Literary and cultural (re)productions of a utopian island: Performative geographies of colonial Shamian, Guangzhou in the latter half of the 19th century

In the second half of the 19th century, Shamian was established and developed as a colonial island enclave in the Chinese city of Guangzhou. Simultaneously, literary and cultural imaginations, depictions, and narrations of the place produced a discourse of Shamian as a utopian island: geographically insular and bounded, environmentally beautiful and peaceful, socially exclusive and harmonious, and technologically progressive and advantageous. This paper examines contemporaneous (predominantly English) literary and cultural representations of Shamian as a colonial utopia and their interrelations with the island’s spatial formation and evolution. These texts (primarily written and pictorial descriptive, non-fictional accounts) reflected the spatial reality but also promoted spatial practices that reinforced the physical utopian island. This process exemplifies the theories of performative geographies in island studies and intertextuality in geocriticism, showing how a place’s spatial representations and reality are mutually constructed. Adopting a conceptual model of intertextual performative geographies, this paper investigates the dynamic interplay of these literary and cultural texts with the spatial reality, arguing that literary and cultural representations of Shamian (re)produced the colonial enclave as a utopian island, both conceptually and practically.

Onomastyka i prawo – miejsca wspólne

Przedmiotem artykułu są wzajemne związki między językoznawstwem (onomastyką) a językiem prawa. Badania obejmują trzy kategorie nazw własnych: antroponimię, toponimię oraz chrematonimię, a ich przedmiotem jest omówienie relacji pomiędzy nazwami jako tekstami kultury a tekstami prawniczymi, w których podejmowane są zagadnienia związane z funkcjonowaniem tych kategorii onimicznych. Szczegółowe obserwacje dotyczą procesu kształtowania się nazwiska oraz dopuszczanych przez ustawodawstwo zmian w zakresie imion i nazwisk, najnowszych przepisów dotyczących nazw miejscowych oraz nazewnictwa miejskiego oraz nazw produktów. Poza ukazaniem wzajemnych relacji między prawem a lingwistyką zwrócono również uwagę na istotne różnice w definiowaniu i interpretowaniu pojęć (np. nazwy produktu). The overlapping of onomastics and the law Summary: The article addresses the interrelations between linguistics (onomastics) and the language of the law. The study includes three categories of proper nouns: anthroponymy, toponymy and chrematonymy, and the aim is to discuss the relation between names seen as cultural texts and legal texts, in which issues related to the functioning of both of these onimic categories are discussed. The study focuses on the process of the formation of surnames and on the changes allowed by law in the area of names and surnames. It also discusses the latest regulations that concern place names, city names, and product names. Apart from showing the interrelations between the law and linguistics, the author pinpoints significant differences in the defining and interpreting of concepts (e.g. in the case of product names).

Posthumanizm i „syntezoidalny mimetyzm” w komiksie „Vision” Toma Kinga i Gabriela Hernandeza Walty

Cultural texts on the subject of posthuman can be found long before the post-anthropocentric turn in humanistic research. Literary explanations of posthumanism have entered the conventional canon not only in terms of the science-fiction classics. However, a different line follows the tradition of presenting posthumanist existence in the comic book medium. Scott Jeffrey accurately notes that most comic superheroes are post- or trans-human. Therefore, the transgression of human existence into a posthumanoid being is presented. However, in the case of the less culturally recognizable character of Vision, a synthezoid from the Marvel’s Avengers team, combining the body of the android and human consciousness, the vector of transgression is reversed. This article is an attempt to analyze the way the humanization process of this hero is narrative in the Vision series of screenwriter Tom King and cartoonist Gabriel Hernandez Walta. On the one hand, King mimetic reproduces the sociological panorama of American suburbs, showing the process of adaptation of the synthesoid family to the realities of full-time work and neighborly intercourse, on the other, he emphasizes the robotic limits of Vision humanization. Ultimately, the narrative line follows the cracks between these two plans, allowing King to present, with the help of inhuman heroes, one of the most human stories in the Marvel superhero universe.

Minotaur, Morlok, bestia… Obrazy niemieckich żołnierzy w polskiej literaturze dziecięcej o Zagładzie

The aim of the article is to create a ‘bestiary’ of monstrous German soldiers appearing in Polish Holocaust children’s literature of the 21st century. Body of analyzed works consists of Rutka by Joanna Fabicka, Bezsenność Jutki by Dorota Combrzyńska-Nogala, and Arka czasu by Marcin Szczygielski, among others. The figures of monstrosity were divided into three groups, as the characters (1) preserve the natural appearance of a man, or exceed the physical norm as being (2) the result of the author’s imagination or (3) references to other cultural texts. The negative and inhuman way of depicting the antagonists raises a certain doubt, caused by the reading of Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil by Hannah Arendt - the final part of the article is devoted to the problem expressed in the subtitle of her work.

Specific study of biblical parables in a pedagogical university

The author of the article focuses on the analysis of specific methods and techniques for identifying the universal and unique cultural meanings of biblical parables in the study of the disciplines of the humanities cycle in a pedagogical university. The purpose of the article is to develop techniques for working with parables for practical classes in the cultural cycle at the Pedagogical University. Research methodology and methods. The work is based on the use of the methodology of the sociocultural and activity-based approach to the psychological development of the individual, as well as systemic and holistic approaches to education. When decoding the meanings of parables as texts of culture, it is proposed to use axiological, semiotic, cognitive and systemic approaches. The systemic culturological approach allows you to create conditions for the development of aesthetic taste, artistic thinking. Research results. As the scientific literature and the practice of teaching culturological disciplines at the Pedagogical University show, working with parables teaches us to personally and emotionally perceive the text of culture, to adequately assess the relationship in the system man-man and man-world, to recode the content from one semiotic system to another. Through the interpretation of the text, the individual creative abilities of students are developed, a steady interest in modern art practices is formed. Interpretation of the categories of culture, embodied in human and natural images of the transcendental, time, space, make it possible to essentially comprehend the texts of culture containing the plots of biblical parables. Conclusion. The consistent identification of the specifics of the study of parables in the context of the spiritual quest of a certain historical period contributes to the emergence of interest and the formation of a respectful attitude towards the cultural heritage, the values of world culture. Cultural practices of working with cultural texts contribute to an adequate understanding of the place of national culture in the world artistic process and its creative enhancement.

Intertextuality in Andrea Levy's novel “Small Island”

The purpose of this article was to identify how intertextuality in the novel “Small Island” (2004) by the British writer Andrea Levy (1956–2019) contributes to the representation of postcolonial issues. To solve the research problems, we applied cultural-historical, comparative, biographical methods of literary analysis. The article considers how to appeal to the poem “Daffodils” by William Wordsworth allows the contemporary writer to criticise the anglicised system and the content of education in the colonies, which becomes the conductor of the dominant, Western discourse. The reference to “Gone with the Wind” helps Levy demonstrate how the stereotyping of images of blacks in cultural texts is pointedly acutely perceived by her dark-skinned heroine. An appeal to the poem “The Charge of the Light Brigade” by the Lord Tennyson and, through it, to Rudyard Kipling's poem “The Last of the Light Brigade”, to the speech of Winston Churchill, serves in “Small Island” to recall the undeservedly, according to Levy, forgotten contribution of the indigenous inhabitants of the colonies to the protection of British territory in World War II and the post-war reconstruction of the country.

António Feijó i Leopold Staff – poetyckie wizje Orientu na tle polsko-portugalskich relacji literackich i kulturalnych (od parnasizmu do palimpsestu)

The article aims to discuss the Chinese culture inspirations in Polish and Portuguese modernist poetry. In the context of Polish-Portuguese literary relationships, late Romantic, Symbolic, Parnassianism-related and Oriental tendencies are presented in the works of a Portuguese poet Antón Feijó (1859–1917), with references to a selected aspect of Leopold Staff’s works (1878–1957). A historical-literary analysis is accompanied by literary and cultural comparative studies. Within the comparative method of presenting the Parnassian palimpsests, as 'The Chinese Lyric Book' ('Cancioneiro Chinês', 1890) by António Feijó and 'Chinese Flute' ('Fletnia chińska', 1922) by Leopold Staff are categorised, the thesis about the independent status of the works in question was built. Modernist visions of the Orient, understood to date a paraphrase or an adaptation of Chinese poetry read in translations from French, gain the status of original works. In view of blurring the differences between the European adaptations – Portuguese poem and Polish poetic prose, based on Oriental motifs drawn from two different French sources (translations): Judith Gautier’s and Franz Touissant’s works – and the Chinese original, the methodological approach to the text as to a palimpsest is justified. Feijó’s “Chinese Poetry” and Oriental poetic landscapes in Staff’s prose are therefore independent literary works, analysed in parallel, as mirror reflections of the fascination with the Orient’s culture. The literary works in question fully deserve the title of cultural texts, the recipient of which will be a Polish reader, a lover of poetry inspired by French Parnassianism.

Sama Culture and Folk Narratives Structures

The understanding of a folk narrative lies in the underlying principles that govern its composition. This study focuses on structures and culture found in the folk narratives of Sama, an indigenous group in Island Garden City of Samal, Philippines. The paper uses the theory on narratology by French-Lithuanian literary theorist, Algirdas Julien Greimas, and cultural theory by Bronislaw Malinowski to analyze the selected Sama folk narratives. The study reveals that the ten (10) Sama folk narratives collected do not completely follow the theory on narratology of Greimas. This is because the theories used are foreign and the folk literature collected are of local origin. Regardless of this, the study shows that Sama folk narratives reflected the ways of their people. Consequently, Sama folk narratives exemplify their cultural practices. They present social, economic, political, and religious practices. The leaders from the Sama folk were requested to validate the cultural texts gathered for this study. This research highlights the structure of Sama literature and illustrates Sama’s cultural heritage by gathering and analyzing their folk narratives so that the rest of the population (the new generation) could have the chance to experience their culture and appreciate it. Also, the researcher further emphasizes the relevance of gathering and using local literature to prevent it from vanishing into oblivion.

Kto się boi współczesności albo smutny dokument epoki

The article presents an educational project inspired by Antoni Słonimski’s poem Document of the Era (Dokument epoki). Preserving and showing the picture of the present – as Słonimski did – is perceived here as a record of the contemporary world. At the same time it is the act of creative selection and configuration of elements that make up the world’s identity and image. Such a synthesis and assembly of pictures become a form of evaluation of the present, a testimony of the anxiety about the directions of its evolution and an expression of distance from what is dangerous and bad. In this project the accent falls on the interpretation of Słonimski’s poem (and other cultural texts) as well as creative activities which use various codes and materials of artistic message. Aside from the doing s presented, but still closely connected, appears a reflection on the current Core Curriculum. This departmental dokument is also treated as a very important, yet not very glorious, testimony of the era.

Umberta Eco Imię róży w szkolnej lekturze licealisty (jako tekst i kontekst kulturowy)

fourthgrade (fifth in technical secondary school) of secondary school. The novel by Eco fitswell with the specific implementation guidelines for literary and cultural education AT both levels of reading. It gives the opportunity to use many valuable cultural texts (including philosophical and literary ones) within the interpretative function. The novel is multi-thematic. It presents both the cultural past of the Middle Ages and the nature of man (his strength and weaknesses in discovering the truth about the world). The work consists of two parts. In the first part, the author propos es selected fragments of the novel (oritswhole) for reading. They serve to deep en the knowledge about the culture of the Middle Ages, also in the context of going beyond the stereotypical image of this era as a darktime. That is why special attention is paid to the matter of the novel’s role of laughter in the Middle Ages. In the second part of the article, the analysis focuses, among others, on playing with the literary text and genre convention (The Name of the Rose as a postmodern novel). The series of les sons also puts forward the topic of becoming inspired by the works of J. Borges and literary tradition as a living component of contemporary culture.