Langues et littératures modernes - Mémoires // Modern Languages and Literatures - Research Papers

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10393/40984

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Creating in Shifting Sands: Tanvir’s Agra Bazar and Wu’s Li’er Zaici
(2024-10-28) Ramlochan, Janine; Esleben, Joerg
Through a comparative study of Habib Tanvir's Agra Bazar and Wu Hsing-kuo's Li’er Zaici, this research project explores how both artists’ distinct cultural contexts shaped their theatrical creations amid rising nationalism. Three key questions inform the project: How did the multilingual structure in Tanvir’s play subvert South Asia’s embedded social stratification? How did Wu achieve his creative defiance of traditional Chinese jingju theatrical conventions in his adaptation of King Lear? What insights does a comparison of the two texts and of their creators’ strategies yield about intercultural adaptation and artistic resistance? Both artists worked in art forms steeped in artistic traditions shifting in prominence due to the political changes happening around them, both artists were adept in adapting western literary texts to local audiences, and both experienced degrees of artistic dismissal or professional headwinds from political shifts occurring around them. Applying theoretical frameworks of linguistic resistance, intercultural adaptation and cultural materialism, this research aims to understand the artists' subversive approaches in their response to social stratification and cultural practices in their respective regions. This project contributes to broader discussions of cultural adaptations and forms of artistic resistance, providing new insights into the ways these artists navigated and reshaped the cultural landscapes they engaged with.
The Testimonio Effect in Slash and Burn: Representing the Voices of Women in War
(2021) Hughes Waldick, Zoë; Guerrero, Jorge Carlos
Slash and Burn (2021) by Claudia Hernández is a timeless, nameless, placeless account of an ex combatant mother grappling with the legacy of civil war in her country. I argue that this novel generates a testimonial effect through powerful accounts, rooted in oral discourse, underscoring gender as a defining element in the lived experiences of women and girls during El Salvador’s civil war. In emulating testimonio, Slash and Burn becomes an alternative literary text that defies the colonial logic of linearity and highlights women’s implication within deeper political and social processes by re-inscribing their voices into the historical narrative. Ultimately, this novel’s reception is about bearing witness to the civil war and its impacts through the imaginative reconstruction of memories as characters negotiate coming to terms with a tumultuous past alive in the present.
“Tokyo, 1947”: Cultural Retrospection and the Westernization of Postwar Japan in Lynne Kutsukake’s The Translation of Love
(2021) Cisneros, Pamela; Schwartz, Agatha
As one of the first novels to offer an alternative depiction of postwar Japan, Canadian writer Lynne Kutsukake’s novel The Translation of Love follows five protagonists. These characters experience life in a postwar Tokyo while shaped by their own experience of World War II’s cultural memory. Japanese nationals and the Japanese community abroad in the U.S. and Canada are the work’s central focus. Japan’s occupation by American forces overhauled its traditional way of life for Westernization and inevitable identity clashes. Amid these sociopolitical and cultural changes, I first provide a historical overview of pre-and post-World War II to supplement the narrative’s brief references to the era before providing a literary analysis through postcolonial and feminist theory. The second chapter applies the theories of Homi K. Bhabha’s third space, Sander Gilman’s stereotyping, and Edward Said’s Other to explore how Tokyo’s transformation into a hybridised space gives way to racial prejudice. In the final chapter, the feminist thought of Luce Irigaray’s approach to women’s roles in patriarchy, along with Laura Mulvey’s reflections on the male gaze, highlight Japanese women’s contact with gender disparity as they learn how to act and be perceived as modern women. This project serves as an early contribution to discussions on Kutsukake’s work to illustrate its function as a critical response to a tumultuous period in Japan’s history in which the U.S. and Canada also make their presence known.
Crypto: Art, Currency, and Capital
(2021) Aluma-Baigent, Alia; Perissinotto, Cristina
In 2021 a digital file sold for $69 million US dollars, shocking everyone within the art world, and those unfamiliar with the intricate happenings of primary and secondary digital markets (Davis; Woodham, 60). This file was composed of a collection of digital images that had been attached to form a single JPEG, of which the URL was impeded into a non-fungible token and sold solely for compensation in cryptocurrency. The event sparked a frenzy of new artists in the digital space hoping to become millionaires. While this sale initiated what artists and critics are referring to as the Wild West of digital art, NFTs sales date back to 2015, with the rise of Ether and the Ethereum blockchain - currently the only blockchain equipped to store NFTs because it supports digital contracts built of metadata (Rothstein, 194). The merge between art and cryptocurrency is a recent phenomenon, with the legitimacy of cryptocurrencies being up for debate since the many failed attempts in the 90s and early 2000s. However, the mysterious introduction of Bitcoin in 2011 by an anonymous creator would eventually lead to a collection of crypto billionaires by the end of the decade. All of them desperate for assets to spend their newfound wealth on. Although early crypto markets were used to sell illicit goods and services (arguably a necessary step in legitimizing the value of bitcoin), NFTs and CryptoArt would eventually play a substantial role in creating a mainstream adoption of cryptocurrency, inherently impacting its value in unprecedented ways (Rothstein, 18-25, 69-81). Therefore, different questions must be raised when understanding the placement of CryptoArt within art history, such as the defining qualities of digital art, where its value comes from, and how the market compares to traditional markets either as a competitor or an extension. At the same time, an analysis of capital exposes the systems of social capital and digital elitism, explaining how social media impacts the decentralized global crypto economy. Finally, discussion is dedicated to the alternate reality of the internet, where an entire societal structure is forming under the self-governance of coders, engineers, developers, and artists. Creating Digital real estate, legitimate currency, borderless interaction and movement, and anti-institutional frameworks to form a virtual reality opposing real-life constructs. Thereby creating encrypted spaces on the web that sit independent and unobstructed by governments and any form of outside dictation or regulation.
Little Girl: The Weaponization of Infantilized and Roboticized (Hyper)Femininity in Postwar Japanese Popular Culture
(2021) Azzi, Amanda; Schwartz, Agatha
Atomic bombs Little Boy and Fat Man left postwar Japan in deep trauma and loss of national identity. The nation’s ultimate way of compensation for its defeat in World War II led to a redefinition of Japanese self-realization from a “masculine” state to a “feminine” one. This research paper explores the ways in which Japanese artists and creators interpreted what they saw as the nation-state’s ‘castration’ and shift to a ‘little boy’. Postwar Japan consequently embraces kawaii culture to compensate for its lost status through soft power with the development and transnational influence of its animanga along with its new fashion and toy industry. My focus on the manga Sailor Moon, the anime Violet Evergarden, the Lolita fashion aesthetic and finally the Sanio Co. toy Hello Kitty demonstrates this embracing of kawaii culture and its infantilizing and roboticizing hyperfemininity, which, I argue, allows for the overcoming of American hegemony and the embracing of a new transnational soft power for Japan.
Out of the Closet and onto the Bookshelf: Lesbian Liberation in Elena Fortún's Oculto Sendero
(2021) Cybanski, Kara; Cornejo-Parriego, Rosalía
This paper investigates Elena Fortún's lesbian Bildunsroman titled Oculto Sendero, published posthumously in 2016. By engaging with queer theory and gender studies, I explore how the author revisits traditional gender roles in 1920s Spain through her protagonist. Then, I outline the new lesbian identity this character begins to adopt by the end of the novel. This paper aims to bring visibility to lesbian identities and desire while also highlighting Fortún‟s impact on the Spanish literary tradition. Trigger warning: sexual assault, homophobia, gender-based violence
Who’s in the Mood for Mood? - Multilingual study on the subjunctive in Spanish
(2020) Charles, Miranda; Valenzuela, Elena
In this study, we explore the acquisition of the Spanish subjunctive by foreign language learners in a multilingual setting comparing two groups of Canadian university students in third and fourth year Spanish classes. The following two groups are (1) English group - university students who started learning Spanish in university or high school and whose first language is English and (2) French Immersion group - university students who started learning Spanish in university or high school and who attended a French Immersion primary and high school with English as a first language. The present subjunctive and the imperfect subjunctive were examined in sentences where the use of the subjunctive is obligatory in Spanish and French such as volitional, adverbial and impersonal contexts. Participants were asked to complete a grammaticality judgment task and an oral elicitation task. Results show that although both groups struggled with the imperfect subjunctive, the French Immersion group performed significantly better than the English group in the present subjunctive in both receptive and productive skills.
The Fantastic Path Toward Self: Magical Realism and Identity in Haruki Murakami’s A Wild Sheep Chase and Kafka on the Shore
(2018) Yucel, Ecem; Esleben, Joerg
Her (Sub)version of History: The Works of Carmen Guerrero Nakpil
(2018) Mucha, Matthew; Guerrero, Jorge Carlos
This study examines Carmen Guerrero Nakpil’s autobiographical novel, Myself, Elsewhere (2006), in order to show how she 1) establishes herself as a patriotic intellectual who possesses the authority to provide an alternate history of the Philippines under Spanish and American colonial rule; 2) portrays the historical area of Ermita as an exceptional ‘space’ within which Homi K. Bhabha’s concepts of mimicry, ambivalence, and Third Space are manifest to an intense degree; and 3) deconstructs and critiques both forms of Western imperialism, while demonstrating how women’s writing acts as a subversive tool by which to destabilize dominant discourse in the domain of colonial history.
The Arab Canadian Identity. Interculturalism, Trauma, and Identity Metamorphosis in Cockroach and Sabah
(2020) Rahman, Elena; Telmissany, May
This essay compares Rawi Hage’s novel about the struggle against cultural integration to Rubba Nadda’s film about cultural hybridity. I argue that Hage’s protagonist falls victim to cultural in-betweenness, thereby evoking his cockroach metamorphosis. This is due to the effects of migrant trauma on the unnamed narrator and his lack of an empathetic listener. In Nadda’s film, Souhaire is equipped with empathetic listeners and is therefore able to cope with her inbetweenness and mitigate its traumatic effects. Sabah, her 40 year old aunt, learns from Souhaire and transforms her in-betweenness into cultural hybridity. In addition to tracing both stories’ depictions of metamorphic identity transformations, this essay dedicates itself to evaluating and analysing the effects of migrant trauma on first and second generation Arab Canadians.
Remembering the Algerian War: Trauma, Women, Diaspora and Aftermath in Cartouches Gauloises, Hors La Loi and The Battle of Algiers
(2020) Zhao, Zixuan; Telmissany, May
In this essay, I examine three films concerning the Algerian War: Cartouches Gauloises (2007) by Mehdi Charef, Hors La Loi (2010) by Rachid Bouchareb, and The Battle of Algiers (1966) by Gillo Pontecorvo. I argue that Charef and Bouchareb’s mixed Algerian-French background provides another perspective in representing the traumatic history of the Algerian War. The tragic fate happening both on the Algerian natives and the French-Algerians during the war reveals the permanent scar on the Algerian land by the colonization. In The Battle of Algiers, however, the cruelty of the war is reproduced in a realistic style, as both sides in the war manage to conquer the other desperately. Moreover, I argue that the female characters in the three films have awakened and no longer an appendage of their husbands since they attach their fate with their homeland and devote themselves to independence. All three films serve as a cultural connection between the younger generation and the traumatized one. Moreover, the spirit of decolonization will continue inspiring French-Algerian filmmakers in the future.
Après le rideau de fer : le paradoxe du cinéma postcommuniste bulgare
(2019) Pellerin Petrova, Anna; Schwartz, Agatha
Trente ans après la chute du rideau de fer, le paysage cinématographique bulgare a subi de changements majeurs. Malgré la similitude des expériences du Bloc de l’Est, sa trajectoire diffère de celle d’autres pays ex-communistes. Ce mémoire examine la particularité du cas du cinéma postcommuniste bulgare. L’analyse s’articule autour de deux concepts des études culturelles et de la sociologie : la nostalgie postcommuniste ainsi que le balkanisme. Le premier chapitre du mémoire fait un tour d’horizon des recherches menées sur le sujet, précise l’approche théorique et les concepts, et introduit le cinéma bulgare. Le second chapitre étudie les représentations du communisme dans les œuvres analysées. Cette observation du cinéma bulgare se fait en deux temps : d’abord, les représentations dites « négatives », où le communisme est illustré comme un régime oppressif ; puis, les représentations plus modérées, alors que l’ire fait place à une désillusion de la situation d’aujourd’hui. Le troisième et dernier chapitre de ce mémoire se penche sur le paradoxe de l’identité bulgare. Il examine l’ambiguïté identitaire causée par le complexe d’infériorité bulgare telle que représentée dans les films et par un retour au nationalisme dans le cinéma.
Exhibits of Truth and Reconciliation: Creating Empathetic Spaces for Indigenous Narratives in Canada
(2020) Pilon, Marylene; Schwartz, Agatha
This essay examines what the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) has achieved and failed to accomplish between 2009 and 2015. The TRC’s exhibits are testaments to the ongoing colonial traumatization among Indigenous peoples in Canada expressed through survivor statements in non-conventional forms of art in a space that has been historically biased against them. I study the importance and value of a sample of exhibits produced as a result of the Commission to argue that ongoing and systemic racism persists in 2020 and Canada needs broader participation in reconciliation forums. This project is an effort towards shifting post-colonial public dispositions that lack awareness of pervasive colonization-trauma or empathetic indignation.
Representations of Labour, Race, and Orientalism in Tale of a Certain Orient and Blackbodying
(2020) Jurdi, Erika; Schwartz, Agatha
The present research paper analyses the novels Tale of a Certain Orient by Brazilian author Milton Hatoum, and Blackbodying by Canadian author Dimitri Nasrallah, regarding their depictions of the Lebanese migratory experience in two different settings: the Amazon region in the early 20th century, and Toronto in the late 20th century. Using the frame of labour and race relations, as well as analysing the use and rejection of Orientalist stereotypes, I highlight the similarities, but mostly the differences, between various experiences of migration of people originating in the same place. While the Brazilian novel shows us the social and economic ascent of a Lebanese family in the context of early 20th century Manaus, privileged by their position in relation to their local Black and Indigenous employees, the Canadian novel brings forth the hardships and isolation of a recent immigrant fleeing war and left entirely to his own devices in a hostile new environment. I conclude that despite their regional differences, the two novels resonate with universal messages that are relevant to many people’s experiences in a globalized world shaped by migration and displacement.

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