Plot Outline Research Articles

Theatrical historical performances as a form of cultural solidarity in the space of a provincial town (early 1920-s)

The article studies historical theatre performances on the territory of Kazan in the early 20s of the XX century on the basis of available historical sources and scientific literature. The political and cultural elite of the new state was faced with the task of attracting the attention of Soviet citizens to new, revolutionary symbols and values, since a significant part of the population, especially in the provinces, was still «eyeing» the Soviet order. After October 1917 the most common form of Soviet political celebration in the country was not only rallies and solemn meetings but plays on historical and revolutionary themes. Within the framework of the historical and cultural context, the connection of theatrical productions with innovative methods of influencing to the viewer is revealed. All the participants of the performances in Kazan were involved in the plot outline of the reproduced dramatic events of the recent past with their amateur, involved presence. On the streets and squares of Kazan, as well as many other Russian cities, a collective creation unprecedented in the history of world culture arose, where the natural experience of the dramatic moment of the past became a mysterious process and, at the same time, an original artistic text. During the theater, this was achieved in the most spectacular way, which was facilitated by both symbolic entourage and imitation of collective actions in which «random» meetings with participants in real events could take place. All this had a strong impact on the perception of the historical plot as the only possible scenario of historical reality and inspired a sense of deep involvement in the memorable event. Living the past as real created a new space of unprecedented ecstatic solidarity, where collective action became not just a political act of the revolutionary mass, strengthening the individual’s sense of belonging, belonging to the whole, it manifested the energy of the present moment, returning to disequilibrium and uncertainty, emotionally plunging into a situation of choice. The nascent unity of personalities was at the same time the foundation of a new social identity and at the same time the hope of restoring personality and society, unconscious cleansing from the hardships of reality, getting rid of ignorance, selfishness and inhumanity.

Переводные практики Ивана Бунина (рассказ «Волхвы»)

The paper is devoted to the analysis of Ivan Bunin’s translated short story “The Magi” (1931), which was included in the cycle “Provençal Tales Retold”. The research aims to comprehend the role of Russian folklore in the formation of the poetic world of the Bunin text created as a translation (more precisely, a “retelling”) of a novella by the French writer Frederic Mistral (1830-1914), Nobel laureate (1904). The authors of the paper identify the main motives that prompted Bunin to turn to foreign folklore, to the regional epic of Provence, determine the hidden intentions that influenced the writer when creating the translated text. In particular, the authors pay attention to the tendency of “straightening” the plot outline of F. Mistral’s memoirs, state that I. Bunin gave the translated text poetic imagery through motifs and speech-stylistic formulas of Russian folklore. The study is novel in that it is the first to analyse the short story “The Magi”, which has not previously attracted critics’ attention, and to interpret the strategies of Bunin’s “translation” activities. As a result, it has been proved that the motive for Bunin’s turn to the folklore of southern France, which was foreign to him, was not the semantic layer of F. Mistral’s folk records and memoirs, but the nostalgic feelings that the folklore of Provence awakened in the prose writer’s soul, which conjured up the memories of the Christmas festivities of the abandoned Russia. It has been shown that Bunin’s knowledge of the basics and principles of Russian folklore helped the writer, on the one hand, to preserve the identity of Mistral’s memoirs, on the other hand, to bring additional nostalgic intentions mediated by the techniques and principles of Russian folklore into the “foreign” translated text.

ЭГО-ДОКУМЕНТ КАК ИСТОЧНИК ПЕРФОРМАТИВНОСТИ В СОВРЕМЕННОЙ ПЬЕСЕ

In the latest dramaturgy, the so-called ego-document is often used as a plot outline, that is, a text that has as its object the circumstances of the life of the author himself and is written by a person from an egocentric position. Such an ego-document becomes a kind of ego-text: text, where only the point of view of the character performing the functions of the narrator is presented. Such a position, alien to the dramatic nature, creates a special type of performativity, which is realized both in the text itself and in readings and theatrical productions.

Breda's Island by Jessie Ann Foley

Reviewed by: Breda's Island by Jessie Ann Foley Elizabeth Bush Foley, Jessie Ann Breda's Island. Quill Tree/HarperCollins, 2022 [256p] Trade ed. ISBN 9780063207721 $16.99 E-book ed. ISBN 9780063207752 $10.99 Reviewed from digital galleys R Gr. 5-8 After Breda Moriarity's latest episode of petty theft, her mother Maura ships her off for the summer to Granda's farm on Ireland's Dingle Peninsula—an unexpected choice, given that a pregnant teenaged Maura fled to Chicago years ago to escape Granda's anger and disappointment. Granda's not especially warm to Breda, either, but the farm is beautiful, and Breda surprises herself as well as her grandfather with her affinity to and skill with the livestock. Granda also reveals an unexpected role in the small community as a seanchaí, the valued transmitter of traditional lore who can hold a pub—and a granddaughter—beguiled. However, his declaration that any relationship with the local Fahey family is forbidden runs afoul of Breda's need to make some friends, and when she joins that clan for Gaelic football matches, the Faheys shed light on closely guarded Moriarity family secrets. The plot outline may be a familiar one, but the specific revelations contextualize middle schooler Breda's immediate trials within her family's history, particularly Maura's struggle [End Page 351] to make an American life as an undocumented small business owner and Granda's distressing, emotionally-crippling childhood. There's more than a touch of the seanchaí in Foley's own silky prose, and readers who witness the Moriarity family's rapprochement will recognize that it may not promise a fairy tale ending, but it does deliver the right ending. Copyright © 2022 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Сотериология Г.И. Успенского: от «свиньи» к «ангелу»

In modern philological studies, interest in the pathological in Gleb Uspensky's creative personality prevails, namely in the history of his mental illness. The content of the hallucinations of the patient Uspensky is explained exclusively by his suppressed and deformed sexuality. The article offers a different look at Uspensky's creative personality. The aim of the article is to identify the religious and ethical dominant in the creative personality of Uspensky. The research material includes Uspensky's literary texts and documents related to the history of his illness (letters, memoirs of contemporaries, autobiography of the writer). The methodological basis of this study amounted to a combination of methods of biographic, textual, and comparative historical analysis. The article proves that in Uspensky's works, long before his fatal illness, the plot about the struggle of a person with their animal nature was realized. The animal image in Uspensky's essays goes back to penitential canons, in which a sinner, calling to Christ, compares oneself to a “pig lying in feces”. The Christian understanding of sin was complicated by a complex of populist ideas about the social guilt of the privileged classes. Only those heroes of Uspensky who are not engaged in physical labor and do not help people resemble pigs. The article discusses the specificity of the writer's religious views. According to Uspensky, Christ is a hidden God. Invisible and unnamed, he is there with Uspensky's characters in their acts of repentance. Images of the Savior and the resurrection from the dead dominate in Uspensky's late works and form the plot outline of his hallucinations in illness. As a result of the analysis of documentary evidence related to the writer's illness, it is concluded that the experience of spiritual weakness in the struggle with the “pig” was assessed by the sick Uspensky as a path to resurrection, that is, to the restoration of the image and likeness of God in himself. Comparison of Uspensky's letters, as well as the memoirs of his contemporaries, allows concluding that the sick writer perceived himself and those around him as direct participants in the Gospel events - the mystery of the Resurrection. The writer experienced his bodily suffering in the projection of Christ's torment on the cross. Thus, Uspensky's soteriological experience testifies to the unity of his life and creative efforts aimed at fighting sin and gaining holiness.

Leaders who Lunch. Tragedy and Corporeality in Sophocles’ Syndeipnoi

Sommerstein’s persuasive reconstruction of the Syndeipnoi (Sommerstein 2003; Sommerstein et al. 2006) nonetheless yields a plot outline with several features atypical of Sophoclean tragedy and indeed Greek tragedy in general. The play begins at or after nightfall, features a(n offstage) banquet as a central plot device, employs a number of unusual linguistic terms, and includes a chorus not designated by the play’s plural title. Proposals to classify the play as satyric or prosatyric (a now highly dubious category) might efface some but not all of these oddities. An examination of several key fragments suggests rather that the play comes from quite early in Sophocles’ career when plot expectations for tragedy were less rigid and less Aristotelian than they later became.

DESIGN OF OPTIMIZING THE APPLICATION OF THE MANURE IN HIGH NATURAL VALUE (HNV) GRASSLANDS, IN SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE, BASED ON NDVI

In many countries, especially in Eastern Europe, there is much discussion about how grasslands are managed in order to prevent pollution of soils, rivers, lakes and to maintain and conserve wild flora and fauna. These objectives favor the maintenance of high biodiversity in High Natural Value (HNV) grasslands through their extensive use, with a low intake of organic fertilizers in line with EU CAP policies. In Romania, in the High Natural Value (HNV) grasslands, subsidies are allocated for "environmentally friendly practices", through the Agri-environment and climate program, but the amount of organic fertilizer is restricted up to 40 kg nitrogen active element/ha regardless of the type fertilizer) but also their administration. Currently, through remarkable advances in areas such as GIS and remote sensing, applications for agriculture provide complex information with high accuracy, but also the ability to provide predictions for various parameters. In this context, the paper aims to optimize the application of manure in HNV grasslands, in accordance with Agri-environment policies, by improving and adapting in practice the OneSoil application based on NDVI map generation from Sentinel satellite images. The validation of the "adjustments" brought to the application was done by field visits with the Phantome 4 UAV equipment. An experimental site was considered an HNV grassland located in Brădişoru de Jos (ATU Oraviţa) which has an area of 391 ha. In the study area the vegetation is mosaic, the grassland being fragmented by hedges, forest curtains and trees in clumps that will be excluded from fertilization. The usable area for fodder at the level of 2020 was 265.41 ha, but in the absence of cleaning works in the coming years, there is a risk of substantial reductions. The proposed optimization model is finally presented in the form of a “coverage” map that indicates both the required quantity, differentiated according to the vegetation characteristics suggested by NDVI, and the spatial location of these quantities on subzones. Thus, on an area of 60.73 ha, 4 t.ha-1 of manure are required, on 94.66 ha it is necessary to administer 5 t.ha-1 of manure, and on an area of 110.02 ha, where the vegetation of the grassland suffers, it is necessary to administer 8 t.ha-1 of cattle manure. The major advantage of this model is that the user can import, on different devices (phone, tablet or laptop) vector files with plot outline or GPS points for location, can differentiate the dose of fertilizer on the surface of the plot, under specific conditions and has at its disposal the map with the "location" of the different quantities of fertilizers.

THE ENCHANTED WANDERER BY LEONID YUZEFOVICH

The article analyzes the novel “Philellin” by L.A. Yuzefovich, the main attention is paid to the method of narration, the system of characters, the typological characteristics of the main character and the genre features of the work. The novel is a collection of documents of different genres, which together form a story about the events of the liberation war in Greece in the 20s of the XIX century. Almost all of Yuzefovich's characters act simultaneously as subjects of the narrative and participants in the events. The exception is Alexander I, because he is “silent” (his point of view is broadcast by his secretary Yelovsky) and "inactive". Despite the importance of the figure of the Russian emperor in the plot of the novel, for these reasons, Alexander “gives way” to the place of the main character to a fictional character - Grigory Mossepanov, whose fate forms the plot outline of the novel. Mossepanov is not only an important participant in the events, but also one of the main subjects and objects of the narrative. In literary criticism, the hero is given typological definitions of Don Quixote, Petrushka, “a little man”. This article offers a more appropriate definition of the character and fate of Mossepanov - “enchanted wanderer”, which is confirmed by the comparison of the characters of L. Yuzefovich and N. Leskov. The key plot role of the Russian philhellene, the peculiarities of his character and fate largely determine the genre nature of the work as a historical and mythological novel.

Українець Стефан Терлецький (1927–2006) – відомий британський політик і громадський діяч (за документами ЦДАЗУ)

The purpose of the work is to cover the life and socio-political activities of S. Terlezki, British politician of the Conservative Party, a famous public and political fi gure of Great Britain and Europe, an infl uential representative of the Ukrainian Diaspora, an active member of the Union of Ukrainians in Great Britain and the World Congress of Ukrainians, on the basis of documents of the personal fond «Terlezki Stefan Oleksiyovych (1927–2006), politician, public and political fi gure» (F. 77), stored in the Central State Archives of Foreign Archival Ucrainica. Research methods. The article is based on the strategy of representing the political biography and life history of Ukrainian emigrants and British fi gures in a non-national and conservative environment, in particular, expands/enriches the plot outline by introducing new sources. Considerable attention is paid to the biographical method, the use of which made it possible to study the peculiarities of the life of a politician in a particular macro- and micro-social environment. Scientifi c novelty. S. Terlezki’s documents, which were not used in Ukrainian biographical researches before, are introduced into scientifi c circulation. They are a vivid example of how, thanks to hard work, constant study and active participation in public and political life, Ukrainians fought for a high position in their host countries and thus became an example to follow. Prospects for further research. S. Terlezki’s collection, numbering more than a thousand documents, was donated to the Central State Archives of Foreign Archival Ucrainica in 2020 by the Library and Archive named after Taras Shevchenko in Great Britain (Shevchenko Library and Archive) (supervisor – Doctor of Philosophy L. Pekarska). It is not complete so the ultimate goal is the return of the entire documentary heritage of politics, its scientifi c and technical study and further study by scientists and all who are interested in bright and unique fi gures in the history of Europe in the 20 century. Conclusions. Documents of the personal fund «Terlezki Stefan Oleksiyovych (1927–2006), politician, public and political fi gure» (F. 77) have signifi cant scientifi c and source information potential.

Nineteenth-Century American Women's Serial Novels by Dale M. Bauer

Reviewed by: Nineteenth-Century American Women's Serial Novels by Dale M. Bauer Rachel Ihara BAUER, DALE M. Nineteenth-Century American Women's Serial Novels. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2019. 172 pp. $99.99 hardcover; $80.00 e-book. An ambitious study of four popular American women writers, Dale M. Bauer's Nineteenth-Century American Women's Serial Novels proceeds from the premise that understanding a serial author requires reading beyond a few texts in order to grasp "the entirety of an author's production" (2). This is no small task given the prodigious output of the authors under consideration: E.D.E.N. Southworth (approximately fiftytwo novels), Ann Stephens (twenty-six), Laura Jean Libbey (possibly seventy novels), and Mary Jane Holmes (thirty-nine). Such numbers boggle the mind, and the time and devotion involved in tackling all of these novels, with their convoluted plots and beset heroines, is impressive indeed. The study that results aims to make sense of this abundance of plots, in order to chart the particular themes and preoccupations of each author while also making an argument for their shared interest in narratives of female suffering (as a result of sham marriages, bad men, mistaken identities, and bouts of insanity), suffering that is provisionally resolved in abrupt conclusions (through sound marriages, restored senses, and transformed identities), before being taken up again in the next serial. Building on, yet diverging from, early studies of popular women's fiction, like Helen Papashvily's All the Happy Endings (1956), which dismissed serial plots as "simple" (xiv), and Nina Baym's Woman's Fiction (1978), which saw in these novels "'a single tale' with 'one overplot'" (xv), Bauer seeks to do justice to the rich and varied issues taken up by these authors. For instance, while critical attention to Southworth's best-known novel, The Hidden Hand (1859), might lead to an assumption that cross-dressing represents her primary challenge [End Page 308] to gender norms, Bauer sees mental breakdowns in Southworth's characters as more typical of Southworth's strategy for highlighting and confronting various societal ills. One challenge in adopting this all-encompassing approach is that it requires a command of a substantial number of novels, most of which will be unfamiliar to all but a few scholars of American literature. This means that Bauer's claims about texts and their significance rest, to a large degree, upon plot summaries. While these glosses are intended to illuminate the points being advanced, often they seem to exceed the critical purpose accorded to them, pointing to alternative interpretations and avenues of exploration. For example, Bauer frames a discussion of Southworth's novel The Fortune Seeker, or The Bridal Day (1866) as an instance of Southworth's return to the idea that "moral equilibrium between the sexes ends monomanias of all sorts, which caused the cultural and personal irresponsibility that she wanted her novels to redress" (22–23). Yet what follows, ostensibly to illustrate this point, is a summary of the adventures of the novel's heroine, Astrea, who is captured on her wedding night, is disguised as a "quadroon" and sold, is compelled to rebuff the sexual advances of her purchaser, and temporarily loses her reason, before regaining her senses when she is reunited with her husband. This plot outline, while it provides evidence of repeated themes in Southworth's oeuvre (villains preying on young women, racial disguise, mistaken identities, brain inflammation, and spouses separated and reunited), does not clearly support a reading of Southworth's fiction as primarily concerned with women's suffering and temporary insanity as social critique. This may be an issue of method as much as material. The sheer abundance of "data," along with the need to convey to the reader, in broad strokes, the outlines of the many novels under discussion, constantly threatens to overwhelm any unifying argument that seeks to bring these texts together. Bauer's aim, to do justice to the messiness and variability that characterizes these novels, individually and as a whole, is to be commended. However, in reading Nineteenth-Century American Women's Serial Novels, I couldn't help but wonder if there might be another way to capture the...

Metamorphoses of Puccini’s “La bohème” in Jonathan Larson’s musical “Rent”

Theoretical background. Depending on the choice of the original source underlying the work, all Broadway musicals can be divided into three main types – with the original libretto and plot (“Next to normal” by T. Kitt), based on (or even on the material) of the same name cartoons (E. John’s “The Lion King”, D. Stewart’s and G. Ballard’s “Ghost”) and operas (E. John’s “Aida” after G. Verdi’s opera of the same name, J. Larson’s “Rent” written after “La bohème” by G. Puccini). In the latter group there is a contrasting branching, which can be observed even on the example of the two named musicals. If E. John seeks to preserve the historical correspondence to the epoch depicted in the opera, as well as to embody the conditionally Egyptian oriental color with the help of exotic orchestration, then J. Larson makes a radical modernization of the plot. His radicalism lies not so much in the time distance over which he “transposes” events, as in the “reduction” to naturalistic brutality and nudity of forbidden, but very “painful” in the 90s of the twentieth century topics – drugs, AIDS, same-sex relationships. In comparison with the problems of the musical, G. Puccini’s opera is perceived as a romanticized fairy tale. The social acuity of the musical is closer to the verismo aesthetics than the opera by G. Puccini, and encourages a more thorough analysis of its relationship with the opera prototype. The objective of the article is to reveal the specifics of the metamorphosis of the plot and musical drama of Puccini’s “La bohème” in the musical “Rent” by J. Larson. In accordance with the goal, research methods such as structural and functional are used to identify the components of the composer’s text and their role in the drama of the whole, comparative method to consider selected works in terms of plot interpretation, libretto features, general developing of the drama and musical text. Results of the study. J. Larson’s musical “Rent” demonstrate a free interpretation of G. Puccini’s opera original, with which a number of metamorphoses take place. The first is related to the modernization of the plot, which is transposed from Paris in the mid-nineteenth century to the 90s of the twentieth century and the “lower classes” of New York. The plot is reduced due to the saturation of its topical issues, which reflected the American spirit of the 90’s – AIDS, drug addiction, same-sex relationships. At the same time, the lyricization of drama is carried out, because in the musical J. Larson shows the development of the love affair of three couples. Almost all of them end tragically: Angel dies, Mimi is also on the verge of death. In turn, Joan and Maureen constantly quarrel and reconcile only at the end of the musical. At the same time, the plot outline of the development of Roger and Mimi’s relationship duplicates a similar line of the opera, starting from the scene of their acquaintance and ending with a duet in the finale, where the characters once again confess their love for each other. The key scene is the manifesto of bohemian life, as in the opera, is the scene in a cafe (“La Vie Boheme”, № 23). Musical dramaturgy of “Rent”, in contrast to the plot, is far removed from the operatic original, due to the genre tradition of the musical, which is reflected in the two-act structure, the principle of dramatic “relaxation” in the second act, where the denouement of all plot lines comes, number structure, where musical numbers alternate with conversational dialogues. At the same time, J. Larson strives for the integrity of the musical’s dramaturgy, which is reflected in the “musicalization” of dialogues, which mostly sound with musical accompaniment and flexibly flow into duet-ensemble scenes. The solo numbers, which brings a stop to the action, is mostly replaced by duets that “promote” the action and reveal the development of the characters’ relationships (the key pair has four such duets). Conclusions. All mentioned qualities of the musical “Rent” significantly distinguish the composition of J. Larson from another example of the musical based after the opera – “Aida” by E. John, which allows us to talk about the presence of individual compositional and dramatic solutions, even when working with a similar source. This shows the significant potential of the Broadway musical as a musical-theatrical genre, as opposed to its accusations of commercialism and the assertion of the priority of entertainment, which makes it an interesting and perspective material for research.

Historization and Mythologization of Characters in Buryat Traditions (Image of Balzhan)

In a comparative aspect, historical and mythological components in the main oral and written versions of stories about a woman who was the main character in the oral traditions and chronicles of the Khori-Buryats are considered. The novelty of the study is in the identification of the historical cognitive part of the traditions in the context of real events concerning the image of Balzhan. The results of a comparative analysis of different versions of written texts and oral stories to identify mythological sacred additions and transform the real story are presented. The relevance of the study is due to a comparative analysis of the main versions of tradition in an interdisciplinary aspect, which led to the conclusion that the storyline of the novels about Balzhan in the vast majority of cases develops exclusively in the context of describing the history of the formation and development of the ethnic group of the Khorinsky Buryats in the period from the 17th century. It is proved that in written versions the main oral plot outline is preserved with the strengthening of historical components, in some cases the entire mythological part is removed to create the image of a plausible historical hero. The authors note that the mythological nomadic insets in the legends go back to oral traditions, having the functions of sacralizing and heroizing the tragic fate of the non-standard woman who determined the fate of the tribe.

Home Games by Benjamin Markovits

Reviewed by: Home Games by Benjamin Markovits Elizabeth Bush Markovits, Benjamin Home Games. Harper, 2020 [336p] Trade ed. ISBN 978-0-06-274230-8 $16.99 E-book ed. ISBN 978-0-06-274231-5 $7.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 4-7 Ben Michaels' workaholic father has been offered a job in London, and his mother refuses to go, leaving the twelve-year-old feeling powerless amid the adult decision making. Mom moves him from New York to her mother's home in Texas, where he first tries to convince himself that his parents will eventually reconnect, or at the very least he will have some options if or when they divorce. Instead, the year ends up an extended, friendless limbo: Dad seldom calls and cancels plans to visit; Mom takes a job in his middle school and dates his social studies teacher; Granma spars with Mom; and the girl next door, who looks like true friend material, turns out to be uniformly nice to everybody rather than Ben in particular. Probably worst of all, however, is Ben's realization that part of his misery is of his own making—he has been drifting along with his parents' and his only buddy's plans all his life, and now he has to strategize to make his voice and wishes heard. Markovits' novel never devolves into the pity party this plot outline suggests; Ben's growing self-awareness emerges amid spot on and often quite funny observations of parental bumbling and middle-grade folkways. His final decision on where to make a stable home may throw many readers for a loop, but readers will appreciate his growing realism about the complicated dynamics of families. Copyright © 2020 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Virages des visions de Patrick Modiano

This article focuses on some peculiarities in the writings of the French author Patrick Modiano, the Nobel Prize winner for literature in 2014, and deals with novels that have made him famous in the national and world art space. The article notes that P. Modiano’s novel mentality is characterized by the synthesis of such basic values as the development of a fabulous, external canvas and focusing on the internal structures of the individual self. The characters of his novels relay the psychological interior of a person imbued with values and consciousness of modern urban life. P. Modiano’s leading semantic plots depict the complex mentality of the sensitive person and the vicissitudes of his dramatic fate in the context of the Hypercity. The landscape of the Supercity or the Hypercity in P. Modiano’s novels is organically linked to understanding a life as a journey of obscurity. For self-narrators to live a full life means to wander through the drips of their memory, to travel the real and imaginary streets of their own prehistory, which turns out to be their main life story in the end. Prominent place in the novels of P. Modiano belongs to the development of the mythopoetics of Paris, which is interpreted as a purely “inner” city in the psychological interior of the self-narrators. The specificity of the novel depiction of Paris lies in the interpretation of this metropolis as a highly detailed toponymic mythologeme. The key point in the article is that each self-narrator is sooner or later confronted with an internal need to investigate his own story. That is why P. Modiano’s self-narrators always delve into complex, contradictory files of their individual self and become a kind of “detective for themselves”. This plot outline becomes the basis for unfolding a holistic ontological concept in P. Modiano’s novels that reveals its marker and matrix features in each of his works.

To What End <em>Rusalka</em>? Pushkin's Folk Tragedy and Dargomyzhskii's Opera

Aleksandr Pushkin's unfinished folk tragedy, Rusalka (1826–32), was the first of the poet's six dramas to become an opera. The composer Aleksandr Dargomyzhskii (1813–69) stimulated in part by the popularity of Viennese magic-comic operetta on the mermaid theme, was the most successful of the later creative artists (playwrights, actors, theatre directors, poets, prose-writers, frauds) who ‘completed’ Pushkin's play. The means for doing this included adding lines, deleting lines, claiming to restore the poet's final ‘lost’ scenes (in the case of the fraud), populating Pushkin's final obscure plot outline with new characters and events and, finally, striving to realize the poet's intent through the resources of music — especially the vocal ensemble. This article surveys these attempts, and suggests that Dargomyzhskii's 1856 musical version of Rusalka, for all its adjustments, additions and concessions to mid-nineteenth-century operatic tradition, comes closest to reproducing the aesthetic and ethical charge of Pushkin's neoclassically conceived, Romantic-era dramatic text.

Agonist Recognition, Intersections, and the Ambivalence of Family Bonds: John Dewey's Critical Theory Manifesto in China

John Dewey’s lectures in China, delivered at Peking University in 1919–1920, are currently available to us in two different forms: as a translation into English from a Chinese transcript of Dewey’s oral English talks, and as the notes Dewey wrote for himself as “plot outline” for the lectures. In the paper, I argue that a conjunct reading of the two texts conveys the unique opportunity to reconstruct Dewey’s outline of a critical social philosophy. I suggest to call this outline a “critical theory manifesto,” since it presents many significant similarities with other critical-theoretical motives belonging to the Hegelian-Marxian tradition of Critical Theory. In the first part of the article, I expound on the similarities between Dewey and, in particular, Marx, Horkheimer, Adorno, and Honneth. In the second part of the paper, I highlight three original points made by Dewey that represent an improvement of Marxian-Hegelian critical theory, since they allow to build bridges between this particular critical-theoretical “school” and other critical approaches to society and politics. These points consist in: (a) Dewey’s idea of struggle for public recognition between groups; (b) the inter-sectionalist inspiration of Dewey’s social philosophy; (c) Dewey’s ambivalent assessment of intimate relationships.

“Terkedilmiş Sokakta Sessiz Bir Gölge Oyunu” Romanı Üzerine Psikolojik Bir Çözümleme

It can be stated that the link between psychology and literature has various diverse dimensions and includes a multi-layer relationship. Both psychology and literature study the physical and psychological structure of man; they both question the subconscious, both employ the method of association, language and imagination are important for both. It is known as the type of novel in which the plot is not featured highly, but the inner worlds of people and their psychological states are considered important, and thus, focused on. “Terkedilmis Sokakta Sessiz Bir Golge Oyunu” (A Silent Shadow Show in an Abandoned Street) is a novel by Zeynep Ankara that includes psychological components intensively. There are plenty of instances in the novel which give rise to the idea that Erich Fromm’s groundings regarding love and violence were taken as a basis. After giving the plot outline of “Terkedilmis Sokakta Sessiz Bir Golge Oyunu”, this study is meant to present a psychological analysis based on the concepts of love and violence, by means of some components of the novel

Screening El cuarto de atrás : Carmen Martín Gaite’s Hollywood Escritor Negro

HOLLYWOOD cinema is carmen Martin Gaite's constant source of reference for her 1987 essay usos amorosos de la postguerra espanola as the model for a modernity the Spanish Post-Civil War generation was eager to access from a society in ruins and isolated by a dictatorial government. As a consequence, 1940s and 1950s Spain was a nation that had more cinema seats per capita than any other European country as a society of film addicts immersed in the culture of evasion from the rigors and oppression of that dictatorship (Carr 164). Hollywood films were favored by this Spanish public of cinema addicts over national, mostly folkloric films, for their understated social criticism even though some were subject to rigorous censorship with many banned from release. Still, American movies were preferred for their emphasis on entertainment over controversy or critique, in contrast to the more social and politically conscious cinemas of Italy, France, and Great Britain (Vernon 2). Generation-of-1898 writer, Jose Martinez Ruiz (Azorin), reiterated this preference in Spain for Hollywood films in the introduction to his book on cinema, El cine y el momento, when he said that he preferred foreign movies and, in particular, American movies (5). This preference was also the result of the unavailability of national films in a post-war economy in which the few films released were folkloric musicals and religious dramas. Moreover, since the 1920s generations of movie enthusiasts were subjected to a high exposure of Hollywood that made them eager for the modernity, economic progress, and independent women these films promoted. For example, in 1931, out of the five hundred films released that year in Madrid, 260 were American, 43 were American dubbed in Spanish, and only three were Spanish productions (Gubern 127). Still, the Republican government of the 1930s, more liberal in every aspect of society in contrast to previous governments, particularly as regards to women's rights, curbed and censored modern patterns of behavior in Hollywood films as well in spite of the progressive ideology of its policies. The dictatorial regime of Francisco Franco that followed heightened even further the extent of this censorship. Censorship, however, did not prevent Hollywood films from having a great impact in the Spanish screens. Edited Marlene Dietrich movies, for instance, affected greatly the desires of the adolescent Catalan protagonist of Merce Rodoreda's 1938 novel Aloma. In this novel, Aloma fantasized she was una Dietrich d'estar per casa when she saw her reflection in one of the windows of a subway car (18). And films were indeed an influence Rodoreda stressed in her introduction to her 1974 novel Mirall trencat when she said that a fragment of a good movie could be the source of inspiration for a novel (9). Although the bibliography and references on the subject of the influences of Hollywood on Spanish literature, cinema, and society are numerous, few address extensively specific Hollywood films targeted in Spanish literature for an influence in plot or character. Examples of articles that reference Hollywood appear in Women's Narrative and Film in Twentieth-Century Spain, edited by Ofelia Ferran and Kathleen M. Glenn. Another interesting collection of articles is Refiguring Spain: Cinema/Media/Representation, edited by Marsha Kinder. However, neither of these collections offer specific examples of direct influences or source of inspiration in plot outline or character development. References to Hollywood stars are frequent as well in Carmen Martin Gaite's novels, particularly in the 1978 autobiographical and metafictional El cuarto de atras. These references do not reveal influences in plot or an explicit source of inspiration but they lead to a hidden path Belen Gopegui revealed in the prologue to Martin Gaite's posthumously published novel Los parentescos. Gopegui writes that Carmen Martin Gaite always avoided speaking about her novels during the writing process, opting instead to refer to a movie to express her views. …

Louis Hémon’s Intertextual Use of Pêcheur d’Islande in Maria Chapdelaine: Making a Novel Set in Canada Speak about Problems in Pre-World War One France

This essay demonstrates that, in developing the plot outline and male protagonist of his last novel, Maria Chapdelaine (1914), Louis Hémon repeatedly evoked Pierre Loti’s then-popular narrative about Breton fishermen and their community, Pêcheur d’Islande (1886). A Breton himself, Hémon seems to have evoked Loti’s male protagonist, Yann Gaos, repeatedly in presenting his own, François Paradis, because such intertextualization allowed him to deal in a new way with the question of a perceived decline of masculinity, an issue that he had treated in several of his previous narratives and that was occupying Western European thought at the time. Such intertextualization also allowed him to address an issue that had been of personal significance to him since his adolescence: the importance of finding a way to be free of the constraints that he believed modern society was trying to impose on men.

Christians, Jews, Journeys, and Salvation. Intertextuality and Inversion in Laish by Aharon Appelfeld and Crusade by Amos Oz

This article offers a comparative study of two Modern Hebrew novellas: Crusade (1971) by Amos Oz and Laish (1994) by Aharon Appelfeld (both works were written in Hebrew by writers who are Israel Literature Prize laureates). The study is based on revealing both the similarities and the distinct points of difference between these two works, which share similar details in their plot outline. In doing so I am trying to decipher the aim and purpose of the obvious ties woven between the latter novella and the early one that serves as its model.Both works tell about a caravan making its way from Europe to Jerusalem, encountering hardships and obstacles on the way. In Oz’s novella it is a Christian caravan on a crusade aiming to arrive at Jerusalem but never leaving the European continent; in Appelfeld’s work the story is of a Jewish caravan wandering for years on the soil of Europe on its way to the port of Galacz, aiming to leave Europe on the way to the Land of Israel.Both authors make their point by using covertly the image of the “Wandering Jew,” but differ about the conclusions that can be drawn from the encounter between that symbol and Jewish fate. In Crusade, by using the image of the Wandering Jew, Oz signals both Jewish weakness in exile and Christian religious fanaticism, the encounter between which is disastrous for the Jews. Oz thus points to what he perceives as an insoluble problem on account of its mythical roots.Appelfeld uses the image of the Wandering Jew quite differently and for another purpose. In Laish Appelfeld is producing “a realization of a metaphor,” so to speak, when he turns the entire Jewish caravan into the actual exemplification of the Wandering Jew.Contrary to Oz’s novella, where unequivocally there is no hope for the wandering Jew, who continues to symbolize the Jewish people in exile among the nations, the use of the myth of the Wandering Jew as frame and form in Laish is quintessentially dialectic. Therefore it also enables its deconstruction. In the hidden dialogue that takes place between Appelfeld’s novella and that of Oz, the latter’s work is in fact disputing with the earlier one trying to refute its deep pessimism. Although the caravan’s way in Laish is not a simple and easy one, the implications of the emergence of a “Zionist” solution, which in turn shatters the Christian “Wandering Jew” myth, hints at a real possibility of salvation.