European Literature Research Articles

The stakes of “Imitation”: debating modern poetics and national identity in late ottoman literature

ABSTRACT In the late nineteenth century, Ottoman culture witnessed a concerted effort to develop a national literature on par with modern European literature and culture. This was also the time when Ottoman intellectuals began to develop a systematic approach to literary analysis. Debates on the imitation, translation, and adaptation of Western forms were central to this period. This article examines the evolution of the concept and practice of imitation as part of these debates. This detailed analysis of the theoretical discourse surrounding the concepts of imitation and authenticity contributes to the broader field of literary theory and comparative literature. By introducing the theoretical rigor inherent in Ottoman-Turkish intellectual practice and highlighting its specific conceptual tradition, the article not only bridges the gap of non-Western critical thought in contemporary literary history, but also offers a fresh perspective on the much-debated East–West paradigms and cross-cultural approaches in literary studies and beyond.

The Conundrum of Similarity: Tsubouchi Shōyō and H. M. Posnett on the Meaning of Cross-Textual Resemblance

ABSTRACT How can a critic account for a perceived resemblance between texts that are not related by influence? The present article examines how this question was answered by Tsubouchi Shōyō, a key figure in the early history of the academic discipline of comparative literature in Japan. In 1890 or 1891, Shōyō lectured on a then-new field of inquiry: hishō (or hikaku) bungaku. His lectures were avowedly a free adaptation of Hutcheson Macaulay Posnett’s Comparative Literature (1886). Shōyō was among the first generation of Japanese to receive an education in European literatures and undertook pioneering work in what might be called “east-west” criticism, uncovering many similarities between works in Japanese and English. But since there had been almost no exchange between Japanese literature and European literatures for centuries, accounting for those similarities posed a challenge. This might explain why Shōyō found Posnett’s methodology valuable: Posnett applied social science to the study of literature as a way to supersede criticism based on identifiable literary influence. Shōyō’s own comparative criticism, however, differed from Posnett’s: while Posnett maintained that resemblances, even between notionally unrelated texts, must be referable to some commonality of context, Shōyō maintained that cross-textual similarity could arise purely by accident.

Between paternalism and colonialism: Czechs and Slovaks from the 19th century to the first half of the 20th century

The study focuses on the postcolonial analysis of the development of mutual Czech-Slovak relations from the 19th century to the first half of the 20th century. The core of the analysis are specific literary representations of these mutual relationships based on the textual corpus of Czech and Slovak literature. In the broader public discourse of Central European literature, Czech-Slovak relations are only rarely analysed using postcolonial criticism. In the field of literary science, this is an unexplored area of Czech-Slovak relations. The contribution therefore seeks to complement postcolonial research on the material of Czech and Slovak non-fiction texts, as well as neglected novels. It focuses on the postcolonial analysis of literary representations of mutual Czech-Slovak relations, which developed between paternalism and colonialism in the observed period. The critical reading of these literary representations is based on the description of power relations identifiable through more or less conspicuous features of superiority and subordination, which are relevant to interpret through postcolonial theories. The author of the paper is aware of the specifics and differences of power relations between small cultures in the Central European area compared to the analysis of relations between a large empire and a politically subordinate colonial culture. For this reason, he expands the repertoire of terminology from postcolonial criticism (Homi H. Bhabha and Edward W. Said) and uses not only the basic terms colonialism and Orientalism, but also other terms to define the diverse scale of the power relationship of the Czechs to Slovak culture, e.g. paternalism (to introduce the Czech figure of the elder brother), pre-colonialism (to introduce the Czech figure of the savior) and anticolonialism (to introduce the Czech figure of the Slovaks as victims). Using postcolonial terminology, the study approaches specific literary figures that have become part of Czech thinking about Slovak culture. The situation of Slovak culture in the observed period can be interpreted through Kiossev’s metaphor of self-colonization, which reflects the positive reception of the cultural and educational mission of the Czechs in Slovakia. The used corpus of texts from Czech and Slovak literature and its analysis served as a starting point for understanding cultural stereotypes and literary representations of nascent national identities. Czech colonialism developed in the political, cultural and linguistic framework, first as a recognition of Slovakia by Czech slovakophiles, after 1918 it was already part of the discussion in the public space. All these period attitudes of the Czechs towards Slovakia were prescribed in literary texts of a fictional and non-fictional nature and as part of the Czech cultural memory they filled the Czech cultural myth about Slovakia.

Distant-Reading Communities: Monolingualisation in Fin-de-Siècle European Literary Historiography

Abstract A return to earlier forms of distant reading multilingual corpora allows us to reflect on the monolingual authorial position that manages and mediates the language diversity and linguistic specificity (literariness) of multilingual corpora with the objective of fostering supranational (imagined) communities of readers (Anderson, 1983). Revisiting the distant-reading practices of fin-de-siècle Britain can help us identify historiographical focal points and priorities, provide an understanding of the scope and circumference of the corpus, and reveal the conceptions of gain and loss perceived as integral to distant reading. The tension between enrichment and dispossession inherent in the practice of literary historiography is acute when it comes to multilingual corpora, compiled to facilitate a crossing and re-weaving of the boundaries of language, understanding, and community. In the 12-volume series Periods of European Literature, edited and, in part, written by the journalist, literary historian, and Chair of Rhetoric and English Literature at Edinburgh University, George Saintsbury (1845–1933), Anglophone comparatists represent the multilingual corpora of exemplar works, gauging the necessity for, or dispensability of, translation, and managing the “great unread”, which, in this case, equates the “great unreadable”. In their desire to build imagined communities of readers of European literature, Saintsbury and his contributors tend to operate in a monolingual supralinguistic sphere in which languages, authors, and works are named, passages are occasionally quoted, but in which no reading of literature, neither on the side of the comparatist, nor of the reader, takes place. Literary language is thus only tangentially part of literary historiography.

The Impact of One Thousand And One Nights on Western Romance Stories. The Story of Tristan and Isolt Is an Example

Objectives: This research is concerned with demonstrating the impact of the ancient Arabic narrative structure on Western love stories. To demonstrate the areas of convergence and divergence in the fundamental and eternal idea of love, as writers expressed it in their arts in varying ways, and they met in expressing it in some axes, which leads to exploring Western civilization’s dialogue with the stories of One Thousand and One Nights in Western love stories. Methods: The research considered that the optimal threshold for comparison is to determine the impact of Arabic literature on Western literature, and to explain the term “romance.” Then, taking the stories of One Thousand and One Nights as a reference text, we show, through comparison between it and one of the love stories known to Westerners - which is the story of Tristan and Aizult - the points of similarity and difference between them, adopting the approach of intertextuality to clarify the features of the cultural impact of the stories of One Thousand and One Nights. In Western stories. Results: The West’s contact with the East had an impact on the new concept of love in European literature. The book One Thousand and One Nights is considered one of the most influential books in Western romances, including the story of Tristan and Iseult. The research showed the possible Arabic origins of this story through textual comparison, as well as between the most prominent features. The cultural impact of One Thousand and One Nights. Conclusion: The book One Thousand and One Nights had an impact on changing some Western literary concepts, including the concept of romance, and this influence was clear in Western romances. Recommendations: The research recommends paying attention to comparative studies and rooting literary concepts and their roots to demonstrate the points of convergence between cultures and the role of Arabs in civilizational interaction.

AT THE BORDER OF TWO WORLDS Role options of the “distantiated spectator” in Vadoma by Anna Vörös

The debut volume of Anna Vörös is a unique and solitary voice in contemporary Hungarian literature referring to the representation of refugees. The author is actively practicing psychology and worked as a volunteer in hot zones of the migrant crisis, so she had the chance to learn about different aspects of the crisis from the inside. By collecting experiences, she built out a literary universe with an authentic voice. Her narrative can be defined as close to the triple structure of distant suffering theory by Luc Boltanski. The model of Boltanski features three categories of which the third is the “distantiated spectator”: who instead of playing the role of furious and delivering justice, rather interprets and experiences mediatized suffering in its historical context and process. The cycle of prose featuring the Syrian heroine in its metaphors and symbols avoids the traps of topoi and common places of storytelling based on “contentless pathos” and “colonizing, colonial and postcolonial point of view”. Anna Vörös in a revealing and documentarist tone approaches the arrival experience of masses coming to Europe – this experience may be described by sociological, cultural anthropological, and spatial theories while using various topics and situations. In her model motifs like the moment of spotting the sea or land, crossing them, and winning the battle over physical barriers, are melted into contemporary European refugee literature as well as tendencies in film, fine art, as well as media representations of the topic. The paper is an attempt to discover this question in its complexity.

Postmodern transformation of the ancient myth of the Minotaur in modern European literature as exemplified by the novels by Jean-Christophe Grangé

Postmodern transformation of the ancient myth of the Minotaur in modern European literature as exemplified by the novels by Jean-Christophe Grangé

On the importance and methodological aspects of historiographical research of political and legal doctrines

The article examines the issues of the development of historiographical studies of political and legal doctrines from the point of view of clarifying the role and significance of the relevant results in modern legal science, as well as the problems of improving the methodological foundations of the formation of the Russian historiographical model of political and legal knowledge. The study shows that the lack of developed and consistent models of historiography of political and legal doctrines in foreign and domestic legal literature is associated with certain interpretations of historical knowledge and cognitive principles, the rejection of historicism in the social sciences, which was established and spread especially in the twentieth century in Western European literature, the undeveloped types of development of national literatures covering the issues of origin and development of political and legal knowledge. In terms of improving approaches to historiographical research of political and legal knowledge, the possibilities of a deeper study of the influence of socio-religious consciousness, genre features, plots and means of expression, linguistic characteristics of the works of scientists and other studied texts are indicated. In the methodological direction, an important role can be played by referring to the constructs formed in the Russian philosophical literature, in particular the works of P. A. Florensky.

Literature and Mysticism in the Wake of Silvano Panunzio: From The Divine Comedy to the European Literature of the Twentieth Century

This article introduces one of the forgotten figures of religious and literary studies: the Italian scholar, philosopher, metaphysician, poet and writer Silvano Panunzio (1918–2010). His contribution has so far been relegated to the margins of academic debate, and, currently, there are no academic studies on his work, in which mysticism plays a pivotal role. Panunzio believed that the transcendental and mystical dimension is fundamental for fully understanding the social, cultural, historical and political events of humanity. Another relevant aspect of his work is the importance he gave to literature and its relationship with mysticism, as in the case of Dante’s Divine Comedy or other European and Eastern writers and poets, such as Goethe, Shakespeare, Ibn Arabi and Dostoevsky. Significantly, Panunzio saved from oblivion the work of a forgotten man of letters of the nineteenth century, Gabriele Rossetti (1783–1854), who proposed the first symbolic and esoteric interpretation of Dante’s literary production and of European medieval love literature. Raising awareness of the intellectual amnesia around the figure of Silvano Panunzio may be a useful contribution to future research, both in the field of religious and literary studies.

New Criminological Literature in Europe

New Criminological Literature in Europe

Teaching Methods and Tools in Professional Translation in Higher Education

The main objective of this study is to show how translation is a necessary act in literary and cultural exchanges. In literary communication between readers of different cultures, translation is no longer only a process of interpretation where people understand each other although they speak different languages, but an act that requires prior knowledge of culture, literature, art, faith, customs, characteristics and the place of others in society. In this context, Albanian culture, literature and language are often prejudiced and not included in translation programs or in higher education programs that offer studies on Balkan languages, literature and cultures ; although, with difficulty, large university centers began to offer advanced studies in Albanology in the beginning of the 20th century. Geographically, the largest number of universities that opened their doors to Albanian culture belongs to Europe and, if the data from last year is counted, also to the United States of America, since the Albanian language was added to the foreign language programs at Harvard University. Compared to the first few decades of the 20th century, where Albanian centers were constantly under foreign rule and suffering the fallout of the Second World War, preventing the full promotion of Albanian literature and culture in Europe, Albanian literature is now well-represented in European languages, especially in the last three decades. After the change in the political situation, in the beginning of the 90s in Albania and at the end of the 90s in Kosovo, the doors were opened and the possibilities for the penetration of Albanian literature in Europe increased. Publishing houses, universities, but also freelance translators were committed to make it known to the European reader. In this paper, we present the experience of the greatest translators of Albanian literature in the last five decades. The results of our analysis were generated with qualitative and comparative methods by conducting open and semi-open interviews with these translators, naturally relying on translation theories.

William Wordsworth, Child of Nature, Child of the Century: The Crisis of The Prelude in European Context

When he first heard in May of 1804 that Bonaparte intended to declare himself emperor, Beethoven famously tore off the dedication page of his third (‘Eroica’) symphony. In roughly the same time-frame during 1804–05 Wordsworth was coming to the conclusion of his first full version of The Prelude (completed May 20, 1805), with similar attention to Napoleon. I want to use this compositional coincidence as a lead-in to a concentrated reading of Book X of The Prelude which can lead to a stronger connection between Wordsworth and not just Beethoven, but the whole of nineteenth-century European literature, especially the great tradition of novels in France. By following carefully his intricate structuring of the stages of his crisis and its resolution we can arrive at a new way of seeing Wordsworth’s links to the broad landscape of nineteenth-century European literature.

THE CREATIVE HERITAGE OF THE PROMINENT UKRAINIAN INTERPRETER WORLD CLASSICS MYKOLA LUKASH

The article attempts to introduce readers to the biography of the writer-translator and to highlight the creative and translation legacy of Mykola Oleksiyovych Lukash (1919–1988), a prominent Ukrainian writer-interpreter of world classics, lexicographer, linguist, and polyglot. It sheds light on his life and creative path as an outstanding Ukrainian writer and interpreter of world classics, his schooling, and university education. His work as a primary school teacher in a village school in the Kyiv region, where he taught Ukrainian and German, is outlined. The author of the article focuses on Mykola Lukash’s studies at the Kharkiv Pedagogical University of Foreign Languages and the Agricultural Institute. His translation work on the two parts of Johann Wolfgang Goetheʼs “Faust” is described. The peculiarities of Mykola Lukash’s translations of works such as Goetheʼs “Faust”, Giovanni Boccaccioʼs “Decameron”, Miguel de Cervantesʼ “Don Quixote”, Gustave Flaubertʼs “Madame Bovary” and the poetry of Burns and Heine, among others, are outlined. Emphasis is placed on Mykola Lukashʼs knowledge of twenty foreign languages. Attention is drawn to the fact that he was one of the few translators who could work with the original text, not with intermediate Russian translations.It is noted that Mykola Lukash was one of the first in European literature to translate Federico García Lorca’s poetry, written in the Galician dialect of Spanish, into Ukrainian using the Hutsul dialect. Emphasis is placed on the fact that Mykola Lukash translated over a thousand outstanding works of world literature from a hundred authors in twenty languages. He collected a vast amount of lexicographic material and made translations from English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Polish, Lithuanian, and other languages. It is substantiated that certain concepts from Mykola Lukash’s legacy can be used by modern educators and translators.

Conceptualizing Literary History: A Survey of Poetics in Czech Fiction 1860–1910. Part Two

The article provides an innovative model of poetics (or isms, styles, etc.) in Czech prose in the latter half of the long 19th century. It gives an overview of seven individualized and mutually distinct poetics, including ideal, analytical, and psychological realisms, Parnassism, naturalism, impressionism, and decadence. The individual poetics do not represent periods, but exist in parallel, allowing confrontations and intersections either within the author’s work or in a specific text, as in the model of Czech literature developed by Dalibor Tureček in the past decade. They are always set in the context of European literature and supported by many illustrative examples. The model is not only typological, but also assumes a diachronic perspective, which can be developed in future scholarly work on the history of Czech literature. The aim is to create a system that can potentially be applied not only to Czech fiction, but possibly also to poetry or drama, in other periods and literatures. Part Two of the article concentrates on psychological realism, Parnassism, naturalism, impressio- nism, and decadence.

The first English textbook of plastic surgery—William (Jerry) Moore

The nineteenth century bore witness to a remarkable proliferation of reconstructive literature in Europe, based on procedures originally described in India and Italy. Despite the publication of a successful forehead flap in England in 1816, texts exclusively dedicated to the field of plastic surgery were relatively scarce in the English-speaking world. The authors sought to identify the first English textbook entirely devoted to plastic surgery. A comprehensive examination was undertaken, spanning various databases encompassing medical, medical humanities and historical domains (PubMed, MEDLINE, Web of Science, Anthropology, JSTOR, Encyclopedia of Ancient History), as well as an extensive perusal of materials housed in the State Library of Victoria, the University of Melbourne and the HathiTrust Digital Library. The scope of this search was confined to publications predating Harold Gillies' influential 1920 textbook. Within this vast literary landscape, an Australian surgeon named William Moore emerged as a figure of notable significance, authoring the first textbook of plastic surgery in English in 1899. Moore's legacy as a pioneering surgeon ahead of his era is undeniable. Yet, various factors conspired to obscure his rightful place in the annals of surgical history.

Theory in Comparative Law Scholarship

Abstract The main focus of this paper is the meaning of the term “theory” in comparative law. It examines the comparative law theory literature and conducts an in-depth analysis of a sample of articles from two journals (ajcl and ejclg). Theory is considered very important in legal scholarship. ajcl articles are usually more “theory-thick” than their European counterparts. Nevertheless, the majority of European literature also places a strong emphasis on theory-related language. Yet, it is often unclear why authors used these words or what they contributed to the paragraph, section, or research objective. None of the articles reviewed discussed or acknowledged the polysemous nature of theory. This lack of clarity and transparency may hinder the progress of comparative law scholarship.

Another sleeping giant? Environmental issue preferences in the 2019 European Parliament elections

Seminal works have highlighted a growing polarisation regarding the environment, with supporters advocating for immediate emissions reduction and others downplaying or even denying human-caused climate change. Despite this debate, little attention has been focused on how voters’ environmental preferences influence their electoral behaviour. Using the metaphor of the ‘sleeping giant’ from European Union politics literature, the article empirically explores how environmental issue preferences impact voting choices. Analysing stacked data from the 2019 European Election Study, the article examines the phenomenon of environmental issue voting by shifting the unit of analysis from individuals to party-voter dyads. Results reveal that environmental preferences moderately, yet significantly, affect vote choice. This effect is more pronounced among left-leaning voters and in countries where the environmental issue is more salient among the public. Our findings shed light on patterns of environmental preference and their role in European electoral competition.

Community health services in European literature: A systematic review of their features, outcomes, and nursing contribution to care.

To meet the population's needs, community care should be customized and continuous, adequately equipped, and monitored. Considering their fragmented and heterogeneous nature, a summary of community healthcare services described in European literature is needed. The aim of this study was to summarize their organizational models, outcomes, nursing contribution to care, and nursing-related determinants of outcomes. A systematic review was performed by searching PubMed, CINAHL, Scopus, and Embase in October 2022 and October 2023 (for updated results). Quantitative studies investigating the effects of community care, including nursing contribution, on patient outcomes were included and summarized. Reporting followed the PRISMA checklist. The review protocol was registered on PROSPERO (CRD42022383856). Twenty-three studies describing six types of community care services were included, which are heterogeneous in terms of target population, country, interventions, organizational characteristics, and investigated outcomes. Heterogeneous services' effects were observed for access to emergency services, satisfaction, and compliance with treatment. Services revealed a potential to reduce rehospitalizations of people with long-term conditions, frail or older persons, children, and heart failure patients. Models are mainly multidisciplinary and, although staffing and workload may also have an impact on provided care, this was not enough investigated. Community health services described in European literature in the last decade are in line with population needs and suggest different suitable models and settings according to different care needs. Community care should be strengthened in health systems, although the influence of staffing, workload, and work environment on nursing care should be investigated by developing new management models. Community care models are heterogeneous across Europe, and the optimum organizational structure is not clear yet. Future policies should consider the impact of community care on both health and economic outcomes and enhance nursing contributions to care.

New Criminological Literature in Europe

New Criminological Literature in Europe

Respect, Symbiosis, and Pluralism: Ideas of Ethics in Paradise Lost and Klara and The Sun

Literary ethics criticism regards literature as the specific ethical expression of human society at a particular stage of history, regarding literature as “the art of Ethics”. Ethical Literary Criticism takes it as its duty to explain the ethical function of literature, aiming at explaining the ethical phenomena in literature and making value judgments on them. In his Paradise Lost, which is regarded as “a monument in the history of European literature”, Milton explores ethical issues and considers the boundaries between good and evil in the classic Genesis stories of Satan's failure to rebel and Adam and Eve's expulsion from Paradise after stealing the forbidden fruit. As the edifying significance of literature gradually diminishes, the ethical thoughts embodied in literary works change with the times and break through the limitations of the times at intervals; in contemporary times, Kazuo Ishiguro, a Japanese writer with a “dual identity”, observes and participates in the life of Josie's family from the perspective of the AI in his novel Klara and The Sun, recounting insights into love and humanity and reflecting abundant ethical reflections on identity and moral goodness and evil, which shares some similarities with Paradise Lost written in the 17th century. Therefore, the thesis focuses on the three dimensions of self-internal, self and other, and self and morality attempting to show the ethical reflections on self-identity cognition, the relationship between man and other, the boundary between good and evil, and rationality and irrationality in Paradise Lost and Klara and The Sun, in order to reveal ethical changes of the times and explore the ethical ideals shared by Milton and Kazuo Ishiguro.