Dear colleagues,

We present the new, eighteenth issue of the international online Slavistics journal Philological Studies. Members of this year's main editorial board, in agreement with other editorial boards of the journal, decided to dedicate the first issue to the topic Between trauma and exile, nostalgia, and nostos. The emphasis was on the exploration of the notion of exile as a dominant contemporary theme, on the temporal, cultural and physical alienation of the individual in the postmodern world, the unstable and changing identity in exile, and the problems of memory and oblivion, trauma and nostalgia, time and space, social and spiritual isolation. The aim of this special issue was to enable the analysis of this important and fascinating aspect of contemporary culture and to encourage a multifaceted examination of the concepts of exile and abandonment – geographical, temporal, physical, and conceptual. The topicality of these subjects was affirmed by the large number of papers, containing various theoretical approaches and methodological frameworks. The articles are classified in the six standard sections of the Philological Studies. The second issue of the magazine, although not thematic, unites a number of articles on Slavic literature, languages, folklore, and cultural history. A large number of associates from several European centers took part in its preparation, and we thank them on this occasion.

This issue of the journal was prepared by the editorial board of the Institute for Literature and Arts from Belgrade and was published with the participation and support of its permanent associates: the Institute of Macedonian Literature of the University Ss. Cyril and Methodius in Skopje, the Faculty of Philology of the Perm State National Research University, the Faculty of Philosophy of the University in Zagreb, and the Philosophical Faculty of the University in Ljubljana.