<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> The article outlines the beginnings of ethnic literature research in the United States of America with regards to its reception from the 1960s to the 1980s. Aesthetic merit as a leading consideration in the evaluation of literary works, in view of the opinions of numerous critics, is quite problematic to apply in the case of Czech and Polish literature. Considering the output of Slovak-American research in the field of literary criticism and literary history, the results are not satisfactory either. There are a few works that provide valuable insight into the literature of the Slovak diaspora.</abstract>

Ethnic Literature and Slovak American Research

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> Although the foundations of the Soviet concentration camp system date back to the Bolshevik Revolution and Russian Civil War, the amplitude of human suffering in the Gulag would not be known in detail until after 1962, i.e. the year when A. Solzhenitsyn’s One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich was published. But even before the start of World War II, the totalitarian Soviet universe spoke the language of oppression that public opinion in the West constantly refused to acknowledge. This paper tries to recover a neglected corpus of early autobiographical narratives depicting the absurd Soviet concentration system, in the authentic voice of a number of Gulag survivors (G. Kitchin, Tatiana Tchernavin, Vladimir Tchernavin, S. A. Malsagoff, etc.).</abstract>

Denial of Humanity and Forms of Enslavement in the Russian Gulag: Early Narratives of Gulag Survivors (1919–1940)

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> In Mantissa, Miles Green is deprived of his identity, and his Muse(s) attempt to help him reforget it through different (sub)cultural impersonations. This privately coded novel presents the process, which results in what could be termed a culturally determined variant of the postmodern human condition. My paper discusses some aspects of the way in which John Fowles reformulates his interpretations of the postmodern human condition, while demonstrating the capacity of art in general and of the novel in particular to adjust its rhetoric, narrative and technical solutions to the expectations generated by this extremely complex and difficult task.</abstract>

Speculative Cultural Constructs of the Human Condition in John Fowles’s Mantissa

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> Ciaran Carson’s poetry is deeply concerned with the city of Belfast, as many of the poems unfold their twisting itinerary against the active background of this northern urban location. In addition to the poems Carson has published a fair number of prose pieces and a tentative autobiography, which also resurrects the city in its dynamism, though on a different timescale. The poems and the prose pieces together constitute a narrative of the changing city with the conclusion that the most apparent element of permanence in the context of the city is change itself, which leads to a strained relationship between the city and the map representing it.</abstract>

Under (Re)Construction – Belfast in the Poetry and Prose of Ciaran Carson

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> David Foster Wallace’s fiction is often considered to be an expression of the new American fiction emerging in the late 1980s, the authors of which expressed a certain distance from the dehumanised and linguistically constructed subject of postmodern fiction, and which depicted individuals influenced by mass media, pop culture and technology in technologically advanced American society. David Foster Wallace’s short story Tri-Stan: I Sold Sissee Nar to Ecko (1999), however, was also included in the Avant-Pop Anthology (Larry McCaffery, L., eds. After Yesterday’s Crash: The Avant-Pop Anthology. London, New York: Penguin, 1995). Some other critics (Adam Kelly, for example) consider him to be an author who expresses New Sincerity in his depiction of reality, which is a tendency in fiction trying to depict human experience and emotions through the use of language and which does not emphasise the human subject and experience to be a product of the interplay of signifiers as understood by Deconstruction criticism and many postmodern authors. This paper will analyse David Foster Wallace’s use of narrative strategies that are connected with postmodern narrative techniques and, at the same time, the way they express a distance from them through a depiction of human experience as interactive communication between human subjects. In addition, the paper will analyse the poetics of the new sincerity as part of contemporary postpostmodern sensibility. That is why I use the term sensicerity to express a combination of the new sensibility and sincerity.</abstract>

Humanisation of the Subject in David Foster Wallace’s Fiction: From Postmodernism, Avant Pop to New Sensicerity? (Tri-Stan: I Sold Sissee Nar to Ecko, 1999)

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> The article deals with the ideas of humanity and morality as reflected in the works of R. W. Emerson, the main representative of an intellectual movement called American transcendentalism. It conveys basic facts about the movement and focuses on the key aspects of Emerson’s transcendental philosophy, particularly his concept of the Over-soul and his concept of Nature, which gave his humanistic philosophy a religious and moral accent. Due to it, Emerson’s religious humanism also became the basis of American democratic individualism. The article offers insight into Emerson’s ideas on morality and ethical behaviour, which challenge us to live in harmony with God and nature.</abstract>

Humanism and Ethos in the Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson

AHEAD OF PRINT

Volume 15 (2023): Issue 2 (December 2023)

Volume 15 (2023): Issue 1 (June 2023)

Volume 14 (2022): Issue 2 (December 2022)

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Volume 13 (2021): Issue 3 (December 2021)

Volume 13 (2021): Issue 2 (December 2021)

Volume 13 (2021): Issue 1 (June 2021)

Volume 12 (2020): Issue 2 (December 2020)

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Volume 11 (2019): Issue 2 (December 2019)

Volume 11 (2019): Issue 1 (June 2019)

Volume 10 (2018): Issue 2 (December 2018)

Volume 10 (2018): Issue 1 (June 2018)

Volume 9 (2017): Issue 2 (December 2017)

Volume 9 (2017): Issue 1 (June 2017)

Volume 8 (2016): Issue 2 (December 2016)

Volume 8 (2016): Issue 1 (June 2016)

Volume 7 (2015): Issue 2 (December 2015)

Volume 7 (2015): Issue 1 (June 2015)

Volume 6 (2014): Issue 2 (December 2014)

Volume 6 (2014): Issue 1 (June 2014)

Ars Aeterna

 Ars Aeterna is a literary peer-reviewed academic journal focused on the questions of literature and art and their importance in the contemporary world for the development of culture, mutual understanding, and the human self. It invites international contributions in the field of literary studies, concerning primarily the Anglophone world. The journal is seeking submissions on English, American, Irish, Scottish, Canadian, Australian and other English literary traditions. Its aim is to provide up-to-date and innovative critical and theoretical approaches to the study of literary text. The journal accepts studies on literary relations which include the Western tradition, but we encourage contributions which deal with world literature as well. General and comparative literature studies are also appreciated and we are open to a broad variety of methods and theories. While the journal primarily focuses on the study of literary texts, contributions related to art and film which address the text are also welcome. Submissions in English should offer international perspectives on specific themes and subjects and the journal’s thematic scope wants to provide a stimulating platform for scholarly discussions and dissemination of original research on literary history, theory, literary criticism and related matters. The content of the journal consists of high quality research articles and its target audience includes scholars and researchers in the field of literature and the study of art.  Rejection Rate   30-40%   Visit our Facebook  Archiving  Sciendo archives the contents of this journal in Portico - digital long-term preservation service of scholarly books, journals and collections.  Plagiarism Policy  The editorial board is participating in a growing community of Similarity Check System's users in order to ensure that the content published is original and trustworthy. Similarity Check is a medium that allows for comprehensive manuscripts screening, aimed to eliminate plagiarism and provide a high standard and quality peer-review process. 