Chasing foxes in Russian folk tales

This paper examines the representation of foxes in Russian folk tales (narodnye skazki). It explores the frequency of the word “fox” (lisa) in the titles of folk tales, the number of single occurrences of a fox per folk tale, and the vocabulary used to refer to foxes in the texts of Russian folk tales. The paper demonstrates that the fox is the most popular character in Russian folk tales about animals, but is very rarely found in fairy tales. It also offers some comparisons between images of foxes in Russian folk tales and images of foxes in the European epics of Reynard, as well as in tales from Asian (Chinese, Korean, and Japanese) traditions.     

越南童话的德育价值特点及作品赏析——以《蝼蛄历险记》为例

童话因满足儿童极富想象力的天性而深受孩子们的欢迎。而儿童期是对孩子进行道德教育的重要时期。利用极富教育意义的优秀童话故事对孩子进行潜移默化的道德教育能收到很好的效果。优秀的童话能跨越国界,让不同国家的孩子接受教育。越南的童话历史悠久,其中不乏许多优秀的作品。本文总结了越南童话故事的德育特点,并选择越南童话大师苏怀的代表作《蝼蛄历险记》来赏鉴,以期使读者对越南童话有着较为清楚的认识。     

Lena Finkle’s magic arc: hybrid influences in the Russian American graphic novel

ABSTRACT

The article examines Anya Ulinich’s graphic narrative Lena Finkle’s Magic Barrel and the novel’s use of visual culture from both the author’s Russian and US American backgrounds. The article interrogates the use of history and timelines, Russian art history and Russian art education in Ulinich’s text. It also analyzes other literary constructs that influenced Ulinich’s novel: US American comics/graphic novels and their use of stereotype, and novels by Russian-speaking Jewish American writers, with their thematized Jewishness.     

Arthur Ransome’s Rewriting of the Russian Folktale Historicised

ABSTRACT

The young Arthur Ransome’s Old Peter’s Russian Tales (1916) that has today attained the status of a classic is of chief interest here as part of the British–Russian cultural interaction and interconnections at the turn of the twentieth century. In an attempt to historicise the author-translator in his creative effort to rewrite the Russian folktale, this paper focuses on his quest for magic and the collection of fairy stories, resulting from interacting with both place and people. A microscopic analysis of the translator’s life and work in his early years in Russia, via a study of archival material (Brotherton Collections, University of Leeds Library) and other relevant documents, has helped to reconstruct them in a richness of detail that sheds light on the bigger picture of the British–Russian relationship. The translator's gift to his reader, a token of fruitful experiences in this new and exciting fairyland, was, in fact, the product of mediation agency between the two worlds, the role that Ransome had found crucial and realised successfully in practice. As a result, another cultural and emotional bridge was built to interconnect these two countries.     

Toward an anthropological perspective of fairy tales

Prevalent theories premise that the popular Western fairy tale whose predominant motif is one of cruelty toward children by their closest kin or guardian is an expression of repressed parent-child hostility and sexual complexes. This paper presents an alternative approach: fairy tales may also serve to introduce the child to the world of strangers and the noncommitted modes of behavior which often typify social encounters in Western society. In this respect they have an educational role in the growing-up process similar to that of folklore in nonliterate societies.     

意识形态对中国早期儿童文学翻译的影响

文化翻译学者们认为,翻译作为最明显的改写形式,会受到意识形态的影响。正是在意识形态的影响下,从19世纪中叶到"五四"之后一段时间,中国出现了三次儿童文学翻译浪潮。在这股浪潮的直接影响下,诞生了现代意义上的中国童话。     

Russian Jews in exile from Bolshevik Russia: the case of Lev Shestov as an example of Russian‐Jewish existential compromise

Lev Shestov (born Leib Jehuda Shvartsman in Kiev in 1866) was a product of his times and entangled cultural roots. His destiny became closely related to the Russian Diaspora in Europe (he fled Bolshevik Russia in 1920). He was also linked to the local (especially French and German) intellectual life. However, being a Jew made Shestov stand out from the purely Russian emigration, for although he connected himself first and foremost with Russian culture, he could not be integrated without reservations into the purely Russian Diaspora. On the other hand mapping him in relation to the diverse Russian‐Jewish émigré milieu in Europe is not a straightforward task because his attitude to his Jewish roots was rather ambivalent. The case of self‐identification, in varying degrees, was similarly ambiguous with many Russian Jews who left Russia after the revolution. Shestov’s activities in emigration were diverse. Apart from teaching he published regularly in the outlets of the émigré press as well as in major French literary journals and gave lectures in Germany (in particular, addressing such different audiences as the Union of Russian Jews and the Nietzschean Society). In brief, his way of coping with the experience of exile was to become a multicultural conductor of sorts. This article aims to analyse Shestov’s life path in the framework of the Russian‐Jewish Diaspora in Europe at the time in the context of both cultural and ethnic repudiation and appropriation. This in turn should shed some new light on the cultural life of this Diaspora.     

孙莹：我就是那只忧郁的兔子

80后豆瓣红人画家、童话世界…谨些词汇都是年轻艺术家孙莹的标签。从2008年开始,孙莹以“小熊日记”在豆瓣上成为很多年轻人关注的对象,如今她又陆续创作了“兔子系列”和“小女孩系列”,并成功在香港、北京举办了她的个人画展。     

Careful The Tale You Tell Fairy tales,drama and moral education

SUMMARY: In this article, I examine theories which argue both for and against the educational potential of fairy tales, with special attention to the field of moral learning. I conclude that, in the contemporary world, stories have a particular importance for such learning but that the hidden moral values conveyed by many traditional tales may well be disquieting for a teacher. I propose that educational drama offers an appropriate pedagogy for exploring such values with children and describe in some detail a case study, in which I used a version of a traditional Hindu tale for these purposes. I offer a brief analysis on how the strategies employed by drama teachers can be harnessed for moral educational purposes and suggest that drama can offer children much needed opportunities to actively and creatively engage with stories and their values in a communal framework.     

The Philosophy of Happiness in Selected Works of N. M. Karamzin: The Search for True Bliss

This paper deals with the philosophy of happiness as found in N.M. Karamzin's poetry, publicistic texts, and Letters of a Russian Traveller, and it also examines certain key stages in the formation of Karamzin's concept of happiness and its features as found in certain of his works. When Karamzin broke off relations with the Masons and returned from a journey abroad, in Letters of a Russian Traveller (1791–1792) he proposes to readers various points of view about happiness which are not reduced to a rigid system: the author creates a narration which is fundamentally open for the reader's comprehension and where deep philosophical views are balanced with the author's irony or everyday naive tales about happiness. In his philosophical and publicistic essay “On the Happiest Time in Life” (1803). Karamzin enters into an open dispute with the ancient world and its philosophers over the issue of happiness proving that it is not attainable on earth and catching these philosophers out in a deception. Karamzin's philosophy of happiness is based on a synthesis of the ancient world and European enlighteners' concepts of happiness and the key core of this takes ethics as its starting point; however, true happiness and bliss are again relegated to heaven.     

速读

安徒生童话进入中国百年纪念展举行;全国妇联领导慰问中华女子学院教师;李娜宣布退役;联合国妇女署招募男性促性别平等;广东珠海发出全国首份反家暴“迁出令”     

Bruno Bettelheim and His Window to the Soul

Bruno Bettelheim, a clinical psychologist, was among the most respected voices among American intelligentsia in the twentieth century. His controversial writings covered vast territory and focused on topics ranging from society, art, education, the Holocaust, and fairy tales to child-rearing. It was his clinical work with disturbed children, however, that brought him international acclaim. Yet, subsequent to his death, controversies about him and his ideas erupted and his reputation plummeted. This article is an attempt to keep some of Dr. Bettelheim’s most meaningful contributions from fading further into obscurity.     

THE AMBIGUITIES OF EXTERNAL MINORITY PROTECTION

This article focuses on the special and prominent place that the “Jewish question” occupied in the general discussion about Russian modernisation in the pre‐1914 period, both in American society and in the arena of US–Russian relations. It analyses the role that anti‐Jewish violence in Russia had in effecting a dramatic shift in the way Americans viewed the Russian Empire, which was being depicted by the American Jews and the leaders of the crusade for a “Free Russia” as a barbarous oppressor of political dissent and a savage persecutor of religious, national, and ethnic minorities. American society’s reaction to anti‐Jewish violence in the Russian Empire at the turn of the twentieth century helped, on the one hand, to shape the idea of the American belief that the United States bore special responsibility for carrying out reforms in Russia, and, on the other hand, to place relations between the two countries within such binary oppositions as “light and darkness,” “civilization and barbarity,” “modernity and medievalism,” “democracy and authoritarianism,” “freedom and slavery,” “the West and the Orient.” The article uses a broad range of verbal and graphic sources from the American press and new sources from archival collections. These sources help to illustrate one of the author’s principal tenets which holds that the United States’ view of the foreign policy of the Russian Empire was a result of the Americans’ projection of their own vision of the nature of the US foreign policy. In their official and public discourses, Americans considered Russia’s foreign policy an extension of Russia’s political regime. This study examines US foreign policy as a vital sphere in which national identity is redefined and reaffirmed and gives an opportunity to draw attention to the cultural and ideological dimensions of Russian–American relations, to understand the origins of dualistic American myths about Russia that have proven so enduring, and to demonstrate how a demonised Russia serves to revitalise American nationalism and how the Russian “Other” was used, in part, to construct the American “Self.”     

“Do You Know Your Real Parents?” and Other Adoption Microaggressions

Myths, fairy tales, films, books, and everyday communication contain images and stories of orphans and adoptees that convey societal discomfort and judgment about adoption (i.e., adoption stigma). In this article, I apply the microaggression model to adoption-related experiences using the literature and theory on adoption stigma. Definitions for adoption-related microaggressions (microassaults, microinvalidations, and microinsults) and a fourth type of microaggression called microfictions (i.e., shared and hidden narratives that contribute to and define the secrecy in adoption) are introduced. Thirteen themes for adoption microaggressions and examples for each are proposed.     

New Perspectives on Jacob von Stählin: Towards an Intellectual Biography*

The article is devoted to Jacob von Stählin, an important figure of the eighteenth-century Russian Culture. The contribution is an attempt to reconstruct his intellectual biography based on new archival researches. The role of Stählin from the 1735 to his death is provided, paying particular attention to his work as a poet and his contribution to the Academy of Sciences and the artistic activities.     

Engaging suffering: towards a mindful re-visioning of family therapy practice

The myth of problem-free living is easily identifiable in Western culture through its childhood fairy tales and modern love stories. Even if inadvertently, the field of mental health perpetuates this myth with the very concept of "mental health," which implies a state without suffering. Using mindfulness, Buddhists assume an alternative stance towards suffering: rather than eliminate it, they compassionately engage it. This article explores the potentials of mindfulness as an alternative approach to suffering within the context of marriage and family therapy. Family therapists can integrate mindfulness principles into their work to help clients shift how they relate to the unique forms of suffering that one encounters in intimate relationships, such as abuse, divorce, rejection, and loss.     

Holy Rus: (Re)construction of Russia’s Civilizational Identity

ABSTRACT

Originally connected with the idea of Moscow as the Third Rome and the universal Christian idea of an Empire of Faith, Holy Rus (literally ‘Holy Russia’) has developed today into a transcendental concept of a unifying national force and inter-confessional dialogue based on common moral and spiritual values. The discourse of Russia’s civilizational identity has emerged with new vigor against a background of national and social disintegration. The idea promoted by the state and the Russian Orthodox Church is that Orthodoxy as a quintessence of fundamental moral values is destined to unite the peoples separated by state borders under the auspices of Holy Rus. The core of the civilizational perception is constituted by the supranational nature of Russkiy Mir (literally ‘Russian World’) based on the idea of sobornost. The research is based on the analysis of speeches delivered by President Putin and Patriarch Cyril dedicated to identity issues. The author argues that this official rhetoric is aimed at redefining the place of the Russian Orthodox Church vis-à-vis both Western modernity and domestic secularism within the context of its recovery as an institution after decades of oppression.     

Practitioners in Russia's provinces: Affectionate and unpredictable

Using in-depth interviews and focus groups with 34 Russian regional PR managers, this longitudinal study examines their perceptions of the specifics of provincial public relations. It appeared that the degree of economic development impacts public relations practices in Russian regions. Compared to donor-regions, public relations practitioners in recipient-regions more likely perceive PR as an artistic and spontaneous activity. Moreover, residents in recipient-regions still associate public relations with past electoral campaigns, while businesses see public relations as subordinated to advertising and marketing.     

Deep Roles: Twelve Primordial Roles of Mind and Organization

The thesis in this paper is that there are 12archetypal roles in groups and organizations. Thesedeep roles have their origin in the rolesof the essential family — father, mother, son, anddaughter. In groups and organizations, each of theseimages of family roles will — through the basicdefense mechanisms of splitting and projection —be polarized into a good and bad part: The father as Godor devil, the mother as queen or witch, the son as crownprince or black sheep, and the daughter as princess orwhore. In addition to these eight primary deep roles,there come two secondary ones: the helpers Shaman and Slave whose function are to help the familysurvive spiritually and materially, respectively. Thetwo last deep roles are of a transcendental nature: thehero (winner) and the clown (loser), i.e., the one who has won a good family role, and the onewho has lost it — or never gained it. These 12deep roles are well known from such cultural artifactsas fairy tales and mythology. In groups andorganizations, deep roles are attended with power andinterest. Those who are attributed a deep role in theirorganization will have a similar symbolic power ascharacters in fairy tales and mythology.     

From the Tabennisi nunnery to Pussy Riot: female holy fools in Byzantium and Russia

In this paper, as the author explores the gendered aspects of the holy fool’s phenomenology, she argues that, despite the presumed egalitarianism and the fact that female holy fools appeared in Byzantine hagiography as early as the fifth century, throughout the history of holy foolishness the urban model – hagiographically established in the Byzantine vita of Simeon the Fool of Emesa – was available exclusively to males. Females, recently canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church as holy fools for Christ’s sake, completely lack such essential characteristics of holy foolishness as subversion, defiance, and folly, whereas the holy fool’s theatricality and rebellious ardour live on in the subversive performances of activist artists.