European Literature Research Articles

Definition of Legal Norms by Administrative Court

The court system is independent and it is exercised by the Constitutional Court of Georgia and the General Courts of Georgia.[1] As it is well known, the function of the court is to decide the disputed issue in favor of the side towards which the scales of law and justice lean, and not only to control the relevant systems, but also to promote their formation and development[2]. Court independence is a prerequisite for the fundamental guarantee of the rule of law and due process. A judge must inspire public confidence in the independence, fairness and impartiality of the law.[3] The purpose of this article is to determine the peculiarity of the interpretation of the administrative norm by the court. A parallel will be made with the approaches established in the European experience and literature. [1] Constitution of Georgia, Art. 59. [2] Bator M., What is wrong with Supreme Court, University of Pittsburgh Law Review, Vol. 51, Issue 3, 1990, 697. [3] Ethics of Judge <http://hcoj.gov.ge/ka/> [06.08.2023].

Dekonstrukcja mitów romantycznych w literaturze słoweńskiej po France Prešernie

The main aim of this article is to present the methods in which Slovenian myths of Romantic provenience, present in France Prešeren’s poetry, are deconstructed since the fifties of nineteenth century. Prešeren (1800−1849) is regarded as the national poet, who enabled the Slovenian community and competed with the canon of European literature. Parallelly to the process of his canonization occurred the reverse of it, The Anxiety of Influence, described by Harold Bloom. Poets Simon Jenko (1835−1869) and Oton Župančič (1878−1949) had been deconstructing the myths of Romantic love, mythical conception of poetry, poets and nationin the period of realism and modernism, as well as the poet Veno Taufer in the period of neo-avantgarde (1933−). The intertextual analysis of their poems shows several ways of contesting the influence of the main topics and aesthetic codes from Prešeren’s poetry, determined by the role of poetry in Slovenian culture, described in the late sixties of twentieth century as Prešeren structure.

Pre-Reformation and Reformation Influences on the Development of European Literary Languages

The pre-Reformation and Reformation social and religious movements contributed to the development of biblical and religious as well as journalistic and polemical writings, which had a significantly positive impact on the increase in functional efficiency and standardisation of European languages. Translations of The Bible played a special role in the development of European languages as texts with the highest linguistic prestige. Not only did Luther’s Bible (1522–1534) contribute to the unification of German literary language, but its 16th-century translations had an outstanding influence on the development of Dutch and the Scandinavian languages, i.e. Danish, Swedish and Icelandic. The language of Protestant translations of The Bible was regarded in the 16th–17th centuries in France and England as a model of stylistic excellence. Prior to the 16th century, there were fairly rich Celtic writings (Irish, Scottish, Welsh and Cornish), but they were undoubtedly greatly enriched between the second half of the 16th century and the first quarter of the 19th century by Protestant translations of The Bible and other religious texts. The translation work by the Czech brothers (ideological supporters of the Reformation) – Blahoslav’s New Testament (1564) and the Kralice Bible (1579–1593) – is a symbol of the linguistic prowess of the 16th-century Czech language as well as the basis for its rebirth in the 19th century. The linguistic consciousness of the Slovaks was long influenced by the Kralice Bible. Hungarian and Polish Reformation translations of The Bible enriched the history of these languages considerably. A number of European languages owe their actual literary beginnings to the Reformation: Finnish and Estonian (Finnish languages), Latvian and Lithuanian (Baltic languages), Upper Lusatian, Lower Lusatian and Slovene (Slavonic languages). In Croatia, prints financed by Reformation supporters appeared in the 16th century. The Serbian Orthodox New Testament (1847) by Karadžić and The Old Testament (1868) by Daničić were published by the Protestant publishing house of the British Bible Society in London, which also published a translation of the Bulgarian Catholic Slaveykov Bible (1871).

Georgian Literature before the Weltliteratur

The history of Georgian writing starts much earlier than when Goethe introduced the term “Weltliteratur.” It starts from the era of Christianity from the 4th century. Due to the fast spread of Christianity in the Early Medieval period, Georgia was already included in the European net of Christian writing. All branches of Christian spiritual literature were presented. Georgian culture and literature naturally were developing in the frame of the Western European tradition. The period of the 11th-12th centuries was a Golden Era for Georgia, and the heyday of fame for Georgian culture and literature as well. Precisely during this period, “The Knight in the Panther’s Skin” was created by Shota Rustaveli. Apart from its aesthetic, philosophical, and worldview depth, it is a first text in Georgian literature as well as in European literature which reflects the clashing of two huge universes in Georgian culture—the West and the East. The Western principles are revealed in the Christian worldview of the text, in the way of thinking of the author and in its genre; however, the 12th century is already a period of strengthening of the influence of Eastern culture and literature in the European part of the Caucasus, and Rustaveli regards with obvious favor the Oriental poetic motifs. Unfortunately, at this stage of European literary history, Georgian literature was separated from the Western European literary process due to tragic political events. As for literature, it was a period of almost three centuries of silence. After the fall of Constantinople, Georgian literature had to move closer to the Eastern area as an historically offered alternative. From the 17th century, the process of the returning of Georgian political and cultural life back within the European frame had been started. Genuine Georgian writers were able to tie Georgian literature to the cultural models of European Classicism and the Enlightenment.

Family as a System in Crisis in Christoph Ransmayr’s Odysseus, Verbrecher. Schauspiel einer Heimkehr and Marina Carr’s Phaedra Backwards

As a part of the UIP-2020-02-3695 Analysis of Systems in Crisis and of New Consciousness in 21st Century Literature installation research project, which is being carried out at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Osijek and is financed by the Croatian Science Foundation (https://askins21.ffos.hr/english/),1 this paper focuses on two contemporary plays of Western European literature: Odysseus, Verbrecher. Schauspiel einer Heimkehr (2010), written by the Austrian author Christoph Ransmayr, and Phaedra Backwards (2011), by the Irish playwright Marina Carr. In both plays, the authors use the original myths of Odysseus and Phaedra, reimagining them in a contemporary context in order to show the universality of their experiences, but above all to comment on the society and especially the family as a system marked by crises and conflicts instead of heroic deeds. In this light, the analysis focuses on the text and context within which the state of society and the family are explored. The research is primarily based on the sociological reflections on the system, crisis, and family, drawing on the theoretical approach of the German sociological theorist Niklas Luhmann and focusing on society and social systems. In the selected plays, the family as a specific type of system is examined as well as its dynamics in relation to social changes. In addition to the examination of thematic, compositional, and genre features of the plays, the comparative analysis will reveal their differences and similarities regarding several aspects: the self-concept in context of the family as well as the causes, manifestations, and consequences of the crisis. In other words, its effect on thecharacters and their transformations will be explored.

New Criminological Literature in Europe

New Criminological Literature in Europe

Dmytro Ivanovych Kachenovskyi – a legal scholar, educator and teacher (based on the materials of Kharkiv Law Society)

The article examines the scientific and pedagogical activities of the legal scholar, professor of Kharkiv University Dmytro Ivanovych Kachenovskyi (1827–1872). The researcher pioneered the national legal education and had a significant impact on its development. The study of the creative work of the mid-nineteenth century international law expert became relevant in the early twentieth century. In 1903, Kharkiv Law Society held a solemn meeting on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of Dmytro Kachenovskyi’s death. Following the meeting, a collection of materials in memory of Dmytro Kachenovskyi was published. These materials are a valuable historical source that contain special information and contribute to a deeper study of the scientist’s scientific heritage. The study of the source expands the existing documentary base. The purpose of the study is to study and analyse the materials of the collection published by the Kharkiv Law Society in honour of Professor Kachenovskyi.
 The analysis of memoirs helps to reconstruct the key episodes of a scientist's life in more detail, to form an idea of his personality, to explore the directions of his scientific research, views on topical social issues, attitude to teaching, relationships with colleagues, and influence on students.
 It has been proved that the distinctive features of the scientist were humanistic guidelines, breadth of outlook, and diversity of scientific interests. His natural abilities, academic education, developed intellect, and ability to work determined his personality. His knowledge of foreign languages, foreign internships, personal contacts with foreign colleagues, and the study of European scientific literature in the original allows us to characterise him as a typical representative of the “inner West” who saw his mission in spreading education and the latest scientific achievements. His lectures, which were characterised by a comprehensive approach to teaching, brought up a generation of public and judicial figures of the era of great reforms.

Naturalistic inquiries of M. Bashkirtseva as an artist: Synthesis of literature and art

Relevance. Maria Bashkirtseva�s multifaceted approach as an artist and memoirist was significant in the formation of the French naturalism movement. Her integration of literary influences, particularly from Dostoevsky, with her artistic expression provides a unique perspective on the interaction between literature and painting in the late 19th century.Purpose. This study aims to explore Bashkirtseva�s role in developing naturalism through her artwork and diaries, emphasizing her innovative synthesis of literary and artistic elements.Methodology. A comprehensive analysis of Bashkirtseva�s paintings, diaries, and personal letters was conducted to trace her artistic evolution and literary influences. The study also examines critical receptions and scholarly works on her contribution to art and literature, alongside a detailed examination of her personal educational background.Results. The research highlights several key periods in Bashkirtseva�s career where her artistic direction significantly intersected with literary themes, particularly those of naturalism. Her work not only reflects her personal experiences and societal observations but also illustrates a deliberate blending of narrative depth with visual realism.Conclusions. Bashkirtseva�s contributions were instrumental in shaping the narrative and aesthetic dimensions of French naturalism. Her ability to infuse literary naturalism into her visual art marks her as a pivotal figure in the integration of these cultural domains. The study reaffirms her status as a crucial link in understanding the evolution of modern European art and literature.

The phenomenon of the New Right in European and Latin American narrative literature

The workshop “The phenomenon of the New Right in European and Latin American narrative literature: New perpetrators – old patterns of thinking?” organised by Dr. Lena Seauve took place on 13 October 2023 at the Institute for Latin American Studies (Lateinamerika-Institut) of the Freie Universität Berlin (Boltzmannstraße 1, 14195 Berlin). Far-right ideology has transcended national boundaries and now holds a global presence. This perspective served as the focal point for the workshop, providing a basis to examine the movement on a global scale. The workshop aimed to showcase this diverse phenomenon, connecting perspectives from European nations like France, Italy, and the United Kingdom, as well as South American countries, including Brazil, Argentina, and Chile. Its goal was to highlight commonalities among these nations and their literary landscapes, exploring figures, texts, and modes of thought related to the far-right ideology.

Female Desire in the Epistolary Novels of South Slavic Women Writers (Hanka by Slovene Croat Writer Zofka Kveder and Jedno dopisivanje by Serbian writer Julka Chlapec-Đorđević)

This paper, which deals with Central European literature in the comparative perspective, contains an analysis of the representation of intimacy and love (female desire) in the epistolary novels Hanka (1918) written by the Slovene Croat writer and feminist Zofka Kveder (1878-1926) and Jedno dopisivanje. Fragmenti romana (A Correspondence. Fragments of a Novel, 1932) by the Serbian writer and feminist Julka Chlapec-Đorđević (1882-1969). Both of these South Slavic women writers and feminists were cultural nomads with multiple linguistic identities, part of the Habsburgian myth, and they lived for a time in Prague, then an important city of European modernism and the avant-garde. In the novels, they created a picture of a new woman and her intimate world, focusing on the motifs of love and extramarital affairs. In the novel Hanka, readers follow the thematization of the new independent woman and her intimacy in the chaos of the apocalypse of the First World War, focusing on representations of the idealized love of a woman for a man and a woman’s suppressed desire. Julka Chlapec-Đorđević inherited the legacy of Zofka Kveder in Prague, and her novel Jedno dopisivanje is an homage to Kveder’s artistic achievements. The writer depicts gender intimacy in fictitious letters between Marija Prohasková from Prague and her lover Oton Šrepan, a doctor from Slovenia. In both case studies, the representation of the secret love affair and writer´s understanding of intimacy and romantic love as the key concepts of modernity will be examined.

JENS PETER JAKOBSEN'S NOVELLA “MOGENS” TRANSLATED BY OLHA KOBYLIANSKA: TEXT AND CONTEXTS

The problem of Olha Kobylianska’s interrelationship with European literature has been in the field of researchers’ vision since the Ukrainian author’s appearance in literature. The emergence of new facts related to this problem can accentuate the writer’s conscious focus on mastering the cultural experience of other literatures. O. Kobylianska often emphasized such moments in her own works, naming the authors that influenced her. Among them is the Danish writer Jens Peter Jacobsen. Kobylianska translated Jacobsen’s short story “There Should Have Been Roses” and wrote her original work — a prose poetry “Roses”, containing some allusions and coincidences pointing to the Danish writer’s work. However, this was not the only point connecting the literary worlds of J. P. Yacobsen and O. Kobylianska.
 The other fact of such creative ‘convergence’, unknown until now, is the Ukrainian translation of J. P. Jacobsen’s novella “Mogens” (the unfinished autograph translation is kept in the Manuscript Collections and Textual Studies Department of the Institute of Literature in the fund of Olha Kobylianska under the name “Morene” and with the note “Olha Kobylianska. Unfinished story” (DM ІL, fund 14, folder 1338). The present paper offers attribution of it, including the clarified title and approximate date. The Ukrainian text of the story has been prepared for publication. The inclusion of the incomplete Ukrainian translation of J. P. Jacobsen’s novella into scholarly discourse provides new insights for assessing peculiarities and stylistic parameters of O. Kobylianska’s prose of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This fact also enhances our understanding of the historical connections between Ukrainian and European literatures, especially Danish literature. The research of O. Kobylianska and J. P. Jacobsen’s works is based on the principles of textual studies, historical-genetic approach, comparative studies, and analytical anthropology.

Time in the Twelfth Century

Guest editors Sarah Bowden, Lea Braun and George Younge introduce Issue No. 10 of Interfaces: A Journal of Medieval European Literatures, dedicated to the theme of 'Time in the Twelfth Century,' and offer a general overview of the matter and contents of the contributions.

Response to the article “Olaus Sirman runojen vertailevaa luentaa” [The comparative interpretation of Olaus Sirma’s poems] (SUSA 97, 2019)

The article communicates a possible interpretation of Olaus Sirma's pastoral poem / love song Morse faurog as a part of the European baroque literature. The folklore features of the poem--the so called rhyme anticipation and the irregularity of the metre and the rhythm--may be attributed to the literature of the baroque period as well, and the poem doesn't diverge from the baroque literary conventions. The generic inconsistency, expressed by a hesitation of the lyrical subject, was perhaps intended as a signal for the reader to understand the pastoral as an anagoge.

Care and Afterward: On Heidegger, Kafka, and Blanchot

Taking as its starting point Heidegger’s discussion in Being and Time (1927) of the Latin poet Hygenius’s fable about the formation of humankind by Cura, “Care,” this article opens the philosopher’s concept of care to a dialogue with literature. If Hygenius’s fable is, in Heidegger’s terms, a “pre-ontological testimony” to Dasein’s groundedness in care, Kafka’s story “The Cares of a Family Man” (1919) and Blanchot’s novel The Most High (1948) may be called “post-ontological testimonies” of care. Both texts thematize the slipping away of the temporal horizon of care, envisioning a world in which Dasein no longer takes center stage. Through an analysis of the Heideggerian grammar of care and its resonances in Kafka and Blanchot, this article offers a new appraisal of an influential concept in twentieth-century European philosophy and literature.

On the Christhood of Literature. Pretexts and Subtexts of Reflexivity.

After the end of the Second World War, concurrently with the massive arrests of intellectuals, the imposition of false notions and generally valid atheistic behavior, literature--and especially Romanian prose--faced a harsh ideological regulation, being given "major objectives" of combating the bourgeois-landlord scourge, on the one hand, and glorifying the unshakable alliance between the worker and the Soviet farm-worker on the other. Any deviation was severely rebuked from the very beginning, the literary censorship and political propagandists of the proletarian ideology would despotically control every sketch, story, short story, novel (alongside with their authors). Under such conditions, the theorization of the narrative model of the prose writer Fănuș Neagu can outline a critical synthesis image of the entire Romanian post-war prose--or of a spectrum as wide as possible--the lasting element of which is lyricism, as the main feature of the Romanian novel of that period, an epic species nourished artistically from the balladesque tradition of the folk literature, on the one hand, and from the "taking over" from and "fitting" to the narrative techniques of European literature, especially the French one as well. The rise in Romanian literature of Fănuş Neagu symbolized the "necessary adjustment" (Eugen Simion), the illustrious revenge in front of the totalitarian stigma, just as the debut of Ion Druţă in the ankylosing landscape of Bessarabian literature meant the proof of firm qualities of deep renewal of the undisguised epic, definitively abandoning the straitjacket of communist ideology. Fănuş Neagu, as Ion Druță, abolished the "ideological front", "unslaved" the post-war prose and removed the rigid dogmatic barriers.

우리나라 구분소유법제 연구의 효시

The first Korean article on aggregate building law theory is Chong Kil Tsche’s paper published in Seoul Law Journal vol. 11 no. 2 in March 1970, under the title of “Rechtsvergleichende und rechtserkennende Studie über das Wohnungsrecht(in English: Comparative and survey-based study of aggregate housing law, hereafter ‘the Paper’).” Though Professor Tsche had left only this one paper on the theme before he passed away at the age of 42 in 1973, the Paper is awarded meaning much more than as the first Korean article in this area of law.
 To begin with, it is worth noting that despite being the first one, the Paper was mentioned in a widely cited German standard commentary, thereby introducing abroad the emerging field of law in Korea. Such an example is rare to find in other legal fields, which could be partly explained in the light of the author’s vivid international exchange activities.
 However, the true value of the Paper should be found in its significant academic worth in and of itself. Firstly, it analyzed how Stockwerkseigentum, once denied by Pandectists in the tradition of Roman law, was revived as sectional ownership form of modern housing in Germany, France, and Japan due to social demand, skillfully using a comparative legal method. The results of the analysis are extraordinarily accurate and suggestive even by today's standards, more than 50 years later. Secondly, the paper scrutinized the legal situations concerning multi-family housing, which just began to take root in our society in the late 1960s, based on the actual documents of contracts. It summarizes how the legal problems caused by the absence or lack of related laws were resolved on-site, concluding that the final and desirable resolution should be possible through the enactment of overall systematic legislation.
 Given our terribly deficient research resources in the late 1960s, the achievements of the Paper without any prior research is remarkably exceptional and admirable. To understand how all these were accomplished, each reference cited in the section on legal history in the Paper is meticulously searched for and compared with the original text. And it could be confirmed that the lack of European literature was supplemented with Japanese literature, and plausibly supposed that Professor Tsche might have at least partially consult the original directly.
 Inspired by the Paper, a series of papers addressing the legal issues regarding aggregate buildings were published not only in practice but also at universities from the mid-1970s to the early 1980s. And the Aggregate Building Act in 1984 was finally enacted in Korea with the full support of the Korean Civil Law Society and the courts. By the way, several key issues raised in the Paper - such as the relationship between shared ownership and exclusive ownership of common areas, as well as the time and conditions for the establishment of sectional ownership - are expected to continue to be discussed in the near future.

Postwar Intellectuals and the Concept of European Literature: Exile, Memory, Reparation

This article focuses on the concept of European literature—its invention in Western cultural history, as well as the meaning and value attributed to it as a form of a supranational identity in warring Europe. It addresses the contributions of key European intellectuals of the interwar period and the postwar years, such as Victor Klemperer, Paul Valéry, Thomas Mann, Edmund Husserl, Ernst Robert Curtius, Jean Guéhenno, Karl Jaspers, and Erich Auerbach. The article discusses the important and often obscured similarities between the two periods and holds up the cultural assumptions and representations of these intellectuals’ collective discourse alongside their later critical reception by scholars like Edward Said, Armando Gnisci, Franca Sinopoli, and Magdi Yousef. Through this critical review of postwar intellectual thought, the article analyzes the ideological and affective charge of the idea of European literature as it is perpetuated through schooling and the paradigm of literary history. It demonstrates how, even though it was used as a defense against barbarism after the two world wars, the notion of “European literature,” like that of “tradition,” became a highly vulnerable construct after the advent of post-structuralism.

On Beowulf's Elegiac Mood: from the Perspective of Cognitive Poetics

Beowulf is the longest narrative poem in ancient England and the most complete and outstanding epic in the early Middle Ages of Europe. It holds an important position in the history of British literature and even European literature. Beowulf mainly tells the great deeds of the hero Beowulf, who is half human and half divine, in subduing monsters and killing poisonous dragons. It has a mythological colour and can be regarded as a heroic mythological epic. It mainly praises Beowulf's heroic spirit, promotes Christian consciousness, and showcases England's unique cultural style during the Anglo-Saxon period. Most studies of Beowulf focus on Germanic culture, literary form, historical background, themes, and symbolic significance portrayed in the poem. By adopting theories in Cognitive Linguistics like prototype, iconicity, perspectives, metaphor, naming in cognitive poetics, this article peruses the elegiac language of Seamus Heaney's Beowulf, illustrating that Beowulf is an elegy of the deaths of heroes, the inconstant fate, the vicissitudes of the world and age, the collapse of tribal society, and ultimately—the elegiac world, and results in that Beowulf is more like an elegy than an epic.

The post-memory of the Armenian genocide and the myth of origins in Antonia Arslan’s works

This contribution aims to analyse the postmemory of the origins through the work of an Italian author of Armenian descent, Antonia Arslan, and stems from an ongoing research project about “Narrating the Trauma in European Literatures and Cultures” based at La Sapienza University of Rome. I will therefore focus on the link between this research project, which serves as a theoretical framework, and the specific case study concerning Antonia Arslan. The project originates from two concerns: the first one being the awareness of the loss of poets and writers’ long-lived faith in the creative power of the artistic gesture, a widespread belief before the two world wars, and the second one consisting in a reflection on a general change of the theoretic framework of literature, especially in the case of the narration of traumatic experiences such as wars, genocides, migrations and displacements of people, which have taken place in Europe during the 20th Century [Neohelicon, 2004(1), Migratio et litterae].

The Generation of ‘The Wandering Years’ – Traveling culture in Europe and in Hungary between the World Wars

In my article, I try to offer a comparative view of Western European and Hungarian travel literature between the World Wars. First, I examine the changes of Western traveling culture in the post-war era, then I analyze the narrato-poetic features of the travelogue, as a popular literary genre of the 1920s and 1930s. In the second chapter of my study, I introduce the Hungarian contemporaries of Waugh, Green, or Orwell. They were the generation of ‘the wandering years’, as it was called by one of them, Antal Szerb. I argue, that the main questions of the Hungarian travelers and narrative characteristics of their works not just simply resemble to the Western authors’, but they could give a relevant contribution to the contemporary European travel literature, emphasizing the integration of the thinking of Hungarian intellectuals to the European stream.