Humanities

14 pages, 223 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Everyday Apocalypses: Debt and Dystopia in Nicole Dennis-Benn’s Here Comes the Sun

by Michael Niblett

Humanities 2025, 14(5), 105; https://doi.org/10.3390/h14050105 - 2 May 2025

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Writing in November 2010 in the aftermath of a series of devastating hurricanes, Norman Girvan admitted to “a growing sense that Caribbean states may be more and more facing a challenge of existential threats”. By this, he continues, “I mean systemic challenges to [...] Read more.

Writing in November 2010 in the aftermath of a series of devastating hurricanes, Norman Girvan admitted to “a growing sense that Caribbean states may be more and more facing a challenge of existential threats”. By this, he continues, “I mean systemic challenges to the viability of our states as functioning socio-economic-ecological-political systems” due to “the intersection of climatic, economic, social and political developments”. In this article, I examine the specifically literary response to these existential threats. My focus is on Nicole Dennis-Benn’s novel Here Comes the Sun (2016), which offers a searing critique of what I term the apocalypse of the everyday, that is, of the way capitalism’s logics of social death and ecocide permeate every facet of contemporary quotidian practice. I am particularly interested in Dennis-Benn’s registration of the impact of debt colonialism on Jamaica. Debt, for Girvan, is one of the contributing factors to the existential threat facing the Caribbean. However, the temporality of debt also provides a useful optic for understanding how Dennis-Benn’s novel grapples with the effects of the ongoing catastrophe of slavery and the plantation system, as well as with the erosion of futurity in apocalyptic times. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Rise of a New World: Postcolonialism and Caribbean Literature)

20 pages, 414 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Editing of the Erotic in Hölderlin’s Empedocles Project

by Priscilla Ann Hayden-Roy

Humanities 2025, 14(5), 104; https://doi.org/10.3390/h14050104 - 30 Apr 2025

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Abstract

While the development of the Empedocles figure in the various versions of Hölderlin’s unfinished tragedy has long been the subject of scholarship, the shifts in his relationships to the women around him have largely gone unnoticed. Yet these changes are anything but subtle: [...] Read more.

While the development of the Empedocles figure in the various versions of Hölderlin’s unfinished tragedy has long been the subject of scholarship, the shifts in his relationships to the women around him have largely gone unnoticed. Yet these changes are anything but subtle: in the Frankfurt Plan, Empedocles is married with children, and his wife plays a significant role in the outline of the plot; in the first draft, Empedocles is unmarried but adored by Panthea, a young Agrigentine woman; in the last draft, the figure of Panthea has been reconfigured as Empedocles’ biological sister. With each successive draft Hölderlin imposed new barriers, the crossing of which would imply sexual transgression or incest, in order to set Empedocles apart from potential sexual or erotic entanglements with the dramatis personae. But at the same time, we observe language suited for erotic settings (and used thus by Hölderlin here and in other works) being displaced to ever new objects throughout the drafts. In other words, while the author as editor of his material successively deleted or prohibited the sexual/erotic relationships of his titular hero, at the same time he allowed this fluidly metonymic, multivalent erotic language to flow, continuously redirected, throughout the entire Empedocles project. With Empedocles’ leap into Mount Etna, we find the culmination of this meandering erotic diction, imagined in the last draft as an hybristic, incestuous union with his divine parents. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hölderlin and Poetic Transport)

16 pages, 1113 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Adapting The Mysteries of Udolpho’s Musicality into Real Music: An Impossible Task?

by Lucie Ratail

Humanities 2025, 14(5), 103; https://doi.org/10.3390/h14050103 - 29 Apr 2025

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Abstract

The Mysteries of Udolpho was published at a time when poetry and music were being redefined, along with the notions of imitation and expression. From a precedence of word over music, theorists, musicians and composers started reconsidering the hierarchy of arts, which led [...] Read more.

The Mysteries of Udolpho was published at a time when poetry and music were being redefined, along with the notions of imitation and expression. From a precedence of word over music, theorists, musicians and composers started reconsidering the hierarchy of arts, which led to a new appreciation of both sung music and instrumental music. Ann Radcliffe’s novel is replete with pleasing sounds and mysterious melodies, working both as part of her décor and general soundscape and as a key element of the narrative. Given the novel’s musical profusion and versatility, one may wonder how to adapt its musicality into actual music. This paper, therefore, endeavors to define the balance of imitation and expression in The Mysteries of Udolpho and questions the ability of other media, especially those relying on sounds, to adapt its musical richness. It first focuses on the novel’s inscription in the larger context of musical theory, before delving into the limits of language’s sound mimesis and its counteracting expressivity. The final part is a case study of three artworks inspired by Radcliffe’s novel: John Bray’s song “Soft as yon’s silver ray that sleeps”, Catherine Czerkawska’s radio dramatization The Mysteries of Udolpho, and Marc Morvan and Benjamin Jarry’s album Udolpho. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Music and the Written Word)

11 pages, 198 KiB

Open AccessArticle

“The Triumph of the Ordinary”: Mental Reservation, Racial Profiling and Construction of a Human Social Community in Sherman Alexie’s Ten Little Indians

by Shuangshuang Li

Humanities 2025, 14(5), 102; https://doi.org/10.3390/h14050102 - 29 Apr 2025

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Abstract

In Ten Little Indians, Sherman Alexie presents nine poignant and emotionally resonant stories about Native Americans’ struggle with alienation and stereotypes. Instead of focusing merely on the ethnic identity of American Indians, Alexie writes about a particular group of people sharing similar [...] Read more.

In Ten Little Indians, Sherman Alexie presents nine poignant and emotionally resonant stories about Native Americans’ struggle with alienation and stereotypes. Instead of focusing merely on the ethnic identity of American Indians, Alexie writes about a particular group of people sharing similar circumstances and addresses their common humanity, namely their search for love and respect in urban spaces. Alexie questions the authenticity of Indian identity and asserts that a “mental reservation” exists in the minds of Indian people which significantly influences their perceptions of self and community. Race, as a medium of seeing “the other” permeates U.S. society, especially in the wake of terrorist attacks. However, racial profiling has proven to be an ineffective means of detecting criminals and criminal activities, and has obstructed social relationships, bringing emotions of fear, loneliness and grief to urban Indians. In response to the modernity crisis, Alexie explores the American Indian cosmopolitanism in Ten Little Indians, and envisions a human social community based on reciprocity and mutual respect. His concerns regarding ordinary people’s life experiences and their ways of forming healthy relationships exhibit his considerable hope for “the triumph of the ordinary”. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Comparative Literature and World Literature: Toward a Global Cultural Community through a New Cosmopolitanism)

18 pages, 269 KiB

Open AccessArticle

“Wenn dunkel mir ist der Sinn,/Den Kunst und Sinnen hat Schmerzen/Gekostet von Anbeginn” (“When Dark Are My Mind and Heart/Which Paid from the Beginning/In Grief for Thought and Art”): Hölderlin in the “Hölderlin Tower”—Contemporary and Modern Diagnoses of His Illness, and Literary (Self-)Therapy

by Gabriele von Bassermann-Jordan

Humanities 2025, 14(5), 101; https://doi.org/10.3390/h14050101 - 28 Apr 2025

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Abstract

In 1802, Friedrich Hölderlin experienced his first mental breakdown, which was followed by a second one in 1805. On 15th September 1806, he was admitted to the clinic of Johann Heinrich Ferdinand von Autenrieth in Tübingen who addressed Hölderlin’s illness as “madness” (“Wahnsinn”). [...] Read more.

In 1802, Friedrich Hölderlin experienced his first mental breakdown, which was followed by a second one in 1805. On 15th September 1806, he was admitted to the clinic of Johann Heinrich Ferdinand von Autenrieth in Tübingen who addressed Hölderlin’s illness as “madness” (“Wahnsinn”). On 3rd May 1807, the poet was discharged as “incurable” (“unheilbar”). Until his death on 7th June 1843, he was cared for by the carpenter Ernst Zimmer. From the period between 1807 and 1843, 50 poems by Hölderlin have been preserved, in German studies known as the “Turmdichtung” (“tower poetry”). These poems have long been relegated to the margins of scholarly research. In my essay, I will discuss the modern and contemporary diagnoses, as well as Hölderlin’s literary (self-) therapy of his illness. I am suggesting that Hölderlin’s tower poetry contains a thera-peutic–poetic concept that is intended to serve the treatment of his illness. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hölderlin and Poetic Transport)

17 pages, 275 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Dark Side of Things: Praxis of Curiosity in La silva curiosa (Julián de Medrano 1583)

by Mercedes Alcalá Galán

Humanities 2025, 14(5), 100; https://doi.org/10.3390/h14050100 - 28 Apr 2025

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Abstract

Curiosity lies at the heart of the sixteenth-century miscellany books, which served as precursors to the essay genre. Among them, a truly exceptional piece stands out: La silva curiosa by Julián de Medrano, published in 1583. This work pushes the boundaries of curiosity [...] Read more.

Curiosity lies at the heart of the sixteenth-century miscellany books, which served as precursors to the essay genre. Among them, a truly exceptional piece stands out: La silva curiosa by Julián de Medrano, published in 1583. This work pushes the boundaries of curiosity to such an extent that it challenges its classification within the genre of miscellany owing to its unconventional and strange nature. Julián de Medrano, the author of this outlandish work, transforms himself into a character and protagonist, defining himself as an “extremely curious” individual. During his extensive travels, he curates a collection of “curious” epitaphs associated with often comical and peculiar deaths, spanning Latin, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Galician, and Italian. In addition to this, La silva curiosa includes an autobiographical narrative, a precursor to the Gothic genre, in which Medrano recounts unsettling encounters with black magic. This work offers a multifaceted exploration of curiosity, taking it to the extreme by narrating the author’s life experiences driven by a relentless pursuit of the curious, which is synonymous with the bizarre, extraordinary, marvelous, and unexpected. La silva curiosa emerges from a time marked by an almost nihilistic void, as the full force of the Baroque era has not yet arrived, and the ideals of humanism are fading away. It stands as a unique document that unveils an unexpected facet of the concept of curiosity within Spanish Renaissance culture. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Curiosity and Modernity in Early Modern Spain)

15 pages, 316 KiB

Open AccessArticle

“Diversity” Is “The Motor Driving Universal Energy”: Édouard Glissant’s (1928–2011) Relation and Watsuji Tetsurō’s (1889–1960) Fūdo

by Andrea Sartori

Humanities 2025, 14(5), 99; https://doi.org/10.3390/h14050099 (registering DOI) - 25 Apr 2025

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Abstract

This paper critically examines Édouard Glissant’s philosophy of relation through the lens of Watsuji Tetsurō’s theory of fūdo (climate and milieu), arguing that Watsuji’s insights help address some of the tensions and limitations in Glissant’s thought. While Glissant foregrounds relationality as a dynamic [...] Read more.

This paper critically examines Édouard Glissant’s philosophy of relation through the lens of Watsuji Tetsurō’s theory of fūdo (climate and milieu), arguing that Watsuji’s insights help address some of the tensions and limitations in Glissant’s thought. While Glissant foregrounds relationality as a dynamic process of cultural creolization, his emphasis on fluidity and opacity at times risks obscuring the material and environmental conditions that shape human interactions. In contrast, Watsuji’s fūdo provides a framework for understanding relationality as always embedded in specific climatic and spatial conditions, grounding Glissant’s poetics of relation in a more concrete phenomenological and ecological perspective. By integrating Watsuji’s attention to the reciprocal formation of human subjectivity and milieu, this paper argues for a more nuanced articulation of relational identity—one that does not merely resist fixity but also acknowledges the formative role of an (interconnected) place (or places) and environment (or environments). Ultimately, this comparative approach highlights the potential for a deeper ecological and material grounding of Glissant’s thought, offering a corrective to its occasional indeterminacy while reaffirming its decolonial aspirations. In doing so, it contributes to broader discussions on the intersections of environmental philosophy, postcolonial thought, and theories of intersubjectivity. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Space Between: Landscape, Mindscape, Architecture)

13 pages, 287 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Cosmopolitan Ideal in Timothy Mo’s An Insular Possession

by Shenghao Hu and Zengxin Ni

Humanities 2025, 14(5), 98; https://doi.org/10.3390/h14050098 - 25 Apr 2025

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Abstract

Hong Kong-born British writer Timothy Mo’s novel An Insular Possession (1986) focuses on the First Opium War (1839–1842) and critically examines global inequalities. This article explores cosmopolitanism as a potential framework for mitigating cross-cultural conflicts. Instead of embracing cosmopolitanism as an inherently positive [...] Read more.

Hong Kong-born British writer Timothy Mo’s novel An Insular Possession (1986) focuses on the First Opium War (1839–1842) and critically examines global inequalities. This article explores cosmopolitanism as a potential framework for mitigating cross-cultural conflicts. Instead of embracing cosmopolitanism as an inherently positive vision, the novel critiques two cosmopolitan worldviews—British colonialism and the Chinese Tianxia concept—and reveals the potential complicity of cosmopolitanism in consolidating hierarchical world orders. Through the protagonist Gideon Chase, an American expatriate engaged in studying Chinese language and culture, Mo envisions a de-colonial cosmopolitan vision that seeks to transcend the center/margin dynamic and fosters more equitable cross-cultural interactions. Gideon’s ultimate failure to alleviate Sino–British tensions prompts reflections on global justice and underscores the urgent need to establish a cosmopolitan world order marked by peace, mutual respect and tolerance of difference. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Comparative Literature and World Literature: Toward a Global Cultural Community through a New Cosmopolitanism)

12 pages, 205 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Classroom as a “Brave Space” in Jacqueline Woodson’s Harbor Me

by Wendy Rountree

Humanities 2025, 14(5), 97; https://doi.org/10.3390/h14050097 - 24 Apr 2025

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Abstract

In this essay, I utilize Robert Stepto’s “ritual ground” concept and Ray Oldenburg’s “third place” theory to analyze Jacqueline Woodson’s Harbor Me. I posit that Ms. Laverne repurposes an old art classroom as both a “third place” and a “ritual ground” for [...] Read more.

In this essay, I utilize Robert Stepto’s “ritual ground” concept and Ray Oldenburg’s “third place” theory to analyze Jacqueline Woodson’s Harbor Me. I posit that Ms. Laverne repurposes an old art classroom as both a “third place” and a “ritual ground” for her students, and as a result, her students are empowered to create community and find their individual and collective voices. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue African American Children's Literature)

12 pages, 209 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Nermin Yildirim’s Sakli Bahçeler Haritasi (The Hidden Gardens Map) in the Context of Multiple Personality Disorder

by Nazlı Memiş Baytimur

Humanities 2025, 14(5), 96; https://doi.org/10.3390/h14050096 - 24 Apr 2025

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Abstract

Novels, which take shape in imaginary worlds, are closely connected to life and reality. Psychiatric disorders also belong to life and reality and are part of the content of literary works. Authors sometimes make use of mental disorders to tell a story or [...] Read more.

Novels, which take shape in imaginary worlds, are closely connected to life and reality. Psychiatric disorders also belong to life and reality and are part of the content of literary works. Authors sometimes make use of mental disorders to tell a story or to give depth to fiction. Such disorders, which started to be seen in Turkish literature in the novels of the Tanzimat period, play particularly dramatic roles in texts produced after the 1960–1970s. Psychological disorders include dissociative disorders, one type of which is multiple personality disorder. The person experiencing this type of dissociation develops two or more independent personality systems in response to feelings of anxiety. One of the most important works of recent Turkish literature, Nermin Yıldırım’s Saklı Bahçeler Haritası (The Hidden Gardens Map), first published in 2013, is a novel in which multiple personality disorder plays a significant role. This study attempts to determine how the defining criteria and symptoms of multiple personality disorder are exhibited in the aforementioned novel and how its effects and related issues are conveyed to the reader. Full article

(This article belongs to the Section Literature in the Humanities)

12 pages, 219 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Leo Africanus Curiously Strays Afield of Himself

by Steven Hutchinson

Humanities 2025, 14(5), 95; https://doi.org/10.3390/h14050095 (registering DOI) - 22 Apr 2025

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Abstract

The word “curiosity” has an opaque history with contradictory attitudes and connotations acquired ever since Antiquity. This poses an interesting problem in the case of Leo Africanus, who never uses the word in his Cosmographia de l’Affrica yet exhibits curiosity at every turn [...] Read more.

The word “curiosity” has an opaque history with contradictory attitudes and connotations acquired ever since Antiquity. This poses an interesting problem in the case of Leo Africanus, who never uses the word in his Cosmographia de l’Affrica yet exhibits curiosity at every turn as a traveler and a writer. This essay relies on a distinction that Michel Foucault makes regarding types of curiosity: that which produces conventional knowledge (which he rejects) and that which seeks extraordinary knowledge that “enables one to get free of oneself”, resulting in “the knower’s straying afield of himself”. Both as a traveler and a writer, Michel de Montaigne demonstrates that such an attitude was a living reality in sixteenth-century Europe. Montaigne’s many reflections on his “straying afield of himself” provide a bridge to interpreting Leo Africanus’s practices of traveling and writing. Leo’s profession as a diplomat, his economic expertise and his training as an Islamic legal expert all led to his far-reaching journeys, particularly in Islamic Africa but also Asia as of a young age, bringing about his many encounters with historical figures and events while also granting him access to uninhabited nature, as well as every sort of human settlement, from remote villages to great cities. His will to knowledge—curiosity that leads him to ‘stray afield of himself’ by seeking out the unusual and the unknown—proves to be the key to his travel and his writing. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Curiosity and Modernity in Early Modern Spain)

12 pages, 217 KiB

Open AccessEditorial

What Are Conservation Humanities? Preliminary Reflections on an Emerging Paradigm

by Graham Huggan and George Holmes

Humanities 2025, 14(5), 94; https://doi.org/10.3390/h14050094 - 22 Apr 2025

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Abstract

It is increasingly acknowledged that one of the primary tasks of the humanities today is to engage with environmental issues: all the more so in light of the Anthropocene, which underlines significant—indeed transformative—human influence on the planet, even as it reiterates that humans [...] Read more.

It is increasingly acknowledged that one of the primary tasks of the humanities today is to engage with environmental issues: all the more so in light of the Anthropocene, which underlines significant—indeed transformative—human influence on the planet, even as it reiterates that humans are themselves shaped by ecological processes, at least some of which are beyond their control (N [...] Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Perspectives on Conservation Humanities)

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