O metacinema norte-americano e o storytelling : de Orson Welles a David Lynch

ABSTRACT: The American metacinema which, by tradition, is narrative but extremely formulaic favours the story above the telling. No man contributed more to alter this state of affairs than Orson Welles, whose cinematic practice exalted the filmic enunciation and linked it more explicitly to the narrative intentions of the creator, making it obvious that metanarrative is synonymous with metacinema. With Citizen Kane (1941), in particular, the cinema was made more disnarrative, as meant by French writer/director Alain Robbe–Grillet, well ahead of Modernism. The fragmented narration, the temporal convolutions, a tendency for paradox and the interpretative obstacles all come together to anticipate the serial practice of David Lynch in his last four features. Structuring the films in segments which constitute different but complementary versions of the same events, Lynch manages to express the director’s enunciation along with the narration of the characters, reinforcing the role of the telling in the midst of the story. In INLAND EMPIRE (2006) the use of mise-en-abyme as a way of duplicating stories and tellers further increases the objective and complicates what is clearly the reign of the puzzle or mind-game film. In the footsteps of Welles, Lynch contributed for an outbreak of metanarrative / metacinematic crossover indie films closer to the European aesthetic practice but still very much within the American narrative tradition.

Finnish Kullervo and chinese martial arts stories

Introduction: There are many important Finnish plays but, due to language barrier, Finnish drama is seldom exported, particularly to Hong Kong and China.. Objective: To find out differences in mentality between the Finnish and Chinese peoples by comparing the partially localized Chinese translation of Aleksis Kivi’s tragedy, Kullervo, with genuine Chinese martial arts literature. Methodology: 1. Chapman Chen has translated the Finnish classic, Kullervo, directly from Finnish into Chinese and published it in 2005. 2. In Chen’s Chinese translation, cultural markers are domesticated. On the other hand, values, characterization, plot, and rhythm remain unchanged. 3. According to Gideon Tory, the translator has to strike a golden mean between the norms of the source language and the target language. 4. Lau Tingci lists and explicates the essential components of martial arts drama. 5. According to Ehrnrooth’s “Mentality”, equality is the most important value in Finnish culture. Findings: i. Finland emphasizes independence while China emphasizes bilateral relationships. ii. The Finnish people loves freedom, but Gai Sizung argues that the Chinese people is slavish. iii. Finns are mature while many Chinese are, according to Sun Lung-kee (“The Deep Structure of Chinese Culture”; “The Deep Structure of Chinese Sexuality”), fixated at the oral and anal stages. iv. Finnish society highly values equality while Chinese interpersonal relationships are extremely complicated and hierachical. If Kullervo were a genuine Chinese kungfu story, the plot would be much more convoluted. Conclusion: The differences between Finnish and Chinese mentalities are so significant that partially localized or adapted Chinese translations of Finnish drama may still be able to introduce Finnish culture to the Chinese audience.

Telling stories of culture through literature

Grounded on Raymond Williams‘s definition of knowable community as a cultural tool to analyse literary texts, the essay reads the texts D.H.Lawrence wrote while travelling in the Mediterranean (Twilight in Italy, Sea and Sardinia and Etruscan Places) as knowable communities, bringing to the discussion the wide importance of literature not only as an object for aesthetic or textual readings, but also as a signifying practice which tells stories of culture. Departing from some considerations regarding the historical development of the relationship between literature and culture, the essay analyses the ways D. H. Lawrence constructed maps of meaning, where the readers, in a dynamic relation with the texts, apprehend experiences, structures and feelings; putting into perspective Williams‘s theory of culture as a whole way of life, it also analyses the ways the author communicates and organizes these experiences, creating a space of communication and operating at different levels of reality: on the one hand, the reality of the whole way of Italian life, and, on the other hand, the reality of the reader who aspires to make sense and to create an interpretative context where all the information is put, and, also, the reality of the writer in the poetic act of writing. To read these travel writings as knowable communities is to understand them as a form that invents a community with no other existence but that of the literary text. The cultural construction we find in these texts is the result of the selection, and interpretation done by D.H.Lawrence, as well as the product of the author‘s enunciative positions, and of his epistemological and ontological filigrees of existence, structured by the conditions of possibility. In the rearticulation of the text, of the writer and of the reader, in a dynamic and shared process of discursive alliances, we understand that Lawrence tells stories of the Mediterranean through his literary art.

Should the U.S. adapt to the world? The first debate on american exceptionalism and its impact on the founding of the United States

This paper aims at putting into perspective the recent, post 9/11 debate on the United States‘ alleged exceptionalism and its impact on the definition of American foreign policy. It reminds the readers that the United States was born as a result of a similar debate, at a time when a crucial choice for its future was to be made. Indeed, the Founding Fathers discarded the revolutionary idea that America was altogether different from other (European) nations and, as such, could succeed in saving republicanism and concentrate on domestic affairs. As Gordon Wood and Harvey Mansfield have shown, the 1787 version of republicanism stood as a departure from its earlier version, and such a change was necessary to the creation of a full-fledged federation, therefore paving the way to the current powerful Federal Republic. The early failure of the exceptionalist creed did not cause its disappearance, as the contemporary form of exceptionalism demonstrates, but created conditions that made an enduring and powerful influence very difficult.

How to integrate stories and ICT in content-based units of work for English learning

The aim of this article is to show how it is possible to integrate stories and ICT in Content Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) for English as a foreign language (EFL) learning in bilingual schools. Two Units of Work are presented. One, for the second year of Primary, is based on a Science topic, ‘Materials’. The story used is ‘The three little pigs’ and the computer program ‘JClic’. The other one is based on a Science and Arts topic for the sixth year of Primary, the story used is ‘Charlotte’s Web’ and the computer program ‘Atenex’.

Work, malaise, and well-being in Spanish and Latin-American doctors

ABSTRACT OBJECTIVE To analyze the relations between the meanings of working and the levels of doctors work well-being in the context of their working conditions. METHOD The research combined the qualitative methodology of textual analysis and the quantitative one of correspondence factor analysis. A convenience, intentional, and stratified sample composed of 305 Spanish and Latin American doctors completed an extensive questionnaire on the topics of the research. RESULTS The general meaning of working for the group located in the quartile of malaise included perceptions of discomfort, frustration, and exhaustion. However, those showing higher levels of well-being, located on the opposite quartile, associated their working experience with good conditions and the development of their professional and personal competences. CONCLUSIONS The study provides empirical evidence of the relationship between contextual factors and the meanings of working for participants with higher levels of malaise, and of the importance granted both to intrinsic and extrinsic factors by those who scored highest on well-being.

American trypanosomiasis (Chagas' disease) in conventional and germfree rats and mice

Germfree (GF) and conventional (CV) CFW (LOB) mice and Wistar and Sprague-Dawley rats were infected with Trypanosoma cruzi. The disease was more severe in the GF than in the CV animals as revealed by: (1) an earlier and more intense parasitemia; (2) a more precocious mortality; (3) a twice enlarged spleen: (4) a more intense cell and tissue parasitism; (5) visceral signs of cardiac failure.

Ecological aspects of American cutaneous leishmaniasis: 6. Man-biting sandfly fauna of a patch of residual forest in the middle and north-eastern region of the São Paulo State, Brazil

This report shows the phlebotomine vectorial role in the endemic cutaneous leishmaniasis situated in the middle and north-eastern region of the São Paulo, Brazil. Analysis of information encloses a sandfly man-biting fauna of four different patches of residual forest. So, using the human-bait and Shannon trap for a period of one year we have caught 16,869 sandflies. The predominance of Lutzomyia intermedia (85,6%) was clear. Moreover, the low density of Lutzomyia whitmani and Lutzomyia pessoai and their epidemiological implications at present and in the past are discussed. Information about the daily activity of some species is given and we emphasize for the first time, the diurnal activity of Lutzomyia firmatoi in the São Paulo State.

Automated illustration of multimedia stories

Submitted in part fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in Computer Science

Leishmania braziliensis: isolation of carbohydrate-containing antigen and possibility of its use in the immunodiagnosis of American Cutaneous Leishmaniasis

Leishmania braziliensis is a causative agent of American Cutaneous Leishmaniasis (ACL). The 034-JCG strain, isolated from a patient from the northern region of Paraná State, Brazil, was cultivated in Blood Agar Base medium, lyophilized and submitted to phenol-water extraction. The extract was treated with RNase I. The carbohydrate containing-antigen (Ag-CHO) was immunogenic to rabbits and showed at least a fraction with some negative charge at pH 8.2. This antigen showed cross-reactivity with the phenol-water extract of the growth medium used for the culture of promastigotes and with the surface antigens of promastigotes. Its composition is: 24.3% of total sugars, from which 11.2% of galactose, 7.5% of mannose and 5.6% of ribose. Protein content was 5.4% and phosphate 18.5%. The antigenic activity was maintained after: repeated freezing-thawing; lyophilization; heating at 100ºC for 30 minutes; treatment with RNase, trichloroacetic acid and sodium metaperiodate. The precipitin line obtained is Periodic Acid Schiff positive. The application of the Ag-CHO in counterimmunoelectrophoresis reaction for the immunodiagnosis of ACL showed 60% sensitivity, and no cross-reaction with the five sera of Chagas' disease patients tested. The use of this antigen in a more sensitive technique, with more samples of sera, may improve these results.

RESTAVEC – from haitian slave child to middle-class american

Trabalho de Projeto apresentado ao Instituto de Contabilidade e Administração do Porto para a obtenção do grau de Mestre em Tradução e Interpretação Especializadas, sob orientação da Doutora Clara Sarmento

EPIDEMIOLOGICAL SURVEY ON CANINE POPULATION WITH THE USE OF IMMUNOLEISH SKIN TEST IN ENDEMIC AREAS OF HUMAN AMERICAN CUTANEOUS LEISHMANIASIS IN THE STATE OF RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL

A survey for canine tegumentary leishmaniasis (CTL) has been carried out between 1986 and 1993 in seven endemic localities for American cutaneous leishmaniasis in the State of Rio de Janeiro. 270 dogs have been examined for their clinical aspects, the development of delayed hypersensitivity (DHS) with Immunoleish antigen and with immunofluorescent antibody research of IgG (IF). 28.2% of them had ulcer lesions and 3.3% had scars. The lesions consisted of single (39.5%) and mucocutaneous lesions (31.6%), multiple cutaneous (25.0%) and mucocutaneous lesions associated with cutaneous ulcers (4.0%). Twelve (15.8%) isolates from biopsies were analyzed by zimodeme and schizodeme and identified as L. (V.) braziliensis. The overall prevalence of canine infection that was evaluated with the skin test was of 40.5% and with IF it was of 25.5%. Both tests showed a high positive rate with relation to the animals with mucosal lesions, as in the case of human mucocutaneous leishmaniasis. The comparison of the two tests showed the skin test to have a better performance although there was no statistical difference (p>0.05) between them. The proportional sensitivity and specificity was of 84.0% and 74.0%, respectively. The Immunoleish skin test and IF are useful tools to be employed in CTL field epidemiological surveys.

American cutaneous leishmaniasis outbreak, Tartagal city, province of Salta, Argentina, 1993

An American cutaneous leishmaniasis outbreak, with cases clustering during 1993 in Tartagal city, Salta, was reported. The outbreak involved 102 individuals, 43.1% of them with multiple ulcers. Age (mean: 33 years old) and sex distribution of cases (74.5% males), as well as working activity (70 forest-related), support the hypothesis of classical forest transmission leishmaniasis, despite the fact that the place of permanent residence was in periurban Tartagal. Moreover, during July, sandflies were only collected from one of the 'deforestation areas'. Lutzomyia intermedia was the single species of the 491 phlebotomines captured, reinforcing the vector incrimination of this species. Most infections must have been acquired during the fall (April to June), a pattern consistent with previous sandfly population dynamics data. Based on the epidemiological and entomological results, it was advised not to do any vector-targeted periurban control measures during July. Further studies should be done to assess if the high rate of multiple lesions was due to parasite factors or to infective vector density factors.