... is there, but so is cause for optimism. My first draft of this essay told only half of that story. That half will remain hidden because its shadow is too long, its lens too distorting, its gravity too heavy, which is the case for most negative thinking. This new version offers instead a glint of futurity...

... works (reflecting the number of days that the soul is said to travel in the Bardo) (Volodine, “Polyphonie”), suggests rebirth, the revolutionary optimism of the project, to the extent to which it exists at all, seems to be directed quite firmly toward forms of life that are nonhuman and indeed usually...

... of French landscapes. The Poetry of Place is a rich work of scholarship and interpretation. In the conclusion, Mackenzie reminds us that Renaissance poets maintain "that we must always imagine alternative worlds with an 'optimism of the intellect' even in the face of the worst depredation...

... school. Two challenging high school years into the general science track, while too late to switch to the joys of the lettres et langues track, 2 I turned instead to the hybrid lettres et maths , to optimize my chances at entering a prestigious college program. From this experience, I have...

... and he seemed to be coming in on the world at a particular angle. The effect was elegant and totally original: French new wave meets the Beach Boys. He knew that his life was in real danger, but his generosity was such that he still exuded his jaunty optimism for others. If he was called into service...

... as marking the beginnings of optimism and of confidence in life Ue suis ne [Paris, Seuil, 1990] 33-45). This interpretation of the memory does not contradict the more sinister resonance of the term "parachute" since, unlike his mother, Perec was saved from the camps. In this context, the Icarus myth could...

... that “the novel as a whole discourages optimism about knowledge of another within personal love and appears to endorse Marcel’s solipsistic conclusion” (274n18). 3. For more on this kind of interpretation, including further bibliography, see Levy. 4. Any list of superlative earlier attempts would...

... rabbit in a greyhound race, to keep us chasing after a myth—the Child that is the site of the most durable “cruel optimism” (Berlant). 13 Lambert shatters the child as the figurehead for heteronormativity and returns the child to queerness instead by turning children into the interruption...

... fascist writer Pierre Drieu la Rochelle observed the steady advancement of German troops on French soil and imagined with a measured sense of optimism the collapse of France, England, and the entire world order. With the victory of Nazi Germany appearing imminent, Drieu foresaw the swift fall of France...

... ). Davis then addresses Thomas Hardy’s and W. E. B. Du Bois’s objections to James’s pragmatic optimism. Close to the late nineteenth-century deplorers of the Weltschmertz , most (but not all) novels by Hardy describe a world in which “wrongs cannot be righted” (Robert Frost’s formulation, 116). As for Du...

.... Cioran’s view on progress and human civilization runs counter to the initial optimism that launched and sustained the project of modernity initiated during the Enlightenment. According to Susan Sontag, Cioran describes modernity as “the becoming of man [as] the history of the exhaustion of his...

..., and American material prosperity. They perceived a promising future for their children and encouraged them to follow their passions and pursue a career in something they loved. Like the blind faith in student loans, such unbridled optimism for the future no longer exists. It’s funny how certain things...

... of the era in which they were compiled. One proof of the incorrigible optimism of human beings is the fact that every new generation firmly holds the belief that its own works of history have at least revealed the truth hidden from earlier generations-a belief that the next generation will dismiss...

... classes, enjoyed endless entertainment from their portable devices, and could optimize their time without having to commute, all the while maintaining social connections via virtual outlets. They did not need to leave their room to discover the world. Thanks to TikTok or Instagram, they had the world...

... down barriers, connect me and you , and optimally create us . I like to think of language as the art of the possible. We know that language study promotes greater levels of understanding, tolerance, and compassion. 3 We are likely to see more language and social justice classes in colleges...

... of visual impressions and the modulation of affect between optimism and despair. The writing mimes the specificity of writing on art, with modulations taking place within a restricted range of colors that is indicative of the prismatic self-sufficiency of writing. 16 14. David Trotter's Cooking with Mud...

... power. They include a similar reference to instinct, signaling that Sand understands that the need for family is universal but the majority of positive attributes given to families (joy, support, bonds) can be read as a more optimistic view than the one expressed in jacques. This optimism is of course...

..., is analyzed here to show how Aragon uses intertextuality to question some of the major aesthetic and political dictates of the Stalinist era, replacing the mandatory historical optimism with the more ambiguous pattern of historical tragedy. Because this meeting was the first devoted to Aragon in this country...

... to call whatever dampens Bouquet’s optimism something like “wisdom” or “experience,” the product of a coming-after. And yet there’s hope, too, fortified by determination. The construction “we’re going to get through,” “ on va ” in French, the same close-future tense of the sonnet’s “ je vais traduire...

... want to believe that people exist even if we don't speak of them" (438). It should be noted that in its fundamental historical and moral optimism, HHhH differs not only from the novels of Littell and Haenel, but also from other recent French novels that fit the parameters of faction laid out here...