Статті в журналах з теми "French drama – 19th century – Translations into German"

The paper notes that attempts to study the personality of Macrobius (5th century) and his creative heritage lasted for more than one century in foreign historiography — German, French-speaking and Italian. However, the interest of Western European scholars to the Latin author and his texts under the titles “Saturnalia”, “Commentary on the Dream of Scipio” and “On the Differences and Similarities of Greek and Latin Verbs” began to grow rapidly only in the 19th century. This was due to the publication of critical editions of Macrobius’ texts and the appearance of their French translations. The studies of the 19th — 21st centuries devoted to Macrobius and his texts are analyzed; all of them are considered fundamental in French-speaking, German and Italian historiography, which formed scientific schools in the field of research, called “Macrobius-Studies”.

AbstractIn the second half of the 18th century and early 19th century, a rising interest in Old Norse literature outside the Nordic countries could be noted that, to a great deal, focused on the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda as sources for Norse mythology. This interest is also reflected in the works of the Polish historian Joachim Lelewel (1786–1861) who, in 1807 and 1828, published translations and retellings of the Poetic and the Prose Edda. These were based on French, German and Latin translations. The second edition of 1828 is characterised by a more comprehensive section with eddic poetry, the selection of which is also explained by Lelewel, as well as an essay on pre-Christian religion that also includes a research overview and a list of editions/translations of the Eddas.

1 ‘Literaturoper’: Literary Opera and the ‘problem of opera’Right up to the end of the 19th century, an opera libretto was conceived differently from a stage play. This was because, from the outset, the libretto was thought out and constructed with a view to being set to music and sung. The librettist, whether he was writing in Italian or French, had to respect the conventions of this particular literary genre, conventions that were derived from a specific type of musical drama comprised of an alternation between recitatives (action) and arias or ensembles (tableaux). The use of specific lines and rhymes made the libretto into a ‘pre-composition’, and gave the composer an architectural plan to follow.

In a diachronic perspective from the 16th century to the present, this article inves­ tigates translated interlinguistic agreement and difference in the use of the temporally marked Slovenian prepositional phrases that appeared in the semantic group of verba dicendi in the first two books of the Old Testament and the New Testament of the old­ est Slovenian translation of the Bible, from 1584, and that were replaced in the mod­ em literary language in the 19th century by the introduction of prepositionless or other prepositional patterns. A comparison is made on the basis of Internet publications of parallel sections of six foreign language translations (Latin, German, two English [17th century and modem], French and Russian), and the extent to which these preposition­ al phrases are covered by older or modem literary Slovenian syntactic patterns is deter­ mined .

<p>Varias leyendas publicadas en la prensa española del siglo XIX son traducciones o adaptaciones de leyendas publicadas en libros y en periódicos franceses, que a su vez son traducciones de leyendas alemanas. Las fuentes remiten a personajes y acontecimientos de la Edad Media, aunque reinterpretados primero en el Renacimiento y después en la época romántica. Se analizan además algunas de sus versiones iconográficas.</p><p><strong>Abstract</strong>:</p><p>Several legends published in the 19th century Spanish press are translations or adaptations of legends published in books and French newspapers, which in turn are translations of German legends. The sources refer to characters and events from the Middle Ages, although they were reinterpreted first in the Renaissance and later in the Romantic period. Some of their iconographic versions are also analysed.</p><p> </p>

It is a well-known fact that the Turkic-speaking peoples of Eurasia and Siberia possess a rich heritage of oral epic poetry. Much has been written down, and in some areas the oral tradition of epic poetry is still flourishing today. While a few of the early texts, written down in the 19th century, are available in older German translations (A. Schiefner, W. Radloff), the majority of these epics can only be accessed either in their original language or (in some cases) in Russian translation. Translations of Turkic oral epics into European languages such as English, German or French are urgently needed in order to familiarize epic scholars outside the Turkic- or Russianspeaking world with this important corpus. Translating Turkic epics into European languages poses, however, a number of problems. In the following some of these problems are identified and discussed with reference to my translations of the Uzbek oral epics Ravshan and Alpamysh into German, the Karakalpak epic Edige and the Kirghiz epic Manas both into English. ´The latter translation is still ongoing; two volumes have so far been completed. The translation problems concern basic methodological questions such as the choice between a literary and a literal translation and the strategies available to overcome differences in linguistic structure between the source languages and the target languages. An important element in translation is not only the linguistic, but also the stylistic level of the text. In addition, a translation has to pay attention to paralinguistic aspects (e.g., music and performance modes) and to the cultural world of the original. The translator is not only a mediator between languages, but also between cultures.

The article examines the tradition of research on the topic of the priesthood in the legacy of St. Gregory the Theologian from the 19th century to 2020. The review includes general monographs on both the formation of the episcopate in Late Antiquity and specifically the legacy of Nazianzen, dissertations, publications in periodicals, dictionaries and encyclopedias on this topic, as well as on a wide range of related topics, key publications and translations of the Apology on his Flight — St. Gregory’s central text on the priesthood — in English, Russian, German, French and Italian. The following periodization of historiography is proposed: the early period (19th — middle of 20th centuries), theological studies of the Apology in the 50s–70s, studies and publications by J.Bernardi, the “new wave” of the 1990s and its development in the 21st century. In the last period, three main trends are identified: the Theologian’s texts on the priesthood are considered in the context of: the development of the image of a monk-bishop in Late Antiquity; platonic political philosophy; Gregory’s main theological concepts. The importance of research on other aspects of Gregory’s work is shown especially the categories θεωρία/πρᾶξις and his autobiographical texts. Two lines of further research are proposed as the most promising: intertextual analysis of the Apology and integral analysis of the entire legacy of St. Gregory through the prism of the priesthood theme.

The ethical essence of cultural dialogue. The definition of comparative literary studies in Slovakia. Historical poetics in the works of D. Ďurišin, focused on the typological essence of literary phenomena on the basis of interrelating theoretical and developmental aspects of national literature. The differences of Slovak methodology from Western positivist models of the study of interliterariness. Parallel existence of the principles of literary history and criticism in the reception analyses of Russian, German and French literatures by older Slovak scholars. The onset of realism in Slovak literature at the end of the 19th century (S. Hurban Vajanský). The important contribution of J. Felix’s critical reflection of universalist tendencies in European and esp. modern French writing. The complexity of organically incorporating these impulses into the context of Slovak literature as a result of the provincial character of a “small” nation. The wealth of translations from contemporary world literatures and its positive impact on the work of many Slovak writers in spite of the discontinuity of research in this area after 1989. Urgent need to return to similar forms of literary-cultural reflection and self-reflection through reviving an intensive philological, linguistic, theoretical-critical and historical study at our universities.

The ethical essence of cultural dialogue. The definition of comparative literary studies in Slovakia. Historical poetics in the works of D. Ďurišin, focused on the typological essence of literary phenomena on the basis of interrelating theoretical and developmental aspects of national literature. The differences of Slovak methodology from Western positivist models of the study of interliterariness. Parallel existence of the principles of literary history and criticism in the reception analyses of Russian, German and French literatures by older Slovak scholars. The onset of realism in Slovak literature at the end of the 19th century (S. Hurban Vajanský). The important contribution of J. Felix’s critical reflection of universalist tendencies in European and esp. modern French writing. The complexity of organically incorporating these impulses into the context of Slovak literature as a result of the provincial character of a “small” nation. The wealth of translations from contemporary world literatures and its positive impact on the work of many Slovak writers in spite of the discontinuity of research in this area after 1989. Urgent need to return to similar forms of literary-cultural reflection and self-reflection through reviving an intensive philological, linguistic, theoretical-critical and historical study at our universities.

Abstract The pleasant, quiet archaeological site of Olympia appears a far cry from the fame of the ancient Olympic Games, or from the spectacle of the modern variety. In this article, I discuss the end of ancient Olympia and the gradual re-emergence of the archaeological site. After Olympia was abandoned in early Byzantine times, its location was no longer remembered. However, its fame remained, partly through translations of ancient texts, notably Pausanias, partly through the revival of the Olympic Games in the 19th century. Early modern travelers and the French scholars who worked at the site as part of the Expedition de la Morée hoped that the site could fulfill their high expectations, in particular with regards to ancient sculpture. As the excavations continued, since 1875 as part of the research program of the German Archaeological Institute, the buried remains have revealed a different material reality. As a result of the combination of continuous research and restoration up until the present day the site of Olympia now provides an independent view on the past.

Abstract This is the first Italian translation of some selections from the Ëddoštho* “Reminiscences” of Sadriddin Ajnī (Bukhara 1878—Dushanbe 1954), the author commonly regarded as the leading representative of modern Tajik literature. Ajnī’s Reminiscences, divided into four parts and published between 1948 and 1954, are a collection of lively short-stories where the author described his childhood spent in two villages near Bukhara, as well as his youth and schooldays at the madrasa in the last two decades of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. Parts I and II were more often translated into many languages, both in the Republics of the former Soviet Union and in other countries. Translations in Russian (parts I-IV), German and French (parts I-II) have appeared in the 1950s. In English, separate chapters from the work have been published in academic journals from the 1950s onward; the most recent English translation (part I) is The sands of Oxus. Boyhood reminiscences of Sadriddin Aini, tr. by J.R. Perry and R. Lehr (Costa Mesa, Mazda Publishers, 1998).

SummaryThe study is focused on the reception of the then-popular Dialogues of the Dead / Conversations by Syrian philosopher and rhetorician Lucian of Samosata (120 AD-180 AD) in Czech literature on the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, with occasional insight into the intermediary French and German reception. Thanks to their linguistic refinement, Lucian’s dialogues quickly became a popular reading for the learning of Greek at the time, and in the 18th century, they contributed significantly to the development of journalism. This tendency was also present in the revivalist journal Hlasatel český during the period of 1806–1808 when it featured translations of several of Lucian’s dialogues alongside Jungmann’s conversation On the Czech Tongue (1808). The said conversations evoke the form of Lucianesque dialogues of the dead, which was to be the model of antiquity for the Czech classicism of the time, and they fill this form with thoughts of enlightenment and contemporary nationalism while capitalizing on the models of contemporary educational practices at Prague universities.

The motive of revenge is analyzed on the basis of the French topos, considered as a space of crime and punishment. It is noted that the novel by E. T. A. Hoffmann and the novel by J. Janin are united by attention to fate as a catastrophic concept inscribed in the picture of life in France. The relevance of the study is associated with the problems of the formation of national identity, national image by romantics of Germany and France. It is shown that the German romantic, who relied on fantasy as a means of understanding and cognizing life, became a model for J. Janin in the perception of “observed material”. Special attention is paid to the artistic embodiment of life as an “ugly abyss” in which the heroines of E. T. A. Hoffmann and J. Janin find themselves. The results of a comparative analysis of the novel, the action of which belongs to the second half of the 17th century are presented in the article. But the writer discusses the morals of the heroes from the point of view of the romantic canon, and the novel, the action of which is attributed to the end of the 20s of the 19th century. The novelty of the research is connected with the fact that the drama of human existence (female) is viewed as a result of the fragility of earthly existence, the loss of faith in the rationality of the universe. This approach made it possible to analyze the national forms of romanticism, the individual approach of Hoffmann and Janin to understanding the moral and the sinful.

The article focuses on the role of cultural exchanges between Russia and China in the 19th century and highlights the following aspects of Russian-Chinese cultural interactions at the initial stage: the first trips of Chinese diplomats abroad, the role of the Orthodox mission in spreading knowledge about China in Russia, literature exchange, the contribution of Russian writers to popularizing Chinese culture and of Chinese writers and revolutionaries to popularizing Russian literature. The author came to the following conclusions. The Chinese diplomatic mission in Russia in the 19th century was not numerous (Bin Chun, Li Hongzhan and some others); visits of official delegations were not frequent either, which had some implications for the negligible outcome of long-term interactions and cultural exchanges. Another opportunity to get acquainted with China and Chinese culture was provided by the establishment of the Russian Orthodox Mission, which played an important role in spreading knowledge about China in Russia, as well as in the birth of Russian Chinese studies and the formation of a pleiad of Orientalists (Bichurin, Vasilyev). Chinese literature in Russia was in demand among not only scholars, but also writers, who contributed greatly to the dissemination of Chinese culture. Russian literature developed an interest in Chinese culture and classical literature, which was reflected in the works of Pushkin and Tolstoy. “Chinese motifs” are heard in Ruslan and Lyudmila, Eugene Onegin, and “To a Friend”. Pushkin also researched and edited expedition reports and letters about China. He was a friend of Bichurin and positively evaluated his translation of San Zi Jing (Rus. Troeslovie; En. The Three Character Classic). Tolstoy seriously studied Confucianism and Taoism and was directly involved in the translation of the Tao Te Ching from French and German. China also gradually began to become familiar with Russian literature. Tolstoy's works had the greatest influence - they were very common in China at the beginning of the twentieth century. Many young people of the time - first of all, revolutionaries and writers, the first leaders of the Communist Party of China (Chen Duxiu, Li Dazhao, Lu Xun and Hu Shih, Mao Dun, Ba Jin, etc.) - liked Tolstoy's works. The worldview of Tolstoy the thinker and the humanistic spirit of his works became an important spiritual nourishment for the development of modern Chinese literature; together with translations of his texts, Russian cultural and philosophical views entered the Chinese spiritual space. Further processes of interaction and exchanges between the two countries took place in various directions, became a link for modern international cooperation and the desire for common development at the beginning of the 21st century.

The article concerns one of the most important characters of national Italian puppet theatre, the marionette Pulcinella, and its influence on the images of folk heroes of puppet and drama theaters, street performances and literary works in European countries. National invariants of this character in the theaters and literatures of Western and Central Europe from the time of the appearance of this character to the beginning of the twentieth century are highlighted. Due to the expansion of economic and political ties, from the beginning of the 17th century, Pulcinella, together with itinerant artists and puppeteers, begins its transition to most European national folk theaters and literature. Depending on the geography of the country, its national character traits and national stereotypes, Pulcinella changes his image, his name, his behavior, and language. However, what is the most important, each national puppet retains both external and internal features of their original predecessor, Pulcinella. Examples provided in the article prove that most of the national invariants of Pulcinella possess his main character trait, that is, a fight against injustice and fierce criticism of authorities. Such characters as the English Punch, the Dutch Pickelgering, the French Polychenelle and Guignol, the German and Austrian Hanswurth, the Spanish and Portuguese Don Cristobal, the Czech Kaszparek and the German Kasperle invariably pursue two main goals: to protect the wronged and to defeat the evil In each of the countries, the characters created on the prototype of Pulcinella, were warmly accepted by the public and became very popular, especially with common people. At the same time, they differed from the original with their national coloring; they became the mouthpiece of national character traits, national ethnic stereotypes. The article seconds the opinion of many literary scholars that the origins the marionette character of Pulcinella can be traced to the Italian folk theater hero of Maccus, mainly because Pulcinella adopts the features of that ancient character's appearance, such as an irregularly shaped head, a large hump on his back, a hooked nose, a large belly and lively shrewd eyes. With small changes and variations, these features of appearance are received not only by Pulcinella, but also by the numerous national invariants of this character in Europe. However, all these national invariants also preserve the typical traits of Pulcinella's character, such as cockiness, cunning, thirst for justice and victory in an argument. In the 19th century, the Pulcinella marionette ‘returns’ to Italy and transforms into the wooden puppet Pinocchio. Carlo Collodi’s novel becomes so popular that it is translated in many countries of the world, and the new characters modelled on Pinocchio, acquire national features, such as Zeppel Kern by the German writer Otto Julius Birbaum. This begins a new round of Pulcinella's influence on the world culture.

James W. Underhill. Voice and Versification in Translating Poems. University of Ottawa Press, 2016. xiii, 333 p. After its very strong stance in the 19th century, the versification part of translation scholarship was gradually declining during the 20th century, substituted by the innovative searches for semasiology, culture and society in text. The studies of structural and cognitive approaches to writing, its postcolonial identity or gender-based essence uncovered a lot of issues of the informational essence of texts, but overshadowed the meaning of their formal structures. The book ‘Voice and Versification in Translating Poems’ welcomes us to the reconsideration of what formal structures in poetry can mean. James William Underhill, a native of Scotland and a graduate of Hull University, got Master’s and PhD degrees from Université de Paris VIII (1994 and 1999 respectively). He has translated from French, German and Czech into English, and now, he is full professor of poetics and translation at the English Department of Rouen University as well as the director of the Rouen Ethnolinguistics Project. His scholarly activities focused on the subject of metaphor, versification, cultural linguistics and translation. He also authored ‘Humboldt, Worldview, and Language’ (Edinburgh University Press, 2009), ‘Creating Worldviews: Ideology, Metaphor and Language’ (Edinburgh University Press, 2011), and ‘Ethnolinguistics and Cultural Concepts: Truth, Love, Hate and War’ (Cambridge University Press, 2012). the belief of the impossibility of translating poems, poems are translated and sometimes translated quite successfully. In contemporary literary criticism, one observes the contradiction that despiteJames W. Underhill investigates this fascinating observable fact by deploying the theory of voice. The first part of the book, ‘Versification’, is more theoretical as the researcher is to summarizes the existing views and introduce fundamental terms and guidelines. The book is strongly influenced by the French theoretician Henri Meschonnic, but other academic traditions of researching verse are also present. This part includes four chapters where the author discusses recent scholarship in the subject-matter (‘Form’), theories of verse structure (‘Comparative Versification’), rhythm and stress systems (‘Meter and Language’), and the issues of patterning and repetition (‘Beyond Metrics’). The author shapes the key principle of his views that ‘[v]oice represents the lyrical subject of the poem, the “I” that creates it, but that is also created in and by the poem’ (p. 44). This stipulation drives him to the analysis of five facets in poetry translation: 1) the voice of a language; 2) the voice of an era; 3) the voice of a literary movement or context of influence; 4) the voice of a poet; 5) the voice of the particular poem. Part 2, ‘Form and Meaning in Poetry Translation’, offers more theorizing on how we can (or should) translate form. The triple typology of main approaches – (translating form blindly; translating a poem with a poem; translating form meaningfully) – sounds like a truism. The generic approach might be more beneficial, as the variety of terms applied in poetry translation and applicable to the idea of the book – (poetic transfusion, adaptation, version, variant) – would widen and deepen the range of questions trying to disclose the magic of transformations while rendering poetry of a source author and culture to the target reader as an individual and a community. The experience of a reader (individual and cultural personality) could be a verifying criterion for translating strategies shaped the translator’s experience. In Part 3, ‘Case Studies’, the author explores the English translations of Charles Baudelaire’s poetry and the French and German translations of Emily Dickinson’s poems. All translations theoreticians and practitioners will agree with the researcher’s statement that “[t]ranslating that simplicity is inevitably arduous” (p. 187). Balancing between slavery-like formalist operations and free transcreations, translators experiment on strategies of how to reproduce the original author’s voice and versification successfully enough. The longing categorically pushes us to the necessity of understanding what is in language but communication, how a nation’s emotionality is built linguistically, and why a language applies certain meters for specific emotional articulation. ‘Glossary’ (p. 297-319), compiled on the basis of theoretical reflections in the main text on the book, is of significant practical value. This could really become a good sample to follow in any academic book. This book takes us closer to the questions ‘How can a form mean something?’ and ‘How can we verify this meaning?’, though further research merged in ethnolingual, ethnopoetic and ethnomusical studies still promises to be extremely rich.

“The oldest hath borne most”: The old age of Shakespeare’s King Lear in Czech translationsfrom the 18th and 19th centuriesA number of critics have noted the importance of the motif of old age in Shakespeare’s King Lear, chiefly the old age of the play’s eponymous character. Indeed, the King’s age serves in the play as a powerful dramaturgical device, a kind of prism through which the audience sees not just Lear’s character, but also other characters’ deeds and most of the play’s action. When watching the play, the audience is constantly reminded of Lear’s age, both directly, through Lear’s or other characters’ speeches, and indirectly, through a number of physical details. It could be said that the King’s age is employed at all possible levels of the drama, becoming the main impulse for the development of the plot.King Lear is one of the first plays by Shakespeare to be translated into Czech, and various dramatists attempted to localise it for Czech audiences. The present paper examines three early translations of King Lear into Czech: by Prokop Šedivý 1792, Josef Kajetán Tyl 1835, and Ladislav Čelakovský 1856. While the last mentioned version is the first “true” translation of the play into Czech, using Shakespeare’s unabridged English original as the source text, the two earlier translations are rather loose adaptations, almost certainly based on various German stage versions, altering significant portions of the story and cutting entire scenes and speeches or even characters.Surprisingly, even the earliest Czech translators seem to have been aware of the dramaturgi­cal importance of the dominant motif in the original play and, in spite of the sometimes drastic alterations, tried to preserve it in their versions as much as possible. Nevertheless, in various passages from the Czech versions, we may observe that even with this knowledge, the translators at times struggled with a number of nuances in the original, not always being able to preserve the complexity of a character or dramatic situation. This was only achieved by Ladislav Čelakovský, whose mid-19th century text was the first to represent Shakespeare’s King Lear, both in terms of form and, of course, in terms of the motifs of the original.„Najstarszy wycierpiał najwięcej”: starość króla Leara Szekspira w czeskich przekładach okresu odrodzenia narodowegoWielu badaczy zwróciło uwagę na znaczenie motywu starości w Królu Learze Szekspira, zwłaszcza na starość tytułowego protagonisty dramatu. Królewska starość służy w istocie jako mocny środek dramaturgiczny owego utworu, w pewnym sensie jest to pryzmat, przez który widzowie spoglądają nie tylko na samego Leara, ale także na czyny pozostałych postaci i akcję sztuki w ogóle. Podczas przedstawienia uwagę widzów nieustannie przyciąga wiek Leara, bądź bezpośrednio, a więc w samych wypowiedziach Leara lub innych postaci, bądź za pomocą szeregu detali fizycznych. Można stwierdzić, że wiek króla pojawia się we wszystkich warstwach dramatu i staje się głównym impulsem rozwoju akcji.Król Lear jest jednym z pierwszych dramatów Szekspira, które zostały przełożone na język czeski, a w sumie istnieje około piętnastu czeskich przekładów tego tekstu. Niniejszy esej bada trzy wczesne przekłady wersję Prokopa Šedivego 1792, Josefa Kajetána Tyla 1835 i Ladisla­va Čelakovskiego 1856. Podczas gdy ostatni wymieniony tekst jest pierwszym „prawdziwym” przekładem Króla Leara na czeski, wychodzącym z nieskróconego angielskiego oryginału jako wzorca, pozostałe dwa przekłady są raczej wolniejszymi adaptacjami, prawie na pewno opartymi na różnych niemieckich adaptacjach pierwotnej sztuki, w których zmienione są znaczące elementy historii, a czasem całe dialogi i sceny a nawet postaci.Jednak nawet pierwsi czescy tłumacze mimo wszystko świadomi byli dramaturgicznego znaczenia dominującego motywu starości w pierwotnym tekście i nawet w pewnych drastycznych skrótach tekstu starali się go w jak największym stopniu zachować. Z konfrontacji różnych fragmentów badanych wersji czeskich wypływa, że i w tym wypadku tłumacze często walczyli z różnymi niuansami oryginału i nie zawsze potrafili zachować daną postać czy sytuację w całej jej rozpiętości. Osiągnął to dopiero Ladislav Čelakovski. Jego przekład zpołowy XIX wieku był pierwszym, w którym udało się w pełni wyrazić tekst Szekspirowskiego Króla Leara od strony formalnej, oraz zachować sens poszczególnych motywów oryginału.

The objectives of the research. The article is devoted to the study of the main parameters of the Marian theme embodiment in the art of music, with highlighting the aspects of history and genre stylistics. It is noted that the choice of the topic is related to the study of the works by the Kharkiv composer of Polish origin Konstanty Antoni Gorski, who worked in Kharkiv for many years (1880–1910) and belongs to the founders of his academic musical culture. The article lays the methodological basis for studying interpretation of the Marian theme in the works by this author, for that the analysis of the relevant sources (theological, musicological, etc.) has been carried out to derive the genre-stylistic classifications for this phenomenon (confessional, genre, national classifications). The results of the study. It is noted that the Marian theme in music can be classified as one of its central themes. This is due to the general ethical and natural content of the European music of the academic layer, which itself, as it is known, originated from the Church music and retained the features of high contemplation inherent in the cult genres, which determined the prospect line for the subsequent development of the Christian world music. The study emphasizes that the image of the Blessed Virgin Mary acts as a part and an important component of the New Testament, where two her main hypostases are presented. The Virgin Mary is honored and praised, firstly, as the Mother of the Son of God, who experienced suffering with him for the good of humanity, and secondly, as the intercessor and guardian of people who believe in her divine power and destiny. Here, the two interpretations of the Blessed Virgin’s image should be borne in mind, which are implemented at the confessional level – in the Catholic and Orthodox liturgical service. The whole branch of knowledge, called Mariology, is devoted to the study of these issues in the European theology and art history. The musical aspects of this field, presented in the monograph by O. Nemkova (2013), are closely related to religious teachings, as well as to their secular reflection at the level of the genre, style and stylistics of the musical works. The musical interpretation of the Blessed Virgin’s image, coming from Catholicism is based on the postulates of Her Divine destiny, which is reflected in the canonical texts in Latin, among which two main ones stand out – “Stabat Mater” and “Salve Regina”. These texts are realized in the cantata genre, the basis of which is the style of da chiesa, that is, the concerto itself in the church that accompanies the service in honor of Virgin Mary. The latter takes place in such holidays: Conception of Mary by Her mother Anna, Nativity of Mary, Presentation of Mary, Annunciation, Dormition of the Mother of God. The prayer “Ave Maria” is also very popular, and it has become for many European authors the basis of both applied religious and secular works, an example of which is the music of Early Baroque, Romanticism and Modern times. The secularization processes that began in the music of the Christian world on the turn of the Late Renaissance and Baroque (the watershed here is the 1600 year, the official year of the opera genre birth), called to life two groups of works on Marian themes: 1) the compositions nearby to the canonical original, as a rule, Latin texts (they were distributed among Catholics by religion and in Catholic countries); 2) the works modified, based on translations and free narrations of canonical texts given in the national languages and in suitable stylistics of one or another national culture (this is characteristic of Protestantism, as well as of Orthodoxy). There is also a deep line of interpretation of the Blessed Virgin’s image, personifying the eternal idea of motherhood and femininity, which is equally characteristic of many national musical cultures, in particular, the non-religious wave that manifested itself in Slavic music, first at the turn of the 19th – 20th centuries, and then – during the last two decades of the 20th century. It is noted that Gorski, remaining a devout Catholic by the nature of his activity in such interfaith cultural center as Kharkiv in the late 19th – the first two decades of the 20th centuries, embodied in his work the traditions and demands coming from the Polish (Catholic) as well as the Ukrainian (Orthodox) and French and German (Lutheran, Protestant) musical cultures. On this basis, three of his opuses devoted to Virgin Mary arose: the Catholic cantata “Salve Regina” (for voice, violin and organ), the concerto-cantata in French “Salutation a la Sainte Vierge” (for soprano accompanied by choir, organ, string quintet and two French horns), and the choral concerto for the Orthodox mixed choir “Zriaszcze mia bezglasna” on the Old Slavonic text. Each of these works is a special genre form, with which Gorski works as with a standard model equipped with a lexical layer of a certain musical stylistics, primarily national. The Polish song and romanza sources are traced in the first of the works, along with the obvious influence of the opera arias. In the cantata on the French text, echoes of not only opera scenes are heard, but also the elements of the programme music, story-telling, characteristic of French musical style. Finally, the Orthodox choral Concerto on the Old Slavonic text demonstrates the typical genre of the Ukrainian music – the large form intended for collective choral performance that was the equivalent of a symphony in the Western European musical culture. Conclusion. It is proved that, guided by the world experience, Konstanty Antoni Gorski embodies all these models in three Marian works – the canonical church cantata, the larger-scale secular cantata, the a cappella choral concerto, while remaining a composer with original and unique intonational thinking. Gorski in these three compositions appears as a neoclassic, subordinating the original genres to his own creative intentions, which makes the music of these compositions comprehensible and accessible to a wide audience. It was that for the purpose to popularize the opuses by Gorski this article has been written.

Formulation of the problem. In the globalized time-space of the 21st century, the musical heritage left by M.V. Lysenko motivates to comprehend at a new level the phenomenon of the creative universalism of the artist, the multiple manifestations of his musical-social, educational, ethnographic and composing activities. Given the importance of the choral singing for nurturing the national consciousness of young musicians, the role of M. Lysenko’s opera heritage for children and adolescents should be noted. The choice of the theme was actualized by the iconic premiere of M. Lysenko’s children’s opera called “Winter and Spring” (2017) at the Great Hall of Kharkiv National University of Arts named after I.P. Kotlyarevsky,performed by young performers, which coincided with honouring the memory of the great Kobzar (the 175th anniversary since his birthday). In particular, the orchestration was performed by Yelizar Pashchenko, the stage director – Sofia Melnikova; the conductor –the author of the article. Thus, M. Lysenko’s children’s opera is still relevant for young artists in terms of their professional and national self-growth. The purpose of the article is to systematize the manifestations of artistic universalism in the activities of M.V. Lysenko in the aspect of phenomenology of the creativity of the composer on the example of the genre of children’s opera. The object of the study is the Ukrainian music tradition; the subject – music-educational activity of M. Lysenko in the aspect of its actualization in the contemporary cultural and artistic space. The analysis of recent publications on the topic. The reflection of M.V. Lysenko’s creative heritage in its aspects was performed in the studies by the classics of Ukrainian studies (K. Kvitka (1986), M. Rylsky (1927), O. Pchilka (1913a, 1913b), L. Arhimovych, M. Gordiychuk (1992)), and by the modern scholars (L. Corniy (2011), S. Grytsa (2007)). One of the fundamental editions is the book-album called “Mykola Lysenko’s World. National identity, music and politics of Ukraine of the 19th– the beginning of the 20thcenturies»(compiled by T. Bulat and T. Filenko (2009)). However, there is no phenomenological approach to the master’s creative work in these sources. The presentation of the main material. M. Lysenko was a personality gifted with many talents, at that time he was presenting the figure of a universal personality – on the one hand, an intellectual, and on the other – an educator. He read in the original language the works by Russian, Polish, German, French writers (Dumas, Eugene Sue), independently studied the works by R. Schuman and R. Wagner, Y.S. Bach, performed virtuosic compositions by F. Liszt. The manifestations of the artistic universalism of M.V. Lysenko as a criterion of the composer’s activity in the light of the problem of self-identification of Ukrainian culture at the stage of its formation have been systematized. The composer’s outlook and aspects of his creative life have been characterized. Lysenko’s music-educational activities began the process of democratization of music education in Kyiv. So, in 1904 he opened the School of Drama and Music. He focused on the programs of Moscow and St. Petersburg Conservatories. Therefore, on the stage of the educational institution the authors of the modern version of the opera “Winter and Spring” take the ideas of the founder of the national musical culture. Their purpose was to preserve the holistic concept of the development of the musical form of the opera. The ancient folk intonations, the expressive and difficult in the technical performancesub-voices, the varied and original use of the fret, reflected in the melody of children’skolyadka (carols) and vesnyanka (spring songs), helped the young performers to achieve some level of the performing skills. It should be noted that the final choir (vesnyanka) “And it’s spring already, and it’s already good”, as well as the choral scenes of carolling and spring celebrations are in low demand in the modern choral performance and need to be popularized. For example, the choral scene that begins with the kolyadka called “Herod Is Damned” can be performed as a compulsory piece at children’s choral competitions in Ukraine. The opera is quite technically difficult to perform. Children’s mass scenes “cement” the opera’s musical material. The choir of the younger age children performed the first choral song “Go, Go, Let’s Meet”, built on the invocative intonation of the big tertiary, there are jumps on octave and the fifth; by means of harmonization, the composer gives a colourful sounding to the choir’s kolyadka and shchedrivka (New Year Ukrainian song). Conclusions. In the choral scene of the children’s opera called “Winter and Spring”, the composer applied such techniques as: the combination of shchedrivka and kolyadka in the choir “New Joy Began”; the techniques of folk polyphony: unison chants (vesnyanka “Cuckoo in the Meadow”), the tertiary doubles and octave thickenings (the ancient kolyadka “Herod Is Damned”); the original means of vocal-choral writing (the final choir “And it’s spring already, and it’s already good”). Thus, M. Lysenko’s creativity is filled, on the one hand, with the love to Ukrainian folklore, and on the other, with the perception of the European spiritual values of the music world, where Ukraine should take its rightful place. This is the phenomenon of self-identification of the professional activity of the great composer and figure of musical culture, which is inherited by the modern musicians of Kharkiv

Teesid: Tartu Ülikooli maailmakirjanduse professori, luuletaja, kirjandusteadlase ja hispaaniakeelse kirjanduse spetsialisti Jüri Talveti tõlketegevuse viljade hulka kuulub luulet ja proosat nii sajandeid vanast Hispaania klassikast kui ka 20. sajandil või tänapäeval romaani keeltes või inglise keeles loodud teostest. Käesolev artikkel keskendub sellele, kuidas professor Talvet on tõlgendanud luule ja poeetika, kuid ka kirjandusajaloo, iseäranis barokk-kirjanduse alaseid küsimusi oma kirjandusteaduslikes esseedes. Vaadeldakse ka tema tõlketegevuse mahtu ja tõlketöö põhimõtteid. Jüri Talvet (born in 1945) is a poet and a scholar of comparative literature, Chair Professor of World Literature at the University of Tartu. His numerous translations of poetry and poetical fiction from the Romance languages and, to a lesser extent, from English, reflect his views on world poetry. Those views are also expressed in his theoretical writings from the years of 1977 to 2015. Having studied English literature as the main subject at the University of Tartu, he early developed an interest in Spanish, in other Iberian languages, and in the Iberoamerican literatures. His translations from that area include works from medieval and early modern literature as well as notable literary achievements from the 20th century and the contemporary era. Talvet’s interpretations of Federico García Lorca and the “Latin American boom” authors are supported by profound insights into the philosophy, aesthetics, and poetics of the 17th century Spanish Baroque literature, known as the literary Golden Age of Spain. The influence which Talvet’s activities have exerted has widened the horizons of Estonia’s literary culture: while in the early 20th century, the previous German, Russian and Finnish leanings were supplemented by orientations to, and translations from, French and Italian literatures, Talvet has helped to enrich the Estonian literary landscape with the mentality and traditions of even more distant language areas, such as Castilian (Spanish), Catalan, Galician, Portuguese, and the Latin American countries. In the section “Quevedo and Góngora” of this article, Talvet’s interpretation of some of the key issues of dispute in the Baroque literature of Spain are studied, based both on his theoretical essays and on his translations of the poetry of Francisco de Quevedo. Talvet has attempted to use the terms of the Baroque philosopher and writer Baltasar Gracián, agudeza, concepto (definable approximately as “conceit” or “wit”) and conceptismo, for the analysis of the late 20th century Estonian poetry. On that background, defnitions of conceptismo and cultismo (the other main school in Spanish Baroque poetry) are offered in this article, with implications that those definitions may have for understanding different styles and methods of poetry in general, and the characteristics of Talvet’s own poems and poetry translations in particular. To escape diffusion in pure sensuality and verbal indulgence, poetry has to rely on concepts as well as images. Talvet’s interpretations of poetry and poetical thinking are found to be close to conceptismo, or with a considerable amount of conceptuality inherent to them. The juxtaposition of paradoxical ideas from different levels of reality, social and psychic, is seen as the essential poetical method that Talvet refers to as he defines, quoting Yuri Lotman, the structural-semantic code of poetry as being “paradigmatic”. In the final section of the article, Talvet’s 23 book-length published translations are listed, including translations from Spanish, Catalan, English and French. The list does not include numerous translations of single poems or cycles of poetry that have appeared in literary journals, nor his contributions to anthologies of poetry, nor the translations from his native Estonian into a foreign language, such as Spanish or English, in which he has participated. His translations encompass lyrical works as well as fiction and plays. Talvet has translated classical European poetry, such as the sonnets of Petrarch and Quevedo and Provençal poems, as well as the rhymed poems of American poets into Estonian with complete metrical correspondence and full rhymes. However, in the latest decades Talvet has expressed scepticism in the sense and feasibility of attempting to convey the rhyming complexities of the major European literatures into Estonian, a language with a considerably smaller potential for finding full rhymes. Accordingly, his three translations of Spanish Baroque drama (by Calderón and Tirso de Molina) employ a liberal method of versification. In all his versatile activities as a poet, a translator, and a theorist of poetry, Professor Talvet has shown great devotion to developing and cultivating aesthetic values. A lot of his colleagues and students have benefited from his friendly advice. Thinking of his contributions to Estonia’s literary tradition, one may repeat and paraphrase the sentence that he used for the conclusion of his essay on the Catalan poet Salvador Espriu in 1977: “to write (and to translate) poetry is to work for the benefit of the people.”

In de oorlogsdagboeken van Joris Van Severen valt zijn belangstelling op voor bepaalde aspecten van de Russische cultuur, die weinig met elkaar gemeen hebben, met name Dostojevski en de Russische revolutie. Dat heeft ertoe geleid dat men het soms zelfs heeft over zijn ‘linkse periode’, wat op zijn minst merkwaardig is in het licht van zijn evolutie naar de corporatistische ideologie van het Verdinaso. In dit onderzoek wordt ingegaan op die twee met elkaar botsende oriëntaties. Het enthousiasme voor Dostojevski kadert in de belangstelling voor de Russische literatuur die op het einde van de 19e eeuw op dreef komt. In ons taalgebied gebeurde de introductie bijna altijd via Duitse en Franse vertalingen en die werden bij een breed publiek populair dankzij de literaire critici. Die hebben het beeld van de Russische literatuur sterk beïnvloed. Die vertalingen waren echter vaak weinig accuraat en voor vertalingen waren kleinere taalgebieden uitgerekend op die tussenteksten aangewezen. Het was dus voor dit onderzoek van belang niet alleen Van Severens reactie op de Russische auteurs te bestuderen, maar ook welke critici zijn keuze hebben beïnvloed, én welke vertalingen hij las. De Russische literatuur werd bij Van Severen herleid tot Dostojevski. Onder invloed van o.m. de Franse literatuurcriticus de Vogüé vereerde hij het religieus-ethische imago van de orthodoxe slavofiel Dostojevski als prediker van het lijdzaam ondergaan van menselijk lijden. Van Dostojevski’s generatiegenoten die voorstander waren van hervormingen en in Europa evenveel of zelfs meer succes hadden, kregen alleen Tolstoj en Gorki enige aandacht. Zijn bewondering voor Dostojevski werd blijvend gevoed door die eenzijdige Dostojevski-exegese, die in de loop der tijd altijd weer adepten vond. Naarmate de oorlogsmoeheid toenam werd ook Van Severen aangestoken door het revolutionaire elan van de bolsjevieken, Lenin en Trotski op kop. Maar terwijl anderen in Europa ook oog hadden voor het bredere spectrum van hervormingsgezinde ideeën, had Van Severen vooral bewondering voor de Leninistische tactiek: één leider, één politieke lijn, geen tegenspraak of afwijkende meningen. In het beginjaar stond zijn tijdschrift Ter Waarheid (1921-1924) nog open voor de voorhoede van pacifistisch-anarchistische tijdschriften. Het tijdschrift nam o.m. bijdragen op die de maatschappelijke hervormingen van de Russische progressieve intelligentsia via de Proletkult beschreven. Maar die belangstelling is snel verdwenen. Steeds meer zetten conservatief-katholieke en nationalistische artikels de toon in Ter Waarheid. Van de Russische schrijvers kreeg ook in die periode alleen Dostojevski aandacht. Van Severen sloot aan bij de stroom publicaties die verschenen bij Dostojevski’s 100e verjaardag en wijdde zelfs een dossier aan hem. Dat bleef evenwel teleurstellend onpersoonlijk en beperkte zich tot een eerder slordige compilatie van leesindrukken, samenvattingen, citaten en fragmenten van diverse Dostojevski-adepten, die ook bij Van Severen in hoog aanzien stonden. Vanuit zijn francofiele voorkeuren had hij in die beginperiode ook aandacht voor de Clarté-beweging en voor de pacifist Romain Rolland. Bij de gelijkgestemden in ons taalgebied waren het vooral H. Roland-Holst en F. van Eeden die kortstondige aandacht kregen. Eind 1921 had Van Severens ‘linkse’ belangstelling al plaats geruimd voor ‘revolutionair rechts’ gedachtegoed. En daarin bleef Dostojevski in de gedaante waarin Van Severen hem zag, perfect passen.____________________________ Joris van Severen’s Russian inspirationIn his war diaries Joris Van Severen displays a strange contradiction in his fascination for Dostoevsky on the one hand, and the Russian Revolution on the other hand. This interest in widely different aspects of Russian culture even caused some speculation about his ‘leftist period’, which, in view of his evolution towards the corporatist ideology of the Verdinaso, seems at least peculiar. The present study examines those two colliding tracks. The keen interest in Dostoevsky fits in with the nascent interest in Russian literature at the end of the 19th century. Russian writers were introduced through German and French translations, which were often inaccurate. Nevertheless, they became popular thanks to the literary critics, who strongly influenced the reception of Russian literature. As in other smaller language areas, Dutch-speaking readers depended on those German and French belles infidèles. It is therefore important not only to study Van Severen’s response to Russian literature, but also to ascertain which critics influenced his choice, and which translations he read. Van Severen essentialised Russian literature to one writer: Dostoevsky. Influenced by, among others, the French literary critic de Vogüé, he venerated the religious-ethical image of the Orthodox Slavophile Dostoevsky as the preacher of humbly endured human suffering. Of Dostoevsky's contemporaries who favoured reforms and were equally or even more successful in Europe, only Tolstoy and Gorky received any attention. As it turned out, Van Severen’s admiration for Dostoevsky would continue to be fuelled by that one-sided Dostoevsky exegesis, which would find adepts time and again. As war fatigue increased, Van Severen was also charmed by the revolutionary impetus of the Bolsheviks, Lenin and Trotsky in particular. But while others in Europe also had an eye for the wider spectrum of reformist ideas, Van Severen particularly admired the Leninist tactic: one leader, one political line, and no frictions or deviations. In the year that it was launched, his Ter Waarheid magazine (1921-1924) still dedicated half of its pages to the forefront of pacifist-anarchist magazines. Among other things, the magazine included contributions describing the social reforms of the Russian progressive intelligentsia through the Proletkult. But that interest quickly disappeared, as conservative Catholic and nationalist articles increasingly set the tone in Ter Waarheid. Dostoevsky was the only Russian writer who continued to draw any interest. Van Severen also joined the stream of publications, that appeared to mark Dostoyevsky's 100th birthday, to the point of dedicating a complete file to the author. The dossier remains disappointingly impersonal, however, at best a sloppy compilation of reading impressions, summaries, quotes, and excerpts from Dostoevsky adepts whom he held in high regard. Following his Francophile preferences, he also devoted time and attention to the pacifist Romain Rolland and the Clarté movement in that period. Among the like-minded people in our language area, mainly H. Roland-Holst and F. van Eeden briefly attracted his attention. At the end of 1921, Van Severen’s 'left-wing' interest had already given way to 'revolutionary right-wing' ideas. As a result, Van Severen could continue to idolize Dostoevsky, as he had before, framed according to his personal appreciation.

Historical fiction, a widely-read genre, continues to engender contradiction and controversy within the fields of literature and historiography. This paper begins with a discussion of the differences and similarities between historical writing and the historical novel, focusing on the way these forms interpret and represent the past. It then examines the dilemma facing historians as they try to come to terms with the modern era and the growing competition from other modes of presenting history. Finally, it considers claims by Australian historians that so-called “fictive history” has been bestowed with historical authority to the detriment of traditional historiography. The Fact/Fiction Dichotomy Hayden White, a leading critic in the field of historiography, claims that the surge in popularity of historical fiction and the novel form in the nineteenth century caused historians to seek recognition of their field as a serious “science” (149). Historians believed that, to be scientific, historical studies had to cut ties with any form of artistic writing or imaginative literature, especially the romantic novel. German historian Leopold von Ranke “anathematized” the historical novel virtually from its first appearance in Scott’s Waverley in 1814. Hayden White argues that Ranke and others after him wrote history as narrative while eschewing the use of imagination and invention that were “exiled into the domain of ‘fiction’ ” (149-150). Early critics in the nineteenth century questioned the value of historical fiction. Famous Cuban poet Jose Maria Heredia believed that history was opposite and superior to fiction; he accused the historical novel of degrading history to the level of fiction which, he argued, is lies (cited in de Piérola 152). Alessandro Manzoni, though partially agreeing with Heredia, argued that fiction had value in its “poetic truth” as opposed to the “positive truth” of history (153). He eventually decided that the historical novel fails through the mixing of the incompatible elements of history and fiction, which can lead to deception (ibid). More than a hundred years after Heredia, Georg Lukács, in his much-cited The Historical Novel, first published in 1937, was more concerned with the social aspect of the historical novel and its capacity to portray the lives of its protagonists. This form of writing, through its attention to the detail of minor events, was better at highlighting the social aspects than the greater moments of history. Lukács argues that the historical novel should focus on the “poetic awakening” of those who participated in great historical events rather than the events themselves (42). The reader should be able to experience first-hand “the social and human motives which led men to think, feel and act just as they did in historical reality” (ibid). Through historical fiction, the reader is thus able to gain a greater understanding of a specific period and why people acted as they did. In contrast to these early critics, historian and author of three books on history and three novels, Richard Slotkin, argues that the historical novel can recount the past as accurately as history, because it should involve similar research methods and critical interpretation of the data (225). Kent den Heyer and Alexandra Fidyk go even further, suggesting that “historical fiction may offer a more plausible representation of the past than those sources typically accepted as more factual” (144). In its search for “poetic truth,” the novel tries to create a sense of what the past was, without necessarily adhering to all the factual details and by eliminating facts not essential to the story (Slotkin 225). For Hayden White, the difference between factual and fictional discourse, is that one is occupied by what is “true” and the other by what is “real” (147). Historical documents may provide a basis for a “true account of the world” in a certain time and place, but they are limited in their capacity to act as a foundation for the exploration of all aspects of “reality.” In White’s words: The rest of the real, after we have said what we can assert to be true about it, would not be everything and anything we could imagine about it. The real would consist of everything that can be truthfully said about its actuality plus everything that can be truthfully said about what it could possibly be. (ibid) White’s main point is that both history and fiction are interpretative by nature. Historians, for their part, interpret given evidence from a subjective viewpoint; this means that it cannot be unbiased. In the words of Beverley Southgate, “factual history is revealed as subjectively chosen, subjectively interpreted, subjectively constructed and incorporated within a narrative” (45). Both fiction and history are narratives, and “anyone who writes a narrative is fictionalising,” according to Keith Jenkins (cited in Southgate 32). The novelist and historian find meaning through their own interpretation of the known record (Brown) to produce stories that are entertaining and structured. Moreover, historians often reach conflicting conclusions in their translations of the same archival documents, which, in the extreme, can spark a wider dispute such as the so-called history wars, the debate about the representation of the Indigenous peoples in Australian history that has polarised both historians and politicians. The historian’s purpose differs from that of the novelist. Historians examine the historical record in fine detail in an attempt to understand its complexities, and then use digressions and footnotes to explain and lend authority to their findings. The novelist on the other hand, uses their imagination to create personalities and plot and can leave out important details; the novelist achieves authenticity through detailed description of setting, customs, culture, buildings and so on (Brown). Nevertheless, the main task of both history and historical fiction is to represent the past to a reader in the present; this “shared concern with the construction of meaning through narrative” is a major component in the long-lasting, close relationship between fiction and history (Southgate 19). However, unlike history, the historical novel mixes fiction and fact, and is therefore “a hybrid of two genres” (de Piérola 152); this mixture of supposed opposites of fact and fiction creates a dilemma for the theorist, because historical fiction cannot necessarily be read as belonging to either category. Attitudes towards the line drawn between fiction and history are changing as more and more critics and theorists explore the area where the two genres intersect. Historian John Demos argues that with the passing of time, this distinction “seems less a boundary than a borderland of surprising width and variegated topography” (329). While some historians are now willing to investigate the wide area where the two genres overlap, this approach remains a concern for traditionalists. History’s Dilemma Historians face a crisis as they try to come to terms with the postmodern era which has seen unprecedented questioning of the validity of history’s claim to accuracy in recounting the past. In the words of Jenkins et al., “ ‘history’ per se wobbles” as it experiences a period of uncertainty and challenge; the field is “much changed and deeply contested,” as historians seek to understand the meaning of history itself (6). But is postmodernism the cause of the problem? Writing in 1986 Linda Hutcheon, well known for her work on postmodernism, attempted to clarify the term as it is applied in modern times in reference to fiction, where, she states, it is usually taken to mean “metafiction, or texts which are in some dominant and constitutive way self-referential and auto-representational” (301). To eliminate any confusion with regard to concept or terminology, Hutcheon coined the phrase “historiographic metafiction," which includes “the presence of the past” in “historical, social, and ideological” form (302). As examples, she cites contemporary novels The French Lieutenant’s Woman, The White Hotel, Midnight’s Children and Famous Last Words. Hutcheon explains that all these works “self-consciously focus on the processes of producing and receiving paradoxically fictive historical writing” (ibid). In the Australian context, Peter Carey’s True History of the Kelly Gang and Richard Flanagan’s Gould’s Book of Fish could be added to the list. Like the others, they question how historical sources maintain their status as authentic historical documents in the context of a fictional work (302). However, White argues that the crisis in historical studies is not due to postmodernism but has materialised because historians have failed to live up to their nineteenth century expectations of history being recognised as a science (149). Postmodernists are not against history, White avows; what they do not accept “is a professional historiography” that serves self-seeking governing bodies with its outdated and severely limited approach to objectivity (152). This kind of historiography has denied itself access to aesthetic writing and the imaginary, while it has also cut any links it had “to what was most creative in the real sciences it sought half-heartedly to emulate” (ibid). Furthering White’s argument, historian Robert Rosenstone states that past certitude in the claims of historians to be the sole guardians of historical truth now seem outdated in the light of our accumulated knowledge. The once impregnable position of the historian is no longer tenable because: We know too much about framing images and stories, too much about narrative, too much about the problematics of causality, too much about the subjectivity of perception, too much about our own cultural imperatives and biases, too much about the disjuncture between language and the world it purports to describe to believe we can actually capture the world of the past on the page. (Rosenstone 12) While the archive confers credibility on history, it does not confer the right to historians to claim it as the truth (Southgate 6); there are many possible versions of the past, which can be presented to us in any number of ways as history (Jenkins et al. 1). And this is a major challenge for historians as other modes of representing the past cater to public demand in place of traditional approaches. Public interest in history has grown over the last 20 years (Harlan 109). Historical novels fill the shelves of bookstores and libraries, while films, television series and documentaries about the past attract large audiences. In the words of Rosenstone, “people are hungry for the past, as various studies tell us and the responses to certain films, TV series and museums indicate” (17). Rosenstone laments the fact that historians, despite this attraction to the past, have failed to stir public interest in their own writings. While works of history have their strengths, they target a specific, extremely limited audience in an outdated format (17). They have forgotten the fact that, in the words of White, “the conjuring up of the past requires art as well as information” (149). This may be true of some historians, but there are many writers of non-fiction, including historians, who use the narrative voice and other fictional techniques in their writings (Ricketson). Matthew Ricketson accuses White of confusing “fiction with literariness,” while other scholars take fiction and narrative to be the same thing. He argues that “the use of a wide range of modes of writing usually associated with fiction are not the sole province of fiction” and that narrative theorists have concentrated their attention on fictional narrative, thereby excluding factual forms of writing (ibid). One of the defining elements of creative non-fiction is its use of literary techniques in writing about factual events and people. At the same time, this does not make it fiction, which by definition, relies on invention (ibid). However, those historians who do write outside the limits of traditional history can attract criticism. Historian Richard Current argues that if writers of history and biography try to be more effective through literary considerations, they sometimes lose their objectivity and authenticity. While it is acceptable to seek to write with clarity and force, it is out of the question to present “occasional scenes in lifelike detail” in the manner of a novelist. Current contends that if only one source is used, this violates “the historiographical requirement of two or more independent and competent witnesses.” This requirement is important because it explains why much of the writing by academic historians is perceived as “dry-as-dust” (Current 87). Modern-day historians are contesting this viewpoint as they analyse the nature and role of their writings, with some turning to historical fiction as an alternative mode of expression. Perhaps one of the more well-known cases in recent times was that of historian Simon Schama, who, in writing Dead Certainties (Unwarranted Speculations), was criticised for creating dramatic scenes based on dubious historical sources without informing the reader of his fabrications (Nelson). In this work, Schama questions notions of factual history and the limitations of historians. The title is suggestive in itself, while the afterword to the book is explicit, as “historians are left forever chasing shadows, painfully aware of their inability ever to reconstruct a dead world in its completeness however thorough or revealing their documentation . . . We are doomed to be forever hailing someone who has just gone around the corner and out of earshot” (320). Another example is Rosenstone’s Mirror in the Shrine, which was considered to be “postmodern” and not acceptable to publishers and agents as the correct way to present history, despite the author’s reassurance that nothing was invented, “it just tells the story a different way” ("Space for the Birds to Fly" 16). Schama is not the only author to draw fire from critics for neglecting to inform the reader of the veracity or not of their writing. Richard Current accused Gore Vidal of getting his facts wrong and of inaccurately portraying Lincoln in his work, Lincoln: A Novel (81). Despite the title, which is a form of disclaimer itself, Current argued that Vidal could have avoided criticism if he had not asserted that his work was authentic history, or had used a disclaimer in a preface to deny any connection between the novel’s characters and known persons (82). Current is concerned about this form of writing, known as “fictional history," which, unlike historical fiction, “pretends to deal with real persons and events but actually reshapes them—and thus rewrites the past” (77). This concern is shared by historians in Australia. Fictive History Historian Mark McKenna, in his essay, Writing the Past, argues that “fictive history” has become a new trend in Australia; he is unhappy with the historical authority bestowed on this form of writing and would like to see history restored to its rightful place. He argues that with the decline of academic history, novelists have taken over the historian’s role and fiction has become history (3). In sympathy with McKenna, author, historian and anthropologist Inga Clendinnen claims that “novelists have been doing their best to bump historians off the track” (16). McKenna accuses writers W.G. Sebald and David Malouf of supporting “the core myth of historical fiction: the belief that being there is what makes historical understanding possible.” Malouf argues, in a conversation with Helen Daniel in 1996, that: Our only way of grasping our history—and by history I really mean what has happened to us, and what determines what we are now and where we are now—the only way of really coming to terms with that is by people's entering into it in their imagination, not by the world of facts, but by being there. And the only thing really which puts you there in that kind of way is fiction. Poetry may do so, drama may do so, but it's mostly going to be fiction. It's when you have actually been there and become a character again in that world. (3) From this point of view, the historical novel plays an important role in our culture because it allows people to interact with the past in a meaningful way, something factual writing struggles to do. McKenna recognises that history is present in fiction and that history can contain fiction, but they should not be confused. Writers and critics have a responsibility towards their readers and must be clear that fiction is not history and should not be presented as such (10). He takes writer Kate Grenville to task for not respecting this difference. McKenna argues that Grenville has asserted in public that her historical novel The Secret River is history: “If ever there was a case of a novelist wanting her work to be taken seriously as history, it is Grenville” (5). The Secret River tells the story of early settlement along the Hawkesbury River in New South Wales. Grenville’s inspiration for the story emanated from her ancestor Solomon Wiseman’s life. The main protagonist, William Thornhill (loosely based on Wiseman), is convicted of theft in 1806 and transported to Australia. The novel depicts the poverty and despair in England at the time, and describes life in the new colony where Grenville explores the collision between the colonists and the Aborigines. McKenna knows that Grenville insists elsewhere that her book is not history, but he argues that this conflicts with what she said in interviews and he worries that “with such comments, it is little wonder that many people might begin to read fiction as history” (5). In an article on her website, Grenville refutes McKenna’s arguments, and those of Clendinnen: “Here it is in plain words: I don’t think The Secret River is history…Nor did I ever say that I thought my novel was history.” Furthermore, the acknowledgements in the back of the book state clearly that it is a work of fiction. She accuses the two above-mentioned historians of using quotes that “have been narrowly selected, taken out of context, and truncated” ("History and Fiction"). McKenna then goes on to say how shocked he was on hearing Grenville, in an interview with Ramona Koval on Radio National, make her now infamous comments about standing on a stepladder looking down at the history wars, and that he “felt like ringing the ABC and leaping to the defence of historians.” He accuses Grenville of elevating fiction above history as an “interpretive power” (6). Koval asked Grenville where her book stood in regard to the history wars; she answered: Mine would be up on a ladder, looking down at the history wars. . . I think the historians, and rightly so, have battled away about the details of exactly when and where and how many and how much, and they’ve got themselves into these polarised positions, and that’s fine, I think that’s what historians ought to be doing; constantly questioning the evidence and perhaps even each other. But a novelist can stand up on a stepladder and look down at this, outside the fray, [emphasis in original audio] and say there is another way to understand it. ("Interview") Grenville claims that she did not use the stepladder image to imply that her work was superior to history, but rather to convey a sense of being outside the battle raging between historians as an uninvolved observer, “an interested onlooker who made the mistake of climbing a stepladder rather than a couple of fruit-boxes to get a good view.” She goes on to argue that McKenna’s only sources in his essay, Writing the Past, are interviews and newspaper articles, which in themselves are fine, but she disagrees with how they have been used “uncritically, at face value, as authoritative evidence” ("History and Fiction"), much in contrast to the historian’s desire for authenticity in all sources. It appears that the troubles between history and fiction will continue for some time yet as traditional historians are bent on keeping faith with the tenets of their nineteenth century predecessors by defending history from the insurgence of fiction at all costs. While history and historical fiction share a common purpose in presenting the past, the novel deals with what is “real” and can tell the past as accurately or even in a more plausible way than history, which deals with what is “true”. However, the “dry-as-dust” historical approach to writing, and postmodernism’s questioning of historiography’s role in presenting the past, has contributed to a reassessment of the nature of history. Many historians recognise the need for change in the way they present their work, but as they have often doubted the worth of historical fiction, they are wary of the genre and the narrative techniques it employs. Those historians who do make an attempt to write differently have often been criticised by traditionalists. In Australia, historians such as McKenna and Clendinnen are worried by the incursion of historical fiction into their territory and are highly critical of novelists who claim their works are history. The overall picture that emerges is of two fields that are still struggling to clarify a number of core issues concerning the nature of both the historical novel and historiographical writing, and the role they play in portraying the past. References Brown, Joanne. "Historical Fiction or Fictionalized History? Problems for Writers of Historical Novels for Young Adults." ALAN Review 26.1 (1998). 1 March 2010 ‹http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/ALAN/fall98/brown.html›. Carey, Peter. True History of the Kelly Gang. St Lucia, Qld: U of Queensland P, 2000. Clendinnen, Inga. "The History Question: Who Owns the Past?" Quarterly Essay 23 (2006): 1-72. Current, Richard. 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