Author: Rita Rumboldt

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Patchwork - Topical Issue Patchwork Student Journal

Patchwork No. 10

We are pleased to announce the publication of the tenth issue of Patchwork Student Journal. It is a conference edition, based on some of the ideas presented at Anglophonia, the International Student Conference in English Studies, in May of 2023. First, Mirko Šešlak’s paper observes Philip K. Dick’s Ubik through the lens of possible worlds theory, focusing on the concept of half-life, in order to see the work of science-fiction as an implicit commentary on the society it was produced in. Next, Matjaž Zgonc explores the phenomenon of past-tense spreading, in which the preterit form of verbs is used instead of the past participle. Although it is typically associated with sociolinguistic parameters such as class and region, the paper argues that the immediate linguistic context of each sentence is the deciding factor. Ayman Almomani’s work deals with the difficulties in translating Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, with a special emphasis on ideologically charged Newspeak terms and the linguistic and cultural differences that impacted both the work’s translations and its reception in Arabic speaking countries. Finally, in Marie Krebs’ paper, the third season of American Horror Story is read as a contemporary example of the Southern Gothic, including its moralistic function, which is visible in the racialization of voodoo in the series.

We hope that you will enjoy reading this issue as much as we enjoyed creating it.

The Editors

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Patchwork Student Journal

Patchwork No. 9

We are pleased to announce the publication of the ninth issue of Patchwork Student Journal. It is the second of two issues titled Spaces in Between, both of which focus on interdisciplinary works, as well as works on intertextuality, transtextuality and intermediality. As explorations of the junctures of various arts and disciplines, these issues are especially interested in concepts such as “borders”, “liminality”, and “ambiguity”: in identifying and analyzing references to Lolita in the post #MeToo novel My Dark Vanessa, Bikić uses an intertextual approach to illustrate shifting cultural boundaries and power dynamics, as well as the obscure yet unrelenting effects of trauma; Surjan’s reading of Light in August highlights the semipermeable and contingent nature of purportedly absolute and biological categories such as race; Keserović’s interpretation of the supernatural elements in Coleridge’s demonic poems explores the poet’s idea of imagination as the subject’s attitude to reality, both natural and supernatural; finally, Francišković offers an overview of the many ways social boundaries, such as exclusion based on racial prejudices, are unconsciously and arbitrarily constructed, as seen in The Lonely Londoners.

We hope that you will enjoy reading this issue as much as we enjoyed creating it.

The Editors

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Patchwork Student Journal

Patchwork No. 8

We are pleased to announce the publication of the eighth issue of Patchwork Student Journal. It is the first of two issues titled Spaces in Between, both of which focus on interdisciplinary works, as well as works on intertextuality, transtextuality and intermediality. As explorations of the junctures of various arts and disciplines, these issues are especially interested in concepts such as “borders”, “liminality”, and “ambiguity”: Stanko’s paper describes both the literal pushing of borders in 19th century North America and the permeable borders between the empirical world, the discursive worlds of literature and academia, and the virtual one of Red Dead Redemption 2; Krčan’s reading of Winterson’s work offers an optimistic approach to the increasingly hazy distinction between human and artificial intelligence through the inherently ambiguous, simultaneously human and superhuman nature of narratives; analyzing Hogg’s novel, Čatlaić identifies its many liminal and uncanny aspects which were to become so characteristic of later Gothic fiction, pointing to the text’s own intermediate, transitional status; finally, Finocchiaro’s reinterpretation of Zone One through the lens of Derridean deconstruction introduces a productive ambiguity into a seemingly overdetermined world of capitalist realism.

We hope that you will enjoy reading this issue as much as we enjoyed creating it.

The Editors

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