Vilnius University Press Scholarly Journals
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Food Tropes in the Portrayal of Saleem Sinai in Rushdie’s Novel “Midnight’s Children”
No full textThe article analyses the subversion of the meanings attributed to food tropes in Rushdie’s novel Midnight’s Children. The research is carried out within the theoretical framework of Postethnic Narrative Criticism, which postulates that literature should not be perceived as an accurate representation of reality outside the world of fiction or interpreted as such; as a result, historical and political contexts should not become key to understanding the narrative. The article analyses the key connotations of the tropes emerging in the description of Saleem Sinai, the protagonist of the novel Midnight’s Children. The portrayal of Saleem highlights the fusion of private and public realities of life, subverting established gender – specific connotations related to the tropes of food. A traditional model of the family undergoes major challenges in the novel, which is symbolised by an increase in the importance of liquid-related food imagery associated with the problem of alienation from the family and an emerging possibility to establish long-term relationships outside it. Diverse religious, political and economic contexts attributed to food tropes in the novel broaden the scope of traditional meanings of food tropes
Johno Steinbecko romano The Grapes of Wrath vertimas sovietmečio Lietuvoje. „Rūstybės kekės‘‘, o kieno rūstybė?
No full textThis paper is part of a series of articles on the censorship of religious motives in Soviet-era Lithuanian translations. It deals with the 1947 Lithuanian translation of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath by Karolis Vairas-Račkauskas, in particular focussing on the translation of the novel’s title. The study makes use of two translation manuscripts, revealing the translator’s choices at different stages of translation. The title of the published translation diverged from the translator’s final choice and replicated the precedent Russian translation. Based on foreign literary criticism, the paper overviews J. Steinbeck’s use of Christian symbols and images in the novel and argues that the modification of the title in translation narrowed the meaning potential of the original, emphasizing the interpretation that suited Soviet ideology. The Soviet-era paratexts by Lithuanian and Russian critics are also discussed, attesting to the effort to shape the reception of the novel for Soviet readers in one particular direction.Straipsnyje per sovietmečio cenzūros prizmę aptariamas Johno Steinbecko romano The Grapes of Wrath 1947 metų Karolio Vairo-Račkausko vertimas į lietuvių kalbą, daugiausia dėmesio skiriant romano pavadinimo vertimui. Atskleidžiami vertėjo pasirinkimai skirtinguose vertimo proceso etapuose. Remiantis užsienio literatūros kritikais, apžvelgiama, kaip Steinbeckas naudoja krikščioniškus simbolius ir įvaizdžius romane ir kaip keičiasi romano interpretavimo galimybės modifikuojant pavadinimą vertime. Kadangi lietuviškasis vertimas buvo atliktas sovietmečiu, jis lyginamas ir su rusiškuoju to laikmečio vertimu, taip pat trumpai aptariami kūrinį pristatantys lietuvių ir rusų kritikų paratekstai
The Relationship of Audit Quality and Leverage on Tax Avoidance
No full textThis study explores the relationship between audit quality, financial leverage, and tax avoidance strategies in publicly traded non-financial firms in Indonesia from 2018 to 2022. Given that taxation is a key source of state revenue, variations in tax regulations and corporate incentives contribute to diverse tax avoidance practices. The research examines three dimensions of audit quality—audit tenure, audit specialization, and audit firm type—and their respective impacts on tax avoidance. Employing a quantitative approach with secondary financial data from 843 IDX-listed firms, the study applies the Feasible Generalized Least Squares (FGLS) method to mitigate heteroscedasticity and autocorrelation in panel data, enhancing the robustness of findings. Results reveal that audit specialization significantly reduces tax avoidance, suggesting that industry expertise among auditors strengthens compliance. However, audit tenure, audit firm type, and leverage exhibit no significant influence. These insights emphasize the need for greater awareness among auditors and policymakers regarding tax avoidance determinants within Indonesia\u27s regulatory landscape. Future research should further explore external factors, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, and additional variables to provide a more comprehensive understanding of corporate tax behavior
Geopolitical Uncertainty and Spending Behavior: Examining the Roles of Consumer Risk Perception, Coping Appraisal, and Resilience
No full textNowadays consumers increasingly navigate uncertainties arising from cross-border conflicts, commercial tensions, and political instability, which pose threats not only to their mental well-being but also financial security. While existing research documents shifts in spending patterns and increased price sensitivity during geopolitical uncertainty, the psychological mechanisms driving these changes remain underexplored. This study applies Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) to examine how psychological factors shape spending patterns during periods of geopolitical uncertainty, with particular attention to the moderating role of individual resilience. Using structural equation modeling (SEM) on survey data from 1000 Lithuanian consumers, we find that both threat appraisals (perceived vulnerability and severity) and coping appraisals (self-efficacy and response efficacy) significantly influence conservative spending behaviors. Notably, individual resilience buffers the impact of perceived vulnerability on spending patterns and enhancing both response and self-efficacy.
Our findings advance understanding of consumer responses to geopolitical uncertainty in three ways: by providing a theoretical framework for individual-level psychological responses, identifying resilience as a key moderating factor, and offering insights from a smaller economy’s perspective. These results have important implications for policymakers and businesses seeking to maintain economic stability during periods of geopolitical turbulence
Senatvės pensijų, socialinių išmokų ir mokesčių pokyčių poveikis gyventojų pajamų pasiskirstymui Lietuvoje (2021–2024)
No full textAssessing the distributional impact of policy reforms is a crucial component of the policy planning and implementation cycle. This paper provides a comprehensive follow-up to the 2021 study on nowcasting poverty and inequality in the context of economic growth and Covid-19 pandemic in Lithuania, prepared by the authors of the present work. Here we extend the analysis for the period of 2021–2024. We examine the impact of recent policy changes to old-age pensions, social benefits and direct taxes following the Covid-19 pandemic, focusing on key distributional indicators, such as the at-risk-of-poverty rate (AROP), income inequality (measured by the inter-quintile ratio (S80/S20) and the Gini coefficient), and a nationally applied measure of absolute poverty. The analysis utilizes the tax-benefit microsimulation model EUROMOD. The results obtained indicate a consistent decline in AROP and income inequality in Lithuania between 2021 and 2024, primarily due to adjustments in old-age pensions, rather than changes in direct taxes, social insurance contributions or other social benefits. However, these adjustments only partially mitigate the effects of high inflation. As a result, the absolute poverty rate is estimated to exceed its 2021 levels by 2–4 percentage points between 2022 and 2024.Politikos reformų paskirstymo poveikio įvertinimas gyventojų pajamoms yra esminė politikos planavimo ir įgyvendinimo ciklo dalis. Šiame darbe pateikiamas išsamus 2021 m. autorių atlikto tyrimo, dėl skurdo ir nelygybės prognozavimo Lietuvos ekonomikos augimo ir Covid-19 pandemijos kontekste, tęsinys. Nauja analizė yra atlikta 2021--2024 m. laikotarpiui. Analizuojamas naujausių senatvės pensijų, kitų socialinių išmokų ir gyventojų pajamų mokesčio pokyčių poveikis po Covid-19 pandemijos, sutelkiant dėmesį į pagrindinius pajamų pasiskirstymo rodiklius, tokius kaip skurdo rizikos lygis, pajamų nelygybė (matuojama pagal kvintilinį santykį (S80/S20) ir Gini koeficientą) ir nacionalinis absoliutaus skurdo lygis. Analizei naudojamas mokesčių-išmokų mikrosimuliacinis modelis EUROMOD. Rezultatai rodo nuoseklų santykinio skurdo ir pajamų nelygybės mažėjimą Lietuvoje 2021–2024 m., visų pirma dėl senatvės pensijų ir kitų piniginių socialinių išmokų pokyčių, o ne dėl įgyvendintų pokyčių gyventojų pajamų mokesčio srityje. Tačiau 2021–2024 m. įvykę mokesčių-išmokų pokyčiai tik iš dalies sušvelnina didelės infliacijos poveikį, su kuriuo Lietuva susidūrė pastaraisiais metais. To pasekoje, absoliutaus skurdo lygis 2022–2024 m. viršys 2021 m. lygį 2–4 procentiniais punktais
Eigenvalue problems for a k-Hessian-type equation
No full textIn this work, we focus on the eigenvalue problem for a class of k-Hessian-type equations. Under some suitable assumptions, we first determine the intervals of the parameter for the existence of nontrivial radial solutions. To this aim, we apply the eigenvalue theory and Jensen inequality. Finally, the behavior of the solutions with respect to the parameter is analyzed via Guo’s fixed point theorem
On stability and convergence of difference schemes for one class of parabolic equations with nonlocal condition
No full textIn this paper, we construct and analyze the finite-difference method for a two-dimensional nonlinear parabolic equation with nonlocal boundary condition. The main objective of this paper is to investigate the stability and convergence of the difference scheme in the maximum norm. We provide some approaches for estimating the error of the solution. In our approach, the assumption of the validity of the maximum principle is not required. The assumption is changed to a weaker one: the difference problem’s matrix is the M-matrix. We present numerical experiments to illustrate and supplement theoretical results
On a novel semigroup of enriched Chatterjea-type mappings in Banach spaces with a numerical experiment
No full textRecently in [V. Berinde and M. Păcurar, Approximating fixed points of enriched Chatterjea contractions by Krasnoselskij iterative algorithm in Banach spaces, J. Fixed Point Theory Appl., 23(4):66, 2021], using the technique of enrichment of contractive mappings by Krasnoselskij averaging, Berinde and Păcurar introduced a new type of mappings, called enriched Chatterjea-type mappings. The main aim of this article is to introduce a new semigroup of enriched Chatterjea-type mappings. We also establish weak and strong convergence results for enriched Chatterjea-type semigroups using a novel iterative process in uniformly convex Banach spaces. To support the theoretical results, we conduct numerical experiments demonstrating the convergence behavior of the iterative scheme under various initial conditions and control sequences. The findings confirm exponential convergence and highlight the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed method for common fixed point approximation