ISSN 16915038 DAUGAVPILS UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF THE HUMANITIES INSTITUTE OF COMPARATIVE STUDIES NATURE AND CULTURE COMPARATIVE STUDIES Vol. IV (1) DAUGAVPILS UNIVERSITY ACADEMIC PRESS ìSAULEî ~ 2012 ~ Comparative Studies. Nature and Culture. Vol. IV (1). Daugavpils: Daugavpils University Academic Press ìSauleî, 2012. 200 p. Scientific Committee of the Issue Comparative Studies Dr. philos. Bente Aamotsbakken, Norway Dr. habil. philol. Vsevolod Bagno, Russia Dr. phil. Irina Belobrovtseva, Estonia Dr. J. Douglas Clayton, Canada Dr. habil. philol. Fjodors Fjodorovs, Latvia Dr. Rita Giuliani, Italy Dr. Véronique Jobert, France Dr. philol. Pekka Kujam‰ki, Finland Dr. hum. Mindaugas Kvietkauskas, Lithuania Dr. habil. philol. Vera V‚vere, Latvia Dr. Willem Weststeijn, the Netherlands Editorial Board of the Issue Comparative Studies. Nature and Culture. Vol. IV (1) Dr. biol. ArvÓds Barevskis, Latvia Dr. habil. philol. Fjodors Fjodorovs, Latvia Dr. hum. Asta Gustaitiene, Lithuania Dr. philol. Ilze KaË‚ne, Latvia Editorial Staff of the Issue Comparative Studies. Nature and Culture. Vol. IV (1) Editorinchief: Ilze KaË‚ne Assistant editor: Fjodors Fjodorovs The English language editor: Sandra Mekova Proofreaders: Ilze KaË‚ne, Sandra Mekova, GaÔina Sirica Layout: Marina StoËka ìComparative Studiesî of Daugavpils University has entered into an electronic licensing relationship with EBSCO Publishing, the worldís most prolific aggregator of full text journals, magazines and other sources. The full text of ìComparative Studiesî can be found on EBSCO Publishingís database called Humanities Source. ISSN 16915038 © Daugavpils University, 2012 ISBN 9789984145983 CONTENTS FOREWORD..................................................................................................... 5 INSECTS IN REAL AND VIRTUAL WORLD Fjodors Fjodorovs (Latvia) Insects in the Space of Culture ............................................................................ 9 Marina Reiskarte (Latvia) The Interaction of Human and Insects in the Bottom Literary Space................... 18 Ilze KaË‚ne (Latvia) Insects in the 19th Century British Culture: PreRaphaelitism and Aestheticism ....................................................................................................... 26 Tatjana Lavrecka (Latvia) Images of Insects in Aleksandrs »aksí Prose ....................................................... 42 Anna StankeviËa (Latvia) Nature and Civilization in Arkadiy Shteinbergís Poem Bark Beetles ................... 49 Asta Gustaitiene (Lithuania) Gnat in Lithuanian Literary FairyTale............................................................... 56 IndrÎ fiakeviËienÎ (Lithuania) Insects and Plants in Lithuanian Poetry: Metabletical Aspect .............................. 66 Ark‚dijs “eminuËijs (Latvia) Vladislav Starevich and His ëTrainedí Beetles ..................................................... 77 ZeltÓte Barevska (Latvia) A Ladybird Motif as an Entomomorphic Element in Crocheted Towel End Lace of Latgale .................................................................................................. 81 ANIMALS AND ANIMALISTIC REPRESENTATIONS IN LITERATURE JeÔena Brakovska (Latvia) ëImmundus Habitatorí or Evil Inhabitants in Joseph Sheridan Le Fanuís Ghost Stories...................................................................................................... 87 Irina PresÚakova (Latvia) Representation of Animals in English Ghost Stories............................................ 96 M‚rÓte Opinc‚ne (Latvia) From Human to Animal ñ Degradation of Personality under the Influence of Darwinist Ideas in Joseph Conradís Novella The Heart Of Darkness ................. 104 4 JeÔena SemeÚeca (Latvia) Animals in Arthur Machenís Novel The Terror .................................................. 112 Oksana Komarova (Latvia) Kashtankaís Course in Latvia ............................................................................. 120 Nade˛da Fjodorova (Latvia) Giraffe of Nikolai Gumilyov .............................................................................. 130 Marija Sivaova (Latvia) Wild Beasts in Sergey Mintslovís Prose Fiction ................................................... 137 ElÓna VasiÔjeva (Latvia) Animal Symbolism in Vladimir Zhabotinskyís Novel Samson Nazorey .............. 146 NataÔja –roma (Latvia) The System of Cats of Nikolai Zabolocki ........................................................... 154 ValentÓna Prokofjeva (Latvia) The Image of Serpent in Vladimir Korotkevichís Novel Christ Has Landed in Grodno ............................................................................ 163 B‚rbala Simsone (Latvia) The Animal World of Fantasy Literature ............................................................ 173 VijolÎ ViomirskytÎ (Lithuania) BecomingAnimal as a Transgression in Three PostSoviet Lithuanian Novels (Vilnius Poker, T˚la and Parousia) ......................................................... 181 CONTRIBUTORS ............................................................................................ 195 5 FOREWORD The collection of research articles titled Nature as a Culture Constituent: Creativity and Place in Art, which is the first issue of Comparative Studies Volume 4, focuses on diverse representations of natural world in culture ñ folk art, literature, painting, cinematography. Human beings have always been in constant interaction with nature. The early reminiscences of civilization and its culture testify to persistent bond between the humankind and world of flora and fauna the latter having gradually become an object of the formerˇs intensive perception. Various artists representing different cultural epochs have been inspired by nature as they chose concrete images from it and used them as signs, regulators, symbols or indicators of either heavenly or earthly spheres, top or bottom spaces. The dual system representing the conception of the relationship between human and nature in contemporary situation is not so explicit though. A human as a part of nature and nature elements as constituents of the civilized world in the age of global interconnectedness emphasize the blurred state of the borderline previously characterized by rather strict boundary disputes. The present collection is structured into two parts. Chapter 1 Insects in Real and Virtual World entails research papers that were presented at the scientific seminar four years ago ñ on June 5, 2008. It was the first manifestation of the mutual cooperation between two research institutes of Daugavpils University, i.e., The Institute of Systematic Biology and the Institute of Comparative Studies. The idea of collaboration between philologists and biologists arose due to the recognized and at the same time evergrowing value of interdisciplinary research. Taking into consideration that significant opinions often go beyond the reach of a single discipline Prof. ArvÓds Barevskis, the rector of Daugavpils University and at that time the director of the Institute of Systematic Biology, who is well known in the entomological community for his discoveries of new species of insects, and Prof. Fjodors Fjodorovs, the director of the Institute of Comparative Studies, a literary scholar and devoted researcher of different cultural phenomena, commonly teamed up for one idea. Research articles were planned to be published in a separate issue of Baltic Journal of Coleopterology published and distributed with the support of Daugavpils University. Unfortunately the economic situation brought this intent to a halt. The idea has materialized at another time and in a different format. The papers included in the chapter under the title of the seminar are a reflection of the sunny day on the bank of the lake in Kurcums village 20 km from Daugavpils where among the scientific target audience grasshoppers were chirring, flies ñ buzzing, butterflies ñ fluttering, gnats ñ sneezing, beetles ñ moving, bees ñ murmuring, dragonflies ñ dancing, ladybirds ñ perching, ants ñ hustling and bustling. To extend the relatively narrow thematic sector marked by the scientific seminar, some other authors were invited, whose contribution forms the Chapter 2 of the compilation Animals and Animalistic Representations in Literature. The editor of the collection hopes that each reader of the issue will find useful information and specific inspiration for new discoveries on the investigated phenomena to be included as valuable material in the following issues of Comparative Studies! Ilze KaË‚ne . .. INSECTS IN REAL AND VIRTUAL WORLD . Fjodors Fjodorovs INSECTS IN THE SPACE OF CULTURE Summary Since ancient times insects have been the object of intensive perception by a human. In the mythological world picture insects used to be not just a segment of space but its signs, its regulators. Initially, the world of insects, like the human world, was divided into positive, which was represented by bees and ladybirds, and the negative one, represented by harmful insects. History of culture is the history in which insects are considered in the light of their conformity to ethical and aesthetical mechanisms. In this respect, they are represented either as ëharmfulí creatures or totally withdrawn from the fictional and aesthetic works, or ñ during the epochs of relativity ñ as creatures endowed with both beauty and ethics. Keywords: The Old Testament, Donne, LotrÈamont, Kafka, locust, flea, louse, transformation, metamorphosis, religion, culture * Human has always been in constant contact with insects. Since ancient