Abstract The relevance of this study is determined by the need to understand the transformation of the concept of the tragic hero in the context of modern literature and its reflection in the works of Arthur Miller and Ernest Hemingway. The aim of the article was to analyse the images of the tragic hero in the works of these authors, allowing for the identification of both common traits and unique features that characterise the modern tragic hero. Using literary-stylistic and comparative analysis, the research looked at works such as Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea and Miller's Death of a Salesman . The results showed that, although the social and cultural settings of the writers vary greatly, both show sad heroes defined by inner conflict, existential problems and loneliness against society's alienation.

Abstract This article is an application of concepts to the reading of poetry borrowed from Jonathan Culler's Structuralist Poetics: Structuralism, Linguistics and the Study of Literature (Cornell University Press, 1975). I also use Roland Barthes’ language codes; hermeneutic, semantic, symbolic, actional and cultural-referential demonstrated in his well-known text S/Z , with slight modifications for their application as well. The discourse advocated by Culler was itself explored earlier and developed by Bulgarian/French historian Tzvetan Todorov in a reading method called Poetics, not to be confused with Aristotelian poetics. These concepts have been previously applied to literary fiction, though they have never been systematically applied to the reading of poetry. This is the sixth article in applied poetics published utilising this methodology since 2019.

Abstract In his first tetralogy, Shakespeare interrogates his age's faith in technological progress as a triumph of the rational over the superstitious. In 1 Henry VI and Richard III, he dramatises an epistemological aporia: the overloading of the rational summons forth a future of ghosts. In keeping with Derrida's mystical foundation of law, the imposition of the material, more immediately represented as the gunpowder technology in 1 Henry VI, creates ruptures in meaning that resist assimilation into rational discourse. This material excess lingers into a putatively rational age in Richard III, where confidence in historical progress is consistently frustrated by representational enigmas. Even Richard, the play's arch-rationalist, finds himself unnerved by the ghostly other that fractures his carefully constructed economy of reason. Rather than reaching self-sufficiency, then, Shakespeare's vision of technological modernity remains inextricably bound to its repressed counterpart: the very superstition it seeks to erase.

Abstract The purpose of this article is to analyse the specifics of the world views of the characters in Anton Chekhov's novella Ward No. 6 , revealed through existential issues. The following methods were used to achieve the research objectives: abstraction, generalisation, content analysis, comparative analysis and the method of artistic hermeneutics. Every character in this literary work by Chekhov follows a path of ideological searching, and the position taken by the author is expressed through the process of clashing two personalities that act as oppositional in their world views. The personification effect acts as the main mechanism for revealing existential conflicts, which in the process of revealing ideological content relies on the search for truth expressed by the work's characters and their unique way of looking at the world.

Abstract This article explores the relevance of preserving directors’ stylistic individuality and narrative conveyance in contemporary film production, amidst digital advancements. It focuses on identifying and studying cinematic techniques, particularly counterpoint, as a means of forming directors’ commentary. Research methods such as analysis, synthesis, comparison and generalisation were employed, alongside systematic, structural and functional approaches. Counterpoint is singled out as a distinctive audiovisual technique that distinguishes directors’ works, drawing from both Eastern and Western interpretations. Examples from Stanley Kubrick, Alfred Hitchcock, Steven Spielberg, Luc Besson, Hugh Hudson and Christopher Nolan illustrate its use for purposes like ethical disclosure, philosophical reflection and dramatic enhancement. The study concludes that despite variations, directors share motives including ridicule and decharacterisation. It contributes by deepening theoretical understanding and defining counterpoint's cinematic universality.

Abstract The need for a comprehensive study of this key topic for understanding the way of life of the Kazakhs forms the relevance of this study. The purpose of the article is to determine the geographical spread of Kazakh children's folklore. In the process of the research, various methods were used, including analysis and synthesis, the ascent from the abstract to the concrete and vice versa, the descriptive method, the comparative method, the comparative typological method, the historical chronological method, the method of critical analysis and the scientific dialectical method. The article is a study of the geographical area of Kazakh children's folklore. As a result of the study, it was concluded that its history and formation go back to the beginning of the ethnogenesis of modern Turkic peoples.

Abstract The richness of the spiritual culture of the people can be found in the ethnographic nature of poems and songs related to family customs and traditions. The active use of traditional poetry in family ceremonies, rituals and everyday life of modern Kazakh society predefines the research relevance. The research aims to investigate ethnographic peculiarities of the poetics of Turkic-speaking peoples and to study the understanding of historical context and symbolism in the traditional family poems of the Turks. The following methods were used: historical-typological method, cultural-historical analysis, comparative method, and survey. The research studies the traditional family poetics of Kazakhstan and Great Britain, relying on the peculiarities of the cultural traditions and history of these countries.

Abstract Compilations of regional literature in the Ming Dynasty increased dramatically in quantity and significant improvements were made in the quality of compilation and engraving. This marked the initial construction of a national and regional literary history, making it a valuable literary and cultural phenomenon for research. The evaluative framework of regional literature compilations in the Ming Dynasty encompasses not only praise for the editors’ talent and compilation skills, and praise for the textual value, but also judgements about the compilation content and format. Despite some shortcomings in certain regional literature compilations of the Ming Dynasty, they are far from sufficient to overshadow their brilliance. These collections provide valuable data and experience for the compilation of regional literature compilations in the Qing Dynasty and nationwide regional literature compilations and profoundly influence the formation of literary evaluative systems in later generations.

When Henry VIII, or All Is True was staged at Shakespeare's Globe in London in May 2022, the production elicited a lukewarm review from Arifa Akbar in the Guardian. The theatre critic stated that "the play itself feels slightly disjointed, perhaps because it was not the Bard's work alone but a collaboration with John Fletcher. There is now the added authorial hand of Hannah Khalil, who edits the text to accentuate women's roles and adds some well-known lines from Shakespeare's other works. Where this should enrich the drama, it exposes its faultlines." Akbar's comment is revealing, and particularly so in the context of this issue's engagement with the varieties of early modern dramatic collaboration. It not only mentions several collaborative practices used in early modern theatre which are explored in the articles brought together for this special issue – co-authorship, adaptation and quotation, to name but three – but also reflects a profound unease towards collaboration in twenty-first-century culture. Henry VIII, Akbar infers, is an imbalanced play because Shakespeare wrote it with somebody else rather than by himself. Akbar also implies that the relationship between these two authors has to be hierarchical, with Shakespeare (aka the inevitably capitalised, solitary ‘Bard’) as the better and Fletcher as the lesser playwright, who is responsible for the play's alleged shortcomings. A similarly dismissive attitude towards Fletcher is reflected in the review's title, which refers to Henry VIII as ‘little-seen Shakespeare’ as a form of skewed advertisement (this is Shakespeare, but not as we know him),2 thus erasing Fletcher's co-authorship completely, only to eventually present his name by way of explaining the play's mediocrity. The review also suggests that the play's merit has been further reduced by Hannah Khalil's contemporary adaptation, which adds too much ‘wokeness’ (the accentuation of women's roles) as well as too much middle-class Shakespeare (the well-known lines recognisable for those who know their Shakespeare inside out). In short, the review relies on a hierarchy well established in (traditional) literary criticism: Shakespeare is the epitome of playwrighting, and his solo-authored plays are the gold standard of early modern English drama; his co-authored plays are diminished by the lesser dramatic ability of his collaborators (where Shakespeare is sprezzatura, Fletcher is learned rhetoric); adapters have even more limited authorial skills and, therefore, an adapted play is a ‘lesser’ play because of the adapter's ‘interference’. As Akbar's review showcases, the notion of dramatic co-authorship, especially Shakespeare's, is still routinely met with scepticism and disdain in public discourse. Rather than enriching a play, three cooks (Shakespeare, Fletcher, Khalil) have spoiled the broth.

Abstract Shakespeare's Hamlet has been retold in children's versions several times in Sweden in recent years. It was the subject of the first episode of the children's television programme På teatern [At the Theatre], written and directed by Christina Nilsson for SVT in 2001–2002, where Shakespearean actors meet their child or grandchild backstage after a performance to tell and partly enact the story of the play. In 2005–2006, Lotta Grut wrote the plays Lille Hamlett och spöket [Little Hamlett and the Ghost] and Offelia kom igen! [Offelia Come Again!] for the theatre company Unga Roma. In these fairy-tale versions, the children Hamlet and Ophelia are confronted with death, grief, anger, oppression and erasure. This article argues that the På teatern episode is an adaptation of Hamlet while Grut's two plays are appropriations.