complex framework of postcolonial literature. The analysis delves into protagonist Muriuki's personal odyssey, which encompasses themes of love, identity and survival, as he navigates through the corruption permeating Kenya's elite and the challenges of national liberation. The narrative vividly captures the lasting impact of neocolonialism, exposes critical flaws in the judicial system and explores the resulting societal divisions. Furthermore, the article critically analyses the depiction of foreign aid as a powerful instrument of neocolonial dominance, alongside the responsive efforts of local media and the determined populace. Set against the expansive canvas of postcolonial literature, Kimani's novel is presented as a compelling story of resistance to both internal and external power structures.

This article conducts a detailed examination of Peter Kimani's Before the Rooster Crows (2002), highlighting its portrayal of Kenya's relentless quest for liberation, justice and dignity within the complex framework of postcolonial literature. The analysis delves into protagonist Muriuki's personal odyssey, which encompasses themes of love, identity and survival, as he navigates through the corruption permeating Kenya's elite and the challenges of national liberation. The narrative vividly captures the lasting impact of neocolonialism, exposes critical flaws in the judicial system and explores the resulting societal divisions. Furthermore, the article critically analyses the depiction of foreign aid as a powerful instrument of neocolonial dominance, alongside the responsive efforts of local media and the determined populace. Set against the expansive canvas of postcolonial literature, Kimani's novel is presented as a compelling story of resistance to both internal and external power structures.

This article explores some of the ways in which women writers represent conception, gestation, abortion and delivery, at times by imagining motherhood in terms of scarcity, war or defeat. Drawing upon on the work of philosophers like Hannah Arendt, Adriana Cavarero and Lisa Guenther as well as research into biology, obstetrics and dental science, I analyse how the writings of Isabella Whitney, Edith Wharton, Margery Kempe and Buchi Emecheta often supply strategies for survival and reproduction in terms of transforming the meaning of motherhood and occasionally refusing new life.

This article conducts a detailed examination of Peter Kimani's Before the Rooster Crows (2002), highlighting its portrayal of Kenya's relentless quest for liberation, justice and dignity within the complex framework of postcolonial literature. The analysis delves into protagonist Muriuki's personal odyssey, which encompasses themes of love, identity and survival, as he navigates through the corruption permeating Kenya's elite and the challenges of national liberation. The narrative vividly captures the lasting impact of neocolonialism, exposes critical flaws in the judicial system and explores the resulting societal divisions. Furthermore, the article critically analyses the depiction of foreign aid as a powerful instrument of neocolonial dominance, alongside the responsive efforts of local media and the determined populace. Set against the expansive canvas of postcolonial literature, Kimani's novel is presented as a compelling story of resistance to both internal and external power structures.

This article explores some of the ways in which women writers represent conception, gestation, abortion and delivery, at times by imagining motherhood in terms of scarcity, war or defeat. Drawing upon on the work of philosophers like Hannah Arendt, Adriana Cavarero and Lisa Guenther as well as research into biology, obstetrics and dental science, I analyse how the writings of Isabella Whitney, Edith Wharton, Margery Kempe and Buchi Emecheta often supply strategies for survival and reproduction in terms of transforming the meaning of motherhood and occasionally refusing new life.

The purpose of this article is to provide a comprehensive analysis of the artistic and stylistic characteristics of American feminist poetry, recognising the evolution of themes and voices. The leading method that was used for this purpose was comparative analysis. The works of such authors from different historical periods were chosen: Emily Dickinson (1830–1886), Maya Angelou (1928–2014) and Sandra Faulkner (twenty-first century). The analysis of the four discussed poems reveals both similarities and differences. Each poem has its distinct tone and style, ranging from introspective to confrontational and fragmented. These results have practical implications for studies in literature and literary criticism, as they provide a detailed and comparative analysis of the poetry of the three periods.

This article conducts a detailed examination of Peter Kimani's Before the Rooster Crows (2002), highlighting its portrayal of Kenya's relentless quest for liberation, justice and dignity within the complex framework of postcolonial literature. The analysis delves into protagonist Muriuki's personal odyssey, which encompasses themes of love, identity and survival, as he navigates through the corruption permeating Kenya's elite and the challenges of national liberation. The narrative vividly captures the lasting impact of neocolonialism, exposes critical flaws in the judicial system and explores the resulting societal divisions. Furthermore, the article critically analyses the depiction of foreign aid as a powerful instrument of neocolonial dominance, alongside the responsive efforts of local media and the determined populace. Set against the expansive canvas of postcolonial literature, Kimani's novel is presented as a compelling story of resistance to both internal and external power structures.

This article explores some of the ways in which women writers represent conception, gestation, abortion and delivery, at times by imagining motherhood in terms of scarcity, war or defeat. Drawing upon on the work of philosophers like Hannah Arendt, Adriana Cavarero and Lisa Guenther as well as research into biology, obstetrics and dental science, I analyse how the writings of Isabella Whitney, Edith Wharton, Margery Kempe and Buchi Emecheta often supply strategies for survival and reproduction in terms of transforming the meaning of motherhood and occasionally refusing new life.

The purpose of this article is to provide a comprehensive analysis of the artistic and stylistic characteristics of American feminist poetry, recognising the evolution of themes and voices. The leading method that was used for this purpose was comparative analysis. The works of such authors from different historical periods were chosen: Emily Dickinson (1830–1886), Maya Angelou (1928–2014) and Sandra Faulkner (twenty-first century). The analysis of the four discussed poems reveals both similarities and differences. Each poem has its distinct tone and style, ranging from introspective to confrontational and fragmented. These results have practical implications for studies in literature and literary criticism, as they provide a detailed and comparative analysis of the poetry of the three periods.

The purpose of this study is to reveal the topic of universal human values through the prism of artistic searches of Kazakhstan's poets of the late twentieth to early twenty-first centuries. The scientific work was conducted using the methods of system analysis, cultural-historical analysis and hermeneutics. In the course of the research, the authors came to conclusions about the special place of Kazakhstan's national poetry in the country's axiological discourse. It has been revealed that national poetry is an artistically meaningful carrier of the moral and ethical categories of the Kazakh people. The programme of spiritual modernisation of Kazakhstan, ‘Rukhani Zhangyru’, is evidence of this. The theme of the axiological potential of citizens occupies far from the last place in this programme.

This article conducts a detailed examination of Peter Kimani's Before the Rooster Crows (2002), highlighting its portrayal of Kenya's relentless quest for liberation, justice and dignity within the complex framework of postcolonial literature. The analysis delves into protagonist Muriuki's personal odyssey, which encompasses themes of love, identity and survival, as he navigates through the corruption permeating Kenya's elite and the challenges of national liberation. The narrative vividly captures the lasting impact of neocolonialism, exposes critical flaws in the judicial system and explores the resulting societal divisions. Furthermore, the article critically analyses the depiction of foreign aid as a powerful instrument of neocolonial dominance, alongside the responsive efforts of local media and the determined populace. Set against the expansive canvas of postcolonial literature, Kimani's novel is presented as a compelling story of resistance to both internal and external power structures.

This article explores some of the ways in which women writers represent conception, gestation, abortion and delivery, at times by imagining motherhood in terms of scarcity, war or defeat. Drawing upon on the work of philosophers like Hannah Arendt, Adriana Cavarero and Lisa Guenther as well as research into biology, obstetrics and dental science, I analyse how the writings of Isabella Whitney, Edith Wharton, Margery Kempe and Buchi Emecheta often supply strategies for survival and reproduction in terms of transforming the meaning of motherhood and occasionally refusing new life.

The purpose of this article is to provide a comprehensive analysis of the artistic and stylistic characteristics of American feminist poetry, recognising the evolution of themes and voices. The leading method that was used for this purpose was comparative analysis. The works of such authors from different historical periods were chosen: Emily Dickinson (1830–1886), Maya Angelou (1928–2014) and Sandra Faulkner (twenty-first century). The analysis of the four discussed poems reveals both similarities and differences. Each poem has its distinct tone and style, ranging from introspective to confrontational and fragmented. These results have practical implications for studies in literature and literary criticism, as they provide a detailed and comparative analysis of the poetry of the three periods.

The purpose of this study is to reveal the topic of universal human values through the prism of artistic searches of Kazakhstan's poets of the late twentieth to early twenty-first centuries. The scientific work was conducted using the methods of system analysis, cultural-historical analysis and hermeneutics. In the course of the research, the authors came to conclusions about the special place of Kazakhstan's national poetry in the country's axiological discourse. It has been revealed that national poetry is an artistically meaningful carrier of the moral and ethical categories of the Kazakh people. The programme of spiritual modernisation of Kazakhstan, ‘Rukhani Zhangyru’, is evidence of this. The theme of the axiological potential of citizens occupies far from the last place in this programme.

This study investigates the representation of violence and dictatorship in Yasmina Khadra's The Dictator's Last Night (2015), contextualised within the tumultuous period of the 2011 Libyan uprising. Employing a qualitative literary analysis methodology, the research explores how Khadra integrates historical events and figures, particularly Muammar al-Qaddafi, to construct a fictional narrative that reflects the complexities of authoritarian rule. The analysis encompasses close readings of the protagonist's development, narrative structure, and thematic elements of power and resistance. The purpose of this research is to elucidate the interplay between fiction and historical reality, examining how Khadra portrays the regime's violent strategies against both rebels and vulnerable populations, particularly women. By analysing the protagonist's internal monologues and retrospective reflections, this study aims to provide a nuanced understanding of the psychological dimensions of dictatorship and the societal ramifications of revolutionary violence, ultimately contributing to the discourse on authoritarian governance in contemporary literature

This article conducts a detailed examination of Peter Kimani's Before the Rooster Crows (2002), highlighting its portrayal of Kenya's relentless quest for liberation, justice and dignity within the complex framework of postcolonial literature. The analysis delves into protagonist Muriuki's personal odyssey, which encompasses themes of love, identity and survival, as he navigates through the corruption permeating Kenya's elite and the challenges of national liberation. The narrative vividly captures the lasting impact of neocolonialism, exposes critical flaws in the judicial system and explores the resulting societal divisions. Furthermore, the article critically analyses the depiction of foreign aid as a powerful instrument of neocolonial dominance, alongside the responsive efforts of local media and the determined populace. Set against the expansive canvas of postcolonial literature, Kimani's novel is presented as a compelling story of resistance to both internal and external power structures.

This article explores some of the ways in which women writers represent conception, gestation, abortion and delivery, at times by imagining motherhood in terms of scarcity, war or defeat. Drawing upon on the work of philosophers like Hannah Arendt, Adriana Cavarero and Lisa Guenther as well as research into biology, obstetrics and dental science, I analyse how the writings of Isabella Whitney, Edith Wharton, Margery Kempe and Buchi Emecheta often supply strategies for survival and reproduction in terms of transforming the meaning of motherhood and occasionally refusing new life.

The purpose of this article is to provide a comprehensive analysis of the artistic and stylistic characteristics of American feminist poetry, recognising the evolution of themes and voices. The leading method that was used for this purpose was comparative analysis. The works of such authors from different historical periods were chosen: Emily Dickinson (1830–1886), Maya Angelou (1928–2014) and Sandra Faulkner (twenty-first century). The analysis of the four discussed poems reveals both similarities and differences. Each poem has its distinct tone and style, ranging from introspective to confrontational and fragmented. These results have practical implications for studies in literature and literary criticism, as they provide a detailed and comparative analysis of the poetry of the three periods.

The purpose of this study is to reveal the topic of universal human values through the prism of artistic searches of Kazakhstan's poets of the late twentieth to early twenty-first centuries. The scientific work was conducted using the methods of system analysis, cultural-historical analysis and hermeneutics. In the course of the research, the authors came to conclusions about the special place of Kazakhstan's national poetry in the country's axiological discourse. It has been revealed that national poetry is an artistically meaningful carrier of the moral and ethical categories of the Kazakh people. The programme of spiritual modernisation of Kazakhstan, ‘Rukhani Zhangyru’, is evidence of this. The theme of the axiological potential of citizens occupies far from the last place in this programme.

This study investigates the representation of violence and dictatorship in Yasmina Khadra's The Dictator's Last Night (2015), contextualised within the tumultuous period of the 2011 Libyan uprising. Employing a qualitative literary analysis methodology, the research explores how Khadra integrates historical events and figures, particularly Muammar al-Qaddafi, to construct a fictional narrative that reflects the complexities of authoritarian rule. The analysis encompasses close readings of the protagonist's development, narrative structure, and thematic elements of power and resistance. The purpose of this research is to elucidate the interplay between fiction and historical reality, examining how Khadra portrays the regime's violent strategies against both rebels and vulnerable populations, particularly women. By analysing the protagonist's internal monologues and retrospective reflections, this study aims to provide a nuanced understanding of the psychological dimensions of dictatorship and the societal ramifications of revolutionary violence, ultimately contributing to the discourse on authoritarian governance in contemporary literature

Efraim Sevela was a Russian Jewish émigré who lived in a variety of countries in the West, including Germany. His view of Germany was controversial, and did not fit the prevailing stereotypes. He recognised that post-WWII Germany acknowledged the Nazi atrocities, but felt that Germans had become atomised and still regarded those who were not German as inferior. At the same time, he implicitly praised Nazi Germans for their sense of ethnic solidarity, and even implied that Israeli Jews should follow the same template to ensure their survival.

This article conducts a detailed examination of Peter Kimani's Before the Rooster Crows (2002), highlighting its portrayal of Kenya's relentless quest for liberation, justice and dignity within the complex framework of postcolonial literature. The analysis delves into protagonist Muriuki's personal odyssey, which encompasses themes of love, identity and survival, as he navigates through the corruption permeating Kenya's elite and the challenges of national liberation. The narrative vividly captures the lasting impact of neocolonialism, exposes critical flaws in the judicial system and explores the resulting societal divisions. Furthermore, the article critically analyses the depiction of foreign aid as a powerful instrument of neocolonial dominance, alongside the responsive efforts of local media and the determined populace. Set against the expansive canvas of postcolonial literature, Kimani's novel is presented as a compelling story of resistance to both internal and external power structures.

This article explores some of the ways in which women writers represent conception, gestation, abortion and delivery, at times by imagining motherhood in terms of scarcity, war or defeat. Drawing upon on the work of philosophers like Hannah Arendt, Adriana Cavarero and Lisa Guenther as well as research into biology, obstetrics and dental science, I analyse how the writings of Isabella Whitney, Edith Wharton, Margery Kempe and Buchi Emecheta often supply strategies for survival and reproduction in terms of transforming the meaning of motherhood and occasionally refusing new life.

The purpose of this article is to provide a comprehensive analysis of the artistic and stylistic characteristics of American feminist poetry, recognising the evolution of themes and voices. The leading method that was used for this purpose was comparative analysis. The works of such authors from different historical periods were chosen: Emily Dickinson (1830–1886), Maya Angelou (1928–2014) and Sandra Faulkner (twenty-first century). The analysis of the four discussed poems reveals both similarities and differences. Each poem has its distinct tone and style, ranging from introspective to confrontational and fragmented. These results have practical implications for studies in literature and literary criticism, as they provide a detailed and comparative analysis of the poetry of the three periods.

The purpose of this study is to reveal the topic of universal human values through the prism of artistic searches of Kazakhstan's poets of the late twentieth to early twenty-first centuries. The scientific work was conducted using the methods of system analysis, cultural-historical analysis and hermeneutics. In the course of the research, the authors came to conclusions about the special place of Kazakhstan's national poetry in the country's axiological discourse. It has been revealed that national poetry is an artistically meaningful carrier of the moral and ethical categories of the Kazakh people. The programme of spiritual modernisation of Kazakhstan, ‘Rukhani Zhangyru’, is evidence of this. The theme of the axiological potential of citizens occupies far from the last place in this programme.

This study investigates the representation of violence and dictatorship in Yasmina Khadra's The Dictator's Last Night (2015), contextualised within the tumultuous period of the 2011 Libyan uprising. Employing a qualitative literary analysis methodology, the research explores how Khadra integrates historical events and figures, particularly Muammar al-Qaddafi, to construct a fictional narrative that reflects the complexities of authoritarian rule. The analysis encompasses close readings of the protagonist's development, narrative structure, and thematic elements of power and resistance. The purpose of this research is to elucidate the interplay between fiction and historical reality, examining how Khadra portrays the regime's violent strategies against both rebels and vulnerable populations, particularly women. By analysing the protagonist's internal monologues and retrospective reflections, this study aims to provide a nuanced understanding of the psychological dimensions of dictatorship and the societal ramifications of revolutionary violence, ultimately contributing to the discourse on authoritarian governance in contemporary literature

Efraim Sevela was a Russian Jewish émigré who lived in a variety of countries in the West, including Germany. His view of Germany was controversial, and did not fit the prevailing stereotypes. He recognised that post-WWII Germany acknowledged the Nazi atrocities, but felt that Germans had become atomised and still regarded those who were not German as inferior. At the same time, he implicitly praised Nazi Germans for their sense of ethnic solidarity, and even implied that Israeli Jews should follow the same template to ensure their survival.

Statistical analyses of Shakespeare's vocabulary have suggested that the order of the sonnets in the 1609 edition does not reflect their chronological order of composition, and that the ‘Dark Lady sonnets’ might be placed among the earliest, thus predating the ‘Fair Youth sonnets’. While sharing the hypothesis that the composition of the sonnets may have been discontinuous, I attempt to approach the question from a methodologically alternative viewpoint, namely text linguistics. In my view, the Sonnets reveal a structural unity which, far from being the result of a final artificial reordering, is likely to have shaped the author's writing process since its early stages. For instance, I argue that some of the ‘Dark Lady sonnets’ contain probable anaphoric references to the ‘friend’, thus disclosing their full meaning only if read in conjunction with the first section. Further evidence comes from a comparison of the Sonnets with Love's Labour's Lost, which is characterised by a similar thematic and structural relationship between the ‘fair’ and the ‘black’.

This article conducts a detailed examination of Peter Kimani's Before the Rooster Crows (2002), highlighting its portrayal of Kenya's relentless quest for liberation, justice and dignity within the complex framework of postcolonial literature. The analysis delves into protagonist Muriuki's personal odyssey, which encompasses themes of love, identity and survival, as he navigates through the corruption permeating Kenya's elite and the challenges of national liberation. The narrative vividly captures the lasting impact of neocolonialism, exposes critical flaws in the judicial system and explores the resulting societal divisions. Furthermore, the article critically analyses the depiction of foreign aid as a powerful instrument of neocolonial dominance, alongside the responsive efforts of local media and the determined populace. Set against the expansive canvas of postcolonial literature, Kimani's novel is presented as a compelling story of resistance to both internal and external power structures.

This article explores some of the ways in which women writers represent conception, gestation, abortion and delivery, at times by imagining motherhood in terms of scarcity, war or defeat. Drawing upon on the work of philosophers like Hannah Arendt, Adriana Cavarero and Lisa Guenther as well as research into biology, obstetrics and dental science, I analyse how the writings of Isabella Whitney, Edith Wharton, Margery Kempe and Buchi Emecheta often supply strategies for survival and reproduction in terms of transforming the meaning of motherhood and occasionally refusing new life.

The purpose of this article is to provide a comprehensive analysis of the artistic and stylistic characteristics of American feminist poetry, recognising the evolution of themes and voices. The leading method that was used for this purpose was comparative analysis. The works of such authors from different historical periods were chosen: Emily Dickinson (1830–1886), Maya Angelou (1928–2014) and Sandra Faulkner (twenty-first century). The analysis of the four discussed poems reveals both similarities and differences. Each poem has its distinct tone and style, ranging from introspective to confrontational and fragmented. These results have practical implications for studies in literature and literary criticism, as they provide a detailed and comparative analysis of the poetry of the three periods.

The purpose of this study is to reveal the topic of universal human values through the prism of artistic searches of Kazakhstan's poets of the late twentieth to early twenty-first centuries. The scientific work was conducted using the methods of system analysis, cultural-historical analysis and hermeneutics. In the course of the research, the authors came to conclusions about the special place of Kazakhstan's national poetry in the country's axiological discourse. It has been revealed that national poetry is an artistically meaningful carrier of the moral and ethical categories of the Kazakh people. The programme of spiritual modernisation of Kazakhstan, ‘Rukhani Zhangyru’, is evidence of this. The theme of the axiological potential of citizens occupies far from the last place in this programme.

This study investigates the representation of violence and dictatorship in Yasmina Khadra's The Dictator's Last Night (2015), contextualised within the tumultuous period of the 2011 Libyan uprising. Employing a qualitative literary analysis methodology, the research explores how Khadra integrates historical events and figures, particularly Muammar al-Qaddafi, to construct a fictional narrative that reflects the complexities of authoritarian rule. The analysis encompasses close readings of the protagonist's development, narrative structure, and thematic elements of power and resistance. The purpose of this research is to elucidate the interplay between fiction and historical reality, examining how Khadra portrays the regime's violent strategies against both rebels and vulnerable populations, particularly women. By analysing the protagonist's internal monologues and retrospective reflections, this study aims to provide a nuanced understanding of the psychological dimensions of dictatorship and the societal ramifications of revolutionary violence, ultimately contributing to the discourse on authoritarian governance in contemporary literature

Efraim Sevela was a Russian Jewish émigré who lived in a variety of countries in the West, including Germany. His view of Germany was controversial, and did not fit the prevailing stereotypes. He recognised that post-WWII Germany acknowledged the Nazi atrocities, but felt that Germans had become atomised and still regarded those who were not German as inferior. At the same time, he implicitly praised Nazi Germans for their sense of ethnic solidarity, and even implied that Israeli Jews should follow the same template to ensure their survival.

Statistical analyses of Shakespeare's vocabulary have suggested that the order of the sonnets in the 1609 edition does not reflect their chronological order of composition, and that the ‘Dark Lady sonnets’ might be placed among the earliest, thus predating the ‘Fair Youth sonnets’. While sharing the hypothesis that the composition of the sonnets may have been discontinuous, I attempt to approach the question from a methodologically alternative viewpoint, namely text linguistics. In my view, the Sonnets reveal a structural unity which, far from being the result of a final artificial reordering, is likely to have shaped the author's writing process since its early stages. For instance, I argue that some of the ‘Dark Lady sonnets’ contain probable anaphoric references to the ‘friend’, thus disclosing their full meaning only if read in conjunction with the first section. Further evidence comes from a comparison of the Sonnets with Love's Labour's Lost, which is characterised by a similar thematic and structural relationship between the ‘fair’ and the ‘black’.

This research aims to determine the specifics of the reflection of the theme of the environment in Chinese mythology on the example of the myth of ‘Battling the Flood’. The study employs a dialectical approach, historical materialism, historical analysis, philosophical hermeneutics and the comparative method. The study examined the similarities between the Eastern and Western traditions of philosophy: it was determined that Eastern philosophy meets all the criteria of philosophical knowledge and even uses scientific approaches, but often describes their results in metaphorical terms. The ‘Battling the Flood’ myth itself was analysed and the following key features of its content were highlighted: the idea of the unity of man and nature, the ideal of human-centred philosophy and politics, and the idea of fighting chaos through scientific innovation.

Cultural identities shape our collective memories, values and ways of life. In a globalised world, the preservation of these identities has become more crucial than ever before. Tangible heritage includes physical artefacts (buildings, monuments, artworks); intangible heritage covers traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals. Both forms of heritage serve as bridges between past and present and shape the future of communities and nations. In recent decades, the importance of preserving cultural identities has gained increasing recognition on the global stage. UNESCO's Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, adopted in 2003, marked a significant milestone in acknowledging the value of non-material cultural expressions. This convention complemented earlier efforts focused on tangible heritage, such as the 1972 World Heritage Convention.

Cultural identities shape our collective memories, values and ways of life. In a globalised world, the preservation of these identities has become more crucial than ever before. Tangible heritage includes physical artefacts (buildings, monuments, artworks); intangible heritage covers traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals. Both forms of heritage serve as bridges between past and present and shape the future of communities and nations. In recent decades, the importance of preserving cultural identities has gained increasing recognition on the global stage. UNESCO's Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, adopted in 2003, marked a significant milestone in acknowledging the value of non-material cultural expressions. This convention complemented earlier efforts focused on tangible heritage, such as the 1972 World Heritage Convention.

Modernisation, particularly urbanisation, significantly impacts the economic and social spheres, altering self-consciousness, cultural views and traditions. This is crucial to observe in large countries like Kazakhstan, where remote regions and underdeveloped infrastructure have hindered active urbanisation. The aim is to analyse urbanisation's impact on the cultural and value-based orientations of Kazakhstan's people. Comparison and statistical methods were used in this study. This article is valuable for researchers studying the influence of global processes on national culture and self-consciousness, as well as those interested in Kazakhstan's history.

Cultural identities shape our collective memories, values and ways of life. In a globalised world, the preservation of these identities has become more crucial than ever before. Tangible heritage includes physical artefacts (buildings, monuments, artworks); intangible heritage covers traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals. Both forms of heritage serve as bridges between past and present and shape the future of communities and nations. In recent decades, the importance of preserving cultural identities has gained increasing recognition on the global stage. UNESCO's Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, adopted in 2003, marked a significant milestone in acknowledging the value of non-material cultural expressions. This convention complemented earlier efforts focused on tangible heritage, such as the 1972 World Heritage Convention.

Modernisation, particularly urbanisation, significantly impacts the economic and social spheres, altering self-consciousness, cultural views and traditions. This is crucial to observe in large countries like Kazakhstan, where remote regions and underdeveloped infrastructure have hindered active urbanisation. The aim is to analyse urbanisation's impact on the cultural and value-based orientations of Kazakhstan's people. Comparison and statistical methods were used in this study. This article is valuable for researchers studying the influence of global processes on national culture and self-consciousness, as well as those interested in Kazakhstan's history.

The richness of the spiritual culture of the people can be found in the ethnographic nature of poems and songs related to family customs and traditions. The active use of traditional poetry in family ceremonies, rituals and everyday life of modern Kazakh society predefines the research relevance. The research aims to investigate ethnographic peculiarities of the poetics of Turkic-speaking peoples and to study the understanding of historical context and symbolism in the traditional family poems of the Turks. The following methods were used: historical-typological method, cultural-historical analysis, comparative method, and survey. The research studies the traditional family poetics of Kazakhstan and Great Britain, relying on the peculiarities of the cultural traditions and history of these countries.

Cultural identities shape our collective memories, values and ways of life. In a globalised world, the preservation of these identities has become more crucial than ever before. Tangible heritage includes physical artefacts (buildings, monuments, artworks); intangible heritage covers traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals. Both forms of heritage serve as bridges between past and present and shape the future of communities and nations. In recent decades, the importance of preserving cultural identities has gained increasing recognition on the global stage. UNESCO's Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, adopted in 2003, marked a significant milestone in acknowledging the value of non-material cultural expressions. This convention complemented earlier efforts focused on tangible heritage, such as the 1972 World Heritage Convention.

Modernisation, particularly urbanisation, significantly impacts the economic and social spheres, altering self-consciousness, cultural views and traditions. This is crucial to observe in large countries like Kazakhstan, where remote regions and underdeveloped infrastructure have hindered active urbanisation. The aim is to analyse urbanisation's impact on the cultural and value-based orientations of Kazakhstan's people. Comparison and statistical methods were used in this study. This article is valuable for researchers studying the influence of global processes on national culture and self-consciousness, as well as those interested in Kazakhstan's history.

The richness of the spiritual culture of the people can be found in the ethnographic nature of poems and songs related to family customs and traditions. The active use of traditional poetry in family ceremonies, rituals and everyday life of modern Kazakh society predefines the research relevance. The research aims to investigate ethnographic peculiarities of the poetics of Turkic-speaking peoples and to study the understanding of historical context and symbolism in the traditional family poems of the Turks. The following methods were used: historical-typological method, cultural-historical analysis, comparative method, and survey. The research studies the traditional family poetics of Kazakhstan and Great Britain, relying on the peculiarities of the cultural traditions and history of these countries.

Ritual folklore has always been in the spotlight of scholars and researchers of folk poetry, as it has a profound social context. In turn, Turkic culture is rich in wedding ceremonies and folklore, which is relevant to research, based on studies of predecessors and innovations of the time. The research aims to study the artistic richness of the Turkic people. Comparative, historical-typological methods, surveys and analysis have been used in the research to analyse the multinational folklore heritage of Turkic-speaking peoples. The issue of poetics of wedding ritual folklore of Turkic-speaking peoples, its current state and attitudes towards folklore elements among young couples who were not married at the time of the research have been studied.

Cultural identities shape our collective memories, values and ways of life. In a globalised world, the preservation of these identities has become more crucial than ever before. Tangible heritage includes physical artefacts (buildings, monuments, artworks); intangible heritage covers traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals. Both forms of heritage serve as bridges between past and present and shape the future of communities and nations. In recent decades, the importance of preserving cultural identities has gained increasing recognition on the global stage. UNESCO's Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, adopted in 2003, marked a significant milestone in acknowledging the value of non-material cultural expressions. This convention complemented earlier efforts focused on tangible heritage, such as the 1972 World Heritage Convention.

Modernisation, particularly urbanisation, significantly impacts the economic and social spheres, altering self-consciousness, cultural views and traditions. This is crucial to observe in large countries like Kazakhstan, where remote regions and underdeveloped infrastructure have hindered active urbanisation. The aim is to analyse urbanisation's impact on the cultural and value-based orientations of Kazakhstan's people. Comparison and statistical methods were used in this study. This article is valuable for researchers studying the influence of global processes on national culture and self-consciousness, as well as those interested in Kazakhstan's history.

The richness of the spiritual culture of the people can be found in the ethnographic nature of poems and songs related to family customs and traditions. The active use of traditional poetry in family ceremonies, rituals and everyday life of modern Kazakh society predefines the research relevance. The research aims to investigate ethnographic peculiarities of the poetics of Turkic-speaking peoples and to study the understanding of historical context and symbolism in the traditional family poems of the Turks. The following methods were used: historical-typological method, cultural-historical analysis, comparative method, and survey. The research studies the traditional family poetics of Kazakhstan and Great Britain, relying on the peculiarities of the cultural traditions and history of these countries.

Ritual folklore has always been in the spotlight of scholars and researchers of folk poetry, as it has a profound social context. In turn, Turkic culture is rich in wedding ceremonies and folklore, which is relevant to research, based on studies of predecessors and innovations of the time. The research aims to study the artistic richness of the Turkic people. Comparative, historical-typological methods, surveys and analysis have been used in the research to analyse the multinational folklore heritage of Turkic-speaking peoples. The issue of poetics of wedding ritual folklore of Turkic-speaking peoples, its current state and attitudes towards folklore elements among young couples who were not married at the time of the research have been studied.

This article analyses the historical development of Kazakh culture and its impact on the ethno-religious and socio-cultural state of modern Kazakhstan, focusing on adaptation to modernisation. The study explores the formation of the Kazakh ethnic group and the role of traditionalism in contemporary society using various historical and comparative methods. The research clarifies the stages of Kazakh ethnogenesis, emphasising the influence of nomadic migrations and cultural contacts, particularly the blending of Turkic and Turkic-Mongolian tribes. The syncretism of Islam and pre-Muslim beliefs established traditional religiosity, crucial for early Kazakh statehood and legal systems. Modernisation during Russian and Soviet periods displaced traditional norms to the family level, shaping ethno-religious identity. Today, traditionalism remains significant in family, domestic and religious spheres, vital for national identity.

Cultural identities shape our collective memories, values and ways of life. In a globalised world, the preservation of these identities has become more crucial than ever before. Tangible heritage includes physical artefacts (buildings, monuments, artworks); intangible heritage covers traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals. Both forms of heritage serve as bridges between past and present and shape the future of communities and nations. In recent decades, the importance of preserving cultural identities has gained increasing recognition on the global stage. UNESCO's Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, adopted in 2003, marked a significant milestone in acknowledging the value of non-material cultural expressions. This convention complemented earlier efforts focused on tangible heritage, such as the 1972 World Heritage Convention.

Modernisation, particularly urbanisation, significantly impacts the economic and social spheres, altering self-consciousness, cultural views and traditions. This is crucial to observe in large countries like Kazakhstan, where remote regions and underdeveloped infrastructure have hindered active urbanisation. The aim is to analyse urbanisation's impact on the cultural and value-based orientations of Kazakhstan's people. Comparison and statistical methods were used in this study. This article is valuable for researchers studying the influence of global processes on national culture and self-consciousness, as well as those interested in Kazakhstan's history.

The richness of the spiritual culture of the people can be found in the ethnographic nature of poems and songs related to family customs and traditions. The active use of traditional poetry in family ceremonies, rituals and everyday life of modern Kazakh society predefines the research relevance. The research aims to investigate ethnographic peculiarities of the poetics of Turkic-speaking peoples and to study the understanding of historical context and symbolism in the traditional family poems of the Turks. The following methods were used: historical-typological method, cultural-historical analysis, comparative method, and survey. The research studies the traditional family poetics of Kazakhstan and Great Britain, relying on the peculiarities of the cultural traditions and history of these countries.

Ritual folklore has always been in the spotlight of scholars and researchers of folk poetry, as it has a profound social context. In turn, Turkic culture is rich in wedding ceremonies and folklore, which is relevant to research, based on studies of predecessors and innovations of the time. The research aims to study the artistic richness of the Turkic people. Comparative, historical-typological methods, surveys and analysis have been used in the research to analyse the multinational folklore heritage of Turkic-speaking peoples. The issue of poetics of wedding ritual folklore of Turkic-speaking peoples, its current state and attitudes towards folklore elements among young couples who were not married at the time of the research have been studied.

This article analyses the historical development of Kazakh culture and its impact on the ethno-religious and socio-cultural state of modern Kazakhstan, focusing on adaptation to modernisation. The study explores the formation of the Kazakh ethnic group and the role of traditionalism in contemporary society using various historical and comparative methods. The research clarifies the stages of Kazakh ethnogenesis, emphasising the influence of nomadic migrations and cultural contacts, particularly the blending of Turkic and Turkic-Mongolian tribes. The syncretism of Islam and pre-Muslim beliefs established traditional religiosity, crucial for early Kazakh statehood and legal systems. Modernisation during Russian and Soviet periods displaced traditional norms to the family level, shaping ethno-religious identity. Today, traditionalism remains significant in family, domestic and religious spheres, vital for national identity.

This article explores the relevance of preserving directors’ stylistic individuality and narrative conveyance in contemporary film production, amidst digital advancements. It focuses on identifying and studying cinematic techniques, particularly counterpoint, as a means of forming directors’ commentary. Research methods such as analysis, synthesis, comparison and generalisation were employed, alongside systematic, structural and functional approaches. Counterpoint is singled out as a distinctive audiovisual technique that distinguishes directors’ works, drawing from both Eastern and Western interpretations. Examples from Stanley Kubrick, Alfred Hitchcock, Steven Spielberg, Luc Besson, Hugh Hudson and Christopher Nolan illustrate its use for purposes like ethical disclosure, philosophical reflection and dramatic enhancement. The study concludes that despite variations, directors share motives including ridicule and decharacterisation. It contributes by deepening theoretical understanding and defining counterpoint's cinematic universality.

Cultural identities shape our collective memories, values and ways of life. In a globalised world, the preservation of these identities has become more crucial than ever before. Tangible heritage includes physical artefacts (buildings, monuments, artworks); intangible heritage covers traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals. Both forms of heritage serve as bridges between past and present and shape the future of communities and nations. In recent decades, the importance of preserving cultural identities has gained increasing recognition on the global stage. UNESCO's Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, adopted in 2003, marked a significant milestone in acknowledging the value of non-material cultural expressions. This convention complemented earlier efforts focused on tangible heritage, such as the 1972 World Heritage Convention.

Modernisation, particularly urbanisation, significantly impacts the economic and social spheres, altering self-consciousness, cultural views and traditions. This is crucial to observe in large countries like Kazakhstan, where remote regions and underdeveloped infrastructure have hindered active urbanisation. The aim is to analyse urbanisation's impact on the cultural and value-based orientations of Kazakhstan's people. Comparison and statistical methods were used in this study. This article is valuable for researchers studying the influence of global processes on national culture and self-consciousness, as well as those interested in Kazakhstan's history.

The richness of the spiritual culture of the people can be found in the ethnographic nature of poems and songs related to family customs and traditions. The active use of traditional poetry in family ceremonies, rituals and everyday life of modern Kazakh society predefines the research relevance. The research aims to investigate ethnographic peculiarities of the poetics of Turkic-speaking peoples and to study the understanding of historical context and symbolism in the traditional family poems of the Turks. The following methods were used: historical-typological method, cultural-historical analysis, comparative method, and survey. The research studies the traditional family poetics of Kazakhstan and Great Britain, relying on the peculiarities of the cultural traditions and history of these countries.

Ritual folklore has always been in the spotlight of scholars and researchers of folk poetry, as it has a profound social context. In turn, Turkic culture is rich in wedding ceremonies and folklore, which is relevant to research, based on studies of predecessors and innovations of the time. The research aims to study the artistic richness of the Turkic people. Comparative, historical-typological methods, surveys and analysis have been used in the research to analyse the multinational folklore heritage of Turkic-speaking peoples. The issue of poetics of wedding ritual folklore of Turkic-speaking peoples, its current state and attitudes towards folklore elements among young couples who were not married at the time of the research have been studied.

This article analyses the historical development of Kazakh culture and its impact on the ethno-religious and socio-cultural state of modern Kazakhstan, focusing on adaptation to modernisation. The study explores the formation of the Kazakh ethnic group and the role of traditionalism in contemporary society using various historical and comparative methods. The research clarifies the stages of Kazakh ethnogenesis, emphasising the influence of nomadic migrations and cultural contacts, particularly the blending of Turkic and Turkic-Mongolian tribes. The syncretism of Islam and pre-Muslim beliefs established traditional religiosity, crucial for early Kazakh statehood and legal systems. Modernisation during Russian and Soviet periods displaced traditional norms to the family level, shaping ethno-religious identity. Today, traditionalism remains significant in family, domestic and religious spheres, vital for national identity.

This article explores the relevance of preserving directors’ stylistic individuality and narrative conveyance in contemporary film production, amidst digital advancements. It focuses on identifying and studying cinematic techniques, particularly counterpoint, as a means of forming directors’ commentary. Research methods such as analysis, synthesis, comparison and generalisation were employed, alongside systematic, structural and functional approaches. Counterpoint is singled out as a distinctive audiovisual technique that distinguishes directors’ works, drawing from both Eastern and Western interpretations. Examples from Stanley Kubrick, Alfred Hitchcock, Steven Spielberg, Luc Besson, Hugh Hudson and Christopher Nolan illustrate its use for purposes like ethical disclosure, philosophical reflection and dramatic enhancement. The study concludes that despite variations, directors share motives including ridicule and decharacterisation. It contributes by deepening theoretical understanding and defining counterpoint's cinematic universality.

This study investigates lexical transformations in Kazakh-Russian translation of collectivisation terminology, addressing the scarcity of research in this domain. Employing lexical, comparative, contextual, statistical and analytical-synthetic methods, it analyses lexical groups including terms identifying the Soviet regime, social status, propaganda processes, and collectivisation itself. The Russian translation notably increases the frequency of collectivisation-related terms, often introducing new terms absent in the original text. Major lexical transformations observed include semantic development (fourteen contexts), concretisation (eleven contexts) and holistic transformation (nine contexts). Statistical analysis quantifies the frequency of these transformations. Future applications include exploring translation strategies in Kazakh-Russian fiction, refining lexical categories of collectivisation terminology, and developing structural templates for automated literary translation processes.

Cultural identities shape our collective memories, values and ways of life. In a globalised world, the preservation of these identities has become more crucial than ever before. Tangible heritage includes physical artefacts (buildings, monuments, artworks); intangible heritage covers traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals. Both forms of heritage serve as bridges between past and present and shape the future of communities and nations. In recent decades, the importance of preserving cultural identities has gained increasing recognition on the global stage. UNESCO's Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, adopted in 2003, marked a significant milestone in acknowledging the value of non-material cultural expressions. This convention complemented earlier efforts focused on tangible heritage, such as the 1972 World Heritage Convention.

Modernisation, particularly urbanisation, significantly impacts the economic and social spheres, altering self-consciousness, cultural views and traditions. This is crucial to observe in large countries like Kazakhstan, where remote regions and underdeveloped infrastructure have hindered active urbanisation. The aim is to analyse urbanisation's impact on the cultural and value-based orientations of Kazakhstan's people. Comparison and statistical methods were used in this study. This article is valuable for researchers studying the influence of global processes on national culture and self-consciousness, as well as those interested in Kazakhstan's history.

The richness of the spiritual culture of the people can be found in the ethnographic nature of poems and songs related to family customs and traditions. The active use of traditional poetry in family ceremonies, rituals and everyday life of modern Kazakh society predefines the research relevance. The research aims to investigate ethnographic peculiarities of the poetics of Turkic-speaking peoples and to study the understanding of historical context and symbolism in the traditional family poems of the Turks. The following methods were used: historical-typological method, cultural-historical analysis, comparative method, and survey. The research studies the traditional family poetics of Kazakhstan and Great Britain, relying on the peculiarities of the cultural traditions and history of these countries.

Ritual folklore has always been in the spotlight of scholars and researchers of folk poetry, as it has a profound social context. In turn, Turkic culture is rich in wedding ceremonies and folklore, which is relevant to research, based on studies of predecessors and innovations of the time. The research aims to study the artistic richness of the Turkic people. Comparative, historical-typological methods, surveys and analysis have been used in the research to analyse the multinational folklore heritage of Turkic-speaking peoples. The issue of poetics of wedding ritual folklore of Turkic-speaking peoples, its current state and attitudes towards folklore elements among young couples who were not married at the time of the research have been studied.

This article analyses the historical development of Kazakh culture and its impact on the ethno-religious and socio-cultural state of modern Kazakhstan, focusing on adaptation to modernisation. The study explores the formation of the Kazakh ethnic group and the role of traditionalism in contemporary society using various historical and comparative methods. The research clarifies the stages of Kazakh ethnogenesis, emphasising the influence of nomadic migrations and cultural contacts, particularly the blending of Turkic and Turkic-Mongolian tribes. The syncretism of Islam and pre-Muslim beliefs established traditional religiosity, crucial for early Kazakh statehood and legal systems. Modernisation during Russian and Soviet periods displaced traditional norms to the family level, shaping ethno-religious identity. Today, traditionalism remains significant in family, domestic and religious spheres, vital for national identity.

This article explores the relevance of preserving directors’ stylistic individuality and narrative conveyance in contemporary film production, amidst digital advancements. It focuses on identifying and studying cinematic techniques, particularly counterpoint, as a means of forming directors’ commentary. Research methods such as analysis, synthesis, comparison and generalisation were employed, alongside systematic, structural and functional approaches. Counterpoint is singled out as a distinctive audiovisual technique that distinguishes directors’ works, drawing from both Eastern and Western interpretations. Examples from Stanley Kubrick, Alfred Hitchcock, Steven Spielberg, Luc Besson, Hugh Hudson and Christopher Nolan illustrate its use for purposes like ethical disclosure, philosophical reflection and dramatic enhancement. The study concludes that despite variations, directors share motives including ridicule and decharacterisation. It contributes by deepening theoretical understanding and defining counterpoint's cinematic universality.

This study investigates lexical transformations in Kazakh-Russian translation of collectivisation terminology, addressing the scarcity of research in this domain. Employing lexical, comparative, contextual, statistical and analytical-synthetic methods, it analyses lexical groups including terms identifying the Soviet regime, social status, propaganda processes, and collectivisation itself. The Russian translation notably increases the frequency of collectivisation-related terms, often introducing new terms absent in the original text. Major lexical transformations observed include semantic development (fourteen contexts), concretisation (eleven contexts) and holistic transformation (nine contexts). Statistical analysis quantifies the frequency of these transformations. Future applications include exploring translation strategies in Kazakh-Russian fiction, refining lexical categories of collectivisation terminology, and developing structural templates for automated literary translation processes.

The Alash movement preserved the national-cultural code of Kazakhs under imperial rule. To understand this code, it is important to study not only the heritage of Alash, but also how it popularised the image of the ‘father of the nation’, Abai Kunanbayev. The aim of this article is to determine the place of Abai Kunanbayev and his work in the ideology of the Alash movement and the creative, scientific heritage of its individual representatives. Using the historical-comparative method, the study considers Alash activists’ views on Abai's role in Kazakh literature and national identity. The results are valuable for further research on the Alash movement and Kazakhstan's early twentieth-century national liberation. They highlight Abai as central to the semantic and aesthetic content of the Kazakh national-cultural code.

Cultural identities shape our collective memories, values and ways of life. In a globalised world, the preservation of these identities has become more crucial than ever before. Tangible heritage includes physical artefacts (buildings, monuments, artworks); intangible heritage covers traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals. Both forms of heritage serve as bridges between past and present and shape the future of communities and nations. In recent decades, the importance of preserving cultural identities has gained increasing recognition on the global stage. UNESCO's Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, adopted in 2003, marked a significant milestone in acknowledging the value of non-material cultural expressions. This convention complemented earlier efforts focused on tangible heritage, such as the 1972 World Heritage Convention.

Modernisation, particularly urbanisation, significantly impacts the economic and social spheres, altering self-consciousness, cultural views and traditions. This is crucial to observe in large countries like Kazakhstan, where remote regions and underdeveloped infrastructure have hindered active urbanisation. The aim is to analyse urbanisation's impact on the cultural and value-based orientations of Kazakhstan's people. Comparison and statistical methods were used in this study. This article is valuable for researchers studying the influence of global processes on national culture and self-consciousness, as well as those interested in Kazakhstan's history.

The richness of the spiritual culture of the people can be found in the ethnographic nature of poems and songs related to family customs and traditions. The active use of traditional poetry in family ceremonies, rituals and everyday life of modern Kazakh society predefines the research relevance. The research aims to investigate ethnographic peculiarities of the poetics of Turkic-speaking peoples and to study the understanding of historical context and symbolism in the traditional family poems of the Turks. The following methods were used: historical-typological method, cultural-historical analysis, comparative method, and survey. The research studies the traditional family poetics of Kazakhstan and Great Britain, relying on the peculiarities of the cultural traditions and history of these countries.

Ritual folklore has always been in the spotlight of scholars and researchers of folk poetry, as it has a profound social context. In turn, Turkic culture is rich in wedding ceremonies and folklore, which is relevant to research, based on studies of predecessors and innovations of the time. The research aims to study the artistic richness of the Turkic people. Comparative, historical-typological methods, surveys and analysis have been used in the research to analyse the multinational folklore heritage of Turkic-speaking peoples. The issue of poetics of wedding ritual folklore of Turkic-speaking peoples, its current state and attitudes towards folklore elements among young couples who were not married at the time of the research have been studied.

This article analyses the historical development of Kazakh culture and its impact on the ethno-religious and socio-cultural state of modern Kazakhstan, focusing on adaptation to modernisation. The study explores the formation of the Kazakh ethnic group and the role of traditionalism in contemporary society using various historical and comparative methods. The research clarifies the stages of Kazakh ethnogenesis, emphasising the influence of nomadic migrations and cultural contacts, particularly the blending of Turkic and Turkic-Mongolian tribes. The syncretism of Islam and pre-Muslim beliefs established traditional religiosity, crucial for early Kazakh statehood and legal systems. Modernisation during Russian and Soviet periods displaced traditional norms to the family level, shaping ethno-religious identity. Today, traditionalism remains significant in family, domestic and religious spheres, vital for national identity.

This article explores the relevance of preserving directors’ stylistic individuality and narrative conveyance in contemporary film production, amidst digital advancements. It focuses on identifying and studying cinematic techniques, particularly counterpoint, as a means of forming directors’ commentary. Research methods such as analysis, synthesis, comparison and generalisation were employed, alongside systematic, structural and functional approaches. Counterpoint is singled out as a distinctive audiovisual technique that distinguishes directors’ works, drawing from both Eastern and Western interpretations. Examples from Stanley Kubrick, Alfred Hitchcock, Steven Spielberg, Luc Besson, Hugh Hudson and Christopher Nolan illustrate its use for purposes like ethical disclosure, philosophical reflection and dramatic enhancement. The study concludes that despite variations, directors share motives including ridicule and decharacterisation. It contributes by deepening theoretical understanding and defining counterpoint's cinematic universality.

This study investigates lexical transformations in Kazakh-Russian translation of collectivisation terminology, addressing the scarcity of research in this domain. Employing lexical, comparative, contextual, statistical and analytical-synthetic methods, it analyses lexical groups including terms identifying the Soviet regime, social status, propaganda processes, and collectivisation itself. The Russian translation notably increases the frequency of collectivisation-related terms, often introducing new terms absent in the original text. Major lexical transformations observed include semantic development (fourteen contexts), concretisation (eleven contexts) and holistic transformation (nine contexts). Statistical analysis quantifies the frequency of these transformations. Future applications include exploring translation strategies in Kazakh-Russian fiction, refining lexical categories of collectivisation terminology, and developing structural templates for automated literary translation processes.

The Alash movement preserved the national-cultural code of Kazakhs under imperial rule. To understand this code, it is important to study not only the heritage of Alash, but also how it popularised the image of the ‘father of the nation’, Abai Kunanbayev. The aim of this article is to determine the place of Abai Kunanbayev and his work in the ideology of the Alash movement and the creative, scientific heritage of its individual representatives. Using the historical-comparative method, the study considers Alash activists’ views on Abai's role in Kazakh literature and national identity. The results are valuable for further research on the Alash movement and Kazakhstan's early twentieth-century national liberation. They highlight Abai as central to the semantic and aesthetic content of the Kazakh national-cultural code.

The growing global interest in Ukrainian history and culture is intensifying research aimed at translating Ukrainian historical prose. This prompts a detailed study of archaisms and historicisms, which are key elements in creating an authentic historical context. This study aims to analyse the strategies and methods of translation of Ukrainian archaisms and historicisms found in Valeriy Shevchuk's novel The Meek Shall Inherit. The analysis shows that the main challenges for the translator are to preserve the historical accuracy and cultural identity of the original text. The results showed that Valeriy Shevchuk uses 160 lexical archaisms, which make up 54% of the total number of archaisms in the text, with a significant variety in their use. This forces the translator to choose between a literal translation and adaptation for a modern reader, which may include lexical, semantic or stylistic transformations.

Cultural identities shape our collective memories, values and ways of life. In a globalised world, the preservation of these identities has become more crucial than ever before. Tangible heritage includes physical artefacts (buildings, monuments, artworks); intangible heritage covers traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals. Both forms of heritage serve as bridges between past and present and shape the future of communities and nations. In recent decades, the importance of preserving cultural identities has gained increasing recognition on the global stage. UNESCO's Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, adopted in 2003, marked a significant milestone in acknowledging the value of non-material cultural expressions. This convention complemented earlier efforts focused on tangible heritage, such as the 1972 World Heritage Convention.

Modernisation, particularly urbanisation, significantly impacts the economic and social spheres, altering self-consciousness, cultural views and traditions. This is crucial to observe in large countries like Kazakhstan, where remote regions and underdeveloped infrastructure have hindered active urbanisation. The aim is to analyse urbanisation's impact on the cultural and value-based orientations of Kazakhstan's people. Comparison and statistical methods were used in this study. This article is valuable for researchers studying the influence of global processes on national culture and self-consciousness, as well as those interested in Kazakhstan's history.

The richness of the spiritual culture of the people can be found in the ethnographic nature of poems and songs related to family customs and traditions. The active use of traditional poetry in family ceremonies, rituals and everyday life of modern Kazakh society predefines the research relevance. The research aims to investigate ethnographic peculiarities of the poetics of Turkic-speaking peoples and to study the understanding of historical context and symbolism in the traditional family poems of the Turks. The following methods were used: historical-typological method, cultural-historical analysis, comparative method, and survey. The research studies the traditional family poetics of Kazakhstan and Great Britain, relying on the peculiarities of the cultural traditions and history of these countries.

Ritual folklore has always been in the spotlight of scholars and researchers of folk poetry, as it has a profound social context. In turn, Turkic culture is rich in wedding ceremonies and folklore, which is relevant to research, based on studies of predecessors and innovations of the time. The research aims to study the artistic richness of the Turkic people. Comparative, historical-typological methods, surveys and analysis have been used in the research to analyse the multinational folklore heritage of Turkic-speaking peoples. The issue of poetics of wedding ritual folklore of Turkic-speaking peoples, its current state and attitudes towards folklore elements among young couples who were not married at the time of the research have been studied.

This article analyses the historical development of Kazakh culture and its impact on the ethno-religious and socio-cultural state of modern Kazakhstan, focusing on adaptation to modernisation. The study explores the formation of the Kazakh ethnic group and the role of traditionalism in contemporary society using various historical and comparative methods. The research clarifies the stages of Kazakh ethnogenesis, emphasising the influence of nomadic migrations and cultural contacts, particularly the blending of Turkic and Turkic-Mongolian tribes. The syncretism of Islam and pre-Muslim beliefs established traditional religiosity, crucial for early Kazakh statehood and legal systems. Modernisation during Russian and Soviet periods displaced traditional norms to the family level, shaping ethno-religious identity. Today, traditionalism remains significant in family, domestic and religious spheres, vital for national identity.

This article explores the relevance of preserving directors’ stylistic individuality and narrative conveyance in contemporary film production, amidst digital advancements. It focuses on identifying and studying cinematic techniques, particularly counterpoint, as a means of forming directors’ commentary. Research methods such as analysis, synthesis, comparison and generalisation were employed, alongside systematic, structural and functional approaches. Counterpoint is singled out as a distinctive audiovisual technique that distinguishes directors’ works, drawing from both Eastern and Western interpretations. Examples from Stanley Kubrick, Alfred Hitchcock, Steven Spielberg, Luc Besson, Hugh Hudson and Christopher Nolan illustrate its use for purposes like ethical disclosure, philosophical reflection and dramatic enhancement. The study concludes that despite variations, directors share motives including ridicule and decharacterisation. It contributes by deepening theoretical understanding and defining counterpoint's cinematic universality.

This study investigates lexical transformations in Kazakh-Russian translation of collectivisation terminology, addressing the scarcity of research in this domain. Employing lexical, comparative, contextual, statistical and analytical-synthetic methods, it analyses lexical groups including terms identifying the Soviet regime, social status, propaganda processes, and collectivisation itself. The Russian translation notably increases the frequency of collectivisation-related terms, often introducing new terms absent in the original text. Major lexical transformations observed include semantic development (fourteen contexts), concretisation (eleven contexts) and holistic transformation (nine contexts). Statistical analysis quantifies the frequency of these transformations. Future applications include exploring translation strategies in Kazakh-Russian fiction, refining lexical categories of collectivisation terminology, and developing structural templates for automated literary translation processes.

The Alash movement preserved the national-cultural code of Kazakhs under imperial rule. To understand this code, it is important to study not only the heritage of Alash, but also how it popularised the image of the ‘father of the nation’, Abai Kunanbayev. The aim of this article is to determine the place of Abai Kunanbayev and his work in the ideology of the Alash movement and the creative, scientific heritage of its individual representatives. Using the historical-comparative method, the study considers Alash activists’ views on Abai's role in Kazakh literature and national identity. The results are valuable for further research on the Alash movement and Kazakhstan's early twentieth-century national liberation. They highlight Abai as central to the semantic and aesthetic content of the Kazakh national-cultural code.

The growing global interest in Ukrainian history and culture is intensifying research aimed at translating Ukrainian historical prose. This prompts a detailed study of archaisms and historicisms, which are key elements in creating an authentic historical context. This study aims to analyse the strategies and methods of translation of Ukrainian archaisms and historicisms found in Valeriy Shevchuk's novel The Meek Shall Inherit. The analysis shows that the main challenges for the translator are to preserve the historical accuracy and cultural identity of the original text. The results showed that Valeriy Shevchuk uses 160 lexical archaisms, which make up 54% of the total number of archaisms in the text, with a significant variety in their use. This forces the translator to choose between a literal translation and adaptation for a modern reader, which may include lexical, semantic or stylistic transformations.

The need for a comprehensive study of this key topic for understanding the way of life of the Kazakhs forms the relevance of this study. The purpose of the article is to determine the geographical spread of Kazakh children's folklore. In the process of the research, various methods were used, including analysis and synthesis, the ascent from the abstract to the concrete and vice versa, the descriptive method, the comparative method, the comparative typological method, the historical chronological method, the method of critical analysis and the scientific dialectical method. The article is a study of the geographical area of Kazakh children's folklore. As a result of the study, it was concluded that its history and formation go back to the beginning of the ethnogenesis of modern Turkic peoples.

Cultural identities shape our collective memories, values and ways of life. In a globalised world, the preservation of these identities has become more crucial than ever before. Tangible heritage includes physical artefacts (buildings, monuments, artworks); intangible heritage covers traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals. Both forms of heritage serve as bridges between past and present and shape the future of communities and nations. In recent decades, the importance of preserving cultural identities has gained increasing recognition on the global stage. UNESCO's Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, adopted in 2003, marked a significant milestone in acknowledging the value of non-material cultural expressions. This convention complemented earlier efforts focused on tangible heritage, such as the 1972 World Heritage Convention.

Modernisation, particularly urbanisation, significantly impacts the economic and social spheres, altering self-consciousness, cultural views and traditions. This is crucial to observe in large countries like Kazakhstan, where remote regions and underdeveloped infrastructure have hindered active urbanisation. The aim is to analyse urbanisation's impact on the cultural and value-based orientations of Kazakhstan's people. Comparison and statistical methods were used in this study. This article is valuable for researchers studying the influence of global processes on national culture and self-consciousness, as well as those interested in Kazakhstan's history.

The richness of the spiritual culture of the people can be found in the ethnographic nature of poems and songs related to family customs and traditions. The active use of traditional poetry in family ceremonies, rituals and everyday life of modern Kazakh society predefines the research relevance. The research aims to investigate ethnographic peculiarities of the poetics of Turkic-speaking peoples and to study the understanding of historical context and symbolism in the traditional family poems of the Turks. The following methods were used: historical-typological method, cultural-historical analysis, comparative method, and survey. The research studies the traditional family poetics of Kazakhstan and Great Britain, relying on the peculiarities of the cultural traditions and history of these countries.

Ritual folklore has always been in the spotlight of scholars and researchers of folk poetry, as it has a profound social context. In turn, Turkic culture is rich in wedding ceremonies and folklore, which is relevant to research, based on studies of predecessors and innovations of the time. The research aims to study the artistic richness of the Turkic people. Comparative, historical-typological methods, surveys and analysis have been used in the research to analyse the multinational folklore heritage of Turkic-speaking peoples. The issue of poetics of wedding ritual folklore of Turkic-speaking peoples, its current state and attitudes towards folklore elements among young couples who were not married at the time of the research have been studied.

This article analyses the historical development of Kazakh culture and its impact on the ethno-religious and socio-cultural state of modern Kazakhstan, focusing on adaptation to modernisation. The study explores the formation of the Kazakh ethnic group and the role of traditionalism in contemporary society using various historical and comparative methods. The research clarifies the stages of Kazakh ethnogenesis, emphasising the influence of nomadic migrations and cultural contacts, particularly the blending of Turkic and Turkic-Mongolian tribes. The syncretism of Islam and pre-Muslim beliefs established traditional religiosity, crucial for early Kazakh statehood and legal systems. Modernisation during Russian and Soviet periods displaced traditional norms to the family level, shaping ethno-religious identity. Today, traditionalism remains significant in family, domestic and religious spheres, vital for national identity.

This article explores the relevance of preserving directors’ stylistic individuality and narrative conveyance in contemporary film production, amidst digital advancements. It focuses on identifying and studying cinematic techniques, particularly counterpoint, as a means of forming directors’ commentary. Research methods such as analysis, synthesis, comparison and generalisation were employed, alongside systematic, structural and functional approaches. Counterpoint is singled out as a distinctive audiovisual technique that distinguishes directors’ works, drawing from both Eastern and Western interpretations. Examples from Stanley Kubrick, Alfred Hitchcock, Steven Spielberg, Luc Besson, Hugh Hudson and Christopher Nolan illustrate its use for purposes like ethical disclosure, philosophical reflection and dramatic enhancement. The study concludes that despite variations, directors share motives including ridicule and decharacterisation. It contributes by deepening theoretical understanding and defining counterpoint's cinematic universality.

This study investigates lexical transformations in Kazakh-Russian translation of collectivisation terminology, addressing the scarcity of research in this domain. Employing lexical, comparative, contextual, statistical and analytical-synthetic methods, it analyses lexical groups including terms identifying the Soviet regime, social status, propaganda processes, and collectivisation itself. The Russian translation notably increases the frequency of collectivisation-related terms, often introducing new terms absent in the original text. Major lexical transformations observed include semantic development (fourteen contexts), concretisation (eleven contexts) and holistic transformation (nine contexts). Statistical analysis quantifies the frequency of these transformations. Future applications include exploring translation strategies in Kazakh-Russian fiction, refining lexical categories of collectivisation terminology, and developing structural templates for automated literary translation processes.

The Alash movement preserved the national-cultural code of Kazakhs under imperial rule. To understand this code, it is important to study not only the heritage of Alash, but also how it popularised the image of the ‘father of the nation’, Abai Kunanbayev. The aim of this article is to determine the place of Abai Kunanbayev and his work in the ideology of the Alash movement and the creative, scientific heritage of its individual representatives. Using the historical-comparative method, the study considers Alash activists’ views on Abai's role in Kazakh literature and national identity. The results are valuable for further research on the Alash movement and Kazakhstan's early twentieth-century national liberation. They highlight Abai as central to the semantic and aesthetic content of the Kazakh national-cultural code.

The growing global interest in Ukrainian history and culture is intensifying research aimed at translating Ukrainian historical prose. This prompts a detailed study of archaisms and historicisms, which are key elements in creating an authentic historical context. This study aims to analyse the strategies and methods of translation of Ukrainian archaisms and historicisms found in Valeriy Shevchuk's novel The Meek Shall Inherit. The analysis shows that the main challenges for the translator are to preserve the historical accuracy and cultural identity of the original text. The results showed that Valeriy Shevchuk uses 160 lexical archaisms, which make up 54% of the total number of archaisms in the text, with a significant variety in their use. This forces the translator to choose between a literal translation and adaptation for a modern reader, which may include lexical, semantic or stylistic transformations.

The need for a comprehensive study of this key topic for understanding the way of life of the Kazakhs forms the relevance of this study. The purpose of the article is to determine the geographical spread of Kazakh children's folklore. In the process of the research, various methods were used, including analysis and synthesis, the ascent from the abstract to the concrete and vice versa, the descriptive method, the comparative method, the comparative typological method, the historical chronological method, the method of critical analysis and the scientific dialectical method. The article is a study of the geographical area of Kazakh children's folklore. As a result of the study, it was concluded that its history and formation go back to the beginning of the ethnogenesis of modern Turkic peoples.

The relevance of the research lies in the fact that it contributes to the study of history. The study of mythical concepts in the epic ‘Manas’ is of practical value for literary scholars, historians and Kyrgyz people. The purpose of the study is to determine the fairy-tale and mythological descriptions in the epic ‘Manas’. The following methods of scientific cognition were used: methods of synthesis and analysis of information, and the method of analysis of literary sources. In the course of the research, it was determined that fairy-tale and mythological descriptions are commonly encountered in the epic ‘Manas’. It is safe to conclude that mythical concepts are largely fictional and are developed by creative people. The results of this article can be used to study myths and literature in general. This research is of practical value for literary criticism.

The formation of ancient Chinese literary critical theory was deeply rooted in the abundant creative output of ancient literature, serving as a catalyst for the advancement of literary endeavours from that era. In contrast to Western literary traditions, Eastern literary expressions are distinguished by their literary heritage and spiritual depth. Literary criticism, as a methodological approach, involves the examination, analysis and interpretation of literary works, authors and thematic elements through a societal lens. The crux of social criticism in Chinese literary circles lies in its intrinsic societal value, serving as a key metric for assessing the value of critical discourse. This approach prioritises addressing societal issues through a nuanced critique that evaluates the role of literary creation, ideological underpinnings in literature, and the engagement of literary phenomena within the broader societal framework. Against the backdrop of cultural collisions between East and West and the evolution of literature across different epochs and regions, Chinese literature draws inspiration from the zeitgeist of the time. Central to this discourse are themes of independent thought, fostering dialogue and harnessing the communicative power of literature. Through a thoughtful examination encompassing diverse social, historical and ethical dimensions, critics explore the specific, dynamic and universal aesthetic elements present within literary works. Within the realm of Chinese literature, critics, propelled by an unwavering spirit of independence, have fashioned a diverse array of critical approaches, coherent and distinctive in their patterns, thus expanding the discourse surrounding critical analysis. These multifaceted perspectives represent essential pillars upon which contemporary literary criticism continues to evolve and flourish.

The formation of ancient Chinese literary critical theory was deeply rooted in the abundant creative output of ancient literature, serving as a catalyst for the advancement of literary endeavours from that era. In contrast to Western literary traditions, Eastern literary expressions are distinguished by their literary heritage and spiritual depth. Literary criticism, as a methodological approach, involves the examination, analysis and interpretation of literary works, authors and thematic elements through a societal lens. The crux of social criticism in Chinese literary circles lies in its intrinsic societal value, serving as a key metric for assessing the value of critical discourse. This approach prioritises addressing societal issues through a nuanced critique that evaluates the role of literary creation, ideological underpinnings in literature, and the engagement of literary phenomena within the broader societal framework. Against the backdrop of cultural collisions between East and West and the evolution of literature across different epochs and regions, Chinese literature draws inspiration from the zeitgeist of the time. Central to this discourse are themes of independent thought, fostering dialogue and harnessing the communicative power of literature. Through a thoughtful examination encompassing diverse social, historical and ethical dimensions, critics explore the specific, dynamic and universal aesthetic elements present within literary works. Within the realm of Chinese literature, critics, propelled by an unwavering spirit of independence, have fashioned a diverse array of critical approaches, coherent and distinctive in their patterns, thus expanding the discourse surrounding critical analysis. These multifaceted perspectives represent essential pillars upon which contemporary literary criticism continues to evolve and flourish.

Examining the survival status of women under the feudal system is of great significance for the stable development of social structure. Drama therapy can establish the resonance of the audience with the fate of female characters in drama, promoting attention and resolution of social issues. As a classic ancient theatrical literary work, ‘The Jade Hairpin’ provides rich materials and perspectives for understanding the plight of women in feudal society. This study uses a combination of text analysis and historical research to critique the limitations and oppression faced by the female characters of the work. Reflecting on the fate of women and awakening subjectivity in dramatic literature provides a unique perspective for inspiring audiences to think about gender issues in society.

The formation of ancient Chinese literary critical theory was deeply rooted in the abundant creative output of ancient literature, serving as a catalyst for the advancement of literary endeavours from that era. In contrast to Western literary traditions, Eastern literary expressions are distinguished by their literary heritage and spiritual depth. Literary criticism, as a methodological approach, involves the examination, analysis and interpretation of literary works, authors and thematic elements through a societal lens. The crux of social criticism in Chinese literary circles lies in its intrinsic societal value, serving as a key metric for assessing the value of critical discourse. This approach prioritises addressing societal issues through a nuanced critique that evaluates the role of literary creation, ideological underpinnings in literature, and the engagement of literary phenomena within the broader societal framework. Against the backdrop of cultural collisions between East and West and the evolution of literature across different epochs and regions, Chinese literature draws inspiration from the zeitgeist of the time. Central to this discourse are themes of independent thought, fostering dialogue and harnessing the communicative power of literature. Through a thoughtful examination encompassing diverse social, historical and ethical dimensions, critics explore the specific, dynamic and universal aesthetic elements present within literary works. Within the realm of Chinese literature, critics, propelled by an unwavering spirit of independence, have fashioned a diverse array of critical approaches, coherent and distinctive in their patterns, thus expanding the discourse surrounding critical analysis. These multifaceted perspectives represent essential pillars upon which contemporary literary criticism continues to evolve and flourish.

Examining the survival status of women under the feudal system is of great significance for the stable development of social structure. Drama therapy can establish the resonance of the audience with the fate of female characters in drama, promoting attention and resolution of social issues. As a classic ancient theatrical literary work, ‘The Jade Hairpin’ provides rich materials and perspectives for understanding the plight of women in feudal society. This study uses a combination of text analysis and historical research to critique the limitations and oppression faced by the female characters of the work. Reflecting on the fate of women and awakening subjectivity in dramatic literature provides a unique perspective for inspiring audiences to think about gender issues in society.

Compilations of regional literature in the Ming Dynasty increased dramatically in quantity and significant improvements were made in the quality of compilation and engraving. This marked the initial construction of a national and regional literary history, making it a valuable literary and cultural phenomenon for research. The evaluative framework of regional literature compilations in the Ming Dynasty encompasses not only praise for the editors’ talent and compilation skills, and praise for the textual value, but also judgements about the compilation content and format. Despite some shortcomings in certain regional literature compilations of the Ming Dynasty, they are far from sufficient to overshadow their brilliance. These collections provide valuable data and experience for the compilation of regional literature compilations in the Qing Dynasty and nationwide regional literature compilations and profoundly influence the formation of literary evaluative systems in later generations.

The formation of ancient Chinese literary critical theory was deeply rooted in the abundant creative output of ancient literature, serving as a catalyst for the advancement of literary endeavours from that era. In contrast to Western literary traditions, Eastern literary expressions are distinguished by their literary heritage and spiritual depth. Literary criticism, as a methodological approach, involves the examination, analysis and interpretation of literary works, authors and thematic elements through a societal lens. The crux of social criticism in Chinese literary circles lies in its intrinsic societal value, serving as a key metric for assessing the value of critical discourse. This approach prioritises addressing societal issues through a nuanced critique that evaluates the role of literary creation, ideological underpinnings in literature, and the engagement of literary phenomena within the broader societal framework. Against the backdrop of cultural collisions between East and West and the evolution of literature across different epochs and regions, Chinese literature draws inspiration from the zeitgeist of the time. Central to this discourse are themes of independent thought, fostering dialogue and harnessing the communicative power of literature. Through a thoughtful examination encompassing diverse social, historical and ethical dimensions, critics explore the specific, dynamic and universal aesthetic elements present within literary works. Within the realm of Chinese literature, critics, propelled by an unwavering spirit of independence, have fashioned a diverse array of critical approaches, coherent and distinctive in their patterns, thus expanding the discourse surrounding critical analysis. These multifaceted perspectives represent essential pillars upon which contemporary literary criticism continues to evolve and flourish.

Examining the survival status of women under the feudal system is of great significance for the stable development of social structure. Drama therapy can establish the resonance of the audience with the fate of female characters in drama, promoting attention and resolution of social issues. As a classic ancient theatrical literary work, ‘The Jade Hairpin’ provides rich materials and perspectives for understanding the plight of women in feudal society. This study uses a combination of text analysis and historical research to critique the limitations and oppression faced by the female characters of the work. Reflecting on the fate of women and awakening subjectivity in dramatic literature provides a unique perspective for inspiring audiences to think about gender issues in society.

Compilations of regional literature in the Ming Dynasty increased dramatically in quantity and significant improvements were made in the quality of compilation and engraving. This marked the initial construction of a national and regional literary history, making it a valuable literary and cultural phenomenon for research. The evaluative framework of regional literature compilations in the Ming Dynasty encompasses not only praise for the editors’ talent and compilation skills, and praise for the textual value, but also judgements about the compilation content and format. Despite some shortcomings in certain regional literature compilations of the Ming Dynasty, they are far from sufficient to overshadow their brilliance. These collections provide valuable data and experience for the compilation of regional literature compilations in the Qing Dynasty and nationwide regional literature compilations and profoundly influence the formation of literary evaluative systems in later generations.

This article explores Lin Shu's (1852–1924) translations of foreign novels, known as ‘novels translated by Lin Shu’ (1899–1919), highlighting their contribution to the world literature of Late Qing China. Lin's translations, classified into emotional romance, adventure and mystery, and critical realism, showcase a unique blend of poetic style, ethical reflection and political commentary. By examining the textual nuances of ‘novels translated by Lin Shu’, the study reveals Lin's significant role in intercultural communication and the global literary sphere. It argues that Lin's translations, embodying distinctive narrative techniques and perspectives on translation, underscore the interplay between culture, ethics and politics in Late Qing China's literary landscape.

The formation of ancient Chinese literary critical theory was deeply rooted in the abundant creative output of ancient literature, serving as a catalyst for the advancement of literary endeavours from that era. In contrast to Western literary traditions, Eastern literary expressions are distinguished by their literary heritage and spiritual depth. Literary criticism, as a methodological approach, involves the examination, analysis and interpretation of literary works, authors and thematic elements through a societal lens. The crux of social criticism in Chinese literary circles lies in its intrinsic societal value, serving as a key metric for assessing the value of critical discourse. This approach prioritises addressing societal issues through a nuanced critique that evaluates the role of literary creation, ideological underpinnings in literature, and the engagement of literary phenomena within the broader societal framework. Against the backdrop of cultural collisions between East and West and the evolution of literature across different epochs and regions, Chinese literature draws inspiration from the zeitgeist of the time. Central to this discourse are themes of independent thought, fostering dialogue and harnessing the communicative power of literature. Through a thoughtful examination encompassing diverse social, historical and ethical dimensions, critics explore the specific, dynamic and universal aesthetic elements present within literary works. Within the realm of Chinese literature, critics, propelled by an unwavering spirit of independence, have fashioned a diverse array of critical approaches, coherent and distinctive in their patterns, thus expanding the discourse surrounding critical analysis. These multifaceted perspectives represent essential pillars upon which contemporary literary criticism continues to evolve and flourish.

Examining the survival status of women under the feudal system is of great significance for the stable development of social structure. Drama therapy can establish the resonance of the audience with the fate of female characters in drama, promoting attention and resolution of social issues. As a classic ancient theatrical literary work, ‘The Jade Hairpin’ provides rich materials and perspectives for understanding the plight of women in feudal society. This study uses a combination of text analysis and historical research to critique the limitations and oppression faced by the female characters of the work. Reflecting on the fate of women and awakening subjectivity in dramatic literature provides a unique perspective for inspiring audiences to think about gender issues in society.

Compilations of regional literature in the Ming Dynasty increased dramatically in quantity and significant improvements were made in the quality of compilation and engraving. This marked the initial construction of a national and regional literary history, making it a valuable literary and cultural phenomenon for research. The evaluative framework of regional literature compilations in the Ming Dynasty encompasses not only praise for the editors’ talent and compilation skills, and praise for the textual value, but also judgements about the compilation content and format. Despite some shortcomings in certain regional literature compilations of the Ming Dynasty, they are far from sufficient to overshadow their brilliance. These collections provide valuable data and experience for the compilation of regional literature compilations in the Qing Dynasty and nationwide regional literature compilations and profoundly influence the formation of literary evaluative systems in later generations.

This article explores Lin Shu's (1852–1924) translations of foreign novels, known as ‘novels translated by Lin Shu’ (1899–1919), highlighting their contribution to the world literature of Late Qing China. Lin's translations, classified into emotional romance, adventure and mystery, and critical realism, showcase a unique blend of poetic style, ethical reflection and political commentary. By examining the textual nuances of ‘novels translated by Lin Shu’, the study reveals Lin's significant role in intercultural communication and the global literary sphere. It argues that Lin's translations, embodying distinctive narrative techniques and perspectives on translation, underscore the interplay between culture, ethics and politics in Late Qing China's literary landscape.

Xinjiang, an enclave nestled in the northwest region of China, has emerged as a captivating subject of artistic contemplation, bestowing on us a myriad of perspectives enveloping this locality. The primary objective of this article is to undertake a comprehensive examination of the construction of critical discourse within Xinjiang literature. What sets this article apart from others is its pioneering endeavour to introduce the multifarious realm of Xinjiang in literature, encompassing ancient texts and resounding echoes of the Silk Road, as well as depictions found within Chinese literature. By drawing upon various approaches to the conceptualisation of critical discourse in Xinjiang literature, this study innovatively uncovers the overarching layers of critique within historical narratives of Xinjiang, thus allowing readers to develop a comprehensive understanding of critical discourse in Xinjiang-related literary works.

The formation of ancient Chinese literary critical theory was deeply rooted in the abundant creative output of ancient literature, serving as a catalyst for the advancement of literary endeavours from that era. In contrast to Western literary traditions, Eastern literary expressions are distinguished by their literary heritage and spiritual depth. Literary criticism, as a methodological approach, involves the examination, analysis and interpretation of literary works, authors and thematic elements through a societal lens. The crux of social criticism in Chinese literary circles lies in its intrinsic societal value, serving as a key metric for assessing the value of critical discourse. This approach prioritises addressing societal issues through a nuanced critique that evaluates the role of literary creation, ideological underpinnings in literature, and the engagement of literary phenomena within the broader societal framework. Against the backdrop of cultural collisions between East and West and the evolution of literature across different epochs and regions, Chinese literature draws inspiration from the zeitgeist of the time. Central to this discourse are themes of independent thought, fostering dialogue and harnessing the communicative power of literature. Through a thoughtful examination encompassing diverse social, historical and ethical dimensions, critics explore the specific, dynamic and universal aesthetic elements present within literary works. Within the realm of Chinese literature, critics, propelled by an unwavering spirit of independence, have fashioned a diverse array of critical approaches, coherent and distinctive in their patterns, thus expanding the discourse surrounding critical analysis. These multifaceted perspectives represent essential pillars upon which contemporary literary criticism continues to evolve and flourish.

Examining the survival status of women under the feudal system is of great significance for the stable development of social structure. Drama therapy can establish the resonance of the audience with the fate of female characters in drama, promoting attention and resolution of social issues. As a classic ancient theatrical literary work, ‘The Jade Hairpin’ provides rich materials and perspectives for understanding the plight of women in feudal society. This study uses a combination of text analysis and historical research to critique the limitations and oppression faced by the female characters of the work. Reflecting on the fate of women and awakening subjectivity in dramatic literature provides a unique perspective for inspiring audiences to think about gender issues in society.

Compilations of regional literature in the Ming Dynasty increased dramatically in quantity and significant improvements were made in the quality of compilation and engraving. This marked the initial construction of a national and regional literary history, making it a valuable literary and cultural phenomenon for research. The evaluative framework of regional literature compilations in the Ming Dynasty encompasses not only praise for the editors’ talent and compilation skills, and praise for the textual value, but also judgements about the compilation content and format. Despite some shortcomings in certain regional literature compilations of the Ming Dynasty, they are far from sufficient to overshadow their brilliance. These collections provide valuable data and experience for the compilation of regional literature compilations in the Qing Dynasty and nationwide regional literature compilations and profoundly influence the formation of literary evaluative systems in later generations.

This article explores Lin Shu's (1852–1924) translations of foreign novels, known as ‘novels translated by Lin Shu’ (1899–1919), highlighting their contribution to the world literature of Late Qing China. Lin's translations, classified into emotional romance, adventure and mystery, and critical realism, showcase a unique blend of poetic style, ethical reflection and political commentary. By examining the textual nuances of ‘novels translated by Lin Shu’, the study reveals Lin's significant role in intercultural communication and the global literary sphere. It argues that Lin's translations, embodying distinctive narrative techniques and perspectives on translation, underscore the interplay between culture, ethics and politics in Late Qing China's literary landscape.

Xinjiang, an enclave nestled in the northwest region of China, has emerged as a captivating subject of artistic contemplation, bestowing on us a myriad of perspectives enveloping this locality. The primary objective of this article is to undertake a comprehensive examination of the construction of critical discourse within Xinjiang literature. What sets this article apart from others is its pioneering endeavour to introduce the multifarious realm of Xinjiang in literature, encompassing ancient texts and resounding echoes of the Silk Road, as well as depictions found within Chinese literature. By drawing upon various approaches to the conceptualisation of critical discourse in Xinjiang literature, this study innovatively uncovers the overarching layers of critique within historical narratives of Xinjiang, thus allowing readers to develop a comprehensive understanding of critical discourse in Xinjiang-related literary works.

The interaction between literature and art is essential to human cultural progress. Huizhou folk printmaking is essential as a traditional Chinese art form in this dynamic relationship. To comprehensively and objectively evaluate the relationship between literature and art and promote the cross-fusion and innovative evolution between literature and art, this article incorporates Huizhou folk prints into its analysis to examine and evaluate this complex connection. The relationship between literature and art is summarised by evaluating how literature is expressed in Huizhou folk prints and how these prints interpret literary works. In the field of literary and artistic creation, it is necessary to broaden our horizons and enrich the meaning and expression of creation to promote the diversified development of literature and art.

The formation of ancient Chinese literary critical theory was deeply rooted in the abundant creative output of ancient literature, serving as a catalyst for the advancement of literary endeavours from that era. In contrast to Western literary traditions, Eastern literary expressions are distinguished by their literary heritage and spiritual depth. Literary criticism, as a methodological approach, involves the examination, analysis and interpretation of literary works, authors and thematic elements through a societal lens. The crux of social criticism in Chinese literary circles lies in its intrinsic societal value, serving as a key metric for assessing the value of critical discourse. This approach prioritises addressing societal issues through a nuanced critique that evaluates the role of literary creation, ideological underpinnings in literature, and the engagement of literary phenomena within the broader societal framework. Against the backdrop of cultural collisions between East and West and the evolution of literature across different epochs and regions, Chinese literature draws inspiration from the zeitgeist of the time. Central to this discourse are themes of independent thought, fostering dialogue and harnessing the communicative power of literature. Through a thoughtful examination encompassing diverse social, historical and ethical dimensions, critics explore the specific, dynamic and universal aesthetic elements present within literary works. Within the realm of Chinese literature, critics, propelled by an unwavering spirit of independence, have fashioned a diverse array of critical approaches, coherent and distinctive in their patterns, thus expanding the discourse surrounding critical analysis. These multifaceted perspectives represent essential pillars upon which contemporary literary criticism continues to evolve and flourish.

Examining the survival status of women under the feudal system is of great significance for the stable development of social structure. Drama therapy can establish the resonance of the audience with the fate of female characters in drama, promoting attention and resolution of social issues. As a classic ancient theatrical literary work, ‘The Jade Hairpin’ provides rich materials and perspectives for understanding the plight of women in feudal society. This study uses a combination of text analysis and historical research to critique the limitations and oppression faced by the female characters of the work. Reflecting on the fate of women and awakening subjectivity in dramatic literature provides a unique perspective for inspiring audiences to think about gender issues in society.

Compilations of regional literature in the Ming Dynasty increased dramatically in quantity and significant improvements were made in the quality of compilation and engraving. This marked the initial construction of a national and regional literary history, making it a valuable literary and cultural phenomenon for research. The evaluative framework of regional literature compilations in the Ming Dynasty encompasses not only praise for the editors’ talent and compilation skills, and praise for the textual value, but also judgements about the compilation content and format. Despite some shortcomings in certain regional literature compilations of the Ming Dynasty, they are far from sufficient to overshadow their brilliance. These collections provide valuable data and experience for the compilation of regional literature compilations in the Qing Dynasty and nationwide regional literature compilations and profoundly influence the formation of literary evaluative systems in later generations.

This article explores Lin Shu's (1852–1924) translations of foreign novels, known as ‘novels translated by Lin Shu’ (1899–1919), highlighting their contribution to the world literature of Late Qing China. Lin's translations, classified into emotional romance, adventure and mystery, and critical realism, showcase a unique blend of poetic style, ethical reflection and political commentary. By examining the textual nuances of ‘novels translated by Lin Shu’, the study reveals Lin's significant role in intercultural communication and the global literary sphere. It argues that Lin's translations, embodying distinctive narrative techniques and perspectives on translation, underscore the interplay between culture, ethics and politics in Late Qing China's literary landscape.

Xinjiang, an enclave nestled in the northwest region of China, has emerged as a captivating subject of artistic contemplation, bestowing on us a myriad of perspectives enveloping this locality. The primary objective of this article is to undertake a comprehensive examination of the construction of critical discourse within Xinjiang literature. What sets this article apart from others is its pioneering endeavour to introduce the multifarious realm of Xinjiang in literature, encompassing ancient texts and resounding echoes of the Silk Road, as well as depictions found within Chinese literature. By drawing upon various approaches to the conceptualisation of critical discourse in Xinjiang literature, this study innovatively uncovers the overarching layers of critique within historical narratives of Xinjiang, thus allowing readers to develop a comprehensive understanding of critical discourse in Xinjiang-related literary works.

The interaction between literature and art is essential to human cultural progress. Huizhou folk printmaking is essential as a traditional Chinese art form in this dynamic relationship. To comprehensively and objectively evaluate the relationship between literature and art and promote the cross-fusion and innovative evolution between literature and art, this article incorporates Huizhou folk prints into its analysis to examine and evaluate this complex connection. The relationship between literature and art is summarised by evaluating how literature is expressed in Huizhou folk prints and how these prints interpret literary works. In the field of literary and artistic creation, it is necessary to broaden our horizons and enrich the meaning and expression of creation to promote the diversified development of literature and art.

The evolution of ethnic identity has undergone various stages in its historical development, from the early primitive phase to the emergence of cultural identity consciousness. Throughout the history of the Manchu people, the progression of history and culture has shaped the development of Manchu culture. The narrative of Manchu cultural identity is significant in advancing Manchu culture, symbolising its establishment and assertive growth. This article seeks to track the evolution of Manchu culture through methods such as historical literature analysis and cultural research, delving into the establishment of the dominant position of the Manchu, the evolution of the Manchu language and script, and the diversified expansion of Manchu literature. These efforts aim to propel Manchu cultural identity into a new historical development phase. Nonetheless, Manchu culture faced challenges during the late Qing Dynasty, leading to adverse effects. Lao She criticised this negativity and escapism in his novel Beneath the Red Banner, hastening a shift in cultural identity within Manchu culture.

The formation of ancient Chinese literary critical theory was deeply rooted in the abundant creative output of ancient literature, serving as a catalyst for the advancement of literary endeavours from that era. In contrast to Western literary traditions, Eastern literary expressions are distinguished by their literary heritage and spiritual depth. Literary criticism, as a methodological approach, involves the examination, analysis and interpretation of literary works, authors and thematic elements through a societal lens. The crux of social criticism in Chinese literary circles lies in its intrinsic societal value, serving as a key metric for assessing the value of critical discourse. This approach prioritises addressing societal issues through a nuanced critique that evaluates the role of literary creation, ideological underpinnings in literature, and the engagement of literary phenomena within the broader societal framework. Against the backdrop of cultural collisions between East and West and the evolution of literature across different epochs and regions, Chinese literature draws inspiration from the zeitgeist of the time. Central to this discourse are themes of independent thought, fostering dialogue and harnessing the communicative power of literature. Through a thoughtful examination encompassing diverse social, historical and ethical dimensions, critics explore the specific, dynamic and universal aesthetic elements present within literary works. Within the realm of Chinese literature, critics, propelled by an unwavering spirit of independence, have fashioned a diverse array of critical approaches, coherent and distinctive in their patterns, thus expanding the discourse surrounding critical analysis. These multifaceted perspectives represent essential pillars upon which contemporary literary criticism continues to evolve and flourish.

Examining the survival status of women under the feudal system is of great significance for the stable development of social structure. Drama therapy can establish the resonance of the audience with the fate of female characters in drama, promoting attention and resolution of social issues. As a classic ancient theatrical literary work, ‘The Jade Hairpin’ provides rich materials and perspectives for understanding the plight of women in feudal society. This study uses a combination of text analysis and historical research to critique the limitations and oppression faced by the female characters of the work. Reflecting on the fate of women and awakening subjectivity in dramatic literature provides a unique perspective for inspiring audiences to think about gender issues in society.

Compilations of regional literature in the Ming Dynasty increased dramatically in quantity and significant improvements were made in the quality of compilation and engraving. This marked the initial construction of a national and regional literary history, making it a valuable literary and cultural phenomenon for research. The evaluative framework of regional literature compilations in the Ming Dynasty encompasses not only praise for the editors’ talent and compilation skills, and praise for the textual value, but also judgements about the compilation content and format. Despite some shortcomings in certain regional literature compilations of the Ming Dynasty, they are far from sufficient to overshadow their brilliance. These collections provide valuable data and experience for the compilation of regional literature compilations in the Qing Dynasty and nationwide regional literature compilations and profoundly influence the formation of literary evaluative systems in later generations.

This article explores Lin Shu's (1852–1924) translations of foreign novels, known as ‘novels translated by Lin Shu’ (1899–1919), highlighting their contribution to the world literature of Late Qing China. Lin's translations, classified into emotional romance, adventure and mystery, and critical realism, showcase a unique blend of poetic style, ethical reflection and political commentary. By examining the textual nuances of ‘novels translated by Lin Shu’, the study reveals Lin's significant role in intercultural communication and the global literary sphere. It argues that Lin's translations, embodying distinctive narrative techniques and perspectives on translation, underscore the interplay between culture, ethics and politics in Late Qing China's literary landscape.

Xinjiang, an enclave nestled in the northwest region of China, has emerged as a captivating subject of artistic contemplation, bestowing on us a myriad of perspectives enveloping this locality. The primary objective of this article is to undertake a comprehensive examination of the construction of critical discourse within Xinjiang literature. What sets this article apart from others is its pioneering endeavour to introduce the multifarious realm of Xinjiang in literature, encompassing ancient texts and resounding echoes of the Silk Road, as well as depictions found within Chinese literature. By drawing upon various approaches to the conceptualisation of critical discourse in Xinjiang literature, this study innovatively uncovers the overarching layers of critique within historical narratives of Xinjiang, thus allowing readers to develop a comprehensive understanding of critical discourse in Xinjiang-related literary works.

The interaction between literature and art is essential to human cultural progress. Huizhou folk printmaking is essential as a traditional Chinese art form in this dynamic relationship. To comprehensively and objectively evaluate the relationship between literature and art and promote the cross-fusion and innovative evolution between literature and art, this article incorporates Huizhou folk prints into its analysis to examine and evaluate this complex connection. The relationship between literature and art is summarised by evaluating how literature is expressed in Huizhou folk prints and how these prints interpret literary works. In the field of literary and artistic creation, it is necessary to broaden our horizons and enrich the meaning and expression of creation to promote the diversified development of literature and art.

The evolution of ethnic identity has undergone various stages in its historical development, from the early primitive phase to the emergence of cultural identity consciousness. Throughout the history of the Manchu people, the progression of history and culture has shaped the development of Manchu culture. The narrative of Manchu cultural identity is significant in advancing Manchu culture, symbolising its establishment and assertive growth. This article seeks to track the evolution of Manchu culture through methods such as historical literature analysis and cultural research, delving into the establishment of the dominant position of the Manchu, the evolution of the Manchu language and script, and the diversified expansion of Manchu literature. These efforts aim to propel Manchu cultural identity into a new historical development phase. Nonetheless, Manchu culture faced challenges during the late Qing Dynasty, leading to adverse effects. Lao She criticised this negativity and escapism in his novel Beneath the Red Banner, hastening a shift in cultural identity within Manchu culture.

Critical discourse plays a vital role in enhancing literary comprehension. However, critical discourse research, spanning ancient to contemporary literature, frequently falls short by confining itself to narrow viewpoints, neglecting a comprehensive exploration of characteristics and commonalities. To bridge the critical discourse between ancient and modern literature, this study conducts an in-depth study of literary continuity by defining the structure and characteristics of discourse theory in ancient and contemporary literary criticism, comparing and analysing the common elements of the two, and exploring the future inspiration for the development of literary criticism from a unified perspective. In practical terms, literary criticism must innovate the critical discourse of contemporary literature while honouring the discourse framework of ancient literary criticism, and delving into the profound social meanings and values embedded within diverse works.

The formation of ancient Chinese literary critical theory was deeply rooted in the abundant creative output of ancient literature, serving as a catalyst for the advancement of literary endeavours from that era. In contrast to Western literary traditions, Eastern literary expressions are distinguished by their literary heritage and spiritual depth. Literary criticism, as a methodological approach, involves the examination, analysis and interpretation of literary works, authors and thematic elements through a societal lens. The crux of social criticism in Chinese literary circles lies in its intrinsic societal value, serving as a key metric for assessing the value of critical discourse. This approach prioritises addressing societal issues through a nuanced critique that evaluates the role of literary creation, ideological underpinnings in literature, and the engagement of literary phenomena within the broader societal framework. Against the backdrop of cultural collisions between East and West and the evolution of literature across different epochs and regions, Chinese literature draws inspiration from the zeitgeist of the time. Central to this discourse are themes of independent thought, fostering dialogue and harnessing the communicative power of literature. Through a thoughtful examination encompassing diverse social, historical and ethical dimensions, critics explore the specific, dynamic and universal aesthetic elements present within literary works. Within the realm of Chinese literature, critics, propelled by an unwavering spirit of independence, have fashioned a diverse array of critical approaches, coherent and distinctive in their patterns, thus expanding the discourse surrounding critical analysis. These multifaceted perspectives represent essential pillars upon which contemporary literary criticism continues to evolve and flourish.

Examining the survival status of women under the feudal system is of great significance for the stable development of social structure. Drama therapy can establish the resonance of the audience with the fate of female characters in drama, promoting attention and resolution of social issues. As a classic ancient theatrical literary work, ‘The Jade Hairpin’ provides rich materials and perspectives for understanding the plight of women in feudal society. This study uses a combination of text analysis and historical research to critique the limitations and oppression faced by the female characters of the work. Reflecting on the fate of women and awakening subjectivity in dramatic literature provides a unique perspective for inspiring audiences to think about gender issues in society.

Compilations of regional literature in the Ming Dynasty increased dramatically in quantity and significant improvements were made in the quality of compilation and engraving. This marked the initial construction of a national and regional literary history, making it a valuable literary and cultural phenomenon for research. The evaluative framework of regional literature compilations in the Ming Dynasty encompasses not only praise for the editors’ talent and compilation skills, and praise for the textual value, but also judgements about the compilation content and format. Despite some shortcomings in certain regional literature compilations of the Ming Dynasty, they are far from sufficient to overshadow their brilliance. These collections provide valuable data and experience for the compilation of regional literature compilations in the Qing Dynasty and nationwide regional literature compilations and profoundly influence the formation of literary evaluative systems in later generations.

This article explores Lin Shu's (1852–1924) translations of foreign novels, known as ‘novels translated by Lin Shu’ (1899–1919), highlighting their contribution to the world literature of Late Qing China. Lin's translations, classified into emotional romance, adventure and mystery, and critical realism, showcase a unique blend of poetic style, ethical reflection and political commentary. By examining the textual nuances of ‘novels translated by Lin Shu’, the study reveals Lin's significant role in intercultural communication and the global literary sphere. It argues that Lin's translations, embodying distinctive narrative techniques and perspectives on translation, underscore the interplay between culture, ethics and politics in Late Qing China's literary landscape.

Xinjiang, an enclave nestled in the northwest region of China, has emerged as a captivating subject of artistic contemplation, bestowing on us a myriad of perspectives enveloping this locality. The primary objective of this article is to undertake a comprehensive examination of the construction of critical discourse within Xinjiang literature. What sets this article apart from others is its pioneering endeavour to introduce the multifarious realm of Xinjiang in literature, encompassing ancient texts and resounding echoes of the Silk Road, as well as depictions found within Chinese literature. By drawing upon various approaches to the conceptualisation of critical discourse in Xinjiang literature, this study innovatively uncovers the overarching layers of critique within historical narratives of Xinjiang, thus allowing readers to develop a comprehensive understanding of critical discourse in Xinjiang-related literary works.

The interaction between literature and art is essential to human cultural progress. Huizhou folk printmaking is essential as a traditional Chinese art form in this dynamic relationship. To comprehensively and objectively evaluate the relationship between literature and art and promote the cross-fusion and innovative evolution between literature and art, this article incorporates Huizhou folk prints into its analysis to examine and evaluate this complex connection. The relationship between literature and art is summarised by evaluating how literature is expressed in Huizhou folk prints and how these prints interpret literary works. In the field of literary and artistic creation, it is necessary to broaden our horizons and enrich the meaning and expression of creation to promote the diversified development of literature and art.

The evolution of ethnic identity has undergone various stages in its historical development, from the early primitive phase to the emergence of cultural identity consciousness. Throughout the history of the Manchu people, the progression of history and culture has shaped the development of Manchu culture. The narrative of Manchu cultural identity is significant in advancing Manchu culture, symbolising its establishment and assertive growth. This article seeks to track the evolution of Manchu culture through methods such as historical literature analysis and cultural research, delving into the establishment of the dominant position of the Manchu, the evolution of the Manchu language and script, and the diversified expansion of Manchu literature. These efforts aim to propel Manchu cultural identity into a new historical development phase. Nonetheless, Manchu culture faced challenges during the late Qing Dynasty, leading to adverse effects. Lao She criticised this negativity and escapism in his novel Beneath the Red Banner, hastening a shift in cultural identity within Manchu culture.

Critical discourse plays a vital role in enhancing literary comprehension. However, critical discourse research, spanning ancient to contemporary literature, frequently falls short by confining itself to narrow viewpoints, neglecting a comprehensive exploration of characteristics and commonalities. To bridge the critical discourse between ancient and modern literature, this study conducts an in-depth study of literary continuity by defining the structure and characteristics of discourse theory in ancient and contemporary literary criticism, comparing and analysing the common elements of the two, and exploring the future inspiration for the development of literary criticism from a unified perspective. In practical terms, literary criticism must innovate the critical discourse of contemporary literature while honouring the discourse framework of ancient literary criticism, and delving into the profound social meanings and values embedded within diverse works.

In comparing the passage ‘非之而不可亚(恶)者, 䈞(笃)于忎(仁)者也’ from the Guodian Chu Slips Xing Zi Ming Chu with the excerpt ‘苟志于仁矣, 无恶也’ from the Li Ren chapter in the Analects, a revealing juxtaposition emerges. When examining the phrase, the term ‘无’ should be construed as ‘unable to’, signifying a nuanced perspective. This statement conveys an attitude towards individuals earnestly dedicated to pursuing goodness. Delving into surrounding chapters of the Li Ren chapter sheds light on the understanding that the term ‘恶’ should be interpreted in the context of likes and dislikes. Hence, the claim ‘苟志于仁矣, 无恶也’ implies that if devoted to benevolence, one should not be despised.

The formation of ancient Chinese literary critical theory was deeply rooted in the abundant creative output of ancient literature, serving as a catalyst for the advancement of literary endeavours from that era. In contrast to Western literary traditions, Eastern literary expressions are distinguished by their literary heritage and spiritual depth. Literary criticism, as a methodological approach, involves the examination, analysis and interpretation of literary works, authors and thematic elements through a societal lens. The crux of social criticism in Chinese literary circles lies in its intrinsic societal value, serving as a key metric for assessing the value of critical discourse. This approach prioritises addressing societal issues through a nuanced critique that evaluates the role of literary creation, ideological underpinnings in literature, and the engagement of literary phenomena within the broader societal framework. Against the backdrop of cultural collisions between East and West and the evolution of literature across different epochs and regions, Chinese literature draws inspiration from the zeitgeist of the time. Central to this discourse are themes of independent thought, fostering dialogue and harnessing the communicative power of literature. Through a thoughtful examination encompassing diverse social, historical and ethical dimensions, critics explore the specific, dynamic and universal aesthetic elements present within literary works. Within the realm of Chinese literature, critics, propelled by an unwavering spirit of independence, have fashioned a diverse array of critical approaches, coherent and distinctive in their patterns, thus expanding the discourse surrounding critical analysis. These multifaceted perspectives represent essential pillars upon which contemporary literary criticism continues to evolve and flourish.

Examining the survival status of women under the feudal system is of great significance for the stable development of social structure. Drama therapy can establish the resonance of the audience with the fate of female characters in drama, promoting attention and resolution of social issues. As a classic ancient theatrical literary work, ‘The Jade Hairpin’ provides rich materials and perspectives for understanding the plight of women in feudal society. This study uses a combination of text analysis and historical research to critique the limitations and oppression faced by the female characters of the work. Reflecting on the fate of women and awakening subjectivity in dramatic literature provides a unique perspective for inspiring audiences to think about gender issues in society.

Compilations of regional literature in the Ming Dynasty increased dramatically in quantity and significant improvements were made in the quality of compilation and engraving. This marked the initial construction of a national and regional literary history, making it a valuable literary and cultural phenomenon for research. The evaluative framework of regional literature compilations in the Ming Dynasty encompasses not only praise for the editors’ talent and compilation skills, and praise for the textual value, but also judgements about the compilation content and format. Despite some shortcomings in certain regional literature compilations of the Ming Dynasty, they are far from sufficient to overshadow their brilliance. These collections provide valuable data and experience for the compilation of regional literature compilations in the Qing Dynasty and nationwide regional literature compilations and profoundly influence the formation of literary evaluative systems in later generations.

This article explores Lin Shu's (1852–1924) translations of foreign novels, known as ‘novels translated by Lin Shu’ (1899–1919), highlighting their contribution to the world literature of Late Qing China. Lin's translations, classified into emotional romance, adventure and mystery, and critical realism, showcase a unique blend of poetic style, ethical reflection and political commentary. By examining the textual nuances of ‘novels translated by Lin Shu’, the study reveals Lin's significant role in intercultural communication and the global literary sphere. It argues that Lin's translations, embodying distinctive narrative techniques and perspectives on translation, underscore the interplay between culture, ethics and politics in Late Qing China's literary landscape.

Xinjiang, an enclave nestled in the northwest region of China, has emerged as a captivating subject of artistic contemplation, bestowing on us a myriad of perspectives enveloping this locality. The primary objective of this article is to undertake a comprehensive examination of the construction of critical discourse within Xinjiang literature. What sets this article apart from others is its pioneering endeavour to introduce the multifarious realm of Xinjiang in literature, encompassing ancient texts and resounding echoes of the Silk Road, as well as depictions found within Chinese literature. By drawing upon various approaches to the conceptualisation of critical discourse in Xinjiang literature, this study innovatively uncovers the overarching layers of critique within historical narratives of Xinjiang, thus allowing readers to develop a comprehensive understanding of critical discourse in Xinjiang-related literary works.

The interaction between literature and art is essential to human cultural progress. Huizhou folk printmaking is essential as a traditional Chinese art form in this dynamic relationship. To comprehensively and objectively evaluate the relationship between literature and art and promote the cross-fusion and innovative evolution between literature and art, this article incorporates Huizhou folk prints into its analysis to examine and evaluate this complex connection. The relationship between literature and art is summarised by evaluating how literature is expressed in Huizhou folk prints and how these prints interpret literary works. In the field of literary and artistic creation, it is necessary to broaden our horizons and enrich the meaning and expression of creation to promote the diversified development of literature and art.

The evolution of ethnic identity has undergone various stages in its historical development, from the early primitive phase to the emergence of cultural identity consciousness. Throughout the history of the Manchu people, the progression of history and culture has shaped the development of Manchu culture. The narrative of Manchu cultural identity is significant in advancing Manchu culture, symbolising its establishment and assertive growth. This article seeks to track the evolution of Manchu culture through methods such as historical literature analysis and cultural research, delving into the establishment of the dominant position of the Manchu, the evolution of the Manchu language and script, and the diversified expansion of Manchu literature. These efforts aim to propel Manchu cultural identity into a new historical development phase. Nonetheless, Manchu culture faced challenges during the late Qing Dynasty, leading to adverse effects. Lao She criticised this negativity and escapism in his novel Beneath the Red Banner, hastening a shift in cultural identity within Manchu culture.

Critical discourse plays a vital role in enhancing literary comprehension. However, critical discourse research, spanning ancient to contemporary literature, frequently falls short by confining itself to narrow viewpoints, neglecting a comprehensive exploration of characteristics and commonalities. To bridge the critical discourse between ancient and modern literature, this study conducts an in-depth study of literary continuity by defining the structure and characteristics of discourse theory in ancient and contemporary literary criticism, comparing and analysing the common elements of the two, and exploring the future inspiration for the development of literary criticism from a unified perspective. In practical terms, literary criticism must innovate the critical discourse of contemporary literature while honouring the discourse framework of ancient literary criticism, and delving into the profound social meanings and values embedded within diverse works.

In comparing the passage ‘非之而不可亚(恶)者, 䈞(笃)于忎(仁)者也’ from the Guodian Chu Slips Xing Zi Ming Chu with the excerpt ‘苟志于仁矣, 无恶也’ from the Li Ren chapter in the Analects, a revealing juxtaposition emerges. When examining the phrase, the term ‘无’ should be construed as ‘unable to’, signifying a nuanced perspective. This statement conveys an attitude towards individuals earnestly dedicated to pursuing goodness. Delving into surrounding chapters of the Li Ren chapter sheds light on the understanding that the term ‘恶’ should be interpreted in the context of likes and dislikes. Hence, the claim ‘苟志于仁矣, 无恶也’ implies that if devoted to benevolence, one should not be despised.

The surge in popularity of the Chinese TV series ‘Soldiers Sortie’ can be viewed as a process whereby a prevalent ideology garners widespread acceptance through narrative works. This article delves into how ideology, in this process, utilises traditional Chinese narrative methods to present itself and garner legitimacy through packaging, thus gaining acceptance among the masses. A detailed analysis of the plot of ‘Soldiers Sortie’ reveals that the intertwined narrative and the overarching family narrative model employed in this work align with the cultural psyche accumulated over thousands of years in China, leading to it being quickly embraced by Chinese viewers. This is the underlying reason for the widespread popularity of this work. Throughout history, famous literary and artistic works in China that have been widely embraced by the public have often employed this traditional Chinese narrative style. Therefore, mainstream ideologies seeking to promote and disseminate through literary works should pay heed to the use of Chinese narrative traditions.

The formation of ancient Chinese literary critical theory was deeply rooted in the abundant creative output of ancient literature, serving as a catalyst for the advancement of literary endeavours from that era. In contrast to Western literary traditions, Eastern literary expressions are distinguished by their literary heritage and spiritual depth. Literary criticism, as a methodological approach, involves the examination, analysis and interpretation of literary works, authors and thematic elements through a societal lens. The crux of social criticism in Chinese literary circles lies in its intrinsic societal value, serving as a key metric for assessing the value of critical discourse. This approach prioritises addressing societal issues through a nuanced critique that evaluates the role of literary creation, ideological underpinnings in literature, and the engagement of literary phenomena within the broader societal framework. Against the backdrop of cultural collisions between East and West and the evolution of literature across different epochs and regions, Chinese literature draws inspiration from the zeitgeist of the time. Central to this discourse are themes of independent thought, fostering dialogue and harnessing the communicative power of literature. Through a thoughtful examination encompassing diverse social, historical and ethical dimensions, critics explore the specific, dynamic and universal aesthetic elements present within literary works. Within the realm of Chinese literature, critics, propelled by an unwavering spirit of independence, have fashioned a diverse array of critical approaches, coherent and distinctive in their patterns, thus expanding the discourse surrounding critical analysis. These multifaceted perspectives represent essential pillars upon which contemporary literary criticism continues to evolve and flourish.

Examining the survival status of women under the feudal system is of great significance for the stable development of social structure. Drama therapy can establish the resonance of the audience with the fate of female characters in drama, promoting attention and resolution of social issues. As a classic ancient theatrical literary work, ‘The Jade Hairpin’ provides rich materials and perspectives for understanding the plight of women in feudal society. This study uses a combination of text analysis and historical research to critique the limitations and oppression faced by the female characters of the work. Reflecting on the fate of women and awakening subjectivity in dramatic literature provides a unique perspective for inspiring audiences to think about gender issues in society.

Compilations of regional literature in the Ming Dynasty increased dramatically in quantity and significant improvements were made in the quality of compilation and engraving. This marked the initial construction of a national and regional literary history, making it a valuable literary and cultural phenomenon for research. The evaluative framework of regional literature compilations in the Ming Dynasty encompasses not only praise for the editors’ talent and compilation skills, and praise for the textual value, but also judgements about the compilation content and format. Despite some shortcomings in certain regional literature compilations of the Ming Dynasty, they are far from sufficient to overshadow their brilliance. These collections provide valuable data and experience for the compilation of regional literature compilations in the Qing Dynasty and nationwide regional literature compilations and profoundly influence the formation of literary evaluative systems in later generations.

This article explores Lin Shu's (1852–1924) translations of foreign novels, known as ‘novels translated by Lin Shu’ (1899–1919), highlighting their contribution to the world literature of Late Qing China. Lin's translations, classified into emotional romance, adventure and mystery, and critical realism, showcase a unique blend of poetic style, ethical reflection and political commentary. By examining the textual nuances of ‘novels translated by Lin Shu’, the study reveals Lin's significant role in intercultural communication and the global literary sphere. It argues that Lin's translations, embodying distinctive narrative techniques and perspectives on translation, underscore the interplay between culture, ethics and politics in Late Qing China's literary landscape.

Xinjiang, an enclave nestled in the northwest region of China, has emerged as a captivating subject of artistic contemplation, bestowing on us a myriad of perspectives enveloping this locality. The primary objective of this article is to undertake a comprehensive examination of the construction of critical discourse within Xinjiang literature. What sets this article apart from others is its pioneering endeavour to introduce the multifarious realm of Xinjiang in literature, encompassing ancient texts and resounding echoes of the Silk Road, as well as depictions found within Chinese literature. By drawing upon various approaches to the conceptualisation of critical discourse in Xinjiang literature, this study innovatively uncovers the overarching layers of critique within historical narratives of Xinjiang, thus allowing readers to develop a comprehensive understanding of critical discourse in Xinjiang-related literary works.

The interaction between literature and art is essential to human cultural progress. Huizhou folk printmaking is essential as a traditional Chinese art form in this dynamic relationship. To comprehensively and objectively evaluate the relationship between literature and art and promote the cross-fusion and innovative evolution between literature and art, this article incorporates Huizhou folk prints into its analysis to examine and evaluate this complex connection. The relationship between literature and art is summarised by evaluating how literature is expressed in Huizhou folk prints and how these prints interpret literary works. In the field of literary and artistic creation, it is necessary to broaden our horizons and enrich the meaning and expression of creation to promote the diversified development of literature and art.

The evolution of ethnic identity has undergone various stages in its historical development, from the early primitive phase to the emergence of cultural identity consciousness. Throughout the history of the Manchu people, the progression of history and culture has shaped the development of Manchu culture. The narrative of Manchu cultural identity is significant in advancing Manchu culture, symbolising its establishment and assertive growth. This article seeks to track the evolution of Manchu culture through methods such as historical literature analysis and cultural research, delving into the establishment of the dominant position of the Manchu, the evolution of the Manchu language and script, and the diversified expansion of Manchu literature. These efforts aim to propel Manchu cultural identity into a new historical development phase. Nonetheless, Manchu culture faced challenges during the late Qing Dynasty, leading to adverse effects. Lao She criticised this negativity and escapism in his novel Beneath the Red Banner, hastening a shift in cultural identity within Manchu culture.

Critical discourse plays a vital role in enhancing literary comprehension. However, critical discourse research, spanning ancient to contemporary literature, frequently falls short by confining itself to narrow viewpoints, neglecting a comprehensive exploration of characteristics and commonalities. To bridge the critical discourse between ancient and modern literature, this study conducts an in-depth study of literary continuity by defining the structure and characteristics of discourse theory in ancient and contemporary literary criticism, comparing and analysing the common elements of the two, and exploring the future inspiration for the development of literary criticism from a unified perspective. In practical terms, literary criticism must innovate the critical discourse of contemporary literature while honouring the discourse framework of ancient literary criticism, and delving into the profound social meanings and values embedded within diverse works.

In comparing the passage ‘非之而不可亚(恶)者, 䈞(笃)于忎(仁)者也’ from the Guodian Chu Slips Xing Zi Ming Chu with the excerpt ‘苟志于仁矣, 无恶也’ from the Li Ren chapter in the Analects, a revealing juxtaposition emerges. When examining the phrase, the term ‘无’ should be construed as ‘unable to’, signifying a nuanced perspective. This statement conveys an attitude towards individuals earnestly dedicated to pursuing goodness. Delving into surrounding chapters of the Li Ren chapter sheds light on the understanding that the term ‘恶’ should be interpreted in the context of likes and dislikes. Hence, the claim ‘苟志于仁矣, 无恶也’ implies that if devoted to benevolence, one should not be despised.

The surge in popularity of the Chinese TV series ‘Soldiers Sortie’ can be viewed as a process whereby a prevalent ideology garners widespread acceptance through narrative works. This article delves into how ideology, in this process, utilises traditional Chinese narrative methods to present itself and garner legitimacy through packaging, thus gaining acceptance among the masses. A detailed analysis of the plot of ‘Soldiers Sortie’ reveals that the intertwined narrative and the overarching family narrative model employed in this work align with the cultural psyche accumulated over thousands of years in China, leading to it being quickly embraced by Chinese viewers. This is the underlying reason for the widespread popularity of this work. Throughout history, famous literary and artistic works in China that have been widely embraced by the public have often employed this traditional Chinese narrative style. Therefore, mainstream ideologies seeking to promote and disseminate through literary works should pay heed to the use of Chinese narrative traditions.

The art of landscape painting involves a coherent chain of development and transformation between individual self-awareness and the construction of a scholar's emotions. These paintings directly explore personal consciousness and expressing personal emotions. The main themes depicted in seasonal landscape paintings are seclusion and travel. The relationship between scholars’ self-awareness, landscape painting portrayal and the emergence of literature is explored by analysing the emotional states and life interests inherent in the composition of these two themes of landscape painting. The connection between changes in landscape painting themes and the emotional content carried by scholars, as well as the relationship between seasonal development in landscape paintings and scholars’ literary explorations and poetic expressions, is discussed. Consequently, the themes of seclusion and travel contain contemplation of life and aesthetic interests, revealing connections between these themes, scholarly pursuits, and the unity of poetry and painting.

The formation of ancient Chinese literary critical theory was deeply rooted in the abundant creative output of ancient literature, serving as a catalyst for the advancement of literary endeavours from that era. In contrast to Western literary traditions, Eastern literary expressions are distinguished by their literary heritage and spiritual depth. Literary criticism, as a methodological approach, involves the examination, analysis and interpretation of literary works, authors and thematic elements through a societal lens. The crux of social criticism in Chinese literary circles lies in its intrinsic societal value, serving as a key metric for assessing the value of critical discourse. This approach prioritises addressing societal issues through a nuanced critique that evaluates the role of literary creation, ideological underpinnings in literature, and the engagement of literary phenomena within the broader societal framework. Against the backdrop of cultural collisions between East and West and the evolution of literature across different epochs and regions, Chinese literature draws inspiration from the zeitgeist of the time. Central to this discourse are themes of independent thought, fostering dialogue and harnessing the communicative power of literature. Through a thoughtful examination encompassing diverse social, historical and ethical dimensions, critics explore the specific, dynamic and universal aesthetic elements present within literary works. Within the realm of Chinese literature, critics, propelled by an unwavering spirit of independence, have fashioned a diverse array of critical approaches, coherent and distinctive in their patterns, thus expanding the discourse surrounding critical analysis. These multifaceted perspectives represent essential pillars upon which contemporary literary criticism continues to evolve and flourish.

Examining the survival status of women under the feudal system is of great significance for the stable development of social structure. Drama therapy can establish the resonance of the audience with the fate of female characters in drama, promoting attention and resolution of social issues. As a classic ancient theatrical literary work, ‘The Jade Hairpin’ provides rich materials and perspectives for understanding the plight of women in feudal society. This study uses a combination of text analysis and historical research to critique the limitations and oppression faced by the female characters of the work. Reflecting on the fate of women and awakening subjectivity in dramatic literature provides a unique perspective for inspiring audiences to think about gender issues in society.

Compilations of regional literature in the Ming Dynasty increased dramatically in quantity and significant improvements were made in the quality of compilation and engraving. This marked the initial construction of a national and regional literary history, making it a valuable literary and cultural phenomenon for research. The evaluative framework of regional literature compilations in the Ming Dynasty encompasses not only praise for the editors’ talent and compilation skills, and praise for the textual value, but also judgements about the compilation content and format. Despite some shortcomings in certain regional literature compilations of the Ming Dynasty, they are far from sufficient to overshadow their brilliance. These collections provide valuable data and experience for the compilation of regional literature compilations in the Qing Dynasty and nationwide regional literature compilations and profoundly influence the formation of literary evaluative systems in later generations.

This article explores Lin Shu's (1852–1924) translations of foreign novels, known as ‘novels translated by Lin Shu’ (1899–1919), highlighting their contribution to the world literature of Late Qing China. Lin's translations, classified into emotional romance, adventure and mystery, and critical realism, showcase a unique blend of poetic style, ethical reflection and political commentary. By examining the textual nuances of ‘novels translated by Lin Shu’, the study reveals Lin's significant role in intercultural communication and the global literary sphere. It argues that Lin's translations, embodying distinctive narrative techniques and perspectives on translation, underscore the interplay between culture, ethics and politics in Late Qing China's literary landscape.

Xinjiang, an enclave nestled in the northwest region of China, has emerged as a captivating subject of artistic contemplation, bestowing on us a myriad of perspectives enveloping this locality. The primary objective of this article is to undertake a comprehensive examination of the construction of critical discourse within Xinjiang literature. What sets this article apart from others is its pioneering endeavour to introduce the multifarious realm of Xinjiang in literature, encompassing ancient texts and resounding echoes of the Silk Road, as well as depictions found within Chinese literature. By drawing upon various approaches to the conceptualisation of critical discourse in Xinjiang literature, this study innovatively uncovers the overarching layers of critique within historical narratives of Xinjiang, thus allowing readers to develop a comprehensive understanding of critical discourse in Xinjiang-related literary works.

The interaction between literature and art is essential to human cultural progress. Huizhou folk printmaking is essential as a traditional Chinese art form in this dynamic relationship. To comprehensively and objectively evaluate the relationship between literature and art and promote the cross-fusion and innovative evolution between literature and art, this article incorporates Huizhou folk prints into its analysis to examine and evaluate this complex connection. The relationship between literature and art is summarised by evaluating how literature is expressed in Huizhou folk prints and how these prints interpret literary works. In the field of literary and artistic creation, it is necessary to broaden our horizons and enrich the meaning and expression of creation to promote the diversified development of literature and art.

The evolution of ethnic identity has undergone various stages in its historical development, from the early primitive phase to the emergence of cultural identity consciousness. Throughout the history of the Manchu people, the progression of history and culture has shaped the development of Manchu culture. The narrative of Manchu cultural identity is significant in advancing Manchu culture, symbolising its establishment and assertive growth. This article seeks to track the evolution of Manchu culture through methods such as historical literature analysis and cultural research, delving into the establishment of the dominant position of the Manchu, the evolution of the Manchu language and script, and the diversified expansion of Manchu literature. These efforts aim to propel Manchu cultural identity into a new historical development phase. Nonetheless, Manchu culture faced challenges during the late Qing Dynasty, leading to adverse effects. Lao She criticised this negativity and escapism in his novel Beneath the Red Banner, hastening a shift in cultural identity within Manchu culture.

Critical discourse plays a vital role in enhancing literary comprehension. However, critical discourse research, spanning ancient to contemporary literature, frequently falls short by confining itself to narrow viewpoints, neglecting a comprehensive exploration of characteristics and commonalities. To bridge the critical discourse between ancient and modern literature, this study conducts an in-depth study of literary continuity by defining the structure and characteristics of discourse theory in ancient and contemporary literary criticism, comparing and analysing the common elements of the two, and exploring the future inspiration for the development of literary criticism from a unified perspective. In practical terms, literary criticism must innovate the critical discourse of contemporary literature while honouring the discourse framework of ancient literary criticism, and delving into the profound social meanings and values embedded within diverse works.

In comparing the passage ‘非之而不可亚(恶)者, 䈞(笃)于忎(仁)者也’ from the Guodian Chu Slips Xing Zi Ming Chu with the excerpt ‘苟志于仁矣, 无恶也’ from the Li Ren chapter in the Analects, a revealing juxtaposition emerges. When examining the phrase, the term ‘无’ should be construed as ‘unable to’, signifying a nuanced perspective. This statement conveys an attitude towards individuals earnestly dedicated to pursuing goodness. Delving into surrounding chapters of the Li Ren chapter sheds light on the understanding that the term ‘恶’ should be interpreted in the context of likes and dislikes. Hence, the claim ‘苟志于仁矣, 无恶也’ implies that if devoted to benevolence, one should not be despised.

The surge in popularity of the Chinese TV series ‘Soldiers Sortie’ can be viewed as a process whereby a prevalent ideology garners widespread acceptance through narrative works. This article delves into how ideology, in this process, utilises traditional Chinese narrative methods to present itself and garner legitimacy through packaging, thus gaining acceptance among the masses. A detailed analysis of the plot of ‘Soldiers Sortie’ reveals that the intertwined narrative and the overarching family narrative model employed in this work align with the cultural psyche accumulated over thousands of years in China, leading to it being quickly embraced by Chinese viewers. This is the underlying reason for the widespread popularity of this work. Throughout history, famous literary and artistic works in China that have been widely embraced by the public have often employed this traditional Chinese narrative style. Therefore, mainstream ideologies seeking to promote and disseminate through literary works should pay heed to the use of Chinese narrative traditions.

The art of landscape painting involves a coherent chain of development and transformation between individual self-awareness and the construction of a scholar's emotions. These paintings directly explore personal consciousness and expressing personal emotions. The main themes depicted in seasonal landscape paintings are seclusion and travel. The relationship between scholars’ self-awareness, landscape painting portrayal and the emergence of literature is explored by analysing the emotional states and life interests inherent in the composition of these two themes of landscape painting. The connection between changes in landscape painting themes and the emotional content carried by scholars, as well as the relationship between seasonal development in landscape paintings and scholars’ literary explorations and poetic expressions, is discussed. Consequently, the themes of seclusion and travel contain contemplation of life and aesthetic interests, revealing connections between these themes, scholarly pursuits, and the unity of poetry and painting.

This article uses a comparative analysis approach to juxtapose Socratic dialogues in Euthyphro with the Confucian ethical principle of ‘mutual concealment of wrongdoing among family members’ from the Analects of Confucius · Zilu. The comparative analysis approach provides a fresh perspective to comprehend and interpret Socrates’ attitude towards Euthyphro's act of accusing his father in Euthyphro. The analysis reveals that Socrates’ stance is not simply for or against but instead situated within the intricate triangular relationship between Athenian customs, Euthyphro's wisdom and civic morality. From the critical perspective in Chinese literature, Confucius's principle of ‘mutual concealment of wrongdoing among family members’ and the importance of family relations is the oppression of individuals, and ‘accusing his father of a crime’ is the awakening of individuals. However, in Euthyphro, Socrates challenges traditional moral notions, revealing moral decision-making's philosophical depth and complexity.

This article argues that Tayeb Salih, in his most famous novel, tackles Shakespeare's best-known play in the Arabic world, Othello, but not in the usual fashion. Instead of adapting the protagonist, Salih ventriloquises him to force a fresh understanding of Othello by Western readers, thus challenging what was at the time of his novel's publication a largely nineteenth-century reading of Othello. At the same time, Salih creates a hybridised protagonist of his own, one who comes to understand that he is neither Sudanese nor English. This reading thus sheds light on both Shakespeare's play and Salih's novel, arguing that the novel allows us to understand the play contextually rather than anachronistically. Fundamentally, Salih destabilises Arab notions of identity, arguing that the world has become ‘all mixed up’ and needs to move beyond essentialist identities.

This article argues that Tayeb Salih, in his most famous novel, tackles Shakespeare's best-known play in the Arabic world, Othello, but not in the usual fashion. Instead of adapting the protagonist, Salih ventriloquises him to force a fresh understanding of Othello by Western readers, thus challenging what was at the time of his novel's publication a largely nineteenth-century reading of Othello. At the same time, Salih creates a hybridised protagonist of his own, one who comes to understand that he is neither Sudanese nor English. This reading thus sheds light on both Shakespeare's play and Salih's novel, arguing that the novel allows us to understand the play contextually rather than anachronistically. Fundamentally, Salih destabilises Arab notions of identity, arguing that the world has become ‘all mixed up’ and needs to move beyond essentialist identities.

The grotesque and satire are common methods of expressing the comic in European and African American literature. This study identifies the distinctive features of the grotesque and satire in European and African American literature. Günter Grass in The Tin Drum, The Wide Field, The Rat, The Dog Years and Under Local Narcosis uses the grotesque as a primary means of representing the political and historical state of Germany. In Sula, Toni Morrison takes the reader into the opposite space. She blatantly exposes racism and the problems of African Americans, denouncing inequality and lack of freedom. These results allow us to comprehend and critically engage with the ways that these kinds of communication confront social reality and challenge societal norms by looking at the sociolinguistic dynamics of the grotesque and satire in German and African American literature.

This article argues that Tayeb Salih, in his most famous novel, tackles Shakespeare's best-known play in the Arabic world, Othello, but not in the usual fashion. Instead of adapting the protagonist, Salih ventriloquises him to force a fresh understanding of Othello by Western readers, thus challenging what was at the time of his novel's publication a largely nineteenth-century reading of Othello. At the same time, Salih creates a hybridised protagonist of his own, one who comes to understand that he is neither Sudanese nor English. This reading thus sheds light on both Shakespeare's play and Salih's novel, arguing that the novel allows us to understand the play contextually rather than anachronistically. Fundamentally, Salih destabilises Arab notions of identity, arguing that the world has become ‘all mixed up’ and needs to move beyond essentialist identities.

The grotesque and satire are common methods of expressing the comic in European and African American literature. This study identifies the distinctive features of the grotesque and satire in European and African American literature. Günter Grass in The Tin Drum, The Wide Field, The Rat, The Dog Years and Under Local Narcosis uses the grotesque as a primary means of representing the political and historical state of Germany. In Sula, Toni Morrison takes the reader into the opposite space. She blatantly exposes racism and the problems of African Americans, denouncing inequality and lack of freedom. These results allow us to comprehend and critically engage with the ways that these kinds of communication confront social reality and challenge societal norms by looking at the sociolinguistic dynamics of the grotesque and satire in German and African American literature.

This article re-evaluates the merits of Shakespeare's Sonnet 145 and explores its critical legacy over the past half-century. While the sonnet has typically been seen as inferior due to its use of tetrameter rather than pentameter, one article from 1971 made a case for it being the first poem Shakespeare ever wrote. Rather than prompt critical debate, the theory presented in the article gained nearly universal acceptance and has been amplified ever since. The problem I identify is that the theory itself has been adopted without due scrutiny, and that when we approach Sonnet 145 from the standpoint that it is neither inferior nor juvenilia, we can then see how the supposed aberrations are potentially deliberate choices made by Shakespeare to underscore the poem's content.

This article argues that Tayeb Salih, in his most famous novel, tackles Shakespeare's best-known play in the Arabic world, Othello, but not in the usual fashion. Instead of adapting the protagonist, Salih ventriloquises him to force a fresh understanding of Othello by Western readers, thus challenging what was at the time of his novel's publication a largely nineteenth-century reading of Othello. At the same time, Salih creates a hybridised protagonist of his own, one who comes to understand that he is neither Sudanese nor English. This reading thus sheds light on both Shakespeare's play and Salih's novel, arguing that the novel allows us to understand the play contextually rather than anachronistically. Fundamentally, Salih destabilises Arab notions of identity, arguing that the world has become ‘all mixed up’ and needs to move beyond essentialist identities.

The grotesque and satire are common methods of expressing the comic in European and African American literature. This study identifies the distinctive features of the grotesque and satire in European and African American literature. Günter Grass in The Tin Drum, The Wide Field, The Rat, The Dog Years and Under Local Narcosis uses the grotesque as a primary means of representing the political and historical state of Germany. In Sula, Toni Morrison takes the reader into the opposite space. She blatantly exposes racism and the problems of African Americans, denouncing inequality and lack of freedom. These results allow us to comprehend and critically engage with the ways that these kinds of communication confront social reality and challenge societal norms by looking at the sociolinguistic dynamics of the grotesque and satire in German and African American literature.

This article re-evaluates the merits of Shakespeare's Sonnet 145 and explores its critical legacy over the past half-century. While the sonnet has typically been seen as inferior due to its use of tetrameter rather than pentameter, one article from 1971 made a case for it being the first poem Shakespeare ever wrote. Rather than prompt critical debate, the theory presented in the article gained nearly universal acceptance and has been amplified ever since. The problem I identify is that the theory itself has been adopted without due scrutiny, and that when we approach Sonnet 145 from the standpoint that it is neither inferior nor juvenilia, we can then see how the supposed aberrations are potentially deliberate choices made by Shakespeare to underscore the poem's content.

Deleuze and Guattari's becoming is a dynamic alliance with beings. It is not a monad but creative involution. The incorporeal becoming deterritorialises the beings and roams nomadically between them. It has no subject or object, nor does it have centre or periphery; it is a becoming-in-itself. This article analyses the differences between Nietzsche's becoming and that of Deleuze and Guattari. It also summarises the three attributes of a becoming, which is solipsistic, revolutionary and always in-between. Julian Barnes's novel Love, etc exclusively utilises monologues as the narrative device which, along with its minimal personae, penetrating conflict and unsettling ending, prompts a becoming-Greek tragedy similar to Antigone. The becoming-Greek tragedy is not a simple average of the two beings; rather, it is a heterogeneous, molecular interbeing.

This article argues that Tayeb Salih, in his most famous novel, tackles Shakespeare's best-known play in the Arabic world, Othello, but not in the usual fashion. Instead of adapting the protagonist, Salih ventriloquises him to force a fresh understanding of Othello by Western readers, thus challenging what was at the time of his novel's publication a largely nineteenth-century reading of Othello. At the same time, Salih creates a hybridised protagonist of his own, one who comes to understand that he is neither Sudanese nor English. This reading thus sheds light on both Shakespeare's play and Salih's novel, arguing that the novel allows us to understand the play contextually rather than anachronistically. Fundamentally, Salih destabilises Arab notions of identity, arguing that the world has become ‘all mixed up’ and needs to move beyond essentialist identities.

The grotesque and satire are common methods of expressing the comic in European and African American literature. This study identifies the distinctive features of the grotesque and satire in European and African American literature. Günter Grass in The Tin Drum, The Wide Field, The Rat, The Dog Years and Under Local Narcosis uses the grotesque as a primary means of representing the political and historical state of Germany. In Sula, Toni Morrison takes the reader into the opposite space. She blatantly exposes racism and the problems of African Americans, denouncing inequality and lack of freedom. These results allow us to comprehend and critically engage with the ways that these kinds of communication confront social reality and challenge societal norms by looking at the sociolinguistic dynamics of the grotesque and satire in German and African American literature.

This article re-evaluates the merits of Shakespeare's Sonnet 145 and explores its critical legacy over the past half-century. While the sonnet has typically been seen as inferior due to its use of tetrameter rather than pentameter, one article from 1971 made a case for it being the first poem Shakespeare ever wrote. Rather than prompt critical debate, the theory presented in the article gained nearly universal acceptance and has been amplified ever since. The problem I identify is that the theory itself has been adopted without due scrutiny, and that when we approach Sonnet 145 from the standpoint that it is neither inferior nor juvenilia, we can then see how the supposed aberrations are potentially deliberate choices made by Shakespeare to underscore the poem's content.

Deleuze and Guattari's becoming is a dynamic alliance with beings. It is not a monad but creative involution. The incorporeal becoming deterritorialises the beings and roams nomadically between them. It has no subject or object, nor does it have centre or periphery; it is a becoming-in-itself. This article analyses the differences between Nietzsche's becoming and that of Deleuze and Guattari. It also summarises the three attributes of a becoming, which is solipsistic, revolutionary and always in-between. Julian Barnes's novel Love, etc exclusively utilises monologues as the narrative device which, along with its minimal personae, penetrating conflict and unsettling ending, prompts a becoming-Greek tragedy similar to Antigone. The becoming-Greek tragedy is not a simple average of the two beings; rather, it is a heterogeneous, molecular interbeing.

The modern reputation of Andrew Marvell has developed from studies of his status as a metaphysical poet of time and scale, to more historicist investigations of his political engagements and a nascent liberal subjectivity. There are remaining questions about the precise ideas of futurity in his lyric poetry. This article identifies three themes in particular: the figure of the child as part of a discourse of heredity, the figure of the landscape in a process of change, notably in ‘Upon Appleton House’, and the singularly charismatic figure of Oliver Cromwell, especially in ‘An Horatian Ode’. It concludes by considering other potential notions of futurity as suggested through ecocriticism.

This article argues that Tayeb Salih, in his most famous novel, tackles Shakespeare's best-known play in the Arabic world, Othello, but not in the usual fashion. Instead of adapting the protagonist, Salih ventriloquises him to force a fresh understanding of Othello by Western readers, thus challenging what was at the time of his novel's publication a largely nineteenth-century reading of Othello. At the same time, Salih creates a hybridised protagonist of his own, one who comes to understand that he is neither Sudanese nor English. This reading thus sheds light on both Shakespeare's play and Salih's novel, arguing that the novel allows us to understand the play contextually rather than anachronistically. Fundamentally, Salih destabilises Arab notions of identity, arguing that the world has become ‘all mixed up’ and needs to move beyond essentialist identities.

The grotesque and satire are common methods of expressing the comic in European and African American literature. This study identifies the distinctive features of the grotesque and satire in European and African American literature. Günter Grass in The Tin Drum, The Wide Field, The Rat, The Dog Years and Under Local Narcosis uses the grotesque as a primary means of representing the political and historical state of Germany. In Sula, Toni Morrison takes the reader into the opposite space. She blatantly exposes racism and the problems of African Americans, denouncing inequality and lack of freedom. These results allow us to comprehend and critically engage with the ways that these kinds of communication confront social reality and challenge societal norms by looking at the sociolinguistic dynamics of the grotesque and satire in German and African American literature.

This article re-evaluates the merits of Shakespeare's Sonnet 145 and explores its critical legacy over the past half-century. While the sonnet has typically been seen as inferior due to its use of tetrameter rather than pentameter, one article from 1971 made a case for it being the first poem Shakespeare ever wrote. Rather than prompt critical debate, the theory presented in the article gained nearly universal acceptance and has been amplified ever since. The problem I identify is that the theory itself has been adopted without due scrutiny, and that when we approach Sonnet 145 from the standpoint that it is neither inferior nor juvenilia, we can then see how the supposed aberrations are potentially deliberate choices made by Shakespeare to underscore the poem's content.

Deleuze and Guattari's becoming is a dynamic alliance with beings. It is not a monad but creative involution. The incorporeal becoming deterritorialises the beings and roams nomadically between them. It has no subject or object, nor does it have centre or periphery; it is a becoming-in-itself. This article analyses the differences between Nietzsche's becoming and that of Deleuze and Guattari. It also summarises the three attributes of a becoming, which is solipsistic, revolutionary and always in-between. Julian Barnes's novel Love, etc exclusively utilises monologues as the narrative device which, along with its minimal personae, penetrating conflict and unsettling ending, prompts a becoming-Greek tragedy similar to Antigone. The becoming-Greek tragedy is not a simple average of the two beings; rather, it is a heterogeneous, molecular interbeing.

The modern reputation of Andrew Marvell has developed from studies of his status as a metaphysical poet of time and scale, to more historicist investigations of his political engagements and a nascent liberal subjectivity. There are remaining questions about the precise ideas of futurity in his lyric poetry. This article identifies three themes in particular: the figure of the child as part of a discourse of heredity, the figure of the landscape in a process of change, notably in ‘Upon Appleton House’, and the singularly charismatic figure of Oliver Cromwell, especially in ‘An Horatian Ode’. It concludes by considering other potential notions of futurity as suggested through ecocriticism.

Full of men and women in love, Shakespeare's comedies have triggered abundant discussions of the dramatist's treatment of romantic relationships, which, however, nearly ignore the importance of language use. This pragmatic reading of Shakespearean comedies undertakes to explore the speech act of promising of characters in love. By incorporating quantitative data and qualitative insights, the research outlines the attributes and distribution of promising in four comedies, compares gender differences in the use of promising, and scrutinises the change of promising during the shift in love dynamics. In doing so, we anticipate providing a fresh interpretation of speech acts and Shakespeare's dramas.

This article argues that Tayeb Salih, in his most famous novel, tackles Shakespeare's best-known play in the Arabic world, Othello, but not in the usual fashion. Instead of adapting the protagonist, Salih ventriloquises him to force a fresh understanding of Othello by Western readers, thus challenging what was at the time of his novel's publication a largely nineteenth-century reading of Othello. At the same time, Salih creates a hybridised protagonist of his own, one who comes to understand that he is neither Sudanese nor English. This reading thus sheds light on both Shakespeare's play and Salih's novel, arguing that the novel allows us to understand the play contextually rather than anachronistically. Fundamentally, Salih destabilises Arab notions of identity, arguing that the world has become ‘all mixed up’ and needs to move beyond essentialist identities.

The grotesque and satire are common methods of expressing the comic in European and African American literature. This study identifies the distinctive features of the grotesque and satire in European and African American literature. Günter Grass in The Tin Drum, The Wide Field, The Rat, The Dog Years and Under Local Narcosis uses the grotesque as a primary means of representing the political and historical state of Germany. In Sula, Toni Morrison takes the reader into the opposite space. She blatantly exposes racism and the problems of African Americans, denouncing inequality and lack of freedom. These results allow us to comprehend and critically engage with the ways that these kinds of communication confront social reality and challenge societal norms by looking at the sociolinguistic dynamics of the grotesque and satire in German and African American literature.

This article re-evaluates the merits of Shakespeare's Sonnet 145 and explores its critical legacy over the past half-century. While the sonnet has typically been seen as inferior due to its use of tetrameter rather than pentameter, one article from 1971 made a case for it being the first poem Shakespeare ever wrote. Rather than prompt critical debate, the theory presented in the article gained nearly universal acceptance and has been amplified ever since. The problem I identify is that the theory itself has been adopted without due scrutiny, and that when we approach Sonnet 145 from the standpoint that it is neither inferior nor juvenilia, we can then see how the supposed aberrations are potentially deliberate choices made by Shakespeare to underscore the poem's content.

Deleuze and Guattari's becoming is a dynamic alliance with beings. It is not a monad but creative involution. The incorporeal becoming deterritorialises the beings and roams nomadically between them. It has no subject or object, nor does it have centre or periphery; it is a becoming-in-itself. This article analyses the differences between Nietzsche's becoming and that of Deleuze and Guattari. It also summarises the three attributes of a becoming, which is solipsistic, revolutionary and always in-between. Julian Barnes's novel Love, etc exclusively utilises monologues as the narrative device which, along with its minimal personae, penetrating conflict and unsettling ending, prompts a becoming-Greek tragedy similar to Antigone. The becoming-Greek tragedy is not a simple average of the two beings; rather, it is a heterogeneous, molecular interbeing.

The modern reputation of Andrew Marvell has developed from studies of his status as a metaphysical poet of time and scale, to more historicist investigations of his political engagements and a nascent liberal subjectivity. There are remaining questions about the precise ideas of futurity in his lyric poetry. This article identifies three themes in particular: the figure of the child as part of a discourse of heredity, the figure of the landscape in a process of change, notably in ‘Upon Appleton House’, and the singularly charismatic figure of Oliver Cromwell, especially in ‘An Horatian Ode’. It concludes by considering other potential notions of futurity as suggested through ecocriticism.

Full of men and women in love, Shakespeare's comedies have triggered abundant discussions of the dramatist's treatment of romantic relationships, which, however, nearly ignore the importance of language use. This pragmatic reading of Shakespearean comedies undertakes to explore the speech act of promising of characters in love. By incorporating quantitative data and qualitative insights, the research outlines the attributes and distribution of promising in four comedies, compares gender differences in the use of promising, and scrutinises the change of promising during the shift in love dynamics. In doing so, we anticipate providing a fresh interpretation of speech acts and Shakespeare's dramas.

This article attempts to trace the themes of alterity and tragicality in Shakespeare's Macbeth and Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. We offer a parallel study of the two works with an emphasis on the (anti)heroes’ struggles with time and the other human as metaphors of ‘alterity’. We present a thematic reading and argue that as Macbeth is preoccupied with his imaginatively fabricated future (time) and tries to execute anyone (the other) who jeopardises the totality of that ideal space, Gatsby is also preoccupied with his past (time) and tries to retrieve Daisy (the other). Tragedy, we discuss, is basically the ultimate result of these struggles. We suggest that Fitzgerald's work generally shares the similar theme of alterity with Shakespeare's Macbeth and somehow modernises the similar tragicality we witness in the latter.

This article argues that Tayeb Salih, in his most famous novel, tackles Shakespeare's best-known play in the Arabic world, Othello, but not in the usual fashion. Instead of adapting the protagonist, Salih ventriloquises him to force a fresh understanding of Othello by Western readers, thus challenging what was at the time of his novel's publication a largely nineteenth-century reading of Othello. At the same time, Salih creates a hybridised protagonist of his own, one who comes to understand that he is neither Sudanese nor English. This reading thus sheds light on both Shakespeare's play and Salih's novel, arguing that the novel allows us to understand the play contextually rather than anachronistically. Fundamentally, Salih destabilises Arab notions of identity, arguing that the world has become ‘all mixed up’ and needs to move beyond essentialist identities.

The grotesque and satire are common methods of expressing the comic in European and African American literature. This study identifies the distinctive features of the grotesque and satire in European and African American literature. Günter Grass in The Tin Drum, The Wide Field, The Rat, The Dog Years and Under Local Narcosis uses the grotesque as a primary means of representing the political and historical state of Germany. In Sula, Toni Morrison takes the reader into the opposite space. She blatantly exposes racism and the problems of African Americans, denouncing inequality and lack of freedom. These results allow us to comprehend and critically engage with the ways that these kinds of communication confront social reality and challenge societal norms by looking at the sociolinguistic dynamics of the grotesque and satire in German and African American literature.

This article re-evaluates the merits of Shakespeare's Sonnet 145 and explores its critical legacy over the past half-century. While the sonnet has typically been seen as inferior due to its use of tetrameter rather than pentameter, one article from 1971 made a case for it being the first poem Shakespeare ever wrote. Rather than prompt critical debate, the theory presented in the article gained nearly universal acceptance and has been amplified ever since. The problem I identify is that the theory itself has been adopted without due scrutiny, and that when we approach Sonnet 145 from the standpoint that it is neither inferior nor juvenilia, we can then see how the supposed aberrations are potentially deliberate choices made by Shakespeare to underscore the poem's content.

Deleuze and Guattari's becoming is a dynamic alliance with beings. It is not a monad but creative involution. The incorporeal becoming deterritorialises the beings and roams nomadically between them. It has no subject or object, nor does it have centre or periphery; it is a becoming-in-itself. This article analyses the differences between Nietzsche's becoming and that of Deleuze and Guattari. It also summarises the three attributes of a becoming, which is solipsistic, revolutionary and always in-between. Julian Barnes's novel Love, etc exclusively utilises monologues as the narrative device which, along with its minimal personae, penetrating conflict and unsettling ending, prompts a becoming-Greek tragedy similar to Antigone. The becoming-Greek tragedy is not a simple average of the two beings; rather, it is a heterogeneous, molecular interbeing.

The modern reputation of Andrew Marvell has developed from studies of his status as a metaphysical poet of time and scale, to more historicist investigations of his political engagements and a nascent liberal subjectivity. There are remaining questions about the precise ideas of futurity in his lyric poetry. This article identifies three themes in particular: the figure of the child as part of a discourse of heredity, the figure of the landscape in a process of change, notably in ‘Upon Appleton House’, and the singularly charismatic figure of Oliver Cromwell, especially in ‘An Horatian Ode’. It concludes by considering other potential notions of futurity as suggested through ecocriticism.

Full of men and women in love, Shakespeare's comedies have triggered abundant discussions of the dramatist's treatment of romantic relationships, which, however, nearly ignore the importance of language use. This pragmatic reading of Shakespearean comedies undertakes to explore the speech act of promising of characters in love. By incorporating quantitative data and qualitative insights, the research outlines the attributes and distribution of promising in four comedies, compares gender differences in the use of promising, and scrutinises the change of promising during the shift in love dynamics. In doing so, we anticipate providing a fresh interpretation of speech acts and Shakespeare's dramas.

This article attempts to trace the themes of alterity and tragicality in Shakespeare's Macbeth and Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. We offer a parallel study of the two works with an emphasis on the (anti)heroes’ struggles with time and the other human as metaphors of ‘alterity’. We present a thematic reading and argue that as Macbeth is preoccupied with his imaginatively fabricated future (time) and tries to execute anyone (the other) who jeopardises the totality of that ideal space, Gatsby is also preoccupied with his past (time) and tries to retrieve Daisy (the other). Tragedy, we discuss, is basically the ultimate result of these struggles. We suggest that Fitzgerald's work generally shares the similar theme of alterity with Shakespeare's Macbeth and somehow modernises the similar tragicality we witness in the latter.

Grouped together with modernism's most eminent authors, D. H. Lawrence has been appreciated for his idiosyncratic response to his time and literary modernism. A good deal of critical attention has been given to his contribution to modernist fiction and, in this context, the present article focuses on some crucial aspects of Lawrence's modernism not hitherto addressed in his short story ‘Samson and Delilah’ (1917), in England, My England (1922). By reading ‘Samson and Delilah’ through the lens of modernist mythopoeia, this article aims to highlight Lawrence's reformulation of the biblical story as a way to come to terms with gendered war in national and personal spheres.

When Henry VIII, or All Is True was staged at Shakespeare's Globe in London in May 2022, the production elicited a lukewarm review from Arifa Akbar in the Guardian. The theatre critic stated that

Akbar's comment is revealing, and particularly so in the context of this issue's engagement with the varieties of early modern dramatic collaboration. It not only mentions several collaborative practices used in early modern theatre which are explored in the articles brought together for this special issue – co-authorship, adaptation and quotation, to name but three – but also reflects a profound unease towards collaboration in twenty-first-century culture. Henry VIII, Akbar infers, is an imbalanced play because Shakespeare wrote it with somebody else rather than by himself. Akbar also implies that the relationship between these two authors has to be hierarchical, with Shakespeare (aka the inevitably capitalised, solitary ‘Bard’) as the better and Fletcher as the lesser playwright, who is responsible for the play's alleged shortcomings. A similarly dismissive attitude towards Fletcher is reflected in the review's title, which refers to Henry VIII as ‘little-seen Shakespeare’ as a form of skewed advertisement (this is Shakespeare, but not as we know him),² thus erasing Fletcher's co-authorship completely, only to eventually present his name by way of explaining the play's mediocrity. The review also suggests that the play's merit has been further reduced by Hannah Khalil's contemporary adaptation, which adds too much ‘wokeness’ (the accentuation of women's roles) as well as too much middle-class Shakespeare (the well-known lines recognisable for those who know their Shakespeare inside out). In short, the review relies on a hierarchy well established in (traditional) literary criticism: Shakespeare is the epitome of playwrighting, and his solo-authored plays are the gold standard of early modern English drama; his co-authored plays are diminished by the lesser dramatic ability of his collaborators (where Shakespeare is sprezzatura, Fletcher is learned rhetoric); adapters have even more limited authorial skills and, therefore, an adapted play is a ‘lesser’ play because of the adapter's ‘interference’. As Akbar's review showcases, the notion of dramatic co-authorship, especially Shakespeare's, is still routinely met with scepticism and disdain in public discourse. Rather than enriching a play, three cooks (Shakespeare, Fletcher, Khalil) have spoiled the broth.

When Henry VIII, or All Is True was staged at Shakespeare's Globe in London in May 2022, the production elicited a lukewarm review from Arifa Akbar in the Guardian. The theatre critic stated that

Akbar's comment is revealing, and particularly so in the context of this issue's engagement with the varieties of early modern dramatic collaboration. It not only mentions several collaborative practices used in early modern theatre which are explored in the articles brought together for this special issue – co-authorship, adaptation and quotation, to name but three – but also reflects a profound unease towards collaboration in twenty-first-century culture. Henry VIII, Akbar infers, is an imbalanced play because Shakespeare wrote it with somebody else rather than by himself. Akbar also implies that the relationship between these two authors has to be hierarchical, with Shakespeare (aka the inevitably capitalised, solitary ‘Bard’) as the better and Fletcher as the lesser playwright, who is responsible for the play's alleged shortcomings. A similarly dismissive attitude towards Fletcher is reflected in the review's title, which refers to Henry VIII as ‘little-seen Shakespeare’ as a form of skewed advertisement (this is Shakespeare, but not as we know him),² thus erasing Fletcher's co-authorship completely, only to eventually present his name by way of explaining the play's mediocrity. The review also suggests that the play's merit has been further reduced by Hannah Khalil's contemporary adaptation, which adds too much ‘wokeness’ (the accentuation of women's roles) as well as too much middle-class Shakespeare (the well-known lines recognisable for those who know their Shakespeare inside out). In short, the review relies on a hierarchy well established in (traditional) literary criticism: Shakespeare is the epitome of playwrighting, and his solo-authored plays are the gold standard of early modern English drama; his co-authored plays are diminished by the lesser dramatic ability of his collaborators (where Shakespeare is sprezzatura, Fletcher is learned rhetoric); adapters have even more limited authorial skills and, therefore, an adapted play is a ‘lesser’ play because of the adapter's ‘interference’. As Akbar's review showcases, the notion of dramatic co-authorship, especially Shakespeare's, is still routinely met with scepticism and disdain in public discourse. Rather than enriching a play, three cooks (Shakespeare, Fletcher, Khalil) have spoiled the broth.

In this article we scrutinise the anti-theatrical bias implicit in attempts to distinguish between Shakespeare and his collaborators; we attempt a taxonomy of the many different forms that collaborative practice took in the early modern theatre; and we examine the extent to which scholarly attitudes to early modern dramatic collaboration, particularly the tendency to see it as a vertical hierarchy rather than horizontal partnership, are shaped by modern ambivalence to academic collaboration in the humanities.

When Henry VIII, or All Is True was staged at Shakespeare's Globe in London in May 2022, the production elicited a lukewarm review from Arifa Akbar in the Guardian. The theatre critic stated that

Akbar's comment is revealing, and particularly so in the context of this issue's engagement with the varieties of early modern dramatic collaboration. It not only mentions several collaborative practices used in early modern theatre which are explored in the articles brought together for this special issue – co-authorship, adaptation and quotation, to name but three – but also reflects a profound unease towards collaboration in twenty-first-century culture. Henry VIII, Akbar infers, is an imbalanced play because Shakespeare wrote it with somebody else rather than by himself. Akbar also implies that the relationship between these two authors has to be hierarchical, with Shakespeare (aka the inevitably capitalised, solitary ‘Bard’) as the better and Fletcher as the lesser playwright, who is responsible for the play's alleged shortcomings. A similarly dismissive attitude towards Fletcher is reflected in the review's title, which refers to Henry VIII as ‘little-seen Shakespeare’ as a form of skewed advertisement (this is Shakespeare, but not as we know him),² thus erasing Fletcher's co-authorship completely, only to eventually present his name by way of explaining the play's mediocrity. The review also suggests that the play's merit has been further reduced by Hannah Khalil's contemporary adaptation, which adds too much ‘wokeness’ (the accentuation of women's roles) as well as too much middle-class Shakespeare (the well-known lines recognisable for those who know their Shakespeare inside out). In short, the review relies on a hierarchy well established in (traditional) literary criticism: Shakespeare is the epitome of playwrighting, and his solo-authored plays are the gold standard of early modern English drama; his co-authored plays are diminished by the lesser dramatic ability of his collaborators (where Shakespeare is sprezzatura, Fletcher is learned rhetoric); adapters have even more limited authorial skills and, therefore, an adapted play is a ‘lesser’ play because of the adapter's ‘interference’. As Akbar's review showcases, the notion of dramatic co-authorship, especially Shakespeare's, is still routinely met with scepticism and disdain in public discourse. Rather than enriching a play, three cooks (Shakespeare, Fletcher, Khalil) have spoiled the broth.

In this article we scrutinise the anti-theatrical bias implicit in attempts to distinguish between Shakespeare and his collaborators; we attempt a taxonomy of the many different forms that collaborative practice took in the early modern theatre; and we examine the extent to which scholarly attitudes to early modern dramatic collaboration, particularly the tendency to see it as a vertical hierarchy rather than horizontal partnership, are shaped by modern ambivalence to academic collaboration in the humanities.

Early modern dramatic co-authorship is traditionally thought of as a temporally and geographically synchronous process, yet recent advances in authorship attribution have increasingly considered later adapters who reshaped older plays for revival at much later dates. Their additions are often considered detachable from the original text, and scholarship has therefore largely focused on simply investigating the authorship of such alterations. Many plays, however, survive in adapted versions for which the identity of the adapters remains elusive. Analysing these adapters independently of identifiable authorship, this article argues that such adapters actively collaborated with a work's absent originator, supplying additions which pay attention to the play-text as a whole, thereby appropriating an old work for the requirements of a theatre company at much later moments in time.

When Henry VIII, or All Is True was staged at Shakespeare's Globe in London in May 2022, the production elicited a lukewarm review from Arifa Akbar in the Guardian. The theatre critic stated that

Akbar's comment is revealing, and particularly so in the context of this issue's engagement with the varieties of early modern dramatic collaboration. It not only mentions several collaborative practices used in early modern theatre which are explored in the articles brought together for this special issue – co-authorship, adaptation and quotation, to name but three – but also reflects a profound unease towards collaboration in twenty-first-century culture. Henry VIII, Akbar infers, is an imbalanced play because Shakespeare wrote it with somebody else rather than by himself. Akbar also implies that the relationship between these two authors has to be hierarchical, with Shakespeare (aka the inevitably capitalised, solitary ‘Bard’) as the better and Fletcher as the lesser playwright, who is responsible for the play's alleged shortcomings. A similarly dismissive attitude towards Fletcher is reflected in the review's title, which refers to Henry VIII as ‘little-seen Shakespeare’ as a form of skewed advertisement (this is Shakespeare, but not as we know him),² thus erasing Fletcher's co-authorship completely, only to eventually present his name by way of explaining the play's mediocrity. The review also suggests that the play's merit has been further reduced by Hannah Khalil's contemporary adaptation, which adds too much ‘wokeness’ (the accentuation of women's roles) as well as too much middle-class Shakespeare (the well-known lines recognisable for those who know their Shakespeare inside out). In short, the review relies on a hierarchy well established in (traditional) literary criticism: Shakespeare is the epitome of playwrighting, and his solo-authored plays are the gold standard of early modern English drama; his co-authored plays are diminished by the lesser dramatic ability of his collaborators (where Shakespeare is sprezzatura, Fletcher is learned rhetoric); adapters have even more limited authorial skills and, therefore, an adapted play is a ‘lesser’ play because of the adapter's ‘interference’. As Akbar's review showcases, the notion of dramatic co-authorship, especially Shakespeare's, is still routinely met with scepticism and disdain in public discourse. Rather than enriching a play, three cooks (Shakespeare, Fletcher, Khalil) have spoiled the broth.

In this article we scrutinise the anti-theatrical bias implicit in attempts to distinguish between Shakespeare and his collaborators; we attempt a taxonomy of the many different forms that collaborative practice took in the early modern theatre; and we examine the extent to which scholarly attitudes to early modern dramatic collaboration, particularly the tendency to see it as a vertical hierarchy rather than horizontal partnership, are shaped by modern ambivalence to academic collaboration in the humanities.

Early modern dramatic co-authorship is traditionally thought of as a temporally and geographically synchronous process, yet recent advances in authorship attribution have increasingly considered later adapters who reshaped older plays for revival at much later dates. Their additions are often considered detachable from the original text, and scholarship has therefore largely focused on simply investigating the authorship of such alterations. Many plays, however, survive in adapted versions for which the identity of the adapters remains elusive. Analysing these adapters independently of identifiable authorship, this article argues that such adapters actively collaborated with a work's absent originator, supplying additions which pay attention to the play-text as a whole, thereby appropriating an old work for the requirements of a theatre company at much later moments in time.

This article demonstrates how dramatic censorship in London's public theatres necessitated a kind of collaborative playwriting with extra-authorial labourers. In the playbook manuscript of Sir John van Olden Barnauelt, the Master of the Revels, Sir George Buc, and the playhouse scribe, Ralph Crane, engaged in a collaborative process that resulted in the most censored extant dramatic document of the early modern English theatres. The censorship is revealing of how political drama was interpreted by its first readers – it was Buc's exegetical interpretation of Barnauelt as anti-monarchical that led to his collaborative revisions and the play's restructuring. This style of censorship also has wider implications. If almost every play was read and revised by the Master of the Revels and perhaps edited by a scribe, then most early modern drama was collaboratively written.

When Henry VIII, or All Is True was staged at Shakespeare's Globe in London in May 2022, the production elicited a lukewarm review from Arifa Akbar in the Guardian. The theatre critic stated that

Akbar's comment is revealing, and particularly so in the context of this issue's engagement with the varieties of early modern dramatic collaboration. It not only mentions several collaborative practices used in early modern theatre which are explored in the articles brought together for this special issue – co-authorship, adaptation and quotation, to name but three – but also reflects a profound unease towards collaboration in twenty-first-century culture. Henry VIII, Akbar infers, is an imbalanced play because Shakespeare wrote it with somebody else rather than by himself. Akbar also implies that the relationship between these two authors has to be hierarchical, with Shakespeare (aka the inevitably capitalised, solitary ‘Bard’) as the better and Fletcher as the lesser playwright, who is responsible for the play's alleged shortcomings. A similarly dismissive attitude towards Fletcher is reflected in the review's title, which refers to Henry VIII as ‘little-seen Shakespeare’ as a form of skewed advertisement (this is Shakespeare, but not as we know him),² thus erasing Fletcher's co-authorship completely, only to eventually present his name by way of explaining the play's mediocrity. The review also suggests that the play's merit has been further reduced by Hannah Khalil's contemporary adaptation, which adds too much ‘wokeness’ (the accentuation of women's roles) as well as too much middle-class Shakespeare (the well-known lines recognisable for those who know their Shakespeare inside out). In short, the review relies on a hierarchy well established in (traditional) literary criticism: Shakespeare is the epitome of playwrighting, and his solo-authored plays are the gold standard of early modern English drama; his co-authored plays are diminished by the lesser dramatic ability of his collaborators (where Shakespeare is sprezzatura, Fletcher is learned rhetoric); adapters have even more limited authorial skills and, therefore, an adapted play is a ‘lesser’ play because of the adapter's ‘interference’. As Akbar's review showcases, the notion of dramatic co-authorship, especially Shakespeare's, is still routinely met with scepticism and disdain in public discourse. Rather than enriching a play, three cooks (Shakespeare, Fletcher, Khalil) have spoiled the broth.

In this article we scrutinise the anti-theatrical bias implicit in attempts to distinguish between Shakespeare and his collaborators; we attempt a taxonomy of the many different forms that collaborative practice took in the early modern theatre; and we examine the extent to which scholarly attitudes to early modern dramatic collaboration, particularly the tendency to see it as a vertical hierarchy rather than horizontal partnership, are shaped by modern ambivalence to academic collaboration in the humanities.

Early modern dramatic co-authorship is traditionally thought of as a temporally and geographically synchronous process, yet recent advances in authorship attribution have increasingly considered later adapters who reshaped older plays for revival at much later dates. Their additions are often considered detachable from the original text, and scholarship has therefore largely focused on simply investigating the authorship of such alterations. Many plays, however, survive in adapted versions for which the identity of the adapters remains elusive. Analysing these adapters independently of identifiable authorship, this article argues that such adapters actively collaborated with a work's absent originator, supplying additions which pay attention to the play-text as a whole, thereby appropriating an old work for the requirements of a theatre company at much later moments in time.

This article demonstrates how dramatic censorship in London's public theatres necessitated a kind of collaborative playwriting with extra-authorial labourers. In the playbook manuscript of Sir John van Olden Barnauelt, the Master of the Revels, Sir George Buc, and the playhouse scribe, Ralph Crane, engaged in a collaborative process that resulted in the most censored extant dramatic document of the early modern English theatres. The censorship is revealing of how political drama was interpreted by its first readers – it was Buc's exegetical interpretation of Barnauelt as anti-monarchical that led to his collaborative revisions and the play's restructuring. This style of censorship also has wider implications. If almost every play was read and revised by the Master of the Revels and perhaps edited by a scribe, then most early modern drama was collaboratively written.

To enrich characterisation and bond with audiences, Jacobethan playwrights included Classical tags, Bible verses and vernacular quotations in their work. Borrowings from other plays were particularly effective: a line of dialogue could ‘go viral’ straight from the stage. This verbal network, linking hundreds of early modern plays by one-liners, names and catchphrases, can now be investigated through the WordWeb-IDEM database, which contains over ten thousand text extracts that quote each other. The part of John Marston in this dramatic intertextuality is as yet under-researched. He saturated his writing with others’ words extensively and idiosyncratically; tracing these overlaps with Marston's unwitting ‘collaborators’ richly illustrates the research potential offered by the WordWeb-IDEM corpus and its search options.

When Henry VIII, or All Is True was staged at Shakespeare's Globe in London in May 2022, the production elicited a lukewarm review from Arifa Akbar in the Guardian. The theatre critic stated that

Akbar's comment is revealing, and particularly so in the context of this issue's engagement with the varieties of early modern dramatic collaboration. It not only mentions several collaborative practices used in early modern theatre which are explored in the articles brought together for this special issue – co-authorship, adaptation and quotation, to name but three – but also reflects a profound unease towards collaboration in twenty-first-century culture. Henry VIII, Akbar infers, is an imbalanced play because Shakespeare wrote it with somebody else rather than by himself. Akbar also implies that the relationship between these two authors has to be hierarchical, with Shakespeare (aka the inevitably capitalised, solitary ‘Bard’) as the better and Fletcher as the lesser playwright, who is responsible for the play's alleged shortcomings. A similarly dismissive attitude towards Fletcher is reflected in the review's title, which refers to Henry VIII as ‘little-seen Shakespeare’ as a form of skewed advertisement (this is Shakespeare, but not as we know him),² thus erasing Fletcher's co-authorship completely, only to eventually present his name by way of explaining the play's mediocrity. The review also suggests that the play's merit has been further reduced by Hannah Khalil's contemporary adaptation, which adds too much ‘wokeness’ (the accentuation of women's roles) as well as too much middle-class Shakespeare (the well-known lines recognisable for those who know their Shakespeare inside out). In short, the review relies on a hierarchy well established in (traditional) literary criticism: Shakespeare is the epitome of playwrighting, and his solo-authored plays are the gold standard of early modern English drama; his co-authored plays are diminished by the lesser dramatic ability of his collaborators (where Shakespeare is sprezzatura, Fletcher is learned rhetoric); adapters have even more limited authorial skills and, therefore, an adapted play is a ‘lesser’ play because of the adapter's ‘interference’. As Akbar's review showcases, the notion of dramatic co-authorship, especially Shakespeare's, is still routinely met with scepticism and disdain in public discourse. Rather than enriching a play, three cooks (Shakespeare, Fletcher, Khalil) have spoiled the broth.

In this article we scrutinise the anti-theatrical bias implicit in attempts to distinguish between Shakespeare and his collaborators; we attempt a taxonomy of the many different forms that collaborative practice took in the early modern theatre; and we examine the extent to which scholarly attitudes to early modern dramatic collaboration, particularly the tendency to see it as a vertical hierarchy rather than horizontal partnership, are shaped by modern ambivalence to academic collaboration in the humanities.

Early modern dramatic co-authorship is traditionally thought of as a temporally and geographically synchronous process, yet recent advances in authorship attribution have increasingly considered later adapters who reshaped older plays for revival at much later dates. Their additions are often considered detachable from the original text, and scholarship has therefore largely focused on simply investigating the authorship of such alterations. Many plays, however, survive in adapted versions for which the identity of the adapters remains elusive. Analysing these adapters independently of identifiable authorship, this article argues that such adapters actively collaborated with a work's absent originator, supplying additions which pay attention to the play-text as a whole, thereby appropriating an old work for the requirements of a theatre company at much later moments in time.

This article demonstrates how dramatic censorship in London's public theatres necessitated a kind of collaborative playwriting with extra-authorial labourers. In the playbook manuscript of Sir John van Olden Barnauelt, the Master of the Revels, Sir George Buc, and the playhouse scribe, Ralph Crane, engaged in a collaborative process that resulted in the most censored extant dramatic document of the early modern English theatres. The censorship is revealing of how political drama was interpreted by its first readers – it was Buc's exegetical interpretation of Barnauelt as anti-monarchical that led to his collaborative revisions and the play's restructuring. This style of censorship also has wider implications. If almost every play was read and revised by the Master of the Revels and perhaps edited by a scribe, then most early modern drama was collaboratively written.

To enrich characterisation and bond with audiences, Jacobethan playwrights included Classical tags, Bible verses and vernacular quotations in their work. Borrowings from other plays were particularly effective: a line of dialogue could ‘go viral’ straight from the stage. This verbal network, linking hundreds of early modern plays by one-liners, names and catchphrases, can now be investigated through the WordWeb-IDEM database, which contains over ten thousand text extracts that quote each other. The part of John Marston in this dramatic intertextuality is as yet under-researched. He saturated his writing with others’ words extensively and idiosyncratically; tracing these overlaps with Marston's unwitting ‘collaborators’ richly illustrates the research potential offered by the WordWeb-IDEM corpus and its search options.

While co-authorship was common practice in early modern drama, poetological treatises remain silent about it. They speak about the poet but not about collaboration. It is, hence, one of the aims of this article to arrive at conceptualisations of co-authorship through immanent reflections of co-creativity and authorial interaction. In particular, we will show that stylistic practices form an essential part of such reflections, which also helps us dissociate style from the identification of individual authorship. Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and Beaumont and Fletcher's Philaster, or Love Lies A-Bleeding have been chosen to show how juxtapositions and adaptations of style in both single-authored and co-authored works reveal practices of collaboration in early modern theatre. As a result of our investigation, elements of a poetics of collaborative playwriting will emerge.

When Henry VIII, or All Is True was staged at Shakespeare's Globe in London in May 2022, the production elicited a lukewarm review from Arifa Akbar in the Guardian. The theatre critic stated that

Akbar's comment is revealing, and particularly so in the context of this issue's engagement with the varieties of early modern dramatic collaboration. It not only mentions several collaborative practices used in early modern theatre which are explored in the articles brought together for this special issue – co-authorship, adaptation and quotation, to name but three – but also reflects a profound unease towards collaboration in twenty-first-century culture. Henry VIII, Akbar infers, is an imbalanced play because Shakespeare wrote it with somebody else rather than by himself. Akbar also implies that the relationship between these two authors has to be hierarchical, with Shakespeare (aka the inevitably capitalised, solitary ‘Bard’) as the better and Fletcher as the lesser playwright, who is responsible for the play's alleged shortcomings. A similarly dismissive attitude towards Fletcher is reflected in the review's title, which refers to Henry VIII as ‘little-seen Shakespeare’ as a form of skewed advertisement (this is Shakespeare, but not as we know him),² thus erasing Fletcher's co-authorship completely, only to eventually present his name by way of explaining the play's mediocrity. The review also suggests that the play's merit has been further reduced by Hannah Khalil's contemporary adaptation, which adds too much ‘wokeness’ (the accentuation of women's roles) as well as too much middle-class Shakespeare (the well-known lines recognisable for those who know their Shakespeare inside out). In short, the review relies on a hierarchy well established in (traditional) literary criticism: Shakespeare is the epitome of playwrighting, and his solo-authored plays are the gold standard of early modern English drama; his co-authored plays are diminished by the lesser dramatic ability of his collaborators (where Shakespeare is sprezzatura, Fletcher is learned rhetoric); adapters have even more limited authorial skills and, therefore, an adapted play is a ‘lesser’ play because of the adapter's ‘interference’. As Akbar's review showcases, the notion of dramatic co-authorship, especially Shakespeare's, is still routinely met with scepticism and disdain in public discourse. Rather than enriching a play, three cooks (Shakespeare, Fletcher, Khalil) have spoiled the broth.

In this article we scrutinise the anti-theatrical bias implicit in attempts to distinguish between Shakespeare and his collaborators; we attempt a taxonomy of the many different forms that collaborative practice took in the early modern theatre; and we examine the extent to which scholarly attitudes to early modern dramatic collaboration, particularly the tendency to see it as a vertical hierarchy rather than horizontal partnership, are shaped by modern ambivalence to academic collaboration in the humanities.

Early modern dramatic co-authorship is traditionally thought of as a temporally and geographically synchronous process, yet recent advances in authorship attribution have increasingly considered later adapters who reshaped older plays for revival at much later dates. Their additions are often considered detachable from the original text, and scholarship has therefore largely focused on simply investigating the authorship of such alterations. Many plays, however, survive in adapted versions for which the identity of the adapters remains elusive. Analysing these adapters independently of identifiable authorship, this article argues that such adapters actively collaborated with a work's absent originator, supplying additions which pay attention to the play-text as a whole, thereby appropriating an old work for the requirements of a theatre company at much later moments in time.

This article demonstrates how dramatic censorship in London's public theatres necessitated a kind of collaborative playwriting with extra-authorial labourers. In the playbook manuscript of Sir John van Olden Barnauelt, the Master of the Revels, Sir George Buc, and the playhouse scribe, Ralph Crane, engaged in a collaborative process that resulted in the most censored extant dramatic document of the early modern English theatres. The censorship is revealing of how political drama was interpreted by its first readers – it was Buc's exegetical interpretation of Barnauelt as anti-monarchical that led to his collaborative revisions and the play's restructuring. This style of censorship also has wider implications. If almost every play was read and revised by the Master of the Revels and perhaps edited by a scribe, then most early modern drama was collaboratively written.

To enrich characterisation and bond with audiences, Jacobethan playwrights included Classical tags, Bible verses and vernacular quotations in their work. Borrowings from other plays were particularly effective: a line of dialogue could ‘go viral’ straight from the stage. This verbal network, linking hundreds of early modern plays by one-liners, names and catchphrases, can now be investigated through the WordWeb-IDEM database, which contains over ten thousand text extracts that quote each other. The part of John Marston in this dramatic intertextuality is as yet under-researched. He saturated his writing with others’ words extensively and idiosyncratically; tracing these overlaps with Marston's unwitting ‘collaborators’ richly illustrates the research potential offered by the WordWeb-IDEM corpus and its search options.

While co-authorship was common practice in early modern drama, poetological treatises remain silent about it. They speak about the poet but not about collaboration. It is, hence, one of the aims of this article to arrive at conceptualisations of co-authorship through immanent reflections of co-creativity and authorial interaction. In particular, we will show that stylistic practices form an essential part of such reflections, which also helps us dissociate style from the identification of individual authorship. Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and Beaumont and Fletcher's Philaster, or Love Lies A-Bleeding have been chosen to show how juxtapositions and adaptations of style in both single-authored and co-authored works reveal practices of collaboration in early modern theatre. As a result of our investigation, elements of a poetics of collaborative playwriting will emerge.

This article delves into the collaborative dynamics of early modern literary production, emphasising the need for a comprehensive view of collaboration beyond joint authorship as the role of translators is still often overlooked, maintaining their perceived secondary status even after the translational turn. Using Petrarch's I Triumphi, first printed in 1470, and arguably one of the most decisive vernacular works in early modern Europe, as a case study, the article showcases the pivotal contribution of translators to a text's international prominence, challenging established gender norms in Petrarchism. The article highlights the role of the female translators as collaborators and proposes a nuanced understanding of gender, social class and religious factors in shaping translation practices, enriching our comprehension of early modern literary dynamics.

The story of Shakespeare's Nordic play is also, inevitably, one of cultural exchanges before, during and after the early modern period. From its origins in Nordic tradition to its re-introduction in the Nordic countries through Shakespeare's play, the story of Hamlet from the Middle Ages to the present is inextricably bound up with Nordic history and culture. In tracing some of these links, this special issue develops our recent work on the early dissemination of Shakespeare in the Nordic countries, focusing here on that most Nordic of plays, Hamlet. Although there is already a great deal of criticism on Hamlet in various national or regional contexts, very little of this has focused on the Nordic countries.¹ It is therefore fitting, we believe, to provide a necessarily brief outline of the rich and varied history that Shakespeare's play has had in Northern Europe.

The story of Shakespeare's Nordic play is also, inevitably, one of cultural exchanges before, during and after the early modern period. From its origins in Nordic tradition to its re-introduction in the Nordic countries through Shakespeare's play, the story of Hamlet from the Middle Ages to the present is inextricably bound up with Nordic history and culture. In tracing some of these links, this special issue develops our recent work on the early dissemination of Shakespeare in the Nordic countries, focusing here on that most Nordic of plays, Hamlet. Although there is already a great deal of criticism on Hamlet in various national or regional contexts, very little of this has focused on the Nordic countries.¹ It is therefore fitting, we believe, to provide a necessarily brief outline of the rich and varied history that Shakespeare's play has had in Northern Europe.

This article discusses the clowning element of a German version of Hamlet believed to date back to the time of Shakespeare. Der bestrafte Brudermord is noted as an adaptation of Shakespeare's tragedy which incorporates a lot more low comedy than any extant version of Hamlet and provides opportunity for contemplating the reason why Hamlet has no explicit clown character. The article focuses especially on a character appearing very briefly in the German play, a rustic buffoon called Jens, and his affinity with the rustics and comic servants of other Shakespeare plays and other Elizabethan plays. It is particularly asserted that this role shows signs of the involvement of the clown Will Kemp at some stage of the writing of Hamlet, or of touring continental Europe with an adaptation of it that puts the clowning element at the forefront.

The story of Shakespeare's Nordic play is also, inevitably, one of cultural exchanges before, during and after the early modern period. From its origins in Nordic tradition to its re-introduction in the Nordic countries through Shakespeare's play, the story of Hamlet from the Middle Ages to the present is inextricably bound up with Nordic history and culture. In tracing some of these links, this special issue develops our recent work on the early dissemination of Shakespeare in the Nordic countries, focusing here on that most Nordic of plays, Hamlet. Although there is already a great deal of criticism on Hamlet in various national or regional contexts, very little of this has focused on the Nordic countries.¹ It is therefore fitting, we believe, to provide a necessarily brief outline of the rich and varied history that Shakespeare's play has had in Northern Europe.

This article discusses the clowning element of a German version of Hamlet believed to date back to the time of Shakespeare. Der bestrafte Brudermord is noted as an adaptation of Shakespeare's tragedy which incorporates a lot more low comedy than any extant version of Hamlet and provides opportunity for contemplating the reason why Hamlet has no explicit clown character. The article focuses especially on a character appearing very briefly in the German play, a rustic buffoon called Jens, and his affinity with the rustics and comic servants of other Shakespeare plays and other Elizabethan plays. It is particularly asserted that this role shows signs of the involvement of the clown Will Kemp at some stage of the writing of Hamlet, or of touring continental Europe with an adaptation of it that puts the clowning element at the forefront.

Hamlet opens on a question – ‘Who's there?’ – asked by a sentinel of Elsinore Castle. In the Swedish regional theatre company Västanå Teater's 1996 adaptation of the play, the question kept returning, and it became symbolic of the production's focus on the uncertain and seemingly mysterious movements of political power. This article explores how changes to plot and text worked together with various forms of stylisation to present a society in which strict hierarchies of class, age and gender operated in tenson with Machiavellian corruption and theatrical seeming. Borrowing localised aesthetic expressions from several traditions and cultures (Norwegian/Nordic, Icelandic, East-Asian, Italian/European), the production adapted Hamlet to speak to local concerns, while simultaneously highlighting themes and issues present in the play.

The story of Shakespeare's Nordic play is also, inevitably, one of cultural exchanges before, during and after the early modern period. From its origins in Nordic tradition to its re-introduction in the Nordic countries through Shakespeare's play, the story of Hamlet from the Middle Ages to the present is inextricably bound up with Nordic history and culture. In tracing some of these links, this special issue develops our recent work on the early dissemination of Shakespeare in the Nordic countries, focusing here on that most Nordic of plays, Hamlet. Although there is already a great deal of criticism on Hamlet in various national or regional contexts, very little of this has focused on the Nordic countries.¹ It is therefore fitting, we believe, to provide a necessarily brief outline of the rich and varied history that Shakespeare's play has had in Northern Europe.

This article discusses the clowning element of a German version of Hamlet believed to date back to the time of Shakespeare. Der bestrafte Brudermord is noted as an adaptation of Shakespeare's tragedy which incorporates a lot more low comedy than any extant version of Hamlet and provides opportunity for contemplating the reason why Hamlet has no explicit clown character. The article focuses especially on a character appearing very briefly in the German play, a rustic buffoon called Jens, and his affinity with the rustics and comic servants of other Shakespeare plays and other Elizabethan plays. It is particularly asserted that this role shows signs of the involvement of the clown Will Kemp at some stage of the writing of Hamlet, or of touring continental Europe with an adaptation of it that puts the clowning element at the forefront.

Hamlet opens on a question – ‘Who's there?’ – asked by a sentinel of Elsinore Castle. In the Swedish regional theatre company Västanå Teater's 1996 adaptation of the play, the question kept returning, and it became symbolic of the production's focus on the uncertain and seemingly mysterious movements of political power. This article explores how changes to plot and text worked together with various forms of stylisation to present a society in which strict hierarchies of class, age and gender operated in tenson with Machiavellian corruption and theatrical seeming. Borrowing localised aesthetic expressions from several traditions and cultures (Norwegian/Nordic, Icelandic, East-Asian, Italian/European), the production adapted Hamlet to speak to local concerns, while simultaneously highlighting themes and issues present in the play.

The protagonist of Jenny Andreasson's autobiographical novel Teatern (2022) is a young female director whose feminist production of Hamlet at the Swedish national stage fails to have its planned premiere. While the novel makes a point of describing the misogynist structures behind this failure, the present article suggests that class structures and precarity are the main reasons behind it. The financial difficulties of the theatre generate a clear discrepancy between cultural capital – embodied by Shakespeare's canonical play – and economic. The resulting precarious work situation is reflected in the protagonist's yearning for stability, in her recurring assertions of class privileges vis-à-vis her co-workers and in her increasing sense of alienation from both them and her own work. While not strictly paraphrasing Shakespeare's play, the protagonist invokes parallels to both Hamlet and Ophelia, and Teatern, instead of locating these parallels in an ‘existential’ reading of Shakespeare's play, anchors the theme of alienation in the economic and social strictures of the theatre institution.

The story of Shakespeare's Nordic play is also, inevitably, one of cultural exchanges before, during and after the early modern period. From its origins in Nordic tradition to its re-introduction in the Nordic countries through Shakespeare's play, the story of Hamlet from the Middle Ages to the present is inextricably bound up with Nordic history and culture. In tracing some of these links, this special issue develops our recent work on the early dissemination of Shakespeare in the Nordic countries, focusing here on that most Nordic of plays, Hamlet. Although there is already a great deal of criticism on Hamlet in various national or regional contexts, very little of this has focused on the Nordic countries.¹ It is therefore fitting, we believe, to provide a necessarily brief outline of the rich and varied history that Shakespeare's play has had in Northern Europe.

This article discusses the clowning element of a German version of Hamlet believed to date back to the time of Shakespeare. Der bestrafte Brudermord is noted as an adaptation of Shakespeare's tragedy which incorporates a lot more low comedy than any extant version of Hamlet and provides opportunity for contemplating the reason why Hamlet has no explicit clown character. The article focuses especially on a character appearing very briefly in the German play, a rustic buffoon called Jens, and his affinity with the rustics and comic servants of other Shakespeare plays and other Elizabethan plays. It is particularly asserted that this role shows signs of the involvement of the clown Will Kemp at some stage of the writing of Hamlet, or of touring continental Europe with an adaptation of it that puts the clowning element at the forefront.

Hamlet opens on a question – ‘Who's there?’ – asked by a sentinel of Elsinore Castle. In the Swedish regional theatre company Västanå Teater's 1996 adaptation of the play, the question kept returning, and it became symbolic of the production's focus on the uncertain and seemingly mysterious movements of political power. This article explores how changes to plot and text worked together with various forms of stylisation to present a society in which strict hierarchies of class, age and gender operated in tenson with Machiavellian corruption and theatrical seeming. Borrowing localised aesthetic expressions from several traditions and cultures (Norwegian/Nordic, Icelandic, East-Asian, Italian/European), the production adapted Hamlet to speak to local concerns, while simultaneously highlighting themes and issues present in the play.

The protagonist of Jenny Andreasson's autobiographical novel Teatern (2022) is a young female director whose feminist production of Hamlet at the Swedish national stage fails to have its planned premiere. While the novel makes a point of describing the misogynist structures behind this failure, the present article suggests that class structures and precarity are the main reasons behind it. The financial difficulties of the theatre generate a clear discrepancy between cultural capital – embodied by Shakespeare's canonical play – and economic. The resulting precarious work situation is reflected in the protagonist's yearning for stability, in her recurring assertions of class privileges vis-à-vis her co-workers and in her increasing sense of alienation from both them and her own work. While not strictly paraphrasing Shakespeare's play, the protagonist invokes parallels to both Hamlet and Ophelia, and Teatern, instead of locating these parallels in an ‘existential’ reading of Shakespeare's play, anchors the theme of alienation in the economic and social strictures of the theatre institution.

This article analyses the first female Hamlet in the Nordic countries, Elli Tompuri (1880–1962). Early in her career Tompuri made a name for herself at the Finnish National Theatre, but later, in part due to her radical politics, was unable to find permanent employment at any established theatre so she began touring with her own company, putting on Hamlet in 1913. The article traces Tompuri's inspirations and thoughts about the play, before analysing the major themes raised in the reviews. On one hand, reviewers noted with some pride the national significance of the first female Hamlet. On the other hand, Tompuri's status as a New Woman, an actor-director-manager making her own way, generated a wide range of opinions, from outrage that a woman would attempt the part to admiration of Tompuri's genius and intelligence, often within a single review.

The story of Shakespeare's Nordic play is also, inevitably, one of cultural exchanges before, during and after the early modern period. From its origins in Nordic tradition to its re-introduction in the Nordic countries through Shakespeare's play, the story of Hamlet from the Middle Ages to the present is inextricably bound up with Nordic history and culture. In tracing some of these links, this special issue develops our recent work on the early dissemination of Shakespeare in the Nordic countries, focusing here on that most Nordic of plays, Hamlet. Although there is already a great deal of criticism on Hamlet in various national or regional contexts, very little of this has focused on the Nordic countries.¹ It is therefore fitting, we believe, to provide a necessarily brief outline of the rich and varied history that Shakespeare's play has had in Northern Europe.

This article discusses the clowning element of a German version of Hamlet believed to date back to the time of Shakespeare. Der bestrafte Brudermord is noted as an adaptation of Shakespeare's tragedy which incorporates a lot more low comedy than any extant version of Hamlet and provides opportunity for contemplating the reason why Hamlet has no explicit clown character. The article focuses especially on a character appearing very briefly in the German play, a rustic buffoon called Jens, and his affinity with the rustics and comic servants of other Shakespeare plays and other Elizabethan plays. It is particularly asserted that this role shows signs of the involvement of the clown Will Kemp at some stage of the writing of Hamlet, or of touring continental Europe with an adaptation of it that puts the clowning element at the forefront.

Hamlet opens on a question – ‘Who's there?’ – asked by a sentinel of Elsinore Castle. In the Swedish regional theatre company Västanå Teater's 1996 adaptation of the play, the question kept returning, and it became symbolic of the production's focus on the uncertain and seemingly mysterious movements of political power. This article explores how changes to plot and text worked together with various forms of stylisation to present a society in which strict hierarchies of class, age and gender operated in tenson with Machiavellian corruption and theatrical seeming. Borrowing localised aesthetic expressions from several traditions and cultures (Norwegian/Nordic, Icelandic, East-Asian, Italian/European), the production adapted Hamlet to speak to local concerns, while simultaneously highlighting themes and issues present in the play.

The protagonist of Jenny Andreasson's autobiographical novel Teatern (2022) is a young female director whose feminist production of Hamlet at the Swedish national stage fails to have its planned premiere. While the novel makes a point of describing the misogynist structures behind this failure, the present article suggests that class structures and precarity are the main reasons behind it. The financial difficulties of the theatre generate a clear discrepancy between cultural capital – embodied by Shakespeare's canonical play – and economic. The resulting precarious work situation is reflected in the protagonist's yearning for stability, in her recurring assertions of class privileges vis-à-vis her co-workers and in her increasing sense of alienation from both them and her own work. While not strictly paraphrasing Shakespeare's play, the protagonist invokes parallels to both Hamlet and Ophelia, and Teatern, instead of locating these parallels in an ‘existential’ reading of Shakespeare's play, anchors the theme of alienation in the economic and social strictures of the theatre institution.

This article analyses the first female Hamlet in the Nordic countries, Elli Tompuri (1880–1962). Early in her career Tompuri made a name for herself at the Finnish National Theatre, but later, in part due to her radical politics, was unable to find permanent employment at any established theatre so she began touring with her own company, putting on Hamlet in 1913. The article traces Tompuri's inspirations and thoughts about the play, before analysing the major themes raised in the reviews. On one hand, reviewers noted with some pride the national significance of the first female Hamlet. On the other hand, Tompuri's status as a New Woman, an actor-director-manager making her own way, generated a wide range of opinions, from outrage that a woman would attempt the part to admiration of Tompuri's genius and intelligence, often within a single review.

This article gives a brief account of the two-hundred-year-old performance history of Hamlet at Elsinore Castle; this is followed by a discussion of Gertrude as portrayed in nine English or English-speaking Hamlets at Elsinore, beginning with Olivier and the Old Vic in 1937 and concluding with Cape Town Theatre Company eighty-five years later, in 2022. The article discusses different aspects of how Gertrude (as seen through the prism of these particular Hamlet productions) has been portrayed on stage, drawing attention to the fact that, particularly in productions with a star actor in the title role, Gertrude has often been neglected, ignored or marginalised by the director, or else objectified and sexualised for the benefit of the audience: aged down, dumbed down or otherwise commodified.

The story of Shakespeare's Nordic play is also, inevitably, one of cultural exchanges before, during and after the early modern period. From its origins in Nordic tradition to its re-introduction in the Nordic countries through Shakespeare's play, the story of Hamlet from the Middle Ages to the present is inextricably bound up with Nordic history and culture. In tracing some of these links, this special issue develops our recent work on the early dissemination of Shakespeare in the Nordic countries, focusing here on that most Nordic of plays, Hamlet. Although there is already a great deal of criticism on Hamlet in various national or regional contexts, very little of this has focused on the Nordic countries.¹ It is therefore fitting, we believe, to provide a necessarily brief outline of the rich and varied history that Shakespeare's play has had in Northern Europe.

This article discusses the clowning element of a German version of Hamlet believed to date back to the time of Shakespeare. Der bestrafte Brudermord is noted as an adaptation of Shakespeare's tragedy which incorporates a lot more low comedy than any extant version of Hamlet and provides opportunity for contemplating the reason why Hamlet has no explicit clown character. The article focuses especially on a character appearing very briefly in the German play, a rustic buffoon called Jens, and his affinity with the rustics and comic servants of other Shakespeare plays and other Elizabethan plays. It is particularly asserted that this role shows signs of the involvement of the clown Will Kemp at some stage of the writing of Hamlet, or of touring continental Europe with an adaptation of it that puts the clowning element at the forefront.

Hamlet opens on a question – ‘Who's there?’ – asked by a sentinel of Elsinore Castle. In the Swedish regional theatre company Västanå Teater's 1996 adaptation of the play, the question kept returning, and it became symbolic of the production's focus on the uncertain and seemingly mysterious movements of political power. This article explores how changes to plot and text worked together with various forms of stylisation to present a society in which strict hierarchies of class, age and gender operated in tenson with Machiavellian corruption and theatrical seeming. Borrowing localised aesthetic expressions from several traditions and cultures (Norwegian/Nordic, Icelandic, East-Asian, Italian/European), the production adapted Hamlet to speak to local concerns, while simultaneously highlighting themes and issues present in the play.

The protagonist of Jenny Andreasson's autobiographical novel Teatern (2022) is a young female director whose feminist production of Hamlet at the Swedish national stage fails to have its planned premiere. While the novel makes a point of describing the misogynist structures behind this failure, the present article suggests that class structures and precarity are the main reasons behind it. The financial difficulties of the theatre generate a clear discrepancy between cultural capital – embodied by Shakespeare's canonical play – and economic. The resulting precarious work situation is reflected in the protagonist's yearning for stability, in her recurring assertions of class privileges vis-à-vis her co-workers and in her increasing sense of alienation from both them and her own work. While not strictly paraphrasing Shakespeare's play, the protagonist invokes parallels to both Hamlet and Ophelia, and Teatern, instead of locating these parallels in an ‘existential’ reading of Shakespeare's play, anchors the theme of alienation in the economic and social strictures of the theatre institution.

This article analyses the first female Hamlet in the Nordic countries, Elli Tompuri (1880–1962). Early in her career Tompuri made a name for herself at the Finnish National Theatre, but later, in part due to her radical politics, was unable to find permanent employment at any established theatre so she began touring with her own company, putting on Hamlet in 1913. The article traces Tompuri's inspirations and thoughts about the play, before analysing the major themes raised in the reviews. On one hand, reviewers noted with some pride the national significance of the first female Hamlet. On the other hand, Tompuri's status as a New Woman, an actor-director-manager making her own way, generated a wide range of opinions, from outrage that a woman would attempt the part to admiration of Tompuri's genius and intelligence, often within a single review.

This article gives a brief account of the two-hundred-year-old performance history of Hamlet at Elsinore Castle; this is followed by a discussion of Gertrude as portrayed in nine English or English-speaking Hamlets at Elsinore, beginning with Olivier and the Old Vic in 1937 and concluding with Cape Town Theatre Company eighty-five years later, in 2022. The article discusses different aspects of how Gertrude (as seen through the prism of these particular Hamlet productions) has been portrayed on stage, drawing attention to the fact that, particularly in productions with a star actor in the title role, Gertrude has often been neglected, ignored or marginalised by the director, or else objectified and sexualised for the benefit of the audience: aged down, dumbed down or otherwise commodified.

Shakespeare's Hamlet has been retold in children's versions several times in Sweden in recent years. It was the subject of the first episode of the children's television programme På teatern [At the Theatre], written and directed by Christina Nilsson for SVT in 2001–2002, where Shakespearean actors meet their child or grandchild backstage after a performance to tell and partly enact the story of the play. In 2005–2006, Lotta Grut wrote the plays Lille Hamlett och spöket [Little Hamlett and the Ghost] and Offelia kom igen! [Offelia Come Again!] for the theatre company Unga Roma. In these fairy-tale versions, the children Hamlet and Ophelia are confronted with death, grief, anger, oppression and erasure. This article argues that the På teatern episode is an adaptation of Hamlet while Grut's two plays are appropriations.

The present article addresses the evocative potential of posing nude in Carol Ann Duffy's poem ‘Standing Female Nude’. My assumption is that the posing model/prostitute displays two bodies: the physical body and the signifying body. The interplay between both bodies triggers a process of signification whereby art is not simply a studio production but a meta-frame encapsulating a reflection on society, culture, self-representation and politics of identity. The poem substantiates the poet's experimental method of writing which draws on nude art genre, the dramatic monologue, theatre and metafiction. What the posing female nude recounts is not just experience of posing nude in a studio, but reflections on her body as a posing model and as a writing model or a narrative imbricating in its texture cynical comments and attitudes on artistic and socio-cultural values as the female model pokes fun at the reception of artistic work in the bourgeois society.

The present article addresses the evocative potential of posing nude in Carol Ann Duffy's poem ‘Standing Female Nude’. My assumption is that the posing model/prostitute displays two bodies: the physical body and the signifying body. The interplay between both bodies triggers a process of signification whereby art is not simply a studio production but a meta-frame encapsulating a reflection on society, culture, self-representation and politics of identity. The poem substantiates the poet's experimental method of writing which draws on nude art genre, the dramatic monologue, theatre and metafiction. What the posing female nude recounts is not just experience of posing nude in a studio, but reflections on her body as a posing model and as a writing model or a narrative imbricating in its texture cynical comments and attitudes on artistic and socio-cultural values as the female model pokes fun at the reception of artistic work in the bourgeois society.

Francis Meres’ 1598 Palladis Tamia, subtitled in English ‘Wit's Treasury’, is a quintessential document in Shakespeare studies. With ten Shakespeare plays already in print anonymously, Meres’ commonplace book for the first time identifies ‘Shakespeare’ as a playwright, and within weeks of Meres’ book, the name ‘Shakespeare’ appears on the second quarto title pages of Richard II and Richard III, transforming ‘anonymous’ into ‘Shakespeare’ in a blink. This article analyses the methods of commonplace book arrangement used by Francis Meres, Master of Arts at both Cambridge and Oxford, to have his private say about Shakespeare. In his 1597 God's Arithmetic, Meres approves the opinion of Pythagoras who wrote over the door of the entrance to his school: ‘Let none enter here that is ignorant in Arithmetic’. The ideas of God's Arithemetic, applied to Palladis Tamia, disclose Meres’ meticulous mastery of erudite humanist design that is the hallmark of his pedagogic method and his ‘post-Stratfordian’ conclusions.