Electronic Library of Scientific Literature - © Academic Electronic Press
Vol. VIII/1999 No. 1
Ivo Pospíšil
The author of the present study deals with the contemporary situation in literary criticism which - according to his opinion - found itself at the crossroads also in connection with the general crisis of academic institutions and with the necessity to transform the traditional university education. The idyllic picture of the evolution of literary criticism seems to be false: the real state of things could be characterized as the disintegration and dispersion. Literary criticism has been divided into many discourse and territorial groupings which do not communicate with each other. The tendency towards the conception of literary criticism as a norm-making discipline was substituted by the freely conceived cluster of impressionistic ideas and interpretations. The present Central European model of literary criticism should undergo substantial changes. One of the most topical is the problem of literary streams and currents which divided the totality of literary process and often suppressed individual features of artifacts. The confrontation with the close historical study of the poetics might lead to the more real picture of the development of literature and change the artificial paradigms which do not often correspond to the intrinsic structures of works of art. The theory of literary kinds (genres) named "literary genology" faces the same problems. Aristotle's genre systematics completed from time to time with new literary kinds, terms and definitions draws nearer to its collapse; the search for a new semantic key became the necessary condition for further development of this sphere of literary criticism. The author of the present contemplation offers the entity of Slavonic literatures and that of Slavonic studies as a convenient level of communication; the history of literary criticism shows how often Slavonic literatures and Slavonic studies have given birth to new general conceptions (R. Jakobson, R. Wellek, F. Wollman).
Therefore he deals with the contemporary situation in Slavonic studies, with the development and the substantial reasons of the existence of the term "Slavonic literatures". He comes to the conclusion that even nowadays in the period of the total disintegration of various ideologies and social and economic structures there are the conceptions leading to the revival of the term "Slavonic literatures". The specific relations in the complex of Slavonic literatures do not cease to exist: they are mainly based on archetypal, intrinsic, spiritual and cultural "loci communes" and - last but not least - on the subjective, volitional efforts to preserve the Slavonic cultural entity because of its function to express the specific features of multinational Slavonic community after the disappearance of the bipolar world and its contribution to the diversified European unity in the time of postmodernist ambiguity.
Another problem concerns the relations of literary criticism to the concept of social studies (sociology, political science, social psychology etc.); the author's concept is based on the open model of mutual communication between philology and social sciences, but, on the other hand, he insists on the necessity to preserve the methodological integrity and consistency of literary criticism as an independent discipline.
KeyWords: Literature. Literary Scholarship. Literary Scholarship. Slavonic Studies. Status of Literary Scholarship and End of Millenium.
Address
Prof. PhDr. Ivo Pospíšil, DrSc.
Ústav slavistiky
Filozofická fakulta
Masarykovy univerzity
Arne Nováka 1
660 88 Brno
Adam Bžoch - Ľuben Urbánek
The article seeks to accomplish a two-fold purpose: first, to introduce the framework of empirical science of literature as purported by scholars such as Siegfried J. Schmidt, Gebhard Rusch and others into the Slovak context, and, second, to exemplify its relevance by providing a specific research project into the issue of self-definition of Slovak literary scholars. Based loosely on a similar research carried out by Elrude Ibsch in the Netherlands, our project is rather more hybrid in that it combines the strength of empirical data with carefully selected hermeneutic conclusions. The use of such hybrid methodology is thought to provide essential balance between empirical facts and hermeneutic speculation. The results gathered on survey basis are first compared with the results of the Ibsch research, and then cross-evaluated in terms of age and gender. Originally conceived as a part of the research, the aspects of the scholars‘ nationality and locality have been abandoned as irrelevant for the results.
KeyWords Literature. Literary Scholars in Slovakia. Empirical Science of Literature. Self-Definition of Literary Scholars in Slovakia.
Address
Mgr. Adam Bžoch, PhD. - Mgr. Ľuben Urbánek
Ústav svetovej literatúry SAV
Konventná 13
813 64 Bratislava
Libuša Vajdová
Contemporary reflections on the status of literary scholarship in Slovakia, on its functions and importance is determined by the need of recapitulation and self-reflection. Determination of the state and perspectives of literary scholarship takes place under the influence of changes which occurred in exact sciences as well as breaking cognitive stereotypes and stressing the anthropological point of view in the process of research within exact sciences and with respect to the exchange of methods and preparation of new scholarly methodologies. Understanding our own methodological problems of literary scholarship is connected with the knowledge of the analysis of epistemological problems of exact sciences and other social science disciplines (history, sociology, philosophy). Questions (and their solutions) which are connected with the crisis of an image of the scientific and true nature of sciences as well as with the possibilities of of exact and rational learning are the same or similar for both exact sciences and literary scholarship and other social sciences. They are: the relationship of empirical verifiability and theoretical truth of facts, the relationship of the synchronious and the diachronious, of the continual and discontinual development of learning, the relationship between rational learning and the influence of chance, mistake and chaos in scholarly reasearch, the relationship between discovery and routine scholarly work, the importance and influence of an institutional framework of scholarly research and the activity of an individual and institution in scholarly research.
KeyWords: Literature. Literary Scholarship. Epistemology of Sciences.
Address
PhDr. Libuša Vajdová, CSc.
Ústav svetovej literatúry SAV
Konventná 13
813 64 Bratislava
Pavol Koprda
This article is a modified text from my university textbook in preparation Comparative Literature I. International Aspect in the Relationship to Older Literature. It exemplifies three approaches to interliterary process: first, based on comparative literature, second, on "littérature génerale" and third, based on the conception of the world literature. The author emphasises the fact that the theory of interliterary centrisms founded by D. Ďurišin is intercultural. Ďurišin thus develops P. J. Šafárik's idea (1827) that the interliterary process simultaneously tends towards integration and differentiation. This idea was adopted by the Italo-Slovak research team which intends to use it as a basis for the grant project Conceptions of World Literature in the Epoch of Globalisation.
KeyWords: Literature. Comparative literature. Interliterary process. Interliterary centrisms. World literature.
Address
Doc. PhDr. Pavol Koprda, CSc.
Katedra romanistiky
Filozofická fakulta
Univerzity Konštantína Filozofa
Hodžova 1
949 74 Nitra
Franca Sinopoli
In the article Sinopoli informs about the research project of Slovak-Italian Conceptions of World Literature. Italian group of researchers develops with fascination Ďurišin's concept of interliterary communities, centrisms and world literature. The reason is that only if Ďurišin's concept will exist in practical everyday research and pedagogical practice, it will be able at least to abate the persisting dominance of the so-called theoretical American conception and to unite under the aegis of global communication already strong particular researches, such as post-colonial studies, feminist studies etc. Franca Sinopoli invites everyone who can and want to speak about world literature as an intercultural (and not intracultural) phenomenon, so her report is an offer for co-operation. Her report mentions the previous project Mediterranean Interliterary Centrism whose book publication is about to appear. Thus the Ďurišin's concept of centrisms will become an operative category of reception theory of world literary process. The second part of the report explain in details understanding of canon and of world literature. As an appendix of the report appears a selected bibliography of works on concepts of world literature serving as a practical guide to the whole research team.
KeyWords: Literature. World Literature. Interliterary Centrisms. D. Ďurišin. A. Gnisci.
Address
Dr. Franca Sinopoli
Universita di Roma "La Sapienza"
Cattedra di Letteratura Comparate
Piazzale A. Moro, 5
00185 Roma
Nora Moll
One of the most modern and up-to-date views of world literature is through canon if it is not perceived as a ready-made hierarchy of values. Harold Bloom is the main modern defender of privileged position of canonical works in reconstructions of history of interliterary processes. It uses hermetism and interpretation culture of Torah. His concept of literature is aristocratic and is based on the view that great works come into being by continuation with the previous great work, but the continuation is a "great misunderstanding". Other frequent approach to world literature through canon is based on the view that classical works are the most inspiring and productive since they enable the reader to have many points of view of their reading and therefore many attempts to imitate them. Nora Moll has chosen the fourth approach. She noticed that classical mythical stories are frequently approproated by young literatures on the other side of the world and in a different social-cultural conditions. They build their own "story" on these mythological stories. There is an assumption that mythical "archi-story" enables the rise of common receptivity in literary communities in the whole world. Thus the specificity of every single community is preserved. Nora Moll will continue her research in this direction of the Ulysses (Odyseus) myth in the Caribbean region in the research team of the project Views on World Literature in the End of the Millenium (the research project of the S. A. S. - CNR for the years 1998-2000).
KeyWords: Literature. World Literature. Mediterranean Centrism. Caribbean Region Centrism. Version of Odysseia.
Address
Dr. Nora Moll
Universita di Roma "La Sapienza"
Cattedra di Letteratura Comparate
Piazzale A. Moro, 5
00185 Roma
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