Fragmented Style Research Articles

Severo Sarduy on Galileo, Kepler, Borromini, and the Coded Language of the Anamorphic Image

CUBAN writer, Severo Sarduy, author of numerous essays, novels, books of poetry, and radio plays, remains even among Latinamericanists a relatively marginal writer; and this, I believe, is due to inherent difficulty of his neobaroque, post-modern, fragmentary style. And yet there is an order to everything he wrote, and an aesthetic and theoretical project that becomes evident when one puts all pieces of puzzle together. For instance much of what Sarduy wrote about art and culture can be found in an understandable--albeit cryptic manner--in his 1974 book, Barroco. And what prima facie seems to be a nonsensical stew of disparate ideas, for Sarduy ideas and concepts he explored were all in some ways logically connected to each other--even if transversally. For instance, that Sarduy would consider Rothko, Kline, and Larry Bell, as a continuation of Baroque--art styles that seemed so removed in their abstraction and minimalism from classical Baroque-only makes sense when one considers that it was precisely this group of artists who rediscovered Mannerism in 1950s. For as Arnold Hauser argued in Mannerism: The Crisis and Origin of Modern Art, modern artists, like their predecessors, were also concerned with materiality of art. And it was precisely this general aesthetic that they shared with Mannerists. If Sarduy dared to put Larry Bell and Robert Morris in same line as Velazquez and Cervantes it is only because they all shared belief that, as Sarduy was to put it the work was in work, and nowhere else. And further, if Sarduy could see a relation between Kepler's theory of elliptical movement and Borromini's architectural designs, and between Borrominian ellipse and hidden code of anamorphic image, it is only because for Sarduy structuralist theorist, language, no less than pictorial image, called not so much for a reading, as a deciphering. Hence, in pages that follow I will briefly examine how Sarduy puts seemingly unrelated ideas together to give us an anamorphic picture of painterly and writerly language, be it scientific or poetic. And thus begin with his treatment of Galileo. As is well known to history of science, for Aristotelian orbits of celestial bodies had to be downward and centripetal. No other kind of motion would do. And interestingly this Aristotelian metaphysical position also influenced his lesser known theory of aesthetics--something to which Sarduy alludes, and Erwin Panofsky notes in his article, Galileo as a Critic of Arts. According to Panofsky, seems to have rejected Kepler's theory of elliptical orbits, primarily because it was incompatible with very principles which dominated his thought as well as his imagination ... Where we would consider circle as a special case of ellipse, would not but feel that ellipse is a distorted circle: a form which was, so to speak, unworthy of celestial bodies ... and, which, we may add, was as emphatically rejected by High Renaissance as it was cherished in Mannerism. (10, 11-12, my emphasis) (1) For figure of centrism and circularity represented a imperative, founded on notion of the natural. The Italian scientist, says Sarduy, confused notion of natural with that of rational (OCII/Barroco 1216). Sarduy writes: [E]l barroco sera extravagancia y artificio, perversion de un orden y equilibrado: moral (OC-II/'Barroco 1216). In other words, whatever was un-natural (e.g., elongated figures of Parmigianino, figural distortions of Giuseppe Arcimboldo (c. 1527-1593), anamorphic, off-centered image of Hans Holbein's The Ambassadors, etc.) all constituted a species of perversion for Galileo. And of Galileo's rejection of anamorphic painting vis-a-vis his more specific denunciation of Mannerist overturning of linear perspective, Sarduy argues: El imperio de lo obliga a a proclamarse agente del terror, como se ha llamado a esa tradicion, moral, denotativa, que asimila las figuras retoricas a una perversion de la naturalidad del relato . …

Stičišča v »maturitetnih« romanih Otroške stvari in Otroštvo

The novels for the matriculation examination, Otroške stvari (2003, Things of Childhood) by Lojze Kovačič (1928–2004) and Otroštvo (1983, Childhood) by Nathalie Sarraute (1902–1999) have many parallels, which are divided into story and narrative parallels in the present article. Story parallels are connected by collective topics and the similarity of the main character: a child. The two novels share (common) themes such as childhood, love, friendship, individuality, creativeness, empathy, art, homeland, language and education. The common features of Bubi and Nataša are individuality, a strong personality, a rich imagination and a talent for art, as well as suffering due to conflicts between their parents. Apart from the story parallels, there are also narrative parallels: the poetics of modernism, a fragmentary style, description and dialogue as a means of making narrative closer to the present, an “essay style”, the point of view of a child, and the unreliable narrator. Both novels are modernistic autobiographical novels and Bildungsromans, in which the protagonists’ memories are stimulated by the poetics of the fragment; Kovačič’s memory acts as an accumulation of descriptions, while Sarraute activates memory through so-called “tropismes” (reminiscent words).

Public Theology and ‘The Fragment’: Duncan Forrester, David Tracy, and Walter Benjamin

AbstractPublic theologians as diverse as Duncan Forrester and David Tracy have pointed to ‘the fragment’ as a useful and timely form of theological reflection. This article considers the possibility of the fragmentary form for public theology by complementing the suggestions of Forrester and Tracy with Walter Benjamin’s critical philosophy of history. Benjamin’s use of the fragment as a genre of expression reflects a desire to retrieve history without perpetuating history’s oppressive tendencies. Public theologians suspicious of these tendencies would do well not only to emulate Benjamin’s fragmentary style but to understand and embrace the philosophical reflections driving it. After summarizing the turn to the fragment in Forrester and Tracy, this article continues with a consideration of Benjamin, highlighting the possibilities for liberation and critique in a public theology dependent on his philosophy.

Moderne psihoanalitičke teorije i eksperimentalna proza

The balance between the subjective and the objective perspectives in experimental prose must be accomplished in order to achieve the effect of intensive reflective and spiritual reality. Deleuze and Guattari take the method of William Burroughs and James Joyce as examples of the so- called 'butchered text method' which refers to the temporal-spatial perspective. Furthermore, they mention Nietzsche's interlocking of 'eternal return of the present as something that opinion does not know' and the theory of Stephen Mallarme, who combines well known, fragmented style with alchemical dream. According to him, the primary purpose of the modern text is to get closer to the reader so that any reader can interpret it in his own way. Trying to demystify scientific fantasy of objectivity, Lacan does not attribute impersonality and exteriority to art, but science and theory. According to him, a text without the influence of psychological factors, which make both life and characters more realistic, is not art. The connection between the external world and a man is expressed through a mirror, which Lacan tentatively calls 'imago'. Imago of the outside world or one's appearance is present in hallucinations or dreams, always reflecting the internal condition of the individual, its fragility (senility) or its fair projection, thereby making this 'subjective-objective' relationship unbreakable.

The Japanese-Garden Aesthetics of Robert Lepage:Shukukei,Mitate, andFusuma-einSeven Streams of the River Otaand Other Works

This article demonstrates the existence of a strong aesthetic kinship between themise en scèneof Robert Lepage and the representational mode of the classical Japanese rock garden. In order to elicit the creative participation of an active spectator, both use such Zen techniques as a radical reduction of scale, orshukukei(miniature landscape); minimalistic material metaphors, ormitate(metaphoric representation); and an asymmetrical, fragmented style, orfusuma-e(fragmented scene). Drawing on the theory and practice of Japanese rock gardening, this article introduces a new critical vocabulary for describing the representational logic, and enlightening effects, of Lepage's approach to ‘setting up stones’ on the stage inSeven Streams of the River Otaand other works.

Cognitive flexibility, central coherence and social emotional processing in males with an eating disorder

Objectives. Females are more likely to develop an eating disorder (ED) than males. Studies of affected men may therefore inform models of risk and resilience to EDs. The aim of this study was to examine putative neurocognitive intermediate phenotypes of EDs in affected males. Methods. Cognitive flexibility, central coherence (global/detail processing), complex emotion recognition and social-threat sensitivity were investigated in men with EDs and healthy men. Measures of distress, perfectionism, and obsessive compulsivity were collected. Results. Men with EDs were more cognitively inflexible across tasks and had more difficulty integrating global information than healthy men. Unexpectedly, there were no group differences on a visuospatial task of detail processing or on social-emotional processing tasks. Men with EDs had higher scores on measures of distress, perfectionism and obsessive compulsivity than healthy men. Conclusions. Men with EDs share some of the intermediate cognitive phenotype present in women with EDs. Like their female counterparts, males with EDs show an inflexible, fragmented cognitive style. However, relative to healthy men, men with EDs do not have superior detail processing abilities, poor emotion recognition or increased sensitivity to social-threat. It is possible that gender differences in social-threat processing contribute to the female preponderance of EDs.

Arrecife by Juan Villoro

148 World Literature Today reviews the context of other histories, including the ugly legacy of colonization, slavery, and personal deceits. Vassanji ’s prodigious research provides insight into certain details of the German occupation of East Africa, the Maji Maji rebellion in Tanzania (War of the Waters), the slavery of East Africans and sexual exploitation of African concubines by Indians in Africa, the export of African slaves to India, the resulting African communities in India known as Sidis, and Idi Amin’s atrocities against Asians in Uganda forcing the exodus of Asians to global destinations, including Canada . The narration of the history of Kilwa and German colonization is thrice removed, reminding readers of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Lord Jim. Kamal, like many of Vassanji’s characters and the novel’s plot, is a reminder that identity, history, and memory are complex. Vassanji confounds popular understandings of history, refusing to provide readers with black-and-white answers to ambiguous historical questions. Written in poetically intense language with a keen eye for detail, Vassanji’s signature sense of humor enlivens The Magic of Saida. This reader is captivated by the mesmerizing suspense that leaves all readers wanting more from M. G. Vassanji’s magical pen. Asma Sayed University of Alberta Juan Villoro. Arrecife. Barcelona. Anagrama. 2012. isbn 9788433972359 It is no accident that Juan Villoro is classified as a postmodern author. We know that, in general, literary criticism resorts to the postmodern label when it seeks to quickly classify those works that are characterized by a fragmentary style, open endings, and an obsession with the present (mass media, sports, fashion, and entertainment ). These are works that, in other words, deal with frivolous themes in a serious manner. Within this context, Arrecife confirms that Villoro’s postmodernity , far from being an arbitrary label, is an apt classification, yet one that requires a careful reading to be understood. Arrecife’s plot is the following: An ex-rocker, Mario Müller, living in the Caribbean, sets up the Pyramid, a tourist attraction based on violent, but fake, experiences: simulated kidnappings and encounters with narcoguerrillas carried out by hired actors as well as excursions into the jungle in exotic places infested with dangerous beasts. The clients are, of course, bored American and European tourists in search of intense experiences that will shake them out of the tedium of their empty, superficial Pierre Michon The Eleven Jody Gladding & Elizabeth Deshays, tr. Archipelago Books Winner of the Grand Prix du Roman from the Académie Française, Pierre Michon’s agile, rhythmic depiction of the French Revolution is also a bildungsroman. Corentin leads a provincial life until his paintings, commissioned by Louis XV’s mistress, launch him into Parisian society (see WLT, Mar. 2010, 67). Wayne Macauley The Cook Quercus An ultimatum is delivered: youth prison or cooking school. The young protagonist chooses cooking, wanting to show he can succeed after past mistakes. Chronicling the apprenticeship of an aspiring chef, Wayne Macauley’s unique novel focuses on the culinary aspects of the setting while highlighting the personal growth of a character determined to prove himself. march–april 2013 • 149 Nota Bene lives. “The Pyramid was governed by rest, understood as isolation, and diversion, understood as risk. A place where lights and music created a suspended reality and the entertainment programs raised the heartbeat.” Everything goes well until one of the hotel divers is found murdered. From that moment, we discover that behind this exotic resort designed for frivolous tourists, where everything appears to happen in an impregnable bubble, emerges the violent reality of the Mexican drug cartels. The hidden violence that surrounds the Pyramid is the only real thing in the place. The novel takes place in a saturated postmodern environment with an abundance of damaged characters who are eccentric or simply seeking a new opportunity in life, such as Sandra , the ashtanga yoga and Tibetan kung-fu instructor who lives in Mexico illegally; Tony, the ex-drug addict who builds sound systems for the hotel aquariums with help from computers; Mario, the manager, who sees himself as a New Age guru; and Ginger, an American diver who is the member of an extreme-sport club named...

The Remains of Empire and the “Purloined” Philippines: Jessica Hagedorn’s Dream Jungle

This essay examines Dream Jungle’s intervention into the imaginary configuration of the Philippines. Lacan’s elaboration on “purloin” prompts a reading of the Philippines as not simply “stolen” by imperialism but “prolonged”—via Hagedorn’s fictional creativity—into a community evolving through imperial intrusions, translocal displacements, and encounters.

“No more’n a needle in a haystack”: The City as Style and Destructive Underworld in John Dos Passos’ <i>Manhattan Transfer</i>

This article discusses how John Dos Passos in Manhattan Transfer (1925) uses the fragmented Manhattan of the early twentieth century both as a style for writing an urban tale and as a symbol of a suffocating, all-consuming fiery inferno, where the only chance for success and redemption is by leaving. Taking its point of departure in theories on city literature and historical writings on the city of the early twentieth century, the article discusses Dos Passos. cryptic and fragmented style and links it to the portrayal of a fragmented and destructive city.

Broken Words: Maurice Blanchot and the Impossibility of Writing

This essay explains what Blanchot understands as writing and the space of literature. For Blanchot, writing is the place where the impossible interruption of the destiny of things is put into play, an interruption that world-formation needs but negates and conceals. Writing belongs to an excess outside of language, an otherness of language. The need to write is linked to the point at which nothing can be done with words. Writing is contrasted with dialectical language and the totalizing aim of the Hegelian system. The essay explains the connection between the disaster of writing (after the holocaust), the neuter and fragmentary style of writing and the passivity of writing

Foolish knowledge: the commercial modernity of the periodical press

This article adds to critics’ growing interest in Romantic periodicals by focusing on weekly periodicals’ role as “the Historian of character and manners.” If the monthly reviews and magazines boasted of their panoptic survey of the whole of recent literary production, the single‐essay periodicals defined their importance by embracing what was in many ways the opposite perspective. Preoccupied with the resonant power of local truths, they gravitated towards a style which functioned as a microcosm of a larger order that could only ever be delineated through fragments rather than through any more encompassing structural analysis. If their fragmentary style left weekly periodical writers vulnerable to the charge of contributing to the age’s cultural decline by satisfying readers with a stream of brief and highly conversational essays, they countered this objection by insisting that their disconnected form fostered an active process of critical engagement by training readers to participate in what Samuel Johnson called the “miscellaneous and unconnected” nature of a modern commercial society. In doing so they helped to translate the discourse of polite sociability into a basis of cultural authority which reflected the domain of middle‐class life at the expense of the aristocratic connotations that critics such as the Earl of Shaftesbury had associated with it.

Literaturoznawstwo jako roz-twarzanie. Problem podwójnego autorstwa w tekstach Tadeusza Rachwała i Tadeusza Sławka

The essay is an attempt of rethinking a mode of authorship in literary science discourse of Tadeusz Rachwał and Tadeusz Sławek. Their texts is being compared with G. Deleuze and F. Guattari's method of collective writing and interpreted according to theories of J. Derrida, P. de Man and M. Foucault. Rachwał and Sławek's strategy of double authorship (which is not the same as traditional co-authorship) underlines the impossibility of recognition who is speaking in the text; therefore their collective books may be understood as a kind of performing theses which they contain (e.g. connected with poststructuralist "death of author" or a poet and God's mystical co-writing). Furthermore, double authorship leaves its marks on structure of text. We can see a lot of techniques which make Rachwał and Sławek's texts more complicated, e.g. fragmentary style of writing, using different types of typography and even creating an elements of visual poetry. These experiments and a new way of these texts' being in academic public sphere make them rather ethical than scientific - the ethic qualities and poetic function seem to be more important than the science typical cognitive functions. Because of unceasing underlining a linguistic aspect, the texts of Rachwał and Sławek may be read as examples of rhetorical type of ethic criticism. Not only do they ask about a significance of primary ethical ideas like friendship, community or responsibility, but also about an existence of category of author in literary studies after linguistic turn.

Politics and Trade in Design: Emmy Zweybrück-Prochaska's Influential Textile Designs in Needlework Development Scheme Collections

This paper discusses the Emmy Zweybrück-Prochaska textile collection, the largest collection by a foreign designer in the pre-war Needlework Development Scheme (NDS), set up and funded anonymously by J&P Coats, the Glasgow thread industrialists between 1934 and 1962. The paper seeks to analyze Coats's rationale for the collection, their role in the production of designs alluding to political events or themes in a manner acceptable to the ruling regimes, and their impact on British design. Most of Zweybrück's NDS textiles survive in collections at the National Museums of Scotland (Edinburgh), Glasgow School of Art, Dundee University, and Robert Gordon University (Aberdeen). The paper clarifies the provenance and influences on the significant Zweybrück designs held in these collections. Consideration is given to the dissemination of this dissenting, marginal, fragmentary style on British artists, educators and students. Played out in this history are issues of aesthetics, collecting, education and marketing.

Outside History: Edna O'Brien's House of Splendid Isolation

Edna O'Brien is not a name one often hears in discussions of postmodernism. Nevertheless, her 1995 novel House of Splendid Isolation, which some reviewers have described as a new departure for O'Brien, contains postmodernist ele ments.1 For instance, the novel resembles a pastiche in its almost random jux taposition of diary entries, snippets of poems, a children's fable, Irish mythol ogy, a 1921 IRA volunteer's journal, and personal notes included without any introduction, interspersed throughout its short, staccato sections of narrative.2 These italicized insertions make it difficult to fit the story within the framework of a known history, a defamilarizing strategy often employed in postmodernist fiction. narrative itself proceeds in an achronological way through frag mented bits and pieces that the reader must fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. This fragmented style, which reminds one of the crosscutting technique in contemporary cinema and television, makes House of Splendid Isolation at times confusing. novel opens with a short section titled The Child, in which an initially unidentifiable voice speaks prophetically, as if from the grave. fol lowing section titled The Present begins by describing the Northern Irish IRA gunman McGreevy hiding under a tree as he is pursued by a police heli copter. Then we meet the Irish garda officer Rory Purcell who is presented in a domestic scene with his wife, son, and daughter. Purcells are watching a

What Works in Offender Management?1

This article traces the emergence of a trend toward a fragmented style of offender management, whereby staff increasingly occupy specialist roles, and offenders encounter a variety of staff in the course of supervision. Reflecting on existing research, it argues that offenders are not best served by a system in which they are conceived as 'portable entities', and in which staff are obliged to engage in a 'pass-the-parcel' style of supervision. It also argues that the fragmentation of practice presents risks to at least some staff in terms of morale and job satisfaction. Finally, implications for NOMS are discussed. Less than a decade ago, an offender commencing probation supervision could expect a high degree of continuity in his or her order (Burnett 1996). It was more than likely that the probation officer who prepared the offender's pre-sentence report would subsequently become his or her supervising officer, and the offender could expect to complete his or her order or licence under the supervision of the same officer. This article reflects on the recent trend toward 'fragmentation' in the delivery of probation which, it is argued, has been associated with a partial breakdown of the traditional 'relational' model of offender supervision. This trend in favour of fragmentation, it is argued, is traceable to a number of developments, beginning in the early 1990s with the formalisation of partnership arrangements and the emergence of a 'case management' model of practice. More recently, fragmentation has been encouraged by a growing tendency, at the level of management, to think about and treat offenders differentially in accordance with risk profiles. This article argues that, as the power to make decisions about the shape of offender supervision has moved further up the managerial hierarchy, notions of effectiveness have become confused. In short, 'what works' at the level of aggregate 'offender management' does not necessarily work for offenders, or indeed the practitioners responsible for supervising them.

Sustainable consumption à la française? Conventional, innovative, and alternative approaches to sustainability and consumption in France

Consumption has again become the object of critical political attention in France over the last few years. Despite obvious links with the global project to promote “sustainable consumption,” this renewal of interest has had little connection with Agenda 21. Among the factors responsible for this situation, the poor integration of environmental issues in French political culture seems to be of primary importance. While the country has made some recent progress, historical analyses highlight the fragmented style of environmental management in France. These circumstances, in turn, have contributed to the slow uptake of “sustainable development” and have been a major impediment in the implementation of successful eco-consumption policies. However, if the ultimate goal of “sustainable consumption” is to transcend contemporary ways of acquiring goods and to move toward a reassessment of the values underlying them, then several developments in France become directly relevant. Indeed, if the country does not qualify as a leader in conventional eco-consumption policies, it has begun to evince self-reflexivity regarding some basic consumption practices. This article considers three especially notable developments: (1) the implementation of innovative employment policies such as the 35 hour work week; (2) the revival of the country’s anti-consumerism movement; and (3) the adoption of confrontational positions on culture and agriculture during international trade negotiations. Taken in the round, these trends suggest the emergence of a nationwide exercise in “discriminating consumerism” and a move away from an unquestioned materialism.

<strong>A More Contemporary Voice:</strong> A. M. Klein's Original and Revised Translations of the Hebrew Poems of Hayyim Nahman Bialik

In 1936 – 37, A. M. Klein, the distinguished Montreal Jewish poet, translated into English thirteen of Bialik's poems, including "Be'ir hahareigah." Some twenty years later, during 1953 – 55, Klein retranslated four of the poems that he had translated in the 1930s, including part of "Be'ir hahareigah," as well as translated for the first time Bialik's poem "Kokhavim metsitsim vekhavim." This essay first accounts for the differences in style between Klein's 1930s translations and the revised 1950s translations and for the general superiority of the latter over the former by examining the shift in poetics that is manifest in Klein's writing of original poetry. It then shows that Klein's revised translation of "Be'ir hahareigah" is an exception to this general superiority, suffering from exaggerated, strained, and fervid diction and an overly jagged, splintered, and fragmented style untrue to the original, and suggests that these flaws may result from an attempt on the part of Klein to rewrite "Be'ir hahareigah" as a Holocaust poem. Finally, it suggests — to be sure, speculatively — that the reason Klein never completed that revised translation is that at some point he realized that his post-Holocaust audience was not emotionally ready for the poem's indictment of the victims of Kishinev for their cowardice, passivity, and non-resistance — particularly since it would likely view the poem by extension as an attack on the victims of the Holocaust.

The Shock of Arrival: Poetry from the Nazi Camps at the End of the Century

This article considers the history of publication in Germany of poems from the National Socialist concentration camps. It also traces an international shift in attitude toward these poems, from neglect or suppression in the decades after World War II to a heightened interest and the issuance of numerous anthologies in the 1990s. It then endeavors to provide psychoanalytically informed readings of a number of these poems to illustrate the range of issues raised by individual works. The form of the poems seems to function as the basis for an articulation of the poets' traumatic experience,allowing the authors to create in or through the poem a “resonating other,” or an interlocutor who plays an essential role in the mechanisms that safeguard psychic identity and health. In terms of aesthetic ideology,these poems show that poetry was not only possible in the camps but also perhaps “useful” to some inmates. They demonstrate the enduring power of old forms in critical situations and suggest that classical meter,conventional rhythm, and rhyme provided a needed sense of order and stability. Such uses of conventional poetic forms and traditional versification present a sharp contrast to the experimentation, ellipsis, and fragmentary style critics have called for as the logical consequence of the Shoah conceived as the breakdown of civilization.

Gabriel Marcel, ou l'homme à la mesure de la transcendance

Already by its fragmented style, the work of Gabriel Marcel daims to reflect an exploded anthropological reality. Refusing any kind of conceptualization he is opposed to the metaphysical tradition of the idealist kind. In this respect he is close to a Nietzschean issue and produces a philosophy which is a search, of the same kind as the Versuch. This is the only way to account for man' s itinerancy, not in the mad rush of endless becoming, but towards the horizon of a transcendence .

Neuropsychological classification and treatment of dyslexia.

Evidence shows that initial and advanced learning to read are predominantly mediated by the right and left cerebral hemispheres, respectively. Premature reliance on left-hemispheric reading strategies may result in L-type dyslexia, characterized by hurried and inaccurate reading. P-type dyslexia, characterized by a slow and fragmented style of reading, may result from the inability to shift from the predominant generation of right-hemispheric reading strategies to the predominant generation of left-hemispheric reading strategies. Results of investigations concerning the validity of the L/P-typology are discussed, as are the reading effects of hemisphere-specific and hemisphere-alluding stimulation in children with L- and P-type dyslexia.