Reception History Research Articles

Between Material Philology and Reception History: Patristic and Papyrological Evidence for the Sibylline Oracles

Abstract This article adapts insights from Material Philology to rethink the reception of the Sibylline Oracles by looking at the full range of evidence for the collection’s early development and circulation. Since the “rediscovery” of the Oracles in 1545, the Renaissance-era manuscripts and modern critical editions have been privileged as if equivalent to the “original,” ancient text. To move away from mediating our knowledge of the Oracles solely through later interpreters, this article brings materials from the margins – papyrological fragments from the second centuries BCE and CE and quotations in Josephus, Justin Martyr, Athenagoras, and Theophilus – to the very center of the discussion. Increased attention to Jewish and Christian witnesses provides a snapshot of how the Sibylline Oracles were read, received, and redacted over time. Comparing the material evidence with the manuscript tradition yields startingly different concerns regarding the Oracles’ textual fluidity, Book 3’s Jewish origins, and the Sibyl’s prophetic authority.

A Violinist's Viewpoint: Performing J. S. Bach's Chaconne in Bobbi Jene Smith's Broken Theater

Abstract: This article brings together my personal reflections on performing J. S. Bach's Chaconne from the Violin Partita No. 2 in D Minor BWV 1004 in the work of choreographer Bobbi Jene Smith, with critical discussions of the Chaconne's nineteenth- and twentieth-century pedagogical and reception history. While my performance of Bach's movement has over the last decade favored a modern, historically informed style, witnessing the emotional and narrative potentials of this choreographed Chaconne prompted me to revisit nineteenth- and twentieth-century editions, recordings, and commentary on the work. I make connections between the physicality of the dancers (Or Schraiber, Yaya Logothetis, and Mouna Soualem), Smith's choreographic establishment of personal psychology and interpersonal relationships, and Romantic-violinistic ideals of tone as a marker of subjective interiority. In contexts of both dance and violin practice, I point to the ways in which the idealistic potentials of Bach's music—so lauded in nineteenth- and twentieth-century accounts—are in fact carefully cultivated effects generated by corporeal means. By connecting these pedagogical ideals to my own experiences as a violin student and professional performer, I draw attention to the enduring relevance of these material and pedagogical histories. And, in drawing together Smith's choreography with contexts of the Chaconne's generic prehistory, composition, and performances, I advocate for imaginative and interdisciplinary interpretations of Bach's Chaconne, which nonetheless maintain critical perspectives on the work's spiritualization and canonization.

ПЕРЕПИСЫВАНИЕ ЧЕХОВА В СОВРЕМЕННОЙ ПРОЗЕ: ОПЫТ Д. В. ДРАГУНСКОГО

In modern literary studies, the topic "Chekhov's pretexts in Russian literature of the XX-XXI years" is one of the most popular. That is due to thesimplicity and the evidence of the material used. However, the analysis often stops at the stage of stating Chekhov's reminiscences, quotations, remakes of his plots, etc. However, we should not take at face value this constant presence of Chekhov in the consciousness of modern literature and the declared love for him, there is a constant internal controversy, the attitude towards Chekhov is love and irritation at the same time. It is impossible to understand that situation without referring to the history of Chekhov's reception, including the beginning of the twentieth century. The situation when a writer uses Chekhov in his literary polemic is analyzed using the example of D. V. Dragunsky's work. The writer's position is representative of the modern situation and helps to reveal the reasons why modern authors have a constant internal conversation with Chekhov.

O evangelho de Mateus e a história da leitura em edições bíblicas brasileiras

ABSTRACT The gospel of Matthew is one of the most beloved and studied gospels in Christianity, having a rich history of reception. The purpose of this paper is to article study its reading in Brazil from selected intertitles in two biblical versions. The research aims to identify how the gospel has been received by Brazilian editors and readers and how editorial intertitles can provide evidence of such reception. In order to achieve such objective, the history of reading and the history of the book are used as references, based on theories by Roger Chartier (2001, 2002, 2022), Robert Darnton (2010), Lucien Febvre and Henri-Jean Martin (2017), Gerard Genette (1997) and D.F. McKenzie (2018).

TWO VARIATIONS ON THE TOPIC OF ST. YUR’S CATHEDRAL IN LVIV (O. NOVAKIVSKYI – I. KALYNETS – M. SOSENKO)

The purpose of the article is to analyse Ihor Kalynets’s reception of paintings by Lviv artists Oleksa Novakivskyi ‘Yur. The Poem of the World War’ and Modest Sosenko’s ‘St. Yur’s (George’s) Church in Lviv’. The paintings of both artists and their perception by Ihor Kalynets (poems «‘Yur’ by O. Novakivskyi» and «’Yur’ by M. Sosenko») have a lot in common. The painters’ gaze is directed from the bottom up, into the distance, into the future, which is due to the location of the buildings and the angle of observation. However, summarising the observations on Ihor Kalynets’s variations on the topic of the most famous church in Lviv, we should note the prevalence of the distinctive over the common. Oleksa Novakivskyi’s painting provoked the poet’s reflections, which are dominated by the motifs of purity, aspiration and steadfastness, struggle and victory, while Modest Sosenko’s painting evoked a sense of sadness, melancholy and autumnal transparency. The canvas of Lviv artists depict the same object from the same angle, but in different moods. Considering the multivariate artistic perception of the artists, in his works Ihor Kalynets conveys the ‘impression of impressions’ that the artists had while contemplating the majestic building, so these poems contain the features of impressionism. On the other hand, in his ekphrase poems, the poet accumulates the ideological and artistic achievements of three types of art at once: painting (in particular, iconography), literature and architecture. The interaction of these art forms can be summarized on the basis of receptive ‘heredity’, so to speak, the passing of a receptive ‘baton’: the icon of St. Yuriy (George) the Serpent and the architectural masterpiece St. Yur’s Cathedral in Lviv → reception of the cathedral by Oleksa Novakivskyi and Modest Sosenko → the paintings by Oleksa Novakivskyi and Modest Sosenko → reception of those paintings by Ihor Kalynets → the poems «‘Yur’ by O. Novakivskyi» and «’Yur’ by M. Sosenko» → the reader’s reception of the poems. If we take into account that the first mentioning of the cathedral dates back to the thirteenth century (though since then the church has been destroyed and rebuilt), and the reception of the analysed poems continues in the twenty-first century, we have a receptive history of eight centuries.

Admonitory and utopian: the algorithmic interpretation of Rabbi Meir Kahane’s historical narratives

ABSTRACT Bar’s study examines and analyses the historical narratives and use of Jewish history put forward by Rabbi Meir Kahane (1932–1990), one of the most extreme far-right radicals ever to hold political power in Israel. Drawing on a variety of primary and secondary sources, Bar reviews the ways in which Kahane’s historical interpretation is used to support his modern political and ideological positions. He finds that two main paths serve as a fulcrum for Kahane’s historical reception to justify his demands for segregation and separation between Jews and Gentiles (including the forced transfer of Israeli Arabs and/or Palestinians) on a theological-historical basis. The first is admonitory, and utilizes the Holocaust as a negative example to show how assimilation and coexistence—in Israel or elsewhere—between Jews and Gentiles leads to an inevitable ‘physical and spiritual Auschwitz’. The second path is a positive one, which looks to the utopian ‘golden ages’ of Jewish history in ancient times as an example of how past heroes and leaders, such as biblical figures or the Hasmoneans, behaved in the face of hardships and risks of assimilation, as well as the destruction of Jewish lives and religious practices.

Myth, Insects, and Surrealism: the Influence of Henri Bergson on the Writings of Roger Caillois

The focus of this text is the influence of Henri Bergson’s ideas concerning instinct, intelligence and myth on the work of Roger Caillois. My aim is to offer a reading of intellectual history which draws Bergson back into the orbit of the French avant-garde in the 1930s. In doing so, I highlight the axiomatic presence of Bergson’s ideas on Caillois’ work, which can be described as the combining of contemporary philosophical, cultural, and social science studies with the surrealist method, most notably exemplified by the unlikely juxtaposition of the study of relations between insect behaviour and the myth-making function in humans. While the historical reception of Bergson’s ideas has largely mapped the waning of his influence in the inter-war period, I wish to present one strong case in which Bergson’s thought continued to have formative influence. It is largely assumed in studies of surrealism that Bergson had been entirely rejected by the movement for political reasons, I argue that Bergson’s ideas were in fact central to Caillois’ writings on insects and society. As well as highlighting the Bergsonian core of some of Caillois’ key works as a member of the surrealist group and the College of Sociology, I propose that the presence of Bergson’s ideas within this radical milieu contributes to the ongoing discussion of the philosopher’s influence and legacy.

„Nie burza to była, ale dziejowy HURAGAN” – wokół powieści Wacława Gąsiorowskieg

The paper is devoted to the first and at the same time the most famous novel by Wacław Gąsiorowski – Huragan (Hurricane, 1901), which began the “Napoleonic Trilogy”. In the introduction, its origins and the history of reception have been presented, followed by: a literary image of the Napoleonic era and the world of heroes, with a particular emphasis on the figure of Joanna Żubrowa – a sergeant in the army of the Duchy of Warsaw, the first woman to be decorated with the Virtuti Militari Order. The patron and master of Gąsiorowski, who often referred to the model of a “cloak and sword novel”, was Henryk Sienkiewicz. However, Huragan, which can be situated between Trylogia and Popioły, also demonstrates Young Poland origins.

Platono Teaiteto digresija šiandien, arba Sokrato laiškas nūdienos filosofams

This paper discusses the relevance of ancient thought by briefly reviewing the historical reception vicissitudes of Plato’s dialogue Theaetetus, and by considering what dialogue’s themes and motifs seem pertinent to contemporary thinkers. As in earlier times, Socrates’ critique of relativism and subjectivism, the problems of the justification of knowledge, as well as the holistic conception of knowledge remain undoubtedly valuable in the dialogue. In recent decades, research on the pedagogical motives of dialogue has also increased. Finally, it seems that never before have the protagonist’s proud words about scholē – the free, quiet time of thinking, unaffected by political urgency and conjuncture, as an essential condition for philosophical activity and life – sounded so insightful. This is what I call “Socrates’ Letter to Contemporary Philosophers”.

Intersectional Grassroot Reception: The Use of the Bible in Discourses of Gender Equality

This article explores how religious Latvian women draw on the Bible to discuss gender equality, examining the construction of their theologically based arguments and the conceptualization of gender equality within these discussions. The study investigates factors such as age, denomination, and education level that may influence their opinions. The findings reveal a "biblical reception at the grassroots," diverging from official religious community settings. Women, despite general assumptions or stereotypes, independently navigate gender roles through both religious texts and personal interpretations. The analysis applies gender theory, intersectionality, and reception history, emphasizing the role of biblical sources in shaping gender equality discourses. In the unique Latvian context, marked by a recent reversal of women's ordination and cultural tensions with the Western world, these women's perspectives on the Bible and gender equality offer distinctive and compelling insights.

Uždaros visuomenės fenomenologija Antano Vienuolio „Paskenduolėje“: antropologiniai profiliai

The inquiry formulates the fundamentals of the hermeneutics of narrative against the background of the history of reception of the work under examination, “The Drowned Girl” by Antanas Vienuolis, and draws on the relevant phenomenological descriptions and resources of structural analysis to foreground the operative mechanisms of closed society. Such mechanisms are foregrounded on three planes: (1) social, of the rules of relationships between people, which in the story constitute a hierarchal system of power relations modelled on the structure of the traditional family of the agricultural holding, (2) significative, comprising sense-making discourses (traditional customs and Christianity) whereby the culture, in this story, configures the world without transcending corporeally perceivable horizons of the actually lived present, and (3) anthropological, where sociocultural praxis and self-perception are grounded in the essentially unhuman nature which the culture tries to assimilate and erase without recognising its essential otherness. This threefold configuration emerges at the crossroad of the (author’s and reader’s) Modern and (the represented) archaic cultural self-conceptions, which produces the conflict of interpretations and facilitates both the cathartic effect and the ongoing process of sense-making. All these configurations are derived from the story’s poetics, simultaneously exposing the discursive operative mechanisms of closed society.

The Divine Christology of ‘Remember Me’ (Luke 23:42) in Light of Lament

Luke’s crucifixion scene includes a brief and unique exchange between the crucified Jesus and an unidentified crucified individual often referred to as the ‘penitent thief’. The dialogue between the two only spans two verses (Luke 23:42-43). Among the words they exchange, interpreters sometimes neglect the thief’s request – ‘remember me’ (μνήσθητί μου) – and its Christological implications. This article explores those implications given the request’s intertextual and intratextual features as well as its reception history. Based on these features, the overarching argument is that the cry ‘remember me’ functions as a dying lament shaped by similar laments in Israel’s Scriptures. The ‘remember me’ of this ‘lamenting thief’ is a request for divine forgiveness, mercy, and vindication. Such cries are normally directed to Israel’s God alone within the cultural heritage of Second Temple Judaism. In this way, Luke not only includes Jesus within the divine identity of Israel’s God, but, in the climactic scene of his biography, he brings him into the deepest contours of that relationship, namely the cry for deliverance in the face of death and judgement.

A History of Design, Creation, Publication, and Critical Reception of Lyubov Gurevich’s Novel “Flatland” (“Ploskogoryeˮ)

The article attempts to characterize L.Y. Gurevich’s (1866-1940) creative persona and explain the reasons behind her refusal to continue her career as a writer and her transition to “the guild of critics.” A study of contemporary responses to the novel Ploskogorye (Flatland, 1897) suggests that their utterly arbitrary interpretation of the central idea, misinterpretation of the content and harsh criticism seemed to be painful to the young writer. The incomprehension of the critics, which could be found even in well-intentioned reviews, their contradictory remarks and focus on secondary aspects reveal, among other things, shortcomings of the methodology of criticism in general (especially in populist and Marxist criticism). Moreover, it also demonstrates male critics’ common unfriendliness towards women’s writing, which the author of the novel could not help but feel. In addition, the reviews allow us to look at the unsuccessful method of promoting the novel by the writer herself and similar ways that critics used to diminish the importance of works written by female authors. Nevertheless, various interpretations of the novel make it possible to read it from different perspectives and conclude how readers might have reacted to it.

Wisdom a “Wailin’” and a “Steppin’” at the Street Corners of Trench Town

Reggae artists Bob Marley and Peter Tosh advocated Rasta resistance to the downpression system of “Babylon” in their appropriation of Proverbs 10:15, 21, in their respective songs “Wisdom” (and the later revised “Stiff-Necked Fools”) and “Fools Die (For Want of Wisdom).” This article’s reception history approach has two integrated foci. First, it analyses these reggae songs in relation to the stated proverbs whereby to discern Marley’s and Tosh’s identification of who are the wealthy, the poor, the wise, and the fool. Second, it brings to bear on its analyses those socioeconomical, biblical-hermeneutical, and ideological influences upon each musician’s appropriation of both proverbs, all the while keeping them in conversation with each other. The article’s conclusions reveal a recontextualized Wisdom in the unlikely form of two Rastas who promoted a countercultural message of faith livity in Jah and a wisdom consciousness of identity as African and divine.

4Q37 and Excerpted Texts of Deuteronomy from Qumran

Abstract Four manuscripts from Qumran Cave 4 are identified as manuscripts that constitute a collection of excerpts from Deuteronomy: 4Q37, 4Q38, 4Q41, and 4Q44. This paper focuses on 4Q37 and its contribution to understanding the larger group of Deuteronomy-excerpted texts. Based on material reconstruction of the scroll, the paper confirms that it originally included excerpts from both Deuteronomy and Exodus. This conclusion establishes the existence of a repertoire of scriptural sections that were selected and cited in special-use—probably liturgical—texts. The broader implications for the reception history of the Pentateuch in Second Temple times is that the Pentateuch was not conceptualized solely as a legal code or intellectual text but also as a text that was used in liturgy.

Introducing “the Heavenly Empire of China” (le Céleste Empire de la Chine)

Abstract Joseph Alexandre Saint-Yves d’Alveydre (1842–1909) is an eminent figure in the history of French esotericism who introduced a specific view on the history of humankind that evolves around various cycles of civilizations and their supposed remains in important cultural and religious traditions of the world. Although India obviously plays the most important role, a thorough study of his interest in China and its heritage clearly shows that in some points he even favors the latter. The present study aims at contextualizing his take on China in the longer reception history of East Asia in the European context.

Euro-American Esoteric Readings of East Asia: Introductory Remarks

Abstract This article introduces the special issue “Euro-American Esoteric Readings of East Asia.” First, the genesis of the special issue is explained, after which working definitions of the key terminology are given, namely, “East Asia,” “Euro-American,” “Western,” and “esotericism.” Next, the rationale of the special issue as well as short synopses of its five contributions are presented. The article argues that esoteric readings of things East Asia have saliently coshaped their Western reception history.

Chastity or Debauchery: Violetta's Portrayal in Verdi's La Traviata

This paper investigates Violetta, the female protagonist of Verdi's La Traviata, from a modern standpoint, extrapolating from the La Traviata reception to Violetta's portrayal in the text. Violetta Valery possesses qualities of both chastity and debauchery. In weighing in the two directions, Violetta's extravagance and resistance are greatly diminished to move closer to popular morality. Through a series of textual analyses and reception history investigations, this paper will incorporate a gender-related perspective to deconstruct the core of La Traviata's story in the context of contemporary values. In addition, the discussion on Violetta's image provides inspiration for examining the inner and outer space of the character itself. Considering the results, both the conception of the La Traviata story and the characterisation of Violetta are re-creations of the objectification of prostitutes in a patriarchal society. Multiple factors are involved and influence the transformation of Violetta's characterisation. It is also from the heights of modernity that these factors are able to be structured in a socialised and gendered context. Despite having the potential to become Europe's nineteenth-century Medea, Violetta Valery remains inevitably weakened in romanticised narratives and descriptions into a one-dimensional individual who combines both the stereotypes of chastity and debauchery.

Fluid revivals: retouring popular songs to restore a hydrological imaginary in the trans-Danube

AbstractThis article examines emerging practices of popular music revivals that rely on affective commitments other than nostalgia. It uses two Serbian-based singers’ post-war Croatian tours as case studies, analysing musical fluidities in the material and symbolic navigation of post-Yugoslav performance networks and focusing on borderwaters such as the Danube that bridge the region's peoples, centring their interconnected industrial and cultural attachments, yet also physically and politically separating former Yugoslav republics. Reviewing hydrological conceptions of territorial belonging in the late-Yugoslav period and in the 1990s as expressed in their ballads and reception history, it argues that the singers (Đorđe Balašević and Zvonko Bogdan), in attempting to re-establish their interrepublic touring practices with the backing of Serbian tambura bands, engage in an economy of love that, as with revival tours elsewhere in Europe, has proved more efficacious than nostalgia for responding to recent political and socioeconomic changes in the European Union.

La pratique de la lecture, un jeu pour la connaissance de soi. Étude de cas: Simona Popescu et Annie Ernaux

Reading is a true indicator of the social history of literary reception, with great heuristic value. The evolution of the female act of reading translates the evolution of the practices which found the emancipation of a whole social category, but also the evolution of the relationship of a person to herself, therefore the access of the individual to his interiority through the paradoxical discovery of otherness. This article will study the different stages of the transformation of the female reading gesture over the centuries, with the aim of showing how the historical-cultural reorganization – represented by the two waves of female literacy and the important social movements of the 18th century – has fundamentally influenced the reading practices and the reception activity. It will also insist, thanks to a case study, on the transsubjective valences associated with the act of reading, which allow the conversion to oneself of the individual by the readjustment of the initial socio-cultural capital and the access to a form of transpersonal truth, a self-reflective approach that combines reading and playing.