| Abstract [eng] |
This scholarly endeavor entails the confluence of the descriptive method in cultural history and Algirdas Julius Greimas' semiotic discourse tools and concepts, with the objective of constructing a descriptive model through which the phenomenon of boredom can be examined as a distinct and paradigmatically recurring structure, intrinsically marked by cultural associations and intricately intertwined with specific cultural values: be they existential, practical, aesthetic, or critical in nature. The investigation draws upon conceptions pertaining to the genesis of boredom, positing the hypothesis that a scrutiny of boredom can lead to the identification of four to five cultural paradigms of boredom within Western cultural milieu. The selected corpus for analysis encompasses seminal texts from different epochs: the testimony of Evagrius Ponticus, the Desert Father, elucidating the demon of akedia (4th century); Charles Baudelaire's poem "Spleen" from the anthology Les Fleurs du Mal (1857); a fragment from Andy Warhol's treatise entitled Philosophy from A to B and Back Again (1975); and an excerpt from Joseph Brodsky's discourse "In Praise of Boredom" (1989). As counterparts within the realm of Lithuanian literature, representative poems by Vytautas Mačernis, Vincas Mykolaitis-Putinas, Kazys Binkis, Jonas Šimkus, and Vladas Šimkus have been scrutinized. The outcomes of the analysis unveil the presence of no fewer than four boredom paradigms in Western culture, namely acedia, ennui, boredom, and zen. These paradigms can be conceptually articulated through a semiotic square, thereby facilitating the identification of interrelated and overlapping semiotic categories: 1) Landowski's square of meaningfulness and meaninglessness, 2) Greimas' square of modalities of desire, and 3) Floch's square of cultural values. Furthermore, the practical application of the proposed model, aimed at exploring boredom as manifest in Lithuanian literature, reveals that each paradigm exhibits a distinctive structure of characteristics that, albeit subject to slight variation, persistently recurs. |
