El medievalismo fértil de Paloma Díaz-Mas

The author of this article is concerned with trying to understand why Paloma Díaz-Mas, the writer of such an excellent novel as La tierra fértil (1999), has not received much critical attention. He underlines three main reasons. First, she does not live in Madrid or Barcelona and so she is far away from the main centres of cultural power. Second, she teaches Spanish literature in the Basque Country, a political and linguistic community which significantly differs from that of many other writers. Third, she writes historical novels, which does not appear to be very fashionable in Spain these days. Moreover, Díaz-Mas is a woman writer who does not make use of the most commonly available feminine patterns, and she does not seem to offer a model easy to include in a given feminist methodology either. However, Mérida-Jiménez argues that Paloma provides an intelligent deconstruction of “male authority” through subtle rhetorical means, as well as a representation of the weakness of his “domination” in very innovative ways, such as those derived from the dialectics between history and fiction, centrality and marginality, heterosexuality and homosexuality, individual and society, dream and reason or tradition and modernity.

The ‘Dys-Appearing’ Body in Doris Lessing’s The Diary of a Good Neighbour and Margaret Forster’s Have the Men Had Enough?

If the old body is usually read as a synonym of fragility and upcoming illness, even though not the case for most elderly citizens, the reality is that the longer we live, the increased probability of being affected by different illnesses cannot be eluded or denied. In Doris Lessing’s The Diary of a Good Neighbour and Margaret Forster’s Have the Men Had Enough? the reader is invited to participate in the day-to-day routines of two aged female protagonists, as well as to empathize with their inner feelings as they go through their last life stage. In fact, their ‘dys-appearing’ bodies, marked by their respective terminal illnesses, force these characters to grow closer to those around them and to accept the help of their families and friends, despite their desire to keep their free will and independence until the very end. The analysis of the two novels within the framework of ageing studies aims to show the contradictions existing between a growing ageing society and the negative cultural connotations of old age in Western society and the need to revise them.

Old Women, Young Souls: History as a Living Matter

The passionate and deceptive life stories of the protagonists in Angela Carter’s Wise Children (1990) and Rose Tremain’s The Cupboard (1984), women in their seventies and eighties, are entangled with historical events that influenced England, Europe and the rest of the world. In these novels, Angela Carter and Rose Tremain challenge not only notions of ageing by presenting elder protagonists who are lively and strong, but also the idea of history as unique, true and unquestionable by conferring on them the status of story and historytellers.

Invisible Environments: Old Age and its spaces

Despite the progressive ageing of a worldwide population, negative attitudes towards old age have proliferated thanks to cultural constructs and myths that, for decades, have presented old age as a synonym of decay, deterioration and loss. Moreover, even though every human being knows he/she will age and that ageing is a process that cannot be stopped, it always seems distant, far off in the future and, therefore, remains invisible. In this paper, I aim to analyse the invisibility of old age and its spaces through two contemporary novels and their ageing females protagonists –Maudie Fowler in Doris Lessing ’s The Diary of a Good Neighbour and Erica March in Rose Tremain ’s The Cupboard. Although invisible to the rest of society, these elderly characters succeed in becoming significant in the lives of younger protagonists who, immersed in their active lives, become aware of the need to enlarge our vision of old age.

Diagnosis of the nutrient compositional space of fruit crops

Tissue analysis is a useful tool for the nutrient management of fruit orchards. The mineral composition of diagnostic tissues expressed as nutrient concentration on a dry weight basis has long been used to assess the status of 'pure' nutrients. When nutrients are mixed and interact in plant tissues, their proportions or concentrations change relatively to each other as a result of synergism, antagonism, or neutrality, hence producing resonance within the closed space of tissue composition. Ternary diagrams and nutrient ratios are early representations of interacting nutrients in the compositional space. Dual and multiple interactions were integrated by the Diagnosis and Recommendation Integrated System (DRIS) into nutrient indexes and by Compositional Nutrient Diagnosis into centered log ratios (CND-clr). DRIS has some computational flaws such as using a dry matter index that is not a part as well as nutrient products (e.g. NxCa) instead of ratios. DRIS and CND-clr integrate all possible nutrient interactions without defining an ad hoc interactive model. They diagnose D components while D-1 could be diagnosed in the D-compositional Hilbert space. The isometric log ratio (ilr) coordinates overcome these problems using orthonormal binary nutrient partitions instead of dual ratios. In this study, it is presented a nutrient interactive model as well as computation methods for DRIS and CND-clr and CND-ilr coordinates (CND-ilr) using leaf analytical data from an experimental apple orchard in Southwestern Quebec, Canada. It was computed the Aitchison and Mahalanobis distances across ilr coordinates as measures of nutrient imbalance. The effect of changing nutrient concentrations on ilr coordinates are simulated to identify the ones contributing the most to nutrient imbalance.

Lyotard y La condició postmoderna, Vint-i-cinc anys després

L"any 1979 Jean-François Lyotard (1924-1998) publicava a París La condition postmoderne. Rapport sur le savoir, editat per Les Éditions de Minuit, obra en què es retratava l"home postmodern i que amb el pas dels anys s"ha convertit en una mena de clàssic del pensament contemporani. La tesi de fons del llibre -una obra encarregada per les autoritats del Quebec- és ben coneguda: el saber canvia d"estatut al mateix temps que les societats entren en l"era anomenada postindustrial, segons havien anunciat Daniel Bell i Alain Touraine. Per tant, la qüestió del saber en aquesta època postindustrial -que a grans trets coincideix amb un esperit d"època (Zeitgeist) que es pot identifi car amb la postmodernitat- cal situar-la en la perspectiva de les societats industrials avançades.

Une justice plus commerciale qu'industrielle ? Comparaison des attentes d'une « bonne justice » en Suisse

Le but de cet article est triple. D'abord, nous identifions les qualités d'une bonne justice en Suisse, telles que défi nies par les différents acteurs qui forment le tribunal au sens large (juges, gestionnaires de tribunaux, avocats, journalistes, politiciens). Deuxièmement, nous vérifions si ces qualités peuvent coexister avec les valeurs véhiculées par le monde managérial (NGP). Enfin, nous évaluons la manière dont elles cohabitent (hybridation, dominance des unes sur les autres, etc.). Pour ce faire, nous avons analysé une série d'entretiens (56) semi-structurés menés dans des tribunaux de première et seconde instance dans des cours civiles, administratives et criminelles, dans les trois régions linguistiques du pays. Les résultats montrent que les groupes d'acteurs interviewés ont des attentes relativement similaires et qu'elles ne semblent pas être incompatibles avec celles de l'univers managérial. Cependant, lorsqu'ils décrivent la bonne justice, les participants font plus souvent appel à des notions liées au monde commercial qu'au monde industriel contrairement à d'autres études menées auprès d'employés du secteur public suisse, mais dans la lignée de ceux du Québec. L'article ouvre la voie à des recherches ultérieures dont l'objectif sera de tester ces conclusions. Abstract The purpose of this paper is threefold. First, we identify the qualities of good justice in Switzerland, as defi ned by the various actors who form the tribunal in a broad sense (judges, court managers, lawyers, journalists, politicians). Second, we verify if these qualities are compatible with the values conveyed by the managerial universe (NPM). Finally, we evaluate how they coexist (hybridization, dominance over each other, etc.). To do this, we analysed a series of semi-structured interviews (56) conducted in tribunals of fi rst and second instance in civil, administrative,and criminal courts in the three linguistic regions of the country. The results show that the groups of actors interviewed have relatively similar expectations that do not seem to be incompatible with those of the managerial world. However, when describing good justice, the participants refer more frequently to concepts related to the commercial than the industrial world, contrary to other Swiss public servants but in line with those of Quebec, as uncovered by former studies. The article opens up the path to further research whose objective will be to test those conclusions.

L'exploration temporelle comme modalité du voyage imaginaire dans la bande dessinée franco-belge (1930-1980)

In this paper, I explore the motif of time travel in science fictional French comics until the eighties. Time travel incorporates a fascinating potential for narrative representation, since moving back in time may multiply timelines, according to the well-known paradox of the grandfather. This virtuality has become very popular in novels and in movies, since In his Bootstraps (Heinlein, 1941) and La Jetée (Marker, 1962) until the recent Looper (Johnson, 2012) but it has been rarely represented in French comics before the eighties and the apparition of time paradoxes in series like "Yoko Tsuno" and, mostly, "Valérian agent spatio-temporel". Firstly, many modalities of time travel do not engender time paradoxes, like exploration of prehistoric sanctuaries, imaginary travel, or cryogenic sleep followed by an awakening if a future world with no hope to return in the past. Secondly, time travel has been mostly interpreted as a mere extension of the classic motif of the "extraordinary journey", as exemplified for centuries in fictions by Verne, Mercier, Swift, or Stevenson. Thus, the graphic potential of time travel for the representation of spectacular exotic worlds has predominated in French comic tradition, and this tendency has been encouraged by the dominant mode of publication until the end of the sixties. Indeed, complex scriptwriting involving multiple timelines would not fit the form of a weekly feuilleton addressed to a young audience, because it would be too demanding cognitively speaking. It illustrates also the dominance of graphic concerns over a taste for complex scriptwriting in many comics of this period. Still, the development of time paradoxes in Pierre Christin scriptwriting underlines the potential of the media when it is published in series of albums or in graphic novels. At the same time, Jean-Claude Mézières drawings-featuring spectacular representations of foreign worlds-show that the visual interest of spectacular time travels remains a central issue for this popular graphic medium. Cette étude porte sur le motif du voyage temporel dans la bande dessinée franco-belge de science- fiction jusque dans les années quatre-vingt. Le voyage temporel intègre un potentiel fascinant pour la représentation narrative, étant donné que le retour dans le passé est susceptible d'engendrer des lignes temporelles multiples, selon le paradoxe bien connu du « grand-père ». Cette virtualité est devenue très populaire dans les romans et dans les films, depuis In his Bootstraps (Heinlein, 1941) et La Jetée (Marker, 1962) jusqu'au récent Looper (Johnson, 2012), mais elle a rarement été représentée dans la bande dessinée franco-belge avant les années quatre-vingt et l'apparition de paradoxes temporels dans des séries comme « Yoko Tsuno » et, surtout, « Valérian agent spatio-temporel ». Tout d'abord, de nombreuses modalités du voyage dans le temps n'engendrent aucun paradoxe, par exemple l'exploration de sanctuaires préhistoriques, le voyage illusoire ou le sommeil cryogénique suivi d'un réveil dans le futur, sans espoir de revenir dans le passé. Deuxièmement, le voyage dans le temps a été plus souvent interprété comme une simple extension du motif classique du « voyage extraordinaire », tel qu'on le retrouve, depuis le XVIIIe siècle, les fictions de Verne, Mercier, Swift ou Stevenson. Ainsi, le potentiel graphique du voyage dans le temps pour la représentation de mondes exotiques spectaculaires a prédominé dans la tradition franco-belge et cette tendance a été encouragée par le mode de publication dominant jusqu'à la fin des années soixante. En effet, l'écriture de scénarios complexes impliquant de multiples lignes temporelles ne semble pas adaptée à la forme d'un feuilleton hebdomadaire destiné à un jeune public, parce qu'il aurait été trop exigeant, cognitivement parlant. Cela illustre également la prédominance de préoccupations graphiques sur l'écriture de scénarios complexes dans de nombreuses bandes dessinées de cette période. Pourtant, le développement de paradoxes temporels dans les scénarios de Pierre Christin souligne le potentiel du média quand il est publié en série d'albums ou dans des romans graphiques. Parallèlement, les dessins de Jean-Claude Mézières, qui proposent des représentations spectaculaires de mondes étrangers, montre que l'intérêt visuel du voyage dans le temps demeure une question centrale pour ce média populaire.

Gustav Hasford's Gothic Poetics of Demystification

Gustav Hasford is the author of two important Vietnam War novels: The Short-Timers (1979), which was adapted by Stanley Kubrick into Full Metal Jacket (1987), and The Phantom Blooper (1990), its sequel. Relentlessly critical of the war that destroyed his generation, Hasford uses an array of Gothic themes, tropes and figures - such as the werewolf, vampire, and ghost - to describe the transformation of men into monsters that begins with basic training and can never be reversed. These and other Gothic devices allow Hasford to demystify and disenchant the Vietnam War, to strip it of euphemisms and official myths, and to reveal the violence that lays beneath. Unlike other well-known writers of the same generation, such as Michael Herr and Chris O'Brien, Hasford eschews postmodern techniques in order to pursue a rhetorical strategy of horror combined with black humor. The results are two novels of extraordinary ferocity, critical acumen and wit. The chapter concludes with an analysis of the specifically Gothic reading experience of ethical dilemma - a Gothic exercise in judgment - choreographed by both narratives.

Quality assessment of primary care for common mental disorders in isolated communities: Taking advantage of health records.

INTRODUCTION: This article is part of a research study on the organization of primary health care (PHC) for mental health in two of Quebec's remote regions. It introduces a methodological approach based on information found in health records, for assessing the quality of PHC offered to people suffering from depression or anxiety disorders. METHODS: Quality indicators were identified from evidence and case studies were reconstructed using data collected in health records over a 2-year observation period. Data collection was developed using a three-step iterative process: (1) feasibility analysis, (2) development of a data collection tool, and (3) application of the data collection method. The adaptation of quality-of-care indicators to remote regions was appraised according to their relevance, measurability and construct validity in this context. RESULTS: As a result of this process, 18 quality indicators were shown to be relevant, measurable and valid for establishing a critical quality appraisal of four recommended dimensions of PHC clinical processes: recognition, assessment, treatment and follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: There is not only an interest in the use of health records to assess the quality of PHC for mental health in remote regions but also a scientific value for the rigorous and meticulous methodological approach developed in this study. From the perspective of stakeholders in the PHC system of care in remote areas, quality indicators are credible and provide potential for transferability to other contexts. This study brings information that has the potential to identify gaps in and implement solutions adapted to the context.

Aspects de la représentation de l'autre dans les romans grecs et "Les Métamorphoses" d'Apulée

Les romans grecs et les Métamorphoses d'Apulée - même si les modalités sont différentes pour ce dernier - sont des fictions en prose qui fonctionnent autour de topoi auxquels la figure de l'Autre n'échappe pas. Bien que le monde grec soit alors radicalement différent de ce qu'il était au Ve siècle avant J.-C, période à laquelle l'identité grecque est construite par opposition à la figure du barbare, les romanciers qui prennent la plume à partir du 1er siècle avant notre ère utilisent un certain nombre de stéréotypes hérités de l'époque classique, alors mise à l'honneur par le mouvement de la Seconde Sophistique. Il s'agit d'étudier dans le détail certains éléments de la représentation de l'Autre pour déterminer qui il est, comment il se comporte, ce qui le constitue en Autre. Puis, à partir de cette esquisse, nécessairement incomplète, d'évaluer ce que cette représentation peut induire sur l'image de l'identité grecque à l'époque impériale, par le jeu de miroir que F. Hartog a décelé dans l'oeuvre d'Hérodote. Une première partie est consacrée aux rapports entre l'homme et l'animal ainsi qu'à l'image de la sauvagerie, ce qui permet d'explorer les bornes romanesques de l'humanité. La seconde partie s'attache à des éléments que l'époque classique a plus particulièrement mis en avant pour distinguer les Grecs des non-Grecs : le critère de la langue, l'art de faire la guerre et le discours politique qui est tenu sur les institutions barbares. La troisième partie étudie la place des dieux et des pratiques religieuses dans la définition de l'Autre. J'espère ainsi contribuer à la compréhension du genre romanesque et des représentations culturelles de l'empire « gréco-romain ». -- The Greek novels and The Metamorphoses of Apuleius, even if it is in different terms for the last, are prose fictions which are based on topoi, and the figure of the Other is one of them. Although the Greek world was radically different of what it was in the fifth century BC, time during which Greek identity is contructed as opposed to the figure of the barbaros, the authors of novels, who wrote from the first century BC onward, used some stereotypes inherited from classical period, which was celebrated by the Second Sophistic movement. The aim of this thesis is to study in detail some elements of the representation of the Other to determine who it is, how he behaves, what makes him other. Then, from this sketch, necessarily incomplete, to evaluate what this representation says about the image of Greek identity in the imperial age, according to the play of the mirror detected by F. Hartog in the text of Herodotus. The first part of the thesis is dedicated to the relationship between man and animal and to the image of savagery, in order to explore the novelistic limits of humanity. The second part concentrates on elements that classical period had particularly insisted on to promote the distinction between Greeks and non-Greeks : the linguistic criterion, the way to make war, and the politic discourse on the barbaric institutions. The third part study the place of the gods and of religious practices in the definition of the Other. I hope to contribute to the understanding of novel genre and of cultural representations of the « greco- roman- empire ».

Contribució a l'estudi de la col·lecció «La Novel·la Estrangera».

La col·lecció «La Novel·la Estrangera» és constituïda per trenta-vuit títols d’aparició quinzenal en una primera etapa i setmanal en una segona i última. De dimensions reduïdes (entre 40 i 80 pàgines), no va arribar, amb alguna excepció, a publicar novel·les, sinó tan sols narrativa curta. Pel format, el disseny, el contingut, el preu i la forma de distribució i venda, la col·lecció anava destinada a un públic ampli. La selecció d’autors traduïts, eclèctica, respon també a la voluntat d’arribar a un sector extens de lectors. Iniciativa d’escriptors joves, la trajectòria de la col·lecció estigué marcada per la precarietat de l’estructura editorial adoptada, cosa que la va condemnar a la fallida.

Crònica del Pallars. Reconstrucció d'un món perdut a les novel·les de Maria Barbal

Peer-reviewed

Cicle del Pallars: tres novel·les i un univers literari

La comunicació al Congrés de Geografies Literàries-Universos literaris de Vic pretén demostrar com Maria Barbal crea un univers literari a l'entorn del Pallars amb les tres novel·les del Cicle del Pallars.

La implicación de las provincias canadienses en la competencia sobre inmigración

El presente artículo se centra en el estudio de los acuerdos de inmigración celebrados a partir de la década de los noventa entre la Federación y las provincias canadienses (a excepción de Quebec). Los acuerdos incluyen tanto la posibilidad de seleccionar una parte de la inmigración que llega al territorio de cada provincia, como la gestión provincial de los programas de primera acogida e integración. En la primera parte se estudian los acuerdos firmados con Manitoba, Alberta, British Columbia y Ontario, para posteriormente analizar el impacto de los mismos tanto en el modelo migratorio, como en el modelo federal canadiense. El artículo concluye que los acuerdos han disminuido el nivel de asimetría en relación a la competencia sobre inmigración, pero sin llegar a eliminarla. Además, la gestión realizada por las provincias pone en evidencia la necesidad de repasar los perfiles migratorios altamente cualificados y la necesidad de implementar mecanismos de coordinación para evitar distorsiones en el modelo migratorio.