1993 | ||
semiannually | ||
Chinese | ||
Literatures in English |
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1024-2856 | ||
English and American Literature Association of TAIWAN | ||
Bookman Books, Ltd. | ||
REAL: Review of English and American Literature [Yingmei wenxue pinglun]
Review of English and American Literature (REAL) is a journal of the English and American Literature Association of the Republic of China founded in 1993. REAL is published by Bookman Books Ltd. biannually (June and December) and is devoted to publishing innovative research results concerning English and American literature written in Mandarin Chinese. REAL was rated as the first-class journal by the National Science Council of Taiwan in 2003. Contributions from domestic and foreign researchers of English and American literatures are welcomed. |
Renaissance: between innovation and tradition, Volume 5
The theme of this issue is “renaissance” in the hope of connecting with issue number four, whose theme was “middle age English literature,” to form a systematic discussion. The scheduled theme of issue number six will be “neo-classcism and romanticism.” This chronological arrangement may seem hackneyed, but our ambition remains high. Four articles focus on the theme of renaissance in this issue. There are also two essays depicting the John Donne’s painting and Milton respectively. A record of the conference on the research and pedagogy of English and American literature in Taiwan is also included in this issue.
Courtly Revels and Entertainment in the English Renaissance
By means of historical texts and literary texts, this article expects its readers to hold a positive view of the English Renaissance. Furthermore, the readers' response to the control mechanism may blend Renaissance cultural values with those of entertainment thus propounded are not merely linker with festivals, they also form activities of social functions, etiquette, ceremony, aesthetics, hierarchy, power and wealth. They are activities freed from religious prohibition, leading to secularized communal social consciousness. To fare well in such occasions, the participants need to have certain charismatic qualities which are largely the appeal of Renaissance humanism. To some extent, revels and entertainment have become instruments of politics. Queen Elizabeth I, in particular, manipulates them well. She applies them is feasts to entertain herself and to entertain her subjects, rendering the occasions as an extension of court politics and an interface of merriment that cuts across different social classes.
Shakespeare’s Metadramatic Devices: A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Other Examples
Literally, metadrama is drama about drama. Technically, and play which has as its subject other play(s), or which attempts to describe and analyze theatrical practice and conventions and to establish general "poetics" for this particular genre qualifies as metadrama. On different scales Shakespeare experimented with metadramatical devices, ranging from the play-within-the-play to verbal and special allusions to theatrical reality. Focusing on A Midsummer Night's Dream and drawing on nine other Shakespeare's dramaturgy in this respect. My reading of A Midsummer Night's Dream suggests that the play mirrors the process of theatrical production. The inner play seems on the surface to go against the grain theatrical representation, but on a deeper level, it serves as a point of departure for an investigation of representation.
Region and Class in Oroonoko and Castle Rackrent
This article attempts to explore the interrelationships of region and class in two English novels of seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The texts used for discussion are Aphra Behn's Oroonoko; or, The Royal Save (1688) and Maria Edgeworth's Castle Rackrent: An Hibernian Tale (1800). Behn uses Africa and South America to unfold the grisly tale of a black prince/slave and to build up the relation of region and class to Oroonoko's life and transformation. Edgeworth sets the scene in Ireland to illustrate various kinds of tension between the ruling Anglo-Irish and the Irish. Moreover, Oroonoko is told from the perspective of an observant English woman whereas an old Irish steward's point of view is used to trace the rise and fall of his four Anglo-Irish masters in Castle Rackrent. These intriguing relationships of region and class, as complicated more by peculiar narrative stances, are dealt with thoroughly in this article.
A Queer Mirror-Image: Re/Inflecting Court Favoritism in Pre-modern Chinese Same-Sex Culture through Marlowe's Edward Ⅱ
Intended as part of a larger project that re-inscribes pre-modern Chinese same-sex culture from a contemporary queer perspective, this article tackles one of the most disreputable aspects in that culture, namely court favoritism, which dominates relevant historical documents available today. As these documents are so informed with conventional wisdom that there can hardly be any space for transvaluation if they are read simply the way they are supposed to, this article undertakes an unusual comparative detour. That is, Christopher Marlowe's play Edward Ⅱ is discussed first, in order to be enlightened by the Renaissance problematics that are foregrounded by its contemporary critical studies; the most significant of which lies in the deemed incompatibility between absolutist monarchy and private friendship. (Contemporary British queer director Derek Jarman's film version of Edward Ⅱ is also briefly mentioned.) Thus equipped, the investigation finally turns its critical attention to the concrete textuality of the "notorious" story of West Han Emperor Ai and his favorite Dong Xian as recorded in Ban Gu's Han Shu, seeking to demonstrate the text as well as de-legitimatize its embedded conventional wisdom.
The Private Truth Revealed in the Concealment of Public Costume: John Donne's 1591 Portrait Miniatture by Nicholas Hilliard, a Case in Point
In the early modern England, the private sphere was gradually being separated from the public sphere, but the demarcation line between them was not yet clear-cut. At that time, some people saw no distinction between these two spheres, believing that the public costume one wore could reveal his private self. But it did not hold water for those who emphasized the distinction. For them, the costume was simply an empty signifier conveying nothing but the concealment of inner self. However, in such a period of transition, there were some people who held the opposite views at the same time. Nicholas Hilliard is a case in point. My article concerns itself with analyzing the portrait miniature of John Donne he painted in 1591. In this portrait miniature, Hilliard makes sumptuous costume a transparent medium to signify the religious allegiance of the 18-year-old Donne. At the same time, he also takes a devious route in this portrait to reveal the sitter's inner self. Besides, being a transparent vehicle, the costume is also treated as the translucent veil through whose concealment the young Donne's subtle attitude toward his faith is revealed.
Milton, Puritanism, and Free Will
This work is devoted to scrutinizing Puritan elements, especially those concerning free will and the intertwisting between good and evil, in Milton. One focus of this essay is therefore to demonstrate in what way Milton, whether directly or indirectly, deals with these issues in different works.
Though Milton is generally considered as sharing the belief in many orthodox Puritan doctrines with other contemporary Puritans, he, according to many studies, denies the Puritan idea of predestination and follows Arminius in his open and strenuous advocacy of free will. This assessment of Milton cannot be regarded as completely wrong, but it needs some modification. Thus, another objective of this work is to argue that Milton's attitude toward "free will" can be viewed as a concoction of Arminianism and Puritanism.
Other Issues
120423, Volume 43
061523, Volume 42
122022, Volume 41
062022, Volume 40
December 2016, Volume 29
June 2016, Volume 28
December 2015, REAL Volume 27
June 2015, Volume 26
December 2010, Issue 17
Senses and Literature, Volume 16
Homing and Housing, Volume 23
Special Topic: The Fantastic, Volume 24
Translation and Literatures in English, Volume 25
Jun 2013, Volume 22
Beyond the Canon, Volume 21
Trauma and Literature, Volume 20
Time Matters, Volume 19
Everydayness, Volume 18
Everydayness, Volume 18
Review of English and American Literature [Yingmei Wenxue Pinglun] vol. 15 December 2009, Volume 15
Word, Image, Space, Vol 14
Landscape and Literature, Vol 13
Local color of modern landscape, Volume 12
Review of English and American Literature [Yingmei Wenxue Pinglun] vol. 11, Volume 11
The City in English and American Literature, Volume 10
Global English Literature, Volume 9
Innocence and manifest destiny, Volume 8
Modernism, Volume 7
, Volume 6
Innocence and Manifest Destiny: The Core Issue of American Literature
, Issue 8