摘要：Peter Heller’s The Dog Stars is a fascinating meditation of post-apocalyptic *** in a dismal world devastated by a devastating virus,the story centers on the protagonist Hig’s experience and response as he navigates a terrain devoid of human connection and *** paper investigates the complexities of loneliness,focusing on Hig’s response to the loss of his wife and ***,it delves into the transformational power of companionship,including Hig’s link with his dog Jasper and his ultimate connection with Cima and her *** fragmented narrative style of the novel mirrors Hig’s internal struggle,offering a raw and intimate portrayal of his journey towards reconnection and *** the novel,Heller offers his profound thinking on the significance of connection in overcoming even post-apocalyptic loneliness.

摘要：Gudmundsson＇s Angels of the Universe （Englaralheimsins, 1993） stages a poetic psychodrama weaving Shakespeare＇s characters Richard IlI and Macbeth into the lives of the first-person narrator Paul and his friend Viktor who are undergoing intensive drug treatment at the Klepp hospital in Reykjavik. Viktor starts impersonating Richard III prior to the treatment at Klepp. While enrolled at an English university he assumes the physical and mental guise of Richard, memorizing whole scenes from the play and speaking lines out loud. At some point his perfect English shifts to perfect German as he merges Richard III with Adolf Hitler in his mind. Viktor thus turns the two despots into what Rene Girard in his work Deceit, Desire and the Novel calls the mediator. Girard explores ＂triangular＂ desire in Cervantes＇ knight-errant Don Quixote whose mediator Amadis chooses the objects of the knight＇s desire. With Dostoyevsky external mediation becomes internal mediation whose main features are impotence and alienation. Viktor exhibits these symptoms as a negative, inverted form of the mediator has usurped his personality while relegating the objects of his desire to the background. There are no objects any more. He is alone. The article aims to disclose the complex cultural and sociopsychological reasons for exclusi6n and to explore the poetic dimensi6n of the novel, indicating thst poetry is capable of transcending the limits imposed by society.

摘要：Objectives The aim of this study was to analyze the psychometric properties(reliability and validity)of the Social Isolation Scale(SIS)in a sample of Portuguese community-dwelling older *** A transversal descriptive study was carried out with a convenience sample of 250 community-dwelling older adults(≥65 years).The survey comprised a sociodemographic questionnaire,SIS,Geriatric Depression Scale-4(GDS-4),6-item Lubben Social Network Scale(LSNS-6),a loneliness self-assessment question,and Satisfaction with Life Scale(SWLS).Construct validity(confirmatory factor analysis)and convergent validity were analyzed,and ISI internal reliability(composite reliability),external reliability(test-retest,intraclass correlation coefficient)and inter-rater reliability(Cohen’s kappa coefficient)were *** Confirmatory factor analysis showed a two-factor model with an excellent index of *** SIS showed significant correlations with LSNS-6(rs=0.47),SWLS(rs=0.26),the loneliness self-assessment question(rs=0.35),and GDS-4(rs=−0.16).SIS composite reliability was good(0.708).The inter-class correlation coefficient varied from 0.84 to *** Cohen’s kappa coefficient ranged from 0.936 to *** SIS has been shown to be a valid and reliable instrument for assessing social isolation among Portuguese community-dwelling older *** professionals,particularly nurses working in community settings,can use SIS to assess social isolation in older adults to design,implement,and evaluate interventions.