Biographical Life Research Articles

Hildegard of Bingen by Honey Meconi

Reviewed by: Hildegard of Bingen by Honey Meconi Michelle Urberg Hildegard of Bingen. By Honey Meconi. (Women Composers.) Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2018. [xiii, 157 p. ISBN 9780252033155 (hardcover), $99; ISBN 9780252083679 (paperback), $21.95; ISBN 9780252050725 (e-book), price varies.] Figures, list of works, notes, bibliography, discography, index. I remember my introduction to Saint Hildegard (1098–1197) during an undergraduate class with Roy Hammerling at Concordia College. In addition to Hildegard of Bingen, class included readings on a number of other important female figures in the history of Western Christianity, including Saint Bridget (Birgitta) of Sweden, whose monastic order and music later became the focus of my dissertation. I distinctly remember that Hildegard was depicted as larger than life in her vita by the monks Gottfried and Theoderic (The Life of the Holy Hildegard, trans. James McGrath [Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1995]), and her own writings described vibrant visionary experiences in detail, notable to me because music or instruments (trumpets especially) appeared in many places (Secrets of God: Writings of Hildegard of Bingen, trans. Sabina Flanagan [Boston: Shambhala, 1996]). Finally, Barbara Newman's influential volume on Hildegard, Voice of the Living Light: Hildegard of Bingen [End Page 440] and Her World (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998), helped organize my impression of Hildegard's writings. Nevertheless, I wish this book had been available back then as a scholarly complement to the primary and secondary sources we read in that class. Hildegard of Bingen by Honey Meconi—part biography, part history of Hildegard's musical output, and part introduction to liturgical practice in medieval monasteries—appears in the Women Composers series, which aims to publish books that are readable and a convenient reference. Indeed, Hildegard of Bingen is readable for students and those meeting Hildegard for the first time, serves as a convenient reference for experienced scholars or performers, and effectively establishes Hildegard as the notable composer of her milieu. Meconi's biography of Hildegard is compact, comprising ten short chapters in 150 pages. The first six chapters chronicle Hildegard's life, with a careful look at how music was ever present for Hildegard during her life and in her writings. Chapter 7 examines how Hildegard's life and music were transcribed, printed, and disseminated following her death. Chapters 8 through 10 take a close look at the extant manuscripts that contain her music as well as the scope of her musical output. A list of Hildegard's works, endnotes, a short reference bibliography of works about Hildegard, and a brief list of key recordings of Hildegard's music follow the main chapters. While the bibliography, notes, and discography are not complete, they do admirably to introduce or to reintroduce Hildegard to readers. One of the great strengths of this volume is how it juxtaposes manuscript evidence that helps scholars build a biography and musical history of Hildegard's life with the historiographical circumstances that made it possible to write Hildegard's history. I genuinely enjoyed reading Meconi's music-infused biography of Hildegard in the first six chapters; chapter 7 then narrates a few key choices that made it possible for this Hildegard biography and others to take form. Meconi attributes much of the twentieth-century interest in Hildegard to the refounding of the monastery at Rupertsberg and the transcriptions of her Scivias (the allegorical visions and apocalyptic prophecies) and the Ordo Virtutum (the allegorical morality play) by the nuns of the Abtei St. Hildegard in Eibingen, Germany (pp. 79, 81). Furthermore, chapter 7 shows that the sequence of decisions made by printers, scholars, musicians, and monastics to keep Hildegard's visions and compositions circulating occurred gradually over centuries, and these decisions helped documents survive (pp. 77, 79). Soon after her death, for example, biographers and William of Auxerre championed her cause (p. 76). The printed word was instrumental in rejuvenating interest in Hildegard later in the sixteenth century when several printings of her mystical text the Scivias, her medical treatise Physica, and her letters appeared. These constituted the primary published works of Hildegard until the nineteenth century (p. 78), with the appearance of the first modern editions by Charles Daremberg and F. A. Reuss (S. Hildegardis Abbatissae...

Judas to the Garveyite Cause: A Review of Jeffrey Perry's Hubert Harrison: The Struggle for Equality, 1918–1927

In his second volume biography of Hubert Harrison's life entitled Hubert Harrison: The Struggle for Equality, 1917–1928, Jeffrey Perry accomplishes what his Introduction states it would do, which is to detail "the extraordinary last nine and one-half years of Harrison's life, which [was] lived at the edge of poverty in a United States shaped by capitalism, imperialism, and white supremacy". However, there are aspects of Harrison's life in this biography that are unable to clearly describe Harrison's work as both a US government informer and his work as an editor for the Negro World newspaper that promoted the principles of self-reliance and nationhood for members of the organization that Marcus Garvey co-founded, the UNIA (Universal Negro Improvement Association). These principles are at odds with those of the US government which, since 1919 was undermining the work of the UNIA.

Thunder in the West: The Life and Legends of Billy the Kid by Richard W. Etulain

Reviewed by: Thunder in the West: The Life and Legends of Billy the Kid by Richard W. Etulain Bob Cavendish Thunder in the West: The Life and Legends of Billy the Kid. By Richard W. Etulain. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2020. Pp. 448. Illustrations, source essay, bibliography, index.) "Bifurcated," an adjective meaning "forked," is a word Richard Etulain repeats with annoying frequency in his study of Billy the Kid, the Old West juvenile delinquent who might really have been a misunderstood victim of a turbulent western imbroglio. Historical figures can be "bifurcated" or "multifaceted," and therein lies the dilemma: how to depict, meaningfully, complex people and perplexing events. Although the most valuable lesson historians impart is a balanced examination, Etulain argues that this has not been the case with Billy the Kid, also known as William Bonney, Henry McCarty, and Henry Antrim. Billy's image has evolved from that of a sensational dime-novel gunfighter to an unrepentant killer to a Robin Hood-like legend. It's more complicated than that, Etulain insists, and Billy deserves better treatment if the public is to understand the past better. Thunder in the West has two sections. Part one, "The Life," is a twelve-chapter biography of the Kid's brief life (he was four months shy of his twenty-first birthday when he died) that begins with "mysterious origins" and ends asking who and what Billy the Kid was. Along the way, Etulain integrates facets of New Mexico's territorial history and significant players in Billy's life, including Governor Lew Wallace, the Civil War general and author of Ben Hur, and the real John Chisum, who was awkwardly lionized in the John Wayne film Chisum. Part one leaves the reader sufficiently familiar with Billy the Kid, the geography across which he moved, and the national and local forces molding him. Part two, "The Legends," is a compelling examination of history, legend, and lore in four chapters of criticism and analysis of a broad historiography of Kid-related materials. Etulain traces the evolution of his notoriety beginning with an era (1880 to 1926) of popular dime novels [End Page 488] and loose fiction depicting the Old West. Writers' prejudices about Billy shaped his public image heavily through sensational and wildly inauthentic cheap thrillers. During the second period (1926 to 1960), Billy's image gained sympathy among some chroniclers whose depictions suggested an emerging, albeit tarnished, hero. By the third period (1960 to 1995), Billy's notoriety and his presence in western lore were ensconced, but the more sophisticated craft of history embraced wider narratives to explain the world west of the Mississippi River. During this time, only a Frederick Nolan overview of the Lincoln County War and a Robert Utley biography of Billy the Kid merit special attention from Etulain. In the fourth and last period (1995 to the present), the Kid had become "understandable, whole, and real" (354). Nevertheless, Etulain declares, there is much work still to be done. Telling the Kid's story has been an ongoing controversy for serious western historians such as Etulain. Recent projects, "long on intended revisionism of the Kid and his legend, were way short on their historical knowledge … and what had been written about him in the past half century" (344). In response to virulent critics of his 1930 movie Billy the Kid, film director King Vidor remarked, "I understand your feelings, but this is what the people want" (296). Where fiction and the historical record collide, Etulain clearly favors the record. Yet, he warns, scholarship must avoid "the blind eye and tin ear for … dramatic narrative" (332). It is a balance, fiction and history. As an introduction to Billy the Kid and New Mexico's Lincoln County War, Thunder in the West is solid, carefully researched, and well written. It also serves as a guide to areas for western historians' further research. Along with this book, Etulain's companion volume, Billy the Kid: A Reader's Guide (University of Oklahoma Press, 2020) offers a strong research base from which to expand. These are two fine volumes emanating from a distinguished western scholar. A bifurcated boost, one might say. Bob Cavendish Buda, Texas...

Older Iranian Muslim women's experiences of sex and sexuality: A biographical approach.

Muslim women in Iran live in a patriarchal society which significantly restricts their freedom and agency. While there is a growing understanding of social change as it relates to younger Muslim women in Iran, the perspectives and experiences of older women are marginalized; mirroring problems with the intersections of age, gender, and sexuality in the West. In order to address this occlusion, this article draws on life history interviews with 30 older Muslim women living in Tehran and Karaj. Adopting a biographical life course approach, and examining pivotal moments related to sexuality in their lives, we discuss how cultural meanings and symbols of sexuality have emerged and been negotiated by these women at the life stages of puberty, first sex at marriage, and menopause. The patriarchal and religious gender order of Iran transgresses these women's human rights so that sexuality is experienced as a source of shame, stigma, and pollution, yet the women also exert forms of agency in their lives as they adopt and challenge these norms.

تجلیات الخیال الشعبی فی السیرة الشعبیة، سیرة عنترة بن شداد أنموذجا

تجليات الخيال الشعبي في السيرة الشعبية، سيرة عنترة بن شداد أنموذجا نوير باجابر قسم اللغة العربية، الکلية الجامعية بالقنفذة ،جامعة أم القرى ، المملکة العربية السعودية البريد الإلکتروني : Nsbajaer_n@hotmail.com الملخص : يتناول هذا البحث السيرة الشعبية بين الواقع والخيال، حيث يضفي الخيال الشعبي على السيرة کثيرا من الإضافات، والمبالغات والأسطرة، لتصبح في صورة مختلفة کثيرا عن السيرة الواقعية. ومن ثم فإن هذا البحث يحاول الکشف عن تجليات الخيال الشعبي في سيرة عنترة بن شداد عبر الأسطورة والخرافة، والخوارق والعجائبية إذ تعد هذه السيرة من أهم السير الشعبية ومن أکبر الملاحم القصصية التي نسجها الخبال الشعبي حتى غدت أسطورة عربية متکاملة البناء، ترسم ملامح البطل الأسطوري الذي يحاول إثبات ذاته وفروسيته وشجاعته. فالمجتمع يلجأ في لحظات الضعف الحضاري إلى الخيال الشعبي للتعويض عن بطولات حاضرة في واقعه ليخلق نماذج أسطورية يملأ بها حاجته النفسية والاجتماعية الناجمة عن الافتقار إلى إنجازات حقيقية بطولية في الواقع. تهدف الدراسة إلى الکشف عن تجليات الخيال في السيرة الشعبية، من خلال سيرة عنترة بن شداد أنموذج الدراسة، کما تهدف أيضا إلى التعرف على الجانب الإبداعي في الموروث الشعبي العربي القديم وخصوبة الخيال الشعبي العربي واتساعه، فشخصية عنترة لم ينحتها الواقع بقدر ما نسجها الخيال الشعبي، وأضاف إليها الکثير من الروايات تعزز أسطورته، فتمثل سيرته قيمة الفضيلة عند العرب، وتعکس نظام الحياة القبلية في المجتمع الجاهلي، وهو نظام العبد والسيد وقوامه الدفاع عن العرض والشرف، والتفاخر بالقوة والشجاعة. الکلمات المفتاحية : تجليات- الخيال- الشعبي- السيرة الشعبية- عنترة بن شداد Aspects Of Popular Imagination In the popular Biography, the Biography OF Antara Bin Shaddad As A model Nowier Bajaber Department of Arabic Language, Al-Qunfudhah University College, Umm Al Qura University, KSA Nsbajaer_n@hotmail.com E-mail : Abstract This research, which bears the mark (the manifestations of popular fiction in the popular biography, the biography of Antara bin Shaddad as a model), deals with the popular biography between reality and fiction, as the popular imagination gives to the CV a lot of additions, exaggerations and superstitions, to become in a much different form from the biography of life The real one. Hence, this research attempts to reveal the features of the popular imagination in the biography of Antara Bin Shaddad through the myth, the paranormal and the miracle, as this biography is one of the most important popular biographies and one of the greatest epics of epics that the popular writer woven into becoming an integrated Arab legend that draws features The legendary hero who tries to prove himself, his horses riding and bravery. In moments of civilizational weakness, society resorted to popular imagination to compensate for the heroics that exist in its reality to create legendary models in which it meets its psychological and social need resulting from the lack of real heroic achievements in reality. The study aims to reveal the aspects of fiction in the popular biography, through the biography of Antara Bin Shaddad, the study model. It also aims to identify the creative side of the ancient Arab folklore and the fertility and breadth of the Arab folk imagination, as the Antara character did not depict reality as much as it was woven with the popular imagination. He added to it many narrations that reinforce his legend, so his autobiography represents the value of virtue among the Arabs, and reflects the system of tribal life in a pre-Islamic society, which is the system of slave and master and his power to defend honor and pride in strength and courage. Keywords : Manifestation- Imagination –Popular- Biography- Antara Bin Shaddad

Celebrity headjobs: or oozing squid sex with a framed-up leaky {Schar-JØ}

ABSTRACT Scarlett Johansson has described as futile her fight against a swell of deepfake porn images featuring herself—especially because they can be produced by almost anyone with free algorithmic software available online and with access to one or more images of her face. However, in this essay we maintain that within contemporary technocratic culture, the mediated star image of ‘ScarJo' always already reveals the complex convergence of both bios (life as qualified or narrated, qua bio-graphical life) and zoë (bare life, or the life of the cellular organism) with technos (technological life and/or life skills). This convergence of Scarlett Johansson as celebrity (bios), as human being (zoë) and as technological entity (technos) is consciously explored in, and thus can be amplified via, deepfake videos made using her image. We suggest that this is especially the case because in their efforts of ‘(con)trolling’ her celebrity image (which is a 'con' image that is also a form of trolling), these deepfakes express patriarchy's attempts to frame a threatening and oozing femininity, while also masking deeper issues of race.

A Study on the Popular National Consciousness through the Ideological Transition Process of Yi Yuk-sa

Based on the biographical life of Yi Yuk-sa, this article is devoted to determining his thoughts by tracing his ideological trajectory and examining how it is poeticized. Yi Yuk-sa, often defined as a poet of national origin and a poet of resistance, is considered an nationalism poet. Nationalism is an ideology that maintains the uniqueness and excellence of the people based on the long-standing historical consciousness of the species. This nationalism has been developed in a reactionary way in the history of international affairs. This is because nationalism often builds the identity of its own people through aggression against other peoples. Nationalism tends to demonstrate its superiority as dominance over an inferior nation. The implication of nationalism has led our independence activists to give up their nationalism ideology and pursue a new one that can go beyond it. It is Anarchism and Socialism. Yi Yuk-sa also takes Anakism and Socialism sequentially. This can be seen through the organization that Yi Yuk-sa was involved in and his commentaries. Regarding the Anakism, it can be suggested based on the circumstances of his stay in Japan in 1924 and when he joined the Black Friendship Society or the Military Academy in China in 1932, respectively, and in relation to socialism, he returned to Korea after graduating from the Military Academy and was involved in the Daegu Youth League, a socialist organization. As the ideological trajectory of Yi Yuk-sa leads from nationalism to anarchism and from Anakism to socialism, the poetic symbols of Yi Yuk-sa should be explained in this regard. However, each idea is accepted sequentially but the previous one is not abandoned in a single order. In the process of dialectical sublation in which each element of thought is selectively taken on a certain basis, Yi Yuk-sa’s thought becomes a complex one. This means that Yuk-sa s poems should be understood in an integrated, three-dimensional way, as a result of overcoming the sublation of these ideas, instead of being explained simply by nationalism, anarchism, or the single socialism. From this point of view, it can be seen that the most fundamental factor that led to the spirit of Yi was related to the ideal system in an independent country that he dreamed of. And it can be seen that it constitutes the liberation of the people, the workers, the peasants-centered, marginalized people, not the people of the past privileged class or of the bourgeoisie. This view is to reject Yi s sense of past privilege and to unite the class division and confrontation of the past dynasties. In this regard, the ideological content of the Yi Yuk-sa is not merely a futuristic and conceptual character, but rather an inevitable connotation derived based on his biological basis. So, the history of the Yi Yuk-sa has devoted itself to realizing the most ideal nation in the most threatening manner at the forefront of the independence movement

Reconhecimento e validação de adquiridos experienciais de adultos pouco escolarizados em Portugal: uma medida de política pública inovadora?

O texto analisa o processo de reconhecimento e validação de adquiridos experienciais, uma medida de política pública orientada para os adultos pouco escolarizados em Portugal. A análise resulta de uma investigação qualitativa baseada em entrevistas semiestruturadas com técnicos e formadores responsáveis pela implementação do processo em estudo e em entrevistas biográficas com adultos certificados através deste processo. Os dados empíricos recolhidos permitiram identificar alguns elementos de inovação no processo de reconhecimento e validação de adquiridos experienciais implementado em Portugal. No artigo, analisamos dois desses elementos de inovação, por um lado, o recurso à metodologia biográfica e à história de vida; por outro lado, o acompanhamento assegurado pelo técnico de orientação, reconhecimento e validação e pelos formadores. Na nossa perspectiva, os elementos de inovação identificados contribuem para que o processo de reconhecimento e validação de adquiridos experienciais orientado, do ponto de vista político, para o aumento da qualificação escolar dos adultos, apresente um potencial formativo nos adultos envolvidos.

Beyond Humanitarian Logics: Volunteer-Refugee Encounters in Chios and Paris

Since 2015, grassroots volunteers have emerged as key actors in the humanitarian response to Europe’s “refugee crisis.” Based on ethnographic research on the Greek island of Chios and in Paris, this essay explores how volunteers navigate the ethical and political dilemmas inherent to humanitarian action in their everyday encounters with refugees. We argue that while volunteers sometimes mimic disciplinary humanitarian practices, the exchange of “biographical life” in and beyond camps allows volunteers to reimagine a more dignified provision of care and for creative solidarities to emerge. The presence of volunteers, we conclude, thus plays an important role in re-humanizing and re-politicizing refugee spaces, thereby challenging—even if momentarily—dominant humanitarian logics.

THE WAYS OF SHEVCHENKO’S POEMS RECEPTION

The author of the article makes an attempt to consider the hermeneutic principles according to which the reader should approach the reception of Taras Shevchenko’s poetic works. He makes an excursus into the early history of the perception of T. Shevchenko’s poems and considers the responses of such readers and critics as H. Kvitka-Osnovianenko, V. Belinskyi, M. Kostomarov, P. Kulish, M. Drahomanov. This allows him to trace how certain socio-cultural predispositions of critics determined the perception of T. Shevchenko’s poetry. He also notes that already in the early reception of T. Shevchenko’s poems, two leading tendencies are outlined. One draws attention to their «truthfulness» and the other to their poetics. «Truthfulness» should be understood as the fact that T. Shevchenko’s poetry creates a figurative world according to certain rules that nature gives it through the author. Figurative expressiveness, compositional accuracy, semantic depth are the signs of «truthfulness» of T. Shevchenko’s poetry. It is essential to emphasize the self-importance of T. Shevchenko’s poetry, which was not a reflection of the author’s reality, but in which the specific structures of existence «manifested» themselves in a specific figurative form. And already being «manifested» in the figurative text, these structures somehow appealed to the surrounding reality, expressing and clarifying its individual fragments or situations. There are two leading trends in the art of understanding. The first one is that the reader should reduce his subjective factor to the possible minimum and turn his attention to understanding the work in its cultural-historical and author-biographical contexts. Another one indicates the temporality of understanding the text; the reader cannot perceive the work from the standpoint of the author’s time or some «universal» time. His understanding is always determined by his own time, which presupposes his socio-cultural situation, the state of language, the reader’s life biography. The reader must balance these two tendencies in his own interpretation. There are two important tendencies in the variety of possible approaches to reading the «Kobzar»: to study the language of texts and the existential and ontological situations that arise in them. Keywords: poetry, reception, hermeneutics, poetics, aesthetics, existence.

Master of Ukrainian Medieval Studies (Memoirs on the Anniversary of Professor M. P. Kovalskyi)

On the basis of personal memoirs and observations the research dwells on some fragments of the life and creative biography of a well-known Ukrainian historian, Honored Worker of Science and Technology of Ukraine, Professor M. P. Kovalskyi during his work at the Dnipropetrovsk Classical University (1963–1994). It has been emphasized that it was during this period of time that M. P. Kovalskyi formed as a scientist and prominently revealed himself as one of the greatest researchers of the Ukrainian Middle Ages, especially the national source studies of historical heritage of the 16th and the first half of the 17th centuries. His scientific works as well as his contribution to the development of historical science is well-known and appreciated not only in Ukraine, but also in the European historical and professional spheres. The powerful school of source studies created by the scientists along with other world-famous scientific centers of our higher educational establishment over different generations, has remained in the historical memory of the university community as a symbol and inspirational example of true asceticism in science. The most essential imperatives of professional and life credo of M. P. Kovalskyi were a high general and academic culture, an amazing hard work, purposefulness, perseverance, intelligence, erudition, sociability, active citizenship, patriotism, honesty, modesty, decency, all of which made him a popular acknowledged scientist and authoritative scholar, a teacher, and an extraordinary, outstanding person.

The Figure of the Historian on the Background of the Era (Professor K. I. Poznyakovʼs Intellectual Portrait)

On the basis of the own memoirs and observations it is considered some plot lines of life and creative biography of K.I. Poznyakov – Dnipropetrovsk professor of history, Honored Worker of the High Schoolof the Ukrainian SSR. An attempt is made to distinguish the most characteristic and peculiar facets of the scientist outstanding personality, emphasizing his long-term and constructive interaction with colleagues of the local classical university, which was always for him (as for a graduate of the historical faculty) not only Alma mater, but also a source of constant intellectual inspiration and growth for almost all conscious life. It is emphasized that the researcher left a significant scientific heritage in the area of the history of the Civil War of 1918–1920 and other problems of the national past, occupying a prominent place in the historiographical process of the second half of the 20th century. He was a high-class professional, authoritative organizer of science and education in the higher educational establishments of Pridniprovʼya, a wise mentor, a wonderful lecturer-speaker, a harmoniously integral, decent, modest man, with his values and ideals in the spirit of the then communist representations in the USSR.

A study about the instruction for master’s thesis and research works for “experience reflection” in graduate schools in Japan: interviews with the academic staff

In this paper, it was analyzed some characters of instruction for master’s thesis and research papers for professional mature students in Graduate Schools in Japan. From interviews to 11 academic staff in Graduate schools, where they were teaching and instructing professional mature students, the following investigation results were shown: 1) a flexible approach for program completion; 2) instruction to reflective and biographical research approach (reflection in and on action, relativization of thinking and discussion, a bridge between theories and biographical life story etc.). Women staff and women professional students also proposed issues related to life, and flat discussion must be important especially for the independence of the women.

Biography and Form of Life. Toward a Cultural Analysis of Narrative Interviews

This paper introduces the concept of form of life, socially shaped and shared meaning structures of actors situated in material contexts, as a tool for the cultural-sociological analysis of biographies and life trajectories. Following the principles of structural hermeneutics, such an analysis of life-forms treats the interview text as manifestation of a deeper holistic meaning structure, embodied in narratives, binaries and metaphors, without suppressing the contradictions and tensions inherent in every form of life. Finally, the empirical applicability of our approach is illustrated with examples from the qualitative strand of a broader longitudinal panel study as well as an in-depth case study.

‘Sometimes I feel 60, sometimes I feel 13’: perceptions of age among vulnerable young people in Denmark

ABSTRACT This paper examines perceptions of subjective age identity presented in interviews with eight young people who had been in out-of-home care during their upbringing. Research shows that care-leavers often experience a variety of vulnerabilities and challenges in comparison to their same-aged peers. Additionally, they often do not organise their lives according to the same educational, professional, and relational structures as other young people. In their everyday lives, care-leavers are nonetheless confronted with expectations that assume they have a normal biographical life course, meaning a life that progresses from childhood to adulthood via a relatively stable and predictable pattern. Consequently, they evaluate themselves using socially defined roles connected to formal and informal age structuring. The findings emphasise perceptions of multiple subjective ages at the same time no matter the context, which seems to differ the perceptions of the participants from that of their same-aged peers. Additionally, the findings indicate that perceptions of subjective age and life course developments are flexible and can change in ways that do not follow a normal biographical life course, but despite this flexibility also can consist of experiences of being out of sync with same-aged peers.

Crisis, recession and social resilience: A biographical life course analysis.

This article examines social resilience to the economic crisis and recession across three 'generational cohorts' of Irish people, using a mixed biographical life course approach. Drawing on narrative interviews and individual lifelines conducted as part of a cross-national European study, we describe and explain how age-differentiated lives and times intersected with ill-timed transitions and patterns of inter-generational relations, leading to variations in resilient future orientations. Our analysis yields three key findings. First, failed expectations for intra-generational social mobility, combined with inter-generational obligations, gave rise to negative future orientations amongst those in mid-life. Second, the crisis created multiple negative life changes that compounded the accumulated costs of poorly timed transitions and adverse experiences within biographies. The effect of this varied by generational cohort, life course stage (with its implications for inter-generational obligations), gender and social class. Third, both life course stage and biographical experience affected peoples' orientations towards the future, with implications for their resilience.

A community without history? A life story approach to Romany memory and ethnicity

This paper approaches Romany memory culture through life stories and is based on results and conceptualizations from the study of biographical narratives and life experiences obtained within variou...

Symbol Analysis in the who Selected Song Lyrics

This study focuses on analysing symbols in five song lyrics of The Who. This study aims at finding and analysing the meanings of symbols and the relationship between both points. The design of this study is descriptive qualitative. The data were analysed by using the theory of symbol by Shaw and Frye. The result of this study showed that the symbols in the five song lyrics of The Who are a reflection of the song writer’s feeling and experience of life. It is clear that his life biography of a song writer influences the song lyric he wrote

Reflections on palliative sedation

‘Palliation sedation’ is a widely used term to describe the intentional administration of sedatives to reduce a dying person’s consciousness to relieve intolerable suffering from refractory symptoms. Research studies generally focus on either ‘continuous sedation until death’ or ‘continuous deep sedation’. It is not always clear whether instances of secondary sedation (i.e. caused by specific symptom management) have been excluded. Continuous deep sedation is controversial because it ends a person’s ‘biographical life’ (the ability to interact meaningfully with other people) and shortens ‘biological life’. Ethically, continuous deep sedation is an exceptional last resort measure. Studies suggest that continuous deep sedation has become ‘normalized’ in some countries and some palliative care services. Of concern is the dissonance between guidelines and practice. At the extreme, there are reports of continuous deep sedation which are best described as non-voluntary (unrequested) euthanasia. Other major concerns relate to its use for solely non-physical (existential) reasons, the under-diagnosis of delirium and its mistreatment, and not appreciating that unresponsiveness is not the same as unconsciousness (unawareness). Ideally, a multiprofessional palliative care team should be involved before proceeding to continuous deep sedation. Good palliative care greatly reduces the need for continuous deep sedation.

Editors' Notes

Editors' Notes John David Zuern and Craig Howes International Year in Review In this issue we present the third installment of Biography's International Year in Review, a collection of short essays discussing publications in memoir, autobiography, biography, and other forms of life writing in the previous year across a wide range of countries and regions. As in the past, a few contributors aim for a broad overview, but most focus on a selection of texts that represent a notable trend or reflect the author's particular interests. With last year's collection (vol. 40, no. 4) we increased the number of contributions, extended our coverage of Europe and South America, and included essays from Africa, the Caribbean, and Central America. This year the number of essays has grown from twenty-two to twenty-five, and we are very pleased to include authors offering viewpoints from yet another part of the world: Sleiman El Hajj on Lebanon, Szidonia Haragos on countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council, and Adam Yaghi on Palestine. My circumlocution "yet another part of the world" ("the Middle East"? "the Arab World"? "the Arabsphere"?) highlights one of the challenges we have faced in putting together these collections. When we conceived the International Year in Review, we knew that we would run up against the limitations of geographical categorization. Our formulation "nation or region" acknowledges the leakiness of the nation-state as a container for life narratives, but it only partially addresses the historical, linguistic, and cultural connections among lives and life stories that transcend national borders, as do the experiences of exile, displacement, and diaspora. Countries define and enforce their national identities in ways that often run afoul of the self-identifications of people living within them, with or without the benefits of citizenship, and resistance to those exclusions often animates the stories those people tell. From different angles, many of this year's contributions illuminate instances of boundary-crossing and pushback from the margins. Tobias Heinrich's review of recent biographies of Maria Theresa, a figure whose life predates the formation of the modern states of Austria and Germany, covers books published in German and French in Austria, France, and Germany. Hans Renders and David Veltman's inventory of recent biographies in the Netherlands engages the historical, linguistic, and literary relations between the Netherlands and Belgium. Writing about the prominent role of auto/biographical essays in Australia, Kylie Cardell includes a [End Page iv] discussion of the anthology Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia, in which young Indigenous Australians document the experience of coming of age on the under-resourced edge of Australian society, and Sleiman El Hajj's essay foregrounds life narratives that convey the pressures on Palestinian refugees and on cis and transgender women who are making a place for themselves in Lebanon. Though certainly inadequate and restrictive, the established denominators of countries and regions continue to spur us to think through the dynamic, often conflicted interactions among personal, community, and national identities as they are reflected in auto/biographical projects. As in the past, this note introducing the International Year in Review also serves as a call for papers. Happy as we are with this year's collection, we're always aiming to broaden the feature's scope. Following the launch of the first installment, we have actively sought submissions representing what we still see as especially conspicuous absences, including Argentina, Denmark, Egypt, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and Switzerland, but we invite reviews of the year's work in life writing in any other "part of the world." Over the past two years, Edgard Sankara and Nick Tembo have supplied vibrant essays on Burkina Faso and South Africa, respectively, but the countries of the African continent are still underrepresented. Likewise, this year we are very pleased that Sergio da Silva Barcellos (Brazil), Gabriel Jaime Murillo-Arango (Colombia), and Gerardo Necoechea Gracia (Mexico) have all come back with excellent reviews, but we would welcome more contributions from Central and South America. We have stepped into the Caribbean with Rose Mary Allen and Jeroen Heuvel's essay on Curaçao in last year's collection, and this year, with Ricia Chansky...