Fighting Pestilence in Old Poland as Presented in the 18th Century Żywiec Chronicle

The article presents the problem of dealing with the pestilence (pol. morowe powietrze, “pestilent air”) on the territory of the old Republic of Poland, with particular focus on the Żywiec County in the 16th to 8th century. The paper attempts to answer the questions of how the medics of that time dealt with epidemics, what actions were taken by ordinary people for whom the raging plague was often the result of the interference of demonic forces, and finally, what preventive measures against the plague were proposed to the faithful by the Church. The source for the considerations is the Chronografia albo Dziejopis żywiecki [Chronography or the Żywiec Chronicle], the account of history of the town of Żywiec and the surrounding area covering the years 1400–1728, written by the mayor, Andrzej Komoniecki (1659–1729). The Chronicle brings back an extraordinarily colorful picture of old customs, beliefs and superstitions, as well as paramedical practices, which to our contemporary cultural sensitivity may appear bizarre, gruesome and terrifying. In preparing the article, the author also used extensive literature, primarily in the history of medicine.Among the research methods used in the study, it is worth mentioning, first of all: the explicative method, the method of document research, the method of analysis and criticism of sources, the method of cultural analysis and the method of stylistic-rhetorical analysis. In contemporary socio-cultural reality, the reading of the Chronografia takes on new meanings. In the context of the pandemic that struck the world in the 21st century, the extremely accurate accounts of the Żywiec chronicler seem particularly interesting, as they allow us to compare the attitude of our old Polish ancestors and ourselves in the face of a similar threat. This comparative leads us to believe that some of the measures taken to prevent the spread of infections, such as keeping a distance, limiting the number of participants at funerals, or not letting strangers into towns, are still taken today, while others, such as locking the sick up in huts, setting fire to infected houses, burying plague victims under fences, drowning them in rivers, or desecrating the bodies of the dead suspected of having caused the plague, are now happily forgotten.

The Venetian Empire

Between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries, Venice built an empire embracing a wide territory from the Adriatic coast to islands in the eastern Mediterranean. This huge area had to be safeguarded for both military and economic purposes. A naval and military structure was established in order to support the commercial interests of the Republic. Until the sixteenth century, the economic fortunes of Venice were maintained thanks to her military and financial power; as new powerful and aggressive European competitors emerged, the Venetian merchants coped with increasing difficulties in overseas markets. The scale and scope of new Great Powers (England, Holland, and France) proved to be unattainable to the old republic, which saw its dominion gradually shrink over the last two centuries of her history.

The Force Is Strong with This One (but Not That One): What Makes a Successful Star Wars Video Game Adaptation?

The Star Wars films have probably spawned more video game adaptations than any other franchise. From the 1982 release of The Empire Strikes Back on the Atari 2600 to 2019’s Jedi: Fallen Order, around one hundred officially licensed Star Wars games have been published to date. Inevitably, the quality of these adaptations has varied, ranging from timeless classics such as Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, to such lamentable cash grabs as the Attack of the Clones movie tie-in. But what makes certain ludic adaptations of George Lucas’ space opera more successful than others? To answer this question, the critical response to some of the best-reviewed Star Wars games is analysed here, revealing a number of potential factors to consider, including the audio-visual quality of the games, the attendant story, and aspects of the gameplay. The tension between what constitutes a good game and what makes for a good Star Wars adaptation is also discussed. It is concluded that, while many well-received adaptations share certain characteristics—such as John Williams’ iconic score, a high degree of visual fidelity, and certain mythic story elements—the very best Star Wars games are those which advance the state of the art in video games, while simultaneously evoking something of Lucas’ cinematic saga.

The Middle-Class Glass Ceiling in the Postwar Era

This chapter explores working Paulistanos’ access to good jobs and the limits to mobility in the 1920s. By the end of the Old Republic, laborers and liberal professionals comprised São Paulo’s middle class, and a segmented labor market existed with good jobs in commerce, transportation, and the mechanical sector and bad jobs in the textile sector. Interview transcripts and worker profiles show workers valued a high salary, opportunities for training and advancement, and family employment. Established residents and new residents, who were internal migrants, Eastern Europeans, or immigrants from other Southern Cone ports, vied for these good jobs. Despite tightening immigration regulations and increasing cost of living, the city doubled in size. Not everyone had equal access to these positions: a good appearance and the right connections facilitated entry, placing individuals coming directly from the lavoura, who could not afford the city’s overpriced clothing, women, and Afro-Brazilians increasingly at a disadvantage. The search for housing compounded disadvantages, and the working class increasingly built outward, expanding São Paulo’s footprint into the city’s floodplains. The Great Flood of 1929 demonstrated the precariousness of success and limits of opportunity as flood victims sought refuge in the Hospedaria.

Conclusion

The Old Republic could have been a turning point in Brazilian development, but two important factors stunted that potential. The Hospedaria provided a cheap labor supply by bringing in working families, proving a disincentive to industrialist innovation. World War I cut short standards-of-living advancements and exacerbated working-class divisions. By the end of the Old Republic, access to the middle class was open to some, but closed to most, especially Afro-Brazilian women. These conclusions encourage scholars to revisit World War I’s impact in Latin America; to investigate how state institutions impact development; to consider working-class divisions when analysing Getulio Vargas–era labor reforms; and to include family agency in analyses of the modern era.

Navigating Life and Work in Old Republic São Paulo

This book examines the experiences of São Paulo’s diverse working class as they encountered rapid urbanization and industrialization brought on by the coffee boom during Brazil’s Old Republic (1891–1930). It places the rank-and-file at the center of its analysis to understand how macroeconomic trends connected to daily life and individual and family responses to labor market discrimination, inflation, and fluctuating (im)migration. The study emphasizes the family-centered nature of immigration to São Paulo in comparison to other immigrant cities like Buenos Aires and New York City. It shows how World War I exacerbated existing working-class hierarchies and cut short important standard-of-living advancements. The study demonstrates how despite its intended purpose to funnel agricultural laborers into the coffee interior, the city’s immigrant receiving station also played a decisive role in shaping the city of São Paulo, serving both as a safety net for residents and labor supplier for employers. Methodologically, this book embraces both social and economic history, deconstructing the population along racial, ethnic, national, and gender lines. Combining statistical analysis alongside close readings of immigrant letters provides a nuanced analysis of recently arrived Paulistanos from Italy, Portugal, Germany, Lebanon, and Japan and from northeastern Brazil. The research demonstrates how Portuguese, women, and Afro-Brazilians all faced significant labor market discrimination, impacting individual and family decisions about where to work and live and whether to join labor movements. The approach provides a powerful tool to address archival silences, recover embedded narratives, and understand historic underdevelopment.

The Death of Language: Listening to the Echoes (of Georges Bataille) in "Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II—The Sith Lords"

This article is, firstly, an analysis of Kreia, a character from the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II—The Sith Lords video game, a character whose role in the game is pivotal: the conversations the player has with Kreia serve as the main narrative basis for the entire game experience. Secondly, on the basis of a collection of quotations from these conversations, this article juxtaposes Kreia and Georges Bataille. An intriguing variant of the blind seer trope is revealed in Kreia through studying the game’s poetics, in which a focus on the sense of hearing is discerned. Kreia and Bataille are compared in their understandings of the universe, and a similarity between their ulterior motives is discovered: both of them struggled against something which was considered to be an inextricable element of their respective universes.