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Starting from the hypothesis that literature represents one of the active mechanisms of social and historical change and that the imagological images it offers have the potential to be written into cultural identity, the paper problematizes the (political-)ideological concept of narrative cultural identity. Having found an example in the contemporary literature of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the work points to the complexity of the relationship between literature and ideology in the process of re/defining, de/constructing, and maintaining cultural identity. The paper concludes that literature has the potential of generating and disseminating an (anti)ideologically based system of knowledge and values, whereby, in terms of its relationship to ideology, it occupies a dual position, becoming, on one hand, an ideal, Althusserian understood, ideological apparatus or a subversive mechanism of the dominant ideology, on the other side.
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Taking an interdisciplinary approach, this paper analyses power play, speech strategies, and speech impact in Harold Pinter’s one-act play Mountain Language (1988), in which prison officials exercise power over inmates and their visitors through various tactics of control and subjugation. The paper’s methodological framework of corpus analysis is founded upon the linguistic features of police speak in the English language (a hybrid genre of spoken language police officers use when interrogating suspects), which, we propose, permeates the discourse in Mountain Language. The paper first reflects on discourses on/of power as observed in literary theory, then examines discursive strategies in the play, to illustrate speech impact caused by “conduct-regulating persuasion” and linguistic features of verbal violence. It also reflects on the concept of the persuasive power of discourse, in terms of the impact it may have on the mindset and behaviour of the interlocutor(s).
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The article explores some of the major theoretical and critical tendencies that follow the problems surrounding autobiographical studies, as well as other genres of the life writing during the last decades. The study is based on those subject-specific arguments and objectives that are archetypal for life writing, namely self-knowledge and contextualizing in the world, and offers a short historical overview of the practices of examining personal identity, among which we find examples of life writing that are not meant to be published, but represent a way of self-confirmation for the subject. The study also raises the question of drawing the line of demarcation between autobiographical and pseudo-autobiographical writings – a question that is fundamental to the common use of terms like “autobiography”, as well as juxtaposing fiction and reality (or fiction and document). Focusing on the changeable nuances of the taxonomy itself and considering both the conceptualization and the concepts that researches like Lejeune, de Man, Starobinski, Gusdorf, Dubrovski, Abbott, Beaujour, and Maran use to denote life writing, the article formulates the archetypal paradoxes in defining intimacy, and delineates the difficulties that other studies face when dealing with life writing in general.
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The first scientific manuscripts of the 11th century present an image of the Heavens inherited from Greek and Arabian mythology where one can observe the first winged hybrids, but beginning with the 12th and 13th centuries they diversify proposing a collection inspired from various iconographic and stylistic sources inherited from Byzantine, Iranian, Turkish, Central Asia and Chinese spaces in either scientific or pseudo-scientific registers. The art of miniaure also offers, during several centuries a vision on the world surpassing the knowledge of the epoch. In this context, hybrids occupy an important place in as far as the chosmographic and poetic corpuses are concerned, even in the miraculous of religions. This paper focuses on the presentation of fallen angels – Harut and Marut – , on djinns and winged demons, on monstruous winged bestiary, among which mythical birds like anka and simurgh.
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Romanian lore describes știma as an archaic deity that dominates the aquatic stability of flowing waters, such a creature being ascribed to every body of water. It has the power to overthrow this stability by conjuring either floods or severe droughts. “Știma” -s are described as women of unearthly beauty that take the shape of a fish (a huchen or redfish) when in water. This paper opens up for examination a somewhat neglected aspect of Romanian literature, i.e. literary works that take as their subject matter the nautical realm and the creatures that populate it, with V. Voiculescu’s “Lostrița” and M. Sadoveanu’s “Zâna lacului” as exemplification.Canonical nautical literature works, such as “Moby-Dick” (Melville, 1851) and “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” (Coleridge, 1798), focus on the sea or the ocean and the creatures, either real or mythical, that dwell underneath their surfaces or in the air. Romania has not been a maritime nation per se, hence the scarcity of nautical literary texts. The narratives discussed focus on naturally flowing watercourses and the creatures specific to them. The authors in question have no first-hand knowledge related to either sailing or seafaring, which is precisely why they both focus on the mythological creatures that populate the rivers of Romania. Their short stories also display strong elements of romance intertwined with powerful forms of fantasy and the supernatural.
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Considered an unclean animal in Jewish monotheism, the goat’s demonological history begins for the Jews with the establishment of the Yom Kippur holiday and ends with the Witches’ Sabbath, intentionally associated with the Jewish Sabbath. Beyond the Christian terrors projected as a shadow over the Jewish people, we are dealing with a continuity of an intention whose permanence had to be ensured. From a demonological point of view, evil had to survive by the constant imposition of an “inverted” monotheism, in what we might call the “understanding” of Good and Evil for this world. From the biblical verses: “Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats: one lot for the Lord and one lot for Azazel” (Leviticus, 16, 8), to the at least curious expression of Jesus: “Render to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s!” (Matthew 22, 21), it is only one step to ascertain the still active belief in monotheism, from the heart of Judaism of the first century. Thus, the presence of the impure in the goat of Azazel, will continue with the image of Caesar associated with the evil angel Samael or “God’s poison”, passing through the ages, in Christianity in the sabbatical rite of the witches. One constant remains: the constant antagonism against the Jewish people.
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Romanian folklore and its fundamental myths have aroused a real interest both for the researcher in the field of the history of religions and for the writer. Mircea Eliade found here a rich fund of magical-religious beliefs, untouched by the destructive effects of modern civilization. In the study “From Zalmoxis to Geghis-Han. Comparative studies on the religions and folklore of Dacia and Eastern Europe”, the Romanian scholar analyzed the etymology of the word “Dacian”, which he connects to a rite of warrior initiation, focused on the sacrificial rite of construction, the magico-cult significance of picking the blackthorn. Eliade’s fantastic prose is anchored on several themes and folklore motifs, among which we mention: Sânzienele (gentle fairies), the fairy-tale battle between good and evil, the magical-cult and destiny relationship between The Savior and The Star (The Forbidden Forest); “craftsman grandmother”, midwife and guardian of the threshold between the worlds, with her bear-daughters (La țigănci); Angel of Death, muse and “grace” (In the court of Dionysus, The three graces); the metamorph (the undead-woman, in Miss Christina; the undead, the Flyer, the kite, in the eyes of the profane, an Adamic being, purified from primordial sin, in the Edenic space of the island, in The Serpent; the giant, in A Big Man, etc.).In this paper we will focus on the metamorph and on how Mircea Eliade builds a true archetypal construct. The metamorph is the result of a metamorphosis, a process defined biologically (transformation of a lower creature into a higher one, passing through the natural stages of development), ontologically (essential transformation of an essential order, transition to another kind of being) and magically (transformation of a human being into the animal). The three types of metamorphosis can be hybridized, a process discovered in Mircea Eliade’s prose: in The Three Graces, the internal organs of the three patients undergo morphological and functional transformations into plants, women living half a year like flowers, young and beautiful, old and withered during the other half. In The Serpent, Andronic is a meta- and poly-morphus: the fairy-tale kite that abducts restless maidens and fierce wives, the satyr of Greek mythology, the male god of nature (Pan), the serpent, messenger of the dead and symbol of sexuality, fearsome undead, Primordial Adam, pure and untouched by any “lust”. All these stasis correspond to the imaginary projections of the other characters. The shapes of his transformations are regressive, finally reaching the purest ones: the Edenic man in harmony with nature, the virginal feminine and the creator. Miss Christina is not only the undead that haunts the mansion and excites the imagination of Mrs. Moscu’s guests, but the deity of the place, who ensures the connection of the sky, through its brightest star, Luceafărul, with the earth, the vast Bărăganu plain. The ignorant masculine (Egor) intervenes and destroys the magical connection between the hypostasis of the feminine (the old woman, the young woman, the child, the field), interposing the aggressive and destructive virility.
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In the Romanian fantastic fairy tales volumes “Fata răpită de Soare” (The Girl Kidnapped by the Sun), “Frumoasa Lumii” (The Beauty of the World) and “Inimă Putredă” (Rotten Heart), belonging to the I. Oprișan collection, several imaginary creatures from the earth, the air and the water can be identified. These creatures’ shapes and characteristics acquire fantastic dimensions and features, and their presence in the structure of the fairy tale marks a symbolic threshold. The human character in a crisis meets a numen being who mediates the passing from here to there, to the other realm. Thus, one passes from a familiar space to a contrasting, timeless one, representing a way towards self-knowledge. There will be confrontations in a fictional world with evil presences or benefic entities. Both in the ascendant and descendant spatial structures, the characteristics of the imaginary creatures usually get hyperbolic dimensions, thus increasing the suspence and emphasizing the dominant features.
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The paper aims to shed some light on the morphology of terrestrial and aerial life in Romanian folktales, by offering a list of creatures populating one realm or another, their description in accordance with a specific type of imaginary, the relationships established with humans. It will offer a comprehensive picture of the anthropomorphic elements that constitute the Romanian mythical fauna and express the fact that human mind has developed in relation with nature and magic. Therefore, I propose an insight into the folktale representation of the bulls (better known in Romanian folklore as aurochs), the horses and the birds which are found and depicted not only as mere animals or birds in the rich tradition of folktale, but as characters endowed with human speech, cognitive functions, their primary role in the folktale narrative being to aid the hero in his initiatory journey. Visual and symbolic features of the animals mentioned, as part of the Romanian mythical fauna, will be presented, with some aspects of their naming. Folktale names and the naming itself serve as a creative act helping us to understand the symbolic value imprinted by the community on these animal representations. Even though they have a zoomorphic appearance, they are not ruled only by the primary instincts of their species, they also have the ability to think and speak articulately. Moreover, all these types of animals belonging to the mythical fauna are relicts of the solar cult that developed in the area from which the folktales were collected. Thus, reference will be made to them as ‟fantastic animals”, in order to differentiate them from other types of characters, which only have the appearance of animals or can shape shift in animal bodies.
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Universal literature testifies the presence of animals since its beginnings, thus continuing oral traditions of all nations. Animal symbolism was attributed to human beings in different circumstances of life, in accordance with their personality and behavior. Liviu Rebreanu’s novel “Ciuleandra” (1927) comes with two characters, Puiu (Cub, in an approximate translation) and Ursu (Bear), and their struggle for a central place after the discovery of rivalry in love. The first one is rich and occupies an important social position, while the other earns everything by himself. While the name of the first character sends to frailness or childish behavior, the second one evokes the strongest animal of the Romanian forests, sometimes mocked at because of its massiveness and slowliness. The field of battle between the two characters is represented by their levels of conscience. Puiu Faranga crosses a series of concentric circles which should represent symbolic stages in his inner transformation on the way towards spiritual harmony. But in his psychological fight with Doctor Ursu, he is defeated for not knowing how to use his own powers. He will thus pass to another stage of his life, followed by the obsession of the folk dance “Ciuleandra”, imagined by Doctor Ursu as a scary vortex out of which one cannot escape
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The realist writer Liviu Rebreanu created admirable scenes and characters in his novels. Many of his writings open with the hora or the Sunday game, which become nodal points from which future events are foreshadowed. And not by chance, several novels end with the image of the chorus or dance specific to where the action takes place, completing the novel construction and highlighting the author's obsession with spherical structures. Hora is important because the whole village participates, and the general merriment. As in a movie, the novelist captures the smallest gestures and reactions of the participants, regardless of age, gender or social category. Followed closely in novels such as Ion, Răscoala or Ciuleandra, the village choir gradually presents the reaction of the fiddlers. The change of music drives the dance's madness through the rhythm imposed by them, through the subsequent requests of the players caught up in the frenzy of the game and who never want to stop the music to continue the game. No aspect of the chorus is neglected. The author highlights the variety of movements in both pair dances and collective choruses. The wildness of the dance triggers erotic impulses. The girls' thighs bubble, the girls' breasts touch the boys' chests, their arms wrap around the girls' middles, and the descriptions go on.In the novel Ciuleandra, hora becomes a dance of destiny because by participating in this dance, many find their soul mate. Hora and circle, in general, signify the solar disk and are specific symbols preserved through popular culture, dances, rituals, decorations, etc., demonstrated by archaeological discoveries. The serpent, and especially the ouroboros, which is circular and resembles the choruses or dances of the mentioned novels, both in form and manifestation, hibernates in the earth during the autumnal equinox. It returns to the surface at the spring equinox with the revival of vegetation, superimposing its biological cycle on top of the annual astronomical cycle of the sun. Because of this, the snake is considered an essential symbol of the cyclical regeneration of nature, life force, well-being and fertility. At the same time, it is viewed with fear because it is a poisonous animal that can produce death. Likewise, in the case of choruses, when the customs of their organization are violated, it foreshadows the unfolding of tragic events that are to come.
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The paper discusses how Andrei Codrescu creates images of the Devil and angels in his novels. Partially, he explains in his essays the inspiration for building the postmodern representation in his novel. Inspired by reality, Codrescu disguises characters and events in imaginary constructions of a sacred manifesting mainly in the American landscape. The underground becomes a place of sacredness as perceived by a sexually permissive society. At the same time, the angels appear incapable of understanding the posthuman world or are revolted against their mission on earth. Another category of angels is represented by transferring the name to women enslaved by a false diabolical and sexually corrupted Devil.
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The article briefly presents directions in the interpretation of folk tales and their connection to fairy tales as part of building (national) culture. The article’s focus is on the didactic function of both folk and fairy tales. Therefore, two comparisons show the similar function for both category of tales. A first comparison is for the category of fantastic tales, between the folk tale, “Voinicul florilor”, collected by I. Gr. Sbiera, and the fairy tale “Făt frumos din lacrimă”, by Mihai Eminescu. In the short-story-like tale category, the comparison is between the folk tale Stan Pățitul, collected by Ion Pop Reteganul, and the fairy tale “Dănilă Prepeleac”, by Ion Creangă.
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In an ambitious and bold study, Andrei Lazar re-evaluates the relation among literature, photography and cinema in the particular case of autobiography and discusses about theoretical and generic delimitations attached to it.
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Poem by Salahudin Dino Burdžović: “EL FATIHA ZA LEGITIMNI VOJNI CILJ”.
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Poetry by Faiz Softić: “UMRIJETI U SARAJEVU”, “MJESTO RANJAVANJA”, “PTICE U KUĆI”, “ORAČ”, “SPAVAJ, OGNJENE”, “U DOBA KORONE”, “BEZAZLENI JANJCI”.
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