Geographical Reality Research Articles

No Man’s Land: The Life and Art of Mary Riter Hamilton by Kathryn A. Young and Sarah M. McKinnon

Reviewed by: No Man’s Land: The Life and Art of Mary Riter Hamilton by Kathryn A. Young and Sarah M. McKinnon Angela R. Cunningham No Man’s Land: The Life and Art of Mary Riter Hamilton. By Kathryn A. Young and Sarah M. McKinnon. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2017. viii+ 272 pp. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. $27.95 CAD, $31.95 USD, paper. With No Man’s Land, Young and McKinnon provide the first biography of western Canadian artist, Mary Riter Hamilton. Relying on correspondence and gleaning newspaper advertisements and society pages, Young and McKinnon emphasize Hamilton’s professionalism, describing the artist’s businesslike decisions about where to train and how to market herself as well as the economic realities she faced: a reliance on patrons, the effects of financial hardship, and the necessity of teaching. Young and McKinnon also describe the geographical realities of Hamilton’s work. Having spent much of her youth in Manitoba, a province to which she would periodically return, Hamilton had to leave the Great Plains, studying and exhibiting in Europe and eastern and coastal Canada, to gain credibility as an artist. The book is at its best when describing these milieux in which Hamilton lived, from artists’ neighborhoods in Berlin and Paris, to Winnipeg, a rapidly developing city just beginning to establish a culture of fine art in the Canadian interior. Given the title of the book, I had hoped for a stronger engagement with recent scholarship about women as artists and women’s role in constructing narratives of the Great War. For instance, the authors cite World War I historian Jay Winter, but I was left wondering how Hamilton situated herself within the tension between modernism and traditionalism that Winter focuses on in Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning. How might Hamilton’s letters or critics’ responses locate her battlefield paintings both within this wider discourse and her wider body of work? What insights could be gained by putting Hamilton’s experience into conversation with work on Great War women writers who, lacking frontline fighting experience, were perceived as not having the authority to speak about war? Were the conditions, products, and reception of Hamilton’s work—whether post-war or peacetime—shaped by gendered motivations as well as by gendered limitations? These questions are largely addressed with bibliographic references rather than sustained discussion. Young and McKinnon synthesize secondary and primary sources, including previously un-published material, to present a biography that will be appreciated by art historians interested in an important Canadian painter. However, the reader interested in a deeper analysis of why women’s artistic production was important, particularly in the context of World War I, would be best served by pairing No Man’s Land with other social and critical cultural histories. [End Page 92] Angela R. Cunningham Department of Geography University of Colorado–Boulder Copyright © 2019 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln

Géneros de lectura preferidos por los alumnos extremeños. Datos y análisis

The abundant research work on reading habits in Spain shows a disaggregation of municipalities and cities with little geographical sample of their results. In this way, taking as a starting point the previous studies of 2007 for Extremadura carried out by the German Sanchez Ruiperez Foundation, our work intends to update and extend the data of reading habits by applying them to the contemporary geographical reality and the degree of rurality of the region. Thus, in the context of a survey focused on reading habits in Extremadura responded by 9.212 students of all educational levels (Primary, Secondary, University) during the year 2017, this study exposes and specifically analyzes the data obtained on the preferred genres according to the educational level and sex of participants. The study is completed with the data to the CDU of the public and school libraries of Extremadura. As a relevant result, the literary genres of mystery and adventure are, in general, the most demanded at all levels of education. In the Senior College, history is preferred. More women than men prefer romantic novels. The lyric genre is not very popular in terms of reading preferences among any of the educational levels analyzed.

Sustainable Tourism: A Hidden Theory of the Cinematic Image? A Theoretical and Visual Analysis of the Way of St. James

The attractiveness of a tourist destination is derived from multiple material and immaterial elements. Cinema is both a tourist communication channel and provides a target market for a destination. Many regions offer a great variety of potential locations desirable for their scenic beauty and artistic and monumental heritage. The main aim of this paper is to analyze the concept of sustainable tourism as a pillar of the contemporary cinematic discourse on pilgrimage routes, combining theoretical and empirical methodologies. It begins by analyzing how, given their power, images are narrative instruments that assume a true performative value of geographical reality. The research then focuses on the cinematographic space and visual cinematographic discourse. The case study is sustainable tourism along the Way of St. James (Spain). The material is a corpus of two documentary films. Their moviescapes highlight the presence of a sustainable filmic theorem within a potential cinematic genre—pilgrimage movies. Thus, this study contributes to the investigation of how sustainable pilgrimage tourism practices are used in cinematic production as a possible movie theorem. It presents a conclusive critical evaluation of the role and message of these moviescapes.

The configuration of polarizing toponymic fields illustrated by examples from ttrm, II1–2

The toponymic field represents a denominative ensemble concentrated around a nucleus, designating from the denominator’s perspective an object of maximum (socio)geographical importance in a micro-area, to which one or more derivate toponyms are subordinated, representing toponyms of secondary importance in their close proximity. The processes generating such a toponymic structure are polarization, which deals with (socio)geographical realities belonging to different classes and differentiation, which involves the same (socio)geographical reality. In this study we focus on the polarizing toponymic fields, whose accurate configuration is always conditioned by the identification beyond doubt of the polarizing nucleus. Therefore, our aim is not to identify the primary toponymic etymology, that is the designation relationship between the nucleus-toponym and the designated geographical object, but to establish the direction of polarization within the field, the so-called secondary etymology, that reveals and explains the relation of dependence of each toponymic derivate towards the polarizing factor.

Innovation as a booster of rural artisan entrepreneurship: a case study of black pottery

Purpose Rural entrepreneurship is an emergent field of study, with these start-ups becoming one of the most noticeable ways to promote rural development, but the few studies concerning innovation among artisans have thus far only been exploratory. The purpose of this paper is to examine the entrepreneurial artisan initiatives of young innovators in a peripheral northern area of Portugal where black pottery is produced. Design/methodology/approach Qualitative data analysis was carried out on in-depth semi-structured interviews with three young artisan innovators and entrepreneurs and one individual who functions as a cultural booster. The content analysis was done using QSR International’s NVivo Version 11 software. Findings These young entrepreneurs have developed commercial activities and introduced innovations (i.e. design and process) into black pottery production, while taking advantage of endogenous materials, local culture and traditional knowledge. These individuals have sought not only to generate their own innovations but also to keep their culture and local traditions alive, thereby contributing to rural development by establishing networks with local young artisans. Research limitations/implications Some limitations are linked to the sample’s size and basis in a specific geographic reality. Practical implications The findings provide a fuller understanding of why some rural artisan firms grow, suggesting that artisans’ networks and innovative and entrepreneurial behaviours play a key role. Originality/value This research’s results contribute to the literature on the role that innovation can play as a booster of rural artisanship through networks and entrepreneurship. This paper is among the first to discuss black pottery as a form of artisan entrepreneurship. The results underline the value of innovations and networks, which were found to be the core ingredients in rural artisan entrepreneurship.

Hábitos de lectura en lenguas extranjeras en los estudiantes de Extremadura

Los abundantes trabajos de investigación acerca de los hábitos de lectura en España muestran una desagregación de municipios y ciudades con escasa muestra geográfica de sus resultados. Tomando como punto de partida los estudios previos realizados por la Fundación Germán Sánchez Ruipérez emn 2007 para Extremadura, nuestro trabajo pretende actualizar y ampliar los datos de hábitos de lectura aplicándolos a la realidad geográfica contemporánea y el grado de ruralidad de la región. Así, en el contexto de una encuesta propia sobre hábitos lectores en Extremadura realizada a 9212 estudiantes de todos los niveles educativos (Primaria, Secundaria, Universidad) durante el año 2017, este estudio expone y analiza específicamente los datos obtenidos sobre la lectura en idiomas extranjeros atendiendo al sexo, edad, nivel de estudios y área geográfica de los encuestados. Se analizan asimismo otras variables relacionadas con la lectura en lenguas extranjeras que pueden resultar significativas tales como el idioma, el soporte de lectura utilizado, la incidencia en centros bilingües y el índice de lectura en otros idiomas entre los alumnos de procedencia inmigrante.

Some New Suggestions for Solving the Israeli–Palestinians Disputes

Many suggestions have been presented for solving the Israeli – Palestinian dispute. As for now, none of those suggestions, presented during more than thirty years of negotiations, have been accepted by both sides. As for this, some new ideas have to be entered into the arena. Here some new, “out of the box”, geographical proposals are presented, based on actual events and geographical realities which exist in other areas. These proposals could be seen as un-human or politically wrong suggestions but as all other proposals were rejected, the decision makers of both sides, as well as the leaders of the world, can use the presented suggestion as a base for future negotiations.

اتجاهات النمو العمراني وأثرها على المناطق الأثرية الدينية في المدينة المنورة

هدفت الدراسة إلى استقصاء اتجاهات الزحف العمراني وأثرها على المناطق الأثرية الدينية في المدينة المنورة ومعرفة الامتداد العمراني ما بين فترة (1990-2014) خلال فترة 24 سنة وأيضا أثر هذا التوسع العمراني وزحفة على مناطق الآثار الدينية في المدينة المنورة واستخدامات الأراضي بالمدينة المنورة. اعتمدت الدراسة على المنهج الوصفي والقيام بسلسلة من الزيارات الميدانية والتحليل والتقويم للأماكن الأثرية السياحية وأهمها منهج التحليل المكاني الذي يهتم بإبراز التباينات والتشابهات لتوزيع الظاهرة المكانية والمنهج الاستقرائي: لرصد حالة الواقع الجغرافي للظاهرة المدروسة، المنهج التاريخي، المنهج الإقليمي. واستخدام نظم المعلومات الجغرافية والاستشعار عن بعد وتوصلت الدراسة إلى أن اتجاه العمران نحو الجهة الشرقية والغربية ونتيجة للزحف العمراني أدى إلى التحام الأماكن الأثرية والدينية بالمدينة المنورة بمناطق العمران مثل منطقة شهداء أحد ومسجد الجمعة والمساجد السبعة الأثرية والدينية المشهورة.

Urban-rural disparity and urban population growth: A multilevel analysis of under-5 mortality in 30 sub-Saharan African countries

ObjectivesTo assess whether country-level urban population growth is associated with the magnitude of the urban-rural disparity in under-five mortality (U5M) using ecologic and multilevel analyses. MethodsWe used data from 2010 to 2015 Demographic and Health Surveys and World Bank data from 30 sub-Saharan African countries (n = 411,054 women). Country-level linear regressions determined associations between urban population growth and economic growth between 2005 and 2010 on U5M risk differences. Multilevel logistic regression models were used to determine the impact of urban population growth on the urban advantage in U5M, adjusting for child and maternal factors. ResultsCountries with greater urban population growth and low economic growth had greater disparities in U5M between urban and rural areas. After adjusting for known U5M risk factors in multilevel analyses, interactions between country-level urban population growth and urbanicity were identified. ConclusionsContinued efforts to evaluate and address disparities in child mortality outcomes in sub-Saharan Africa should acknowledge urbanicity in context, as well as socioeconomic and geographic realities of families, mothers and children. Low-resource, demographically shifting environments require novel strategies to decrease child mortality.

Production and Circulation of Vernacular Italian Books Related to the Jesuit Mission in Japan in the Sixteenth Century

The reports and histories compiled by the members of the Society of Jesus in the second half of the sixteenth century were among the earliest European sources to treat ‘Japan’ as a geographical and political reality. The peculiarity of the Jesuit approach, focused on research and adaptation, is reflected in the variety of their contents, encompassing descriptions of geography, politics, society, language, religion and art. The reports were also the earliest sources on Japan to reach a wider public in Europe. They were not only delivered to Coimbra, Rome and to the different Jesuit houses, but also distributed commercially, in the form of letter-books, throughout Europe. It can be presumed that the impact of the letter-books on European readership was enhanced by the growing popularity of periodical publications and by the expansion of the publishing market. This paper will use the reports published in vernacular Italian as a case study, and investigate the nature of such readership and how the reports fit into the Italian book market of the sixteenth century. It will analyse them in light of the cultural and economical processes that led to their production and circulation, focusing on publishing houses, editions and formats, in order to evaluate the editorial policies that led to their circulation.

Vessel Port Dues: An Influence from Path Dependency rather than Geography of Ports

Port dues have a limited impact on the door-to-door international decision making process. They are, however, a major source of revenue for port authorities. Their objective is to balance budgets (recovery pricing, marginal cost pricing, external cost pricing, etc.) and enable financing of infrastructure. As such, while they may not have a direct impact on the attractiveness and competition of ports, their indirect impact is unquestionable. This study investigates vessel port dues, which follow diverse formulas of calculation that complicate comparisons. Therefore, we classify vessel port dues into two categories: Gross Tonnage based, and Cubic Meter based. These categories are essential insofar as they correspond to two geographical realities of ports: bay ports for the former, and channel ports for the latter. An empirical study on ports located in Western Mediterranean Sea countries illustrates the relevance of these two models. It also exposes deviation in the application of these models implied by path dependency. Such deviation has an influence on the pricing system and fairness of invoicing. This work demonstrates the necessity for improving port pricing in several ports on both banks of the Western Mediterranean Sea, as well as the necessity for fairer application of port dues.

Zhytomyr Region Specific Polysemantic Geographical Terms Used for Identifying 'Places of Getting Hold of Materials for Household Chores'

Collection, study, and classification of the vernacular geographic terms recorded as heard from speakers in certain locality still remain among substantial lines of the onomastic research in Ukraine. For this purpose, the field of material welfare being of the most actuality for people has been selected as description object. Connected therewith geographic terms have embodied and perpetuated in themselves lexemes inherent to different chronological periods. Geographic definitions were and still remain one of the top priority subjects of research pursued by both domestic and foreign scientists. Despite the significant number of researches done with a view to study of Zhytomyr Region specific geographic terms (T. Marusenko, P. Lysenko, and M. Nykonchouk), no special research has been pursued with regard to the Middle-Polissian geographic appellatives identifying Places of getting hold of materials for household chores used within the territory of Zhytomyr Region. No system description of the said nomina is available.
 Used definition Polysemantic geographic terms provides evidence of that not only area, where nomina under assessment are spread, but also used and localized in whatever other meaning is taken into account. It is proposed in the article to classify collected geographic terms with respect to the naming of the geographic realities. Zhytomyr Region specific geographic nomenclature for identifying Places of getting hold of materials for household chores was for the first time given as the integral system together with the structural and semantic description of the lexis used. The most widely and little-used, as well as sporadic terms were separated. Zhytomyr Region specific dialects are known for the mixed character of pronunciation that is manifested through the use of a number of phonetic forms of the same lexeme. These ones may exist in parallel within the same populated locality or be opposite to subdialect zones.
 Obtained results may be used for characterization of Zhytomyr Region specific subdialects, study of the inter-subdialect interaction, as well as compiling of the Geographic Terminology Dictionary of Ukraine.

Los cambios históricos y la interdisciplina de la ciencia en la innovación pedagógica de la enseñanza geográfica

El propósito del artículo es reflexionar sobre la necesidad de innovar la enseñanza de la geografía ante el desarrollo de los cambios históricos contemporáneos, con el apoyo de la interdisciplinariedad. El motivo lo constituye la existencia de una realidad ambiental, geográfica y social que amerita de explicaciones integrales, holísticas, sistémicas y contextualizadas, de tal manera de entender los temas y problemáticas desde la integración de fundamentos teóricos y metodológicos de disciplinas afines. Metodológicamente, se realizó una revisión de bibliografía para estructurar un planteamiento donde se analiza los cambios históricos en la ciencia social durante el siglo XX y la explicación interdisciplinaria para analizar la realidad geográfica. Se concluye al resaltar la importancia de enseñar geografía desde la perspectiva interdisciplinaria, fundada en una visión científica, pedagógica y didáctica, reveladora del origen, cambios y transformación del comportamiento geográfico del objeto de estudio.

The local planning-economic development nexus in transitioning resource-industry towns: Reflections (mainly) from British Columbia

Local economic restructuring in a once dominant economic base, resource remapping imperatives that are privileging long neglected environmental values and aboriginal rights, and local empowerment are three intersecting themes that contextualize the idea of transitioning resource towns. Drawing especially from BC experience, this paper seeks to better understand transitioning resource towns from the perspective of the local planning-economic development nexus. While literature on resource town rejuvenation has emphasized local initiative and empowerment the role of local planning has been largely neglected. Yet local (‘municipal’) planning is a quintessentially local activity that profoundly shapes the routines of daily life through legally mandated ‘official’ plans that are required to draw upon community participation to meet collective community goals. However, the relationships between local planning and local development are problematical as they co-evolve in path dependent ways, sometimes in harmony with each other and sometimes not. Indeed, the onset of transitioning among resource towns implies important changes in the planning-development nexus. Initially, as resource towns boomed local planning played a subservient role in support of ‘given’ export-drive development. With the onset of transitioning, local planning is challenged to become part of more pro-active local efforts to promote development. In practice, transitioning can be a durable status as restructuring and remapping imperatives reframe local governance and impose significant, inter-locking uncertainties on the planning-development planning nexus, often in association with increased regional networking. Even though transitioning suggests a search for new identities, the geographic realities of resource towns often implies mega-project proposals are enticing. Yet, these proposals are speculative, often opposed by remapping agents, and not easy to plan. Thinking about future development is also constrained by the inheritance of past plans that for many transitioning towns feature obsolescing downtown cores that comprise deteriorating commercial activities, housing stocks, infrastructure, and environmental clean-up issues. While these problems are varied, deep-seated and difficult to address, their rejuvenation illustrates the proactivity of local planning in leading development that can potentially benefit communities in relation to job creation, housing needs, commercial vitality, image and identity. Cooperative approaches among regionally connected transitioning towns and adjacent communities is suggested as a possible way of approaching the conundrums posed by obsolescing cores in transitioning towns.

Sentinels of geography: legacy, public policy and contemporary relevance

ABSTRACTMany geographers, past and present, have addressed public policy issues facing nations and peoples and in the process offered solutions to highly complex problems. Three ‘sentinels’ of the discipline, Halford Mackinder, Carl Sauer and Thomas Griffith Taylor, served as protectors of geography speaking up for the science in a way often confronting public officials, politicians and others. They contributed significantly to the development of geography in Britain, the USA, Australia and Canada, while engaging in public policy debates on topics such as geopolitics, geographical constraints on land use and natural resource management. All three were advocates for the unity of geography, stressing how an understanding of the interconnectedness of natural and human phenomena can assist in decision making. They were often frustrated by what they saw as ill-informed policies which did not respect geographic realities. Given their varied contributions, it is difficult to fully assess their impact both during their long and productive lifetimes, and subsequently, especially given the interdisciplinary and contested nature of their research. Today, academic geographers are faced with having to increasingly ‘prove the impact’ of their research, something beyond the comprehension of previous generations. Lessons from an analysis of the work of these ‘sentinels’, as well as my own experience, show how difficult a task this will be.

Otra modernidad, otra geografía: una interpretación crítica de las influencias y orientaciones geográficas de José Carlos Mariátegui

Scholars have consistently overlooked the problem of geographic relationships in the work of José Carlos Mariátegui (1894-1930).This silence can be summarized into two fundamental dynamics: Mariátegui's scarce reference in the geographical field and the predominance of historiographic, sociological, and literary approaches to his work. This article aims to question such inertia and bridge the gap between Mariátegui and Latin American geographical thought. It critically interprets the epistemic origin of Mariátegui's foremost geographical notions, recognizing the particular historical context and state of geography during the first decades of the twentieth century. Against the Eurocentric approaches of his time, Mariátegui was one of the first intellectuals to express thought from and for Latin America, but without neglecting fundamental contributions of European and Western traditions (Urquijo y Bocco, 2016). Indeed, Mariátegui questioned the possibility of an absolute Latin American or Latin Americanist thought, all the while confronting the challenge of understanding the “reality” of his country, constructing innovative theses on Peruvian society and culture in which, evidently, geography was not exempt. In his seminal work, Siete ensayos de interpretación de la realidad peruana (Seven Interpretive Essays on Peruvian Reality, 1928), Mariátegui explains the antagonism and inequality between the coast and the sierra, he identifies the coexistence of three forms of economies (indigenous, colonial, and capitalist) that articulate different social geographies, and he outlines regional problems stemming from political alliances on different social levels, among other issues. Closely examining these analytical positions reveals a powerful geographic and human sensitivity yet to be explored in Mariátegui's thought, as well as the need to critically examine their argumentative origins. To date, the scarce research on theoretical relationships between Mariátegui and geography have only referred to three aspects of this problem. First of all, that Mariátegui's geographical influence comes from certain liberal intellectuals, reflected in a physicist and economistoriented vision of geography, based on localization and industrial growth of the positive “regions” (Ruiz, 2011: 144). Second of all, that Mariátegui elaborated a racist vision of Peru's territory based on the critical dualism of coast/white and sierra/indigenous, which avoided other interregional racial differences (Méndez, 2016). Thirdly, that Mariátegui's unique perception of geographic differences was circumscribed to the social and economic differences of Peruvian reality (Sanjinés, 2009). However, none of these proposals extensively analyze the situation of geography in Mariátegui's particular debate on modern imaginaries, focusing on other subjects of study that stray from strictly epistemological discussions of geography. Therefore, our proposal analyzes and explains the source of Mariátegui's geographic mechanism. Far from the kind of geography produced during the Republic or positivist inventories of natural and historical regions, Mariátegui recreates geography based on social and historical practices of Peruvian reality. In other words, he rids geography of its traditional sources and directions, transforming the discipline from a much larger categorical process that connects his own political trajectory and analytical exploration: he unambiguously rejects positivism as the only valid form of knowledge and attempts to construct an anti-imperialist socialism apt for Peruvian reality. Similarly, both positions are part of an alternative model of modernity which is defended and constructed from new content, such as recovering the value of indigenous roots for the future and challenging nationalisms that surrender to foreign capital and exploit indigenous communities. Therefore, Mariátegui's modernity implied profoundly questioning the dominant spatial order of nationalism and the possibility of revising the still prevalent colonial margins and representations. In other words, Mariátegui incorporated the problem of subjectivity into comprehending geographic reality in an age when geography was practiced without social subjects. Furthermore, he advocated for a socialist political project that integrated both regional-indigenous and urban-workers, crucial for a modernization that had always reflected geographic and provincial differences (Flores Galindo, 1980). Definitively, Mariátegui's conceptions of space and time are consistently open to political and imaginative possibilities (Germaná, 1994). As this article argues, such elements are key sources of Mariátegui's geographical influences.

Matière et territoire dans la culture du logiciel libre

Cet article interroge deux lieux communs associes a la culture numerique et plus particulierement a celle du logiciel libre. Le premier, celui de l’immateriel, consiste a aborder le cyberespace comme un monde informationnel dote de proprietes distinctes de celles du monde physique. Le second, celui de la deterritorialisation, presente les collectifs en ligne comme detaches de tout ancrage territorial. L’article montre la maniere dont ces lieux communs habitent la culture du logiciel libre, en revenant aux origines de celle-ci au sein du AI Lab du MIT, en examinant l’influence exercee sur elle par la pensee cybernetique et en analysant le processus d’extension et de globalisation du free software. L’article developpe egalement une critique de ces topoi, en montrant qu’ils contribuent a occulter la continuite entre les transformations du monde numerique et celles du reste de la societe. La conclusion revient sur l’essor recent du mouvement maker, fortement influence par le logiciel libre, et met en avant la persistance des enjeux lies a la matiere et au territoire, y compris au sein de la culture numerique.

Sustentabilidad ambiental urbana, alternativas para una política pública ambiental

La política pública ambiental urbana debe fundamentarse en la complejidad de la naturaleza y de sus procesos internos de producción (de biomasa y de carácter neguentrópico). Tal complejidad desborda la instrumentalidad a la que ha sido reducida desde la tecnocracia y el modelo económico, y plantea la exigencia de aparatos de aprehensión más integrales, capaces de dar cuenta de la amplia red de relaciones que se entreteje en los diversos fenómenos ambientales que tienen lugar en los territorios. Es allí donde se justi ca el marco de acción constituido por la sustentabilidad ambiental urbana, un discurso que responde en Latinoamérica a dichas problemáticas ambientales, pues es una alternativa arraigada en la realidad social, cultural, geográ ca, política y económica de nuestras comunidades y pueblos. El presente artículo revisa de manera crítica la perspectiva dominante: el discurso del desarrollo sostenible impuesto desde los organismos de control transnacionales, los cuales impiden generar nuevas alternativas en el universo de las relaciones entre la sociedad y la naturaleza.

“The Little World” by Giovannino Guareschi: how the microcosm of a province becomes the image of the whole country

“The Little World” by Giovannino Guareschi is a cycle of 346 short stories, describing the world of Italian countryside in the first decades after the end of the World War II. This peasant world with its poverty and political tensions, different conflicts and contradictions, became the image of an Italian soul and cultural values for both Italian readers and foreigners. It is the most translated Italian text of 21st century. The present research provides the analysis of literary construction, narrative schemes and technics used by the author. The first part of the article is dedicated to geographical reality and illusions, to how it becomes a chronotope. The second part shows the functions and the system of main characters and the mechanism of their interaction. We also give a short overview of the Italian political background, that explains why such a literary analysis was absent until now.

Clark's Malthus delusion: response to ‘Farming in England 1200–1800’

AbstractClark's claims about the scale of English agricultural output from the 1200s to the 1860s flout historical and geographical reality. His income‐based estimates start with the daily real wages of adult males and assume that days worked per year were constant. Those advanced in British economic growth make no such assumption and instead are built up from the output side. They correlate better with population trends and are consistent with an economy slowly growing and becoming richer. Clark's denial that such growth occurred, his assertion that substantially more land must have been under arable cultivation, his belief that conditions of full employment invariably prevailed in the countryside at harvest time, his concern that the wage bill would have exceeded the value of output in British economic growth, his refusal to consider the possibility that the working year was of variable length, and his assertion that output per acre must have been equalized across arable and pasture are all shown to be figments of his ‘Malthus delusion’.