• 2013-2022close
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This paper analyzes the relationship between permanent monuments and temporary art projects, as temporality is one of the strategies employed by Romanian artists to counterbalance the support that the Romanian state has shown only towards monuments and memorials dedicated to affirming its value. The complex nature of public art requires a careful consideration of the different dimensions this practice employs, and for that the Western debate on this matter can be a reference point in understanding Romanian public art. We will be looking at possible aspects of the functions of these two main directions in Romanian public art, as they stand methodically one in opposition to the other, in connection with the texts of Piotr Piotrowski (Art and Democracy in Post-communist Europe, 2012) and Boris Groys (Art Power, 2008).

At the beginning of the XXI century Ukrainian art observed activization of the artist’s interest for the political life of the country. The starting point was 2004, marked by protests against unfair elections in the country, the birth of the first “Maidan” and “Orange revolution”. In a number of artistic actions organized by art groups we can see the reflection of the revolution events and, later, the frustrations of its ideals. The most striking manifestation of political issues in contemporary art in Ukraine was the great creativity following the second “Maidan” (2013). In this spontaneous Performance everyone plays a role: the participants are the protesters, official persons, fighters of “Berkut” and interior force troops, journalists and others. Protesters’ tents, barricades, a statue of Lenin and “Maidan” itself (or Independence Square) as a place of free will and creativity became the Symbols of the “Maidan” and its own art objects.

Aim. We tend to believe that the religious life of Romanians in the diaspora – living in the proximity of the Romanian borders (we do not take into account the groups that left towards Spain, Italy, Germany, and so on at the beginning of the third millennium) - is a taboo subject. The Orthodox (Romanian) clerical elite focused less on the assiduous study of the religious life of their Romanian brothers outside the borders; in this case, in Hungary. Therefore, we have the scientific duty—but more importantly, the moral duty—to bring to light the truths that are either not known or are known in a distorted form. The road of Voniga (Giula-Giroc) that we followed during the PhD research period was a blessing from the point of view of a scientific void/niche. Methods. In our study, we have applied two “simple” components: the archive and the specialised bibliography. Results. The archive was largely preserved only by Elena Csobai and Emilia Martin. The respectable ladies professionally structured the archive (Romanian Orthodox Church in Hungary) and saved hundreds of research sources from the depth of history. Conclusion. As Moisa noted (2011), the puzzling ethnographic, linguistic, cultural, and historical bulk material is without a doubt focused on the Church. The church is inextricably linked to the lives of Romanians in Hungary. Going through the tens of thousands from the mentioned fields, even superficially, there is an undeniable truth: the spirituality is present, more or less, in the writings of most of the select researchers who have worked in the scientific field for the past three decades.

Mihai Eminescu is known as the Romanian national poet, the most important writer of the XIXͭʰ century in Romanian literature, whose writings have been intensely interpreted since his poetic debut. Therefore, this paper proposes a study of the way the literary dictionaries build the image of “the national poet”. This identity construct is significant to our investigation because it influences the interpretation of the poet figure through history. In order to have a wider view of the problem, we consulted a series of literary dictionaries and, also, dictionaries for students use to see how the figure of Eminescu is taught in schools. Moreover, we did not put aside foreign dictionaries, which bring a more objective perspective to the issue. The majority of Romanian dictionaries alter the poet’s portrait in favor of a “national construct”, created partly by the use of rhetoric figures. Another way of composing him a deformed image is accomplished by writing subjective and opaque interpretation of his poems. Consequently, such hermeneutics focuses on developing a myth that reflects mainly the way Romanians as nation want to be recognized and remembered.

In the Republic of Serbia the idea that the digitization of cultural heritage could be used to popularize and utilize modern technologies in education was first realized in 2012. One of the results of this project was a user study. In this paper we indicate some of project’s fragments and present some of the results of the conducted research.

At fi rst glance, the movie by Jon Turteltaub entitled The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (2010) seems not to have any connections with Greco-Roman antiquity whatsoever. To fi nd the hidden connection we have to go back to year 1797 when Johann Wolfgang Goethe publi-shed his famous ballad Der Zauberlehrling (The Sorcerer’s Apprentice)Almost a century later, this work inspired a French composer Paul Dukas to write his masterpiece, the sympho-nic scherzo L’apprenti sorcier. Dukas’ music became the leitmotif of both Disney’s movies: Fantasia (1940) and Fantasia2000 (1999) whose action is based on Goethe’s ballad. Also, the basic elements of the plot were used in one of the episodes of the series Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1961). This is where we touch the ancient roots of the story. A good friend of J.W. Goethe, Christoph Martin Wieland, happened to have published in 1789 the fi rst complete German translation of Lucian of Samosata’s (120-180 AD) works, including a dialogue entitled Philopseudes (The Lover of Lies). The tenth story told in Philopseudes turned out to be very similar to the one written by J. W. Goethe and then adapted into Disney’s and Turteltaub’s movies. In my paper I try to show the transmission of the Lucianic text from antiquity to modern fi lm adaptations. The original Lucian tale, rewritten by J.W. Goethe, becomes very infl uential. The so-called “sorcerer’s apprentice syndrome” can be found at the root of many fantastic stories in which humans could not curb their creations (i.e. robots) which eventually would turn against their makers. The primary focus of this paper is on how the story of a young apprentice changed over centuries and how it was adopted by cinematography.

The theme of this paper are the nineteenth century woman authors in the United Kingdom and their writing. A brief overview of the woman writers during the whole century will be given. The most important authors will be represented. The paper will also explore the economic, social, political and other circumstances that determined their writing and try to represent their lives, their struggles, their writing and the styles they used.

The paper is based on the results of the project All This Painting hasn’t Gone to Waste, 2011, which deals with early 16th century sacral wall paintings in southern Slovenia. It tries to resolve out some dilemmas in communication with the wider public and presents main objectives in regard to awareness-rising and promotion of art heritage, for example encouragement of insti-tutions and individual experts for more intensive study and/or conservation-restoration work.

This paper will focus on the LL of Daugavpils from a diachronic point of view in order to describe the usage of the Latvian language in the public space since the middle of the 19th century until today, as well as the socio-economic and political factors which influence the language situation. Research sources are old photos which depict legible signboards, and photos obtained during LL research 2013. The role of the Latvian language in public information increased during the first period of independence, when ideas of nationalism become widespread and the first normative documents about language usage were approved. However, the stability of Latvian as the main language of the public was only established during the first Latvian Republican period at the end of the 20th century, when the State Language Law was passed and implemented in linguistic practice. Currently, the linguistic landscape reflects the political, socio-pragmatic, and social identity motivations of the owners of public texts, but within the confines of the restrictions imposed by language laws.

Aim. The aim of the research is the comparative study of literary cat characters in Children’s Literature texts in Greek and Spanish and their instructive function in the transmission of social stereotypes. Methods. The research subscribes to the field of Literary Animal Studies based on the theory of Children’s Literature (Lukens, 1999) and through the intercultural perspective of Comparative Children’s Literature (O’Sullivan, 2005). Published children’s books from Greece, Spain and Spanish-speaking America were compared using textual analysis methods of Imagology (Beller & Leersen, 2007). Stereotyped variants were identified and organized in categories related to name, physical appearance, gender, behavior, and function of literary cat characters. Results. After examining a corpus of 37 books, 23 in Greek and 17 in Spanish (Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Spain), textual analysis findings were compared, organized, and classified by language, country and readers’ age groups to locate that literary cat characters are usually pets or feral, and they remain consistently stereotyped as anthropomorphic and subversive. Cats with seven lives and magical powers are common perceptions, dominating in both cultural contexts, stereotypes extended to strong superstitions about black cats. Conclusions. In Children's Literature texts, cats are linguistically, literally, and socially defined literary constructs, can have usually human-like features, intercultural influences, and are potentially shaped by intertextual relations. They serve also as a narrative motif for the transmission of social values about non-human animals and the textual familiarization of nonadult readers with society’s cultural stereotypes.