Literatura și recuperarea memoriei pierdute. Despre romanele postmemoriale ale lui Cătălin Mihuleac

Author(s): Dumitru Tucan / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1/2021

The memory of the Holocaust in Romania (i.e. the participation of the Romanian authorities in the atrocious crime of the Holocaust) was distorted and occulted in the Romanian public consciousness after the end of the Second World War. It was only in the last two decades, more precisely after the public debates initiated by the International Commission on the Holocaust in Romania, chaired by Elie Wiesel, and especially after the publication of the Final Report (2004), that the Romanian authorities’ accountability for the Holocaust timidly penetrated the public discourse. However, this memorial recovery has had only a minor impact, limited to only a few academic discursive communities. As a marginal part of the memory generated by the ruptures of recent history, the traumatic memory of the Holocaust in Romania remains to be recovered in the Romanian public discourse. One of the writers fully dedicated to this recovery process is Cătălin Mihuleac, who in two recent novels, America over the pogrom (2014) and Deborah (2019), fictionally reconstructs two major traumatic events of the Holocaust in Romania: the Iași Pogrom (1941) and the deportation of the Romanian Jews in Transnistria. Using as a theoretical framework the notions of postmemory (Hirsch 2012) and prosthetic memory (Landsberg 2004), this paper analyzes these two novels, trying to show their importance as an act of a recent “memorial atonement” in the Romanian culture.

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.

Неизвестен ръкопис на Лаура Баз-Фотиаде: "Любов и алчност в творчеството на Елин Пелин и Ливиу Ребряну"

Author(s): Rositsa Markova / Language(s): Russian Issue: 2/2010

The object of the article is to present an unpublished manuscript, written by the Romanian researcher Laura Baz-Fotiade (1930.2002), untitled “Love and avidity in Elin Pelin’s and Liviu Rebreanu’s work”. In this document she examines the eternal topics of love, greediness and redemption, common themes in both Romanian and Bulgarian classic writers as Liviu Rebreanu and Elin Pelin. The text is available in two copies – manuscript and text script. Both documents are written in Bulgarian. The basic intention of my paper is to give the reader the possibility to take a first-hand look at Laura Baz-Fotiade’s way of working, at her own scientific laboratory. That is the reason why the paper is divided in two parts, the first one referring to the description of the texts and their specific characters, while the second one is the manuscript itself.

Tadeusz Borowski şi Alsous Huxley despre universul concentraţionar

Author(s): Cristina-Liana Ivan / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1/2009

Tadeusz Borowski succeeds in impressing his readers by the overflowing honesty of his writing style, by an amazingly simple and franc attitude towards the world, an attitude which he prefers rather than writing about a dramatic eulogy of labor camp’s victims. The comparison with Aldous Huxley seems to be pertinent only in an imagistic way. While one of them objectively described the horrors of Nazism, from his own life experience, the other one, being pressed and influenced by the 20st Century social changes, is figuring out a despotic world, dominated by absolute totalitarianism, where people were educated during their sleep and were easily determined to accept the following slogan: “changing is better than mending”. Facing Borowski’s short stories with Huxley’s novel A Brave New World, one might prove that no SF can keep for too long his imaginary status, since it is built out of the crude reality. Eventually, it becomes the reality itself. The Fascist regime was extremely closed to set out such a brand new society, where it would have exist only the small group of leaders (Subjects) and the huge mass of tools (The Hands).

(Self-)Portrayals of Mixed Cultural Identities in the Works of Emily Carr and István Fujkin

Author(s): Krisztina Kodó / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2021

The article examines the work of two artists, Emily Carr (1871 – 1945) and István Fujkin (1953), focusing on Carr’s early and mature “Indian paintings,” and Fujkin’s “Blue Owl” series, completed between 2001 and 2005. The paintings chosen from among Carr’s works are thematically linked to Klee Wyck (1940), her first fictional work describing her travels and experiences with the First Nations People in British Columbia. Though the two artists come from different cultural backgrounds, since Carr was descended from English immigrants and Fujkin is a Hungarian born in the former Yugoslavia, there are similarities in their work. Both artists depict work across time and make use of transnational imaginaries of nature and Native Canadian cultural symbols that ultimately function as a bridge between Native and western culture. Fujkin’s talent lies in his ability to “paint the music” composed and performed by Canadian Mohawk musician Robbie Robertson. Emily Carr’s paintings offer images of her visionary world that transcends cultural identities and provides an insight into nature infused with spiritual and magical elements.

Joseph Conrad’s Adventure with English

Author(s): Joanna Skolik / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2022

This article discusses Conrad’s Anglophone linguistic identity to show how writing became his “promised land” and fictional homeplace. This fictional retreat reflects his childhood experience, (connected with his Polish background), hopes, and fears, but it is likewise refracted through episodes of his later life. Conrad’s own articulation of his complex relation to English, England, and his own nationality, reveals his outlook on literature and language: “When speaking, writing or thinking in English the word Home always means for me the hospitable shores of Great Britain” (𝐶𝑜𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝐿𝑒𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠 1:12) and “Both at sea and on land, my point of view is English, from which the conclusion should not be drawn that I have become an Englishman. That is not the case.𝐻𝑜𝑚𝑜 𝑑𝑢𝑝𝑙𝑒𝑥 has in my case more than one meaning” (Najder,𝐶𝑜𝑛𝑟𝑎𝑑‘𝑠 𝑃𝑜𝑙𝑖𝑠ℎ 𝐵𝑎𝑐𝑘𝑔𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑 240).

Illustrating Death in Caitlin Doughty’s Creative Nonfiction: 𝐹𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝐻𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝐸𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑦 and 𝑊𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑀𝑦 𝐶𝑎𝑡 𝐸𝑎𝑡 𝑀𝑦 𝐸𝑦𝑒𝑏𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑠?

Author(s): Cristina-Mihaela Botîlcă / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2022

The purpose of illustrations is to enhance the reading experience, improve the text, and add another layer of representation. In death-acceptance literature, such as Caitlin Doughty’s creative nonfiction books 𝐹𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝐻𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝐸𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑦 and 𝑊𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑀𝑦 𝐶𝑎𝑡 𝐸𝑎𝑡 𝑀𝑦 𝐸𝑦𝑒𝑏𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑠?, illustrations portray the highly sensitive topic of death. Landis Blair and Dianné Ruz, the illustrators whose works complete the two books, create a multimodal text with the help of literal and conceptual illustrations. This article aims at analysing the use and structure of these illustrations in the context of multimodality and death acceptance. In addition, the paper also contains two interviews that are meant to offer the perspective of the two illustrators on their own work and on illustrating death in nonfiction.

ULOMCI IZ DNEVNIKA

Author(s): Aleksandra Michajlovna Kollontaj / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 35-36/2022

Excerpts from Aleksandra Kolontaj's diary entries from 1914 show her attitude towards the war and the tasks of social democracy in such a situation. In her autobiography, she wrote: "For me, war is horror, madness, a crime, and from the first moment on - rather emotionally than rationally - I rejected it".

Bahtinova sociološka stilistika romana

Author(s): Maša Grdešić / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 2/2022

Review of: Mihail M. Bahtin, Teorija romana, preveli Ivo Alebić i Danijela Lugarić Vukas, Zagreb: Edicije Božičević, 2019, 661 str.

Historical and Social Aspects of Migration in Marina Lewycka’s 𝐴 𝑆ℎ𝑜𝑟𝑡 𝐻𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑇𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑈𝑘𝑟𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑎𝑛

Author(s): Ingrida Eglė Žindžiuvienė / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2022

This article analyses migration as a modern-day phenomenon and discusses the most common reasons for emigration out of Ukraine, as described in the novel 𝐴 𝑆ℎ𝑜𝑟𝑡 𝐻𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑇𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑈𝑘𝑟𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑎𝑛 (2005) by the contemporary British author Marina Lewycka (b. 1946), a descendant of post-Second World War Ukrainian immigrants. The novel alludes to many historical facts that reveal Ukraine’s painful past and represents the lives of Ukrainian immigrants in the UK. Its close examination of a Ukrainian family reveals characteristics typical of post-Second World War migrants from eastern Europe. The article also discusses the history of the emigration of Ukrainians into the UK, dwells on different periods and types of migrants, and focuses on the cross-cultural problems of migration described in Lewycka’s novel.

Burcu Alkan and Çimen Günay-Erkol, Editors. 𝑇𝑢𝑟𝑘𝑖𝑠ℎ 𝐿𝑖𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑎𝑠 𝑊𝑜𝑟𝑙𝑑 𝐿𝑖𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒

Author(s): Hristo Boev / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2022

Символисти: авангардисти – книги: илюстрации

Author(s): Violeta Ruseva / Language(s): English,Bulgarian Issue: 2/2021

This article focuses on emblematic books written in the 1920s, taking as its immediate background the poetics of symbolism and avant-garde aesthetic strategies, along with the controversial, both umbilical and conflicting relationship between verbal account and illustration. In its close inspection of the dynamic historical development of critical reflection, it demonstrates how the book covers and illustrations of the first editions performed the function of a visual metalanguage and a critical reference to the verbal narrative.

Към „софийския роман“ на Иван Вазов

Author(s): Antonia Velkova-Gaydarzhieva / Language(s): English,Bulgarian Issue: 2/2021

One of the core themes in Vazov’s short stories offers an original chronicle, a picture of the city life and culture in Sofia, its character and mentality. The capital city motif in Vazov’s works was approached and analyzed forty years ago by Svetlozar Igov in his article “On the Sofia Novel of Ivan Vazov”, which in turn was rejected by the then literary circles. Taking this article into account, this paper reconstructs and interprets the complex relations and the literary clash between the most original modern Bulgarian literary historian Svetlozar Igov on the one hand, and the key poet and leader of the “April generation” Lyubomir Levchev on the other hand.

Наивистичните небивалици на Йордан Радичков

Author(s): Denitsa Astahova / Language(s): English,Bulgarian Issue: 2/2021

The article examines the connection between fine arts and literature, and compares the naivist style of the painting and poetics of Yordan Radichkov in order to explain the emergence of a new phenomenon in the artistic style of the writer and the Bulgarian fiction of the 1960s – the collection Svirepo Nastroenie (Fierce Mood). The analyzed examples from the writer’s stories reveal correspondences with typical features of naivist painting – emphasis on detail, naivist mixing of distant images, and unmasking fear by interweaving comic and grotesque elements in the plot picture.

Български автори от Таврия

Author(s): Elena Nalbantova / Language(s): English,Bulgarian Issue: 1/2021

The object of observation is the literature created in Bulgarian by representatives of our historical diaspora in Tavria. It is described as series of three episodes, the emergence of which became possible after changes in the political context. The considered creative manifestations are from the time of the Russian Empire, from the 30s of the XX century and from the most recent time. Specific observations on the prose, published between 1932 and 1940, are made for the first time thanks to my collaboration with the Bulgarian from Chisinau Elena Raceeva. Despite the indisputable manifestations of creative talent, for the most part Taurian Bulgarian literature is an illustration of circumstances, rather than of creative potential.

Романът „Временното“ на Габриела Адамещяну като още един прочит на миналото

Author(s): Yoana Slavcheva / Language(s): English,Bulgarian Issue: 1/2017

The Novel “The Temporary” written by the Romanian novelist Gabriela Adameshtyanu was published in 2010 as a sequel to her first novel “The Same Road, Day after Day” and is both a political and a social novel focusing on the fate and the social position of the individual in the political context of Communist Romania. It presents a vivid and realistic picture of people’s lives in those years and deals with a number of issues such as the totalitarian regime as an evil that marred the destiny of entire generations, the fear, the strive for survival and personal growth in the context of various restrictions as well as the inevitable notion of “temporariness”, which was ubiquitous in those days.

За книгата: Елка Трайкова. Литературноисторически и критически сюжети. София, ИЦ „Боян Пенев“, 2021, 226 с.

Author(s): Nadezhda Stoyanova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2023

Book review: Elka Traykova. Literary-Historical and Critical Plots. Sofia, Boyan Penev Press, 2021, 226 p.

За книгата: Николай Генов. Виртуалният човек. Опит върху фантоматиката. София, „Версус“, 2022, 240 с.

Author(s): Galina Georgieva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2023

Book review: Nikolay Genov. The Virtual Human: A Study on Phantomatics. Sofia, Versus Publishing, 2022