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Logotyp Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego

2015 Następne

Data publikacji: 2016

Licencja: Żadna

Redakcja

Redaktor naczelny Marek Piekarczyk

Sekretarz redakcji Orcid Wojciech Ryczek

Redaktor zeszytu Wojciech Ryczek

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Joanna Pypłacz

Terminus, Tom 17, zeszyt 4 (37), 2015, s. 417-443

https://doi.org/10.4467/20843844TE.15.012.5141

Fertilis in mortes: Lucan’s Medusa and Milton’s Sin

This article attempts to show whether, and if so, to what extent, John Milton’s portrayal of Sin in Paradise Lost is underlain by Lucan’s so-called “Medusa excursus”. Scholars have shown beyond reasonable doubt that Milton’s depiction of Sin alludes to one particular English hypotext, namely Edmund Spenser’s Faerie Queene. However, although the Lucanian character of Milton’s epic is now generally acknowledged, the “Medusa excursus” has, to date, not been considered to be a possible Latin hypotext for Milton’s depiction of Sin.
Leaving aside the indisputable similarities between Spenser’s Error and Milton’s Sin, the author shows that for all their apparent differences, Sin and Medusa actually have much more in common than it would seem at first glance. Firstly, both monsters are allegories of some primeval evil that, having set in motion a never-ending process of destruction, is portrayed as being a deadly, oxymoronic fertility that brings forth death instead of life. The morbid procreative prolificacy of both Medusa and Sin is triggered by a crime, which, once it has violated their bodies, renders them eternally “fertile in death”. While Medusa, having been mutilated by Perseus, posthumously “gives birth” to poisonous snakes, Sin, violated by Satan, literally becomes the mother of Death.
Although it is highly likely that the motif of monstrous fertility has itself been taken directly from Spenser, it would seem that Milton may also have been inspired by Lucan. The name of Cerberus, which is present in Milton and Lucan, but absent in Spenser, is a telling detail. Milton’s depiction of Death, which is described as being shapeless and similar to a substance, brings to mind Medusa’s poisonous blood. The subsequent rape of Sin by Death results in the birth of a pack of infernal dogs. This element also follows the Lucanian pattern of a crime triggering a deadly procreation by a wronged party.
Interestingly, Spenser’s depiction of Error itself contains certain motifs (for example that of “black poison” or that of the killing of a monster by a warrior) that are also present in Lucan’s Medusa excursus. This, together with some possible allusions to Hesiod’s legend of the rape of Medusa, as well as Ovid’s account of Scylla, leads us to conclude that the relationship between the discussed passages of Paradise Lost and their Lucanian and Spenserian hypotexts are quite complex, as they seem to reflect a process of elaborate contamination.
It is shown that Lucan’s depiction of Medusa may also have inspired Spenser himself. The connection between the portrayals of Medusa and Sin is not limited to the seemingly vague and superficial similarities that mainly concern the physical appearance of the two monsters, but is deeply rooted in the moral concept of a crime that triggers a perpetuum mobile of destruction. Although Milton and Spenser both share Lucan’s idea that one wrong leads to the “birth” of innumerable wrongs, only Milton consistently follows this line of thought by providing his monster with horrendous procreative powers that are also eternal and (literally) deadly. Seen against the background of Milton’s familiarity with the work and ideas of the Roman poet, it would seem that all the similarities between Sin and Medusa are far too striking to be attributable to mere coincidence.

 

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Wojciech Ryczek

Terminus, Tom 17, zeszyt 4 (37), 2015, s. 445-485

https://doi.org/10.4467/20843844TE.15.013.5142

Thorunian Olbiopolis: Ulrich Schober’s Tropes and Figures

The main aim of the paper is to present the catalogue of epigrams based on tropes and figures, placed in the book Ολβιόπολις, seu civitas beata (Olbiopolis, or a Happy City, Leipzig 1592) by Ulrich Schober (1559–1598), a neo-Latin poet associated with the Gymnasium in Thorun. This tome is a collection of almost five hundred verses written in different metres, rhetorical figures, and styles. Each of them, however, has one thing in common – they are paraphrases of Latin sentence: “Happy is the city that fears war in a time of peace” (felix civitas, quae tempore pacis timet bella), regarded as a variant of well-known Latin adage: “If you want peace, prepare for war” (si vis pacem, para bellum).
The paper consists of three closely related parts. The first section discusses a prefatory letter addressed to Heinrich Stroband, burgomaster of Thorun, in which the author explained the didactic and moralistic purpose of his literary work. The second part brings considerations on epigrams based on tropes and figures as seen from the perspective of rhetorical criticism. And finally, the third part of the study is a transcription of the discussed verses, divided by Schober into four sections: ten tropes and three classes of rhetorical devices: figures related to grammatical order, figures of arousing and expressing of emotions, and figures of amplification or exaggeration.
The ancient sentence concerning the time of war and peace in the life of a human community became the subject of a metrical, conceptual and linguistic paraphrase. Schober’s collection of epigrams might be interesting for an historian of rhetoric for two reasons. Firstly, it provides a remarkable insight into the reception of Melanchthon’s rhetorical theory in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. And secondly, it allows a reconstruction of the teaching of eloquence in the Gymnasium of Thorun by such learning activities as: translation, metaphrase, summary, and imitation. Thus, a student following the example given by his professor was able to create their own catalogues of metrical and stylistic paraphrases.
Schober’s Olbiopolis is a city built with words, figures, and images on the solid foundation of poetics and rhetoric. But his literary work should not be restrictedto a poetical play on words or a rhetorical exercise of language and style. According to the wisdom written in the ancient sentence, peace is only seemingly a time free of war. More attentive readings in epigrams on the ideal city reveal the project of a political Utopia. For the purposes of humanistic pedagogy, Schober turned Olbioplis into the figure of an ideal city.

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Barbara Kaszowska-Wandor

Terminus, Tom 17, zeszyt 4 (37), 2015, s. 487-530

https://doi.org/10.4467/20843844TE.15.014.5143

Maternal rituals: Rousseau, Ecocriticism and the Ancient Myth of “The State of Nature”

This paper argues that many methodological approaches that currently dominate in the field of literary studies accept (more or less tacitly) the myth of anthropogenesis established in the works of Jean Jacques Rousseau. The myth is a specific elaboration of the myths on the origins of man as a social creature present in the humanistic tradition. Thus the narration of Rousseau distorts the way the older, especially humanist, literary works are now interpreted. It is also connected with the limited reception of such works within the new currents, which are declaratively non-anthropocentric and anti-essentialist. Not only the humanistic writings, but also their ancient sources, are commonly inscribed with the supposition about the separated status of man and the existence of the strict division between the human and the non-human. The aim of the aforementioned new studies is to challenge such division.
The role of the thought of Rousseau in the modern reception of ancient texts has been acknowledged in the works of Denise Leduc-Fayette and Ralph A. Leigh. However, even the very first interpreters of Rousseau’s ideas pointed to his powerful employment of the plots taken from the ancient authors, especially the stoics. In contrast to the existing research literature, the aim of the paper is not to be an exhaustive comparative analysis of the ideas of Seneca and Rousseau. Such analyses have been largely presented within the existing literature, i.e. in the works of Georges Pire, Raymond Trousson, Lucien Nouis, Mikołaj Olszewski. Instead, the author attempts to identify the specific elements of the ancient antropogenetic myth, which were ignored by the 18th century philosopher in his devastating criticism of humanistic literary culture.
The first section of the paper is devoted to the reconstruction of the plot with Rousseau in mind. It is illustrated with the analyses of the educational treatise Emile. The following sections refer to the ancient texts whose authors in varied ways employed Hesiod’s myth of the origins of humanity. The analyses include not only the commonly addressed Letter XC of Seneca, but also (inter alia) the multiple fragments of the works of Cicero and the Platonian dialogue Protagoras. The author adopted the assumption that only such wider comparative analyses of different versions of the myth disclose its interesting but seriously overlooked elements.
The paper emphasizes the role of common metaphors referring to maternity. They appear functional for expressing the relation between human arts and the social condition of man. It also describes the internal hierarchic relations between various realms of human actions and creations. Rousseau, as well as the ancient authors, recreates the rituals relating to childbirth and nurture. The author argues that all such descriptions have a similar function in the analysed texts. As a specific metaphor they express the ambiguous, ontological status of a human community. They also imply that such a community should not be perceived as a durable social structure but as a constantly recreated experience. At the same time, the analyses provide an interpretation of the widespread humanistic motif of the arts (and later literature) as “bounding the community together”.
In the conclusion of the paper, the ancient metaphors are related to the concepts of modern anthropology, such as the idea of liminality in the works of Victor Turner. The author stresses the necessity to read the old metaphors anew. She claims that they express enthralling but still seriously under-read ideas about human experience, creations and communities.

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Joanna Komorowska

Terminus, Tom 17, zeszyt 4 (37), 2015, s. 531-541


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