Sociálne a politické analýzy 1-2014

E-book

Zuzana Buráková - Petra Filipová

The canon of American literature has undergone constant revision with many authors who were long excluded from wider recognition now being accepted as significant figures. With the emergence of postcolonial and ethnic studies after the 1960s, the diversity of the literary canon has become greater than ever, and we can now see American literature as remarkably distinctive in this respect.

The question of how to define ethnicity and how far an immigrant should go to preserve their ethnic heritage have always been addressed by writers, together with larger issues such as the definition of national identity and national literature, and where we should draw the lines between local and global identities. We understand that a single course in American ethnic literature cannot hope to answer all these complex questions, but we firmly believe that discussing these questions in classes can help us to be more understanding and tolerant of ethnic diversity.

For this reason, the main aim of this textbook is to provide an interdisciplinary introduction to American ethnic literatures with an emphasis on their historical and cultural background, to expand students’ knowledge of American literatures and cultures at the master’s level and familiarize them with specific features of ethnic literatures in the contemporary USA. The textbook contains information on Native American, African American, Asian American, Jewish American, and Hispanic American literature, history and culture.

Download e-book for free (pdf)

E-book

Jana Balegová

University textbook „Cursus Latinus - textbook“ is intended for students of the study program Latin language and literature. It is divided into „Introduction“ and 37 lessons. The content of lessons is morphology, sentence syntax and selected phenomena of case syntax of the Latin language. Each of the lessons contains a grammatical explanation, followed by sentences designed to demonstrate the forms of grammatical phenomena and the required vocabulary (Dictionary). Using these examples, students learn the basic principles of translation from Latin into Slovak and from Slovak into Latin. The textbook also includes a Latin-Slovak dictionary containing the entire vocabulary used in the textbook. The „Cursus Latinus - textbook“ is intended for the interpretation of grammar and the acquisition of grammatical phenomena of the Latin language under the guidance of the teacher. A parallel exercise book (Cursus Latinus – exercise book) is used to practice Latin grammar at home. The exercise book includes a key to the exercises and a Latin-Slovak dictionary containing vocabulary from the textbook and the exercise book. University textbook „Cursus Latinus - textbook“ is available electronically in PDF format.

Download the e-book for free  (pdf)

E-book

Soňa Lovašová

If we were to conduct a study on the popularity of subjects among social work students, the subjects of Research Methodology and Statistics would likely rank low on the list. It is precisely the lack of popularity of research methodology among students that led to the preparation of this textbook. The stylistic approach of this text was chosen with the intention of introducing the fundamentals of methodology to students encountering it for the first time, without alienating methodologists. The text primarily serves as a teaching aid for the course "Exercise in Research Methodology" and the seminars "Bachelor Thesis Seminar" and "Master's Thesis Seminar." Throughout the entire textbook, examples and case studies are interwoven and visually highlighted. The text endeavors to address the fundamental question that is key to motivating and understanding the essence of research methodology: why is research necessary for social workers? The aim of the textbook is to facilitate students' preparation for the Research Methodology course and to enhance their understanding of the basics of research methodology.

Download the e-book for free(pdf)

E-book

Peter Getlík

The main goal of the monograph "Moving Towards Cognitive Adaptation Studies: Adaptation as Play" was to orient current research in adaptation studies towards the empirically responsible cognitive branch of non-radical constructivism.

This intention results from the rapid progressive differentiation of adaptation studies research, which has mainly manifested itself in this area in the last two decades. With the model of adaptation as play in a cognitive-scientific perspective, author provides the possibility of predicting the nature (also in a broader sense) of the experience of adaptation. Since the form of this experience significantly shapes the products of the adaptation process into their final form, the model of adaptation as play can be applied even in the interpretation of individual adaptations. In the monograph, the author synthesized the model of adaptation as play based on the knowledge of various disciplines. In the field of cognitive sciences, he saw help from the starting points of philosophy, linguistics, informatics, psychology, anthropology, biology and neuroscience – especially affective neuroscience, which also deals with the emotional dimension of the play.

In the intersection with the essential interdisciplinary components of adaptation research, he also used the knowledge of classical and cognitive variations of literary science, film science (also theatrology) and media studies to a large extent. Consistent with other similar results of cognitive sciences, it turns out that even seemingly serious adaptations, like in many aspects of our culture, have a ludic base.

Download the e-book for free  (pdf)