Confetti - Un journal de littératures et cultures du monde // Confetti - A World Literatures and Cultures Journal

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10393/40976

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Reproductive Rights and Oppression in Marge Piercy's Utopia
(2022) Azzi, Amanda
Since the 1900s, patriarchal societies have controlled reproductive rights and even imposed racial segregation to assert power and dominance over marginalized bodies, primarily through discriminatory legislation that eliminates the freedom of choice of those affected. However, in a world that ensures marginalized groups's autonomy, by eradicating women's subjugation and racial prejudice, one can find themselves in a utopia. This paper explores the ways in which Thomas More's Utopia (1516), Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Herland (1915) and Marge Piercy's Woman on the Edge of Time (1976) present different utopias favouring women and the marginalized sector's freedom. I analyze how Piercy's novel removes motherhood's biological enchainment and mandates equality through racial mixing in her futuristic world of Mattapoisett. Making both men and women "mothers" and breaking genetic and cultural bonds provides the opportunity to disrupt postcolonial hierarchies. While Piercy's novel appears to present a feminist decolonial utopian world, I argue that Mattapoisett's glaring dystopian features - including the removal of bodily autonomy and racial preservation - create a flawed utopia.
Adapting to Life in America: Cultural Loss in the Thing Around your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
(2022) Ifeoluwa Mary, Amusan
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's work reflects on globalization and the aftereffects of colonization both in former colonies and colonial populations often displaced around the world. Her fiction frequently centres on the mass migration of Nigerians, as well as other nationalities, to the United States of America. This paper aims to elucidate the depiction of instances of cultural loss and the adaptative techniques employed by Nigerian immigrants to cope with life in America and its imperative of cultural assimilation.
Étude des oeuvres de Kent Monkman dans le contexte de la révolution culturelle canadienne
(2022) Flann, Derek
Malgré avoir commencé sa production artistique avant l'avènement de la période "officielle" de la réconciliation, par moyen de ses oeuvres d'art, Kent Monkman offre une alternative à la réalité socio-politique des peuples autochtones au Canada contemporain. En recréant des scènes classiques de l'histoire politique canadienne, Monkman reprend l'agentivité des peuples autochtones en renversant les normes de la société néocoloniale canadienne. Ceci est réalisé grâce à son célèbre sens de l'humour et de l'absurde afin de créer des tableaux monumentaux qui étonnent leur auditoire et les font réfléchir à la place qu'ils occupent au sein de cette société. Cet article s'intéresse à trois de ses peintures: The Triumph of Mischief, The Daddies et Hanky Panky et la manière dont ils offrent une nouvelle perspective sur les politiques contemporaines et historiques face aux peuples autochtones ainsi que comment ils encouragent leur auditoire non-autochtone à repenser leur place au sein de la société canadienne contemporaine.
Biology Wafts: Heterotopic Space and the Posthuman in Anicka Yi's Works
(2022) Ramlochan, Janine
Anicka Yi is a South Korean-American contemporary conceptual artist whose work melds biology, scentscapes and technology. Her rise in the international art world over the last decade came at a dizzying pace, and she appears to have largely circumvented the biennale circuit - the contemporary stepping stones to high profile exhibition venues. This paper explores structural and conceptual approaches to specific elements of two exhibitions: "In Love With the World," on display in 2021 and 2022 at the Tate's Turbine Hall (London), and "Life is Cheap," a 2017 exhibition at the Guggenheim (New York), using posthumanist theory and notions of heterotopia to deconstruct Yi's work and "white cube" global art ecosystems. I also elaborate on Yi's process of developing scentscapes, the role olfactory art plays in shifting the typical visual hierarchy of art gallery spaces, and Yi's fusing of biology and technology. The main objective is to show how Yi's creativity is concerned with a re-articulation of human co-existence with others (human, other species, machines, the environment) in order to conceive more harmonious forms of co-habitation in our post-human world.
Performing the Imagined Nation Through Female Bodies in The Circus (1936)
(2022) Cybanski, Kara
This paper will explore Grigori Aleksandrov's 1936 film The Circus, originally produced in Russian as Tsirk, proving that in lieu of being a light-hearted romantic comedy, it is in fact a production intent on controlling not only women's bodies but also the perception of the Soviet nation on a world stage. By analysing the totalitarian Stalinist government and the gender roles it imparts through cinema, this paper will demonstrate that the female body, controlled by overarching patriarchal ideals, is analogous to the nation's control of its people.
Le refus de l'interpellation comme acte de résistance culturelle dans le poème Speak White de Michèle Lalonde
(2022) Tremblay, Natasha
Cet article porte sur le poème québécois Speak White de Michèle Lalonde, paru en 1968 lors d'une ère de changements culturels, sociaux et économiques au Québec surnommés la "Révolution tranquille". L'analyse du poème est abordée dans une perspective postcoloniale proposant que Lalonde rejette l'hégémonie anglophone au Québec en refusant l'interpellation provenant de la classe dominante anglophone et en utilisant la force lyrique de la langue française comme contrepoids culturel et acte d'affirmation identitaire.
Ozeki's A Tale for the Time Being: The Value of Heritage Through Private Writings
(2022) Cisneros, Pamela
This article considers the representation of kikokushijo, or Japanese returnees, in Ruth Ozeki's A Tale for the Time Being through the eyes of her protagonist, Nao Yasutani. In the months prior to the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, the novel considers Nao's struggles to belong as a young woman who returns to her homeland as a Japanese national from abroad along with her resistance to view her heritage language - Japanese - in a favorable light. Her reflections lead to a personal exploration of Japan's reception of citizens from abroad and her own family history. These factors spark an interest in keeping a diary, one that becomes the catalyst for Nao to appreciate her individuality.
Giving Voice to the Multifarious Immigrant Experience: Gender Inequality and U.S. Immigrant Multilingualism in Norte by Edmundo Paz Soldán and its English Translation by Valerie Miles
(2022) Roche, Abigail
In this paper, I examine the polyphonic novel Norte (2011) written in Spanish by Edmundo Paz Soldán and the English translation by Valerie Miles in order to gain an understanding of the ways in which the writers demonstrate and critique social and political issues of relevance in the United States. I consider how the writers treat matters related to extreme violence and gender inequality while they convey realities of vastly different experiences of Latin American immigrants in the United States.
À la guerre, le silence est d‘or Une analyse comparative de La guerre n‘a pas un visage de femme (1985) et de Les Cercueils de zinc (1989) de Svetlana Alexievitch
(2021) Couture, Dominic
Cet article analyse l‘importance du silence en tant que th me litt raire dans les romans Les Cercueils de zinc (1989) et La guerre n‘a pas un visage de femme (1985) par Svetlana Alexievitch Ces romans d montrent comment les v t rans de l‘Union sovi tique qui ont combattu lors de la Deuxième Guerre mondiale et de la guerre en Afghanistan, ainsi que leurs proches, ont été confrontés à une culture du silence. On les réprimait dans leur besoin de parler de leurs exp riences, ainsi que dans leur d sir d‘être reconnu pour avoir combattu pour leur patrie Cet article labore trois types de silence que l‘on peut retrouver dans les deux œuvres d‘Alexievitch : le silence étatique, le silence sociétal et le silence individuel.
Prismatic Intersectionalities: An Ecocritical Negotiation of Oppositional Utopias in L'Amant
(2021) Aluma-Baigent, Alia
In an exploration of the concept of utopia, different elements are evaluated to analyze this unique, though not necessarily identifiable, space. With this in mind, primary constructs found within utopias are hope and desire (Levitas 191). When considering the film L'amant (1992), both leads display characteristics of hope and desire, creating a utopia from the Bachelor‘s Room, which functions as an 'Otherly place'. However, the opposing identities of the Young Girl and the Chinese Man create conflicting utopias unique to their situational idealisms, battling one another within the same 'Other place' (192-193). At the same time, ecofeminism will be used to understand how the Young Girl and her Lover interact in their 'Otherly place'. According to Douglas Vakoch (2011), ecofeminism employs a worldview that respects organic processes, such as female sexuality, pleasure, orgasm, and agency. However, the field of ecofeminism also analyses the detrimental relationship formed between women and nature, especially concerning the narratives of conquering feminine land and ownership. With this in mind, an ecofeminist framework can be used to explain the imposition of patriarchal values onto the Young Girl, as well as the way she navigates the established 'Otherly space'.
Otsuka‘s The Buddha in the Attic: The Japanese American Immigrant Experience and Racial Prejudice in the U.S.
(2021) Cisneros, Pamela
This paper examines Julie Otsuka‘s The Buddha in the Attic through feminist and postcolonial considerations of the Japanese American experience. Japanese women who emigrate to the U S as picture brides are the work‘s central focus It is through a collectivist perspective that these women describe their contact with racial and gender discrimination while adapting to their roles as wives and mothers In the narrative‘s first half, I apply Luce Irigaray‘s theory of women‘s identity being malleable within a patriarchal structure, depicting these women as powerless to change their lives because of their gender. This leads to disrespectful physical encounters with their husbands and American employers because of their bodies and ethnic differences, respectively. Motherhood also alters racial prejudice on an intergenerational level because of how the children perceive their parents‘ struggles The novel even references the political agenda behind the Japanese American displacement and features a brief reflection from the neighbours in order to memorialize a little-known chapter of WWII‘s political transgressions.
Subverting Feminine Identity: Reinvention of Sailor Moon‘s Girl Power in Violet Evergarden
(2021) Azzi, Amanda
During the 1990s, Sailor Moon and the Girl Power movement came face to face with young girls worldwide As an anime based on the shōjo manga Sailor Moon, the adaptation set a precedent for heroic feminism within the male-dominant industry. In modern Japanese literature—namely light novels—we encounter other female heroines who reinvent the notion of Girl Power by challenging the weaponized femininity presented in Victoria Newsom and Joanette Quenby‘s work around the reclamation of the girlish and alternative gender identities. Moreover, as a new form of fiction, light novels challenge older forms of Japanese literature—mostly manga—which continue to subvert the dissemination of this Girl Power. Consequently, this article further develops the idea that the modern anime Violet Evergarden, based on a light novel of the same name, reinvents Sailor Moon‘s Girl Power through the modern form of Japanese literature and the titular protagonist‘s otherworldly presence within a liminal space Magical girl anime typically limits itself to the socially constructed masculine heroism that Violet reinvents through her newfound strength and subversion of the feminine.
The Jewish "Other" in Ivo Andrić‘s The Bridge on the Drina
(2021) Azoulay, Stephanie
This article analyzes the representation of Jewish characters in Ivo Andrić‘s novel The Bridge on the Drina. The analysis progresses chronologically through the novel, taking note of the increased frequency and length of the Jewish characterizations that reflect the community‘s evolution, growing freedoms, and increased visibility in Višegrad, Bosnia between the seventeenth and twentieth centuries. The author pays particular attention to the lone Jewish female character in the novel, Lotte, whose Otherness—as a Jew, an impoverished widow, a woman, and a foreigner—is utilized by Andrić to portray actions, choices, and behaviours that are outside the norm for a woman of her era The trajectory of Lotte‘s character, a steady rise and a steep downfall precipitated by the First World War, serves as an important metaphor for many of the novel‘s central themes: secularization, modernization, migration, and the ultimate fallibility of imperial rule.
Self-Representation in the Contact Zone: An Autoethnographic Reading of The Conscript
(2021) Hughes Waldick, Zoë
Considered the first post-colonial Eritrean novel, The Conscript by Gebreyesus Hailu was originally written in Tigrinya in 1927 and published in the same language two decades later. The novel follows Tuquabo, a young soldier recruited by the Italian colonial army to fight Arab nationalist forces in Libya. The emergence of post-colonial African literature was shaped by what Mary Louise Pratt has conceptualized as contact zones I develop Pratt‘s notion of the contact zone as the site not only of cultural clashing but also of undoing harmful beliefs and false narratives. This article posits an autoethnographic reading of The Conscript because of its status as the first book formally published in Tigrinya, the ironic response to Italian colonialism in Eastern Africa, and the incorporation of multiple oral story-telling methods.
Reshaping Womanhood: Lesbian Realities in The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall
(2021) Cybanski, Kara
The Well of Loneliness (1928) by Radclyffe Hall changed British perceptions of gender identity and performance in its plea for the respect of lesbian identities. While previous studies have centered on the protagonist‘s nonconformity and lesbianism, this paper will also examine how the novel‘s controversy and the author‘s personal ties to the subject ultimately brought more fame to what is now considered the original lesbian book. This essay will not only analyse evolving historic views on homosexuality and cross-dressing, but also assess how homophobia shaped the author‘s work By considering this Bildungsroman‘s fluctuating concepts of gender identity and gender roles, its contributions to the limited corpus of 20th century lesbian literature, and its protagonist‘s development and relationships, this essay will highlight the significance of Hall‘s work both for her era and for contemporary queer studies.
Interrogating the Metaphor of Madness and the Migratory Process in Said El Kadaoui‘s Límites y Fronteras
(2021) Bowie, Katherine
As postcolonial scholars signal, the similarities between the constructions of the racial Other and the mad are very similar and rely on a binary of the rational and irrational. Examining how the construction of madness serves as a metaphor for the migratory process and its ensuing trauma in Said El Kadaoui‘s Límites y fronteras, this paper‘s intent is to question how this affects the subjectivity of its protagonist. I find that the metaphor of madness serves to express the limiting aspects of identity and through the character development of its protagonist, the narration allows a more heterogeneous understanding of identity to emerge.
CONFETTI Volume 7 : A World Literatures and Cultures Journal / Un journal de littératures et cultures du monde
(2021) Cybanski, Kara; Guerrero, Jorge Carlos
The Confetti journal is the result of the dedication of the students of the Master’s in World Literatures and Cultures, a program unique in Canada: bilingual, interdisciplinary, and dynamic. The issue showcases their research and explorations by bringing together works that encompass critical approaches and methodologies to analyze a variety of cultural expressions from around the world. This volume has four sections that remarkably illustrate the breadth of topics covered in our seminars for the 2020-21 academic year: Legacies of Colonialism in Africa / The ‘Other’ Europe, to the East / Japanese Culture in America / Interrogating Western Representations of Gender. Le journal Confetti est le résultat du dévouement du corps étudiant de la Maitrise en littératures et cultures du monde, un programme unique au Canada : bilingue, interdisciplinaire et dynamique. Il présente leurs recherches et leurs explorations en rassemblant des travaux qui englobent des approches et des méthodologies critiques pour analyser une variété d'expressions culturelles du monde entier. Ce volume comporte quatre sections qui illustrent remarquablement l’étendue des thèmes abordés dans le cadre de nos séminaires de l’année scolaire 2020-21 : L’héritage du colonialisme en Afrique / L’Autre Europe, à l’est / La culture japonaise en Amérique / Interroger les représentations occidentales du genre.
CONFETTI Volume 4 : A World Literatures and Cultures Journal / Un journal de littératures et cultures du monde
(2018) Good, Rebecca; Mucha, Matthew
The Confetti journal is the result of the dedication of the students of the Masters in World Literatures and Cultures, a program unique in Canada: bilingual, interdisciplinary, and dynamic. The issue showcases their research and explorations by bringing together works that encompass critical approaches and methodologies to analyze a variety of cultural expressions from around the world. This volume has three sections that remarkably illustrate the breadth of topics covered in our seminars for the 2017-18 academic year: Northern Reflections: Cultural Landscapes and Canadian Identity / In The Mind’s Eye: Perceptions of Self and Other / Herstory: Gender in Flux. Le journal Confetti est le résultat du dévouement des étudiants de la Maîtrise en littératures et cultures du monde, un programme unique au Canada : bilingue, interdisciplinaire et dynamique. Il présente leurs recherches et leurs explorations en rassemblant des travaux qui englobent des approches et des méthodologies critiques pour analyser une variété d'expressions culturelles du monde entier. Ce volume comporte trois sections qui illustrent remarquablement l’étendue des thèmes abordés dans le cadre de nos séminaires de l’année académique 2017-18 : Reflets du nord : les paysages culturels et l’identité canadienne / L’œil et l’esprit : perceptions de soi et de l’Autre / L’histoire au féminin : la vacillation du genre.
Textual Quilting and Subversive Re(-)Collection: War & Feminine Discourse in Svetlana Alexievich’s The Unwomanly Face of War
(2018) Mucha, Matthew
In her book The Unwomanly Face of War, Svetlana Alexievich presents a new way of writing; one which stands in contrast to previous works of war literature by narrating from beyond the confines of censorship and dominant discourse. The writer does not exercise full "authorship" over the story she tells; instead, she shares this role by piecing together interviews from women who had formerly served as soldiers in the Soviet army in order to create a larger narrative about the Second World War. One might decribe Alexievich‘s work as a kind of "textual quilting"; she harvests individual first-hand accounts of war and then weaves them together in order to depict larger collective histories. This work highlights the characteristics which differentiate Alexievich‘s work from traditional Soviet War Literature, thereby allowing for its classification as another distinct literary genre.
‘A Rose for Emily’: The Dichotomy of a Rose
(2018) Schweizer, Justine
As one of the most prominent figures of Southern literature, William Faulkner is known for his highly accurate and critical depictions of the South, most notably during its transition from the plantation era to the industrial age. His work presents all aspects of the changing South and its colourful cast of characters. Perhaps none are as emblematic and ambiguous as that of "A Rose for Emily"‘s eponymous character, Emily Grierson. Through his innovative use of narration and his portrayal of her, Faulkner represents the transitioning South as it moves from one era to the next, with all the crises and complexities it entails. Written in the prime of the feminist movement, "A Rose for Emily" portrays a character caught between identities: the masculine and the feminine, the past and the present, the passive and the active. Going from subject to object and back again throughout the narrative, Miss Emily Grierson is the embodiment of the rose her creator symbolically gifts her. She is the petals of the flower, supple and soft, and the thorns of the stem, harsh and unyielding.

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