Romantic Catholics:France's postrevolutionary generation in search of a modern faith

Book review: Romantic Catholics: France’s Postrevolutionary Generation in Search of a Modern Faith. By Carol E. Harrison. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2014. 344 pp., ill.

Introducción

Sexualidad y Escritura (1850-2000) is a collection of thirteen essays which focus on the complex relationship between gender and writing in Spain from 1850 to 2000. This collection aims to provide a specifically Spanish cultural and historical context to the study of gender and writing and to challenge the effectiveness and validity of applying and adapting some feminist theory (based mainly in French and Anglo literary traditions) to works by both male and female Spanish writers. The introduction sets the tone of the essays it contains by discussing the Gilbert and Guar’s concept of female authors anxiety of authorship, and the reasons why their notions of the male dominated writing profession does not necessarily apply to Spanish literature of the nineteenth century in particular. The notable presence and success of female writers during the Romantic period and the way in which they in effect managed to feminize the writing profession illustrates how very different the Spanish literary context is from French, English or American models. The editors state that, rather than needing to work up the courage to take up the pen and publish their works, the issue facing Spanish women writers during parts of the last 150 years has been how to either maintain or regain their authorial voice and their place in letters, fighting to keep their heads above the rising and falling tides of literary trends.

Interpersonal attachment predicts identification with groups

We propose a model documenting the relationship between interpersonal attachment style and identification with groups. We hypothesized that following threat to a romantic interpersonal relationship higher attachment anxiety would be associated with lowered tendencies to identify with groups. In two studies using varied social groups we observed support for this hypothesis. In Experiment 1 we found that participants higher in attachment anxiety identified less with a salient ingroup after imagining a distressing argument with their romantic partner. In Experiment 2 we replicated these findings using an implicit measure of social identification and additionally observed a moderating role for attachment avoidance. We discuss the implications of these findings for theoretical models of interpersonal attachment and social identification. © 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Relationship fading in business-to-consumer context

The objective of this paper is to explain the phenomenon of relationship fading in a business-to-consumer (B2C) context and to identify the key antecedents and drivers in this process. Fading relates to a gradual decline in consumers’ willingness to continue a relationship with a company. Therefore it may help to elucidate the ‘unexplained’ relationship dissolution and customer defection. Led by an assumption that a relationship between a consumer and a brand is like the one between individuals, the paper proposes that the trajectory of relationship fading reflects disaffection processes similar to the ones suggested in marital and romantic relationships between individuals. Stages of the fading process and their characteristics are presented. Academic and practical implications are subsequently presented.

The fevered novel from Balzac to Bernanos:frenetic Catholicism in crisis, delirium and revolution

Book Review: The Fevered Novel from Balzac to Bernanos: Frenetic Catholicism in Crisis, Delirium and Revolution. By Francesco Manzini. (IGRS Books). London: Institute of Germanic and Romance Studies, 2011. 264 pp. Full text: This monograph is an important and compelling account of a novelistic tradition that stretches from Georges Bernanos back to Balzac, by way of Léon Bloy, Joris-Karl Huysmans, and Barbey d'Aurevilly. Depending on a master plot that evokes Maistrean themes of blood, sacrifice, and redemption, working in a feverish female body, this canon combines Romantic freneticism and anti-Enlightenment religion to create a compound that Francesco Manzini calls ‘frenetic Catholicism’. The theme of fever, Manzini tells us, was commented on by Huysmans in writing about Barbey d'Aurevilly. When André Gide read Bernanos's Sous le soleil de Satan, he dismissed it as a rehash of Bloy and Barbey. In this present work Manzini aims to make us aware once more of the gradually intensifying themacity of fever in writings more usually classed in theologo-literary categories. His analysis encompasses (though is not restricted to) Balzac's Ursule Mirouët, Barbey d'Aurevilly's Un prêtre marié, Huysmans's En rade, Bloy's Le Désespéré and La Femme pauvre, and Bernanos's Nouvelle histoire de Mouchette. Thus, as Manzini argues in his conclusion, between the freneticism of the Romantics and that of the surrealists this corpus represents an intermediary wave of freneticism, foregrounding fever, hyperconsciousness, dreamlike episodes, and female automatism. Manzini's knowledge of, and ease amidst, the sources is constantly impressive. Much like Richard Griffiths before him (The Reactionary Revolution: The Catholic Revival in French Literature, 1870–1914 (London: Constable, 1966)), he has read both the bad novels and the good ones. For that we are in his debt. His commentary thrives on the oddities of his subjects. He points quite rightly to the peculiar hubris of writers whose contempt for the secular excesses of scientism leads them down a cul-de-sac of primitive medical quackery. Likewise, he underlines how Zola's attempt to unwrite Barbey — exorcising the former's anti-Romantic animus, as much as scratching his anticlerical itch — leads him to recapitulate Barbey's religious authoritarianism in the secular vernacular of patriarchy. Les espèces qui se rapprochent se mangent, to paraphrase Bernanos (Les Grands Cimetières sous la lune). In spite of all Manzini's tightly organized analysis, however, this reader wonders whether the fevered novel ‘best allowed contemporaries — and now […] literary critics and historians — to imagine the issues at stake in the amorphous scientistic, religious, and political debates’ of the period (p. 17). Below the ideological clashes of nineteenth-century science and religion, the two contending dynamics of anthropocentrism and theocentrism are attested and, it can be argued, even more perfectly dramatized in other Catholic literature (Charles Péguy's poetry, for example). In these terms, what distinguishes the Catholic frenetics from their Romantic or surrealist counterparts is that their fevered subject represents an attempt to build a road out of what Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor calls ‘buffered’ individuality, and back towards the theocentric porous subject who is open to divine influence. By way of minor corrections, nuns do not take holy orders (p. 94) but make religious profession by taking vows. Also, the last Eucharistic host is not extreme unction (p. 119) but viaticum.

The non-violence of love:a Hildebrand-Girard encounter

If love is a social as well as a personal reality, it could be fruitful to compare Von Hildebrand’s understanding of love and desire with that of cultural anthropologist René Girard. Girard depicts love and desire as a triangular process which arises from imitation, rather than the result of auto-generative affection. In this sense, Girardian theory would seem to convict Von Hildebrand of what is called the romantic lie wherein desire is thought to arise through the mutual appreciation of two subjects. However, in The Nature of Love Von Hildebrand shows his awareness of the possibility that love can be awakened by imitation. Moreover, the lack of a sufficient reason in Girardian theory for avoiding violence can be answered by turning to Von Hildebrand’s appreciation of the ontological basis for desire.

Relationship fading in business-to-consumer context

The objective of this thesis is to develop a better understanding of the relationship fading phenomenon in business-to-consumer context. Fading relates to a gradual decline in consumer’s willingness to continue a relationship with a company. Therefore, understanding the fading process may help to elucidate the ‘unexplained’ relationship dissolution and customer defection. Led by an assumption that a relationship between a consumer and a brand is like the one between individuals, the thesis proposes that the trajectory of relationship fading reflects the disaffection processes similar to the ones suggested in marital and romantic relationships between individuals. The approach taken to answering this research question is a multi-study approach. This type of approach allows addressing each individual research question independently, using the most appropriate research methods. As a result, the thesis comprises three adjacent studies. All three studies are linked and together contribute to a better understanding of the relationship fading process, which is the main topic of the thesis. Based on the results from the first study, a set of boundary conditions of relationship fading is identified. The results of the second study suggest that predictors of relationship fading stage can be uncovered. Thirdly, different restoration techniques are explored, aiming to describe their effectiveness in various relationship fading stages. Individual objectives of the three studies are accomplished. All three studies contribute to achieving the overall objective of the thesis, namely to developing a better understanding of the phenomenon of relationship fading.