Harper Lee portrays racial conflicts in the southern United States through her novel To Kill a Mockingbird, which is based on the “Scottsboro Boys” case and has been celebrated as the “moral Bible” of the United States. However, scrutinizing the novel from the perspective of ethical literary criticism, we may discover that the work reflects an ethical stance which pins hope of resolving racial conflicts on the high morality of the upper-middle-class whites. This stance is apparent in Harper Lee’s rewriting strategies of vulgarizing the underclass whites, muting the collective voice of Black individuals, and constructing a “moral myth” of the white mainstream. This ethical position not only reflects the widespread belief among the southern middle and upper classes that a few degenerate poor whites are responsible for racial conflicts, but also aligns with the public opinion in the South during the Civil Rights Movement and the political needs of the United States to resolve the crisis of “Americanness” during the Cold War.

Autobiographical memory narratives reveal not only subjective perceptions of reality, individual or family history and recollections, but also function as historical evidence that provides an overview of the shifts in public discourse, political objectives, and cultural paradigms. This paper focuses on depictions of World War II as seen from the perspective of a child in childhood memory narratives written by Latvian writers born in the late 1920s and early 1930s. The research analyzes depictions of holiday celebrations during turbulent times of war in the territory of Latvia and examines the role these narratives play in representing the experiences of child characters and their sense of (in)security. In the prose works of the selected authors—Harijs Gāliņš, Diāna Skaidrīte Varslavāne, and Andrejs Dripe—literary portrayals of wartime holidays are presented in the context of both surviving the dramatic events of the present and nostalgia, a yearning for the past that attempts to restore “normality” and offers a way to improve children’s feeling of safety and psychological wellbeing. Literary texts of war memories may be studied in conjunction with factual historical documents and life-story interviews to gain a holistic picture of the traumatic events, experiences, and resilience of the so-called “fatherless generation.”

The diary Notabene 45 (1961) by the German writer Erich Kästner (1899–1974) is a unique historical and literary document that provides a profound insight into the human experience at the end of the Second World War and in the first post-war period. Kästner uses personal observation and introspection to capture both the public mood and individual emotions as Germany undergoes dramatic change. This diary serves as a historical record in which a person’s daily life and experiences are closely linked to historical events. The writer not only documents the chaos of war and post-war life, but also offers an in-depth look at the inner world, identity, and existential dilemmas of man. Based on the theory of cultural memory, which considers memory as a selective system of information transmission, the study reveals the importance of Kästner’s fixed sense of time and space in the context of war. This subjective experience allows one to better understand how a person interprets and adapts to extreme circumstances, and how these processes influence the formation of his identity. Kästner’s diary highlights not only historical events, but also the mental state of humans, manifested in the contradictory struggle between survival and the attempt to preserve one’s humanity. The phenomenological approach allows one to explore how individual experience shapes subjective history, focusing on three significant categories of the artistic world: space, time, and the human. This paper analyzes how time and space are treated as important shapers of human experience and identity in Kästner’s diary, and how his reflections on historical events influence the collective memory and cultural understanding. Kästner’s diary, as a transformation of subjective experience and perception into an existential document, not only adds to the understanding of historical events, but also deepens comprehension of how a human being experiences his existence under extreme conditions, revealing the interplay between the categories of space, time, and human.

Autobiographical diaries, as the representation of memory culture, record the individual emotional experiences and thoughts of the authors and thereby contribute to the preservation of individual memories. They reflect the social and cultural contexts in which they were created while providing access to individual perspectives and experiences, and can become part of the collective memory culture. Testimonies of World War II have survived to the present day not only in the form of documents and chronicles but also through the many autobiographical diaries of that time. The aim of the research presented here was to analyze the role and function of individual memories against the background of World War II in the diaries of Swedish writer Astrid Lindgren, in order to form, maintain, and reconstruct memories of the World War II period. Textual analysis, analysis of historical context, and the hermeneutics approach have been applied in conducting the research. The theoretical basis of the study lies in the concepts of cultural memory, time and existence, autobiographical memory and subjectivity, as well as life stories and self-expression.

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s historical writing addresses cultural conflicts and social contradictions in America, and the mechanism of his historical writing also expresses his skepticism about the development of national history. Revolving around Hawthorne’s significant literary images such as the House of the Seven Gables, the Scarlet Letter, and Grandfather’s Chair, this paper examines how the novelist clarifies the historical origin of national culture and showcases his historical concepts and historical writing mechanisms through six coupled aesthetic elements: the “new” and the “old,” the “real” and the “unreal,” and the “individual” and the “collective.” It argues that Hawthorne not only investigates and represents important events in national history but also explores strategies for historical writing, challenging contemporary mainstream discourse from various perspectives. On this basis, Hawthorne’s historical poetics, by including multiple perspectives and satirizing authoritative ideas, exhibits his careful contemplation of national issues and sharp criticism of nineteenth-century American official history.

The article analyzes the book of Stanislav Aseyev, a Ukrainian writer and journalist, dedicated to his memoirs and philosophical reflections related to the author’s imprisonment in the concentration camp “Izoliatsia,” located in Donetsk that is occupied by Russia, from 2017 to 2019. The purpose of this article is an attempt to characterize the philosophical and aesthetic mechanism of the transformation of memoir discourse into a phenomenon endowed with undeniable artistic content and potential, using hermeneutic and comparative-typological methods. Hence, Aseyev’s book is studied in a comparative context along with J. Améry’s On the Other Side of Crime and Punishment. Attempts of the Defeated to Defeat, P. Levi’s Is It a Human?, L. van Eeckhout’s This was in Dachau, V. Frankl’s Saying Yes to Life: A Psychologist in a Concentration Camp, and V. Shalamov’s Kolyma Tales. As a result, the conclusion was made that, unlike the books of the writer’s predecessors, using literary techniques and artistic symbolism, Aseyev’s testimony has acquired the character of a particular artistic essay, the content of which aims at both witnessing the monstrous crimes and, at least partially, recovering after the severe post-traumatic syndrome, but also at looking into the ontological depths of man and his fate.

In Time’s Arrow, Martin Amis crafts a labyrinthine and surreal portrayal of the Holocaust through the reverse narrative of the soul of Odilo Unverdorben, a Nazi physician. Unlike the conventional academic focus on the narrative form, this paper delves into Unverdorben’s double identities as both a perpetrator and a psychological victim of the Holocaust, and explores his post-traumatic stress disorder characterized by heightened vigilance, recurrent re-experiencing of the genocide, avoidance behaviors, and psychic numbing. It concurrently illuminates the intricate interplay of environmental and psychological mechanisms that underpin this suffering, thereby revealing the banality of evil and the profound distortion of humanity and morality within the Holocaust framework. Furthermore, this paper uncovers social criticism and humanistic concerns embedded in Amis’s postmodern realist narrative, through scrutinizing the interconnection between temporal reversal and the manifestations, metaphorical depth, and broader implications of this illness. Not only does this study contribute to a deeper understanding of the psychological complexities of the individual involved in the Holocaust, and of the nature of his crimes, but it also innovatively explores the way the temporal reversal serves illness narrative, in which Amis’s proposition for postmodern realism is embodied.

Asian Literature, a diverse and dynamic field, has long been at the center of a multifaceted debate that continues to evolve. This debate revolves around questions of definition, representation, and cultural authenticity. At its core, the discourse seeks to (re)define the boundaries of Asian Literature in English while simultaneously (re)visiting the specter of Orientalism. Scholars and writers grapple with determining what qualifies as Asian Literature and how it intersects with the broader spectrum of global literature. A central question emerges: Can literary works authored by individuals of Asian heritage living outside their native countries genuinely encapsulate the diversity of Asian experiences? Simultaneously, this discourse grapples with the intricate legacy of Orientalism, scrutinizing how literature can simultaneously challenge and perpetuate stereotypes about Asia and its diverse cultures. The debate questions whether works authored by individuals of Asian descent living outside their countries of origin can authentically represent Asian experiences. Simultaneously, it engages with the complex legacy of Orientalism, examining how literature can challenge and perpetuate stereotypes about Asia and its diverse cultures. Through a critical analysis of selected works, this study contributes to this ongoing debate, exploring how literature shapes our perceptions of identity, authenticity, and representation within Asian Literature.

The study is mainly based on the material of Russian burlesque poetry in the 60s and early 70s of the eighteenth century. The fact that a new type of literary character—a marginal—appears in Russian literature is being established. This marginal hero reveals deep changes in artistic representations of the social world order. This indicates a nascent understanding of mobility and variability in the social world order, which is not observed in previous Russian literature. The purpose of the study is to conceptually describe the model of the social world order in Russian literary burlesque works of the 1760s–1770s as a result of a great change in the artistic picture of the world during this historical period. The theoretical significance of the work lies in the justification of the fact that a fundamentally new type of character for Russian literature is formed in burlesque poetry of this era. It is a marginal hero, who differs in values and motives of action. This is important for understanding and describing the deep processes that determine the growth vector of the Russian literary process of the time. The work contributes to the formation of different approaches to describing specific mechanisms for changing the artistic world picture in the historical process with the help of local material.

The Merchant of Venice focuses on the issue of racial identity reconstruction through the contract of “a pound of flesh,” intertwining economic, legal, and religious concerns associated with that identity. The development of the emerging capitalist economy in Venetian society prompted Shylock to become a usurer. Shylock’s ethical identity as a usurer enables him to leverage the power of money to reinforce his interdependent relationship with Christians, striving for a place and means of survival within Venetian society. However, economic and religious conflicts between Jews, represented by Shylock, and Christians have led to deep-seated animosities. Therefore, in order to avenge Antonio and, by extension, to retaliate against the entire Christian society, Shylock insists on claiming a pound of Antonio’s flesh under the guise of honoring the contract and the law. The “pound of flesh” choice essentially symbolizes the commodification and objectification of individuals against the backdrop of capitalist emergence and social transformation, while also representing Shylock’s efforts and attempts to reshape his personal and racial identity.

The play Tagrībat Zarῑf al-Tūl (Zarῑf al-Tūl’s Alienation, 1984) by the Jordanian playwright Jibrῑl al-Sheikh is an exemplary model of the theater of resistance in Jordan. The main protagonist, Zarῑf al-Tūl, resists the British Mandate for Palestine from 1922 to 1947, which endeavored to realize the Balfour Declaration of 1917, in which England promised to establish a national home for Jews in Palestine. Zarῑf al-Tūl is a hero of resistance, who believes in armed resistance as a means of liberation from the British Mandate for Palestine, or in “violence,” as termed by Frantz Fanon. Staging Irwin Shaw’s Bury the Dead (1936) (Idfinū al-Mawtā) at the University of Jordan in 1972 represents the cultural, political, and intellectual mood of Jordanian playwrights and directors, who advocated the necessity of resisting the injustice of wars and colonial politics. This paper aims to analyze the plays from a postcolonial vantage, examining the concept of resistance and bringing to light the experience of the Jordanian theater in addressing Arab regional concerns.