Editorial [PDF]
James Farrugia, Irene Scicluna: University of Malta
“You want to mess with people’s heads”: An Interview with Jim Crace [PDF]
The antae Editorial Board: University of Malta
Performance and Authentic Expression: The Soliloquies in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet [PDF]
Sephora Gauci: University of Malta
In Hamlet, soliloquies portray a solitary character in midst of a private struggle, voicing emotions and thoughts about the human condition. They throw light on Shakespeare’s prowess in representing the human being; what Harold Bloom calls Shakespeare’s ‘invention of the human’ and what Samuel Johnson refers to as Shakespeare’s chief skill in presenting ‘a map of life’. And yet, this suggestion constitutes a paradox: soliloquies—which constitute the most contrived speeches in drama—have been accepted as being authentic expressions of human emotions and forming part of faithful representations of the human being. This article examines the different soliloquies in Hamlet, taking into consideration their power to reveal a character’s emotions. The relation between the audience and the soliloquists is also addressed, especially in relation to the question of whether a soliloquy should be regarded as a private and authentic expression of emotions or as a calculated performance which the character stages intentionally knowing that he is being heard by an audience. The essay also discusses Hamlet’s attempts to introspect about his feelings through the language of theatre and performance, as well as his interest in theatricality and its power to provoke an emotional response.
Corporeal Gender: Feeling Gender in First Person Trans* Narratives [PDF]
Natasha Frost: University of Edinburgh
In the field of gender studies, the connection between physical being and identity is a point of passionate debate. The way people relate to their physical selves and society’s interpretation of their corporeal body can often constitute the very cornerstone of identity. Whilst the destabilisation of relations between sex, gender, sexuality, and identity has been vital to social progress, this theoretical framework does not fully engage with the importance of corporeal feeling. This neglect is most starkly clear in the interaction of trans* autobiographical literature with wider discourse; when the body before the mirror does not connect with your inner sense of self, your investment in the connection of physicality and identity is deep. In this paper, I engage directly with the notion of feeling gender, the importance of the material body, and the difficulties of articulation of a feeling that may not initially be understood. I will explore the issue with reference to specific trans* autobiographies, including Emergence by Mario Martino, Gender Outlaw by Kate Bornstein, and Katherine Cross’s current blog Nuclear Unicorn (www.quinnae.com). When there seems to be no vehicle for communication of emotion, new languages of feeling are created. It is this new language of feeling both gender and the body that must now demand our attention.
A Man, Burning: Communicative Suffering and the Ethics of Images [PDF]
Marko Stamenkovic: University of Ghent
This article assumes a relationship among life, death and power in order to underline the following: under certain conditions, self-sacrifice—or the form of death broadly associated with self-immolation—has the power to mobilise political life. This hypothesis has been theoretically supported by Biggs’ and Bradatan’s work on self-immolation at large, as well as Murray’s work on thanatopolitics and Mbembe’s thesis on necropolitics. On these grounds I argue that photographic imagery of people who set themselves on fire can perform a political function; such a performance is feasible insofar as the visibility of their ‘communicative suffering’ in the process, and not death itself, relies upon some constructive (‘positive’) instead of merely destructive (‘negative’) aspects of human mortality. Whether a desired (or sometimes undesired) transformation may occur depends upon the ethics of images: their capacity to implicate viewers into a common cause must invoke a ‘responsive gaze’: not only in terms of survivors’ sense of empathy but, first and foremost, guilt.
‘Style Matters’: The Event of Style in Literature Book Review [PDF]
Elsa Fiott: University of Malta
Anniversary Seminar on Foucault and Derrida: Theory and Practice — Review [PDF]
Christine Caruana, James Farrugia: University of Malta
The Humanities on Migration — Conference Review [PDF]
Aaron Aquilina: Lancaster University
