Journal articles on the topic 'Ladino Romances'

AbstractObjectiveThe aim of the research is to study whether any differences exist in the rates and characteristics of suicide by ethnicity and sex in South Tirol, Italy.MethodsPsychological autopsy interviews were conducted for suicides who died between March 1997 and July 2006.Results332 individuals belonging to the three major South Tirolean ethnic groups (Germans, Italians, Ladins [Ladin is a Rhaeto-Romance language related to the Venetian and Swiss Romansh languages]) died by suicide. Around 23% of the victims had experienced suicidal behaviour among family members, and more than 31% of them had experienced trauma during their childhood. Germans were 1.37 times more at risk to commit suicide than Italians (95% CI: 1.04/1.80; z = 2.26, p < .05). 69% of the suicides had attended school for less than 8 years: Germans (OR = 4.62; 95% CI: 2.52/8.47; p < .001) and Ladins (OR = 11.24; 95% CI: 2.99/42.30; p < .001) were more likely to have lower education than Italians. There were several differences by ethnicity and sex but no sex-by-ethnicity interactions.ConclusionsThe study indicated that suicide, an alarming health and social problem in South Tirol, may require different preventive interventions for men and women and for those of different ethnicities.

Although Walter Belardi did not publish real dictionaries except for a Basic ­dictionary of applied informatics (2000), his work in the fields of lexicography and lexicology is extremely extensive. It stretches from the ancient Indo-European languages to the Romance languages, with specific attention paid to Sella Ladin, notably Gardenese. While tracing the path of Belardi’s lexicographical research, anyone will find reason to be fascinated. This article tries to follow Belardi’s itinerary up to its last stage – the books on Armenian –, looking for a focal point of a research while driven by untamed curiosity.

Abstract: The scientific portrayal of apes at the turn of the twentieth century functioned as a rich space to probe the border between humans and the nonhuman world and to rethink the tenets of evolution. To take up these themes, Nicaraguan author Hernán Robleto (1895–1968), whose theatrical and narrative work was otherwise characterized by a costumbrista realist style, turned to the speculative genres of science fiction and fantasy in his novel Una mujer en la selva (1936). Inspired by the jungle adventure fantasies of Edgar Rice Burroughs and by the hit Hollywood film King Kong (1933), Robleto's novel offers a surprising fable about a ladina woman who falls in love with a giant ape in Nicaragua's jungled Atlantic coast. The erotic interspecies encounter is ontologically transformative; after the death of her primate lover, the protagonist becomes a legendary ape woman who haunts the social body. Allegorically, the novel deploys the giant ape as a stand-in for the marginalized Afro-descendant peoples of Nicaragua's east coast. The problematic collapse of blackness into the figure of the ape underscores how ladino writers like Robleto struggled to write about Afro-Indigenous populations in realist terms. The abstraction of blackness into the figure of the ape is a racist reification of Black animality, but at the same time, the fantastical interspecies romance in Robleto's novel tentatively advocates for a non-normative model of national coupling grounded in the Atlantic coast.

La diferencia entre los ladinamientos judíos y los romanceamientos medievales traducidos de la Biblia hebrea es un tema ampliamente discutido entre los hispanistas. La función tan distinta que ambos tuvieron en las comunidades judía y cristiana constituye una explicación parcial pero legítima, si se toman en consideración los factores que preceden al surgimiento de estos textos en romance, tales como la técnica de interpretación del Texto Masorético entre los judíos y la normativa prescrita por los sabios. El objetivo de este trabajo es describir la técnica de interpretación oral de la Biblia hebrea entre los judíos españoles y sus consecuencias para los romanceamientos medievales y los ladinamientos y traducciones sefardíes impresas después de 1492. Las variadas versiones en romance y ladino del versículo 4, 21 del libro de Jueces servirán para ilustrar el asunto.

This paper investigates the prosody of stylized calls of Badiot Ladin, a ­Rhaeto-Romance variety spoken in the Badia Valley (Eastern Alps). A Discourse Completion Task was used to elicit 108 utterances from six native speakers of Badiot. The results show that, from a phonetic point of view, the calling melody consists of a low F0 stretch, followed by a rise to high in the stressed syllable, a high plateau in pre-final unstressed syllables (in proparoxy­tones names only), and a mid-plateau in the final unstressed syllable, whose nucleus is considerably lengthened. After comparing the stylized intonation of Ladin with the same contour in other Romance languages, we argue that this contour can be represented phonologically as L+H* !H%, while the presence of the two plateaus can be explained by means of tonal spreading. We tentatively suggest that the final lengthening can be interpreted as the result of the presence of a prosodic mora aligned with the nucleus of the final syllable.

Abstract Romance texts dating from the beginning of the 17th century are relatively rare in South Tyrol, but also in the Ladin valleys of Badia and Gardena, because the administration of these two valleys preferred to use German. The few examples of the use of Romance in the Ladin valleys therefore deserve special attention: on the one hand, because they allow conclusions to be drawn on the degree of multilingualism at the time; on the other hand, because their linguistic form is sometimes characterised by code-mixing, which manifests itself in particular in the fact that the formulaic parts of the texts are generally in (Northern) Italian, while the specifically content-related parts are often interspersed with Ladinisms. Such a text, more precisely the translation of the statutes of the jurisdiction of Enneberg (Marebbe) made in 1614 by the then chancellor Caspar d’Alfarëi from the original version codified in German in 1566, is edited here for the first time and analysed and commented on from a historical and linguistic point of view.

II ladino brissino-tirolese e il romancio grigionese sono spesso caratterizzati come lingue a cavallo tra l'Europa settentrionale e meridionale (cf. Schmid 1993) e situate nel campo di gravitazione del tedesco e dell'italiano (cf. SillerRunggaldier 1999). Di questi due poli d'attrazione, soltanto il primo è stato studiato in maniera adeguata: l' influsso del tedesco (nelle sue varianti diatopiche e/o cronologiche) sul lad. b.t. e sul rom. grig., in special modo la sua componente lessicale, e stato oggetto di nume-rose analisi .2

Abstract Middle and Upper German dialects exhibit a phonological process of s-retraction neutralizing alveolar [s] to palatoalveolar [ʃ] in preconsonantal contexts. Based on a corpus of dialect data from own fieldwork, dialect atlases and dictionaries, we examine this process in Germanic, Romance and Slavic varieties of the Eastern Alps. It is attested in most Germanic varieties and in Ladin and Rumantsch, but not in other Romance varieties or in the Slovenian dialects of the region. We propose that the emergence of s-retraction may be supported by language contact, but crucially relies on specific diachronic changes affecting the sibilant inventories of the varieties displaying it.

The article is to describe an interesting phenomenon of the duplication of the literary patterns of behaviour among female protagonists created by Jane Austen. The subject of the paper is the analysis of the set books of the heroines invented by the British author in the both social and cultural context. Jane Austen’s novels can be regarded as the treasury of knowledge on the existence of the young girls at that time. The omnipresent conventions took away their right to dreams and self-fulfilment in almost every sphere of life. Lots of them found the coveted hope of improving their lives on the pages of overly aesthetic, sentimental novels. The characters from the books became inspirational among the female sex. The view of young ladies was based on their inner cultivation of the behaviour and mood which were inseparable from the girls from the popular romances. The patterns, continually given by fiction, took the place of humanistic and scientific knowledge, making the girls unaware – without the simplest information about the world. The subjects given in a wrong way by wrong teachers lowered their interest in education among youth, which also led to the popularity of sentimental, historical (especially those presenting the romance on the background of crucial events form the history of the given country) and Gothic novels. The text will concern the analysis of the attitude of the heroines created by the British author – on the basis of their set books and the position of Jane Austen in the range of literary criticism and the above-mentioned social phenomenon.

Mediaeval romances in general, and Arthuriana in particular, have canonically been read as stories of chivalry that depict knights and ladies as the era’s epitome of masculinity and femininity. Queer readings, however, question these assumptions and expose such canonical analyses as heteronormative, gender-binaristic and heterocentric. Queer medievalism subverts the norm, showing how certain thematic and formal elements of mediaeval romances destabilize the heteronormativity of the Arthurian world. Later adaptations of Arthurian legends continue this tendency, revealing the historical constructedness of gender and sexuality. This paper focuses on two adaptations of the Lady of Shalott story – Arthur Lord Tennyson’s influential Victorian poem and Elizabeth Bishop’s 20th-century gender-bent version of it – and shows that, read through the lens of queer theory, the Shalott legend shows the inherent instability of heterocentrism of these mediated mediaeval texts, thus also raising questions about the wider notions of gender, queerness and normativity in connection to history and literary analysis.

Este artigo propõe uma reflexão panorâmica das literaturas de autoria negra latino-americana publicadas nos séculos XIX, XX e XXI com base no conceito de amefricanidade idealizado pela antropóloga brasileira Lelia González na intenção de apresentar os diálogos afro-latino-americanos propostos pelas populações em diáspora forçada no processo colonial da América Latina de línguas francesa, espanhola e portuguesa. Começando com a pergunta elaborada pelo pesquisador Jerome Branche: quando, onde, por que e sob quais condições a escravidão e a opressão racial produziram uma consciência negra, serão apresentados, a partir da análise de romances e poemas, os conceitos de malungaje (Branche) e quilombismo (Nascimento) que, em conjunto com amefricanidade (González), confirmam redes de identificação afro-latino-americana, cujos diálogos têm vindo à tona com grande força nas universidades brasileiras devido ao ingresso e às reivindicações de alunas e alunos negras e negros, principalmente pelo sistema de cotas. Pretende-se, com esta reflexão, auxiliar o trabalho de professores universitários na formação de professores da educação básica brasileira que, através da obrigatoriedade das leis 10.639/03 e 11.645/11, devem trabalhar em sala de aula as culturas africanas, afro-brasileiras e indígenas, contribuindo, assim, para a formação de cidadãos conscientes das desigualdades sociais que o projeto colonial impôs às populações não-europeias da América Latina.

Este artigo propõe uma reflexão panorâmica das literaturas de autoria negra latino-americana publicadas nos séculos XIX, XX e XXI com base no conceito de amefricanidade idealizado pela antropóloga brasileira Lelia González na intenção de apresentar os diálogos afro-latino-americanos propostos pelas populações em diáspora forçada no processo colonial da América Latina de línguas francesa, espanhola e portuguesa. Começando com a pergunta elaborada pelo pesquisador Jerome Branche: quando, onde, por que e sob quais condições a escravidão e a opressão racial produziram uma consciência negra, serão apresentados, a partir da análise de romances e poemas, os conceitos de malungaje (Branche) e quilombismo (Nascimento) que, em conjunto com amefricanidade (González), confirmam redes de identificação afro-latino-americana, cujos diálogos têm vindo à tona com grande força nas universidades brasileiras devido ao ingresso e às reivindicações de alunas e alunos negras e negros, principalmente pelo sistema de cotas. Pretende-se, com esta reflexão, auxiliar o trabalho de professores universitários na formação de professores da educação básica brasileira que, através da obrigatoriedade das leis 10.639/03 e 11.645/11, devem trabalhar em sala de aula as culturas africanas, afro-brasileiras e indígenas, contribuindo, assim, para a formação de cidadãos conscientes das desigualdades sociais que o projeto colonial impôs às populações não-europeias da América Latina.

On June 9, 1860, the publishing firm of Irving P. Beadle and Company announced in the New York Daily Tribune the publication of their first dime novel, Ann S. Stephens's Malaeska: The Indian Wife of the White Hunter. The narrative was advertised as “the best story of the day,” and its writer as “the star of American authors.” Stephens, whose name is familiar today only to scholars of the dime novel, was indeed well known to the reading public around the mid-19th Century. She was on the editorial board of several magazines, including the illustrious Graham's Magazine. She had published her own journal, Mrs. Stephens Illustrated New Monthly. And she wrote for a plethora of popular magazines, among others the Columbian Lady's and Gentleman's Magazine, the Ladies' Wreath, Frank Leslie's Ladies' Gazette of Fashion, and Peterson's Magazine. Her 1854 urban melodrama Fashion and Famine had to be printed three times during the first month of publication to satisfy the demand of the public, and eventlually sold a record eighty thousand copies. Her historical novels, generally of European setting, were so successful that they were systematically printed in book form by the Philadelphia publisher T. B. Peterson after they had appeared serially in Charles J. Peterson's literary monthly. And Stephens had the sanction of the critics as well as the public: already in 1848 the American Literary Magazine had eulogized her by stating that “of the numerous female writers of our country, Mrs. Stephens is deservedly classed among the first.” Charles J. Peterson had declared in the pages of Graham's Magazine that “no writer, since Sir Walter Scott, had excelled her in … power of description.” And even Edgar Allan Poe had acknowledged that Stephens could “seize adroitly on salient incidents and present them with vividness to the eye,” was “not unskillful in delineation of character,” and could, in conclusion, be granted “the effervescence of high talent, if not exactly of genius.”

Alla memoria del noto romanista austriaco Theodor Gartner (in seguito: G.) e stato dedicato il convegno celebrato tre anni fa a Vill/Innsbruck, di cui in queste pagine recensiamo gli Atti. Il volume contiene ben 34 contributi: 6 in italiano, 5 in francese, il resto in tedesco. Quanto agli argomenti, 3 contributi trattano temi generali, 10 sono dedicati al romancio, 3 al ladino (centrale), 5 al friulano e ben 13 al romeno. La combinazione di retoromanzo (in seguito: RR) e di romeno riflette, come si sa, i due principali domini scientifici del G. (combinazione alquanto insolita nell'Austria del suo tempo, secondo E. Coseriu, p. 277). La riputazione del G. poggia comunque sui suoi lavori RR, mentre quelli romeni sono nettamente inferiori (cfr. Coseriu, p. 278; Kramer, p. 321). Anche nel presente volume il centro è sugli studi RR, e compare (o ricompare) anche il termine retoromanzo, persino presso gli autori che peraltro non ammettono la tanto discussa unità RR (ad es. Iliescu, p. 305, nota 1).

In “Tomida femina” (“A swollen woman”), a tenth-century charm written in Occitan, the vernacular of the south of France, a birthing woman and her helpers intone magical language during the most intense moments of childbirth. The poem permits us, with brief but uncommon intimacy, to imagine the lives of women long ago. It takes its place in a European tradition of birthing charms, including others written in Latin, German, and English. These charms, and in particular “Tomida femina,” provide an image of vigorous medieval women in childbirth that precedes the images of women in other secular Romance lyrics—young girls in love in the Mozarabic kharjas, idealized ladies in troubadour songs, and passionate aristocratic women in the poetry of the Occitan trobairitz.

El propósito de este artículo es considerar lo que el Juego trobado de Pinar, un juego de cartas completado en 1496, puede enseñarnos sobre el repertorio musical de la corte de la reina Isabel de Castilla y el papel que desempeñaban las mujeres como oyentes y artistas. Después de explicar lo que se sabe sobre este juego, incluida la fecha en que se completó, las circunstancias de su composición y el método por el cual se puede identificar a cada participante, ofrezco un comentario sobre esas canciones, villancicos y romances, aproximadamente un tercio de los citados, que han sobrevivido en versiones musicales en el Cancionero musical de Palacio y el Cancionero musical de la Colombina, basándome en información recientemente publicada en mi libro, Secrets of Pinar’s Game: Court Ladies and Courtly Verse in Late Medieval Spain (Leiden: Brill, 2017).

This essay aims to study the images of a modern Faro lady in Georgette Heyer’s historical romance Faro’s Daughter. It is divided into three parts. The first part examines Faro ladies in the history and literature of Georgian England, and it compares Heyer’s heroine Deborah Grantham to them. The second talks about how Deborah embodies female virtues that are not appreciated by eighteenth-century gender law but are celebrated by feminist thinking such as Mary Wollstonecraft’s. The third shows that Deborah in Heyer’s work reflects the first-wave feminist thinking but does not follow all the trends of criticism and literary taste. The study juxtaposes Heyer’s heroine with one of the notorious Georgian female gamer Lady Albinia Hobart and argues that Deborah is a reformed Faro lady. The study also examines Deborah in Faro’s Daughter as a combination and rejection of eighteenth- and twentieth-century feminists such as Mary Wollstonecraft and Simone de Beauvoir, showing that Heyer finds her own path of feminist criticism. If historical romance is a sub-genre that revises history, Heyer’s heroine, as the essay tries to point out, represents a revision of feminist discourse.

The insertion of inflectional suffixes in the verbal paradigm is a widespread phenomenon, characteristic of Romance verbal morphology. Traditionally, there are two types of hypotheses that concern verbal amplifications: on the one hand there is a phonological explanation that relies on the criterion of the “generalization of stress”, on the other hand there is a semantic-functional hypothesis based on the theory of verbal aspect. This contribution proposes an analysis of the suffix -ëi- that appears in the verbal forms with stressed stem in the Badiot dialect, one of the idioms of the central Ladin group. The confrontation of the traditional hypotheses with a corpus of 2040 verbs of the first conjugation of the Badiot dialect, reveals that neither the phonological hypothesis nor the semantic-functional hypothesis can account for the insertion of the suffix. An alternative hypothesis is proposed, wich considers stress in a paradigmatic perspective wich that explains the presence of the suffix by the generalization of the metrical structure associated with the lexical stem of the infinitive.

Abstract This work analyzes the poetry of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz in the light of court discourse, considering the contributions of Norbert Elias, Barbara Rosenwein, Amedeo Quondam, and Fernando Rodríguez de la Flor, among others. Courtly behaviors, gender, affects, and fortune intersect in romance 36, “Salud y gracia. Sepades”. In this text, as in other poems of her production, the Mexican author is inscribed in a courtly tradition and, at the same time, in an anti-courtly one, by identifying herself with courtly regulations, but, also distancing herself from them. This tension reflects the adoption of metropolitan literature, where both modalities coexist, but also reveals its particular place of enunciation, on the margins of the Spanish empire. The poem goes over the stereotypes regarding female representation through three courtly figurations: the ladies, the Fortune, and the enunciator herself.

This paper investigates stereotype of first ladies and image being built during 2014 Indonesia presidential election. Wives of candidates in the election are highly accomplished as well as being graduated from universities, yet these facts are not exposed adequately in the media as part of public education on equality. Most of the time, they are being posited as faithful-partner and bold-supporter of their husbands/ partners. Interviews held by the media frequently narrate the drama within the house, family, and their romance. Their career and professionalism are being hidden from the public. Platform of empowerment and gender equality are highly cultivated, promoted, and campained by political-parties as well as NGOs, yet missed the wives to be involved. The capacity of the presidential candidate’s wives on gender, equality and women’s empowerment platforms designed by the political parties need to be promoted and scrutinized.

Research on the court ladies who participated in Pinar’s Juego trobado, a card game in verse completed in 1496, led to the discovery that María de Velasco, wife of Juan Velázquez de Cuéllar, and adoptive-mother of Ignatius Loyola, subsequently appears in several literary texts, the first of which is the Carajicomedia, where she is metamorphosed into an old prostitute skilled in the arts of seduction. Surprisingly, I have detected her presence in La novela del licenciado Vidriera, one of Cervantes’ Novelas ejemplares: each of the names of the main character, given or adopted during the course of his life, is linked in some way with this lady; and, furthermore, there are other correspondences, above all the symbolism of the quince. This begs the question whether the tale was intended to convey a coded message, and if so, one wonders what kind of message. This discovery also seems to add some credence to the theory that in Don Quixote Cervantes wished to parody the life of Ignatius Loyola as well as the heroes of chivalric romance.

Few of us are lucky enough to write about what we love. In particular, what we love to read and why it’s so popular. But, Mary K. Chelton was able to do just that. We, the readers of this column are able to dive right into this article and read Chelton’s thoughts on a book genre dear to her: Navy SEALs. Why we do love our military men? What is it with the strong, handsome type that often need “fixing” by intelligent, beautiful ladies in need of love that has our readers so transfixed? Chelton provides excellent insight into a genre that she, too, loves to read. In her own words, Chelton states that this article suggests reasons for popularity of military romance, from the type of hero and appeal factors to familiar story lines and authors. Whether you’re a readers’ advisor familiar with this reading trend, or new to the genre, this article is a great introduction or “go to” resource in your everyday RA world.—Editor

AbstractThe present study intends to examine the link between clothes and cultural identities in Jhumpa Lahiri’s “Hema and Kaushik” (2008). It will argue that Lahiri explores her protagonists’ cultural displacement through their items of clothing. We want to suggest that the protagonists’ clothes are employed in each narrative as signifiers for the characters’ cultural identities. The study will further show that each item of clothing could be loaded with the ideological signification of two separate cultures. In other words, it aims to demonstrate how ideology imposes its values, beliefs, and consequently its dominance through the dress codes each defines for its subjects. Moreover, it intends to suggest that the link between clothing and identity is most visible and intense in the case of female immigrant characters rather than men. Drawing on Luptan’s structure of the Cinderella line, we will explore Lahiri’s protagonists’ cultural transformation from simple ethnic girls to stylish American ladies through their items of clothing. The study will conclude that the “Cinderella line” does not work in Lahiri’s realistic stories the way it does in fairy tales and romance fiction.

J. Offenbach&rsquo;s opera &ldquo;The Tales of Hoffmann&rdquo; stands out from other compositions of this genre. Because of a complicated story behind, this piece of music has several versions and, consequently, various interpretations of the plot. The opera has also other features which are described in the article. Pride of place goes to the study of sopranos. The authors detect the linkage between the main female characters (Olympia, Antonia and Giulietta). The common thread, uniting Hoffmann&rsquo;s ladies, is an incidental character Stella. The three stories of the poet&rsquo;s ladies are the stages of Hoffmann&rsquo;s relations with Stella. Each scene of &ldquo;The Tales&rdquo; contains the heroine&rsquo;s projection which manifests a definite trait of her character.&nbsp; The ladies from &ldquo;The Tales&rdquo; de facto represent various traits of one girl while being de jure the main characters of each story. The composer portrays them in detail which can be seen through the difference in singing ranges and tessituras (from coloratura to lyrical-dramatic soprano). Tessitura differences along with genre duality of the opera affect the selection of expressive means. Features of opera comique allow embodying Olympia&rsquo;s hardhearted mechanism from the first scene (by means of onomatopoeic elements expressed in complex coloratura passages and music ornaments). Opera lyrique develops Antonia&rsquo;s inner conflict from the second scene by means of romance parties and lamentation character of music. This peculiar synthesis of both genres manifests itself in Giulietta with the irony of opera comique hidden under the haze of opera lyrique which corresponds with the essence of the heroine (third scene). The above mentioned peculiarities sometimes do not allow performing soprano parties in accordance with the composer&rsquo;s idea in which the four heroines should be embodied in one solo singer. However, there&rsquo;ve been lucky occasions in the history of this opera when the singers managed to implement the composer&rsquo;s idea.&nbsp; &nbsp;

Gower’s “Tale of Florent”, Chaucer’s “Wife of Bath’s Tale” and the anonymous romance “The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle” are three late-medieval English texts that repeatedly confront their male protagonists with the problem of female desire, asking them, at each crucial stage of plot development, to acknowledge women’s sovereignty in both the senses of “autonomy” and “power”. It might seem that in so doing they express a critical view of established period ideas of appropriate gender roles. However, a closer look at the individual plot configurations in which the theme is explored in these texts shows a more complex set of attitudes at play; ultimately, they reveal the tensions among the various hierarchies of women’s (and men’s) positions which the culture sustains. At the same time, their account of a contestation of sovereignty between genders develops into a commentary on other kinds of social hierarchy, other concepts of control. Finally, the texts also negotiate the limits of the generic framework in which they operate and of the value system which it embodies.

Annette and Antoinette were unwelcomed by all. They “were not in their (the white people’s) ranks” and “The Jamaican ladies never approved” (Rhys 3) of them. As Creoles, they had no root. Being of colour and not belonging to the prevalent binary structure, they never fit in. Neither the whites accepted nor the blacks. Throughout they were mistreated and suffered in the hands of both. While Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre (1847) represents the unfit monster in Bertha, Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea (1966) re-presents the story leading to Bertha's present state. The journey from innocence to madness was forced onto the ‘monster’ of Bronte's Jane Eyre through various means and Rhys’ counter to the gothic romance provides an opportunity to re-read the disregarded characters in their ‘natural’ habitat, far from the cold and gloomy London. Their marginalization is realized through Rhys. The plot arouses the curiosity of the reader, illuminates the unheard story of the Creoles and brings into light the possible reasons for their ‘downfall’. This paper is an attempt to make an inquiry of the oppression faced by the ‘Others’, its impact on their psyche and the repression that led them to the doorstep of insanity. Through the means of a discursive study, it delves into the reasons for their degraded physical and mental state. The study employs the theoretical lens of Edward Said’s “Other” and Sigmund Freud’s “Trauma” to reach the desired analysis.

Introduction. The attitude to Venice as one of the most poetic and picturesque cities in the world is firmly established in artistic practice. The city appears multifaceted and contradictory in numerous literary works. It appears as a space of eternal carnival and an education center (C. Gozzi, C. Goldoni), a place of secret conspiracies, gloomy massacres (“Angelo, Tyrant of Padua” by V. Hugo), a dream, an earthly paradise (I. Kozlov, “Eugene Onegin” by A. Pushkin). But always Venice is a special place where antiquity is closely intertwined with youth (G. Byron, J. W. von Goethe, A. Ch&#233;nier, A. de Musset, A. Apukhtin, A. Maykov, F. Tyutchev, J. Brodsky, and others). Literary and poetic Venetian cultural stratum was supplemented by artistic journalism – essays, sketches, travel notes of prominent representatives of Romanticism. Such a variety of material contributed to the formation of the image, the topos of Venice, myth of the city in artistic and creative practice. Numerous interpretations of the chosen theme in works of art form the “Venetian text” of art. This topic has not been fully embodied in the form of independent musicological research, despite the large number of works in European music that glorify Venice and need to be included in scientific and performing practice. Theoretical and methodology background. The theme of the city, urban text, urbanism in general is a very developed concept in various fields of modern science. The concept of “St. Petersburg text” has been affirmed in literary studies since the 1980s (V. Toporov, 1995). Such an artistic text (Y. Lotman, 1998) is not just a mirror of a real city, but a device that realizes the transition from visible reality to the inner meaning of things. Real objects, such as squares, waters, islands, gardens, buildings, monuments, people, history, ideas, are the “language” of the city. They act in the form of toponymical, landscape, historical and cultural, personal and biographical elements of urban space. On the one hand, they create the text of the city, on the other hand, they become a well-known code of the city, and generate artistic images. By analogy with the “St. Petersburg text” on the basis of the proposed methodology, in literary studies there were a number of works on “local” texts, including Venetian (N. Mednis, 1999, O. Soboleva, 2010, K. Sivkov, 2015, N. Ilchenko & I. Marinina, 2015 and others). The concept of the image of the city (V. Li, 1914, N. Antsiferov, 1991) is inextricably linked with the text in its semiotic meaning as a structured sign system. Due to the universality and comprehensiveness, concept “topos” in music can be used instead of “image”, “sphere”, and other musicological concepts (L. Kirillina, 2007). In modern musicology, there are very few systematic studies in this area. Apart from research on the topic of musical urbanism (L. Serebryakov, 1994. I. Barsova, 2000, L. Gakkel, 2006, I. Yakovleva, 2014, T. Bilalova, 2005, G. Zharova, 2009), there are almost no works on the topic of Venetia in music. Therefore, this area of research is relevant. Objective of the researching is to determine the features of the “Venetian text” in the chamber-vocal music by Ch. Gounod on the example of his romance “Venice” (on the poem by A. de Musset). Research results and conclusions. Ch. F. Gounod (1818–1893) became one of the first French composers to draw attention to the theme of the city of Venice in his chamber and vocal music. The romance “Venice” (1842) was written by him at the age of 24. At that time, the young author had been in Italy for two years as a scholarship holder of the prestigious Prix de Rome. Ch. Gounod documented his impressions of the trip in an autobiographical book – “M&#233;moires d’un Artiste” (1896). The romance is based on the poem by A. de Musset “Dans Venise la Rouge…” (1828). The artistic space of Venice is constructed due to a number of constant images, such as sea lagoon, gondola, bronze lion, old doge, mask, carnival, ladies, mirror, night date. Clearly read signs of the city are metaphors for certain emotional states, often binary, which are strongly associated in most art sources with Venice: anxiety, loneliness, senility, death and sensuality, eroticism, youth, carnival of life. A. de Musset’s text is transferred to the conditions of the chamber-vocal genre and undergoes radical changes. When comparing the two options – the poetic original and the text of the romance, it becomes clear their inconsistency from about the middle of the poem. The composer’s simplification of the textual side of the romance was caused by the refusal to mention the sculptural and architectural dominants of the city, color and chronological contrasts that are inherent in the topos of Venice. This softened the overall emotional mood, virtually freeing the text from the dominance of loneliness, emptiness, anxiety. In the text of “Venice” by Ch. Gounod’s, the topos of the city is revealed as a space of mystery and dreams, a fusion of divine nature and man-made beauty, the triumph of earthly love. The representative of the contrast is the music side of this romance. It brings that note of excitement, anxiety, which seems to clear the musical image of Venice from the excessive gloss of the poetic text. It makes him alive, trembling, proving, on the one hand, the inseparable connection of words and music in chamber-vocal genres; on the other hand, characterizing Ch. Gounod as the greatest master who possessed not only an exceptional melodic gift, but also a rare sense of musical harmony. The composer seems to be going from the opposite: wrapping the text, “major” in mood, in the frame of the minor key; using capricious harmonic juxtapositions, he makes the intonation of the romance take on different colors, like the playing of moon reflections on the water. And in this balancing on the verge of “majorminor”, “enlightenment-sadness”, the precariousness, fragility and paradoxicality of the Venetia city image are revealed. Thus, the music of the Ch. Gounod’s romance that appeals to the barcarole genre attributes, in the same time, is lyrical and disturbing. It perfectly reproduces the melancholy state that was familiar to young authors, both, the poet and the composer.

In 1947, in the German city of Nuremberg, Bohdan Kravtsiv`s book of translations from Rainer Maria Rilke`s “Things and Images” was published, which became a significant contribution to Ukrainian Rilkeanism. B. Kravtsiv`s translations were highly appreciated by critics and literary experts. The purpose of the article is the study of Rilke images and narratives in Bohdan Kravtsiv’s translations, the analysis of the main concepts related to the ideological and thematic layers of the lyrics that B. Kravtsiv chose for translation, and the highlighting of the existential discourse as a translation phenomenon that enabled him to introduce Rainer Maria Rilke’s poems in the Ukrainian artistic context. To achieve this goal, a number of methods were used: biographical (aimed at tracing Rilke`s spiritual and cultural ties with Ukraine during his journey through its territory), cultural-historical, philological, and intertextual. The phenomenological and hermeneutic analysis enables the study of existential discourse in Rilke`s lyrics and immanent interpretation in Kravtsiv`s translations of Rilke`s idiostyle and artistic-philosophical concepts. The elements of conceptual analysis make it possible to consider Rilke`s poetry in translations by Bohdan Kravtsiv, highlighting the main concepts that determine its cultural-artistic and existential-philosophical content. B. Kravtsiv paid particular attention to Rilke`s poems related to biblical and evangelical subjects: “Departure of the Prodigal Son”, “David Sings to Saul”, “Pieta”, “Resurrected”, “The Supper”. B. Kravtsiv translated a number of poems from ancient themes (“Sibyl”, “Orpheus. Eurydice. Hermes”, “Leda”, “Esther”, “Cretan Artemis”, “Alcestis”, “Islands of the Sirens”) since ancient mythology had an important place in Rilke`s artistic outlook. It’s a part of his artistic and metaphysical world, the heart of his existence. The metaphysical concept of the finitude of life evolved through all the lyrical-philosophical cycles of the Austrian poet, in which the lexical-semantic field of the concept of “death” is creatively implemented through ideas and motifs. Bohdan Kravtsiv translated several of Rilke`s poems “Experience with Death”, “Death of a Beloved”, and “The End”, in which the philosophical idea that the Italian existentialist philosopher Nicola Abbagiano defined as coexistence can be clearly traced. During the analysis of the artistic concept sphere and leitmotifs in Bohdan Kravtsiv`s translations, it is worth highlighting the nostalgia of the poetry “This is where the extreme huts are already”, the suggestiveness of “The Archaic Torso of Apollo”, the phantasmagoric nature of “The Sorcerer”, the existential elegiacism of “Evening”, the mysticism of “Alien”, the belief in the immortality of “Autumn”, the artistic plasticity of “Panthers”, the carnival enchantment of “Carousel”, the exquisite, subtle eroticism of “Ladies”, the magical fatalism of “Courtesy”, the metaphysics of life and death in “Experience with Death”, autobiography and delving into the subconscious in the poems “At the piano”, “From childhood”, the secret of art in “The Poet”, the young chivalrous romance of “The Boy”, the wild grace of “Cretan Artemis”. Conclusion. In the selected translations, Bohdan Kravtsiv managed to artistically recreate Rilke images, especially from ancient (Alquesta, Orpheus) and biblical (Jesus Christ, Mary Magdalene) themes, which appeared in the Austrian poet`s lyrics as archetypal images-symbols and images-ideas, defining the spiritual, philosophical and axiological basis of his creativity. Among the multifaceted conceptual sphere, Rilke chose Kravtsiv for the translation of poetry in which he substantiates the concept of “death” from an existential-philosophical point of view as a phenomenon of coexistence that changes one dimension of existence to another, which can also be traced in the narrative of the Austrian poet: death as “invisible and unenlightened we are the side of life”, – immanent in life itself. In the poems selected for translation, Kravtsiv managed to trace the path of the Austrian artist through catharsis to spiritual insight, self-awareness, and the search for authentic values of being. To introduce Rilke`s existential discourse into the Ukrainian artistic context, to give a number of translated poems a special national sound and philosophical content allowed the writer to work with the Ukrainian word, search and restore authentic books, archaic and dialect lexemes, occasionalism, which received a new sound in the translator`s artistic style, supplementing Rilke texts poetics. The translation activity of B. Kravtsiv became a significant contribution to the development of Ukrainian literature and culture in general, enriching it with ideas, concepts, artistic motifs, and the artistic word of one of the most brilliant modern poets – Rainer Maria Rilke. The analysis of Ukrainian writer’s poetic translations in the book “Things and Images” has the perspective of both literary and linguistic research and involves the creation of a thorough scientific work. While working on translations of Rilke`s poems, B. Kravtsiv, in his characteristic artistic and poetic style, uses a significant amount of book, archaic and dialect vocabulary, and occasionalism, which appear to him not only as artistic and aesthetic means of poetic expression, but are also filled with deep-rooted national meaning, contain the genetic code of an authentic Ukrainian word. Bohdan Kravtsiv managed to do Rilke translations so Ukrainian, because he felt the spiritual kinship of the Austrian poet with Ukraine and its people, that as an artist, philosophermetaphysician, and pantheist, having visited Ukrainian lands, he felt, understood, and realized the true spiritual and genetic roots of the European community.

Ladin (ISO 639-3: lld) is a Romance language spoken in the Italian Central-Eastern Alps by a community of about 30,000 speakers (Dell’Aquila 2010). The classification of Ladin within Western Romance has been the subject of a long-lasting scientific and at times ideological debate, particularly because at the end of the 19th century the region was contested between the new-born Italian state and the Habsburg empire. The varieties of Ladin share phonetic-phonological, morphological, syntactic and lexical features with the other languages spoken in the Central-Eastern Alps, such as Friulian and Romansh, thus leading to the identification of the Rhaeto-Romance group (Haiman & Benincà 1992). However, in Ladin there are still many linguistic phenomena that connect it to the Romance dialects of Northern Italy. Therefore, a clear assignment of Ladin to a group is by no means a simple and uncontroversial operation (Salvi 2016).

O presente artigo resgata Exaltação, romance de estreia de Albertina Bertha, publicado em 1916 com boa recepção da crítica e que, posteriormente, caiu no ostracismo. Ao analisar o romance, pretendemos lançar luz sobre a obra de modo a repercutir positivamente a literatura de autoria feminina, normalmente à margem do cânone, e levantar algumas questões pertinentes não apenas ao romance, mas à sociedade patriarcal na virada do século XIX para o XX. A protagonista Ladice é exemplar da luta feminista pela igualdade de gênero e icônica da introspecção feminina. Para um maior aprofundamento analítico, trabalhamos com o pensamento de Nietzsche, filósofo muito apreciado pela autora e bastante citado no romance. Os conceitos de apolíneo e dionisíaco servem como alicerce para o entendimento da personagem, cuja introspecção é flagrante. Também utilizamos textos críticos sobre o feminino de modo a dar mais subsídios para a compreensão do tema central no romance de Albertina Bertha.

NM. You can be considered one of today’s most important Dracula scholars, especially for studies such as Dracula & Company. The Appeal of the North in Bram Stoker’s Novels (1998), Transylvania and the Balkans as Multiethnic Regions in the Works of Bram Stoker (1996), A Sea Landscape with Victorian Ladies. Three Essays on Dracula (1995), or In the Dragon’s Labyrinth. An Introduction to Dracula (1992). But, how did an esteemed university teacher of Romanian and Romance linguistics, indeed the disciple of Iorgu Iordan, develop an interest in Dracula? And why is Dracula still so popular today?

Although William Lane only began publishing under the Minerva imprint in 1790, by the end of that decade he had—thanks to his ongoing publication of gothic romances written in imitation of Ann Radcliffe, his recruitment of unknown women authors, and his innovative marketing strategies—eclipsed the competition. Before the Minerva era began, however, one of Lane’s major competitors in the field of circulation-library formula fiction, Thomas Hookham, published several novels that were important to Jane Austen’s juvenilia, including the three this essay focuses on: Ann Radcliffe’s Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne (1789) and two by Eliza Nugent Bromley, Laura and Augustus (1784) and The History of Sir Charles Bentinck and Louisa Cavendish (178/1789?). In addition, because advertisements, catalogues, and other reading lists were important to readers and self-fashioning important to the aspiring young author, besides these primary texts I also consider associated paratexts. These include titles and dedications in Austen’s case and, in Hookham’s case, a list of “Books Printed by T. Hookham,” which appears inside Athlin and Dunbayne immediately following the title page, where any reader must notice it. Although we cannot know for sure, it is possible that this particular list directly influenced Austen’s (and the Austen family’s) choice of reading material in 1789 as well as Austen’s subsequent choice of satiric targets for “Love and Freindship.” In any case, the very possibility that she paid such close attention to Hookham’s list of “Books Printed” prompts a careful consideration of what the juvenilia may reveal about her reading process, her youthful understanding of circulation-library publishers’ marketing strategies and materials, and her response to the model of authorship they promoted. Taken together, these texts and paratexts strongly suggest that the teenaged Austen appreciated the practical use of lists like the one found in “Books Printed” and made good use of them as a reader who was committed to mastering generic conventions, but that she also parodied their rhetoric in her own titles and dedications; they suggest, moreover, that she appreciated the pleasurable recognition of the familiar enjoyed by readers of circulation-library publisher’s formulaic fiction but was skeptical about certain aspects of the reading and writing networks that such publishers’ marketing strategies were designed to produce. After all, one of the targets of her satire in “Love and Freindship” is quixotic young ladies who, like this epistolary novel’s narrator Laura, set out on the road of literary imitation and end up both disappointing and disappointed.

Masson, Sophie. The Phar Lap Mystery. Sydney, Aust.: Scholastic, 2010. Print The end notes of this historical novel describe the details of the remarkable Australian racehorse, Phar Lap, who, in the difficult times of the Great Depression, gave Australians something positive to think about. The cover image, from the collection of the State Library of Victoria, shows the big red horse in full stride, tail flying, jockey crouched behind his neck, reigns pulled tight. While the novel tracks alongside the historical story, it is a delightfully written account presented as a two-year diary of an eleven year-old girl. Diarist, Sally Fielding, is very conscious of the fact that she is writing for posterity. She begins her September 19, 1931 entry with “Hill Stakes Day, and the best day ever! I want to write down absolutely everything, to remember it all.” Author, Sophie Masson, who has written more than fifty juvenile novels, gives the reader a good snapshot of life in the 1930’s in urban Eastern Australia. From the “chooks” in the back yard, to the fancy hats of the well-to-do ladies at the Rosehill racecourse, to the seedy characters from the underbelly of the racing industry, Masson’s detailed descriptions help to draw us into Sally’s world. Aussie slang is sprinkled throughout the book to add to the “down-under” flavour. “Strewth”, which is a mild oath like “crikey” appears often. Sally refers to a young man with whom she is not impressed, as a “real mick”, denies that she’s a “stickybeak” when she really has been snooping and has a “slap up” lunch, which is a very good one. The story stretches over two years beginning with Sally’s private detective father first being engaged to try to find out who took a shot at Phar Lap and ends with Sally and her father going to America when Phar Lap is taken there to race. Sally’s diary chronicles her reactions to the various dangerous twists and turns of the case, her father’s on-again, off-again romance, and Sally’s general chatter about friends and events around her. The family’s economic struggles are ever-present. Occasionally readers are treated to a facsimile of a real newspaper article or a letter, which is “glued” into the volume, reinforcing the illusion that you really are reading someone’s diary. Overall this is a thoroughly enjoyable read that captures your attention and holds it through to the surprising ending. The Phar Lap Mystery will appeal to readers from pre-teens through adults and especially to readers who love horses. Highly recommended for junior high and high school libraries, as well as public libraries everywhere.Reviewer: Sandy CampbellHighly recommended: 4 out of 4 starsSandy is a Health Sciences Librarian at the University of Alberta, who has written hundreds of book reviews across many disciplines. Sandy thinks that sharing books with children is one of the greatest gifts anyone can give.

Western images of Japan tell a seemingly incongruous story of love, sex and marriage – one full of contradictions and conflicting moral codes. We sometimes hear intriguing stories about the unique sexual culture of Japan – from vending machines that dispense soiled schoolgirl panties (Gerster 143), erotic manga (Ito 70; Newitz 2) to automated love hotels (Kersten 387) available for the discreet quickie. These Western portrayals seem to focus primarily on the unusual and quirky side of Japan’s culture constructing this modern Asian culture as simultaneously traditional and seemingly liberated. But what happens, when Japanese love goes global – when exotic others (Westerners) enter the picture? This article is shaped by an understanding of a new world space where cultural products and national images are becoming increasingly globalised, while at the same time more localised and “fragmented into contestatory enclaves of difference, coalition and resistance” (Wilson, 1). It examines ‘the local’, briefly exploring the racial and gender ideologies that pattern relationships between Western and Japanese adults living in Japan focussing on the unique perspective of Western women living and working in provincial Japan. Our research is based on four month’s ethnographic field work carried out within a small provincial Japanese city (which was home to 130 native English speakers, most of whom are employed as English language teachers) and interviews with 12 key participants. Japanese colloquialisms like sebun-irebun (seven eleven), burasagarizoku (arm hangers) and yellow cabs (women as easy to hail as taxis – by foreigners) are used to denote the sexual availability of some Japanese women (Kelskey, Flirting with the Foreign 178). Western women in this study have also invented a colloquialism to allude to sexual availability, with the term ‘zero to hero’ used to describe many Western men who, upon arrival in Japan, find themselves highly sought after by some Japanese women as prospective partners. Western women’s social appeal in the local heterosexual community, on the other hand, is in direct contrast to their male equivalents. A greater social distance exists between Japanese males and Western females, who report finding little genuine opportunity to date local males. Letting the c(h)at out of the bag While living and socialising with English language teachers we became privy to women’s conversation about interracial gender issues within Japan. Western women’s reflections about gender issues within Japan have, so far, been given little or no public voice. This is due, in part, to these women’s cultural and gender isolation while living in Japan, and a general reluctance to publicly voice their opinions, combined with issues about how much it is ‘politically correct’ to say. This reticence can be attributed to a genuine fear of being misconstrued as envious, either of their male colleagues’ newfound social status or Japanese women’s attractiveness. It may also be that, by voicing these observations about interracial gender relationships in Japan, these women will publicly position themselves as powerless and thus lose any voice they do have. Western women who arrive in Japan with expectations of living active (heterosexual) sex lives often find themselves left out in the cold (My Nippon), and while many of their male colleagues are busy pursuing and being pursued by Japanese women their own social interaction with Japanese males is often restricted to awkward conversations with seemingly wary, shy or aloof Japanese men or crude suggestive conversations at the hands of drunken Japanese males. Some women experience their sense of self-esteem, which relies partly on sexual identity and a sense of attractiveness, plummets in these circumstances. Clarissa, a 24-year-old Australian who spent a few months waiting for her partner to join her in Japan, noticed this happening to her. She was interviewed a week after her partner arrived in Japan. I noticed that a while ago I was feeling unattractive because nobody does anything to indicate desire or attractiveness but as soon as they get drunk they can’t get enough of you…. Sober they wouldn’t do anything but when they are drunk … they crack onto you like any Western guy. Participants in the study have proffered thoughtful explanations for this lack of Japanese male/Western female connection, other than in the comparatively uninhibited space of being ‘alcohol affected’. The reasons given include the independent personalities of those Western women who choose to move to Japan, patriarchal attitudes towards women in Japan and a general lack of communication due to cultural or language difficulties. A lot of the women who come over here are very strong and independent and they are feared [by Japanese men] the moment they get off the plane….We didn’t come over here because we are timid and shy and looking for men. Toni (above) also makes clear that her own Western expectations for romantic relationships may exclude her from having relationships with many Japanese males of less than fluent English speaking skills. I’m a talker and I like to talk about ideas and books and I would find it very difficult to have…. a more intense relationship with a person that I couldn’t communicate with on that level. Western notions of romance and marriage, particularly Western women’s expectations concerning sex and romance, involve demonstration of warmth and affection, as well as a meeting of minds or in-depth conversation. Lack of a shared language and different expectations of romantic liaisons and love are some of the factors that can combine to create cross-cultural distance and misunderstanding between Western women and Japanese men. Zero to heroes Japanese women often seek Western men living in this transnational borderland as an alternative to Japanese boyfriends and husbands (Kelskey, Japanese Women's Diaspora). Western women in this study used the term ‘zero to hero’ to depict sought-after Western men, specifically those Western males who misuse this rise in status and behave badly in Japan. These men, as reported, are greatly over-represented in Japan when compared to their respective home communities. Above average-looking European guy, with above average intelligence seeks above average-looking Japanese lady who can cook a little. (Tokyo classifieds) Open discussion about the appeal of Western men to Japanese women seems to elicit critical reactions on either side of the racial and gender divide. For instance online chat discussions about interracial gender issues in Japan evidences the fiercely defensive position many Western men take when confronted with this notion. (see Aldwinckle a, Aldwinkle b, Aldwinkle c). It is clear, therefore, that this phenomenon is not limited to our research location. Women participants in this particular study detailed many examples of ‘zero to heroes’ behaving badly including: overrated opinion of themselves; insulting and degrading behaviour towards women in public – particularly Japanese women; inability to work cooperatively with women superiors in the workplace; sexual liaisons outside of monogamous relationships and in some cases complicated webs of infidelity. You know one guy’s left his wife, his Japanese wife. I didn’t even realize he was married because he had a Japanese girlfriend. I thought he was playing up on his Japanese girlfriend when I saw him with someone else, but he was actually playing up on both his wife and his girlfriend…. I mean the guys are behaving in ways that they wouldn’t get away with in their own countries. So the women from those countries are, of course, appalled (Marie). Japanese women’s desire for the company of Western males seems based on essentialised notions of the Western male as being more gentle, romantic and egalitarian than Japanese males. Analysis by Creighton, along with our own observations, indicates that there is ‘prevalent use of foreigners, particularly white foreigners, or gaijin, in Japanese advertising (135)’, constructing a discourse of the ‘desirable other’. Western images and ideals are also communicated through media texts (particularly Japanese women’s magazines) and promote ideals like individuality, leisure, international sophistication and sexual expression. It is clear from this research and other studies (Kelskey, Japanese Women's Diaspora) that Japanese women (living in Japan) perceive Western men as being more affectionate, kind and egalitarian than Japanese males. However, the notion of a caring and romantic Western male does not seem to be based in the reality of the situation as described by in situ Western females. Here the zero to hero construction of Western masculinity holds sway. Western females in this transnational borderland portray many of their male counterparts as general losers. One participant explained the phenomenon thus: I think that consciously or subconsciously the reason a lot of these men come over here is because they can’t really find a relationship at home. [She explains further] somebody [Western male] told me that I remind them of everything that they are not back in their own country. Gerster describes the attraction Japanese women have for the West (America in particular) as a ‘fatal attraction’ because most of these women will not realize their desire to marry their Western boyfriends or lovers (146-148). These women’s desire for the West (which is accomplishable and articulated through a Western partner) seems doomed from the start and it is questionable as to whether these relationships fulfil the aspirations of many of these women. Nevertheless, some Japanese women and Western men are more aware of this and are relatively explicit about their own desires. Japanese cute girl seeking native speakers [native English speakers] who don’t lie, never betray, are funny and handsome. If you are a man like that, try me. (Tokyo classifieds) American, 33, from California looking for Japanese girl, 20s, for having fun together. No marriage-minded girls please. Japanese ok. (Tokyo classifieds) Conclusion The Japanese national desire to be viewed as progressive and modern is, as with most societies, closely aligned with material commodities, particularly Western commodities. This means that within Japan “Western images probably have more advantage over indigenous ones” (Gerster 165) particularly for Japanese women. The local assumptions and generalisations about the Western men and women living and teaching in this transnational borderland are seemingly constructed by essentialised understandings of Western masculinity and femininity and differentiating these with Japanese notions of masculinity and femininity. However, as Kelsky (Japanese Women's Diaspora) and the participants in this study suggest, those Japanese women (who desire the West) may find their expectations do not match the realities of dating Western males in Japan since many Western men do not seem to live up to this essentialized view of the Western male as a romantic and egalitarian male partner who is ready to commit to marriage. Works Cited Aldwinckle, Dave. ‘Gender Issues in Japan, Part one: The loneliness of the long-distance runner (Publication of Exerts from Postings on Issho Mailing List)’ Arudou Debito/Dave Aldwinckle's Activists’ Page (meaning information for people concerned with social issues who want to help make life better for everyone in Japan). 1998. http://www.debito.org/genderissues.html 21.02 2001. ----. ‘Gender Issues in Japan, Part two: greatest hits and apologia (Publication of Exerts from Postings on Issho Mailing List)’ Arudou Debito/Dave Aldwinckle's Activists’ Page (meaning information for people concerned with social issues who want to help make life better for everyone in Japan). 1998. http://www.debito.org/genderissuestwo.html 21.02 2001. ----. ‘Gender Issues in Japan Part three: my comeuppance (Publication of Exerts from Postings on Issho Mailing List)’ Arudou Debito/Dave Aldwinckle's Activists’ Page (meaning information for people concerned with social issues who want to help make life better for everyone in Japan). 1998. http://www.debito.org/genderissuesthree.... 21.02 2001. Creighton, Millie R. ‘Imaging the Other in Japanese Advertising Campaigns’. Occidentalism: Images of the West. Ed. James G. Carrier. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995. Gerster, Robin. Legless in Ginza: Orientating Japan. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1999. Ito., Kinko. ‘The World of Japanese Ladies' Comics: From Romantic Fantasy to Lustful Perversion’. Journal of Popular Culture 36.1 (2002): 68--86. ‘Japan Lovers Sex Life in Japan? Really!’. My Nippon E-zine . 2001. http://www.mynippon.com/index.htm. 28.04 2001. Kelsky, Karen. ‘Intimate Ideologies: Transnational Theory and Japan's "Yellow Cabs"’. Public Culture 6 (1994): 465-78. ----. ‘Flirting with the Foreign: Interracial Sex in Japan's "International" Age’. Global/Local: Cultural Production and the Transnational Imagery. Eds. Rob Wilson and Winmal Dissanayake. Durham: Duke University Press, 1996. 173 - 92. ----. ‘Japanese Women's Diaspora: An Interview’. Intersections 4 (2000): http://wwwsshe.murdoch.edu.au/intersecti... . 26.02 2002 Kersten., Joachim. ‘Culture, Masculinities and Violence against Women. (Masculinities, Social Relations and Crime)’. British Journal of Criminology, Summer 36.3 (1996): 381-96. ‘Men looking for women’. Tokyo Metropolis (2002) http://www.metropolis.co.jp/tokyo/curren... 11.10.2002 Newitz, Annalee. "Magicial Girls and Atomic Bomb Sperm: Japanese Animation in America." Film quarterly 49.1 (1995): 2-15. Wilson, Rob, and Wimal Dissanayake. ‘Introduction: Tracking the Global/Local’. Global/Local: Cultural Production and the Transnational Imagery. Eds. Rob Wilson and Wimal Dissanayake. Durham: Duke University Press, 1996. 1-18. ‘Women looking for men’. Metropolis. (2002) http://www.metropolis.co.jp/tokyo/curren... 11.10.2002 Links http://www.debito.org/genderissues.html http://www.metropolis.co.jp/tokyo/current/classifieds/13.03_personals.asp http://www.metropolis.co.jp/tokyo/current/classifieds/13.02_personals.asp http://www.elle.co.jp/home/index2.php3 http://wwwsshe.murdoch.edu.au/intersections/ http://www3.tky.3web.ne.jp/~edjacob/hotels.html http://www.dnp.co.jp/museum/nmp/nmp_i/articles/manga/manga2-1.html http://www.debito.org/genderissuesthree.html http://www.sshe.murdoch.edu.au/intersections/ http://www.mynippon.com/index.htm http://www.debito.org/genderissuestwo.html Citation reference for this article Substitute your date of access for Dn Month Year etc... MLA Style Holloway, Donell and Holloway, David. "Zero to hero" M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 5.6 (2002). Dn Month Year < http://www.media-culture.org.au/0211/zerotohero.php>. APA Style Holloway, D. & Holloway, D., (2002, Nov 20). Zero to hero. M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture, 5,(6). Retrieved Month Dn, Year, from http://www.media-culture.org.au/0211/zerotohero.html

Fig. 1: Photo by Miguel Orós, from unsplash.comFeminism has stalled at the bedroom door. In the post-#metoo era, more than ever, we need intimate civil rights in our relationships to counter the worrisome prevailing trends: Intimate partner violence. Interpersonal abuse. Date rape. Sexual harassment. Online harassment. Bullying. Rage. Sexual Assault. Abusive relationships. Revenge porn. There’s a lot of damage done when we get up close and personal. In the 21st century, we have come far in terms of equality and respect between the genders, so there’s a lot to celebrate. We also note that the Australian government has stepped in recently with the theme ‘Keeping Australians safe and secure’, by pledging $78 million to combat domestic violence, much of which takes place behind closed doors (Morrison 2019). Herein lies the issue: while governments legislate to protect victims of domestic violence — out of the public eye, private behaviours cannot be closely monitored, and the lack of social enforcement of these laws threatens the safety of intimate relationships. Rather, individuals are left to their own devices. We outline here a guideline for intimate civility, an individually-embraced code of conduct that could guide interpersonal dynamics within the intimate space of relationships. Civility does not traditionally ‘belong’ in our most intimate relationships. Rather, it’s been presumed, even idealised, that intimacy in our personal lives transcends the need for public values to govern relationships between/among men and women (i.e., that romantic love is all you need). Civility developed as a public, gendered concept. Historically, a man’s home – and indeed, his partner – became his dominion, promoting hegemonic constructions of masculinity, and values that reflect competition, conquest, entitlement and ownership. Moreover, intimate relationships located in the private domain can also be considered for/by both men and women a retreat, a bastion against, or excluded from the controls and demands of the public or ‘polis’ - thus from the public requirement for civility, further enabling its breakdown. The feminist political theorist Carole Pateman situated this historical separation as an inheritance of Hegel’s double dilemma: first, a class division between civil society and the state (between the economic man/woman, or private enterprise and public power) and second, a patriarchal division between the private family (and intimate relationships) and civil society/the state. The private location, she argues, is “an association constituted by ties of love, blood … subjection and particularity” rather than the public sphere, “an association of free and equal individuals” (225). In Hegel’s dilemma, personal liberty is a dualism, only constructed in relation to a governed, public (patriarchal) state. Alternately, Carter depicts civility as a shared moral good, where civility arises not only because of concern over consequences, but also demonstrates our intrinsic moral obligation to respect people in general. This approach subsequently challenges our freedom to carry out private, uncivil acts within a truly civil society.Challenges to Gender EthicsHow can we respond to this challenge in gender ethics? Intimate civility is a term coined by Elizabeth Reid Boyd and Abigail Bray. It came out of their discussions proposing “a new poetics of romance” which called for rewritten codes of interpersonal conduct, an “entente cordiale; a cordial truce to end the sex wars”. Reid Boyd and Bray go further:Politeness is personal and political. We reclaim courtesy as applied sexual and social ethics, an interpersonal, intimate ethics, respectful and tolerant of difference. Gender ethics must be addressed, for they have global social and cultural ramifications that we should not underestimate. (xx)As researchers, we started to explore the idea of intimate civility in interpersonal violence, developing an analysis using social construction and attachment theory simultaneously. In defining the term, we soon realised the concept had wider applications that could change how we think about our most intimate relationships – and how we behave in them. Conceptualising intimate civility involves imagining rights and responsibilities within the private sphere, whether or not loving, familial and natural. Intimate civility can operate through an individually embraced code of conduct to guide interpersonal dynamics within the intimate space of relationships.Gringart, Grobbelaar, and Bender explored the concept of intimate civility by investigating women’s perspectives on what may harmonise their intimate relationships. Women’s most basic desires included safety, equality and respect in the bedroom. In other words, intimate civility is an enactment of human-rights, the embodiment of regard for another human being, insofar as it is a form of ensuring physical and mental integrity, life, safety and protection of all beings. Thus, if intimate civility existed as a core facet of each individual’s self-concept, the manifestation of intimate partner violence ideally would not occur. Rage, from an intimate civility perspective, rips through any civil response and generates misconduct towards another. When we hold respect for others as equal moral beings, civility is key to contain conflicts, which prevents the escalation of disagreements into rage. Intimate civility proposes that civility becomes the baseline behaviour that would be reciprocated between two individuals within the private domain of intimate relationships. Following this notion, intimate civility is the foremost casualty in many relationships characterised by intimate partner violence. The current criminalisation of intimate partner violence leaves unexplored the previously privatised property of the relational – including the inheritance of centuries of control of women’s bodies and sexuality – and how far, in this domain, notions of civility might liberate and/or oppress. The feminist philosopher Luce Irigaray argues that these kinds of ‘sexuate rights’ must apply to both men and women and the reality of their needs and desires. Equality, she argued, could not be achieved without a rewriting of the rights and obligations of each sex, qua different, in social rights and obligations (Yan).Synonyms for intimacy include, amongst others, closeness, attachment, togetherness, warmth, mutual affection, familiarity and privacy. Indirectly, sexual relations are also often synonymous with intimate relationships. However, sex is not intimacy, as both sex and intimacy both exist without the other. Bowlby proposed that throughout our lives we are attentive to the responsiveness and the availability of those that we are attached to, and suggested that “intimate attachments to other human beings are the hub around which a person’s life revolves, not only when he is an infant or a toddler, but throughout his adolescence and his years of maturity as well, and on into old age” (442). Although love is not by nature reciprocal, in intimacy we seek reciprocity – to love one another at the same time in a shared form of commitment. Kierkegaard hypothesised that genuine love is witnessed by one continuing to love another after their death as it obviates any doubt that the beloved was loved and was not merely instrumental (Soble).Intimate Civility as a Starting PointCivility includes qualities such as trust, duty, morality, sacrifice, self-restraint, respect, and fairness; a common standard allowing individuals to work, live and associate together. Intimacy encourages caring, loyalty, empathy, honesty, and self-knowledge. Thus, intimate civility should begin with those closest to us; being civil in our most intimate relationships. It advocates the genuine use of terms of endearment, not terms of abuse. We can only develop qualities such as morality and empathy, crucial for intimate relationships, if we have experienced secure, intimate relationships. Individuals reared in homes devoid of intimate civility will be challenged to identify and promote the interest or wellbeing of their intimate counterparts, and have to seek outside help to learn these skills: it is a learnt behaviour, both at an interpersonal and societal level. Individuals whose parents were insensitive to their childhood needs, and were unable to perceive, interpret and respond appropriately to their subtle communications, signals, wishes and mood will be flailing in this interpersonal skill (Holmes and Slade). Similarly, the individual’s inclusion in a civil society will only be achieved if their surrounding environment promotes and values virtues such as compassion, fairness and cooperation. This may be a challenging task. We envisage intimate civility as a starting point. It provides a focus to discuss and explore civil rights, obligations and responsibilities, between and among women and men in their personal relationships. As stated above, intimate civility begins with one's relationship with oneself and the closest relationships in the home, and hopefully reaches outwards to all kinds of relationships, including same sex, transgender, and other roles within non-specific gender assignment. Therefore, exploring the concept of intimate civility has applications in personal therapy, family counselling centres and relationship counselling environments, or schools in sexual education, or in universities promoting student safety. For example, the 2019 “Change the Course” report was recently released to augment Universities Australia’s 2016 campaign that raised awareness on sexual assault on campus. While it is still under development, we envision that intimate civility decalogue outlined here could become a checklist to assist in promoting awareness regarding abuse of power and gender roles. A recent example of cultural reframing of gender and power in intimate relationships is the Australian Government’s 2018 Respect campaign against gender violence. These recent campaigns promote awareness that intimate civility is integrated with a more functional society.These campaigns, as the images demonstrate, aim at quantifying connections between interactions on an intimate scale in individual lives, and their impacts in shaping civil society in the arena of gender violence. They highlight the elasticity of the bonds between intimate life and civil society and our collective responsibility as citizens for reworking both the gendered and personal civility. Fig. 2: Photo by Tyler Nix: Hands Spelling Out LOVE, from unsplash.comThe Decalogue of Intimate Civility Overall, police reports of domestic violence are heavily skewed towards male on female, but this is not always the case. The Australian government recently reported that “1 in 6 Australian women and 1 in 16 men have been subjected, since the age of 15, to physical and/or sexual violence by a current or previous cohabiting partner” (Australian Institutes of Health and Welfare). Rather than reiterating the numbers, we envisage the decalogue (below) as a checklist of concepts designed to discuss and explore rights, obligations and responsibilities, between and among both partners in their intimate relationships. As such, this decalogue forms a basis for conversation. Intimate civility involves a relationship with these ten qualities, with ourselves, and each other.1) Intimate civility is personal and political. Conceptualising intimate civility involves imagining rights and responsibilities within the private sphere. It is not an impingement on individual liberty or privacy but a guarantor of it. Civil society requires us not to defend private infringements of inter-personal respect. Private behaviours are both intimate in their performance and the springboard for social norms. In Geoffrey Rush’s recent defamation case his defence relied not on denying claims he repeatedly touched his fellow actor’s genitalia during their stage performance in a specific scene, despite her requests to him that he stop, but rather on how newspaper reporting of her statements made him out to be a “sexual pervert”, reflecting the complex link between this ‘private’ interaction between two people and its very public exposé (Wells). 2) Intimate civility is an enactment of a civil right, insofar as it is a form of ensuring physical and mental integrity, life, safety and protection. Intimate civility should begin with those closest to us. An example of this ethic at work is the widening scope of criminalisation of intimate partner abuse to include all forms of abusive interactions between people. Stalking and the pre-cursors to physical violence such as controlling behaviours, online bullying or any actions used to instil fear or insecurity in a partner, are accorded legal sanctions. 3) Intimate civility is polite. Politeness is more than manners. It relates to our public codes of conduct, to behaviours and laws befitting every civilian of the ‘polis’. It includes the many acts of politeness that are required behind closed doors and the recognition that this is the place from which public civility emerges. For example, the modern parent may hope that what they sanction as “polite” behaviour between siblings at home might then become generalised by the child into their public habits and later moral expectations as adults. In an ideal society, the micro-politics of family life become the blueprint for moral development for adult expectations about personal conduct in intimate and public life.4) Intimate civility is equitable. It follows Luce Irigaray’s call for ‘sexuate rights’ designed to apply to men and women and the reality of their needs and desires, in a rewriting of the social rights and obligations of each sex (Yan and Irigaray). Intimate civility extends this notion of rights to include all those involved in personal relations. This principle is alive within systemic family therapy which assumes that while not all members of the family system are always able to exert equal impacts or influence, they each in principle are interdependent participants influencing the system as a whole (Dallos and Draper). 5) Intimate civility is dialectical. The separation of intimacy and civility in Western society and thought is itself a dualism that rests upon other dualisms: public/private, constructed/natural, male/female, rational/emotional, civil/criminal, individual/social, victim/oppressor. Romantic love is not a natural state or concept, and does not help us to develop safe governance in the world of intimate relationships. Instead, we envisage intimate civility – and our relationships – as dynamic, dialectical, discursive and interactive, above and beyond dualism. Just as individuals do not assume that consent for sexual activity negotiated in one partnership under a set of particular conditions, is consent to sexual activity in all partnerships in any conditions. So, dialectics of intimate civility raises the expectation that what occurs in interpersonal relationships is worked out incrementally, between people over time and particular to their situation and experiences. 6) Intimate civility is humane. It can be situated in what Julia Kristeva refers to as the new humanism, emerging (and much needed) today. “This new humanism, interaction with others – all the others – socially marginalised, racially discriminated, politically, sexually, biologically or psychically persecuted others” (Kristeva, 2016: 64) is only possible if we immerse ourselves in the imaginary, in the experience of ‘the other’. Intimate civility takes on a global meaning when human rights action groups such as Amnesty International address the concerns of individuals to make a social difference. Such organisations develop globally-based digital platforms for interested individuals to become active about shared social concerns, understanding that the new humanism ethic works within and between individuals and can be harnessed for change.7) Intimate civility is empathic. It invites us to create not-yet-said, not-yet-imagined relationships. The creative space for intimate civility is not bound by gender, race or sexuality – only by our imaginations. “The great instrument of moral good is the imagination,” wrote the poet Shelley in 1840. Moral imagination (Reid Boyd) helps us to create better ways of being. It is a form of empathy that encourages us to be kinder and more loving to ourselves and each other, when we imagine how others might feel. The use of empathic imagination for real world relational benefits is common in traditional therapeutic practices, such as mindfulness, that encourages those struggling with self compassion to imagine the presence of a kind friend or ally to support them at times of hardship. 8) Intimate civility is respectful. Intimate civility is the foremost casualty in many relationships characterised by forms of abuse and intimate partner violence. “Respect”, wrote Simone Weil, “is due to the human being as such, and is not a matter of degree” (171). In the intimate civility ethic this quality of respect accorded as a right of beings is mutual, including ourselves with the other. When respect is eroded, much is lost. Respect arises from empathy through attuned listening. The RESPECT! Campaign originating from the Futures without Violence organisation assumes healthy relationships begin with listening between people. They promote the understanding that the core foundation of human wellbeing is relational, requiring inter-personal understanding and respect.9) Intimate civility is a form of highest regard. When we regard another we truly see them. To hold someone in high regard is to esteem them, to hold them above others, not putting them on a pedestal, or insisting they are superior, but to value them for who they are. To be esteemed for our interior, for our character, rather than what we display or what we own. It connects with the humanistic psychological concept of unconditional positive regard. The highest regard holds each other in arms and in mind. It is to see/look at, to have consideration for, and to pay attention to, recently epitomised by the campaign against human trafficking, “Can You See Me?” (Human Trafficking), whose purpose is to foster public awareness of the non-verbal signs and signals between individuals that indicate human trafficking may be taking place. In essence, teaching communal awareness towards the victimisation of individuals. 10) Intimate civility is intergenerational. We can only develop qualities such as morality and empathy, crucial for intimate relationships, if we have experienced (or imagined) intimate relationships where these qualities exist. Individuals reared in homes devoid of intimate civility could be challenged to identify and promote the interest or wellbeing of their intimate counterparts; it is a learnt behaviour, both at an interpersonal and societal level. Childhood developmental trauma research (Spinazzola and Ford) reminds us that the interaction of experiences, relational interactions, contexts and even our genetic amkeup makes individuals both vulnerable to repeating the behaviour of past generations. However, treatment of the condition and surrounding individuals with people in their intimate world who have different life experiences and personal histories, i.e., those who have acquired respectful relationship habits, can have a positive impact on the individuals’ capacity to change their learned negative behaviours. In conclusion, the work on intimate civility as a potential concept to alleviate rage in human relationships has hardly begun. The decalogue provides a checklist that indicates the necessity of ‘intersectionality’ — where the concepts of intimate civility connect to many points within the public/private and personal/political domains. Any analysis of intimacy must reach further than prepositions tied to social construction and attachment theory (Fonagy), to include current understandings of trauma and inter-generational violence and the way these influence people’s ability to act in healthy and balanced interpersonal relationships. While not condoning violent acts, locating the challenges to intimate civility on both personal and societal levels may leverage a compassionate view of those caught up in interpersonal violence. The human condition demands that we continue the struggle to meet the challenges of intimate civility in our personal actions with others as well as the need to replicate civil behaviour throughout all societies. ReferencesBowlby, John. Attachment and Loss. Vol. 3. New York: Basic Books, 1980.Carter, Stephen. Civility: Manners, Morals and the Etiquette of Democracy. New York: Basic Books, 1998.Dallos, Rudi, and Ros Draper. An Introduction to Family Therapy: Systemic Theory and Practice. 2nd ed. Open University Press: Berkshire, 2005.Australian Institutes of Health and Welfare, Australian Government. Family, Domestic and Sexual Violence in Australia. 2018. 6 Feb. 2019 <https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/domestic-violence/family-domestic-sexual-violence-in-australia-2018/contents/summary>. Fonagy, Peter. Attachment Theory and Psychoanalysis. New York: Other Press, 2001.Gringart, Eyal, Madalena Grobbelaar, and Alise Bender. Intimate Civility: The Perceptions and Experiences of Women on Harmonising Intimate Relationships. Honours thesis, 2018.Holmes, Jeremy, and Arietta Slade. Attachment in Therapeutic Practice. Los Angeles: Sage, 2018. Human Trafficking, Jan. 2019. 14 Feb. 2019 <https://www.a21.org/content/can-you-see-me/gnsqqg?permcode=gnsqqg&site=true>.Kristeva, Julia. Teresa My Love: An Imagined Life of the Saint of Avila. New York: Columbia UP, 2016.Morrison, Scott. “National Press Club Address.” 11 Feb. 2019. 26 Feb. 2019 <https://www.pm.gov.au/media/national-press-club-address-our-plan-keeping-australians-safe-and-secure>.Pateman, Carole. “The Patriarchal Welfare State.” Defining Women: Social Institutions and Gender Divisions. Eds. Linda McDowell and Rosemary Pringle. London: Polity Press, 1994. 223-45.Reid Boyd, Elizabeth. “How Creativity Can Help Us Cultivate Moral Imagination.” The Conversation, 30 Jan. 2019. 11 Feb. 2019 <http://theconversation.com/how-creativity-can-help-us-cultivate-moral-imagination-101968>.Reid Boyd, Elizabeth, and Abigail Bray. Ladies and Gentlemen: Sex, Love and 21st Century Courtesy. Unpublished book proposal, 2005.Commonwealth of Australia. Respect Campaign. 2018, 9 Jan. 2019 <http://www.respect.gov.au/the-campaign/campaign-materials/>.Shelley, Percy Bysshe. A Defence of Poetry. London: Ginn and Company, 1840.Soble, Alan. Philosophy of Sex and Love. St Paul, MN: Paragon House, 1998.Weil, Simone. Waiting on God. London: Fontana Collins, 1968.Wells, Jamelle. “Geoffrey Rush, Erin Norvill and the Daily Telegraph: The Stakes Are High in This Defamation Trial.” ABC News 12 Nov. 2018. 23 Feb. 2019 <http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-10/geoffrey-rush-defamation-trial-a-drama-with-final-act-to-come/10483944>.Yan, Liu, and Luce Irigaray. “Feminism, Sexuate Rights and the Ethics of Sexual Difference: An Interview with Luce Irigaray.” Foreign Literature Studies (2010): 1-9.

At a time when a trip abroad was out of the reach of most women, even if they could not make the journey, Australian women could imagine “abroad” just by reading popular women’s magazines such as Woman (later Woman’s Day and Home then Woman’s Day) and The Australian Women’s Weekly, and journals, such as The Progressive Woman and The Housewife. Increasingly in the post-war period, these magazines and journals contained advertisements for holidaying abroad, recipes for international foods and articles on overseas fashions. It was not unusual for local manufacturers, to use the lure of travel and exotic places as a way of marketing their goods. Healing Bicycles, for example, used the slogan “In Venice men go to work on Gondolas: In Australia it’s a Healing” (“Healing Cycles” 40), and Exotiq cosmetics featured landscapes of countries where Exotiq products had “captured the hearts of women who treasured their loveliness: Cincinnati, Milan, New York, Paris, Geneva and Budapest” (“Exotiq Cosmetics” 36).Unlike Homer’s Penelope, who stayed at home for twenty years waiting for Odysseus to return from the Trojan wars, women have always been on the move to the same extent as men. Their rich travel stories (Riggal, Haysom, Lancaster)—mostly written as letters and diaries—remain largely unpublished and their experiences are not part of the public record to the same extent as the travel stories of men. Ros Pesman argues that the women traveller’s voice was one of privilege and authority full of excitement and disbelief (Pesman 26). She notes that until well into the second part of the twentieth century, “the journey for Australian women to Europe was much more than a return to the sources of family identity and history” (19). It was also:a pilgrimage to the centres and sites of culture, literature and history and an encounter with “the real world.”Europe, and particularly London,was also the place of authority and reference for all those seeking accreditation and recognition, whether as real writers, real ladies or real politicians and statesmen. (19)This article is about two Australian writers; Helen Seager, a journalist employed by The Argus, a daily newspaper in Melbourne Australia, and Gwen Hughes, a graduate of Emily McPherson College of Domestic Economy in Melbourne, working in England as a lecturer, demonstrator and cookbook writer for Parkinsons’ Stove Company. Helen Seager travelled to England on an assignment for The Argus in 1950 and sent articles each day for publication in the women’s section of the newspaper. Gwen Hughes travelled extensively in the Balkans in the 1930s recording her impressions, observations, and recipes for traditional foods whilst working for Parkinsons in England. These women were neither returning to the homeland for an encounter with the real world, nor were they there as cultural tourists in the Cook’s Tour sense of the word. They were professional writers and their observations about the places they visited offer fresh and lively versions of England and Europe, its people, places, and customs.Helen SeagerAustralian Journalist Helen Seager (1901–1981) wrote a daily column, Good Morning Ma’am in the women’s pages of The Argus, from 1947 until shortly after her return from abroad in 1950. Seager wrote human interest stories, often about people of note (Golding), but with a twist; a Baroness who finds knitting exciting (Seager, “Baroness” 9) and ballet dancers backstage (Seager, “Ballet” 10). Much-loved by her mainly female readership, in May 1950 The Argus sent her to England where she would file a daily report of her travels. Whilst now we take travel for granted, Seager was sent abroad with letters of introduction from The Argus, stating that she was travelling on a special editorial assignment which included: a certificate signed by the Lord Mayor of The City of Melbourne, seeking that any courtesies be extended on her trip to England, the Continent, and America; a recommendation from the Consul General of France in Australia; and introductions from the Premier’s Department, the Premier of Victoria, and Austria’s representative in Australia. All noted the nature of her trip, her status as an esteemed reporter for a Melbourne newspaper, and requested that any courtesy possible to be made to her.This assignment was an indication that The Argus valued its women readers. Her expenses, and those of her ten-year-old daughter Harriet, who accompanied her, were covered by the newspaper. Her popularity with her readership is apparent by the enthusiastic tone of the editorial article covering her departure. Accompanied with a photograph of Seager and Harriet boarding the aeroplane, her many women readers were treated to their first ever picture of what she looked like:THOUSANDS of "Argus" readers, particularly those in the country, have wanted to know what Helen Seager looks like. Here she is, waving good-bye as she left on the first stage of a trip to England yesterday. She will be writing her bright “Good Morning, Ma'am” feature as she travels—giving her commentary on life abroad. (The Argus, “Goodbye” 1)Figure 1. Helen Seager and her daughter Harriet board their flight for EnglandThe first article “From Helen in London” read,our Helen Seager, after busy days spent exploring England with her 10-year-old daughter, Harriet, today cabled her first “Good Morning, Ma’am” column from abroad. Each day from now on she will report from London her lively impressions in an old land, which is delightfully new to her. (Seager, “From Helen” 3)Whilst some of her dispatches contain the impressions of the awestruck traveller, for the most they are exquisitely observed stories of the everyday and the ordinary, often about the seemingly most trivial of things, and give a colourful, colonial and egalitarian impression of the places that she visits. A West End hair-do is described, “as I walked into that posh looking establishment, full of Louis XV, gold ornateness to be received with bows from the waist by numerous satellites, my first reaction was to turn and bolt” (Seager, “West End” 3).When she visits Oxford’s literary establishments, she is, for this particular article, the awestruck Australian:In Oxford, you go around saying, soto voce and aloud, “Oh, ye dreaming spires of Oxford.” And Matthew Arnold comes alive again as a close personal friend.In a weekend, Ma’am, I have seen more of Oxford than lots of native Oxonians. I have stood and brooded over the spit in Christ Church College’s underground kitchens on which the oxen for Henry the Eighth were roasted.I have seen the Merton Library, oldest in Oxford, in which the chains that imprisoned the books are still to be seen, and have added by shoe scrape to the stone steps worn down by 500 years of walkers. I have walked the old churches, and I have been lost in wonder at the goodly virtues of the dead. And then, those names of Oxford! Holywell, Tom’s Quad, Friars’ Entry, and Long Wall. The gargoyles at Magdalen and the stones untouched by bombs or war’s destruction. It adds a new importance to human beings to know that once, if only, they too have walked and stood and stared. (Seager, “From Helen” 3)Her sense of wonder whilst in Oxford is, however, moderated by the practicalities of travel incorporated into the article. She continues to describe the warnings she was given, before her departure, of foreign travel that had her alarmed about loss and theft, and the care she took to avoid both. “It would have made you laugh, Ma’am, could you have seen the antics to protect personal property in the countries in transit” (Seager, “From Helen” 3).Her description of a trip to Blenheim Palace shows her sense of fun. She does not attempt to describe the palace or its contents, “Blenheim Palace is too vast and too like a great Government building to arouse much envy,” settling instead on a curiosity should there be a turn of events, “as I surged through its great halls with a good-tempered, jostling mob I couldn’t help wondering what those tired pale-faced guides would do if the mob mood changed and it started on an old-fashioned ransack.” Blenheim palace did not impress her as much as did the Sunday crowd at the palace:The only thing I really took a fancy to were the Venetian cradle, which was used during the infancy of the present Duke and a fine Savvonerie carpet in the same room. What I never wanted to see again was the rubbed-fur collar of the lady in front.Sunday’s crowd was typically English, Good tempered, and full of Cockney wit, and, if you choose to take your pleasures in the mass, it is as good a company as any to be in. (Seager, “We Look” 3)In a description of Dublin and the Dubliners, Seager describes the food-laden shops: “Butchers’ shops leave little room for customers with their great meat carcasses hanging from every hook. … English visitors—and Dublin is awash with them—make an orgy of the cakes that ooze real cream, the pink and juicy hams, and the sweets that demand no points” (Seager, “English” 6). She reports on the humanity of Dublin and Dubliners, “Dublin has a charm that is deep-laid. It springs from the people themselves. Their courtesy is overlaid with a real interest in humanity. They walk and talk, these Dubliners, like Kings” (ibid.).In Paris she melds the ordinary with the noteworthy:I had always imagined that the outside of the Louvre was like and big art gallery. Now that I know it as a series of palaces with courtyards and gardens beyond description in the daytime, and last night, with its cleverly lighted fountains all aplay, its flags and coloured lights, I will never forget it.Just now, down in the street below, somebody is packing the boot of a car to go for, presumably, on a few days’ jaunt. There is one suitcase, maybe with clothes, and on the footpath 47 bottles of the most beautiful wines in the world. (Seager, “When” 3)She writes with a mix of awe and ordinary:My first glimpse of that exciting vista of the Arc de Triomphe in the distance, and the little bistros that I’ve always wanted to see, and all the delights of a new city, […] My first day in Paris, Ma’am, has not taken one whit from the glory that was London. (ibid.) Figure 2: Helen Seager in ParisIt is my belief that Helen Seager intended to do something with her writings abroad. The articles have been cut from The Argus and pasted onto sheets of paper. She has kept copies of the original reports filed whist she was away. The collection shows her insightful egalitarian eye and a sharp humour, a mix of awesome and commonplace.On Bastille Day in 1950, Seager wrote about the celebrations in Paris. Her article is one of exuberant enthusiasm. She writes joyfully about sirens screaming overhead, and people in the street, and looking from windows. Her article, published on 19 July, starts:Paris Ma’am is a magical city. I will never cease to be grateful that I arrived on a day when every thing went wrong, and watched it blossom before my eyes into a gayness that makes our Melbourne Cup gala seem funeral in comparison.Today is July 14.All places of business are closed for five days and only the places of amusement await the world.Parisians are tireless in their celebrations.I went to sleep to the music of bands, dancing feet and singing voices, with the raucous but cheerful toots from motors splitting the night air onto atoms. (Seager, “When” 3)This article resonates uneasiness. How easily could those scenes of celebration on Bastille Day in 1950 be changed into the scenes of carnage on Bastille Day 2016, the cheerful toots of the motors transformed into cries of fear, the sirens in the sky from aeroplanes overhead into the sirens of ambulances and police vehicles, as a Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, as part of a terror attack drives a truck through crowds of people celebrating in Nice.Gwen HughesGwen Hughes graduated from Emily Macpherson College of Domestic Economy with a Diploma of Domestic Science, before she travelled to England to take up employment as senior lecturer and demonstrator of Parkinson’s England, a company that manufactured electric and gas stoves. Hughes wrote in her unpublished manuscript, Balkan Fever, that it was her idea of making ordinary cooking demonstration lessons dramatic and homelike that landed her the job in England (Hughes, Balkan 25-26).Her cookbook, Perfect Cooking, was produced to encourage housewives to enjoy cooking with their Parkinson’s modern cookers with the new Adjusto temperature control. The message she had to convey for Parkinsons was: “Cooking is a matter of putting the right ingredients together and cooking them at the right temperature to achieve a given result” (Hughes, Perfect 3). In reality, Hughes used this cookbook as a vehicle to share her interest in and love of Continental food, especially food from the Balkans where she travelled extensively in the 1930s.Recipes of Continental foods published in Perfect Cooking sit seamlessly alongside traditional British foods. The section on soup, for example, contains recipes for Borscht, a very good soup cooked by the peasants of Russia; Minestrone, an everyday Italian soup; Escudella, from Spain; and Cream of Spinach Soup from France (Perfect 22-23). Hughes devoted a whole chapter to recipes and descriptions of Continental foods labelled “Fascinating Foods From Far Countries,” showing her love and fascination with food and travel. She started this chapter with the observation:There is nearly as much excitement and romance, and, perhaps fear, about sampling a “foreign dish” for the “home stayer” as there is in actually being there for the more adventurous “home leaver”. Let us have a little have a little cruise safe within the comfort of our British homes. Let us try and taste the good things each country is famed for, all the while picturing the romantic setting of these dishes. (Hughes, Perfect 255)Through her recipes and descriptive passages, Hughes took housewives in England and Australia into the strange and wonderful kitchens of exotic women: Madame Darinka Jocanovic in Belgrade, Miss Anicka Zmelova in Prague, Madame Mrskosova at Benesova. These women taught her to make wonderful-sounding foods such as Apfel Strudel, Knedlikcy, Vanilla Kipfel and Christmas Stars. “Who would not enjoy the famous ‘Goose with Dumplings,’” she declares, “in the company of these gay, brave, thoughtful people with their romantic history, their gorgeously appareled peasants set in their richly picturesque scenery” (Perfect 255).It is Hughes’ unpublished manuscript Balkan Fever, written in Melbourne in 1943, to which I now turn. It is part of the Latrobe Heritage collection at the State Library of Victoria. Her manuscript was based on her extensive travels in the Balkans in the 1930s whilst she lived and worked in England, and it was, I suspect, her intention to seek publication.In her twenties, Hughes describes how she set off to the Balkans after meeting a fellow member of the Associated Country Women of the World (ACWW) at the Royal Yugoslav Legation. He was an expert on village life in the Balkans and advised her, that as a writer she would get more information from the local villagers than she would as a tourist. Hughes, who, before television gave cooking demonstrations on the radio, wrote, “I had been writing down recipes and putting them in books for years and of course the things one talks about over the air have to be written down first—that seemed fair enough” (Hughes, Balkan 25-26). There is nothing of the awestruck traveller in Hughes’ richly detailed observations of the people and the places that she visited. “Travelling in the Balkans is a very different affair from travelling in tourist-conscious countries where you just leave it to Cooks. You must either have unlimited time at your disposal, know the language or else have introductions that will enable the right arrangements to be made for you” (Balkan 2), she wrote. She was the experiential tourist, deeply immersed in her surroundings and recording food culture and society as it was.Hughes acknowledged that she was always drawn away from the cities to seek the real life of the people. “It’s to the country district you must go to find the real flavour of a country and the heart of its people—especially in the Balkans where such a large percentage of the population is agricultural” (Balkan 59). Her descriptions in Balkan Fever are a blend of geography, history, culture, national songs, folklore, national costumes, food, embroidery, and vivid observation of the everyday city life. She made little mention of stately homes or buildings. Her attitude to travel can be summed up in her own words:there are so many things to see and learn in the countries of the old world that, walking with eyes and mind wide open can be an immensely delightful pastime, even with no companion and nowhere to go. An hour or two spent in some unpretentious coffee house can be worth all the dinners at Quaglino’s or at The Ritz, if your companion is a good talker, a specialist in your subject, or knows something of the politics and the inner life of the country you are in. (Balkan 28)Rather than touring the grand cities, she was seduced by the market places with their abundance of food, colour, and action. Describing Sarajevo she wrote:On market day the main square is a blaze of colour and movement, the buyers no less colourful than the peasants who have come in from the farms around with their produce—cream cheese, eggs, chickens, fruit and vegetables. Handmade carpets hung up for sale against walls or from trees add their barbaric colour to the splendor of the scene. (Balkan 75)Markets she visited come to life through her vivid descriptions:Oh those markets, with the gorgeous colours, and heaped untidiness of the fruits and vegetables—paprika, those red and green peppers! Every kind of melon, grape and tomato contributing to the riot of colour. Then there were the fascinating peasant embroideries, laces and rich parts of old costumes brought in from the villages for sale. The lovely gay old embroideries were just laid out on a narrow carpet spread along the pavement or hung from a tree if one happened to be there. (Balkan 11)Perhaps it was her radio cooking shows that gave her the ability to make her descriptions sensorial and pictorial:We tasted luxurious foods, fish, chickens, fruits, wines, and liqueurs. All products of the country. Perfect ambrosial nectar of the gods. I was entirely seduced by the rose petal syrup, fragrant and aromatic, a red drink made from the petals of the darkest red roses. (Balkan 151)Ordinary places and everyday events are beautifully realised:We visited the cheese factory amongst other things. … It was curious to see in that far away spot such a quantity of neatly arranged cheeses in the curing chamber, being prepared for export, and in another room the primitive looking round balls of creamed cheese suspended from rafters. Later we saw trains of pack horses going over the mountains, and these were probably the bearers of these cheeses to Bitolj or Skoplje, whence they would be consigned further for export. (Balkan 182)ConclusionReading Seager and Hughes, one cannot help but be swept along on their travels and take part in their journeys. What is clear, is that they were inspired by their work, which is reflected in the way they wrote about the places they visited. Both sought out people and places that were, as Hughes so vividly puts it, not part of the Cook’s Tour. They travelled with their eyes wide open for experiences that were both new and normal, making their writing relevant even today. Written in Paris on Bastille Day 1950, Seager’s Bastille Day article is poignant when compared to Bastille Day in France in 2016. Hughes’s descriptions of Sarajevo are a far cry from the scenes of destruction in that city between 1992 and 1995. The travel writing of these two women offers us vivid impressions and images of the often unreported events, places, daily lives, and industry of the ordinary and the then every day, and remind us that the more things change, the more they stay the same.Pesman writes, “women have always been on the move and Australian women have been as numerous as passengers on the outbound ships as have men” (20), but the records of their travels seldom appear on the public record. Whilst their work-related writings are part of the public record (see Haysom; Lancaster; Riggal), this body of women’s travel writing has not received the attention it deserves. Hughes’ cookbooks, with their traditional Eastern European recipes and evocative descriptions of people and kitchens, are only there for the researcher who knows that cookbooks are a trove of valuable social and cultural material. Digital copies of Seager’s writing can be accessed on Trove (a digital repository), but there is little else about her or her body of writing on the public record.ReferencesThe Argus. “Goodbye Ma’am.” 26 May 1950: 1. <http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/22831285?searchTerm=Goodbye%20Ma%E2%80%99am%E2%80%99&searchLimits=l-title=13|||l-decade=195>.“Exotiq Cosmetics.” Advertisement. Woman 20 Aug. 1945: 36.Golding, Peter. “Just a Chattel of the Sale: A Mostly Light-Hearted Retrospective of a Diverse Life.” In Jim Usher, ed., The Argus: Life & Death of Newspaper. North Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing 2007.Haysom, Ida. Diaries and Photographs of Ida Haysom. <http://search.slv.vic.gov.au/MAIN:Everything:SLV_VOYAGER1637361>.“Healing Cycles.” Advertisement. Woman 27 Aug. 1945: 40. Hughes, Gwen. Balkan Fever. Unpublished Manuscript. State Library of Victoria, MS 12985 Box 3846/4. 1943.———. Perfect Cooking London: Parkinsons, c1940.Lancaster, Rosemary. Je Suis Australienne: Remarkable Women in France 1880-1945. Crawley WA: UWA Press, 2008.Pesman, Ros. “Overseas Travel of Australian Women: Sources in the Australian Manuscripts Collection of the State Library of Victoria.” The Latrobe Journal 58 (Spring 1996): 19-26.Riggal, Louie. (Louise Blanche.) Diary of Italian Tour 1905 February 21 - May 1. <http://search.slv.vic.gov.au/MAIN:Everything:SLV_VOYAGER1635602>.Seager, Helen. “Ballet Dancers Backstage.” The Argus 10 Aug. 1944: 10. <http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/11356057?searchTerm=Ballet%20Dancers%20Backstage&searchLimits=l-title=13|||l-decade=194>.———. “The Baroness Who Finds Knitting Exciting.” The Argus 1 Aug. 1944: 9. <http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/11354557?searchTerm=Helen%20seager%20Baroness&searchLimits=l-title=13|||l-decade=194>.———. “English Visitors Have a Food Spree in Eire.” The Argus 29 Sep. 1950: 6. <http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/22912011?searchTerm=English%20visitors%20have%20a%20spree%20in%20Eire&searchLimits=l-title=13|||l-decade=195>.———. “From Helen in London.” The Argus 20 June 1950: 3. <http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/22836738?searchTerm=From%20Helen%20in%20London&searchLimits=l-title=13|||l-decade=195>.———. “Helen Seager Storms Paris—Paris Falls.” The Argus 15 July 1950: 7.<http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/22906913?searchTerm=Helen%20Seager%20Storms%20Paris%E2%80%99&searchLimits=l-title=13|||l-decade=195>.———. “We Look over Blenheim Palace.” The Argus 28 Sep. 1950: 3. <http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/22902040?searchTerm=Helen%20Seager%20Its%20as%20a%20good%20a%20place%20as%20you%20would%20want%20to%20be&searchLimits=l-title=13|||l-decade=195>.———. “West End Hair-Do Was Fun.” The Argus 3 July 1950: 3. <http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/22913940?searchTerm=West%20End%20hair-do%20was%20fun%E2%80%99&searchLimits=l-title=13|||l-decade=195>.———. “When You Are in Paris on July 14.” The Argus 19 July 1950: 3. <http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/22906244?searchTerm=When%20you%20are%20in%20Paris%20on%20July%2014&searchLimits=l-title=13|||l-decade=195>.