Laganside: Poetry from Northern Ireland Today

An analysis of Alan Gillis's poem 'Laganside' as exemple of a post-ceasefire Northern Irish poetic.

From an American Plantation to Interwar Poland: How Uncle Remus Became Bam-Bo the Negro

The article opens with the introduction of Joel Chandler Harris and his literary output. As one of “local colourists,” Harris depicted American plantation life in 19th-century Georgia and included many cultural as well as folk elements in his works. The following analysis of his stories about Uncle Remus focuses on (1) the levels of narration; (2) the linguistic complexity of the text (the stories abound in slang and dialectal expressions); (3) the form; and (4) the folklore value. These four aspects guide the discussion of the only Polish translation of the Uncle Remus stories. Prepared by Wladyslawa Wielinska in 1929, it was addressed to children. Therefore, the article aims to determine the profile of the translation as a children’s book, to consider it in relation to the skopos of the source text and to establish the extent to which it preserved the peculiar character of the Uncle Remus stories.

The Senses of Muriel Rukeyser’s The Book of the Dead

When Muriel Rukeyser travelled to Gauley Bridge in 1936 to report on the industrial disaster that had led to the deaths of over 700 miners, her findings led her to write what is arguably her masterpiece – the 1938 poem series The Book of the Dead. Of all Rukeyser's writings, this hybrid work of documentary techniques and metaphors, of testimony and elegy, has attracted the most critical attention. However, analyses of the series have tended to focus on the ways in which the poet adopted and adapted documentary methods in order to offer a leftist ideological critique on capitalist-born social injustice. The purpose of this article is not to negate such readings, but to offer alongside them insight into a more ethical-philosophical approach that I believe guided Rukeyser's entire career. Via an examination of the ways in which Rukeyser employs the human senses to articulate the complexities of human political, metaphysical and social relations, this article explores the influence of the Zionist Martin Buber on the poet. Rukeyser acknowledged Buber's writings in her later work, but I contend here that they played a large part in the formation of her poetics, especially in connection with her documentary aesthetic. Whilst several critics have noted, albeit often superficially, the Marxist flavour of Rukeyser's poetry in The Book of the Dead, I argue for the influence of Buber over Marx in terms or responsibility, community and dialogue. Both Rukeyser's and Buber's methods of expressing and promoting these ethical necessities rely on a synaesthetic response to the world. Where Buber advances a dialogue between the self and alterity through transcendent personal encounter, Rukeyser locates such encounter in the poem, arguing for an exchange that leads to creation, and to personal and interpersonal growth.

Reviewing child deaths - Learning from the American experience

Current systems for investigating child deaths in England, Wales and Northern Ireland have come under intense scrutiny in recent years and questions have been raised about the accuracy of child death investigations and resulting statistics. Research has highlighted the ways in which multidisciplinary input can contribute to investigative and review processes, a perspective which is further supported by recent UK policy developments. The experience of creating multidisciplinary child death review teams (CDRTs) in America highlights the potential benefits the introduction of a similar system might have. These benefits include improved multi-agency working and communication, more effective identification of suspicious cases, a decrease in inadequate death certification and a broader and more in-depth understanding of the causes of child deaths through the systematic collection and analysis of data. While a lack of funding, regional coordination and evaluation limit the impact of American CDRTs, the positive aspects of this process make it worthwhile, and timely, to consider how such a model might fit within our own context. Current policy developments such as the Home Office review of coroner services, the Children Bill and related Department for Education and Skills (DfES) work on developing screening groups demonstrate that strides have been made in respect of introducing a multidisciplinary process. Similarly, the development of local protocols for the investigation and/or review of child deaths in England, Wales and Northern Ireland highlights an increased focus on multidisciplinary processes. However, key issues from the American experience, such as the remit of CDRTs/screening panels, the need for national coordination and the importance of rigorous evaluation, can inform the development of a similar process in the UK. Copyright ©2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Comparative study between African-American and Caucasian Normal Tension Glaucoma patients

Purpose. To evaluate differences in optic disc and visual field damage between African-American and Caucasian Normal Tension Glaucoma (NTG) patients. Methods. We retrospectively selected 33 African-American patients with the diagnosis of NTG and age-matched them with 33 Caucasian patients with the same diagnosis. Three masked observers graded disc photographs and visual fields as being normal, globally damaged or focally damaged for both eyes of the subject. Chi-square test was used to evaluate statistically significant differences between groups. Results. The results of the visual fields showed that in the African-American group, 24% were graded normal, 30% showed global damage, and 46% showed focal damage. This data was compared with the Caucasian group which showed 41% normal graded eyes, 22% with global damage, and 37% with focal damage (p = 0.28). The results of the optic disc photos showed that in the African-American group, 25% were graded normal, 45% showed global damage, and 30% showed focal damage. This data was compared with the Caucasian group which showed 43% graded normal, 32% with global damage, and 25% with focal damage (p=0.16). Conclusions. In our study there was no difference in the frequency of globally damaged, focally damaged, and normal graded discs or visual fields between African-American and Caucasian NTG patients.

“La littérature est la seule patrie”: Nabile Farès and the Poetry of Postcolonial Displacment

Nabile Farès is a key author within postcolonial studies, due in particular to his uniquely expressive writing style. This article discusses writing style in his 1982 text, L’état perdu: précédé du discours pratique de l’immigré. Throughout the mainly French text, different alphabets are woven, alluding to the complexity of Algerian linguistic history and the importance of language in the construction and expression of identity. Meanwhile, the grammar and structure of the French language seems confused and at times illogical, raising further questions about use of a colonial language in a postcolonial context. Farès’s writing style is avant-garde in nature, and deliberate intertextuality with the Surrealists situates the text within an avant-garde tradition in the French language, developing new ideas surrounding the effect of this written genre in the aftermath of colonialism.

Reading Elizabeth Bishop's "Artifact of [Words]"

As Emerson noted in his essay 'The Poet' "we are not pans and barrows, not even porters of the fire and torch-bearers, but children of the fire, made of it, and only the same divinity transmuted, and at two or three removes, when we least know about it." For Emerson, the fire is poetry, an elemental force capable of transmutation, transformation and enduring relevance. Moving from Emerson, Elizabeth Bishop rises as the twentieth-century poet most aligned with the possibility of poetry and the powers of its practice, as 'At The Fishhouses' indicates in her clear referencing of Emerson:

"If you should dip your hand in,
your wrist would ache immediately,
your bones would begin to ache and your hand would burn
as if the water were a transmutation of fire
that feeds on stones and burns with a dark gray flame."

This essay will look in detail at Bishop's understanding of the possibility of poetry and how art functions as a multi-dimensional structure that is unsettled as much as it unsettles. In particular, Bishop's poem 'The Monument' will be unpicked as testament both to the practice of Bishop's art and also the role of the poet critic responding to what they uncover