Thematic Motifs Research Articles

The Railway as a Cultural Phenomenon and Poetic Text

Purpose. The article examines two aspects of the railway: as a cultural phenomenon and as an example of thematic motif in poetic text.Results. The appearance of the railway was not only an important technical achievement, but also formed a previously unknown cultural code with distinctive features. Firstly, with a paradoxical sense of stability of the path and at the same time, promising disaster in case of deviation, incommensurable rides on horseback. Secondly, with the feeling of simultaneous presence into opposite spaces – at the unchanging point of the carriage and in the constantly changing panorama outside the window. Thirdly, a qualitatively new sense of rhythm, accelerated and hinting as the possibility of change. As a result, a new type of discursive reality arises, leading to an original type of text formation. So, in parallel with the cultural code, another arises – an artistic one, characterized by uniqueness and exclusivity. An example of an artistic code related to the theme of the railway is M. Tsvetaeva’s poem Rails (1923). Based on the tradition of traveling by rail as symbolic movement towards non-existence, Tsvetaeva actualizes the mortal motif in her own way, built on conflict of hard (iron) and soft (canvas), as well as on introducing a musical motif into the text (the linearity of musical lines) along with the original sound recording, creating the effect of a patronymic attraction.Conclusion. Thus, in the poem Rails we observed the struggle of two models – generative inscribed in the paradigm of culture, and inter-iterative, actively opposing the paradigm and, thanks to syntagma, determining the self-closure of the poetic text.

When the “gormen” (government) – walled up the rivers: Reading Sarah Joseph’s Budhini as contemporary Indian hydrofiction

ABSTRACT In India, nationalist discourses surrounding hydro-modernity rely heavily on the mega-dam as a political symbol that promised technological progress. New critical perspectives like the “blue humanities” allow the exploration of the politics and poetics of “dam narratives” from India that respond to the infrastructural imaginary of the mega-dam. This article will analyse Sarah Joseph’s novel Budhini as a hydrofiction centred around hydropower. It will argue that Budhini counters the nationalist iconography associated with mega-dams in India, reclaiming the palimpsestic (hi)stories of its unimagined communities. The re-imagining of Budhini’s story can be understood as an act of “writing back” that challenges the postcolonial state’s appropriation of the language of sacrifice, central to its developmentalist rhetoric. The novel foregrounds the little narratives of postcolonial India’s developmental oustees against the dominant accounts of its celebrated hydro-modernity, through emphasis on the thematic motifs of sacrifice, submergence, and displacement.

Narrating The Self: Identity Quests in Linda Grant's Novels

This research paper focuses on identity quests in Linda Grant’s novels. This paper explores the complex web of identity development that Linda Grant's novels weave together. With an emphasis on the subtle stories that shed light on the characters' travels, the study makes its way across the tricky terrain of self-discovery found in Grant's literary works. The study deconstructs the complex layers of identity quests that Grant's protagonists undertake through a close reading of important works, such as "The Clothes on Their Backs" and "When I Lived in Modern Times." The investigation covers how the characters' perceptions of themselves are shaped by the interaction of their personal histories, cultural surroundings, and societal forces. The study explains how Grant's books function as rich canvases on which the characters paint their stories of identity by drawing on a variety of theoretical frameworks. Grant's protagonists go on significant self-discovery journeys that connect with readers universally, whether they are navigating the complexities of personal relationships, dealing with the legacy of family, or facing historical upheavals. By closely analysing narrative strategies, character growth, and thematic motifs, this study seeks to advance knowledge of how Linda Grant uses the novel to delve into the complexities of the human psyche. By doing this, it illuminates the author's unique storytelling style, in which the search for identity serves as a major theme and encourages readers to consider their own paths of self-discovery. In the end, this investigation aims to present Linda Grant's works as engrossing and perceptive analyses of the nuances present in the process of forming and describing the self.

Analysis of Lighting Arrangement in the Film "Buried" (2010) by Director Rodrigo Cortez

This study examines the use of innovative lighting in Rodrigo Cortez's film "Buried," focusing on its impact on narrative storytelling within a single-location setting. The limited lighting arrangement is key to the film's uniqueness, effectively portraying narrative tension and the protagonist's psychological journey in a creative and technical manner. Using a qualitative approach, the research analyzes each shot to identify key lighting transitions and thematic motifs. It dissects the film's visual strategies, particularly how Cortez manipulates light to convey the protagonist's psychological state and the passage of time in a confined space. The study aims to understand the effects of lighting arrangement on the film's visual mood and its implications for contemporary cinematography, as well as the psychological effects of lighting in film on viewers' perception and emotions. It also seeks to enhance the experience of claustrophobia using lighting as a narrative device to complement the tense atmosphere in the film's scenes. The results contribute to a broader discourse on cinematography's role in shaping film narrative structures, especially in creating deep visual narratives without relying on extensive settings or special effects. This analysis provides insights into the effectiveness of minimalist lighting in low-budget film making with high constraints.

How Johnny Cash Influences Popular Music: Taking Man in Black as an Example

Johnny Cash, an illustrious figure in the realm of popular music, etched an indelible imprint upon the cultural vista. This inquiry delves into the profound sway exerted by Johnny Cash on the tapestry of popular culture, anchored by his seminal composition, Man in Black. The study’s aim is to unveil how this melodic opus, with its enduring reverberations, transcended the confines of mere musicality, metamorphosing into an indispensable facet of our cultural discourse. The exploration employs a multifaceted methodology encompassing qualitative, historical, and ethnomusicological paradigms. Through a qualitative scrutinization, the study unearths personal revelations and contextual intricacies that have forged the genesis of Man in Black. Historical scholarship situates the opus within its epoch, delving into its resonance with the socio-cultural zeitgeist. Ethnomusicological analysis plumbs the opus’s thematic motifs and harmonious constituents, unveiling its far-reaching influence across a kaleidoscope of cultural milieus. The revelations illumine Johnny Cash’s role as an avant-garde trailblazer, a cultural nexus-builder through synergistic endeavours, and an artisan who harnessed music as a pulpit for societal commentary. The perennial reverberations of Man in Black underscore the timeless essence inherent in certain musical compositions, while Cash’s metamorphosis from a musical luminary into a cultural maven signifies the broader cultural ramifications that artists can effectuate.

Analysis of Metaphorical Expressions Used in Johnny Cashs’ Song Lyrics

This research explores Johnny Cash's song lyrics using George Lakoff's metaphor theory. It aims to understand the metaphorical expressions in Cash's song lyrics by analyzing their recurring themes and their connection to the socio-cultural context of the artist's era. The research includes identify metaphorical expressions and examine thematic motifs, the cultural and historical context that influenced the author's use of metaphors. The research also examined the influence of metaphorical language on the narrative depth and affective impact of Cash's compositions. Grounded theory in established metaphor analysis and the function of metaphor in artistic expression, the research expands upon the cognitive linguistic perspective by situating the analysis within Lakoff's theory. It gains insight into how metaphors communicate complex emotions, abstract ideas, and societal contemplations in Cash's lyrics. The research uses a systematic methodology to select songs and employs techniques for identifying metaphors based on Lakoff's theoretical framework. Thematic analysis is used to identify recurring patterns within the metaphorical expressions, while cultural contextualization helps understand the factors that shaped Cash's imaginative use of metaphors. This research had significant contribution to musicology, literary studies, and cultural analysis. By analyzing the metaphorical depth of Cash's lyrics from Lakoff's theory, it provides an original perspective on the artist's thought process and enhances the understanding of the lasting importance and thematic complexity of his contributions in contemporary music.

Images of the profession of pre-primary teacher in the drawings of Czech female student teachers

ABSTRACT A deeper understanding of the pre-primary teacher’s profession is made possible by the use of pictures in pedagogical research, i.e. the hermeneutic analysis of symbols visually representing this profession. The study seeks comprehension through quantification of the thematic motifs in the students’ pictures (n = 132) as well as a detailed qualitative analysis of selected artefacts (n = 8). An interesting tension arises from the juxtaposition of the authors’ descriptions and the expert team’s interpretations. Thus, aspects of the profession that are at first glance absent from the research, such as spirituality, love, atmosphere, colour, airiness and horizon, emerge.

Not for the Poor. The Biblia Pauperum on Medieval and Renaissance Tiled Stoves in Poland

As Biblia pauperum, we define not only books with an abbreviated text of Sacred Scripture, which were dominated by illustrations, but also cycles of artistic representations, e.g. painted on the walls of churches or decorating window stained-glass windows. However, other iconographic sources, such as stove tiles, are much less known. As archaeological monuments, most often preserved in fragments, they have not yet been thoroughly analysed. The article discusses medieval and Renaissance tiles with figural scenes with biblical motifs. As the archaeological sites most often feature several tiles decorated with similar thematic motifs, they should be treated as evidence of a conscious decision to show the cycle of events described in the Bible on the stove.

Homecoming, Trauma, and Identity in Noo Saro-Wiwa’s Looking for Transwonderland: Travels in Nigeria

ABSTRACT Looking for Transwonderland: Travels in Nigeria (2012) by British-Nigerian writer Noo Saro-Wiwa is part travelogue and part memoir. The book chronicles Saro-Wiwa’s return to Nigeria, the country in which her father, the activist and writer Ken Saro-Wiwa, was executed in 1995 and which she had not visited for more than ten years, except for two brief visits. Saro-Wiwa deploys trauma as a narrative strategy to show her grappling with her painful memories in relation to her family history and socio-political conditions in Nigeria. The effect of the deployment of the thematic motif of trauma in the structure of the narration is that the return, which explicitly sets out to resolve the past traumas, seemingly comes to re-enact those traumas instead. The paradoxical dramatic effect of being traumatised and being healed reveals the complexity of her diasporic identity and the ambivalence in both her travelling and her writing.

The Bailiff Jernej (2018): Documentary Representation of Poverty and Social Shame

The paper analyses the introduction of the themes of poverty, social exclusion, classism and class shame into the field of contemporary Slovenian drama in the form of a case study. The documentary theatre production The Bailiff Jernej and His Rights (Hlapec Jernej in njegova pravica), directed by Žiga Divjak, was created in 2018 as one of the many events marking the 100th anniversary of the death of Ivan Cankar, the author of the work of the same title upon which Divjak based the performance. Divjak’s documentary reinterpretation of Cankar’s short story The Bailiff Yerney and His Rights performs an engaged gesture of empowerment of the invisible and underpaid working forces, who are thus given a voice in the public sphere. Divjak draws central thematic motifs such as precarious work, workers’ rights, subordination and poverty from Cankar’s “social tale” and, through the gesture of documentary research, transposes them to the present time, thus affirming the idea of the deep-rooted existence of the proletariat, even if, with a time lag, it appears today in a different form and with altered effects. The attribute is precisely the “play”, which could also be described as a “dramatic text” since the dramatic is inscribed into it not in terms of form and dramaturgical elements but as the essence and effect of documentary narratives.

Fenomén učitelské profese v mateřské škole ve vizuálních reprezentacích (studujících) učitelek

A deeper understanding of the kindergarten teacher’s profession allows for the use of visual methodology and symbol analysis of visual representations in pedagogical research. The study seeks to gain a deeper understanding of verbally difficult to convey meanings through quantification of thematic motifs of drawings by student kindergarten teachers (n = 76) and a detailed qualitative analysis of selected images of 5 of them, based on a team-based free association method and subsequent symbolic interpretation of the images. In the results of the quantitative analysis, the kindergarten teacher’s profession is based on the visualization of the relationships and interaction between adults (usually women) and children, most often in free play or learning, with the support of a set agenda and against the background of a positively attuned situation. However, the interpretation of the expressive symbolism of the 5 drawings also offers previously unnoticed contradictions that disrupt this schema. In them, other aspects of the profession emerge, such as overload, elements of unreasonable attachment, dependence or the sad transience of all their efforts and activities, resonating also the weakening of the profession’s importance at the expense of external pressures.

‘What’s your dream?’ The films of femme auteur Andrea Arnold

ABSTRACT This study of British director Andrea Arnold and her award-winning films addresses auteur theory and its implications for woman filmmakers. I argue that the important difference between men and women in assuming the director’s chair has been opportunity – and not a matter of essentialized gender differences. Pivoting to readings of Arnold’s films, the analysis addresses the stylistic signatures and thematic motifs that characterize her feature films: Red Road (2006), Fish Tank (2009), Wuthering Heights (2011), American Honey (2016) and the short films Milk (1998) and Wasp (2003). I will discuss the implications of Arnold’s film style vis-à-vis gender and the discourse on what constitutes social realist film in the U.K. As for thematic motifs, Arnold’s films return to voyeurism, primal scenes and nature’s persistence in seemingly denatured environments. The analysis further examines identities (marked by age, class and gender) as motifs that circulate through Arnold’s work; a concern with identity that, nonetheless, refuses sentimentality and essentialism.

Why Things Happen and Why They Don't: Causality and Contingency in "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" and "One Reader Writes"

Why Things Happen and Why They Don't:Causality and Contingency in "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" and "One Reader Writes" Kevin R. West "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" and "One Reader Writes," although very different in their reception histories, nevertheless share a crucial verbal and thematic parallel: each story contains similarly worded speculation on how a particular illness (gangrene and syphilis, respectively) came to be contracted. By wondering whether or not the illness in question had to happen, Helen and the unnamed "Reader" invite broader consideration of causality and contingency. In the case of "Snows," this inquiry into contingency pertains also to Harry's concerns as to why he failed to write the stories that he might have written. KEYWORDS Causality, Contingency, Narrative, Speculation Early in "The Snows of Kilimanjaro," Harry and Helen discuss the sequence of events that has led to the present distress of Harry's gangrenous leg, and in their disputation on causality lies an important verbal and thematic motif which may be found elsewhere in Hemingway's oeuvre. Wishing that they had never come on safari, where Harry scratched his leg on a thorn, Helen complains, "I don't see why that had to happen to your leg. What have we done to have that happen to us?" (CSS 41). What Helen evidently wants is a moral explanation for their present predicament; essentially, she wants God to answer for the situation. Her rhetorical question implies that they have done nothing sufficiently (morally) bad so as to incur the punishment of Harry's infected leg. "Why us? What have we done?" "I suppose what I did," answers Harry, in pointed denial of Helen's moral vision, "was to forget to put iodine on it when I first scratched it. Then I didn't pay any attention to it because I never infect. Then, later, when it got bad, it was probably using that weak carbolic solution" (CSS 41). Whereas Helen cries out for a moral explanation, Harry insists on a chemical one. What we did was forget to do something hygienic (apply iodine); or, ironically, what we did was belatedly do the wrong hygienic thing (apply carbolic acid).1 If we had treated the wound properly, then gangrene would not have ensued. "What else?" asks Harry, meaning "what other explanation could there be?" "I don't mean that," Helen replies, twice (CSS 41). Helen is not looking for a mechanical chain of causes and effects, which she presumably understands well enough, yet Harry insists that the material chain of causality is the only chain that exists or matters. Her leaving her people for him and bringing her money and their going on safari and him getting scratched and not treating the wound has led, if not inexorably then actually, to their present distress. Their respective positions represent two incompatible worldviews: one in which a divine or karmic order exists, and one in which solely material causality obtains. Indeed, John Killinger cited this scene sixty years ago as proof of [End Page 130] Harry's complete "repudiation of a personal God" (60). There is no point in crying out to God, since no intervention could be forthcoming in a world ruled inexorably by natural laws. Moreover, there is no point in speculation as to "why" this happened. Events occur, microbes grow, and people sometimes fall victim. Apropos of microbial growth—a topic on which we have all been forced to dwell in new ways these years past—another, slighter story benefits from being read in conjunction with "The Snows of Kilimanjaro." Some three years prior to writing "Snows," Hemingway penned "One Reader Writes," the story of a woman's letter to a syndicated doctor asking for advice with respect to her husband's "sifilus" (CSS 320).2 The woman wants the doctor to tell her if it will be safe again to live with her husband; but she also, like Helen, wants to know why it had to be that her husband caught such a disease in the first place: He had to go wherever they sent him, I know, but I don't know what he had to get it for. Oh, I wish to Christ he wouldn...

Książki Barbary Gawryluk lekarstwem na problemy duszy

This article is an attempt to examine whether literature can be a remedy for the problems faced by children of different ages. The report Children’s rights from the perspective of children, parents and teachers was published in 2019 by UNICEF Polska. It has been used to diagnose the reasons for unhappiness among children aged 12—17. Among the reasons are: school and education, relationships with loved ones, relationships with peers. In her article, Katarzyna Kotaba refers to such authorities as Irena Borecka, Maria Molicka, and Bruno Bettelheim and to their unanimous opinion that good and valuable literature takes seriously children, their concerns and difficulties; moreover, this kind of literature helps children to overcome difficulties by building their self-confidence. Kotaba identifies the main thematic motifs in Gawryluk’s fiction and shows how this writer’s novels can help under-age readers cope in specific life situations, such as the parents’ divorce, emigration, and racism. In conclusion, she suggests that Gawryluk’s novels could be regarded as a cure for young readers’ problems as identified in the UNICEF report.

Over and Over, and Over Again: Tension, Repetition, and Catharsis in the Films of Wes Anderson

This article argues that Wes Anderson’s films repeat formal and thematic strategies in such a way that resists traditional auteurist analysis. By looking at Anderson’s recognizable style of image composition, his expansive paratext, and recurring thematic motifs, we can see a productive system of repetition operative both within and across his films. The value Anderson places on repetition opposes Peter Wollen’s structural auteurist framework, which values variation over repetition. Such opposition allows Anderson’s films to be taken up as a critique of this valuation, demonstrated through an analysis of the productive role of repetition in his work.

Modernism after Postcolonialism: Toward a Nonterritorial Comparative Literature

Modernism after Postcolonialism: Toward a Nonterritorial Comparative Literature

Radical Nostalgia

Radical Nostalgia

SPEAKING IN MEDIAS RES: MODERNISM VERSUS MODERNITY IN SHERWOOD ANDERSON’S WINESBURG, OHIO

Since the times of Homeric epics, speaking in medias res has been the most suitable form of storytelling, leaving the threshold of narrative ajar in the present, upholding a historical sense. This ancient historical sense of time, inherent in oral traditions revived in early twentieth century literary Modernism as T. S. Eliot stated in his 1919 essay, “Tradition and The Individual Talent:” “… And it is at the same time what makes a writer most acutely conscious of his place in time, of his own contemporaneity.” Be it a messianic revival or primitivism, calling for a coherent context for all, the Modernists were in urge for new narrative techniques overcoming the devastating traumas of the World Wars, representing the shared experiences worldwide. In this respect, early twentieth-century. Modernism provided a literary niche for a new generation of storytellers engaged in the momentous grasp of time coalescing with an epiphany. Thus, regarding the present global crises of humanity against which we need to retreat to our local worlds, a review on literary Modernism would suggest a solution as it had once achieved as an internationalist current by gathering the minds and shared experiences in recovering from the overwhelming forces of modernity. This article aims to review literary Modernism and its correspondence with ancient forms of storytelling and sense of time in Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio stories regarding the shared thematic motifs transcending the cultural and national boundaries in representing the overwhelming traumas of early twentieth century modernity.

Early plays by Anton Chekhov: a dialogue with Ivan Turgenev

This article tells about the influence of the poetics of Ivan Turgenev's works on the features of early Anton Chekhov’s drama – the student play “Platonov” (1880–1881), “Ivanov” (edited in 1888–1889) and “The Wood Demon” (1888–1889). The author studies in detail the degree of Chekhov's familiarity with the body of Turgenev's dramatic texts. The author reveals the unity of the chronotope of the noble nest, distant plot similarities (self-serving motivations of actions), and the thematic motif of self-condemnation of the characters. It is shown that in Chekhov's plays there are characters typologically close to Turgenev (Superfluous Man, Hamlet, Don Quixote, “Turgenev's girl”, sponger), and there are also such elements of the poetics of Turgenev's drama as monologue, the reception of interruptions, micro-plots. The article draws attention to the fact that Chekhov was the successor of the dramatic tradition established in Turgenev's work, and developed, rather than making direct borrowings. Thus was the nature of Chekhov's creative work, focused on a dialogue with the Turgenev heritage.

Los modelos y el papel de las mujeres en la comedia ilustrada. Un caso práctico de su enseñanza y análisis en las aulas universitarias desde el enfoque de género

El artículo presenta el estudio de los motivos temáticos ilustrados y las características estéticas de la comedia neoclásica de buenas costumbres aplicados a la obra La familia a la moda, de Mª Rosa de Gálvez, tal y como se desarrolla su análisis en el aula dentro de una asignatura del Grado en Lengua y Literatura Hispánica. El acercamiento a la literatura española del siglo XVIII desde un enfoque de género motiva el interés del alumnado por un amplio número de obras de la época, no solo teatrales, a la vez que favorece el desarrollo del pensamiento crítico y la adquisición de competencias, así como el logro de los resultados de aprendizaje marcados. The article presents the study of the illustrated thematic motifs and the aesthetic characteristics of the neoclassical comedy of good customs applied to the work La familia a la moda, by Mª Rosa de Gálvez, as its analysis is carried out in the classroom within a subject of the Degree in Hispanic Language and Literature. The approach to Spanish Literature of the Eighteenth Century from a gender perspective motivates students' interest in a large number of works of the period, not only theatrical, while also promoting the development of critical thinking and the acquisition of skills, as well such as achieving marked learning outcomes.