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(Бенатова, Ирина. Баллада в болгарской литературе 20-30-х годов ХХ века. Львов: Издательство Львовской политехники, 2015.)
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(Бенатова, Ирина. Баллада в болгарской литературе 20-30-х годов ХХ века. Львов: Издательство Львовской политехники, 2015.)
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The article constitutes an attempt at an extended analysis of Tymoteusz Karpowicz’s posthumously published poem, “Commedia dell’arte”, which concentrates on numerous intertextual references operating within it (for example the references to D. Defoe’s and Ch. Baudelaire’s texts, to the figure of a fool, G. Tiepol’s painting or Bolesław Leśmian’s poems). It is the author’s firm belief that these references cannot be treated as mere erudite ornaments but should be acknowledged as the strategies revealing the hidden sense of the text. The latter turn out to lead the reader in the direction which shall be today called postsecular: although the text talks about God who has abandoned the world, and as such may be recognized as a story about secularization, I treat it as “inscribed positively in the destiny of kenosis” (G. Vattimo). Such a reading may be supported by a mimological correspondence between the strategies hindering a reading on the plane of expression and an affirmation of kenosis on the plane of content.
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The subject of Wojciech Rusinek’s review is Marek Bieńczyk’s collection of essays “Jabłko Olgi, stopy Dawida” [“Olga’s Apple, David’s Feet”]. The author begins his reading of the book by placing it in the context of Bieńczyk’s earlier achievements: both artistic (novels, literary essays) and academic (bearing witness to his studies on Romanticism). While noting that Bieńczyk’s essays are governed by a wealth and a surprising variety of the explored themes, Rusinek emphasises, however, the worldview coherence of the volume. According to the author of the review, a key to the interpretation of all the essays in the book is “the praise of the taste of life,” which makes a new tone in Bieńczyk’s writing, so far associated mainly with the reflection on melancholy and melancholy discourse present in his artistic prose. In the following part of the review, by outlining the content of the essays devoted to Proust’s and Nerval’s prose, Hopper’s painting or Sempé’s drawings, Rusinek analyses the anthropological figures around which Bieńczyk’s digressive and slow reflection revolves: gesture, light, escape, frozen time. The reading of Bieńczyk’s work becomes enriched with an analysis of style (a role of stylization). Moreover, the review points out those fragments of “Jabłko Olgi, stopy Dawida” where a description of artistic works becomes smoothly linked with the elements of the author’s biography. In the conclusion of the reflection upon Bieńczyk’s essays, the author states that the essays clearly lean towards poetics of epiphany, which, in the view of the author of “Jabłko Olgi…”, would mean an unclear, veiled by an infinite number of borrowings, allegories, allusions and stylizations, suspending the flow of time, experience of existence in its inexpressible fullness.
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Margareta Miller-Verghy is an unknown writer from de end of the 19th Century and the beginning of the 20th. She is a bilingual francophone writer and has created novels, education manuals; she has a rich correspondence and an active investment in both social and intellectual life of the time. The article aims to delineate the history of her life from that of other writers of the time and to make her more visible in the field of literary history.
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What we call today the “black death” took the form, between 1348 and 1351, of a bubonic plague epidemic that spread across the Europe and it’s consequences became one of the major pillars of society’s evolution. Being two of the few writers to reference not only the socio-economical disaster produced by the plague, Giovanni Boccaccio and Guillaume de Machaut left for us today in their works Il Decameron and Le jugement dou Roy de Navarre, as heritage, a complete picture of that era in which the nuances given to the details help us discover the meeting point between history and medieval poetry. At the same time, we meet a different point of view in which calamity is seen as a weapon nature uses to stay protected from itself, to clean everything that, up until that moment, has proven harmful.
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This paper aims to rediscover the importance of a new textual strategy developed in the XXth century and theorized by the great Czech author Milan Kundera, the variation.Two centuries after the publication of Diderot’s novel Jacques le fataliste et son maître, Milan Kundera chose to create his play Jacques et son maître as a response to this revolutionary moment of the European literature’s history in order to legitimate his own way of writing. The variation is a textual strategy which consists in modifying a theme in order to present it differently, with a new form that can still be recognized. The analysis of a semantic center allows us to rediscover the complexity of existence in the modern world. Our study proposes an analysis of the different types of variation and its particularities in Kundera’s play Jacques et son maître. This study imagines Kundera as a real model reader of Jacques le fataliste et son maître who, by activating his own cultural Encyclopedia, makes the cultural dialogue possible in order to renew the vision of a modern reader.
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This article is about the way the private and public wars are seen in two of the most important works of the Middle-Ages literature, the "Chanson de Roland" and the "Nibelungenlied". Our purpose was first of all to follow how the action develops from the betrayal pact made by the two negative characters Ganelon and Hagen against the positive characters, Roland and Siegfried till the very end of the two “traitors”. Secondly, we tried to figure it out whether Ganelon and Hagen’s actions against the main characters are indeed legitimate or if they violated the customs of the private war which turned up to become disastrous for all characters involved in the story. The article also depicts their trial and how arguments were brought in their favor or against them, leading to their death conviction.
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The book Anti/Modernität: Bilder des Exotischen und des Paradieses auf Erden in der ersten Hälfte des 19. Jh. in Europa deals with a social position in the first half of the 19th century in Europe, which is a reaction to economic and political changes, creating a feeling of insecurity and disharmony. Angelov defines it as anti-modern. What distinguishes his staging is that he does not develop this issue in the discourse of power. By looking at visual images and specific texts as social media, he challenges the aesthetic canon of modernity. In the line of the communitarian turn, his book is methodologically important and makes it possible, through a subtle analysis, to raise again the question of the problematic encounter with the other. The review seeks the context of Angelov’s research in Jauss’s hermeneutics.
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The review discusses the bilingual anthology Украински поетически авангард. Антология (Sofia, 2018) which presents artistic texts from the 1910s and 1920s in Ukrainian and in Bulgarian translations. The anthology offers various examples of literary works from typical avant-garde genres (poetry, visual poetry, manifestos), which are divided into the categories of Futurism, Constructivism, Expressionism, Dadaism, Surrealism, and Scientism. The movements and their general positions within the Ukrainian avant-garde are briefly explained from a historic perspective in the foreword and appendix. Thus, the anthology makes a phenomenon, which so far has received only a little attention in terms of research and translation, available to readers in Bulgaria. However, from a methodological point of view, the publication first and foremost presents a classical collection of literary works, which can be regarded as an eligible basis for further analytical approaches to the Ukrainian avant-garde in Bulgaria, particularly from a comparative perspective.
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In the present article we’ll focus on several novels that attempt at rewriting the recent past of ex-communist countries by bringing into foreground the political. police, an institution that embodied in totalitarian regimes the notion of the absolute Evil. What distinguishes such writings as Dumnezeiţele din Moravia [The Goddesses of Žítková] by Katerina Tučková, György Dragoman’s Rugul [The Bone Fire], and Răzvan Rădulescu’s Viaţa şi faptele lui Ilie Cazane [The Life and Deeds of Elijah Cazane] appears to be the manner in which their authors succeed in conveying a complex, polyphonal representation of the communist past by using fantastic or grotesque elements, instruments that prove their efficiency anytime an irrational reality shatters our values and beliefs
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Although many critics have underscored the connections between the work of Yves Bonnefoy and Italy or Greece, none have analyzed the possible of a connection – however slim – with Romania. Our essay examines the relations, often overlooked, between the French poet and certain Romanian poets, taking a cue from unpublished interviews. In the first part, we underline the existence of a spiritual and poetic community between Yves Bonnefoy, Lermontov and Mihai Eminescu. In the second part, we pinpoint the various moments in which the existential and artistic paths of Yves Bonnefoy and of Paul Celan come together, revealing an unknown interpretation on the part of the French author of Celan’s poem Mandorla. In the third part, we try to identify the hidden relations between the work of Yves Bonnefoy and that of Benjamin Fondane, particularly in Baudelaire et l’expérience du gouffre, in order to demonstrate the degree to which the French writer may be included in Fondane’s critical and philosophical posterity.
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This paper examines the theme of madness in two important texts from Russian literature of the late 19th and early 20th century: The Red Flower (1883) by Vsevolod Garshin and Ghosts (1904) by Leonid Andreyev. As I demonstrate in the comparative analysis of these stories, the depiction of madness changes as Russian literature moves away from realism to modernism, and so does its significance. The essay also touches upon the implications of the social and cultural climate at the time of the stories' appearance. In the article I am applying the concepts of deviance and norm formulated by Michel Foucault and Lucian Boia's views on the imaginary, identity and alterity.
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Time is regarded as a relative dimension, manipulated by one’s view. Oblomov, written by Ivan Goncharov, presents life’s cyclicity versus its linearity through two relevant characters: Oblomov and Stolz. The two, although friends, are different in terms of perspectives. Oblomov believes he has infinite time, whereas Stolz acts according to his priorities, always feeling the pressure of a life that needs to be lived in a way that matters. While Stolz strives to usefully contribute to society, Oblomov lives inside his mind and finds refuge in it. Goncharov thus illustrates two alternatives for Russia’s future. Starting from the way time is perceived by the protagonists, we understand their perspectives on life and can compare the utility of each in society.
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Reading is a true indicator of the social history of literary reception, with great heuristic value. The evolution of the female act of reading translates the evolution of the practices which found the emancipation of a whole social category, but also the evolution of the relationship of a person to herself, therefore the access of the individual to his interiority through the paradoxical discovery of otherness.This article will study the different stages of the transformation of the female reading gesture over the centuries, with the aim of showing how the historical-cultural reorganization – represented by the two waves of female literacy and the important social movements of the 18th century – has fundamentally influenced the reading practices and the reception activity. It will also insist, thanks to a case study, on the transsubjective valences associated with the act of reading, which allow the conversion to oneself of the individual by the readjustment of the initial socio-cultural capital and the access to a form of transpersonal truth, a self-reflective approach that combines reading and playing.
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The article is preoccupied by the problem of comparative analysis in the case of a writer as elusive as Chekhov, who does not formulate an open ideological message and generally withdraws his authorial voice. It raises the questions of what constitutes true kinship and similarity and highlights the vital importance of discerning above all the aesthetic aspect of the work, its poetics and artistic truth which take precedence over any structural or ideological considerations. To this end, various misconceptions and cases of false kinship are discussed, followed by examples of true continuity. In these examples, a close affinity is demonstrated through proximity of both ethics and aesthetics of the writers in question, and close textual comparisons are conducted. The next category discussed in the article addresses a paradox of simultaneously occurring rejection (or dislike) at one level, and real artistic closeness at another. We conclude by some general remarks on the nature of comparative analysis and offer another demonstration of stylistic proximity between two great writers, whose stylistics turns out to be so close that it is hard to tell them apart. We suggest that such parallels are not accidental, as form is inseparable from content, just as ethics is inseparable from aesthetics, and it is ultimately the artistic truth of the works under comparison that should always be kept strongly in focus.
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This paper examines the Hebrew lyrico-epic poetry of the 17th century that reflects the historical events of Bohemia and Moravia. It compares the Hebrew elegies of five authors with the contemporary non-Jewish literary production in Czech, German, Latin, and Slovak. It analyzes the thematic, genre, and formal aspects of the Hebrew and non-Jewish texts, and shows their similarities and differences. It also discusses the influences of the biblical tradition, the liturgical function, and the cultural environment on the Hebrew poetry. It concludes that the Hebrew elegies are an integral part of the literature of the period, and that they contribute to the study of the historical and cultural situation in Bohemia and Moravia.
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There are many great men who entered into the history of Jewish studies. Let’s mention e.g. Leopold Zunz, Salomon Buber and his grandson Martin Buber, David Kaufmann, Gerschom Scholem, or one of the founders of the State Jewish Museum in Prague, Otto Muneles.
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This is one of several papers on Terezin writings. This time the authoress is interested in adult authors, who wrote German poetry. She analyses and publishes examples of their poems (Julian Glas, Ludwig Hift, Kurt Kapper, Walter Lindenbaum, Friedrich Karl Pick, Erika Taube, Ilse Weber, Nina Wolfenstein). Bibliographic data concerning the authors as well as poems or collections of poems to be found in the State Jewish Museum are given.
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In this paper, two works of science fiction, distanced from each other both spatially and tem- porally (as they belong to different national literatures) are analysed: Orwell’s novel 1984 and Darko Macan’s and Tatjana Jambrišak’s short story „Besmrtni slučaj“ (“An Immortal Case”), as an example of Croatian science fiction from the 2000s. This research is focused on the ways in which these respective authors textually construct emotions within the framework of a fictional perspectivisation of the future. Contemporary constructivist approaches to the emotions show that they are an important part of cognitive processes and also culturally conditioned entities. This work proves that emotional constructs of the future can be taken into consideration when dealing with the basic genre characteristics of science fiction. This means that they participate in the creation of a conceptual breakthrough of the paradigm of our episteme, that they are a part of cognitive estrangement, or of the fictional novum validated by epistemic logic. Thus, this topic, when approaching science fiction, despite the national literature or period to which such a work may belong, may contribute to further research regarding the possible cultural conditions of the emotions of the future, as well as furthering knowledge on the characteristics of the genre of modern science fiction.
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This article explores female identity in diaspora society portrayed in Taslima Nasrin’s (1962) “French Lover” and Monica Ali’s (1967) “Brick Lane”. Nasrin writes about the female identity of the Indian diaspora, and Ali writes about the female identity of the Bangladeshi diaspora. This comparative study highlights two female characters from two novels, Nilanjana and Nazneen, who are always in-between tradition and adaptation. It also explores the intrinsic intersections between gender, migration and cultural dislocation. Nilanjana pursues personal liberation and Nazneen’s journey tends to the balance between traditional values and selfempowerment. The encounter of these two female characters with cultural differences is highlighted through the postcolonial lens of diaspora and diasporic identity, hegemonies, feminism, and cultural studies. Drawing on the themes of migration, assimilation and resistance, this study focuses on characters’ identities shaped by diasporic experiences as they face challenges of adapting to new cultures, the question of self-identity, cultural assimilation and freedom. As the boundaries of nation-states are redefined by the influence of globalization, and the growth of migration, the migration leads females from Third World countries to form their identity in the complex socioeconomic conditions, cultural divergences, and psychological landscapes. The primary objective of this research is to reveal the complexities of female experiences within diasporic communities. The positions of Nilanjana and Nazneen are very liminal in the new countries and new cultural backgrounds where diasporic patriarchal frameworks of power dynamics and cultural differences play crucial roles. This analysis sheds light on the multifaceted experiences of diasporic females who negotiate their identities in the intrinsic tapestries of crosscultural encounters. Their relationships with the home countries and host societies, and traditional and modern values, as well as the role of language, help in shaping their identities. The basic finding of this study is a deeper understanding of the multifaceted challenges and opportunities faced by women within diaspora societies.
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