MYTHICAL TIME AND SPACE IN THE POETRY OF ULDIS BĒRZIŅŠ

One article describes the writings of Uldis Bērziņš, one of the most prominent Latvian poets and translators (and also a dissident) who made his debut in the 1960s. It focuses on the aspect of time and space. The 20th century is a time of re-evaluation of values and of a search for new ways of self-expression. Entrenched mythical notions experience transformation and renaissance. Hystorical myths as a source of instigation for Latvian literature (also in folklore) reach their climax in the 1920-40s and 1960-80s, i.e. in a period when problems of ethnic identity were emphasized more than ever. Uldis Bērziņš in his poetry successfully blends trends of modernism (and some of postmodernism) with mythical reality. He thereby refreshes the message of Latvian life, as well as reinforces particular trends common for whole humankind, which the author accomplishes with the help of cultural signs densely introduced into the texts. The objective of the paper is therefore to identify and emphasize dominant details of mythical time and space in the following anthologies by the Uldis Bērziņš: „Piemineklis kazai” („A Goat’s Monument”, 1980), „Poētisms baltkrievs” („The Poetism Belarussian”, 1984), „Nenotikuši atentāti” („Assassinations which never took place”, 1990), „Laiks” („Time”, together with Juris Kronbergs, 1994) and „Nozagti velosipēdi” („Stolen bicycles”, 1999). For the more detailed description of the peculiarities of the author’s works and for understanding the connection between the linguistic elements and the ethnical specifics of thinking, it was decided to use methods which are new to Latvian literary theory and are not so commonly referred to. Namely, a philological method was used for the in-depth text analysis (Николина 2007), and a linguo-culturological one for researching the connection of language and culture (Хороленко 2006). Speaking about U. Bērziņš’ notion of mythical time and space, it is referred to as an „eternal now” situation, which also includes details of historical and psychological time and space. However, mythical time and space is dominant: texts of the poems contain a very dense layer of mythologems (Odin, Odysseus, Thor), images (trees, mountains, wheels) and mythical concepts. This layer very often merges with the layers of folklore and religion which are introduced into the texts by means of stylization and reminiscences or allusions. The paper is organized according to the three dominant features of myths in the texts of Uldis Bērziņš – dichotomy, cyclicity, and syncretism. These are revealed with the help of particularly rich micro details and cultural signs and the transformation of folklore motives. Dichotomy as a disclosure of two aspects of one whole is carried out in the artistic space within the oppositions here and there, on the top and on the bottom, center and periphery, or insider and alien. These are characterized by symbolic notions of a mountain or a bridge, images of Riga and the Daugava, as well as the introduction of a mediator (a goat, bird or a ghost), which reach over the borders of time and space. Thereby the poet emphasizes fundamental ontological aspects which are concentrated in the semantic meanings of the notions of time, eternity and lifetime. In turn, by means of linguistic elements (not only semes, but also syntactical structure and pragmatic elements) Uldis Bērziņš pays attention to the multifunctionality and uniqueness of a language, and is trying to reach the level of a parent language. Within these dichotomies, the images, motives and signs also actualize a historic time and space. Thereby, a background for the disclosure of subtextual layers is organized, and simultaneously a point of view for several artistic chronotopes is expressed, which is interpreted as a symbiotic process in the poetry of Uldis Bērziņš. The search of oneself in the context of eternity is expressed with the help of the cyclicity principle. This is at the same time a tool for the illustration of different time spaces, which creates a synthesized model of an artistic world with a polyphony of linguistic elements. The cyclicity indicators in the poetry of Uldis Bērziņš are the images of a wheel, mill, and ball, as well as the interaction of the change of cycles of nature and human life. Special attention is paid to the points of intersection of time, thereby marking the Latvian year and the course of human life. In addition, the acknowledgment that the cycle is never-ending and repetitive, makes us look for interconnections with the philosophy of existentialism and a possible fulfillment of the meaning of life. Syncretism, on the contrary, as a combination of several different traditions, allows Uldis Bērziņš to emphasize features of cultural, linguistic and ethnic identity. In the united whole, i.e. in the interpretations of a sign, motive, image or myth, there is an accumulation of a few notions that create a peculiar effect of surrealism in a poetic text. For Bērziņš, syncretism is discovered in an image of a city, a sound, personal names (Peteris, Juris), religious characters (Jesus Christ, Krishna), and myths of the creation of the world. To find features of syncretism in a text, a reader does not only have to have some knowledge of mythology, religion, or culturology, but also needs associative thinking, since the poet often plays with phonemes and facts by linking them in rhythmically symbolic combinations. To sum up Uldis Bērziņš’ notions of mythical time and space, it can be concluded that the poet successfully uses the means of language, its meanings, its peculiar functions and associative nets in order to create a synthesized model of the mythical, historical, and psychological time space. This requires additional attention from a reader, because each poem is a subtextually dense discloser of a cultural heritage and an indicator of the search of oneself

Uspon zanaglasnica, dihotomija podizanje – kontrola i stilska varijacija

In the paper, we discuss the phenomenon of clitic climbing (CC) out of infinitive complements in contemporary Croatian. Based on the first theoretical work and some empirical findings on CC in Czech and Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian (BCS) and the observation that differences in CC linked to register have been reported for some languages, we elaborate on the claim that CC varies in respect of both register and the Raising-Control Dichotomy. The following research questions are addressed: Does clitic climbing out of the single infinitive in Croatian depend on the type of complement-taking predicate (CTP) with respect to the Raising-Control Distinction? Does CC appear with equal frequency in standard and colloquial Croatian if the type of CTP verb (Raising vs Control) as a variable remains constant? Our study is based on data for two types of complement-taking predicates: a) Raising (8 different verbs) and b) Subject Control (8 non-reflexive + 8 reflexive verbs). The data was extracted from the Forum subcorpus of hrWaC v2.2 and from the Croatian Language Repository and Croatian National Corpus. Our data suggest that not only the Raising-Control Dichotomy, but also diaphasic variation have an impact on CC from infinitive complements.Rad je posvećen usponu zanaglasnica iz infinitivnih dopuna u suvremenome hrvatskom jeziku. Autori u obzir uzimaju postojeća teorijska i empirijska istraživanja o usponu zanaglasnica u češkome i bosanskome/hrvatskome/srpskome te zapažanja da u nekim jezicima postoji veza između uspona zanaglasnica i razlike u registrima. U radu se donose odgovori na sljedeća dva istraživačka pitanja: „Postoji li razlika u usponu zanaglasnica iz infinitivne dopune u hrvatskome jeziku između rečenica s glavnim glagolima podizanja i kontrole? Je li uspon zanaglasnica jednako čest u hrvatskome standardnom jeziku i u njegovu razgovornom varijetetu ako se tip glavnoga glagola (podizanje – kontrola) kao čimbenik drži konstantnim?” Istraživanje se temelji na podatcima za dva tipa glavnih predikata: a) podizanje (8 različitih glagola) i b) subjektna kontrola (8 nerefleksivnih + 8 refleksivnih glagola). Analiza se temelji na podatcima iz potkorpusa Forum Hrvatskoga mrežnog korpusa (hrWaC v2.2), Hrvatske jezične riznice i Hrvatskoga nacionalnog korpusa. Na temelju analizirane građe zaključujemo kako na uspon zanaglasnica utječe i razlika među glavnim glagolima (podizanje – kontrola) i varijacija u registru (hrvatski standardni jezik ili razgovorni varijetet)

Srdžba Ivana Karamazova

The Brothers Karamazov novel by F. M. Dostoyevsky, with the questions he raises – the timothy of man – has lost nothing of its actuality. This paper is an attempt to bring closer to the contemporary man the topics with which the so-called primal questions are reduced to existential ones, metaphysics to ethics. Through his heroes, Dostoyevsky presents his thoughts on the history of man’s life on earth and his suffering, on freedom and faith, power and mystery, on authority and morality, and on man’s nature itself. Why is there evil in the world, why suffering exists? can a man, in general, love another man, can he love “without God,” is he able to “effectively love,”, and can Thanatos be eventually incorporated into Eros!? – are the questions that besiege Dostoyevsky’s heroes. In this novel, Dostoyevsky portrays the conflict of several worlds that is ultimately unsolvable by any system of binary oppositions.The individual principles of Ivan or Zosima, Christ or the Grand Inquisitor, Alyosha or Smerdyakov, with the worlds of all other characters, are read as one universe of opposites and, at the same time, some strange connections between all these worlds that do not seem to be wholly reasonably understood. Therefore, two opposing views at one same thing do not mean the stratification of reality here, but rather speaking of its essence, its apparent truth.Roman Braća Karamazovi F. M. Dostojevskog sa pitanjima koje postavlja – timotika čovjeka – ništa nije izgubio od svoje aktuelnosti. Ovaj rad je pokušaj da se savremenom čovjeku približe teme sa kojima se tzv. prva pitanja svode na egzistencijalna pitanja, metafizika na etiku. Dostojevski za čitatelje, putem svojih junaka, iznosi misli o povijesti življenja čovjeka na zemlji i njegovoj patnji, o slobodi i vjeri, vlasti i tajni, o autoritetu i moralu, te o samoj čovjekovoj prirodi. Zašto postoji zlo u svijetu, zašto postoji patnja?, da li čovjek, uopšte, može voljeti drugog čovjeka, može li voljeti „bez Boga“, je li u stanju „djelotvorno voljeti“, i može li, na koncu, Thanatos biti inkorporiran u Eros!? – pitanja su koja opsjedaju junake Dostojevskog. Dostojevski je u ovom romanu prikazao sukob nekoliko svjetova koji je u konačnici nerazrješiv bilo kakvim sistemom binarnih opozicija. Pojedinačni principi Ivana ili Zosime, Krista ili Velikog Inkvizitora, Aljoše ili Smerdjakova, uz svjetove svih drugih likova, čitamo kao jedan univerzum suprotnosti i, u isto vrijeme, neke čudne veze među svim tim svjetovima koji se, čini se, ne mogu do kraja razumski dokučiti. Stoga, dva oprečna pogleda na jednu te istu stvar ovdje ne znače raslojavanje stvarnosti, nego znače govor o njenoj suštini, njenoj očiglednoj istini

O DEFINICIJI JEZIKA I GOVORA

Saussureovska je dihotomija između jezika (langue) i govora (parole) gotovo aksiomatski prihvaćena pretpostavka svake suvremene strukturalistički orijentirane lingvistike, ali ona ipak i na teorijskom i na praktičkom planu, povlačeći oštru ontološku i hijerarhijski postavljenu granicu medu ta dva fenomena, može izazivati nedoumice i probleme u znanosti o jeziku. Njih su vjerojatno najprije naslutili (a ponekad i eksplicirali) fonolozi i fonetičari, neprestano istražujući baš relacije između jezika i govora te ponekad smještajući njihovo razgraničenje bitno drugačije od de Saussurea. Iz sasvim drugog aspekta, ali nerijetko sa sličnim rezultatima, la je dihotomija danas objekt kritičke analize čitava niza poststrukturalističkih lingvista koji pokušavaju dokinuti neka ograničenja što ih je strukturalizam sam sebi postavio. Iz kreativne suradnje fonologa i fonetičara s poststrukturalističkom lingvistikom mogla bi izrasti nova usmjerenja u izučavanju jezične djelatnosti, više nego do sada okrenuta čovjeku i njegovu odnosu prema vlastitom jeziku

Utopian socialism

Utopijski socijalizam je odgovor na društvenu i političku situaciju nastalu nakon Francuske revolucije kada industrijske i urbane transformacije počinju da radikalno mijenjaju modema društva. Utopijski socijalisti poznati u svoje vrijeme kao reformatori društva, što su u stvari i bili, reagirali su na nasilje i raskid s prethodnim društveno političkim preokretom preporučajuči mirnu i stupnjevitu transformaciju društva na bazi ideja: udruživanja, suradnje, univerzalizma i kozmopolitizma. Fourier, Saint-Simon, Owen i njihovi sljedbenici kritizirali su nastajuči kapitalizam, utjecaj takovih institucija kao što je religija, privatno vlasništvo i brak, u težnji da kreiraju društvene uslove u kojima može nastati nezavisna individua, ovi društveni teoretičari su nastojali da svoje ideje uključe u komunalni način života što je povratno utjecalo na druge da se priružuju ovom pokretu. Oni nisu, kao što se često govori, samo, »preteče socijalizma«, već slobodni mislioci koji svojim mišljenjem odgovaraju na izazove modernog doba. oni su nastojali pronaći odgovore o sfraranju novog društva ukazivanjem na ono što u njemu ne valja i time su dali svoj pozitivni doprinos. Premda se 1848. god označava kao kraj ovog pokreta, on je ipak nastavio da živi kroz čitavo 19-to stoljeće stvarajući kasnije »novi duh utopije«.Utopian socialism is a response to the social and political situation in the aftermath of the French revolution when the industrial and urban transformation began to radically change the existing modem societies. The utopian socialists, known at the time as social reformers, which they in fact were, reacted to the violence and the abruptness of the previous social and political upheavals by proposing peaceful and gradual transformations of society on the basis of ideas of association, cooperation, universalism and cosmopolitanism. Fourier, Saint-Simon, Owen and their followers criticzed the nascent capitalism, the influence of such institutions as religion, private property, marriage, aiming at the creation of social conditions for the rise of an independent individual. These social theoreticians seeked to implement their ideas in communal ways of life that would in turn influence by their success others to join the movement. They were not as is often said merely »predecessors of socialism«, but free thinkers in their own right whose thought was challenged by the modem age. They seeked responses to the new society that was appearing often conscious of the evils it was bringing as well of its positive contributions. Although 1848. does mark a halt to the breadth of this movement it does nonetheless continue in the 19th century creating later a »new spirit of utopia

Ljudska osoba kao integrirana cjelina: Integracija polarnosti u filozofiji Dietricha von Hildebranda

One of the biggest threats to the dignity of the human person which characterizes today’s thinking is the reduction of the human person to one constitutive aspect: the body, subjectivity, relationality, and the like. Based on the philosophy of Dietrich von Hildebrand, the paper demonstrates how six false dichotomies of a similar kind are resolved, namely: spirit and body, substance and relation, subjectivity and objectivity, Eigenleben and transcendence, affectivity and rationality, gift and freedom.Jedna od najvećih ugroza ljudskoga dostojanstva danas sastoji se u svođenju ljudske osobe na jednu od njezinih ontoloških sastavnica: tijelo, subjektivnost, racionalnost, relacionalost i sl. Redukcionizam je često popraćen ideološkim razmišljanjem koje apsolutizira jednu dimenziju stvarnosti i pretvara ju u cjelinu. To apsolutiziranje relativnoga i djelomičnoga, zajedno s relativizacijom apsolutnoga i cjelovitoga, postaje najopasnije kada se primijeni u razmišljanju o ljudskoj osobi. Rad pokazuje kako se razrješava šest lažnih dihotomija te vrste, između duha i tijela, supstancije i relacionalnosti, subjektivnosti i objektivnosti, “vlastitog života” (Eigenleben) i transcendencije, afektivnosti i racionalnosti, dara i slobode. Filozofija Dietricha von Hildebranda omogućuje nam da integriramo te različite polaritete u jednu integriranu cjelinu koja je ljudska osoba. Ta integracija izbjegava zamke lažnih dihotomija i apsolutizacija određenoga aspekta stvarnosti na štetu cjeline. Ona nam također omogućuje zaključak kako različite teorije i filozofske struje, kao što su naturalizam i idealizam, subjektivizam i jednostrani objektivizam, panteizam i kolektivizam, altruizam i eudaimonizam, racionalizam i romantizam, i sve teorije koje negiraju bilo ljubav kao dar ili bilo slobodnu odluku, treba odbaciti kao pogrješne

USMENA KULTURA KAO NARODNA KULTURA: MANJE I VIŠE

Na pitanje o mogućnosti definiranja narodne kulture kao usmene (i obrnuto) autor odgovara odbijajući svaku čvrstu i unaprijed utvrđenu kvalifikaciju kulture, a narodnu kulturu vidi kao kulturu društvene baze. Narodna tradicija crpe iz društvene memorije, povijesne tradicije koja ne mora uvijek biti samo usmena, nego može biti i pisana i likovna, ili miješana. Polazeći od stare Tylorove definicije, Bronzini smatra da je potrebno razmotriti faktore koji narodnu kulturu određuju kao povijesnu tradiciju. a naročito je važno istraživanje vremena i načina produkcije koji uvjetuju njezine funkcije