Adept Use Research Articles

Madame de Maintenon: une femme de lettres éd. par Christine Mongenot, Marie-Emmanuelle Plagnol-Diéval

Reviews 227 “perfect conjugation of woman and writer through visual emphasis on her domestic fealty”[82]); of the disjunction between the women’s press and mainstream media; of the efforts to make the “chères lectrices” feel like collaborators rather than observers; and especially of the “interactive, almost symbiotic relationship” (27) between the magazines and popular women’s novels such as Marcelle Tinayre’s La rebelle and Louise Marie Compain’s L’un vers l’autre, both “feminist fables” (131) from which a rather paradoxical feminism emerges. Just how expertly Mesch navigates the “contradictory ideological terrain” of Belle Époque literary feminism, where a selfdeclared feminist can call her partner “master” if doing so might reconcile love, marriage, feminism, and femininity without requiring a choice between them (138) cannot be over-emphasized. In her conclusion Mesch grapples with a sobering reality: changes that seemed so nigh during the magazines’ heyday (suffrage, a more equal legal definition of marriage, the“academization”of women) would not be achieved for decades. But she argues convincingly for the significance of the magazines’“dreaming” and the momentous ideological shift it represents (187). Femina and La Vie Heureuse stand, in the final analysis, as potent reminders of the need to“look beyond traditional historical markers of change [...] in order to recognize other kinds of signs of social progress” (187). Beautifully written and lavishly illustrated, Having it All is also remarkably timely: as the magazines beckoning from grocery check-out stands demonstrate, we still worship celebrities, just as we continue to debate whether women can be both“feminine”and“feminist”and to strive for a work-life balance—that“holy grail of achieving women to this day”(28) that first became a possibility thanks to the magazines showcased here. University of Arkansas Hope Christiansen Mongenot, Christine, et Marie-Emmanuelle Plagnol-Diéval, éd. Madame de Maintenon: une femme de lettres. Rennes: PU de Rennes, 2012. ISBN 978-2-75352100 -1. Pp. 322. 17 a. A new era in critical studies on Françoise d’Aubigné, Marquise de Maintenon (1635–1719), is evidenced in this collection of eighteen articles by critics who, in large part, have availed themselves of the first ever complete and reliable edition of Maintenon’s correspondence in seven volumes by Champion. While the majority of studies to date on Maintenon have focused on her life and educational writings, the articles in this collection analyze her epistolary rhetoric and transnational reception. Part one examines the diversity of Maintenon’s epistolary style and her adept use of the lettre d’amitié to contemporaries such as Mme de Caylus and Mme de Dangeau (Marianne Charrier-Vozel), and the letter of compliment to Mme des Ursins (Philippe Hourcade), as well as the lettre d’affaires in the administration of her property of Maintenon (Dominique Picco). Religious inflection is never far given the ascetic dimension of her letters, their sobriety and simplicity, which Yolanda Viñas del Palacio links to Maintenon’s ethos of contrariété, the need for self-sacrifice as a form of expiation for the king’s favor and of self-protection against ever-present calumny. Indeed, the two central notions underlying Maintenon’s epistolary lexicon are those of droiture of mind, soul, and body, and verticalité expressed through absolute obedience and submission to earthly authorities (Stéphanie Miech). Further contributions on Maintenon’s epistolary rhetoric explore her tense relations with church figures such as Fénélon (Hans Bots, Pauline Chaduc) and the Cardinal de Noailles (André Blanc); Maintenon walked a tightrope in trying to assert her influence and protect her reputation , playing with these powerful figures a‘game of cat and mouse’(André Blanc). The second part examines the reception and provenance of Maintenon’s letters, beginning with how her letters came into the possession of La Beaumelle who published three editions in the 1750s (Claudette Fortuny and Claude Lauriol).While some eighteenthand nineteenth-century anthologies and academic textbooks containing a selection of Maintenon’s letters privilege her ‘style simple’ and moralizing nature (Jean-Noël Pascal),others repeat the acerbic criticisms of La Beaumelle and the Duc de Saint-Simon concerning Maintenon’s ‘negative’ influence on Louis XIV and his court (Béatrice Bomel...

Pamphlets, Great Britain, and the Bestandstwisten: The Use of British Sources in the Dutch Disputes of the 1610s

One of the main weapons to gain public support during the Dutch religious and political disputes of the 1610s was the cheap, typically short, pamphlet. These pamphlets set forth authors’ positions on topics such as proper church-state relations and predestination, using language that could be easily understood by the average person. In producing these works, Dutch pamphleteers repeatedly chose to use British sources, and a large number of these pamphlets were direct translations of British works, ranging from letters written by King James and his advisors to governmental decrees to religious works. Even those pamphlets that were not direct translations frequently utilized British authors and examples when setting forth their arguments. While these Dutch translations provided accurate renderings of the original text, pamphleteers frequently used a new ‘Foreword’ or even a pamphlet’s title to highlight a beneficial argument or shade a reader’s interpretation of it. Dutch pamphlets referring to British figures or examples made equally adept use of their sources. Pamphleteers also utilized other foreign sources, but there was a heavier recourse to British texts than to any other. Indeed, no major subject was debated in the pamphlet war of the 1610s without repeated references to them.

Commentary

Klingner and Boardman (this issue) offer a cogent and compelling argument for opening the door for the acceptance and use of mixed methods in special education research. Self-identifying as pragmatists, they embody this paradigmatic view by focusing on the utility, efficacy, and accuracy of mixed methods, an argument that should appeal to the values and logic of many special education researchers. In my view, the authors chose a smart rhetorical strategy because utility, efficacy, and accuracy map broadly to reliability and validity. And, in this field, methodologies that are thought to increase a work's reliability and validity are especially valuable in raising the quality and quantity of other highly valued fruits of the labor of research (i.e., results-based processes, outcomes, and evidence). To illustrate their point, Klingner and Boardman discuss the inadequate and overly simplistic conceptualizations of participants' sociodemographic characteristics, contributing to a static view of culture in reading intervention research. Here, the authors argue convincingly that the use of mixed methods can help researchers focus on multiple and multilayered research questions that also include the collection and analysis of data that capture cultural practices, institutional cultures, and context. In some ways, when it comes to mixed methods, I am a choir member to whom Klingner and Boardman preach. I have used mixed methods and do not need to be convinced of their methodological value. Their both/and argument also appeals to me because I find the qual/quant dichotomy mind-numbing and unproductive. I wholeheartedly agree with the underlying argument the authors posit: The overemphasis on randomized control experiments in special education research minimizes our adept use of a variety of research strategies, particularly when we address questions about inequity and cultural and linguistic diversity. Unfortunately, narrow views of what counts as research also have potentially negative and far-reaching consequences in the lives of scholars who value innovation and other ways of knowing as they problematize issues and solutions. If reviewers categorically reject studies with few participants or interpretivist designs and analyses, dissemination of a broad spectrum of research is effectively halted. For researchers, who often work under the demand of high productivity measured by numbers of publications in top-tier journals, such reviewing practices could prevent them from reaching a wide audience, receiving grants, and/or becoming tenured. Expanding the scope of research approaches, Klingner and Broadman argue, is closely connected to broader issues of diversity. Here I am extending their argument to include scholars who are themselves representative in some way of (dis)ability, racial/ethnic, linguistic, and other dimensions of diversity. Although it is important not to overgeneralize, a plethora of examples from the larger field of education research illustrates the point that for scholars who have experienced marginalization and been academically successful, acknowledging multiple realities and using the tools of interpretivism are essential and defining characteristics of their scholarly contributions (for examples, see Delpit, 1995; Ladson-Billings, 1995; Trueba, 1999; Valenzuela, 1999). In no way should my point be interpreted to mean that members of the dominant group are not also drawn to interpretivist methodologies, or that scholars who have experienced marginalization never embrace positivistic methodologies. In fact, the influence of researcher-identities likely waxes and wanes as we pursue opportunities to study our field (Fine, Weis, Weseen, & Wong, 2003). Using mixed methods research allows us to escape the false dichotomy of interpretivism--positivism while simultaneously expanding the community of scholars, and thus the knowledge we generate. Equally important, mixed-methods research provides an opportunity to expand our thinking, too. …

Raising explicitness through self-repair in English as a lingua franca

A key feature of interaction in English as a lingua franca (ELF) is diversity – in the varieties of English spoken, the levels of proficiency displayed and the cultural norms and communicative styles of the participants – which can pose challenges to the process of achieving shared understanding in talk. Research into ELF, however, shows that participants make adept use of interactional practices to both pre-empt and resolve problems of understanding. Additionally, speakers use various “explicitness strategies” ( Mauranen, 2007) to enhance the clarity of utterances and promote the comprehensibility of speech. This paper examines further the notion of raising explicitness of expression by looking at some of the self-repair practices of speakers using ELF. Using conversation analysis procedures, 15 h of audio-recorded naturally occurring ELF conversations of international graduate students were analyzed for this purpose. Instances of self-initiated repair were examined to identify the types of repair performed and the kinds of trouble addressed. The results show that in addition to correcting, the participants employ a variety of self-repair practices that make utterances explicit and improve communicative clarity. The speakers’ meticulous attention to clarity and explicitness possibly stems from an awareness of the precarious nature of the ELF situation.

Joseph Kamaru’s Music:Cutting with "Words, Not Swords"

With a detailed analysis of Joseph Kamaru, his music and the adept use and knowledge of the Gĩkũyũ language and traditions in his songs, this paper explores the ambiguity of the musician alongside the contradictions of postcolonial Kenya. Discussing Kamaru, the famous Gĩkũyũ musician in Kenya, the paper examines how musicians are always caught up in the webs of ambiguities and contradictions of the postcolony. The argument is that music is not always a site of subversion, but that the moment of production of a certain piece plays a crucial role. Kamaru’s character vacillates between two extremes – as a praise singer and as a critic to the same regime in a period of six years. However, I argue that everyday living is always about negotiating and re-negotiating identities as well as shifting goalposts.

Achieving mutual understanding in world Englishes

ABSTRACT: Given the rapid growth in international contacts worldwide, English is increasingly becoming the chosen medium to facilitate communication among people of diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds. However, the question remains as to how non‐native speakers of English of varying levels of proficiency, using different varieties of English, are able to arrive at mutual understanding in this medium. The paper addresses this question by offering some insights into the process of negotiating understanding in English as a lingua franca and the interactional procedures used in this regard. Fifteen hours of transcribed audio recordings of naturally occurring spoken interactions in English as a lingua franca (ELF), between participants of a range of first language and cultural backgrounds, were examined using conversation analytic procedures. Several interactional practices were identified as the ones utilized in the process of constructing shared understanding, namely repetition, paraphrase and various confirmation and clarification procedures. These procedures are strategically employed by both speaker and recipient as warranted by the local context to address problems of understanding when they occur. Thus, regardless of the participants’ use of different varieties of English at varying levels of competency, communication is successful as the participants make skilful and adept use of common, shared interactional practices to arrive at mutual understanding.

Alberti's Paradigm

AbstractCould the advent of building information modelling (BIM) see the architect's status return to that of his medieval counterpart, the master builder? Guest‐editor Richard Garber examines the work of Filippo Brunelleschi, who did the seemingly impossible in early 15th‐century Florence by spanning the massive opening of the dome of Santa Maria del Fiore, the city's cathedral, through an adept use of physical models. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The Concise Köchel (review)

Reviewed by: The Concise Köchel David J. Eshelman The Concise Köchel. By Normand Chaurette . Translated by Linda Gaboriau . Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2005; pp. 94. $11.95 paper. Translator Linda Gaboriau brings to the English-speaking world some of the most challenging and innovative plays from the contemporary drama of Quebec. One of her more recent projects is The Concise Köchel, her translation of Le Petit Köchel by Normand Chaurette. This play is a new exploration of the metatheatrical themes for which this author is famous. His experiments in metatheatre date back to his 1981 work, Provincetown Playhouse, July 1919. In this play, characters actually murder a child during a play, when they believe that they are merely acting out the murder. This self-conscious attention to the performance event coincides with theories of metatheatre proposed by Lionel Abel. By drawing attention to self-conscious performance—and by blurring the boundaries between the real and the theatrical—Chaurette calls into question the very nature of performance itself. The Concise Köchel similarly explores metatheatre and child murder. However, this more recent play is based around an almost religious ritual, rather than a more typical theatre event (a play in a playhouse). The most distinguishing feature of this play, though, is Chaurette's adept use of the theme of repeating, reflected in the characters, plot structure, and language. According to the Centre des auteurs dramatiques (the playwrights' guild of Quebec), Le Petit Köchel is Chaurette's newest play. It follows the difficult decision of two sets of sisters: Lili and Cecile Motherwell, musicians, and Anne and Irene Brunswick, purportedly musicologists who serve as the Motherwells' patrons. These four women live in an alternate reality, a "world of music," that isolates them from other people and yet comforts them through its endless rituals of practice and repeating. Somewhere in the past, though, one of them dropped the rigor of rehearsing and gave birth to a son. The text never specifies whose son the young man is; however, he knows from birth that he comes second to Mozart. Guilt over parental neglect leads the women to be overly indulgent, even to the point of providing their son with two young women to cannibalize. The play ostensibly begins on Halloween, shortly after the murder of the two young women, when the house has begun to smell and the crime can no longer be hidden. The young man has promised his mothers that he will hang himself. This decision is greeted with relief by the women, who view it as a way to be rid of both crime and criminal and to keep intact their world of music. However, before he will hang himself, he demands a promise: the [End Page 535] mothers must eat his body after he is dead. The young man then makes an even more taxing demand: after he has been eaten, he will require that the women reenact, again and again, the evening of his death. The play's ending makes for shocking theatre. Before he kills himself, the son leaves provisions for the time when the women will no longer have his corpse left at their reenactments; at that point, they must burn a page from their Mozart book, "The Concise Köchel," one page per performance. When the audience sees Irene Brunswick burn a page at the end of the play, it becomes apparent that the events just witnessed happened long ago, that the actions were in fact a reenactment, and that the women did carry through with their gruesome promise and are now confined to an endless prison of repeating their crime. The ending is especially satisfying because it emerges so naturally as an explanation of the idiosyncrasies of the text. Throughout the play, characters repeat themselves, correct each other, and prompt each other in a way that befits a performance event. The text specifies that the reenactments are not recreated from a script; instead, the women rediscover their lines as they relive the event through ritual. Chaurette expertly employs the motif of rehearsing/repetition as a metaphor that explains these women's lives, first as musicians and music lovers, and then as child...

Between Realism and Visual Concept: the Role of the Production Designer in Contemporary British Cinema

The production designer is an intriguing figure whose contribution to a film is often misunderstood by those not working in the industry. This is partially due to the nature of the work, which is linked to the aesthetic principle of concealing the involvement of people working behind the camera. The production designer’s task is to collaborate with both the producer and the director to create a ‘look’ for the film within the limitations of its budget. The process relies on research, which is brought to life through inspiration, and the adept use of volume, light and colour. The deployment of screen space is often physically and emotionally essential in order to underpin the concepts of character and narrative, and it can often take on a personality of its own. In examining the parameters of the craft of production design today, I shall draw heavily on the work of Christopher Hobbs who, through his innovative approaches to place and time, has created some of the most powerful and memorable screen imagery in contemporary British cinema. The first film that he designed was Jubilee (1978), and his irreverent approach continues to deliver the unexpected today.

Inside the Cuban Revolution: Fidel Castro and the Urban Underground

Inside the Cuban Revolution: Fidel Castro and the Urban Underground

Constituting the Public Realm of a Region

Reconstituting the public realm of a region requires changes in the way it is imagined. This can be done through the use of professional skills to present images and analysis, creative forms of agency able to act in such a realm, and representation of alternative futures for public consideration. The regional public realm is a collective and abstract consciousness as well as a concrete reality. Working at this scale means maintaining a conversation between the imaginal and the material, and between professional and local knowledges. It requires the construction of loosely collaborative partnerships and the adept use of professional skills to selectively organize attention to possibilities for action.

Schizophrenia Revealed: From Neurons to Social Interactions

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article Book ReviewsFull AccessSchizophrenia Revealed: From Neurons to Social InteractionsAnn L. Hackman, M.D.Ann L. HackmanSearch for more papers by this author, M.D.Published Online:1 Feb 2003https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ps.54.2.261-aAboutSectionsView EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InEmail Schizophrenia Revealed begins with the premise that in many ways schizophrenia has long been viewed as a mystery. However, over the past decade advances in research and changing perspectives on schizophrenia have greatly improved understanding of this illness. In this book, Michael Foster Green, Ph.D., describes major recent developments in schizophrenia research.The text is divided into seven chapters. The first considers the features of schizophrenia from early views of the disorder in the works of Bleuler and Kraepelin to clinical symptoms, including positive, negative, and disorganized symptoms to DSM-IV diagnosis. The second chapter reviews the literature on the development of schizophrenia, and the third addresses genetics. Dr. Green considers risk factors and the concept of risk versus onset of illness, reviews population studies, examines markers of abnormal development, explains microscopic studies of the brain and the concept of cell migration in the development of neural connections, and addresses family studies, twin studies, and adoption studies as well as molecular genetics.Chapter 4 is titled "Neurocognitive Deficits" and describes research in schizophrenia involving problems in perception, attention, memory, problem solving, and some aspects of language as well as the tests used to evaluate these areas of functioning. The text flows easily into the next chapter and discussion of neuroimaging in schizophrenia. Early efforts at neuroimaging are described, followed by findings of positron emission tomography (PET) scanning, PET activation studies, magnetic resonance imaging, magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and diffusion tensor imaging; the section concludes with a discussion of disrupted brain regions versus neural circuits.The last two chapters address interventions and outcomes in schizophrenia. Among the interventions discussed are historical approaches such as wet packs; medications, including first-generation and new-generation antipsychotics; interventions for neurocognitive deficits; family interventions, such as family psychoeducation; and interventions for functional outcome, including assertive community treatment and social skills training. The text considers domains of outcome and personal determinants of functional outcome.Dr. Green has done a remarkable job in writing Schizophrenia Revealed. The book is designed to work at many levels and succeeds at being everything from an appropriate introductory text for the relatively sophisticated lay reader with an interest in schizophrenia to a good review of current research for a clinician psychiatrist working in the community. Like the best teachers, Dr. Green has a knack for explaining complex concepts in a fashion that makes them accessible. Furthermore, adept use of analogies, case material, references to popular films, and quotations from the likes of Mark Twain and Oscar Wilde make Schizophrenia Revealed a fascinating and compelling read.Dr. Hackman is medical director of programs of assertive community treatment at the University of Maryland Medical System in Baltimore.by Michael Foster Green, Ph.D.; New York, W.W. Norton and Company, 2001, 206 pages, $32 FiguresReferencesCited byDetailsCited ByNone Volume 54Issue 2 February 2003Pages 261-a-262 Metrics History Published online 1 February 2003 Published in print 1 February 2003

Southwest Virginia's Railroad: Modernization and the Sectional Crisis.

This innovative look at antebellum Southwest Virginia disputes traditional Appalachian scholarship, which has maintained that industrialization in the area occurred after 1880. Kenneth Noe shows how mountain modernization began decades earlier, with a regional railroad that contributed to support for secession and the Confederacy. Combining an adept use of anecdote and detail with analysis of the written record, Noe shows that many supporters of the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad viewed it as a political tool, believing it would spread slavery and unite the state. He focuses on the railroad's economic fruits - integration of the region into the tobacco kingdom, urbanization, a growth in industry, and the spread of slavery - and shows how these brought about political results. By 1860, the author argues, the railroad had indeed increased the region's dependence on slavery, deepened its immersion in the capitalist marketplace, and strengthened its ties to the state capital.

Thomas Wakley: An Improbable Radical

Thomas Wakley - general practitioner, journalist, coroner, and member of parliament - is probably best known to modern readers as the founder of the Lancet, in 1823. More politician than clinician, he was nevertheless one of the most remarkable doctors of his day: one who answered injustice and hypocrisy, especially in his own profession, with adept use of the powers at his disposal - the press, the courts, and ultimately parliament. Hostettler begins by looking at the influence of chronology on Wakley's upbringing. He was born in the era of political repression in Britain that followed the French Revolution, and his outlook had much in …

Used Words

On stage and off, performance and signification are the two inextricable functions of words. The re-discovery of the generally performative functions of language gave rise to Speech Act Theory just a few decades ago but, on different terms, verbal performativeness has been known to poetics from antiquity. Since then, literature has usually been supposed to be a social practice that privileges the performative use of words in ways somewhat different from such non-literary performatives as contracts, threats, sales pitches, greetings, and so on. In non-literary usages, performances are the effects of words in their real world contexts. But in theatre, literature and other such “hollow” instances – as J.L. Austin calls them (Austin 1975, 22) – there is a secondary context in which words make things happen in a virtual world. But (pace Austin) the primary context is not thereby dissolved, and in it the more or less adept use of the verbal medium itself is a focus of attention and a potential source of pleasure. And when – as in the recital of poetry or the telling of jokes – the acoustic channel is used, the pleasure is twofold: not only in the linguistic play but also in its vocalization; and most acutely in the relation between these two aspects of utterance, as poor Eliza Doolittle is so harshly compelled to acknowledge – though scarcely to good effect. In plays in performance, not only are words supposed to make things happen in the fictive worlds they construct but they are also what we have come to hear: “a certain number of lines recited with just gesture and elegant modulation”, said Dr Johnson.

Reagan and Jackson: Parallels in Political Time

There is widespread agreement among scholars that Franklin D. Roosevelt created the modern presidency, and he serves as their paradigm of successful presidential leadership. James MacGregor Burns, Richard Neustadt, Clinton Rossiter, and others who took their cues from them found in FDR the ideal heroic president. He combined extensive and sustained popularity, partisan support, skillful power-sensitive bargaining and persuasion, adept use of the prerogatives of the office, and consummate performance of the multiple roles of the president to make the American constitutional system work.

Contemporary Japanese Theater: Symbolism In Shvsaku Endo's Ogon No Kuni

THE TIMEWORN IMAGE OF THE fumie (a representation of Christ or of the Blessed Virgin to be trampled on, used by persecutors of feudal Japan to discover hidden Christians), figures forth in a strikingly original way the intense dramatic conflict of forces-moral, political, racial, religious and psychological-that clash violently against one another in Shilsaku Endo's dynamic three-act tragedy ironically entitled ogon no Kuni (Land of Yellow Gold.) The play, which marked the well-known novelist's first excursion into drama, was first published in Bungei magazine's May, 1966 issue and produced by the Kumo players under the direction of Hiroshi Akutagawa from May 13 to 23 at Tokyo Municipal Centre Hall. With the adept use of symbolic realism reminiscent of Graham Greene's novels, particularly of The Heart of the Matter with its problem of pity versus moral obligation, and Th,e Power and the Glory with its hunted priest and Judas figure, near Nagasaki on K yilshil island, Mr. Endo places his drama of the human soul against a setting suggestive of corruption and death in a boggy strip of land (an epitome of seventeenth century Japan) surrounded by an oppressively silent sea, a land once dreamed of by Francis Xavier as a promised land of yellow gold, but where transplanted seedlings of foreign culture quickly decay in the lukewarm mire. The scene is set two years after the revolt of Shimabara (1637-8) during the Christian persecution under Iemitsu, the third Tokugawa shogun who ruled from 1623 to 1651. Although the main action of the play (the apostasy of Father Ferreira) is based on actual fact, Mr. Endo himself has stated (in a radio broadcast over NHK, May 29, 1966) that the scarcity of recorded historical data available left ample room for the full play of imagination. Thus the play is largely a creative work involving a study of mixed motives, depth psychology and situational morality.