Search

Artistic images of animal characters in beast stories studied through the prism of national mentality reveal specific animal-human concepts rooted in the readers' mindsets. This essay focuses on the hare/rabbit as a popular character in animal tales, with an attempt to enhance intercultural relations in the Ukrainian/English world by explaining the peculiarities of the surrounding reality present in beast stories. The paper discloses similar and distinctive characteristics of animal stories on two levels, that is, by contrasting the author's literary tale with the folk-tale, and by studying the collective image of hare in Ukrainian folk-tales against the background of Peter Rabbit from Beatrix Potter's stories. The research does not dwell on the zoological peculiarities of the chosen animals or the Aesop fables, but highlights the psychological characteristics of the animals under study in the context of their "national identities". The work results in disclosing a deep connection between games and animal tales; since both the storyteller's and the audience's mental work is based on the game-like perception of the virtual world of the story. The literary images of the hare/rabbit in Ukrainian and British tales differ radically. Ukrainian animals are presented as meek and subdued creatures relying on outside help and rarely (ranking sixth amongst animal protagonists) becoming the leading characters. In contrast, British bunnies are energetic and boisterous, trying their best to overcome any difficulties. The authors explain this fact by references to differences in the historical development of the two cultures under analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jane Campion's The Piano (1993) and Catherine Breillat's Barbe Bleue (2009) are film adaptations of the tale Bluebeard, both of which have a seemingly bright closure -- "and they all lived happily ever after". "They", as the female, are in the becoming process since "one is not born, but rather becomes, a woman" (de Beauvoir 1956: 273), which changes the nature of the film denouement. By looking at the female protagonists Ada McGrath in The Piano and Marie-Catherine in Barbe Bleue, this research aims to deal with how female "decisions" in attempting to accomplish themselves in the face of a crisis affect the understanding of the film's ending. First, female characterisation and plot development are investigated with the construction of women's feelings and perceptions at a given moment, influencing the subsequent outcomes. Second, the significance of narrative techniques is expounded with audience's affective interaction with characters. The conclusion reached is that in both films, repressed female temperament allows women to make judgements and choices that predetermine the tragic core of the happy ending. The significance of this study is to draw attention to the plight of women in the undercurrent, to make it possible for the silent cries behind the beautiful fantasies to be heard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Yusuf al-Ani's creative development is examined within the context of his collaborators and intellectual influences. Special emphasis is placed on al-Ani's origins and motivations for the posture of his acting, writing and direction in the formative period of the Iraqi theatre. The article then turns to al-Ani's influence on the modern Iraqi theatre. His collaboration with an array of other directors and performers is analysed for their impacts on such developments, especially in the absence of theatrical training amongst Iraqis now working in the professional domain. Al-Ani's al-Masrah al-Hadith (The Modern Theatre) troupe is also analysed for these relationships in light of how many Iraqi directors and writers emerged from it over subsequent years. Al-Ani's deployment of 'The Little Man' and Iraqi folk-tales are weighed for their innovative ability to allow his work to speak to all social classes. His considered iterative development of his style led to a sophisticated portrayal onstage and screen. This saw al-Ani's works take that which was familiar in many Iraqis' lives to the stage, encouraging new perspectives that audience members would necessarily then apply to their lived realities outside the performance venue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article concerns the Creole Conteur in Patrick Chamoiseau's depictions of the slave plantation in Au temps de l'antan (1988a), Écrire en pays dominé (1997) and Texaco (1992). It proposes that Chamoiseau's vision of the plantation be seen as a parable for contemporary Martinique, one that seeks to reinstate a redemptive history in which the past has a positive claim on the present. The article examines the tensions internal to this recuperative attempt, especially those carried in the relationship between literal and spiritual forms of hunger: the slaves' famine condition and the survival tactics of débrouillardise compete with the spiritual nourishment found in an emergent collective identity. The article demonstrates that Chamoiseau uses the Conteur to redraw the symbolic boundaries of the plantation from an amoral grey zone to a cohesive Creole social order, making the plantation past relevant to the present day. It explores how Chamoiseau preserves the parable's frame of moral instruction even though, as a survival tale involving extreme duress, it involves a calculus beyond good and evil. Cet article porte sur le personnage du Conteur créole dans la plantation esclavagiste dépeinte par Chamoiseau dans Au temps de l'antan (1988a), Ecrire en pays dominé (1997) et Texaco (1992). Cette vision de la plantation peut être perçue comme une parabole pour la Martinique de nos jours, une Martinique qui chercherait une histoire rédemptrice où le passé revendiquerait positivement le présent. Cet article examine les tensions engendrées par cet effort de récupération, en particulier celles qui sont associées à la relation entre les formes litérales et symboliques de la faim: la confrontation entre, d'une part, la famine inhérente à l'esclavage et la débrouillardise des tactiques de survie, et d'autre part la nourriture spirituelle puisée dans l'identité collective naissante. Le Conteur, pour Chamoiseau, va élaborer un nouveau tracé des frontières symboliques de la plantation qui irait d'une zone grise amorale vers un ordre social Créole cohésif. Cet article explore la façon dont Chamoiseau préserve l'inspiration morale de cette parabole de survie et de détresse même si, paradoxalement, les catégories du bien et du mal doivent être dépassées. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tale Type AT 700, named "Tom Thumb, " is presented as an expression of maternal psychological mechanisms and of experiences that relate to the early mother-son relationship. The underdeveloped figure is presented as an expression of maternal-symbiotic needs, as well as of the experience of maternal immaturity, projected through the child. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, a new trend has developed in French cinema. Surprisingly and interestingly, since the late 1980s-early 1990s, the number of films shot in the provinces (which I refer to as 'provincial films') has increased. The representation of the provinces has thus gained momentum and has attracted attention from film professionals, critics and the public alike. There may be several explanations for the statistical increase of provincial films, and I examine a few in the first section of this essay. The second part focuses on Sandrine Veysset's Y aura-t-il de la neige à Noël?/Will it Snow for Christmas? (1996). Veysset's first feature film is emblematic of the trend of 1990s provincial films in that it is set in the provinces and made possible by the financial involvement of Paris-based production companies. In this section, I focus principally on the ways that the film both uses and transcends its location through its reliance on the folk tale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]