Text Matters No. 2 (2012)

The theme of issue 2 (2012) is “Marginalia/Marginalities” explored across literature, theatre, film, and cultural theory. It opens with a conversation between Dorota Filipczak and film director Krzysztof Zanussi, addressing cultural exchange and the challenges faced by European cinema. The section “Marginal Matters in Theatre and Film” examines how actors and marginalized spaces have been historically portrayed. Its contributors discuss 18^th-century biographies that reframe actors as cultural agents, Samuel Beckett’s self-translation of Waiting for Godot, nature as a marginal force in Terrence Malick’s The Thin Red Line, and the rise of The Big Lebowski from cult obscurity to cultural significance. The authors in the “Margins in Fiction, Poetry and Literary Theory” section write about revisiting the Gothic genre, linking marginality to terror and the fantastic in fin de siècle fiction, Bruno Schulz’s ex-libris art, J. H. Prynne’s poetry, Edward Said’s oeuvre, the Polish reception of Thomas Keneally, and the role of false quotations in Jim Crace’s Arcadia. The final section, “Marginalized Identities,” focuses on individuals in conflict with dominant cultural or social norms. Topics include Ira Daniel Aldridge’s biography, gay masculinities in “Brokeback Mountain,” female marginalization in dystopian fiction, and intercultural identity in works by Alice Walker, Louise Erdrich, Daniel Chacon, Michel Tournier, Monica Ali, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Aravind Adiga. The issue concludes with three reviews (of The Making of London: London in Contemporary Literature by Sebastian Groes; Simon Glendinning’s Derrida; and Native Authenticity: Transnational Perspectives on Native American Literary Studies, edited by Deborah L. Madsen), as well as two interviews: between Fadia Faqir and Maria Assif, and Norman Ravvin and Krzysztof Majer.

Editorial A SPECIAL GUEST OF TEXT MATTERS Krzysztof Zanussi Revisited A Conversation—Dorota Filipczak (University of Łódź) MARGINAL MATTERS IN THEATRE AND FILM William Over (St. John’s University, New York) The Margins of the Rational Man: Fluid Identities in Eighteenth-Century Biography Jadwiga Uchman (University of Łódź) Crossing the Borders of Language and Culture: Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot Catherine M. Lord (University of Amsterdam) At the Margins of the World: The Nature of Limits in Terrence Malick’s The Thin Red Line Katarzyna Małecka (University of Management, Łódź) “The Dude Abides”: How The Big Lebowski Bowled Its Way from a Box Office Bomb to Nation-Wide Fests MARGINS IN FICTION, POETRY AND LITERARY THEORY Agnieszka Kliś (University of Silesia) The Marginality of the Gothic: A Reconsideration Maria Beville (Aarhus University) The Macabre on the Margins: A Study of the Fantastic Terrors of the Fin de Siècle Zbigniew Maszewski (University of Łódź) Bianca Looks from above the Book: Readings on the Margin of Bruno Schulz’s Ex-Libris for Stanisław Weingarten Wit Pietrzak (University of Łódź) The Shortest Way to Modernity Is via the Margins: J.H. Prynne’s Later Poetry Tom Thomas (St.Thomas College, Kozhencherry, Kerala) Edward Said and the Margins Paul Sharrad (University of Wollongong) Interpodes: Poland, Tom Keneally and Australian Literary History Sylwia Wojciechowska (Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń) “Throw[ing] the Longest Shadows”: The Significance of the Bogus Quotation for Arcadia by Jim Crace MARGINALIZED IDENTITIES Bernth Lindfors (University of Texas at Austin) The Lost Life of Ira Daniel Aldridge (Part 1) Kylo-Patrick R. Hart (Texas Christian University) Annie Proulx’s Imaginative Leap: Constructing Gay Masculinity in “Brokeback Mountain” Anna Gilarek (Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, Lublin) Marginalization of “the Other”: Gender Discrimination in Dystopian Visions by Feminist Science Fiction Authors Jadwiga Maszewska (University of Łódź) Travel and “Homing In” in Contemporary Ethnic American Short Stories Richard J. Gray II (Denison University) Beyond the Margins: Identity Fragmentation in Visual Representation in Michel Tournier’s La Goutte d’or Alessandra Rizzo (University of Palermo) Translation and Bilingualism in Monica Ali’s and Jhumpa Lahiri’s Marginalized Identities Praveen Shetty (M.I.T. Manipal University, Manipal, Karnataka), Vishnumoorthy Prabhu, Pratapchandra T Changing Notes in the Voices Beyond the Rooster Coop: A Neo-Capitalist Coup in Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger REVIEWS AND INTERVIEWS Adam Sumera (University of Łódź) Capital Ellowen Deeowen: A Review of The Making of London: London in Contemporary Literature by Sebastian Groes Wit Pietrzak (University of Łódź) Deconstruction and Liberation: A Review of Simon Glendinning’s Derrida Monika Kocot (University of Łódź) Authenticity, Transdifference, Survivance: Native American Identity (Un)Masked: A Review of Native Authenticity: Transnational Perspectives on Native American Literary Studies, ed. Deborah L. Madsen Literature, the Arab Diaspora, Gender and Politics Fadia Faqir Speaks with Maria Assif (University of Toronto) Absent Fathers, Outsider Perspectives and Yiddish Typewriters Norman Ravvin (Concordia University) Talks to Krzysztof Majer (University of Łódź) Contributors