Greek Etymology Research Articles

Song Renzong's Court Landscape: Historical Writing and the Creation of a New Political Sphere (1022-1042)

Song Renzong's Court Landscape:Historical Writing and the Creation of a New Political Sphere (1022-1042) Christian Lamouroux Introduction The emergence of a new kind of imperial sovereignty during the Song period is a crucial question for all the historians who acknowledge this moment as the beginning of autocratic rule and the birth of the bureaucratic state in China. Deng Xiaonan's research on the "Ancestors' Family Instructions" (zuzong jiafa 祖宗家法) prompted us to work together on the development of this concept in connection with Song ideas of imperial authority and sovereignty.1 [End Page 45] The expression "Ancestors' Family Instructions" was first used by Renzong (reign 1022-1063) in 1034, when he began his period of personal rule.2 The young emperor and his ministers considered the "Ancestors' Instructions" to be a set of prohibitions and regulations for eradicating what they called "abuses" within the court and the administration after the first regency. From this time on, the "Instructions" incorporated several fundamental methods of governing and also of political decision making.3 This growing body of knowledge was shared by all subsequent Song emperors and their officials as "norms of the [Imperial] house", that is to say, a political "economy", whose Greek etymology would equate jia to oikos (house) and fa to nomos (law or norms). This political "economy" can be defined as follows: rules produced by the imperial Ancestors constrained both the emperor's own behavior and his management of the empire. At the same time, the process through which the rules were permanently construed and adapted put literati officials in a position to select and standardize the rules. Officials became guarantors of imperial sovereignty and political authority. It is well-known that Renzong's court was under the growing influence of a new generation of officials, who for the most part came up through the examinations and openly presented themselves as moral men naturally bound together in factions (pengdang 朋黨).4 We know that the alignment of officials in factions and the clashes of these factions became one of the main features of political life for the remainder of the Song. Obviously, the emergence of factions was a major step in the formation of the Song bureaucracy. However, our analysis of "Instructions" also emphasizes the body of common knowledge shared by all officials, whatever their factional alignment. In search of the mechanisms that produced the political culture on which the political "economy" of the court was based, I have followed the path opened by Robert Hartwell, proposing to treat "old models" or "precedents" [End Page 46] (gushi 故事) as one of the main notions used in the political debates at the Song court by officials who searched the past for rules to govern the present.5 As historical experience revealed the impact of political actions, a good government had to earn the support of officials by linking its program to the appropriate historical context. Thus this collective search constituted a process capable of creating consensus on various issues among the emperor and his literati-officials: this is the other side of the emergence of factions.6 In other words, whatever their political options, the coalescence of literati into factions depended upon the development of their right to speak, and this evolving right was among the main factors accounting for the change in the structure of power that began from the second half of the Tang dynasty. Moreover, as Michael Mc Grath emphasizes, "the number of scholar-officials, drawn from the ranks of the literati, grew by virtue of the doubling of the size of the civil service in Jen-Tsung's reign".7 The growing influence of academicians and imperial attendants in this process is well-known, but is still frequently viewed from the unique perspective of the development of autocracy or imperial despotism.8 However, the intimacy of the academicians with the emperor and the knowledge they shared with him affected their collective vision of power. This fact was mentioned as early as the troubled period of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms as a characteristic of late Tang rulership.9 On the one hand, the sovereign was permanently in [End Page 47] search of counsel and political...

Orpheus or the Soteriological Reform of the Dionysian Mysteries<SUP>1</SUP>

In this paper, I present Orphism as a written reform of the myth of Dionysus and its ritual manifestations, perhaps initiated and influenced by Onomacritos, who acted as interpreter and editor, in the context of, and under the influence of, Attic synoecism; this last refers not only to a process of administrative unification mythically inspired by the figure and deeds of Theseus, but also to the political will to maintain the loyalty of the rural dēmoi to the urban oikos, with all the challenges and vicissitudes of life and conflict at the margins of society, during the tyranny, the democratic regime and the dissolution of the autonomy of the polis and the conflicts in the relations linking the centre and the periphery during the Hellenistic period. In support of the working hypothesis, a hermeneutic methodology is applied, reading ancient sources and making ad hoc use of Greek etymology in those cases where the reading suggests possible alternative interpretations. The final outcome of this hermeneutic exercise shows possible links between the Orphic ritual and the political and editorial activities of Pisistratus and Onomacritos. The conclusion reached is that, the principal characteristic of the Orphic reform of the Dionysian myth and ritual seems to be its soteriological content.

Stress Placement in Pronouncing Dictionaries (1727–2010): Latin Etymology vs English Derivation

Variation in stress placement has so far not been studied very closely from a sociolinguistic perspective, although orthoepists since the eighteenth century have prescribed certain patterns and stigmatized others. Stress placement preferences are based on conflicting criteria (origin, including Latin and Greek etymologies, vs stress-neutral English derivation). This area of study remains partially unexplored in historical phonology. The period stretching from the eighteenth century to our time is characterized by changes that reveal the influence of opposing sets of rules, which are themselves connected to the cultural background of speakers more or less versed in Latin and French. The prescriptivism pervading works such as Walker’s Critical Pronouncing Dictionary provides evidence of conflicting tendencies affecting stress placement. This paper aims at revealing an evolution of these tendencies from Latin-based etymology to isomorphism over the last three centuries.

The role of onomastics for diachronic sociolinguistics

The article focuses on the roles of Greek, Latin/Romance and Arabic in the onomastics of Northeastern Sicily between the 11th and 13th centuries. The first part deals with landless peasants from four villages at the turn of the 11th and 12th centuries. I argue that the role played by Arabic in the nomenclature of these communities was more important than has previously been suggested and the role of Romance speakers may have been minimal. The important role of Arabic is interpreted as a consequence of a situation of linguistic dominance and borrowing of word-forms. In the second part, I analyze the onomastics of the free population of northeastern Sicily attested in charters during the 12th and 13th centuries. I argue that the 13th century was the crucial period when Greek lost its initially high prestige. This is visible in both first names and second name elements. In first names, Greek speakers started to accommodate their nomenclature to their surroundings, dominated by Romance languages and the church of Rome, which meant that both language shift and religious conversion played a role. The second name elements in Greek were seldom transferred to the name stock of the Romance-speaking population. I argue that the role of the city of Messina, in which monolingual Romance communities were evidently formed, was important in this process. When such a community was formed in Messina, the Greek language was marginalized fairly rapidly even in northeastern Sicily, where it had had an important position. However, some surnames with a Greek or Arabic etymology survived in the local name stock until the present. I explain this by referring to the role of the de-semanticization of such name elements. This consists both of the semantic bleaching of the original significance of the names and of the neutralization of their linguistic connotations.

L'archéologie dans les sciences humaines

Since archaeology is fundamentally the study of the human past, which is what the word “archaeology” connotes according to its Greek etymology, it is part of the humanities. However, archaeologists work in teams with scientists and employ quantitative techniques and comparative methods of the social sciences; archaeologists are thus an academic hybrid and are pleased to live in the interstices of many disciplines. In this article we review the history of archaeology in the humanities and explore some new directions in archaeological research. We discuss the enduring questions of origins of the antiquity of humanity, religion and art, the first agricultural villages, and the earliest cities, states, and civilizations. We also consider new agendas in archaeology: historical archaeology, landscapes in the past and present, material studies of the present, and how archaeologists are engaged in modern politics.

Archaeology in the Humanities

AbstractSince archaeology is fundamentally the study of the human past, which is what the word “archaeology” connotes according to its Greek etymology, it is part of the humanities. However, archaeologists work in teams with scientists and employ quantitative techniques and comparative methods of the social sciences; archaeologists are thus an academic hybrid and are pleased to live in the interstices of many disciplines. In this article we review the history of archaeology in the humanities and explore some new directions in archaeological research. We discuss the enduring questions of origins of the antiquity of humanity, religion and art, the first agricultural villages, and the earliest cities, states, and civilizations. We also consider new agendas in archaeology: historical archaeology, landscapes in the past and present, material studies of the present, and how archaeologists are engaged in modern politics.

The technique of RDF of nanovolumes using electron diffraction

Amorphous materials are not, as the Greek etymology suggests, "without form". Indeed, as with crystalline materials, their structure determines their properties. The overwhelming number of structural studies of amorphous materials use the diffracted intensity to give the radial distribution function, which can be used as data against which to test, or refine, structural models. Neutron and X-ray diffraction examples abound. However, neutrons and X-rays are of no use when small volumes are involved. This paper reports the current state of RDF analysis of nanovolumes using electron diffraction.

Latin and Greek in gross anatomy

Medical students and practitioners learn and use a vocabulary originating almost entirely from classical Latin and Greek languages. Previous generations required Latin or Greek prior to medical school, but the current generation does not have such requirements. Anecdotal evidence suggests that understanding Latin or Greek helps students to learn and practitioners to recall otherwise foreign terminology. This study evaluated students' familiarity with Latin and Greek etymologies before and after a gross anatomy course that incorporated etymologies into its curriculum. First-year medical students at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine were taught Latin and Greek etymologies through lectures and handouts during their gross anatomy course. They took a pretest and a posttest before and after the course to assess their understanding of etymologies. In addition, students from all four years of medical school, residents, and staff physicians also took a general etymology quiz to assess their understanding of etymologies. After their gross anatomy course emphasizing etymologies, first-year students scored higher on the posttest than they did on the pretest. First-year students also reported that learning etymologies enhanced anatomy learning, made the experience more enjoyable, and proved to be less difficult than they thought it would be prior to the course. Medical students, residents, and staff physicians scored almost equally on the general etymology quiz and almost equally reported that etymologies enhanced learning and recalling terminology. Medical students, residents, and staff physicians almost equally endorsed incorporating etymologies into medical education. This study provides novel scientific evidence that a basic understanding of Latin and Greek etymologies enhances performance and comfort when learning and using medical terminology.

A brief glimpse of Claudio

Received: 15 August 2005 Revised: 26 September 2005 Accepted: 28 September 2005 Meeting Claudio Ciborra was an inevitable highlight for anyone joining the Information Systems (IS) department at LSE. The tall, stalwart figure, robust and well trained, as I soon realised at the school gym, which he frequented, the only senior member of staff to do so. The distinctive and pensive face, which after a visit in Milan I classified as typical of the region. The acid sense of humour, with a touch of cynicism, projected by means of a relatively high-pitch, penetrating voice with Italian melody and diction. One moment engaged in a vivid conversation, the next mentally detached and physically enclosed in his office, Claudio oozed an aura of genuine intellectuality in an academic environment all too often absorbed in ‘strategic intellectualism’, often approaching knowledge and research with the intention of making profit. No doubt one would consider contradictory a life spent studying technology, information systems and organisations, as well as acting as a consultant for large companies, with more than a keen interest in the German language and Greek etymology, the writings of Heidegger and of St. Paul, or a passion for music; those were, however, the most distinctive traits of Claudio’s personality: the marriage of the down-to-earth with the abstract and the intangible, the verification and negation of numerous stereotypes. Naturally cosmopolitan in outlook and having encountered different cultures and attitudes through his various trips, Claudio maintained what I perceived as the simplest of lifestyles: plain, anti-consumerist, very private and discreet together with elements of harmless Italian exuberance, another stereotype both preserved and overturned. The contradictory tendencies in his character, or rather the attempt to reconcile and exonerate these tendencies, were evident during conversations with him. In a particular meeting that I remember he communicated his disappointment at the elasticity of the Department’s Ph.D. programme and its upgrade procedures, and admonished that the strict rules and regulations of U.S. academic journals should be respected, being entirely serious and formal. A moment later, he switched to a discussion on music, claiming that improvisation was not an element unique to jazz, but could also be encountered in much contemporary music like, for instance, that of Stockhausen. Eventually, he started speaking about a Cherokee artist and of how his apparently insignificant art had become a kind of cult symbol for his fans, describing in hilarious detail how on one occasion his followers presented the artist with stones and how he broke those into pieces with a sledgehammer in order to create ‘art’ on the spot. The capacity for opening avenues out of labyrinths and for doing so in a humorous way, the intellectuality of the mind and the spirituality of the facial expression, the engagement with the real and the dissociation from the worldly and the mundane, the plain lifestyle, these were the ingredients that composed Claudio’s lasting image in my mind, when his string of time was cut in February 2005. Whether at some level beyond comprehension that same temporal point was for him also the kairos in Aristotle’s or Heidegger’s sense – one of the concepts he was obsessed with – there is no way to know. However, borrowing from the Greek author Nikos Kazantzakis, I would say that we still retain our capacity to gather European Journal of Information Systems (2005) 14, 448–449 & 2005 Operational Research Society Ltd. All rights reserved 0960-085X/05 $30.00

Psychologie universelle, psychologie plurielle : la psychologie est-elle une production culturelle ?

Psychology is envisaged in this article as a “cultural product” of the Western World. The Greek etymology of the word itself and the history of the discipline indicate the cultural origin of psychology and justify questioning the universal value of concepts wrought in the midst of the western context. Following its birth at the end of the 19th century, psychology, emancipated relatively to philosophy from which it came and claiming it was following the model of natural science, pretended finding an extension of laws governing natural phenomena in man. But the epistemological crisis exemplified by the works of W. Dilthey (1883) led to the now classical opposition between natural sciences and social sciences. Concurrently, the question of meaning became paramount in the field of clinical psychology and of psychopathology. If the historical perspective clearly shows the western sources of psychology the notion of Western World remains to be defined. This definition is essentially cultural and the author examines both the ideal of mastery and control and the project of conquest of western man symbolised by the Promethean myth. The missionary enterprise and the civilising action of the Western World were underlain by the conviction that western civilisation was the incarnation of an ideal model of culture that had attained perfection. Toward the middle of the 20th century the universalist view of psychology was shaken by the recognition of cultural differences more particularly identified in the field of psychopathology. The transcultural perspective, with the notion of a basic personality, showed up the specificity of western mentality. It also showed up two essential traditional dimensions of western thought: the dualism at the origin of the development of science and technology and the individualism that favoured interest in the individual, in his mental life, in its cognitive and affective aspirations and in the meanders of his interior life. The questioning of the universal value of psychology as it is currently envisaged, applied and taught in the Western World is inseparable from the debate relative to the epistemological statute of the discipline. This could be formulated as follows: should psychology be considered as a science of nature or as a science of subjectivity? Psychopathology is exemplary in showing the necessity of the recourse to a specific anthropological model to render the problems that are observed and the proposed interpretations intelligible as both the problems and the interpretations differ according to the cultural context within which they are expressed. Beginning in the 1940’s American works, by denouncing the potential dangers of a standardizing approach of psychic problems, showed the lack of references to nature and underlined the requirements of analysing the cultural milieu. For the last fifty years or so the encounters with historical and cultural realities foreign to the Western World that were nevertheless coherent, and the discovery of different models that had their own pertinence have shaken the secular confidence in the unbeatable superiority of western knowledge. Comparing the western model of the person to the traditional African model, the author tries to show the relation between the diversity of psychopathological expressions and the plurality of cultural models that are encountered. Autonomy and interiority are characteristic traits of the person in the West, however, in Africa, the person is defined by the explicit bonds that guarantee its unity and coherence by connecting it to family, community and spiritual axes. The field of psychopathology turns out to be particularly heuristic to show up the interest and necessity of taking into account models of representation of the world and of man which, if they are different from those with which we are familiar, are not the less useful, and even necessary to listen to man’s suffering and to try to give it meaning in the midst of a cultural universe which is incomprehensible using only the key of Western discourse. The author claims the interest of an ethnopsychology and concludes by indicating the necessity of taking into account cultural specificities not only in the domain of psychopathology but also in the other fields of psychology, including those concerned with measurement that is supposed to guarantee their objectivity, scientific nature and universality.

Review of Anttila (2000): Greek and Indo-European etymology in action: Proto-Indo-European

Review of Anttila (2000): Greek and Indo-European etymology in action: Proto-Indo-European

Structure of inorganic and carbonaceous particles emitted from heavy oil combustion

The combustion of heavy fuel oil for power generation is a great source of carbonaceous and inorganic particle emissions, even though the combustion technologies and their efficiency are improving. The information about the size distribution function of the particles originated by trace metals present into the fuels is not adequate. In this paper, we focused our attention on the larger distribution mode of both the carbonaceous and metallic particles. Isokinetic sampling was performed at the exhausts of two typical heavy oil flames and the samples were size-segregated by mean of an 8-stages Andersen impactor. Further investigation performed on the samples using electronic microscopy coupled with X-ray analysis (EDX) evidenced the presence of solid spherical particles, called plerosphere 1 An interesting discussion arised during the review of this paper about the Greek etymology of the full/solid spheres found in our study. The Greek dictionary gave as contrary prefix of ceno-(empty) the prefixes pleo, pleio or plero. Therefore, either of the following three words could be used: pleosphere, pleiosphere and plerosphere. So in respect of the basis of usage, the correct word is plerosphere; but another interesting discussion could be biased toward the structure of those spheres. Raask [Mineral Impurities in Coal Combustion, Hemisphere Publishing Corporation, Washington, DC, 1985] described plerospheres as spheres containing other smaller solid spheres. The question could concern how to define these smallest spheres which are solid and non-containing others spheres. These small-contained spheres should be plerospheres as correct analogy of cenospheres, while the container should be pleospheres using the pleo meaning as more? 1 as analogy with cenosphere, with typical dimensions ranging between 200 nm and 2–3 μm, whose atomic composition contains a large amount of the trace metals present in the parent oils (Fe, V, Ni, etc). EDX analyses revealed that the metal concentration increases as the plerosphere dimension decreases.

The Color Violaceous, or, Chemistry and the Romance of Dematerialization: The Subliming of Iodine and Shelley's "Adonais"

PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY HAD AN ABIDING INTEREST IN THE CHEMICAL RESEARCHES of Humphry Davy (1778-1829). (1) Donald H. Reiman and Neil Fraistat attribute Ione's allusion to fire that is not brightness (2) in Prometheus Unbound (1820) to Davy. Shelley knew from Sir Humphry Davy's account of findings of Herschel (1800), there are 'dark rays'--infrared emanations that produce heat without light--which, Davy suggested, might be given off by moon (276n.). And in a letter of 29 July i812 to Hookham, Shelley, eager to learn of Davy's recent work, placed an advance order for his Elements of Chemical Philosophy. (3) One readily apparent reason for Shelley's interest in Davy's work has to do with what former must have seen as an intellectual and metaphysical affinity with latter with respect to understanding how causation operates in world. As Christopher Lawrence has observed of Davy, Anyone who reads Davy's works cannot fail to be struck by his repeated use of word 'power' in every conceivable context, whether in his of chemistry, poetry, mind or society. (4) To restrict field to Davy's discussions of chemistry: in his Bakerian Lecture of 19 November 1807, On New Phenomena of Chemical Changes Produced by Electricity, Particularly Decomposition of Fixed Alkalies Davy announces results of the course of a laborious experimental application of powers of electro-chemical analysis, to bodies [i.e., chemical unknowns] which have appeared simple when examined by common chemical agents.... (5) And in his Bakerian Lecture of 15 December 1808, An Account of some New Analytical Researches on Nature of Certain Bodies ... with General Observations on Chemical Theory, Davy proposes laying before Royal Society, an account of results of different experiments, made with hopes of extending our knowledge of principles of bodies by new powers and methods arising from applications of electricity to chemistry.... (6) To see affinity, one need only look to Shelley's Mont Blanc (1816). (7) There, he figures as an unmoved mover, something which dwells apart in its tranquility / Remote, serene, and inaccessible (96-97), yet is seat and source of causative agency for all deployed and articulate forms in world. Or one might look to Hymn to Intellectual Beauty (1816). There, awful shadow of some unseen / Floats though unseen among us, an adumbrative presence suggesting that Power itself is somehow responsible for This various world (1-3). Shelley's use of term power to denote causative agency that, while not fully understood itself, nevertheless gives rise to articulate form and understanding consequent upon observation of such form, seems thoroughly consonant with Davy's use of term. As titles of lectures cited above suggest, much of Davy's early fame stemmed from his isolation and identification of elements--alkaline earths such as calcium, barium, strontium, and magnesium, and halogens such as chlorine, fluorine, and iodine among these. With specific reference to halogens, in a series of papers beginning with second of Bakerian Lectures cited above, Davy discovered and elaborated elementary nature of chlorine. And while in Paris in 1813, Davy received a sample of an unknown substance from A. M. Ampere, Nicholas C1emont, and his father-in-law, C. B. Desormes. That substance, as Davy discovered by working on it at M. E. Chevreuil's laboratory, assisted by young Michael Faraday, was iodine. The result of Davy's researches, as David Knight (99-100) reports, was paper on subliming and elemental nature and behavior of iodine dated 10 December 1813, subsequently published as Some Experiments and Observations on a new Substance which becomes a violet coloured Gas by Heat. In that paper, Davy, basing his nomenclature on Greek etymology for word violet, confers name iodine on new element. …

Diccionario de galicismos prosodicos y morfologicos

Diccionario de galicismos prosodicos y morfologicos. By Valentin Garcia Yebra. Madrid: Gredos, 1999. 319 pages. Valentin Garcia Yebra, perhaps more well-known for his work dealing with the history, theory and practice of translation, claims to be inspired by Ramon Menendez Pidal's statement that learned borrowings, or cultismos, have not been studied enough in Spanish. As a result, he focuses mainly on prosodic and morphologic Gallicisms in scientific language in his new dictionary. His purpose is to provide a reference book that might be useful to a general lay audience interested in the origins of the words they use. Additionally, he hopes to reach translators and scientists. He defines a galicismo prosodico as a word in Spanish that, based on its remote origin, should be accented in a particular way, but because of the influence from a French word, has evolved with a stress pattern resembling its French cognate. He uses the example of the word crisantemo in Spanish, which based on its remote Greek to Latin origin, should have developed as a proparoxytone with the stress on the antepenultimate syllable. However, because of the influence of the French chrysantheme, which would have been paroxytonic in Old French and is now tonic, the Spanish cognate is also paroxytonic. He defines a galicismo morfologico as a word that has altered its form or structure from that which corresponds to it etymologically because of the influence of a similar French word. He uses the example of the Spanish exilado to demonstrate his idea here. The etymologically correct form in Spanish from the Latin EXILIUM > exilio should be exiliado, which does exist in Spanish but has been in competition with exilado derived from exilado that was inspired by the French verb exiler. Garcia Yebra criticizes the Diccionario de la Real Academia Espanola because in many cases only the remote origin, that is to say, the Latin or Greek origin, of a word is presented. He argues that many words of Latin or Greek etymology entered Spanish through French, not directly through Latin, or at least were altered at some point in their history to resemble a French word, rather than following the more predictable Spanish development. He hopes that his dictionary, although not as exhaustive as he would like it to be, can fill in some of those gaps where they are related to prosodic and morphologic Gallicisms rather than to compete with the work already done with regard to these two types of Gallicisms. …

Review of Anttila (2000): Greek and Indo-European Etymology in Action: Proto-Indo-European *ag’-

Review of Anttila (2000): Greek and Indo-European Etymology in Action: Proto-Indo-European *ag’-

Mediterranean Theoria: A View from Delphi

Whereas the Mediterranean has not submitted easily to strong theories, still it has inspired a certain kind of theorizing from the ground. The setting of the Mediterranean viewed from the land's edge gave the world theoria, which Greek etymology and usage associates with looking onto a scene with amazement, viewing drama, being sent as an emissary to consult the oracle, or traveling for the purposes of sightseeing. The present essay explores some connections between the Mediterranean and theoria. Following a brief survey of how theoria functioned in antiquity, it studies the case of 20th-century Greek poet Angelos Sikelianos and American director and choreographer Eva Palmer - husband and wife - who sought to revive ancient ideas of theoria. They organized revivals of the Delphic Festivals in 1927 and 1930 as a prelude to re-establishing Delphi as a world center for people with a vision for the world. Their work rivaled that of the Olympic Revivals, except that the Delphic Revival was linked to a particular Mediterranean site and pursued the course of art, music, social thought, and especially tragedy together with athletics. A spectacular, imaginative, ambitious, but stillborn effort, it gives evidence of both the potential and limits of Mediterranean theoria.

PIE *meĝh-

I am a classicist, but in my studies of Greek etymology I sometimes come across Celtic material. I am glad to have this opportunity to discuss the interpretation of some Celtic features used in IE etymologies with Celtologists.

Graece … Latine: Graeco-Latin glossaries in early medieval Ireland

Early Irish glossaries contain a number of entries in which Greek etymologies are offered. The format resembles that of continental Graeco-Latin glossaries and it is proposed that material similar to that which is attested in Laon ms 444 was a source for the vernacular glossaries. The implications of this are explored and various other sources are suggested. A possible model for the use of sanas in Sanas Cormaic may also be found in a definition of apocrypha in Scholica graecarum glossarum.

Irony's Edge: The Theory and Politics of Irony (review)

BOOK NOTES final two sections look beyond the "imagetext" itselfand consider how it functions in society. In examining the relations between pictures and power, Mitchell adopts Foucault's model to the double demands of representation. Whereas illusionism involves power over subjects, he argues, realism involves power directed at objects. Translated into the social arena, this opposition assumes the form ofspectacle and surveillance, which "epitomize the basic dialectic between illusionism and realism in contemporary visual culture" (327). By contrast, Mitchell (after Habermas) imagines the public sphere as a place outside the realm of power, a scene where verbal and visual discourses circulate freely. Looking outward from this Utopian space, public art, film, and television attempt to penetrate and transform the codes of modern visual culture. Picture Theory is not only a welcome contribution to word and image studies, in short, but a basic text that is destined to become a classic. By any standards it is an exceptional achievement. Willard Bohn Illinois State University LINDA HUTCHEON. Irony's Edge: The Theory and Politics of Irony. London and New York: Routledge, 1995. viii + 248 pp. Linda Hutcheon's essay on irony betokens more than the author's evolution from her 1 984 book on Narcissistic Narrative. It also bears witness to a fairly general transformation of criticism over the last 10 years. Her famed works on metafiction, parody (1985), and postmodernism (1988 and 1989) reflect the last decade's gradual shift from textual to contextual approaches, or from the "poetics of . . ." to the "politics of . . .," so to speak. In this light, both the title and subtitle ofthe new book are highly relevant: her essay sees irony as an "edgy" discourse (37) that "would seem to ingratiate and to intimidate, to underline and to undermine . . . bring[ing] people together and drivfing] them apart" (56). It is the ironic "edge" that renders irony a political phenomenon and Hutcheon's account a political one, interested in how ironic situations "bring people together" or "drive them apart." In other words, the "politics of irony" draws on the various responses ironic discourse elicits from various communities. In effect, community may well be the essay's core notion. To my knowledge, Linda Hutcheon's analysis is the first to focus systematically not on the community of"insiders" that irony sets up but on the extant communities that specifically react to ironic messages. "It is not so much," she points out, "that irony creates communities or in-groups; instead, I want to argue that irony happens because what could be called 'discursive communities' already exist and provide the context for both the deployment and attribution of irony" (18). Irony's Edge thus lays down the terms for a pragmatics ofirony, more precisely, for a pragmatic approach to the responses ironic enunciations prompt. Unlike rhetorical (Wayne Booth) or philosophical inquiries (Jankélévich) into the production ofirony, this book draws our attention to the ways in which "discursive communities" respond to irony. It is not the "ironist" that attracts the critic, but the "interpreter." The latter "attributes" ironic meaning to a message according to his/ her specific and sociocultural background. Irony, Linda Hutcheon claims, is enVoI . 20 (1996): 202 THE COMPAnATIST dowed with a "transideological identity" (15, 27, 35, etc.). It can be "both political andapolitical, both conservative andradical, both repressive anddemocratizing." Its political meaning—and very presence—may be ignored, read offfrom, orjust read into texts and images depending upon the groups to which the readers belong. In mis regard, Linda Hutcheon's pluralist view of irony addresses a concrete, multicultural urgency. She convincingly argues that ironic meaning is fundamentally "relational," bringing "together ... the said and the unsaid, each of which takes on meaning only in relations to the other" (59). Irony does not only "dissemble ," as its Greek etymology suggests; as a "relational strategy," it also reunites people and meanings. Most importantly, while underscoring the contribution of "discursive communities" to the actual enactment of ironic connotations, the critic rejects the canonical definition ofirony as antiphrasis (58). Ironic discourse does notjust mean different things to different people; these meanings (interpretations) need not write each other off since the ironic signification, the "unsaid," is not simply the opposite ofthe "said...

Cervical spondylosis Part 1: Pathogenesis, diagnosis and management options

Cervical spondylosis is a term in frequent use but its definition is not quite so clear. It is usually held to mean some chronic degenerative disorder of the joints of the cervical spine, though the Greek etymology is rather more general, meaning ‘a condition (-osis) involving the vertebra (spondylos)‘. For the purpose of this review the term will mean ‘the degenerative diseases of the cervical intervertebral discs and their associated intervertebral joints that produce symptoms ‘. The first of these two reviews is concerned with the understanding and diagnosis of the condition in order that logical and effective management decisions can be made. The second will describe the surgical treatment.