Anorexia and the City: Special Significance of the Urban Environment in Eating Disorder Memoirs

Author(s): Nina Augustynowicz / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

The article examines a book of memoirs belonging to a larger group of textual representations of individual struggle with anorexia in order to shed light on the city as a crucial character in the account of the disease. “Kid Rex: The Inspiring True Account of a Life Salvaged from Anorexia, Despair and Dark Days in New York City” (2008) by Laura Moisin is one of many recent publications touching upon the subject of eating disorders penned by and depicting the life of young upper middle class big city women. First notable books of this kind appeared around 1980, while since the beginning of this century we have been observing a steady increase in this respect, resulting in the proliferation of these personal narratives in popular culture. In accordance with the research suggesting that the incidence of eating disorders is higher in urban areas, publications of this kind all seem to refer to such environments; however, the aforementioned book could be considered special here as it portrays the deep-reaching relations between witnessing the events of September 11 attacks and the development of the disease. Even though it remains unclear which elements of cityscapes are responsible for the higher incidence of the anorexia, the acute experiences offered by NYC around the time of the attack highlight the probable causes. Employing the interdisciplinary perspectives offered by psychogeography, food studies and sociology of medicine, the article analyses how the influence of the city on female victims of anorexia is presented in the memoir to show that urban spaces may function both as a symptom of and as a factor contributing to the disease.

On limitless diversity of functional types of utterance

Author(s): Andrzej Bogusławski / Language(s): English,Russian,Polish Publication Year: 0

The author adopts the concept of “functional type of utterance” where the relevant set is based on features other than coincidental co-occurrence of utterances (as, e.g., used by someone at a certain time) or their including a specified expression (specified expressions). The concept subsumes traditional kinds of utterance such as declaratives vs. hypothetical statements, questions, promises, etc., but also, e.g., utterances where vocatives addressed to the recipient(s) are used with varying frequency (which gives rise to the corresponding subtypes of utterance). It is claimed that the existence of a closed and at the same time objectively exhaustive list of functional types of utterance depends on two alternative necessary conditions which are not and will never be satisfied. One of the conditions has a formal or mathematical character. It amounts to the presence of some contradiction in the conjunction of the following constituents: (i) the claim of non-existence of such an exhaustive objective list of types, (ii) any element of knowledge. The other necessary condition belongs to the domain of nomological/natural sciences. It would consist in our knowledge of organisms and their factual (albeit contingent) constraint which necessitates production of a finite number of functional types of utterance, on the pattern of what is proper to apprehension of sounds by creatures belonging to different species, e.g., humans or bats (as limited to a certain, varying, frequency of oscillation in the air environment). The author submits a formalized schema of the reasoning where a hierarchy of functional types and subtypes of different degrees is assumed.

So sincerely, so tenderly. Foregrounding in Pushkin’s “I loved you”

Author(s): Anna Chesnokova / Language(s): English,Russian,Polish Publication Year: 0

In this article we provide an answer to the question why this particular poem, “Ya vas lyubil” by Pushkin, has become so famous. It doubtlessly belongs to the canon of literary love poems in the Russian language. But why? Its fame seems to be in flagrant contradiction with its simplicity. Indeed, many readers may not perceive anything particularly “literary” in the language of the poem. In what follows, we argue that this is a mistake, and that the greatness of the poem lies exactly in the illusion of simplicity that Pushkin creates, while at the same time expressing the deepest emotions to which lovers are able. Addressing the question of how we can verify our argument, we offer some examples of empirical methods by which one can investigate the reaction of readers to the poem.

Problemy walencji w tekście poetyckim

Author(s): Magdalena Danielewiczowa / Language(s): English,Russian,Polish Publication Year: 0

The article deals with creative violations of the semantic limitations of predicates in Polish poetry. Until now, this problem has not been consistently taken into account, although it opens new research perspectives in the field of linguistics and literary studies. Characteristics of the words used in a given text in terms of their valency structure allow to draw the boundary between the poetry from earlier periods and its more avant-garde forms. The way in which the problem is solved in artistic texts can also be an important criterion for distinguishing between one author’s poetic workshop and the artistic strategy of another. It also allows you to follow how the poets gradually familiarize the reader with the creative technique studied in this article, what additional tools they use to encourage him to make an interpretive effort. From the theoretical point of view, the relationship between the question of semantic-syntactic modifications in the modern poetry and the problem of metaphor, metonymy, comparison, zeugma, syllepsis and similar tropes is also interesting. In the main part of her article, the author gives examples of creative violations of the principles of deep syntax in selected poems of B. Leśmian, K. K. Baczyński and Z. Herbert. This allows us to pay attention to three different approaches to the analysed issue.

Formy wiersza jako nośniki znaczeń

Author(s): Teresa Dobrzyńska-Janusz / Language(s): English,Russian,Polish Publication Year: 0

Investigation of verse forms and their functioning in literary texts leads to the conclusion that they may be employed as bearers of semantic values. The present paper is going to show the richness of this resource. The semantic values of various verse structures are interpreted here in terms of the semiotic categories introduced by Charles Sanders Peirce: as symptoms, symbols, or iconic signs. The basis for this kind of reflection is earlier research in Polish verse structure and a systematic study of various verse forms and their linguistic morphology conducted by a group of Polish and other Slavic researchers (the results of their collaborative work have been published in the “Comparative Slavic Metrics” series („Słowiańska Metryka Porównawcza”); a particular interest to the semantic function of verse forms is a hallmark of the volume (Semantyka form wierszowych (1988)). The semantic function of the rhythmical organization of an utterance may be found even in antiquity and can be noted in many cultures. Rhythmical utterances were treated there as standing in opposition to non-metrical everyday speech and as vehicles of such cultural values as “sacred”, “solemn”, “important for the community”. The semantic value of a metrical structure can be attributed to the fact that verse forms function as filters of various linguistic units and that the metrical organization of a text determines its stylistic characteristics. This stylistic value may be employed and interpreted in many different ways, for instance to represent the social status of the speaker or to differentiate between various literary genres. Many metrical forms perform an iconic function (which depends not only on the rhythmical organization of a text but also on its verbal and conceptual content). Some semantic values are derived from the intertextual relationships of a poem and result from the position of its verse form in the verse form system of a given literature. Verse structure may also be seen as a kind of author’s signature, and it may be employed to perform axiological functions. Many such cases have been illustrated in the paper.

Relevance theory and poetry: An inferential analysis of Philip Larkin’s “Mr Bleaney”

Author(s): Héctor Luis Grada Martinez / Language(s): English,Russian,Polish Publication Year: 0

Recently, relevance theory has been increasingly used in literary studies. However, little research has examined the role of inferences in the interpretation of a poem. This article illustrates how pragmatics and, more precisely, relevance theory, may provide a scientific, cognitive ground to understand how poetic interpretation is constructed through the reader’s inferences. To do so, I analyse “Mr Bleaney”, by British poet Philip Larkin (1922-1985), as a case study for applying relevance theory concepts to literary interpretation. Specifically, I analyse inferences that may be drawn from the poem’s linguistically encoded word meanings, and how such inferences are influenced by the poem’s sonorous qualities, like rhythm and meter. The resulting reading emphasises the poet’s identification with a stranger, Mr Bleaney, who by the end of the poem emerges as an alter ego upon whom the poet projects his own existential fears. Because relevance theory is not prescriptive, it may also be useful in explaining dissenting readings, as shown by briefly comparing the resulting “pessimistic” interpretation of the poem with an “optimistic” one offered by Wayne Booth (2014). Thus, I suggest that inferential analysis may improve dialogue among critics dealing with the same literary work. Overall, I argue that inferential analysis based on relevance theory may help explain interpretations in poetry and thus become a firm first step towards a better understanding of other aspects of aesthetic and poetic effects.

Metafora i świadomość w wypowiedziach poetyckich Krzysztofa Kamila Baczyńskiego

Author(s): Wacław Grzybowski / Language(s): English,Russian,Polish Publication Year: 0

On the basis of Paul Ricoeur’s, Aleksandra Okopień-Sławińskia’s, Maria Mayenowa’s and Max Black’s theories of metaphor, I undertake an attempt of interpretation of Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński’s poetry. The historical-literary context outlined by Stanisław Stabro in his study of Baczyński’s texts becomes an important help in my attempt at the uniting theory of metaphor with theory of consciousness. The combination of the concept of the literary I of Okopień-Sławińska with the Neotomistic Personalizm of Karol Wojtyła and Mieczysław Krąpiec OP allows me to delineate the concept of poetic consciousness expressed in metaphor.

Introspektywny kokon reinterpretans. Kora Ola Ola! – latynoskie polonicum Kory Sipowicz

Author(s): Jakub Jaworski / Language(s): English,Russian,Polish Publication Year: 0

The subject of the article is the intercultural dialogue which emerges out of the musical undertaking “Kora Ola Ola!” (2003) of the Polish artist Kora Sipowicz. The collection comprises various reinterpretations of the twentieth century Polish lyrical works in a Latin arrangement, accompanied by some other Polish, Spanish and English songs, especially those formerly performed by the very artist herself with the famous Polish band, Maanam. In the composition resound convergent transatlantic echoes of mystical poetry, Graeco-Roman mythology, Christian culture and philosophical reflections. The author attempts to delimit the peculiar amalgam of individual Polish identity in this specific, intertextual and intercultural set-up by means of an interdisciplinary analysis and interpretation of particular poetic works and cultural description of their musical arrangement. Moreover there is proposed an analysis and interpretation of the poet’s language, in which the presence of occasionalisms and deictic expressions bring about deformations of the temporal structure. This kind of “estrangment” (ostranenie) contributes to a deconstruction of linguistic (or cultural) automatisms. In the context of interaction and synergy of many cultural codes imposing contradictory requirements, it may help us get closer to the transcultural condition, in terms of the theory developed by Ewa Łukaszyk.

В воображаемом мире: лингвопоэтический анализ стихотворения Николая Гумилёва «Отравленный»

Author(s): Vitaliy Kononenko / Language(s): English,Russian,Polish Publication Year: 0

The article presents a linguopoetic interpretation of Nikolay Gumilov’s poem “Otravlennyy”. The linguistic means involved in the process of metaphorization have been investigated. The connection between the motives of Gumilov’s poetry and the Russian classical tradition has been established. Approaches to characterization of the “image of the author” have been outlined.

The grounding function of tense/aspect morphology in lyric poetry: Analysis of Osip Mandelstam’s poems “The wind brought us solace…” and “This night, no lies...”

Author(s): Józefina Piątkowska-Brzezińska / Language(s): English,Russian,Polish Publication Year: 0

Over the last decades, serious research has been done on the correlation between tense and aspect choice and the level of information saliency in narrative discourse (Chvany1985; Ehrlich 1990; Fleischman 1990; Givón 1987; Hopper and Thomspon 1980). The novelty of our approach lies in the application of ideas developed within narrative analysis to information grounding in lyric poetry. The aim of this article is to show how tense-aspect morphology could be used for discourse-pragmatic purpose of structuring the lyric text. In the poems discussed, switching from the PFV past to the IPFV present is essential for shifting between foreground and background information.

С поэтического языка на языки других искусств: О семиотических кросс-кодах поэзии, музыки, живописи

Author(s): Olga I. Severskaya / Language(s): English,Russian,Polish Publication Year: 0

The article deals with the phenomenon of “interfluve”, which arises in modern poetic books due to the transition from one semiotic code to another. The author discusses the fundamental intertwining of the languages of poetry and other arts, illustrating it by examples of interference between the semiotic systems of poetry and “temporary” music, on the one hand, and “spatial” painting, on the other. At the same time, the paper is concerned not with hybrid discursiveness, but with the presence of semiotic cross-codes in textes-hybrids, i.e. with similar principles of encoding, which allow to represent the transmitted message as if the backlight illuminated by another art form. The inadequacy of the codes becomes in this case the basis of interpretation, of the search for new knowledge.

Перформативная стратегия баллады в лирике Тютчева

Author(s): Walerij Tiupa / Language(s): English,Russian,Polish Publication Year: 0

The paper proposes an invariant approach to the study of lyrical genres. Lyrical poem is viewed as a principally performative speech act. Behind the variety of lyrical discourses, a historically stable performative strategy is uncovered. In the case of the genre of ballad, for which narrativity is an optional element – if widely popular in the poetry of Romanticism – such a basic strategy is that of anxiety. This contention is supported by analysis of Tyutchev’s early anarrative ballads. In such poems the lyrical subject finds himself in the situation of “double existence”, at the border between two worlds: the diurnal one and the nocturnal one, the joyful one and the terrific one, the live one and the dead one. Still, what we face here is not a traditional romantic double-worldedness, but a kind of a counterpoint, a “strained” meta-unity. The conscience of the ballad-type lyrical subject is a catastrophic conscience of someone to be sacrificed. In Tyutchev’s anarrative ballads such a conscience is not masked by a fantastic plot, but presented in its pure form.

Discourse new entities and composition of lyric poem: Foreground as the most informative part of discourse

Author(s): Gennadij Zeldowicz / Language(s): English,Russian,Polish Publication Year: 0

According to (Сильман 1977), the main compositional divide in lyrical discourse is that between presentation of the author’s emotional/mental experience, which normally constitutes the backgrounded part of the text, and some generalization implying discovery of a significant truth and/or change in the author’s attitude towards the world, which in most cases becomes the foreground. While in general this distinction may be marked by a vast range of linguistic devices, it is hypothesized in the article that one of the major characteristic features of the foreground of lyrical poem is its strive for greater informativeness, and it is manifested, inter alia, by considerably higher incidence of discourse new entities in foregrounded fragments. This claim is supported by counts based on analysis of 100 outstanding poems written mostly in Russian.

SINGING BACK: THE ROLE OF PARALLEL WORLDS IN CONSTRUCTING THE SELF-IDENTITY OF IRISH TRAVELLERS

Author(s): Gerald Porter / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

Referring to the song culture of nomadic metal workers (Travellers or, negatively, “tinkers”) in Ireland, Mary Burke asserts that ‘the ballad tradition of Ireland is arguably a Traveller art form’.1 She does not back this bold claim, but the volume, diversity and distribution of their songs certainly supports this, at least for songs in English and macaroni songs featuring worlds in shelta (or cant). The Travellers were very long-established nomadic group whose main occupation was metal work. They later spread to Scotland and England. Since the ability to work with metals once seemed very close to magic, tinsmiths clearly had high status, which is seen today in the many songs of sexual prowess which feature them as heroes. By the end of the 19th century however, their status had declined as a result of poverty, lack of education and repeated exclusion by the settled population. It was not until 1988 that Travellers began to be described in legislation as an ethnic group with special requirements, and by 2000 they were recognised as a group with equal status, because of their shared history, culture and traditions, which included a nomadic way of life. In 2002 a separate volume of the Irish Census was devoted to them. These changes came about as a result of the rising awareness of the Irish Traveller community and of their distinct and positive role in Irish society. In particular, like the Roma (Gypsies), they were seen as social victims rather than petty criminals. Drawing on the work of Burke, and on songs collected both in Ireland and the Diaspora, this paper suggests ways in which the widespread and distinctive singing culture of the Travellers contributed to this politicization. Drawing on the work of Emily Lyle and others, this paper examines the construction of alternative, parallel or parodic worlds in songs, a practice which draws on the numerous folktales told by Travellers which show mortals flying, hearing ethereal music or encountering otherworld creatures like elves and change lings, but also relates to recent work in gender studies on resistance and identity.

I am Mad, Therefore I think

Author(s): Rumyana Cholakova / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

This paper analyzes the first modern Chinese short story, Lu Xun’s “Diary of a Madman” with the help of some ideas from modern psychology and literary theory. My theoretical frame of reference is Foucault’s idea that madness is a particular lack of language (voice). Both Foucault and the American psychiatrist Thomas Szasz see psychiatry as a discipline for the scientific protection of society and an instrument of oppression. In Lu Xun’s short story “madness” is also related to the castigation of society, not to health and reason. Descartes divides reason and madness, Foucault tries to restore the voice of madness and its right to speak. Lu Xun, however, goes a step further than Foucault. He equates thinking with “madness.”

Творческа рецепция на античната традиция в „DE CULTURA HORTORUM“ на Валафрид Страбон

Author(s): Kalina Boseva / Language(s): English,Bulgarian Publication Year: 0

Walahfrid Strabo was a celebrated poet and theologian of the 9th century. He lived and studied mainly in Reichenau, a monastery in modern Germany, where he was monk and at some point abbot. His education covered the Scripture, the writings of the Holy Fathers, as well as Latin, Greek, geography, poetry and the liberal arts. Walahfrid’s many works, written in Latin, consist of theological treatises in prose and many poems on different subjects. Among them is a poem on gardening and the medicinal uses of the plants titled „De cultura hortorum” – „On the cultivation of gardens”. The poem has many scientific and poetical sources: Pliny the Elder, Collumela, Dioscorides, Celsus, Serenus Sammonicus, Pliny Valerianus, Apuleus Platonicus, Isidore of Seville, Virgil, Horace, Lucretius Carus. Strabo used his sources creatively, with a view to do more than just another compilation. He used the words and phrases he found as building blocks in order to come up with a new, contemporary concept for both aesthetics and utility. He is believed to have served as a monastery gardener himself, so likely fused his ideas and practical experience with the received literary tradition of his time. He thus created a unique snapshot of a real life cloister garden – his own garden – both authentic and ideal.

Самоутешение ли е „Утешение към Плибий“ от Сенека? Коментар върху жанровата принадлежност на текста

Author(s): Aleksandra Dimitrova / Language(s): Bulgarian,German Publication Year: 0

Le seuil entre le rêve et le réel dans le théâtre baroque. « L'illusion comique » et « La vie est un songe ».

Author(s): Sorina-Crina Ghiață / Language(s): French Publication Year: 0

Paradoxes and strong contrasts have always been one of the most common ideas of the Baroque movement. However, what seems unusual is the permanent oscillation between life and death, but also the mixture between the illusory and the real. Thereby, eloquent examples could be represented by two of the authors devoted to the literature of the time. As for the two texts belonging to Pierre Corneille and Pedro Calderón de la Barca, the motif of illusion and the theme of dream are, of course, aspects that bring these pieces together. We will see how their playwrights reflect the threshold between the life and dreams of their characters, in “L’Illusion comique and”: “La vida es sueño”.

Джан Дай и китайските кратки форми сяопин. Образец от периода на династия Мин

Author(s): Polina Tsoncheva / Language(s): English,Bulgarian Publication Year: 0

The present paper examines Chinese short forms xiaopin or xiaopinwen 小品文 which origins can be traced back to the period of the Six dynasties (3rd – 6th cc.). The focus is specifically on authors from Ming Dynasty period such as Gui Youguan 归有光, Zhang Dai 张岱, Xu Wei 徐渭 and Li Zhi 李贽 in view of the extremes to which the lives of China’s intellectual elite were thrown. Extremes that find their reflection in literature. Zhang Dai (1597–1689) is a prominent ℎ𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑛 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝑒𝑥𝑎𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑒𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑀𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑑𝑦𝑛𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑦, 𝑎 𝑝𝑜𝑒𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑑𝑟𝑎𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑠𝑡, 𝑎 𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑓-𝑑𝑒𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑎𝑦𝑖𝑠𝑡 (Wang 2022). The essay which translation we present here in Bulgarian is titled “西湖七月半” and describes the celebration of one of the important traditions in the festive calendar of Chinese, namely the Ghost Day 中元节. As this tradition originates from both Taoism and Buddhism, the festival is celebrated in other East Asian countries as well.

Принадлежност и отчуждение в творчеството на палестинския писател Гассан Канафани

Author(s): Khairi Hamdan / Language(s): English,Bulgarian Publication Year: 0

Ghassan Kanafani is a Palestinian novelist whose works were translated into dozens of foreign languages and gained international recognition. He was born in 1936 that was the year of The Great Palestinian Revolt. The author constantly returned to this date in his books because of its importance in the modern history of the Palestinian people. The emigration from his early childhood also left a strong imprint on his creativity. The alienation and the threat of death during the extraordinary military events that took place in his hometown of Acre, as well as his early diabetes deeply affected him. They led Kanafani to believe that his death was inevitable. Nevertheless, he masterfully took advantage of Western literary devices to describe the reality of the Arab world and, in particular, the everyday life of the Palestinians and their survival after long wars and losses. The present paper discusses his several works that reveal a loss of identity as a consequence of alienation, and invoke readers not to remain isolated and indifferent to the fate of others and to be brave enough to change their life path, despite all the obstacles.