Volume 55, Issue 3 -

Zusammenfassung Lev Levanda (1835–1888) was one of the first Jewish writers to publish in Russian. He presented himself as an ardent maskil, i. e. an exponent of the Jewish Enlightenment in Russia, or Haskalah in Hebrew. Due to his critical attitude towards the traditional Jewish lifestyle and the pro-Russian tendency of the majority of his writings, he was considered an avid Russophile most of his life. He wrote his best-known novel, “Goryachee Vremya”, on a politically delicate topic – the Jewish conflict of taking sides in the Polish uprising of 1863. What first seems to be typically tendentious prose closes with an irritating ending. The hero, a Jewish propagandist of assimilation, finally ends up in the company of exiled Polish insurgents discussing the similarities of Polish and Jewish destinies. The novel, which was mostly understood as pro-Russian propaganda for a Jewish audience, turns out to be a political statement directed to Russian readers, critically describing the negative outcome of denying Jewish assimilation efforts.

Zusammenfassung In the course of the so-called cultural turn the construction of identities has become a central field of research in literary criticism. In describing an area with a supposed specific cultural tradition the concept of Central Europe in this context achieved a certain prominence within Slavonic Studies. This paper therefore discusses the consequences of this research interest for the self-concept of Slavonic Studies as an academic subject. Demonstrating that the concept of Central Europe cannot claim any plausible heuristic value for the exploration of literary works of art the conclusion is drawn that this concept, as with the preoccupation with the construction of cultural identities in general, does not make any contribution to subject-specific knowledge. Thus this research interest tends to undermine the legitimacy of literary criticism as an independent academic subject.

Zusammenfassung This article is an interpretation of the second part of the famous “Labyrint svĕta a ráj srdce” of Jan Amos Komenský. This text was written in the early 17 th century and is in most beautiful Czech telling the story of a pilgrim who finds God by returning from his way through the sinful world (this part of the journey is described in the “Labyrint svĕta”) to his inner self. There he meets Jesus Christ in the chamber of his heart, from where he is again sent out to explore what life in the service of God can be like, if he only decides to fully believe. Komenský hereby presents his own vision of the right way of life.

Zusammenfassung The first part of this article sets out with a comprehensive overview of today’s most dominant conceptions of what makes up the political discourse from a semiotic point of view and goes on to show the difference between argumentation and persuasion. This analysis is used in the second part for a further specification of one possible way how to realize arguing that is justifying. Subsequently, the article systematizes typical patterns of justification for selected acts of war of the 20 th and 21 st century which politicians as representatives of different political systems repeatedly make use of, in order to gain agreement to enforce their aims of action. The fourth part, finally, discovers characteristic strategy types, which on the one hand intent to realize cognitive-rational conviction and on the other hand pseudo argumentative persuasion.

Zusammenfassung The verb classification of modern Belarusian Studies is mainly tailored to academic problems. Its usability for the practical learning of the Belarusian Language is insufficient. A “text book oriented” verb typology should be based on certain verb conjugation regularities that allows for distinguishing of special forms (i.e. types) of verb paradigms. This approach makes it possible to demonstrate the differences between Russian and Belarusian verb forms. Thus, their mingling whilst speaking can be avoided. Depending on the verb stem and the ending, the I. “Russian” conjugation ( е -conjugation) corresponds to three Belarusian “orthographical” variants: the е -conjugation, the а -conjugation and the э -conjugation; the II. “Russian” conjugation ( и -conjugation) corresponds to the і - and ы -conjugations. Within each of these variants, regular types can be identified that alternate vocals, consonants or stress when conjugated. The mingling of endings when speaking Belarusian is caused by the domination of the Russian language (or rather the Belarusian “natiolect”) in the everyday communication of the Belarusian population and the influence of dialectal speech.

Zusammenfassung Мовна політика та мовна ситуація в Україні. Аналіз і рекомендації. Проект INTAS „Language Policy in Ukraine: Anthropological, Linguistic and Further Perspective (2006–2008)”. За редакцією Юліане БЕСТЕРС-ДІЛЬҐЕР. Київ (Видавничий дім „Києво-Могилянська академія“) 2008, 363 ст. // Language Policy and Language Situation in Ukraine. Analysis and Recommendations. INTAS Project „Language Policy in Ukraine: Anthropological, Linguistic and Further Perspectives“. Juliane BESTERS-DILGER (ed.). Frankfurt am Main u.a.: Peter Lang 2009. 396 S. ISBN 978-3-631-58389-0

Zusammenfassung Russko-evropejskie literaturnye svjazi: XVIII vek. Ėnciklopedičeskij slovar′. Stat′i. Hrsg. von Petr BUCHARKIN. SPb: Fakul′tet filologii i iskusstv SPbGU, 2008. 432 S. ISBN 978-5-8465-0766-1 .