[Review] Assessment: Problems, Developments and Statistical Issues; a Volume of Expert Contributions. Edited by H. Goldstein and T. Lewis. ISBN 0 471 95668 6. Wiley, Chichester, 1996. viii+274 pp., £45.

This is a book on general issues to do with assessment, not a statistics book, although it touches on statistical issues. Although it is intended for an international readership to include teachers, educationalists, policy makers and personnel managers and would be of interest to such groups it has been written mainly from the viewpoint of developed countries and is not obviously essential reading or an essential purchase for anyone. Short biographies of the 15 contributors are given at the start of the book and references from all the chapters are brought together at the end. The order of chapters appears to be arbitrary to some extent and there is little cross-referencing from one chapter to another.

Reconsidering the relationship between early Gothic literature and the Greek classics: the cases of William Beckford and Matthew G. Lewis

The view that Gothic literature emerged as a reaction against the prominence of the Greek classics, and that, as a result, it bears no trace of their influence, is a commonplace in Gothic studies. This thesis re-examines this view, arguing that the Gothic and the Classical were not in opposition to one another, and that Greek tragic poetry and myth should be counted among the literary sources that inspired early Gothic writers. The discussion is organised in three parts. Part I focuses on evidence which suggests that the Gothic and the Hellenic were closely associated in the minds of several British literati both on a political and aesthetic level. As is shown, the coincidence of the Hellenic with the Gothic revival in the second half of the eighteenth century inspired them not only to trace common ground between the Greek and Gothic traditions, but also to look at Greek tragic poetry and myth through Gothic eyes, bringing to light an unruly, ‘Dionysian’ world that suited their taste. The particulars of this coincidence, which has not thus far been discussed in Gothic studies, as well as evidence which suggests that several early Gothic writers were influenced by Greek tragedy and myth, open up new avenues for research on the thematic and aesthetic heterogeneity of early Gothic literature. Parts II and III set out to explore this new ground and to support the main argument of this thesis by examining the influence of Greek tragic poetry and myth on the works of two early Gothic novelists and, in many ways, shapers of the genre, William Beckford and Matthew Gregory Lewis. Part II focuses on William Beckford’s Vathek and its indebtedness to Euripides’s Bacchae, and Part III on Matthew Gregory Lewis’s The Monk and its indebtedness to Sophocles’s Oedipus Tyrannus. As is discussed, Beckford and Lewis participated actively in both the Gothic and Hellenic revivals, producing highly imaginative works that blended material from the British and Greek literary traditions.

"Aqui todos são loucos": o mundo louco de Lewis Carroll

“Aqui, todos são loucos. Eu sou louco. Tu és louca!”, diz o Gato de Cheshire empoleirado numa árvore, donde parece adquirir o ponto de vista abrangente de um esclarecido filósofo, em Alice no País das Maravilhas. Este iluminado pensamento, verbalizado por um animal conotado com a prática da reflexividade e da contemplação, revela-nos como Lewis Carroll usou o nonsense para nos dizer que este nos é muitas vezes imposto sem que se possa controlar nem escapar à perplexidade que nos causa. Todas as definições aprendidas para nos podermos orientar no mundo serão, assim, completamente arbitrárias, não tendo este afinal qualquer sentido a priori, exigindo que cada um lhe atribua o seu próprio sentido. Quando no capítulo VII, intitulado “Um Lanche Maluco”, Alice toma chá com a Lebre de Março e o Chapeleiro, este tenta definir a semelhança surreal entre um corvo e uma secretaria, interpretada por Alice como uma adivinha, mas não havendo para esta qualquer solução, como sem explicação ficarão muitas situações comuns vividas no nosso quotidiano.