Abstract The aim of this article is to present the interaction between the history of lesbian and gay culture and its identity on the one hand, and the connection between the visual art or visual culture on the other hand. This essay endeavors to interpret the different meanings attached to sexual identities by examining the diverse artistic activities of a variety of artists: both men and women (e.g. Steven Cohen, Clive van den Berg, Andrew Verster, Nicolas Hlobo, Jean Brundrit, Zanele Muholi). Employing an intersectional analytical approach, the article shows that the identity of art is constructed alongside a person’s multiple identities, such as race, gender, family ties, religion and class. The main research question is whether in today’s visual art originating from South Africa, which is characterized by a hegemony of heterosexual stereotypes, there is a significant place for gender oriented art?

Abstract I introduce the subject of my research interest in South Africa - the australopithecines - a group of bipedal, small-brained and large-toothed creatures from the Plio-Pleistocene, from which the human genus arose. I then briefly discuss various topics of my research, concerning: (1) Taxonomic status and morphological description of the extinct human relative from the Kromdraai site (Australopithecus robustus); (2) Graphic reconstruction of the partial skull from Kromdraai - specimen numbered TM 1517; (3) Assessment of size sexual dimorphism of the South African australopithecines (Australopithecus robustus and Australopithecus africanus), which, in terms of facial features, was pronounced - being almost gorilla-sized; (4) Social behavior of a fossil hominid species from around 2 million years ago, which, in terms of the social structure, was most likely a multimale-multifemale one; and (5) An event from the history of paleoanthropology, concerning the content of the 1924/25 photographs of the Taung Child (Australopithecus africanus) - the first australopithecine skull discovered.

Abstract In April 1877 The South African Republic was annexed by the British Empire. This was a part of a wider scheme to unify the sub-continent under the British rule. The story is well known. Many works deals with the motives of Lord Carnarvon and other British decision-makers. Much less deals with the question of immediate Boer reaction, or to be exact, the reasons behind their inaction. This article deals with this problem. Tries to evaluate the attitudes of both, the British and the Boers, and to show why the Transvaal Boers mostly ignored the annexation declaration? This text is just an excursion into field which demands much wider and more detailed studies.

Abstract Dutch, a West-Germanic language, is spoken by approximately 23 million people worldwide. In Europe, it is the language of all of the Netherlands and the northern part of Belgium, called Flanders. It is often said that since the Dutch and the Flemish speak Dutch differently, they in fact speak two different languages - Netherlandic Dutch and Belgian Dutch (Flemish). Linguists, however, argue they are not necessarily two separate languages but rather two varieties - a Netherlandic and a Belgian variety - of the same language, Dutch. Since there are a substantial number of grammatical, lexical, phonetic and even spelling differences between Belgian and Netherlandic Dutch, the question is whether Dutch is a pluricentric language with two centres of standardization or not. By explaining the socio-historical background of the Dutch language and giving a comprehensive overview of the differences between Netherlandic and Belgian Dutch, this article attempts to answer the aforementioned (research) question.

Abstract Professor Andrzej Borowski from the Jagiellonian University, whose 70 th anniversary we celebrate this year, is a very well known scholar and literature historian, specialised in Old Polish Literature (Middle Ages, Renaissance and Baroque) - and with a background from Classical studies. A lesser known fact is that he also is a scholar active in the field of the Netherlandish (Dutch and Flemish) literature and culture: as author of numerous books and articles about (South) Netherlandish figures from the 16 th and 17 th century, as supervisor of numerous dissertations or habilitations in the field of the Netherlandish literature and as an inspiring personality in the field of the Netherlandish studies at Polish universities. He can indeed be seen as the Spiritus Litterarum Neerlandicorum in Poland.

Abstract Polish language contains hundreds of loan words from Dutch. They are rooted so firmly that they are capable of creating new words. This article presents the most common word-formation phenomena involving Dutch loan words. It also highlights their ability to form phrasemes and transfer meanings.

Abstract The ‘Dutch’ colonisation in Poland, which took place between the 16 th and the 19 th century, left a clear architectural and spatial mark in the Polish countryside. The newcomers, originally from the Low Countries and later from Germany and other parts of Europe, created independent communities which did not establish strong ties with adjacent villages. Moreover, contrary to autochthonic peasants, the colonists enjoyed freedom and a relatively high social status and were often rather wealthy. Hence their villages and farmsteads differed from local ones being generally speaking more representative. It has often been assumed than the ‘Dutch’ settlements in Poland shared more similarities with the Dutch or Frisian countryside than with the neighbouring villages and that both the settlements as well as the farmhouses differed substantially from local building traditions. This paper explores how much the ‘Dutch’ villages and farms were in fact distinguishable from their local counterparts and to what extent they coincided with building traditions in the Low Countries and in Germany.

Abstract In this ongoing research we are going to have a look at the starting point for the burgeoning national feelings with two smaller nations: the Slovak and the Flemish national movement. Building on the methodological framework of nationalism researcher Miroslav Hroch, one can discern a threefold stage - model in the national movements of the smaller nations in Europe, which is a thesis still needing more empirical evidence. This article attempts to compare at least one aspect of early nineteenth-century nation - building: How were the literary societies functioning in both national movements? We are working in a time scope of the first half of the 19 th century and ask ourselves the questions: until which extend reached literary societies? What was their impact? Which people were their readers, their public? Was their language, and their language-spreading aim representative for the whole nation? What similarities and differences can be found in Flanders and Slovakia in this field? Important support can be obtained from the NISE - network, which attempts to create a database on a European scale in order to stimulate and optimize comparative and transnational research on nation building.

Abstract The article gives a brief ‘idea history’ of Hesperian melancholy a.k.a. Hesperian depression, the fleeting state of dejection that some humans and animals experience at dusk. The term was apparently coined by the South African poet and naturalist Eugene Marais (1871-1936), who noticed the phenomenon during his field observations of baboons. Marais' observations of primates were in the first place an attempt to shed more light on the evolutionary roots of the human psyche and its afflictions - not in the least his own. A personal focus seems probable in his notes on the use of euphoria-inducing substances among animals and humans, which are an evident reflection of his own morphine addiction; but also in his writings about Hesperian depression. During his lifetime, Marais only published about Hesperian depression twice, once in a very concise article in English, and once in more elaborate form in Afrikaans. The term ‘Hesperian depression’ only became more current when his manuscript on primate behaviour, The Soul of the Ape, was posthumously published in 1963. Since then, the term and its description sometimes appear in (popular) publications of paleobiologists and scholars of the evolution of human behaviour. In psychology and psychiatry, the term was introduced by the eminent American psychoanalyst William G. Niederlander, who presented it in a 1971 article in Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association as an idea of his own. It is evident, however, that he took his cue from Marais, who thus was posthumously plagiarized.