Kritika postkolonijalnog uma

Author(s): Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak / Language(s): Serbian

In the first full treatment of postcolonial studies, a field that she helped define, Gayatri C. Spivak, one of the world’s foremost literary theorists, attempts to describe a responsible role for the postcolonial critic within the postcolonial enclave. A Critique of Postcolonial Reason track the figure of the ‘native informant’ through various cultural practices – philosophy, history, literature – to suggest that it emerges as the metropolitian hybrid.

The Translational Turn in Modernism Studies

Author(s): Tamara Brzostowska-Tereszkiewicz / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

The recent historiographic and methodological developments show that modernismstudies has undergone all the stages necessary to diagnose a “translational turn” ina given discipline: the expansion of the thematic field of research to encompass the historyand poetics of literary translation, the increasing metaphorisation of the notion of translationin the narratives on intercultural expansion, transmission and transformation of art,and, finally, the methodological refinement (“conceptual leap”) in the course of which thecategory of translation acquired an epistemological value and transdisciplinary application.Abstract: The recent historiographic and methodological developments show that modernism studies has undergone all the stages necessary to diagnose a “translational turn” in a given discipline: the expansion of the thematic field of research to encompass the history and poetics of literary translation, the increasing metaphorisation of the notion of translation in the narratives on intercultural expansion, transmission and transformation of art, and, finally, the methodological refinement (“conceptual leap”) in the course of which the category of translation acquired an epistemological value and transdisciplinary application.

Digitalno ja

Author(s): Jelena Guga / Language(s): Serbian

The ubiquitous use of digital technologies has enabled vast possibilities such as instant access to information, presence on any part of the planet, multiplication and transformation of identity, as well as re-articulation and reconstruction of embodiment. Science fiction film and literature, new media art practices, scientific research, and cyber theories often deal with the idea of leaving the body behind and uploading the immortal mind into digital databases where we can be whatever and whoever we want. Compared to modern technology, biological body is often considered obsolete and, as such, it is not “equipped” keep up with the exponential technological development. It is not surprising then that many studies, either scientific or popular, disregard the problem of corporeality and focus more on the issues of identity, consciousness, and disembodiment in digital worlds. Therefore, this book presents the works that focus on the issues of embodiment in the context of new media and their impact on social reality. The starting premise of the discussions is that without a physical body, there is neither virtual nor real. The book points to the importance of the physical body in biotechnological interfaces and the ways the role and functions of the body transform in virtual environments and affect our perceptions and understanding of human ontology

Fantastyczny tygiel

Author(s): Sylwia Borowska-Szerszun / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

The chapter, by Sylwia Borowska-Szerszun, explores generic and cultural syncretism in Ben Aaronovitch’s cycle Rivers of London. Having defined urban fantasy, the author proceeds to place emphasis on the overwhelming heterogeneity adapted within the genre, which suggests its openness to various influences, transformations and modifications. In this particular case the elements of urban fantasy and the criminal novel have been successfully incorporated to create a harmonious whole. The cycle also relies on a hybrid ethnic identity of the protagonist and his dialogic relationship with a more experienced wizard, a representative of the former imperial order, to suggest that peaceful cooperation is possible despite differences in ethnic, social and class background. Examining the vision of a city as a melting pot, the author argues that the fantastic level of the text has been construed as just one more component of a multicultural London in which different cultures, nationalities and religions meet. The cycle breaks the predominance of whiteness in the fantasy genre, and introduces instead social and cultural diversity, which reveals the potential of urban fantasy to deal with difficult issues of our times and provide a valid commentary about contemporary reality.

"Ikaromenippos" – starożytny dialog o locie na Księżyc i do niebiańskiej siedziby bogów

Author(s): Dominika Budzanowska-Weglenda / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

Dominika Budzanowska-Weglenda’s chapter proposes an analysis of the Ikaromenippos or Voyage in Space, which is one of dialogues of Lucian of Samosata and probably the first literary description of the human trip to the Moon. The main character takes on this journey because of his aversion to philosophy. Lucian’s Ikaromenippos is a fantastic dialogue: a philosopher, probably the cynic, and satirist Menippus of Gadara, flies here “through the stars”. He takes two wings of large birds: the wing of the vulture and the wing of the eagle, and performs an incredible feat, worthy of Icarus: he reaches the Moon (from where he looks at the people and their actions on Earth), and then flies to Heaven—to the gods, “in upper Zeus’ rooms”. The story of Menippus’journey is like a swift current of the river, full of jocular tone, with a fantastic plot. But it clearly carries a deeper message: it expresses criticism of human attitudes and actions (adulteries, murders, conspiracies, perjury, betrayals among the closest to ones, war, courtship, piracy), meanness, false and mercenary piety, especially when stigmatizing bad behavior of philosophers, without sparing the representatives of any philosophical school. According to Lucian’s narrative, philosophers are lazy, quarrelsome, bloated, angry, grotesque, tumultuous, surly, unworthy people. The author reinforces the accusations of philosophers with the deity’s words, as the goddess of the Moon, Selene, having been encountered by the traveler, complains about them as well. She believes that philosophers are impostors, leading a shameful nightlife behind the scenes: they commit adultery, steal, and commit any other evil deeds. Ikaromenippos belongs to Lucian’s satirical works featuring reflective comedy. Correspondingly, Lucian postulates the liberation from the practical cognitive pressure of the logical rules and from the philosophical logic of cognition of the universe.

Ofiara czy drapieżca? Kobieta-potwór w wybranych powieściach Aleksieja Szołochowa

Author(s): Anna N. Wilk / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

Anna N. Wilk’s chapter delivers an analysis of novels by Alexei Sholokhov (Tyelo and Podval ) as an example of an updated vision of the dark side of femininity. Over the centuries, women have been accused of having magical abilities. Consequently, their physicality have been viewed as arousing both desire and fear of death, or loss of control over one’s life. Different varieties of female monsters survived in cultures aroundthe world as the antithesis of the usual “human” women, such as, for example, demonic lovers or vindictive, malicious ghosts. Despite the development of civilization and social changes leading to the empowerment of women in family, social, and professional life, the aforementioned concerns are still haunting the collective imagination. In Sholokhov’s novels, “women-monsters” focus their attacks on men, exhibiting outrageous brutality and sadism. Wilk’s analysis allows to demonstrate that the fear of the negative femininity is still an actual, timeless trope in popular culture.

Gotyckie figuracje Innego a problem winy, przemocy i braku solidarności w powieści "Przeklęci" Joyce Carol Oates

Author(s): Magdalena Łachacz / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

In the chapter, Magdalena Łachacz proposes an in-depth analysis of the spectral characters of the child/woman and the bridegroom. These ghostly spectres make abrupt appearances at critical moments of the narrative set in the the Princeton community during the cusp year of 1905 into 1906 following traumatic and haunting events. The objectice of the introduction chapter is to place the novel within the confines of the American gothic genre with typical gothic motives. This particular genre delivers a disturbing experience with the dark and obscure aspects of American history with particular interest in the institution of slavery and its problems of racial and sexual abuse. In relation to the aesthetics of the American gothic, it is conceivable to associate the specters in Oates’ novel with the demonic protagonists of Charles Brockden Brown’s and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s fictional works—both pivotal writers of the genre. Hence there exists the possibility of looking at the spectre as the representation of the “Other” in typical American gothic oeuvres. Furthermore, one can perceive the relationship between the experiences of the “otherness” and the problem of guilt suffered by the protagonists of the privileged social class. Consequently, the scope of the analysis finds itself engrossed on the issue of the traumatic repressed experiences that may return by republication of postmodern slave narratives. Therefore, the question of language becomes imminent for the gothic-like representation of the figure of the “Other” in Oates’s novel. Nevertheless the text is permeated by cognitive pessimism. “The Accursed” seem to establish, thanks to the gothic convention, an idiosyncratic language capable of expressing the terror of the violent experiences within a community environment where there is a lack of solidarity with the victims. In effect, Oates’s novel can be approached as a step towards the aesthetic characterization of the “Other” in the recounting of the “unspoken crime” which remains the spectre that continues to haunt contemporary American culture.

Минко Николов и Франц Кафка

Author(s): Mladen Vlashki / Language(s): Bulgarian Publication Year: 0

Minko Nikolov is the first literary scientist and critic in the Republic of Bulgaria to have studied Kafka’s work. The present article is a reconstruction of his sources and choices of interpretation. Furthermore, it supports the idea of revealing „how things are done“. During the stay of Minkov in East-Berlin in 1956-1958 he changes his dogmatic Marxist position and orientates his arguments in interpreting Kafka towards the work of the Austrian Marxist Ernst Fischer. After 1962 he starts correspondence with him and evaluates his works as much needed for the Bulgarian intellectuals in connection to the overcoming of the Stalinist spirit in the Bulgarian culture of the 1960s. In this way Minko Nikolov, by meeting Kafka, sets sail on the road of literature dissidence, which for him ends with suicide in 1966, and for Fischer – with a stigmatization as a renegade personally from Brezhnev and exclusion from the communist party.

Dekolonizacija pisanjem kroz metodološke leće Linde Tuhiwai Smith

Author(s): Dina Glavan / Language(s): Croatian Publication Year: 0

The subject of this paper is the concept of decolonization and its elaboration through the methodology of Linda Tuhiwai Smith. Smith quotes 25 »Indigenous Projects« as 25 different ways through which decolonization can be achieved. By placing the whole process somewhere between personal and political, the work of decolonization is approached through the display of postcolonial literature by choosing writing as the release medium. As demonstrated by the development of writing as a decolonizing tool of Dalit or »the untouchables« through the prism of the caste system of India, the paper shows the mapping of individual male and female voices that re–create their history and identity through short stories, poetry, novels, essays. In conclusion, the paper tries to give a feminist perspective of the subject by focusing on women’s writing.

Edebiyat ve Posthümanizm

Author(s): Sümeyra Buran / Language(s): Turkish Publication Year: 0

Çevre ve teknolojideki değişimler, insanlık ve doğa tarihini her dönemde etkilemiştir. Günümüzde ise bu değişimler giderek hızlanmakta ve doğa, insan ve teknolojinin farklı seviyelerde iç içe geçtiği bir kırılma dönemi yaşanmaktadır. Teknobilimsel kültürlerin çoğalması, küresel ekonomik zorluklar, çevresel tahribatın ve doğal felaketlerin artması, dijitalleşmenin yayılması, insan ve insan olmayan varlıklar arasındaki geleneksel sınırların teknolojik, biyolojik ve çevresel düzeylerde aşınması ve bulanıklaşması, insanlık ve insanlığın içinde yaşadığı çevre için alternatif fikirler ve düşünceler arayışına yol açmaktadır. Dijital yaşam tarzları, sanal gerçeklik teknolojileri, sanallaşma gibi teknobilimsel, kültürel ve sosyal eksenlerdeki hızlı gelişmeler insanlığın yaşam serüvenini yeniden şekillendirmektedir. Posthümanizm, tam da bu çoklu gelişmeler sonucunda doğan, insanlığın yaşam biçimlerini, çevre ve doğa ile ilişkilerini yeniden düzenlemesi gerektiğini öngören bir paradigma değişikliğidir. Posthümanizm, tüm bu dönüşümlerin bir yansıması olarak geçmiş, bugün ve gelecek arasındaki bağları irdeler; bu bağlamda insan, insandışı, insanötesi ve insanüstü alternatif senaryolara dayanan araştırmalara odaklanır.

Gaston Bachelard a francuskie środowisko naukowe i intelektualne

Author(s): Teresa Castelão-Lawless / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

Pojęcie czasu u Gastona Bachelarda

Author(s): Stéphane Partiot / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

Odnos središta i periferije u oblikovanju književnoga kanona: hrvatsko-poljski književnopovijesni primjeri

Author(s): Tea Rogić Musa / Language(s): Croatian Publication Year: 0

Using the examples from Romanticism and Moderna period, this paper will examine the opposition centre-periphery regarding the role of the ideology of pan-Slavic reciprocity in the field of Polish-Croatian literary ties. Next, we will describe the process of attribution within literary and cultural history in which a series of so-called great authors have arisen, and to which their communities (Polish and Croatian) attribute central aesthetic and ideological roles. Further, starting from the assumption that the Polish and Croatian cultural communities used their literary canon to legitimise their own artistic and social inclinations, we shall attempt to determine the universalistic characteristics that allowed the Polish literary canon to become a desirable alternative and a source of homogenizing poetics that enabled the aesthetic synchrony of Croatian literature with a European paradigm in two literary periods – Romanticism and its younger relative, Moderna.

CONCEPTUL „SPIRITUS LOCI” REFLECTAT ÎN LITERATURĂ

Author(s): Elena Negoiță / Language(s): Romanian Publication Year: 0

Since the oldest of times, people have tried to comprehend the environment,in all its aspects: sky, soil, water, natural phenomena and animals. The human beingrealized that it cannot compete with the power of the universe. Unable to conquer itsforces, energies, beasts, elements, mankind wanted to tame them. Or at least to findsome explanations for them, in order to possess knowledge on how to avoid them.The human race tried to grasp the enigma of lightning and thunder peal, the mysteryof earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, it tried to decipher the secrets of the worldthat’s invisible to the human eye, to unravel the riddles of metaphysics. An elementof the intangible that caught the attention of the human societies is genius loci/spiritus loci. Over the past centuries, the Latin expression “genius of the place/ spiritof the place” has earned various acceptances.Regardless of the multiple meanings of the phrase, “genius loci” alwaysinteracted with people that attempted to peacefully communicate with the telluricenergy. This mutual conditioning is found in multiple literary works, from variouscontinents. The writers of the magic realism illustrated the human being’sdependence over a certain place, but also the human’s mark over a terrestrialsurface.

Жан Оризе - Азбука на междувремието

Author(s): Sonya Aleksandrova / Language(s): Bulgarian Publication Year: 0

The current text presents Jean Orizet’s point of view toward the basic concept of his works for “entretemps”. The specific understanding of this concept allows transitions across different by nationality creators and works, which are individually utilized so as to serve as an alphabet for the new creation. Their insertion in the author’s text is regarded here as building elements without which “the awakening” of the subjective voice would not be possible. The artistic parameters of the selected “stories from entretemps” allows for the building of a “concentric-circular work with quotations, echoing and references, leaning towards universal human union”.

FIGURA NEPRIJATELJA: PREOSMIŠLJAVANJE SRPSKO-ALBANSKIH ODNOSA

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

Ideja o pisanju knjige i pokretanju projekta o srpsko-albanskim odnosima javila se, kako to na Balkanu često biva, u kafani (koja je, doduše, u neposrednoj blizini Narodne biblioteke Srbije). Pošto su se u Betonu pojavili tekstovi Milana Miljkovića o predstavljanju Albanaca u srpskoj štampi i Aleksandra Pavlovića o figuri Turčina kao neprijatelja, Milan je uz čašicu predložio da se inicira projekat koji bi okupio srpske i albanske intelektualce, teoretičare i teoretičarke u oblasti društvenih nauka koji bi zajedno obrađivali srpsko-albanske odnose. Verovatno je najčešći način borbe protiv politika neprijateljstva začudna i retka politika prijateljstva. Tako je bilo i u slučaju Aleksandra Pavlovića i Rigelsa Halilija, koji su zbog sličnosti u naučnim temama i interesovanjima najpre uspostavili „naučno pobratimstvo“, a ubrzo došli i do nekolicine drugih srpskih i albanskih kolega zainteresovanih da učestvuju u ovom projektu. Da sve ne ostane na kafanskoj priči (što na Balkanu takođe često biva) zasluga je i urednikā Betona, prevashodno Saše Ćirića, koji je kumovao projektu i knjizi predloživši njen naziv Figura neprijatelja: preosmišljavanje srpsko-albanskih odnosa, a obezbedio je i pomoć prevodilačke mreže Traduki koja je odmah prihvatila da sufinansira prevođenje tekstova sa srpskog na albanski jezik i obrnuto. Usledilo je nekoliko neuspelih inicijativa sa domaćim institucijama – naši prijatelji iz albanskog Ministarstva kulture rekli su nam da misle da za ovako nešto još nije vreme, a na konkursu srpskog Ministarstva kulture uprkos obimnoj dokumentaciji koju smo poslali u traženih 7 (i slovima sedam) primeraka (!), projekat na godišnjem konkursu nije dobio ni dinara. Za razliku od rečenih institucija, kolege iz Instituta za filozofiju i društvenu teoriju, pogotovo sadašnje koordinatorke projekta i kourednice ove knjige Gazela Pudar Draško i Adriana Zaharijević, uz mentorstvo Petra Bojanića, založile su se za projekat i značajno ojačale prvobitnu aplikaciju, koja je zatim podržana u okviru švajcarskog Programa za promociju istraživanja na zapadnom Balkanu koji finansira Švajcarska agencija za razvoj i saradnju, na čemu im dugujemo veliku zahvalnost. Pored IFDT-a i KPZ Beton, saradnici na projektu su i „Ćendra multimedija“ („Quendra Multimedia“) iz Prištine, koja je 2011. godine zajedno sa KPZ Beton objavila antologije Iz Prištine, s ljubavlju (o savremenoj kosovskoj literaturi na albanskom jeziku) i Iz Beograda, s ljubavlju (o savremenoj prozi mlađih autora u Srbiji), i „Poeteka“ iz Tirane, ugledni izdavački i kulturni centar koji kontinuirano objavljuje prevode savremene i ranije srpske književnosti na albanski jezik.

Figura drugog kao otvoreni projekat, na primeru albanskih autora iz Albanije i sa Kosova

Author(s): Saša Ćirić / Language(s): Serbian Publication Year: 0

This article offers a comparative analysis of literary works of authors from Albania and Kosovo translated into Serbian in the period after 2000. It detects the notions of the figure of the other by making recourse to cultural and political references to the conflict situations found in these books. The article is divided into sections according to the literary genres of the analysed books (novels, short fiction, poetry, drama) and the region that the authors refer to (Albania and Kosovo). The crucial distinction between the authors from Albania and Kosovo is the domination of political other for the former in comparison to the ethnic other for the latter. The authors from Albania are preoccupied by the phenomenon of auto-isolationistic Albanian totalitarianism, while the authors from Kosovo are obsessed by the trauma of Serbian-Albanian war 1998-1999 war at Kosovo. Serbian-Albanian relations are presented as relations of collective distance and deep mistrust, with no examples of achieved interethnic friendship or love affairs. Another feature characteristics for the works of the authors analysed in this article is the resistance to the political authoritarianism and patriarchal conservatism in the form of a satire, as well as examples of religious tolerance and rejecting revanchism.

Književnost kao ratni diskurs Albanski i srpski pisci u „ratu rečima“

Author(s): Anton Berishaj / Language(s): Serbian Publication Year: 0

This essay offers theoretical and explanatory model of the literary war discourse, which is described thorough its three seminal features: 1. Literary war discourse is a discourse that by necessity creates special referential relations with a particular contexts, that is with the real and symbolic power, politics and its actors, by way of replicating textual functions into context and particular rhetorical and semantic strategies, and thus by establishing a specific model of communication; 2. Literary war discourse is pervasive – in itself, under “its aegis”, it can encompass particular discourses – theoretical, religious, scientific, legal, politico-historical etc. Literary war discourse, as the war discourse in general, appears as overarching discourse, aiming (and to the large extend succeeding) to reach even to the infinitesimal point of communicational space – and one which rules this space excluding the Other from it, depriving the Other actors and Different discursive action (that would enable for the projection and creation of different political decisions) from their space; 3. Literary war discourse is a cannibalistic discourse – discourse that symbolically eats its “subject”, as well as other texts and discursive subjects whose decisions do not belong to the field of war discourse, by creating a pervasive referential framework (Goodman, 1978), always, of course, taken in the relations and functional proportions under 1 and 2. The real “subject” of this discourse is the destruction of Other, devouring the life of Others and finding jouissance and eros (Barthes, 1975) in that “devouring”.

Between Two Worlds: Romania and India. Essays on Expanding Borders through Culture

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

The cultural relations between India and Romania are interesting to study and to understand. India is a country of immense diversity, of extraordinary customs, and a genuine feast of opinions, which attracts researchers from all over the world. Romanians are people with a profound sensibility. The two cultures met on the common ground of spirituality and the results are remarkable, as it is shown in this special volume.

Lze po roce 1989 psát transkulturní déjiny jihoslovanských literatur?

Author(s): Miroslav Kouba / Language(s): Czech Publication Year: 0

The post-1989 transformations offered an opportunity to reassess the view of literary history, especially that of ethnically and culturally mixed environments, which since the 19th century had been interpretatively based on a consistently strengthened ethnocentrism. Inspired by a broadly understood transculturalism, one can ask whether and how this concept could be applied to the South Slavic context and its inherently multi-ethnic character. At the same time, it is necessary to take into consideration the different profiles of the literary-historical developments in each of these geocultural environments, especially in the earlier period. The elimination of experienced ethnocentrisms, at least on a theoretical level, could open up a broader dialogue with the different cultural or confessional communities that shape the immanent Balkan heterogeneity. The paper attempts to dwell on the possibility for a new conceptualization of transculturalism: while in the West it reflects the failures of the previously promoted multiculturalism, in the countries of South-Eastern Europe it could function as a stimulus for a new interpretation of the history of literature, especially in the conditions of the regained democracy of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Another key issue the article deals with is the change in the periodization of the history of South Slavic literatures, which the use of transculturalist approaches necessarily entails.