Critical revised edition and translation by Jean Ward This book presents a universal theory of autobiography, defined as a "triangular" form of utterance involving three different stances. It is a ...personal testimony to experiences lived through, a confession of intimate inner experience and a challenge addressed to the reader to engage in dialogue, enter into an argument or join in a game. The stances of witness, confession and challenge are always present, though usually one of them overshadows the other two. Polish memoirs, diaries and letters, as well as novels of a clearly personal character, are interpreted here in the context of the most important autobiographical texts of European literature. In the background, also, the historical events which have powerfully stamped Polish culture in the last two centuries are discreetly shown.
The future of area studies lies in opening out into TransArea studies, which tie together area-connected competencies with transdisciplinary research practices. It is one of the loftiest and most ...urgent duties of philology to lift up this treasure in the awareness of the special relevance of literature, and to make it democratically available to the broadest possible sections of the population.
This paper center-stages the canonization of two key figures of Slovenian poetry, each of the early nineteenth century: Valentin Vodnik and France Prešeren, and the placement of their statues in the ...public space of Ljubljana, capital of the Habsburg province of Carniola. Late in the nineteenth century, monuments to “cultural saints” became an important symbolic battlefield for the Slovenian national movement, striving for greater cultural and political autonomy. More broadly understood, Ljubljana turns out to be a paradigmatic example of how the literal battle for the nationalization of the city was fought through the occupation of public space by statues of “great men of literature.” The struggle, then, adopts semiotic significance. The Carniolan capital would eventually become a spiritual metropolis of “Slovenedom,” densely sown with far-reaching monumental symbols.
La proximité entre les écrits de Novalis et de Mallarmé est aujourd’hui un lieu commun de la recherche sans pour autant avoir fait l’objet d’une étude approfondie. Si une influence directe ne saurait ...être affirmée avec certitude, le simple constat d’une modernité commune est également insuffisant. La parenté entre les deux projets esthétiques se situe à un autre niveau. Dans les contextes de crise des années autour de 1800 et de la seconde moitié du XIXe siècle, les deux auteurs esquissent une conception de l’art qui vise une réorganisation des espaces du savoir de l’âge moderne. Le dispositif central de cette ‘troisième voie’ est celui de la limite qui permet de rompre avec la vanité d’une approche représentative de l’expérience esthétique. L’esthétique des limites de Novalis et de Mallarmé ne se restreint pas au simple constat de la négativité qui résulte des nombreuses limites fondamentales auxquelles l’être humain moderne se trouve confronté. Les deux auteurs ne considèrent pas en premier lieu la limite dans sa fonction de délimitation, mais comme un espace propre qui revêt une productivité et une fonctionnalité épistémologiques considérables. Selon eux, la limite est une configuration essentielle de l’expérience esthétique parce qu’elle confère à celle-ci une médialité et une performativité spécifiques qui permettent de dépasser la relation binaire entre la discursivité du savoir positif et l’inaccessibilité d’un savoir absolu. Ainsi, l’esthétique des limites est une conception particulièrement pertinente à l’époque actuelle où le débat sur la valeur épistémologique de l’art et de la littérature est loin d’être terminé.
The similarity between the writings of Novalis and Mallarmé has become a topos in research, however, it has never been the object of a detailed study. On the one hand, we cannot say that Mallarmé was directly influenced by Novalis, on the other, the declaration that they share a modern vision is just as insufficient. The connection between the two aesthetic projects has to be found on another level. In their respective contexts of crisis, that characterise the periods around 1800 and the second half of the 19th century, both poets outline a conception of art with the objective of a new organisation of modern spaces of knowledge. Boundaries are a central dispositive of this ‘third way’ because they make it possible to overcome the vanity of a representative conception of aesthetic experience. Novalis’ and Mallarmé’s aesthetics of boundaries do not confine themselves to simply assessing the negativity that results from the numerous fundamental limitations of modern human condition. Both of them do not primarily consider the phenomenon of boundary to be a mere function of delimitation. For Novalis and Mallarmé, a boundary is an autonomous space that possesses a high epistemological productivity and functionality. Boundaries are central configurations of aesthetic experience because they endow this experience with a specific mediality and performativity that allow to overcome the binary relationship between positive discursive knowledge and the unattainability of absolute knowledge. The aesthetics of boundaries are an important concept nowadays as the debate surrounding the epistemological relevance of art and literature is far from being finished.
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