Paratekst w literaturze fantasy (na podstawie glosariusza)

The content of this article falls within the textual and generic trend of research on paratext. The author describes the meaning of paratexts in fantasy literature via the example of glossaries, which fulfill a special role in the process of creating and perceiving this type of literary text. The argumentation process is subordinated to two perspectives. The first involves the sub-creation of a secondary reality — the Second World in fantasy, which from the beginning to the end grows out of the imagination of the writer and which is complete and internally consistent. In the course of reading, the reader “enters” into a completely different world from that experienced every day. What is needed, therefore, is a kind of guide that allows him to “move around” without disturbing the created universe. Paratext fulfills this function. Hence the second perspective is Gérard Genette’s thesis, according to which the paratext is identified with the text surrounding the proper text, coming from the author and remaining within the same volume (peritext), and one of its basic roles is to help in the interpretation and proper decryption of the creator’s (author’s) intentions. On the basis of the glossaries studied in fantasy texts, it can be concluded that structurally they constitute the determinants of a textual frame, and although there is no linear continuity between the main text and the glossary, considering the content that is contained in it, they serve to strengthen the coherence of the main text. In general, the presence of glossaries facilitates reading the text, allows “unmasking” the intentions of the author and categorizing elements of the plot of a specific work, a given part of the cycle or saga against the background of the whole universe.

Interactions of Folk Melody and Transformational (Dis)continuities in Chen Yi’s Ba Ban (1999)

Chen Yi’s Ba Ban (1999) for solo piano, like many works of Western-trained Chinese composers, situates fragments of evocative traditional folk melody within a post-tonal discourse that is well described by transformation theory. The eponymous folk tune that it quotes is a standard of the sizhu (“silk-and-bamboo”) repertoire. In sizhu performance practice, the evenly pulsed rhythm of the 68-beat melody is augmented and each pitch is highly “flowered,” that is, decorated. Chen’s piece, often simulating the timbral quality of sizhu heterophony, reproduces some of the directed temporal qualities of this repertoire by quoting distinctive phrases and elaborating their pitches. Intermingled with this discourse, however, it presents multilinear threads of motivic transformation through virtuoso figurations typical of Western piano repertoire. The free rhythm evokes a different folk music tradition, mountain song, that Chen mentions as inspiration. At first, as the post-tonal structures are introduced, they disrupt the linear continuity of the Ba Ban folk tune and create an undirected associative network. Eventually, however, they gain control over temporality as firmly as Ba Ban did at first, and then Ba Ban itself is transformed into ametrical pulse. Considering the contrasting gendered connotations of mountain song and sizhu, I suggest how my narrative of these rhythmic processes might resonate with some ideas of feminist theory.

When in Rome Think Like a Roman

As a result of increasing globalization, people are exposed to an even greater extent to other cultures, making it possible for individuals to assimilate mindsets that are typical of another culture. Recent work on extracultural cognition has shown that immediate cultural contexts exert powerful influences on cognition and behavioral patterns. This chapter reviews empirical support for extracultural cognition. Specifically, the chapter focuses on dialectical thinking and the well-established finding in the cultural literature that Westerners tend to anticipate linear continuity in the environment and East Asians anticipate change in existing patterns. Research shows, though, that cultural cues may shift these tendencies and—at least temporarily—alter cognitive mindsets to reflect the cognitions of another culture. After a review of the literature, the chapter addresses the implications of extracultural cognition for understanding the influence of dialectical thinking on judgment and decision-making.

A Study on the Spiral Line Development Applied in the High-Grade Highways Design

The concept of spiral line development (SLD) is introduced at first in this paper, then the design idea of SLD is discussed, and the characteristics and patterns of SLP are summarized. According to the terrain adaptability and linear continuity requirements of SLP, rationality of the SLD applied in the high-grade highways in mountain areas are analyzed from the aspects of technology, safety, economy and environmental protection. The results show that SLD is a better decision in the case of the limitation of topographic and geological conditions, too large height difference between the two control points, no natural line development conditions, and the reverse loop development dissatisfying the requirements of high-grade highways index

‘Somewhere Quite Different’: The Seventies Generation of Organic Activists and their Context

This paper takes as its starting-point different perspectives on the organic movement's history since the 1940s. It identifies the polarised views of those who see a linear continuity in its development and of others who claim that a new generation of ‘counter-urbanites’ in the 1970s introduced an entirely distinct element. Drawing on recorded interviews with several of the leading figures in the seventies generation, the article argues that this generation was not as independent of its forebears as some of its members have claimed. It also throws light on the experiences of those who were inspired by the ‘self-sufficiency’ philosophy of John Seymour. The Steinerian Bio-Dynamic movement is identified as an important thread of continuity, as is the role played by two long-lived organic farmers, Dinah Williams and Mary Langman. While the seventies generation indeed affected the organic movement's direction from the 1970s onward, particularly through the Organic Growers Association, the case for a complete disjunction between different phases of organic history remains inadequate.

Numerical analysis of three-colour HgCdTe detectors

The performance of three-colour HgCdTe photovoltaic heterostructure detector is examined theoretically. In comparison with two-colour detectors with two back-to-back junctions, three-colour structure contains an absorber of intermediate wavelength placed between two junctions and electronic barriers are used to isolate this intermediate region. This structure was first proposed by British workers.Three-detector structures with different localizations of separating barriers are analyzed. The calculation results are presented in the form of spatial distributions of bandgap energy and quantum efficiency.Enhanced original computer programs are applied to solve the system of non-linear continuity equations for carriers and Poisson equations. In addition, the numerical analysis includes the dependence of absorption coefficient on Burstein effect as well as interference effects in heterostructure with metallic electrical contacts.It is shown that the performance of the detector is critically dependent on the barrier’s doping level and position in relation to the junction. This behaviour is serious disadvantage of the considered three-colour detector. A small shift of the barrier location and doping level causes serious changes in spectral responsivity.