Tvärs över en åker i byn Utnäs är Botniabanan planerad att gå. Men just där låg Blåkulla, enligt vittnesprotokollen från häxprocesserna år 1674–1675. Per-Arne Bodin har läst dokumenten från processerna där tre av hans släktingar stod anklagade.

The task of this paper is to examine and compare the use of Christmas as a theme in the poetry of Czesław Miłosz, and the Swedish poet Hjalmar Gullberg. Both of them thematize Christmas at about the same time and use it in a somewhat new poetic function. Neither of them had a firm Christian belief and they use the theme in a number of common ways: to mark a poetical simplicity, to connect their poetry to a common European cultural tradition, to express the agonies of the Second World War and, as claimed, to invoke belief when no simple belief is possible for modern man.

What influence has hesychasm had on Russian hymnography? What is the impact of the Christian theme in the famous terrorist Boris Savinkov's novel The Pale Horse? These are two of the questions addressed in this interdisciplinary study that examines the Orthodox tradition throughout Russian literature and culture. Issues such as the use of icons, hymns and hagiography from Medieval times up to Post Soviet Russia are studied, and crucial notions of Orthodox thought, such as hesychasm, the Trinity and the Apocalypse and their impact on Russian culture are interpreted. Questions such as transformation, repudiation, and unexpected encounters between different themes and motifs play a central role. Methodologically close to the Russian semiotics in its late phase, this work discusses common denominators for the use of this tradition through the ages. Altogether, the 17 studies in this volume contribute to the aesthetic appreciation of Russian literature and culture.

Osip Mandel'shtam's poetry has been interpreted abundantly by scholars and it might be seen as preposterous to return to one of the most discussed poems in general: “Chut' mertsaet prizrachnaia stsena” dealing with Gluck's opera Orpheus and Eurydice. My approach will be an intermedial one and I will analyse it in relation to the famous productions at the Mariinskii Opera in 1910 and in 1919. The task will be to scrutinize the relationship between the text of the poem and various paratexts, or, in the words of Derrida (1987) and broader, the relation between ergon and parergon. The focus is on the aesthetic impact of these relations more than on the question of genesis or influence. The basis for the interpretation will be the opposition between the period of the performance and the post-performance time, as well as the notion of liminality. The poem will be analysed against the background of the motif of the exit from the theatre in Russian 19th century Russian culture both in relation to literature and to a lithography from 1843 made by Rudol'f Zhukovskii. I will, however, use in particular material concerning the opera performance alluded to in the poem.