The article attempts to use the frequency of key-words in the analysis of the improvised anthology of poems which present small towns in the mountainous landscape. Not all of the fifteen poems which have been analysed are literary masterpieces, yet they adequately reflect the structure of small town descriptions. In order to reconstruct such a structure – which I call a semantic universal – one has to take into account cultural and topical conditions of such images, and in certain cases also their unconscious motivations which are possible when a motif which is a narrative elaboration on the archetypal symbol appears. Semantic universals are not features of a language of a particular author but belong to the subject itself. In order to identify the semantic structure presenting a „small town in the mountainous landscape” I take into account the town descriptions, towns’ history (both from synchronic and diachronic perspectives) as well as the landscape (the background) along with the folklore. The analysis which takes into account the above mentioned three elements of the semantic universal’s structure shows the regularities in the poems which describe small towns written by different authors. The most important observation is the connection between the semantic universal describing small town with a part of the religious model of the world, which is a characteristic feature of the thought inspired by the category of myth.
In her volume of essays The Tender Narrator, Olga Tokarczuk devotes one of them to The Land of Metaxy, which she calls – following Plato – a place between the world of humans and the world of gods. The status of this place is peculiar: it mediates between the worlds, and yet does not belong to either. It is from that place that characters come to the writer. An attempt to explain the actual meaning of Metaxy and who its inhabitants are boils down to four possible interpretations. We can analyse Metaxy in accordance with contemporary quantum physics and cosmology (parallel worlds), from the perspective of religious models created by the civilization of the West, according to the astrology of astral planes, and finally as a domain of collective unconscious, in accordance with Carl Gustav Jung’s analytic psychology and Stanislav Grof’s transpersonal psychology.
PL
Jeden z esejów z tomu Czuły narrator Olga Tokarczuk poświęca Krainie Metaxy, którą nazywa – za Platonem – miejscem pomiędzy światem ludzi a światem bogów. Status tego miejsca jest szczególny: pośredniczy między światami, a jednak do żadnego nie należy. To właśnie z tego miejsca do pisarza przychodzą postacie. Próba wyjaśnienia rzeczywistego znaczenia Metaxy i tego, kim są jego mieszkańcy, sprowadza się do czterech możliwych interpretacji. Metaxę możemy analizować zgodnie ze współczesną fizyką kwantową i kosmologią (światy równoległe), z perspektywy modeli religijnych stworzonych przez cywilizację Zachodu, zgodnie z astrologią płaszczyzn astralnych, wreszcie jako dziedzinę nieświadomości zbiorowej, zgodnie z psychologią analityczną Carla Gustava Junga i psychologią transpersonalną Stanisława Grofa.
Anna Szóstak’s book is a special work, an advanced and complete study in sociology, psychology, and philosophy of religion, using as its source material the virtual world of Terry Pratchett, the recently deceased famous fantasy writer. Pratchett’s world, considered by the Author from various perspectives (“Seven Looks”), is to a significant degree a figure of extraliterary reality and phenomena taking place in it, which are considered together with their broad cultural background and referred to the historical inheritance of societies of our cultural circle. Szóstak’s book employs interdisciplinary methodology, present also in her other publications, which allows her to step outside a traditional analysis and interpretation of the work: an interpenetration of literary studies, anthropology, religion, philosophy, psychology, and sociology of religious beliefs – all of these are referred to Pratchett’s 522 | Barbara Tomalak virtual world. This is significant, since the methodology proposed by the author is without doubt the future of literary studies.
JavaScript jest wyłączony w Twojej przeglądarce internetowej. Włącz go, a następnie odśwież stronę, aby móc w pełni z niej korzystać.