Human Fate Research Articles

“Oh, You, That in Sorrow You Grunble Against God in Vain, Man!..” Functions of the Lomonosov Quote in N. V. Gogol’s Comedy “The Inspector General”

The attention of researchers has already been drawn to a quotation from “Ode Selected from Job” by M. V. Lomonosov, included in the replica of Khlestakov, flirting with Marya Antonovna. Yu. V. Mann identified its following functions: comedy due to the discrepancy between the topic of conversation and the content of the given poetic lines, as well as due to the situation that Khlestakov faced, as in a gymnasium exam; thought about the vicissitudes of human fate. Comparison of the content of this lyrical work, which was textbook-famous for the reader of the 19th century, with the Silent Scene, as well as with the later “Dénouement of the Inspector General”, also a Gogol text, allows us to take a fresh look at the role of the mentioned quotation. Synthesis of arts, allusiveness, rich symbolism of the Silent Scene, rich allegorical imagery of “Dénouement of the Inspector General” through associative connections with the spiritual ode of M. V. Lomonosov strengthen the eschatological and apocalyptic semantic plans of “The Inspector General”, emphasize the spiritual and moral issues, formulate their phased formulation and deepening. “Inspector General” in this aspect can be perceived not only as a satirical and socially accusatory work, but also — in the context of the later “Reflections on the Divine Liturgy” and “Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends” — as a call to repentance and Christian renewal of life.

The Appropriation of Fixed Capital: A Metaphor?

In the debate on the impact of digital technology on society, considering that digital technologies have profoundly changed the way we learn and communicate, and especially the “mode of production”, and remembering that this transformation takes place in an era of capitalist economic hegemony – the hypothesis often arises that the producer is transformed by the use of this machine. There is speculation that the user incorporates the instrumentality of the digital machine. Furthermore, when one recognizes that capitalist production develops its process of value creation by using cognitive labour power (and that this form of value production becomes more and more prominent) the technological incorporation of the cognitive cooperation of workers, seems to become ever more central to capitalist exploitation. Consequently, in the Marxist debate, people have started talking of an “appropriation of fixed capital” by the digitized worker and by the cognitive producer. This article asks: Are these simply metaphors? It discusses the relationship of living labour and digital machines. It stresses that digital machines do not determine society and human fate but can be appropriated by social struggles for the commons. It grounds the analysis of the digital in Karl Marx’s works on technology and fixed capital. It concludes that autonomous spheres of digital self-valorisation can be established through social struggles that aim at advancing social co-operation and the commons. Acknowledgement: This article was translated from Italian to English by Michele Ledda with editorial support by Christian Fuchs, David Chandler, and Sara Raimondi. The paper is based on a talk that Antonio Negri gave at the 7th ICTs and Society Conference “Digital Objects, Digital Subjects: An Interdisciplinary Symposium on Activism, Research & Critique in the Age of Big Data Capitalism” on May 20, 2017, at the University of Westminster in London. The video of this talk is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htm5xwAl-kE The video of the commenting and Q&A session that followed can be watched here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-smmdOz9gIU The manuscript of Negri’s talk was published as part of a conference volume. It is reprinted based on a Creative Commons licence. Acknowledgement: Negri, Antonio. 2019. The Appropriation of Fixed Capital: A Metaphor? In Digital Objects, Digital Subjects: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Capitalism, Labour and Politics in the Age of Big Data, edited by David Chandler and Christian Fuchs, 205-214. London: University of Westminster Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.16997/book29.r. License: CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0. The original article was published in Italian in the journal EuroNomade and translated into English with permission: https://www.euronomade.info/appropriazione-di-capitale-fisso-una-metafora/

Writings from a Sienese Renaissance prisoner. Antonio Petrucci’s fall and his zibaldone (1461-1465)

Urbino. November 1464. Antonio Petrucci, a preeminent Senese politician and condottiero, is still imprisoned, following his defeat at the hands of papal troops on 30 October 1461. During his captivity, Petrucci composed a Zibaldone (a commonplace book), in which he mainly copied lyrics by Latin classics and Italian poets and humanists. Petrucci’s autograph also contains a complaint against Fortune dated 10 November 1464, which is one of the last texts of the manuscript. Petrucci was certainly not the first medieval author to reflect on human fate and the role of Fortune. On the contrary, the image of the wheel of Fortune is probably among the most iconic of the Middle Ages. Nevertheless, Petrucci’s complaint is not simply a general reflection on the role of Fortune. The lamentation is chiefly the way Petrucci decided to portray his own personal fall, accusing the “very cruel Fortune” of depriving him of his “illustrious and gracious homeland”, Siena. It would be superficial to reduce the Senese’s complaint to a simple description of his misadventures, and the same is true for every document written by someone who suffered a failure. Petrucci’s case raises questions about the sources available to historians to study the history of downward mobility.

Репрезентація життєвого шляху людини у прислівʼях та приказках із семантично протилежними компонентами (на матеріалі польської мови)

The article analyzes the scholarly works devoted to the main aspects of human existence and delves into Polish proverbs and sayings with semantically opposite components that indicate the human life path. Taking into account the semantics of the paremic units, five thematic groups have been distinguished which most clearly reflect the processes of human existence, human destiny, life experience and human labor activity, as well as human existence in time space. It has been discovered that the “Human Fate” TG includes the largest number of Polish paraphrases with semantically opposite components, while the “Human Labor Activity” TG has the smallest number. As the analysis of the actual material has shown, the image of fate in Polish proverbs and sayings is most often represented by such lexemes as fortuna, dola and los.

Siła klątwy, magia wody i (nie)możność zmiany czasu w noweli „Jańcio Wodnik” Jana Jakuba Kolskiego

The text raises the issue of the presence of the magical sphere in the human experience. Johnnie Waterman, the protagonist of a short story and a film by Jan Jakub Kolski, experiences a mysterious force that begins to govern his life. This secret power is related to water, through which the hero begins to heal, and in short order becomes a holy man of sorts. Using this character as and example, the author poses a question about the meaning of human fate and the moral aspects of human existence. He also shows human life as dependent on mythical and symbolic meanings that in fact create reality. Johnnie Waterman, who is finally undone by his own pride, wants to turn back time, because he believes that this magical “band-aid” will repair the harm he had caused. However, it is only his understanding of who he is and what he was doing that brings the desired change and makes the hero start living together with his family. The curse that befell Jańcio on the one hand unleashed evil, on the other — it became a chance for the hero to find the truth about himself and the surrounding world.

LINGVO-SEMANTIC PALETTE OF THE CONCEPT OF FATE IN THE SLOBOZHANSKY AND BOYKIVSKY DIALECT DISCOURSE

The anthropocentrism of modern linguistics and the inexhaustibility of the meanings of human existence convince us of the relevance of conceptual analysis. Therefore, the aim of the study was to investigate the linguistic-semantic content of the general cultural concept of FATE in the mental structures of consciousness of the carriers of distant Slobozhansky and Boykivsky dialects, and the task was to structure these semantic units and the corresponding linguistic (speech) constructions. The objects of the study were narrative texts (narratives) of dialect speakers, where the motive of human fate is traced (directly or indirectly), and the subject of the study are the semantic components of the concept of FATE in the Ukrainian dialect continuum and their verbalization at the lexical, phraseological, syntagmatic, and syntactic levels. The methodology of the study consisted of a continuous selection of linguistic-semantic components of the concept of FATE from the dialectological material recorded in the summer of 2021 and a semantic analysis of the identified speech structures.In the analyzed narratives, the concept of FATE is represented by denominations that belong to the lexico-semantic groups (LSG) «Expressions about the inevitability of fate», «Expressions about the hardship of female fate», «A statement about the need to change one’s destiny», «A statement about the typical fate of a representative of a certain community in a certain historical period». In the LSG «Statements about the inevitability of fate» we single out speech constructions that fit into semantic models (SM) «the bureaucratic apparatus of a totalitarian state moves a person from his native place against his wishes», «the dependence of life’s fate on a typical life model»; in LSG «Statements about the hardships of a woman’s fate» − SM: «a stepmother (mother-in-law, fatherin-law) interferes in the formation of a young woman’s life destiny», «the fatalism of an unsuccessful marriage for a woman»; in LSG «Statements regarding the need to change one’s fate» − SM: «satisfaction with one’s fate (aspiration for a sustainable life)», «active position in changing one’s fate», «active position in changing the fate of one’s children»; in LSG «Statement about the typical fate of a representative of a certain community in a certain historical period» − SM: «lack of work and decent earnings as a negative factor in life’s fate», «habituation of representatives of another ethnic group to the search for a better fate in the worlds».We see a comparative analysis of the linguistic and semantic components of the concept of FATE in Ukrainian spoken and artistic discourses as a research perspective.

<i>Otherness</i> as Basis of Artistic Chronotope: Script vs. Film

The article describes the existential category of the Other and the Otherness in V. Sorokin's screenplay for the film called 4, which was directed by I. Hrzhanovsky in 2004. The Otherness helped V. Sorokin to realize his artistic idea of post-Soviet Russia. According to Jean Paul Sartre, the Other conveys a feeling of the last days: without a single scene of physical violence, the reader develops a feeling of nausea. The essence of the Other is based on the principles of rejection, fear, and inevitability; the Other is the only verifier of one’s existence. In 4, the frightening atmosphere of the Other World is created by such artistic means as coding, dying, masking, and deconstruction of symmetry. They highlight the artistic intent to portray the chaotic nature of being and the absence of time, where human fate is meaningless, and people are reduced to functions in the game of life. The Otherness of the chronotype gives the script and the film a new code: the loss of the holy number four desacralizes existence, thus condemning the world and people in it to a life of hopeless dismay.

Художественно-документальные повести Г. А. Ходырева в серии «Наши герои» книгоиздания Удмуртии

The paper considers the works included in the series of military-patriotic books for young people “Our Heroes”. Founded in 1968, this series consists of books by Udmurt writers about fellow Udmurt heroes, the Great Patriotic War veterans. The documentary fiction novellas of the national writer of the republic G. A. Khodyrev “The Eagle: The Tale of Pyotr Babkin” (1969; co-author V. V. Golubev) and “Soldier Spyridon Strelkov” (1976) were among the most prominent books in the series. The aim of the study is to identify the ways of reality reflection in the Udmurt documentary fiction prose for children and adolescents that uses the human experience of war heroes as the material and document as the medium as exemplified in the creative work of Herman Alekseevich Khodyrev (1932-1995). Scientific novelty lies in the following: it is the first time that based on the material of G. A. Khodyrev’s novellas, the role and place of the documentary-factual principle in Udmurt prose for children and adolescents were examined, the features of the aesthetic assimilation of the fact as the most important part of the poetics of a work were determined. The results of the study suggest that in the Udmurt children’s literature of the late 1960s – mid-1980s, documentary fiction works appear in which the image of a real hero is recreated through the use of the authentic facts and human fates of the Great Patriotic War period. G. A. Khodyrev’s novellas published in the series “Our Heroes” are characterised by the fact that the author managed to show the synthesis of universal national heroism and the manifestation of the individual human spirit in war. In his prose, such qualities of the “series” as a clear image of a real young hero’s formation against the background of specific historical events, the appeal to children’s perception through the memories technique, the lyrical descriptions of the nature of the native land, the author’s focus on activating the educational role of literature, the transformation of dry “newspaper” language into vivid, imaginative artistic speech are manifested.

THE ARTIST AT THE TURN OF THE CENTURY: THE FEATURES OF PETRO LEVCHENKO’S ARTISTIC STYLE

The article is dedicated to the little-studied creative work of the Ukrainian artist Petro Levchenko, and namely, to the identification of historical and cultural grounds for the quality changes in the stylistic features of his artistic manner, beginning from earlier stages of his formation, to the period of his mature mastery. The present study explored and analyzed the main artistic courses and styles of the period (end of 19th – beginning of 20th centuries), when the artist’s views on the aims and tasks of painting art underwent certain transformation, and it directly influenced the evolution of the master’s artistic search, his artistic “handwriting”. In this work certain parallels were made between the personality traits and human fate of the artist (based on the many memoires of Petro Levchenko’s life path) and his acceptance of the latest trends in the artistic life of the age contemporary to him, valid conclusions are made regarding the connection of his personal qualities and creative preferences with susceptibility to new trends in art and the new philosophy of impressionism. The article explores all the genre richness of Petro Levchenko’s heritage – the landscapes, the plein air etudes, the interior paintings. The analysis of technical, compositional, coloristic characteristics of Petro Levchenko’s creations, which were the most distinctive for understanding the evolution of the artist’s style, allowed to demonstrably confirm the conclusions made in the article. As a result of the research, which was conducted in this article, the unique style characteristics of Petro Levchenko’s art were discovered, as well as his innovative accomplishments in painting, which, in the aggregate, have the traits of an artistic phenomenon in the culture of Ukraine. The author of the article emphasizes the importance of the perspective of studying Petro Levchenko’s works, as it is a phenomenon which belongs to the Ukrainian artistic heritage as well as to the world one, and demonstrates the connection and interpenetration of Ukrainian and worldwide tendencies in the artistic culture.

Heroic failure narratives: building conveyed authenticity and engagement from downfalls

ABSTRACT This research investigates how heroic failure narratives displayed by a social media influencer are received and signified by online audiences. Based on a netnography, we analyse the journey of a marathonist and social media influencer in his unsuccessful quest to qualify for the Boston Marathon. Our analysis reveals how failure in a heroic quest triggers narratives and meanings related to a humanized heroic archetype. We delineate the concept of heroic failure narratives as those that, despite the failure to perform, perpetuate a prominent and special condition of the protagonist, conveying authenticity, building engagement and humanizing the relationship with the audience. We depict three heroic failure narratives, their meanings and functions: (1) Failure as a heroic process; (2) Failure as an affective bond; and (3) Failure as a tragic human fate. We discuss how heroic failure narratives may affect admired public figures, online audiences, brands, and society at large.

Myśl ekonomiczna kalwinizmu

The aim of the paper is to present the economic thoughts of John Calvin and his followers, referring to current issues, such as money lending, usury, or work. The latter, according to the famous thesis of Max Weber, received spiritual value by acting as a bridge between God's will and daily life. The hypothesis of this article differs somewhat from this conviction, assuming that the main economic elements of Calvinist thought have been the consequence of the release of temporal realities from the influence of the direct action of God, according to the protestant theology of the radical separation of nature and grace. Initiated by Protestantism, the dichotomy of nature and grace seems to have important consequences for economic thought. The salvific dimension of human fate remained in the hands of God, he depends entirely on its favour in connection with the dogma of predestination. In the earthly life, a human being was treated as a part of nature, his survival depended on skill and determination. in the struggle with nature, devoid of the grace of God, ruled by the law of necessity. Survival and a better life depended primarily on human labour and effort. The flourishing of economic life has resulted not only from the ethical role of work, but also from the fact that it was no longer inhibited by religious restrictions. Thus, modern man was born, more and more aware of his subjectivity, subordinating nature to himself building the human world in place of the natural world. Building a modern society and economy is part of the Protestant ethos of mastering nature.

Antropološki aspekti identiteta junaka "Nečiste krvi" Bore Stankovića

In light that the novel "Impure Blood" by Borisav Stanković covers the events, family and social relations, in the defined area, a small-town in the south of Serbia, at specific time, from 1850 to 1900, so make it possibly to research the aspects of human life as the central point of the turmoil of that time and that space. In interpretations of the parts from the novel "Impure Blood", the writer's attitude towards individual human fates in social situations in Vranje, after liberation from the Turks, can be seen. The anthropological aspect of the problem issue is addressed to the main figures (Effendi-Mita and Landlord /"Gazda"/ Marko) of the social communities given in the novel, urban and rural, but also to their descendants. In this novel, Bora Stanković described a series of tragic fates of the characters who were often in disgrace of unwritten rules of their background and inherited patterns of manners. Bora's characters experienced a drama of identity due to the collapse of merchant families that had a prominent and privileged place in the small-town, but also because of the collision with new times that spreading rural families into town. This led to the mixing of two worlds in which money began to determine social relations and to disrupt self-reliance of personality. Therefore, all these circumstances further complicate the role of an unfinished man looking for his identity, confirming or denying the personal need and experience of ancestors. Stanković's characters are in deep discord with themselves and others, and as such they proved incapable and weak to struggle for their own identity. The paper is also dealing with possible reasons for such choice of the characters.

Melchior Grodziecki jako współczesny wzorzec edukacji dla pokoju w zróżnicowanym kulturowo Cieszynie

St. Melchior Grodziecki is presented in the context of peace education, which constitutes a set of fundamental principles of upbringing and role modelling in the modern world, while taking into account the aspect of the Saint’s veneration in the culturally diverse town of Cieszyn. The Saint’s biography is presented in the context of the epoch in which he lived. The issue of peace education and searching for role models significant in the life of contemporary people constitutes an important area of consideration. Attention is drawn to the reverence of St. Melchior Grodziecki in culturally diverse Cieszyn, with special reference to the year 2019, which was declared in the province of Silesia as the Year of Melchior Grodziecki. Melchior Grodziecki is an important model for the inhabitants of Cieszyn. On the basis of his biography, it is possible to explain and show what an important role is played in human life by history, which determines human fate and influences the choices made.

Odwieczny model dziejów Rosji

The eternal model of Russia’s historyThe article discusses a dual model of the history of Russia presented in the speeches of Polish Romantics included in the Russian studies texts of the following epochs and in the works of Russian authors, e.g. Yuri Lotman and Boris Uspensky. The author proves that the Gnostic-Manichaean influence on the religiousness of Russians is the source of their accumulation of rebellion against the world and the human fate predicted in it. This rebellion on the basis of a radical anti-world dualism gives rise to the destructive desires of Russians, which explode in various forms of historical destruction. They push the Russians into wars, partitions, revolutions and invasions.

Graeco-Roman Metaphor of Human Fate as a Fabric Woven and Thread Spun by Supernatural Beings in Medieval Icelandic Contexts

This article offers an analysis of the Old Icelandic use of the weaving and spinning of fate metaphor, which projects the patterns of the practices of weaving and spinning on the notion of fate. The study aims primarily at reviewing the Latin provenance of this metaphor in the Old Icelandic literature, and examining the probability of the transfer of this metaphor through the reception of ancient Roman literature in medieval Iceland.

The concept of fiction in Soroka’s «Crumbs»

In the article, we analyze the concept of fiction in the short story collection «Crumbs» (2019) by the Ukrainian writer Petro Soroka. In this book, the author directly speaks out about his vision of literature; in some tales, he makes digressions, comments on his writing practice and narration, and outlines his understanding of fiction. All these things create a balance between the author’s intentions and concrete texts. In a broad context, the book is a valuable source for researching short stories in modern Ukrainian literature, the nature of fiction in general, and the understanding of fictionality these days. Soroka considered «Crumbs» the pinnacle of his writing. But the book remains unnoticed. The relevance of the article is grounded on this.
 The aim of the article is to outline and identify the conception of fiction proposed in «Crumbs». For that, we solve two main tasks – analyzing the author’s reflections and tracing the realized and unrealized intentions in concrete works.
 The central thesis of Soroka is that literature should mirror life. He uses theological reasoning to explain the mirror reflection in fiction (because God creates human fates, he is the best artist, so the goal of literature is not to make-believe but to reflect what God intended). We interpret this thesis and conclude that the author eliminates the main components of fictionality – the make-believe and the filling with meaning. He finds some fictionality in the representation of characters, the depiction of the current time, and the mastery of retelling. But we state that all these fictional components have lost their status because, these days, they are the constituents of nonfictional genres or texts in nonfictional spheres. The only thing that remains when it comes to fiction is the genre. The author names his writings «short stories». So the fictionality of «Crumbs» is a consensus between author and reader about the genre of the book. It arises in a receptive context. Soroka’s short stories are like artifacts that occur because of rethinking subjects in an uncharacteristic, changed context. In this sense, they are contemporary art phenomena.
 These conclusions about «Crumbs» may become a basis for researching the other writings by Petro Soroka and the short stories of other Ukrainian writers.

Rethinking Human Development and/as Human Security for the Anthropocene

Abstract Three recent reports from the United Nations Development Programme reconsider human development thinking and revive UN human security thinking: the 2020 Human Development Report (HDR 2020); the 2022 Special Report (SR 2022) on human security; and the 2021/2022 Human Development Report (HDR 2022). The trilogy marks an overdue return to human security thinking. HDR 2020 builds a sense of common human fate, employing the notion of the Anthropocene. SR 2022 adds a diagnostic stress on growing subjective insecurities and a prescriptive stress on solidarity. HDR 2022 explores the escalating felt insecurities, their drivers, and possible responses. It attempts to integrate and extend the other two reports; most of HDR 2020's components and themes recur, but in more mature forms and enriched by perspectives and tools from SR 2022. The present article lays a basis for reconsideration of similarities, differences, and possible complementarities between human development and human security approaches and the social quality approach.

RUSSIAN HANDWRITTEN WORKS ON THE “IMMUTABILITY OF THE DESTINIES OF GOD” (THE PLOT OF “MARCO THE RICH”)

The article is devoted to handwritten works of the 17th–19th centuries, in which the global plot known as “Marko the Rich” in Russian materials, is used: a rich man receives a prophecy that his son-in-law and heir will be the son of poor parents; he tries to ruin the boy, but the prediction comes true. The plot was known both in Europe and in the East, it penetrated into Russian literature in the Middle Ages. The focus is on four works: “Example” (Priklad) about the Caesar Conrad and the knight’s son from the “Roman Acts” (Gesta Romanorum), “The Tale of a Rich Merchant,” a short novel without a title from the manuscript codex of the Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Arkhangelsk collection, S. No. 138), “The Short Novel About the Rich and the Poor, and How God’s Destinies are Immutable” from the manuscripts of the 19th-century Pechora Old Believer scribe I. S. Myandin. The last two works are being examined for the first time. The article examines the composition and plot of the literary works, as a comparative material, folklore tales about Marko the Rich are used. Literary works differ in origin (“Example” is a translated work, the rest are original), in the time of creation, and in plot development. At the same time, they are all religious works that affirm the idea of the dependence of human fate on God’s providence. Genetic connections between the works are not clearly traced, and the appearance of certain motifs in the texts is explained by the influence of folklore tales.

Sources of Abai’s «Perfect Man» Concept

This article examines Abai's concept about the Perfect Man. Thoughts about the perfect person, which have been formed over the centuries and accumulated in the national consciousness, emphasize the importance of educating a new generation of people in modern society. Concepts based on universal values and transformed into a national code were reflected in the works of thinkers of antiquity and the Middle Ages, and later became a new feature in Abai's work. Abai's Perfect Man is a person who loves the God, respects a person, glorifies human qualities, knows the difference between good and evil, loves generosity, listens to the voice of his heart, stands for justice, avoids lies, hardworking, patriotic and mature. The researchers say maturity is the charity of the people living in the community. Charity is expressed in virtue, politeness, kindness, compassion, and fairness. In the works of Abai and Aristotle, Al-Farabi, Yusuf Balasaguni and Akhmet Iugneki, good people are described as conscious people who prioritize the states interests, are not indifferent to human fate, know the truth and able to think and make the right decisions. Topical issues of anthropocentrism – the discovery of the essence of a holistic model of a person, the search for the depth of the worldview of a mature person in the spiritual heritage of different periods, their connection with the nature of the ethnos, the artistic world, worldview. Figurative words and phraseological units and proverbs, aphorisms that create the image of a Perfect Man are valued as a motivation and a form of modeling. The values of Abai's worldview are considered in connection with the conscious actions of a mature person, and historical sources are taken for their sources. The historical heritage includes ancient Turkic monuments, medieval Turkic heritage and the thoughts of poets and the words of orators.

Proper acquisition of cell class identity in organoids allows definition of fate specification programs of the human cerebral cortex

Realizing the full utility of brain organoids to study human development requires understanding whether organoids precisely replicate endogenous cellular and molecular events, particularly since acquisition of cell identity in organoids can be impaired by abnormal metabolic states. We present a comprehensive single-cell transcriptomic, epigenetic, and spatial atlas of human cortical organoid development, comprising over610,000 cells, from generation of neural progenitors through production of differentiated neuronal and glial subtypes. We show that processes of cellular diversification correlate closely to endogenous ones, irrespective of metabolic state, empowering the use of this atlas to study human fate specification. We define longitudinal molecular trajectories of cortical cell types during organoid development, identify genes with predicted human-specific roles in lineage establishment, and uncover early transcriptional diversity of human callosal neurons. The findings validate this comprehensive atlas of human corticogenesis invitro as a resource to prime investigation into the mechanisms of human cortical development.