We kindly inform you that, as long as the subject affiliation of our 300.000+ articles is in progress, you might get unsufficient or no results on your third level or second level search. In this case, please broaden your search criteria.
The article discusses the ways in which political and cultural revolution in the 1960s together with such social practices as university open admissions and affirmative action have changed the canon of American literature. It presents the factors that have led to the broadening of the canon and argues that the evolving canon of American literature no longer constructs a teleological meta-narrative of a unified tradition but instead reflects the ways in which multiple traditions and cultures engage in a dialog and influence one another.
More...
The article aims at determining the specificity of the canonical character of the poetry of Tadeusz Różewicz – one of the most important Polish writers of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century. The perspective is that of continual canonization, corresponding to the multiplicity and dynamism of modern canons, and, eventually, to constant avant-gardisation. The study is divided into four parts relating to four aspects of Różewicz’s transgression. The first part contains a general description of the postulated category of canonical character in the context of Różewicz’s work; the second part describes the type of avant-garde characteristic of the author of Exit; the third is concerned with negative poetics. The fourth part sums up the issue by discussing the most recent selection of Różewicz’s poetry – Znikanie [Disappearance] edited and with a commentary by Jacek Gutorow, himself a poet and literary scholar. The problem of paradoxical continuation based on variability, poetic tradition, and the strategy of external canonization of the writer is discussed resulting in the creation of a new canon of his poems.
More...
The article contains an introduction to the Polish translation of William Kingdon Clifford’s famous essay The Ethics of Belief. It focuses on the Victorian origins of Clifford’s thought and its relations to other major figures of the time. The historical elements are followed by a reconstruction of Clifford’s main points, including his major evidential thesis according to which “it is [morally] wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence.” The most fierce critic of Clifford was William James; his arguments are presented and briefly commented upon with regard to their contemporary relevance. Clifford is usually accused of radicalism by uncharitable readers and critics; the article proposes possible defence against such accusations.
More...
The North appeared in the work of Russian Symbolists and, through a broader lens, modernists as a “different” world, beyond the limits of space. The attraction of the North can be considered as an alternative to the dilemma relevant to Russia at the turn of the 19th—20th centuries, “East or West”. Unlike the horizontal of socio-cultural and political transformations, in modernism the aspiration to the North was associated with the spiritual vertical, and the journey to the North was a spiritual journey, a way out of the crisis, a search for the absolute and freedom of the spirit. In its extreme manifestation, the attraction to the Pole is attraction towards death. Bryusov’s protagonist, a representative of the “elder” Symbolists, sought to surpass the human, to reach the absolute and to become equal to God. A reckless attraction to the Pole is like passion; in such case Eros and Thanatos are inextricably linked. “Younger” symbolists aimed not beyond the real world, but for the transformation of reality and the birth of a new man. The north was the territory of initiation by them, an important part of the dedication, the solar world. Instead of the unattainable “Queen of the night”, the hero is accompanied by Solveig, the bearer of love-caritas. The hero could pass initiation (A. Remizov), but he didn’t always stand the test (A. Bely). Gradually, the “northern” motif shifted from the mythological to the biographical domain, and the name Solveig itself (or other Ibsen’s female characters) became a cultural sign. The modernist myth about the North as a “different” world is initially ambivalent.
More...
This paper analyzes Miriam Katin’s graphic memoir Letting It Go by using the concept of multidirectional memory as coined by Michael Rothberg, arguing that this is a narration that uncovers multiple perspectives on a traumatic event, with an ethical purpose in mind. The focus is on the novel way in which this is achieved given the specific modes of graphic narration. I analyzes the literary modes behind the narrative in order to show the overlap of the narrator I, narrated I, and protagonist, and I unveil the graphic modes of the narrative as powerful tools that shape perspective and yield subjectivity.
More...
Belarusian literature of the interwar period reflected such an important issue as the interpretation of scientific and technological progress in an opposition to civilization and culture in theoretical and literary texts. This topic in the article is discussed from the point of view of both actual philosophical context and aesthetic quest. We are talking about the original theoretical development of Belarusian intellectuals of the early twentieth century as well as considerable importance and mastering of foreign experience because 1920s and 1930s witnessed an increased attention to various aspects of the topic in Belarusian humanistic space. This was due both to general tendencies in the European philosophy and art, and to the fact that after the victory of the Russian Revolution of 1917, publications of the 1920s called to create a new type of culture. The analysis of literary and cultural texts of E. Borichevsky, P. Dvarkevich, A. Babareka, T. Klyashtorny and other authors enables to conclude that the context of Belarusian literature and culture of the 1920s and 1930s reflects not only the high aesthetic level of poetry and criticism, but also the desire to comprehend most significant problems of human existence and complicated relations between civilization and culture.
More...
Topos of home is one of the main elements of the artistic picture of the national reality in the Belarusian poetry of the early 20th century. Increased interest in topos of home results from the revival of Belarusian history and culture. On the subject-shaped level topos of home is represented by a peasant house, on the semantic level – metonymically correlated with homeland. Topos of home is represented by the opposition home–anti home, a fellow countryman–a stranger, the living–the dead. In Belarusian poetry home represents moral and material values.
More...
The article deals with the identification of the topos of home as fatherland in the works of outstanding Belarusian women poets in the second half of the 20th century such as Eugenia Yanishchits, Nina Matyas and Raisa Borovikova, who are natives of a separate region of Belarus – Polesie. Semantic content of the topos has been discussed and comparative analysis of its identification in women model of the world based on their lyrics has been made.
More...
Home – one of the key concepts of culture – occupies an important place in the prose of a Ukrainian writer Walery Shevchuk. Literary topos of home appears in almost all his novels. The image of home in Shevchuk’s works symbolizes the universe of spiritual, ethical and moral values. It is understood in various ways: as a “promised land” where a hero goes, as a “lost paradise”, as an enclave of peace and security, as a man-made temple, or as a space of painful negative memories, In all of these ways there is a symbol of man, his inner world. In this text I analyze the symbol of home in two novels: “House on the Hill” and “Specter of the Dead House”.
More...
The author expresses his deep conviction that the “Diary” by saint Faustina Kowalska was a sui generis inspiration for John Paul II when he tackled the subject of the Divine Mercy in his encyclical letter “Dives in misericordia”. In this article the author attempts to move backwards and find in “Diary” the context for papal statements.
More...