The Discourse of Hope
Raluca Galiţa (coordinator) and Nina Sirković
Perhaps never before in the post-war period have people all over the world revolved, almost simultaneously, around the concept of hope as in the year 2020. The new Coronavirus pandemic, with millions of people infected or dead and billions in lockdown, brought about not only isolation, but also fear, dread, anxiety and despair. Undoubtedly, COVID-19 is one of the biggest threats humanity has ever faced, but its worldwide spread also gave rise to a spirit of global togetherness animated by hope. All over the world, especially during the first lockdowns, people would display encouraging messages in windows, would gather in their balconies to sing together, would cheer for healthcare workers, all in a common effort to lift the spirits.
The context of the all-pervading COVID-19 pandemic brought forth this concept of hope, understood as “an optimistic state of mind that is based on an expectation of positive outcomes with respect to events and circumstances in one's life or the world at large” (Dictionary.reference.com.). In other words, to have hope implies to want an outcome that makes one’s life better in some way. No matter how much people think about it, hope is an inherent part of every human being, as everyone has, at some point, a desire for things to change for the better. Addressing one of the most important characteristics of human experiences, namely the anxiety brought about by the uncertainty regarding the future, the theme of hope is central to different fields of study, such as psychology, literature or religion.
In psychology, one important theory on hope was developed by Charles R. Snyder (2002), who envisages hope as a cognitive skill that proves people’s ability to keep their motivation in the pursuit of a certain goal. Speaking about an individual's ability to be hopeful, Snyder also states that it depends on two types of thinking, which he calls agency thinking and pathway thinking. The former refers to individuals’ determination to achieve their goals despite possible obstacles, while the latter refers to the manners in which individuals believe they can achieve these personal goals. In literature, many characters pursue, through the development of the plot of events, something they want; in this way, the characters’ hope of attaining a goal or confronting impossible odds becomes a central element in many novels or plays. Hope is also a key element in Greek mythology, in the story of Pandora’s box, being the only one left in the box after all the world’s evils were released in the world. Its keeping in the box is symbolic – it is the only one capable of helping people cope with all the other evils. In religion, the emphasis is on varied issues that people hope for, from Messiah’s coming to forgiveness of all sins or eternal life. In the spiritual context, hope means the belief that good things would happen if there exists faith in a higher power.
The language of hope is also present in political discourse. During election campaigns, politicians invoke hope in their speeches in order to convince people and gain votes, while activists voice their shared hopes for a common cause against injustice or oppression. The volume (having three sections: Emotional overtones in literature; Emotional and manipulative language; Emotioanal and manipulative media appeals) investigates the potentialities offered by language in the speaker`s/writer`s attempt of framing the world in such a way as to correspond to their communicative
goals.
Content
Cătălina Bălinișteanu-Furdu
Are women as peace weavers the symbols of hope for the Anglo-Saxon society?
Andrea Roxana Bellot
Hope and reconciliation: humanitarian cooperation between former war enemies
Imene Chaabane Bennani
“What matters is that the novel gets finished”: writing hope in Emna Rmili’s Shatt Larwah (The Spirits’ Beach)
Ahmet Beşe
Women as hope of African-American community in August Wilson’s plays
Tú Anh Hà and Andrea Roxana Bellot
Teaching the Vietnam War through literature: a research and pedagogical proposal for healing and peace education
Cecilia Lasa and Carina Menán
Hope in Shakespeare’s late pieces: the case of The Winter’s Tale
Alla Mikhaylova
Hope as self-determined motivation
Erika Natalia Molina Garcia
Recent developments in the philosophy of hope: phenomenology and the pandemic-forced return to sociality
Svetlana Motornaya
The world after the pandemic: the concept of hope in psychological and educational discourse
Tlili Saad and Rajesh Arruri
Obama and McCain 2008 electoral campaign and the notion of hope: a socio-cognitive critical analysis of the representation of self and other
Book Review
Cătălina Bălinișteanu-Furdu, 2021, Old and Middle English Literature. TheLiterature of the Renaissance, Bacău, Alma Mater Publishing House, ISBN 907-606-527-673-4, 212 pages (review by Raluca Galița)