Tragic Experience Research Articles

Maladaptive fantasy predicts negatively distorted self and other mental representation: A consideration of child abuse from psycho/neuro/biological perspectives

Child abuse is a prevalent public health issue with one half of children worldwide experiencing some form of violence. Child abuse is associated with a myriad of impacts across the lifespan such as mental and physical illness, academic performance, and employment. For this reason, individual’s psychological functions such as emotional regulation, autobiographical memory and self, and psychological connection with others are changed by child abuse. However, to best of our knowledge, there is still much unknowns about the mechanism underlying these changes. In this article, we focusing on the relationships between fantasy and metacognition and its biological and neurological bases, and functional change of them caused by child abuse. Then, we also explain the effects of them for other psychological function in abused individual. In case of child abuse, there is suggests that children immerse themselves fantastic world in order to escape from the tragic experiences that are repeated on a daily living by the caregiver. In this process, functions that recognize the real world, such as metacognition, not functioning. Rather, there is consider that children refuse to develop metacognition in order to avoid realizing the truth of the real world. As results, it does not seem to develop child’s emotional regulative function such as metacognition. The experience of being continuously hurt by a caregiver and the image of being hurt are thought to change to maladaptive fantasy or autobiographical shame memory. Then, both maladaptive fantasy and autobiographical shame memory are lead to formed negatively distorted and unstable mental images of self and other. Finally, we discuss two potential new interventions such as picture book and breathing technique for abused children.

Model of a pastoral sermon for handling the problem of sexual violence against women in Maluku

Sexual violence against women is an issue of urgency that arises in all cultures locally, nationally, globally and transnationally. This problem has broad dimensions in both the public and private domains, both cases that are reported or not reported to law enforcement. Factually, the trend of this problem has been identified as increasing every year in Maluku, Indonesia. Therefore, the church requires serious attention to prevention and systematic treatment to overcome it. This sensitivity and awareness are a manifestation of the church’s sense of calling and responsibility for the restoration of human dignity. The pastoral sermon service model is the church’s strategic approach to handling this problem. This research aimed to develop a model of pastoral sermons for victims of sexual violence against women in Maluku. This research focused on identifying and exploring the tragic experiences and impacts of sexual violence against women. Furthermore, a cross-cultural pastoral model was created for victims of violence.Contribution: This article provided a new perspective from the post-modern homiletics to approach social issues. This new homiletical approach to dealing with the problem of women’s sexual violence is one of the main focuses of ‘Women’s Theological Studies’ in HTS.

The Rumble of a Locomotive, Traumatizing Screams, and Mortal Dance: Firsthand Poetic Testimonies Haunted by the Sounds of the Holocaust

Abstract This article analyzes the relationship between Holocaust trauma and firsthand poetic testimonies through the lens of literary acoustics. Specifically, it explores the work of three Jewish poets, Stanisław Wygodzki, Ilona Karmel, and Stanisław Jerzy Lec, who wrote in Polish of their tragic experiences in the Nazi camps. The article compares these poetical works to involuntary flashbacks composed of haunting sounds that recall trauma and violence and applies the concept of thantosonics to these auditory memories. In particular, the author notes the importance of trains as not only an auditory motif, but also as the metrical underpinning of the verses, and as a point of juxtaposition against sounds of innocence in the Holocaust soundscape. Furthermore, the article also explores the imagery of folk dance as a kind of danse macabre, as well as instances of involuntary sonic identification with the perpetrators.

RECORDING AND REPRESENTATION OF WAR CRIMES OF THE RUSSIAN ARMY ON THE TERRITORY OF UKRAINE: EXPERIENCE OF UKRAINIAN JOURNALISTS

The article emphasizes that journalists play an important role in the process of recording war crimes and in the further processing of the collected material for representation in specific genre formats available for perception by the audience. The coverage of war crimes by the Russian military, on the one hand, problematizes the bloody Russian-Ukrainian war, reflecting the tragic experience that Ukrainian society is currently living, and at the same time – it records the evidence base regarding Russia’s disregard of international conventions, in particular the general rules and customs of warfare, as well as in the context protection of the civilian population during the war, treatment of prisoners of war, etc. This problem needs to be fixed, understood, evaluated, updated and explained both for the Ukrainian audience and the world community, which explains the professional interest of Ukrainian and foreign journalists, the rapid increase in the number of publications on this topic. It is emphasized that journalists must have special training, that is, a basic understanding of International Humanitarian Law, international conventions, as well as be able to navigate freely in the recommendations for covering the stories of victims and victims of war crimes.

Forensic Hypoglycaemia & Neuroglycopenia — A Clinical Legal Social Endocrinology Challenge for 2024, Forensic Law in Hypoglycaemia 4

The author, Derek Beatty, was diagnosed with T1D Diabetes 45 years ago when living in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England. Symptoms of thirst, tiredness, difficulty in reading small print, led to GP doctor consultation with fasting blood glucose Biochemistry tests. Possible Genetic Inheritance may have contributed to reduced Immunogenic resistance to infection possibly triggered from business travel to several African Countries including Kenya, Zambia, Nigeria, Sudan, Egypt, South Africa. Add the trauma as witness to a fatal car crash in Bricket Wood, St Albans, when a driver of a Rolls Royce crashed into the rear of a lorry in the dark on an October afternoon. With a natural Adrenalin trigger to help in an emergency and First Aid training when in a Scout Group in Edinburgh, to stop and assist, comfort the car driver, shout for an ambulance when others appeared. An ambulance arrived promptly (before the era of Mobile Phones), Paramedics took over with hospital transfer. This frightening event has left a vivid memory flashback scar along with near fatal Hypoglycaemia with Neuroglycopenia scars. The Police called 3 days later and requested a witness statement. There was no hesitation to be able to help. When asked about the car driver welfare the answer was that he had suffered severe neurological injury and sadly died. What followed was a correct Fatal Accident Inquiry before a Coroner identifying Accidental Death. With courage the wife and family spoke after to thank me for doing my best to help save the driver, but sadly he had passed. We hope and pray he rests in peace. This tragic experience has left a strong sense of courage and determination in the belief that prevention is better than cure. When, and if tragedy occurs, what might have been the cause always helps in learning and education and often offers future opportunity to enable prevention. We can learn from tragedy and take steps to forensically identify cause and seek to prevent recurrence. The experience of near fatal Diabetes Hypoglycaemia and Neuroglycopenia caused by ignorance and failure to educate a family what to do in a diabetes hypoglycaemia emergency involving the Hormone Insulin with NHS GP mismanagement and Gross Negligence in Public Office cover up, when combined with an Addisonian Adrenalin Crisis, both with Neuroglycopenia and Simultaneous, has led to 30 years forensic research of the event cause with identified errors in Law justifying disclosure and loss recovery from those responsible for legal errors. Today with global interest and helpful personal clinical support from an excellent Diabetes Endocrinology Team of Clinicians and Nurses in Edinburgh and recognition with interest from many clinicians and nurses worldwide of the importance of this work has enhanced personal positivity to succeed and Win in Insulin Chicanes when at the same time treating an incurable long term health condition requiring daily injections of the hormone Insulin platformed with dose adjustment to target normoglycaemia and accommodate lifestyle while addressing insulin dose and type; exercise; diet; differences in carbohydrate and fat content in foods; interest in Keto style diet; fruit; vegetables; food sugar content; adverse stress: happiness; family and friendship encouragement and support; education of damage of excess alcohol; smoking; recreational drugs; and the link to the medical mystery. Summary review of Virological attack associated with Obesity, Overeating, Alcohol, risk of Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, Smoking, triggers for Parkinson’s Disease, Dyslexia, certain Ophthalmic conditions with possible links e.g., Nystagmus linked to Dyslexic, Genetically Inherited Addison’s Disease possibly from India after discovery by Thomas Addison in 1860 and add the Insulin Journey from discovery Banting, Best, Macleod, Collip, 1922, and the World’s First Hypoglycaemia Event with Neuroglycopenia experienced as a Clinical Event by Dr Jim Gilchrist and in L:aw recognised as Such by Banting, Best, Macleod, Collip, and Toronto Police, Canada at the time. Yes, Insulin can be used as a Poison, but it is a lifesaving Hormone for which today in 2024 all T1D Diabetes patients are exceedingly grateful for the research of over 100 years ago. One must never describe in Law Insulin as a Poison without good cause and reason. Insulin is a Hormone. This is important especially in tragic cases in pregnancy when Gestational Diabetes can occur leading to neonate and young baby infection and on occasion fatality. In 2023 I have experienced Blue Toe Syndrome associated with negative test Long COVID caused by vascular disturbance at toe extremity and Quinsi, very rare in long term Diabetes, sometimes in Tonsilitis during teenage and early adult life, but likely identified as Virological infection caused by Long COVID. Was prevention of Hypoglycaemia Unawareness in 1987–1994 possible? How do we discover? We need to research. We need social recognition and understanding in 2024 as we use this experience to better understand Clinical Hypoglycaemia and Neuroglycopenia in Law. 2023 published awareness of Hypoglycaemia, IDF INTERNATIONAL DIABETES FEDERATION with Immunogenic Issues in Diabetes and Addison’s Disease, has identified implications for COVID-19 Public Health Inquiry Investigation in Scotland. Forensic Aspects of Hypoglycaemia 4, now explores CPS Crown Prosecution Service and Court Reference Redacted in St Albans, Hertfordshire, England, to Correct Errors in Law identified from 1989 when a Law Society registered solicitor in Knutsford, Cheshire, who on the balance of probability, was aware that the Law Society in England at the time had allocated £500,000 in Public Funds to assess whether a case existed to identify Marketing and Safety adverse experience of Hypoglycaemia Unawareness? Investigation led to instances of personal injury and cases of unexplained death in bed syndrome to address a claim for damage experience against the Pharmaceutical Industry. A licence to market BHI Insulin on 26 August 1982 was given after close forensic safety consideration by application to the MHRA at the Department of Health, London. The Licence was granted with provisions that prescribing GP General Practitioner doctors reduced the Insulin dose by up to 20% when prescribed to T1D diabetes patients treated with Porcine or Beef Insulin, prescribed BG Blood Glucose monitoring medical devices to the patient, and provide clear education to the Patient and family members living with the Diabetes Patient, providing care for the patient, and knowing exactly what to do in a Diabetes Hypoglycaemia Emergency, and by default an Endocrine Red Alert Adrenalin Addisonian Crisis. On all counts the GP Practice in St Albans and Bricket Wood, Hertfordshire, failed miserably. When consulted in 1989 by the patient’s wife and sister-in-law the Knutsford solicitor firm failed to disclose known Law Society Investigation update involving Hypoglycaemia and education to the solicitor clients, the patient’s Wife and Sister-in-Law, and instead sent a libelous letter to the patient in 1989 with redisclosure in 1994. Character defamation of the patient in 1989 and 1994 is forensically identified in 2024 as clinical behavioural temporary mental health when in a state of hypoglycaemia unawareness and can be demonstrated in the animal rat model showing inferior quality Purkinje Cell Environmental Enrichment with insulin overdose or underdose leading to hyperglycaemia which when under corrected can lead to diagnose of T2D Type 2 Diabetes often associated with diet, lack of exercise, poor keto diet experience, alcohol abuse leading to obesity. In 2000, a request to the Court for medical notes disclosure was described as a ‘Fishing Trip’. Again in 2005 an Insurance Broker completely ignorant of Diabetes and Hypoglycaemia misled the court. Disclosure December 2020 by a Transaction Director, London, of the Firm EY, is identified as failure to identify and seek NHS help to address likely Genetically Inherited Addison’s Disease in an NHS patient, first suspected in 1994 when the GP Practice failed to act, then in March 1996 when the Official Solicitor was invited to investigate with referral failure. 2024 Forensic Analysis has identified opportunities to act and correct errors in law, nothing was done, why? In 2024 we investigate the cause of Suicide on 11 October 2020 in Alban Manor Nursing Home, St Albans, during COVID-19 Pandemic of Addison’s Disease Patient. Despite aged 79 her life could have been saved but alleged negligence in breach of the Mental Health Act 1983 caused the death with failure to take into account warnings from the Banting Lecture 1994 Hypoglycaemia, Real or Unreal, Lawful or Unlawful with Addison’s Disease Suicide. Under European Human Rights Law, The Human Rights Act 1998, and European Convention on Human Rights, a Public Immunity Argument exists to publish to learn from experience to prevent reoccurrence with implications to assist COVID-19 Public Health Inquiry Investigation.

The Organic Crisis of a Colonised State: Bulgaria in the Eye of the Pandemic, 2020–2022

Abstract Bulgaria’s particularly tragic experience with covid-19, with one of the largest death tolls per 100,000 in Europe, can be analysed in terms of purely natural factors (more lethal variants), the foibles and missteps of leaders, and unpredictable vaccine supplies. From a Gramscian critical materialist perspective, the pattern is better understood in terms of four interlocking structures: Bulgaria’s subaltern status as a downtrodden colony of Europe, its mode of insertion into globalised capitalism, the Orthodox Church’s strenuous effort to maintain its hegemonic position within Bulgarian nationalism, and the crisis of hegemony that engulfed a government already reliant on corruption more than persuasion, with an inchoate and ideologically variegated ‘Great National Revolt’ against it coinciding with the pandemic. The upshot of these structures was a rate of vaccination that was unusually low by European standards, leaving many Bulgarians, especially the elderly, lethally exposed to the disease and harmed by a widely distrusted corrupt neoliberal state.

Ukrainian Theater After the Full-Scale Russian Invasion: A New Reading of Canonical Plays

The article analyzes the new senses that appeared in the 2021–2022 Ukrainian theater performances of canonical works. Two of the productions in question are based on Ukrainian classical texts, namely Taras Shevchenko’s “mystery poem” “Velykyi Lyokh” (The Great Dungeon) and Lesya Ukrainka’s dramatic poem Cassandra. The other two productions, based on Sophocles’ tragedy Oedipus Rex and Albert Camus’ play Caligula, consciously seek answers to the challenges of the new Ukrainian reality in the canon of world drama. The full-scale Russian invasion has made the well-known meanings in these works more clearly visible and added new ones. Against the backdrop of media discussions about the mental health of the Russian president, Caligula by the Ivan Franko Theater (Kyiv) reflects on the psychology of an authoritarian ruler. Oedipus Rex by the Theater on Podil (Kyiv) shows why the demand for justice is growing in wartime society and the moral side of actions is becoming increasingly important. The Great Dungeon by the Poltava Puppet Theater tells the dramatic story of the Russo-Ukrainian War through the prism of Shevchenko’s historical analogies. Cassandra by the Ivan Franko Theater creates the atmosphere of an vulnerable, open-air space where every inhabitant, except for the protagonist, prefers to protect themselves with fanciful constructions of ephemeral illusions. While the tragic reality of the Russо-Ukrainian War has led to the emergence of a large body of contemporary drama that interprets the new experience of Ukrainian society, the war reality has become a prerequisite for a significant rethinking of theatrical texts from the Ukrainian and Western European canon. Thus, Ukrainian theater is actively engaging with the new reality, intervening in various ways in current public discussions that aim to comprehend the drama of the war, and creating a safe space for a common emotional response to the latest tragic experience.

TO THE QUESTION OF THE HISTORY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF INTERNATIONAL LEGAL REGULATION TO COUNTER THE THREAT OF THE SPREAD OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES

The article brought to the attention of the reader examines the history of the adoption and subsequent formation of a system of global international legal acts that ensured the formation of a modern international legal framework for the mechanism of countering, both by individual states and the world community as a whole, the spread of infectious diseases dangerous to life and health. Special attention is paid to a number of international legal acts in this area that have their effect at the level of any geographical region of the globe. The analysis of the international legal documents cited in the article allows us to formulate a number of conclusions showing the stages of evolution of the international legal regulation of combating the spread of infectious diseases: from the priority of the purely national economic interests of states to the declaration and consolidation in international documents of the legal obligations of states to ensure social equality in the implementation of the right to health. A significant stage in this evolution was the consequences of the Second World War and the tragic experience of totalitarian regimes that contributed to a qualitative leap in the development of the institution of human rights. In particular, in shaping the perception of the international obligations of states to counteract the spread of dangerous infectious diseases as a form of realization of the right to health. In conclusion, the author substantiates the need for the formation, as a natural continuation, of a new legal thinking aimed at perceiving the right to health as a global right “without state borders”.

Writing the World, Reading Across Borders: Fukushima: Récit d’un désastre Outside Its Disciplinary Boundaries

On March 18, 2011, one of Germany’s most famous children’s book authors, Gudrun Pausewang (1928-2020), publicly spoke about the connection between 3/11 and her award-winning 1987 classic, Fall-Out (Die Wolke). I posit that Michaël Ferrier’s texts with a 3/11 theme highlight the synchronic as well as diachronic dimensions of the Great East Japan Disaster and therefore go far beyond Pausewang’s 1987 approach to think globally about nuclear energy and technological risk scenarios. While Pausewang’s novel focuses on the tragic experience of a young adult who copes with the aftermath of a nuclear accident in Germany in the 1980s, Ferrier strategically reveals the complexities of knowledge and uncertainty in the wake of environmental and human catastrophe as an on-going crisis or déjà-vu of Chernobyl and Hiroshima. My analysis explores Ferrier’s (re)mediation of the convolution of this crisis across various media, including documents of popular culture, by insisting on the thematic and structural connections between his texts with a 3/11 theme, Pausewang’s 1987 novel, and two German adaptations of Pausewang’s novel, Gregor Schnitzler’s 2006 drama film, Die Wolke, as well as a Anike Hage’s 2008 graphic novel. Ferrier’s works unapologetically reveal elisions that have occurred in mediated disaster narratives across borders.

A Study of Trauma Writing in Colson Whitehead’s The Nickel Boys

Colson Whitehead, a well-known contemporary African American writer, who has won the Pulitzer Prize twice. The Nickel Boys won the Pulitzer Prize in 2019, and the novel takes the tragic experience of black teenagers in the Nickel Academy Reformatory School as the main line of the story. This paper applies Judith Herman’s trauma theory to analyze the physical and psychological trauma faced by the characters in the novel, as well as the causes of this trauma. The racism and prejudice that the black people suffered have been deeply affecting their living and mental state. At the same time, this paper discusses the possible ways to realize the recovery of trauma with the theory of trauma and recovery. Through the trauma study, we can see that under the combined stress of these traumas, African Americans suffer from a great blow in their body and spirit. The causes of the trauma are multidimensional and are the result of a combination of historical and social factors. For example, the segregation system is responsible for the trauma of African Americans. At the end of the paper, it discusses ways for black people to come out of trauma. Trauma recovery is a complex and difficult process in which black people must rely on their own efforts and help from the black community to achieve trauma recovery. It can be said that Whitehead’s exploration of the trauma recovery in the novels shows his realistic concern for African Americans and even human beings.

Tragedy does not die: Creativity, emotions, and metaphor of revolution in the context of Chinese Revolutionary Drama

The decline of tragedy is one of the greatest tragedies of modernity. While many scholars exclaim that tragedy has been dead, Raymond Williams points out that it is not an eternal metaphysical event, but is plural and dynamic, a series of experiences, a tradition. Williams’ rethinking of tragedy provides a historical perspective on the cultural meanings. What matters are the traditions, emotions, and experiences of the time in which the tragedy is set, and the superimposed series of accidents and imbalances that create this type of tragic experience. That is, tragedy is not a static narrative of grief, but a textual creativity. This article will examine this argument in the context of Chinese Revolutionary Drama. The White-Haired Girl (Bai Mao Nv) is a famous tragedy born a hundred years ago in China that depicts the tragic fate of the poor. During the Communist Revolution, it was adapted by the propaganda department of the Communist Party as a tragedy of class oppression and extended to the whole country as a symbol of emotional mobilization. After 1978, the tragedy was forgotten as an outdated revolutionary legacy. However, the experience and texts of the The White-Haired Girl are still active in Chinese social networks today. This complex process is not only historical but also emotional. The aims of this article are the following: (1) to reveal the constructive relationship between creativity, revolution, and emotion; (2) to present the process of interconstruction between tragedy as context and tragedy as metaphor for revolution; and (3) to place creativity in the context of specific cultural and historical changes and observe its dynamic significance.

Homosexuals; What are the Contributing Factors’?

<p class="06IsiAbstrak"><span lang="EN-GB">As evidenced by the numerous gay instances that have been reported in various print and electronic media, homosexuals continue to emerge in a variety of spheres of life. By understanding the causes influencing the existence of homosexuals, researchers paid particular attention to this condition in order to intervene in gay difficulties. The purpose of this study is to outline the variables that contribute to homosexual conduct in Padang. Data on 32 homosexuals in the city of Padang were collected for this quantitative descriptive study. Utilizing the FRC Homosexuality Inventory (FHI), data were gathered. Descriptive analysis was used to examine the data. The results showed that the dominant factors cause homosexual behavior, namely spiritual values in life (9.38 percent), social engagement in the gay community (87.5 percent), and the tragic experience of being the victim of sexual assault or harassment (18.75 percent). There are some preventive actions that may be performed to stop someone from developing gay tendencies.</span></p>

Comparing The Therapeutic Effect of Social Media-Based Art, Music and Poetry Therapies Intervention on treating Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms of Flood Victims

This study ascertained the effectiveness of social media-based art, music and poetry therapy intervention in treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms of flood victims. A quasi-experiment involving 330 flood victims randomly assigned to a control and treatment group was carried out. Furthermore, the treatment group was divided into three to form the social media-based art, music, and poetry therapies group, respectively. The therapy was delivered through a WhatsApp group. The study revealed that social media-based therapies were effective in reducing the PTSD symptoms of participants in the experiment group, as compared with the control group. Social media-based poetry therapy was found to be more effective than art and music therapies in treating PTSD. This finding directs relevant authorities and medical experts as to the best kind of social media-based therapy to employ when restoring the minds of people who have been through tragic experiences such as flooding. To offer their therapies, particularly to dispersed flood victims, hospitals and other healthcare facilities that are prepared to offer psychotherapy services to patients may want to consider using social media.

Postcolonial Discourse Reflected Through Magical Realism in Tess Uriza Holthe’s When the Elephants Dance

This article aims to show the postcolonial discourse of the Philippines through the utilization of magical realism in the novel When the Elephants Dance (2002) by Tess Uriza Holthe. When the Elephants Dance is intrinsically structured into four main sections which describe the events leading up to Japan’s surrender. Inside these four sections, the story is integrated with five sub-stories from accompanying characters which are A Cure for Happiness, Mang Minno, Ghost Children, The Twilight People, and The Portrait of an Aristocrat. These sub-stories act as one of the highlights of the novel since they are utilized by the characters as a way to retain their sanity and cope with the tragic experiences of living in the middle of a war. The characters’ coping mechanism of telling their life stories that are filled with Filipino mythology reflects the postcolonial discourse of the Philippines prior to and during World War II. With the research limitation of analyzing the story of Mang Minno, this research will use the theory of magical realism by Wendy B. Faris to see the presence of magical realism, as well as the utilization of New Historicism as a bridge to analyze the postcolonial discourse. The results show that by integrating magical realism and history, Holthe was successful in depicting historical events that occurred in the Philippines under the fictional aspect of the novel. Holthe used magical realism to conceal the postcolonial discourse of alterity and emphasize the magnificence of Catholicism in the Philippines.

Gratitude, fragility and strength: Perspectives of adults born preterm about prematurity.

The aim of the study was to explore how young adults thought that being born preterm had affected their lives. Adult participants of a research cohort were questioned about their perspectives. Answers were analysed using mixed methods. Forty-five participants evaluated their health at median score of 8/10. When asked about the meaning of being born preterm, 65% had positive self-centred answers, invoking two main themes: being stronger/'a fighter'/more resilient and being a survivor/chosen; 42% also reported negative themes, such as having health problems and a difficult start. All heard about their prematurity from their parents, 55% with positive child-centred or healthcare system-centred themes, 19% with neutral themes; 35% also heard negative parent-centred themes (tragic experience, guilt, mother's health). When asked which words were associated with prematurity, participants mainly chose positive words for themselves and their family, but more negative words for how the media and society depicted prematurity. Answers were not correlated with adverse objective health measures. Participants evaluated their health in a balanced fashion. Preterm-born adults often feel that they have experienced positive transformations as a result of their traumatic start. They often have feelings of gratitude and strength, independent of health problems.

Through the Eyes of a Strategist and a Diplomat: Polish-American Relations post-1918

This work appeared in connection with the centennial of Poland's rebirth as an independent state in 2018. Its focus is Poland-United States diplomatic relations. It is a most welcome addition to what we have in this field, most notably Piotr Wandycz's The United States and Poland (1980) and Wandycz and John S. Micgiel's edited volume, Reflections on Polish Foreign Policy (2007). Contributors to this collection are prominent public officials from Poland and the U.S. who bring both expertise and experience to the subject.The biographies of the five contributors appear at the end of the book. Robert Kupiecki, Poland's ambassador to the United States from 2008 to 2012, provides two pieces—an introduction and a review of Poland-U.S. relations after 1989. Ambassador/historian Bogusław Winid, who served as Poland's representative to NATO, analyses the relations between the two states between 1918 and 1945. Professor Jakub Tyszkiewicz of the University of Wrocław takes up the years of the Polish People's Republic (1945–1989), a period Wandycz and Micgiel did not cover. Daniel Fried, the United States’ ambassador to Poland from 2005 to 2009, offers his overview and eye-witness discussion of U.S.-Poland relations over the past forty years. And Mariusz Brymora, who has served the Republic of Poland in a number of diplomatic postings in America since 1989, provides a useful list of important dates in U.S.-Poland diplomatic history over the past century.In his introductory essay, Ambassador Kupiecki deals with the a-symmetrical character of the relations between the two countries, with the United States a great power internationally and Poland a medium sized European state wedged geographically between Russia and Germany. A second critical factor defining U.S.-Poland relations involves Poland's wrenching experience over this past century, first as a nation restored to two decades of independent statehood after 123 years of foreign rule, followed by its devastation in World War II, then its forty-four years under Soviet domination, and concluding with its rebirth as a sovereign democracy in 1989—the Poland of the Third Republic. Here a key aspect defining U.S.-Poland relations has been America's support for Poland's entry into the NATO alliance in 1999. And as he notes, over the past century U.S.-Poland relations have not existed in a vacuum but have been affected by the changing international situation and by domestic economic and political conditions in both countries.Bogusław Winid's remarkable contribution on U.S.-Poland relations from 1918 to 1945 begins with his discussion of pianist/patriot Ignacy Paderewski's extraordinary role in gaining President Woodrow Wilson's support for Poland's independence and his work with the leaders of America's Polish community. Of note is his appraisal of the seldom mentioned U.S. Secretary of State Robert Lansing's role in backing Poland's rebirth.After assessing the period between the two world wars as a missed opportunity for building closer Polish-U.S. ties, Winid offers a highly critical discussion of World War II Poland's tragic experience in working with President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Evaluating FDR as duplicitous in his treatment of his Polish ally, he concludes that he was clearly no Woodrow Wilson.Given Roosevelt's complicated task of building closer ties with Josef Stalin, the Soviet Union's ever suspicious ruler, both in defeating Hitler and then winning his support for his grandiose postwar goals, things could hardly have been otherwise. As a result, Poland's postwar fate was sealed and in two steps. Thus, at their first summit meeting in Teheran in December 1943 with British Prime Minister Churchill, FDR agreed, amazingly, to cede half of prewar Poland to Stalin. He asked only that their discussion be kept private. As he told Stalin, he planned to run for re-election in 1944 and winning a big Polish vote would help insure his victory. In step two, at the “Big Three” leaders’ second summit in February 1945 at Yalta, the road was paved for a Soviet -run post war Polish state. FDR glossed this over in his report to Congress on the Yalta conference. Winid concludes by noting the memoir by Jan Ciechanowski, free Poland's last Ambassador to the U.S., a work he titled Defeat in Victory.This reviewer has but one difference with Winid's masterful essay. It involves his somewhat overly severe criticism (p. 49) of the Polish American community for having not done more on Poland's behalf in World War II. In fact, Polonia was restricted from lobbying for free Poland due to America's neutrality before December 7, 1941, the day the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. From then until 1944, Polonia's leaders continued to trust, wrongly, in Roosevelt and Churchill's commitment to their “Atlantic Charter” pledge to support their Polish ally's sovereignty and territorial integrity. They were further hamstrung by the favored treatment FDR and his advisors gave to three, well positioned, pro-Soviet activists (Professor Oskar Lange, Reverend Stanislaus Orlemanski, and trade union leader Leo Krzycki) who claimed they spoke for Polish Americans about Poland.But in June 1944, Polonia's leaders did convene a great congress in Buffalo, New York of more than 2,500 elected delegates from across the country. The gathering came at a critical moment. Soviet troops had just entered Polish territory and the great Allied Normandy invasion was about to begin. The Polish American Congress’ founding was indeed a “most colossal affair” as the President's observer reported. But with FDR's Teheran arrangement with Stalin kept secret, all in Buffalo pledged him their loyalty, their commitment to victory in the war, a just peace, and a postwar Poland whole and free based on the lofty principles of the Atlantic Charter.As Winid notes, in the months after FDR continued to mislead Polish Americans about his bombshell agreement with Stalin so as to hold onto their votes in November. On October 11, Pulaski Day, he met with PAC leaders in the White House seated in front of a giant map of prewar Poland. Then on the eve of the election, he spoke with PAC president Karol Rozmarek. Repeating his support for the principles of the Atlantic Charter, FDR won Rozmarek's personal vote for him. His operatives then broadcast Rozmarek's pledge as if it was the Congress’ official endorsement.1Given these realities, it is hard to imagine how the World War II Polish American community could have had anything like the impact on Poland's behalf comparable to that of its predecessors in 1917–1918. Even had Polonia been blessed with an advocate as prominent and eloquent as Paderewski, could that have made a difference?Professor Tyszkiewicz's rendition of U.S.-Poland relations during the forty-four years of the Soviet-dominated “Polish People's Republic” is useful as a comprehensive chronological review. Its strong point lies in his discussion of U.S. policy as two pronged – with Washington maintaining formal relations with the “People's Poland” regime while doing its best to develop positive ties with its subjects. Here the author provides much useful information about the economic aid programs aimed at winning over the Polish regime and improving its people's lot. He is mindful in discussing the positions taken by successive U.S. presidents towards Poland, whose own leadership also went through a series of changes. Still, might his presentation have given more recognition to the chronic crises that impacted Poland—in 1956, 1968, 1970, 1976, 1980—more than all the rest of the Soviet-run East European satellites combined? Could the role of Pope John Paul II after 1978 received some attention, along with that of the incredible Solidarity movement that brought down “People's Poland” in 1989? These were indeed matters of great importance in America as well as Poland.The activities of the organized American Polonia during the forty-four years of People's Poland receives no mention. Thus, the herculean efforts of the PAC and its presidents, Rozmarek and his successor, Aloysius Mazewski, émigré activists like Stefan Korboński of the Assembly of Captive European Nations, and Jan Nowak of Radio Free Europe go unnoticed, despite their tireless work to influence U.S. policy makers. Yes, it was regime policy to black out (or misrepresent) information about them. But they are part of this story.2Ambassadors Kupiecki and Fried's essays make for very interesting reading. Both deal mainly with relations between the Poland of the Third Republic and the United States following the communist-run regime's demise. Both focus on Poland's efforts to join the NATO alliance, which they view as a key to Poland's sovereignty, security, and prosperity, and the debates within the Clinton administration over NATO expansion and, indeed, its very future.Both hardly mention the role Polish Americans, as individuals and as activists in the Polish American Congress, in helping achieve Poland's entry into NATO. Ambassador Kupiecki does cite the contributions of Jan Nowak, Zbigniew Brzeziński, and a few others, but that is about it. Ambassador Fried makes a veiled mention of the role of the Polish American community. This is unfortunate, since in NATO expansion, the Polish American Congress and its controversial President, Edward Moskal, were both active and influential.3Indeed, while most of the authors of this excellent work assume that U.S.-Poland diplomatic relations have been two-sided in nature, the story might be better seen as three-sided—with the vast, well organized Polish diaspora an engaged participant over the past century and more. Its service can be compared to that of the Jewish American community in U.S.-Israel relations.Ambassador Kupiecki takes up and disposes of the post-Soviet complaint from Russia that the U.S. and its allies reneged on their promises at the end of the Cold War not to expand NATO into east central Europe. He cites the opinion of Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev from 1990 that no such promise was made. He also notes the pledge made in Warsaw in 1993 by Gorbachev's successor, Boris Yeltsin, that Russia would not oppose Poland's entry into NATO. But he notes (with Fried agreeing) that Russia's opposition to NATO expansion into East Central Europe has become “dogma” (pp. 100–104, 137).Ambassador Fried covers much the same ground as Kupiecki and ends his excellent, highly personal appraisal of U.S.-Poland relations over the past thirty plus years with words of wisdom that merit quoting here. Writing as a friend, he reminds Poles about the adverse impact that Poland's leaders’ domestic policy decisions have had, and can have, in undermining its international standing. But his sober words need to be taken seriously by neo-isolationist-minded Americans too: The American leadership in the West, and the free world more broadly, remains indispensable. That leadership is based, at its best, on the recognition of the fact that America's values and America's interests ultimately advance together. The history of the last one hundred years teaches us that when America does not lead, others will fill the vacuum. Together Americans and Poles realized a common goal of freedom within central Europe and an undivided Europe in the lifetime of the current generation. It remains a common task to defend this achievement for the sake of future generations. (p. 173)

The "Lost Generation" in the Modern Russian-language Journalistic Discourse

The article examines the use of the term lost generation in modern journalistic discourse, which originally referred to writers of the first half of the twentieth century who passed the First World War and expressed in their work its tragic experience, their inner emptiness and alienation from society. The presence of an attribute with a characterizing meaning in this idiomatic term allows it to be determinologized and used in modern Russian speech as a free phrase: in relation to different generations of people, primarily to modern Russian youth. The purpose of the article is to describe the main types of usage of the syntagma lost generation in modern Russian speech and to identify their connection with the original meaning of the term. The research material is contexts extracted from the National Corpus of the Russian language, as well as the results of the linguistic experiment conducted by the authors. The authors uses quantitative, functional-semantic, descriptive methods, uses the method of component analysis, highlights the main meanings and areas of use of syntagma as a steadily reproducible precedent nomination. Comparison of the experimental results and analysis of the contexts of the National Corpus of the Russian language shows significant consistency. Both in the survey and in the corpus, the terminological use is quite frequent (the second most frequent among all the selected types), however, it is significantly inferior to the totality of non-terminological uses, among which both close to the original and rather distant ones stand out (‘youth’, ‘people who did not justify the hopes placed on them in the professional sphere’, ‘socially unprotected groups' and others).

148 Charles Street: A Novel by Tracy Daugherty

Reviewed by: 148 Charles Street: A Novel by Tracy Daugherty Max Frazier Tracy Daugherty, 148 Charles Street: A Novel. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 2022. 144 pp. Paper, $19.95; e-book, $19.95. Tracy Daugherty fictionalizes the friendship between well-known historical literary figures Willa Cather and Elizabeth “Elsie” Shepley Sergeant in 148 Charles Street, a title lifted from Barbara Rotundo’s 1971 article in American Heritage by the same name. An author with an impressive background in writing biographies and novels, surprisingly Daugherty seems to miss the mark in his characterization of these two women and offers sloppy use of real-life content to create his fictional narrative that flounders in its search for a higher purpose. Daugherty opens with acknowledgments that first thank Roger Angell “who was always very kind to me, if (I think) a little irritated at my callowness” (ix). He adds, “we never spoke of his aunt, Elsie Sergeant,” and yet Daugherty claims, “I felt I got to know a bit of her through him” (ix). Maybe that bit of knowledge actually came from Angell’s memoir, Let Me Finish, and the brief mention of Cather there. Knowing this scene is important to understanding 148 Charles Street. On an afternoon in 1921, Cather, Sergeant, and Angell’s mother, Katharine Sergeant Angell, gather for a small party where the two women offer differing perspectives on Cather. Roger Angell quotes from Sergeant’s memoir to characterize that [End Page 84] Sergeant found that Cather made “a friend feel welcomed [and] was most charming.” Katharine Angell insists in a letter the author found that the two women only wanted to talk about their own works, but Cather won out over Sergeant. Angell’s mother adds, “it soon became evident to me that Miss Cather was there for another reason—to get factual detail and background for her own novel in progress [. . .] One of Ours” (106; emphasis original). Roger Angell’s mother resented the possibility that Cather might be using Sergeant’s tragic experience of being wounded by an unexploded ordnance when visiting a former WWI battlefield, and apparently Tracy Daugherty resents the idea as well. Roger Angell does not offer a position. For whatever the reason, the novel is particularly unflattering about Cather. One redeeming quality in 148 Charles Street is how Daugherty renders physical setting, especially in the New Mexico Southwest, in ways reminiscent of Cather’s own skill. Beyond this skill in landscape, other details make the novel nearly unbearable. Writing with the bias gained from Angell’s memoir and possibly a dislike of Cather’s novels beginning in his college days, Daugherty tips the scales to present Elizabeth Shepley Sergeant as a singular heroine, flat as a character in her enthusiasm as a political reformer, journalist, and the butt of Cather’s disappointment. On the other hand, he takes the Willa Cather figure scholars know to have been vibrant and engaging, narrowing in on a grim and painful part of her life to characterize her as dull and inflexible. He at least opens the possibility that she could have been more in her refrain, “Which Willa am I?” (116). The work has inaccuracies such as omitting the presence of a Bryn Mawr friend in her home for at least part of Sergeant’s New Mexico time and the timing of Cather’s injury to her hand. Daugherty excuses inaccurate plot points under the guise of fiction with his flippant disclaimer that “facts, chronologies, or biographies” are “tweaked and violated freely [ . . ] in service to the novel’s narrative and themes” (143). One has to question why he needs real historical figures to service the narrative and themes that might arguably boil down to the bickering between two strong women. The prejudice in the writing can only serve Daugherty’s [End Page 85] desire to portray a maudlin, one-sided Cather, which then calls into question the reliability of Sergeant’s portrait. Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of this novel is the many references to accurate, yet cherry-picked, material from Cather’s work, which lends a sheen of verisimilitude to the narrative. The content required Daugherty’s close engagement with Cather’s work and life...

Switching to the Ukrainian language as a factor of hystorical memory restoration (on the example of Volodymyr Rafieienko’s novel “Mondegreen”)

The article focuses on the language and artistic senses of the novel “Mondegreen. Songs about Deaths and Love” by Volodymyr Rafieienko. The author was born in Donetsk; by 2014, he used to write his books in the Russian language, had them published in Moscow publishing houses, and was honored with prestigious Russian literary awards. In 2014, after Donetsk got occupied by the Russian troops, Rafieienko moved to Kyiv and switched from Russian to Ukrainian as the main idiom of his creative self-expression. “Mondegreen” is the writer’s first novel that he wrote in Ukrainian; therefore, numerous language and psycholinguistic transformations, depicted in the book, are of great interest to both readers and linguists. The article analyzes the main features of the novel’s language, particularly the usage of synonymic lines, specifications, quotations, word games regarding the characters’ names and toponyms, etc. In the main protagonist’s memories, the landscape of his native Donbas remains nameless. It visibly contrasts with the depiction of Kyiv: there, all the places that the character visits have their modern names, including local districts, streets, shops, and cafes. It is a symbolic representation of the refugee’s small homeland — the territory alienated from the est of the state by enemies’ aggression and disappearing from the map of Ukraine. The novel’s main storyline relates to the new linguistic and historical experience that Habinsky (the author’s alterego) acquires thanks to the Ukrainian language. Therefore, this research sheds light on the dominant idea of the novel: it demonstrates the importance of the mother tongue in the restoration of the individual’s connection with their ancestors, especially in the context of the nation’s historical memory and Ukrainians’ tragic experience during the 20th century. Keywords: code-switching, word play, citation, linguistic memory, historical memory.

Implementation of the Master plan for the restoration and development of Leningrad in terms of organizing cultural and educational work in 1945

After the Great Patriotic War, the interest towards the history of the city increased among Leningraders, also the regional cultural identity developed, reinforced by the tragic experience of the siege. During this period, the organization of cultural and educational work in Leningrad became one of the most important activities of local authorities. The article is devoted to aspects of the implementation of the cultural and educational policy in Leningrad in 1945, viewed through the prism of the key principles reflected in the Master Plan for the Reconstruction and Development of Leningrad. The main emphasis in the article is made on the consideration of organizational issues that were under the jurisdiction of the executive committee of the Leningrad City Council of Workers’ Deputies. Even before the end of the war, on March 15, 1945, the Department of Cultural and Educational Work was formed. The key vectors of work were: to restore the tourism potential of the suburbs of Leningrad, organization of museum work in terms of preserving the memory of the Great Patriotic War and the blockade, erection of memorials dedicated to the Leningrad epic… The post-war Master Plan was not fully implemented because of the Leningrad affair. This research problem has not been studied enough, although certain aspects of the topic were reflected in historical, museological and cultural literature. The source base for the study was the regulatory and legal materials and office documentation of the Leningrad City Executive Committee of the 1940s, materials from periodicals, data from official museum sites.