Ed. Dejan Ajdačić

Slovjans’ka fantastyka. Zbirnyk (2015) – annotations and kw

Kyiv: Osvita Ukrajiny, 526 p. ISBN 978-617-7241-48-4

Dejan Ajdačić

Parody and fantastic fiction: demons in 19th century Slavic literatures

The author examines relations of literary texts to demonic creatures as found in the latters’ parodic treatment in Early Romantic appropriations of Lucian’s Dialogues of the Dead, Romantic appropriations of heroic tales of the late 18^th century, and in parodic farce images of hell. In parodies, relations between people and demons undergo humorous transformations, devils tuning into annoying functionaries or noble and well-educated persons, sometimes even ones unfortunate in love, while people in some texts becoming indifferent and mean.

Key words: parody, fantastic fiction, intertextuality, humorous transformations, demons and people, Baba Yaga, Kikimora, Slavic literatures.

Tetiana Belimova

Traditional Ukrainian mythological space in the fantasy novels "Reverse side of light" and "Reverse side of Darkness" by Dara Korniy

The article focuses upon the fantasy dilogy by Dara Korniy analyzing it from the viewpoint of the ancient Ukrainian mythology organically interwoven into these novels’ texture and underlying the fantastic world represented in them. The author establishes the dilogy’s diffuse genre character: mythic fantasy being its main genre, there are also features of Erziehungsroman as well as warning-novel (anti-utopia) in it.

Key words: fantasy, sign, symbol, mythological space, Erziehungsroman, warning novel, Dara Korniy.

Dominik Borowski

Slavic mythological Motifs in the modern world ("Tea with fern flower" by Michal Studniarek)

The article is devoted to Slavic mythological motifs in the novel "Tea with fern flower" (2004) by Michał Studniarek. It demonstrates the characteristic features of fantasy fiction in general and those found in Studniarek’s novel in particular, these features reflecting folk beliefs in magical creatures, artifacts, numbers and names.

Key words: Slavic mythology, the fantastic, fantasy fiction, fern flower, Polish literature, Michał Studniarek.

Anna Wilk

Rusalka – Water nymph or evil spirit in Slavic mythical Beliefs and contemporary Russian horror fiction

The author points out common and individual features in the image of water nymph found in various mythologies, in particular the image of rusalka mermaids in the folklore of the Eastern Slavs. Then she analyzes two stories about love between a human and a rusalka by the Russian authors Victor Tochynov («Русалка на ветвях сидит. Осколки легенды») and Yevgenia Hal («Петрушка или полынь?») in terms of the literary genre of horror.

Key words: mermaid, nymph (rusalka), folklore, magical mentality, Russian literature, literature of horror, Victor Tochynov, Eugenia Hal, popular literature.

Ana Gemra
Horror Games: vampire in Polish and Russian-language Fantasy

The author examines the image of vampire in the classics of the vampire genre as well as its transformation in contemporary popular culture and film. In these, its repuslive features are mollified: it rarely sucks blood, acquiring some attractive features, or even those of other race, instead. With reference to Polish fantasy, the author analyzes works of Andrzej Sapkowski and Andrzej Pilipyuk, and with regard to Russian fantasy, those of Andrey Lazarchuk, Olga Gromyko and Sergei Lukyanenko.

Key words: vampire, fantasy, blood, superstition, race, Polish literature, Russian literature.

Paweł Dziadul

Apocalyptic fiction. The vision of the eschaton in the 13th century apocryphal Slavic literature

This paper deals with apocalyptic fantastic imagery in the 13^th-century Old Bulgarian apocryphal literature, as represented in the corpus of apocalyptic works connected with the Fourth Crusade and the conquest of Constantinople (1204). The typical Byzantine-Slavonic apocalyptic structure of topoi was modified and transformed there according to local needs and circumstances. Apocalyptic atmosphere of the early 13^th century became a perfect ground for the development of politico-ideological program of the Second Bulgarian Empire.

Key words: apocalyptic literature, the fantastic, eschatology, the second Bulgarian empire, the Fourth crusade.

Serhiy Yermolenko

STYLE IDEOLOGY AND GENRE MYTHOLOGY: ON SOME MYTH-POETICAL FEATURES OF UKRAINIAN SOVIET THRILLER

The author brings up the problem of interrelation between ideological and mythological components within the text semantics of Ukrainian Soviet thriller. He establishes, with reference to V. Sobko’s trilogy “Starry wings”, motifs and themes whose emergence and linguistic manifestation in the plot and texture of the trilogy are determined by mythological models, and argues that it is these models, along with social-historical realities, that shape the make-up of the trilogy’s inner world.

Key words: myth, socialist realism, thriller, Ukrainian literature, panchrony.

Marieta Ivanova-Girginova, Elisaria Ruskova

Fantastic in the plays of Vladimir. Musakov - innovative intuitions in modern Bulgarian drama

This article focuses on the dramaturgy of the Bulgarian modernist Vladimir Mussakov (1887–1916). The study analyzes the display of the fantastic as a specific category in the dramaturgic model of his plays. The observations of the poetics and the esthetics of the plays prove the functioning of the fantastic as fairy-tale and ritually mystic in the dramatic fantasy "Satanail" and as surreal and apocalyptical in the play "Delilah". The innovation of the playwright is found in the application of the principle of the artistic synthesis as juxtaposition of different artistic models in the texture of the plays. Fragments from the esthetics of Neo-romanticism, Symbolism and Secession are stylistically processed, transformed into ornaments as part of a new artistic vision in Bulgarian Modernist drama where intuitions of the avant-garde art are born.

Key words: Bulgarian Modernist drama, fantastic, artistic synthesis, Symbolism, Secession, fairy-tale, mystic, surreal.

Aleksandra Koszela

On the Heroes of the cycle “Liar”, or mythology as Jakub Ćwiek sees it

The author discusses the mythology underlying the characters of the cycle "Liar" by the Polish author Jakub Ćwiek, the cycle’s main hero being Loki, Christianized Nordic god of lie, outrage, joke, and deception. There are people working for Loki who have divine features: Eros, handsome and egocentric, Bacchus, short and fat, and a sixteen year old guy named Lucifer. The author establishes features shared by "Liar"’s characters and their mythological prototypes as well as those distinguishing them.

Key words: Loki, Bacchus, Eros, Dionysus, Lucifer, Jakub Ćwiek, Polish literature, mythology, fantasy.

Kateryna Labay

Fantastic interpretations of the motif of pact between human and devil in the 20th century literature

The article examines the Faust theme as influenced by the development of science and technology in the 20^th century, with the motif of immortality set in the context of robothechnics, the relationship between scientist and his invention reinterpreted, and the motif of man’s pact with devil branching into several variants. The author carries out her analysis with reference to the prose of Illia Varshavskij and Sviatoslav Slavchev, and the plays by Samuil Alioshin and Oleksandr Levada.

Key words: pact between man and devil, immortality, Faust theme.

Natalia Logvynenko

Transformation of mythological and folkloric traditions in contemporary Ukrainian fantasy

The article discusses some aspects of structural and stylistic relations between contemporary Ukrainian fantasy and its mythological and folklore sources. The author analyzes the stories of Volodymyr Arieniev, Taras Zavitaylo, Vitaly Klymchuk, and Dara Korniy, arguing that they contribute to general cultural competence and comprehensive aesthetic development of young readers.

Key words: folklorism, mythologism, spiritual forces, gods, Volodymyr Arieniev, Taras Zavitaylo, Vitaly Klymchuk, Dara Korniy.

Natalia Maksheeva

Mythological symbols of Chaos in modern Ukrainian SF

The article deals with the symbolism of mythologem of Chaos in modern Ukrainian science fiction. Special attention is paid to the presentation of the mythologem at the individual and social level. It also gives an analysis of the concept of "Сhaos of history".

Key words: symbol, myth, science fiction, cosmos, chaos.

Svitlana Oliynyk

Eschatological text in the fantasy of Tania Malyarchuk and Marina Sokolyan

The article deals with the way eschatological text functions in the structure of the novelettes "From above downward. Book of fears" by Tania Malyarchuk and "Kherem" by Maryna Sokolyan. The author examines the instances of individual and world eschatology as well as mythological and religious eschatology in the fantasy of the late 20^th and early 21^st centuries.

Key words: fantasy, eschatology, mythological time, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity, victim.

Sviatoslav Piven’

The ideological conflict of the native and the alien in "Witcher saga” by A. Sapkowski and "A Song of Ice and Fire" by George R.R. Martin

The paper explores the ideological conflict between the cultures of the Familiar and the Other as represented in fantasy prose by Andrzej Sapkowski and George R.R. Martin. The author presents a detailed analysis of the conflict's causes and suggested ways of its resolution. Also, he discusses the role of mediator characters in resolving it.

Key words: the Familiar, the Other, ideological conflict, fantasy, Andrzej Sapkowski, George R.R. Martin.

Joanna Płoszaj

Тhe world’s form falling apart: on The degradation of myth in the novel Ruda sfora by Maja Lidia Kossakowska

Maja Lidia Kossakowska, one of the most popular Polish fantasy writers, is inspired in her work by myths and folklore of various cultures. In her novel „Red pack” she has built the plot using motifs from Siberain Yakuts’ beliefs. The paper focuses on the representation of degradation of myth and shaman’s role in this novel. In her analysis the author draws on Mircea Eliade’s works on religion history as well as Bogdan Trocha’s culturological and literary research.

Key words: fantasy, literature, myth, degradation of myth.

Tadeusz Półchłopek

the World of Slavonic folk fantastic beliefs in «ORŁY Z HERBURTÓW» by Leszek Dunin Borkowski

The author investigates mythological ideas of Alexander Leszek Dunin- Borkowski, a Polish romantic with Galician background, represented in his fantastic novel in verse "The Eagles form Herburt". Dunin’s study of Ancient Indian literature gave him the idea of reincarnation which he interpreted in the context of Slavic folk fantastic beliefs, ancient Indian beliefs and his own worldview.

Key words: romanticism, reincarnation, cultural history, Galicia, ancient Indian literature, Polish literature.

Dorota Surdy

Intertextuality in the Witcher Geralt cycle by Andrzej Sapkowski

The author analyzes the Witcher Geralt cycle by the contemporary Polish writer Andrzej Sapkowski in terms of its intertextual relations with the Bible, fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen, the legend of King Arthur, Polish folklore etc.

Key words: Andrzej Sapkowski, the Bible, Polish fantasy, intertextuality, King Arthur, Uroboros.

Tetiana Tveritinova

The Fantastic element in Russian ballads by V.A. Zhukovsky

The article deals with the fantastic element in V.A. Zhukovsky’s Russian ballads «Ludmila» and «Svetlana», each transforming in its own way the theme of Bürger’s «Leonora», a date with a dead bridegroom. The author elucidates the specific features of the ballad genre, such as mythopoetics, chronotope, and the role of dialogue, as well as a peculiar character of the fantastic belief of Christmastide dream and the theme’s variant in which human’s encounter with otherworldly spirits has unexpectedly successful outcome.

Key words: ballad, poetics of the fantastic, ballad chronotope, ballad dialogue, Christmastide fantastic beliefs.

Predrag Todorović

Elements of fantastic Horror in Milovan GLIŠIĆ'S "Night on the bridge" and "Sugar Loaf"

The paper deals with fantastic horror in two short stories by Milovan Glišić, „Night on the Bridge“ and „The Sugarloaf“. This Serbian author combines elements of the real and the irreal, the possible and the impossible. The demonology underlying the prose of Glišić is one of the most intricate and sophisticated in the Serbian fantastic literature. It has been inspired by Serbian folklore, especially the one of the region of Valjevo, where Glišić comes from.

Key words: Milovan Glišić, short stories, folk realism, romanticism, the demonic, fantastic fiction, horror

Bogdan Trocha

Grotesque and new myths in the Jakub Wędrowycz cycle by Andrzej Pilipiuk

The paper describes the world of Jakub Wędrowycz, the hero of the contemporary writer Andrzej Pilipiuk’s eponymous cycle, an old rural exorcist as well as bootlegger and drunkard, very popular in Poland. Analyzing this cycle, the author finds the following literary characteristics: the fantastic, the grotesque, and the absurd, as well as transformation of political myths and myths of popular culture. The fantastic is found in the motifs of the Jakub’s fight against vampires, palace ghosts, and sorcerers, and in the motifs of resurrected Lenin and Dzerzhinsky.

Key words: grotesque, myths, fantastic content, Andrzej Pilipiuk, the cycle of Jakub Wędrowycz, Polish literature

Tijana Tropin

Transformations of demons: motifs from Slavic mythology in contemporary Serbian literature for children

This paper offers an overview of Slavic mythological motifs in recent Serbian literature for children. Besides listing the authors heavily drawing on Slavic mythology and Serbian folklore as well as their work of last decades, we attempt to find reasons behind the upsurge in children fantasy novels and the revival of folklore motifs in them. The influence of Western fantasy (e.g. Tolkien, Rowling and others) combines with fruitful attempts to revive and exploit a near-forgotten treasury of folk tradition as literary material.

Key words: children literature, fantasy genre, Slavic mythology, Serbian literature.

Adam Flamma

Slavic bestiary as an important part of the nocturnal locus horridus in the world of video games. Analysis of the phenomenon with reference to Witcher games

The author explores images of monsters in various forms of popular culture: comics, film, literature and video games. Considering role videogames (of the hack and slash, or survival horror type) with The Witcher, he finds them literarily influenced by Andrzej Sapkowski’s Witcher cycle as well as Slavic bestiary. Comparing demons of videogames with Polish and Slavic folklore demons (as represented in studies of Gieysztor and Pelka), the author lists their names, appearance, time and place of their occurrence, typical traits and ways of behavior.

Key words: bestiary, computer games, Slavic mythology, Witcher, monsters.

Igor Shchedrin

Non-strict veracty and Bylina genre memory in 18th century literary “heroic fairy tales”

The author analyzes the worldview of authors of Russian literary “heroic fairy tales” of the 18^th century (M.D. Chulkov, M.I. Popov and V.A. Levshin) in the framework of M.M. Bakhtin’s genre memory theory, concluding that the orientation to strict or inaccurate veracity of narration in “heroic fairy tale” determines its several key parameters.

Key words: genre, bylina, heroic fairy tale, literary fairy tale, genre memory.

IDEOLOGY

Irina Grechanyk

Representation of the idea of national identity in Ukrainian Science fiction: content and structure (with reference to the works of Oles’ Berdnyk, Oleh Hovda and Tymur Lytovchenko)

The article examines Ukrainian science fiction from the viewpoint of the concept of national identity. The author argues that a special model of time and space is found in Ukrainian science fiction which is based on national concepts, and emphasizes its role in upbringing and inculcating national-ethnic values.

Key words: time-space, Ukrainian science fiction, chronotop, concept, content.

Persida Lazarević Di Giacomo

Borislav Pekić’s Challenge to Science Fiction

The paper deals with the Yugoslav writer Borislav Pekić (1930-1992) challenging traditional (primarily Anglo-Saxon) science fiction in his novel 1999 (1984), a part of his anti-utopian trilogy also including Rabies (1983) and Atlantis (1988). For Pekić, Bradbury, Simak, Asimov, and Huxley are four prophets of the (apocalyptic) future, whose predictions he considers realizable and therefore destructive. Pekić counterpoints them with the notion of uncertainty which leaves him, his narrator, his hero, and all of us without an answer. In his view uncertainty is part of the inherent nature of man and it is fortunate for us that we lack the capacity to predict the future.

Key words: Borislav Pekić, science fiction, Ray Bradbury, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Clifford Simak, Isaac Asimov, Aldous Huxley, uncertainty, anthropological novel, „1999“.

Boris Lanin

Genre problems of modern russian dystopia: Sorokin, Pelevin and other

The author examines dystopia and utopia in contemporary Russian literature as means of understanding Russia’s present and hypothesizing alternatives of its future. As a rule belonging to popular literature (the works of Bennigsen, Avchenko, Lagutenko), they are generally of little artistic value. However, an author of great talent can exceptionally produce an outstanding result opening up new perspectives for the genre (such as the novel "Telluria" by Vladimir Sorokin).

Key words: dystopia, utopia, politics, parody, satire, regional utopia, Vladimir Sorokin.

Anatoliy Niamtsu

Dystopian tradition in context of modern literature

The author analyzes the motif of travel in time as used in fantastic interpretations of traditional literary themes. This motif occurs in stories involving time machine as well as multitude of ways of time travelling.

Key words: interpretation, tradition, time paradox, mythologization.

Gana Sabadosh

“New” ERA as interpretated in D. Buz’kO’s sci-fi novel "The Crystal Land"

The article examines the way the «new» epoch concept is reflected in the novel «The crystal land» by D. Buz’ko, in particular, in its plot and topicality (such as problems of science progress and ideal society) as well as its genre and style features. Key words:fantastic novel, fantastic idea, progress, utopia, adventure.

Olesia Stuzhuk

Socialist realism and science fiction

The author surveys the history of science fiction in Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic under socialist realism tenets with special attention to prescriptive resolutions of various congresses as well as relevant literary criticism and writers’ articles and essays.

Key words: science fiction, ideology, censorship.

Psychology

Galina Bokshan’

The motif of caritative love in the novelette "My brother Enkidu" by Halyna Pahutyak

The author analyzes the motif of caritative love as represented in the novelette “My Brother Enkidu” by Halyna Pahutyak in the light of Nikolay Berdiayev’s philosophy and ethics. The author uses Pahutiak’s essays as hermeneutic keys in her interpretation of the novelette.

Key words: motif of caritative love, hermeneutic keys, myth, fantastic-mythological prose, concept of heart.

Jarosław Woźniak

Prose of Jacek Dukaj from posthumanistic viewpoint

The aim of this article is critical analysis of the novel Perfekcyjna niedoskonałość by Jacek Dukaj in terms of the philosophy of posthumanism. The novel is both the point of departure and the point of arrival for the author’s general reflexion upon, and comparison of, two currents deriving from humanism: post- and transhumanism. The author pays special attention to how subject is theoretically constructed in both systems as well as their relations to Dukaj’s novel. Another important object of his analysis is Dukaj’s representation of corporeality.

Key words: posthumanism, transhumanism, science-fiction, incorporation, subject.

Kateryna Komisarenko

The image of Superman in the fantastic prose of Oles’ Berdnyk and the brothers Arkady and Boris Strugatskij

The author analyzes the image of superman in the prose of Oles' Berdnyck and the brothers Arkady and Boris Strugatskij, comparing their views on human’s evolution in the future with regard to Konstantin Tsiolkovski’s theory of astronoosphere, and also establishing their principles of creating future Superman’s image.

Key words: science fiction, superman, evolution, astronoosfera, immortality.

Katarzyna Trzeciak

Amazing sculptures. The motif of vivification of art pieces in the Polish fantastic literature of the early twentieth century

The article deals with the theme of vivifying statues in Polish fiction of the early 20^th century. The main myth representing this theme in the fantastic genre is the story of Pygmalion, especially as interpreted by J.J.Rousseau. The author discusses the sculpture ontology paradox which permits to treat it as a metaphor of modernist subjectivity. Analyzing “Aracana” by Wacław Wolski and “Skamieniali ludzie” by Emanuel of Lešehrad, she shows various ways of interpreting sculpture as a metaphor of subjectivity in fantastic prose.

Key words: sculpture, subjectivity, Pygmalion, Rousseau, Laokoon.

Yevgen Shkurov

Man and machine in the short story "Nothing to share" by S. Lukyanenko

The author analyzes relationships between human and machinery as represented in Sergei Lukyanenko’s short story “Nothing to share”, also discussing viewpoints on machine found in science fiction.

Key words: Sergei Lukyanenko, “Nothing to share”, Science Fiction, man.

Postmodern literature

Tetiana Bovsunivs’ka

Frame structure of hypertextual novel (from Pavić to Izdryk)

The paper proposes a new approach to the analysis of hypertextual novel narrative structure based on the theory of frames. The author analyzes difference between fragmentation and frame structure concluding that the integrity of novel as an artistic construct is achieved by means of frame switching.

Key words: hypertextual novel, switching, frame, frame structures, framing system, fragmentation, cognitive literary studies.

Oksana Paliy

the Fantastic in postmodernism (with reference to Czech prose)

The author gives an outline of main characteristics of the fantastic modus of postmodern literature, demonstrating the postmodenists’ exploitation of the set of topics and genres of fantastic fiction with reference to the work of the Czech prose writers J. Kratohvil, M. Ajvaz, M. Urban, A. Berkova etc.

Key words: the fantastic, postmodernism, Czech prose.

Ewa Stawczyk

Lyrical-oneiric fantasy of Goran Petrović

Analyzing Goran Petrović’s oneiric prose, first of all his novel "The siege of the Church of the Holy Saviour" and his story "The Island", the author points out that the Serbian writer first imitated Jorge Luis Borges and Milorad Pavic in his treatment of the theme of dream, then found his own innovative approach in which dream is a sacral sphere and a meeting place outside time and space, reflecting archetypes as well as the personal unconscious.

Key words: Serbian postmodernism, contemporary Serbian prose, oneiric fantastic prose, lyrical prose.

Other Themes

Zorica Djergović-Joksimović

fantastic voyage to Kathmandu

The paper focuses on the elements of the genre of fantastic voyage in the Serbian author Stevan Pešić’s “Kathmandu”(1982). Seemingly a travel book in which the author tells about his adventures in, and his impressions of, Kathmandu, it is actually a fairly complex literary work, close scrutiny revealing in it elements of fantastic voyage as well as utopian fiction.

Key words: Stevan Pešić, travel literature, esotericism, utopia, fantastic voyage, Serbian literature.

Miloš Jocić

(Neo)avant-guard treatment of steampunk in the novel "Futurist in retreat, or Unezverijada" by ilija Bakić

The paper focuses on Ilija Bakić's treatment of steampunk in his novel Futurista u odstupanju ili Unezverijada. The author's use of the fantastic genre is totally untraditional: on one hand, he either completely deconstructs several of the steampunk's principles or uses them for the purposes of the avant-guard poetics of novel and the surrealistic, occult vision of reality; and on the other, he builds relationships with some other principles of steampunk in an utterly neo-avant-garde, even postmodernist way. The author gives a detailed account of Bakić's innovative use of the fantastic fiction genre including elements of avant-guard, neo-avant-guard, and postmodernism.

Key words: steampunk, literature genre, avant-garde, neo-avant-garde, postmodernism, computer poetry, Ilija Bakić

Maryana Klymets’

Priče godišnjih doba : music and fantastic content in modernistic Horvath prose

The article is a study of the functions of musical images and the use of musical concepts in non-mimetic strategies as exemplified by the works of four Horvath modernist authors: М. Begovich’s short story “Quartet”, A.G. Matos’s short story “Camao”, D. Shymunovich’s psychological novel “The Stranger”, and F. Halovych’s avant-garde short story “Confession”. Special attention is given to the analysis of the relationship between mimesis, anti-mimesis, and fantasy, and the role of inter-semiotic references in modernist works.

Key words: modernism, fantastic fiction, anti-mimesis, inter-semiotics, psychogram.

Aleksandar Nedeljković

Significance of national alternative histories in science fiction

Science fiction is a genre primarily interested in planetary topics involving the whole mankind and therefore supra-national, and also in cosmic themes and, possibly, non-human beings. Yet in SF there are also some nationally oriented topics such as alternative history, based on the assumption that our history could have developed differently and have different outcomes. In the English-language literature many important works of this genre appeared after the World War Two; the same is true, although in considerably smaller degree, of the Serbian literature.

Key words: science fiction literature, national alternative history.

Tomasz Ratajczak

the Miraculous and the fantastic in books published by provincial typographies in the 19^th century Galicia (with reference to Polish publishers)

The aim of this article is to broaden the scope of study of fantastic fiction by introducing the production of Polish publishers of Western Galicia. The author’s observations concern literature with fantastic and miraculous content published in Galicia and Lodomeria which are currently part of Ukraine.

Key words: Western Galicia, publishing heritage, Polish books

Roman Tkachenko

The world of science as represented by V.Vynnychenko and Yu. Smolich (with reference to the sci-fi novel "The Solar machine" and the trilogy "Beautiful Disasters")

The article deals with the way the world of science was depicted in the science fiction novels by V.Vynnychenko and Yu.Smolych. The author establishes the typology of scientist characters in them and also analyzes these writers’ interpretation of the topic of relationship between man and machine, concluding that both writers are characterized by progressist and pragmatic approach to the assessment and portraying of the world of science.

Key words: science, scientist, artistic model, interpretation, science fiction novel, topics, Volodymyr Vynnychenko, Yuriy Smolych.