Flowers of evil: Constructing the wicked in Wisdom of Solomon

The distinction between the good and the wicked is common in wisdom literature. Although the distinction can be viewed as ubiquitous, I would like to problematize it by considering the literary device deployed in constructing the archetypes of the good and the wicked. Specifically, I analyze the depiction of the wicked in chapters 1–6 in Wisdom of Solomon and argue that the construction of the wicked in Wisdom is indispensable in understanding how the righteous obtain wisdom through divine protection and acceptance of divine provision. First, I offer a close reading of the text, mainly Chapters 1–6, and parse out the ways of depicting the wicked in Wisdom of Solomon. In particular, I highlight the “collectivity” of the crowd, as opposed to a “single” righteous individual or group. Social theories of the crowd are critical to my formulation of the characteristics of the wicked. Second, I examine the relationship between the wicked and the righteous, and propose the idea of “a mirror effect” in these antithetical depictions. The mirror effect exhibits didactic values, as it instructs one to pursue righteousness and shun from evil. Third, I focus on the interaction between God, the righteous, and the wicked and suggest that divine intervention in helping the righteous stand firm among the wicked manifests both divine justice and divine mercy.

Artistic Image Depiction Elements in the Works of Edgar Allan Poe

The article examines the elements of the representation of the artistic image in a literary work, individual speech features, phonetic devices, morphological categories and expressions of the character's speech. The literary device of stanzas of Edgar Allan's works is analyzed and examined, the semantic features of the features of images and all kinds of reproduced linguistic means are traced. Keywords: reproducible linguistic means, element of artistic image, phonetic devices, individuality, expressiveness, versatility, vivid and expressive meaning, disgusting abomination, deep feeling of loneliness, personification, inanimate objects, human qualities.

Challenging Narrative Hierarchies: Embedded Narrative Structure in David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas and Mark Danielewski's House of Leaves

<p>Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves and David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas both feature highly complex structures of narrative embedding. This thesis examines the use of narrative levels in these two novels, considering how the purposes and effects of embedding change and how attention to the structure of this literary device transforms readings of these texts. Cloud Atlas features six distinct and seemingly stand-alone embedded narratives. The relationship between them is complicated both by competing structural models and by clashes of continuity between fact and fiction. Mitchell's novel draws attention to the role of storytelling in the creation of history and human identity. House of Leaves embeds an invented film within a novel masquerading as film criticism, with edits and commentary provided by a further narrator. The disparate parts, narratorial unreliability, and multiple acts of remediation serve to undermine the elaborate narrative hierarchy Danielewski creates. This instability foregrounds the subjectivity of the relationship between reader and text and the embedding narrator functions as a model for the active reader who both interprets and recreates. In both novels the differently styled narratives and structures of embedding facilitate an exploration of the permutations of fact and fiction and, by transgressing the norms of this literary device, they bring into focus the assumptions that exist around it.</p>

Challenging Narrative Hierarchies: Embedded Narrative Structure in David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas and Mark Danielewski's House of Leaves

<p>Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves and David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas both feature highly complex structures of narrative embedding. This thesis examines the use of narrative levels in these two novels, considering how the purposes and effects of embedding change and how attention to the structure of this literary device transforms readings of these texts. Cloud Atlas features six distinct and seemingly stand-alone embedded narratives. The relationship between them is complicated both by competing structural models and by clashes of continuity between fact and fiction. Mitchell's novel draws attention to the role of storytelling in the creation of history and human identity. House of Leaves embeds an invented film within a novel masquerading as film criticism, with edits and commentary provided by a further narrator. The disparate parts, narratorial unreliability, and multiple acts of remediation serve to undermine the elaborate narrative hierarchy Danielewski creates. This instability foregrounds the subjectivity of the relationship between reader and text and the embedding narrator functions as a model for the active reader who both interprets and recreates. In both novels the differently styled narratives and structures of embedding facilitate an exploration of the permutations of fact and fiction and, by transgressing the norms of this literary device, they bring into focus the assumptions that exist around it.</p>

Russian Anecdotes on the "Corona" Theme: Problematics and Poetics

The article deals with an issue of the widespread distribution of anecdotes about the COVID-19 pandemic in Russia and demonstrates the relevance and necessity of theoretical understanding of this phenomenon. The importance of the research problem is due to the need of recreating the models of situation perception which are reflected in the texts as well as tracing public reaction to the current events and ideological attitudes. The research aim is to identify the peculiarities of the problematics and poetics of the anecdotes about coronavirus infection. The analysis of the regularities in functioning of humorous miniatures shows that a number of genre-forming features of an anecdote are partially restored due to digital technologies. The study reveals that witticisms adapt to the changed communication conditions. Under the conditions of a declared emergency, the electronic method of information transmission sometimes becomes the only possible option. The problematic of anecdotes relevant during the period of 2020 and 2021 indicates that collective consciousness is sensitive to manifestations of the epidemic process. The article lists and characterizes the main thematic groups of anecdotes, their leading motifs and images. Obsessions with eroticism as well as the focus on violation of official taboos are noted. The study found that the actualization of the idea of national identity is an effective way of getting positive emotions. The findings include the figures of speech and expressive means that form the automatism of perception and its unexpected destruction in the final formulas. The article concludes by identifying the literary device of anthropomorphization of the coronavirus image as well as the key functions of the "COVID-19" anecdotes, including communicative, compensatory, psychotherapeutic and harmonizing functions.

Translation of Biblical and Mythological Allusions in Three Shakespearean Tragedies: Hamlet, Macbeth, and Romeo and Juliet

Allusions as a literary device are included in a text to express meanings that go beyond the mere words the author uses and depend to a large extent on familiarity to be comprehended. Thus, they carry meaning in the culture in which they arise while this meaning is missed in another culture. The translation of allusions, therefore, which includes two language cultures, requires enormous problem-solving skills and adoption of strategies allowing the translator to evoke more or less the same reaction as that of the source language audience (Leppihalme, 1997). This study explores the adoption of strategies by Pasargadi (1996) in translating allusions rooted in mythology and the Bible in three Shakespearean tragedies, i.e. Hamlet, Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet based on the classification suggested by Ruokonen (2010). The analysis of the results revealed that the translator made more frequent use of modifying than retentive strategies, 52.69% and 47.31% respectively. Further investigation of the translation strategies employed by the translator sheds greater light on the reliability of the classification by Ruokonen (2010) and results in a better grasp of how to guarantee as close an effect on the target text audience as the one created on the source text audience.

Kala pani revisited: Indian labour migrants and the sea crossing

This article examines the reconstruction and deconstruction of the concept of काला पानी or kālā pānā, meaning the ‘black waters’, which all Indians must cross when migrating overseas. From its origin as a Brahmanic text warning about the dangers of oceanic voyages, through its dissemination as a more generalised stricture against emigration and its use and abuse as a British colonial construction, to its recasting as a historical trope and a literary device, the ever-changing influence and meaning of kala pani is interrogated and assessed. Contextualising the kala pani trope against the setting of sepoy, convict and indentureship voyages, this study also evaluates its historical validity and importance in colonial and nationalist realities. Finally, the symbolic value of the kala pani and its reworking as a literary device are explored.

Simile As An Effective Literary Device in the Vietnamese-English Translation Equivalent

Many Vietnamese writers have recognised the utility of literary devices to beautify the artistic features in written texts. Like other rhetorical devices, simile plays an essential role in bringing meaningful values close to the readers. The research aims at identifying the usage of simile in the translation equivalents between Vietnamese and English in De men phieu luu ky and its translated version Diary of a cricket. From analysing 108 sentences by the descriptive qualitative research, the findings showed that (1) The high frequency of using the complete form of simile to express the figure of speech. (2) The imbalance in the translation rate between two languages and the most popular simile word of like usage in English translated text. (3) The variables of comparative words and themes used in the target text show the same meaning in the source text. Those conclusions shed light on the quality improvement on the target text, especially in both translator's training and further translation education.

Aseneth’s Epiphanies

This article examines the function of epiphany in Joseph and Aseneth. Though central to the narrative, this literary device and theological phenomenon is frequently overlooked or only indirectly included in other studies. This reading argues that the mode of epiphany is central, not only to the plot, but to the main themes and messages of Joseph and Aseneth; epiphany operates as a boundary marker between two groups in Joseph and Aseneth. These two groups are insiders and outsiders, and mortal and (quasi-)divine beings. While epiphanies are used to distinguish between these groups, they also invite the narrative’s heroine, Aseneth, to transcend these boundaries. The story’s numerous epiphanies signpost Aseneth’s transition from a mortal outsider to a quasi-divine insider. Used in this way, the epiphanies build a worldview wherein the divine intercedes directly on behalf of, and grants particular dispensations to certain individuals.

Irony and heroism

In the article we investigate the Christian – pagan polemic of Origen's treatise “Contra Celsum” in fragment 7.53-58, where the problem of the correlation of irony and heroism reveals the contrast between false and true deeds, for which divine honours are given. The irony that Celsus uses to attack Christians serves as a kind of “divide” that marks a contrast between pagan ideas about heroism, as a principle of deification of people, and the principles on which, from Celsus’ point of view of, Christians consider Jesus to be God. A special subject of the article is Celsus’ reflection on the ironic motive of the Book of Jonah, the story of the gourd (Jonah 4, 5-11), and the salvation of the prophet Daniel from the lion's den (Dan. 6, 16-23). Origen’s response to Celsus’ speech shows a certain similarity to the text of a pagan author in structural, stylistic and lexical aspects. Such factor reveals a rhetorical content of the response of Origen. In the field of rhetorica, Origen uses irony against his opponent: pagan heroes and philosophers now appear funny or not serious enough, whereas the Old Testament prophets are revealed as genuinely great and as a source of miracles. In light of this, Origen’s response to Celsus replaces Celsus’ ironic allusion to the gourd story from the fourth chapter of the Book of Jonah with the first verse of the second chapter, which opens the episode of Jonah’s stay in the belly of the whale. An analysis of this substitution, based on the hermeneutic principles of Origen, shows the role of Biblical irony as a specific aspect of the spiritual meaning of the sacred text. It is hypothesized that the essence of this specificity is the creation of a contrast that sets any feat of any person in the light of the historical life of Jesus Christ, who completely and exceptionally realized God's providence. This reveals a pattern or principle of going beyond the limits of human virtue to the sphere of divine being. To compare any feats with the earthly life and the death of the Saviour renders the opposition of ironic and heroic no longer a contrast between false and true: any heroism, even the exploits of the Old Testament prophets, becomes ironic / ridiculous. Thus Origen’s Christian irony is not only an instrument of rhetorical discourse, but a philosophical and literary device that allows transcending, or elevating to an unattainable level, the heroism of the life and death of the Saviour.