Artistic value of a word (On the material of teaching humanitarian disciplines)

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Artistic value of a word (On the material of teaching humanitarian disciplines)

Yevhenia Myropolska, Ph.D of Philosophical Sciences, Kyiv National I. K. Karpenko-Karyi Theatre, Cinema and Television University, Kyiv



Abstract

The paper is aimed at the encouraging the reader to look at the word as artistic value. The author proposes some ways to attract students' attention to the art of the word at such basic theoretical disciplines as «Aesthetics», «Philosophy», «Art in the context of culture».

These ways include: the work with artistic terms, idioms, the understanding of the meaning of artistic translation and the dialogue of cultures.

The represented technology in the first place is intended for future cultural workers.

Keywords: artistic terms, artistic translation, artistic value, dialogue of cultures, idiom, students, a word.



Миропольська Євгенія Валеріївна

Художня цінність слова (на матеріалі викладання гуманітарних дисциплін)

Анотація. Стаття спрямована на виклик зацікавленості читача до аналізу слова як художньої цінності. Авторка пропонує певні шляхи привернення уваги студентів до мистецтва слова на таких основних теоретичних дисциплінах, як «Естетика», «Філософія», «Мистецтво в контексті культури». literary translation idiom student word

Ці шляхи включають: опрацювання мистецьких термінів, ідіом, розуміння значення художнього перекладу і діалог культур.

Представлена технологія насамперед призначена для майбутніх митців.

Ключові слова: мистецькі терміни, художній переклад, художня цінність, діалог культур, ідіоми, студенти, слово.



Миропольская Евгения Валериевна

Художественная ценность слова (на материале преподавания гуманитарных

дисциплин)

Аннотация. Цель статьи привлечь внимание читателей к слову как художественной ценности. Автор предлагает некоторые пути для привлечения внимания студентов к искусству слова на таких основных теоретических дисциплинах, как «Эстетика», «Философия», «Искусство в контексте культуры».

Эти пути включают: работу с терминами искусства, идиомами, понимание значения художественного перевода и диалог культур.

Представленная технология прежде всего предназначена для будущих деятелей культуры.

Ключевые слова: художественные термины, художественный перевод, художественная ценность, диалог культур, идиомы, студенты, слово.



Introduction

The investigation of value as a key concept of many sciences has played an important role in their development, becoming especially acute in times of radical social and moral changes. The studies have shown that the essence and nature of values are extremely diverse as far as they touch upon the material and spiritual assets, social and political issues, ethical and aesthetic ones. Values can be universal and personal; they can concern the needs and interests of individuals, groups, societies and cultures. Some values are regarded as lower (material) values or according to I. Bekh «utilitarian quagmire» and as higher (spiritual) ones which provide the person with an opportunity to rise to the «higher meanings of life» (Bekh, 2018, p. 11).

There are plenty dimensions of values, for example, individual, group or universal values, they include the values of good, freedom, truth. National values are linked to independence, patriotism etc..

Spiritual values embody both highly semantic ethical imperative and cultural values such as traditions, customs, and established norms, ensure connection with the past and the like. Therefore, we can assume that values represent a real life space that comprises a lot of aspects, each of them relates to the life, «requests and hopes of an individual» (Collisions of Anthropo- lodical Reflecyion, 2002, p.124).



The analysis of the last works

Defining the term value, the Ukrainian Academician M. Yarmachenko stated that it reflects the positive or negative significance of real-world objects to individuals, social groups or society as a whole, that is determined not by their properties as such, but by their involvement in the sphere of human life, interests, needs, and social relations. Moral principles, ideals, attitudes, and goals can be regarded as the criterion for assessing the significance of values (Pedagogical Dictionary, 2001, p. 484). That is, values guide person's mental processes and behavior since the roots of values lie in human feelings, relationships, interests, and the like. The beautiful and the ugly, the sublime and the low, good and evil do not exist by themselves but only when a person attaches special importance to certain objects, phenomena, and actions. The object acquires axiological significance only when the subject favors or prefers it. B. Russell, while analyzing the views of cynics and skeptics, emphasizes the same idea and says, «Only subjective goods -- virtue, or contentment through resignation -- are secure, and these alone, therefore, will be valued by the wise man» (Russell, 1995, p. 232).

At the same time, there is an objectivistic view of value according to which values are considered to be objective as far as it is not always possible to substantiate what people value and what is worth to be valued (Philosophical Encyclopedic Dictionary, 2002, p. 707-708). The objectivists' concept of values was investigated by W. Dilthey, F. Adler, O. Spengler and other scholars, who emphasized that person's self-identification may be performed by means of products of culture, which are the intrinsic values in themselves. Modern psychologists (B.Dilts, O.Kleinman) underline the value of a word owing to the transformation of outword experience into inner processes which become possible thanks to such moments as making conclusions, questions

Core life values are reflected in artistic values, which are expressly embodied in the artistic imagery of works of art, they address the person's feelings and mind, stimulating the comprehension of certain value aspects, which in the end will or will not become the recipient's own «asset». Taking actions from a position of observation and assessment, incorporating the values into the personality's dimensions are the constituent elements that affect people in their upbringing. But if the inherent meanings of the works of art are not perceived by people, they will not strive to make them the part of their hierarchy of virtues to emulate, and therefore those artistic values cannot be among their motivational preferences.

Artistic values refer to spiritual values, although they are not compulsory in their character, they can act as regulators for a certain group of people, because they «contain an incentive component» (Philosophical Encyclopedic Dictionary, 2002, p.109) and thus they may facilitate to shape the individual's personality on an ethical basis, concerning the virtues infinity and human multidimensionality they become the constituent part of human life.

The aim of the article is the presentation of the methods of effecting using the art of the word at the humanitarian studies in the process of future cultural workers' training.

Its tasks include:

a) to describe the meaning of artistic values;

b) to underline the role of language in the process of future cultural workers' training;

c) to represent some effective ways of involving students to artistic values.

Methods of investigation. Theoretical analysis for systematization and improvement theoretical -- methodological basic of the introduction the art of the word into basic process of aesthetical disciplines.

Empiric method was oriented on the developing the real basic process.

Comparative method gave possibility to pay students' attention to the information about national artistic realities in comparison with foreign culture which helps to find similarity and difference between certain phenomena.



The results of the investigation

A person who has a personal worldview, independence, criticism and creativity is not vulnerable to manipulations and easily overcomes the stereotypes of the surrounding community. In this case there is hope that the appropriated artistic value will facilitate the individual representation of a young man, so as not «to become a brick among millions of absolutely similar bricks», to fulfill a specific task from «many ancestors, from his people, his native language», intended only for an individual person, who must live his own, and not someone else's life, be true to himself» (Hesse, 1990, p. 179-181).

The impeccable and eternal artworks having stood the test of time while addressing different people, circumstances, and epochs are not in the past, they never disappear, only the accents can shift. According to Ernesto Spinelli, creativity always contains strong elements of something mysterious and unexpected. Even when the ultimate goal of the artist is clearly visible, new opportunities, events and methods can appear out of nowhere. In addition, their potential impact might completely change the purpose, meaning or outcome of the artwork (Spinelli, 2009, p.169). That gives it new dimensions or connotations suited to a certain time and space. Nevertheless, hardly ever has this phenomenon been taken into account at schools or universities where the masterpieces of the past are mainly represented as retro works. This one-sided approach isolates artworks from today's students. Of course, there is no single methodology of introduction artistic values to students so that it would effectively stimulate their emotional, sensory and mental spheres, but there is a «technique of emotional reinforcement in the upbringing of a personality». Its author, the Ukrainian scholar Ivan Bekh, believes that when we increase the strength of a certain emotion it would serve a meaning-making function of one or another spiritual value and would become an impulse for further actions» (Bekh, 2018, p. 82).

We assume that all masterpieces are created, metaphorically, in the grammatical category of the Continuous Tense, that is, they are ageless, they belong both to the present, past, and future, existing in continuous time, dealing with the events which began long ago, yet they remain to be influential and relevant till now (perhaps, just for this reason Continuous Tense is also called Progressive Tenses associated with the movement and dynamics of time and events).

Actualizing continuum as a continuous connotation we accentuate the informal hidden layers of the work of art which, without changing their direct connotations, reveal some new aspects and dimensions that meet the needs of the age. Only in this way will retro dimension gradually shift to another dimension of students' reality with their enjoying the genuine ownership of the golden fund of artistic values.

It is through artistic values that person's spiritual and cultural development can be achieved (by means of arts «using» and «alienation»). Artistic identification that comes first of all in result of aesthetic experience and empathy gives us an opportunity to live the lives of other people from different times and places. It allows to shape universal values both individual and specific ones and can be viewed as a manifestation of the universe itself and the reflection of the universal integrity of life. According to Ernesto Spinelli, the experiences of this kind take us beyond the ordinary, beyond the framework of concepts and categories (Spinelli, 2009, p. 167).

When the art is felt and experienced as gaining the inner world of a person, the individual artistic values will be formed that subsequently should develop into a multidimensional space of the subject's actions.

While providing the opportunity to go through something previously untried, compressing and concentrating the social and historical experience of the preceding generations to the forms that should inspire the personal enculturation, the art is a kind of «data bank» of behavioral archetypes, that shape the perception of reality and culture.

Living in a world where cultures communicate extremely tightly the search for balance between the native and the foreign, or, as the outstanding Ukrainian thinker V. Zenkovsky wrote, «a free combination of two different principles in their unity, without suppressing one another» (16, p. 343) is the mission of the humanities disciplines study and art classes in particular.

From this point of view a language as a cultural phenomenon can be considered to be a huge instrument, given that the national characteristics of culture and art cannot be more evidently manifested than in language.

We propose several strategies to be used for this purpose:

1) Teaching art terms.

Art terms can be considered as a source of knowledge that can shape students' cultural orientation, build their intercultural skills, teach to understand values and develop their ability to communicate in a foreign language.

By teaching terms from different branches of art the university teacher should draw students' attention to the facts that:

- terms are words or word-combinations with a specific meaning in the particular field of study (e.g. capricco, biscuit, porcelain, theater, etc.);

- they are stylistically neutral;

- art terms are often borrowed and can be adopted by several languages so they are the international words.

Teaching terms and idioms is a good way to enlarge students' vocabulary and create with them a feeling of enjoyment of making progress in speaking a foreign language, and it also broadens students' mind and develops contextual guess. It would also be useful to focus students' attention on terms etymology, their pronunciation and spelling. For example, the terms which refer to drama are of Greek origin (chorus, dialogue, dithyramb...), ballet terms are borrowed from French (pas, pas de de, grand pas.), opera terms come from Italian (bel canto, solo, vero.).

That is why terms serve as lapidary common regulator which enables person's cultural involvement.

It can be assented at such discipline as «Aesthetics».

2) Teaching phraseological units about art (idioms) and popular quotations.

Idioms are set expressions that often present a figurative, non-literal meaning, they can reflect history, culture, and national peculiarities that is why there is no translation equivalents for some of them, while the others do have functional analogues close in meaning. Idioms as a stylistic device expand students' vocabulary and broaden their outlook, make their speech more colorful, powerful, dynamic and creative. But unlike terms, idioms are appellative in nature, their use is affected by various extralinquistic, social and psychological factors. Idioms can be successfully used as an artistic expressions aimed to impress the listeners and embody the main aim of communication, in case the people involved in communication understand the figurative meaning of the idiom and think that it is suitable to the particular situation.

The idioms related to art can contain words for art:

- be no oil painting -- someone who is not goodlooking;

- blank canvas -- something with no content such that it can be easily filled with completely new things;

- drama queen -- a person who tends to react to every event or situation in an over-dramatic or exaggerated way;

- fine art -- it refers to something requiring highly developed techniques and skills;

- get the picture -- you understand the situation without the need for more explanation;

- paint something with a broad brush -- describe something in general terms, without mentioning specific details and without paying attention to individual.

(Cambridge Learner's Dictionary, 2011) Popular quotations and phrases often come to English from other languages and sometimes they are used by everyone in the original language (e.g. «Sancta sim- plicitas!», «O tempora, o mores!», «A la guerre comme a la guerre», «C'est la vie» etc.) hence to understand and use them correctly we have to tell the students more about their origin, where they come from, and how their meanings have been transformed till now.

For example, the famous Latin expression Memento Mori (Remember death or Remember that you die) originates from the time of ancient Rome when during the parades the glorious solders were followed by the slaves who with that phrase reminded them that they were nothing but common people. Later in the XVII century the saying, a reminder of the inevitability of death, was used as greeting by the Italian Catholic ascetic monks. Memento Mori also developed to an art genre in fine and practical arts, literature, music and dancing with artistic or symbolic representation of death (Dushenko, 2018, p.364-365).

Art idioms and popular quotations can be practiced at the disciplines «Aesthetics» and «Art in the contexst of culture».

3) Teaching trough literature and the art of literary translation.

Literature, unlike other kinds of art (e.g. music, painting, dance), is the art-form of language, and words are its tools.

Literary text of different genres from novels and short stories to poems and song lyrics constitute a valuable authentic resource for numerous reasons.

One of them is cultural enrichment which involves understanding of other cultures and gaining awareness of «difference». Another reason is that «literary texts provide rich linguistic input, effective stimuli for students to express themselves in other languages». (Using literature -- an introduction).

University teachers exploit literary text in a large number of ways to enrich students' vocabulary, develop comprehension skills, reinforce abilities to verbalize their thoughts (orally or in writing) and participate in discussion or debate. All these techniques proved to be very effective along with the use of literature for translation which gives opportunity to practice acquired lexical, syntactic, semantic, pragmatic and stylistic knowledge and develop the fifth language skill or intercultural awareness which according to C. Kramsch must «be viewed as enabling language proficiency» (11, p. 8).

Intrinsically translation is conceived as an act of communication when translators, who play the role of «intercultural mediators», remake a text from a source language to a target language. Translation does not merely involve two languages but it includes the people and the cultures of both languages and in this sense translators translate cultures.

Due to translators the heroes of the greatest works of literature began to speak other languages enriching worldwide culture and developing native languages. For example, the heroes of Greek tragedies began to speak Ukrainian thanks to the outstanding Ukrainian translators Vasyl Simovych, Andriy Sodomor, Borys Ten, Taras Franko, and others. Mykola Lukash, who knew 22 languages, made an outstanding translation of Goethe's «Faust» and now we can enjoy in Ukrainian its thoughts and ideas which are still no less relevant then in the past.

The University teacher should make the students realize that the essence of literary translation is not a matter of technique, it is not a «photo» of the text, and it is not a literal or word-for-word translation. When translating the literature translators use their skills and talents to build a gap between two cultures and to convey to readers (viewers, listeners) the closest meaning of the original text so that they could understand and enjoy the source culture.

Thus, literary texts can be used at «Aesthetics» specially for the department of future playwrights to promote students' language skills and intercultural awareness through translation.

4) Teaching through dialogue or polylogue as a fundamental need of human community.

The word dialogue comes from two Greek words dia and logos, where logos can be translated as word or meaning and dia does not mean two it means through. Thus dialogue is not restricted by two participants, either people or groups. Moreover, W. Isaacs in his investigation of the etymology of word dialogue (Isaacs, 199, p.19) comes to the conclusion that «in the most ancient meaning of the word, logos meant “to gather together”, and suggested an intimate awareness of the relationships among things in the natural world. In that sense, logos may be best rendered in English as “relationship”». The center of the principle of participation is «...the intelligence of our hearts, the freshness of our perceptions and ultimately the deep feeling of connection that we may have with others and our world» (Isaacs, 1999, p. 57). Consequently, dialogue involves an interaction of people, their thinking together in mutual relationship or the art of thinking together.

By means of dialogue we avoid one-dimensionality in our relationships because dialogue is not merely

a conversation between two people or two groups, but an acceptance, by two participants or more, that they will compare and contrast their respective arguments. One element integral to its success is the language that will be spoken, to exchange such viewpoints (18, Intercultural dialogue and ...).

Language is a great tool to interpret thoughts, amplify them, enter into disputes with other people that can represent other cultures, so dialogue often turns into «a process of communication between cultures, during which their mutual transformation takes place» (N. Khamitov, 2017, p. 110). The dialogue of cultures is based on the idea of a diverse brotherhood of people, where key aspects are: remembering your own culture, knowing it and continuing to deepen the knowledge, create in result new spiritual values, understand the other, and learn to live together. Culture exists in unity of both one's own culture and another's culture; it is a space that gives a rise to new meanings, fosterers exchange of ideas which strive to be conveyed in another culture. Therefore, dialogue is characterized by the interconnection between those that speak and listen to, by promotion of incentives and mutual benefits for them.

An increased communication between cultures on the one hand results in clash of cultures accompanied with misunderstandings and acts of intolerance. On the other hand, only through meeting with other cultures it is possible to learn how to understand them, compare, embrace the differences without labelling them as good or bad, right or wrong.

To overcome cultural barriers we should teach students to understand how different cultures use literal and figurative meanings to express themselves, how to interpret the metaphorical language of art which sometimes can only be intuitively guessed, foreseen.

It can be done with pictures of an American artist and «mother of American modernism» Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986) who is famous for her larg- er-scale flower paintings which with very close up point of view turn the subject into an abstraction. She was a modernist artist whose work was directed against the canonical forms of art. She used new, sometimes rebellious, not well-established painting techniques. The style of the artist is individual, and the manner of painting is extremely refined and perfect. The artist, showing a passion for the world of flowers, demonstrates their smallest elements, focuses on the «botanical» (plant) details of the objects depicted, and finds the perfect color for their image. The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in New York houses a collection of her art works -- various types of visual art -- drawings, pastels, paintings, and sculptures.

We do it by comparing the works of an American artist Georgia O'Keeffe with paintings of a Ukrainian artist Katheryna Bilokur (1900-1961) that was a master of primitive art who painted flowers, herbs, fruits and whatever she could find in gardens and orchards. She is recognized as one of the greatest artists ever to emerge from Ukraine. Although both painters were contemporaries and many of their creations feature colorful and vibrant flowers, their styles and artistic manners are absolutely distinctive and it provides the matter for discussion.

Some of the tasks are as follows:

- Comparing the paintings of Georgia O'Keeffe with the paintings of Kateryna Bilokur. Students are shown the pictures with lush and vivid flowers of outstanding artists without revealing the authors' identity and then are asked to guess whether they belong to the American artist or to the Ukrainian one with explaining their choice. For example:

1. a) «Pink Roses with Larkspur» by Georgia O'Keeffe; b) «Garden Flowers» by Kateryna Bilokur.

2. a) «White Rose with Larkspur» by Georgia O'Keeffe; b) «Peonies» by Kateryna Bilokur;

3. a) «Black Iris IV» by Georgia O'Keeffe; b) «Irises» by Kateryna Bilokur.

- Having a conversation class on creative lives of Georgia O'Keeffe and Kateryna Bilokur.

To prepare the students for the conversation about two artists' life and works they are recommended to visit some websites.

After that the students are asked to answer the questions concerning life and creative work of both artists:

e.g. What do you know about Georgia O'Keeffe/ Kateryna Bilokur?

Would you like to meet Georgia O'Keeffe/ Kateryna Bilokur?

What would you like to know about Georgia O'Keeffe/ Kateryna Bilokur and why?

What questions would you like to ask Georgia O'Keeffe/ Kateryna Bilokur?

What do you like about the life of Georgia O'Keeffe/ Kateryna Bilokur?

What is similar about the lives of two artists? How was it different?

What influenced their style?

What do you find attractive in the style of Georgia O'Keeffe/ Kateryna Bilokur? What don't you like in it?

Do you think that their works in a way reflect the national character? How?

What do the following quotations tell us about two great artists? How do they characterize them?

- «To create one's world in any of the arts takes courage». -- Georgia O'Keeffe.

- «I will continue to paint and paint the flowers again, because I like to be at work on them so much, I am even short of words to express my feeling of love to them -- my great love». -- Kateryna Bilokur.

We recommend to use this methods at such disciplines as «Aesthetics», «

Conclusion

Ultimately, this article is an attempt to investigate the prospects of incorporation of art, cultural and inter-cultural education into humanitarian classes of Universities. The proposed technology of the improvement of the effective construction of humanitarian subjects' content represents new foreshortenings and accent concerning students' adherence to cultural traditional and innovative practices of personal contacts and regulation of mutual relations with obvious existence. In addition, using art as a resource, offers University teachers great possibilities for enhancing students' four language basic skills of reading, listening, speaking and writing, as well as for developing fifth skill of cultural and intercultural awareness.

The subject of next researches can be a mechanism of working out and «launching» artistic values in students' vital area, which disposes on positive valence of humanitarian subjects.



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