Epica magna. Melania Bancea, Capitolul 6
The text is a fragment from a novel written by Melania Bancea.
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The text is a fragment from a novel written by Melania Bancea.
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The article analyzes a folk ritual named az-Zār, widespread in Egypt to the present day, and its fictional beings – jinn and sayyids. The paper is a result of the author’s immediate observations of several years in this country. The article describes the proper ritual, the characters performing the ritual, the fictional characters, who are believed to exist in the parallel universe and have invisible relations with human beings, as well as some texts of az-Zār ritual and a reflection of this ritual in literature, which to a certain extent indicates the role of az-Zār in the Egyptian society.
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Text by the Italian writer, Dino Buzatti.
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In Ana Blandiana's narratives, the perception of the real is reloaded to grasp its fantastic profile, overwhelming in its affective, sensorial and symbolical intensity. The text entitled La țară points out an extraordinary archetypal-focused image of people and the space signs usually defining the village so as to symbolically approach Time.
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Artykuł recenzyjny dotyczy monografii Grimmosfera polska. Baśnie ze zbioru Wilhelma i Jakuba Grimmów w polskiej kulturze literackiej (1865–2015) Kamili Kowalczyk (2021), w której autorka podejmuje próbę zidentyfikowania najważniejszych mechanizmów i tendencji, jakie przez półtora wieku miały miejsce w polskich baśniowych renarracjach. Kluczowe dla pracy pojęcie grimmosfery jako całokształtu zjawisk związanych z postaciami Wilhelma i Jakuba Grimmów oraz ich baśniową twórczością pozwala na obszerną charakterystykę obecności „baśni Grimmów” w polskiej kulturze na przestrzeni lat. Najwięcej miejsca poświęcono „renarracjom właściwym”, czyli przekształcającym tradycyjny wzorzec baśniowy w sposób innowacyjny i często polemiczny, ale uwzględniono również przekłady, filmy, spektakle teatralne, reklamy, gry komputerowe i inne przejawy funkcjonowania baśni w kulturze. Dzięki temu Grimmosfera polska stanowi wartościowy przewodnik po długiej historii baśni Grimmowskich w Polsce.
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Between the creative thinking of mankind and fantastic literature, there is an extremely strong connection that expresses the individual power to imagine and describe a multitude of possible worlds. This idea is analysed in the article named "The Sacred and the Fantastic". The sacred is like the beautiful, a complex category that evades the rational, it is "something ineffable" and unspeakable. There are numerous similarities between the ways of perceiving the sacred analysed by Rudolf Otto in his studies "Sacred" and "About Numinous", and the object of fantastic literature. Firstly, the common element is the attempt to present another reality with rational and linguistic means, so, in other words, with the relative means of the universe in which we live. The fantastic and the sacred belong to another reality, which is precisely the reason why it arouses great interest. The sacred is inexpressible, incomprehensible, with the analytical means of reason, but at the same time, it offers order and balance. The fantastic turns out to be an ineffable category, it is the character and the abstract reader`s hesitation between the strange and the miraculous at the same time, between a possible deception of the senses, a product of the imagination, a situation in which the laws of the world remain what they are, and the situation in which the event really happened, it is an integral part of reality, a reality governed by laws which are unknown to men. Hence, the hesitation between the strange and the miraculous is the one that gives birth to fantastic literature. Another important element is the need of mankind to escape from everyday life through art to banish the unsettling feeling of the end.
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Gregory of Sinai is considered the foremost teacher of Hesychasm during the 14th century. His life and activities are directly connected with Bulgaria and especially with the hesychastic community of Paroria. His Vita written by the Patriarch Kallistos I. in Greek was translated and preserved in Slavic manuscripts. The oldest one is the Codex Athon. Zographou 214 (dated between 1371–1385). The translator’s identity of the Vita still remains an open question. In my opinion, the possibility of identifying the translator with Evtimij Tărnovskij should be seriously examined.
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The commentated psalter, ordered by the Bulgarian king John Alexander and copied in 1337, is known as the Pesnivets of John Alexander and also as the Sofia or Kuklen Pesnivets. It is kept in the Scientific Archive of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (NA-BAN 2). Its codicological and textological peculiarities, together with its history have been subjects of discussion since the time of its founding in the Kuklen monastery but they still cannot be explained in a satisfactory way. With regard to the envisaged edition of the manuscript this paper summarizes the main hypotheses rised dirung its study. The first hypothesis addresses the king’s commission and it assumes, after reconsidering the various statements and opinions tying to relate the year 1337 to a significant event in the king’s governing, that it was rather a momentary wish, expressed at a time when he had established his political position. The second hypothesis proposes an explanation of the very obvious rework of the manuscript by cutting two leaves at its middle, at ps. 77, and inserting there a gathering with the interpretations of the Creed and the Lord’s prayer. Again, the question is what could have provoked the change of the manuscript’s composition and when it happened, taking into account the fact that the additional gathering was copied by the first main scribe of the psalter. After rejecting the hypotheses of its later addition, which considered two events equally suitable for proclaiming king’s orthodoxy – the possible re-adressing of the manuscript in relation with his ktetorship in the Bachkovo monastery, or his role in convoking of the anti-heretical councils – a more pragmatic solution was tested. As the overal design of the manuscript is somewhat simple and the only miniature, in a sharp contrast with it, is painted on a single folio and put in the middle of the codex, it seems more plausible – and is supported by codicological evidence – that a decision to make the manuscript more appropriate for a ruler by changing its design was taken exactly at the moment when the copyist reached the middle of the psalms. As the two cut-off leaves were integral with the illuminated folio and the next one, they could have been still blank or with some text on them, therefore easier to sacrifice. Why a miniature representing Christ Ancient of Days was placed before ps. 77, is explicated in earlier publications of the author. To adorn the manuscript with the miniature, surrounded by inscriptions with the king’s titulatures, may have been planned together with including the additional texts. Therefore the latter were copied separately, in a single gathering. Regarding the non-aesthetic appearance of this bulky gathering now preceding the miniature, one recalls the remark of Benyo Tsonev in his catalogue that the original place of these folios might have been at the end of the manuscript. However, to whom belonged the idea of the incertions and when the last gathering was moved to its present place remains unknown. It must be emphasized though that the new composition of the image and the interpretative texts resulted in a unique and sophisticated ideological message. Next are offered hypotheses of the manuscript’s origin and its late history. It was agreed that the capital Tarnovo, as other scholars already claimed, was the most likely locality of the scribes’ team; and more, perhaps it was the royal chancellery around which the literary activity initiated by John Alexander began, provided that the script of the psalter is very similar to that of the Zograf monastery charter (1342) and that the codex itself testifies for an early stage of fulfilling royal orders. Whether the first trained scribes were monks from the hesychast circles suported by the king is another open question. The most extravagant hypothesis concerns the travel of Pesnivets to the Kuklen monastery, in vicinity to the Bachkovo monastery. A note in the psalter mentions the death of the Serbian despote George Branković and the only place where it could resonate was the Rila monastery, to which the relics of St John of Rila were translated from Tarnovo through the agency of Mara Branković, George’s daughter. In the monastery was copied the only other known commentated psalter with exactly the same interpretations of the Creed and Lord’s prayer placed at the mid-psalms. There is a vague evidence that Mara Branković made a donation to the Bachkovo monastery which could have included the Bulgarian king’s manuscript. Such a suggestion presuposes that the psalter was already in Rila together with other manuscripts which, as is known, came from Tarnovo, or that it accompanied the relics. However, the discrepancy between the dates of the transfer of the relics and the commemorative note, which was not current at the time, raises another problem. Unfortunately, there are no sources to support either these, or even the assumption that at some time books from the Bachkovo monastery library has been transferred to the neighbouring Kuklen monastery.
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The author of the article sets out the principles of abbreviation applied by the South Slavic translator who compiled the summary translation Протль(к) лу(т)ргїи, и црк҃ви, и чинꙋ сщ҃енничьскомꙋ of the treatise “ Ἑρμηνεία περὶ τοῦ θείου ναοῦ” by St. Symeon of Thessalonica, known today by two transcripts – RGADA 88 and Bogišić 52. The comparison with the Greek text shows that the entire text of St. Symeon’s “Interpretation of the Temple” undergoes a systematic condensation at both macro and micro textual levels. The condensation is tied to the goals set by the translator. For purely practical reasons, he reduced the text of the treatise to a minimum, preserving only the most important and unambiguous explanations of the liturgical sequence, of the parts of the church building, of the liturgical utensils and vestments. However, additional reflections, alternative interpretations and a large part of the quotations from the Holy Scriptures and the liturgical books were removed. This gives reason to define the liturgical interpretation from RGADA 88 and Bogišić 52 as an epitome of its Byzantine source – the treatise “ Ἑρμηνεία περὶ τοῦ θείου ναοῦ” by St. Symeon of Thessalonica, its concise summary.
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The article is devoted to the description of the conquest of Constantinople and the Genoese colony of Pera in La Cronica dall’anno 1400 all’anno 1500 of the Florentine Benedetto Dei. The author situates the two chapters dedicated to these victories in the context of the entire chronicle; she dwells on issues such as the sources of information, the time of compilation, mistakes made, the general assessment of events dictated by Benedetto Dei’s biases and widespread public opinions. A Bulgarian translation of the chapters Otomanno Ughulì gran turco 1453; Pera 1454 is applied.
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In the Russian Chronograph the history of the Slavs is presented as part of the world history. The history of the Bulgarians also occupies an important place in the chronicle. The separate editions and transcripts of the Russian chronograph contain valuable information about the fall of the Bulgarian state under Ottoman rule, included in chapters and paragraphs devoted to the Serbian history. It tells about the conquest of the Vidin kingdom, the death of Constantine, the son of Tsar Ivan Sratsimir, the destruction of Bulgaria and other Balkan countries, presented as God‘s punishment for the many sins of Christians. Some of the information contained in the Chronograph is missing in other Russian chronicles. A number of peculiarities of the text show that in addition to the Life of Stefan Lazarević by Constantine of Kostenets, Serbian chronicles were used as a source for Bulgarian history. Among the Bulgarian works used in compiling the Russian Chronograph, there is no one that describes the fall of Bulgarian lands under Ottoman rule, and Serbian sources are the ones that fill the gap. At a time when Serbs and Bulgarians had a similar fate and Bulgarian writers worked in the Serbian royal court, historical texts tell the story of the Balkan peoples as a common struggle against the conquerors.
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Short story by Marcel Tolcea. Poem by Călin-Andrei MIHĂILESCU
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Essay by Essay by Robert ȘERBAN - Sub unghie Essay by Radu Pavel GHEO - Literatorul la 1882
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Domențiu găsea bani aproape săptămânal în cărțile venite prin poștă, dar niciodată ca atunci: 500 de euro. Era uluit și de sumă, și de faptul că numele scriitorului nu-i spunea nimic, n-auzise niciodată de el. Iar cartea număra fix 52 de pagini.
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