National University Of Ireland Research Articles

MCCONE, K.: A First Old Irish Grammar and Reader including an Introduction to Middle Irish

McCone, Kim: A First Old Irish Grammar and Reader including an Introduction to Middle Irish. Maynooth, Department of Old and Middle Irish, National University of Ireland, 2005, 8°, viii, 275 S. (Maynooth Medieval Irish Texts, 3.) Brosch. 20 €.

Verborgene Facetten: Studien zu Fontane by Renate Böschenstein, Hanna Delf von Wolzogen, Hubertus Fischer

MLR, 103.2,2oo8 589 VerborgeneFacetten: Studien zu Fontane. By RENATE B6SCHENSTEIN. Ed. by HANNA DELF VON WOLZOGEN and HUBERTUS FISCHER. (Fontaneana, 3) Wiirzburg: Konigshausen & Neumann. 2006. xiv+569 pp. ?49.8o. ISBN 978-3-8260 3237-0. Renate Boschenstein (1933-2006) was renowned for her scholarship on the idyll, on myths, and on psychological currents in literature. The application of her vast theoretical and historical knowledge to subject-matter from the nineteenth century forms the focus of this collection. The articles assembled here mainly date from the two decades before her death; thevolume comprises allmajor published papers and one unpublished paper on Fontane, several on theUndine-Melusine complex and on related and intersecting topics, several important reviews, and sixty-five pages from a small Studienbuch on Fontane forReclam's Universal-Bibliothek that shewas working on when she died. Significantly, the completed chapters deal with some of Fontane's lesser-known works, the early novella Geschwisterliebe, the lost fragment Allerlei Gluick, and with Cecile and Graf Petofy. To have these chapters available is trulyvaluable. Formulating her argument sensitively and elegantly, the author suc ceeds in shedding new lighton these textswhile still achieving the accessibility and covering the essential information required from such an introduction. Most of the othermaterial can, of course, be accessed from itsoriginal places of publication. But only in combination do these studies afford a glimpse of the scholar's personality and preoccupations. In all theirerudition and, sometimes, long-windedness, theypossess a discernible voice, a voice of passion and tangible concern for thehuman core of all literature, for the significance behind all surfacemeaning, and for continuities and correspondences within the literary field throughout the ages. The scholarly articles are preceded by two short autobiographical sketches that describe formative experiences of theauthor. These pieces are truly impressive inone respect as historical documents, but they are also implicit pleas for scholarly objec tivityand responsibility. The scholar, these sketches assert, is a product of her times and these times bestow moral obligations without which any academic achievement pales into insignificance. The influential scholarly body ofwork, the excerpts from theunfinished Studienbuch, and the legacy contained in theautobiographical sketches combine to form aworthy tribute toRenate Boschenstein as an engaged and engaging scholar. NATIONALUNIVERSITY OF IRELAND, MAYNOOTH FLORIANKROBB Heinrich Mann: Eine Biographie. By MANFRED FLUGGE. Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt. 2006. 5" I PP. E24.90. ISBN 978-3-498-02089-7. Manfred Fliigge's sympathetic but by nomeans uncritical biography presents in some important respects an unfamiliar picture ofHeinrich Mann. The rationalist Zivili sationsliterat ishere outmuscled by a very different image ofMann as 'der allerletzte Romantiker, ein indas 20. Jahrhundert verirrterTaugenichts' (p. I2). Fliigge under pins this shift in perception with persuasive analyses of individual works inwhich he also challenges some common critical positions. What emerges with particular clarity; however, is the abundance of contradictions and paradoxes which attach to every stage ofMann's lifeand ceuvre.His undisputed literaryachievements, among which Fliigge includes various early novellas and essays aswell as novels such asDer Untertan ( 914), Ein ernstesLeben (I932), and especially DieyJugenddes Konigs Henri Quatre (935) and Die Vollendungdes Konigs Henri Quatre (I938), stand in starkcon trast with otherworks of often startling ineptitude, such as his lamentable attempt in ...

Predicting donation among an Irish sample of donors and nondonors: extending the theory of planned behavior

Research has indicated the ability of the Theory of Planned Behavior to predict blood donation. This study tested an extended version of the Theory of Planned Behavior (attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control with the addition of past behavior, moral norm, self-identity, and anticipated regret) in predicting donation intention and behavior among donors and nondonors and if forming implementation intentions improved attendance at a mobile blood donation clinic. This study used a cross-sectional follow-up design. A questionnaire was distributed to 600 staff and students at the National University of Ireland, Galway, before the arrival of a mobile clinic to Galway city. Half of these participants were invited to make implementation intentions specifying how, where, and when they planned to donate blood. A second questionnaire measuring reported attendance at the clinic was distributed 2 weeks after the first questionnaire. A total of 172 eligible donors returned questionnaires (29% response rate). The extended Theory of Planned Behavior accounted for 51 percent of the variance in intention to donate in the future: anticipated regret, attitude, perceived behavioral control, self-identity, and subjective norm significantly predicted intention. Donors differed from nondonors: they possessed more favorable attitudes toward blood donation, had a greater sense of donor identity, and believed more strongly in a moral obligation to donate blood than nondonors. Those who made implementation intentions were no more likely to donate that those who had not. Owing to the different factors influencing the donation decision for donors and nondonors, separate strategies to promote donation should be designed for these subgroups, targeting the elements most pertinent to each group.

Boson pairs in a one-dimensional split trap

Department of Physics, National University of Ireland, UCC, Cork, Republic of Ireland(Dated: February 1, 2008)We describe the properties of a pair of ultracold bosonic atoms in a one-dimensional harmonictrapping potential with a tunable zero-ranged barrier at the trap centre. The full characterisationof the ground state is done by calculating the reduced single-particle density, the momentum dis-tribution and the two-particle entanglement. We derive several analytical expressions in the limitof infinite repulsion (Tonks-Girardeau limit) and extend the treatment to finite interparticle inter-actions by numerical solution. As pair interactions in double wells form a fundamental buildingblock for many-body systems in periodic potentials, our results have implications for a wide rangeof problems.

Did Clive Barker Write The Hostage?

Clive Barker often wrote about Joan Littlewood and his time at Theatre Workshop with a mixture of warmth and bewilderment at her unorthodox methods. While preparing her doctoral thesis, Text and Collaboration: an Examination of the Roles of Joan Littlewood and Theatre Workshop in the Genesis and Production of Brendan Behan's ‘The Hostage’, at the National University of Ireland, Galway, June Favre wrote to Clive praising the article ‘Closing Joan's Book: Some Personal Footnotes’ (NTQ, May 2003). As a result of that first letter, Clive and June began a correspondence – exchanging questions, notes, published and unpublished material, with a final email to June dated 4 March 2005, less than two weeks before his death on 17 March. Clive had accepted the position of external examiner for the thesis with the viva voce to take place 10 May 2005 in Galway – a city Clive had never visited. An email sent on 21 February 2005 informed June that Clive was looking forward to ‘seeing the sun go down on Galway Bay’. His sudden death deprived him of that pleasure. Concluding the ‘Acknowledgments’ of the thesis, June wrote: ‘Above all my heartfelt gratitude for the dozens of emails, letters, and articles Clive Barker shared with me. He promptly supplied information on Joan Littlewood and the productions of Brendan Behan plays from first-hand experience.’ There follow some of the informative and humorous exchanges between Clive and June, who was awarded her doctoral degree later in 2005.

Exploring the use of experiential learning workshops and reflective practice within professional practice development for post-graduate health promotion students

Objective To explore and evaluate the use of two methods (1) experiential learning workshops and (2) reflective practice within post-graduate health promotion education, with a view to providing a foundation in professional practice based on health promotion principles and critical thinking. Design This is an empirical study exploring the usefulness and outcomes of two methods within an educational process. The study is informed by a number of theoretical and pedagogical perspectives including reflective practice, adult learning, constructivism, as well as the principles of health promotion and Freire's concept of conscientization. It involves the design, pilot implementation and evaluation of experiential workshops and reflective practice. Setting The study was undertaken within the postgraduate Masters / Higher Diploma in Health Promotion programme at the Department of Health Promotion, National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG). Participants included 19 full-time students and six staff members. Method The two educational methods were piloted during the academic year 2003—2004. They were evaluated by students and staff using a variety of quantitative and qualitative methods, including questionnaires, focus groups and discursive processes. Findings The experiential workshops were evaluated very positively both in terms of effectiveness as educational methods and content. The introduction of reflective practice was modestly successful as a first attempt and showed potential to make a valuable contribution to professional development. There was some evidence of students adopting the principles of health promotion as a result of participation in these processes. Conclusion The two methods were found to be complimentary and to display significant potential to enhance students' postgraduate health promotion education through the provision of a strong foundation in the principles of health promotion as well as knowledge, requisite skills and `know-how'. This foundation will contribute positively to their future as health promotion practitioners.

Hemoglobin Normalization Studies

Correspondence to: D. Reddan, Department of Nephrology, National University of Ireland, Galway, Unit 1, Merlin Park Hospital, Merlin Park, Galway, Ireland. donal.reddan@mailn.hse.ie Received 12 April 2007; accepted 24 May 2007. Anemia is highly prevalent among chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients (1) and patients receiving renal replacement therapy. Since erythropoiesis-stimulating agent (ESA) therapy became routinely available in the late 1980s, anemia of CKD has been treated with various ESAs, such as erythropoietin (EPO) alfa (Procrit, Johnson & Johnson, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA; Epogen, Amgen, Thousand Oaks, California, USA), erythropoietin beta (Neorecormon, Hoffmann-La Roche, Basel, Switzerland), and darbepoetin alfa (Aranesp, Amgen). Anemia of CKD is clearly associated with reduced quality of life (QOL) and an increase in risk of death and cardiovascular events (2–4); this observation led to the hypothesis that aggressive correction of anemia might lead to improved mortality and better cardiovascular and QOL outcomes. Over recent years, average hemoglobin levels and EPO doses have been increasing, and higher targeted levels of Hb have been recommended in clinical guidelines. The rationale for these gradual increases in dose and targets was supported by extensive retrospective evidence (2–5) and QOL data that suggested a benefit to higher Hb levels. Surprisingly, however, trial evidence has contradicted conclusions made from retrospective data. The Besarab trial, published in 1998 (6), suggested a potential cardiovascular risk from complete correction of anemia among ESRD patients, and three trials during intervening years have not demonstrated a significant benefit in terms of changes in left ventricular (LV) geometry for varying levels of anemia correction with EPO (7–9).

Pure beauty: judging race in Japanese American beauty pageants

With a low rate of immigration and a high rate of interracial marriage, Japanese Americans today compose the Asian ethnic group with the largest proportion of mixed-race members. Within Japanese American communities, increased participation by mixed-race members, along with concerns about overassimilation, has led to a search for cultural authenticity, giving new answers to the question, Who is Japanese American? In Pure Beauty, Rebecca Chiyoko King-O'Riain tackles this question by studying a cultural institution: Japanese American community beauty pageants in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Honolulu. King-O'Riain employs rich ethnographic fieldwork to discover how these pageants seek to maintain racial and ethnic purity amid shifting notions of cultural identity. She uses revealing in-depth interviews with candidates, queens, and community members, her experiences as a pageant committee member, and archival research-including Japanese and English newspapers, museum collections, private photo albums, and mementos-to establish both the importance and impossibility of racial purity. King-O'Riain examines racial eligibility rules and tests, which encompass not only ancestry but also residency, community service, and culture, and traces the history of pageants throughout the United States. Pure Beauty shows how racial and gendered meanings are enacted through the pageants, and reveals their impact on Japanese American men, women, and children. King-O'Riain concludes that the mixed-race challenge to racial understandings of Japanese Americanness does not necessarily mean an end to race as we know it and asserts that race is work-created and re-created in a social context. Ultimately, she determines that the concept of race, fragile though it may be, is still one of the categories by which Japanese Americans are judged.Rebecca Chiyoko King-O'Riain is lecturer in sociology at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth.

Implementing scientific advances into clinical practice in critical care—New challenges and new insights*

Department of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine, Galway University Hospitals, Galway, Ireland (Costello) Lung Biology Group, National Centre for Biomedical Engineering Sciences, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland (Laffey) The authors have not disclosed any potential conflicts of interest.

Student Reflection: An ‘ideal world’?

There is a growing body of research that supports what many tutors have felt is an important way of learning, namely learning by doing. In geography, and other environmentally focused subjects, the role of practical and field work is often cited as a key factor in the undergraduate learning experience, and something that facilitates understanding. However, the link between this ‘doing’ and ‘understanding’, is reflection (Kolb, �984; Hinett, 2004). This paper documents an action research project that attempted to introduce formal reflection into the curriculum of a cohort of geography students at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth (NIUM). Tutors at NUIM had identified two major questions about the learning experience that they wished to investigate. The first was to evaluate one method of enhancing the transfer of learning between year two (level two modules) and those in year three (level three modules). At the start of the study, this transfer was deemed to be poor, and was creating issues when students reached higher levels of study, and attempted to construct curriculum vitae for life after university. The second question was the desire to investigate the effectiveness of encouraging student reflection, and to assess the degree to which IT would facilitate this process. The present report provides an overview of the process of reflection and its likely part in the learning process, followed by a description of the project process and an evaluation of its outcomes. Finally, consideration is given to future developments in relation both to encouraging reflection and in the use of IT for this purpose. The modules which form the focus for the project were co-ordinated by one of the authors, while the other acted primarily to evaluate the experience

The rural economy in China and Russia – what is different? Is there a lesson for Russia?

Some rights reserved. For more information, please see the item record link above. Title Rural Economy in China and Russia What is Different? Is there a Lesson for Author(s) Cuddy, Michael.; Lijun, Qian. Publication Date 2004 Publication Information Lijun, Q., Cuddy M., (2004) The Rural Economy in China and Russia What is Different? Is there a Lesson for Russia? (Working Paper No. 0083) Department of Economics, National University of Ireland, Galway. Publisher National University of Ireland, Galway

HARVESTING EFFECTS ON BIOMASS AND NUTRIENT RETENTION IN <i>Phragmites australis</i> IN A FREE-WATER SURFACE CONSTRUCTED WETLAND IN WESTERN IRELAND

The aim of this study was to examine the seasonal variation in biomass, total nitrogen (Tot-N) and total phosphorus (Tot-P) content of Phragmites australis in a three-cell, free-water surface (FWS) constructed wetland in western Ireland and to investigate the effects of harvesting on its biomass and nutrient content. One cell of the wetland was divided into two plots: one plot, measuring 80m , was completely harvested on 16 June 2005, while the other plot, the control plot, remained uncut throughout the study duration. Completely randomised 0.64m areas within each plot were harvested to water level at intervals of approximately one month over an eight-month study period, and the shoot biomass and nutrient content were measured. In the control plot, the plant biomass, total nitrogen and total phosphorus content peaked in August. In the June-cut plot, the shoot biomass, total nitrogen and total phosphorus content peaked in September. The mean rate of dry matter production, defined as the mean daily rate of dry matter production per unit area per day between harvests, attained maximum rates of 12.8g m~2d-1 and 4.2g m~2d-1 for the control and June-cut plots, respectively, indicating that annual harvesting of emergent vegetation may not have any beneficial effect on biomass production or nutrient content under Irish climatic conditions. M.G. Healy (corresponding author; e-mail: Mark. Healy® nuigalway.ie) and M. Rodgers, Department of Civil Engineering, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland; J. Newell, Department of Mathematics, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland.

Zwischen Abenteuer, Wissenschaft und Kolonialismus: Der deutsche Afrikadiskursim 18. Und 19. Jahrhundert by Matthias Fiedler

MLR, I02.2, 2007 597 allows him todefine the social and cultural function of thedebates as one of collective self-assurance or self-definition vis-a-vis the extreme, the abhorrent, the unknown. Those readerswho arewilling to read past some high-brow theory and tolerate some convoluted, quotation-soaked, and occasionally rather inflated language will be re warded with a thrillingjourney into a strange and fascinating area of encounter with extremes and with an enhanced understanding of the attraction inherent in under taking, reporting, and fictionalizing such transgressions. NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND, MAYNOOTH FLORIAN KROBB Zwischen Abenteuer,Wissenschaft undKolonialismus: Der deutscheAfrikadiskurs imi8. und I9. Jahrhundert. By MATTHIAS FIEDLER. Cologne: Bohlau. 2005. 30I PP. E34g90. ISBN 978-3-412-I9Io5-4. Since the I990S, postcolonial enquiry inGerman literature,culture, and history has made the rediscovery and re-evaluation ofGerman colonialism and Germany's wider implication in the cultural history of European colonialism a new focus both in Anglo-American German studies, which pioneered this development, and inGer many itself.Fiedler's study,which is based on his doctoral thesis at theUniversity ofGottingen (2004), contributes to the further mapping of this increasingly popular field by critically reviewing the development of Germany's discourse about Africa from theEnlightenment to imperial colonialism around I900 and by offeringvaluable new insight into the crucial role of travelwriting about Africa in the emergence of German colonial discourse. Tracing continuities between eighteenth-century 'colo nial fantasies' (as Susanne Zantop called them) and late nineteenth-century colonial discourse, Fiedler provides furtherevidence ofGermany's full implication in thecul turalhistory ofEuropean colonialism, while also supporting recenthistorical research into the significance of laternineteenth-century colonial discourse for the politics of German national identity both before and during Germany's short-lived colonial empire (I884-19I8). Fiedler's analysis ofboth literaryand non-literary sources illustrates theemergence of a set of tropes in eighteenth-century writing about Africa and Africans (African nature vs. European culture; the 'ugliness' of the black body; African inferiority justifying European guidance; etc.), which continue to inform nineteenth-century literature and travelwriting, while gradually transforming into the colonial ideology of European superiority and African development through European colonization. Fiedler's earliest example is Peter Kolb's account of his residence in South Africa (17I9), which already exhibits the emerging 'colonial gaze' by highlighting theHot tentots' amenability toWestern education (p. 45). In his discussion of Christoph Martin Wieland's fictionalReise des PriestersAbulfauaris ins innere Afrika ( 768), he thenhighlights the dilemma of critical exoticism, sinceWieland critiques Rousseau's concept of the 'noble savage' and exposes the (gendered) violence of colonial conquest, while at the same time reinforcing theEnlightenment's vision of cultural development defined by Europe. The monograph's centrepiece, however, isa detailed discussion of the travel writing by German nineteenth-century explorers inAfrica such as Heinrich Barth, Georg Schweinfurth, Gustav Nachtigal, Gerhart Rohlfs, and Hermann von Wissmann. Fiedler illustrates the crucial role of these publications inpromoting growing public interest inAfrica since the i85os and in shaping the emerging discourse about Ger many's own colonial involvement inAfrica. His discussion also notes a shift in themes and style fromscientificaccounts in thecontext of contemporary geography tocolonial narratives of heroic adventure and conquest. And yet Fiedler finds recurring narra tive tropes (such as the symbolic scenes of departure from themargins of European 598 Reviews civilization into the 'darkcontinent') and a conspicuous reluctance throughout toen gage incross-cultural encounter. German nineteenth-century travelwriting presents Africa as empty landscape or as evidence of preconceived stereotypes about Africans while at thesame timeconstructing theGerman travellers as 'heroes of science' whose achievements compensate for the lack ofGerman colonial power (p. 139). Preparing the ground forGerman colonialism, this type of travelwriting was ultimately to provide some of itsauthors with a career inGermany's emerging colonial empire. Turning to other instances of the increasingly popular colonial discourse about Africa, Fiedler readsWilhelm Raabe's novel Abu Telfan (I865) as a literary reponse to thisdiscourse, a critique ofGerman exoticism and European presumptions of cul tural superiority, but he argues thatRaabe's technique of comparing and contrasting Africa and Germany ultimately reinforces colonial tropes.Wider engagement with relevant specialist research could have helped to take this discussion further.The popular culture shows of the...

Völkerschau, Kannibalismus, Fremdenlegion: Zur Ästhetik der Transgression (1897-1936) by Volker Mergenthaler

596 Reviews Enghaus, the strong self-possessed woman. 'Miinnlichkeit [ist] bei Hebbel etwas zu tiefstFragiles, weil sie nichtwirklich existiert. Sie istnur vorhanden als soziokulturell konstruiertes Verhaltensmuster' (p. I96). Mecky Zaragoza would say: 'I told you so.' EXETER COLLEGE, OXFORD HELEN WATANABE-O'KELLY V1lkerschau- Kannibalismus- Fremdenlegion: Zur Asthetik der Transgression (I897-1936). By VOLKER MERGENTHALER. (Hermaea, 109) Tiubingen: Nie meyer. 2005. X+27OPP. ?64. ISBN 978-3-484-15IO9-3. What 'aesthetics of transgression' is supposed tomean in this study is defined on page 236: 'nicht der literarischeUmgang mit dem Phanomen des Ubergangs, nicht die Freisetzung der isthetischen Produkivkrafte angesichts von Ubergangen [. . ], sondern zunachst und umgekehrt die Frage nach dem Poetischen, Rhetorischen, Literarischen, Asthetischen von Transgressionen selbst'. Consequently, the author has selected three cases of transgression which are not in the first instance present in literary representations but in other media of public discourse. In analysing the sources, he identifies the aesthetic potential of the acts themselves, which means he investigateswhether the acts of rule-breaking or deviation fromnorms possess a di mension thatcould be described as setting freeaesthetic energies. He then juxtaposes thediscourse on these acts (in newspaper reports, factual and polemical literature,and other extra-literarymedia) with three literary treatments of related themes and uses one element of these pairings to identify the aesthetic qualities of each of the others. Even thoughVolker Mergenthaler does sowith the explicit intention of understand ing the aesthetic nature (and appeal) of the actual 'cases' of transgression, not their representations, he manages also to bring intomuch sharper focus the aesthetics of the literaryrepresentations of the fictitious transgressions. The pairings of 'cases' and literary 'counterparts' are as follows. First, Peter Altenberg's text 'Ashantee' (I897) about an encounter with the 'actors' in an ethnological exhibition (V6lkerschau) in Vienna isjuxtaposed with the 'case' of the teenage girls fromDresden who absconded from home in 1913 to travelwith the 'Indian' actors of aWild West Show: inboth these instances the sexual implications of the crossing of the dividing-line between spectators and 'actors' is suggested by the device of aposiopesis, and this aposiopesis contains and conveys theaesthetic quality of the act and the literary treatment.Next, Hanns Heinz Ewers's story 'Mameloi' (1907) about a European's participation in Voodoo rituals that involve the drinking of human blood is juxtaposed with the case of Franz Bratuscha, who confessed tohaving killed his own daughter and eaten of her flesh: inboth instances (fictitious account and confession) the allegation was derived from extraneous sources (ethnographic reports) which, according toMergenthaler, cast the two versions as acts of 'dissimulation'; the aesthetic energy thus arises out of casting as genuine a second-hand experience. Thirdly, Ernst Jiinger'sAfrikanische Spiele ( 936), the storyof a young man firstjoining and thenoutgrowing theForeign Legion, isjuxtaposed with the case ofPaul Tromel, mayor of a small town innorthern Germany, who joined theForeign Legion in I913, allegedly in a state ofmental con fusion: in both instances the transgression is seen as an act of self-empowerment in defiance of domestic conventions; aesthetically forJuinger,this step isone of enabling literaryagency or 'Autorschaft' (p. 2 I8 and passim). This entire subject-matter is fascinating and themeticulous interpretations are compelling. What the three themes have in common is their extraordinarily strong presence in themedia around the turn of the twentieth century; Mergenthaler's painstaking reconstruction of the contemporary debates on these subjects in news papers, pamphlets, police reports, and other sources is truly admirable. This work MLR, I02.2, 2007 597 allows him todefine the social and cultural function of thedebates as one of collective self-assurance or self-definition vis-a-vis the extreme, the abhorrent, the unknown. Those readerswho arewilling to read past some high-brow theory and tolerate some convoluted, quotation-soaked, and occasionally rather inflated language will be re warded with a thrillingjourney into a strange and fascinating area of encounter with extremes and with an enhanced understanding of the attraction inherent in under taking, reporting, and fictionalizing such transgressions. NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND, MAYNOOTH FLORIAN KROBB Zwischen Abenteuer,Wissenschaft undKolonialismus: Der deutscheAfrikadiskurs imi8. und I9. Jahrhundert. By MATTHIAS FIEDLER. Cologne: Bohlau. 2005. 30I PP. E34g90. ISBN 978-3-412-I9Io5-4. Since the I990S, postcolonial enquiry inGerman literature,culture...

Semantics or Substance?: David Scheffer's Welcome Proposal to Strengthen Criminal Accountability for Atrocities

Semantics or Substance?: David Scheffer's Welcome Proposal to Strengthen Criminal Accountability for Atrocities

Genea-Logik: Generation, Tradition und Evolution zwischen Kultur- und Naturwissenschaften by Sigrid Weigel

550 Reviews his engagement with thewider world; a lengthypiece on non-European motifs in the literature of the nineteenth century, from Stifter to Fontane, proves how rewarding further treatment of all of the authors covered would be; and German accounts of encounters with 'natives' on thePacific island of Palau reveal how attitudes changed between the 'philosophical' travellers of the lateeighteenth century and thevisitors of the i86os whose clear design itwas topave theway forGerman colonial penetration. Most of the other chapters show less obvious connections to the overall theme as formulated in the titleof the collection. There are, however, discernible clusters of concern: two articles trace the influence of early Shakespeare criticism on Goethe's Gotz and his Shakespeare speech and the connections between Shakespeare and Schiller's aesthetics of cruelty; threearticles deal with the theme of death (inGleim's and C. E Meyer's writings, and in epitaphs for pets); two articles highlight prob lems of translation and redaction (the examples are some ofWalter Scott's Goethe translations and differentversions of B. Traven's stories). And then there are a few contributions which do not seem tobelong to any of the thematic groupings sketched above. Methodologically, most articles combine timely concerns with traditional ap proaches of philological meticulousness; all articles present rich insights and display stupendous knowledge; some intervene in general debates, some will be of interest only to a highly specialized readership. NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND, MAYNOOTH FLORIAN KROBB Genea-Logik: Generation, Tradition und Evolution zwischen Kultur- und Naturwis senschaften. By SIGRID WEIGEL. Munich: Fink. 2oo6. 288 pp. ?29.90. ISBN 978-3-7705-4I73-7. Generation is one of themost widely used concepts in contemporary German dis course. On the one hand it is a convenient label fornewly self-styled social cohorts (such as 'generation.com' or 'Generation Golf'), on the other the concept seems to lend itself to a 'natural' way of categorizing and delimiting historical experience. It is precisely the concept's highly intuitive but undertheorized appeal that Sigrid Weigel analyses from a cultural-historical perspective. As Weigel's careful analysis of the complex semantic history of the term shows, the idea of generation is rooted in biological meaning, but at the same time it is used to regulate legal, social, and cul tural issues of affiliation.Mapping out the separation of the discourse of the natural sciences from thatof thehumanities, Weigel makes a case fornew formsof interdis ciplinary co-operation which would set epistemic differences between the disciplines in dialogue with one another. In thisway the book also offers amethodological per spective which attempts to bridge the ever widening gap between science discourse and thecultural disciplines. Cross-stitching thecultural and natural-science perspec tives in ten chapters, thebook offers a fascinating account of the career of the idea of generation since antiquity. Chapter i takes thecontemporary dream of immortality through geneticmanipula tion as a springboard for thehistorical analysis of the episteme 'genealogy'. It argues that our contemporary understanding of 'Erbschaft' in the two senses of heritage and inheritance is theproduct of the transferof the idea of genealogy from religious and biblical discourse tobiological discourse in the eighteenth century: while in the older paradigm genealogy regulated important issues of family inheritance, lineage, and heritage, the pre-molecular biology of the eighteenth century already incorpo rated the idea inside theorganism. The paradigm shift from the idea of preformation to that of epigenesis produced a new ambiguity: while all people are now equipped with the triumphal knowledge that theywill pass on a biological inheritance, this MLR, 102.2, 2007 551 triumph isundermined by the insight thateach of us is theproduct of a biological in heritance.Weigel takes thebiological discourse from theeighteenth century through nineteenth-century evolution theory and, finally,to contemporary debates on gene tics and information theory.Analysing themetaphors that are used to textualize the genetic code, she shows how the semantic ambiguity of the idea of generation has resurfaced in the language of information theory,where the term 'information' os cillates between a pure mathematical function and a semantically connoted meaning. The switching of perspective from the emergence of the nineteenth-century theory of evolution to the evolution of systems allows her todemonstrate thatcontemporary biological discourse...

The quasi-optical design of telescopes to image the early universe

The cosmic microwave background (CMB), relic radiation from the Big Bang, had very faint temperature and polarization fluctuations imprinted on it as a structure formed in the early universe. By mapping the temperature fluctuations (∆T/T ≈ 10−5), cosmologists have learned a great deal. But in order to determine cosmological parameters uniquely and to rigorously test theories of the very early universe, the even fainter polarization fluctuations must be mapped. This demands a significant increase in sensitivity over earlier experiments and an in-depth understanding and control of telescope optics, in particular their effect on polarized signals. In order to maximize the CMB signal against foregrounds such as the atmosphere and galactic emission, most observations are made at frequencies between 0.02 and 0.9THz, which present their own set of unique challenges. Optical design in the terahertz waveband can be challenging and difficult to do with any confidence using techniques developed for visible wavelengths, especially for high-precision applications such as CMB astronomy. The Space Optics Design and Analysis group at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth (NUI Maynooth), specializes in the field of quasi-optical design for astronomical instrumentation.1 Optical design is concerned with the problem of calculating an electromagnetic field over a surface in an optical system when the field, or currents, over some other surface is known. The full solution to Maxwell’s equations is usually extremely difficult to find, and in practice approximations have to be made. Although physical optics (PO) can be used to characterize electromagnetic systems to high accuracy, it is computationally intensive at terahertz frequencies and often Figure 1. A quasi-optical telescope (the QUaD telescope) set up in MODAL. The model includes 31 corrugated conical horns at the focal plane (modeled using electromagnetic mode matching), two lenses, and a Cassegrain telescope. The fundamental Gaussian mode is used for beam visualization.

Marcel Proust 5: Proust au tournant des siècles 2 by Bernard Brun, Juliette Hassine

MLR, I02.2, 2007 5I9 feared no one, and no writer or topicwas above his powers of criticism, as shown in detail byMillet-Gerard, who underlines Bloy's paradoxical faith inHistory alongside his unclassifiable status as a critic and his fearless attitude towards ideological and aesthetic convention. His recognized influence on Huysmans, Claudel, and Bernanos can be extended to include the late twentieth-centuryChristian writer Jean Sulivan (I9I3-80), particularly regarding the latter's stance 'a l'endroit des bien-pensants en tout genre' (p. 6o). The article by Parisse and her recent thesis, also reviewed here by Glaudes, deal with themystical model as a tool inunderstanding Bloy's work. The loss of the father which prefigures the (apparent) absence of God is a critical element in Bloy as it is in the inspiration of Sulivan, whose creative work, like that of Bernanos, shares Bloy's visionary and prophetic tone; inSulivan's case, however, unlike Bloy, the early psychological and spiritual turbulence prefigures the spiritual abandonment, detach ment, and passivity of thewriter inhis latteryears. Parisse analyses masterfully the spiritual, psychological, and philosophical dimensions of Bloy's work inwhich all that is profound advances wearing themask ofmystery. Questions of interiority/ exteriority, rebellion/peace, doubt/conviction, freedom/passivity,meaning/void, and detachment/activity are dealt with from the literaryand spiritual points of view, con firmingthe importance of themystical in a contemporary understanding ofBloy, and concluding that,although Bloy was not amystic, hiswork does extolmystical virtues and themystical does constitute 'le fermentde l'aeuvre passee et a venir' (p. 247). The Berdiaev text translated here sees Bloy as a 'Fol en Christ' (p. 2I8); mystical experi ence forces language to reveal its fragilityas itbreaks down under pressure from the ineffable;one would welcome, therefore,on another occasion a close reading of Bloy texts from theperspective of confirming or invalidating theperceived authenticity of his spiritual experience. NATIONALUNIVERSITY OF IRELAND, GALWAY PADRAIG O GORMAILE Marcel Proust 5: Proust au tournantdes siecles 2. Ed. by BERNARDBRUN and JULIETTE HASSINE. (La Revue des Lettres Modernes) Paris and Caen: Lettres Modernes Minard. 2005. 299 pp. E22. ISBN 978-2-256-gi9O8-2. This collection continues theproject on 'Proust au tournant des siecles' begun in200 I at the Faculte des Lettres of Bar-Ilan University, Israel. It divides the articles into two sections, 'Sur la lecture' and 'L'ecriture infinie', and is notable forvariety, but also forunevenness. The proceedings are represented by three types of investigation: factual and comparative articles, articleswith a thesis, and freelyappreciative essays. As a prelude, the collection isheaded by the voice of themaster himself in an un published letter toLeon Blum presented by Ilan Greilsammer. It portrays Proust in an unattractive light.His attitude towards someone who was eventually responsible forhis award of theLegion d'honneur isuncomfortably ambivalent and reminds us of how tetchyhe could be even when dependent on friends forsupport inhis career. As iftopursue Proust's sensitivity over his own importance, PyraWise examines his attitude toRousseau with unrelenting thoroughness in 'Legrandin: un pastiche de Rousseau?' Proust tries to hide any connection with or contamination by Rousseau even when echoes of Rousseau abound in Legrandin's lavishly eloquent manner. Proust is revealed as pervaded by Rousseau without being fully aware of it,but anx ious not to have his own achievement of confession overshadowed by Rousseau's Confessions.Of items in a similar vein of influence,Danielle-Claude Belanger's article on A rebours traces hints and parallels with themadeleine episode and concludes that Proust probably did readHuysmans. Likewise, Akio Ushiba's 'Proust etMallarme 520 Reviews claims an equal place for Mallarm6 along with Baudelaire as favourite poet. Typical of this line of analysis, there is often no direct point of contact with Proust. Thus articles on Gracq, Pirandello, and Smilansky Yizhar remain at the level of curiosity rather than revelation. More strongly assertive, and with a sense of a thesis to be proved, isVolker Roloff's 'Correspondance des arts et intermedialite'. La Recherche is treated as a reference-point for music, painting, and the use of the arts generally to give thework some structural strength. Roloff seeks to show thatProust's aesthetic requires deliberate and interactivework from the reader to allow its truemeaning...

The Theatre of Antonio Buero Vallejo: Ideology, Politics and Censorship

This monograph examines the complex relationship between Antonio Buero Vallejo (1916 - 2000) and the ideologies of Francoist and post-Franco Spain. The central focus of the study is Buero's political theatre and his employment of myth and history to challenge the notion of an Espana eterna. It also considers Buero's creation of his own myths and his revision of history in order to rationalize and justify his own stance. In his determination to write and stage committed drama in a repressive society, Buero's choice, with its inherent contradictions and ambiguities, was posibilismo. This book looks at this pragmatic employment of language and silence, both in his art and in his dealings with the censors and with other representatives of the hegemony and analyses how posibilismo both aided and limited him. The monograph also considers Buero's neglected post-Franco theatre, examining the reasons for its initial negative reception and its renewed importance in today's Spain. In these days of digging up the past, Buero's post-Franco insistence on rejecting the pacto de olvido is perhaps more relevant than ever before. Catherine O'Leary lectures in Spanish at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth.

Current targets in irritable bowel syndrome: an interview with Eamonn Quigley

Eamonn M M Quigley, MD, FACG, is Vice-President of the World Gastroenterology Organisation and Secretary of the American College of Gastroenterology. He is also Professor of Medicine and Human Physiology and Head of the Medical School at the National University of Ireland in Cork. Between 1991 and 1998, he served as Chief of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, where he was also Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine. Dr Quigley has been awarded a Fogarty International Fellowship by the National Institutes of Health and an Ainsworth Traveling Scholarship from University College Cork. He completed higher medical training in gastroenterology and internal medicine as a Senior Registrar and Lecturer in the Department of Medicine at Hope Hospital and the University of Manchester. His MD thesis was awarded by the National University of Ireland in 1984 and he received his medical education at University College Cork, graduating MB BCh BAO in 1976. Dr Quigley served as Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Gastroenterology from 1997 to 2003, and he has published > 400 articles, including original manuscripts, editorials, review articles, book chapters and case reports. He is also interested and involved in education in the area of gastroenterology and has participated in, or directed symposia, workshops and other teaching forums and prepared a variety of related teaching aids.