Państwo bez wstrętu

Author(s): Przemysław Czapliński / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2016

In this article Czapliński proposes to read Stefan Żeromski’s novel Before the Spring as a rather cruel project of the modern state. In this state the key subjects are communities (bioclasses and social classes) whose raison d’être are reproduction and productiveness. The biopolitical state must take them into consideration, as their usefulness transcends their own disgustingness. The state need not consider infertile classes (the landed gentry) or unproductive classes (parts of the Jewry), as their inability to meet the new criterion they are inexorably stigmatized as odious.

Teoria kompozycji discontinuum-continuum meksykańskiego kompozytora Julio Estrady

Author(s): Manuel Domínguez Salas / Language(s): Polish Issue: 01 (32)/2017

Discontinuum-continuum: the theory of composition by Julio Estrada. The Julio Estrada’s output is still the unexplored area, what creates the opportunity to study the phenomenon called discontinuum-continuum. During the last 36 years of the creative activity, Estrada has developed several aspects of the macro timbre that integrate several compounds of a composition. In his research, Estrada confronts two different situations in the compositional process: continuous transformation of the sound and chronographical method, using strictly defined recording process in order to receive three-dimensional movements of the sound in the topological order. As a result of existing these two situations, a musical work is impossible to be defined by one technique or musical style. Examination of the theory of composition called discontinuum-continuum allows one to understand a new methodology of musical creation that involves scientific research of the physical phenomenon of sound and introspection of the imagination of the sound.

Leon i Leonina ili priča o istrajnosti

Author(s): Svetlana Slapšak / Language(s): Serbian

Knjigu sam pisala za svog tadašnjeg štićenika i mlađeg prijatelja: prvo poglavlje je napisano oktobra 1981, kada sam mu odnela prvo poglavlje romana u žanru koji je voleo (a tada ga nije bilo mnogo) za rođendan. Nastavili smo svakog petka, ja sam pisala, on davao smernice i primedbe. Eksperiment je za mene, tada još uvek mladu naučnicu, bio zabavan i koristan – izučavala sam žanr, i ovaj – pustolovno-ljubavni roman – bio je jedinstven primer kontinuiteta: bez prestanka je živeo od prvog veka naše ere pa sve do danas. Nekih šesnaest godina docnije napisala sam i objavila i studiju o ovome žanru. Knjiga je bila gotova maja 1982, porasla je do kupusare od skoro 700 strana. Da podsetim, to je bilo doba kada se kucalo u mašinu. Prijatelji su savetovali da damo roman u štampu. Saglasila sam se, s tim da knjiga bude objavljena pod pseudonimom: izabrala sam F.A. Suli, jer je zvučalo francuski, a pročitano kao jedna reč znači “pasulj” na grčkom (prosto k’o pasulj), pa još u muškom rodu. Knjiga je uistinu izašla dve godine docnije u dva dela, u uglednoj biblioteci dečije književnosti Plava ptica.

Līlā

Author(s): Iva Gjurkin / Language(s): Croatian

The translator and Indologist Iva Gjurkin wrote a novel Līlā, a story about the growing up of two friends. Gjurkin deftly meanders through their childhood and adolescence, touching upon the important points of maturing in order to speak about finding one's inner peace and content with one's self, through the Indian philosophy of play. The narration is steady and meticulous, without a lack or surplus. It is immersed in the social context of the late 20th century, and still focused on the important matter, with language sharp and precise. Gjurkin's novel is impeccably rounded, permeated by rich and deep Indian philosophy, with the relation of the absolute and the individual, so important for this novel, made available even to less curious readers. Iva Gjurkin graduated in Indian Languages and Literature, and Hungarian Language and Literature at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb. She published essays and literary works in the magazines Scopus, Književna smotra, and Fantom slobode. She translated theroetical and literary tekst for the magazine Libra libera, and the books The Bourgeois: Between History and Literature by Franco Moretti (2015), What is Iconoclah?, From Realpolitik to Dingpolitik – or How to Make Things Public, and Reset Modernity! by Bruno Latour (2017), and Pamphlets of the Stanford Literary Lab, by Franco Moretti et al. (2018).

Сън по време на война. Чочарка

Author(s): Nevena Dimitrova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2021

The text is dedicated to two movies based on Alberto Moravia’s book “Ciociara”. The author examines some folklore motifs through which the role of the woman is presented. The analysis also includes the dream of a wedding, which transforms the understanding of time-space relationship. Outlining authentic folklore motifs in the film narrative is in the centre of the study, together with the original presentation of the person having the wedding dream, which forms the visual core of the film. Central point in the text is the relation between reality and the way it is experienced by the dreamer.

Црни пупољак

Author(s): Ninoslav Mitrović / Language(s): Serbian

A horror novel by Ninoslav Mitrović

Mulat albino komarac

Author(s): Stevo Grabovac / Language(s): Serbian

A novel by Stevo Grabovac

Spam

Author(s): Lazar Pašćanović / Language(s): Serbian

A novel by Lazar Pašćanović

Ништа се није десило

Author(s): Stefan Janjić / Language(s): Serbian

A novel by Stefan Janjić

Даљ

Author(s): Goran Dakić / Language(s): Serbian

With this book, the author gives back to his (and thus every other) childhood the depth, richness and all the complexity of a life that flourishes, 'in spite of everything'. Yes, in his novel somewhere far away reader can hear sounds of cannonade, alarm sirens, rifle shots, military uniforms are carried and rifles are carried on the shoulders, but that does not stop one childhood from flourishing and living enthusiastically, searching for islands of joy and enjoyment, bending under the onslaught of divine secrets: growing up, friendship, love ... “Blue waters of the murky Danube” is the formula on which this prose works, which pulsates with the power of its vitality, both precision and conciseness of expression, and picturesque scenery and exciting associations.

The Road to Birobidzhan

Author(s): Judita Šalgo / Language(s): English

The novel is set between the years 1911 and 1954. The chapters are episodic and allow the reader to track the physical journeys and intellectual peregrinations of semi-fictionalized "historical" characters such as Bertha Pappenheim, Baron Edmond de Rothschild, Mikhail Kalinin, and Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Most of the characters move in and out of Serbia at some point, where they interact with a large number of imaginary Serbian figures, and a number of scenes are set in Israel. The book's intellectual charge is aimed in four directions. First, it satirizes the male-dominated political sphere. Second, it critiques the idea of utopia and the necessary political, economic, and religious means (ideologies) for reaching a safe, necessary societal place and space. Third, Šalgo constantly calls into question the provenance and validity of nations and polities. And finally all roads seem to cross in Serbia, a place where concepts of west and east and north and south seem to have almost no meaning; this assertion undermines the logic of the Cold War but perhaps of other world orders as well.

The Village Notary

Author(s): József Eötvös / Language(s): English

The Village Notary, originally published in 1845, presents a cross-section of Hungarian society in which the ruling elite were all too often lazy and self-seeking while the lesser lights, whatever their sterling qualities, were at their mercy and open to abuse. Eötvös's primary purpose was to expose the unsatisfactory nature of the traditional county administration. Hungary could hardly be considered a nation when so few of the people derived benefit or protection from the way that affairs were handled. The book holds a balance between racy tale and the author's frequently trenchant commentary on the Hungary of his time. In the English translation of 1850 it is significantly abridged in favor of the racy tale, thus diluting Eötvös's purpose not a little. The present translation is made from the unabridged Hungarian, and one must hope that while being better informed of Eötvös's aims the reader of this version will suffer no loss of entertainment.

Fairy Tales of Angel Karaliychev in Russian Translations

Author(s): Olga Guseva,Andrey Babanov,Victotiya Mushchinskaya / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2022

The article is devoted to the work of the Bulgarian writer of the XXth century, Angel Karaliychev. In the second half of the XXth century, his most famous fairy tales and stories for children were translated into Russian, including the collection “Bulgarian Folk Talesˮ in two volumes. In the Soviet Union, Karaliychev's fairy tales were included in collections of fairy tales of Slavic peoples and represented Bulgarian folklore in collections of fairy tales of the peoplesof the world published in Russian. Despite the fact that the last book edition of Karaliychev's fairy tales in Russian appeared in the 1980s, his works continue their life in the new century in electronic format, on the Internet. Karaliychev's fairytales, addressed to children 4 – 10 years old, tell about eternal values in a language understandable for children, they also introduce to children and adults the realities of Bulgarian life, the heroes of Bulgarian folk tales, expanding the horizons of the Russian reader.

Orgy

Author(s): Gábor Zoltán / Language(s): English

This novel is set in Budapest in the winter of 1944–45, and as such it is related to the history of Hungary, and of the Second World War. Extreme circumstances changed the behavior of many who lived through them, so that their actions were later described — or rather obscured — by terms such as “terrible,” “incomprehensible,” “inexplicable,” and other similarly strong adjectives. The Arrow Cross seek out individuals not only of Jewish descent; anyone they view as liberals, “English sympathizers” or “humanists,” are considered enemies and therefore prey. One such man is the novel’s main character, the thirty-year-old factory owner, Renner. In addition to employing and concealing many Jews in his factory, both his wife and lover are of Jewish descent. He is a successful, fearless man: the Arrow Cross have plenty of reasons to kill him. But instead of a swift execution, they torture and humiliate him even longer than usual, subsequently forcing him to assist them. The novel focuses on Renner, station to station. Readers follow events through his progressively hazier point-of-view; in addition, the combined voice of the Arrow Cross also speaks by way of the barbarian horde reincarnated in the modern big city.

Death and immortality in "Dracula's Diary": readings through "Corpus Hermeticum"

Author(s): Lucian Vasile Bâgiu / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2023

The knowledge existent at present, which generates the need for a new approach to the myth of Dracula, refers to an almost unanimous reception based on the novel published in 1897 by Bram Stoker and on the tens of the subsequent portrayals which have induced a social and cultural paradigm standardized as commercial kitsch. Within this fictitious construct Dracula has been expounded in manifold keys. However, to ordinary perception, his figure is reduced to the semi-caricatural vampire character, the living-dead craving for blood. This article aims to answer a series of questions about the representations of Dracula and their relevance to the fields of cultural and literary studies: Which is the “real” Dracula? Which are the psychological, cultural, social and historical impulses determining the actions of the character and the established myth? To what extent the deeds of the personage can be accounted for through the instrumentality of psychological impetus and by the agency of cultural, philosophical, esoteric, and occult principles? Thus can the “real” Dracula be integrated into an ampler context of culture and civilization, where his alienation and his monstrosity belong less to the paradigm of “the other”, of “the stranger” and refer more to the revealing of some of “our” intimately repressed human features?The article proposes a critical examination and reinterpretation of Dracula’s image, starting from the novel Jurnalul lui Dracula (Dracula’s Diary) (1992) by the Romanian writer and academic Marin Mincu. Original responses are being suggested to the questions defined previously – through several writing and literary theory techniques, including references to Corpus Hermeticum.By comparing and contrasting the hermetic philosophical text and the Romanian novel, the essay aims at finding out whether the entire construct of the myth of Dracula can be explained through two cultural and philosophical aspects, namely death and immortality. It also offers a new reading, another conceptualization of a familiar but debatable subject, which reinterprets and even rejects the mainstream view. The work by the extremely well-informed Romanian academic, which was first published in Italy, has nothing in common with Bram Stoker’s (“vampiric falsification”, asserts the author in the preface…), but vividly portrays the “real” Dracula, the Prince Vlad the Impaler, imprisoned in the underground cave of a castle under the Budapest Danube, writing a journal between February, 2nd, 1463 and August, 28th, 1464. In his diary the character recalls his historical fate and legendary destiny through references to aspects of Romanian culture and civilization considered in a European context. For instance, the study approaches topics such as: the religion of Zalmoxis as the philosophical and existential foundation of the Romanians; Dacians’ attitude towards death, as described by Herodotus, which might have influenced Pythagoras, Socrates, the Eleusinian and the Orphic Mysteries; the boycott of history by the Romanian people (an echo from philosopher Lucian Blaga’s writings); the orality of the Romanian culture (as opposed to the written culture of the western Europe); the oral folkloric creations, the ballad Miorița (The Little Ewe) and the fairy-tale Tinerețe fără bătrânețe și viață fără de moarte (Youth without old age and life without death), etc. All of these are put forward within the humanistic, Renaissance context of the epoch, given that Dracula was a friend of Marsilio Ficino, Nicolaus Cusanus, Pope Pius II, Cosimo de’ Medici, etc. Researchers will discover new speculative themes and directions with regard to the seemingly exhausted myth of Dracula.

Narrar la ciudad: Neoliberalismo, consumismo, era digital y novelas de la crisis en la literatura española del siglo XXI

Author(s): Noelia S. García / Language(s): Spanish Issue: 22/2022

The 2008 crisis produced a readjustment of social relationships in Spain, which was mirrored by an alternative discourse in fiction which renews the canon and enhances the construction of a fictional reality that reflects society. The most contemporary narrators display a wide variety of discourses on the assimilation of the crisis. This article analyse three novels. Robert Juan-Cantavella’s El Dorado, which was published on the year the crisis began and shows the triumph of neoliberalism and consumerism in the holiday town in the years before the crisis. Alternatively, Elvira Navarro’s La trabajadora and Sara Mesa’s Cicatriz offer a realistic point of view of the impact of the crisis on urban structures and the job insecurity it caused.

Фолклорът и фантастиката в славянски контекст

Савремена српска фолклористика VIII ‒ словенски фолклор и књижевна фантастика. Ур. Дејан Ајдачић и Бошко Сувајџић. Београд: Удружење фолклориста Србије, Универзитетска библиотека „Светозар Марковић”; Кијев: Комисија за фолклористику

Author(s): Ana Savić / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2022

Book Review: Савремена српска фолклористика VIII ‒ словенски фолклор и књижевна фантастика. Ур. Дејан Ајдачић и Бошко Сувајџић. Београд: Удружење фолклориста Србије, Универзитетска библи- отека „Светозар Марковић”; Кијев: Комисија за фолклористику Међународног комитета слависта; Лозница: Центар за културу „Вук Караџић”, 2020. 518 стр. ISBN 978-86-7301-149-3

Разомагьосване, повторно омагьосване и фолклорни жанрове

Disenchantment, Re-enchantment and Folklore Genres. Ed by Nemanja Radulović, Smiljana Đorđević Belić. Belgrade: Institute for Literature and Arts, 2021. 286 стр. ISBN 978-86-7095-286-7

Author(s): Ana Vukmanović / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2022

Book Review: Disenchantment, Re-enchantment and Folklore Genres. Ed. by Nemanja Radulović, Smiljana Đorđević Belić. Belgrade: Institute for Literature and Arts, 2021. 286 pp. ISBN 978-86-7095-286-7

SOUS LE SIGNE DE PERESTROÏKA : HISTOIRE, TÉMOIGNAGE ET RÉSILIENCE DANS LE ROMAN NOUS DÎNERONS EN FRANÇAIS (2015) D’ALBENA DIMITROVA

Author(s): Vassiliki Lalagianni / Language(s): French Issue: 4/2023

Albena Dimitrova (1969 – ), Bulgarian-born writer, poet and playwright, belongs to the corpus of « contemporary extreme » women writers who have chosen to express themselves in French, in the context of a migratory or exile situation, or out of an attraction to this language that represents the host country, France. In her novel Nous dînerons en français (2015) Dimitrova blends individual stories and major national events with extraordinary mastery. This work of autofiction bears witness to an era marked by austere politics in Bulgaria throughout the 1980s and 1990s, a tumultuous period when perestroïka and glasnost challenged the regime in power. Through the prism of a passionate and forbidden love, Dimitrova sketches the background of existences, showing how the destinies of individuals are buffeted by the winds of History.