Rides of Insight

the family hair
spills over lunch
after we’ve become
weak and thin

my hair ends up in the plate
and pretends to be drowning
I silence it
with shyness behind my ear

the teeth are the answer
to the childish carelessness
when I splash water on the hair
bound around my waist
barely pulling out my hands
I offer them the remaining drops

Bašić called him early that morning, just after seven.It was an autumn Saturday, lead-grey light seeped in through the shutters, and Niko was idling in bed, troubled by sleeplessness, observing Maja’s body move in tune with her breathing under the duvet. He was watching the light conquer the corners of the room when the ringing of the telephone broke the silence. He dragged himself over to the device and heard a raspy, elderly baritone from the other side. “Bašić speaking.”He didn’t immediately work out who he was talking to. He stood in the hallway, barefoot, telephone in hand, sifting through his memory, hoping to connect the name he’d just heard to a voice and a face. “Bašić, your former neighbour,” the man on the other side added, as if he’d realized what was going on. “Apologies for calling so early, but I think you should come over to Sts. Cyril and Methodius Street.” In that moment, Niko connected the voice coming from the receiver with a face which surfaced from the past. He kn...

Kritika „metodološkog nacionalizma” i razvoj transnacionalnih pristupa doveli su u pitanje relevantnost nacionalne države kao istraživačke jedinice. Štoviše, brojne pojave i kretanja koji se uočavaju u nacionalnim državama rezultat su interakcija s drugim društvima te se čini da je postojanje sličnih elemenata u različitim kulturama često plod cirkuliranja modela i razmjena, a ne posljedica usporedivih uzroka (kada nije riječ o zajedničkom nasljeđu). Utječe li na koncept „polja” promjena perspektive s nacionalne na transnacionalnu, i ako da, na koji način? To će pitanje biti postavljeno u ovom promišljanju, koje je još uvijek provizorno. Iako se koncept polja općenito koristi unutar nacionalnih okvira, do te mjere da su mnogi istraživači koji se bave transnacionalnim i internacionalnim temama odustali od njegove upotrebe, dajući prednost manje ograničavajućem konceptu „prostora”, Pierre Bourdieu nigdje u svom opusu ne kaže da su polja nužno ograničena na područje nacionalne države. Pol...

The present contribution examines the promotion of German-Turkish literature in Turkey by analyzing three selected novels. It is based on exploring systemic/field-oriented ambiguity in situating German-Turkish literature both in the source (German-speaking) literary field and in the target (Turkish) book market. The three texts chosen are Emine Sevgi Özdamar’s Life is a caravanserai, Feridun Zaimoglu’s Leyla, and Selim Özdogan’s The Blacksmith’s Daughter. By discussing covers, blurbs, and the homepages of a few publishing houses, a paratextual analysis is carried out to explore the presentation of these novels to readers in Turkey. Keywords: German-Turkish literature, promotion of literary translations, paratextual contextualization, Emine Sevgi Özdamar, Feridun Zaimoglu, Selim ÖzdoganEmine Sevgi Özdamar’s highly acclaimed long-seller Life is a caravanserai (hereafter abbreviated as Caravanserai) has been published in the “Turkish-language literature” series (“Türkçe Edebiyat”) by its ...

This paper analyzes the act of ‘thalaikoothal,’ performed on ill and infirm older people in the southern part of the state of Tamil Nadu, India, with reference to two Tamil films, K.D. (2019) and Thalaikoothal (2023), which portray the horrors of the practice. A kind of involuntary euthanasia, the ritual continues to have covert social acceptance as exemplified in the films, favoring the common stereotype that marks aging bodies as unproductive and unworthy of living. Therefore, this article explores the aging bodies in the films as sites of power, controlled by death enforced through Thalaikoothal, employing Mbembe’s concept of ‘necropower.’ It also examines the effects of the practice on the elderly, who are compelled to prepare themselves for a forced death. The study further identifies the underlying factors contributing to the prolonged existence of Thalaikoothal even in the present times.Keywords: Thalaikoothal, aging bodies, senicide, necropower, Tamil films, Achille Mbembe

Research into humour in Indigenous Australian fiction is strikingly rare, even when compared to studies on humour in traditional Indigenous societies. As a consequence, when channelled through fictional prose, Indigenous humour rarely “receives any echo” (Bergson). One case in point is Gayle Kennedy’s novel Me, Antman & Fleabag (2007). Kennedy’s text, despite being marketed as humorous and winning the prestigious 2006 David Unaipon Award, has attracted a handful of minuscule reviews. The paper discusses distinctive “elastic polarity” of humour (Boskin) in Kennedy’s text, which simultaneously denies and affirms. By analysing the way in which her narrative debunks social and racial stereotypes of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australia, the paper argues that her double-edged humour produces a site of cultural negotiations necessary for understanding complexities of contemporary Indigeneities and contemporary Australia. Keywords: Gayle Kennedy, Me, Antman & Fleabag, humour, elastic polari...