Teoría y práctica del neobarroco en Severo Sarduy

This dissertation analyzes the theory and practice of the Cuban postmodern writer Severo Sarduy (1937–1993) from his early adult years in Cuba to his exile period in Paris, France, where he lived until his death. By studying his narrative through the light of his theoretical essays, this paper demonstrates that the author created his own type of reading model—from and for Sarduy. His literary work is influenced by three major elements: (post)structuralism, psychoanalysis, and Buddhism, which combined form what Sarduy himself called the Neobarroque style. The Sarduyan writing is a transgressive exercise expressed through his concept of simulación. This style breaks with the traditional art concept of mimesis (the representation of reality in the western world), and therefore with the correspondence between the signifier and the signified. Sarduy does not intend to represent reality but to go beyond it, achieving by his technique of signifying exhaustion to represent absence itself. The Neobarroque of Severo Sarduy is an aesthetic of the empty signifier based on the reckless expenditure, and ultimately exhaustion, of the artifices of language that precipitates in a signifier chain towards the infinite. His language does not transmit a message but it signifies itself, that is, a means without an end. Paradoxically, this signifier chain produces an excess of metaphors beyond the material limits of language and its support, the page. The space beyond language is the hipertelic technique inherited by Sarduy from his literary master, José Lezama Lima. This is also the empty space of no signification or nonsense in which occurs the depersonalization of the speaking subject; in Buddhist terminology this becomes the dissolution of the ego. The Sarduyan language is determined by a Lacanian psychoanalytic erotic drive (pulsion) known as the Barroquean desire, a death drive which directly relates to the exile condition of the author. But the genesis of this desire lies in a primordial desire of encounter with his origin: mother, maternal language, paradise, God. That is the reason why Sarduy not only poses an aesthetic question but also an ontological one. This other dimension of the Sarduyan writing is based on a liberating drive that permeates all his work—an ontological liberation expressed through language. The empty space created in the text provides the subject with the possibility of fusion with the all. Ultimately, Sarduy strives for a language that goes beyond the symbolic limits towards a place of constant dissolution, evanesce, and death-horror vacui. This corroborates the Sarduyan statement: “la simulación enuncia el vacío y la muerte.”

“Que diferença da mulher o homem tem?”: erotismo e pornografia em Maria Teresa Horta e Carlos Drummond de Andrade

This research has the delimitation of erotic space on printed paper as a general proposition, amidst the poetic text, and therefore the real world. To do so, it proposes the comparison of two transgressor writing styles, putting together the Portuguese writer Maria Teresa Horta and the Brazilian writer Carlos Drummond de Andrade by an erotic plot, by an atopic and declassed speech to which both of them produced works, respectively, Educação Sentimental (1975) and O amor natural (1992). Has the eroticism as a combination of the masculine and feminine voices in a heterosexual relationship. It is intended to probe how the literary universe represents man and woman, and if this representation is actually socially imposed or brings to light something new. If each point of view is the view of a point, each author will talk from the top of its point of observation and experimentation, the most comfortable for itself. Therefore, it seeks to investigate eroticism itself and its relationship to everyday life, also delimiting it from what separates – or near – it from pornography and obscenity.

Ampliação vocabular: glossário de textos do livro didático de língua portuguesa "Vontade de saber português" do 9º ano

This research aimed to verify the vocabulary difficulties faced by 9th year students while understanding the didactic book of Portuguese Language (DBPL) “Vontade de Saber Português”, used at the Municipal School Sebastião Rangel. We noticed the students had some doubts concerning the unknown vocabulary in the texts and, therefore, in text comprehension. The hypothesis is that one “difficult” word and the lexicon used by DBPL author can disturb student comprehension. We adopted some action which could simplify the little vocabulary understanding and contributed to extend it. For that reason, the job was theoretically based on Biderman (1999), Barbosa (1989), Dias (2004), Krieger (2012), Coelho (1993) and on National Curriculum Parameters of Portuguese Language, aiming to ally theory and practice. The application methodology of the proposal was done in order to the students understand that the word needs to be adapted to its context. At the begging of the job, the students read the texts and took notes of the “difficult” words, selecting, corpus. We analyzed the doubts, registering them. Then, we showed to the students the classification of abbreviated words after each entry. The students separated the words for grammar classes – lexical words” (KRIEGER, 2012). Such words have a very significant meaning to the comprehension of the read texts, being interesting to take a look in online dictionaries. In the creative glossary, done by the students, the words were spread in alphabetical order. They transcript the part where was the word and copied again, substituting the word to a clearer word. Finally, we asked the students a writing production using five words from the glossary; we showed them that the meaning of the words is not found only in the dictionary, but they can be used in different contexts. In the analyzes, was discovered that there is one necessity of a pedagogic didactic work more effective with elementary school lexicon. Thus, this proposal is not a closed receipt, but the infield location allowed a reflexive pedagogic practice about lexicon education.

Polysemy advantage with abstract but not concrete words

Peer reviewed

Polysemy advantage with abstract but not concrete words

Peer reviewed

Parsing mathematical constructs:results from a preliminary eye tracking study

The semantic model described in this paper is based on ones developed for arithmetic (e.g. McCloskey et al. 1985, Cohene and Dehaene 1995), natural language processing (Fodor 1975, Chomsky 1981) and work by the author on how learners parse mathematical structures. The semantic model highlights the importance of the parsing process and the relationship between this process and the mathematical lexicon/grammar. It concludes by demonstrating that for a learner to become an efficient, competent mathematician a process of top-down parsing is essential.

Ocularcentrism and its others: A framework for metatheoretical analysis

There is a contemporary scepticism towards vision-based metaphors in management and organization studies that reflects a more general pattern across the social sciences. In short, there has been a shift away from ocularcentrism. This shift provides a useful basis for metatheoretical analysis of the philosophical discourse that informs organizational analysis. The article begins by briefly discussing the vision-generated, vision-centred interpretation of knowledge, truth, and reality that has characterized the western philosophical tradition. Taking late 18th-century rationalism as the high-point of ocularcentrism, the article then presents a metatheoretical framework based on three trajectories that critiques of ocularcentrism have subsequently taken. The first exposes the limits of the metaphor by, paradoxically, taking it to its limits. The second trajectory seeks to displace the primordial position of the ocular metaphor and replace it with an alternative lexicon based on other human senses. Last, the third trajectory describes how the Enlightenment ocular characterization of the visual and mental worlds has effectively been inverted in the postmodern moment.

Young toddlers' word comprehension is flexible and efficient.

Much of what is known about word recognition in toddlers comes from eyetracking studies. Here we show that the speed and facility with which children recognize words, as revealed in such studies, cannot be attributed to a task-specific, closed-set strategy; rather, children's gaze to referents of spoken nouns reflects successful search of the lexicon. Toddlers' spoken word comprehension was examined in the context of pictures that had two possible names (such as a cup of juice which could be called "cup" or "juice") and pictures that had only one likely name for toddlers (such as "apple"), using a visual world eye-tracking task and a picture-labeling task (n = 77, mean age, 21 months). Toddlers were just as fast and accurate in fixating named pictures with two likely names as pictures with one. If toddlers do name pictures to themselves, the name provides no apparent benefit in word recognition, because there is no cost to understanding an alternative lexical construal of the picture. In toddlers, as in adults, spoken words rapidly evoke their referents.

Using parent report to assess early lexical production in children exposed to more than one language

Limited expressive vocabulary skills in young children are considered to be the first warning signs of a potential Specific Language Impairment (SLI) (Ellis & Thal, 2008). In bilingual language learning environments, the expressive vocabulary size in each of the child’s developing languages is usually smaller compared to the number of words produced by monolingual peers (e.g. De Houwer, 2009). Nonetheless, evidence shows children’s total productive lexicon size across both languages to be comparable to monolingual peers’ vocabularies (e.g. Pearson et al., 1993; Pearson & Fernandez, 1994). Since there is limited knowledge as to which level of bilingual vocabulary size should be considered as a risk factor for SLI, the effects of bilingualism and language-learning difficulties on early lexical production are often confounded. The compilation of profiles for early vocabulary production in children exposed to more than one language, and their comparison across language pairs, should enable more accurate identification of vocabulary delays that signal a risk for SLI in bilingual populations. These considerations prompted the design of a methodology for assessing early expressive vocabulary in children exposed to more than one language, which is described in the present chapter. The implementation of this methodological framework is then outlined by presenting the design of a study that measured the productive lexicons of children aged 24-36 months who were exposed to different language pairs, namely Maltese and English, Irish and English, Polish and English, French and Portuguese, Turkish and German as well as English and Hebrew. These studies were designed and coordinated in COST Action IS0804 Working Group 3 (WG3) and will be described in detail in a series of subsequent publications. Expressive vocabulary size was measured through parental report, by employing the vocabulary checklist of the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory: Words and Sentences (CDI: WS) (Fenson et al., 1993, 2007) and its adaptations to the participants’ languages. Here we describe the novelty of the study’s methodological design, which lies in its attempt to harmonize the use of vocabulary checklist adaptations, together with parental questionnaires addressing language exposure and developmental history, across participant groups characterized by different language exposure variables. This chapter outlines the various methodological considerations that paved the way for meaningful cross-linguistic comparison of the participants’ expressive lexicon sizes. In so doing, it hopes to provide a template for and encourage further research directed at establishing a threshold for SLI risk in children exposed to more than one language.

Discurso y decreto : Spinoza Althusser y Pêcheux

Este ensayo examina el rol del concepto de discurso en la génesis de la teoría de los Aparatos Ideológicos de Estado (AIE) de Althusser. Una lectura de sus "Tres notas sobre la teoría de los discursos" sugiere que la práctica desaparición del término "discurso" de ensayo sobre los AIE representa la supresión y no la resolución de las tensiones que afectan a la noción de la interpelación del sujeto. Al leer a Althusser a la luz de la teoría spinociana del decreto, desarrollada en la Ética, y de la noción de discurso de Pêcheux, nos tornamos capaces de aprehender la materialidad del lenguaje en todos sus aspectos, pero también de reformular el vocabulario de la conciencia y la interioridad de una manera materialista. La conjunción de Spinoza, Althusser y Pêcheux nos permite comprender mejor y transformar mediante la lucha lo que el último denominó "la peste de la sujeción".

Discurso y decreto : Spinoza Althusser y Pêcheux

Este ensayo examina el rol del concepto de discurso en la génesis de la teoría de los Aparatos Ideológicos de Estado (AIE) de Althusser. Una lectura de sus "Tres notas sobre la teoría de los discursos" sugiere que la práctica desaparición del término "discurso" de ensayo sobre los AIE representa la supresión y no la resolución de las tensiones que afectan a la noción de la interpelación del sujeto. Al leer a Althusser a la luz de la teoría spinociana del decreto, desarrollada en la Ética, y de la noción de discurso de Pêcheux, nos tornamos capaces de aprehender la materialidad del lenguaje en todos sus aspectos, pero también de reformular el vocabulario de la conciencia y la interioridad de una manera materialista. La conjunción de Spinoza, Althusser y Pêcheux nos permite comprender mejor y transformar mediante la lucha lo que el último denominó "la peste de la sujeción".

Straight but not Narrow; Within-Gender Variation in the Gender-Specificity of Women's Sexual Response

Gender differences in the specificity of sexual response have been a primary focus in sexual psychophysiology research, however, within-gender variability suggests sexual orientation moderates category-specific responding among women; only heterosexual women show gender-nonspecific genital responses to sexual stimuli depicting men and women. But heterosexually-identified or “straight” women are heterogeneous in their sexual attractions and include women who are exclusively androphilic (sexually attracted to men) and women who are predominantly androphilic with concurrent gynephilia (sexually attracted to women). It is therefore unclear if gender-nonspecific responding is found in both exclusively and predominantly androphilic women. The current studies investigated within-gender variability in the gender-specificity of women’s sexual response. Two samples of women reporting concurrent andro/gynephilia viewed (Study 1, n = 29) or listened (Study 2, n = 30) to erotic stimuli varying by gender of sexual partner depicted while their genital and subjective sexual responses were assessed. Data were combined with larger datasets of predominantly gyne- and androphilic women (total N = 78 for both studies). In both studies, women reporting any degree of gynephilia, including those who self-identified as heterosexual, showed significantly greater genital response to female stimuli, similar to predominantly gynephilic women; gender-nonspecific genital response was observed for exclusively androphilic women only. Subjective sexual arousal patterns were more variable with respect to sexual attractions, likely reflecting stimulus intensity effects. Heterosexually-identified women are therefore not a homogenous group with respect to sexual responses to gender cues. Implications for within-gender variation in women’s sexual orientation and sexual responses are discussed.

New Narratives of International Security Governance: The Shift from Global Interventionism to Global Self-Policing

This article examines the transformation in the narratives of the international governance of security over the last two decades. It suggests that there has been a major shift from governing interventions designed to address the causes of security problems to the regulation of the effects of these problems. In rearticulating the goals of international actors, the means and mechanisms of security governance have also changed, no longer focused on the universal application of Western knowledge and resources but rather on the unique local and organic processes at work in societies that bear the brunt of these problems. This transformation takes the conceptualisation of security governance out of the traditional terminological lexicon of security expertise and universal solutions and instead articulates the problematic of security and the policing of global risks in terms of local management processes, suggesting that decentralised coping strategies and self-policing are more effective and sustainable solutions.

Reconceptualising International Intervention: Statebuilding, ‘Organic Processes’ and the Limits of Causal Knowledge

This article examines the transformation in the conceptual understanding of international intervention over the last two decades. It suggests that this conceptual shift can be usefully interrogated through its imbrication within broader epistemological shifts highlighting the limits of causal knowledge claims: heuristically framed in this article in terms of the shift from policy interventions within the problematic of causation to those concerned with the management of effects. In this shift, the means and mechanisms of international intervention have been transformed, no longer focused on the universal application of Western causal knowledge through policy interventions but rather on the effects of specific and unique local and organic processes at work in societies themselves. The focus on effects takes the conceptualisation of intervention out of the traditional terminological lexicon of International Relations theory and instead recasts problems in increasingly organicised ways, suggesting that artificial or hubristic attempts at socio-political intervention should be excluded or minimised.

Contar la crisis: materiales narrativos en la semántica social de la crisis

Basado en la evidencia proporcionada por 9 grupos de discusión, este trabajo aborda la semántica social de la crisis en el marco de la hipótesis propuesta por Janet Roitman. En consecuencia propone retratar distintas estrategias narrativas que permiten dar cuenta de la experiencia de la crisis según cuatro ejes de contraposiciones: agencia/paciencia, moralización/poder, coyuntura/cronicidad, destrucción/creación. En su parte final, propone fijar los rasgos fundamentales de los sujetos que aparecen en seno de las tramas narrativas propuestas.