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A 1508 adage by Erasmus about the Batavian ear is often interpreted as an expression of nationalism. Serious doubts can be raised against such interpretations since there was no such thing as nationalism in the early sixteenth century. Besides this, the interpretation is inconsistent with Erasmus's degenerative expressions about Batavians and Hollanders elsewhere; nor does the adage describe the Batavians or Hollanders in a truly positive way. I propose an alternative to the nationalistic interpretation of the adage. Based on the Auris Batava, his correspondence, and the rest of his broad oeuvre, I argue that the references to Batavians throughout Erasmus's works are instead a response to humanist Italy, where a negative stereotype of Northerners was prevalent and where one prided oneself on an ancient lineage. Born in Rotterdam, Erasmus could not appropriate this ancient Roman heritage and therefore took recourse to the Batavians. He appropriated biases against the supposed negative characteristics of the Northerners and Batavians as well, but used these to emphasize his own achievements. Erasmus's establishment of a Batavian identity can thus be deemed a form of Erasmian modesty, a type of rhetoric that is evident more broadly in his oeuvre. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Comparative Literature / Primerjalna Književnost is the property of Slovenian Comparative Literature Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Arabic Language & Literature (1735-9767) is the property of University of Tehran and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This comparative study examines the role of conceptual metaphorization as a means of shaping the image of Iraq in regional and federal media in Germany from 2019 to 2024. The analysis focuses on the frequency of metaphors, the magnitude and dominant features of the nominative field of metaphors, semantic and part-of-speech properties of metaphor representatives, and the salient characteristics of the country as components of its image, along with paradigmatic and syntagmatic relationships. It identifies both stable and variable patterns of metaphorization across the two groups of media. The study highlights recurring metaphors such as “Iraq as a Living Being,” “Iraq as an Incomplete Whole,” “Iraq as a Place of Uncontrolled Power,” “Iraq as a Warrior,” “Iraq as a Theater,” “Iraq as a Toy,” and “Iraq as a Refuge.” The findings conclude the effectiveness of conceptual metaphor as a tool for stereotyping; similarities in the composition of metaphors despite differences in their frequency and density across various German media; a predominance of complex, structural, and ontological metaphors; and the presence of compatible and coherent metaphors. Notably, there is an interdependence between the frequency and density of the nominative field of metaphors, with higher density observed in federal media; stability in terms of the part-of-speech affiliation of representatives and dominance of noun representatives; predominant overlap in the dominant features of nominative fields across different media groups; and the existence of metaphors with varying degrees of conventionality.

The paper deals with spatial images of the liminal South-West of the Russian Empire thatare presented in “Travel Notes across Russia” by M. P. Zhdanov and include a representation of Kharkiv, Ekaterinoslav (Novorossiya), as well as Poltava, Kyiv, and Chernihiv (Little Russia) provinces. The description of these three local types unfolds from the point of view of economic, historical, and everyday spheres (including education). The article highlights the core motifs of novelty, wildness, disorder, scarcity of people, and projectness typical for the southwestern Russia image. In this regard, the space of Novorossiya appears primarily as a steppe, a frontier, and a subject to colonization. At the same time, the Kyiv topos appears variable and combines old and new elements. The article emphasizes the differences between Zhdanov’s rational narration manner and the tradition of representing the “noonday Russia” space.

This article analyzes the image of Russia in Maxim Nezvorov’s travelogue “Journey to Kazan, Vyatka, and Orenburg in 1800.” Based on theoretical frameworks, we identify three aspects of analysis: genre, spatiality, and subjectivity. The study employs structuraldescriptive and cultural-historical methods, alongside the foundational principles of N. L. Leiderman’s genre theory, V. L. Kagansky’s concept of cultural landscape, and B. O. Korman’s ideas on the subject of artistic text. Our findings indicate that the choice of a quasi-documentary epistolary form allowed the author to establish a commitment to authenticity, combined with a characteristically sentimental intention of the “sensitive traveler.” It is demonstrated that Nezvorov delineates a system-forming dichotomy of “centerperiphery,” within which the cultural landscape is (re)constructed. We conclude that the author evaluates a key component of this landscape — urban planning and architecture — while the landscape itself serves a supportive role. Nezvorov pays particular attention to the extraordinarily diverse ethnic composition of the empire’s population. Although he rarely grants his “interlocutors” a voice, their comments and judgments enable a partial reconstruction of the worldview of a person in the early 19th century, one of the key elements of which is the image of Russia.

The relevance of this article lies in the need to study the transformation of the image of Russians in the British media discourse during periods of allied relations between Russia and Britain and during periods of confrontation between these states, which is necessary to expand the understanding of the mechanisms of transformation of the image of ethnos in the political media discourse. The purpose of the article is a comparative analysis of the conceptual and linguistic-stylistic actualization of the images of Russians in the British media discourse during the Second World War and the last decade. The results of the research show that during the Second World War, when the Soviet Union and Britain were allies in the fight against Nazi Germany, the image of Russians had a positive connotative background. Its conceptual space included such axiologically significant concepts as "ally", "defence", "bravery", "courage", "battle", "sacrifice", "victory", "confidence", "unity" and "patriotism." Russians were attributed such positive personality qualities, represented in the conceptual space of the image by the corresponding concepts, as emotionality, a good sense of humor, complaisance, patience, cordiality Creating such an image, British journalists used functionalevaluative words of positive semantics, comparative constructions, allowing to show the constancy of positive qualities, and contrast, with which the bravery of Russian soldiers was emphasized in comparison with the nations that failed to resist fascism. Due to the confrontation between Russia and Britain that has intensified since 2014, the connotative background of the image of Russians is mostly very negative. The conceptual field of the image of Russians includes such axiologically significant concepts as "enemy", "crime", "prostitution", "corruption", "evil", "deceived by propa-ganda", "weakness", "fear", "despair" and "depression". This image is created with the help of evaluative and functional-evaluative lexemes with negative evaluation, com-parative constructions and metaphorical epithets.

The novel «二马» (Mr. Ma and Son) by Lao She, the only one of his works set in a foreign country, offers Chinese readers a portrayal of 1920s Britain from various perspectives. However, these portrayals should not be seen as objective representations of Britain, but rather as Lao She’s own interpretation and reflection of what he saw and thought, influenced by his creative motivations and attitudes. The primary objective of the novel is to use the exotic image of Britain as a benchmark or reference point to critically examine Chinese society and its national character. By employing an imagological lens, this article reevaluates Mr. Ma and Son, focusing on the images of British citizens, scenes, and social ethos depicted in the novel. It argues that the deliberate shaping of these images serves to highlight the stark disparities in development and modernization between China and Britain. Through this comparison, Lao She aims to reflect the state of Chinese society and national character. Furthermore, Lao She’s portrayal of Britain as a utopia suggests that he views it as an idealized model for comparison with the challenges faced by Chinese society in its modernization process. In doing so, Lao She reveals a complex mix of resentment and envy toward the British society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the imagological foundations of the ongoing confrontation between the United States and Russia. Utilizing a historiographical review of US–Russia relations and the author’s extensive research, it employs a constructivist approach to examine the enduring patterns in their mutual representations. The analysis uncovers the cyclical nature of these perceptions, swinging between value-driven and pragmatic narratives. It suggests that throughout history, the US and Russia have consistently served as each other’s “constitutive Other” within their identity discourses. This involves the creation of meaning repertoires that align with their domestic and foreign policy goals. Moreover, the article argues that the current confrontation mirrors a clash between their respective value systems and messianic ambitions. This dynamic contributes to the development of a new kind of imagined reality, reinforcing the enduring dichotomous worldview that defines the relationship between the two nations.

This study explores the representation of Novorossiya’s space in Pavel Sumarokov’s travelogue “Journey Across Crimea and Bessarabia in 1799” within the framework of semiotic-imagological analysis. The research’s relevance stems from the growing interest of domestic humanities in Novorossiysk issues, which exhibit certain lacunae. The novelty of the study lies in the analysis of spatial imagery elements of Novorossiya, primarily limited to descriptions of the surroundings of Nikolaev, Kherson, and Odessa, areas relatively understudied in literary studies. Loci types are identified based on the opposition of “naturalness — anthropogenicity.” The natural space is predominantly portrayed as untamed, dangerous, and inhospitable steppe, contrasted with spatial images of three major Novorossiysk cities mentioned above. Common motifs of sudden (miraculous) appearance, rapid growth, and high degree of orderliness are attributed to the latter. The motif of frontierness is identified as a fundamental element characteristic of the entire Novorossiya space. It is also actualized in the analysis of Sumarokov’s representation of Novorossiya’s historical space, whose core meaning is formed by plots and personae associated with the era of Catherine II and, specifically, the Russo-Turkish wars.

Recent imagological scholarship about the Balkans has revised the Balkanism thesis by examining the sympathetic lens through which British liberals viewed the peninsula's Christian and Slavic nationalities following the 1903 establishment of the Balkan Committee. Revisionist historiography has, however, overlooked how non-Christian and non-Slavic communities were represented in Britain beyond overgeneralized orientalist stereotypes of 'the villainous Turk'. This article aims to correct this imbalance by examining representations of Albania in the travel writing and political commentary of Mary Edith Durham and Aubrey Nigel Henry Molyneux Herbert, Britain's most notable supporters of Albania's national movement in the early twentieth century, who came to sympathize with the country because of their own peripheral position in relation to the British cultural and political mainstream, by virtue of gender and an unfashionably conservative worldview. Focusing on their published travel writing and political commentary between the 1904 publication of Durham's first narrative, Through the Lands of the Serb, and Herbert's untimely death in 1923, this article proposes that they articulated a counter-discourse to liberal writing on south-eastern Europe and that their representations of Albania foregrounded the capacity for self-governance, in contrast to the cultural chaos attributed to the country by liberals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pinnacle of a politician's political career is usually seen as the position of head of state or head of government. Iuliu Maniu was prime minister of Romania three times between 1928 and 1933, yet both Hungarian and Romanian historical memory regard him as the architect of the unification of Transylvania with Romania, and his role as prime minister receives only secondary attention. The paper focuses on his years as prime minister and shows what the relationship between him and the Hungarians was like at that time. It is conventional knowledge about Maniu that he strongly separated his private life and politics. I therefore see it appropriate to discuss separately Maniu's private and political relations with the Hungarians. His relationship with Hungarian individuals and with Hungarians as a community must also be distinguished. These two distinctions serve as the organizing principle of the paper. Finally, the paper also discusses Maniu's role in issues (e.g., the optants case) that took place before a wider international forum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper deals with the presentation of the media system as not only a platform enabling mass social interaction but also spreading hate-speech regarding promoting the superiority of one's group (such as ethnicity, nationality, values or other). The article focuses on the topic of spreading ethnic stereotypes (e.g. those related to Jewish ethnicity). Attention is also focused on the issue of the credibility of such media content and its creators. The authors use a theoretical base to clarify several innovative possibilities brought not only technologically, but also culturally reformed "new digital age", the so-called Web 2.0, or Web 3.0. in Central European context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Interwar period different form of Ancient civilization had been one the most frequent theme in American popular culture. Lost Indian civilization wasn’t exception, but this is-sue is still poorly investigate in the popular culture’s field. The article examines, based on John Cavelti's theory of for-mular fiction and John Saler’s “imaginary worlds”, the repre-sentation of pre-Columbian civilizations in one of the most significant American pulp magazines, Weird tales, and the ways in which their heritage is appropriated by American popular culture. We come to conclusion that representation of pre-Colombian indian civilization was within the general nar-rative of the ancient (like Egypt and Babylon), but had differ-ence in tropes. This concerned attention to the phenomenon of sacrifices. Also, the authors were anxious about issues of race, since the racist view of Latin Americans was a constitu-tive stereotype for many Americans. To prevent this problem from interfering with the appropriation of the Indian ancient heritage as uniquely American, the writers excluded the in-termediary in the person of a modern resident of Mexico. Mexico was represented as a poor, unstable country, just an epigone of its magnificent ancestors.

The relevance of considering the semantic content of the concept of horror, which connects the genres of country noir and southern gothic into a single subsystem of cultural semiotics, is due to the need for a more detailed study of the specifics of both the generalizing concept itself and its role in specific genres of literature and cinema. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to trace the features of the semantic registers of disclosing various types of horror in the philosophical and hermeneutic field of the genres of country noir and southern gothic. To do this, 1) the theoretical foundations for the conceptualization of horror in these genres are determined and the key elements and mechanisms of concept implementation are identified; 2) the narrative and metaphorical series of deployment of the concepts are analyzed within the framework of the lifeworlds of the characters in literary texts constructed by the authors; 3) philosophical and hermeneutic layers through which these concepts are revealed in selected genres are identified. The research methods are based on philosophical-hermeneutic, conceptual, and narrative approaches in the analysis of a number of works, chosen by their genre and the degree of their relevance for a particular type of conceptualization of horror. For example, the works No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy, Winter’s Bone by Daniel Woodrell, The Salt of the Earth by Flannery O’Connor, The Last Good Kiss by James Crumley, The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner, as well as the movie What Josiah Saw. The sequence of works referred to in the text is determined by the sequence of presentation of the types of the concept of horror. As a result of the study, the hypothesis was confirmed that the conceptualization of horror as a violation of the usual course of determination reveals itself in three versions of the ontologizing of this experience: horror of an uncertain world (determination dependent on the frame of perception of the subject, acting as an expression of the radical external, outside the power of the subject), horror of an indefinite self (determined as the order of the surrounding world with uncertainty in the inner world of the individual), horror of invasion (determination to displace each other). The conclusion is that the study of horror as a result of a violation of the usual course of determination in the context of country noir and southern gothic allows not only to identify their implicit philosophical and cultural component, but also to better understand these genres, as well as expand the theoretical basis for the analysis of similar phenomena in other cultural and literary traditions.

Intolerance, demonization and hate speech used to be an integral part of Franco-German relations in the 19th century. The paper is devoted to the analysis of the image of barbarians within the context of the confrontation between France and Germany in 1870s–1910s. Creation and transformation of political myths is viewed through the lens of cultural artefacts. The study is topical because it allows for the analysis of the universal development of cultural confrontation on a specific example. The prime goal of the article is to identify the patterns of mutual stigmatization and account for their seeming anomalies or exceptions to these patterns: the German simultaneously viewed as well-educated and barbarian; common origins of barbarian and classical antique cultures resulting in opposing identities, etc. The aims of the study include: 1) to systematize empirical sources; 2) to assess the impact of historical and cultural context on the formation of the conceptual images of barbaric and civilized; 3) to single out basic dichotomies of the barbaric vs civilized opposition. The study was based on various cultural texts of the period, ranging from speeches, essays, and memoirs to posters and monuments. Methods used included comparative, semiotic, and imagological approaches, corpus, discourse, and content analyses. French newspaper clichés are compared to the Europe-wide opinions about Prussian militarism. As it turns out, the German way of thinking about the heroes of the past contributed to political stigmatization of Germany. Another finding, based on French literature, is the unobvious correlation between decadent world perception and political turmoil in France. Modernist poetry, literature and journalism compared the fall of the French Empire to the collapse of the Roman Empire and thus contributed to the conceptualizing of the German as barbarians. At the same time German propaganda attempted to defend itself by finding barbarians on the east and ironically quoting French sources to speak about actual war crimes. The results of the study show that seemingly chaotic hate speech and confrontation are determined on the basis of the specific rules related to age-old non-political traditions and current political circumstances marking the dichotomy between oneself and the other, friend or foe.

The paper deals with spatial images of Germany in the poems of P. A. Vyazemsky, dating back to the 1840–1870s. There is a marked anthropic element in the poet’s describing German spatial images when the focus of describing is not the landscape itself but its connection with a personality important to the author. Otherwise, the landscape can become a starting point for philosophical reflections on human existence. In addition, Vyazemsky uses both conditional and typed mimesis for the landscape descriptions of Germany. This technique aims to ensure that the reader completes the spatial picture depicted in his imagination by using the ʽreference’ topoi, and weakened spatiality in general. Finally, the article reveals the key variants of the German world-images in the poet’s texts — these are the travesty, romantic, and sentimentalist modes of description. At the same time, the article highlights many literary types that the author uses to characterize the travestied space: German scientist, philistine, and passionate dreamer. The author’s versions of the romantic world-image demonstrate ambivalence in the spatial structure of the chronotope as well as Vyazemsky’s appeal to the Rhine intertext of Russian literature. Various examples of demi-natural idyll represent the sentimentalist world-image.

In Russian literature, there is no consensus on who the first image of a superfluous man is. In the literature review, the names of Chatsky, one of the main characters of the play "Woe from Wit" by Alexander Griboyedov, or Onegin, one of the main characters of the poetic novel "Eugene Onegin" by Alexander Pushkin, stand out. Another topic of disagreement is whether Chatsky is a superfluous man. In this study, we sought answers to the questions of who the first image of a superfluous man is in Russian literature and whether Chatsky can be evaluated in this context. Deductive, comparative analysis and image-centered analysis methods were used in the study. The research materials consisted of the works "Woe from Wit" and "Eugene Onegin", as well as research on the image of a superfluous man. In the examination, the general characteristics of a superfluous man were identified and adapted to Chatsky. As a result, it was seen that Chatsky did not generally carry the characteristics of a superfluous man. Conclusions were drawn on why the character should be considered a superfluous man or not. It was concluded that the characterization of "untimely man" would be more appropriate for Chatsky instead of superfluous man. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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In this paper, we aim to explore the usefulness of imagology as a working method as far as cultural translation is concerned. The significance of the study lies in investigating how imagology may help translators as cultural mediators understand discursive and representational conventions. To this end, we attempt to analyse the content of some English online articles randomly selected and their Arabic translation based on imagological approaches. The findings reveal that depictions of young Arabs vary according to the underlying contexts. They are often characterised by overgeneralisations, ingrained stereotypes and broad prejudices. Society, religion, and Arab Spring movements often influence youth representations. Contextual and textual analyses as part of imagological approaches play a central role in the selection, understanding, decision-making, and reception stages. Imagological tools can explain and highlight textual, discursive, semantic, representational, and translational choices as well as functions and characteristics of various imagotypes and topos.

The representation of Yugoslavia and its populace in Life and Time magazines from the end of World War II until the rise of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia in 1945 and the subsequent death of President Josip Broz Tito in 1980 was characterized by fluctuations that aligned with the volatility of relations between Washington and Belgrade. The accession of the communist regime to power was viewed as a foreseeable outcome, as the population of this region of Europe, due to their impoverished and uneducated state, was believed to be ill-equipped to comprehend and embrace the concept of democracy. Consequently, individuals were selectively chosen to be depicted in a positive light when Yugoslavia was once again considered an ally following the conflict with the Cominform in 1948. Nevertheless, the representation of the Yugoslav people was brief and superficial, lacking in any true endeavor to demonstrate empathy for their situation and hardships. In spite of efforts to showcase certain favorable aspects, the representation of Yugoslavia that evolved over time in the magazines was predominantly consistent with the Cold War preconceptions that Americans associated with communism. This representation was infused with elements of nineteenth-century imperial Balkanism, indicating that Life and Time were disinclined to deviate far from the predetermined framework and societal roles assigned to them.

Livy’s account of the Bacchanalia of 186 BCE has been extensively discussed by scholars in the past. Earlier scholars have focused on whether Livy described an actual conspiracy against the state or rather a crisis in 1st century BCE Rome. When analysing Livy’s account within the field of imagological studies, valuable new insights will become available. It will be shown that in writing his account of the Bacchic festival, Livy wanted to warn his readers of the dangers of indecent behaviour – not just on an individual level, but also for the Roman state. If too many people (especially young eques who were trained for political office) were led astray, this would have unforeseeable consequences. Finally, it will be shown that we are not simply dealing with a conspiracy or a crisis, but rather a scenario showing how a (party fictional) conspiracy against decent moral behaviour could have led to a crisis in the state.

The paper analyzes the travel letters of Konstantin Bogdanović (1811-1854), a Serbian lawyer, writer, publicist, and politician who is regarded in literary historiography as one of the founders of Serbian literary criticism. Despite their significance, his travel writings have received little scholarly attention thus far. His two articles, "Letters from Paris" and "Letters from London", which were published serially in Theodor Pavlović's Serbski narodni list in 1846, represent the genesis of Serbian travel epistolography, particularly those written intentionally for publication in periodicals. The paper focuses on imagotypical elements in Bogdanović's texts, analyzing French and English national characters comparatively. Using the methodology of comparative imagology, the paper explores the social, political, and literary factors that shaped the hetero-images of these two European nations in Bogdanović's travel letters.

Nowadays, translation studies can be used as a tool for analyzing literary texts in the field of imagology. Among literary texts, plays play an important role in presenting the image of the national identity of each country. Molière presented the image of French national identity in the 17th century in her plays.This research aims to study the transformation of images in the translation of The Misanthrope by Mirzahabibullah Esfahani. For this, we will adapt Ditze's point of view in the field of imagology and Etkind's opinions regarding translation. By analyzing and comparing the images of the source text with those of the target text, we will examine the changes that have occurred. This research shows that the translator modified some images intentionally or not. His translation falls into the categories of translation-approximation and translation-recreation according to Etkind's opinion

This paper explores the representations of Spain, and particularly Spanish women, in five British literary annuals of the late Romantic period (1823-1830): Forget Me Not, The Literary Souvenir, Friendship’s Offering, The Keepsake and The Amulet. Literary annuals were illustrated anthologies of poems, short stories and travelogues which started to be published in Britain in the 1820s and were sold annually as presents for Christmas and New Year. Mostly aimed at a female audience, these annuals were imbued with a spirit of cosmopolitanism, featuring texts about countries and regions from all over the world. Spanish themes were constantly present in the selected literary annuals, where with a few notable exceptions, most female Spanish characters are countermodels of femininity that deviate from the traditional feminine values fostered by these publications and defy the idealised depictions of (British) women appearing in their texts and engravings. These representations of Spanish women, which underline the ethnic and cultural differences between Spain and Britain, are in tune with the romantic image of the country promoted by British writers at the time.

Human consciousness is a complex phenomenon that involves various activities such as perception, interpretation, positioning, and development. However, these activities are influenced by the cultural zeitgeist, available tools, and existing consciousness infrastructure. In the digital age, people are faced with a new awareness contract, which requires us to find new ways of engaging with the consequences of these interactions, rather than relying on fixed working principles of the human mind. To achieve this, we need a new model that can explain how human consciousness is shaped by the big data of the digital age. This model should also describe how significant mechanisms manipulate human consciousness and prevent us from questioning them and developing systematic answers. To develop this model, I conducted a qualitative study that involved face-to-face interviews with 17 participants. The study enriched two models: a "foam consciousness cycle diagram" and a complicated consciousness algorithm cycle. These models are based on image epistemology and incorporate philosophical, sociological, and psychological perspectives. In summary, the digital age requires us to rethink our understanding of human consciousness and develop new models that can help us navigate the complex interactions between technology and society

The aim of the research is to reconstruct the image of Russian Pan-Slavism in the German official press during the Bismarck era. The study examines the characteristic features of this image and its evolution over time, with particular attention given to the relationship between the image of Russian Pan-Slavism and the development of Russiangerman relations. The key source for this research is official newspapers, which were used by the German government to influence public opinion within the country and to transmit unofficial messages to ruling circles in other European states. The relevance of this research lies in the significant impact that historically established images and perceptions have on international relations in the modern world. The study concludes that the official press referred to the stereotypical image of Russian Pan-Slavism as a dangerous threat to the European world, which existed in German society, and contributed to its further strengthening. This image was widely used in the second half of the 1880s during a serious crisis in Russiangerman relations.

This thesis deals with the Romanians as they are depicted in the work from Joachim Wittstock. Romania as a country and the Romanians play an important role for the author. Romania was, is and will forever remain his home, it is the place where he was born, where he grew up and where he developed his identity. In the Transylvanian area he met people belonging to different ethnic groups and cultures, Romanians too, and it must be noted that he viewed them all equally and was tolerant towards them. The first part of this thesis will present characteristics that are typical for Romanians according to the well-known scientist Klaus Heitmann and the second part will exemplify these characteristics in the work from Joachim Wittstock, while also taking into account the imagological theory. Klaus Heitmann declares about the Romanians that they are the object of envy regarding other Nations due to their exceptional characteristics: honesty, loyalty, friendliness, cheerfulness and cleanliness, extraordinary lack of demands for material things in life as well as hospitability to strangers; women of the Romanian nation are hard-working and very efficient, whereas the Romanian farmer is extremely cheerful, carefree and funny, patient and humble. Moreover, it has called to account, that Romanians as a nation are very tolerant towards other nationalities, they respect each and every individual without judging anyone. Moving forward and applying these characteristics in the work of the Transylvanian author Joachim Wittstock it must be delved deeper into the relationship between the concepts presented in the Imagological Theory and the unique way in which the author creates his characters. Concepts such as image, auto-image, hetero-image, stereotype and prejudice are being highlighted throw the characters depicted by Joachim Wittstock. To illustrate these concepts, characters such as Sorin, Remus Petru, Maica Stareță ('Mother Abbess') and Ileana Almăjan must be identified. Sorin implies the auto-image of a perfectionist, who tries to slightly manipulate the opinion of others regarding himself, this point of view is outlined by the fact that he wears two pair of glasses without lenses; Remus Petru is interested in music, that plays the role of a friend, and indicates the stereotype of hard-working Romanians; Maica Stareță ('Mother Abbess') remains as a symbol for the whole nation of religious Romanians, due to the fact that she has no name and the feminine figure Ileana represents the object of fascination for the narrator, while being very different from other girls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article seeks to analyze the work of Iranian modernist authors among others Akhondzadeh via an imagological approach, and to study how and in what style these authors consider in their texts the cultural, sociological and historical distinctions existing between Iranian and European societies. It turns out that Akhondzadeh and his followers, to reveal their inclination towards Western culture, put literature to the benefit of social criticism and in this regard, they explore new literary genres which stay in line so conveniently with their objectives that criticism, despite the stylistic and literary novelties of their work, only focuses on their discourse. In this article, drawing on studies of comparative literature and drawing inspiration from imagology, we aim to analyze the style and structure in Maktoubat by Akhondzdaeh and Sayahi guiad (A traveler narrative). We are of the opinion that the analysis of the image and its aspects will allow us not only to detect the social criticism that the authors try to insinuate to their reader, but also to discover the interests and literary values due to which they can attract the attention of the Iranian reader despite the criticisms that critics could make of their speech. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Istorija 20. Veka is the property of Institute for Contemporary History and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Al-Zaytoonah University of Jordan Journal for Human & Social Studies is the property of Al-Zaytoonah University of Jordan and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Translation can be a tool for analyzing how literary texts portray different cultures and nations. This is especially true for plays, which reflect the national identity of each country through their characters and customs. Molière, a French playwright, created many works that indirectly presented the French people and their society in the 17th century. Some of his plays were translated into Persian by Iranian translators and were introduced to the Iranian readers. This research aims to study how the images of the characters and the culture are transformed in the translation of The Misanthrope by Mirza Habib Esfahani. Through a descriptive-analytical approach, the source text and the target text are compared. The analysis is guided through Ditze's perspective on imagology and Etkind's views on translation. Through a comparative analysis of the images in the original and translated versions, we will investigate the alterations that have been introduced. This study reveals that the translator has modified certain images, either deliberately or inadvertently. Based on Etkind's framework, the translator's approach can be categorized as translation-approximation and translation-recreation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the representations of Spain, and particularly Spanish women, in five British literary annuals of the late Romantic period (1823-1830): Forget Me Not, The Literary Souvenir, Friendship’s Offering, The Keepsake and The Amulet. Literary annuals were illustrated anthologies of poems, short stories and travelogues which started to be published in Britain in the 1820s and were sold annually as presents for Christmas and New Year. Mostly aimed at a female audience, these annuals were imbued with a spirit of cosmopolitanism, featuring texts about countries and regions from all over the world. Spanish themes were constantly present in the selected literary annuals, where with a few notable exceptions, most female Spanish characters are countermodels of femininity that deviate from the traditional feminine values fostered by these publications and defy the idealised depictions of (British) women appearing in their texts and engravings. These representations of Spanish women, which underline the ethnic and cultural differences between Spain and Britain, are in tune with the romantic image of the country promoted by British writers at the time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Research in Comparative Literature is the property of Razi University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Human consciousness is a complex phenomenon that involves various activities such as perception, interpretation, positioning, and development. However, these activities are influenced by the cultural zeitgeist, available tools, and existing consciousness infrastructure. In the digital age, people are faced with a new awareness contract, which requires us to find new ways of engaging with the consequences of these interactions, rather than relying on fixed working principles of the human mind. To achieve this, we need a new model that can explain how human consciousness is shaped by the big data of the digital age. This model should also describe how significant mechanisms manipulate human consciousness and prevent us from questioning them and developing systematic answers. To develop this model, I conducted a qualitative study that involved face-to-face interviews with 17 participants. The study enriched two models: a "foam consciousness cycle diagram" and a complicated consciousness algorithm cycle. These models are based on image epistemology and incorporate philosophical, sociological, and psychological perspectives. In summary, the digital age requires us to rethink our understanding of human consciousness and develop new models that can help us navigate the complex interactions between technology and society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Letonica is the property of University of Latvia, Institute of Literature, Folklore & Art and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article offers an analysis of the collection Ėtiudy o Telʹ-Avive [Etudes about Tel Aviv], which was published in Russian in 2004 and edited by Sonia Chesnina and Leonid Finkelʹ. The study attempts to show the image of the city of Tel Aviv from the perspective of Russian-speaking repatriates. The author treats the analysed texts as non-fiction prose, expressing authentic migration experiences and problems. In those texts, Tel Aviv exists as a city-myth, a city of culture, and a place where a new identity is born and shaped. The analysis allows us to conclude that Etudes about Tel Aviv is not only a text about urban space. It is primarily a cultural text, a place of literary search for knowledge about its inhabitants’ culture, history, and identity. If we look at the relationship between geography and literature, the text (Etudes about Tel Aviv) and the city (Tel Aviv) constitute a “common territory”.

his research aims to explore the image of the children as it is constructed by the educational institution particularly by the teachers in the novel Matilda. This research is a descriptive qualitative study with applies the theory of imagology by Milan Kundera and the image of the child by Loris Malaguzzi. This research used the close textual analysis method to describe and analyze the meaning, structure, and function contained in the text. The result of this research shows that the different images of the children constructed by two teacher characters of the novel. The image of the children constructed by Miss Honey is that the children are innocent, potential, and dependent. While the image of the children constructed by Mrs. Trunchbull is that children are a source of trouble, disgusting, disturbing, and should not exist in the world. Based on the image of the children constructed by Miss Honey and Mrs. Trunchbull, these two teacher figures show different behaviors when they interact with children. Miss Honey tends to pay special attention to children, teach them new things in a fun way, and be open to children. While Mrs. Trunchbull shows abusive behavior in children such as shouting, cursing, and giving harsh punishments to children. Therefore, based on the results of research conducted, it can be concluded that the image of children is not always the same in the eyes of everyone and the image they construct in children affects the way they treat children.

The paper deals with the representation of the German space in “Travel letters from England, Germany and France” by N. I. Gretsch. This text is compared as with author’s other travelogues dedicated to traveling through German lands as well as with the tradition of describing Germany in Russian literature in the end of the 18th – the first half of the 19th centuries. The article reveals the close connection of the spatial imagery in the Gretsch’s work with the sentimentalism world-image of Germany. In accordance with this world-image, German lands are marked mainly with idyllic features. Idyllic loci in the Gretsch’s travelogue are connected with a number of motifs, such as motifs of orderliness, coziness, visual attractiveness, abundance, vitality, purity, peacefulness, silence, justice, contentment, brightness, closeness, patriarchality, achrony, miniaturization. The motif of sacredness of German space is of particular importance for representing the “blessed Germany” in the text. This allows to set the opposition “sacred, law-abiding, peaceful Germany — desecrated, lawless, violent France.”

The article points out the representations that the city of Chișinău had shortly after the Union of Bessarabia with Romania in the notes written by the American John Kaba and the French Emmanuel de Martonne. Westerners visited it in 1919, and their descriptions and information were intended to inform the people of their countries on various aspects, from economic to political and cultural. Although they aimed to make a study, their representations were not always dry, involving aesthetic attitudes. We believe that some passages fix representative and synthetic images of the period, thus enriching the imagological collection of the capital of interwar Bessarabia. For example, Emmanuel de Martonne saw a Chișinău with wide streets intersecting at right angles, beautiful buildings and parks, with shops and museums. This vision proved, according to him, a modern European urban sensibility.

The Russian State Archive of Literature and Art (RGALI) contains reports of Soviet writers and cultural figures who traveled in the 1950s-1980s on creative business trips to socialist countries. Not yet in high demand by researchers, they are at the same time of undoubted interest as a historical source, since they reflect information related to the establishment of bilateral and multilateral cultural ties, the development of literature and art in foreign (in particular, Eastern European) countries, as well as the mood of foreign intelligentsia. The article deals with the report on the trip to Romania in the spring of 1962 by the young playwright Mikhail Filippovich Shatrov (1932–2010). A sincere supporter of the genuine renewal and democratization of the Soviet system, M. Shatrov was pleased with the reception given to him in Romania and highly appreciated the state of theatrical performances in this country. At the same time, he got the impression based on communication with Romanian interlocutors (writers and theatrical figures) that the Romanian society was lagging behind the Soviet one in its readiness to break with the Stalinist legacy. In his view, those responsible for cultural policy preferred to play it safe when it came to staging the Soviet plays in Romania that were critical of Stalin's personality cult, as they might lead the public to undesirable parallels with the current situation in Romania. Moreover, according to M. Shatrov, an atmosphere of fear continued to flourish in Romania, “a terrible legacy of the era of the cult of personality”. On the other hand, he drew attention to the reluctance of some Romanian cultural figures to advertise their old Soviet connections in the face of public opinion, because they were afraid of being compromised in the eyes of their colleagues in the conditions when the Romanian communist regime began to keep distance from the USSR.

The review outlines the major topics of the conference on the American Studies held by RSUH in April 2023. Оn the one hand, the US hinterland, is proud of the reputation of true America with its family values and religious traditionalism as opposed to multicultural and cosmopolitan large urban centers. On the other hand, it often sees itself as a territory associated with the decline of morality, loneliness, poverty, and racial intolerance. The conference organizers proposed to conduct an interdisciplinary study of the problems associated with the life of the American hinterland; to show its self-representation and understanding from the standpoint of the Other; to enter the conversation about the hinterland into the general humanitarian space in order to identify those common elements that form a characteristic idea of the life of provincial America in various discursive practices and contexts in literature, culture, history and political thought of the XIX–XXI centuries. The conference topics included depiction of the US hinterland in literature; gothic narrative and hinterland; American hinterland as a factor and actor in the modern US politics; its images in visual discourse; its role in creating the image of the United States; a comparative analysis of Russian and American hinterland representations. Additionally, 2023 marks the centenary of the Walt Disney Company. Special round-table discussion was arranged at the conference commemorating this event. The conference featured two presentations: the educational internet-project “Discover America” (80 lectures and 80 videos) finished by the publication of three books both in Russian and English at RSUH Press and the collective monograph “Dreiser’s Path”: A View with a Modern Lens.

Chuang Tzu, one of ancient China’s cultural canons, has been translated into massive English versions in the past century. Consequently, these English renderings, to some extent, reflect the chronological change of reconceptualization of ancient China’s image from the people’s perspective from English-spoken countries. Thus, from the angle of imagology in comparative literature, this paper probes into the recreated ancient China’s images manifested through the refractions and transcreations in the English translations of Chuang Tzu interpreted by overseas translators. As a result, different national images have been found in Chung Tzu’s expedition into the English world, which respectively are a gospel-graced ancient China, a mysterious ancient China, an ecological ancient China and a multi-faceted ancient China. Through a meticulous study of the image variations, the operational mechanism of Sino-foreign translational communication has been clarified to better burrow into the formation of the Westerns’ general impression on the Eastern nation.