Tropes of entanglement and strange loops in the “Nine Avowals” of the Chuci

2018 ◽  
Vol 81 (2) ◽  
pp. 277-300 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Morrow Williams
Keyword(s):  
Internal Structure ◽  
Mental State ◽  
Literary Form ◽  
Human Consciousness ◽  
Rhetorical Structure ◽  
Strange Loop ◽  
Strange Loops ◽  
Douglas Hofstadter ◽  
Formal Features

AbstractThe literary form and rhetorical structure of ancient Chinese poems have not been sufficiently studied. The “Jiu zhang” 九章 (Nine Avowals) attributed to Qu Yuan 屈原 contain distinctive formal features which are highly suggestive for interpretations of Qu Yuan's life and works. At the level of rhetoric, the protagonist frequently describes his own mental state using metaphors of knots and entanglement. At the level of form, the internal structure of the poems, and “Chou si” 抽思 (Unravelled Yearnings) in particular, involves series of overlapping, cross-referencing units that recall the “strange loop” discussed by Douglas Hofstadter as a model of human consciousness. Reading these poems is not just a matter of reconstructing their historical contexts but also of understanding their intended effects on the reader, who is effectively transported into a simulation of Qu Yuan's mind.

scholarly journals Strange loops: Producing history in financial times

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 148-56
Author(s):  
Amin Samman
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Financial Market ◽  
Historical Discourse ◽  
The Status ◽  
Strange Loop ◽  
Strange Loops ◽  
Historical Thought

In this rejoinder, I discuss three fundamental ‘deadlocks’ raised by contributors to this forum. These relate to the status of historical discourse, financial market logics, and above all the figure of the ‘strange loop’, which I put forward as a means of reorienting historical thought. I also offer some preliminary remarks on why History in Financial Times departs from conventional forms of historicism in political economy, as well as a further set of reflections on the contemporaneity of the book’s argumentation.

“Each Nail a Jail”

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Max Shmookler
Keyword(s):  
Political Rhetoric ◽  
Literary Form ◽  
Literary Style ◽  
Contemporary World ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
Stylistic Elements ◽  
The Common ◽  
Key Characters ◽  
Do So ◽  
Formal Features

Abstract Kitāb al-Masāmīr or The Book of Nails is a collection of nine maqāmāt written in late 1893 or early 1894 by the Alexandrian litterateur ʿAbdallāh al-Nadīm (d. 1896). It is al-Nadīm’s last work, composed in Istanbul, where the author lived out his final years in exile. Bringing together literary style, political rhetoric, and obscene imagery, al-Nadīm wrote Kitāb al-Masāmīr to defend his former teacher and fellow exile, Ǧamāl al-Dīn al-Afġānī (1838–1897), against the machinations of Abū l-Hudā al-Ṣayyādī (1849–1909), the Ottoman Sultan Abdülhamid II’s most powerful Arab advisor. To do so, al-Nadīm employed key formal features of the maqāma genre to critique the corruption of the Ottoman state in his own time. The contemporaneity of the critique, and the fact that it is expressed through manipulations of literary form, invites a re-evaluation of the common assertion that maqāmāt composed in the modern period are artificial, imitative, and disconnected from contemporary societal concerns. In place of such an approach, this article turns to close readings of key characters, stylistic elements, and narrative scenes to suggest ways to read the manipulation of literary form as an integral aspect of the genre’s deep engagement with its contemporary world.

scholarly journals Structural Markedness in Formal Features: Deriving Interpretability

2009 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susana Bejar
Keyword(s):  
Internal Structure ◽  
Complex Surface ◽  
Surface Phenomena ◽  
Hierarchical Representation ◽  
Standard Arabic ◽  
Feature Structure ◽  
Feature Geometry ◽  
Formal Features

ABSTRACT This paper argues that the internal structure of formal features plays an important role in the syntax and can account for complex surface phenomena which are otherwise difficult to explain. The hierarchical representation of morphosyntactic features developed in Harley 1994, Ritter 1997 and Harley and Ritter 1998 is incorporated into minimalist checking theory (Chomsky 1998). It is proposed that feature interpretability can be understood as a condition on configurations licensed by the feature geometry. Two principles governing the interaction between feature structure and core syntactic operations are proposed. The first stipulates that only structurally marked features may satisfy a probe. The second permits checking between non-identical features if they are in an implicational relation. Agreement asymmetries in Georgian and Standard Arabic are examined and are shown to be derived from the aforementioned principles.

X-ray microtomography

1988 ◽  
Vol 46 ◽  
pp. 998-999
Author(s):  
H.W. Deckman ◽  
B.F. Flannery ◽  
J.H. Dunsmuir ◽  
K.D' Amico
Keyword(s):  
Computed Tomography ◽  
Internal Structure ◽  
Imaging Technique ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Tissue Structure ◽  
Individual Element ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Non Invasive ◽  
Panoramic Imaging ◽  
Three Dimensional Images

We have developed a new X-ray microscope which produces complete three dimensional images of samples. The microscope operates by performing X-ray tomography with unprecedented resolution. Tomography is a non-invasive imaging technique that creates maps of the internal structure of samples from measurement of the attenuation of penetrating radiation. As conventionally practiced in medical Computed Tomography (CT), radiologists produce maps of bone and tissue structure in several planar sections that reveal features with 1mm resolution and 1% contrast. Microtomography extends the capability of CT in several ways. First, the resolution which approaches one micron, is one thousand times higher than that of the medical CT. Second, our approach acquires and analyses the data in a panoramic imaging format that directly produces three-dimensional maps in a series of contiguous stacked planes. Typical maps available today consist of three hundred planar sections each containing 512x512 pixels. Finally, and perhaps of most import scientifically, microtomography using a synchrotron X-ray source, allows us to generate maps of individual element.

The internal structure of medullated wool

1984 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
pp. 388-389
Author(s):  
Leo Barish
Keyword(s):  
Light Microscopy ◽  
Internal Structure ◽  
Wool Fiber ◽  
Guard Hair ◽  
Bright Field ◽  
Wool Fibers ◽  
Thin Skin ◽  
Air Pockets

Although most of the wool used today consists of fine, unmedullated down-type fibers, a great deal of coarse wool is used for carpets, tweeds, industrial fabrics, etc. Besides the obvious diameter difference, coarse wool fibers are often medullated.Medullation may be easily observed using bright field light microscopy. Fig. 1A shows a typical fine diameter nonmedullated wool fiber, Fig. IB illustrates a coarse fiber with a large medulla. The opacity of the medulla is due to the inability of the mounting media to penetrate to the center of the fiber leaving air pockets. Fig. 1C shows an even thicker fiber with a very large medulla and with very thin skin. This type of wool is called “Kemp”, is shed annually or more often, and corresponds to guard hair in fur-bearing animals.

The German Post-Critical Belief Scale: Internal and External Validity

2003 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 219-226 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bart Duriez ◽  
Claudia Appel ◽  
Dirk Hutsebaut
Keyword(s):  
Internal Structure ◽  
Present Article ◽  
External Validity ◽  
German Version ◽  
Dutch Version ◽  
German Sample ◽  
Belief Scale ◽  
Internal And External Validity

Abstract: Recently, Duriez, Fontaine and Hutsebaut (2000) and Fontaine, Duriez, Luyten and Hutsebaut (2003) constructed the Post-Critical Belief Scale in order to measure the two religiosity dimensions along which Wulff (1991 , 1997 ) summarized the various possible approaches to religion: Exclusion vs. Inclusion of Transcendence and Literal vs. Symbolic. In the present article, the German version of this scale is presented. Results obtained in a heterogeneous German sample (N = 216) suggest that the internal structure of the German version fits the internal structure of the original Dutch version. Moreover, the observed relation between the Literal vs. Symbolic dimension and racism, which was in line with previous studies ( Duriez, in press ), supports the external validity of the German version.

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