‘On the outskirts of the Empire’: Joseph Brodsky and Lithuania

This article explores the role of Lithuania in Joseph Brodsky’s life and works before and after his exile from Russia in 1972. As a former Soviet republic, Lithuania represented an intermediary space for Brodsky both culturally and geographically, contributing to his realization that it was a ‘rehearsal’ for his actual emigration. However, Brodsky’s notion of Lithuania changes when, after 1972, instead of representing a simulacrum of the ‘abroad,’ the poet sees Lithuania as a ‘home’ from afar. Emigration, in Brodsky’s case, thus became a realization of the myth of exile implicit in his earlier texts about Lithuania.     

试论语言和货币的符号性

语言符号和货币符号虽然分属于语言学和经济学的两个基本范畴,却又都是适应人类社会交际的需要而产生的,彼此之间有着紧密的联系。同为符号,它们既具有规约性,又具有抽象性和价值的两重性等特征。但是,语言和货币毕竟是两种不同的符号形式,在量与质的方面都存在着差异性。     

Stakeholder involvement in collaborative regulatory processes: Using automated coding to track attendance and actions

Regulation increasingly mandates collaborative approaches to increase stakeholder input and streamline approval processes. However, understanding how to maintain stakeholder involvement over the course of a long collaborative process is vital to optimize effectiveness. This paper observes more than 700 stakeholders involved in developing and implementing a dam operating license over 16 years. We use text mining and Bayesian hierarchical modeling to observe meeting attendance and recorded actions in meeting minutes. We find that involvement decreased after the initial planning phase, but steadily increased through license development and implementation. After the regulatory mandate to consult with external stakeholders dissolved, overall attendance declined while attendance stability increased, meaning that the non‐mandatory stage involved a smaller cadre of dedicated actors. This indicates that high‐performing mandated stakeholder involvement processes rely on a constrained group of conveners to sustain interaction and have less turnover than what might be expected given existing evidence from grassroots involvement; assumptions about group dynamics based on involvement in grassroots processes may lead to improper predictions about who will participate, and how, in processes where stakeholder involvement is mandated.     

Exploring Michèle Roberts’ Imagined Voices in The Walworth Beauty

The Walworth Beauty (2017) is Michèle Roberts’s haunting new novel, which links historical facts with imaginative fiction. Set in central London, the Anglo-French feminist writer’s novel explores certain Victorian women’s lives, lives which are simultaneously connected with those of twenty-first century men and women. A researcher from the nineteenth century, Joseph Benson, and a retired lecturer and writer from today, Madeleine, develop their stories in different times but in similar locations around a Walworth cul-de-sac and other London sites. Past and present, north and south London link to uncover the enigmatic accounts pictured by the protagonists of this sensuous work of fiction. Inspired by Henry Mayhew’s fourth volume dedicated to the villains, the poor and the prostitutes of the Victorian era, Michèle Roberts narrates the story that emerges from their unrecorded words, putting these women’s voices and personal testimonies on paper. Walking the streets of London will connect Joseph and Madeleine, two flâneurs who are witnessing and feeling the different pathways they encounter. The inner and the outer voices of the protagonists establish a dialogue between the man and the woman that celebrates human connection.     

‘I am not Mr. Mom:’ a qualitative analysis of at-home father’s struggle for legitimacy

Although scholarship on at-home fathers explores how men negotiate their masculinity and wrestle with social stigma, research has yet to address how language and micro-level interactions are used to undermine, or contest, men’s abilities to parent as well as to reconstruct dominant forms of masculinity and fatherhood. As such, the purpose of this study is to explore the challenges at-home fathers face when gender becomes a frame for evaluating their abilities to parent. Drawing on interviews with men who are primary caregivers, the focus here is on how language situates and delegitimize men’s parenting practices. The findings suggest that gendered discourses constrain men’s ability to parent and create struggles for them as they interact with family, friends and their community. Additionally, these findings demonstrate the flaws in redefining masculinity to incorporate childcare and the implications this process has on existing gender inequalities.     

Semiotics and urban culture: architectural projections of structuralism in a socialist context

The paper studies the relations between architecture, urbanism and structural anthropology, and makes a contribution to the interpretation of how the architects of former Yugoslavia translated structuralism into architectural theory and practice as a means of reading and shaping Yugoslav culture in the context of radical socio-political change. In striving for freedom of opinion, expression, communication and action, and autonomy of scientific and cultural practices, the Yugoslav society through its avant-garde cultural role initiated a shift of focus in urban culture towards semiotics, historicity, dialectics, creativity, criticism and a revival of the humanistic values of traditional culture. From this viewpoint, the paper examines the interests in theory and practice of the most influential Yugoslav architects in the context of structuralism: Mutnjakovi?, Neidhardt, Grabrijan, Bogdanovi? and Delalle. Their theoretical approaches effected a change of functionalist principles and values and advocated the return of values of the old city centre and vernacular architecture, specifically its vitality, symbolism, historical continuity, environmental values and diverse urban forms.     

华南族群的互动与认同

华南地区少数民族族群来源复杂,结构多样.早在远古时代就有许多原始族群活跃在华南,族群之间不断互动、涵化,到清朝基本定型为三个层次.华南族群中既包括少数民族族群,也包括汉族族群.各族群的认同基本上都是从族源认同和语言认同两个方面来概定,其中,语言认同方面汉族族群的方言比少数民族族群的方言种类更多,内容更丰富.     

民族语言文字诉讼原则的适用与完善

我国的三大诉讼法都确定了“民族语言文字诉讼”的原则,这一系列具有充分的法律依据。但在实践中这一原则并没有得到充分运用．文章分析了“民族语言文字诉讼”原则的重要意义和作用以及含义,并对这一原则的完善提出建议。     

浅析新疆少数民族外语教育的文化生态环境

本文从文化生态环境的角度,对新疆少数民族独特的文化习俗、思维方式、价值取向和社会心理以及独特的语言文化进行描述,指出新疆少数民族外语教育的文化生态环境有不平衡现象,具体表现为：外语基础教育文化生态不平衡;学校和民族院校内部的文化生态不平衡;新疆少数民族文化与主流文化和英美文化之间的冲突。针对以上现象,作者提出推进多元文化整合下新疆少数民族外语教育的措施;加强少数民族基础外语教育建设;增加课程设计的民族性与多元性;重视文化因素的导入。     

新中国成立以来少数民族语言的法律保障研究

新中国成立后,国家对于少数民族语言的保护一直非常重视,在宪法与众多法律中多有体现。但其中有些法律对少数民族的语言保护只是作了原则性阐述,缺乏可操作性,至今还没有制定出保护少数民族语言文字的专门法律。为更好地保障少数民族语言文字权利,少数民族语言文字法应尽快制定。