The Where, Who, When and Why of Medieval Welsh Prose Texts: Some Methodological Considerations

Rodway, S. (2007). The Where, Who, When and Why of Medieval Welsh Prose Texts: Some Methodological Considerations. Studia Celtica. 41, pp.47-89. RAE2008

Życie po wybuchu. Refleksy transformacji w czeskiej dramaturgii po 1989 roku

Niniejszy esej poświęcony jest analizie czeskich, teatralnych refleksji na temat rzeczywistości po transformacji politycznej. Przegląd wybranych sztuk, powstałych w latach 1994-2006, zawiera krótkie literaturoznawcze opracowania tekstów M. Bambuška, L. Baláka i J. Topola, dopełnione uwagami na temat dzieł D. Drábka i M. Urbana. Skatalogowano powtarzające się w sztukach wymienionych autorów motywy: czekania na barbarzyńców, poczucia epistemologicznego i społecznego chaosu, neotrybalizmu i spustoszenia w dziedzinie międzyludzkiej komunikacji (kryzys języka). Pomocną kategorią, wywodzącą się z amerykańskiej socjologii, jest backlash: stan po wybuchu. Backlash jest stanem psychologicznym (również w sensie psycho- logii społecznej), który skłania do podejmowania decyzji nieracjonalnych i niebezpiecznych, służących wyłącznie zniesieniu poczucia niepewności i tęsknoty. Ten stan obserwują i komentują wymienieni autorzy sztuk teatralnych.

Behind the paravent: a study of Konrad Bayer's dramatic texts

This thesis is a study of Konrad Bayer's dramatic texts. It has evolved out of various attempts to read those texts, some filed and some more successful. It does not claim to be authoritative or complete, since the nature of Bayer's texts, as will become clear in the course of the ensuing chapters, means that they resist such an interpretation. To accept this was an important prerequisite for the writing of this thesis, but a difficult one to fulfill because for the Bayer commentator it constitutes a certain acceptance of defeat even before one begins. Chapter 1 will begin by providing some introductory information about Konrad Bayer, including details of his life and his membership of the Wiener Gruppe, a formative phase in his development as a writer. It will also consider the historical and cultural climate of 1950s Austria that provided the backdrop for Bayer's literary work. The phenomenon of the Wiener Gruppe will then be examined against the background of preceding experimental movements, for the purpose of situating Bayer's work historically and artistically. The aim of this historical and artistic survey is to prepare for the confrontation with Bayer's texts that makes up the other chapters of the thesis. Chapter 2 will constitute a close textual study of one of Bayer's dramatic texts using criteria from the field of text linguistics. Such a study will offer an entry point into Bayer's texts and will supply material which will form the basis for the interpretative investigations of the chapters that follow it. Chapter 3 will consider the influence of language and the individual. In chapter 4 the figure of the Lion of Belfort, a recurring figure in Bayer's dramatic texts, is discussed. The final chapter of this thesis will examine the recurring motifs of violence and cannibalism and will consider them in terms of the findings of preceding chapters.

'Muchos Méxicos': widening the lens in Rulfo's cinematic texts

It is difficult to overstate the importance of Juan Rulfo’s two major pieces of fictional narrative work—his haunting, enigmatic novel Pedro Páramo (1955) and his unrelenting depictions of the failures of post-revolutionary Mexico in his short story collection El Llano en llamas (1953). In her foreword to the Margaret Sayers Peden English translation, Susan Sontag hails Pedro Páramo as ‘not only one of the masterpieces of 20th Century world literature, but one of the most influential of the century’s books’. García Márquez has compared the influence of Rulfo on 20th Century world literature to that of Sophocles: ‘No son más de 300 páginas, pero son casi tantas y creo tan perdurables como las que conocemos de Sófocles’ and, completing this oftrepeated triumvirate of recommendations, Jorge Luis Borges has referred to Pedro Páramo as: ‘una de las mejores novelas de las literaturas de lengua hispánica, y aun de la literatura.’ Despite the praise heaped upon Rulfo’s two most famous books, when his third book of fiction, El gallo de oro y otros textos para cine, was finally published in 1980, just six years before his death, it was greeted with almost critical silence. It is precisely this publication that provides the focus of this investigation. The collection contains three texts—El despojo, La fórmula secreta and El gallo de oro. Constituting a third of the fictional work he published in his lifetime, expanding upon themes present in El Llano en llamas and Pedro Páramo while, at the same time, examining new ground, no thematic discussion of Rulfo’s written output is complete without including these texts. Yet they are frequently dismissed. In this way this investigation attempts to go some way towards filling this critical gap in the work of one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century

Salted fish products from the Coptic monastery at Bawit, Egypt: evidence from the bones and texts

Fish bone assemblages are described that were recently discovered in the storage area of two rooms, dated to the 7th century AD, from the monastery of Bawit, Egypt. The species composition, the reconstructed sizes of the fish and the find contexts show that this material represents pickled fish (salsamenta). This product was made in one case of medium-sized Clarias catfish, whereas another assemblage, found inside an amphora, consisted of small-sized fish, mainly cyprinids and alestiids. The latter product was stored in a Late Roman Amphora 5/6 of Palestinian origin, traditionally considered as a container for wine. The amphora was clearly re-used since the fish found in it are Nilotic species which excludes that the salsamenta came from outside Egypt. A few additional finds of fish inside amphorae were available, but due to the low number of bones it was unclear if salted fish products were stored in them. Textual information provided by ostraca and papyri from the same site shows that the monks exerted fishing activities themselves and also suggests that the production of pickled fish took place locally. One of the two Nilotic fish taxa (Labeo) that is specifically mentioned by written evidence is the most common ingredient found in the amphora with abundant fish remains. The paper ends with a brief summary of other faunal evidence for salted fish products from monastic and other historic sites in Egypt.

Distant Light: Songs on Texts by Richard Boada

Distant Light: Songs on Texts by Richard Boada is a collection of songs for baritone voice, piano, alto saxophone, and percussion (vibraphone and marimba). The texts do not present a continuous narrative, but they share common themes. Most are set in the rural South and deal with the conflict between nature and industrial development. This piece functions as a cohesive whole, but each song could be performed separately and would be effective out of the context of the entire work. Distant Light is made up of eight songs and is approximately 23 minutes in duration.

[Book reviews] Review of J. E. Hoch, Semitic Words in Egyptian Texts of the New Kingdom and Third Intermediate Period and D. Sivan and Z. Cochavi-Rainey, West Semitic Vocabulary in Egyptian Script of the 14th to the 10th Centuries BCE

Reviews of: [1] James E. Hoch, Semitic Words in Egyptian Texts of the New Kingdom and Third Intermediate Period, (1994), Princeton University Press. [2] Daniel Sivan and Zipora Cochavi-Rainey, West Semitic Vocabulary in Egyptian Script of the 14th to the 10th Centuries BCE, (1992), Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Press.

Has cultural studies sounded the death-knell of classical sociology prematurely?: the view from Romani studies

The paper will argue that although Bryan S.Turner's recent defence of classical sociology was seen as apostacy by some, it points to real problems in the idealism and a-historicism of contemporary cultural studies. The paper will examine the importance of the classical sociological problematic in getting the field of Romani Studies started, and the continuing relevance of a sociological approach rooted in history and political economy. [From the Author]

Belief, Knowledge and Expertise. The emergence of the lay expert in medical sociology

The paper has three main aims. First, to trace – through the pages of the Journal – the changing ways in which lay understandings of health and illness have been represented during the 1979-2002 period. Second, to say something about the limits of lay knowledge (and particularly lay expertise) in matters of health and medicine. Third, to call for a re-assessment of what lay people can offer to a democratised and customer sensitive system of health care and to attempt to draw a boundary around the domain of expertise. In following through on those aims, the author calls upon data derived from three current projects. These latter concern the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease in people with Down’s syndrome; the development of an outcome measure for people who have suffered a traumatic brain injury; and a study of why older people might reject annual influenza vaccinations. Key words: Lay health beliefs, lay expertise, Alzheimer’s, Traumatic Brain Injury, Vaccinations