Medias Res Research Articles

Software Maintenance as Materialization of Common Knowledge

While development of software always implicitly takes place in contexts of inherited entanglements and legacies, its maintenance deals explicitly with what is already present. Software maintenance locates itself in media res, in the middle of things. Maintaining software typically involves intervening in the material archive of source code, documentation, and software tools. Doing so successfully requires relevant situated knowledge of how the software at hand already hangs together, and how to effectively put this knowledge to use. This knowledge builds on first-hand experience, acquired in practice over shared lifetimes of people and code. For code to continue to endure over time, ongoing articulation of its entanglements is externalized and materialized across contributing programmers and software development tools, each themselves vulnerable and in need of maintenance. This paper analyzes how this process of externalizing and materializing knowledge is negotiated. We conclude that the common knowledge which suspends the string figure of software in time and in a broken world (Jackson 2014) is always a locally hybrid assemblage which carries this knowledge forward. Hence, to maintain software well is to add on to its legacy.

In medias res: the diminishing of historical continuity in modern thought

Innovation and future predictions are discussed as the main goals of modern technology. Living in this empirical, modern world set on the future has the possibility of diminishing the value of historical continuity as observation and outcome-based theory take precedence over contemplation and tradition. It is proposed that the forgetfulness of modernity creates a stilted perception of time and thought which results in a dissonance between the perceiving subject and their surroundings. This is exacerbated by digital media as it mostly frames information as an attractive or trending source of amusement rather than as a possibility for edification. The result of this dissonance between the subject and their surroundings and the influence of digital media can be seen in the thoughtless or repetitive action and the abdication of action altogether in favour of escape from reality. This is problematised in as far constructive action for the well-being of the individual cannot be sustained in terms of the current engagement with digital technology.
 
 Drawing on thinkers such as Connerton (1989, 2009), Davidson (2004), Habermas (1987, 1989), a discussion follows regarding how the diminishing historical continuity in thought can lead to the manipulation and a lack of rationality discussed in Horkheimer’s and Adorno’s culture industry thesis. To adopt the approach of continuity as embodied in the phrase in medias res(in the midst of things) in interpretation, rather than an observation assuming novel activity, may bring an alternative consideration for how modern technology (specifically the digital) can be used to assist the individual in taking contextual action rather than trying to escape action altogether while reframing the potential of digital technology towards a constructive, achievable standing rather than resigning it to a problematic system of distraction and degradation of thought.

In Medias Res: Using Sociology to Uncover the Harm of Arbitrary Deprivation of Nationality in Colombia. Reflections on Public Sociology as a Graduate Student1

Some literature on public sociology conceives of students as a public rather than potential or real practitioners of this type of sociology. There is a dearth of texts reflecting on graduate student training in public sociology and the trade‐offs they face. In this paper, I engage in a reflexive account of my experience doing public sociology, as I partnered with nonprofits to conceptualize, research, and write a report on the effects of stripped citizenship in Colombia after a mistaken administrative decision deprived 40,000 mostly binnational Venezuelan‐Colombians of their nationality in that country. This report has served as part of strategic litigation and to raise public awareness of the harmful policy. I argue that three things are key for graduate students to engage in public sociology and have been overlooked. First, training in public sociology, especially training with elements of apprenticeship, can develop the publicly engaged sociological imagination and toolkit, which is key to identifying opportunities for interventions in the midst of fieldwork, and models for interventions. Second, support from established professors. And third, local, contextual knowledge is indispensable. I also discuss ways to offset some of the trade‐offs that graduate students are likely to face when doing public sociology.

Idoya Puig and Karl McLaughlin, eds. Spanish Golden Age Texts in the Twenty-First Century: Teaching the Old Through the New; Alba Carmona. Las reescrituras fílmicas de la comedia nueva: Un siglo en la gran pantalla

Idoya Puig and Karl McLaughlin, eds. <i>Spanish Golden Age Texts in the Twenty-First Century: Teaching the Old Through the New</i>; Alba Carmona. <i>Las reescrituras fílmicas de la comedia nueva: Un siglo en la gran pantalla</i>

Persistent centralisation of decision-making in the age of industrial atomisation and self-management on the case of construction company Industrogradnja Zagreb (1966–1980)

The history of Industrogradnja between 1966 and 1980, although only a short, in medias res, segment in its biography, provides a complete overview of phases that Yugoslav companies underwent on their path to becoming a large industrial system. This article explores changes in management structure and application of new managerial practices during this period, which in turn led this construction and engineering company to the status of the leader in the housing industry in Zagreb. Apart from reconstruction of the company history, this article delves into two stages of complex structural changes the League of Communist of Yugoslavia implemented in the country’s socio-economic system, and investigates how a hybrid of two value systems, socialist and market, affected Yugoslav business practices. The case of Industrogradnja and this article aim to contribute to the understanding of socialist projects in the twentieth century as a variety of socio-economic frameworks as well as business environments.

As Though “Wit” Never Were: The Dual Pronoun as Interpretive Crux in The Wife's Lament

As Though “Wit” Never Were: The Dual Pronoun as Interpretive Crux in <i>The Wife's Lament</i>

In Praise of Refusing the Questions

In Praise of Refusing the Questions

Convents and Novices in Early Modern English Dramatic Works: In Medias Res. Vanessa L. Rapatz. Late Tudor and Stuart Drama: Gender, Performance, and Material Culture. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020. x + 180 pp. $94.99.

Convents and Novices in Early Modern English Dramatic Works: In Medias Res. Vanessa L. Rapatz. Late Tudor and Stuart Drama: Gender, Performance, and Material Culture. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020. x + 180 pp. $94.99. - Volume 75 Issue 1

Ayi Kwei Armah’s Two Thousand Seasons: A Case Study Of The Epic Plot

This work examines the plot of Two Thousand Seasons as an epic plot. The work contends that contrary to the popular belief that an epic narrative is a new form in Africa, epic narratives have long been known in African literary cycles. There are many models on the Epic analysis, but in this work, Albert Sackey’s eight-part division of the epic plot as identified by Aristotle is used in this analysis. In the Poetics, Aristotle identified five elements of an epic: plot, character, setting, diction and thought. Two Thousand Seasons is subjected to an epic plot analysis. In analysing the epic plot, Albert Sackey’s eight-point parts of the epic plot, which he refers to as “structural devices” of the Epic: the unity of time and action, Deux ex Machina, in medias res, opening invocation, extensive geographical travelling, catalogues of troops, digressions and division of texts, are used in this analysis.

Designing Player Intent through “Playful” Interaction

Designing Player Intent through “Playful” Interaction

Гармония нон-конформизма: о терминотворчестве Ю.А. Сорокина

The article discusses the terminological neologisms of Yu.A. Sorokin as both special lexical and text units. Yu.A. Sorokin had a peculiar predilection to creating terms based on the Greco-Latin derivational morphemes. He treated them creatively introducing new elements and reinterpreting the standard ones, for instance creating new correlative pairs. One of the favorite terminological models of Yu.A. Sorokin was emic which allows to briefly identify the category-forming entities. It is noted that, Yu.A. Sorokin rarely gave precise definitions to his terminological creations and did not worry about their general availability (the sapienti sat principle). Presenting thoughts in the form of postulates, he used the principle in medias res, i.e., he introduced a term / terms to the text without any expositional preparation. The article concludes that the term creation of Yu.A. Sorokin, that may be perceived as non-conformist at first, is quite harmonious in fact. To see that, one just needs to turn to the texts. Yu.A. Sorokins term-generating genre / type of text is a postulate and / or a manifesto, i.e., a text with a focus on concentration and suggestion. Hence, there follows a non-definitive way of presenting a term and terminological amplification, with the author using familiar international terminology, correlative terminological pairs and constellates, parenthetical inserts and graphic tools as cognitive clues for the addressee.

In Media Res: From Position to Provision

In Media Res: <i>From Position to Provision</i>

In Medias Res: COVID-19 in the Law

In Medias Res: COVID-19 in the Law

And What If Overt Plot and Covert Progression &lt;em&gt;Are&lt;/em&gt; Connected?

And What If Overt Plot and Covert Progression &lt;em&gt;Are&lt;/em&gt; Connected?

Object-Oriented Diaspora Sensibilities, Disidentification, and Ghostly Performance

Object-Oriented Diaspora Sensibilities, Disidentification, and Ghostly Performance

Sicut Sol Inter Astra: Timely Latin in the Aftermath of the Fire at Notre-Dame

This piece originated as an article in In Medias Res on 31 May 2019 and has been updated for the Journal of Classics Teaching. The author would like to acknowledge the helpful feedback from the editors at In Medias Res and The Journal of Classics Teaching on earlier drafts of this essay. Their suggestions helped produce a superior piece.

Teletherapeia: Ancient Consolation in the Distance Latin Classroom

This piece originated as an article inIn Medias Reson 29 May 2020 and has been updated for theJournal of Classics Teaching. The author would like to acknowledge the helpful feedback from the editors atIn Medias ResandThe Journal of Classics Teachingon earlier drafts of this essay. Their suggestions helped produce a superior piece.

ŽANROVSKA POLIVALENTNOST PRIPOVEDANjA IVANE DIMIĆ (ZBIRKA KRATKIH PRIČA „POPIS IMOVINE“ I ROMAN „ARZAMAS“ IVANE DIMIĆ)

Genre diversity that is characteristic of Ivana Dimić’s opus becomes evident in the structure of her works – in her collection of short stories List of assets, short stories are followed by drama, while on the other hand, in her novel Arzamas short stories alternate with drama parts. It is important to emphasize that genre variety becomes the theme of both works. Short stories included in the collection have a specific form – the point is set at the beginning of the narration, the narrator, who is the author herself, starts the narration in medias res, and some of the stories have a fairy tale opener and are often allegorical. In her novel, the author uniformly models the short stories by choosing in medias res technique as dominant and by giving advantage to the theme that prevails in both of her works – the relationship between love and death which often leads to ambivalent feelings of the narrator.

O incipit na novelística histórica portuguesa e brasileira

O incipit como partida para um lugar, origem de um itinerário narrativo desconhecido, é uma fórmula privilegiada que os autores possuem não só como mecanismo de sedução, como artifício que dita as regras do universo da história, mas também como expressão do seu posicionamento face ao que irão contar. Tratando-se do romance histórico, o autor tem ainda a responsabilidade de situar temporalmente o leitor, optando quer por descrições, segmentos narrativos ou por iniciar a história em medias res, sempre de forma a não desconfortar o leitor. O incipit neste género pode também funcionar como índice da forma como o autor faz uso da História na ficção: “écran” ideológico, com o intuito de intervenção no presente, evasão e catarse, ou, ainda, reflexão e clarificação de um determinado período. Se estas categorias são válidas na análise do incipit das obras dos autores lusos e de alguns textos de Alencar, os romances históricos de teor indianista alencarianos exigem uma outra categoria – a da elaboração ficcional da História com intenções mítico-lendárias. Com alguns piscar de olhos aos romancistas portugueses, numa verdadeira lição de ironia romântica, Alencar faz da descrição incipitaria uma verdadeira instituição que concentra em si objetivos ligados à construção da narrativa identitária.

In Medias Res: Deleuze and the Politics of Middleness

This paper explores the links between the work of Gilles Deleuze and two tropes of middleness, both of which are central to the reproduction of neoliberalism. The middle in neoliberal (or postmodern) societies is a key tropological, given first as an explicit political imaginary, what I call the “radical centre,”and second, in the form of a background ontology I call “universal middleness.” Though this essay does not argue that Deleuze is even remotely a centrist in disguise, it does claim that a worrying resonance exists between too-fast readings of his work and the ambient middles invoked above. When not properly theorized, the givenness of these ideologies of the middle ends up spontaneously reproducing the common sense of neoliberalism; this is a danger too for those readings of Deleuze that subtract from his work its radical anti-capitalist core and instead read him as a pure ontologist (of the middle) or as a post-ideological ethicist of the in-between.