Eva Parra-Membrives/Albrecht Classen (Hrsg. / Eds.): Literatur am Rand: Perspektiven der Trivialliteratur vom Mittelalter bis zum 21. Jahrhundert // Literature on the Margin: Perspectives on Trivial Literature from the Middle Ages to the 21st Century. Tübingen. Narr-Verlag, 2013.

2018 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 295-296
Author(s):  
Peter Pabisch

Abstract The three scholarly works of recent years illuminate the versatility of their main editor Albrecht Classen in the interdisciplinary world of comparative studies, in literature and language studies. Together with his colleague Eva Parra-Membrives he offers insights on trivial literature also in view of bestsellers concerning the first two works under discussion here. The third work on multilingualism in the middle ages he edited alone. For all the works he found an impressive number of contributors who fill the chalice of offerings in a most versatile canon of topics.

Author(s):  
Vitaly F. Poznin ◽  

Contemporary Russian theater and cinema are approving a new aesthetic paradigm that implements such principles of postmodernism as deconstruction, relativism, a mixture of various types, genres, and stylistic devices. The purpose of this article is to identify the most characteristic stylistic features of Russian arthouse films of the 21st century. The author’s task was to show that this style is not something radically new, as some art critics and cultural experts try to present. Using the methods of hermeneutic, art history and comparative analysis, the author identifies the methods and techniques of creating a special art space that are characteristic of modern Russian arthouse. These are combining real and conditional, concrete and symbolic, psychology and parable, recognition of everyday realities and explicit functionality of the characters. Based on the idea expressed by a number of scientists that there is much in common between the state of the modern world (that is, what is now called postmodernism) and the public consciousness of the Middle Ages, the author of the article puts forward a hypothesis about the similarity of the stylistic techniques of the Russian arthouse with the aesthetics of the Middle Ages. First of all, arthouse films bring closer to the literature and art of the Middle Ages such a characteristic as hybridism, i.e. combining different styles in one work, in particular, combining a realistic image with a parable form and symbols and an artistic interpretation of space as a background that weakly interacts with characters. First of all, Russian arthouse films brings closer to the literature and art of the Middle Ages such a characteristic as hybridism, i.e. combining different styles in one work, using, along with a realistic depiction of the parable form and symbols and artistic interpretation of space as a background that weakly interacts with characters. One of the reasons for the emergence of a new aesthetic interpretation of art space in modern Russian literature and cinema was the radical changes that took place in Russia in the 1990s. The disappearance from the world map of a huge country called the USSR and the loss of familiar landmarks and stereotypes could not but affect the worldview of artists, writers and filmmakers trying to artistically comprehend what is happening. The conclusion that follows from the analysis is that many principles of the aesthetics of postmodernism were reflected in the style of the arthouse films of 21st century, with the exception of such traits inherent in the best postmodern examples as humor, irony, game element and non-linearity of narration. The coexistence of real and clearly conditional art space in such films contributes to the fact that the cinematic texture contradicts conditional situations and characters, causing the viewer to feel art inorganic. Analyzing the perception of art films by experts and the audience, the author concludes that the assessments of art critics and viewers are largely diverging for the same reason: viewers mostly perceive author films as works of a realistic style but can not find in them psychological characteristics of the heroes and the motivation of their actions, i.e. the traits inherent in realism; experts evaluate these films based on the presence of the elements of symbolism and metaphorism and metaphysical and universal image of reality.


Traditio ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 49 ◽  
pp. 271-286 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Teresa Tavormina

A few histories of the middle ages mention mathematics, and a few histories of mathematics mention the middle ages.In his discussion of the Third Commandment, the author ofDives and Pauperraises the question, “Why wolde God makyn þe world mor in þe numbre of sexe dayys þan in ony oþer numbre of dayys?” Like many commentators in the hexameral tradition, he answers the question by referring to one of the mathematical properties of the number six:PAUPER. For, as Salomon seith, God made alle þinge in numbre, whyte & in mesure [Wisdom 11:21]. He made no þing to mychil, no þing to lytil, but he made eueryþing perfyth in his kende and endyd al hys warkys in perfythnesse; and for þat þe numbre of sexe is þe firste numbre efne þat is perfyth, þerfor he mad al þe world in þe numbre of sexe dayys.


2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (33) ◽  
pp. 96
Author(s):  
Hatmansyah Hatmansyah

The Umayyah dynasty became a major force in the development of propaganda spread throughout the world as well as being one of the first centers of political, cultural and scientific studies in the world since the Middle Ages. At the height of its greatness, its success in expanding Islamic power was far greater than that of the Roman empire. The history of Islamic preaching in the Umayyah Dynasty can be divided into two periods in the dynasty era in Damascus and in Cordoba. Islamic da'wah at this time was carried out in three stages, first the expansion of the da'wah area, the second was the development of science and the third was economic thought.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rainer Kühne

Adolf Schulten suggested that Tartessos-Tarshish was the model for Plato's Atlantis. I argued that its capital was situated in what is now the Marisma de Hinojos within the central part of the Andalucian Donana National Park in south-west Spain. This article reports about the preliminary results of an archaeological expedition to test this theory. The preliminary results of the expedition include evidence of either a tsunami or a storm flood during the third millenium BC and evidence of human settlements from the Neolithic Age to the Middle Ages.


Author(s):  
Svetlana Babkina

This article deals with the idea that the bed should be placed north to south and not from west to east formulated in B. Berakhot 5b. As the later tradition says, this rule stays actual during the middle ages and till these days. According to the commentators this rule is based on the idea, that the Shekhinah lays from west to east, so this direction became sacred. There are three reasons to avoid this position during the sleep. All of them are connected to the ritual impurity. The first is nocturnal emission, which can happen to a man or a woman and which make that person impure. The second reason is the connection of sleep to death, which is the «father of fathers of impurities». The third is the vulnerability of the human being from the side of the different kind of night demonic creatures, who can kill the people (and make them ritually impure). All the ideas have deep biblical roots, but were combined only in rabbinical period when the prescription to put the bed form north to south first appeared. The problem is, that the practice could be very much older than the rabbinic tradition. This the rule formulated in Talmud can serve as a good example of adaptation of popular beliefs toward the official religion. From the other side this example shows that inside the monotheistic tradition there always was a place for ideas rooted in archaic societies: here we can see the clearly formulated idea, that by the manipulation sleeping space one can influence prosperity.


Author(s):  
Marek Jedliński

The article analyzes the historical perspective of the formation of the opposition “friend or foe” in the Russian culture from the Middle Ages to the 19th century. Binary thinking has a universal dimension: it is present in every culture, particularly in traditional societies (in this case it is the opposition Russia–Europe). Hostility towards strangers is already noticeable in the Ruthenian tribes. The outsiders were seen as savages, as animals, and even as evil forces. It relates to the perception of the symbolic center of the world.  It is recognizable in the work of Hilarion and the concept of Moscow as the Third Rome.


2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 461-465
Author(s):  
Ana Kečan

Neoromanticism or the Neo romantic movement may be easier to define, than it is to frame within a strict time framework. Some see it as a 20th-century resurgence of romantic ideas which began around 1928 and lasted up to the mid-1950s, while others locate it within a larger framework going back to the 1880s (being a reaction against naturalism) and lasting up to today. Depending on which timeline one adopts, it is sometimes synonymous with post-romanticism and late romanticism. However, regardless of its timeline, the movement has had profound effects lasting well into the end of the 20th century, becoming a reaction against modernism and postmodernism, and spreading into areas such as painting, music, literature, cinema, as well as architecture. As a movement, neoromanticism seeks to revive both romanticism and medievalism (the influence and appearance of ‘the medieval’ in the society and culture of later ages) by promoting the power of imagination, the exotic, the unfamiliar, further characterized by the expression of strong emotions (such as terror, awe, horror and love) as well as the promotion of supernatural experiences, the use and interest in Jungian archetypes and the semi-mystical conjuring of home. Furthermore, neoromanticism feels strongly against industrialization and the disconnectedness from nature in the modern world, rejecting the dichotomy between society and nature. It also embodies a wish or desire for a Utopian connection to nature uncoupled from social expectations and tradition, and going back to nature that has not been victimized by human civilization and industry. Most of these ideas may be found embodied in both the life and the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien, who famously declared to his son that he was, in fact, a Hobbit. His writings abound in creatures who not only live in harmony with nature (the Elves, the Hobbits), but embody it as well (the Ents) because romanticism (and subsequently neoromanticism) is, in essence, all about nature. In contrast, the evil of the main antagonists in his mythology (Melkor/Morgoth, Sauron, Saruman) is seen through their destruction of nature. Tolkien actually reverses the romantic line of vision with the creation of the Shire, which is seen as a ‘post-medieval’ society that has developed out of the Middle Ages, making Tolkien a medievalist dreaming of an organic and harmonious continuation of transformed and ‘purified’ Middle Ages as found in the Shire. This essay will present several of these characteristics mentioned and how the creatures of Tolkien’s mythology present a reaction against the industrialization of his time and neighboring county, while showing how these are ideas are still (perhaps even more so) relevant in the 21st century as well.


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