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This paper is an attempt to present the parallels between Słowacki’s and Miciński’s dramatic works, with an emphasis on the domains that have not yet been compared. It juxtaposes the following aspects: spectacularity, theatricality, and the presence and functioning of meta-theatrical gags. The anticipatory character of Słowacki’s works with respect to the paradigms of modernist culture was noticed as early as by the end of the 19th century. In the 21st century, the search for similarities between these two authors’ texts is still justifiable, yet it neither implies abandoning the tropes outlined by the modernists, nor forces polemics with studies developed in the second part of the 20th century. Rather, it leads to a conclusion of blurring the borderline between the 19th century (tradition) and modernity (presentism). The perception of both writers through the prism of their dramatic works and theatrical gags highlights the parallels: the romantic (pre)modernist Słowacki and the modernist Miciński, the poets of the cultural, civilization, and historical turning points.
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The subject of the study is an analysis of two time-based perspectives (past and future) from a particular point of view, outlined in the work of Imre Madách, concerning the order of creation and the reflection on eternity. The drama, and consequently this analysis, focuses on two relationships (Adam – Eve and Adam – people) and two forms of action (self-aimed and aimed towards others). The article determines the degree of fidelity of the story to historical facts. The final conclussion drawn from the analysis is that Adam stands between Eve (representing hope) and Lucifer (personifying doubt). These are the two forces determining his nature. The tension, thus created, turns out to be the cause of ongoing changes in the history of mankind. The eternal is only hope as evidence of pursuit. It is a form of eternity that is available for Adam. Past and future belong to the time, which should remain his dimension, where he can act, instead of seeking a golden era that would last forever.
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Gustave Flaubert’s "Bouvard and Pécuchet" is an important voice in the 19th-century debate on civilization and the attitude that one should adopt to endow it with personal meaning. The move away from the traditional plot schemes was dictated by the author’s established formula of “Encyclopedism,” which was to help in the creation of a masterpiece that would comprise the essence of the times. Flaubert confronted his two 'cloportes' with the challenge of facing the past and its achievements and an attempt to systematize them in order to ruthlessly expose the unfeasibility of this task. The course of their quest was developed on the basis of free association and random readings, which on the one hand, we can interpret as evidence of one’s confusion over the vastness of the material, while on the other, it can be regarded as Flaubert’s proposal on how to approach reality. Only the freedom of associations, an individual approach, and equal treatment of all sources give a chance to reach one’s own views on truth.
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This article presents the studies and biographical essays of Konstancja Morawska (mostly from the 1870s and 1880s), a writer who is usually forgotten and who has been unjustly neglected in the studies of women’s writing, and especially women’s history. Locating herself outside the mainstream of emancipatory transformations, Morawska tackled issues regarded today as the most important literary perspective of history, and characteristic of the literary role of “women in the archive” (the term used by Inga Iwasiów). She consciously promoted in her texts a new model of historical narrative based on the respect for biographical materials (and especially autobiographical writings) and the reliance on the fragmented plots and the ambiguity of documentary findings. Moreover, she advocated the need for the recovery of the “female story.” Exposing the difficulty in reaching the historical truth and recovering the diffused image of the past constituted the most important features of her writing. She implemented these theoretical assumptions in her works consistently and with inventiveness. Notably, her female characters are, inter alia, famous women of the Romantic generation, such as Klaudia Potocka, Joanna Grudzińska, or the wife of the Grand Duke Constantine.
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The work concerns the image and symbolism of the Bialowieża Forest in "Ad Astra" by Eliza Orzeszkowa and Tadeusz Garbowski. The description analysis of Bialowieża wildlife, the interpretation of its given meaning and the definition of the functions concerning the Forest legends, make it possible to formulate the thesis of the symbolic nature of the Forest area. The writer uses the theme of the historic Forest to build a great metaphor of the state. Emphasizing the historical relationship of Poland and Lithuania, it defends its inseparability, which is the source of strength to fight against the invaders and of hope for the survival of both nations.
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The writer analyzes the changing perception of the mental and the material world by the main character. As the old man gradually loses his sight, he becomes more and more decrepit and lonely. However, it by no means removes his conviction of his own mission. It forms part of the national historical narrative describing the difficult relations between Poles and the invaders. It is also used to address a veteran’s expectations in relation to his own, individual history. A peculiar outcome of the old man’s mission would be the appearance of a comet in the sky, which would provide a preview of multifaceted changes.
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This paper is devoted to the interpretation of Bolesław Prus’s "Music Echoes". Notably, this has not been analyzed yet in the context of the musical erudition of the writer and aesthetic-teaching goals he set for music or the artists active in this field of art. The interpretative key of "Music Echoes", as hinted by the author’s inspiration, has become the wide, centuries-old cultural context evoked by the mythical figure of Orpheus. Another suggestion came from the composition of the text, which mimics the musical form of variations on a selected theme. The analysis revealed the applicability of motifs drawn from the mythological tradition for the diagnosis of the contemporary artistic and social environment, and for outlining problems faced by the recipients of postmodern art as well as its creators.
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The oneiric motifs in "The Połaniecki Family" are the journey of Połaniecki from the railway station to Krzemień, the night talk with Marynia at the court, and the day at Krzemień – somehow also unreal (dreamed-of). The atmosphere of the night trip is created by the feelings of the main hero, who is day dreaming, as well as the images of the sleep-immersed world. This oneiric atmosphere is peculiar to Krzemień – not only the court seems to be unreal, but also the pair of romantic heroes appears to be sleeping. The “return” of Połaniecki to Krzemień is created apparently as a visit to the oneiric house, as described by Gaston Bachelard. This visit to the childhood house uncovers the deepest, unrealized desires of Połaniecki. That is why the last part of the novel, reproducing night dreams in real life (according to the scheme described by Bachelard), shows the healing power of the roots as well as the experience of the archetypal power of the oneiric home.
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The aim of this paper is to discuss two previously unknown literary works which depict events preceding the death of two Karaims, Benyamin Turşu and Beraḫa Poyraz. Although laments of this type can be found in critical editions of Crimean Karaim mejumas, their contents and language have not yet been thoroughly examined. The vast majority of mejumas do not consist of original Karaim literature, therefore each work which can be determined as of purely Crimean Karaim provenance should be considered a valuable source of linguistic material.
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This article reviews the characteristics of terms used by the Mongols to express taboos concerning food and examines their food-related culture based on sources from the Mongolian Empire (Plano Carpini’s Historia Mongalorum, Marco Polo’s Il milione, Chinggis Khan’s Yeke Jasag, Rashīd adDīn’s Jāmiʿ al-tawārīkh, and the Yuan Dynasty’s 飮食須知 Yin shi xu zhi). The Mongols left behind fairly strict food-related taboos in the form of eating habits. To better understand Mongolia’s food-related taboo expressions, we have examined five mediaeval sources written in various languages in which diverse food taboos are recorded.
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Hebrew was the main language of the early modern Karaim culture. Nearly all Polish–Lithuanian Karaim scholars wrote poetry in Hebrew for various occasions celebrating the Karaim cycle of life: for Sabbaths and festivals, for weddings and circumcisions, or as eulogies for a fellow scholar. Their poems cover exegetical, philosophical, and mystical topics from a Karaim point of view and contain historical details about Karaim life in Eastern Europe. Karaim Hebrew poets followed the footsteps of earlier Karaite generations: Byzantine Karaite poetry, emulating the Andalusian standards of poetics and familiarised through shared literary sources, served as their main literary model.
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This paper deals with the transformations of Šalamun’s oeuvre in relation to the developments of philosophical platforms which he had been exposed to in the course of his creative life. They range from the first and second Wittgenstein, over French post-structuralism to object-oriented ontology and speculative realism. This exposure of course does not imply direct copying and reflections of the theory and philosophy on the one hand, and poetry on the other, but wishes to emphasize the comparative actions of all levels of the epistemological, linguistic, logical and political games that affect textual practices and their interchange. The transformation of Šalamun’s text is based on his outset from the reistic platform, and then directly registers the transformations of the folds and fractures within and between the epistemological platforms of which he was the contemporary, and with which he consequently interacted. In the second part of the paper, I bring forward propositions which may clarify the methods of construction and contemplation of Šalamun’s poetry, a glossary for a better understanding of his linguistic strategy and object-oriented ontology, as well as a possibility for the application of this ontology in politics and ethics. This rounds out his oeuvre in the direction of understanding the upshot of his style through his latest books, conclusively with his posthumously published book Andes (2016).
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The essence of the artistic interpretation of the "outer" (as an opposite to inner) experience is the process of turning facts and events, whether mundane or historical, into artistic images. All the variety of themes can be roughly classified as belonging to one of the three concentric circles: human being, society and the world. The specifics of interpretation of such trans-historical macro-themes are defined by the individuality of the author and the cultural paradigm he/she represents. The culturological-hermeneutic approach allows to take this context into consideration and thus more adequately evaluate a specific work of art and a certain tendencies that manifest themselves in it. The experience – whether personal or cultural – is one of the most immediate sources of the artistic creation. The concrete facts are interpreted by the author in accordance to the personal world outlook and to the world picture, typical for a certain cultural paradigm. It should be noted, that an author can be either more or less typical representative of such paradigm, or an agent of its shifting. The first of the transcultural themes is the representation of a human being. There are two main approaches to it. In the first case, we see a generalized form of a human being as opposed to other creatures, or as a representative of a certain group. In the first case author aimed at showing the unique personality. The "generic" depictions of human beings can be found in almost all ethnic cultures. Each of them developed a kind of a canon, that can be defined by two parameters: 1) what person (gender, age, race etc) is chosen as an object and 2) how they are depicted. In some cases, art goes ahead of the science. For example, in W. Shakespeare’s works we can see quite coherent ideas about psychosomatics. The XIX ct. literature investigated different aspects of the mind and body interaction. Such tendencies continue in the contemporary culture. So, the art has a function of an alternative cognitive instrument. The representation of a unique personality is the most clearly seen in such genres as portrait and biography. Any portrait is an interpretation of a character and life of a sitter. Sometimes it acquires a symbolical dimension, showing not only a person, but certain character type. Any person lives – and is depicted – in a social context. So, the second of the great transcultural themes is the human interrelations. Both choice of the subject and the manner of its depiction depends on the cultural paradigm. For example, in the Western art the theme of love is one of the most prominent. But in some cultures even the word, denoting this feeling was absent, which made the depiction of it impossible. An artist can make a generalized image of a social fact, or even the whole life of a society, taking role of a sociologist, philosopher and culturologist. It is well known, that some of the great writers coped with this task more successfully than the professional scholars. But at the same time, to become a work of art, any potentially interesting fact is to be completely reworked. In our times we see the fact of permutation as the merging of the real and the fictional, the "objective" life and the work of art. The results can be esthetically interesting, but the process itself is potentially destructive as it disorients the recipients in their social life. The third sphere of the artistic interpretation is the world as a whole. The most immediate universal context of a social life is the natural environment. The nature as a whole and its separate representatives were mythologized. For example, an animal could be seen as a microcosm. The whole universe was seen as a mesh of connections, linking all objects into the whole. For quite a long time the nature was not depicted of described explicitly. There was "too much" nature as it was, so the artists were more interested in human work. Only in the times of Proto-Renaissance the landscape picture appeared. Later, as the unspoiled nature receded, the artists became more interested in it. The Romantics exulted about the wild beauty of uninhabited places. So the author had a choice: either go and find the primeval nature, or stay and depict the "second nature" as the man-made environment. In the latter case the main object of depiction is a thing, or a combination of things. In the traditional society every object had constant symbolical meaning. In the contemporary art there are no meanings at all; every object becomes something different in a different context. One of the results of living in such a cultural space is the nostalgic feelings about the unspoiled unity of the world. It leads to the new approaches to the interrelations of the humanity with the universe, which no longer can be seen just as the passive environment of our activity. For example, in biology the theory of Gaia – the living Earth – has emerged. Modern art as well seeks the new ways of understanding and expressing the place of human in the universal context.
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The Ukrainian contemporary choral groups increasingly turn to use the scenic action elements within the context of the concert-academic choral performance. They virtuously combine the classical training of musicians with modern scenography, different methods of the newest performance in their creation of the choral scene-view based on the composition. Here is the first presentation of the scenic-performing incarnation by H. Segal "Dushe Moya" ("My soul") choral concert, for which the starting point is the criterion of conducting and directing interpretation of the musical and poetic material. The choral theatre, its types and components – that are the choral performance, the theatrical "mixed" choral concert, the choral theatricalization, the scenization – are the phenomena which are intensively disseminated in the modern Ukrainian choral art. Its manifestations are various and they depend on the artistic intentions of the personalities – the composers and performers, that treat the concert-choral genre as the principal representative of this newest musical theatre art. The masters searching is toward from traditions – that is the concert for choir with its theater potential – to the performances, where the theatrical symbol acts as a components of the score works. It all demonstrates the actuality and prospectivity of the phenomenon viewed in the current article for further development of national and global choral culture. The choral concert by H. Segal "Dushe moya" (2003) based on the poems of religious poet-monks (ХVІ century) from the collection "Virshi pokayanni" has found its original interpretation of unordinary choral sounding in connection with the strict canonicity of literary text. Such type of the choral music interpretation, considering the combining of modern music language and stylization with the theatrical creative vision basis, are supposed to be the relevant and novel. The concert "Dushe moya" could be difficult to classified completely as any genre subtype of the choral concert. Here is the multi genres synthesis, typical for the modern choral concert, is observed. There are no direct indications by possible theatricalization in the original Concert text. The way to the Concert theatricalization in the performing synthetic version is coming through the detailed composition analysis and dramaturgy of the musical text offered by the composer. It’s typical that the author herself calls the Concerts parts as "songs". It indicates the specific feature of genre interpretation that is represented in composition. The music vocabulary basis of the author’s language that inspires the scene-performing interpretation are represented by the tonal and technical, from the vocal and choral performance’ point of view, virtuosity and complicacy, the polyphonic uncovering techniques, the unity of musical and timbre-acoustic dramaturgy, the dialogical structure of genre, that is related with the prayer structure as the communication form, the spiritual energy, the thematic mentality principle, the commitment to reflect the vivid human feelings and spirits, emotionally reinforcement. The profound philosophical sense and theatrical spectacle of musical action is concealed behind the external complicacy. The semantic logic of "Dushe moya" potentially contains the extensive range of properly conducting and directorial interpretation, that is generalized in such term as "theatrical and choral explication". The composition of H. Segal "Dushe moya" is considered not only from the musical but also from theatrical point of view. The basic theme of the Concert is the fight for human soul, its purification for the sake of Divine deliverance and commitment of verity quest. The common principles of conducting-interpretive perception of the choral concert as a staged action, is implemented in technical and organizational score. This is the detailed directing part of the choral performance, that is integrated in the musical score itself in form of the proper notes for choral members, facial ensemble, ballet, decorators, illuminators, costume designers, face-makers, property masters, basically all the people involved in theatrical and choral performance. The creation of theatrical version for the choral concert depends on relevance of interpretive-creative basis that is chosen by the conductor-choirmaster and that is better – in cooperation with the composer and director. The other kind of circumstances connected with the objective factors that are the presence of the talented conductor, highly skilled staff, professional directing and scenography, the financial support means for performance. Depending on existence of the mentioned circumstances, the conductor-directing ideas are implemented, the staging version is created either in the most complete variant or in edited, simplified to the necessary minimum version. This method does not apply for inclusiveness but targets just the possible ways of choral concert staging through the example of particular composition. The offered author’s creative method for performance of staging version by choral concert of H. Segal "Dushe moya" is open for theatricalization from review of the following circumstances such as: absence of the definite genre model; basing on the choral music origin as the syncresis of singing and action; complicacy of musical-poetic context, which revealing demands the visual row imposition. Keeping the "high style" of the Concert, orienting on the impressiveness, the concert-choral composition of H. Segal shows the stable tendency for scenic representation’s accent that is neo-romantic but reveals itself in the extensive stylistic range.
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The sources of the Shakespearean plots are considered to be well-studied, especially since Kenneth Muir published The Sources of Shakespeare’s Plays. Still, it seems that the Bard also indirectly borrowed the ideas from the other corpus of texts. It is especially true about King Lear. It is well-known that for the main plot of his tragedy Shakespeare utilized the Chronicles by R. Holinshed, the play The True Chronicle History of King Lear and some other texts. But all these are just different variants of the same story, first written by Geoffrey of Monmouth in his History of Britain. This work was enormously popular and became one of the books that shaped the European culture. Some passages in his tragedy suggest that Shakespeare was acquainted with this "original" story. For example, it is quite possible to trace the characters of Edgar and Edmund to Cordelia’s nephews, not only to the two princes in Sidney’s Arcadia, as it is usually stated. Thus the "two plots" of Shakespearean King Lear can be viewed as inseparable parts of one complex but completely logical fabula. Geoffrey’s text belongs to the class of pseudo-histories, that combine historical facts with both myths and fantasy. His sources are chiefly unknown; but being Welsh by origin he had an access to fragments of very ancient Celtic tradition. It was Geoffrey of Monmouth who connected the folk-tale about the father and his three daughters with the name of the Celtic sea-deity Llyr or Ler. In another text this sea-god was mentioned as the father of Creiddiladd, whose story is told in Culhwch ac Olwen, one of the tales of the Mabinogion. The story itself belongs to the lovetriangle class, very common in the British tradition. But it unique in the clarity of representation of the mythologeme of the War of the Seasons / War of the Middle-world and Otherworld. Shakespeare echoes the myth in such motifs as Cordelia’s two suitors; the rivalry of the "northern" and the "southern" dukes; the opposition of the "lawful" and "unlawful" brother; and the final war of the two "superpowers". In the tragedy we can see all the cosmological implications, present in Culhwch ac Olwen, but absent in the numerous pre-Shakespearean tales of the old king and his daughters. There are quite numerous other parallels that suggest Shakespeare’s acquaintance with the tales of Mabinogion. Of course the extent of this knowledge is difficult to judge. One more possible source of the tragedy is Geoffrey’s Latin poem Vita Merlini. It is radically different from the History, and much less known. But it is there we can find the theme absent in the "official" sources, but all important for Shakespearean King Lear – the druidic frenzy of the self-exiled king. The protagonist of Geoffrey’s story is Merlin, a very complicated part-mythological and part-historical character, which came to be seen as one of the embodiments of Britain itself. Vita Merlini can be compared with Shakespearean plays in its cosmological character: it presents all manifestations of the terrestrial world. Besides this, there are some motifs that definitely parallel King Lear: 1) a king’s loss of common reason compensated by mystical wisdom; 2) privations the hero voluntarily suffers; 3) his refusal to return to people; 4) the cure of the madness by means of music and the consequent highly emotional reunion with the female relative(s); 5) king’s condemnation of avarice; 6) his meeting with one more inspired madman; 7) making of the "community of the wise" alternative to the profane world. All this is too much for a coincidence. It seems that Shakespeare knew either Vita Merlini or some retelling of the poem, and was attracted by its problematic. Thus King Lear becomes comparable with Merlin as a key figure of the British mythos. The well-known main source of King Lear’s "subplot" is Sir Philip Sidney’s Arcadia. But it is not the only text that could have inspired the author. Besides the already mentioned connections of Gloucester’s sons and Cordelia’s nephews, there are some parallels with the Mabinogion, including two separate mentions of the city of Gloucester in extremely interesting mythological contexts. One of these cases takes place in the story of Peredur, which (along with the tale of Ywain and some other romances) has an episode of turning of an almost-perfect knight into a mad semianimal. It is very close to Edgar’s assuming the role of an "unaccomodated man". Playing this part, he memorably mentions the hawthorn – the sacred plant, associated with Creiddiladd. We perceive that King Lear’s two seemingly heterogeneous plots, constantly refer to the British mythological and folklore tradition that unites them and brings the whole play into a corresponding context without which all the richness of the text can’t be appreciated. It can be concluded that Shakespeare’s combining the two separate plots was not arbitrary. Logically only together they form a complete story. Mythologically they explore the principles of being the "British man" and the existence of humankind in general. In the folklore studies it is well-known that a potent image can draw to itself other characters and stories. For Shakespeare Lear became just such a centric image. It imbibed so many archetypes that reached the level of an authentic mytho-epic tradition. All the characters and situations in the tragedy remain individual and alive, but at the same time they go beyond the mundane and reach the mythical. That’s why it is quite possible to compare Lear simultaneously with King Arthur and Merlin, Cordelia – with Creiddiladd, Edgar – with Perceval and so on. It doesn’t mean that Shakespeare imitated myth. He made it anew.
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The article researches the influence of G. Ibsen’s "new drama" on Ya. Mamontov’s dramaturgy. Comparing on the conceptional level the play by G. Ibsen "Solnes the builder" with that one by Ya. Mamontov under the title "Over the abyss" the author convincingly outlines the motives and the problems in the dramaturgy of both writers.
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