2009 | ||
semiannually | ||
English | ||
Literature, Film |
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1803-7720 | ||
Moravian Journal of Literature and Film
The Moravian Journal of Literature and Film, founded in 2009, is a Czech scholarly journal whose objective is to be a platform for an intersection of literary and film history, criticism, and theory. The journal examines literatures and films in any language, thus merging both regional and universal themes. The journal is published in English, has been peer-reviewed since its foundation, and has two issues a year. |
Fall 2014, Volume 5, Number 2
Travels into History: Ernest J. Gaines's African-American Odyssey in The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman
The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman presents itself as a voyage into the southern past and into its history. Nonetheless, from its very title, Gaines's novel introduces a paradox since the author and the subject under study bear different names. As opposed to James Weldon Johnson's The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (1912), whose title does not betray the author's identity, Gaines adds an introductory statement stipulating that the book is partly Jane Pittman's own rendition of her story. Whether or not he wants to acknowledge it, Ernest J. Gaines belongs to a tradition of southern writers who look backward, and he is also representative of the African-American's constant attempt to define himself although he is confined to the margins. With The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, he goes back to his people and gives them a voice, describing, through one specific character, the life of any black woman born before the Civil War who might have witnessed the changes that occurred in the South in the aftermath of the war.
The Sneaky Victory of a Genre: The Story of One Czech Western
The paper deals with the mutation of traditional popular genres in the Czech environment as a result of both political changes and technological developments and documents the culturally dependent character of these genres by analyzing the feature film Smrt v sedle (Death in the Saddle, 1958), directed by Jindřich Polák. While Smrt v sedle was deliberately made within the framework of the Western genre, it is also notable for its attempt to parody the genre and for the use of technical innovations (it was shot in widescreen). The article will focus on the process of making the film and its final version, as well as the subsequent reception of the final product.
"Becoming Anglicised?" The Increasing Importance of English Characters in the Exile Novels of Arthur Koestler and Robert Neumann
The Hungarian Arthur Koestler and the Austrian Robert Neumann were both born around 1900 and originally wrote their novels in German. They decided to switch to writing in English when they were forced into British exile as a result of the National Socialist occupation of the European continent and the outbreak of World War II. My assumption is that when Koestler and Neumann started writing in English, they also began to write deliberately for British readers. This, as well as the process of acculturation both authors underwent during their years in exile, influenced their writing towards an increasing inclusion of English characters which finally became vital for their fiction. In my article, preceded by a short biographical overview, I will approach the significance of these characters in Koestler's and Neumann's English novels, thereby also trying to assess to what extent the authors actually "became anglicised," as Koestler in retrospect described the process of acculturation.
Pound of the Beats: On Allen Ginsberg's and Lawrence Ferlinghetti's Image of Ezra Pound
The essay describes the image of the American modernist poet Ezra Pound as presented by the best-known representative of the Beat Generation, Allen Ginsberg, and the San Francisco poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Ginsberg's appraisal of Pound is seen as integral to his long-time effort to gain wider recognition for the work of the Beats. The development of Ferlinghetti's views of Pound is outlined and attention is paid not only to the poet's literary work, but also to his art.
The Inhuman in Paris and Mississippi: Mapping the Real Estate of Genre in Barry Hannah's Yonder Stands Your Orphan
This essay is an exploration of Barry Hannah's interest in genre fiction, particularly noir and horror motifs, and the way his style in the latter part of his career was influenced by his reception in France after being included in the Série Noire imprint published by the legendary Gallimard Press. Hannah's membership of this stable of authors resulted in a radical shift in the voice of his final novel, Yonder Stands Your Orphan (2001). Ultimately, Hannah's use of noir and horror motifs stems from his own desire to be more commercially successful and retreat from the southern and postmodern labels, which enhanced his reputation in academic circles but limited his popular appeal. His inclusion in Série Noire gave the author a European literary identity that could simultaneously be envisioned as both popular and artistically respectable. Despite his ambitions to be more commercially successful, Yonder Stands Your Orphan is an extended critique of twenty-first-century capitalism, showing how the warring forces of speculative real estate and Mississippi's new casino culture have corrupted the southern landscape and transformed it into a nightmare filled with spiritual zombies, vampires, and doppelgängers, as well as pimps and bootleggers.
"Don't Believe a Word of It": A Conversation with William Gass at Viola, Prague, August 1, 1995
Review of Science Fiction: A Guide for the Perplexed, by Sherryl Vint
Review of The Health of the Nation, edited by Meldan Tanrisal and Tanfer Emin Tunç
Other Issues
Spring 2012, Volume 3, Number 2Fall 2011, Volume 3,, Number 1
Spring 2011, Volume 2, Number 2
Fall 2010, Volume 2, Number 1
Spring 2010, Volume 1, Number 2
Fall 2009, Volume 1, Number 1