Slavistic Philology
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Recent papers in Slavistic Philology
Key words: The Möbius loop, Hinterwelt, Genius loci Scholae Provincialis Portensis, Nietzsche, Glagolitic, Cyrillic, the Petrinian reform, Lenin´s cultural revolution, the collapse of metaphysics in Slavonic writing Both August Möbius... more
Key words: The Möbius loop, Hinterwelt, Genius loci Scholae Provincialis Portensis, Nietzsche, Glagolitic, Cyrillic, the Petrinian reform, Lenin´s cultural revolution, the collapse of metaphysics in Slavonic writing
Both August Möbius (1790–1868) and Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) attended Pforta Abbey´s Landesschule. Whereas Möbius as a mathematician discovered a non-orientable two-dimensional surface, the so-called Möbius strip or loop, i.e. a surface with only one side and one boundary, Nietzsche tried to overcome the so-called Hinterwelt, the metaphysical realm beyond the physical one or the other side of being. Just as the Eleatic sphere symbolised the idea of the unity and the unchangeability of all being, just as the invisible hand reflected Scottish deism, just as dodecaphony underscored musically the Vienna Circle´s logical positvism, so the Nietzschean overcoming of the beyond along with the eternal recurrence of the same can be depicted by the Möbius loop.
In this context we might also regard the Moebius loop as a figure eventuating from the collapse of ontological systems. If the functioning of ontological and vital systems is characterised by a tension between two poles (the earthly and the other world, the life of this world and of the world to come, the above and the below, the masculine and the feminine principle, the temporal and the spiritual power, physics and metaphysics), it follows that, as a consequence of the annihilation of this vital tension and of the abolition of the difference between two opposing principles – as a result of a short-circuit as it were –, life is vanishing and death is occurring. Just such a process may be observed in the development of Slavonic writing.
This article attempts to illustrate the cultural and historical significance of the graphematic changes of the more than thousand-year-old Slavonic writing. Emphasis lies on its development from the Petrinian reform up to the Leninist cultural revolution. With its revolutionary aspects, the transformation of the Slavonic script conveys a profound philosophical connotation. It reflects a process of secularisation depriving the script of its metaphysical symbolism.
Slavonic writing historically departs from the glagolitsa developed by St. Cyril of Thessaloniki (ca. 826/27-869) in the 9th c. Into this alphabet designed for missionary purposes among the Slavs he introduced letters fraught with Christian religious symbolism: the Slavonic az (i. e. Cyril´s substitute for alpha) was depicted by the sign of a cross, the letters i (the first letter in the name “Isous” for Jesus) and slovo (i.e. word – “In the beginning was the Word”, invented as a substitute for sigma) were depicted by a combination of a circle, the symbol of eternity, and a triangle, the symbol of the Trinity.
In a further step, the cyrilitsa ascribed to St. Clement of Ohrid (ca. 840 – 916) contained the extended diacritic titlo ( ҃ ) symbol to mark the nomina sacra, e.g. the titlo crowning the word angel (’άгг҃лъ) served to distinguish the angel of the heavenly realm from the fallen angel (’άгглъ). The Cyrillic alphabet, a.k.a. azbuka, was made up of letters conveying the connection of literacy and the Gospel.
As part of Peter the Great´s efforts to modernise Russia by Europeanising his realm in all aspects of life the Cyrillic script was to resemble Latin alphabets current in Western Europe in the early 18th c. The new script introduced by decree in 1708 became known as the civil or Amsterdam script (grazhdansky shrift or amsterdamskaya azbuka). Aiming at Latin simplicity, the Petrinian reform stripped the cyrilitsa of its medieval calligraphic ornaments and its religious connotations. The Slavonic ideographic names were replaced by phonetic initials, i.e. the azbuka was transformed into the abevega. The titla were eliminated.
Right after the Bolshevik Revolution, Dec. 23, 1917 (Jan. 5, 1918) Anatoly Lunacharsky, the first People´s Commissar of Enlightenment, proclaimed the “Decree on the Introduction of a New Orthography”. The reform intended to promote rapid alphabetisation on the one hand and to break with pre-revolutionary culture, in particular with religious traditions, on the other. The elemination of the “superfluous” letters prefigurated the liquidation of the “parasitic” classes. The Bolshevik reform deprived the Tsarist alphabet of the remaining Greek letters (such as theta (ѳ)). By removing the Slavonic letters yat (ѣ), the final yer (ъ) and the decimal i (і desyaterichnoe) as well as distinctive female personal pronouns and adjective endings the reform deprived the Russian language of precision in expression. Simplification brought about a reduction of semantic clarity.
The most striking example of this reduction is found in the merger of world and peace in mir. In traditional eschatology the identity of world and peace was to be expected only at the end of times. In an chiliastic effort Bolshevism intended to realise the kingdom to come in the revolutionary present. Not by chance the Leninist language reform reflects this turn from traditional metaphysics to secular religion. The Möbius loop had locked.
reziume
sakvanZo sityvebi: mobiusis maryuJi, nicSe, leninis kulturuli revolucia,
metafizikis kolafsi slavur mwerlobaSi.
orive august mobiusi (1790-1868) da fridrix nicSe (1844-1900) daeswro
„Pforta Abbey’s Landesschule“-s. maSin roca mobiusma, rogorc maTematikosma
aRmoaCina araorientirebuli organzomilebiani zedapiri, e.w. mobiusis
zolebi, magaliTad, zedapiri mxolod erT mxariT da erTi sazRvriT,
nicSe cdilobda daZleva e.w. Hinterwelt – metafizikuri sfero yofnis
erTi an meore fizikuri mxariss miRma. iseve, rogorc eleatikur (Eleatic)
sfero yvela arsebis erTianobisa da ucvlelobis ideas simbolo iyo.
am konteqstSi, Cven SeiZleba aseve miviCnioT mobiusis maryuJi, rogorc
figura, romelic warmoiqmneba ontologiuri sistemebis kolafsis
Sedegad. Tu ontologiuri da sasicocxlo sistemebis funqcionirebas
axasiaTebs daZabuloba or poluss Soris (am samyaros cxovreba da im
samyarosi, zemoT da qvemoT, mamakacuri da qaluri principi, droebiTi
da sulieri Zala, fizika da metafizika), aqedan gamomdinare, am vitaluri
daZabulobis ganadgurebis Sedegad da or sapirispiro princips Soris
arsebuli gansxvavebis gauqmebis Semdeg, sicocxle qreba da sikvdili
ibadeba. zustad amgvari procesi SeiZleba iyos dafiqsirebuli slavur
mwerlobaSi.
statia cdilobs asaxos kulturuli da istoriuli mniSvnelobis
grafematuli cvlilebebi aTasze meti wlis slavuri mwerlobisa. aqcenti
keTdeba mis ganviTarebis petrinianuli reformidan leninur kulturul
revoluciamde. revoluciuri aspeqtebiT slavuri damwerlobis
transformacia gadmoscems Rrma filosofiur konotacias. igi asaxavs
sekularizaciis process, romelic xelnawers metafizikur simbolizms
arTmevs.
http://sjani.ge/sjani-17/%E1%83%A4%E1%83%98%E1%83%9A%E1%83%98%E1%83%9E%E1%83%9E%20%E1%83%90%E1%83%9B%E1%83%9D%E1%83%9C%E1%83%98.pdf
Both August Möbius (1790–1868) and Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) attended Pforta Abbey´s Landesschule. Whereas Möbius as a mathematician discovered a non-orientable two-dimensional surface, the so-called Möbius strip or loop, i.e. a surface with only one side and one boundary, Nietzsche tried to overcome the so-called Hinterwelt, the metaphysical realm beyond the physical one or the other side of being. Just as the Eleatic sphere symbolised the idea of the unity and the unchangeability of all being, just as the invisible hand reflected Scottish deism, just as dodecaphony underscored musically the Vienna Circle´s logical positvism, so the Nietzschean overcoming of the beyond along with the eternal recurrence of the same can be depicted by the Möbius loop.
In this context we might also regard the Moebius loop as a figure eventuating from the collapse of ontological systems. If the functioning of ontological and vital systems is characterised by a tension between two poles (the earthly and the other world, the life of this world and of the world to come, the above and the below, the masculine and the feminine principle, the temporal and the spiritual power, physics and metaphysics), it follows that, as a consequence of the annihilation of this vital tension and of the abolition of the difference between two opposing principles – as a result of a short-circuit as it were –, life is vanishing and death is occurring. Just such a process may be observed in the development of Slavonic writing.
This article attempts to illustrate the cultural and historical significance of the graphematic changes of the more than thousand-year-old Slavonic writing. Emphasis lies on its development from the Petrinian reform up to the Leninist cultural revolution. With its revolutionary aspects, the transformation of the Slavonic script conveys a profound philosophical connotation. It reflects a process of secularisation depriving the script of its metaphysical symbolism.
Slavonic writing historically departs from the glagolitsa developed by St. Cyril of Thessaloniki (ca. 826/27-869) in the 9th c. Into this alphabet designed for missionary purposes among the Slavs he introduced letters fraught with Christian religious symbolism: the Slavonic az (i. e. Cyril´s substitute for alpha) was depicted by the sign of a cross, the letters i (the first letter in the name “Isous” for Jesus) and slovo (i.e. word – “In the beginning was the Word”, invented as a substitute for sigma) were depicted by a combination of a circle, the symbol of eternity, and a triangle, the symbol of the Trinity.
In a further step, the cyrilitsa ascribed to St. Clement of Ohrid (ca. 840 – 916) contained the extended diacritic titlo ( ҃ ) symbol to mark the nomina sacra, e.g. the titlo crowning the word angel (’άгг҃лъ) served to distinguish the angel of the heavenly realm from the fallen angel (’άгглъ). The Cyrillic alphabet, a.k.a. azbuka, was made up of letters conveying the connection of literacy and the Gospel.
As part of Peter the Great´s efforts to modernise Russia by Europeanising his realm in all aspects of life the Cyrillic script was to resemble Latin alphabets current in Western Europe in the early 18th c. The new script introduced by decree in 1708 became known as the civil or Amsterdam script (grazhdansky shrift or amsterdamskaya azbuka). Aiming at Latin simplicity, the Petrinian reform stripped the cyrilitsa of its medieval calligraphic ornaments and its religious connotations. The Slavonic ideographic names were replaced by phonetic initials, i.e. the azbuka was transformed into the abevega. The titla were eliminated.
Right after the Bolshevik Revolution, Dec. 23, 1917 (Jan. 5, 1918) Anatoly Lunacharsky, the first People´s Commissar of Enlightenment, proclaimed the “Decree on the Introduction of a New Orthography”. The reform intended to promote rapid alphabetisation on the one hand and to break with pre-revolutionary culture, in particular with religious traditions, on the other. The elemination of the “superfluous” letters prefigurated the liquidation of the “parasitic” classes. The Bolshevik reform deprived the Tsarist alphabet of the remaining Greek letters (such as theta (ѳ)). By removing the Slavonic letters yat (ѣ), the final yer (ъ) and the decimal i (і desyaterichnoe) as well as distinctive female personal pronouns and adjective endings the reform deprived the Russian language of precision in expression. Simplification brought about a reduction of semantic clarity.
The most striking example of this reduction is found in the merger of world and peace in mir. In traditional eschatology the identity of world and peace was to be expected only at the end of times. In an chiliastic effort Bolshevism intended to realise the kingdom to come in the revolutionary present. Not by chance the Leninist language reform reflects this turn from traditional metaphysics to secular religion. The Möbius loop had locked.
reziume
sakvanZo sityvebi: mobiusis maryuJi, nicSe, leninis kulturuli revolucia,
metafizikis kolafsi slavur mwerlobaSi.
orive august mobiusi (1790-1868) da fridrix nicSe (1844-1900) daeswro
„Pforta Abbey’s Landesschule“-s. maSin roca mobiusma, rogorc maTematikosma
aRmoaCina araorientirebuli organzomilebiani zedapiri, e.w. mobiusis
zolebi, magaliTad, zedapiri mxolod erT mxariT da erTi sazRvriT,
nicSe cdilobda daZleva e.w. Hinterwelt – metafizikuri sfero yofnis
erTi an meore fizikuri mxariss miRma. iseve, rogorc eleatikur (Eleatic)
sfero yvela arsebis erTianobisa da ucvlelobis ideas simbolo iyo.
am konteqstSi, Cven SeiZleba aseve miviCnioT mobiusis maryuJi, rogorc
figura, romelic warmoiqmneba ontologiuri sistemebis kolafsis
Sedegad. Tu ontologiuri da sasicocxlo sistemebis funqcionirebas
axasiaTebs daZabuloba or poluss Soris (am samyaros cxovreba da im
samyarosi, zemoT da qvemoT, mamakacuri da qaluri principi, droebiTi
da sulieri Zala, fizika da metafizika), aqedan gamomdinare, am vitaluri
daZabulobis ganadgurebis Sedegad da or sapirispiro princips Soris
arsebuli gansxvavebis gauqmebis Semdeg, sicocxle qreba da sikvdili
ibadeba. zustad amgvari procesi SeiZleba iyos dafiqsirebuli slavur
mwerlobaSi.
statia cdilobs asaxos kulturuli da istoriuli mniSvnelobis
grafematuli cvlilebebi aTasze meti wlis slavuri mwerlobisa. aqcenti
keTdeba mis ganviTarebis petrinianuli reformidan leninur kulturul
revoluciamde. revoluciuri aspeqtebiT slavuri damwerlobis
transformacia gadmoscems Rrma filosofiur konotacias. igi asaxavs
sekularizaciis process, romelic xelnawers metafizikur simbolizms
arTmevs.
http://sjani.ge/sjani-17/%E1%83%A4%E1%83%98%E1%83%9A%E1%83%98%E1%83%9E%E1%83%9E%20%E1%83%90%E1%83%9B%E1%83%9D%E1%83%9C%E1%83%98.pdf
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