Scalar ambiguities

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-61
Author(s):  
Wit Pietrzak

Abstract This article focuses on an interrelation of various scales of perception in Tom McCarthy’s Satin Island (2015). Basing itself on Timothy Clark’s delineation of scalar ambiguities, it argues that Satin Island’s main protagonist, U, embodies a process of growing awareness of the world’s infinite complexity, discovering personal authenticity by withdrawing from action. His perspective is contrasted with the all-pervading Koob-Sassen, which represents a level of complicatedness that contradicts an individual perspective and the possibility of causal thinking. Finally, U’s entire narrative is cast into doubt by an oil spil, signifying a global occurrence whose rift effects are impossible to gauge, let alone predict. As these various scales are explored, the article shows that the novel thematises different levels of what Clark terms the Anthropocene disorder, in which human action can counterintuitively bring about catastrophic consequences.

2018 ◽  
pp. 132-138
Author(s):  
М. І. Підодвірна

The results and achievements of the main schools and directions of naratology indicate the need to reread both well-known and recondite texts in order to spell out the meanings. We believe that the narrative analysis of prose by Victor Domontovich (the Ukrainian intellectual writer) is interesting and relevant. The article attempts to characterize the manifestations of the bias of an unreliable narato in the novel “Doctor Seraficus” based on the A. Nyuninga’s cognitive approach. A modern German researcher provides a set of tools that can supplemented for a multidimensional consideration of all ambiguities and contradictions in the text. An intelligent game that unfolds in the text manifests itself at different levels. V. Domontovych conducts the biggest game, the game with meaning through the pending authority of unreliable presenter. The text of the novel consists of abstract reflections, notes, dreams, illusions, fantasies, dreams and retrospective journeys. The main law of the text is the game. Irony and contradictions in the narrator’s words encourage the reader to feel dissonance, uncertainty. Therefore, in a narrative analysis, attention is focused on the speaker and who sees (the focal point). It was investigated that the artist Corvin is the narrator of the novel “Doctor Serafikus”, he tries to give as much as possible objectively the personal story. The motives for the unreliability narration based on the personal interest and bias of the character are determined. We identified the main symptoms of the unreliability of the narrator in the work, and the different levels at which the corresponding narrative is expressed, are highlighted. It is established that an unreliable narrative forces distancing itself from a narrator and takes everything that has been said with caution and detachment. Detailed narrative analysis of the work sheds light on the meanings, which for some reason masked, and allows you to establish artistic functions of an unreliable narrator. We believe that understanding this phenomenon makes it possible to make a comprehensive analysis of artistic text.


Author(s):  
Mikhail Tarasov

The article deals with the narrative text construction. The study thoroughly analyzes cognitive models that can become the basis of this process. Firstly, the author is studying the theory of rhetoricalcommonplaces. The article shows that this theory is suitable for constructing a rhetorical text, but not a narrative one. The second model discussed is the concept model. The article argues that this model is most convenient for text analysis, but not for its formation. Marvin Minsky's frame theory is analyzed in detail. It is stated that the theory of frames and individual narrative concepts, in particular those formulated by R. Barth, have much in common. It is concluded that the theory of frames can be perceived as the ontological basis of the narrative scientific description. In addition, the article briefly discusses the cognitive model by R. Quillian and R. Langacker. Their essence is to highlight the main and secondary content in the text. The possibility of using these models in the text analysis and its synthesis is proved by their conceptual similarity with G.Y. Solganik’s analysis of the novel by L. Tolstoy. Special attention is paid to the theory of R. Abelson. It is argued that the proposed hierarchy of cognitive structures has a generalizing character and is adequate to the text. The article gives an example based on a local narrative figure analysis undertaken by V.V. Vinogradov. The paper indicates the possibility to describe this figure within Abelson's theory. As a result of different cognitive models and narrative conceptscomparison, the article formulates the sequence of stages in the analysis and synthesis of text units found at different levels. The first stage of this sequence is the narrative figures analysis. The second one is the analysis of episodes, which are narrative figures associations. The third one is the analysis of the text plot structures. It is proposed to consider text units as realizations of cognitive structures. It is argued that the cognitive approach to the narrative provides its holistic and detailed adequate description.


2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 86-97
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Wójcik

Claude-Henri Grignon’s novel Un homme et son péché presents the life of French Canadian colonial settlers of the Laurentides region at the end of XIXth century. It depicts a realistic image of the colonisation period of Quebec history. The novel is at the origin of a media series that englobes a radio adaptation, three filmic adaptations, theater adaptations, a comic, and two television series. The aim of this article is to discuss the vision of colonisation by analysing two television series based on Un homme et son péché: Les Belles Histoires des pays d’en haut broadcast from 1956 to 1970 and Les Pays d’en haut broadcast from 2016 to 2019 on ICI Radio-Canada Télé 1. The analysis will try to trace modifications inherent to the process of adaptation on different levels (protagonists, representation of space, ideological discourse) and their influence on the vision of the colonisation period.


2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 17-32
Author(s):  
Konul Khalilova ◽  
Irina Orujova

The current article involves the issues of losses, gains, or survivals contributing to literature in the process of translation. It represents a thorough study based on the novel “The Grapes of Wrath” by John Steinbeck from English and, respectively, its translation into Azerbaijani by Ulfet Kurchayli. It investigates the problematic areas or challenges emerging from the source-text discrepancies. Furthermore, this article also concentrates on the issue of cultural non-equivalence or the losses occurring in translating English literary texts into Azerbaijani. The paper identifies the translation techniques adopted by the translator of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. Adopting certain techniques rather than others has led to many losses on different levels. The translator’s important role as a cultural insider is also emphasized. The wide gap, distance, or the differences between the cultures, languages, and thought patterns of the English and Azerbaijani language speakers are the main factors resulting in various losses in the process of translation. Coping with these extra-linguistic constraints is harder than the linguistic ones as the translator has no choice in the given situations, deleting these elements from the TT or replacing them with elements that do not fit the context. This article aims at determining translation losses and gains, defining ways that the translator employs for compensating losses, through the analysis of John Steinbeck’s style in The Grapes of Wrath. The article concludes that there are some situations where the translation of a certain text from the SL into the TL embraces alteration in the whole informational content of the text, in the form of expressions or words.


2009 ◽  
pp. 102-136
Author(s):  
Manila Bonciani

- This contribution lies in the opening between the interest of social research for a deeper understanding of phenomena tied to the quality of life, and the need to intervene in public health as well as identify priority areas of action for the promotion of peoples' health and quality of life. The pilot study carried out in Rome in fact aimed to test a survey instrument on the quality of life from a health perspective. It analyzed the interaction between the environmental dimension, the social-economical and the psychosociological ones and their impact on the quality of life of people who live in urban areas. The purpose of this first contribution is to consider what might influence the promotion of wellbeing, in relation to different levels of human action (macro, meso and micro). The results underline a prominent influence of the psycho-sociological dimension on the perception of individual quality of life and a less substantial influence of the socio-economical one. The absence of a relation with the macro factor, which ecological data of the Municipalities of Rome characterizes as an element of urbanization of the territory, needs further investigation. This can be obtained through a sample survey that guarantees the representativeness of the Roman population.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arindom Chakraborty ◽  
Kalyan Das

ABSTRACTAfter the emergence of the first cases in Wuhan, China, the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) infection has rapidly spread out to other provinces, neighboring countries and finally has become a global terror. It is indeed a matter of serious concern to study the transmission dynamics of this virus. The potential and severity of an outbreak and providing critical information for identifying the type of disease interventions and intensity can be well understood by the unknown basic reproduction number. A stochastic model can be used to estimate this number with possible safeguard on uncertainties. It is essential to assess how the expensive, resource-intensive measures can contribute to the prevention and control of the 2019-nCoV infection and how long they should be maintained. A short-term forecast of incidences are often of high priority. The challenge is to forecast unseen “future” simulated data for three different scenarios at some time points. We estimate current levels of transmissibility, over variable time points under different levels of interventions and use that to forecast near-future incidence. The forecasted values of incidence can be used for determining the near future mortality also.


2018 ◽  
Vol 167 ◽  
pp. 275-283
Author(s):  
Zsuzsanna Kalafatics
Keyword(s):  

Interpreting death in the novel The Flute for Mice Myshkina dudochka by Aleksey RemizovA well-known fact as it is, Aleksey Remizov composed his works triggered by autobiographical motives as short texts constituting various genres. In the montage produced, the former being observed as a creative principle, dream descriptions, narratives and obituary are arranged in a set. In The Flute for Mice, which is one of Remizov’s last novels, death appears on different levels on the level of the theme, motifs and genre. Mythological parallelisms being deciphered will contribute to outline the basic and persistent element of Remizov’s worldview: bodily death is seen as the transmutation of life/soul, furthermore the space of culture is not subordinated to the laws of time. Interpretacja śmierci w powieści Мышкина дудочка Aleksieja RemizowaStworzone na emigracji autobiograficzne utwory Aleksieja Remizowa złożone są z odmiennych gatunkowo krótkich tekstów zestawionych na zasadzie montażu. Zaliczają się do nich opowiadanie-nekrolog, wspomnienie o zmarłym, lament, opis snów i widzeń, które znajdujemy w jednym z ostatnich dużych utworów Remizowa — powieści Мышкина дудочка. Śmierć przenika całą tkankę utworu: pojawia się na płaszczyźnie tematycznej, ideowej i gatunkowej. Przy interpretacji mitologicznych paraleli uwidaczniają się zasadnicze elementy światopoglądu Remizowa, dla któ­rego śmierć ciała stanowi jedynie przejście życia do innych form, a przestrzeń kultury nie podlega prawom czasu.


Adeptus ◽  
2015 ◽  
pp. 11-25
Author(s):  
Thibault Deleixhe

The historic novel under the vigilance of the censor – analysis of textsThis article focuses on the relation that Jacek Bochenski’s historical novel entitled The poet Naso published in 1969 presents towards the concept of censorship. In the article the author aims at proving that the understanding of censorship by Bochenski is similar to the observations of the Hungarian essayist Mikos Haraszti. Tracking the allegoric references scattered through the novel, the author of the article reconstructs Bochenski’s reflection about this internalized censorship and checks its convergence with Haraszti’s remarks. From this exercise emerges a definition of the role of the artist that seems to be inherited from the romantic period: an artist as a person that subordinates himself unconditionally to art, and not to the temporal power. The author of the article then interrogates the respect which Bochenski has been showing to his definition in his literary work. It appears that the writer has been prone to make bigger concessions in order to soften the reception of his book by the censors than he advises his writing colleagues. However, the literary strategies deployed by Bochenski operate on two levels: creating an overall ambiguity about the guilt of its main protagonist, they tend to soften its reception by the censorship; while at the same time, rendering this overall atmosphere of ambiguity, they give a literary form to the spectral character of the guilt of the artist, who – as in Ovidius’ case – is permanently accountable for what he has not yet done in the building of communism. Powieść historyczna pod czujnym okiem cenzora – analiza tekstówArtykuł poświęcony jest  powieści historycznej Jacka Bocheńskiego pt. Nazo poeta z roku 1969 i jego rozumieniu pojęcia cenzury uwewnętrznionej. Autor artkułu udowadnia, że ujęcie problemu cenzury przez Bocheńskiego jest zbliżone do konstatacji węgierskiego eseisty Miklósa Harasztiego. Tropiąc alegoryczne odniesienia do cenzury rozproszone w tej powieści, autor artykułu odtwarza refleksję Bocheńskiego i sprawdza jej zbieżność z uwagami Harasztiego. Z rekonstrukcji wyłania się, zapożyczona z okresu romantyzmu, definicja artysty jako osoby bezwarunkowo podporządkowanej sztuce, a nie władzy. Autor artykułu testuje czy Bocheński pozostaje wierny tej definicji we własnej twórczości i uwypukla skłonność pisarza do ustępstw mających na celu złagodzenie odbioru jego dzieła przez cenzurę. Są to ustępstwa większe od tych, które zdaje się zalecać swoim kolegom po fachu. Strategie literackie, które stosuje Bocheński, działają jednak na dwóch płaszczyznach. Tworząc niejednoznaczność winy głównego bohatera powieści, łagodzą jej odbiór przez cenzurę, a jednocześnie – kreując tę niejednoznaczność – pozwalają na literackie przedstawienie widmowego charakteru winy artysty, który jest zawsze odpowiedzialny – tak jak Owidiusz – za to, czego jeszcze nie zrobił. W tym wypadku czego nie zrobił dla budowy komunizmu.


2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 232-241
Author(s):  
G. I. Lushnikova ◽  
T. Iu. Osadchaia

Postmodern play is one of the important characteristics of modern fiction; it often acts as a text-forming element of the literary work. Literary play is manifested within different text levels and literary discourse strategies: the narrative, composition, imagery, diction, narrative temporality and modality, the technique of metanarrative. The present paper features the poetics of play within different text levels and literary discourse strategies in the novel by contemporary Scottish writer Ali Smith "There But For The". At the level of the novel’s narrative, the play manifests itself in the confusion of reality and fantasy, imagination and actual memory in the characters' internal speech. At the level of composition, the author plays with the readers, giving them an opportunity to find some "key" that will connect the four chapters of the novel and the prologue; the characters and connections between them are sometimes also a mystery. Within the literary strategy of temporality, the following play elements are presented: the contrast between serious reasoning about Time and humorous comments and thematically related pieces of poetry; nonlinear narration; description of events which take place in different time periods in a short context. Within the literary strategy of modality, we can trace the author’s play with the reader and the effect of defeated expectancy. The technique of metanarrative also contains elements of the play: the literary and stylistic means used in the novel are explained both in a serious and a joking manner. The diction of the novel is characterized by usage of stylistic devices of different language levels, their function being that of the play: oxymoron, zeugma, chiasm, holophrasis, different types of morphological repetition, and pun. The results of the study suggest that the introduction of elements of a play into the novel at its different levels makes a sharp contrast with the existential themes of the work. Such a contrast greatly enhances the impact of this novel on the reader and requires further study. 


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 34-42
Author(s):  
Anastasia Ryabokon’

The essay explores the artistic and expressive features of the world's first film adaptation of Dostoevsky's novel The Idiot, directed in 1910 by Pyotr Chardynin. The author substantiates the degree of influence of one of the most important philosophical concepts of the novel that of a split in the human personality on Russian national consciousness at the beginning of the 20th century. The analysis of the figurative system of the film shows that its semantics and the images of its characters were ahead of its time and, therefore, deserve closer critical attention.In the The Idiot the idea of Dostoevsky about a human beings separateness in the world is revealed in the four main characters Prince Myshkin, Parfyon Rogozhin, Nastasya Filippovna and Aglaya who are not complete, full-fledged personalities but separate components of a harmonious human personality. These characters, like puzzle pieces, possess mutually complementary qualities. Thus, Prince Myshkin, the bearer of the highest spirituality, is contrasted with the earthly and passionate Rogozhin. And the images of Nastasya Filippovna and Aglaya are connected, respectively, with the images of Heavenly Love and Earthly Love. If the characters of the novel could unite with each other in love and harmony, the world would get a complete harmonious person, like the one created by God for the Garden of Eden. However, such a merger seems impossible within the limits of earthly existence. In Dostoevsky's novel the individual parts of the soul could not unite into a harmonious whole. Egoism, passion, pride and imperfection of human nature do allow the protagonists to unite and lead them towards personal disintegration.In Russian national cinema, Dostoevskys idea of human beings separateness undergoes a number of transformations. The changes introduced by Pyotr Chardynin into the film adaptation of the novel mostly relate to the image of the films main protagonist Nastasya Filippovna, whom the filmmaker associates with a dying Russia. Chardynin also transforms other protagonists. Prince Myshkin is the only carrier of the highest spirituality, while Nastasya Filippovna, Aglaya and Rogozhin are earthly and passionate. At the end of the film, Nastasya Filippovnas murderer Rogozhin, dressed in a Russian folk costume, sobs at the bedside of the dead tsarina, while heavenly prince Myshkin who was not accepted by her in her lifetime, comforts the sinner. Chardynins film transforms the idea of a split in the human personality into the idea of the Russian separateness from God, the internal split within the Russian world and, as a consequence, that worlds inevitable death.


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