Native France Research Articles

Insight into the genetic diversity of Selle Français horse populations based on whole D-loop sequencing of mitochondrial DNA

The Selle Français (SF) breed originated from native France horses crossed with Thoroughbreds, Arabs, Anglo-Arabs and French Trotters, which allowed for individuals to be obtained with excellent predispositions and a versatile usage for equestrian sports. The performance of the SF horse is widely accepted in the fields of show jumping and eventing; however, they have successfully started to compete in other areas such as dressage, vaulting, carriage driving and TREC competitions. To date, information about the genetic structure of the SF breed has been very limited. In the present report, Sanger sequencing was applied to analyse the whole D-loop of mitochondrial DNA of 98 samples representing Selle Français horses originating from two populations: Algerian (n=47) and French (n=51). The result obtained showed the presence of 19 SNPs, which allowed us to divide the samples into 41 haplotypes (OR909723‐OR909773). A higher number of haplotypes was detected in the Algerian population (n=24) compared to the French population (n=14), but both populations did not represent unique clusters and showed a high degree of genetic similarities. The result showed that the identified haplotypes of the SF belonged to four clades: L, A, B and G. The present report gives strong evidence that the Selle Français breed has been established based on a great influence of the Thoroughbred, whose close connection is more visible in the French population. The haplogroup assignment to L clades proved that the SF breed has European origin as ancestral haplogroup L was assigned to West and South Europe while A to West Asia and G and B to Middle East. Our results show SF as an example of a contemporary breed of sport horses with European roots further influenced by local breeds.

Fréderic Bastiat: the urgency of his philosophy in Latin America and beyond

The article highlights the enduring relevance of Frédéric Bastiat's ideas in Hispanoamerica. It explains the paradox of the widespread ignorance of Bastiat's work, both in his native France and among Spanish speakers. Despite his significant contributions to philosophical and economic thought, Bastiat's legacy suffered obscurity, hindering the understanding of timeless principles advocating for individual rights, economic freedom, and free trade. Comparisons are drawn between Bastiat's comprehensive economic understanding and the limitations of Marx's perspective, emphasizing Bastiat's contribution to the theory of value and his nuanced view of private property and the market. The article underscores the necessity for Hispanic academic circles to engage with Bastiat's works, promoting translations, analyses, and discussions to counter prevalent economic ignorance and challenge authoritarian doctrines. It also emphasizes the importance of Bastiat's ideas in confronting contemporary economic challenges in Spanish-speaking nations, advocating for rectifying this academic omission to foster economic growth, intellectual enlightenment, and combat the historical legacies of colonial centralism and feudal prejudices.

The Unpredictable Lightness of History in Nicolas Cavaillès’ Novellas on the Mauritius Islands

Nicolas Cavaillès ponders on a philosophy of history mixed with humour and irony in his historical narratives of remote islands in the Indian Ocean in two of his novellas: Life of Mr. Legaut (the story of a Huguenot who is forced to leave his native France and travels to these islands) and The Dead on the Donkey, where the wanderings of un unfortunate donkey across the Mauritius Island allow the narrator to relate the history of the island and its tragic trajectory to modernity. The idea of Western history as progressive evolution is rolled upside down with irony in Cavaillès's philosophical reflection on the circumstances leading to colonial expeditions in Life of Mr. Leguat (2013) and in the successive destruction of the Mauritius Island in the novella The Dead on the Donkey (2018). If Cavaillès builds his books hermeneutically, he also defies hermeneutics by denying all forms of possible understanding of the events described. The actions of his protagonists, human or animal, are the result of circumstances that are well known, but so absurd that they cannot form a historical narrative. If they did, this narrative would look like a hybrid of Beckett's absurd and Cioran's despair. Anti-Hegelian, since history here does not lead to individual freedom, Cavaillès's conception of history equally challenges Nietzsche's representation of unhistorical temporality in an attempt to solve humanity’s relation to the past for enacting a more desirable future. In far away Edenic islands, colonized by powerful states and inhabited by human and animal slaves, no philosophy could make sense of history.

The writer and the terrorist: on Michel Houellebecq

ABSTRACT This essay attempts to bring the politics of anti-humanism up to date with the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries by juxtaposing the humanistic figure of the realist writer with the anti-humanism of the terrorist, a figure that is pervasive in late twentieth century fiction. A prominent public intellectual in his native France, since the atrocities of 9/11 and the 2015 Charlie Hebdo attacks Houellebecq has been inextricably associated with terrorism and this essay attempts to establish why. Looking both inside and outside his writing, it suggests ways in which Houellebecq has been used by discourses of power to construct terrorism as a political reality. It also considers how far the author himself has played a knowing role in this process, examining – with reference to fellow contemporary writers Yann Moix, Martin Amis and theorists Guy Debord and Bifo Berardi – signs of his ambiguous sympathy for terroristic impulses. I end by comparing Houellebecq to other novelists who also employ the figure of the terrorist – among them Paul Auster and Don DeLillo – and by illustrating a larger trend in twenty first century literature towards the radical reworking of a Romantic association between writing and terror.

SUSTAINED CARTOGRAPHIC INNOVATIONS IN NASCENT FRENCH CANADA: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JEAN DESHAYES

Jean Deshayes, a teacher of mathematics in his native France, single-handedly put Québec on the map, literally. An accomplished astronomer, he used the lunar eclipse of 10-11 December 1685 to determine the settlement's longitude to unprecedented (although most likely fortuitously high) accuracy for the times. Deshayes contributed invaluable practical insights to the most important contemporary scientific debate—the discussion regarding the shape and size of the Earth—which still resonate today. Over the course of several decades and equipped with an increasingly sophisticated suite of surveyor's instruments, his careful scientific approach to hydrography and cartography of Canada's Saint Lawrence River is an excellent example of the zeitgeist associated with the seventeenth century's 'Scientific Revolution.'

Reconceptualizing Time, Space and Social Relationships: Queer Acts of Resistance by an AIDS Patient in Hervė Guibert’s To the Friend Who Did Not Save My Life

Although Hervé Guibert’s poignant account of his life as an AIDS patient in his 1990 novel with autobiographical elements To the Friend Who Did Not Save My Life (original French title: À l’ami qui n’a pas sauvé ma vie ) earned him staggering critical and commercial success in his native France, the novel’s highly personal depiction of the AIDS crisis did not please French AIDS crisis activists, who criticized that it favored the author’s individual experiences with AIDS rather than documenting the sociopolitical processes that led to its development as a public health crisis disproportionately affecting sex and gender minorities (Caron 114.) However, while it is true that Guibert’s novel follows a tradition in French literature and in Guibert’s own work to expose the individual dimension of suffering (Caron 118), the novel was still a highly subversive text that allowed the author and, by means of representation, other queer people affected by the AIDS crisis, to comment on and actively challenge the sociopolitical structures that affected them during this crisis. Guibert’s novel, in fact, eventually became part of the French AIDS literature canon, which included a diverse group of texts by people with AIDS, many of whom were gay men who boldly challenged the linking of gay sex and promiscuity to disease and social decay and humanized AIDS patients (Clum cited in Poirier 3.) In this essay, I argue that Guibert’s novel contributed to the denunciation of the oppression of queer people with AIDS in the late 1980s through its reconceptualizing of three life elements as queer: time, space, and social relationships. In his work, Guibert proposes a different interpretation of these life elements guided by the protagonist’s gay identity and AIDS; these reimaginations helped him navigate his life before, during, and after the diagnosis, confront the social and medical practices that affected his quality of life, and build a network of support composed of friends and acquaintances, several of whom were also AIDS patients. Although it is true that Guibert’s novel ultimately still presents events in the life of a white, cisgender, able-bodied and famous writer, and therefore does not represent the experiences of many less privileged AIDS patients in France in the late 1980s, the novel still presents an unsanitized, sincere account of a gay man who shapes his life and writing to resist AIDS in its multiple manifestations as a public and private health crisis (Caron 113.)

FUTURES OF GAMING: HOW CASINOS AND GAMBLING MIGHT EVOLVE IN THE NEAR FUTURE

FUTURES OF GAMING: HOW CASINOS AND GAMBLING MIGHT EVOLVE IN THE NEAR FUTURE

Explaining the larger seed bank of an invasive shrub in non-native versus native environments by differences in seed predation and plant size.

Large, persistent seed banks contribute to the invasiveness of non-native plants, and maternal plant size is an important contributory factor. We explored the relationships between plant vegetative size (V) and soil seed bank size (S) for the invasive shrub Ulex europaeus in its native range and in non-native populations, and identified which other factors may contribute to seed bank variation between native and invaded regions. We compared the native region (France) with two regions where Ulex is invasive, one with seed predators introduced for biological control (New Zealand) and another where seed predators are absent (La Réunion). We quantified seed bank size, plant dimensions, seed predation and soil fertility for six stands in each of the three regions. Seed banks were 9-14 times larger in the two invaded regions compared to native France. We found a positive relationship between current seed bank size and actual plant size, and that any deviation from this relationship was probably due to large differences in seed predation and/or soil fertility. We further identified three possible factors explaining larger seed banks in non-native environments: larger maternal plant size, lower activity of seed predators and higher soil fertility. In highlighting a positive relationship between maternal plant size and seed bank size, and identifying additional factors that regulate soil seed bank dynamics in non-native ranges, our data offer a number of opportunities for invasive weed control. For non-native Ulex populations specifically, management focusing on 'S' (i.e. the reduction of the seed bank by stimulating germination, or the introduction of seed predators as biological control agents) and/or on 'V' (i.e. by cutting mature stands to reduce maternal plant biomass) offers the most probable combination of effective control options.

Voltaire, Tolerance, Indifférence, and the Limits of Free Speech

Voltaire, Tolerance, Indifférence, and the Limits of Free Speech John R. Iverson (bio) Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 1. © Chappatte in Le Temps, Switzerland (20 September 2012), http://www.globecartoon.com As this cartoon by Patrick Chappatte shows, even prior to the murderous attacks of January 2015, Voltaire was closely associated with Charlie Hebdo and with its editors’ efforts to fend off accusations of defamation and blasphemy (fig. 1). Although the famous quotation that he utters here was in fact fabricated by Evelyn Beatrice Hall (using the pseudonym, S. G. Tallentyre), it has been broadly accepted as an accurate characterization of Voltaire’s attitude in matters of philosophical protest.1 Originated in English and long limited to the Anglo-Saxon world, today the saying has great currency even in Voltaire’s native France. The philosophe has thus acquired emblematic status as an unconditional champion of free speech. It was this facet of Voltaire that gave him such prominence in recent outpourings of support for the embattled satirical magazine. Nonetheless, this iconic perspective ignores the fact that Voltaire was an activist interested primarily in the efficacy of his works, rather than in the [End Page 261] defense of abstract ideals. This was, after all, the man who boasted, when comparing himself with Rousseau, “Jean Jacques n’écrit que pour écrire et moy j’écris pour agir.”2 While he certainly advocated the free circulation of ideas and frequently said things in defiance of those who wished to silence him, he understood and was willing to invest great energies in navigating an arcane system of privilege and censorship, closely tailoring his message, in terms both of form and content, to fit specific circumstances. Given this attitude, Voltaire seemed to consider freedom of expression less as an absolute individual liberty, than as an intellectual power that ought to be exercised strategically. Specifically, in the context of his struggle to promote religious toleration, Voltaire was mindful of the fact that, in urging others to accept principles that they found repugnant, he had to moderate his discourse. Toleration would spread only if he avoided alienating the faithful and succeeded in rendering them indifferent to the idea of religious diversity. In this perilous endeavor, whether Voltaire was free to say precisely what he thought was not the issue; of even greater importance was his need to communicate ideas in ways that could be digested even by his adversaries. One key factor in determining this attitude was Voltaire’s assessment that true tolerance was not limited to a willingness to allow others to maintain unorthodox beliefs but, at a deeper level, also required a weakening of religious conviction, actual indifférence in matters of belief, an attitude that accorded all faiths equal respect. In early 1764, as he anxiously awaited circumstances propitious to the circulation of his Traité sur la tolérance, Voltaire articulated this idea with remarkable lucidity. Soliciting feedback from his friend d’Alembert, he explained that, rather than simply preaching indulgence and charity, his text leaned toward indifférence and thus challenged the fundamental beliefs of his readers because “on n’obtiendra jamais des hommes qu’ils soient indulgens dans le fanatisme, et qu’il faut leur apprendre à mépriser, à regarder même avec horreur les opinions pour lesquelles ils combattent.”3 Or, as Voltaire more succinctly stated later that year, “Le fanatisme, qui a tant désolé le monde, ne peut être adouci que par la tolérance, et la tolérance ne peut être amenée que par l’indifférence.”4 In his reply, d’Alembert concurred but also warned it would be extremely counterproductive to address the idea of religious indifference openly. Prudent, measured words were essential. Voltaire and d’Alembert knew that, in conservative Catholic circles, toleration—often termed “tolérantisme” by their critics—was deemed inadmissible insofar as Church members were bound by faith to correct the “error” of those who strayed from Christian orthodoxy. In his recently published Instruction pastorale. . . sur la prétendue philosophie des incrédules modernes, the bishop of Le Puy, Jean-George [sic] Le Franc [End Page 262] de Pompignan (brother of the poet, Jean-Jacques), had railed against...

Portrait of a Modern Adulteress: Gabrielle Marquet’s La cerise de porcelaine

Gabrielle Marquet has been acclaimed as a poet and novelist in her native France. In the quasi-comic La cerise de porcelaine (1966), Agathe is an antique dealer whose lover has just died in her arms.Marquet orders the narrative, which turns on Agathe’s efforts to prevent discovery of the body, so as to reveal how self-absorption undermines her judgment and her affections. The denouement joins the myth of Narcissus to the parable of the Prodigal Son and points to the emptiness of the narcissist’s life.

The Specter of Races: Latin American Anthropology and Literature between the Wars

The Specter of Races: Latin American Anthropology and Literature between the Wars

Élie Halévy and French socialist liberalism

ABSTRACTÉlie Halévy (1870–1937) is best known in the Anglo-American world for his volumes on British Utilitarianism and his multi-volume history of England during the nineteenth century. His reputation in his native France, however, is associated with his directing role of the Revue de métaphysique et de morale and for his lectures on the history of European socialism, given every other year at the École libre des sciences politiques between 1902 and 1937. This essay analyses the relationship of Halévy’s scholarship on socialism with his self-proclaimed liberalism. Contrary to much of the literature about Halévy, and at odds with the ideological thrust of the posthumously published version of his lectures on the history of European socialism, this essay claims that Halévy was a socialist liberal before the First World War. It makes this case by providing a careful reading of Halévy’s correspondence and of the manuscript versions of these lectures (held at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris), and by placing these in the wider historical context. It argues that Halévy developed a sophisticated comparative analysis of European socialism, and that he was sympathetic to many of its dimensions.

Coronaeus and the Relationship between Philosophy and Doctrine in Jean Bodin's Colloquium

Coronaeus and the Relationship between Philosophy and Doctrine in Jean Bodin's Colloquium Thomas F. X. Varacalli (bio) One of the most significant questions for thinkers both ancient and modern is whether the philosophical life is compatible with adherence to religious doctrine. Jean Bodin's Colloquium of the Seven about the Secrets of the Sublime, one of the last great works of the Renaissance, is a neglected text that addresses this important issue.1 Written in the form of a Platonic dialogue, it recounts the learned conversations among seven men from different religious and philosophical backgrounds—Paulus Coronaeus, a Roman Catholic; Fridericus Podamicus, a Lutheran; Antonius Curtius, a Calvinist; Salomon Barcassius, a Jew; Octavius Fagnola, a Muslim; Hieronymus Senamus, a skeptic; and Diegus Toralba, a humanist who abides solely by the law of nature. These men over the course of six days discuss and debate a variety of pivotal philosophical questions, ranging from the existence of God and demons to an examination of free will. In the first three books, the dialogue is concerned mostly with general philosophical and metaphysical questions. In the last three books, however, the focus turns to doctrine, especially to a critical analysis of several Catholic doctrines such as the Trinity, the Eucharist, Christ's hypostatic nature, and the cult of the saints. The tension [End Page 122] between philosophy and doctrine is embedded in the structure of the dialogue. Some modern commentators, such as Quentin Skinner and George Sabine, have suggested that the dialogue exposes the futility and uselessness of ecumenical discussion.2 Both Skinner and Sabine are wrong in their assessment, especially because the interlocutors in the dialogue do not seem to think that the colloquium is a waste of time. Careful examination of the responses by Coronaeus demonstrates that the Catholic interlocutor forms a defense of the compatibility between philosophy and doctrine. Coronaeus, therefore, finds an answer to one of the most important questions in the dialogue: the relationship between faith and reason. Regrettably, scholarship on Bodin's Colloquium is scarce, but those scholars who have studied the dialogue generally praise it as one of the earliest and most influential defenses of both toleration and freedom of religion in early modern Europe.3 Bodin wrote his dialogue during a time of great religious turmoil and political upheaval due to the French wars of religion, the fallout of the Reformation, and the encroachment of the Ottoman Empire into Europe. The book was so controversial that it was not published until the mid-nineteenth century. For centuries, it was read clandestinely by luminaries as diverse as John Milton and Queen Christina of Sweden.4 The fact that such a banned book made its rounds among Europe's elites attests to its innovation and relevance. Historians do not exaggerate the originality and boldness of Bodin's dialogue. European thinkers, especially in Bodin's native France, often did not exemplify the moderation and collegiality of the interlocutors in the work. The unnamed narrator of the Colloquium himself marvels at the fact that representatives of seven different religious and philosophical traditions are able to participate in such potentially contentious exchanges without hatred or malice.5 In emphasizing the historical achievement of the work, however, modern commentators have generally failed to provide adequate analysis of the text. More specifically, few scholars have made the effort to unpack the significant differences among the interlocutors. [End Page 123] The most important commentator on the Colloquium in the twentieth century is Marion Leathers Kuntz, the only English translator of the text. Kuntz, following the traditional argument, claims that the primary aim of Bodin's work is a defense of toleration. The truly penetrating aspect of Kuntz's interpretation, however, is how she defines what toleration is. Toleration, she writes, begins with harmony. In order for there to be harmony, there must be genuine and distinct differences. She writes, "Bodin's concept of toleration is not relativistic, exclusive, or disinterested. Toleration is inclusive, since it is based on knowledge of various opinions. Like harmony, it is inherent in the nature of things but must be sought out and understood by the people."6 In other words, toleration does not consist in destroying...

Croatian War Nocturnal by Sebastian Schulman

obsessed with the stories of Oedipus, Rostam , and Sohrab. Thirty years later, Cem returns to Ongoren despite ill omens, to discover his destiny and to meet Enver, the narrator of the novel. The entwined stories of fathers and sons take unexpected turns and proceed like the epics that have long shaped Cem’s life. Pamuk’s readers will no doubt recognize the presence of his past works in this novel. Enver’s voice resonates with the assassin’s voice in Snow, Rostam and Sohrab’s story and the traveling theater company will bring back lines from the same novel; readers may find themselves hearing the cracking skull of a calligrapher in a sixteenth-century Ottoman well (My Name Is Red). Instead of the Venetians and Ottomans of the White Castle, it is Sophocles ’ Oedipus Rex and the Iranian poet Ferdowsi ’s Rostam and Sohrab that are gazing at each other, negotiating deep-seated fears about patriarchy in the East and West. Like Füsun, the red-haired woman, Gülcihan, despite her presence on the Turkish cover of the novel, is no more than a subject of desire. And Cem says his life changes after he reads a book on dreams, a statement that brings to mind the unforgettable opening sentence of The New Life. Despite its familiarity, however, The RedHaired Woman is a haunting and unprecedented novel. Pamuk’s mischievousness and playfulness are at a minimum, perhaps nonexistent. The murders in the book are sketched against a background of ancient epics and stories that create for the reader the illusion of a closed system, where one feels the weight of predestination and trauma in any troubled father-son relationship. Cem, who is a Poe fan in the story, immures himself with these classical stories, making the detective murder story within the novel even more evocative. In his shortest novel to date, Pamuk leaves the reader with questions about his choices in storytelling and his late style. For instance, the changing of the book title from The Well to The Red-Haired Woman means giving up a perfectly Freudian metaphor that captures the subtle threads in the book. This relatively late change in the title seems to coincide with the inclusion of Gülcihan as one of the narrators in the story and Pamuk’s decision to have a woman amid heavily patriarchal voices. This dominant patriarchal tone is reiterated with the presence and inclusion of the Western canon, from Hamlet to Rousseau and Jules Verne. In this way, the red-haired woman exists as a mysterious, iconic figure , represented by a Rossetti painting, reduced to a book dedication, and caught up in an Oedipal net. Iclal Vanwesenbeeck SUNY Fredonia Spomenka Štimec. Croatian War Nocturnal. Trans. Sebastian Schulman. Los Angeles. Phoneme Media. 120 pages. The Balkan Wars spawned literature across genres, in languages from émigré English and German to nascent Serbian, Bosnian, and Croatian. But Spomenka Štimec’s “fictional memoir” occupies a unique position. Defying the outcome of that war—six new nations, each comprising a dialect with an army—its language, Esperanto, from sperare (to hope), also functions as its theme. Each word embodies the aim of Zamenhof, who founded Esperanto in 1887 to transcend national boundaries and unite the world. Esperanto connects the eleven segments of this nocturnal (not a diary, its Latin root, nox / night, opposing dia / day) that capture the dark realities of the time. The typewriter of Štimec’s persona belonged to the Distributed Language Translation Project, a Dutch effort from 1985 to 1990 to enable machine translation using Esperanto as the intermediary language. On it this Esperanto Center employee, her visits to Serbia “a trip to our Croatian great-grandmother,” her annual holidays with Serbian cousins a “circle of harmony,” nightly records her experiences—Zagreb’s air raids, Vukovar’s destruction, Sarajevo’s siege, blossoming nationalism, separation from family, the death or disappearance of Esperanto colleagues. In Štimec’s epigrammatic style, irony both mediates and underscores horror, highlighting the absurd consequences of war (e.g., the hurdles faced when trying to ship a dead soldier’s body to his native France, revealing “the politics of storing the dead,” or the endless steps required to...

The Digital Loeb Library (http://www.loebclassics.com/)

BOOK REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS 373 In sum, even if the author’s claim to have re-dated Palladas to the first half of the fourth century is much less strong than he presents it, this book is a major contribution to scholarship and lays a solid foundation for future debate.9 University of Ottawa Jitse H. F. Dijkstra The Digital Loeb Library (http://www.loebclassics.com/). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 2015. In 1912, the Loeb Classical Library's (LCL) first volumes were published, prefaced by a “Word about Its Purpose and Scope” introducing the project. Here, James Loeb describes his reaction to a friend’s suggestion that he arrange for a library of “all that is of value and of interest” in Greek and Latin literature: “my imagination,” he writes, “was deeply stirred by the thought that here might be found a practical and attractive way to revive the lagging interest in ancient literature . . . . Means must be found to place these treasures within the reach of all who care for the finer things of life.”1 Loeb’s friend, Salmon Reinach, likely had in mind similar ventures from the nineteenth century in his native France: both the Imprimerie Firmin-Didot and Jacques Paul Migne’s Patrologiae Cursus Completus, Series Graeca were successful text series that, like the LCL, put little emphasis on critical notes but provided an adjacent translation. The LCL’s remarkable popularity over the ensuing decades should be attributed partly to the increasing dominance of humanities scholarship by the English language and partly to the need by classics departments to embrace a course of study no longer based in years of public education in Greek and Latin, a trend Loeb already identified. Indeed, for all those whose language skills are playing catch-up with their ambitions as scholars of ancient culture, facing translations provide an excellent means of quickly entering into a new text. The congenial format of the books surely also contribute to their appeal. Though far from the stated original goal of “all that is of value and of interest in Greek and Latin literature, from the time of Homer to the Fall of Constantinople”2 —there is not even a sampling of John Chrysostom, for example—the library continues to expand. LCL replaces superannuated volumes (with the volume number reused), and also adds new ones rapidly; the current total is 521. In the recent past, however, other means of reading ancient texts have been taking root. The Perseus Project, in particular, evolved a web interface featuring an optional facing translation. Indirectly, Perseus showed the viability of a LCL delivered online: many of these Perseus texts were in fact digitized copies of Loeb editions, by then in the in 324 and refers to as “one of the very first literary references to Christian monaxo’.” However, one would expect such a remark rather later in the century, after the Life of Antony (ca 356), when the word monax—w and the phenomenon of monasticism attracted more widespread attention (I would like to thank M. Choat for discussion on this matter). In other words, a date to the second half of the fourth century for Palladas remains a good possibility and would have the added advantage that he can be seen not in isolation, as Wilkinson proposes (57), but at a time of renewed interest in the epigram. 9 As already appears from the conference organized around the new Palladas codex at University College, London, on 4–5 September 2014. 1 F. C. Conybeare, Philostratus 2 (London 1912) i. 2 W. W. Briggs, Jr., Biographical Dictionary of North American Classicists (Westport 1994) 369. 374 PHOENIX public domain. The Thesaurus Linguae Graecae followed Perseus to the web and other publishing houses are rumoured to have begun moving their editions to this medium as well. Permutations of the open-sourced Perseus have arisen, most notably Perseus under PhiloLogic.3 As part of this broad trend in publication, in 2014 the Harvard University Press announced that the Digital Loeb Library (DLL), a Web interface to the entire current LCL, would be provided exclusively as a service available for hire on a yearly basis. The DLL cleaves very closely to the...

Informational Ontology: The Meaning of Gilbert Simondon's Concept of Individuation

Abstract The French philosopher Gilbert Simondon (1924-1989) was the first true philosopher of information, yet heremains relatively unknown outside of his native France. This situation is curious, given the warm receptionhis work has received from a small group of internationally renowned thinkers. Simondon’s lifelong projectwas to expound the appearance of what I call an “informational ontology,” a subject that deserves to beaddresses at length. This article limits itself by focusing on three aspects of Simondon’s philosophy ofinformation. First, it situates Simondon within the French intellectual scene in post-World War II Europe toget sense of his cultural milieu. Second, it positions Simondon’s work in the context of the Americancybernetic tradition from which it emerged. Finally, it offers an exegesis of Simondon’s informationalontology, a radically new materialism that stands to change contemporary debates surrounding issues relatedto information, communication, and technology.

Odilon Redon's Violette Heymann

Odilon Redon's <i>Violette Heymann</i>

A Conversation with Roger Guillemin

Introduction by Editor David Julius In the second century ad, Galen of Pergamon was the first to describe the anatomical connection between the hypothalamus and the pituitary gland. In the 1800s, von Luska, Cajal, and others showed that this connecting structure, or stalk, contains nerve fibers as well as a plexus of capillary vessels. Such observations raised long-standing questions as to the functional nature of these connections and their relationship to neural and/or humoral communication between these two endocrine organs. Hypothalamic nerve fibers projecting to the posterior pituitary were later shown to account for the release of vasopressin and oxytocin from vesicle-rich terminals within this lobe. Up until the mid-1900s, however, it remained unclear as to how the hypothalamus controls the release of corticotropin, thyrotropin, growth hormone, and other key endocrine factors from the anterior lobe. Evidence for direct neural control was lacking, and in the 1940s the British physiologist Geoffrey Harris proposed that the hypothalamus exerts control over the anterior lobe through a humoral mechanism in which blood-borne releasing factors are delivered to the pituitary through capillaries of the interconnecting stalk (the so-called hypothalamo-hypophysial portal system), inducing cells in the anterior lobe to secrete their hormones. This model was not without controversy, and skeptics would not be satisfied until the mythical hypothalamic releasing factors had been biochemically and functionally identified. In 1977, Roger Guillemin and Andrew Schally shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology for accomplishing this daunting and far-reaching goal. In doing so, they established the field of neuroendocrinology. In this Perspective, Dr. Guillemin, Distinguished Professor at the Salk Institute, recalls events that diverted him from a career as a country doctor in his native France to one of scientific research, first in Canada and then in the United States and France. The story of the releasing factors is legendary, not only for its scientific import, but also for the great technical challenges that beset these efforts when the advantages of protein microsequencing, molecular cloning, and other such powerful techniques were not yet available. Rather, a scale and persistence of experimentation almost unthinkable (and likely unfundable) by today's standards proved successful. Consequently, key steps in hypothalamic-pituitary signaling were elucidated, and new pharmacological strategies for treating endocrine disorders, including those affecting stature and reproduction, were realized. Following on a recent Annual Review of Physiology (ARP) advent, this Perspective takes the form of an oral history that can be read here in transcript form and viewed online. Dr. Guillemin was interviewed on August 7, 2012, at his ranch in the beautiful hills of Truchas, New Mexico (see Figure 1 ), by Dr. Greg Lemke, Françoise Gilot–Salk Chair at the Salk Institute. We are most grateful to Roger Guillemin and to his wife, Lucienne, for opening their home to ARP for this interview, as well as to Greg Lemke for guiding this lively and fascinating conversation.

Shadow and Light: Louis-Xavier Eyma (1816–76) and French Opinion of the United States during the Second Empire

This article is a study of a neglected yet significant French writer on the United States, Louis-Xavier Eyma (1816–76). In the period of the Second Empire (1852–70), Eyma wrote more about the United States than any other author, and was recognised as a reliable and influential guide to US society. What makes his career particularly interesting is that his work defies any simple categorisation. Whilst elements of his writings smack of anti-Americanism, he wrote with admiration about many aspects of US democracy and society. At the same time, he did not belong to the group of liberal writers who, according to some scholars, used praise of the United States as a coded means of criticising repressive government at home. Eyma was a staunch monarchist who opposed the introduction of democracy in his native France. Eyma's career demonstrates the complexity of French attitudes towards the United States, and points towards the need for a comprehensive study of French writing about the United States in the period of the Second Empire.

Federman’s Beckett: Two Voices in the Closet

Federman’s Beckett: Two Voices in the Closet Derek Alsop (bio) Raymond Federman (1928–2009) emigrated to America from his native France in 1947. One of the children of the Holocaust, he was in his terms a “marginal survivor.” After serving in the U.S. Army, he began his academic career at Columbia University and UCLA, where he completed his doctoral thesis on Samuel Beckett. He taught French at the University of California, Santa Barbara, before moving to the State University of New York at Buffalo, teaching in the French and then English departments, and retiring as Distinguished Emeritus Professor of English and Comparative Literature. His writing career eludes easy classification: he was a bilingual critic, poet, and, most importantly, novelist. Rejecting what he considered to be the imposture of realism and naturalism, his novels are highly innovative and experimental. Double or Nothing (1976), for instance, is a graphological tour de force with dozens of different fonts, text boxes, diagrams, images, symbols, calligrams, and word pictures, the text appearing across, around, up, and down the page in a range of positions. Federman invented the concept of “surfiction,” a creative activity that exposes the fictional side of life, showing reality itself to be textual. Endlessly inventive, he advocated “pla[y]giarism” and “laughterature” as part of the fictional process. His “critifiction” merged the critical and the creative, and his bilingualism enabled dynamic interplay between French and English. But behind all this playful inventiveness, technical innovation, and game-playing was the horror of the Holocaust experience. At the end of Aunt Rachel’s Fur (2001) one of his many narrative voices proclaims: “my role as a survivor here or over there, in the cities, the countries, [End Page 15] in the books I write or will write, my responsibility is to give back some dignity to what has been humiliated by the Unforgivable Enormity”.1 Federman’s enormous contribution to Beckett studies is unquestionable. He was the author of one of the earliest monographs in English on Beckett (Journey to Chaos: Beckett’s Early Fiction); he was co-author of the most important early bibliographical study of Beckett (Samuel Beckett: His Work and His Critics, with John Fletcher); and he was a friend who testified in notes, memories, and anecdotes to the generosity, brilliance, and influence of his mentor (his own Sam Book is indispensable in this respect, and he is given the last word in James and Elizabeth Knowlson’s Beckett Remembering / Remembering Beckett2). But while Federman’s place as a critic of Beckett’s work is clearly well-established, there has been little attempt to deal with the tangible Beckettian themes and practices of his creative work.By way of example, while the Beckett Archive at the University of Reading has all Federman’s important critical materials (including signed copies of his earliest reviews of Beckett) his creative prose is not at all represented, even though it is replete with direct and indirect allusions to Beckett and his writings. These allusions represent not merely a coda to Federman’s critical writings, but an attempt to work through aspects of his understanding of Beckett and his work that would not have been fully possible elsewhere. A consideration of opening sections of Federman’s The Voice in the Closet shows some of the main features of his writing at its most complex: a cryptic, elliptical, use of language; neologism; repetition; the mixing of registers; density of reference and allusion; wordplay; an ambiguous and uncertain narrative voice; and prose that creates its own syntactic units and sequences without punctuation: here now again selectricstud makes me speak with its balls all balls foutaise sam says in his closet upstairs but this time it’s going to be serious no more masturbating on the third floor . . . he waits for me to unfold upstairs perhaps the signal of a departure in my own voice at last a beginning after so many detours relentless false justifications in the margins more to come in my own words now that I may speak say I the real story from the other side extricated from inside roles reversed without further delay they pushed me into the closet on the...