Keywords: Romanticism; post-Romanticism; teaching Polish literature
Polish Romanticism did not end in the 19th century. Maria Janion writes thatRomanticism is an epoch that continues (in the culture and identity of Poles) in the20th century. Currently, we can talk about post-Romanticism. We live in postmodernity,but we return to the past. We use the romantic myths. My research indicatesthat young people like to read literature from the 19th century. Young people want toread books about unhappy love, the fight for Poland’s freedom, tradition. They do notwant to recognize post-industrial or liberal values. School still educates students whoread the world through the Romantic code.
More...Keywords: Irena Sendler; goodness; love; a pedagogue
In 2017, the Polish parliament declared that 2018 would be the “Year of IrenaSendler.”The life and activities of Irena Sendler had both educational and pedagogical values.Many Polish schools have made the effort of implementing projects related to Sendler.Among them was the primary school named after Tadeusz Kościuszko in Gaszowice.The author presents the life and activities of Sendler in the context of the Holocaust.He describes numerous projects and mentions helpful materials in their implementation.The author focuses on the concept of goodness and love as values in thecontemporary reality.
More...Keywords: Syria; civil war; sexual violence; forced migration;
Since the start of the Syrian Civil War, sexual violence has been rampant, causing most Syrians to cite rape as the primary reason for fleeing their home country. This paper explores the relationship between type of perpetrator and the use of sexual violence during armed conflict in the Syrian Arab Republic. This case study investigates pro-government, opposition, Kurdish, and jihadist groups and analyzes which groups utilize sexual violence and their motivations for doing so. The pro-government group includes the Syrian Arab Armed forces and the shabbiha militia. The jihadist group examined is ISIS, the opposition group is the Free Syrian Army (FSA), and the Kurdish group includes both the People’s Protection Units (YPG) and the Women’s Protection Units (YPJ). Sources for this research include various reports from nonprofit and non-governmental organizations such as the Human Rights Watch, as well as reports from the Syrian Network for Human Rights, United States Department of State, and articles from various news outlets including the BBC. Throughout this case study, various subjects are discussed, including the importance of Syria’s history, the use of female combatants, the effects of masculinity and patriarchy on the prevalence of sexual violence, and the use of women as spoils of war. All of these phenomena play an important role in explaining how and why perpetrators use sexual violence. This research shows that sexual violence is used purposefully by jihadist and pro-government groups in Syria, but for differing reasons. Pro-government groups use sexual violence against any whom they perceive to be the enemy, which they believe is any Syrian against the Alawite (Shia) Assad regime. On the other hand, ISIS is more likely than pro-government groups to use women as spoils of war. This is because of the group’s emphasis on sexual jihad, and their need to recruit members. With the use of women as spoils of war, ISIS promises members that they can do as they please with these women. The fear of becoming a sex slave for ISIS also helps the group to enforce discipline on the regions they capture. While there is extensive literature regarding the subject of violence against women in conflict, this research is unique in its examination of different types of perpetrators with a narrow focus on Syria. Most importantly, this research provides insight for policy makers around the world regarding the creation of sustainable policy solutions to eliminate sexual violence during conflict.
More...Keywords: Czechoslovakia; 20th century; security; intelligence; SDECE; French intelligence service; Jan Král; courier; Communism; resistance;
The study deals with intelligence activities of the courier Jan Král, who entered the service of the Czechoslovak section of the French intelligence service Service de Documentation Extérieure et de Contre-Espionnage (External Documentation and Counter-Espionage Service) after emigrating to the West at the turn of February and March 1951. From the summer of 1951, he carried out his intelligence tasks under the code name Karel Košut. His activities comprised of construction of a network of collaborators, transporting messages and acquiring intelligence information about the military, economic and political situation in the CSR. He crossed the state border in South Bohemia in the area of Zvonková – Kyselov – Růžový Vrch (U Korandy). He was dispatched with his tasks by senior officer and exile Josef Němeček from Veselí u Přelouče to Prague, Plzeň and other places. He used Radio Free Europe for his work, through which he sent messages, primarily concerning successful crossings of borders back to West Germany. He was also involved in people smuggling of Czechoslovak citizens to the West. Král mostly operated in the Český Krumlov region, where he was born and where he created a network of collaborators consisting of some of his family and friends. They helped him primarily as liaisons in delivering messages or they provided him with shelter. Král’s arguably most important task was to place a transmitter with a suitable person. He handed it to Josef Krnínský in November 1952. It was supposed to be used during an anticipated armed conflict to send intelligence information from the rear of the communist armies. Upon returning from one of his journeys, Král touched a high voltage wire while getting over a wired barrier and died instantly.
More...Keywords: Grażyna Zambrzycka; Polish poetry in Canada; myth; literary tradition;intertextuality;
The article is devoted to the latest volume of poetry published by a Polish poet living in Vancouver; Canada. The author analyzes the poems from a broadly understood culturally-oriented perspective. She notes the variety of different narrative threads in her poetry; traces the poetic techniques and points to the mythological inspirations; intertextual and philosophical allusions; discusses the metapoetic elements and emigration dilemmas. The article argues that it is possible to see in the poetry of Grażyna Zambrzycka the continued amazement at the world and the extolment of the entirety of its existence—both the suffering and the joy; as well as the pursuit of artistic activities.
More...Keywords: Krystyna Turek; folklore; thanatology; cultural heritage;Silesian folk songs;
The present article is devoted to a well-known researcher of folklore and a teacher – Krystyna Turek. She is one of the people who enrich the musical culture of Górny Śląsk and Śląsk Cieszyński with their life and their scholarly activity. Her research interests are focused on the problems of the musical culture of the Silesian region – they were initiated during her studies in the Katowice-based Academy of Music. In 1973, working under the supervision of prof. dr hab. Adolf Dygacz, Turek began her proper scholarly activity devoted to Silesian folklore studies. In the course of years Turek’s circle of research interests expanded and as a result it covered such areas as: folk vocal and dance-based works of various professions and communities, an analytical overview of the sources of folklore, religious themes in songbased works, the problems of modern thanatology, especially the traditional and the modern customs of the time of death, the cultural heritage of Śląsk, the output of distinguished folklorists and the researchers of folk culture, their life paths and scholarly achievements. Turek is the author of 170 publications, including ten books and over 130 articles.
More...Keywords: pathology of political power; hate speech; intolerance; education anti-reform; marginalization and exclusion; social policy; ecological threat
The article critically analyses political power in Poland. Two charges are formulated against the authorities: 1. lack of rational economic policy, 2. deliberate sparking of hostility and division in the society. These deliberately destructive divisions are accompanied by manipulation of facts, hypocrisy over the past and incitement of hostility on the basis of political, moral and other differences. A bizarre example of the aberration of the country’s political authorities is establishing “LGBT-free zones”. The article presents threats resulting from the introduction of a failed reform of the educational system. This includes the reduction of protective, medical and social functions of the school, and the commercialization of extracurricular activities, thereby increasing educational inequalities. The article sheds a critical light on employment policy, employee protection and working conditions. The scandalous neglect in this respect has led to the highest economic emigration in recent decades, including that of young people. A separate area of criticism is the scandalous neglect of ecology, lack of concern for renewable energy sources, growing exclusion of communication and growing income inequalities, which puts Poland in the group of countries with the highest social stratification rates.
More...Keywords: social movements; social change; diversity; social studies methodology; humanist sociology
A publication dedicated to Professor Ireneusz Krzemiński on his 70-year jubilee. It features analytical studies, presenting results of detailed research projects, as well as articles of a more theoretical nature, referring to classic and contemporary sociological thought and historical events which have left a permanent mark on the Polish society and its awareness.
More...Keywords: Atlantic pidgins and creoles; corpus studies; natural language processing; syntax; prosody
This paper presents early reflections on the NaijaSynCor survey (NSC) financed by the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche. The nature of the language surveyed (Naija, a post-creole spoken in Nigeria as a second language by close to 100 million speakers) has induced a specific choice of theoretical framework (variationist sociolinguistics) and methodology (a corpus-based study using Natural Language Processing). Half-way through the 4 year-study, the initial methodological choices are assessed taking into account the nature of the data that has been collected, and the problems that occurred as early as the initial stages of their annotation.
More...Keywords: coin collecting; ancient coins; Stanisław August; Jagiellonian University
Collectors of ancient coins appeared in Poland in the beginning of the Renaissance period. Initially, they were connected with Cracow and the capital town’s university. It is believed that the first collector was Maciej of Miechów, called Miechowita. Concerning other 16th century collectors, one needs to mention Stanisław Grzepski, Wacław Koler, Stanisław Różanka and Stanisław Krasiński. Numismatic collecting came to a halt due to 17th century wars, and flourished in the Enlightenment period during the rule of King Stanisław August. The king himself possessed a considerable collection of ancient coins which was more than eight thousand items strong. The paper also discusses the most important collections in Gdańsk, Silesia and Pomerania.
More...Keywords: online courses; Romanian as a foreign language; difficulties;
The context of the COVID-19 pandemic has radically changed the education system around the world. Both teachers and students had to form a distance classroom together and communicate exclusively by using various platforms in the virtual environment. In this article, we aim to highlight some of the difficulties and challenges we have encountered in teaching Romanian as a foreign language in this new context. At the same time, we draw a parallel between teaching Romanian language in the online and offline space, and we provide answers to students concerning the various tasks proposed during the classes as examples.
More...Keywords: Christianity; faith; musical sermon; reason; Enlightenment; the West
Today, Bach’s music enjoys a huge interest and popularity in the West. However, this situation is paradoxical – it hides a certain contradiction. The progressive, liberal and secular West is an heir of the ideas of the Enlightenment, while “Bach, in his unswerving religious conservatism, was living and working very much at odds with the progressivist currents of his day, and ours” (Michael Marissen). The author of this paper focuses on Bach’s anti-Enlightenment attitude, presenting it mainly on the basis of the instrumental masterpiece Musikalisches Opfer BWV 1079. Towards the end of his article, with the help of Emil Cioran, John M. Coetzee, Ingmar Bergman and Zuzana Růžičkova, the author suggests an answer to the question why the music of Bach, an enemy of the Enlightenment, not only enjoys such a huge popularity, but is also treated in the Enlightened West as the work of the grandest music genius of the human race – one ranking among its best achievements.
More...Keywords: political participation of women; women’s quota / gender quota; affirmative measures; Election Law of BiH;
The paper presents a gender needs analysis and possible directions of electoral legislation reforms in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The paper focuses on three core research questions. The first examines to what extent and how do consociational political systems (dis)enable the representation of women in politics. It also looks at the different dimensions of that representation (formal, descriptive, substantial and symbolic). The second examines whether the Election Law of Bosnia and Herzegovina is harmonised with the Gender Equality Law of Bosnia and Herzegovina. And the third examines the direction in which electoral legislation reforms in BiH should and could take place. In that context, the paper also presents recommendations from CEDAW and various other gender mainstreaming initiatives focused on electoral legislation reforms, coming both from the institutions in charge of gender equality and from the civil society.
More...Keywords: F. M. Dostoyevsky; Russia; the West; Winter Notes on Summer Impressions; Diary of a Writer;
The author is concerned with the relationship between Russia and the West through the eyes of the Russian writer F. M. Dostoyevsky. In the 19th century, this issue was crucial for the Russian intellectuals and almost everybody was somehow concerned with it; besides F. M. Dostoyevsky, most notably N. M. Karamzin, A. S. Pushkin and all of the so-called slavophiles and westernists including I. S. Turgenev, N. J. Danilevsky or A. I. Hercen. The paper seeks to analyse and compare the attitudes of F. M. Dostoyevsky towards the so-called West by comparing two works - the essayWinter Notes on Summer Impressions and the multi-genre work Diary of a Writer. The author draws attention to the specific features of Dostoyevskyʼs perception of the West and the terminology used in these works. She accentuates the ambivalence in Dostoyevskyʼs perception of Western civilization, pointing at levels where the writerʼs critical thinking is manifested.
More...Keywords: T. G. Masaryk; Skalica; Hodonín; Pavel Blaho; Ludevít Šimek; Jan Herben; Emanuel Havelka;
The first part of the paper is devoted to a consideration of what the secret of the extraordinary personality of T.G.M. as a poor boy who broke through consists in. The author offers an answer to the „Attempt at the Graphological Biography of T.G. Masaryk“ by Robert Saudek, published in Masaryk‘s Proceedings in 1927. The second part of the text highlights the relationship of T.G.M. to both banks of the Morava River during his childhood, specifying it on both the Moravian and Slovak sides. The third part is aimed at Masaryk‘s contacts with the natives at the time of his teaching at the University of Vienna and the University of Prague. The Vienna contacts are connected on the basis of cooperation between the Slovak academic association Tatran and the Czech academic association. The cooperation of T.G.M. with the future doctor in Senica Dr. Ludevít Šimek and young Skalička citizen Pavel Blaho is mentioned. The cooperation with Slovak students at the time of Masaryk‘s engagement at the Czech University of Prague is connected with their activities around „Detvan“ and „Čas.“ The fourth part is devoted to the cooperation of T.G.M. with Slovak friends from the close neighbourhood of the Morava River on the Slovak side during the preparation and start-up of „Hlas“. The Moravian side of the Morava River in the matter of contacts with T.G.M. is represented by a native of Brumovice, the so-called creator of the Masaryk legend – editor of the magazine Čas, politician, journalist, writer and historian, Jan Herben, who spent almost all his life assisting Masaryk and his ideas. The text will also recall the important personality of Hodonín – Emanuel Havelka, who led five dialogues with Masaryk between 1904–1910, especially about religion, philosophy and education.
More...Keywords: informativeness; expressiveness; French and francophone press; discursive effects; rhetorical figures; figures of speech;
In this paper, we will deal with different techniques used by journalists who chose to use expressive language in the titles of informative articles. Our study will focus on a recent corpus of articles published online in various French or francophone newspapers, weekly and monthly periodicals and on an information site. We will try to identify the intentions of the journalists that make use of various expressive techniques (homophony, alliteration, paronomasia, détournement of fixed phrases and proverbs, isotopy, polysemy, antithesis, original associations of proper and figurative meanings, etc.) as well as the discursive effects that they can create.
More...