Статті в журналах з теми "Authors, American – 20th century – Juvenile literature"

F. Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground (1864) exerted a considerable influence on American literature since 1940s. The works by outstanding authors beginning with Saul Bellow (Dangling Man, 1944) or Jerome Salinger’s prose and up to Bret Easton Ellis (American Psycho, 1991), Percy Walker, David Foster Wallace, show a persistent fascination of American writers with the novella and are based on re-reading and re-interpreting Dostoevsky’s ideas, motives and imagery.

Abstract Most Jewish immigrants to America during the early 20th century arrived speaking Yiddish or Ladino and using Hebrew and Aramaic for liturgical purposes. When subsequent generations abandoned the first two languages, Hebrew and Aramaic were retained, used primarily for liturgy and rites of passage. Jewish American writers have often inserted Hebrew into their English texts by either reproducing the original alphabet or transliterating into Latin letters. This essay focuses on diverse strategies for representing liturgical Hebrew with an emphasis on the poetic, thematic, and sociolinguistic aspects of these expressions of both home and the foreign. Hebrew transliteration is discussed for its literary (rather than phonetic) rendering, for its multilingual creative contact with the other languages and cultures of each narrative. Among the authors whose works are discussed are Philip Roth, Michael Chabon, Nathan Englander, Joshua Cohen, Achy Obejas, and Gary Shteyngart.

“This article examines socialist ideologies in Asian American literature by comparing Karen Tei Yamashita's I-Hoteland H.T. Tsiang's And China Has Hands. Despite both novels centering on Chinese American experiences in the 20th century, they offer differing perspectives on socialism influenced by the authors' backgrounds and historical contexts. Tsiang's work, set in 1930s New York, portrays socialism as an experimental pursuit for Chinese revolutionaries amidst the clash between socialism and nationalism. Conversely, Yamashita's I-Hotel, set in 1960s and 1970s San Francisco, depicts Asian American characters influenced by Maoist socialist ideology, tempered by disillusionment with the Cultural Revolution. Through close analysis, the article examines how each author navigates characters' attitudes towards socialism. In I-Hotel, Yamashita critiques the Cultural Revolution's suppression of art and literature, exposing Maoist authoritarianism. Meanwhile, Tsiang's optimism towards socialism is reflected in characters like Fellow, expressing a longing for reform and unity within the proletariat. Both authors' personal experiences and historical contexts shape their narratives. Tsiang's immersion in New York City's political landscape during the early 20th century informs his advocacy for socialist reform. Similarly, Yamashita's upbringing in a Japanese American family during World War II informs her critique of authoritarianism and advocacy for equitable socialism. In conclusion, this comparative analysis highlights diverse interpretations of socialism in Asian American literature, emphasizing the interplay between personal experiences, historical contexts, and ideological frameworks. Through their narratives, Yamashita and Tsiang offer reflections on the potentials and pitfalls of socialist ideologies, urging readers to engage critically with questions of revolution and social justice.”

The knowledge of Dexiinae and Tachinidae diversity in the Neotropical Region, in contrast to other regions, e.g., the Palaearctic Region, is in a poor condition. The history of these taxa has gradually increased since the 18th Century from the works of European and North American authors such as Johan C. Fabricius, Christian R.W. Wiedemann, Jean B. Robineau-Desvoidy, Pierre J.-M. Macquart, Jacques M.F. Bigot, Francis Walker, Victor von Röeder, Ermanno Giglio-Tos, Friedrich M. Brauer and Julius E. Bergenstamm, Frederik M. van der Wulp, Charles H. Curran, John M. Aldrich, Charles H.T. Townsend, Henry J. Reinhard and William R. Thompson. It was only in the first half of the 20th Century that scientists born or established in South America began to enter tachinidology. Dipterists like Jean Brèthes and Everardo E. Blanchard from Argentina, Rául E. Cortés Peña from Chile and José H. Guimarães from Brazil, are the most memorable names for, not only to Neotropical Dexiinae, but, indeed for the whole family. Herein, a brief chronological review of tachinidology, with emphasis on Dexiinae and based on a literature review, is given. The history is divided into four periods: the pre-Linnaean period of the 16th and 17th Centuries, the 18th Century, the 19th Century and the first half of the 20th Century. After the first half of 20th Century, the emphasis is focused on European and North American dipterists with an overview of their contributions on Dexiinae taxonomy. Later, with presence of the South American dipterists, the emphasis is directed to them. Then a few notes are given on the Czech Dominik Bilimek, a poorly known collector from the 19th Century and Fritz Plaumann, a well-known German immigrant who collected in Brazil during the earlier 20th Century. Finally, some notes and perspectives about the 21st Century dexiinidology from the Neotropics is briefly discussed.

The article focuses on defining the ways the 19th and 20th centuries authors presented ethnocultural transformations driven by ethnopolitical processes in the Mexican territories of Alta California annexed by the United States in 1848. The research includes the novels of the 19th-century American authors: The Squatter and the Don (1885) by Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton, Ramona (1884) by Helen Maria Hunt Jackson; and The Rag Doll Plagues (1992) by the author of late 20th century Alejandro Morales. The object of the research is the historical reality as presented in the literature of California in the 19th and 20th centuries. The subject of the research is the representation of ethnocultural transformations in the territories of the former Alta California in the views of Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton, Helen Maria Hunt Jackson, and Alejandro Morales. The purpose of the research is to identify the specifics of depicting ethnocultural transformations in the fiction works by Californian writers of the 19th and 20th centuries. The methodological basis of the research includes the works that analyze a literary text as a product of social life in specific cultural and historical conditions. The article uses a comprehensive approach to the analysis of the social and ethnocultural phenomena specific to the population of Mexican territories that became part of the United States. The approach combines methods of the sociology of literature, historical and cultural, problem-focused and chronological, and comparative research methods. The analysis of the novels helps to identify similarities and differences in the representation of the views of the 19th and 20th centuries authors on the ethnocultural transformations both in the ‘current’ historical reality (in literature depicting the ‘local color’) and the hypothetical reality of the future (in the dystopian novel).

Predictions and illustrations of life in the future are often integrated in works of science fiction, which could not be immediately proven yet possibly fascinating when looked back on several decades later or at the times predicted in the works. Science fiction authors foretell such events by borrowing theories, concepts, or simply terms used by scientists. Those theories, concepts, and terms can be written in scientific journals or in more popular media. American science fiction works, for instance, illustrate the future by their adaptation in the forms of more popular media such as movies, video games, and the works categorized as the subgenres of cyber literature. All of them are discussed in this paper from the lens of New Historicism, which believes in equality between literary and non-literary texts in viewing phenomena that exist in society, one of which is the relationship between science fiction works, their writers, their readers, and society. Technology is seen as a product of society, so it becomes broadly part of culture. Meanwhile, emerging technology is sometimes coincidental and random, so it can also be seen that technology determines people’s movements and lifestyles. This study contributes to ongoing discussions on the ethical and societal implications of speculative narratives by highlighting the interconnectedness between literature, science, technology, and society.

The article is devoted to the functioning of literature (and, more broadly, cultural texts) in popular circulation and the transformation of their role in the 20th century. The starting point for the analysis is the link between commercialisation (as an immanent feature of the ‘lowbrow’ circulation) and the artistic quality of the output that is part of it. The examples of the phenomena under discussion come from different linguistic milieux. This highlights the transnational nature of popular works, which feature invariant solutions to plots. In these two contradictory yet simultaneous tendencies can be observed: schematisation and de-schematisation, which renews conventionalised solutions. The author also emphasises the role of English-language works in the creation of figures of the collective imagination. Their presence in the minds of readers and the transformations they undergo with the development of industrial society and urbanisation processes can be traced from the late 19th century to the 1990s. That is why the 20th century — a period of intense expansion of popular culture — is a cohesive cultural entity with distinguishable individual periods. They are usually associated with socio-political crises, with stories becoming a cultural response to them and, at the same time, their artistic reception in the imaginarium communis. In addition, this is a time of technological progress, significantly affecting the distribution and media-based mediation of cultural texts in popular circulation. Literature has ceased to be a ‘separate phenomenon’ in it, hence the need to look at it as a part of a larger whole, with which it enters into various relationships. The domination of English-language output during the analysed period is associated with the global hegemony of the Anglo-American entertainment model. At the same time — in the works available to Polish-speaking readers — its ‘over-presence’ stems from the appearance after 1989 of a large number of translations, which have significantly influenced domestic pop-culture; moreover, their popularity in the reality of the free market economy has been determined by the read- ers themselves with their purchasing choices. It is hard to speak in this situation of the existence of national models of popular culture, although undeniably there are authors who dominate the local publishing markets. And yet they, too, exist in the context of the global pop culture industry.

The book by Vladimir Feshchenko, a Russian researcher of the language of poetry and a publisher of avant-garde literature, is devoted to Russian and American poetry of the language experiment in the 20th and early 21st century. Using examples from Andrei Bely, Russian futurists, Alexander Vvedensky, Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein, E.E. Cummings to the American poets of “language writing” and modern Russian-speaking young poets, the similarity of the philosophical and linguistic foundations of the language experiment, the convergence and differences of literatures, the personal interaction of authors from both countries are considered in the book. The analysis of a number of American and Russian poems from the point of view of the language of poetry is given. V. Feshchenko's book is of interest to researchers of Russian and American poetry, the avant-garde, the language of poetry, and the interaction of literatures.

To date, it becomes obvious that “language writing” is one of the largest trends in American literature and poetic thought of the last decades, and among the avant-garde trends, it is probably the most significant, extensive and innovative. American literature has spawned several significant schools and communities over the 20th century, from Imagists and beatniks to the San Francisco Renaissance and the New York school. Language poetry in this row, on the one hand, is an equally powerful literary movement (in the number of authors, published books, magazines, etc.), but on the other hand it is marked not so much by collectively shared aesthetic principles (as in the case of objectivists or Black Mountain poets), as by the general ideology of poetic work with language as a social institution and an aesthetic medium. The paper analyzes the points of divergencies and convergencies in American and Russian “language-centered writing.” The linguistic concepts of Russian Futurism (“the word as such,” “language breeding,” etc.) and Russian Symbolism (A. Bely’s “poetry of language”) have made their way — through the theory of Russian Formalism — to the theories of American language poets of the 1970s. The study looks more closely into how this cultural transfer exactly happened. Apart from that, this study juxtaposes the language-related concepts in the theory and practice of Russian Conceptualists and Metarealists, on the one hand, and the conceptual writing of American language poetry. These literary movements, as this paper claims, are part of the general linguistic turn which manifested itself in poetic theory and experiment in several phases over the 20th century.

Women authors from Africa have been and continue to be able to assert themselves as writers on a national and international scale. African-American women's voices are among the most potent literary voices of the latter half of the 20th century. However, regarding the literary tradition, particularly in the middle of the 19th century, there has always been a connection between white supremacy and male superiority throughout the history of the United States. The masculinization of the literary field at the time meant that the male perspective, whether black or white, seemed to speak for both genders and yet could not fully manifest female oppression in a patriarchal society. Women were not only racial outcasts; they were also oppressed due to their gender. Even though race issues have always played a significant role in everyday life, there has always been a divide between white people and black people; However, within this last group was a smaller group of women who had been subjected to not only racial prejudice but also sexist customs, slavery, and other forms of marginalization, including within their own culture.

Literature is one of the most effective ways for representing traumatic memory since it accomplishes this task by means of imagery. In American literary studies, the extensive research of the Holocaust literature tended to deploy the prevalent model focusing on the tragic fate of European Jewry through the prism of the victims’ psychology. The survivors of the unspeakable experience are striving to express (or repress) it from the perspective of their new American reality. Based on fiction and drama of the late 20th — early 21st centuries, the paper seeks to present an alternative mode of addressing the Holocaust trauma as second-hand experience of the characters who happen to be not direct victims, but rather «bystanders», nevertheless affected by PTSD. It seems expedient to apply certain premises laid out by the theorists of trauma (C. Caruth, D. La Capra, G. Hartman and others) to writings by Michael Chabon, Paul Auster, and Arthur Miller dealing with mediated («muted») Holocaust experience. This version also has at its core correlation between the factual and the fictional, the role of memory and imagination, temporal, spatial, and psychological distancing from the blood-curdling events. At the same time, special emphasis is laid on symbolic connotations bringing America within the ambit of reflections on the nature of ubiquitous evil. Veering towards traditional forms of narrative, the authors also make use of the potential inherent in fragmented story-telling. The texts highlight the strategies of working through the trauma including proactive initiatives, accepting the Other in oneself, transforming traumatic memory into other forms, such as cohesive narrative and/or fragmentary catalogue.

Robert Frost, one of the most prominent American poets of the mid-20th century, once stated that “literature is a performance in words” (Barnet et al., 1961: 1). The phrase “performance in words” specifically refers to the real significance of language in the presentation of a literary work. If there is no language, then there will be absolutely no literature or literary work. Language serves not only as a medium for the work’s existence but also for a work to be called a work of art. Related to this proposition, poetry as a literary genre certainly exists because of the language by which the poets or the authors pour out their artistic and creative craftmanship, and through which readers can really read, enjoy, and concretize the poets’ ideas and messages.

The theme of the article is evolution of the popular folklore image of the vampire in world literature. From the monster of folk narrative the image of the vampire entered literary culture at the beginning of the 19th century when writers of the age of Romanticism sought material for their work in folk tales. The novel “Dracula” written by the Irish writer Bram Stoker set a large part of attributes for the image of the vampire in readers’ consciousness. It became a turning point in the evolution of the vampire. In the following years the vampire was a popular symbol in the 20th century literary experiments; however, it gained a considerable fame with a more rapid spreading of the cinema. Later, until the second half of the 20th century the image of the vampire was degraded to the level of a cheap horror monster. In the 1970s it was revived by the American writer Anne Rice in her series of novels “The Vampire Chronicles”. For the time being the latest tendency in the evolution of the vampire is represented by the novels of paranormal romance subgenre intended for young adults. In these novels the vampire has assumed the aura of a romantic character. In comparison with world literature vampire has not won a massive popularity in the novels of Latvian writers; however, some authors have occasionally used this image in their works. The image of the vampire appears in Latvian literature as a classical blood sucking monster, as a political symbol and also as a romantic hero in fantasy and adventure novels for young people. As we can see, the presence of the image of the vampire in Latvian writing reflects the same tendencies that have dominated world literature on a smaller scale. For this reason Latvian literature can be considered to be an interesting testimony of literary connections in the world.

The essay presents an overview of Jewish American prose of the second half of the 20th — first two decades of the 21st century within the context of multicultural literature of the USA. The definition of Jewish literature remains a matter of debate. The author of the essay based on the opinions of critics concludes on the criterion for assigning a writer to Jewish literature. It is the artistic embodiment of the personal Jewish experience and identity in the works of literature, the view “from inside,” the perspective of collective memory and the connection to history and culture. Jewish literature today is one of the most developed ethnic segments of multicultural American literature. Writers under study are recognized throughout the world, their works have been translated into many languages, including Russian, they are known to readers and have already become the subject of study by literary scholars. Today, Jewish American literature is represented by two generations of writers. “Senior” generation includes the authors born in the 1920s–30s who began their literary careers in the 60s when there was a generational change in national literature. “Young” generation is represented by the writers who began their literary careers in the 2000s. On the example of the works of the most famous authors of both generations, the author of the essay talks about the factors determining the specific features of Jewish American prose and its characteristic themes, problems, and motives: the search for identity and roots, the representation and rethinking of the Holocaust, ethnic stereotypes, the image of the Jewish family, and the traditions of Jewish humor. The study of the works of modern Jewish writers in the United States allows us to draw conclusions about the display of border consciousness, national and ethnic identity, and collective memory in fiction.

The authors of these passages share more than a belief in the efficacy of the category of “race” and a need to assert pride in their African-American heritage. Both have, of late, experienced notable recognition and affirmation from constituencies that typically evince little interest in black Americans and their culture. Zora Neale Hurston is one of only three or four 20th-century writers who have achieved canonical status, with the result that her works invariably appear in courses offered in American literature or American Studies, not just in more narrowly de-fined courses, such as African-American Writers or American Women Writers. Clarence Thomas, as the second black Supreme Court Justice, holds the highest position in government ever held by an African American. Arguably, his judicial position and her supreme reputation are the result of the affirmative action and desegregation programs (and in his case, the “multicultural” mandate) they oppose. Perhaps their opposition to these programs is what fits them for this crossover appeal. In effect, they deny the reality of the effects of segregation – unequal funding, and therefore poorer education and continuing secondary employment, housing, and so on – on most black Americans.

Literature, like other art forms, has always served an instrument for resistance, which through various discursive strategies responds to manifestations of oppression, despotism and dogmatism of various kinds. Above all, 20th century literary production — a century that witnessed a proliferation of dictatorships and authoritarian regimes, armed conflicts, wars and genocides, despite humanity's extraordinary progress in multiple areas — was marked by a strong sense of social, cultural or political engagement, which also extends to literary creation in the 21st century. Also in the Portuguese-speaking countries, one of the recurrent themes in modern and contemporary literary production has been the criticism towards the arbitrariness by authoritarian governments, as is the case of the Salazar regime — which stifled Portuguese society for over forty years and prolonged colonial exploitation in Africa — and by the dictatorial regimes established in the second half of the last century in Brazil and other Latin American countries. The aim of this dossier is to present some expressions of critical thinking on the literary production that deals with this subject. Therefore, eight studies devoted to the analysis of works by Portuguese and Brazilian authors who, at different times and through different forms of expression, reacted against authoritarian tendencies in Lusophone societies are gathered here.

Anyone who experienced the late 20th century remembers the astonishing sexualization of Bulgarian culture that erupted with the first steps of the longed-for democracy. Bulgarian literature likewise took an active part in this process. It used the erotic narrative as a sign of its own ability to evolve; it tried to tie up the broken ties with the modernism between the two world wars, emulating American writers such as Henry Miller and Charles Bukowski. The article examines the work of those writers who revived the erotic narrative in Bulgarian literature in the 1990s and the beginning of the 21st century. It looks at the different genres of their writing: from the mass literature on mafia-and-crime themes through the attempt of the former emigrant Dimitar Bochev to become the “Bulgarian Bukowski” to the socially oriented novels of young at that time authors such as Palmi Ranchev and Stefan Kisyov. What all these authors have in common is their desire to become famous and marketable by reproducing the sexist Balkan model of male-female relations. Women’s Writing offered an alternative to this kind of literary erotica, which gained strength after the mid-1990s and found realization in the work of writers such as Silvia Choleva, Miglena Nikolchina and Emilia Dvorianova. The second part of the article is devoted to the erotic imagery in the work of Viktor Paskov. It traces its development from his earliest works (“Infantile Murders” and “Martina”) through the novel “Germany – a Dirty Tale” to his last book, “Autopsy of a Love”.

ABSTRACT This paper reintroduces economist John Maurice Clark to the accounting academic community while investigating his role in the development of managerial accounting. Clark was a prominent American economist during the early half of the 20th century, whose first major book, Studies in the Economics of Overhead Costs (Clark 1923a), has been described by diverse authors as foundational to the field of managerial accounting, especially overhead estimation and differential analysis. An overview of Clark's life is provided, followed by discussion of the importance of his work to accounting. Citation counts of his work in various accounting journals reveal that although widely referenced by accounting scholars for a short time after the publication of Overhead Costs, his name then disappeared from the literature, and indicates that his work is underappreciated. The paper discusses why this lacuna in accounting history is significant, and gives possible explanations for why Clark's work has been overlooked.

Poetological dominants of historical memory in works of asian immigrant writers in Canada The paper highlights the development of literature related to the historical memory concept of Canadian immigrants from Asian countries. It covers the period of the late 20th ― first decades of the 21st century. The complex of problems, analyzed and structured within the semantic field of the modern historical memory concept, is often applicable both to Canada and Ukraine. The research broadens the knowledge of Canadian literature introducing the names of researchers and writers new to Ukrainian literary studies. The paper overviews the interpretations of Canadian Asian immigrants’ dispositions within the paradigm of modern arts and humanities. The focus is on the issues of double identity, the coherence of ethnic and North American mentality. The researcher generalizes the poetical aspects of the works by Ying Chen, Kim Thui, Joy Kogawa, Michael Ondaatje. Attention has been paid to the definition of discursive parameters, which allow shaping the concept of historical memory in ‘mosaic’ Canadian society; the issues of identities; the main markers of Canadian historical strategies; and versatile patterns of literary texts. The participation of Canada in the global dialog, which involves its culture and literature, plays probably the most important role in the debate on Canadian polyethnic literature. Regional, national, and international features demand some combined definition. The research explicates modern historical memory strategies in the context of conventional territory with its specific spatial and temporal characteristics. The author demonstrates the main local views on peculiarities of the Canadian literary process of the 2nd half of the 20th ― early 21st century and analyzes literary texts. All the novels show profound connection between representatives of Canadian literature, who may seem essentially different but manifest temporal and subjective similarity. The paper lists the names of authors working within the ‘double vision’ formula suggested by N. Frye. This approach focuses on the elements of North American culture pertaining to Canadian multicultural world structure as well as traditional cultures of the writers’ ancestral homelands. The paper also considers the generation paradigm, structured on the basis of social and historical algorithms and psychological markers. The types of generational modes (Kim Thuy, Michael Ondaatje) in literature were combined through a common denominator ― canadianness ― based on a double identity.

Since the first Gothic work, Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto, was published in 1764, the Gothic genre has constantly been changing and evolving. One of its main purposes has always been social criticism, and therefore Gothic literature had to change together with the society. In the 20th and especially in the 21st century with the arrival of new technologies, Gothic moved from the paper to the screen. Film and television offered a whole new range of possibilities for the postmodern authors of Gothic works to express themselves. One such artist is certainly the American director Tim Burton who is famous for his dark comedies that are almost exclusively crammed with Gothic elements. In this paper, the author shows how, in his movie Dark Shadows from 2012, Tim Burton used parody as a tool to make an on-screen pastiche of Gothic elements packed in a dark comedy for the true lovers of the Gothic genre, creating a genuine example of the postmodern Gothic.

The article is devoted to the review of the history of translations of Fyodor Dostoevsky into Turkish. Currently, Dostoevsky is one of the most popular foreign writers in Turkey, and according to the Turkish book market, one of the most purchased authors. By decision of the Ministry of Public Education, since 2004, the works of the Russian classic have been included in the recommendatory part of the school curriculum, so it is difficult to find a person inTurkey who would not read Dostoevsky. The history of Dostoevsky’s translations into Turkish evolved in a special way: back in the late 19th - early 20th century there were none, since the Department of Russian Language and Literature in Turkey first opened in 1935, but the first translations appeared only in the 1920s and performed from French. However, subsequently the popularity of the writer grew so much that absolutely all of his works were translated into Turkish, and some even several times. Classical Russian literature had a special influence on Turkish literature of the 20th century, and Dostoevsky’s works are the most important literary basis for their own work for many Turkish writers. For example, the recently translated into Russian novel “The Idiot” by the American writer of Turkish origin Elif Batuman, who was born and raised in the United States, as well as the novel by the young prose writer Burhan Sonmez “Istanbul. Istanbul”. Despite the late appearance of Dostoevsky’s works on the Turkish book market and late acquaintance with the Turkish reader, Dostoevsky became one of the most popular and beloved Russian writers among Turks of almost all ages (which is confirmed by the publication of Dostoevsky’s works in an adapted form for children). The authors of the article analyzed the history of translations of Dostoevsky’s novels into Turkish and came to the conclusion that the appearance of a large number of translations is explained not only by the great popularity of the Russian language and culture in modern Turkey, and not only by the cinematic popularity of Dostoevsky all over the world, but also by a high reader demand for his texts, since Dostoevsky’s works meet the cultural and moral needs of modern Turkish society.

The novels of the American writer Cameron Hawley (Cash McCall, Executive Suit) and the American writer and philosopher from Russia Ayn Rand (Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged) are analyzed in the article. The entrepreneur image that has a brightly expressed national specificity is the key image for the comparison. In the first part of the research, a review of the genealogy of the national image of the entrepreneur as a character is done, and the evolution of this image in Russian and American cultures is traced. The conclusion here is that the image of a businessman in American literature was positive until the middle of the 20th century, the time of the crisis of the American dream, while the image of an entrepreneur in Russian literature was always primarily negative because of the gap between two types of rationality—practical and axiological (N. Zarubina). In the second part of the research, the roots of entrepreneur images of both authors are identified. The conclusion here is that, the basis of Rand’s latest characters is the image of a Russian revolutionist à la Kerensky (Leo Kovalensky in her first novel We The Living), which is expressed in their adventurism, irreconcilable individualism, and love of freedom. The genetic basis of Hawley’s characters is the image of the American superman limited in his ambitions (U. Eco), which is different from the Russian hero who always focuses on global achievements. In the third part of the research, the author distinguishes four types of entrepreneurs as characters in the both authors’ novels: a lucky businessman who runs a business behind the scenes, an authoritarian leader, a pragmatic fantasist, a symbiosis of a talented scholar and an entrepreneur. Despite the external resemblance of the two writers’ characters, the research shows that Rand’s character does not have the dichotomy of that of Hawley: Rand formulates the ideal of a “new intellectual” (For The New Intellectual) aiming to overcome Russian culture’s being torn between the two rationality types. Rand’s character, unlike Hawley’s, is an ideologist, and he has messianic features. Hawley’s attempt to combine the thinker and the businessman in the image of MacDonald Walling was unconvincing: Walling thinks only about his personal success and the company’s interests (the topics of American literature) while John Galts’s efforts focus on the improvement of the life of the country and humankind as a whole (the topics of Russian literature). In the conclusion, the author states that, despite the external similarity of the writers’ entrepreneur characters, Ayn Rand endows the entrepreneur image with features inherent in Russian literature, and Cameron Hawley depicts characters typical for American literature.

Throughout human history, advancements in medicine have evolved out of periods of war. The carnage of battlefield injuries provided wartime surgeons an unprecedented opportunity to study anatomy, develop novel techniques, and improve systems of care. As a specialty that was established and evolved during the first half of the 20th century, neurological surgery was heavily influenced by the experiences of its founders during the World Wars I and II. Utilizing the published Neurosurgery Tree, the authors conducted an academic genealogical analysis to systematically define the influence of wartime service on neurosurgery’s earliest generations. Through review of the literature and military records, the authors determined that at least 60% of American neurosurgical founders and early leaders served during World Wars I and/or II. Inspired by the call to serve their nation as forces for good, these individuals were heralded as expert clinicians, innovative systems thinkers, and prolific researchers. Importantly, the service of these early leaders helped highlight the viability of neurosurgery as a distinct specialty and provided a framework for early neurosurgical education and expansion. The equipment, techniques, and guidelines that were developed during these wars, such as management of craniocerebral trauma, peripheral nerve repair, and hemostasis, set the foundation for modern neurosurgical practice.

As a harrowing sub-discipline of English and Comparative Literature, Trauma Studies is in need of geographical expansion beyond its moorings in European genocides of the 20th century. In this article, the authors chart the institutional and cinematic appropriation of atrocity images in relation to the Khmer Rouge’s auto-genocide from 1975–1979 in Cambodia. They analyse the cultural and scholarly value of these images in conjunction with genocide studies to reveal principles often overlooked, taken for granted, or pushed to the periphery in photography studies and film studies. Through grim appropriations of archival or news footage to more experimental approaches in documentary, such as the use of dioramas, the authors examine the commercial and artistic articulations of trauma, reconciliation and testimony in two case studies: The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) exhibition Photographs from S-21: 1975–1979 (1997) and Pithy Panh’s documentary The Missing Picture (2013). The authors first focus on the relatively obscure scholarship devoted to contextualizing images from international genocides outside the Euro-American canon for genocide study in order to build their critical formulations; they go on to explore whether these atrocity-themed still and moving images are capable of defying aspects of commodification and sensationalism to instead convey positive notions of commemoration and memory. Finally, their contribution to this debate regarding the merit of appropriating atrocity imagery is viewed from two perspectives: ‘commodified witnessing’ (a negative descriptor for the MoMA exhibition) and ‘commemorative witnessing’ (a positive term for the Cambodian film).

The article deals with the Southern gothic genre, which is characterized by American authors’ close attention to the history of the South, tragic worldview, and interest in the barely noticeable movements of the human soul as well as by a focus on religious themes, bitter humor, detailed description of various types of violence, the use of ‘shock therapy’ techniques, and bringing into the plot a minute analysis of the actions of an endless string of marginal characters. The article gives a brief excursus into the history of the genre and its roots: from its emergence in the first half of the 20th century to its present authoritative position in the American literary process. The paper highlights the reasons for the Southern gothic’s serious influence on world literature and for the scholars’ special interest in it. In addition, the religious aspect of this genre is discussed, in particular its Biblical reminiscences within the framework of postmodern poetics and the use of those as tools for creating the image of a versatile hero and building an allegorical plot. The study aims to highlight some of the abovementioned features in Mark Richard’s short story Gentleman’s Agreement. Using the cultural-historical method with some elements of structuralist analysis, the article reveals the distinctive stylistic features of the writer’s text, while considering Mark Richard a successor to the traditions of such masters of the genre as Flannery O’Connor, Eudora Welty, Erskine Caldwell, Harper Lee, and others.

Purpose. The goal is to present the works of the first and second generation of Sino-American writers not as “duplication” and “imitating” the Euro-Atlantic literary tradition, but as creating the premise for the inception of new shapes (forms) of national literatures. Research methods – historical-literary, analytical, comparative. Results. American literature, written by authors of Asian descent, came to the attention of literary scholars when most of the writers whose prose modern literary theorists associate with the genesis of the Asian-American canon were practically forgotten. Some passages of their poetry and prose, written by the first and second generations of Asians in America, were presented only in the first anthologies of Asian-American literature published in the 70s of the 20th century. But a truly profound reevaluation and conceptual-theoretical evaluation of the work of American writers of Asian origin is taking place only now. The main goal of researchers of this motley wing of American literature at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries, the implementation of which, by the way, is not always successful at the end, lies in the taxonomy of those features that distinguish its American literature. This segregation occurs through the search for ties – in which their historical and cultural experience is interwoven – with the genre, plot, narrative traditions of the literatures of their countries of origin. At the same time, it emphasizes its “secondariness”, “counterfeitness” in the general context of American literature leads to the fact that the works of American writers of Asian origin find themselves tensed between two universes – the Euro-Atlantic and South-East Asian literary and artistic traditions. Conclusions. This actually leads to the fact that any of the first Asian-American texts cannot be interpreted other than “covering old grounds”. Instead, literature, that, was born at the crossroads of traditions and cultures, should be set apart as one for which these traditions are nourishing sources, and not a model norm. This will make it possible to see in Lee Yan Phou’s as well as in Jade Snow Wong’s writings the beginning of a new tradition through the rethinking and deconstruction of both the Euro-Atlantic and South-East Asian ones.Key words: Asian-American, canon, Bildungsroman, literary tradition, image, templating. Мета – представити твори першого і другого покоління сіно-американських письменників не як «копіювання» і «імітацію» євроатлантичної літературної традиції, а як створення передумов зародження нових обрисів національних літератур. Методи дослідження – історико-літературний, аналітичний, компаративний. Результати. Американська література, написана авторами азійського походження, потрапила в поле зору літературознавців тоді, коли більша частина письменників, прозу яких сучасні теоретики літератури пов’язують з генезисом азійсько-американського канону, були практично забуті. Деякі уривки поезій і прози, написаних першим і другим поколінням азійців в Америці, були представлені лише в опублікованих у 70-х роках XX століття перших антологіях азійсько-американської літератури. Але по-справжньому глибока переоцінка і концептуально-теоретична оцінка творчості американських письмен-ників азійського походження відбувається тільки тепер. Основне завдання дослідників цього строкатого крила американської літератури на зламі XX–XXI століть, виконання якого, до речі, далеко не завжди в результаті успішне, полягає в реєстрації тих особливостей, які виокремлюють азійсько-американську літературу всередині американської літератури. Це виокремлення відбувається через пошук зв’язків, в які вплетений історико-культурний досвід, з жанровими, сюжетними, наративними традиціями літератур країн походження. Одночасно підкреслюється її «вторинність», «підробленість» у загальному контексті американської літератури. У результаті такого підходу твори американських письменників азійського походження виявляються затиснутими між двох всесвітів – євроатлантичної та південно-східноазійської літературно-художніх традицій. Висновки. Зроблено висновки, що це фактично призводить до того, що будь-який з перших азійсько-американських тек-стів не може бути інтерпретований інакше, ніж «повторення пройденого». Замість цього літературу, яка зароджувалася на перехресті традицій і культур, слід виокремлювати як таку, для якої ці традиції є живильними джерелами, а не зразком-нормою. Це дасть можливість побачити в творах Лі Ян Пхоу і Дж. С. Вонг не імітацію чи повторення, а початок нової літературної традиції через переосмислення і деконструкцію вже наявних – євроатлантичної та південно-східноазійської.Ключові слова: азійсько-американський, канон, Bildungsroman, імітація, образ, шаблонізація

The article is devoted to the opera The Song of Majnun by Bright Sheng, the modern American composer of Chinese origin. This one-act opera was composed in 1992 and premiered in Chicago. In Russian musicology, this work is being studied for the first time. The authors analyze the history of the creation of the opera, the plot, composition, dramaturgy, and the specifics of the musical style. They pay special attention to the search for cross-cultural connections - the interaction of elements of Eastern (Persian, Chinese, Tibetan) and Western European cultures. The libretto of the opera is based on the plot of an ancient Persian legend. The composition of the opera was influenced by the art of the Persian book miniature of the 13th century. For the musical themes of the main characters Majnun and Laila, folk songs of ethnic Tibetans from the Chinese province of Qinghai were used. Many opera melodies are composed with the use of pentatonic scale. The orchestration uses techniques typical for Beijing Opera Orchestra. Conclusions are drawn about the peculiarities of combining elements of Chinese folklore and European composing technique of the 20th century. The importance of the opera The Song of Majnun for the further work of Bright Sheng is noted.

This paper focuses on the issue of external contacts in early modern Malay literature in the 20th century. It applies historical and comparative methods of research to three renowned novels by the Malay author, Hamzah Hussin, written between 1951 and 1956. This paper aims to trace their possible connection with the famed The House of Earth trilogy (1931-1935) by the American Nobel Prize Laureate, Pearl S. Buck. The results of analysis demonstrate notable correspondences between the respective novels of Hamzah Hussin and Pearl S. Buck on the level of issues raised and storyline. Both sets of novels also share the same central image of house/home, which provides the core development of plot. Additionally, the women characters are found to share commonalities in both sets of novels. It is hoped that this paper prompts future studies on the Occidental influences in Malay authors and literature. Keywords: Malay literature, American prose, novel, Hamzah Hussin, Pearl S. Buck, literary contacts, Occidental influence Abstrak Artikel ini memfokuskan isu hubungan luar kesusasteraan Melayu modern pada awal abad ke-20. Artikel ini memanfaatkan kaedah kesusasteraan bandingan dalam penelitian terhadap tiga novel terkenal penulis Melayu, Hamzah Hussin di antara tahun 1951 dan 1956. Artikel ini bertujuan untuk menjejaki kemungkinan hubungan dengan novel terkenal trilogi The House of Earth (1931-1935) oleh penulis Amerika dan pemenang hadiah nobel, iaitu Pearl S. Buck. Daripada analisis menunjukkan terdapat kaitan antara novel-novel Hamzah Hussin dan Pearl S. Buck tentang isu yang diutarakan dan jalan cerita. Novel kedua-dua penulis ini berkongsi tumpuan imej yang sama, iaitu rumah atau kediaman yang menyediakan asas pembangunan plot. Selain itu, watak wanita dalam novel mereka didapati berkongsi permasalahan yang sama. Diharapkan artikel ini mengundang kajian lanjutan pada masa akan datang terhadap pengaruh oksidental dalam karya penulis dan kesusasteraan Melayu. Kata kunci: Kesusasteraan Melayu, prosa Amerika, novel Hamzah Hussin, Pearl S. Buck, hubungan persuratan, pengaruh oksidental

The paper determines the essential nature of apperception, examines the evolution of the concept and its interpretation in economic literature. The study also reveals a connection between the theory of economic behavior within the behavioral theory and a psychological approach to accounting. The essential foundations of behavioral accounting are examined, the key development trends are outlined and the way apperception of information is included into the concept is identified. A behavioral approach attaches particular importance to the relevance of decisions taken when reporting information and accountants’ behavior in response to such information. It is proved that apperception has formed the basis of behavioral theory, which became the determining factor in the Anglo-Saxon concept of accounting in the early 60’s of the 20th century. The diversity of accounting principles and their contradiction, according to most American authors, is determined by the diverse and contradictory interests of individuals involved in economic activity. In order to harmonize these interests within the framework of a behaviorist approach, it is necessary to apply such components as communication, motivation and feedback. The behavioral theory is the basis for professional decision-making of accountants in response to uncertainties, events, information. As a rule, uncertainties in accounting arise from the impossibility to foresee in regulations all the unexpected situations that may be encountered in practice. Therefore, in legislation only general principles of problem-solving are specified, and accountants have to form their personal opinions and implement them in reporting.

AbstractFor archaeologists, stratification is an important character of archaeological deposits. Through it, layering is discerned and cultural and evolutionary interpretations are proposed. Archaeologists possess much implicit knowledge about the social practices that produce stratigraphic sequence and the specific, contextualized manner in which layers were built upon or cut into previous deposits. The aim of this paper is to gather together and formalize this knowledge so as to codify conceptual ‘tools to think by’ when recording and interpreting stratigraphy. Relevant literature is widely dispersed and here can only be sampled; authors consider stratigraphy in terms of (1) techniques of terraforming, (2) processes enacted and (3) meaning and interpretation. Techniques and processes are discussed within larger social interpretations such as memory, history-building, forgetting, renewing, cleansing and destroying. Examples are drawn from the Turkish Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük and the ancestral Maya site of K'axob in Belize, Central America, to illustrate the applicability of an approach that here is called ‘social stratigraphy’. A practice-based history of stratigraphy – the recording and interpretation of strata – within archaeology is problematized in reference to codependence with geology, the deployment of labour and centralized authority within the emergent 19th- to early 20th-century field of archaeology. The contributions of and conflicts between British and American stratigraphic schools are considered in light of a potential rapprochement. Contested issues of cultural heritage – such as preservation of selected strata – suggest that thinking about stratigraphic sequence in social terms is more than an academic exercise.

The article considers one of the views on God existing within the modern Western literary tradition and out-side of religious systems. The image of God was chosen as a cultural phenomenon relevant for interpretation, which exists both in religious and secular discourse. The research involved the creative heritage of Robert Sheck-ley – one of the most popular authors of fantastic literature in the mid-20th century. The analysis was based on fantastic tales, since they provide the opportunity to prove all strategies for social behaviour, as well as different views on life. The image of God created by Sheckley was reconstructed using intertextual analysis, which helps identify original mythological and religious narratives and individual allusions. This provides the opportunity to define the features of Sheckley's individual fantastic theology and find the reasons for using the image of God in secular literature. The analysis revealed that the used religious names, denominations and plots bear only formal similarity with the traditional ones. They are used and interpreted arbitrarily. God is interpreted as being anthro-pomorphic, pragmatic, partial and not interested in the fate of his creation. Communication with God is described as commercialised and is built on the model of the consumer society. The works of Sheckley indicate the possibil-ity and necessity of contact between the man and God with the obligatory personal participation of the individual. The American writer creates texts that are modernised in terms of the plot using traditional Christian ideas about the spiritual development of people and the need to preserve the Christian value system as a universal one. In this connection, Sheckley offers possible behavioural models for the created image of God.

Introduction. The relevance of the research is connected with the need of modern Russian pedagogical science to study the patterns and features of the development of American public thought and pedagogy. The purpose of the study is to study the process of formation of the trend of pragmatism and efficiency in American public thought and pedagogy in the first half of the XX century. Methods and methodological approaches. The leading research methods are a critical analysis of the original scientific and pedagogical literature, mainly of the American authors, and a scientific and pedagogical interpretation of the information contained in the sources; comparative and historical methods, as well as an axiological approach that allows us to identify the value essence of the phenomena and facts. Results. The idea of practicality, entrepreneurship and efficiency was most clearly manifested in the United States, which was due to the rapid development of capitalism, large-scale production, mass entrepreneurship and scientific and technological progress. The fascination with efficiency increased public attention to those institutions of public life that were "suspected" of indelicacy and inefficient management. The school was declared an inefficient institution that could not stand comparison with industrial enterprises according to the criteria of efficiency and economy. Such a superficial understanding of the educational process was in the interests of those who would like to reduce the school budget, first of all, military monopolies. In American pedagogy, the definition of a busy person as a productive person making a visible and significant contribution to the common cause has appeared. Such a person has a rich imagination, is receptive to new things, shows a creative, innovative approach to solving life problems; shows responsibility in relationships with other people. A businesslike person is characterized by independence, perseverance, altruism, a high degree of self-control, a highly developed sense of understanding moral values, and an optimistic approach to life. The concepts of genius, talent, giftedness, according to J. F. Gilmore, are outdated. Instead, he proposed the term self-actualization, which, in his opinion, reflected the human desire for self-realization. Discussions. The philosophy and practice of pragmatism largely continues to determine school educational policy in the United States. One of the most important tasks of training J. E. Davis and F. M. Hetchinger proclaimed the ability to "look good in case of changes", the acquisition of skills that can be sold on the labor market. The presence of these skills should allow the individual to integrate into society, adapt to life. An important way to achieve these objectives was the revision of school curricula in the direction of their greater practical orientation. E. Thorndike supported the idea of reducing the proportion of general education subjects, referring to practical needs. He put into practice the idea that mathematics, physics, chemistry and natural science are equivalent in importance to such applied subjects as home economics, cooking, shorthand, sewing, chemistry in everyday life. As a result, the list of academic disciplines was significantly expanded in secondary school. Among them are driving a car, small aviation, personal hygiene, mental hygiene, people's relationships, child care, writing plays, amateur theater, educational radio and television. Those who tried to criticize the current situation with the content and number of subjects were declared backward people whose views do not correspond to practical America. The pragmatists J. A. Logsdon, V. M. Kerensky, M. Kig, F. Koppel, M. Kohler and others proclaimed "both the alphabet and the road to the ticket office", i.e. both knowledge and their practical application in life. At the same time, they clearly preferred teaching practical skills, even without deep theoretical knowledge. Conclusions. The philosophy and practice of pragmatism have largely determined and continue to determine the policy of school education in the United States. The scientific novelty of the study lies in a meaningful analysis of the scientific views of a number of American pragmatists, who had not previously been the subject of careful study by domestic comparative educators. At the same time, the study of the views of the leading teachers of the USA is relevant and important for Russian science due to their undoubtedly significant influence on the formation of the global educational space. The prospects for further research are connected with the study of the scientific attitudes of modern American scientists and educators.

The first decade of the 20th century witnessed two revolutions in the world of arts: firstly, the upcoming of Avant-Garde art, and secondly - the birth of cinematic art. In painting, architecture and literature new revolutionary languages actually finalized the process of onthologisation which has begun much earlier. ttis process signaled its appearance with Modernity itself and reached its climax in the late 19 th century. We can observe since then a new species of artists whose artworks actually defy ideological meanings. Meanings and messages of artworks clearly distance themselves from convictions shared by authors. Visual and verbal arts as well as important strata of musical and theatrical productions embrace the discourse of Nature and Universe (i. e. primary components of Being). Avant-garde art makes the final accent in this development of Modernity. tte newly born film art seems to compensate functions ignored or denied by other artistic activities. Cinematic productions start realizing the human and cultural tasks (ideological propaganda, sentimental comfort, entertainment and other social functions). Elite-bound taste and high cultural pretentions seemingly fall out in early cinema. tte break-through in film art reaches its peak around 1910 parallel to the upheaval of Early Avant-Garde in painting. Handling of camera, constructing of visual field, as well as experimental boundlessness in space-and-time transformations bring the socially acceptable film narrative to the kind of onthological explosion on screen. In fact, film language itself (independently from any ideology or sociability) develops new methods of seeing. A decade before film art would enter its stormy marriage with Surrealism, masters of the screen already detected ways of hypnotic charm and irrational hurricane passing before our eyes. As examples of such inherent onthologization of means in film art we can see the structure itself of the picture and deliriumlike narration in several early films, i. e. Cabiria directed by Italian Giovanni Pastrone in 1914 as well as American masterpiece of 1915 - The Birth of a Nation by D.W. Griffith.

Nowadays, the problem of the representation of multiculturalism in modern poetry needs special consideration. Our research is devoted to the investigation of the specific features of the multicultural component in the poetry of Langston Hughes. The main tasks of the paper are to investigate such notions, as «multiculturalism», «realia», «national identity» and «blues»; and to analyze the linguistic and cultural specificity of Hughes’ poetry. Multiculturalism is a term that came into usage after the idea of a “melting pot». Such scholars as Glazer, Hollinger, and Taylor have been investigating this term. Multicultutralism is the way in which different authors maintain their identity through their work while educating others on their cultural ideas. Multicultural literature is oriented around issues of race, ethnicity, gender, etc. Multicultural American literature of the 20th century resonates with the hopes and fears of the whole of American history and reflects the rich complexity and variety of the American experience. James Mercer Langston Hughes, an American writer who was an important figure in the Harlem Renaissance and made the African American experience the subject of his works. His writings ranged from poetry and plays to novels and newspaper columns. We would like to pay special attention to Langston Hughes’ poetry. «The Negro Speaks of Rivers» was the first poem published in Langston Hughes’s long writing career. The poem first appeared in the magazine Crisis in June of 1921 and was subsequently published in Hughes’s first volume of poetry, The Weary Blues, in 1926, written when he was only 19. «The Negro Speaks of Rivers» as well as the rest of his works treats themes Hughes explored all his life: the experiences of African Americans in history, black identity and pride. Multiculturalism is connected with the notion of realia. It is a linguistic phenomenon, which refers to the culture-specific vocabulary. The works of such well-known scientists, as S. Vlahov, S. Florin, I. Kashkin, A. Fedorov have been central in the study of this issue. The key factor in defining any phenomenon as realia is national referring to the object of a certain country, nation, or social community. National identity is not an inborn trait. It is essentially socially constructed. A person's national identity results from the presence of elements from the «common points» in people's daily lives: national symbols, colors, nation's history, blood ties, and so on. We can find all these aspects (geographical realia, proper names, and many others) in the work of Langston Hughes. While analysing the poems of Langston Hughes we discover that his language is closely connected with the culture. Thus, the idea of multicultural writing is that racial and ethnic minority voices are a crucial element in United States literary history and culture

The traditional culture existing in the city experienced considerable changes in the course of the last century. Rather than comprising continuous, gradual development, this change involved several radical cultural shifts, taking place in the 20th century (e. g. in the beginning of the century, in the 1960s, and 1990s). The article compares the urban, social and cultural changes in order to determine periods when the traditional culture experienced the most crucial transformations and when various new phenomena appeared. A clear shift in the urban culture took place in the 1960s in Lithuania, when a political “warming” of sorts could be felt and the pressure of the communist ideology was somewhat lighter. The economic growth was followed by the formation of the consumer society (although a rather different one from that emerging in the liberal countries), taking place in Vilnius, Kaunas, and other cities. The 1960s and the subsequent decades were characterized by a considerable variety of the urban culture in Lithuania, especially in its capital city. In the musical sphere, the state-supported academic music, the professionally performed folk music, and the show music were particularly thriving; but performances of jazz, rock and authentic folklore also gained momentum.The Lithuanian Folklore Theater, which started its activity in 1968 in Vilnius, can be presented as a typical example of the altered tradition. Director of this theater Povilas Mataitis and his wife, scenographer Dalia Mataitienė managed to achieve a subtle harmony between the folk tradition and their individual artistic expression, uniting in their performances elements of folklore and the modern art, and using small artistic forms, so typical to the folk art, to create complicate ambivalent compositions. Nevertheless, the stylistic shifts of the 1960s were best reflected in the rock music. The swinging two-part rhythm and open expressions of the individual feelings embodied a radical stylistic change at that time (although such means of expression are completely common and trivial today). Starting from the 1960s these innovations affected not only the urban composers, but also the folksong creators at the countryside.The significant cultural shift took place also after the Lithuanian independence was regained in 1990. The Soviet past was rejected, the Western notion of culture was willingly adopted, and the patterns of cultural life and financing were increasingly altered. The formerly state-supported cultural institutions and performers had to adapt to the free-market. At first, the cultural shift of the 1990s resembled an avalanche: the former unified whole – the coherent image of the national culture created during the Soviet times was shattered. Composers and authors plagued by various difficulties found respite, though, in the new kinds of the available information, the opened possibilities of getting to know the global culture, which had been hitherto almost impossible to gain access to. The epoch of postmodernity, characterized by free associations between various historical and cultural signs, was favorable to the continuation of traditions; therefore various transformations of folklore quickly appeared, musical styles from different periods and nations were abundant, and all sorts of their hybrids were created. A new thing establishing itself on the Vilnius pavement was hip hop – the Afro-American music and life style, born in the suburbs of New York. It was increasingly adopted and furthered by the Vilnius inhabitants, born in the concrete districts of the city, whose youth coincided with the years of the post-Soviet economic “shock-therapy”.The traditional music found its place in the city as well, growing as a moss on a stone. It is now performed both in the great ceremonious halls and in the small, stuffy premises, or simply outside during spring and summer. The city of the 21st century is characterized by such cultural phenomena as urban folklore, bard songs, live music, street music, post-folklore, indigenous culture, Baltic music, pagan art, improvisational music, underground music, etc. Urban tradition is a multifaceted and a multileveled one, its continuation constantly involves connecting different musical styles and respective communities.In the urban environment, the preservation of the folk music is no longer the concern of exclusively the representatives of the folklore movement; authors of different kinds are also involved, including the jazz and rock musicians, visual artists, IT specialists, and actors. Nowadays, the third generation is gradually involved into the urban folklore movement, as its pioneers, having already become grandparents, bring their grandchildren into the same halls and yards of the Old Town, where they used to perform in their youth. At the same time, new cultural wave created by the contemporary young people rises from the underground clubs, multimedia or electronic music labs, and artistic workshops. The young keep always creating something new, but this should not be regarded as a threat to the preservation of the urban folk tradition.

Introduction. Based on the analysis of Chinese scholars’ works in the field of area studies, such problem as the uneven development of the territory of China has been identified. Intense social and economic transformations in China at the end of the 20th century influenced the emergence of regional problems, the solution of which was possible only through the competent regional policy of the Chinese leadership. As part of the study of regional disproportionality, Chinese researchers highlight the characteristic features inherent in each of the provinces and autonomous regions of the Northeast, North, East, Central South, South West and North West regions of China. These research are based on the study of economic agglomeration, regional division and features of regional management. Methods. On the basis of the method of logical analysis, the features of the formation of regional knowledge in China within the framework of borrowing the theoretical and methodological base of Western European and American science of the region have been determined. The use of a systematic approach in the analysis of Chinese-language scientific literature revealed one of the key problems in the field of national regional studies of China, namely the problem of uneven regional development of China. Analysis. Analysis of Chinese-language scientific literature allows the author to identify four main groups of reasons: geographical, historical, cultural, economic, underlying the disproportionate regional development of China. The author analyzes scientific articles and monographs of leading Chinese scholars published not only in China, but also in the United States. The works of Chinese authors Bao Yuan, Wang Xuanxuan, Wei Yehua, Li Zhuni, Luo Yu, Lu Zunhua, Wu Peng, Hu Zhaoliang, Zhang Wei, Chiang Lexiang contain a comprehensive analysis of the imbalance of the socioeconomic development of China’s regions. Results. Results of this paper can be summarized in the following points: the study of the causes of uneven development of the territory of China will allow to more objectively perceive the origins of modern domestic regional problems in China and identify the features of the use of the results of scientific work of Chinese scientists in the formation of regional policy to eliminate socio-economic disproportion in the development of China.

Lexical analysis has always been a productive way to study discourse through the semiotic nature of the word and its ability to function as a link between language and reality. The purpose of the article is to explore the lexical level of the discourse of a serial killer character in order to reveal their psychological features and prove their authenticity in comparison with the lexicon research of real serial killers. This study is relevant because the number of thrillers with serial killers in American literature is growing every year, but the discourse of these characters is poorly studied and requires more attention from linguists. The article uses such research methods as the method of lexical and semantic analysis of language units to study the features of language nominations; method of semantic fields, for grouping language units according to their thematic affiliation in microfields; associative method for the distribution of language units to the corresponding microfields; structural method for the separation of units, their classification and interpretation.Results. In the process of lexical analysis of the discourse of the serial killers characters, the words of the characters were divided into three main groups: words denoting mental activity, psychological needs, physiological activity and security. These groups were divided into semantic fields in order to facilitate the process of research. The analysis showed that the largest group of words in most discourses (except for two characters) is a group denoting physiological activity and safety, which corresponds to a study of the lexicon of real serial killers conducted by J. Hancock, which shows that the most important for the life of serial killers is biological component. The lexicon of the two characters (Lecturer and Claiborne), which differ from others by the predominance of words denoting mental activity, can be explained by their high educational and professional level, which shows their high IQ, which is also a feature of real serial killers.Thus, we can conclude that the authors were able to portray the characters plausibly through their lexicon.Key words: discourse, lexicon, semantic field, term, character. Лексичний аналіз завжди був продуктивним способом вивчення дискурсу через семіотичну природу слова та його здатність функціонувати як сполучна ланка між мовою та реальністю. Ця стаття має на меті дослідити лексичний рівень дискурсу персонажа серійного вбивці, щоб розкрити його психологічні особливості та довести достовірність та правдоподібність змалювання його образу в порівнянні з дослідженнями лексикону справжніх серійних убивць. Таке дослідження є актуальним, оскільки в американській літературі з кожним роком зростає кількість трилерів, де ключовими фігурами є серійні вбивці, а от дискурс цих персонажів є маловивченим і вимагає більшої уваги лінгвістів.У статті використані такі методи дослідження, як метод лексико-семантичного аналізу мовних одиниць для вивчення особливостей мовних номінацій; метод семантичних полів, для групування мов-них одиниць за їх тематичною приналежністю в мікрополя; асоціативний метод для розподілу мовних одиниць до відповідних мікрополів; структурний метод для виокремлення одиниць, їх класифікації та інтерпретації.Результати. У процесі лексичного аналізу дискурсу персонажів серійних вбивць слова персонажів було розділено на три основні групи: слова, що позначають розумову діяльність, психологічні потреби, фізіологічну активність та безпеку. Ці групи були поділені на семантичні поля, щоб полегшити процес вивчення. Аналіз показав, що найбільша група слів у більшості дискурсів (крім двох персонажів) – це група, що позначає фізіологічну активність та безпеку, що відповідає дослідженню лексикону справжніх серійних вбивць, проведеному Дж. Хенкоком, яке показує, що найважливішим для життя серійних вбивць є біологічний компонент. Лексикон двох персонажів (Лектор і Клейборн), що відрізняються від інших перевагою слів, які позначають розумову діяльність, можна пояснити їхнім високим освітнім та професійним рівнем. Це засвідчує їхній високий коефіцієнт інтелекту, що також є особливістю справжніх серійних вбивць.Отже, можна зробити висновки, що авторам вдалося зобразити портрети персонажів правдоподібно через їх лексикон, що співвідноситься з дослідженнями лексикону реальних серійних вбивць. Завдяки лексичному аналізу дискурсу вдалося розкрити психологічні особливості характерів персонажів.Ключові слова: дискурс, лексикон, семантичне поле, термін, персонаж.

Как известно, в современных условиях в большинстве государств законодательно предусмотрены меры обособления органов одной власти от другой, с той целью, чтобы она ограничивалась собственной компетенцией и, в конечном счете, не допустить нарушений полномочий каждого органа в отдельности. Однако, следует учитывать, что соотношение между полномочиями органов всех ветвей государственной власти определяется в конституции в строгом соответствии с господствующим пониманием в данном государстве сущности демократии и народоправства. В литературе также принято ссылаться на американский парламентаризм, который в течение двух столетий развивается в условиях двухпартийной системы. В Соединенных Штатах Америки подобный механизм способствует тому, что демократам и республиканцам с определенной степенью частоты удается попеременно сменять друг друга. В этом отношении картина политической борьбы между партией, преобладающей в конгрессе, и главой государства, представляющим противоположную силу, содержит черты, которые в крайне невыгодном свете отражают особенности американской политической жизни. Достаточно вспомнить ожесточенные схватки между Президентом США Дональдом Трампом (республиканцем) и палатой представителей Конгресса, где преобладали демократы. В столь ожесточенной борьбе дело доходило до процедуры импичмента, вершиной же подобного противостояния стало то, что больше месяца американцы не могли получить официальные результаты итогов выборов нового главы государства. Авторы статьи делают вывод о том, что следует стремиться к тому, чтобы в представительном учреждении депутаты различных политических партий постоянно взаимодействовали, а не противостояли друг другу. Подобный подход будет способствовать реализации всех законодательно закрепленных функций парламента. В этом нам видится один из главных инструментов, который позволит преодолеть парадокс XX века, когда теория разделения властей на практике подчас приобретала центробежный характер. Obviously, in modern conditions in most states, legislative measures are provided for separating the bodies of one government from another, in order to limit it to its own competence and, ultimately, to prevent violations of the powers of each body separately. However it should be borne in mind that the correlation between the powers of the bodies of all branches of state power is determined in the constitution in strict accordance with the prevailing understanding in the given state of the essence of democracy and the rule of the people. In the literature, it is also customary to refer to American parliamentarianism, which has been developing in a two-party system for two centuries. In the United States of America, this arrangement encourages Democrats and Republicans to alternate with a certain degree of frequency. In this regard, the picture of the political struggle between the dominant party in Congress and the head of state representing the opposite force contains features that reflect in an extremely unfavorable light the peculiarities of American political life. Suffice it to recall the fierce battles between US President Donald Trump (Republican) and the Democratic-dominated House of Representatives. In such a fierce struggle, the matter came to the impeachment procedure, the peak of such a confrontation was that for more than a month the Americans could not get the official results of the election of the new head of state. The authors of the article conclude that one should strive to ensure that in a representative institution the deputies of various political parties constantly interact, and not oppose each other. This approach will contribute to the implementation of all legislatively enshrined functions of the parliament. Thus, we see one of the main tools that will allow us to overcome the paradox of the 20th century, when the theory of separation of powers in practice sometimes acquired a centrifugal character.

Background. The children’s opera in all its diversity has undergone a rapid path to its formation and development, responding to changes in the art and aesthetic space of musical culture. The active being and the practical use of this phenomenon only emphasize the gaps in musicology science more acutely. Some researchers combine with the notion of «children’s opera» both works that involve children to participate in the performing process, and those which are aimed at a certain age audience. Other authors put the term «opera for children» as universal, but use it to describe various works. However, if the information about this genre is contained in the scientifi c literature, research on opera for children-performers analogue, children’s operetta which was formed and used by considerable demand in the late 19th – in the fi rst half of the 20th century in the English-speaking countries, is practically absent. This determines the relevance of the chosen subject. Objectives. The objective of this study is to consider the features of the libretto, the compositional and dramaturgical properties of the children’s operetta by J. L. Gaynor The House that Jack Built as one of the English-language samples of the genre. Methods. So far these methods were been applied: historical, structural and functional, comparative. Results. It is diffi cult to indicate the exact date of the children’s operetta emergence. It is known from available literature that it became widespread in the 1880s. In the following decades, the popularity of children’s operettas does not fade, rather, it only grows. The school authorities even were worried about such an intensity of extracurricular work. However, this fact did not affect the number of performances. There are books containing instructions and guidance, tips on probable diffi culties that could be faced by fi rst-time directors. In particular, it was recommended to divide responsibilities between school departments and draw up a general plan of action. Attention was paid to organizing an advertising campaign to attract as many viewers as possible. With such performance enthusiasm, there was a certain lack of repertoire written specifi cally for children and adolescents. Not surprisingly, the music teachers sought to replenish it. Among them was an American piano and harmony teacher Jessie Lovel Smith Gaynor (1863–1921) who composed The House that Jack Built (1902). This is not the only sample of children’s operetta in the heritage of J. L. Gaynor, she wrote a few more works, mostly after fairy tales: The Lost Princess Bo-Peep (its plot matches Jack’s one), The Toy Shop, Snow White, The Magic Wheel, Three Wishes, The Return of Proserpina, and On Plymouth Rock. The libretto of The House that Jack Built, written by A. G. D. Riley, is compiled on the basis of nursery rhymes, which are an integral part of the English-speaking countries culture. The operetta includes 24 folklore texts (full or fragmented): poems, two counters, and a ballad. To organize the plot, the librettist used the «stringing» method, or the cumulative principle, joining each subsequent element to the previous one with the help of the Mother Goose’s recitative lines. She is the key character, who greets and introduces new guests at her party. This principle is refl ected in the organization of the whole operetta. Mother Gooses’ cues are a refrain similar to the poem The House that Jack Built. Each character is not related to the previous one or the next, they are united only by belonging to the images of folk poetry. Since the libretto is mainly based on miniatures (with one or two verses), there are many participants of the performance: 43 characters, 21 thrushes, and collective characters, the number of which is not specifi ed precisely. There is no plot in common sense – as a series of related events built in accordance with certain principles – in The House that Jack Built. Rather, it reminds the carnival procession, in which characters are appearing one by one. They have bright, sometimes extravagant costumes, which vary with the speed of the pattern in the kaleidoscope. The structure of the operetta is simple and clear. It consists of two acts, divided into 19 big numbers (9 in the fi rst action, 10 in the second), which are often built in the form of a suite. The balance among solo-ensemble and choral numbers in The House that Jack Built is unequal. The choruses prevail in the operetta (there are about 20 of them). It is diffi cult to name the exact number because the author does not always clarify the exact cast. Solo and ensemble numbers are 4 times fewer; in addition, there are 2 numbers in the 2d act, in which the soloist and choir sing together. To achieve compositional and dramatic unity, there was a need to involve additional means in addition to the cross-cutting image of Mother Goose, since the Jack’s plot is deprived of the consistent development of events. This function is performed by several themes: «fairy tale» (in the future it is associated with the appearance of fairies and elves), «pastoral» (its emergence is marked by the remark Andante Pastorale), the theme of Jack, the dance motive, and the theme of King Cole. They are exhibited in the overture for the fi rst time. When the act begins, they are joined by the themes of Mother Goose and Thrushes. For the fi rst time, most of the themes are conducted in the overture. This determines the suite character of its structure: 6 episodes that contrast with each other by tempo. The piano part plays an important role in the operetta. It presents the leading themes, the main image-bearing and poetic motives, and supports the performers in the vocal appearances. The revealed signs give grounds to consider the English-language children’s operetta a national model of opera for children-performers. Conclusions. In the English-speaking countries, particularly in the USA, at the end of the 19th – in the fi rst half of the 20th century the tradition to perform operettas at schools was formed. This works from their form and contents were similar to compositions which were called children’s operas (operas for children-performers) in Europe. An analysis of The House that Jack Built by J. L. Gaynor allows us to interpret the author’s genre name in its original linguistic meaning – «small opera». A signifi cant number of such works still remain beyond the attention of scholars and require a thorough study both in historical and in theoretical directions.

The article seeks to sum up all that has been said on the subject of professional criminality in the past half-century. It was never any part of the author’s aim to offer an analysis of contemporary professional crime. He viewed his task in much more modest terms. First of all he presents the origins of professional crime in a historical perspective and adduces the traditional definitions of the phenomenon dating to the first decade of the 20th century. Next he addresses the issue of empirical determination of the scale of professional crime and presents more recent approaches to description of this kind of criminality and attempts to define the concept of professional criminal. In an account with a primarily sociological focus the emphasis is on the origins of professional criminality seen as one of many mechanisms regulating the behavior of individuals. Historical sources indicate that professional criminality made its appearance during the late Middle Ages when feudal social structures were overtaken by a process of disintegration. The rise of this type of crime was made possibile by the materialization of conducive social and economic conditions such as changes in social structure and mass production. Professional crime is a product of modern societies, which employ money and produce surpluses of goods. In primitive societies there are not enough goods in the possession of the average citizen for the professional criminal to make a livelihood from larceny and for this occupation to be viable as one of the forms of organized social activity. Scholars did not discern this problem until the end of the 19th century. The first one to introduce the idea of the professional criminal to the language of criminology, law and sociology was F. Liszt. This was at a time when lawyers, anthropologists and sociologists were engaged in debates and arguments on the subject of repeated criminality and ways of tackling crime of this type. It was then that there came the first definition of professional criminality. There was agreement among many analysts of that period that the most important thing was to recognize that wrongdoers polish their expertise in the art of committing crime and make such activities a permanent source of income. Simultaneously, in the United States there came the beginnings of in-depth studies of social phenomena, including crime, pioneered by the Chicago School. One result of the new investigative approach was the first studies of professional crime, notably Edwin Sutherland’s well-known work The Professional Thief. The traditional definition of the concept of professional criminal derives precisely from this period, that is the first half of the 19th century. Though investigations in Europe and the United States followed a variety of directions the findings with regard to the principal characteristics of professional criminals were substantially similar. The basic characteristic was seen to be the fact that professional criminals earn their living from committing crimes, which means that the time normally devoted to employment is in their case devoted to planning and carrying out criminal activities. A second salient characteristic was possession of the requisite knowledge, skills and experience in the field of criminal activity. Another influence on this kind of career choice is a sense of identification with the criminal world and a hostile attitude to the representatives of law and order although the professional criminal also knows how to deal with them in a crisis situation (e.g. arest). Despite the existence of a host of writings on the subject of professional criminality and agreement among many authors about its principal characteristics, voices questioning the existence of such a category as the professional criminal continue to make themselves heard. The aforementioned works also includes ones whose authors attempted empirical verification of the existence of such a category of criminals and determination of the scale of professional criminality as a social phenomenon. Here investigation encountered obstacles as it was found that the more or less generally accepted definition of professional criminal did not easily lend itself to the process of operationalization. None the less, as a result of research conducted in various countries, in various periods and by diverse methods scholars have succeeded in establishing that professional criminality does exist and is a widespread phenomenon rather than the elite occupation that it might appear to be based on the proposed definitions. Students of the subject suggest that the number of persons meeting the definition (even in its simplest version) should be estimated in thousands rather than double digits. Professional criminality is from a legal point of view a phenomenon of no interest. The commission of a crime by a perpetrator who can be characterized as a professional criminal does not in most cases weigh for anything in determining the degree of criminal responsibility. However, professional crime is of interest as a social phenomenon, which explains why the literature on the subject is dominated by works with a typically sociological approach. Scholarly inquiry revolved around a number of problems which in terms of the intrinsic nature of the phenomenon discussed here are of the essence. Of these the most important are the relationship between professional criminals and their social environment and with the wider community, their attitude to law enforcement agencies, social status, rationalization of their behavior, and the machinery of recruitment to this group. Though the relations between the criminal and the “occupational” group take a diversity of forms, it is those of a normative character which are of overriding significance. It is thanks to the criminal group that he acquires professional criminal status and the group which lays down the system of rulet for the criminal’s social and professional conduct and which forms the natural infrastructure for criminal activity. On the other hand, every criminal is also a member of society to which he is connected by a multiplicity of ties. If he is to function in the community at all normally, even if it is only on the fringes of social life, he has somehow to rationalize his behavior which is, at bottom, directed against society. The most frequent way in which he does this is by questioning the honesty of all other participants in the social situation or by moral disparagement of his victim. There is no agreement among scholars on the question of nature of the professional criminal’s attitude to “normal” society. Some maintain that it is negative, others that it is positive. The former stress the fact that a negative attitude is a simple consequence of employing rationalization mechanisms which place the perpetrator of crimes in a conflict or at best hostility relationship with society. According to the opposite school of thought professional criminals try to maintain the best possible relations with society and are sympathetically disposed towards it since its success and well-being are for them a guarantee of rich pickings. However, there is a special relationship between professional criminals and the representatives of law enforcement. A natural consequence of their chosen career is that they are in a state of permanent conflict with the guardians of law and order. However, conflict does not necessarily mean enmity. Police officers regard the elite of the criminal world with a peculiar kind of respect, especially thieves who do not resort to violence. Though professional criminals treat police officers or prison guards as their adversaries they acknowledge their superiority at the moment of apprehension. They then go out of their way to gain an officer’s favor and will not shrink from attempting bribery and occasionally even passing on information. The normative character of the professional criminal’s relations with the criminal group means that the machinery of recruitment of new members becomes the crux of the matter. On this point, too, researchers’ opinions are divided. There are those who contend that the phenomenon of recruitment exists and that it is the crucial element in the creation of occupational identity and internalization of group norms. The critics of this view readily cite empirical data which indicate that criminals themselves deny the existence of a phenomenon of recruitment and its performance of any kind of regulatory function. The so-called traditional method of defining professional crime, given currency by European legal theorists and American sociologists in the first half of the 19th century, has come under criticism in recent decades. Researcher representing various theoretical schools have gathered empirical evidence that calls in question the existence of a category of professional criminals who make their living solely from crime, specialize in one kind of crime and are closely connected with the criminal world, the latter being their point of reference and source of norms and rules of conduct. The reality seems to be more complicated. Among criminals there are some who are beyond question professionals and specialists in some area of activity but have never belonged to any sort of criminal community. There are also felons who have strong links to criminal groups but engage in a diversity of criminal activity and do not aspire to any form of specialization. It is becoming increasingly frequent to treat the criminal community not as a reference group but as a natural infrastructure for criminal activity. A question that arises in this context concerns the connections between professional crime and organized crime which for years was treated by criminology as a separate and distinct phenomenon. In the crime patterns of recent decades there have also appeared other developments (car theft, cybercrime) with respect to which the traditional method of defining professional crime has proved useless. The questions raised and the doubts voiced have confronted criminology with the necessity of redefining professional criminality. However, if the phenomenon is viewed in a somewhat broader perspective it has to be noted that one of the most important challenges for contemporary criminology might prove to be reorientation of theoretical reflection on the subject of definition and classification of criminal behavior in general and by the same token reorientation of our way of thinking about construction of typology of crime.

The interest in political crime has been growing in the Polish doctrine of penal law and criminology of the 1980's. In 1982, the Institute of Penal Law of Warsaw university organized a conference dealing with the problems of political crime and the status of political prisoners. In 1984, the works of J. Kubiak and S. Hoc were published, with those of T. Szymanowski and S. Popławski to follow during the next two years. In 1986, articles by Z. Ciepiński and S. Pawela appeared in the organ of the Academy’s of Internal Affairs Institute of Law, and the Learned Society for Penal Law devoted one of its 1987 session to the problems of political crime. The present paper formulates and develops the main threads of the lectures delivered in 1982 and 1987 by the present authors. Accepting the opinions of O. Kirchheimer and S. Schafer, classical in a sense, as to the extreme complexity of political crime and the impossibility of formulating a universal criterion basing on which such crime might be distinguished, we give an outline of the chief elements of that interesting social phenomenon. The oldest Roman legal constructions of proditio and perduellio were transformed during the period of empire into crimen leasae maiestatis, an institution that was to persist for centuries to come in the shape of offences against state or the ruler. The origins of the modern history of political crime as a separate legal category date back to the end of the 18th century and the changes brought about by the French Revolution. In the early half of the 19th century, France and Belgium were the first to grant to political offences a privileged status among prohibited acts, introducing the competence of assizes, a separate system of penalties, and abolishing death penalty towards political offenders; this also took place in several other European countries. The privilege of political offences was based mainly on their distinct motives and their perpetrators personality traits. The 19th-century optimism and romanticism of approach towards political crime paled in the late half of the century as the surge of anarchistic and revolutionary movements grew. The legal status of a political offender started to worsen; the great 20th-century dictatorships were tragic to their real and supposed antagonists, treated with particular severity so as to terrify the citizens. In about two centuries of modern history, the legal category of political offence went through all possible extremes: now the time has come to reconsider it. A general, universal and timeless definition of political offence does not seem possible, even the most extreme of its forms being relativistic. Offenders called by some ,,terrorists’’ are ,,fighters for liberty’’ in the eyes of others. On the other hand, state terror is sometimes given the neutral name of ,,special operation’’ or ,,new policy’’. Last of all, one might also say quoting the extreme section of radical criminology that there is a political entanglement to all offences, administration of justice being an instrument of politics. Also the opposite is sometimes contended, namely, that political crime does not exist at all, enemies of the system being common criminals or madmen. There is also a marked trend to exclude terrorism, war crimes, and genocide from the discussed definition. In international law, the notion of political crime is purely functional: the separate states base on it when refusing extradition and granting political asylum. As regards the internal penal legislation, some states only distinguish political offence as a legal notion. There are in the doctrine of penal law three basic methods of defining that notion. According to the objective approach, the kind good being assaulted constitutes the essence of political crime: thus the group of such acts is restricted to direct attempts against the state's basic political interests only. According to the second conception, the subjective one political crime is any prohibited act committed for political motives or to political end. The third, mixed theory consists in taking both these aspects into account: the interest protected by law and the perpetrator's ideological motivation or aims which cannot be recognized as censurable. Additionally, the preponderance or domination theory allows for a punishable act to be recognized as a political offence if political elements prove to have predominated in the given circumstances, aims, and motives. Robert Merton's was the most successful attempt to characterize a political (nonconformist) offender. Contrary to the common offender, his political counterpart 1) makes no effort whatever to hide his infringement of norms he repudiates or questions as to their legal validity; 2) he wants to replace the norms he considers wrong with other norms based on a different moral foundation; 3) his aims are completely or largely disinterested; 4) he is commonly perceived as quite different a person than a common offender. If we broaden the notion of ,,nonconformist" by adding adjectives like ,,religious" and ,,ethical" to it, we bring it closer to that of ,,convictional criminal" used by Schafer and of ,,prisoner of conscience" used by the Amnesty International. The radical trends in sociology and criminology of the recent decades brought an important element to change the aproach to political crime: an opinion is promoted that the state itself is the main source of that crime as it may use every possible legal norm and institution to fight its opponents. As opposed to the two countries where the conception of political criminals separate status was born, France and Belgium - discussed particularly broadly by the authors of lectures - the United States repudiate in their law and law courts decisions the existence of political crime. Instead, there is ,,civil disobedience'' which, together with the specifically American constitutional mechanisms, constitutes an instrument of the struggle for the protection of civil rights and liberties. The fact is stressed in the legal and criminological literature that a refusal to recognize the political character of acts that deserve such recognition contributes to the discredit of administration of justice as the establishment's political instrument. At the same time, various methods of illegal ,,neutralization" of political opponents are brought to light, including the so-called dirty tricks of the FBI and the different forms of abuse of authority by the CIA. In Great Britain, there is according to the official standpoint no political crime in the light of penal law. But the problem itself does exist in practice which is evidenced among others by the quest - a feverish one at times - after the measure to control the difficulties resulting from it; among such measures, there are administrative acts or on appropriate interpretation of the existing regulations, e.g. rules of imprisonment. The doctrine of penal law and criminology do not seem too interested in the discussed problem; its treatment by L. Radzinowicz and R. Hood is no doubt an exception, particularly if we consider the fates of the activists of the three socio-political movements before World War I: Chartists who fought for workmen’s rights, Fenians who demanded the grant of rights to the Irish, and suffragists. Despite the fact that the problem is only treated in its historical aspect, materials of immediate interest can be drawn from its analysis. In the Federal Republic of Germany, political crime lacks a separate status: yet a growth in the interest in such crime can be observed. This was particularly true in the seventies and was due to the activities of terrorist groups and to students protests. Also G. Radbruch’s conception of ,,convictional criminal’’ plays a certain part there, among intellectuals with leftist tendencies above all. Also in that country, the discussion grows especially important about the relation between the powerful and the powerless. Another significant point is H. J. Schneider’s demand for the problems of political crime to be granted a privileged position in criminological research. Considering the aspects of that crime in their broad interpretation, Schneider found it possible to include both terrorism and genocide in his discussion; thus, for the first time ever, a profound treatment of Nazi crimes was included in the West-German criminology. In Poland, after the country regained independence in 1918, several different laws were in force for over ten years concerning political crime and prisoners, in a difficult internal situation. In 1931, uniform rules of imprisonment entered into force which provided for no mitigation for political prisoners. The penalty of arrest, introduced by the 1932 penal code admittedly included certain elements of the status of a political prisoner, but the opposition’s struggle for its proper formulation went on till the outbreak of World War II. After the war, ,,counter-revolutionaries’’ and ,,traitors of the nation’’ were treated with utmost severity. This situation in which political opponents were so treated on a mass scale ended with the fall of Stalinism. The recent Polish discussion about the notion and status of political prisoner dates from the events of 1980-1981. Many were not aware at that time that there had been in the 1970’s in Poland a partial legal regulation of the special status of persons defined as perpetrators of political offences. It followed from the fact that Poland ratified in 1958 the ILO Convention No. 105 and that in consequence, the Minister of Justice issued an appropriate order. In the provisions of the decree (issued on the imposition of martial law on December 13, 1981) on remittal and forgiveness of certain offences, those ,,committed for political reasons’’ were mentioned amond others. Thus the lawyers could argue that the notion of political offence was know to the legislator, the only problem consisting in providing a more detailed legal regulation of that sphere. But the authorities chose a different solution. At the beginning, those convicted of the sc-called ,non-criminal" acts were granted an actual (and not legal) status of political prisoners. Later on, most of such persons were released from prison by the terms of the succeeding amnesty acts. in 1986, the Act on ,,decriminalization'' transferred the competence to decide in most of those cases to misdemeanour courts. The interest in the problems of political crime, increased since 1982, still persists in the circles of the Polish doctrine of penal law and criminology. There is a general trend to give that notion a broader interpretation as compared with the present doctrine of penal law which practically limits its range to offences against the state's basic political and economic interests only. We believe the Polish doctrine of penal law; criminology and legislation in Poland now face at least three basic questions: 1) whether to introduce into the law a special status of political offenders and prisoners in its traditional construction; 2) whether to recognize similarly a privileged legal situation of a larger group of ,,ideological nonconformists" mentioned by the ILO Convention No. 105;3) whether and to what extent to include in the notion of political offence the prohibited acts committed by state functionaries while exercising authority.

This article is dedicated to the study of intermediary translations of children’s literature into Eastern Armenian in the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries. Juvenile Periodicals such as Aghbyur and Hasker were prominent publications during the late 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century and featured a wide range of literary works, including translations of foreign literature. This study is focused on the translations of English literature, however, other languages are also considered. These periodicals, along with others, were important sources of literature and education for Armenian children. They contributed to the development of Armenian children’s literature, fostered a love for reading, and played a vital role in preserving Armenian cultural identity. Additionally, Armenian authors and educators adapted and retold European children’s stories to make them more accessible and relatable to Armenian audiences. This practice allowed for the cultural exchange of ideas and the incorporation of foreign literature into the Armenian literary landscape.

In one of the lectures a Russian philosopher said: philosophy today is literature. The noted philosopher in his statement relies on the ideas of the French (post)structuralism's. As you know, French thought in the mid-20th century influenced a variety of intellectual schools, from American literary studies to Russian academic philosophy in the 1990s. Literature-centered approach characteristic of modern philosophy. The process of centering on literature is not started in the XX century. Since the eighteenth century, France, Russia, and Germany have been plunging into the worlds of literature on the verge of philosophy or philosophy on the verge of literature. The idea was presented in a variety of ideological formats from socialism and liberalism to conservatism. And if ideologically, more or less, the authors can be identified, then it is impossible to give a clear answer to the question of who all these people are, writers or philosophers. This article analyzes the phenomenon of fantastic conservatism. Conservative values in Western and Russian science fiction literature are analyzed.

The role and representation of women has been one of the central issues in the societal, aesthetical, philosophical processes of the 20th and 21st centuries, so much so, that it became a turning point of sorts in the development of Western civilization and in shaping it to its current form. Even today, the topic of women remains a measure of the progress of a country, and is one of the main characteristics of social and cultural development. The voice of women, hardly heard in literature over the centuries, was even more silenced in colonized or foreign-dominated societies. The Soviet cultural policy significantly changed the direction of development of Georgian literature, and hindered modernist-avant-garde tendencies and attempts to express women’s genuine feelings and grievances in literature. The article studies the representation of women and gender roles in Georgian poetry of the Soviet thaw and onwards, as compared to the voice of women in the poetry of a number of prominent North American and Canadian poets. The article analyzes the works of Georgian poets who were selected mainly on the basis of the concepts of the national narrative and alternative narrative. In the late 20th century, the national narrative was the real driving force in the literature of Soviet-dominated Georgia, especially in poetry, as opposed to the official, imposed official Soviet narrative. The selected poets are studied in light of different concepts and hypotheses introduced by outstanding feminist scholars and writers. The results show that masculine discourse and double-voiced discourse can be observed in the poetry of Georgian male authors. The tendencies prevalent in the poetry of the Georgian men analyzed were influenced by the national motifs endorsed by both the Stalinist and post-Stalinist cultural policies from the Soviet center, and reinforced in Georgia after Sovietization. The patriotic and masculine tendencies of Georgian literature can be interpreted as an implicit reflection of the attempts of Georgian men to represent themselves as the owners of their land, and consequently their women, thus to oppose the reality of the Russian-Soviet colonization of Georgia. Écriture feminine and a protest against patriarchy is seen to prevail, alongside double-voiced discourse, in the works of female poets from the late 1950s onwards. The Georgian female poets have a lot in common with their North-American counterparts, but also differ from them by expressing their protest less overtly, a fact which changes over time. Écriture feminine in the poetry of the studied female poets, as well as the double-voiced discourse observed in the poetry of the representatives of both genders in Georgia, can be considered as part of the Alternative Narrative Culture. The developments of the 20th century still have an impact on Georgian literature, as well as other fields, in modern Georgia. The alternative narrative which prevails in Georgian literature of the 20th century is regaining momentum in the literature of independent Georgia, making it a full-fledged member of postmodern and post-colonial culture.

The paper focuses on the representation of women in several short stories by American women writers with a special emphasis on the notion of symbolic power or the power of representation. The theoretical framework is based on the works of cultural theorists such as Stuart Hall and Paul du Gay and their explanation and development of the notions of symbolic power and representation practices understood as the expressions of the power of words. Furthermore, Edward Said’s and Homi Bhabha’s considerations of the relationship between power and representation are juxtaposed with the feminist critics’ (Cixous, Irigaray, Gilbert and Gubar, Rivers, Gill) views on the importance of acquiring one’s own voice in the process of (self-)representation and (self-)empowerment via written narratives. The corpus consists of three short stories by important American women writers – Kate Chopin, Mary Wilkins Freeman and Susan Glaspell – written and published towards the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. The selected short stories are not only written by female authors but also feature main female characters and touch upon the issues of male/female power relations and the female voice and self representation, i.e. the power of words in the female narrative of the self. The analysis of the proposed corpus reveals common themes and narrative strategies used by female authors to address the issues of symbolic power and (self-)empowerment in line with some of the contemporary feminist debates and concerns.

As one of the notable figures in 20th Century American literature, F. Scott Fitzgerald has been studied widely by authors, critics, and historians alike. This paper addresses the role of Fitzgerald's time abroad in creating the inspiration for his work as well as Europe's part in catalyzing his eventual decline in the public eye. As a member of the so-called "Lost Generation" of American writers who took up residence in Paris during the 1920s, Fitzgerald was profoundly influenced by his peers, notably Ernest Hemingway. Another guiding factor in Fitzgerald's writing was the presence of Zelda, Fitzgerald's wife, whose mental illness placed both an emotional and financial strain on Fitzgerald. This paper examines the ups and downs of Fitzgerald's life while incorporating the analysis of several of his Europe-inspired works, including his last completed novel Tender is the Night and his famed short story "Babylon Revisited." Fitzgerald's life and work support the claim that Europe was fundamentally a double-edged sword - while Europe provided the thrilling lifestyle that fueled Fitzgerald's writing and widespread notoriety, it also brought about his ultimate disintegration.

Soviet contacts with African-American authors are an important part of both Soviet-Ame­rican literary contacts and African-American literature history. William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (1868–1963), the most prominent African-American thinker, writer, public figure of the 20th century, occupies a special place. He travelled to the USSR five times (1926, 1936, 1949, 1958–1959, 1962) and had repeatedly addressed the subject of Russia and the USSR in his letters, essays, and fiction. The incentive for Du Bois’ first visit to the USSR was his interest in the Revolution of 1917 and the Russian social experiment, namely, the solution to the race and ethnicity problem. The following visits allow tracing not only the evolution of Du Bois’ viewpoint (which became increasingly leftist), but also the development of his public and literary reputation in the Soviet Union — from wariness (for Du Bois being a liberal and unreliable associate) to honoring him as a major African-American classic and a great friend of the USSR. The fact that William Du Bois had joined the US Communist Party six month before his death and his relocation from the US to Ghana finalized the Soviet idealistic attitude towards the writer’s life. The essence of Du Bois’ journey was perceived as a gradual transition from errors and misconceptions to a more complete acceptance of Marxism-Leninism.

Abstract This essay explores the evolution and resilience of the shlemiel, a central figure in two millennia of Jewish culture. Rooted in biblical narratives, the shlemiel transitions eventually into a symbol of Yiddish and Eastern European diasporic life, embodying both comedic and tragic elements. Tracing his journey through cultural history, from German to Yiddish and modern Hebrew and American literature, theater, and film, the essay delves into the complexities of his character, rooted in folklore and revolving around mistaken identity. Themes of gender and sexuality, along with interpretative acrobatics add layers of ambiguity and complexity, shaping the shlemiel’s narrative in various literary and cultural contexts. Through a detailed analysis of works by authors ranging from Heinrich Heine through Sholem Aleichem, Franz Kafka, Saul Bellow, Philip Roth, to Sammy Gronemann, the essay demonstrates the shlemiel’s versatility and enduring presence in Jewish comedy. Moreover, it examines his role as both a pariah and an agent for social change, reflecting on his significance in different cultural landscapes, as he lands eventually in America and Palestine/Israel in the 20th century. By exploring adaptations and interpretations across time and place, this essay highlights the shlemiel’s resilience amidst shifting societal norms across the globe, offering insights into the enduring relevance of this iconic figure in Jewish literature and culture.

Magic realism is a disputed genre in world literature scholarship today. While many Latin American critics have advocated for its historical and geographical significance, others see it as an inherently postcolonial aesthetic formation, a worldwide literary trend, and even a global commodity. Indeed, since its emergence in the first half of the 20th century, magic realism has remained an attractive and active category, as new artworks are classified as such worldwide. To address these tensions, this essay engages with definitions, general information, and lists of authors and literary works classified as magic realists on Wikipedia. To do so, we compile a thorough database of all writers mentioned in Wikipedia’s entries for magic realism in fifty-six different languages. We visualize this data and close-read Wikipedia entries to understand better which writers are most often identified as magic realists, to which literary and linguistic traditions they belong, and how definitions of magic realism in different languages interact. We trace how the narrow and broad definitions of magic realism tend to both compete and overlap on Wikipedia. We argue that magic realism on Wikipedia can be better understood as a glocal phenomenon. In this sense, we reflect on what the worldliness of magic realism means in a non-academic context and ask how the broad circulation of magic realism can inform our understanding of world literature.

Abstract Introduction Skull base surgery has evolved from fundamental elements into a distinct multidisciplinary specialty. Using bibliometrics, we appraised the literature pertaining to skull base surgery since 1900 and studied the emergence of the specialty as a scholarly field. Methods We queried Web of Science for all content from past presidents of the North American Skull Base Society (N = 31) and their self-identified forebears, influences, contemporaries, and trainees (N = 115). Statistical and bibliometric analyses were performed using various Python packages on article metadata. Results Our query returned 28,167 articles. The most pertinent works (N = 15,529), identified algorithmically through an analysis of terms in titles, were published between 1900 and 2024 by 15,286 authors. The field exploded in the latter half of the 20th century, concurrently with increased interdisciplinary and international collaboration, and contemporaneously with the formation of centers of excellence and influential societies. Since 1950, prolific contributors to the field from neurosurgery, otolaryngology, radiology/radiation oncology, plastic surgery, and ophthalmology have increasingly subspecialized in skull base topics. The proportion of female authors in the corpus has grown from <1% in 1980 to 17% in 2023. We identify the articles that comprise the historical roots of modern skull base surgery, map the emergence of fundamental terminology within the corpus, and identify the authors who stand as key nodes of collaboration and influence. Conclusion The field of skull base surgery was born from pioneering individuals with training in varied disciplines. The coalescence of skull base surgery into a distinct and diversified subspecialty has been powered by dedicated collaborative efforts on a global scale.