This thesis in social anthropology is based on the inner essence, manifestations and tendencies of Scottish nationalism and regionalism. The thesis intends to investigate how Scottish nationalism and regionalism are related to each other. It is meant to highlight the meaning of the Wallace-myth for maintenance of the Scottish national consciousness and to illuminate factors lying behind this myth. It is also meant to study how Turner, Lévi-Strauss, Anderson, Eriksen, Hobsbawm and Hettne’s theories work in the Scottish field. This thesis intends to contribute to a better understanding and deeper insight into Scottish nationalism.

Šiame darbe analizuojama maištingojo anarchizmo ideologijos tema G.Beresnevičiaus eseistikoje. / The author of this work analysis the ideology of anarchism in G.Beresnevichius’ essay books. The following three books of the mentioned writer have been chosen, i.e. ,, On the edge of time’’ ( ,, Ant laiko ašmenų’’ ), ,, The wolves’ sun’’ ( ,, Vilkų saulutė’’ ) and ,, Empire making’’ ( ,, Imperijos darymas’’ ). The target of the work was to present the essayist’s books, which would help to point up and reveal the theme of rebellious anarchism. It was also important to realize, how the writer’s ideology reflects in separate thematic motives, which determined the following tasks; to find similarities with the ideology of anarchism in Beresnevichius books of essys by comparison, to analyze the explanation of Lithuanian national distinction, significance of the myth, criticism of today’s society, anarchistic approach to death, the concepts of freedom of populace and freedom of an individual and the importance of humor. The author suggested the conklussion of her research , that some features typical of anarchism ideology could be found in Beresnevichius’ essay books, as well as differences from that ideology. Key words: anarchism, rebellious, ideology, essay, myth, utopia, antiutopia, humor.

By conducting a text analysis this study analyzes possible similarities in the portrayal of story characters between historical Norse myths and contemporary film productions. The chosen historical texts are two stories from Norse mythology which render a myth about Thor and a giant named Hrunge as well as the myth Trymskvädet. The selected movies are two of the comic company Marvel’s productions about super heroes – Thor and The Avengers. Different categories that this study compares are how the characters are defined by their possessions or artefacts, the actions and the choices which the characters make, and also how their relations, roles and origins are being portrayed. As the result of study shows, there are some similarities between the historical texts and the movies with regard to how the stories portray the characters.      According to cognitive theories, a story becomes more memorable if there is a balance between what readers intuitively expect and does not expect from the story while it unfolds in texts or multimedia productions. The reason for these similarities between textual and visual material created in different times may not only be that historical texts serve as the inspirational base for contemporary productions, but also relates to how myths have some unforgettable characters by striking a balance between intuitiveness and counter-intuitiveness features, and that the movies use character portrayals with a similar balance between the features.

It was the best of cities, it was the worst of cities, it was a place of giddying boom, it was a place of economic despair, it was a utopia, it was a dystopic no-topia, it was the world centre of fantasies, and the world centre of nightmares, a town where some struck it rich while others lost themselves in their desires for wealth, in short, the place was so far unlike the present place, that some of the noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only. This thesis is constructed of fragmented stories but not in the classic sense as there is no over-arching narrative, no beginning, middle and end, no synthetic conclusion. Rather this thesis is similar to Los Angeles itself; it is a multi-faceted exploration of competing themes that have birthed a city of fictions, a centre of fantasy, a place that shapes our collective memories, even for those of us who grew up in far-off places. Los Angeles has searched for a down-town core, a collective identity, a dominant narrative and these attempts are explored through different themes – the story of film noir, the development of the Los Angeles Aqueduct, the redevelopment of Bunker Hill, the violence and upheavals of the riots. I have explored how the city has tried to re-brand itself, Through these prisms, and how these attempts have shaped its development and history. It is said that Los Angeles has an architecture of absence, with its superficiality and lack of depth, and as a visual metaphor, this can represent the giddy changes happening in the field of architecture, where hyper-realism trumps facts. This idea of Los Angeles as a mirror should not surprise: it has long been a world centre for myth-making, an epicenter of fiction, cinema, architecture, et cetera, spewing out seductive, grotesquely exaggerated reflections of North America itself.

Demographic researchers have identified a crossover pattern between the mortality rates of the Caucasian-American and African-American oldest-old (80+) populations for over a century. Debate has centered on whether the crossover effect is due to age misreporting or the heterogeneity hypothesis or if it continues beyond age 99. This thesis addresses these issues by using new data from the SSA’s study of supercentenarians. The study identified 355 persons aged 110 or older whose ages could be verified, creating the first reliable American dataset for this population group. Analysis of the data has indicated that mortality rates at ages 110-115 were significantly lower for African-American supercentenarians than for their Caucasian-American counterparts, and that the African-American proportion of the population increased steadily with age. The results of this analysis show that the crossover phenomenon is multicausal and cannot be fully accounted for by age misreporting, suggesting a need to consider genetic and environmental impacts on racial variations in maximum human longevity.

Vytautas P. Bložė, Donaldas Kajokas ir Rabindranathas Tagorė yra gerai susipažinę su indų Vedų vaišnavizmo mitologija, todėl savo eilėraščiuose įdomiai ir gražiai ją taiko, atskleisdami įvairių reiškinių prasmes ir praturtindami lietuvišką poeziją. Daugiausiai dėmesio poetai skiria mėnuliui, sielos ir Supersielos ryšiui ir Dievo Krišnos archetipui, mažiau – šventam medžiui ir gėlei. Kajokas daugiau dėmesio skiria mėnuliui. Bložės mėnulis skatina dvasinį augimą ir neleidžia pasiduoti materialiai tamsai, taip pat dieviškas asmuo su begaliniu pasauliu, Kajokui jis – ne tik šviesa, lemtis bet ir pats Dievo Asmuo (su mėnulio veidu ir akimis), grojantis fleita, taip pat moters ir vaiko įvaizdis, kas atitinka indų mitologiją, o Tagorei mėnulį atstoja Pats Dievas Krišna, turintis mėnulio veidą. Jų mėnulis yra nuolatos veikianti dieviška asmenybė, kas būdinga indų mitologijai. Poetams labai svarbus sielos ir Supersielos santykio motyvas. Visi trys remiasi Vedų šventraščių alegorija ir šį įvaizdį pateikia kaip du paukštelius. Paukštelis Supersiela nuolatos pataria, ką daryti, kad jos antrininkė išsivaduotų nuo žemų įgeidžių ir pasiektų aukščiausią tobulumą, atgaivindama dievišką draugystę. Tagorės paukštis yra be galo laimingas, būdamas kartu su Viešpačiu, Bložė stebi šiuos paukštelius, o Kajoko paukštis nelaimingas, nes neįsiklauso į Supersielą. Kajoko ir Tagorės Supersiela ir siela dar lyginamos su saule ir jos šviesa, Supersielos nebuvimą sielos gyvenime – su... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Vytautas P. Bložė, Donaldas Kajokas and Rabindranath Tagore are well acquainted with indian Vedic mythology, therefore in their poetry they adjust it interestingly and beautifully, by revealing the meanings of different phenomenons, and in this way enriching lithuanian poetry. Most of the attention the poets allot to the moon trop, the relationship between the soul and the Supersoul and the archetype of God Krishna, less attention – to the sacred tree and flower. Kajokas attaches great importance to the moon. Bložė's moon induces spiritual growth and does not allow to yield to material darkness, it is also divine person with limitless world. To Kajokas it is not only the light, destiny, but also God (with moonlike face), who plays the flute, it is the trope of a woman and a child too. And for Tagore the place of the moon takes God Krishna Himself with His moonlike face. Their moon is always acting divine person, what is the characteristic of indian mythology. The motive of the relation between the soul and the Supersoul is very significant to the poets. All three of them lean on the allegory of Vedic scriptures and present this trop as two birds. The bird Supersoul always advises what to do for Her minor to make itself free from low whims, by reviving divine friendship. Tagore's bird is endlessly happy being together with the Lord, Bložė observes these birds and Kajokas' bird is unhappy, because it doesn't heed to the Supersoul. Kajokas' and Tagore's Supersoul and... [to full text]

Šiame darbe nagrinėjama tikrovės (de)mitologizacija ir tapatybės paieškos Herkaus Kunčiaus romane „Ornamentas” (2002 m.), Kazio Sajos apsakymų rinkinyje „Nebaigtas Žmogus“ (2003 m.) ir Vidmantės Jasukaitytės romane „Kai mes buvome vilkai” (2007 m.). Minėti tekstai išleisti postsovietiniu laikotarpiu, gausiame permainų ir netikrumo. Analizei šie kūriniai pasirinkti todėl, jog šie autoriai – skirtingų kartų atstovai, todėl buvo įdomu apžvelgti, kaip jų kūryboje atskleistos individo tapatybės paieškos, kokius esminius dalykus jie akcentuoja, kaip mitologizuoja ar demitologizuoja tikrovę. Tekstai analizuojami taikant sociokritinį, mitopoetinį metodus ir postkolonializmo sąvokas. Šie metodai pasirinkti atsižvelgus į tekstuose vaizduojamą Lietuvos laikmetį – sovietinę ir postsovietinę Lietuvą. Analizuojant minėtus tekstus svarbus klausimas apie mito apraiškas šiuolaikiniame pasaulyje, jo santykį su šiuolaikiniu žmogumi ir jo gyvenimu. Šiandieninis mokslininkas stengiasi suprasti mitą, jį iššifruoti, nevertina jo kaip švento ir besąlygiškai teisingo pasakojimo. Išsiveržus iš mito jėgos atsiranda galimybė tikrajam švietimo procesui ir susidaryti tapatybei, atitinkamai specializavus mokslą, meną ir moralę. Literatūros tekstai pateikia skaitytojui pramanytus pasaulius, bet kartu ir demistifikuoja tikrovę, kurioje gyvena skaitytojas, išryškindami gyvenamos tikrovės mitologizuotą, fiktyvią prigimtį. Tikrovės transformacijos ir permainos literatūros tekstuose visuomet yra... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / This paper explores the attempts of contemporary Lithuanian prose writers to (de)mythologize reality and construct identity in (post)Soviet Lithuania as manifest in Herkus Kunčius' novel Ornament („Ornamentas“) (2002), Kazys Saja's short story collection Unfinished Man („Nebaigtas žmogus“) (2003), and Vidmantė Jasukaitytė's novel When We Were Wolfs („Kai mes buvome vilkai“) (2007). These texts were published in the post-Soviet period, marked by radical changes and a high degree of uncertainty. They have been chosen as the focus of this analysis because their authors belong to three different generations, which allows for a comparison of the different ways of representing an individual's search for identity as well as of mythologizing or demythologizing reality. The analysis is based on sociocritical and mythopoetic methods and also draws on relevant postcolonial concepts. These methods have been chosen with regard to the setting of the selected texts, namely, Lithuania in the Soviet and post-Soviet periods. In the analysis of the selected texts, the aim is to foreground the significance of the myth in the contemporary world, particularly with regard to the contemporary individual and his/her life. A contemporary scholar seeks to understand and decipher the myth, as opposed to treating it as a sacred truthful story, to be taken for granted. Casting aside the sacred power of the myth allows for a real educational process as well as for a formation of identity if... [to full text]

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The title of our thesis is The Myth of Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe in Michel Tournier's Vendredi ou les limbes du Pacifique and J.M. Coetzee's Foe. We intend to show how Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe story has become a renewed, transformed myth in the fictional works of Michel Tournier and J.M. Coetzee. In the first chapter, we will analyse the attitude of critics to Daniel Defoe, Michel Tournier and J.M. Coetzee's works, and we shall review the pertinent aspects of the three novelists' life. In the second chapter, we will define the concept of myth according to the African and European thinkers. We shall also stress the types, functions and myth's expressions in literary work. In the third chapter, we shall analyse and compare the characters of the three novels following the theory of A.J. Greimas which will be enriched by Evgueni Meletinski. We will divide the characters into protagonists, accessories, opponents, neutrals and absents. Analysis and comparison of the fictional characters will identify two major groups: colonizer and colonized. There will also be an examination of the meaning of characters' names used by the three novelists as well as our opinion on the fictional characters of Defoe, Tournier and Coetzee. Analysis of plot structures will show how the three novels are composed according to a cyclical pattern. The fourth chapter will be devoted to a comparative thematic analysis of solitude, sexuality and education. This will reveal the two faces of each theme as well as the hidden philosophy of the three novelists. And the fifth chapter will identify the narrative and stylistic techniques of the novels. It will show the kind of genre used by Defoe, Toumier and Coetzee as well as the letter and journal. It will also show the types of stylistic aspects of the three novels which are present in the novels. We will examine in the sixth chapter the spaces and the time framework of the three novels. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2007.