Western Washington University Research Articles

Vies de Job by Pierre Assouline

refuse la “loi du père, la loi du juge” (166), et à un cadre légal prompt à la seconder , il est entravé dans son rôle d’homme, privé de ses droits parentaux et atteint dans sa dimension d’être humain. Aussi l’histoire d’amour qu’il vit avec la narratrice n’est-elle que secondaire. C’est leur expérience commune de l’adversité qui les rapproche et qui semble constituer leur identité. “On est des Schwartz” (182), lui dit-il. Reprenant le matronyme qu’Angot, abandonnée par son père, portait dans sa jeunesse, Billy associe leurs difficultés existentielles. Mais il confère aussi aux siennes une origine suspecte, en désignant, par ce nom allemand, la couleur de sa peau. Ainsi, l’écrivaine, en relatant les déconvenues conjugales de son compagnon et en brossant son ancienne conjointe en mégère machiavélique, manifeste bien plus qu’une solidarité sentimentale. Elle se livre à une dénonciation du racisme et à un renversement des clichés. À travers la victimisation de Billy, elle dévoile l’oppression d’un homme noir par une femme blanche avec la bénédiction de la société. Western Washington University Cécile Hanania ASSOULINE, PIERRE. Vies de Job. Paris: Gallimard, 2011. ISBN 978-2-07-012539-5. Pp. 491. 21,50 a. The common struggles of writing biography versus fiction are everywhere present in this narrative. Assouline is the narrator who sets out to research a biography about the hero of the Book of Job. As an author of biographies (on Simenon, Hergé, Cartier-Bresson, and Gallimard), the narrator identifies himself as a credentialed biographer. However, Assouline the author is also a published novelist (Lutetia, Le portrait, Les invités), so fiction writing is also a possibility. The narrator of this story does evolve from biographer to novelist through experiments with autobiography, a novel with an index, and the ultimate divide: his unending research into Job’s identity. The Book of Job itself has an enormous bibliography. The writer confronts centuries of scholarship, translation problems, and ideologically enmeshed interpretations by Christianity, Judaism, Islam, as well as the cultures that have appropriated the eponymous non-Jew. As the narrator sorts through these various complications, he also adds his own personal obsessions with Job’s predicament (“Que reste-t-il lorsqu’il ne reste plus rien?” 29) in approximately the fourth century BCE and the appropriation of his narrative since then. The common denominator of Job’s lives is what interests the narrator. Let us call the narrator “Pierre” to distinguish him from the author “Assouline.” Pierre is searching for Job’s voice in the midst of all the noise about who Job is and what he tells us he is. There are questions about Job that haunt Pierre: Why did Job’s problems become ours? How does a book of Wisdom survive with an enemy as its hero? How do you combat injustice if it hides its name under a mask? One other question resonates: What was the name of Job’s wife? She has no name in the Book of Job where she disappears when Job’s friends arrive. Around 1650 CE, Georges de la Tour painted Job and his wife. Subsequently, in the 1930s, this painting received the title of “Job Being Admonished by his Wife.” She has a face in the painting. Her waving finger gives her a personality beyond the words in the Book. But still her only name is her relationship to Job. Reviews 975 Pierre’s story evolves through anecdotes about his search for the eschatology , context, and origins of Job. Pierre focuses his research in East Jerusalem at the Saint-Étienne Convent that houses the Dominican École biblique where French is the language used for discussions by researchers, usually at mealtime. East Jerusalem, of course, is an Arab cultural and linguistic setting while the Israeli universe is less than two hundred yards away. So Pierre is in the midst of French, Arabic, and Hebrew languages as he studies the texts of interpretations about the Book of Job. He meets an intriguing assortment of researchers who come from around the world to use the...

Blanco nocturno

70 WORLD LITERATURE TODAY reviews some of his reluctant followers across the water to a new homeland. Tragically , the lengthy and harrowing journey across the Atlantic will lead only to calamitous outcomes for most of them. Born in Brazil, Sergio Kokis lives in Quebec and writes in French. In his latest novel, he blends biblical imagery with a wryly affectionate portrayal of life in a small village whose traditional social structures are brutally disrupted by the conflicting forces of twentieth-century modernity . In Kokis’s narrative of hesitant exile and looming disaster, the villagers are neither magnified nor cast as the embodiments of folk virtues. As for Waldemar, through his efforts at convincing his churchgoers to follow him, he is portrayed as at once a naïve idealist and a cool manipulator. Some of the best pages in this skillfully constructed novel are devoted to the recurring debates over the wisdom or folly of Waldemar’s project (while the verbal jousting is often metonymically associated with the silent struggles of chess games) between the fervently religious pastor and his warily rationalistic brother-in-law, the local schoolteacher. Through his portrait of a small Latvian community bound for Brazil, a promised land with its own potential for disillusionment, Sergio Kokis has produced an insightful account of the hopes and fears experienced by most immigrants. Edward Ousselin Western Washington University Ricardo Piglia. Blanco nocturno. Barcelona. Anagrama. 2011 (©2010). isbn 9788433972156 We are so accustomed to the proliferation of the detective novel in Latin America that in the last few years we have barely noticed that many of these novels scarcely conform to the historically imposed conventions of the genre. In Argentina, short-story writers such as Borges and Bioy Casares popularized the detective as a pure thinker, one who resolves cases by means of a complex system of deductive reasoning facilitated by keen intelligence.InBlanconocturno,Argentinian author Ricardo Piglia (b. 1940) picks up the tradition but this time uses the foundation of the detective genre, which he then transforms—as in all his previous efforts—into an unmistakable “Piglian” novel. With Blanco nocturno, Piglia won the prestigious Rómulo Gallegos International Prize in 2011, awarded for the best novel written in Spanish. Even though Piglia is one of the greatest proponents of the detective novel, it would be incorrect to classify him as a genre author. His narrative oeuvre, though not particularly extensive, is diverse enough to discount such an idea. Though Plata quemada (1997) can be ascribed without question to the detective novel genre, Respiración artificial (1980; see WLT, Spring 1994, 345) defies any classification . This time, after thirteen years without publishing, Piglia offers a volume that manifests all the characteristics of the genre but at the same time supersedes the classic model of the detective novel in the traditional Argentinian narrative. It is a novel that should be cataloged as an example of what Piglia himself calls “paranoid fiction.” “There should be a new kind of detective novel, paranoid fiction. Everyone is a suspect, everyone feels persecuted. The criminal is no longer an isolated individual, but rather a member of a group who has absolute power. No one understands what is happening, the clues and testimonies are contradictory and keep suspicion in the air because they can change with each perspective.” The story in Blanco nocturno is told through several contradictory voices and points of view that flood the narrative with information, which has no evidentiary purpose and with clues that do not lead to the resolution of the initial proposed enigma. The story is the following: A Puerto Rican mulatto arrives in a village in the Argentinian countryside with a suitcase filled with one hundred thousand dollars. His name is Tony Durán. All indications are that Durán arrives in town in the pursuit of two beautiful women, the Belladona sisters , whom he met in Atlantic City, and with whom he formed a happy and hasty trio. A few weeks after his arrival, Durán is murdered in a hotel. The story becomes complicated: it involves a powerful local family, the Belladonas, a corrupt public prosecutor , and, in a way, the entire town. By SEPTEMBER–OCTOBER 2012...

Le coq gaulois à l’heure anglaise: analyse de la traduction anglaise d’Astérix by Catherine Delesse, Bertrand Richet

Fourastié, would have been called for. However, Fourastié is briefly mentioned only once (168). Western Washington University Edward Ousselin DELESSE, CATHERINE, et BERTRAND RICHET. Le coq gaulois à l’heure anglaise: analyse de la traduction anglaise d’Astérix. Arras: Artois PU, 2009. ISBN 978-2-84832-077-9. Pp. 447. 24 a. This book deserves a belated review because it presents a major research project on Astérix that deals with the difficult art of translating cultural humor. The authors compare thirty-three episodes of the series by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo (the last eight by Uderzo alone after Goscinny’s death in 1977) with their corresponding English translations, all of which were done by Anthea Bell and Derek Hockridge between 1969 and 2005. In their introduction, Delesse and Richet discuss the challenges translators face in their efforts to remain close to the original work while creating similar cultural humor that is essentially an adaptation. In order to organize and present such a vast amount of material, the authors divided their comparisons into four chapters: “Les noms propres,” “Les jeux de mots,” “Accents, dialectes et langues étrangères,” and “Les allusions culturelles.” The chapter on proper names is divided into numerous categories, such as historical references and adaptations of the original French names to fit the context. For example, in Astérix et le chaudron the character Juleraimus (Jules Raimu, a wellknown French actor from the 1930s) becomes Alecguinus (Alec Guinness, a famous British actor who admired Raimu). There are many clever names invented by the English translators that often have a connection with the French or with the original meaning of a certain word, such as the dog’s name Idéfix which becomes Dogmatix in the English translation. A great challenge for translators is rendering into English plays on words, which are based on colloquial meanings, sounds, and cultural references. In Astérix et les Goths the chief Téléféric is deposed by his enemy who says “Ta vie ne tient qu’à un fil, Téléféric.” Since cable car and “hang by a thread” do not have the same close connection in English, the translators totally transformed the word play by changing the chief’s name to Metric with his opponent saying “It’s time you were going, Metric” (95). The phrase alludes to the debate in England about “going metric,” meaning an official change to using the metric system for money and measurement. The English phrase here can be understood in two ways: It’s time to get rid of you (when using a comma and meaning get rid of the metric system) and it’s time to go metric (without the comma, meaning it’s time for a change), thus representing both sides of the debate. Much of the humor in Astérix is based on stereotypes and details of cultural identity. In their chapter on accents, dialects, and foreign languages, the authors compare the clever ways in which the translators transformed these elements into a context that is humorous for Anglophones. The final chapter, which deals with cultural allusions, is divided into sections on songs, famous sayings, historical references, and popular culture, just to name a few. The creative genius of Goscinny and Uderzo and the ingenious renditions of their humor by the translators are impressive and amusing. From a pedagogical perspective, this book could Reviews 967 be used as a reference work in a French culture class, a translation course, and a course on bandes dessinées. Le coq gaulois is a must-read for Astérix aficionados as well as for those who are yet unfamiliar with the French cultural icon whose adventures have been translated into 107 languages and dialects with worldwide sales of over 325 million albums. Ohio University, Athens Lois Vines DIETLER, MICHAEL. Archaeologies of Colonialism: Consumption, Entanglement, and Violence in Ancient Mediterranean France. Berkeley: UP of California, 2010. ISBN 978-0-52026551 -6. Pp. 464. $60. During the sixth century BCE, Phocaeans from a Greek colony in contemporary Turkey arrived in Marseille, naming it Massalia. This event becomes more than a mere historical fact in Dietler’s complex analysis of Mediterranean society during the...

Et te voici permise à tout homme par Éliette Abécassis

“Constant first labeled his position ‘liberal’ in 1795. He and Germaine de Staël were the first in France to use this term to define a political stance” (76). Vincent’s study correspondingly emphasizes the contributions of Constant (1767–1830)— partly in association with Staël—to the development of political liberalism in France (as opposed to other putative fathers of the liberal tradition, such as Guizot). Vincent also highlights Constant’s influence on, and affinities with, subsequent exponents of liberalism: “There are marked similarities [...] between Constant’s stance and that of his famous successor Alexis de Tocqueville” (63). Throughout his book, Vincent associates close readings of Constant’s voluminous political works (along with his famous novel, Adolphe) with the contextualization of his public and private life. In this perspective, the biographical details are not secondary. As a partial outsider (a Protestant of Swiss origin), Constant was at times a peripheral observer, at others a full participant in French political life. Constant’s pragmatic political stance, originally developed in response to the upheavals of the Revolutionary period, subsequently progressed into more sophisticated theoretical formulations, partly due to the personal influence of those with whom he regularly interacted and corresponded. It therefore comes as no surprise to find that he regularly used, along with Staël, such literary keywords as sensibilité and enthousiasme, or that he emphasized the role and importance of “character” at both the personal and national levels: “Constant was always attentive to how historical context formed character” (206). Increasingly wary of Rousseau’s pronouncements about the fundamental goodness of uncorrupted human nature, Constant sought ways to curb the apparently inexhaustible capacity for fanaticism (whether religious or political). His reiterated calls for moderation , for upholding “the protection of rights, the rule of law, and the division and balance of political sovereignty” (194) required courage during a historical phase marked by rapid and radical institutional shifts. Since Constant’s writings and political activities spanned the Revolutionary, the Napoleonic, and the Restoration periods, during which the governmental and constitutional systems of France underwent several permutations, he often had to defend the basic principles of liberalism (pluralism, separation of powers, civil rights, religious toleration, etc.) against a new and different set of threats. Vincent effectively weaves the details of Constant’s biography into the broader historical background, producing a richly-documented work that will be of interest to literary scholars as well as political scientists. Western Washington University Edward Ousselin Creative Works edited by Nathalie Degroult ABÉCASSIS, ÉLIETTE. Et te voici permise à tout homme. Paris: Albin Michel, 2011. ISBN 978-2-226-22969-4. Pp. 198. 17 a. In Orthodox Judaism, the wife is sacred, hallowed, protected until she no longer wishes to be married. Such a decision may condemn her to an unfair treatment . Anna Attal, the narrator, legally divorced from Simon, mother of eightyear -old Naomi, and a religious bookstore employee, meets Sacha, a divorced 206 FRENCH REVIEW 86.1 man of forty, photographer, father of a boy about to be bar mitzvah. Sacha is the son of Holocaust survivors, and had been married to a non-Jew; Anna grew up in a strictly observant family. When Simon presents himself to the Yom Kippur eve dinner sitting between Anna and their daughter, he declares that Anna will never have her “guet,” the religious divorce, which only the husband can grant. Simon’s use of blackmail worsens throughout the novel. If Sacha is Anna’s redemption, Simon is her living hell. Anna struggles with her new love and her old religious beliefs. She and Sacha are soulmates, certain that their lives are connected : “un fil inexplicable enlaçait nos vies, comme s’il n’y avait que nous deux, qui avions échappé à ce singulier tropisme: ce fil rouge qui nous reliait tout en nous séparant” (62). Simon, outwardly pure and inwardly hypocritical, has completely neglected all the commandments of a religious husband to his wife: he has abused her, mocked her, but this is not what the community sees—he is very good at pretense. The reaction of those around Anna is typical. She is anathema; the blame for the failed marriage is all hers: “Moi, j’étais comme...

France in the Age of Organization: Factory, Home, and Nation from the 1920s to Vichy by Jackie Clarke

CLARKE, JACKIE. France in the Age of Organization: Factory, Home, and Nation from the 1920s to Vichy. New York: Berghahn, 2011. ISBN 978-0-85745-080-7. Pp. 218. $80. The title is in itself somewhat provocative. The “Age of Organization” is the type of descriptive label usually applied to the post-1945 Trente Glorieuses, which were characterized by rapid economic and demographic growth, as well as by sweeping social and political transformations: “Historians often think of the period after the Second World War as the key moment in the reorganization of social, economic, and political life in twentieth-century France” (2). By comparison, the interwar years are often presented as a period of generalized societal stasis and/ or crisis, leading up to the catastrophic military defeat of 1940. Jackie Clarke’s study aims to nuance this stark historical contrast between interwar regression and postwar renewal, in part by finding parallels and continuities between the levels of public influence attained by the interwar techniciens and by their postwar counterparts, the better-known cadres and technocrates who are generally associated with the deep structural changes of the Trente Glorieuses. The term technicien here encompasses a broad category of individuals and associations that were loosely linked by advanced professional training and the desire to bring more organizational efficiency to French society as a whole. Not just engineers and industrialists, but also economists, civil servants, trade unionists, social professionals , and “domestic science” specialists thus fit into this category. Many of these would-be reformers of French socioeconomic patterns were influenced by the managerial practices and movements derived from two main sources: Frederick Taylor’s “scientific management” and the less widely known concepts of administration and leadership formulated by Henri Fayol, whose Administration industrielle et générale was published in 1916. One of the merits of Clarke’s book is that it points out the enduring influence of Fayol’s work, which is often summarized by his five-point definition of the main managerial functions: “prévoir, organiser, commander, coordonner, contrôler” (also known by the POCCC acronym). France in the Age of Organization provides much biographical information on the techniciens of the interwar and Vichy periods, including an appendix with profiles of some of the most notable individuals. It highlights the ways in which concepts and procedures taken from industrial and public management were adapted for use at all levels of French society, including inside the home, with middle-class wives being called upon to become efficient “managers” of their presumably rationalized domestic space. The impetus to modernize the social as well as economic realms derived in large part from the perceived backwardness of a still disproportionately agricultural France trying to catch up with more industrialized and therefore more powerful competitors. In this sense, the techniciens of the 1920s and 1930s had the same broad objectives, if not necessarily the same level of success, as their postwar counterparts. Clarke’s book is meticulously researched and well written. There is a refreshingly low incidence of typographical errors: “principle” for “principal” (44); “Dirigsme” (132). By stressing certain organizational and conceptual continuities in French society throughout most of the twentieth century, France in the Age of Organization breaks new ground. One area of investigation does seem lacking: since one of the main goals of this study is to reconfigure the post-World War II period of rapid economic development as part of a historical continuum that stretches back at least to l’Entre-deux-guerres, rather than as a sudden, isolated, quasi-miraculous flowering of economic and social life in France, a critical engagement with the writings of the author who most convincingly conceptualized the Trente Glorieuses, Jean 966 FRENCH REVIEW 85.5 Fourastié, would have been called for. However, Fourastié is briefly mentioned only once (168). Western Washington University Edward Ousselin DELESSE, CATHERINE, et BERTRAND RICHET. Le coq gaulois à l’heure anglaise: analyse de la traduction anglaise d’Astérix. Arras: Artois PU, 2009. ISBN 978-2-84832-077-9. Pp. 447. 24 a. This book deserves a belated review because it presents a major research project on Astérix that deals with the difficult art of translating cultural humor. The authors compare thirty...

L’interrogatoire Pilate by Mario Boivin

May– june 2012 67 make it knowable and meaningful. But The Lost Word is, above all, a book about Turkey, a brave and timely book. The mere mention of Kurdistan was once enough to put a writer in prison. Baydar dares to explore the Kurdish question, one of Turkey’s most sensitive cultural and political taboos, openly and sympathetically, and with the compassion required of our humanity. Turkey needs more writers like Oya Baydar and more books like The Lost Word. George Messo Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia Mario Boivin. L’interrogatoire Pilate. Montréal. Lévesque. 2011. isbn 9782923844787 In the spirit of Robert Graves’s I Claudius (1934), Québécois author and theater director Mario Boivin has constructed an elaborate historical fiction in which the Roman emperor Tiberius obsessively interrogates the witnesses to a crucifixion —whose victim, one Yeshoua Bar Yossef (also known as Christus), seems to have inexplicably survived, even though he is now nowhere to be found, alive or dead. Presenting his book as the accurate “transcript” of the long interrogation (miraculously unearthed by an archaeologist ), Boivin, who has obviously conducted extensive historical research, provides through trenchant dialogue and clever plot twists a fresh look at an old story. The reader does have to accept the somewhat dubious premises of this original narrative: that the execution of an obscure cult leader in a remote corner of the Roman Empire would be of so much import during the reign of Tiberius (14–37 ce), and that the emperor himself, who ruled from his palatial retreat on the island of Capri, would somehow feel threatened by the purported resurrection of Yeshoua. Part legal inquiry, part mystery whodunit, the fictional plot, constantly doubling back and folding in upon itself through the process of the repeated interrogation of multiple witnesses with divergent motives and viewpoints, revolves around the emperor’s urgent need to bring to light (and of course to crush) a criminal plot that was devised to save a rabble-rouser who had originally been only a minor nuisance, but whose inconceivable emergence from the grave after a very public execution constitutes an embarrassment and, potentially, a threat to the stability of Pax Romana. Initially hidden behind a curtain that allows him to silently observe the proceedings , Tiberius (whose divine status is often mentioned) nevertheless repeatedly intervenes through the use of an incongruously small bell, thus sending signals to the magistrate who serves as his surrogate during the first part of the interrogation , in the course of which the wife of Pontius Pilate, the Roman officers who supervised the crucifixion of Yeshoua, and Saul of Tarsus are successively and harshly questioned. The exalted emperor suddenly reveals himself when Pontius Pilate is brought in, followed by Myriam of Magdala and Nikdamon Ben Gurion. (Other minor characters, some of whom are destined for execution, round out the cast.) While the author has gone to great lengths to inject a sense of verisimilitude through the use of precise historical details (including a ghastly account of exactly how a crucifixion was carried out), he has also willfully inserted anachronisms that incite the reader to shift from past to present, and to examine each in light of the other. The use of the word “intégriste” (fundamentalist), for example, in the context of a region described by the Roman characters as torn between rival groups of religious fanatics, provides more contemporary and thought-provoking echoes. Overall, in this well-balanced amalgam of historical context and innovative storytelling , the pace is brisk, the dialogues are incisive, the threat of gruesome violence is always lurking in the background , and the final plot twist offers up more than just another conspiracy theory. Mario Boivin’s well-crafted literary experiment makes for fascinating reading. Edward Ousselin Western Washington University Zoran Drvenkar. Sorry. Shaun Whiteside , tr. New York. Knopf. 2011. isbn 9780307273550 Like many recent thrillers, Sorry weaves a lurid tale of multigenerational pedophilia and consequences that include two grotesque murders. But Croatian-born, German-raised Zoran Drvenkar braids themes of familial dysfunction and universal guilt with postmodern strategies that subvert generic conventions to shape a powerful existential thriller. His novel impels readers forward as it forces them to...

Including Service Learning in the Undergraduate Communication Sciences and Disorders Curriculum: Benefits, Challenges, and Strategies for Success

To describe some of the benefits of service learning (SL), considerations in course development and construction, and implementation and outcomes of an SL course in the undergraduate communication sciences and disorders (CSD) program at a small, public university in northwest Washington. A review of the literature on SL and a description of the author's experience in course development are provided on the basis of a computerized database search, library search, and discussions with the Western Washington University Center for Service Learning. Teaching an SL course can present challenges to both faculty and students; nonetheless, incorporating SL into the undergraduate CSD curriculum is an excellent way of enriching the academic experience and improving critical-thinking skills of young students. SL provides hands-on opportunities for students to apply what they are learning in their CSD classes to real-world contexts, gain a better understanding of course content through engagement in real situations, and integrate information from a variety of courses in and outside of their major.

Introduction to Anthropology and The Public Good: Environment, Health Care and Diversity

In this, the penultimate issue of the Howell/Loewe editorship, we pause to welcome Professor Anita Puckett of Virginia Tech as the incoming editor of Practicing Anthropology. Dr. Puckett will assist us in the production of our final issue and will assume the helm of Practicing Anthropology for the Spring 2012 issue. Our next and final issue will be a themed issue focusing on Mayas living in the Diaspora. It will be guest edited by James Loucky, a professor of anthropology at Western Washington University at Bellingham, and Alan LeBaron, a professor of Latin American History at Kennesaw State University.

The African American Experience during World War II (review)

Reviewed by: The African American Experience during World War II Kevin Allen Leonard (bio) The African American Experience during World War II. By Neil A. Wynn. (Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2010. Pp. xix, 163. $34.95) Since the publication of Neil A. Wynn's path-breaking study, The Afro-American and the Second World War in 1973, dozens of other historians have examined the impact of the war on African Americans. In this new book, Wynn masterfully synthesizes this literature, noting the continuities between African Americans' prewar experiences and their wartime and postwar experiences and pointing out the numerous ways in which the war changed the lives of African Americans. Wynn briefly traces African American service in the U.S. military prior to World War II, noting that black soldiers received numerous commendations despite the fact that they were frequently relegated to service or support roles. He observes that rioting in the 1910s and the rise of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s reminded African Americans that the Great War had not fundamentally changed the racial order in the United States. In the 1920s and 1930s, many African [End Page 130] Americans joined organizations such as Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association and the Communist Party with the goal of ending racial discrimination and violence. Most of the book focuses on the events of the 1940s. Wynn points out that African American leaders failed to persuade President Franklin D. Roosevelt to end segregation in the armed forces, but A. Philip Randolph's March on Washington Movement convinced Roosevelt to issue Executive Order 8802. This order banned racial discrimination by military contractors and established the Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC). Wynn concedes that the FEPC did not have the power to end discrimination completely, but he insists that its establishment was a significant precursor of later changes in federal policy. The military remained segregated throughout the war, but African American soldiers and African American organizations persistently protested both segregation and the mistreatment of African American soldiers. The wartime labor shortage offered African Americans unprecedented economic opportunities. The need of manufacturers for workers eventually overrode their racial prejudices. The promise of good jobs lured hundreds of thousands of African Americans to northern and western cities, where they encountered persistent housing discrimination. The tensions surrounding housing led in part to rioting in Detroit in 1943. Wynn notes that the war inspired many African Americans to take action to end discrimination. Pauli Murray, for example, staged sit-ins at Washington, D.C., restaurants in 1943 and 1944, and activists affiliated with the pacifist Fellowship of Reconciliation organized the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) in 1942. Wynn concludes by focusing on the immediate postwar years. He indicates that many African American veterans took advantage of the G.I. Bill of Rights, although Lizabeth Cohen demonstrates in A Consumer's Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in America (2003) that discrimination seriously limited the benefits that African American veterans derived from this legislation. Many veterans [End Page 131] encountered violence when they returned to the South. More than twenty-five African Americans were killed in racially motivated incidents between 1945 and 1947. Wynn defends Truman's record on civil rights, pointing out that he supported a permanent FEPC and appointed a committee to study civil rights. In addition to a thorough and concise synthetic narrative, this book contains a chronology of significant events in African American history from 1938 until 1948, forty pages of documents, and a seven-page annotated bibliography. The documents include excerpts from the writings of W. E. B. Du Bois, A. Philip Randolph, William H. Hastie, and Walter White. The brevity of this narrative and the chronology and documents should make this book ideal for assignment in courses in African American history when a paperback edition is published. Kevin Allen Leonard Kevin Allen Leonard teaches history at Western Washington University in Billingham, Washington. He is the author of The Battle for Los Angeles: Racial Ideology and World War II (2006) and is currently engaged in research on African Americans and the environment in post-World War II Southern California. Copyright © 2011 Kentucky Historical Society

Clandestino by Sergio Kokis (review)

towarda plausibleterminus, we never truly find a complete story. Blayze Hembree University ofOklahoma SergioKokis. Clandestino. Montreal. Levesque. 2010.256 pages.Can$25. isbn 978-2-923844-33-6 Born in1944 inRiodeJaneiro, Sergio Kokisstudied psychology inFrance before moving toMontreal in 1969. He stoppedworking as a clinical psychologist in1997 tobecome a fulltime painter andwriter. Whether set inSouthAmerica (Le retour deLorenzo Sanchez, 2008)orinanunnamed no-man's-land (La gare,2005),his novels, written in French, areoften characterized by similartraits: the perplexing experience of exile;the inherently absurdquestfora vanishedidentity ; an individual lostin an incomprehensible, totalitarian societal system reminiscent ofKafka 'sworld; thesymbolism ofchessplayingand its variousstrategies; and thechallenging encounter with literature. Clandestino isanostensibly realistic narrative of victimization andrevenge, setinArgentina during theearly 1980s, thetraumatic period oftheFalklands War. Tomas Sorge,a former lowranking military officer moonlightingas a safecracker, was betrayed by a colleagueand sentencedto sixyearsofhardlaborin a remote penal colonyin Tierradel Fuego. The end of his periodof exilein this"universcarceralsurrealiste," oftencomparedto a brutalSiberianlaborcamp ,roughly coincides withtheend ofthemilitary dictatorship after Argentina's defeatin 1982.Whilehe is stillimprisoned, Sorgeis approached bya shadowy butwell-financed organization that seeks to recruit him forunspecifiedparamilitary activities after his release. SinceSorgehasnothing and no one to go back to,he accepts, eventhough itwillmeanhisofficial "death"and assumption of a new identity, underthe name of Jose Capa. After a longtripto Buenos Aires, andhisgradualreadjustment tolife outside ofprison walls, Sorge/ Capa becomesacquainted withthe manwhoarranged for hisnewlivelihood and who turnsout to be noneother thanthecolleaguewho had betrayed him.Bidinghistime, theex-convict carriesout his new duties, whichcallforusinghisold skillsas a safecracker. Thistimehe is employed bya groupofmilitary officers whoseekto maintain their powerandwealth, evenafter thefall ofthedictatorship. Sorge /Capaalso wantsto honorthedyingwishof a former friend inprison, whohad beenviciously tortured. What couldbea straightforward revenge tragedy withpolitical overtones becomes continually more complexas theformer convict and avid chessplayer - gradually transformed into anexterminating angel - engages ina gameinwhichhislifeand his prospects for anyform ofredemption areat stake.As Sorgetellshisalter ego,Capa: "Etmaintenant que tues devenu Jose, queferas-tu pourcontinuera tesortir indemne de toutce bourbier?" (Nowthat you've become Jose, whatwillyoudo tokeepyourselfcleanofthismuck ?) Clandestino provides, against the backdrop ofsordid intrigue amongcorrupt military officers and governmental officials, a fascinating portrait of a disturbingly isolated individual who, having losthispastand hisidentity, exists onlyinwhatisoften described as an "abstract" sense. Edward Ousselin Western Washington University PatrikOurednik. The Opportune Moment, 1855.Alex Zucker, tr. Champaign , Illinois. Dalkey Archive. 2011.126 pages. $12.95. isbn 978-1-56478-596-1 Patrik Ourednik (b.1957, Prague)is a Czechauthor and translator who since1984haslivedinFrance. Three ofhis novelshave beentranslated into English: Europeana: ABrief History of the Twentieth Century (translated intomorethantwenty languages), CaseClosed, andnowTheOpportune Moment, excellently translated from Czech to Englishby AlexZucker. Thelatter novelwas declared Book oftheYearinItaly bythenewspaper LaStampa in2007. Thenovelhasanintricate structure .It beginswiththe letterof an agingveterinarian, inspired by Utopian andanarchistic ideas,tohis love of fifty yearsago. This part, whichreads more like an essay, outlines a project to builda settlementhosting a freeand fraternal community inBrazilin1855, where people shareeverything and free lovewillreign. Theletter admits that theproject failed, apparently dueto poorexecution. The secondpartcontainsthe logbookof one of the colonists, beginning withthetwo-month passage from FrancetoBrazilbyship. The day-by-day accountconfronts theidealtheory from theletter with the realityof Italian anarchists, Frenchegalitariansand anarchocommunists , Germans,Austrians, Slovaks,and eventheblacksailors asthey try toorganize, share thelimitedresources , and worktogether. Thediarist takesnosides,ironically recording themounting tensions facing the colonists. This partsends whenthey stepontoBrazilian soil. The diaryresumessome six months later.This partreads like 66 1 World Literature Today ...

Comparison of Linear and Daily Undulating Periodization in Resistance Training Using Simple Measures of Overreaching

This study was conducted in an effort to determine if a linear or nonlinear periodized resistance training program had a greater tendency to contribute to a state of overreaching over 8 weeks. Simple outcome measures were used in an effort to determine the onset of overreaching. These measures included average sleeping heart rate, standing broad jump, 10yard dash, seated medicine ball throw, ratings of perceived exertion (RPE), one repetition maximum (1RM) back squat, and 1RM bench press. The participants were 25 (18 female and 7 male) college students in the Kinesiology major at Western Washington University. Subjects were separated into one of three groups: a control, linear periodized (LP), or nonlinear periodized (DUP) training group. After 8 weeks both training groups significantly increased their 1RM back squat and bench press (p<0.05). The DUP group increased their mean 1RM bench press and back squat from 46.30 ±18.47 kg to 50.83 ±19.26 kg and 67.15 ±20.54 kg to 79.34 ± 23.80 kg, respectively. The LP group increased their mean 1RM bench press and back squat from 46.82 ± 25.96 kg to 51.14 ± 25.87 kg and 74.77 ± 33.22 kg to 84.09 ± 30.10 kg, respectively. All groups significantly improved (p<0.05) their standing long jump performance over the course of the study. The control group improved from a mean of 1.86 ± 0.13 m to 2.04 ± 0.17 m, LP from 1.89 ± 0.40 m to 2.03 ± 0.41 m, and DUP from 1.87 ± 0.42 m to 1.99 ± 0.40 m. Only the DUP group significantly improved their seated medicine ball throw performance (p<0.05) from a mean of 4.09 ± 0.78 m to 4.46 ± 0.69 m. The LP and DUP groups significantly decreased (p<0.05) their 10-yard dash times from a mean of 1.85 sec ± 0.15 to 1.75 sec ± 0.18 and 1.84 sec ± 0.14 to 1.77 sec ±0.14, respectively. Average sleeping heart rate and RPE did not change significantly in any group. The lack of a significant decrease in performance measures or increase in average sleeping heart rate or RPE in either training group caused the null hypothesis to be accepted.

Active Shooter on Campus: Evaluating Text and E-mail Warning Message Effectiveness

Recent events involving active shooters on campus underscore the importance of promptly notifying the campus community so students, faculty, and staff can take protective action as the incident develops. This study (a) developed warning messages informing the campus of an active shooter that can be delivered to cellular telephones and e-mail accounts, and (b) assessed their effectiveness. Participants were 264 (76 men, 188 women) undergraduate students at Western Washington University who indicated their understanding of and anticipated responses to text and e-mail messages. Participants indicated that they understood the instructions and would take the actions indicated in the messages. The results indicate text and e-mail messages are effective ways to notify and provide coherent instructions to the community during a life threatening emergency. This approach may be modified to create templates for other emergencies and disasters (e.g., earthquakes, tornadoes).

Le troisième jour by Chochana Boukhobza

de ses représentations, fut aussi celle d’une génération de survivants de la Shoah, hantés par le souvenir de parents disparus qui ne laissèrent d’eux que des images éternellement figées. Western Washington University Cécile Hanania BOUKHOBZA, CHOCHANA. Le troisième jour. Paris: Denoël, 2010. ISBN 978-2-207101568 . Pp. 411. 20 a. Chochana Boukhobza’s most recent novel depicts the violence and beauty of politically charged Israel at the height of the first Intifada in 1990. In Le troisième jour, Jerusalem’s intense and persistent heat becomes symbolic of the complex and fiery relationships existing between the religious and ethnic groups struggling to survive in a world where tradition is strongly present. The area’s history and its geography combine into a powerful backdrop for Boukhobza’s exploration of the determination of Israel’s inhabitants, which she illustrates through the personal stories of two women. Rachel and her impresario Elisheva, two Jewish cellists of different generations and origins, return together to Jerusalem after five years to give a concert. However, the impending performance and the protagonists’ love of music is not each woman’s true motivation for the visit. Rachel hopes her return to Jerusalem will reconnect her with her orthodox parents whom she loves but whose ideologies she cannot always comprehend. She would also like to feel the sheltering presence of her childhood friends, and resolve her relationship with her former fiancé, whom she still loves years after their separation. But reality is a reminder of the irreparable cultural and temporal rift between Rachel and her past. Elisheva, a Polish war refugee, lost her family in the Majdanek concentration camp during World War II. Although she has cultivated deep friendships since then, memories of this past haunt her. She returns to Jerusalem to carry out a plan of vengeance: to assassinate the former Nazi torturer of the camp who has escaped justice, and who plans to visit Jerusalem on the same day as the women’s concert. During three critical days, the two women journey through different parts of the city. Boukhobza’s vivid sensory descriptions combine with the thoughts and conversations of a variety of characters to recreate Jerusalem. Boukhobza explores the generation gap between parents and children, as well as the ethnic and political divisions of the inhabitants, while remaining sympathetic towards all of her characters. Both Palestinians and Israeli Jews have experienced hardship, exile, and wartime loss. Their present is marred by memories relived as nightmares , frustration, and madness. Despite their differences, the ethnic groups share certain similarities; both the Arab and Jewish women of the area feel a constant pressure to marry. The universal need for human companionship, however tenuous , crosses political and ethnic boundaries. As Boukhobza’s novel examines themes that bridge past and present, it illustrates the interweaving of personal and collective memory that constitutes Jerusalem’s identity. The landscape itself is molded by superimposed layers of experience. Among Jerusalem’s six million trees planted in memory of the victims of the Nazis rest abandoned and rusted tanks from the 1948 war of independence . As Rachel gazes upon this, she sees the ghosts of her adolescence there, Reviews 391 walking in solidarity in the annual march before the Tishri festival and recalls biblical verses of the coming of the Messiah. Le troisième jour is an intriguing story rendered in a poetic prose in which Arabic and Hebrew mix with the French narration to bring present day Jerusalem to life. Music and language shape the form and content of the novel. Rachel’s concert features the music Dvorak wrote during his foreign travels, a metaphor for the characters’ existences. The Hebrew vav, which fascinated Rachel’s father, when placed before some verbs in the Bible, alters the verb tense from future to past and from past to future. Likewise, Boukhobza suggests that the past, however painful, does not disappear, but rather forms the future: “Le bonheur n’efface pas le désespoir. Il s’écrit dessus. Il s’écrit avec les histoires du passé” (199). Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania Nathalie G. Cornelius CARTANO, TONY. Des gifles au vinaigre. Paris: Albin Michel, 2010. ISBN...

Cultural Transfers: France and Britain in the Long Eighteenth Century ed. by Ann Thomson, et al

Roland Barthes dans ses Mythologies, ouvrage à consulter en contrepoint de celui de Marzorati). Si l’aspect impressionniste ou anecdotique de chaque mini-récit est le plus souvent privilégié, Marzorati l’accompagne toutefois de précisions historiques ou statistiques: “En province, dans les 60 agglomérations de plus de 30 000 habitants, un bon quart des logements n’ont ni eau ni électricité” (16). D’une écriture limpide, souvent marquée par un humour discret mais efficace, ce livre à la fois léger et informatif se révèle agréable et utile à lire. À recommander à tous ceux qui connaissent mal cette période historique pourtant décisive pour les institutions françaises. Western Washington University Edward Ousselin THOMSON, ANN, SIMON BURROWS, and EDMOND DZIEMBOWSKI, eds. Cultural Transfers: France and Britain in the Long Eighteenth Century. SVEC 2010:04. Oxford: Voltaire Foundation, 2010. ISBN 978-0-7294-0993-3. Pp. 326. $115. This scholarly volume contains nineteen articles divided into three categories: correspondence and networks, journalism, and translations. All address the concept of “cultural transfers” in the broadest sense, with Britain and France choosing eclectically. This century considered French culture and language the norm, and the British parliamentary system attracted visionary thinkers. A recurrent influence was the émigré Huguenot population, numbering about 200,000. Many of them settled in Holland, and thus served as intermediaries for the transmission of the new ideas. Ironically, Louis XIV’s revocation of the Edict of Nantes, intended to strengthen the monarchy, indirectly contributed to its downfall. The first and longest section deals with various types of correspondence, including diplomatic correspondence. The ambassadors reported not only on their mission, but on the entire state of affairs in the host country. Not all correspondence was friendly. The rivalry between the British and French Free Masons, in which the former considered themselves the supreme authority, found expression in a lively and sometimes acerbic exchange. This section also addresses networks which promoted the spread of ideas. Pierre Des Maizeaux, who figures prominently in several essays in this volume, was a Huguenot refugee in London. His work as journalist, editor, and biographer, as well as his involvement with the British Royal Society, enabled him to establish influential contacts. Networks also developed for scientific and medical purposes. The University of Montpellier became the center for “holistic medicine” and Linnaean biology. Montpellier exchanged with other centers, particularly in the North, maintaining a largely Protestant ethic. A number of scholars came from the British Isles, notably Ireland, where the study of medicine was forbidden to non-Protestants. Thus the diaspora created an international network. The section on journalism discusses the rise and fall of many periodicals, which circulated on the continent as well as in the British Isles. Medical journals promoted “la médecine de soi,” or proper hygiene and preventative medicine. Huguenots played a major role in distributing learned journals, instrumental in publicizing the works of John Locke. Other periodicals transmitted British ideas on religious freedom and the functioning of their political system. The Courier de l’Europe, a French-language journal first published in London in 1776, had an exceptionally long life span of fifty years. It owed its early success to its accounts of the American Revolution, which greatly interested Reviews 383 French readers. Finally, translations produced cultural transfers. In an intellectual world where French was the international language, the British had less need of translation than the French. When Louis XIV’s diplomats came to London to learn the English political system first-hand, they soon learned that they too needed translators. Pierre Des Maizeaux, the influential London-based Huguenot, was responsible for the translation of Anthony Collins’s controversial Philosophical Inquiry Concerning Human Liberty, a strong influence on French thought. Certain translators eliminated sections with which they disagreed, or interpreted them. An interesting example occurs where the translation of the word “commodities” in Hume implicitly signals the advent of modern capitalism. Although this volume is highly specialized, it can provide valuable information to all Enlightenment researchers. Because the space is limited to a short article, there are numerous references that will be unfamiliar to all but the most highly informed readers. Unfortunately, the articles cannot always discuss...

Stadt der Engel, oder, The Overcoat of Dr. Freud by Christa Wolf

and narrator whose best friend, Khalid, has been chosen to representtheschoolduringthefestivities thatwillaccompanytheking'svisit. Coming froma poor family,Omar is now especially envious because Khalid, whose familyis wealthy, has receivedtherarehonorofbeing allowed tokisstheking'shand.That this prearrangeddisplay of fealty leads to thedestruction oftheboys' friendship - and of their lives- is one of the many ironies of Taïa's richly textured novel. The author alternates very short,allusive sentenceswith long descriptionsof the narrator'sfamily background.Omar's distraught father functions as thedark,inverted mirrorimage of the exalted king. Deeply depressed because his wife has lefthim,thisdethronedfamilial monarch,a shadow of his former self,is now reduced to relyingon his son forcomfort and protection. Meanwhile,Omar at once despises and grudgingly admireshis mother, who chose a formof freedombut broughtshame upon his father and him by abandoning them,shirking the conjugal and maternal duties thatrigidlydefinedhersocial identity . Duringthelongperiodsofdialogue between Omar and Khalid, thesymbolismofthekingas a surrogatefather figure, ostensiblynurturingbut insidiouslydamaging,is repeatedly alluded to. The main narrative ends in a forestnear Salé, where the two friendsand rivals,in an extended sequence of oneiric reminiscences, confront and destroyeach other.As a disturbingcounterpoint, the last fewpages ofthenovel are narrated by themaid who has been working forKhalid's parents,a young black Africangirlwho has been exploited as a sex slave by therichfather and is being sent away fromthe house now thathe has tiredofher. Through his layered accumulation of unsettlingimagery,Taïa produces a bleak, poignant allegorical portraitof his countryat a timewhen it was under thepervasive controlof a ruthlessrulerwho demanded- and obtained - thathis subjectsveneratehimas a beneficent father and protector. EdwardOusselin Western Washington University Christa Wolf. Stadt der Engel, oder, The Overcoat of Dr. Freud. Berlin. Suhrkamp. 2010. 415 pages. €24.80. ISBN 978-3-518-42050-8 ChristaWolf'smostrecentautobiographical narrativecan be read as her long-awaited Wenderoman, in which she works throughher relationshipto the East German state, much as she had worked through herrelationship totheThirdReichin Kindheitsmuster (1976; Eng. A Model Childhood, 1980), her monumental, self-scrutinizing narrativeabout her childhoodunderNazism. FromSeptember1992 to June1993Wolfwas a scholar-in-residence at the Getty Centerin Santa Monica, California. During thattimetheWest German media, having learned of her early, inconsequential connection with the Stasi (Staatssicherheit, or secret police), mounted a vitriolic campaign thattransformed her froma writercriticalof the East German communistregimeintoa Staatsdichterin , orpartyhack. In Stadt der Engel (City of angels), Wolf's literaryreworking ofhertimein Los Angeles,thetime of narration,depicts the quotidian life of Wolf's alter ego narratorwriteras it is affectedby ghosts fromher GDR past, yet enriched bya cadreofnew friends. As the narratorrelives those events in Germanhistory from1945to the present thatshapedher,she provides readerswithan eyewitness accountofthehistory oftheGDR andtheWende, orturning point, as theculmination ofEastGermany's peaceful revolution is called.They are also made privyto the fears and anxieties, thefeelings ofguilt, shame,remorse, and the depression the narrator experiences as, dayafter day,sheis inundated by faxesfrom Berlin, apprising herof the ongoingdebate surrounding herStasiinvolvement. Still,as its playfulbilingual title signals, Stadt derEngel isabout more than theGDRpast.Despiteits at timesobsessive, broodingtone, there is also a playfulness at work in the textthatis alreadymanifest in itsironic subtitle. TheOvercoatofDr .Freud refers to an overcoat , reputedlyhavingbelonged to Freud,thathad come intothe possessionofone ofthenarrator's new Americanfriends; believing it made him invincible, he was distraught whenitwas stolen from hisoffice. Bequeathed tothenarrator ,thesymbolic overcoataccompaniesherthroughout herstayin theUnited States, helping herward off anxiety anddepression. Freud'smetaphorical overcoat isoneofa number ofnontraditional methods thenarrator drawson tohealbothbodyandpsyche. Othersinclude traditional Chineseacupuncture , theFeldenkrais method, theteachings of a Buddhistnun, and Angelina,a Ugandanhousekeeper , whomthenarrator elevates tothestatus ofherguardian angel. Drawing onnewwaysofknowing, thenarrator slowlymovesbeyond an obsessivepreoccupation with guiltand self-recrimination about having forgotten /suppressedher Stasi connection, gaininggreater compassionforand acceptanceof herself. To the degreethatStadt derEngel also documents a turning pointin Wolf'sepistemology and lifenarrative and embodiesnew facetsin herwriting, it shouldbe understood as a Wenderoman inthe doublesenseoftheterm. AnnaK. Kuhn University ofCalifornia, Davis Verse Adonis.Selected Poems. KhaledMattawa , tr. New Haven, Connecticut. YaleUniversity Press. 2010.xxvii + 399 pages.$30.isbn 978-0-300-15306-4 Theauthor offour booksofpoetry inEnglish, Libyan-born KhaledMattawaisa well-known American poet in hisown right and is therecipient of prestigious awards,including , most recently, the Academy ofAmerican Poetsaward,thePEN award forliterary translation, and a UnitedStatesArtists fellowship grant of$50,000 for 2010.Anassociateprofessor ofEnglish at theUniversity ofMichigan, histranslation ofAdonis'sSelected Poems, onwhich heworked for twodecades, isa veritabletourde force...

Sépharade by Eliette Abécassis

un penseur et un pédagogue qui nous fait découvrir les tourments actuels de cette âme africaine en question. John Carroll University (OH) Hélène N. Sanko Creative Works edited by Nathalie Degroult ABÉCASSIS, ELIETTE. Sépharade. Paris: Albin Michel, 2009. ISBN 978-2-226-19223-3. Pp. 456. 22 a. An accomplished novelist (and an agrégée de philosophie), Eliette Abécassis is best known for her trilogy that combines a metaphysical quest with high adventure : Qumran (1996), Le Trésor du temple (2001), and La Dernière Tribu (2004). Born in Strasbourg to a Sephardi—more specifically, Moroccan—Jewish family, Abécassis has turned her ongoing research on her heritage and identity into a vast historical saga (vast enough to require a family tree at the end of the novel). The narrative of Sépharade is built around a wedding. Esther Vital, who through her family history resembles the author, is about to marry Charles Toledano in Tel Aviv. For the ceremony that will unite two large Jewish Moroccan families, far-flung relatives and friends from France and Canada have gathered, bringing new stories and reviving old rivalries. Esther is portrayed as a halfhearted Sephardi, attracted to the ancient cultural traditions preserved by Moroccan Jews who have reluctantly resettled abroad, but also more comfortable in the French modernity in which she grew up. The tension between her vibrant but stifling family environment and her longing for an autonomous life is reflected in the city where she grew up, a city in which the relatively recent Sephardi community has come to outnumber its older Ashkenazi counterpart: “A Strasbourg, donc, il y avait deux communautés bien distinctes. Les ashkénazes, réservés, peu expansifs, précis, rigoureux, et les sépharades ” (24). Needless to say, Moroccan Jews embody in this novel the opposite of these cultural traits. The author devotes many pages to descriptions of the food, clothing, language (the now-disappearing Judeo-Arabic dialects of Morocco), family customs, and religious practices of her community. Some of her alternately affectionate and ironic descriptions of traditional family life recall the conventional “Jewish mother” jokes that are well known in the United States. Comic relief is also present in the ways in which Abécassis depicts the petty antagonisms and expressions of snobbery that persist between Jewish families from different Moroccan cities (or between Jews from Morocco and Tunisia). Abécassis links the nostalgia fondly expressed by her characters for Jewish life in Morocco (tempered by realistic accounts of periodic massacres) to the centuriesold civilization that flourished in Spain until the expulsion of all Jews in 1492. It is through these and other historical links that her narrative acquires an almost mythic dimension, linking widely divergent cultures (embodied, not without internal conflicts, by Esther) that initially seem to be radically separated by history and geography. At a stylistic level, there is something in the author’s lyricism, at once erotic and fervently religious—“O murmures de la fiancée au fiancé” (132)—that recalls the tone of Albert Cohen’s novels, which were also permeated Reviews 843 with longing for a distant, lost Jewish community. As the preparations for Esther’s wedding day progress, more family history is revealed, much of it darkly romantic and linked to an anachronistic belief in ancient magical arts. Each of the numerous characters also provides opportunities for broader historical considerations . Narrative continuity is provided by the Sephardi “secret” repeatedly alluded to, which is finally revealed to the main character toward the end of the novel, and which will transform her life. Unfortunately, by constantly breaking up her vivid storytelling in order to delve into lengthy historical and philosophical issues, Abécassis ends up wearying her reader through an accumulation of digressions . Tighter editing would have benefited a novel that starts out as very well written but eventually comes to seem overly long. Western Washington University Edward Ousselin BALDWIN-BENEICH, DENIS. Le Sérieux des nuages. Paris: Actes Sud, 2010. ISBN 978-27427 -8817-0. Pp. 264. 20 a. Denis Baldwin-Beneich, co-author of a 1984 bestseller, Softwar, has since published six novels on his own, the most recent being...

Investigating How to Support Improvements in Student Learning Outcomes in a Fundamental Materials Engineering Course

ABSTRACTFor many engineers and technologists, their only exposure to materials engineering principles occurs within a single fundamentals course. Within that course, the students must conceptualize a wide variety of interdisciplinary topics drawn from chemistry, physics, engineering, and mathematics. Often, the students consider this fundamentals course challenging because it is likely that this is the first time that they are to develop understanding in such an interdisciplinary environment. Research studies in engineering education, which are based in social and cognitive constructivism, indicate that students build scaffolds from existing cognitive structures to new information when the students are able to make connections to their existing knowledge and experiences. It is also known that prior learning heavily influences this learning and that motivation plays a key role in the time that students devote to acquiring new knowledge. Research has also shown cooperative learning, understanding of individual student learning styles, and inductive teaching practices are important components that lead to improved Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs). The only way to truly understand effective practice is to implement constructively aligned strategies, problems, and concept learning opportunities, and then measure the SLOs. Additionally, an in-depth study of prior knowledge, conceptual understanding, and experiences is absolutely essential as key research questions are probed.This paper describes research work underway at Western Washington University to understand how to improve SLOs in a fundamental materials engineering course by investigating students’ prior knowledge and conceptual understanding, measuring individual learning styles, measuring the effectiveness of different constructively aligned course modules based upon ‘WHERETO” principles with collaborative problem sets or design problems, investigating the effect of pre-exam quizzing, measuring term-long conceptual gains, and developing Information Communication Technology (ICT) enabled applications to support and enhance student learning. Future investigations will probe how more personalizable instruction that allows for student differences might be accomplished with ICT applications, especially for large lecture classes.

Le Sérieux des nuages by Denis Baldwin-Beneich

with longing for a distant, lost Jewish community. As the preparations for Esther’s wedding day progress, more family history is revealed, much of it darkly romantic and linked to an anachronistic belief in ancient magical arts. Each of the numerous characters also provides opportunities for broader historical considerations . Narrative continuity is provided by the Sephardi “secret” repeatedly alluded to, which is finally revealed to the main character toward the end of the novel, and which will transform her life. Unfortunately, by constantly breaking up her vivid storytelling in order to delve into lengthy historical and philosophical issues, Abécassis ends up wearying her reader through an accumulation of digressions . Tighter editing would have benefited a novel that starts out as very well written but eventually comes to seem overly long. Western Washington University Edward Ousselin BALDWIN-BENEICH, DENIS. Le Sérieux des nuages. Paris: Actes Sud, 2010. ISBN 978-27427 -8817-0. Pp. 264. 20 a. Denis Baldwin-Beneich, co-author of a 1984 bestseller, Softwar, has since published six novels on his own, the most recent being this first-person account of a French expatriate coming to terms with his past. Not at all comfortable with the approach of his fiftieth birthday, Maxime Odradek accepts an invitation to a party in Valmondois, in honor of a former professor. The occasion requires a return to places and old comrades that Maxime, now living in the United States, thinks he long ago relegated to the past. It has been twenty years since he cavorted with this merry band whose “abhôminââble jeunesse,” as his hostess says with some affection , was marked mostly by hedonistic excess (46). Time has not improved his fellow revelers: their smug cynicism no longer becomes these bodies in early stages of decay. And they barely mention the young woman whose suicide, twenty years earlier, should haunt them as much as it does him. The narrator is keen on convincing us that there’s not a naive bone in his middle-aged skeleton. After all, his circle considered love as “un piège à cons pour les cons” and spelled it “l’Hâmour” (20). But this is what makes phrases such as “la figure de l’éternel amour” (58), proffered with no trace of irony, all the more striking. For Le Sérieux des nuages is largely the story of a cynic surprised by love. Just how Marthe, a former student and conquest, came to be at the reception remains a mystery, as she belonged to a separate episode of Maxime’s past. Regardless, he is instantly obsessed with her, though whether he seeks a pardon for jilting her or a renewal of the liaison is not initially clear to him, let alone to readers. Maturity, instead of leading from sentiment to cynicism, takes Maxime in the opposite direction. His former friends, the “franc-maçonnerie libidineuse” of Valmondois, thus furnish a contrasting case of arrested development (217). With the idealized (and elusive) Marthe as catalyst, we come to realize, as does the narrator, that in fact “abh ôminââble” aptly describes their past and the “monster” he had been (122). Odradek wears his culture on his sleeve. Céline, Spinoza, Maupassant, and especially Stendhal and Proust share space here with the much less distinguished cast of his own drama, but also with Casablanca and Eddy Mitchell. His references sometimes amount to nothing more than a passing wink for the “happy few,” but typically he is more explicit: our most important thoughts and experiences, it would seem, all have literary precedents, and he invokes them sans complexe. The 844 FRENCH REVIEW 84.4 interest of the plot alone might be reduced to the question: “Will the narrator get a second chance with Marthe?” But this is no roman de gare. From that slender premise Baldwin-Beneich sets us on a zigzag itinerary veering from dialogue to narration to reminiscence to essay, in flights which are by turns comic, philosophic , and elegiac. He has apparently made unpredictability a tenet of his aesthetics . The incidents, accidents, and characters that hinder Maxime’s quest lend the story an Alice in Wonderland quality at times. And the prose, like the...

OCLC's WorldCat Local versus III's WebPAC

PurposeThis paper aims to describe the results of a usability test performed at Western Washington University to determine whether users were as successful performing common catalog‐related tasks in WorldCat Local as they are in the library's current catalog, Innovative Interfaces' WebPAC.Design/methodology/approachA usability team developed a test based on tasks commonly performed in the library catalog. They then tested 24 participants of varying levels of experience and asked each to perform 20 common catalog tasks in either the WebPAC interface currently in use or the WorldCat Local interface. The WorldCat Local interface was a test version which reflected Western Washington University's library holdings, in addition to the Orbis Cascade Alliance consortial holdings and all WorldCat holdings.FindingsWhile the results found that there were tasks in which participants were more successful in WorldCat Local than in the WebPAC, they also identified common tasks in which users were far less successful in WorldCat Local than in the WebPAC.Originality/valueWorldCat Local is one example of a new generation of discovery interfaces that is being considered by a number of academic institutions. This paper provides some insights into the strengths and weaknesses of the product.

What ACRES Means to Me

Reading the first two installments of the RSEQ 30year retrospective on rural special education has prompted me to reflect on my experiences with ACRES and to acknowledge the benefits I have received from my affiliation with the organization. I first became aware of ACRES in 1992 when the University of Utah hosted the annual conference in Salt Lake City. At that time, I was teaching in a rural middle school and working on my master's degree at the university. Student volunteers were needed to assist with the conference, and I signed up. Little did I know that this would be the beginning of a long and fruitful relationship. As has been the case at various points in its history, ACRES was at a crossroads in 1992. The National Rural Development Institute at Western Washington University, which was the current ACRES headquarters, announced that it was no longer able to fulfill that function. Fortunately, the University of Utah, with support from Dr. Steve Kukic and the Utah State Office of Education, stepped up and developed a proposal to assume headquarters responsibilities. If that had not occurred, ACRES may not have been able to survive. A few months later, I received a call from Dr. Joan Sebastian, the new headquarters director, asking if I would be interested in assisting her with the distance education program and ACRES. Accepting that offer opened up a world of opportunities. Over the next 10 years, I helped plan and coordinate the annual national conference, developing a valuable network of colleagues along the way. My first professional presentation at a national conference was at ACRES. My first publication in a peer-reviewed journal was in Rural Special Education Quarterly (RSEQ). My first opportunity to serve on the board of directors of a national organization was through ACRES. All of these experiences were critical in my professional development and led to obtaining a tenure-track position and eventually earning tenure with promotion. I am truly grateful to ACRES for providing me with these wonderful opportunities, and I look forward to a long-term relationship with this outstanding organization. Over the past 30 years, RSEQ has served as the major voice for rural special education and has been the leading publisher of research in the field. This, the third issue of the 30-year retrospective, is illustrative of the diversity and wealth of research RSEQ has presented. First published in 1996, Roessler and Foshee address the issue of employability of students with disabilities as they make the transition from school to adulthood. …