REPRESENTATION OF THE ORIENTAL WORLD IN THE LITERARY TEXTS OF XIX CENTURY EUROPEAN WRITERS

Author(s): Marine Sioridze / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2023

Interest in the Eastern world has a long history. Back in the middle Ages, during the Crusades, the differences between the West and the East became clear. One of the outstanding figures of the Middle Ages, Jacques de Vitry, a participant and eyewitness of the Fifth Crusade, who described the historical events in his most important work “History of the East” or “History of Jerusalem”, confirms the sharp differences between the Eastern and Western worlds in the Middle Ages, which should be studied, it has a long tradition in European historiography. The problems of the West and the East are the subject of many scientific studies and are still relevant today. The theme of the East has always occupied a special place in the works of European writers. Based on the relevance of the research topic, we set the task of studying the literary texts of the 19th century European writers. As research material, we selected the works of Chateaubriand, Lamartine, Nerval, Gautier, Maupassant, Goethe, Byron, Shelley, Moore and Flaubert on the theme of the East. Also, our task is to reveal and emphasize similarities and differences in travel literature created by European writers, to show the East seen through the eyes of Western authors. The present study is conducted based on the basic principles of comparative analysis and imagology. Imagology is a relatively new field of humanitarian research, which studies the face of the “foreigner”, “other” in the public or cultural consciousness of this or that country, ethnos. Comparative literature is interested in imagological studies. Literary imagology has its specific goals. It is a doctrine about faces, about those solid faces of ethnically, culturally different peoples that are presented in artistic texts. The purpose of our research is to reveal cultural markers in Western literary texts. The imagological aspects of comparative literary studies are most clearly revealed in the literary texts created on the theme of the “other”, “foreign” nation. In the end, this kind of approach will be a kind of novelty in the process of researching works on the subject of the East. Also, our goal is to study the imagology of the East as a cultural space in Western literature, since any text dedicated to the life, civilization, culture, traditions, customs, beliefs, representative of a “other” nation and The action takes place on the territory of “another” nation.

Zaborav i ideologija. O recepciji i sudbini hrvatskih književnih kritičara koji su objavljivali za Nezavisne Države Hrvatske (1941-1945)

Author(s): Ivica Matičević / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 1/2022

The paper provides an analytical account of the fate of selected Croatian literary critics/writers (V. Nikolić, A. Bonifačić, A. Barac...) who wrote reviews and essays in the Independent State of Croatia (1941-1945). After the end of the Second World War, communist Yugoslavia was founded and the publication was banned, and Croatian literature written in the NDH fell into oblivion. On the other hand, after the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991 and the civil war in Croatia, there is a rehabilitation of certain topics, writers and their works that were banned and faced the risk of oblivion during the socialist political system. The fundamental basis of this work is to try to answer the question: how the ideology and political dictatorship of one period can influence the reception of literary and cultural values created during a different ideological and political system.

Zapomniany motyw dalmatyńskiej mamki a modelowanie wyobrażeń o Dalmacji w prozie Milana Begovicia, Vladana Desnicy i Enza Bettizy

Author(s): Maciej Czerwiński / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2022

The aim of the article is to discuss the forgotten motif of a Dalmatian wet nurse in the artistic prose of three writers: Milan Begović, Vladan Desnica and Enzo Bettiza, and attempt to situate it in the context of disputes over Dalmatia. The literary update on the motif is in line with the modeling strategies of Dalmatian hinterland referring to the vision of “noble savages” (the Morlacchis/Vlajs). They can serve in bringing about the colonisation policy (as was done in the 18th century by the Republic of Venice) as well as in defining complex relationships in this Croatian-Serbian-Italian borderlands.

W poszukiwaniu kobiecych tradycji literackich. Zapomniane poetki słowackie pierwszej połowy XX wieku

Author(s): Rafał Majerek / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2022

The article presents one of the publishing projects important in the context of Slovak literary studies in recent years, the anthology Sunken Souls. From Works by Slovak Female Poets in the First Half of the 20th Century (2017), edited by Andrea Bokníková. The book recalls the works of twelve women poets who were present in the literary life of the first decades of the 20th century, then gave up their literary activity for various reasons, and memory of them was gradually blurred. The published texts could be a starting point for reflection on the possibility of reinterpreting the history of Slovak literature and making its description more dynamic, e.g. thanks to the reconstruction of the line of women’s writing, often ignored or schematically presented in historical literary studies. This kind of project would correspond with the current search for new ways of conceptualising the literary past.

La première édition bulgare de l’Enfer de Dante : représentation verbale vs représentation visuelle

Author(s): Irena Kristeva / Language(s): French Issue: 1/2023

The article problematises the connection between the verbal representation and the visual representation in the first Bulgarian edition of Inferno (1906). It aims to demonstrate that Gustavе Doré’s drawings, which illustrate Konstantin Velichkov’s translation, contribute to the better reception of Dante’s masterpiece. Thus, I will try to explore the relationship between the text and the iconic paratext, between the interlingual translation and the intersemiotic translation, by bringing out the empathy of the translator.

Pierre Loti et André Malraux : ironie et tragédie des écrivains français en Asie

Author(s): Giovanni Salvagnini Zanazzo / Language(s): French Issue: 1/2023

The essay analyses, in the novels Madame Chrysanthème (1887) by Pierre Loti and La Condition humaine (1933) by André Malraux, the strategies of representation and comprehension of cultural Alterity from these French writers, and their effects on the register of the text. In particular, the ironic mode will be distinguished from the tragic mode. In this sense, the difference between the auto-diegetic statute of Lotian narrator, and the polyphony of characters who animate Malraux’s novel has also been underlined.

Wizerunek pełnomocnika procesowego w polskich utworach literackich i piśmiennictwie politycznym XVI i XVII stulecia

Author(s): Kacper Górski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2023

The article presents the image of an attorney as characterized in Old Polish literature of the 16th and 17th centuries. It reflected, to some extent, the attitude of the people of the time (primarily the nobility) towards the legal profession. There is no doubt that Old Polish society’s perception of attorneys was unequivocally negative. They were portrayed as greedy, dishonest men, liars with no respect for the law, and even instigators of non-compliance with the law. Literary works and political writings broadly condemned such behaviors. However, this stereotype applied only to professional attorneys-at-law. By no means were non-professional agents (attorneys-in-fact) attacked, nor was the institution of the power of attorney itself criticized. It seems that this sort of critical attitude was not estate-based (lots of attorneys were noblemen), although it is possible that the low descent of lawyers influenced the virulence of the criticism. The paper attempts to answer the question as to what extent the literary image of an attorney corresponded to reality. It seems that the works comprised objective reflections on the legal profession and the emotional attitudes of individuals (including authors themselves) or social groups. It is noteworthy that these pieces of literature often regarded the entire Polish legal system of the time as dysfunctional. Nevertheless, the recurrence of motifs such as greediness or dishonesty gives reason to believe that at least some of these allegations were not unfounded. At the same time, it should be noted er corresponded with the stereotype present in European and non-European culture from antiquity to contemporary times.

Observații privind scrierea limbii române și noul DOOM

Author(s): Ioana Crețu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1/2023

This paper considers the principles of writing the Romanian language in relation with the new orthographic dictionary. Phonetic, morphological, syntactical and etymological aspects led to the establishment of a system of rules in the Romanian writing language that can be easily learned and applied. Last year appeared the third edition of the orthographic dictionary regulating current writing. The Orthographic, Orthoepic and Morphological Dictionary of the Romanian Language (DOOM) adapts the writing of Romanian to current requirements, even if some double variants and also linguistic uncertainties are still present. The frequency of errors in today's press shows that publishers and journalists show a lack of professionalism, promoting media products of questionable quality, as well as the lack of trust in such valid tools that can improve correct writing.

Towards a typology of humorous wartime tweets:

Author(s): Olesia YEHOROVA,Antonia Prokopenko,Anna Zinchenko / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2023

The idea of this research was born on 26 May 2022. The following day, we saw Elon Musk’s tweet from 26 May 2022: ‘Politics is a sadness generator’. We accepted the challenge to refute the statement and to prove that there is much space for humour in the political discourse. The study focuses on humorous tweets produced in the period of the first 100 days of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and the criteria according to which they may be classified for further analysis. The literature overview proves that humour has been extensively approached by different researchers from a multidisciplinary perspective; in particular, numerous attempts were made to classify humour and its manifestations. In this research, we approached the Twitter activity of Ukrainian politicians as fragments of political discourse. In particular, we extracted humorous tweets and organised a sample that underwent further categorisation and interpretation with reference to existing typologies and theories of humour. The study discusses the roles the politicians assume while producing and spreading humour on Twitter, features the key subject fields and objects of ridicule in the wartime tweets, gives an insight into the communicative value of such tweets and suggests potential readership classes. Finally, the study seeks to prove the flexibility and adaptability of humour styles to the socio-political context and wartime communication that project public aggressiveness, self-relief and self-enhancement.

Winning battles with a joke:

Author(s): Bhowmick Sumagna,R Vijaya / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2023

Humour in military organizations can be antithetical given the rigid hierarchy, high degrees of work formalization, and obedience to hierarchy. This paper explores how humour is initiated, propagated and maintained in the Indian Army. We conducted twelve in-depth interviews with retired army professionals and used Braun and Clarke’s (2006) thematic analysis to capture the study's main findings. Three major themes emerged – organizational humour, leader humour, and team humour. We found humour is essential in combating stress, increasing social cohesion, facilitating newcomer assimilation, and promoting a positive work environment. We also found evidence of subversive humour used in forms of resistance to challenge the hierarchical structure subtly. We have provided a three-part schema of workplace humour which sheds interesting insights on workplace humour. Our findings will contribute to understanding how military humour helps to maneuver challenges of a stressful work situation.

A multimodal analysis of humour as an engagement strategy in YouTube research dissemination videos

Author(s): Edgar Bernad-Mechó,Carolina Girón-García / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2023

Science popularisation has received widespread interest in the last decade. With the rapid evolution from print to digital modes of information, science outreach has been seen to cross educational boundaries and become integrated into wider contexts such as YouTube. One of the main features of the success of research dissemination videos on YouTube is the ability to establish a meaningful connection with the audience. In this regard, humour may be used as a strategy for engagement. Most studies on humour, however, are conducted solely from a purely linguistic perspective, obviating the complex multimodal reality of communication in the digital era. Considering this background, we set out to explore how humour is used from a multimodal point of view as an engagement strategy in YouTube research dissemination. We selected three research dissemination videos from three distinct YouTube channels to fulfil this aim. After an initial viewing, 22 short humoristic fragments that were particularly engaging were selected. These fragments were further explored using Multimodal Analysis - Video (MAV)1, a multi- layered annotation tool that allows for fine-grained multimodal analyses. Humoristic strategies and contextual features were explored, as well as two main types of modes: embodied and filmic. Results show the presence of 9 linguistic strategies to introduce humour in YouTube science dissemination videos which are always accompanied by heterogeneous combinations of embodied and filmic modes that contribute to fully achieving humoristic purposes.

Every corona is not a virus:

Author(s): God’sgift Ogban Uwen / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2023

This study is a visual semiotic analysis of Coronavirus memetic humour, aimed at ascertaining the implied meanings of selected Covid-19-related Facebook memes that stimulated virtual discourse among Nigerian netizens during the pandemic. The study adopts Visual Semiotics Theory and Encryption Theory of Humour to account for meanings derived from the presuppositional assumptions and shared sociocultural knowledge which serve as the decrypting ‘key’ to meaning. The ‘key’ activates the appropriate disambiguation and interpretation of the significations in the semiotic resources conveyed in the humorous memes. Nineteen Facebook Covid-19-related memes were selected as a representative sample for a descriptive and qualitative analysis. The analysis is coded into 11 discourse domains based on the related semiotic contents of the memes which include: preventive protocol, media reportage, religious beliefs, health sector, sociopolitical domain, socioeconomic domain, security, science, transportation, relationship and lifestyle to account for the differentials in perceptions by Nigerian netizens. Findings show that Nigerians created Coronavirus memetic humour to stimulate laughter in the rather consequential circumstances generated by the pandemic derived from the humorous contents of the image macros. In the Nigerian social context, the Coronavirus memes humorously instantiate the apprehension and helplessness of a people, and thrive to express protest, insecurity, corruption, religiosity, economic hardship and a poor health system. These, altogether, combine as a myriad of the challenges faced by the people who consolably devised coping strategies to trivialise the pandemic, while yearning for an inclusive government that prioritises the welfare of its citizens.

‘Are we laughing at the same?’

Author(s): Iveta Žákovská,Carmen Maíz-Arévalo,Ying Cao / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2023

Humour is often employed as a coping mechanism, with therapeutic effects on those producing and receiving it (Christopher 2015; Samson & Gross 2012). This buffering effect of humour might explain why, at the time of an international pandemic like Covid-19, human beings, independently of their cultural origin, have resorted to humour as a means of alleviating uncertainty and fear, and of enhancing feelings of connection and bonding with others. The proliferation of Covid-related humour has also led to a wide range of studies, with special attention to memes. However, contrastive studies are more limited, especially those comparing very different languages and cultural realities such as the Chinese, the Czech and the Spanish ones. This paper aims to redress this imbalance by analysing a corpus of 300 Covid-memes (100 memes per language). More specifically, we intend to answer the following questions: (i) what dimension(s) of humour are predominant in each language? (ii) what actors do the memes in the three countries target? and (iii) to what extent can these preferences relate to cultural differences/similarities? Applying a mixed-method approach, results show that there seems to be a global preference for affiliative humour while aggressive (and self-deprecating) humour appears to be more culturally bound, with a higher frequency in the Czech and Spanish datasets in contrast to the Chinese one. Likewise, the Czech and Spanish dataset share a significantly higher number of common frames, which might be pointing to a more European, Western type of humour in comparison to the Chinese approach (Jiang et al. 2019).

Humour in the classroom:

Author(s): Hiwa Weisi,Vahid Mohammadi / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2023

The present study was conducted with the purpose of investigating the use of humour by EFLteachers in a private language institute in the context of Iran. In so doing, the study made anattempt to identify the forms of humour EFL teachers opt to use more frequently in relation tothe students’ teaching in the classroom through observing their classroom teachings. Moreover,an interview was held with the EFL teachers to seek their perceptions with regard to thefunctions humorous language can serve in the process of language teaching and learning andtheir suggestions as to the implementation of humour in the classroom. The findings of the studydemonstrate that Iranian EFL teachers show the inclination to use jokes, physical humour andriddles more frequently than other forms of humour. Moreover, the results of the interviewreveal that EFL teachers assign some more commonly functions to the humorous language inthe classroom such as creating a cheerful and friendly atmosphere, acting as a relaxing,comforting, and tension reducing device, increasing student interest and enjoyment, increasinglearners’ concentration and motivation, and finally improving the quality of learning. Finally,the suggestions for appropriate use of humour and implications of the study are discussed in theresult and conclusion sections, respectively.

The Orthodox Church in Ukraine and the Ukrainian Language after Revolution of Dignity

Author(s): Nadia Gergało-Dąbek / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2021

Language plays a very important role in the religious life of an individual, community and state. A common language gives a feeling of unity, helps to create community bonds and facilitates integration and consolidation. Under the influence of the Revolution of Dignity and the hybrid war with Russia, the sense of national identity began to grow in Ukrainian society, and the attitude towards the Ukrainian language as an important component of national identity and security changed. Many Orthodox believers in Ukraine attach more importance to the language of worship and the attitude of the Church towards the hybrid war with Russia. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate and the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine established in 2018 represent different attitudes towards the annexation of Crimea, the war in eastern Ukraine and the language of religious practice. The UOC MP, staying in the protectorate of the Russian Orthodox Church, has never condemned the annexation of Crimea and the armed aggression of Russia against Ukraine. In the UOC MP, there is an informal ban on the use of the Ukrainian language, as they perceive liturgical activities in Ukrainian as a betrayal of the "Russian world". Such an attitude causes misunderstandings and even indignation on the part of the faithful, who more and more often go to the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine presenting a pro-Ukrainian attitude.

Book review

Author(s): Ibukun Filani / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2023

Book review

Author(s): Chiara Mazzocconi / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2023

Funkce cestopisných prvků v kronice Johanna Marignoly

Author(s): Vojtěch Bažant / Language(s): Czech Issue: 1/2023

Medievalists frequently approach Johannes Marignola’s Chronicle of Bohemia (Cronica Boemorum) from two distinct angles, as a travelogue and as a historiographical work, and tend to separate these two aspects.This study focuses on an analysis of the functions of the travelogue elements in the chronicle as a whole. Marignola associates the historical narrative of the first and second ages of the world with reflections on his own journey to the East. However, the stylized narrator is in evidence throughout the chronicle, both as a historian and as a witness. With the aid of Old Testament and Gospel quotations, Marignola witnesses the reality of an earthly paradise in the East and the miracle at the court of Charles IV, connecting the narrative of Czech and of world history.

Identity investment in stand-up comedy and online sketches

Author(s): Mihaela-Viorica Constantinescu / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2023

The article focuses on identity investment in stand-up comedy and online sketches performed by Romanian (or of Romanian descent) comedians acting abroad (France and United Kingdom). It aims at highlighting various humorous strategies that could be construed around a shared feature: the importance of the performer’s stage identity (persona). The analysis is based on a theoretical framework which combines stance(taking) studies and discourse approaches to humour. Immigrant’s (as marginal performers) humour reveals subversive humour: a means of coping with reality, aimed to expose and challenge power structures. The comedians explore stereotypes regarding Romanian or Eastern European immigrants in France and the UK. The differences in staging the stereotypes depend on the comedian’s identity investment in the persona he creates during the humorous performance, as well as on the degree of marginality he assumes for that persona.

Otázka poetismů v jazyce dnešní lyriky prizmatem Korpusu současné poezie

Author(s): Karel Piorecký,Michal Škrabal / Language(s): Czech Issue: 6/2022

The aim of our study is to review the meaning of the term “poeticism” and consider its vitality within contemporary poetry. It identifies specific features of contemporary Czech poetic language that distinguish it from the commonly spoken and written language. For this purpose, we utilise data collected in the Corpus of Contemporary Czech Poetry, using a keyword-extraction tool. We argue that poeticisms in contemporary poetry can be identified based on their frequency as keywords which significantly exceeds the frequency of the same words in common language. Our study concludes by drawing a distinction between two types of poeticisms: functional ones are defined by their frequency, while essential ones are used exclusively in poetic language.