Romantic Works Research Articles

The Digital Edition of Juliusz Słowacki's Eastern Diary : New Possibilities for the Romantic Canon

Abstract: The paper discusses the influence of digital tools on the reception of Romanticism. The study is based on the digital edition of Polish poet Juliusz Słowacki's travel notebook from his journey to the East. The research demonstrates that a full reading of the fragmentary diary requires multidisciplinary work and that digital tools can integrate diverse approaches, showcasing its fragmentary nature. Special attention is given to the specificity of Polish Romanticism and the need for new readings of Romantic works. Digital editions and popularization enable an interdisciplinary view of Romanticism, revealing it as a multidimensional and attractive era for modern readers.

Особенности романтических произведений Александра Ширяевца

The study aims to reveal the features of the romantic works by A. V. Shiryaevets. The article analyzes the lyrical works of the author belonging to the “new peasant poets”, reflects his interest in folklore, closeness to folk singers and storytellers, shows how Shiryaevets interprets the plot in a special way, giving poetic sketches a social and everyday character. The issue of the influence of oral folklore on the poetics of Shiryaevets is covered in literature quite fully, but researchers pay attention mainly to the poet’s attitude to folklore, identifying forms of secondary folklorism in the poetics. The discussion of the facts of folklore is often descriptive, carried out through empirical analysis. However, in the works of Shiryaevets, folklorism is not initially secondary, but is based on a folklore worldview. The article is the first to note the connection between folklore and mythological consciousness in the poetics of Shiryaevets, which accounts for the novelty of the scientific work. The results of the study showed that mythopoetics and the folklore tradition closely interact in Shiryaevets’ poems. Along with this, the following features are distinguished in the poems: the reflection of heroic-historical events, an appeal to the time of Ivan the Terrible’s reign, the glorification of Stepan Razin and his freemen, who serve as folklore images. Folk heroes, extolled in epics and tales, are shown against the background of the picturesque panoramas of the Volga region and ancient Zhiguli, they are personified in poems and act as characters. Possessing historical memory, the nature of the Volga region in Shiryaevets’ poems is able to reproduce the events of the heroic time of his native land.

NATIONAL COLOURING IN ROMANTICISM ON THE EXAMPLE OF LITERARY-CRITICAL STUDIES BY K. ZHUSSIP

Nowadays, the study of Romanticism as a significant phenomenon in literary studies is mainly focused on the investigation of its development under the influence of national characteristics. This research aims to identify the distinctive interpretations of romantic motifs in the works of Kazakh Romanticism poets. Specifically, the article provides an analysis of the development of romantic ideas using Kazakh romantic poetry of the 19th and 20th centuries as a case study, addressing the manifestation of Kazakh national characteristics rooted in Kazakh culture. By analysing the romantic works of Kazakh poets, the conceptual imagery of Romanticism is elucidated. Various research methods, including content analysis and semantic analysis of poetic texts, were used to demonstrate that Romanticism, as an emotional perception of the world and reality, transcends national boundaries. The study concludes that literary creativity is multifaceted, and linguistic analysis helps authors to effectively advocate Romanticism as a means of expressing national characteristics in literature, thereby contributing to the globalisation of cultural understanding. In addition, the study of the emergence of a new hero in romantic works, particularly in religious discourse, as exemplified by the literary-critical contributions of K. Zhussip, is identified as a promising avenue for future research. Keywords: Romanticism, national colouring, romantic hero, literary critical studies, images.

RUSSIAN ROMANTICISM FROM LERMONTOV TO NABOKOV. WEISSKOPF M.M. AGONY AND THE REVIVAL OF ROMANTICISM. MOSCOW, NOVOE LITERATURNOE OBOZRENIE PUBL., 2022. 600 P.

The analysis of the romantic tradition in Russian literature is a crosscutting plot of the collection Agony and the Revival of Romanticism. The main objects of research are the style (plot motifs, images, verbal formulas) of famous romantic writers against the background of their contemporary literature of the second and third rows and reminiscences from romantic writings in the works of authors of later eras. Mikhail Weisskopf’s book is an important scientific study. The revealed echoes of the works of M. Lermontov and N. Gogol with contemporary romantic works are an extremely valuable result: against this background, it is more obvious what belongs to the era, being a common property, and what belongs to the artistic discoveries of this or that writer. An interesting and convincing interpretation of The Pied Piper by A. Grin, in which symbolism is found, goes back to Judeophobic mythology. Of great importance for commenting and researching the works of V. Nabokov of the Russian period are numerous reminiscences, mainly from romantic and neo-romantic works, indicated by the scholar. The book is clearly lacking in theoretical reflection on the found textual overlaps. Non-functional inclusions of ‘alien text’ - borrowings (this is the case of Lermontov and Gogol) and significant references to other texts - reminiscences (the case of Nabokov) are not distinguished. This flaw is explained by the fact that The Agony and Revival of Romanticism, despite the presence of several main plots in the book, is not a monograph, but a collection of articles written at different times.

Romanticism Reflections in the Poetry of Mahsati Ganjavi

The poetry of Mahsati Ganjavi, a Persian poet of the 6th century, has unique features based on the principles of Romanticism. Therefore, the ground is prepared to investigate his collected poems based on the components of Romanticism. This study aims to analyze and describe the collected poems of Mahsati Ganjavi using documentary and descriptive methods, and to answer the question of how much the components of Romanticism are reflected in his poetry. The results of this analysis show that many characteristics of Romanticism, such as the return to nature, attention to human nature, escape and travel, individuality and uniqueness, freedom, non-conformity to ethics, emotion and sentiment, romantic melancholy, love, illness, imagination, romantic imagery, the pole of figurative language, and the magic of words are present in the poetry of Mahsati Ganjavi, making it one of the romantic works of Persian literature.

ТанзиматәдебиетініңтанымалөкіліНамыкКемалшығармаларындағыжаңасарындар

The liberation and enlightenment movements of the late XIX-early XX centuries stimulatedthe growth of political, socio-social consciousness of the Turkic peoples. Poets and writers of that periodtried with great enthusiasm to spread innovative ideas. On its basis, the thematic content of literature hasexpanded,andtheartisticlevelhasincreased.IntheliteratureoftheTurkicpeoples,theplaceofpreviouslywritten romantic works was occupied by works of a realistic orientation related to real life, everyday life,andtheenvironment.The Tanzimat period, which had a great influence on the awakening of the spiritual life of Turkishsociety,hasaspecialplaceinthehistoryofTurkishliterature.AlmostallthepoetsandwritersoftheTanzimatperiodwerecomposedofrepresentativesoftheanti-Western,innovative,andscientificintelligentsia.One of the most famous representatives of this period, N. Kemal, was a poet, writer, journalist, playwright, andcritic, that is, a versatile “octagonal one-sided”. N. Kemal widely considered social, political, and socialtopics in his works and, like other representatives of the Tanzimat period, tried to save his country frombackwardness, illiteracy, and ignorance. Therefore, in his works, he emphasized the spiritual values of theTurkishpeopleandtriedtounitereligion andcivilization.IntThisarticle,considerstheconceptsof“homeland,nation,freedom,equality,andeducation”,whichare widely considered in the works of Namik Kemal, a well-known representative of Tanzimat literature,are considered.

Between „the Real” and „the Ideal”: Criteria of the Comparative Thought in Maurycy Mochnacki’s Crirical Writings

Maurycy Mochnacki’s comparative thought is to be seen in the context of pioneering refl ections that constitute the modern, post-Kantian comparative approach. In order to evaluate Mochnacki’s contribution, one cannot limit it to the opposition between national and foreign literatures, or what is universal and classical versus what is regional and romantic. Mochnacki developed concepts and methods that made it possible to analyze and understand romantic works without referring to classical criteria and rules, which were successively repeated in normative poetics, but were less and less relevant. His extensive, innovative comparative analyses of romantic works were very original in the Polish context. He employed the concepts of „reality” and „ideality,” borrowed from German philosophy, as the main criteria of comparative readings.

Sylvie, or the End of Romanticism

This article attempts to explain the special place that Sylvie occupies in both Nerval’s œuvre and the general context of nineteenth-century French prose. The structure of the nouvelle is examined through a close reading of two key motifs: vines intertwined with roses, and flowing water. The different iterations of these motifs are interpreted as expressing the impossibility of recovering the symbolical and sentimental values that the author-narrator cherished in the past. This structure is identified as one of the factors that allowed Sylvie to be well received in neoclassical circles. It is suggested that this construction is also what caused Proust’s fascination with, and scepticism towards, the nouvelle. The article concludes that Sylvie should be considered a unique text which opens the way for a new type of writing, whilst also closing it down. The nouvelle’s referential logic is different from that of Romantic, neoclassical or realist works. Indeed, the reason why it cannot be taken as a model is that it presents the reader with a particular kind of réel, which is inseparable from the crisis of Romanticism.

The Calamity Form: On Poetry and Social Life

The Calamity Form: On Poetry and Social Life

An Analysis of the Characteristics of American Romanticism---Take Irving and Emerson as Examples

Combined with the general appreciation of the romantic works, this paper intends to illustrate them in detail to excavate its connotation and the deep reference significance for us today.

Bacchic Vocabulary Verbalizing Object of Drinking in Artistic World of Alexander Grin

The features of verbalization of the object of drinking in the artistic world of Alexander Grin are considered. The material for the research was the famous novels of the author “Scarlet Sails”, “The Golden Chain”, “Running on the Waves” and some stories. The novelty of the research is seen in the analysis of the individual author’s refraction of the wine drinking situation. Significant, from the point of view of the writer, aspects of the representation of this situation are highlighted. It is noted that the main dominant of the interpretation of the situation of wine drinking in the romantic works of Green is aesthetic. Particular attention is paid to the location of the wine, its “framing” in Bacchic descriptive contexts, in which the following elements are also significant: the golden-scarlet combination of the vessel and the contents, sophistication presented in the descriptions of the smallest details. It was revealed that the linguistic embodiment of such descriptions are epithets (qualitative and relative adjectives), comparative phrases and metaphors. It is shown that the aesthetic component is made up of visual (color), olfactory, tactile assessments, which together represent a feast, a celebration of life. When analyzing the axiological component in the representation of wine, it is noted that its value is determined by its “age”, which may correspond to the milestones of a person’s life or several generations.

Romanticism in the North American Short Story

El Romanticismo fue un movimiento extremadamente influyente que surgió a finales del siglo 18 y que tuvo un gran impacto en varias áreas, incluida la literatura. Innumerables escritores han representado en sus obras características esenciales del Romanticismo como la representación de horror y emociones intensas, el uso de entornos naturales exóticos y salvajes, el nacionalismo, el individualismo, la mente humana, y el simbolismo, entre muchas otras. En este artículo, se muestra cómo el Romanticismo influyó, en concreto, la narrativa breve norteamericana analizando cinco obras: “Rip Van Winkle,” de Washington Irving; “The Minister’s Black Veil,” de Nathaniel Hawthorne; “Bartleby, the Scrivener,” de Herman Melville; y “The Minister’s Black Veil” y “The Tell-Tale Heart,” de Edgar Allan Poe. Los resultados que se han obtenido de este análisis han demostrado que estas cinco historias breves se pueden considerar trabajos románticos porque reflejan múltiples características del Romanticismo. De hecho, estos autores retratan las peculiaridades de los dos sub-campos más importantes del Romanticismo Americano conocidos como “Romanticismo Claro” y “Romanticismo Oscuro.” Romanticism was an extremely influential movement which flourished at the end of the 18th century and which had a huge impact on various areas, including literature. Countless writers have represented in their works key Romantic features such as the depiction of horror and intense emotions, the use of exotic and wild natural settings, nationalism, individualism, the reproduction of the human psyche, and symbolism, among many others. In this paper, it is shown how the Romantic Movement influenced, more specifically, the North American short story by analysing five works: Washington Irving’s “Rip Van Winkle,” Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Minister’s Black Veil,” Herman Melville’s “Bartleby, the Scrivener,” and Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death” and “The Tell-Tale Heart.” The results which have been obtained from this analysis have demonstrated that these five short stories can be considered as Romantic works because they reflect multiple characteristics of the Romantic Movement. In fact, these writers portray the peculiarities of the most important subfields of American Romanticism, which are known as “Light Romanticism” and “Dark Romanticism.”

Echi Danteschi nel Romanticismo Polacco

The presented article deals with the specifics of the impact of the artistic motives of Dante Alighieri’s literary achievement on Polish romanticism. The particular attention was focused on the undeniable significance of the ideological component of the “Divine Comedy”, the lyrical motives of which were creatively rethought by the Polish romanticists and proposed in their author’s adaptation according to the historical and social realities of the time. It was stated that the culmination of Dante’s success in the Polish literary environment actually coincided with a difficult period in the history of the state: namely, with the national tragedy of 1795, when the third and the final Partition of Poland occured. It was then that the prominent Florentine artist played for the Polish romanticists the role of a special spiritual guide and teacher, who demostrated the captives some ways to confront the painful reality and to achieve the future liberation of the nation. Dante’s patriotic ideals and hopes for a better future were reflected in the original romantic works of the Polish writers. It was noted that in the context of the growing interest towards the religious issues during the Romantic era, the apocalyptic motives and millenarian vision of the world in Dante’s works served to strengthen the messianic ideas of the Polish romanticists, most of whom put an emphasis on the prophetic and eschatological character of the “Divine Comedy”. It was found that for the authors of the time, the figure of the great Italian was associated with Catholicism or Protestantism. It was accentuated that the creative achievement of Dante Alighieri became one of the greatest sources of artistic inspiration for Polish writers of the Romantic movement. In fact Dante echoes were invented in the works of Adam Asnyk, Zygmunt Krasiński, Adam Mickiewicz, Cyprian Norwid, Juliusz Słowacki, Adam Jerzy Czartoryski and others. At the same time it was underlined that the consideration of the Polish romantic literature as a result of the blind imitation of Dante’s lyrical motives is incorrect. In contrast to the Florentine artist, who represented his own reality in the afterlife, the romanticists aimed to find the afterlife in their everyday life. It is the peculiarity of the establishment of the locus horridus to be a characteristic feature by which Dante can be distinguished from the Polish writers.

Herling-Grudziński w dyskusji z Norwidem, Krasińskim i Mickiewiczem

HERLING-GRUDZIŃSKI IN DISCUSSION WITH NORWID, KRASIŃSKI, AND MICKIEWICZ The article consists of three parts, each focusing on a different essay of Herling’s concerning the Romantic era. The author demonstrates how Herling reads Romantic works in order to search for valuable clues for 20th-century Polish immigrants. It appears that it is Cyprian Norwid and his sometimes critical view of the legacy of Romanticism that prove to be particularly appealing for Herling. The article also presents Herling’s views on Zygmunt Krasiński’s Nie-Boska Komedia [Non-Divine Comedy], in particular the Romantic representations of aristocracy and revolutionaries. It closes with an analysis of Księgi narodu polskiego i pielgrzymstwa polskiego [The Books and the Pilgrimage of the Polish Nation] by Adam Mickiewicz. Although Herling is skeptical of many of Mickiewicz’s views, especially messianism, he can also see how his work still remains topical.

The Decline of Romanticism in Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and Edgar Allen Poe’s The Black Cat.

This paper explores some gaps in the romanticism era using well-known authors. The paper aims to explore the decline of romantic elements in Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and Edgar Allen Poe’s The Black Cat. It provides some hints to foreground further studies on those writers using the approach of critical analysis to romantic works. In fact, this paper could be considered partially as a notes review to comprehend how those writers could be the cause of declining the romantic age and begin new different perspectives using their selected compositions. Although they are considered romantic authors, the paper shows somehow they are different from others. The conclusion draws the gaps in portraying the elements of romanticism.

W szklanej kuli tradycji

The article reviews Agata Seweryn’s book titled Between the Worlds. Studies in the Literature of the Enlightenment and Romanticism, accounting for the composition of the book, examining research problems raised in it in greater detail, and discussing essays included in the publication as supplementing existing interpretations of selected Romantic works. Seweryn is argued to draw attention to those aspects that reveal the richness inherent in the discussed works, which are demonstrated as not having been exhausted yet. These works are analysed in the reviewed book by pursing references to the baroque tradition, or by reflecting on their relationship with normative poetics and rhetoric.

Ghost-Words

Susan Wolfson’s new book is about ‘spectral linguistic agencies, both on the field of Romantic writing and, reflexively, for our reading of the field’. Ghosts do not slot very easily into New Historicism’s prized category of ‘truths of immediate history’, and so any book which celebrates ‘apparitional presences’ naturally runs the risk of vindicating the theory that ‘the ideology represented through Romantic works is a fortiori seen as a body of illusions’ (Jerome McGann, The Romantic Ideology, 1983). There are remarks throughout Romantic Shades and Shadows that might seem to play into McGann’s story about Romanticism’s uncritical absorption in its own self-representations. ‘For Wordsworth, a mental specter can even usurp a material presence’, and that looks suspiciously like a mind-made distraction from socio-historical reality. But it is a distinguishing characteristic of phantoms and ghosts that you cannot assuredly say whether they are really there or not – they induce an ‘undetermined sense / Of unknown modes of being’. ‘Strange byways of writing, haunted recalls and recognitions, phantasms of a future, spectral pressures on shapes of composition: there are ghosts in these goings-on.’ Wolfson shows with great flair that it is possible to write in the shadow of McGann and Derrida without succumbing to their reductiveness.

‘Eastern Poems’ by P. Kulish at Crossroads of Asian Mysticism and European Romanticism

The paper considers the main Panteleimon Kulish’s epic poems “Marusia Bohuslavka”, “Baida, Prince Vyshnevetskyi”, “Muhammad and Hadiza” with the focus on their oriental background. The idea of the eastern orientation of P. Kulish originates from the works of V. Shchurat, V. Ivashkiv and others. The main attention is drawn to the fact that Kulish was considerably acquainted with eastern cultures and religious systems (especially those of Near East and Middle East which he had to know as a translator of Bible) and often used eastern concepts in his philosophic and literary works. The researcher traces the influence of different factors in Kulish’s ‘Eastern poems’ at the levels of ideology and imagery. The analysis reveals that the main sources of the author’s creative ideas were the eastern religious mystical systems (such as Islam, Sufi sm) as well as European Romantic works, in particular those by Lord Byron and P. B. Shelley, that were created under the same influence of the eastern philosophic doctrines and philosophy of Spinoza. This content was most vividly embodied in Kulish’s ‘cordocentric’ doctrine contrasting with ‘ratiocentric’ European philosophies. The emphasis on the concept of the heart and emotional sphere is most eloquent and obvious in the image of Woman that is interpreted as the eastern category of eternal femininity. The eastern focus is also noticeable at the thematic level (the concepts of Truth, Love, and Eternity). The main poetical peculiarities of the analyzed works are found in the mystical thinking and belief in the sacred power of the Word. Thus the language of the poems is very allegoric, enigmatic, and mysterious; it rather veils the main meaning than reveals it. So it results in double meaning or multiplicity of interpretations and demands reading the poems with a search for a certain code or cipher for decoding the author’s imagery and parabolic content. That is why the poems leave the impression of paradoxical thinking and remain difficult for understanding which relate them to the works by Lord Byron and P. B. Shelley (“Revolt of Islam”). Probably this combination of Asian mysticism and European philosophies was the main reason why some critics accused Kulish of being ‘non-synthetic’ personality (S. Yefremov). But oriental focus reveals the new way for understanding and interpreting the poems by Kulish, as well as his philosophic doctrine and personal position in life.

Who’s to Blame?: Chivalric Projection and the Gender of Guilt

To what extent did chivalry promote a power difference between the sexes? In romantic works of medieval English literature, knights are commonly seen to project their values onto a female counterpart, which consequently leads them to pin their narrative successes or failures onto that person. This article examines “Le Roman de Tristan” and “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” under the framework Stephen Ahern presents in “Listening to Guinevere”. The chivalric Tristan idolizes his beloved Ysolt to the point of delusion, causing him to condemn her when she fails to meet his unrealistic expectations, and thus to illustrate the temperamental nature of the relationship between knight and lady. “Sir Gawain” complicates the issue, as Gawain lacks the expected devotion to a lady. Using Amy S. Kaufman and Michelle Sweeney’s models of the configuration of power as lenses, I analyze Lady Bertilack’s manipulation of Sir Gawain’s chivalric values, and his resulting display of frustration towards himself, as a critique of gendered morals. By comparing these knights and their respective treatments of failure, I argue that the chivalric code’s inconstant values ultimately encourage its followers to see any female-encoded morals, whether external or internal, as the cause of knightly failure. Faculty Sponsor: Elizabeth Tavares

National Trauma and Romantic Illusions in Percy Shelley’s The Cenci

Percy Shelley responded to the 1819 Peterloo Massacre by declaring the government’s response “a bloody murderous oppression.” As Shelley’s language suggests, this was a seminal event in the socially conscious life of the poet. Thereafter, Shelley devoted much of his writing to delineating the sociopolitical milieu of 1819 in political and confrontational works, including The Cenci, a verse drama that I argue portrays the coercive violence implicit in nationalism, or, as I term it, national trauma. In displaying the historical Roman Cenci family in starkly vituperous manner, that is, Shelley reveals his drive to speak to the historical moment, as he creates parallels between the tyranny that the Roman pater familias exhibits toward his family and the repression occurring during the time of emergent nationhood in Hanoverian England, which numerous scholars have addressed. While scholars have noted discrete acts of trauma in The Cenci and other Romantic works, there has been little sustained criticism from the theoretical point of view of trauma theory, which inhabits the intersections of history, cultural memory, and trauma, and which I explore as national trauma. Through The Cenci, Shelley implies that national trauma inheres within British nationhood in the multiple traumas of tyrannical rule, shored up by the nation’s cultural memory and history, instantiated in oppressive ancestral order and patrilineage. Viewing The Cenci from the perspective of national trauma, however, I conclude that Shelley’s revulsion at coercive governance and nationalism loses itself in the contemplation of the beautiful pathos of the effects of national trauma witnessed in Beatrice, as he instead turns to a more traditional national narrative.