Lectura în cenaclul „Viața românească”. De la practică individuală la imaginar colectiv

Author(s): Maricica Munteanu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 2 (34)/2021

Reading is a highly frequented practice in the literary cenacles. However, at “Viața românească” group the out loud reading seems to be an incidental phenomenon which doesn’t mean it is absent from the life of the community. Although the writers of the circle prefer the individual and intimate readings to the collective ones, the act of reading is present through a shared affection, and a shared imaginary. When enjoying a particular reading, the participants at the cenacle exhibit their opinions towards the literary text through emotions, acting as an affected community. Also, the reading is invested as a social competence due to the collective imaginary they share together: the writers of “Viața românească” behave in a similar manner, because they read the same books, and their lives are shaped by the same literature.The manner of reading at “Viața românească” cenacle is influenced by Ibrăileanuʼs thinking that depicts a relationship between reading and intimacy. In this respect, the article analyses one of the critic’s studies on the matter, The Misery of Literary Criticism, in which he dissociates between literary criticism, seen as a specialized and sterile manner of understanding literature, and reading, described as pleasure experienced with the book. The writers of “Viața românească” cenacle behave as readers who invest their emotions in the reception of literature, choosing for their reading moments only texts from their favourite writers. Another aspect of Ibrăileanuʼs thinking analysed here is the similarity between reading and femininity, explained as common secrecy. This idea has significant consequences on the perception of the women writers at “Viața românească” who are seen as mysterious beings, present only with their names or literary works, and never as physical occurrence.

Nebezpečná cenzura?

Author(s): Roman Kanda / Language(s): Czech Issue: 6/2013

Beatific Experience: Jazz, Buddhism and Addiction

Author(s): BIANCA-ROXANA MOISE-NEACȘU / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2022

What was it really like being a Beat? What exactly shaped the identity of the artists that started both a media craze ridiculing them during the containment era in America and a literary revolution which later brought them recognition as some of the most influential writers in world literature? The term ‘Beat’ referred both to the ‘beaten-down’ state and, at the same time, the state of beatitude one could get from spiritual epiphanies. The Beat artists were enchanted by any ideology having to do with peace and the search for the true nature of the human soul. They used alcohol and drugs in order to find spiritual freedom and inspiration. This consumption practice, along with their back-then scandalous lifestyle, appearance, preferences and subversive reaction to the postwar American ‘heyday of mass consumption’, became a bearer of meaning for their identities both as individuals and as a group. This article will discuss the spiritual space in which the Beats were living while practicing philosophy, enjoying music and consuming alcohol and addictive substances.

De veghe în spațiul uimirii

Author(s): Graţiela Benga-Țuțuianu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 5/2022

An essay on the work of Gabriel Liiceanu.

Swoistość form adresatywnych w tekstach współczesnych gazet polskojęzycznych wydawanych w Ukrainie (na tle normy ogólnopolskiej)

Author(s): Ałła Krawczuk / Language(s): Polish Issue: 10/2022

This article analyses the nominal as well as attributive and nominal forms of address found inPolish-language newspapers released in Ukraine in the 20th century. The research materialconcerns the forms of address the structures or functions of which are specific compared to thePolish standard. The discussion focuses on the causes of their formation in the circumstancesof language and cultural contacts and their functional and pragmatic peculiarities in the Polishlanguage in Ukraine. The scale of the acceptability of the analysed forms of address in the Polish-centric communication community in Ukraine is identified by means of cultural and linguisticcriteria for the evaluation of linguistic devices (while taking into consideration also a moreextensive research material than the one found in newspapers).

FANTASY W POLSCE I PROBLEM WYKLUCZENIA

Author(s): Sebastian Tauer / Language(s): Polish Issue: 09/2022

Fantasy is one of the most popular literary genres today. The article analyzes the subject of exclusions that take place around this trend. This reflection concerns mainly the academic (omitting fantasy in the scientific discourse), authoring (excluding authors by the fandom and fandom members by authors) and fandom (mutual exclusion of fandom members) plane. The conclusion of the article is that in the case of the fantasy trend, you cannot talk about a specific exclusion, but about different types, depending on a given plane.

HENRIK HAJDUS (1890–1969) ROLLE I UDBREDELSEN AF DET 19. OG 20. ÅRHUNDREDES DANSKE LITTERATUR I UNGARN

Author(s): Gábor Attila Csúr / Language(s): Danish Issue: 23/2017

The Hungarian literary translator Henrik Hajdu (1890–1969) was one of the most extraordinary persons in the history of translating Scandinavian literature into Hungarian. Aside his activity as a translator from Norwegian and Swedish, Hajdu was also an important promoter of Danish authors of the 19th and 20th century. He held lectures on Nordic culture and literature, wrote reviews in prominent Hungarian journals and maintained regular contact to many of the Scandinavian publishers, writers, dramatists and poets. He translated novels by Henrik Pontoppidan, Martin Andersen Nexø and Sigrid Undset, made an edition of Ibsen's complete works and a great amount of short stories and poems. His oeuvre numbers about a hundred separate publications. This paper focuses on how he contributed to the general acceptance and reception of Danish literary works written between 1850 and 1930 among the Hungarian readers.

Komunikacja z czytelnikiem w sytuacji kryzysu czytelnictwa końca XVII i początku XVIII wieku

Author(s): Ewa Rodek / Language(s): Polish Issue: 01/2023

This article is devoted to issues in the literary culture of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth of the end of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th centuries. The material of prefaces to an anonymous recipient a􏰅ached to works of 1675–1739 served as the basis for analysing the statements concerning the process of reception and the act of reading. The results of the analysis indicate that the authors of the prefaces perceived a crisis of readership and interest in books. To this end, they activated the audience for attentive and engaged reading. Moreover, the authors declared that they adapted the form and content of the works to the needs and tastes of readers. Going beyond the traditionally established convention of using topical motifs, they often extolled their offerings in direct, concise but succinct messages, which alludes to the characteristics of advertising language.

Homo juridicus et homo ludens: une approche en jurilinguistique affective

Author(s): Corina Veleanu / Language(s): French Issue: 53/2023

This paper offers a multilingual perspective from the point of view of affective jurilinguistics on the link between the concepts of justice and play through media and literary discourses. The emotional impact of social norms on the members of any social group is highlighted, while individual and collective identity is built by playing. Playing is construed as a socializing activity per se, be it under an explicit or hidden form. Homo ludens is, by definition, a homo juridicus, too, as he complies with the rules of the social games which characterize life in a community. Researchers in the field of affective neurosciences have demonstrated that our perception of the world is first and foremost affective. The rational construction of concepts and discourse follows affective perception and is rooted in it. In the field of justice, this means that a person needs to feel safe within the group they belong to and make sure that their life and the group’s will go on. Perception is the result of a permanent social contract which is renewed regularly and cathartically through arts. Alain Supiot stated that man is a metaphysical animal, adding that “the life of the senses in a human being is intertwined with the meaning of life” (Supiot, 2005: 7). By perceiving the world through his senses, the human being must bond with the other human beings, being thrown to the others through words. Thus, “the bond of the Law and the bonds of the words are intertwined in order to introduce every new-born baby to humanity, that is to give meaning to their life, in the double sense, general and juridical, of this word” (Supiot, 2005 : 8). Affective jurilinguistics appears to be a privileged area of multidisciplinary research in pragmatics, discourse analysis, history of mentalities and neurosciences, as well as a useful instrument for the observation of language and discourse phenomena within legal texts and texts which are related to the field of law and justice (journalistic and literary texts, etc.)

Kultura „w poruszeniu” albo kroniki wojny

Author(s): Iwona Boruszkowska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 817/2023

Political Discourse and Oppression – Influences on the Mentality and Culture of the Soviet Man

Author(s): Alexandra-Ioana ARSENE / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2023

The culture and mentality of a nation is formed in a process of interaction between individual and environment, and, consequently, its behaviour can be influenced by the changes of the social and physical environment. Politics is one factor in this process, as it uses power to control people’s thinking and behaviour through various instruments and techniques, and in this way, it can be regarded as a governmental extension on human actions. Using an imagological approach, the article’s purpose is to highlight that oppression, along with political discourse, shaped the mindset of the Soviet people. Also, the regime attempted to shape Soviet society in order to achieve the image desired. The Soviet political apparatus was based on oppression, the technique of repetition, and the role models highlighted by the regime. All the measures taken influenced the mentality of the Soviet people and, implicitly, led it to a transformation and, later, an adaptation because people had to comply with all the rules, laws, and measures taken by the Communist Party. This will be analysed in the first book published in Romania by Vasile Ernu, Născut în URSS [Born in the USSR], and in two works by Svetlana Alexievich, namely The Unwomanly Face of War and Chernobyl Prayer. By analysing these works, the reader learns how a society, its culture and mentality can be influenced by the social and physical environment. The three works present the transition from fiction to the non-fiction category, portraying authentic experiences and depicting the tangible impacts on people.

Czy „warto zaklęcie o zwycięstwie dobra powtarzać niczym mantrę”? Rozmowa z Violettą Wróblewską

Author(s): Anna Mik,Maciej Skowera / Language(s): Polish Issue: 2/2023

Is "a spell with repeatable value like a mantra worth it"? Interview with Violetta Wróblewska

Przestrzenie grozy w utworach z uniwersum griszów Leigh Bardugo jako narzędzie krytyki społecznej

Author(s): Joanna Głogowska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 2/2023

This paper analyses selected works by Leigh Bardugo set in the Grishaverse. Its aim is to explore the way in which the writer consistently employs horror narra-tive mechanisms to critique non-literary reality. The unique aspect of Bardugo’s criticism, specifically her emphasis on individual responsibility for the oppres-sive nature of the social system, is one of the factors distinguishing the series from conventionally understood fantasy. The text achieves its goal by analysing spaces depicted through the poetics of horror (predominantly derived from Gothic litera-ture), and by exploring the relationship between the hero and space, attempting to determine the scope of their mutual inf luences and the symbolic function of space. The author of the paper identifies the functions of appropriation practices and symbolic marking of space, considering them as possible expressions of rebel-lion against the system’s identified weaknesses. Ultimately, these considerations make an attempt to place the Grishaverse within the broader discourse of socially engaged fantasy.

Laudacja dla Tomasza M. Jankowskiego za książkę Demography of a Shtetl: The Case of Piotrków Trybunalski, która w roku 2023 otrzymała trzecią nagrodę w konkursie o Nagrodę im. Józefa A. Gierowskiego i Chonego Shmeruka

Author(s): Andrzej K. Link-Lenczowski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 52/2023

Tomasz M. Jankowski, Demography of a Shtetl: The Case of Piotrków Trybunalski, Brill, Leiden–Boston 2022, ss. 238 („Studia Judaeoslavi- ca”, Vol. 14).

„Mindenki lehet aktuális, aki magával ragad” Beszélgetés az irodalom-népszerűsítésről

Author(s): Anna Juhászová,Imre József Balázs / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 03/2024

Discussing her literary events organized in different countries, Anna Juhász answers the questions of Imre József Balázs, highlighting that the key to her events is the personal involvement. Contemporary authors participating in such events mediate this involvement, but such connection can be developed similarly with classical authors. Events consisting of discussions, readings and music follow the same logic: aiming to ensure that all generations are represented in these programmes, to organize events where high school students, adults and grandparents can all experience art and literature.

Olvasd el és játssz velünk! Egy olvasóvetélkedő évtizedes tapasztalatairól

Author(s): Kinga Makkai / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 03/2024

In previous writings, the author discussed the extracurricular possibilities for fostering readership and some methodological characteristics to achieve positive results. This article presents the issue through the experience connected to a reading competition. Among the well-known methods for promoting readership, the approach of reading competitions is particularly appealing to children for several reasons. Firstly, children enjoy activities outside the school setting; they appreciate the opportunity to venture beyond the familiar school environment. Additionally, the voluntary nature of these activities is a key factor. Secondly, competition and rivalry are popular forms of utilizing and applying academic knowledge among students, especially when they can participate in teams. The reading competition is capable of satisfying both of these preferences. The author discusses the history of a reading competition organized annually in Marosvásárhely/Târgu Mureș, at the local bookfair.

A 21. századi olvasó útvesztője és a mágikus segítők

Author(s): Eszter Szabó / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 03/2024

As an organizer of book clubs, and as a radio editor who runs a literary podcast, the author discusses the possibilities of such endeavours in present-day Transylvania. The goal of these activities is to promote sophisticated literary texts in a widely accessible and understandable manner. This approach has been experimented with extensively in various forms and across age groups, ranging from adults to practically all age brackets: adult book clubs, events for children, operating a Bookstagram page, and a podcast, with a growing sense of professionalism.

The Boundaries of an Organism: Purposefulness and Autonomy

Author(s): Adam Partyka / Language(s): English Issue: 50/2024

In this article I want to argue that the organic metaphor— most commonly associated with the Romantic notion of an artwork being analogous to a living being—served throughout the last two centuries as a means of conceptualising autonomy, remaining in a dialectical relation to the latter concept: the structure of the metaphor posited within different critical traditions influenced the theorists’, critics’ and artists’ ideas of what it meant for an artwork to be autonomous, while itself being shaped and modelled by their expectations and beliefs regarding the ontology of the artwork and the possibility of the latter’s autonomy. Over this time the metaphor has undergone substantial modifications, supporting both art’s claim for autonomy, and an attempted denial of the latter. In order to illustrate these shifts, I will discuss three theoretical and critical moments in the history of the organic metaphor: Romantic organicism, centred on the concept of the principle of life, New Critical formalist organicism, which turns out to shadow forth what Michael Fried called literalism, and postmodern organicism, as exhibited by the environmental humanities and ecocritical discourses. The brief outline of the recent history of the organic metaphor is intended to offer an aid to understanding the origins of contemporary organicism, and to show that its reluctance towards the idea of aesthetic autonomy stems from the characteristically postmodern notion of organic form. Finally, I propose to show how the concept of organic form can be fruitfully reinterpreted in light of Kant’s considerations on teleological judgement and Anscombe’s views on intention.

Religious Literature and the Work of the „Poor Sisters” Banned by the Soviet Authorities

Author(s): Kęstutis Žemaitis / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2024

At the end of the Second World War, Lithuania was occupied by the Sovi-et Union for decades. The Soviet government was essentially atheistic and persecuted all religious activities. Literature was very important for religious edu-cation, but it was destroyed, and the printing of new literature was forbiddenand even punishable by imprisonment or other penalties. However, enthusiastsemerged who, under such conditions, began writing, reprinting and distributingperiodicals and individual publications. These books included translationsmainly from Polish or German. Monks, priests, and laymen did a great deal ofwork in the field of self-publishing. In particular, members of the Sisters’ Con-gregation of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Immaculate Conception of thePoor, popularly known as the Sisters of the Poor, were involved in the distribu-tion of such underground books. They distributed religious literature, werepersecuted and persecuted, but their contribution to the development of a Cath-olic society was felt. After the end of the Soviet era, the nuns, and the return ofindividual residences to the old monastery buildings brought with them “se-cret” books and created a rich library worthy of research attention

Podwyższony świat. Rozmowa z Robertem Macfarlane’em o górach, naturze i literaturze, przeprowadzona 16 czerwca 2023 roku w Emmanuel College w Cambridge

Author(s): Elżbieta Dutka / Language(s): Polish Issue: 35/2024

Interview with Robert Macfarlane - Professor of Environmental Humanities at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, traveler and world-renowned writer, author of bestsellers about nature, the relationship between "landscape and the human heart," places and imagination. Macfarlane's literary output is usually categorized as nature writing, mountain literature, travel literature or still other categories.