scholarly journals Supernatural Characters in the Quasi-Historical Discourse of Modern Ukrainian Literature: Specificity and Functions

Author(s):  
Oleksandra Nikolova ◽  
Kateryna Vasylyna

: The article is aimed at the study of Ukrainian quasi-historical novels of the early 21st century, characterized by the renunciation of “objectivity” of the narrative and emphasized the role of imagination. These are the pieces by Bakalets and Yarish (“From the Seventh Bottom”), Vynnychuk (“The Pharmacist”, “Lutetia”), and by Yatsenko (“Nechui. Nemov. Nebach”). The study reveals the features and functions of fantastic characters in the abovementioned novels. These fictional images of modern Ukrainian quasihistorical literary discourse are characterized by infernality, grotesque anthropomorphism, destruction of traditional antinomy “otherworldly– earthly/human”, philosophical and ironic coloring. Interpreting the fantasy in quasi-historical novels is expedient in the context of the global problem of perception of historical past by people of the 21st Century, with an emphasis on significant changes in public consciousness motivating writers to “Re-write/Reimagine the past”. The spread of this phenomenon reveals public distrust of the authorities, offering “correct” answers to the questions about past events, protest against permanent manipulation of historical facts (the tendency of growing consciousness and intellectualization of society).

Teknokultura ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 265-276
Author(s):  
Chris H. Gray

Using Shoshana Zuboff’s 2019 book, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, the essay explores this latest form of capitalism and Zuboff’s claims about its organization. Her arguments are compared and contrasted with David Eggers novel, and the movie that came out of it, called The Circle, as well as other perspectives on capitalism (Marx, Barry Unsworth’s Sacred Hunger) and the current dominance of social media companies (especially Alphabet/Google, Facebook, and Amazon) from Evgeny Morozov, Natasa Dow Schüll, Zeynep Tufekci, Steve Mann and Tim Wu. Zuboff’s description and critique of Surveillance Capitalism is a convincing and important addition to our understanding of the political economy of the early 21st Century and the role of giant monopolistic social media companies in shaping it.


2005 ◽  
Vol 87 (859) ◽  
pp. 525-552 ◽  
Author(s):  
David P. Fidler

AbstractAt the intersection of new weapon technologies and international humanitarian law, so-called “non-lethal” weapons have become an area of particular interest. This article analyses the relationship between “non-lethal” weapons and international law in the early 21st century by focusing on the most seminal incident to date in the short history of the “non-lethal” weapons debate, the use of an incapacitating chemical to end a terrorist attack on a Moscow theatre in October 2002. This tragic incident has shown that rapid technological change will continue to stress international law on the development and use of weaponry but in ways more politically charged, legally complicated and ethically challenging than the application of international humanitarian law in the past.


Thesis Eleven ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 154 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-51
Author(s):  
Anthony King

Sociology today faces a number of serious challenges to its integrity as a discipline. As a synthesis of Weberian and Durkheimian traditions, the work of Randall Collins represents an innovative vindication of sociology in the early 21st century. This article explores Collins’s interaction ritual theory to demonstrate its contemporary utility. However, to highlight the importance of Collins’s work, it seeks to advance and refine it theoretically. Specifically, it seeks to develop Collins’s argument about the role of emotions and, specifically, effervescence, in rituals. This paper argues that, while important, effervescence alone cannot be sufficient to ensure the conformity which is a typical feature of interaction and essential to explaining social order. Drawing on Goffman, Asch and Scheff, the paper argues that effervescence is underpinned by more robust mechanisms of honour and shame, themselves immediately connected to access to collective goods. In this way, the paper affirms the importance of Randall Collins’s work for sociology today.


Author(s):  
E.A. Atapin ◽  

This paper attempts to reveal the essence of the complex nature of English nationalism by tracing its transformation from the 18th century to the early 21st century. The reasons for unpopularity of the problem of English national identity in the English historical discourse (such as the absence of serious national upheavals since the birth of modern British statehood and the relative political success, which made the English national introspection superfluous) were discussed. A contradiction between the “horizontal” perception of the English by the peoples of the British Empire and the view held by the citizens of England on their superiority over others was analyzed. The fact of “concealment” of English nationalism in the British identity to pursue the interests of the empire was revealed. To contrast contemporary English nationalism with that of the imperial era, the research by the Centre for English Identity and Politics highlighting the English concern about their own political representation in the United Kingdom after the devolution was cited. It was concluded that the nature of English nationalism has changed from a civil Anglo-British version without an emphasis on English ethnicity during the empire’s existence to a predominantly ethnic one with a focus on English identity with extremely limited opportunities for civil expression in the early 21st century.


2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (01) ◽  
pp. 018-022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruy Madsen

AbstractIn the early 21st century, the methodologies of Massimo Mangialavori, Rajan Sankaran and Jan Scholten stood in classic homeopathy. These authors criticise the traditional methods of case analysis and propose new instruments to the search for the most appropriate remedy. These contemporary methodologies present common points: the study of themes, classification in groups, interrelation of substance-remedy-patient and predictive character. These characteristics were already presented by other authors throughout the history of homeopathy, but they were only systematised as a practical instrument in the past decades.


Author(s):  
Mikhail S. Shapovalov ◽  
Eliza R. Grigoryan

Nowadays they build “Siberian Jerusalems” on the territory of Trans-Ural: Yeniseisk, Barguzin, Birobidzhan, Blagoveshchensk and Kainsk. Moreover in different times social and scientific discourse of Siberia (and Russia) already knew “Siberian Jerusalems”: Tobolsk, Kainsk. Researchers focus not only on the process of generating and existence of the phenomenon “Siberian Jerusalem”, but also on the issue of the very transferring process of the idea of Jerusalem to Siberia, spatial and semiotic introduction into the sacred space of Siberian cities. The authors pay special attention to the concept of “Siberian Jerusalem” as applied to the cities of Kainsk and Yeniseisk. Are there common qualities of two metaphoric “Siberian Jerusalem” and can we argue that these concepts are identical? Basing on these metaphors the study helps to figure out the genesis and essence of these constructs “Kainsk — Siberian Jerusalem” and “Yeniseisk — Siberian Jerusalem”, where they are implemented. In methodological terms the paper uses developments in the field of cultural-sematic transfer (S. S. Avanesov) and linguistic studies of metaphor as a language unit and mechanisms of its generation (N. D. Arutyunova, V. P. Moskvin). The authors conclude that while syntactic structure of the metaphor “Kainsk — “Siberian Jerusalem” and” “Yeniseisk — “Siberian Jerusalem” coincided they denote non-identical meanings.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 295-312
Author(s):  
Eckart Voigts ◽  
Merle Tönnies

AbstractThe paper situates current developments in British theatre within wider trends towards dystopia and (post-)apocalyptic writing. A central focus is on the role of posthuman elements in dystopian plays which are used to create a constant and pervasive, but mostly unspecific sense of crisis. Two recent works by female playwrights – Dawn King’s Foxfinder (2011) and Stef Smith’s Human Animals (2016) – are compared and related back to Caryl Churchill’s seminal Far Away (2000) to elucidate how the nonhuman comes to be perceived as a threat and how this leads to, and/or supports, a dystopian system and its violent measures. Moreover, both Foxfinder and Human Animals manage to combine absurdist elements that border on the surreal with more or less pronounced didactic implications for the audience, although these connections are realised in different ways by the two playwrights. In this manner, post-apocalyptic dystopian theatre of the early 21st century can become revolutionary rather than regressive.


Author(s):  
Maksim N. SHEVCHENKO

This article follows the discussion that developed in the Russian historiography around the postulates formulated by the founders of “historical phenomenology”. The author attempts to identify the most controversial topics of discussion and to form an idea of its role in the development of theoretical and methodological principles of the Russian medieval studies in the early 21st century. The study of the problem has required using historical-genetic and historical-comparative research methods. This article shows an extremely polarized attitude of the Russian researchers to the theoretical and methodological postulates of the “historical phenomenology”. The Russian historians have already addressed this problem, but their writings made no attempt to generalize the criticism or sum up the discussion. The new works, similarly to the previous ones, are written in the genre of criticism of the research program by A. L. Yurganov and A. V. Karavashkin and only multiply works of this nature. The author believes that the time has come to define the results of the controversy, to highlight the key ideas criticized by researchers, and thus, to determine the most controversial topics of the theoretical and methodological legacy of the Russian medieval studies in the early 21st century. Based on the intensity of critical comments, this paper identifies three of the most controversial positions of “historical phenomenology”. Special attention is paid to the problem of “explaining” and “understanding” the research methods, the idea of the “supra-historical” unity and the principle of “non-referentiality” in research analysis. This paper concludes that during the discussion, the Russian researchers clarified their views on the essence of a number of terms and concepts. The polemics initiated by A. L. Yurganov and A. V. Karavashkin allowed drawing clearer lines of demarcation both in the theory and practice of humanities research.


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