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The fundamental basis of Romanticism is contradiction, opposition – it is an opposition between ideal and reality. All other contradictions represented in Romanticism are derived from it. Such contradictions are the opposition between the soul and body, usual and unusual, finite-restricted and infinite-absolute, etc. The substantial peculiarity of Romanticism – dramatic vision of separation ideal and reality, determines that romantic artistic perception of the world and style tends to be antithetic. Through all Baratashvili’s poetry runs a collision between the ideal and the actual, and contradictions originated from it – antitheses, contrasts, oppositions, which are manifested at different levels of artistic imagery, artistic form, in different elements of the artistic structure. The fullness of Baratashvili’s poetry is so significant and essential with contrasts that the style of his poetic thinking can be called antithetical, polarized. The poem “Meditations by the River Mtkvari” can be regarded as the most obvious illustration of antithetical, polarized nature of Baratashvili’s poetry. Here it is absolutely transparent and more than once noted by criticism that the idea of the transience of life does not agree with the position expressed in the final part of the poem – a man, despite everything, cannot but take care of the earthly life. In addition to what has been said in criticism on this subject, one thing is to be mentioned, which in our view has essential meaning: the main antithesis of the work appears as antinomy, – an extreme kind of antithesis, i.e. such contradiction, real or apparent, between two beliefs or conclusions, both of which seem equally reasonable, convincing, intellectually of the same value. The advantage of any of them cannot be understood within this system; this should be found in another dimension. Such “other dimension” in this case is “Merani” in which the care of the earthly life appears as a sacrifice to overcome the world’s vanity and establish freedom in this world… Besides the main antithesis, there are other important antitheses in the “Meditations”. The essential human feature –feelings of discontent, inner unrest despite the fulfillment of all desires is antithetical, contradictory. In a sharply contrasting way is pictured the existence and nature of king-conquerors because they are the most powerful among the people, so they have everything they want and it would seem this should curb their desires but still try to take more and more; their contradiction is between the tense vigor and devaluation of their acquisition. “Even sovereigns great whose wealth and power are the wonder of the day/Feel greed and envy stir their breasts for realms that others sway. /They crave and strive for more and more, and their impassioned lust/Is for that earth wherein they’re doomed to mingle with its dust.” The polar contradictory is an aspiration of noble kings to keep their name alive by caring for the welfare of their own land and people, and the outcome of this aspiration is that this name will disappear forever when the world dies. These antitheses give rise to a larger antithesis – two types of kings, complete antipodes (essentially good and evil) of each other. The only thing they have in common is that both of them will be ultimately absorbed into non-existence. The basic principle of Baratashvili’s artistic thinking – polarization and antithetism is also clearly expressed in the poem “Rad kvedri kacsa” (Why do you reproach man.). It is completely and transparently built on antithesis. Generally, the abundance of antitheses in Baratashvili’s poetry is organically connected with his intellectualism, analytical nature – antitheses for the poet represent the instruments for intellectual poetic contemplation and cognition of the world. This particularly applies to a number of works, including the poem “Rad kvedri kacsa”, which is totally based on the intellectual contemplation, emotionally-figurative judgment, and in which the opposite phenomenon – the flesh and the spiritual beauty, and therefore, the double love is clearly divided from each other and is explained through poetic formulas. “Beauty is the gift of mortals, and like a flower it quickly fades away” … The poet-romanticist highlights the divine nature of the beauty. If the poem “Rad kvedri kacsa” there are opposed two kinds of beauty and love, in the poem “The Orphaned Soul” two kinds of “orphanage” are opposed to each other. These two kinds of “orphanage” are clearly different from each other, on the one hand, there is usual and familiar, not too difficult to move on phenomenon, and, on the other hand, the hidden, tragic, and extraordinary phenomenon. “Let no one speak of the woes of the orphan/ Let no one complain of his lack of kin. /Pitiful only are the orphaned in soul. / It is hard to find the peer he has lost./The heart that loses friends or relatives,/ Will just as quickly find a replacement,/ But the soul, once orphaned ,/Accursed, eternally endures disconsolate!” Antithesis serves to romanticize the figure of a lonely man, isolate him from the mass of people, trivial way of life, the monotone background of standard human lot. The “orphaned soul” is a chosen soul, especially sensual, sensitive nature. This is a clear and specific expression of the romantic cult of spiritual aristocracy. This cult finds even more impressive expression in the poem “Merani”. There is a well-expressed antithesis of liberation and fate which is personified in polarized symbols – on the one hand, Merani and, on the other hand, the ominous “black raven”. The confrontation between these forces and their expressing is absolute. But the alternative of two kinds of deaths is of even more conceptual importance. “In foreign lands thou lay me low, not where my father’s sleep; / Nor shed thou tears nor grieve, my love, nor over my body weep; /Ravens grim will dig my grave and whirlwinds wind a shroud /There, on desert plains where winds will howl in wailings loud. / Nolover’s tears but dew divine will moist my bed of gloom;/ No dirge but vultures’ shrieks will sound above my lowly tomb.” The death in the homeland, the right to be buried in ancestral crypt, the mourning by relatives is contrasting with the death in a strange, uninhabited and desperate environment, between hostile and aggressive natural disasters. Death in such an environment is romantically maximized, absolute death; this is a triumph of death. Somewhat delayed, mitigated by customary traditional practices death is replaced by unusually brutal death, which, unlike the usual one, predicts complete disappearance of a man from the world – no one is a witness, sympathizer or appreciator of his heroic death. As a result of death in a foreign land and in solitude, there remains no trace of a man in this world. However, in the poem there is one more antithesis of crucial importance – the triumph of death, man’s total annihilation is confronted and dispelled by joining the lyrical hero with the infinity, the attainment of immortality through sacrifice, which opens up an infinite perspective of future freedom and in the future, establishes freedom not destructed by fate, death. By the obtained communion with such future, the hero of the “Merani” becomes essentially fearless to death, transience: he will be an integral part in the permanent process of human world – in the struggle for freedom and thus, he elevates over the transience, death, which previously seemed to celebrate a triumphant victory. As is seen, in Baratashvili’s poetry the central phenomena of human existence are viewed and displayed in the opposition or antithesis – there are two kinds of beauty, love, “orphanage”, power (kingship), death. By using antithesis Baratashvili separates from each other the usual and unusual, lowered and elevated, universal and mass, and accessible only to spiritual aristocracy. The antitheses single out and set Baratashvili’s values in a hierarchical order and all that is not of value to him, things and phenomena perceived by Baratashvili are sorted out with a solid system of values. In Baratashvili’s poetry more interesting examples of antithesis can be found, and substantial part of them is thoroughly regarded in this paper.
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The article is an attempt, based on comparative approach, to identify the typological and genetic proximity of the poetry and worldview between the Georgian Romantic Poet Nikoloz Baratashvili (1817-1845) along with the perspectives and poetical paradigms of German romanticism. The following similarities in the point of view as well as poetical cognition has been determined after a thorough analysis: 1. Division of the existence as visible and invisible worlds, thus as empirical (emotional) and transcendental (receptive, supernatural) worlds; 2. The a prior synthesis of these two worlds, or their radical confrontation and the apparent impossibility of synthesis, which is apparent in both German Romanticism and Baratashvili’s lyrics (this tragic situation is coined by Hegel as “tragic consciousness”); 3. Encouragement of individual subject/subjectivity and outlining its universal andunique nature; 4. Understanding persistence (Sehnsucht) as the principle of existence, which is apermanent condition” “the unconquerable feeling of persistence” (“das Gefühl einer unbefridigten Sehnsucht”) (Friedrich Schleiermacher); 5. Understanding human as a consciously persistent being;6. Understanding human as a transcendental being, striving to achieve the metaemotional, invisible reality; 7. The principle of religion: religion as a means of restoring the lost transcendence and a prior seen as a process re-connection. Within the frameworks of these ontological and anthropological positions the following features can be seen in the Romantic Heroes created by Baratashvili, which can be generalized and adjusted to German Romantic Heroes as well: 1. The full readiness for reflection, self-perception, self-understanding as well asthe irrational forces of spiritual cognition: the will of imagination (Einbildungskraft), feeling/passion (Gefühl), observation (Anschauen); Thus, in the lyrics accent is made on such spiritual organs which are vital for spiritual/mystical perception, upon which “Magical Idealism”, “Romanticisation” is based and further developed – Heart/Soul/Mind (Herz/ Seele/Gemüt), 2. “Romantic” Protagonist is always capable of “Romanticisation”, thus has the cognitive “method” of “Romantic Irony” 3. Readiness for transcendence, and aspiration (Sehnsucht);4. Longing for nature (The Formula by Novalis Me = No-Me/ Ich = Nicht-Ich), because a “Romantic” hero a prior sees Nature as an expression of Paradise in this word, and a pre-requisit or methodological space , where Romanticism should emerge, 5. The primacy of individual subjectivity, meaning considering the experiencegained though one’s personality and personal cognition superior to objective reality (Fichtean approach), which simultaneously (the primacy of subjectivity) indicates the universal-cosmic feeling in one’s own essence; the aim of this is to establish in one’s self “absolute me”, 6. Fullness with “tragic consciousness” (“das tragische Bewusstsein”) 7. Heroic Pessimism (Comparison “Hymns to the Night” by Novalis and “Merani”by Baratashvili); 8. Pathos of Distance – a prior rivalry and differentiation from the Philistine-Civilexistence, the Philistine-Civil society and their conscious. The belief that the Poetry by Nikoloz Baratashvili is spontaneously created (by the inspiration of a Muse, etc.) and the verses are mechanically arranged without any special concept can be regarded wrong, as the poetry is based on a fully understandable viewpoint and a united structural concept, due to which it establishes as a unifed poetical textwhere each verse can be regarded as a “chapter”. There are several reasons on which thishypothesis is based. Like the structure of the musical symphony, not only the masterpiece “Merani” is based on a counterpoint principle, which was highlighted by M. Gogiberidze (Essay “The Aesthetic-Entiphaitic Analysis of Merani by Nikoloz Baratashvili”), but the whole poetry by Batarashvili is created on a counterpoint principle creating a plot structure uniting the different verses and incorporating them in one whole text, namely in Baratashvili’s verses the opposites are always apparent, the increasing and decreasing perspectives anddiscourses – the tragic melancholy and the Dionysian transcendentalism, the feeling of vanity and deep philosophical belief. They are in constant movement and the alteration of the opposing forces creates a deeper, more tragic, developed and triumphant line. The duel or dialogue of opposing discourses are culminated in “Merani”, where the dualism is being overcome, and the plot node opened. Program like verses appear in the romantic lyric by Nikoloz Baratashvili such as “Napoleon” and “I bless my birthday”. Existence of such verses points out that each poetical example is united under one conceptual idea and thus one huge text is being established. This means, that each verse by Baratashvili is a part of the developing plot of thewhole text, which separately can be regarded as “chapters” of the one united text. The verses by Baratashvili are structurally integrated and created as one whole lyrical text due to the lyrical hero, always appearing in various poems and always sharing one and the same point of view as well as temperament. The lyrical hero in every verse by one and the same intensity shows his rebellious perspective and ethic positions. The emotional attitudes are repetitive as well: on the one hand tragic and melancholic and on the other hand transcendental.In the verses by Nikoloz Baratashvili the usage of one and the same repetitive lexical units somewhat establishes the poetical “terminology” of the poet (“dew”, “shining”, “spatial”, heavenly”, “sky”, “light”, “soul”, “feeling”, “heart”, etc.), which is also outlined by Revaz Siradze in an essay called “The Literary and Aesthetic belief of Nikoloz Baratashvili”. This also enables each of the lyric text to be structurally united and incorporated in one integrated text.
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In this work we analyze the symbolic representation of the dynamics of power in the complete poetry of Rosario Castellanos, one of the most important contemporary Mexican writers. It is studied how Rosario Castellanos links the effects of power networks with a dimension of metaphysical evil and deals with the liberating ritual process that the writer constructs in her life and in her work in order to approach self-affirmation.
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In this paper, an attempt was made to elaborate on the aesthetical and epistemological aspects of Vladimir Martinovski’s poetry from the point of view of the symbolism of "water" and the aesthetic category of "sublime". The main goal of this approach is to show how the terms "water" and "sublime" are manifested in Martinovski’s poetic works, with particular reference to his haiku poems in which a specific east-west view of the relation between man and nature is manifested. On the other hand, to experience a certain enlightening unity with the world, and to apply this experience in a form of successful haiku, is nothing but an expression of momentary enlightenment; an epiphany with which we perceive our own lives and the life in general. These Zen values embodied in the haiku poems of Vladimir Martinovski, as a kind of an admirable satori, can be traced in his subsequent books, which, even when they are not genre-bound to the East, carry within themselves the simplicity and unexpectedness of the eastern world view bound to beauty and sublime, very close to the author’s insights.
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The paper "The Status of Slam Poetry and Slam Poets in Macedonia" summarizes the history of the slam cultural scene in Macedonia – its beginning, progress and expansion. It provides an insight of the slam’s dynamics as a cultural scene, its characteristics as both literary and performing art, as well as the insight of the rules and regulations of the slam contests, both worldwide and nationally. The paper emphasizes the discussion of the status slam enjoys in Macedonia. It concludes that the official literary criticism has not directed its attention towards slam yet and invites it to do so.
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The paper focused on Gheorghe Apetroae’s poetry expands upon the consideration that the poetic space created by the poet can be related to Bachelard’s complete metaphysics of the conscience and the unconscious. His contributions have been analyzed as representations of an integrative vision where the lucid constructions and the unconscious ones doubled by the subtlety of his imagination suggest the oscillations and the constant metamorphosis of the poet who is animated by the will to speak about the complex spiritual history of mankind.
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In the annuals of the Pedagogic-Theological Institute in Sibiu for the years 1899 and 1900, professor Daniil Popovici Barcianu published several previously unknown rhymed productions, which he identified as juvenilia of the Sibiu-based lawyer and writer Vasile Aaron (1780-1821). These writings had been found among the manuscripts left behind by professor Barcianu’s father, Sava Popovici Barcianu, scholar, priest in Răşinari and counsellor of the Orthodox Consistorium in Sibiu. The copy pertaining to the clergyman in Răşinari included eight pieces of text, six of which were mythological writings, adaptations after Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Barcianu only published five of these legends, and even the published ones remained available to a very limited readership. Aaron’s arrangements after Ovid prove once more the attachment shown by the scholars of that time for the „ancestral” Latin literature and are also a perfect example of the Enlightenment concept that states the intellectuals’ plight to work towards the moral edification of the common people. Standing evidence for this are the teachings accompanying each of the legends, where the author feels compelled to give his readership advice and guidance for life.
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Mimi Khalvati, born in Teheran, trained in Switzerland and London, where she also settled, is a living cultural proof that the Legend of Manole the Craftsman is circumscribed not only to the Romanian cultural background but also to a multicultural one. The similitude that exists between Mimi Khalvati’s poetry and the Legend of Manole the Craftsman derives from the idea of walling in the living heart and the soul in order to build up the genuine literature based on self-sacrifice, empathy and the transcending of the real by aspiring at the ideal. For our paper to acquire a critical support, Kelly's personal construct theory, Bachelard's poetics and sound symbolism have also closely been turned to good account.
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The present study addresses several delicate and disturbing issues of the editing and publishing of Shakespeare’s drama, based on the reconstruction of the plays from prompt books, as well as reliable or not quarto editions. While closer than ever to the desirability of a truly, most needed, critical edition, the versions of Shakespeare’s complete works differ significantly in also including or not several plays previously considered to have been apocryphal.
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