<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> Hawthorne’s Rome is the home of dark and evil catacombs. It is a city haunted by evil spirits from the past that actively shape the romance’s plot. Rome’s dark gardens, endless staircases, hidden corners and vast catacombs, as well as the malodorous Jewish ghetto, affect Donatello’s and Miriam’s judgment, almost forcing them to get rid of the Model, Miriam’s persecutor. Hawthorne’s narrator’s shockingly violent, harsh and seemingly anti-Semitic description of the ghetto in Rome is just one among many similarly ruthless, and at times offensive, accounts of the city wherein Hawthorne situates his last completed romance, The Marble Faun. Hawthorne’s two-year stay in Rome in 1858-59 sets the scene for his conception of The Marble Faun. In addition to providing Hawthorne with the extensive contact with art and artists that undoubtedly affected the choice of his protagonists (Kenyon, a sculptor; Hilda and Miriam, painters), Italy exposed Hawthorne to Jewish traditions and history, as well as to the life of Jews in the Roman ghetto. Most probably it also aroused his interest in some of the political affairs in which Italian Jews were involved in the 1840s and 50s. This historical background, especially the well-publicized abduction and conversion of a Jewish child, Edgardo Mortara, in 1858 provides important political and cultural background for Hawthorne’s portrayal of Miriam in The Marble Faun.</abstract>

Hawthorne’s Rome – A city of evil, political and religious corruption and violence

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> The paper addresses the complexity of social issues in contemporary American society through the prism of its reflection in theatre and literature. The characteristic features of American narratives and performatives are freedom and an almost utopian belief in diversity and social understanding. At the same time, the discussed works present a comprehensive look at social issues using a great variety of forms and genres, and appealing to the aesthetic sensitivity of different groups of recipients. In the face of future problems in the political arena, American art offers an interesting transatlantic perspective on the complexity of 21st-century issues which are relevant all over the world.</abstract>

Towards freedom and social awareness: Hopeful narratives and performatives in American theatre and literature

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> The paper examines the protected values in Marilynne Robinson’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel Gilead (2004). The aim of the study is to show the significance of three major values, namely faith, family and education. It also attempts to suggest how complexly these values interrelate and eventually represent the central tenets of the life worth living.</abstract>

Protected values and the meaning of life in Marilynne Robinson’s novel Gilead

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> When they first reached an American readership, Jane Austen’s novels enjoyed mixed reactions among intellectuals. The main charge levelled against Jane Austen’s fiction was that it conflicted with the democratic principles American society was based on. The next century brought about an explosion in the attention paid to Jane Austen, whether via adaptations, spinoffs, biopics, musicals, detective fiction, scholarly texts, societies or even websites. Most of these creative extensions of Jane Austen’s ideas (and her personality) seem to embrace contemporary American values and sensibilities and therefore, logically, make attempts at revising some of the less palatable aspects of the English society of the Regency era. This paper focuses on two prime examples of such a revisionist approach to Jane Austen’s most classconscious novel, Emma, in Douglas McGrath’s eponymous 1996 film adaptation and in Clueless, Amy Heckerling’s 1995 satirical film based on the same novel.</abstract>

Jane Austen Americanized: The democratic principle in recent adaptations of Emma

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> Aesthetic distance is a phenomenon that has attracted a considerable amount of attention, especially since the first works of postmodernism came to light. Aesthetic distance is based on creating such works which - using certain artistic tools and techniques - break the illusion and thus inhibit readers from immersing themselves in the literary world portrayed in the work they read. As a result, aesthetic distance creates a liminal space, or an invisible but consciously perceivable border between reality, i.e. the world we live in and fiction, i.e. the world we want to relocate to and enjoy during the reading process. The paper is based on an article by Bjorn Thomassen, in which he presents several types of liminality and states that the typology is not final. My aim is to prove that liminality can occur in literature as well, particularly in works built on aesthetic distance. In this matter, I focus on the reception theory of Wolfgang Iser, who studies literary texts from three perspectives: the text, the reader and the communication between the two. The theory is applied to selected short stories of American literature, which contain illusion-breaking features and thus may be viewed as liminal spaces.</abstract>

Aesthetic distance as a form of liminality in selected short stories of American literature

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)

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

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

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

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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. 