Identity in Intercultural Communication by KAA FIFUK

DEPARTMENT OF BRITISH AND AMERICAN STUDIES FACULTY OF ARTS, COMENIUS UNIVERSITY, BRATISLAVA

IDENTITY IN INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION Slovak Studies in English III

Edited by Ada Bรถhmerovรก

2011

Editor:

Assoc. Prof. PhDr. Ada Böhmerová, M.A., PhD.

Technical Editor:

Lucia Otrísalová, PhD.

Proofreaders:

Peter Barrer, Ph.D. Linda Marie Steyne, M.A.

Reviewers:

Prof. PhDr. Richard Repka, PhD. Assoc. Prof. PhDr. Pavol Kvetko, PhD.

Univerzita Komenského, 2011

Published by:

ŃEVT, a.s.

ISBN:

978-80-8106-047-2

Contents Mária Huttová: Dedication .................................................................................................................................. 7 Ada Böhmerová: Editor‘s Note .............................................................................................................................. 8 Marián Gazdík: A Life Devoted to British and American Studies ...................................................................... 9 Marián Gazdík: Bibliography of Professor PhDr. Jozef Olexa, CSc. ................................................................ 16 HONORARY CONTRIBUTIONS Josef Jařab: The Transnational American Identity of Allen Ginsberg ......................................................... 26 Ján Vilikovský: Dialect in Fiction ...................................................................................................................... 35 CULTURAL STUDIES Peter Barrer: Promoting New Zealand: The State and Exporting Popular Culture ....................................... 47 Judit Mudriczki: Narrating the Intercultural Face of the Australian Body Politic .............................................. 56 LINGUISTICS Miroslav Bázlik: Are We Losing Our Linguistic Identity? .................................................................................. 65 Ada Böhmerová: Cross-Pollination vs Lexical Blending: Horticulture vs Onomatology.................................... 72 Jan Chovanec: Weapons of Ms Destruction: The Subversive Role of Linguistic Creativity ........................... 82 Mária Hardošová: How to Render ―Directives‖ in Intercultural Written Business Communication .................... 94

Jozef Lonek: The Past Perfect: What's in a Name? ..................................................................................... 101 Nataliya Panasenko, Miroslava Zolichová: Cognitive Approach to the Text Analysis of British Fairy Tales ........................................... 109 Milica Urbániková: Creating One‘s Virtual Identity: A Look Through Internet Nicknames ................................ 127 Jitka Vlčková: Interpersonal and Crosscultural Communication: Australian Aborigines and Central European Romanies ................................................................................................................................ 136 LITERATURE Simona Hevešiová: Tales from India: Aravind Adiga in the Role of a Travel Guide ........................................... 148 Emília Janecová: (Re)Creating Ethnic Identity in American Writing - Roberto G. Fernández: Raining Backwards .............................................................................................................................. 156 Mária Kiššová: Chinese Prayers and American Heaven – Cultural Struggles in Yiyun Li‘s A Thousand Years of Good Prayers ..................................................................................................................... 163 Ivan Lacko: The Loss of ―Self‖ in Nathaniel Hawthorne‘s Fiction ........................................................... 173 Lucia Otrísalová: Naming and Identity in Lawrence Hill‘s Someone Knows My Name .................................... 182 Martin Solotruk: The Waste Land: A Field of Fragments or Multidentity? ...................................................... 190 METHODOLOGY Zdeněk Janík: Enhancing Intercultural Awareness of Teachers of English .................................................. 202

Jela Kehoe: Identity of the English and Its Implications for Students of the English Language and Translation Studies ................................................................................................................. 213 Anatol Shevel: James Bond as a Culture-Specific Archetype in EFL Teaching ............................................ 223 Agnieszka Uberman: Learning Strategies in Teaching Culture-Related Language Issues at Advanced Level ....... 229 Eva Tandlichová: Can Authentic Text on Internet Help the Development of Creativity? .................................. 246 TRANSLATION STUDIES Martin Djovčoš, Ľubica Pliešovská: Questionable Identity in Intercultural Monologue ................................................................. 257 Xenia Liashuk: Images and Concepts of Slovak Presidential Speeches and Their Reflection in English Translation .............................................................................................................................. 265

DEDICATION

This issue of Slovak Studies in English is dedicated to and a tribute to Professor Jozef Olexa, a foremost Slovak literary scholar, who has considerably contributed to the development of Slovak

studies in English literature. As a university teacher for three decades at the Faculty of Arts at Comenius University in Bratislava, he played a key role in the promotion and development of teaching English literature, and for several years he also held the position of Head of the Department of British and American Studies. He also supervised a number of doctoral students and in this way helped to extend the circle of Slovak experts in British literature. As a literary critic and translator, he has promoted English literature in the Slovak cultural context and represented Slovak studies in English literature also in the European context. Without him, the history of Slovak studies in English would not be complete.

Mária Huttová Head of the Department

Slovak Studies in English, Vol. 3, 2011 – Identity in Intercultural Communication

EDITOR’S NOTE

It is with great pleasure that we present Slovak Studies in English III within the tradition of our series, which started in 2005. This issue is dedicated to Professor Jozef Olexa, a distinguished scholar and a former member of our department, whose personal and academic profile is presented by Marián Gazdík. The leitmotif of the volume is the role of identity in intercultural communication and the ensuing responsibility of the individual. We are honoured that the collection can be introduced by papers by the prominent and esteemed Anglicists Prof. Josef Jařab and Assoc. Prof. Ján Vilikovský. The collection includes international contributions by acknowledged academics from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Ukraine, as well as papers by Anglicists from several Slovak universities, including our own alma mater, which 88 years ago was the first in Slovakia to start English studies. The volume presents recent research into linguistics, literature, cultural and translation studies, as well as methodology, discussing the importance and significance of investigating identity in intercultural communication as manifested in the given fields and their interconnections. The thematic focus of the volume provides a framework for individual scholarly input into our shared goals of research, and within its multifarious approaches it is a contribution to the achievements in this area. We hope that reading it will be intellectually both gratifying and challenging. Ada Böhmerová Editor

A Life Devoted to British and American Studies Marián Gazdík Comenius University, Bratislava

Professor Jozef Olexa, one of the founding personalities of British and American studies in Slovakia after World War II and a distinguished scholar, recently celebrated his 80th birthday. On this occasion the Department of British and American Studies at the Faculty of Arts of Comenius University would like to honour him by dedicating to him this volume of studies by Slovak and foreign Anglicists. Jozef Olexa was born on 1 November 1929 in the village of Spińské Bystré. He studied at three different high schools in Poprad in the years 1943–51, including a business school and a business academy. Then between the years 1951–56 he continued in his studies at the Faculty of Arts at Comenius University in Bratislava, specializing in English and Russian. Within that time for one term he also studied at the Faculty of Arts at Charles University in Prague. After graduation he worked as editor at the Tatran Publishing House (at that time still called Slovenské vydavateľstvo krásnej literatúry – Slovak Publishing House of Belles Lettres). In 1960 he married Irena Malovcová and they have two children, a daughter, Eva, born in 1961, and a son, Peter, born in 1966. In 1962 he left the publishing house and applied for doctoral studies at the Institute of Slovak Literature at the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava. At the end of his stay there he successfully defended his doctoral thesis entitled The Novel as a Chronicle of Contemporary Life – the Contemporary English Novel. In 1968 he left the Academy and decided for a pedagogical career. He started to lecture and teach at the Department of British and American Studies at the Faculty of Arts of Comenius University in Bratislava where he was to stay for almost three further decades. At this institution he educated several generations of Slovak Anglicists and Americanists, either teachers and translators or editors and other people working in various spheres of our cultural life. According to data from the early 1990s, he was the supervisor of the diploma theses of nearly 100 students and of around 15 students participating in student scholarly research competitions, not to speak of tutoring numerous post-graduate students working on their doctoral theses. Over the course of three decades, for several terms he served as the head of the Department of British and American Studies. In 1980 he defended his habilitation thesis on the theme Emily Brontë: Wuthering Heights. An Interpretation of the Early Victorian

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Novel from the Point of View of its Composition and the Author‟s Individual Vision of the World and Society and gained the academic title of ―docent‖ (Associate Professor). After 1989, similarly to other fields, Anglicist Studies acquired a new impetus. Under these new conditions Professor Olexa presented his inaugural address on the theme From the History of Czecho-Slovak English Studies, which took place on 11 June 1992 at the Faculty of Arts of Comenius University in Bratislava, on the basis of which he was appointed Professor by the then President of Slovakia Michal Kováč in 1993. Professor Olexa was then able to take charge of graduate and post-graduate students in the fields of British and American Studies. The year 1997 witnessed a radical change in his life when he left the Faculty of Arts, and joined the Pedagogical Faculty of Comenius University, where he was active until 2000. In that year he left Comenius University and started to teach at the University of SS Cyril and Methodius in Trnava. Most unfortunately, due to the inexorable twists of fate, in December 2001 he suffered an apoplectic stroke which resulted in his discontinuing active pedagogical and literary-critical activities. However, Jozef Olexa did not give up and has refused to surrender to his health problems. Until recently, he has still been meeting with his colleagues and eagerly listening to and following the news and information about the events and activities in the field of Anglicist studies. Let us now go back in time and have a look at the numerous aspects of his vigorous life. Already at the beginning of his professional career, in the middle of the 1950s, Jozef Olexa, as an editor in a publishing house, devoted his time not only to rich literary-critical activities but also to translating. His articles appeared in the daily press and in literary journals (Mladá tvorba, later also Revue svetovej literatúry). In the field of translation he was evidently fascinated by Ernest Hemingway, an important personality in American and world literature. He translated two collections of short stories by this writer: 49 Stories (all translated by him) and The Snows of Kilimanjaro (with Peter Ņdán). Apart from translating Hemingway he also participated in a magnificent project: an anthology of American (US) short stories, Days and Nights of America. Already the very length of this project (the publication contains 757 pages and around a 60-page long scholarly essay about the history and characteristic features of the American short story written by its editor, Jaroslav Schejbal) speaks for itself. Within this anthology Jozef Olexa translated 8 stories by prominent American writers, such as (in addition to Hemingway) J. D. Salinger, R. P. Warren, William Saroyan and Sherwood Anderson. He also translated the whole collection of stories by the latter author, which is entitled Winesburg, Ohio and is now already considered a classic. From among other

translations we can mention his participation in the translation of short stories by one of the most prominent English writers from the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries, Rudyard Kipling. This prolific writer is at present neatly labelled as the author of the tales for children Jungle Book I and II, but during his life his short stories and poems (including his ―poetical hit‖, the poem If), set in the milieu of British colonial regions, especially India, were very popular and informed people in Britain of life overseas. In cooperation with Viktor Krupa, Jozef Olexa translated stories for the publication Kim and Other Stories, and it seems to me that aside from Kipling‘s works for children this is the only translation of Kipling‘s stories into the Slovak language. Today it is hard to say what at the end of the 1960s and in the beginning of the 1970s caused Jozef Olexa to gradually cease translating and find a haven in the field of literarycritical and theoretical activities. (For the sake of exactness, we have to add that two more translations were published by him: Aldous Huxley‘s Point Counter Point in 1998, which was done in cooperation with Ńarlota Barániková, with the share of each translator not being specified in this publication, and in 1999 the publishing house Slovenský spisovateľ issued a collection of stories by Ernest Hemingway Men without Women. The stories included in this collection formed part of the previous translation, 49 Stories, thus it was a case of a second edition of an already existing translation, although with a reduced number of stories.) However, with regard to Jozef Olexa‘s ceasing to translate we could comment that ―every cloud has a silver lining‖, as this fact may have led to his involving his energy in other areas. Already in the period of the 1960s we can see that his afterwords appeared in many translations of books. We can mention those in his translation of Sherwood Anderson and in the translation of Charlotte Brontë‘s Wuthering Heights. In the 1970s and 1980s many wellinformed and erudite afterwords were published which could stand alone as chapters of scholarly monographs or of a history of British or American literature. The list of his afterwords to translations includes, inter alia, the novel Winter in the Hills by John Wain, the already mentioned Huxley‘s Point Counter Point, the novel by Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol, the novel by J. Galsworthy The Patrician, the shocking novel by the important English modernist D. H. Lawrence Lady Chatterley‟s Lover, as well as his afterwords to (in our country) new voices, such as Penelope Fitzgerald or Monica Dickens. He himself very highly valued his afterword to a selection of stories by Eudora Welty (translated by Adela Príhodová-Böhmerová), in which he offered a typology of the American short story, as well as an afterword to the already mentioned novel Point Counter Point, where he provided to readers a characterization of English society and of the literary scene in the 1920s. Slovak Studies in English, Vol. 3, 2011 – Identity in Intercultural Communication

Aside from afterwords, mention should also be made of various popular articles in the daily press or in literary journals, both reviews of newly-published translations or articles written on the occasion of the birthday of various authors. Most of them were published in the 1960s, but some articles appeared as late as in the 1990s (e.g. an article about Graham Greene). In 1990s his long experience and vast knowledge of the history of English literature bore fruit in a qualitatively new enterprise – in the preparation of the first History of English Literature written in the Slovak language, in which he himself wrote almost all of its text (with the exception of one chapter containing 20 pages). Actually, this work could have been much better if the publisher had not forced him to reduce the overall length of his text by one third, which in some places made this book more of an encyclopaedia (I learnt about this fact from personal interviews with the author in the 1990s). In spite of that, Jozef Olexa proved with this work too that he had a deep insight into the problems discussed. He also shared his opinions with us – students, and without imposing them on us he led us through the winding alleys of the over 1000-year-long history of English literature. Maybe these years of experience and reminiscences of colleagues from the field of British and American studies contributed to the fact that in this period Professor Olexa felt a need to share the knowledge that he had gathered over many decades. This can be proved by several articles which he published about the history of English studies in Slovakia, as well as by the reminiscences of Professor Vočadlo or Ján Ńimko (see the Personal Bibliography in this volume). However, along with his interest in the English novel, which proved to be dominant in his profile, Jozef Olexa was also interested in other branches of English studies. Apart from varied issues, he dealt with the works of the most prominent English bard of poetry and drama – William Shakespeare, and he is to be credited with holding an honourable place in popularizing this author in Slovakia. It should be pointed out that for many years he had cooperated with the editors of the Shakespeare Quarterly in the USA. Since 1966 he had been its contributor and 10 years later also a member of its editorial board. He contributed to this scholarly journal a number of bibliographical entries on all the translations, theatre productions and articles dealing with Shakespeare in Slovakia. Moreover, as we were reminded by Konńtantín Palkovič in his article (see Personal Bibliography, No. 83), Jozef Olexa discovered a manuscript translation of Hamlet by Michal Bosák from 1810 in Biblical Slovakized Czech and he informed the public about this discovery in 1981 in the above

mentioned journal. Apart from that, he was also a correspondent of the Shakespeare Data Bank, which is a supplement to the journal Shakespeare Newsletter published in Chicago. Nevertheless, Jozef Olexa certainly did not focus on English studies as a narrowly conceived field. His interest in the issues of literary theory also led him to follow the activities of his colleagues who transcended beyond the frame of literatures written in English. This can be proved by a review of an English publication of the monograph by the important Slovak theoretician Dionýz Ďurińin Theory of Literary Comparatistics. But also in this review he proved to be a devoted Anglicist applying the knowledge of general literary theory to English literary history. Moreover, he manifested his pedagogical focus and pointed to some inconsistencies in the terminology used in the English text of this work. This brief and thus necessarily inadequate and fragmentary look at the life of Professor Olexa would be incomplete if we did not refer to his rich international contacts and willingness to support British and American Studies in Slovakia from an organizational point of view as well. As I know from the archive sources of Comenius University, and also from the article by the above mentioned writer Konńtantín Palkovič, Jozef Olexa had been a member and later also chairman of the Circle of Modern Philologists associated with the Slovak Academy of Sciences. In the field of evaluating translations into Slovak he was active as a member and also chair of the committee for the Ján Holý Prize for the best translation of artistic literature in Slovakia. He also used to be a member of the Association of Modern Philologists in the USA, had contacts with important Anglicists across the whole world and received invitations to take part in conferences and symposiums. However, in the 1970s and 1980s, due to the pressures of the secret police, he often had to refuse such opportunities. But all along his career he had intensive contacts with colleagues from the Czech Republic. For example, he took part in the first British and American Studies Conference in Brno, where he spoke about the historical conditions and differences between Czech and Slovak English studies. I recall his having invited Professor Zdeněk Stříbrný to Bratislava in the late 1980s. This Czech literary historian and lecturer spoke about the circumstances connected with the preparation of the History of English Literature (in two volumes) which had been published some time before this visit. In spite of the unfavourable conditions, Professor Olexa managed to lecture at Columbia University on the history and development of the English sonnet in 1970, at a seminar in Cambridge in 1983 he dealt with Slovak theatre and its system of financing, and at the University in Marburg in Germany in 1991 he lectured about the contemporary state of English Studies in Czechoslovakia. At the same time, he was a member of many academic bodies of universities and participated in the process of granting academic Slovak Studies in English, Vol. 3, 2011 – Identity in Intercultural Communication

degrees and titles to graduates, postgraduates or Associate Professors and Professors at universities in Slovakia. In the space of several pages, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to try to present faithfully the whole life of a man who devoted himself to so many different activities: translating, editing, journalistic activities, lecturing at universities, writing various literarycritical texts, as well as being involved in many organizational activities. Thus I would like to supplement his professional image with my personal memories of encounters with him. I met him in the middle of the 1980s at first as my lecturer of literary theory and later of English literary history. Still later I asked him to be the supervisor of my diploma thesis on English literary history, and many years later to be the supervisor of my doctoral thesis which I wrote while working in the Institute of World Literature at the Slovak Academy of Sciences. Let me confess that Professor Olexa stood behind two decisions of mine which influenced my professional career and, naturally, also my life in general. Firstly, in 1991, when I was a fresh university graduate, he recommended me to apply for the position of an intern at the Slovak Academy of Sciences. Six years later, when Professor Olexa was leaving his post at the Faculty of Arts of Comenius University in Bratislava, he advised me to apply for the newly vacant position of lecturer of literary theory. I do not have to add how grateful I am to him for both these pieces of advice. But let me come back to my memories of him from the times of my university studies. I have to say that he always had decent and kind manners and that he was indeed a decent and kind person. Somewhat in the style of an Oxford don, in a casual corduroy jacket and inseparably connected to his favourite pipe, he introduced to us freshmen the magical charms of British and American literature, when like a wizard with silver hair he started to incant the unforgettable words of Blake‘s poem: ―Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright‖. (I cannot refrain from mentioning that from the very beginning of my lecturing I have included this poem into my syllabus, thus handing over this ―message‖ to further generations of students.) However, Professor Olexa‘s kind disposition did not mean that he would give all his students ―A‖ grades. I think he was an embodiment of the phrase ―strict but just‖. I remember when I was taking a test on English literature and I was very ―exam-fevered‖, he wittily corrected me when I used the incorrect idiom ―notorious alcoholic‖. He told me: ―That alcoholic may not be notorious, but he is surely an addict‖. Thanks to his vast and deep knowledge and orientation in the field of English literature, he sometimes enriched his lectures with slightly piquant memories of some personalities of the literary Parnassus. One story has remained in my memory about the visit of the bohemian Welsh-English poet Dylan Thomas to Bratislava.

As Jozef Olexa told us, during his visit some Slovak writers one day tried to get him drunk, but early in the following morning, when they were still overwhelmed with sleep and exhaustion, Thomas stood up and was eager to continue to have fun somewhere else. It seems to me that also this ―rumour‖ shows that Jozef Olexa did not take literature and its history as something boring, as only ―some dust which falls from books lying for many centuries on shelves hidden in libraries‖. For him, literature was a living and fascinating object. I hope I have provided my readers with an image of Professor Olexa and his work which is as complete as was possible within such a short space. The rest can be said by his work, and his merit can deservedly be expressed by using a quote from Horace‘s ode: he has ―raised a monument more permanent than bronze‖ (Odes, Book III, Ode xxx). To this short homage we also attach a personal bibliography of Professor Olexa so that the reader can create their own idea of the lifelong achievements of this rare personality. But most of all, his years spent at various departments of academic institutions, as well as the many years of his working as an editor and translator, testify to his having markedly influenced Slovak culture and the reception of literature written in English, and thus helped to shape the tastes of demanding readers. I think I can, and I certainly would like to, in the name of all members of our Department of British and American Studies, as well as the wider circle of Anglicists and Americanists in Slovakia, wish him good health and a peaceful autumn of his life. May we for many more years have the privilege of meeting Professor Olexa as a unique and distinguished scholar and a most humane personality.

Note: I would like to express my gratitude to Konńtantín Palkovič for his article Kto je kto? Jozef Olexa (―Who Is Who? Jozef Olexa‖) in Slovenské národné noviny (Volume 6 (10), No. 52, 1995, p. 5), and also to the Comenius University Archives for enabling to me access to the materials concerning the habilitation procedure of Professor Olexa, as well as those of his professorship inauguration in 1992.

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Bibliography of Professor PhDr. Jozef Olexa, CSc. Marián Gazdík Comenius University, Bratislava I. TRANSLATIONS I.1. Translations in Book Publications 1. ANDERSON, Sherwood: Winesburg, Ohio. Afterword (O človeku, ktorý písal čudné poviedky – On the Man Who Wrote Strange Stories, pp. 217-221), written by Jozef Olexa. Bratislava, SVKL 1959. It contains these short stories translated by Jozef Olexa: Kniha grotesiek – ―The Book of the Grotesque‖ (pp. 9-12), Ruky – o Wingovi Biddlebaumovi – ―Hands—concerning Wing Biddlebaum‖ (pp.13-19), Papierové pilulky – o doktorovi Reefym – ―Paper Pills—concerning Doctor Reefy‖ (pp. 20-23), Matka – o Elizabethe Wilardovej – ―Mother—concerning Elizabeth Willard‖ (pp. 24-33), Filozof – o doktorovi Parcivalovi – ―The Philosopher—concerning Doctor Parcival‖ (pp. 34-41), Nikto o tom nevie – o Luise Trunnionovej – ―Nobody Knows—concerning Louise Trunnion‖ (pp. 42-45), Bohabojnosť (časť prvá a druhá) – o Jessovi Bentleym – ―Godliness - Parts I and II— concerning Jesse Bentley‖ (pp. 46-65), Poráņka (časť tretia) - o Luise Bentleyovej – ―Surrender (Part III)—concerning Louise Bentley‖ (pp. 66-74), Hrôza (časť ńtvrtá) – o Davidovi Hardym – ―Terror (Part IV)—concerning David Hardy‖ (pp. 75-80), Človek podivuhodných nápadov – o Joeovi Wellingovi – ―A Man of Ideas—concerning Joe Welling‖ (pp.81-89), Dobrodruņstvo – o Alice Hindmanovej – ―Adventure—concerning Alice Hindman‖ (pp. 90-97), Lepńí ľudia – o Washovi Williamsovi – ―Respectability—concerning Wash Williams‖ (pp. 98-104), Potmehúd – o Sethovi Richmondovi – ―The Thinker— concerning Seth Richmond‖ (pp. 105-118). Tandy – o Tandy Hardovej – ―Tandy— concerning Tandy Hard‖ (pp. 119-122), Boh je mocný – o dôstojnom pánu Curtisovi Hartmanovi – ―The Strength of God—concerning The Reverend Curtis Hartman‖ (pp. 123131), Učiteľka – o Kate Swiftovej – ―The Teacher—concerning Kate Swift‖ (pp. 132-140), Samota – o Enochovi Robinsonovi – ―Loneliness—concerning Enoch Robinson‖ (pp. 141151), Prebudenie – o Belle Carpenterovej – ―An Awakening—concerning Belle Carpenter‖ (pp. 152-161), Čudák – o Elmerovi Cowleym – ――Queer‖—concerning Elmer Cowley‖ (pp. 162-172), Nevyslovená loņ – o Rayovi Pearsonovi – ―The Untold Lie—concerning Ray Pearson‖ (pp. 173-179), Whisky – o Tomovi Fosterovi – ―Drink—concerning Tom Foster‖ (pp. 180–189), Smrť – o doktorovi Reefym a o Elizabethe Wilardovej – ―Death—concerning Doctor Reefy and Elizabeth Willard‖ (pp. 190-202), Dospievanie – o Helen Whiteovej – ―Sophistication—concerning Helen White‖ (pp. 203-212), Odchod – o Georgeovi Wilardovi – ―Departure—concerning George Willard‖ (pp. 213-216).

2. HEMINGWAY, Ernest: 49 poviedok. (Forty-Nine Stories). Translated by Jozef Olexa. Afterword (Hemingway – Románopisec a poviedkár – ―Hemingway – Novelist and Short Story Writer‖, pp. 447-464) written by Július Pańteka. Bratislava, SVKL 1961. It contains these stories: Krátky ńtastný ņivot Francisa Macombera – ―The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber‖, (pp. 9-39), Hlavné mesto sveta – ―The Capital of the World‖ (pp. 4051), Snehy Kilimandņára – ―The Snows of Kilimanjaro‖, (pp.52-74), Starček pri moste – ―Old Man at the Bridge‖ (pp. 75-77), V Michigane – ―Up in Michigan‖ (pp. 78-82), Na prístavnej hrádzi v Smyrne – ―On the Quai at Smyrna‖ (pp. 83-84), V indiánskom tábore – ―Indian

Camp‖ (pp. 87-90), Doktor a jeho ņena – ―The Doctor and the Doctor's Wife‖ (pp. 93-96), Uņ ma to nebaví – ―The End of Something‖ (pp. 99-102), Povíchrica – ―The Three-Day Blow‖ (pp. 105-114), Zápasník – ―The Battler‖ (pp. 117-126), Kratulinká poviedka – ―A Very Short Story‖ (pp. 129-130), Návrat z vojny – ―Soldier's Home‖ (pp. 133-140), Revolucionár – ―The Revolutionist‖ (pp.143-144), Manņelia Elliotovci – ―Mr. and Mrs. Elliot‖ (pp. 147-150), Mačka v daņdi – ―Cat in the Rain‖ (pp. 153-156), Nevydarené podujatie – ―Out of Season‖ (pp. 159-164), Zasneņené stráne – ―Cross-Country Snow‖ (pp. 167-172), Môj tato – ―My Old Man‖ (pp. 175-188), Na rybačke pri Hornom jazere I – ―Big Two-Hearted River (part 1)‖ (pp. 191-198), Na rybačke pri Hornom jazere II – ―Big Two-Hearted River (part 2)‖ (pp. 201210), Nepremoņený – ―The Undefeated‖ (pp. 213-240), V cudzine – ―In Another Country‖ (pp. 241-246), Hory ako biele slony – ―Hills Like White Elephants‖ (pp. 247-251), Zabijaci – ―The Killers‖ (pp. 252-261), Che ti dice la patria? (262-271), Päťdesiat veľkých papierov – ―Fifty Grand‖ (pp. 272-294), Ktovie, či mi neluhal – ―A Simple Enquiry‖ (pp. 295-297), Desať Indiánov – ―Ten Indians‖ (pp.298-302), Kanárik z Palerma – ―A Canary for One‖ (pp. 303-307), Alpská idyla – ―An Alpine Idyll‖ (pp.308-313), Preteky – ―A Pursuit Race‖ (pp. 314-318), Na Veľký Piatok – ―Today is Friday‖ (pp.319-322), Banálna poviedka – ―Banal Story‖ (pp. 323-324), Leņím a bdiem – ―Now I Lay Me― (pp.325-332), Po búrke – ―After the Storm‖ (pp. 333-338), V čistej útulnej kaviarni – ―A Clean, Well-Lighted Place‖ (pp. 339343), Svetlo sveta – ―The Light of the World‖ (pp. 344- 350), Hospodin vás opatruj a doņič vám radosti – ―God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen‖ (pp. 351-355), Zmena pri mori – ―The Sea Change‖ (pp. 356-359), Taký nikdy nebudeń – ―A Way You'll Never Be‖ (360-371), Zvrhlíkova matka – ―The Mother of a Queen‖ (pp. 372-376), List jednej čitateľky – ―One Reader Writes‖ (pp. 377-378), Hold Ńvajčiarsku – ―Homage to Switzerland‖ (pp. 379-390), Zvýńená teplota – ―A Day's Wait‖ (pp. 391-394), Prírodopis mŕtvych – ―A Natural History of the Dead‖ (pp. 395-403), Wyominské víno – ―Wine of Wyoming‖ (pp. 404-419), Hazardný hráč, mníńka a rádio – ―The Gambler, the Nun, and the Radio‖ (pp. 420-436), Otcovia a synovia – ―Fathers and Sons‖ (pp. 437-446). 3. KIPLING, Rudyard: Kim a iné prózy. (Kim and Other Stories. Kim. Soldiers Three. Plain Tales from the Hills. Tales from Land and Sea. Traffics and Discoveries. Debits and Credits. Limits and Renewals). Bratislava, Slovenský spisovateľ 1968. The novel Kim and these short stories were translated by Viktor Krupa: Dvojčatá – ―Gemini‖ (pp. 320-328), Za povodne – ―In Flood Time‖ (pp. 329-338), Pri mestskom múre – ―On the City Wall‖ (pp. 339-368), Ony – ―They‖ (pp. 391-416), Býk, ktorý rozmýńľal – ―The Bull that Thought‖, Nepriatelia navzájom – ―The Enemies to Each Other‖ (pp. 432-444), and Cirkev, ktorá bola v Antiochii – ―Church at Antioch‖, (pp.444-462). These short stories were translated by Jozef Olexa: Lispeth (pp. 369-362), Uväznenie poručíka Golightlyho – ―The Arrest of Lieutenant Golightly‖ (pp. 363-374), Sais slečny Youghalovej – ―Miss Youghal‘s Sais‖ (pp. 375-382) V Sadhuovom dome – ―In The House of Suddhoo‖ (pp. 382-390) and Zvolil si inú cestu – ―He Chose a Different Road‖ (pp. 462-483). The afterword (―Rudyard Kipling‖, pp. 485-497) and biographical note („Ņivot a dielo― – ―Life and Works‖, pp. 492-497) was written by Jozef Olexa. 4. HEMINGWAY, Ernest: Snehy Kilimandņára. (The Snows of Kilimanjaro). Afterword (Kľúč k Hemingwayoevj tvorbe – A key to Hemingway‘s Works, pp. 249-266) written by Dr. Július Pańteka. Bratislava, TATRAN 1970. It contains these short stories translated by Jozef Olexa (original titles – see No. 2): Snehy Kilimandņára, (pp. 5-34), Krátky ńtastný ņivot Francisa Macombera (pp. 35-73), Hlavné mesto sveta (pp.74-89), Hore v Michigane (pp. 90-95), Indiánsky tábor – (pp. 96-100), Vojakov domov – ―Soldier's Home‖ (pp. 101-110), Veľrieka dvoch sŕdc I. ―Big Two-Hearted

Slovak Studies in English, Vol. 3, 2011 – Identity in Intercultural Communication

River (part 1)‖ (pp. 111-121), Veľrieka dvoch sŕdc II., ―Big Two-Hearted River (part 2)‖ (pp. 122-134), Hory ako biele slony (pp. 135-140), Zabijaci (pp.141153), Taký nikdy nebudeń (pp. 154-168). The novella Starec a more – ―The Old Man and the Sea‖ (pp. 169-248) was translated by Peter Ņdán. 5. HUXLEY, Aldous: Kontrapunkt. (Point Counter Point). Translated by Jozef Olexa and Ńarlota Barániková. Afterword (Anglická spoločnosť v krivom zrkadle Huxleyho satiry – ―English Society in the Distorting Mirror of Huxley‘s Satire‖, pp. 499-507) written by Jozef Olexa. Notes and commentaries written by Adriana Oravcová. Bratislava, Slovenský spisovateľ, 1988. 6. HEMINGWAY, Ernest: Muņi bez ņien. (Men without Women). Translated by Jozef Olexa. Bratislava, Slovenský spisovateľ 1999. It contains these stories (original titles – see No. 2): Nepremoņený (pp.5-31), V cudzine (pp. 32-36), Hory ako biele slony (pp. 37-41), Zabijaci (pp. 42-50), Che ti dice la patria? (pp. 5159), Päťdesiat veľkých papierov (pp. 82-84), Ktovie, či mi neluhal (pp 82-84), Desať Indiánov (pp.85-89) Kanárik z Palerma (pp. 90-94), Alpská idyla (pp. 95-100), Preteky (pp. 101-105), Na Veľký Piatok (pp.106-109), Banálna poviedka (pp. 110-111), Leņím a bdiem (pp. 112-118). I.2. Translations in Anthologies of Short Stories 7. Dni a noci Ameriky. (―Days and Nights of America‖). Edited by and afterword written by Jaroslav Schejbal. Bratislava, Slovenský spisovateľ 1964. It contains these short stories translated by Jozef Olexa: ANDERSON, Sherwood: Chcem vedieť prečo. (I Want to Know Why). pp. 194-205. HEMINGWAY, Ernest: Vojakov domov. Zabijaci. (Soldier‘s Home. The Killers). pp. 219239. HOWELLS, William Dean: Editha. pp.12-28. SALINGER, J.D.: Deň ako stvorená na banánové rybky. Milej Esme – s láskou a mizériou. (A Perfect Day for Bananafish. For Esme – With Love and Squalor) pp. 563-602. SAROYAN, William: Leto krásneho bieleho koňa. (The Summer with the Beautiful White Horse). pp. 442-450. WARREN, Robert Penn: Cezmínová zima. (Blackberry Winter). pp. 460-485. 8. Samé poľovnícke príhody. (―All Tales about Hunting‖). Edited by Milan Rajský and Vlasta Mikláńová. Bratislava, Slovenské vydavateľstvo pôdohospodárskej literatúry 1967. Contains a short story by Ernest Hemingway: Krátky ńťastný ņivot F. Macombera – ―The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber‖, pp. 159-190. I.3. Translation of an Afterword 9. DOS PASSOS, John: Manhattanské kriņovatky. (Manhattan Transfer). Translated by Viera Maruńiaková, afterword written by Antony Hope Sawyer, translated by Jozef Olexa. Bratislava, TATRAN 1970, pp. 388-397.

I.4. I.3. Translations in Periodicals 10. ANDERSON, Sherwood: Vzneńenosť – ―Respectability‖. Ņivot, volume 8, June 11, 1958, No. 24, p. 17. 11. ANDERSON, Sherwood: Nikto o tom nevie – ―Nobody Knows‖. Mladá tvorba, volume 3, August-September 1958, Nos. 8-9, p. 42. 12. ANDERSON, Sherwood: Papierové pilulky – ―Paper Pills‖. Nová literatúra, volume 2, October 25, 1958, No. 18, p. 10. 13. DICKENS, Charles: Syn pána Dombeyho. (An excerpt from the novel Dombey and Son). Ņivot, volume 5, June 10, 1955, No. 23, p. 17. 14. HEMINGWAY, Ernest: Starček pri moste – ―Old Man at the Bridge‖. Beseda, volume 1, September 2, 1961, No. 10, p. 13. 15. HEMINGWAY, Ernest: Návrat z vojny – ―Soldier‘s Home‖. Ņivot, volume 1, October 23, 1961, No. 43, pp.19-20. 16. HEMINGWAY, Ernest: V indiánskom tábore – ―Indian Camp‖. Rudé právo, volume 46, March 26, 1966, No. 84, Saturday supplement, p. 1. 17. SHAW, George Bernard: Zamestnanie Cashela Byrona – ―Cashel Byron‘s Profession‖. (An excerpt from the novel). Ņivot, volume 5, November 4, 1955, No. 44, p. 17.

II.

MONOGRAPHS

18. Dejiny anglickej a americkej literatúry – ―History of English and American Literature‖. Ńtefan Bańtín, Jozef Olexa and Zora Studená. Bratislava, Obzor 1993, 346 pp. Jozef Olexa wrote these parts: History of English Literature: Introduction, Old English Period, Middle English Period, English Renaissance (pp. 11-67), Romanticism, Victorian Period, Modern English Drama, Literature between the Two World Wars, Literature after World War II. 89-231.

III.

PARTICIPATION IN COLLECTIVE WORKS

19. Malá encyklopédia spisovateľov sveta – ―Small Encyclopaedia of World Writers‖. Edited by Ján Juríček. Bratislava, Obzor 1978, 642 pp. 20. Malá encyklopédia spisovateľov sveta – ―Small Encyclopaedia of World Writers‖. Edited by Ján Juríček. Bratislava, Obzor 1981, 642 pp. Second edition. 21. Encyklopédia spisovateľov sveta – ―Encyclopaedia of World Writers‖. Edited by Ján Juríček. Bratislava, Obzor 1987, 643 pp. Third rewritten and complemented edition. Encyklopédia literárnych diel – ―Encyclopaedia of Literary Works‖. Edited by Kamil Banák and Jozef Telgárský. Bratislava, Obzor 1989, 858 pp. 22. Portréty svetových spisovateľov: učebná pomôcka ńkoly 2. cyklu. ―Portraits of World Writers: A Teaching Aid for Schools for Children from the Age of 10 to 14 years‖. Edited by Anna Doleņalová. Banská Bystrica 1989.

Slovak Studies in English, Vol. 3, 2011 – Identity in Intercultural Communication

IV.

AFTERWORDS AND PUBLICATIONS

VARIOUS

CRITICAL

TEXTS

BOOK

23. STEVENSON, Robert Louis: Únos. (Kidnapped). Translated by Ada KuzmányBruothová. Afterword (pp. 343-350), written by Jozef Olexa. Bratislava, SVKL 1957. 24. ANDERSON, Sherwood: Winesburg, Ohio. Afterword (O človeku, ktorý písal čudné poviedky – ―On the Man Who Wrote Strange Stories, pp. 217-221) written by Jozef Olexa. Bratislava, SVKL 1959. 25. SHAW, George Bernard: Translated by and afterword written by Eugen S. Rosian. Footnotes written by Jozef Olexa. Two volumes. Selected Works by G. B. Shaw, volume 2. Contents: Lekárova dilema (The Doctor‘s Dilemma), Androkles a lev (Androcles and the Lion), Pygmalion, Dom zlomených sŕdc (Heartbreak House), Svätá Jana (Saint Joan), Tragač s jablkami (The Apple Cart), Milionárka (The Millionairess). Bratislava, SVKL 1960. 26. FIELDING, Henry: Joseph Andrews. Príhody a dobrodruņstvá Josepha Andrewsa a jeho priateľa Abraháma Adamsa. (The Adventures of Joseph Andrews). Translated by Tatiana Ruppeldtová. Afterword (Henry Fielding a vznik anglického realistického románu – ―Henry Fielding and the Rise of the English Realistic Novel‖, pp. 311-315) written by Jozef Olexa. Bratislava, SVKL 1962. 27. CONRAD, Joseph: Lord Jim. Translated by Ivan Krčméry. Afterword (Joseph Conrad – majster narácie a charakterizácie postáv – ―Joseph Conrad – Master of Narration and Characterization of Characters‖, pp. 269-273) written by Jozef Olexa. Bratislava, SVKL 1963. 28. BRAINE, John: Miesto hore. Ņivot hore. (Room at the Top. Life at the Top). Translated by Miloń Ruppeldt. Afterword (Brainova dilógia Miesto hore. Ņivot hore. ―Braine‘s Dilogy Room at the Top‖. Life at the Top, pp. 447-456) written by Jozef Olexa. Bratislava, SVKL 1964. 29. BARSTOW, Stan: Niečo ako láska. (A Kind of Loving). Translated by Tatiana Ruppeldtová. Afterword (pp. 327-330) written by Jozef Olexa. Bratislava, Tatran 1966. 30. BRONTËOVÁ (BRONTË), Emily: Búrlivé výńiny. (Wuthering Heights). Translated by Viera Bukvová-Daxnerová. Afterword (Autorka Búrlivých výńin a jej doba – ―The Author of Wuthering Heights and Her Times‖, pp. 281-290) written by Jozef Olexa. Bratislava, Tatran 1966. 31. McCULLERSOVÁ (McCULLERS), Carson Smith: Srdce je osamelý lovec. (The Heart is a Lonely Hunter). Translated by Tatiana Ruppeldtová. Afterword (pp. 307-315) written by Jozef Olexa. Bratislava, Pravda 1966. 32. BRONTËOVÁ (BRONTË), Emily: Búrlivé výńiny. (Wuthering Heights). Translated by Viera Bukvová-Daxnerová. Afterword (Autorka Búrlivých výńin a jej doba – ―The Author of Wuthering Heights and Her Times‖, pp. 281-290) written by Jozef Olexa. Bratislava, Tatran 1967.

33. CHESTERTON, Gilbert Keith: Príhody pátra Browna. (The Father Brown Stories). Translated by Karol Dlouhý. Afterword (pp. 369-374) written by Jozef Olexa. Bratislava, Slovenský spisovateľ 1967. 34. GREENE, Graham: Brightonská skala. (Brighton Rock). Translated by Ivan Krčméry. Afterword (pp. 261-268) written by Jozef Olexa. Bratislava, Tatran 1967. 35. AUSTEN, Jane: Pýcha a predsudok. (Pride and Prejudice). Translated by Rudolf Końtial. Afterword (pp. 305-311) written by Jozef Olexa. Bratislava, Tatran 1968. 36. KIPLING, Rudyard: Kim a iné prózy. (Kim and Other Stories). Translated by Viktor Krupa and Jozef Olexa. Afterword (―Rudyard Kipling‖, pp. 485-497) written by Jozef Olexa. Bratislava, Slovenský spisovateľ 1968. 37. STEVENSON, Robert Louis: Únos. (Kidnapped). Translated by Ada KuzmányBruothová. Afterword (pp. 203-208), written by Jozef Olexa. Bratislava, Tatran 1968. 38. WAIN, John: Zima v horách. (A Winter in the Hills). Translated by Jarmila Samcová. Afterword written by Jozef Olexa. Bratislava, Smena 1974. 39. WHITE, Patrick: Voss. Translated by Eduard V. Tvaroņek. Afterword (Patrick White, pp. 471-478) and chronology of the author‘s life (Ņivot a dielo – ―His Life and Works‖, pp. 479484) written by Jozef Olexa. Bratislava, Slovenský spisovateľ 1977. 40. DEFOE, Daniel: Volume I. Robinson Crusoe. Translated by Juraj Vojtek. Volume II. Moll Flandersová. (Moll Flanders). Translated by Rudolf Końtial. Volume III. Roxana. Translated by Miroslava Majerčíková. Edited by, the introductory scholarly article (Vol. I., pp. 7-18) written by and the chronology of the author‘s life (Vol. III., pp. 273-283) compiled by Jozef Olexa. Bratislava, Tatran 1978. 41. WELTYOVÁ (WELTY), Eudora: Nevesta z Innisfallenu (The Bride of the Innisfallen). Translated by Adela Príhodová–Böhmerová. Afterword (pp. 231-242) written by Jozef Olexa. Bratislava, Slovenský spisovateľ 1979. 42. BRONTËOVÁ (BRONTË), Emily: Búrlivé výńiny. (Wuthering Heights). Volume I. Translated by Magda Ņáryová. Edited by and introductory scholarly article (―Dva svety sestier Bronteových – The Two Worlds of the Brontë Sisters‖, pp. 7-22) written by Jozef Olexa. Bratislava, Tatran 1980. 43. BRONTËOVÁ (BRONTË), Charlotte: Villette. Volume IV. Translated by and Notes written by Jozef Máček. ―A Chronology of the Lives and Works by the Brontë Sisters‖ written by Jozef Olexa (pp. 539-545). Bratislava, Tatran 1980. 44. DICKENS, Charles: Vianočná koleda. (A Christmas Carol) Translated by Magda Ņáryová. Afterword (Charles Dickens kritik ranoviktoriánskej spoločnosti – ―Charles Dickens – A Critic of Early Victorian Society‖, pp. 153-165) written by Jozef Olexa. Bratislava, Tatran 1985. 45. DICKENS, Monica: Vlani, keď som bol mladý. Translated by Nina Dovinová. Afterword (pp. 219-222) written by Jozef Olexa. Bratislava, Slovenský spisovateľ 1985.

Slovak Studies in English, Vol. 3, 2011 – Identity in Intercultural Communication

46. FITZGERALD, Penelope: U starej Freddie. (At Freddie‘s). Translated by Silvia Červenčíková. Afterword (Poznámka k románu „U starej Freddie― – ―A Note Written on the Novel At Freddie‘s‖, pp. 169-173) written by Jozef Olexa. Bratislava, Slovenský spisovateľ 1986. 47. FITZGERALD, Penelope: Ďaleko od brehu. (Offshore). Translated by Darina Urbánková. Afterword (pp. 127-130) written by Jozef Olexa. Bratislava, Smena 1986. 48. BOYD, William: Dobrý človek v Afrike. Translated by Gabriela Hanáková. Afterword (pp. 353-356) written by Jozef Olexa. Bratislava, Slovenský spisovateľ 1987. 49. HUXLEY, Aldous: Kontrapunkt. (Point Counter Point). Translated by Jozef Olexa and Ńarlota Barániková. Afterword (Anglická spoločnosť v krivom zrkadle Huxleyho satiry – ―English Society in the Distorting Mirror of Huxley‘s Satire‖, pp. 499-507) written by Jozef Olexa. Notes and commentaries written by Adriana Oravcová. Bratislava, Slovenský spisovateľ 1988. 50. LAWRENCE, David Herbert: Milenec lady Chatterleyovej. Translated by Ńarlota Barániková. Afterword (D. H. Lawrence – apońtol modernej lásky – ―D. H. Lawrence – The Apostle of Modern Love‖, pp. 321-327) written by Jozef Olexa. Bratislava, Slovenský spisovateľ 1989. 51. GALSWORTHY, John: Patricij. (The Patrician). Translated by Tatiana Ruppeldtová. Afterword (John Galsworthy – posledný Viktorián a humanistický moralista – ―John Galsworthy – The Last Victorian and Humanist Moralist‖, pp. 269-278) written by Jozef Olexa. Bratislava, Slovenský spisovateľ 1990. 52. GREENE, Graham: Monsignor Quijote. Translated by Viera Maruńiaková. Afterword (Greenova tvorba – ―Greene‗s Works‖, pp. 194-198) written by Jozef Olexa. Bratislava, Slovenský spisovateľ, 1991.

SCHOLARLY ESSAYS AND ARTICLES

53. O súčasnom anglickom románe. ―On the Contemporary English Novel‖. (A Survey Article on New Works by J. Aldridge, L. Durrell, G. Greene, D. Lessing, B. Davidson, C. P. Snow, A. Wilson, W. Golding, K. Amis, J. Wain, I. Murdoch, L. Doherty and A. Sillitoe). Slovenské pohľady, volume 80, 1964, No. 2, pp. 81-86. 54. Colin Wilson: Absurdný rebel v slepej uličke. Colin Wilson: ―An Absurd Rebel at a Dead End‖. (The author mentions and comments on excerpts from these works by Wilson: ―The Outsider‖ (1956), ―Religion and the Rebel‖ (1957), ―Ritual in the Dark‖ (1960), ―Adrift in Soho‖ (1961), ―The Man without a Shadow‖ (1963), ―Beyond the Outsider‖ (1965), ―Sartre, Romantic Rationalist‖). Revue svetovej literatúry, volume 1, 1965, No. 4, pp. 203-211. 55. Allan Sillitoe, majster malej epickej formy. ―Allan Sillitoe, Master of the Short Epic Form‖. (Essay on the Concept of the Social Novel by A. Sillitoa along with an Analysis of the Main Characters of his Works, Arthur Seaton and Brian Seaton). In: O svetovom románe.

Sborník ńtúdií. ―On the World Novel. An Anthology of Essays‖. Bratislava, SAV 1967, pp. 205-219. 56. Téma mora u Josepha Conrada. ―The Theme of the Sea in the Works of Joseph Conrad‖. Revue svetovej literatúry, volume 12, 1976, No. 3, pp. 167-169. 57. Pohnevaní mladí muņi versus ńtát verejného blahobytu. ―Angry Young Men Versus the State of Welfare. Survey Article‖. Revue svetovej literatúry, volume 16, No. 6, 1980, pp. 100103. 58. Romantic and Realistic Features in the Composition of ―Wuthering Heights‖. (A scholarly article dealing with the novel by Emily Brontë). An anthology of essays published by the Faculty of Arts at Comenius University. Philologica, volume 35. 1985. Bratislava, SPN 1989, pp. 115-123. 59. From the History of English Studies in Slovakia. Scholarly article. ASA Journal (Journal of the Association of Slovak Anglicists), volume 1, 1992, No. 1, pp. 3-9. 60. Shakespearean Scholarship in Domestic and Foreign Periodicals. Scholarly article. ASA Journal, volume 3, 1994, No. 2, pp. 6-8. 61. The Structural Principles of the Sonnet. Scholarly article. Bulletin, volume 2, Summer 1995, pp. 2-12. 62. Prof. Ján Ńimko – Dr. Leonard Polčík. Bulletin, volume 3, Winter, 1995, pp. 2-5. 63. Otakar Vočadlo (1895-1974): A Homage to Our First Professor of English on the Occasion of the 100th anniversary of His Birth. Bulletin, volume 3, Winter, 1995, pp. 6-9. 64. The History and the Present State of English Studies in Slovakia. In: ―European English Studies: Contributions towards the History of a Discipline‖, pp. 191-200.Edited by Balz Engler and Renate Haas. Published for The European Society for the Study of English by The English Association, 2000.

VI.

POPULAR ARTICLES AND REVIEWS

65. (fa): Román arabskej púńte. ―Novel of the Arabian Desert‖. (Review). Večerník, volume 1, October 2, 1956, No. 2, p. 3. 66. James Aldridge: Hrdinovia prázdnych obzorov. ―Heroes of Empty Horizons‖. (Review). Ņivot, volume 6, October 5, 1956, No. 40, p. 16. 67. Ernest Hemingway: Starec a more. ―The Old Man and the Sea‖. (Review). Ņivot, volume 6, November 23, 1956, No. 47, p. 16.

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68. Ernest Hemingway: Majstrovská novela. ―A Novella by the Master‖. (Review of ―The Old Man and The Sea‖ by Ernest Hemingway). Nová literatúra, volume 2, April 16, 1958, No. 4, p. 18. 69. Irving Stone: Utíńený smäd. ―A Thirst Which is Satisfied‖. (Review of ―Lust for Life‖ by Irving Stone). Nová literatúra, volume 2, April 24, 958, No. 5, pp. 17-18. 70. Za Ernestom Hemingwayom. (Obituary for Ernest Hemingway). Pravda, volume 42, 1961, July 6, 1961, No. 186, p. 3. 71. Myńlienkový a umelecký odkaz Dreisera. ―The Philosophical and Artistic Message of Dreiser‖. (An Article on the Occasion of the 90th Anniversary of Author‘s Birth). Pravda, volume 42, August 27, 1961, No. 238, p. 3. 72. Majster humoru a irónie. O novom románe Grahama Greena. ―A Master of Humour and Irony. On the New Novel by Graham Greene‖. (Review). Pravda, volume 43, February 16, 1962, No. 46, p. 3. 73. Starý a Nový svet v diele H. W. Longfellowa. ―The Old and New World in the Works by H. W. Longfellow‖. (On the 80th Anniversary of the Author‗s Death). Pravda, volume 43, April 1, 1962, No. 90, p. 2. 74. Pohľad na vývin anglického románu. ―A Look at the Development of the English Novel‖. (Review of: W.E. Allen: ―The English Novel: A Short Critical History―. London, Phoenix House, 1954. 359 pp). Slovenská literatúra, volume 12, 1965, No. 2, pp. 217-219. 75. Eudora Weltyová. ―Eudora Welty‖. (Profile Article about the Author). Revue svetovej literatúry, volume 2, 1966, No. 3, pp. 157-159. 76. Charles Dickens. 1812-1870. (Article on the 100th Anniversary of the Author‘s Death). In: Jubilanti vo svete. Bratislava, Osvetový ústav 1970, pp. 127-135. 77. Básnik hľadá svoje miesto. ―A Poet Is Looking for His Place‖. (Commentary attached to translations of British poets made by Marián Andričík: Keith Bosley, Peter Dale, Douglas Hill, John Fuller, Stewart Conn, A. C. Jacobs, Derek Mahon, Brian Patten, Hugo Williams, Ian Hamilton, Roger McGough, Peter Brown, Patrick Waites, Roger Jones, Stuart Mills, Neil Oram and Tom Taylor). Revue svetovej literatúry, volume 22, No. 6, 1986, pp. 63-64. 78. Dionýz Ďurińin: Theory of Literary Comparistics. (Review). Slavica slovaca, volume 21, No. 4, 1986, pp. 375-378. 79. Prvé slová. ―First Words‖ (Transcript of a discussion with the English poet Dannie Abse. Also present were Joan Abse, Ján Vilikovský, Marián Andričík, Ján Zambor, Dana Podracká, Jozef Olexa and Mária Huttová. Prepared by Marián Andričík). Dotyky, volume 1, No. 2, 1989, pp. 25-27. 80. Graham Greene. (Biographical article). Kultúrny ņivot, volume 25, No. 17, 1991, p. 9.

VII.

Editing

81. An Anthology of English Poetry. Edited by Jozef Olexa. Published by Univerzita sv. Cyrila a Metoda (University of SS. Cyril and Methodius), Trnava 2001. VIII. Bibliographical Activity 82. Bibliographical entry in Shakespeare Quarterly, volume 42, 1991, No. 5. Bibliography of Shakespeare‘s quotations and references for Slovakia for 1990. (Probably also entries in the previous and following volumes). IX.

ABOUT JOZEF OLEXA

83. Interview: Alexandra Ruppeldtová: Náń hosť Jozef Olexa. ―Our Guest Jozef Olexa‖. Revue svetovej literatúry, volume 16, No. 6 (1980), pp. 177-180. 84. Palkovič, Konńtantín: Kto je kto? Jozef Olexa. ―Who Is Who? Jozef Olexa‖. Slovenské národné noviny, volume 6 (10), No. 52, 1995, p.5.

Note: I would like to express my apologies to Professor Olexa and all readers of this bibliography for any omissions and inaccuracies caused by the limited time and conditions in preparing this survey. I would also like to express my indebtedness to The Bibliography of English and American Literature compiled by Dezider Kormuth (Martin, Matica slovenská 1995), to the files of the University Library in Bratislava, the Slovak National Library in Martin, as well as to the staff of the archives of Comenius University, namely Ms. Mária Grófová. As for the method of preparation of this bibliography, I divided it into nine basic categories within which I held to a chronological order. For the sake of better orientation, I marked the translations in book publications with one number.

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HONORARY CONTRIBUTIONS The Transnational American Identity of Allen Ginsberg Josef Jařab Palacký University, Olomouc When Allen Ginsberg was born in 1926 America was still undergoing a very dramatic struggle for cultural identity. The white and still predominantly English mainstream society, or rather Anglo-Saxon, as the racialists of the day would have it, felt allegedly endangered by the growing number of immigrants, above all from Eastern and Southern Europe, and also by the rising visibility of ethnic and racial minorities in the country. Official attempts to stop or at least limit and regulate massive immigration were supported not just by the popular core of believers in ―American‖ principles and values but were also encouraged from the highest political representatives of the nation, such as President Theodore Roosevelt, and, somewhat surprisingly, and less aggressively, even from Woodrow Wilson. Roosevelt, for instance, excluded quite manifestly from the term ―native Americans‖ all ―Indians, Negroes, Asians, and immigrants from southern and eastern Europe‖ (qtd. in Painter 2010). And as for the assimilation policy metaphorically represented by the melting pot idea he, along with other advocates of radical ―Americanization‖, believed that only a one-hundred-percent American, and not any hyphenated one, can be considered a full success of the assimilation process, but at the same time not really believing that such result was easily achievable by the newcomers in a short time. It should not be surprising therefore that some of those who realized that the plurality of American society is, and had historically proved to be, not a source of its weakness but, on the contrary, one of the sources of its strength and human wealth, started opposing the melting pot idea and practice, wanting to retain some of the original culture, and offer it as an enrichment of the American mainstream. The philosopher Horace M. Kallen with his theory of cultural pluralism (made public in 1915 and 1924) and Randolph Bourne‘s hope for a ―Trans-National America‖ expressed in his essay of the same title (1916), or Alain Locke‘s ground-breaking anthology The New Negro (1925), which offered the intellectual and artistic harvest of the Harlem Renaissance, were such early signals of change to be expected in the understanding of the concept and contents of American cultural identity (see Kallen 1915; Kallen 1924; Bourne 1916; Locke 1925). As the signals and forces for change came mostly from outside the official mainstream, they were not always welcome and so it took some time

before they were recognized for what they really were – that is very relevant agents of change bringing along also the birth of modernism in American culture. But only after World War II did it become clearer that a radically different mainstream was shaping up in which the plural ethnic, national, and racial tributaries became important, if not decisive, constituents. Allen Ginsberg grew up in a Jewish family. Both his parents were children of Russian Jews; the mother, Naomi, was even born in Russia and was brought over to America at the age of eight. The family name was Levy, but at Ellis Island it was Americanized to Livergant. Both the Livergants and the Ginsbergs, and consequently their children too, however, paid more attention to the socialist and even communist ideas they brought from Europe than to the synagogue built in the neighborhood. Like many of the Jewish immigrants, they believed utopian leftist ideas should be compatible with the principles of freedom and democracy in the ―Promised Land‖, i.e. America. Still, Allen never refused his Jewish Identity, though he always felt a need to somehow qualify it, referring to himself as a Buddhist Jew or a Jewish Buddhist. The literary critic Allen Grossman, however, finds reason enough to devote an essay, ―Jew as an American Poet,‖ to Ginsberg, of whom he says that he ―can entertain the Jewish subject matter only as it is in the process of being transformed into something else‖, which, of course, in America was to be expected anyway (Grossman 1984: 109). And then Grossman particularly suggests a possible kinship or interrelatedness between Zoharistic mysticism and Christian Gnosticism (1984: 105). But Allen‘s return to Jewish matters was much more specific and personal. It came when he wanted to write a tribute to his mother after she died, having for years suffered from a mysterious mental illness as much as from problematic medical treatment and never ending haunting visions of various kinds. His Kaddish for Naomi Ginsberg 1884-1956 was finished in 1959 and gave him a feeling of having written something he had wanted to do and something he felt fully satisfied with, even more so than with the by then already notoriously famous Howl. In the rhythm of shedding tears and giving in to various, most often painful, memories of his mother he addressed her as a ―glorious muse that bore me from the womb, gave me suck first mystic life & taught me talk and music, from whose pained head I first took Vision…‖ (Ginsberg 1962: 29). Indeed ―Kaddish‖ meant for the poet much more than saying good-bye to his beloved and life-tortured mother, it was also a liberating act from what Naomi and the family represented for him. As for his own experience, one hallucinatory vision that greatly influenced his life happened to him already in 1948, at the time when he was joining the group of young people Slovak Studies in English, Vol. 3, 2011 – Identity in Intercultural Communication

at Columbia University who were to become his friends and the core or embodiment of the Beat movement, the real and symbolic representatives of the Beat Generation, namely Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, and Jack Kerouac with a few others hanging around Columbia, the Times Square, Harlem, or Greenwich Village. In his solitary life, being deeply involved in reading poems by William Blake, hoping that he could crack open ―the complicated code to reveal Blake‘s hidden secrets‖, he suddenly heard Blake himself read his ―Ah Sun-flower!‖ poem for him. Allen, fascinated, felt a flash of recognition in which he could finally grasp the universal mysteries implied. ―He realized that the world as we see it is complete, there is nothing outside it. His heightened cosmic awareness lasted for a brief time, less than an hour, and then was gone. The important thing for Allen was that the enlightenment remained‖ (Morgan 2006: 103). The young Ginsberg also took this strong illusion for a calling to become a poet – he would write and pursue a search for meaning in everything the world is or appears to be. The Blake vision remained one of his strongest arguments when he was persuading people that the Beat movement was more a spiritual than social or even political phenomenon. In our interview in 1989, I wanted to discuss with him the rebellious mission of the group but he resolutely refused to do so, saying: ―Caught up by William Blake, you don‘t have to worry about cleansing yourself of middle-class values‖ (Josef Jařab 2001: 115). But despite his admiration for Blake and his universe, he continued his personal spiritual search beyond Judaism and Christianity in the Eastern religions, namely out of the realm of monotheism and into Buddhism with the practices of meditation and conscious breathing (mind breaths). He later studied Zen, and found for himself a private Tibetan Buddhist teacher, and introduced some of the exercises into the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado, but also into his classrooms wherever he later taught or lectured, including his lecture series at Palacky University, Olomouc in the fall of 1993, when every session was started by a short meditation by the whole audience. Ginsberg‘s plural, multicultural and transnational identity is forcefully declared in the poem which was formed in his head when he was leaving, or rather when he was forced to leave Prague in 1965. Having been just spontaneously nominated and celebrated as Král Majales by thousands of students on the official May Day, which provoked the regime to speedily evict him, a Whitmanesque poetic catalogue was unrolling in his mind when flown to London: And I am the King of May, naturally,

for I am of Slavic parentage and a Buddhist Jew Who worships the Sacred Heart of Christ the blue body of Krishna the straight back of Ram the beads of Chango the Nigerian singing Shiva Shiva in a manner which I have invented, and the King of May is a middle-european honor, mine in the XX century despite space ships and the Time Machine, because I heard the voice of Blake in a vision and repeat that voice. (Ginsberg 1997: 148)

During the visit to Prague, and other places in the Soviet bloc, including Moscow where he met with the poets Yevtushenko and Voznesensky, Ginsberg must have gotten a taste of both the total lack of freedom and the suppressed but stored-up desire to be free. The short visit to Czechoslovakia was a memorable event, indeed a powerful political happening. It was understood as such by everybody involved, from the enthusiastic students to the irritated regime, and the poet himself. Ginsberg‘s visit and eviction were remembered for years as a symbolic moment of resistance, especially among young people and above all among students, despite the fact that hardly anyone knew his poetry, which could only circulate as samizdat material, if it was at all available or translated. When asked about the impact of Ginsberg and others in Czechoslovakia, Václav Havel wrote in 1999: ―There has been a sensitive awareness of the Beat movement in our country since the nineteen fifties. The general revolt against the official establishment and the literary nonconformism of the Beat poetry and prose have most likely been perceived in our unfree conditions as even more rebellious than in the land of their origin‖ (Havel 2001: ix). The fact that Ginsberg was also remembered as one of the close and familiar figures of world literature from the outside of the Iron Curtain was confirmed when he was welcomed in Prague after the November revolution of 1989. Already in May 1990 we had him back, an elderly man but still full of life and visibly happy that he was able to celebrate with us the return of freedom and democracy. And so the Czechoslovak episode from 1965 remained a surprisingly strong memory not just for us here but for the poet himself, as I found out when interviewing him. It took away some of his

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ideals and illusions about the world of socialism and communism, as the poem ―Kral Majales‖ confirms: ―And the Communists have nothing to offer but fat cheeks and eyeglasses and lying policemen…and when Communist and Capitalist assholes tangle the Just man is arrested or robbed or had his head cut off… (qtd. in Morgan 2006: 293) And it made him very empathetic towards people within the Iron Curtain territory. This is how he became our poet as well. After Ginsberg returned to America, he threw himself into the growing wave of protests against the war in Vietnam and joined various events organized by counterculture groups, such as the flower children in San Francisco or the yippies in Chicago. He also met and started cooperation with Bob Dylan; he had always admired the blues form, and wrote a few blues songs and ballads himself. He set to music William Blake‘s Songs of Innocence and Experience, and continued to write and tour the country, performing in various places, thus promoting poetry as a relevant part of national culture. In the sixties Allen Ginsberg became one of the most visible American poets and through his personality he contributed greatly to the public visibility of poetry and literature. In his long poem from 1966,―Wichita Vortex Sutra‖, he declared the Vietnam War over, and although it in fact continued for another decade, the idea that it would have to be ended was already pronounced and remembered (Morgan and Rosenthal 1986: 219). The voice of the charismatic poet and activist became a public voice that a growing number of Americans could not just hear but could also identify with. One false label that the Beat writers, including Ginsberg, were given by conservative academic critics and media was to call them ―Know-Nothing Bohemians‖ who were allegedly ―hostile to civilization‖ and worshiping ―primitivism, instinct, energy, blood‖ (qtd. in Miles 1986: 174), as Norman Podhoretz wrote in his attack on the movement. Ginsberg responded angrily because he was convinced that the Beat writers were very erudite both in classical and modern literature and art. He did not really like the term ―beatnik‖ because it was an invention of journalists rather than a name invented by the members of the group. He was particularly defensive and protective on behalf of Jack Kerouac, probably more so than the author of On the Road himself. And it was always Ginsberg who reacted to distorted images of the Beats when they appeared in the media. But it was the Berkeley professor Thomas Parkinson who helped to correct the false notion and helped to spread the knowledge that Ginsberg and his Beat friends were welleducated and highly serious artists. His A Casebook on the Beat from 1965 helped in this sense effectively. At a conference for which the text was prepared, writers of all the new

trends in American poetry were assembled – in addition to the Beats, some Black Mountain poets, and a number of representatives of the San Francisco Renaissance, such as Gary Snyder, Robert Duncan, Michael McClure and others. Years later, in 1986, when Allen was sixty and his friends issued a celebratory publication called Best Minds: A Tribute to Allen Ginsberg, professor Parkinson in his contribution remembered his literary encounters with Ginsberg and felt he had to remind his readers that Allen was truly ―steeped in the great literature of the world, and in his presence the commonplace became symbolic and grand symbolic entities were carried alive into the heart by his impassioned perception of them‖ (Morgan and Rosenthal 1986: 219), which anyone who took sightseeing walks with Allen around Prague or Olomouc could confirm. In a survey of decisive moments in the process of building Allen Ginsberg‘s identity of an American character, and a responsible American citizen and a citizen of the world, who had the courage and talent to use poetry as a means for liberating the human mind and body wherever and whenever needed, we certainly have to go back to his first public appearance which not only remains but is being repeatedly reaffirmed as an act of literally history-making consequences – his reading of ―Howl‖ in Gallery Six, a run-down second rate experimental art gallery in San Francisco, on October 7, 1955. It is evident now that on the day a literary revolution started in America. The following publication of the poem in City Lights paperback brought the publisher, Lawrence Ferlinghetti into court with an allegation of spreading obscenity but the sensational court judged the publication as not lacking ―social importance‖ (see Miles 1986: 175 – 188, 134, 111 – 119) and thus granted on the basis of the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution a great victory to the publisher, the poet, and all those who stood for them and came to later to stand for them in the United States and in the wider world. Allen Ginsberg‘s howling voice let the listeners, and later thousands of readers know the disconcerting and horrifying news:

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix, angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night, who poverty and tatters and hollow-eyed and high sat

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up smoking in the supernatural darkness of cold-water flats floating across the tops of cities contemplating jazz… (Ginsberg 1997: 49)

All that and more at a time when many if not most people in the United States believed they were living in a happy world with a booming economy and flourishing markets, and nothing but a bright future in front of them. So it was to be expected that the reception of Ginsberg´s daring ―Howl‖ would be divided in two distinct camps, though the one of the two that was capable of appreciating it was slowly growing, not just for its rebellious tone but also for its literary qualities, the powerful imagery, and the new, open, and yet appealing form. When thirty years passed from the first reading, a volume was published which recorded the writing process and the memorable performance of the poem, including the dramatic consequences. Besides the development of the manuscript the poet himself let his readers know the ―model texts‖ that served for him as ―inspirations precursor to Howl‖. Again the wide scope of sources is admirable. To be expected among the names would have been Walt Whitman, but the list had certainly a few surprises. Among them Chistopher Smart‘s Jubilate Agno, Percy Bysshe Shelley‘s ―Adonais‖ and ―Ode to the West Wind‖, Guillaume Apollinaire‘s Zone, Kurt Schwitters‘s ―Priimiititiii‖, Vladimir Mayakovsky‘s ―At the Top of My Voice‖, Antonin Artaud‘s – ―Van Gogh – The Man Suicided by Society‖, Federico Garcia Lorca‘s ―Ode to Walt Whitman, Hart Crane´s Atlantis, and William Carlos Williams‘s ―To Elsie‖. Additional inspiration came from jazz musicians, such as Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, Charlie Parker and Illinois Jacquet. But Ginsberg generously admits incentives from other artists, and from his friends. After all, the whole poem is dedicated to one of them, Carl Solomon, who is for the poet the embodiment of madness addressed in ―Howl‖. Proof that the poem is not forgotten even fifty-five years after its first reading comes with the news that Allen Ginsberg‘s poem has become a film and a graphic novel, animated by Eric Drooker. The reviewer, Douglas Kennedy, raises public expectations with the conclusion: ―Read now – as Tea Party populists clash with secularist intellectuals – Howl‘s prescience is amazing‖ (Kennedy 2010: 3). Except for William S. Burroughs and Gregory Corso, Allen Ginsberg outlived most of his Beat friends. He experimented with drugs all through his life but called alcohol, which killed at least Kerouac and Corso, the old American ―monster‖. He grew more concerned about the state of the world and its nature, and added his poetical voice to the ecological warnings of the time. In his younger life he created for himself an image of a wild and radical

activist protesting in original ways, such as in sit-in gatherings against militarism and censorship of all kinds. But as his biographer, Bill Morgan, claims and those of us who knew Allen could better confirm, basically he was a Good Man and a peacemaker rather than an instigator of violence or conflict. He was faithful to friends throughout his life. He did not part with Kerouac even after their views on the Vietnam War differed considerably. And he helped to found the Naropa Institute of Disembodied Poetics as a tribute to his friend. He always defended Neal Cassady, the beatnik hero, when he was criticized for ―misbehaving‖ and quite a few failures that he was responsible for. He put a great deal of effort to get Gregory Corso‘s poetry published and encouraged his life-long partner Peter Orlovsky to try his hand at writing too. He reconciled with his father Louis, and even organized a poetry reading for the two of them – the poetry being as different as heaven and hell, but in the end it was enjoyed by both of them. And Allen composed a very beautiful song when his father died, called ―Father Death Blues‖. Whenever Allen sang it, in his deep voice to the accompaniment of his well-known little harmonium, it was very moving. When on stage he impressed everyone by the power of his performance, which was surprising even at the stage of his deteriorating health; when reading poetry or singing he must have tapped the energy from a special poetic battery, as a few observers who worked with him must have noticed. And Allen was also generous, with books, with his time, and his wisdom that he was always ready to share with anybody interested. But above all, he was a great American poet with a global appeal. Here is what Helen Vendler, the undisputable high court of judgment of American poetry, thought of Allen Ginsberg in 1986 when he still had a decade to go on and work: Allen Ginsberg‘s poetry requires an unstable moment of perception, passion, and humor in the right proportions. In many ways, he came of age at a lucky moment. A loosening of inhibition (at first enabled by drugs) let the long-breathed visionary emerge from the good student who had imitated Donne and Crane. The ethnic chant of the Hebrew palms came into fragile conjunction with Whitmanian enumeration; the demotic speech-rhythms of Williams and his insistence on visibilia, gave the visionary Ginsberg permission to notice‖ the real world. Pound had opened the door to lyric history. Eliot, Tate, and Ransom offered handy targets for iconoclasm… Allen Ginsberg is responsible for loosening the breath of American poetry at mid-century, influencing other poets more formal than he… And having listed the attempts of the Slovak Studies in English, Vol. 3, 2011 – Identity in Intercultural Communication

poet to find a grasp on the world and the universe through Buddhism or Judaism she concludes with a positive´ finding that ―The poetry wins over the desire for a paternal religious discipline… (Morgan and Rosenthal 1986: 278 – 279)

And that in the case of poets is of the highest value.

Bibliography BOURNE, Randolph (July 1916). Trans-National America. Atlantic Monthly, 118. GINSBERG, Allen (1962). Kaddish and Other Poems 1958 – 1960. San Francisco: City Lights. GINSBERG, Allen (1997). Selected Poems 1947 – 1995. London and New York: Penguin Books. GROSSMAN, Allen (1984). Allen Ginsberg: The Jew As an American Poet. In Lewis Hyde (Ed.), On the Poetry of Allen Ginsberg (102 – 110). Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. HAVEL, Václav (2001). Preface. In David Carter (Ed.), Allen Ginsberg: Spontaneous Mind, Selected Interviews 1958 – 1966. New York: Harper Collins. Josef Jařab, May 17–18, 1989, New York City (2001). In David Carter (Ed.), Allen Ginsberg: Spontaneous Mind, Selected Interviews 1958 – 1966 (499 – 520). New York: Harper Collins. KALLEN, Horace M. (1915, Feb. 25). Democracy versus the Melting-Pot. Nation. KALLEN, Horace M. (1924). Culture and Democracy in the United States: Studies in Group Psychology of the American Peoples. New York: Boni and Liveright. KENNEDY, Douglas (2010, Nov. 20). Ginsberg: the poet who undid America. The Times. LOCKE, Alain (1925). The New Negro. New York: Boni. MILES, Barry (Ed.). (1986). Allen Ginsberg, Howl: Original Draft Facsimile, Transcript & Variant Versions, Fully Annotated by the Author, with Contemporaneous Correspondence, Account of First Public Reading, Legal Skirmishes, Precursor Texts & Bibliography. New York: Harper & Row. MORGAN, Bill (2006). I Celebrate Myself: The Somewhat Private Life of Allen Ginsberg. London: Viking. MORGAN, Bill, and Bob ROSENTHAL (Eds.) (1986). Best Minds: A Tribute to Allen Ginsberg New York: LospecchioPress. PAINTER, Nell Irvin (2010). The History of White People. New York, London: W. W. Norton.

HONORARY CONTRIBUTIONS Dialect in Fiction Ján Vilikovský Comenius University, Bratislava Dialect is one of the oldest and most frequently used non-standard linguistic elements to be found in creative literature. This paper deals primarily with the use of regional or urban dialects; social dialects, slang, argot &c. are of marginal interest only. Dialects, of course, are the elements entering into the formation of a national language, either by one of them attaining a dominant position (as in Slovak), or by amalgamation. The classical Greek koiné is the best known case of the latter, but there are other examples of this process – e.g. the Danish-Norwegian koiné, which became the basis of Norwegian Bokmål, Friulian in Italy (Furlan), and some scholars would also include Scots English or Quebec French under this heading. Obviously, this process is gradual and slow. Nevertheless, its result is the existence of two levels of language – the first being the standard or codified variety, and the second a subordinate one, covering a number of usages. As we know from semiotics, if this distinction is to be used for literary purposes, there has to be a definite and well-marked opposition between the two levels, and in the case of the language of literature there must exist systematic and unambiguous conventions allowing a ready identification of the various forms. The primary functions of dialect in a literary work are localisation and characterisation. Localisation serves to identify a character or action with a certain neighbourhood or milieu, placing them in a given space through linguistic means, an association or allusion, instead of explicit geographical designation. Characterisation is a more complex process, since dialect is used here both as an attribute of belonging to a certain class or group, and as a symbolic means exploiting our tendency to generalise and associate certain types of behaviour with particular properties. Moreover, book learning stigmatizes the use of non-standard linguistic elements and uses them as a means of foregrounding (estrangement). We see that this is a multipurpose approach offering numerous possibilities, depending on the authorial intent. Non-standard and dialect elements appear in literary language from very early times. As far back as the first century B.C. we find, side by side with classical Ciceronian Latin, Slovak Studies in English, Vol. 3, 2011 – Identity in Intercultural Communication

elements of ―vulgar‖ (spoken, common) language, differing from the standard usage both in grammar and vocabulary. The etymology of numerous words in Romance languages indicates that the language used by Roman legionaries in Gaul or Hispania was by no means strictly literary (e.g., French tête, ―head‖, derives from the slang testa, ―pot, jug‖). Similar nonstandard elements can be found in some works from the classical age – in the speech of slaves in the comedies by Plautus and Terentius, or of freemen in Petronius (Cena Trimalchionis). In the absence of a codified literary language, medieval documents – in so far as not using Latin – were written in one of the regional dialects. In this case, however, we are not dealing with an intentional use of an alternative linguistic variety but with a situation that allowed no other choice. If we do find evidence of other, contrasting varieties, these are mostly unintentional lapses of a scribe speaking a different dialect. However, as soon as we observe the first efforts at establishing a national (literary) language, we find dialect being used with a specific purpose – to set the speaker apart from the other characters. Geoffrey Chaucer is considered as one of the originators of the poetic idiom of English, and it is therefore interesting that his work offers probably the first case of the use of dialect for characterization. In the Reeve‘s Tale from The Canterbury Tales we meet two Cambridge students, Alan and John, who are natives of Northumbria and their language bears clear traces of the northern dialect (swa for so, ham for home, bathe for both, sal for shal, til for to, pit for put, &c.). Chaucer‘s reproduction is not strictly consistent, but the indications of dialect are numerous and unmistakable, especially when forms with a different phonetic structure appear in rhyming positions. The second Grand Master of the English language, William Shakespeare, is a little disappointing in this respect – the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries was a period of great linguistic turmoil, of strong tendencies towards experimentation and a changed attitude towards language. Shakespeare used to the utmost the possibilities offered by this state of affairs, but he dealt mostly with non-standard language generally and depicted characters oscillating between antithetic poles of linguistic habitat (Doctor Caius or Parson Evans in The Merry Wives of Windsor, and generally the English discourse of the Welsh, Scots or Irish characters), but specifically dialect elements are rather rare: out of the total of 31 534 lexical items his works contain, only 137 are dialectal (Elfron 1976). In the age of neo-classicism, striving for the sublime and proper, the existing linguistic ideal militated against the use of dialect; in a systematic way, it started to appear in the realistic novel of the 18th century. In Tom Jones, Henry Fielding introduces the character of

squire Western, a typical early 18th century Tory – lackadaisical, given to huntin‘, shootin‘ and culinary pleasures, and speaking openly his mind. In accordance with his name, he frequently breaks out in the Somerset dialect of the West Country, which is apt to erupt in moments of intense passion. His language is forceful and contains numerous expressions which until recently used to be replaced in English fiction by dashes. Fielding reproduces the variants of pronunciation (thof instead of though, oum instead of of them, initial z- instead of s-, and v- instead of f-, – volks, vorty instead of folks, forty &c.) as well as grammar (they be instead of they are, zeed instead of saw). This linguistic portrait has several functions: first, it serves as a source of comedy; second, it serves as a means of localisation, placing the character in a concrete geographical scene; and third, in a novel exploiting the contrast between the elegant Whig London and rustic Tory provinces, the rambunctious character of the squire‘s language underlines his bond with the circle of provincial magnates. This line of characterisation by dialect culminates with Dickens. Sam Weller remains carved in our memory as an essentially comical figure and his cockney is an inseparable part of his portrait. His comicality, however, is not of the cheap kind – we laugh with him rather than at him. He is witty, has a natural gift of looking at things in his own way, and find solutions – also in his own way. (In many respects he reminds us of Josef Ńvejk – they are both children of a big city, with little formal education but a lot of natural intelligence, and life taught them how to find a way out of any situation.) It is worth noting that although his dialect adds to the comic effect of his remarks – transcribed into standard English they would lose something of their earthiness – it is, nevertheless, not the source of their humour: they are humorous in their own right. After all, he gave his name to Wellerisms, those pronouncements converting a well-known saying to its opposite by adding an idiosyncratic tag: ―It‘s over, and can‘t be helped, and that‘s one consolation, as they always say in Turkey, ven they cuts the wrong man‘s head off.‖ In later works Dickens modifies his technique and creates a more complex structure. Although in The Pickwick Club it is always possible to distinguish between the author‘s speech and that of the characters, in later works colloquial diction – including dialect – infiltrates the authorial level through the various forms of indirect speech. While with Sam Weller dialect is an integral part of the comic effect, in Dickens‘s mature works it operates as a means of characterisation without necessarily attempting at comedy. It is also worth noticing (e.g., in the above quotation of Sam Weller) that Dickens does not aim at a painstaking reproduction of pronunciation and grammar, being rather satisfied with setting a few impressionistic accents in a position where they count. Slovak Studies in English, Vol. 3, 2011 – Identity in Intercultural Communication

A break with the existing comic tradition was the use of dialect in Emily Brontë‘s Wuthering Heights. It is found in the speech of Joseph, a representative of the old, isolated rural world, a servant, and therefore not one of the ―heroes‖. The north Yorkshire (Haworth) dialect appeared for the first time in a serious role. The momentousness of this change may create some misgivings, particularly when we keep in mind that other characters with a similar past and social position use the standard language. Consequently, this change of intent presented problems with the reproduction of dialect. Emily Brontë attempted to record the sounds of the discourse as faithfully as possible1, but her sister Charlotte considered the text difficult to understand, and readers apparently were of the same opinion.2 After Emily‘s death Charlotte reviewed the text for the edition of 1850, believing that although Joseph‘s speech ―exactly renders the Yorkshire dialect to a Yorkshire ear, yet I am sure Southerns must find it unintelligible‖ (Elizabeth Gaskell, qtd. in Ferguson 1988). Actually, her changes disrupted the consistency of Emily‘s record, although admittedly made it more accessible to the ―Southerns‖. The following short quotation may give us an idea of her emendations: ‗Maister Hindley!‘ shouted our chaplain. ‗Maister, coom hither! Miss Cathy‘s riven th‘back off ―Th‘Helmet o‘ Salvation,‖ un‘ Heathcliff‘s pawsed his fit into t‘first part o‘ ―T‘Brooad Way to Destruction!‖ It‘s fair flay-/some that ye let ‘em go on this gait. Ech! th‘owd man wad ha‘ laced ‘em properly — but he‘s goan!‘ (Brontë 448-449)

Charlotte‘s changes concerned practically only the phonetics, reverting in some instances to a more readily recognizable spelling (e.g. that for ut or wad [would] for ud) and only exceptionally substituting a standard lexical item for a dialectal one. Modern editions have mostly returned to Emily‘s original spelling. Getting this far, we should pause. The use of dialect in a literary text poses a number of questions. The first concerns linguistic problems: to what extent should we insist on accuracy and completeness of transcription? An elaborate record, even without using the phonetic alphabet, obstructs the perception of the text, slows down reading and disrupts emotional atmosphere. Since Chaucer‘s days authors therefore have desisted from trying to 1

Mrs. Gaskell reports that the real identity of the Bell sisters (writing under pseudonyms) was revealed in part because a local man recognized Joseph's speech as a Haworth form of the Yorkshire dialect. (Ferguson) Even today one can find (especially American) papers where authors have had obvious troubles with deciphering Joseph‘s speech. (cf. "Dare I Read", http://dareiread.blogspot.com/2008/01/dialect-in-wutheringheights.html) (16.10. 2010).

achieve a perfectly faithful record. Champions of maximum accuracy should realise that in any case a reader who is not familiar with the dialect in question will be unable to reconstruct its sounds on the basis of the author‘s record. Actually, there are several compelling reasons for differences between the reproduction of dialect in linguistics and in literature. Linguistics aspires to an objective representation that would have universal validity; in literature the representation is influenced by particularities of historical development, tradition (both historical and literary) and even by sociological considerations, since speech is an important component of characterisation. Even a cursory glance will show that the method mostly used by writers is basically impressionistic – it usually deals with attributes and signals capable of evoking certain associations considered to be typical for the given dialect. Ordinarily a convention is created that keeps its validity for a certain period; this is of importance for both the writers and the readers who must be capable of identifying the author‘s intention. A more complex situation may be found when dialect is used with a significant purpose, often closely connected with the given region and/or ideologically or politically motivated. (In poetry, a well-known case in former Czechoslovakia was that of Ondra Łysohorsky [real name Dr. Ervín Goj], who undertook an attempt at a kind of canonisation of the Lach dialect and met with a positive reaction of no less a critic than F. X. Ńalda.) Evidence of the impressionist method is the so-called eye dialect – the use of spelling which differs from the codified standard, although there is no difference in actual pronunciation. In English we could adduce the spelling enuff instead of the standard enough, although the pronunciation in both cases is the same [i’nf], wimmin instead of women (both [‘wimin]), woz, wuz instead of was [wəz], &c. Wikipedia quotes an example from the Russian author V. M. Ńukńin, whose character says ―ш‖ instead of ―ч‖, both with the identical pronunciation of [to]. Slovak offers fewer such possibilities, since the spelling is to a large extent phonetic and the pronunciation of various graphemes more or less fixed; but even so, examples are not hard to find – fšetci (Ragan: 3), vjete, vje, céry, na zdravje (Metropola: 102), hovorja, vozja (Metropola: 103). Actually, fšetci is a rather interesting case, because in a strictly phonetic reproduction we would expect the form fšeci or even fšecci; the digraph -tcis pronounced as in writing only in cases of the so-called spelling pronunciation. Moreover, in the same sentence the speaker uses the form vaččì instead of väčšì, which shows a certain lack of consistency on the part of the author. Eye dialect is frequently used with comic intent since it magnifies the number of departures from the norm and in this way reinforces the apparent

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lack of education of the fictitious speaker; this is usually bolstered by appropriately exaggerated grammatical howlers. The second group of questions concerns sociolinguistic problems. The speech of people we meet in real life constitutes a sort of linguistic continuum – from pure (or almost pure) vernacular to correct (or almost correct) literary language. On the basis of the speaker‘s placement on this continuum we more or less subconsciously form an opinion of his or her background, education and social position. Can we demand that the author create a similarly broad spectrum of language in his work? It could be argued that a novel, which presents a slice of life, does not offer enough space for a full reproduction of the totality of language. But in the past we may meet different opinions. A reviewer of Dickens‘s Oliver Twist in 1837 animadverts on the author‘s incongruity in describing his hero‘s character, ―[t]o say nothing of the language which this uneducated workhouse-boy ordinarily uses, there are many phrases which amount to positive absurdities in one of his standing‖ (qtd. in Ferguson 1988). Obviously the Victorian reader expected the language of a character to correspond with his social standing. In practice we see that dialect has been considered to constitute a special case, so to speak, resorted to in situations that have their own justification; the remaining characters use more or less standard language. Indeed, one can observe a sort of convention that standard language is reserved for positive characters deserving of one‘s sympathies, regardless of their social standing. Sophia, the daughter of squire Western in Fielding‘s novel, uses standard language, although with a few exceptions she had spent her whole life with her father. Hardy‘s Tess D‘Urbervilles also uses standard language, although Mrs Durbeyfield, her mother, is a dialect speaker. The illiterate Lizzie Hexam in Dickens‘s Our Mutual Friend speaks almost standard English, unlike her equally illiterate father; but then she is a positive character. One could quote many such instances. The third group of questions concerns the ideological – or, if we wish, philosophical – attitudes of the author. A seemingly neutral concept like the sociolect, the recording of dialect and situations in which it functions, is closely related to the problems of social stratification and to views on the structure of society. In German literature, for instance, rural dialect is generally connected with the ideas of the ―wholesome world‖, traditional values represented by land, hard work, frugality – values that are not necessarily unproblematic, since in this combination they were invoked by German national socialism. A group apart is formed by the dialects of mountain communities, which mostly preserved their original character owing to sparse settlement, difficult terrain and the consequent isolation. This resulted in the

emergence of a special type of literature closely connected to this environment (Jean Giono, in Slovak literature Chrobák, Figuli, and the whole ―Alpine‖ genre in German, Swiss, and particularly Austrian literature.) A complex ideological construction can be traced behind the use of dialect in the works of D.H. Lawrence. To him, the language of Nottinghamshire miners is indicative of elemental male force, the brotherhood of men earning their bread in the presence of constant deadly danger, unlike the female principle governed by feeling and perhaps also by intellectual superiority. (The author had been influenced by the situation in his family, where the father, a miner, had married a schoolteacher.) And in his Lady Chatterley‟s Lover the game-keeper Mellors switches from standard language to dialect precisely in the most intimate moments, in scenes of extreme erotic build-up. And a different approach can be found in the works of contemporary authors, e.g. in the novel (or rather a collection of short stories) Trainspotting by Irvin Welsh, where the Glasgow dialect spoken by the heroes serves to subvert the customary associative ideas about the character of its speakers and about man in general. On the other hand, the situation in the United States was radically different: vast spaces, the mobility of inhabitants – themselves of heterogeneous origins – and dynamic development did not favour the emergence of clearly defined dialects. (Moreover, in the American context the meaning of the term dialect is vaguer than elsewhere – some authors speak of African-American dialect although others mostly prefer the term variety [of English].) Speaking broadly and at the cost of some simplification, there are three welldefined and generally acknowledged dialects of American English: East New England, Southern, and Western. The first two are the result of continuous colonial settlement with relative permanence; unlike them, the third region was settled too recently for distinctive dialects to have time to develop or to be studied in detail. Actually, the colloquial speech recorded in American fiction is probably better described by the term vernacular: it is lively, slangy, spontaneous, imaginative and does not care about the standards of correctness, but – perhaps with the exception of Southern speech – it rarely tries to depict a regional dialect. Mark Twain‘s Huckleberry Finn was called the Declaration of Independence of American literature; it brought a new treatment of language, full of immediacy and vigour. The author prefixed a note entitled Explanatory where he pointed out that he used seven dialects in the story, acting not ―in a hap-hazard fashion, or by guesswork; but pains-takingly, and with the trustworthy guidance and support of personal familiarity with these several forms of speech‖. Nevertheless, the speech of the characters shows various inconsistencies and Slovak Studies in English, Vol. 3, 2011 – Identity in Intercultural Communication

scholars have had difficulties trying to identify the dialects in question; some even suspected that the whole note was another of Mark Twain‘s ironic jokes (Carkeet 1979). No one will try to deny the seminal importance of Twain‘s novel, or his ear for the language of his contemporaries – the whole confusing history rather goes to show the difficulty of pinpointing particular areas of various dialects. Compared with this long and organic development (which could be sketched here in curtailed form only) the situation in Slovakia has been dogged by inauspicious circumstances and a lack of continuity – Slovak literature had claimed its place in the sun relatively late, it used two literary languages and had to cope with frequent changes of orthography, which were actually changes of the linguistic norm, encroachments upon the codified system of language3. In consequence, the dividing line between standard language and dialect remained blurred; a word or grammatical form was evaluated according to sensibilities dictated by regional alliance rather than stylistic classification. Conditions for a functional use of dialect in literature arose as late as the beginning of the last century. It was mostly brought into play with comic intention – in short stories rather more frequently than in novels – and this line was later strengthened by the popularity of ―folk story-tellers‖ (ľudovì rozprávači, a belated parallel to the English stand-up comic) whose use of dialect was de rigueur. Dialect was associated with the idea of a lack of education or, more properly, a lack of schooling, because the heroes of these narratives do not lack cunning and in case of conflict with their betters are often victorious. Actually we see here a modernised modification of the archetype of the poor boy who evolves into a dragon-slayer (popolvár).4 The authors using dialect in the dialogue of their rural characters more or less consistently were Elo Ńándor and Zuzka Zgurińka. Elo Ńándor started with stories about sváko (Uncle) Ragan using the West Slovak dialect, but in later stories he switched with equal facility to the East Slovakian vernacular. His works bore the stamp of journalism and were of unequal quality, both in narrative technique and reproduction of dialect: ―Vidíń ho – bráni sa upodozrievaný – a prečo by mal akurát moje viselectvá spomínat, azda si bol Ty Ńčeván odchodnejńí od ostatných? Vaččím dílom sa to na Teba

Even the Ńtúr reform of 1843 had to suffer a correction ten years later, which prompted the protest of Samo Chalúpka: "Dluhô é v slovenčine niet; ktorí ho uviedli, uńkodili ním určitosti reči; na pr. To dobré dietæ a tie dobré deti. Ja mluvím: To dobrô dietæ a tye dobrye deti. Ktorô ņe je lepńie?" And he had a number of other reservations as well. (Spevy Sama Chalúpky. Banská Bystrica, 1868, s. 216.) Quite apart from this use of dialect for literary purposes one should view attempts to use a variety of the East Slovakian dialect as a standard literary language in periodicals &c., ultimately misused for political purposes (the ―Slovjak‖ theory).

vztahuje, bol si Ty Ńčevko fajn chlap, ej veru bol, bouprisám, ońmek si bol aj Ty jako fšetci...‖5 (Ragan: 3) ―...Nuņ povedali pán prezident, ņe vec prikáņu vyńetrit a vybavit ministrovi vnútra a ņe budú záujmy nás Brezovanôv podporovat. Ńak ja to dobre viem, ņe pán prezident jako hlava ńtátu, nepôjde sídlo okresu z Myjavy k nám prenáńat. To by sme sa tu uņ velmi zle mali, keby takú prácu on mosel vykonávat. Bolo by to samé, jako keby si náń pán farár sám chodél zvonit.‖ (Ragan: 144)

Although Zuzka Zgurińka, too, started with shorter sketches, she later advanced on to novels. Her version of dialect has a more authentic ring resulting not only from a more systematic record but, more importantly, from the character of utterance, which is dynamic and rich in folksy earthiness: ―To sa vjé, jakoņ ináč! Richtár mosí byt pri ńeckém. Mosí dávat z úradu pozor, aby rečnýk nejaké podezrelé slovo z huby nevypustel alebo neurazel doņhovie jakú váņenú osobu. Von je za to zodpovedný, aby sa ńecko vykonalo jak sa patrí. A keby v náhode obecenstvo začalo doráņat na rečnýka, ba čo vác aj k bitke by malo príst, vtedy mosí von, richtár, urobit poriadek.‖6 (Bičianka: 128 – 9)

At the risk of some simplification it could be said that the decades before and after World War II were the ―folklore‖ period in this respect (including the ―folk story-tellers‖). Dialect serves to create comic effect, but this does not the result from the use of dialect per se, but from the intentionality of the text it appears in. Should anyone find this statement too bold, we ought to remember that when Zgurińka decided to write a ―serious‖ trilogy depicting recent social changes (Metropola pod slamou 1949, Mestečko na predaj 1953, Zbojnìcke chodnìčky 1959), the last two parts – in spite of identical localisation – contained no dialect. M. Smatana studied the use of dialect in Slovak literature and came to the conclusion that it can be divided into three phases. In the first one, roughly from the turn of the century, there is little difference between standard literary language and dialect, which is used in a spontaneous manner, with the authors not being fully conscious of its non-standard character. The second phase covers the period before the war and immediately afterwards; this includes

5 6

For words in bold type, cf. the discussion of eye dialect on p. 4. Take note of the expression To sa vjé, as opposed to doţhovie, with identical pronunciation. (The difference in spelling, however, might perhaps be justified as the result of differences in stress and intonation.)

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the culmination of the movement of ―lyrical prose‖ in Slovak literature. Dialect elements serve as tools of aesthetic foregrounding in order to create a distinctive atmosphere. The third phase in the 1960s and 1970s (the paper appeared in 1988) treats dialect as a non-standard element and uses it mostly to describe rural life in the past and to depict the disappearing way of life and period realia, where it is virtually indispensable. This phase is fully conscious of the distinction between standard and non-standard language. It is worth pointing out that starting with the 1960s we may observe a change of the ―linguistic ideal‖ – the views on the functions and stratification of language, and of what constitutes ―the right word in the right place‖. The innovations, however, concerned mainly the various forms of slang, social dialects, urban and students‘ language, which were looked upon as linguistically progressive elements, while dialect was considered a conservative component of language. Nevertheless, the social changes of the 1980s, and especially after the revolution of 1989, concluded the process of revaluation even in this sphere. Gradually, the old ceased to be synonymous with expiring prejudices and the new with progress. Dialect in literature began slowly to lose its folklore overtones; it remained a non-standard element, but it preserved its dignity. At the same time one could notice the differentiation of the treatment of dialect, in accord with the author‘s intention. ―Daj si na cestu eńče jeden ńtamprlík,‖ podal Karolkovi plný horčičiak. [...] ―Tak nazdravie,‖ dedo chytil do trasľavých rúk horčičiak [...], ńtrngli si, vypili si a oboch ich striaslo, akoby ich kopla elektrina. ―Ńlak aby to trafil,‖ zahreńil môj vulgárny dedo a Fidibus dopovedal: ―Uņ sme v rici, ked nám ani slivovica neńmakuje.‖ ―Ponáhlaj sa s tú truhlú,‖ zakańľal dedo na Fidibusa. ―Len sa neposer,‖ odkańľal Fidibus. ―Ked príde tvoj čas, bude hotová. Uņ len vrchnák chýba. Tá druhá je pre mladú Krńákovú.‖ ―Ale aj Cestár má na kahánku,‖ upozornil ho dedo. (Cintorìn: 62 – 3)

The dialect is recorded in an impressionist manner, sparingly. In spite of all the expressiveness and swearing, the mood of the text is serious, dealing as it is with the last things of man. Dialect here has the same rank as the authorial speech, the text is not built on the contrast between the two. Although brief, the fragment clearly shows the difference in treatment compared with the older quotations. If we compare this text with a fragment from Sedláci by Ńtefan Moravčík, we immediately perceive the different approach of the two authors:

―– ... tá mrňa Pyskatá! Ņe zválajte ten hakáč! A proč? Čo ťi zavadzá? Povidau sem í, co ťi to moņe, babo jedna, zavadzat, to tam zasadzili eńte múj prastareček! A ona enem válat a válat! Ná, Vendel, povidá, nevíń, ņe kuvík na ňem sedává, Leońenka vouá! Syna. V noci nemoņe spat. Ceuý je z teho zmandotaný... Nech je, nemá suopat. Já temu téņ neodpuscím, doktor Bajér predpísau, a mja kuvík nevouá... Ťelo to vyņaduje, Bajér predpísau... Che-che, Bajér predpísau...‖

The monologue of an older man is reproduced with an almost audio-recording precision and the utmost faithfulness (notice the ―í‖, the ―ť‖ preceding the ―soft i‖, where the mark of palatalization is theoretically redundant) as well as authenticity of speech (addressing a person in 3rd person pl.). At the same time, in spite of this, we feel Moravčík‘s sensuous pleasure at handling the words and sounds of his favourite Záhorie countrymen – the words and sounds that are the only material of a writer, and yet the theme here, too, concerns serious, momentous, almost grim affairs, although observed with reserve and an indulgent half-smile. In conclusion we might state that in the course of more than a century the use and functioning of dialect in Slovak literature had undergone considerable changes. After initial vacillation caused by the lack of distinction between dialect and standard forms of language, there came what we could term the first folklore phase, with dialect serving as a source or highlighting of humour. Speculatively one could propose a thesis (and we should stress that it is a purely speculative one, for it is not even based on half-way scholarly research) that this situation was enabled by the fact that – with the exception of the Central Slovak dialect 7 – most Slovaks consider as ridiculous any dialect they do not speak themselves. (And maybe even this exception is no longer valid, as confirmed by the popularity of the satirical radio programme Stredoslováci [central Slovaks] a few years ago.) A further step meant that dialect began to be considered a conservative, backward-looking element, its most appropriate use being the depiction of the rural environment, particularly in the past. After the political change in 1989 the situation was reassessed, dialect acquired the status of one among several forms of literary communication, albeit with specific properties. Recent works of the authors of the generation that had been then in early middle age contain passages that use dialect to discuss serious questions, including the so-called ―ageless themes‖, although, of course, the actual character of the discussion is determined by the demands of psychological plausibility. 7

That served as the foundation of the Slovak literary language codified by Ľudovít Ńtúr in 1843.

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At present, dialect, together with other forms of non-standard language, is becoming a legitimate linguistic element broadening the choice of possibilities of literary expression. It might not yet be capable of reproducing fully the polyvalence and allusive richness to be found in the pages of D. H. Lawrence or even Maxim Gorki, and we still remember the predicament that one of Slovak foremost translators got into when trying to reproduce the speech of Sholokhov‘s Cossacks. Nevertheless, in view of the shortness of time, Slovak literary idiom had the opportunity to develop. We dare to predict that it will ultimately catch up with the members of older cultural traditions.

Bibliography Primary Sources Bičianka: Zgurińka, Zuzka (1954). Bičianka z doliny. Bratislava: SVKL. Cintorìn: Mitana, Duńan (2000). Môj rodný cintorìn. 2. ed. Koloman K. Bagala, s.a. Metropola: Zgurińka, Zuzka (1954). Metropola pod slamou Bratislava: Práca. Ragan: Ńándor, Elo (1927). Sváko Ragan z Brezovej. Myjava: Dan Paņický. Sedláci: Moravčík, Ńtefan (1977). Sedláci. 2. ed. Bratislava: Slovenský spisovateľ, 1977. Twain, Mark. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In Bradley, S., Beatty R. C., Long, E.H. (1967). American Tradition in Literature. 3. ed. New York, W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. Secondary Sources CARKEET, David (Nov. 1979). The Dialects in Huckleberry Finn. American Literature, 51 (3), 315 – 332. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/2925388 on Oct. 16, 2010. ELFRON, Bradley, and Ronald THISTED (1976). Estimating the number of unknown species: How many words did Shakespeare know? Biometrika, 63, 435 – 437. Eye dialect. In Wikipedia. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_dialect on Sept. 2, 2010. FERGUSON, Susan L. (Spring 1988) . Drawing fictional lines: dialect and narrative in the Victorian novel. Style. Retrieved from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2342/ is_1_32/ai_54019319/ from on Sept. 2, 2010. FINDRA, Ján (1978). Dialektizmy ako ńtylistické prostriedky. Kultúra slova, 12, 139 – 144. PAGE, Norman (1973). Speech in the English Novel. Longman: London. SMATANA, Miloslav (1988). Vyuņívanie nárečí v slovenskej umeleckej literatúre. Slovenská reč, 53, 282 – 290. WILTSHIRE, Iren (March 2005). Speech in Wuthering Heights: Joseph‘s Dialect and Charlotte‘s Emendations. Brontë Studies, 30, 19 – 29. Retrieved from http://brontesisterslinks.tripod.com/SpeechInWH.pdf on Oct. 16, 2010.

CULTURAL STUDIES Promoting New Zealand: The State and Exporting Popular Culture8 Peter Barrer Comenius University, Bratislava 1. Introduction How can a small nation project its popular culture beyond its national borders? And what role should the government play in the production and export of local popular culture? This paper discusses the state‘s role in establishing an international profile for the local popular culture industries in New Zealand. The particular focus is on film and popular music: two forms of popular culture which carry a strong potential for presenting a national identity to domestic and international audiences of considerable scope. Following an interpretation of the importance of popular culture to modern national identity formation as well as its attributes as an export commodity, a framework is outlined describing existing state-led approaches to the production and export of popular culture. The paper then locates the realisation of innovative approaches to exporting popular culture in New Zealand and argues that despite some shortcomings the state‘s promotional role has delivered a number of direct and indirect benefits to New Zealand‘s local popular culture industries.

2. Popular Culture and the Nation-State Media-based popular culture (―popular culture‖) refers to the symbols, meanings and practices of a media-dominated society and forms ―the ubiquitous background and often the highly seductive foreground of our attention and activity‖ (Kellner 1995: 1). Its critics commonly present popular culture (―mass culture‖) as a set of practices which undermines long-standing symbols and national, traditional and ―high‖ cultural orders in favour of a commercialised cultural substitute bereft of any values of aesthetics or signification (Adorno and Horkheimer 2002: 124 – 125, 136 – 137; Leavis 1986: 285; Pells 1997: 210 – 211). Popular culture does reduce diverse and complex cultural meanings to universal aspects of human existence and transforms indigenous traditions, pastimes and games into fusions of commerce, culture and celebrity targeted at the ―middle class‖ and other groups

This paper was written in fulfilling the project ―Global and Local Challenges in Slovakia: Social Innovation under the European Union's Internationalization‖ with the support of the operation programme Research and Development financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

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perceived to be more socially or geographically distant from the consumer society (Edensor 2002: 15; Featherstone 1991: 43 – 48; Hobsbawm 2003: 128; Hartley 1999: 157 – 158). However, despite its all-encompassing reach and the aesthetic argumentation of its detractors, popular culture is not factually devoid of cultural meanings or significances, for it carries a range of distinctive cultural signifiers which convey playful and complex messages of cultural and social significance to audiences who would be unreachable through more traditional cultural representations (Bennett 2001: 97; Fairlamb 2007: 192 – 193; Stratton 2006: 250 – 251). These cultural expressions are ultimately interpreted on a local level by consumers, who receive and independently generate malleable meanings from cultural objects (Eriksen 2001: 302 – 306; Fiske 1989: 15; Kellner 1995: 237 – 238, 246 – 247). Therefore, popular culture is a field of expression within which identities are constantly renegotiated and made coherent to national populations as well as to international audiences on their own terms (Billig 1995: 5 – 7; Edensor 2002: 14, 29 – 30; Price 1995: 3; Schlesinger 1991: 164 – 165). Given its commercial imperatives and dissemination through the mass media, popular culture has a significant potential to represent a nation‘s cultural identity to international audiences of immense scope. In addition to its wealth of distinctive cultural markers in comparison to other export commodities such as cars and electronics, popular culture is also a noticeable factor within a country‘s export profile. Popular culture is a ―highly lucrative‖ export and an important part of many developed economies (White and Walker 2008: 69).9 In addition to the direct earnings gained for cultural practitioners from overseas sales and the formation of international audiences and fanbases, there are a range of indirect economic and cultural benefits brought to a country as a result of exporting its popular culture, such as resultant cultural tourism and particularly the building of a fashionable national image (e.g. ―Czechoslovak New Wave‖, ―Britpop‖, ―J-rock‖ and ―Korean Wave‖) among youth and other audiences abroad. Given this importance, it makes economic sense for the nation-state to take some interest in the promotion of its domestic popular culture abroad as an export commodity. This analysis of the state‘s role in the export of popular culture from New Zealand is placed within an influential framework provided by Martin Cloonan (1999), who developed three key concepts to identify the role of the nation-state in relation to the domestic popular music industry: the authoritarian state, the benign state and the promotional state. Herein, Cloonan‘s framework is to be used a little more widely. According to Cloonan (1999: 203),

The mediatised entertainment industries, including television, film, music, game software and other animation (―content industry‖) make up some 5 percent of the United States‘ total GDP, with the world national average being around three percent (Digital Content Association Japan, cited in Otmazgin 2008: 79fn8).

the authoritarian state is typical of non-democratic regimes past and present and features rigid controls on the production of popular culture, a licensing system for its practitioners and a strict control of popular culture imports and exports. In this context the nation-state adopts a rigid ‗top-down‘ approach to the production of popular culture by dictating how popular culture is to be produced, disseminated and promoted with official sanction. Neither a hindrance nor a help to popular culture, the benign state presents the nation-state as a disinterested bystander to the local popular culture industries, whose domestic sustainability and international presence is solely determined by national and international market forces (Cloonan 1999: 204). While this stance need not be problematic for large countries with selfsufficient popular culture industries, this approach does present a problem for countries with relatively small consumer markets (such as New Zealand) because domestic popular culture can find itself marginalised by the domineering presence of internationally marketed AngloAmerican popular culture within the national market as well as internationally. The most interesting of Cloonan‘s concepts for the present discussion is the promotional state, which depicts the nation-state as an active supporter of domestic popular culture through such policies as the implementation of local content quotas on national broadcast media and the state-funded promotion of local cultural industries in the domestic and international marketplaces (Cloonan 1999: 204). In stark contrast to the ‗top-down‘ interfering practices of the authoritarian state, the promotional state employs a ‗bottom-up‘ approach of assistance for local popular culture, whereby state intervention is actively supported by industry stakeholders so as to organically develop existing cultural and business networks as well as identify new avenues for the sustainment and growth of local popular culture industries within the context of globalisation and the overbearing presence of AngloAmerican popular culture. The promotional state is a particularly useful approach for a small country such as New Zealand so as to ensure the domestic sustainability and international presence of its local popular culture given the small size of the domestic market and the domineering presence within it of multinational publishers and distributors, for whom the promotion of local artists may not be a priority.

3. The Promotional State in New Zealand Film and Popular Music The New Zealand promotional state prioritises the projection of a New Zealand identity abroad as a highly desirable and profitable cornerstone of supported projects and artists (Harley, in Jones and Smith 2005: 932). The effectiveness of the ‗bottom-up‘ promotional approach by the state is evident in New Zealand, whose popular culture Slovak Studies in English, Vol. 3, 2011 – Identity in Intercultural Communication

practitioners have achieved some considerable international success since 2000.10 Independently run state-funded agencies specialising in the production and export of popular music (New Zealand On Air and the New Zealand Music Industry Commission respectively) and film (New Zealand Film Commission) offer a range of financial and complex support programmes to both practitioners and publishers of these popular culture forms. This complex support includes the mentoring of cultural practitioners and the marketing of locally-made popular culture domestically as well as internationally through a regular New Zealand presence at key industry trade events. Interestingly, the state-supported supplementary branding of popular culture products as having an ‗authentically‘ New Zealand aspect has also even been achieved with projects (such as the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy) where the thematic connection to New Zealand is somewhat tenuous (Jones and Smith 2005: 926 – 928). When approached for assistance by the project‘s New Zealand-born director Peter Jackson, the New Zealand government provided a range of incentives (including tax breaks) to ensure the trilogy was filmed in New Zealand. Even though the Lord of the Rings is clearly not a New Zealand story, its film version was earnestly claimed and internationally recognised as a New Zealand cultural product which highlighted positively appraised national characteristics such as ‗Kiwi ingenuity‘ (Jones and Smith 2005: 935 – 936). The spin-off tourism campaign saw the national tourism body (Tourism New Zealand) and the state-owned national airline (Air New Zealand) intensely promote New Zealand internationally as ―The Home of Middle Earth‖ and a natural tourist destination for fans of the trilogy, moves which met with some measurable economic success (Hudson and Brent Ritchie 2006: 389; Jones and Smith 2005: 926, 936 – 38; Statistics New Zealand 2005: 4; Statistics New Zealand 2006: 5). While the extent of this achievement needs to take into consideration the cost of tax breaks given to the production company in order to secure New Zealand as the film trilogy‘s filming location, the additional linkages made to New Zealand by the film company‘s own promotional activities and residual international media exposure significantly complemented the New Zealand government‘s own efforts (Hudson and Brent Ritchie 2006: 391).11 Furthermore, the project provided

Recent examples of internationally successful films with a New Zealand theme include The Whale Rider (2002) and The World‟s Fastest Indian (2005). In popular music, the recent international success of New Zealand-based Polynesian hip-hop artists such as Savage and Scribe are noteworthy as is the success of Hayley Westenra, who has even been described as ―the biggest selling Classical artist of the 21 st century‖ (New Zealand Music Commission 2009). According to the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research, the international exposure from the marketing and popularity of the first film alone was estimated to be worth some 41 million US dollars to the New Zealand economy (Hudson and Brent Ritchie 2006: 388).

unprecedented employment opportunities for New Zealanders in film production and postproduction.12 Importantly, the role of the New Zealand government in supporting the local film industry has not merely been in the promotion of New Zealand as a film location for international projects. The New Zealand Film Commission (NZFC), the state-run film promotion and financing body, has been highly active in producing and internationally promoting a number of locally-made movies with New Zealand story lines (see footnote 3), which have registered significant international success since 2000 (New Zealand Trade and Enterprise 2007). However, criticism has been levelled at the NZFC for their apparent reluctance to fund some projects submitted by experienced and internationally renowned New Zealand-born film makers, who have instead decided to pursue their careers abroad (New Zealand Press Association 2010). While affirming the crucial role the NZFC plays in ensuring the production of films with a clearly New Zealand identity, a 2010 report examining the NZFC‘s performance since its inception was highly critical of some aspects of the NZFC‘s role. It cited for instance a lack of mutual respect between film makers and the NZFC, discontent among film makers with the commission‘s apparent interference in the creative process, its foregoing of risk by preferring to fund ―mediocre‖ projects with safe and modest profits, its rigid thematic framework for funding schemes, its ―controlling‖ and ―aloof‖ nature as well as the lack of a clear mechanism for offering feedback on the NZFC‘s own performance (Jackson and Court 2010: 8 – 17). While such areas of concern need to be addressed as they suggest some elements of a ‗top-down‘ attitude towards cultural practitioners, the NZFC has nonetheless been invaluable in turning New Zealand film making into an industry of some substance and giving it an international presence. The New Zealand popular music industry has benefited considerably from the ‗bottom up‘ promotional approach of the state towards its production and export in the 2000s (Shuker 2008: 271). From the 1980s to the mid-1990s New Zealand‘s domestic popular music market appeared unable to financially support local artists on a full-time basis and only two percent of total music radio airplay in New Zealand was of domestic popular music (Shuker 2008: 276). As Roy Shuker states:

New Zealand film-making expertise has been utilised in subsequent major film projects shot in New Zealand, such as Avatar, The Chronicles of Narnia and The Last Samurai. An important predecessor to these films and the Lord of the Rings in this regard was the United States fantasy adventure TV series Xena: Warrior Princess, which was shot in New Zealand from 1995 to 2001.

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[D]espite occasional successes, at the end of the 1990s the vital signs of the New Zealand music industry remained mixed. As some ten years earlier, the local scene was insufficient to support full-time professional performers, there was still limited radio and television exposure for local artists, and government initiatives to support the recording industry remained very small scale. New Zealand artists who stayed ‗at home‘ remained marginal to the international music industry, since the country lacked the population base to support a music industry on the scale of neighbouring Australia. (Shuker 2008: 276)

As a result of pressure from the local culture industries and the sympathetic ear of prime minister Helen Clark, the New Zealand government of 2000 – 2008 significantly increased funding for popular culture with the clear goals of building a New Zealand national identity and making the local industries economically viable and profitable (Shuker 2008: 277). The state funding agency for popular music and television, New Zealand On Air (NZOA), which ensures diversity and the presence of New Zealand culture and identity in broadcasting, had its funds markedly increased for popular music as part of a strategy to secure local content on music radio. A publicly-funded investigation recommended that a local content quota be introduced for music radio and music television on terms that the industry would accept (Smyth, in Scott 2008: 301; Shuker 2008: 278). As a result, NZOA established a strongly encouraged (but not compulsory) local content quota, whereby NZOA funding was made available to those broadcasters who complied with its guidelines; NZOA also employed ‗song pluggers‘ to promote locally-made popular music to radio stations (Scott 2008: 301). Alongside the concurrent success of some New Zealand artists nationally and internationally, the proportion of New Zealand popular music broadcast on music radio had reached over 20 percent of the total by 2005 (Dann, in Scott 2008: 299; Shuker 2008: 278 – 279). Even though ―true international success has been much harder to achieve‖ (Ferguson 2008) for New Zealand music artists compared to the considerable domestic success they have experienced with New Zealand On Air‘s assistance, exports of New Zealand popular music have nonetheless increased sharply since 2000 (Shuker 2008: 279). Notwithstanding the above success, NZOA has come in for some sharp criticism from cultural practitioners. In describing the NZOA‘s annual promotion of New Zealand-made popular music in the national media (―New Zealand Music Month‖), one group complained that for many aspiring artists the event was actually ―a reminder of what they can‘t get‖ and stated that NZOA support was more or less contingent upon applicants following the

standardised norms of the music radio industry in format and lyrics (Under the Radar 2010). This compliant has also been voiced by Maori musicians in New Zealand, who have claimed that mainstream music radio ignores music sung in the Maori language (Radio New Zealand 2010). Furthermore, some of New Zealand‘s most significant international successes in the popular music field in the last decade (such as the rock group The Datsuns and the TV comedy/music duo The Flight of the Conchords) have come about without state support. While taking the above into consideration and accepting the need for constant improvement in policy so as to ensure artistic and cultural variety in supported projects, the goals of creating a commercially sustainable local popular culture industry and exporting contemporary popular music and films with a discernable New Zealand identity have been achieved largely due to the supportive and proactive approach of the New Zealand government and its agencies dedicated to promoting popular culture. Furthermore, it is important to mention that the promotional state is a popular policy in New Zealand: according to a recent representative survey, 71 % of New Zealanders felt a strong sense of pride in the achievements of the country‘s cultural practitioners and 59 % strongly agreed that New Zealand culture should be promoted abroad (Ministry for Culture and Heritage 2009: 7, 12). This data appears to validate the promotional policies of the New Zealand government concerning popular culture.

4. Some Concluding Remarks To conclude, it appears that the promotional approach by the New Zealand government towards popular culture has brought some cultural and economic rewards to the country. New Zealand popular music and film have become internationally visible largely due to the government‘s policy of helpful intervention and its extensive cooperation with local popular culture practitioners, aficionados and other industry stakeholders. Despite some fair criticisms and deficiencies noted above, New Zealand is a successful exporter of its popular culture and can serve as a model of innovative practice in cultural policy for other countries of a broadly similar population size. A key characteristic of this success has been the ‗bottom-up‘ nature of state intervention, where state agencies have worked in collaboration with the local popular culture industries to locate and support organic opportunities for its expansion domestically and internationally. When removed from direct political interference and when adequately financed, state-funded promotional agencies can facilitate the international establishment and expansion of local popular culture with a clearly discernable national identity which is Slovak Studies in English, Vol. 3, 2011 – Identity in Intercultural Communication

attractive to international audiences of immense scope. Furthermore, a range of marketing opportunities emphasising a nation‘s cultural identity can present themselves when popular culture is exported.

Bibliography ADORNO, Theodor, and Max HORKHEIMER (2002). Dialectic of Enlightenment: Philosophical Fragments. Trans. Edmund Jephcott. Ed. Gunzelin Schmid Noerr. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. BENNETT, Andy (2001). Cultures of Popular Music. Buckingham: Open University Press. BILLIG, Michael (1995). Banal Nationalism. London: Sage. CLOONAN, Martin (1999). Pop and the Nation-State: Towards a Theorisation. Popular Music, 18(2), 193 – 207. EDENSOR, Tim (2002). National Identity, Popular Culture and Everyday Life. Oxford: Berg Publishers. ERIKSEN, Thomas H. (2001). Small Places, Large Issues: An Introduction to Social and Cultural Anthropology. 2nd ed. London: Pluto Press. FAIRLAMB, Horace L. (2007). Romancing the Tao: How Ang Lee Globalised Ancient Chinese Wisdom. Symploke 15 (1/2), 190 – 205. FEATHERSTONE, Mike (1991). Consumer Culture and Postmodernism. London: Sage. FERGUSON, John (2008, May 3). The Promised (Zea)land? Billboard, 120 (18), 20. FISKE, John (1989). Understanding Popular Culture. London: Routledge. HARTLEY, John (1999). Uses of Television. London: Routledge. HOBSBAWM, Eric J. (2003). Class Consciousness in History. In Linda Martín Alcoff and Eduardo Mendieta (Eds.), Identities: Race, Class, Gender, and Nationality (126 – 135). Malden, MA: Blackwell. HUDSON, Simon and J.R. BRENT RITCHIE (2006). Promoting Destinations via Film Tourism: An Empirical Identification of Supporting Marketing Initiatives. Journal of Travel Research, 44, 387 – 396. JACKSON, Sir Peter and David COURT (June 2010). Review of the New Zealand Film Commission: A Report to the Hon Chris Finlayson, MP, Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage. Retrieved from http://media.nzherald.co.nz/webcontent/ document/pdf/Report.pdf. JONES, Deborah, and Karen SMITH (2005). Middle-Earth Meets New Zealand: Authenticity and Location in the Making of ‗The Lord of the Rings‘. Journal of Management Studies, 42 (5), 923 – 945. KELLNER, Douglas (1995). Media Culture: Cultural Studies, Identity and Politics between the Modern and the Postmodern. London: Routledge. LEAVIS, F.R. (1986). Valuation in Criticism and Other Essays. G. Singh, (Ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. MINISTRY FOR CULTURE AND HERITAGE (2009). How Important is Culture? New Zealanders‟ Views in 2008. Retrieved from http://www.mch.govt.nz/files/HowImportantIsCulture.pdf. NEW ZEALAND MUSIC COMMISSION (2009). Hayley Westenra. Retrieved from http://nzmusic.org.nz/artists/classical/hayley-westenra/. NEW ZEALAND PRESS ASSOCIATION (2010, July 5). Director Ward Set to Leave NZ over Film Funding Problems. Retrieved from http://www.nzherald.co.nz/movies/news/article.cfm?c_id=200&objectid=10656611.

NEW ZEALAND TRADE AND ENTERPRISE (2007). Screen Production Industry in New Zealand. Retrieved from http://www.marketnewzealand.com/common/files/Screenproduction-industry-in-New-Zealand.pdf. OTMAZGIN, Nissim K. (2008). Contesting Soft Power: Japanese Popular Culture in East and Southeast Asia. International Relations of the Asia-Pacific, 8, 73 – 101. PELLS, Richard (1997). Not Like Us: How Europeans have Loved, Hated, and Transformed American Culture since World War II. New York: Basic Books. PRICE, Monroe E. (1995). Television, The Public Sphere, and National Identity. Oxford: Clarendon Press. RADIO NEW ZEALAND (2010, May 18). Maori Musicians Doing Better Overseas than at Home. Retrieved from http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/stories/2010/ 05/18/1248043d210c. SCHLESINGER, Philip (1991). Media, State and Nation: Political Violence and Collective Identities. London: Sage Publications. SCOTT, Michael (2008). The Networked State: New Zealand On Air and New Zealand‘s Pop Renaissance. Popular Music, 27 (2), 299 – 305. SHUKER, Roy (2008). New Zealand Popular Music, Government Policy, and Cultural Identity. Popular Music, 27 (2): 271 – 287. STATISTICS NEW ZEALAND (2006). Tourism Satellite Account 2005. Retrieved from http://www.stats.govt.nz/reports/analytical-reports/tourism-satellite-account2005.aspx. --- (2005). Tourism Satellite Account 2004. Retrieved from http://www.stats.govt.nz/reports/analytical-reports/tourism-satellite-account2004.aspx. STRATTON, John (2006). Nation Building and Australian Popular Music in the 1970s and 1980s. Continuum: Journal of Media and Culture Studies, 20 (2), 243 – 252. UNDER THE RADAR. 2010. No Aloha - Interviews. Retrieved from http://www.undertheradar.co.nz/utr/interviewMore/CID/201/N/No-Aloha.utr. WHITE, Cameron, and Trenia WALKER (2008). Tooning In: Essays on Popular Culture and Education. Lanham, ML: Rowman & Littlefield. Resumé Ako môņe malý ńtát propagovať svoju populárnu kultúru za vlastnými hranicami? A akú úlohu by mala zohrávať vláda pri realizácii a vývoze miestnej populárnej kultúry? Tento príspevok sa zaoberá úlohou vlády pri vytváraní medzinárodného profilu priemyslu populárnej kultúry na Novom Zélande. Zameriava sa predovńetkým na film a populárnu hudbu, teda dve formy populárnej kultúry, ktoré majú silný potenciál prezentovať národnú identitu rozsiahlemu miestnemu aj zahraničnému publiku. Po interpretácii významu populárnej kultúry v rámci tvorby modernej národnej identity, ako aj jej atribútov exportnej komodity, príspevok vymedzuje teoretický rámec opisu existujúceho ńtátom vedeného prístupu k produkcii a exportu populárnej kultúry. Príspevok ďalej identifikuje spôsoby uplatňovania inovatívnych prístupov na Novom Zélande v oblasti vývozu populárnej kultúry a argumentuje, ņe napriek istým nedostatkom podporná úloha vlády priniesla mnoņstvo priamych i nepriamych výhod pre miestny novozéladský priemysel populárnej kultúry.

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CULTURAL STUDIES Narrating the Intercultural Face of the Australian Body Politic Judit Mudriczki Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Hungary 1. Introduction On February 13, 2008, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd delivered a historic speech in the House of Representatives in Canberra in which he offered an official apology to indigenous Australians on behalf of both the federal government and the parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia. While standing in the blue carpet room, he addressed not only those seventeen indigenous people who were representing the Stolen Generations, or the one hundred and fifty MPs who had their second sitting day in the House, but also the whole country including approximately five hundred thousand citizens who claim themselves to be Aboriginal today (Welch 2008: 1). The purpose of this paper, on the one hand, is to reconstruct the historical context of the speech by mapping European-indigenous relations between the 1967 referendum and 2008. On the other hand, it also analyzes how the Prime Minister initiates a discourse that intends to define the collective identity of Australian society and also to bridge the gap between indigenous and non-indigenous citizens, which eventually signals a sharp change in the federal government‘s rhetoric. While discussing the proposed topic, the author of the paper intends to take a balanced point of view of an outsider presenting both federal and indigenous approaches.

2. The Historical Context of the Speech

2.1 Milestones of the Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginal Relations between the 1967 referendum and 2008 Trying to define his policy, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd claims that his motion carries the ―unfulfilled spirit of the 1967 referendum‖ (Rudd 2008: 5). This attitude implies that his words intended to end a forty-year long historical process that had its various phases that this article will summarize in a nutshell. As part of an intensified protest movement that fought against the discrimination of indigenous people in the 1960s, the campaign launched by the Federal Council for Aboriginal

Advancement eventually brought real success. At the 1967 referendum an overwhelming majority, more precisely eighty-nine percent of the voters, decided to remove Sections 51 and 127 from the Constitution of Australia and thus ―the people of the Aboriginal race‖ were finally granted the same constitutional rights as any other people, and became counted when reckoning the numbers of people of the Commonwealth (Anderson, Mark and Ashton, Paul 2000: 237 – 239). Although this legal change was a historic event, it did not provide any special means to improve the economic hardship of the indigenous people. The next decade saw a series of legal battles over land rights that were the key to overcoming economic difficulties. Spectacular events like the setting up and pulling down of the ―Aboriginal Tent Embassy‖ in Canberra in 1972, or the handing over of the pastoral lease to the Gurindji people on Wave Hill Station in the Northern Territory in 1975 called attention to the nation-wide need for settling Aboriginal land ownership. However, during the 1980s this issue remained in the hands of state governments, and in national public discourses the period was marked by a strong focus on the resurrection of the use of indigenous languages and establishing various media services that promoted indigenous interests (Molnar 2001: 318). Besides the rather gradual development of Aboriginal media, there were two significant waves of protests that noticeably demonstrated the power of indigenous people in the public life of Australia with the intention to raise their claims to an international level. Regardless of the massive presence of the police that anticipated some civil disorder, in 1982 the Brisbane Commonwealth Games were disturbed by Aboriginal protests during which more than three hundred people were arrested, and more significantly in 1988 Aboriginal protesters boycotted nearly all of the public events that celebrated Australia‘s Bicentenary of European Settlement (White 2007: 35 – 37). As for the case of land ownership, the real breakthrough was the 1992 Mabo decision of the High Court that recognized the Mer people‘s ownership to their island in the Torres Strait, which at the same time challenged the concept of pre-colonial Australia being a ―terra nullius,‖ a territory where nobody had owned any land before the arrival of the British in 1788 (Anderson, Mark and Ashton, Paul 2000: 267 – 275). The legacy of this ruling was continued by the 1996 Wik decision, which declared that ―Native Title may coexist on pastoral leases although, where there is a conflict, the rights of pastoralists will prevail‖ (Rigney 1998: 127). In order to manage the indigenous attempts to regain their traditional land, in 1993 the Commonwealth Parliament passed the Native Title Act, which provided the legal grounds for Aboriginal people to claim ownership to land and waters under their laws and customs (Anderson, Mark and Ashton, Paul 2000: 274 – 275). Besides its legal significance, indirectly Slovak Studies in English, Vol. 3, 2011 – Identity in Intercultural Communication

the act also had spiritual importance for Aboriginal people as Lester Irabinna Rigney, one of the most respected university professors in the field of Indigenous Studies and Education, points out:

Native title right allows Indigenous Australians to access bodies of water and land to pursue our cultural traditions of hunting, fishing, ceremony and the vital teachings of our knowledges to our children. Our indigenous spirituality and culture are rooted in the soils of our land and the interconnectedness of all things that live above or below its surface. (Rigney 1998: 127)

Nevertheless, this act was modified by the 1998 Native Title Amendment Act that, significant as it was, on the whole provided legal means for the Howard government to control the ownership and use of indigenous lands (Mészáros 2009: 315). On the field of institutional representation, in accordance with the intentions of the self-determination policy, in 1973 the Labor government established the National Aboriginal Consultative Committee to provide advice to the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs. Nevertheless, one of the most significant milestones of federal recognition of Aboriginal representation was 1990 when the Keating Government set up the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Commission. This commission took an active role in furthering aboriginal issues for more than a decade but its operation was contrary to the intentions of the ―one nation, one future‖ policy of the Howard government therefore it first suffered budget cuts and then became abolished in 2004 (Mészáros 2009: 317). Nevertheless, there was another establishment of the Keating Government, the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation (1991 2000) that determined the public mediation of indigenous affairs until 2000 when the nonprofit organization Reconciliation Australia took over its function. Thus for a decade Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal relations were branded with the diplomatic word ―reconciliation‖ that, as Bretherton and Mellor point out, carried different meanings regardless of its simplicity.

The term is used variously to describe the need for, the strategy to achieve, and the goal of achieving better relationships between Indigenous and other Australians […] For many people, the term denotes the need to address a lack of positive and empathetic attitudes toward Aborigines and Aboriginal culture. For others, it refers to relationship building to promote harmony, in contradistinction to more adversarial

means to restore justice, such as advocating for a treaty. (Bretherton and Mellor 2006: 94)

The year 2000 brought about a series of public events that popularized the idea of reconciliation. Celebrating the anniversary of the 1967 referendum on Reconciliation Week, Aboriginal people presented the Document Towards Reconciliation at the Sydney Opera House on May 27 within the context of the celebration called Corroboree 2000. Prime Minister John Howard received this document in a highly reserved manner, and gave a short public speech in which he failed to apologize and take responsibility for the harm done to indigenous people. In reaction to his behaviour, the following day two hundred thousand people marched across Sydney Harbour Bridge in order to protest and express their sympathy for Aboriginal people (Cowlishaw 2010: 208). The general public dislike and criticism of the Prime Minister‘s refusal to say ―Sorry‖ culminated in the autumn during the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. The performance of the ―Awakening‖ segment at the opening ceremony involved a spiritual renewal since it was staged as a tribal event in which more than a thousand aboriginal people participated, who gathered from all over the country, and it also involved the burning of eucalyptus leaves, whose smoke literally purified the audience. (White 2009: 100) Significantly enough it was an Aboriginal athlete, Cathy Freeman who lighted the cauldron with the Olympic flame, which also provided an emblematic image to strengthen the idea that the history of Australia includes the history of Aboriginal people (White 2009: 101 – 102). At the closing ceremony even non-Aboriginal artists expressed their support of indigenous people in various ways. First the lead singer of the Savage Garden, Darren Hayes, wore a top with the image of the Aboriginal flag. Then the band Midnight Oil performed the song ―Beds are Burning‖ expressing concerns about Native land rights while all the members of the band were wearing black clothes on which the word ―Sorry‖ was glaring in white despite the ban of the International Olympic Committee on clothes with explicitly political, religious or cultural messages (White 2009: 102 – 103). Nevertheless, it took eight years until the same message reached the political stage and thus Prime Minister Kevin Rudd‘s Apology Speech provided the official answer to all the public disappointment that Prime Minister John Howard provoked in 2000.

Slovak Studies in English, Vol. 3, 2011 – Identity in Intercultural Communication

2.2 Textual Precedents of the Speech: The Bringing Them Home and Little Children are Scared Reports At the beginning of his motion for apology, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd adopts the diction of a historiographer when he claims that he intends to reflect on what he figuratively calls a ―blemished chapter‖ in Australia‘s history in order to ―turn a new page […] by righting the wrongs of the past‖ (Rudd 2008:1). Studying his speech as a verbal construct shows that in fact the only story he is narrating concerns an old lady, Nungala Fejo, who at the age of four was taken from her family by the welfare men ―in the name of protection‖. This anecdote is meant to exemplify the story of the so-called ―Stolen Generations‖, a term that first appeared in the title of Peter Read‘s pamphlet disclosing the case of:

those Aboriginal children in New South Wales who were taken away from their parents, either living on government reserves and stations, by government legislation, and put in the care of the whites. It is the story of the attempt to ‗breed out‘ the Aboriginal race. It is the story of attempted genocide. (Read 1981:3)

The author, a prominent professor of History at the University of Sydney, in those days was working mainly at Link-Up, the organization that he founded in order to find the members of those Aboriginal families that were separated due to government policies. Nevertheless, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd‘s speech as a text relies more on the content of a special and more comprehensive collection of stories that became known in Australian public discourse as the Bringing Them Home Report. Originally commissioned by Prime Minister Keating in 1995, the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission prepared a comprehensive study that was published in 1997 under the title of Bringing Them Home: Report of the National Enquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families. As Bretherton and Mellor explain, the inquiry was initiated as a response to the findings of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Death in Custody that claimed that out of the ninety-nine Aboriginal people who died in prison between 1980 and 1989, forty-three had been separated from their families in their childhood. In order to investigate the background of this tendency, the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission led by Sir Ronald Wilson travelled around in the country and collected evidence from almost eight hundred people and organizations (Bretherton and Mellor 85 – 86). The report contains their personal accounts proving that the removal of children from their families resulted in the psychological

and physical suffering of the indigenous people involved. To cite directly the words of the report: ―For individuals, their removal as children and the abuse they experienced at the hands of the authorities or their delegates have permanently scarred their lives. The harm continues in later generations, affecting their children and grandchildren‖ (Bringing Them Home 1997: 5). There are two main reasons that made this document so powerful: one of them was that it portrayed innocent children as ―stolen from home‖, which emotionally moved all its readers; and the other is that the removal policy did not only take place in the distant past but continued even until the 1970s. Regardless of its emotive power, from a social point of view the report did not bring unprecedented results. Lester Irabinna Rigney‘s words exemplify the aboriginal attitude to the report and other similar federal inquiries:

The Fourth Report of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Social Justice Commission, the National Inquiry into Racist Violence in Australia, and the findings of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody concluded that we as Indigenous Australians face individual, institutional, societal and epistemological racism in almost every aspect of our lives. (Rigney 1998: 126)

Besides the Stolen Generation Report, there was another document that shadows Prime Minister Kevin Rudd‘s speech even if he does not make any direct reference to it. Published in June 2007, the Little Children are Scared report revealed the details of child abuse and alcoholism within aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory (Mészáros 2009: 317 – 318). In order to tackle the problem, the Howard government decided to declare a ―national emergency‖ and introduced a policy called the Northern Territory Emergency Response (NTER) part of which police and military forces were moved onto native lands. In fact this intervention was still taking place while Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was delivering his Motion to Apology; moreover, it has not stopped ever since. Richard Mohr highlights that the day before the Rudd government offered the official apology to Aboriginal people, thousands of people protested in front of the Parliament building against the intervention, and the Prime Minister ―was notably silent on the question of continuing responsibility for the NTER‖ (Mohr 2009: 15).

Slovak Studies in English, Vol. 3, 2011 – Identity in Intercultural Communication

2.3 Building Bridges, Closing Gaps A year after the publication of the Stolen Generation Report, Lester Irabinna Rigney worded the widely-supported idea that ―most fair-minded Australians would view an apology to the stolen generation and a recognition of the past treatment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders as a positive step in the healing of our country‖ (Rigney 1998: 126). As if remembering his words, Kevin Rudd answered this desire ten years later when he claimed standing in the House of Representatives that ―we the Parliament of Australia respectfully request that this apology be received in the spirit in which it is offered as part of the healing of the nation‖ (Rudd 2008: 4). The figurative treatment to cure the wounds of the Australian body politic in Kevin Rudd‘s rhetoric relies on the intercultural values of the unity of families and the ―fair go for all‖ principle. The Prime Minister emphasizes that the apology is also meant to ―build a bridge between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians‖ and ―to close the gap […] on life expectancy, educational achievement and employment opportunities‖ (Rudd 2008: 4). Although he did not cite any figures, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics at the time when the speech was delivered indigenous life expectancy was seventeen years lower than the Australian average; only 21 % completed Year 12 in comparison to more than 54 % non-Indigenous people; and the unemployment rate for Indigenous people, 16.6 %, was more than three times the unemployment rate of the civilian population of 5 %. Besides directly claiming that the new government policy depends on improving education, primary and preventive health care for indigenous communities, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd‘s narrative also manages to tackle the threat of acknowledging individual responsibility. The Prime Minister applies a smart rhetorical device when he points out the scapegoat that legitimized the removal of indigenous children from their families on racial grounds: ―We, the parliament of the nation, are ultimately responsible, not those who gave effect to our laws. The problem lay with the laws themselves‖ (Rudd 2008: 3). Richard Mohr convincingly argues that while focusing on the role of the Commonwealth institutions as collective bodies, the speech manages to ―absolve any individual of responsibility. […] With this device the whole question of agency is dispatched, leaving the field open to parliaments, laws and other nameless institutions to act as technologies to disperse responsibility‖ (Mohr 2009: 17).

3. Conclusion Prime Minister Kevin Rudd‘s Apology in 2008 meant a landmark in Australian public discourses for many reasons. First of all, he acknowledged the responsibility of federal policies for long decades of unfair and discriminative treatment of indigenous people. He also fulfilled the expectations of the reconciliation policy by officially saying sorry to Aboriginal people, more particularly to the members of the Stolen Generations. On the other hand, he initiated a new rhetoric of government policy that was markedly different from the alleged intentions of the Howard government. Nevertheless, studying the historical context and rhetorical devices of his speech also reveals that his figurative words cover some issues that may even challenge the seemingly unmistakable message of his motion to apology.

Bibliography ANDERSON, Mark, and Paul ASHTON (2000). Australian History and Citizenship. South Yarra: Macmillan Education. BRETHERTON, Di, and David MELLOR (2006). Reconciliation between Aboriginal and Other Australians: The ‗Stolen Generations‘ Journal of Social Issues 62, 81 – 98. Bringing Them Home: Report of the National Enquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children form their Families. Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. 2005. Retrieved from http://www.hreoc.gov.au/ social_justice/bth_report/index.html on October 8, 2006. COWLISHAW, Gillian (2010). Mythologising Culture. The Australian Journal of Anthropology 21, 208 – 227. EVANS, Raymond (2007). A History of Queensland. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. MESZAROS, Zsolt (2001). How to Give Back Stolen Dignity: Assessing John Howard‘s Aboriginal Policies in Australia. Öt kontinens, 309 – 322. MOLNAR, Helen (2001). Indigenous Media and Policy Making in Australia. In Tony Bennet and David Carter (Eds.) Culture in Australia, Policies, Publics and Programs (313 – 333).Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. MOHR, Richard (2009). Response and Responsibility. Indigenous Law Bulletin 7, 15 – 18. National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Survey. (2008). Cat. no. 4720.0. Australian Bureau of Statistics. Retrieved from http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/ abs@.nsf/Lookup/4714.0Main+Features12008?OpenDocument on October 2, 2010. READ, Peter (1981). The Stolen Generations. The Removal of Aboriginal Children in New South Wales 1883 to 1969. Sydney: New South Wales. Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs. RIGNEY, Lester Irabinna (1998). Native Title, the Stolen Generation and Reconciliation. Interventions 1(1), 125 – 130. RUDD, Kevin (2008). Motion of Apology to Australia‘s Indigenous Peoples. Australian Indigenous Law Review 12, 1 – 5. WELCH, Dylan (2008, Feb. 13). Kevin Rudd says sorry. Sydney Morning Herald Retrieved from http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/kevin-rudd-sayssorry/2008/02/13/1202760342960.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap2 on October 2, 2010.

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WHITE, Leanne (2007). The Bicentenary of Australia: Celebration of a Nation. In Linda Fuller (Ed.), National days/national ways: historical, political, and religious celebrations around the world (25 – 40). Greenwood Publishing Group. WHITE, Leanne (2009). Indigenous Australia and the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games: Mediated Messages of Respect and Reconciliation. In Jane Ali-Knight, Martin Robertson, Alan Fyall, and Adele Ladkin (Eds.), International perspectives of festivals and events: paradigms of analysis (97 – 106). Amsterdam, Boston, London: Elsevier/Academic. Resumé Vo svojom historickom prejave v parlamente 13. februára 2008 sa premiér vlády Kevin Rudd oficiálne ospravedlnil austrálskym domorodcom. Hoci jeho prejav je súčasťou dlhého procesu zmierovania, ktorému v austrálskej právnej histórii predchádzalo uņ viacero iných fáz i miľníkov, zároveň symbolizuje aj novú rétoriku Austrálie, pričom na jej obyvateľov nazerá z nového hľadiska, zvýrazňujúc význam medzikultúrnych hodnôt, a vytyčuje nové ciele, ktoré smerujú k zbliņovaniu sa domorodcov a ostatných obyvateľov Austrálie. Tento príspevok rekonńtruuje historické okolnosti tohto prejavu prostredníctvom mapovania európskoautochtónnych vzťahov z obdobia medzi referendami z roku 1967 a 2008. Cieľom práce je taktieņ analyzovať, ako premiér svojím prejavom iniciuje spoločenskú diskusiu o austrálskej kolektívnej identite. Zameriava sa aj na rieńenie otázky takzvaných ukradnutých generácií a kritizuje dlhodobú federálnu politiku, ktorá na rasovom základe legitimizovala odobratie detí domorodcov od ich rodín. Interpretuje úlohu vlády v súvislosti so ńkodami spôsobenými autochtónnym komunitám, ale dejiny ich osudov zároveň začleňuje do dejín Austrálskeho spoločenstva/súńtátia, čím vymedzuje základy nového hodnotového systému, z ktorého by mohlo vychádzať austrálske medzikultúrne spoluņitie.

LINGUISTICS

Are We Losing Our Linguistic Identity? Miroslav Bázlik Comenius University, Bratislava We often criticize what we call the ―word-for-word translation‖ or ―literal translation‖, or even ―slavish translation‖, in spite of the fact that such a translation may be a source of inspiration. While the history of the English language has proved that foreign influences can be beneficial for a language, many Slovaks (including some linguists) strongly oppose anything foreign penetrating our language. Notwithstanding, as Ambrus (2008: 72) puts it, ―the penetration of English words and structures into Slovak is not always justified‖. In this article, we try to look at the arguments for and against such penetration by analyzing a wellestablished advertisement which has recently appeared in Slovakia containing the catch phrase A s kým bankujete vy? When it first appeared, it did not seem to say much to a Slovak addressee unless perhaps he or she had a good knowledge of English and realized that it might stem from a literal translation of the English question Who do you bank with? its meaning being ―The services of which bank do you use?‖. This advertisement in question form was first brought to public attention without indicating what answer should be expected, thus provoking the curiosity of the addressee not only by its unconventional make-up but also by the intentional lack of information normally provided by context. After a time, it was extended in several versions and disseminated through various media, each mentioning the Slovenská sporiteľňa bank. The motivation for using this kind of advertisement is not fully transparent. We assume that its author was primarily relying on its unconventionality, which would cause the advertisement to be noticed and remembered, perhaps only subconsciously, by a relatively large number of potential addressees. Our assumption is that the interest in attracting attention was much more important than the information itself (if any) conveyed by the advertisement as a whole. Looking at some linguistic aspects of the above advertisement, there are at least two unusual features to be noticed in the Slovak wording: Slovak Studies in English, Vol. 3, 2011 – Identity in Intercultural Communication

(1) One is the formation of the verb bankovať, derived from the noun banka. The word-formation process here is consistent with the rules of Slovak, where new verbs can be regularly formed by adding -ovať, which represents a productive verb-forming suffix in present-day Slovak for conveying the meaning ―to do what is expressed by the noun base‖ (as in bukovať, surfovať, esemeskovať, četovať, meilovať, etc.). As can be seen from the examples above, new verbs often tend to be formed from the noun bases which are also relatively new to the Slovak language. We rarely think it necessary to derive such verbs, on a day-to-day basis, from nouns which have already had a long existence in Slovak and where the products of such derivation have become integrated into the Slovak language, e.g. dierovať, stolovať, hniezdovať, mapovať, and such verbs, as a rule, are not perceived as neologisms. We can say that if a particular noun has existed in the Slovak language for a relatively long period of time, the corresponding verb – if needed – has mostly already been derived. If a verb is, nevertheless, newly derived from a well-established noun, such a derived verb is usually formed only if the noun has developed a new meaning. In our assumption, the principal justification for creating the verb bankovať from the longestablished banka comes from an effort to provide a new ―condensed‖ meaning related to the types of services or transactions and their use. What is also noteworthy is the fact that in Slovak the word banka is systemically a homonym and may also refer to a glass vessel used mainly for laboratory purposes, while the derived verb bankovať is an established technical term naming an operation involving such vessels. Some of the respondents interviewed by us first thought of the latter meaning as being aimed at (in spite of the fact that this latter meaning is highly technical). (2) The second striking feature of the above structure is the use of the preposition s + instrumental case. Those who speak English are usually accustomed to associating the preposition s, so with the English preposition with: hrať sa s niekým – play with sb uspokojiť sa s niekým – be satisfied with sb spolupracovať s niekým – cooperate with sb. However, apart from s/so, other possible translation equivalents also exist (not all of them being prepositions) and can be illustrated: with all his effort – napriek všetkému úsiliu stay with somebody – bývať u niekoho vote with a party – hlasovať za niektorú stranu he won‟t pass with me – u mňa neprejde

the solution rests with her – riešenie je na nej be angry with somebody – hnevať sa na niekoho with no conclusion reached… – keďže sme nedospeli k záveru… with the weather being cloudy – vzhľadom na oblačné počasie. Some translations use the instrumental case (without preposition): cut with a knife – rezať noţom fill with something – naplniť niečìm. From among the meanings that the preposition s/so expresses in Slovak, those which may be relevant for bankovať s niekým are mainly the meanings characterized together in KSSJ as ―spojenosť, zlučovanie, styk s niekým, vzájomnosť‖ – i.e. connectedness, association, contact with somebody, reciprocity (cf. Kačala and Pisárčiková 1989: 391). Other meanings listed in KSSJ tend to associate with non-human NPs, which would be relevant if the question were s čìm bankujete. English obviously uses the preposition with in many more situations and meanings than is the case of the Slovak preposition s/so, and the generally higher occurrence of prepositions in English is consistent with the analytical nature of the English language. The use of the English preposition with in a context similar to the examined advertisement can be illustrated by a short text from a Lloyds Bank leaflet: Ways to bank with us We‟ve made it easy for you to bank with us by offering several ways to manage your money. Here bank with (us = Lloyds Bank) means ―use Lloyds Bank‘s services‖. The English question Who do you bank with? could alternatively be translated into Slovak as: V ktorej banke ste klientom? Sluţby ktorej banky pouţìvate? V ktorej banke máte (zaloţený) účet? Ktorá banka vám vedie účet? Advertising in the form of a question stimulates the addressee and provides an invitation to give an answer, i.e. it aims at making the addressee a participant in the dialogue, assuming an eventual positive attitude. Apart from using the question form, the advertisement under study enhances the invitation, or challenge, by using the second person (vy). We assume that the author of the advertisement considered the possible translations and thought that the unusual nature of the question translated into Slovak literally would, in Slovak Studies in English, Vol. 3, 2011 – Identity in Intercultural Communication

spite of leading to some misinterpretation and in spite of violating some rules of the Slovak language, attract more attention than a ―more adequate‖ translation. In view of the massive campaign using the question under analysis we can say that the advertiser, consciously or subconsciously, manipulates the grammatical system of the Slovak language. The public are getting used to it and may, even if jocularly at first, introduce this type of structure into common use. We are thus witnessing the penetration of a syntactic, or grammatical, neologism. Such penetration is less noticeable than the borrowing of lexical items. Grammatical innovations result, e.g., from changing a peripheral structure into a central one. This occurs especially by giving preference to the structure analogical to that of the source text. For example, in recent decades, we have witnessed the increased use of possessive pronouns and fewer uses of the verb ―mať‖ in translations into Slovak, as in: Pouţite tento šampón a vaše vlasy budú hebké a krásne. The use of the pronoun vaše is felt as penetrating deeper into the addressee‘s thinking than the verb mať, which would traditionally be used in a similar context. Pouţite tento šampón a vlasy budete mať hebké a krásne. A parallel of such influence can be seen, e.g. in the fact that the Norman French grammatical system had an impact on the Old English system thanks to a high number of linguistic structures borrowed into English. A similar phenomenon seems to be operating within the Slovak grammatical system, which, even if not so transparently, allows for not only lexical items but grammatical phenomena to be borrowed as well. So there is perhaps some room for the fears of those who want to preserve our linguistic identity. We are facing one of the few cases where advertisers try to teach us to change our linguistic habits. In the process, they use seemingly unacceptable structures to attract our attention, making us remember the advertisement for its unusual linguistic make-up, where otherwise we might let the advertisement pass unnoticed. They start using a new grammatical structure without sufficient context, thus making the recipient feel puzzled and curious; subsequently, they introduce a suitable context which reveals the meaning; and then they use the unusual structure repeatedly in new contexts, until it ―goes down‖ and is digested. The advertisers literally ―teach‖ us the ―new‖ structure and associate it with the manufacturer or the product, which they want to promote. We became interested in the degree of acceptability of the ―newspeak‖ among Slovaks and tried to detect what the meaning ―guessed at‖ by the addressee may be and whether knowledge of English may act positively or negatively in deciphering the intended message

(on the role of pragmatic knowledge in the interpretation of complex situations see Kudrnáčová 2008: 89 – 90). Though most of the people asked about how they perceived Who do you bank with? understood it as ―The services of which bank do you use?‖, they did not derive the meaning from the question itself but rather from rejecting other possibilities as being even more absurd. Most of them found the advertisement ―stupid, strange, blurred, unclear‖. Our presumption was that the advertisement may have missed the target; though, on second thought, mentioning a concrete bank in an unusual, mysterious context may contribute to the awareness of the existence of that bank. If we assume that in creating advertisements one of the main targets is to attract the potential addressee‘s attention and curiosity, literal translation may thus be inspiring. It is a similar case to that of modified (incorrect) spelling, which makes one notice hoardings containing elements like boyz (boys), lite (light), nite (night) or the spelling-out of non-standard pronunciation: luv (love). Slovaks may be sensitive to such issues as substituting the letter i with y or vice versa (cf. also nay instead of naj in naystrovské zľavy blended from naj- + majstrovské in an advertisement of the BEST Company; in Böhmerová 2010b: 124). In our opinion, even with the risk of ―losing‖ our linguistic identity, there is no harm in borrowing (or rather calquing) not just words but even syntactic combinations or collocations (cf. also in Böhmerová 2010a). However, where unconventionality is the only reason for such borrowing, we can assume that the linguistic product will be short-lived and that not many analogical formations will follow. This whole process of using foreign elements seems to be possible especially due to the fact that English borrowings are now relatively easily recognized by Slovak speakers, as we have been exposed to many English words borrowed into Slovak in the last two decades or so. With a large number of lexical items being borrowed, even syntactic structures can now be adopted as we have become less sensitive to ―attacks‖ against our linguistic identity and more aware of English formulations which, due to their non-conventionality, can sound linguistically refreshing and exotic. Other instances of targeted ―foreignisms‖ which we have recently been bombarded with involve a group of neologisms coming from an unidentified ―African language‖ (supposedly Zulu), illustrated by the word bukekela. The addressee is first ―taught‖ to Slovak Studies in English, Vol. 3, 2011 – Identity in Intercultural Communication

recognize the meaning and then the word is used in the desired contexts with a more expressive load than any domestic item might provide. This testifies to a new stage in the Slovak language, which in some spheres of usage opens itself more intensively to non-Slovak influences, with tendencies not only to influence the vocabulary but also other linguistic levels. Advertisements are a powerful vehicle for such borrowings as they tend to be used repeatedly, possibly in several contexts, so they actually teach Slovak addressees to learn new structures. Returning to our initial ―intruder‖, we can assume that the verb bankovať may perhaps become domesticated in Slovak. The problem remains in the case of the preposition s/so, which is used in the examined advertisement. As we saw, s/so does not completely reflect the meaning of the English preposition with as used in bank with. It should be noted that prepositions belong to closed system items, and changes in their uses, meanings, if any, are relatively rare and cannot occur on a day-to-day basis. A new meaning of s/so is not easily accepted and it would be more systematic if the wording kde bankujete? or u koho bankujete? were used, avoiding the preposition s/so. Though the advertisers have been trying to manipulate the Slovak language, they have hardly preserved ―the upper hand‖ and competing entities have already reacted to the examined advertisement by making allusions to it in contexts that suit them. The ČSOB bank came up with the following: S NIMI MÔŅETE BANKOVAŤ S NAMI NAJBEZPEČNEJŠIE SPORIŤ Výhodný úrok 2 % ročne ZVOĽTE SI ISTOTU A SPORTE V NAJBEZPEČNEJŃEJ BANKE NA SLOVENSKU ČSOB Here the context highlights the undefined, general and, therefore, ―insufficient‖ or ―blurred‖ meaning of bankovať contrasting it with the unambiguous sporiť, enhanced by the well-understood najbezpečnejšie, výhodný, istota. In spite of a negative rather than positive evaluation of s kým bankujete?, its frequent use in the advertising media has caused that ČSOB is not the only other advertiser beginning to take advantage of analogous structures. As the probable target – to arouse the interest of as many people as possible – has been attained, some advertisers come up with more analogical

structures. One such example is the advertisement intended to attract those who need their cars serviced, its wording being servisujte s nami. We can expect more, similar structures to gradually enter the Slovak language. If such borrowings prove to be convenient, witty, practical, necessary, etc., there is no harm in taking over even syntactic structures. The identity of a language continues to exist not only in spite of, but also thanks to dynamic developments, including borrowings.

Bibliography AMBRUS, Patrik (2008). Menej je niekedy viac. Kultúra slova, 42 (2), 71 – 76. BÖHMEROVÁ, Ada (2006). Medzijazykové lexikálne paralely v jazykovom systéme a v preklade. In 35 rokov výučby prekladateľstva a tlmočnìctva na Slovensku, 1970 – 2005: minulosť, súčasnosť a budúcnosť prekladateľstva a tlmočnìctva na Slovensku (15 – 22). Bratislava: LETRA. BÖHMEROVÁ, Ada (2010a). Udomácnení hostia? Nahliadnutie do prítomnosti anglicizmov a dynamiky ich vplyvu na jazykové roviny súčasnej slovenčiny. Smolenice, Conference Proceedings of JÚĽŃ SAV (forthcoming). BÖHMEROVÁ, Ada (2010b). Blending As Lexical Amalgamation and Its Onomatological and Lexicographical Status in Slovak. Krìţenie ako lexikálna amalgamácia a jeho onomatologické a lexikografické postavenie v angličtine a v slovenčine. Bratislava: ŃEVT. KAČALA, Ján, and Mária PISÁRČIKOVÁ (1989). Krátky slovnìk slovenského jazyka (often referred to as KSSJ). Bratislava, Veda. KUDRNÁČOVÁ, Naděņda (2008). Directed Motion at the Syntax-Semantics Interface. Brno: Masaryk University. RAKŃÁNYIOVÁ, Jana (1993). Preklad reklamy. Romboid 28 (5), 53 – 55. Resumé Keď sa na Slovensku objavila reklama nezvyklého typu obsahujúca otázku: „A s kým bankujete vy?―, vyvolalo to rôznorodé reakcie u adresátov, pričom určitú úlohu zohralo aj to, či ovládajú angličtinu, keďņe jej znenie zjavne kopíruje anglickú ńtruktúru. Príspevok si vńíma moņné a konkrétne reakcie adresátov a hodnotí proces prenikania nielen lexikálnych ale aj gramatických prostriedkov do slovenčiny, kde gramatické ńtruktúry doteraz viac odolávali preberaniu alebo tento proces nebol natoľko výrazný. Autor sleduje reakcie Slovákov na takéto „inovácie―, mieru ich porozumenia a vnímanie nového typu jazykovej interakcie; pritom uņ dávnejńie pozoruje prenikanie anglickej gramatiky do slovenčiny, napríklad pri nadmernom pouņívaní privlastňovacích zámen. Tie sa postupne udomácňujú aj tam, kde tradične neboli potrebné a objavujú sa nielen v prekladoch. Skúmaná reklamná formulka ilustruje, ņe slovenčina sa nebráni cudzím vplyvom a ņe sa tento trend rozńiruje aj do netradičných jazykových oblastí.

Slovak Studies in English, Vol. 3, 2011 – Identity in Intercultural Communication

LINGUISTICS Cross-Pollination vs Lexical Blending: Horticulture vs Onomatology Ada Böhmerová Comenius University, Bratislava 1. Introduction The joint presence of cross-pollination and lexical blending in the title of a linguistic

paper

may

sound

surprising,

even absurd,

horticulture

and

onomatology occur in completely different domains. Nevertheless, a closer look can

reveal

that

some

respects

they

can

not

only

related,

but can actually manifest a certain parallelism. Similarly to other areas of communication, the phenomena and processes in natural sciences are denoted by lexical units which are not only from the semantic but also onomatological points of view (directly or indirectly) motivated by the features of their referents. In some cases, the form of these lexical units can quite explicitly testify to the character of the phenomena themselves. The aim of this paper is to investigate a set of those names of hybrid or crossbred plants in English which are denoted by blends, hence in which their identity resulting from merged species is also word-formatively expressed by merged lexical constituents.

2. Botanical Terminology and Hybrids In biology, of which botany is an integral constituent, species, sometimes naturally or through the interference of humans, become mixed. In OED213 such a hybrid is defined as ―the offspring of two plants or animals of different species or varieties, such as a mule‖. As to the origin of the noun hybrid, OED dates its penetration into English by the early 17th century (1601), the source of borrowing being Latin hybrida, more correctly hibrida, a variant of ibrida ―offspring of a tame sow and a wild boar, child of a slave, etc.‖ The term has also been extended to botany, which is aimed at in this paper, where the hybrid plant is the result of the cross-pollination of two different species, the grafting of one species into another, or, more recently, the modification of a species via genetic engineering. Cross-pollination itself is usually defined as fertilization by transfer of pollen from the anthers of a flower of one species to the stigma of another species with a different genetic 13

The Compact Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd Edition

composition as carried out by insects, or deliberately by a botanist 14 or horticulturist, resulting in the development of a new intergenetic or interspecific plant – a cross of the parental plants. In the botanical sense, the word hybrid has been attested to in English since 1788, but according to some sources15 it was only rarely used before 1850. The international scientific terms in Latin binary nomenclature for denoting plants, including hybrids, are bound to follow the rules set by the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (ICBN) as presented in its Appendix16. The ICBN for hybrids has been updated by the Vienna Code17 adopted in 2006 which states: ―In order to be validly published, the name of a nothogenus18 or of a nothotaxon19 with the rank of subdivision of a genus must be effectively published with a statement of the names of the parent genera or subdivisions of genera.‖ Though, as pointed out in the latter source, within the last 50 years there has been much discussion about how the names of hybrids should be formulated, several naming procedures seem to have been generally acknowledged. The most common is to indicate a hybrid ―by placing the multiplication sign between the names of the taxa; the whole expression is then called a hybrid formula‖20. Consequently, in the Latin binary nomenclature the hybrid is marked by an ―x‖ between the two words constituting the term, e.g. Salix x glaucops21. The newly developed plant can also be denoted by a new epithet, thus not having any formal indication of its being a hybrid. This is, e.g., the case of the hybrid of the plants referred to by Latin binomical nomenclature as Quercus alba and Quercus macrocarpa which has been denoted as Quercus bebbiana, the head noun getting a new attribute distinguishing it from the parental plants. Viewed from the onomatological perspective, within the rules of the ICBN we can also identify two derivative possibilities for naming hybrids of plants. One is the prefixing ―notho-‖22 before the epithet to denote a hybrid or cross of flora or fauna, the other is using the suffix -ara with the name of the person who developed the hybrid and submitted it for registration. The latter possibility is reserved for intergeneric hybrids derived from four or

14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21

Cf. e.g. www.yourdictionary.com/cross-pollination www.etymonline.com Cf. http://www.bgbm.org/iapt/nomenclature/co... Cf. www.epric.org/index.php?cid=29 A genus denoting a hybrid or cross. A hybrid which is formed by direct hybridization of two species, not other hybrids. Cf. www.epric.org/index.php?cid=29 The ICBN provides the information that the author of the species was Anderssen and it was published as the name of a hybrid in 1868. From Greek νόθος ―bastard‖.

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more genera, and, according to the Rules, no such name may exceed eight syllables. The resulting term is regarded as a condensed formula. Of relevance for the theme of our research is Rule H.6.2. of the above Vienna Code which states: â&#x20AC;&#x2022;The nothogeneric name of a bigeneric hybrid is a condensed formula in which the names adopted for the parental genera are combined into a single word, using the first part or the whole of one, the last part or the whole of the other (but not the whole of both) and, optionally, a connecting vowel.â&#x20AC;&#x2013; However, the rule does not distinguish between two different word-formation processes. One of these processes could be classified as compounding, which can be exemplified by Laeliocattleya, the plant being a cross between Laelia and Cattleya. This hybrid plant, quite typically, is a cross of two parent plants. If such a hybrid is crossed with another plant, its name can be compounded with the name of this plant, which is the case of the hybrid of the above with Brassavola resulting in Brassolaeliocattleya. However, beyond three genera, the names would become too long and cumbersome, so usually a new name is assigned. The other word-formation process as an option for naming hybrids can be identified as blending. It could be exemplified by Philageria23, a bi-generic hybrid between Philesia and Lapageria, by Alpestria24 generated from Alpina and Campestria, by Solidaster from Solidago and Aster25, and by Asterago26 from Aster and Solidago, which as to its linguistic structure is a mirroring counterpart of the preceding term (for more on mirroring blends see Chap. 3), though botanically a different plant. Though rarely, some names intended for hybrids, including those formed by blending, are later declared invalid. In our excerpts, this was the case of Ericalluna (Erica + Calluna vulgaris), which in 1960 was published only in anticipation of developing a hybrid, and the term was later declared invalid due to the non-existence of the hybrid. It should be pointed out that these and many other blends as names of hybrid plants, though formed in English, were created from Latin or Latin-based terms. More familiar than the official Latin nomenclature of hybrid plants formed by blending are, above all, the names of hybrid fruits which include e.g.the plumcot, the tangelo and the nectaplum (for blending see Chap. 3). With regard to hybrid species, the above two word-formation processes, i.e. compounding and blending, can, as onomatological options (in addition to collocation and 23 24 25 26

Also Philageria veichii, registered as early as in 1872. Registered in 1968. Registered in 1932. Registered in 1937.

derivation), be hypothesised to be universal, though the tendency at compounding may be expected to have fewer language-specific restrictions than blending. While compounding word-formatively indicates the joining and coexistence of the features (which in the respective lexeme are onomatologically present as morphemes and with regard to meaning as semes) of the parent species, blending, also lexically (by the structure of the word) represents the merging or amalgamation of their genetic characteristics within a new species, thus, in fact, onomatologically reflecting the biological hybridization.

3. Blending in Naming Hybrid Plants Blending has recently proved to be an attractive process of word-formation not only in English but also in a number of other languages, its roots (not only) in English going rather deep into linguistic history (cf. Böhmerová 2010: 22 – 56). The definitions of blending vary considerably. Consequently, a miscellania of lexical phenomena can and do get included in (more rarely also excluded from) the number of blends in differing theoretical and lexicographical sources. In our definintion, blending is a process of forming new naming units from existing words as bases which, in contrast to compounding, are not linearly joined but undergo deliberate, complex and relatively unpredictable reduction and coalescence in either their contacting sections or as a result of telescopic overlap, structural fusion or intrusion (cf. Böhmerová 2010: 61). Basically, blending allows for endless possibilities of selecting two, or exceptionally more, lexical units as bases and amalgamating them within the process of telescoping or fusing into one lexical unit having a new semantic structure and meaning. In spite of the above, blendability is subject to some restrictions. However, as stated by Bauer: ―Exactly what the restrictions are [...] beyond pronounceability and spellability, is far from clear‖ (1983: 235). On the other hand, the investigation of blends can reveal some typical productive patterns with regard to the semantic content and the selection of the bases to be joined within blending. Hybrids, and in their number also hybrid plants, are phenomena which, by their objective characteristics and their related semantic content, ―suggest‖, as it were, their being denoted by lexical units formed as blends. Lexical blending testifies to the statement that cognitive operations on mental spaces within conceptual integration (cf. Fauconnier and Turner 2003; Turner 2006; Repka 2009: 17 – 18), in the case of names of hybrid plants also based on the merging of the phenomena in the objective reality, constitute the principle

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allowing for a number of linguistic processes, including â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and in some ways above all â&#x20AC;&#x201C; lexical blending. This semantic type of blend is motivationally most directly related to the actual blending or merging of the phenomena denoted. The hybrid phenomenon is mentally processed within conceptual blending, and word-formatively it is then onomatologically and onomasiologically structured by lexical telescoping (blending with phonological ovelapping) or by fusion (blending with only structural overlapping). Hence, the blending or the mutual integration of the motivating phenomena is linguistically parallelled by the lexical blending of the bases involved. It is symptomatic to note that cultivar (existing also as an internationalism, in Slovak in the form kultivar), meaning a cultivated sub-species variety of a plant, was formed as a blend, too, from cultivated + variety27. With regard to early linguistic research on blends, several blends referring to hybrids of flora or hybrids of fruit were already mentioned in the first monograph on blends by Pound (1914). These included citrange (citrus + orange), nicotunia (tobacco plant28 + petunia), plumcot (plum + apricot), pomato (potato + tomato), and tangelo (tangerine + pomelo). As for the plumcot, its first cultivator was Luther Burbank, a US horticulturist, who in the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th century created hundreds of new varieties of plants. A number of others can be traced to Floyd Zaiger (1926), a US biologist noted for fruit genetics. His experimenting brought about a multitude of varieties of the above plumcot (plum + apricot), referred to sometimes as the pluot or plucot (plum + apricot), and the aprium (apricot + plum). Quite symptomatically for the hybrid character of the fruits, their names were formed by blending, with differing extent of the combination and preservation of the bases. Of special semantic relevance is the sequencing of the bases.29 While plumcots and pluots with plum as their first base have prevailingly the features of plums (most of their varieties are reported to carry about 70 % genetic characteristics of plums and 30 % of apricots), in apriums the share of the genetic material is reversed (1/4 genetic characteristics of 3

plums and /4 of apricots).30 In this sense, the first base is of higher semantic importance than the second, and though as to their linguistic structure these lexical units defy characterisation

27 28 29

In 1923 by U.S. horticulturalist Liberty Hyde Bailey (1858-1954) in his Gentes Herbarum. In spite of this formulation given, the first motivating base was obviously nicotine. Sequencing of the bases is semantically relevant also in the case of the names of some animals (cf. e.g. liger vs. tigon). "Pluots are sometimes sold by the name of Dinosaur egg due to the strange dappled coloring on some of the fruit." www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluot

by Dokulil‘s (1960) or Horecký‘s (2003) functional opposition of the onomasiological base and the onomasiological feature, the first base is of higher semantic relevance than the second for the resulting blend. From the systemic onomatological point of view it should be noted that a possibility of semantically relevant structural alternation of bases marginally occurs also in the so-called ―mirroring compounds‖, e.g. bridgestone vs stonebridge. However, in such compounds the bases occur in a subordinative relationship and are constituted by an attribute and a head noun, while the syntactic relationship of bases in blends as plumcot or aprium can be characterized as coordinative. Consequently, while in mirroring compounds one of the constituents onomasiologically functions as the feature of the base, in blends the onomasiological bases coexist within a relationship of coordination and their meanings are merged. The semantic components from each base are to a specific or specifiable extent present in the blend, corresponding to the degree or extent of the features shared by the merged phenomena themselves. Onomatologically, blends such as plumcot vs aprium can, analogously to the compounds concerned, be qualified as mirroring blends. Pluots are one of the about 20 varieties of crosses between plums and apricots that have been developed by Zaiger, with differing percentages of plum and apricot features. ―As to colour, pluots range from pink to red, and are sweeter than both of their parents. They are very juicy and very sweet, which makes them much favoured by kids. […] A pluot tends to taste and look more like a plum.‖31 Thus, the first base is again semantically dominant. Less transparent is the case of plucot where the sequencing of the bases would suggest the prevalence of plum features, but according to the sources the fruit actually more resembles an apricot, whose taste also prevails. This indicates that while in some instances where mirroring blends exist, the prevalence of semantic features tends to be related to the sequencing of the bases; in individual blends the sequencing need not be semantically decisive in this respect. Another hybrid species of fruit also developed by Zaiger is e.g. nectaplum (nectarine + plum) characterised as having dark skin and white flesh, and as to flavour being both very sweet and spicy, with low acidity. In this case the semantic prevalence of one of the two bases does not seem to be present. From among other numerous hybrids of fruit denoted by blends pointed out could be the tangelo – a citrus fruit that is usually defined as a cross between the tangerine and the pomelo, or the Mandarin orange and the pomelo, which may have been developed in Asia

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-pluots.htm

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some 3500 years ago; however, some sources present it as being a cross between the tangerine and the grapefruit. Pomelo (Citrus maxima or Citrus Grandis), sometimes spelled pomello, pommelo, pomolo or pum(m)elo), is mostly considered a cross between grapefruit and orange, and can be found as being etymologically based on the Tamil pampa limāsu the meaning of which is presented as ―pomous lemon‖. In other sources, its origin is considered uncertain, and is given either as an alternation of pampelmoes32 ―shaddock‖ or alternatively as being formed from pome (obsolete, ―apple‖) and melon33, which would qualify it for a blend. It is also known under a number of other names including Chinese grapefruit, jabong, or lusho fruit. The mandelo34 (or mandalo) is also a citrus hybrid, a cross between the Frua hybrid mandarin and the Siamese Sweet pomelo. It was developed in 1966 in California and has 25 % genetic characteristics of King Mandarin, 25 % of Dancy Tangerine and 50 % of Siamese Sweet Pomelo.35 Much less known36 and denoted by a blend is the limequat (Citrus Floridana), another citrus fruit hybridized in 1909 from the Ley lime and the kumquat by Walter Swingle. As manifested by tangelo and pomelo, the interpretation of the parentage of some hybrid fruits can differ in the sources. In some cases, this can also result from the fact that if they are denoted by blends, these mostly entail only residues of their bases. Consequently, the degree of their structural transparency and recognizability can be limited (cf. Böhmerová 2010: 89 – 90) as a result of the reduction of their phonological and graphical distinguishing features. In addition to the difficulties in deciphering the meaning of such blends, this can also be conducive to misinterpretation, or the potential coexistence of two meanings based on the potential presence of differing bases. In the area of common names of hybrid fruits, this is also the case of papple37 which was listed in MWOD38 in 2007 as a crossbred between a peach and an apple, while in the same year it was presented as a cross between an apple and a pear (with this reversed order of its constituents given)39 in Urban Dictionary (online).

32 33 34

35 36 37 38 39

OED2 gives pompelmoose and dates the first occurrence of pomelloes, or ―forbidden fruit‖ by 1858. Cf. http://en.wiktionary.org It is listed neither in OED2 nor in OED3 publicly accessible online: http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/ page/ichll . Cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomelo It is listed neither in OED2 nor in OED3 publicly accessible online. In OED2 it is absent, though listed, but as dialectal word for popple or cockle which is a field weed. Merriam Webster Open Dictionary New Entries (online) to which the general public contributes. The difference can perhaps be due to the fact that MWOD is an online database to which the general public contributes; hence, it can also include mistaken interpretations.

Our data also included Pinotage – a red vine that is South Africa‘s signature variety. It is reported to have been bred there in 1925 as a cross between the Pinot noir (one of the toughest vine to grow, from which Burgundy‘s most famous ―noble‖ wine is made) and the Hermitage (the latter used in South-Africa for Cinsaut). While the wine is praised for its smoky, bramble and earthy flavour, with notes of bananas and tropical fruit, sometimes it is criticized for smelling of acetone. However, the sources point out that it is not a hybrid but a viticultural cross of two varieties of Vitis vinifera. Similarly to the situation with other plants, fruit hybrids can also be the result of several genetic parents. Thus the nectacotum is a hybrid of the nectarine, the apricot and the plum, while the peacotum, another hybrid created by Zaiger‘s genetics, is a result of crossing the peach, the apricot and the plum. Such hybrids of fruit contribute to the relatively rare triple-base blends which in other semantic areas can be found to occur for example in chemical terminology, e.g. magnox (magnesium + no + oxidation) or in cullinary names, e.g. turducken (turkey + duck + chicken) (cf. Böhmerová 2010: 81). Nevertheless, the fact that herbal referents are denoted by blends does not necessarily mean that hybrid species are concerned, and so the meaning of such blends is not predictable. This is the case of e.g. the LRNW40 entry cinnamint which denotes a mixture of the herbs or herbal extracts of cinnamon and mint as used in candies, chewing gums, or used as tea. In this sense, the meaning of blends with herbal bases is not predictable, though the semantic constituents might be evident. Of course, blends can potentially be used not only for real hybrids as e.g. the vegetable species broccoflower (broccoli + cauliflower)41. In the animated series ‗The Simpsons,‘ a fictional vegetable cross denoted by a blend is the tomacco which suggests as if it had arisen by hybridizing a tomato and tobacco.42 Other similar lexical constructs with fictional referents can also be supposed to exist. As a final note, it can be added that of special interest could be the Hybrids of Plants and Ghosts,43 a collection of poems by Jorie Graham (1951– ) in which she explores ―the dichotomy between spirit and body, perception and mechanism, process and product‖, but however absurdly unique, those are already outside the scope of our investigations.

Ayto: Longman Register of New Words (1990). For broccoflower see Lehrer (2007: 129). 42 Cf. the article PluWhat? in the online journal Slate, August 19, 2009. 43 Princeton, NJ, 1980. 41

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Conclusion Our research indicates that rather direct – though language-specific – relations between the phenomena denoted and the particular naming units can exist not only on the phonological level in the case of onomatopoeic words, but also on the word-formation level in the case of blends, as manifested by the names of crossed species of plants. Lexical blending can word-formatively mirror their hybrid character. In English, such lexical blending has occurred for more than a century, using mostly, though not exclusively, foreign bases. As both cognitive blending and horticultural hybridization have unlimited possibilities to arise, it can be hypothesized that, in connection with them, lexical blending could occur and be productive also in other languages and potentially constitute a universal.

Bibliography AYTO, John (1990). The Longman Register of New Words. Vol. 2. Longman: Harlow. BAUER, Laurie (1983). English Word-Formation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. BÖHMEROVÁ, Ada (2010). Blending As Lexical Amalgamation and Its Onomatological and Lexicographical Status in English and in Slovak. Krìţenie ako lexikálna amalgamácia a jeho onomatologické a lexikografické postavenie v angličtine a v slovenčine. Bratislava: ŃEVT. DOKULIL, Miloń (1962). Tvořenì slov v češtině. 1. Teorie odvozování slov. Praha: Nakladatelství ČSAV. FAUCONNIER, Giles, and Mark TURNER ([2002], 2003). The Way We Think. Conceptual Thinking and the Mind‟s Hidden Complexities. New York: Basic Books. HORECKÝ, Ján (2003). Onomaziologická ńtruktúra slovenčiny. Spisy Slovenskej jazykovednej spoločnosti, 5. Bratislava: Slovenská jazykovedná spoločnosť pri SAV, Jazykovedný ústav Ľudovíta Ńtúra SAV. LEHRER, Adrienne (2007). Blendalicious. In Judith Munat (Ed.) Lexical Creativity, Texts, Contexts. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company (115 – 133). Merriam-Webster Open Dictionary New Entries: http://www3.merriamwebster.com/opendictionary/ Oxford English Dictionary. 3rd ed. http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/page/ichll POUND, Louise (1914). Blends – Their Relation to English Word Formation. Heidelberg: Carl Winter‘s Universitäsbuchhandlung Verlags. REPKA, Richard (2009). A Short Overview of Cognitive Linguistics (Its Basic Concepts). Acta Facultatis Paedagogicae Universitatis Tyrnaviensis, Séria A – Philologica (9 – 19). Trnava: Trnavská univerzita. The Compact Oxford English Dictionary. New Edition. ([1989], 1991). Oxford: Clarendon Press. TURNER, Mark (2006): The Art of Compression. In Mark Turner (Ed.) The Artful Mind: Cognitive Science and the Art of Human Creativity. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Resumé Kríņené slová sa v angličtine vyskytujú v mnohých oblastiach lexiky, najmä vńak v hovorovom jazyku a v médiách. Príspevok rozńiruje záber doterajńích výskumov o zameranie

na názvy niektorých rastlín, ktorých hybridný charakter je jazykovo vyjadrený lexikálnym kríņením. Ide v nich o isté paralelizovanie kríņenia rastlinných druhov v objektívnej realite a kríņenia na onomatologickej rovine, pri ktorom dochádza k ńpecifickému lexikálnemu „splývaniu― názvov materských rastlín. Takéto názvy hybridných rastlín tvoria súčasť botanickej terminológie a prispievajú ku ńkále tematických oblasti, v ktorých sa v angličtine, ale aj v iných jazykoch, kríņené slová vyskytujú. Súčasťou ńtúdie je aj diachrónny výskum tejto terminológie, ktorý potvrdzuje, ņe v angličtine sa názvy hybridných rastlín tvorili uņ viac neņ storočie a tento spôsob slovotvorby je naďalej produktívny. Hlavný dôvod moņno vidieť v súvislostiach s neobmedzenou ńkálou moņností ako kognitívneho kríņenia tak aj hortikultúrnej hybridizácie. Lexikálne kríņenie sa v tomto názvosloví javí aj ako potenciálna univerzália.

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LINGUISTICS Weapons of Ms Destruction: The Subversive Role of Linguistic Creativity Jan Chovanec Masaryk University, Brno 1. Introduction The events of 2001 constituted, in many respects, a watershed in the global situation. The ensuing decade was marked with a lot of turmoil on the international scene, much of it still in progress. In 2003, a military action was launched in Iraq despite widespread opposition from the public in many countries. Perhaps not surprisingly, the events sparked significant interest among researchers in various disciplines, including linguistics. Scholars have explored such areas as political discourse and war rhetoric, concentrating on a broad range of diverse issues and discourse genres. To name just a few, these have included political speeches (Cap 2006; van Dijk 2007), visual representation (Taylor 2005; Machin 2007), metaphor (Lule 2004), and lexical choice (Ebeling 2006; Weiss 2009), etc. Several collections have addressed issues such as political discourse analysis, propaganda and persuasion (Chouliaraki 2007; Hodges and Nilep 2007; Haridakis et al. 2009; Okulska and Cap 2010, etc.). These studies reflect the awareness of the crucial importance of language in constructing our understanding of the extralinguistic reality. The present article focuses on the creative use of the phrase ‗weapons of mass destruction‘ at the time of the imminent war in 2003. It has been suggested that propaganda in the media ―emanates from all interested parties during wartime, and perhaps especially during the run up to wars‖ (Richardson 2007: 182, original emphasis). During such pre-war times, one witnesses a battle of mutually opposed discourses in which the opposing sides articulate arguments for and against the war (cf. Lule, 2004), as well as the discursive construct ‗us‘ and ‗them‘ (cf. Chovanec 2010). The expression ‗weapons of mass destruction‘ appears to have been at the centre of such a linguistic battle over the minds of people. Widely circulated by the proponents of the military action in order to legitimize the war, and – as argued here – creatively appropriated also by those who were opposed to the war, the phrase could eventually be used subversively to delegitimize the concept.

2. Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) and Lexical Creativity The alleged presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq was one of the most controversial arguments used as a justification for military action. However, the expression was not a linguistic innovation brought about by the Iraq war rhetoric, although it became a catchphrase only in March 2003, amid the heated debate over the impending war. Renouf (2007: 71) notes that the phrase originated as early as 1989, though it was quite rare throughout the 1990s. Richardson (2007: 187), while identifying a similar pattern of almost negligible use in the media prior to 2003, explains that its sharp increase in use coincides with the pre-war propaganda campaign. He also points out that the expression is, in fact, a new and technically imprecise name for what is more correctly identified as ‗nuclear, chemical, bacteriological and toxic weapons‘, ‗non-conventional weapons‘, ‗biological weapons‘, etc. Almost overnight, the phrase weapons of mass destruction not only turned into a vogue expression but also began to be used in a highly creative way. The creativity consisted in the modification of the phrase by replacing any of the three constituents, although the most frequent pattern tended to preserve ‗weapons of‘ and either ‗mass‘ or ‗destruction‘, i.e., modifying only one of the three words. Data obtained from the Internet using the WebCorp system by scholars at the Research and Development Unit for English Studies at Birmingham City University, for instance, have revealed the existence of the following novel expressions:

weapons of ass destruction; weapons of bluff, brinkmanship and bloody-mindedness; weapons of bumps and bruises; weapons of indiscriminate destruction; weapons of market destruction; weapons of mass casualties; weapons of mass deception; weapons of mass discomfort; weapons of mass disruption; weapons of mass distraction; weapons of mass entertainment; weapons of mass obstruction; weapons of mass terror; weapons of ministerial destruction; weapons of modest destruction; weapons of most destruction; weapons of nasty scratches; weapons of scant destruction.44

All the above-mentioned expressions were used on the same day, 20 February 2003. The next day, i.e., on 21 February, this compounding word formation pattern became even more productive, with (at least) another 35 attested examples added to the list:

―Weapons of Mass Destruction‖ Neologisms. Source: www.rdues.liv.ac.uk/weaponsofmassdestruction.html (Accessed on 16 October 2003.)

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weapons of catastrophic destruction; weapons of class destruction; weapons of complete destruction; weapons of further destruction; weapons of global destruction; weapons of godlike destruction; weapons of great destruction; weapons of his destruction; weapons of less destruction; weapons of local destruction; weapons of mad destruction; weapons of mass banalization; weapons of mass construction; weapons of mass consumption; weapons of mass deconstruction; weapons of mass distortion; weapons of mass distractions; weapons of mass effect (WME); weapons of mass hysteria; weapons of mass instruction; weapons of mass irritation; weapons of mass media (WMM); weapons of mass partying; weapons of mass protection; weapons of mass repression; weapons of massive destruction; weapons of mischievious [sic] destruction; weapons of moose destruction; weapons of murderous destruction; weapons of nuclear destruction; weapons of pattern destruction; weapons of terrible destruction; weapons of total destruction; weapons of wealth destruction (WWD); WMD: weapons of media destruction.45

As Renouf (2007) shows in her detailed analysis of the lists, these creative ad hoc formations follow several clear patterns, in which certain components of the phrase are replaced by various words to yield novel and unexpected combinations. The patterns are: ―weapons of mass X‖, ―weapons of X destruction‖ and even ―weapons of X Y‖ (e.g. weapons of nasty scratches and weapons of math instruction used in the media on a later date). This creativity is not random; rather, it involves relatively predictable ―substitution on the basis of phonological, morphological, semantic and other types of similarity as well as allusion‖ (Renouf 2007: 74). This involves the difference of one phoneme, the same initial letter, the same prefix/suffix, semantic similarity/contrast, etc. Yet, there is another possible pattern. In all the phrases above, the crucial constituent ―weapons of‖ remains unchanged, even though it, too, can be modified. That is the case of the Daily Mirror front page headline ‗WEAPON OF MS DESTRUCTION‟ accompanying a report on the British minister Clare Short, who was opposed to the idea of British forces joining in the military campaign (11 March 2003). The phrase in the headline is used metaphorically to refer to a person for her determined opposition: she destroys Blair‘s government‘s unity by refusing to accept the ‗weapon of mass destruction‘ pro-war argument.

―Weapons of Mass Destruction‖ Neologisms. Source: www.rdues.liv.ac.uk/weaponsofmassdestruction.html (Accessed on 16 October 2003.) Both lists are given in Renouf (2007), who uses them to illustrate neologisms in media discourse.

Figure 1. Weapon of Ms Destruction. Daily Mirror, 11 March 2003.

3. Linguistic Creativity and Manipulation of Linguistic Form On its front page, the Daily Mirror is doing much more than just engaging in wanton linguistic creativity by modifying a currently vogue phrase through wordplay. The headline needs to be read against the newspaper‘s own position on the issues reported: the editorial policy of the newspaper in the weeks and months preceding the war was strongly against any military intervention (cf. Freedman 2003). The Daily Mirror‘s critical and openly antiwar attitude was, thus, in stark contrast to its main tabloid competitor, the Sun with its prowar stance. Some of the front pages from this period, for instance, are particularly telling in regard to this rhetoric and lend themselves well to multi-modal analysis in which the verbally and visually expressed meanings may stand in various kinds of relations to each other, typically complementing and extending each other (cf. Kress and van Leeuwen 1998: 187). Chovanec (2010), for instance, analyses a Daily Mirror front page with a particularly non-flattering photograph of the then British Prime Minister Tony Blair, pointing out how it positions the readers and Blair with respect to the ‗ingroup‘ and ‗outgroup(s)‘ that were being discursively constructed at that time by means of the strategy of dehumanization. On the verbal level, the page included the headline PRIME MONSTER? superimposed over Blair‘s forehead. Not only did the text resemble a label stuck across his forehead, it also labelled and categorized Blair (albeit questioningly) through allusive wordplay. This was accompanied by

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the brief text Drag us into this war without the U.N., Tony, and that‟s how history will judge you. For God‟s sake man, DON‟T DO IT (Daily Mirror, 14 March 2003). By way of illustration, Figure 2 below shows another front page where linguistic creativity is used subversively, i.e., in order to make a strong point about one‘s political stance in opposition to the official government policy of the time. The whole page is taken up by a single photograph with three words on it: UNlawful, UNethical, UNstoppable. The phrase essentially functions as the headline of the article printed inside the newspaper, although front page headlines of this kind (particularly in tabloids) could be considered as a somewhat different category owing to their strong links with the images. The headlines ‗open‘ the respective stories, yet they are often less dependent on the actual articles; typically, they provide commentary on the accompanying visuals.

Figure 2. UNlawful, UNethical, UNstoppable. Daily Mirror, 18 March 2003.

The main rhetorical structure of the headline is parallelism. There are three evaluative adjectives, all with negative meanings. All three words use partial capitalization in order to highlight the same negative prefix. This gives repeated prominence to the letters UN, which can – given the context – be also read as an abbreviation of ‗United Nations‘. Parallelism is a device that can be used for foregrounding (cf. Cook 2001: 136), inviting readers to look for new meanings beyond what appears on the surface. Inferences can be drawn beyond what appears optimally relevant in a given situation. Thanks to the parallelism and the highlighting of the UN, it is plausible – and worth the readers‘ extra

processing effort – to look for additional meanings. This interpretation is linked to the article proper, where we learn that the Daily Mirror considers the impending war as unlawful without the sanction of the United Nations. Owing to the special graphology, a single word, such as UNlawful, becomes rich in meaning because the form ‗UN-‘ becomes multifunctional. Moreover, the use of the colour red for the morpheme/abbreviation ‗UN‘ adds another dimension. It is the colour of blood and, hence, it may connote the newspaper‘s evaluative perspective on the impending bloodshed. One word thus stands as a shortcut for a number of propositions that can be easily inferred as relevant in the context, e.g. ‗this war is illegal‘, ‗the war is not authorized by the UN‘, ‗wars are bloody‘, etc. Interestingly, several weeks after the beginning of the war, the Daily Mirror found its readership actually dropping in number – and it was its critical attitude of ‗our‘ actions that was claimed as the cause (Freedman 2003). As a result, the newspaper decided to mitigate its anti-war rhetoric, essentially for commercial reasons, and ―to shift the war off its front pages‖ (Freedman 2003: 104, as cited in Richardson 2007: 186).

4. Weapons of Mass Destruction As a Means of Delegitimization The discursive development of the phrase ‗weapons of mass destruction‘ as a means of the delegitimization of the ingroup‘s action – i.e. the opposite to what the phrase had been intended to achieve – combines two aspects: (1) linguistic creativity at the time of the highest frequency of the phrase, when it was the focus of public debate; and (2) the subsequent fate of the phrase after the WMD pretext for the war became discredited by lack of evidence. 4.1 The „Life-Cycle‟ of Lexical Coinages and Linguistic Creativity Using a diachronic approach to her data, and supported and exemplified with the phrase weapons of mass destruction as well as other lexical innovations mapped onto a time frame of occurrence, Renouf (2007) makes the general argument that lexical coinages have a predictable life-cycle. The birth (or re-birth) of a lexeme is followed by a slow increase in frequency leading to the zenith of popularity and a subsequent gradual decline in use, until the usage levels out on a relatively stable frequency. That has also been the usage pattern of the phrase weapons of mass destruction, which reached the peak of its popularity in March 2003 – a period which coincided with the largest number of productive and creative variants (as shown in the examples in Section 2 above). Since then, the phrase has remained in the public consciousness: it is occasionally used in the Slovak Studies in English, Vol. 3, 2011 – Identity in Intercultural Communication

media, but its fashionability has worn off. Widely accepted and lexicalized, the phrase has reached a relatively steady currency of use, and is unlikely to achieve a boom in popularity similar to that of 2003. (Unless, perhaps, WMD play a role in some future conflict, in which case the phrase might enjoy another peak in popularity.) However, a formal perspective on the productivity and the creativity of the phrase does not explain why there was such a boom in creative adaptations of the phrase and how the popularity of the creative formations can be interpreted. As the following example illustrates, such creative modifications can be used, for instance, for the purposes of irony:

She showed more than a touch of class scything down Armed Forces minister Adam Ingram, who accused her of disloyalty. The veteran actress-MP raged: “I am very proud of my party. It is my government of which I am ashamed.” [...] If she goes on like this, anti-war Glenda will be subjected to a UN ban onweapons of ministerial destruction. (Daily Mirror, 14.2.2003)46

One way of understanding how such adaptations work is to consider them from the point of view of intertextuality. Creative formations such as Weapon of Ms Destruction are instances of echoic allusion. Allusion, as a traditional figure of speech, is based on the operation of two kinds of units: the text in praesentia (the alluding unit) and the text in absentia (the target). The successful operation of allusion depends on the recipients‘ understanding of the alluding unit as such, whereby their recognition of the target is triggered. The writer/speaker can then use allusion as an intentional strategy when encoding the message, and expect that the recipient will be able to recognize the absent text. In this way, the recipients are urged to seek, beyond what is immediately apparent from a given text, additional meanings that arise out of the juxtaposition of the two texts. The four-word template starting with ‗weapon(s) of‘, especially if it preserves one of the subsequent components (the word mass or destruction), unmistakably cues the recognition of the absent text, i.e. the complete phrase weapons of mass destruction. As Lennon (2004: 3) points out, allusion has the additional pragmatic and functional characteristic in that it sets up a communicative dialogue between the author of the text and the recipient. As a result, the text typically yields a primary, textual meaning, and a secondary, associated meaning on the

‗GIVE another Oscar to Glenda Jackson for her star performance in Parliament!‘. Daily Mirror. Source: http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Paul+Routledge's+column%3A+Glenda+socks+it+to+'em.-a097609568 (Accessed on 13 February 2011.)

basis of the source text. Allusion is one of the technical devices for realizing intertextuality, and ultimately interdiscursivity (cf. Fairclough 1992). Intertextuality involves recontextualization: a text (however short) is lifted out of its original context and used in a new situation. The juxtaposition of the two texts, situations or discourses can invite comparisons between them, and result in the recipients‘ inference of additional, implicit meanings. This, arguably, is also present in the case in many of the examples of the creative modifications of the underlying vogue phrase ―weapons of mass destruction‖. Not only do the modifications of the phrase trigger the full phrase, they also bring to the foreground the discourses and the contexts in which weapons of mass destruction were used in the public domain at that time. Since the existence of WMD was seriously doubted at the time, allusion to weapons of mass destruction through creative modification of the phrase also activates the recipients‘ background knowledge of the controversy of the alleged existence of WMD and of the impression that the public were being misinformed or manipulated (depending on one‘s point of view) in that matter. It may be assumed that people who believed in the topos of ―weapons of mass destruction‖ would be less likely to creatively adapt this phrase to new contexts: such a modification and recontextualization could diminish the seriousness of the issue. The liberty taken with the form is indeed liberating for the creative user, who shows that he is not bound to accept the form, the concept and – in the case of the pre-war propaganda – the pretext which WMD turned out to constitute. Clearly, a creative alteration of a phrase like ―weapons of mass destruction‖ is more than just a creative act through which the author manifests his or her ingenuity and linguistic skill. It can also serve as a way of expressing one‘s evaluative stance, personal attitude, commentary on current political events, and even irony or mockery. Linguistic creativity can be subversive: wordplay – in addition to, for instance, punning, and other kinds of verbal humour – are ways in which the repressed express irony, reservation, disagreement or opposition to the official policies and establishment. 4.2 Delegitimization of the Phrase „weapons of mass destruction‟ What Renouf (2007) describes as a general ‗life-cycle‘ of lexical innovations is explained differently by Richardson (2007), who offers an interpretation of the phenomenon not in terms of general lexicological tendencies but from a functionally-oriented critical perspective. For him, the significant drop in the frequency of the phrase ‗weapons of mass Slovak Studies in English, Vol. 3, 2011 – Identity in Intercultural Communication

destruction‘ in the media by 2005 is essentially a case of failed propaganda: ―The prominence of the phrase, as reflected in the frequency ... is therefore directly related to the propaganda of the US/UK regimes: necessary for policy aims in 2003, embarrassing in 2005‖ (Richardson 2007: 188). Once again, that interpretation has two sides to it. By 2005, the WMD threat had not only disappeared (thus leading to a natural drop of newsworthiness and a consequent lack of media coverage), but – more importantly – the rhetorical topos of ‗weapons of mass destruction‘ had totally lost credibility with the public, since it turned out to be unfounded. The expression may thus be avoided – as Richardson seems to hint – by some politicians because it is, indeed, an embarrassing reminder of their past failures. (By contrast, other politicians may be attracted to the phrase precisely for that purpose, as long as it serves their rhetorical goals.) However, the phrase can also appear in new contexts that may not be revealed by quantitative, frequency-based analysis that may fail to register subtle and emerging patterns of usage. Where the phrase appears, for instance, as a simile, it is not its denotation but rather the associated meanings that are involved. Such a situation can be illustrated with the following reader comment from a recent online discussion forum. The comment was attached to an article noting that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair had become an economic advisor: Wouldn‟t trust him or his wife as far as I could trough [sic] them. Look at all the lies and self interest in everything they did when he was in power. On a huge scale like weapons of mass destruction to using a convicted criminal to negotiate on their behalf when he was prime minister and use their name to get a deal on an investment property.47

As mentioned above in the discussion of intertextuality, the phrase ‗weapons of mass destruction‘ has developed a very strong negative connotation, equivalent roughly to ‗a deceit of the public by politicians‘. The mention of WMD can, thus, intertextually link with the past discourses of perceived manipulation and deception – as long as the readers are still aware of them.

A reader comment by Andrew Mckay on the article ‗Tony Blain Joins VC Firm to Advise Cleantech Investments‘. Source: http://mashable.com/2010/05/24/tony-blair-vc/ (Accessed on 11 February 2011.)

5. Conclusion The relatively novel phrase ‗weapons of mass destruction‘ offers an interesting case study on how concepts introduced as a part of political propaganda can evolve and assume meanings contrary to what the ‗spin doctors‘ may have intended. It appears that based on ideological motivation, the expression itself was chosen over other available terms in order to help manufacture public consent for the impending war in 2003. The phrase magnifies the threat and, in conjunction with the ‗45-minute claim‘ (a leaked report under which Great Britain could allegedly be hit by WMD within this period of time), proximizes the external danger by discursively constructing the threat as imminent. (As such, the phrase ‗weapons of mass destruction‘ compresses the discourse space along all three axes [spatial, temporal and axiological] that the pragmatic-cognitive theory of proximization works with [cf. Chilton 2004; Cap 2008]. Thus, it can be interpreted as a significant instrument in politicians‘ attempts to obtain, discursively, legitimization of their actions.) The fact that the phrase was quickly appropriated by the media, as evidenced by the productivity of creative word formations based on the WMD pattern, can be interpreted as a potential subversion and denial of the official discourse associated with the concept. By involving wordplay in the new formations, the encoder can delegitimize the concept that is intertextually alluded to: language creativity then becomes a form of disagreement, resistance or even ridicule. This interpretation is in harmony with what Carter (2004: 20, 48) claims about creative wordplay: it is not just a matter of amusement; it can also have a social and critical purpose, and certain ideological implications. A similar idea is echoed in Chovanec (2008: 240): ―where official, standard and literal language, marked by absence of playfulness and self-reflexivity, connotes official values, the presence of foregrounding devices may question such values or express indirect disagreement with them‖. As Blommaert aptly observes, ―apart from referential meaning, acts of communication produce indexical meaning: social meaning, interpretative leads between what is said and the social occasion in which it is being produced‖ (2005: 11). That is also what characterizes the potential communicative value of the phrase weapons of mass destruction after the period when it was used as part of political rhetoric: although it retains its referential meaning, the phrase has had a strong negative connotation ever since the rhetorical topos of WMD as a threat became discredited.

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Bibliography BLOMMAERT, Jan (2005). Discourse. A Critical Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. CAP, Piotr (2006). Legitimisation in Political Discourse: A Cross-Disciplinary Perspective on the Modern US War Rhetoric. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. CAP, Piotr (2008). Towards the proximization model of the analysis of legitimization in political discourse. Journal of Pragmatics 40, 17 – 41. CARTER, Ronald (2004). Language and Creativity: The Art of Common Talk. London and New York: Routledge. CHILTON, Paul (2004). Analysing Political Discourse. Theory and Practice. Routledge, London. CHOULIARAKI, Lilie (Ed.). (2007). The Soft Power of War. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. CHOVANEC, Jan (2008). Focus on form: Foregrounding devices and football reporting. Discourse & Communication 2(3), 219 – 242. CHOVANEC, Jan (2010). Legitimation through differentiation: Discursive construction of Jacques Le Worm Chirac as an Opponent to Military Action. In Urszula Okulska and Piotr Cap (Eds.), Perspectives in Politics and Discourse (61 – 81). Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. EBELING, Karin (2006). The Language of war in the media. In Piotr P. Chruszczewski, Michał Garcarz, and Tomasz P. Górski (Eds.), At the Crossroads of Linguistic Sciences (245 – 254). Kraków: Tertium. FAIRCLOUGH, Norman (1992). Discourse and Social Change. Cambridge: Polity Press. FREEDMAN, D. (2003). The Daily Mirror and the war on Iraq. In A.R. Biressi and H.A. Nunn (Eds.), Mediactive, 3: Media War (95 – 108). London: Barefoot Publications. HALLIDAY, M.A.K. (1985). An Introduction to Functional Grammar. London: Edward Arnold. HARIDAKIS, Paul M., Barbara S. HUGENBERG and Stanley T. WEARDEN (Eds.). (2009). War and the Media. Essays on News Reporting, Propaganda and Popular Culture. Jefferson: McFarland & Company. HODGES, Adam, and Chad NILEP (Eds.). (2007). Discourse, War and Terrorism. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. KRESS, Gunther and Theo van LEEUWEN (1998). Front pages: (The critical) analysis of newspaper layout. In Allan Bell and Peter Garrett (Eds.), Approaches to Media Discourse (186 – 219). Oxford: Blackwell. LENNON, Paul (2004). Allusions in the Press. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. LULE, Jack (2004). War and its metaphors: News language and the prelude to war in Iraq, 2003. Journalism Studies 5(2), 179 – 190. MACHIN, David (2007). Visual discourses of war: Multimodal analysis of photographs of the Iraq occupation. In Adam Hodges and Chad Nilep (Eds.), Discourse, War and Terrorism (123 – 142). Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. MUSSOLF, Andreas (2010). Political metaphor and bodies politic. In Urszula Okulska and Piotr Cap (Eds.), Perspectives in Politics and Discourse (23 – 41). Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. RENOUF, Antoinette (2007). Tracing lexical productivity and creativity in the British Media: ―The Chavs and the Chav-Nots‖. In Judith Munat (Ed.). Lexical Creativity, Texts and Contexts (61 – 92). Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. TAYLOR, John (2005). Iraqi torture photographs and documentary realism in the press. Journalism Studies 6(1), 39 – 49. THORNE, Steve (2006). The Language of War. London and New York: Routledge.

van DIJK, Teun A. (2007). War rhetoric of a little ally: Political implicatures of Aznar‘s legitimization of the war in Iraq. Lilie Chouliaraki (Ed.), The Soft Power of War (61 – 84). Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. van LEEUWEN, Theo (2007). Legitimation in discourse and communication. Discourse & Communication 1(1), 91 – 112. WEISS, David (2009). ―New Mexico‘s always been patriotic and loyal to the country‖: Uncritical journalistic patriotism in wartime. Paul M. Haridakis, Barbara S. Hugenberg, and Stanley T. Wearden (Eds.), War and the Media. Essays on News Reporting, Propaganda and Popular Culture (183 – 204). Jefferson: McFarland & Company. Resumé Článek se věnuje lexikální kreativitě a potenciálu, který jazyková tvořivost a humor představují pro společenskou kritiku. Článek je detailní analýzou neologismu „weapon of Ms destruction―, který se vyskytl na titulní straně britského bulvárního deníku Daily Mirror v roce 2003 jako pojmenování britské ministryně, a to ve zjevné naráņce na koncept „weapons of mass destruction―. Slovní hříčka obsaņená v neologismu je interpretována v dobovém kontextu konzistentního protiválečného postoje deníku jako kritická opozice vůči oficiální vládní politice. Článek poukazuje na skutečnost, ņe humor zaloņený na minimální variaci jazykové formy můņe v souvislosti s místním a časovým kontextem mít silný subversivní potenciál, např. pro vyjadřování stanoviska nesouhlasného s oficiální vládní propagandou.

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LINGUISTICS How to Render “Directives” in Intercultural Written Business Communication Mária Hardošová Matej Bel University, Banská Bystrica 1. Introduction As we all know, the pace of globalisation and contact with other cultures is increasing. Travelling and technology are bringing great changes in everyday communication. We are now able to communicate with almost everyone almost everywhere with very little effort due to mobile phone technology, the Internet and e-mail, teleconferencing codes, high-speed data processing, etc. All this makes our communication easier. Following the basic division of communication as stated by Bennett, M. J. (2007: 3), who claims that monocultural communication is similarity-based, sharing common language, behaviour patterns and values, we can see that members of the same culture exchange meaning with one another and the similarities enable people to predict the responses of others to certain kinds of messages. On the other hand, intercultural communication as given by Bennett, M. J. (2007: 3), is difference-based. Cultures are different in their languages, behaviour, patterns and values. In intercultural communication identity serves as a framework for understanding one‘s self and the surrounding world. Language is one of the distinguishing features that may identify and reflect other people‘s ethnic identity.

2. Directives Taking a linguistic approach to identity in this paper, I will look at the written discourse of business communication and my goal is to point out the culture specific aspects when directive speech acts are realized in English and Slovak business correspondence. I will draw on Huddleston, R., who claims that ―a directive expresses a proposition representing a potential situation: realising and actualising that situation constitutes compliance with the directive‖ (2006: 929). As he puts it, ―directive in imperative is a cover term for request, commands, instructions and the like‖ (Huddleston, R. 2006: 853).

2.1 Direct Speech Act First let us look at the direct speech acts where the illocutionary force is conveyed by the clause type concerned, i.e. the imperative clause. My primary analyses are based on the comparison of English and Slovak business letters to see what culture-specific ways of expressing commands are used in the two different languages and how the style of English business letters affects the Slovak style. Based on a thorough analysis, I can claim that in English business letters the direct speech act conveyed by imperative is rarely used, and if it is, imperative is followed by the marker ―please‖ or the imperative is combined with a conditional or purpose clause. The low frequency of direct speech act results from a balanced interaction where both the writer and the addressee are expected to be socially equal. In the relations between business companies where no subordination is expected, the direct speech act – in the imperative – could be considered too strong, even impolite in the English and it could interfere with good mutual relations and have negative consequences. In some cases, direct speech acts might cause unpleasant reactions on either side and end the business transaction. In English business letters, even urgent requests to make payment are seldom realized by direct imperative such as Your balance is outstanding, pay as soon as possible. This is considered to be very impolite, even inappropriate in the context of business communication. Therefore this culture-specific aspect of the English-speaking world should be taken into account in doing business. What is written in direct speech act in one culture can be rendered in a different way in another. Knowing cultural norms and behaviours can contribute to mutually beneficial intercultural communication. If we compare English and Slovak equivalents, we can say that English direct speech acts of directives realized by imperatives are mostly used with the marker ―please‖ in two general cases: 1. to draw the addressee‘s attention to a certain fact, problem, procedure, e.g. Please take notice that ... Please note that I have brought your comments to the attention of.. 2. to encourage further communication, e.g. …let us know..., please do not hesitate to contact me, ... feel free to contact us, ... please contact me at the number indicated below. Please advise us as to your intentions as soon as possible. In Slovak the directive speech act need not be conveyed in the same way. Looking for the adequate equivalents in the first case in order to preserve our identity in business letters, a translator is not expected to use the direct speech act as it is in the source text because Slovak Slovak Studies in English, Vol. 3, 2011 – Identity in Intercultural Communication

business letters do not draw the addressee‘s attention by imperatives, e.g. Prosìm, všimnite si, ţe... Zaznamenajte si, ţe... alebo Poznačte si, ţe... This can be adequately substituted by another speech act containing performative verbs instead, e.g. Oznamujeme Vám, ţe… Slovak equivalents which are used to encourage further communication are in the same directive speech act as in the source text, e.g. Prosìm, oznámte nám... Zatelefonujte nám... Neváhajte a spojte sa s nami... In English business letters, direct speech act is frequently combined with: – conditional clauses beginning with the subordinator if, e.g.: If you have any other questions regarding our credit policy, please contact me... If payment has been made or if there are any questions in regard to your account, please contact me at the number indicated below. – conditional clauses with the modal verb Should and inversion, e.g.: Should you require any immediate assistance, or would prefer to respond by telephone, please feel free to contact between... Should you develop or wish to submit other products in the future that you feel may be of interest to us, please feel free to contact us. Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. The same direct speech act of the main clause is also realized in the target language, e.g.: Ak budete mať akékoľvek otázky, napìšte nám / zatelefonujte nám! It is conditioned by the semantics of the dependent clause; the goal is to meet the other party‘s demands and wishes and to encourage them to further activities. However, we can see the imperative in both languages conveying the indirect speech act of apology, e.g.: Please accept our apology for this delay. / Prijmite, prosìm, naše ospravedlnenie or Ospravedlňte nás, prosìm za oneskorenie... or the performative verb ospravedlniť sa in the declarative clause can be used instead:Ospravedlňujeme sa za oneskorenie... A similar approach is taken when conveying that some documents have been enclosed to a business letter, e.g. Please accept the enclosed certificate... The Slovak version must not be affected by the English one and written as Prijmite, prosìm, priloţený certifikát. Again the performative verb in statement Prikladáme certifikát is an appropriate alternative.

2.2 Indirect Speech Act In English business letters, in polite formal style strongly tied to the members of the foreign trade community, indirect speech acts conveying the illocutionary force of directives tend to be represented by interrogative and declarative sentences. Special formulae, lexical

and syntactic structures, terms and professional lexis dominate. Terminology competence is necessary to translate administrative texts (Vallová 2009). Declarative clauses with illocutionary force of directives employ the modal verb ―would‖ to express condition and the full verbs ―like, appreciate, welcome, be pleased/appreciative‖ as in the following: I would appreciate it if this situation could be resolved… I would appreciate it if you will call me at… … we would appreciate having the opportunity to show you these innovations. I would be most appreciative if you would… We would welcome any comments you may have… We would be pleased to accept your idea or proposal for review, provided it is accompanied by this acknowledgement letter signed by you. The Slovak equivalents to the given examples have the same realization of directives; however, the English verbs ―appreciate‖ and ―welcome‖ are not rendered as Ocenili by sme... or Privìtali by sme… but are substituted by phrases such as Boli by sme radi, keby..., Radi by sme prijali Váš návrh, keby... as Slovak language users follow the traditional ways of expressing their own identity. Declarative clauses with the illocutionary force of directives tend to be preferred even in cases of urgent requests, such as in the case of an outstanding invoice: We regret to inform you that we are unable to extend any more time for payment of the above invoice. S ľútosťou Vám oznamujeme, ţe nemôţeme predĺţiť lehotu na úhradu uvedenej faktúry. As can be seen from this example, in both sentences, in using the indirect speech act, the writer‘s intention is to make the addressee pay the invoice. Even in the case of non payment as can be observed in the following example, the client is not urged by the direct act – the imperative – but by the conditional clause while the main clause implying apology emphasizes that the seller will have no other choice but to solve the matter in a legal way. ... but if we do not receive payment in full on or before [date], we shall have no other choice but to turn this matter over to our attorney with instructions to use all available legal remedies to collect the amount owing. ... ak nedostaneme celú platbu do..., nebudeme mať inú moţnosť, len sa v tejto záleţitosti obrátiť na právneho zástupcu s pokynmi, aby vyuţil všetky dostupné právne prostriedky na vymáhanie dlţnej čiastky. Slovak Studies in English, Vol. 3, 2011 – Identity in Intercultural Communication

The illocutionary force of indirect directive is realized in both languages, in Slovak... nebudeme mať inú moţnosť, len sa obrátiť na právneho zástupcu, though a more appropriate equivalent corresponding to the norms of Slovak business communication... obrátime sa v tejto záleţitosti na právneho zástupcu could be given instead. The following example also proves that an urgent request in business correspondence in both languages is realized by an indirect speech act in the form of declarative sentence: In order to bring your balance down to the approved limit, it is requested that you remit the amount of € … In the event that you are unable to comply with this request, we suggest that you visit the bank as soon as possible, in order to make other arrangements. Za účelom znìţenia prečerpania do povoleného limitu poţadujeme, aby ste uhradili čistku… €. V prìpade, ţe tejto ţiadosti nemôţete vyhovieť, navrhujeme Vám, aby ste čo najskôr navštìvili banku a zariadili to inak. The agentless passive form it is requested combined with the subjunctive of the verb remit in the subordinate clause realizes the indirect speech act – the request. Similarly, the verb suggest followed by subjunctive of the verb visit in the subordinate clause implies directive to solve the given matter. In the Slovak version, the same illocutionary act is used. The indirect speech act of directives is frequently conveyed by means of interrogative sentences using modal verbs. Huddleston and Pullum (2006: 939) distinguish a few semantic categories of interrogative directives: ―(a) your ability to do something, (b) your desire or willingness to do something, (c) the deontic necessity for you to do something, (d) the reason for you to do something.‖ In English business correspondence, (a) and (b) are mostly used. The versions with can and its preterite form could indicating tentativeness, however, are not used so frequently as we would expect on the basis of its usage in polite spoken discourse. If they are used, they appear as parts of compound and complex sentences, e.g.: I‟m sure you must have mistakenly overlooked this but could I ask that you give it your prompt attention now? and To enable us to extend the line of credit you may need for future orders, could you please send us the usual credit information? Willingness to do something has a natural connection with directives. The typical formulae of will you/would you like to…/ would you be so kind as to… are preferred, e.g.: Would you please send me the missing parts as soon as possible? Asking for permission by means of the verb may also adds to the effect of politeness in directive, e.g. May we please have your latest instructions on this account? The Slovak equivalents of directives conveyed indirectly by simple interrogative sentences containing modals will/would or may are rendered as direct speech act – imperatives

– accompanied by the modifier ―prosìm‖ to soften the request, e.g.: Pošlite mi, prosìm, čo najskôr chýbajúce časti! and Pošlite mi, prosìm, k tomuto najnovšie pokyny! In case of the questions using the verb could, the Slovak equivalents can also have the same speech act as the English, e.g.... mohol by som Vás poţiadať... mohli by ste nám poslať? The ways to make a request which are used in English correspondence seem less imposing; they tend to use mitigators to downplay the demands, e.g. Would it be possible for you to...? In Slovak the mitigators of this kind are very rarely used.

3. Conclusion As can be seen from the given examples, forms of directive speech act conform to politeness and formal style of English business correspondence. To sum up, indirect act of directives is realized by declarative clauses containing performative verbs in main clauses, modals conveying request and conditionals. Interrogative structures containing modal verbs will, would, can, and could are less frequently used. The direct form of conveying directives – the imperative – is connected mostly with drawing the addressee‘s attention, asking for information and with encouragement to further action. It follows from what has been said that writers of business letters are expected to adapt their discourse according to particular language and culture, to take into account the specific dimensions, such as the level of directness, formality in the interaction, the choice and use of speech acts and cultural norms in the target English or Slovak language respectively.

Bibliography BENNETT, Milton J. (2007). Intercultural Communication: A Current Perspective. Basic concepts of intercultural communication: selected readings. Yarmouth: Intercultural Press. CARTER, Ronald, and Michael McCARTHY (2006). Cambridge Grammar of English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. CUTTING, Joan (2008). Pragmatics and Discourse. London: Routledge. HUDDLESTON, Rodney, and Geoffrey K. PULLUM (2006). The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. VALLOVÁ, Elena. Súčasné trendy v terminológii. In Od textu k prekladu IV. Praha: Jednota tlumočníků a překladatelů, 2009. Corpus: Business-in-a-Box http://www.envision-sbs.com/help/upgrade.asp?home=1 Resumé Príspevok sa týka priamych a nepriamych direktívnych rečových aktov v interkultúrnej komunikácii obchodnej koreńpondencie. Na základe skúmania, analýzy a komparácie anglického obchodného listu sa uvádzajú vhodné ekvivalenty v slovenskom jazyku, pokazuje

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sa na priame i nepriame vyjadrenia ilokučnej sily v závislosti od kultúrno-ńpecifických javov príznačných pre dva odlińné jazykové systémy.

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LINGUISTICS The Past Perfect: What's in a Name? Jozef Lonek Comenius University, Bratislava 1. Introduction English has a variety of names for the past perfect form (had + v-en). This is due to the diversity of linguistic traditions and concepts from which various grammarians draw on their works. The choice of a particular name is often conditioned by its ability to express the grammatical and semantic properties which individual linguists find characteristic of the past perfect, or which distinguish this form from other forms or categories. Thus, in many cases, such labels indicate associations with more general categories (tense, perfect aspect, etc., and their terminological variations) which constitute the meaning of the past perfect. Grammarians often choose a particular name to match it up with the names of similar or more established forms of the same category, or to avoid a clash with the terms they use for other categories (e.g. Jespersen 1965; see below). An effort to differentiate oneself from other linguists may also play a role. With the exception of one work (Graustein et al. 1977), whose terms are often combinations of the names of the constituent grammatical categories, we will not pay attention in our survey to the capitalization of the initial letters in the names of the past perfect form, as it occurs in some literature, because we consider it only an orthographic habit of individual authors or a typographical convention to make text more readable. 48 This paper is based on findings made in Lonek (2010: 10 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 17).

2. Conventional Names of the Past Perfect Form The generally accepted and by far the most widespread term is past perfect (tense). It seems that it completely dominates the literature, such as textbooks and grammar books, aimed at wider (lay) audiences. It also prevails in scholarly literature, which, however, makes frequent use of alternative names as well, and which will be discussed later. From a pedagogical point of view, the term past perfect may be helpful because it is terminologically analogous to the traditional name present perfect for a corresponding form have + v-en, which

The capitalization of the initial letter can help distinguish from each other homonymous terms with different meanings. Korsakov (1978) uses the term Beforepast as the name of the had + v-en form and the term beforepast for the semantically corresponding segment of objective time (past in the past).

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is semantically embedded in the present. This may help learners better master the rules of the past perfect usage (in the case of its perfect meaning) as they can apply their knowledge of the present perfect. Although both the names present perfect and past perfect indicate the grammatical category which constitutes the meaning of the respective forms, the latter can be seen as less precise because it fails to reflect all the grammatical functions of the past perfect form. Unlike the purely perfect meaning of the present perfect, which traditionally falls into the category of aspect, the past perfect form has some additional grammatical functions corresponding to tense and even mood. Leech (1987: 3) is aware of this terminological discrepancy and sees a danger in the fact that many grammatical categories â&#x20AC;&#x2022;... have labels which are derived from a characteristic feature of meaning, but which can be very misleading if they are used as if semantic rather than grammatical labels.â&#x20AC;&#x2013; This is true of the term past perfect whose semantics implies a perfect meaning (in the past), but the name actually covers more grammatical functions of one and the same form had + v-en. Although linguists often address this problem by distinguishing terminologically between the different functions (e.g. Jespersen 1924: 271; 1965: 81), only a few of them use different labels for the form had + ven itself as if they denote grammatically distinct, though homonymous, forms (Graustein 1977; see below). The tense-aspect dichotomy raises the question of the association of the word tense with the names of the past perfect form, which is sometimes referred to as past perfect, sometimes as past perfect tense, and often the two versions are used simultaneously and interchangeably. If we sharply distinguished (grammatically and terminologically) between the categories of tense and perfect aspect, the term perfect tense would actually carry an internal contradiction, and that even with the past perfect whose form performs both functions, although this problem could possibly be overcome by viewing the term perfect as merely referring to the perfect form of had + v-en rather than a perfect meaning. Nonetheless, the categories of tense and (perfect) aspect are very closely linked and in some temporal properties even similar (e.g. the present perfect is sometimes viewed as a kind of past tense). It is especially grammar books and textbooks, which, for practical pedagogical reasons, do not draw any explicit distinction between the categories of tense and aspect, especially the perfect aspect. In cases like this, even the perfect forms are simply listed as grammatical tenses, and the past perfect is referred to as past perfect tense. In this respect, the shorter version past perfect could simply be understood as a result of an ellipsis of the word tense (e.g. Korsakov 1978). However, some linguists omit the word tense from the names of the past perfect form

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intentionally as they reserve it exclusively to the three basic (= simple) tenses or even to the two morphological tenses, which they sharply distinguish from the periphrastic forms expressing the perfect and progressive aspects (cf. e.g. Lewis 1986; Palmer 1965; Greenbaum and Quirk 1990). Leech (1987), while clearly separating the categories of tense and aspect, uses the term tense with the perfect forms as well. After the term past perfect, the second most commonly used name of the had + v-en form is pluperfect. It is often mentioned only as an alternative name alongside past perfect, but in some works it is the only/main name (e.g. Comrie 1976, 1985). Also worth mentioning in this respect is Jespersen (1965) because he illustrates our note from the initial paragraph that the choice of a name may depend not only on its ability to reflect some feature of the past perfect, but also on whether it fits a linguist‘s overall terminological system. Unlike other grammarians, Jespersen (1965: 81) clarifies his choice – he uses pluperfect instead of past perfect because in his work the word past is only confined to objective time rather than grammatical tense. According to the Compact Oxford English Dictionary (1991: 1370), which also lists the name plusperfect, the first record of the word pluperfect in English dates from 1530 when it was used by Jehan Fullonius Palsgrave in his work Lesclarcissement de la langue francoyse as follows: ―The Preter Pluperfit Tens. I had spoken‖ (p. 88). Elsewhere: ―Verbes Actives circumlocute theyr preterperfit and plus perfit tenses throughe all theyr modes, … with the tenses of je ay and the participle preterit‖ (113; emphasis ours).49 The etymology of the term pluperfect brings us to another, yet equally motivated, name for the past perfect form, which is plusquamperfect. Both terms have their origin in the Latin name tempus praeteritum plūs quam perfectum, which literally translates into English as past tense more than perfect, that is a tense whose temporal reference goes further into the past than that of another form with a past meaning, the perfect (Latin tempus praeteritum perfectum). The Latin name itself, which is usually given as (tempus) plusquamperfectum, is essentially a translation of the Greek chronos hypersyntelikós. The term plusquamperfect occurs relatively rarely in literature and is almost exclusively mentioned as an alternative name of the past perfect alongside other names or only in relation to similar tenses in other languages, for example classical. We have not found it used on its own or as the main name. Something similar is true of its Slovak version, pluskvamperfektum, which is used for a similar tense in the Slovak language, where, however, its occurrence may be slightly higher.

The names of the present and past perfects preterperfit and preter pluperfit/plus perfit used by Palsgrave evidently derive from the names of the corresponding Latin tenses – praeteritum perfectum and praeteritum plusquamperfectum (see below).

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3. Alternative Names of the Past Perfect Form In addition to the three traditional names, which we mentioned above, the linguistic literature in particular offers a wide range of alternative names of the past perfect. Most of these are rare names, confined to one particular linguist or work. Following the earlier terminology, let us start with those which include the word perfect. Only a slight modification of the term past perfect is past perfective, used by Quirk et al. (1985) who refer to the perfect aspect in general by the term perfective rather than perfect. However, such use of this term and its connection with the specific forms present/past perfective is unusual and has met with criticism (cf. e.g. Beedham 2005: 174; Meyer et al. 2005: 23). In linguistics, the term perfective is usually used in connection with a different aspectual opposition than the name perfect, although both the oppositions can also be found in a more or less developed form in English.

While

the

term

perfect

traditionally

associated

with

the

English

(present/past/future) perfect forms, the term perfective is most commonly associated with other languages, especially with the aspectual opposition imperfective-perfective typical of, for example, Slavic languages, including Slovak. Nonetheless, to some degree it can be identified with the unmarked member of the opposition nonprogressive-progressive in English. The name past perfective brings us to the last three of the group of names of the past perfect form which contain the term perfect. These are the names remote perfect, used by Joos (1964: 142), preterite perfect, which is used by, among others, Huddleston and Pullum (2005: 48), and anteperfect, which appears in Kuhn and Portner (2002: 279). Joos generally replaces the terms present and past in the names of tenses with actual and remote, as in the aforementioned remote perfect instead of past perfect or actual perfect instead of present perfect. The name preterite perfect is clearly motivated by the preterite form of the perfect operator had. The part ―ante‖ in the term anteperfect indicates the perfect before the (present) perfect and at the same time leads us to another group of alternative names which all contain similar semantic elements. Other alternative names, which appear in literature, share one common feature. All in some way explicitly express the fact that the past perfect refers to a time before another moment in the past, as expressed by the corresponding Slovak name predminulý čas. They mostly share the identical base past and differ from one another only in that part which corresponds to the meaning ―before‖, which, however, can be very variable. Dixon (2005: 224) uses the name previous past (previous present for the present perfect). Another example

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is beforepast (tense), used by Korsakov (1978), although in several places he inconsistently resorts to the traditional past perfect (similarly with beforepresent [tense] and present perfect). Moreover, since all perfect forms express temporal precedence, (not only) Korsakov calls them anterior tenses. Some linguists, such as Reichenbach (1947), even used the term anterior with the individual perfect forms; the past and present perfects thus correspond to anterior past and anterior present respectively. Similarly, Graustein et al. (1977) use the term anteriority to describe a relation within a category called correlation which corresponds to the relation denoted by the perfect aspect. The individual perfect forms are then a result of a combination of anteriority and individual tenses, hence their names which combine (parts of) the names of their constituent categories, namely AntPast (anteriority + past) for the past perfect. Although such terms are rather artificial in nature, we mention them because Graustein et al. represent the only work in our survey to draw a terminological distinction between formally homonymous, but grammatically different forms of the past perfect (corresponding in function to tense, perfect aspect, and ―derived tense‖ in tense shift). Thus the above-mentioned term AntPast refers to the past perfect with a perfect meaning while the term Past-Past (past-in-the-past) is used for the past perfect form with a purely temporal (non-perfect) function, which also as a ―derived tense‖ replaces the preterite in the tense shift. However, if the tense shift applies to the present perfect AntPres, there is yet another name for the corresponding homonymous form, and that AntPres-Past (anteriority + present-in-the-past). Lewis (1986: 76, 79), who also attempts to make the name of the past perfect form reflect the meaning of anteriority in the past, stresses the importance of the reference time with the perfect forms. Like many other linguists, he does so by emphasising the fact that verbs in the perfect aspect denote situations viewed as if in retrospect and finds it therefore appropriate to refer to the perfect forms as retrospective forms. Consequently, he does not use the name past perfect, but past retrospective (similarly present retrospective for the present perfect, which, however, he uses somewhat inconsistently alongside the term present perfect, which he wanted to replace). Kreidler (1998: 221), too, considers the term retrospective more appropriate and offers another similar term – retrogressive. The group of alternative names can be completed with two terms which not only differ from the preceding names in expressing the meaning ―before‖, but also in indicating the past, when instead of the traditional past, they include the name of the form denoting the simple past tense, preterite. Jespersen (1992: 271) uses the term ante-preterit, which, however, seems primarily to represent the past perfect form with a temporal function, that is grammatically Slovak Studies in English, Vol. 3, 2011 – Identity in Intercultural Communication

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non-perfect (referring to before-past time rather than to retrospective past time which corresponds to the perfect aspect). This term is also known in Slovak linguistics as antepréteritum, where it is used as an equivalent name of the Slovak predminulý čas, e.g. by Mistrík (1985: 173), G. Horák (1993: 90), Ņigo (1997: 27). The other term in this group is the name pre-preterite, which appears in Fenn (1987: 218), where it only has a temporal function. Vachek (1976: 177) mentions this name without making a distinction between the perfect and temporal meanings. On a last note, we would like to mention a grammarian who, unlike other linguists, does not use any particular name for the English past perfect form. Conner (1968) is aware of the fact that the conventional names of ―traditional‖ grammar fail to capture the semantic diversity of the forms they represent. When describing the tense-aspect system of English, he draws on semantic criteria, which means that he assigns the range of meanings that the two categories are capable of expressing to individual forms, and not the other way round. Therefore, when talking about the before-past time in connection with tense and the resultative aspect in connection with aspect, he refers to the had + v-en form as a possible, though not the only, way of expressing these meanings.

4. Conclusion The most familiar and frequent English name of the had + v-en form is past perfect, but linguistic literature in particular offers a much wider variety of names for this verb form. Apart from the well-known term pluperfect, which can be seen as the only widely-used alternative to the term past perfect, there is a large number of names which are usually rare and confined to a limited number of linguists. In this paper, we dealt with the following: plusquamperfect, past perfective, remote perfect, preterite perfect, anteperfect, previous past, beforepast, anterior past, AntPast, Past-Past, AntPres-Past, past retrospective, ante-preterite, and pre-preterite. They reflect various ways in which individual linguists view the identity of the had + v-en form, i.e. its classification within the system of the English verb, relation to various grammatical categories, functions, etc.

Bibliography BEEDHAM, Christopher (2005). Language and Meaning: The Structural Creation of Reality. Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. The Compact Oxford English Dictionary. (1991). 2nd ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press. COMRIE, Bernard (1976). Aspect: An Introduction to the Study of Verbal Aspect and Related Problems. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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COMRIE, Bernard (1985). Tense. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. CONNER, Jack E. (1968). A Grammar of Standard English. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. CRYSTAL, David (1995). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language. London; New York; Sydney; Toronto: Cambridge University Press. DIXON, R. M. W. (2005). A Semantic Approach to English Grammar. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press. FENN, Peter (1987). A Semantic and Pragmatic Examination of the English Perfect. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag. GRAUSTEIN, Gottfried et al. (1977). English Grammar: A University Handbook. Leipzig: VEB Verlag Enzyklopädie. GREENBAUM, Sidney, and Randolph QUIRK (1990). A Student‟s Grammar of the English Language. Longman. HORÁK, Gejza (1993). Slovesné kategórie osoby, času, spôsobu a ich vyuţitie. Bratislava: VEDA. HUDDLESTON, Rodney, and Geoffrey K. PULLUM (2005). A Student‟s Introduction to English Grammar. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. JESPERSEN, Otto (1965 [1931]). A Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles. Part IV: Syntax (Vol. III). London: Allen & Unwin; Copenhagen: Ejnar Munksgaard. JESPERSEN, Otto (1992 [1924]). The Philosophy of Grammar. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press. JOOS, Martin (1964). The English Verb: Form and Meanings. Madison; Milwaukee: The University of Wisconsin Press. KORSAKOV, Andrey K. (1978). The Use of Tenses in English. Kijev: Vyńča ńkola. KREIDLER, Charles W. (1998). Introducing English Semantics. London and New York: Routledge. KUHN, T. Steven, and Paul PORTNER (2002). Tense and Time. In D. M. Gabbay and F. Guenthner (Eds.), Handbook of Philosophical Logic, Vol. 7 (277 – 346). 2nd ed. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers. LEECH, Geoffrey N. (1987). Meaning and the English Verb. 2nd ed. New York: Longman. LEWIS, Michael (1986). The English Verb: An Exploration of Structure and Meaning. London: Language Teaching Publications. LONEK, Jozef (2010). Minulé perfektum v časovo-aspektovom systéme angličtiny. [dizertačná práca] Bratislava: Univerzita Komenského. MEYER, Paul Georg et al. (2005). Synchronic English Linguistics: An Introduction. 3rd ed. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag. MISTRÍK, Jozef (1985). Štylistika. Bratislava: Slovenské pedagogické nakladateľstvo. PALMER, F. R. (1965). A Linguistic Study of the English Verb. London: Longman. QUIRK, Randolph et al. (1985). A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. London; New York: Longman. REICHENBACH, Hans (1947). Elements of Symbolic Logic. New York: The Free Press & London: Collier-Macmillan. VACHEK, Josef (1976). Selected Writings in English and General Linguistics. Prague: Mouton. ŅIGO, Pavol (1997). Kategória času v slovenskom jazyku. Bratislava: Univerzita Komenského. Resumé

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V odbornej literatúre sa s formou had + v-en spája značná terminologická variabilita, pretoņe popri známych a často pouņívaných názvoch ako past perfect a pluperfect sa pouņíva aj mnoho ďalńích pomenovaní, ktoré buď naznačujú prísluńnosť k perfektovej kategórii v minulosti, ako to je v prípade plusquamperfect, past perfective, remote perfect, preterite perfect, anteperfect, alebo zdôrazňujú vlastnosť spoločnú pre vńetky perfektové tvary, ktorou je anteriorita, čomu zodpovedajú označenia ako previous past, beforepast, anterior past, AntPast, Past-Past, AntPres-Past, past retrospective, ante-preterite a pre-preterite.

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LINGUISTICS

Cognitive Approach to the Text Analysis of British Fairy Tales Nataliya Panasenko University of SS Cyril and Methodius in Trnava, Slovakia Kiev National Linguistic University, Ukraine Miroslava Zolichová University of SS Cyril and Methodius in Trnava, Slovakia 1. Introduction Folklore texts have always been in the field of view of linguists. Nevertheless, their potential as the object of research has not been exhausted yet. The appearance of cognitive linguistics gives the possibility to apply new types of analysis. Our objective is to make a contrastive analysis of English, Scottish, Welsh, Irish and island fairy tales using the method of cognitive analysis, which allows for the defining of cultural identity of different nations. A few words about our language material. From different sources, we have found 53 texts in which various illnesses and their treatment are described. We must state that it was not easy to find such texts, because they are scarce. Namely, in the book by K. Briggs (―British Folk Tales and Legends‖) there are 156 tales and only 12 are connected with the topic of our interest; the book ―Folk Tales of the British Isles‖ consists of 55 stories and only 7 include episodes of treatment. Thus from all hard copies, we have processed 282 tales and found 35 which met the requirements of our goal; the final 18 were added from Internet resources. Before we proceed to the analysis of fairytale content and structure, let us discuss their types, principles of their classification, and ways of their analysis. What is more important, notwithstanding their cultural peculiarities, they are a part of world folklore and have many common features. 2. Folklore As the Well of People‟s Wisdom Folklore culture includes stories, music, dance, legends, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, customs, and so forth within a particular population comprising the traditions (including oral traditions) of that culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The academic and usually ethnographic Slovak Studies in English, Vol. 3, 2011 – Identity in Intercultural Communication

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study of folklore is sometimes called folkloristics. The study of folklore covers a wide area and touches a great number of disciplines (Georges and Jones 1995). Professor A. Taylor, one of the great folklore scholars, as Briggs claims (Briggs 2002: 2), used to describe folklore as a central study because it dealt with so many different aspects of scholarship: sociology, anthropology, literature, linguistics, music, drama, history, and archaeology. All these are important to folklore and folklore is significant to all of them. Literary forms of various genres have come into the focus of folklore researchers. O. S. Kitchenko defines the folklore genre as a historical category which has some universal features. The formation of the folklore genre as culture is the process of transformation of elementary communicative structure into a communicative model (Kitchenko 2002: 148). He defines the folklore genre as a conceptual model of a mythological cultural situation which is re-created by folklore poetic means (Kitchenko 2002: 149).

2.1. Folklore of the British Isles The British Isles and Ireland have a rich diversity of folklore, stemming in part from the mix of cultural identity from region to region. They have had a turbulent history, where invaders and settlers have brought with them their own beliefs and lore, which have become amalgamated into older traditions. Some stories seem to be widespread, such as the tradition of sleeping warriors under hollow hills and the wild hunt, often incorporating local heroes (Folklore of Britain and Ireland, online source). If we characterize British folklore in general, differences may be found in specific creatures of folklore (detailed analysis of them was done by J. and C. Matthews, 2005), which can be found in different parts of the British Isles. As N. Yelina claims, in Celtic Wales fairy legends and tales about elves and mermaids prevail; in Eastern England preference is given to ghosts and in Scotland we find more archaistic fairytales about magic metamorphoses of animals (Yelina 1987: 16).

2.1.2 English Folklore The folklore and folk customs of England are rich and varied. Many customs are ancient, passed down, generation to generation from Germanic and Celtic ancestors. Some are more modern creations, whilst others are revivals of customs that were forgotten or neglected over the years. Whatever their root, and whatever their age, they all make up the rich and diverse folk heritage of England and the English. The most known stories are Robin Hood

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tales, the legend about King Arthur or the tale about Beast of Bodmin Moor (Folklore and Folk Customs, online). Folklore texts abound in different creatures, most of them are evil and meeting them brings ill luck to people. Some of such creatures look like animals (Barguest) or turn into domestic animals (Brag), some have specific features of character (Bogey), some of them live in a house and help their master (Brownie).

2.1.3 Irish Folklore Irish folklore is characterized by stories which have also been passed from generation to generation. In some of these stories an event of fantastic character is presented by the storyteller as an authentic case, it is frequently referring to concrete names and surnames of the participants of history, the name of the places where all has occurred, etc., which makes this narrative true to life. These stories have such specific characters as leprechauns, Banshee, Pooka and some others. Leprechauns are very smart and artful. They take pleasure from deceiving everyone; each of them has a pot with gold. They like to drink and can drink much. By trade they are shoemakers. Banshee means ―Faerie woman‖ or ―woman of the Faerie mound‖. It is an evil character, as well as the Pooka, which usually appears at nighttime.

2.1.4 Scottish Folklore Scotland has a rich Celtic History going back over 2,000 years, at a time when superstition was rife and where unusual events were ―explained‖ by stories and inventions which were then passed on by word of mouth. It is therefore not surprising that Scotland has an extensive heritage of myths and legends (Scottish Myths and Legends, online source). The characters of Scottish folklore are so numerous that we'll mention only some of them: Asrai, Baobhan Sith, Bean Nighe, Biasd Bheulach, Bodach, Black Donald, Brownie, Clootie, Ghillie Dhu, Scotia, and Shellycoat.

2.1.5 Welsh Folklore The remnants of the mythology of the pre-Christian Britons have come down to us in much altered form in medieval Welsh manuscripts such as the Red Book of Hergest, the White Book of Rhydderch, the Book of Aneirin and the Book of Taliesin. The prose stories from the White and Red Books are known as the Mabinogion, a title given to them by their first translator, Lady Charlotte Guest, and also used by subsequent translators (Welsh Slovak Studies in English, Vol. 3, 2011 – Identity in Intercultural Communication

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mythology, online source). Mythical creatures typical of Welsh folklore are: Adar Llwch Gwin, giant birds that understand human languages; Afanc, a lake monster; Coraniaid; Cyhyraeth, death spirit; Gwiddonod (Witches); Pwca, shape shifting animal spirit and many others.

2.1.6. The Islands Folklore There are more than a thousand islands around the United Kingdom, large and small ones. Among them the most famous are: St Mary‘s, the largest of the Scilly Isles; Anglesey; the Isle of Man; the Rathlin Island and many others. People who inhabit these islands have their own folklore, based on a system of characters, and specific ways of treatment (magic spells and charms). The place where events take place is usually mentioned. The characters of the folktales are both positive (Ben Bheara, the Isle of Man; Lurida, the Orkney islands) and negative (Buggane, Bendith Y Mamau, Glashans, Cabyll-Ushtey, Cughtach, the Isle of Man; Wulver, Marool, Mester Stoorworm, the Shetland Isles) (Mythology of the British Isles 2003).

3. Folk Tales What is a folk tale? Sometimes all kinds of folklore prose are called folk tales. A more exact definition is based on its characteristic feature – fictitious content: the anonymous author of a fair ytale deliberately created poetic fiction and the listeners perceived it. But it was not only this feature. Yelina considers that the fairy tale assumes a certain vision of the world, certain types of plots, of the characters, a certain accurate structure, a special stylistic form of narration, that is quite developed poetics (Yelina 1987: 10). Folktales are stories of different genres. They are traditional narrative. They have uncertain origin and they are told from generation to generation orally. The telling of stories appears to be a universal need of all cultures. Ethnologists claim that there are numerous similarities in the structure and motives of folktales from very distant cultures. English folk and fairy tales were collected and published in numerous books. For instance, the Celtic scholar John Francis Campbell (1822 – 1885) published the bilingual 4volume Popular Tales of the West Highlands (1860 – 1862) and many Scottish Gaelic tales. The Scottish poet, novelist and anthropologist Andrew Lang (1844 – 1912) retold classical fairytales in a beautifully illustrated Blue Fairy Book (1889), later followed by many other collections of fairytales today called Andrew Lang‟s Fairy Books, which have different colours corresponding to different cultures.

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Folk tales usually include ancient myths, fables, legends, fairytales or other forms (Pokrivčáková 2008: 20). As far as it is impossible to analyze all the types of folk tales in a short article, we shall focus mainly on fairy tales. A fairy tale is a form of narration with folkloric character. In fairy tales, there are usually strange characters such as fairies, gnomes, ogres, dragons, witches, talking animals and magical things. A fairy tale has got usually a happy ending, educational nature or moral lesson. A fairytale is usually an unlikely story. In some cultures where the fairytale creatures are considered to be real, fairytales may become legends. They are told as if they were real situations from history. However, unlike legends and epics, they usually do not contain more than superficial references to religion and actual places, people and events; they take place ‗upon a time‘ rather than in actual times (Orestein 2003: 9). Fairy tales are found in oral and in literary form. The history of the fairy tale is particularly difficult to trace, because only the literary forms can survive. Still, the evidence of literary works at least indicates that fairy tales have existed for thousands of years, although not perhaps recognized as a genre; the name ―fairy tale‖ was first ascribed to them by Madame d‘Aulnoy. Many of today's fairytales have evolved from centuries-old stories that have appeared, with variations, in multiple cultures around the world (Gray 2009). Folklorists have classified fairy tales in various ways. Among the most notable ones is the Aarne-Thompson classification system, which includes a historic-geographic method of comparative folkloristics (Aarne-Thompson classification system, online source). The morphological analysis of the fairy tale offered by Vladimir Propp became the basis of research of the folklore texts structure. In one of his works V. Propp proved that all fairy tales were of the same type in structure (Propp 1968). The results of research of specialists in the folklore of different countries allow for the examining of the fairy tale as a standard of speech text with an optimal composition structure, finding its expression by pragmatic expedient sound means. Eight composition parts are mostly distinguished in a fairytale (Propp 1986: 90). In numerous research projects, which dealt with the fairy tales in literary criticism and folklore studies, such problems as history of fairy-tale origin as a genre, its correlation with other genres, its international and national features, peculiarities of oral and written folk arts are examined. Fairy tales with very similar plots, characters, and motifs are found spread across many different cultures. Many researchers hold this to be caused by the spread of such tales, as people repeat the tales they have heard in foreign lands, although the oral nature makes it impossible to trace the route except by inference. Slovak Studies in English, Vol. 3, 2011 – Identity in Intercultural Communication

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The geographical principle prevails in the anthologies of British fairy-tales. The book by K. Briggs (2002) consists of 18 parts, based on typological principle. One may single out three groups: the first includes such titles as Fables and Exempla, Fairy Tales, Jocular Tales; another subdivision is based on naming fantastic creatures which play an important role in the narrative: Black Dogs, Bogies, Devils, Dragons, etc.; and the third division is connected with local traditions, historic and cultural events: Historical Traditions, Local Legends, and Saints.

3.1 Fairy Tales from Cognitive Point of View A lot of specialists in folklore and linguists have studied the fairy tale; they have investigated the reasons for its occurrence, established its structure, functions, plot, motives, its source, composition, structural elements, characters, fantastic chronotope, and so forth (Propp 1968, 1986; Panasenko 2005). Nevertheless, the possibilities of folklore texts as object of scientific research are not settled yet. So, the occurrence of cognitive linguistics, on the one hand, opens new possibilities of research of folklore texts as source of popular wisdom, characters and mentality; on the other hand, research of folklore texts may stimulate further progress of cognitive science (Panasenko 2009: 820). We find it effective to combine the semantic roles introduced into linguistics by Ch. Fillmore (1981) and consider them as slots of a frame representing the healing activity of a man at the stages obviously preceding officinal medicine.

3.1.1 Semantic Roles Semantic relations were introduced in generative grammar during the mid-1960s and early 1970s as a way of classifying the arguments of natural language predicates into a closed set of participant types which were thought to have a special status in grammar (Semantic Roles, online source). In his first article â&#x20AC;&#x2022;Case for Caseâ&#x20AC;&#x2013; Ch. Fillmore (1981a) presented a list of semantic cases or roles, which further on was edited and enlarged (Fillmore 1981b). In our research we use the following cases: Agent, Experiencer, Patient, Instrument, Location, Direction or Goal, Recipient, Source or Origin, Time or Temporal case, Beneficiary, Manner, Purpose, Cause and some others.

3.2 The Frame Analysis of the Text A frame is a remembered framework to be adapted to fit reality by changing details as necessary (Minsky 1974: 1). When one encounters a new situation (or makes a substantial change in oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s view of the present problem), one selects from memory a structure called a

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frame. Thus, a frame is a data-structure for representing a stereotyped situation, like visiting a doctor, a trip by train, wedding ceremony, etc. (Panasenko 2010: 164). We want to construct the frame of human healing activity as it is reflected in the fairytales of the British Isles.

4. The Frame of Healing Activity The frame of common healing activity includes the doctor, the patient, instrument of healing, reason and result of healing, location, time of the year and some more details. At the periods preceding the appearance of officinal medicine, the healers were witches, shepherds, monks, etc. Later there appeared hospitals, laboratories, computer tomography, but the essence of the frame of healing is still the same: the centre of it is the person – the doctor, the healer and the principal slot is a patient. In fairy tales the slots are filled in a specific way. Let us consider it in detail.

4.1 The Frame of Healing Activity in British Fairytales Either the healer or a patient may be human (the doctor, the magician, the wizard) or mythical creature (angels, fairies, elves, gnomes, etc.). The material processed by us shows that in the original version this frame will be of the following form: somebody (patient or his/her relative) charges his/her assistant by magic means (a horse, a boat and so forth) to deliver to oneself a person living somewhere (in a cave, in an underwater empire, in a wood – the locative), that is the healer (agent), who lives in a specific district nearby or very far (locative), and has big popularity and respect, because someone (patient) needs one‘s help (reason) owing to (illness, wound, baby delivery). The healer uses for treatment certain means (herbs, spells, ointment, sheep skins – the instrument), thus making the certain actions lead to a certain result (resultative). For treatment the healer receives an official message of thanks or compensation, though not always. The next day the received money may turn to oak leaves, dust. However, considering the features of a genre, there may be obstacles in the reception of these magic curing means, and the healer starts a long trip (quest). Extremely interesting and perhaps even mysterious is the temporal case: the time of absence of the healer in the actual world mismatches mythical time. The problems of literary time in a fairytale may be the object of special study. This frame is presented in Figure 1.

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reason

PATIENT

location 1

resultative/ gratitude

instrument

(объектив) assistant/ mediator

HEALER

temporal

location 2

Figure 1. Frame of healing activity in British folk tales

After the presentation of our hypothesis we shall now describe how the slots of the healing activity frames are filled in the folklore texts of various genres, taking into account mainly the geographic principle.

4.1.1 Frame of Healing Activity in English Fairy Tales Let us start with English stories. As we are short of space we shall not draw a picture of a frame but only mention the content of the slots. Among patients we may differentiate between men (a poor man with a great hump on his back; the young prince) and women (the woman who gave birth and her new-born child; ladies: Anna, Lady Mary); children (a baby, a young boy, a child, the master‘s son, twins) and sick persons. The assistants (mediators) are a strange squinty-eyed man, a little ugly old fellow; the reason of treatment: a deformed arm, love for Cap O‘Rushes (the name of a young girl). In some texts details of being ill are added: a man is haunted by a ghost, thus his nerves and general health are in poor condition; one looks pale because of insomnia and horrible dreams. Healers are of a different sex (females: Dame Goody, a nurse that looked after sick people and babies; Kate, mother; males: a man), and occupation (a doctor). With the appearance of Christianity clergymen (Rev. John Rundall) and saints (St. George) appear in fairytale texts, though, as K. Briggs remarks (2002: 295 – 296), people who lived as hermits and helped the sick were named saints. In one fairytale the healers are fairies and a man who is himself a hunchback. The ways of treatment are various – rubbing in the magic ointment as well as those connected with the church: exorcism, reading prayers, or definite action by the permission of the Bishop. In English texts instruments/remedies are scarce: three strokes by a magic wand, eating three bites of birdie flesh, a meal (gruel) with the ring, or the white powder from the fairies. The location is definite (Treva, a hamlet in Zennor; London; Tavistock, Devon) and

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common (a small village, Mr Fox‘s castle, Lady Mary‘s country house) or connected with magic (inside the magic hill where fairies are dancing). As the factor of time is not very important in British fairy tales, we shall omit it. The results of treatment may be connected with the state of health (Anna has lost her sheep head after three strokes of the magic wand and a prince has become healthy after eating three bites of the birdie; the vanishing of the hump, the vanishing of the ghost), or with happy marriage. Gratitude is mentioned only once: paying the nurse more than she had ever been paid before for such a service.

4.1.2 The Frame of Healing Activity in Irish Fairy Tales From Irish fairytales, we get to know that there were warriors in Ireland who were wounded in different battles headed by their kings. This is reflected in such patients as Nuada, the warrior; Cathal, king of Menster; the King, wounded men and women. Many women are also patients: Kitty, Corcoran‘s wife; a woman with a definite location (in Innish Shark, one of the groups of islands on the eastern coast, named Biddy Mannion); Silver-Tree (a woman, mother), the King of France‘s daughter. Here we also come across such patients as an animal (a cow), Lusmore, a poor man with a hump back, and some others. Among the assistants (mediators) we may mention such ones as the three men, an equestrian and a man. The reason for calling the healer may be connected with war, a battle with an enemy, a wound (Nuada‘s hand was stricken off), an evil eye, misbehavior and morals (children have thrown the dirty water out of the door after dusk and before sunrise just when the good people are passing their door, which the good people do twice a day and envy), baby delivery, physical state (weakness, the result of sudden hunger; old age; the loss of voice). The treatment can also be connected with magic (a young girl loses consciousness because the magician stuck a pin into her, or a woman is asked to feed the fairy‘s baby). The reason of illness may be a poisoned stab. Healers are well known people: the Tuatha De Dannan, who lived in the northern isles of the world, learning lore, magic, druidism, wizardry and cunning, until they surpassed the sages of the arts of heathendom; Diancecht the leech (to leech – archaic: to cure, heal), Morraha, women (a little woman who was dressed in a neat red cloak, an old woman, a midwife who lived in a little house ―in between this and Listowel‖), and some others: Credne the brazier (brazier – one who makes articles of brass), who made Nuada a new hand of

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metal, one of the first records of a prosthetic appliance, as well as a council of Druids, St. Kaving, Wizard Doctor‘s son and fairies. Treatment is very specific: putting on Nuada, the warrior a hand of silver; singing and dancing with fairies; healing with magic ointment; taking a poisoned stab away; taking in the juice of the plant; making a cross; putting a salve of herbs on a wounded leg; magic healing through a song; specific meals; a set of various actions, e.g. burning flesh on the arm or, as it is described in the following fairytale: Take ten green rishes from the side of the well of Aughavalla a holy well in the barony of Murrisk, not far from Croagh Patrick. Throw the tenth away, and squeeze the juice of the rest of them into the bottom of a teacup, and give it to the colleen to drink, and she will get well in no time (The Fairy Nurse). There are four types of instruments, namely a glittering fairy branch with 9 apples of red and a specific meal (Silver-Tree daughter‘s heart and liver, in fact she gets those of a goat). The special location of the possible tool of healing is accentuated: the apples of a tree that grew in the orchard under the window and a herb growing by the patient‘s own door. In Irish fairytales we may also mention the victim/objective of ill treatment: GoldTree (a girl, daughter); the objective of healing: a wounded (cut off) hand. The location is various: definite and detailed (Yriu near Briug na Bуinde; the fertile glen of Aherlow, at the foot of the gloomy Galtee Mountains, Innish Shark, one of the group of islands on the eastern coast, named Biddy Mannion, near Coolgarrow); approximate (the northern isles of the world), with a humoristic shade (between this and Listowel) and specific (a fair). The temporal case in Irish fairytales is used very often, connected with the sacral number three: Diancecht, and he said ―joint to joint of it and sinew to sinew,‖ and he healed Nuada in thrice three days and nights (The Second Battle of Mag Tured /Moytura/). The results are different: vanishing of the hump; people are lulled to sleep by the sound of very sweet fairy music; complete recovery. We give here a detailed description of the reason of treatment and the means of recovery: For the seven years of her disease her children have thrown dirty water out of the door after dusk and before sunrise, just when the good people were passing by. If she avoids them to do this, the disease will leave her. She made her children pour water out in a different place and at a different time and she was healthy immediately (Paddy Corcoran‘s Wife). The gratitude may be traditional (immediate recovery) or acquiring the gift of healing.

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4.1.3 The Frame of Healing Activity in Scottish Fairy Tales Speaking about Scottish fairy tales we may claim that they have something in common with the Welsh ones, especially in their roles connected with the patients, the reason of bad health and the healers. Among patients we may differentiate between men and women (a man [with a definite location], a man with a hump back, a shepherd‘s wife, a beautiful lady), taking into account their social status (the Black King, the king) and occupation (shepherds), age (a boy/smith‘s son). The patient may also be an animal (a seal king), which/who lives under water and can speak, or a mythological creature (a wounded giant). The assistants (mediators) are scarce: a stranger and a messenger (from Land-underWaves). The reason of some problems with the state of health may be connected with old age, the fairies‘ spell, the substitution of a child by fairies. Another group is connected with everyday life (baby delivery, fever) and fight (a patient is wounded by a knife; the shooting of an arrow leads to death). Some people want to gain the wisdom of life. People who live in a definite location at a definite period of time, and are famous for their art of healing, form the healers group: the Norsemen, Jeermit, the healer, Michael Scott, the Laird of Balmachie himself and some others. Among female characters we may mention the Black King‘s mother, Beira and the Midwife. Healing can be done by fairies as well. The treatment may be surgical (cicatrisation of the wound), based on phytotherapy (application of the herbs, 3 portions of red moss); it can include using ointment (rubbing in a healing balm), spells and charms (the power of healing, laying healing spells upon somebody.), fire (throwing a fairy into it), special conditions (to eat the meat of King of Salmon; to take the drink 3 times; to find water from the waterfall that was falling down on the red moss which grew under a red rock; one should drink water in 3 gulps, and use the moss like a bandage; singing and dancing with fairies). The instruments are connected with religion (the Bible), cultural reality (a dirk – a dagger, esp. as formerly worn by Scottish Highlanders), a crowing cock, healing balm, or a typical plant (a bunch of red moss). As we speak about fairytales we cannot but mention some magic tools used for treatment: an old coat which makes a man invisible; a cap, which furnishes one with knowledge; an old rusty sword which cuts whatever you strike; or shoes of extraordinary swiftness. We can find examples with definite location (Dundee, Highlands, and Wales) and indefinite location (under the sea). Time here is important. When Jeermit, the hermit (the healer) was away during 7 days, 7 years passed in the real world.

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According to the structure of the tale (after Propp 1968) there may be some obstacles in the process of healing, e.g.: the medicine can be taken only from the cup of the King of the Plain-of-Wonder (The Princess of Land-under-Waves). The results are connected with changes for the best: recovery and immediate recovery; vanishing of the hump; the dead Black King gets back to life; the princess opens her eyes; the evil spirits leave a beautiful lady.

4.1.4. The Frame of Healing Activity in Welsh Fairy Tales One of the peculiarities of Welsh fairy tales is that examples of treatment are not numerous in them. The patient is the mistress of the house; the assistant (mediator) – a gentleman; a healer – a midwife from Nanhwynan, priests and a wise man, Gwr Cyfarwyld. The reasons are various: a demon entered the man‘s body after his death; or children enchanted by goblins do not grow up. In one of the fairy tales the process of exorcism as the main treatment is described: Three clergymen volunteered for the task, and in the small hours of a dark moonless night they gathered within the confines of Henllys church to exorcise the spirit. One of the clergymen drew a chalk circle on the floor in front of the altar; they sat within its confines, each with a lighted candle, and started to pray. They continued to pray, but the roaring of the monster, and its beating on the outside of the circle caused one man‟s nerve to fail, and his candle went out. They still continued to pray, and then the giant appeared as an enormous lion, and then a raging bull, then it seemed as if a giant wave was flooding the church, and the West wall looked like it was crashing down upon them. A second priest lost heart at this turmoil and his candle went out, but still the third priest prayed even though his own candle was now nothing but a low flickering flame (The Great Giant of Henllys). The location is always given in detail: a midwife from Nanhwynan; the Hafoddydd Brithion, the banks of the river Wye; they rode at highest speed and passed a lot of places: Cwmllan, over the Bwlch, down Nant yr Aran, and over the Gader to Cwm Hafod Ruffydd. The temporal case, or Time, is not very important: some time in the 18th century; a box with sealed demon in it is thrown into Llynwyn Pool for the sum of ninety-nine years, or nine hundred and ninety nine years depending on which you prefer (The Great Giant of Henllys). The results are different, but positive: a woman stayed there until the lady had completely recovered; thanks to prayers the giant appeared in smaller and smaller forms until he was only a fly which was put in a tobacco box; or the goblins took their dwarfs and children recovered.

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The gratitude to a midwife from Nanhwynan surpassed her expectation: the nobleman gave her a large purse, with the order not to open it until she had got into her own house. Then he bade one of his servants escort her the same way that she had come. When she reached home she opened the purse, and, to her great joy, it was full of money. She lived happily on those earnings to the end of her life (The Midwife of Hafoddyd).

4.1.5. The Frame of Healing Activity in Islands Fairy Tales We have analyzed fairy tales which are popular on different islands surrounding the British Isles, in particular, the Orkney Islands in general and the Sanday, the Shetland Islands in general and the Unst, and the Isle of Man. The patients are Tom Beg, a humpback and a young girl, Darraday. The reason – being enchanted by ghosts; the objective of treatment: the cure of sprains; the healer – Our Savior, the King of fairies, saggyrt (sage), mother. On the islands different charms as the tools of treatment are very popular. They are combined with specific actions, e.g. a linen thread is tied around the injured part, after the solemn repetition of the charm; we may also mention casting the ―wresting thread‖, or chanting the spell. In one fairy tale the hump is being taken away for service (this motif is very popular in many British texts). The events take place on the isles (the Isle of Man) and in a definite place (a green glen Nikessen Pool). As a result the hump is taken away and thrown to bushes and the man is coming back home safe. There is a special condition (mist).

5. Discussion and Conclusion All the above-mentioned fairytales have the same frame, the same pattern. It means that there is somebody who is a healer (man, woman, witch, old lady) who has to heal someone. The healers in different parts of Great Britain are different (see Table 1).

Types of

English

Irish

Scottish

Welsh

Islands

healers

fairy tales

Men

Women

Fairies

Total

Table 1. Types of Healers in British Fairy Tales

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We can see that notwithstanding the location, males as healers prevail (see Diagram 1). Types of healers in British fairytales Fairies 15%

Women 21% Men 64%

Men

Women

Fairies

Diagram 1. Types of Healers in British Fairy Tales

In the texts under consideration the obligatory element of treatment is the patient (a boy, a girl, a king, a prince, etc.). As it is reflected in Table 2 and Diagram 2, in all texts the major part of patients is males, though in English texts these are children. This can be explained by the more active role which men played in everyday life at that period of time: men defended their country with weapons and very often were wounded; they were hunters, builders, sailors, knights, and so on. Women were at home, they bore children and needed the assistance of a professional (a midwife) in baby delivery, they suffered from different diseases, and the possibility of having well-qualified medical aid was limited, especially high in the mountains.

Types of

English

Irish

Scottish

Welsh fairy

Islands

patients

fairy tales

tales

fairy tales

Men

Women

Children

Fairytale creatures Animals

Table 2. Types of Patients in British Fairy Tales

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Total

7% 2%

36% 25%

30%

Men

Women

Children

Fairytale creatures

Animals

Diagram 2. Types of Patients in British Fairy Tales

The obligatory elements of healing are some instruments (herb, lotion, special meal, magic wand, etc.). There must also be some purpose of healing/treatment and we usually expect some result, which should be successful, but it is not always so. The specific ways of treatment in different parts of Great Britain are reflected in Table 3.

Ways and instruments of treatment Plants Hands: touch, movement Ointments, balms, powder

English

Irish

Scottish

Welsh

Islands

fairy tales

Professional medical aid Set of specific actions

Fire Special meal, diet

Total

Connected with religion (using the Bible, making a

cross, exorcism, prayers, etc.)

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Magic things (singing and dancing with

fairies) Spells

Table 3. Ways and Instruments of Treatment Used in British Fairy Tales

As we can see from Table 3, in English fairy tales the methods connected with religion prevail, in Irish and Scottish fairy tales plants are very popular, in Welsh fairy tales we cannot single out anything very popular, and in the Islands fairy tales the healers use spells. The ways of treatment in all the British fairy tales are presented in Diagram 3.

12%

22%

12% 2% 8% 14% 8% 4%

14%

Plants Hands: touch, movement Ointments, balms, powder Professional medical aid Set of specific actions Fire Special meal, diet Connected with religion (using a Bible, making a cross, exorcism, prayers, etc.) Magic things (singing and dancing with fairies) Spells

Diagram 3. Ways and Instruments of Treatment Used in British Fairy Tales

Judging from Diagram 3, the most popular means of treatment in all British fairy tales which we have analyzed are plants (22 %), the second place is shared by ointments, balms, powder and a set of specific actions (14 %), and the third place is for magic things and spells (12 %). We believe that the use of cognitive approach to folklore text analysis is very fruitful. Notwithstanding the specific characters of the fairytale texts analyzed, preference in healing is given to real things (plants, balms, etc.) and only then to magic things and spells.

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The comparative analysis of officinal medicine sources in the folklore texts of different epochs and people will be the next stage of our research, which seems to us of exceptional importance from diachronic, culturological and cognitive aspects. We find of interest the comparison of British and Slavic, in particular, Russian and Ukrainian folklore, as the folklore of the people, where the traditions of folk medicine and phytotherapy based in deep antiquity, have been strong until now not only in villages, but in cities, too. At the same time, on the British Isles folk medicine was forced out by the scientific one as far back as in the 18th and 19th centuries and since then has actually ceased to exist.

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Луганського національного педагогічного університету ім. Т. Шевченка 2 (82), 128-133. PANASENKO, Nataliya (2009). System of nontraditional medicine in the folklore of the British Isles (linguocognitive aspect) (Панасенко Н.И. Система народной медицины в фольклоре Британских островов (лингвокогнитивный аспект). // Горизонты современной лингвистики: традиции и новаторство. Сборник в честь Е.С. Кубряковой. Москва: Языки славянских культур, 820 – 832. POKRIVČÁKOVÁ, Silvia (2008). Children‟s Literature in English. Nitra: ASPA. PROPP, V.Ya. (1986). Historic roots of a fairytale (Пропп В.Я. Исторические корни волшебной сказки) Ленинград: Изд-во Ленингр. ун-та. PROPP, V. (1968). Morphology of the Folktale. Austin: University of Texas Press. Semantic Roles // http://www.ilc.cnr.it/EAGLES96/rep2/node8.html semantic roles YELINA, N. (1987). Introduction. // Folk tales of the British Isles (Народные сказки Британских островов) Сборник/ Сост. Дж. Риордан. Москва: Радуга, 9 – 18. Main Sources of Illustrative Material BRIGGS, Katharine (2002). British folk-tales and legends. London and New York: Routledge. Celtic fairytales. Selected and edited by Joseph Jacobs (1994): Twickenham: Senate. Fairy Giftsfolktales and legends of type 503 translated and/or edited by D. L. Ashliman© 1998 – 2009 // http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type0503.html#evans Folk tales of the British Isles (Народные сказки Британских островов) (1987): Сборник/ Сост. Дж. Риордан. Москва: Радуга. GANTZ, Jeffrey (1984). Early Irish myths and sagas. Middlesex: Penguin Books. Irish fairytales . Selected and edited by J. Jacobs (2001): Ware: Wordsworth Editions Ltd. Irish fairytales // Folklore and Mythology Electronic Texts edited and/ or translated by D. L. Ashliman University of Pittsburgh © 1996 – 2007 http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/ type0503.html#evans Scottish and English Fairytales (Шотландские и английские сказки) / Пер с англ. и составление Н.В. Шерешевской (1993): Мoscow: МНПП ―Гендальф‖. Scottish Folk and Fairytales. Chosen and edited by G. Jarvie (1997): London: Penguin. Scottish Mythology // http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_folklore Scottish Myths and Legends // http://www.rampantscotland.com/features/mythology.htm Welsh Mythology // http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_mythology The Second Battle of Mag Tured (Moytura) // http://web.ncf.ca/dc920/tured.html Резюме В данной статье авторы сделали попытку проследить корни официнальной медицины, которые отражены в британских сказках, принимая во внимание географический принцип. Полученные результаты показывают, что во всех текстах большинство целителей – мужчины, в то время как пациенты отличаются: в ирландских и шотландских сказках – мужчины, в английских – дети. Способы и орудия лечения также различны. В ирландских и шотландских текстах главным инструментом лечения является растение, в английских сказках – действия, связанные с религией. Мы можем выделить реальные способы лечения, включающие хирургию, протезирование, фитотерапию и др., которые преобладают в большинстве текстов, и магические (заговоры, заклинания).

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LINGUISTICS Creating One’s Virtual Identity: A Look Through Internet Nicknames Milica Urbániková Comenius University, Bratislava 1. Introduction The Internet, besides its informative function, also serves as a means of how to stay in touch with friends and relatives or even make new friends. In this aspect, it has taken over the role of letters. And as with letters, the major disadvantage is that the interlocutors do not see each other during the communication (technically, this obstacle has been overcome, but cameras are still not usually used in Internet communication.). Thus the interlocutors have the opportunity to construct their identities on various Internet forums and chat rooms or to even to make up a brand new self. One of the typical features of these virtual selves is that they use nicknames instead of real names composed of a first name and a surname. Of course, nicknames did not start with the Internet. Etymologically, ‗nickname‘ comes from the misdivision of ‗an eke name‘, meaning simply an additional name. Gradually it gained a derogatory shade of meaning, as can be seen from a quote from William Hazzlitt: ―A nickname is the heaviest stone that the devil can throw at a man.‖ Today, a nickname has both positive and negative connotations. This is true even of the same nickname in different usages. For example, when an outsider uses a nickname to denote a certain group of people, the group in question perceives it as insulting and derogatory, in spite of the fact, that they themselves use it as an emblem and to show their identification with the group. (Locher and Strässer 2008: 59). When talking about nicknames, we should first get straight the differences between various synonyms and near-synonyms, e.g. pseudonym, nick, sobriquet, and first name. Taking a closer look, we discover that the basic difference between these terms is in who gives them to whom and why, and, eventually, what it means. Pseudonyms are chosen deliberately by their bearers to hide their true identity. Nicknames, as well as sobriquets and first names, are given by others similarly to highlight some characteristic physical or psychological feature or some fact from the personal history of the bearer. While there are immeasurable possibilities for pseudonyms, nicknames and sobriquets, first names are usually chosen from a relatively finite list. We get them from parents, i.e. before we can agree or protest or before anyone can say whether the name suits us or not. If we consider the semantic Slovak Studies in English, Vol. 3, 2011 – Identity in Intercultural Communication

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opacity of first names today, it is questionable whether some name can be said to describe its owner. Therefore, it is often just a question of sound connotations – our liking the name‘s sound or not and/or of connotations with people we knew with the same name. Nicknames, on the other hand, are usually given to us at a later stage and for a certain reason – some physical attribute, personal history, etc. As with first names, we usually cannot agree or disagree, although to a certain degree we can limit the use of a nickname we do not like, yet only with moderate success. There is also a difference between the nicknames used in real life and those used on the Internet. Those in real life are given to us, while those on the Internet are chosen by ourselves. Also the motives for choosing this or that nickname can vary from those of our friends – people with a big nose rarely sign themselves up as Nosey, or those who are obese as Fatty. It is usually the best picture of ourselves we want to create on the Internet. The difference in the connotations of a nickname in real life and a nickname used on the Internet is reflected also in the Slovak use of the term ‗prezývka‘ and ‗nick‘. ‗Prezývka‘ means nickname and it is interesting that it is not usually used to refer to an Internet nickname. For this purpose, the English word ‗nick‘ was borrowed and is used, almost universally, especially among young people. It thus becomes interesting to look at in what ways and by what means these virtual identities are created. In order to learn more about these processes, I studied sets of nicknames used on Slovak, English, and Polish discussion forums. The topics of the forums varied from popular music to presidential elections, and the supposed age of the debaters ranged from teenagers to adults. What interested me most was the linguistic point of view of the creation of nicknames. Of course, ―linguistic‖ is a very wide term. The most notable processes of creation were those connected with orthography, lexicology and semantics.

2. Orthographic Point of View As is usual for Internet communication, the traditional rules of orthography are often not respected. This disrespect ranges from the ignorance of capital letters to various fashionable unorthodox spellings and simplification of spelling to playful orthography.

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Capital letters are often ignored at the beginning of nicknames derived from proper names, like ‗petruska‘ (SK)50, ‗mala.zoja‘ (SK), ‗bartek4‘ (PL) or ‗cecille‘ (EN). This may be caused, as in emails and short text messages, simply by the need to save time and to log on to the forum as fast as possible. Ignorance of capital letters was most common with Slovak nicknames and in this group especially among the teenagers, presumably as part of their revolt against any form of rules. The next noticeable feature is the absence of spaces in multi-word nicknames. Here, however, capital letters were sometimes used excessively in place of spaces. If a nickname was composed of several words, it would often be difficult to decipher, so the author capitalized every word. So there were nicknames like ‗whodoyouthinkiam‘ but also those written down as ‗DoNotBlink‘ (PL) ‗TaMałaWilczyca‘ (PL) or ‗StadiumLooksFabulous‘ (EN) and ‗CleanUpNyNow‘ (EN). In the last example, the author had to decide what to capitalize and what not – whether they would have the shortening NY correct and then have three capitals in succession, which would be confusing, or whether they would break their own rule and, after the NY abbreviation, spell the last word with a small-case letter, or finally, whether to break the general rule and not capitalize all the letters in an acronym. They went in for the last option, obviously because breaking someone else‘s rule is not so painful, and it may be even ‗in‘. Spaces were replaced also by means other than capital letters: full stops were used as in ‗mala.zoja‘ (SK) or other characters like the ‗x‘ in ‗hearxmexrawrxx‘ (EN) or the underscore in ‗uncle_charlie‘ (EN) or the dash in ‗Quisiera-me‘ (PL). However, since nicknames are meant as certain identification tags and denote one person, they are usually, despite their multi-word character, treated as one word ―s‖ was added, and to underline this mono-wordness, they are spelled without spaces or any other device to replace them. Sometimes they are a bit illegible, because at first you often do not know where to put the end of one word and start another, so you may feel as if transcribing Old English texts. Examples of such ‗agglutinates‘ are especially frequent on the Englishspeaking forums: ‗Siobhansmommy‘ (EN), ‗brooklynbombshell‘ (EN), ‗kissarmy‘ (EN), ‗bagelkingofnyc‘ (EN), ‗itsallinperception‘ (EN), ‗whydoicare‘ (EN), ‗gogogogiants‘ (EN), ‗vestigesofhermind‘ (EN) and many others.

The abbreviations in brackets following the examples of nicknames show their language origin: SK stand for Slovak, PL for Polish and EN for English. However, it denotes only the language of the forum, not necessary the language in which the nickname was composed. Slovak Studies in English, Vol. 3, 2011 – Identity in Intercultural Communication

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Apart from the capital letters, the spelling of common words was also often changed. This, in combination with the lack of capitalization or spaces in multi-word nicknames, sometimes made them a bit incomprehensible in the beginning before you realized what you are looking at. Logically, since English has more complicated spelling than Slovak or Polish, it also offers the greatest possibilities of change: we can come across simply leaving out of silent letters as in ‗Alwayssleepin‘ (EN) and ‗Nomorracism‘ (EN); well-known simplifications such as ‗and‘ to ‗n‘ in ‗Blacknproud‘ (EN); partly phonetic transcriptions like ‗ImamuzikKid‘ (EN); cases of colloquial or even dialectal pronunciation transcriptiosn such as in ‗Jersey Gal‘ (EN); and completely innovative spelling such as ‗beekwiet‘ (EN), which takes a minute or two to understand. Innovations of Slovak spelling were not so frequent. Of course, almost no one respects the diacritical marks, which is, again, usual in communication on the Internet. Sometimes, however, these are substituted by English-based or foreign-language-based spelling of particular sounds. So for example, Slovak ‗ń‘ is often spelled ‗sh‘: ‗natashatko‘ (SK), ‗grietusha‘ (SK), ‗mishelin4‘ (SK), and ‗kikushenka22‘ (SK). Slovak ‗k‘ is also sometimes spelled as ‗q‘, or even ‗qu(e)‘: ‗bublinqac‘ (SK) and ‗nikusqqquaaa‘ (SK). Sometimes a ‗w‘ instead of a ‗v‘ and excessive doubling of consonants are used, presumably imitating English, both of which are present in the nickname ‗wranna‘ (SK). The reason for these ―improvements‖ of Slovak spelling is probably the influence of English, its omnipresence and fashionableness, so that young people especially want to make their nicknames attractive in this way. As for the spelling of Polish nicknames, they sometimes intentionally spelled Polish words incorrectly as in ‗zielona_maupa‘ (PL) (instead of ‗zielona małpa‘) and sometimes used ‗q‘ instead of ‗k‘, as in Slovak: ‗Ptaq‘ (PL) (instead of ‗ptak‘), and ‗Dzika_kotQa‘ (PL) (instead of ‗dzika kotka‘). A special chapter in the spelling of nicknames is the playful spelling in which the users substitute letters for numbers and other various special characters. This play with language is not reserved to nicknames only, words like ‗2re‘, ‗o5‘, ‗s5‘, ‗ńe3‘ often appear in Slovak advertisements or various puns, even trade marks (such as TV channel TA3). In these words, the play is based on the fact that normally these words contain the same sequences of phonemes as the numerals, so in order to decipher the words you just have to pronounce the number in full. With nicknames, the situation is a bit different. We can meet with spellings like ‗Too Bad 4 You‘ (EN), ‗Conceited4aRzn‘ (EN), or ‗Note2Errata‘ (EN) where the number is to be pronounced in full, but also with spellings like

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‗M4TO6‘ (SK), ‗nUcleaR-c0r3‘ (EN), ‗fr4nk‘ (SK), and ‗za8icka‘ (SK) where the numerals substitute particular characters which resemble them in form. As we can see, the number 4 has two different values in nicknames: it either substitutes the preposition for or character A. Of course, we have to be careful and distinguish these cases from nicknames which have a number as their part, e.g. ‗9roses‘ (PL), ‗taka-ja-92‘ (PL) (where 92 is the year of birth), or which had to be numbered because such nicknames are already being used, as in ‗bartek4‘ (PL). Characters other than letters or numbers are also used in nicknames: ‗Karoli$‘ (PL), ‗steep@‘ (EN), even the chemical formula ‗H2Ogerl‘ (EN). Here, the dollar sign is used instead of ‗S‘ and should be pronounced as such, @ and H2O should be pronounced in full, although we can easily imagine a nickname, where @ might replace and function as the letter ‗A‘.

3. Lexical Point of View From the point of view of word-formation, there are basically several types of WF processes by which nicknames arise. However, as to productivity, they differ considerably from one language to another. Firstly, there is compounding, which is used very frequently in English nicknames. Sometimes the nicknames are regular compounds, which are or could be used even in normal speech, like ‗Fairplay4231‘ (EN), ‗northstar‘ (EN), ‗morningfog‘ (EN), and ‗icefist‘ (EN). But much more frequent, and this is valid for all three of the examined languages, are compounds which could be called quotational, but for being spelled without spaces. Plus, unlike quotational compounds, they often contain a whole statement but are all, naturally, used as nouns, even proper nouns, and therefore there is a friction between the grammatical head of the ―compound‖ and the signified. Good examples would be: ‗jaskusimto‘ (SK), ‗SayWhat‘

(EN),

‗You_cant_Handle_The_Truth‘

(EN),

‗itsallinperception‘

(EN),

‗Dontreallycare‘ (EN), and ‗isuckedthemoon‘ (EN). Sometimes, the compounds are rhyming like ‗gothicpoetic‘ (EN) and ‗nikimiki‘ (SK). In Slovak and Polish, in those nicknames in which their creators stick to their native tongue, derivation prevails as the WF process and of the derivation types mainly the diminutive and augmentative suffixes are used. Here one thing should be noted – boys and men usually use augmentation, while girls and women diminution. So we have ‗hujerisko‘ (SK), but ‗agusiek‘ (PL), ‗za8icka‘ (SK), ‗misinka‘ (SK), ‗adulicek‘ (SK), ‗lienocka‘ (SK), and others. In the Polish sample, there was even one case of augmentation combined with Slovak Studies in English, Vol. 3, 2011 – Identity in Intercultural Communication

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backformation, when a boy wanted to use ‗jagódka‘ (Polish for ‗little blueberry‘) as his nickname. He made a masculine form, non-existent in normal language, ‗jagod‘, by removing the feminine and diminutive suffix -ka. Many nicknames were formed by something which could be called condensation and the result resembles the skeleton shortenings like ‗Hqtrs‘ for headquarters. This is true mainly, but not only, for English nicknames. By condensation here I mean a process in which some letters, usually vowels, are intentionally left out in spelling, so that the result is shorter, and more interesting. Sometimes it can become even a cipher, especially when combined with numbers, like ‗Brtk90‘ (PL) where we need to know that the Polish name Bartłomiej is often shortened to Bartek in order to decode the nickname, or even ‗brlracincwgrl‘ (EN), where we can decode only the last word – girl. Usually, however, only some part of the nickname is condensed: ‗Conceited4aRzn‘ (EN), ‗musiclovr89‘ (EN), and ‗Poisenbld‘ (EN). The next WF process present in the creation of nicknames is shortening. This can be restricted to known shortenings like the above-mentioned ‗nycexpat‘ (EN), ‗CleanUpNyNow‘ (EN), or shortened versions of proper names like ‗Bartek‘ (PL), ‗Aguś‘ (PL), ‗MrBob‘ (SK), and others, or it can be the partial shortening like ‗iluvbball‘ (EN), where ‗bball‘ is presumably basketball, or ‗Forthewreckord‘ (EN) where ‗wreckord‘ is probably mis-spelled (intentionally?) shortening of world record. Last but not least, the omnipresent word-formation process that embraces all nicknames that are not based on first names in all the languages is conversion. Every such nickname is an outcome of at least a partial conversion – from a common noun to a proper noun, or even a full conversion from a verb, adjective, phrase, etc. to proper noun.

4. Semantic Point of View Before we turn to the semantic point, let‘s say a few words about the sense of Internet nicknames. They are not meant, like their real life predecessors are, to distinguish one bearer of the same name from another, or to create an atmosphere of familiarity, trust and friendliness. They serve several functions: users in this way protect their real identity, and have a unique opportunity to present themselves, to make a good impression at the first meeting. In real life, when you are introduced to other people, one‘s name is the least important piece of information. A smile, clothes, a handshake, body language, and appearance are of much greater importance. On the Internet, of course, you do not have any or most of these means to impress the other side, so all you can do is present yourself by means of your nickname. Plus, the nickname gives you the chance, which is rather limited in real life, to

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choose the people who talk to you, for example by hinting at your hobbies in your nickname so that only people with similar hobbies will contact you. Therefore, users try to give some information about themselves in their nicknames. It can be either their sex (in gender-sensitive language, because it is unusual for a boy to choose a nickname which has feminine grammatical gender, although the other way round is not unprecedented) or the origin (‗New Yorker‘ (EN), ‗VinnyfromBrooklyn‘ (EN)), or something more personal, like attitudes, likes and dislikes: for example, it is rather clear that someone called ‗gogogogiants‘ (EN) is a sports fan, that ‗CleanUpNyNow‘ (EN) has certain objections to the state of New York be it the cleanness of its streets or the morals of its city council, that ‗Brokeninsideme‘ (EN) probably has some psychological problems, and what ‗Nomorracism‘ (EN) often thinks about is the relations between particular races. Moreover, besides this rather straightforward way of describing themselves, users can express the desired values indirectly. This is especially true of nicknames on the forums attended mainly by teenagers. Girls this age want to be perceived as sweet and attractive whereas boys just the opposite, as rough and tough. So girls‘ nicknames are often flowers: ‗BelleFleur‘ (PL), ‗tulipan22‘ (PL), and ‗rumianek‘ (PL); or something edible (fruits and sweets): ‗sStrawberRy‘ (SK), ‗jagodziczek‘ (PL, Polish for blueberry), ‗truskaawkaa14‘ (PL, Polish for strawberry), ‗karczoch‘ (PL, Polish for artichoke), ‗dumpling‘ (EN), ‗karamelka03‘ (SK), and ‗lentill-ka‘ (SK); or some little animals considered cute or interesting: ‗ważka‘ (PL, Polish for dragonfly), ‗zajac112233‘ (SK), ‗9beruska‘ (SK), and ‗motylik141‘ (SK). Another group of girls‘ nicknames are those which, on the contrary, want to express that the girl is not a stereotypical girl with girlish interests: ‗ciernapuma‘ (SK), ‗krutafunebracka‘ (SK), ‗malapohroma‘ (SK), ‗kleopatra‘ (SK, PL), ‗Vampirzyca‘ (PL, Polish for vampiress), and ‗TaMałaWilczyca‘ (PL, Polish for ‗that small she-wolf‘). Typical or even stereotypical boys were inspired by various warriors, comic book heroes and other ―strong‖ characters, by guns, war, and film, etc., e.g. ‗torpedo08‘ (SK), ‗belzeboss‘ (SK), ‗duke05‘ (SK), ‗Zlodejruzi‘ (SK), ‗Psycho Krusher‘ (PL), ‗Spartacus‘ (PL), ‗Sokol‘ (PL), ‗Jack‘ (PL – from the profile picture of Jack Sparrow from The Pirates of the Caribbean it was clear who the nickname refers to), ‗onehandbandit‘ (SK), ‗ghost1511‘ (SK), ‗szeregowy89‘ (PL, Polish for soldier), ‗hovädo‘ (SK), and ‗kamikadze2008‘ (SK). Interestingly, and surprisingly, teenagers often take inspiration from school and classical culture: ‗plutvonozceakrivozubky‘ (SK), ‗otvoreneokno‘ (SK), ‗ujoperun‘ (SK), ‗atonrays‘ (SK), ‗ja liryczne‘ (PL, Polish for lyrical subject), ‗kleopatra‘ (PL, SK),

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‗Annnchesenamon‘ (PL), ‗kirke‘ (SK), ‗ishtar‘ (PL), ‗Spartacus‘ (PL), and ‗Templar knight‘ (SK). The degree of innovativeness and creativity correlates with the age of the users and the topic(s) they talk about, which, of course, are interrelated as well. Teenagers show the highest degree of inventiveness and their nicknames have two opposing functions: to hide their real identity and, at the same time, to say as much about their bearers as possible, sometimes containing whole opinions. They usually do not use their real names and, if so, use only their first name, or some familiar form or diminutive of it. The older the users and the more serious the topic, the more serious the names are. So, for example, on a forum where people give legal and administrative advice everybody uses their real names, sometimes full, sometimes only in part, sometimes even with the academic title intact. Of course, when studying Internet nicknames, especially if the research deals with age, sex and the like, we should bear in mind that the anonymity of the Internet also gives people a chance to pretend they are someone else and, therefore, our research can be marred by ―false‖ men, girls, teenagers, etc. On the other hand, in this paper, concerned with the creative process, the person of the creator is not of primary importance. To pass successfully as a teenage girl one has to follow some processes and ―rules‖ of creating a teenage girl‘s nickname, making it irrelevant whether the bearer of the ―typical teenage girl nickname‖ is a man in his eighties or a mother of four.

5. Conclusion Internet nicknames offer their bearers a unique opportunity to express their whole identity or ideal identity which they wish to present in their name. Some users choose the stable, conservative method and stay with their first name, others invent a new one, which is often meant to say something about them. In this process, they can be very creative from several points of view, including word-formation, semantic content and orthography. The means and degree of this linguistic creativity varies according to the seriousness of the forums and the (supposed) age of the users. However, language has almost no impact on the degree of creativity, only on the choice of means (mainly in word-formation). We can conclude now, that language innovativeness certainly concerns also the choice of the nickname to be used in Internet discussions.

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Bibliography LOCHER, Miriam A., and Jürg STRÄSSER (Eds.). (2008). Contributions to the Sociology of Language: Standards and Norms in the English language. Berlin; New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Internet pages from which the nicknames were taken: www.birdz.sk www.diva.sk www.post.sk www.yahoo.com www.thoughts.com www.narkoza.pl www.forumnasze.pl Resumé Dôleņitou časťou identity, najmä pre mladých ľudí, je ich existencia na internete. Rôzne fóra, mailové servery a sociálne siete ponúkajú nespočetné moņnosti pre prezentáciu alebo vylepńenie svojej identity, či dokonca aj pre vytvorenie úplne novej. Tak ako meno v reálnom svete, aj vo virtuálnom je prezývka/prihlasovacie meno/ „nick― prvý poznávací znak. Na rozdiel od skutočného mena, ktoré dostávame pri narodení prv, neņ môņeme súhlasiť alebo protestovať, internetovú prezývku si kaņdý vyberá sám podľa svojich chutí a preferencií. Prezývka sa tak stáva zdrojom informácií nielen o tom, aký jej nositeľ je, ale aj o tom, aký by chcel byť alebo sa ako by chcel javiť ostatným. Tu zrejme treba hľadať aj korene nezvyčajnej kreativity a nápaditosti, ktorú pri výbere internetových prezývok pozorujeme. Príspevok skúma prezývky členov slovenských, anglických a poľských diskusných fór práve z tohto „kreatívneho― hľadiska, čiņe z pohľadu slovotvorných procesov, sémantického obsahu a pravopisu, ktoré boli pouņité pri výbere a tvorbe internetových prezývok. Pozornosť bola venovaná aj lexikálnemu, sémantickému a lingvistickému hľadisku. Ďalej sa v príspevku skúma závislosť kreativity, inovatívnosti a nápaditosti prezývok v závislosti od národnosti, pohlavia a predpokladaného veku nositeľa prezývky.

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LINGUISTICS Interpersonal and Crosscultural Communication: Australian Aborigines and Central European Romanies Jitka Vlčková Masaryk University, Brno 1. Aspects of Communication Communication between people in different parts of the world has many faces and occurs at different levels while taking on a great variety of forms which are shaped by cultural norms. In practice this means that some behavioural communicative patterns in one culture may remain unobserved in another, or some patterns which are considered positive in one culture may be misunderstood and seen as undesirable in another (and vice versa). By a behavioural communicative pattern we understand ―a recurrent way of acting by an individual or group toward a given object or in a given situation‖ (dict.com). In other words it is cultural rules implemented in interaction, including ways of speaking and body language in face-to-face encounters. The above suggests that communication is a complex phenomenon, which, in RafflerEngel words ―operates on three channels: the unmaterial of shared and unshared presupposition, the vocal auditory channel of language and paralanguage and the visual channel…‖ (1980: 1). In reference to language the author says that it is ―the verbal rules and the rules of the ethnography of speaking. Paralanguage covers volume, pitch, intonation, pauses, phonation ration (the ratio between speech and pauses), stress, rhythm, and tempo‖ (ibid.). The visual is the non-verbal, both intentional and unintentional. It has been found that nonverbal processes account for more than 55 % of communication (Mehrabian 1968) found that words count for 7 %, tone of voice 38 % and body language 55 %); in some cultures the non-verbal element may account for as much as 70 % of the communication (http://africa.aeduproject.net/). It is not easy for an individual or a group to ‗translate‘ the behavioural pattern of a different cultural or ethnic group and accordingly adjust one‘s own patterns in the attempt to communicate successfully. As Schleflen (1980: 12) notes, the patterns that a person learns, are not determined by chance, but by the particular tradition in which s/he is brought up. ―Any particular member will learn those particular patterns of his repertoire that are appropriate to his social class and status, his gender, his health, his skills and his special positions in groups.

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[...] The understanding of a message is then a ‗cumulative result of the very exchange of communication against the background of shared and unshared presuppositions‖ (ibid.). Taking the example of the Aboriginal people in Australia and the Romany people in Central Europe, this paper will briefly explore some of the aspects of communication within an ethnic community and between different ethnic communities, i.e. situations of intra- and intercultural communication, when individuals from the same country but with different ethnic or racial backgrounds are involved (Jensen 1998a: 39).

This requires from the

participants to process a message produced in another culture (Samovar and Porter 1982: 6). According to Wiseman (2003), successful intercultural communication depends on three components: knowledge (information necessary to interact appropriately and effectively), motivation (positive feeling toward the other culture, empathy), skills (behaviour necessary to interact appropriately and effectively). The presented study aims at showing the most important cultural specifics in Aboriginal and Romany communities and prominent features in their communication and behaviour which, in the encounters with the white community, cause misunderstanding, often leading to resentment and even scorn due to misinterpretation. Aboriginals in Australia and Romanies in Europe constitute disempowered minorities, sometimes perceived by the powerful majority as being primitive and uncivilized. Our own experience tells us that there is little interest and motivation on the majority‘s side to understand them. One of the reasons for misinterpretation in communication is in the values of each culture: some cultures value individualism, others collectivism. The white culture is individualistic whereas Aboriginal and Romany cultures are collectivist. The primary goal in the members of individualistic cultures is in their own achievements, self-reliance and responsibility to self; whereas, in the members of collectivistic cultures, it is obligations to others in their group. Individualistic cultures are more direct and solution-oriented in their approach because they are more tolerant of conflict use, whereas members of collectivistic cultures are less direct in striving to maintain balance (Adler and Rodman 2003: 276 – 278). In connection with (mis)interpretation, it has been observed (Adler and Rodman 2003: 36) that in any contact, including the one across cultural boundaries, ―we tend to assume others are similar to us, we tend to cling to first impressions, even if wrong, and favour negative impressions over positive ones.‖ In other words, if the other party does not project their identity in communication in a way similar to that which is current our culture, we may

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perceive their action as threatening; for example, by not having our recognized norms of etiquette observed (Brown and Levinson 1987). 2. Australian Aborigines and Central European Romanies â&#x20AC;&#x201C; What Do They Have in Common? One may ask why look for parallels between Aboriginal Australians and Romany peoples in the Czech Republic (and other countries of Central Europe) when they live so far apart and when there is contact between the two cultures? The answer is to be sought both in history and the current situation Aboriginal and Romany peoples find themselves in. The goal of the pilot study was to find possible interferences between the Aboriginal and white cultures, as well as between the Romany and Czech (Central European) cultures. The paper draws on data obtained thru a questionnaire, which was administered to 25 Romanies in the Czech Republic who could speak English, and also personal encounters with Romany people. As for Aborigines, the source was several films with no or little participation of Aboriginal professional actors, such as Samson and Delilah (dir .W. Thornton) and Alinta the Flame, where the script was created with the help of an Aboriginal (Hyllus Marris) and in which a traditional Aboriginal tribe was engaged. The language they use is Aboriginal (English subtitles) and it is possible to presume that their communication reflects their natural and authentic ways and is not markedly influenced by possible instructions from the film director. The Table below lists aspects that can be considered most prominent in Aboriginal and Romany cultures:

Aspect

Aboriginal

Romany

1. Origin (came from)

Asia

2. Social organization

band/group

tribe

3. Way of life

nomadic

4. Culture

contact/collective

horizontal/oral

vertical/oral

Aboriginal â&#x20AC;&#x201C; many

Walchian, Sinti + dialects

5. Language

(originally 600) 6. Language today

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Aboriginal Australian

Walchian, Sinti

(ethnolect/creole)

Romany Czech, Romany

affected by European local languages (ethnolect) 7. Communication

NV more important than V

8. Verbal communication

Silence, taboos, specific

taboos, specific politeness

politeness ‗dreaming‘

‗Romanyia‗

(customary/oral)

10. Effects of state

Native languages->

Romany banned at schools->

assimilation policy

language death

creolized Czech

9. Law & order

(ethnolect) 11. Social status

low

12. Exposed to racial

yes

stereotype

As mentioned above the presumed origin of both ethnic groups is in Asia. It is known that they were Nomads. The Nomadic way of life and climatic conditions prevented them from accumulating property, cultivating land, and storing food. They lived and moved in hordes, i.e. in groups of various sizes (tribes, bands), which spoke different languages. In Australia, the estimates are as many as 600 (e.g. Ward 1992; Bakalář 2004). Traditional wisdom was passed from generation to generation orally; there were no records in any form. Aboriginal nomadism was gradually made impossible as their land was taken by the whites. Romany nomadism in Czechoslovakia was banned in 1958, and families were forcibly dispersed (CT24 11.11.2008). Both Aboriginal and Romany cultures are considered to be contact and collectivist. Contact cultures are characterized by a high degree of physical contact or proximity. This is reflected in the extent to which people within a culture touch, embrace, shake hands, or stand close to one another. For example, South American cultures are for the most part high contact cultures, whereas U.S. and British and a lot of European cultures are low contact. Difficulties occur when people of both types of culture meet: feeling your space is being invaded by someone standing too close; feeling that friendship and trust are lacking because someone is standing too far away during conversation; uncomfortable feelings from being touched; or a feeling of unfriendliness from not being touched, may arise (Ahmad 1992). ―Emotions and passions are linked directly to the body, and are contrasted with the rational

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operation of the mind which is the basis of representation and communication‖ (Joseph 2004: 16; on conventionality of emotion and gestures and their linguistic expression cf. also Kudrnáčová 1998). For example, there is scene in the film where Aboriginal people touch each other‘s bodies in places and ways that are unacceptable in western culture, such as females stroking each other‘s upper parts of their bodies in a ‗ritual‘ of welcome. Individualistic and collectivist cultures: In individualistic cultures, the face of the individual is more important than the face of the group, there is more competitiveness, and individuals rely more on themselves than on other members in the group. ―In the Romany community individualistic attempts are seen as turning away from the Romany tradition and culture as such. Romanies do not have the need of pursuing personal ambitions, such as professional career.‖ (transl. from: Bakalář 2004: 76). Ting-Toomey (2005) notes that in collectivist cultures, the face of the group is more important than the face of any individual in the group. The arrangement of Aboriginal societies was horizontal; there was no chieftain and decisions were taken by elders. The expressions of ‗brother‘ or ‗sister‘ were used in addressing other members, though these may not be blood siblings. This fact obviously contributed to a strong social cohesion. Romany groups had a hierarchy structure; they were ‗vertical‘, with the oldest or most respected man of the kin (‗vajda‘) having most power (Brychta 2010; Čengerová 2009). In collectivist cultures, there is more cooperativeness than in individualistic cultures, and verbal communication is vaguer and employs fewer words. Silence is frequently an inseparable part of conversation in some cultures, including Aboriginal. Eades (www.elit.edu.au) comments on silence: When they start school, Aboriginal children have to learn to interact in the dominant question-answer pattern, which we have seen to be much more direct than the patterns they are generally used to. They are also quite likely to find that the silence which is used frequently and positively in Aboriginal conversations is interrupted by teachers, who misinterpret it as a sign that the children are ignorant, shy or unwilling to cooperate. We need to understand that the Aboriginal response to a question will often start with silence, not because of ignorance, but because this is the Aboriginal way of communicating. In Aboriginal societies, silence usually indicates a participant‘s desire to think. (Walsh and Yallop 2005: 187). ―Because Aboriginal people are so accustomed to using silence in conversation with other Aboriginal people, many are uncomfortable if they are not given the chance to use silence in their conversations or interviews with non-Aboriginal people.‖ (ibid.)

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As people of some other Asian cultures, Aboriginals believe that ‗remaining silent is the proper state when there is nothing to be said. To them, a talkative person is considered a show-off or insincere. Western culture generally views talk as desirable, as a demonstration of interest, while silence in conversational situations is interpreted as a lack of interest, and a sign of interpersonal incapability, or even hostility (Giles, Coupland, and Wieman 1992). Silence is often understood in negative terms, such as ignorance or secrecy (―if he didn‘t have something to hide, he‘d speak up‖) (Adler and Rodman 2003: 155). Silence is also related to taboos. Both in Aboriginal and Romany cultures, mentioning the name of a deceased person is not allowed. This may cause problems and misunderstanding, for example, in police investigations and court hearings. ‗Romanyia‘ is the rule that Romanies must follow according to their spiritual beliefs. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Aboriginal_avoidance_practices)

3. Aboriginal and Romany Languages Today Historical events and processes did not pass without major effects on both ethnic societies. Most Australians, who today identify themselves as Aboriginal, speak varieties of English as their first language. The fact that such people speak little or none of their traditional Aboriginal languages is often used by non-Aboriginal people as evidence that these people are ―not really‖ Aboriginal. This puts Aboriginal people in a disadvantaged position in issues of needs and rights in areas such as politics, land rights and education‖ (Eades 1988). ―Aboriginal English reflects grammatically the structure of traditional Aboriginal languages. For example, the plural -s marking on nouns in English is frequently absent in Aboriginal English (e.g. 'one dog: 'two dog'). This is a reflection of the traditional Aboriginal languages in which plural is rarely overtly marked. Such features have led to a widespread tendency among non-Aboriginal Australians to regard Aboriginal English as a deficient variety of English‖ (www.elit.edu.au/medial library). However, ―it is not only the actual words people use which reflect and create continuities of Aboriginal culture. In contemporary Aboriginal society, we see continuities of traditional norms concerning who an individual can speak to and in what ways. For example, the standard English word mother means ‗the woman who gave birth to a person, or her equivalent‘. But in many varieties of Aboriginal English the word mother means ‗the woman who gave birth to a person, and that woman‘s sisters‘. This shows a continuity from the kinship organisation of traditionally oriented societies, where a mother‘s sister is often treated as a mother, and a single word would translate into standard English both as ‗mother‘ and ‗mother ‘s sister‖ (Eades, www.elit.edu.au/mediallibrary). Slovak Studies in English, Vol. 3, 2011 – Identity in Intercultural Communication

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The Romany language in its varieties has been highly influenced by the languages spoken in countries where Romanies live; as a consequence, a number of local dialects (ethnolects) have developed. There are a few studies of the Roma ethnolect of Czech (e.g. Hübschmannová 2002; Bořkovcová, 2007). As most studies note, young Romany people in particular can speak neither the Roma language nor Czech correctly. Sometimes they grow up in homes where Romany is spoken and it is only when they come to school that they are forced to learn Czech. The problem is that they think in Romany and do not understand abstract concepts (such as math), as there are no equivalents in Romany. They do not understand the subject matter because they do not understand the language. As a consequence, these children are considered stupid and are put in special schools (Řeháček 2010; Bakalář 2004: 75). The Romany ethnolect of Czech manifests deviation from SCz at all levels, perhaps semantic calques can serve as examples: ―Hoď ji víno!‖ (*throw her wine) hodit – from R, čhivel = ‗throw‘, but also ‗pour‘. There are also examples of deviated collocations: ―Ten baráček nám rozbili‖ (they * broke up (= destroyed) our house) (Bořkovcová 2007: 65 – 66). In addition to verbal language, there are great differences in cultural norms and practices of nonverbal behaviour. Nonverbal communication, both intentional and unintentional, refers to processes between the communicating parties, other than the spoken word. As mentioned above, successful interaction in intercultural settings requires not only understanding of verbal messages but of nonverbal messages as well. A characteristic feature of nonverbal communication is that it is less systematized than verbal communication; it is culture-bound and ambiguous. (http://africa.aeduproject.net/). Gestures are an inseparable part of both Aboriginal and Romany communication. Words in Romany are multivocal and semantically imprecise. The meaning is then derived from the speaker‘s body language. A similar thing can be said about dances – neither Aboriginal nor Romany dances are performed for their own sake, they constitute part of a much wider and important non-verbal ‗vocabulary‘. (www.orientalnitanec.cz). Eye contact is an inseparable component of non-verbal communication Whereas members of western cultures tend to look away from a conversational partner while speaking, and at the partner while listening, some other cultures, including Aboriginal, do the opposite, they look more at their partner while speaking and less when listening (Adler and Rodman 2003: 40). This difference may lead to communication problems without either person realizing the cause. The use of more eye contact in the white culture is interpreted as paying

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more attention. A lack of eye contact in a person from another culture may be considered a sign of inattention or rudeness when quite the opposite could be true (ibid.). Law and order – ‗Romanyia‘, the Romany law mentioned in connection with taboos, defines the rules Romanies must follow according to their spiritual beliefs. Any behaviour that affects the group is either ―clean‖ or ―unclean‖. Romany law ensures that the legal system of the host country affects the life of the Roma community as little as possible. Romanies are aware of gaje law. Gaje (non-Roma) is ‗unclean‘ (marime). Romanies believe that their names and rituals lose the power if revealed to a gaje. Any crime against another Roma is ‗marime‘. On the level of politeness, interpersonal communication in Romany culture is conspicuous by a lack of thanking, especially among family members. Though the word paľikerav (thank you) does exist, it is scarcely used. The reason is not ignorance or impoliteness of Romany people, but the fact that mutual help is considered to be natural part of family life. Aborigines also have a lot of laws, many of which are secret and sacred and never revealed to a white person. Their rules of behaviour have roots in their set of customary laws, ‗Dreaming‘. Similar, though not exactly the same of what has been said about Romanies applies to Aboriginals – in the traditional groups, anything that might endanger the group is punished. The politeness principles, as they are known in western cultures, do not fully apply; there are certain principles of obligations, and therefore there is no need of special phrases of politeness in the sense of ―would you mind‖, ―could you please‖, or ―thanks‖. Most Aboriginal languages and Romany dialects have no word for ―please‖ or ―thank you‖ (on Romany: cf. Rous 2003).

4. Romany English in the Czech Republic The issues discussed briefly above are crucial to ethnic identity. The following part of this paper will provide information about the survey which was conducted among Romany people in the Czech Republic who could speak (at least some) English. The goal was to detect which of the two cultures, i.e. Romany or Czech, prevail in their communication in English. The questionnaire comprised questions related to everyday situations. The participants were asked to tick off an answer in English and also state the corresponding utterance in Romany. Here are some examples: Example 1. A fellow traveller on the train asks you a question but you don‘t understand because of the noise. What will you say? a) What? b) Pardon? (Sorry?) Slovak Studies in English, Vol. 3, 2011 – Identity in Intercultural Communication

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c) Speak up, please. d) I‘m sorry I can‘t hear you. e) I am afraid I don‘t understand. It‘s noisy here, isn‘t it? Most respondents chose answer a), followed by d) and b) and eventually c). A very similar picture was provided for Romany.

Example 2. You have dinner with your friend and your meal needs more flavouring. The salt is on the opposite side of the table. How would you ask for it? a) Pass me the salt. b) I need the salt. c) Could you pass me the salt, please? d) Would you mind passing me the salt, please? Most respondents chose a) and b) while no one chose d). For Romany, they favoured a) and b), no one opted d). The following situation requires conversational cooperation in order to get the desired information: Example 3: You are in a foreign city for the first time and you get lost. How would you ask a bystander for help? a) Where is the station, please? b) Excuse me. Could you tell me the way to the station? c) I wonder if you could help me. How can I get to the station? d) Would you mind telling me the way to the station? The overwhelming majority of respondents (86.4 %) preferred a direct question followed by the polite marker ―please‖. Only 13.6 % would engage a ‗hinting strategy‘ (using Leech‘s terminology) and start with an apology ―Excuse me‖, followed by a more indirect question. No informant ticked off the ―superpolite‖ questions c) or d). Leech (1983) says, ―…we cannot automatically assume the right to engage someone in conversation, let alone to use that conversation as a means to our own ends‖ (p. 140). That is why tact in English is engaged in the form of ―indirect askings such as I wonder if you would...‖ (141). The speaker ―does not feel entitled to ask h[earer] a question, and therefore expresses interest in knowing the answer to the question in a manner which suggests that it is no part of h[earer]‘s responsibility to provide it‖ (141). As for the question in Romany, the most frequent answer was also a). Only a few respondents (9 %) stated b). All the informants who answered this question ticked off the

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same answers question both in English and Romany, irrespective of the language they knew better (Romany or Czech). Thus, it can be concluded that their language behaviour in English seems to be highly influenced by Romany. The reaction to the last example testifies to the maintenance of Romany cultural norms: Ex. 4. You visit your Romany friends living in Britain. They serve a meal which you don‘t really like. What will you say? a) Mmmm… delicious. b) Well, it doesn‘t seem to be typical English cuisine, is it? c) I think it needs more flavouring. d) To be honest: I don‘t particularly like it. e) No answer Most respondents (64 %) chose the first answer; the remaining 36 % did not provide any answer. If a visitor comes to a Romany family, s/he is usually offered something to drink and something to eat. Even if the meal is not tasty, the visitor should pay a compliment as an expression of respect for the family.

5. Conclusion Aboriginals in Australia and Romanies in Central Europe have preserved a strong ethnic identity in spite of the long-time oppression and later attempts of integration exerted on them by the powerful white majority. Imposed ethnocentric practices striving for both Aboriginal and Romany adaptation and complete integration failed. Today, there are only few speakers of Aboriginal languages in Australia. Aboriginals developed their own variety of Australian English, which is not fully understood by the whites, as numerous examples from court interrogations exemplify (cf., e.g. Eades 2008). Though the mutual obligations as they were observed in the past disappeared with the destruction of traditional Aboriginal life, there are still certain features in behaviour and communication that are typical of collective cultures. Romany people in Central Europe have preserved most of their laws which control their behaviour both internally and externally. Individuals who achieved some kind of higher education and are seemingly accommodated in the ‗gaje‘ society, still observe the traditional ways in their behaviour and communication, testifying thus to their predominantly Romany identity.

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Bibliography ADLER, Ronald, and George RODMAN (2003). Understanding Human Communication. OUP. BOŘKOVCOVÁ, Máńa (2007). Romský etnolekt češtiny. Signeta. BEDNÁŘ, Petr (2004). Psychologie Romů. Praha: Votobia. BRYCHTA, Oldřich (2010). Romská otázka: diskriminace, stereotypy, xenofobie. Bc dipl.práce. utb.cz BROWN, Penelope, and Stephen C. LEVINSON (1987). Politeness: Some universals in language usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ČENGEROVÁ, Zuzana (2009). Odraz tradičních romských postojů, hodnot, symboliky a ņivotních zkuńeností v argotu čtyř jazyků. Člověk. clovek.ff.cuni.cz EADES, Diana (1988). They don´t speak an Aboriginal language, do they? In Ian Keen (Ed.), Being Black: Aboriginal Cultures in “Settled” Australia. Aboriginal Studies Press. EADES, Diana (2008). Courtroom Talk and Neocolonial Control. Mouton de Gruyter. GILES, H., Nik. COUPLAND, and J.M WIEMAN (1992). ‗Talk is cheap… but my word is my bond‘: Beliefs about talk. In K. Bolton and H.Kwok (Eds.), Sociolingustics Today: International Perspectives. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. H BSCHMANNOVÁ, Milena (2002). Ńaj Pes Dovakeras. Můţeme se domluvit. Univerzita Palackého. JENSEN, Iben (1998a). Interkulturel Kommunikation i Komplekse Samfund. Roskilde Universitetsforlag. In: Journal of Intercultural Communication. 16, April 2008. http://www.immi.se/intercultural/. JOSEPH, John E. (2004). Language and Identity: National, Ethnic, Religious. Palgrave. KNAPP, Mark L., and Anita I. VANGELISTI (1996). Some meanings of Silence. Interpersonal Communication and Human Relationships. Allyn & Bacon. KUDRNÁČOVÁ, Naděņda (1998). Intentionality of Action in Body Part Movements. Brno Studies in English 24, 79 – 86. LEECH, Geoffrey (1983). Principles of Pragmatics. Longman. ROUS, Jiří (2003). Romové. Kabinet multikulturní výchovy Brno. RAFFLER-ENGELI, Walburga von (1980). Aspects of Nonverbal Communication. Swets and Zeitlinger B.V.-Lisse. SCHLEFEN, Albert E. (1980). Systems in Human Communication. In Walburga von RafflerEngel (Ed.), Aspects of Nonverbal Communication (7 – 28). SAMOWAR, Larry A., Richard E. PORTER, and Edwin R. McDANIEL (1982). Intercultural Communication: A Reader. Wadsworth. ŃVEJDOVÁ, Kateřina. Multikulturnì ošetřovatelstvì. www.scripta.kachiita.net TING-TOOMEY, S. (2005). The Matrix of Face: An Updated Face-Negotiation Theory. In W.B. Gudykunst (Ed.), Theorizing About Intercultural Communication (71 – 92). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. WALSCH, Michael, and Collin YALLOP (Eds.). (2005). Language and Culture in Aboriginal Australia. Aboriginal Studies Press. WARD, Michael (1993). Concise History of Australia. QUP. WISEMAN, Richard L. (2003). Intercultural Communication Competence. In: William B. Gudykunst (Ed.), Cross-Cultural and Intercultural Communication (191 – 208). Thousand Oaks: Sage. http://africa.aeduproject.net/communication/media/Theory_for_teachers http://studie.blog.cz/rubrika/jake-maji-jednotlive-skupiny-romu-u-nas-vzajemne-vztahy

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www.orientalnitanec.cz www.czechkid.cz/si1350.html www.sdb.cz/domisal CT24 11.11.2008 Resumé Studie uvádí hlavní charakteristické rysy kolektivních a individualistických cultur. Srovnává postavení potomků původního obyvatelstva Austrálie a Romů v České republice (střední Evropě) a jejich začlenění do majoritní společnosti. Kolonizace Austrálie vedla k téměř naprosté likvidaci původních domorodých kultur, včetně jazyků. Postupem času vznikla nová varianta australské angličtiny, „Aboriginal English―, která má svoje specifika, jejichņ neznalost v řadách majoritní skupiny vede k neporozumění nebo misinterpretaci, někdy s fatálními následky (např. soudní jednání). Romové v Evropě si do značné míry udrņeli svou integritu, nicméně jazyk se nikterak nevyvíjí a zůstává komunikačním prostředkem v domácím prostředí. Úzká svázanost s komunitou se projevuje i u vzdělanějńích Romů při komunikaci v jiných jazycích.

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LITERATURE Tales from India: Aravind Adiga in the Role of a Travel Guide Simona Hevešiová University of Constantine the Philosopher, Nitra The search for one‘s identity and the process of its (re)construction rank among the most frequent discourses in contemporary academic discussions. The concept of identity has been scrutinized within a variety of disciplinary areas and from many perspectives, such as psychoanalytical, social constructionist or ideological but also in terms of its representation in the literary form through the view of essentialists or structuralists. To large extent, the preoccupation with identity and the self in the literary milieu has been fuelled by the emergence of postcolonial and ethnic writing, which has gained prominence in the last decades and became almost fashionable to deal with (at least at Western universities). In fact, the explosion of theories and new concepts of identity aiming to investigate the mysterious depths of human mind triggered Madan Sarup to mark the ―widespread, pervasive fascination with identity‖ as a ―symptom of postmodernity‖ (1996: 28). However, there has been a noticeable development within the field that has marked a shifting terrain in the studies. As Zygmunt Bauman pointed out, the ―modern ‗problem of identity‘ was how to construct an identity and keep it solid and stable, the postmodern ‗problem of identity‘ is primarily how to avoid fixation and keep the options open‖ (Bauman 1996: 18). In general, the self has been exposed to a crucial and dramatic transformation since its (re)evolution which has contributed to the alteration of its essential characteristics. It has gone from being marked as homogeneous and unified to being viewed as transitory and polysemous. The idea of a coherent, centered and integrated identity has disappeared and been replaced by its flexible, fragmented and ambiguous counterpart. With the traditional views being undermined a new concept regarding identity as ―fabricated, constructed, in process‖ (Sarup 1996: 14) has supplanted them. Clearly, the postmodern world is a world of dynamism that leads to the reconstitution of the self that no longer possesses stability and fixedness. Instead, contradiction, inconsistency and hybridization take their place. In consequence, identity becomes a multidimensional space in which both psychological and sociological aspects have to be taken into consideration and which give rise to a relational self. It can be viewed as a ―mediating concept between the external and the internal, the individual and society‖ (ibid.: 28), adjusting the self-definition to the changing relationships with others.

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Writers such as Zadie Smith, Hanif Kureishi, Monica Ali, Diran Adebayo, Sunetra Gupta, Romesh Gunesekera, Caryl Phillips, Kiran Desai or Jhumpa Lahiri, to name just a few, all deal with questions of identity in their novels. As Mária Kińńová points out, ‖the formation of the notion of identity and belonging are the key concepts of postcolonial literature discussed by McLeod, Spivak, Bhabha and many others‖ (2006: 93). Most of the current narratives, from the postcolonial literary spectrum or those that are labeled as postcolonial, are set in the multicultural centers of the contemporary metropolis where different cultures coexist side by side. The protagonists, often immigrants or their descendants, inhabit a strange space in between two cultures, which forces them to renegotiate their identities and come into terms with the challenges this position poses to them. Contemporary postcolonial writing seems to be so suffused with diverse comments on identity that, from certain perspectives, it appears to be stuck in the same place. Despite their unique style, poetics and their ability to lure the reader into the inner world of the characters, the stories seem to recycle the same notions or problems again and again. The Indian writer Aravind Adiga brings a little bit of fresh air into the stale atmosphere. Born in Madras in 1974, Adiga has achieved international acclaim with his debut novel The White Tiger, which won the Man Booker Prize for Fiction in 2008. Over the course of seven nights, Balram Halwai, the ambivalent protagonist of the story, recounts his journey from the dark world of servants to the shiny life of successful entrepreneurs. Revealing the rotten mechanisms that move Indian society and the omnipresent corruption and amorality, Balram himself becomes part of the machinery by murdering his employer. The book, both funny and gruesome at the same time, portrays life in India as the author got to know it during his life and his travels. Yet as he points out, India has changed tremendously and not all of its inhabitants were able to come into terms with these changes. As the writer states: ―[t]he past fifty years have seen tumultuous changes in India's society, and these changes – many of which are for the better – have overturned the traditional hierarchies, and the old securities of life. A lot of poorer Indians are left confused and perplexed by the new India that is being formed around them.‖51 What the novel seems to suggest is that there are no securities or fixedness in social structures that have been in operation for generations and have determined the shape of Indian identity. Balram himself floats easily from one identity to another as he climbs up the social ladder and the only distinction that he is willing to accept in relation to India‘s social diversity

http://www.bookbrowse.com/author_interviews/full/index.cfm?author_number=1552

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is the division into the India of Darkness, or as he calls it, the world of small bellies, and the India of Light, i.e. the world of big bellies. At the end of the novel Balram has gone a very long way and is as far from his origins as he can be, thus eluding any attempt at putting a label on him. The author himself attempts to avoid clear identification; in one of the interviews he claimed that he does not necessarily see himself as an Indian author: ―As a writer, I don't feel tied to any one identity; I'm happy to draw influences from wherever they come.‖52 Adiga‘s second published book Between the Assassinations, which he wrote before The White Tiger, discusses identity both on the personal and cultural (or national) level. Most of the stories do not open this discourse explicitly, yet the preoccupation with the topic is omnipresent and seems to be rooted in the very culture the book refers to. The text itself is very elusive in terms of genre identification and structure; in fact, it repudiates any attempt at defining it with a single and ultimate tag. The thick volume looks like a novel but it consists of separate short stories; it also contains simple maps and other typographical elements that refer to the format of a guidebook53 and masquerade fiction as fact. In terms of style, the stories are written in a straightforward way and are devoid of the dense usage of symbolism characteristic for short stories. On the other hand, it lacks the profound characterization and formal unity typical for novels. Adiga is simply a master of disguise (like some of his characters). Kittur, the fictional setting of Adiga‘s book, represents a small town vibrant with life and energy. The temporal framing of the stories dates from the assassination of Indira Gandhi on 31 October 1984 to the assassination of her son Rajiv on 21 May 1991 (hence the title). By employing an unusual format for his writing, reminding one of the structure of a guidebook, Adiga puts the reader in the role of a tourist who, in Bauman‘s words, ―is a conscious and systematic seeker of experience, of a new and different experience, of the experience of difference and novelty‖ (Bauman 1996: 29). The gaze of the tourist might be perfunctory, as the brief factual descriptions of the town‘s monuments and places of interest suggest; yet Adiga forces the recipient to look under the surface of the tourist glamour. The factual54 descriptions of various places of interest and short digressions into the town‘s history or its linguistic and religious diversity are accompanied by stories of its inhabitants. These stories, which are always related to a particular monument or a place in Kittur, reveal another face of 52 53 54

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ibid. The section ‗Contents‘, for example, is structured as an itinerary. Since Kittur is a fictional town Adiga created for his own purposes, one has to bear in mind that the factual parts of the book referring to the town‘s history, social and demographic landscape are fictional as well. The author thus creates an illusion (that of a guidebook which is not a guidebook at all) and complicates the matter even further by blending the borders between the objective and the subjective.

the town, one which a tourist cannot access normally, and they provide a glimpse into what lies beyond the appealing fabrications of tourist machinery. At first sight, the town is presented as an ideal tourist destination – it is a place with a rich historical background and is inhabited by diverse religious and ethnic communities. As the introductory passage of the travel guide informs the reader, ―[g]iven the town‘s richness of history and scenic beauty, and diversity of religion, race, and language, a minimum stay of a week is recommended‖ (Adiga 2009: 1). The central street of the town, namely Umbrella Street, accommodates a pornographic cinema, a manufacturer of beedis, an ice cream shop, an English-language film theatre and a Chinese restaurant together with a Ganapati Temple, a Roman Catholic suburb, a Hindu suburb and a Muslim area. Temples exist alongside mosques, cathedrals and churches, and Hindus live side by side with Muslims and Christians; there are the poor and the rich, the masters and the servants, the high castes and the low castes. Yet what appears as a multicultural and multireligious paradise is in fact a battlefield of races, castes, classes and religions fuelled by prejudices and stereotypes. Words like ‗Brahmin‘, ‗Hoyka‘ or ‗low-caste‘ are thrown into people‘s faces as the worst offence. The history of the town, as the book informs us, has been marked by constant religious unrests and riots, violated treaties and conflicts, be it among the Arabs, the Portuguese or Mohammedans to name just a few. The town was ruled and inhabited by so many different groups of people that it failed to achieve a unified common identity that would embrace its diversity. The unrests and the violations of the past are obviously recast into the present and become the unofficial trademark of the town, where it has gone so far that real-estate transactions masquerade as religious riots (ibid.: 162). As far as the town‘s demographic diversity is concerned, there are clear rules in operation – boundaries that are not to be crossed and which prevent different groups from mingling. Identifying with one group may automatically lead to repudiation from certain social and professional spheres as the opening sentence of the introductory story suggests. Obviously, it outlines Kittur‘s problems springing from its cultural and religious diversity and unmasks the real face of the town. Moreover, the vast majority of characters in the stories are introduced to the reader in terms of their caste, religious denomination or social status (some of them even remain nameless) as if these labels would imply the existence of fixed and solid identities. Unmistakably, they are supposed to facilitate mutual contacts and communication as they evidently outline the territories in which they operate. But the stories continue to

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demonstrate that these labels and the characteristics that are attached to them are completely meaningless and imaginary. Let me mention a few examples. The protagonist of the first story is Ziauddin, a small Muslim boy, who has miraculously found employment in the local tea-and-samosa shop despite the fact that ―[n]one of the shopkeepers near the railway station would hire a Muslim‖ (ibid.: 3). The first sentence uttered by the boy when addressing his future employer is an evident statement of selfidentification. Ziauddin‘s ―I am a Muslim, sir‖ (ibid.) clearly implies that the boy associates his religious denomination with some personal qualities and characteristics (evidently positive ones) and expects others to recognize them as well. Two pages later, however, the boy announces vehemently that he is Pathan, which is obviously better than being a Muslim and even better than being a Hindu. Even at his age, Ziauddin understands that belonging to a certain group is far more beneficial than being a member of some other so he assumes those religious or ethnic identities that suit him best in a given situation. But the matter is complicated even further when one of the locals starts claiming that ―Pathans are whiteskinned, like Imran Khan,‖ and the boy is ―as black as an African‖ (ibid.: 7). The rich and spoilt boy Shankara, the hero of another story, faces similar problems as Ziauddin.55 Being born half-Brahmin and half-Hoyka, Shankara finds himself in a conflicting position in between two different castes which leads to a dramatic turn of events. Shankara, feeling that the hated chemistry professor humiliates him because of his origin, decides to explode a bomb in the classroom. This act of violence, meant as a form of protest, represents Shankara‘s attempt to silence his own rage and helplessness, yet it also produces an atmosphere of fear and inflames further anger and suspicions. The world that the boy lives in is a world of contradictions. Among his Hoyka relatives, Shankara is viewed as their superior since he is half-Brahmin, i.e. he belongs to a higher caste. Among Brahmins, he is looked down upon because of his Hoyka heritage that degrades his social position despite the fact that he comes from a rich family. The very family is divided by an impenetrable boundary produced by the caste system and Shankara decides to fight against it.

I have burst a bomb to end the 5,000-year-old caste system that still operates in our country. I have burst a bomb to show that no man should be judged, as I have been, merely by the accident of his birth. (ibid.: 57)

Like Ziauddin who adopts identities as it suits him, Shankara has also been willing to change his denomination and become a Christian since there are no castes among them.

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This pathetic message that the boy addresses to the police in an imaginary interview sharply contrasts with his own behaviour. Shankara is not only a victim of prejudices and cultural bias; he himself acts according to them (although unconsciously). He looks down upon his chauffeur and his relatives in the same way he is discriminated for his own background, which only documents how deeply rooted the notions of caste are in Indian society. As the boy gets involved with caste business more intensely (by attending some rallies), a world of absurdity is uncovered before him. As one professor informs him, the Hoyka caste, which already belongs to the lower castes, is further subdivided into seven subcastes that are all governed by their own special principles. It is practically impossible to follow all of them and behave appropriately in every situation. Adiga makes it clear that caste politics only create unnecessary subdivisions and artificial borders between people and support the discords in society. They only lead to further problems and splits which demarcate dangerous territories; and no one knows how to navigate in them. At one point Shankara is proud to be half-Brahmin and dismisses Hoykas, only to change his opinion few hours later, and ends up absolutely confused. ―[He] felt ashamed to be a Hindu; what a repulsive thing, this caste system that his ancestors had devised. But at the same time he was annoyed with Daryl D‘Souza. Who was this man to lecture him on caste? How dare the Christians do this? Hadn‘t they been Hindus too, at some point?‖ (ibid.: 71). Obviously, once you get involved in the absurd caste politics there is no way out of this carousel.

I have the anxiety and fear of the Brahmin, and I have the tendency to act without thinking like Hoyka. In me the worst of both has fused and produced this monstrosity which is my personality‖ (ibid.: 74). ―He was in a secret caste – a caste of BrahmoHoykas, of which he had found only one representative so far, himself, and which put him apart from all the other castes of humankind. (ibid.: 75)

Unlike the young generation that is able to adapt to new circumstances, to a certain extent at least, the 50-year old Jayamma is stuck in a world of the past where stable rules were in operation; everybody having a clearly assigned role and position within society. Jayamma, working as a cook in the household of a Christian advocate, is a proud ―high-born Brahmin woman‖ (ibid.: 233). She clings to this mantra that represent all the certainties she has, but is unable (or unwilling) to acknowledge the transformations that are taking place all around her. Throughout the story she keeps asking: ―What kind of era is this when Brahmins bring lower-

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caste girls into their households? Where have the rules of caste and religion fallen today […]?‖ (ibid.: 236). Feeling punished for being ―stuck among Christians and meat-eaters in this strange town‖ (ibid.: 232), Jayamma holds on to the stereotyped worldview. She does not change her opinion even after she finds out that the Hoyka girl she despised is in fact a lonely little girl and the Brahmin boy that she cared for behaves like a spoilt prat. The concept of identity presenting it as a rigid, unchanging entity simply does not work for Shankara, Ziauddin and the other characters in the book. What Adiga‘s narrative suggests about identity does definitely correspond with current trends and theories in the field since they both emphasize the elusiveness of identity and the impossibility to fix it. Of course, Adiga‘s portrayal of this matter is situated in more or less absurd and even (tragi)comic circumstances, but the essence of the problem remains the same, i.e. it is impossible to fix identity in a particular place and time and keep it solid forever whether on the personal or on the national level. India, presented through the microcosm of Kittur, seems to be as intangible as its inhabitants. The book is flooded with numerable references to various religious denominations, caste divisions or nationalities. For a non-insider it is fairly difficult to orientate within the intricate Indian system of castes and religious denominations which determine the social status of the members of these groups respectively. Moreover, the linguistic variety of the town working in accord with the caste and religious divisions are remindful of the chaotic organization of Babel. In conclusion, Between the Assassinations abounds in foreboding images and portrayals. There seems to be no sense of a collective self that would unite the town and its diversified inhabitants; the majority of the characters are egoistic individuals who are interested solely in their lives, not realizing that without some unity no positive change can be achieved. Adiga‘s book, then, does not provide a very optimistic portrayal of the multilayered society; the stories depicting people struggling with irreversible poverty, corruption and with an unendurably stratified environment imply that there is a dark ominous cloud hanging over India like the sword of Damocles.

Bibliography ADIGA, Aravind (2009). Between the Assassinations. London: Atlantic Books. BAUMAN, Zygmunt (1996). From Pilgrim to Tourist – or a Short History of Identity. In Stuart Hall and Paul du Gay (Eds.), (2005). Questions of Cultural Identity (18 – 36). London/Thousand Oaks/New Delhi: Sage Publications. http://www.nyu.edu/classes/bkg/tourist/Baumann-pilgrim-tourist.pdf

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KIŃŃOVÁ, Mária (2006). The Search for Identity in Salman Rushdie‘s Midnight‟s Children. In Janka Kańčáková and Dalibor Mikuláń (Eds.), Emigration to the English Speaking World (93 – 103). Ruņomberok: Catholic University. SARUP, Madan (1996). Identity, Culture and the Postmodern World. Georgia: University of Georgia Press. Interview. Retrieved from http://www.bookbrowse.com/author_interviews/full/ index.cfm?author_number=1552 Resumé Dej druhej knihy indického spisovateľa Aravinda Adigu je zasadený do malého imaginárneho indického mesta Kittur a odohráva sa v období medzi atentátmi na Indiru Gándhiovú v roku 1984 a jej syna Rádņíva v roku 1991. Netradičný formát knihy, ńtruktúrou pripomínajúci turistického sprievodcu, poskytuje autorovi jedinečnú príleņitosť na zobrazenie sociálneho pozadia krajiny vo fiktívnom i skutočnom rozmere. Prelínanie objektívneho a subjektívneho naratívneho módu umoņňuje autorovi preniknúť pod povrchný pohľad turistu a tak pred čitateľom odkrýva pestrý portrét krajiny naprieč kastami, náboņenstvami a povolaniami. Jednotlivé príbehy tak odhaľujú závaņné morálne dilemy indického subkontinentu, no zároveň odkazujú na princíp ľudskosti, ktorý sa vinie celou zbierkou ako nosný motív.

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LITERATURE (Re)Creating Ethnic Identity in American Writing Roberto G. Fernández: Raining Backwards Emília Janecová University of Constantine the Philosopher, Nitra 1. Introduction The United States has been acknowledged as a nation of nations for quite some time and diversity itself has always been understood as the paradigm of America. However, its ethnic groups have been, for a long period, underrepresented and underrated in literary histories and anthologies. In the 1950s or 1960s it would probably be very difficult to find any writing of ethnic authors to such an extent, as there is nowadays. Only a few decades ago this type of literature was considered to be a serious matter only by the cultural anthropologists. The attention of literary studies and literary criticism appeared later when the human and civil rights movement of ethnic minorities took place in the late 1960s and 1970s. This brought not only a change to the political situation, but also to the understanding and overview of the issues of race, ethnicity, gender and belonging. Nowadays, various ethnic writers, often described as literary immigrants responding to their experience in the United States of America, are coming to be considered as mainstream authors. The new paradigm of the third millennium, when various ethnic groups try to preserve their own identity through various types of arts, undoubtedly requires not only a new approach within cultural, political and social studies, but also in literary science and criticism. As Igor Maver stated in the volume of essays Ethnic Literature and Culture in the U.S.A, Canada and Australia, ―the monolithic concept of the ―Americanness‖ of American literature is a theme of the past.‖ (Maver 1996: 10) and the growth of the amount of literary works and recent studies in the field of ethnic writing ―points to the convergence in the critical approaches to the literatures of the New World‖ (ibid.). They can be seen as the way to ―decentralization, decanonization and demarginalization in literature and literary criticism, in which there is no centre and no margin left, at least it would seem‖ (ibid.). 2. American Identity – Melting Pot or Salad Bowl? According to Samuel P. Huntington (2004), Americans have assigned their national identity with significant prestige, which differentiates them from other nations. Obviously, the

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prestige of American identity has changed throughout history – from the eighteenth century, when the British settlers began to consider themselves not only as inhabitants of separate colonies, but also as members of the future United States of America, to adopting the idea of American identity in the nineteenth century, and the growth of American nationalism in the first half of the twentieth century. Throughout the history of the USA, the notion of American identity has variously been described in terms of race, ethnicity, religion and various beliefs or values. As early as 1751, Benjamin Franklin commented upon the inflow of German immigrants into the State of Pennsylvania:

And since Detachements from Britain sent to America, will have their Places at Home so soon supply‗d and increase so largely here; why should the Palatine Boors be suffered to swarm into our Settlements, and by herding together establish their Language and Manners, to the Exclusion of ours? Why should Pennsylvania, founded by the English, become a Colony of Aliens, who will shortly be so numerous as to Germanize us instead of our Anglyfying them, and will never adopt our Language or Customs, any more than they can acquire our Complexion. (Labaree 1961: 234)

On the other hand, these newcomers were later on perceived as industrious, lawabiding, and skilful farmers, improving the land and stimulating economic growth, and when the first national standard for naturalised citizenship was adopted by Congress in 1790, no ethnic or religious limits were set. The only required criteria were two years of residence, and a promise to uphold the constitution. In other words, it demanded only the decision to become ‗American‗. The consequent melting pot character of American identity led to assimilating tendencies. On the other hand, the increasing will of ethnic groups to preserve their characteristics has been shaping this character, firstly in the pluralism spanning the racial, religious and ethnic differences, and later in the colourful transnational model of an America retaining distinctiveness, enriching the country as such. Nowadays, America is understood as a multicultural, multiethnic and multiracial entity and previously defined overviews of American identity based on values of AngloSaxon origin cannot be retained. Coming back to Franklin‘s statement from the middle of the eighteenth century, it is remarkable that, previously, one of the most numerous sections of the American population – the descendants of German immigrants – is nowadays one of the most

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invisible, inaudible and almost unnoticeable ethnic groups (Binder and Breining 1995). However, present American society is a result of the coexistence and reciprocal influence of so many ethnic groups that questioning identity in older-fashioned terms is unrealistic. The previous notion of the Melting Pot Society is being replaced by the American Salad Bowl, referring to a presence of various elements which do not merge together into a homogenous cultural entity, but, on the contrary, try to preserve their own distinct qualities.

3. Ethnicity, Ethnic Identity and its Representation in American Writing Defining American identity as such, and its portrayal in literature, is an increasingly difficult matter, and the questioning of ethnicity and ethnic identity is still taken into consideration in literary studies and literary criticism. The terms ethnicity and ethnic group, originating from the Greek word ethnos, were originally used in the meaning of nation. The related form ethnic (derived from ethnikos), which appeared in the fourteenth century, was used to assign a pagan, heathen, being other, and later in the nineteenth century acquired the context of being other to the nation. According to the Harvard Encyclopedia of Ethnic Groups, ethnicity is a ―pervasive theme in all American literature whether the shape of ethnicity as ancestry or ethnicity as diversity‖ (Jioubu 1980: 649). It is usually represented by a group of people with a shared culture, traditions, language and sense of common cultural identity or religion. In modern cultural studies, ethnic identity is a belief of belonging to an ethnic group based on shared inherited values, traditions and opinions. Maver points out that ethnic identity is nowadays often characterised as ―emotional experience describing primarily a feeling of historical or cultural belonging to a group, although it should be stressed that ethnic identity is far from being uniform and cannot be stereotyped‖ (Maver 1996: 12). In addition, it is important to understand that ethnic identity can no longer be viewed as something which a person simply has in its full extent. The ethnic identity of the new generation is more understood as a person‘s conscious affiliation to a group with which one not only shares the ethnicity as defined above, but is aware of the fact and is willing to preserve it (Huntington 2004). There is no other country more characterised by the presence of various different ethnic groups, and the abovementioned results and issues relating to their reciprocal influence, as today‘s United States. Strictly defining the concept of ethnic writing is thus an even more ambiguous and complicated issue. In current literary studies, two partial approaches to this question can be described. Firstly, ethnic writing is understood as writing using an ethnic setting, or portraying ethnic experience. Secondly, as it is often argued, it should be a literary

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work written by authors who have had the ethnic experience themselves. In this article we prefer the combination of both of the abovementioned theses, and ethnic writing is understood as a collection of writings of immigrants, or the descendants of immigrants, for which the host country happened to be their new homeland. The reasons and results of the immigration are often portrayed in their works, trying to represent the untold or withheld individual or collective experience. In these works, the binary opposition centre – periphery is often deconstructed, since groups, topics or issues from what was a long time considered to be periphery are intentionally brought to the centre of attention. The specific socio-cultural background of ethnic writing is reflected in the form of language the authors use, the topics they choose, and the perspective from which they perceive the world around. Within the literary works, the authors often return to their countries of origin or monitor the stories of fictional characters living between two cultural environments, but some writers try to avoid explicit reflecting of their origin and instead portray issues of religious co-equality, or equality between men and women. Although the range of themes is quite wide, significant common features or even stereotypes can often be recognised. Writers usually choose as a protagonist a person on the edge, an outsider in a complicated social situation passed on from generation to generation, or a young rebel questioning the clichés about natives and immigrants. Thanks to the special position between two or more cultures, ethnic writing naturally reflects intercultural confrontation. This is presented in the main aspects portrayed within the works, such as mother tongue, individual or national memory, historiographic representation, belonging to the ethnic or cultural group or reconstruction of one‘s identity. In present American writing, the abovementioned notions are not presented explicitly, but are hidden in a complicated web of composed and significantly processed motifs, language variations and styles. Because of the wide variety of ethnic writers, describing American Ethnic Writing would require a more detailed analysis. Remarkable works by contemporary AfricanAmerican, Arab-American, Asian-American, Cuban-American, Italian-American, JewishAmerican, Mexican-American, Native American and Puerto Rican writers undoubtedly call for individual exploration. Each of them is unique, specific and peculiar, thus judging them as one complex could bring many disadvantages. Denomination is important as well. We are often concerned with various types of labelling of ethnic writers. For us, it is only denomination, for them a question of belonging. As the Cuban-American writer Roberto G. Fernández emphasises: ―I am a Cuban-American writer. If you would say that, for example, I Slovak Studies in English, Vol. 3, 2011 – Identity in Intercultural Communication

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am Hispanic, it denies me my whole Cuban Culture. Hispanic may be – eighty or a hundred years from now – valid term, when there is some sort of group consciousness about being Hispanic. But right now I don‘t like to use it because it denies what I am! Everything that I was taught to retain by my parents this term takes away from me – my literature, culture, the history I learned as a child when I went to school in Cuba‖ (Binder and Breinig 1995: 17). 4. (Re) Creating Ethnic Identity in Roberto G. Fernández‟s Raining Backwards In order to present the above-mentioned thesis we have decided to introduce the remarkable literary work of the contemporary Cuban-American writer Roberto G. Fernández, Raining Backwards, which won acclaim because of its unique, grotesque satirisation of Cuban-American identity, and its appeal to all types and generations of American readers. Fernández represents the Cuban-American avant-garde. In his literary works he uses pastiche and parody through which he serves the reader with the motifs of individual history and both personal and collective identity in terms of diaspora and displacement. All his works point out the issues emerging from being a member of two different worlds – traditional Cuba, and free and independent America. Questioning the identity of his characters, satirising both the unnatural attempts to assimilate and the inflexible efforts to be ―an American‖, using hybrid language and linguistic humour based on these forms, Fernández has gained the attention of many readers even in Europe. Raining Backwards is considered to be one of the most significant works of CubanAmerican writing. New extravagant types of characters are set into an absurd environment portrayed through wordplay and the uniquely humorous narrative describes the tragicomic history of Cuban immigrants in Miami. In the story of one family and all the Cuban, American or Cuban-American people surrounding them, the absurdity of value preservation is questioned. Cuban immigrants are satirised as they are desperately trying to create a modified notion of what used to be their home – the ―new Havana‖. The novel is divided into two parts, Raining Backwards and Tatiana. The first part introduces the characters using all the clichés presented by the media. The older characters are portrayed as strictly religious, always telling stories of ―good old Cuba‖, wishing to be able to go back and die in their homeland. The younger ones are affected by both their home environment and their American surroundings. Keith Rodriguez is arrested for smuggling cocaine from Colombia, then escapes from jail and forms a revolutionary group in the Everglades. His lovesick sister Connie, a cheerleader, hangs herself and is canonised by their brother Quinn, who becomes the pope of a religion that sweeps the world and causes the

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U.S.S.R. to invade Alaska. The second part of the book is focused on old Manny, who loses his sight. Manny wants to return to Cuba at least once, even though he can‘t see it any more. Walking on the beach with his granddaughter he asks: ―Tatiana, which way is Cuba?‖ ―Cuba?‖ she answers bewildered. ―Yes, which way is Cuba from this beach? I want you to turn me in that direction. I want to breathe that air‖ (Fernández 1988: 213). This undoubtedly represents one‘s melancholic desire to die in the country where one was born. But Tatiana‘s response confirms an immigrant‘s greatest fear: the unavoidable elimination of a common past. ―Why grandpa? Cuba is a restaurant and the air there stinks. It smells like onions and grease. It is just fattening‖ (ibid.). Many parodic situations throughout the book represent the continuous feeling of alienation of the younger generation towards the old homeland. With the passing of time, the Cuban exiles become assimilated into the majority American culture that surrounds them. The disruption of Cuban traditions is represented by various extreme events, for example the prohibition of the use of the Spanish language by the Anglo-Saxon terrorist group The Tongue Brigade. Fernández plays with language on many levels. Even on the level of theme, he often mentions the prohibition of the use of Spanish, which reflects the fact that the educational and administrative systems operate only in English, which causes troubles not for the young, but for the older generation. Trying to reflect the mixed environment, his principal method of accurate portrayal is word play and the use of mixed language, often with entertaining mixed translation puns such as ―Vacillation‖ (vacilón – Having fun), ―The Good Night‖ (La Noche Buena – Christmas Eve), the reference to the city in Cuba, ―Cienfuegos‖ as the ―City of One Hundred Fires‖. These are often almost non-understandable for a monolingual Englishspeaking reader; explanation can be found in the opening quote by Gustavo Pérez Firmat, which states: ―The fact that I am writing to you in English already falsifies what I wanted to tell you. My subject: how to explain to you that I don't belong to English though I belong nowhere else, if not here in English‖ (Fernández 1988: 5). This proclamation is applied in the whole book and often it seems that the writer is intentionally trying to confuse us. The novel in question is interesting from the point of view of structure as well. It has a mosaic form, with plenty of characters and short episodical stories, which helps to capture the chaos in interaction of the Cuban ethnic group and its American surroundings. As another tool to represent the mixture and reciprocal influence and interdigitation of two cultures, numerous allusions to American popular culture and also allusions to Cuban-specific realia are mentioned.

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The novel has undoubtedly a lot to offer in the analysis of Cuban-Americans in the United States, their perception by Americans and their self-perception. Capturing the predicament of the Cuban exile, it reflects Fernández‘s own experience and provides valuable insight into various matters emerging from the notion of ethnic identity in today‘s world.

Bibliography BINDER, Wolfgang, and Helmbrecht BREINIG (1995). American Contradictions. London: University Press of New England. FERNÁNDEZ, Roberto G. (1988). Raining Backwards. Houston: Arte Publico Press. HEVEŃIOVÁ, Simona, Mária KIŃŃOVÁ, and Alena SMIEŃKOVÁ (2008). Multicultural Awareness. Reading Ethnic Writing. Nitra: FF UKF. HUNTINGTON, Samuel P. (1997). The Clash of Civilisations. New York: Touchstone. HUNTINGTON, Samuel P. (2004). Who Are We? – The Challenges to America‟s National Identity. New York: Simon and Schuster. JIOUBU, Robert M. (1980). Harvard Encyclopedia of Ethnic Groups. Albany: State University of New York Press. LABAREE, Leonard W. (1961). Observations Concerning the Increase and Peopling of Countries. New Haven: Yale University Press. MAVER, Igor (1996). Ethnic Literature and Culture in the USA, Canada and Australia. Frankfurt am Mein: Peter Lang. Resumé Na otázky týkajúce sa etnickej identity reaguje v posledných desaťročiach svetová literatúra rozmanitými spôsobmi. V nańom článku sme sústredili na americkú etnickú literatúru a snaņili sme sa v ńirńích súvislostiach poskytnúť ucelenejńí pohľad na meniaci sa spôsob jej zobrazovania v americkej próze. Zaoberali sme sa najmä charakteristickými prvkami americkej etnickej prózy, a to v súvislosti s uvedomovaním si, stotoņnením sa a následne s reflexiou etnickej identity v americkej multikultúrnej spoločnosti, pričom náhľad na zmenu v spôsobe zobrazovania sme prezentovali na príkladoch z diela kubánsko-amerického spisovateľa Roberta G. Fernándeza Raining Backwards.

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LITERATURE Chinese Prayers and American Heaven – Cultural Struggles in Yiyun Li’s A Thousand Years of Good Prayers Mária Kiššová University of Constantine the Philosopher, Nitra 1. Introduction Culture and identity likely belong among the most discussed concepts nowadays in the humanities. Even a brief look at the titles of the scholarly papers presented at various colloquia and conferences in recent years supports the trend. In literary studies the terms are mainly applied in two ways. First, they are the key terms in the framework of a theoretical approach towards texts, i.e. they are used within literary theory which may scrutinize either any literary text, including texts with subtle cultural references. Secondly, the words ‗culture‘ and ‗identity‘ are used in the discourse about the content of a literary work per se as modern literature in English portrays various forms of cultural encounters and clashes resulting from globalization and migration, and reflects on the cultural changes happening worldwide. We are convinced that it is impossible for a literary scholar to discuss 21st century literature (not only in English) and ignore the terms ‗culture‘ and/or ‗identity‘. Our time is characterised by a deep interest in other cultures, a fact fuelled by the possibilities of travel and media, such as magazines, newspapers, TV and especially Internet communication. As a result of this, two distinct standpoints might be observed and they are often reflected in literary works. Besides the attempts to strengthen cultural tolerance and understanding – cultural difference viewed as a positive feature bringing enrichment, it may also be perceived negatively, as a threat and danger. Having said that, it is literature that ―depicts‖ what is going on, though admittedly, it may become very political, sometimes even propagandistic when portraying different cultures which at the same time represent two different political systems. However, we do not suggest approaching literature just as an account of social changes, although that perspective may also be interesting. Our aim is to show how literary qualities and literariness of a specific text create and form what we understand as culture, identity and cultural identity. The following study discusses the collection A Thousand Years of Good Prayers (2006) by the Chinese American Yiyun Li, an author praised for her short stories which were published in the US, but which reflect and depict the radical changes within modern Chinese society. We approach the collection

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analytically, scrutinizing the ways in which the author observes identity crises in various forms of dissatisfaction with the self, conditioned culturally by one‘s distinct ethnicity or sexuality. Focusing on specific cultural struggles, we formulate how the idea of cultural identity is expressed and we ask if a specific notion or version of cultural identity may be abstracted from Yiyun Li‘s fiction and what literary attributes are used to achieve this.

2. Culture, Identity and Cultural Identity An extensive overuse of the terms ‗culture‘ and ‗identity‘ – both in modern literary and cultural studies – conditions precise definitions and characterizations of the terms if the concepts applied to a literary text are not to be misused. Countless studies have been devoted to the modern and past usage of the terms (in the bibliography we refer for instance to Maria Gabriela Rebok‘s study on cultural identity in the postmodern world (1998), the paper What Is Identity by James D. Fearon commenting on the general usage of the term identity (1999), or Peter Prevos‘ essay Cultural Identity (2004)). Culture was s described as ―one of the two or three most complicated words in the English language‖ by Raymond Williams (1976: 76, quoted in Watkins 2005: 7). Similar problems occur when writing about identity. Terms such as national, regional, political, religious and sexual identity are often used very vaguely. James Fearon observes that ―[o]ur present idea of identity is a fairly recent social construct, and a rather complicated one at that. Even though everyone knows how to use the word properly in everyday discourse, it proves quite difficult to give a short and adequate summary statement that captures the range of its present meanings‖ (1999: 2). Simona Heveńiová also states that in the postmodern world ―identity becomes a multidimensional space in which both psychological and sociological aspects have to be taken into consideration, giving rise to a relational self‖ (2006: 51). And Peter Prevos suggests that ―Deconstruction of the aspects of the Web of Identity results in the recognition that identity is a fluid concept. Postmodern recognition of the instability of self, of openness in the choosing of identities, reduces identity to a flux‖ (ibid.: 3). The combination of culture and identity in the quest for cultural identity might essentially suggest an even more complicated construct. For instance, Maryem Ayan formulates the notion of cultural identity as ―the feeling of identity of a group or culture, or of an individual as far as she/he is influenced by her/his belonging to a group or culture. The awareness of cultural identity is possible only via the confrontation with other cultures because of the differences between the unshared and shared cultural identity.‖ (2009: 61) It seems evident that the terms ‗identity‘ and ‗culture‘ and consequently ‗cultural identity‘ are

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fluid. It might be tempting to suggest that any analysis based on the terms may get lost in the terminological labyrinth. An obvious question then arises: what contribution does the analysis bring if there is no definite answer as to what culture, identity or cultural identity mean? However, there are a few aspects which convince us that such a discussion is needed. First of all, precisely because the notions are so abstract and general, literary analyses of specific texts may show what these concepts mean in practice, i.e. in what literary contexts are they used and how do we construct them through reading literary texts. Also, due to this fact there is a great symbiosis between culture and literature today, and an analysis of a literary text which focuses on intercultural relations may help to understand how individual concepts may be defined or formulated. 3. Yiyun Li‟s Fiction A Chinese American, Yiyun Li was 23 when she came to the US in 1996 – at the time without the merest thought of becoming one of the most influential short-story writers in English. A Beijing native born in 1972, Yiyun Li was only four when Mao died and the Cultural Revolution ended. She saw the turmoil – including the executions – of the late 70s and 80s, times often captured in her fiction as the main setting or as a provoking parallel to the more recent society. Her debut short-story collection A Thousand Years of Good Prayers (2006) has been awarded several prizes including the Guardian First Book Award, the Frank O‟Connor International Short Story Award and PEN/Hemingway Award, and was shortlisted for the Kiriyama Prize and the Orange Award for New Writers. The collection depicts life in the rapidly changing society of modern China and Li‘s characters frequently embody the cultural struggles between what is generally thought of as the characteristics representing the West (individual rights, political freedom, democracy) and China (the Communist regime). Many of her characters are migrants who either have to flee China because of persecution or they willingly decide to move to get freedom and establish their identity, which they cannot do at home. The stories in the collection may be divided either according to the setting (China or the US) or to an extent according to the East-West (China – the US) dichotomy. The first category includes stories about the social changes within Chinese society happening as a result of its political development (Extra, After a Life, The Arrangement and Persimmons) and will not be mentioned as they do not offer explicit cultural encounters. The second one includes Immortality and Death Is Not a Bad Joke If Told the Right Way, set in China and containing some minor remarks on Western culture. Other stories in the collection – Love in the Marketplace and Son set in China, and Princess of Nebraska and A Thousand Years of Slovak Studies in English, Vol. 3, 2011 – Identity in Intercultural Communication

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Good Prayers set in the US – have numerous and significant references to cultural difference and identity and bring a detailed picture of cultural struggles.

3.1. Cultural Struggles in Immortality and Death Is Not a Bad Joke If Told the Right Way In Immortality, there are three cultures (‗culture‘ as in Mitchell‘s Way of Life, 14) depicted. First, there is the traditional culture of the Chinese past, threatened from two sides by the political system of present dictatorship (the threat within) and by Western culture (the threat from outside). How Chinese traditions are in ruins, symbolically and literally, is shown in the decline of the Great Papas – boys taken from their families in order to serve the emperor – possessing traditionally a very high social status in society. As the modern government cannot take care of them, they must turn themselves into business artefacts to earn their living. Once a culturally rooted phenomenon, now Great Papas paradoxically depend on their supposed ideological enemy. They do not represent live culture any more, the past way of life has disappeared; there is no other function in the society for them except of being the objects of stares. The modern governing power does not care for the individuals, it even subverts the concept of individualism and uniqueness; an ―ordinary man‖ is approached only within the mass and ―I‖ changes into ―we‖. As in other stories in the collection, in Immortality the differences between cultures are seen through the concepts of freedom and liberties; thus, a despotic dictatorial regime at home is a bigger threat to an everyday man than the Western cultural influence. The foreign culture threatens the traditional values in terms of bringing commerce, new brands and products which stand for the free market and liberal society: ―Now we have Sony & Panasonic; we have Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson‖ (60). However, the dictatorship at home is a threat to life, to mere existence, and is not a matter of some new products in the shops: ―Mouth to mouth the rumours travel, how under his reign fifty million people have died from famine and political persecution. But if you looked at the number closely, you would realize it is far less than what the dictator was once willing to sacrifice to American nuclear bombs. So what is all the fuss about?‖ (60). In Death Is Not a Bad Joke If Told the Right Way politics is implemented into the folk culture. It appears here in a simple word game for children who do not know the actual meaning and context: ―four girls are jumping rope, chanting a song I have never heard before: ―One two three four five. Let‘s go hunt the tiger. The tiger does not eat man. The tiger only eats Truman.‖ It will be years later when I realize that the Truman they are singing about was the American president during the Korean War, so in the winter of 1979, the song makes little sense to me.‖ (148) What is more, political manipulation turns traditional values and social

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structures upside down. The culture of a nation is not cultivated within a family as its place has been taken by a party with its structure of power and dominance. Unsurprisingly, migration is often the only way out. However, people migrate with despair, knowing what they had left behind is their culture, their ―real‖ place. America in Death Is Not a Bad Joke If Told the Right Way is not the country of dreams but a country of the future full of melancholic memories: ―In four years, my favourite actress, Chen Chong, will finish her table-waiting career and start as Joan Chen in Hollywood, an actress and a director, her smile still pretty as I remember, though she will never again be the sixteen-year-old on our wall‖ (170). ―In five more years, I will be in America, sitting in my small and humid apartment in a Midwest town, reading my father‘s letter about Mr. Pang‘s death, knowing that for the last sixteen years of life, he has never missed one day of work, sealing envelopes with patience‖ (170). 3.2. Disillusionment and Hopes of the West – Love in the Marketplace and Son Sansan, a protagonist of Love in the Marketplace, is a 32-year-old English teacher at the Educators‘ School abandoned by her boyfriend Tu, who left for America ten years ago. It was Sansan who came with a plan that Tu – being an excellent student – would apply to an American graduate school and would help Min, Sansan‘s friend, out of China through a false marriage. As it happened, Tu stays with Min and disappointed Sansan is left with her pupils. Playing a cult American movie Casablanca for her students repeatedly, Sansan has become Miss Casablanca for them, a sentimental abandoned spinster. Casablanca – a celebration of freedom, sacrifice and love – means different things for different people in the story. For students, it is ―the first real American movie they have watched, without Chinese dubbing or subtitles‖ (92), a cultural import which soon becomes a boring nuisance. They even make fun of it spotting the imperfections of the movie in the Paris scene. For Sansan, however, the film has obvious sentimental value as she discovered it in the year when Tu sent a letter about his decision not to marry her. Interestingly, it is not the Chinese culture but some English novels (besides re-reading English novels from her college years, she also mentions a scene from Women in Love) and the American movie which make her life bearable. It is the foreign culture which gives her shelter and Sansan does not reject it as the culture which stole her love. On the contrary, it is the politics at home which she blames. In Son, a 33-year-old Han comes from the US to visit his mother living in China. Having spent ten years abroad, he seems to be a naturalized American, sure of his ultimate knowledge of life. Han‘s submissive mother, ―a parrot to his father‖ (113) is a pure embarrassment for him. Coming back he expects she would haunt him with matchmaking, Slovak Studies in English, Vol. 3, 2011 – Identity in Intercultural Communication

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and it is a big surprise for him when she gives him a gold cross instead. The gift is an initial impulse leading to Han‘s revolting reactions, a starting point for his revenge. At thirteen, Han fell in love for the first time and got the Bible from his boyfriend as a birthday present, ―the most precious gift he had ever got.‖ (119) Han‘s world of youth – with its double secrecy of forbidden love between boys and similarly forbidden love for god – was destroyed when his mother burnt the Bible. He accuses her of frailty commenting ironically on Christianity and Communism, both representing dogmatic beliefs of people weak to rely on themselves for Han: ―Maybe someday you will even come up with the old conclusion that God and Marx are the same.‖ (118) He considers his parents‘ faith in anything superficial and shallow: ―It was the communist god you both worshipped. And now Baba is gone, and you‘ve got yourself a new god to please‖ (120). When he sees his mother‘s belief, Han takes his chance for revenge and his mother‘s attempt to persuade him to visit the church happens to be simply one of the possibilities how to humiliate her for the past. The turning point comes when his mother offers some money to the begging children if they go to church. On the other hand, the sceptical and sardonic Han pays them more, just to prove that the real motivation is money and neither child‘s fondness for a man or god. Thinking of his moral victory, he suddenly sees a child run down by a car (One of those little beggars? We do not know.). The scene provokes Han to disclose his homosexuality. Confessing the most intimate issue of his life he wants to challenge her: Would she still accept him? Where are the limits of her love? Han knows that either as a Christian, or as a Communist, she would refuse his homosexuality. However, she accepts him and eventually proves to be stronger than the son whose eyes avert his mother‘s look. The closing scene establishes a key step in their relationship; it is obvious that Han‘s shattered personality, and his struggles with sexual and religious identity might be overcome only through reconciliation with his mother – the point where it all started.

3.3.

The Chinese Silence in the West - The Princess of Nebraska and A Thousand

Years of Good Prayers In The Princess of Nebraska a daughter escapes an abandoned, middle-of-nowhere Inner Mongolian town, leaving her mother there. The story starts as Sasha, now a 21-year-old woman is eating a chicken sandwich in Chicago with Boshen on her way to get an abortion at the Planned Parenthood Clinic. Boshen is a middle-aged-man, a Chinese gay rights activist who managed to flee the country through a false marriage to a lesbian friend, a newly naturalized American citizen herself. Sasha is expecting a baby with Yang, a young Chinese bisexual and Boshen‘s lover who already met him as a prostitute. Yang, a former actor, who

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started with prostitution after his first lover abandoned him; later – when his affairs were revealed – he had to stop his acting career. Yang is simply left behind, an utterly useless prostitute shamelessly and hopelessly selling his body. Again, it is the state of the political and social affairs in China which are to blame for the despair, ruined lives, broken couples and families. As a contrast, America is the country of hopes. For Sasha it is the place that can offer a shelter for her and for Yang, she is enchanted by it and feels she has found what she missed back in China or Mongolia: ―‗Moving on‘ was a phrase she just learned, an American concept that suited her well. It was such a wonderful phrase that Sasha could almost see herself stapling her Chinese life, one staple after another around the pages until they became one solid block that nobody would be able to open and read. She would have a fresh page then, for her American life. She was four months late already.‖ (69) She wants to persuade Yang to move but he refuses, and willingly decides to follow the fate of Great Papas and gets lost in history. He cannot leave, as he knows this would not satisfy him. When they watch Pretty Woman ―with almost unreadable Chinese subtitles‖ (81) together, it is again Sasha who is much more enthusiastic about the movie, its actress and culture than the sceptical Yang. For Sasha, Pretty Woman is an American story that may happen to anybody while Yang understands it is not a story of anyone, definitely not of him. The Princess of Nebraska depicts another culture which has been dying out due to the political oppression from China. It is Sasha‘s mother‘s Mongolian culture which is gradually disappearing. Similarly to the fate of cultural emblems such as Genghis Khan who ―was turned into a clown in the pop song. Mongolia was once the biggest empire in the world, and now it was a piece of meat, sandwiched by China and Russia‖ (85). Sasha also admits she has forgotten ―almost all of the Mongolian words she had learned, after her parents‘ divorce; she had not seen her father for fifteen years‖ (84). When Sasha and Yang discuss the origins of her name, Yang is disappointed to learn Sasha was named after her mother‘s favourite heroine from a Soviet war novel rather than having a name of Mongolian origin. Like other characters in Li‘s stories, Sasha needs to realize and understand her mother in order to decide upon her own life. Only after admitting and realizing what her mother sacrificed, is Sasha able to make a new beginning. In the story A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, the former rocket scientist Mr. Shi comes to visit his daughter who moved to the US a few years before and now – recently divorced – lives alone. There is something very heavy between the father and his daughter, a huge communication gap for which the father blames the daughter until it becomes evident that he must be held responsible for lying to the family for many years previously. What is Slovak Studies in English, Vol. 3, 2011 – Identity in Intercultural Communication

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more, he still has not stopped telling lies, either to the people he met in America (introducing himself as a rocket scientist, he is silent about his inferior position of a helping hand and a decorator for the Party) or to his daughter. Ironically, it is a 77-year-old Iranian woman, two years his senior, who does not speak Chinese or English. Mr. Shi was just a victim of the political system which turned the essence of communication upside down. Unable to talk at home but to satisfy the natural need for communication and sharing thoughts, Mr. Shi finds it at work, the only place it was allowed: ―I was not a rocket scientist because of a woman. The only thing we did was talk‖ (201). Tragically, there is no place where one can feel safe as there is no time for privacy and intimacy, either at home or at work. Mr. Shi‘s daughter grew up in a society where language was not used to express one‘s feelings, and her dislike of Chinese and preference for English is obvious in this sense. Significantly, Mr. Shi‘s attitude to his daughter‘s use of English is ambiguous. On the one hand, he blames himself for the inability to raise up his child in a harmonious family and justifies her need for the new language. On the other hand, he is shocked to hear her talking in English on the phone. She has become a stranger for him – this is not the daughter he knew. Learning about her new lover, he calms down only when she mentions that the lover comes from Romania: ―At least the man grew up in a communist country, Mr. Shi thinks, trying to be positive. ―Do you know him well? Does he understand you – where you were from, and your culture – well? Remember, you can‘t make the same mistake twice. You have to be really careful‖ (198). This is a warning of a man who has been bitterly disappointed in life; this is the crucial confession in which the father shows his care for his daughter. He admits the importance of one‘s cultural background, and highly significant is his fear that his daughter‘s lover is an American who would not be able to understand the context she grew up in.

4. Conclusion Culture in the stories by Yiyun Li is present as a geographically, historically and politically rooted construct; here, it is the Chinese nation versus the West represented by the US. An individual is defined by his belonging to a specific power structure: Chinese dictatorship versus American liberties; it is through the concepts of freedom that people differ. Various forms of freedom are sought – freedom of speech, freedom to choose a partner and freedom to travel – all suppressed by the dictatorial regime. There are three cultures clashing in the stories. The first one is represented by the common Chinese, the oppressed, anonymous mass whose cultural heritage is destroyed by the ruling class (representing the second culture), and also by Western influences (the third one). One‘s cultural identity is

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strongly defined by politics and ideological assumptions. In Communism any activity pursued has to follow precise, established and regular patterns; private matters (sexuality and religion) are controlled. Li‘s characters are often abandoned by their families, growing up and experiencing sterile relationships. They ask: Who am I? But the answers are frightening for them and also for the ruling power, so the voices must be silenced, put to prison, or in a better case made to leave China. If they do not escape, they are lost (Immortality, Yang in The Princess of Nebraska). If they do, they are displaced. The US is offered as a possible cultural variant, yet, even this country does not provide everything. In comparison with the Chinese society and its political regime – which suppresses vital features of culture such as freedom and the possibility to express one‘s identity – it is heaven on earth. In a new cultural milieu, they do not have to hide their identity and a new language offers them expressions they searched for (The Princess of Nebraska, Thousand Years of Good Prayers); on the other hand, however, these are the Chinese who are displaced, abandoned and what they experience in the US is just a result of their rootlessness. They are aware of the fact that in leaving their homeland, a part of their cultural identity has been lost, but for most of them there is no other way. Thus the narrator in Death Is Not a Bad Joke If Told the Right Way bitterly notes on her future in the US and this is also the reason why Sasha wants Yang to leave the country. Is there any future for Yang or Granny Lin in China or for Sasha‘s mother in Mongolia? Interestingly, it is only through family and relationships with parents that children come back to their roots; the family is a final shelter; without the mother‘s acceptance of her son‘s homosexuality, without the father‘s understanding for his daughter, children but also parents are just wanderers, homeless and abandoned. There is simply no other way. The political system has broken the families, leaving shattered relationships, ruined couples and abandoned parents; now they have to find their ways to themselves, which is also the way to their culture. Thus it is always the past that the emigrants reflect, the world left behind and while America offers them safety, they have to settle their past so that they may understand their identity and start a new life abroad.

Bibliography AYAN, Meryem (2009). Cultural Identity Tapestry in Amy Tans The Hundred Secret Senses. In Buletinul Universităţii Petrol – Gaze din Ploieşti, LXI(1), 61 – 66. GATHMAN, R. (2008, Aug. 12). Chinese Gothic. Publishers Weekly, 255(49), 45. FEARON, James D. (1999). What is Identity (As We Now Use the Word)? Retrieved from http://www.stanford.edu/~jfearon/papers/iden1v2.pdf.

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HEVEŃIOVÁ, S. (2006). Voices of Immigrants in Maxine Hong Kingston‘s The Woman Warrior. In Emigration to the English speaking world (47 – 62). Ruņomberok: Vydavateľstvo Michala Vańka. LEE-LOY, Anne-Marie (2009). Saying No to Chineseness: The Possibilities and Limits of a Diasporic Identity in Janice Lowe Shinebourne´s Fiction. Journal of Chinese Overseas, 5(2), 291 – 309. LI, Yiyun (2006). A Thousand Years of Good Prayers. London, New York, Toronto & Sydney: Harper Perennial. REBOK, Maria Gabriela (1998). Civilization and Cultural Identity in Postmodernity. Topoi, 17, 29 – 36. SEAMAN, D. (2005). A Thousand Years of Good Prayers (a review). Booklist, 101(22), 1964. STORCK, Thomas (2008). What is Western Cultural Identity? Three Examples, Three Disputes. New Blackfriars, 89(1019), 88 – 101. STUHR, John J. (1991). Cultural Identity, Cultural Authenticity. Social Alternatives, 10(2), 27 – 29. STUHR, R. (2005). A Thousand Years of Good Prayers (a review). Library Journal, 130(14), 136. TOMLISON, John. Globalization and Cultural Identity (269 – 277). Retrieved from http://politybooks.com/global/pdf/GTReader2eTomlinson.pdf. Resumé Autorka Yiyun Li sa narodila v Pekingu, no v Spojených ńtátoch ņije uņ viac ako desať rokov. Jej zbierka poviedok A Thousand Years of Good Prayers (2006) bola veľmi pozitívne prijatá kritikmi a získala niekoľko ocenení, vrátane Guardian First Book Award a dostala sa i do uņńieho výberu Orange Award. Postavy Yiyun Li nezaņívajú iba konflikty vyplývajúce z dvoch rôznych kultúr reprezentovaných ich krajinami, ale problémy, ktoré sa ich dotýkaju, sú oveľa komplexnejńie. Mnohé postavy sú migranti, ktorí museli buď opustiť svoju vlasť z dôvodu prenasledovania, prípadne odińli z vlastnej vôle, aby získali vytúņenú slobodu. Kultúrne dedičstvo a identita sa tak stávajú kľúčovými aspektami jednotlivých príbehov. Po stručnej charakteristike zbierky príspevok skúma spôsoby, akými sú rôzne formy kultúrnej identity vyjadrené v textoch. Väčńina príbehov pribliņuje vzťahy medzi deťmi a rodičmi, opakovane sú zdôraznené medzigeneračné rozdiely, akceptovanie vlastnej rodiny, ako i vlastných kultúrnych koreňov. Pozornosť je venovaná i odkazom na rôzne prvky kultúrnej ikonografie (napríklad kultové filmy Casablanka, či Pretty Woman), ktoré – zasadené v novom kontexte – osvetľujú a zvýrazňujú odcudzenie a vykorenenie jednotlivca.

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LITERATURE The Loss of “Self” in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Fiction Ivan Lacko Comenius University, Bratislava In Self-Reliance, one of the most influential American essays of the 19th century, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote: ―Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. Absolve you to yourself, and you shall have the suffrage of the world‖ (Whicher 1960: 149). For Nathaniel Hawthorne, the transcendentalist movement – which found its theoretical foundation and philosophical refuge in Emerson‘s essays – was of great significance. But while Emerson‘s ideas pertain to self-reliant individuals who are aware of their position in their immediate (and distant) social environment, the characters of Hawthorne‘s short stories and romances seem to frequently relinquish their ―selves‖, or even whole identities, in the face of theocratic rules and principles, and the ensuing social and emotional hypocrisy in the community. This paper endeavours to examine how Nathaniel Hawthorne‘s characters and narrators present, camouflage and eventually lose their ―self‖ in the ambivalent social circumstances of 17th century Puritan New England. I will attempt to put forward an alternative reading of selected stories by Hawthorne (primarily The Scarlet Letter, Young Goodman Brown, and The Minister‟s Black Veil) in which the author not only seeks to artistically communicate his personal extrication from a Puritan familial history, but also attempts to relate the ambiguity of the narration, story and plot to the indistinctness of individuality subjected to a religious doctrine. The introductory chapter to The Scarlet Letter, entitled ―Custom-House‖ reveals Hawthorne‘s uncertainty and hesitation concerning his artistic ambitions, ―his own deep, indeed Puritanic, guilt about the very act of creation‖ (Bradbury and Ruland 1991: 147). ―It was a folly,‖ the narrator of The Scarlet Letter concedes, ―to attempt to fling myself back into another age [...] The wiser effort would have been to diffuse thought and imagination through the opaque substance of today [...] The fault was mine‖ (Hawthorne 1990: 37). Despite the uncertainty and skepticism, the narrator (very much a fictional reflection of Hawthorne himself), then proceeds to tell a story that started some 200 years prior to his finding a mysterious embroidered letter in the Salem Custom House. In telling the story of the scarlet letter, Hawthorne does exactly what he describes in the Preface to the 1851 edition of his

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Twice-told Tales. There he defines his aspiration to write books as the result of his desire ―to open an intercourse with the world‖ (McIntosh 1987: 290 – 291). But for Hawthorne (and the narrator of The Scarlet Letter), a productive communication with the world via story-telling and characterization is subject to a permanent doubt which originates in his own past: ‗What is he?‘ murmurs one grey shadow of my forefathers to the other. ‗A writer of story-books! What kind of a business in life, what manner of glorifying God, or being serviceable to mankind in his day and generation, may that be? Why, the degenerate fellow might as well have been a fiddler!‘ (Hawthorne 1990: 10)

But Hawthorne understands that by dissociating himself completely from his own Puritanic history, he will never accomplish his goal as a novelist (or, to be more loyal to his own nomenclature, a writer of romances). He has to take the imaginary flak from the past and make use of his present capabilities, which he acknowledges he partly owes to the social and spiritual system of his forebears: ―And yet, let them scorn me as they will, strong traits of their nature have intertwined themselves with mine‖ (Hawthorne 1990: 10). At the same time, however, Hawthorne‘s approach to his literary material and his personal attitude very much obscure the true identity of both his narrators and characters. The dim and murky features of Arthur Dimmesdale‘s deeply Puritan personality mix with his natural and passionate attributes, the integrity, ordinariness and everyman characteristics of young Goodman Brown entirely vanish after his staggering experience in the forest, and the bona fide self of the Reverend Hooper is forever shrouded in the black veil he dons over his face. Obscuring, shrouding, and veiling are Hawthorne‘s favourite methods to poke, provoke, and consciously lead and mislead his readers. In Young Goodman Brown, a story making both direct and indirect references to the 1692 Salem witchcraft events, Hawthorne employs spectral evidence as a tool which serves not just a historical, but also literary purpose. All that Brown sees and experiences in the forest is a make-believe conjured by the Devil. In turn, also what Goodman Brown becomes at the end of the story – a ―stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not a desperate man‖ – is the consequence of his phantasmal experience (Hawthorne 1987: 123 – 124). Goodman Brown‘s very self seems to have been transformed by spectral evidence (Levin 1962). Just like the Devil can take the

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form of any person, so can spectral evidence bring on a total transformation of the beholder‘s eye and thus, also, of the beholder him- or herself. Hawthorne also playfully used supernatural ambiguity in explaining his own behaviour and attitude, e.g. when he tried to account for his disenchantment with the Brook Farm community experiment: ―The real me was never an associate of the community; there has been a spectral Appearance there […] doing me the honor of assuming my name‖ (Stewart 1949: 60). Though this is clearly an ironic statement – mostly because it exposes Hawthorne‘s awareness of the distinction between what is real and what is projected – it gives us insight into the significance of matters which have personal relevance, and the uncertainty (in this case, a jocular lightness) resulting from a lack of personal involvement. For Hawthorne‘s characters, the line between personal perception and dependence on social standards appears to be too thin to accept their role in society as anything but predetermined. The trait which Hawthorne repeatedly criticizes in his characters is the tendency to promote a legitimate and defensible idea to the category of an absolute truth (Stibitz 1962: 182). For example, Reverend Hooper in The Minister‟s Black Veil suffers from ―so painful a degree of self-distrust, that even the mildest censure would lead him to consider an indifferent action as a crime‖ (Hawthorne, 1987: 150). As Thomas F. Walsh argues, Hooper‘s doubt and disbelief in his ability to discriminate between ―indifferent action‖ and ―crime‖ makes him ―eventually consider all his actions crimes and himself intrinsically evil, and then, by extention [sic], all mankind‖ (1959: 404 – 405). To some degree, Hawthorne‘s characters represent what John Rathbun sees as essential for our understanding of Herman Melville‘s story Billy Budd which ―revolves about the point that social forms and conventions radically narrow the range of individual perception and response‖ (Rathbun 1965: 20). In fact, the recession of Captain Vere‘s identity when he sends Billy Budd to his death, and the ensuing transformation to a faceless, institutional self makes Vere equal to characters like Goodman Brown, Reverend Hooper, Hester Prynne, or even Arthur Dimmesdale. While John Rathbun‘s assumption that if ―we deny the existence of constituent elements in human nature and see man as simply a bundle of social habits, we impose limits to man‘s perception [and] culture becomes simply a pattern of response,‖ (ibid.: 33) has the greatest validity in reference to the struggle between individual and society, as well as law and justice in Billy Budd, this applies also to Hawthorne‘s fiction. Even though Nathaniel Hawthorne‘s writing is often deemed allegorical and overly reliant on symbolic and metaphorical semantics, his artistic imagination worked as a realistic

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and truthful mirror of society and character personality. R. K. Gupta argues that for Hawthorne

the imagination is by no means a merely beautifying and idealizing faculty. It is a faculty which also enables the artist to burrow into the depth of reality. It is an ―inward eye‖ which, fresh, undimmed by custom, and undeceived by appearances, perceives objects not visible to the physical eye. If, on the one hand, the imagination, like the moonlight in ―The Custom House,‖ envelopes objects in an aura of romance and beauty, it also, on the other hand, like the mirror in ―Feathertop‖ and ―Dr. Heidegger‘s Experiment,‖ uncovers the veneer of superficial appearance and gives a glimpse into the very heart of reality. (1968: 316)

This ―inward eye‖ echoes Emerson – although in a fairly fantastical manner. The ambivalence which is prominent in the seeming contrast between romance and realism is what Hawthorne is consciously aiming for. Phrases like ―as nearly as could be discerned‖, ―it might almost be seen‖, ―this, of course, must have been an ocular deception‖ abound in the text of Young Goodman Brown (Hawthorne 1987: 111 – 124), lending the text an aura of ambiguity woven into the allegorical patchwork of this story. The omnipresent ambiguity stems from what Walter J. Paulits considers to be primarily ambivalent behaviour on the part of Goodman Brown: ―The precise ambivalence in Brown at the beginning of the tale is an attraction for the Devil conjoined with a regret at leaving Faith […] [Brown] wants two things strongly enough to be unwilling to give up either‖ (1970: 578). This ambivalence is a subtle manifestation of Goodman Brown‘s loss of individuality and determination, brought forth by his fervent dependence on the Puritan dogma. Hawthorne presents the character of Goodman Brown as both indecisive and resolute, as optimistic and morose, as gullible and distrustful. The uncertainty that is prominent in his character can be considered as the universal ambivalence of all mankind, while Brown, as a representative sample, is presented as an imitator – not an independent and morally strong human being, not an Emersonian self-reliant individual, but as a person who appears to emulate Christ, mechanically and indiscriminately (Paulits 1970: 580). In the Scarlet Letter, the façade is very often all that glitters – like the Governor‘s Hall where Hester goes to defend herself as the custodian of her illegitimate child. The unexpected pumpkins and weeds growing in the garden of the otherwise opulent mansion give away the Puritan obsession with symbols. Quite paradoxically, it is in the Governor‘s Hall where

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Hester faces a mirror which – instead of exposing the ―veneer of superficiality‖ – shows a Puritan reflection of herself, degrading her to a pictogram:

[Hester] saw that, owing to the peculiar effect of this convex mirror, the scarlet letter was represented in exaggerated and gigantic proportions, so as to be greatly the most prominent feature of her appearance. In truth, she seemed absolutely hidden behind it. (Hawthorne 1990: 106)

Hawthorne‘s approach to character, as mentioned above on the examples of Goodman Brown and Hester Prynne, allows him to scrutinize and criticize a society ―that demands so much of a man that he can achieve what is demanded only through hypocrisy‖ (Miller 1959: 262). In this kind of society, expectations and stakes are just too high, and people lose their sense of identity and self-knowledge. In the ensuing personal, intellectual and emotional vacuum, interaction with the world outside themselves is fractured, de-humanized, sometimes even completely lost:

Could it be true? [Hester] clutched the child so fiercely to her breast that it sent forth a cry; she turned her eyes downward at the scarlet letter, and even touched it with her finger, to assure herself that the infant and the shame were real. Yes!– these were her realities,– all else had vanished! (Hawthorne 1990: 59)

Hester Prynne is punished by having to wear the scarlet letter on her chest. What first appears to be just an administrative measure becomes a transformational device of sorts – both for Hester and those around her. When Hester is seen wearing the scarlet letter for the first time, the narrator describes the crowd observing the token, feeling that it ―transfigured the wearer,– so that both men and women, who had been familiarly acquainted with Hester Prynne, were now impressed as if they beheld her for the first time‖ (53). The purport the letter assumes both elevates Hester into a different state of being and diminishes her to the linear meaning of the crimson A. But while the letter is also assigned all kinds of other meanings – by Hester herself, her daughter, the narrator, and others – the powerful and enchanting nature of it is never questioned: ―[The scarlet letter] had the effect of a spell, taking [Hester] out of the ordinary relations with humanity, and enclosing her in a sphere by herself‖ (54). Correspondingly, Hester‘s enigmatic transformation can take a reverse course: ―She who has once been a woman, and ceased to be so, might at any moment become a woman again, if

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there were only the magic touch to effect the transformation‖ (164). This magic touch is reliant on the possibility to give Hester a chance to express her true self, concealed beneath the Puritan semiotics. While Hester‘s fate is brought upon her by the Puritan authorities of the 17th century Boston, Hawthorne presents us also with characters who transcend into another state of perception and even existence by their own decision. The Reverend Hooper from the story The Minister‟s Black Veil makes a sudden decision to wear a black veil over his face for the rest of his life: ―On a nearer view it seemed to consist of two folds of crape, which entirely concealed his features except the mouth and chin, but probably did not intercept his sight further than to give a darkened aspect to all living and inanimate things‖ (Hawthorne 1987: 145). The veil, just like Hester Prynne‘s token of shame, becomes Hooper‘s most prominent feature, indeed an expression of his personality. While others cannot see Hooper‘s face because of the veil, he himself can make out everybody‘s face, though all that he sees appears much darker – not only in terms of colour and brightness of the image, but also in making Hooper a pessimistic and gloom-laden man. At the beginning, the narrator hastens to inform us that ―the veil lay heavily on [Reverend Hooper‘s] uplifted countenance‖ (146), only to suggest later that ―all through life that piece of crepe had hung between [Reverend Hooper] and the world: it had separated him from cheerful brotherhood and woman‘s love […] and still it lay upon his face, as if to deepen the gloom of his darksome chamber, and shade him from the sunshine of eternity‖ (155). But if the Reverend Hooper obliterates his personality with the donning of the black veil, Goodman Brown struggles to find his ―inward eye‖ and look into the mirror that would tell him what is imagined and what is real. He fails, eventually, although it seems to be his moral victory that he does not give in to the Devil‘s temptations. At the same time, however, he is credulous enough to give credence to the projected (spectral) evidence, apparently provided by the Devil. Despite all the ambiguity, it is clear that he and the Devil are the only real personages in the forest. All else is imaginary, conjured up, projected. Before he wakes up in the wood and begins his sad journey into depression and eternal gloom, he cries out to his wife Faith: ―Look up to heaven, and resist the wicked one‖ (123). This is an attempt to prevent the loss of his Puritan self, a desperate try to remain a member of the community. The loneliness he feels in the forest is transformed into his isolation from the Salem community for the rest of his life. Goodman Brown‘s journey into the forest and Reverend Hooper‘s confinement behind the black veil are both hidden exclamations of two men who are trying to connect their selves to a larger scheme of faith, meaning and identity. ―Oh, you know not how

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lonely I am,‖ Reverend Hooper says to his fianceé Elisabeth, pleading for her compassion and understanding, ―and how frightened to be alone behind my black veil! Do not leave me in this miserable obscurity for ever‖ (153). The loss of self leads to Hooper‘s and Brown‘s loneliness and seclusion. Similarly, Hester‘s loss of identity not only isolates her from the community, but also allows her true self to be replaced by the letter A – as if the letter‘s symbolic meaning had the power to override Hester‘s personality. Furthermore, if Hester gives the scarlet letter a human face, her daughter Pearl becomes the elaborate embroidery around it – giving it radiance and gleam, completing it. Just like Hester is seen by others as an embodiment of sin, Pearl is ―the scarlet letter endowed with life‖ (Hawthorne 1990: 102). They are rarely viewed primarily as mother and daughter – their symbolic meaning supersedes their human and natural one. If Hester‘s and Pearl‘s personalities are reduced to have only emblematic value (the former as a result of Puritan social and legal regulations, and the latter by the author), Arthur Dimmesdale‘s self is subordinated to his social position as a minister and the indoctrinated belief that his parishioners need him more than they need to know the truth. In this, Dimmesdale resembles Hooper: he shows a great deal of doubt about himself. But at the same time, Dimmesdale is very determined and insistent on severely castigating himself for his double-facedness. While Hooper does this publicly by wearing the veil everywhere he goes, Dimmesdale chastises himself only in private – but with more vigour and fortitude. Just like Hooper‘s fate sees no hope, since from underneath his veil ―there rolled a cloud into the sunshine, an ambiguity of sin or sorrow, which enveloped the poor minister, so that love or sympathy could never reach him‖ (Hawthorne 1987: 154), so can Dimmesdale never find a moment of peace and forgiveness. He seems unable to ever experience even an instant of respite and liberation like Hester does when she throws off her symbol of ignominy:

The stigma gone, Hester heaved a long, deep sigh, in which the burden of shame and anguish departed from her spirit. O exquisite relief! She had not known the weight until she felt the freedom! By another impulse, she took off the formal cap that confined her hair, and down it fell upon her shoulders, dark and rich, with at once a shadow and a light in its abundance, and imparting the charm of softness to her features. There played around her mouth, and beamed out of her eyes, a radiant and tender smile, that seemed gushing from the very heart of womanhood. A crimson flush was glowing on her cheek, that had been long so pale. (Hawthorne 1990: 202)

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In this passage, Hester Prynne undergoes a transformation nearly worthy a conjuror‘s effort. She becomes a different person entirely, as if her previous, indistinct and dulled identity were a tabula rasa on which her new self could find fertile ground to sprout. The very physical and naturalistic description of Hester‘s temporary liberation, the glow that replaces the paleness, and her new inner glitter – all that serves as a memento that the power of symbols which are considered so important by Hester‘s judges and fellow Puritans relies on the human capacity to perceive and interpret them. The symbols themselves are meaningless, but combined with theocratic tendencies, they bring along de-personalizing and de-humanizing susceptibilities. Thus, minister Hooper terrifies his parishioners, becoming ―a monster for the symbol beneath which [he has] lived and [will] die‖ (Hawthorne 1987: 157). Hooper‘s last words vibrate with Hawthorne‘s significant message, namely that in symbolizing his own inability to deal with sin, grief or utter depression, Hooper represents all people: ―I look around me, and, lo! on every visage a Black Veil!‖ (157). Hawthorne attaches great value to the innermost self of his characters and places them in situations in which they either emerge from underneath their symbolic surface (Hester), or stay covered and hidden forever (Hooper), or – ironically enough – manage to do both (Goodman Brown). The inner personality – the human heart – is for Hawthorne a source of one‘s true identity and therefore the most important and primary element necessary for improvement, like, for example, in the story Earth‟s Holocaust: The heart, the heart […] Purify that inward sphere, and the many shapes of evil that haunt the outward, and which now seem almost our only realities, will turn to shadowy phantoms and vanish of their own accord; but if we go no deeper than the intellect, and strive, with merely that feeble instrument, to discern and rectify what is wrong, our whole accomplishment will be but a dream. (247)

There is both sunshine and gloom in Hawthorne‘s texts – just like Herman Melville wrote about his fellow writer and friend in the essay Hawthorne and His Mosses: ―For spite of all the Indian-summer sunlight on the hither side of Hawthorne‘s soul, the other side – like the dark half of the physical sphere – is shrouded in a blackness, ten times black‖ (Melville, Parker, and Tanselle 1987: 243). It is this darkness, unfathomable and seemingly unjustified, which acts both as an aspect of Hawthorne‘s art and identity as a writer descended from Puritan forebears, whose social predicament came to constitute an important part of America‘s past. Though conformist and controversial from a modern point of view, the

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Puritan legacy catalyzed the country‘s future and helped shape the identity of its inhabitants. In Hawthorne‘s fictional accounts of various expressions of the Puritan Weltanschauung there emerges a noticeable link, or perhaps outright cross-cultural communication between the 17th and 19th centuries. It is striking to see how the preoccupation with sin and purity, individual responsibility for sin, an insistence on collective punishment, and the impossibility of any individual expression, stood at the dawn of Emersonian individualism, whose optimism and flowering enthusiasm were counteracted by Hawthorne‘s ―blackness, ten times black‖.

Bibliography BRADBURY, M., and R. RULAND (1991). From Puritanism to Postmodernism: A History of American Literature. New York: Penguin Books. GUPTA, R. K. (1968). Hawthorne‘s Theory of Art. American Literature, 40 (3), 309 – 324. HAWTHORNE, N. (1990). The Scarlet Letter. Oxford: Oxford University Press. HAWTHORNE, N. (1987). Young Goodman Brown and Other Tales. Oxford: Oxford University Press. LEVIN, D. (1962). Shadows of Doubt: Specter Evidence in Hawthorne‘s ―Young Goodman Brown.‖ American Literature, 34 (3), 344 – 352. MCINTOSH, J. (Ed.). (1987). Nathaniel Hawthorne‟s Tales. New York: Norton. MELVILLE, H., H. PARKER, and T. TANSELLE (Eds.). (1987). The Piazza Tales and Other Prose Pieces, 1839 – 1860: Volume Nine, Scholarly Edition. Evanston: Northwestern University Press. MILLER, P. W. (1959). Hawthorne‘s ―Young Goodman Brown‖: Cynicism or Meliorism? Nineteenth Century Fiction, 14 (3), 255 – 264. PAULITS, W. J. (1970). Ambivalence in ―Young Goodman Brown.‖ American Literature, 41 (4), 577 – 584. RATHBUN, J. W. (1965). Billy Budd and the Limits of Perception. Nineteenth-Century Fiction, 20 (1), 19 – 34. STEWART, R. (1949). Nathaniel Hawthorne: A Biography. New Haven: Yale University Press. STIBITZ, E. E. (1962). Ironic Unity in Hawthorne‘s ―The Minister‘s Black Veil.‖ American Literature, 34 (2), 182 – 190. WALSH, T. F. (1959). Mr Hooper‘s ―Affable Weakness.‖ Modern Language Notes 74(5), 404 – 406 . WHICHER, S. E. (Ed.). (1960). Selections From Ralph Waldo Emerson. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. Resumé Cieľom článku je predstaviť alternatívnu interpretáciu vybraných diel amerického prozaika Nathaniela Hawthorna s osobitným prihliadnutím na identitu autora (resp. jeho rozprávačov) a spôsob, akým autor prezentuje a maskuje jednotlivé postavy, ktoré v konečnom dôsledku svoje "ja" úplne strácajú. V analyzovaných dielach (The Scarlet Letter, Young Goodman Brown, The Minister‟s Black Veil, atď.) sa Hawthorne neusiluje iba o umeleckä prezentáciu vlastného oslobodenia sa od puritánskej minulosti svojej rodiny, ale aj o hľadanie vzťahu medzi viaczmyslenosťou rozprávania, príbehu a zápletky, a neurčitosťou individuálnosti postáv podliehajúcich náboņenskej (alebo inej) doktríne. Slovak Studies in English, Vol. 3, 2011 – Identity in Intercultural Communication

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LITERATURE Naming and Identity in Lawrence Hill’s Someone Knows My Name Lucia Otrísalová Comenius University, Bratislava Name and identity are inextricably interrelated. One‘s name is a symbol of one‘s social identity – that is, the identity as recognized by others. The bestowal of a name marks the starting point of one‘s life as an individual in a society. By giving a name, society acknowledges a person‘s existence and simultaneously accepts its responsibilities towards him or her. The name differentiates a person from others and gives him or her a sense of personal identity and uniqueness. Through the name, the individual becomes part of society‘s history and whatever he or she does will stand apart from the deeds of others. As name and identity are closely linked, a change in the name necessarily results in a change in the way a person perceives himself or herself and the way the person is perceived by others. This problematizes the concept of identity as a stable, inwardly generated quality and renders it fluid, negotiable, and subject to transformation. This means that we do not have a free choice when constructing an identity to present to others, but we negotiate it with others in our culture and society. The well-known Canadian social philosopher Charles Taylor confirms this by saying, ―My discovering my identity doesn‘t mean that I work it out in isolation, but that I negotiate it through dialogue, partly overt, partly internal, with others. […] My own identity crucially depends on my dialogical relations with others‖ (Taylor 1994: 34). The intricate relationship between name and identity has always been a significant issue in the literary production of the North American black diaspora. It is due to the earliest experiences their ancestors had in America that the writers of the black diaspora are sensitively aware of the political weight the act of naming carries. Their enslaved forefathers were, upon arrival in the New World, if not immediately upon capture, stripped of their African names and identities and renamed – and redefined – by their masters. In an interview with Thomas LeClair, Toni Morrison reflects upon this topic:

If you come from Africa, your name is gone. It is particularly problematic because it is not just your name but your family, your tribe. When you die, how can you connect with your ancestors if you have lost your name? That‘s a huge psychological scar. (LeClair 1994: 126)

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As a result of this traumatic experience, black authors grasp the significance of names and understand that naming is always linked to the exercise of power: those who name also control and those who are named are subjugated. This awareness also permeates the book Someone Knows My Name by black Canadian author Lawrence Hill, the winner of the Commonwealth Writers‘ Prize 2008 and Canada Reads 2009. Based on thorough research and first published in 2007, the novel tells the story of Aminata Diallo, who – as a girl of eleven – is abducted from Africa and enslaved. She survives the horrors of the Middle Passage, rape by her first owner, Mr Appleby, forcible separation from her husband and children, yet she remains unbroken. We follow her journey from St. Helena Island, South Carolina, up to New York, then to Nova Scotia, back to Africa and eventually to London, where she (already an old woman facing the end of her life) helps William Wilberforce and the Abolitionists end the slave trade. The book‘s title itself indicates what importance is attached to names and naming in the novel. It suggests that having a name and having someone say it out loud gives one worth and individual identity and affirms one‘s humanity. On the other hand, the title also touches on the dehumanizing effects of being stripped of one‘s name. In what follows, I will therefore examine and demonstrate with particular examples from Someone Knows My Name on how the processes of naming and being named contribute to one‘s identity. The novel‘s title is a good example in itself of what I am speaking about as Someone Knows My Name is not the original title of Hill‘s novel. In Canada it was published under the title The Book of Negroes, yet, as Lawrence Hill writes in his article ―Why I‘m not allowed my book title‖ (2008) in The Guardian, the American publisher made him, for political reasons, change its name. The word ―Negro‖ is considered politically incorrect in the United States, but in Canada it does not have the same negative connotations: ―If you use it in Toronto or Montreal, you are probably just indicating publicly that you are out of touch with how people speak these days. But if you use it in Brooklyn or Boston, you are asking to have your nose broken‖ (Hill 2008). The Canadian title refers to the Book of Negroes, a historical document kept by British naval officers at the end of the American Revolutionary War, which contains a list of 3,000 Black Loyalists who had served the British crown in the war and were fleeing Manhattan for Canada in 1783, so if the title‘s historical origins are explained, no one in Canada will complain. However, the United States is different. Lawrence Hill grasped it when he began touring some U.S. cities with the book. African-Americans kept approaching

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him and telling him ―it was a good thing indeed that the title had changed, because they would never have touched the book with its Canadian title‖ (Hill 2008). We can only guess why the American publisher chose the title Someone Knows My Name for Hill‘s novel. On the one hand, it may have been chosen because it gives an added emphasis to one of the main themes threaded through the book. On the other hand, it puts the novel in the context of African-American tradition as it echoes James Baldwin‘s 1960s book, Nobody Knows My Name. Regardless of what motivated the American publisher, changing the title of a novel has more or less the same effect as changing a person‘s name: it affects a change in perception. The Canadian title underscores that Hill‘s novel, spanning six decades and three continents, brings to life an important chapter in world history. As reviewer Angela Smith (2009) writes, the title also implies the awareness of what Derek Walcott characterizes as the ―pain of history words contain,‖ focusing on the word ―Negro‖ as a term of exclusion. The American title, on the other hand, replaces, according to Smith (2009), ―historical bluntness‖ of the original title with ―modern blandness―. It also puts a greater emphasis on the humanizing force of naming, the book‘s recurrent theme. Lawrence Hill argues in Someone Knows My Name that recognizing and acknowledging people‘s names and having one‘s name recognized and acknowledged is a way of giving and receiving respect. There are several powerful examples in the book where this is illustrated. As Aminata Diallo, the novel‘s main protagonist, is walking through the slave vessel bound for America, a hand reaches out and takes her wrist. It is Chekura, a helper to the African slave traders, who got enslaved himself when he was no longer useful to them. Not letting go of her hand, the boy repeats Aminata‘s name over and over and then he adds, ―I must hear you say it. Please say my name.‖ ―Chekura,‖ I said. ―Someone knows my name. Seeing you makes me want to live.‖ (Hill 2007: 66)

The moment Aminata utters Chekura‘s name, the boy‘s spirit is greatly uplifted and bathed in the glimmer of his own humanity again. Similarly, as Aminata goes on, in the darkness men repeat her name and call out their own. ―They wanted me to know them. Who they were. Their names. That they were alive, and would go on living‖ (Hill 2007: 66). The men exchange their names and personal biographical information to be remembered, to overcome

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their dehumanization and to retain a sense of distinctiveness. In the squalor and despair below the deck of the slave ship, the names and the places the men are from become the last shreds of dignity they desperately hold on to. Coming from a primarily oral culture where the name is still far more than the label it has become in Euro-American society, Aminata struggles hard to retain her own name in the face of dismissiveness from her masters. On the slave vessel, a ship doctor, appreciative of her language and midwifery skills, takes her under his protection. Recognizing her value, he has her sleep in his room and feeds her better than he does other slaves. He even makes an attempt at establishing a more personal relationship between them by telling her his name.

He struck his own chest, thumb pointing toward his breastbone, and repeated another word. ―Tom,‖ he said many times. ―Tom,‖ I repeated. Then he pointed at me. I said my name. He scrunched up his face. ―Aminata,‖ I said once more. But he pointed at me and said something else. Over and over. He wanted me to repeat it. ―Mary,‖ I finally said. He pointed to me again, and I did it too. I used my thumb, just like him. (Hill 2007: 71 – 72)

Aminata immediately understands that the relationship the medicine man – as she refers to the doctor—is offering to her is not one of equality and mutual respect. Aminata interprets his attempt at renaming her with a name he finds more familiar and convenient as disrespect for her individuality, which makes her assume a defensive stance. ―Mary,‖ I said softly. I pushed the word through my lips and told myself it would be the last time I would ever say it, or his name. (Hill 2007: 72)

By refusing to call the medicine man by his first name, Aminata denies him the respect he has denied her by giving her the generic name ―Mary,‖ which slavers often used in reference to female slaves, a name that effectively dispossessed a person of her individuality and her own distinctive claim to an identity. The generic name, be it Mary for black women or Sam for black men, does not designate an individual as self so much as ―a segment of community, an identity larger than

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self‖ (Rigney 1991: 50). The name suggests that the look of the white society classifies all blacks as alike, they become a ―we-object‖ or what Jameson calls ―representatives of a class or species, [...] anonymous types of something‖ (qtd. in Davis 1982: 327). The designation has thus nothing to do with the self-identification of slaves, but it serves solely for the benefit of slave masters who do not think beyond the monetary value of black people. Aminata obviously realizes this as she disregards anybody who addresses her generically. While working on Mr. Appleby‘s plantation, she is approached by his visitor, William King, a person in charge of the slave trade in Charles Town, and asked, ―‘How old are you, Mary?‘ She does not respond, keeping her eyes down and her mouth shut‖ (Hill 2007: 169). This act of defiance on Aminata‘s part may be interpreted as an attempt to resist or escape naming. She understands that naming is a form of power and she does not want to let anyone have that power over her. She resists being forced into an object position, which happens when one is named by another, and insists on the position of subject, where she can name herself. Her African name is very dear to Aminata. Given to her at birth by her parents, the name represents a connection with family, history and tradition. It is the name of a proud freeborn Muslim girl who aspires to become a djeli, or storyteller, although she was not born into the family of djeli. Having the meaning of ―faithful, truthful or trustworthy‖ in Arabic, the name Aminata in fact predestines the girl to be one. Taking on the responsibility of a djeli, she is able to distance herself from the suffering she is a witness to on the slave vessel and to survive the trauma without falling into a pit of despair. Aminata understands that she is required ―to see and remember everything, [...] to witness, and to prepare to testify‖ (Hill 2007: 56). It is no wonder then that Aminata views all attempts at renaming her as attempts to symbolically cut her off ―from [her] African identity and heritage, and from [her] sense of personhood‖ (Walker 1977: 74). On Mr. Appleby‘s plantation in South Carolina, the girl is known as ―Meena Dee‖ to her fellow slaves, who, like their masters, do not take pains to learn to pronounce her African name properly. Aminata does not fully identify with the new name as it was given to her by ―someone who did not even know me‖. She refers to it as ―a new name for the second life of a girl who survived the great river crossing‖ (Hill 2007: 127). The name ―Meena Dee‖ thus becomes emblematic of Aminata‘s life and slave status in the New World. In the end, she responds to both names, which is symbolic of her fragmentation, yet she gives clear preference to her original African name. It is the name she is addressed with by her lover Chekura and by the slave overseer Mamed, ―the only person in South Carolina who ever

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asked for my whole name, [...] spoke it properly, and then he taught me how to write it‖ (Hill 2007: 155) – the people who respect and care for her. Under slavery, the power to name and define belonged to the white masters: they were the Adams given the power to name all created beings and assign qualities to them. Naming slave children was the white master‘s domain too. The name bestowed on a slave child by the white master was an expression of the master‘s entitlement to an absolute ownership of the child. By giving her first-born son a name of her own choosing, Aminata denies Mr. Appleby‘s ownership of her son‘s body and soul. Although she was raped by him, her son was not conceived in the act of rape but is a product of love between her and Chekura. Following ―the African tradition of naming children in honour of close relatives,‖ Aminata names her son Mamadu after her father, ―thereby placing the child firmly within the kin network‖ (King 1995: 6) and trying to re-establish continuity in her otherwise random and dispossessed existence. Aminata understands that the African name will probably be the only frame of reference for her son, the only connection with community and culture. Self-designation is associated with social and economic freedom in Hill‘s novel. The freedom to choose one‘s name means reclaiming sovereignty over one‘s self. The fugitive slave who Aminata runs into while fleeing from her second owner, Solomon Lindo, is a proof thereof. ―Claybourne the only name they done give me,‖ he said. ―Mitchell is a name I done took. Heard a man called that one, and liked it so much I decided when I got here I was gonna be a new man. Free man. With two names, both for myself‖ (Hill 2007: 259). Clayborne was born a slave and as such he was given no surname: he was deprived of any sense of genuine lineage or shared familial identity. As he was viewed as property without identity, he had no need for a significant and personalized name, a name that would reflect something about him. Once free, however, he adopts a meaningful surname which allows him to take possession of his self and become his own man. It seems that in Hill‘s novel there is not a more liberating feeling that having the freedom to name oneself and having one‘s name recognized by others. When Aminata arrives in New York with her master, Mr. Lindo, and she is asked to write her name into the registration book at Sam Fraunces‘s tavern, where they find lodgings, her heart jumps with delight:

I took it as a good sign that I was free to write my own name in New York City. The mere act of writing it, moving smoothly, unerringly with the quill in the calligraphy that Mrs. Lindo had so patiently taught me, sealed a private contract that I had made

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with myself. I had now written my name on a public document, and I was a person, with just as much right to life and liberty as the man who claimed to own me. (Hill 2007: 243 – 244)

Seeing her signature attached to a public document gives Aminata such a sense of empowerment, liberation and satisfaction that she resolves ―not to return to Charles Town‖ and not to ―submit again to ownership by any man‖ (Hill 2007: 244). The writing of one‘s name, the mark of personhood, thus becomes a catalyst of change in Hill‘s story. Regaining a sense of her own humanity and becoming aware of all the rights associated with it, Aminata cannot but shed her slave status and embark on a journey to freedom and selfhood. According to Lawrence Hill, regaining the power to name and to tell one‘s story is an important milestone on the journey. In order to testify against slavery, Aminata writes her autobiography and eventually becomes the djeli she has always desired to be.

Bibliography DAVIS, Cynthia A. (1998). Self, Society and Myth in Tony Morrison‘s Fiction. In Linden Peach (Ed.), Toni Morrison: Contemporary Critical Essays (27 – 42). New York: St. Martin‘s Press. HILL, Lawrence (2007). Someone Knows My Name. New York: W. W. Norton. HILL, Lawrence (2008, May 20). Why I‘m not allowed my book title. The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2008/may/20/ whyimnotallowedmybooktit on Sept. 5, 2010. KING, Wilma (1995). Stolen Childhood: Slave Youth in Nineteenth-Century America. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. LECLAIR, Thomas (1994). The Language Must Not Sweat: A Conversation with Toni Morrison. In D. Taylor-Guthrie (Ed.), Conversations with Toni Morrison (119 – 128). University Press of Mississippi. TAYLOR, Charles (1994). The Politics of Recognition. In A. Gutmann (Ed.), Multiculturalism: Examining the Politics of Recognition (25 – 73). Princeton: Princeton University Press. RIGNEY, Barbara Hill (1991). The Voices of Toni Morrison. Columbus: Ohio State University Press. SMITH, Angela (2009, Feb. 27). Rev. of The Book of Negroes, by Lawrence Hill. The Independent. Retrieved from http://www.independent.co.uk/artsentertainment/books/ reviews/the-book-of-negroes-by-lawrence-hill-1632967.html on Oct. 8, 2010. Resumé Predloņená ńtúdia sa zaoberá vzťahom medzi menom a identitou v románe kanadského autora Lawrenca Hilla Someone Knows My Name. Uņ samotný názov naznačuje význam, ktorý sa v románe pripisuje menám a aktu pomenovania. Podľa Hilla meno potvrdzuje nańu individuálnu identitu a prísluńnosť k ľudskému pokoleniu a pomenovanie je nástrojom moci. Tí, ktorí majú moc mená dávať, vládnu a tí, ktorí mená dostávajú, sú podrobení. Na základe

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príkladov z textu, ktorý je fiktívnou autobiografiou Afričanky, ktorú v detstve uniesli a uvrhli do otroctva, ńtúdia hľadá odpoveď na otázku, ako meno a proces pomenovania prispievajú k utváraniu osobnej identity.

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LITERATURE The Waste Land: A Field of Fragments or Multidentity? Martin Solotruk Comenius University, Bratislava This paper seeks to explore T.S. Eliot‘s The Waste Land as a possible project of a new, modern, self, which explores the possible viability of a spiritual revival via transcending limitations and inculcations of the concepts of identity prevailing in the Western Canon in the first decades of the twentieth century. The concepts of identity that Eliot transcends include a whole range of presumptions, such as the following: the identity of a work is directly related to and guaranteed by the positive experience of the author; the identity of a classical work is defined through an established canonised interpretation thereof; the identity of a lyrical subject as an anthropocentric referential model is enfolded in and defined by prevalent concepts of time and space within a ―human scope‖; the identity of a ―voice‖ is a positively identifiable property of a single human self with its features of identity informed by but also limited to the experience of ―one human life‖; the identity of a voice or subject is predominantly monoculturally defined within a particular section of historical time and political (meaning also cultural) space; the identifiable notion and presence of a central persona or lyrical subject is an inevitable prerequisite and referential frame for any possible sense of coherence or comprehensiveness of a single corpus of work. Given this backdrop of expectations that a traditional reader was likely to rely upon at the time Eliot was writing the poem – and would be even today – The Waste Land may still seem, perhaps more than ever, not only a highly sophisticated, though radical, subversion of many of the above expectations, but also a deliberate act of artistic and even philosophical proposal of a new concept of identity defined as a dynamic field – a dynamic equilibrium of partial and relative concepts or forms of identity (of figures, persons, heroes, countries, stories, histories, myths, genres, actions, styles, minds, consciousness, human, animal, the identity of space, time determinants, positive experience versus delusion, etc.) with their implied fields of meanings and projected auras of interpretation. In other words, the poem apparently proposes a kind of ―ars poetica‖ treatment of the central problem of notional ambivalence of human experience that Eliot dealt with in his Harvard and Oxford PhD thesis named, in abbreviation, ―The Appearance and Reality‖ as it explores frontiers of identity of

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phenomena, i.e. what is ―it‖ and what makes ―it‖ distinct and ―solid‖ and different from but also related to any other ―it‖. The Waste Land itself builds its unique and distinct identity by if not outright integration then at least cohabitation, meaningful juxtaposition as well as dramatic reconciliation of the shattered, crumbled, and scattered ―identities‖ of the past and present. The poem composes its textual corporeality and appearance of identity of a ―subject‖ by relating to, including and digesting a vast ranges of identities (very much like Dante‘s Paradise Lost – Eliot‘s major source of inspiration) represented and manifested by their own fragmented, fleeting, but also recurring presence in the form of a speech act, citation, or other intertextual reference in the dramatic ―arena‖ or ―opera of voices‖. At the same time, this chorus of voices can be viewed both in a Wagnerian sense, as well as an array of sampled ―token voices‖ in a mode of ―mimicking cultural history‖, a kind of ―grotesque scrutiny‖ very much along the lines of the poem‘s original title ―He do the police in different voices‖. However, one of the main possible ―identity problems‖ of this poem, the very issue which makes it so inaccessible for an unprepared reader, is its apparent lack of central lyrical subject, or ―persona‖. However, Eliot himself, at least in his correspondence with Pound, expresses their shared belief that the role of the central persona, if need be, would and could definitely be played by the figure of Tiresias. The very reference to, or rather incorporation of (the mythical figure of) Tiresias, however brief or loose – as it only appears mentioned three times between lines 218 and 246, can and indeed does equip the poem with an explicit concept of one central ―consciousness‖, or a personified lyrical subject. The joke or the crux is, however, that the mind and identity of Tiresias is not the kind of identity we would usually ascribe to a traditionally imagined ―human‖ character, defined by cultural, historical, class, and personal experience, or even behavioural aspects of their very ―personal‖ identity. Tiresias is the mind transcending divisions of time and space (i.e. also the divisions of locally or temporarily defined culture or individual identity based on humanly defined experience and behaviour), as well as the division of gender identity. Tiresias metamorphosed between sexes while residing very much alike Sibylla of the introductory motto, who had as many years as the grains of dust in her hand, hovering in timespace over many a life in her ―ampulla pendere‖ in a realm which supersedes the linearity of time and space and the mundanity of the causality of the world as we conventionally interpret it. Moreover, Tiresias, (once again alike Sibylla) i.e. his or her or its mind (Tiresias‘ gender identity must be recognised as polyvalent) is literally ―throbbing between two lives‖ (line 218), i.e. it belongs Slovak Studies in English, Vol. 3, 2011 – Identity in Intercultural Communication

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to both the past, future, and the present, belongs to ―this world‖ as well as to ―the netherworld‖. The split sense of identity this line seems to indicate translates differently in several different relations: both Sybilla and Tiresias had the experience of and could understand the logic of the netherworld as well as of ―this world‖, meaning the one defined by historical and positive experience. As a result, the mind is either split between what is, what will be, what was, and what could be or transcends all of these apparently separate paradigms. The mind also sees the limits and relativity of an individual perspective as well as the ambiguity resulting from such a relativity in a broader context. The mind can also recognise all that was supposed to stay or simply stayed ―secret‖ (or was buried with the Burial of the Dead), invisible to an inexperienced, unknowing, or lay recipient. As it (the mind of Tiresias) is actually not directly involved in the time-bound action and passions, it can apparently see the world of events in a naked light, as either trivial or metaphysical, but still as a phenomenon meaningful in a broader context of existence. It can see it as if unbiased by ―the fire of lust and other passions‖ (The Waste Land, ed. Kermode 1998: 101), from a distance of an atemporal voyeur, uninvolved, but still perhaps feeling sorry or not feeling anything we could understand as we are ourselves distant from such experience. What‘s more, the identity question is made even more elusive as the prevalent principle of the poem seems to be the one of Ovid‘s Metamorphoses, i.e. that identities of persons, creations, creatures, animals, figures, and even objects and particular meaningful situations, events, are mutually commutative and swappable, or substitutable. But, let us remember, this poem also employs the principle of ―a game of chess‖ (which is the title of the second part of the poem), i.e. a process of creating meaningful tensions and correspondences, a processual system, which does not generate meaning from a single figure or a move. Rather, meaning is construed or established as a sum of all prevalent correspondences between all figures and postures (throughout the ―board‖ of the text) made mutually related and informative. Their relations are not simply linear, even though a text is usually perceived as a linear continuum, but their identity and value is defined only through the overall selfsameness of the game, of the constellation of meanings of all the latent potencies and implied meanings, and is actually built and gathered as a summa of implications within one interactive and integrated system. At the same time, the poem‘s play with cultural memory can also be seen as part of its strategy to redefine a sense of cultural identity. As a result, we have a witness, a mosaic testimony of the ―dead‖, whose fully fledged presence is activated by the gravity of the

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invoked context, while the authority of their ―voice‖, presently unbiased and nonpartisan, bears witness – as of almost Buddha-like observers – to the mundanity of the spiritually declined and desolate mechanical existence of the inhabitants of the remains of the project of the Holy City, turned into City, doomed to fall as a result of the withering vitality and genuinity of its own cultural signifiers which no longer enable rejuvenation, unless shattered, vivisected, and recomposed. So the readily available identity of the modern urban existence remains, both for Eliot and his persona, primarily an identity of a legacy of violence, conspiracies, or just profit driven emptiness, i.e. of a waste history deprived of any genuine, spiritual or simply rewarding experience. That is why the persona, and Eliot himself, gravitates to a position of a pariah or a cultural exile, seeking a perspective from without, a perspective of a post-apocalyptic scanning the rubble, even though he takes his baggage of personally defined cultural legacy with him. In such a situation, i.e. in such a posture and condition of the poem‘s sole possible lyrical subject, the key issue remains: what enables these voices, this mixed bag, to turn into a unified whole? How, if at all, can that whole be made into a sovereign identity dissimilar to the individual fragments and their original, but now obsolete, weakened or cut off ―wasted‖ identities, which are at the same time acknowledged, but only to pretend having some quality of evidence, either historical or even canonical? In the first place, these fragments are turned to ready-made, appropriated or found textual or semiotic objects – very much similar to the mathematical understanding of logical objects, which are simultaneously brought to cohere, to yield some unified field of meaning by means of a series of expiations. In principle, the work seems to find its inner coherence as coming from implied meanings of the finely cut-out fragments and other incorporated speech acts, and their valencies that are activated into meaningful circuits established across the poem as both serial and parallel connections. At the same time, though, the individual fragments inevitably show a part of the whole submersed matrix of meaning of the text or artifact they originate in and thus serve as vectors, as constituting arches of a much broader and more complex multidimensional matrix of meaning – a kind of ruined, but still cathedral of a tradition – or a matrix that stands as a multidimensional and multiangular object constituted by partial statements, hints, incidental ―symbolism‖ or rather incidental evidence of some overall self which is actually defined and

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articulated and sustained virtually by the very merit of the poem‘s workings and which would otherwise not have a way of existence. As a result, the identities that were viewed as disparate in terms of traditional divisions, categorisations, and even canonisations of the history, culture, class, gender, or religious or even ethnic identity thus, by virtue of the poem‘s meaningful juxtaposition possibly acquire new affinities, simultaneously informing each other within the realm of the poem‘s meaningful flow, which in its cruel process melts and reconfigures the partial identities from their insularity into a plasmatic field (where the sun beats – line 22) of a joint meaning, a new pattern of the modern self. That self even takes its fresh strength and a sense of affirmation from the newly acquired ability to integrate, to build upon ―the fragments I have shored against my ruins‖ (line 430), as that ability helps it to reflect and overcome past schizophrenia, perversions, and acts of violence while making many of them backdrop motifs embedded in the poem‘s kaleidoscopic structure, or even turning these momentous moments into pivotal points or cornerstones of the very compositional architecture. Effectively, the poem combines references to and the patterns of the ―mythical‖ and ―political‖, of the past and present, of the atemporal and the very historical – from those of the mythic past to those of the later historical time in which the mythical as if still perpetuates and permeates: from the change of Philomel, the killing of Narcissus, Ezekiel‘s vision of the fall of Jerusalem, through to St. Augustine‘s personal vision of the unholy Carthage, the tale of Dido Queen of Carthage, through to the private life of the Virgin Queen Elizabeth and the conspiracies of her Privy Council, the trade wars, exemplified by the Battle of Mylae, the murder in Kyd‘s The Spanish Tragedy and conspiracies surrounding Kyd himself all the way to the murder of Countess Larisch at Lake Leman, the mysterious ―drowning‖ of King Ludwid II of Bavaria at Starnbergersee, to dead Albert – a token name for the millions of soldiers killed in the Great War and buried in the news, to self-destructive acts of desperate abortion, drug abuse, indulgence in spiritualism, loose sex, life by ―automatic hand‖ (verse 255), etc. Moreover, there are a number of acts of cultural violence: the demolition of the City churches, the ruins of Alexandria, the sacking of Jerusalem, the destruction of the Provençal Troubadour, etc. There is a perpetual paradox, however, that the persona of the poem faces, as it suffers from the irreducible relativity of its ―intention‖, which stems from the fact that however strongly is it immersed in the fragments of the past, it does not afford to indulge there or in

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them, but is rather repelled, scanning and weighing them as a heap of broken images (verse 22) or the dust which it fears in line 30. Rather to the opposite of the expected alienation, though, the persona becomes affirmative at the very end and climax of the poem with ―shantih, shantih, shantih‖ – a kind of ―peace that passeth understanding‖ as Eliot himself explains in his authorial note on The Waste Land, No. 433 (ibid.: 108). In our opinion, Eliot, who studied Sanskrit as well as Buddhism and Eastern religions, together with Leibnitz‘s concept of monads, mathematics and anthropology here proposes a peace of mind that comes not only from a recognised logic of the canonical interpretation of the past or established cultural forms and patterns, but rather seeks a state, or a condition, which can be culturally universal. The very condition of the mind, which is universal also anthropologically, had already in the early twentieth century, along with the arts scene, become also a focal point in Western anthropology and philosophy and had later evolved into the phenomenology, hermeneutics, and semiotics of the century. For our reading and dealing with the identity issues and the resulting problem of intention, it is also important to remember there is a profound polysemy and doubleness embedded at the heart of the poem – the doubleness of the mundane, the ordinary versus spiritual or even sacred, the most overt and even trivial versus clandestine, the secret, vulgar versus holy, as well as the civic and low-key versus the pathetic and enflamed. The visible versus the invisible world in a spiritual and religious sense. The here and now versus then and there, the present or even extatic moment of elevated presence versus banal presence or even timelessness that never truly happened in a spiritual sense of experience. The private and spiritual, mythical time and experience stand in opposition to the ―objective‖ and authoritative time and ―official experience‖. That doubleness is even further enriched and made more complex by a whole array of semiotic figures, tropes, and meaningful strategies that reach beyond the overtly textual or pragmatic reading and require a reading of both the implied and latent meaning, as well as situational and cognitive dynamics. Such a reading also requires knowledge and informed ―empathy‖ for the very situation that is established as an ―icon‖, ―image‖ or a frame of reference, which can also be a dramatic situation or effect. Needless to say, the poem‘s identity problem, it seems, itself implies several challenges. We need to ask ―What is the identity of this work?‖, once we acknowledge the plain fact that the poem almost exclusively uses quotes, i.e. it is as if there is no original Eliot work, except for his work as a composer of the fragments.

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At the same time, of course, this is the identity of the text composed of fragments of texts and images and artefacts that themselves have their identity of separate contexts, carry both their own original contexts in terms of cultural history, as well as their own phenomenological and iconic quality – the identity of their original time and cultural perception and identity as defined by their reading or misreading over time and across cultures. Even though this is primarily an ontological poem, a poem of ontological strife – it is also irreducibly personal, at least to a degree. The strife of reassembling an identity via a very specific kind of archaeology of meaning actually integrates cultural fragments – revived by personal relation – with occasional references to a map of personal journeying and being, loci of personal myth and experience (especially Munich, the City of London, Margate, etc.). The purging process, scanning and refining the mental debris, in the same breath, stays very much in line with Eliot‘s personal and original concept of authorial appropriation as a way of rejuvenating the tradition, and thus remains also necessarily ―personal‖. As we have indicated, a major problem for the positive identification of the poem‘s clearly defined field of identity is a relativity of the voices‘ intent and tone. As we have hinted above, the working method of the poem is a kind of ―Shakespearian rag‖ (verse 128) – a kind of processing of samples of ―tunes‖ of works into different overall pattern. But, as a result, partial expressions become relative as the samples put together correlate differently in different mutual relations. This new constellation produces a whole range of variegated meaningful emanations and tensions, previously non-existent, which range from the grotesque to metaphysical, from the trivial to Wagnerian, and often subvert or relativise the notion of the very genres and genre identities they originated from. For instance, the voice of Madam Larisch here is no longer just safely set in its original context of her book of memories My Past, but plays out as a vocal counterpoint in the operatic environment of Wagner‘s Tristan and Isolde, which itself is in a way conducted by a leading voice of The Ezekiel‘s command ―rise to thy feet, son of man‖, which is the ―voice from above‖. The divine and divining voice is of course possibly mocked and made mundane by later motifs of Ms. Porter, and other, but also developed in the gravely pious while possibly also jocular presence and voice of Madame Sosostris – a famous clairvoyant dealing and reading the Tarot ―pack of wicked cards‖, who cannot be attached any particular historic identity but, perhaps, Madame Blavatsky or, equally possibly, Pharaoh Sesostris, one of the greatest military leaders Egypt ever had, who also was the one to introduce a cult of Serapis, a syncretic Hellenic Egyptian God. The effort of the poem is very much similar to cultural

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syncretism in its absorbing and melting of identities of the original canonical contexts and references into this fresh operatic playing field of interactions. The identity quest can be claimed to be one of the prime objectives of this poem as it deliberately, in a syncretic effort, pulls together apparently random and arbitrary sets and groups of samples and quotes and meaningful grains or stones playing their role in the overall mosaic, which itself is fluid. The problem of establishing identity in a more conventional sense also stems from the fact that the whole of this metatext, due to its highly unique structuring, is difficult to compare to anything previously known and bears little semblance to established categories in the realm of poetry. As a result, the problem of the poem‘s identity is very much identical to the question of the poem‘s original construction and constitution in itself, as well as in a broader cultural context. The lyrical subject of this text seems to be open-ended, reaching beyond a particular section or paradigm of political, cultural or even historical and religious reality or even time, and brings into question the very interpretation of the very nature of reality, as it transforms the code of the text into the code of the mind and is not necessarily related to primary experience of any kind but experience of the cultural legacy and legacy of the myth. The healing and reconciling effort of the poem is in a way a ritual, a procedure of reconciling the apparently disparate and dead, singularised, truncated ―fragments‖, which by the very act of inner appropriation using both the conscious and unconscious processes – like in the performing arts – enlivens and animates new possibilities of a new kind of logos, i.e. coding, structuring, and integrating the cognitive and the artifactual into a new kind of cultural and even ontological reality and identity. The poem seems to suggest that it is possible for a mind, educated and creative, to open to more than one culture, to transcend its temporary condition, and thus reinvent the tradition it inherited in an original and unique way. Let us just pose an example of the open nature of the fragmented identity of meaning: merely by the virtue of the very quote from ―Tristan und Isolde‖, the Wagner opera. Eliot establishes a reference not only to the text semantics in its nominal value, but also to all of the Arthurian tradition, as well as to the totality of stylistic paradigm of the opera, of the music score and its revolutionary structure, as well as to Wagner‘s presence, i.e. his possible connection with Marie Larisch via King Ludwig II of Bavaria, etc. The fluid quality of the identity of the individual voices, and contexts, bears serious implications for our reading, or rather ―perception‖. TWL (as Eliot himself labelled the poem as an acronym) has to be perceived not only as a ―text‖ with purely semantic qualities, but Slovak Studies in English, Vol. 3, 2011 – Identity in Intercultural Communication

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also as a meaningful assembly of different semiotic artifacts bearing qualities and meanings that are of different, not only semantic, orders or kinds. These other kinds of cultural or philosophical meaning, that together cohabitate and inform each other in the fabric of the poem woven of a number of formal logics – for instance musical phrasing, the score, or even operatic quality combining specific musical and dramatic effects – need to be taken into account in our perception of The Waste Land. They need to be perceived not just semantically, but as fully fledged multigenre meaningful objects, or even subsystems defined by their own specific discourse, sublogic or subphilosophy – as Wittgensteinian cases – i.e. as semiotic artifacts of their own specific subculture, own code and material structure. Only such a perception might enable us to wholly interpret, and actually ―tune together‖, i.e. harmonise, the variegated samples and fragments that the reader – or rather ―recipient‖ – is either required or invited to find coherent. The way to coherence seems to lead via an inferring phenomenological meaning of each and every fragment and their collection into a whole of matrix of implied meanings – a matrix of interpreted fields of meaning – which itself, by virtue of its existence as a field of depersonalised, displaced and abstracted identities, will converge to a coherence that will be unique to the very particular reading of the very particular reader. The very quality of pulsating meaning brings The Waste Land, at least potentially, also close to Eco‘s concept of an open text that allows multiple interpretations by the readers. However, if we were to take many a text sample in their original authoritative, not phenomenological quality, The Waste Land would – in contrast – remain a closed text that leads the reader to one intended interpretation of one embedded ―code‖ (for the concept of the open text, see Eco 1984). But, at the same time, in The Waste Land, by cutting the fragments off their original (canonised) context (or plucking out – verse 309), making them autonomous phenomenological, not merely semantic entities of the original context, Eliot manages to create ―a void in between‖ the very incorporated fragments. This act of releasing the semiotic charge (of incidental symbolism) of the fragments called in to the corpus of work enables Eliot to make his juxtapositioning a deliberate act of composition that carries both the principles of affirmation and subversion of the original ―tone‖, meaning, genre or style as many fragments become subject to transforming forces of pastiche, grotesque, and as the low or even vulgar might acquire a nearly metaphysical quality and vice versa. The central persona, the central voice, is really the voice of the mind, which ―can do the police in different voices‖. This is the voice of voices that are mostly serious or tragic in their original identity, but his is also the voice that mimics and mocks.

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To illustrate the problem of relative intentionality, let us pose a few questions related to Tiresias, the only possible central persona of the poem. How do we imagine Tiresias? What voice does he or it speak or use? Old or young? More similar to the music of Babylonia or Ragtime (or this metaphysical ―oooo Shakespearean rag‖ – verse 128)? Is his voice a high pitch or a bass, more masculine or feminine, or ―androgynous‖? Is it engaged, enflamed, or rather withdrawn or even roboticautomatic? Melodramatic or reconciled? Is his mind still in the time immemorial, in the mythic time as he peers at the banality of the mundane unreal city life? How does his atemporal experience and its tension with the experience of the present inform his voice, tone, and supposed intentionality? A single-minded answer to any and all of these questions would demand reducing our overall interpretation of the poem‘s meaning to one level, to one line. But that would not be productive or appropriate at all because the poem‘s identity, its distinct quality, also lies in the fact it is designed as a meaningful field of multiple identities, voices and even relative pitches or intentionalities working in a mode of both affirmative and subversive appropriation of the original genre and cultural and historic identity and canonised or established version of the ―message‖. Tiresias‘ mind is not only present in all points in time in a linear line, but his perspective is also as if on a plane above the causality and temporary or limited identity of those immersed in ―local‖ time and sense of space. As a result, his ―mind‖, not necessarily just as a biological identity but also as an identity of tradition, transcends conventional concepts of identity of a ―human‖ lyrical subject. Given this quality of ―experience‖ of the totality of experience, Tiresias does not fall victim to emotions, but is rather a dry, desolate, even more strongly a depersonalized observer. As his is primarily the consciousness of what is ―bound to come‖, it is a consciousness of evidence rather than experience, even though from his perspective the unfolding history is still his ―mental event‖ – while outside his will, still not outside his sensory and cognitive experience. So, in a sense, the figure of Tiresias, with its weight of universal evidence made personally relevant, stands for Eliot‘s own controlling self in the text. All of the allusions, literary references, themes, and images made their way into the poem only because there was Eliot‘s control combining conscious and intuitive (i.e. anthropologically atemporal and archetypal) approaches and procedures of inclusion.

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As a result, Eliot blurs the noetic and noematic dimension of the fractured ―subjects‖ appearing in the poem and ―atemporal‖ all inclusive ―subject‖ of androgynous Tiresias and via this inferring personification proposes a kind of universally informed, experienced, and empathic identity as a possible form of existence of an ever more universalist and globalist individual of the twentieth century. The concept of identity, in essence, might also be compared to more recent developments in the field of comparative philosophy, which combine the concept of the Transcendental Ego in Husserl‘s phenomenology with the concept of the primacy of selfconsciousness in the work of Sankaracharya and uncover a wholly new eidetic phenomenological science called ―convergent phenomenology‖. This new phenomenology takes over where Husserl left off, and deals with the constitution of relation-like, rather than merely thing-like, or ―intentional‖ objectivity.

Bibliography BAGCHEE, Shyamal (Ed.). (1990). T. S. Eliot: A Voice Descanting: Centenary Essays. London: Macmillan. BEDIENT, Clavin (1987). He Do the Police in Different Voices: The Waste Land and Its Protagonists. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. BISHOP, Jonathan (1985). A Handful of Words: The Credibility of Language in The Waste Land. Texas Studies in Literature and Language 27(2). BLOOM, Harold (Ed.). (1987). T. S. Eliot‘s The Waste Land. Modern Critical Interpretations. New York: Chelsea. BOSE, Purnima (1988). ‗End-Anxiety‘ in T. S. Eliot‘s The Waste Land: Narrative Closure and the End of Empire. Yeats-Eliot Review 9(4). CHANDRAN, K. Narayana (1989). ‗Shantih‘ in The Waste Land. American Literature 61(4), 681 – 83. DEAN, Michael P. (1984). T. S. Eliot‘s Tiresias: A Unifying Force in The Waste Land. Publications of the Mississippi Philological Association, 125 – 33. DIEPEVEEN, Leonard (1989). Shifting Metaphors: Interarts Comparisons and Analogy. Word and Image 5(2), 206 – 13. EASTHOPE, Antony (1983). The Waste Land as Dramatic Monologue. English Studies 64(4). ECO, Umberto (1984). The Role of the Reader: Explorations in the Semiotics of Texts. Bloomington: University of Indiana Press. ERWIN, Mark (1997). Wittgenstein and The Waste Land. Philosophy and Literature 21(2). JOHNSON, Anthony L. (1985). ‗Broken Images‘: Discursive Fragmentation and Paradigmatic Integrity in the Poetry of T. S. Eliot. Poetics Today 6(3), 399 – 416. KERMODE, Frank (Ed.). (1998). The Waste Land. New York: Penguin Classsics. KINNEY, Clare R. (1987). Fragmentary Excess, Copious Dearth: The Waste Land as AntiNarrative. Journal of Narrative Technique 17(3): 273 – 85. LITZ, Walton (Ed.). (1972). Eliot in His Time. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

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Resumé Príspevok interpretuje Pustatinu T.S.Eliota ako dielo, v ktorom autor prináńa nový koncept modernej identity, pričom narúńa a transformuje celý rad predpokladov, s ktorými sa pojem identity spájal na začiatku dvadsiateho storočia. Eliotova transformácia pojmu identity sa premieta do poetiky hraničnej a fluidnej koherencie, ktorá tak pre Pustatinu otvára moņnosti Ecovho otvoreného diela. Eliotova Pustatina a ambivalencia prítomnosti jej lyrického subjektu umoņňuje interpretáciu autorovej koncepcie identity vedomia ako dynamického ekvilibria fragmentárnych (textových a kultúrnych) identít, ktoré sú apropriované, inkorporované a procesuálne integrované na základe fenomenologickej afinity. Proces integrácie týchto fragmentarizovaných a fragmentárnych identít vńak otvára celé pole následných nečakaných výziev a neurčitostí, ako napr. neurčitosť „identity― vedomia, hlasu, postavy, skúsenosti, intencie, ba dokonca aj času a miesta. Tieto tradičné vymedzenia sa uvoľňujú a prelínajú v Eliotovom mýtickom, ritualizujúcom a súčasne parodujúcom poetickom „mode operandi―, ako aj „mode Vivendi―, ktoré hľadá a nachádza svoju identitu v stave mysle, ktorý je kultúrne aj antropologicky univerzálny, pričom presahuje hranice vyčerpaného západného kánonu svojej doby, aby súčasne umoņnil jeho revitalizáciu.

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METHODOLOGY Enhancing Intercultural Awareness of Teachers of English Zdeněk Janík Masaryk University, Brno

1. Introduction Today‘s pedagogical debate brings to the fore cultural proficiency as an intrinsic part of foreign language teaching and learning. The often-stressed linguistic proficiency as the fundamental goal of communicative competence has been revised to include the objective of appropriate language use in context. English language teaching should thus incorporate cultural proficiency and reflect the mutual link between language proficiency and cultural factors that define the context of communication. Language-and-culture teaching is the fundamental discourse of the course of Cultural Studies for Teachers of English taught at the English Department of Faculty of Education in Brno. The underlying objective of the course (Janík 2009) is to point out the misconception of English language and English culture as essentially the same in all English-speaking countries and explore the cultural and linguistic diversity of English speaking countries. This new discourse of English language teaching discards as insufficient and erroneous the concept of one native speaker of one national language coming from one national culture, and instead views English as lingua franca used by various cultural groups as their target language, second language, and international language in international and interethnic communication (Risager 1998). Emphasis is given on learners‘ intercultural awareness, development of positive attitudes towards other cultures, and improvement of competence in intercultural communication.

2. English As a Contact Language in Intercultural Situations A decisive factor in developing the course of Cultural Studies for Teachers of English was precisely the urgency to challenge the idea that ―language learning should offer insights into the culture and civilization of the countries where the language is spoken‖ (Risager 1998: 242). This assumption claims the existence of pure, authentic, and locally bounded cultures and languages that can be clearly delimited, which does not reflect the reality of interactions of cultures and languages and their hybridization in today‘s multicultural and global world.

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The focus of language and culture learning should then move away from teaching of national cultures and national differences that only perpetuates national and linguistic stereotypes. Teaching and learning about specific cultures do not contribute to the growth of learners‘ communicative competence in intercultural context. The language-and-culture approach taken in Cultural Studies for Teachers of English has the fundamental goal to bring learners to an understanding of English as a contact language in intercultural situations characterized by both cultural and linguistic complexity. The course primarily focuses on the target countries, namely Great Britain and the United States of America56, but it moves beyond the concept of learning about national culture and national identity by encompassing cultural, ethnic, and linguistic diversity of the target countries. Learners come to realize that the target language (i.e. English) is a lingua franca that can be spoken by people who, to borrow Risager‘s words, ―on the one hand belong to the society where the target language is also spoken as a first language [for example American English in the USA], but on the other hand belong to another culture [for example African American culture] and who may speak another language as their first language [i.e. Black English]‖ (ibid.: 249). An essential element of the cultural dimension of the language-culture approach is a cognitive learning process in which learners become aware of cultural factors embedded in communication. Any foreign language communication involves interactions between the culture of the target language speakers and learners‘ own culture. Both parts engaged in the intercultural communication need to be aware of the fact that their own cultures influence the communication by means of their judgments, interpretations and behavior. This intercultural awareness will not, as Begley rightly presumes, guarantee to learners that they will know when to bow or shake hands, but it will help them to understand that greetings vary according to culture, which will enable them to speak with people from diverse cultural backgrounds (2003: 409). Intercultural awareness of contrasting cultural practices in intercultural communication is the first necessary step to be taken by learners who wish to become intercultural speakers (and teachers) of English. If the learners‘ awareness is then successfully transformed to their understanding, recognition, and acceptance of different modes of thinking and behavior, as they are embodied in foreign language communication, the learners will enhance their intercultural communicative competence in English (cf. Byram and Fleming 1998).

It is the author‘s intention to include other English speaking countries, namely Australia and Canada.

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3. The Course of Cultural Studies for Teachers of English The following is a summary of the content of the course with the focus on knowledge, skills, and attitudes learners need to gain in order to become competent intercultural speakers and teachers of English. Cultural Studies for Teachers of English is an e-learning course, which means that all the study materials as well as activities required from learners are webbased. The e-learning course creates an environment in which learners exchange their ideas in discussion forums, check their understanding of the study materials through on-line quizzes, and submit essays and receive teacher‘s feedback on their work (see more in Janík, 2009). The e-learning course does not fully replace the need for ―contact lessons‖: learners meet in regular class sessions for discussions and they consult cultural issues with their colleagues and the teacher. The course consists of the following twelve topics: 1. Introduction to Cultural Studies 2. Cultural Identity 3. Cultural Awareness and Cultural Differences 4. Explaining Differences and Similarities across Cultures in Europe and Elsewhere 5. Cultural Values 6. Seeing the others: Developing Stereotypes and Making Judgments 7. National Culture and Cultural Diversity 8. Theory of Multiculturalism: How to Cope with Cultural Diversity 9. Culture and Communication 10. Language and Power Relations: British English and British Imperialism. Black English in the U.S. 11. Language and Power Relations: Discriminating Attitudes Toward Speech 12. Differences in cultural values, communication and learning strategies in an intercultural classroom 3.1 Towards Learners‟ Intercultural Awareness The first part of the course is devoted to learners‘ awareness of their own culture, which is the first condition to be met by learners if they intend to learn about and understand other people‘s cultures, regardless of the target language. The Introduction to Cultural Studies provides learners with various definitions of cultures. In light of the language-culture approach, emphasis is placed on learners‘ understanding of the inseparability of culture, language, and communication (for more see Fong 2003; Gay 2003).

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The objectives of learning in topics 2 through 5 can be summarized as follows. Culture involves learning of culturally-embedded perceptions: we socialize and interact with one another in a cultural group by means of acquiring and modifying meanings we assign to our life and the outside world. Once we have acquired our culture, we take it for granted. That is, we are not aware of our own culture and, in a parallel manner, we do not perceive in our culture what we were not taught to perceive. It is only when we encounter other cultures that we see our culture as being different from those of others. But seeing differences does not equal being aware of one‘s own culture, let alone other cultures. This is because when we interact with other cultures, and thus actually engage ourselves in intercultural communication, we subconsciously bring our own cultural frame of interpretation to the intercultural situation. Shortly, we perceive them through the lenses of our own culture. The ensuing ethnocentric attitudes of members of one culture who judge another culture‘s habits and practices as good or bad according to their own cultural beliefs and values are a social phenomenon common for Western cultures, including the cultures of English-speaking countries. By focusing on learners‘ cognition, the course helps learners to become aware of their own culture and explore cognitive mechanisms that enable one to avoid ethnocentrism. The stories of ‗The Peacelike Mongoose‘ and ‗The Bear Story‘ in topic 2 give insight into how our cultural identity influences the ways we see the world around us and, vice-versa, the ways the world sees us. The theme of the stories is that a cultural group has a strong impact on one‘s own cultural identity, especially if one is treated as an outsider (a foreigner) to the group. The topic also explains how cultural identity effects language acquisition and communicative competence in a foreign language. Topic 3 continues in the cognitive stage of learning by introducing an activity (adopted from Hofstede et al. 2002: 8 – 1) in which learners find out how their cultural perceptions differ from those of others. Learners are presented with unfinished and unclear drawings of people involved in various activities. By describing the pictures (first alone, then in groups) learners see how their perceptions of the same picture differ from others. They learn how to separate their observation from what may be culturally-influenced interpretations and judgments. The second activity under topic 3 presents learners with situations that require certain behavioral and communicative response. Learners are asked to choose responses that are closest to their modes of thinking and behavior, in other words, to their culture. It must be stressed here that the activity does not offer situations that might be considered ―typical‖ for the target language cultures, nor does the activity give multiple-choice answers with Slovak Studies in English, Vol. 3, 2011 – Identity in Intercultural Communication

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explanations provided for the rightness or wrongness of these answers. Such an approach could not be aligned with the goal of reaching cultural awareness with learners, but would erroneously instill in learners superiority of one‘s cultural habits, worldviews, behavior, and ways of communication over another‘s. Realizing that modes of behavior and communication differ across cultures, learners further look into reasons for and underlying conditions of cultural similarities and differences. Topic 4 adapts Hofstede‘s scientific classification of cultures according to cultural dimensions of identity, hierarchy, gender, and virtue (Hofstede et al. 2002: 91 – 113). Each of the dimensions has its opposites: for example, the dimension of identity on one side expresses collectivism, its opposite conveys individualism; hierarchy signifies large power distance, and its opposite is small power distance, and so on. The authors believe that most of the world‘s cultures incline to either of the two dimension opposites. To give an example, Japanese culture tends to collectivism that gives priority to a group over individual, and large power distance, which means acknowledging social status, hierarchical positions, and use of formal language. The culture of Americans, on the other hand, is said to move towards the opposite extreme of identity, encompassing individualism with its emphasis on personal opinion and rights of individual before his/her group. Likewise, the American small power distance regards privileges and social status as unimportant in communication and values instead an informal talk between equal people. Hofstede‘s cultural dimensions can provide learners with knowledge of cultural differences, yet such knowledge per se will not prevent learners from avoiding cross-cultural misunderstanding. Hypothetically speaking, in intercultural communication between a Czech employee and his Japanese employer, the Japanese may decide to act contrary to the Czech employee‘s cultural expectations by being informal and trying to be on an equal footing with his employee. The notion of expectations gathered through knowledge of cultural differences does not lead to intercultural awareness and communicative competence. Experience of intercultural communication always reveals something unlearnt and new and learners need to know when and how to adjust to various and unexpected circumstances arising within intercultural communication. In order to achieve such intercultural skills, learners need to be mindful of the communication process, not only of the outcome of communication, they should be able to tolerate ambiguity and manage anxiety (Gudykunst 2004: 253 – 273). Nevertheless, even if learners concentrate on behavioral differences in intercultural communication, differences in turn-taking and in verbal and non-verbal communication, they still lack full understanding of differing cultural values that lie behind the cultural differences

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apparent in communication (cf. Morgan 1998). Topic 5 moves further the discussion of behavioral and language differences to explore differing beliefs and cultural values. Learners complete and evaluate a questionnaire on cultural values and they compare their values with those of others in groups and with values of other cultures. The cultural values under scrutiny are classified according to their subject-relation as institutionalized, personal, and internalized values, and they are further combined into value continuums of individualism versus collectivism, altruism versus self-interest, industry versus relaxation (adopted from D‘Andrade 2008). Topic 5 also commences discussions and explorations of cultures of the target language speakers. Learners study specific examples of differences in cultural values between Euro-Americans, based on competition and individualism, and African Americans, who stress the importance of group and community needs over individual aspirations (Jackson II, Dangerfield 2003). Learners further discuss and compare values of the target language cultures with values common in non-Western cultures to verify assumptions about differences in cultural values. The cultures involved are American and Japanese teachers in two day-care centers (one situated in Tokyo, the other in a city in Wisconsin). Learners read about attitudes and values the teachers attach to the teaching and upbringing of children. The text reveals to learners that cultural differences cannot be always treated as differences in values. Both groups of teachers want children to become adults. The Japanese help the children grow up by letting them express in their childish ways, whereas the American teachers prefer giving the children verbal directions and explanations as helping them grow up. The value is the same; different are specific beliefs and perceptions of the same value (D‘Andrade 2008: 108 – 113). Topic 5 also opens the second part of the course: learners build on the subjects of culture they have learnt in the previous part of the course (the interrelation between culture and communication, cultural identity, ethnocentrism, cultural perceptions, cultural and intercultural awareness, and cultural values) and relate their theoretical understanding of culture to specific cultural and language issues in the target language countries.

3.2 The Study of American and British Cultural Issues Topic 6 returns to the subject of ethnocentrism to shed light on cultural stereotypes in the USA and Great Britain. Learners read about and discuss stereotypes used by EuroAmericans to label Native Americans and Asian Americans. Other reading material looks back to history to explore stereotypes and prejudice arising from British Imperialism and American Plantation Policy. To illustrate, in the former, learners analyze labels such as Slovak Studies in English, Vol. 3, 2011 – Identity in Intercultural Communication

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Geronimo, Crazy Horse, and Tonto, and the stereotyping traits the major Euro-American culture has historically ascribed to people of Native American origin. The latter focuses on the British and American representations of black people and, among other things, it makes learners question stereotypes that are derived from plantation and slave images (Toms, Coons, Mammies, etc.). The following topic defines the political context of stereotyping and labeling applied by allegedly superior culture over cultures of minorities and ethnic groups. Within such a context the notion of national culture, shared by citizens of a geographically bounded nation, is challenged by the perspective of cultural diversity of various ethnic and cultural groups living in the same nation. Using the example of the USA, learners analyze characteristics of the American national culture and are encouraged to reason the myth of the national culture by studying U.S. presidential speeches (i.e., the Inaugural Addresses of Ronald Reagan in 1981, Bill Clinton in 1993, and George W. Bush in 2001). The U.S. Presidents‘ call for one nation and the same national values shared by all Americans, and their appeal to the American culture, history, and the language as all the same all over the USA, is then contrasted with the reality of American cultural diversity. Learners come to the understanding that learning about American culture should not equal studying one American national culture, but exploring the diversity of cultures and languages within the American nation. Topic

introduces

political

theories

assimilation,

cultural

pluralism,

multiculturalism, and extremist nationalism. The aim is learners‘ awareness of assimilative tendencies of today‘s nations that suppress cultural and language diversities in favor of one national culture; extremist nationalism of radical and extremist groups that call for eradication of minorities and their cultural groups; multiculturalism and cultural pluralism that, on the other hand, are the appropriate mechanisms of protection of cultural and language diversity. The topic supplements the theories with an account of how multiculturalism efficiently works in practice in the state of Hawaii. Topics 9 through 12 are devoted to the subject of relations between culture and language. Topic 9 defends the interconnectedness of culture and language by explaining how appropriate use of language depends on a speaker‘s recognition of the cultural contexts and situation. Learners should realize that when people of different cultures meet and communicate in English, their language proficiency per se will not guarantee their understanding of differences in culturally given styles of conversations. Learners study a text on two cultural groups, one using Western (i.e. British and American) and other Japanese conversational style, both trying to communicate with one another in English. The resulting

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misunderstandings and misinterpretations are attributed to differing cultural perceptions and values between the two groups. Whereas the Western style of conversation reflects the values of freedom and equality by allowing, and indeed expecting from listeners to respond to the speaker‘s ideas by asking additional questions, expressing one‘s own opinion, agreement or disagreement, the Japanese style of conversation does not tolerate such interference in the speaker‘s talk. Listeners involved in the Japanese conversational style are expected to respect the values of social hierarchy and power distance (Sakamoto 1982). Topic 10 and 11 approach the link between culture and language from the perspective of power and analyze the history of ―superior‖ cultural and language discourses imposed by the British and Americans on other cultures that were deemed inferior. Topic 10 first defines the meaning of discourse as a cultural mechanism that sets and regulates who can speak, how, when and where (cf. Barker 2003; Campbell and Kean 2006). The first reading material under the topic is a narration of how British colonizers in Trinidad forced the native elites to learn ―proper‖ British English and accept it as their first language (adopted from Dowdy 2008). The second text takes learners to the USA of 1960s and tells an authentic story of African Americans in Los Angeles who were coerced by their high school teachers to give up their Black English Vernacular, i.e. Ebonics (adopted from Smith 2008). The text also focuses on some of the differences between Euro-American English and Ebonics. If the national cultures of English speaking countries represent one variety of English language as superior to other varieties and permit the ―inferior‖ varieties to be marked ―dysfunctional‖, full of ―broken English‖ and ―corrupt speech‖, the speakers of such varieties consequently face an irrevocable harm to their cultural identities. Topic 11 gives an example of school policy of an American board of education that required students to make a public promise that they would not dishonor American English by using improper speech and grammar (see more in Delpit and Dowdy 2008: 29). Topic 11 further attempts to answer the question, why we assign importance to people‘s quality of speech. A study on linguistic stereotypes inquires into some of the dialects in Britain and the USA and explains how people draw conclusions about a person‘s level of education and his social status based on how the person speaks (Stubbs 2008: 63 – 86). The topic aims at challenging the myth of Standard English and offers the perspective of intercultural speaker of English who replaces the notion of the native speaker‘s traditional privilege of being the model for English speakers and learners (cf. Byram and Fleming 1998). Learners should take from the topic the understanding that no English dialect is superior or inferior to any other and that all languages and dialects are suited to the needs of the community and culture they serve. Slovak Studies in English, Vol. 3, 2011 – Identity in Intercultural Communication

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The last topic of the course is devoted to an essential aspect of Cultural Studies for English Teachers, which is the study of cultural and language diversity within the classroom setting. The first text is an authentic story of a schoolgirl at a junior high school in 1940s New York City. Her story addresses her teacher‘s decision to impose strict discipline on her and her fellow students and questions the teacher‘s disrespect of the students‘ unique cultures. The teacher‘s refusal to learn to tolerate and work with the students‘ cultural differences, ranging from Italian to Jewish, had displeasing consequences both for the teacher and the students (see more in Kohl 2008). Having to teach a group of students of different cultural backgrounds is an every-day reality for many English teachers in target countries. The last reading material under topic 12 explains to learners how various cultural groups bring to the classroom different communication and learning styles, ways of problem-solving and task engagement. For example, a teacher expects from learners to assume a passive-receptive posture, requiring from the learners to listen quietly while the teacher talks, speak in complete sentences, focus on one issue at a time, and have facts arranged in a linear and logical order. African American, Latinos, and Native Hawaiians, however, culturally incline to a participatoryinteractive posture, in which speakers expect listeners to engage actively through vocalized and motion responses and get participatory entry into conversations through associative discourses that address more than one issue at once that mutually intersect and overlap (see more in Gay 2003). To learn about such cultural differences among students and to learn to respect them is the task of intercultural speakers and teachers of English.

4. Conclusion The course of Cultural Studies for Teachers of English is perhaps too ambitious to try to encompass all the subject areas of cultural studies for English teaching purposes. The course, nevertheless, does not pursue a thorough insight into cultural theories, nor does it acquaint learners with all cultures in all English speaking countries. The outlook the course offers to future teachers of English is that English language teaching would be incomplete without systematic and persistent queries to cultures of the target language and the rich relations between cultures and their languages.

Bibliography BARKER, Chris (2003). Cultural Studies. Theory and Practice. London: Sage Publications.

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BEGLEY, Polly A. (2003). Sojourner Adaptation. In L. A. Samovar and R. E. Porter (Eds.), Intercultural Communication: A reader (406 – 411). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. BYRAM, Michael, and Michael FLEMING (Eds.). (1998). Language Learning in Intercultural Perspective: Approaches through drama and ethnography. Cambridge: CUP. CAMPBELL, Neil, and Alasdair KEAN (2006): American Cultural Studies: An introduction to American culture. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge. D‘ANDRADE, Roy (2008). A Study of Personal and Cultural Values: American, Japanese, and Vietnamese. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. DELPIT, Lisa, and Joanne Kilgour DOWDY (Eds.). (2008). The Skin That We Speak: Thoughts on language and culture in the classroom. New York: The New Press. DOWDY, Joanne K., Ovuh Dyuh. In L. Deplit and J. K. Dowdy (Eds.), The Skin that We Speak: Thoughts on language and culture in the classroom (3 – 14). FONG, Mary (2003). The Nexus of Language, Communication, and Culture. In L. A. Samovar and R. E. Porter (Eds.). Intercultural Communication: A reader (198 – 206). GAY, Geneva (2003). Culture and Communication in the Classroom. In L. A. Samovar and R. E. Porter (Eds.), Intercultural Communication: A reader (320 – 338). GUDYKUNST, William B. (2004). Bridging Differences: Effective Intergroup Communication. 4th ed. California, India, London: Sage Publications. HOFSTEDE, Gert Jan, Paul B. PEDERSEN, and Geert HOFSTEDE (2002). Exploring Culture. Exercises, Stories and Synthetic Cultures. Main: Intercultural Press. JACKSON II, Ronald L., and Celnisha L., DANGERFIELD (2003). Defining Black Masculinity as Cultural Property: Toward an Identity Negotiation Paradigm. In L. A. Samovar and R. E. Porter (Eds.), Intercultural Communication: A reader (120 – 130). JANÍK, Zdeněk. (2009). Cultural Studies for Teachers of English (E-Learning Course) [online]. Brno: Masarykova Univerzita. Retrieved from http://moodlinka.ped.muni.cz/ course/view.php?id=1533 on Oct. 20, 2010. KOHL, Herbert (2008). Topsy-Turvies: Teacher Talk and Student Talk. In L. Deplit and J. K. Dowdy (Eds.). The Skin that We Speak: Thoughts on language and culture in the classroom (145 – 162). MORGAN, Carol (1998). Cross-cultural encounters. In M. Byram and M. Fleming (Eds.), Language Learning in Intercultural Perspective: Approaches through drama and ethnography (224 – 241). RISAGER, Karen (1998). Language teaching and the process of European integration. In M. Byram and M. Fleming (Eds.), Language Learning in Intercultural Perspective: Approaches through drama and ethnography (242 – 254). SAKAMOTO, Nancy (1982). Polite Fictions: Why Japanese and Americans Seem Rude to Each Other. Japan, CA: Kinseido. SMITH, Ernie (2008). Ebonics: A Case History. In L. Deplit and J. K. Dowdy (Eds.), The Skin that We Speak: Thoughts on language and culture in the classroom (17 – 27). STUBBS, Michael, Some Basic Sociolinguistic Concepts. In: L. Deplit and J. K. Dowdy (Eds.), The Skin that We Speak: Thoughts on language and culture in the classroom (63 – 86). Resumé Článek prezentuje cíle výuky v předmětu Kulturních studií pro učitele angličtiny. Předmět přináńí budoucím angličtinářům poznatky o kulturní a lingvistické různorodosti anglicky mluvících zemích a upozorňuje na chybnou představu o uniformitě anglického jazyka a homogenitě jeho uņivatelů. Vedle otázek a problémů, kdo je rodilým mluvčím dneńním

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multikulturním a globálním světě a jak se afroamerický dialekt lińí od standardní americké angličtiny, studenti například analyzují, jak národní, etnické a kulturní identity ovlivňují styly komunikace a strategie učení. Cílem výuky je prohlubovat interkulturní uvědomění studentů a posilovat jejich kulturně jazykové dovednosti pro uņívání angličtiny v interkulturním prostředí.

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METHODOLOGY Identity of the English and Its Implications for Students of the English Language and Translation Studies Jela Kehoe Catholic University, Ruņomberok 1. Cultural Identity, Cultural Memory and Multiculturalism We live in a world where cultures meet, merge and occasionally collide. It is a multicultural world where globalisation fuels and empowers not only commerce and media, but also peoples‘ thirst for knowledge and recognition. We realise that others might view the world we live in differently to us, making us aware of our own cultural preconceptions, sometimes even of our outdated dogmas and self-righteousness. The issue of cultural identity is relevant to everybody because of the potential ―tension caused by multiculturalism and misunderstanding of different cultural identities‖ (Balák 2006: 237). We all derive our specific characters from being members of distinct societies and cultures in a process of socialization and conforming to customs. Every human society possesses mechanisms which enable it to consistently maintain its nature throughout generations. One such mechanism is cultural memory, which is a collective concept that consists of all the knowledge that commands our behaviour and experience. Cultural memory facilitates the reproduction and continuation of a given cultural identity when the members of this culture draw upon the collective experience or images from the past, attempt to emulate respected or admired members of this culture, follow customs or rituals, conform to the norms and/or obey the rules of this culture, whether explicit or implicit. Cultural memory of an individual is created and shaped within the process of interaction with other people, typically groups of people who view their unity and specificity through a representation of the past they have in common. Family is the first such group that supplies the cultural memory necessary for the creation of one‘s cultural identity; other groups are in schools, neighbourhoods, societies, companies, political parties all the way up to a nation, as a sense of a group of people. The sensation of unity and specificity that such groups of people experience and share (in other words cultural identity) is derived from the stock of knowledge preserved by cultural memory. The attitudinal manifestations of cultural identity are realised via the contrasts of ‗we are this, the others are not‘; ‗we belong here, the others belong there‘; and/or ‗this is familiar, that is foreign‘. The awareness of these distinctions combined with the content of

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cultural memory and cultural heritage assist a society in the process of becoming visible to itself and to others, effectively shaping and structuring its cultural identity. Multiculturalism, as well as globalisation, force us on the one hand to realise our own cultural identity in confrontation with the identities of members of other cultures, and, on the other hand, force us to consider whether it is necessary, or even worthwhile, to identify with a specific culture: ‗our‘ culture. As Erazim Kohák says, ―To be sure, we need not retain any cultural identity at all. We can, if we so wish, dissolve in the easy world of instant gratification. We can become an ethnic manifold distinguished only by an awkward, unintelligible language [Czech] and gradually melt into a global English-speaking civilisation. [...] Yet I believe we would be the poorer for it, and so would the world be. Culture is rooted in the heritage of a language, of shared memories and hopes. There is no culture in a language devoid of that depth, however well suited to superficial communication it may be. English stripped of Shakespeare, of the King James Bible and the Prayer Book, of seafaring, of theatre, of struggles, of defeats and small triumphs [...] is no longer the language of culture. A multicultural world cannot be based on global superficiality. It is possible only as a mosaic of cultures, each lovingly polished as a precious stone‖ (Kohák 2008: 228).

2. Stereotypes An understanding of other cultures can be accomplished either through personal experience (as long as an ‗experiencee‘ is an open-minded one) or through the study of ‗second-hand‘ sources, provided by schools, libraries and, last but not least, the mass media. If proper care is not taken and the gained information is only haphazard and superficial, the image of the ‗other‘ culture in question might come out distorted, even twisted, in other words, stereotyped. Paxman recounts an article where some seventy years ago George Orwell described with some disgust the manner of the stereotypical portrayal of foreigners in two magazines: the Gem and the Magnet. He wrote: ―As a rule it is assumed that foreigners of any race are all alike and will conform more or less exactly to the following patterns:

FRENCHMAN: Wears beard, gesticulates wildly. SPANIARD, MEXICAN, etc: Sinister, treacherous. ARAB, AFGHAN, etc: Sinister, treacherous. CHINESE: Sinister, treacherous. Wears pigtails. ITALIAN: Excitable. Grinds barrel-organ or carries stiletto. SWEDE, DANE, etc: Kind-hearted, stupid.

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NEGRO: Comic, very faithful.‖ (Paxman 2007: 36)

We could laugh at such superficiality, feeling quite superior, but is it not an unfortunate truth that we can still see parallel (‗updated‘) versions of stereotypical images of different nations? They might be as follows:

FRENCHMAN: Nationalistic Complains a lot. A good cook. SPANIARD, MEXICAN, etc: Loud, excitable. ARAB, AFGHAN, etc: Sinister, treacherous, fanatical. CHINESE: Subdued, hard-working, passive. ITALIAN: Passionate, excitable.Gesticulates wildly. SWEDE, DANE, etc: Kind-hearted. Drinks a lot. AFRICAN AMERICAN: Violent, untrustworthy, lazy.

3. The English Nature Let us consider a nature of Englishmen, their cultural identity, and their ‗Englishness.‘ As Jeremy Paxman says: ―Some aspects of Englishness remain constant over the centuries, others are forever changing.‖ Not all of them are uniquely English, yet, especially when one finds three or four of them together, they truly manage to evoke that English flavour. He makes a list which ―includes ‗I know my rights‘, village cricket and Elgar, Do-It-Yourself, punk, irony, vigorous politics, brass bands, Shakespeare, Cumberland sausages, doubledecker buses, Donne and Dickens, twitching net curtains, breast-obsession, quizzes and crosswords, country churches, dry-stone walls, gardening, Christopher Wren and Monty Python, easy-going Church of England vicars, the Beatles, […], drinking to excess, Women‘s Institutes, fish and chips, […], civility and crude languages, ugly caravan sites on beautiful clifftops‖ (Paxman 2007: 22 – 23). The English are aware of their cultural identity and to maintain it many of them draw upon their pride of what they have achieved as a nation. ―They developed the current form of soccer and rugby, tennis, boxing, golf, horse-racing, mountaineering and skiing. The English created modern tourism with the Grand Tour and Thomas Cook‘s first package tour. They developed the first modern luxury hotel (the Savoy with electric lights, six lifts and seventy bedrooms). Charles Babbage produced the world‘s first computer in 1820s. ... Sandwiches, Christmas cards, Boy Scouts, postage stamps, modern insurance, and detective novels are all products ‗Made in England‖ (Paxman 2007: 63).

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Social anthropologist Kate Fox, Co-Director of the Social Issues Research Centre in Oxford and Fellow of the Institute for Cultural Research, takes a more detailed, more empirical approach. In her book Watching the English. The Hidden Rules of English Behaviour (2004), Fox set out to create a picture of Englishness, listing a series of characteristics that she found to be crucial when defining English cultural identity. She grouped them into three clusters: reflexes, outlooks, and values revolving around a central core.

3.1 The Core The Core constitutes of what she calls Social Dis-ease: the incompetence and/or discomfort of the English in the context of social interaction, their insularity, awkwardness, obliqueness, fear of intimacy and the obsession with privacy. She states that ―most peculiarities of English behaviour are traceable, either directly or indirectly to [social disease] and both famous ‗English reserve‘ and [their] infamous ‗English hooliganism‘ are symptoms‖ (Fox 2004: 401, 402) of this affliction. As a result when a social situation makes the English uncomfortable they either become over-polite and reserved, or loud, crude, and even violent. The English ease their misery caused by social dis-ease with the help of props and facilitators – games, pubs, weather-speak, pets, etc. Key phrases: ―„An Englishman‟s home is his castle‟; „Mind your own business‟; „Nice weather, isn‟t it?‟; „Don‟t make a fuss/scene”; „Keep yourself to yourself‟‖. (Fox 2004: 402).

3. 2 The Reflexes

3.2.1 Humour Humour as a ‗default mode‘ constitutes the most effective remedy for social dis-ease. Although the English do not have a ‗patent‘ on humour, nor is it always more sophisticated than the humour of other nations, it is, however, persistent in everyday life and supremely important to the English, permeating most discourse. Fox says: ―Virtually all English conversations and social interactions involve at least some degree of banter, teasing, irony, wit, mockery, wordplay, satire, understatement, humorous self-deprecation, sarcasm, pomposity-pricking or just silliness ... The taboo on earnestness is deeply embedded in the English psyche. [Their] response to earnestness is a distinctively English blend of armchair cynicism, ironic detachment, a squeamish distaste for sentimentality‖ (Fox 2004: 403).

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Key phrases: ―‗Oh, come off it!‟; „Not bad‟ (meaning outstandingly brilliant); „A bit of a nuisance‟ (meaning disastrous, traumatic, horrible); „Not very friendly‟ (meaning abominably cruel)‖ (ibid.).

3.2.2 Moderation Moderation is defined by Fox as a distinctive tendency to avoid extremes, excess or intensity of any kind. She marks in them the strong dislike of change, the dislike of fuss. The English are cautious and focused on domesticity and security. They are ambivalent, conservative, and unwilling to make rash decisions. They like order and even manage their special brand of ‗orderly disorder‘. Key phrases: “„Don‟t rock the boat‟; „Don‟t go overboard‟; „For the sake of peace and quiet‟; „Can‟t be bothered‟; „Safe and sound‟; „Order! Order!‟; „A nice cup of tea‟; „Too much of a good thing‟; „Happy medium‟ ‖ (ibid.).

3.2.3 Hypocrisy Hypocrisy could be seen as a common English trait. Though it might be true, it is not because they are by nature more deceitful than other cultures, but because of their ingrained cautiousness, obliqueness, indirectness, and inclination to polite pretence rather than honest assertiveness. It could be said that ―most of [their] politeness/modesty/fairness is hypocritical, but also that most of [their] hypocrisy is a form of politeness – concealment of real opinions and feelings to avoid causing offence or embarrassment‖ (Fox 2004: 404). Key phrases: ―‗please‟; „thank you‟; „sorry‟; „nice‟; „lovely‟ (plus smiles, nods, etc.)‖ (ibid.).

3.3 The Outlooks 3.3.1 „Empiricism‟ Fox uses this term in a broader, more informal sense denoting anti-theory, antiabstraction, anti-dogma aspects of English philosophical tradition, and the penchant for downto-earthiness, matter-of-factness, and pragmatism, as well as a stubborn preference for the factual, concrete and common-sense. Key phrases: ―‗Oh, come off it!‟; „At the end of the day..‟; „As a matter of fact‟; „In plain English‟; „I‟ll believe it when I see it‟‖ (Fox 2004: 405).

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3.3.2 Eeyorishness A characteristic of English people named after Milne‘s Eeyore and his catchphrase ‗Typical!‘, by which Fox means moaning and whingeing as a socially therapeutic tool for facilitating social interaction and bonding. ―Almost all ‗social‘ moaning is humorous mockmoaning. Real, tearful despair is not allowed, except among intimates‖ (Fox 2004: 405). The English are persistently pessimistic and assume that things are most likely to go wrong and be disappointing, but are also perversely satisfied when they see their gloomy predictions fulfilled. Key phrases: “„Huh! Typical!‟; „The country‟s going to the dogs‟; „What did you expect?‟; „I could have told you‟; „There‟s always something!‟; „Mustn‟t grumble‟; „Better make the best of it‟; „Never mind‟; „Blessed are they who expect nothing, for they shall not be disappointed‟ ‖ (Fox 2004: 406).

3.3.3 Class-Consciousness Every society has means for indicating social status, effectively creating a social hierarchy. The English class system is specific because: 1. of the extent to which the class (and/or class-anxiety) influences how the English interact, behave and form judgements. 2. the class of the English is generally not determined by their affluence or their profession, but entirely on non-economic indicators, for example taste, manner, speech and the choice of a lifestyle. 3. the English are very much aware of the class system, and acutely sensitive to the above mentioned class indicators. 4. the English react to any mention of class system with ―coy squeamishness‖ or show a tendency to deny all the above. Key phrases: ―‗That sort of back-ground‟; „Don‟t say “serviette,” dear: we call it a napkin‟; „A bit naff/common/flashy/vulgar/unsmart/Sharon-and-Tracey/mock-Tudor‟; „Stuckup posh tart (upper-class twit/snob/public school yah-yah/green-wellie/Camilla...) thinks s/he‟s better than us‟; ‟What do you expect from a jumped-up grocer‟s daughter?‟; „That nice little man from the shop‟ ‖ (ibid.).

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3.4. Values

3.4.1 Fair Play Fair play is a trait which Fox calls ―a national quasi-religious obsession.‖ For the English, fair play is an undercurrent in most elements of their rules of conduct and any violation of the fair-play principle is likely to cause more righteous offence than any other sin. It is not just with sports and games that it is associated, but also everyday activities such as queuing, buying rounds, table manners, rules of flirting, driving etiquette, conduct of business, etc. Key phrases: ―„Well, to be fair ...‟; „In all fairness...‟; „Come on, it‟s only fair‟; „Fair enough‟; „Firm but fair‟; „Fair and square‟; „Wait your turn‟; „That‟s out of order!‟; „Don‟t be greedy‟; „On the other hand‟; „There‟s always two sides‟; „Let‟s just agree to disagree, shall we?‟ ‖ (Fox 2004: 407).

3.4.2 Courtesy The English are criticized for their ‗reserve‘, and respected for their courtesy. Most of the time, however, when uttering ‗please‘, ‗thank you‘ or ‗sorry‘ (and they do so more than other cultures), they are conforming to a set of rules, rather than expressing genuine concern. Key phrases: ―„I‟m afraid that...‟; „I‟m sorry, but...‟; „Would you mind...?‟; „Could you possibly...?‟; „I don‟t suppose...‟; „Excuse me, sorry, but you couldn‟t possibly pass the marmalade, could you?‟; „Excuse me, I‟m terribly sorry but you seem to be standing on my foot‟; „With all due respect, the right honourable gentleman is being a bit economical with the truth‟.‖ (Fox 2004: 408).

3.4.3 Modesty Modesty is a quality the English hold in high esteem, and also one they aspire to. Not that they are more humble than others, but they obey rules about the appearance of modesty, which deem boasting inappropriate, and forbid it. These unwritten rules also impose selfdeprecation and self-mockery. As a result, the modesty observed is not of an earnest kind; it is usually of an ironic kind, or at least an understatement. Key phrases: ―„Stop showing off‟; „Don‟t blow your own trumpet‟; „Don‟t be clever‟; „I do a bit of sport‟ (meaning I‟ve just won an Olympic medal); „Well, I suppose I know a bit about that‟ (meaning I‟m the acknowledged world expert on it); „Not as hard as it looks/just lucky‟ (standard response to any praise for personal achievement).‖ (Fox 2004: 409). Slovak Studies in English, Vol. 3, 2011 – Identity in Intercultural Communication

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3.5. The Causes of English Dis-ease The causes of English social dis-ease can, according to Kate Fox, be multiple. Some would blame the public schools for English reserve; others might point their finger at unreliable English weather. English history and the empire built and lost could be the source of fatalistic pessimism, according to some. There were attempts to explain English insularity through geography. England being relatively a small, very overcrowded island produces a territorial, privacy-obsessed, reserved, acutely class-conscious culture preoccupied with demarcations and status. Fox concludes that though there is no simple answer to account for social dis-ease if the English, it might be ―due to [the] particular combination of climate, history and geography – which at least could be said to be unique.‖ (Fox 2004: 413).

4. Implications for Students of the English Language and Translation Studies In a traditional sense, the culture of a society covers products of arts (literature, fine arts, music and architecture), feats of history and, beginning in the last century, also products of popular culture and mass media. From a more anthropological point of view, culture also includes by-products of everyday life, its traditions and customs, attitudes, ethics, laws and taboos. Linguistic competence combined with knowledge of the cultures in question generates a specific type of competence necessary for teachers as well as for translators and interpreters. The role of a second language teacher in the educational process is twofold: a teacher is a speech model for students to imitate, which means s/he should have a good command of the given language as a whole (good grammar, decent pronunciation, and lexis); and a teacher is primarily a mediator of a culture, culture being both an effective aim and the content of the lesson, language being mainly a means to an end, a tool. A second language lesson becomes a ―crossroads of cultures, [... and] the methodological foundation of this approach is intercultural communication, the object of which is the cultivation of mutual relationships‖ (Kollárová 2004: 38). Translating as an activity and translation as the result of this activity are inseparable from the concept of culture. The role of a translator is not only to mediate between two languages (which means being highly sensitive to all the layers present in both languages, including knowledge of their phraseology or slang), the translator‘s role is also to mediate between two cultures. By breaking down the language barriers, a translator can help break down, or even erase, the barriers between cultures. In order to be able to function as such a mediator, a translator must be familiar with all that the word ‗culture‘ covers.

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Gromová (2004) mentions the interpretative, text-forming and technological aspect of translation process and states that the training of future translators should assist them in developing five essential competences: linguistic competence, sociolinguistic competence, discourse competence, strategic competence and intercultural competence, which ―consists in a) the acquiring of knowledge of culture of the original and the target text in the implicit and explicit confrontation; b) the ability of self-reflection of one‘s own culture in relation to the culture; and c) the ability to anticipate cultural presupposition (information of which the translator supposes to be known to the receiver)‖ (Gromová 2004: 38). Such competences will allow students to master the process of translation in its every aspect, from text production and formatting, through correct interpretation and subsequent translation of grammatical structures, all the way to correct interpretation of culture specific items, and intertextual and cultural references.

5. Final Words Students learn to decide the degree of naturalisation or exotication, or might choose creolisation of the text in order to best accommodate the peculiarities of the source text as well as the target readers. Even though we live in a global village, the need to identify with groups sharing the same outlooks on life, values, ethical principles, customs – the culture – is ever present and possibly more important than ever. Students of English language and translation studies must be knowledgeable in culture specific items, as well as in the peculiarities of the natures of the nations in question, so they could be competent mediators whether in a classroom or when creating a target text in the process of translation.

Bibliography BALÁK, René (2006). Kultúrna identita vo vzťahu k ľudskej prirodzenosti. In Ľudská prirodzenosť a kultúrna identita (227 – 253). FOX, Kate (2004). Watching the English. The Hidden Rules of English Behaviour. London: Hodder & Stoughton. GROMOVÁ, Edita (2003). Kompetencie prekladateľa. Letná škola prekladu 2: Kvalita prekladu a prekladateľské kompetencie (35 – 41). KOHÁK, Erazim (2008). Hearth and Horizon. Cultural Identity and Global Humanity in Czech Philosophy. Praha: Filosofia. KOLLÁROVÁ, Eva (2004). Kulturologické smerovanie cudzojazyčnej edukácie. In Svet cudzìch jazykov dnes. Inovačné trendy v cudzojazyčnej výučbe. PAXMAN, Jeremy (2007). The English. London: Penguin.

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Resumé Úspeńná interkultúrna komunikácia sa môņe realizovať len za predpokladu, ņe jej participanti majú jeden o druhom primerané objektívne poznatky. Príspevok si kladie za cieľ naznačiť, akú úlohu zohráva kultúrna identita a kultúrna pamäť vo vnímaní okolitého sveta a v komunikácii s ním, a ako nás ovplyvňujú stereotypy. Príspevok tieņ hovorí o povahových črtách, reflexoch, postojoch a hodnotách, ktoré sú beņné pre obyvateľov Anglicka.

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METHODOLOGY James Bond as a Culture-Specific Archetype in EFL Teaching Anatol Shevel University of Rzeszow, Poland The notion of archetype is not new and is widely exploited in art. In this article I would like to show its manifestations in EFL teaching and the practical value it has for making our language teaching practice livelier. The most commonly used definition of archetype is ―An abstract or ideal conception of a type; a perfectly typical example; an original model or form‖ (I-Net 1) or ―an original model of a person, ideal example, or a prototype upon which others are copied, patterned, or emulated; a symbol universally recognized by all.‖ As we see, it has well expressed properties, such as being a widely known model, having a clear pattern, and good material for replication. The more popular the archetype, the more expressed these qualities are. James Bond has indisputably become one of the most famous archetypical heroes known around the world. On the other hand, the idea of the emotional involvement of a student in the process of second language learning has long been well known to language teachers. The classification of the types of learners has been roughly made as goal-oriented, relationship-(social)-oriented, learning-oriented and thrill-oriented. The last ones are the most emotionally prone. What is exciting appeals more strongly than something trivial, hence, teaching materials that awaken students‘ imagination are always more successful. How can Bond help here? His mission is rather easy due to the fact that by virtue of his existence he possesses all the necessary features. Such attributes as the spying streak, glamour, excellence, bravery, awesome technological gadgets, near-supernatural potential, stunts and physical attraction make this image an ideal model for designing classroom activities. Firstly, the idea of spying is well known to young language learners from an activity called ―I Spy‖ where a student has to find certain objects in a picture.

There

are

lot

sites

with

such

content,

http://www.scholastic.com/ispy/games for one. Another incarnation of spying and imitating Bond is a computer game for children called ―Spy Fox‖ by Humongous Entertainment.

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Another way of creating a thrill in teaching English has been exploiting mysteries, like the legends of King Arthur, the Bermuda Triangle, old English castles, UFOs and Stonehenge. On top of that, a police or detective investigation has always been a good way to organize a task-based activity. If a fun component is added, the classroom work becomes especially attractive. A great example is the Brook Bond story in the Grapevine course by Peter and Karen Viney (OUP, 2004) where the Chief wants Bond to investigate the case of pigeons mysteriously disappearing from Trafalgar Square. The light vein of the unit only helps to elaborate on the most difficult grammar subjects, which are indirect questions. The idea of spying is well-used by Polish cartoonists. Here is one example: http://mleczko.interia.pl/zdjecia/rysunkikolorowe,10561/zdjecie,601895. The caption reads ‗FOR AN EXTRA CHARGE WE CAN OFFER A TABLE WITHOUT EAVESDROPPING.‘ An Internet search for eavesdropping appeared to be very productive and on one dictionary site (I-Net 3) we can find the following: eavesdrop – 3 dictionary results Mobile Phone Spy Remotely Listen To Calls & Read SMS Works On All Cell & Mobile Phones! www.E-Stealth.com For the following section I have to check the original eaves⋅drop 'i:vz,drɒp/ – Show Spelled Pronunciation [eevz-drop] – Show IPA verb, -dropped, -drop⋅ping, noun Use eavesdrop in a Sentence See web results for eavesdrop See images of eavesdrop – verb (used without object) 1. to listen secretly to a private conversation. – verb (used with object) 2. Archaic. to eavesdrop on.

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– noun 'i:vz,drɪp/ Also, eaves⋅drip – Show Spelled Pronunciation [eevz-drip] – Show IPA 3. water that drips from the eaves. 4. the ground on which such water falls. Origin: bef. 900; (n.) ME evesdrope, evesdripe, OE yfesdrype; as v., prob. back formation from eavesdropper, late ME evisdroppyr, appar. lit., one who stands on the eavesdrop in order to listen to conversations inside the house; see eave, drop, drip This site gives rise to many activities: firstly, the origin of the word, which can be a matter of a report made by a student, and, secondly, all the links to eavesdropping devices and software. Individual students can make presentations on the technical characteristics and application of the spy gadgets, etc. Spying also appears to be a productive subject in music. A search of only one music site (http://www.songlyrics.com) yields this many titles: Carly Simon - Spy Bauhaus - The Spy In The Cab Dead Kennedys - I Spy Foley Ellen - Spy In The House Of Love INXS - Spy Of Love Wall Of Voodoo - Spy World Was (Not Was) - Spy In The House Of Love They Might Be Giants - Spy Cinerama - Model Spy Pulp - I Spy Guster - I Spy Disco Biscuits - Spy Weird Al Yankovic - Spy Hard The Moffatts - Spy Blue Oyster Cult - Spy In The House Of The Night Moffatts - Spy Dr. Feelgood - Spy Vs Spy Girlschool - I Spy Roland Shaw - Theme From The Spy Who Came In From The Cold Roland Shaw - I Spy The Loved Ones - Spy Diddley Shakira - Spy

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Anouk - I Spy Stan Ridgway - Spy World Steve Winwood - Spy in the House of Love The Doors - The Spy Sporty Thievz - Spy Hunter Project 86 - The Spy Hunter Ian Hunter - American Spy Carly Simon - Nobody Does It Better [From ―The Spy Who Loved Me‖] Saliva - Spy Hunter Theme Song The Spinto Band - Spy Vs. Spy They Might Be Giants - Spy (Unreleased Live Version) Waldeck - Spy Like an Angel DC Talk - Spy Deerhoof - Spy On You Ophelie Winter - I Spy Kasey Chambers, Poppa Bill & The Little Hillbillies - I Spy White Skull - Spy

For advanced learners, we can offer a more sophisticated piece by Judas Priest with the theme inspired by Orwell‘s 1984. Electric Eye (lyrics) Songwriters: Robert Halford, Glenn Tipton, Kenneth Downing Up here in space I'm looking down on you. My lasers trace Everything you do. You think you've private lives Think nothing of the kind. There is no true escape I'm watching all the time. I'm made of metal My circuits gleam. I am perpetual I keep the country clean.

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I'm elected electric spy I protected electric eye. Always in focus You can't feel my stare. I zoom into you You don't know I'm there. I take a pride in probing all your secret moves My tearless retina takes pictures that can prove. Electric eye, in the sky Feel my stare, always there‘s nothing you can do about it. Develop and expose I feed upon your every thought And so my power grows. Protected. Detective. Electric eye. The text abounds in many advanced-level vocabulary items (circuits gleam, perpetual, in focus, take a pride, to probe, retina, expose, etc.) More ideas on how to work with advanced vocabulary can be found in ―The application of cognitive models for adult learners' vocabulary instruction‖ by A. Uberman (2008). This activity can be extended with a discussion of currently popular subjects, such as invigilation,

surveillance,

crime

prevention,

privacy, etc. Finally, there are very many mock themes about Bond whereby students can simply have fun doing the activity. One such offer (I-Net 4) is the task to find ten differences between the pictures.

Bibliography I-Net 1. www.jerichoschools.org/hs/teachers/lfischer/apvocab.htm I-Net 2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archetype I-Net 3 http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/eavesdrop I-Net 4 alex-inside.livejournal.com/538983.html?threa... Uberman, A. (2008). The application of cognitive models for adult learners' vocabulary instruction. Acta Humanica 2/2008. Aktuálne problémy výchovy k euroobčianstvu v dimenziách spoločensko-vedných odborov (167 –171). Ņilina. Slovak Studies in English, Vol. 3, 2011 – Identity in Intercultural Communication

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Resumé Artykuł jest próbą przedstawienia kilku praktycznych wskazówek dotyczących zastosowania archetypu w nauczaniu angielskiego jako języka obcego. Zaprezentowane pomysły, w oparciu o materiał dostępny na stronach internetowych, pozwolą na przygotowanie ćwiczeń niewymagających wysokich środków finansowych.

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METHODOLOGY Learning Strategies in Teaching Culture-Related Language Issues at Advanced Level Agnieszka Uberman University of Rzeszów, Rzeszów 1. Introduction The article briefly outlines learning strategies available to learners of foreign languages. It also addresses issues of instruction in culture-related language and content to learners of English at the advanced level of language proficiency. Moreover, the need for raising intercultural awareness is discussed and highlighted. The necessity of raising the cultural awareness of foreign language learners and students at the advanced level is indubitable. As proficient language users, they need to be acquainted with the diversity expressed in language use as well as in forms of behaviour. In line with the universally adopted approach, Risager notices that ―apart from developing the students‘ communicative competence in the target language, language teaching also ought also as far as possible to enable students to develop into multilingually and multiculturally aware world citizens‖ (2007: 1).

2. Diverse Views of Culture Unquestionably, culture is a notion that defies definition in one short sentence. A great number of researchers have been devoted to the study of the nature of culture, and, as a result, scholars approach the issue from various angles. Of the many available approaches to the classification and definition of the terms of culture, let us consider the compilation of views accumulated by Moran (2001). The author tries to present the multi-faceted combination of aspects involved by stating that, among other options, culture can be viewed as civilisation. Traditionally, it can be interpreted as composed of two complementary elements, namely ‗big C‘ and ‗small C‘ culture. The former is known to stand for ―the great achievements of a people as reflected in their history, social institutions, works of art, architecture, music, and literature‖ (Moran 2001: 4), whereas the latter is the multitude of customs, traditions, beliefs or daily practices shared by a particular community. Culture is also viewed as communication and all aspects and means available to members of various cultures to communicate despite differences, i.e. verbal and non-verbal

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forms of language and expression including body movement, eye contact, physical distance and space, touch, smell, aspects of time and the use of social situation. The implications for language teaching are expressed primarily in the form of developing ‗communicative competence‘57 interpreted as the ability to communicate efficiently in accordance with culture and language rules. It is equally fair to say that culture can be interpreted as a general concept not referring to any specific culture. Moran states that ―this view is prevalent in intercultural education and training and consists of culture-generated components that apply to any and all cultures. These components include generalised conceptions such as intercultural awareness, value orientations, attitudes and behaviours. The contrasts between cultures are emphasised, particularly those that produce cross-cultural conflicts or misunderstandings‖ (2001: 4). Such issues are introduced and analysed in the form of case studies, simulated cultural experiences or critical incidents. Intercultural communication, seen as universal and applicable across cultures and not relating to any specific culture, appears as another possible interpretation of culture. It is described as ―the capacity and ability to enter other cultures and communicate effectively and appropriately, establish and maintain relationships, and carry out tasks with people of these cultures.‖ Culture is perceived in terms of a cognitive process – ―what people go through as they think, do, and feel in order to successfully communicate across cultures‖ (Moran 2001: 5). The notions reflecting this view are intercultural competence and intercultural communicative competence. Another point of view for interpreting culture is the wider perspective seen as the arena for groups and communities to interact. This interaction can assume a number of forms, including among others ―vying for power, influence, authority, or dominance. The insiders and the outsiders, the haves and the have-nots, the privileged and the underprivileged, or the oppressors and the oppressed are seen as participants in an ongoing struggle to achieve their ends – either to change or to maintain the cultural status quo‖ (Moran 2001: 5). One more interpretation of culture perceives it as a dynamic construction between and among people. From this standpoint, it is considered to consist of values, meanings or beliefs that are created in specific social conditions. Hence, culture is not seen as a static knowledge construction, but rather constantly develops as it is created by interpersonal relationships.

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Communicative competence lies at the heart of The Communicative Approach to language teaching, which focuses on teaching individuals to use language systems (grammar, vocabulary) in real communication. (Thornbury 2006).

Finally, Moran (2001) notes that culture can be viewed as related to or embedded in biology or evolutionary psychology, due to the fact that many of its aspects appear to be ―universal to all members of humankind, derived from the nature and functions of the human brain. These universals, as in language, music, or in the universal facial expressions associated with emotions are the shared basis of communication across cultures. Culture is thus seen not as relative or variable but in terms of innate biological commonalities‖ (Moran 2001: 5). From the above brief discussion it becomes apparent that depending on the approach taken to the analysis of its nature, the notion and scope of culture do appear multidimensional.

2.1 Ethnolinguistics It is interesting to note that culture can be also studied from the perspective of language. Ethnolinguisitcs is ―the study of language as an aspect or part of culture, especially the study of the influence of language on culture and of culture on language‖ (Svoboda and Hrehovčík 2006: 145). Cultural differences are frequently manifested in the language used by speakers from various cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Present-day ethnolinguisitcs focuses largely on the study of these cultural characteristics replicated in language and the comparative analysis of diverse languages related to different cultures. Svoboda and Hrehovčík point out that in ethnolinguisitc research, culture is interpreted from a much wider perspective than traditional literature and art. In addition to these, it represents beliefs, habits, ceremonies, customs, rituals, and ―the social and political organisation, social stratification and the like on the one hand, and even such details as the movements of the body accompanying certain language expressions, on the other‖ (2006: 147). Thus, it becomes evident that the study of culture is inextricably tied to language study, as language is embedded in the culture; they are interrelated, inseparably connected, and one cannot exist in the absence of the other.

3. Teaching Culture and Learning Outcomes The need to introduce various aspects of culture of the foreign language one is studying cannot be questioned. What is of interest, however, is what outcomes are expected of culture learning. The general cultural learning outcomes overlap to some extent and they can be summarised in the following form (adapted from Moran 2001: 108):

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Outcome

Emphasis

Examples

Culture-specific

Intellectual insight and empathy

 History, literature, the arts

understanding

regarding a specific culture

 Area studies  Products, practices perspectives, communities, persons

Culture-general

Insights into general concepts of

 Analysis of critical incidents

understanding

culture and culture learning

 Values clarification exercises  Cultural simulations

Competence

Verbal and non-verbal cultural

 Language proficiency

behaviours and skills

 Communicative competence  Cultural competence  Intercultural competence

Adaptation

Entry and adaptation to a specific

 Integration

culture

 Assimilation  Acculturation

Social change

Identity

Critical thinking and action

 Social justice

regarding the target culture

 Cultural change

Transformations in the learner‘s

 A second language ‗self‘

self-concept

 Bilingualism  Multiculturalism

The learning outcomes related to culture teaching are diverse. The learners are expected to develop holistically along a number of different paths specified above.

3.1 Culture-Specific Understanding Focusing on culture-specific understanding as the outcome of culture instruction, the emphasis is placed on ‗intellectual insight and empathy regarding a specific culture,‘ which naturally involves mental power, thoughts, feelings and emotions. Learners are supposed to be able to identify and describe cultural phenomena, as well as show a certain approach towards the culture. ―To achieve culture-specific understanding […] learners not only acquire information about the culture, they also develop the ability to make valid cultural explanations based on this information. In order to make such explanations, learners need an awareness and

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understanding of their own cultural perspectives, etic or outsider views, which they consciously contrast with those of the target culture, emic or insider views‖ (Moran 2001: 109). Such knowledge and understanding enables learners to appreciate other cultures, their members and diverse forms of behaviour, which in turn contributes to raising their cultural, as well as intercultural awareness, appreciating other people, empathising with them and developing a broader perspective of seeing the world. Tomalin and Stempleski interpret ‗cultural awareness‘ as ―sensitivity to the impact of culturally-induced behaviour on language use and communication‖ (1993: 5). This view is in accordance with both culture-specific as well as culture-general understanding.

3.2 Culture-General Understanding Culture-general understanding is aimed at developing in learners the appreciation of the nature of culture in general, processes involved in entering cultures other than the native one, and cultural relativity, as well as the issues involved in regarding oneself as a cultural being. With culture-general understanding set as a goal, learners focus on acquiring ―generic aspects of culture‖ including perspectives, practices, products and communities. Learners primarily categorise perspectives from their own cultures, which are in turn compared with those present and exposed in other cultures. The process of instruction is primarily directed at intercultural training and education which prepares learners to enter other cultures. Activities of a culture-general focus aim at emphasising the process of entering another culture, namely ‗encounters with differences.‘ Students‘ responses and reactions to such simulated differences are analysed and then related and linked to relevant theories and models of culture, forms of cultural adjustment, or cross-cultural communication. Tasks employed for practice include simulations, critical incidents, case studies as well as awareness raising activities (inventories). Such tasks are aimed at developing in learners‘ intercultural awareness, sensitivity to differences across cultures and recognising ―the cultural dimension of their own behaviours and background‖ (Moran 2001: 110).

3.3 Competence Competence is an umbrella term under which a number of issues and models can be included. The predominant aspects of competence are communicative competence, cultural competence, intercultural competence and intercultural communicative competence. Competence in its various aspects assumes the learner ability to communicate and interact appropriately and effectively with speakers of other languages and from various cultural Slovak Studies in English, Vol. 3, 2011 – Identity in Intercultural Communication

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backgrounds. Depending on the focus of study and research, different models of competence highlight and background certain aspects. Moran summarises the main emphasis of diverse views of competence in the following way: 

Communicative competence – developing language abilities for effective and appropriate communication within cultural contexts of the target language-andculture. This competence encompasses other specific language competencies, namely grammatical, sociolinguistic, discourse and strategic;



Cultural competence – developing the ability to act appropriately (alongside communicating appropriately) in the target culture. Gestures, body movements, action sequences such as non-verbal greetings, table manners, manipulation of cultural products58 are additionally stressed;



Intercultural competence – developing the ability to interact effectively and appropriately in intercultural situations, regardless of the culture involved;



Intercultural

communicative

competence59

–

developing

intercultural

competence and communicative competence (2001: 111). Irrespective of which competence model is assumed as principal, the competencebased culture teaching relies on participating in the culture, either simulated or real. Fantini points out that preparing and teaching students to communicate with English speakers ―involves more than teaching just language. […] It has the potential to also engage learners in a powerful socialising process leading to the development of new, different, and alternative ways of being.‖ He also stresses the fact that the activities employed in the process of instruction should ―not only increase learner participation, but also direct attention to the cultural context of language and teach how to behave and interact when speaking English. The result is socialisation into different communicative possibilities that are bound to present challenges as well as opportunities‖ (2009: 12). This clearly supports the necessity of developing intercultural communicative competence as a merger of two forms of competence, i.e. communicative and intercultural.

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Hrehovčík and Uberman point out that cultural competence implies ―implicit mastery of the norms of society, the unspoken rules of conduct, values and orientations, which make up the cultural fabric of a society. It further implies the ability to recognise culturally significant facts, and knowledge of the parameters within which conduct is acceptable and unacceptable. Cultural competence merges into communicative competence‖ (2003: 51). Klyukanov refers to intercultural communication competence as ―a system of knowledge and skills enabling [language users] to communicate successfully with people from other cultures‖ (2005: 4). It includes cognitive (I know…), affective (I feel…) as well as behavioural (I do…) components.

3.4 Adaptation, Social Change and Identity Adaptation assumes that an individual actually enters a different culture with the intention of working and living in it for an extended period of time. Prominence is given to ―learners‘ adjusting, fitting in, living, and working within the way of life of the host culture‖ (Moran 2001: 112). Adaptation to the host culture is the long-term goal and the end stage of the lengthy culture learning process. Adaptation assumes changing one‘s own approach, i.e. ways of thinking, feeling and doing; understanding the ways of the target culture people; and accepting and adapting to the culture instead of trying to impose changes. Social change as a culture learning outcome in essence requires learners to act in order to modify certain aspects of the target culture on the basis of critical assessment of the given aspects of the target culture in line with their own way of thinking, values, attitudes and ethics. Where identity is concerned, Moran states that this culture learning outcome stresses the psychological transformations learners are exposed to and likely to experience in culture learning. Such effects are manifested by ―a learner‘s enhanced or transformed sense of self‖ (Moran 2001: 115) involving such aspects of identity as linguistic, cultural, gender, social, racial, ethnic, and the like. Irrespective of the culture learning outcome taken to function as the core of the language-and-culture teaching, educators need to adapt these to the educational situation of learners, their needs and abilities on the one hand, and the teaching context on the other. This demands flexibility on the part of the teacher and learners‘ needs analysis.

4. The Content and Strategies of Culture Teaching Foreign language teachers aim at encouraging cross-cultural understanding, peaceful interaction and tolerance of socially-accepted forms of behaviour other than their native variety; therefore the study of other cultures with their various forms of behaviour has become an integral part of the foreign language instruction. The aim of language learning-teaching process is to achieve, among other things, cross-cultural understanding and the raising of cultural awareness of the students‘ own culture as well as of the target language culture. Tomalin and Stempleski note that ―not all teaching about culture implies behaviour change, but merely an awareness and tolerance of the cultural influences affecting one‘s own and others‘ behaviour‖ (1993: 8). Culture is interpreted by Klyukanov as ―a system of symbolic resources shared by a group of people‖ (2005: 8), hence instruction must focus not only on forms of behaviour but those symbolic resources as well. The curriculum used in teacher Slovak Studies in English, Vol. 3, 2011 – Identity in Intercultural Communication

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training colleges and English departments at university level includes ‗culture of Englishspeaking countries‘ as one of its core subjects. Hrehovčík and Uberman (2003) state that the content of teaching is generally arranged with the inclusion of the following aspects/topics of culture: places, way of life, society, history, institutions, art and music. The scope of each of the components is adapted to the learners‘ proficiency level, and prior learning experience, as well as general educational background. The number of techniques that can be employed to teach culture forms a vast array of tools at language teachers‘ disposal to be adopted for the classroom setting and context. Eight different approaches to teaching culture can be enumerated (Hrehovčík and Uberman 2003: 53 – 55): 

An authentic classroom environment – the classrooms are decorated with maps, posters, cartoons, etc. which mimic the presence of the target community;



Provision of cultural information – thus drawing learners‘ attention to comparing target and native cultures, making cultural comparisons by short ‗slices of life‘;



Problem solving activities – learners‘ task is to find a solution to culturallysignificant, problematic situations they are presented with;



Behavioural and interactive aspects – learners are requested to improvise actions and interaction between simulated characters; this usually takes the form of dramatisation, role play or simulation;



Cognitive approaches – focus primarily on providing cultural information through readings, lectures, discussions, debates;



Real life exposure to the target language – this form of exposure to real-life culture and language can assume the form of visits to a foreign country, visits of native speakers to the language classroom, pen pals, etc; its value cannot be underestimated;



The role of literature – the use of literary texts of different kinds has the power of introducing readers to the values, beliefs, feelings and thoughts of the foreign language speakers whose culture is being studied;



Additional devices and real-world resources – a variety of materials such as songs, limericks, sayings and proverbs, idioms, etc. can be made use of as supplementary materials to correspond to and complement the topics that are

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analysed and they additionally tend to increase learnersâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC; motivation for language and culture study. In higher education institutions the demands are far greater and more complex than in primary or secondary level learning programmes; therefore, students in English departments and teacher training colleges are exposed to advanced language levels and culture content. For students in the above-mentioned institutions, elements of culture are not information appended to language study but constitute a course of study in their own right. In order to examine the content and means of teaching culture at university and teacher training college level, a brief survey was designed and conducted among a group of teachers. The survey was not directed at students and did not focus on strategies that learners use in the process of language-and-culture learning; this aspect of research is a complex issue which deserves an individual detailed study and analysis.

4.1 Survey The survey designed to analyse the scope and procedures employed in the process of instruction was composed of six questions addressing issues related to the overall aim. The teachers were requested to supply as detailed responses as possible to the following queries: 1. What type of activities do you employ most frequently to teach culture-related issues? a. recognising cultural images and symbols (including personalities, architectural features, songs, landscape, etc.) b. working with cultural products (realia, postcards, newspapers, radio and TV broadcasts) c. examining patterns of everyday life (lifestyles, common situations, daily experiences) d. examining cultural behaviour e. examining patterns of communication f. exploring values and attitudes g. exploring and extending cultural experiences (exploring and sharing studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC; experiences of the target culture) h. other: 2. Do you outline differences between the native and the foreign language culture? How do you do that? 3. Which of the techniques specified below do you apply most frequently? a. an authentic classroom environment Slovak Studies in English, Vol. 3, 2011 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Identity in Intercultural Communication

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b. providing cultural information c. problem solving activities d. behavioural and interactive aspects e. cognitive approaches (readings, lectures, discussion, debates, etc.) f. real life exposure to the target culture g. using literature h. additional devices and real-world resources i. other: 4. What culture content do you focus on? 5. Do you supplement course content with your own materials and activities? What type? 6. What strategies do you adopt to develop learnersâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC; cultural awareness? (Please list as many as possible.)

4.2 Response Analysis In multiple choice type questions, several possible responses are provided; therefore, it is much easier to tick or underline the options that a particular teacher finds relevant. The types of activities that are by far the most popular among the teachers of culture for teaching culture-related issues include recognising cultural images and symbols (100 % of respondents), working with cultural products, and examining patterns of everyday life (both of the latter chosen by 75 % of the teachers). Exploring values and attitudes, as well as exploring and extending cultural experiences, are the preferred activity types for nearly 65 % of the educators. Examining cultural behaviour is a task type used by only 30 % of respondents while examining patterns of communication is an activity type employed by fewer than 13 % of all teachers participating in the study. The teachers have not suggested any other kinds of tasks that they adopt in the course of culture teaching. While analysing the techniques that the instructors make use of in the process of teaching culture, providing cultural information is the response given unanimously by all teachers, with cognitive approaches (readings, lectures, debates and discussions) in its wake, approved of for application in the process of instruction by over 85 % of culture teachers. Over 60 % of the respondents resort to additional devices and real-world resources to supplement materials available for introducing various aspects of the English-speaking culture. Exposing behavioural and interactive aspects of culture is a technique implemented in the classroom setting by half of the teachers, while problem solving activities and using literature to cope with culture-related issues are the ones exercised by nearly 40 % of the

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respondents. Surprisingly, one teacher stated that the use of problem solving activities is ―too time-consuming, better for language practice.‖ The least frequently adopted of the culture teaching techniques appear to be real life exposure to the target culture as well as an authentic classroom environment. While the former result may be to some extent understandable (native speakers are not always teaching this subject and visits to foreign countries can be a serious financial burden), the latter is rather surprising as authentic classroom environment is relatively easy to achieve. Different maps, posters, brochures or leaflets are not hard to obtain, and neither are newspaper cuttings or Internet printouts. Such resources contribute to the creation of a concrete and palpable, visual presence of the target culture and equip learners with additional input for reference at all times. Teachers‘ responses to the issue of outlining differences between aspects of the native and the foreign culture are quite similar in the vast majority of the cases. All culture teachers stated that there is a need to raise students‘ awareness and it is exercised in a variety of ways. The most recurrent ideas include comparing different patterns of behaviour in one situation, highlighting real-life examples, discussing (i.e. comparing and analysing specific examples and certain modes of behaviour exhibited in culture-related materials, for instance feature films or literary texts, stimulating students to draw cross-cultural comparisons after being watched, listened to or read) and subsequently analysing a particular culture-related text. Teachers also hold classes devoted to, for instance, stereotypes, followed by assignments in which students write essays dealing with the issues of popular stereotypes concerning the native and the target culture members. Other suggestions refer to main and visible differences pointed out during discussions on historical background, patterns of everyday life, cultural behaviour and experiences or national values and attitudes. The diversity between native and target cultures is also exposed by comparing political institutions in respective countries, the process of conducting elections, and the representatives of class systems, as well as by contrasting ethnic composition and migration patterns or religious denominations. Some teachers also mention elicitation, namely drawing on students‘ own experience, provided that they have some first-hand experience of the target culture. Another query was devoted to the content of culture teaching. As it was largely expected, teachers focus on a plethora of issues, including life and institutions, social classes, composition of the society, racial discrimination, multiculturalism, customs and traditions, values and attitudes, achievements of particular social groups, social and political institutions, as well as changes in the historical context, migration patterns, high culture and pop culture. Moreover, the scope covers modes of behaviour, cultural icons and symbols, influence of Slovak Studies in English, Vol. 3, 2011 – Identity in Intercultural Communication

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certain historical periods or figures on contemporary culture, feminist issues, family models and their role in early socialisation, the system of education, geography, folklore, local food and drink, places of interest, architecture, art, film, music and the like. The present-day book market is abundant in culture-teaching materials. Teachers were asked whether they needed to supplement course content with their own materials and activities. In response, many instructors stated that they employ electronic media to introduce pictures, slide shows or PowerPoint presentations together with authentic materials such as films, internet/website search tasks, songs and/or TV programmes. Traditional printed materials in the form of brochures, leaflets, excerpts from literary texts, magazine and newspaper articles are also used to supplement topics discussed in rudimentary literature. Additionally, instructors refer to maps, posters and any other visuals that can be of help and enhance students‘ exposure to assorted aspects of the target culture. The final question concentrated on the strategies adopted by teachers to develop learners‘ cultural awareness. Unfortunately, some teachers (up to 13 %) openly state they were not familiar with the notion of ‗strategy‘ and so failed to respond to the question. Among other varied responses the following stand out as most representative (over 50 %): 

Lecture (focusing on a given cultural aspect presenting essential facts and looking at the attitudes and beliefs shaping them),



Group discussions,



Integrating technology,



Analysis of culture-related materials, graphs, tables, statistical data, etc.,



Problem solving activities,



Discussing advantages and disadvantages of particular issues raised and analysed.

Other interesting, yet far less frequently expressed options (less than 15 %) include:

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

Active learning and cooperative learning,



Think-aloud procedures,



Dialogue journals between student and teacher,



Open-ended narrative-type surveys and structured questionnaires,



Self-directed workbooks,



Informal and formal observations and interviews,



Brainstorming,



Language learning diaries,



Emphasising the need for sensitivity towards minority issues.

The strategies adopted by teachers to some extent develop the learning strategies that students employ in the process of language learning culture.

5. Learning Strategies Learning strategies are considered to be ―techniques or behaviours that learners consciously apply in order to enhance their learning‖ (Thornbury 2006: 115). Of the many available research data and strategy taxonomy suggestions, the one proposed by Oxford is largely adopted as universal and this one shall be adopted as the primary point of reference in the present discussion. Oxford, one of the most prominent figures in the area of learning strategy research, defines the notion of learning strategies as ―steps taken by students to enhance their own learning. Strategies are especially important for language learning because they are tools for active, self-directed involvement, which is essential for developing communicative competence. Appropriate language learning strategies result in improved proficiency and greater self-confidence‖ (Oxford 1990: 1). Strategies form a system of interrelated individual strategies which fall into two broad classes of direct and indirect, each of which is further subdivided into three types. Memory, cognitive and compensation strategies with individual sets in each form a group of direct strategies, while metacognitive, affective and social strategies compose the class of indirect strategies.60 Direct strategies are those language-learning strategies in which the target language is directly involved and they all ―require mental processing of the language‖ (Oxford 1990: 37); however, all groups of direct strategies process the language in a different way and for a different purpose. Oxford states that memory strategies perform a function of ―helping students store and retrieve information,‖ cognitive strategies allow students ―to understand and produce new language by many different means,‖ while compensation strategies enable language users ―to use the language despite their often large gaps in knowledge‖ (Oxford 1990: 37). Memory strategies comprise the following individual strategies: creating mental linkages, applying images and sounds, reviewing well and employing action. A group of cognitive strategies is composed of practising, receiving and sending messages, analysing and reasoning as well as creating structure for input and output. Compensation strategies are the

A thorough discussion of issues pertinent to strategy typology can be found in Oxford (1990).

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least numerable group built up of two individual strategies, namely guessing intelligently and overcoming limitations in speaking and writing. Indirect strategies support and enhance the control over the process of language learning, often without directly involving the target language. They are divided into metacognitive, social and affective. Metacognitive strategies enable students ―to control their own cognition […], to coordinate the learning process by using functions such as centring, arranging, planning and evaluating‖ (Oxford 1990: 135). Those functions are individual strategies belonging to the group in question. Affective strategies assist in control over emotions, attitudes and motivations. They are made up of three individual strategies: lowering one‘s anxiety, encouraging oneself and taking one‘s emotional temperature. Social strategies ―help students learn through interaction with others‖ (Oxford 1990: 135) and are further composed of three strategies: asking questions, cooperating and empathising with others.

5.1 Strategy Application and Learner Strategy Development The survey conducted with a group of culture teachers exposed their relatively limited use of strategies for raising learners‘ cultural awareness. As it was already mentioned before, they mainly consisted in lecturing on a given topic, involving learners in group discussions and problem solving activities, analysing culture-related materials and integrating technology into the process of instruction most probably in order to facilitate comprehension, supplement content and boost motivation. The application of these forms of work, however, seems to develop some of the learning strategies that language users are likely to employ in the process of culture-andlanguage) learning. What appears most evident is the stimulation of learners‘ cognitive strategies of analysing and reasoning with reasoning deductively and transferring in some instances. Where learners are exposed to materials for analysis such as graphs, tables or statistical data, they naturally need to transfer information obtained in the form of a particular figure and decoding the meaning it represents in light of a given fact. At the same time, they will be developing the cognitive strategy of creating structure for input and output as they are likely to take notes, highlight some notions or details and summarise the content.61 The same is true of lecture participation – learners have to take notes, highlight important points for future reference and summarise key notions specified by the lecturer. Moreover, students may be developing another cognitive strategy, namely receiving and sending messages, with both 61

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‗Taking notes‘, ‗summarising‘ and ‗highlighting‘ are three specific strategies included in the cognitive strategy of ‗creating structure for input and output‘ (Oxford 1990: 44).

individual strategies, i.e. getting the idea quickly as well as using resources for receiving and sending messages (Oxford 1990: 44) involved. While in lecture participation the reception of messages is highlighted, in the case of discussions and problem solving activities both strategies will be most likely utilised. The cognitive strategy of practising (with most of its individual strategies62 involved) is undoubtedly exercised in the case of most activity types provided by the teachers in the classroom setting and learning context. Considering the development of memory strategies, the strategies that appear to be shaped most evidently are creating mental linkages (grouping, associating/elaborating, placing new words into a context) and applying images and sounds.63 These tend to be adopted by learners in the process of lecture participation, group discussion, problem solving, and analysis of materials or technology implementation. In case of uncertainty whether a particular concept discussed by the lecturer, peers or introduced in a presentation has been grasped appropriately, a learner will be inclined to apply the compensation strategies of guessing intelligently or overcoming limitations in speaking and writing. Some of the indirect strategies that learners have a chance to develop in the process of culture teaching with the application of the teaching procedures most frequently exercised by teachers include metacognitive strategies of centring your learning (overviewing and linking with already known material, paying attention64), arranging and planning your learning (identifying the purpose of the language task) and some social strategies of asking questions (most likely asking for clarification or verification rather than asking for correction), cooperating with others (cooperating with peers but less likely cooperating with proficient users of the new language) and empathising with others, with the individual instances of developing cultural understanding and becoming aware of others‘ thoughts and feelings.

6. Conclusions The analysis of the responses to the survey allows to observe the following tendencies: 

The majority of culture teachers indirectly contribute to the development of cognitive, memory and compensation learning strategies in learners;

The cognitive strategy of ‗practising‘ involves ‗repeating‘, ‗formally practicing with sounds and writing systems‘, ‗recognising and using formulas and patterns‘, ‗recombining‘ and ‗practising naturalistically‘ (Oxford 1990: 44). ‗Using imagery‘, ‗semantic mapping‘, ‗using keywords‘ and ‗representing sounds in memory‘ are the individual strategies involved in the memory strategy of ‗applying images and sounds‘ (Oxford 1990: 44). The third strategy i.e. ‗delaying speech production to focus on listening‘ (Oxford 1990: 137) seems irrelevant here.

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

Some culture teachers tend to enhance the development of indirect metacognitive and social strategies in their culture-and-language learners – this can be observed based on the example of the strategy employed for raising learners‘ cultural awareness in the form of think-aloud procedures, dialogue journals between student and teacher, brainstorming, self-directed workbooks, language learning diaries and emphasising the need for sensitivity towards minority issues;



The content of culture teaching is wide-ranging and enables learners to expand cross-cultural understanding, raise their cultural sensitivity and provides ample input for general language proficiency practice and development;



The culture teaching outcomes that appear to be expected are culture-specific understanding, culture-general understanding and competence.

Culture and language are intertwined, and the conscious and directed study of either aspect greatly contributes to the development of the other. Language teachers are thus privileged in the sense of influencing the cultural competence of their students.

Bibliography FANTINI, Alvino E. (2009). Teaching English as a Socializing Process. Essential Teacher, 6(1), 12 – 13. HREHOVČÍK, Teodor, and Agnieszka UBERMAN (2003). English Language Teaching Methodology. Rzeszów: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Rzeszowskiego. KLYUKANOV, Igor E. (2005). Principles of Intercultural Communication. Boston: Pearson. MORAN, Patrick R. (2001). Teaching Culture: Perspectives in Practice. Boston: Heinle & Heinle. OXFORD, Rebecca L., and SCARCELLA, Robin C. (1995). Patterns of Cultural Identity. Boston: Heinle & Heinle Publishers. OXFORD, Rebecca L. (1990). Language Learning Strategies. Boston: Heinle & Heinle Publishers. RISAGER, Karen (2007). Language and Culture Pedagogy. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ltd. SVOBODA, Aleń, and Teodor HREHOVČÍK (2006). An ABC of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics. Opava: Silesian University. THORNBURY, Scott (2006). An A – Z of ELT. Oxford: Macmillan. TOMALIN, Barry, and Susan STEMPLESKI (1993). Cultural Awareness. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Resumé Artykuł omawia pokrótce różnorodne poglądy na definiowanie kultury. Relacja kultury obcojęzycznej w świetle nauczania języka obcego jest uwypuklona. Wskazane zostały różnorodne aspekty oczekiwanych wyników nauczania kultury oraz zakres i techniki nauczania elementów kulturowych w kształceniu językowym na poziomie zaawansowanym.

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Wymieniono aspekty tematyczne objęte programem nauczania kultury a na podstawie przeprowadzonych badań pokazane zostały tendencje dotyczące zakresu, sposobów i strategii uczenia tego aspektu wiedzy. Pokrótce przeanalizowane zostały strategie uczenia się a analiza wyników badań pozwoliła na określenie które z owych strategii są rozwijane u studentów w procesie kształcenia kulturowego.

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METHODOLOGY Can Authentic Text on Internet Help the Development of Creativity? Eva Tandlichová Comenius University, Bratislava 1. Introduction Foreign language learning and teaching has always been inseparable from the search for ―the best‖ method and suitable teaching aids. Computers and the Internet have become useful devices in teaching science and foreign languages. There are discussions going on among teachers on how the use of computer programmes can help the development of teamwork, project work and learner autonomy or even self-study and creativity. Students browse the Internet to find material for projects or seminar papers. Students at vocational schools or ESP departments look for information about the subjects they study. In other words, they search for authentic texts on the Internet to fill in the information gap they might have. The processing of new information, the effort to join the new with already known information, cannot be done without learners‘ personal involvement and creativity. Authentic, real texts based on genuine written ESP language are sometimes difficult for learners of English as a foreign language. First of all, it is difficult from the linguistic point of view, but it becomes difficult from the psychological point of view, too. When reading such a text in their mother tongue, the pupil can match the text with the images behind it more easily because of his/her previous knowledge of that particular subject or other subjects. In a foreign language, special problems may occur: the learner understands every single word but the sentence or a paragraph does not make sense because the images or ideas behind it are not clear enough. This fact may discourage the learner in his/her search for new information and minimize creativity in processing the text. The analysis of text structure and content helps learners develop not only reading comprehension but also reading skill. Understanding the text structure helps learners develop the technique of reading and writing as well.

2. Text, Authentic Text and ESP Text on Internet Text is usually spoken or written. It is a medium through which the speaker or writer passes intentional information to the listener or reader. Spoken text is usually shorter and requires [immediate] response from the listener, while the information encoded in the written text do not require immediate response. The ESP text, e.g. a text on biology or chemistry or

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physics, on the Internet is an authentic text of special composition for the foreign language learner: i.e. it brings specific information encoded in ―scientific‖ language. The language of science is very precise and has specific linguistic characteristics. We can find some differences in its the rhetorical organization, syntax and lexis. For example, the rhetorical organization of a scientific, or a technical article published on the Internet or in a special journal is different from an article published in a newspaper. The obvious difference between general and scientific discourse is, for example, wider use of passive voice in scientific discourse. As far as lexis is concerned, the learners should identify vocabulary types which are frequently used in scientific discourse: function words, technical, semi-technical vocabulary and general vocabulary. There are three important steps to keep in mind when dealing with authentic texts from the Internet with learners: first, the identification of good criteria for the selection of an appropriate text; secondly, the selection of corresponding activities for developing reading comprehension; and thirdly, the selection of appropriate linguistic activities based on learners‘ previous morphological knowledge, syntactic knowledge, general world knowledge, genre knowledge and topic knowledge.

2.1 Criteria for Authentic-Text-Selection The Internet offers a variety of authentic texts, but not all can be used in an EFL classroom. From 2005 to 2008, seven universities in Europe (including Comenius University) decided to look into the problem and started a project called ―PEC: European Science Teachers: Scientific Knowledge, Linguistic Skills and Digital Media.‖ The team worked on criteria for selecting the best texts. The discussion and investigation have resulted in the following. There can be identified several aims of the process of selection. The teacher has to focus on why s/he considers the use of authentic text from the web useful for developing learners‘ skills and knowledge. As all we do in the classroom should have aims and goals, the same is valid for the selection of the authentic texts from the web. In my opinion, the following aims should be considered: the text should provide information about the selected topic, it should encourage individual work and self-study, and work with the text should improve reading skills and linguistic competence. From the above the following criteria for selection of authentic texts seem to work: relevance to school curricula; language suitability to learners‘ level of proficiency (i.e. B1C1); motivational aspects; prompts for discussion, further study, research, etc.; links to other related websites; the use of multi-media; relation to real life experience; reliability of the Slovak Studies in English, Vol. 3, 2011 – Identity in Intercultural Communication

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information provided; scientific accuracy; amount of reading content; easy access and navigation; and easy and pleasant to use.

2.2 Well-Chosen Pre-Reading Activities Help Creativity and Motivation Reading is an active process in which the reader gets new knowledge by processing the text. Once the reader understands the meaning of a given text, it activates the previous knowledge the reader has on the subject and the reader is able to improve the quality of the knowledge by combining it with new information. In other words, previous knowledge affects reading significantly, and it is well-known that the text is more easily understood if it deals with a familiar topic. Moreover, contexts, topics and discussions affect interest and learning. In my opinion, pre-reading activities, such as Read the questions below and discuss them with a partner. Look at the title of the story. What do you think the text will be about? Skim the text to see if you were right. Discuss with your partner what you already know about the topic. Read the definitions of different layers and parts of the Earth, then label the diagram below. etc., create good ground for reading a text and guarantee the motivation for reading, and the teacher gets feedback on the previous knowledge of the learners which can help comprehension.

3. Skilled Reader Is a Better Learner Using authentic text on the Internet is not just help for developing reading skills, but also helps learning. Learning by reading requires cognitive activities which enable the reader to communicate with the writer through the text. Learning is not just transferring information from an authentic text to the student‘s memory. It has been proved that learning represents the learner‘s own personal knowledge construction process which presupposes the learner‘s active application of creative thinking and the development of metacognitive skills. In other words, learning can be effective if the learner is able to think creatively, if there are enough impulses for the encouragement of creative thinking in order for the new knowledge and skills to merge with the previously acquired knowledge and skills. Through a creative approach to learning, the learner identifies new information, tries to find a link between previously acquired knowledge, selects essential information, considers its relevance and makes it part of his/her personal framework, as well as a springboard for the next piece of knowledge to come. And this is a longitudinal process by means of which a learner develops in a cyclical way into a ―wiser‖ personality in its own right.

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Cognitive skills are closely connected with solving the tasks, as well as with making analysis, synthesis, induction and deduction, and note taking. Cognitive skills also include creative thinking which can be developed by comparing, problem-solving, classifying, paraphrasing, mid-mapping, drawing conclusions, organizing information, and generalizing. Critical thinking is needed when providing grounds for argumentation and questioning. According to Facione (2007), critical thinking is defined in terms of six cognitive skills: interpretation, i.e. comprehending and expressing meaning based on experiences; situations; data and beliefs; inference, i.e. considering relevant information and determining the consequences resulting from data; and self-regulation skill, which enables critical thinkers to improve their own thinking. Metacognition refers to the learner‘s awareness of the strategies, procedures and thinking involved in learning. Therefore s/he decides about the goal/aims, the planning of individual steps in reading, the monitoring of his/her progress and (self)-evaluation and, in this way, develops into an autonomous reader and learner. In other words, the learner becomes responsible for how much information s/he reveals from the authentic text, how well new knowledge is created on the basis of the information and how well s/he understands deep and surface structure of the authentic text. Looking at my experience with EFL learners, I can agree with Baker (1991) who lists the following types of problems learners encounter when reading an authentic ESP text: 

―Learning materials abound in texts that are abstract and difficult to understand.



Learning materials feature texts that neither encourage readers to notice things on their own nor guide to problem solving.



Learning materials start by explaining concepts and phenomena, e.g. the text starts with definitions of the concepts and phenomena which might be difficult for the learners.



The number of new terms and concepts (information density) is high and concepts are vaguely explained, e.g. the text includes too many new and difficult words in each sentence which blocks understanding the sentence.



The introduced concepts do not draw on the previously discussed ones, e.g. the article is about acid rain and has no pre-reading lead-in about the environment, chemical processes in nature, etc. which the learners might have come across in previous sessions, or in other subjects.

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

The information structure in learning materials is blurred.



Students have several preconceptions on concepts dealing with natural sciences. These preconceptions often contradict with what the learning materials state.



Students lack substantial previous knowledge in comparison with what understanding a particular text presupposes. The extent to which students have previous knowledge varies depending on a given student.



Students have never been guided to studying by reading.‖

My experience highlights the fact that well developed metacognitive skills help development of strategies for learning from the authentic text and thereby learning by reading a text. I think that those readers who can thoroughly process a text are also capable of examining the strategies they use for authentic text processing and thereby choose a suitable strategy. The most efficient strategies involve looking for main ideas, extracting secondary ideas, skimming, scanning, organizing the contents, note-taking, mind-mapping, drafting summaries, connecting previous knowledge with new information, and anticipating what the text states next. From this it follows that the authentic text should respect certain criteria: 1.

its grammar and lexis should correspond with learner‘s level of proficiency in the foreign language,

it should respect the extra-linguistic experience of the learner, his/her current knowledge of the topic so that the learner is able to anticipate the flow of writer‘s ideas while reading,

its structure should help comprehension of the information included in the text,

at the same time, the text should aid in the selection of linguistic activities.

4. Selected Linguistic Activities In the PEC project, we offered teachers criteria for selection of appropriate activities and also suggested didactic recommendations for their application in the teaching-learning process. The aim of these activities is to help learners have a better understanding of scientific concepts. Therefore, some key linguistic activities are presented here. They are expected to improve comprehension and expression in reading: direct questions, true/false statements, multiple choice questions, re-building a text, and find the word referred to (cohesive and coherent devices).

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It is obvious that lexis is an important part of linguistic competence. Reinforcing and enlarging learners‘ vocabulary will help learners not only to enrich their language, but also to improve their comprehension and expression. Possibly the following activities might help: recognizing the words of science, inferring the meaning of new words from the context, using suitable vocabulary within the context, defining words, building up vocabulary, matching words with definitions, finding synonyms and antonyms, word formation (prefixes, suffixes, compound words) and collocations. The following is an example of such activities from a pupils‘ CD which is the result of the project mentioned above:

THE EARTH

Introductory Pre-Reading Activities The following text will introduce you to the topic of the EARTH. Look at the way it is divided into sections and paragraphs. Pay close attention to the headings, illustrations and captions. Now look at these tasks: 1) From the headings to the 3 sections of the text, what will the 3 sections be about? Section 1: Section 2: Section 3: 2) Think of as many terms and ideas relating to the 3 sections as possible. Section 1 planet, the Milky Way Section 2 layers, boundaries Section 3 Pangaea, earthquakes

INTRODUCTION TO THE EARTH 3) Pre-Reading Activity Study this mind map. Complete it with as much information as you can about the solar system. Then compare your findings with your classmates.

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Moon

Earth

Uranus

Saturn Jupiter SOLAR SYSTEM

Reading I 4) Read the text below and explain the underlined words. Three have been done for you. Click on words “diameter”, “circumference” and “the tilt” to see the clues. The Earth is the third planet from the Sun in our Solar System. It is the planet we evolved on and the only planet in our Solar System that is known to support life. The Earth is about 7, 926 miles (12,756 km) in diameter. The Earth is the fifth largest planet in our Solar System (after Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune). Eratosthenes (276-194 BC) was a Greek scholar who was the first person to determine the circumference of the Earth. He compared the midsummer‘s noon shadow in deep wells in Syene (now Aswan on the Nile in Egypt) and Alexandria. He properly assumed that the Sun‘s rays are virtually parallel (since the Sun is so far away). Knowing the distance between the two locations, he calculated the circumference of the Earth to be 250,000 stadia. Exactly how long a stadia is unknown, so his accuracy is uncertain, but he was very close. He also accurately measured the tilt of the Earth‘s axis and the distance to the sun and moon. The Earth has one moon. The diameter of the moon is about one quarter of the diameter of the Earth. The moon may have once been a part of the Earth; it may have been broken off the Earth during a catastrophic collision of a huge body with the Earth billions of years ago. (Retrieved from http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/astronomy/planets/earth/)

5) Now read the text again. Check the meaning of the underlined words with the classmate next to you. If you understand the words, use them in sentences of your own to make your own text about the Earth. Write the text down.

6) If you want to check your knowledge of the Earth, answer the questions below. After you have finished, click on the Earth to find correct answers.

1. Is the Earth the third planet from the Sun? ⁭ Yes

⁭ No

2. Is the Earth one of the smallest planets in our Solar System?

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⁭ Yes

⁭ No

3. Is the Earth the only planet which supports life? ⁭ Yes

⁭ No

4. Is the Earth the only planet in our Solar System with liquid water? ⁭ Yes

⁭ No

5. What percentage of the Earth is covered by oceans? ⁭ 50 %

⁭ 70 %

6. Do the oceans get saltier over time? ⁭ Yes

⁭ No

7. Is Earth‘s atmosphere mostly oxygen or nitrogen? ⁭ Nitrogen

⁭ Oxygen

8. What is the average density of the Earth? ⁭ 5 520kg/m3

⁭ 6 010kg/m3

9. How many hours does one day take on Earth? ⁭ 24 hrs

⁭ 23.93 hrs

10. What does the tilting give us? ⁭ the four seasons

⁭ the night-and-day change

Further activities in Section II and Section III include work with diagrams and concepts about ―Inside the Earth‖. We present some of the closing activities for developing reading skills.

ALFRED WEGENER AND PANGAEA

Part B

Pre-reading activity 18) Before you do the cloze reading below, brainstorm with your classmates how much you know (if anything) about A. Wegener and Pangaea. 19) Use your dictionary, the Glossary or Internet and find meanings to these words which you will need to do the cloze. Continental drift

Fossil

to measure

to break up

Expedition

Supercontinent

thickness

plate tectonics

Geologist

land mass

To die out

Earth‟s crust

to evolve

mass extinction

volcanism

abundance

20) While reading the cloze text (text in which some words have been deleted), fill in the missing expressions. Then click on the cloze text and check your work. Slovak Studies in English, Vol. 3, 2011 – Identity in Intercultural Communication

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Alfred Weneger Alfred Wegener, the German (1)___________and meteorologist, proposed his theory of (2)___________in his book ―On the Origin of Continents and Oceans‖ published in1915. His theory states that parts of the (3) _________slowly drift atop a liquid core. The (4) ______record supports and gives credence to the theories of continental drift and 5)_______ . Wegener initiated many (6) _________to Greenland in which he measured

the (7)

___________of the ice. During one of his major expeditions to Greenland he died. Pangaea Wegener hypothesized that there was an original, gigantic (8) ___________200 million years ago, which he named Pangaea, meaning ―All-earth‖. Pangaea was a super-continent consisting of all of Earth‘s (9)___________. It existed from the Permian through Jurassic periods. The Permian period is known as ―The Age of Amphibians‖, because during that period amphibians were abundant. The continents had merged into a single super-continent, which we now call Pangaea. Phytoplankton and plants had oxygenated the Earth‘s atmosphere to close to modern oxygen levels. The Permian ended with largest (10)_________ever. This extinction was perhaps caused by glaciation or increased (11) _________on Earth. At the beginning of the Jurassic period, the Earth‘s continents were still jammed together, but they were beginning to drift apart. There had been a minor extinction at the end of the Triassic period, which gave rise to an (12)___________of dinosaurs in the Jurassic. The dinosaurs dominated the near-tropical Earth during the Jurassic as the climate was hot and dry. About 140 million years ago, during the late Jurassic period, the flowering plants evolved, and would soon change the face of the Earth. Pangaea started (13)_________into two smaller super-continents, called Laurasia and Gondwanaland, during the Jurassic period. By the end of the Cretaceous period, the continents were separating into land masses that look like our modern-day continents. (Adapted from http://www.enchantedlearning.com) Post-reading activities 21) Use the section on the Continental Drift to answer the following questions. 1. Do plates move horizontally, vertically, or both? ________________ 2. What do plates float on? ______________________ 3. What type of rock are oceanic plates made of? ______________________ 4. What type of rock are continental plates made of? ______________________

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5. What is the name of the area where the crust goes back down into the Earth? ___________________ 6. What is the process of new crust formation called? _______________________ 7. When two continental plates collide, what types of mountains are formed?_______________________ 8. What is the name of the supercontinent that existed about 200 million through 100 million years ago? _______________________ 9. Who first stated the theory of continental drift? ______________________ 10. Name a fossil that was found on different continents and was used to support the theory of continental drift. ______________________

5. Conclusion I can highlight the fact that through the above mentioned linguistic activities learners can not only understand the content of the text on the Internet, but also develop certain attitudes toward the topic in question, and develop learners‘ autonomy and, in such a way, willingness to take responsibility for their own learning. They will also improve their transferable abilities, such as analysis and critical thinking, problem solving, group work and teamwork. Well-chosen activities will help learners understand coherence and cohesion of authentic scientific texts and logical sequence of ideas and concepts, as well as develop creativity and activity in teams and pairs.

Bibliography FACIONE, P. A. (2007). Critical thinking: What it is and why it counts. Millbrae, CA: California Academic Press. Retrieved from www.insightassessment.com/ pdf_files/what&why2007.pdf BAKER, L. (1991). Metacognition, Reading and Science Education. In C. M. Santa and D.E. Alvermann (Eds.), Science Learning: Progresses and Applications. Newark: International Reading Association, IRA. Common European Framework for Languages. (2001). Cambridge University Press. Resumé Autorka sa v tejto ńtúdii zamýńľa nad tým, ako moņno rozvíjať kreativitu a kritické myslenie u ņiakov a ńtudentov, ktorí sa učia cudzí jazyk. Poukazuje na to, ņe jednou z moņností je aj vyuņitie autentických textov z internetu, pretoņe internet je uņ súčasťou náńho ņivota. Autorka sa sústreďuje na odborný text a poukazuje na potrebu chápať ńpecifiká autentického Slovak Studies in English, Vol. 3, 2011 – Identity in Intercultural Communication

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odborného textu z hľadiska jazykového i obsahového. Vychádza z výsledkov výskumu, ktorého sa zúčastnila v medzinárodnom projekte a odporúčania na criteria výberu vhodného textu pre pedagogickú prax kulminujú v ukáņkach kreatívnych cvičení na rozvíjanie čítania s porozumením a kritického myslenia.

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TRANSLATION STUDIES Questionable Identity in Intercultural Monologue Martin Djovčoš, Ľubica Pliešovská Matej Bel University, Banská Bystrica We live in a very dynamic world in which intercultural communication plays a major role. This communication is mainly performed via translation. The world is currently facing an unprecedented ―translation boom‖, and contemporary translation studies should reflect this. The ways it does vary and may be generally distinguished as positive attitudes, usually represented by practicing translators, and negative or sceptical ones, usually represented by deconstructionist/post-structuralist/postcolonial translation scholars who are dealing with translation as a significant ideological tool used to colonise ―minor‖ or non-dominant cultures. Tymoczko, for example, asks: To what extent will cultural exchange be multidirectional in the age of globalization, and to what extent will asymmetries of power, resources, and technologies mean that ―cultural exchange‖ will become an euphemism for the acculturation to Western or dominant international standards of many peoples around the world?.... To what extent will ―cultural exchange‖ become a banner for opening up and exploiting new markets around the world? (Tymoczko 2007: 4 – 5).

This statement, however radical it may seem, is very interesting and worth exploring. It will be very interesting to observe how power and dominant ideology influences the selection and above all the quantity of translated works into ―small languages‖ and from ―small languages‖ into the language of the dominant culture. The term ―intercultural communication‖ implies cultural dialogue. Lotman (1994)65, who quotes Newson, mentions that the main condition of dialogue is to communicate by taking turns speaking, the silent communication partner repressing their activity and focusing on receiving their partner‘s activity. In general, we may understand literature as a dialogue between readers and the author, but taking translation into account also as a dialogue between cultures through which cultures form each other. However, it is very interesting to observe the position of so-called ―minor‖, ―small‖ or ―subordinate‖ cultures in this dialogue. Lotman 65

When quoting Lotman we use the Slovak translation published in 1994.

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(1994) uses the analogy of hemispheres to illustrate cultural mechanisms and changes which take place during this process. He says that in order to have balanced perception, both hemispheres have to function equally (pressure versus back pressure/rational versus irrational). It is the same with culture. Static cultural periods are created at the expense of compromised balance between contradictory tendencies. He further claims that there are stabilising and destabilising mechanisms which present its means of self-organisation either in a dynamic or a balanced way.66 If we apply this analogy to the political situation, power structures and asymmetries and how these influence translation, we may find rather interesting results. There has always been a ―dialogue‖ between the world powers who have always been struggling for control over areas and the tool not only for this area but also cultural and intellectual colonisation has often been translation. Tymoczko claims that ―...the writers (translation scholars) give prescriptive and definitive advice and they proclaim clear norms. It does not seem to matter to writers that they contradict each other from decade to decade, from century to century, often knowingly‖ (Tymoczko 2007: 17). Debeljak (2006) says that translation makes the foreign understandable and is therefore inevitably political.67 However, we believe that this ―cultural dialogue‖ or intercultural communication is applicable only to dominant powers68 and those subordinate are usually only consumers of what is being served. Slovakia is surely a great example of such a consumer. As Kusá (2005) states in her study Translation as a Part of the History of Cultural Scope (Preklad ako súčasť dejín kultúrneho priestoru), each translation within translation literature is impacted by the national and political system, the social and cultural system and by the literary system, and its functions change along with space and time. In the case of Slovakia, our social and cultural scope is determined by our geographical and political context as well as being influenced by the surrounding cultural contexts: Czech, Russian and even Anglo-Saxon and Romanic contexts. During the period of the communist regime, Slovak connections with foreign cultures were characterised by the relative absence of contact with Anglo-Saxon culture. There were historically conditioned contacts with the Czech, Russian, Hungarian, German and French cultures, and yet direct connections with the Anglo-Saxon culture were almost non-existent.

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Lotman says that if the analogy is not used properly it may cause more harm than good. We hope this is not the case. This resource has been quoted by Keníņ in his book ―Preklad ako hra na invariant a ekvivalenciu‖ published in 2008. Doc. Keníņ has advised us to use this resource so we didn‘t have to use a secondary quotation. And even here the asymmetry is obvious, depending on the current power and political situation.

The situation since has changed – we are now primarily dominated by the European Union and the United States. We will try to illustrate the changing paradigm in intercultural relationships by comparing translation production during two periods: 1945 – 1968 and 1990 – 2010. The types of translation and selection of works to be translated clearly show a shift in power structures. Whereas during the socialist period, translation was the main political propaganda tool (with minor exceptions that we will mention later), nowadays it is a commercial commodity and therefore also a propaganda tool for the dominant ideology. In his paper dealing with translation as a reflection of the cultural situation in Slovakia, Keníņ stated:

Sixteen years after the Velvet Revolution that changed us, determined warriors against American and western imperialism, into its fiery promoters, in the times when the globalization wave took the essence of our economy and some level of selfsufficiency, we come to see that it is also robbing us of the last thing that we had – a national culture and national identity. (Keníņ 2006: 29)

As for the philosophical and aesthetic aspect of quality, translation is often underestimated and poorly paid. If we look at this from the perspective of national identity, we see it is highly questionable. Quoting Levy-Strauss‘s notion, Keníņ (2008) claims that we are overcommunicated and that differences between cultures are productive and move culture forward. The mentioned asymmetries deny minor cultures to a higher or lower extent depending on how aggressive and refined they are. In general, minor cultures are usually subject to one-way translation and communication, and therefore not a dialogue but a monologue. Still, the situation isn‘t purely pessimistic if we take into account the benefits for practicing translators in connection to translation units and translatability mainly from the English language. Globalisation has caused objects which were not reachable to common individuals behind the Iron Curtain to enter our reality, thus making foreign things accessable and ―translatable‖. From the ―how to do it‖ or functional point of view, this can be perceived as a positive tendency as it enables translators to work more accurately. But again, we have to relativise the notion of accuracy when we take into account that the amount of new objects and notions is so high that they are often not translated but used in their original form, despite in many cases possessing Slovak equivalents. This causes the foreignisation of the receptor culture. We will not discuss matters of foreignisation and domestification or naturalisation and exotisation in this article in more detail, as that would be a topic for a separate paper.

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In the 1990s, Gideon Toury introduced a concept based on target-oriented translation. Well aware of the dominance of mainstream cultures, he advocated for an approach that would shift the attention from the place of origin of the literary text to the place of their reception by means of translation. As for the choice of texts to be translated, he proposed a three-phase target-oriented methodology. 1) Consider the text in terms of target culture to determine its significance and acceptability. 2) Compare segments of the source text and target text to determine the linguistic relationship. 3) Distinguish trends, make generalizations, identify norms, and draw conclusions for future decision-making. However, while contemporary translation production reflects the fact that Toury‘s concept is a well-defined theory, the situation on the translation market is different. Rather than speaking of a target-oriented approach, we should be speaking of a market-oriented approach. As we have stated at the beginning, our aim was to emphasize how the changing paradigm of translation policy is dependent on the changing paradigms of domineering power by comparing the translation data representing selected dominant and small cultures during the period of strongest ideological oppression, 1945 – 1968, and the period after the fall of the Iron Curtain. As for the period of the communist regime, we relied on available bibliographies published by the Slovak headquarters of book culture between 1945 – 1976/1977; for the post-communist period, we drew on the database The Index Translationum, an international bibliography of translations, created in 1932. The database contains cumulative bibliographical information on books translated and published in about one hundred of the UNESCO Member States since 1979 and totals more than 2,008,763 entries in all disciplines: literature, social and human sciences, natural and exact sciences, art, history and so forth. It is planned to update the work every four months. The data that we analyzed for the purposes of this paper resulted in the following findings:

1) Intercultural Dialogue? As for the existence of intercultural dialogue that has been on everybody‘s lips for over a decade, there is not much of it. Translations are being made in great numbers, but when we compare the reciprocity of translation among selected cultures, we come to see that rather than speaking of intercultural dialogue it would be more appropriate to speak of intercultural monologue. It is not surprising that there is great discrepancy in numbers when comparing

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traditionally big and small cultures (e.g. American/Slovak), but great differences in the number of translations to and from particular languages appear even in the case of relatively comparable cultures from the perspective of their population or economic power (e.g. USA/China, USA/Russia). We can probably attribute this discrepancy to the historically and economically conditioned supremacy of American culture (representing pars pro toto the whole of Western culture, especially due to its overwhelming production of films, songs, TV programmes, fashion and other forms of art and pop culture) executed by means of the English language, the contemporary lingua franca.

Facts in Numbers, Part 1 We were primarily interested in the number of translations from American literature to prove our point on the dominance of American culture; however, the statistics in Index Translationum only show the number of translations from English to other languages without distinguishing the country of their origin – thus we have to take into consideration translations from British literature and other English-written literatures as well. USA (plus other English-speaking countries) – Slovakia Translations from English to Slovak

3900

Translations from Slovak to English

USA – China Translations from English to Chinese

6913

Translations from Chinese to English

686

USA – Russia Translations from English to Russian

14683

Translations from Russian to English

1657

The only cases of intercultural dialogues were seen in the translation interaction of two relatively comparable non-Anglophone cultures (e.g. Slovakia/Slovenia, France/Germany). In connection with the ―translation permeability‖ of particular cultures, J. Vilikovský69 speaks of the importance of the phenomenon of open and closed cultures; e.g. Germany has traditionally 69

Comment presented at the 3rd Triennial Conference of British and American Studies, 21 – 22 October, 2010, Budmerice, Slovakia.

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been perceived as an open culture, and the statistics presented in the Index Translationum testify to this.

Facts in Numbers, Part 2 Slovakia – Slovenia Translations from Slovak to Slovenian

Translations from Slovenian to Slovak

France – Germany Translations from French to German

14290

Translations from German to French

9684

2) Shift in Translation Paradigm By this we mean the shift in the focus of translation production from source to target cultures, conditioned by political and ideological pressures. What had once been the dictate of ideology now became the dictate of good marketing. We demonstrate this with the comparison of translation production from American literature and Soviet literatures into Slovak in 1945 – 1968 and in 1989 – 2010.

Facts in Numbers, Part 3 The situation in Slovakia between 1945 – 1968 Translations from American literature

347

Translations from Soviet literatures

2040

Proportion of translations from Western 22.2 % literatures in total translation production Proportion of translations from socialist 77.8 % literatures in total translation production The Situation in Slovakia between 1989 – 2010

Total production of translations into Slovak

7854

Proportion of translations from English- 3900/7854

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written

literatures

total

translation 49.6 %

production Proportion of translations from Russian 115/7854 literatures in total translation production

1.5 %

Proportion of translation of other than 48.9 % English-written or Russian literatures

Even though we consider these statistics more informative than 100 % accurate (the data in the Index Translationum database vary from month to month), we believe they serve as an explicit indicator of the translation/reception situation in Slovakia within the abovementioned context of power shifts and intercultural monologue. However pessimistic this article may seem to be, it is not its goal to treat translation as something harmful to culture. Translation is needed as it helps us communicate about common issues (non-literary texts) as well as aesthetic values (literary translation). Our main goal was to warn about and challenge the hypocrisy expressed by the term ―intercultural communication‖, or more specifically, ―intercultural dialogue‖. Even Slovak scholars are not united in their treatment of these issues. Keníņ for example used the metaphor of ―rizňa‖ (a wooden water-trough used for transportation of wood from the forest), saying that we keep taking from others while nobody takes from us. Kusá on the other hand used the metaphor of a bridge where the transport of people keeps taking place, but it is not equal. However it may be, in the end we all have to translate, but we must not forget the cultural context and the possible effects of our work.

Bibliography: KENÍŅ, Alojz (2006). Preklad ako odraz spoločensko-kultúrnej situácie. In Preklad a tlmočenie 7 (29 – 34). Banská Bystrica: Filologická fakulta Univerzity Mateja Bela. KENÍŅ, Alojz (2008). Preklad ako hra na invariant a ekvivalenciu. Bratislava: AnaPress. KUSÁ, Mária (2005). Preklad ako súčasť dejìn kultúrneho priestoru. Bratislava: Ústav svetovej literatúry SAV. LOTMAN, Jurij (1994). Text a kultúra. Bratislava: Archa. TYMOCZKO, Maria (2007). Enlarging Translation, Empowering Translators. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing. DEBELJAK, Erika (2007). Zisk z prekladu. Kritika a kontext (1996 – 2006), 33. The Index Translationum. Retrieved from http://portal.unesco.org/culture/en/ev.phpURL_ID=7810&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

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Resumé Príspevok sa zaoberá problematizáciou pojmu interkultúrna komunikácia. Poukazuje tieņ na fakt, ņe dominantná ideológia a mocenské ńtruktúry vplývajú na prekladovú produkciu a výber z prekladaných jazykov. Článok porovnáva pomer prekladov na Slovensku v obdobiach 1945 – 1968 a 1989 – 2010, čím ilustruje prekladovú situáciu v rôznych ideologických obdobiach. Autori pracujú so ńtatistikami z databázy Index Translationum UNESCO, ktorá obsahuje výber zo svetovej prekladovej tvorby a na základe týchto informácií sa dá poukázať na fakt, ņe interkultúrna komunikácia je skôr jednosmerný proces (monológ), v ktorom ―slabńia‖ kultúra často stráca vlastnú identitu a prijíma identitu ―silnejńej‖ kultúry.

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TRANSLATION STUDIES Images and Concepts of Slovak Presidential Speeches and Their Reflection in English Translation Xenia Liashuk Comenius University, Bratislava 1. Introduction Dwelling on the national dimension of cultural identity from the linguistic perspective, it is apt to start with a landmark conclusion by W. von Humboldt stating that language is the spirit of the nation. From this we might assume that speech, whether in the form of a written text or an oral statement, should contain variably explicit reflections of a nation‘s cultural identity. Straightforward references to a given national context included into the topical contents of a text as a part of speaker‘s intention are positively not the only national identity markers present in it. People do not tend to ponder on the reasons for choosing a particular word or word combination to name a certain sector of reality, which spares them a considerable amount of mental activity and is quite natural as such. Hence, the linguistic ‗outfit‘ of a text contains a variety of largely unconscious national identity markers, namely on the level of lexemes. Being inherently dualistic as an instrument and a part of thinking, language not only reflects reality but also predetermines the way it is interpreted by the members of a given linguistic community. Due to this, language ―becomes the primary cognitive source in the process of studying national features‖70 (Sipko 2008: 16), the features of world- and self-perception in particular.

2. Research Background

2.1 Research Objective The present research focuses on the constituent elements of Slovak identity and worldview detectable from text sources. Since their examination comes mainly within the realm of linguistic cultural (linguoculturological) studies, we used it as a starting point for analyzing linguistic identity markers from the perspective of and in application to translation studies. If we view a language as a culturally-marked code with identity reflecting and forming elements embedded into it, the process of translation as re-coding information is of 70

Hereinafter, the translation of non-English citations is done by the author of the paper.

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particular interest. The target language bears its own distinctive markers of national identity, thus in transferring information from one linguistic code into the other, the danger of the clash of cultural elements is real and tangible, compelling a translator to balance on a thin marking line between undue imposition (exotization) and excessive loss (naturalization) of source identity markers. Namely, translation techniques and solutions in respect of the transfer of identity-associated linguistic units constitute the main object of interest within the present paper.

2.2 Conceptual Framework The process of perception of reality by a nation as an integrated entity is referred to as a ‗mapping of the world‟. It results in the creation of a coherent ―system of images reflected in linguistic semantics that interpret the experience of a nation speaking the given language71‖ (Виросткова 2007: 318). From the cognitive perspective, the world is being mastered by an individual by means of concepts which are constituent to the given nation‘s worldview. The linguistic cultural approach to the notion of a concept differs from the philosophical one with the former regarding the concept as ―the main cultural cell in the mental world of an individual‖ (Степанов 2001: 41). V. Karasik singles out three inalienable dimensions of any concept – a reference to a specific object or image, a notional component, and an evaluative approach (Карасик 2002: 105). Virtually, the same sector of reality can be conceptualized by different linguistic cultural groups in different ways depending on the elements to which the preference is given and the mode of their evaluation. Thus, the study of concepts helps to create a cultural profile of a nation as a total of its views and values reflected in speech. According to G. Lakoff and M. Johnson, the ―human conceptual system is metaphorically structured and defined‖ (Lakoff and Johnson 2003: 7). In the collective conscience, single concepts are linked to each other by customary association, which highlights a certain aspect of the definiendum, evokes related features and implications, and triggers a corresponding behavioural pattern. From a cognitive perspective, the metaphor can be represented by means of a generalized formula: concept A (definiendum) as concept B (definition), implying that objective, notional and evaluative features of concept B predetermine the perception of concept A. Metaphors belong to the collective thought of a nation and thus remain largely unrealized by single individuals. Being detectable from various text sources, 71

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A corresponding term employed by the Russian school of linguistic cultural studies can be loan-translated into English as ‗the linguistic picture of the world‘.

they give a valuable clue to understanding cognitive and attitudinal patterns distinctive to the given nation.

2.3 Factual Basis for the Analysis The empirical material chosen in accordance with the research objectives included speeches and addresses delivered by the incumbent President of the Slovak Republic Ivan Gańparovič since the beginning of his office term (2004) till 2010. As a basis for contrastive analysis, the translations of corresponding speeches from the official Presidential web-site (www.prezident.sk) were used. The genre of presidential speeches is particularly suitable for our research objectives because of certain pragmatic features peculiar to it. The pragmatics of presidential speeches is predetermined by the distinctive features of the political system of the given country. For instance, in Slovak context, the actual (‗working‘) leadership belongs to the Prime Minister, with the President being assigned the role of ‗opinion leader‘ who monitors and evaluates the development of the country, maps out directions of improvement, and communicates his conclusions and views to the nation. The communicative function in this case is particularly noticeable due to its close connection with phatic and instrumental functions: the President addresses the nation to establish operative contact between the authority and the people, by means of which he ensures that the nation has a clear understanding of the countrywide state of affairs, and is ready to support the oncoming changes should they be necessary. In contrast to candidate speeches that focus on separate target groups within the population, presidential speeches are bound to cater for the needs and be in line with the features of the whole nation as the target audience, as far as both their essence and their form are concerned. Thus, using the term employed by J. Vilikovský, they can be defined as ‗culturally introversive‘ (Vilikovský 1984: 63) on the nationwide scale. Being nation- and not group-oriented, such speeches are therefore the reflection of the values, patterns of thinking and behaviour, attitudes and worldview of the nation of interest, and can serve as a foundation for conclusions and generalizations as far as its cultural identity is concerned. Presidential speeches employ linguistic (lexical) and cognitive (conceptual, figurative) means that are understandable to all social groups within the nation, regardless of their specifics, and constitute the nation‘s representation of reality.

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2.4 Culturally-Marked Elements As a Translation Challenge The nation-centered character of presidential political statements induces certain reserves to the overriding principle of functional (communicative) equivalence which stipulates that the text of translation should produce the same effect on the foreign target audience as the original text did on the initial target audience. Being tightly bound to the national context, presidential speeches cannot be transferred into an alien context to function on equal terms with domestic political speeches that originally belonged to it. J. House points out the necessary modification of text function in this case from persuasive (i.e. aiming to influence) to informative (House 1977: 203).72 But the functional shift should not be regarded as a carte blanche for a translator as far as the processing of culturally marked linguistic units is concerned. As the source text originally bears certain persuasive, culturally-dependent elements and thus is not purely informative, the strategy of internationalization which presupposes adherence to a ―culturally independent ‗neutral‘ style‖ of translation as defined by E. Gromová (Gromová 2005: 24), is not the one that should be applicable by default. The dual nature of language implies that the form of verbalization constitutes a part of the information conveyed. Conceptual and metaphorical elements not only add a culture-specific touch to the text, but also reveal certain information about the worldview of the nation concerned. Omitting them undermines the original cultural richness of the source text, which cannot be considered beneficial particularly in the case of presidential speeches that are meant to represent the ‗face‘ of the country, and, being deprived of cultural markers, become ‗faceless‘. We deem it necessary that a translation should preserve as many culturally-marked elements as possible without prejudice to the norms and rules of the target language.

3. Peculiarities of Cross-linguistic Transfer of Concepts

3.1 Selected Concepts and Their Metaphorical Linkage As our research is not originally aimed at creating a comprehensive conceptual picture of the Slovak mentality, we focused on a restricted number of concepts selected on the basis of their demonstrativeness and frequency of appearance which suggests their importance for the given national context. The examination of concept-bearing lexemes on the basis of their

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A specific instance when the original goal of a text should remain intact is when a source language speech is addressed directly to the target language audience (members of diplomatic corps, and foreign delegations). Although the speech is re-coded into another language, it is still meant to function in the original cultural context.

combinatory features in a sentence allowed us to reveal the filling of the given concept, to trace its metaphorical elaboration, and to ponder on its mental and behavioural implications. 3.1.1 The „House‟ Concept In the analyzed speeches, the concept of a house was recurringly linked to the image of the state, thus creating a metaphor of ‗the state as our house (home)‘. As a house is first built and then maintained in order by those who live in it, being at the same time tailored to their needs, a state similarly requires constant constructive efforts of its citizens. Furthermore, the given concept is occasionally extended to embrace larger social political formations (e.g. the EU) and can reach out as far as the world or life in general: prispieť k budovaniu sveta (contribute to building the world73), budúcnosť nestaviame na zelenej lúke (we do not build the future on a green meadow). Viewing the future in terms of building implies that its formation is a time-consuming and laborious process, which is a necessity if the final goal of creating an environment that will be comfortable like home is to be achieved. Another important aspect of the concept of house derived from the factual material is a solid foundation as an indisputable prerequisite if the house is to give shelter and protection, i.e. to function adequately and efficiently: zvrchovaný štát, pevne stojaci na princìpoch demokracie (a sovereign state firmly based on democratic principles), jedným zo základných znakov modernej spoločnosti (one of the fundamental characteristics of modern society). 3.1.2 The „Space‟ Concept The spacial approach in perceiving and defining reality is manifested in the usage of lexemes with a dimensional meaning: prìchod nového roka otvára priestor na vyslovenie prianì (the New Year opens up space for conveying wishes), prehlbujú hospodársku spoluprácu (deepen economic cooperation), je zužovaním našich moţnostì (is the narrowing of our opportunities). In the last example, the same meaning could have been expressed by the words zmenšenie (reduction) and zhoršenie (impairment), which represent the concepts of quantity and quality respectively. Of the three conceptual forms available, the preference to the spacial one can be attributed to the importance of the given concept in the Slovak context. The application of spacial (specific) measurement to otherwise unmeasurable (abstract) entities implies that they are subject to human monitoring, control and/or modification. A

The English translation in brackets is provided for explanatory purposes and is therefore composed of wordfor-word equivalents.

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spacial approach to reality, on the one hand, makes it predictable; on the other hand, it increases a person‘s responsibility in dealing with it. 3.1.3 The Concept of „Way/Journey‟ The predominant metaphor in relation to life is the metaphor of ‗life as a journey along a certain way‘. According to this metaphor, individuals are viewed as staying at a certain point on a way with a considerable mileage of overall national and their own personal experience behind them, and still more distance waiting ahead. The distance covered (e.g. in form of history) is perceived as something of value as it accumulates experience and has the power to direct future movement. As to the objective reference of the given concept, there is normally not one but a multitude of different paths and roads: long, short, intersecting, deadend, hampered, new, rutted, etc. Hence, in the conceptual dimension, the decisions people make constitute the path they take, with preparation (setting the goal, working out a route) as a necessary prerequisite: spoločnosť je na takúto dohodu, na túto cestu pripravená (the society is ready for such an agreement, for this path). The metaphor here also implies that one should be careful not to lose the path, and not to turn in the wrong direction, which presupposes the need to constantly check the progress in the form of single deeds (or ‗steps‘) and reflect upon the past activity while keeping an eye on future: uvedomenie si správnosti politických krokov, smerujúcich k historickému vzniku dvoch samostatných štátov (realizing the correctness of political steps directed to the historical emergence of the two independent states). The way is not entirely under a person‘s control – there can be blocks that stop the movement and which are impossible to overcome unless they clear out naturally, at the same time one never knows what alternative paths can open up along the way: udalosti, ktoré nadlho zahatali cestu k vytúţenej slobode a demokracii (events that for a long time blocked the way to desired freedom and democracy). 3.1.4 The „Malady‟ Concept The metaphorical understanding of problems as maladies emphasizes their alarming nature and warns against negligence: if uncured, an illness can cause grave complications or even result in demise. The further implication of the metaphor is that the emergence of a problem, like the occurrence of an illness, is not generally related to the deliberate intention of a people thus it cannot be blamed entirely on them (in contrast to the cultures which view problems as mistakes). Despite the involuntary occurrence, the control and treatment of an

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illness unarguably falls within the responsibility of an individual: budeme si musieť od neduhov odpomôcť (we will have to treat the ailments).

3.2 Translation Techniques and Solutions with Regard to Concept-Bearing Linguistic Units Translation techniques applied in the cross-linguistic transfer of concept-bearing units can be generalized into three core tactics which, for convenience, can be designated preservation, abandonment and elaboration. The translation tactics of preservation consists in implanting the source conceptbearing unit into the text in the target language, which, on the linguistic level, is most often fulfilled by means of word-for-word (loan) translation: (1) Nech nám je potešenìm a cťou, ţe môţeme prispieť k budovaniu sveta, v ktorom ľudia ţijú dôstojne, majú zmysluplnú perspektìvu. – We should be pleased and honoured that we can contribute our share to building a world where people live their lives in dignity and where their lives have a meaning74 (concept of house). (2) Imunita ekonomiky Slovenskej republiky voči chorobným prejavom globálnej krìzy nie je neobmedzená, ale nie je dôvod k prehnanému pesimizmu. – The immunity of the Slovak Republic‟s economy to the illness of global crisis is not unlimited, but it is not a reason for excessive pessimism (concept of malady). V. Liashuk notes that the ―subconscious imposition of source language models on the target language constitutes an actual stage of the process of transmitting contents and meanings‖ (Ляшук 2009: 171). Furthermore, the preservation of source forms is enabled and justified by the fact that concepts as such belong to the overall realm of human thinking without distinction as to a specific national worldview. According to V. Karasik, ―the difference between cultures lies in the quantitative and combinatorial preference of characteristics in the process of conceptualization‖ (Karasik 2002: 93). Each language disposes of a certain set of linguistic means to verbalize the given concept which can differ in terms of quantity, frequency and habitual usage. Source concept-bearing units in the translation serve as cultural identity markers giving the foreign receiver additional, less overt information about the worldview of the nation of the source language. But in order not to exceed the acceptable limits of exotization, such units should be checked for linguistic consistency with norms and speech standards of the source culture.

Hereinafter, the English translation from the official website is provided.

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In a more general way, the tactics of preservation means the preservation of a concept which is ‗materialized‘ by means of verbal units. Hence, a necessary prerequisite for a successful translation is what A. Keníņ defined as ‗creative reception‘ (Keníņ 2010: 51), which in the given case entails transcending the purely linguistic level into the cognitive sphere to detect the core concept of the utterance and then searching for the corresponding linguistic means in the target language. The translation tactics of abandonment is based on the principle of giving preference to the meaning in case of collision between semantic and formal equality. In practice, the given tactics entails the de-conceptualization of a concept-bearing linguistic unit: the unit is interpreted by the translator who defines its central meaning and then chooses a suitable form to shape it in the target language. The de-conceptualization of a linguistic unit involves the elimination of additional characteristics and implications that the concept attached to it, which diminishes the semantic outreach of the given unit and deprives it of the ability to convey culture-specific information about the nation‘s worldview. The form chosen to convey the detected meaning in the target language, as a rule, is itself a bearer of a certain concept, therefore the process of abandonment, in a larger perspective, can be viewed as the concept substitution. (3) V súčasnosti si plnosť a šírku jeho [kréda] dosahu uvedomujem stále viac a viac (concept of space). – I am increasingly more aware of its [motto] true meaning and message nowadays (concept of communication). The introduction of a different concept-bearing unit into the text of translation can be viewed as a micro-distortion of the original meaning as the newly introduced concept adds up its own implications and associative links to it. In the case of overt collision of the norms of two languages, such distortions can be unavoidable, thus tolerable. At the same time, too loose an approach to the transformation of the source conceptualized forms can result in the impairment of the original message by losses or misinterpretations: (4) Ale moderná kriminológia razí cestu, ţe základom riešenia kriminality je prevencia. Najmä sociálna, vedomostná a mravnostná. – However, modern criminology stresses the importance of prevention in all its aspects – social, educational, moral. In the original utterance, it was emphasized that the modern criminology not only realizes (‗stresses‘) the importance of prevention, but actively uses it as a starting point for its development. Furthermore, the translation lacks the reasons why prevention is considered important (because of its fundamental role in countering the criminality problem).

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The preference for one of the tactics (preservation or abandonment) can depend on the pragmatic function of the given linguistic unit in a larger syntactical context. The instances of particular interest in this regard are extended metaphors, intensifying repetitions, and idioms. An extended metaphor is composed by a number of lexemes of the same conceptual nature that contribute to the creation of a coherent image of a situation, hence its correct and complete transmission presupposes the choice of the closest formal equivalents that bear the core concept on which the whole metaphor is based. The loss of a constituent element of an extended metaphor breaks the link between the other components undermining its expressive power: (5) Vláda Slovenskej republiky je v stave najvyššej pohotovosti, má snahu sanovať dôsledky krìzy ešte predtým, ako by mohlo dôjsť k nezvratnému poškodeniu ekonomiky (extended metaphor based on the concept of malady). – The Government of the Slovak Republic is in a state of the highest readiness and strives to mitigate the effects of the crisis before they can cause irreversible harm to the economy. The repetition of paronymous words in a close syntactical context is aimed at emphasizing the core idea of the sentence. Since the lexical spheres of the source and the target languages are not commensurate, it might be impossible to find the same amount of paronymous translation equivalents for the given conceptualized lexeme. The loss of the original intensifying effect can be compensated by the introduction of additional lexical elements reinforcing the remaining concept-bearing elements: (6) Prvé kroky, ktoré v tejto súvislosti urobila nová vláda, sú len vykročením k očakávaným istotám. – The first measures taken by the new government in this field can be hailed as steps in the right direction towards the expected guarantees. An idiom is based on a prototypical situation unfolding around a certain concept; therefore, its cross-linguistic transfer is conditioned by the existence of analogous idiomatic means to describe the given situation in the target language. The inability to find such means results in the selection of the most closely corresponding translational equivalent. The possible criteria taken into consideration at this point can be ranged in the following way: the meaning conveyed by the linguistic unit – idiomatic nature – conceptual orientation. It should be noted that the compliance with the first two criteria appears to be sufficient for the adoption of a given unit as a translational equivalent even if the conceptual conformity is not achieved: (7) Aj preto vzdelávanie a kultúra nemôţu stáť na neistých nohách. – Therefore education and culture have to stand on solid foundations. Slovak Studies in English, Vol. 3, 2011 – Identity in Intercultural Communication

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In the given example, the translational equivalent chosen by the translator (a Slovak national) is based on the concept of house, which was lacking in the source utterance. The fact of its introduction into the text of translation confirms our assumption about it being one of the core concepts in the worldview of the nation concerned. The tactics of elaboration occupies the intermediate position between the first two and consists of introducing modifications into the given conceptualized notion while staying within the limits of the same conceptual sphere: (8) Ţiaľ, musìm konštatovať, ţe v tomto smere máme dlhodobo značné resty (concept of space, movement and directivity). – Unfortunately, I have to admit that we have long-term shortcomings in this field (concept of space, statics and boundedness). As in the case of complete abandonment, the change of an angle at which the conceptualized notion is presented might cause the expansion of the original meaning. Its outreach beyond the originally intended limits might cause an inappropriate shift: (9) Najmä preto, ţe svet v 21. storočì je stále plný násilia, občianskych nepokojov, hladu, chudoby a utrpenia. “Liek” na tieto bolesti sveta sa hľadá veľmi ťaţko. – Particularly because in the 21st century the world is still full of violence, civil unrest, famine, poverty and suffering. It has proved extremely difficult to find a “panacea” for all pains. The noun ‗panacea‘ has the implication of a universal (i.e. easy) solution for pending issues and problems. The problems outlined in the utterance (violence, civil unrest, etc.) obviously demand thorough attention and specific approach, not a quick, all-purpose remedy.

4. Conclusion The peculiarities of the nation‘s worldview are reflected in speech by means of linguistic units that bear core concepts, create specific images and align into metaphors. Such culturally-marked elements transmit additional information about the source culture which makes their preservation in the course of translation necessary and desirable. The preservation of concepts is enabled by their attribution to the overall realm of collective human thought. A too easy abandonment of the source concept-bearing forms, as well as a too loose elaboration, might introduce additional implications and cause distortions to the original meaning intended to be conveyed.

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Bibliography GROMOVÁ, Edita (2005). Vzťah východiskovéhoa cieľového jazyka z didaktického hľadiska. In Letná škola prekladu 3 (17 – 26). Bratislava: AnaPress. HOUSE, Juliane (1977). A Model for Translation Quality Assessment. Tübingen: Gunter Narr. HUMBOLDT, Wilhelm von (1999). On Language, On the Diversity of Human Language Construction and its Influence on the Mental Development of the Human Species. Edited by Michael Losonsky. Cambridge: CUP. Pp. 25-64 reproduced at http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/ge/vhumboldtwilhelm.htm КАРАСИК, В.И. (2002). Языковой круг: личность, концепты, дискурс. Волгоград: «Перемена». KENÍŅ, Alojz (2010). Tvorivosť ako primárna súčasť prekladového procesu. In Letná škola prekladu 8 (47 – 58). Bratislava: AnaPress. LAKOFF, George, and Mark JOHNSON (2003). Metaphors We Live by. London: The University of Chicago Press. ЛЯШУК, В.М. (2009). Специфика перевода словацких экскурсионных текстов на русский и белорусский язык. In Preklad a tlmočenie 8 (165 – 173). Banská Bystrica. SIPKO, Josef (2008). В поисках истинного смысла – Hľadanie ozajstného zmyslu. Preńov: Filozofická fakulta Preńovskej univerzity. СТЕПАНОВ, Ю. С. (2001). Константы: Словарь русской культуры. Москва: Академический проект. VILIKOVSKÝ, Ján (1984). Preklad ako tvorba. Bratislava: Slovenský spisovateľ. ВИРОСТКОВА, Алжбета (2007). Импорт концептов в русском и словацком языках. In Hľadanie ekvivalentnostì III (318 – 327). Preńov: Filozofická fakulta, Preńovská univerzita v Preńove. Resumé В статье рассматриваются особенности межъязыковой передачи лингвистических единиц, содержащих в себе маркеры национального характера и мировоззрения. Предметом анализа являются концепты, образы и метафоры, используемые в политических обращениях и характеризующиеся высокой частотностью и демонстративностью (концепты дома, пространства, дороги, недуга). Компаративный анализ исходного словацкого материалы и его англоязычного эквивалента проводится на более широком лингвокультурологическом фоне. Автором оценивается полнота и адекватность выбранных переводческих эквивалентов, анализируются искажения, вносимые в текст перевода на когнитивном и смысловом уровне, а также обобщаются и характеризуются используемые переводческие техники. ____________________ The present research was conducted with the support of the International Visegrad Fund

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