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This section contains original pieces of Romanian contemporary litearture, belonging to different writers and literary genres.
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Prose written by Anna Kańtoch ‒ Pokuta (fragment) / Atonement (an Extract).
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Contemporary literature from the German speaking area opens the door in all directions, monitors all changes in society and the trends of globalization, but equally opens up space for the past. It continues to outline the social and political circumstances before and after World War II that have affected the human microcosm. In the so called ”generation novel” the destiny of the family is inevitably correlated with the historical and social events of the 20th century, so contemporary literature gains the function of collective memory and that is the hypothesis. The basis of the research is to determine the ways and motives of memory, the reasons and the way narrators reconstruct the past and build a family identity. The research is conducted within the theoretical setting of Maurice Halbwachs, Pierre Nora, Aleida Assmann, and the research corpus are two novels of contemporary Austrian literature: Der Letzte große Trost (2016) by Stefan Slupetzky and Flugschnee (2017) by Birgit Müller-Wieland. Determining the features of this popular genre, the way and perspective of family and society representation in it, and the enlightenment of 20th-century political and social events that reflected on the destiny and the literary representation of the family are also part of this research.
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Excerpt from the Manuscript written by Alen Bešić: Prizor treći .
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The monograph centres on the changes in content and form in Russian literature at the end of the 19th and at the beginning of the 20th century. The first part of the monograph discusses the roots of the shift in the system of values and in the concept of the individual in comparison with 19th-century Russian prose, and shows differences in the models of the world presented by literary works of the period. The second part of the monograph explores particular phenomena in the work of V. Bryusov, L. N. Andreyev, L. N. Tolstoy, I. Shmelyov, S. N. Sergeev-Censkij and F. Sologub in relation to the work of F. Kafka and R. Musil.
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After its release in 2003, The Last Samurai became a major success at the Japanese (and international) box-office, simultaneously marking a turning point in the illustration of Japan by Western media, and more specifically, by US-American institutions of mass entertainment, such as Hollywood. The Last Samurai has been mostly discussed on the background of the historical realities it depicts (the Meiji Restoration of 1868, the unconditional import of Western artefacts and values, the clash between old and new in Japan by mid-19th century) or from the perspective of the impact it had on the representation of Asian or other non-European cultures by American mainstream mass-media. Based on a 15-year empiric-phenomenological fieldwork in the slippery domain of Japanese mass-media, as well as in-depth literature research on new media, masculinity studies and entertainment industry with specific focus on Japan, this paper argues that the character embodied by Tom Cruise – the typical white male from Japanese perspective – displayed an unexpectedly refreshing insight into the prevalent masculinity ideal in Japan, as subliminally suggested by the Japanese characters. On the one hand, it challenges the image of the samurai, both in its historical idealization (stoic warriors and social elite) and in their contemporary adaptation (carriers of Japan’s post-war recovery). On the other hand, it questions the values incorporated by classical Japanese masculinity and suggests a credible alternative, with emotional flexibility, human warmth and mental vulnerability as potential core attributes.
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Hungary was an important destination for British travelers in the nineteenth century, whose travel accounts provide intriguing insights into the cultural and political climate of the period. John Paget’s journey was meticulously recorded in his extensive book entitled Hungary and Transylvania (1839) that served as a travel guide for other British visitors after him. Paget, who took part in the 1848/49 War of Independence, and became a “Hungarian,” opened Europe’s eyes to the Hungarian people and their country, destroying several false myths that existed about Hungarians in Western Europe, thus attempting to shape up a more favorable picture about them. The present paper examines a few questions regarding the representation of Hungary and of Transylvania in general in the travelogue: how did Paget describe particular cities and regions, the inhabitants, as well as their everyday life? I will attempt to look at the (changing) images of Hungary and Transylvania in Paget’s writing, as well as to offer an insight into Hungarian society and culture in the nineteenth century as contrasted to English culture and politics.
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The Fright by Ellen Pickering deals with parental roles within a wide range of foster families of early Victorian upper classes and with parent-child relationships these roles imply. A special attention is drawn to the paternal figure as it is depicted in the characters of Mr Bradley and Mr Rolleston, and to the relationships they develop with Grace, whom they foster one after another. Mr Bradley is a kind and loving foster parent to Grace, but his physical and psychological absence and lack of domestic authority allow his wife and children to mistreat her. In contrast, Mr Rolleston is described as a sovereign father who is always present, being actively and directly involved with his foster daughter, but whose parental involvement derives from self-oriented reasons, making his fatherhood swing from stern coldness to affection. The contention is that the portrayals of Mr Bradley‘s and Mr Rolleston’s fatherhood depart from the socio-historical prototype of early Victorian wealthy fathers, who were often absent from their households, but nonetheless ruled them with undisputed power. By comparing the literary representations of the upper-class English father to the typical historical construct, this article aims at proving, through the deviation existing between these two, that the realism of the Victorian novel does not consist in rendering characters and their actions in consistency with socio-historical templates.
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Florian Andrei Vlad, Universitară Publishing House, 2020 ISBN:978-606-28-1049-8 (243 pag.)
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As important figures of the Ottoman history since the 16th century Suleiman the Magnificent and his wife Roxelane, have become fundamental referents feeding societal imagery. This study focuses on the analysis of the ‘imagery’ of Roxelane; a woman who was able to hold power and attain a place in societal imagery in an age and setting where the role of women was extremely limited. A strong female archetype, a ‘ruler’ in an Empire where women did not rule and wield power, is created in the works studied through this imagery. The imagery associated with ‘strong females’ like Catherine de Médicis, Mary Tudor and Elizabeth Tudor who ruled their respective countries in the 16th century, has gained a distinctive place in social memory. The imagery has found a wide audience, especially in its manifestation in fiction. The following study uses J.J. Wunenburger’s definitions of imagery to examine the imagery of Roxelane and the ways in which it is recreated and re-used for differing functions in societal memory in two contemporary literary works.
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