scholarly journals The Christian Ideal and the Communist Ideology in the Novel by Eugenio Corti “The Red Horse”

The paper examines the phenomenon of creativity of the Italian writer Eugenio Corti, author of the historical novel Il Cavallo Rosso. Namely, it concerns the specificity of his artistic method and themes. The historical novel Il Cavallo Rosso, describes the 30-year period of Italian history from the pre-war period to the referendum on divorce in post-war Italy in the Seventies, so it points out many different and interesting features. This article will mainly focus the attention on the problems concerning the value of human life and humanity, from the point of view both of the Christian ideal and communist ideology. The novel is especially relevant for modern Ukraine, since it shows how the experience of the war can help rethinking national identity, the significance of history and of human life. Even the war represented for the author the possibility of realizing his own task, i.e. discovering the truth of himself and of the world. He could even say: «War can be an immense advantage. War makes men. The war teaches an infinite number of things because it shows us our fellow men as they are: it teaches us to truly know men». Accepting reality as it is represented to Corti the possibility of realizing its mission to be aware of himself and of man condition in general. The dynamisms of the narration in the novel Il Cavallo Rosso reflect the same dynamisms of life: life never goes on standby, human beings never renounce hope, they keep on looking for new and better answers to their existential questions. In this sense Corti's novel can be considered historical, not only because the author, fond of history, loved to be extremely faithful to the facts, but also because he admirably managed to make the same mechanisms of history and life. Through his great love for reality and his desire to know it better and let it known to everybody, Corti discovered his vocation in the world of literature: the vocation of being a Witness. And the novel we are talking about is a proof of this, as there are narrated his life experiences and those of his generation. Knowing better Man and History, the Life and its meaning, is the main goal of the big novel Il cavallo rosso, this is why the concepts of “experience”, “testimony” and “anti-testimony” will be highlighted as main components of both the author’s life and his literary vocation.

Author(s):  
Ganna Stovba

The paper presents the research of poetics of the fourth novel «Stump» (2004) written by contemporary Welsh Anglophone author Niall Griffiths. The early works of Niall Griffiths have long been associated with the off-center tendency in contemporary British fiction, with novels written by Scottish authors such as Irvine Welsh, James Kelman, John King. This study attempts to demonstrate that Welsh writer doesn’t merely articulate the problems of the fringe groups of the society as well as shocking and taboo topics. Also to overcome the common postcolonial approach to Griffiths`s works which focuses on the concepts of «colonial othering», «forms of disability» etc. in the novels, the author of the article proposes the existential philosophy as methodological basis for this research. The study concentrates over the central problem of the human Being-in-the-world, the human life in the world of everydayness in Griffiths`s novel «Stump». Understanding «the everyday life», «everydayness» as common, routine life, full of daily automatic human actions (according to B. Waldenfels) the author aims to consider the boundaries of everyday life and the experience of overcoming the borders of everydayness in the novel discussed.The analysis demonstrates that narrative structure of the novel combines several modes and forms of narration. Interior monologue with steam of consciousness fragments is the form of representing the first plot line focusing on the one day of nameless recovering alcoholic who has lost his left arm to gangrene. «Style indirect libre» in first person plural form is used to finish each of the chapter devoted to one-armed hero and expresses his contradictory point of view on the «12 steps addiction recovery» program. The non-diegetic impersonal narrator (according to V. Shmid classification) introduces the second plot line devoted to the two gangsters who have set out from Liverpool on a mission to find and punish the one-armed man for a past misdeed. Their continual dialog sometimes is interrupted by the omnipresent narrator voice who conveys in form of indirect speech one of the gangster`s thoughts and his perceptive and ideological «point of view». A Griffiths`s fictional space can be divided on close/open, secular/sacral, everyday/non-everyday types. In the novel Wales natural world is opposed to any closed and narrow spaces. One-armed protagonist fills himself free and happy in the open space, where he communicates with birds, animals and meets a pantheistic God. Oppositely, two gangsters are afraid of open space in the middle of dangerous nature of Wales, when they leave native Liverpool. Having the works of K. Jaspers and M. Merleau-Ponty as the basis for our research, we conclude that the body for one-armed hero is an existential and temporal border, which transforms each moment of his life into an endless «boundary situation» (germ. Grenzsituation, according to K. Jaspers). A journey to unknown Wales gives a start to personal transformations for one of the gangsters – Alastair. Crossing the geographical border becomes a time of «boundarysituation» in Alastair`s existence. Consequently, the motives of the real Being, existential self-identity, meeting with the transcendent are concerned with the experience of overcoming the everydayness, crossing its boundaries.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Setio

Anthropocentrism has received many challenges since the publication of the famous article by Lynn White, Jr. in 1967. Yet, since then there has been no significant changes with regard to human attitude towards nature. Human beings still perceive nature as their tool whose existence is to serve their own interests. When the COVID-19 pandemic hits the world, the anthropocentrism is once again challenged. It should be a good opportunity to change the anthropocentrism. The novel corona virus has made people look powerless. It is just a tiny thing, but it has caused a great impact on human life. Despite the fact that the virus often outsmarts human beings, there is no sign that human beings want to admit their weakness. Through reading some biblical stories: the creation of human beings, the naming of animals, Job and the lamb in the Book of Revelation this article wants to deconstruct the view that sees human beings as superior to others in nature. This reading will use posthumanism as theory. It will allow us to see in the stories that human can be subjugated to animals. AbstrakPandangan antroposentrisme telah digugat sejak kemunculan artikel Lynn White, Jr. di tahun 1967. Tetapi sejak itu belum ada perubahan yang signifikan. Manusia masih menempatkan alam sebagai sarana untuk meraih kepentingan dirinya. Ketika pandemi COVID-19 melanda dunia, pandangan antroposentrisme kembali ditantang. Seharusnya ini menjadi kesempatan yang baik bagi manusia untuk mengubah pandangannya itu. Virus corona baru telah membuat manusia kalang kabut. Kehebatan manusia menjadi tidak berarti ketika menghadapi virus yang kecil dan tidak kelihatan itu. Tetapi bukannya menyadari akan kelemahan dirinya dan bersedia membuka diri terhadap kekuatan alam, manusia malah berupaya sedemikian rupa untuk meng-atas-i virus itu. Melalui pembacaan terhadap kisah-kisah Alkitab: penciptaan manusia, Ayub dan Wahyu, tulisan ini akan mendekonstruksi pola pikir yang mengistimewakan manusia di hadapan makhluk lainnya. Teori yang digunakan untuk menafsirkan Alkitab itu adalah poshumanisme. Poshumanisme melihat kedudukan manusia tidak lebih besar daripada makhluk-makhluk lainnya. Kebesaran binatang di hadapan manusia akan terlihat ketika kisah-kisah Alkitab itu dibaca dengan memakai teori poshumanisme.


Author(s):  
CN Uyo ◽  
KM Iwuji ◽  
CR Asoegwu ◽  
NC Uyo ◽  
CA Acholonu ◽  
...  

As an integral component of human, the environment is affected by every development effort in a particular way. From the very beginning of civilization, human beings gradually started manipulating the nature for their own benefit which has led to the degradation of the environment. As the novel corona virus disease pandemic (COVID-19) hit the world, human life has come to a halt as many Nations shut themselves off from work and other eminent life activities in order to curtail the spread of the virus, this indeed has grim implications for the world. Millions of deaths have occurred, social, economic and religious activities have been affected negatively. On the contrary, since numerous people’s activities and industrial operations have been shut off for several months in many parts of the globe, it is anticipated that there would be a rejuvenating process in the Biosphere, the Atmosphere and the hydrosphere. This study


Author(s):  
В. М. Волкова ◽  
Е. И. Скирмонт ◽  
Л. М. Смирнова ◽  
С. Б. Климашева ◽  
Е. Л. Зимина ◽  
...  

По данным ВОЗ, за последнее столетие продолжительность жизни человека значительно увеличилась во всем мире, но этот процесс неизбежно сопровождается старением. Поэтому лица, достигшие пожилого и старческого возраста, нередко становятся немощными, особенно в физическом плане. В итоге, таким людям всё труднее даются движения, связанные с самообслуживанием и передвижением, при пользовании типовой одеждой и обувью. В процессе обследования 55 пациентов 60-87 лет, проведённого впервые с позиций медико-социальной реабилитации, получены данные о характере ограничений физических возможностей этого контингента людей, существенно осложняющих использование ими типовой одежды и обуви. Основной вывод работы заключается в актуальности разработки медико-технических требований, предъявляемых к проектированию и производству одежды и обуви специально для данной категории людей с учетом их измененных антропометрических параметров и характерных для них функциональных ограничений. According to the World Health Organization, human life expectancy has increased signifi cantly around the world over the past century, but this process is inevitably accompanied by aging. Therefore, persons who have reached the elderly and senile age often become infirm, especially physically. As a result, such people find it increasingly difficult to make movements related to self-service and movement when using standard clothing and shoes. In a study of 55 patients (from 60 to 87 years), conducted for the first time from the point of view of medical and social rehabilitation, data were obtained that reveal the nature of physical limitations of this group of people, which significantly complicate them use of standard clothing and shoes. The main conclusion of the work is the relevance of the development of medical and technical requirements for the design and production of clothing and footwear specifically for the elderly and senile taking into account their changed anthropometric parameters and their characteristic functional limitations.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Bharat Prasad Badal

 Gandhian Model of Community Development (GMCD) is a sustainable development model for governments in the central, provincial, and local levels of democratic federal countries in the world by the scientific analysis of Gandhian ideology in a specified community. Community Development is a method, a strategy, and a campaign to uplift human life settlements and to solve the community problems from a simple local perspective. The human settlement with local communal acceptance, local norms, and values, environmental protection, help and cooperation, trusteeship, health, education, sanitation, training, transportation, marketing, etc. are the major components of the Gandhian Model of Community Development. The global acceptance with local initiation, norms, knowledge and practices in the positive changes on human life is Gandhian Community Development. It is the core ideological view of the great leader of south Asia-Mahatma Gandhi. Mahatma Gandhi is also pronounced as second Buddha of the world. The main objective of the study is to develop a Gandhian Model of Community Development with the incorporation of thoughts and ideologies of Mahatma Gandhi. The study is the collection of Gandhian ideology with a programmatic model for the future development of the human being specified within the boundary with the specified indicators of the Gandhian Model of Community Development. It is a hermeneutic and historical interpretation of three universal truths- Generation, Operation, and Destruction for the liberation of human beings from a sustainable development strategy guided by Mahatma Gandhi. His ideas are herminuted in contemporary sustainable community development. In conclusion, the Gandhian Model of Community development is a model having Balance Sheet of Production and Consumption within the specified municipality and Gandhian Development Indicators for human liberation or development toward ultimate freedom.


Author(s):  
Le Nguyen Nguyen Thao

The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough (1937-2015) is one of the most popular Australian novels in Vietnam, which is mentioned in the curriculum of Australian Studies – a major of the Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City). In general, the themes which mainly attract readers’ attention are the great love story between Meggie Cleary – a beautiful, tough woman and Ralph de Bricassart – an ambitious Catholic priest, and (or) an inevitable tragedy resulted from the conflict between the love for God and that for man. However, exerting much focus on human relationships in The Thorn Birds makes it hard to see another important “figure” – nature – as well as the relationship between human and nature in the West of Australia, the main setting of the novel where the climate is harsh, unique and sometimes unpredictable. Since the theme of nature accounts for a large content of the novel, The Thorn Birds is likely to be an interesting subject to eco-critical studies. In this paper, from the perspective of ecocriticism, we try to point out how the theme of nature is treated in this novel, including how the figure of nature being depicted, how the human-nature relationship being dealt with and how nature is embracing human life and “telling” human stories. We also indicate the possible connection between literature and daily human life, and between a 1977 Australian novel which tells us the stories of the natural cycle, the bushfires, the imported animals, etc. and the unusual wildfires which occurred in this country at the beginning of the year 2020. In addition, by evaluating as a typical Australian novel from eco-critical perspectives, we hope to introduce a new approach to conduct research on Australian literature at the Department of Australian Studies and for other researches of literature major in the University.


Author(s):  
Helmuth Plessner ◽  
J. M. Bernstein

“Centric positionality” is a form of organism-environment relation exhibited by animal forms of life. Human life is characterized not only by centric but also by excentric positionality—that is, the ability to take a position beyond the boundary of one’s own body. Excentric positionality is manifest in: the inner, psychological experience of human beings; the outer, physical being of their bodies and behavior; and the shared, intersubjective world that includes other human beings and is the basis of culture. In each of these three worlds, there is a duality symptomatic of excentric positionality. Three laws characterize excentric positionality: natural artificiality, or the natural need of humans for artificial supplements; mediated immediacy, or the way that contact with the world in human activity, experience, and expression is both transcendent and immanent, both putting humans directly in touch with things and keeping them at a distance; and the utopian standpoint, according to which humans can always take a critical or “negative” position regarding the contents of their experience or their life.


Author(s):  
Damien Keown

Is Buddhism truly an ‘eco-friendly’ religion? ‘Animals and the environment’ examines the implications of Buddhist teachings such as that human beings can be reborn as animals and vice versa. While the Buddhist ‘sublime attitudes’ such as kindness and compassion seem at first to favour animals to a greater degree than we find in Christianity, human life still takes precedence in the hierarchy of living beings. Rules about plant life are unclear, with Buddhist writers acknowledging the beauty of both the wilderness and civilization. Vegetarianism is largely seen as a morally superior diet, but meat-eating was common at the time of the Buddha and is widely practised by monks today. Buddhist attitudes toward the natural world are complex and are to some extent overshadowed by the belief that the world as we know it is fundamentally flawed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 01-29
Author(s):  
John A. Houston

Aristotle's NE X claim that the best human life is one devoted to contemplation (theoria) seems in tension with his emphasis elsewhere on our essentially political nature, and more specifically, his claim that friendship is necessary for our flourishing. For, if our good can be in principle realized apart from the human community, there seems little reason to suggest we 'need' friends, as he clearly does in NE VIII & IX. I argue that central to Aristotle's NE X discussion of contemplation is the claim that our chief good accords with whatever is 'most divine' in us, viz. our rational nature (NE 1177b2-18). Thus, the best human life involves the excellent exercise of our rational capacities. I distinguish two ways in which human beings flourish through exercising their rationality. The first is in the activity of theoria. The second, I argue, can be found in the virtuous activity of complete friendship (teleia philia). For Aristotle the truest form of friendship is an expression of rationality. It is characterized not merely by our living together, but conversing, and sharing one another's thoughts (NE 1170b12-14). Examining Aristotle's notion of a friend as 'another self (alios autos), I argue that through friendship human beings come to better know themselves and the world in which they live. Complete friendship involves a (uniquely human) second-order awareness of oneself in another, and through this awareness our understanding of ourselves and the world in which we live is enriched, confirmed, and enjoyed through the presence of other minds. Thus, the highest form of Aristotelian friendship is an intellectual activity through which we attain an analogue of the divine contemplation of the unmoved mover, thereby living with respect to what is most divine in us, but doing so in accordance with our uniquely rational-political nature.


Toxics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 65
Author(s):  
Shimei Pang ◽  
Ziqiu Lin ◽  
Yuming Zhang ◽  
Wenping Zhang ◽  
Nasser Alansary ◽  
...  

Imidacloprid is a neonicotinoid insecticide that has been widely used to control insect pests in agricultural fields for decades. It shows insecticidal activity mainly by blocking the normal conduction of the central nervous system in insects. However, in recent years, imidacloprid has been reported to be an emerging contaminant in all parts of the world, and has different toxic effects on a variety of non-target organisms, including human beings, due to its large-scale use. Hence, the removal of imidacloprid from the ecosystem has received widespread attention. Different remediation approaches have been studied to eliminate imidacloprid residues from the environment, such as oxidation, hydrolysis, adsorption, ultrasound, illumination, and biodegradation. In nature, microbial degradation is one of the most important processes controlling the fate of and transformation from imidacloprid use, and from an environmental point of view, it is the most promising means, as it is the most effective, least hazardous, and most environmentally friendly. To date, several imidacloprid-degrading microbes, including Bacillus, Pseudoxanthomonas, Mycobacterium, Rhizobium, Rhodococcus, and Stenotrophomonas, have been characterized for biodegradation. In addition, previous studies have found that many insects and microorganisms have developed resistance genes to and degradation enzymes of imidacloprid. Furthermore, the metabolites and degradation pathways of imidacloprid have been reported. However, reviews of the toxicity and degradation mechanisms of imidacloprid are rare. In this review, the toxicity and degradation mechanisms of imidacloprid are summarized in order to provide a theoretical and practical basis for the remediation of imidacloprid-contaminated environments.


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