The concept of post-non-classical methodological strategy by professor Olexander Oguy

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THE CONCEPT OF POST-NON-CLASSICAL METHODOLOGICAL STRATEGY BY PROFESSOR OLEXANDER OGUY

Анотація

oguy literary concept criticism

Подано огляд формування літературознавчої концепції українського вченого-германіста Олександра Огуя, висвітлений з 1993 по 2013 рр. на сторінках літературознавчого наукового збірника „Питання літературознавства”. Показано поступовість оформлення провідної концепції так зв. постнекласичної методологічної стратегії вченого, починаючи від першої публікації в „ПЛ”, де як зразок продуктивної спроби залучити позачасові лінгвістичні універсали для порівняння типологічно збіжних жанрових форм доводилася автентичність „Слова о полку Ігоровім” в історико-типологічному зіставленні із середньовічним епосом (Вип. 1, 1993 „ПЛ”). Розглянуто такі статті: „Трьохвимірний поетичний простір “Ланселета” Ульріха фон Цатцікгофена” (рецензія, 2010 р.); „Історико-соціальні жанри середньовічної літератури в постнекласичній методології: принципи класифікації” (2012 р.); „Принцип становлення німецької літератури середньовіччя: подолання кризових етапів через нові жанри” (2013 р.). Остання, найбільш розгорнута за обсягом публікація автора, запропонувала оригінальну і перспективну методику наукового дискурсу (так зв. контент-аналіз, що передбачає урахування соціальних факторів у дослідженні культурних феноменів).

Ключові слова: Олександр Дмитрович Огуй, медієвістика, постнекласична методологія, панхронія, жанр, „Питання літературознавства”.

Аннотация

КОНЦЕПЦИЯ ПОСТНЕКЛАССИЧЕСКОЙ МЕТОДОЛОГИЧЕСКОЙ СТРАТЕГИИ ПРОФ. АЛЕКСАНДРА ОГУЯ

Ольга Вячеславовна Червинская

Доктор филологических наук, профессор, заведующая кафедрой Кафедра зарубежной литературы, теории литературы и славянской филологии Черновицкий национальный университет имени Юрия Федьковича

Представлен обзор формирования литературоведческой концепции украинского ученого-германиста Александра Огуя, освещённый с 1993 по 2013 гг. на страницах литературоведческого научного сборника „Вопросы литературоведения”. Показана постепенность оформления ведущей концепции так называемой постнеклассической методологической стратегии ученого, начиная от первой публикации „Вопросы литературоведения”, в которой в качестве примера продуктивной попытки привлечь вневременные лингвистические универсалии для сравнения типологически сближающихся жанровых форм рассматривалась подлинность „Слова о полку Игореве” в историко -типологическом сопоставлении со средневековым европейским эпосом (Вып. 1, 1993 „ПЛ”). Рассмотрены следующие статьи: „Трехмерное поэтическое пространство “Ланселета” Ульриха фон Цатцикгофена” (рецензия, 2010 г.); „Историкосоциальные жанры средневековой литературы в постнеклассической методологии: принципы классификации” (2012 г.); „Принцип становления немецкой литературы средневековья: преодоление кризисных этапов через новые жанры” (2013 г.). Последняя, наиболее развернутая по объему публикацыя автора, предложила оригинальную и перспективную методику научного дискурса (так называемый контент-анализ, предполагающий учет социальных факторов в исследовании культурных феноменов).

Ключевые слова: Александр Дмитриевич Огуй, медиевистика, постнеклассическая методология, панхрония, жанр, „Вопросы литературоведения”.

Annotation

THE CONCEPT OF POST-NON-CLASSICAL METHODOLOGICAL
STRATEGY BY PROFESSOR OLEXANDER OGUY

The article under discussion is a survey of how a literary concept of a prominent Ukrainian German Studies expert Olexandr Dmytrovych Oguy has been developing on the pages of a scientific journal “Problems of Literary Criticism” from 1993 till 2013. The article traces up the stages of progress of scientist's methodological strategy concerning the so-called concept of post-nonclassicism, beginning with his first article in “The Issues”, where he presented an efficient sample of involving the timeless linguistic universals with the purpose of comparing the typologically similar genre forms. In this way, he managed to prove the authenticity of “The Tale of Igor's Campaign” in historical-typological comparison with the medieval epic works (Issue 1, 1993). After a 15-year break, O. Oguy's articles “A Three-Dimensional Poetic Space of `Lanzelet' by Ulrich von Zatzikhoven” (review, 2010), “The Historical-Social Genres in Post-Non-

Classical Methodology: the Principles of Classification” (2012), “The Principles of Formation of the Middle Age German Literature: Overcoming the Crisis Stages through New Genres” (2013) were published in the journal. Each of these works contains a distinct conceptual program. The review was not restricted by a mere critical analysis of the work by a German researcher Kai Lorenz. It also highlighted the difference between methodological fundamentals of European and Ukrainian scientific text analyses - “different paradigms of foreign and Ukrainian Medievalist Studies”. This scientific text is a topical “transplantation” of analytic methodology of K. Lorenz into Ukrainian philological practice. It was introduced into scientific circulation as the so-called “trichotomic model” of functional types of the interacting spatial structures. The article “The Historical-Social Genres in Post-Non-Classical Methodology: the Principles of Classification” (Issue 86, 2012) is a vivid example of a profound present-day academic research. It is worth reading for everyone, who deals with literary genres. The scientist made up his mind to tackle the problem of genres due to the ambiguity of the criteria that existed in Post-Soviet Literary Studies. He activated the notion of “synergic approach”, which enabled him to rethink drastically the whole genre system in the Middle Age literature. O. D. Oguy's last and largest article “The Principles of Formation of the Middle Age German Literature: Overcoming the Crisis Stages through New Genres” appeared in “Problems of Literary Criticism” in 2013 (Issue 88). It impresses the reader with a broad scope application of diachronic principle in a research space, as well as with the methodology of scientific discourse (the so-called “content analysis”, which presupposes the effect of social factors in investigating the cultural phenomena). The comparison of literary artefacts with the events in European history has enabled O. Oguy to determine and classify eight crisis stages (including the prehistory). The latter had been accompanying the formation of the German nation from the early Christian days and the Great Relocation of Peoples till the end of the Middle Ages, as well as had exercised a direct influence on the changes in the literary process.

Key words: Olexandr Dmytrovych Oguy, Medievalist Studies, post-non- classical methodology, panchrony, genre, “Problems of Literary Criticism”.

Main part

Among numerous scientific achievements of our contemporary Olexandr Dmytrovych Oguy (1956-2014), his articles in Scientific Journal “Problems of Literary Criticism” seem to be quite fragmentary, since Linguistics has always been the prior field of his philological interests. However, according to O. Y. Ivasiuk words in a historiographical survey of scientist's biography, even here one may easily find the characteristic features of his scientific style - “a versatile professional and general erudition, substantial interdisciplinary approach, historicism of thinking, and permanent search for qualitative indicators” [1, p. 288].

O. Oguy's first article on the pages of “Problems of Literary Criticism” appeared in 1993. The article was entitled “The Historical - Topological Comparison of “The Tale of Igor's Campaign” and Some Other Western European Medieval Texts (an Attempt of Linguistic Reconnaissance)” [3]. It was one of scientist's conceptual steps towards his future doctoral dissertation. In this work, O. Oguy presented a sample of efficient attempt of involving the timeless linguistic universals with the purpose of comparing the typologically similar genre forms when proving the historic authenticity of a literary text. It was very essential that the article dealt with “The Tale of Igor's Campaign”, which had a reputation of a mystified work among the experts of Western Slavic Studies. It was due to the principle of panchrony (timeless features, common for human languages) that made it possible to conclude: “The Tale of Igor's Campaign”, as well as “The Song of Roland” (“La Chanson de Roland”) and “The Song of the Nibelungs” (“The Nibelungenlied”) is an authentic XII century text.

Without denying the importance of literary systematic approach in revealing the differential signs of certain typological coincidences, the author carefully pointed at some relativeness of the criteria, worked out by prominent literary critics V. M. Zhirmunskyi and D. S. Likhachev. He emphasized that methodologically these criteria “are mostly of literary nature, i. e. they may be found in the ideological and psychological contents, in the motives, in poetic images and situations, in the peculiarities of genre composition and style” [3, p. 82]. Instead, in the process of comparing the multilingual epic texts, O. Oguy applied the method of accurate calculating the use of words with a certain semantic filling (in the article, it was “brave/courageous”). Classifying them by some scale, in compliance with “the peculiarities of systematic (epidigmatic, syntagmatic and paradigmatic) characteristics of adjectives”, it was possible to work out a fixed typological index [3, p. 84]. Having found much in common in the selected texts, the author expressed his point of view respectively: “A probable explanation of this phenomenon lies in the fact that the close sides of common ideology have been emphasized in multilingual chivalrous works of Western European literature that date back to the same epoch” [3, p. 8485]. Consequently, “bravery/courage”, also present in the convergent format of differential signs in “The Tale of Igor's Campaign”, identify its authenticity (29 correspondent usages per 3000 words - is a quite high frequency). The analysis showed that “the hierarchal structure of the actualized LSC (the so-called lexical-semantic centers. - O. Ch.) is rather close to those of Western Europe in the XII century” [3, p. 87]. For the scientists, aware of the issue, this “laboratory attempt” (author's own definition of the scientific genre of his research) ended up in such a significant conclusion that it would be no exaggeration to say the author has reached the level of D. Likhachev. At least, he efficiently backed up the latter's scientific ideas. Nevertheless, at that time, it was scientist's only work, published in our scientific journal.

After almost a 15-year break, having already defended his doctoral thesis “The Systematic-Quantitative Aspects of Polysemy in the German Language (Synchrony, Diachrony, Panchrony)” (1999), O. Oguy presented his articles for publication in our journal again (2010, 2012, 2013). These were “A Three-Dimensional Poetic Space of `Lanzelet' by Ulrich von Zatzikhoven: [a Review of the Monograph Kai Tino Lorenz. Raumstrukturen einer epischen Welt: Zur Konstruktion des epischen Raumes in Ulrichs von Zatzikhoven „Lanzelet”, 2009]” [5]; “The Historical-Social Genres in Post-Non-Classical Methodology: the Principles of Classification” [2]; “The Principles of Formation of the German Middle Age Literature: Overcoming the Crisis Stages through New Genres” [4]. Each of these articles contains a distinct conceptual program.

The first of the above-mentioned articles [5, p. 276-279] was a review of the work of a young German scientist Kai Tino Lorenz. He was a representative of the Bamberg Medievalist School (scientific supervisor - Prof. Ingrid Bennewitz), who the Bukovinian German Studies expert met at the XIII International Congress of Medievalists in Bamberg (March 2009). The medieval works of clerics Williram, Ezzo, Gerhardt Seon, representatives of didacticism Susskind von Trimberg and Albrecht von Eyb, poet Oswald von Wolkenstein, and others, have glorified this ancient German city. In our case, the review was done in such a perfect manner that the rubric of reviews has become traditional for our journal.

The article under studies was not just an overview of a scientific work. O. Oguy claimed that in the research of a young German scientist, he saw “a good opportunity for comparing different paradigms of foreign and Ukrainian Medievalist Studies, as well as for analyzing the promising directions of a scientific search” [5, p. 276]. Such a comparison has enabled Olexandr Dmytrovych to draw a conclusion about the dissimilarity of Ukrainian and foreign studios within a common issue. It was mentioned in the review that Ukrainian scholars preferred thematic orientation of scientific search in typical directions (like, for instance, “arthuriana”, “faustiana”, etc., which were popular with the disciples of the Chernivtsi School of traditional plots and images under the guidance of Professor A. R. Volkov). Methodologically, they were obviously different from modern Western Medievalist Studies, where “the analysis of certain organizational elements, like time and space, is getting very popular under the influence of new paradigms of research and “spatial turn” [5, p. 276]. Particular attention should be drawn to the following remark: “Any text, and medieval in particular, exists not only within time and society, but also in space, which is significantly affected by the former notions”. Here, the reviewer relied upon the ideas of Y. Lotman, who stated that texts are implemented in the compliance with the laws of world's visual perception, which is so typical of a human being. K. Lorenz considered a little-known medieval novel “Lanzelet” by Ulrich von Zatzikhoven in the context of other courthouse novels. To be more specific - in comparison with the tradition of Chretien de Troyes.

The review is a relevant “transplantation” of K. Lorenz's methodology of analysis into Ukrainian philological practice, whereby the so-called “trichotomic model” of functional types of interacting spatial structures has been introduced into scientific circulation:

a) a transitive space of a character;

b) a “threshold” space - a character passes to another stage of his existence; c) a social space (the so-called “aventura”), which explains “the social interaction of people” [5, p. 278].

O. Oguy emphasized that in this way, it was possible “to perform a unique mapping of the medieval poetic space” [5, p. 278]. The latter idea was expanded later in his two last articles on the pages of “Problems of Literary Criticism”.

In 2012, the “Problems of Literary Criticism” published an article on the problems of genre studies “The Historical-Social Genres of Medieval Literature in Post-Non-Classical Methodology: the Principles of Classification” [2, p. 150-159]. Despite the title of the article, where the words “post-non-classical methodology” may be regarded as the key ones, it is a vivid example of a high present-day academic research. The article is worth reading for everyone, who has to deal with literary genres in some way. The range of the issues, studied in the article, might seem a little too broad for a scientific work that is usually assigned a limited number of pages.

Based on both M. Bakhtin's approach and post-non-classical methodology, the article under discussion dealt with the criteria of referring a literary text to a certain genre. These were conditions (social-communicative factors; authorship; time; language); content (type of a literary work, its theme, main character, typical attractor); form (lingual and semiotic means of functional organization of a text); style (archetypes; discourse; communication channels). All the above-mentioned criteria lay the foundation for classifying 242 works of the world literature [2, p. 150].

The ambiguity of the criteria, which existed in Post-Soviet Literary Studies, has stipulated O. Oguy to engage in the issue of genres. Therefore, he set a goal of “thorough analysis of medieval literary works within the framework of their systematic relationship and synergy of development (taking into account the newest approaches)” [2, p. 150]. The author presented a fully comprehensive history of the issue of existing genre classifications (the classifications by N. S. Balashov, H. I. Geerdts, V. M. Zhirmunskyi, M. L. Gasparov, and B. I. Puryshev were popular in Medieval Studies at that time), which, to his mind, required drastic revaluation because of a serious crisis in this field of literature (T. V. Bovsunivska). In the context of genre history, O. Oguy distinctly differentiated two independent directions: “linguistic genealogy (the term introduced by T. Van Tiegham, 1938) and pragmatically oriented genrology, the latter being mostly based on a phenomenological (including Marx-Lenin) and neo-positivist methodologies. Genology rests on the ideas of M. M. Bakhtin, as well as on the theory of lingual acts or some sociolinguistic approaches to textual activities [2, p. 151]. In the article under studies, a terminological paradigm “genre” has been interpreted as a relative category, since “in German Philology, due to the ambiguity of the term, there already existed a neutral word “Textsorten” - types of texts” [2, p. 152]. Relying on this fact, O. Oguy supported T. Bovsunivska's idea of new methodologies, particularly the so-called synergic approach, as a “new post-non-classical methodology, applied by a majority of scientists, that contains synergetic, holistic or integral paradigm” [2, p. 153]. This point of view let drastically rethink the genre system of Medieval Literature. As usual, O. Oguy proved his views through the categories of Form, Content and Style, within a relevant scientific context.

Taking into consideration the genre categories by T. Yakhontova, as well as the trilogy of M. Bakhtin's genres, let us determine their general characteristic features, - he offers, - through the categories of thematic content and compositional form. However, let us supplement the two with the conditions, under which the work has been written and which have a direct impact on them [2, p. 154].

The above-mentioned reconnaissance, so typical for post-non- classical methodology, ended up in detailed Conclusions. They were uniquely grouped and came to reflect logically the method itself [2, p. 157-158]. We will make short comments on some of their fragments:

І. “It is impossible to determine, which genre a literary work belongs to, without taking into account the principles of historicism and social relevance. The unity of space, time and society is implemented through the overview of time, social and territorial conditions of its formation. Therefore, the medievalist genre definition, suggested in this research, acquires “historical-social” peculiarities” - here Professor reveals his non-speculative attitude to the scientific issue and practically applies the Marx-Lenin methodology, at least does not rejects its essence.

II. “Relying on the analysis of genre forms, we suppose that middle diachrony is most important for various historical-social investigations. It is restricted by certain relatively long periods, which exceed the life of one generation not twice (50-60 years), but even three times (90-100 years). It is these periods, - emphasizes O. Oguy, - that restrict the duration of existence of a certain historical-literary genre in its classical perception”. This conclusion, made on statistic basis of the article, proves that the author is right when applying quantitative indicators.

III. Eventually, the article also contains the conclusion that “genres impose some instructive canons upon the author, thus presenting themselves as communicative markers of both lingual-social behavior and textual structure. Being a kind of matrix, filled with primary lingual acts, which are the means of creating new content and textual composition, genres act as dynamically as a discourse. They have certain style and are implemented as different types of texts (within a complicated network of other intertextually bound texts)”. This is author's (not academic) definition of the paradigm “genre”. It functions in a format of a huge potential that points at its immanent discursive nature. Such a conclusion has been generated by a peculiar modern methodology, proclaimed by the author in his numerous “reconnaissances”.

O. Oguy's last and largest article in “Problems of Literary Criticism” was entitled “The Principles of Formation of the Middle Age German Literature: Overcoming the Crisis Stages through New Genres” (2013), [4, p 173-188]. The article is impressive for the size of its research scope, subject to diachronic principles, as well as for the methodology of scientific discourse (the so-called content analysis, which presupposes consideration of social factors in investigating the cultural phenomena). The depth of author's capability of scientific observation is also amazing. It covers 10 Ancient- and 242 Medieval- German Latin texts. O. Oguy's concept arose under the influence of numerous erroneous “reconnaissances” on separate texts and genres. The error lay in the fact that “these descriptions have lost the very causal principle of genre definition” [4, p. 173]. The latter principle is regarded as fundamental. In other words, “the existing state formations, under new conditions of overcoming the crisis, set respective requirements to literary works, their form and content, which, consequently, caused the formation of new genres” [4, p. 173-174].

Comparing literary artifacts with the events of European history, the author managed to discover and classify eight separate crisis stages (including the pre-history) that had been accompanying the formation of German nation from the beginning of Christianity and Great Relocation of Peoples till the end of the Middle Ages, having direct impact on the literary process. According to the author's methodology, the crisis stages could be conveniently divided into (0.1) “historical” and (0.2) “lingual - literary” descriptions, which distinctly revealed O. Oguy's conceptual principle. For instance, we might get a better idea of the general principle of analysis due to the author's description of the prehistory (reduced):

0.1. “The development of European (and world) civilization took its start in Ancient Greece and Rome, though the cult of Paganism and different Pagan gods was still preserved on the territory of Europe. The epochal crisis of IV-V centuries - the Great Relocation of Peoples (the Germans, the Huns and others) - has led, after the battle of the Catalan Fields (453), to the collapse of the almighty Roman Empire (476). The crisis has provoked an intensive loss of cultural and literary achievements of Antiquity, which were useless for the German alliances of the Alemanni, the Goths (III century), the Franks, the Turings (IV-V centuries), the Bajwari (the Swains and the Marcomen), the Saxons (V-VI centuries), and others. All these tribes, under the guidance of the elected chiefs and dukes, plundered the former territories of the Empire” [4, p. 174].

0. 2. “Instead of a developed system of antique genres, the Pagan and Aryan tribes (where there prevailed an ancient generic ideology, as well as the cult of military victories and glory) kept preserving communal literary forms, mostly expressed by alliteration, for ages” [4, p. 174].

No doubt, it would be expedient for every medievalist to get familiar with this work. However, we will set a list of stages in author's interpretation. Each of them is a deployed proof of a general concept:

1. The period of VI-IX centuries: the crisis, caused by the formation of the statehood and Christianity.

2. The period of 842-1050: the crisis, caused by the collapse of the old state and the formation of a new one.

3. The period of 1050-1150/87: the demographic-feudal crisis.

4. The period of the High Middle Ages 1150/87-1250: the struggle of the Emperor and the Pope.

5. The period of 1250-1300: the crisis, caused by the change of the cast accents.

6. The period of 1300-1350: the crisis of Papacy and the confirmation of mysticism.

7. The period of 1350-1450: the crisis of the feudal fundamentals under new conditions.

Each of the above-listed stages proves the efficiency of the author's method in determining the main idea of the article, the topicality of the concept, and the documentary reliability of the conclusions.

The author's concept (mentioned in the title of the article) of overcoming the crises through the shift of a traditional genre situation is extraordinarily interesting in spite of its unexpectedness. Is it not vice versa: genres do not overcome crises, but crises provoke various genre deviations? On the other hand, maybe, there was some mistake in the title of the article, and I, as a chief editor of the journal, have overlooked it. Unfortunately, it is impossible to discuss the matter with the late scientist today.

The article ended up in a significant, but already impossible promise: “...the literary works, bound by the same theme, pass certain stages, the latter's formation being stipulated by different crisis phenomena in the society of that time. Therefore, relying on post-non- classical methodology, next time we will consider the historical-social genres of the Middle Age literature and determine the principles of their classification”.

We hoped for the progress our contacts with O. Oguy, since Medievalist Studies have never been sufficiently presented in”The Issues”. Besides, general philological discourse has always been very attractive and fruitful as one of the methods of receptive poetics, whereas O. D. Oguy was a great expert in this field. Although we were not destined to continue our cooperation with the scientist, his scholastic ideas have considerably enriched our journal conceptually. He has left us his scientific heritage, which will find a worthy disciple in future.

Laterature

1. Івасюк О. Він прагнув світла істини (Пам'яті професора Олександра Дмитровича Огуя) / Ольга Івасюк // Питання літературознавства: науковий збірник / гол. ред. О. В. Червінська. Чернівці: Чернівецький нац. ун-т, 2014. Вип. 90. С. 286-291.

2. Огуй О. Д.Історико-соціальні жанри середньовічної літератури в постнекласичній методології: принципи класифікації / О. Д. Огуй // Питання літературознавства: науковий збірник / гол. ред.

3. О. В. Червінська. Чернівці: Чернівецький нац. ун-т, 2012. Вип. 86. С. 150-159.

4. Огуй О. Д. Історико-типологічне зіставлення „Слова о полку Ігоревім” та деяких західноєвропейських середньовічних текстів (Спроба лінгвістичної розвідки) / О. Д. Огуй // Питання літературознавства: науковий збірник / гол. ред. А. Р. Волков. Львів, 1993. Вип. 1. С. 82-88.

5. Огуй О. Д. Принцип становлення німецької літератури середньовіччя: подолання кризових етапів через нові жанри / О. Д. Огуй // Питання літературознавства: науковий збірник / гол. ред. О. В. Червінська. Чернівці: Чернівецький нац. ун-т, 2013. Вип. 88. С. 173-188.

6. Огуй О. Д. Трьохвимірний поетичний простір „Ланселета” Ульріха фон Цатцікгофена: [рецензія на монографію Kai Tino Lorenz. Raumstrukturen einer epischen Welt: Zur Konstruktion des epischen Raumes in Ulrichs von Zatzikhoven „Lanzelet”. Goppingen: Kummerle Verlag, - 355 S.] / О. Д. Огуй // Питання літературознавства: науковий збірник / гол. ред. О. В. Червінська. Чернівці: Чернівецький нац. ун-т, Вип. 80. С. 276-279.

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