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The method of constructing perspective was scientifically substantiated, explained and mathematically verified in the epoch of the Renaissance. This method was a real revolution in art, and it enabled artists to depict the world in a mirror image. In the article historical survey of perspective as a science is analyzed.
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The name of a famous German and Lithuania Minor dramatist and prosaist Herman Sudermann is related with the development and progress of the professional theatre. In 1920 the Lithuanian professional theatre started its activities when “Johannisfeuer” was staged after the writer’s drama. The article reviews the 85-year history of Sudermann’s prose and drama works staged in various Lithuanian theatres; it discusses the critics, evaluates the activities of theatre founders and their influence on theatre evolution in Lithuania.
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The methods of theoretical research used to analyse the question about Homer urgent in all times are presented in the paper. Attempts are made to systematise the portraits perpetuating the great Greek poet in art starting with antique times until present days. Leaving aside questions of art critics pieces of art are analysed from the aspect of sociology making efforts to get an insight into the reflection of historical reality and its influence on a human being who understands a blind person.
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The author of the paper has set a goal to present and substantiate a new approach towards the composer’s musical heritage. In the author’s opinion the composer’s genius features were opened in the so-called Unidentified Cycles of musical works. The research was initiated by the hypothesis that a spontaneous cyclic articulation of the composer’s works lies in their chronological sequence.
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The activities of the smallest unit of the LCAS, one section, in the diaspora is reviewed in the paper. Because of certain circumstance the section of architecture and art functioned only during conferences but the reports included in the LCAS publications evidence the analysed issues, significance of the works, the artists’ Christian world outlook, their ability to get involved in the life of a new society retaining one’s identity and linking traditionalism with development and growth.
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This article considers the issue of multiculturalism in a specific example of small towns, namely the “shtetl”, which in the Yiddish language means town, a diminutive of ‘sztot’, meaning city. Shtetls were the main dwelling places of Ashkenazi Jews in Poland and in Russia, accounting for up to 70-80% of the population in these small urbanities. Th ese enclosed towns allowed for the preservation and thriving of Jewish culture and traditions, where Jews were in the majority and could freely shape the social-cultural ways of life of the town. The ethos of the pious Jews dominated, dictated by the teachings of the Torah and Talmud, but also by town authorities. However, these small towns were also the meeting point of many cultures: the mixing of Polish and Jewish, and often also Ukrainian and Roma. Taking into consideration the specific character of these towns, their traditional atmosphere and multicultural and multi-ethnic flavour, the author points to the weight of cultural heritage that these shtetls left behind. The article paints a picture of the shtetl; the history of its foundation, as well as the reconstruction and changes in these multicultural spaces. Specifics of life in the shtetl, as well as institutions, schooling, the intelligentsia, social and religious life are also discussed in order to capture the processes and experiences of life in the small multicultural town. The author focuses on the dialogic aspect of these multicultural towns and their cultural heritage, which underscores the ethnic and religious relations that thrived within them.
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In this paper, the intention of the author is to present how the idea of “North” and all its referents have been enriched in recent decades. It seems as though “Nordicity” has, especially over the last 60 years, been experiencing a double movement both of expansion/proliferation and delimitation/restriction in four specific spheres: geospatial, thematic, political and linguistic. The author considers that this dual movement of expansion and delimitation has provided the key elements to building the North as a “zone of distinction”, and consequently, has provided sufficient justification for political intervention in the circumpolar North. The paper presents the hypothesis that these key elements, away from purely manipulative purposes, have a constructive function and contribute to the emergence of the phenomenon of so-called “Circumpolar Cooperation.” The author therefore proposes at the end of the paper to open the discussion on the legitimacy of a field of research attached to the geopolitics of justification(s).
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The author interprets Bruno Schulz’s story “The street of crocodiles” from the perspective of philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas and Jozef Tischner. Bruno Schulz, a Polish writer and painter, was born on 12 July 1892 in Drohobycz, a town near Lwów, situated in modern Western Ukraine. In his parents’ house mainly Polish was spoken, but he was also taught German which he did speak and write fluently. Most likely he was also capable of Yiddish language. Having finished school, Schulz started to study civil engineering and architecture in Lwów and Vienna but quit this career during WW I. In the re-founded Polish Republic Schulz earned his money from teaching arts at various schools in his home town. His first prints and drawings were exhibited in the early 1920’s. In this period he also began to write short stories and finally managed to publish his first collection (Th e Cinnamon Shops) in 1933. A frequent traveler to Warsaw and Zakopane, two important centres of Polish intelligentsia, he came into contact with Witold Gombrowicz, Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, Julian Tuwim, Zofi a Nałkowska and many more. At the same time he published reviews and essays as well as further short stories in several magazines and continued to draw.
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This Master of Arts thesis discusses how reconstruction of collective memories about Eastern Germany functions in the case of ‘Ostalgie’, nostalgia about positive aspects of life in the former GDR. It surveys different expressions of the phenomenon and seeks its reasons. Ostalgie is seen as a result of a sudden denunciation of East German experiences and as defence mechanism against the predominantly negative GDR discourse in post-unification Germany. Many East Germans find it easier to identify with the GDR material culture rather than with the oppressive regime and Stasi surveillance. The research examines three recent German films, depicting life in the former GDR, Sonnenallee (1999), Good Bye, Lenin! (2003) and The Lives of Others (2006). The choice of films is explained by their distinct polarization. While, Sonnenallee and Good Bye, Lenin! were criticized for nostalgic and trivial depiction of life in the GDR, The Lives of Others was praised for finally elaborating on the topic of the notorious Stasi. The research discusses the aspects of the GDR life in those films, which reconstruct distinct East German collective memories and identity. The thesis is based on the content analysis of the actual films as well as scholarly and mass media debates around them. It shows how these two levels interact with each other, and altogether act as mediators of a bigger process of social (re)construction of East German collective memories and identity. It is, therefore, a study of (re) construction of collective memory on the example of the Ostalgie phenomenon rather than the phenomenon itself.
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Legal Dialogue of the Obligation Relation Parties with the Participation of a Spouse-After the Polish Law of Matrimonial Property Amendments Under the Law of June 17th 2004 The matrimonial property law, which regulates not only the property relations between spouses themselves but also between one of the spouse and his/her personal creditor, has particular significance in free market economy in which the spouses are the subject of numerous civil law (obligatory) relations as not “consumers” but as “entrepreneurs”. The last amendments of the law from June 17th 2004 introduced new legal institutions to the Polish system which have for their object, due to the governmental justification on the project of changes in family and prevention codification, combining two goods: the spouse’s (spouses’) creditors interest and spouse – debtor family interest remaining in the system of the common property. Above all, the author submitted to more profound reflection the new legal institutions introduced by the regulation of June: facultative and obligatory spouse’s agreement (art. 37 § 1 and 41 § 1 family prevention codification), the spouse’s objection to the spouse’s intentional activity to manage the common property (art. 36[1] fpc) as well as the common property management itself which, in relation to the hitherto existing regulation, is treated more liberally as, at the present time, each of the spouse can manage the common property himself and practically without any limits (art. 36 § 2 fpc). One can claim that, on the one hand, the legislator protects the creditor’s just interest by enabling him future execution from the common spouses property, conditioning the possibility on the creditor’s providence which is – gaining the spouse – debtor’s agreement to contract obligation which absence do not cause legal activity invalidity (art. 41 § 1 fpc). On the other hand, the family interest is fairly protected by profound enumeration of legal activities undertaken by one of the spouses to the validity of which the agreement of the other spouse in necessary (art. 37 § 1 fpc). The reflection is not only focused on the spouses’ substantive law situation, their responsibility for the obligations but they also relate to the creditor’s legal situation, who can demand satisfaction for his claim on the judicial proceedings. It seems that balancing interests of the two parties of the obligatory relation and their property protection has achieved only the partial objective. However, this appraisal would only be verified properly by still not existing interpretation of the regulations carried out by courts and legal doctrine.
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The research about Jewish colonization of South East Asia have been causing a lot of controversies. However the fact that in the Middle Kingdom begun the history of Jews living in the Far East seems to be unquestionable. The over-the-centuries presence of Jews in Eastern Asia didn’t result in building emigrant’s settlements in other countries of the region or in Japan. The Land of the Rising Sun was an unknown land for the Jewish merchants and travelers. According to the official statements this situation remained unchanged up to the second half of the 19th century. In relation to the historical sources about 50 Jewish families came to Yokohama in the late 70-ties of the 19th century. The emigrants came mostly from England, Germany, France, Russia and former Poland which was annexed by Russia and Austria. In the next years a lot of Jewish scientists and specialists were invited by the Japan government to China in order to rebuild and modernize this country. Meanwhile there were taken efforts to prove the presence of the Jews in the South Eastern Asia, who settled there after escape from Assyrian persecution in 771 B.C. and in the end conquered some primitive tribes and gave rise to the ancient civilizations. This research let the speculation that the ancient Jewish settlers were founders of the Japan imperial dynasty and created the warrior and aristocracy class. In the early 20-ties of the 20th century people were interested in discovering the Jewish origin of the Japanese society. In 1921-1922 the weekly paper “Israel’s Messenger” in Shanghai published several articles of Jewish and Japanese authors. They announced another discoveries and hypothesis about Jewish ancestors of Japanese society. These conceptions enjoyed people’s attention mainly at the turn of the 19th and 20th century. Nowadays we can also find some publications and discourses which rise this question. There are a lot of people who agree with the thesis of the common Jewish-Japanese roots: not only Joseph Eidelberg and others mentioned previously but also representatives of different Japanese Neo-Christian sects and members of American sect Back Hebrews. All this causes that the myth of Japanese being lost Israeli tribe stays alive.
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The general idea for this article goes back to the rigorous discussions of Bruno Schulz and the notions of tolerance in two seminars taught by Prof. Dr. Markowski and Dr. Rebes at the Jagiellonian University of Cracow during the winter term 2007/2008. The article discusses the relation of liminality and transcendence in the writings of the Polish writer Bruno Schulz. Based on an analysis of several of Schulz’s short stories the dichotomous relation between reality and transcendence is examined. The central point of interest is the contact zone, which is regarded as a liminal space between reality and transcendence. Following Ewa Karpinska, this border is understood as both, dividing and ordering. The introduction of the border shifts the analysis from temporal to spatial terms, which allows understanding the juxtaposition or even the simultaneous existence of both, reality and transcendence. This exactly is the Schulzian struggle. Having opened that field the essay introduces the ethical principles of Immanuel Levinas. The latter’s radical ethics of morality and Jozef Tischner’s conceptualization this, the Philosophy of Drama, are than applied to Schulzian writing. This opens up a new way of accessing the liminality in contact zones. It is the unveiling and stepping out of an isolated and constructed reality that is the aim of the protagonist in Schulz’s stories. His striving for the ‘pure’ compares to what in Levinas’ philosophy would be the striving towards the other’s Antlitz. This desire can never be fully reached, but it is the idea of desiring as such that Levinas introduces. This idea is laid out by Schulz in his philosophically programmatic essay Mythologizing of Reality. The condition of desire manifests itself as an unstable liminality. This fragile status of liminality prevents the protagonist from getting stuck in dull materiality of a „fake reality” or, in Levinas’ case, it prevents the I from getting stuck in the egocentric borders of self-sufficiency and ignorance.
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Isaac Bashevis Singer grew up in Central Eastern Europe but emigrated America in 1935. Over the next forty years he published at least one short story or one chapter of longer fiction a week. He wrote in Yiddish and through his writing frequently returned to the world he had left behind. Translated into English, his work became widely recognised as a deeply resonant recreation of pre-Holocaust Europe. In 1978 the Swedish Academy awarded him the Nobel Prize for literature. A recurring theme in Singer’s fiction is the relationship between present and past. This theme is explored here with particular reference to Singer’s 1968 short story A Friend of Kafka.
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Equality, liberty, tolerance and open society are the most important democratic ideals and rules, which guarantee respect for human dignity, the basis of the natural and unalienable low. Th is values are the main democratic principle and breaking them means that the regime can not be fully realized. As a result of this values certain risk appears, which is not directly undermining the democratic basis, but defi ning its quality. Although noticing these demons does not create fast changes, it might has meaning for the democratic development as an idea, which is not an eternal system, but a process taking, which takes under consideration human morality development. Equality guarantees the value of human life, what is more it might provoke diversity disappear and change pluralism for homogenic system. Liberty guarantees respect for the individualism and individual choices but if it is interpreted as a right for a good choices it can produce a despotism. Tolerance is a not precise term what makes describing the limits of its use difficult. Open society which is a consequence of applying the three mentioned rules is vulnerable to risk coming from the lack of acceptation for its values. Democracy as a system of values depends on making the values principle. How far realizing and enforcing the basic democratic values is possible stays an open question.
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This article deals with the theory of second and third language acquisition and analyses the differences and similarities between the languages from natural languages’ ethnic structures as well as to analyses the relations between first, second, third language acquisition has not exhausted the topic. The article content, which is based on international literature and my own experience as a teacher of English and French, was confirmed in the questionnaire led on fifty subjects studying or communicating in at least two foreign languages.
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This paper deals with bilateral relations, geopolitical strategies and normative approaches within a triangle consisting of the ‘West’, the ‘East’ and Belarus. The main focus is laid on the European Union and the Russian Federation as the key actors of the West, respectively the East. Further analysis of other Western and Eastern players’ stakes in Belarus provides a more global scope in this context. The analytical use of two models dealing with international socialisation – the rationalistinstitutionalist ‘External Incentives Model’ and the constructivist ‘Social Learning Model’ – are compared and contrasted on the basis of the European, respectively Russian Belarus- policy. Each of the following three chapters deals with one part of the triangle mentioned above. In order to give information necessary for an evaluation by the rationalist- institutionalist approach, every chapter defines strategic interests, bargaining powers and degree of influences of the actors. Societal issues, self-perception and informal relations to the other players are presented to allow a constructivist analysis. Finally, it is outlined if and how far the two models serve as an appropriate theoretical tool for a comprehensive evaluation. Furthermore, it will be asked whether these two models offer practical solutions for rapprochement within the triangle. In the context of this thesis the primary objective is to provide to recommendations and expertise for the ‘Europeanization’ of Belarus. This does however not mean that Russian interests are perceived as unjustified.
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