Masked Paradigms

No. 3 - Year 10 - 06/2020

University of Zadar | eISSN 1847-7755 | SIC.JOURNAL.CONTACT@GMAIL.COM

Editorial

The new issue of [sic] is upon us. And it is special, not only because it was done under strange circumstances of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, lockdowns, hand sanitizers and distancing, physical, and also, oddly, social… this issue is special because, just like all of us, it wears a mask, a mask that is not only meant to protects us and all those around us – and not allow us to let go, to forget what is important and what is it we set to do – but that also hides an important date in the lives of all of us at [sic] – our 10th anniversary....

Literature and Culture
Nikolai Wansart, University of Cologne, Germany:

Lerner’s The Topeka School references “the twenty-four-hour news cycle, Twitter storms, algorithmic trading,” (24) as a version of the debate strategy of the spread in the post-truth United States. In a similar way, the incessant and supernumerary presence of suburban objects in the novel functions as a spread the characters continuously have to face. Linking the spread and the sublime, this essay examines how the novel intertwines the characters’ responses to their suburban home with their subsequent futures on their way into the Trumpian post-truth age. Informed by the Kantian sublime, it shows how the sublime of the spread denies negative pleasure as the denouement of the threat of the sublime. The essay develops the argument that Lerner’s novel frames the ability to linguistically respond to the paradoxically placing and displacing effect of the sublime of the spread as a tool that on the one hand can help them navigate their 1990s-suburban life, but on the other hand also foreshad...

DOI: 10.15291/sic/3.10.lc.5
Literary Translation
Ken Liu and Maja Zidarević:

Svijet je oblikovan poput kanjija koji označava „kišobran”, samo je tako loše prikazan, kad ga ja napišem, da su svi dijelovi neproporcionalni.Moj bi se otac sramio dječačkog načina na koji još oblikujem znakove. Zaista, mnoge od njih jedva se sjećam napisati. Moje je formalno obrazovanje u Japanu prekinuto kad sam imao samo osam godina.No za ovu svrhu poslužit će i ovaj loše nacrtan znak.Natkrovlje na vrhu solarno je jedro. Čak i taj izobličeni kanji može tek donekle prikazati koliko je golemo. Rotirajući disk, sto puta tanji od rižinog papira, širi se tisućama kilometara u svemir poput golema zmaja koji želi uhvatiti svaki foton koji naiđe. Doslovno prekriva nebo.Ispod njega visi sto kilometara dugačak konop od ugljičnih nanocijevi: čvrst, lagan i rastezljiv. Na kraju konopa visi srce Hopefula: putnički modul, petsto metara visok cilindar u kojem se nalazi svaki od 1021 stanovnika svijeta.Sunčeva svjetlost udara o jedro gurajući nas u spiralnu orbitu koja se vječno širi, vječno ubrza...

DOI: 10.15291/sic/3.10.lt.5
East-West -- Russia, or the USA as a Metaphor
Danijela Lugarić Vukas, University of Zagreb, Croatia:

Rusku kulturu gotovo od samih početaka snažno je definirao odnos prema Zapadu – zapadnjačkim vrijednostima, mitologiji, svakodnevici, ekonomiji, kulturi, politici, društvenom uređenju. Od jedne od svakako prijelomnih točki, razaranja Velikog Novgoroda tijekom moskovsko-novgorodskog rata (1477. – 1478.), i pripajanja ondašnjoj ruskoj državi toga grada, koji se je od Moskve razlikovao ekonomskom i vjerskom organizacijom te organizacijom političke hijerarhije, dijalektički razvoj ruske povijesti u mnogome određuje napetost između zapadnjačkih (europskih i kasnije sjevernoameričkih) i ruskih (istočnih ili slavenofilskih) tendencija. Crkveni raskol u 17. stoljeću, s patrijarhom Nikonom i protopopom Avvakumom kao predstavnicima dviju suprotstavljenih tabora; inzistiranje Petra Velikoga na reformama u „europskome duhu” i na podizanju grada po uzoru na europske prijestolnice, premještanje središta države iz „zaostale”, „seoske”, „izolirane”, „tradicionalne” i „konzervativne” Moskve u „progresi...

DOI: 10.15291/sic/3.10.ewrs.1
Literature and Culture
Smiljana Narančić Kovač and Katarina Aladrović Slovaček:

The paper presents the results of a digital comparative text analysis of the Croatian original and the Burgenland editions of a children’s classic performed in combination with research methods of Translation Studies. The Croatian children’s novel of 1913, Čudnovate zgode šegrta Hlapića [The Strange Adventures of Hlapić the Apprentice] by Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić (1874–1938), appeared in Burgenland Croatian in 1960 and again, with minor alterations, in 2000. Burgenland Croatian is the language of the Croatian minority predominantly positioned in Austria, considered to be a regional variant of Croatian. These two languages are similar, but they still differ in structural and semantic elements as they have been separately developing since the 15th century. The similarities allowed for a digital comparative text analysis of the linguistic aspects of source and target texts, including their linguistic complexity. The results of the digital analysis demonstrate the applicability of digital lin...

DOI: 10.15291/sic/3.10.lc.4
Literature and Culture
Zlatko Bukač, University of Zadar, Croatia:

Most of the video games are known primarily through their development teams. Although the video game industry became a more lucrative and influential art form than all other forms of entertainment combined, there still exists a lack of identification of video game products with their authors, directors, and/or writers. For example, The Last of Us is a game people will more often associate with developer team Naughty Dog than with Jacob Minkoff; the video game company SEGA is labeled as the team behind Sonic the Hedgehog, while the question of original creators remains unclear and often on the fringe. This way, many individuals are ostracized from their work, with only their biggest fans caring for some video game director’s style, his/her narrative strategies, and composition. However, some video game creators are always clearly connected to their work, sometimes even being the main argument why a certain game is deserving of attention and praise. Hideo Kojima, for example, is one of t...

DOI: 10.15291/sic/3.10.lc.8
Literary Translation
Genevieve Hudson and Marina Veverec i Blaž Martić:

Ne javljam se na Ženine pozive. Sori, draga. Četkam jezik, gledam snimku pilatesa na internetu, evo me na masaži vrućim kamenjem. U stvari, i ne baš. U stvari, listam Tedin profil na Instagramu. Evo portreta Ted dok još nije imala djecu. Evo, portret Ted i njezina muža Nijemca u Barceloni. Evo, portret Ted u poluprozirnoj košulji od materijala kojem bi ona vjerojatno znala naziv – til? Šifon? Krep? Batist? Ted je tip žene koja zna takve nazive. Ted je tip cure koja piše blog o svom modnom izričaju. Zaustavim se na slici, zumiram. Opazim joj bradavice, nježna nijansa kestena ispod tanke tkanine. Lažem samu sebe i pretvaram se da je subverzivno kada jedna žena svodi drugu na objekt. Ipak, objekt je objekt je objekt. Ne mogu prestati gledati.Evo brojnih verzija Ted tijekom proteklih godina. Evo, portret Ted na kojem liže lizalicu. Jezik od tvrdog slatkiša. Šećer među zubima.Trebala bih se javiti na Ženin poziv. Njezino ime u sans serifu ponovno mi prekrije zaslon, nada se da ćemo se vidje...

DOI: 10.15291/sic/3.10.lt.2