Romantic Tendencies Research Articles

Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations and Bildungsroman literature: a guidebook for journeying home, seeing places anew, and encountering Land-based education

Abstract Guarding against reliance on his own biography and romantic tendencies in Bildungsroman literature, I draw parallels to Ludwig Wittgenstein’s use of the journey trope and place-based inquiry in the Philosophical Investigations, as an exploration of concept development and confusion that exhorts and guides readers in traversing the borderlands of their own cultural–linguistic practices. l recall Wittgenstein’s journey in search of himself: his retreat from Cambridge to a remote hut in Norway, leading him on a philosophical search for meaning. This self-transformative (Bildung) process of writing the Philosophical Investigations offers new ways for thinking the concept of ‘place’: not the bounding limit of things/beings; rather, working through the linguistic turn in philosophy, as potentially meaningful ‘sites’ in conceptually familiar/unfamiliar landscapes of native languages. The Investigations also carries ancient Heraclitian and Homeric tropes of homecoming and authenticity: ‘searching ourselves’ and ‘becoming who we are’, as found in Wittgenstein’s call to ‘know our way about’—rediscovering the grammatical order operating out of view but pervading the world as we see and know it, as well as setting its limits. Awareness of different languages of place is crucial to appreciating Indigenous discourses of Land-based education—a topic central to discussions of incorporating Indigenous knowledge while decolonizing education. Rethinking Bildungsroman literature in postcolonial terms—through the lens of reconciliation, renaissance, and resurgence —I call for careful listening to Indigenous peoples’ storied landscapes instead of fact-checking them: recognizing their sovereign right to self-govern their own education and resources. The goal is not to assess the truths of Land-based education, as in some epistemological inquiries, nor to make them accessible as pedagogical resources or instruments for non-Indigenous educators. The aim rather is to promote respect for its deep, nearly inaccessible context within Indigenous grammars and ways of life.

“Can Men Have Hearts?”: Susa Young Gates's Divorce, 1878

“Can Men Have Hearts?”: Susa Young Gates's Divorce, 1878

On the Romantic Tendencies in Russian Landscape Painting of the Second Half of the 19th Century (A.K. Savrasov, F.A. Vasiliev, A.I. Kuindzhi)

The paper discusses the works of A.K. Savrasov, A.F. Vasiliev and A.I. Kuindzhi aiming to explore romantic trends ever present in the art of the second half of the 19th century. The use of romantic style by positivistic masters evidences continuity in the evolution of the artistic process. Artists’ unique individuality suggests that they did not scholastically borrow certain expressive devices from their precursors, but creatively developed romantic techniques, empowering the evolution of art by further schools and generations.

PAMIĘĆ O KOZAKU UKRAIŃSKIM W UJĘCIU LITERACKIM ROMANTYKÓW UKRAIŃSKICH I POLSKICH

PAMIĘĆ O KOZAKU UKRAIŃSKIM W UJĘCIU LITERACKIM ROMANTYKÓW UKRAIŃSKICH I POLSKICH

Kraszewski-powieściopisarz „na ścieżce”… – tylko chciał nią pójść czy rzeczywiście „poszedł”?

Kraszewski as the Novelist “on the Path” – Did He Just Want to Follow This Path or Did He Actually Follow It? The article is dedicated to the reflexions on the manner, in which the opinions formed by Jozef Ignacy Kraszewski in his statements concerning his writing path and the desired development directions of his literary career that date back to the 30s of the 20th century correspond with the first novels of this author that were created at the preliminary stages of Romantic tendencies taking shape in the national prose fiction. The main focus of the article are Mister Walery and Big World of a Small Town whose literary profile delineated by the autothematic comments as well, was confronted with the critical reflection of the author included in such article as A Quick Look at the Path I Took (1832) or On Polish Novelists (1836).

Watercolours and Drawings of Count Konstanty Tyzenhauz – the Romanticised Testimony of the Time

Summary The goal of this article is to analyse and evaluate from an art-historical perspective the artistic legacy of Count Konstanty Tyzenhauz (1786–1853) in view of his multifaceted activities and in the context of his time, by applying formal and iconographic methods of art criticism. The Count’s work is a captivating and noteworthy legacy, a testimony to the amateur creativity of aristocracy. Various publications have published or mentioned only single works by Tyzenhauz; no attempt, however, has been made to study them as a whole with regard to the art-historical approach, moreover, some of the works had not yet been published. The analysis revealed that a number of sparsely preserved works, be it drawings or watercolours, are at variance with the stylistic rendering and artistic expression, thus disclosing the Count’s creative experiments and a notable influence of his teachers Orłowski and Norblin. The views representing historical heritage objects (the Koknese, the Vilnius Gediminas, and the Trakai castles) reflect in the main the Romantic tendencies and constitute the group of the most mature Count’s artworks. However, taking account of his unique style and individual manner, images of Rokiškis and the surrounding areas, as well as drawings of birds, stand out for the distinctive interpretation and comprise the most original group. They are romanticised, authentic visual fragments of his time and familiar environment. Art was not the Count’s main and professional endeavour, likewise for a number of noblemen of the epoch, but his artistic inclination let him adapt his talent for scientific purposes. No doubt, Tyzenhauz’s works that feature birds and various architectural objects are of important scientific, historical and iconographic value.

“Rural festivities” of Ivan Tankov

The article is devoted to the works of Ivan Tankov (Tonkov), whose oeuvre remains a mystery in the history of Russian painting of the last third of the 18th century. The content of the artist’s creations, called “rural festivitiesˮ, has not yet been deciphered, as their stylistic features go beyond the mainstream development of the landscape genre. The connection of Tankov’s paintings with the manor culture and everyday life of a country estate suggests as the primary sources of the artist’s pictorial fantasies: the theatrical performances in the Demidovs estates Sivoritsy and Taitsy, located not far from St Petersburg. Comparison of the works by Tankov and by his contemporary, the landscape painter Semion Shchedrin, shows the stylistic multidirectionality of the landscape genre in the era of classicism. Romantic tendencies in scenery painting are intertwined with traditions of a bucolic landscape. The article concludes that in Tankov’s works pictorial models and real-life impressions are fused together in the spirit of Baroque art.

ROMANTIC MOTIVES IN THE HONOR DE BALZAC’S «SАRRAZIN»

Romantic tendencies in the work of Honore de Balzac are marked by an appeal to various types of art: painting, sculpture and music. The French realist is interested in the issues of the essence of art, as well as the characteristics of the artist as a person who is genius and atypical and also who needs the understanding and participation of others. In the center of the novel «Sarrazin» is the figure of genius who strives for improvement and is in search of an ideal. However, the perfect image of human beauty becomes destructive both for the protagonist’s artwork and for his life. Love for the opera singer Zambinella, who turns out to be a young man, becomes fatal for the sculptor. If at first love inspires the young artist, then later it becomes incompatible with the love of art and even the life of the hero. The issue of art reception is singled out using the example of Sarrazin’s perception of vocal performance. Painter and sculptor is especially sensitive to the perception of music. Musical art transports Sarrazin to another world and his performer is etched in the hero’s memory forever. Attention is payed to the romantic symbolism of colors present in the text. Comparisons of the presentation of the artistic world in the author’s other novels «Gambara» and «Massimilla Doni» are traced. In the novels, there are romantic motifs through the prism of the presentation of music and the image of the artist. Emphasis is placed on the differences in the positions of Sarrazin and Gambara regarding the combination of different types of love: love of art and love for a woman. In addition, the artistic markers in the novels are highlights and their context is detailed in comparison with the mention of the names of composers and artists and artists and their works in H. de Balzac’s novel «Massimilla Doni» It is concluded that the artistic integrity of Balzac’s «Sarrazin» in combination with the presentation of art in the novels «Gambara» and «Massimilla Doni» indicate the realization of romantic motives in the artistic work of the French realist and complement the contemporary vision and understanding of art and its role in the life of society in general and of an individual in particular.

О гармонии Клода Дебюсси. Некоторые аспекты тональности

The article is devoted to certain issues related to harmony in Claude Debussy’s music, as well as their coverage in work with students of higher musical institutions. The focus of our attention lies on the categories of tonality and functionality as the most important aspects of the composer’s harmonic style. The tonality of his music is presented, on the one hand, based on traditions manifesting the late romantic tendencies of extended tonality; on the other hand, taking into account, the individual original musical solutions presented by the composer in some particular compositions of his. The latter are demonstrated in the close combination of tonal “states,” the application of the principle of “directing” tonality, and introduction of the elements of chromatic tonality. Attention is paid to Debussy’s special harmonic techniques, which became constructive for his work – the “autonomous” interaction between two different seventh chords which possess a multi-vector tonal-functional orientation, as well as “harmonic montage.” The article comes up with the conclusion that Debussy’s harmonic system is comprised of the synthesis of many of its particular manifestations, which make it possible for us to examine its most important specific features in a new way.

Соната для альта и фортепиано в отечественном музыкальном искусстве первой трети XX в.: сочинения Н. А. Рославца и С. Н. Василенко

The study examines the little-known and rarely performed Sonatas for viola and piano by N. A. Roslavets and S. N. Vasilenko, famous musicians and public figures, major representatives of the Russian school of composition, written due to the growing interest in viola performance, technical and artistic capabilities of the instrument. This trend is based on a direct response tothe work of V. V. Borisovsky, who became one of the great interpreters of this repertoire and determined the path of its development up to the present time. The sonata for viola and piano has become a space for experiment, symbolizing the departure from academic canons, the emergence of an alternative type of thinking, the birth of original musical systems. Another facet of this process came to be the compositions written in line with romantic tendencies characteristic of the chamber ensemble in Russian music. The paper focuses on the stylistic and genre features of these compositions, their artistic content, close to the current trends of musical art of the first third of the 20th century. The author displays a diverse palette of intellectual and creative facets, and identifies characteristic features of the composer's handwriting of Roslavets and Vasilenko in the context of traditions and innovation, successive relationships and new aesthetic views.

АРХИТЕКТУРНО-ГРАДОСТРОИТЕЛЬНАЯ ЭВОЛЮЦИЯ ПРОМЫШЛЕННОЙ ТЕРРИТОРИИ, РАСПОЛОЖЕННОЙ У МОСКОВСКОЙ ЗАСТАВЫ В ПЕТЕРБУРГЕ

This paper discusses the urban planning history of an area in Saint Petersburg around the former Moskovskaya Zastava, a historical gateway that travelers passed through when approaching Saint Petersburg from the direction of Moscow. Specifically, authors are interested in the architecture of the carriage building plant. By the end of the 19th century, this part of the city had turned into an industrial area, which saw dense development from 1897 to 1917. The development of heavy industry and the expansion of domestic railways led to an emerging demand in new freight cars. In this regard, it was decided to expand the car building at the existing factories, as well as to organize the construction of new ones. A small factory in St. Petersburg, which produced phaetons, cartridge boxes and field kitchens, in 1897 was significantly expanded and transformed into the St. Petersburg railcar plant. The characteristic features of the architectural and town-planning techniques of the late 19th - early 20th centuries were embodied in the volumetric-spatial composition of the carriage-building plant complex. The strong romantic tendencies characteristic for the industrial architecture of St. Petersburg of this period were clearly traced in its composition. For the next one hundred years, this vast space did not see any transformations, constituting a complete, self-sufficient environment. The railcar plant, originally constructed at the very end of the 19th century, remained standing near Moscovskaya Zastava until the early 21st century. In 2013, the industrial area ceased its existence, and the former plant was given away for residential development.

И.С. ТУРГЕНЕВ, А.А. БЛОК, М.А. ВОЛОШИН И "ЛЕГЕНДА О СВ. ЮЛИАНЕ СТРАННОПРИИМЦЕ" Г. ФЛОБЕРА

Flaubert’s “The Legend of St Julian the Hospitable” was first translated into Russian by I.S. Turgenev, and more recently - in beginning of the 20th century - by M.A. Voloshin and A.A. Blok. The paper addresses Voloshin’s “Preface to the translation of Flaubert’s ‘The Legend of St Julian the Hospitable’”, which he wrote in polemics with Turgenev’s translation. The analysis of the reason of Voloshin’s interest in the text by Flaubert shows that “The legend of St Julian” attracted the poets of the Silver Age with its unusual content, peculiar mysticism and particular - Flauberian - style of presentation. Each of the writers who translated the legend tried to keep the balance between content and style as much as possible. The paper also raises the question of romantic tendencies in Flaubert’s novels on religious subjects.

Концепция романтического героя в скульптуре Аргентины 20–40-х гг. ХХ в.

The interest in the history and culture of Argentina in the Russian Federation today has a special character. It is believed that the presence of a huge number of immigrants from Europe, including from Russia, distinguishes Argentina culturally from other countries of the New World, makes its culture more understandable. There is a perception that this is the most Europeanized country in South America. To a large extent, this ideologeme is the result of foreign policy pursued by Argentina itself. At the same time, the process of the formation of national identity in here was complicated and did not end until the 40s of the 20th century. The relevance of the study is to reveal the inconsistency of this process on the material of sculpture as a document of the era, to show the rejection by masters from a remote region of the country, the province of Chaco, the prevailing ideas about the barbarity and savagery of the Indians and Gauchos, the original population of this province and part of other territories of the state. The novelty lies in the comparative comparison of the positions of the academic art history of Argentina and academic art in the understanding of Indian themes and in how it was interpreted by regional masters – K. Dominguez (died in 1969), C. Schenone (1907–1963), J. de la Mena (1897–1954), as well as in the art history analysis of significant works of the considered problematic and the romantic tendencies manifested in them. It is advisable to correlate the process of “Europeanization” of Indians, bloody and long-term hostilities in order to expel the gaucho and Indians from their ancestral lands with the understanding of who was the true hero of history in the creations of their descendants. The works of the sculptors Chaco, romantic in spirit, are related to the great J. Hernandez’s poem “Martin Fierro”. Today they are kept not only in the capital of Chaco, Resistencia, but also in museums in Buenos Aires and foreign collections

РОМАНТИЧЕСКИЕ ТЕНДЕНЦИИ В АРХИТЕКТУРНОЙ КОНКУРСНОЙ ПРАКТИКЕ ДОНСКОГО РЕГИОНА КОНЦА XIX – НАЧ. XX ВВ

The article is devoted to the study of architectural competition practice on the territory of the Don region during the heyday of romantic trends in Russian architecture of the second half of the XIX – early XX centuries. This period was a time of rapid industrial and economic development of the cities of the Lower Don and the Sea of Azov, such as Rostov-on-don and Taganrog. A sharp increase in residents, their well-being and the expansion of the style of regional architecture contributed to the activation of construction. The examples of some of the competition entries are studied in the article. The problem of this research is to identify romantic trends in the regional architectural and construction practice of the Don region of the late XIX – early XX centuries, by analyzing the competitive proposals of architects. The authors propose a new approach to the problem of forming stylistic trends in the region, where an important role is played by the architectural competition as a platform for introducing popular stylistic ideas into the public consciousness. The studied issue of the manifestation of romanticism ideas in the regional competitive architectural and construction practice allows to conclude that romantic tendencies are in project proposals presented at architectural competitions of the Don region. There is a penetration of current and popular trends of romanticism in the regional architectural and construction practice.

Animal Subjects: Literature, Zoology, and British Modernism, by Caroline Hovanec

Animal Subjects: Literature, Zoology, and British Modernism, by Caroline Hovanec

Empire Falls and How A Disillusioned Society of the Early 21st Century Resorts to Romantic Tendencies

This paper is principally aimed at analyzing the theme of Richard Russo’s Empire Falls in its relation with the socio-economic context of its publication in 2001, namely the economic recession that characterizes the earliest decade of the 21st century. The analysis will be based on historical approach’s assumption of the correlation between literary works and social context in which they are produced. Intrinsically, the novel is dissected into two levels. They are surface level (form) and deeper level (content). The results of the analysis are in the form of philosophical speculations of the novel, which are believed to follow the mood of the early 21st century, including 1) disillusionment to social mobility, 2) incredulity to human agency, and 3) romantic tendencies. This novel’s reaction to the decline of capitalism in the early 21st century seems to be similar to early romantic reaction to the rise of capitalism by returning to nature and resorting to external forces whether divine entity or otherwise.Keywords: 21st century novel; American economic recession; romanticism.

Existential Muck: Romantic Borderlessness and Dissolving Dualisms in Schiller's Die Räuber

The essay investigates Romantic tendencies in Schiller's inaugural drama, Die Räuber [The Robbers]. The play's overt discourse of dualism and exchange rests on a more viscous foundation of existential muck. Franz von Moor's “morastige Zirkel der menschlichen Bestimmung” [muckish cycle of human determination] is a cyclical solvent that engulfs the play's dualisms and dissolves opposition and exchange. Forms rise from the muck, taking on borders (dimensions, limits) and they descend back into the muck, becoming once more borderless. This may be the other side of an all-encompassing Freude [Joy], both originary and terminal, yet as “alle Menschen werden Brüder” [all people become brothers], we are reminded of what it means to be brothers in the Moor clan. As a belated product of the proto-Romanticism of the Sturm und Drang, Schiller's 1781 play is a specimen of retro-proto-Romanticism.

Incongruity, Irony, and Maturity in Contemporary Worship Music: An Extended Burkeian Analysis of A Collision

This essay examines David Crowder’s award-winning contemporary worship album A Collision using an expanded Burkeian toolkit. I show that it takes the romantic tendencies in contemporary worship to the end of the line, causing them to collide with carefully planned realism yet eliding the tragicomic social dimension of the gospel. Through purposeful incongruities, Crowder creates ironic awareness of faith’s paradoxes. Through linguistic reflexivity, he conveys his art’s inadequacy to divine worship. Yet A Collision’s romantic core endures, partly matured and tempered by these Burkeian moves. The album thus approaches, but does not arrive at, what Burke called the “poetic ideal.”

El escándalo by Pedro Antonio de Alarcón (review)

Reviewed by: El escándalo by Pedro Antonio de Alarcón Sarah Sierra Pedro Antonio de Alarcón. El escándalo. Ed. Ignacio Javier López. Madrid: Cátedra, 2013. 512 pp. Whether due to his position as a conservative reactionary or simply the result of unfortunate timing, Pedro Antonio de Alarcón has attracted a seemingly disproportionate amount of negative criticism relative to his contemporaries during the latter half of the nineteenth century. The circumstances surrounding this negative press, however, have more to do with the author’s socio-political ideology, which tarnished the literary legacy of his 1875 novel, El escándalo. Under this premise, in a new critical edition, Professor Ignacio Javier López examines the factors that led to the overwhelmingly negative reception of El escándalo, attributing this phenomenon to an erroneous conflation of social and political contexts with the aesthetic value of the novel. López outlines Alarcón’s social and political trajectory from the author’s early participation in radical liberalism to his eventual conversion (or return) to traditional values by the date of El escándalo’s publication. In considering the author’s reactionary conservatism, which influenced his stylistic and ideological stance toward the novel, López explains that the years between the revolutions of 1854 and 1868 affected how Alarcón interpreted the events that transpired during the Sexenio Democrático. In spite of Alarcón’s own words stating a sudden change of heart “…me convertí repentinamente de demócrata en conservador, tomándole miedo al espíritu revolucionario” (42), López shows how this transformation was the result of a much slower progression, rooted in a complex interaction of social, political, and cultural effects, which influenced the author’s perception of this new world order. Throughout the study, López exposes the processes that led to the interpretation of El escándalo as a poorly executed Realist novel. He effectively demonstrates how Alarcón’s social and political trajectory influenced his preference for Romantic techniques over the incipient tropes and experiments of the emerging Realist movement in addressing the polarizing social crisis depicted in the novels of this period. Furthermore, he clarifies, Realism was neither formerly practiced nor officially acknowledged as a literary movement until shortly after the publication of the novel and, therefore, the common evaluation of El escándalo according to the tenets of Realism fails to recognize its historical context. Instead, López’s study explains that Alarcon’s novel should be considered within the category of the novela ideológica española, which comprised part of the new novelistic orientation: “No se trata de simples modificaciones en la morfología de las obras sino de un uso diferente del género, que suponía una función diferente de la literatura” (50). Alarcón’s contribution with El escándalo in 1875 is fundamental to the rise of the new direction of the nineteenth-century novel. From here, López describes the context in which the novela ideológica española emerged explaining that it confronted the social crisis that left Restoration Spain divided between conservatives and liberals. The content of such novels published around the crucial date of 1875 centered on the evolving crisis of la cuestión religiosa that examined the increasing secularization of modern society. Furthermore, López elaborates that the artistic debate [End Page 139] between idealism and realism created greater focus on the role of the novel in contemporary society. While Valera opted for idealism, Alarcón and Galdós embraced the alternative mode of arte útil; however, two opposing ideological stances constituted this category. On the one hand, the tendency initiated by Galdós sought verisimilitude by emphasizing individual development through the characters’ experience in this complex historical moment. Alarcón, on the other hand, rejected the realistic depiction of the social crisis opting for an allegorical representation in which the author opposes Good and Evil, affecting both his aesthetic choices and structure of the novel derived from his affinity with Romantic techniques. Here, López points out that Alarcon’s discursive application of Romantic tendencies are apparent in his use of the idealists’ redemptive and purifying love...

Two Green Poets: A Comparative Ecocritical Study of Sepehri and Emerson

Many similar subjects can be traced in world literature, among them is nature since it belongs to man/nature binary opposition. The American poet and philosopher, Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) employs nature in his works. Throughout his works, he discusses the affinity between man and nature, emphasizing how man takes advantage of it. The contemporary Iranian poet, Sohrab Sepehri (1928-1980), also makes intensive use of nature in his poems. Sepehri is proficient in using nature either in philosophical or emotional issues. Due to the significance of nature in the works or the two figures, an ecocritical reading of them is not only applicable but unavoidable. This comparative study aims at investigating different approaches towards nature employed by the two poets, emphasizing their points of difference. Although both poets employ nature in their works with romantic tendencies, the postmodern environmental ethics of Sepehri is in direct contrast to the instrumental value viewpoint held by his American counterpart.