Freeside Europe Online Academic Journal
Modern cultural, literary and linguistic perspectives
Freeside Europe Online Academic Journal
Modern cultural, literary and linguistic perspectives
Ever since its inception Freeside Europe Online Academic Journal, as an interdisciplinary journal, has aimed to offer a range of perspectives, covering diverse disciplines. The previous issues have centred around a particular topic, but this issue has broadened its scope even further. In the currently increasingly fragmented world, an eclectic approach seems appropriate and offering a platform for inquiry and discussion across disciplinary boundaries promises fresh perspectives. As always, most of the issue is comprised of full-length articles, whilst book reviews serve to offer insights into books that might attract the interest of our readers.
In the first article of the 2023 Issue, the religious thought of the Reformation and the way in which these had an impact on England is presented. In “17th Century Protestant Thoughts and the Sermons of the English East India Company” Noémi Harding looks at the interrelationship between religion and trade. This theme is further explored in the author’s book review of a work dealing with religion and government in this period and focussing on five English companies in North America and Asia. Moving to the present day, perceptions of English-speaking cultures (Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Jamaica) are explored by Szele and Klosi in a study of common stereotypes held by Hungarian and Albanian students. The Hungarian element returns in a review of a book considering the role and development of the Hungarian Chamber System, showing its past and present. The article by Prantner and Al-Naggar turns to the question of whether hopes for a united Yemen, based on an analysis of its history, can be seen as well-founded.
Hopes and fears related to the future are recurring topics in utopian literature. Czigányik’s review of Traler’s book on utopianism and climate change draws our attention to the possibilities offered by speculative fiction, in particular dystopias with regard to political decision making. Drawing on the insights of moral philosophy and idea of retropias as conceived by Bauman, Keskeny looks at the works of three young, Hungarian ‘post-socialist’ artists and the possibility of moving beyond the constraints of u- and retropias and the bind of the time-complex. Breaking barriers and moving beyond what was previously possible is a theme in Takács’s examination of the difficulties faced by female Innuit filmmakers conveying an indigenous female perspective. The article highlights the work of a women’s video collective promoting and valuing the culture and voices of Inuit women, through an analysis of the film Before Tomorrow (2008), directed by Marie-Hélène Cousineau and Madeline Ivalu.
The role played by, and the perspective offered by women is a theme echoed in the fictional biography, entitled Nora, of Nora Barnacle, the wife of James Joyce. This work is reviewed by Kodó, who also authors an article on the Hungarian reception of George Bernard Shaw. Although Shaw is considered a literary classic writer in Hungary, a shift in the reception of Shaw from 1956 to the present can be traced. Tamás reviews a collection of essays on the reception of another literary classic, namely Nabokov’s Lolita.
On a more practical note, English-language pedagogy as related to the effects of language examination on teaching is investigated by Mátyás in an article on the potential positive washback of high-stakes language exams.
We, thus, enjoin our readers to explore the diverse worlds presented in this issue and look forward to receiving submissions for our next issue.
