Impact et résonances du théâtre In-yer-face au Québec : Shopping and Fucking de Mark Ravenhill (adaptation de Christian Lapointe), Faire des enfants d’Éric Noël et En dessous de vos corps je trouverai ce qui est immense et qui ne s’arrête pas de Steve Gagnon.

Le présent mémoire porte sur la présence de la violence et de la sexualité sur la scène théâtrale québécoise, ainsi que sur l’influence du mouvement britannique In-yer-face sur la dramaturgie québécoise contemporaine. Par l’étude comparative des didascalies des textes ainsi que des mises en scènes de trois productions québécoises – soit Shopping and F**king (texte de Mark Ravenhill traduit par Alexandre Lefebvre, mise en scène de Christian Lapointe), Faire des enfants (texte d’Éric Noël, mise en scène de Gaétan Paré) et En dessous de vos corps je trouverai ce qui est immense et qui ne s’arrête pas (texte et mise en scène de Steve Gagnon) –, ce mémoire explore les diverses manières de représenter la violence et la sexualité sur la scène québécoise actuelle. Ce travail dépasse l’étude textuelle, il présente une réflexion sur le théâtre québécois et les nombreuses contraintes auxquelles les artistes doivent faire face lorsqu’ils veulent présenter un spectacle de théâtre comportant des scènes de violence et de sexualité au Québec.

Impact et résonances du théâtre In-yer-face au Québec : Shopping and Fucking de Mark Ravenhill (adaptation de Christian Lapointe), Faire des enfants d’Éric Noël et En dessous de vos corps je trouverai ce qui est immense et qui ne s’arrête pas de Steve Gagnon

Le présent mémoire porte sur la présence de la violence et de la sexualité sur la scène théâtrale québécoise, ainsi que sur l’influence du mouvement britannique In-yer-face sur la dramaturgie québécoise contemporaine. Par l’étude comparative des didascalies des textes ainsi que des mises en scènes de trois productions québécoises – soit Shopping and F**king (texte de Mark Ravenhill traduit par Alexandre Lefebvre, mise en scène de Christian Lapointe), Faire des enfants (texte d’Éric Noël, mise en scène de Gaétan Paré) et En dessous de vos corps je trouverai ce qui est immense et qui ne s’arrête pas (texte et mise en scène de Steve Gagnon) –, ce mémoire explore les diverses manières de représenter la violence et la sexualité sur la scène québécoise actuelle. Ce travail dépasse l’étude textuelle, il présente une réflexion sur le théâtre québécois et les nombreuses contraintes auxquelles les artistes doivent faire face lorsqu’ils veulent présenter un spectacle de théâtre comportant des scènes de violence et de sexualité au Québec.

Sarah Kane: Cool Britannia's reluctant feminist

Aleks Sierz in his important survey of mid 1990s drama has identified the plays of Sarah Kane as exemplars of what he terms ‘In-Yer Face’ theatre. Sierz argues that Kane and her contemporaries such as Mark Ravenhill and Judy Upton represent a break with the ideological concerns of the previous generation of playwrights such as Doug Lucie and Stephen Lowe, whose work was shaped through recognizable political concerns, often in direct opposition to Thatcherism. In contrast Sarah Kane and her generation have frequently been seen as literary embodiments of ‘Thatcher’s Children’, whereby following the fall of the Berlin Wall and the inertia of the Major years, their drama eschews a recognizable political position, and seems more preoccupied with the plight of individuals cut adrift from society. In the case of Sarah Kane her frequently quoted statement, ‘I have no responsibility as a woman writer because I don’t believe there’s such a thing’, has compounded this perception. Moreover, its dogmatism also echoes the infamous comments attributed to Mrs Thatcher regarding the role of the individual to society. However, this article seeks to reassess Kane’s position as a woman writer and will argue that her drama is positioned somewhere between the female playwrights who emerged after 1979 such as Sarah Daniels, Timberlake Wertenbaker and Clare McIntyre, whose drama was distinguished by overtly feminist concerns, and its subsequent breakdown, best exemplified by the brief cultural moment associated with the newly elected Blair government known as ‘Cool Britannia’. Drawing on a variety of sources, including Kane’s unpublished monologues, written while she was a student just after Mrs Thatcher left office, this paper will argue that far from being an exponent of post-feminism, Kane’s drama frequently revisits and is influenced by the generation of dramatists whose work was forged out the sharp ideological positions that characterized the 1980s and a direct consequence of Thatcherism.

Sarah Kane: Cool Britannia’s reluctant feminist

Aleks Sierz in his important survey of mid 1990s drama has identified the plays of Sarah Kane as exemplars of what he terms ‘In-Yer Face’ theatre. Sierz argues that Kane and her contemporaries such as Mark Ravenhill and Judy Upton represent a break with the ideological concerns of the previous generation of playwrights such as Doug Lucie and Stephen Lowe, whose work was shaped through recognizable political concerns, often in direct opposition to Thatcherism. In contrast Sarah Kane and her generation have frequently been seen as literary embodiments of ‘Thatcher’s Children’, whereby following the fall of the Berlin Wall and the inertia of the Major years, their drama eschews a recognizable political position, and seems more preoccupied with the plight of individuals cut adrift from society. In the case of Sarah Kane her frequently quoted statement, ‘I have no responsibility as a woman writer because I don’t believe there’s such a thing’, has compounded this perception. Moreover, its dogmatism also echoes the infamous comments attributed to Mrs Thatcher regarding the role of the individual to society. However, this article seeks to reassess Kane’s position as a woman writer and will argue that her drama is positioned somewhere between the female playwrights who emerged after 1979 such as Sarah Daniels, Timberlake Wertenbaker and Clare McIntyre, whose drama was distinguished by overtly feminist concerns, and its subsequent breakdown, best exemplified by the brief cultural moment associated with the newly elected Blair government known as ‘Cool Britannia’. Drawing on a variety of sources, including Kane’s unpublished monologues, written while she was a student just after Mrs Thatcher left office, this paper will argue that far from being an exponent of post-feminism, Kane’s drama frequently revisits and is influenced by the generation of dramatists whose work was forged out the sharp ideological positions that characterized the 1980s and a direct consequence of Thatcherism.

Book review of Mark McGillivray and Gary Smith's (eds.) "Australia and Asia", Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1997. vii + 248 pp

The political capital invested in Australia's engagement with Asia over the past decade has sparked a lively discussion in the Australian academic community. The back cover of the book under review suggests that there are 'few bigger contemporary issues facing Australia than its relationship with Asia'. If the volume of scholarly material being produced on this issue is any indication, they are right. Like a number of similar works covering the shift in Australian foreign, defence, and trade policies towards Asia over the last decade, this book acknowledges a particular debt of gratitude to the Keating government for establishing regional engagement at the forefront of our national consciousness. Unlike some others however, this book seeks to place Australia's more recent 'discovery' of Asia into a broader historical framework.

Variants in the promoter region of IKBL/NFKBIL1 gene may mark susceptibility to the development of chronic Chagas` cardiomyopathy among Trypanosoma cruzi-infected individuals

Chagas` disease, caused by Trypanosoma cruzi, is an inflammatory disorder leading to chronic Chagas cardiomyopathy (CCC). Only one third of T cruzi-infected individuals progress to CCC while the others are considered asymptomatic (ASY). The human inhibitory kappa B-like gene (KBLINFKBIL1), homologous to the I kappa B family of proteins that regulate the NF kappa B family of transcription factors, is suggested as a putative inhibitor of NFKB. We investigated two functional polymorphisms, -62A/T and -262A/G, in the promoter of IKBL by PCR-RFLP analysis in 169 patients with CCC and 76 ASY. Genotype distributions for both -62A/T and -262A/G differed between the CCC and ASY (X-2 = 7.3; P = 0.025 and X-2 = 6.8; P = 0.03, respectively). Subjects, homozygous for the -62A allele, had three-fold risk of developing CCC compared with those carrying the TT genotype (P = 0.0095; Odds Ratio [OR] = 2.9; [95% CI 1.2-7.3]). Similar trend was observed for the -262A homozygotes (P = 0.005; OR = 2.7 [95% CI 1.3-6.0]. The haplotype -262A -62A was prevalent in patients with CCC (40% versus 24%; OR 2.1 [95% C1 1.4-3.3j; Pc = 0.00 14). The I kappa BL locus itself or another critical gene in this region may confer susceptibility to the development of CCC. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Mark-recapture may reveal more about ecology than about population trends: Demography of a threatened ghost bat (Macroderma gigas) population

Since European settlement in Australia, the geographical range of ghost bats (Macroderma gigas) has contracted northwards. Ghost bats are thought to occur in disjunct populations with little interpopulation migration, raising concerns over the current status and future viability of the southernmost colony, which has also been threatened by mining activity. To address these concerns, demographic parameters of the southernmost colony were estimated from a mark-recapture study conducted during 1975-1981. Female bats gave birth to a single young in late spring, but only 40% (22-70%, 95% CI) of females bred in their second year, increasing to 93% (87-97%, 95% CI) for females greater than or equal to 2 years old. Sixty-five percent of juveniles caught were female. Annual adult survival ranged between 0.57-0.77 for females and 0.43-0.66 for males, and was lowest over winter-spring and greatest in autumn-winter. Juvenile survival for the first year ranged between 0.35-0.46 for females and 0.29-0.42 for males. Adult survival varied among seasons, was negatively associated with rainfall, but was not associated with temperature beyond being lower in late winter. Poor survival may result from the inferior daytime roosts that bats must use if water seepage forces them to leave their normal roosts. Although these age-specific rates of fecundity and survival suggested a declining population, mark-recapture estimates of the population trend indicated stability over the study period. Counts at daytime roosts also suggested a population decline, but were considered unreliable because of an increasing tendency of bats to avoid detection. It is therefore likely that some assumptions in estimating survival were violated. These results provide a caution against the uncritical use of population projections derived from mark-recapture estimates of demographic parameters, and the use of untested indices as the basis for conservation decisions.

Mark Rothko : Da origem mítica à refundação artística do mundo

Fenómeno assinalável no nosso século foi a emergência da chamada “arte global” (Belting), dando conta da crise do “mundo da arte” e a disseminação generalizada das práticas artísticas. Neste contexto a obra de Rothko ganha uma força inesperada. Sendo usualmente inscrito no “modernismo” com os seu valores de pureza e especificidade do meio, neste caso a pintura, a nossa investigação revela que o gesto Rothkoniano excede largamente esta representação, que levaria a distinguir radicalmente entre uma fase mítica e surrealista, uma fase abstracionista dos “colour field” e finalmente uma fase sublime das pinturas da Capela Ecuménica de Rothko. Existe uma continuidade evidente que remete para uma geoestética, onde a terra e a sua habitabilidade desempenham um papel crucial. Daí a necessidade de inscrever a obra de Rothko na geofilosofia contemporânea, tal com foi delineada por Gilles Deleuze e Félix Guattari. Procedeu-se, assim, a uma análise crítica da obra e da estética de Rothko, que profeticamente, mas inconscientemente, parece abrir o caminho para o pensamento de uma arte da terra. Trata-se de uma linha de continuidade que atravessa toda a obra de Rothko, refletindo uma picturação do mundo e a vontade de criar de um mundo pictórico e poético, reduzido a elementos mínimos, pós-figurativos mas onde se reconhece a incidência dos motivos como frame e abertura, linha de horizonte e pórticos e passagens. Num segundo momento, explora-se essa dimensão “inconsciente” num projeto artístico pessoal, que se desdobra em abordagens picturais, de pintura, de instalação e de vídeo, que denominamos por “A Terra como Acontecimento”. Este projeto prolonga o esforço Rothkoniano, ao mesmo tempo que o altera profundamente, nomeadamente pelo uso dos materiais, pela mutação no uso da cor, bem como pela maneira como os elementos figurativos são radicalmente alterados pela mera transposição da perspetiva usada. Se a ressonância rothkoniana está bem presente, não menos presente está a intenção de um confronto dialogante com a Obra de Mark Rothko. Aquilo que neste importante artista, era o inconsciente, marcado pelo mito e teologia, pela delimitação da linha de horizonte, bem clássica, e, acima de tudo, pela sua verticalidade marcadamente teológica, “A Terra como Acontecimento” é a matéria que é profundamente radicalizada, bem como a lógica concetual, a qual é preferentemente circular, sem orientação absoluta, e incompleta, o que implica uma outra visão da “abertura”/”fecho”, tão essencial na obra de Rothko. Desta investigação espera-se um contributo significativo para os debates atuais sobre a arte na contemporaneidade.