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Starting from the concept of death in contemporary Serbian culture (in the context of thanatological and anthropological studies), the author focuses on the analysis of communication with the deceased in dreams, which is still perceived as an important form of contact with the otherworldly. The analysis of material collected during field research at various locations in Serbia and in Serbian communities in Romania (from 2017 to 2024), supplemented by dream narratives from the internet, has shown that based on the main messages conveyed by the deceased to the living, dreams can be divided into: (1) dreams about "the unappeased deceased" (who lack something in the otherworld, usually due to an omission by the living related to funerary rituals); (2) dreams in which the deceased show the otherworld and provide verbal assessments of it; (3) dreams in which the deceased inform of their departure or final passing into the world of the dead; (4) dreams in which the deceased demonstrate their presence in the world of the living, i.e., providing information pertaining to the sphere of the dreamer's social reality; (5) dreams in which the deceased convey their messages, advice or warnings to the living; and (6) dreams interpreted as the deceased person's call to the dreamer to join them in the otherworld. Basic element analysis of the spatial world image, projected via the dream, highlights the importance of the locus perceived as a border space. Dreams about the deceased seem to be ambivalent in this respect, given that, on the one hand, they are perceived as an important means of communication between this world and the otherworld, and on the other hand, through the ideas on which they are founded and that they further transmit, they are also part of the narrative strategies of the boundary between this concept of two worlds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artists understand the importance, value, and freedom of the studio space as a place within which the interpretation of their creative thoughts transforms into diverse art forms. Throughout history, art has been born there. For the religion of Spiritualism, which supports a belief in life beyond death, the séance appears to be the studio space for pioneer spirit art mediums such as Victorians Georgiana Houghton, Anna Mary Howitt, and David Duguid, and, in modernity, Susan Barnes, Shannon Taggart and myself, to retire to in order to conjoin with believed-to-be communications from the spirits of deceased persons and produce spirit inspired, and created, art. Information has been sought from Houghton’s biographical journal, Howitt’s notations on her spirit art, plus the scribed statements from Duguid’s séance in 1872. This information, accompanied by spirit drawings and paintings, is explained alongside contemporary ethnographic experiences. Spirit inspired paintings and drawings are the backdrop for this paper which seeks to unearth the significance of the séance as a studio space for the mediums who create and created spirit art. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Starting from the concept of death in contemporary Serbian culture (in the context of thanatological and anthropological studies), the author focuses on the analysis of communication with the deceased in dreams, which is still perceived as an important form of contact with the otherworldly. The analysis of material collected during field research at various locations in Serbia and in Serbian communities in Romania (from 2017 to 2024), supplemented by dream narratives from the internet, has shown that based on the main messages conveyed by the deceased to the living, dreams can be divided into: (1) dreams about “the unappeased deceased” (who lack something in the otherworld, usually due to an omission by the living related to funerary rituals); (2) dreams in which the deceased show the otherworld and provide verbal assessments of it; (3) dreams in which the deceased inform of their departure or final passing into the world of the dead; (4) dreams in which the deceased demonstrate their presence in the world of the living, i.e., providing information pertaining to the sphere of the dreamer’s social reality; (5) dreams in which the deceased convey their messages, advice or warnings to the living; and (6) dreams interpreted as the deceased person’s call to the dreamer to join them in the otherworld. Basic element analysis of the spatial world image, projected via the dream, highlights the importance of the locus perceived as a border space. Dreams about the deceased seem to be ambivalent in this respect, given that, on the one hand, they are perceived as an important means of communication between this world and the otherworld, and on the other hand, through the ideas on which they are founded and that they further transmit, they are also part of the narrative strategies of the boundary between this concept of two worlds.

The article is devoted to the study of the description of the otherworld in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s mystical story “Bobok,” first published in 1873 in the author’s column A Writer’s Diary of the weekly Grazhdanin (Dostoevsky was at the time both author and editor of the magazine.) The short story is considered in the context of other texts of the column and the writer’s previous statements about the problem of human afterlife. Special attention is paid in the article to the interpretation of the title of the story, with its reference to beans, which have been related to the world of the dead in many cultures since ancient times. For this reason, various sources on the history of religion, ethnography and folklore are considered. The article also deals with the theme of the dead souls’ passing through aerial toll houses in the story and the unexpected role people play in this passage according to Dostoevsky. It is proved that the most obvious and attention-grabbing journalistic and satirical layer of the story “Bobok” does not exhaust the author’s intention at all, and it is not able to determine the depth of this work.

The paper identifies the linguistic manifestations of suspended time, represented by chronotopes of the "other world" of fairy tale and certain rap lyrics worlds. The article is aimed at scrutinizing the semiotic, stylistic, conceptual-metaphoric and narrative properties of suspended time in fairy tales and rap lyrics in a comparative aspect, revealed through the use of the textual-semiotic, conceptual blending and stylistic analyses added by the elements of narrative, componential and archetypal analyses, which were applied in 4 consecutive stages of the study. "Suspended" time, defined as a time of everness and standstill, is identified either in the tale oneiric worlds, or the "otherworlds" related to the kingdom of the dead. It is manifested by symbolic images associated with the meaning of "eternity", by narrative speed retardation and "pause" as well as by connotations of "serenity" and "tranquility". It correlates with three topoi, denoted by lexical means of indefiniteness and spatialtemporal remoteness; nominations related to the archetypal elements of worldbuilding or their metonymic designations. The temporal distance separating suspended time from narrative time is "iconically" conveyed by the syntactic redundancy of the sentence structure. In rap lyrics suspended time characterizes the world of the rapper's Ghetto past, metaphorically interpreted as a time loop, or the oneiric world, and is marked by metaphorically reinterpreted symbols of eternity and conceptual metaphors conveying the meanings of "imprisonment", "lock up", "vicious circle", "temporary trap" and "stop", associated with narrative speed retardation and "pause" and connotating "danger", "despair" and "vicious circle". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The features of the image of the otherworldly space in the novel “The Kukotsky Enigma” are considered. The relevance of the topic is due to Lyudmila Ulitskaya’s understanding of the text as a tool with which one can “see the otherworldly”. The concepts of “otherworldly” and “otherworldly space” have been differentiated. The main principles of the image of the otherworldly space in the novel are highlighted: mirroring, carnivalization, its timeless arrangement. Attention is paid to the level organization of space in the novel. The mythologemes of water, sand and fire as fillers of space are investigated. It is noted that the novel “The Kukotsky Enigma” is characterized by the connection of the other world with reality through a number of border spaces: dreams, motives of water and illness. It is noted that the water in the novel is a “portal” to the other world, in which it is transformed into sand; the possibility of rebirth in the Middle World, the author solves the problems of the moral and philosophical order. It is concluded that the Middle World desert is associated with the female womb, where the characters are experiencing a new birth. It is shown that the space also determines the change of the onomapoetic code: the characters traveling in the Middle World change their names to nicknames, and the names remain with the characters who crossed the border of no return and remained permanent inhabitants of the other world.

Yōkai is an elusive category in Japanese history, folklore, and popular culture. It consists of mysterious phenomena that can exercise extraordinary agency in their interactions with humans. Attempting to grapple with this amorphous category, Japanese folklore studies has defined yōkai as malevolent supernatural beings. However, a survey of these studies reveals that most instances of yōkai do not fit this definition. This article discusses the supernaturalization of yōkai and their relegation to the "otherworld" as a process that primarily occurred in three stages: developments in kokugaku cosmology during the early nineteenth century, the import of the concept of the supernatural at the turn of the twentieth century, and the yōkai boom of the late 1960s. In particular, this article emphasizes the importance of the yōkai boom that straddled a premodern folk community and a modernized popular society, leading to a conflation of the concepts of the supernatural, the otherworld, and yōkai. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses language materialities and the Otherworld through the findings of mammoth remains and text-artifacts representing Nenets verbal art. The remains and verbal art are read together as a network of mythic knowledge that forms a semiotic whole, where different signs interact and create potentials for new significations. The article aims to open up a web of relations in which materialities of differing ages and durabilities meet and affect each other through their semiotic potentialities. The materialities operate on several levels of signification, ranging from basic metaphors for mammoths to larger regimes that organize the signification. Consequently, mythic knowledge concerns worlds that are, on the one hand, imperceptible but, on the other, sensible through narration and imagination in terms of materialities. The key material elements of the mythic knowledge are tainted by the narration, such that they cannot be considered without the mythic qualities. In addition, the knowledge concerning the world affects Nenets rituals and ways of dwelling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the ancient Greek beliefs from a different perspective; I attempt to approach the old themes in an interdisciplinary way. I refer to the studies of French anthropology and on the ethnological studies of the conceptualization of the landscape through oral tradition. Some classical antiquity researchers have already done so. Such authors that relate to ancient Greece as a whole discuss the symbolism of sacrifices and snakes. Thus, the belief system of the community manifests in the landscape in its symbolic sense, and with this working guide, I managed to apply the abovementioned contemporary (modern) perspectives to the example of the ancient Greek Delphi.

When the fairy king in Sir Orfeo abducts Heurodis from the royal garden, he takes her from beneath a particular "ympe tre" or grafted tree. By examining the horticultural tradition of grafting, this paper will show that the grafted aspect of the tree is there to foreshadow the splitting and reunification both of the human body, but also of Orfeo's kingdom. By reading episodes of both dismemberment and unity, I will argue that the presence of the grafted tree in both kingdoms suggests that the center of royal competition between Orfeo and the fairy king lies in their ability to control the natural ecology of their kingdoms. While Orfeo initially loses control of his orchard and thus his wife, his ten-year exile in the wilderness teaches him vital survival skills so that he can return a changed and improved ruler. In the same way that grafting requires knowledge of ecology as well as the ability to both dismember and recombine, both Orfeo and the fairy king engage in transformative gardening within the space of their respective kingdoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (c. 1400) refers to foes of Camelot using a Germanic term for giant: the Middle English etayn, from the Old English eoten and cognate with the Old Norse jötunn. Reading Sir Gawain in light of key sources on Norse giants such as Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda (c. 1220), reveals suggestive parallels. In the Edda and other sources the god Thor (Þórr) journeys to the castle Utgard (Útgarðr), where giants exploit his expectations to demonstrate the limitations of his understanding. Perhaps Gawain's similar attempt to live up to his reputation at Hautdesert, baffled by the guileful hunter Lord Bertilak, echoes Germanic myth; at least, such a view would fit with the poem's use of Norse-cognate vocabulary. Both Snorri and the poet of Sir Gawain complicate their interpretations of mythological traditions through irony, glamour, euhemerism, and metafiction; yet this very framing also presents parallels, most notably in the concept of ancestral wisdom. While giants can seem monstrous, they also preserve supernatural knowledge antedating that of gods. Although J. R. R. Tolkien preferred to interpret Sir Gawain theologically, his work still hints at the possibility of a Germanicmythological reading of the poem. Taking Tolkien as a kind of philological guide to the "Land of Giants," this article refers not only to his scholarly work (including translations), but also occasionally to his creative work. Tracking Gawain's journey and synthesizing evidence from the subsequent tradition of "romantic philology," the following interpretation considers to what extent Germanic mythology may inform the representation of magic, nature, and wisdom in Sir Gawain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Journal of Language Academy is the property of Rota Kariyer and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Dino Buzzati, one of the most important writers of the XX. century Italian literature, produces in many different branches of literature from poetry to theatre, and from short story to novel. The point of inspiration of his works is always imagination. Therefore, art of Buzzati advances and identifies itself on a thin line between reality and fantastic: in other words, reality blends in to the fantastic, in Buzzati's narrative style. The most valuable elements for storyteller Buzzati are that ones which reflect perfectly feelings and imagination of humankind, such as death, expectation, hope, desperation, excitement, delirium and rave. However, one of these elements stands out: death. "Viaggio agli inferni del secolo", published in 1966, is one of the stories of Buzzati in which the Italian writer focuses on the theme of death and life after death, in other words the Otherworld journey, with an ironic and satiric writing style. In this story, Buzzati works on death and otherworld, especially on hell, as a main theme and narrates feelings of modern man which encounters death. The aim of this study is to trace the concept of otherworld in Buzzati's story "Viaggio agli inferni del secolo" and to investigate the expressions of Buzzati related to theme of death and otherworld. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Language: Meaning & Form / Valoda: Nozime un Forma is the property of University of Latvia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Like Stephen Daedalus, John McGahern's protagonists live in rural and urban backgrounds marked by dogmatism and inflexibility, as well as reverie and memory. Their existence is distanced or mirrored by close family members, linking complex events to personal discourses that often place characters on the edge of a dreaming state. This essay aims at exploring the Freudian uncanny in relation with the relatively quiet existence of characters in stories presenting their life journey and personal growth as a new reading of local Irish communities. How is the concept illustrated in novels and short stories? Does it entail ambivalence, splitting of ego, mainly in son-father relationships, the animate-inanimate opposition, or the phenomenon of the “double" which leads to both division as well as interchanging of the self? Looking at examples extracted from The Dark, The Barracks and various short stories, it appears that the narrative often appeals to silence, premonition and hope as means to trigger certain suggestions, inflict uneasiness, and connect characters to the otherworld in an ongoing attempt to (re)configure and decode one's identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper compares two tales that describe a journey of the human soul to the underworld: one of them was included in a Hittite ritual called «The Voyage of the Immortal Human Soul» and the other that was told in the Greek texts written in the Orphic gold leaves. Both tales consider the passage of the soul into the otherworld as a travel to the underground and tell that there are two different places in the otherworld: a grateful field and a negative one characterized by mud and oblivion. In both stories the death of a goddess’ son is recalled. But they have also great differences, due to the different religious background in each of them

Taking its starting point from the current trend towards using Indo-European comparative material for elucidating Scandinavian Bronze Age rock art sites, this article develops an interpretation of the overall iconographic program of the Massleberg Stora Skee rock art panel in Bohuslän, southern Sweden. It focuses on the hunting scene which forms one of the centerpieces of the site and poses the question of how this hunting scene relates to the remaining iconographic elements of the panel, especially the ships and footprints, and to the water flowing over the rock. Using analogies drawn from Old French “Breton lays," medieval Irish and Welsh literature, and the archaeology of the Hallstatt period (the Strettweg cult wagon), it is possible to develop an interpretation which connects the hunt with the communication between the human world and an “Otherworld" and to show how such an interpretation can tie in with the other iconographic as well as natural elements of the site. On this basis, the article concludes with a general discussion of the use of typological analogies versus the application of concepts of Indo-European heritage for the analysis of Scandinavian rock art and discusses the wider applicability of the “Otherworld" term as an analytical concept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The parallel hunting and bedroom scenes in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight have been much discussed by scholars, though the argument usually centers on Lady Bertilak's role as a hunter. Exploring the poem through the lens of game theory demonstrates that not only is Gawain a hunter, but also that the central Exchanges Game is not a game, but rather an illusion of a game. This revelation opens up a means of investigating the Anglo-Norman and Welsh roles of the landscape and characters that both facilitate such an illusion but also cause a political tension in the poem. This article contends through close readings and historiographic analysis that the reader's identification with Gawain sets up an unease by the end of the poem when the figures of Bertilak, Lady Bertilak, and Morgan La Fay are revealed as both Otherworldly and decidedly Welsh. This discomfort is a means of reacting to and interrogating Anglo-Norman appropriation of Arthuriana. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]