THE MEDIEVAL HERITAGE OF JAPAN AND BYZANTIUM IN SERBIAN LITERATURE OF DIGITAL MODERNISM

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The basic hypothesis of this research belongs to the field of interdisciplinary studies of Serbian literature, especially of the changes in literary paradigms, formed on the boundary of interactions between Slavic and non-Slavic literatures, which reached significant dynamics in the unifying perspectives of the new media. The main assumption of this analysis concerns the relationship between the elements of medieval Byzantine and Japanese literary heritage in the context of the development of Serbian literature with certain elements of digital modernism.

ON THE BUDDIST CONCEPT OF THE WORLDLY IMPERMANENCE AS MANIFESTED IN THE MEDIEVAL WORK HOJOKI IN COMPARISON TO OLD SERBIAN LITERATURE

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The issue of impermanence of this worldly existence, not only in humans but shared by all sentient beings, had been, both as a theme and a motive, ubiquitously present in the medieval literature of both Serbia and Japan. Although very different by almost all formal literary criteria, both of them have in common an inherent inclination to the care of the metaphysical status of this world and all its creatures. A seriousness in their relation to the transcendental is the main trait by which their heritage differs from the literature of their respective countries today. That is the very reason why they can be treated in the same dialogical context. Contemporary conscience with its belief that nothing is left to say about the evanescence of the world, gave up this issue to be further dealt with only according to individual needs and randomly. But, both Serbian Christian and Japanese Buddhist medieval mind tended to put this problem right in the middle of almost every literary text. Far from only deploring the transient human fate, people are encouraged to foster everlasting memories of death, just to be able to get saved – either by returning to God, or in Japan, by being reborn in the Buddhist paradise of the Pure Land. Yet, there are some significant differences in the way impermanence is treated in these two traditions. This paper tries to elucidate how these differences were rooted in their respective literary and religious praxis.

THE POETRY OF MONASTICISM(S)

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Reaching out to distant Japanese culture, in an attempt to bring it into correlation with Serbian medieval tradition, a comparison is made of The Tale of Saigyo – a story by an unknown author about one of the legendary poets of the ancient Japanese literature from the 13th century, with several motifs from our haghiographies by Domentian and Theodosios. The poet-monk Saigyo is compared with Saint Sava, as a writer, as well as with Peter of Korisha, as an ascete. Special attention is paid to the motif of departure from this world, which is simultaneously an entry into the world of literary creation, as the writer-monk also appears as a literary character in later writings.

INTERPRETATIONS OF THE ACTIVITIES OF SABBATAI ZEVI AND THE CRYPTO-JEWISH DÖNMEH COMMUNITY IN THE BALKANS

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The main objective of this paper is to analyze historical sources and records, articles and books regarding Sabbatai Zevi’s life – a Sephardic Rabbi born in Smyrna (present-day Turkey) to a family of Romaniote Jews from Patras, and (more precisely) his political and social activities in the Balkans, in Thessaloniki (present-day Greece) and Ulcinj (present-day Montenegro). The analytical focus of this paper is directed at the description of Zevi’s activities in Thessaloniki (1651-1658), and the circumstances of forming a local crypto-Jewish group Dönmeh and their cultural legacy. Particularly interesting are the last three years of his life in Ulcinj, where he was banished in 1673 by the Ottoman sultan Mehmed IV. Sabbatai Zevi died in Ulcinj in 1676, where he was likely buried. The aim of the paper is to additionally explain all religious and dogmatic dichotomies and denominations within the Dönmeh community and the reasons for their emergence.

MYTHS COLOURED BY NOSTALGIA: HOLLYWOOD’S LOOK ON JOURNALISM

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The paper analyses representation of journalists and journalism in Hollywood films with additional focus on representation of ethical principles of journalism. Original premise in designing the research was that the products of popular culture, in this case films, are made in a particular social environment and as such they can tell us something about the wider socio-political context and the image of journalists and journalism in different historical periods. The goal was to investigate how journalists, journalism and media ethics were represented in the Hollywood film, beginning with the seventies and the rise of investigative journalism and ending with contemporary movies. In the analysis of ten films made between 1976 and 2015, the dominant appearance of positive representations of reporters was evident, and no change in the usage of this mechanism in various social circumstances over five decades was observed. Media ethics is consistently represented as a goal and a measure of professionalism, the responsibility of journalism as an institution is not questioned in films, and all violations of professional norms are individualized and consistently punished.

THE REPRESENTATION OF HONG KONG AS A SUBJECT OF NOSTALGIA IN THE KAR-WAI’S TRILOGY

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Hong Kong is a city which has been amalgamating Eastern and Western cultures, and formed identity of its own multicultural structure. Hong Kong from colonial times until the transition in the 90’s, experienced a vicious cycle of capitalist-based economy and the ever increasing economic-social pressure of China. The phenomenon has affected the Hong Kong cinema’s reflection of the notion of dual identity and identity confusion in the postcolonial era. This identity confusion showed itself as a deep feeling of nostalgia in the works of Wong Kar-wai, a member of Hong Kong cinema. In Kar-wai’s films, Hong Kong is not just his individual reality but also a portrayal of the country’s history. His films present cultural and social transformations to the audience. In Kar-wai’s films, Hong Kong is a metaphor of these cultural artifacts, and additionally reflecting the existential anxiety of ambivalence and duality. His focus on themes such as love, deception, loneliness, disidentification and alienation is rising from the tension between Hong Kong, China, Britain, and Japan. Moving from the fact that a cinematic space reflects ideologies, political system and social relationship, this study aims to analyse Wong Kar-wai’s trilogy which includes Days of Being Wild (1990) In the Mood for Love (2000) and 2046 (2004) in a sociological perspective to understand the representation of Hong Kong’s colonial and diasporic identity – taking a Lefebvre framework which asserts that (social) space is organic, lively, and changeable and it is a social product, into consideration. The study is focused on the daily life of the film characters to understand their relationship with space.

THE FINAL DAYS OF THE DUTCH PAINTER IN THE FILM LOVING VINCENT

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The fascinating work, life full of creative passion and the dramatic death of Vincent Van Gogh, have not only been a frequent topic of scientific papers, but have also sparked the imagination of a number of artists. In the art of film making alone, dozens of short and feature-length, documentary and live action films have been dedicated to the Dutch painter. In the film “Loving Vincent”, based on correspondence between the artist and his brother, the events that had preceded his tragic end have been interpreted in a way that arguably questions the viability of the official version of his death. At the same time, the “revival” of his canvases before the viewers’ eyes represents an attempt to interpret the way in which the painter had perceived the world. The aim of this paper is to examine these two interpretations.

OSCAR WILDE IN THE UNITED STATES

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Towards the end of 1881, a young Irish aesthete named Oscar Wilde set sail for the New World on a quest for fame and fortune. Wilde’s one-year tour around North America had a defining effect on his growth into a late Victorian cultural icon. Within this brief time span, Wilde became famous for his fame rather than a specific achievement, which today makes him a pioneer of self-promotion and a forerunner of modern celebrity culture. This paper evokes Wilde’s tour as a decisive moment in which an ambitious artist adeptly manipulated the media space and imposed himself as a celebrity in the modern sense of the word – as a controversial figure of questionable merits who stands apart from the hegemonic middle-class values, but also as a person who is deeply ingrained in contemporary culture and therefore perceived as a relevant social commentator. The tour was set in the context of the tradition of literary lectures in the Unites States and the colonial need to preserve cultural ties with the motherland. Particular attention is paid to the late nineteenth-century commercial photography as a medium on the rise and an innovative promotional tool with growing impact in literary celebrity culture. Photography was recognized as the most efficient method of building a famous person’s iconography. In Wilde’s case, the works of Napoleon Sarony proved to be a perfect display of the new medium power.

MANIPULATIONS MÉDIATIQUES DANS LA SPHÈRE ESTHÉTIQUE CONTEMPORAINE

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Le présent texte vise à comprendre les enjeux médiatiques les plus récents dans le domaine de l’art scénique et la façon dont ils repensent les possibilités d’atteinte de l’aire perceptuelle du spectateur. Pour ce faire, dans un premier temps, nous allons présenter quelques exemples où les technologies nouvelles modifient ou remettent en cause certains aspects culturelles, tel que l’éducation, mettant ainsi à mal les règles établies. Nous allons ensuite analyser l’installation scénique Stifters Dinge de Heiner Goebbels. Notre démarche sera de l’analyser selon une perspective intermédiale pour soutenir l’hypothèse pouvant être ainsi formulée : la création artistique Stifters Dinge manipule l’expérience esthétique du spectateur car elle repose sur un acte de communication médiatique et non sur un acte rhétorique. En outre, par l’utilisation de dispositifs audio-visuels, l’installation scénique développe un langage scénique spécifique reposant sur les illusions optiques, sur l’immersion, sur la mise en scène de machines complexes. Dans un deuxième temps, nous allons aborder le cadre conceptuel du paradigme communicatif dont l’application permettra à la fois une meilleure appréhension de la forme sous laquelle ce spectacle apparaît et une mise en perspective plus large du phénomène théorique dans lequel il s’inscrit. Dans cette section, nous nous appuierons essentiellement sur les ouvrages d’Yves Citton, de Jean-Marc Larrue, de Branko et Dejana Prnjat, de Rémy Rieffel et de Violeta Jelacic-Srbulj. L’hypothèse de travail présentée dans le cadre de cette seconde section suppose que cette forme artistique nouvelle, reliant les médias, le théâtre et les arts plastiques crée un nouveau modèle de la politique culturelle, basé sur une hybridation des technologies et de l’art.

PRINCIPLES OF MEDIA INFLUENCE

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The concept of media influence involves use of certain types of communication in order to change the habits, behavior or beliefs of the people we are addressing. The development of new technologies and the mass media is much faster than the development of our ability to process the immense amount of information we encounter. Due to our cognitive constraints, the consequence of such accelerated development of the media is that we are less engaged in analyzing the given situation as a whole. The world we live in has become much more complex while our reactions are considerably simpler. The media are the ideal means to achieve the desired impact in such circumstances, and the basic tactic is very simple – it suffices to offer a carefully selected and limited quantity of information. In the modern age, for most people, only that which was published in the media happened (or that which is mediated by the language of the media). The semantic function of the media space has enabled a simple and effective implementation of many media influence techniques. The basic principles of influence help us make a quick decision in given circumstances, without much effort and with the expectation that such a decision will be right for us. Therefore, media influence is a necessary condition for social communication between social elites and citizens, in order to preserve social order and its stability. On the other hand, media influence is constantly misused in order to preserve social power and gain of the privileged minority which has access to the media. Therefore, understanding of the principles of media influence and the way in which they operate is a very important aspect of media literacy and life in contemporary society.