The author presents two Threnodies by Jan Kochanowski, No. VI and No. VII. He argues that the texts, mainly due to their metaphors, are linked and in a way “united”. The dead girl, Orszula, the heroine of both poems, is shown as a bride leaving the parents’ house with her groom: Death. The author, making references to the Mediterranean tradition, wonders why such a peculiar and surprising combination of death and wedding ceremony appeared and tries to understand what the meaning of such a combination is.
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The purpose of this paper is to briefly present some of the forms the world axis takes in Japanese and Romanian cultures through the ages, namely, to show how a mythological concept – the axis mundi – has outlived its mythological existence and has survived up to modern days. We do not intend to concentrate on similarities or differences, but simply present some of the many culture-specific representations of this universal mythological concept: world axis representations in modern Japanese festivals (of which we have chosen three, to represent “pillar torches”: “the Sakaki sacred tree”, “the sacred mountain”, and “the sacred pillar”) and some world axis representations in Romanian culture, such as the fir tree, symbols related to dendrolatry, wooden crosses placed at crossroads, the ritual of climbing mountains, etc.
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The Republic of Macedonia, especially at the turn of the the 20th century, is an excellent example of the ethnic manipulation phenomena which can be understood as a tendentious attempt of proving that a given area is inhabited by a large number of people belonging to a certain ethic group or nationality in order to justify one’s territorial demands. A number of such attempts was conducted in many different ways over the years. Nevertheless, the main idea of this work is to look for arguments found in history or rather to look on the tendentiously rewritten history, to be precise, which was supposed to suit current political programmes. Serbs, Greeks, Bulgarians but also, in a lesser extent, Romanians, Turks, Albanians and Montenegrins tried to prove their rights to the Macedonian lands by propagating, among other things, national and political myths. Sometimes, the search for justification of the territorial demands in the freely interpreted history could be described as a grotesque process. People were willing to accept such implausible stories as a truth, because a myth is not something to discuss but rather something to believe in. One has to remember that in that time history was treated freely, as a set of stories that could be freely modified in accordance with actual needs. The scientific value and the act of reaching towards the truth was considerably less important than a skilful shaping of a given story. The intellectuals of Romanticism emphasised that history has a certain mission to fulfil, that is has to guard the national interest.
This article concerns the issue exploring myth in the context of the iconic turn. Iconic turn, opposed to formulating images as texts, signs or illustrations, treats both images and imagery as categories of cultural phenomena analysis. Attributing theory-cognitive status to images, the article explores the relation between cognition, imagination, image and myth. Considering the differentia specifica of mythical thinking – imagery, we can say that the assumptions of iconic turn are at the very heart of myth knowledge issues, especially the issues of myth and mythopoiesis. They also reach the problems of separating basic mythical images as cultural images, image acts as constituting myths and the relation between the imagery and textuality of myth.
The article introduces research into myths and legends in French anthropology, giving a general theoretical and historical overview of the discipline and its trends. Among the approximately five hundred abstracts, which have recently been published in “Fichier Central des Thèses”, the database of French higher educational institutions, and which include the word “myth” either in the heading or the body of the text, less than 5% are researches into ethnology or anthropology, whereas the others come from the field of literary studies, psychology, sociology, linguistics, politology, etc. This proves that myths cover a considerably wider range of disciplines than anthropological studies. This brief overview presents only a part of the diverse and complicated French myth and legend studies. From the point of view of terminology, it would be essential to establish if all the authors who discuss the notion of the myth mean one and the same thing. The article focuses on anthropology, disregarding research into stories and legends in literary disciplines and myth-critical trends, as well as myth studies carried out by psychologists. Recent studies using myths in a figurative meaning – for instance, politology – have not been included either. Only printed materials have been used, leaving aside cultural activities, including museums, where myths, folk tales and legends find wider response than among the readers of academic publications. The facts presented in the article direct the reader to the key texts, in order to arouse curiosity and interest in this so far poorly studied topic in the era where anthropology is meant to regulate, above all, social and intercultural problems.
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Straipsnyje aptariama istorinio Lietuvos mito problematika Lenkijos kultūros sanklodoje. Autorius pabrė žia pamažu stiprėjančią lietuviškos kultūros svarbą Lenkijos intelektualų veikloje nuo pat XIX a. pra džios. Svarbią vietą čia užima Vilnius – bene svarbiausias to amžiaus mokslo ir meno centras. Ypatingas dėmesys skiriamas Vilniaus universitetui (Uniwersytet Wileński, 1803-1832), kuriame dirbo gausus bū rys lenkų intelektualų garsinusių ir Lietuvosvardą visoje šalyje bei už jos ribų iki pat šio universiteto už darymo. Būtent čia kilo Lenkijos intelektualų susidomėjimas Lietuvos istorija, jos kultūra, lietuvių kalba ir tautosaka. Šių kelių Vilniaus universiteto gyvavimo dešimtmečių laikotarpiu buvo išspausdinta pluoštas veikalų, kuriuose paskelbti iškilūs lietuvių muzikos, literatūros, poezijos bei kitų kultūros sričių tyrinėji mai. Visa tai liudijo šių darbų autorių išsamų lietuviškos kultūros pažinimą bei supratimą. Romantinės pakraipos Vilniaus lenkų literatūriniai ir kitų kultūros apraiškų kūriniai šio Lietuvos mito propagavimu tapo neatsiejama abiejų tautų kultūros ir mokslo istorijos dalimi.
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The article is devoted to the studies of the birth of the Lithuanian myth in Polish Culture. Author points the importance of Lithuania in Polish intellectual life increased since the beginning of the 19th century. The role of Vilnius as one of the most influential research and artistic centers particularly improved. Vil nius University (Uniwersytet Wileński, 1803-1832), which influence and achievements spread beyond Lithuanian border for a long time after it had been closed down, played an especially significant role. A lot of interest in Lithuanian history and culture, its languages and folklore developed among Vilnius intel lectuals. The tendency was steady: in next decades numerous musical works, scientific research and literary works were created. They were inspired by widely understood Lithuanian culture. Vilnius started liv ing its own life of a legendary capital of romanticism and a town of glorious but tragic history. Owing to a romantic tradition Lithuanian issues became one of the typical features of Polish culture.
At the beginning of 2012 in Bulgaria was published Ôèçèêà íà òúãàòà (Physics of sorrow / of longing) by Georgi Gospodinov, one of the most important Bulgarian writers of the younger generation. Since the release of the book, Bulgarian literary scholars and critics are in dispute about whether Bulgaria has finally its contemporary, post- or even postpostmodern novel. My paper is an attempt to answer the question why the Bulgarian literature is waiting for a novel, and whether and how it has been used by Gospodinov – writer and literary scholar. The text poses also question about the boundaries of the novel genre. The text focuses on the use of myth, which turns out to be important for the story itself, as well as for its reception. Bulgarian writer deconstructs the myth of Minotaur, using the figure of the labyrinth in the structure of the book. Resigning from the classical myth, Gospodinov goes to meet the expectations of readers placed on the genre of the novel, which by Bartoszyñski is „specific creation of a social mythology”.
The volume under discussion, entitled Мифологические модели и ритуальное поведение в советском и постсоветском пространстве, contains lectures that were delivered during a conference organized by the Centre for Typology and Semiotics of Folklore Studies of the Russian State University for the Humanities in September 2013. In this volume, based on rich source material, which has been shown from different perspectives, the following issues were discussed: visional transformation, celebrating of new rites, creating new rituals, magical practices and leaders’ images.
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The paper Gaea – Passive Principle; the Social Symbolization of the Myth observes, in the Naturalistic esthetic context, with realistic nuances, the relationships of the characters with property. The Earth, a strong symbolic presence in universal literature becomes a metaphor of germination, of the opposition with the sky. The Earth structures communities and individual destinies in a circular construction in the novels The Earth by Emile Zola and Ion by Liviu Rebreanu, but then becomes again the primordial chaos. Masculine and feminine principles are in perpetual confrontation; at the symbolic-anthropological level, earth, life and death are in a cosmic connection, viewed as a condition of the eternal revival. The human regnum, the animal regnum and the vegetal regnum are, more often than not, indistinct in their vibrations. Apparently a passive principle, the earth provokes in the human being all his latent instincts, ready for the Dionysian exultation and for death.
Since its release in 1922, James Joyce’s Ulysses has been a matter of controversy. In the last fifty years the critical reception of the novel has changed considerably. Even though Ulysses was named the best English-language book of the 20th century by the Modern Library, its initial reviews were mostly lukewarm. Inspired by Homer’s The Odyssey, Joyce’s text was seen as vulgar and badly written. Yuri Andrukhovych’s second novel The Moscoviad also caused controversy when it was published in Ukraine in 1994 in a popular literary magazine “Chetver.” The Moscoviad was perceived as scandalous, boring and unoriginal. However, when the novel was translated into other languages its critical reception was very positive; the protagonist named Otto von F. was compared to some of the classical literary protagonists, such as Dante and Odysseus. Although James Joyce’s and Yuri Andrukhovych’s novels show one-day journeys of typical everymen — a Soviet Ukrainian man in the heart of the empire and an Irish Jew in Dublin — they both heavily rely on Odysseus’ heroic adventures. In my paper I show the similarities and differences between the novels by comparing them to the classical myth of Odysseus. Homer’s The Odyssey is treated as a source of the universal theme of homo viator, a constantly travelling man, in European literature. Moreover, by comparing Joyce’s Dublin to Andrukhovych’s Moscow I prove that the unusual depiction of both capital cities is caused by the need to demythologize the Soviet Union and the British Empire.
Kolakowski opposes science and myth, conditional empirical reality, the realm of science and unconditional non-empirical reality, the domain of metaphysics and myth. The world of human experience owes its sense to mythical reality. Only it can satisfy the human need for purpose and order in the world, sense and value in human activities, and the permanence of values. This attitude is pragmatic and irrational. One can, however, adopt a rational attitude, requiring that statements be rationally justified, adopting a classical understanding of truth (as conformity between language and reality). Statements about value then admit of cognitive certainty, which, to be sure, transcends that of science, but is founded upon experience, intuitive ethical experience. Statements about values are also entitled to truthfulness (or falsehood). This understanding of value, irrespective of the existence or nonexistence of an absolute reality, guarantees the meaningfulness of life and human activity.
In this article, I trace the process through which World War II (WWII) has become the „good war” in American culture. Drawing on a range of books and articles published on the subject —and often written by the war’s veterans—I summarize their findings considering the essentially mythical nature of the conflict’ common memory. The well-known aspects of this myth include the view that WWII was a straightforward struggle between good and evil, that the U.S. soldiers who fought it belonged to “the greatest generation,” and that it was ultimately an expression and activization of American honor, heroism, and gallantry. Further on, I argue that beginning in the 1980s, a resurgence of cultural interest in WWII becomes evident, but now tinged not only with the emerging image of “the good war,” but also with nostalgia—and that the “nostalgization” of the conflict was caused directly by, and indeed possible only because of, the U.S. experience in Vietnam. I trace the multifaceted and multiple references to WWII in Vietnam War narratives—but also to Vietnam in some nostalgic representations of WWII.
„My name is Nobody” — says Odysseus in Homer’s epic and these words deliver him from death. On the one hand, both the name and the very act of speech constitute a proof of existence of the speaker, on the other hand, however, its existence is undermined by the negation implied by the very notion of „nobody”. Unclear ontological/referential connotations of „nobody” evoke textual effects that are based on the notions of indeterminacy and self-reference — two basic constituents of every figure of thought referred to as paradox. Thus, it seems hardly surprising that Kafka explores the potentiality of this life-saving wordplay. The theme of nobody is deeply rooted in the binary logic, but, also, attempts to exceed its limits. Exceeding these limits is encouraged in every excursion to Kafka’s realm.
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We are condemned to wander – critically, emotionally, politically, passionately – in a world characterized by an excess of sense which, while offering the chance of meaning continues to flee ahead us. This is our world, our responsibility, our only chance. In this paper, we see that the metropolis narrated by Peter Ackroyd and Penelope Lively is above all ‘a myth, a tale, a character, a living-body’, an imaginary construct, ‘a telling’ that helps some of us to locate our home in postmodernity. To inhabit a city is to be immersed in a common experience. It is the chatter of the city that now maintains this site of a discourse and dialogue. In the metropolis, it becomes necessary to form a new sense of ethics in its multiple and differential histories. The Mind - being it of the Reader or of the Writer - is eventually the site of sense.
The Court of Miracles, slum districts of Paris, was the refuge for thieves, criminals, prostitutes and false beggars who faked injuries and diseases to solicit people for money. The phenomenon of this ‘society of outlaws’ inspired many authors and artists. In Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre-Dame and Patrick Süskind’s Perfume, the Court of Miracles becomes not only a geographical, historical and social reference, as required in historical novels, but also a mythical space, involving rich symbolism and fulfilling a special function in the two novels’ action.
The aim of this paper is to analyse the image of Yugoslavia in the collective memories of the post–Yugoslav societies. The author of this text, basing on an assumption that every society has a great number of collective memories, highlights the fact that among the Balkan nations one can find both supporters and opponents not only of the SFRY but also of the idea of the cooperation among the Southern Slavs. Both positive and negative opinions of Yugoslavia in the collective memories are based not on the sober assessment of the historical facts but on collective emotions and historical and political myths. The anti–Yugoslav discourse in primarily based on the national mythology. The discourse of the supporters of the Yugoslav tradition one the other hand, goes back in a large extend to the transnational myths. By discussing these two types of ideas about Yugoslavia, the author of this text tries to show their impact on the current political decisions.
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The article is an attempt to put novels of the alternate history genre in the wide frame of utopian thought. The key to the interpretation of alternate histories is the identification of strategies revealing affinity with science fiction and utopia: ontological and epistemological concepts, structural similarities, political and historiosophical conceptions. The psychology of fabricating utopia, focused on collective desires is similar to psychology of creating alternate histories, which reveals mechanisms of collective memory. On the example of few works it is shown how an utopian impulse harmonizes with other forms of social imagination (like: national myths, historical myths, ideology, collective memory).
The Russian Masonic poets attempted to propagate their ideology and the mythology based on it through a coherent system of poetic imagery. In this context a particular place was occupied by the myth of Cupid and Psyche, understood as an allegory of the process of exploring the world and discovering human nature and as a pursuit of a noble ideal. The author analyzes the image of the heroine of the narrative poem by Ippolit Bogdanovich as a traveller desirous of knowledge about the world and of self-knowledge, in the spirit of the Masonic mysticism.
The article discusses Edward Pasewicz’s poetry from the perspective of an organic metaphor, developed by the poet in his latest volumes (Pałacyk Bertolta Brechta [Bertolt Brecht’s Palace] and Och, Mitochondria. The author considers whether Pasewicz’s interest in the reflection on tissues, cells and DNA strands, and the idea of combining them with the issue of poetic coding, may be seen as an attempt at resolving the impasse between mythical and realistic forces of this work, or whether it merely constitutes a supplementation to the earlier proposed strategies of translating life into reality. Juxtaposing Pasewicz’s experiments with biopoetry and seeking in them a chance to transcend the poetics of the author of Dolna Wilda [The Lower Wilda], I come to the conclusion that in this case the organic metaphor serves further exploration of a private mythology; but it turns out to be not very productive for the rethinking of the concept of life and community.
This paper explores the role of myths and archetypes in organizational research. The notion of myth is introduced and theories regarding the origins of mythology are discussed. Myth’s typical features and its role in shaping social reality are considered to better understand the role of mythology in modern organizations. The role of archetype in organizational myth is also emphasized. Analysis of examples of organizational mythologies is combined with methodological insights regarding the ways in which myths and archetypes can be studied in different organizational contexts. The study not only aims to improve comprehension of key assumptions, theories and concepts involved in studying organizational mythologies, but also to enhance the ability to apply this method of organizational analysis.
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