Various Aspects of Humor in the Works of the Bards: Alexander Galich, Jack Kleyff,
Bulat Okudzhava and John Kelus

The article is devoted to the topic of the role of humour in songs of prominent Russian and
Polish bards – Alexander Galich, Jacek Kleyff, Bulat Okudzava and Jan Kelus. The poets find
counterbalance to the totalitarian system in irony, satire, parody and caricature. Showing the
destructive action of the communist state in relation to the individual, they ridicule specific
phenomena and behaviours. They show human tragedy that results from the fact that one is
not able to fully realize his or her humanity and one is deprived of dignity. Irony and parody
help people to see the problem and understand that laughter is capable of overcoming social
apathy and fear. Emotional engagement makes Galich and Kleyff choose satire and tragic irony,
Kelus uses mostly paradoxes and parodies, while humoristic attitude and distance from the
reality lead Okudzava to use self-irony. The possibility of showing humoristic aspect of life in
a non-democratic country helps the audience to be serene and gives people advantage over the
oppressive authority.

Seeing the Other in Paul Celan’s “Schliere im Auge”

The following article aims to analyse the visual perception and the process of seeing, as presented in the poem Schliere im Auge (Ger. schlieren in the eye − optical inhomogenities in the transparent material of the eye). In his poem, Paul Celan articulates the Bewahrung function of poetry and transcendence, using terminology typical of metaphysics, medicine or phonetics. The poem features several of the many indicators of Celan’s hermetic poetry, which include: lexical conciseness, precise syntax, semantic variety, the dynamics of motion, the state of mind, cognitive ability, disturbed communication, the perception of the moment.

On Dynamism of Images. Primary Aesthetic Categories in Věra Linhartová’s
Concept of Image

The aim of this paper is to argue the thesis that the theory of art and literature postulated by Věra Linhartová, a Czech writer, art and literary theorist who has been living in exile in France since 1968, is based on two significant categories – spatiality and movement. While both notions are strictly entwined with each other, it is the movement that plays the role of the key denominator in Linhartová’s theoretical and literary works which is pointed out by the author herself in her essay For an Ontology of Exile (1994). Due to a twofold – expository and comparative – character of the study, it is structured as an open and complementary diptych. First of all, drawing on Linhartová’s interpretative and theoretical essays, the analysis strives to retrace her individual and peculiar vision of image. The exposition of Linhartová’s methodological approach serves as the starting point for the comparison and contrast between her theory and methodological concepts concerning the theory of image – mainly Georges Didi-Huberman’s idea of image. The paper concludes with an opening to further analysis and interpretation of Linhartová’s theoretical and literary texts.