"Baťa and Hašek Changed My Life"

Author(s): Author Not Specified / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2004

Interview with the Romanian translator Jean Grosu. JEAN GROSU (1919), the Romanian translator of Czech, Slovak and Swiss francophone literature, visited the Literature Information Centre at the end of May while in Slovakia as a translator in residence. He has been dedicated to the translation of fictional literature since the end of the 40’s and his bibliography of translations now contains more than 120 titles – Grosu has translated Slovak authors Peter Karvaš, Vladimír Mináč, Ladislav Mňačko, Vincent Šikula, Ladislav Ťažký, Klára Jarunková, Nataša Tanská et al. He has also translated works by Czech authors such as Jaroslav Hašek, Karel Čapek, Bohumil Hrabal, Václav Havel, Milan Kundera, Ivan Klíma amongst others. Grosu has won several awards in his home country for translating Slovak and Czech literature (for the work on L. Ťažký and M. Kundera), in 1999 the Association of Romanian writers awarded him a prize for his life’s work on literature. He has also had the honour of receiving several awards from Czech and Slovak cultural institutions for the promotion of Slovak and Czech literature in Romania.

"Batseba" – Aino Kallase tundmatu näidend

Author(s): Silja Vuorikuru / Language(s): Estonian / Issue: 03/2009

This article deals with the unpublished manuscript „Bathseba” (1909) by Aino Kallas. According to former research, in particular to professor Kai Laitinen’s works (1973 and 1995), this manuscript was considered as totally lost. In fact, in her letters to Kai Laitinen, Aino Kallas had personally convinced him of having destroyed the manuscript decades after writing it. However, the author of the article was lucky to find this „lost” manuscript in the Estonian Literary Museum, Tartu, Estonia, in February 2008. In fact, the copy of the manuscript had already been delivered to Finland, to the Finnish Literary Society, in 1984, but no one had checked the microfilm until now. „Bathseba” is an exception in Kallas’ oeuvre: it is a verse drama, set in a biblical milieu. The play is based on the tale of Bathseba found in the Old Testament. It is a triangle story between King David, Uriah and his wife Bathseba (2 Sam. 11–12). The main reason for not publishing „Bathseba” was a negative critique written by the author and director Jalmari Hahl. Hahl considered the use of biblical themes out-of-date and the wording of the play infelicitous. The article evaluates the possible reasons for Hahl’s negative critique from today’s perspective. Considering the historical context, the use of biblical themes was quite popular at the turn of the 20th century. A comparison of „Bathseba” to Kallas’ published works reveals that Bathseba as the main character notably resembles the ambivalent female figures of Kallas’ later works, especially the heroines of the Surmaava Eros trilogy. Also, the conscious use of biblical pastiches, allusions and quotations in „Bathseba” are distinctive of Kallas’ published works. Using the means of current (inter)textual analysis, it is possible to discuss Kallas’ „failure” in „Bathseba”, and assess the significance of the work today.

"Batu khán pesti rokona" - A szelf poézise József Attila költészetében

Author(s): Antal Bókay / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 04/2005

The postmodern aspects of understanding self in Attila József's poetry.

"Besser, dem gemeinen Volk anzugehören": zur Rolle des Chors in der senecanischen Tragödie

Author(s): Thomas Gärtner / Language(s): German / Issue: 4/2003

Eine systematische Untersuchung des Verhältnisses, in welchem die Chöre der echt senecanischen Tragödien zur jeweiligen dramatischen Handlung stehen, läßt zwei grundverschiedene Typen der Chorgestaltung erkennen: einerseits den unbeteiligt aus einer Position programmatisch gepriesenener Mittelmäßigkeit heraus das Unglück der hochgestellten Helden beobachtenden und analysierenden Chor, andererseits die konträre Spielform eines selbst am Leiden der Großen beteiligten und in der Bewältigung dieses Leidens absorbierten Chors. Beide Spielformen laufen Gefahr, verkannt zu werden in der modernen Forschung, die noch immer das philosophisch didaktische Element in Senecas Schrifttum auch in den Tragödien in den Mittelpunkt rückt. Die analytische Ausprägung, die immer wieder auf das Axiom rekurriert, alles Hochstehende sei gefährdet, wird mißverstanden in dem Sinne, daß Seneca durch die Äußerungen des Chors zeigen wolle, Macht und Größe führe automatisch zu Hybris und Korruption; die leidende Variante wird ebenfalls fehlgedeutet, indem das, was in Wirklichkeit philosophisch sublimierte Leidensbekundung des Chors ist, als philosophisches Theorem aufgefaßt wird, welches der "Dichterphilosoph" dem Chor zur Belehrung des Lesers in den Mund lege.

"Biali czytają książki, a my polujemy na głowy": handel ludzkimi głowami na Borneo

Author(s): Helen Tiffin / Language(s): / Issue: 8/2004

In the eighteenth, nineteenth and the twentieth century "head trading" i.e., literal and metaphorical hunting for heads existed in numerous colonial contexts. At the close of the nineteenth century Borneo especially started to symbolise wildness of nature. Writing of Dayaks Europeans used (and sometimes questioned) existing stereotypes concerning head hunters. Carl Bock differs from other writers of that period because he makes an equation between head-hunting and cannibalism. On the other hand, Harriette McDougall, Spenser St. John, Alfred Russell Wallace, William Hornaday and A. C. Haddon minimise or negate that equation, stressing the civilised features of the Dayaks. The above-mentioned writers reflect to a certain extent European sentiments towards "civilisation" and "wildness" prevalent at the end of the nineteenth century, of which the best example can be found in Joseph Conrad's works where convenient attitudes are radically revalued.

"Błazny" i zagadnienie teodycei

Author(s): Agnieszka Woźniakowska / Language(s): Polish / Publication Year: 0

The article attempts an analysis of Here Come the Clowns, a play written by an American playwright, Philip Barry, through the lens of the notion of theodicy. The question of the reason for and the meaning of suffering, understood as something evil, is often connected with the feelings of distress, helplessness and a sense of the imminent “end of times,” as well as with the experience of death, including the death of a loved one. Barry’s inspiration for the play is deeply rooted in his own experiences; the protagonist of the play searches for God in order to ask him about the meaning of human suffering. The question becomes not only an attempt at explaining or finding justification for the experience of suffering, but also an accusation towards God, who allows for the suffering to continue. God, however, becomes freed of all responsibility—in his dying breath, the protagonist reaches anepiphany that everything is dependent on man and his free will.

"Bóg chce, człek marzy, a dzieło się rodzi"

Author(s): Ewa Łukaszyk / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 616/2006

"Bóg to przemoc"

Author(s): Zbigniew Mikołejko,Michał Larek / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 06/2009

Interview

"Caut din priviri o bancă..."

Author(s): Daniel Vighi,Viorel Marineasa / Language(s): Romanian / Issue: 09/2002

The two writers offer the reader, as usual, parallel approaches to the same subject matter. This time it is not a particular situation, event or object. Marineasa and Vighi start building up their fantasy from the syntagm that gives the title to their page. Playing upon the generous connotations of the Romanian language, they produce two radically different pieces of prose, each of them relying on another meaning of the Romanian word "bancă" (i.e - bench, or bank).

"Chyba tylko zapisać wrażenia z lektury, choć ja mam manię sprawdzania realiów". Rozmowa z Profesor Krystyną Poklewską

Author(s): Agnieszka Kałowska,Krystyna Poklewska,Krystyna Pietrych,Tomasz Cieślak / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 1/2012

"Ciemne źródła"

Author(s): Beata Przymuszała / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 2/2013

"Cioran isi izbeste cititorul in cap exact ca un poet mare" (interviu)

Author(s): Ciprian Vălcan,Marta Petreu / Language(s): Romanian / Issue: 08/2011

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"Co raz stało się rzeczywistością, zawsze pozostanie możliwe...". Śmierć według Nussbauma z przypisem do Bruegla

Author(s): Piotr Weiser / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 1-2/2012

The article presents the motif of death in the work of the Jewish painter, Feliks Nussbaum who came from Osnabrück, lived in Brussels and was murdered in Auschwitz. Nussbaum was frightened of the catastrophe which can be seen in one of his last works. “The Triumph of Death” depicts a self-portrait of the painter sitting next to joyous skeletons. Civilisation has just ceased to exist. If so far, as a critic has said, in the images of catastrophes, such as in Bruegel, there was more imagination than paint, in Nussbaum's experience, reality and imagination came too close together. The painter is not so much a gloomy visionary, as a sober chronicler who applies the language of symbols.

"Constanze, második énem". Levelekből kibontakozó szerelem (Nádori Lídia fordítása)

Author(s): Silke Leopold / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 12/2006

"Cóż winna jest ziemia, [...] że ciemne upoiory są tutaj nieśmiertelne [...]?" Polacy w powojennej literaturze jidysz (1945-1968)

Author(s): Magdalena Ruta / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 1-2/2012

Israel Bartal wrote that in modern Hebrew and Yiddish literatures of the turn of the 19th century the image of “goy” underwent modifications depending on the historical and social conditions, expressing fears and defensive reactions of the Jews originating in the encounter with the world of Christianity. Ethnic stereotypes fixed in Jewish consciousness were most often of negative character. The situation changed when the maskilim (representatives of the Jewish Enlightenment), having undertaken the modernisation of traditional way of life, worked out a new model of the relationship with the outside world. In Jewish Enlightenment literature there emerged at that time a new type of a non-Jew – it was a representative of the enlightened non Jewish intelligentsia, supporting the efforts of the reformers. The survey offered by the author of the image of a Pole in short stories published after 1945: Efroim Kaganowski's Letster veg, Yeshaye Shpigel's Mishpokhe Lipshits geyt in geto as well as Leyb Olitski's Oyslendishe valiute provides a confirmation of the co-existence of the two ways of presenting non-Jews. However, the conditions in which these stories were written decided on the character of the images presented there: there dominate negative images alluding to rather bad Polish-Jewish relations from the time of the war and soon after.

"Cred că poeţii s-au născut pe lume aşa cum specia îşi naşte o a treia mână"

Author(s): Dora Pavel / Language(s): Romanian / Issue: 30/2001

Interview with Gellu Naum.

"Criticul ideal este cel care trăieşte textul"

Author(s): Dora Pavel / Language(s): Romanian / Issue: 32/2001

Interview with the literary critic Ion Pop.

"Cum a curs viaţa noastră"

Author(s): Sanda Golopenţia / Language(s): Romanian / Issue: 01/2003

Interview with sanda Golopentia and Constantin Eretescu

"Czas głuchej jesieni" Jurija Dawydowa. Uwagi na temat gatunku powieści historycznej

Author(s): Andrzej Polak / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 20/2008

The following article concerns the Russian contemporary historical prose (after 1956), above all, the genre of a historical novel. The author presents an overview of the opinions made by the researchers working on the Russian literature, on directions and changes observed in it. Opinions by J. Bałakin, S. Czuprynin, A. Nezmer, M. Epsztejn, A. Oskocki and many others koncern the authors of such writers as W. Aksionow, W. Pjecuch, W. Pieliwein, D. Bykow or N. Ejdelman. The main part of the article was devoted to the genre specificity of “Czas głuchej jesieni” [Time of dumb autumn], a novel by Yuri Davidov. As it turns out from the analysis conducted, Dawydow's work inscribes into the main trend of The Russian literature after 1956, situated between the documentnovel and the biography-novel. What we find in the work are also the features of the so called novel about history and retrospective prose. As it seems, “Czas głuchej jesieni” realises the indicators of different types of a historic novel, which proves its transitional status . it is located between a classic and contemporary version of this genre.

"Człowiek wykorzeniony". Obraz bohatera - emigranta w powieści "Oto idzie Mesjasz!" Diny Rubinej

Author(s): Agnieszka Lenart / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 07/2008