We are pleased to announce the publication of this year’s double edition of Patchwork Student Journal. It encompasses six very diverse texts, five of which were presented at Anglophonia, the international student conference in English studies organized by the English Student Club X.a. this May.
First, Stefan Čizmar writes about different masculinities in Kunzru’s Transmission: by distinguishing between the hegemonic, dominant strain of masculinity and the subordinate strains of masculinity which belong to men who are not in positions of power, he argues, the novel is able to problematize and subvert this dominant conception of masculinity in various ways.
Next, Leoni Flower Finocchiaro’s text focuses on the interactive and intertextual nature of Mansions of Madness, a board game based on H.P. Lovecraft’s writing, claiming the shift from the passive reader to the active player as a fundamentally postmodern phenomenon.
Honing in on different aspects of Lovecraft’s work, Taha Al-Sarhan looks at the interactions and blurred lines between individual perception and objective reality in “The Nameless City” which serve to highlight the precariousness of human comprehension in the presence of the unfathomable.
On a different note, Tijana Šuković looks at the formation of lexemes such as New Yorkness, Obamahood and Stalinoid through three different mechanisms. mechanisms (schema, analogy and second-order schema), suggesting that all three ensure the formation of structurally and semantically acceptable novel lexemes which are successfully interpreted thanks to our extra-linguistic knowledge.
Andi Febriana Tamrin examines YA fiction, fanfiction, and four methods utilized by its reader-writers: oppositional gazing, alternate universes, cross overs, and mash ups. By adapting specific source-texts to construct their own stories and introduce novel perspectives, these fanfictionists can subvert established norms and create unexpected communities.
Finally, Nika Keserović explores Edgar Allan Poe’s character C. Auguste Dupin in relation to the socio-political climate of the 19th century – namely, the combination of liberalism, the commodification of information, and societal distrust following urbanization. Tracing Poe’s ratiocination cycle, she argues that Dupin’s transformation from solver of mysteries to guardian of the status quo reflects the growing influence of capitalism and subsequent commodification of knowledge.
We hope that you will enjoy reading this issue as much as we enjoyed creating it.
The Editors