Jeanne Duval

Author(s):  
Mireille Rosello

This particular attempt at imagining a site of memory made of words may appear irreverent at first, but it has been crafted as an homage to a formidable woman: Jeanne Duval. I have taken the liberty of fictionalizing a first-person narrator who will talk about ‘herself’, at the risk of usurping her voice and her identity. Jeanne (whose name was or was not Duval) was a woman of colour and she had a long-term turbulent relationship with the enfant terrible of French nineteenth-century poetry, Charles Baudelaire. As a result, historical accounts both magnify and marginalize her. Trying to do justice to a historical character who was so much more than a muse but may not have been happy to embrace the role of exemplary black foremother, this text puts together the numerous and often incompatible portraits of Jeanne Duval. She appears and disappears in biographies (Emmanuel Richon), novels (Fabienne Pasquet), short stories (Angela Carter), academic studies (Claude Pichois). She is both present and absent, celebrated and erased in the so-called ‘Black Venus cycle’ of Baudelaire’s Flower of Evil as well as in paintings by Edouard Manet (Baudelaire’s Mistress, Reclining) and Gustave Courbet (The Painter’s Studio). The objective was to question the process of memorialization that might silence or appropriate her instead of providing her with a safe space of memory. It remains to be seen to what extent Jeanne is here celebrated or betrayed.

Author(s):  
Georgina M. Montgomery

Focusing on the history of an ecological site northwest of Oxford, UK, this essay explores the people, research and values behind the development of Wytham Woods as a scientific environment. A small patch of woodland, Wytham has long been identified by ecologists as a site of great scientific value. In addition to traditional sources of scientific value, such as species diversity, this article examines the role of emotional connection and aesthetics in how scientific sites are formed and maintained over long periods of time. As such, this history of Wytham Woods sheds light on the multiple factors that nurture the relationships formed when researchers dedicate decades to long-term studies conducted in specific scientific environments.


Behaviour ◽  
1979 ◽  
Vol 68 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 207-249 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fred H. Harrington ◽  
L. David Mech

AbstractAn experimental study of the role of howling in wolf territory maintenance was conducted in the Superior National Forest, Minnesota. Vocal replies and behaviour of radio-collared wolves in response to human howls were analyzed for eight packs and 10 lone wolves during a 2-year period. Reply rate varied significantly throughout the year. A mid-winter increase was correlated with the breeding season, especially for groups containing breeding animals (alpha male or alpha female). A second, longer increase in reply rate started in midsummer, peaked about August, and declined to a low in early winter. The decline in autumn howling response occurred sooner in a pack whose pups developed faster. Through the year, the howling reply rate was significantly higher among all packs and lone wolves attending prey kills. The more food remaining at a kill, the higher the reply rate was. For wolves separated from their pack, the howling reply rate was dependent on their age and social role. Among adults, only alpha males ever replied alone, and their reply rate, and number of howls per session, exceeded those of other animals. Alpha males sometimes approached during howling sessions, whereas other adults usually retreated. Younger animals replied more often as pups than as yearlings, and then only during their first 7 months, after which they replied little more than most adults. Finally, larger packs replied more often than smaller packs. Specific behaviours noted during howling sessions, including movements away from the howler, indicated that howling was related to interpack agonism. In addition, three of the major factors influencing reply rate also significantly affect the level of agonism toward pack strangers : pack size, social role, and breeding season. The other two factors, kills and pups, are both important pack resources necessitating exclusive occupancy of a site. The high reply rates at sites containing kills or pups constitute strong circumstantial evidence that howling is important in territory maintenance. During howling sessions, wolves usually remained near their original site after replying, or retreated if they remained silent. This difference apparently was related to the problem of avoiding both accidental and deliberate encounters, and to cost/benefit considerations at the wolves' location. Howling was considered most effective in mediating avoidance in two situations : when two packs approached a common area of overlap, and when a pack returned to an area little used for weeks, in which scent posts would have lost effectiveness in deterring strangers. Both scent-marking and howling apparently are important in spacing. However, they differ in their roles and are complementary, with scent-marking being long-term and site-specific, and howling being immediate and long-range. Finally, lone wolves which do not possess territories, rarely replied, sharing the "low-profile" behaviour expected of surplus animals in a territorial population.


Modern Italy ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 273-284
Author(s):  
Caterina Satta

In Western countries children's identities have been constructed through their bodies and the different meanings attached to them. Children's bodies are central to defining their social and spatial position in the city. They are in fact, more than any other group, subjected to a set of spatial bans and prohibitions that confine them within places specifically targeted at them during their free time (i.e. recreational, ludic and sports organisations). One of the recreational activities most commonly engaged in by Italian children is sport. However, little is known about children's approach to sporting activities. What is proposed here is that the site of children's involvement in sport is a valuable key for the observation of the ambiguous construction of children's citizenship through spatial borders and body training. Based on a long-term ethnographic study of the Cagliari football club academy for children, and informed by the new sociology of childhood approach, this article investigates the role of organised sport contexts in the urban generational order. The conclusions stress the contradiction detectable in a structured football club academy as a site that, on the one hand, promotes children's rights to play and, on the other, restricts their substantive citizenship within the public space.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Sarah Webb

<p><b>Many of the issues that plague society are a consequence of the way we live and build. Preferences for large sections and spacious homes have led to a series of complications at both individual and communal levels, which can be resolved by adopting housing typologies that are responsive to modern issues and lifestyles. Wide spread low-density housing has formed sprawling suburbs, consuming most buildable land resources and increasing its value, culminating in significant affordability issues. This style of living constructs highly private individual residences, creating isolated communities by discouraging pedestrian activity and limiting opportunity for social interaction.</b></p> <p>Internationally, smaller living environments have been successfully implemented for many decades to reduce the effect of urban sprawl and its ramifications, however this is yet to be realised in New Zealand at an impactful scale. Accommodating our living preferences in medium-high density environments presents a challenge that this research will explore. Although apartment typologies are a solution to density issues, they require residents to adapt to unfamiliar living circumstances, and have struggled to grow in popularity.</p> <p>Smaller homes on compact sites have the potential to facilitate community and ease resource and affordability issues, whilst providing a strong connection to the external environment, an aspect that many New Zealander’s seek.</p> <p>The research is tested on a site in Featherston, a small satellite town less than hour's train ride from Wellington. Intensification of satellite towns and city fringes is key to sustainably easing housing demands and generating supportive communities. The design tests the research at varying scales; how private buildings are designed, how the space between them is designed, and how the wider urban environment is designed to collectively achieve a desirable housing alternative that is responsive to New Zealand’s housing issues and preferences.</p> <p>An understanding of accommodating functional and psychological needs of housing and the role of common facilities is at the forefront of this research, as it ensures the homes have the ability to be occupied long-term. This was investigated through precedents, design testing and background theory research over four design phases, which examine private spaces, public spaces, and the areas in between.</p> <p>This research demonstrates that dense, small home communities can offer a more desirable housing alternative than traditional forms, and incidentally provide inherent solutions for New Zealand housing.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Sarah Webb

<p><b>Many of the issues that plague society are a consequence of the way we live and build. Preferences for large sections and spacious homes have led to a series of complications at both individual and communal levels, which can be resolved by adopting housing typologies that are responsive to modern issues and lifestyles. Wide spread low-density housing has formed sprawling suburbs, consuming most buildable land resources and increasing its value, culminating in significant affordability issues. This style of living constructs highly private individual residences, creating isolated communities by discouraging pedestrian activity and limiting opportunity for social interaction.</b></p> <p>Internationally, smaller living environments have been successfully implemented for many decades to reduce the effect of urban sprawl and its ramifications, however this is yet to be realised in New Zealand at an impactful scale. Accommodating our living preferences in medium-high density environments presents a challenge that this research will explore. Although apartment typologies are a solution to density issues, they require residents to adapt to unfamiliar living circumstances, and have struggled to grow in popularity.</p> <p>Smaller homes on compact sites have the potential to facilitate community and ease resource and affordability issues, whilst providing a strong connection to the external environment, an aspect that many New Zealander’s seek.</p> <p>The research is tested on a site in Featherston, a small satellite town less than hour's train ride from Wellington. Intensification of satellite towns and city fringes is key to sustainably easing housing demands and generating supportive communities. The design tests the research at varying scales; how private buildings are designed, how the space between them is designed, and how the wider urban environment is designed to collectively achieve a desirable housing alternative that is responsive to New Zealand’s housing issues and preferences.</p> <p>An understanding of accommodating functional and psychological needs of housing and the role of common facilities is at the forefront of this research, as it ensures the homes have the ability to be occupied long-term. This was investigated through precedents, design testing and background theory research over four design phases, which examine private spaces, public spaces, and the areas in between.</p> <p>This research demonstrates that dense, small home communities can offer a more desirable housing alternative than traditional forms, and incidentally provide inherent solutions for New Zealand housing.</p>


2018 ◽  
pp. 33-50
Author(s):  
Carl Lindskoog

Chapter 2 examines the Caribbean refugee crisis of 1980 and the government’s response. After more than one hundred thousand Cubans and tens of thousands of Haitians arrived on American shores in a matter of months, the Carter administration implemented a policy of detention for both groups. But this temporary response mutated into a more permanent policy of long-term detention for Haitians (as well as several hundred Cubans) and ultimately into the more widespread use of detention for asylum seekers. This chapter also explores the origins and early history of the Krome Avenue Detention Center in Miami, a site that remained central to the history of immigration detention and also documents attempts by the government to create its first refugee processing center and detention facility outside of the mainland United States, in Fort Allen, Puerto Rico. Ultimately, the Carter administration’s treatment of Haitian asylum seekers at this critical moment in 1980 enabled the succeeding administration to dramatically expand the role of detention in the U.S. government’s immigration enforcement arsenal.


2018 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 96-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aghogho Akpome

Since its launch in 1999, the annual Caine Prize for African short stories has assumed a dominant position on the continent’s literary landscape. It has been hailed for the exposure it provides for its winners who are mostly budding writers. Expectedly, it has also attracted stinging criticism, especially for what is perceived to be its legitimization of stereotypical narratives about Africa. In this article, I examine how the two winning entries of 2008 and 2011 represent contemporary African realities and in so doing reinforce the growing significance of the prize and the short story genre to modern African literary expression. I argue that, taken together, Henrietta Rose-Innes’ “Poison” (2007) and NoViolet Bulawayo’s “Hitting Budapest” (2010), both set in cities, contribute to problematic imaginings of African futures. Bulawayo does this through her representation of slum life and dystopian childhoods in Zimbabwe while Rose-Innes’s story speculates on the apocalyptic aftermath of a chemical explosion in post-apartheid South Africa. I highlight, also, how these two narratives reflect apparent relationships between the short story and the novel in contemporary African writing as well as the increasing role of the postcolonial city as a site from which unfavourable visions of postcolonial societies are generated.


2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesca Menegazzo ◽  
Melissa Rosa Rizzotto ◽  
Martina Bua ◽  
Luisa Pinello ◽  
Elisabetta Tono ◽  
...  

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