Creatures

While rumors of the imminent death of the novel are everywhere, this book shows how some of our most significant twenty-first century writers mobilize the idea of the end of the novel to reimagine the ethics and politics of literature. Writers like J.M. Coetzee, Teju Cole, and Tom McCarthy disturb the emotional scenarios through which the novel form traditionally operates in order to figure unregimented forms of life and affect. Contemporary Literature and the End of the Novel combines intense discussions of key contemporary works and of theories of the novel with original interventions in current critical and theoretical debates—about affect, the anthropocene, biopolitics, cosmopolitanism, and about the forms and functions of fiction after 9/11 and after postmodernism

A strange creature turned up in Malaysia and has been making the rounds in various Paranormal and Cryptozoology groups across the internet the last few weeks. Many wild claims have been made as to what this creature actually is. But applying a little due diligence, common sense and the appropriate amount of skepticism we can get to the bottom of the identity of this creature.

Assemblage thinking is process-based thinking. Understanding cities from this perspective implies searching for processes that are assembling the city and that keeps it alive. Because of this approach, we don't need to ask: „what the city is?“ but either: „how did cities emerge?“ or: „how is their existence maintained?“ The paper argues that the perspective, from which we see cities, matters, because it either highlights or hides something. We will argue, that the result of an object-based thinking about cities, that stems from modern order of the world, is a very finite and constricted notion of a city, that in effect precludes any alternatives. But by overcoming the obsolete notions of objects, objectivity and subjects by notions of assemblage, perspectivity and chaining, the new world order may eventually emerge and resolve also the mounting enviromental and social problems. We understand city as a specific kind of creature that has helped the human society to differentiate and become global. But now is the time to limit the city and this way force the global society to develop itself so it can adapt to the challenges of the Anthropocene.

In this paper, the author focuses on one of the earliest groups of Sinologists, the Jesuit Figurists, particularly discussing how they translated mystical creatures and elements in Chinese classics, such as the dragon, dog, and Chinese mythological figures, in their typological exegesis as a tool of proselytization. Interestingly, in their translations into Latin, the Three Sovereigns 三皇 and Chinese mythological figures were depicted as biblical figures or figures from Greek and Roman mythology to parallel them with the biblical stories and narrow the cultural gap; and in the opposite linguistic direction, in their translations in Chinese manuscripts, the betrayal of Satan, the fall of Adam and Eve, and the emergence of Jesus were modeled as mystical creatures in Chinese classics, to lessen their foreignness. In addition, this paper will also focus on the space they borrowed from the Chinese classics and records of mythic geography, such as Shan Hai Jing 山海經 (The Classic of Mountains and Seas) and their purpose to create a new space that accommodated the histories and mythologies of both sides. Their translations of Chinese ancient mythologies came into play to broaden the European people's understanding of Chinese culture, while their translations of biblical stories also opened the eyes of the emperor and the Chinese literati to a Chinese packaging of Christian stories.

Juicy fruit, healthy vegetables, herbs for all the ailments, delightful flowers, a shelter under the spreading branches of an old tree - can plants be something more for man, and can they be even equal to him? Where is their place in the world, which is dominated by man and his helpers - animals? This article leads the reader through the thoughts and beliefs of ancient peoples, showing their respect for everything that lives until the modern times, when scientists try to relate the definition of intelligence and consciousness to plants. Myths from various parts of the globe, illustrate how important a role plants had in the past, that they were much more than food, medicine, or refuge. Since the beginning of time, without new technologies, people felt the power of nature and respected the otherness of creatures, wandering with them, step by step, with fear and awe. Plants, though “immobilised”, could create, and decided on the world’s fate, and were messengers between men and other ...

Little people have been a part of the folklore of many cultures in human history, including the Irish, the German, the Scottish, and Native Americans. While these cultures reside on different continents, a common thread they possess is that of dwarf-like creatures that interact with human beings for various reasons. These little people, known by different names including leprechaun and kanakavoasa, bestow knowledge and create mischief among their peoples. While many acknowledge the existence of the little people-even those who are not Native American or Irish-the similarities and differences these creatures hold, and how the Native Americans and the Irish have perpetuated their cultural folklore through oral and eventually written histories have not been studied.The leprechaun (Irish: leipreachan, which means "a pigmy, a sprite"), is one of many fairies in Irish folklore. "By trade the leprechaun is a shoemaker, and provides the fairies with their dancing shoes" ...

Esse artigo tem como objetivo fazer uma breve análise sobre os pontos convergentes e divergentes entre os criadores e as criaturas no romance gótico pré-vitoriano Frankenstein ou O Prometeu Moderno (2017 [1817]), de Mary Shelley e a obra cinematográfica Edward Mãos de Tesoura (1990), de Tim Burton. Para o embasamento teórico da nossa pesquisa, contamos, dentre outros, com as concepções de Barboza (2017), Carvalhal (2006), Clüver (2011), Culler (1999), Kristeva (2005), Plaza (2003), Rajewiski (2012), Santaella (2005), Santos (2015) e Stam (2006). Em conclusão, constatamos que, sob a perspectiva do não convencionalismo das criaturas, Tim Burton (1990) vem reforçar, em sua obra, o que Mary Shelley (1817) tentou transmitir para a sociedade no século XIX: por mais que estejamos em um corpo social com muitos avanços em termos tecnológicos, o ser humano continua reproduzindo pensamentos, ideias, discursos e ações retrógradas perante as muitas diferenças existentes entre os seres sociais. Palavras-chave: Frankenstein ou O Prometeu Moderno. Edward Mãos de Tesoura. Criadores. Criaturas. Inconvencionais.

As a poem centered on war, the Iliad is not considered to be endowed with the element of the fantastic as is the Odyssey. There are, however, mentions or allusions to some creatures fought by heroes of previous generation, like Heracles and Bellerophon, along with some brief mentions to other fantastic creatures, like the Gorgon, the centaurs, Briareus and Typhon. This paper aims to locate those brief presences in the broader narrative frame of the Iliad.