Localization of deep water formation: role of atmospheric moisture transport and geometrical constraints on ocean circulation

A series of coupled atmosphere–ocean–ice aquaplanet experiments is described in which topological constraints on ocean circulation are introduced to study the role of ocean circulation on the mean climate of the coupled system. It is imagined that the earth is completely covered by an ocean of uniform depth except for the presence or absence of narrow barriers that extend from the bottom of the ocean to the sea surface. The following four configurations are described: Aqua (no land), Ridge (one barrier extends from pole to pole), Drake (one barrier extends from the North Pole to 35°S), and DDrake (two such barriers are set 90° apart and join at the North Pole, separating the ocean into a large basin and a small basin, connected to the south). On moving from Aqua to Ridge to Drake to DDrake, the energy transports in the equilibrium solutions become increasingly “realistic,” culminating in DDrake, which has an uncanny resemblance to the present climate. Remarkably, the zonal-average climates of Drake and DDrake are strikingly similar, exhibiting almost identical heat and freshwater transports, and meridional overturning circulations. However, Drake and DDrake differ dramatically in their regional climates. The small and large basins of DDrake exhibit distinctive Atlantic-like and Pacific-like characteristics, respectively: the small basin is warmer, saltier, and denser at the surface than the large basin, and is the main site of deep water formation with a deep overturning circulation and strong northward ocean heat transport. A sensitivity experiment with DDrake demonstrates that the salinity contrast between the two basins, and hence the localization of deep convection, results from a deficit of precipitation, rather than an excess of evaporation, over the small basin. It is argued that the width of the small basin relative to the zonal fetch of atmospheric precipitation is the key to understanding this salinity contrast. Finally, it is argued that many gross features of the present climate are consequences of two topological asymmetries that have profound effects on ocean circulation: a meridional asymmetry (circumpolar flow in the Southern Hemisphere; blocked flow in the Northern Hemisphere) and a zonal asymmetry (a small basin and a large basin).

Telefantasy tower blocks: space, place and social realism shake-ups in Misfits

This article considers the ways in which British youth telefantasy Misfits (E4, 2009–13) takes up and makes strange urban spaces familiar from social-realist narratives. Filmed on the sprawling East London estate, Thamesmead, the programme chronicles a group of young offenders who are given powers by a freak storm, turning them into ‘ASBO superheroes’. Misfits depends on its British urban landscapes for the assertion of its ‘authenticity’ within British youth television, using spaces and landscapes familiar from urban youth exploitation cinema and television's narratives of the underclass. After situating the series within existing cultural discourses and recent developments in social-realist representations, the article explores how Misfits disrupts what have become signifiers for the ‘real’ – the brutalism of housing estates, the grey of the concrete and sky – by making them strange, turning them into telefantasy. The series presents the estate as an uncanny place: the domestic, social-realist world shifted into a fantastical space by the storm. Through close analysis, this article explores how the familiar spaces become skewed and unsettling to match our protagonists' isolation, shifting bodies and scrambled sense of self.

Entre o belo e o feio: das Unheimliche como princípio estético em Freud

O presente trabalho visou estudar as considerações estéticas de Freud contidas no texto “O Estranho” (1919), como tais posicionamentos promovem uma verdadeira descontinuidade no pensamento estético ocidental. Neste sentido, ao nos mostrar como toda produção artística tem no material inconsciente seu principal motor e fonte de inspiração, Freud a insere no rol das demais produções do inconsciente (sonhos, chistes, neurose, etc). No entanto, no contexto de “O Estranho”, Freud passa a ver a arte não mais como uma produção de um aparelho psíquico movido pelo princípio do prazer, pois neste texto Freud antecipa a questão da pulsão de morte e o eterno retorno de materiais recalcados como funcionamento de uma subjetividade regida por um além do princípio do prazer, neste sentido, a morte, enquanto fim último da existência passa a ser a grande tônica das novas pesquisas freudianas, e o belo da arte estaria assim irremediavelmente implicado à angustia e desamparo ocasionados pelo retorno do recalcado. Neste sentido, o unheimlich, enquanto sentimento de assombro e inquietação provocados pela pulsão demoníaca que insiste em presentificar-se, passa a ser encarado por Freud como importante princípio estético.

Inquietantes traslados: uma leitura psicanalítica do filme Encontros e Desencontros

Na busca por articulações entre psicanálise e práticas culturais – aqui representadas pela magia do cinema – o presente trabalho propõe uma releitura do filme Encontros e Desencontros, utilizando-o como interlocutor privilegiado para uma discussão acerca do trato com a alteridade. Mais especificamente, direcionaremos nosso olhar para a possibilidade, presente tanto na clínica analítica quanto no filme em questão, do encontro com o inominável de si mesmo por intermédio de um estrangeiro. Trata-se de um entrechoque dialético entre o estranho mais íntimo e o íntimo mais estranho, este último vinculado ao processo primário, à lógica do inconsciente. Diante disto, aposta-se aqui que, muito embora esta não familiaridade em geral apareça vinculada a uma desconfortável angústia, possamos vislumbrar para ela uma outra expressão: aquela de potência construtiva rumo à abertura de sentido.

Psicanálise, antropologia e alteridade: apontamentos para um debate

Este trabalho trata da temática da alteridade, tomando-a como mote para um diálogo entre a psicanálise e a antropologia. Neste sentido, a partir de uma incursão pela noção de estrangeiro na obra de Freud, enfatiza a ideia de que a diferença imposta pelo inconsciente é dona de uma narrativa e de uma temporalidade particulares que se recusam a obedecer aos ditames do pensamento representacional. Em decorrência disto, a estranheza e a negatividade do encontro analítico aparecem como lugares do possível, ampliando o conceito de alteridade e as capacidades da interpretação, agora um meio-termo entre a produção de sentido e a experiência do vazio. Eis a lição da não lição proposta por este inquietante outro do inconsciente à antropologia e, em maior escala, às ciências sociais: admitir a possibilidade do sentido, mas não necessariamente o seu encerramento, fornecendo assim uma expressão menos comprometida a um estrangeiro agora irredutível a códigos preestabelecidos.

Ética e estética da alteridade em Horkheimer, Adorno e Freud: comentários a partir de “elementos do anti-semitismo” e “o inquietante”

Ao adotar como foco inicial a referência, feita por Horkheimer e Adorno em "Elementos do Anti-Semitismo: limites do esclarecimento", ao texto de Freud denominado "O Inquietante", o presente trabalho pretende estabelecer alguns pontos de contato entre si no que se refere ao importante campo de estudos voltado ao preconceito. Nestes termos, propõe uma ética e uma estética da alteridade que, voltadas à dissonância de uma estranha-familiaridade, aparecem pautadas pela valorização da negatividade em detrimento de uma filosofia positiva cujas luzes podem conduzir à mais absoluta cegueira totalitária. A aposta aqui reside na possibilidade de que, remetendo às fraturas do contato do homem com o que lhe parece real, tal movimento traga consigo o resgate de uma tragicidade que resista em se deixar apropriar pelos anseios de domínio e comodidade representativa tão caros à razão instrumental e, com ela, aos discursos de intolerância para com as diferenças.

Pungente vislumbre: a triste infalibilidade da culpa

O crime do professor de Matemática, de Clarice Lispector, aborda a necessidade inconsciente de punição advinda do sentimento de culpa, que constitui elemento inexorável da psique humana. O espelhamento do homem em seu animal o conduz à aproximação de uma possível consciência deste transtorno, fato que culmina no irremissível abandono do cão. Com base nos ensaios O estranho e O mal-estar na civilização, de Sigmund Freud, almeja-se entender a origem da dolente identificação entre estes dois personagens narrada no conto, bem como o corolário da cultura, responsável pela tristeza humana com a qual o professor irremediavelmente se coaduna.

Welfare provision in Sweden and the dominant position of the Sap

There have been almost fifty years since Harry Eckstein' s classic monograph, A Theory of Stable Democracy (Princeton, 1961), where he sketched out the basic tenets of the “congruence theory”, which was to become one of the most important and innovative contributions to understanding democratic rule. His next work, Division and Cohesion in Democracy, (Princeton University Press: 1966) is designed to serve as a plausibility probe for this 'theory' (ftn.) and is a case study of a Northern democratic system, Norway. What is more, this line of his work best exemplifies the contribution Eckstein brought to the methodology of comparative politics through his seminal article, “ “Case Study and Theory in Political Science” ” (in Greenstein and Polsby, eds., Handbook of Political Science, 1975), on the importance of the case study as an approach to empirical theory. This article demonstrates the special utility of “crucial case studies” in testing theory, thereby undermining the accepted wisdom in comparative research that the larger the number of cases the better. Although not along the same lines, but shifting the case study unit of research, I intend to take up here the challenge and build upon an equally unique political system, the Swedish one. Bearing in mind the peculiarities of the Swedish political system, my unit of analysis is going to be further restricted to the Swedish Social Democratic Party, the Svenska Arbetare Partiet. However, my research stays within the methodological framework of the case study theory inasmuch as it focuses on a single political system and party. The Swedish SAP endurance in government office and its electoral success throughout half a century (ftn. As of the 1991 election, there were about 56 years - more than half century - of interrupted social democratic "reign" in Sweden.) are undeniably a performance no other Social Democrat party has yet achieved in democratic conditions. Therefore, it is legitimate to inquire about the exceptionality of this unique political power combination. Which were the different components of this dominance power position, which made possible for SAP's governmental office stamina? I will argue here that it was the end-product of a combination of multifarious factors such as a key position in the party system, strong party leadership and organization, a carefully designed strategy regarding class politics and welfare policy. My research is divided into three main parts, the historical incursion, the 'welfare' part and the 'environment' part. The first part is a historical account of the main political events and issues, which are relevant for my case study. Chapter 2 is devoted to the historical events unfolding in the 1920-1960 period: the Saltsjoebaden Agreement, the series of workers' strikes in the 1920s and SAP's inception. It exposes SAP's ascent to power in the mid 1930s and the party's ensuing strategies for winning and keeping political office, that is its economic program and key economic goals. The following chapter - chapter 3 - explores the next period, i.e. the period from 1960s to 1990s and covers the party's troubled political times, its peak and the beginnings of the decline. The 1960s are relevant for SAP's planning of a long term economic strategy - the Rehn Meidner model, a new way of macroeconomic steering, based on the Keynesian model, but adapted to the new economic realities of welfare capitalist societies. The second and third parts of this study develop several hypotheses related to SAP's 'dominant position' (endurance in politics and in office) and test them afterwards. Mainly, the twin issues of economics and environment are raised and their political relevance for the party analyzed. On one hand, globalization and its spillover effects over the Swedish welfare system are important causal factors in explaining the transformative social-economic challenges the party had to put up with. On the other hand, Europeanization and environmental change influenced to a great deal SAP's foreign policy choices and its domestic electoral strategies. The implications of globalization on the Swedish welfare system will make the subject of two chapters - chapters four and five, respectively, whereupon the Europeanization consequences will be treated at length in the third part of this work - chapters six and seven, respectively. Apparently, at first sight, the link between foreign policy and electoral strategy is difficult to prove and uncanny, in the least. However, in the SAP's case there is a bulk of literature and public opinion statistical data able to show that governmental domestic policy and party politics are in a tight dependence to foreign policy decisions and sovereignty issues. Again, these country characteristics and peculiar causal relationships are outlined in the first chapters and explained in the second and third parts. The sixth chapter explores the presupposed relationship between Europeanization and environmental policy, on one hand, and SAP's environmental policy formulation and simultaneous agenda-setting at the international level, on the other hand. This chapter describes Swedish leadership in environmental policy formulation on two simultaneous fronts and across two different time spans. The last chapter, chapter eight - while trying to develop a conclusion, explores the alternative theories plausible in explaining the outlined hypotheses and points out the reasons why these theories do not fit as valid alternative explanation to my systemic corporatism thesis as the main causal factor determining SAP's 'dominant position'. Among the alternative theories, I would consider Traedgaardh L. and Bo Rothstein's historical exceptionalism thesis and the public opinion thesis, which alone are not able to explain the half century social democratic endurance in government in the Swedish case.

Harry Potter and the Theory of Things

This thesis investigates the boundaries between body and object in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, seven children’s literature novels published between 1997 and 2007. Lord Voldemort, Rowling’s villain, creates Horcruxes—objects that contain fragments of his soul—in order to ensure his immortality. As vessels for human soul, these objects rupture the boundaries between body and object and become “things.” Using contemporary thing theorists including John Plotz and materialists Jean Baudrillard and Walter Benjamin, I look at Voldemort’s Horcruxes as transgressive, liminal, unclassifiable entities in the first chapter. If objects can occupy the juncture between body and object, then bodies can as well. Dementors and Inferi, dark creatures that Rowling introduces throughout the series, live devoid of soul. Voldemort, too, becomes a thing as he splits his soul and creates Horcruxes. These soulless bodies are uncanny entities, provoking fear, revulsion, nausea, and the loss of language. In the second chapter, I use Sigmund Freud’s theorization of the uncanny as well as literary critic Kelly Hurley to investigate how Dementors, Inferi, and Voldemort exist as body-turned-object things at the juncture between life and death. As Voldemort increasingly invests his immaterial soul into material objects, he physically and spiritually degenerates, transforming from the young, handsome Tom Marvolo Riddle into the snake-like villain that murdered Harry’s parents and countless others. During his quest to find and destroy Voldemort’s Horcruxes, Harry encounters a different type of object, the Deathly Hallows. Although similarly accessing boundaries between body/object, life/death, and materiality/immateriality, the three Deathly Hallows do not transgress these boundaries. Through the Deathly Hallows, Rowling provides an alternative to thingification: objects that enable boundaries to fluctuate, but not breakdown. In the third chapter, I return to thing theorists, Baudrillard, and Benjamin to study how the Deathly Hallows resist thingification by not transgressing the boundaries between body and object.

"Hamlet" and Marginality

This research aims to explore the place of marginality (or that which is not the immediate focus of narrative) in the context of the play and through the examination of the characters of Fortinbras and Horatio, in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The intended outcome is to encourage diversified perspectives and approaches to the play by focusing on the marginal themes and/or characters. The chapters address the characters of Fortinbras and Horatio; the first inverts the protagonist/foil relationship by reading Hamlet as a foil to Fortinbras, while the second uses Freud’s “The Uncanny” as a way to understand Horatio’s role in the play, as its uncanniest phenomena. Both are marginal to the text, but both are significant to the understanding of the text. Essentially, the objective is to encourage readings of the play, and of narratives, that appreciate the complexity of marginality, in order to broaden the language for future research.

Feasts of power : how food reveals Eve's influential role in John Milton's epic poem, "Paradise Lost"

This writing explores how food in Paradise Lost reflects Eve's power in the story of man's (and woman's) fall from grace. Critics often emphasize Adam in Paradise Lost; however, I challenge the notion of the first man as the most influential character of the poem. By examining Eve's role and her abilities with food, one sees the first woman as a well-rounded, complete being, albeit the first to succumb to temptation. Notwithstanding her transgression, -- certainly no trivial act of disobedience -- Eve should be viewed at least as Adam's equal, if not his superior. Her uncanny understanding of matters related to food points to skills Adam does not enjoy, and even Milton acknowledges Eve's importance in this arena. By studying the food in this epic, we see Eve sheds much light on all the other elements of Paradise Lost, and her personal strengths become obvious.

Encountering Anthropomorphism (Editorial)

On Anthropomorphism concerns itself with performances and artworks that explore the complex of interesting and mutually contradictory ideas located under the umbrella term, ‘anthropomorphism’. On the one hand, it is used to refer to something that resembles a human, and on the other hand it refers to our natural tendency to read human characteristics in the non-human object or animal. Moreover, an interrogation of the concept of anthropomorphism, especially as it is found in contemporary performance, suggests that there is not a singular line dividing the human from the non-human but a vast terrain that houses the comical, the uncanny and the abject. The aim of this issue is to elucidate anthropomorphism in its multitude of aspects, thereby shedding light on discourses around object theatre and ecological performance that attempt to understand the more-than-human world in a way that goes beyond ‘mere’ anthropomorphism.

Las novelas de la nebulosa y lo ominoso

[es] El concepto freudiano de Das Unheimliche, «lo ominoso», también conocido en español como «lo siniestro», es un fenómeno complejo del inconsciente de la psique humana. Comprende el inquietante momento de inseguridad al ver la inesperada metamorfosis de lo familiar y conocido en otra cosa. Este fenómeno no solo se evidencia en la vida real, sino también con mucha frecuencia en el arte y la literatura. Un escritor cuya creación ofrece un excelente ejemplo para estudiar la presencia de las teorías freudianas, en especial la de lo ominoso en la literatura, es el autor vanguardista español Ramón Gómez de la Serna. El escritor usó a menudo la técnica de impresión de lo siniestro en las novelas de la nebulosa: El incongruente (1922), El novelista (1923), ¡Rebeca! (1936) y El hombre perdido (1947). [en] The Freudian concept of the uncanny is a phenomenon as complex as interesting of the unconscious of the human psyche which comprises the disturbing moment of insecurity of seeing the unexpected metamorphosis of the familiar and known to the unknown. This phenomenon is evident not only in real life, but very often in art and literature. A writer whose creation provides an excellent example for the presence of Freud’s theories, especially the uncanny in the literature, is the avant-garde Spanish author Ramón Gómez de la Serna. The writer often used the impression of uncanny; a trend that stands in the novels of the nebula, which are rich in uncanny themes: El incongruente (1922), El novelista (1923), ¡Rebeca! (1936) and El hombre perdido (1947).

A inquietante estranheza no transexualismo

Dissertação de Mestrado apresentada no Instituto Superior de Psicologia Aplicada para obtenção do grau de Mestre na especialidade de Clínica