ИСПОВЕДАЛЬНОСТЬ В ПОЭЗИИ ВЯЧЕСЛАВА ИВАНОВА: ПРЕДВАРИТЕЛЬНЫЕ ЗАМЕЧАНИЯ

The article traces parallels between some confessional situations in the poetry of Vyacheslav Ivanov and the Confessions of St. Augustine. The question is raised about the ability of Ivanov`s symbolism to reproduce the existential uncertainty (ignorance of the further path, the actual rejection of its foreshadowing by culture and intellectual experience), to which the confession should lead the subject, if s/he follows the principle of Augustine`s „transcende te ipsum”. When the state of confession is pre-established by a system of symbols with a „ready” meaning, it risks losing its uniqueness: the confession can be replaced by some universal „scheme” of confessionality, which happens in a number of the Ivanov`s poems. Thus, the article delineates one of the possible perspectives of the further study of the claimed topic.

Human biological age index in a situation of existential uncertainty in the conditions of a surgical department

The influence of biological and mental characteristics of age on the personal behavior and adaptation in a surgical department is investigated in a multidisciplinary aspect. The study presented the dynamics of change in attitude towards their age during the day for men and women, depending on specific surgical diseases using the original technique developed by the authors [Russias Patent No. 2592358, dated 29.06.2016]. For the first time an index of biological patients age in a surgical hospital was determined. Along with medical grounds the article highlights the role of philosophy in analyzing the behavior of a person in an extreme situation.

Utter Pandemonium: Devil-Narratives in the First Edition of the Grimms' Fairy Tales

This paper examines how depictions of the devil in the first edition of the Grimm Brothers’ Folk and Fairy Tales function to mitigate the spiritual anxieties which arose from the decentralization of religious authority in post-Reformation Germany. It centres upon three tales: “The Devil and his Grandmother”, “the Devil with the Three Golden Hairs”, and “The Blacksmith and the Devil”. Beginning with a brief overview of the religious climate of post-Reformation Germany and the function of devil’s-pact narratives during the Medieval period, it proceeds to examine how the Grimm tales subvert the moralizing function of their Medieval precursors. It illustrates how the tales use absurd humour to humanize the devil, making him an object of mockery rather than terror. From there, it demonstrates that, in all three tales, the protagonists’ dealing with the devil does not place their souls in jeopardy, disrupting the orthodox potential of the devil-narrative by allowing the protagonists to attain earthly rewards without the supposedly requisite spiritual punishment. Moreover, it observes that almost every instance of reward without punishment is situated within a broader narrative of the protagonists’ securing social advancement despite an oppressive social structure. Having illustrated these features, it posits that the tales’ valourization of wit and resourcefulness over moral virtue serves to both reflect and manage the existential uncertainty of a society which had rejected church authority but not religion itself. It concludes by suggesting that these tales’ depictions of the human-devil relationship offer a fascinating addition to the Miltonic and Faustian traditions.

Conclusion

The Conclusion contrasts the dominant structuralist and functionalist approaches to democracy and democratization, with the concept of the passage to democracy as an endogenous process of historical and symbolic articulation, and as the symbolization of lived experiences that engender transformations in consciousness, meanings, and beliefs. Rather than assuming a universal and externally determined model for the democratic process, it makes use of the Italian case to argue that democracy is a lengthy and ongoing narrative, and a process of meaning-formation in the context of political and existential uncertainty. Democratizing processes are determined not by socio-economic and cultural factors, not by the pursuit of strategies by the elites, but by a complex interweaving of individual and collective reaction to revolution, war, and dictatorship.

The Liminal Origins of Italian Democracy

This chapter conceptualizes the end of Fascism and the beginning of the civil war, after the armistice of September 8, 1943, as the collapse of the markers of certainty and the beginning of a liminal period of chaos and political, as well as existential, uncertainty. It takes the reader for a ride in what was a confusing and bewildering scenario that followed the removal of the Duce, the collapse of the nation, the dissolution of the structure of power, and the disintegration of national unity. A situation of pure liminality and radical uncertainty, pulling and pushing, imbued with a deep sense of disorientation and confusion pervaded all sectors of Italian society: the governmental level, the army units inside and outside the country, as well as people in the cities and in the countryside. Yet, it was precisely this situation of uncertainty that paved the way for passage to democracy.