Jan Mukařovský: The Semiology of Art

Author(s): Ondřej Sládek / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2016

An introduction to an English translation of Jan Mukařovský´s lecture The Semiology of Art (1936-1937). In this lecture Mukařovský (1891−1975), a Czech aesthetician, literary historian, theorist, and leading proponent of Czech structuralism, develops his interpretation of the semiotics of art from a detailed explanation of the basic functions of the artistic sign. He emphasizes the role of the aesthetic function, which is dominant but latently and potentially contained in all the other functions of the linguistic and the artistic sign. He then defines the artistic sign as the dialectical negation of the communicative sign. The document includes the translantion of Mukařovský´s lecture.

Zdeněk Kožmín a strukturalismus

Author(s): Ondřej Sládek / Language(s): Czech Issue: 2/2016

Zdeněk Kožmín produced a wealth of inspiring literary interpretations, but he is also the author of a specific interpretation method. The present study deals with Kožmín’s relationship to structuralism, mapping the structuralist principles adopted by him and incorporated into his theoretical and methodological apparatus. The text outlines seven key principles (a work of art as a sui generis phenomenon, working with material, concept of the whole and structure, understanding a work of art as a sign, concept of a model, dynamics of structures, and dialectics). The author of the paper demonstrates that structural analysis of a literary work and description of structural formation became an indivisible part of Kožmín’s approach to interpretation of literary works. Nonetheless, Kožmín did not perceive structuralism as the only possible method of studying literary works, but rather as a point of departure, a support for developing an interpretative dialogue with a text. Kožmín’s unique contribution to Czech literary theory and criticism lies in enriching structuralism with the dimension of hermeneutics and a philosophical-existential perspective.

Zdeněk Kožmín a umění interpretace

Author(s): Jan Tlustý / Language(s): Czech Issue: 2/2016

The paper analyses the fundaments of Zdeněk Kožmín’s interpretative approach and outlines the similarities between his methodology and structuralism, phenomenology, hermeneutics and deconstructivism. Apart from general issues concerning interpretation, the paper focuses on Kožmín’s contribution to the theory of interpretation, specifically the “blow-up” method and the vision of an author’s poetics through the categories of space and time. The paper also outlines the origins of some of Kožmín’s studies.

Pekař Jan Marhoul ze strukturalistické a fikčně světové perspektivy

Author(s): Bohumil Fořt / Language(s): Czech Issue: 1/2015

The study deals with a famous work of Czech modernism, Pekař Jan Marhoul by Vladislav Vančura. The novel has been examined from several theoretical perspectives, nevertheless, the major knowledge of the novel comes from the Prague School structuralists, namely Jan Mukařovský, Zdeněk Kožmín and Mojmír Grygar. The study overviews their investigations and compares them to the result delivered by the application of fictional worlds theory to the novel.

The Prague School from a Semiotic Point of View

Author(s): Bohumil Fořt / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2011

V první části studie poukazuje na pět konceptů, které rozhodujícím způsobem formují literárně teoretické a estetické zkoumání Pražské školy, a vysvětluje jejich vznik a vývoj. V druhé části jsou pak tyto termíny charakterizující přínos Pražské školy porovnávány s klasickými kategoriemi a koncepty obecné sémiotiky. V poslední části se studie dotýká těch literárně teoretických a estetických termínů, které sice nejsou přímo souměřitelné se semiotickými kategoriemi, nicméně jsou souměřitelné s obecnou teorií literatury a přispěly k jejímu vývoji.

Marańska instrukcja Derridy: jak żyć i przeżyć bez kanonu

Author(s): Agata Bielik-Robson / Language(s): Polish Issue: 4/2021

This paper analyzes Jacques Derrida’s statements on modern Marranismo and on his own identity in the context of his entire body of work. For philosopher, marranismo is not only “tormented Judaism” of the Jewish inhabitants of Toledo who were forced to take the Christian identity. It is also a chance – a paradoxical occasion – to search for a philosophical language, which would oppose the canonical hegemony of the Western thought as a whole and therefore escape the measuring patterns of tradition which is characterised by “the stern shine of that which is canonical.” Derrida chooses his Maranism as an expression of the affirmation of life: the condition of the survivor who preferred to go on living rather than submit to an honorable martyrdom. At the same time, he turns against the traditional systems of symbolic life, which demand sacrifices in the name of preserving the purity of their canons and leave no room for ordinary survie.

Dekonstrukcijos sklaida lietuvių literatūros kritikoje

Author(s): Aušra Jurgutienė / Language(s): Lithuanian Issue: 1/2021

In the article I discuss how deconstruction (Jacques Derrida and other Yale School participants) came to Lithuanian literary criticism and how it changed habits of humanitarian thinking during the three decades after independence. The most unusual and radical deconstruction critique of essentialist metaphysical thinking, new terminology (inter-text, elimination of center, footprint, writing, difference, blinding, labyrinth narrative, guest / enemy, etc.) and new strategies for interpreting texts were very important for Lithuanian humanities liberated from Soviet ideology. Literary critics have noticed and discussed the undoubted connection between postmodernist literature and its deconstructive reading.We can find three tendencies in the deconstructive criticism of Lithuanian literature. The first tendency is the interpretation of general theoretical concepts of deconstruction, second tendency - searching the deconstructive features in literary works and the third tendency of criticism, expanding its own self-criticism and self-irony, is discussing chrestomathic and structuralist interpretations of the literary works or deconstructing icons of Soviet culture. We know very well, that many feminist, postcolonial, historiographic, anthropological, or interdisciplinary researches of literature cannot escape the effects of deconstruction.

Zaawansowane procedury NLP jako przesłanka rekonstrukcji idei wiedzy

Author(s): Rafał Maciąg / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2022

The article presents the current state of development of the Natural Language Processing (NLP) technology, in particular the GPT-3 language model, and presents its consequences for understanding the phenomenon of knowledge. The NLP technology has been experiencing remarkable development recently. The GPT-3 language model presents a level of advancement that allows it to generate texts as answers to general questions, as summaries of the presented text, etc., which reach the level surpassing the analogous level of human texts. These algorithmic operations lead to the determination of the probability distribution of its components. Texts generated by such a model should be considered as autonomous texts, using immanent, implicit knowledge embedded in language. This conclusion raises questions about the status of such knowledge. Help in the analysis is provided also by the theory of discourse, as well as the theory of discursive space based on it, that proposes the interpretation of knowledge as a trajectory of discourses in a dynamical space. Recognizing that knowledge may also be autonomous, and in particular not be at the exclusive disposal of humans, leads to the question of the status of artificial cognitive agents, such as the GPT-3 language model.

Ferdinand de Saussure. USSR. 1950…

Author(s): Ekaterina Velmezova / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2022

During the linguistic discussion organized in the Soviet newspaper Pravda in 1950, Ferdinand de Saussure was mentioned only a few times, but the corresponding references are important from the point of view of both the opinions about Saussure that were prevalent in Soviet linguistics before the discussion, and in light of its evolution afterwards. In 1950, both a supporter and an opponent of Marrist linguistics, Ivan Meschaninov and Arnold Chikobava respectively, unconditionally agreed on at least one thing: namely, that the theories of Saussure were, from their point(s) of view, unacceptable for “progressive” Soviet linguistics. This criticism of Saussure shows the significant shift made by Soviet humanities in the middle of the last century over the course of just a few years: in the late 1950s, it was the “revision” of the main theses of the criticism of Saussure that made possible the (relative) triumph of structuralism, which finally took place in the Soviet Union in the 1960s.

“İktidar Duvarlarını Yıkmak: Agnès Varda Sinemasında Heterotopya Mekân”

Author(s): Esma Sarman / Language(s): Turkish Issue: Sp. Iss./2022

Place is the existence form and scene of social relations. Place is directly involved in the production process, changes with the society, and cannot be thought of as a structure that consists of emptiness, is exhausted, comes to an end, or has no meaning other than exchange value. On the one hand, place becomes a product that contributes to the maintenance of the status quo shaped by power, the repetition of domination and heteronormative patterns, and the strengthening of hegemony. It is not only related to its social reproduction but also the systematic production of gendered practices and power relations. Gender is constructed through spatial relations and place is gendered. In his studies on place, Michel Foucault “places power against humanism that connects the subjective experience of man to the nature and consciousness of the individual, and on the other hand, tried to analyze the historical ruptures shaped by subjective experiences in the context of place”. He put forward the idea of creating new places, the theory of heterotopia, as a way to erode and destroy the power-subject relationship that creates atomized individuals in modern life. This study is through Agnès Varda’s film “Sans Toit Ni Loi”, which finds the equivalent of the thinking and production relations that dominate the production of place in traditional cinema, breaking the established codes and creating an alternative cinema world; Henri Lefebvre’s production of place, inheriting Michel Foucault’s theories of heterotopia, examines heterotopias as places of otherness. The places in the movie Sans Toit Ni Loi have been effective in creating a sample for the concept of heterotopia and determined the nature of the discussions about the places of otherness. In this context, cemetery heterotopias on the perception of place changing over time old age as deviation heterotopia, and mirror heterotopia as a place without place examined through film. The aim of this study is to show the places of otherness that Agnès Varda presents to the audience through her cinema, who rebels against the domination of place shaped by power and to shed light on the possibility of another place.

Comparative Analysis Between the Cinema of Yılmaz Güney and Dariush Mehrjui A Contextual Analysis of two Films: Hope and The Cow

Author(s): Nafiseh Laleh / Language(s): English Issue: Sp. Iss./2022

This comparative study analyzes two films by two auteur directors of Iran and Turkey; Dariush Mehrjui and Yılmaz Güney to investigate the probable similarities between their cinematic languages and attitudes. For this purpose; Gav (The Cow, Dariush Mehrjui, 1969) and Umut (Hope, Yılmaz Güney, 1970) are sociologically analyzed according to Anthony Giddens’ theory of structuration. The current research makes visual and content codes from both films by using contextual analysis and intends to find out any common obvious and hidden meanings through decoding them. As a result, it leads to finding out similar concepts such as society, culture, identity, political activity, and hegemony critique in their cinematic languages which can be seen in the named films. It proves that there were same problems in both society at the same period of time also there are social and cultural connections between the two countries.

Jacques Derrida jako filozof historii – poróżnienie z Michelem Foucaultem

Author(s): Jakub Dadlez / Language(s): Polish Issue: 60/2022

The article presents Jacques Derrida as a philosopher of history. The concepts he developed during his long intellectual career turn out to be linked to a specific vision of history. This vision manifests itself from Derrida’s very first texts and is not one of the minor themes of his thought but its fundamental element. The article focuses on a particular essay by Derrida that led to his argument with Michel Foucault. The comparison of these two philosophers – both poststructuralist – serves to highlight the key role of the problem of historicity in Jacques Derrida’s work. The article thus encourages a revision of Derrida’s status in Polish philosophy, and more broadly in humanities.

U NESVJESNOM STANUJE POLITIČKO: DEMOKRATIJA KAO BRATOKRATIJA

Author(s): Bernard Harbaš / Language(s): Bosnian Issue: 1/2022

Even though Freud and Lacan didn’t deal with political philosophy, their theories made a significant influence on poststructuralist political theory. Freud’s myth on the killing of the father is fundamental for understanding the emergence of modern state, democratic and organized society. Namely, according to this myth, Father and the leader of the horde appropriates all women of the horde for himself, whereas out of fear of being left without them, he banishes all male children from the family community. Jealous brothers return to the horde, kill the father, dismember his body and each of them appropriates a wife for himself. Because of the killing of the father brothers start to feel quilt which leads Freud to conclude that the dead father becomes stronger when dead then while he was alive. One can perceive from this theory the way in which monogamous relations replace the polygamous ones and absolutism is transformed into an equal participation of all citizens in the government. In other words, this tells us about the transformation of a disorganized society into a modern and organized state. Lacan’s theory shows that the main characteristic of the subject is deficiency which is the consequence of entering the figure of father into the relationship between a child and a mother and his prevention to realize their desire. Since the father prevented this relationship, the subject remains forever marked by the principle of desire he was denied realizing. In Freud’s theory about the killing of the father and his understanding of the excessive closeness and equality among brothers, Jacques Derrida notices traces of democracy. However, democracy that emerged on the fundaments of fraternocracy excludes all those who do not belong to the order of brothers (for examplesisters or brothers from another family). Democracy accepts only those who are same and who can be subsumed under the order of male principle. Derrida therefore assumes that the classic definition of democracy which considered its members equal and close should be transformed into political order based on distance. Namely, according to Derrida, along with the fraternity, notion of friendship is also crucial for democracy. It represents the fundament of a political community, but also a stumbling stone of contemporary political theory and democratic social order. A friend is the one who is close and who is appropriated. According to ancient theories, a true friend should have his own duplicate or a copy in a friend. It means that friends are similar, same, or close, and in order that two people be friends, they cannot differ from each other. Derrida thinks that friendship as fraternity and excessive closeness causes conflict. Fraternity creates hatred towards those who do not belong to the order of brothers. Because of that, fraternal relationships and excessive friendship should be reconsidered because they lead to wars and conflicts. True democracy without potential conflict is the one which excludes brothers and friendship and accepts hatred and distance. Like Derrida, Jean-Luc Nancy claims that authentic community is the one which includes distance and particularity. Namely, he analyses Lacan’s statement that “there is no sexual relation” as a state in which both subjects have their own perception of sexual phantasy. According to Nancy, Lacan’s statement explains in the best way the concept of community in which there is no possibility of identification. “There is no sexual relation” does not only mean that each subject has its own desire which cannot be imbedded into the desire of the other subject – partner, but that each individual is unique and different. Because of their uniqueness and otherness there is no possibility of forming a communion, but only a community in which individuals live without closeness and sameness.

Von der Unmöglichkeit des Verstehens und der Notwendigkeit der Verständigung: Philosophie, Politik, Literatur

Author(s): Werner Wintersteiner / Language(s): German Issue: 31/2022

This paper deals with the political relevance of the discourse on alterity. Its starting point is the insight that Otherness is not an essence, but an expression of a relationship. The paper presents three prevalent ways of dealing with alterity – rejection and suppression of the Other, its absolutization, and appreciative, responsive interaction –, and illustrates them using literary examples. In so doing, the paper draws on authors such as Lévinas, Waldenfels, and Glissant. Furthermore, the paper explores possibilities of literary alterity and its didactics, referring to those texts in which the idea of the Other also includes non-human life.

O nekim aspektima ženske čudovišnosti u predajama

Author(s): Nataša Polgar / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 2/2022

This article examines Foucault’s thesis about the monstrous as an empty category and J. Cohen’s thesis about the monstrous as the return of the repressed. The data comes from oral tradition and literature, more specifically from a corpus of belief legends that are typically considered mythical, mythological or demonological. Using etymological information, as well as the three basic components of the monstrous – the aesthetic, the ethical/moral and especially the spatial component – the article shows how the monstrous is constructed and represented in belief legends, and that it is – to this day – usually coded as female. Relying on psychoanalytic criticism, the paper discusses the functions of monstrous female beings in oral culture: in addition to having demonstrative and cautionary attributes, they also include an affective element, particularly fear and anxiety related to the female body and its (transformative and fluid) abilities.

ТІЛО – ЖЕРТВА – ТРАВМА: БІОПОЛІТИЧНИЙ ГОРИЗОНТ

Author(s): Inna Igorivna Kovalenko,Yuliia Vasylivna Meliakova,Eduard Anatoliyovych Kalnytskyi / Language(s): Ukrainian Issue: 2/2023

The article is devoted to understanding cultural trauma as a biopolitical concept. Biopolitics is presented as a system of certain strategies in relation to human corporeality, the basis of which is the economic power of capital. The key concepts conceptually included in the semantic field of biopolitics - bare life, homo sacer, state of exception and others - are considered. Cultural trauma is comprehended on the basis of understanding the specificity of a victim in contemporary culture. The discourse of trauma transforms sacredness into grief, guilt and resentment. Accordingly, the victim unites the collective body not through purification, but through involvement in violence as a traumatic event. The sacrifice is conceptualised as a biopolitical tool, contradictorily suggestive of humanist pathos and biopolitical exploitation.

Tijelo i metafora mreže

Author(s): Josipa Bubaš / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 22/2023

The article deals with the relation between metaphors, social and technological paradigm, in relation to the coneceptualisation of the body, as well as social relations.

Postmodern intertextuality: Teachers' perceptions about the challenges and implications for EFL learners in literary texts analysis

Author(s): Usman Shah Toti,Majed Abahussain / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2023

The purpose of this study was to understand postmodern Intertextual perceptions of college-level teachers, the contribution of Intertextuality in comprehending a literary piece of work, and certain challenges facing Saudi EFL learners in meaning construction during the reading process examined in this research. The subjects were five professional teachers from two different colleges who were interviewed in a certain time framework. The researcher analyzed the teachers’ personal experiences, explanations about postmodern reading intertextuality, and its intricacies in learners’ comprehension emerged as dominant themes. The findings show that during teachers’ semi-structured interviews, their meanings, and contents indicated that cultural background, lack of intertextual awareness, stereotype approach, and lack of postmodern literary knowledge can provide impediments in textual analysis and interpretation. Further research is needed to explore more avenues in postmodern intertextual areas and to look into viewing intertextuality from deeper perspectives.

Разделение на неделеното

Author(s): Marcel Drach / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2002

Prolegomena za Ničeov basnoslovni nauk

Author(s): Nikola Tatalović / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 37/2022

The paper represents a preliminary work guided by the question of whether Nietzsche's writing belongs to the Aesopian tradition. The first part of the paper carries out the reading of Nietzsche's philosophy as “inverted Platonism” with regard to the understanding of the image as the promise of the concept in Plato, all for the sake of pointing out the intimacy of Nietzsche's and Plato's writing style. The second part of the paper, through a conversation with interpretations of Nietzsche that start from the general thesis that everything is the story, tries to get to the concreteness of the fable and its connection with the fate of the philosophical writing. The third section of the paper describes the relationship between the fable and Nietzsche's writing in three stages: By concretizing the fabulous character of Plato's and Nietzsche's writings, presenting the structure of the fable, and pointing out the significance of the question of what does it mean that the animal speaks in the fable?