De Grenade à Jérusalem

The present article examines the drama Birds of a Kind by the Lebanese-Canadian author Wajdi Mouawad. It analyses the allegorical character of Wazzan which is based on the historical figure Leo Africanus, a Moroccan diplomat and polymath of Granadan origin who in the early 16th century was kidnapped by Christian pirates and offered to Pope Leon X. Following his conversion from Islam to Catholicism he became the first author to present Africa to the Europeans through his works, published under the patronage of two popes from the Medici family. Leo Africanus was introduced to Mouawad by the American scholar Natalie Zemon Davis. In her study Trickster Travels (2006) she discusses the ambiguity and the evasiveness of this enigmatic historical figure whose character she highlights through the story of the amphibious bird. It is a parable placed as the author’s paratextual notice at the beginning of The Book of Cosmography and Geography of Africa (1526 [1550]), Leo Africanus’s most important scholarly work, and in spite of many possible sources, it is definitely his own invention. This article aims to demonstrate how Mouawad distanced his dramatic character from the original figure – the historiographic image of a trickster – by changing the point of the aforementioned parable. The story of the amphibious bird in Birds of a Kind, told by Wazzan to a Jew who right before his death is revealed to have an Arabic origin, is transformed form the parable of a trickster into a legend of someone who manages to overcome prejudice in order to find his identity. For Mouawad, Wazzan personifies the reconciliation between Judaism and Islam, transmitting at the same time an idea of the world dreamed of by the humanism of the Renaissance and Enlightenment.

THE NEUTRALITY or the silence before the action

The actor’s imagination is formed and translated into images. The actor shows and embodies the dramatic character on stage with his body, voice and gestures. The actor’s body goes through a semiotic transformation during the show, it becomes the main vehicle of expression, the main channel of transmiting information, an extremely important function in theatrical artistic creation. The actor’s voice is in accordance to his body and psyche, and through its expressive qualities it becomes an essential component of theatrical language and stage communication. Our every day body is also a permanent transmitter of coded messages, voluntary or involuntary, of packets of information about the subject’s previous experiences, memories, sensations, perceptions, knowledge, attitudes, conceptions, relationships, social constraints etc. The human voice also becomes a sign for the social relationships, for the personal identity, the mood or the motivation of the speaker. Due to the state of neutrality, the actor will discover how an image, real or fictional, can transform his psychophysics, he will discover the psychophysical existence of each character with its external and internal world. The actor must put aside his self-image, learn to allow the presence of the mask / role take control of him, to breathe, to speak and to live with his own voice, face, body and mind. When the face is covered and there is silence, the actor has to communicate through his body and movements, when the movement is simple and economical, the mask /the role begins to live.

CONTEMPORARY MAKE_UP TECHNIQUES AND AESTHETIC ADDITIONS TO THE DRAMATIC CHARACTER IN CHILD THEATER

The art of makeup is one of the main elements of the integrative system of the theatrical performance at times and of the drama directed towards children in their school theater at other times. This is because makeup has an effective impact in shaping the personality and appearance of the actors in the drama. This includes the practice of drawing, improving or changing the actor’s face as well as shaping his body, hair and his entire form during dramatic practices, masquerade parties and some festival occasions, such as the Halloween Festival in America, by using materials and products specially manufactured for the world of makeup and cosmetics. Makeup has been used since Greek times after the emergence of the theater in its new dithyrambic form in the time (Aeschylus and Euripides) and after the actors abandoned the theatrical mask which enabled one actor to play several roles in the educational drama. After the industrial revolution in the Renaissance, makeup turned into a world of creativity and beauty by using its manufactured products and bright colors for drawing and shaping alongside stage candles and lit lanterns in that era. This is until it entered the early children theater to become one of the necessities of child-oriented work to increase tension and suspense and to convey meaning through the embodiment of characters in the dramatic work, regardless of their type (human or animal, inanimate or scientific fiction and fantasy). Ever since the beginning of the nineteenth century and until the present day, the makeup technology has gone through the development of manufacturing and shaping of its plastic materials and the method of work until the makeup professionals mastered creating characters and shapes that are difficult for the non-experienced to create. Therefore, the researcher has found that it is important to study the makeup techniques, their aesthetics, and the complementary additions to the theatrical character’s body performed in all its environmental, psychological, social and health details, as well as the level of awareness and perception through color, mass, line, composition, rhythm, and other complements such as wigs and beards. That is because it attracts the child and makes him more interactive and communicative with the total display system in which all the kinetic, color, light and sound scenographic elements combine, achieving integration in the spectacle of the artwork and its aesthetics as well as achieving both its intellectual and artistic goals. Because of the importance of contemporary makeup techniques and aesthetic additions in our time and their impact on the dramatic personality and on the culture and taste of the child in general, the researcher decided to delve into and study the subject with the aim of reaching a package of recommendations that enrich her research paper‎. Keywords: Chıld Theater, Make_Up Technıques, Dramatıc Character.

The St. Louis Crisis in the Canadian Press: New Data on the June 1939 Incident

Starting in late May 1939, a humanitarian crisis developed when some 900 German Jews were denied the use of prearranged Cuban temporary immigration permits in the port of Havana after having arrived on board of the MS St. Louis, a luxury German liner. The event soon attracted much media attention because of its dramatic character and negotiations immediately began to find a safe haven for the stranded passengers elsewhere on the Atlantic seacoast. Eventually, after a few days, all efforts in this respect failed and the captain of the MS St. Louis, Gustav Schröder, was forced to contemplate bringing his human cargo back to Western Europe where four countries allowed the passengers to disembark. This article discusses the involvement of the Canadian government and media in this crisis, and the role that the Mackenzie-King cabinet played in denying the German Jewish refugees any hope of being welcomed in the country. Of particular interest here is the fact that the Canadian public was not well informed of the fate of the St. Louis passengers, in either official language, and that largely for this reason no serious pressure was put on the government to bring a different resolution of the crisis. À la fin du mois de mai 1939, une crise humanitaire est apparue quand quelque 900 Juifs allemands, arrivés à bord du paquebot le Saint-Louis, n’ont pu bénéficier dans le port de La Havane de permis d’immigration temporaires cubains déjà émis. L’événement n’a pas tardé à attirer beaucoup d’attention de la part des médias par son côté dramatique et des négociations ont immédiatement été lancées afin de trouver sur la côte atlantique un autre port d’accueil pour les réfugiés apatrides. Après quelques jours, le capitaine du navire, Gustav Schröder a toutefois dû se résoudre à regagner l’Europe de l’Ouest, où quatre pays ont accepté de prendre en charge les passagers. Cet article s’intéresse au rôle joué par le gouvernement et par les médias canadiens dans cette crise, et en particulier au fait qu’aucun geste concret n’ait été fait pour accueillir les réfugiés juifs au pays. L’auteur porte une attention spéciale au fait que le sort des passagers du Saint-Louis n’ait pas fait l’objet de reportages dans les journaux canadiens, dans aucune des langues officielles, et que pour cette raison le cabinet de Mackenzie-King a senti peu de pression de la part des citoyens canadiens pour trouver une résolution différente à la crise.

Splot głosów. Mowa pozornie zależna w Requiem dla gospodyni Wiesława Myśliwskiego

The article analyzes the drama Requiem dla gospodyni by Wiesław Myśliwski in the context of free indirect discourse as understood in literary criticism. The author of the article discusses the instances of this form of expression used in the utterances of Boleś, a shepherd and country madman of an unknown ontological status. She notices the problems with distinguishing between free indirect speech and the direct quoting of the late titular landlady [gospodyni] with whom Boleś established a strong bond. The author demonstrates that the shepherd plays a significant role both as a part of the storyline and a formal element because his creative capacity (building images) as well as linguistic (creating a binarrative in free direct speech) reveal his meta-dramatic character and privilege the dramatic subject.

Dublin na (tekstualnej) scenie. O dramatyzacji przestrzeni w Ulissesie Jamesa Joyce’a

The author investigates how James Joyce stylizes the space in his novel Ulysses for drama. For this purpose he carries out a comparative analysis of some episodes in this book. This analysis leads to the conclusion that Joyce transposes some dramatic genres and specifically dramatic writing techniques, especially associated with August Strindberg. Kozłowski emphasizes the dramatic character of some motifs that create spatial conditions in Joyce’s novel. Furthermore, he compares these motifs with the literary works of the greatest modern dramatists.

“In that blocade years”: memories of T. A. Kozupeeva.

The author of the memoirs «In thatblockade years» candidate of agricultural Sciences, Director of the Polar-Alpine Botanical garden of the Institute in 1962–1986 Tatyana Alekseevna Kozupeeva. She worked in the Kola branch of the USSR Academy of Sciencesfrom 1953 to 1986. In her memoirs, she tells about the Leningrad blockade, which she endured from the beginning to the end and was among those who endured all the horrors of hunger, bombing and shelling. Through the eyes of a young girl, a tragic period of her life is viewed with its difficulties, losses and belief in victory. She describes the workdays of the blockaders and their daily life, paying attention to what especially shocked and hurt her, remembered for its unusual and dramatic character. Her story is an answer to the question «How could we survive?»

HUMAN RELATIONSHIP TO AN ACTIVE SOCIAL OBJECT: APPLIED ASPECT

Обсуждается прикладной аспект использования теории отношений при анализе взаимодействия человека-субъекта с активным социальным объектом, имеющим собственный потенциал субъектности. Определяется набор значимых для человека объектов (человек, семья, группа, организация, страна, малая родина, этнос, мир, Бог), с которыми человек вступает во взаимодействие (реальное и/или воображаемое и виртуальное), в результате чего формирует отношение к каждому из них. Такое отношение состоит из четырех компонентов - ценностного, когнитивного, эмотивного и поведенческого. Ценностный компонент отношения определяется тем, насколько объект позволяет человеку реализовать основные жизненные ориентации - дефицитарную, на самореализацию и духовную. В соответствии с этим объект имеет для субъекта дефицитарную полезность, выступает условием его самореализации и служит для него источником духовности. Когнитивный компонент содержит в себе образ активного социального объекта, относящийся к категории терминальных и позволяющий обосновать требования к нему (адекватность и продуктивность реального и идеального образов, полнота и непротиворечивость, стабильность, культуросообразность, драматичность, прогностичность). Три составляющих эмотивного компонента отношения человека к активному социальному объекту (комфорт; чувство радости; высшие чувства, чувство долга) соответствуют трем жизненным ориентациям и могут быть представлены в любви к этому объекту. Поведенческий компонент реализуется в готовности к определенному поведению: а) дефицитарному (субъект-объектному), основанному на взаимной выгоде; б) самореализационному (субъект-субъектному), предполагающему условия и свободу в реализации потенциала человека; в) духовному (объект-субъектному), имеющему форму служения. The applied aspect of using the theory of relations to analyze the interaction of a person - subject with an active social object that has the potential of subjectivity is discussed. The set of significant active social objects (world, individual, family, group, organization, country, small homeland, ethnic group, God) with whom the person interacts (real and/or virtual), bringing the forms related to each of them. This attitude consists of four components - value, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral. The value component of the relationship is determined by the extent to which the object allows a person to realize the main life orientations - deficit, self-realization and spiritual. In accordance with this, the object has a deficit utility for the subject, acts as a condition for self-realization of the subject and serves as a source of spirituality for the subject. The cognitive component contains an image of an active social object that belongs to the category of terminal images and allows you to justify the requirements for this image (adequacy and productivity of real and ideal images, completeness and consistency, stability, cultural conformity, dramatic character, predictability). Three components of the emotional component of a person's attitude to an active social object (comfort; a sense of joy; the higher feelings, the sense of duty) correspond to three life orientations and can be represented in the love of this object. The behavioral component is implemented in readiness for a certain behavior: a) deficit (subject-object), based on mutual benefit; b) self-realization (subject-subject), which assumes conditions and freedom in the realization of human potential; c) spiritual (object-subject), which has the form of service.