“Tu dici che di silvïo il parente […] ad immortale secolo andò”1 (Inf., II, 13-15): il protagonista della divina commedia di Dante come “nuovo enea”

Author(s): Maria Maślanka-Soro / Language(s): English Issue: 18/2015

The protagonist of the famous poem of Dante Alighieri has a lot in common with the Virgilian Aeneas: both have a mission to accomplish, but its meaning is profoundly different: political in the case of the son of Anchises and universal in that of Dante-pilgrim. Aeneas will encounter, in the Otherworld, his father and from him he will learn about his own future as well as that of the Roman Empire of which he will become a protoplast. The disciple of Virgil in Dante will know a posthumous destiny of Man with the purpose of showing mankind the way of moral and spiritual renewal. This paper presents a comparative analysis of the figures of “old” and “new” Aeneas, involving an intertextual approach to the theme of their katabasis. The illustration of the similarities and differences between them takes into consideration the changed cultural and spiritual context and the aspiration of the Italian poet to become a “new” Virgil whose masterpiece is superior to the Aeneid both in content and form.

“TURNING SETBACKS INTO COMEBACKS”: REPRESENTING DISABILITY IN PING CHONG’S INSIDE/ OUT…VOICES FROM THE DISABILITY COMMUNITY

Author(s): Diana Benea / Language(s): English Issue: 23/2017

In conversation with recent contributions in the field of disability studies, the article analyzes the representation of disability experience in Chinese American playwright Ping Chong’s Inside/ Out: Voices from the Disability Community (2008), produced within the framework of his ongoing series of community-based performance works entitled Undesirable Elements (1992-). Aligning Chong’s theatrical piece with the cultural model of disability, the paper examines the political stakes of self-representation through testimonial performance, as a site of critical intervention into the classic repertoire of mediated representations of disability.

“Turske priče” I. Andrića i književno--kulturalni arhiv njegova pripovjedačko- -romanesknog djela

Author(s): Sanjin Kodrić / Language(s): Bosnian Issue: 09/2011

Already in his first story Put Alije Đerzeleza (1920), as well as in those which soon follow in the author’s literary practice, I. Andrić indicated some of the basic directions of the development of his entire massive narrative-novelistic work, while opening series of the so-called ‘Turkish stories’, or – more precisely – the ‘Turkish theme’ in his opus, which will be one of the pivots of his overall subsequent literary work. Dealing with this theme will result in the particular complexity of the author’s literary world, which was noticed relatively early, while today, in the time of domination of culturally oriented literary studies, but also in the context of still lasting complex (re)definitions of South-Slavic literary and cultural identities, this complexity has become even more obvious. This all leads to the question of literary-cultural archive of Andrić’s narrative-novelistic work as a particular wider semiotic framework in which the author’s work is produced and in which, while taking its positions in it, it acquires its meanings, and finally to the question of Andrić’s literary work as a literary place of intercultural dialogue.

“U” final în limba scrierilor aromâneşti de la sfârşitul secolului al XVIII-lea

Author(s): Nistor Bardu_ / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 14/2003

Some Aromanian writings dating from the end of the XVIIIth century--the Vocabulary that Cavalioti attached to his Prima învăţătură “Primer” (Prwtwpeiria) – Venice, 1770, the four-language Lexicon of Daniil the Moscopolean, included in his Învăţătura introducătoare „Introductory Knowledge” (Eisagwgikg didaskalia) – Venice, 1794 and, particularly, Noua Învăţătură sau Abecedar uşor „The New Learning or The Easy Primer” (Nea Paidagwgia) – Vienna, 1797, written by Constantin Ucuta--are extremely important to A(R)omanian culture in general, and to Romanian south-Danubian dialectology and the history of Romanian in particular. Of the relevant phonetic aspects of the Aromanian dialect that these writings ascertain, the realization and distribution of -u in final position is of particular importance. The above-mentioned works testify to three different realizations of this vowel, which are characteristic of Aromanian, namely: - a syllabic –u, after a group of consonants; - a whispered –u, after a consonant (m excluded); - the disappearance of -u after m-. The fact that -u in final position, after m-, was not pronounced (unlike Dacoromanian) distinguishes the idiolect of the Aromanian from Moscopolis, the native place of the three authors, which gives evidence, in addition to other phonetic, morphological and lexical phenomena, of the primordial unity of Romanian. In this article, we examine several samples of usage from these works and confront the opinions that numerous linguists, such as as Th. Capidan, Matilda Caragiu Marioţeanu, Petru Neiescu, Nicolae Saramandu etc., have expressed about this phenomenon, in time.

“ULYSSES” BY JAMES JOYCE FROM THE VIEWPOINT OF HERMANN BROCH

Author(s): Maria Andonova / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2007

The article deals with one of the most controversial literary works ever, a colossal novel, looked through the eyes of the distinguished German writer and theoretician Hermann Broch.

“UNSER TÄGLICH’ WIRTSCHAFTSDEUTSCH“(I). ZUR FRAGE DER SPRACHHANDLUNGSFÄHIGKEIT UND DER KOMMUNIKATIVEN FERTIGKEITEN

Author(s): Lora Constantinescu / Language(s): German Issue: 4/2001

In the brave new world of the 2000s, after the ”Renaissance” of Business Germanteaching at the Bucharest Academy of Economics, we can still raise the question: howcan the teaching of German for Special Purposes (the so called “Fachsprachenunterricht”or “Wirtschaftsdeutschunterricht”) meet the demand of the socio-economic andprofessional community in Romania and not only, which reassesses the position ofGerman as a means of professional communication. In this regard, the present article isdevoted to some theoretical and practical aspects of teaching German to students ofEconomics.For a coherent overall picture, the paper refers to interpretations of the term“Wirtschaftsdeutsch” and presents some particularities of the FLT-landscape at the abovementioned university. It discusses the German learners’ language needs and thecommunication competence in the area of Economics, as it is acquired on the strategiclevel by bundling receptive and productive communication skills, whereas by offeringmotivating topics/texts (business letters, advertising texts) in the content area, togetherwith adequate learning activities and social work forms (didactic games/ simulations).

“Vă rog să m-ascultaţi”: o perspectivă pragmatică asupra discursului lui Marcus Antonius în Iuliu Cezar

Author(s): Nicoleta-Mariana Iftimie / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2016

Mark Antony’s speech in Act III of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, hailed as a triumph of oratory, has been traditionally analysed from a rhetorical and stylistic point of view. This article, which is a tiny tribute paid to the great playwright the year we celebrate 400 years of Shakespearean legacy, suggests a different approach to the interpretation of the famous speech, based on the tools offered by theatre pragmatics and semiotics, with a view to show how discourse can become a form of action performed on the listeners, a manipulative process that conveys communicative acts and produces effects on the addressees.

“Versöhnung – Ja, Verzicht – Nein“? Marion Gräfin Dönhoff 1946-1970: Territorialer Paradigmenwechsel und neue Sicht auf Polen

Author(s): Radosław Supranowicz / Language(s): German Issue: XXI/2019

This article will examine Marion Gräfin Dönhoff’s articles published in the Hamburg-based “Die Zeit“ weekly in the years 1946-1970. Dönhoff, a renowned German journalist, had to leave East Prussia and her family estate in 1945. The articles under analysis demonstrate an evolution of her views on the problem of losing the so-called German East, from the initial inability to come to terms with the new postwar territo-rial reality, to the eventual recognition that Germany’s loss of provinces in the East is permanent and final.

“VIENS!”: ON MAURICE BLANCHOT’S PRAYERS AND PROMISES

Author(s): Arleen Ionescu / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2015

The essay attempts to explore a highly controversial issue, that of MauriceBlanchot’s alleged atheism, and partially contradict it. Starting form Caputo’s proposal to lookfor Derrida’s prayers and tears, and investigating several Blanchotian récits, it similarly andpersistently asks the Augustinian question on the French philosopher and literary theorist: “whatdo I love when I love my God?”. My aim is to find out who Blanchot’s God was and such a criticalanalysis resorts to a threefold structure based on one of Blanchot’s keywords (viens!- come), onwhat I tentatively called prière (prayer, praying, begging), and a final promesse (promise).

“WE ARE SLIDING INTO UNCHARTED TERRITORY, AND WE ARE ALONE IN THIS.” A New Look At Political Disorientation

Author(s): Fabrizio Tonello / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2018

In the United States and in European democracies most citizens feel disoriented when required to vote, as shown by high electoral volatility, reduced turnout, and the successes of unconventional candidates, or brand-new parties. The purpose of this article is to look at political disorientation under a new angle, as a phenomenon that has striking similarities with the physical disorientation created by an alien landscape.

“WE COULD SING BETTER SONGS THAN THOSE”: DRINK IMAGES IN WILLY RUSSELL’S PLAYS

Author(s): Wojciech Klepuszewski / Language(s): English Issue: XX/2018

Willy Russell is an example of a writer whose popularity and critical reception is not extensively reflected in serious studies. There is a noticeable tendency to appraise rather than analyse Russell’s work. The aim of the present article is to dissect the function of drink images in the context of class-related issues Russell thematises in his plays.

“We Must Get Rid of Slavery, or We Must Get Rid of Freedom.”

Self, Other, and Emancipation in Antebellum America

Author(s): Forsberg Carrie / Language(s): English Issue: 20/2017

Antebellum American literature, like the country itself, was a heterogeny of Romanticism, Transcendentalism, and political prose culminating in the national narrative. Authors during this time struggled with the issue of slavery and their works reflected varying degrees of disdain for it and its treatment of slaves that were the direct representation of the Other. Prominent writers, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, and Walt Whitman used their prose and poetry to speak out about a nation cleaved in two. These two sides could not agree on how to move forward and this struggle was in fact a mirror image of the binary idea of the Self and the Other. If the Self was the white male, the Other was the slave or Native American who was outside of the antebellum norm. Emerson encouraged an equality and self-reliance that would reverse the power structure of the time. Hawthorne used veiled allegories to suggest that the nation´s slavery problem would rectify itself in time. Melville preached about capitalism and Christian hypocrisy while Whitman used his poetry to aesthetically envision a truly inclusive democratic antebellum America. These authors were pioneers in the humanism of literature that was meant to inspire the nation to achieve its potential and ensure that every voice would be heard. However, antebellum human rights were not fully realized and slavery dehumanized the Other leading to a nation divided and eventually civil war.

“WE STOPPED DREAMING”: JULIE OTSUKA’S (UN)TOLD STORIES OF PICTURE BRIDES

Author(s): Cristina Chevereșan / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2019

“We Stopped Dreaming”: Julie Otsuka’s (Un)Told Stories of Picture Brides. Focusing on Julie Otsuka’s acclaimed 2011 novel, The Buddha in the Attic, this paper will investigate the picture bride phenomenon as a multilayered trade of lives, identities, emotions and expectations, drawing a vivid picture of the protagonists’ subjection to exploitation, abuse, discrimination and deceit.

“WE’RE SO HAPPY TO HAVE YOU HERE (BUT WE’D RATHER YOU HADN’T COME)”: EXCLUSION, SOLIDARITY AND NETWORK BUILDING OF NORTH KOREAN REFUGEES

Author(s): Markus Bell / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2013

“We’re So Happy to Have You Here (But We’d Rather You Hadn’t Come)”: Exclusion, solidarity and network building of North Korean refugees. In the last ten years, following periods of extensive famine, flooding and economic mismanagement on behalf of the North Korean government, the number of North Koreans arriving in South Korea has grown exponentially. The gap between North Korean refugees (talbukin), individuals brought up in a socialist, group-oriented system, and South Koreans, raised in a highly competitive, democratic society, can often feel like a whole world of difference. The existence of yeonjul networks in South Korea further ensure that North Koreans often have an extremely difficult time coming to grips with their new surroundings. Given the almost insurmountable difficulties experienced by many North Koreans in acclimatizing to South Korean society and developing networks that can provide emotional and instrumental benefits, it is hardly surprising the frequency and ease with which many choose to associate, both professionally and socially, with others from North Korea. This paper explicates the situation of North Korean refugees living in South Korea, in particular, the difficulties many individuals face after arriving in South Korea and the challenges experienced in creating and maintaining sustainable social networks. This paper argues that due to the exclusivity of social networks in South Korea, and the resultant difficulties talbukin experience in becoming part of these networks, the development of a North Korean enclave society is inevitable.

“Weltanschauung”-u postmodern

Author(s): Hans Bertens / Language(s): Albanian Issue: 1/2013

Qasja ime pluraliste mund të parashihet se do të na prijë drejt një pluralizmi të njëllojtë me atë të Weltanschauung-ut postmodern. A do të jetë e mundur që t’i grupojmë këto pikëpamje brenda një përkufizimi të vetëm me shkallë të lartë abstraksioni, mbetet të shihet. Pluralizmi i strategjisë sime, domosdoshmërisht do të hapë diskutimin për relacionet në mes të Postmodernizmit dhe Modernizmit, përfshirë edhe Avangardën e periudhës moderne: Dadaizmin, Surrealizmin dhe lëvizjet e tjera.

“What Lamb: What Lady-bird… Where’s this Girle?” On Shakespearean Terms of Endearment

Author(s): Agnieszka Grząśko / Language(s): English Issue: 21/2016

The language of intimacy and – in particular – terms of affection, which constitutes its major element, are a significant part of our everyday language. The first such terms came forth as early as Anglo-Saxon times and this conceptual category is still being constantly enlarged with new lexical items. The key objective of our paper is to examine a mere fraction of this extensive conceptual category, by confining our analysis to those terms that were employed at the end of the 16th and the beginning of the 17th centuries. To be more precise, we shall focus on nine terms of endearment which were used by Shakespeare in his works. By means of the cognitive apparatus, we will trace the semantic development of these words and, finally, we will search for their traces in modern dictionaries of English.

“WHEN WILL I BE BLOWN UP?” – WILLIAM FAULKNER’S WRITING WARFARE

Author(s): Anca Peiu / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2017

“When Will I Be Blown Up?” – William Faulkner’s Writing Warfare. The American Civil War (1861-1865) is not William Faulkner’s only warfare. The American modern writer remained faithful to his romantic creed that the poet’s mission is to render the innermost human (self)contradictions. Faulkner’s own writing style evinces this endless state of warfare at the back of his mind. It is like him to make us readers doubt our own peace delusions; yet it is like him also to doubt the solemn rhetoric of any “serious” historical warfare. The purpose of my essay is to prove that William Faulkner’s fiction evoking historical warfare can still help us readers out of our mortal fear. By means of his writing art, championing a sound sense of humor as the only hope for spiritual survival, Faulkner’s message is universal and still valid.

“WHERE HAS OUR COUNTRY GONE?” READING THE LAST WORD AFTER BREXIT

Author(s): Clelia Clini / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2017

The Last Word (2014) is the first novel written by Hanif Kureishi not being set in London but in the English countryside. While the main focus of the novel is the antagonistic relationship between the famous Indian writer Mamoon and his biographer Harry, the context of deprivation within which Mamoon’s mansion is located speaks of what Kureishi himself called a “big break in Britain, between London and the rest of the country” (2014). This paper will precisely focus on the novel’s description of this “break” within the country and relate it to the outcome of the recent “Brexit” referendum. In particular, through references to earlier novels by the same author and an interview I conducted with him in 2014, the analysis will focus on Kureishi’s take on multiculturalism and the contemporary social and political situation of Britain. What dynamics of power regulate social relationships? Who is included and who is excluded? In addressing these questions, the paper will also address the emergence of “post-multiculturalism” discourses and the backlash against multiculturalism in Europe (Vertovec and Wessendorf, 2010).

“White World, Not a Sound”. Paternal Spaces in Samuel Beckett’s Embers

Author(s): Michał Kisiel / Language(s): English Issue: 12/2017

This paper aims at the interpretation of the father as an empty figure of authority inSamuel Beckett’s radio play entitled Embers. Through the close-reading of this play and the analysis of the relations between the protagonist and the two feminine characters, Ada and Addie, it demonstrates how the father figure coincides with the classical impasse of Beckett’s oeuvre: the subject unable to manifest itself. Due to that fact, the father is presented in the constant process of wearing his authorial space out. It is eventually demonstrated that in Embers the subject is coerced to balance between its self-deconstruction and the paternal violence: its focus on its own materiality results in the collapse of language, whereas overt attention on the linguistic cognition puts forward the logic of remnants resisting father’s orders, be it in the form of sound collage, or material element immune to symbolisation.

“Why Gypsies and Albanians do not have their own letters”. Greek attitudes towards neighbouring languages during the 19th century

Author(s): Doris K. Kyriazis / Language(s): English Issue: 15/2015

In this article several aspects of the Greek attitudes towards neighbours’ languages during the 19th century are presented and analyzed. We believe that the decades before the Greek Revolution, known also as the period of maturity for the Modern Greek Enlightenment, deserve more of our attention and concern. The issue needs to be further investigated and the written resources from the specific time must be exhaustively researched in order for us to form a broader view of the situation.