The Second World War had a major impact on Estonian society and culture. Estonia was one of the states that lost its independence and Estonian literature was split into two parts: Soviet Estonian literature and Estonian exile literature. These were absolutely different, notably in the second half of the 1940s and in the first half of the 1950s. Literature was an ideological weapon in Soviet Estonia, but exile literature concentrated on the question of nationality and the fate of Estonians. The article analyses Estonian prose fiction depicting the events of the Second World War, concentrating on the depiction of Russians, using the branch of comparative literature called imagology, or image studies. The period under observation is the second half of the 1940s and the 1950s. Estonian exile literature concentrates on the traumatic historical events and the sufferings of Estonians, while Soviet Estonian literature emphasized the ideological aspect; it was mandatory to praise everything Soviet and / or Russian. Neither in Soviet Estonian literature nor in Estonian exile literature is the psychological aspect present in the depiction of Russians. The role of Russians in the two literatures is diametrically opposed: in exile literature they are seen as the enemy responsible for the loss of independence, but in Soviet Estonian literature they are seen as heroes who helped to liberate Estonia from the Nazis. The majority of the Russian characters depicted are soldiers. In Estonian exile literature they are depicted as extremely negative, while in Soviet Estonian literature the Russians are seen as extremely positive. Historical events and the socio-political background played crucial roles in the development of these images.

This article asks the questions: what are the points of semblance between arts and philosophy? How is it possible to reflect them as one moment of creative event? For answering this question first of all, it discusses the clash between the logic and creativity in meeting of philosophy and arts and secondly – the clash between the word and the image, invented by the artist René Magritte and the philosopher Michel Foucault. It returns to the classical disagreement of Nietzsche with Socrates about the dominance of logic over creativity and asks the question: what side is taken by Gilles Deleuze (1925–1995) and Félix Guattari (1930–1992) in this discussion. It seems they reconcile logic with creativity, saying that art is no correlative, no supplement to scientific understanding, that the three great forms of thought – art, science, and philosophy, – are three independent routes, each specific and each as direct as the others. On the other hand, interpreting Kant Deleuze notices the discord between imagination-understanding and reason and following the insights of Antonin Artaud he discerns the new type of a thought as a possible territory-in-between for word and image.

The main purpose of this paper is to present Japanese culture and its image as unique, and treat these unique features as highlighting some common or universal characteristics and contributing to better understanding of any given culture. Japanese culture is often described as unique and completely different from any other culturies, but what is the main difference that makes Japanese culture and their people different from others? And if there is or was such a difference, what function does it perform?[...].

Despite of seemingly unisex fashion and beauty requirements from men and women in contemporary Japan, the change of traditional views about gender roles in family and society progersses slowly. This article aims to examine the perceptions of masculinity and femininity among young Japanese people by covering two aspects of gender image: appearance and cultural /social expectations. The article is based on empirical research, which includes results of 12 in-depth interviews and 80 questionnaires aimed at young Tokyo people (18-25 years old). The research contributes to further academic study of gender image development in Japan, as well as to the deeper understanding about the aspects of contemporary Japanese gender role perception that hinders the progress in achieving egalitarian society.

In this paper I would like to touch upon some of the problems in Japanese urbanities first in order to illustrate why the Japanese government is taking active steps in environmental protection and why Japan could be interested in cooperation projects in this field. Next, I would like to draw a few examples how the Japanese government, producers and local activists are putting efforts in nature protection. Finally, I will give some ideas about how both nations could cooperate in this field, particularly in the industry of eco-tourism.

In the past, Etsu Inagaki Sugimoto (1872-1950) was one of 12 people, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, etc. who appear in some American schoolbooks. According to her obituary in the New York Times, “A Daughter of the Samurai was continuously the most successful book of non-fiction.”

The article explores the means of gender image construction in Japanese pornographic animation (hentai anime). Alongside other genres of Japanese animation, during the last decades hentai anime has gained enormous popularity all over the world. Gender as a category is especially emphasised in the animation of sexually explicit content, therefore hentai anime plays an important role as a visual medium representing the images of Japanese masculinity and femininity on the international level. Based on five representative hentai anime films of the ‘fantasy’ subgenre, the article provides an overview of the ‘male gaze’ and the ‘female gaze’ viewing perspectives in Japanese pornographic anime, semiotic means of masculine and feminine body image construction, as well as the use of time and space and its significance to the perception of the represented gender images.