"And they all lived happily ever after": The Failure of a Happy Ending in The Piano (1993) and Barbe Bleue (2009)

Author(s): Yidan Hu / Language(s): English Issue: 12/2022

Jane Campion’s The Piano (1993) and Catherine Breillat’s Barbe Bleue (2009) are film adaptations of the tale Bluebeard, both of which have a seemingly bright closure — “and they all lived happily ever after”. “They”, as the female, are in the becoming process since “one is not born, but rather becomes, a woman” (de Beauvoir 1956: 273), which changes the nature of the film denouement. By looking at the female protagonists Ada McGrath in The Piano and Marie-Catherine in Barbe Bleue, this research aims to deal with how female “decisions” in attempting to accomplish themselves in the face of a crisis affect the understanding of the film’s ending. First, female characterisation and plot development are investigated with the construction of women’s feelings and perceptions at a given moment, influencing the subsequent outcomes. Second, the significance of narrative techniques is expounded with audience’s affective interaction with characters. The conclusion reached is that in both films, repressed female temperament allows women to make judgements and choices that predetermine the tragic core of the happy ending. The significance of this study is to draw attention to the plight of women in the undercurrent, to make it possible for the silent cries behind the beautiful fantasies to be heard.

"LE DÉCAMÉRON". CENT NOUVELLES – UN CHIFFRE RITUEL

Author(s): Ioana Nicoleta Silvia / Language(s): French Issue: 2/2020

The Decameron represents the maximum of realism in literary art through which Bocaccio laid the foundations of a literary prose and a language used in the following centuries by successive writers. The subjects can be considered of French inspiration, but the action is located in Florence, the cradle of the Italian language but also literature. It is well received in France and its translation inspired Marguerite de Navarre in the later creation of the masterpiece Heptaméron. It is impressive the perfection of Decameron's architecture - 10 young people, 10days, 10 short stories, 10 themes, but also the force with which the author creates situations that react to the darkness of the Middle Ages, freeing the consciousness from the prejudices, counteracting hypocrisy, the false authors of miracles and laying the foundations of a new epoch: The Renaissance.

"Lumberjanes" e "Hilda", serie a fumetti scout tra ecocritica ed ecofemminismo

Author(s): Dalila Forni / Language(s): Italian Issue: 1/2022

Among the forms of children’s literature that deal with the complex relationship between humanity and nature, comics can offer various insights on the topic for boys and girls. In particular, children’s stories have recently revitalized the scout movement, interpreting it through new values related to identity, gender and ecology. This paper will consider two comic book series on scouting, Hilda (Luke Pearson, 2011–2019) and Lumberjanes (Noelle Stevenson, 2014–2020). Both works tell the story of a diverse group of characters involved in scouting activities: the stories, developed in natural settings, portray the growth of young and peculiar characters who, through constant contact with the environment, show a strong respect for both nature and the peer group, in a peaceful and adventurous coexistence with the environment and the different forms of life that inhabit it. The essay aims to develop a first state of the art that highlights new interpretative strands in this literary genre through an ecocritical and ecofeminist lens. The study explores the two works in a comparative perspective, so as to show how comic book narratives can present interesting ecological and egalitarian dynamics, in this case through the experience of scouting.

"Only in Dying Life": Ursula K. Le Guin's Dry Land and Its Cultural Contestations

Author(s): Gabriela Debita / Language(s): English Issue: 10/2020

In his seminal essay theorizing the concept of heterotopia, “Of Other Spaces”, Michel Foucault insists that his focus is on external spaces. However, given the ability of certain spaces, especially those associated with trauma and torment, to simultaneously be inhabited and inhabit the psyches of their denizens, it stands to reason that some heterotopic spaces are internal as well. One such example is Ursula K. Le Guin’s Dry Land, an inner hellscape which appears throughout her Earthsea series. The Dry Land serves to mirror, invert, and contest not only the world of Earthsea, but also the pervasiveness of Western literary and cultural influences on the genre of fantasy itself. Inspired by classical and Renaissance sources (Homer and Dante) and modernist ones (Rainer Maria Rilke and T. S. Eliot), the Dry Land, a jarring spatial and literary aberration in the context of Earthsea’s Taoist framework, serves to confront both the resistance to the finality of death and the supremacy of the Western literary canon. In doing so, it demonstrates Le Guin’s desire to distance herself from Western canonical influences, while nevertheless highlighting the fact that, given the cyclicity of literary rebellion, she is, in fact, walking in Dante’s and T. S. Eliot’s shoes.

"Лицето на българщината": Националният събор за народно творчество в Копривщица и неговите медийни отражения

Author(s): Lozanka Peycheva,Lozanka Peycheva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 12/2022

The article examines the National festival of folklore in Koprivshtitsa – a culmination of the assembly-singing movement – by looking for sustainable media representations of the folklore festivals, which has already been held for twelve editions (between 1965 and 2022). The mechanisms for organization and media coverage are sought in the chronological lines before and after 1989. The focus is on the discourses and presentation of the festival as a manifestation of collective and national identity, “the face of Bulgarianism”

"ХРИСТИАНСКИЙ СОЦИАЛИЗМ" ИЛИ "СОЦИАЛЬНОЕ ХРИСТИАНСТВО"? (ГОГОЛЬ И ДОСТОЕВСКИЙ В ИСТОРИИ РУССКОЙ СОЦИАЛЬНО-ФИЛОСОФСКОЙ МЫСЛИ)

Author(s): Sergey A. Kibalnik / Language(s): English,Russian Issue: 3/2017

The article refers to the phenomenon of Western European, primarily French, and Russian socio-philosophical thought that got a traditional name of “Social Christianity” but in the Soviet times was entitled “Christian Socialism”. Dostoevsky’s “Russian socialism”, as the author himself denominates it in “A Writer’s Diary”, is for a long time and justly related to French “Social Christianity” and to its most famous representative F. R. de Lamennais (Hugues-Félicité Robert de Lamennais). At the same time “Russian Socialism” and all the entirety of Dostoevsky’s socio-philosophical views of 1860s — 1880s extremely remind Gogol’s ideas of his later period. Certain parallels between the two Russian classics are revealed in the article, and it is pointed out that while Dostoevsky’s views are usually treated with sympathy the same ideas in Gogol’s later works are often sharply criticized. The similarity between two writers, apart from certain influence of Gogol on Dostoevsky, is due to their orientation to the same currents in Western European socio-philosophical thought, and first of all to the “Social Christianity”. Both writers shared the key principle of this movement: aspiration to the transformation of social relations on true Christian basis, according to the Christian ideal of brotherhood between people regardless their class position. It was Gogol, along with Chaadaev, Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, who more than any other Russian writer or thinker was inspired by Lamennais’s “Paroles d’un Croyant” (1834) and other writings of the latter. Taking this into account a well-known correspondence between Belinsky and Gogol could be qualified as a dispute between an adherent of socio-political utopia and a disciple of “Social Christianity”.

(Az utcaseprők…); (Késik); (Dögszag)

Author(s): Vivien Jánosi / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 05/2016

(Self-)Portrayals of Mixed Cultural Identities in the Works of Emily Carr and István Fujkin

Author(s): Krisztina Kodó / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2021

The article examines the work of two artists, Emily Carr (1871 – 1945) and István Fujkin (1953), focusing on Carr’s early and mature “Indian paintings,” and Fujkin’s “Blue Owl” series, completed between 2001 and 2005. The paintings chosen from among Carr’s works are thematically linked to Klee Wyck (1940), her first fictional work describing her travels and experiences with the First Nations People in British Columbia. Though the two artists come from different cultural backgrounds, since Carr was descended from English immigrants and Fujkin is a Hungarian born in the former Yugoslavia, there are similarities in their work. Both artists depict work across time and make use of transnational imaginaries of nature and Native Canadian cultural symbols that ultimately function as a bridge between Native and western culture. Fujkin’s talent lies in his ability to “paint the music” composed and performed by Canadian Mohawk musician Robbie Robertson. Emily Carr’s paintings offer images of her visionary world that transcends cultural identities and provides an insight into nature infused with spiritual and magical elements.

(szino)líra. aranyos, arányos, aranypármen

Author(s): Géza Aczél / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 02/2019

... és ne feledd a hattyúkat

Author(s): Peter Juščák / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 98/2015

...ALI ZNAM DA ĆU IZAĆI NA KRAJ S TOBOM

Author(s): Mihajlo Pantić / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 457/2009

U Ukrajini sam se prvi put obreo slučajno. Jedne kasne jeseni ribario sam sa prijateljem na Delti Dunava, i tu, na velikoj vodi, u nedoglednoj zemlji, razumeo da osećaj prostora u svakom čoveku zavisi od njegovog neposrednog, svakodnevnog okruženja. Jedan je onaj koji sedi sam u maloj sobi na desetom spratu nekog novobeogradskog solitera, anoniman i bezglasan, zatrovan bezizglednošću i TV slikama, ubijen u pojam od toliko nakazne istorije koja mu pritiska život od rođenja do smrti (gle, ni okrenuo se nije, a već je star), drugi onaj koji se dokopao neke pustinje

...NE DOPUSTI!

Author(s): Miklos Varhegyi / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 423/2003

Znam, čitaoca sablažnjava ako naiđe na tekst bez kritičnosti. Njegovi roditelji i profesori i nadređeni i političari podsticali su ga na kritički ton. Buda je rekao: ljubav je okov.

10 ani de la plecarea în Poezie a lui Petre Stoica/ Literatura română, formă fără fonduri

Author(s): Marcel Tolcea,Călin-Andrei Mihăilescu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 03/2019

19. gadsimta literāro procesu kontinuitāte populārās kultūras perspektīvā

Author(s): Pauls Daija,Benedikts Kalnačs / Language(s): Latvian Issue: 37/2018

The aim of this article is to provide a reading of 19th century Latvian literature from the perspective of popular culture. This branch of literature has traditionally remained understudied due to the low creative quality and the prevalence of translations. In earlier investigations the attention has mostly been drawn to historical importance, as opposed to aesthetic features. Similarly, literature usually defined as “elitist” and canonized as classical, has rarely been examined in the context of popular literature. On most occasions it has been dealt with in isolation from other literary trends. Although “elitist literature” cannot be regarded an accurate definition, its application is productive due to the fact that the connection between Latvian literature and national awakening with its concept of Lat vians as a nation of culture is emphasized. This article intends to provide a framework that might be applied to the analysis of the aesthetics of “low” literature, and highlights how this approach can be useful for the understanding of interconnections between popular culture and literature included in the canon of literary history. The introduction of the article examines the significance of popular culture in mid-19th century; the rest is dedicated to the appropriation and re-creation of literary characters borrowed from the mid-19th century popular literature and transferred to 19th and 20th century texts. The authors also discuss the disintegration of borders between the elitist and popular culture as a significant impulse for artistic innovations. These tendencies have been contextualized following two different versions of the story of Genoveva, the 1846 novel Countess Genoveva (Grāfa lielmāte Genoveva) by Ansis Leitāns and the unfinished drama Genoveva by Rūdolfs Blaumanis written in 1908.

19. gadsimta stāstniecības žanra attīstība latviskās identitātes meklējumu ceļos

Author(s): Zigrīda Frīde / Language(s): Latvian Issue: 37/2018

In Latvian literature the development of the narrative genre to a great extent has been based on translations and literary traditions of other nations. The first original stories that played a crucial role in further processes along with educated and nationally patriotic authors’ publications in the 1860s initiated the flourishing of prose, strengthened further development of Latvian literary activities, its encouraging stance in the questions related to the development of literary language, as well as wisdom of life and national space. These stories facilitated the processes of nation building n Latvia. Along with the 1863 published works of Juris Neikens, Krišjānis Barons and Jēkabs Zvaigznīte, as well as Atis Kronvalds, an in-depth portrayal of Latvian identity entered literature. It was manifested through the creativity of the author and the use of Latvian language enriched by the vocabulary from various districts, as well as the portrayal of rural life, which to most of the readers at the time depicted their everyday surroundings and activities. The plots of the authors were based on domestic observations, which were documented in a rather authentic and close-to-reality way, intuitively implementing the so-called principles of mimesis, which provided a new mode of narrative based on the national peculiarities in the prose of the time. Although in the early stages of the development, Latvian fiction did not reveal in depth reflections of the author’s personal experiences, the lack of this creative expression was replaced by objective, even ethnographic observations of the everyday life. In the upcoming decades, such a fusion of characters and plots borrowed from people (folk) and the personal train of thought and talent of the author, which has been enriched with the world classics and modern literature, established a basis for the narrative genre to compose artistically individualised and subjective writings epitomizing Latvian identity. In the 19th century, when from the ethnic communities in the districts Latvian nation was developing and consolidating as a self-dependent subject with a national awareness, literature, myths and future hopes, Young Latvians and the following writers with their encouraging attitude towards the development of literary language, wisdom of life and national space facilitated the formation of national identity.

2013 – L’Année Maupassant en Roumanie

Author(s): Alexandra Viorica Dulău / Language(s): French Issue: 1/2018

In June 2013, Babeş-Bolyai University from Cluj-Napoca, Romania, organized the international colloquium Maupassant 2013, meant to celebrate the 120 years passed since Maupassant’s death, within an essay to have a whole Romanian Year dedicated to him; lack of funds reduced it to some parts of the country, especially Transylvania. This article presents what was done in this respect, the most important result being a collection of varied essays belonging to different authors – the great majority working in important European universities – who wrote them on the basis of the topics suggested in the call for papers: the biography, between truth and legend; the short stories, between humour and fantastic; the creator of images: illustrations and movie adaptations; the translation of the work. Such a diversity of topics allowed a wide range of approaches which resulted in extremely interesting contributions, demonstrating Maupassant’s actuality even in the second decade of the 21st century.

27, avagy a halál teszi a művészt

Author(s): Alexandra Salmela / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 99/2015

504

Author(s): Péter Farkas / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 97/2015

A bamba bomba

Author(s): István Árkossy / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 851/2022

Short story by Árkossy István.

A Beruházási Bank

Author(s): Florin Irimia / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 838/2022

aAliterary text written by Florin Irimia.