Gaze in Flux

No. 1 - Year 15 - 12/2024

University of Zadar | eISSN 1847-7755 | SIC.JOURNAL.CONTACT@GMAIL.COM

Editorial

We are happy to present the thirty-first issue of [sic], which collects articles on various topics from the broad fields of literature, culture, and literary translation. The red thread connecting them is the fluid and multifarious notion of observation and perception, as reflected in this issue’s title, “Gaze in Flux.”...

Literary Translation
Kemi Alabi and Anja Glavinić:

Saba, Nick Hakim i dvije pjesme u pjesmi

Zemlja. Ametist. Trešnje na vrućini. Stabla sline šećere. Pjesma ponoćne modrine. Raj je što?
Kraljevstvo sjedinjeno plahim božanskim dodirom? Izvor zelenila i rijeke? Ako
Bog Otac govori: prvo robuješ i drhtiš i ljuštiš se i umireš i umireš da te u raj
propuste na stražnji ulaz, sad pognuto zrnce – laži. Nema vrata, nema reda. Gle, ipak postoji:

poljupcem smo oživljeni – zelenimo se. U klupku se uz nas oglasi – rijeka je rođena ovdje.

DOI: 10.15291/sic/1.15.lt.3
Literature and Culture
Mario Kolar, University of Rijeka, Croatia:

Čitajući prvi hrvatski kriminalistički roman, Kneginja iz Petrinjske ulice Marije Jurić Zagorke, objavljen 1910., pomalo me začudilo to što je zagrebački policajac Šimek, koji u romanu istražuje umorstvo jedne gospođe, bio obožavatelj Sherlocka Holmesa. Jednog od najslavnijih svjetskih književnih detektiva nije teško obožavati pa nije me začudilo to. Začudila me činjenica da je Zagorka već 1910. čitala ili barem čula za Doyleova junaka, koji se u književnoj javnosti, i to u Velikoj Britaniji, pojavio tek dvadesetak godina ranije. Pritom nisam, dakako, sumnjao ni u Zagorkinu natprosječnu obaviještenost o aktualnim književnim fenomenima (i po mnogočemu drugom bila je ispred svih drugih) ni u njezin smisao za prepoznavanje onoga što čitatelji vole. Zanimalo me ustvari je li Zagorka za fikcionalnog britanskog detektiva čula ili je čitala o njemu u Hrvatskoj, ili možda u Mađarskoj ili Austriji, kamo je putovala, ili gdje drugdje. Pokušao sam stoga pronaći podatak jesu li Doyleova djela s Ho...

DOI: 10.15291/sic/1.15.lc.8
Literature and Culture
Jéssica Iolanda Costa Bispo, Nova University Lisbon, Portugal:

Nineteenth-century England demonstrated a peculiar attitude toward the child. On the one hand, eighteenth-century Romanticism had brought about the idea of the Romantic Child, an idealized figure characterized by being inherently pure, innocent, and divine. On the other hand, the child was subject to intense sexualization and objectification, especially the “little girl,” an eroticized figure constructed by sociocultural tendencies and convention rather than being biologically determined, i.e., defined according to her age. The coexistence of these deeply ambivalent ways of perceiving the female child are, in turn, related to restrictive gender norms, with the middle- and upper-class Victorian woman idealized as the ‘angel in the house.’ As these women were expected to be confined to the domestic sphere and educate their children, a cult of childhood arose, along with philosophical incursions into the psychological development of the child. Taking into consideration this context, this ...

DOI: 10.15291/sic/1.15.lc.3
Literary Translation
Orlanda Amarílis and Paul Melo e Castro:

The newspapers were heaped up on a low bench, the kind pupils use in the private classes of eccentric schoolmarms. Damata sat reading placidly and without haste. Engrossed in the news, he didn’t notice the maids singing in the kitchen or the kids playing noisy games of hide-and-seek. Each time he sat forward to grab another paper his deck chair groaned like ship’s rigging. The noise was driving him mad. He was sick of telling Bia to get it seen to and she just retorting: “Man, that chair’s fine, Damata.” Such pig-headedness! They’d lived together for years, had a few kids – yet that stubborn way of hers was still an obstacle to their getting properly married. All the same, no good house in Mindelo closed its doors to her, for Nhô Damata was an upstanding man and had recognised their children.From his waistcoat pocket he removed a silver-edged snuffbox. With a sharp tap, he knocked the contents forward before taking a pinch between thumb and forefinger.Good stuff this. He took his snort...

DOI: 10.15291/sic/1.15.lt.2
Literary Translation
Lina Meruane and Velebita Koričančić:

Moje pronicljivo oko ne slabi tijekom pregleda i sada pomno istražuje moguće simptome pothlađenosti na bezizražajnom licu žene koja čita. Što to čita? Oprostite, kažem napokon, puhnuvši tu riječ u bijeli šum. Žena ne pomiče nijedan mišić, ni milimetar njezina tijela ne grči se, čak ni ne trepće. Oprostite. Mogu li sjesti? Moje usne mehanički izbace te riječi – to je pitanje dio sklopa kojim hinim milosrđe i koji sama svakodnevno podmazujem uljem. Mogu li? Noge su mi olovne, koljena se koče, bole me zglobovi, zapešća, a najviše kvrgavi nožni palci. No ženu to ne dira i na tren pomislim: da uistinu želim sjesti, mogla bih to učiniti; ova je klupa javno dobro, to jest, moja koliko i njezina. U tom slučaju, moja je molba blesava: mogla bih sjesti, no ne želim niti bih trebala sjesti – snijeg na klupi smočio bi mi bijelu suknju, bijele hulahopke, gaćice i mlohavu kožu dupeta. Da sjednem, smočila bih se, osjetila bih hladnoću poput vrele plahte koja mi prlji guzu. No tražila sam da sjednem, ...

DOI: 10.15291/sic/1.15.lt.4
Literature and Culture
Tanushree Mitra, Arindam Modak and Sutanuka Banerjee:

This paper explores how Eurocentric ideas of nationalism and cosmopolitanism differ from Indian thinker and philosopher Rabindranath Tagore’s views and in what ways the intersection between nationalism and cosmopolitanism takes place in his novel The Home and the World (1919), originally published as Ghare-Baire in 1916. The novel will be analyzed mainly through Kai Nielsen’s philosophy of cosmopolitan nationalism (1999) and Kwame Anthony Appiah’s concept of rooted cosmopolitanism (2005). Tagore yearned for the conglomeration of different cultures and despised narrow perspectives on nationalism as constricted by geographical boundaries. As per his humanitarian worldview, he prioritized cosmopolitanism as his forte. The novel does not propose any conflict between ‘the home' and ‘the world'; rather, it suggests a state in which the home and the world would be negotiated to form a harmonious whole. In the Swadeshi period (1905-1911), when the future of Indian self-rule was being mulled ov...

DOI: 10.15291/sic/1.15.lc.5