Fantastic Prose Research Articles

A PARODY OF MYTHICAL AND FOLKLORE IN THE NOVEL "THE EPIC OF WATER" BY ENES HALILOVIĆ

The paper deals with the parodic procedure in the novel "The Epic of Water" by Enes Halilović. Considering the significant share of mythical and folklore, the nature of these silts in the work was illuminated and the parodic relationship to tradition was observed. In addition to the above-mentioned elements, the share of the historical can also be seen as significant, which was observed through the prism of the postmodernist text, which results in a specific relationship with the past. The socio-historical context, the system of social and moral values and the influence of the social component, appears as a basis for parodic and satirical effects, but with the final aim of raising it to the level of the universal. Part of the historical elements appear as an inseparable creative element of the parody complex in "The Epic of Water", because it is a particular event from modern history (the emigration of the population and the submergence of fertile land due to the construction of the artificial Lake Gazivode, which Halilović clearly mentions as one of the localities in the index of terms at the end of the book) that is the undisguised inspiration for the creation of the mythological guide to the flood and after it, as the author himself defines his narrative in the subtitle. However, Halilović's historicism is seen in the work as specific, because in his critical consideration of the value of the past, he elevates the local to the level of the universal. The author's attitude that history is subordinate to fiction can be interpreted as a view of history characteristic of postmodernist art, where history figures as a kind of intertext. The postmodernist attitude towards tradition, interpreted on the basis of the material the author takes from folklore and myth, is reflected in an ambivalent attitude towards tradition, where its conventions are established only to be destabilized in a parodic way. The ending of the novel is interpreted in the key of the eschatological vision of the created world, in the form of an aquatic apocalypse. Such an unraveling of narratives is seen as an example of the myth of doom, but also as a necessary stage of purification. Halilović's Paljevo is condemned to complete disappearance. The rapid moral degeneration of Muriz's lineage begins with Zahit's marriage to a mute and weak-minded foreign woman of unknown origin. From such a marriage is born Zaim, the first Paljevac who collects coffins for his closest relatives and who marries a woman who practices black magic, which leads to the culminating degradation of all virtues. It is interesting that in the same generation, Char's lineage visibly deteriorates - Charovac, whom Aljo goes to in order to free himself from the magical effects of Zaim's wife, himself performs black magic rituals. Therefore, in the end, the multiplied sins of the hero of the novel are symbolically dissolved by the water, disappearing in the purifying flood. In addition to the mythic layer that can be read at the end, a satirical moment related to modern society that boldly and brazenly manages human destinies, assuming the role of a higher power that decides on the justification of the flood for the sake of representing apparently general, but actually its own interests, is also pointed out. The motif of the flood was also analyzed at a metanarrative level, as a punishment from the author himself as the creator of his personal cosmogony, but at the same time with the hope of a new beginning, a new order, the emergence of which, in truth, is not even announced yet, but which exists as a logical continuation cyclical understanding of the cosmos and history, according to which the world catastrophe marks the end of one period and the beginning of a new one. In the claim that maybe no one needs the story, but that the author needs it, the irony of the poststructuralist position that the author is not a person in the psychological sense and that the work continues to live after the author, thanks to the readers is made clear. However, the statement from the novel that the story is indestructible ultimately reveals the exact opposite - despite the aquatic apocalypse of the world it narrates, the narrative itself is indestructible, which is why "The Epic of Water" still essentially appears as a masterful apology of both story and telling. This is exactly how we saw the apocalypse of a world built from universal motifs, translated into a special postmodernist fantastic prose with an emphasized parodic relationship to myth and folklore heritage.

The Onomastic Universe in the Fantastic Prose of Mikhail Bulgakov: the Dimension of Translation

Proper names are double-character words: national and international. This is why translation requires an in-depth knowledge of the culture and civilization of the source language people. If a name is used for communication purposes (in a literary work), it must be treated in a special way. These are the most difficult cases for a translator, who has to be creative. Transferring names from one culture to another requires communication skills, but also intercultural skills: respect for traditions and cultural values. Proper names-anthroponyms can only be translated in certain contexts, where they describe a character, but are usually preserved intact. Usually proper names from stories, nicknames, but also some suggestive literary character names are translated and adapted. In most cases, the names of literary characters are not translated, but reported over to facilitate cultural transfer and eventually annotated. Thus, the translation process oscillates between science and art.

ФРАНЦУЗСКИЙ РОМАНТИЗМ И ГЕНЕЗИС МАССОВОЙ ЛИТЕРАТУРЫ

The article analyzes the transformation ofcreativity in romanticism of the late 1820 s - 1830 s ideas, the interaction of romantics with newspapers and magazines in the second half of the 1830 s - 1840 s. and the appearance of the feuilleton novel as a genre of popular fiction. The success of F. Soulier, E. Sue, A. Dumas, and other authors works, published in periodicals, contributed to the emergence of ethical and aesthetic disputes about the feuilleton novelas a genre. Following Ch. Sainte-Beuve, who spoke out against "industrial literature", French intellectual elite attacked feuilleton novels, claiming the authors for damaging artistic taste and immorality. Meanwhile, the fields of "high" and "folk" romanticism constantly intersected, and in the course of dispute about feuilleton novels, the poetics of elite prose not only influenced popular fiction, but also voluntarily or involuntarily used its experience. In the process of this repulsion / attraction, the main types of popular literature were born, namely: detective story, love story, fantastic prose, etc.

Representations of Evil in the Novels Miss Christina, The Snake and Isabel and the Devil’s Waters by Mircea Eliade

"Representations of Evil in the Novels Miss Christina, The Snake and Isabel and the Devil’s Waters by Mircea Eliade. The present article analyzes some representations of evil in the novels Miss Christina, The Snake and Isabel and the Devil’s Waters by Mircea Eliade. In particular, we draw attention to the evil that directly refers to the mysterious dimension and, therefore, outlines a perception that exceeds the mundane experience of everyday life. In this sense, the emergence of unfathomable aspects and phenomena can only be explained in an imaginary approach. This type of representation of evil is perceived within the limits of a manifestation of the supernatural, in an unveiling of the evil through ill-fated, Mephistophelean characters or in the potentiation of “heresies” in the folkloric imaginary. The paper aims to examine how this evil, most often related to some almost occult experiences and fueled by local folklore, is capitalized in the fantastic prose of Mircea Eliade. Keywords: mysterious, fantastic, magical, imaginary, representation, evil, devil "

FANTASTIČNA PRIPOVETKA MILORADA POPOVIĆA ŠAPČANINA

The main subject of the paper is analysing the problem of fiction and the fan- tastic in the works of Milorad Popović Šapcanin that have been neglected in the Serbian literary science. The corpus entering the domain of research is made up of the following texts: Theologian (1877), Dangerous Friend (1881), Old, Writing Desk (1881), and Shadows (1902). A segment of the paper is dedicated to the contextual positioning of the author and a review of the prevailing views on the interaction of the modalities of the realistic and the fantastic. The primary goal is to conceive the basic semantic settings of M. P. Šapčanin’s fantastic prose, while the secondary goal is to read, interpret and revalue his work.

Labirintski znakovni svijet u fantastičkoj prozi Lađa od vode Pavla Pavličića

A b s t r a c t SIGNS OF A LABYRINTH IN THE FANTASTIC SHORT STORY COLLECTION LAĐA OD VODE (BOAT MADE OF WATER) BY PAVAO PAVLIČIĆ Since the new edition of Pavličić’s short story collection Lađa od vode (Boat Made of Water) was relatively recently published under the auspices of the art collective that bears the same title as Pavličić’s collection, it is worthwhile to examine the most significant narrative devices of this work, that originally appeared in 1972, alongside some other important Yugoslav fantasy works (Zavjera kartografa/Conspiracy of the Cartographers by Goran Tribuson; Talhe ili Šedrvanski vrt/Talha or the Shadirvan Garden by Irfan Horozović; Noćni fijaker/Nocturnal Hansom Cab by Vlado Urošević). As a collection of fantastic prose, Boat Made of Water brings together a series of poetic devices that could be termed as mysterious, mystical and irrational. Pavličić sees a literary work as a linguistic sign. He problematizes communication, the system of signs and the possibility of a dialogue with the reader. This paper points out the importance features of his work whose reception has been ongoing for the past almost thirty years. In that regard, the collection is discussed as a literary paradigm of postmodernist fantasy. Keywords: fiction, labyrinth, palimpsest, Pavao Pavličić, Italo Calvino, Jorge Luis Borges

W. Morris’s tradition in J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic fantasy

This article offers a comprehensive review of W. Morris influence on the epic fantasy of J.R.R. Tolkien. The purpose of the research is to reflect how Morris tradition influenced the development of Tolkiens fantastic prose - which later formed a separate subgenre of epic fantasy - and the whole fantasy genre. The objectives of the study include tracing the history of the development of fantastic element in literature - which served as a basis for the works of both authors - and finding poetological similarities and differences between W. Morris and J.R.R. Tolkien. The comparative study is based on the works of V. Gopman and K. Massey as well as on the original writings of Morris and Tolkien. The result of the study is the justification for W. Morris as the natural literary precursor of Tolkien. Based on the influence and partial borrowing of Morris imagery and motifs, Tolkin develops the theoretical foundation for the genre of magical fairy tale, which will later be called fantasy.

Las imágenes del chocolate y el juego en <i>Sabor a chocolate</i> de José Carlos Carmona y "Circe" de Julio Cortázar

En este ensayo se analiza la estrategia narrativa y las imágenes relacionadas con el chocolate en la novela Sabor a Chocolate (2008), de José Carlos Carmona, y el cuento “Circe” (1951), de Julio Cortázar. La palabra chocolate, sus símbolos y sus significados al comerlo y escribirlo expanden dentro del discurso literario imágenes amorosas, sensuales, históricas y económicas, así como estéticas. Así mismo, se lleva a cabo una interpretación relacionada con la propuesta sobre el juego y el arte de Hans-Georg Gadamer, siguiendo el epígrafe y clave de lectura en la novela de Carmona: “Todo jugar es un ser jugado”. Sabor a Chocolate trata la vida de los personajes a través de una obsesión por el chocolate, el amor/desamor, el ajedrez y la música; mientras que en “Circe” se evidencia la seducción del chocolate en las manos de Delia, quien provoca la muerte de los enamorados con sus bombones y licores. El juego con el lector surge desde una prosa fantástica y sus posibilidades en la ambigüedad de la narración. De este modo, el chocolate puede percibirse desde puntos equidistantes; ser experimentado, degustado desde la corporalidad de los protagonistas, gozando o agonizando con el sabor de lo amargo y lo dulce.

The Prose of the ‘60s, from Allusion to Subversive Message

When it comes to postwar prose, most part of the literary history chooses to split it - according to the specific theme and style - into opportunist, subversive, dissident, and evading. The novels of the 1964 - 1975 decade follow several directions, both theme, and style-wise: political novel, mythical novel with parable nuances, fantastic prose, analysis prose, poetical prose. The Prose of the 60s, from Allusion to Subversive Message follows the literary approach and intends to identify the volatile allusion to the major social and political issues of the time. How do aesthetical and ethical combine; how artistic creation succeeds in taking in ideological suggestions that are more or less accusatory; how natural is the combative message or how far-fetched and false does it sound? These are questions that the present work is trying to provide an answer to, through clear examples taken from the novels of writers such as D.R. Popescu, Stefan Banulescu or George Balaita. How to cite : Safta, A.O. (2017). The Prose of the 60s, from Allusion to Subversive Message. Logos Universality Mentality Education Novelty, Section: Philosophy and Humanistic Sciences, V(1), 31-39. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/lumenphs.2017.0501.03

Wprowadzenie prozy dla młodego czytelnika w świat konwencji modernistycznych (na przykładzie Cudownych bajek Adolfa Dygasińskiego)

Adolf Dygasinski is a writer who can be called a witness of the transformation that began in literature at the end of the 19th century. His work, for most part, was connected with positivism, and it is described as such by the critics. But the fantastic prose addressed to young readers that he created clearly departs from this scheme. Wonderful Tales are examples of positivist trends that are broken by the conventions of modernism. Their author is recognized as a pioneer because the literature for children and young people had not yet been dominated by the new aesthetics and ideals that began to inspire both artists and the consumers of art in the 1890s. The analysis of various fairy tales written by Dygasinski and published in a book of poems departs from the existing conventions. This is expressed in the changes of the hero’s personality, partial transformation of the structure of the tales and the world presented, as well as the revaluation of certain ideas. Wonderful Tales are, therefore, a valuable source of knowledge about the crystallization of the phenomena that have become representative for modernist literature.

Uwiedzeni przez manekiny, czyli o erotyce sztucznych ciał (na przykładzie opowiadania Płaszcz Józefa Olenina Eugéne’a Melchiora de Vogüégo)

In the article I shake a common conviction that the quasi-female mannequins fascinate us because they remind beautiful, real women in their unliving materiality they represent human bodies. Basing on psychoanalytical theories, I am proposing a thesis that in this fascination the representation of those alive (empirical) bodies is not meant, but a presentation of the aesthetic and especially erotic fantasies. The point of reference of this fascination is not a body of blood and bones, often imperfect, handicapped and ageing, but fantasies about the creation, embodiment, enlivening of the ideal woman whose symbol is the mythical Galatea sculpted by Pygmalion. The aesthetic-erotic fascination with mannequins is seen in many artworks and literary works. In this article I discover this phenomenon by analysing a fantastic story by Eugéne Melchior de Vogüé. However, the choice of this work does not mean that the fascination with the quasifeminine mannequins is exclusively a motif of fantastic prose. Just the opposite, for instance, it can be found in realistic novels like Emil Zola’s Ladies' Paradise, in which descriptions of mannequins in shop windows are saturated with erotic admiration connected with the category of luxury. However, due to the fact that fantastic literature is a particular field of play for fantasy and unconsciousness, this psychic energy being the consequence of the dramatised hallucination of displacing, my choice was Le manteau de Joseph Oléonine. Analysis of this work becomes a contribution to wider interpretations of the phenomenon of quasi-feminine mannequins in the West European culture of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.

The Specifics of Mircea Eliade's Fantastic Novels

One of the world's most famous historian of religions, as Mircea Eliade's reputation goes, is maybe less known outside his Romanian cultural origin area as one of the most skilful and talented novelist of fantastic prose. Oriental type of fantastic (typical for Eliade) takes a deeper glance at the meaning of the real life things. In the Romanian writer's fantastic prose, we can find a world that looks simple but is full of mysteries, privileged places and exceptional moments invested with the double capacity to allow access into the superior knowledge and also to many enigmas and key mysteries of life. The novelty and the originality of his literary works consist mostly in the specific of the definition of fantastic. One cannot look into his literary works without proper understanding that the author valued a great deal the implication of fantastic into daily reality, as a hidden sign, not an exterior reality, but part of the same reality that everybody is sharing.

Dehumanization of Reality in Croatian Fantastic Prose: Symbolism of Apocalyptic Animals

New Croatian fantastic prose (which was constituted as a genre at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, and reached its peak in the 1970s after which, in different variations of the genre, it has kept appearing until today) is often called the literature of “subversion”. Fantastic writers consciously take a step away from poetic and social norms of their time thus creating a discourse which pronouncedly corresponds to mythical in expressing ideas which are often contrary or strongly destabilizing for the ruling social ideology. This objective makes them reach into the treasury of mythical motives, symbols and techniques whose source lies in (also subversive) medieval literary genre – apocalyptic literature. All of these texts (canonic and apocryphal) are listed in literature under one common denominator – apocalyptic literature – and their purpose is to teach people about future things (i.e. ones that come after death). In medieval apocalyptic texts, especially apocryphal, a man – in ruling ideology raised to the pedestal of the peak of God’s creation – is seen as a sinner who, regardless of his social status, needs to be righteously punished for his sins. Apocalyptic writers with special enthusiasm describe the tortures awaiting high social classes and rulers, as well as priests. Mythical “revenge” for earthly evil done to their subjects often comes in the form of punishment which animals, otherwise inferior, but now after death and God’s final judgement, dominant and allied with God’s anger, will perform over them. Monsters and beasts destabilize the commonly accepted, ideologized image of a man, ruler of animals according to the Book of Genesis because after death animals rule over man and the greatest punishment for his earthly sins is the dehumanization the animals will perform.

Book Reviews

Books reviewed: Schastlivyi feniks: Ocherki o russkom sonete i knizhnoi kul'ture XVIII–nachala XIX veka L. I. Berdnikov Devich'ia igrushka, ili sochineniia gospodina Barkova Ivan Barkov Pod imenem Barkova: Eroticheskaiia poeziia XVIII–nachala XIX veka N. Sapov, comp. The Cambridge Companion to the Classic Russian Novel Malcolm V. Jones and Robin Feuer Miller, eds. The Society Tale in Russian Literature: From Odoevskii to Tolstoi Neil Cornwell, ed. Cultural Discontinuity and Reconstruction: The Byzanto‐Slav Heritage and the Creation of a Russian National Literature in the Nineteenth Century Jostein Børtnes and Ingunn Lunde, eds. Russian Subjects: Empire, Nation, and the Culture of the Golden Age Monika Greenleaf and Stephen Moeller‐Sally, eds. The Popular Theatre Movement in Russia, 1862–1919 Gary Thurston Memory and Literature: Intertextuality in Russian Modernism Renate Lachmann The Pillar and Ground of the Truth: An Essay in Orthodox Theodicy in Twelve Letters Pavel Florensky Subversive Imaginations: Fantastic Prose and the End of Soviet Literature, 1970s–1990s Nadya L. Peterson Taking Penguins to the Movies: Ethnic Humor in Russia Emil A. Draitser Russia: A History Gregory L. Freeze, ed. Die Russische Frau: Im 17. Jahrhundert Nada Boskovska Gosudarstvo i krest'iane Rossii: Pomor'e v XVII veke Elena N. Shveikovskaia Russia in the Age of Peter the Great Lindsey Hughes Kornelius Kriuis, Admiral Petra Velikogo Turgrim Titlestad, ed. Kazan, Moscow, St. Petersburg: Multiple Faces of the Russian Empire Catherine Evtuhov, et al., eds. L'économie en révolution: Le cas russe, 1870–1930 Alessandro Stanziani Heralds of Revolution: Russian Students and the Mythologies of Radicalism Susan K. Morrissey Critical Companion to the Russian Revolution, 1914–1921 Edward Acton, Vladimir Iu. Cherniaev, and William G. Rosenberg, eds. Storming the Heavens: The Soviet League of the Militant Godless Daniel Peris Die Anfänge des Leninkults in der Sowjetunion Benno Ennker Forging Stalin's Army: Marshall Tukhachevsky and the Politics of Military Innovation SallyW. Stoecker Factory and Community in Stalin's Russia: The Making of an Industrial Working Class Kenneth M. Straus The Northern Territories Dispute and Russo‐Japanese Relations Tsuyoshi Hasegawa Russian Nationalism, Past and Present Geoffrey Hosking and Robert Service, eds. Freud and the Bolsheviks: Psychoanalysis in Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union Martin A. Miller What Have We Learned About Science and Technology from the Russian Experience? Loren R. Graham The Fall of the Soviet Empire Anne de Tinguy, ed. The Collapse of the Soviet Military William E. Odom The Soldier in Russian Politics: Duty, Dictatorship, and Democracy under Gorbachev and Yeltsin Robert V. Barylski Elites and Leadership in Russian Politics: Selected Papers from the Fifth World Congress of Central and East European Studies, Warsaw, 1995 Graeme Gill, ed. Russia's Economy of Favours: Blat , Networking and Informal Exchange Alena V. Ledeneva Nation‐building in the Post‐Soviet Borderlands: The Politics of National Identities Graham Smith, et al. The Wild East: Crime and Lawlessness in Post‐Communist Russia VictorSergeyev

Subversive Imaginations: Fantastic Prose and the End of Soviet Literature, 1970s-1990s

Subversive Imaginations: Fantastic Prose and the End of Soviet Literature, 1970s-1990s

Subversive imaginations: fantastic prose and the end of Soviet literature, 1970s-1990s

Introduction Writers, Readers, Society, and Literary Change Fantastic Prose as an Escape from the Literature of Purpose Socialist Realists in Space Between Fantasy and Reality Peasant Dreamers, Shattered Dreams: Village Utopians Mikhail Bulgakovs Disciples in Soviet Literature Envisioning the End: The Apocalyptic Novels of Glasnost Alternative Literature I: The Thieves of Language Alternative Literature II: Games Women Play Conclusion

Subversive Imaginations: Fantastic Prose and the End of Soviet Literature, 1970s-1990s

Subversive Imaginations: Fantastic Prose and the End of Soviet Literature, 1970s-1990s

Subversive Imaginations: Fantastic Prose and the End of Soviet Literature, 1970s-1990s. By Nadya L. Peterson. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1997. xii, 216 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Glossary. Index. $49.95, hard bound.

Subversive Imaginations: Fantastic Prose and the End of Soviet Literature, 1970s-1990s. By Nadya L. Peterson. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1997. xii, 216 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Glossary. Index. $49.95, hard bound.