scholarly journals The Stone Host, Lesia Ukrainka’s “Spanish” Play

Author(s):  
Oleksandr Pronkevich

The article provides an analysis of the “Spanish code” inscribed in the text of Lesia Ukrainka’s drama Kaminnyi hospodar (The Stone Host). The constituents of the code include: 1) conventions of 17th century Spanish baroque drama, in particular, use of the dialectics of the concepts of dignity and reputation as a driving mechanism for confl ict throughout Lesia Ukrainka’s play and transformation within the classical scheme of characters suggested by Lope de Vega and his followers; 2) stereotypes of “Spanishness” through which the playwright produced a heteroimage of Spain. Lesia Ukrainka’s variant of the famous legend of Don Juan is a sophisticated modernist drama. The “Spanish code” serves as a prism through which the playwright examines the world. Lesia Ukrainka created an astonishing modernist tragicomedy of dishonesty, full of the spirit of uncertainty.

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (8) ◽  
pp. 23-33
Author(s):  
Natalya S. Gurianova

The article studies the religiosity of Russian population in the 17th century in order to find out the type of this state of public mind. Special attention is drawn to the acuteness of eschatological expectations in society, which intensified during periods of crises. After the Time of Troubles (Smuta), the Church, trying to bring society out of the spiritual crisis, had been exploiting the “end of the world” topic through publishing relevant texts. This trend was especially noticeable during the time of Patriarch Joseph. The decision of the Moscow Printing House (Pechatnyi Dvor) to extend the amount of eschatological publications was determined not only by the direction of church policy, but also by the request in society, the desire of the population to get a more complete picture of the Christian teaching about the ultimate destinies of the world and man, since the spiritual crisis had presupposed an increase of apocalyptic moods. This desire indicates that the population was characterized by the religiosity of the medieval type. The article scrutinizes in particular the 2nd half of the 17th century, which modern researchers rightly designate as the early Modern era. In a society with such a keen perception of the time, the church reform, initiated in the middle of the century by Patriarch Nikon, was naturally not supported by a part of the population. In the interpretation of the defenders of the Old Belief, the actions of the reformers turned into clear signs of the advent of the kingdom of Antichrist, as it was prophesied in Christian teaching. It was not some peculiarity of the worldview of the opponents of church reform, their behavior adjusted the religiosity of the epoch. To justify these thoughts the position of Patriarch Nikon could be mentioned. Nikon found himself in a situation of disapproval and, arguing to be wrongfully convicted and misunderstood, he also used the eschatological doctrine. Based on the analysis of such facts, the article concludes that the 2nd half of the 17th century was characterized by religiosity of the medieval type.


2021 ◽  
Vol 163 (A3) ◽  
Author(s):  
M Corradi

The Album de Colbert compiled by an anonymous author in the second half of the seventeenth century is among the most important illustrated testimonies of the art of shipbuilding. Probably commissioned by Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Minister of Finance and Minister of the Navy of the kingdom of France, the Album was composed to make Louis XIV understand the complexity of shipbuilding. It was also made to support the creation of a navy with the ambition of being competitive with the Royal Navy and with the intent of modernising and expanding the French shipbuilding industry. The fifty plates that make up this illustrated treatise unravel the story of the construction of a first-rank 80-gun line vessel, from the laying of the keel to the launch. It is a unique document that has no contemporaries or precursors because it is not a didactic collection of boats, like the previous treaties that had a completely different methodological approach, more technical-descriptive than illustrative, but it wants to go beyond the scientific treatise. Its purpose was instead to measure itself with representation, showing through the strength of drawing and images the peculiar aspects of the reality of shipbuilding, using iconography as a means of transmitting knowledge related to the world of shipyards and shipbuilding in the 17th century.


Author(s):  
Herbert S. Klein ◽  
Sergio T. Serrano Hernández

AbstractTraditional historical literature has stressed a generalised crisis throughout the world in the 17th century. First proposed for Europe with its numerous dynastic, religious and state conflicts, it has now been expanded to include Asia and the Middle East as well. It was also assumed that there was a significant crisis in the Americas, a theme which until recently has dominated the traditional literature. The claim that there was such a crisis was based on a series of classic studies by Earl J. Hamilton, Chaunu and Borah, among others. But new research has challenged this hypothesis and we will examine both these new studies as well as offering our own research findings on this subject.


Author(s):  
Marcella Trambaioli

Lope de Vega’s posthumous fame in Italy differs according to the ages: if in the 17th century he was really appreciated and his dramas and comedies were often translated, adapted and represented, nowadays he’s practically absent in the dramatic production and there are just a few titles available in Italian translation. This also happens for his masterpieces. The case of El perro del hortelano is quite interesting, since there are three versions, by Ameyden, Gasparetti and Fiorellino, belonging to different periods and different conceptions of translation and literary taste. This article tries to analyse them in a comparative perspective.


2014 ◽  
Vol 26 (31) ◽  
pp. 217-229
Author(s):  
Małgorzata Krzysztofik

Time, as everybody knows, is the primary category of culture. Human’s altitude to the time determines how we see ourselves, the world and why we choose various activities. Entire scientific description of every culture has to contain characteristics of the specific time structure. One of the most important problems the answers to which we should search between texts of culture, is the axiology of the particular streams of the culture time. The article presents multifaceted characteristics of category of anthropological time in two calendars printed in Gdansk in the 17th century (for years 1652 and 1664). Questions about measure, pace, rhythm and axiology of human time are asked. The paper presents a discussion of typical characteristics of chronosophy of that epoch, anisotropy, which is a stream of many kinds of time flowing in parallel and in interaction with each other. The Christian concept of time which can be found in both calendars is decribed. Also rhythms of nature and culture (cycle of liturgical festivals) that regulate anthropological time are presented; how three dimensions of human experience of time (past, present, future) go together. Characteristics of axiological aspect of human time which has complex relations with numerous temporal structures and streams of time are given. Evidence that axiology of human time—oscillating between sacrum and profanum, between divine order and devil’s order, between human activity and God’s intervention – is given with regard to theological dimension in Stefan Furman’s calendariography as it is concentrated on reality out of this world. In theological perspective meaningful becomes the experience of earthly life, which gives every human being a chance to choose the good or the bad path of life, whilst they look for the redemption.


Author(s):  
Andreas B. Kilcher

AbstractEarly modern literature has high epistemological claims. In particular, the novel as the most innovative genre of the 16th and 17th centuries was expected to negotiate and transmit knowledge about the world in an extensive way. This epistemological optimism must be understood against the background of contemporary encyclopaedic models, which offered new possibilities of reaching out for universal and total knowledge. Two variants of encyclopaedic writing are most efficient for the novel: the logic of Lullism and the miscellaneous knowledge production of Polyhistorism. Both techniques were used in baroque novels of the 17th century: Polyhistorism produced a centrifugal dispersion of knowledge throughout the texts, whereas Lullism aimed at recollecting and ordering it. This interplay is evidently present in Daniel Casper von Lohenstein’s highly digressive 3,000 page novel „Arminius“ (1689/90), with its paratextual framework of prefaces, annotations, and indices. Moreover, the reception of „Arminius“ in 18th and 19th centuries is pertinent for the subsequent critique of encyclopaedic knowledge.


Author(s):  
Kambiz E. Maani

Despite our most impressive advances in science and technology, our prevailing worldview and the way we work and relate are deeply rooted in the thinking that emerged during the Renaissance of the 17th century. This thinking was influenced by the sciences of that era and, in particular, by Newtonian physics. Newton viewed the world as a machine that was created to serve its master—God (Ackoff, 1993). The machine metaphor and the associated mechanistic (positivist) worldview, which was later extended to the economy, the society, and the organization, has persisted until today and is evident in our thinking and vocabulary. The mechanistic view of the enterprise became less tenable in the 20th century, partly due to the emergence of the corporation and the increasing prominence of human relation issues in the workplace. As the futurist Alvin Toffler (1991) declared, “the Age of the Machine is screeching to a halt” (Toffler, 1991).


2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (1_suppl) ◽  
pp. 39-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kerem Nisancioglu

This article explores how International Relations (IR) might better conceptualise and analyse an underexplored but constitutive relationship between race and sovereignty. I begin with a critical analysis of the ‘orthodox account’ of sovereignty which, I argue, produces an analytical and historical separation of race and sovereignty by: (1) abstracting from histories of colonial dispossession; (2) treating racism as a resolved issue in IR. Against the orthodox account, I develop the idea of ‘racial sovereignty’ as a mode of analysis which can: (1) overcome the historical abstractions in the orthodox account; (2) disclose the ongoing significance of racism in international politics. I make this argument in three moves. Firstly, I present a history of the 17th century struggle between ‘settlers’ and ‘natives’ over the colonisation of Virginia. This history, I argue, discloses the centrality of dispossession and racialisation in the attendant attempts of English settlers to establish sovereignty in the Americas. Secondly, by engaging with criticisms of ‘recognition’ found in the anticolonial tradition, I argue that the Virginian experience is not simply of historical interest or localised importance but helps us better understand racism as ongoing and structural. I then demonstrate how contemporary assertions of sovereignty in the context of Brexit disclose a set of otherwise concealed colonial and racialised relations. I conclude with the claim that interrogations of racial sovereignty are not solely of historical interest but are of political significance for our understanding of the world today.


1994 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 221-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather Hadlock

The operatic diva, a singer of strange songs, and too often a turbulent, unkind girl, haunted the nineteenth-century imagination, as evidenced by the musical tales of E. T. A. Hoffmann and numerous retellings of those tales in theatre, ballet and opera. Each adaptation of Hoffmann's ‘Rat Krespel’, ‘Der Sandmann’ and ‘Don Juan’ reflects an ambivalent attitude towards women performers, whose potent voices make them simultaneously desirable and fearsome. How do these stories about female singers contrive to contain and manage the singing woman’s authority? And how does the prima donna's voice repeatedly make itself heard, eluding and overcoming narrative attempts to shape or contain its turbulent noise?Let me begin with an excerpt from ‘Rat Krespel’ (1818), which might serve as a parable for relationships between female singers and male music lovers in the Romantic imagination. Krespel, a young German musician, travelled in Italy and was fortunate enough to win the heart of a celebrated diva, Angela, whose name seemed only appropriate to her heavenly voice. Unfortunately, her personality was less than heavenly, and when she was not actually singing he found her violent whims and demands for attention very trying. One day, as he stood playing his violin:[Angela] embraced her husband, overwhelmed him with sweet and languishing glances, and rested her pretty head on his shoulder. But Krespel, carried away into the world of music, continued to play on until the walls echoed again; thus he chanced to touch the Signora somewhat ungently with his arm and the fiddle bow.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document