bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Nuclear safety discourse in the European Arctic
Authors: Hønneland Geir
Published: January 2004

The article outlines discourses surrounding the emergence and implementation of the Norwegian Plan of Action for nuclear safety in northwestern Russia. The launching of the Plan of Action was facilitated by the ‘Barents euphoria discourse,’ which held optimistic views of a general clean-up in northwestern Russia with the help of infrastructure financed by the Nordic side, and the ‘nuclear disaster discourse,’ hinging on the idea of a ‘ticking time bomb’ in Norway's immediate vicinity to the east. The latter discourse clashes with the prevalent Russian ‘nuclear complex discourse,’ the main assumption of which is that issues of nuclear safety should be left to the experts, not to the general public. Criticism of the Plan of Action mounted around the turn of the century, eventually causing the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to designate it as largely unsuccessful. The ‘environmental blackmail discourse’ took over in Norway, with its story line that ‘the Russians are taking advantage of us.’ The ‘cold peace discourse’ in Russia has primarily served to obscure Norwegian motivations for the Russians.
Monitoring and remediation of hydrocarbon contamination at the former site of Greenpeace's World Park Base, Cape Evans, Ross Island, Antarctica
Authors: Roura Ricardo
Published: January 2004

This paper describes the results of a program for the monitoring and remediation of hydrocarbon contamination at the former Greenpeace base site, located at Cape Evans, Ross Island, Antarctica (77°38′S, 166°24′E). World Park Base operated year-round between 1987 and 1991. It was entirely removed in 1991–92. Increased levels of hydrocarbons occurred in sediments nearby the base. The total volume of fuel spilt during Greenpeace operations, estimated at less than 200 L, was less than what would now require reporting according to existing guidelines for national programs. Some fuel spills might have predated Greenpeace activities. Hydrocarbon contamination was highly localised and largely contained in the active layer. However, in one site hydrocarbons were detected to a depth of 70 cm into the permafrost. Low impact, low technology remedial action applied at some sites removed a significant percentage of fuel in the active layer, thus reducing the potential for secondary effects. The fuel that remains in the subsurface post-remediation, estimated in the order of some tens of litres, is contained in ‘lenses’ of contaminated sediment at the bottom of the active layer. These subsurface hydrocarbons may mobilise into the backfill cover above or in the upper part of the permafrost. Hydrocarbons were detected in previously uncontaminated backfill, which may have resulted from upward migration and re-deposition of hydrocarbons. During the monitoring period the interaction of contaminated sites with meltwater and aeolian processes did not significantly change the hydrocarbon distribution at spill sites, although limited mobilisation of hydrocarbons is likely to occur by these or other mechanisms. The difficulty of removing hydrocarbons from permafrost terrain underscores the legal (under the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty) and ethical responsibility of all operators to avoid their release into the Antarctic wilderness, including the areas that have been subject to earlier impacts. A no-action approach might in some cases be the best option available to deal with contaminants in freezing ground, but it is not acceptable unless it is preceded by the thoughtful consideration of all other alternatives. Ultimately, there is a need to find environmentally friendly alternatives to using fossil fuels as the primary source of energy in Antarctic stations.
Prospective evaluation of neurological soft signs in first-episode schizophrenia in relation to psychopathology: state versus trait phenomena
Authors: WHITTY P. , CLARKE M. , BROWNE S. , McTIGUE O. , KAMALI M. , FEENEY L. , LANE A. , KINSELLA A. , WADDINGTON J. L. , LARKIN C. , O'CALLAGHAN E.
Published: January 2004

Background. Although patients with schizophrenia have increased rates of neurological soft signs, few studies have examined prospectively their trait or state characteristics in relation to psychopathology.

Method. In a prospective study of 97 patients with first-episode schizophrenia (DSM-IV criteria) we assessed neurological soft signs and psychopathology at presentation and at 6 month follow-up for 73 cases. To establish whether soft signs were associated with variations in clinical state, neurological soft signs were measured using two validated examinations (Neurological Evaluation Scale and Condensed Neurological Examination); psychopathology was assessed using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale.

Results. There was significant improvement in overall neurological function, primarily in motor-related and cortical signs, which were associated with improvement in psychopathology. Conversely, ‘harder’ signs were unrelated to improvement in psychopathology.

Conclusions. Neurological soft signs in schizophrenia are heterogenous. Motor and cortical signs evidence state-like characteristics and vary with clinical course, while ‘harder’ signs evidence more static, trait-like characteristics in accordance with a neurodevelopmental basis.
Cognitive functioning in young and middle-aged unmedicated out-patients with major depression: testing the effort and cognitive speed hypotheses
Authors: DEN HARTOG H. M. , DERIX M. M. A. , VAN BEMMEL A. L. , KREMER B. , JOLLES J.
Published: January 2004

Background. Cognitive deficits are common in major depressive disorder, but their nature is unclear. The effort hypothesis states that performance on effortful tasks is disproportionately impaired compared with the performance on automatic tasks. The cognitive speed hypothesis states that depression is characterized by cognitive slowness, which is a source of cognitive dysfunctioning. The present study investigated both theories in unmedicated adult depressive patients. It was also investigated whether the cognitive deficits can be attributed to more general physical illness-related factors or specifically to depressive disorder.

Methods. Thirty non-psychotic depressive out-patients were compared with 38 healthy control subjects and 25 patients with severe allergic rhinitis. The effects of group on more automatic and more effortful aspects of cognitive tasks measuring cognitive speed (Concept Shifting Task, Stroop Colour Word Test, Memory Scanning Test) and memory retrieval (Visual Verbal Learning Task, Verbal Fluency Test) were evaluated by MANCOVA. Age, sex, education and pre-morbid intelligence were treated as covariates.

Results. The depressive group had cognitive deficits in the automatic processing subtask of the Stroop, memory scanning and memory span. Performance on more effortful tasks was not impaired.

Conclusions. Our results are more consistent with the cognitive speed hypothesis. Cognitive functioning in depressive disorder seems to be characterized by a reduced speed of information processing in automatic subtasks.
The detection of intentional contingencies in simple animations in patients with delusions of persecution
Authors: BLAKEMORE S.-J. , SARFATI Y. , BAZIN N. , DECETY J.
Published: January 2004

Background. It has been proposed that delusions of persecution are caused by the tendency to over-attribute malevolent intentions to other people's actions. One aspect of intention attribution is detecting contingencies between an agent's actions and intentions. Here, we used simplified stimuli to test the hypothesis that patients with persecutory delusions over-attribute contingency to agents' movements.

Method. Short animations were presented to three groups of subjects: (1) schizophrenic patients; (2) patients with affective disorders; and (3) normal control subjects. Patients were divided on the basis of the presence or absence of delusions of persecution. Participants watched four types of film featuring two shapes. In half the films one shape's movement was contingent on the other shape. Contingency was either ‘intentional’: one shape moved when it ‘saw’ another shape; or ‘mechanical’: one shape was launched by the other shape. Subjects were asked to rate the strength of the relationship between the movement of the shapes.

Results. Normal control subjects and patients without delusions of persecution rated the relationship between the movement of the shapes as stronger in both mechanical and intentional contingent conditions than in non-contingent conditions. In contrast, there was no significant difference between the ratings of patients with delusions of persecution for the conditions in which movement was animate. Patients with delusions of persecution perceived contingency when there was none in the animate non-contingent condition.

Conclusions. The results suggest that delusions of persecution may be associated with the over-attribution of contingency to the actions of agents.
Pre-morbid characteristics and co-morbidity of methamphetamine users with and without psychosis
Authors: CHEN C.-K. , LIN S.-K. , SHAM P. C. , BALL D. , LOH E.-W. , HSIAO C.-C. , CHIANG Y.-L. , REE S.-C. , LEE C.-H. , MURRAY R. M.
Published: January 2004

Background. The long-term use of methamphetamine (MAMP) can result in psychosis but it is not clear why some individuals develop psychotic symptoms, while others use MAMP regularly over long periods and remain unscathed. We set out to characterize MAMP users and to examine the relationship of pre-morbid personality, pre-morbid social function and other psychiatric disorders to MAMP psychosis.

Method. Four hundred and forty-five amphetamine users were recruited from a psychiatric hospital and a detention centre in Taipei, and were assessed with the Diagnostic Interview for Genetic Studies (DIGS). Their parents were interviewed with the Premorbid Schizoid and Schizotypal Traits (PSST) and the Premorbid Social Adjustment (PSA) schedules. Pre-morbid characteristics and psychiatric co-morbidity were compared between the MAMP users with a lifetime diagnosis of MAMP psychosis and those without.

Results. The MAMP users with psychosis presented a clinical picture which mimicked the positive symptoms of schizophrenia: 85% had auditory hallucinations; 71% persecutory delusions; 63% delusions of reference. Compared with their non-psychotic counterparts, these MAMP users were younger at first MAMP use, used larger amounts of MAMP, had a significantly higher mean PSST score, and higher rates of major depressive disorder, alcohol dependence and antisocial personality disorder.

Conclusions. Earlier and larger use of MAMP was associated with increased risk of psychosis. Our data are also compatible with the view that pre-morbid schizoid/schizotypal personality predisposes MAMP users to develop psychosis, and that the greater the personality vulnerability, the longer the psychosis will persist.
The effects of anxiety, substance use and conduct disorders on risk of major depressive disorder
Authors: HETTEMA J. M. , PRESCOTT C. A. , KENDLER K. S.
Published: January 2004

Background. Major depressive disorder (MDD) is highly co-morbid with other Axis I disorders, which commonly precede its onset. We sought to determine the level and periods of risk for MDD posed by prior or co-occurring psychiatric disorders.

Method. Using retrospective data from a longitudinal, population-based sample of 2926 male and 1929 female adult twin subjects, we predicted the hazard rates for MDD from a Cox proportional hazards model with same-year or prior onsets of co-morbid Axis I disorders as time-dependent covariates.

Results. All axis I disorders studied (generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, phobia, alcohol dependence, psychoactive substance use disorders and conduct disorder) significantly predicted increased risk for developing MDD. The highest hazard rates occurred for MDD onsets that co-occurred with those of the co-morbid disorder. However, the risk for onset of MDD subsequent to that of prior disorders is also significantly increased and remains relatively unchanged over time. Although the risk for onset of MDD is significantly higher in women than men, this was not explained by gender differences in prior disorder prevalence or increased sensitivity in women to the effects of prior disorders on risk for depression.

Conclusions. Prior psychiatric disorders are significant risk factors for the development of MDD, independent of the length of the intervening period between the onset of the first disorder and that of MDD.
Competence of mentally ill patients: a comparative empirical study
Authors: VOLLMANN J. , BAUER A. , DANKER-HOPFE H. , HELMCHEN H.
Published: January 2004

Background. This study investigates the competence of patients with dementia, depression and schizophrenia to make treatment decisions. The outcome of an objective test instrument is presented and compared with clinical assessment of competence by the attending physician.

Method. The MacArthur Competence Assessment Tool-Treatment (MacCAT-T), a test instrument to assess abilities in different standards of competence, was administered to patients with diagnoses of dementia (N=31), depression (N=35) and schizophrenia (N=43). Statistical significance of group differences in the MacCAT-T results were tested with the chi-square test. The concordance of the test and clinical assessment of competence by the attending physician were evaluated by Cohen's kappa coefficient.

Results. Patients with dementia, as a group, showed significantly more often impaired performance than those with schizophrenia who were still more impaired than depressed patients. Patients were classified as impaired or not depending on the standards used. By combination of all standards substantially more patients were classified as impaired than by clinical assessment (67·7 v. 48·4% of patients with dementia, 20·0 v. 2·9% of patients with depression, 53·5 v. 18·4% of patients with schizophrenia).

Conclusions. Using different standards of competence the study showed substantial differences among patients with dementia, depression and schizophrenia. The high proportion of patients identified as incompetent raises several ethical questions, in particular, those referring to the selection of standards or the definition of cut-offs for incompetence. The discrepancy between clinical and formal evaluations points out the influence of the used procedure on competence judgements.
Examining the relationship between pubertal stage, adolescent health behaviours and stress
Authors: SIMON A. E. , WARDLE J. , JARVIS M. J. , STEGGLES N. , CARTWRIGHT M.
Published: January 2004

Background. This paper examines the associations between puberty and three important health behaviours (smoking, food intake and exercise) and explores whether these associations are mediated by puberty's relationship to stress and psychological difficulties.

Method. Data were taken from the first year of the ongoing, 5-year, Health and Behaviours in Teenagers Study (HABITS). This is a school-based study set in 36 schools in London. In the first year of the study, 4320 students (2578 boys, 1742 girls) in their first year of secondary education took part.

Results. Among girls, being more pubertally advanced was associated with a greater likelihood of having tried smoking. Among boys, being more pubertally advanced was associated with a greater likelihood of having tried smoking, a higher intake of high-fat food and higher levels of exercise. More pubertally advanced girls experienced more stress but not more psychological difficulties. There were no associations between puberty and either stress or psychological difficulties in boys. Stress and psychological difficulties were associated with health behaviours in girls and boys, but neither of these factors mediated the relationship between pubertal stage and health behaviours found in girls.

Conclusions. These results suggest that the onset of puberty has a marked effect on the development of health behaviours. Puberty was related to an acceleration of the development of unhealthy behaviours, except for exercise behaviour in boys, where advanced puberty was associated with more exercise. These changes were unrelated to adolescent issues of stress and a causal explanation for these associations must be sought elsewhere.
The effect of a nutritional source of tryptophan on dieting-induced changes in brain 5-HT function
Authors: ATTENBURROW M.-J. , WILLIAMS C. , ODONTIADIS J. , POWELL J. , VAN DE OUDERAA F. , WILLIAMS M. , COWEN P. J.
Published: January 2004

Background. Dieting in healthy women results in a decrease in the availability of tryptophan (TRP), the amino-acid precursor of serotonin (5-HT), for brain 5-HT synthesis. This is associated with increases in the prolactin response to 5-HT drug challenge suggesting a ‘supersensitivity’ of 5-HT neuroendocrine responses. The aim of the study was to assess whether increased TRP intake during dieting would prevent the changes in TRP availability and 5-HT neuroendocrine function.

Method. Fifty female subjects underwent a 1000 kcal daily diet for 3 weeks. In the final week of the diet subjects were randomly allocated to receive either nutritionally-sourced TRP (1·8 g daily) or placebo in a double-blind, parallel group, design.

Results. TRP supplementation failed to modify the dieting-induced reduction in fasting TRP availability to the brain. However, in contrast to placebo-treated subjects, subjects receiving additional TRP did not show enhanced prolactin responses to intravenous TRP challenge.

Conclusions. The decrease in TRP availability produced by dieting may be due to increased TRP metabolism rather than decreased TRP intake. While TRP treatment did not increase fasting TRP availability it may have modified the effect of dieting on brain 5-HT function. Further studies will be needed to see if this effect of TRP has consequences for the effectiveness of dieting as means of weight control.
Attributes of long-term heavy cannabis users: a case–control study
Authors: GRUBER A. J. , POPE H. G. , HUDSON J. I. , YURGELUN-TODD D.
Published: January 2004

Background. Although cannabis is the most widely used illicit drug in the United States, few recent American studies have examined the attributes of long-term heavy cannabis users.

Method. Using a case–control design, we obtained psychological and demographic measures on 108 individuals, age 30–55, who had smoked cannabis a mean of 18000 times and a minimum of 5000 times in their lives. We compared these heavy users to 72 age-matched control subjects who had smoked at least once, but no more than 50 times in their lives.

Results. We found no significant differences between the two groups on reported levels of income and education in their families of origin. However, the heavy users themselves reported significantly lower educational attainment (P<0·001) and income (P=0·003) than the controls, even after adjustment for a large number of potentially confounding variables. When asked to rate the subjective effects of cannabis on their cognition, memory, career, social life, physical health and mental health, large majorities of heavy users (66–90%) reported a ‘negative effect’. On several measures of quality of life, heavy users also reported significantly lower levels of satisfaction than controls.

Conclusion. Both objective and self-report measures suggest numerous negative features associated with long-term heavy cannabis use. Thus, it seems important to understand why heavy users continue to smoke regularly for years, despite acknowledging these negative effects. Such an understanding may guide the development of strategies to treat cannabis dependence.
The genetic epidemiology of body attitudes, the attitudinal component of body image in women
Authors: WADE T. D. , WILKINSON J. , BEN-TOVIM D.
Published: January 2004

Background. There were four purposes of the current study, including the investigation of the: (i) adequacy of a multidimensional measure of body image; (ii) genetic and environmental epidemiology of this measure; (iii) shared variance between genetic and environmental risk factors for body mass index (BMI) and body image; and (iv) Equal Environment Assumption (EEA) as it related to body attitudes.

Method. Six types of body attitudes, as measured by the Body Attitudes Questionnaire (BAQ) and reported by 894 complete female–female twin pairs (mean age 32·35 years, S.D.=41·8) from the Australian Twin Registry, were analysed.

Results. Confirmatory factor analysis of the BAQ supported the adequacy of the measure. Additive genetic and unique environmental influences best accounted for the variance of all six of the BAQ subscales. The relationship between BMI and body attitudes was primarily due to shared genes rather than environment but the majority of genetic and environmental effects on body attitudes were independent of BMI, with the exception of the Feeling Fat subscale, which shared 53% of its genetic risk factors with BMI. One violation of the EEA was suggested, namely similarity of childhood treatment influenced similarity on Lower Body Fatness subscale.

Conclusions. Findings support the notion that: (i) body image is a multidimensional concept; (ii) it is relatively independent of BMI; and (iii) both genetic and non-shared environment are influential determinants of body attitudes.
Major depression and cigarette smoking: results of a 21-year longitudinal study
Authors: FERGUSSON D. M. , GOODWIN R. D. , HORWOOD L. J.
Published: January 2004

Background. The aim of this paper was to examine the association between major depression and cigarette smoking among young adults in a birth cohort before and after adjusting for confounding factors.

Method. Data were gathered over the course of the Christchurch Health and Development Study (CHDS). The CHDS is a longitudinal study of a birth cohort of 1265 New Zealand children studied to age 21. Data were gathered by interview on: (a) major depression over the period 16–21 years; (b) daily smoking and nicotine dependence over the period from 16–21 years. In addition, the study included extensive information on social, family, and behavioural factors in childhood and adolescence.

Results. Young people meeting DSM-IV criteria for major depression had elevated rates of daily smoking and nicotine dependence. These associations were reduced substantially by control for potential confounding child and adolescent factors. Nonetheless, even after such control, major depression was associated with increased rates of daily smoking (IRR=1·19; 95% CI=1·03, 1·39) and elevated rates of nicotine dependence (OR=1·75; 95% CI=1·13, 2·70).

Conclusions. The results suggest that much of the association between smoking and depression reflects common confounding factors that are associated with both outcomes. Nonetheless, even after control for these factors there is evidence of a possible causal linkage between smoking and depression. The direction of causality between smoking and depression remains unknown.
Neuropsychological investigations of the impulsive personality disorders
Authors: ROGERS R. D.
Published: January 2004

There has been revived interest within the last few years in neuropsychological investigations of personality disorders (PDs) associated with impulsive and/or anti-social behaviour. Neuropsychological studies of such PDs offer two potential benefits: (i) an improving characterization of the cognitive and emotional difficulties experienced by individuals diagnosed with these disorders and, in particular, borderline PD and anti-social PD; (ii) the development of more precise hypotheses about the role of brain dysfunction in the aetiology and behavioural problems associated with these conditions. The most recent neuropsychological studies of impulsive PD have been interpreted against a background of accumulating evidence for structural (Driessen et al. 2000; Raine et al. 2000; Dolan et al. 2001), neurochemical (Coccaro & Siever, 1995; Steinberg et al. 1997; Leyton et al. 2001) and functional brain abnormalities (Donegan et al. 2003). Future studies of impulsive PDs will be able to exploit advances in structural imaging (e.g. diffusion tensor imaging/tract mapping, e.g. Hoptman et al. 2002), as well as pharmacological and behavioural genetics (McGuffin & Thapar, 1992; Lesch et al. 1996; Skodol et al. 2002).
Text and performance in Africa
Authors: BARBER KARIN
Published: January 2004

If written texts usually involve some kind of performative dimension, oral performances also entail the constitution of a text. American linguistic anthropology uses the term ‘entextualization’ for the process by which stretches of spoken discourse are detached from their immediate context and rendered repeatable and thus transmissible. In African oral poetry there are entextualizing strategies which involve rendering discourse object-like: by making it the focus of exegesis, or by presenting it as quotable, thus foregrounding the perception that these words pre-existed their present moment of utterance and could continue to exist after it. However, African oral praise poetry is also highly dynamic. Text is not consolidated in order to constitute it as an unchanging monument, but rather so that it can be re-activated in a new context of utterance, where it has an effectual engagement and dialogic force. Thus the performative and the entextualizing dimension can be seen to be inseparable and mutually dependent.
On the concept of ‘definitive text’ in Somali poetry
Authors: ORWIN MARTIN
Published: January 2004

The notion of text, along with the issues relating to how variable or fixed a text may be, has been a central issue in the study of oral literature for some time. In this article it will be argued that the notion of the poetic text as being unchangeable is central to Somali maanso poetry, and that such poems are instances of what become, through the composition process, ‘definitive texts’. Arguments in favour of this will be presented from a number of different perspectives. Maanso poetry will be contrasted with traditional hees and the characteristics of both outlined, with a view to showing how the ‘texts’ of each type of poetry differ from an extra-textual viewpoint, that is from the point of view of people's expectations regarding the different types of poetry. Intratextual characteristics will also be mentioned with a view to showing the objectivity and autonomy of maanso definitive texts. The development of modern hees from the heello and also the development of the use of writing in Somali poetry will also be considered and shown to support the idea of the maanso definitive text.
Performance and written literature in Classical Greece: envisaging performance from written literature and comparative contexts
Authors: THOMAS ROSALIND
Published: January 2004

This paper examines the nature of performance literature in Ancient Greece, comparing it with other modern and medieval examples. It concentrates on archaic Greek ‘song culture’, and especially choral praise poetry. It discusses the social and cultural significance of the original performances and, drawing on comparative examples, investigates the ‘gap’ between performance and text, possible cultural explanations and interpretations of ‘difficult’ performed literature—particularly competitive and religious—which stand out in comparison to performance literatures elsewhere.
The culture of play: kabuki and the production of texts
Authors: GERSTLE C. ANDREW
Published: January 2004

This article examines the role of performance (defined in its broadest sense) in Japanese literary culture, specifically the relationship between performance and the production of physical texts, both script and illustration. It postulates the thesis that performance has been an essential part of artistic creation even among highly literate artists/writers in the genres of poetry (waka, renga, haikai, kyōka), Nō and kabuki drama. A case is made that artists' salons (including professionals and amateurs) were an integral part of cultural life and that their activities were as important as the physical texts produced in response to such performances. The core of the article focuses on the Kabuki ‘culture of play’ in Osaka, through which actors, poets, artists and fans participated both in performances and in the production of texts such as books on actors (yakusha ehon), books on theatre (gekisho), surimono (privately-commissioned prints commemorating a poetry gathering), single-sheet actor prints, and actor critique books (yakusha hyōbanki).
From ‘theory’ to ‘discourse’: the
making of a translation anthology
Authors: CHEUNG MARTHA P.
Y.
Published: January 2004

How
translatable are concepts across cultures? How do translated concepts interact
with the receiving culture's repertoire of concepts and influence its
prevailing mode of thinking? How do translated concepts, specifically concepts of
category of knowledge such as ‘science’, ‘philosophy’,
‘religion’, etc., have an impact on the receiving culture's
existing body of knowledge? This paper explores the above questions with
reference to an anthology currently being compiled by the author, in English
translation, of texts on Chinese thinking about translation. The initial title
was ‘An anthology of Chinese translation theories: from ancient times to
the revolution of 1911’; this was changed to ‘An anthology of Chinese
thought on translation’ before the present title, ‘An anthology of
Chinese discourse on translation’, was adopted. By analysing, in a
self-reflective manner, the decisions involved in the movement from
‘theory’ to ‘thought’ to ‘discourse’, I hope
to throw some light on the epistemological impact produced by translated concepts
in the receiving culture. The impact is analysed in terms of the disciplining of
knowledge that could be effected by translated concepts—disciplining in the
sense of organizing, ordering, hierarchizing, including/excluding,
centring/decentring, aligning and re-aligning of material deemed to
constitute knowledge in the receiving culture, for the purpose of mono-cultural
cross-cultural, or intercultural study. As the use of translated concepts (e.g.
‘science’, ‘philosophy’, ‘religion’) to name
bodies of knowledge in ancient China is a common, though not uncontroversial
practice, the issue of the disciplining of knowledge dealt with in this paper
should be relevant not only to translation scholars but also to sinologists and
Chinese scholars the world over.
Metamorphoses of Scheherazade in literature and film
Authors: OUYANG WEN-CHIN
Published: January 2004

This article traces the metamorphoses of Scheherazade, the heroine of The Thousand and One Nights' frame-tale, in modern fiction and film. It examines these metamorphoses in the context of a discussion of the function of narrative across cultures and disciplines. It looks more particularly at the role of genre ideologies—paradigms of knowledge implicit in generic expectations, ideologies external to genre, and subjectivities in narrative transformation—in transforming the story as it travels in time and across media of expression and cultures. Analysis of the Nights frame-tale, the story of Scheherazade, and its transformations, is further informed by an interrogation of the process of reading ‘texts’ critically. Do genre, ideology and subjectivity inform our readings of ‘texts’? In what ways do paradigms of knowledge perceived as inherent in these categories in turn affect our understanding of story and narrative?
To eat or not to eat elephant: a travelling story in Arabic and
Persian literature
Authors: VAN GELDER GEERT JAN
Published: January 2004

A traveller in distress vows to God, piously but apparently pointlessly, that he will never eat
elephant flesh. Subsequently, the oath would seem to
be his perdition, yet in the end he is saved because of it, unlike his fellow
travellers. This entertaining story is told by al-Tanūkhī (d.
384/994) in two almost identical versions. It is also found in other sources,
both Arabic and Persian, among them translations or adaptations of al-Tanūkh¯
(by ‘Awfī and Dihistānī), works on lives of the Sufis
(Abū Nu‘aym, Jāmī), a travelogue (Ibn Baūa),
anthologies (al-Damīrī, al-‘Āmilī), and a collection
of mystical and moral tales in verse (Rūmī). These versions, spanning
at least six centuries, differ in the name of the protagonist, plot, language,
style, length, ‘outlook’, and quality. In general, it will be
argued, travelling has done the story little good: unlike al-Tanūkhī's
tale, its beginning is happier than its ending.
A novel genre: polylingualism and magical realism in Amitav Ghosh's The circle of reason
Authors: JONES STEPHANIE
Published: January 2004

This paper traces how Amitav Ghosh's novel The circle of reason (1986) inscribes what might be termed a ‘magical real’ sensibility of quotidian extreme, wild coincidence and tangential, picaresque epic against bounded ideas of language, history and genre. The perception of a linear shift from the British Empire into a postcolonial world of discrete nations is challenged by Ghosh's portrayal of a teeming world of transverse histories. This diffusion of ‘big history’ into the long movements and strange moments of diaspora is most crucially drawn out through Ghosh's heightened, sometimes perplexed and at other times enchanted, exploration of what might be described—using the work of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari—as the ‘polylingualism’ of language. Ghosh portrays a world in which the smaller terms of community belie the ideologies of nation impressed by the ‘traditional’ realist novel form—and the apparently organic, rooted terms of ‘community’ are themselves collapsed into a recognition that all people can be traced back to histories of displacement and migration.
Shiina Rinzō: imaging hope and despair in occupation
Japan
Authors: WILLIAMS MARK
Published: January 2004

With defeat in the Pacific War in 1945, the very notion of ‘community’ (as described by Benedict Anderson) in Japan was under threat, the future of the nation dependent, as never before, on the response of the international community. Viewed in a different light, however, the slate was clean—the possibilities, indeed the need, for revised terms of reference for this ‘imagined community’ now of paramount importance. The ensuing attempts to define the parameters of the emerging national identity were far-reaching and multi-faceted, seeking as they did to encompass the memories of loss and devastation through the realm of everyday culture as well as through political discourse. The focus of this paper will be on the contribution to this radical reassessment of the relationship between the nation and the individual made by the group of authors collectively known as the Sengoha (après guerre literary coterie). More specifically, I shall be examining the novellas, Shin'ya no shuen (The midnight banquet, 1947) and Eien naru josho (The eternal preface, 1948), two early texts by the author, Shiina Rinzō, arguably the most representative Sengoha writer, for evidence of the extent to which this literature helped to shape and modify the ‘imagined community’ of Japan.
The lords of humankind re-visited
Authors: HALL CATHERINE
Published: January 2004

This article uses the World Anti-Slavery Convention of 1840, and the way in which it was represented in Benjamin Robert Haydon's painting of it, to reflect on the ways in which Britons thought of themselves as an ’imperial people’, ’lords of humankind’, fit to rule over others. The Whig reforms of the 1830s had brought the enfranchisement of large numbers of middle-class men, and the emancipation of the enslaved across the British Empire. Excavating the assumptions of the abolitionists who gathered at the Convention allows us to see how new hierarchies of difference were encoded by 1840, placing freed black men, middle-class women and Irish Catholics on the margins of the new body politic.
Teaching and learning English in Macedonia
Authors: DIMOVA SLOBODANKA
Published: January 2004

An investigation into the current status of English teaching and learning in Macedonia. The focus of this study will be on the spread of English there, within the domain of foreign language education, and it is guided by the following research questions:

What is the most dominant foreign language taught and learned in R. Macedonia?

How is English teaching implemented in the Macedonian educational system?

What are some of the current resources for the teaching and learning of English?

In the article, I discuss the implementation of English in the public and private schools and universities, alongside instruction in such other languages as French, German, and Russian.
English as a postcolonial tool
Authors: EOYANG EUGENE CHEN
Published: January 2004

English as the global (if not the universal) language reflects a hegemony of the past as well as of the present: both a continuation of the British Empire (and thus demonized as a former colonial language) and, as the preferred language of international business and capitalist development throughout the world, resented as a powerful neo-colonial language. Yet, as this study seeks to show, English is capable of acting against its own imperialisms, to undermine its own hegemony.
Globalization and new ELT challenges in China
Authors: ZHU HUIMIN
Published: January 2004

AS ECONOMICS and trade turn the world into “a global village”, English is playing an increasingly important role in China as a lingua franca for such matters as business, information, international travel, the Internet, cultural entertainment, and the environment, all of which have brought great changes in every aspect of our lives. Native English speakers are regarded as linguistically privileged, but such non-native English-speakers as the Chinese, in order to overcome their disadvantage, are launching campaigns to enable themselves to use English more accurately and fluently. ‘Communicative competence’ has become the chief goal of English language learning and teaching. This essay seeks to analyse the great changes that are taking place educationally in China, especially in ELT, emphasizing the importance of communicative language teaching (CLT), teacher training, reform of the examination system, and raising people's awareness of new challenges in education and life.
Using English in China
Authors: YUN WEI , JIA FEI
Published: January 2004

SINCE ITS introduction in the 18th century, English in China has gone through three stages: partial colonization and Chinese Pidgin English (CPE); a Chinese-influenced variety often called Chinglish; and a more recent indigenization that has resulted in a variety known as both Chinese English and, more recently (with a subtle change of emphasis), China English. This paper discusses these stages and calls for more attention to be paid to the nativization of English in China in the 21st century.
Shame
Authors: BLAISDELL BOB
Published: January 2004

Neville thought of showing Kate's letter to Miss Mellerby, but when he read it a second time he made up his mind that he would keep it to himself. The letter was all very well, and as regarded the expressions towards himself, just what it should be. But he felt that it was not such a letter as Miss Mellerby would have written herself… He was a little ashamed of his Kate, and he thought that Miss Mellerby might perceive her ignorance if he shewed that letter.Anthony Trollope, An Eye for an EyeI am proud of my remedial students' writing. There are often moments and occasionally entire essays where the student, amused or moved and communicating her feelings, moves me to laughter or tears.
Following the signs – English road hieroglyphs?
Authors: RASTALL PAUL
Published: January 2004

ON MY OFFICE wall I have a Japanese Sumo Wrestling Calendar, a gift from a kind student. The name of the calendar is in kanji followed by the word CALENDAR in gold capitals and the year in numerals, 2003, in red. The numbers of the months are also in red and the same size. The names of the months are in English in a smaller font, January, February, … The names of the days of the week are in kanji. The character for Sunday and the date numbers of Sundays and holidays are in red, the other days and dates in black numerals. Of course, careful design has gone into the calendar, but one is struck by the plethora of visual communication systems involved.
32st Annual Meeting
Authors: KJELLMER GÖRAN
Published: January 2004

IN MAY 2003 there was a notice on the World Wide Web announcing the “32st Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Association of the Southwest”. The announcement began:
The 32st Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Association of the Southwest will be hosted by the University of Texas-Pan American (UTPA) …Not long before that I had noticed an advertisement for the “33nd Annual New Jersey Irish Festival”, also on the Web. Such unexpected forms of the ordinal numerals naturally arouse one's curiosity.
Learning the Facts of Life: Forty Years as a TV Dramatist
Authors: Plater Alan
Published: January 2004

Back in 1977, Alan Plater contributed an article to TQ25 celebrating twenty-five years as a writer for stage and television. But his first play for television was not screened until 1962 – hence the different anniversary which here provides the occasion for his reflections on changes in the medium and its treatment of drama (and dramatists) over the succeeding four decades. As a stage writer, he established special relationships with Stoke-on-Trent, Humberside, and the North-East – where his Close the Coalhouse Door played to tremendous local acclaim, but to metropolitan disinterest when it reached the West End. But while his stage work has remained resolutely committed to the parts the critics seldom reach, as a writer for television he has both kept his own entirely distinctive voice, as in the Beiderbecke sequence, and remained an ever-reliable contributor to series from Z Cars in the 'sixties to Midsomer Murders in the new millennium, with excursions into glossy period dramatizations such as the seven-part Fortunes of War. Here, he reflects on the losses of spontaneity and creative freedom which have accompanied technical innovation and increasing bureaucracy, and offers some hopes for changes in direction to restore what was once the glory of British TV drama. This article is based on an inaugural lecture Alan Plater gave at the University of Bath in March 2002.
Look at the Clouds: Migration and West Sumatran ‘Popular’ Theatre
Authors: Cohen Matthew Isaac
Published: January 2004

The numerous interrelated ‘popular’ theatres of Indonesia provide important evidence for the study of artistic interaction and change. The West Sumatran Randai theatre emerged in a culturally hybrid space and has been a sensitive index to local, national, and international flows and conditions. Matthew Isaac Cohen traces the origins of Randai in the late-colonial period and discusses its associations with rantau – a time of temporary migration, traditionally associated with the rite of passage to adulthood, but increasingly a semi-permanent exile for many Sumatrans. He then traces how and why Randai has now become more than a local art form, having been exported out of the province of West Sumatra to be utilized as source material for modern theatre by Indonesian theatre makers in Jakarta and Australia. Matthew Isaac Cohen is a Lecturer in Theatre Studies at the University of Glasgow, a scholar of Indonesian theatre and performance, and a practising shadow puppeteer.
‘Glory Box’: Tim Miller's Autobiography of the Future
Authors: Heddon Deirdre
Published: January 2004

Performance artist Tim Miller has been making autobiographical work for more than twenty years. Dee Heddon explores Miller's recent show, Glory Box (2001), arguing that, both in his practice and his use of his own life stories, he is attempting not only to connect with but to energize his audiences, transforming them into activist spectators. One tactic Miller employs in Glory Box is futurity – performing an autobiography that he has not yet lived. This future is one that Miller compels us collectively to rewrite, inviting us to change his potential life and life-story in the process. Dee Heddon argues that Miller's commitment to and faith in the transformative potential of live performance enacts a resistance to those pejorative terms too easily thrown at autobiographical performance: Miller may work from his ‘self’, but his work is far from solipsistic, egotistic, or narcissistic. Dee Heddon makes and teaches autobiographical performance, and her writing has appeared in Performance Research, Studies in Theatre Production, Research in Drama Education, Reconstructions, and M/C. Her Devising Performances: Histories and Practices, co-authored with Jane Milling, is forthcoming from Palgrave.
‘As Rude As You Like – Honest’: Theatre Criticism and the Law
Authors: Roberts David
Published: January 2004

In 2001, when David Soul sued the Daily Mirror for printing a defamatory review of his West End show, The Dead Monkey, questions surfaced about the critic's rights and responsibilities under the law. There have been numerous accounts in recent years of the relationships between law and literature, and the general assumption is that critics can claim the defence of ‘fair comment’. However, very little work has been done on the history, rationale, and implications of that defence, or on the actions before Soul's in which aggrieved theatre people have attempted to bring critics to account. David Roberts evaluates individual cases from legal history in which the critic's rights have been tested, and considers what they have to tell us about the way our society conceptualizes critical activity. Bourdieu's history of taste is invoked, but modified to show how the law's concern with formalism in its own processes has endorsed a matching version of the critical process. David Roberts is Head of English at the University of Central England, Birmingham.
Justus Leibig Universität Giessen: a New Direction in German Theatre Training
Authors: Earnest Steve
Published: January 2004

Since the post-war reorganization of education that began in 1949, the purpose and nature of German theatre training has perpetuated a division between performance and technical training, provided by vocational schools (or Hochschulen), while university programmes offer degrees in Theatre Science (Theaterwissenschaft), theory, or other academic areas. The course of studies at Justus Leibig Universität Giessen is one of the first to break away from this established model, offering a hybrid programme combining the study of theory and practice. Having featured a number of international guest artists as teachers, including Robert Wilson, Heiner Müller, John Jessurun, and Heiner Goebbels, the programme continues to be a centre of innovation in the changing landscape of German theatre education. Steve Earnest is an Assistant Professor of Theatre Arts at California State University, San Bernardino. His published work includes The State Acting Academy of East Berlin (Mellen Press, 1999), and articles in Performer Training (Harwood Publishers, 2001), Theatre Journal, Western European Stages, and The Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism. He is also active in southern California professional theatre.
‘New Theatres – New Writing?’
Authors: Johnson Robin
Published: January 2004

Report on the International Theatre Institute forum held at the Soho Theatre and Writers Centre Studio, London, on 25 February 2003.
Response to ‘Sex, drugs and animal parts: will Viagra save threatened species?’
Authors: Hoover Craig
Published: January 2004

Von Hippel and von Hippel (1998) suggested that Viagra had the potential to replace an existing demand for certain wildlife species used in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) to treat erectile dysfunction (ED). Von Hippel and von Hippel (2002) attempted to show that this potential is becoming a reality.