Interpretation of symbols of female destiny in the novel “Zuleikha Opens Her Eyes” by G. Yakhina

Many aspects of the life of Tatar women of the past remain obscure for others, which is substantiated by the tradition. This prompts the study of the topic in the genre of literary realism. Analysis is conducted on the fate of Tatar woman in the novel “Zuleikha Opens Her Eyes” by G. Yakhina. The hermeneutical method reveals the key symbols of life of the woman, which reveal what is hidden. Such symbols as coffer, kiln, baby cradle, bird, son, honey embody the feminine principle and have national roots. The symbol of train resembles the progress and new foundations of existence, which partially disclose the hidden aspects of the life of Tatar women. Social changes affected the fate of Tatar women, giving an opportunity for self-realization and attainment of happiness. The novelty of this research lies in the analysis of the hidden in the life of Tatar women, dynamics of its evolution in the context of shift in sociocultural dominants caused by historical development. The acquired conclusions can be valuable in reconstruction of the fate of Tatar women of the XIX – XX centuries, determination of the finest nuances and details unknown to others, as well as restoration of the cultural-historical picture of their everyday practices. The interpretation of fate of the heroine of the novel through symbols allows applying a similar method to the analysis of other literary works dedicates to the female theme in culture.

INCESSANT WORRY OR HAPPINESS IN UKRAINIAN

«Incessant worry» - this phrase-meme actively «walks» on social networks and has already become part of the language of everyday life. It is usually used in a somewhat ironic sense. But at the same time, in my opinion, this irony really contains a deep understanding of «what is happiness in Ukrainian». Cordocentrism is considered one of the characteristic features of the Ukrainian mentality. And also antheism (kinship with the native land) and execution (dominance in the psyche of the «feminine principle», but is not synonymous with femininity). All these features have found their embodiment, among other things, in art. And it is precisely the «Incessant worry» that reflects the cordocentrism of the Ukrainian character, and hence the understanding of happiness in Ukrainian. In pursuit of the material components of our everyday life, we have forgotten that happiness is harmony, it is order within ourselves and the creation of a positive attitude around us. Happiness in Ukrainian is coziness, cute little things that make our life more pleasant, it is pleasure from the work that you do, it is your health and your loved ones. And then this «Incessant worry» of Cossack Mamai, a warrior-wise man, in combination with a reeled doll (motanka), acquire a modern sound in our present. It has gone through difficult centuries, tempered in the whirlwind of complex life's vicissitudes and remains national archetypes, the cores of Ukrainian spiritual culture. KEY WORDS: «Incessant worry», happiness in Ukrainian, archetype, cordocentrism, reeled doll, Cossack Mamai.

DISCUSSION BETWEEN MIKHAIL SERYAKOV AND DMITRY CHURAKOV ON THE ROLE OF THE FEMININE IN PRIMITIVE SOCIETY

The review examines the discussion of domestic researchers on the role of the feminine principle in primitive society.

Kant e il carattere dei popoli

Kant deals with national characters in the second part of his Anthropology from a pragmatic point of view of 1798. Firmly rejecting the climatic theory, he advocates an anti-naturalistic stance. However, Kant is skeptical of Hume’s tenet that nations owe their characters to their different forms of government. In Kant’s view, the most civilized nations are England and France: their characters have to do with purely cultural factors. Complementing each other, the characters of those nations broadly correspond to a masculine and feminine principle, as analyzed by Kant in the previous chapter of his Anthropology. The remaining European and Extra-European nations have a less defined – and, in some cases, mixed – character, that owes something more to the natural dispositions. Yet Kant still manages to avoid naturalistic explanations. In many nations, natural dispositions do prevail over cultural ones, but this simply means that less (and sometimes, nothing) can be said about their characters.

The Feminine, the Origin of Evil and the Motion of Matter in Plutarch’s De animae procreatione

Plutarch’s De animae procreatione is, by the author’s own admission, an unusual account of the cosmogony in the Timaeus, yet what is most original about it is often overlooked. The philosopher and biographer has a relatively positive view of women’s intellectual capabilities, including their ability to attain virtue, and as such the suggestion that the feminine principle of the cosmos is the origin of sublunary evil presents both an ethical and a metaphysical problem. Plutarch attempts to solve this problem by separating Matter from its movement, thus theorising a third kind, disorderly motion that ultimately causes evil. Even so, he maintains a close relationship between Motion and Matter by stressing their acosmic interaction, which allows for a degree of scepticism regarding the feminine and the female while creating space for the virtue of women. He does so by incorporating Matter and Motion into a single acosmic principle of disorder, the Indefinite Dyad. This division of kinds is apparent also in De Iside, where it becomes clear that Plutarch intends to frame the feminine as a potentially positive force in the cosmos.

THE SOPHIAN MYTH IN THE NOVEL BY V.P. ASTAFYEV “THE SHEPHERD AND THE COWGIRL”

The article discusses the figurative and semantic paradigms of the sophiological myth in the story by V.P. Astafyev “The Shepherd and the Cowgirl”. The image of the main character of the story Lucy is endowed with a number of symbolic connotations and has a complex archetypal structure. The Sophian archetype is represented here in its two invariants: the Christian and the Gnostic; the keys to understand the heroine are also the Theotokos archetype, the archetypes of the Virgin, the Beloved, the Mistress, Psyche, and the Kabbalistic archetype Shekhinah, which is closely related to the original image of Sophia. The Sophian model of a feminine principle is reflected both in the personality-psychological, spiritual and moral characteristics of the heroine, and in the logic of the image of her fate. The study leads to the conclusion that the mythologeme of Sophia in its different modes (Sophia the Wisdom of God, Sophia the Gnostic, Eternal Femininity) in the paradigm of Lucy's image is one of the semantic dominants; in addition, in the mythopoetic sign system of the work, the Sophian archetype, along with the archetypes of Theotokos and Shekhinah, can be considered the cultural representative of the “feminine” archetype - the archetype of a Woman in its specific gender-existential aspect.

Gender and Absolute ‘I’ of a Person: Scope of Contraposition and New Contexts of Identity

The aim of the study is to investigate gender and absolute ‘I’ of a person as scope of contraposition and new contexts of identity. The methodological basis of the study of the philosophy of gender is the idea of the Absolute ‘I’ of a person, scope of contraposition of gender and sex, new contexts of gender identification. Person is inseparable from his essence, which determines his gender. As a result, identity is an open system, therefore the process of changing the identity of both men and women is an interdependent change of mindsets complementing and enriching each other and the world around. In conclusion, the male, which is obviously not changeable enough, can be ultimately completed to the female principle. People are attracted to men who prone to dialogue and mercy. But the feminine principle, which constitutes all the beauty in a person, is instant, and cannot have rigidity, totalitarian firm determination, in a word, those qualities that should have a long-term perspective.

The Feminine in Rilke’s Sonnets to Orpheus

Women play a unique role in Rilke’s work. They are exemplary lovers—usually unrequited—or extraordinarily protective mothers or creative inspirations. The Sonnets to Orpheus feature a number of crucial women both historical and mythical. This essay investigates the significance of women and the feminine more generally in the Sonnets. For Rilke, women embody the nonvisible and capture the realm beyond the merely physical. This feminine principle has the capacity to bring into being that which is potential but not yet realized—just as the poet does in the creation of the poem. Rilke sees the feminine as creatively potent but at the cost of personal fulfillment. The feminine thus embodies for Rilke a philosophy of productive deprivation that presents challenges for a feminist view but also privileges the feminine. Only by participating in that feminine principle can the poet gain access to the most crucial world beyond the tangible.