Modern Criticism Research Articles

Power in Postmodern Society: Between the Planes of Reality and Communication

The generally accepted statement about the postmodern character of today’s world does not provide a clue to understanding its essence. We just know that from this point of view, it is already modernist. However, the concepts of postmodernism are extremely diverse and depend on the subjectivity of their authors. Basically, a central question arises that remains unanswered: will postmodernism appear after modernism as evolution, or is it a criticism of modernism, rejection, a kind of general disappointment? For some, truly postmodernism is a disappointment of rationality. By contrast, neoconservatives rejoice in postmodernism. Nevertheless, their postmodern world is free from any substance, from any essence. They offer a kind of modernism, without a soul and without a Man, since everything must be “rendered harmless” in advance and, preferably, without excesses. It is a kind of sad utopia. In both cases, there is denial: either open — by the critics of postmodernism; or hidden — by “our own”.

Образ восприятия эвенков в художественной этнографии китайских писателей (на материале творчества Ужерту)

The Evenki are a small ethnic group living in Russia and China, which has preserved its traditional culture and rituals. The “Evenk theme” has become a significant phenomenon in modern Chinese literature and has contributed to ethnographic studies of Evenk culture. The relevance of the study is due to the interest of modern literary criticism in various artistic projections of imagological methodology through the prism of ethnic cultures, as well as the attention of modern Chinese writers to the life of small nationalities. The aim of the study was the imagological analysis of the image of the self-perception of the Evenki in the artistic ethnography of the Evenk writer Uzhertu. The research is based on the methodological developments in the field of artistic ethnography, as well as imagological studies of cultural images and artistic images of perception in literature. The principle of attracting and using ethnographic material is based on the works by Russian ethnographers. During the research, the stories of Uzhertu were analyzed. The image of the Evenk in his works is given from the point of view of self-perception. At the same time, it is emphasized that despite the positive qualities, the Evenk nation is weak and small in number, dissolving in the Han culture under the influence of globalization, modernization, and developing economy. As a representative of an ancient ethnos, faced with the impact of modern civilization, with each new stage of creativity, Uzhertu became more and more aware of his responsibility to his people, trying to fix and preserve its unique culture in an artistic form. In the “Evenk” works by Uzhertu, the main typological techniques of artistic ethnography were captured: the creation of images of perception of a foreign culture (Han) and images of perception, the imprinting of traditional religious ideas and a mythological picture of the world, a description of household and trade customs and rituals. Uzhertu sadly records the processes of enveloping the Evenks, their dissolution in the Han culture and everyday life.

The Image of the Perception of the Japanese and Japan in the Pre-Revolutionary Experience of Artistic Reflection: The Genre Aspect

The relevance of the research is determined by the interest of modern literary criticism in the imagological aspects and the problem of developing a research strategy in relation to this kind of texts. The novelty of the work is defined by the genre approach to the study of the image of perception of Japan and the Japanese in Russian pre-revolutionary literature dedicated to the events of the Russian-Japanese war, the introduction of previously unknown texts into scientific circulation, a comparative analysis of narrative strategies that determine the genre specificity of each text. The purpose of the work is to explicate the genre originality of works on the RussianJapanese war, which determines the perspective of the pre-revolutionary artistic reception of the image of perception of Japan and the Japanese in Russia. The methodology is based on an interdisciplinary approach that underpins the imagological paradigm of research. The authors rely on Russian and Chinese works on the history of Japan, Russian-Japanese relations, ethnography of Japan, ethnopsychology, religious studies, on the broad context of imagological research; apply historical-literary, comparative-historical, immanent analysis methods. The complex research is based on modern works concerning the problems of genre studies. The article traces the path of transformation of perceptions of Japan and the Japanese in Russian literature since the middle of the 19th century to the beginning of 20th century which is determined by the genre task of the works: from the first travelogues to the jingoistic notes in periodicals and further to “pacifist” fiction and post-war artistic experiences – the spy and detective text by A. I. Kuprin, the military diaries by V. V. Veresaev, a children’s ethnographic story by I. I. Mitropolsky. We conclude that the tragic and inglorious experience of the Russian-Japanese war pushed the horizons of not only the scientific comprehension of Japan and the Japanese by Russian scientists but also giving development to various genres of Russian literature opened the artistic possibilities of new ethnocultural and ethnopsychological experiences of self-knowledge of Russianness and Russians.

“Urban text” in Lyrics of Varvara Danilova through Pprism of Silver Age Poetry

The results of the analysis of “urban text” phenomenon in the lyrics of the modern Evenk poetess Varvara Danilova are presented. The relevance of the study is due to the interest of modern literary criticism in the heritage of the indigenous peoples of the North. The novelty of the work is seen in the consideration of the features of the “urban text” creation in the V. Danilova’s lyrics in the projection on the poetic experience of the Silver Age. The theoretical basis was the works of V. N. Toporov, Yu. M. Lotman, S. P. Gurin, N. V. Schmidt, and others. The material for the analysis was the most representative poems of Danilova’s collections: “Only you ...” (1992—1996), “Heavenly Hell” (2005), “Lunar Legend” (2010), containing direct or indirect indications of the presence of “urban” semantics in the title, at the level of motive-shaped structure or in subtext. It was found that the “urban text” in the lyrics of the Evenk poetess is represented both by concrete cultural and historical realities, and by a certain conventional topos, not tied either to time or space. The poets of the Silver Age, belonging to different literary trends, became the creative guidelines for the author. It is proved that V. Danilova created a unique author’s model of the “urban text”, in which symbolist, acmeistic and futuristic poetic experiences and national-cultural vision, conditioned by the ethnic authenticity of the author, were intertwined.

Alexander, Gavin, Emma Gilby, and Alexander Marr, eds. The Places of Early Modern Criticism.

Alexander, Gavin, Emma Gilby, and Alexander Marr, eds. The Places of Early Modern Criticism.

Intertextuality in Adnan As-Sa'igh's Poetry

This paper is a study of intertextuality, both linguistically and idiomatically showing the classical and modernist critics' opinion concerning it, and then it is applied on the poems of the Iraqi contemporary poet of the young generation: Adnan As-Sa'igh. The paper tackles the religious intertextuality which is subdivided into two sections: Qur'anic intertextuality and other Holy Books intertextuality. The paper then sheds light on the literary intertextuality by defining this term and term extracting the lines in which there is such intertextuality. The paper also explores the historical intertextuality and the historical events the poet cited in his poems. The last part of the paper is devoted to the folkloric intertextuality which is one of the topics the poet made use of to enrich his poetry by endowing it with a social atmosphere which reinforces his argument.

Our Cherished Moments of Involuntary Realism: Charles Harrison, Modernism, and Art Writing

In May 1969, Charles Harrison reviewed Morris Louis’ exhibition at the Waddington Galleries in London. Months later, he helped to install the exhibition When Attitudes Become Form at the Institute of Contemporary Arts. Harrison also wrote the catalogue text, published in Studio International. Those two texts marked a significant point in Harrison’s career. They were indicative of his disillusionment with modernist criticism, and of his burgeoning interest in the work of post-minimal and conceptual art. In this respect, the two essays mark a transition from modernism to post-modernism in the space between a formalist analysis of the art object and a more dispersed field of artistic practice, where a changed relationship between art practice, criticism, and curating was taking place. However, in the 2000s, Harrison came to reflect upon this cardinal moment. Harrison referred to his recollected experiences of the late 1960s as a ‘cherished moment of involuntary realism’, opening up issues around art writing which remain pertinent to the practice of art history.

Tensions in Tradition: Hadith, Gender, and Reasonable Interpretation

Given the central role the hadith tradition and sunna of the Prophet play in forming the doctrine of Islamic theology and law, they have been the focus of modern criticism and reinterpretation when it comes to the issues of women and gender in Islam. However, the thrust of the hadith and sunna pull indifferent directions and can be read both to support and to undermine patriarchy. This Article, therefore, begins with a description of “tension reports” in the Islamic narrative tradition, arguing that there is just as much material that celebrates the memory of liberating moments for women as there are reports bolstering male dominance. Tension reports preserve moments defying the institutions of patriarch in early Islamic history. Next, I discuss what I describe as misogynistic traditions in the hadith and the three main interpretive strategies employed by Muslim women scholars in their approach to this material. I assess the merits of these strategies and offer an alternative. Rather than a wholesale rejection of the hadith and sunna, as some have proposed, I argue for a more circumspect approach. As critical components of the Islamic tradition, the hadith and sunna must continue to serve as the source for dynamic and inventive solutions even to deeply entrenched challenges such as patriarchy. Reasonable interpretation offers the promise of maintaining an ethically sensitive and dynamic approach to resolving even the most intractable issues.

The Romantic and the Counter-Revolutionary Image of Beethoven

Arnold Schmitz’s Das romantische Beethovenbild. Darstellung und Kritik (1927) is established as an early contribution to reception history-a characterization that is only partially true, for Schmitz is concerned with more than reception as such. In his interpretation of Beethoven, an older confrontation between romanticism and romantic criticism becomes apparent, through which fundamental sociological and political issues of modernity were negotiated. Within this intellectual milieu, where Schmitz sought orientation after his habilitation in Bonn, were such influential figures as the theologian Karl Eschweiler and the constitutional scholar Carl Schmitt. Schmitz’s contributions to the Festschriften Schiedermair (1937) and Schmitt (1968) illuminate how his right-wing conservatism and critique of modernity were able to survive the political caesuras of 1933 and 1945.

Machines for Living: Modernism and Domestic Life by Victoria Rosner

Reviewed by: Machines for Living: Modernism and Domestic Life by Victoria Rosner Václav Paris (bio) MACHINES FOR LIVING: MODERNISM AND DOMESTIC LIFE, by Victoria Rosner. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020. ix + 292 pp. $35.00 cloth, ebook. This book takes its title from Le Corbusier's 1923 phrase, "Une maison est une machine-à-habiter"—"a house is a machine for living in."1 "The phrase," as Victoria Rosner explains, "is a provocation: What could be more antithetical to the cozy, individualistic spaces of the house/home ('maison' is both) than a machine?" (1) This provocation is at once theoretical and practical: theoretical because it involves a kind of twisting of familiar concepts and an [End Page 359] attempt to put them together like the poles of a magnet. Machines involve work, while living happens outside of work. But it is also a practical challenge or aspirational motto for transforming one's domestic life into something more efficient, more hygienic, and more automatic. The first chapter, or introduction, describes how literary modernism took up this provocation. As we learn almost immediately, the specific backdrop is the impact of the so-called "Rational Household" (2) on the lives of women. During the period covered—roughly 1900-1950, it was female homemakers who were at the frontline of the encounters between new technologies and domestic space such as electricity, the vacuum cleaner, or the indoor plumbing. This feminist orientation introduces a rich ambivalence to Rosner's study: on the one hand, literary modernism involves a utopian reimagining of domestic space; on the other hand, and often at the same time, it proves to be an important site of critique of this revolution. We see this, for instance, in Buster Keaton's 1922 film The Electric House,2 where a well-to-do family commits to electrifying their home, but many of the "efficiencies" introduced are showy flourishes rather than actual labor-saving practices. Dinner is served via an electric toy train that runs from the kitchen to the dining room on tracks around the table, stopping in front of each diner so that a plate can be removed. Meanwhile a traditional uniformed maid hovers in the kitchen (13). The conflicted story of modernism in the kitchen, in the intimate, private, and familial spaces of everyday life—is one that has been ignored: "Critics of modernism have largely bypassed the home, perhaps because modernist writers themselves often insulted and dismissed domesticity and its ideologies" (4). In order to remediate this critical neglect, Rosner's book dwells on the domestic theme in familiar and unfamiliar texts by Anglo-American modernists, most often T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound. It also, more importantly, knits together a skein of surprising links between modernist writers and representatives of other tangential discourses: domestic reformers, architects, planners, interior designers, child development experts, and so forth. Chapters 2 and 3 are dedicated to growing this networked and ambivalent involvement of modernism and domestic life through tracing formal analogies between the modern home and the modernist text. In chapter 2, the analogy is between so-called "Minimum Writing" (think of Pound's imagist directive—"[u]se no superfluous word"3) and the range of ideas surrounding the Czech architect Karel Teige's "Minimum Dwelling" (52)—a dwelling that would meet the minimum existential requirement of the masses of modern man.4 [End Page 360] Both of these concepts, as Rosner shows, were influenced by Adolf Loos's 1908 attack on ornament as crime.5 To be clear, the analogy between writing and architecture is not direct: it is not that a poem is like a house. It is rather that both minimal writing and new architecture begin at this moment to obey a set of functionalist requirements, whereby every component (whether of the bedroom or the novel) supposedly serves a non-decorative purpose. This parallel receives its fullest exploration in the analysis of the works of Ivy Compton-Burnett, whose archive is interspersed with that of her lifelong companion, Margaret Jourdain—a furniture and design historian. The analogy in chapter 3, "Fear in a Handful of Dust" (87) is between modernist writing and germ theory. Rosner describes how the shift from...

‘‘The Gray House’’ novel by M. Petrosyan in modern criticism and literary studies

‘‘The Gray House’’ novel by M. Petrosyan in modern criticism and literary studies

Otherness on the Hereford World Map (c. 1300)

This study examines the Hereford World Map (c. 1300) in relation to modern theoretical concepts of Otherness and marginality to expose disjunctions between medieval and modern ideologies. As an authoritative synthesis of Classical geographical learning and Christian theological beliefs, the landmasses, islands, and waterways of the Hereford Map are populated by hundreds of tiny icons and inscriptions that represent the world’s cities, biblical and mythological characters, animals, birds, monsters, and more. Among these are many identifiable Others, whose cartographical locations do not fit easily into modern theoretical frameworks but rather signal more complex relationships between Us and Them, and between centre and periphery; especially in England, where the Map was made and displayed. Moreover, Otherness on the Hereford Map is performed not only by the usual actors - the so-called Monstrous Races and non-Christian outgroups-but also by the divine personages dispensing justice in the celestial space depicted at its summit. My analysis of selected imagery reveals that certain of the Map’s figures and places commonly identified by modern critics as marginal in fact lay at the conceptual centre of medieval Christian identity. Moving away from the centre - margins paradigm, I also examine how medieval cartographical strategies of alignment, juxtaposition, and directionality enhanced the work’s didactic value for medieval pilgrims, and I identify examples of lessons that were retrievable with or without the assistance of cathedral guides acting as interpretative intermediaries. I conclude that the presence of Others on the Hereford Map helped medieval viewers locate themselves in its geographical spaces and in its Christian worldview, which suggests that the theoretical concept of Otherness remains a viable tool for expanding our understanding of the cultural and ideological complexities of medieval mappae mundi.

Традиционное и актуальное в современном академическом искусствоведческом образовании

The methods of teaching art history in The Academy of Fine Arts in the 20th century always were based mainly on a concept of a connoisseur art science. The students of the Academy of arts must deeply understand the nature of creativity, so in addition to studying theoretical and historical disciplines. The art historian students at the Academy of arts spend many hours drawing and painting. They have a unique opportunity to study the technique and technology of art materials in academic laboratories and production workshops. Traditionally, an art historian who graduated from the Academy of arts works in a museum, teaches, works as an art critic, art expert, or deals with attribution of works of art. Now the boundaries of the profession have expanded, thanks to the emergence of curatorial institutions, art dealers, gallery business, the expansion of virtual space, and contemporary art strategies. Modern art history education is influenced by postmodern aesthetics and cultural studies, philosophy, the innovative technologies, the demands of an information and communication constantly changing market society, and so on. The problem of understanding the authenticity of an art work in the conditions of total reproduction and improvement of virtual technologies has also become one of the most significant. The need to switch to full distance learning in connection with the pandemic had both its negative sides and contributed to the development of new educational ideas, gave rise to interesting and unexpected projects that cover a wide audience. In the modern world, there is a process of threatening discommunication associated with the gap between representatives of mass and elite culture, between different layers of the society. The difference is not so much between cultures, but rather there is a lack of understanding between social stratums of society, between age and social groups. In particular, the gap between the previous links in the author-critic-artist chain has increased. The situation in the modern world and art, associated with the collapse of traditionalism and the emergence of non-traditional structures, the time of re-evaluation, the search for new ways to translate cultural experience poses a problem for researchers and teachers to understand and adequately explain the latest processes and phenomena occurring in the artistic space, which should be reflected in art education. The theoretical concept of criticism and its special functions is being developed in the Russian visual art of the 21st century. It performs a special type of artistic, analytical, and creative activity. In different periods of the existence of art criticism, certain features of it came to the fore, depending on the paradigm of the era. Often in modern artistic activity, the functions of critic and curator are combined, the functions of these spheres of activity merge together. It is the critic and the curator who become the interpreters of a work of art and sometimes the perception of an artistic phenomenon or event depends on their interpretation. In the modern world, critics and curators often act as the creators of an artistic concept or a specific art event, and as analysts who evaluate the phenomena. Сriticism and curatorship are creative professions that perform not only the tasks of expertise and evaluation, they are the field of artistic creativity, they have their own creative role. The basis of such professional qualities can be an academic art school, which has all the necessary conditions to achieve the modern level of art studies. Moreover, modern criticism, penetrating the field of art, becomes a part of art itself. Therefore, in the modern cultural space, critics and curators can be more in demand, and sometimes more vividly realized, than even artists trained within the traditional academic system.

Тело как оно есть. От феноменологии тела к онтологии телесного бытия = Ramírez M. T. El cuerpo por sí mismo. De la fenomenología del cuerpo a la ontología del ser corporal / пер. с исп. А. К. Жапаровой

This article analyzes the «corporal turn» of Philosophy in XX Century. It parts from the revaluation of the body undertaken by Nietzsche against a tradition that probably emphasized too much the spirituality of the soul, ripping it from the body. A properly thought «Philosophy of the body» could bring back that reality which modern criticism has driven so far away. To offer a way out of universal solipsism, it is necessary a Philosophy of the body capable of rethinking Realism. MerlauPonty and Jean-Luc Nancy’s approaches to a Philosophy of corporality and of flesh are presented, then. The next section deals with the consequences of the corporal turn of Philosophy in relation to Ontology: it shows the way from the body to Being. The exemplar exteriority with which Nancy defines the body allows us to calibrate — in the sense of an immanent Philosophy which is not done, closed or definite — an atheism free from naïve and a kind of Ontological Realism free from abstractions or dogmatism. To close the cycle, «New Realism» approach, defended by Markus Gabril, Ferraris and Harman, amongst others, is presented and defended. The intention of this article is to present a way in which it is possible to formulate a new Ontology, a new conception of Being and existence, a realistic, materialistic ontology of the corporal being inasmuch the extra-corporal being.

Musil-Forum: Studien zur Literatur der klassischen Moderne ed. by Norbert Christian Wolf and Rosemarie Zeller

Reviewed by: Musil-Forum: Studien zur Literatur der klassischen Moderne ed. by Norbert Christian Wolf and Rosemarie Zeller Gilbert Carr Musil-Forum: Studien zur Literatur der klassischen Moderne. Edited by Norbert Christian Wolf and Rosemarie Zeller, vol. 36: 2019/2020. Berlin, Boston: de Gruyter, 2021. ix pp. + 412 pp. €99.95. ISBN 978–3-11–072968–9. Despite its delayed publication and the recent change of editorship, the latest Musil-Forum maintains the high quality expected of this series, which presents essays on themes that emanate from Robert Musil's oeuvre — in this case, following on from the 2018 conference at the University of Salzburg on 'Literatur und Polemik in der klassischen Moderne', organized by Norbert Christian Wolf and Harald Gschwandtner. Certainly, polemic might not at first appear as self-evident as other recent themes of Musil-Forum, such as 'Poetik der kleinen Form' (vol. 35), but the focus provides the opportunity for systematic and learned definitions of polemic, if not as a literary genre, then in its performative status between rhetorical aggression and objective critique. This accords with Musil's own pronounced aversion to polemical effect, epitomized by Karl Kraus's rhetorical dominance, in favour of detached irony, about which there is a broad consensus in the volume. While it is accepted that Musil was a polemically abrasive theatre critic, his mastery of polemic in other contexts receives attention. Dirk Rose reads Musil's enigmatic story Die Amsel as an exemplary meta-polemic against the poetics of the novella genre (for example, [End Page 208] Paul Heyse's concept of the 'falcon' as leitmotif) and Georg Lukács's doctrine of realism. In 'Häuserkampf', Hans-Georg von Arburg defines Musil's sustained commentaries on modernist architecture and town planning as polemical not in rhetorical style but as interventions in public debate, relating Ulrich's strictures on lifestyle in Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften to Musil's critique of Le Corbusier's modernism. Gunther Martens's '"Was wirst Du machen, wirklich Teneriffa?"' is a tour de force on informed polemic in scientific discourse. The quotation in the title alludes to the animal experiments of Wolfgang Köhler on that island, and thence to Musil's polemics on Darwinism, behaviourism and Gestalt psychology, and their connection with his story Die Affeninsel. This has hitherto been viewed as an allegory of dictatorship, but contains deeper anthropological reflection and critical conclusions about empirical observation, for example, as demonstrated in Martens's semiotic reading of the story Türen und Tore — though perhaps more credit is due to Ernst Mach's empirical scepticism here. In her contribution 'Schwert und Feder', Birgit Nübel singles out Musil's demolition in 'Geist und Erfahrung' of the spurious cultural morphology of Der Untergang des Abendlandes. Barbara Neymeyr more extensively contextualizes this virtuoso 'satire' of Oswald Spengler's imprecision and analogical speculation (p. 174) with a rather long-winded excursus on Nietzsche, albeit with insights into Musil's 'Übergänge' and 'Gestaltlosigkeit' as antidotes to Spengler's binary schematism. 'Von der Polemik zur Meta-Polemik' is a close textual analysis of Musil's aphorisms by Alexander Honold, who situates them — citing Pierre Bourdieu — in a contemporary field of norms, shared by the antagonists in partisan skirmishing and dogmatic assertion. The overarching perspective sought by Musil in his critique of contemporary trends is compared here to the stance embodied in the structurally anomalous figure of Ulrich, who aspires to a sovereign analysis of the era to which he still belongs. Honold qualifies this ambivalence again with regard to Musil's — as it were, Wittgensteinian — critiques of collective value concepts in the polarized anti-intellectualism of the 1930s. Nübel also draws a distinction between polemic and meta-polemic, starting from Friedrich Schlegel's antithesis of rhetorical irony in polemic and a 'transzendentale[] Buffonerie' of meta-irony (p. 19). By analogy, 'polemische[] Rhetorik' (p. 20) — against the false aesthetic of Burgtheater authors or the prestige of Thomas Mann and Hermann Broch in the literary scene — differs from the 'sachlichdiskursive' polemic in Musil's novel against the Nietzsche cult and the Zeitgeist (pp. 21–22). This contribution becomes over-ambitious in eliding the concept of polemic...

ART SPECIFICS OF «FORGOTTEN» FAIRY-TALE PROSE BY MARKO VOVCHOK

The proposed article is devoted to the study of the artistic specifics of «forgotten» fairy tale prose by Marko Vovchko. In modern literary criticism, despite some achievements in the field of research of the fairy-tale heritage of the writer, there are still works that have never been subjected to critical analysis, an example of this − the collection «Fairy Tales and Tales of Marko Vovchko» (1874). Today, this publication, without receiving proper evaluation, is in the shadow of the author's work. The only exception is the folklore-historical story «Marusya», and the rest of the works: «Queen I», «Perfect Chicken», «Inventor» have not received their literary assessment. Therefore, the fairy-tale prose of Marko Vovchko is gradually returning from oblivion to the modern reader. Note that this process is accompanied by the need for detailed and in-depth rethinking. Thus, the proposed study is relevant because it aims to prove the originality of the unknown to critics of the fairy-tale work of the writer. In the given article with the help of biographical method, method of analysis and synthesis, text analysis the artistic originality of Marko Vovchko's fairy-tale prose is determined. The fairy-tale works of the author «Queen I», «Perfect Chicken», «Inventor» in their genre direction- social and domestic fairy tales are practically not studied. They reveal moral and ethical issues due to social and psychological factors. The most prominent in the above-mentioned works of the writer is the problem of selfishness and meanness of the human soul, which in turn is subject to the pressing social problem − the dominance of lordly arbitrariness, which leads to fatal consequences. The outlined problem acquires a corresponding gradation here: first it is revealed in the fairy tale «Queen I», later it is actualized in «Perfect Chicken», and acquires a special tragic sound in «Inventor». First of all, you should pay attention to the titles of the analyzed fairy tales. They have a kind of ironic connotation, which is revealed at the end. For example, in the plot of the fairy tale «Queen I» ridiculed such flaws as the arrogance and arrogance of human nature, in «Perfect Chicken» − a hint of immorality of the so-called «perfect» lordly behavior, in the fairy tale «Inventor» − expressed hidden irony of the romantic idea transformation of society. The article also clarifies the basic principles of storytelling in the collection «Fairy Tales and Tale of Marko Vovchko»: the presence of a social plot, uniformity in the development of events, a combination of romantic and realistic stylistic features in the image of reality, psychology as one of the basic principles of fairy tales.

Resisting Marriage, Reclaiming Right: An (Early) Modern Critique of Marriage

AbstractModerata Fonte's dialogue The Worth of Women (1600) contains stinging critiques of marriage and the dowry system as well as of women's inequality. I argue that Fonte's critique of male dominance, particularly in marriage, employs a modern method of argument, which anticipates the later contractarian critiques of political authority. Given that women are naturally men's equals, Fonte argues that men's de facto authority over women is illegitimate and based on force. Moreover, by treating marriage as an artificial institution rather than as a natural institution, Fonte anticipates later feminist arguments that criticize the modern contract tradition for its failure to extend its critique of other forms of authority to patriarchal marriage, instead positing a natural basis for women's subordination to men. In light of this history, Fonte's critique of patriarchy is especially interesting: it challenges the patriarchal family structure and the institutions that collude to diminish women's agency, and this challenge to male authority is similar to later (male) challenges to de facto political authority.

Mysticism, Rationalism, and Criticism: Rabbi Jacob Emden as an Early Modern Critic and Printer

AbstractRabbi Jacob Emden (1697–1779) was an important rabbi and scholar in the area of Hamburg. One of his works, Mitpaḥat Sefarim (“Book Cloth,” Altona, 1768), is a critique of the Zohar (“Book of Splendor”), a canonical Jewish mystical text attributed to the ancient scholar Rabbi Shimon bar Yoḥai (ca. 2nd cent. CE). In Mitpaḥat Sefarim, Emden casts doubt upon the Zohar’s provenance, authorship, and age. This critique has led some to identify Emden with the early beginnings of the Haskalah, the Jewish Enlightenment, as an opponent of mysticism. However, Emden took mystical sources very seriously, both in the spiritual realm, and, as this article shows, even in his writings on religious law. This article examines the perceived contradiction in Emden’s thinking, and proposes a view of Emden as an early modern printer and critic with a unique perspective, rather than a confused precursor of modern ideas.

Riis, sentimentalitet og byreform

This paper examines the work of Danish-American photojournalist Jacob Riis through the lens of sentimentality and racial ethics. While Riis’s use of sentimental appeals is often overlooked or dismissed as insignificant by modern critics, these tactics reveal essential aspects of his racial and national reform project. Riis, I argue, is heir to mid-nineteenth century theories of racial evolution that blended Lamarckism and Darwinism, figuring personal and racial transformation as a process that could take place through environmental influence; such pre-eugenic theories were a subtext in a range of sentimental literature, including notably mid-nineteenth century to early twentieth century writing and reform efforts in Manhattan’s tenement districts. Riis’s reflections on the Lower East Side in landmark works such as How the Other Half Lives (1890) and The Children of the Poor (1892) are deeply inflected by the conventions of sentimentality, and his writing, like other reform work of the time, frames children as uniquely susceptible to the positive or negative effects of environment, an understanding that shapes his view of the developing American nation.

Turning Romanticism on its Head: The Peripheral Symbolic Geography of Aldous Huxley and Ira Levin

Within the present paper, I aim to discuss how Aldous Huxley and Ira Levin have employed the peripheral symbolic geography of their two works (Brave New World and This Perfect Day) to articulate their debate between different sets of social values. Unlike other authors of negative utopias such as George Orwell or Yevgeny Zamyatin, neither Huxley nor Levin idealized pre-modern values. In order to highlight how the two articulated their views with the help of symbolic geography, I will also make use of Michel Foucault’s theoretical concepts of heterotopias, heterochrony as well as the ideas developed by the critics Michael Lowy and Robert Sayre in their seminal work Romanticism against the Tide of Modernity. My purpose is thus firstly to point out how and why Huxley and Levin divided the symbolic geography of their works in two parts as well as how they employed the Romantic critique of modernity. Secondly, I aim to show how despite using this analytical tool, they also employed symbolic geography with the purpose of turning the critique on its head, thus unveiling both its strong points as well as its shortcomings.