1914 И КРАЯТ НА БЪЛГАРСКОТО ВЪЗРАЖДАНЕ:

ЯВОРОВ КАТО КОЛЕКТИВНА МЕТАФОРА

Author(s): Plamen Antov / Language(s): English,Bulgarian Issue: 1/2016

This article, which may conventionally be classified under the genre philosophy of history, develops two metaphors of high symbolic value. The first is the year 1914, as the start of World War I, the third and last in a se-ries of wars at the start of the 20th century in which Bulgaria was involved. It led teleologically to the year 1919 (Neuilly) which marked the symbolic – therefore absolute – end of the Bulgarian National Revival. The second metaphor is the figure of Yavorov in its his mytho-biographical projection – the poet’s suicide in October 1914 can be seen as a collective metaphor, as a metaphor of a collective ontological loss; but also as an attainment of a qualitatively new state; as the loss of the Revival’s monolithic national aspect and the acquiring of the tragic experience of Modernity and its social fragmentariness.

Нобеловият комитет отдаде признание на наратива като литература

Author(s): Stefan Em. Nikolov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2016

Метафорика на вкуса: Пруст и Кант

Author(s): Victoria Kirilova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2-3/2017

Our assumption is that the aesthetic concept of taste is a metaphor. Aesthetic perception occurs precisely when taste is understood as something different from tasting, although it is metaphorically connected precisely with the latter. As a metaphor, taste arises through both the similarity and the difference between concept and sensation, so that the indirect meaning overbuilds the literal one without negating it, and the relationship between the two remains. We consider taste as a metaphor in Marcel Proust’s "In Search of Lost Time". In our view, the important aspect here is the relationship in question and the distinction drawn between state of mind and sensation. We are referring to the sensory dimension of taste (tasting) and its metaphorical transformation into concept and experience. It is a basic aspect, which actually marks the beginning of "In Search of Lost Time". In the first part, entitled "Combray", the narrator talks about the taste of a small cake called “petite madeleine” and the unconscious reason which provokes the pleasure caused by an extraordinary similarity. The same episode is examined in Time Regained as part of the overall conception of "In Search of Lost Time". The sudden similarity occurs between two sensations and between two otherwise different moments. Thus, the particular state is identified, whereby an unknown but very valuable essence is expressed. We assume that in the episode of the small madeleine, taste actually represents the way of manifestation of all the moments associated with the advantage of involuntary memory (la memoire involontaire), insofar as through it is manifested the hidden nature of things that had not been experienced before. This is possible, even though the manifestation of the essence has no logical explanation and the unknown state transcends the boundaries of conceivable experience. We associate this idea with Kant’s aesthetic concept of taste, which is a metaphor, because of the similarity of characteristics, and insofar as the metaphor expresses essence in "In Search of Lost Time".

Хенри Дейвид Торо между

Author(s): Plamen Antov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2-3/2017

This essay situates H. D. Thoreau in a row of large cultural aporiae. The author argues an uncommon approach to Thoreau, not in the Kantian key of Transcendentalism, but as situated at the midpoint where Transcendentalism meets its antipode corporeality and reality: the author views the gesture Walden as a hidden expression of the kind of activeness that is of the essence of modern bourgeois-capitalist aggression against nature.Thoreau is seen as an American proto-philosopher who revolts against the European Cartesian metaphysization of philosophy, a trend whose ultimate manifestation is precisely Kant. Thoreau is seen as restoring the primordial totality of philosophy, similarly as the ancient philosopher who, in order to refute the assertion of his opponent that there is no motion in the world, simply stood up and took a few steps. – The gesture Walden is interpreted as an attempt to walk back those steps. As an attempt to restore the reality of the world, which has been lost in the course of civilization (seen as a process of increasingly dense veiling of reality under a network of symbols-simulations). Walden is at the center of this plot, personified by two mutually contrary cultural myths – the “European” Hamlet and the “American” Robinson Crusoe.Thus, on the other hand, Thoreau is seen as situated at the beginning of American Pragmatism considered as a philosophy of the “lower part” of the body (Bakhtin), of the thinking stomach. This fundamental non-metaphysicality of the American cultural genotype (world view) – the domination of bodily activity over reflection – has been paraphrased by a number of US presidents in the 20th and 21st century as the maxim “Bomb first, seek arguments later”. Yet at the same time, precisely in moving away from the European tradition, Thoreau finds himself at the point where the East begins. In Thoreau’s gesture Walden, the author finds and interprets the potential of this whole complex of dialectically “sublating” aporiae (at the core of which is the radical anti-cultural gesture, which is also a radical cultural gesture).

Cruciuliţele-encolpion cu imaginea individuală a principilor martiri Boris şi Gleb şi unele probleme privind canonizarea lor

Author(s): Victor Spinei / Language(s): Romanian,French Issue: 1/2009

Aux XIe–XIIe siècles, de même qu’aux premières décennies du siècle suivant, la Russie kiévienne connaît un remarquable développement culturel, répercuté aussi dans le domaine des métiers liés à la réalisation des objets de culte. Parmi ces pièces une place à part revient aux petites croix pectorales en métal, autant simples, que doubles aussi, de type reliquaire. Le principal centre de production de petites croix a été la ville de Kiev, mais, au fur et à mesure de l’essor d’autres centres princiers et du morcellement de la Russie kiévienne on a commencé à les travailler en divers habitats àcaractère urbain. Parmi les objets à caractère rituel, produits durant la période prémongole dans les knésats vieux russes, ayant une iconographie distincte, ancrée dans les réalités locales, il y a aussi ceux à l’image des saints Boris et Gleb. La popularité du culte des deux saints explique la diversité des pièces de culte où l’on a figuré des images reproduisant leurs visages. Dans la présente étude nous ne nous proposons pas de nous rapporter à la totalité des portraits médiévaux des deux illustres sanctifiés, mais seulement de viser les petites croix de type encolpion ayant leur image individuelle et qui sont, d’ailleurs, paraît-il, les plus anciennes et en même temps les plus répandues.

Mitopoetica oraşului Chişinău (dosarul vizitatorilor din prima jumătate a secolului al XX-lea) (III)

ORAŞUL MEU

Author(s): Aliona Grati / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 3/2019

Literary publications from Bessarabia and the West from the first half of the last century, especially from the moment when the European frontier extends to the Nistru, raising the West’s interest in a new unknown space, which provides a large amount of Kishinev City presentations.Through the grid of our methodology (literary imagology) only the literary expressions of this deposit will pass. We will cut out from the print space only the contributions of the city’s aliens, that is to say, the writers who have been in the passage, or have sat there for a while, and, on their departure, have taken with them stories about City’s beauty and misery. Especially, because the alien imagology proved to be more persuasive and resilient over time.

Confesiunile literaților bărbați: Liana Cozea, Patru critici literari. Jurnale și memorii

Author(s): Florica Bodistean / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 2/2019

O nouă viziune: Iosif Cheie-Pantea, Cioran și spiritul romantic

Author(s): Adela Drăucean / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 2/2019

На сигурном трагу хромог Вука

Author(s): Saša D. Knežević / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 7/2013

Review of: Kovačević, Miloš (2012), Lingvostilistika književnog teksta, Beograd: Srpska književna zadruga.

Musical Interpretation of the Selected Poems by Paul Verlaine. Analysis of Irena Wieniawska’s Songs in the Comparison to the Compositions by Fauré, Debussy, and Ravel

Author(s): Anna Al-Araj / Language(s): English Issue: 02 (33)/2017

The aim of this article is to interpret songs by Gabriel Fauré, Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel and a less-known composer—Irena Wieniawska (1879−1932), based on the same poems by Paul Verlaine. In the first part of this paper, the relationships between Wieniawska, Fauré, Debussy, Ravel and Verlaine are subsequently described. Then, the author makes a comparison between selected songs by French composers and Madame Poldowski, indicating main similarities and differences. The final part consists of some remarks related to the fact that Wieniawska fulfills features of the French mélodie very strictly. This is why her songs seem to be more traditional, not as allusive and sophisticated as Debussy’s or Ravel’s vocal works.

Из старините на Западна Грузия

Author(s): Vladimir Dimitrov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 40/2020

A travelogue that combines modern pilgrimage with subtle observations of an art historian focused on the Christian Orthodox art and its astonishing monuments and relics in West Georgia.

RE-FRAMING MASCULINITY IN JAPAN: TOM CRUISE, THE LAST SAMURAI AND THE FLUID METANARRATIVES OF HISTORY

Author(s): Maria Grajdian / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2020

After its release in 2003, The Last Samurai became a major success at the Japanese (and international) box-office, simultaneously marking a turning point in the illustration of Japan by Western media, and more specifically, by US-American institutions of mass entertainment, such as Hollywood. The Last Samurai has been mostly discussed on the background of the historical realities it depicts (the Meiji Restoration of 1868, the unconditional import of Western artefacts and values, the clash between old and new in Japan by mid-19th century) or from the perspective of the impact it had on the representation of Asian or other non-European cultures by American mainstream mass-media. Based on a 15-year empiric-phenomenological fieldwork in the slippery domain of Japanese mass-media, as well as in-depth literature research on new media, masculinity studies and entertainment industry with specific focus on Japan, this paper argues that the character embodied by Tom Cruise – the typical white male from Japanese perspective – displayed an unexpectedly refreshing insight into the prevalent masculinity ideal in Japan, as subliminally suggested by the Japanese characters. On the one hand, it challenges the image of the samurai, both in its historical idealization (stoic warriors and social elite) and in their contemporary adaptation (carriers of Japan’s post-war recovery). On the other hand, it questions the values incorporated by classical Japanese masculinity and suggests a credible alternative, with emotional flexibility, human warmth and mental vulnerability as potential core attributes.

REWRITING THE AMERICAN CULTURESCAPE

Florian Andrei Vlad, Universitară Publishing House, 2020 ISBN:978-606-28-1049-8 (243 pag.)

Author(s): Anca Teodora Şerban-Oprescu / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2020

Светът на възрастните през погледа на едно подрастващо дете – един абсурден, несъвършен, подлежащ на промяна свят

Author(s): Teodora Valova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 4/2020

The article presents linguistic and stylistic analysis of a chapter from the novel by Elitsa Georgieva „The Cosmonauts are just passing by“ and have been used for teaching Bulgarian for medical purposes. The novel was written in Paris, where the author lives and studies, and won the Andre Debbroy Award for a debut book, written with humor and critical sentiments and was nominated for a Fleur prize (founded by Beigbeder) and 111th page. The chance E. Georgieva to be noticed by the pretentious French criticism is due to the fact that she graduated with Master degree of filmmaking and creative writing at the National Film Academy in Paris (La Fémis) and has an experience as a documentary director. During this school year the novel of the Bulgarian writer will be studied in some of the French high schools

From Communal Being to Individual Belonging: Potential Selves in Shobha Rao’s Short Fiction

Author(s): Andrea Llano Busta / Language(s): English Issue: 25/2020

Shobha Rao’s An Unrestored Woman: And Other Short Stories (2016) sheds light on gendered traumas that span decades as they adopt new forms: from the often neglected figure of the abducted woman in post-Partition India to sexually abused girls in 1980s New York, to name a few. Most of the female characters in the collection face a suppression of their agency enforced by legal dictates and patriarchal attitudes. This evinces the sharp contrast between everyday reality and social constructions which, despite being meant to create a sense of community, exclude some of the intended members. By drawing on Agamben’s theorisation of potentiality (1999), and through the analysis of two of the short stories—“An Unrestored Woman” and “Unleashed”—, it will be argued that being part of a group is not so much a result of yielding to pressure as it is of realising and subverting imposed circumstances. Characters on a quest to fulfil their potential will ultimately demonstrate that, in the absence of social cohesion, individuality and the exercise of free will are essential for belonging.

Historical, Religious, and Political Content in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mocking Bird

Author(s): Saeid Rahimipour / Language(s): English Issue: 25/2020

Literary works have contributed a crucial role to the manifestation of the dominant themes of the time and the era to which they belong. Each writer and each work has a special orientation in its approach to convey the intended message. This article, having as its approach context and metacontext analysis of the text, scrutinizes Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mocking Bird in order to assess the writer’s tact in the illustration of specific issues through the manifestation of their cultural, historical, and religious context and background. Through the introduction of these materials, this study has also tried to answer the question concerning the manner in which the writer has captured the theme of racism via the projection of the unseen, unfathomable, and the unobjectionable information of the mentioned origins to touch upon our consciousness and arouse sympathy towards the humanitarian crisis practised at that time. The article reveals the plausibility of the interpretation of the novel based on religious, historical, and cultural background references. It renders the fact that Lee contributed a significant share to the illustration of such themes as racism and inhumanness at that time and stands as a landmark of inspiration for others as well.

The Lımıts Of Translatıng Postcolonıal Experıence Into A Foreıgn Culture

Author(s): Berrin N. Aksoy / Language(s): Turkish,English Issue: 2/2020

In this twofold study, I will focus on the exilic/ diasporic Nigerian-born black British author Ben Okri as a postcolonial author reflecting the issues of postcolonial literature in his novel The Famished Road from a translational point of view. I will first discuss the qualities of the exilic/diasporic experience in postcolonial literature in terms of theme, style and language use; language is the key element in postcolonial literature which reflects the hybridity of cultures and the hybridity of the language used in postcolonial texts, which is closely associated with the translation challenges of a postcolonial text into a culture which is alien to postcolonial experience. My aim in this study firstly will be to discuss whether the novel The Famished Road which displays the characteristics of a postcolonial text in terms of style, themes and the hybrid language use avails itself with all its generic qualities in the Turkish translation and creates the same effect and impressions on the Turkish reader in terms of voicing the postcolonial experience as it has on the English reader and, secondly, how the generic qualities are transferred into the language of a culture which does not possess a similar literary or cultural medium.

Disappearance of the Self and Its Constitutive Outside in Kafka and Woody Allen's Zelig

Author(s): Lukas Mozdeika / Language(s): English Issue: 10/2020

Although parallels between Kafka’s hybrid characters and Woody Allen’s Leonard Zelig have been noted in literature studies (Bruce 1998), the underlying interpretative synergy is not exhausted and occasions a revisit, timely in light of the social tensions of the century-later-present. Juxtaposing counterfactual history with actual highbrow commentary in quasi- or mockumentary film genre allows Woody Allen to transpose Kafka’s grotesque into American realm of the 20s and thus Americanize it. The contention of this article is to suggest that Leonard Zelig, a changing man, is a derivative of Kafka’s characters, primarily cat-lamb in Hybrid, but Allen’s postmodern visual language in Zelig radically alters their inner metamorphoses and hybridity serving as a social critique, if only seen through triviality of its humour. Interpreting Zelig alongside Kafka’s Metamorphosis and Hybrid, we can trace genealogy of themes of anti-Semitism, racism and fascism resolve into contradiction of individualism versus petit-bourgeois mass culture marked by commercialization, commodification and assimilation, features that still define our present. The takeaway may be phrased in terms of a constitutive outside. That is, Leonard Zelig, the omnipresent-self, renders certain truth about society predefined by the cult of individualism by re-constituting his lack of individuality as inherently social phenomenon—constitutive outside, and thus disturbing it. In an ironic twist then, Zelig, released around the time of Margaret Thatcher’s famous denial of society, can be read as a structuring-absence revealing fiction, that of a non-existent society.

No More Hugs: Depictions of the Prodigal Son in 1920s Art and Literature

Author(s): Christian Arffmann / Language(s): English Issue: 10/2020

This essay examines the parable of the prodigal son in the New Testament and compares it to different visual and literary representations from the 1920s in Europe. The story of the prodigal son revolving around themes such as family, home, resistance, order and restoration will be juxtaposed with texts and art works from the so-called Lost Generation, a generation of artists and thinkers developing and rebuilding new art in a continent shattered by the atrocities of World War I. The essay examines the conflict between generations and worldviews that emerges in the 1920s and the prodigal artists’ reorientation in a fragmented world in which it is hard to feel at home.

TOD DES AGAMEMNON UND ´TOD DES AGAMEMNON´. ZUR GÜLTIGKEIT LITERATURWISSENSCHAFTLICHEN ÄUßERUNGEN MIT FIKTIONALEN TERMINI

Author(s): Alexandru Popa / Language(s): German Issue: 2/2018

The following article discusses particular problems concerning the acceptability of a category of statements regarding fictional literature, i.e. those comprising fictional terms. Some theoretical prerequisites of an established institutional literary scholarly treatment of fictional literature are outlined. It is pointed out that this theoretical background allows the distinction between acceptable and not acceptable statements in consideration of fictional literature. It is argued that, given this theoretical framework, the use of expressions mentioning fictive characters that occur in literary texts and referring to fictional structures should be considered acceptable. The use of expressions referring to fictive characters should not be considered acceptable. “Fictional” is used in this article when meaning