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Artykuł eksponuje kwestię powtarzalności zjawisk naturalnych i zdarzeń dziejowych (wszelakich sytuacji maladycznych, takich jak choroby, zarazy, pomory, najazdy) oraz trwałości ich kulturowo-społecznych/ wspólnotowych postrzeżeń, naddanych sensów, faktycznych i imaginacyjnych formulacji. Gruntem rozważań są, nieco zapomniane w refleksji naukowej, średniowieczne mikroteksty południowosłowiańskie (staroserbskie mikroteksty), znane szerzej jako zapisy czy marginalia umieszczone na obrzeżach kart dawnych rękopisów i starodruków, które ze względu na swą strukturę uznawane są nie tylko za towarzyszące, ale też autonomiczne i wewnętrznie spójne teksty – tzw. małe formy literackie. Wyekscerpowanie takich, bardzo wielu literackich tekstów i zawartych w nich epidemicznych narracji, wątków maladycznych, których substancją jest bogaty repertuar kulturowych idei, obrazów i motywów, służyć może również scharakteryzowaniu i zrozumieniu postawy, emocji i predylekcji człowieka dawnego. Forgotten Forms – Reminded Contents. Malady Threads in Old Serbian Micro-texts The article is focused on the issue of repeatability/periodicity of natural phenomena and historical events (including any maladical situations such as illnesses, plagues, murrains, invasions) along with durability of their socio-cultural/community perceptions, given meanings, actual and imagined formulations. Presented considerations are based on the South Slavic micro-texts (Old Serbian micro-texts) known more widely as records or marginalia (side notes) placed on the edges of the old manuscripts’ pages. Due to their construction, they are regarded not only as supplements but also as autonomous and internally consistent texts that is, the so-called small literary forms. Excerpted from these forms, epidemic narratives, malady threads refer to many cultural ideas, images and motifs analysis of which can be used to characterize and understand the attitude, emotions and predilections of the former generations.

In the article, a phenomenon of promotion and marketing in the medieval Serbia was discussed, as well as the strategies of creating a specific, desired and functional image of the ruling dynasties. Due to this, the basic communication practices were recalled that is, a management of impression, building the so-called brand (social, political, cultural property of the dynasty, its family pattern), and also specifically conceived branding itself (that is, a management of consciousness and value of the dynastic brand), what ultimately proved that the lineage of social-cultural usage of images, along with the models and devices serving the politics of public relations is deeply rooted in the middle ages. The phenomenon of promotion and marketing in the medieval Serbia was presented on the basis of the medieval Serbian literature, hagiography, hymnography, historiography, and iconographic implementations were also included. The article presents images of rulers and dynasties prevailing in the historical, religious and ideological context, the phenomenon of promotion and marketing in the context of characteristic ideological structures, such as state and church tradition, imperial-monastic tradition, charismatic dynasty, sanctity of the ruling family, land and the Serbian nation e.t.c. The timeless phenomenon of promotion and marketing has been presented as a lasting component of shaping the culture model of the medieval Serbia.

In the article, the phenomenon of yurodstvo has been recalled, which is a characteristic and perhaps the brightest realization of the Eastern Christian ideal of sanctity as a clear projection of its irrational or even specifically perverse potential. The examples which are quoted in the considerations and selected from a rich literary corpus (Old Russian, Old Bulgarian and Old Serbian), are colourful manifestations of sanctity in Eastern Christian terms, which can be defined only in a specific religious or socio-cultural context. For that reason, it was considered that this specially designed sanctity should be interpreted in the key of negative theology which is typical of the Eastern (Orthodox) Christianity. Also known as apophatic, this theology assumes the impossibility of a positive knowledge of God, which entails a specific helplessness of reason towards the phenomenon that exceeds all applicable established standards. In the discussed case, the reflection intentionally goes beyond the limits of exemplification of the sainted yurodstvo, since it also covers other types of sanctity, recognized and perpetuated in the Eastern Christian (including Church Slavonic) tradition, and shows the proximity of all projections of the so-called parenetic sanctity along with the relationship between the yurodstvo itself and eremitism and Monasticism. In this wide exemplification range, it seems justified that the incarnated sanctity of the yurodivy, a hermit or a monk, revealing itself in the socio-cultural reality in an unusual, incomprehensible or even perverse way, is an emanation of the numinous mystery which escapes the rational orders. This emanation should be, therefore, regarded as a phenomenon going beyond the boundaries of intellectual cognition, socio-cultural sphere, or a fixed standard.

In the article, the problem of memorial dimension of Old Serbian culture, including its commemorative function related to the processes of heroisation and sacralisation, is discussed. The cultural model in question is analysed from the perspective of memory discourse, and due to categories of places and figures of memory. The specificity of this cultural system has been explored in the context of uniqueness, durability, and traditionalism. The literary, iconographic, and architectural exemplifications, evoked in the article, which are to testify mytho- and mnemonic-motoric ability of Old Serbian culture, are merely a modest representation of this phenomenon along with its memorial multidimensionality. The outlined frames and categories of interpretation of Old Serbian culture, indicated planes of the memorial reflections, and also disclosed mediatisation strategies only make up a certain orientation assessment of the character of this old cultural system. The memorial dimension of Old Serbian culture has been defined on several structural planes, and among their most important elements are: an original and highly coherent cultural model, literary genetics adopted on native ground, typology of iconographic and architectural realisations, and also a semantic prospectus manifested in all these works by an almost permanent repertoire of ideas, motifs, figures, representation schemes, and imago-logical constructions. The elements in question constitute a network of meanings which is revealed, expressed, constantly updated, and possibly supplemented in order to immortalise hyperbolically the fate of the State, Church, community. In spite of its generality, understood from the view-point of the paper”s limits, the presented thought is related to the conceptual paths typical for so-called memory studies which allows the authoress to uncover some possibilities of viewing and description, and possibly enrich the research apparatus used in the exploration of traditional and ancient cultures. This general, quite naturally, article on the memorial character of Old Serbian culture has been conceived as encouragement for further in-depth research in this area, and projected as a specific inducement to take broadly understood Slavonic studies as part of the cultural memory.

The article briefly presents a series of problems discussed in the dissertation entitled Свето и пропадљиво. Тело у српској хагиографској књижевности (Holy and Worldly. Body in Serbian Hagiographic Literature) by Smilja Marjanović-Dušanić. Dedicated to a wide professional and non-professional audience, the book in question is a significant scientific work since it refers not only to the historical, but also to the anthropological and culturological description related to the activity of decoding of such essential socio-cultural category like body. Considered as a highly complex phenomenon, body is a sign generated by the realm of various traditions and discourses which render different cultural modes or primary and secondary contexts; it might be also conceived as a distinctive signature of given time-space, community and cultural system. It will not be an exaggeration to say that the dissertation is an extremely interesting and indeed outstanding study of the subject which impresses with its high cognitive value and research rank. What is more, it offers a serious and objective view of the convoluted and multidimensional cultural phenomenon and identity construct.

Familiarized death: The topoi of hagiographical dying scenes selected examples from Old Serbian literatureThe notion of familiarized death, introduced by the French researcher Philip Aries in order to characterize the approach to the end of human life that was common in ancient culture, serves as the point of departure for considerations regarding hagiographical scenes of dying. This approach, adopted by people of the medii aevi, maintained a positive attitude towards the fundamental event of death. In this article, the structure and topics of hagiographical scenes of death are elaborated on, using examples from Old Serbian literature, in which the discussed problem is revealed in the adaptation context as an implementation of orders inscribed in the ancient textbooks of good dying — artes bene moriendi. The literary scene of death is, therefore, analysed with reference to a specific scheme. Its components constitute a series of common points of narrative, and contain a self-evident imperative of Christ’s imitation imitatio Christi, assuming such obligatory practices as prayer oratio, call clamatio, and cry ploratio that are to lead up to the moment of commending one’s soul to God commendatio, and giving up the ghost traditio. This template serves the purpose of familiarizing with elementary and characteristic ideas, conceptional constructions, and topoi, which are portrayed as the components of the whole structure along with its individual constitutive elements. It also forms the basis for the exposition of motifs acting in the hagiographical scene of death as obligatory and facultative means of conveying meanings. This eventually allows the article’s authoress to prepare a fundamental catalogue of these motifs. Due to the accepted modus operandi, the most important and frequent constructions in these literary narratives serve to describe and expose the event of death, namely, the topoi of old age, weakness, fear of infernal torture, bewailing human sinfulness, falling asleep — blessed sleep, wandering — spiritual climbing, angelic mission, etc. Смрт припитомљена. Топика житијне сцене умирања неколико примера из старе српске књижевностиПолазна тачка је овде појам смрти припитомљене / укроћене који је увео Филип Аријес и који карактерише општи став према крају људског живота у средњем веку. Према томе о средњем веку може се рећи да је раздобље „припитомљене смрти”, онда је човек живео у стању духовне помирености са одласком са овог света. Средњовековни човек је био присан са смрћу, јер ју је прихватао као природни поредак, потчињавао се закону врсте и веровао је у спасење на оном свету. У раду се разматра житијна сцена смрти која је у средњовековној књижевности једна адаптација трајне схеме коју су пропагирале artes bene moriendi. Она је поновљење новозаветне слике Христове мученичке смрти, тако да се једноставно заснива на идеји imitatio Christi. Ову схему граде општа места: oratio молитва, clamatio мољење, ploratio плач, commendatio поверење i traditio предање духа. Све те канонске моменте прате одређене идеје, теме и мотиви. Дакле, у житијној сцени смрти појављују се различити топоси од којих неки су веома чести обавезни или факултативни, као су на пример топос старости, болести, слабости; топос страха од вечне муке; топос оплакивања, топос уснућа – блаженог сна; топос путовања – душевне лествице; топос анђела Божијег, топос светла итд. Сви су они својеврсни предоџбени носиоци и оруђа, начини мирења човека са смрћу у средњем веку. Тако у раду је направљен један каталог најважнијих и најчешће присутних топоса у житијној нарацији о одласку са овог света.

The paper regards a problem of realization and function of the motifs of emigration and wandering that occur in a complementary arrangement in Old Serbian literature. They consist of a specific scheme of presentation and exegesis concerning the historical, religious and cultural reality. The motifs are a characteristic strategy of the expression of collective fate – the tragic experience of the Great Exodus in 1690. They find an extraordinary realization in brief literary form – the notations wherein the motifs establish a definite semantic collection, combined with many already consolidated ideas and ideological constructions. That collection is to met with a favourable response of the subsequent cultural phenomena and conceptions, creating a unique image of the Serbian community. Those phenomena constitute a sort of topic structure, based on the already established imaginative conceptions, especially the messianic image of the “chosen nation” and “nation-martyr” that create a new character of the Serbian community, or make the previous one concrete, henceforth described not only in the categories of election and martyrdom, but also of “emigration from the Turkish land”, wandering and homelessness in the land of Hungary.

This work deals with the problem of the reception of the former literature of the Slavia Orthodoxa circle in Poland, which is an issue folded, multifaceted, closely connected with the specificity of the two cultural spaces, seemingly different, but as it turns out, not so distant or different in their traditions. The issue of the translation of literature of Orthodox Slavs is discussed on the example of the Old-Serbian texts, given the criterion of presence and absence of these texts in Polish circulation readership.

In the article, a problem of conceiving and depicting the Turkish rule is taken into account, for my reflections concentrate on the patterns of presentation regarding the Ottoman Turks’ invasion of the Balkan territory, and their oppressive rule in the Balkans. The patterns mentioned above, present in the Old Serbian literature, were to commemorate all those tragic events. In the Old Serbian texts (pertaining to hagiography, historiography, hymnic literature, and also to the brief literary forms – notations), the Turkish rule was expressed in explicitly negative categories of illegality, violence, and godlessness, presented in the context of the “end of times”, the Christian community’s martyrdom, mentioned in the eschatological perspective of the definition of history and exegesis, the perspective so characteristic for the Middle Ages.

The article refers to a problem of relationship between authority and genealogy, and to their specific functioning in the Old Serbian literature,that is in other words, in the hagiographical, historiographical, and hymnic texts. In all those works, the combination of the both ideas undoubtedly serves the ideological creation, regarding the image of sovereign together with the exposition of his extra-ordinary lineage and destiny which are tied to his place and role in the space of history, politics, religion, and culture. In the literature, this peculiar relationship is expressed by the two characteristic constructions of dynasty and genealogy. With regard to this representation, the dynastic construction is based on the model of biblical motif concerning Jesse’s stem and functions as the saint osierof the family of Nemanjić. As for the second construction, of genealogy, it reveals itself as a component of the classical myth of historiography that determines the beginnings namely, the Serbian sovereign’s mythical genesis that also concerns all his charismatic, saint family.