bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Engaging Nurse Aide Students to Develop a Survey to Improve Enrollment and Retention in College
Authors: Boyd Jamie Kamailani , Hernandez Jesika Y. , Braun Kathryn L.
Published: May 2011

Background: Students from lower socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds have historically experienced high rates of college dropout. Surveys often are used to assess supports and barriers (SB) to college enrollment and completion, and findings drive the design of interventions to improve student recruitment and retention. However, standard surveys may not include questions that solicit the breadth of issues facing low-income minority individuals.
Objectives: We used community-based participatory research (CBPR) principles to develop an SB survey to better reflect the concerns of rural, first-generation college students in Hawai‘i.
Methods: An advisory panel (AP) of students and community partners guided the work. The literature informed the first draft of the SB survey. Then we worked with students who had successfully completed a vocational Nurse Aide (NA) Training Program (NATP) course to refine four versions of the SB survey through multiple cycles of online survey review and focus groups.
Results: The final product included questions in new areas and differently phrased questions in standard areas (e.g., transportation, dependent care, housing, financial aid) to better capture reasons for students dropping out. The survey has proven useful as a student assessment tool, and findings are being used by instructors, counselors, and community partners to add resources and modify programs to increase student success in community college.
Conclusions: Findings confirm the usefulness of engaging target partners in tool development. An enhanced understanding of SB of students from underrepresented groups will help to improve college recruitment and retention interventions.
Community-Centered Family Health History: A Customized Approach to Increased Health Communication and Awareness
Authors: O’Leary James , Edelson Vaughn , Gardner Nicora , Gepp Alejandra , Kyler Panelpha , Moore Penelope , Petruccio Claudia , Williams Marc , Terry Sharon , Bowen Deborah
Published: May 2011

Background: There has been little study of whether family health history (FHH) tools used by individuals, families, and communities inspire measurable changes in communication and behavior.
Objectives: The Community-Centered Family Health History (CCFHH) project was a collaborative endeavor among national and community-based organizations with an interest in genetics education and health. Using community- based participatory research principles as a foundation, CCFHH examined whether the Does It Run In the Family? toolkit, a set of two customizable booklets on health and genetics, encourages discussion and collection of FHH information across diverse communities.
Methods: Five communities across the country measured the utility of customized versions of the Does It Run In the Family? toolkit. Each community partner recruited families, consisting of two or more blood relatives, to use the toolkit for 3 months, discuss it among their family members, and consider the implications of the health information. Pre- and postintervention surveys measured family communication about family history and disease risk and the use of FHH information in health care provider interactions.
Results: After aggregate, cross-community analysis of individual responses, from pre- to post-toolkit use family members showed increases in communication about family history of disease risk ( p < .05) and in awareness about FHH ( p < .05).
Conclusion: These findings indicate that diverse communities are receptive to FHH intervention, and tailored health educational materials can lead to increased conversations and awareness about health issues across communities.
Meeting People Where They Are: Engaging Public Housing Residents for Integrated Pest Management
Authors: Scammell Madeleine K. , Duro Laurie , Litonjua Emily , Berry Lilly , Reid Margaret
Published: May 2011

In a unique partnership, the Boston Public Health Commission, the Boston Housing Authority (BHA), Boston University School of Public Health, the Committee for Boston Public Housing, and the West Broadway Task Force (WBTF) led an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) intervention in Boston’s public housing developments. Key to the success of the program was recruiting residents to participate. Residents who were trained as Community Health Advocates (CHAs) at the West Broadway Development in South Boston, Massachusetts, recruited over 300 homes to participate in the IPM intervention (out of 484 living units). This article describes the recruitment strategy and success from the perspective of CHAs at the West Broadway development.
Closing the Gap Between Insecticide Treated Net Ownership and Use for the Prevention of Malaria
Authors: Rickard Diana G. , Dudovitz Rebecca N. , Wong Mitchell D. , Jen Howard C. , Osborn Rebecca D. , Fernandez Hilda E. , Donkor Clement I.
Published: May 2011

Background: Malaria is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in children younger than 5 years old and pregnant women in sub-Saharan Africa. Insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) reduce clinical malaria by more than 50% and allcause mortality in young children by 15% to 30%. However, use of these nets is poor across sub-Saharan Africa, limiting the potential impact of this effective tool in the fight against malaria.
Objective: We sought to improve the use of ITNs using a community-created and -implemented approach, and measure the change in ITN use over the year after implementation.
Methods: Using a community-based participatory research approach, we created and implemented an intervention to improve ITN use in a rural village. Our intervention involved providing hands-on instructions and assistance in hanging of nets, in-home small group education, and monthly follow-up by trained community members. ITN use was measured for all individuals in a subset of the community (61 households, 759 individuals) at baseline and at 6 months and 1 year after distribution.
Results: Rates of individual usage increased significantly from 29% at baseline to 88.7% ( p < .001) at 6 months and to 96.6% ( p < .001) at 12 months. For children under age 5, usage rates increased from 46% at baseline to 95.7% ( p < .001) at 6 months and 95.4% ( p < .001) at 12 months.
Conclusion: Our study demonstrates that rapidly achieving and sustaining almost universal ITN usage rates is possible using a community-based approach. Closing the gap between ITN ownership and use will help communities to realize the full potential of ITNs in the prevention of malaria.
Survivor Voices: Co-Learning, Re-Connection, and Healing Through Community Action Research and Engagement (CARE)
Authors: Cortez Patricia , Dumas Tracey , Joyce Jeneka , Olson Deborah , Peters Sharon , Todahl Jeff , Walters Elaine , Wilde Rose
Published: May 2011

This article describes the Trauma Healing Project (THP: www.http//healingattention.org ), the Survivor Voices study ( n = 351), and the complementary nature of community– campus partnerships (CCP) and community-based participatory action research methodology (PAR). Survivor Voices —a random digit telephone survey developed by, conducted, analyzed, and disseminated by survivors of abuse and violence, university researchers, and students—was designed to learn from survivors about what hurt and about what helped with regard to how people responded to their trauma, and what they recommend for trauma healing. We feature our CCP, including challenges faced, how we have addressed those challenges, and profile our current findings. We describe how PAR and CCPs can be very useful tools toward the development of a community-wide effort to reduce violence and support trauma healing.
CES4Health.info: An Online Tool for Peer Reviewed Publication and Dissemination of Diverse Products of Community-Engaged Scholarship
Authors: Jordan Catherine , Seifer Sarena D. , Gelmon Sherril B. , Ryan Katharine , McGinley Piper
Published: May 2011

Community-engaged scholarship (CES)—research, teaching, programmatic and other scholarly activities conducted through partnerships between academic and community partners—may result in innovative applied products such as manuals, policy briefs, curricula, videos, toolkits, and websites. Without accepted mechanisms for peer-reviewed publication and dissemination, these products often do not “count” toward faculty promotion and tenure (P&T) and have limited opportunities for broad impact. This paper reports on CES4Health.info, a unique online tool for peerreviewed publication and dissemination of products of CES in forms other than journal articles. In its first year, CES4Health.info has published 24 products and documented the satisfaction of users, authors, and reviewers.
Collaboration Strategies in Nontraditional Community-Based Participatory Research Partnerships: Lessons From an Academic–Community Partnership With Autistic Self-Advocates
Authors: Nicolaidis Christina , Raymaker Dora , McDonald Katherine , Dern Sebastian , Ashkenazy Elesia , Boisclair Cody , Robertson Scott , Baggs Amanda
Published: May 2011

Background : Most community-based participatory research (CBPR) projects involve local communities defined by race, ethnicity, geography, or occupation. Autistic self-advocates, a geographically dispersed community defined by disability, experience issues in research similar to those expressed by more traditional minorities.
Objectives : We sought to build an academic–community partnership that uses CBPR to improve the lives of people on the autistic spectrum.
Methods : The Academic Autistic Spectrum Partnership in Research and Education (AASPIRE) includes representatives from academic, self-advocate, family, and professional communities. We are currently conducting several studies about the health care experiences and well-being of autistic adults.
Lessons Learned : We have learned a number of strategies that integrate technology and process to successfully equalize power and accommodate diverse communication and collaboration needs.
Conclusions : CBPR can be conducted successfully with autistic self-advocates. Our strategies may be useful to other CBPR partnerships, especially ones that cannot meet in person or that include people with diverse communication needs.
Promoting a Bicycle-Friendly Environment: Community Assessment and Action
Authors: Sharpe Patricia , Burroughs Erika , Hooker Steven , Pekuri Linda , Blumberg Catherine , Hutto Brent
Published: May 2011

Background: Researchers and community coalition members collected survey data and used it to guide production of an educational video promoting a bicycle-friendly environment.
Objectives: Telephone and mailed surveys were conducted among bicyclists and motorists for needs assessment.
Methods: A sample of 173 bicyclists completed a mailed survey (response rate of 87.0%), and a sample of 801 motorists completed a telephone survey (response rate of 42.1%). Findings guided video production.
Results: Most motorists understood that bicyclists have a right to ride in the road, but about one half believed bicyclists create a hazard, even when they follow traffic laws. Bicyclists expressed safety concerns and felt threatened by motorists. Both motorists’ and bicyclists’ knowledge of traffic rules varied across the items.
Conclusions: This project illustrates how community members can apply research findings to an educational video of high quality with local relevance. The leadership from community members in making the video set the foundation for local ownership
Connecting Community With Campus to Address Cancer Health Disparities: A Community Grants Program Model
Authors: Vines Anissa I. , Teal Randall , Meyer Crystal , Manning Michelle , Godley Paul
Published: May 2011

Background: With growing interest in the CBPR approach to cancer health disparities research, mechanisms are needed to support adherence to its principles. The Carolina Community Network (CCN), 1 of 25 Community Network Programs funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), developed a model for providing funds to community-based organizations.
Objectives: This paper presents the rationale and structure of a Community Grants Program (CGP) model, describes the steps taken to implement the program, and discusses the lessons learned and recommendations for using the grants model for CBPR.
Methods: Three types of projects—cancer education, implementation of an evidence-based intervention, and the development of community–academic research partnerships—could be supported by a community grant. The CGP consists of four phases: Pre-award, peer-review process, post-award, and project implementation.
Results: The CGP serves as a catalyst for developing and maintaining community–academic partnerships through its incorporation of CBPR principles.
Conclusions: Providing small grants to community-based organizations can identify organizations to serve as community research partners, fostering the CBPR approach in the development of community–academic partnerships by sharing resources and building capacity.
Coming Out of the Hasidic Closet: Jiří Mordechai Langer (1894–1943) and the Fashioning of Homosexual-Jewish Identity
Authors: Halper Shaun Jacob
Published: May 2011

This essay inaugurates the historical study of the modern homosexual Jewish experience before Stonewall. I begin with a historiographic introduction to the emerging subfield of gay Jewish history. I then turn to reintroduce Jiri Langer, a homosexual and Hasidic writer affiliated with the interwar "Prague circle" (and friend of Franz Kafka and Max Brod) into the purview of modern Jewish Studies. I take up two questions: first, how Langer reconciled his homosexual and Orthodox religious identity; and second, why Langer"s homosexuality became exigent as a Jewish question at this particular historical moment. In his key text, Die Erotik der Kabbala, Langer engages with the dominant interwar debates on homosexuality, but most directly with the work of Hans Blüher, the major theoretician of the German Wandervogelbewegung. In the course of correcting Blüher's antisemitic claims about Jews and homosexuality, Langer managed to delineate a specifically homosexual Jewish identity by renegotiating the relationship between homosexuality and Judaism and by adumbrating a history of "gay" Jews. I contextualize this long-neglected text within Langer's fascinating biography; the debates in the early homosexual rights movement; the particular cultural features of the "Prague circle" in which Langer wrote; and the dislocation and devastation of Langer's beloved eastern-European Hasidic communities caused by World War I—communities that Langer experienced as deeply homoerotic.
Samuel Archivolti and the Antiquity of the Hebrew Pointing
Authors: Rubin Aaron D.
Published: May 2011

The debate over the antiquity of the Hebrew vowel points raged among both Jewish and Christian Hebraists in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Among Jewish grammarians, Samuel Archivolti was one of the earliest critics of the revolutionary ideas of Elijah Levita. Yet Archivolti's work, while not wholly forgotten, has remained largely inaccessible to modern scholars working in this field. Presented here for the first time in English, along with annotations, is Archivolti's treatise on the topic, a critical text for understanding one side of this debate.
Effeminacy in the Shadow of Empire: The Politics of Transgressive Gender in Josephus's Bellum Judaicum
Authors: von Ehrenkrook Jason
Published: May 2011

As has long been recognized, Judaean tyranny, especially that associated with the revolutionary faction led by John of Gischala, plays a central role in Bellum Judaicum, functioning as an infectious disease that ultimately bears responsibility for the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem. Among the litany of damnable vices associated with John and his band of followers, Josephus paints a particularly lurid picture of violent debauchery in B.J. 4.560–563, recounting a blood-drenched sexual rampage that includes a pointed accusation of cross-dressing and sexual passivity. In this article I argue that Josephus' portrayal of the Judaean rebels as effeminate objects of sexual penetration draws on a widespread tendency in Greco-Roman discourse to link perceived gender anomalies with an excessive and uncontrollable lust for power, deploying gender deviancy as a symbolic framework through which to define and disparage tyrants. This image of effeminate tyranny in B.J., although dubious as a source of reliable information for the Gischalan's exploits in Galilee and Judaea, taps into a resurgent moralizing impulse in Flavian Rome, offering an important glimpse into Josephus' own attempt to navigate the cultural and political anxieties of the capital city shortly after the tumultuous transition from the Julio-Claudian to Flavian regime.
Le Cycle caribéen et le courage repensé, vertu première pour accéder à la dignité
Authors: Deblaine Dominique
Published: May 2011

Le courage, vertu première, dont traite le cycle caribéen d'André et Simone Schwarz-Bart met en évidence la visée éthique de ces œuvres: dignité et sagesse. Cette visée éthique n'est nullement un renoncement, comme on pourrait le croire par le récit de vies parsemées d'épreuves, mais un "bonheur mélancolique" pour reprendre les termes de Simone Schwarz-Bart ou un "bonheur désespérément" pour reprendre ceux d'André Comte-Sponville, c'est-à-dire un bonheur dans l'agir, le vouloir et non dans l'espérance. Dans cet article, il s'agit de méditer sur la question du "comment vivre?", et non pas du "que faire?", au coeur de l'œuvre d'André et Simone Schwarz-Bart, qui souligne, au-delà ou en deçà du postcolonial, le sens de leur humanisme.
Ascendance étatique ou l'institution du nationalisme républicain dans L'Honneur de la tribu de Rachid Mimouni
Authors: Niang Mouhamédoul Amine
Published: May 2011

L'avènement des indépendances a vu l'émergence de l'État-nation dans d'anciennes colonies non encore préparées à cette transition. Si le combat pour l'autonomie fut soutenu par presque toutes les couches de la population de ces colonies, la mise en place de l'organe étatique ne se fera pas sans heurts. Cette situation conflictuelle liée à l'instauration de l'État-nation est ce que Mimouni dépeint dans L'Honneur de la tribu. Notre étude de ce roman tentera de montrer que l'institutionnalisation de l'État moderne passe par un discours nationaliste en inadéquation avec les réalités endogènes à l'espace émancipé. Elle repose sur une imagerie et des pratiques d'origine bourgeoise et exogènes plaquées sur un milieu tribaliste en état de subjugation existentielle.
D'un Je à l'Autre ou le double-entendre historique dans La Mulâtresse Solitude
Authors: Piriou Marine
Published: May 2011

En tant que roman à la fois biographique et historique, à la croisée des trois voix de son auteur-narrateur—juive par filiation, occidentale par naissance, et antillaise par identification—, La Mulâtresse Solitude est une œuvre singulière dans le corpus littéraire caribéen. D'une part, le récit de l'histoire individuelle de Bayangumay et de sa fille Solitude permet celui de l'histoire collective des esclaves afro-caribéens. En d'autres termes, la micro-histoire de la généalogie diola dévoilée au lecteur par ces deux figures féminines devient en même temps constitutive et révélatrice de la macro-histoire du colonialisme et de la traite négrière. D'autre part, les origines identitaires franco-polonaises et non antillaises de l'auteur font du roman une œuvre syncrétique tout en posant la question de sa légitimité. Solitude incarne alors la double symbolique en tant que figure paradigmatique de l'essence antillaise et icône légendaire de l'esclavage, voire de la figure de la martyre universelle sous la plume schwarz-bartienne. Cette analyse préliminaire permettra d'appréhender le dessein humaniste de l'auteur. Enfin, une réflexion critique sur l'ambiguïté du projet littéraire d'André Schwarz-Bart dans sa globalité conclura cette présentation.
"Dans l'autre, il y a moi": L'humanisme dans la littérature francophone marocaine face à la globalisation
Authors: Orlando Valérie
Published: May 2011

La littérature humaniste des écrivains marocains contemporains d'expression française rassemble les qualités d'une "littérature-monde" qui offre une plate-forme pour articuler les nouveaux paradigmes et concepts d'un humanisme contemporain. Les auteurs humanistes qui écrivent aujourd'hui au Maroc ont recours dans leurs romans à des hétérotopies pour décrire les espaces qui sont mondialisés. À travers les œuvres, Les Clandestins de Youssouf Elalamy et Cannibales de Mahi Binebine, cet article analyse comment l'écrivain marocain proclame un humanisme littéraire pour le vingt-et-unième siècle en montrant que la globalisation nous oblige à réfléchir sur la liberté hédoniste qu'elle produit et à questionner ses fondements et ses limites.
Un Plat de porc aux bananes vertes ou l'" Autrement qu'être " de la relation
Authors: Abdeladhim Maha Ben
Published: May 2011

Dans ce texte, je me propose de relire dans Un Plat de porc aux bananes vertes cette exposition du visage, telle que l'entend Levinas et de me pencher sur la voix et le langage: ce dernier n'est pas "signe de," mais "signe pour." Cette affection par (pour) l'autre, dans l'assignation à la responsabilité, qui dépouille le moi, dénude sa dénudation, "au-delà de la peau, jusqu'à la blessure, à en mourir" (Levinas), n'est-elle pas le fait de l'amour et de l'acte amoureux. Celui qui aime s'expose ainsi à être blessé, trahi, tué. De même l'exposition à la rencontre, à la caresse, au corps abandonné, comme mort, de l'aimé, vulnérabilise l'être. Si la responsabilité pour autrui est infinie, elle s'expose à la violence et à la non-violence, celui qui aime aime à en mourir, pour que l'autre vive, sans réserve dans le temps, ni dans l'espace, ni dans la chair, ou rouvrant un espace d'altérité radicale, pour l'autre, khôra (Derrida) au-delà de l'essence .
Fonctions et enjeux de la danse et de la musique dans le texte francophone créole
Authors: Francis Gladys M.
Published: May 2011

C'est au cœur de l'entre-deux que forment chorégraphie et corps-et-graphie que se concentre cette étude qui déconstruit les éléments kinésiques présents dans Une Enfance Créole et Solibo Magnifique de Patrick Chamoiseau, Mémoires d'Isles: Maman N et Maman F d'Ina Césaire et La Nef de Michèle Césaire. Matérialiste, l'écriture de la danse et de la musique y fait ce qu'elle dit. Le texte créolophone devient alors—corps—de par l'esthétique de l'oraliture et de l'oralité l'engendrant. Il devient le corps-terrain qui (re)présente les dimensions culturelles de son cru: un terrain antillais hybride, en ac-corps ou dés-ac-corps avec l'autre. La performativité du corps et la parole "marquée" sont analysées comme un chaos du rythme où la danse et la musique sont un écrit-performant, une (re/ré)création du corps qui retranscrit le proscrit, le refoulé et l'emprisonnement du corps dans l'espace d'entre-deux qui le définit.
Le Beau Capitaine et le tenorito d'Auschwitz: Esthétique de l'exil, esthétique de la Shoah
Authors: Goriely Serge
Published: May 2011

Seule œuvre théâtrale, Ton beau capitaine (1987) occupe une place à part dans le corpus schwarz-bartien. Même s'il relève du "théâtre de l'exil,"ne renvoie-t-il pas de quelque manière au "théâtre de la Shoah?"Des pistes de convergence sont étudiées par un regard historique sur ces deux types de dramaturgies et par une analyse comparative avec Aïda vaincue (1978) de René Kalisky. Car si l'horreur de la Shoah a inspiré un grand nombre de pièces de théâtre, si certains auteurs ont rivalisé d'originalité pour proposer de nouvelles formes, alors que d'autres sont restés proches de dramaturgies traditionnelles, les deux pièces ici comparées permettent d'explorer des pistes de rencontre entre le thème de la Shoah et celui de l'exil qui lui fait écho, en ce qu'il traite de populations entières qui sont victimes de l'histoire. Dans quelle mesure peut-on faire un rapprochement sur le plan stylistique? C'est le sujet principal de cette analyse.
"Adieu foulards, adieu madras": Doublures de Soi/e dans l'œuvre réversible schwarz-bartienne
Authors: Gyssels Kathleen
Published: May 2011

L'œuvre schwarz-bartienne se prête à une approche interartistique tant les références aux arts (scripturaux ou non scripturaux, picturaux et musicaux) y abondent. Dans cet article, il s'agira de montrer que les romans signés André et/ou Simone Schwarz-Bart lèguent à ces différentes expressions artistiques une valeur de résistance de cultures minorées, respectivement ashkénaze et antillaise. Ainsi, ils ont réussi à tisser dans l'ensemble de leurs productions une trame réversible dans la mesure où les oppressions juive et noire ont sécrété, dans leurs univers concentrationnaires respectifs, les mêmes chants, danses et oralitures subreptices. Porteur d'un marronnage et d'un marranisme hautement créateur, le dernier terme signifiant à l'instar de Derrida et de Robin l'attitude fugitive quant à l'alliance ou l'affiliation juive (Robin 2005), le cycle schwarz-bartien symbolise ainsi dans l'ensemble de l'histoire littéraire antillaise, voire caribéenne et francophone, un cas imparable et incomparé de métissages de cultures et de formes artistiques dialoguant au-delà des barrières ethniques, religieuses, nationales et linguistiques.
Les Sagas identitaires d'André Schwarz-Bart: Faire aimer l'étranger pour la dignité de sa différence
Authors: Kaufmann Francine
Published: May 2011

Face à la violence, à l'oppression et à l'œuvre de déshumanisation émanant de la "modernité occidentale" à l'encontre des "civilisations juive et antillaise," André Schwarz-Bart oppose la figure lumineuse du Juste. Dans le sillage des légendes juives traditionnelles, Schwarz-Bart campe des héros de roman incarnant sa vision personnelle du Juste, à la spiritualité essentiellement humaine. Le Juste a deux fonctions primordiales: il condense en lui toute l'histoire et toutes les valeurs de ses ancêtres (ceux de sa famille et de sa communauté) et il se fond dans le cortège de son peuple dont il accompagne le destin et qu'il soutient par une compassion sans limites. Enfants par l'âge ou par la naïveté du regard porté sur le monde, adultes écrasés et bestialisés par la haine meurtrière du persécuteur, les héros et les héroïnes du Dernier des Justes , de La Mulâtresse Solitude , du Plat de porc aux bananes vertes et du roman posthume L'Étoile du matin (relayés par les héros des romans personnels de Simone) acquièrent et imposent une dignité résolument différente de "l'honneur" qui caractérise les héros du roman occidental. Tels sont les sujets abordés dans cet article.
La Relation intellectuelle entre Simone et André Schwarz-Bart
Authors: Aita Mariella
Published: May 2011

Un hommage fut rendu à Simone et André Schwarz-Bart le 29 avril à l'Université d'Anvers. Deux écrivains que rien ne semblait unir. Lui, Juif d'origine polonaise. Elle, guadeloupéenne, noire. En 1959, Simone rencontre André à Paris. Il venait de rendre son manuscrit du Dernier des Justes . En 1967, ils publient ensemble Un Plat de porc aux bananes vertes . André écrit après La Mulâtresse Solitude . Simone écrira deux romans Pluie et vent sur Télumée Miracle , chef-d'œuvre de la littérature antillaise, et Ti Jean L'Horizon . Les deux écrivains sont toujours restés discrets sur leur œuvre. En 1979, ils s'expriment ensemble dans un entretien en Guadeloupe. Celui-ci nous a permis de montrer, dans cet article, les traits caractéristiques de l'œxuvre romanesque de Simone et de mettre en relief les difficultés pour représenter le monde antillais créole, insurmontables pour quelqu'un qui n'a pas le vécu et la participation dans ce monde, le vécu magique et animiste.
La Caverne algérienne chez Yamina Méchakra et Georges Buis: Lieu de résistance, de maternité ou de combat
Authors: Jones Christa
Published: May 2011

Cet article examine la métaphore de la grotte dans La Grotte éclatée de Yamina Méchakra et La Grotte de Georges Buis, récits de la guerre d'Algérie. Rapporté d'un point de vue féminin, le récit poétique de Méchakra s'oppose à celui de Buis écrit du point de vue du colonisateur. Dans les deux romans, la grotte symbolise la visibilité et l'invisibilité de la guerre. Chez Buis, les rebelles algériens se mobilisent à l'intérieur d'une vaste grotte souterraine perçue comme un lieu barbare et cauchemardesque par les Français qui s'acharnent à la trouver et à la détruire pour imposer leur supériorité. Symbole de résistance et de l'identité nationale en devenir pour les Algériens, antre et refuge, la grotte est aussi un lieu de cruauté qui met en péril la maternité et fragilise la féminité. En tant qu'hôpital, elle symbolise la souffrance humaine où les liens communautaires doivent être maintenus coûte que coûte.
Creative Metaphors, Synchronicity, and Quantum Physics
Authors: Frentz Thomas
Published: May 2011

In this work, I argue that creative metaphors are formed when some persistent problem, caused by an inadequacy in preexisting knowledge, descends into the collective unconscious, is reconfigured unconsciously in novel ways, and then reemerges back into consciousness where the impasse is resolved by the metaphorical expression of new knowledge. To develop this position, I (1) review and critique some well-known language-based studies of metaphor, (2) summarize psychoanalytic and depth psychological approaches to the psyche as one way to overcome the shortcomings of the language-based scholarship, (3) relate C. G. Jung's account of the psyche and his related notion of synchronicity to creative metaphors, (4) graft a quantum physics approach to material reality back onto Jung's work as a provisional structure of the collective unconscious, and finally, (5) offer some suggestions about how creative metaphors might work psychologically.
Sultan Abu Bakar's Foreign Guests and Travels Abroad, 1860s–1895: Fact and Fiction in Early Malay Historical Accounts
Authors: Abdullah A. Rahman Tang
Published: May 2011

Much has been written about the foreign travels of Sultan Abu Bakar of Johor (r.1862–1895). A comparison of the various versions reveals that early Malay accounts of these foreign trips tended to be uncritical, fragmentary, partial, to praise and glorify him unreservedly, to invent and exaggerate facts, while contemporary non-Malay accounts, especially those written in English, were more rounded, comprehensive, and objective and included detailed facts, comments and criticisms on his extensive travels, lifestyle and his yearning for recognition. This paper intends to unravel fact from fiction in the Malay accounts, especially those written in the form of the Malay long poem, the syair, about his private and official life. It will also examine to what extent the early Malay accounts still reflected features of traditional Malay historiography, and critically evaluate Abu Bakar's reception of foreign guests in Johor and his observance of Islamic practice and Malay tradition at social functions, which have not previously been raised by other scholars.
English Country Traders and Their Relations with Malay Rulers in the Late Eighteenth Century
Authors: Miller W. G.
Published: May 2011

Through their contacts within the region, 'English country traders' operating in the Malay Archipelago between 1750 and 1820 played as important a role in the accumulation of knowledge as did East India Company officials. At its most basic level, their need for contact with the Malays involved the obtaining of provisions: food, water and wood. Trade contacts required a more sophisticated knowledge of Malay protocol and an ability to speak Malay. Political involvement often led to close mutually beneficial relationships with local rulers. Several country traders even acquired local knowledge as a result of extended periods spent living in Malay society. This accumulated knowledge was important for the extension of British influence in Southeast Asia at the turn of the eighteenth century. This article focuses on several of the lesser-known English country traders.
Critique of Planned Obsolescence: Marx and Freud in Latin America
Authors: Bosteels Bruno
Published: May 2011

This essay argues that, upon reaching the Americas, two key theoretical frameworks of western culture—Marxism and Freudism—resulted in “disencounter,” as coined by Rancière. Bosteels posits an exploration of these “disencounters” in literature and works of art—while advancing a reconsideration of “art” as a complex web of confluences amid diverse creative practices. Ultimately, he avers, subjectivity, power, and struggle among unequal forces continue to sustain the concerns of critical theory in Latin America. Bosteels suggests a reconsideration of theories of subjectivity in order to apprehend social phenomena—a polemic that urges a revision of traditional lines of thought.
Variaciones villeras: nuevas demarcaciones políticas
Authors: Cortés-Rocca Paola
Published: May 2011

The author fixes her gaze upon two Argentine novels to inquire on the nature of literature beyond the dissolution of categories such as “author” and “meaning” in what Ludmer has deemed a “post-autonomous universe.” Cortés-Roca delves into the space of a village in both novels to explore the transformations in political communities and the vocabulary needed to narrate these developments.
Idle Chatter
Authors: Johnson Adriana Campos
Published: May 2011

The author addresses the manifestations in Latin American studies of problems that concern the study of the Humanites in the 21st century. She argues that, on account of its ambiguities and deconstruction, knowledge itself is being questioned. She aims to illustrate the relevance of critical and cultural theory in such unexpected realms as the military. She then posits cultural practices such as cinema as devices that make social conflicts intelligible to all divergent viewing parties. Culture and aesthetics are then conceived as catalysts for experiences of confrontation and political alienation among multitudes.
The Poetics of Paramilitarism
Authors: Lund Joshua
Published: May 2011

The modern world, configured on the paradigm of norm and discipline, is now interpreted by means of Benjamin’s notion of exception. Exceptionality is political and manifests itself in the globalized world as militarized forces. Lund focuses on the paramilitary phenomenon to explore how it acts upon contemporary life, invisible and naturalized. The author seeks to confront culture and violence throughout this complex political dynamic.
Estética, política y sensación de la muerte en Salón de belleza de Mario Bellatin
Authors: Delgado Sergio
Published: May 2011

The site of the events in Salon de belleza (Beauty Salon), by Mario Bellatin undergoes two different manifestations: in an earlier time that precedes de narrative, it was a beauty salon, an aesthetic place; then it is transformed into a “moridero,” where patients afflicted with a deadly disease find their final resting place. Prevalent critical approach to this text insist in contrasting either tacitly or explicitly the two phases of this site, underscoring the banality of the beauty salon vis-à-vis the solemnity of the “moridero.” Delgado’s reading, however, seeks to establish a continuity between them to show how the anti-nominal staging of the story allows for a more politically incisive notion of the concept of aesthetics.
El mundo de la cultura
Authors: Montaldo Graciela
Published: May 2011

This essay introduces the dossier of the special forum on Latin American Studies. It delineates the disquieting state of the field and issues forth questions and concerns. It seeks to reformulate problems and to generate a discourse that relocates issues.
Out of History: The Cuban Postrevolution
Authors: Hernández Salván Marta
Published: May 2011

The author traces how official Cuban discourse, in the wake of the post-Soviet Special Period, aims to recuperate and vivify the past—to keep the Revolutionary past, and especially its origins, from discursive death.
Abismos del tercer espacio: Mar paraguayo , portuñol salvaje y el fin de la utopía letrada
Authors: Andermann Jens
Published: May 2011

In an unusual poetic text by Wilson Bueno, Mar paraguayo , the author finds the elements to construct a new type of narrative that may prevail over the identity narrative as well as the post-autonomous manifestations of textual production. He focuses on language as the core of any social reflection on account of the linguistic-ethnic confluence that underpins it. Literary production is once more constituted here as a site of social and political interrogation yet addressing ethnic questions as well.
The Ethics and Politics of Laila Marrakchi’s Marock
Authors: Hirchi Mohammed
Published: May 2011

Upon its release in Moroccan cinemas in 2005, Laila Marrakchi’s film Marock generated passionate and conflicting reactions from its audiences. The film’s exploration of certain “taboo” practices of the Moroccan bourgeois youth was certainly a catalyst for many conflicting reactions from its viewers. Despite its wide appeal to young and urban viewers, Marock was attacked by numerous media outlets as well as by prominent individuals in the political and the cultural arenas. The reception of the movie was obviously determined by the ideological positions of its critics. It generated a political debate that reflected the tendencies of divergent political constituencies during an important historical conjuncture. Secularists and liberals praised the filmmaker’s courage to embrace freedom of expression while conservatives, especially political parties, exploited the film to promote their ideological stances, castigating Marrakchi for using profanity and for showing disrespect for Islamic values that allegedly bind Moroccans together.
Introduction: Cinema In and Out of the Maghreb
Authors: Green Mary Jean
Published: May 2011

Abdellatif Kechiche’s award-winning 2007 film, La Graine et le Mulet (The Secret of the Grain), included in the Criterion collection three years after its release, attracted over a million spectators by the time it ended its box-office run in France, making it one of the few recent French films to attain both popular and artistic success. Such success is particularly unusual for a director who focuses his attention on Maghrebian immigrants in France. Yet Kechiche’s film connects with the realities of contemporary French life in a way that goes beyond the immigrant family in which it finds its center.

Kechiche’s success is quite obviously due to his particular talents, as both scriptwriter and director, and his skill in bringing together the memories of his childhood with people able to give them life on the screen. In this film Kechiche employs his unique ability to identify and train non-professional actors: Habib Boufares, who plays the central character Slimane, was a longtime family friend who had worked with Kechiche’s father on construction jobs, like the character he plays. Also without previous training as an actress, Hafsia Herzi plays the role of an adoptive daughter to Slimane, which won her the French César award for Most Promising Actress.

Two scenes dominate the film. In the lengthy Sunday dinner scene, the conversation focuses on the familiar French topics of food and love, although the food is Tunisian and the love often unites people of different immigrant backgrounds. And in the film’s culminating scene, the young Rym performs a slow and sensual belly dance while Slimane frantically attempts to recover the couscous for his new restaurant’s opening banquet. While seen by some critics as orientalist, Rym’s dance offers testimony to her love for her adoptive father and her attachment to the traditional music of her ancestral Arabic culture.
All In the Family: Abdellatif Kechiche’s La Graine et le Mulet ( The Secret of the Grain )
Authors: Green Mary Jean
Published: May 2011

Abdellatif Kechiche’s award-winning 2007 film, La Graine et le Mulet (The Secret of the Grain), included in the Criterion collection three years after its release, attracted over a million spectators by the time it ended its box-office run in France, making it one of the few recent French films to attain both popular and artistic success. Such success is particularly unusual for a director who focuses his attention on Maghrebian immigrants in France. Yet Kechiche’s film connects with the realities of contemporary French life in a way that goes beyond the immigrant family in which it finds its center.

Kechiche’s success is quite obviously due to his particular talents, as both scriptwriter and director, and his skill in bringing together the memories of his childhood with people able to give them life on the screen. In this film Kechiche employs his unique ability to identify and train non-professional actors: Habib Boufares, who plays the central character Slimane, was a longtime family friend who had worked with Kechiche’s father on construction jobs, like the character he plays. Also without previous training as an actress, Hafsia Herzi plays the role of an adoptive daughter to Slimane, which won her the French César award for Most Promising Actress.

Two scenes dominate the film. In the lengthy Sunday dinner scene, the conversation focuses on the familiar French topics of food and love, although the food is Tunisian and the love often unites people of different immigrant backgrounds. And in the film’s culminating scene, the young Rym performs a slow and sensual belly dance while Slimane frantically attempts to recover the couscous for his new restaurant’s opening banquet. While seen by some critics as orientalist, Rym’s dance offers testimony to her love for her adoptive father and her attachment to the traditional music of her ancestral Arabic culture.
Dissident or Conformist Passing: Merzak Allouache’s Chouchou
Authors: Rosello Mireille
Published: May 2011

Merzak Allouache’s 2003 Chouchou tells the story of a transidentified undocumented Algerian immigrant who has just arrived in Paris. Like Allouache’s other films, it invites the viewer to think about the articulation between culture and masculinity. More specifically, Chouchou presents us with unusually ambiguous narratives of passing and crossing-over that complicate the traditional French-Algerian postcolonial paradigm. To the extent that issues of gender and ethnicity are never separated, it is never clear whether Chouchou’s attempts to pass (as a woman or as a refugee) should or can be interpreted as moments of opposition or conformism. In Chouchou , cross-dressing both reiterates the norm and serves to highlight differences within masculinity and femininity as well as within ethnicity.

This paper analyses the film’s contribution to the recent debate about how Western democracies use their definition of sexual freedom as a political weapon. Does Chouchou avoid the risk of reinforcing the stereotypical opposition between the homophobic native land and the xenophobic adopted country? Or how does Allouache’s double critique of Algerian and French inhospitality to sexual or national others succeed in opening up new spaces? Neither femininity nor France constitutes an ideal or idealized destination for a migrant who must constantly renegotiate his objectives. The process of constantly deferred arrival also redefines Algeria as a multiple site of origin: just as Chouchou does not become a (Western) woman, he was never simply an Algerian (man). Chouchou thus invites us to ascertain to what extent the relationship between cross dressing, dissidence and/or conformism changes in each specific context.
The Gulf War, the Iraq War, and Nouri Bouzid’s Cinema of Defeat: It’s Scheherazade We’re Killing (1993) and Making Of (2006)
Authors: Ruoff Jeffrey
Published: May 2011

Nouri Bouzid is Tunisia’s most important auteur . His politically-engaged films have been widely praised for breaking taboos and challenging the norms of contemporary Arab societies. Bouzid’s sixteen-minute short, It’s Scheherazade We’re Killing (1993), is a virtuoso exploration of the many disputed meanings of the 1991 Gulf War within the body politic of the Arab world. Scheherazade also examines relations between men and women and how gender defines and divides experience in Tunisia. Shot in one gorgeous long take, Scheherazade offers a stylistic unity that contradicts its manifest content. While Scheherazade paints a picture of a divided society through a contrary aesthetic of unity, the award-winning Making Of (2006) uses an aesthetic of disunity to explore one of the most contentious issues in Muslim societies today. Bouzid periodically interrupts his feature narrative about the coming of age of a suicide bomber with Brechtian non-fiction segments from the film’s “making of” documentary.
It’s Scheherazade We’re Killing and Making Of explore contemporary Arab identities as they evolve under pressure from recent wars in the Middle East. Scheherazade highlights Bouzid’s feminist sympathies while staging a remarkable range of local responses to the Gulf War. A masterpiece of real-time filming, Scheherazade embodies the dream of Pan-Arab unity while examining its shards. Making Of marks a return to Bouzid’s ongoing obsessions with masculinity and filial (im)piety, in the context of the rise of Islamic fundamentalism, 9/11, and the 2003 American invasion of Iraq. For the secular Tunisian director, the Islamist suicide bomber represents another terrible instance of the combination of “greatness and impotence” that Bouzid finds characteristic of Arab identity today. In Scheherazade and Making Of , the characters, including the auteur himself in the 2006 feature, play out their lives on the fields of defeat that Bouzid has defined as his own.
Representing Gender and Sexual Trauma: Moufida Tlatli’s Silences of the Palace
Authors: Donadey Anne
Published: May 2011

Tunisian filmmaker Moufida Tlatli’s 1994 Arabic-language feature film, The Silences of the Palace , stages the traumatic situation of female servants in the household of Tunisian princes in the period before and after Tunisian independence from France in 1956. The film focuses on the ways in which female gender and sexuality are lived in a traumatic mode in the palace. Issues of gender, social class, and colonization intersect in the film, which centers on the relationship between a teenage daughter whose father is unknown, Alia, and her mother, the servant Khedija, who are both struggling with issues of sexual abuse. The film highlights the following aspects of gender and sexual trauma: flashbacks; endemic sexual abuse that is widespread and repeated over generations; the transgenerational transmission of trauma due to secrets and silences around sexuality and sexual abuse; resulting physical symptoms (such as chronic migraines, fainting, dissociation, neurasthenia and aphasia); the lack of avenues of escape; and finally, paths to possible healing (such as music and singing and, eventually, national independence). Far from representing an individualized situation, the film portrays Alia as embodying the entire country. This national allegory indicates that if Tunisia gained its independence, Tunisian women’s liberation is still to come since Alia’s life has repeated her mother’s patterns. The film thus seeks to make a feminist intervention into contemporary Tunisian politics and culture. At the end of the film, Alia decides to keep her illegitimate child against her boyfriend’s wishes and to call her Khedija, after her own mother. This open ending leaves the audience wondering whether little Khedija, who is also lacking a legal father, will repeat her mother’s and grandmother’s patterns. The film makes it clear that the answer lays in the future gender politics of the Tunisian nation, which Tlatli hopes to inflect for the better.