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The paper is devoted to The Labyrinth of Solitude (1950, 1959) – the most famous Octavio Paz’s essay, which occupies a central place in his versatile work and gives a characteristic example of the hybrid genre most corresponding to the idiosyncrasy of Latin American cultural thinking. Deciphering the turning-points of Mexican history, facts of culture and literature, idioms and codes of behaviour, and revealing archetypal structures of the Mexican cultural imaginary, Paz seeks to abolish certain national myths, but, despite his own intention, gives them a new life: the literary quality of the text he created favours a crystallization of the second order myths, like the figures of macho and Malinche, the images of the Conquest and the Mexican Revolution, and, finally, the labyrinth of solitude itself. The paper traces the genesis of the essay, as well as its conceptual and textual origins, interprets the symbolism of the title, and points out the French influence: the essay was written in the summer 1949 in Paris, where the poet was living and working in 1945–1951. The paper is followed by the translation of the second chapter “Mexican masks” that can be regarded as a matrix of the whole essay: there Paz introduces the key concept of the Form and a correlated image of the mask that help him to catch a rhythm of Mexican history, culture and psychology – duality, dialectics of the authentic and the artificial, the concealed and the exposed, the veiled and the revealed, of the solitude and the communion.

This paper is concerned with “The Wishing Tree”, the only children’s story known to have been created by William Faulkner. It was written in 1927 for Faulkner’s future stepdaughter Victoria Franklin and published in 1967. Though it has been seen as a marginal part of Faulkner’s work, “The Wishing Tree” provides an aid in interpreting his major themes. It should be studied together with Faulkner’s modernist novels and stories of the late 1920s, especially taking into consideration Faulkner’s deep interest in children’s consciousness. Faulkner pays respect to the conventions of children’s literature, so the story includes didactic elements. At the same time, in “The Wishing Tree” Faulkner experiments with estrangement techniques and introduces several motives particularly important in “The Sound and the Fury”, e.g. desire and the relativity of time and memory. Moreover, in “The Wishing Tree” Faulkner juxtaposes the intuitive thinking of a child and of an adult “primitive”. Faulkner’s children’s story is a quest, taking place in the allegorical space in which wishes are instantly verbalized and words become flesh. The dreamlike nature of the plot provides parallels with “Alice in Wonderland”, yet the whole range of allusions is rather peculiar: Maeterlinck's symbolist dramas, James Branch Cabell’s fantasy novels, etc. The paper also investigates the parallels between “The Wishing Tree” and “Mayday” (1926), another example of young Faulkner’s “fantasy fiction”, a “fable” about a young knight’s quest for love.

Che cosa significa leggere un classico? Quest’articolo distingue due modi, o due vie. Per i contestualisti è sufficiente collocare l’opera nella sua epoca storica, e sottolineare eventualmente la novità che quell’opera ha introdotto. Per la teoria dell’interpretazione, un classico vive nel «tempo grande» (Bachtin), cioè oltrepassa i confini della sua epoca. In questo senso, i grandi scrittori sarebbero ‘universali’. Per l’autore di quest’articolo sarebbe più corretto riconoscere la densità semantica dell’opera d’arte, cioè l’insieme delle sue virtualità. Ma per riconoscere e indagare le virtualità di un classico occorre far riferimento alla teoria, o meglio alle teorie. Nel caso di Le Rouge et le Noir, ci si può limitare ad analisi parziali, che, nella loro consapevole limitatezza, sono legittime. Tut-tavia, chiunque pretenda di offrire un punto di vista complessivo su questo romanzo di Stendhal non può (o meglio non dovrebbe) ignorare, per esempio, le teorie del desi-derio. Le Rouge et le Noir rappresenta un momento fondamentale per la nascita del realismo moderno («serio», come lo ha chiamato Auerbach): ma si può ridurre la rappresentazione della realtà, che esso offre, quasi unicamente al contesto storico-sociale? La verità (l’âpre vérité) che Stendhal promette ai suoi lettori nell’esergo del romanzo è la verità di quegli esseri flessibili che noi siamo: è la verità delle diverse possibilità, o versioni, dell’amore. Non si può leggere un classico senza incontrare il desiderio di essere. What does ‘reading the classics’ mean? This paper identifies a twofold approach to this act. Contextualist critics believe that setting the text within its historical context and shedding light on its innovative aspects suffice to understand it. According to the theory of interpretation, classics embody Bachtin’s «great time», exceeding the limits of their epoch. Great writers would be therefore universal figure. For the author of this paper, a correct approach to literary works acknowledges the density of texts, that is to say the combination of virtual components. In order to investigate classics’ ‘virtuality’, one has to refer to theory, or rather theories. Dealing with Le Rouge et le Noir, critics can provide partial analyses that, in being consciously limited, are certainly legit. However, whoever might want to offer a complete view of Pascal’s novel cannot – or rather should not – ignore, for instance, theories of desire. Le Rouge et le Noir stands out as a fundamental step towards the birth of modern realism («serious», as Auerbach named it). Nonetheless, is it possible to reduce the portrayal of reality it offers to, almost exclusively, its socio-historical context? The truth (l’âpre vérité) Stendhal promises to his readers in the novel’s exergue is the truth about us as flexible beings. In other words, it is the truth about the several possibilities, or potentialities, intrinsic to love. One cannot read classics without discovering the desire to be.

Introduction Discopathy of the cervical spine is becoming an increasingly common problem among the entire population, assuming the status of a civilization disease. Aim of this paper The aim of the paper was to assess the functional efficiency and pain intensity among patients treated conservatively due to the degenerative disc disease of the cervical spine. Materials and methods The study included 100 patients treated conservatively in the neurosurgical outpatient clinic. A self-prepared questionnaire, the NRS (Numerical Rating Scale) pain scale and the NDI (Neck Disability Index) performance evaluation scale were used to conduct the research. Findings Differences in pain severity were found in the respective Neck Disability Index scale groups. There was no significant correlation between the type of work and the degree of disability on the Neck Disability Index scale and the relationship between the mode of work and the perceived pain. Conclusions On the basis of the conducted research, it was found that there was a significant relationship between cervical spine pain and the degree of disability defined in the Neck Disability Index. The type of work performed did not show any relationship with the degree of Neck Disability Index disability, and the mode in which the work is performed has no significant impact on pain.

Introduction and purpose: Inositol exists in the form of nine isomers, two of which are dominant - myo-inositol (MI) and D-chiro-inositol (DCI). It is a naturally occuring sugar involved in many biological pathways. Due to its insulin-sensitizing, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, inositol has been suggested as a novel treatment agent in prevention and treatment of reproductive disorders. The paper presents currently available data regarding the impact of oral supplementation of inositol for fertility of women and men, reproductive outcomes among subfertile women with polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) and its effectiveness on preventing and treating gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). Material and methods of research: The search was conducted using PubMed and Google Scholarship databases available to November 2023. Results: Although the evidence is still insufficient, it is suggested that inositol may be beneficial for subfertile women, also those undergoing assisted reproductive techniques and in vitro fertilization. Moreover inositol can positively influence sperm quality. Myoinositol supplementation was also effective and safe for pregnant women with GDM and their children. In these women lower HOMA-IR (Homeostatic Model Assessment – Insulin Resistance) and reduction of fetal macrosomia were observed. Myoinositol also seems to be favorable for overweight or obese women in GDM prevention and treatment. Current findings indicate the positive impact for hormonal changes and restoration in menstrual cyclicity in women with PCOS, improving reproductive disorders in these patients. Conclusions: Overall, although findings are encouraging, further trials for this promising intervention are still required to support oral supplementation of inositol.

Introduction and purpose: Nowadays, when mental disorders are considered by the World Health Organisation as a global burden, the potential usage of psychedelic drugs as supportive therapy is gaining more attention worldwide. The aim of this paper is to summarize the usefulness of psilocybin - representative of psychedelics - in psychiatric venues. In this review we describe its properties, efficacy and adverse events in treating depression, trauma and obsessive-compulsive disorders. Brief description of the state of knowledge: Psilocybin demonstrates a safety profile which does not differ from standard drugs used in therapies of psychiatric disorders. Positive results of its administration were noticed on different psychiatric scales and are considered as clinically meaningful. With depression being the most common mental disease and growing demand for new remedies, most of the conducted research is concentrated on this subject, but there is also some evidence of its purpose in the treatment of trauma and obsessive-compulsive disorders. Conclusions: Psilocybin merits further research as foregoing results of conducted studies are pointing to its efficacy. Psychedelic-assisted therapies may create noteworthy opportunities to current matter in the standard treatment of psychiatric disorders and there is a possibility that in the future in some cases they will be considered as the first line treatment. Nevertheless, still more data is needed to determine its placement in the treatments.

Background: Nootropic drugs, at the beginning of their career, were used in the treatment of diseases such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), Alzheimer's disease and narcolepsy. Nowadays, they are becoming more and more popular among students, where they are often called smart drugs or cognitive enhancers. Their properties that improve intellectual abilities and cognitive functions are used to, among other things, improve academic performance. Aim of the study: The purpose of this article was to summarize the current state of knowledge relating to the use of smart drugs among students. This study discusses the multidimensional issues of using this group of drugs. Material and methods: A cross-sectional search of relevant literature was performed in databases using accepted wording. Publications from 2003-2023 were included. The entire process has been supplemented with additional procedures to increase the reliability of this publication. Results: In most sources, the most common representative of smart drugs turned out to be methylphenidate. Nootropics were most often obtained by obtaining a prescription from a doctor, online trading or from friends. The factors motivating the use of substances from this group are primarily the desire to improve academic results, competitiveness and the number of obligations at the university. There are many risks associated with their use, but students are more aware of the positive effects. Conclusion: This paper presents various dimensions of the progressive spread of nootropic drugs. In addition to their undeniably positive effects, there are many risks, which are discussed in this article. Students' awareness should be formed through appropriate educational methods.

In this paper, we explore the practical and theoretical status of revision in the context of a Masters-level website translation project integrating machine translation (MT) for teaching purposes. We use textometric analysis to explore the nature of modifications made at each of the different stages of revision during the lifetime of one particular project. Computation of characteristic elements and Correspondence Analysis (CA) reveal regular patterns of linguistic intervention, with significant differences observed between the initial stages of the project (MT-EN0 generated by SYSTRAN Pure Neural Machine Translation and post-edited MT-EN1) and subsequent revision cycles. We combine quantitative and qualitative research methods to study characteristic revision patterns in different project cycles (chronological textual series). While some of these patterns represent unpredictable “punctual” edits, the majority are “progressive”, involving modifications that are predictable or gradually built up throughout the project. More generally, it appears that different types of revision closely mirror the guidelines that are presented to students during the teaching workflow. This observation leads us to posit an “evolutive” view of the translation project: just as each webpage in the project has to undergo several cycles of revision, so each stage of revision needs to be carefully primed during the preparation of the project with the clients as well as the students.

Neural machine translation (NMT) systems have made tangible progress in recent years, making them usable for an increasing number of domains and language pairs. The development of neural systems is based on machine learning algorithms and requires large electronic corpora of parallel texts, aligned at the sentence level. Such resources however only exist for a small number of language pairs and domains. To overcome this problem, a recent proposal is to develop so-called “multilingual” translation systems. These developments have been driven in particular by major Internet players, who need to develop automatic language processing tools for as many languages as possible. The main characteristic of these systems is to process multiple languages, both on the source and target sides, with a single translation engine. In this paper, we present the general principles underlying these systems and the innovations that have made them possible, before discussing their main strengths and weaknesses.

Translation technologies are widely used in the translation process and the market is witnessing a radical change in translation practices, with a significant impact on the translation professions. It is important that translation programmes adopted by universities consider the rapid advances in language and translation technologies and devote specific theoretical and practical courses to this topic. Students need to develop specific competences and skills and acquire an advanced mastery of the technologies. In particular, given the current dominant paradigm in machine translation, namely Neural Machine Translation, they need to be aware of the benefits but also the challenges it poses to translators. This paper discusses the concept of “human parity”, which has been proposed in the field as the main goal of current machine translation systems, and presents the teaching and learning of translation technology, with a particular focus on what has been developed at the University of Naples L'Orientale.

Since the first studies observing pedagogical activities related to quality in translator training, many evolutions have taken place, in training programmes as well as in the professional world. Revision has gained a more streamline position in translation processes, and post-editing more and more visible, aided by the improvement of Neural Machine Translation (NMT) quality. These two activities, which aim at upgrading human translations, for revision, and machine translations, for post-editing, still respond to different expectations, practices and document types. However, the role of the skilled expert is acknowledged in normative texts about both activities, and the sealed barriers that existed before between human translation, assisted translation and machine translation, are increasingly blurred. In this paper, we will endeavour to set an integrated and balanced positioning of post-editing in translation training, leveraging the strengths and weaknesses of human translation as much as machine translation, in order to contribute to the long-lasting value of the professional translation specialist.

A human right to the environment is increasingly recognised in both domestic and international law. Also in Polish legal scholarship, there is a discussion over the possibility of deriving a right to the environment from the Constitution or ordinary statutes, including Article 4(1) of the Environmental Protection Law Act. The existing English translations of its opening words, and specifically the term powszechne korzystanie ze środowiska, appear to mirror the legal controversy. Compared to Poland, the major common law jurisdictions, i.e. England and the USA, show multiple differences in respect of the public’s enjoyment of the environment. In addition to a distinct legal mentalité, grounded on a case-by-case approach, negative freedoms and remedies thinking, both jurisdictions are characterised by considerable private ownership of natural resources like rivers and forests. In view of this legal and translation problem, the present paper seeks to employ comparative law methodology to establish an acceptable English translation equivalent of the term powszechne korzystanie ze środowiska. The analysis is also an attempt to go beyond the ways in which the use of comparative law in legal translation is typically perceived, i.e., beyond functionalism, beyond micorcomparison and beyond conceptual analysis.

This paper aims to investigate how empathy and assertiveness are expressed linguistically in two corpora (MUJERES y HOMBRES) of fifteen TED talks each, with a view to identifying whether the women in the sample adopt a more empathetic communicative style than men. The frequency and use of deictics, and a number of intensifiers and hedges will be analyzed starting from the comparison of key POS lists in the two corpora. The results of the study suggest a marked preference of the women in the sample for the use of affiliative, empathetic mechanisms, since they employ first person narratives associated with affective vocabulary, inclusive nosotros, question tags and verbs in the second person plural more often (although for the same purposes) than men.

The decision by the United Kingdom to leave the European Union came as a shock to many. A key player during the referendum campaign was the Vote Leave organisation which managed to convince people that they would be better off outside the European project. Their success was made all the easier as Euroscepticism had been running deep in the country for decades. It is on this fertile ground that Vote Leavers drew to persuade people of the necessity to leave. Using critical metaphor analysis, this paper examines the way Vote Leavers won the argument by developing three political myths, which, once combined, conjured up the notion of British grandeur. Drawing on Jonathan Charteris-Black’s seminal works on the relation between metaphors and the creation of political myths in political rhetoric, this paper posits that the Brexit debate was not won solely on political ground and that the manipulative power of metaphors may have also been a key element. This might explain the current political deadlock, as political solutions might not provide the answers to the questions raised during the campaign.

The modernization of preschool education is based on the standard of the new generation, the realization and implementation of which is impossible without improving the management of the quality of preschool education organizations. The article analyses contemporary forms and methods of monetary and non-monetary labour motivation of the employees of the sphere of that pre-school education as an important factor in improving the efficiency of labour. Nowadays improving the quality of education in preschool education institutions is a socially significant problem which pedagogical sciences and practice face. The purpose of the paper is to analyse the problem of motivation of professional development of preschool teachers as a condition for improving the quality of preschool education in the context. This research is set to: determine the factors affecting the motivation of teachers of preschool education institutions, to identify the stages of improvement of the system of motivation of preschool education specialists. Methodology of the study is based on the use of a set of methods determined by the peculiarity of the research problem: analysis of domestic and foreign scientific literature, synthesis, systematization, generalization, abstraction, as well as the interpretative and analytical method, which are used to provide theoretical analysis of the source base. The article shows that the pre-school education system is a particular institution for the formation of the personality of the younger generation. The role of teachers who work with children cannot be underestimated. The quality and effectiveness of teachers are largely determined by their motivation to perform educational work. The authors show that within the framework of pedagogic management it is important to find effective approaches to motivate staff of preschool educational organizations. It has its own peculiarities connected, on the one hand, with the government regulation in this sphere of activity, and, on the other hand, with the specific goals of the organization, the socioeconomic realities of its functioning and development, personal and professional characteristics of the staff. The authors of the article prove that management of motivation is a constant process which requires continuous improvement of the motivation system of staff and its parts taking into account the results of the diagnosis of the existing system, standards, existing external and internal constraints, characteristics of tangible and intangible benefits, permanent monitoring the work of each part of the system, with an assessment of their effectiveness. The authors provide factors that affect the motivation of staff of preschool educational organizations. These factors are divided into objective, with a limited influence from the management of the organization, and subjective, being in their sphere of influence. The subjective factors are presented through an external reflection, when teachers need public recognition of their merits, complexity and multidimensional nature of their work, and through the internal reflection when a teacher needs to maintain and develop the desire and opportunities for professional growth. The author offers the diagnostic techniques for studying motivation and professional activity effectiveness in the preschool educational institution, as well as the system of measures that allow educational organizations to change their work, increase teachers’ motivation and, as a result, to raise the effectiveness of their activities. We have grounded the author’s approach to the integral mechanism of motivation of pedagogical workers’ professional activity, orientated towards activation of pedagogical workers on the basis of study of their necessities, interests, personal aims and possibilities of their integration with the aims of the educational establishment as well as the usage of structural elements of different motivation models in management.

In the modern socio-economic context of the development of educational systems, the processes of globalization and internationalization play an important role, which determine the reformation of higher education. Competition and cooperation between educational and scientific organizations are intensifying all over the world, the exchange of students, teachers, graduate students and researchers is intensifying, distance education is becoming widespread, and the role of continuing education is growing. The purpose of the research is to identify and justify system-wide trends in the renewal of European education. The main task of this research is to determine the mechanisms and characterize the orientation of the renewal of the European education system under the conditions of internationalization and globalization. The methodological basis of the research consists of: the general scientific principle of objectivity; the principle of historical and logical unity; systemic and contextual approach, principle of interconnection; sociological, cultural and pedagogical concepts. It is determined that today the European Union is one of the world leaders in research and innovation. It is scientific knowledge, experience, high standards of the research, developed research infrastructure that guarantee many years of successful cooperation between the EU and other countries. At the present stage, investments in higher education and vocational training are considered as the most important factor in enhancing the EU’s competitiveness and ensuring the constant growth of its economy. The development of higher education is perceived as the most important prerequisite for achieving the economic, social and environmental goals set in 2000 in Lisbon. Higher education is the core of the new European society, based on the knowledge. The article considers the direction of transformations carried out in the higher education systems of the European Union countries in the context of the internationalization of education. The strategic goal of reforming the European education system is to increase its competitiveness in the international space and modernize economies. In the political and public circles of the European Union, the opinion has been established that since human resources are the most important wealth of the EU, education policy should be the main factor in the processes of knowledge creation and transfer, which, in turn, crucially determine the innovative potential of the society. In this regard, the main goal is to provide equal and open opportunities for people of all ages to receive high-quality education and to gain diverse educational experiences throughout Europe. Education systems are a key link in the implementation of this concept. This paper traces the dynamics of the external dimension in the political and socioeconomic contexts. The Maastricht Treaty of 1992 established the basis for the EU cooperation within higher education. It stipulated the commitment of the member countries to develop education cooperation with third countries and international organizations. The European Commission has called on EU member states to take the necessary measures to reform their education and training systems so that barriers between formal and non-formal learning disappear. To implement this concept, it is necessary to achieve a higher level of interaction between the main participants in this relatively new area: business, social partners and educational institutions.

The article considers the specificities of the co-study of languages and cultures, determines the relevance of this process in a language university. An attempt is made to define and describe the tipologies of principles for co-learning languages and cultures existing in intercultural language education. The paper presents an overview of the most popular, demanded, didactically rational and functional models of co-learning languages and cultures, developed by domestic reserchers in lin-guodidactics. From the conceptual point of view these principles constitute the metadidactic strategies for the process of co-studying native and foreign languages and cultures. A brief analysis of some principles revealed the need to clarify and supplement them in the process of teaching the Chinese language and culture in relation to the Russian and English languages and cultures. New comprehension of the existing principles of co-studying languages and cultures is needed due to the objective circumstances conditioned by the significant differences in the considered languages and cultures. At the same time, despite the differences between the languages and cultures it is possible to find some cases of didactic consensus between them. The principles of cognitive dialogue, active comprehension, information saturation and dialogue positioning, which promote the process of co-studying the three cultural and language systems may serve as methodology dominants in this educational situation. The authors give brief methodological recommendations regarding the organization of the educational process in terms of including the proposed principles into the intercultural and interlingual context.

The paper discusses three aspects related to the spelling and grammar of the Tatar verb: 1) the spelling of a number of "problematic verbs," about which various sources - popular translation and spelling dictionaries - give different indications (moH?pza 'muddy', myu(?pza 'freeze', mam?pza 'to overflow (about the river)', y6?pza 'absorb'; 6on?pzd 'go broke,' 6y^?PZ3 'divide,' Kon?pz3 'laugh,' Yn?P23 'die,' 3R?pzd 'hang'); 2) the existence of differentiating spellings confirmed according to lexicographic sources for some verbs and not confirmed for others; 3) the existence of two-base and variably two-base verbs and the definition of the exact composition of each of these verb groups. These aspects are relevant because they are inextricably linked with the algorithm for finding the base of the Tatar verb by its infinitive deduced by the author independently while working on writing a self-help guide of the Tatar language published in Kazan at the end of 2022. For the error-free functioning of this algorithm - both from the standpoint of a person studying the Tatar language as a non-native (who needs this algorithm) and from the standpoint of a computer program working with Tatar verbs - it is necessary to make it possible to carry any Tatar verb through it with an invariably correct result (for example, my^pza - mykon?pzd - kor-, uonKbipza - uonK-/uonwK- or uorkw-), and to achieve this, it is necessary to finally determine the spelling of "problematic verbs" and the composition of groups of verbs having two consonant bases (two-base verbs) and two consonant bases or one vowel base (variably two-base verbs). For this purpose, with the involvement of the resources of the Electronic Fund of Dictionaries and the Written Corpus of the Tatar language, a study which represents a scientific novelty was conducted and its results are presented below.

The paper represents a conversation with Carlos Tablada, a leading contemporary Cuban economist, philosopher and so-ciologist. The interview reveals the peculiarities of the Cuban revolution at different stages. Tablada provides details of the history of the Popular Socialist Party of Cuba. He reflects about how he began to study the ideological heritage of Che Guevara, highlighting nuances of his communication with the Soviet academics from the Institute of Latin America of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Tablada interprets Ernesto Guevara's speech delivered in Algeria in 1965 in a specific way, in the context of trade relations between developing countries and countries of the Socialist Bloc. Tablada also covers his experience of work in the Cuban state enterprise EMPROVA during the implementation of the System of direc-tion and planning of the economy proposed by Humberto Pe-rez. Tablada expresses his own critical assessment of the economic khozraschet that Cuba adopted from the USSR after joining the CMEA (1972) and holding the First Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba (1975). He comments on the grave consequences of the aggressive policy of the United States towards revolutionary Cuba. Tablada also reveals the peculiarities of trade relations between Cuba and the USSR and the actualization of Che Guevara's ideological legacy dur-ing the period of "rectification". At that time, Cuba faced a crisis due to changes in the terms of trade with the COME-CON countries and tried to resist a number of negative socio-economic consequences of the introduction of khozraschet. Tablada comments on the specifics of Cuba's plight after the collapse of the Socialist Bloc. The footnotes to the interview provide comments on Tablada's statements, especially on those that are controversial.

After the First World War, the role of women in European so-cieties increased markedly and their position began to change fundamentally. In the context of the history of women's movements of the past century, the political figure of Franco Spain, Pilar Primo de Rivera, and the Women's Section of the Spanish Falange, which she founded and led, are important objects of study. This paper examines Pilar Primo de Rivera's ideas, specifically identifying the significance of José Antonio Primo de Rivera for the Women's Section and tracing its evo-lution in Pilar Primo de Rivera's writings.

The paper discusses the works of African American writers of the end of the 1960s — the end of the 2010s that address the historical past of African Americans and explores the traumatic experience of slavery and its consequences. The tragedy of people subjected to slavery as well as their masters who challenged the moral and ethical norms has remained the topical issue of contemporary African American historical novel. Pivotal for the development of the genre of African American historical novel were Jubilee by the outstanding writer and poet Margaret Walker and the non-fiction novel Roots by Alex Haley. African American authors reconsider the past from today’s perspective making use of both the newly discovered documents and the peculiarities of contemporary literary techniques and showing a versatility of genre experiments, paying attention to the ambiguity of American consciousness in relation to the past. Toni Morrison combines the sacred and the profane, reality and magic while Ishmael Reed conjugates thematic topicality and a bright literary experiment connecting history with the problems of contemporary consumer society; Charles Johnson problematizes history in a philosophic tragicomedy. Edward P. Jones reconsiders the history of slavery in a broad context as his novel’s setting is across the whole country on a broad span of time. The younger generation of African American writers represented by C. Baker, A. Randall, C. Whitehead, J. Ward and other authors touches on the issues of African American history in order to understand whether the tragic past has finally been done with. Contemporary African American historical novel relies on documents, new facts, elements of fictional biography, traditions of slave narratives and in its range makes use of peculiarities of family saga, bildungsroman, political novel, popular novel enriching it with various elements of magic realism, parodying existing canons and sharp satire.

The article is devoted to the origin and formation of the so-called green hell literature — a variety of Latin American tellurism. The origins of this phenomenon are associated with the work of the famous Brazilian writer and journalist Euclides da Cunha. The novels of the Portuguese-Brazilian regionalist writer José Maria Ferreira de Castro The Jungle (A selva, 1930) and the Colombian José Eustasio Rivera The Vortex ( La vorágine, 1925) are considered as a continuation of the tradition laid down by da Cunha. The paper considers typical features and differences in the approach to the material in The Jungle and The Vortex. The genetic memory of the pioneers is analyzed as a means of recreating the image of the rainforest, which allows Ferreira de Castro to demonstrate the inversion of the traditional myth of the American Eden. The analysis allows to bring out some new features in the image of the Amazonian selva, which were subsequently developed and / or rethought by other writers of the green hell literature: overreaching (going beyond limits), a specific sense of closed space, irrational cruelty, chaos of the self-reproducing primordial nature. It is emphasized that not only heaven and hell, but also many other Biblical and Christian images are recoded and desacralized. The Portuguese-Brazilian tradition of understanding the green hell of da Cunha and Ferreira de Castro with its reliance on the personal experience of the writer, the poetics of testemunho, can be viewed as the first contribution to the concept of marvelous Latin American reality.

The study focuses on the adaptation of a politically engaged dramaturgical work from Bolshevik Russia — Vladimir Kirshon’s and Andrey Uspensky’s play Konstantin Terekhin (Rust) — to the specific requirements of Broadway, the commercial theater of the USA, and the textual changes of the Soviet original associated with it. The basic principles of the Broadway theater creative and organizational model, drastically different from the repertory theater of post-revolutionary Russia, are defined — the primacy of commerce over artistry, the absence of state support and censorship, a respectable audience that does not accept radical political ideas. On the American stage the Soviet play was produced in 1929, with the changed title (Red Rust), and the text subjected to changes and distortions. The paper considers these changes in the context of American socio–economic life of the Red Thirties. The discrepancy between the original dramaturgical material and the specific requirements of the American commercial theater is analyzed. The free handling of the text from Bolshevik Russia in the US theater is due to the absence of copyright regulations between the two countries. The process of exporting the play to the United States — via Paris and London — is being reconstructed. Three sources that have carried out the textual transformation of the Soviet original are characterized: the authors of the French-language adaptation from Russian (Fernand Nozière and Vladimir Bienstock), British translators from French into English (Virginia and Frank Vernon) and Broadway stage director who previously visited Moscow and sought to introduce into the text what, in his opinion, Soviet censorship would not allow (Herbert Biberman). The study is based on the materials from the Beinecke Library of Rare Books and Manuscripts collections (Yale University), as well as documents from the Houghton Library (Harvard University), the New York Public Library for Performing Arts, the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art (Moscow), and the museum of the Mossovet State Academic Theater (Moscow). The study is aimed at expanding the understanding of the stage history of the Russian drama in America.

The article tracks Howard Fast’s literary contacts with the USSR until 1955, when he met Boris Polevoy, the chairman of the Foreign Commission of the Union of Soviet Writers. Fast’s fame reached its zenith in the late 1940s – early 1950s, the period of the Cold War and fierce anti-American propaganda campaign in the USSR. The paper considers how and why Fast caught Soviet attention, what literary contacts he maintained, how much he had to pay for them, what compromises — reputational, political, he had to make to remain for the Soviet audience “the most widely read author of his century”. Obviously, Fast was acknowledged as a loyal friend of the USSR not only due to his literary achievements, i.e. historical novels, which brought him popularity both at home and around the world. Soviet propaganda perceived Fast’s disgraced experience (in 1950 he was sent to prison for contempt of Congress) as a valuable fact, a compelling proof of his active struggle for the cause of communism. Left Western writers were expected to take part in pickets, rallies, international congresses, demonstrations, and publish their nonfictional materials in the party press. Fast who was a delegate to World Congresses for Peace (Waldorf Conference 1949, Paris Congress 1949), the laureate of the International Stalin Peace Prize in 1953, perfectly met these requirements. Fast’s correspondence with P.A. Pavlenko from the funds of the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art is published in the addendum.

The aim of this paper is to present LEX.CH.IT, a corpus for micro-diachronic linguistic investigations of Swiss normative acts in Italian. Italian has a peculiar position as an official minority translation language within the Swiss institutional system. Until now, few studies have focused on Swiss legal Italian, but the academic interest has been growing over the last two decades. In order to further expand on research in this field, resources such as corpora are fundamental. This is why LEX.CH.IT has been compiled. This corpus was originally created in the context of a doctoral research project, which will be briefly outlined in this paper. The main goals of the project are to determine whether clarity is a feature of Swiss legislation in Italian, whether there have been relevant evolutions over the last five decades and to assess the role of translation for a clear legislation. In the future, LEX.CH.IT could also be useful for a number of other projects aiming to shed light on the features of this language variety.

This paper examines the notion of ‘moonlighting’, which in industrial relations discourse refers to secondary employment performed in addition to the employee’s main job. As this concept might lend itself to different interpretations in English, the aim of this paper is to consider whether the ambiguous nature of this wording in source texts is also reflected in target texts, exploring how translators deal with it when rendering this concept in other languages. To this end, documents published by international institutions in English and their translations in French, Italian and Spanish were compared and contrasted, investigating the strategies put in place by translators to convey the meaning of “moonlighting” in other languages.

This paper will explore how consulting the BoLC (Bononia Legal Corpus; Rossini Favretti, Tamburini and Martelli 2007) can be helpful and advantageous when tackling legal translations. To this aim, a 4-hour trial lesson with experienced translators was organized. Before the workshop, the participants translated a 300-word legal document issued within a civil case. Their translations (from English to Italian) were revised during the trial lesson, where the attendants learned how to consult the BoLC. They also used supplementary online resources, such as dictionaries and/or experts' blogs or fora. The paper findings will remark that despite some drawbacks, such as the absence of POS tagging and lemmatization, and a quite complex search syntax, the BoLC helps dispel doubts and deliver outstanding translation work. Its main usefulness lies in the possibility to find formulaic expressions and collocational use, which can be rather intricate in legal discourse.

Expansion of IT-media in every field of human activity is one of the essential characteristics of modern time. This paper aims at presenting the role of electronic media in teaching translation in the field of law at the University of Osijek, Croatia, and analysing their impact on the motivation of the target group of students in the teaching process. The paper endeavours to provide some insight into the modern teaching practice and to analyse the interconnectedness of the use of electronic media and student motivation rather than to present some empirical research in the field. In the first part of the paper, a theoretical approach to teaching legal translation today is offered. In the main part, teaching legal translation by using modern media is presented on the examples of the Lifelong Learning Programme for Lawyer-Linguists at the Faculty of Law Osijek, and the course on legal translation within the German Language and Literature Studies at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of Osijek. The usage of electronic media in translation teaching is discussed with reference to the courses Introduction to the Theory of Legal Translation and Online Translation Tools and EU Vocabulary. Specific types of online materials, translation tools and sources are discussed from the point of view of student motivation. New media are also discussed from the perspective of their efficiency at different stages of translation teaching. In the concluding part, application of modern technologies in teaching legal translation is compared with other teaching methods, approaches and techniques. Finally, the author questions using IT as motivation tools in the higher education teaching discourse and argues for application of “moderate approach” in the teaching of legal translation.

The paper investigates from a literary perspective the question of the ‘missed encounter’ between two crucial authors of 20th century: Samuel Beckett and Paul Celan. Although both living in Paris for the most part of their adult life, sharing acquaintances and friendships, Beckett and Celan never met in person. A last chance presented in March 1970, as the poet and translator Franz Wurm, a mutual friend, invited Celan to come along and meet Beckett. The meeting never took place; few weeks thereafter, Celan drowned unobserved in the Seine. In this paper, I propose a retrospective reading of the ‘missed’, or ‘failed’ encounter between Beckett and Celan within a psychoanalytic framework. I will analyse it as a negative event, re-elaborating thus an expression used by André Green in his interpretation of Henry James’ The Beast in the Jungle (1903). What Green calls negative event does not provide a patho-biographical category. On the contrary, it bridges the reverberations of the psychic work on absence with the creative process of writing and the dynamics of sublimation. Shifting the attention from the bare biographical data to the textual dimension of such ‘missed encounter’, I aim to show how the writings of the two authors may be read as an articulation of an après-coup of a non-encounter which, instead of taking place in ‘real life’, opens new margins of representation of an alterity within the ‘life of writing’. As such, writing becomes—between poetry and psychoanalysis—that ‘thirdness’ harbouring the very possibility of an encounter beyond phenomenological categories, bearing testimony for an unknown transgenerational reader.

Demographic estimates for Poland indicate that the average life expectancy of the population will increase further over the next decades. Weakness of memory is a physiological phenomenon affecting about 60% of people over 65, whereas the prevalence of dementia in the population is estimated at 10-11%. Identification of people at high risk of developing dementia is becoming a significant medical and social problem. Cognitive impairment is one of the first symptoms of dementia. The Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) is a screening method that allows initial assessment of cognitive performance. Correct diagnosis of symptoms, determining the health needs of seniors in all dimensions sets its further paths and optimal medical treatment. Aim of the paper: The aim of this paper is to assess the efficiency of cognitive function of people over 65. Material and methods: The analysis included 135 questionnaires of the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and respondents’ particulars. Additionally, the functional efficiency of the subjects was assessed using the Barthel scale. The research was conducted among people over 65 in the Podkarpackie Voivodeship in 2017. For the purpose of this work, especially for verification of hypotheses, the following tests were used for questions on nominal scales: V Kramer (2x3, 4x5 tables etc.), Phi (2x2 tables). Tb-Kendall or Tc tests were used for questions on ordinal scales. The statistical analysis was carried out using the SPSS program and all relationships were statistically significant when p

Introduction. Metabolic disorders, the coexistence of many diseases, lack of physical activity, bad nutrition and low economic status are factors which increase the risk of being overweight of obese. We are currently witnessing an increase in obesity along with age, which has been intensifying in recent years. Aim of the paper. The aim of the paper was to analyse the influence of overweight and obesity among the elderly on their life activity, level of self-esteem and satisfaction with life. Material and methods. The research was carried out on October 2017 in Opole Lubelskie (in Lubelskie Province). The study group consisted of 50 people aged over 65. The selection criteria for respondents were age (> 65) and BMI (>25). A specially prepared questionnaire was used for the research. The BMI of the respondents was calculated from measures of their height and body mass. Results. The BMI calculated confirmed class I obesity among 28.57% of women and 18.19% of men, class II obesity in 39.29% of women and 36.36% of men and class III obesity in 32.14% of women and 45.45% of men (Graph 1). 78% of respondents assessed their lifestyle as not very active. A whole 92% are not satisfied with their appearance. All those surveyed believe they are perceived badly by other people. Conclusions. Obesity has a major influence on the quality of life of people of advanced age. Excessive body mass has a detrimental effect on self-esteem and can lead to the elderly withdrawing from social life. Key words: obesity, elderly, self-esteem, life satisfaction

Disasters are very big challenge for health services around the world. The media almost daily inform mass accidents or disasters. In Poland, the issue of responding to events mass rests largely on the State Emergency Medical System. The paper presents the activities carried out by emergency medical services on health in emergency situations. The paper characterized conducting rescue operations and the problems and errors occurring during the conduct of rescue operations.

Legal language is hallmarked by a pedantic and user-unfriendly jargon whose constructs are all but intuitive, not to mention the legal system specificity which makes it unique in every country. Second language (L2) learners or scholars, hence, may find it difficult to understand the language of the law; whereas translators may consider legal lexical phrases and patterns rather intricate to deal with. The literature claims that a practical way to deepen language knowledge can be found in the Web considered as corpus and in online corpora. This paper is aimed at exploring whether commercial search engines, Web concordancers and online specialised corpora can tackle the issues revolving around legal language. In particular, it will investigate whether Google advanced search and the Leeds Web concordancer can be used to meet the requirements of legal language learners, scholars and translators. Furthermore, it will address legal language queries (and results) in an online specialised corpus: the COCA. This paper will provide instances of the soundness of the above-mentioned online resources, especially when used jointly as cross-analysis tools. The shortcomings of one can, in fact, be compensated for by the other(s).

The paper discusses spatial characteristics of two novels by E.E. Cummings in the context of the author’s changing view of the revolution. Persistent spatial patterns and oppositions (e.g., closed vs. open space, circularity vs. linearity of movement) are considered in connection with respective grammar categories of Cummings’ language (e.g., negation vs. affirmation, plural vs. singular). Consequently, the paper argues that the concept of revolution, which in the first novel (The Enormous Room, 1922) was associated with kinesis, overcoming of borders and the affirmation of life, in the second novel (EIMI, 1933) ends up being linked with absolutely opposite spatial, grammatical and value categories, i.e. with stasis, closedness, and ultimately with death.

The work of a nurse plays a significant role in the treatment, rehabilitation and promotion of patient health. It is particularly important in the patient's home environment. The variety of benefits provided requires specific skills, abilities as well as the need for constant updating of knowledge. What is more, an environmental nurse working alone in the patient's home for his or her patients is often an authority. The quality of nursing is considered from the very beginning of its professional development. It is one of the elements of health care but no less important than others. It refers to the direct relationship between the patient and the nurse. It is dependent on many factors, primarily from the working environment. Purpose of research The aim of the study was to find nurses' opinions about the impact of the working environment on the quality of services provided within the primary care Material and methods For the purposes of this paper, a questionnaire consisting of 20 questions was used. The study was conducted among 128 family nurses of the Podkarpackie Voivodeship from January to April 2017. All persons were informed about the purpose of the study. They were voluntary and anonymous. For the purpose of this paper, hypotheses were used for questions on nominal scales: V Kramer (2x3, 4x5, etc.), Phi (2x2). Tb - Kendall or Tc tests were used for the order scales. Statistical analysis was performed using the SPSS program and all compounds were statistically significant when p

Introduction: The endoplasmic-reticulum-associated protein degradation (ERAD) pathway plays an important role in maintaining intracellular homeostasis and primarily affects proteins that have not achieved correct post-translational conformation. ERAD can be also exploited by viruses, usually in order to avoid detection by the host's immune system. Depending on the type of virus, the character and manner of protein degradation may be different. Aim of the study: The aim of this paper is to present the ERAD mechanism and its importance for the infection cycle of select viral particles. Gaining knowledge about this process can help to identify potentially effective new antiviral therapies. Short description of state of knowledge: The ERAD mechanism and its utilization by: Poliomaviruses (BK and SV-40), Herpesviruses (Cytomegalovirus), Retroviruses (HIV-I) and Hepadnaviruses (HBV) are discussed in the paper. Summation: The ERAD process in the viral infection cycle is extremely important. The possibility of using ERAD by differnet viruses should be further investigated. It could be also useful to exploit proteasome inhibitors as potential drugs in the fight against viral diseases.

Introduction: CrossFit is a challenging sport. It enforces full engagement of the athlete in every move during every training session. CrossFit teaches perseverance, discipline and respect. Sports psychology allows for in-depth analysis of trainings or competitions. The athlete can better prepare himself for what he may face, both on the mistakes made and on success. Regular mental training supports the athlete's ability to be successful in sports. The aim of the study: The purpose of this paper was to demonstrate the relationship between mental training - here mainly focused on concentration, self-confidence and imagery, CrossFit and sports performance. Material and the method: This paper is a case study. The subject of the study was a male - 30 years old, training crossfit, with the 3-year training experience. Meeting period with the subject male was conducted for 2 months. Before and after the meeting period there were used below mentioned methods: Sports Confidence Inventory (TSCI-PL); The Sport Anxiety Scale (SAS); The Imagination in Sport Questionnaire; The Sport Orientation Questionnaire (SOQ) and the profile of skills. Results: There was a noticeable increase of the results in the questionnaires: Sports Confidence Inventory (TSCI-PL); The Imagination in Sport Questionnaire; The Sport Orientation Questionnaire (SOQ) questionnaire for the self-confidence (TSCI-PL). The Sport Anxiety Scale (SAS) there was an increase of the results regarding the somatic anxiety and worrying also there was a decrease in the scale of distraction. Conclusion: The meeting period turned out to be effective, however the mental training requires regularity and longevity in order to maintain consistency and repeatability of behavior.

Introduction. The phenomenon of multiculturalism confronts nurses with new challenges. Therefore, scientific research on multicultural issues in nursing practice is of great importance. Their results can improve both education and clinical practice. Aim. The aim of this paper was to analyse the results of empirical studies available in the Polish academic nursing literature on multiculturalism in nursing practice Material and methods. The research involved a systematic review of the academic nursing literature from 2011-2016. The databases of ranked nursing journals and the Google Scholar database were searched by combination of the following keywords: multiculturalism; culturally different patient; nursing care; multicultural nursing; patient from another culture; cultural sensitivity in nursing care. Results. Searching process resulted with 14 papers that met the inclusion criteria. The dominant research method used was the survey method with the utilisation of authors’ questionnaire and standardized research tools. The study was conducted in different groups, e.g. foreign students, nursing students, health workers, representatives of local communities, followers of some religions and patients. Among the main issues in analyzed research were: the cultural competences of nursing staff, the impact of religious creed on the selected aspects of medical care, the standards of nursing education with regard to patients coming from different cultural backgrounds, the attitudes of Polish society to people from different cultural backgrounds, and the health-related behaviour of people representing different cultural areas. Conclusions. Polish nurses undertake scientific research on various aspects of multiculturalism in medical care. However, there is a need to introduce multidisciplinary and multi-centre scientific research tackling multiculturalism issues in medical care in a broader way.

The paper discusses translations of Poe’s poetry and prose in Russia since 1847 till the beginning of the present century. It analyzes the evolution of the techniques employed and the dependence of the translation on ideological climate. Particular emphasis is made on the impact Poe’s critique has made on translators’ practice. It also assesses ways of “improving” the target text (neutralyzation of obvious absurdities, numerous omissions) in translating Poe’s Gothic tales. The paper contains a comparison of several translations of Eureka.

The paper addresses forms, paradigms, and trends characterizing the reception of American literature by Ukrainian academia over the past decades. The fateful socio-political shifts that transpired in early 1990s have radically changed both the mode and the nature of American literary studies in Ukraine. It is argued that after independence America’s diverse experiences in building workable relationships between an individual and the state informing its literature have been of special significance for Ukraine as potential models for a budding nation. This fact explains growing interest in American literature both for research and teaching purposes, as well as principal lines along which its study has proceeded. The paper looks at the institutional forms American literary studies have taken in Ukraine, major developments and seminal publications in the field, as well as current theoretical frameworks for approaching US literary phenomena

Supportive activities may be one of the ways of the training process optimization. Support involves both components of the training process, i.e. training and rest. The training support is aimed at the training load increase or at such orientation of the adaptation processes to meet the training goals as closely as possible. The different aims lay behind the methods that support the rest mechanisms. It is about increasing the peace of the regeneration and recovery processes. This term describes all activities aimed at restoring the full exercise capacity of the athlete after work. The psychological support of the training process can be one of the ways to minimize training disturbances and it should therefore be an essential part of the training process management in case of the top ranked athletes. To improve the psychological support system of the training process and to improve the system quality, it is necessary to analyze the current situation. That’s why, authors of the paper decided to ask the members of the Polish Olympic team competed at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro on types of relaxation techniques they accepted and used before the competition. The relaxation techniques were deliberately limited to the pre-start relaxation techniques as the study was treated as a pilot study dedicated to the problem identification. Therefore, the authors of the paper formulated its aim, as the identification of the pre-start relaxation preferences of the Olympic team members. The following research questions were formulated to meet the aim of the study: • What types of the pre-start relaxation techniques are declared and accepted by the Olympians? • Could the preferred pre-start relaxation techniques be considered rational, planned, and consciously implemented? A written interview with an online questionnaire was used as a research method. The study was conducted before the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, among the representatives of Poland qualified for the Games. The questionnaire consisted of demographics and 10 questions answered by the respondents in accordance with the scale: Strongly disagree, Disagree, Neither agree nor disagree, Agree, and Strongly agree. The survey was voluntary and completely anonymous. The study involved 54 participants of the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. 25 of them were men, and 29 were women. The 43 athletes had the International Champion title, while the remaining 11 athletic had the Champion title. The average age of the respondents was 27 years and 5 months (min 19 years, max 38 years), and the training period amounted to 13 years and 5 months on average (minimum 5 years, maximum 24 years). The research results show the following: • Most of the investigated Olympians know and apply visualization training as a pre-start relaxation technique, • Over 70% of them accept and apply music during pre-start relaxation, • The Olympians are very appreciative of meeting friends before the start, • As many as 70% of respondents do not accept or use computer games, • The subjects use also physiotherapy as a relaxation technique, • Three people admitted they accept alcohol as a pre-start relaxation technique. Generally speaking, preferred behaviors seem to be accidental, unplanned, and uncontrolled. Therefore, it is recommended that both the pre-start relaxation and all psychological support activities are strictly planned in accordance with executed training objectives, accurately implemented throughout the training cycle, and controlled, as in case of training loads.

Purpose: The paper is aimed at identification of a model which shows the effective cooperation in the game positioning (exactly in receiving-passing the ball) in a volleyball game. Design/methodology/approach: The original research method is used in this thesis which is called pragmatic unique case study. The research is aimed at observation USA team playing volleyball during The Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro 2016. Findings: There is a cooperation model in receiving and passing the ball among USA volleyball team players found, based on the observation. There are also other cooperation models used by teams. Research and practical limitations/implications: Based in the research I can tell that there are different models of cooperation in the game positioning in volleyball. The teams which are the most effective use different models of cooperation while playing. Originality/value: The paper is original and leads to think about the identification of the process of cooperation in team games. More research in this field is recommended.

Theo Padnos published My Life Had Stood A Loaded Gun in 2004, when Prison Studies were burgeoning and gaining academic attention globally. Neglected by critics, the book relates the author's experience as literature instructor in an American prison. Engaging methods of pedagogical research and reader-response criticism, the paper investigates the role of literature in the cultural activities of young male inmates in a medium security jail in Vermont. An original amalgam of crime reports, pedagogy of literature, and autobiographical criticism, Padnos' study for the first time confronts young criminals with a literary canon dripping with violence. The experiment sheds light on the reading activities of prisoners, on their and the author's social background, and on the power of American literature to speak to marginal groups.

Linguists argued that the Cockney dialect, in London, is expected to be replaced by Multicultural London English in the years to come. However, this does not imply that Cockney is dead, as recent research revealed that it just moved to Essex. This paper aims at examining whether (l) vocalisation, a common feature of Cockney, is still present in the London district of Bermondsey. Ten working-class English speakers, stratified by age and sex, have been recorded by means of sociolinguistic interviews. The results, discussed both quantitively and qualitatively, show that: (a) (l) vocalisation is present in all age cohorts, with young speakers favouring the non-standard feature; (b) preceding long vowels trigger (l) vocalisation.

The so-called indirect passive, where the subject is not the argument of the underlying verb that bears the Theme/Patient role, is generally understood to be a bi-clausal phenomenon (cf. Kuno 1973; Shibatani 1978; Kuroda 1979). In other words, the passive morpheme rare is merged with a clause, and then the resulting item is combined with the subject. In this paper, however, we argue that the indirect passive is best understood as a mono-clausal phenomenon. We first point out that with some instances of the indirect passive, the passive morpheme rare is not understood as being combined with a verb or clause in syntax. Thus, we are led to assume that the lexicon contains numerous instances of the Vrare form. This implies that even when the passive morpheme rare is combined in syntax, it forms a constituent with the relevant verb; hence, the indirect passive is a mono-clausal phenomenon. We furthermore maintain that when the indirect passive involves the merging of rare with a verb in syntax, the verb must be a volitional verb, and demonstrate that this generalization, as well as the case particle alternation involved in the indirect passive, poses a challenge to the bi-clause analysis but not to the mono-clause analysis. Finally, we review one of the main arguments for analyzing the indirect passive to be a bi-clausal phenomenon, which concerns the antecedent of zibun. We show that it is inconclusive at best.

The goal of this paper is to reconcile the definite marking with the indefinite-like semantics of those superlatives that take a relative/comparative reading. Following Szabolcsi (1986) and Heim (1999), we will assume that the difference between absolute and relative readings of superlatives is represented at the syntactic level of semantic representation, LF (Logical Form). We will however depart from Heim’s hypothesis that what raises at LF is the superlative operator itself (EST). We will instead assume a quantificational-determiner analysis of EST, which involves two raising operations at LF: EST-raising to Spec,DP and raising of the whole superlative DP (Determiner Phrase) to a scope position in the sentence. We will examine the relative readings of quality superlatives. The generalizations and the proposed analysis are not assumed to extend to quantity superlatives.

This paper analyses Angela Carter’s desecrating tendency to taboo-breaking in thematic and formal terms. By referring to her short-fiction production and focusing on “John Ford’s ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore", I intend to show how gender/patriarchal and genre/authorial taboos are similarly broken and transmuted into daringly subversive outcomes. In line with her feminist agenda and postmodern transformism, Carter superbly challenges, sabotages, violates, de- and re-constructs traditionally codified sexual and gender taboos by mimicking such reversals through new narrative solutions. If diversity, multiplicity and change guarantee the continuity of life, incest can easily metaphorise a taboo relationship based on repetition of the identical, sameness, and immobility, to be finally transformed, if not avoided. Consistent with many of her female characters’ incestuous relationships with parents or siblings, Carter also establishes incest-like relationships with previous authors and narrative discourses, which she predatorily appropriates. Carter’s resulting narrative testifies to the fact that taboos must be first experienced to be eventually broken. It is in the dialectic between rule and infraction, taboo and its violation that Carter’s writing is rooted, constantly looking for borders to be crossed.

Designed as a paper reflecting on the editorial mediation of early modern French literary texts, this article maps the educational activities conducted on the Tragiques Inventions site since 2020. In particular, it delves into the procedures linked to documenting, generating and manipulating descriptive and analytical (meta)data. A new concept of ‘hand-reading’ is being developed – the possibility of using digital technology to prioritize human intervention in the construction of knowledge through textual editing. This concept will bring a fresh perspective on early modern literary texts.

There is a substantial body of scholarship arguing for the relevance of magic realism to Toni Morrison’s fictional production, with one exception being her last novel God Help the Child, which, in that respect, has been remarkably overlooked. The present paper intends to fill this scholarly gap by focusing on what Morrison called “enchantment”, a powerful blend of magic and realism that she employed to represent a host of racial and ancestral issues of Blackness, often of a traumatic kind.

Sylvia’s Lovers is a novel about war. It is a historical novel set in the years 1793-1800 during the Napoleonic wars, and written by Elizabeth Gaskell in the years 1859-1862 when the American Civil War broke out, in April 1861. Examining Gaskell’s correspondence with Charles Eliot Norton in the years 1861-63 and the articles Norton wrote in support of the War and the anti-slavery cause, this paper explores the way in which the news coming from America and the debates on the contemporary events left a significant mark on the second part of the novel. The implied reference to the context of the American Civil War would shed new light on Gaskell’s narrative choices concerning the plot and the main male character’s development, which has been substantially overlooked.