The Three-Decade Cycle of Lithuanian Prose

In the period of 1989-2020 Lithuanian literature experienced a very dynamic literary development. The aim of the article is to highlight specifics of the new cycle and to analyze the prose trends of each decade of regained independence. The author discusses the literary process more synchronically than diachronically. The first period, i.e. the transition from the Soviet regime to the new system, was especially outstanding as the censorship was eliminated, the previously banned works of deportees and resisters were legalized, the postwar émigré writers returned back to culture and opportunities for innovation opened up.The role of writer as a cultural hero diminished. Former writers loyal to the Soviet regime described this situation as crisis, while the younger generation developed postmodernist way of writing. Many works were based on the cultural and historical memory reckoning with the Soviet era. All genres underwent certain transformations, such as emergence of peculiar essay genre, spread of ego-documentaries, revival of short stories, and flourishing popular literature.Serious changes took place after 2004 when Lithuania joined the European Union, which led to economic emigration and encouraged changes in mentality and expanse of local contexts. Mobile, “transit” type of Lithuanian character emerged who changed his place of residence but felt lonely in the global world. This is a huge innovation, bearing in mind the sedentary agrarian Lithuanian culture and the confines of the iron curtain during the Soviet era. Increased quantity of published books decreased their quality.

Adébáyọ̀ Fálétí: The Portrait of a Cultural Connoisseur

The recent death of Alàgbà Adébáyọ̀ Fálétí, father, husband, writer, poet and journalist, may not qualify as a national event. Yet we have just lost a cultural hero whose lifestyle and literary activities cut right to the heart of living for oneself and living for others. Bàbá Fálétí could pass for an ordinary farmer in Òkè-Ògùn, as well as a professor of literature at any Ivy League university across the world. Thus, one immediate point of association with his memory is his easy going and quiet force of character that, I suspect, was moulded in the cauldron of a life lived within the character-forming context of the Yorùbá communal values and ethos. No wonder Alàgbà Fálétí eventually became a sturdy man of culture whose understanding projected a firm conviction about what culture can enable us to do.

KHOJA NASREDIN BY LEONID SOLOVYOV: POETICS AND GENESIS OF THE IMAGE, IDEOLOGY OF THE HERO

В статье представлен анализ образа Ходжи Насреддина, главного героя повести «Очарованный принц» Леонида Васильевича Соловьева, русского писателя середины ХХ века, - в фольклорном, мифологическом и литературном контексте. С одной стороны, Ходжа Насреддин - плут (трикстер), с другой - суфий (культурный герой). In the article we present an analysis of the image of Khoja Nasreddin, the protagonist of the story, in folklore, mythological and literary contexts, basing on the material of the story «The Enchanted Prince» by Leonid Solovyov, a Russian writer of the XX century. On the one hand, Khoja Nasreddin is a cheat (trickster), on the other, a Sufi (cultural hero).

The Tradition of the Great Earl of Wu

This chapter accounts for the origin and lineage of the Wu royal family, which begins with the legendary Houji, the Zhou ancestor and cultural hero who, according to Chinese mythology, started agriculture. It introduces Gongliu and Gugong Danfu in the narrative as two other heroes in early Zhou history, emphasizing their kind deeds and noble characters. It also recounts how the two heroes Gongliu and Gugong Danfu are praised for being able to transform people with their virtue, which caused the people to render homage to them even though the time and environment in which they lived were difficult and hostile. The chapter explores the story of Taibo and Zhongyong, the legitimate successors of the Zhou state that continues the theme of the true ruler of yielding power and being served by people. It highlights how Taibo and Zhongyong returned to Zhou to attend their father's funeral and Taibo's explanation of the title of the state of Wu.

Archetypical images of a child and a cultural hero in the playwrights of Edward Franklin Albee and Sławomir Mrożek in the light of the generational problem

The article examines the place of archetypal images of a child and a cultural hero in the ideological and imaginative system of theatre of the absurd of Edward Franklin Albee and Sławomir Mrożek. It is stated that in Albee’s dramas ("The Sandpbox", "The American Dream", "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf", "A Delicate Balance") and Mrożek’s dramas ("Tango", "A Happy Event", "Racket-Baby") the archetypal images of a divine and demonic ("unruly") child, outlined in Carl Gustav Jung's psychoanalytic philosophy, enter into ambivalent relations. The thanatological motifs which accompany this archetypal duality testify to the distorted image of the future in the consciousness of twentieth-century human, so that the image of a child in the drama of the absurd becomes a reflection of the general process of dehumanisation in modern society as well as in the family. The archetype of the cultural hero, according to the world mythological tradition, embodies the ideas of individuation and transformation of a child growing into adulthood. However, through the presentation of grotesque and parodic images of children and young men in the work of playwrights, the understanding of the child archetype as a potential cultural hero does not include the idea of civilisational progress as the "futureness" of the world, but rather reflects the eschatological scenario of the world history. The problem of family relations, which captures the generational conflict in its carnivalised version (the inverted relations between the "older" and the "younger"), is an indicator of the social absurdity represented in the plays. The comparative analysis of the plays in the light of the ambivalent archetype of "divine child" – "unruly child" contributes to the identification of national and socio-cultural specificity of the conflict of "fathers and sons". It is concluded that the collective experience of the generation to which Albee and Mrożek belonged to determines the pessimistic vision of the future by both playwrights.

The Unsivilized Figure as Cultural Hero of Artifice: Suassuna’s João Grilo and Twain’s Huck Finn

In their close ties to a folkloric past, and in a conscientious effort to dialogue with a far-reaching literary inheritance, the Brazilian Ariano Suassuna (1927-2014) and the U.S.’s Mark Twain (1835-1910) present regional protagonists who negotiate roles as heroes of artifice. As they feed off models of the Trickster and pícaro, an analysis based on cognitive and psychosocial theory reveals a João Grilo and Huck Finn that model valued skills as socioeconomically marginalized figures on the outskirts of civilization. In Auto da Compadecida (1955) and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), both Suassuna and Twain manage to highlight these skills by creating character duos that mimic the cognitive counterpointing between Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quijote and Sancho Panza.

PETER THE GREAT IN THE FOLKLORE LEGENDS OF THE 19TH — EARLY 20TH CENTURIES: PLOTS, MOTIFS, GENRE PROBLEM

Peter the Great is one of the most popular characters in the folk prose of the Russian North. His sojourns in thinly populated and inaccessible places had left a noticeable mark in the people's memory. The first tales about him were written in the mid-18th century. Researchers define the genre of these works in different ways. They are classified as folklore, legends, fairy tales, anecdotes, stories about royal favors. The main motifs they contain are release from work, communication with ordinary people, treats, presenting with a caftan, coat, cloth, money, infliction and compensation for losses. They often contain the motif of Peter the Great's recognition of the enemy's superiority over himself in strength, ingenuity, resourcefulness, navigation, carpentry, making bast shoes, etc. As a rule, the plots of folklore stories are a convoluted mix of motifs from works of different genres. Some of them have magical significance: a miraculous dream, signs, the fulfillment of a prediction, the uncovering of relics, magical punishment, the petrification of Peter the Great in the monument (The Bronze Horseman), etc. A feature characteristic of folklore history is the multiplicity and ambiguity of their genre manifestations. Oral stories about Peter the Great are historically unreliable: the narrator knows a fact in the most general sense, and it is subsequently comprehended in accordance with popular ideas about power. The Tsar is recognizable as a historical person, but he acts in the genre paradigm of a cultural hero. Historical legends about Peter the Great characterize the formation and development of the folk poetic myth of a just tsar who values the common people, lives in the interests of the state, and is concerned about the future of Russia.

Male images of Soviet cinema as cultural heroes And «real men» (retrospective female view)

The artistic images of cultural heroes play a special role in the preservation and transmission of the cultural code. Using statistical, comparative and hermeneutic methods, the article retrospectively reveals male images of Soviet cinema, perceived by the female audience as cultural heroes and «real men» (sex symbols). The research showed that the selected male images embodied the collective memory of the «masculine» and «spirit of the times», but the status of «cultural hero» and «real man» did not always coincide.

Binary opposition «power/people» in S. Eisenstein's historical and biographical cinematography

This article is devoted to the study of the binary opposition «power/people» in Soviet historical and biographical films. The research material is S. Eisenstein’s iconic films Alexander Nevsky (1938) and Ivan the Terrible (1944). Having analyzed the development and transformation of the binary opposition «power/people» in Eisenstein's historical and biographical films in terms of plot, character system and composition, the author came to the following conclusions: characters of formal authority are often negatively marked. The image of the people is represented by an indivisible monolith. The binary opposition «power/people» is removed by the introduction of a mediator, the character which becomes a key one in films. In the film Alexander Nevsky, the image of the cultural hero, the title character, removes the conflict between the opposing sides: the image of the prince is opposed to the image of the official power and absorbs the features of the people's ruler. The image of the people, when interacting with the image of a cultural hero, becomes an ambivalent carrier of both power and heroic traits. In the film Ivan the Terrible, the development of the medial image of the tsar leads to the fact that he himself becomes the embodiment of absolute power, occupying the «powerful» side of the opposition. Thus, the binary opposition is replaced by the ambivalence of the ruler. The author concludes that the development of the opposition «power/people» in the historical and biographical cinema of the Stalinist time is representative of its period and demonstrates strengthening of the imperial discourse of Soviet ideology and the role of the ruler's personality.

Cultural Hero and Screen Hero: Essential Characteristics of the Image

Screen arts — cinema, television, multimedia — have become the dominant means of representing culture. Today, the screen hero is pushing the literary hero out of the cultural space. It occupies a leading position in audience reach and public awareness. Moreover, the screen hero is a mirror of culture and the result of reflection on how an artist (in our case, a director or screenwriter) sees, feels and understands a modern person. The article reveals the essential characteristics of the screen hero and the cultural hero as a more extensive phenomenon of which he is a part. We define their place and functions in the sociocultural space, the methods of their communication with the recipient. The formation of the phenomenon of the cultural hero began in antiquity. Therefore, we analyze its essential characteristics through the theory of myth (E.M. Meletinsky, M. Eliade, M.M. Bakhtin, K. Levi-Strauss, C.G. Jung, J. Campbell). We also consider the shadow side of the cultural hero — the trickster. He is the forerunner of the antihero in screen culture. The screen hero is a modern form of the cultural hero. Therefore, he adopts mythology and basic essential characteristics from his predecessor. However, the screen hero is a more complexed phenome- non of encoded cultural text. It is born at the junction of the millennial canon of representing a cultural hero and new artistic and expressive means of the screen.