Konstrukcija mnimosti : K poètike "Voskovoj persony" Ju. Tynjanova

The subject of this work is the poetics of «The Wax Effigy», a short novel or novella by Jurii Tynianov, Russian writer, literary critic, historian of literature and prominent literary theoretician. The plot structure of the novel is based upon a real event, the creation by Bartolomeo Carlo Rastrelli in 1725 of a wax sculpture of the first Russian emperor, Peter the Great. «Construction of the Sham» consists of three chapters, an introduction and a conclusion. Due to the fact that Tynianov was at the same time a prose writer and theoretician of literature it seemed important to consider the reception of his prose and his works on literary theory in relationship to each other. The introduction is devoted to this task. The first chapter is about the history of the creation of the novel and its reception. Tynianov stopped writing one short story in order to write the novel; these two works have some common traits. It seems almost obvious that his work on the first text was a real step toward the creation of the second. In the first story there is an opposition of dead/alive which is semantic prefiguring of a central motif in «The Wax Effigy». An analysis of the reception of the novel demonstrated that almost every critic writing about the novel has described it as nonsense. Critics considered Tynianov's work in terms of «devices» and «content» and could not understand how devices are related to the content of the novel: the novel was thought as a signifier without any signified. Implicitly, critics thought the signified of the novel as a traditional one of the historical novel, as the historiosophical «idea», embodied in the system of literary devices. In this case literature becomes something instrumental, a kind of expression of extraliterary content. In contradistinction to that Tynianov considered literary semantics as an effect of the literary structure. From his point of view the literary sense is immanent to the process of signification accomplished inside the literary text. The second chapter is devoted to a rhetorical analysis of the opposition dead/alive. Tynianov systematically compares both terms of the opposition. As a result of this strategy the wax effigy of the dead emperor becomes «as if» alive and the world of living people «as if» dead. The qualifier «as if» refers to the fact that Tynianov creates an ambiguous semantic system. This rhetoric is related to European Romanticism and his «fantastic literature» (Merimé, Hoffmann, Maupassant etc.). But Tynianov demonstrates a linguistic origin of the strange fantoms created by romantics; he demystifies these idols by parodying the fantastic literature, that is, showing «how it was done». At the same time, the opposition mentioned above refers to his idea of «incongruity» which plays a prominent role in Tynianov s theory but has never been conceptualised. The incongruity is a inner collision of the literary text; from Tynianov's point of view the meaning of the work of literature is always a dynamic collision of semantically heterogeneous elements struggling with each other. In «The Wax Effigy» Tynianov creates a metalevel of the work demonstrating the process of creation of the literary sense. The third chapter is a reconstruction of Tynianov's conception of the historical prose, specifically of the mechanisms by which historical facts are transformed into literary events. Tynianov thought that the task of the historical novelist is to depict his hero as an actor, to demonstrate that as a wearer of many masks he is a creator of appearances, ambiguities. Here, in the «figure of fiction» (Andrei Belyi), the very idea of the historical prose and rhetoric employed in «The Wax Effigy», history and literature meet each other. In his last theoretical work, «On parody» Tynianov writes about the so-called sham structure of parody. In his opinion every parody is a text about other texts and «serious» work which could be read at the same time as a text about «reality». This twofold structure of parody is that of «The Wax Effigy»: that text speaks about ambiguities of the history and about ambiguities of the literary sense, about social reality of the past and - about the working of the literature itself. «The Wax Effigy» is written as a autoreflective text, as an experiment in literary semantics, as a system of literary ambiguities - of hero, rhetoric and the text itself. The meaning of the novel is created not by the embodiment extraliterary idea, but by the process of signification accomplished inside the work of literature. In this sense Tynianov's novel is parody, a break with the tradition of the historical novel preceding «The Wax Effigy».

Literaturnaja skazka A.M. Remizova (1900-1920-e gody)

Literary tale of A.M. Remizov (1900’s – 1920’s) The thesis is devoted to a detailed historical-literary description of a tale as a genre tradition in the creative work of Alexei Mikhailovich Remizov (1877-1957), one of the major Russian prose writers of the 20’s century. This very approach allows to specify the place and functional meaning of this genre in literary practice of the writer and to appeal to one of the key problems of the 20-21 century literature history – a specific of modernistic literature composition principle and a role of montage techniques in its formation. Remizov was working on tales during his whole life, though the most productive years of folklore studies fell to 1900’s – 1910’s. During this period he intensively studied folklore materials, narrated several hundreds of folk tales and in 1900’s – 1920’s published eight tale collections which played a significant role in the formation of stylistic and compositional principles of his prose of the 1910’s – 1920’s, especially montage techniques, which in its turn influenced the development of the narrative forms in the Russian post-revolutionary literature. At the same time a tale has specified not only poetics but also problematics of Remizov’s creative work, as when choosing folklore sources the writer always alluded to modern themes and relevant intellectual trends. The current research work, based on various archive materials and a wide spectrum of modern historical-literary data, complies four chapters with a consistent description of creation history, publication and critics’ reviews of Remizov’s tale collections and single tales contributing to his creative evolution characteristic. Furthermore, the work refers to composition and subject of the particular collections. On the whole it enables to follow up genre dynamics. The first chapter of the work is devoted to Posolon’ (Sunwise), the earliest tale collection of Remizov. The main feature of the collection is that its composition is oriented on the agrarian calendar and the subject – on the system of mythological views reflected in the Russian folklore. This very collection to a large extent corresponds to the writer’s views on the myth represented in Pis’mo v redaktsiyu (Letter to the Editor). The history of this manifesto appearing is analyzed in the second chapter. The incident which caused its forthcoming contributed to ‘legitimization’ of Remizov’s narrations as a relevant genre of modern literature and to upgrading the writer in professional hierarchy. The third chapter analyzes Remizov’s collections of 1900’s – early 1920’s, a result of Remizov’s scrupulous work with a specific tale material. He is acting here as a tale repertory researcher and in some cases as a collector as well. The means of such collections’ topical organization is not the myth but the hero of the tale. According to this principle single pieces are grouped into cycles, which then form complicated montage constructs. Texts themselves can be viewed as a sort of hyper-quotations, as they in fact entirely coincide with their original sources. Besides, collections usually have their own ideal patterns. In the fourth chapter a connection of Remizov’s creative work with folk fun culture and a tradition of the folklore noel story is being demonstrated on Zavetnyie skazy (Secret Tales) material. A consistent collections’ history creation analysis convinces us that the tale was a sort of laboratory in which main writer’s prose methods were being worked out.

Toward Figural Fantasy : The Representation of Consciousness in Modern American Fantasy Literature

Tajunnanesitys amerikkalaisessa heterodiegeettisessä fantasiakirjallisuudessa on muuttunut merkittävästi viimeisen kolmen vuosikymmenen aikana: kerrontaa orientoiva ja tarinamaailmaa havainnoiva tajunta on vähin erin vaihtunut kaikkitietävästä kertojasta tarinan sisäiseksi henkilöhahmoksi. Kertoja on samalla vetäytynyt yhä syvemmälle kerronnan kulissien taakse. Tämä tutkielma hahmottaa ja analysoi kyseistä muutosta siirtymänä kertojakeskeisestä kerronnasta kohti henkilökeskeistä kerrontaa. Tutkielmassa tajunnanesityksen teoreettisen kehyksen muodostavat F. K. Stanzelin kertojakeskeisen ja henkilökeskeisen kerrontatilanteen käsitteet. Kerrontatilanteita tarkennetaan fokalisaation, vapaan epäsuoran esityksen, sisäisen monologin ja psykonarraation teorioiden avulla. Tutkielma jakaantuu kahteen osaan. Ensimmäisessä osassa vertaillaan kahta prototyyppistä fantasiaromaania syväluotaavan narratologisen analyysin keinoin. Kertojakeskeistä kerrontaa edustaa Fritz Leiberin "The Swords of Lankhmar" (1968) ja henkilökeskeistä kerrontaa George R. R. Martinin "A Game of Thrones" (1996). Toisessa osassa tarkastellaan pääpiirteittäin kuuttatoista muuta aikaansa edustavaa fantasiaromaania ja hahmotetaan tajunnanesityksen muutoksen kronologista kulkua. Yhdessä osat ilmentävät, kuinka amerikkalainen heterodiegeettinen fantasiakirjallisuus on muuttunut kerrontateknisesti henkilökeskeisemmäksi. Tutkielma on ensimmäinen laatuaan, ja sen on tarkoitus luoda pohjaa uudenlaiselle modernin fantasiakirjallisuuden tutkimukselle ja kirjalliselle arvostukselle.

Arkeen pudonnut sibylla : Modernin naisen identiteetin rakentuminen Marja-Liisa Vartion romaanissa Kaikki naiset näkevät unia

A Sibyl fallen into everyday life. The enfolding of the identity of modern woman in Marja- Liisa Vartio s novel Kaikki naiset näkevät unia ( All Women Have Dreams ). --- Marja-Liisa Vartio played a remarkable part in renewing Finnish literature. My thesis examines her novel Kaikki naiset näkevät unia (1960), which describes the life of a middle-aged housewife, Mrs. Pyy ( Mrs. Hazel Hen ). She has moved from country to city and lives now in a suburb, in the Helsinki of the 1950 s. In Finnish literature, the novel is the first significant description of a modern city woman accomplished by modernistic means. My research examines the identity of a woman in the Finland of the 50 s, an epoch marked by the inevitable transition into modernity. My aim is to look into the ways in which the female identity enfolds in Kaikki naiset näkevät unia, how it takes its form, how it is described and commented. The primary method is contextual close reading; the novel is seen in the social, cultural and historical context of the time it was published. Essential elements in this study are literary motifs and images in the novel, and particularly transtextual relations as defined by Gérald Genette. The focus is on hypertextuality, intertextuality and paratextuality. Kaikki naiset näkevät unia emerges as a modern version of Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert. A woman s life spent in illusive dreaming is transferred from a 1900th century bourgeois town in France to a middle class Finnish suburb in the 1950 s. Vartio s novel is a variant of an ancient Finnish ballad I, a bird without a nest , making it into a modern narration of transition. The inner, mental journey from country to city is of great length, and the liminal life in a suburb does not make the passage any easier. Like the lyrical voices in the poetry of Edith Södergran, also Mrs. Pyy finds it hard to discover any values of sisterhood or those of ideal femininity in modern times. In earlier studies of Marja-Liisa Vartio s prose, stress has been laid on the discourse of her narrators and characters, as well as on its modern literary form. In this research, however, urgent allusions to paintings, old and new, are taken into account, since Mrs. Pyy mirrors herself against art, both classical and modern. Principal images in this context are Michelangelo s Sibyls in the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, and a modern painting, which remains unidentified. Mrs. Pyy turns out to be a tragicomic character, who has magnanimous illusions about herself, but is compelled to accept the fact the she is only a mediocre person. She is nothing more than a first generation city dweller; she is not a modern, aloof outsider but a mere dilettante, who desperately tries to live out modern city life. Kaikki naiset näkevät unia is a striking picture of the 1950 s, a picture that is construed in the consciousness of Mrs. Pyy. We are shown everyday life growing more and more modern after the war and woman s role growing more and more subject to increasing pressure for change.

Workplace acceptance and experiences of LGBTIQ health professionals: A systematic literature review

Background The purpose of this study was to explore the workplace acceptance and experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ) paramedics. Methods A systematic search of academic databases and reference lists from selected papers were the sources of the data. Inclusion criteria were research papers published in English, which focused on workplace acceptance and experiences of LGBTIQ health personnel. Results The initial focus of this systematic review was the workplace acceptance and experiences of LGBTIQ paramedics. However due to no published research specific to the paramedic profession the scope of the review was broadened to include of all LGBTIQ health personnel. Thirty-three papers were included in this review. Evidence indicated that LGBTIQ health professionals experienced discrimination from their patients, heterosexual colleagues and ‘closeted’ LGBTIQ peers. Positive contribution of LGBTIQ health professionals include improved patient care and role models for LGBTIQ peers. Inclusive policy is required for LGBTIQ health professional workforce retention. Conclusions The paramedic workforce is known to be a high risk occupational group for post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. Theoretically, LGBTIQ paramedics working in a heteronormative culture experience increased level of stress. While LGBTIQ health professionals receive legislative protection against discrimination, discrimination still exists in practice through lack of visibility. Effective and efficient integration of LGBTIQ health professionals could improve workplace satisfaction, workforce retention, and equity of access by marginalised groups. An inclusive workplace policy of LGBTIQ embraces and celebrates the value of diversity.

Double-Edged Imitation : Theories and Practices of Pastiche in Literature

This study concentrates on the contested concept of pastiche in literary studies. It offers the first detailed examination of the history of the concept from its origins in the seventeenth century to the present, showing how pastiche emerged as a critical concept in interaction with the emerging conception of authorial originality and the copyright laws protecting it. One of the key results of this investigation is the contextualisation of the postmodern debate on pastiche. Even though postmodern critics often emphasise the radical novelty of pastiche, they in fact resuscitate older positions and arguments without necessarily reflecting on their historical conditions. This historical background is then used to analyse the distinction between the primarily French conception of pastiche as the imitation of style and the postmodern notion of it as the compilation of different elements. The latter s vagueness and inclusiveness detracts from its value as a critical concept. The study thus concentrates on the notion of stylistic pastiche, challenging the widespread prejudice that it is merely an indication of lack of talent. Because it is multiply based on repetition, pastiche is in fact a highly ambiguous or double-edged practice that calls into question the distinction between repetition and original, thereby undermining the received notion of individual unique authorship as a fundamental aesthetic value. Pastiche does not, however, constitute a radical upheaval of the basic assumptions on which the present institution of literature relies, since, in order to mark its difference, pastiche always refers to a source outside itself against which its difference is measured. Finally, the theoretical analysis of pastiche is applied to literary works. The pastiches written by Marcel Proust demonstrate how it can become an integral part of a writer s poetics: imitation of style is shown to provide Proust with a way of exploring the role of style as a connecting point between inner vision and reality. The pastiches of the Sherlock Holmes stories by Michael Dibdin, Nicholas Meyer and the duo Adrian Conan Doyle and John Dickson Carr illustrate the functions of pastiche within a genre detective fiction that is itself fundamentally repetitive. A.S. Byatt s Possession and D.M. Thomas s Charlotte use Victorian pastiches to investigate the conditions of literary creation in the age of postmodern suspicion of creativity and individuality. The study thus argues that the concept of pastiche has valuable insights to offer to literary criticism and theory, and that literary pastiches, though often dismissed in reviews and criticism, are a particularly interesting object of study precisely because of their characteristic ambiguity.

Kiehtova epäloogisuus : Italiaa ja italialaisia koskevien mielikuvien diskurssianalyysiä.

Tutkimukseni aineistona on Työväenopiston italian kielen opiskelijoiden lyhyitä, vapaamuotoisia kirjoituksia ja muutama sähköpostiviesti hyvin Italiaa tuntevilta ihmisiltä. Teksteissä kerrotaan mielikuvista Italiasta ja italialaisista. Analysoin aineistoa sosiaalipsykologisen diskurssianalyysin menetelmin. Johtuen aineiston sisällön stereotyyppisyydestä käsittelen teorialle omistetussa kappaleessa menetelmän ohella aiempaa tutkimusta stereotypioista. Analyysi jakautuu kolmeen osaan: ensin käsittelen koko aineistossa toistuvia teemoja, sitten 11 kokonaista kirjoitusta ja lopuksi kokoan analyysin perusteella kolme diskurssia Italiasta ja italialaisista. Nämä diskurssit toteutuvat sekä aineistossani että monissa muissa teksteissä, joissa puhutaan Italiasta tai etelästä ylipäänsä. Diskurssien sosiaalinen funktio on luoda etäisyyttä sisä- ja ulkoryhmän välillä. Ensimmäiset kaksi diskurssia vahvistavat kirjoittajien paremmuuden tunnetta vertailussa "etelämaalaisten" kanssa. Kolmas diskurssi sen sijaan rakentaa kuvaa italialaisista suomalaisia inhimillisempinä. Diskurssit Italiasta voidaan sijoittaa laajempaan kontekstiin, joka koskee kansainvälisiä valtasuhteita. Tässä kontekstissa suomalaisten käyttämät diskurssit Italiasta ovat pieni osa isoa hegemonista diskurssia, joka jakaa planeettamme kehittyneeseen pohjoiseen/länteen ja kehittymättömään etelään, johon Italiakin usein sijoitetaan. Avainsanat: diskurssianalyysi, stereotypia, valtasuhteet.

Lung cancer risk of airborne particles for Italian population

Airborne particles, including both ultrafine and supermicrometric particles, contain various carcinogens. Exposure and risk-assessment studies regularly use particle mass concentration as dosimetry parameter, therefore neglecting the potential impact of ultrafine particles due to their negligible mass compared to supermicrometric particles. The main purpose of this study was the characterization of lung cancer risk due to exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and some heavy metals associated with particle inhalation by Italian non-smoking people. A risk-assessment scheme, modified from an existing risk model, was applied to estimate the cancer risk contribution from both ultrafine and supermicrometric particles. Exposure assessment was carried out on the basis of particle number distributions measured in 25 smoke-free microenvironments in Italy. The predicted lung cancer risk was then compared to the cancer incidence rate in Italy to assess the number of lung cancer cases attributed to airborne particle inhalation, which represents one of the main causes of lung cancer, apart from smoking. Ultrafine particles are associated with a much higher risk than supermicrometric particles, and the modified risk-assessment scheme provided a more accurate estimate than the conventional scheme. Great attention has to be paid to indoor microenvironments and, in particular, to cooking and eating times, which represent the major contributors to lung cancer incidence in the Italian population. The modified risk assessment scheme can serve as a tool for assessing environmental quality, as well as setting up exposure standards for particulate matter.

Indoor Air Quality in Naturally Ventilated Italian Classrooms

Characterization of indoor air quality in school classrooms is crucial to children’s health and performance. The present study was undertaken to characterize the indoor air quality in six naturally ventilated classrooms of three schools in Cassino (Italy). Indoor particle number, mass, black carbon, CO2 and radon concentrations, as well as outdoor particle number were measured within school hours during the winter and spring season. The study found the concentrations of indoor particle number were influenced by the concentrations in the outdoors; highest BC values were detected in classrooms during peak traffic time. The effect of different seasons’ airing mode on the indoor air quality was also detected. The ratio between indoor and outdoor particles was of 0.85 ± 0.10 in winter, under airing conditions of short opening window periods, and 1.00 ± 0.15 in spring when the windows were opened for longer periods. This was associated to a higher degree of penetration of outdoor particles due to longer period of window opening. Lower CO2 levels were found in classrooms in spring (908 ppm) than in winter (2206 ppm). Additionally, a greater reduction in radon concentrations was found in spring. In addition, high PM10 levels were found in classrooms during break time due to re-suspension of coarse particles. Keywords: classroom; Ni/Nout ratio; airing by opening windows; particle number

Systematic literature review: Research on Supported Playgroups

Overview This review of research conducted with supported playgroups was prepared for the Queensland Department of Education, Training and Employment (DETE). The report provides a synthesis of the research on the effectiveness of supported playgroups to improve child, parent, and community outcomes and to identify key features of supported playgroups that support effective outcomes. Supported playgroups are community-based services that provide a low intensity parenting intervention, through regular group sessions for parent-child dyads. Supported playgroups target vulnerable families who may benefit from parenting support. Supported playgroups have common goals to enhance children’s early learning and parental wellbeing. Method A search strategy was devised to identify research studies, nationally and internationally, that involved parent-child group programs for families with young children, delivered under the leadership of an employed facilitator. Academic databases and other data sources were explored for studies conducted in the period from 2004 to 2014. Summary descriptions of the research studies were developed; assessment of research methodologies was made; research evidence on the effectiveness of supported playgroups to improve child, parent, and community outcomes was identified; and comparative analyses of the implementation features of supported playgroups were completed. Findings The search strategy identified 34 research publications, reporting on 29 different programs. Twenty-six of the studies report on research conducted in Australia and eight reported on research conducted in other countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States. Three clusters of playgroups were identified: Category 1 - Standard supported playgroups; Category 2 - Mobile playgroups; Category 3 – Supported playgroups with specific interventions. The research studies identified encompassed experimental and non-experimental research designs. The studies of standard supported playgroups and mobile playgroups were most often qualitative studies and modest in scale, in terms of the number of research participants. Experimental and quasi-experimental research designs characterised the studies identified in the category of supported playgroups with specific interventions. Overall, the research studies that were categorised as supported playgroups with specific interventions provided stronger evidence for effectiveness to improve parental behaviour in ways that are known to support children’s early developmental competence. Qualitative studies, including case studies and ethnographic research, documented important features of program delivery, such as the importance of facilitators’ interpersonal skills to positive experiences for families in the playgroups; as well as the important opportunities that the playgroups afforded to vulnerable families to reduce social isolation. Conclusions The potential for supported playgroups to improve a broad range of learning and psychosocial outcomes for children and parents was suggested by many of the research studies. However, the nature of the research designs employed means that it is not possible to conclude that there is strong evidence of the impact of supported playgroups on child, parent, and community outcomes. The qualitative studies did provide rich descriptions about the implementation processes of playgroups and also captured the variability in the delivery of the playgroups in terms of who participated, local contextual factors that impacted on the playgroup experiences, and the nature of the experiences of parents within the playgroups. Research methodologies need to be employed that address the limitations of the studies to date. This would provide more defensible evidence that supported playgroups have an impact over time on outcomes for children, families, and communities. Overall, this area of research remains relatively under-evaluated in terms of rigorous research designs. The identified research studies point to some promising research directions but do not yet enable strong claims to be made about the effectiveness of the standard playgroup or mobile playgroup models to impact on parenting outcomes. Data collected from interview and survey methodologies clearly identifies that supported playgroups are highly acceptable to families. Given the popularity of supported playgroups to engage families across diverse communities, and the reported high levels of satisfaction and benefits identified within many of the research studies, it is clear that the provision of supported playgroups is fulfilling an important community need by providing support to parents with young children. However, there is a need to strengthen the evidence base that supported playgroups are an effective early parenting intervention that improves outcomes for children, parents, and communities.

Professor Lichtenberger, German literature professor at the Sorbonne, with Toni and Sigmund Feist Portraits; Groups

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