Iconic Character of Bestiary Images in the Novels of F. Werfel and E. Canetti

The anthropomorphic depiction of animals bearing allegorical meanings is the well-represented and actively demanded bestiary of world literature. It reflects the mythological thinking of writers and is an integral part of the worldview basis on which literary works are based. Bestiary images in the artistic text acquire the status of universal representative symbols. This study discusses bestiary images in novelistic works of Austrian writers, Franz Werfel (1890-1945) and Elias Canetti (1905-1994). Using the semiotic approach, the researchers define a range of images and meanings that are related to these two writers as representatives of the era of historical upheavals and individual authorial purposes that reflect the basis of the worldview of each of them. A bestiary image in a literary text can function as an iconic sign, which, on the one hand, reflects the material object in its materiality, and on the other hand, contributes to the emerging of "new", constructed by analogy, aesthetic reality. The similarity to the referent, in this case, is included in the overall system of ontological values. An iconic sign, after Ch.S. Pierce, refers to a simple sign based on the similarity to a thing and participating in the creation of symptoms of a higher order – symbols. Bestiary images in a literary text acquire the status of universal representative characters. The functioning of animal images in the text, their nomination, combinatorics, communication with the elements, time periods, and behavioural patterns are the way of the study of the philosophical foundations of the author's world picture. Canetti’s bestiary is represented by metaphorical images of a monkey, a cat, a pig, and a tortoise, which are used as a tool for analysing various psychic and psychological states of the characters of the novel "Blinding" (Die Blendung, 1931-1932). Multiple forms of anthropopathy and zoomorphism are based on the writer's attitude towards the initial "equality" of man and animal. The study of zoopoetics (the term of J. Lacan) of Werfel’s novel "Barbara, or Piety" (Barbara oder die Frömigkeit, 1929) helps to reveal the axiological foundation upon which the writer constructs his novels. The functioning of images of animals, a horse, for example, is related to the semantics of sacrifice that is rethought and acquiring new meanings in a new historical context. Composite images connecting different characteristics and associated with various natural elements are important. It is apparent that the study of the works by Werfel and Canetti, given the iconic nature of bestiary images, seems relevant to detect common patterns of development of European literature and culture of the first third of the 20th Century

The 85th Anniversary of Academician V.V. Alekseev

In the article dedicated to the 85th anniversary of Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor and Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Veniamin V. Alekseev, the author traces the main milestones of the scientific biography of the prominent historian who is a well-known specialist in the field of national history and the theory of historical process and the founder of the Institute of History and Archaeology of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The paper considers the main stages of the formation of the scientist, his scientific, organizational and administrative activities in the field of historical science. The author highlights the scientific results of Academician V.V. Alekseev that made him well known in Russia and abroad, his theoretical and methodological studies and such large blocks of scientific research as the history of Russian modernizations, the phenomenon of Russian regionalism, the history of metallurgy of the Urals and industrial heritage. The article also focuses on the features of the scientific method of V.V. Alekseev and his merits in the formation of the documentary base for historical research

Modern Austrian Novel: Endless Wanderings in the Labyrinths of Kafka's Castle

The purpose of the article is to discuss the perception of Kafka's The Castle (Das Schloss, 1922) in the novels The Peaches Killers (Die Pfirsichtöter, 1972) by Alfred Kolleritsch, Among the Bieresch (Bei den Bieresch, 1979) by Klaus Hoffer and Into the Castle (Ins Schloss, 2004) by Marianne Gruber. The reference to the writers and their works is no coincidence; preference is given to the artists whose creative manner reflects the most fashionable trends in Western European literary process - from avant-garde to postmodernism. The authors of the article deliberately arrange the analysed works in chronological order to follow the stages in the development of German postmodernism which originates from modernist literature. The universal Kafkaesque discourse suggests the existence of direct and inverse connections between the author and the reader, the extra-textual tradition and reality. The article focuses on the narrative strategies of Austrian avant-garde (Kolleritsch), analyses postmodern discourse (Hoffer, Gruber) in the Austrian literature of the second half of the 20th and early 21st centuries, reveals signs of typological similarity between the novels by Kafka, Kolleritsch, Hoffer, and Gruber, which seems productive for understanding the influence of modernist literature on the development of the postmodern paradigm in the German-language literary space. Austrian literature, to a greater extent, is fraught with the search for new forms of self-expression rather than with the artistic “overcoming the past” - the awareness of collective guilt.  It brought to the forefront the authors in whose works the age of change was reflected. Literary avant-garde has been replaced by authors who skillfully “play” with the previous culture and establish a dialogue with the present. The comparative methodology is to reveal the perception of "Kafkaesque discourse" in modern Austrian literature and to draw conclusions about the ways authors treat ontological questions

The Sociopsychological Profile of Persons with Alcohol Anosognosia in the Context of Social Customer Support

AIM: We aimed to focus on the sociopsychological profile of a person with alcohol anosognosia. METHODS: The study was conducted in the narcological inpatient adult department of the Starooskolsky Narcological Dispensary for 1.5 months and involved 60 male patients over the age of 18 with at least 5-year alcohol dependence. RESULTS: As a result of the study, the individual typological features of patients with anosognosia were identified and structured. CONCLUSION: The findings may be applied in the development of social support measures for persons with anosognosia to resocialize them and achieve long-term therapeutic remission

Столица Урала: эволюция административного статуса Екатеринбурга и идентичности горожан в ХVIII – начале ХХ в.

The article aims to analyze the connection between the evolution of Yekaterinburg’s administrative status and that of its citizens’ identity between the 18th – early 20th century. With reference to historical and historiographic sources, the authors demonstrate that Yekaterinburg, while being a capital and a European city in many respects, was a dynamically developing place with advanced commerce and industry, science and culture in the period in question. The authors conclude that the myth of the capital character of Yekaterinburg that is an integral part of the citizens’ mentality has a long-standing history and express an opinion that Yekaterinburg’s capital identity as a macro-region was closely connected to the growth of regional self-consciousness in history.Цель статьи – анализ взаимосвязи эволюции административного статуса Екатеринбурга и становления идентичности горожан в XVIII – начале ХХ в. На основе исследования исторических и историографических источников авторы показывают, что Екатеринбург, олицетворяя собой столичный (во многом европейский) город, на протяжении рассматриваемого времени являлся динамично развивающимся поселением с развитой торговлей и промышленностью, наукой и культурой. Авторы заключают, что миф о столичности Екатеринбурга, будучи неотъемлемой частью менталитета горожан, имеет давнюю историю, и делают вывод о том, что столичная идентификация Екатеринбурга как центра макрорегиона исторически была тесно связана с ростом регионального самосознания

Macrophage scavenger receptors: Tumor support and tumor inhibition

Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) are a heterogeneous population of myeloid cells that constitute up to 50% of the cell mass of human tumors. TAMs interact with the components of the tumor microenvironment (TME) by using scavenger receptors (SRs), a large superfamily of multifunctional receptors that recognize, internalize and transport to the endosomal/lysosomal pathway apoptotic cells, cytokines, matrix molecules, lipid modified lipoproteins and other unwanted-self ligands. In our review, we summarized state-of-the art for the role of macrophage scavenger receptors in tumor development and their significance as cancer biomarkers. In this review we focused on functional activity of TAM-expressing SRs in animal models and in patients, and summarized the data for different human cancer types about the prognostic significance of TAM-expressed SRs. We discussed the role of SRs in the regulation of cancer cell biology, cell-cell and cell-matrix interaction in TME, immune status in TME, angiogenesis, and intratumoral metabolism. Targeting of tumor-promoting SRs can be a promising therapeutic approach in anti-cancer therapy. In our review we provide evidence for both tumor supporting and tumor inhibiting functions of scavenger receptors expressed on TAMs. We focused on the key differences in the prognostic and functional roles of SRs that are specific for cancer types. We highlighted perspectives for inhibition of tumor-promoting SRs in anti-cancer therapy