The Adriatic-Baltic Transversal: Danilo Kiš Through the Prism of Baltic Writing on Essentialism and Diversity

Author(s): John K. Cox / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2015

The purpose of this paper will be to compare the ideas of one highly regarded southeast European writer, Danilo Kiš (1935–1989) of Yugoslavia, with those of some leading writers and thinkers from the Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania. My analysis will center on the vague concepts of “identity” and “national culture”. I will explore, by reference to the many essays and interviews of Danilo Kiš, concrete topics such as essentialism and linguistic and ethnic diversity and look for parallels or contrast in the works of some Baltic writers. These thoughts will, I hope, spark a discussion based on sources broader than those that I command about what terms such as identity and national culture actually mean and how they effect the production, or reputation, of writers. It should also be possible to look at some issues relating to cultural translation in Kiš, because he grew up in the contested border area between Hungary and Serbia, was the product of an ethnically and religiously mixed marriage, and translated and taught internationally for much of his life.

J. Randvere’s “Ruth” (1909) as an Example of Literary Decadence and the Quintessence of Young Estonia’s (1905–1915) Modern Ideology

Author(s): Mirjam Hinrikus / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2015

This article is based on the interpretation of a segment of the reception of J. Randvere’s provocative, short essay-novella “Ruth” (1909), which was written by Johannes Aavik, a well-known Young Estonian and one of the principal modernizers of the Estonian language. This segment of reception regards “Ruth” as the quintessence of Young Estonia’s ideology, but does not offer a full explanation of how this ideology in “Ruth” is associated, on the one hand, with Young Estonians’ ambitions in modernizing Estonian literature and, on the other, with the broader fin de siècle European culture. I shall ask through which discourses does this ideology, which is innovative in the context of Estonian culture at the beginning of the 20th century, express itself in “Ruth”? What imaginations, representations and associations appear in “Ruth” in relation to the Young Estonian program, which interweaves tradition and/ or Estonian national-mindedness on the one hand, and Europeannes and/or modern ideas on the other. Or who are these Europeans and Estonians with whom Young Estonians wish to identify? Although Young Estonian ideology in “Ruth” has mostly been associated with connotations of decadence like “a culture of individuality”, “artificiality” and “aestheticism”, I will argue that in “Ruth” counter-discourses also come to the forefront. In other words, “Ruth” becomes the quintessence of the Young Estonia ideology, because it serves as a metaphoric counterpart to the Young Estonians’ program: “let us be Estonians, but let us become Europeans”. Through the reproduction of decadent discourse, which is in this text in the dominant position, “Ruth” oscillates between the ambivalent valorizations of signs of health (norms) and disease or decadence (deviation from the norms), accompanied, on the one hand, and among other things by opposition to the national discourse and, on the other hand, to the signs of decadence, that is the neutralization of the symptoms of decadence.

ПОПУЛАРНА КУЛТУРА И ФОРМАЦИЈЕ ДРУШТВЕНОГ ПОВЕЗИВАЊА ДРАМСКИХ ЛИКОВА ХАРОЛДА ПИНТЕРА

Author(s): Sanja Rafailovic / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 77/2022

The topic of this paper is defining the concept of popular culture and determining its influence on the formations of social connection of dramatic characters of Harold Pinter. The first part of the paper relies on the theories of the renowned sociologists regarding the explication of the concept of popular culture and the determination of its elements, with a special focus on social formations. In the second part of the paper, the comparative method determines and explains the social formations that make up the dramatic characters of Harold Pinter in the dramas: The Dumb Waiter, The Caretaker, Homecoming, No Man’s Land, Betrayal and Celebration. More precisely, the connection of Harold Pinter’s drama charac- ters is classified into: an association which purpose is to achieve individual goals (family, friends, business associates) and an association which purpose is in itself (celebration). The aim of this paper is to determine the extent to which popular culture influences the formations of social associations of the protagonists of Harold Pinter’s drama characters.

ИСТОРИЈА ЈЕЗИЧКОГ ТЕСТИРАЊА

Author(s): Dragana Mirčić Panić / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 77/2022

The paper presents the history of the development of language test- ing in the light of various, once prevailing theories about the nature, acquisition and use of language. The initial chapter is dedicated to the first, traditional or pre-scientific phase in the development of language testing, which is related to the end of the 19th century and the then dominant grammar-translation method. What follows is a presentation of the period of discrete point testing, resulting from a structuralist interpretation of language, as well as the attempt to overcome the shortcomings of this type of testing. The final chapters deal with the theory of communicative competence, which has led to an essential and final turning point in relation to traditional methods. We also paid attention to the new challenges that the language testing process faced in the conditions of a pandemic and a complete transition to online teaching, and the answers to the questions that were recognized as problematic could be given by some future research.

Тàлер или дàлер? Национален колорит и наименования на парични единици в преводите на норвежките народни приказки на български език

Author(s): Ivan Y. Tenev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2022

Rendering national, cultural and historical references into the target language is one of the major challenges in translating folklore narratives. The paper examines the approaches to Norwegian realia (i.e. words for culture-specific items) denoting currency units (daler, skilling and mark), adopted by the Bulgarian translators of the Norwegian Folktales collected by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe. The translation strategies are discussed against the backdrop of the major role of the Folktales in fostering Norwegian national identity during the National Romanticism period. The paper provides some theoretical considerations relating to the multitude of factors which underlie the possible translation strategies, e.g. the genre specifics of the source text, the target group of the translation, the degree of the national overtones’ intensity and the nature of the realia’s denotata.

Пътуване и превод: Маргьорит Юрсенар като преводачка на Вирджиния Улф

Author(s): Francheska Zemyarska / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2022

The core topic of this paper is Marguerite Yourcenar’s translation (1937) of Virginia Woolf's novel The Waves. I also trace back the major debate in France in 1993 when a second translation of The Waves by Cécile Wajsbrot appeared in French. In conclusion, the paper provides Marguerite Yourcenar's reflection on Virginia Woolf. By outlining the genealogy of Marguerite Yourcenar's writing, it goes beyond the obvious predecessors like Marcel Proust and Thomas Mann, in order to unmask Woolf as a possible precursor.

Stratégies d’adaptation de La vie devant soi : fonctions éthiques et transformations filmiques

Author(s): Antoaneta Robova / Language(s): French Issue: 1/2022

The paper analyses two film adaptations (1977, 2020) of Romain Gary’s novel The Life Before Us exploring the transformation strategies originating from the transition from page to screen as well as different forms of (re)contextualisation in the 20th and 21st century. The comparative case study examines the evolution of dominant adaptation approaches going from fidelity to the source text to intertextuality and reinvention. We aim to reveal the relevance of the author’s humanist views through the strong visual thematisation of universal values and empathic figures’ interactions.

Breakfast at Tiffany’s. From Page to Screen. The Making of a Classic. Transformation of Gender Relations

Author(s): Ioana Pankova / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2022

The aim of this article is to explore how the film adaptation of Truman Capote’s novella Breakfast at Tiffany’s translated the literary original into cinematic language. My claim is that the essential transfigurations ensued in terms of gender relations. The question of what motivated them, and how they impacted the cult status which the movie work acquired, is approached by focusing on the transformations from the perspective of the dramatic structure. Through the use of script development tools: type of narration, thematic premise, central question, controlling idea, mediation, protagonists, setting, and the ways in which casting, style of cinematography and music interact with them, I will attempt to pinpoint and analyse the key differences.

Места на празнота в романа Спящият човек на Жорж Перек и неговата екранизация

Author(s): Rennie Yotova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2022

This text examines George Perec's novel The Man Who Sleeps and its adaptation through a young man's existential crisis in search of the meaning of his existence. The disintegrated time and space introduce the reader to the labyrinth of wandering consciousness through the “rhetorical places”, the delight of emptiness, on the border between dream and reality. The work is close to the experiment of the literary movement “New Novel”, approaching in the film the “camera-pen” embodied in the New Wave of French cinema.

Ема – това съм аз (Вазов и Флобер)

Author(s): Julian Zhiliev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2022

The article aims to answer a few questions related to the autobiographical and literary basis of Vazov’s short story Emma, its hidden correlation and opposition to Flaubert’s Emma from the novel Madame Bovary, as well as to trace some “bovarystic” plots in the prose of the antibovaryst Vazov.

Book Review: Translation and Transfer of Knowledge in Encyclopedic Compilations, 1680-1830

Author(s): Margarita Garova,Raya Zaimova / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2022

Book Review: Translation and Transfer of Knowledge in Encyclopedic Compilations, 1680-1830Translation and Transfer of Knowledge in Encyclopedic Compilations, 1680-1830, ed. by Clorinda Donato and Hans-Jürgen Lüsebrink. University of Toronto Press, 2021.

КАКО САМОСТАЛНО УЧИТИ ЈЕЗИК ПОСРЕДСТВОМ ИНТЕРНЕТ РЕСУРСА: ТЕОРИЈСКИ И ПРАКТИЧНИ АСПЕКТИ

Author(s): Mladen G. Milosavljević / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 77/2022

Dû aux changements des aspects de la vie sous l’influence des techno- logies modernes, qui se développent à une vitesse significative, les domaines des recherches en linguistique et enseignement des langues ne sont pas épargnés. Dans ce mémoire l’auteur essaiera de trouver la réponse à la problématique suivante : comment trouver et utiliser les ressources d’apprentissage de langue disponibles sur Internet. Comment apprendre de façon autonome et aussi quelles sont les conditions liées à cette autonomie. Ce mémoire trouve ses bases sur les autres mémoires et les recherches dans les domaines de l’apprentissage autonome. De plus, il attrait aux ressources disponibles sur Internet, à l’enseignement moderne des langues, des aspects psychologiques de ce processus mais aussi à l’expérience personnelle de l’auteur qui, en apprenant sur Internet, a atteint un bon niveau du français. Cette recherche démontre que l’apprentissage d’une langue étrangère en utilisant les ressources sur Internet est possible, quand certaines conditions méthodologiques et psychologiques sont réunies. Aujourd’hui cette méthode est probablement la meilleure qui soit

“A Soul in Physical Stress”: Transgender Epistemologies in Nightwood

Author(s): Andreea Moise / Language(s): English Issue: 24/2021

The present article questions the common label assigned to Nightwood’s character Dr. Matthew O’Connor, widely analysed as a homosexual transvestite in spite of the various narrative implications that would reconfigure the ambiguities inherent to their gender identity. As a character in a novel considered to be as discriminatory as it is emancipatory, O’Connor is a main character treated as secondary and punished for their exclusion from standards of normativity. I employ the arguments brought forth by Magnus Hirschfeld in 1910 in order to consolidate the understanding of O’Connor as a transgender woman, as well as the views of Esther Newton on drag and camp discourses, in order to retrace the reasons for O’Connor’s critical interpretation as a mere male cross-dresser, a theatrical vision whose femaleness is assigned a performative rather than an identitarian value. Apart from the importance of demarcating transvestism from transsexuality, O’Connor’s wretched treatment and the impossibility of their transitioning is equally relevant. Their transition is envisioned as a matter of embodiment, and their expressed wishes of patriarchal female ideals point to an essentialist transgender narrative that consolidates matters of ‘passing’ that follow mimetic gender ideologies. The path to recognition requires the displacement of hegemonic standards of normativity, in favour of the recreation of the masculine/feminine dichotomy and the fragmentation of expectations for a sexed transitioned product. O’Connor’s pessimistic narrative arc could be seen within the context of an indirect and subverted call for political change coming from the author, whereby transphobia is both reinforced and negotiated.

MODALITĂȚI DE ÎMBUNĂTĂȚIRE A EFICIENȚEI EVALUĂRII ȘI NOTĂRII COMPETENȚELOR LINGVISTICE ÎN PREDAREA LIMBILOR STRĂINE

Author(s): Anca-Margareta Bunea / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1/2022

In all the factors that ensure the increase of the quantitative parameters of the teaching activity, the increase of the pedagogical and social efficiency of the teaching-learning process, as well as the evaluation of the performances have an essential methodological role obtained both at the level of the system and of the didactic process. As a basic component of the scientific strategy, applied in order to improve the teaching process, the evaluation action highlights the extent and quality of the achievement of the educational objectives pursued. Due to the nature of the information it provides regarding the results obtained in relation to the established instructive-educational objectives and also through the feedback on the previous actions and effects, evaluation represents the scientific basis for further adoption of the necessary decisions and improvement measures.

THE ROLE OF METONYMY IN SPECIALIZED LANGUAGES

Author(s): Raluca Ghențulescu / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2022

Usually neglected in the technical-scientific language, as they are considered purely literary devices, figures of speech have a huge – and partially still undiscovered – potential to enrich the specialized vocabulary of a language, by creating terms from the already existing words. Together with metaphors and similes, metonymies are very productive resources for term creation (i.e. terminologization) in languages for specific purposes (LSPs), due to the large palette of meanings they can cover, from parts of the body instead of people or animals to cities of origin instead of the objects or materials produced there, from the names of the inventors for the things they have invented to the names of materials for the objects made of them. The purpose of this article is to analyze various ways in which metonymies, just like metaphors, which have been more thoroughly studied, could detach themselves from the label of literary means and prove their usefulness as terminological devices, able to create new, interesting terms, phrases and even idioms in different specialized languages. Moreover, it aims at providing solutions to some translation problems involving metonymies, since, due to their double function of literary devices, endowed with particular connotations, and terminological means, characterized by precision, they are sometimes quite challenging to translate.

PARTICULARITĂȚI FONETICE ȘI LEXICALE ÎN STUDIEREA LIMBII ROMÂNE CA LIMBĂ STRĂINĂ

Author(s): Marinela Doina Nistea,Oana-Luiza Barbu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1/2022

This scientific study aims to identify the problems that foreign citizens enrolled in the preparatory year of Romanian language at the Technical University of Civil Engineering Bucharest encounter from a phonetic and lexical point of view. Applying the questionnaire method and the taxonomy of vocabulary learning strategies proposed by Norbert Schmitt, we tried to analyze the students’ ability of auditory differentiation of sounds and perception of phonemes in the sequentiality of their production for the purpose of correct reception for lexical awareness and to identify their inclination for using vocabulary-learning strategies. The study showed that phonetically, learners perceive Romanian as having a medium degree of difficulty, especially for sounds that do not exist in their own language. From a lexical point of view, we could observe that vocabulary-learning strategies are used by respondents with average frequency, but cognitive and memory strategies are preferred. Learners’ predilection for a particular SIV category also varies according to the age of the respondents and their mother tongue

GETTING FAMILIAR WITH GREENSPEAK – A WAY OF RAISING AWARENESS OF ENVIRONMENTAL MATTERS THROUGH LANGUAGE

Author(s): Marina-Cristiana Rotaru / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2022

The aim of this paper is to illustrate, in some degree, how the language of sustainability has penetrated almost all domains of knowledge (science, economy, psychology, medicine etc.) as well as everyday speech. Initially part of the scientific vocabulary, numerous sustainability terms have become part of everyday language as a result of the dissemination of specific environmental information through the media (the radio, television, the written and online press) and through educational curricula. New unplanned terms referring to environmental matters (blends, for example) are now part of mainstream language, which continues to enrich itself as the result of increased interest in environmental aspects at global level.

Antiracism in Othello sketch comedy, 1967-199

Author(s): Stephen Hamrick / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2022

Despite Shakespeare’s rejection of comic, racist stereotypes in Othello, minstrel shows offeredracist blackface caricatures of slaves and others of African descent that filtered through BritishMusic Hall and Variety to television sketch comedy. Analyses of twenty-five screenedappropriations of Othello provide a cultural history of racism for 1967-1999. The articlerecovers an antiracist tradition overlooked in comedy studies.

Book review

Author(s): Anna Piata / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2022

Book review

Author(s): Liat Steir-Livny / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2022