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LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

Slavery and Feminism in the Writings of Madame de Staël Françoise Marie Danielle Daquin Central Queensland University In France, the late eighteen-century was a turbulent period when the Ancien Régime was overthrown and the Revolution transformed all political and social institutions. Recent historians have argued that intellectual ideas that promoted the Enlightenment principles of knowledge, freedom and natural law played a major role for radicalising the Revolution. Through her writings, the liberal Anne-Louise Germaine de Staël (1766-1817) commented on her community and on the political regimes of her time. She also devoted her life and her work to the idea of freedom and equality particularly for women and for slaves. A moderate ‘feminist’, she advocated gender equality and social justice while highlighting the traditional female values that could be beneficial to society. De Staël’s work stands out, however, when she establishes a link between feminism and abolitionism. Like the works of other feminists at the turn of the nineteenth-century, she introduced the notion of ‘enslavement’ of married women. Like slaves, married women suffered from physical and cultural restrictions because they were denied civil rights and were treated as property. Moreover, de Staël added another notion of ‘enslavement’ when she portrayed women as victims of their passion, the strong feminine emotions that could be destructive and causing a loss of autonomy, identity and self-control, the same predicaments suffered by the slaves. This study demonstrates how feminism and abolitionism interacted and intersected in the work of Madame de Staël. ISBN 9783969392010. LINCOM Studies in Language and Literature 38. 254pp. 2024. Tamil Folklore and its Related Fields Saraswathi Venugopal Formerly Professor & Head, Department of Folklore, Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai, India The present volume explains how Tamil Folklore is related to the fields of Psychology, Sociology, History and Semiotics. Among its functions folklore provides a socially sanctioned outlet for the expression of what cannot be articulated in the more usual, direct way. It is precisely in folktales, folksongs, proverbs etc., that anxieties can be vented. Psychoanalysis of folksongs, folktales and proverbs is the first part of the volume. In part two, Sociology and folklore, some of the important theories of two eminent scholars namely Emile Durkheim and M.N.Srinivas are taken up for application of analysis in Tamil folklore. They are ‘Social facts’ from Durkheim and ‘Sansritisation’ and Social change etc., from Srinivas. Part three, History and folklore, Conveys the idea that written history of a country or community is not complete without its oral history. Myths, legends, songs etc., are the source materials for knowing the history of a given people, as told and believed by them, and thus these folk genres become the counterparts of the written historical records. In part four, Semiotics and folklore, communication models and theories developed by great scholars namely Ferdinand de Saussure, C.S.Peirce, Roman Jakobson and J.L.Austin have been taken up for application of analysis in oral literature. ISBN 9783969391600. LINCOM Studies in Language and Literature 35. 180pp. 2023. Muslim Magical Realisms Hamidah Allogmany Taibah University This book presents a critical examination of modern Muslim novels, exploring the multifaceted experience of Muslims in the capitalist world-system. It provides guidance on how to interpret these literary works without succumbing to Orientalist stereotypes of Islam and Muslims. Drawing on the concept of a world literary system, the book refutes the notion of a monolithic, essentialist Muslim identity or universal literary style or mode. This is illustrated through an analytical reading of six post-1980 novels, each set in a different country and utilizing magical realism along with Islamic traditions, notably Sufism, as well as local myths and forms to engage with the pressures of modernity, as they are experienced in their own communities at particular historical and political conjunctures across the modern Muslim world. The book also complicates the assumption that Salman Rushdie's magical realism is a normative model for other Muslim writers — to argue that the combination of Islamic traditions and the magical realism genre has produced a distinctive literary sub-genre: Muslim magical realism(s). Although this work acknowledges critiques that magical realism has become a global genre, the book postulates that comparing magical realism(s) from across the Muslim world can provide more nuanced understandings of the relationship between literature, religion, and modernity. ISBN 9783969391839. LINCOM Studies in Language and Literature 37. 200pp. 2023.