Text Says Research Articles

Conditions for ‘Upbuilding’: A Reply to Nigel Tubbs’ Reading of Kierkegaard

A Special Issue of the Journal of Philosophy of Education, 2005, issue 2, contains an interesting ‘Philosophy of the Teacher’ by Nigel Tubbs. It rejects attempts in pedagogical traditions to ignore or avoid the contradiction between the teacher as master and as servant, and ends with an interpretation of ‘upbuilding’, a central concept in Soren Kierkegaard’s writings. According to Tubbs’ reading, the teacher’s patient struggle with herself in doubt is the basic condition for upbuilding, whereby the eternal’s perfect gift of love is given to the students. I maintain that the original Danish text does not fully support this interpretation and defend an alternative reading. The text says that the condition for receiving the perfect gift is itself a gift of God. Doubt is necessary, but if our doubt were sufficient, we could manage our lives without God, the condition for receiving the gift would not be a gift, and the possibility for receiving the gift would be spoiled both for teachers and students.

The sea monsters in the Madrid manuscript of Ptolemy's Geography (Biblioteca Nacional, MS Res. 255)

The sea monsters in the Madrid manuscript of Ptolemy's Geography (Biblioteca Nacional, MS Res. 255)

The Meaning of Intention and Meaning in Mark Bevir and Vivienne Brown

Bevir's weak intentionalism construes meanings consisting in the understanding of a specific individual and they are identifiable solely by reference to that individual, by contrast with strong intentionalism, whereby a text expresses prior purposes of the author and a text has meaning only by virtue of the determining will of its author, so that to understand what a text says, we must recover what its author meant. Bevir's approach is to focus on what is actually written, on the product of the act of expression, rather than on what an author might have antecedently said (or somehow otherwise stated) they would write. A third possibility is to reject intentions altogether, and the paper explores the debate between Bevir and Brown over whether any theory of intentionality can be coherent.

Sachkritik in Reception History

Sachkritik, or critical assessment of what a biblical text says in the light of the gospel that the author intended to communicate, became an issue in modern theology and scriptural interpretation in 1922—26 with Bultmann’s discussions of Barth’s theological exegesis of Romans and 1 Corinthians. Since the gospel is itself heard in and through the witness of scripture this implies a dialectic between them. Bultmann could override some of Paul’s formulations in the light of the apostle’s basic intention, and so find a contemporary Christian meaning in texts from a distant culture. His later demythologizing the New Testament applied the same principle to large swathes of the biblical language without calling it Sachkritik, but some of his followers used the word for their critical assessment of one biblical writer in the light of the gospel as understood from another. Finally, a few liberal theologians now use the word to express their rejection of parts of scripture in the light of their modern understandings of the gospel, which they admit are remote from those of any New Testament witness. Reception historians can see from these three strategies how all historically critical theologians claim either more or less continuity with their scriptures while recognizing that much in them is incredible, and inapplicable to modern Christian identity.

Live Free or Describe: The Reading Effect and the Persistence of Form

This article returns to the question “what is it to read?” through two texts: Louis Althusser's Reading Capital (1965) and The Way We Read Now, a special issue of Representations (2009). Rooney analyzes the issue's introduction, Sharon Marcus's and Stephen Best's “Surface Reading,” examining its accounts of description and “minimal critical agency” and its skepticism concerning radical freedom and the interpretative heroics of literary analysis from the point of view of Althusser's radically different account of reading as a “guilty” practice, one marked by productivity and the contingency of “surprise.” The author argues that the surface method of “critical description,” which seeks to “indicate what a text says about itself” and to describe what it makes “evident, perceptible, apprehensible,” fails when Marcus and Best describe Althusser's text but overlook the fact that his lecture symptomale sharply critiques the metaphor of depth and cautiously deploys a metaphor of terrain. This article proposes that from an Althusserian perspective, the metaphors of surface and depth as they appear in “Surface Reading” are twin brothers, two sides of a coin. Whether in the form of the religious myth of immediate, surface reading or the empiricist conception of the text as veiled truth, these approaches proclaim their critical “innocence” and disavow the metalanguages that bring the textual surface into view. Rooney argues that the figure of terrain enables a reading that confesses its mediating power, while conceding that it moves in a field not of its own making.

TheContest of Homer and Hesiodand the ambitions of Hadrian

AbstractThis article examines the compilation known as theContest of Homer and Hesiod. More usually mined for the material it preserves from the sophist Alcidamas, here I advance a reading that seeks to make sense of the compilation as a whole and situates the work ideologically in its Imperial context. An anecdote early in the compilation depicts the emperor Hadrian enquiring about Homer's birthplace and parents from the Delphic Oracle; he is told that Telemachus was Homer's father and Ithaca his homeland. When the text says that we must believe this self-evidently absurd response on account of the status of the emperor, its author is satirizing Hadrian's ambitions to participate in the Greek intellectual world and the pressures on scholars to accept Hadrian's authority in their field. Moreover, the compiler has linked this anecdote to the long account of the poetic contest between Homer and Hesiod in order to draw an unflattering parallel between Hadrian and King Panedes, who, as writers such as Lucian and Dio Chrysostom suggested, exposed his ineptitude in choosing Hesiod over Homer as the victor of the contest.

The Deus (ex) Macchina: the Legacy of the Futurist Obsession with Speed

It is well known that the Futurists exalted speed and danger, worshipping both as god-like forces with the ability to renew the world. As a source of speed and thrill, the car was an important symbol of Futurism, one who’s symbolic impact continues to exert its influence on society and culture. It was not until the post-war period that the car began to take its place in popular culture as an icon and obsession, as the Futurists had sought to make it. The conditions of the Boom economico made it possible for the car to permeate the collective consciousness. In the postwar Boom years, many of the same socio-political forces that had been in play before the wars returned in full force, demanding continued negotiation. Through Il sorpasso, Dino Risi’s 1962 film, and Emilio Isgro’s 1964 Poesia Volkswagen, I will examine the ways in which the Futurist ideology of the macchina as savior is carried through in two prominent cultural manifestations. This will also shed light on the continuing influence of Futurist ideology just when it is being most vehemently denied for its Fascist connections. I will also consider technical aspects of Futurist poetry and the Futurist artistic agenda as further support for the continued influence of Futurist ideology. This will include an examination of the use of parolibere conventions in Isgro’s poem as well as the thematic similarities between Il sorpasso and the Fondazione e manifesto del Futurismo. Among these similarities are the obsession with speed and danger and the portrayal of the car as a lover. In Isgro’s poem, the visual composition on the page and the figurative elements are just as critical to a complete understanding of the poem as what the text says.

A Rejoinder to Hsu's Comments

A Rejoinder to Hsu's Comments James D. Sellmann When so much is based on speculation, finding the correct understanding is difficult. Clearly, we have different perspectives, preferences, and speculations about the Daodejing. An old system that is no longer in use by the experts in a discipline is a dated system. Experts are increasingly using pinyin to romanize Chinese characters instead of the Latinized names "Confucius" and "Mencius." In my opinion, we no longer need to use Latin-sounding names for pre-Qin philosophers. In part my review was an attempt to stress the importance of meaning what you say and saying what you mean. If Hsu wants to say that the physical shape of Chinese characters does not change according to grammatical relationships, then he should say the physical shape does not change. A Chinese character is more than a physical shape; it has pronunciations, syntax, meanings, and other characteristics that may, and do, change. Context is everything. In modern Chinese, xiaoxin means "to be careful." In a classical medical text, it could literally refer to a "small heart organ." What is considered logical also depends on the context. In a Euro-American system of order, beginning with the source and then moving to the expression makes sense. I proposed that in the pre-Qin, Qin, and Han contexts one would begin with the expression or manifestation and work one's way back to the source. From my perspective, readers of pre-Qin philosophy must first be freed of the Western metaphysical baggage of the eternal and the absolute in order to understand and experience dao as an ultimate reality. When the translation and the emendations derived from variant readings all spin in the same circle and are based on the same assumptions, then a lack of critical, opposing perspectives results, in my opinion. The discussion of being and nonbeing, or rather having and not having, was presented to display an alternative perspective. Being and nonbeing are the nature of reality, depending on the metaphysical theory at work. If the Daodejing as a whole is philosophical poetry, to argue that one verse is poetic and another is philosophical when, in fact, both are philosophical poetry seems strange to me. Maybe Hsu is proposing a matter of degree? Some verses are more philosophical and some are more poetic? Because ziran is a technical term that appears to be coined for the Daodejing, its meaning should be technical and have less contextual variation. Concerning weight, the antonyms are "heavy" and "light" in the Daodejing. "Weight" is a relative term that covers a spectrum from heavy to light weight. The text says that "Being heavy is the root of being light." The contrast is between the heavy and the light. It is not the case that "gravity" or "weight in general" is the root of being lightweight. It is the specific heavyweight that grounds the lightweight. [End Page 20] That we can agree to disagree is good. In the Daodejing there is a depth of ambiguity and poetic license that leads to much speculation in both Hsu's translation and my review. If others did not laugh at it, it would not be the way (Poem 41). [End Page 21] Copyright © 2011 University of Hawai'i Press

A TEORIA DA DESREGULAMENTAÇÃO DA ATIVIDADE BANCÁRIA

Este trabalho analisa três proposições teóricas sobre a teoria da desregulamentação da atividade bancária A primeira delas defende a idéia de que a existência de um mecanismo interbancário de compensação impede o excesso de emissão por parte de um banco individual A segunda propõe que um sistema competitivo provê incentivos suficientes para que os emissores individuais busquem a credibilidade das suas moedas e, com isto, mantenham-se nos limites de segurança de emissão, A terceira propõe que a restrição do desconto bancário às real bills limita a quantidade de moeda que os bancos emitem e que são apenas as restrições legais que impedem a criação de moedas privadas, que são demonstavelmente eficientes. O texto sugere que a adoção de um sistema totalmente desregulamentado implica em falências bancárias. A autora propõe algumas precauções a serem impostas sobre os proprietários e gerentes que dariam incentivos à prudência nos empréstimos e investimentos.

Reading the Zimbabwean National Anthem as Political Biography in the Context of Crisis1

Summary The aim of this article is to render thinkable the idea of reading the Zimbabwean national anthem, Simudzai Mureza weZimbabwe, as a political biography. Biographies are people's lives narrated by others. However, the act of writing the lives of the nation in the form of an anthem, and then projecting these experiences as epitomising the lives of the individuals within the nation, is in fact marked by a disjuncture. This happens because by their very nature, acts of narrating individual or collective identities should always be viewed as approximations of that lived reality. Furthermore, national anthems as wish lists are based on some selected themes deemed of national importance by others and not everybody. This problem is at the heart of reading the Zimbabwean national anthem as a political biography. This article argues that if it is remembered that the lyrics of Simudzai Mureza weZimbabwe were composed by a literary figure, and selected and adopted by the Government of Zimbabwe, amongst other compositions, then there is reason to believe that there are, from that competition, some versions of the national anthem that were turned down, whose lyrical content Zimbabweans may never come to know of. Read from this “subversive” perspective, the Zimbabwean national anthem is a political biography “complete in its incompleteness” or incomplete in it completeness.2 2The formulation that a text says more in what it does not say than in what it says suggests that there cannot be any text that can claim to be total, whole, or complete. For further elaboration of this concept see Macherey (1978).

Dworkin v Fish : Theoretical Premise of Awarding Damages for Psychiatric Illness in England and Australia

This article examines the law of psychiatric illness in the light of Ronald Dworkin’s and Stanley Fish’s legal theory. The article proposes to examine the attitude of judges to judicial law making in England and Australia, the jurisprudential contributions to the debate and the need for and the justification of judge-made law in terms of rules, principles and policies. Although there is recent scientific research explaining that mental health causes actual trauma to brain cell structures, it seems unlikely that English courts will adopt a similar stance to recognize this new development in psychiatry. Dworkin is of the opinion that legal decisions must be justified with a legal theory such as ‘application of the methods of literary interpretation to legal texts.’ Dworkin explained his work by referring to policies, principles, rights, interpretations, adjudication, pragmatism, conventionalism and integrity. His perception of law is seen from an interpretive vantage point, in which policies, principles and rights play a crucial role alongside positive law and most cases are settled on the basis of ‘like cases should be decided alike.’ On the other hand, Fish demonstrates how readers from a similar background or context will interpret a text similarly, and thus that the reader, more than the text, determines what the text says. Further he emphasises the reader as creator of texts, suggesting that it is not different interpretive communities that cause diverging interpretations of texts but simply different interpretations.

Why Did Lagrange "Prove" the Parallel Postulate?

Introduction We begin with an often-told story from the Budget of Paradoxes by Augustus de Morgan: “Lagrange, in one of the later years of his life, imagined” that he had solved the problem of proving Euclid's parallel postulate. “He went so far as to write a paper, which he took with him to the [Institut de France], and began to read it.” But, De Morgan continues, “something struck him which he had not observed: he muttered ‘Il faut que j'y songe encore’ [I've got to think about this some more] and put the paper in his pocket” [ 8 , p. 288]. Is De Morgan's story true? Not quite in that form.But, as Bernard Cohen used to say, “Truth is more interesting than fiction.” First, according to the published minutes of the Institut for 3 February 1806, “M. Delagrange read an analysis of the theory of parallels” [ 25 , p. 314; italics added]. Those present are listed in the minutes: Lacroix, Cuvier, Bossut, Delambre, Legendre, Jussieu, Lamarck, Charles, Monge, Laplace, Hauy, Berthollet, Fourcroy—a most distinguished audience! Furthermore: Lagrange did not throw his manuscript away. It survives in the library of the Institut de France [ 32 ]. There is a title page that says, in what looks to me like Lagrange's handwriting, “On the theory of parallels: memoir read in 1806,” together with the signatures of yet more distinguished people: Prony and Poisson, along with Legendre and Lacroix. The first page of text says, again in Lagrange's handwriting, that it was “read at the Institut in the meeting of 3 February 1806.” It is true that Lagrange never did publish it, so he must have realized there was something wrong.

What Were They Thinking?

Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Search Site Cite View This Citation Add to Citation Manager Citation Venky Nagar; What Were They Thinking?. Accounting Horizons 1 December 2008; 22 (4): 445–447. https://doi.org/10.2308/acch.2008.22.4.445 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentAccounting Horizons Search Advanced Search

Un mariage contesté: "L'union de la Cité et de la ville inférieure de Lausanne" (1481) (review)

Reviewed by: Un mariage contesté: "L'union de la Cité et de la ville inférieure de Lausanne" (1481) Jean-François Poudret Un mariage contesté: "L'union de la Cité et de la ville inférieure de Lausanne" (1481). By Clémence Thévenaz Modestin. [Cahiers Lausannois d'histoire médiévale, 38.] (Lausanne: Université de Lausanne. 2006. Pp. 313. €24,00 paperback.) Even though the qualifier "nuptials" appears in an account of the town of Lausanne in 1479, it is not a "marriage" but a political union that reveals both the ambitions of the people of Lausanne and their tense relations with Bishop Benoît de Montferrand. This union has been well known to historians since the seventeenth century. But this knowledge has been totally freshed, by the author, thanks to a systematic examination of all available sources, in particular the accounts books of the town of Lausanne. Clémence Thévenaz knows a way to make them talk. The registration of an inn's bill frequently allows us to identify the protagonists and the purpose of their meeting. Another asset consists in the full edition of fifty-eight supporting documents completed by bibliographic notes of the principal craftsmen of the union. Consequently we can say that this study constitutes a valuable contribution to the history of Lausanne. Until the union of 1480, Lausanne was divided into two communities each one with its own administration. The city (civitas) was administered by two syndics and one Council where the Chapter played a key role. As for the lower town (villa, villa inferior), it was governed by two syndics or "priors" and divided into four districts, each one represented by six delegates to the Council that thus counted twenty-four members. Above all there were constant tensions between the Bishop Benoît de Montferrand (1476–91) and his subjects of Lausanne who were the principal cause of the union. Puffed up with their rights, the bishop and his officers frequently violated the franchises. In March of 1478 the lower town's Council decided to carry out the union and to secretly meet the city's representatives. [End Page 350] From then on these two institutions collaborated closely in this project but did not prevail until July 9, 1480. If the event was celebrated the same day by a bonfire, this first act of union did not emerge without questions. Thus, the request to affix the seals of the "Official de Lausanne" and of the Metropolitan court of Besançon remained unanswered. A new request to affix the seals of the "official," the Chapter, and the Metropolitan court or at least one of them is made but unanswered. We can imagine the bishop forbidding his "official" to seal an act prejudicial to his rights. This new act of union, shorter but more complex than the first one, settled numerous questions that have not been answered yet, in particular the community's new denomination as, Civita [ti]s Lausannensis communitas, because the city is worthier than the township, the text says. It was to be governed by twelve counselors and two syndics or governors recruited one within the city and the other one within the lower city. This union was concluded for the future and will not have retroactive effects, which again brings up questions on the reach of the version of 1480 and of 1481. Although the author judges the first one to have been already a perfect agreement,we doubt, in law, that it could be considered as binding for the parties before obtaining the approval of the Chapter. If we keep in mind the marital metaphor,we could see in the act of 1480 a matrimonium initiatum and see in the act of 1481 a matrimonium perfectum! The bishop's anger rightfully increased, as the Chapter rallied. On the one hand, he should have been convened by the Chapter when it deliberated, and on the other, further to art. 64 of the "Plaict general," no innovations were permitted without consulting with the three orders, gathered in a secular court under the presidency of the prelate. Obviously, this led to many appeals to the Metropolitan court of Besançon, the...

Repertoires or Nodes? Constructing meanings in Bible-study groups

This paper grows out of research into the way people in local churches read and interpret the Bible. It considers a particular Bible-study group, paying attention to the kind of talk that occurs there, and the way in which meaning is achieved in the interaction between participants. Initial data extracts are taken to suggest a tension between deference to the authority of the Bible, and an alternative approach, concerned with ‘what the text says to me/us’. This latter approach is inclusive of different viewpoints. This initial analysis gives rise to the hypothesis that there might exist within this Bible-study talk two ‘interpretative repertoires’. In comparison with scientific talk, as considered by Gilbert and Mulkay (1984), these are labelled as ‘canonical’ and ‘contingent’ repertoires. This hypothesis is tested through examination of further data. The paper concludes that the hypothesis does highlight a distinction between more canonical and more contingent talk, and enables an examination of the construction of these ‘repertoires’. However, the term ‘interpretative repertoire’ tends to overemphasis the boundaries round these constructions, and to downplay the lexical and other connections between them. The paper concludes that the term ‘discursive node’ provides for a better characterisation of these patterns of discourse.

Absence status epilepticus: The first documented case?

Even the oldest texts on epilepsy indicate awareness of seizures occurring in series. In the story of the epileptic boy in the Gospel of St. Mark, Jesus returns to his disciples from a short period away and finds them dealing with an epileptic boy whom they could not help. This implies the occurrence of repetitive seizures. Two more seizures at short interval follow in the presence of Jesus who then successfully expels the disease demon. It is unknown, however, to what extent this description of a status epilepticus (SE) is based upon real events. The first historical case of SE seems to be documented on an ex-voto table of 1501 in the parish church of Gmund in Austria (Fig. 1). The neatly written text says: “Oswalt . . . ain purg–zu gmund ist vor vi jar–n zu–alt–noting gbes–n mit seine–sun der hinfalt–n siechtu–het ain wenich gepessert & hat ersup im fur gnome–nymer gen alt–n oting kume–. Nun in der woche– nach oculi im 1501 Jar in grosse kranckhait gfalle–das er gleg–n ist mit offen augen unrednt pis an de–dritte–tag und vil volk zu im gangen. Niemant erkent noch gsehe–und seines leben gar verzigen hab–n also hat in sein hausfrw her versprochen mit aine–priester und mit aine–waxen hawbt und ist gesund worden, sag er lob und danck der Junckfraw mari–in ebikait. Und ist hie gebest am suntag vor dem auffertag Im 1501 Jar. & [signature]” (“Oswalt . . ., a citizen of Gmund, went 6 years ago to the old Otting with his son who has the falling sickness, was little improved and he resolved never again to take to old Otting. Now, in the week after Oculi in the year 1501, fell into great illness that he lay with open eyes speechless until the third day and many people came to him, did not recognize or see anybody, and they lost all hope for his life. So his wife engaged him here with a priest and a waxen head, and he recovered. Say honour, praise and thanks to the Virgin Mary in eternity. And this happened here on the Sunday before Ascension Day in the year 1501”. – Altotting or “the old Otting” is to this day a very popular pilgrimage in Bavaria). The painting appears to be the work of a local artist who may well have seen the patient in the acute phase. It shows

Taming Nationalism? Political Community-Building in the Post-Soviet Baltic States by Dovile s> Budryte (review)

376 SEER, 85, 2, 2007 prediction of a kind, tied to mid-decade, but the book was publishedin 2005. Were there no clues when it went to press as to which way Bosnia might be heading? The authorseems to have a bit of a thing about dates.There is an irritating portentousness about the phrase 'New Millennium' in the main title, reinforced by the sonorousbut meaninglesssub-title.Certainly,momentous questions of war and peace in the Balkanswere settled when Serbia's army and paramilitariespulled out of Kosovo in I999, but the peoples of the region are still living in the old millennium, historicallyspeaking.Gallagher amply confirms that the turning of the century has brought no new starts anywhere. Readers will also notice that the Balkanshave undergone a drasticshrinkage in thisbook, both conceptuallyand geographically.When he finallyattendsto the concept at all, it transpiresthat Gallagheruses 'Balkans'as simple shorthand for the 'formercommunist states of South-EastEurope' (p. i86). (I had to work out this connection for myself, by digging in the Index, and finding 'Balkans',sub-heading'common legacy'.)For the purposesof argument,let us accept this as a legitimate conflation of analyticalcategories, and leave aside the question of why in that case chapter one is on Greece. The fact remains that the book is not even a survey of the Western Balkans,because Croatia, Montenegro and Albania figureonly in passing.In chaptersfour to seven, the field of vision is limited to Serbia,Kosovo, Bosniaand Macedonia, and indeed three of the eight chaptersare concerned in some way or other with Kosovo. Beyond the boundaries of the former Yugoslavia, only Greece is awarded separatetreatment.Bulgariaand Romania have to wait untilchaptereight for any significant mention, in the context of a discussion of EU policy. The principlesof inclusion and exclusion at work here are unfathomable. The coda, 'Conclusion:an uncertainpoliticalfuturefor the Balkans',is the liveliestpart of the book, but in no way representsa summaryof themes and issues. It would, on the other hand, make an interestingintroduction,pulled into analyticalshape. Department ofPolitics LESLIE BENSON University ofNorthampton Budryte,Dovile. Taming Nationalism? Political Community-Building in thePost-Soviet BalticStates. Post-SovietPolitics.Ashgate, Aldershotand Burlington,VT, 2005. ix + 233 pp. Figures.Tables. Notes. Bibliography.Index. [55.00. DOVILE BUDRYTE has come up with a timely appraisalof the way three new multi-ethnic states are 'coming of age'. Her project begins with an introduction which combines discussionof contemporaryinternationalpolitical structures with an insistence that historical memory is vital to an understanding of how the polities are being constructed 'on the ground'. The first chapter addresses the theory and reality of Baltic nationalismsbefore moving on to a second ('Nation Building or Nation Killing?') which poses some tough questions about the long-term impact Soviet policies have had on the Baltic region. There follow chaptersdealing with the detail of developmentsin each REVIEWS 377 of Estonia ('FromRestoration to Integration?'),Latvia ('MinorityRights and the Majority'sInsecurity')and Lithuania ('PragmaticInclusivenessand Fear of Uncertain Loyalty').To underline the importance of history in the Baltic States, Budryte adds a further discussion of how 'Soviet genocide' has been remembered there. A conclusion wraps everythingup. Much about this book deservespraise.Apart from the odd flirtwith political sciencejargon it is writtenin a decent, accessiblestyle.The consistentcontention that grapplingwith the past reallycan provide a richerunderstanding of the present is hard to fault too. The idea is well grounded in interesting material,for instance a discussionof how Mart Laar'scareerprogressedfrom dissidenthistorianto prime minister(p. 52). Equally the author makes creditable play on the idea that bit by bit Baltic history is being 'democratized'. With this said, she is also realisticenough to note that Baltic involvement in the Waffen-SS remains a difficultarea (pp. I98 and i85). The questionmarkis whether Budryte has managed to balance the complexity of Baltic history. Certainly the Holocaust crops up, but whether the text says enough about it is another matter. Also there is no mention at all of the landmarkexperimentsin organizing multi-ethnic societies which were attempted here between the wars, that is to say the autonomous schooling project in Latvia and full cultural autonomy in Estonia. In this light, the reality of what has been happening recently is rathermore complicated than the hypothesissketchedout in the firstchapter -namely...

Soft or Hard Borders? Managing the Divide in an Enlarged Europe by Joan s> DeBardeleben (review)

REVIEWS 377 of Estonia ('FromRestoration to Integration?'),Latvia ('MinorityRights and the Majority'sInsecurity')and Lithuania ('PragmaticInclusivenessand Fear of Uncertain Loyalty').To underline the importance of history in the Baltic States, Budryte adds a further discussion of how 'Soviet genocide' has been remembered there. A conclusion wraps everythingup. Much about this book deservespraise.Apart from the odd flirtwith political sciencejargon it is writtenin a decent, accessiblestyle.The consistentcontention that grapplingwith the past reallycan provide a richerunderstanding of the present is hard to fault too. The idea is well grounded in interesting material,for instance a discussionof how Mart Laar'scareerprogressedfrom dissidenthistorianto prime minister(p. 52). Equally the author makes creditable play on the idea that bit by bit Baltic history is being 'democratized'. With this said, she is also realisticenough to note that Baltic involvement in the Waffen-SS remains a difficultarea (pp. I98 and i85). The questionmarkis whether Budryte has managed to balance the complexity of Baltic history. Certainly the Holocaust crops up, but whether the text says enough about it is another matter. Also there is no mention at all of the landmarkexperimentsin organizing multi-ethnic societies which were attempted here between the wars, that is to say the autonomous schooling project in Latvia and full cultural autonomy in Estonia. In this light, the reality of what has been happening recently is rathermore complicated than the hypothesissketchedout in the firstchapter -namely that illiberalnationalism has been changing to liberal (pp. 56-57). In the I920S, if not before, there was also quite a bit of 'liberalnationalism'on displayin this region. Budryte has produced a book that contains a good amount of interesting material and insight. If the study is not 'comprehensive',perhaps this reflects the fact that Baltic historiography is very much 'work in progress' at the moment. But the author has made a good contributionhere. Department of SocialSciences andHumanities M. HOUSDEN University ofBradford DeBardeleben, Joan (ed.).SoftorHardBorders? Managing theDivideinanEnlarged Europe. Ashgate,Aldershotand Burlington,VT, 2005. iX + 204 pp. Notes. Bibliographies.Index. ?49.95. EUROPE'S bordersare of immense academic, political and public concern and therefore this is a timely collection of papers discussingthe consequences of enlargementfor the bordersof the EuropeanUnion and, to a lesserextent, for the notion of Europe as a geographicaland bordered entity. Joan DeBardeleben has done a good job in ensuringthis volume discusses border management in an enlarged Europe thoroughly. The book is organized into three thematicallycoherentpartsthat enable contributorsto look at specific border management issues in depth. Part One discussesthe idea of 'wider Europe', exploring how EU relations with the westernmost former Soviet states(particularlyUkraine),with Russia itself,and with Romania offer insightsinto how the EU is dealing with incorporatingnew members -the 378 SEER, 85, 2, 2007 case of Romania and simultaneously delineating an 'outside' that is unlikelyto be brought 'in' for the foreseeablefuture.This process is explored not just from an EU perspective, though. Drago? Popa and Bogdan Buduru show how meeting EU requirements affects Romania's relations with neighbours such as Moldova and Serbia where, especiallyin the case of the former, it has a historicallydistinctivespecial relationship.Charles Pentland discussesthe EU's relationshipwith Ukraine, particularlyin light of Russia's influence. Recent developments following the 'Orange Revolution' and disputes over energy prices fall outside the chapter's scope, but Pentlands clearly defined analytical structure makes it easy to see how the change in Kiev's political balance is likely to alter again the see-sawingof Ukraine's relationship with the EU and what this means for Ukraine's position as perhapsthe most significantstatefor understandingwhere and how the limit:s of EU expansion are being set. Part Two focuses upon the mechanics of EU cooperation in managing its new bordersand border challenges. Hel&nePellerin covers economic and securityfactorswithin migration and border controls;Sandra Lavenex looks at 'inclusion' and 'exclusion' through the tensions between 'softening' and 'hardening' borders within discussions of justice and home affairs. Finally, Jorg Minar assessesspecificintegratedbordermanagement operationsby EUJ member states and others, such as Norway, against a backdropof proposals for greater cooperation, possibly culminating in an integrated, or at least networked,EU border guard.All of these chaptersofferrich detail about EU efforts to think through and develop effective administrativearrangements and policies that address powerful, but competing, demands...

Genetic screens to bioethics - developmental biology for the people

Christiane (Janni) Nusslein-Volhard is our representative in the wider world. Along with Eric Wieschaus and Ed Lewis, she was the recipient of the 1995 Nobel Prize for Physiology, which was awarded for her genetic screens on Drosophila that led to the discovery of most of the genes that control

Questioning and Conviction: Double-voiced Discourse in Mark 3:22-30

(ProQuest Information and Learning: ... denotes formulae omitted.) Literary irony is usually defined as a radical disjunction between what a text or a character in a text says and what that text or character means.1 It refers to the controlled divergence of intended from apparent meaning, a divergence the careful reader must discern in order to privilege authentic over ostensible significance. Mikhail Bakhtin, however, provides a theoretical approach to this mode of semantic disjunction that at once resists straightforwardly promoting one level of meaning over another and at the same time refuses to allow the irreducible semantic difference that ensues to undermine a discourse's coherence: he invites the reader to consider the possibility that the contending meanings of a potentially ironic text might stand in dialogic relationship with one another. In a passage from Discourse in the Novel, Bakhtin considers controlled incongruity between authorial intention and semantic appearance under the heading of discourse. As he defines it, double-voiced discourse serves two speakers at the same time and expresses simultaneously two different intentions: the direct intention of the character who is speaking, and the refracted intention of the author. These two voices, Bakhtin explains, may be dialogically interrelated: they-as it were-know about each other; ... it is as if they actually hold a conversation with each other.2 Bakhtins concept of double-voiced discourse provides a useful lens through which to examine the Beelzebul controversy of Mark 3:22-30, a puzzling pericope in which Jesuss words' apparent meaning and what they must mean when read carefully within the context of Mark's opening chapters stand in sharp, potentially ironic contrast. This semantic incongruity, as Bakhtin helps us to see, actually constitutes a theologically meaningful dialogue, which may be understood as dialogue between Jesus and Mark or, more broadly, between faithful commitment to and skeptical questioning of Jesus's ministry and message. Bakhtins model of double-voiced discourse ultimately lays bare an important dynamic characterizing Mark's narrative throughout: failure to recognize the theologically significant dialogue inscribed in the double-voiced discourse of this pericope and others forecloses on precisely the ideological tension Mark attempts to cultivate in his readers. At the center of Mark's Beelzebul controversy narrative lies a pair of parables (3:23b-26 and 3:27) that initially seem to deny the scribal charge that Satan authorizes Jesuss exorcisms, which they immediately follow (3:22).3 Parable 1: ... (3:23b-26) How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a is divided against itself, that will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come. (NRSV) Parable 2: ... (3:27) But no one can enter a strong man's and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the can be plundered. (NRSV) It makes no sense, the parables suggest, to hold Satan responsible for Jesus's exorcisms, for if Satan were responsible for them then he would be opposing himself, and his house or dominion could not stand. On the contrary, Jesus invades Satan's from the outside and plunders his property. Far from satanically authorized, Jesus the exorcist violently opposes Satan's authority. The fact of this opposition, to which Jesus's parables draw attention, sufficiently refutes the scribal interpretation of his exorcisms as evidence that Jesus is in league with the devil (3:22). Mark's discourse, however, makes a number of rhetorical gestures hinting that these parables might not straightforwardly oppose Jesus's understanding of his exorcisms to that of the scribes after all. Mark introduces the parables with the statement that Jesus having invited them (. …