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The process of Europeization of Turkish culture started in the Tanzimat era embraced more and more spheres of social and cultural life. This spectacular transformation from Islamic to European culture is closely related to the appearance of a new type of intellectuals and artists as a result of a number of reforms in education and society as a whole. The rejection of previous and the acceptance and building of new European model are the main characteristics of transition from one civilization to another. In the field of fine art painting, it means not only applying new techniques, but rather change in the very conception of the world, the attitude of the artist toward the universe, nature and man. This is a process of an internal opposition between the ‘’traditional” and the “modem”. The 1914 Generation of Ibrahim Qalli, Hikmet Onat, Ruhi Arel, Feyhaman Duran, Nazmi Ziya, Namik Ismail, Sarni Yetik among them creates a new qualitative and even revolutionary change in Turkish art. Above all, it is a strive for a new and individual outlook, the stronger expression of the creator himself with a new approach and techniques that were closer to the impressionist and post-impressionist attitude to the world. They had the opportunity to enrich their experience and knowledge in Europe and to acquire a new outlook, or manner of thinking. Destroying the “old” in a revolutionary way they succeeded to ruin also the barriers to the new Modem Turkish art The spread of impressionism in Turkey or a “local” variant of it is due mainly to their efforts and works. What makes them closer to the “belle epoque” is rather the liberation of individuality as a leading principle of their creativeness than specific features of their style. Representing a modernist trend they, however, man aged to keep a balance between “the other” and ‘’the same”, to borrow from European art only what their internal need required and to the ex tent which gives answers to their beliefs and creative principles. The creative works of the “1914 Generation” often named “Turkish impressionism”, shows that the generation of the first Turkish modernists gives a very important impulse that inspired Turkish intellectuals to look for the “new” and the non-traditional. Thus, creators and innovators in the field of art, literature, journalism etc., play a decisive role and contribute to the building of new cultural identity of the Turkish nation at the beginning of 20th century.
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Although intended for the Christian temple, ecclesiastical woodcarving represents compositions influenced by the Folklore and the ancient Eastern mythology. It contains images of sirens, unicorns, centaurs, sphinxes, etc., but the lamias (dragons) are the most interesting among them. They appear on the royal gates, by the Crucifix, on the columns and woodcarving panels, etc. These teratological motifs offer very different mythological-folklore interpretations: the lamias as apotropaic sign, as chtonic creature, representing the great Mother-Earth, as one participant of the dual nature of the world, etc. Only in the late iconosthasis (the end of the 19th century and during the 20 century) the lamia appears according to the orthodox Christian ideas as a symbol of evil or Satan, but that means the end of the great epoch of the ecclesiastical woodcarving and its symbolic importance.
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When Norman Manea left Romania for Germany in 1986, he was already an established Romanian writer. Two years later he immigrated to the United States of America and ever since he has published ten more volumes. He is currently living in New York, teaching literature at Bard College.Manea’s fiction and non-fiction books published in the United States relate closely to the concepts of history, memory and totalitarianism. The year 1986 was a turning point in his writing. Whereas America gave him the chance to reach a new fiction level, his biography became a crucial source of inspiration for his work.His whole literary trajectory during his exile represents a process of memory incitement, of self-discovery at different ages; by narrating himself, the author bears witness to the violence and destruction caused by both forms of totalitarianism – Nazism and Communism. Using language as an ally to anamnesis, Norman Manea descends into his own past and rediscovers his identity. His memories represent the raw material for a literature that brings together stories of three fundamental experiences: Nazism (with its dehumanizing corollary, the Holocaust), communism (with the White Clown’s perverse pleasure in “order and discipline”) and exile, with language displacement.
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The article discusses one particular film, “Man, don’t get angry”, with director Ivaylo Trenchev and script-writer Kiril Topalov. By analyzing published opinions and reviews as well as archival materials the author notes specifics in the functioning of the socialist mass media and traces out institutions and mechanisms for controlling the cinema process. These are mechanisms which affect the view/perception and visual re-creation of the world, the writing and talking, the thinking and attitude of the people in their different roles – (film-) makers, spectators and readers, journalists and reviewers. blicistically carnival. The reader of the novel and the spectator of the movie ejaculate with one voice: this is impossible be¬cause it is...true! From Aleko (Konstantinov) to Alek (Popov) – it‘s all true...
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Sofia Palace of Justice is a largely public building with thousands of people of various backgrounds, mentalities, and dispositions crossing its areas. The monumental decorative artworks in the building are widely accessible to various publics. Ivan Penkov’s stained-glass pieces, found in different places within the building are among the most appealing works in the interior of the Palace. These were topical at the time of their creation, retaining their aesthetical and artistic qualities for posterity. Being a professional, Penkov imparted to his compositions much more symbolism than discernible on the face of it. He carefully wrought each detail impregnating it with a number of connotations. The stained- glass pieces retain the actuality of their messages to this day. One of the elements he has used, for instance, is book. In the stained glasses designed by the artist it becomes a symbol of the eternal and all-embracing knowledge, of primal wisdom and supreme law. Sword is another major element. Combining a sword with a book, the author focuses viewer’s attention on the power, significance, and the rule of law. At the same time he suggests a harsh but just in its essence punishment, meted out to those committing, both wittingly and unwittingly, a breach of law. As a third no less important element Ivan Penkov uses the central part of Bulgaria’s national emblem, seeking to establish Bulgarian national identity through this symbol. Due to being imbued with symbolism, Ivan Penkov’s stained glasses are worth studying and analysing even now.
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The twenty-first century offers contradictory trends to witnesses versed in art, shaping the cultural and social environment in an unadulterated manner. Contemporary consumer society looks on advertisement as the greatest authority. Print advertisement as the most popular ‘genre’ could actually trace the influence of graphic culture on consciousness and society as a whole, the persistence of certain visual examples and the significance to the development of those in a given social environment. The article studies the reasons for which we are witnessing now a revival of retro graphic design, seeking to explain its presence in contemporary cultural environments. The study on graphic art’s similarities and differences includes drawing a parallel between the symbols contained in print advertisement of the nineteenth through the twenty-first centuries, using for the purpose the key image of the press. The main issues to answer are: How have advertisement images developed over the years and what graphic devices have been used to make different suggestions? What is the significance of these images to societies, where these are functioning? Have the metaphors we live with changed and what has survived of them now? What are the differences between the artistic languages used within two centuries and what has prompted the present retro wave?
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The powerful situational forces that crushed the resistance of the first generation under communism were no longer necessary against subsequent generations: they had activated self-protective needs that eventually led to conformity and weak forms of dissidence; such as “resistance through culture”. The absence of solidarity; one of the new situational forces; hampered dissent. Similar forces are at work in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four; the world of Ingsoc-ruled Oceania and its heroes: Winston Smith; Julia; O’Brien; Big Brother
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