Stare i nowe polskie piosenki i pieśni patriotyczne

The article is devoted to old and new Polish patriotic songs. It contains an analysis of the content of the collected works. The old songs were uplifting in nature and were very important for national culture. They were used to shape identity and build community, and at the same time to communicate important events. They express love for the homeland, proclaim its beauty and the need to fight for the maintenance or recovery of freedom. The new songs were created after 1983 and are already part of popular culture. They are highly individualized and express the emotional personal commitment of the creator. In addition, they move away from religious themes. Modern patriotic songs consist of four currents: traditional, new attitudes, social and historical. Traditional and historical currents are the closest in value to old patriotic songs. The current of new attitudes becomes a place of searching for an individual reference to patriotism. The social trend registers reality and is sometimes used to take a critical look at what is currently happening in Poland.

The Rhetorical Self in Tannaitic Halakha

The halakhic practice does more than regulating the inner world; it takes part in forming it, generating a unique legal subject. But is there a unique halakhic Self? This article examines this question in the context of Tannaitic halakha, both Mishnaic and Midrashic. More specifically I ask whether one can speak of subjectivity in Tannaitic halakha. I study the relationship between anonymous halakhic rulings and specific positions presented in the name of individual sages or argued with the force of personal commitment. Through analyzing the “I” language in Tannaitic literature, in comparison with the rhetoric of prerabbinic halakha, I wish to advance the ongoing search for the rabbinic Self.

Cross-Cultural Pragmatics on Lexical Cohesion in President Obama’s and President Buhari’s Inaugural Speeches

Numerous studies have revealed how Lexical Cohesion supported the fulfilment of political leaders’ persuasion intention in their rhetoric. The purpose of this study was to cross-culturally explore President Obama’s and President Buhari’s Inaugural Speeches to examine the impact of culture on the persuasive functions of Lexical Cohesion in their rhetoric. Therefore, while drawing on Pragmatics, the study adopted a qualitative discourse analysis approach, utilised an eclectic framework of Lexical Cohesion based on Hoey (1991), Martin (1992) and Eggins (2004) to analyse Obama’s and Buhari’s first inaugural speeches. The findings indicate, on one hand, that although Obama deployed more categories and more frequencies of Lexical Cohesion than Buhari did, ‘Repetition’ (50%) was the most dominant source of Lexical Cohesion in each of the two speeches. Moreover, the most reiterated item in the two speeches were personal pronouns, where Obama mostly repeated the pronoun ‘we’, which had inclusive function, and Buhari mostly repeated ‘I’ and the exclusive ‘we’. On the other hand, the findings suggest that Obama utilised Lexical Cohesion mainly for ‘emotional appeals’, ‘audience involvement’, and ‘credibility-building strategies’; while Buhari used Lexical Cohesion for ‘emphasizing his (and his team’s) personal commitment’, ‘building his credibility’, and ‘demonizing past administrations’. Finally, in the light of these findings, the study has drawn two major conclusions: (1) that on the preponderance of repetition of personal pronouns in both the two speeches, the findings suggest that the generic conventions of the use of personalised English in the inaugural address outweigh any culture-specific discourse practices of the two communities; (2) that Obama’s strategies of emotional appeals and audience involvement that enabled him to ‘speak along with his audience’, which contrast with Buhari’s strategies of emphasizing personal commitment and audience-exclusive tone that made him to ‘speak alone’, seem to have rendered Obama’s speech more interactional and more audience-engaging than Buhari’s speech.

Words in Motion: Slurs in Indirect Report

Summary Slurs are pejorative epithets that express negative attitudes toward a class of individuals sharing the same race, country of origin, sexual orientation, religion, and the like. The aim of this paper is to show what happens in communication when slurs are reported. It focuses on the derogatory content of such expressions and on the persistence of their performative effects in reported speech. In this respect, the question concerning the attribution of responsibility for the derogatory content conveyed by the slurs is relevant. Indeed, reporting a slur involves quoting not only the content but also the speaker’s personal commitment and (negative) attitude. Different theories on the status of the derogatory component of slurs make different predictions about their offensiveness in reported speech and about the speaker’s “responsibility” for the attitude and feelings conveyed by that word, be she the original speaker or the reporter. The results of a questionnaire show empirically that no single theory can provide a conclusive statement on this matter.

When ‘street-level bureaucrats’ act as cultural brokers: The normative dilemmas and personal commitment of government officials in southern Ethiopia

Following the implementation of ethnic federalism in 1995, for the first time, government officials have been appointed from among the various ethnic groups rather than being only drawn from the central Ethiopian highlands. As such, they carry the responsibility of mediating and translating between two rather different worlds and value systems: those of the state and state law and those of the local population, many of whom continue to widely apply customary law. Many of these native government officials find themselves in a normative dilemma, as they have to balance the, often contradictory, expectations of the government and the local population.

Exploring Parental Identities: How Single Black Males Understand Fatherhood in the Absence of Their Fathers

This qualitative study was exploratory in nature and involved the collection and analysis of data from Single Black fathers in Northern California raised without a father in the home. Fathers in our study shared that they navigate their roles as single fathers through trial and error and by making a personal commitment to do what is necessary for the well-being of their children; they refuse to allow obstacle to get in their way of their effort to be a responsible, caring father. The absence of their fathers was a prevalent factor that increased the devotion they have for their children.

Keeping the Promise of Community: Communal Efforts on the Contemporary Zagreb Non-Institutional Scene

In their 1979 manifesto, the independent experimental theatre collective Kugla glumište (Zagreb, 1975–1985) claims: “Kugla discovers images, symbols and stories that wish to be the promise of community.” The article explores the repercussions of those neo-avant- garde community efforts on the contemporary Zagreb non-institutional scene by analysing four inclusive performances which differ in motivations, aesthetic aims, production levels and participatory modes. In The Love Case of Fahrija P (2017), the ex-members of Kugla and additional co-authors stage a polylogue with the artistic heritage of the deceased Kugla glumište member Željko Zorica Šiš (1957–2013) and the inclusive procedures they devised during the 1970s. The community project 55+ (2012) by the production platform Montažstroj gathers the participants who are over 55 in workshops, public debates, celebrations, protests and a documentary to provide visibility and voice to that neglected generation. In the trilogy On Community (2010–2011), the production platform Shadow Casters tests different mechanisms of creating temporary aesthetic communities, from learning an a cappella group song to sharing secrets, on its recipients. Finally, the atmospheric inclusion of the subtly associative performance Conversing (2019) by Fourhanded offers an almost elitist opportunity of co-existing in the intimate world of private tensions. However, what they all have in common is a physically non-invasive form, emotional and/or intellectual engagement and an emphasised personal commitment that can oblige audiences to reciprocate while they join the community of experience.

Charismatic Revelations

The notion of ‘charismatic revelations’ is a modern one, reflecting the individualism and theological conflicts arising from the Reformation of the sixteenth century. Charismatic revelations can be found in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Protestant movements such as German Pietism and English Evangelicalism and are notable in twentieth-century Pentecostalism and charismatic renewal. Charles Taylor has described the burden of individualism that came with the break-up of Christendom under the impact of the Reformation and the rise of modern science. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries there arose ‘a new Christianity of personal commitment’ (Taylor 2007, 143–144). In German Pietism and English Methodism the stress was upon feeling, emotion, and a living faith, reflecting the logic of Enlightenment ‘subjectification’. The predicament of these believers and their religious individualism was marked by spiritual instability, melancholy, and doubt. This predicament provides the context for understanding the rise of charismatic revelations. Under the burden of growing secularism, religious pluralism, and existential angst and isolation, a host of modern believers found meaning and hope through experiences of direct encounter with God that included his personal speaking addressed to their inmost being.