The article integrates the 18th century vampire discourse with problems and approaches of postcolonial studies on the one hand, and with the Galicia research in historical and cultural studies on the other hand. For this purpose, vampirism and postcolonial studies are defined at first, while the change of the vampirism discourse – passing from the revenant image to the one of bloodsucker – is analysed in the next step. Finally it is shown how the vampire’s character and discourse have been adjusted and narratively transformed in 18th-century travel literature on Galicia
This paper proposes an inverse method to obtain accurate measurements of the transient temperature of fluid. A method for unit step and linear rise of temperature is presented. For this purpose, the thermometer housing is modelled as a full cylindrical element (with no inner hole), divided into four control volumes. Using the control volume method, the heat balance equations can be written for each of the nodes for each of the control volumes. Thus, for a known temperature in the middle of the cylindrical element, the distribution of temperature in three nodes and heat flux at the outer surface were obtained. For a known value of the heat transfer coefficient the temperature of the fluid can be calculated using the boundary condition. Additionally, results of experimental research are presented. The research was carried out during the start-up of an experimental installation, which comprises: a steam generator unit, an installation for boiler feed water treatment, a tray-type deaerator, a blow down flashvessel for heat recovery, a steam pressure reduction station, a boiler control system and a steam header made of martensitic high alloy P91 steel. Based on temperature measurements made in the steam header using the inverse method, accurate measurements of the transient temperature of the steam were obtained. The results of the calculations are compared with the real temperature of the steam, which can be determined for a known pressure and enthalpy.
This article, focused principally on the exploration of contingency, the body and disgust in Michał Witkowski’s novel Margot, is also a polemic and a vindication of the book against the barrage of criticism it received from its reviewers. Most of them decided that Margot was a novel about nothing, a haphazard mix of sundry discourses devoid of any linear structure. In fact, several critics blamed the author of giving away both the narrative structure and the plot to capricious contingency. The article takes a fi rm stance against such charges and argues that contingency does not need to be seen as a fault at all. It lies at the heart of the novel and determines the actions of characters, but it plays as important a role in people’s lives outside fi ction. Analysing the ups and down of the main characters (Margot and Wadek Mandarynka), the article explains the function of emotions, the body, the characters’ language and their ideas of sacrum in the legitimization of contingency. A special role in this mechanism is played by disgust. Reactions of disgust are always contingent, or, as Julia Kristeva puts it the abject has the power to terrorize the subject to such extent that he can do nothing but to succumb to contingency. In working out the idea of the contingency of selfhood, the article also draws on Richard Rorty’s approach, and in particular his concept of ironism. The latter is used to classify the main character of Witkowski’s book as a consummate ironist, i.e. a person who tests different languages in which the world can be described in order to pursue his carnal desires. Finally, the article argues that in his novel Witkowski not only brings to light the fortuitous character of the postmodern identity but also creates a heterogeneous language to express it.
en
pl
