De Notre Research Articles

Body schema and body image as internal representations of the body, and their disorders. An historical review.

Since the early 1900s, the terms body schema and body image denoted the internal representations of the body. Bonnier's (1905, Revue Neurologique, 13, 605) schema is a conscious spatial representation of the size, shape, and position of the body, and of body parts, whose dysfunction brings about aschématia, and hypo-, hyper-, and paraschématia. The two schemata of Head and Holmes (1911, Brain, 34, 102) are an unconscious plastic postural schema, for the maintenance of posture and balance and for the coding of the position of body parts, and a conscious superficial schema, for the localisation of somatosensory stimuli. Pick's (1922, Psychologische Forschung, 1, 303) body schema refers to a structural description of the body, including the position of body parts and their spatial relationships, defective in autotopagnosia. Schilder's (1935, The image and appearance of the human body) body image is a comprehensive construct, covering physiological, evolutional, neurological and neuropsychological, psychiatric and sociological aspects. Lhermitte's (1939, L'image de notre corps) image, based on the views of the abovementioned authors, is defective in bodily neuropsychological disorders. The two terms have been used interchangeably, to denote (hemi-)asomatognosia, anosognosia, autotopagnosia, depersonalisation, personal neglect, phantom and supernumerary limbs, somatoparaphrenia. Their properties have been summarized with general dichotomies: schema for action in space ("where" system), image for perception ("what" system), after primary sensory processing. While schema and image fractionated into multiple representations of aspects of the body, the two terms are still used to refer to some of these representations, and to their disorders.

Suficiente luz y suficientes sombras. Descripción fenomenológica de la muerte de Cristo en los escritos de Blaise y Jacqueline Pascal

Le Mystère de la mort de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ, by Jacqueline Pascal, constitutes a work of interest, in which not only the literary virtues of Blaise Pascal’s sister are reflected, but also a glimpse of her “phenomenological” capacity. After an approach to the biography of this 17th century author, an analysis of the work and its philosophical and theological scope, in connection with the writings of Blaise Pascal, is presented, as a reference to her genius and the impact of the influence of Port-Royal’s thought.

Quelque membre de notre cercle by Danielle Mémoire

Reviewed by: Quelque membre de notre cercle by Danielle Mémoire Warren Motte Mémoire, Danielle. Quelque membre de notre cercle. P.O.L, 2021. ISBN 978-2-8180-5234-1. Pp. 201. The most striking feature of Mémoire’s book is its formal organization. A rhopalic structure is involved here: the text is shaped a bit like a snowball, whose mass increases, then slowly melts. There are seventy-two chapters. The first chapter contains one paragraph, the second contains two, and so forth, until the middle of the book, at which point the chapters begin to decrease until the final one, which once again contains a sole paragraph. The volume’s publisher mentions that Mémoire was inspired by Lyn Hejinian’s My Life (1980)—and indeed the final chapter of Mémoire’s book is composed of a quotation from Hejinian’s book. A life is involved here, too, as a female narrator closely resembling Mémoire herself looks back over the seventy-two years of her life, noting some salient events or impressions from each of those years, in turn. If I hedge a bit on the question of the narrator’s identity, it is because the speaking subject in this text is extremely elusive: “[P]arler de moi (par écrit) ne me plaît pas,” she confesses (164), and that reticence expresses itself in a variety of ways throughout the book. The narrative style is discursive in character, and fragmentary. Like in her other books, Mémoire expresses herself here in a very polished, almost hieratic French. Fully cognizant of that stylistic tendency, she shies away from commenting upon it: “Quant à la très particulière et inintéressante nature de mon combat avec la langue, ce qu’il faudrait, c’est n’en rien dire” (182). Certain themes recur insistently here, as Mémoire exploits the rhetorical power of repetition to her advantage. Some of those themes seem more banal than others—clothing and fashion for instance. Yet even there, Mémoire’s point is more serious than it might appear, involving issues of the presentation of the self. Other themes are more immediately recognizable as weighty ones. Mémoire reflects on the notion of shame on several occasions, both the shame we may feel for ourselves, and the shame we may feel for others. Along the way, she asks a series of intriguing questions, many of which involve literature and its conditions of possibility, its ontology. How can a writer negotiate the gap that yawns between words and things? What is the difference between lying and fiction? What is the status of the lie within a fictional world? How can one usefully compare the ways that real people (Proust, for example) and characters (Marcel) exist? What is the difference between a man of letters and a writer? What does it mean to be a woman of letters? How much attention may one legitimately accord to oneself in asking questions such as those? Whatever hesitation she may feel in that latter regard, this book puts on display a more carefully considered and detailed portrait of the artist than any of Mémoire’s previous works. In its subtle geometries, its intelligence, and its canniness, it invites us to think about a life and a lifework, simultaneously. [End Page 250] Warren Motte University of Colorado Boulder Copyright © 2022 American Association of Teachers of French

Fuctional Illiteracy as an Axiological Problem

It is not only the illiteracy found in today’s knowledge societies, including developed countries, but also its reproduction in new generations that determines the relevance of this research. In France, one of the leading countries in Europe and the world, for decades there has been a decline in the level of general education. The trend continues despite the constant reforms of the education system, including those aimed, as their developers believe, at facilitating and updating learning. Programs in French, mathematics, history, and literature were especially lightened, or simplified, but fewer and fewer schoolchildren cope with them. University professors state that the number of students who experience difficulties in reading, writing and speaking their thoughts is growing. Official statistics report millions of functionally illiterate people who have left school. The purpose of this research is to analyze the axiological components of the French general education reforms and to study the philosophical reflections of the trend by the professional community. To exemplify and illustrate the problem there were chosen works by Barbara Lefebvre and Réne Chiche devoted to a detailed analysis of the situation in French education as of today with the focus on school education. The article aims to provide the specified data on the dynamic of functional illiteracy in France, to identify the axiological dominants that lie behind the modern reform, and to give a comprehensive analysis of the ideas expressed in the books of B. Lefebvre Génération «J'ai le droit»: La faillite de notre éducation and R. Chiche La désinstruction nationale. In both cases the authors attempt to undertake a philosophical understanding of the modern school education as one of the mechanisms for the transmission of culture that supports the formation of personality in the process of socialization. Both books clearly convey the idea that politically engaged reforms of public education, consciously or unconsciously ignoring the need to reflect on the real axiological foundations on which they are built, bring about the prospects for new, including latent, social risks.

Listening to Messiaen’s colourful hands

Name: Arjen Berends Main subject: Master Theory of Music Supervisor: Dr. Bert Mooiman Title of Research: Listening to Messiaen's colourful hands Subtitle: Analysing harmony and voice leading in the two homorhythmic chorales from Messiaen’s La Transfiguration de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ. Research question: How to analyse harmony and voice leading in the two homorhythmic chorales from Messiaen’s La Transfiguration de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ? Abstract Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992), one of the most famous French composers of the 20th century, was also known to be a great organist and improviser, as organist of Église de la Sainte-Trinité in Paris for over 60 years. His huge oratorio La Transfiguration de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ, composed 1965-1969, includes two entirely homorhythmic movements entitled ‘Choral’. As a listener, I am fascinated by Messiaen's extraordinary approach to harmony. The aim of this research is, therefore, to attempt to understand how best to analyse Messiaen's unique harmonic language. Many approaches to analysing Messiaen’s music are vertically orientated, including his own way of describing his use of harmony. He himself never discussed the horizontal aspects of his music. Because of his coloured hearing synaesthesia (son-couleur), Messiaen's analyses are particularly special in their manner of addressing the colours of certain chords. A colour analysis by Messiaen therefore may give the listener some insight in the way Messiaen might have perceived his music. This research includes videos with the music and paintings of the colour analyses by Messiaen and two other musicians with synaesthesia of one of the chorales, specially made for this research. Considering Messiaen’s own lack of emphasis on horizontal aspects of his music, is it possible to understand Messiaen’s music from a horizontal perspective as well? Since the two chorales are homophonic and homorhythmic, the bass and soprano are the most important voices. These parts can be perceived clearly, but the attention of the listener is also caught by other aspects such as the complexity of the chords. It is difficult to determine the precise voice leading of the inner parts because it is ‘blurred’ by the varied orchestration, but by way of harmonic reductions of the chorales, Messiaen’s horizontal compositional techniques can be clarified. This research includes a harmonisation of a melody by Messiaen in the style of the chorales in La Transfiguration. Biography Arjen Berends teaches music theory and arranging at the conservatories of The Hague and Utrecht. He graduated in music education at the Utrecht Conservatory, where he also studied classical piano with Henk Ekkel and Martyn van den Hoek. At the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague he completed his studies in music theory with Paul Scheepers, Arie Boers, Diderik Wagenaar, and Ineke Kien. He is répétiteur of Toonkunstkoor Amsterdam conducted by Boudewijn Jansen; he has previously worked with choral conductors such as Louis Buskens, Iassen Raykov and Béni Csillag.

Let’s Get Physical : reconstitution de la genèse de la série Vollard par Bonnard, Denis, Roussel, Vuillard & ... Clot

The four lithographic suites by Pierre Bonnard (1867–1947), Maurice Denis (1870–1943), Ker-Xavier Roussel (1867–1944) and Edouard Vuillard (1868–1940) were conceived over a period of approximately four years from 1896 and published around 1900 by Ambroise Vollard (1866–1939). They are generally considered as absolute masterpieces of nineteenth-century colour lithography. Since their generation of avant-garde artists considered the medium as ‘la production d’art spéciale de notre époque’ to quote the critic André Mellerio’s key text about colour lithography from 1898, these prints lie at the core of the four Nabis’ practice and output in the fin de siècle.1 Their lithographic practice also seems to have fed into their work in other media, for example in the way they applied colour to their paintings and decorative panels. All this makes it worthwhile to study the series in more depth and that is why the Van Gogh Museum has instigated a research project to reconstruct the genesis of the Vollard series.2

Adrift between republican values and plurilingual policies: (pre)primary school teachers’ reported practiced language policies in Strasbourg

Abstract In France, education policies concerning children’s home languages have recently changed, with the country’s highly centralized and monolingual national education system now promoting inclusive language policies, specifically at the pre-primary level (M.E.N. (Ministère de l’Education Nationale). 2016. Statégie langues vivantes. 22 janvier 2016. Paris). However, such prescribed practices run contrary to historically rooted monolingual ideologies and interpretations of the values of the République (Hélot, Christine. 2008. « Mais d’où est-ce qu’il sort ce bilinguisme? » La notion de bilinguisme dans l’espace scolaire français. In Gabriele Budach, Jürgen Erfurt & Melanie Kunkel (eds.), Écoles Plurilingues – Multilingual schools: Konzepte, Institutionen und Akteure. Internationale Perspecktiven, 55–80. Frankfurt: Peter Lang). Understanding the policies and ideologies influencing teachers’ agency to implement inclusive language policies via their own classroom practices is vital to developing effective teacher education programs. In this paper, we analyze data from our research into pre-primary and primary school teachers’ attitudes, beliefs, and knowledge about their pupils’ plurilingualism and its place in the classroom, with the aim of answering the following research questions: what are some of the reported practiced language policies in these classrooms, and on which underlying ideological foundations have they been constructed? In order to uncover the ideological challenges to implementing plurilingual education approaches and language-supportive pedagogies, semi-directed interviews with eight pre-primary and primary school teachers working in low-resource contexts (primarily low-income families) were conducted, transcribed and analyzed using the constant comparative method.

Notes critiques sur l’Hymnaire du Paraclet d’Abélard

This article brings together some thirty conjectures concerning the text of the Hymnary of the Paraclete by Peter Abelard. It is meant to complement the recent edition that appeared in the collection “Témoins de notre Histoire” (Brepols), and to be the first stage in the preparation of a critical edition.

Une relecture de l’art à la cour de Charles V de France : le moment 1378

article focuses on some miniatures attributable to the last years of life of Charles V such as the Coronation of the King, c. 3v of the Great Chronicles of France, BnF, ms. Fr. 2813, and The massacre of innocent, c. 61v of the Tres Belles Heures de Notre Dame de Jean de Berry, BnF, ms NAL 3093, traced back to years prior 1380, whose links with the enamel sur ronde-bosse of the contemporary goldsmithery could justify a dating of the Reliquary of Montalto in the same period. Later it dwells on the scepter of Charles V preserved in the Louvre, executed for the same sovereign in 1378 with precise political intentions; of this object the article bring in highlights the close ties with the reliquary of Montalto itself, whose enamel sur ronde-bosse of the lily, the lockets of the knot and perhaps the backgrounds of the stories of st. James are repeated, with reference also to the two flacons d'or with the figure of Charlemagne that the king of France donated to the emperor at the time of the farewell. Recalling that 1378 is the year in which developed the Great Schism and that of the visit of Emperor Charles IV in Paris with the aim of averting it, the article asks whether the exposition of Christ's wounds in the reliquary can also be read as an exposition of the wounds inflicted on the church at this time, concluding that three thematic lines seem charecterize the artistic commission of Charles V in anticipation of the emperor's trip to Paris: an historical-dynastic one (frontispieces of the Great Chronicles of France); a political-territorial one (the scepter and the two flacons); an ecclesiastical-devotional one (the Reliquary of Montalto): all objects that we can consider as vehicles of precise and very current messages at this date.

Chaos and Form

Chaos and Form Ernst Fischer (bio) Translated by Brigitte Schludermann Keywords Literature, form In the version by Karl Kraus of Aristophanes's The Birds, he makes the play end with the words: "Man has departed. The air is pure." I fear that this is not so, and that before man makes away with himself he will leave behind him air no longer fit for breathing. Humanism—has it not reached its end? Man, a verbal spectre, a prejudice—has he not been done away with? And what will arise and has already begun to make its appearance, has it not to do with the dictatorship of things, the absolutism of material and factual relationships, of systems and orders which rid themselves of man as a disturbing element? "Such a pity about man's lot!" Strindberg ventured to exclaim. A pity—Why? is the rejoinder of a petrified philosophy. "Before the end of the 18th century man did not exist," announces the widely acclaimed philosopher Michel Foucault in his book Les mots et les choses. And he continues: "Man was an invention of very recent date, a phenomenon less than two centuries old, in simple terms, an intellectual routine, un [End Page 1] simple pli de notre savoir." Man as mere phenomenon, and not as a living figure and shape, goes back farther in literature and the fine arts than he does in philosophy. And this phenomenon, Foucault thinks, would vanish as soon as a new form of expression has been discovered. Has this new form not been found, in this age of thinking atom heads and bursting human brains? Have men not been reduced to statistical cyphers, to parts of a mechanism which manipulates them? Has each variant of a future atomic war not been tested, with the result that such a war, being conceivable and calculable, might in given circumstances also be a product of rationalistic thought processes? By means of a very advanced technology the loss of a billion people might be made up within a foreseeable period of time. A science which has stripped itself of values makes each event an equation; and when this equation is correct the world may come to ruins. It is perhaps old-fashioned in this age of ours to defend the incalculable against the formula, to defend what is living against objectification (Verdinglichung), the improbable against probability, i.e. to come to the defence of man, this recent and yet already defunct invention, and thus to consider that a future is still possible for him. ________ Chaos is the most likely possibility. The rule and order of the inorganic is not entirely improbable. Man, the living form, the thinking creature who anticipates the future is as a probability most unlikely. Life is a violation of the law of entropy, of the tendency of matter to be transformed into chaotic molecular motion. This tendency is opposed by a mysterious striving after the improbable, after the accumulation of energy. Erwin Schrödinger speaks of the capability of organisms to accumulate "negative entropy" through processes of progressive evolution and of qualitative change. The intensification in the organized condition of living creatures signifies a breach in the order of things, and life a revolt against probability. This revolt culminates in man who, in feeding upon primary nature, brings forth another, a super-nature, which allows of deliberate acts of decision between alternatives, and thus of freedom conditioned though it may be. This second nature, however, seems to revenge itself for the fact that man has been transgressing the law of primary nature, that he who had been creature has made himself creator. For it is precisely his works which threaten his freedom, which draw him back into an order of things he undertook to burst asunder. In the works of men their relationships freeze into material and factual contexts, into ordered systems and structures to which laws we are being subjected. These material and factual contexts confront us as an alien power, as an external fatality, apparently condemning us to impotence. [End Page 2] Hegel and Marx spoke of man as an autonomous creation; the philosophy of total objectification knows only of his autonomous invention...

La mode féminine de la seconde moitié du XIXe siècle dans la caricature iconographique et littéraire

L’article analyse la relation entre la caricature et la mode à partir de quelques exemples de la satire visuelle et textuelle de la seconde moitié du XIXe siècle. La période est propice à la caricature de mode car, tout en reflétant les transformations politiques, économiques et sociales du temps, les tendances vestimentaires prônées à l'époque par les périodiques de mode reposent sur l'exagération et la déformation, qualités qui sont aussi les armes des humoristes. La première partie examine la représentation graphique du costume féminin, avant tout celle de la crinoline-cage, et les significations véhiculées par ces images railleuses. La seconde se concentre sur les fragments de La Comédie de notre temps (1874-1876) de Bertall, consacrés à la mode et au vêtement, et cherche à définir l'image de la femme et sa place dans la société bourgeoise en pleine mutation.

The Covid‐19 Pandemic Highlights Key Roles for Economists

In the lifetimes of most of us there have been few crises that have had such devastating global impacts on human health, wellbeing and economic activity as the Covid-19 pandemic. Governments have, where possible, sought to ameliorate the economic impacts of the virus, financed via staggering levels of borrowing albeit at very low interest rates. The crisis sharply highlights two key issues of particular interest to readers of this journal. First, the articles in this issue clearly show the strategic importance of the agri-food, fisheries and rural sectors in sustaining the health and general wellbeing of societies across the globe. In more stable and peaceful times it is easy to lose sight of the significance of these positive externalities. Second, the challenges of effectively communicating complex scientific and economic issues to the policy community and general public, vital roles given the potential consequences of the resulting public and private decisions. At times there have been failures by experts to engage and explain adequately, to policy stakeholders in particular, the nature, role and limitations of scenario analysis and a tendency to focus on worst-case scenarios. The challenge is even greater given the often poor understanding of scientific enquiry and even the anti-science rhetoric expounded on social media. Why have economists apparently had so little input to policies designed to handle the Covid-19 pandemic? Governments generally say they have been ‘following the science’ so apparently experts are once again in fashion! But science alone is not enough. The economic and social consequences of Covid-19 policies have been and will continue to be severe, but the influence of economic analysis in driving policy responses has apparently been marginal at best. It’s a common refrain from this journal but we do need to work harder to communicate and promote the importance and relevance of our research in steering policy development, and not just in times of pandemic. This issue of EuroChoices, therefore, aims to showcase the intensive work of economists, over a period of just a few months, in reflecting on and analysing the impacts of Covid-19 on global agri-food systems. Our profession should be proud of these achievements. Governments should pay greater attention to this body of expert work. But we also need to be more assertive in communicating the messages from our work to a range of stakeholders. There are probably two big messages emerging from the work featured in this issue. First, in the mature democracies of the developed world the agri-food systems have been relatively resilient in responding to the impacts of the pandemic, despite the initial disruptions to supply lines and labour availability. The voluntary sector has played a key role in ensuring that relatively deprived households have adequate food supplies and nutrition. The situation in the developing world has been more difficult. Food security has been much more uncertain and the nutrition of poor households has been disproportionately affected. In a Europe context, this issue also contains speculation on the extent to which the pandemic might actually change strategic societal priorities and levels of state intervention. I commend the excellent and timely articles in this issue and invite further submissions of clear and accessible articles on Covid-19 and other important agri-food and rural issues. In composing articles please do read the guidance for authors on the journal homepage via the Contribute tab at: eurochoices@aes.ac.uk. “We do need to work harder to communicate and promote the importance and relevance of our research.” “Nous devons fournir davantage d’efforts pour communiquer et promouvoir l'importance et la pertinence de notre recherche.” “Wir müssen uns mehr darum bemühen, die Bedeutung und Tragweite unserer Forschung zu kommunizieren und zu fördern.”

À L'ÉCOUTE DES MUSES EN GRÈCE ARCHAÏQUE: LA QUESTION DE L'INSPIRATION DANS LA POÉSIE GRECQUE À L'AUBE DE NOTRE CIVILIZATION. By CamilleSemenzato. Mythos Eikon Poesis vol. 9. De Gruyter Berlin/Boston2017. Pp. xi +3 95.

Religious Studies ReviewVolume 46, Issue 3 p. 403-403 Short Reviews of Recent Publications: Greece, Rome, Greco­-Roman Period À L'ÉCOUTE DES MUSES EN GRÈCE ARCHAÏQUE: LA QUESTION DE L'INSPIRATION DANS LA POÉSIE GRECQUE À L'AUBE DE NOTRE CIVILIZATION. By Semenzato, Camille. Mythos Eikon Poesis vol. 9. De Gruyter Berlin/Boston 2017. Pp. xi +3 95. First published: 11 November 2020 https://doi.org/10.1111/rsr.14778Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onEmailFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume46, Issue3Special Issue: Religion and SexualitySeptember 2020Pages 403-403 RelatedInformation

Évolution de la notion de viol conjugal du point de vue légal et sociétal en France et aux États-Unis

Évolution de la notion de viol conjugal du point de vue légal et sociétal en France et aux États-Unis

The Design Process at Le Corbusier, Case of the Ronchamp Chapel

AbstractThis work falls within the empirical studies of design activity. Its project is to understand Le Corbusier's designing way and how does he work and structure his design processes. Doing so, it jumps above the descriptive and doctrinal knowledge of objects produced by “Le Corbusier” to study the actions and mechanisms that led to them.To achieve its aim, this study uses genetic method, developed by P.M. De Biasi of literary origin, this research method is made of three stages. The first one, which is of empirical nature, is one of data gathering. It leads to the establishment of genesis tables and to the classification of the all collected documents. The second stage, makes the analysis of all the collected documents one by one. It allows the restitution of the creative process of one projects “Le Corbusier” which is “la chapelle de Notre Dame du haut de Ronchamp”. The last stage is finally that define the design processe of the this project. The results show that the design activity of “Le Corbuiser” obeys the overall logic of one generic model which may be called his individual designing style.

La Vierge dans les arts et les littératures du Moyen Âge: actes du colloque de Perpignan, du 17 au 19 octobre 2013. Sous la direction de Paul Bretel, Michel Adroher et Aymat Catafau

While the volume’s editors state their desire to take a pluridisciplinary approach, in this they only partially succeed: the essays presented investigate Marian devotion in history, art history, and literature, but only one of the volume’s four parts includes non-literary approaches. Moreover, while the volume covers several disciplines, the individual contributions remain locked in their disciplinary silos. Part One contains four studies of English and Anglo-Norman literary traditions. Jean-Paul Débax studies Mary’s place in English theatre, but because he devotes so much of his chapter to background his textual analyses remain somewhat cursory. Claire Vial’s excellent chapter on Middle English lyrics demonstrates how these songs to the Virgin indulge in the contemplation of mysteries akin to lectio divina, rather than scriptural exegesis. Olivier Simonin examines Mary in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and Françoise Laurent’s richly documented study of the miracle of Helsin in Wace’s Conception Nostre Dame and two Marian miracle collections finish out the first part. In the opening essay of Part Two, Lola Badia surveys images of the Virgin in the works of Ramon Llull. Miriam Cabré’s article on Mary in the poetry of Ceverí de Girona then posits that this troubadour’s religious production, while seemingly apart from his secular production, relies on the same aesthetic principles of registral variation and thematic adaptation. Michel Adroher examines texts in the Passion Dido to illustrate how much the author surprisingly glorifies Mary Magdalene while putatively praising the Virgin. Finally Sadurní Martí argues convincingly, in his study of the fourteenth-century Franciscan Francesc Eiximenis, how this writer deserves more scholarly attention. The third and longest part on French literature gathers ten essays on: Gautier de Coinci (Jean-René Valette and Gérard Gros); collections such as the Miracles de Notre Dame par personnages (Élisabeth Gauchier-Rémond); and institutions such as Marian poetic puys (Denis Hüe). Articles on less-studied texts — L’Advocacie Notre Dame (Jean-Marie Carbasse), the sermons of Arnoul de Lisieux (Audry Bettant), and Cistercian legends (Céline Pérol) — flesh out the literary and socio-cultural landscape. Karin Ueltschi studies the Mesnagier de Paris to show how virtues traditionally associated with Mary are closely aligned to the ideal bourgeoise prudefemme. Finally, Paul Bretel’s ambitious study of images of Virgin in twelve (!) miracle collections marks the culmination of Part Three. The final part is composed of four studies: Alessia Trivellone’s study of a manuscript miniature of a scribe offering his codex to the Virgin in a copy of Jerome’s Commentary on Jeremiah (Dijon, BM 130, folio 104r); Jordi Camps i Sòria’s richly illustrated contribution on the Virgin and Child in Romanesque statues in Catalonia; Jean-René Gaborit’s study of Marian reliquaries; and Jean-Louis Olive’s study of a statuette called Nostra Senyora de la Salvetat in the church of Nostre-Dame de la Salvetat in Roussillon. Several indexes round out the volume; however, a final bibliography would have been equally helpful. The volume will find an appreciative audience among specialists in medieval literature and art.

E. Cartan’s attempt at bridge-building between Einstein and the Cosserats – or how translational curvature became to be known as torsion

\'Elie Cartan's "g\'en\'eralisation de la notion de courbure" (1922) arose from a creative evaluation of the geometrical structures underlying both, Einstein's theory of gravity and the Cosserat brothers generalized theory of elasticity. In both theories groups operating in the infinitesimal played a crucial role. To judge from his publications in 1922--24, Cartan developed his concept of generalized spaces with the dual context of general relativity and non-standard elasticity in mind. In this context it seemed natural to express the translational curvature of his new spaces by a rotational quantity (via a kind of Grassmann dualization). So Cartan called his translational curvature "torsion" and coupled it to a hypothetical rotational momentum of matter several years before spin was encountered in quantum mechanics.

Rousseau on Stage: Playwright, Musician, Spectator by Maria Gullstam Michael O'Dea

 Reviews as an easy familiarity with recent scholarship and critical theory, and readers will find here a lively survey of current thinking on a crucial issue in Rousseau studies, written in a clear and oen elegant style. e first chapter explores the relationship between the notion that nature veils its secrets and the writer’s need to explore them at different levels of intelligibility, reserving some insights for those capable of properly discerning them. e tradition of the previous century’s libertins érudits is important here. e second chapter, following a line from the Discours sur l’inégalité to the Lettre à d’Alembert to Émile, sets the acts of writing and reading within the larger context of the moral and political formation of public-minded citizens. A suggestive interlude on the importance of intratextual ‘silence’ as a special kind of authentic communication is followed by a concluding chapter on Rousseau’s dramatization through his writing of philosophy as a self-validating ‘way of life’, to use an expression popularized by Pierre Hadot’s influential work on the ancient world (Dinah Ribard’s important though too little-known Raconter, vivre, penser: histoires de philosophes – (Paris: Vrin, ) would also have been helpful here). Yet, while on a moment by moment basis the author intelligently engages with Rousseau’s texts, the overall argument is frustratingly difficult to discern. at Rousseau seeks to ‘pluraliser la notion de public en nous sensibilisant à la complexit é de ce que c’est une adresse politique’ (p. ) is a valid but in itself not especially original idea, and given the amount of scholarship devoted to Rousseau’s relationship with his readers, the author might have stated more clearly what new interpretative claims she is making, and where exactly current criticism falls short. e many commentators referenced are mostly cited with approval, even though they hold widely differing views of Rousseau’s aims and achievements. For example, are the ‘faiblesses argumentatives’ (p. ) of the Discours sur les sciences et les arts the mistakes of a fledgling writer, or do they hint at a subtly controlling ‘visée cachée’ (p. )? Yamashita cites critics on both sides, but she does not adjudicate between their positions or grapple with their assumptions. In her laudable effort to be comprehensive, and perhaps to respect a plurality of points of view, she moves from one topic, and one work, to the next through associations and textual echoes instead of building a case through a series of clearly articulated steps. is is a smart and well-informed book, but it could have been a more incisive one. U  C, L A P C Rousseau on Stage: Playwright, Musician, Spectator. Ed. by M G and M O’D. Oxford: Voltaire Foundation. . xxx+ pp. £. ISBN ––––. is volume aims to demonstrate Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s love for the theatre by addressing ‘Rousseau as theorist of theatre and opera’ (p. ), ‘Rousseau as playwright’ (p. ) and ‘Rousseau’s operatic and theatrical posterity’ (p. ) in eleven essays. Rousseau on Stage is a handsome book with thirteen illustrations, and MLR, .,   its contributors include some well-known Rousseau scholars, such as Jacqueline Waeber and David Marshall. While the book is directed at an audience of anglophone postgraduate students and scholars of French theatre, literature, and music, the footnoted translations make the material accessible to readers with little to no knowledge of French. e ‘theatre and music chronology’ prefacing the book provides an extensive overview of Rousseau’s relationship to theatre. Rousseau on Stage would appeal most to readers seeking to learn different perspectives on the Lettre à d’Alembert sur les spectacles () and Pygmalion (), for the majority of the essays in the book analyse these two texts to some degree. e opening two essays, by Felicity Baker (‘e Anthropological Foresight of the Lettre sur les spectacles’) and Patrick Primavesi (‘e Dramaturgy of Rousseau’s Lettre à d’Alembert and its Importance for Modern eatre’), cover the Lettre, and many of the other essays spend substantial time on this text. e same is true of Pygmalion; two essays are ostensibly devoted to it, but it emerges as a key subject in several other articles. e editors, Maria Gullstam and...

Droit subjectif ou droit objectif? La notion de ius en droit scaramentaire au xiie siècle by Thierry Sol

Reviewed by: Droit subjectif ou droit objectif? La notion de ius en droit scaramentaire au xiie siècle by Thierry Sol Jason Taliadoros Sol, Thierry. Droit subjectif ou droit objectif? La notion de ius en droit scaramentaire au xiie siècle. Turnhout: Brepols, 2017. Pp. 331. $104. ISBN: 978-2-503-57602-2 Thierry Sol's monograph navigates a particularly difficult subject, whose understanding depends on a precise use of language and terms. For this reviewer, who is accustomed to communicating in the English language, the task is therefore doubly difficult. The title, Droit subjectif ou droit objectif? La notion de ius en droit scaramentaire au xxie siècle, translates as 'Subjective Right or Objective Right?: The Notion of Right in Sacramental Law in the Twelfth Century'. The word droit in French, just like the Latin term it translates, 'ius', can mean either 'right' or 'law' in English. Which of these is meant here? The French terms 'droit subjectif' and 'droit objectif' translate as 'subjective right' and 'objective right' respectively, since the term 'droit' here is intended to capture the broader idea of an entitlement, something due to someone, rather than the narrower English term 'law', which more commonly connotes a normative system, usually in a positivist sense. Of course, the other reason for translating 'droit' as 'right' is that Sol clearly situates his book within the scholarly controversy that has influenced political, historical, and legal historical scholarship on the origin of the use of the concept of subjective right (droit subjectif) in the history of Western European thought: the debate between American medievalist and canon lawyer, Brian Tierney, and French legal theorist, legal historian, and Roman lawyer, Michel Villey. These two men, each of them extremely influential leaders in their respective centres of learning, came up with two very different solutions to this quandary. As to whether they were in fact answering the same question, Sol has something to say on this, of which I will add more below. From Villey's perspective, there was a Copernican-like moment in the fourteenth century in the writings of William Ockham when that author conceived of the novel concept of a subjective right when employing the Latin term [End Page 337] 'ius'; this was significant because previously that same Latin term had designated only an objective right. The distinctive quality in Ockham, for Villey, was that when referring to the term 'ius', Ockham meant also 'potestas', a power in the individual.1 In contrast, Tierney situated this same moment two centuries earlier in the writings of the twelfth-century decretists as they commentated on the swirling meanings of the term ius in the text of Gratian's Decretum. Villey's works on this topic spanned the period from the mid-1940s to the early 1980s, while Tierney's contributions began in the 1960s and have continued right up to the present day. Tierney's Liberty and Law, published in 2014, was the culmination of his 'corpus' on the idea of the subjective, or permissive, right, which I reviewed in a recent volume of this journal.2 Now Brian Tierney has joined Michel Villey as another master scholar to have passed from us.3 Thierry Sol's stated aim in writing this book is not, like Tierney or Villey, to find the historical a priori starting point for 'individual rights' but instead to pursue 'a subjective way of thinking of rights, beginning from faculties and powers that a man can use'.4 Sol's perspective is that of the theologian and the canonist as his focus is on how this subjective way of thinking manifests itself in the 'munus sanctificandi', one of the offices or duties of the ordained priest, namely that of sanctifying (including the right of celebrating the sacraments and the associated right of [End Page 338] binding and loosing, excommunicating and deposing). This office of sanctifying, Sol notes, was also a major preoccupation of canon lawyers in the twelfth century, the period to which he confines his study. So centring his study on this essential role of the priest, the central question Sol asks himself is this:5 is the right of celebrating [the sacraments] (ius...

Soi et soi/être, de la bactérie au salience network

ObjectivesThe notion of self remains difficult to define. The objective of the present paper is to try to more fully understand what the self is, by tracing its evolution from the origins, and by focusing on the distinction between self and non-self, the guiding idea being that the self/non-self distinction is a primary and fundamental constant in the construction of organisms. MethodsWe rapidly describe the evolution of the self/non-self distinction, from bacteria to humans, in the two main systems where the self is essential, namely the immune system and the brain. ResultsThe organization of the immune self is still poorly understood. It seems that the self needs to be considered on two levels, that of memory storage and that of memory supervision. In the brain, we also need to distinguish a preconscious self from an acting self that can be called the self-being. To illustrate the notion de self-being, we analyze what it could be in the case of the compulsion to dink in alcoholics. DiscussionIt seems that the self builds itself using sensory mechanisms that convert non-self into self, and executive mechanisms that exclude the non-self. The conversion of the non-self into self builds a system of representations of non-self that prepares the subject to confront the environment; the executive mechanisms rest on the ability to make choices, on a “this is me, that is not me” model; in the brain, this could be achieved by an executive process using the self-being, which is the moment when an object is chosen occupies the whole space of the acting self; it is suggested that the biological underpinning of this enacted choice – the self-being – is the salience network. ConclusionThe study of the evolution of the self from the origins, focusing on the self/non-self distinction, could be a useful tool to more fully understand the nature of the self.