Surrogate Fathers Research Articles

Lincoln’s “Angel Mother” and His Surrogate Fathers

Lincoln’s “Angel Mother” and His Surrogate Fathers

‘Sons go wrong without fathers’: Australian children and absent serviceman fathers in the Second World War

This article analyses the perceived problems and proposed solutions concerning absent Australian servicemen fathers during the Second World War, and places them within the broader context of contemporary ideas about masculinity. The absence of servicemen fathers led to concerns from all areas of society about the impact on their children, in particular sons. There were fears that being raised solely by women would lead to boys becoming lonely, effeminate, spoilt, or juvenile delinquents. It was suggested that existing male family members, such as uncles and grandfathers, as well as male teachers, act as surrogate fathers and become role models. Boys’ clubs, such as Scouts and the YMCA, also provided boys with access to male role models, and their weekly meetings, Father Son events, and camping provided opportunities for imparting the ‘code of boyhood’ and the development of masculine qualities.

Allogeneic offspring produced by induction of PD-L1 in spermatogonial stem cells via self-renewal stimulation.

The testis is an immune-privileged organ. It is considered that the testis somatic microenvironment is responsible for immune suppression. However, immunological properties of spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) have remained unknown. Here, we report the birth of allogeneic offspring by enhanced expression of immunosuppressive PD-L1 in SSCs. Invitro supplementation of GDNF and FGF2 increased expression of PD-L1 in SSCs. Cultured SSCs maintained allogeneic spermatogenesis that persisted for >1 year. However, depletion or gene editing of Pd-l1 family genes in SSCs prevented allogeneic spermatogenesis, which suggested that germ cells are responsible for suppression of the allogeneic response. PD-L1 was induced by activation of the MAPK14-BCL6B pathway, which drives self-renewal by reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation. By contrast, reduced ROS or Mapk14 deficiency downregulated PD-L1. Allogeneic offspring were born after SSC transplantation into congenitally infertile and chemically castrated mice. Thus, SSCs have unique immunological properties, which make allogeneic recipients into "surrogate fathers."

Surrogate Fathers: The Lazarists as Jesuit Successors in the Eighteenth Century, 1759–1814

From 1759 to 1773 rulers throughout Europe deemed the Society of Jesus highly dangerous and began moving against it. This article, however, rather than focussing on Jesuit failings, uncovers an alternative story of the popularity enjoyed by the Lazarists, appointed to be the Jesuits’ successors in many important locations. The Lazarists’ ethos and behaviour provided attractive contrasts to the Jesuits, first winning the patronage of European elites in the pre-suppression era. Yet replacing the Jesuits was tricky, imposing novel demands on the Lazarists’ resources. More ominously, the forces which brought down the Jesuits had not gone into full slumber, seriously endangering the Lazarist succession.

Father Absence, Surrogate Fathers and Patricide: The Meaning of Father Absence in pre- and post-97 Hong Kong Films

Father Absence, Surrogate Fathers and Patricide: The Meaning of Father Absence in pre- and post-97 Hong Kong Films

Surrogate Fathers: imaginary dialogue and patristic culture in late antiquity

This article seeks to contribute to recent debates over Christian dialogue in late antiquity. It explores a specific form of dialogue text: invented debates about the definition of correct doctrine, often starring renowned church Fathers and notorious heretics. It argues that, far from symbolizing an ‘end’ to dialogue in late antiquity – closed down by appeals to patristic authorities – these heresiological dialogues helped to perpetuate controversial Christian debates.

Surrogate Fathers and Sons: Aleksandr Volkov's Historical Fiction for Children

Surrogate Fathers and Sons:Aleksandr Volkov's Historical Fiction for Children Erika Haber (bio) The life of a tyrant is a misfortune for humanity, but his history is always useful, both for the sovereigns and for the peoples. —N. M. Karamzin, Istoriia gosudarstva Rossiiskogo Best known today for his 1939 Russian adaptation of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and subsequent Magic Land series, A. M. Volkov (1891–1977)1 welcomed the Soviet establishment's call in the 1930s for new voices in children's writing and a greater emphasis on the production of works with a historical focus. A professor of mathematics in Moscow at the time, Volkov immediately threw himself into the research and writing of his most ambitious and mature works of historical fiction: Two Brothers (Dva brata), which focused on Peter the Great, and Architects (Zodchie), set in sixteenth-century Russia during the reign of Ivan the Terrible. Volkov intended both of these historical novels for adolescents, and he researched and wrote them over a long period, spending twenty-three years (1938–61) revising the first book and eight years (1946–54) working on the second. Architects came out immediately upon its completion in 1954, but Two Brothers, which was begun in 1938 and accepted for publication in 1941, did not appear in print until 1950; a second, significantly revised and expanded version was published in 1961.2 Since the creation of these novels coincided with some of the darker years of Stalinism, the traumas of the Second World War, and the required method of Socialist Realism, the timing of their composition and publication most certainly affected their content and style, but not in the ways one would expect given the specific demands and expectations for children's literature by the Communist Party leadership. By the mid-'30s Socialist Realism had become largely prescriptive, providing formulaic plots, pre-established settings, and, most importantly, standardized character types (Stites 67). Children's literature during these years [End Page 169] became more ideological and focused on the everyday experiences of children as part of the communist collective that was supposed to be bigger and more important than their individual lives (Dobrenko, "School Tale" 48). Although some writers, such as Volkov, found ways to work around these demands, this approach became highly charged and dangerous under Stalinism, when even the biggest names in children's writing faced persecution and worse.3 Instead of using the stock black-and-white Socialist Realist heroes, Volkov created a cast of psychologically well-developed and relatively complex characters who enjoyed especially interesting surrogate family relationships. Volkov's portrayal of family dynamics and the subsequent role models for children that he created in these two novels differ significantly from the established formats and previous models, making these novels an interesting and daring example of how one author managed to subtly subvert the formulas of Socialist Realism in such a way as to create genuinely educational and entertaining historical fiction rather than mere ideological tracts. Historical fiction proved a useful means for creating a handy genealogy for the Soviet state, for recasting history, and for promoting nationalism and patriotism during the war years. It flourished in Stalin's Soviet Union and became a critical genre for children as well.4 Children's historical novels were thought to be more effective teaching tools than straight history texts because they brought the history to life with their active plots and adventurous characters; furthermore, it was believed that they stimulated the imagination, which helped children to understand and to remember historical details (Davin 155). However, the official adoption of the Socialist Realist method in 1934 meant that all texts—including literary and historical ones—became vehicles for the furthering of the values and teachings of the Party. According to Katerina Clark and Evgeny Dobrenko, now "culture and Soviet power were finally hitched together" (139). Since the building of the communist state was a work in progress, would-be authors had to contend with the shifting nuances of ideology and symbolism over time. The method of Socialist Realism is not known for its aesthetic qualities, as Clark notes, but is better understood as parabolic, a way of providing instruction through example...

Surrogate production of eggs and sperm by intrapapillary transplantation of germ cells in cytoablated adult fish.

Germ cell transplantation (GCT) is a promising assisted reproductive technology for the conservation and propagation of endangered and valuable genetic resources. In teleost fish, GCT in adult gonads has been achieved only in male recipients, limiting greatly the usefulness of this technique in situations where both sexes need equal and timely attention for conservation and/or propagation. Here we describe a simplified GCT approach that ultimately leads to production of donor-derived eggs and sperm in considerably short time. Donor germ cells isolated from young pejerrey Odontesthes bonariensis (Atherinopsidae) were transplanted non-surgically through the genital papilla into the sexually mature gonads of Patagonian pejerrey O. hatcheri recipients whose gonads have been depleted of endogenous GCs by heat (26°C) and chemical treatment (four doses of Busulfan at 30 mg/kg and 40 mg/kg for females and males, respectively). Transplanted spermatogonial and oogonial cells were able to recolonize the recipients' gonads and produce functional donor origin eggs and sperm within 7 months from the GCT. We confirmed the presence of donor-derived gametes by PCR in 17% and 5% of the surrogate O. hatcheri fathers and mothers, respectively. The crosses between surrogate fathers and O. bonariensis mothers yielded 12.6–39.7% pure O. bonariensis and that between a surrogate mother and an O. bonariensis father yielded 52.2% pure O. bonariensis offspring. Our findings confirm that transplantation of germ cells into sexually competent adult fish by non-surgical methods allows the production of functional donor-derived eggs and sperm in a considerably short time. The methods described here could play a vital role in conservation and rapid propagation of endangered fish genetic resources.

La banda y sus choros. Un grupo de niños de la calle hilando historias de edad, género y liderazgo

Este artículo narra la historia de los chavos de Bucareli, un grupo de niños de la calle de la Ciudad de México, quienes también eran conocidos como “la banda del metro Juárez”. Documentar su vida cotidiana por un periodo de tres años me ha permitido formular tres puntos de análisis relacionados con la diferenciación interna del poder, puntos también válidos para otras 15 bandas de niños de la calle de la Ciudad de México. Primero, es importante poner en una perspectiva de edad las dinámicas sociales de liderazgo y género que se dan al interior de la banda y entre las diferentes bandas. Segundo, los principios que estructuran la vida en las calles, como el liderazgo, el género y la edad, tienen un carácter inherentemente evanescente como consecuencia de la interacción de limitaciones internas y externas a la banda. Tercero, la falta de vivienda genera un mundo de paradojas y contradicciones. La diferenciación de poder entre personas que carecen relativamente de poder es una contradicción; y las dinámicas de liderazgo, género y edad demuestran las paradojas de las relaciones internas de la banda. Dichas paradojas pueden ser particularmente alienantes en las relaciones entre los niños de calle y los adultos que fungen como padres o madres sustitutos. Este análisis etnográfico de la “enloquecedora falta de una vivienda” es relevante para la salud mental. Las historias narradas por los “gamines” en torno al liderazgo, el género y la edad esconden su fragilidad, porque en ellas los niños de la calle se atribuyen un poder del cual carecen en realidad. Más que meramente síntomas de locura o una personalidad manipuladora, estas historias testifican la creatividad y la resiliencia de estos jóvenes. El poder ilusorio de sus “choros” les facilita vivir con aparente armonía en las condiciones en que viven.

Urban Japan's “Fuzzy” New Families: Affect and Embodiment in Dog–Human Relationships

This paper argues that Japan and notions of Japaneseness are becoming “postfamilial” in breaking from earlier models and roles, and that one aspect of Japan's post-familial shift can be observed in the sharp rise in the number of “fuzzy” household members, specifically dogs, cats, and rabbits over the past three decades. In Japan, pets now outnumber children under the age of 15. The number one consumer of companion animals is also the fastest growing demographic in Japan: adults whose adult children have left home.Dogs are the focus of this paper. Dogs are more publicly prominent than cats or rabbits and they are an increasing presence in homes, parks, and cafés in urban Japan. Moreover, the representation of human–canine relations has become prominent in popular media; for example “the Softbank dog,” Kaikun, has become a television advertising celebrity. Furry familiar others are projected to be an ever-increasing presence in urban Japan. Thus, “fuzzy” also denotes the boundary blurring familial roles that some dogs encroach upon. This paper discusses how touch, affect, and embodiment entangle in dealing with urban Japan's exploding population of companion canines; a space where dogs are coming to be viewed as stand-in or surrogate fathers, friends, and even lovers.

Fathers and Their Infants: Caregiving and Affection in the Modern Family

Despite social work's expressed interest in families and belief in the importance of parents to children, social work researchers have done little to explore the importance of fathers in children's everyday lives. This is especially true for infants. Moreover, as more and more infants and children grow up in single-mother homes, step-families, and other family configurations, knowledge is needed about how these demographic trends affect parents' interactions with their young children. This article examines men's caregiving of infants and their displays of affection in a longitudinal study of a diverse sample of infants and their mothers, using both person-centered and variable-centered statistical methods. Comparisons are made among various “types” of fathers, including those who live with and separately from their children and men who are not biological fathers but live with and care for infants. Results indicate that caregiving and expressions of affection appear to represent two distinct domains of fathering behaviors for residential fathers. We found two classes of residential fathers: one with low levels of both types of fathering behavior and one with higher levels, particularly higher expressions of affection. Similarly we found two classes of non-residential fathers with dramatically different levels of fathering behavior. Though surrogate fathers did provide affection to their infants, their levels of caregiving were low.

105. TRANSPLANTED GERM CELLS CAN COLONIZE THE GONADS OF SEXUALLY COMPETENT FISH AND PRODUCE FUNCTIONAL GAMETES

Germ cell (GC) transplantation (GCT) has great potential for seed production and conservation of valuable germlines. Currently available approaches to GCT in fish rely on sophisticated equipment and skills for cell transplantation into the blastodisc of embryos and/or the peritoneal cavity of small, sometimes few millimeters long larvae. Moreover, transplanted individuals may take years to grow to maturity, adding to the cost of producing surrogate gametes. In this context, the use of intragonadal GCT into sexually competent recipients that have been experimentally depleted of endogenous GCs might overcome these constraints. Here we demonstrate the feasibility of xenogeneic GCT in sexually competent fish. Spermatogonial cells isolated from pejerrey (Odontesthes bonariensis, Atherinopsidae) donors were implanted surgically into the testes of congeneric Patagonian pejerrey (O. hatcheri) that were severely depleted of endogenous GCs by treatment with Busulfan (40 mg/kg) and elevated water temperature (25°C) (Fig. 1).Donor cell behavior inside the recipient gonads was tracked using fluorescent cell linkers (CFDA-SE and PKH-26) and showed that transplanted spermatogonial cells were able to migrate towards, settle and multiply at the blind ends (cortical region) of the seminiferous lobules. The presence of donor-derived sperm was confirmed by PCR in 20% of the surrogate Patagonian pejerrey fathers at 6 months and fertilization of pejerrey eggs with surrogate sperm produced 1.2-13.3% pure pejerrey offspring (Fig. 2). These findings indicate that transplantation of spermatogonial cells into sexually competent fish can shorten considerably the production time of surrogate gametes and offspring. Ongoing studies are examining (low-tech) refinements in the proposed approach, such as non-surgical transplantation of GCs through genital papilla, and the suitability of GCT for generation of female gametes, for which cryopreservation techniques have not yet been developed. The results obtained so far have been encouraging and these developments will make GCT invaluable for the timely rescue of fish speciesfacing imminent extinction.

Dickens, Family, Authorship: Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Kinship and Creativity by Lynn Cain

MLR, 104.1, 2009 179 ticalcontroversies aboutrank and rights, butalso inthemselves presented powerful metaphorsor emblems ofdemocracy. Thompsonuses these paradigmstoproduce informed and illuminating readings of suchtexts asColeridge's 'Ancient Mariner' and theshipwreck episodeinByron's Don Juan. Thompsonhaswrittena verygood book aboutRomanticism whichmakes a significant contribution toourbetter understanding of the Romanticimagination. It isnotveryoftenthat a singleideaormotif-here that ofmisadventure-canbe inserted intosucha thoroughly researched field and have sucha transformative effect. Thesuccessof this book isthatits hypothesis iscontinuously and thoroughly tested inthetexts itdiscusses, and theresults arereadings of Wordsworth andByron (inparticular) that aresimultaneously newand strongly historicized. DE MONTFORT UNIVERSITY PHILIP MARTIN Dickens,Family, Authorship: Psychoanalytic Perspectives onKinshipandCreativity. By LYNN CAIN. Aldershot: Ashgate. 2008. xvii+183 pp. ?50. ISBN 970-0 7546-6180-1. LynnCain's book offers somesuggestive and richly referenced readings ofawide range ofDickens'swork.Thoughfocused on the novels producedbetween1843and 1853, MartinChuzzlewit, DombeyandSon, David Copperfield, andBleakHouse, the projectreflects on the wholeofDickens's literary career, andmakes a thorough and interesting useofhiscorrespondence duringthis period,aswellas,toa lesser extent, his journalism. Indeed,someof thestrongest arguments areadvancedthrough a cross-referential treatment of thisrangeofmaterials;in thefirst literary chapter, onMartinChuzzlewit,forexample,I found particularly instructive Cain's identi fication of theaffinities betweenthisnovelandGreatExpectations intheir shared anxieties aboutfather/son relations (p. 22),andher illumination of thealliterative andOedipal connection of 'Pecksniff andPinch',emphasizedin Dickens'sreference tothis pairingina letter toForster(p.42). The psychoanalytic perspectives certainly open up some interesting interpre tations, which respondto an impressively substantial bodyof classicand recent Dickens criticism, which is takenseriously throughout. I particularly enjoyedthe reflections uponDickens'suseofthe gamut ofauthorial metaphors(including archi tecture, music,gastronomy, andbiologicalreproduction) that this methodopensup. Thereis,however, a persistent, uncomfortable sensethat, despitetheacknowledged complexity ofDickens's literary projects, Cain especially valueshiswork forits anticipation of twentieth-century psychoanalytic theory, particularly that ofFreud, Lacan,Klein, andKristeva.Cain is characteristically delightedto identify Bleak House as 'abrilliant anticipation ofIrigaray's assertion that Westerncultureisbased uponmatricide'(p. 153).The emphasison prescience and celebration of the'pre cocious[ness of] the Victorianliterary imagination inanticipating' Freudandother thinkers (p.x) results ina series of(inthemselves valuableand interesting) readings that tendtoignore the waysin which Victoriantexts mightexceedlater theories, and 18o Reviews disregard theinabilities of later psychoanalytic modes toaccountforthe diversity of Dickens's modellings ofkinship. Given that Dickenshadanabhorrence oftheexclu sivity of what isnowdefined as the nuclearfamily unit,therange ofkinshiprelations accountedfor here isdisappointingly narrow;thebook ismainlyconcerned with thevexed inter-generational bondsofparentand child.(ForDickens'spreference forthehouseholdrather thantheromantic couple seeKarenChase andMichael Levenson,7heSpectacle ofIntimacy: A PublicLifeforthe Victorian Family(Prince ton: Princeton University Press,2000),p. 94,and for a presentation of thediversity of the DickensiandomesticseeHelenaMichie, 'From Blood toLaw: TheEmbar rassments ofFamilyinDickens', inPalgrave Advances inCharles DickensStudies, ed.byJohn Bowen andRobertPattern(Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2005),pp. 131-55.) Havingopenedwith a focus upon the(quasi)patricidal desiresof MartinChuzzle wit'syoung men,Cain turnsinthesecondchaptertoacknowledge theabundance ofmore positivefather/son bonds inDombeyandSon,whicharemainlyexhibited betweennon-biologically related surrogate fathers and their adoptedboys.Cain's discussionresists anover-simplistic refiguring ofadoptivefathers asmotherfigures, and offers an interesting discussionofmasculine tenderness (p. 77).Her analysis does not,however, sufficiently probe theimplications, inpsychoanalytic terms, of this difference between biologicalandadoptive kinformation-which seemsa pity, giventheregularity withwhichDickens'skinship groupsarenotforged byblood. Thisbook offers anotherimportant andvigorousripostetothecritical visionof cosy Dickensiandomesticity (seeespecially p. 21),whichhas stubbornly lingered. Indeed,inthefascination withparent killing and states ofabjection, Cain's project follows a venerable tradition of biographically inflected psychoanalytic readings, which tend to advance, as Robert Newsom notes, 'a significantly darker view of Dickens' (Oxford Reader'sCompanion toDickens,ed. byPaul Schlicke(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), p. 136). On the final page Cain even speaks of his "'dark" works' (p. 159). Ifyou share HippolyteTaine'snineteenth-century assess ment ofDickens, 'The difference between amadman and aman of genius isnot very great'(quotedbySchlickeinthe Companion, p. 134), then Cain'sDickens-whose sociallyreformist agenda,humour, and sentiment are rarely considered butwhose 'suicidal compulsion','depression andaphasia' (p. io) are much inevidence-is the Dickens for you. UNIVERSITY OF LEICESTER HOLLY FURNEAUX The Physiology of theNovel: Reading, Neural Science, and the Form of Victorian Fiction.ByNICHOLAS DAMES.Oxford:OxfordUniversity Press. 2007. x+ 277 pp. E50. ISBN 978-o-19-920896-8. Reviewing abookwhichforegrounds the'place ofdrift, inattention [.. .]and speed', and the 'complex ways inwhich reverie and attention oscillate' (p. 255), in the Victorianexperience ofreading novelsisperhapslikely torender reviewers uneasily aware of their own occasional moments of idle distraction, or,more likely amidst a ...

Who are these parents involved in child neglect? A differential analysis by parent gender and family structure

Studies about fathers and child neglect are scarce. Current research, which tends to focus on mothers, does not allow to fully understand the influence of all parental figures on child protection. This research aims to compare socio-demographic characteristics and personal problems of mothers to those of fathers in 1266 neglecting families. The data, from the Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect — 2003, was collected by workers in a representative sample of 63 child welfare service areas. The findings suggest that parental situations vary greatly according to gender and family structures. Mothers (biological and surrogates) face more issues than fathers (biological and surrogates). For example, they face more mental health issues. Biological mothers are in worse position than surrogate mothers but, inversely, surrogate fathers are in worse position than biological fathers. Parental characteristics and problems also differ according to family structures but the way those issues affect mothers could explain most of those differences. Overall, single female-headed families seem particularly vulnerable and fathers present better socio-demographic characteristics and struggle with less personal problems than mothers. Implications for research and action with mothers and fathers will be discussed.

L’image du père et du jardin : Jane Eyre de Charlotte Brontë et WideSargasso Sea de Jean Rhys

Though no father actually appears as a character either in Jane Eyre or in Wide Sargasso Sea, the father figure looms large in both novels, as a complex, protean and paradoxical entity, playing a crucial part in the fate of the protagonists. Jane Eyre and Antoinette Cosway are orphaned at an early age, Rochester’s father is depicted as remote and insensitive; the surrogate fathers —Antoinette’s stepfather, Jane’s uncles— mostly fail when they try to replace the missing one. Rochester himself is an ambiguous character who appears in both novels as a son, lover and husband on the one side, as a father figure on the other. In Wide Sargasso Sea he acquires through his marriage to the heiress Antoinette Cosway a legal authority which he eventually uses to destroy his wife; in Jane Eyre he first appears as the wealthier, more knowledgeable, stronger character before he discovers a female counterpart who does more than merely hold her ground.These different aspects of the father figure are closely linked to the motif of the garden which mirrors the inner development of the —mostly— female characters. It is not entirely similar to nature itself, though it is part of it; the latter means in both novels lethal dangers and elemental violence, whereas the garden is a sheltered place. In Wide Sargasso Sea, the debased garden of Coulibri simultaneously conveys a distorted, though by no means untrue reflection of the father figure and a sanctuary from the harshness of the outside world. It also means a place of peace and of simple joys for Jane Eyre, making up for the deprived life at the Lowood boarding school; but contrasting with Coulibri it does not preclude the contact with the outside world which she actually longs for. Hence the garden mirrors the crucial moments and experiences in the lives of both heroines, including love, married life and loss.

Of Beauty and a Father's Love

He fathers forth whose beauty is past change: praise Him. --Gerard Manley Hopkins, Pied Like many academics, am a bit of a pack rat. One of the things have allowed to collect dust and still be lugged around is a box of old LPs from the sixties. On the back of one of these faded jacket covers there is a photograph of a young pop/rock balladeer slumped in an evidently British stair well, back against the wall by the cast iron downspout. Beside him stands a tousled, smiling child of four or five years of age, hands folded together, almost as if in prayer, rested upon the singer's knee: a child and a father. It is a beautiful image and, in the context, entirely incongruous. singer is Phil Ochs, the album Pleasures of the Harbor (1967), and the liner notes beside the photograph are in the form of a poem weighty with the singer's ambivalence about returning home to Los Angeles: To face the unspoken unguarded thoughts of habitual hearts A vanguard of electricians, a village full of tarts Who say you must protest you must protest It is your diamond duty ... Ah but in such an ugly time the true protest is beauty Protest--in sharp, abrasive questioning of authority--was then the west-coast watchword that spread east. Its missionaries included Ochs's touring friends and fellow balladeers Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and T-Bone Burnett, each a kind of prophet against a culture they saw as too easily anesthetized by American Beauty, each singing against the grain of musical and cultural cliche, often raspy and nasal-toned in their resentment and disdain. In this one album Ochs, however, broke step; he paused to reconsider the prospect of beauty, of healing, and notably for my purposes, the persistence of a father's love. It wasn't to be for long, and it didn't set a trend. Ochs himself returned to rebellion rock, Ringing of Revolution, musical settings of the poems of Mao Tse-tung and more to match. He took his own life in April 1976. If any here remember that album, or others like it in the work of T-Bone Burnett (e.g., The Power of Love, Heffner and Disney, and Trap Door) or Bob Dylan's memorable lament I dreamt saw St. Augustine (John Wesley Harding) or the last song on Dylan's album New Morning (1970), of Night, Father of Day, you might recall that there were strong notes of ambivalence regarding the love and wisdom of fathers in this musical movement, despite the dominant acrimony and intentional, conventional disdain. One of the most important of these motifs now seems to have been borne of a deep nostalgia, a yearning after spiritual fulfillment, an ache for a lost beauty paved over, even, and this is to the point of my remarks, a yearning for a love which somehow got lost through willed or unwilled absence of the fathers. There is a strong undertone of poignancy in this music that runs counter to the self-assertive mainstream drift of much of early twentieth century poetry and fiction. Lost Beauty Let us recollect: from certain Victorian and turn-of-the-century writers, such as Samuel Butler (The Way of All Flesh [1903]), whose entire life's work was motivated by hatred of his father and then, subsequently, his self-appointed surrogate fathers, on to James Joyce in Portrait of the Artist (1916) and Stephen Hero (1944), who extends his hatred to the Catholic Church and all paternity, fathers had become the representative enemy of freedom--political freedom, artistic freedom, and perhaps above all, sexual freedom. Death of the Father (Freud), the Death of God (Nietzsche) and the Death of the Author (Barthes) reflect a common and widely colloquialized impulse toward the rejection of any authority beyond the self. Intellectual formulations aside, fatherhood became unfashionable for many not very intellectual reasons. Among these are its implications regarding responsibility for others, a necessary exercise of sexual restraint, and--perhaps because of fatherhood's tacit contradiction of increasingly insistent denials that aging is inevitable--its signal that others will succeed us, that we too shall someday die. …

A New Word on 'The Brothers Karamazov' by Robert Louis Jackson

MLR, IOI .2, 2oo6 6I5 banter in the poem and injects something of the disjointedness of reverie which is so effective. In the context of a series investigating the breadth and nature of Pushkin's legacy, it is fitting that the final section should be dedicated to a study of his impact abroad. David Baguley investigates the relationship between Pushkin and Prosper Merimee and points out the similarities in style and choice of subject between the two men. In his chapter on Pushkin and Henry James, Neil Cornwell instances the mechanics of appropriation whereby core aspects of theme and structure in 'The Queen of Spades' are reformulated by his American successor. Finally, in a neat link to the professional affiliation of the two editors of this series, Samantha T. Johnson reveals the little-known episode of Grand Duke Mikhail and Countess Torby's te nancy (she being Pushkin's granddaughter) at Keele Hall in Staffordshire between I90I and I9IO. Two Hundred Years of Pushkin is ambitious in both the number and the variety of angles from which the essays contained therein approach the work and legacy of Alexander Pushkin. And in very large part, itmeets its own aims. This is an impressive and highly informative collection of essays which offers much, not simply to the scholar of Pushkin, but also to the reader interested inRussian and European literature on a broader scale. It stands as a testament to the wealth and importance of the monument of Pushkin and itself becomes an important contribution to Pushkin studies. UNIVERSITY OF ST ANDREWS CLAIRE WHITEHEAD A New Word on 'TheBrothers Karamazov'. Ed. by ROBERTLouis JACKSON. (North western University Press Studies in Russian Literature and Theory) Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press. 2004. Xii+26i pp. $79.95. ISBN o-8ioi I949-8. A New Word on 'The Brothers Karamazov' came together from the proceedings of the last of the Yale Conferences in Slavic Literatures and Cultures in I999, a series inaugurated by Robert Louis Jackson, the editor. The volume pays tribute to the influence of Jackson, one of the most revered of today's Dostoevsky scholars, as the majority of the contributors have cause to refer to his seminal studies, Dostoevsky's Questfor Form (I966; 2nd edn [Bloomington, IN]: Physsardt, I978) and The Art of Dostoevsky: Deliriums and Nocturnes (Princeton: Princeton University Press, I98 I). There are sixteen essays in all, the final one a closing overview by William Mills Todd III. Here, Todd reinforces Jackson's prefatory image of The Brothers Karama zov as a literary Chartres Cathedral, unable to be seen fully from a single point of view, as he acknowledges the wide range of genres and discourses in terms of which the contributors approach the novel. The essays are indeed diverse in their treatments, but there is a cohesion in the volume as awhole that is achieved by an openness in its parts and by the fact that many of the essays complement and illuminate each other. It would be too great a task to discuss all sixteen contributions here, but I hope to show with a few examples how the authors together unveil the multi-faceted yet organically whole nature of The Brothers Karamazov. Lee Johnson offers an original perspective on Smerdiakov as 'would-be saint' (p. 74), discussing the suppressed presence in Smerdiakov of higher spiritual ele ments. For example, he interprets the young boy's question to Grigorii about the origin of light at the Creation not asmockery of the biblical word, forwhich Grigorii unjustly punishes him, but as an intuition of the divine light of God, a crucial factor in the Eastern Orthodox conception of theosis. He argues that Smerdiakov's uncon scious struggles for a closer relationship with the divine, despite his conscious efforts 6i6 Reviews to embrace the doctrine of 'all is permitted'. Following this isVladimir Golstein's article on 'accidental families and surrogate fathers' (p. 90), where he continues the discussion of Grigorii and Smerdiakov, highlighting the former's failures as a father through examples of lack of compassion, dogmatism, and closed-mindedness. Thus he attributes toGrigorii a share of the responsibility for themurder of Fedor Karama zov.Horst-Jurgen Gerigk later completes the...

The Daughter's Disenchantment: Incest as Pedagogy in Fairy Tales and Kathryn Harrison's "The Kiss"

El s Kathryn Harrison points out, one of America's most popular misconceptions, especially in the white middle-class family, is that father-daughter incest is a rare occurrence. The crime of incest often goes unreported and unpunished in part because of a silence around it. While exact figures are hard to pin down, current data suggest that anywhere from one in four to one in three girls experiences sexual abuse at the hands of fathers or surrogate fathers. In the 1980s scholars such asJudith Herman and Diana Russell provided data that suggested incest was at least as prevalent in white middleand upper-middleclass homes as it was elsewhere.2 Far from confirming that incest only happens in certain homes, this research suggests that the sexual abuse of daughters is a ubiquitous practice that cuts across racial and class lines. Nonetheless, familiar narratives of incest construct the white middle-class family as a nurturing unit in which the rapacious father is an impossible character. In particular, these narratives often relegate incest to the homes of cultural others or attempt to dismiss a daughter's first-person account of sexual violation as fantasy (Doane and Hodges 2; Wilson). In 1997, Kathryn Harrison published her controversial memoir about fatherdaughter incest, The Kiss, a book that disturbed the silence around and as-

Shadows, Mentors, and Surrogate Fathers: Effective Schooling as Critical Pedagogy for Inner-City Boys

This article features a supplemental school program designed to promote positive educational outcomes and improved life chances for boys of African American descent who reside in inner-city communities within the Boston metropolitan area. This program, the Paul Robeson Institute for Positive Self-Development, is not a public school but is a school-based environment sensitive to the unique needs of students who are young, black males as they progress from third grade through junior high school and into young adulthood. An analysis of the way in which this institute supplements the Boston Public School System provides valuable examples of effective schooling practices and interactions that are in short supply in the Boston Public School System. These are the types of interactions that boys from inner-city communities need to thrive in any school setting. The dominant practices of the institute exemplify critical pedagogy and include an elaborate mentoring process, responsible manhood rituals, opportunities for learning, and calling the bluff on “hard,” or gangster-like postures. This analysis of the institute is the culmination of almost four years of ethnographic research involving field observations, interviews, group discussions, journals, surveys, follow-up research, and interactions with students.

Estrogen receptor-α is required by the supporting somatic cells for spermatogenesis

The gene for estrogen receptor-alpha (ERα) was disrupted in embryonic stem cells by homologous recombination and these cells were used to generate mice with a targeted mutation in the ERα gene (αERKO mice). It was found that males homozygous for the mutation are infertile, indicating that estrogen signaling through this nuclear hormone receptor is required for male reproductive function. Although spermatogenesis appears normal in juvenile and young adult αERKO mice, the sperm produced are unable to fertilize eggs in vitro. To determine whether ERα is required by somatic or germ cells in the male reproductive tract, we transplanted germ cells from homozygous mutant (ERα −/−) males to the testes of wild-type (ERα +/+) males depleted of germ cells by busulfan treatment. The recipients (‘surrogate fathers’) sired offspring heterozygous for the mutation (ERα +/−) and carrying the coat-color marker of the infertile donor males. This indicated that ERα −/− germ cells are able to produce sperm competent to fertilize when they are supported by ERα +/+ somatic cells. When ERα +/− offspring produced by germ cell transplantation were mated to produce ERα −/− males, these mice were found to have the same phenotype as originally reported for αERKO males. These studies showed that male germ cells do not require ERα for regulation of their own genes for development and function, and strongly imply that somatic cells of the male reproductive tract require ERα to support the production of sperm that are capable of fertilization.