Ethiopian Jewish Ascetic Religious Communities

The Betä Isra'el (Ethiopian Jews) have a unique history and religious tradition, one of the most fascinating aspects of which are the mäloksocc, commonly referred to as monks in scholarly and popular literature. The mäloksocc served as the supreme religious leaders of the Betä Isra'el and were charged with educating and initiating Betä Isra'el priests. They lived in separate compounds and observed severe purity laws prohibiting physical contact with the laity. Thus, they are the only known example in medieval and modern Jewry of ascetic communities withdrawing from the secular world and devoting themselves fully to religious life. This book presents the results of the first comprehensive research ever conducted on the way of life and material culture of the ascetic religious communities of the Betä Isra'el. A major part of this research is an archaeological survey, during which these religious centres were located and documented in detail for the first time.

ANALYSIS ON ALTERNATE UNIVERSE POPULARITY'S EFFECT ON DIGITAL-ERA SOCIETY'S READING HABIT IN PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVE

In the current digital era, internet access became easier moreover with the new 5G technology. Some parts of the society, namely the Millenials and Gen-Z, have been exposed to the said technology since they were in school. Creative ideas poured intensively by them as a result of said technology; one of them being in literature, i.e. popular literature. Everyone is able to become a writer or just to read someone else's work. To complement, internet can also be used as a realization of our imagination. The chance is then exploited by fans of some fandom who want to realize their creativity in form of fictional works to create satisfaction and joy both for writers and readers. Considering that, fanfiction emerges and receives attention because of its uniqueness. Previous researches on fanfiction have shown how fanfiction became exist in society. For that reason ,we are interested to study whether there is a relation between the popularity of fanfiction with society's reading habit. Moreover, we try to discover factors that influence this habit. We found that the popularity indeed has a relation with reading habit, eventhough not entirely influences it. Furthermore, we also compare fanfiction's popularity with other types of literature to measure how popular fanfiction is in the society.

ANALYSIS ON ALTERNATE UNIVERSE POPULARITY'S EFFECT ON DIGITAL-ERA SOCIETY'S READING HABIT IN PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVE

In the current digital era, internet access became easier moreover with the new 5G technology. Some parts of the society, namely the Millenials and Gen-Z, have been exposed to the said technology since they were in school. Creative ideas poured intensively by them as a result of said technology; one of them being in literature, i.e. popular literature. Everyone is able to become a writer or just to read someone else's work. To complement, internet can also be used as a realization of our imagination. The chance is then exploited by fans of some fandom who want to realize their creativity in form of fictional works to create satisfaction and joy both for writers and readers. Considering that, fanfiction emerges and receives attention because of its uniqueness. Previous researches on fanfiction have shown how fanfiction became exist in society. For that reason ,we are interested to study whether there is a relation between the popularity of fanfiction with society's reading habit. Moreover, we try to discover factors that influence this habit. We found that the popularity indeed has a relation with reading habit, eventhough not entirely influences it. Furthermore, we also compare fanfiction's popularity with other types of literature to measure how popular fanfiction is in the society.

Nikczemne skrzaty i inne (nie)baśniowe potworności dzieciństwa w „Złodziejach snów” Małgorzaty Strękowskiej-Zaremby

The first part of the article provides a short outline of the works by Małgorzata Strękowska-Zaremba, a well-known and critically acclaimed Polish children’s author, and gives special attention to her interest in certain popular literature genres. Among her works, a prominent place is occupied by three books in which the writer uses various genres and conventions of the fantastic to discuss important real-life problems: parents’ divorce and homelessness in Złodzieje snów [The Dream Stealers] (2008/2019), domestic violence in Dom nie z tej ziemi [The Otherworldly House] (2017), and depression in Lilana (2019). The main part of the paper covers an analysis of Złodzieje snów, which is focused on monsterological plots and motifs shown in the context of the use of fairytale conventions in the book. Strękowska-Zaremba utilises the figure of demonic gnomes (derived from French folklore) who in the story are believed to have stolen the dreams of the protagonist, little Basia, after her parents separated. However, as the author of the article claims in its last part, in Złodzieje snów, these creatures from the folk imagery are much less monstrous than real-life problems, including separation and divorce, loneliness, and homelessness. This also applies to Dom nie z tej ziemi and Lilana, which is briefly stated in the conclusion.

The Social Mediation of Economic Discourse

In the course of the nineteenth century, political economy shifted from a discourse printed in books and journals and directed primarily at ‘men of affairs’ to a stratified public discourse. Where argument had once appealed to ‘reason’, argument by authority now became more significant in the teaching and publications of academic economists. This chapter shows the media through which this transition was effected—clubs, societies, and associations, adult extension teaching, popular literature, the creation of examinations and professional qualifications, and, in some limited cases, certification for employment, plus the creation of specialised academic journals.

Detective Stories During Apartheid: H.I.E. Dhlomo as a Precursor of Drum

This article aims to contribute to the discussion of English-language crime fiction by black South African writers before 1994 by exploring H.I.E. Dhlomo’s relatively overlooked contribution to the genre in the first decade of apartheid. In particular, I intend to close read three detective stories written between the late 1940s and the early 1950s by Dhlomo, namely “Village Blacksmith Tragicomedy”, “Flowers”, and “Aversion to Snakes”, and compare them with the more celebrated stories published by Arthur Maimane in the popular magazine Drum a few years later. Notwithstanding their different re-elaboration of the tropes of crime fiction, I argue that both Dhlomo and Maimane resorted to this productive strand of popular literature to reassert a claim to knowledge denied to Africans, saturating their texts with new local meanings and exceeding Western genre conventions.

FEATURES OF INTERIOR DESIGN OF SOCIAL HOUSING

The purposeof the study are analysis and definition of the main functional-planning, artistic and aesthetic features of the formation of interiors of social housing and development of proposals for their modern design solutions. Methodology. Theoretical and practical research methods were used, namely analysis of scientific and popular literature on the research topic, generalization of approaches to functional-planning and stylistic solutions of social housing based on analysis of design experience, experimental computer modeling using ArchiCAD and 3DsMax. Results. Based on the analysis of research and modern practice of formation of social housing, the methods of functional-planning and artistic-aesthetic organization of the internal environment of social housing and its subject-spatial content are revealed. Features and examples of rational interior design solutions for small apartments are considered. The scientific novelty lies in the generalization of previous research on this topic and the identification of functional and planning features of the formation of the subject-spatial environment of social housing of small apartments and providing suggestions for the design of their interiors. Practical significance. The results of the study can be used in their introduction into the modern practice of designing social housing with economical small apartments and in the development of interiors of their internal subject-spatial environment.

Leven voor de dood. Aanzetten tot een christelijke thanatologie

Popular literature shows the need for a contemporary art of dying. This article argues for a Christian thanatology that engages modern phenomena such as near-death-experiences, end-of-life legislation and an imagination that cannot envisions life beyond death. Reformed sources provide three elements for a Christian thanatology: (a) death as the boundary of human existence; (b) a spiritual attitude toward death; and (c) death and as an eccentric existence. A Christian thanatology moves beyond a systematic-theological exploration of the ‘last things’ to offer a ‘practical eschatology’ able to relate Christian imagination with cultural expressions.

Combat Lesion in Triceratops: Histological and Chemical Diagnosis

In the collective imagination derived from scientific and popular literature, Triceratops often faced each other in combat. Thus, from the second half of the twentieth century, these ceratopsids were described as pugnacious animals. This arises primarily from the interpretation of extracranial fenestrae in ceratopsids being the result of combat trauma. However, the diagnosis of the traumatic nature of these anatomical variants of their neck frill requires evidence of bone healing and remodelling by microscopy analysis. Here, we present the case of the Triceratops horridus known as Big John, which is one of the largest specimens discovered in the Hell Creek Formation (Upper Cretaceous; MT, USA). Its right squamosal bone shows an extrafenestra with irregular margins and signs of inflammation. Microscopy analysis revealed newly formed and healing bone, with histological signs typical of the bone remodelling phase. Chemical analysis revealed sulphur that was derived from glucosaminoglycans and sulphated glycoproteins of the preosseous osteoid substance present in the healing phases of a bone trauma. Histological and microanalytical analyses confirm that the squamosal fenestra of Big John is the result of a traumatic event, which might indeed have occurred during combat with another Triceratops.

Dystopias in the Realm of Popular Culture: Introducing Elements of Posthuman and Postfeminist Discourse to the Mass Audience Female Readership in Cecelia Ahern’s Roar (2018)

This article analyzes selected short stories in Cecelia Ahern’s thirty-narrative collection Roar (2018) to see how (and with what losses or gains) the perspectives of posthuman and postfeminist critique can be incorporated via the common dystopic umbrella into the mainstream female readership of romance literature. The dystopic worlds created by Ahern in Roar portray inequality and power imbalances with regard to gender and sex. The protagonists are mostly middle-aged women whose family and personal lives are either regulated by dystopic realities or acquire a “dystopic” dimension, the solutions to which are provided by, among other tropes, “posthuman” transformations. Roar introduces other-than-human elements, mostly corporeal alterations, in which the female bodies of Ahern’s characters become de-formed and re-formed beyond androcentric systems of value. The article raises the question of whether feminist and, to some extent, “posthuman” (speculative) approaches, need to be (and indeed should be) popularized in such an abridged way as Ahern does in her volume. The answer depends upon the identification of the target audience and their expectations. Ahern’s Roar represents popular literature intended to be sold to as many readers as possible, regardless of their education, state of knowledge, etc. Viewed from that perspective, what some critics could perceive as the collection’s structural weaknesses constitutes its utmost marketing asset. The essay argues that despite not being a structurally innovative work of art, Ahern’s book fulfils the basic requirements of the popular fiction genre, intermittently providing some extra, literary gratification and popularizing rudimentary elements of the posthuman and postfeminist thought.