Suchergebnisse

This article offers a discussion of two contemporary Icelandic literary works, Woman at 1000 Degreesby Hallgrímur Helgason and The Outlaw by Jón Gnarr, both of which have been subject to discussion and critique regarding the authors' use of real life individuals and events. The reception of these texts is read against the framework of Icelandic laws regarding freedom of expression and rights to privacy. Two Icelandic legal cases, regarding a literary text and cinematic production, serve as case studies for the Icelandic framework.

This article investigates 'nose books' (neusboekjes) and their social functions
in the Early Modern Low Countries. Nose books are short literary texts written
in the form of joyful ordinances that can be found in bound volumes (Sammelbände).
These volumes contain a number of separately printed works, such
as almanacs, prognostications and popular texts, which were subsequently
bound together. Unlike previous studies, which have largely considered nose
books as purely entertaining, this article demonstrates that nose books were
initially sold as a form of political satire. As such, they encouraged societal
engagement. However, over the course of the eighteenth century, the political
undertone of nose books was no longer part of people's reading experiences.
These later readers appreciated the parody of the official ordinance instead.

This article presents findings from two qualitative research studies on readers' emotional reactions and empathy towards literary texts. Participants were presented with two fragments from novels by Vigdís Grímsdóttir and then asked about their reactions. In the first study, 20 participants were asked to read a fragment from the novel Þögnin(2000) and half of the participants had some kind of a musical education and the other half with no background in music. Interestingly, having a musical background impacted reactions differently than what was expected. As a result, a second study was carried out where the reactions of visual artists (10) were compared to non-artists (10) to a fragment from the novel Þegar stjarna hrapar (2003). Both novels contain information specific to music (Þögnin) or visual arts (Þegar stjarna hrapar). Cognitive science methods, such as the schema theory, will be used to explain how readers of diverse backgrounds react differently to the same text. This approach also illustrates how useful qualitative methods can be in studying topics beyond only the content of the text.