Bevezetés.: Animalia Regnum: állatok és állatjelek az emberi kultúrák világában

Edit Újvári

doi:10.14232/animalia.2024.1

(Introduction): Animalia Regnum: Animals and Animal Symbols in the World of Human Cultures

Authors

Edit Újvári

University of Szeged

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4552-1585

Synopsis

The paper presents introductory thoughts on the research topics of the Animalia Research Centre. The observation of the animals around us, the interpretation of their real and perceived qualities, and the changing reinterpretation of the human-animal relationship from age to age can be traced in cultural representations. Betwixt the extremities of expressing reverence for animals and lowering them to the level of evil, countless interpretations and attitudes have been formulated. Our research highlights these to understand more of our past, cultural traditions, and self-interpretations as expressed in our animal characters. The Research Centre focuses on the key concept of animal symbolism, which is the interconnected and ever-changing relationship between man and the animal world, and simultaneously on the changing definition of man's status from one era to the next.

Keywords: animal symbol, cultural representation, analogical thinking

Author Biography

Edit Újvári, University of Szeged

is a college professor at the University of Szeged, Department Head of The Department of Cultural Studies. She is the author of more than 140 publications including four monographs, the co-author of three books, and the co-editor of Encyclopedia of Symbols. Her current research interest are Visual Semiotics, Iconography, animal symbols and sign theories, on which she has published a book entitled “Leaving a Sign”: Semiotic Analysis of Rites and Works of Visual Art published at the University of Szeged Press in 2015. She is a member of the Semiotics Working Committee of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and Secretary at the Animalia Research Centre.