Constructing Alien Space in South Slavic Oral Lyric (original) (raw)
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THE METAPHORICAL POTENTIAL OF SPACE IN HUNGARIAN FOLKSONGS
A special characteristic of numerous Hungarian folksongs is the so called “natural image”, which, in an initial position within the text, anticipates the emotional and conceptual content in some way. In many cases, the meaning and the conceptual relevance of the natural image is not obvious at all. In the representation of the natural scene, based on mostly visual perception, a fundamental element is that of spatial relationships being dynamically construed in the world of the text. The analysis of the metaphorical potential of space representation sets up a claim for a model, which combines both structural and procedural factors of understanding. I aim at outlining all categories which have a significant role in space representation, and by this means composing a framework of interpretation, which, though it rests on one certain text type, can later on be extended to further texts of lyrics. The significance of this paper is two-fold: it presents fundamentally new results on how the process of construing works in terms of text types, while it is an example as well of the empiric investigation of functional text linguistics. The theoretical basis of the approach is mostly holistic cognitive linguistics worked out by R. Langacker, and the kind of methodology used is empiric text analysis.
Metaphorical undercurrents in Bulgarian folk songs
2017
The research explores Bulgarian folk songs and focuses on metaphors based on terms from the semantic field of water. It analyzes them as elements of a system of implications related to the spiritual life of the Bulgarian people. Based on the conception of the dual nature of water – an uncontrollable element and a substance promoting life, a hypothesis is construed about the existence of a plane of suggestion different from the planes of form, content and the aesthetic charge of Bulgarian folk songs. This metaphoric undercurrent is a unique code that is instrumental in the construction of relations parallel to those depicted in the songs. These can be allusions to the times of mythology; references to the roots of consciousness, when nomination was conducted from the outer to the inner, from nature to the individual who identified with it and whose outlook was ecological rather than ethnocentric.
At present the terms «world model» and «world image» are used synonymously. The author differentiates these terms for the purposes of typological analysis: it is assumed that world model is a kind of general scheme (frame or gestalt) which, being actualized in different cultural and philosophical "codes", forms various world images. Typological analysis should be done at a world-model level since world model allow to see one poetics type through diversity of its cultural and philosophical realizations (while analysis of world images allow us to detected individual "deviations" of the poetics from this general type). Body image and space are the key structures of world model. These concrete concepts encode complex and abstract relations between human and world. They are manifested on semantical and grammatical levels simultaneously and perform the constructive function in texts. The primary conflict «human vs world» is realized in the elementary opposition «body vs confined space» at a semantic level. Two types of interaction between the body and the confined space were revealed: centrifugal and centripetal. These types are grounded in invariant motif «destruction of the boundary between the body and the world». This destruction is carried out in two ways: through the construction of the new utopian space (without boundaries) and the creation of the new «fluid» corporeality related to this space. The disappearance of the boundary between the body and the world semantically marks the neutralization of the boundary between the subject and the object that elicits appearance Anthropos archetype in Lеtov's and Mayakovsky's lyrics. This archetype represents a return to the early ontogenetic stages of psychological development, as a result of which a specific model is formed, where the body and space are identical. This model sets in the poetry of Letov and Mayakovsky a propositional-grammatical structure, which determines some features of the syntagmatic text structure and specific semiotics mechanisms of metaphor. Thus, the blending of the external and internal generates the non-topical subject, that destroys the deictic reference and leads to syntactic incompleteness and agrammatisms. The body's permeable boundary, which appears as a result of this blending, also generates a specific metaphorical frame where space and body are fused together. The suffering body image with permeable boundary, in turn, is associated with the realized metaphor, which, indicating the affect state, shows the expanding emotion that "tears" the body.
2020
Composed in the mid 1870’s, Modest Musorgsky’s song cycle Songs and Dances of Death can be easily placed within the geographically and temporally situated cultural and sociopolitical context of the subject matter of dying that thematically unifies it. The article focuses on the set’s second song, [GA1] titled “Serenade,” seeking to investigate the structural conditions that afford its hermeneutic association with this context. To do so, it borrows its critical apparatus from Mikhail Bakhtin’s literary theory, and particularly the notions of heteroglossia and dialogism, intersected with the concept of markedness, as it has been appropriated to musicology from structural linguistics by Robert Hatten. The analysis demonstrates the song’s heteroglot disposition, evinced by the stylistic opposition of its two comprising sections, the first unmarked and the second marked by readily identifiable tokens of Russianness. In particular, it concentrates on the song’s tonal duality, re-conceptu...
More often than not, and under almost all traditional conditions, a sung poetic text never looks like a scholarly written poem, as a succession of new and different lines. During the singing, verses are repeated, choruses are periodically intermingled, lyrics are broken and prolonged by vowels and pauses, the whole, which is the Song, acquiring new dimensions and different structures. Structures, or architectural forms, are independent both to (poetic) text and tune, are unpredictable/inconceivable by both lyrics and melody (taken separately), have nothing to do with the conscious intention or representation of the singers themselves, and are spontaneously actualized during the singing. Due to such structuring possibilities, and using only the formal possibilities of the syntagmatic repetition (i.e. the entire verse repetition, and the strophic chorus/refrain), in Romanian traditional/folk singing a single poetic text can (at least theoretically) receive sixty-four architectural arrangements. For establishing the existence of all these architectural versions I have started from observations made by researchers in early 20 th century, which noticed that Romanians had the peculiarity of singing the same verse three or four times. Whereas for later decades it was more common that verses to be repeated just once. If we logically establish all possible forms of syntagmatic repetitions we eventually obtain this sum of sixty-four variants, which constitute the equally real and virtual being of each and any folk song (cf. . These structures and architectures were very important to the old, traditional aesthetics, and their actualization was essential especially to ceremonial repertories such as the Winter-Solstice-Songs (traditional carols). Later on, by giving up devices such as verse repetition and stanzaic choruses (refrains), and by shortening the time for performing the epic-like songs of the peasant carol, what got lost it was the immaterial aspect of unconscious constructing, the irrational yet effective re-elaboration of time, the abysmal pleasure for implied mathematics. It got lost one of the essences of both sacred and aesthetic experience, which is, experiencing the Virtual, the Potential.
Parallelism and Musical Structures in Ingrian and Karelian Oral Poetry
Oral Tradition 31(2): 331–354 , 2018
The focus of this essay is the complex relationship between textual parallelism and performance in historical oral poetry. Since there is no possibility of carrying out any personal ethnographic fieldwork, the main approach to the local categorizations and meanings of singing is to analyze recurrent patterns and combinations of different elements in archival material. This approach relates to discussions about ethnopoetics and textualizing oral poetry. 1 Previously, I have analyzed the local understanding of genres and registers via the analysis of the relationships between poetic texts, melodic structures, singing practices, and performance arenas in archival material relating to one cultural area (Kallio 2013 and 2015). The present essay analyzes relationships between textual parallelism and musical structures in sound recordings from two Finnic singing cultures with related languages and similar poetic forms, but different singing practices. The singers of Ingria and Archangel Karelia had slightly different uses, versions, and interpretations of so-called kalevalaic or Kalevala-metric poems (runo-songs). 2 The singing styles of these poems varied by region, song genre, performance setting, and performer, and these kinds of factors also affected the relationship of textual and musical parallelism. On a general level, the recordings may be divided into four, partly overlapping cases: 1) There is no regular connection between textual parallelism and musical structures. 2) Textual parallelism is highlighted by melodic variation. 3) Patterns of verse repetition are connected to textual parallelism. 4) Textual parallelism and musical structures are mutually coordinated in a way that may even approach regular patterns of two or four verses. The analysis of the relationship of the linguistic (or textual) features and the forms of performance is a task involving both abstract metrics and practical performances. In the case of Kalevala-metric oral poetry, certain forms of performance may affect poetic structures, such as Oral Tradition, 31/2 (2017): 331-354 1 For example, see Hymes (1981); Tedlock (1983) on ethnopoetics; Fine (1984); Honko (1998) on textualization; on epic poetry, see also Foley (1995) and Harvilahti (2003). 2 On the complex connotations of different labels for the Finnic traditions, see Kallio et al. (2017); on the characteristics and differences of Ingrian and Karelian singing, see Siikala (1994 and 2000).