Literature Forum

The embodied mind in the trenches: A neurophenomenological exploration of sensory experience, trauma, and the battlefield in Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried”

2025-02-19T01:46:52+00:00

Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried” transcends a mere war narrative. It delves into the profound assault on the human psyche and body experienced by soldiers grappling with combat horrors. This paper argues that a neurophenomenological framework offers a crucial lens for understanding these experiences, particularly their embodied responses to sensory overload and the enduring impact of trauma. Neurophenomenology posits that consciousness and the body are intertwined. Perceptions, emotions, and cognitions are rooted in bodily sensations. In Vietnam, soldiers endured a constant barrage of sensory stimuli: deafening artillery, the stench of death, and stifling humidity. These sensory experiences profoundly shaped their perceptions, emotions, and sense of self. “The Things They Carried” vividly illustrates this embodied reality. O’Brien details the soldiers’ physical and psychological burdens: the weight of equipment, the constant fear, and the guilt of witnessing comrades perish. These manifest as physical weight, but also as profound dread, racing heartbeat, trembling hands, and the ever-present threat of nausea. The treacherous terrain—the muddy swamps, the dense jungle—contributes to a profound sense of disorientation and alienation. By examining the soldiers’ experiences through a neurophenomenological framework, this paper aims to demonstrate how the sensory, bodily, and emotional dimensions of war are central to understanding the psychological and emotional impact of combat. “The Things They Carried” serves as a powerful testament to the enduring power of embodied experience, highlighting the profound and lasting impact of war on the human psyche and body.

Verse form components as images in translation

2025-03-07T02:34:14+00:00

The major concern of this paper is an adequate reproduction of poetry form components in translation. It reveals some theoretical and practical aspects of a verse form as a system of images creating the synsemantic image level of a poem in view of its pre-translational analysis and translation; the synsemantic image concept is verified here; a poem is considered as macro-image structure containing systems of autosemantic, synsemantic and subsemantic images which adequate foreign language rendering reflects the unity of the content and form of the original poem; the synsemantic image level of a poem is qualified as its macro-image structure component that is a subject to reproduction in translation; creation mechanisms of synsemantic imagery and its conveying in the process of translation are shown; some indicator concepts of a full-fledged translation are offered to be included to translation studies terminology, such as synsemantic images, precise and relative-proportional equilinearity, etc. Graphic, intonation, rhythmic, euphonic and compositional means of poetic speech organization are qualified to be the basis of synsemantic images that can acquire appropriate meanings in poetic discourse and enter the system of translation-dominant images of the poem. The study provides an analysis of identifying and translating methods of synsemantic images, counting rhythm, intonation, rhyme, meter, syntax, strophe, sound effects, graphic and grammatical image creation means. The main accent is on the fact that for an adequate translation, it is most important to specify during the pre-translation analysis the expressive and semantic functions the synsemantic images perform, as well as their adherence to the image dominants of a poem to reproduce it, taking into account the poem image hierarchy.

“Teremok”: Ethnocultural interpretation of a folk tale with a psychological dominant and its application in profiling

2025-07-14T08:42:15+00:00

The article is dedicated to the study of the psychological and cultural aspects of the perception of folk tales, using the Russian version of the common Slavic plot about the formation of temporary communities—the tale “Tеremok”—as an example. The issues surrounding the folk tale and its literary adaptations are examined through the lens of deconstructing ideological influences, especially those related to the tension between collectivism and individuality, as well as the formation and destruction of personal boundaries, self-realization, and the socio-psychological mechanisms that support them. To this end, we developed an integrative theoretical model that draws on concepts from analytical psychology, transgenerational trauma theory, object relations theory, and Bowen’s family systems theory. Special attention is given to the metaphorization of fairy-tale images and plot structures with the aim of using them for readers to work through childhood traumas and understand their influence on adult life. In particular, the article proposes an author’s interpretation of the role of parental and social dogmas—often framed as “traditional values”—and the social pressure for their mandatory implementation in the life of every citizen, which leads to the formation and entrenchment of limiting, and consequently possibly less effective behavioral models in changing life (including cultural) contexts. The article also discusses examples from the practice of individual and group profiling, illustrating the behavioral strategies of “mice”—daughters growing up in socially conforming “teremoks” and then seeking self-actualization in their professional activities and personal lives. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of working through a non-societal reading of original folk tales to determine one’s individual values and behavioral paradigms, as well as working with personal boundaries and self-knowledge as necessary conditions for effective self-actualization and the formation of healthy, productive relationships in society.

Romantic shores, postcolonial tides: A dialogue between British and Caribbean beach poetry

2025-06-26T09:03:10+00:00

The concept of the beach as a liminal space—existing as a boundary between sea and land, as well as between nations—has captivated observers for centuries. The literary canon of British literature contains numerous poems that focus on the beach, including works by Matthew Arnold and William Wordsworth. This paper aims to expand upon the English tradition by comparing poems by British and postcolonial treatments of the beach by Anglophone Caribbean writers. It will focus specifically on the poetry of Derek Walcott, Olive Senior, Jean Binta Breeze, John Agard, and Grace Nichols. Considering that the Caribbean islands, much like Great Britain, are surrounded by the sea, Caribbean writers find themselves inevitably drawn to the subject of the beach. They explore its significance as a site of joy and sorrow, arrival and departure. Due to the fact that many Anglophone Caribbean writers live in exile, they often juxtapose their personal Caribbean experiences of the beach with the beaches of their new countries of residence. Thus, the beach becomes their initial encounter with their new “home”. Consequently, the beach, as depicted by the aforementioned authors, provides a backdrop for reflections on history and diaspora, facilitating comparisons and contrasts between the homeland and the new land, the Caribbean, and the European reality of their current lives. Within this framework, the beach is viewed as a gateway from the old home to the new one.