Journal articles on the topic 'Metamorphosis, folklore'

In recent years, interdisciplinary research, including folklore, ethnography, linguoculturology and other disciplines, has been expanding. The complex study of materials related to various sciences ensures the complementarity of the fields of science, contributes to a deeper and more systematic understanding of the phenomena of language and culture. In particular, the comparative study of the specific motives and methods in the discourse of mythological traditions and fairy tales in folklore texts serves to determine the way of thinking, mentality and imagination of different peoples. This article is devoted to the study of the phenomenon of metamorphosis, which is reflected in the folklore of the peoples of the East. Metamorphosis is the transformation of any being or thing, form or species into a new, different form and type, as well as an unusual change in something. Metamorphoses rely on the most ancient mythopoetic ideas and reflect their unique characteristics. The article comparatively studies the application of the method of metamorphosis in the myths, legends, epics and fairy tales of the peoples of the East, the universal and different aspectsof metamorphoses. The types of metamorphoses, their ways of occurrence, causes, factors and peculiarities are also described.

The article considers a typological series of plots with a motive for magical flight. The object of the analysis was metamorphoses of objects that the fugitive threw in front of the pursuer. The motive for magical flight is widespread in folklore of the peoples of the Caucasus, Europe, Asia, Africa and America. The material for the research was Caucasian (Abkhaz, Adyghe, Ingush, Ossetian, Balkarian), Slavic (Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Bulgarian) and European (Spanish, Swedish) tales. The author drew attention to the initiating nature of the subjects of fairy tales considered. The semantics of metamorphosis of thrown objects were determined. The character's throwing of three objects symbolizing the upper, middle and lower worlds reproduces the creation of three worlds. The pursuer, as a rule, stops or dies when trying to overcome the water barrier that symbolizes the lower world. With a victory over the lower world, the hero completes the initiation path and goes on to a new status, the manifestation of which is the marriage of the character.

Mansi folklore is the richest material for research in the field of folklore, linguistics, ethnography and other sciences. Comprehension of folklore genres and images opens new boundaries for the study of representations reflected in codes and symbols. The characters of folklore are people, animals, elements, fantastic (mythical) creatures. In this article we will focus on one character - Miskhum. In Mansi folklore, he is presented as a forest man, whose main function is to help forest dwellers, hunters, disadvantaged orphans. Miskhum belongs to a local group of characters living in the forest. Extensive information about him is contained in fairy tales, stories and myths. The aim of the study is to conduct a systematic analysis of the image of Miskhum on the material of folklore texts and folk ideas. The research materials were field material of the author, as well as the texts of Mansi fairy tales published in various folklore collections, in periodicals. This work adds to the scientific knowledge about the Mansi folklore. For the first time, on the basis of folklore, linguistic and literary data, the image of a forest man is subjected to system analysis, and its functionality is revealed. The anthropomorphism of the image, its desire for socialization, distinguishes the folklore image from the mythological. Possession of the ability to metamorphosis, the desire to provide assistance, to bestow people with magical objects and abilities, all these qualities allowed Miskhum to be elevated to the rank of higher beings. In the traditional views of individual local groups, the Mansi Miskhum is exalted to the status of a patron spirit. The complex of prohibitions, ritual actions, the system of amulets existing in the Mansi determine the boundaries and degree of human interaction with Miskhum. The material opens up possible prospects for continuing research into the character and plot structure of Mansi folklore.

This study includes a qualitative descriptive study that aims to explore the folklore of Kampung Pitu using a tourism literature approach. This approach focuses on the study of the phenomena of literary works, writers, literary festivals, and folklore that make a real contribution to the development of tourism. The data of this research are in the form of sentences in the folklore that developed in Pitu Village. Data collection techniques using interviews and documentation. Data analysis techniques, namely reduction, presentation, and dra-wing conclusions. The results showed that (1) the folklore in Kampung Pitu consists of the legend of the origin of Kampung Pitu, the myth of Telaga Guyangan, and the myth of Rasulan; (2) each story has an appeal in rules/laws, stories, and rituals; (3) developing folklore has the potential to become a tourist area branding. This branding needs to be supported by the metamorphosis of folklore into theatrical performances, ballet, short films, folklore books, or other narrative forms that can be used as promotions.Penelitian ini termasuk penelitian deskriptif kualitatif yang bertujuan untuk mengeksplorasi cerita rakyat Kampung Pitu menggunakan pendekatan sastra pariwisata. Pendekatan ini memfokuskan kajian pada fenomena karya sastra, sastrawan, festival sastra, dan cerita rakyat yang memberikan sumbangan nyata dalam perkembangan kepariwisataan. Data penelitian ini berupa kalimat dalam cerita rakyat yang berkembang di Kampung Pitu. Teknik pengumpulan data menggunakan wawancara dan dokumentasi. Teknik analisis data, yaitu reduksi, penyajian, dan penarikan simpulan. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa (1) cerita rakyat di Kampung Pitu terdiri atas Legenda asal-usul Kampung Pitu, mite Telaga Guyangan, dan mite Rasulan; (2) masing-masing cerita memiliki daya tarik dalam aturan/hukum, cerita, dan ritual; (3) cerita rakyat yang berkembang berpotensi untuk menjadi branding kawasan wisata. Branding ini perlu didukung oleh metamorfosis cerita rakyat menjadi pertunjukkan teater, sendratari, film pendek, buku cerita rakyat, atau bentuk narasi lain yang dapat digunakan sebagai promosi.

“GENRE MEMORY” AND ITS METAMORPHOSISIN A LITERARY TALE BY A.A. MILNEThe nucleus of Milne’s literary tale dilogy (Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at the Pooh Corner) is an archaic folklore-mythological spatio-temporal structure and its specific subject realization that have proved capable of development, metamorphosis, synthesis with other deep structures and have led to the formation of literary genresof a neo-mythological character – literary tale, story and fantasy.In Milne’s tales there is no traditional struggle between Good and Evil, there are practically no “miraculous” objects and magical powers. The action is not based on the confrontation between the two sides, representing different moral principles (as ina traditional fairy tale), but involves the transition of the hero, Christopher Robin, from the world of childhood to the adult world, acquiring a higher social status,the development of abilities and skills of various characters to solve different life problems, first at the level of choice of options from the accumulated empirical experience, and then at the level of abstraction from real specifics to the skills of logical analysis and mastering written speech and the basics of mathematics. This results in the acquisition of a new level of knowledge and the development of a new way of understandingof the world (the creation of the cosmos from chaos).

The paper deals with human cultural stereotypes embedded in mythological consciousness, which have influenced the formation of fear of vaccination against COVID-19. The material was collected in Ukraine in the period from September 2021 to January 2022. By analysing oral narratives and comments from social media users, the authors demonstrate the cultural mechanisms of fear of vaccination, specifically fear of death and fear of metamorphosis, and how they can be overcome. The profusion of memes, anecdotes, and jokes that people read and shared on social media or told each other became a way of overcoming collective fear. Nowadays, not only oral tradition but also social media can constitute a source for studying cultural stereotypes. A folkloristic and culturally anthropological perspective on the fear of vaccination allows us to trace folkloristic phenomena back to our everyday lives and to see folklore as a living, dynamic process that has become part of human culture.

The main aim of the article is to examine the grammatical and stylistic functions of the predicative attribute in the poetic work of Nekrasov. The study contributes to the general ‘grammar of poetry’, which has been proposed and developed by Roman Jakobson. The study shows that Nekrasov often used the predicative attribute and it constitutes one of the specific features of his style. Grammatically extended adjectival, participial and adverbial phrases, frequent in Nekrasov’s poetry, cause additional predication, which makes it possible to expand the narrative. The predicative attribute often combines the functions of an attribute with those of the adverbial modifiers of cause and consequence, which gives additional impetus to the narrative plot development. The analysis shows that Nekrasov’s style is characterized by nu­merous long repetitions of functionally similar grammatical elements, taking several lines. These repetitions often set the rhythm and determine the folklore character of his poems. Аttributive chains, paired formulas, synonymization of lexemes in chains, repetitions, in­strumental case in the meaning of comparison and metamorphosis can be found in classical pre-Nakrasov poetry as well. In Nekrasov’s poems these features appear in a concentrated, condensed form; they can be considered only against the background of his work as a whole.

The study presents the methodological foundations analysis of the interaction between music and literature of the Ukrainian diaspora in the period of XX – early XXI century. In particular, the article offers an example of analysis of such interaction on the example of Ukrainian diaspora bandura art. Fundamental in the methodological analysis of the art interaction, and in particular literature and music, are the forms of emigrant (diasporic) worldview – conservative (traditional), synthesizing (unifying), and transforming (experimental). They are manifested in various forms of foreign artists’ creative activity – editing (restoration) of ancient genres, their modification and metamorphosis. The concept of “meta-art” was used as the main methodological basis for the music and literature interaction analysis, which is aimed at finding mechanisms for a comprehensive analysis of the Ukrainian diaspora art within the historical stages (according to emigration waves) and within the territorial settlements that found its reflection in figurative-thematic, value-aesthetic, genre, stylistic priorities of artists and interpretation of their ideas and meanings. The levels of literature and musical art interaction are considered by the author of the article on the inclusion samples in the bandura repertoire of various genres arrangements of folklore, religious and spiritual creativity, “shevchenkiana”, and works based on the Ukrainian poems of the XIX – XX centuries. Among the musical and folklore samples are epos (dumas, historical songs), domestic, humorous, lyrical songs, and the latest genres of works of the liberation struggle – songs of Sich riflemen, rebel songs. Among the spiritual and religious works are psalms and chants, kolyadkas and shchedrivkas, as well as religious and liturgical compositions by D. Bortnyansky, A. Hnatyshyn, M. Haivoronsky, M. Lysenko, D. Sichynsky, and other works arranged for bandura ensembles or chapels. Shevchenkiana bandura repertoire includes arrangements of folk songs and author’s works based on T. Shevchenko’s poems for solo bandura players and ensembles, recorded in music editions and sound recordings. Examples of cooperation between composers and poets in bandura art (in particular, H. Kytasty and I. Bahriany) are analyzed separately.

An educational international project, initiated by a Romanian organisation, comprising folk dances from around the world, has challenged me to go deeper into understanding one of the most popular dance forms of Western Odisha, Dalkhai. Traditionally a religion-based folk dance connected to the agrarian culture of local Adivasi communities, it has been gradually developed into a cultural pattern of Odisha, Eastern India. Considering folklore as intangible cultural heritage of humanity, according to UNESCO definition, I explore the expression of this ritual-dance, in connection to the Adivasi culture, as Dalkhai is considered the goddess of fertility, initially worshipped by the tribal people/Adivasi like Mirdha, Kondha, Kuda, Gond, Binjhal, etc., but also in its recent metamorphosis into a proscenium representation. The Dalkhai dance is becoming visible and recognised at state, national and even international form of dance, while in the Adivasis communities it is noted that the ritual becomes less and less performed. Consulting the UNESCO definitions and documents on Intangible Cultural Heritage is useful for understanding how to approach a choric ritual, involving a tradition, music and dance, enhancing the importance of safeguarding cultural diversity while confronting cultural globalization. Its approach, in accordance with ‘universal cultural rights’, emancipatory politics concerning world culture and multiculturalism, opposes the disappearances and destruction of local traditions, indigenous practices. Heritage concerns the whole community, conferring an identity feeling, and supporting the transmission to the next generations, sustainable development, often involving economic stakes, becoming essential for developing the territories (Chevalier, 2000).

There is hardly a country in this industrialized world today, where one can find an ethnically homogenous population. The aftermath of colonialism, the creation of refugees- often the result of ethnic conflicts- and the movement of people in search of greater economic, political or social opportunities have contributed to the worldwide mix of people. Canada and India are the countries affected by the growing diversity. However this diversity has different facets in both the countries. In the literary world Canada, Multiculturalism is the main theme of writing and in India, presentation of cultural diversity is yet at the beginning stage. This statement has to be tasted on the fictional works of Margaret Atwood from Canada and Bharati Mukherjee from India. Both the writers are very unique in their writing and have trodden the different ways of using Cultural-diversity. Culture is an integral part of a human society and its nation. Then the question arises: what is culture? The Oxford English Dictionary defines culture as a “particular form or type of intellectual development in a society generated by its distinctive customs, achievements and outlook.” At the wide canvass, culture is taken as consolidating the way of life of an entire society and includes codes of manners, dress, language, rituals, social customs and folklore of a nation. Every country has a typical and distinctive culture of its own. However, when an independent country becomes a colony, the native culture goes under a change. This is the case with the countries like Kenya, Nigeria and India. When these countries came in contact with western culture, a process of change in culture was initiated, and this journey made the traditional culture of respective countries destroyed. While Indian literature had cross cultural encounters with the English studies, Canada has been undergoing a cultural metamorphosis with the mix of second races and people from all over the world.

The interaction of folk and professional culture is widely manifested in modern times. One of the indicative phenomena of such interaction is a musical folklorism. It is refracted in various ways in the work of each composer. The focus of the national musical culture on the refraction of folklore traditions has been established since the 19th century, when the authentic material was processed following the author's artistic intent. That said modern musical culture shows that, despite active metamorphoses of the musical language, often far from the traditional sound, the musical folklorism manifests itself quite actively. That is why it is so important to turn in terms of the research on musical culture to those works in which the specificity of composer creativity is clearly displayed and modern sounds and the authentic folklore texts intertwine. One of these works was the orchestral composition of the contemporary composer Artem Alexandrovich Nizhnik “Karagody of Spring”. It reflects basic principles of working with a folklore source, first of all citation, transformation of the folklore motives, stylization as folklore (an essay “in the spirit of”). All this enriches the author's creative method with new original ideas. The composer's work is an example of a sensitive approach and careful attitude towards folklore, professional work with authentic texts. For the folklore itself it implies a live sound in modern concert practices as one of the forms of its actualization.

Taking an animal form, which is called “don değiştirme (metamorphosis) in Turkish Traditional Turkish believes and/or Shamanism also appears as an important phenomenon in Fin-Ugric and Eurasian shamanism. “Don değiştirme” covers a special place in many places around the world under the name of shape-shifting or metamorphosis as well as it is a very common belief seen in many legends and narrations related to Shamanism. These phenomena contain national features as well as universal ones. This phenomenon, which is called “don değiştirme” in Turk – Altay Shamanism, has also appeared in the traditional religion of Hungarians who had lived together with Turks for centuries. In this study, the motif of Táltos struggles which has taken place in forms of mostly bulls or flames, that appears in witch trials and folkloric records will be analysed, and some examples of those records will be presented. The aim of this study is to form a connection point for comparisons between Hungarian Táltos and Eurasian-Turkish Shamanism.

Ukrainian culture from the second half of the nineteenth century. developed with such main features - the transformation of a purely cultural movement into a national liberation movement, the formation of similar features in the cultural-process processes with the European laws. At the end of the nineteenth century. associates of Ukrainian culture, the main task of their position is the solution of a number of political and socio-economic issues. The process of national-cultural revival has gained strength since the 1880's in both parts of Ukraine and at the beginning of the 20th century. already yields concrete results. In Lviv there are active centers of cultural development. Similar processes have been taking place in the other part of Ukraine, activated by the idea of ​​the revival of the Ukrainian national style. At this time, the intellectuals are much more cohesive, trying spiritually and politically self-determination. These moments were extremely important, for at that time, eastern and western parts of Ukraine, notwithstanding certain ideological points of contact, were not only politically delineated, but also mentally, culturally and spiritually. In Ukraine, the end of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. is characterized by changes in the cultural situation, which are marked by modern (modern) influences from the European West in the field of culture, philosophy, and creativity. The national renaissance acquires a qualitatively new meaning, characterized by the creation of distinctive national forms in all branches of artistic culture. For Ukrainian modernism, the inherent dependence on the geocultural features, the attachment of its representatives to their environment. At the same time, we observe differences in the genre specificity of modernism in the western and eastern Ukrainian territories, due to the influence of Russian or European art. The geographical location of Ukraine between the two parts of the world - Europe and Asia - led to the creation of a unique version of modernism in our territories (tied to national origins, folk folk sources, historical cultural heritage). Stylistic inspirations from different sources flocked to Ukraine, creating polyphony of its modernist art. The contradictory nature of the transitional period has been reflected in the formation of ideological settings of the art of the first third of the twentieth century. Modernism in Ukraine is characterized by an organic combination of the latest philosophical and aesthetic theories and traditional features of local culture. Philosophy played an important role in shaping the foundations of the "new" art and its artistic practice, giving an alternative way for a better understanding of it in the context of the metamorphosis of social consciousness. At the end of the XIX - in the first third of the twentieth century. especially the theories of intuitionism, existentialism, irrationalism, and so on. The theoretical works of Ukrainian artists of the first third of the 20th century, often with a philosophical and aesthetic basis, serve as a significant contribution in the context of the formation of not only a national version of modernism, but also a pan-European one. As a basis for artistic creation, modernists choose a symbolic-allegorical beginning, often serving as both generally accepted and purely national archetypes. If we sum up the process of national-cultural revival in Ukraine in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, it should be noted that the national movement stimulated the political, social, economic, cultural, and scientific progress of society. Among the values ​​of the intelligentsia was chosen intelligence of Western ideas, including ideas of modern Western philosophy and culture. Worldview principles of modernism in Ukrainian art include interpretation of the historical national and world creative heritage, the use of symbols and archetypes, mythology of creativity, rethinking the achievements of folk art and folklore traditions. Such directions of search determine the conceptual content of the Ukrainian art of this period and the main ideas of creativity of representatives of modernism.

The scientifi c fi eld of the problem «folklore and composer» has a lot of aspects of its subject manifestation. One of them is the creative heritage of L. van Beethoven in the context of the composer’s addressing the folk song sources and analysis of the author’s arrangement. Although the selected theme is not a scientifi c discovery, it contains signifi cant prospects. These include: the expansion of a well-known typology of the folklore embodiment in the author’s work, the search and discovery of the Beethoven’s method of folklore arrangement, which in its turn complements the context of the already existing “psychogram of the artist” (see Varnava’s thesis, for more details). In addition, the chosen theme will help to expand the idea of musical and cultural life development in the early 19th century Objectives. The paper will consider and analyze, fi rstly, the history of writing and the subsequent fate of the author’s Ukrainian song «Ikhav Kozak za Dunaj» in European culture at the end of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries; secondly, harmonization of I. Prach from the «Collection of Folk Russian Songs with their voices set to music by Ivan Prach» as the one that could be known to the German master; thirdly, L. van Beethoven’s vocal-instrumental arrangement of this song in the collection «The Songs of Different Peoples» – No. 19 «Air Cosaque». Methods. The methods applied in this work are hermeneutic, structural, historiographical and genre-stylistic. The historiographical method in the article represents the problem of «composer and folklore». Hermeneutic method is universal, and its task is to interpret texts and understand their meanings. The use of the structural method is necessary for simultaneous presentation of the whole, its parts and their interaction with each other. The systematic use of the above-mentioned methods will help to enrich the analytical part and reveal genre-stylistic metamorphoses in the Ukrainian song arrangement. Results. The results of the analytical part are as follows. As the article says, the Ukrainian song «Ikhav Kozak za Dunaj» was taken by L. Van Beethoven from the Russian collection «Folk Russian Songs with their voices set to music by Ivan Prach». So, we think it is necessary to make its thorough analysis. I. Prach’s arrangement (harmonizer and arranger of this collection) is a four-voice harmonization of the Ukrainian melody. In general, the harmonic sequence in the arrangement consists of quarto-quintal basses in the left hand and chords of main degrees in the right hand. Harmonious peculiarities of the song are directly interconnected with the rhythmic component of the work, both musical and verbal. The well-known content of the song (the Cossack sets off on the horse beyond the Danube leaving his girlfriend) contains the rhythm of the pace (in this case, this is the horse’s pace), which leads to the appearance of a uniformly accented rhythm in the song – the entire melody of the song moves in eighths. In addition, piano accompaniment in the right hand part echoes the main melody, and all its structure in the form of two-voice texture moves in eighths, too. L. van Beethoven goes in the opposite direction. The process of musical arrangement occurs at all levels of musical content – from the intonation through composition to the dramaturgy. The German composer’s arrangement features phrasing slurs in violin, piano, rarely cello parts; dynamic markings, including piano, pianissimo, crescendo, diminuendo. Besides, in the cello part we fi nd the composer’s remarks on the methods of sound production, such as alternating between pizzicato and arco (as a return to the main method). Then the German master creates a great instrumental part for the song – introduction and conclusion. The introduction of a non-square, monolithic structure has an unfi nished character and ends with a dominant harmony before the basic a-moll tonality. The fourth stanza is complemented with a three-bar expansion (instrumental break) on the introduction material, but it is a bit modifi ed – it is a pattern in the form of three subsequent segments of the descending motion (melodic and harmonic complex). This addition is made in the form of instrumental breaks after imperfect cadence, and after that come 12 bars of trio-conclusion. In general, the form of the song is a long period of two sentences of the verse-chorus structure a – C – a (a tonal plan). The instrumental part of the song makes up 29 bars, and the vocal one – 16 bars, so the proportions are actually closer to the defi nition of 2:1, which indicates a signifi cant role of the trio-accompanient (46 bars overall). The thorough analysis of the instrumental part of the whole song reveals the following: the arrangement has fi ve motifs and thematic elements, three of which belong to L. van Beethoven: «E – F – E» lamenting motif, quarto-quintal response to it – «E - A – B» or «E - B – C», and the last one, which gets its development at the end of the fi nal part of the trio accompaniment in somewhat varied form (melodic variation): «Gsharp - A – G» and the response «G-sharp - A – D». The other two – melodic pattern «E – G-sharp - E – G-sharp» (pedaling of the dominant function) and descending tetrachord between the third and seventh ascending degrees («C - A – G-sharp») – belong to the author of the Ukrainian song Semen Klymovsky. These motives are combined into dialogical formulas. This can be explained by the content of the song lyrics, where there are several characters, who the Cossack addresses in a virtual dialogue – this is his girl, and also his true companion – the horse. A deeper dialogue can be seen in the combination of classical and folk arts. Adding professional academic means of musical expression to the song the composer enriches his piece with classical stylistic attributes. When he elaborates genre features of lament in the song, he turns the Ukrainian song into a kind of arioso in German language. Conclusions. L. van Beethoven’s arrangement was primarily intended for homemade music, but at the same time, it is imbued with features of classical style, and its elegy, intense sensory lyricism refer the researcher to the Romantic period, which turned out to be close to the consciousness of the Beethoven’s genius. However, the nature of the fi ndings remains open, because the theme «Beethoven and folklore» is the subject of further research. In addition, special attention should be paid to other arrangements of the song «Ikhav Kozak za Dunaj», created both by L. van Beethoven and his contemporaries.

In the article, the contemporary human being’s search for values is primarily linked to the folkloristic reflection of Lithuanian cultural landscape. Following the framework of hermeneutics and based on the folkloristic symbolism of landscape in Lithuanian folklore (mainly in the oldest layer of folk songs), the manifestations of a long-lasting solidarity between community and nature are discussed. The focus has been placed on the small community – the family and its immediate relationship with the surrounding nature. In the introductory part of the article, the notion of ritualism is discussed which is based on the universally acknowledged concept of the rites of passage (les rites de passage). Within the context of this concept, the depiction of the public events of family life (the rituals of marriage and death) constituted a solid premise for the investigation of the so-called common places (loci communes) in Lithuanian folk poetry, which in this regard are usually represented by landscape-related narrative segments and symbolism. Folkloristic interpretations of the prominent elements of Lithuanian landscape (trees, water, stones) have been selected for the investigation. The introduction also reveals the importance of a family over an individual in the exploration of a human being’s relationship with the surrounding nature. The first part of the article ‘The Reflections of Anthropomorphic Reception of Trees’ asserts that in the folk songs marked by archaic stylistics, the poetic narrative of trees contains abundant mythopoetic allusions to the constant identification of a human being (usually, a family member) with a tree, as well as other metamorphoses and motifs which attest their mutual dependence. This poetic tradition influences the poetry created by individual authors to this day. The article briefly introduces the meaning of a tree in the world of ancient Lithuanian beliefs and customs and notices the major changes in the purpose of the image of a tree in the late tradition of romances. The second part of the article analyses the long-term trajectories of mythopoetic depiction of water and stones in folklore. It is well known that any traditional culture has accumulated a wide range of meanings which pertain to different forms of water and connote rebirth, renewal, as well as fertility and life. Therefore when the article emphasizes the tropes of being near water, drowning in watery depths, which through the lens of myth and ritual embody the act of love (marriage) in Lithuanian singing folklore, it should be noted that this variation of meaning found in Lithuanian folklore constitutes an organic part of the whole of international aquatic symbolism. The mythicised story of a live stone as reflected in folklore could be partially associated with the folkloristic reception of trees and water. Animation of a stone is revealed through the attribution of the qualities of a live being to a stone (in the legends, they move, communicate with each other, live in families). Contrarily, the lifelessness (immobile state) of a stone is mythicised in cases where people who deviate from moral laws are turned into stones. The mythologem of a stone as the landmark signifying the boundary between this and the other world, as well as the association of stones with sacrality and sacred places visited by deities, is widespread. It is ascertained that the narrative of the sacrality of stones did not cease in the period of Christianity.Therefore, the landscape approach applied in this study provided a possibility to observe how, in folklore, the meanings of different components of landscape organically combine into a cohesive union which operates on the principles of synergy. A conclusion may be drawn that folklore unequivocally asserts the idea of a continuous coexistence of a human being and nature and exalts the perception of nature as an essential spiritual value.

The article is dedicated to the study of the artistic impact of the Russian writer Nikolay Gogol (1809-1852) on the creation of the Armenian author Raphael Patkanyan (1830-1892). The object of the research is the horror stories and their philosophy. From this perspective, Patkanyan appears as a student of the Gogol school of horrors by masterfully using the artistic technique of his teacher. The first parallel is the place and time of the action. Night becomes the time axis of the stories, and the plot turns around national holidays - Russian Navi day, Ivan Kupala, Christmas, Armenian Carnival, etc. Actions take place in a cursed or enchanted place (a scary house, an old church, hell, a mortuary, a cemetery, etc.), which allows the two realities to collide, as a result of which extramundane forces penetrate into our world. By taking the national folklore as a basis, both authors set the plot of mythical characters in motion portraying witches, demons, spirits, zombies and other terrible creatures as antagonists. The works of both authors are similar in terms of some functional motifs like the sale of the soul to the devil, metamorphoses, dance and laughter of death, implying specific rituals.

В статье исследуется процесс формирования гротескной образности в творчестве новосибирского художника Н.Д. Грицюка (1922–1976) на примере трансформации мотива древнерусской архитектуры в серии «Фантазии и интерпретации». Источником возникновения гротескных композиций являются каракули и «почеркушки» из путевых альбомов художника, созданные по принципу автоматического письма из фрагментов древнерусской архитектуры, силуэтов дымковской игрушки и частей человеческого тела. В процессе творческих поисков эти комбинированные «гротески» органично трансформируются в самостоятельные карнавальные композиции, отражающие отстраненное ироничное отношение автора к фольклорным мотивам и сюжетам. В композициях рубежа 1960–1970-х гг. при сохранении гротескной образности ирония сменяется тревожной интонацией неопределенности. Помещенные в беспокойное цветонасыщенное пространство храмы превращаются в деформированные и разъятые антропоморфные образы-гибриды, в которых отражаются экзистенциональные переживания художника. Реальность становится для Грицюка неоднозначной и зыбкой и рассматривается им под углом абсурда и фантасмагоричных допущений. Возникновение трагического столпотворения, ассоциативно считываемого зрителем как символ предвестия конца света, свидетельствует о размышлениях художника над проявлениями духовного, трансцендентного. Духовная и одновременно абсурдистская проблематика гибридных образов сближает поиски Грицюка, с одной стороны, с метафизической живописью М.М. Шварцмана и Э.А. Штейнберга, а с другой — с гротескным искусством скульпторов Э.И. Неизвестного и В.А. Сидура. Таким образом, в условиях доминирующего реалистического дискурса гротеск как прием позволил новосибирскому художнику погрузиться в символическое пространство свободного самовыражения и соприкоснуться с миром трансцендентного. The article examines the process of formation of grotesque imagery in the work of the Novosibirsk artist N.D. Gritsiuk (1922–1976) on the example of the transformation of the motif of ancient Russian architecture in the series “Fantasies and interpretationsˮ. The source of the grotesque compositions are scribbles from the artist’s travel albums, created on the principle of automatic writing from fragments of ancient Russian architecture, silhouettes of a Dymkovo toy and parts of the human body. In the process of creative searches, these combined grotesques organically transform into independent carnival compositions, reflecting the author has detached ironic attitude to folklore motifs and plots. In the compositions of the turn of the 1960s and 1970s, while maintaining the grotesque imagery, irony is replaced by an alarming intonation of uncertainty. Placed in a restless, colour saturated space, the temples turn into deformed and disjointed anthropomorphic hybrid images, which reflect the existential experiences of the artist. Reality becomes ambiguous and unsteady for Gritsiuk, and he considers it from the angle of absurdity and phantasmagorical assumptions. The emergence of a tragic pandemonium, associatively read by the viewer as a symbol of the doomsday, testifies to the artist's reflections on the manifestations of the spiritual, the transcendent. The spiritual and at the same time absurdist problematic of hybrid images brings Gritsiukʼs search, on the one hand, to the metaphysical painting of M.M. Shvartsman and E.A. Steinberg, and on the other hand, to the grotesque art of the sculptors E.I. Neizvestny and V.A. Sidur. Thus, in the conditions of the dominant realistic discourse, the grotesque as a technique allowed the Novosibirsk artist to immerse himself in the symbolic space of free self-expression and come into contact with the world of the transcendent.

The dialogic nature of language use and the impossibility of an uninfluenced work of literature complicate the notion of poet-as-originator. Yet originality persists as a sought-after quality in literature for both writers and readers. The article focuses on the Northern Irish poet, writer, and translator Ciaran Carson, known for his fascination with language as a medium and his linguistic experimentalism. In 1998, Carson published two collections of poetry: The Alexandrine Plan, translations of sonnets by Mallarmé, Baudelaire and Rimbaud, and The Twelfth of Never, a sequence of his own sonnets – both in rhyming alexandrines, suggestive of simultaneous composition. In its borrowed form, The Twelfth of Never offers a kaleidoscopic montage of motifs and discourses from Irish history, literature, folklore, music, and myth, and flits to and fro between Ireland, France, and Japan, evoking a never-land in which “everything is metaphor and simile”. The article adopts a neuro-anthropological view of human culture as distributed cognition and of art as a way of knowing and self-reflectively putting the world together for both artist and audience. The analysis of Carson’s poems seeks to explicate how recognisable characters, emblems, and rhetoric appear in and are altered by unfamiliar guises and settings; how cultural symbols and literary forms are interrupted in the act of representing; and how the dreamlike quality of the collection depends on the looping and metamorphosing of motifs, images and voices from one poem to another. I suggest that this does not generate a chaotic textual product but amounts to an engaging reflection on the nature of originality in the making and making sense of poetry.

De Fläming is een streek ten zuidwesten van Berlijn die haar naam te danken heeft aan het feit dat ze in de 12de eeuw door Flamingi en Hollandi werd gekoloniseerd. Het onderwerp van deze bijdrage is evenwel niet de geschiedenis van deze middeleeuwse kolonisatie, maar de latere beeldvorming sedert de 19de eeuw. Toen prikkelde het idee dat de Fläming nog steeds bewoond werd door een authentiek Vlaamse bevolking die over de eeuwen heen haar taal, zeden en gebruiken gaaf had weten te bewaren, de verbeelding van heemkundigen, historici en filologen aan weerszijden. Aan Vlaamse kant was het de jurist en diplomaat Emile De Borchgave die dit idee in 1865 voor het eerst lanceerde. In Duitsland was het vooral dominee Otto Bölke die in een decennialange heemkundige bedrijvigheid de theorie van een nog steeds authentiek Vlaamse Fläming poogde te staven. Na de Duitse eenmaking in 1990 was het Fläming-verhaal aanleiding tot nieuwe Vlaams-Duitse contacten. De bijdrage schetst ook de ideologische gedaanteverwisselingen die dit verhaal in de loop van anderhalve eeuw heeft ondergaan.________ Der Fläming. History of a Flemish-German StoryThe Fläming is an area to the south-west of Berlin, which owes its name to the fact it was colonized by “Flamingi” and “Hollandi” in the twelfth century. However, the subject of this article is not the history of this medieval colonization, but the creation of an image thereof much later, from the nineteenth century on. At that time, the idea that the Fläming was still inhabited by an authentic Flemish population that had been able to fully preserve its language, manners, and customs throughout the centuries piqued the imagination of folklorists, amateur and professional historians and philologists on both sides of the border. On the Flemish side, it was the jurist and diplomat Emile De Borchgave who first put forth this idea in 1865. In Germany it was mostly the pastor Otto Bölke who attempted to support the theory of a still authentically Flemish Fläming, through decades of folkloric and historical activity. After German reunification in 1990, the story of the Fläming led to new Flemish-German contacts. This article also sketches the ideological metamorphoses that this story has undergone over the course of a century and a half.

Background. Choral work of American composers of the second half of the XX century is characterized by new qualities that have appeared because of not only musical but also non-musical factors generated by the system of cultural, historical and social conditions. Despite of a serious amount of scientific literature on the history of American music, the choral layer of American music remains partially unexplored, especially, in Ukrainian musical science, that bespeaks the science and practical novelty of the research results. The purpose of this study is to discover and to analyze the peculiarities of the historical formation and identity of American choral art of the second half of the twentieth century using the the works of famous American artists as examples. The research methodology is based on theoretical, historical and analytical methods, generalization and specification. Results. The general picture of the development of American composers’ practice in the genre of choral music is characterized by genre and style diversity. In our research we present portraits of iconic figures of American choral music in the period under consideration. So, the choral works of William Dawson (1899–1990), one of the most famous African-American composers, are characterized by the richness of the choral texture, intense sonority and demonstration of his great understanding of the vocal potential of the choir. Dawson was remembered, especially, for the numerous arrangements of spirituals, which do not lose their popularity. Aaron Copland (1899–1990), which was called “the Dean of American Composers”, was one of the founder of American music “classical” style, whose name associated with the America image in music. Despite the fact that the composer tends to atonalism, impressionism, jazz, constantly uses in his choral opuses sharp dissonant sounds and timbre contrasts, his choral works associated with folk traditions, written in a style that the composer himself called “vernacular”, which is characterized by a clearer and more melodic language. Among Copland’s famous choral works are “At The River”, “Four Motets”, “In the Beginning”, “Lark”, “The Promise of Living”; “Stomp Your Foot” (from “The Tender Land”), “Simple Gifts”, “Zion’s Walls” and others. Dominick Argento’s (1927–2019) style is close to the style of an Italian composer G. C. Menotti. Argento’s musical style, first of all, distinguishes the dominance of melody, so he is a leading composer in the genre of lyrical opera. Argento’s choral works are distinguished by a variety of performers’ stuff: from a cappella choral pieces – “A Nation of Cowslips”, “Easter Day” for mixed choir – to large-scale works accompanied by various instruments: “Apollo in Cambridge”, “Odi et Amo”, “Jonah and the Whale”, “Peter Quince at the Clavier”, “Te Deum”, “Tria Carmina Paschalia”, “Walden Pond”. For the choir and percussion, Argento created “Odi et Amo” (“I Hate and I Love”), 1981, based on the texts of the ancient Roman poet Catullus, which testifies to the sophistication of the composer’s literary taste and his skill in reproducing complex psychological states. The most famous from Argento’s spiritual compositions is “Te Deum” (1988), where the Latin text is combined with medieval English folk poetry, was recorded and nominated for a Grammy Award. Among the works of Samuel Barber’s (1910–1981) vocal and choral music were dominating. His cantata “Prayers of Kierkegaard”, based on the lyrics of four prayers by this Danish philosopher and theologian, for solo soprano, mixed choir and symphony orchestra is an example of an eclectic trend. Chapter I “Thou Who art unchangeable” traces the imitation of a traditional Gregorian male choral singing a cappella. Chapter II “Lord Jesus Christ, Who suffered all lifelong” for solo soprano accompanied by oboe solo is an example of minimalism. Chapter III “Father in Heaven, well we know that it is Thou” reflects the traditions of Russian choral writing. William Schumann (1910–1992) stands among the most honorable and prominent American composers. In 1943, he received the first Pulitzer Prize for Music for Cantata No 2 “A Free Song”, based on lyrics from the poems by Walt Whitman. In his choral works, Schumann emphasized the lyrics of American poetry. Norman Luboff (1917–1987), the founder and conductor of one of the leading American choirs in the 1950–1970s, is one of the great American musicians who dared to dedicate most of their lives to the popular media cultures of the time. Holiday albums of Christmas Songs with the Norman Luboff Choir have been bestselling for many years. In 1961, Norman Luboff Choir received the Grammy Award for Best Performance by a Chorus. Luboff’s productive work on folk song arrangements, which helped to preserve these popular melodies from generation to generation, is considered to be his main heritage. The choral work by Leonard Bernstein (1918–1990) – a great musician – composer, pianist, brilliant conductor – is represented by such works as “Chichester Psalms”, “Hashkiveinu”, “Kaddish” Symphony No 3)”,”The Lark (French & Latin Choruses)”, “Make Our Garden Grow (from Candide)”, “Mass”. “Chichester Psalms”, where the choir sings lyrics in Hebrew, became Bernstein’s most famous choral work and one of the most successfully performed choral masterpieces in America. An equally popular composition by Bernstein is “Mass: A Theater Piece for Singers, Players, and Dancers”, which was dedicated to the memory of John F. Kennedy, the stage drama written in the style of a musical about American youth in searching of the Lord. More than 200 singers, actors, dancers, musicians of two orchestras, three choirs are involved in the performance of “Mass”: a four-part mixed “street” choir, a four-part mixed academic choir and a two-part boys’ choir. The eclecticism of the music in the “Mass” shows the versatility of the composer’s work. The composer skillfully mixes Latin texts with English poetry, Broadway musical with rock, jazz and avant-garde music. Choral cycles by Conrad Susa (1935–2013), whose entire creative life was focused on vocal and dramatic music, are written along a story line or related thematically. Bright examples of his work are “Landscapes and Silly Songs” and “Hymns for the Amusement of Children”; the last cycle is an fascinating staging of Christopher Smart’s poetry (the18 century). The composer’s music is based on a synthesis of tonal basis, baroque counterpoint, polyphony and many modern techniques and idioms drawn from popular music. The cycle “Songs of Innocence and of Experience”, created by a composer and a pianist William Bolcom (b. 1938) on the similar-titled poems by W. Blake, represents musical styles from romantic to modern, from country to rock. More than 200 vocalists take part in the performance of this work, in academic choruses (mixed, children’s choirs) and as soloists; as well as country, rock and folk singers, and the orchestral musicians. This composition successfully synthesizes an impressive range of musical styles: reggae, classical music, western, rock, opera and other styles. Morten Lauridsen (b. 1943) was named “American Choral Master” by the National Endowment for the Arts (2006). The musical language of Lauridsen’s compositions is very diverse: in his Latin sacred works, such as “Lux Aeterna” and “Motets”, he often refers to Gregorian chant, polyphonic techniques of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, and mixes them with modern sound. Lauridsen’s “Lux Aeterna” is a striking example of the organic synthesis of the old and the new traditions, or more precisely, the presentation of the old in a new way. At the same time, his other compositions, such as “Madrigali” and “Cuatro Canciones”, are chromatic or atonal, addressing us to the technique of the Renaissance and the style of postmodernism. Conclusions. Analysis of the choral work of American composers proves the idea of moving the meaningful centers of professional choral music, the gradual disappearance of the contrast, which had previously existed between consumer audiences, the convergence of positions of “third direction” music and professional choral music. In the context of globalization of society and media culture, genre and stylistic content, spiritual meanings of choral works gradually tend to acquire new features such as interaction of ancient and modern musical systems, traditional and new, modified folklore and pop. There is a tendency to use pop instruments or some stylistic components of jazz, such as rhythm and intonation formula, in choral compositions. Innovative processes, metamorphosis and transformations in modern American choral music reveal its integration specificity, which is defined by meta-language, which is formed basing on interaction and dialogue of different types of thinking and musical systems, expansion of the musical sound environment, enrichment of acoustic possibilities of choral music, globalization intentions. Thus, the actualization of new cultural dominants and the synthesis of various stylistic origins determine the specificity of American choral music.

In article was written about the water attributes as river and rain found in mythologythat has been transferred to oral poetry, from folklore to written literature. The metamorphosis of waterand the poetic functions of them in poetry were investigated.

This article offers an overview of some of the most peculiar mythological creatures of the Hindu pantheon related to the watery element. Starting from the analysis of the concept of liminality, which is fundamental to Monster Theory, the symbolism and functions of water in ritualism, folklore and the traditions of South Asia will be explored. Indeed, destruction, metamorphosis, transition, purification and rebirth are all concepts that in Indian traditions are frequently sublimated into the dynamics of the circulation of waters. The monsoon phenomenon, the rushing rivers flowing down from the Himalayas and the depths of the Indian Ocean abysses therefore rise here to metaphysical and existential metaphors. Their hidden meaning has been represented in an allegorical key over the centuries by monstrous, bizarre and emblematic figures that have animated art, iconography and literature and popular legends. This essay tries to explore the issue through a religious and anthropological investigative approach, but with particular reference to Sanskrit literature and the sacred texts of Hinduism.

The paper’s aim is to follow the metamorphosis of Romanian myths, mainly the myth of Mioritza, in the novels of Dumitru Tsepeneag, a Romanian writer exiled in France after WW II. It is important to see to which extent the source culture is reflected in his writings as an expression of cultural identity through myths in their quality as transmitters of cultural significance, talking about the Romanian soul, about a simple, pastoral lifestyle. From the Romanian folklore underlining the old myths to classical literature, the pastoral myth suffered modifications, mainly in the works of writers of the 19th and 20th centuries, and Dumitru Tsepeneag is one of them. A nonconformist writer, theorist of aesthetic oneirism in Romanian literature, this author has given proof of a permanent desire of literary renewal even under a totalitarian regime which undermined all literary experience surpassing the official canon, the one of socialist realism, which Tsepeneag tried to avoid. Being a precursor of postmodernism in Romania in the 1970s, through his textualist literary texts illustrating aesthetic oneirism, Tsepeneag’s creation is an expression of the nostalgia of origins – through the deconstruction of the Mioritza myth in a postmodernist manner, as a parody, constantly superposed on other myths, on differences, diversity, alterity, all discovered in exile.

The article considers the interpretation of the lunar symbols of V. Goloborodko's poetry in the folklore and mythological context. The poetry of this representative of the Kyiv School is analyzed in line with mythological representations of both world culture and ethno-national mental principles. The mythological thinking of the artist is represented through the verbal poetical system of images, axiology and ontology concepts, etc. The article establishes that, in the interpretation of the lunar mythology, V. Holoborodko refers to fairy tales, fantasy elements, folk symbols, magical and ritual actions, transfigurative metamorphoses, etc. The simile metaphors in the author's artistic texts are decoded through explanations of the author's individual cosmology. It is determined that the lunar symbols in the poetry of the "Kyiv man" are capable of transforming into objects, can float in water, magically affect nature and man, health and vigor, interact with spirits, dryads, mermaids, transform into a sensual image. In the poems by V. Golobolrodko, the symbol of the Moon is used in the texts that are stylized as folklore (fairy tales, legends, rituals, spells, etc.). Irrational perception of the image of the Night Orb becomes the basis for modeling the myth-poetic world picture of the representative of the Kiev School of Poetry. The paper proves that the myth-making of any writer is implemented through the ethno-mental foundations of the worldview, the archaic genomes of humanity, folk-poetic components, the collective subconscious and the empirical personal experience of the artist. Particular sensual images in poetic works operate in line with ancient ideas and beliefs, analytical and visual cogitative process, individual perception of concepts and the surrounding reality, specific emotional state. Lunar symbols in the poetry of V. Holoborodko are interpreted in conjunction with other verbal poetic images traditionally inherent in Ukrainian folklore.

The purpose of the research is to identify the figurative and semantic specifics of the cycle «The Magic Horn of a Boy» and the peculiarities of genre and style interpretation of his texts in the German-Austrian musical culture of the XIX – early XX centuries. Methodology of work. The following approaches proved to be essential for this work: interdisciplinary, which makes it possible to attract concepts from other fields of knowledge – philosophy, art history, cultural studies, history of literature, philology; historical and cultural, genre and style. The scientific novelty of the work is determined by its analytical perspective, which takes into account both the figurative and semantic specifics of the cycle «The Magic Horn of a Boy» and the peculiarities of its interpretation in the German-Austrian musical culture of the XIX – early XX centuries. Conclusions. «The Boy’s Magic Horn» is an outstanding monument of the German song and poetry folklore tradition, reflecting the most striking features of the German «image of the world», national consciousness, and the position of the Heidelberg Romantics on folklore in general. The authors of the anthology often transform texts, change the composition, use the later version, ignoring the folklore source, supplementing it with their own work. The texts of this anthology were in great demand in German-Austrian chamber and vocal (F. Schubert, R. Schumann, J. Brahms, etc.) and opera music of the XIX century (R. Schumann, E. Humperdink) in line with genre and style guidelines of culture Biedermeier. In the works of composers of the twentieth century (G. Mahler, A. Schoenberg, A. Webern, R. Strauss and P. Hindemith, etc.) appeal to the spiritual and semantic specifics of the «Magic Horn of the Boy» reveals, on the one hand, involvement in the origins of German-speaking cultural area. On the other hand, the expansion of genre-style and poetic-intonational sphere of interpretation of the texts of this anthology is obvious, which reveals their spiritual and deep context both in the late romantic vocal-symphonic tradition (G. Mahler) and in chamber vocal-instrumental searches of representatives of the Novoviden school (A. Webern). Keywords: «The Magic Horn of a Boy», romanticism, Biedermeier, vocal works of R. Schumann, musical theater of E. Humperdinck, vocal cycles of G. Mahler and A. Webern.

Image 1: Hasbro/Tiger Electronics 1998 Furby. (Photo credit: Author) Introduction Since the mid-1990s robotic and digital creatures designed to offer social interaction and companionship have been developed for commercial and research interests. Integral to encouraging positive experiences with these creatures has been the use of cute aesthetics that aim to endear companions to their human users. During this time there has also been a growth in online communities that engage in cultural production through fan fiction responses to existing cultural artefacts, including the widely recognised electronic companion, Hasbro’s Furby (image 1). These user stories and Furby’s online representation in general, demonstrate that contrary to the intentions of their designers and marketers, Furbys are not necessarily received as cute, or the embodiment of the helpless and harmless demeanour that goes along with it. Furbys’ large, lash-framed eyes, small, or non-existent limbs, and baby voice are typical markers of cuteness but can also evoke another side of cuteness—monstrosity, especially when the creature appears physically capable instead of helpless (Brzozowska-Brywczynska 217). Furbys are a particularly interesting manifestation of the cute aesthetic because it is used as tool for encouraging attachment to a socially interactive electronic object, and therefore intersects with existing ideas about technology and nonhuman companions, both of which often embody a sense of otherness. This paper will explore how cuteness intersects withand transitions into monstrosity through online representations of Furbys, troubling their existing design and marketing narrative by connecting and likening them to other creatures, myths, and anecdotes. Analysis of narrative in particular highlights the instability of cuteness, and cultural understandings of existing cute characters, such as the gremlins from the film Gremlins (Dante) reinforce the idea that cuteness should be treated with suspicion as it potentially masks a troubling undertone. Ultimately, this paper aims to interrogate the cultural complexities of designing electronic creatures through the stories that people tell about them online. Fan Production Authors of fan fiction are known to creatively express their responses to a variety of media by appropriating the characters, settings, and themes of an original work and sharing their cultural activity with others (Jenkins 88). On a personal level, Jenkins (103) argues that “[i]n embracing popular texts, the fans claim those works as their own, remaking them in their own image, forcing them to respond to their needs and to gratify their desires.” Fan fiction authors are motivated to write not for financial or professional gains but for personal enjoyment and fan recognition, however, their production does not necessarily come from favourable opinions of an existing text. The antifan is an individual who actively hates a text or cultural artefact and is mobilised in their dislike to contribute to a community of others who share their views (Gray 841). Gray suggests that both fan and antifan activity contribute to our understanding of the kinds of stories audiences want: Although fans may wish to bring a text into everyday life due to what they believe it represents, antifans fear or do not want what they believe it represents and so, as with fans, antifan practice is as important an indicator of interactions between the textual and public spheres. (855) Gray reminds that fans, nonfans, and antifans employ different interpretive strategies when interacting with a text. In particular, while fans intimate knowledge of a text reflects their overall appreciation, antifans more often focus on the “dimensions of the moral, the rational-realistic, [or] the aesthetic” (856) that they find most disagreeable. Additionally, antifans may not experience a text directly, but dislike what knowledge they do have of it from afar. As later examples will show, the treatment of Furbys in fan fiction arguably reflects an antifan perspective through a sense of distrust and aversion, and analysing it can provide insight into why interactions with, or indirect knowledge of, Furbys might inspire these reactions. Derecho argues that in part because of the potential copyright violation that is faced by most fandoms, “even the most socially conventional fan fiction is an act of defiance of corporate control…” (72). Additionally, because of the creative freedom it affords, “fan fiction and archontic literature open up possibilities – not just for opposition to institutions and social systems, but also for a different perspective on the institutional and the social” (76). Because of this criticality, and its subversive nature, fan fiction provides an interesting consumer perspective on objects that are designed and marketed to be received in particular ways. Further, because much of fan fiction draws on fictional content, stories about objects like Furby are not necessarily bound to reality and incorporate fantastical, speculative, and folkloric readings, providing diverse viewpoints of the object. Finally, if, as robotics commentators (cf. Levy; Breazeal) suggest, companionable robots and technologies are going to become increasingly present in everyday life, it is crucial to understand not only how they are received, but also where they fit within a wider cultural sphere. Furbys can be seen as a widespread, if technologically simple, example of these technologies and are often treated as a sign of things to come (Wilks 12). The Design of Electronic Companions To compete with the burgeoning market of digital and electronic pets, in 1998 Tiger Electronics released the Furby, a fur-covered, robotic creature that required the user to carry out certain nurturance duties. Furbys expected feeding and entertaining and could become sick and scared if neglected. Through a program that advanced slowly over time regardless of external stimulus, Furbys appeared to evolve from speaking entirely Furbish, their mother tongue, to speaking English. To the user, it appeared as though their interactions with the object were directly affecting its progress and maturation because their care duties of feeding and entertaining were happening parallel to the Furbish to English transition (Turkle, Breazeal, Daste, & Scassellati 314). The design of electronic companions like Furby is carefully considered to encourage positive emotional responses. For example, Breazeal (2002 230) argues that a robot will be treated like a baby, and nurtured, if it has a large head, big eyes, and pursed lips. Kinsella’s (1995) also emphasises cute things need for care as they are “soft, infantile, mammalian, round, without bodily appendages (e.g. arms), without bodily orifices (e.g. mouths), non-sexual, mute, insecure, helpless or bewildered” (226). From this perspective, Furbys’ physical design plays a role in encouraging nurturance. Such design decisions are reinforced by marketing strategies that encourage Furbys to be viewed in a particular way. As a marketing tool, Harris (1992) argues that: cuteness has become essential in the marketplace in that advertisers have learned that consumers will “adopt” products that create, often in their packaging alone, an aura of motherlessness, ostracism, and melancholy, the silent desperation of the lost puppy dog clamoring to be befriended - namely, to be bought. (179) Positioning Furbys as friendly was also important to encouraging a positive bond with a caregiver. The history, or back story, that Furbys were given in the instruction manual was designed to convey their kind, non-threatening nature. Although alive and unpredictable, it was crucial that Furbys were not frightening. As imaginary living creatures, the origin of Furbys required explaining: “some had suggested positioning Furby as an alien, but that seemed too foreign and frightening for little girls. By May, the thinking was that Furbies live in the clouds – more angelic, less threatening” (Kirsner). In creating this story, Furby’s producers both endeared the object to consumers by making it seem friendly and inquisitive, and avoided associations to its mass-produced, factory origins. Monstrous and Cute Furbys Across fan fiction, academic texts, and media coverage there is a tendency to describe what Furbys look like by stringing together several animals and objects. Furbys have been referred to as a “mechanized ball of synthetic hair that is part penguin, part owl and part kitten” (Steinberg), a “cross between a hamster and a bird…” (Lawson & Chesney 34), and “ “owl-like in appearance, with large bat-like ears and two large white eyes with small, reddish-pink pupils” (ChaosInsanity), to highlight only a few. The ambiguous appearance of electronic companions is often a strategic decision made by the designer to avoid biases towards specific animals or forms, making the companion easier to accept as “real” or “alive” (Shibata 1753). Furbys are arguably evidence of this strategy and appear to be deliberately unfamiliar. However, the assemblage, and exaggeration, of parts that describes Furbys also conjures much older associations: the world of monsters in gothic literature. Notice the similarities between the above attempts to describe what Furbys looks like, and a historical description of monsters: early monsters are frequently constructed out of ill-assorted parts, like the griffin, with the head and wings of an eagle combined with the body and paws of a lion. Alternatively, they are incomplete, lacking essential parts, or, like the mythological hydra with its many heads, grotesquely excessive. (Punter & Byron 263) Cohen (6) argues that, metaphorically, because of their strange visual assembly, monsters are displaced beings “whose externally incoherent bodies resist attempts to include them in any systematic structuration. And so the monster is dangerous, a form suspended between forms that threatens to smash distinctions.” Therefore, to call something a monster is also to call it confusing and unfamiliar. Notice in the following fan fiction example how comparing Furby to an owl makes it strange, and there seems to be uncertainty around what Furbys are, and where they fit in the natural order: The first thing Heero noticed was that a 'Furby' appeared to be a childes toy, shaped to resemble a mutated owl. With fur instead of feathers, no wings, two large ears and comical cat paws set at the bottom of its pudding like form. Its face was devoid of fuzz with a yellow plastic beak and too large eyes that gave it the appearance of it being addicted to speed [sic]. (Kontradiction) Here is a character unfamiliar with Furbys, describing its appearance by relating it to animal parts. Whether Furbys are cute or monstrous is contentious, particularly in fan fictions where they have been given additional capabilities like working limbs and extra appendages that make them less helpless. Furbys’ lack, or diminution of parts, and exaggeration of others, fits the description of cuteness, as well as their sole reliance on caregivers to be fed, entertained, and transported. If viewed as animals, Furbys appear physically limited. Kinsella (1995) finds that a sense of disability is important to the cute aesthetic: stubby arms, no fingers, no mouths, huge heads, massive eyes – which can hide no private thoughts from the viewer – nothing between their legs, pot bellies, swollen legs or pigeon feet – if they have feet at all. Cute things can’t walk, can’t talk, can’t in fact do anything at all for themselves because they are physically handicapped. (236) Exploring the line between cute and monstrous, Brzozowska-Brywczynska argues that it is this sense of physical disability that distinguishes the two similar aesthetics. “It is the disempowering feeling of pity and sympathy […] that deprives a monster of his monstrosity” (218). The descriptions of Furbys in fan fiction suggest that they transition between the two, contingent on how they are received by certain characters, and the abilities they are given by the author. In some cases it is the overwhelming threat the Furby poses that extinguishes feelings of care. In the following two excerpts that the revealing of threatening behaviour shifts the perception of Furby from cute to monstrous in ‘When Furbies Attack’ (Kellyofthemidnightdawn): “These guys are so cute,” she moved the Furby so that it was within inches of Elliot's face and positioned it so that what were apparently the Furby's lips came into contact with his cheek “See,” she smiled widely “He likes you.” […] Olivia's breath caught in her throat as she found herself backing up towards the door. She kept her eyes on the little yellow monster in front of her as her hand slowly reached for the door knob. This was just too freaky, she wanted away from this thing. The Furby that was originally called cute becomes a monster when it violently threatens the protagonist, Olivia. The shifting of Furbys between cute and monstrous is a topic of argument in ‘InuYasha vs the Demon Furbie’ (Lioness of Dreams). The character Kagome attempts to explain a Furby to Inuyasha, who views the object as a demon: That is a toy called a Furbie. It's a thing we humans call “CUTE”. See, it talks and says cute things and we give it hugs! (Lioness of Dreams) A recurrent theme in the Inuyasha (Takahashi) anime is the generational divide between Kagome and Inuyasha. Set in feudal-era Japan, Kagome is transported there from modern-day Tokyo after falling into a well. The above line of dialogue reinforces the relative newness, and cultural specificity, of cute aesthetics, which according to Kinsella (1995 220) became increasingly popular throughout the 1980s and 90s. In Inuyasha’s world, where demons and monsters are a fixture of everyday life, the Furby appearance shifts from cute to monstrous. Furbys as GremlinsDuring the height of the original 1998 Furby’s public exposure and popularity, several news articles referred to Furby as “the five-inch gremlin” (Steinberg) and “a furry, gremlin-looking creature” (Del Vecchio 88). More recently, in a review of the 2012 Furby release, one commenter exclaimed: “These things actually look scary! Like blue gremlins!” (KillaRizzay). Following the release of the original Furbys, Hasbro collaborated with the film’s merchandising team to release Interactive ‘Gizmo’ Furbys (image 2). Image 2: Hasbro 1999 Interactive Gizmo (photo credit: Author) Furbys’ likeness to gremlins offers another perspective on the tension between cute and monstrous aesthetics that is contingent on the creature’s behaviour. The connection between Furbys and gremlins embodies a sense of mistrust, because the film Gremlins focuses on the monsters that dwell within the seemingly harmless and endearing mogwai/gremlin creatures. Catastrophic events unfold after they are cared for improperly. Gremlins, and by association Furbys, may appear cute or harmless, but this story tells that there is something darker beneath the surface. The creatures in Gremlins are introduced as mogwai, and in Chinese folklore the mogwai or mogui is a demon (Zhang, 1999). The pop culture gremlin embodied in the film, then, is cute and demonic, depending on how it is treated. Like a gremlin, a Furby’s personality is supposed to be a reflection of the care it receives. Transformation is a common theme of Gremlins and also Furby, where it is central to the sense of “aliveness” the product works to create. Furbys become “wiser” as time goes on, transitioning through “life stages” as they “learn” about their surroundings. As we learn from their origin story, Furbys jumped from their home in the clouds in order to see and explore the world firsthand (Tiger Electronics 2). Because Furbys are susceptible to their environment, they come with rules on how they must be cared for, and the consequences if this is ignored. Without attention and “food”, a Furby will become unresponsive and even ill: “If you allow me to get sick, soon I will not want to play and will not respond to anything but feeding” (Tiger Electronics 6). In Gremlins, improper care manifests in an abrupt transition from cute to monstrous: Gizmo’s strokeable fur is transformed into a wet, scaly integument, while the vacant portholes of its eyes (the most important facial feature of the cute thing, giving us free access to its soul and ensuring its total structability, its incapacity to hold back anything in reserve) become diabolical slits hiding a lurking intelligence, just as its dainty paws metamorphose into talons and its pretty puckered lips into enormous Cheshire grimaces with full sets of sharp incisors. (Harris 185–186) In the Naruto (Kishimoto) fan fiction ‘Orochimaru's World Famous New Year's Eve Party’ (dead drifter), while there is no explicit mention of Gremlins, the Furby undergoes the physical transformation that appears in the films. The Furby, named Sasuke, presumably after the Naruto antagonist Sasuke, and hinting at its untrustworthy nature, undergoes a transformation that mimics that of Gremlins: when water is poured on the Furby, boils appear and fall from its back, each growing into another Furby. Also, after feeding the Furby, it lays eggs: Apparently, it's not a good idea to feed Furbies chips. Why? Because they make weird cocoon eggs and transform into… something. (ch. 5) This sequence of events follows the Gremlins movie structure, in which cute and furry Gizmo, after being exposed to water and fed after midnight, “begins to reproduce, laying eggs that enter a larval stage in repulsive cocoons covered in viscous membranes” (Harris 185). Harris also reminds that the appearance of gremlins comes with understandings of how they should be treated: Whereas cute things have clean, sensuous surfaces that remain intact and unpenetrated […] the anti-cute Gremlins are constantly being squished and disembowelled, their entrails spilling out into the open, as they explode in microwaves and run through paper shredders and blenders. (Harris 186) The Furbys in ‘Orochimaru's World Famous New Year's Eve Party’ meet a similar end: Kuro Furby whined as his brain was smashed in. One of its eyes popped out and rolled across the floor. (dead drifter ch. 6) A horde of mischievous Furbys are violently dispatched, including the original Furby that was lovingly cared for. Conclusion This paper has explored examples from online culture in which different cultural references clash and merge to explore artefacts such as Furby, and the complexities of design, such as the use of ambiguously mammalian, and cute, aesthetics in an effort to encourage positive attachment. Fan fiction, as a subversive practice, offers valuable critiques of Furby that are imaginative and speculative, providing creative responses to experiences with Furbys, but also opening up potential for what electronic companions could become. In particular, the use of narrative demonstrates that cuteness is an unstable aesthetic that is culturally contingent and very much tied to behaviour. As above examples demonstrate, Furbys can move between cute, friendly, helpless, threatening, monstrous, and strange in one story. Cute Furbys became monstrous when they were described as an assemblage of disparate parts, made physically capable and aggressive, and affected by their environment or external stimulus. Cultural associations, such as gremlins, also influence how an electronic animal is received and treated, often troubling the visions of designers and marketers who seek to present friendly, nonthreatening, and accommodating companions. These diverse readings are valuable in understanding how companionable technologies are received, especially if they continue to be developed and made commercially available, and if cuteness is to be used as means of encouraging positive attachment. References Breazeal, Cynthia. Designing Sociable Robots. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2002. Brzozowska-Brywczynska, Maja. "Monstrous/Cute: Notes on the Ambivalent Nature of Cuteness." Monsters and the Monstrous: Myths and Metaphors of Enduring Evil. Ed. Niall Scott. Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi. 2007. 213 - 28. 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