The theatre of social change: nobility,opera industry and the politics of culture in Bologna between papal privileges and liberal principles

In Bologna, after Rome the second biggest city of the Papal States, the Teatro Comunale played a major role in the city's cultural self-representation from the eighteenth century. After the Unification of Italy local politicians and the rising middle class used the theatre - together with the famous university, the Liceo musicale and the Pinacoteca - to present Bologna as one of the young nation-state's cultural capitals. A study of Bologna's opera house as a social institution highlights social, cultural and political processes and conflicts which marked the transition from the papal regime to the liberal nation-state. Bologna's nobility, which owned the theatre's prestigious private boxes, opposed the idea of democratically elected politicians and professional experts determining the fate of their theatre, the theatre which for centuries had provided the preferred backdrop for staging their social status.     

论王朔、何顿小说的狂欢化叙事

本文借用巴赫金的“狂欢化”理论,从边缘性、双声性、消解性三方面对王朔、何顿小说的狂欢化叙事进行分析,从而揭示出二者在叙事狂欢化倾向上的异同。     

Darwin on stage: evolutionary theory in the theatre

Abstract

The chirality of living matter, and of its chemical processes, is reviewed. It is argued that the development of chiral self-replicating systems from nonliving maner is perfectly possible from precursors tbat are available only in racemic form, and that external chiral influences are unnecessary for this development. Minimal conditions for the nonbiotic development of a self-replicating molecular species are discussed, and it is proposed that this development could occur in a small self-contained aqueous system exposed to sunlight and incorporating a limited supply of simple organic precursor molecules, provided that polyphosphates are continuously being synthesised photochemically and that a catalyst for phosphate transfer is continuously available. The importance of hydrolysis, at a rate comparable to synthesis, is emphasised.     

Justice,aggression, and theatre: Contradictions and conflict in the modern world

Cohen, Ronald L. ed. Justice: Views from the Social Sciences. New York and London: Plenum Press, 1986. xii + 283 pp. including chapter references and subject and author indices. $32.50 cloth.

Gilmore, David D. Aggression and Community: Paradoxes of Andalusian Culture. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1987. xvi + 218 pp. including map, notes, glossary, bibliography, and index. $24.50 cloth.

Wagner‐Pacifici, Robin Erica. The Moro Morality Play: Terrorism as Social Drama. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1986. xi + 360 pp. including appendix, notes, bibliography, and index. $45.00 cloth, $14.95 paper.

Gorecki, Jan. Capital Punishment: Criminal Law and Social Evolution. New York: Columbia University Press, 1983. x + 165 pp. including notes, bibliography, and index. $12.50 paper.     

Identity,place and culture: Patrick McCarthy's columns in the Bologna pages of La Repubblica

Abstract

For six years between 1994 and 2000, Patrick McCarthy contributed occasional articles to the Bologna section of La Repubblica. These writings were intensely personal interventions on various themes that reflected their author's lifelong interest in literature, culture, politics and sport. Many of them addressed issues of civic life in a city that had once enjoyed a reputation as a showcase of Communist local administration in Italy, but which in 1999 elected a right-wing mayor. In contrast to an impersonal urban modernization that he saw as destructive, McCarthy championed a humane ideal of community that was not ‘traditional’, but rather open and flexible.     

Place,teenagers and representations: Lessons from a community theatre project

Community art is one way the stories and perceptions of typically marginalized community residents can reach a large audience, as well as one means of community development and improvement. This paper draws on the author's ethnographic research and personal experience working for two years with a community theatre programme in an impoverished, multi-ethnic neighbourhood of San Diego, California. Like many community arts programmes, Around the World in a Single Day community theatre project targeted 'at risk' teenagers. The community theatre project provides a vehicle for discussing two aspects of representation: narrative authority and the symbolic economy. The paper argues that community arts programmes can empower the self-representation of marginalized teenagers, but these representations are given meaning in the context of the representation of their neighbourhood. L'art communautaire représente un moyen de faire connître au grand public les récits et perceptions des individus marginalisés, en plus d'offrir des voies d'amélioration et de développement des communautés. Cet article s'inspire des recherches ethnographiques et expériences personnelles de l'auteur au cours d'une période de deux ans àtravailler pour un programme de théâtre communautaire dans un quartier multiculturel défavoriséde San Diego, Californie. Comme plusieurs programmes artistiques communautaires, le projet de théâtre 'Autour du Monde en un Seul Jour' visait des jeunes dits 'à risque'. Le projet de théâtre communautaire sert de tremplin pour discuter deux aspects du processus de représentation: l'autorité narrative et l'économie symbolique. Cet article soutient que les programmes artistiques communautaires peuvent habiliter l'autoreprésentation de jeunes marginalisés, mais ces images acquièrent leur sens dans le contexte des représentations du quartier. El arte comunitario es una de las vías por la cual se puede transmitir las historias y opiniones de las personas típicamente marginas de una comunidad a un público muy amplio. También constituye una manera de desarollar y mejorar una comunidad. Esta papel hace uso de las investigaciones etnográficas y las experiencias personales del autor, el cual pasó dos años trabajando con un programa de teatro comunitoario en un barrio empobrecido y multiétnico de San Diego, California. Al igual que muchos programas de arte comunitario el proyecto 'Around the World in a Single Day' (Vuelta del Mundo en un Solo Día) se dirigía a los adolescentes 'en peligro'. El proyecto de teatro comunitario facilita el debate de dos aspectos de representación: autoridad narrativa y la economía simbólica. El papel sugiere que los programas de arte comunitario tienen la capacidad de autorizar la auto-representación de adolescentes marginados, y estas representaciones tienen sentido en el contexto de la representación de su vecindad.     

Traditional oral theatre meets popular middle-class melodrama: the Greek shadow-theatre puppeteer Vasilaros

Abstract

Vasilaros (1899–1979), a moderately educated Greek shadow-theatre puppeteer, adapted popular melodramas and novels with strong bourgeois morality, such as Οι δ?ο λοχ?αι in 1931, Η ?γνωστο? in 1937, Αι δ?ο ορφανα? in 1944, and Οι ?θλιοι in 1955. The adaptations indicate that by the mid-1930s, the borderline between the traditional oral art of shadow theatre and mainstream culture had become considerably blurred. This article explores the convergence of these two cultures in terms of dramatic structure and ideology.     

Anxiety and injustice: the anatomy of contemporary English nationalism*

ABSTRACT. An explicit and politically mobilised English nationalism has been remarkable because of its absence from deliberation on constitutional change in the United Kingdom. In short, it remains a mood and not a movement. This article explores the mood and explains why that mood has not become, as yet, a movement. It examines three related aspects of the English nationalist mood. First, it considers anxieties about the condition of contemporary England which can be found in the work of intellectuals and artists. Second, it identifies the sense of injustice which animates the lobby group the Campaign for an English Parliament. Finally, it looks at how mainstream party politics responds to these national anxieties and that sense of national injustice.     

Spirits of being,spirits of becoming: Bororo shamanism as ontological theatre

Crocker, John Christopher. Vital Souls: Bororo Cosmology, Natural Symbolism, and Shamanism. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1985. xiii + 380 pp. including photographs, appendices, bibliography, and index. Foreword by David Maybury‐Lewis. $29.95 cloth.     

朝野纠葛:北京政府时期的舆论与外交--以关税特别会议为个案的考察

关于北京政府时期的外交,尽管学术界近来已开始有了较为客观的评价,不过对于其背后因素的考察还有待深入。实际上,在北京政府时期,由于特殊的时代背景,各种社会舆论被全面动员起来,以汹涌澎湃之势冲击着外交这一特殊的政治领域,从而形成了近代史上国民外交的黄金时期。于是,由于中央政府统治的虚弱,在其决策者进行外交运作时,就处处受到来自舆论界的影响,这是一个极为明显的历史特色,通过对当时舆论的考察,就会更深层次地探究北京政府外交的两难境地。笔者在考察时,主要以关税特别会议为个案,以上海舆论为核心,以《申报》、《东方杂志》等报刊为第一手资料。     

Wildlife trade, sanctions and compliance: lessons from the CITES regime

The international community possesses a powerful tool to control wildlife trade—the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). For over 20 years it has used trade sanctions as the cornerstone of a unique compliance system that has evolved through practice and secondary rules. This article discusses the mechanisms through which sanctions are imposed and assesses their effectiveness. The CITES compliance system has evolved largely in isolation from other environmental treaties, yet there are lessons that could be learned by other trade-related agreements that are in the process of developing their mechanisms to address non-compliance. CITES is particularly dependent on a sanctions-based approach because of the lack of funds to support capacity building. The article demonstrates through the national legislation project how sanctions used to back-up technical assistance can indirectly build capacity to implement the treaty. It concludes by arguing that guidelines on compliance currently under negotiation risk undermining the CITES compliance system and eroding the gains of the last three decades.     

Regional development and technology policies: Some lessons from the German experience

The development of economic, ecological, social, cultural and political conditions has a lasting influence on the development of individual regions and economic areas, and is in turn influenced by them. Background conditions in Germany have changed over the last few years, with reunification and the upheavals in Eastern Europe, the prospective completion of the Singh European Market and the increasingly insistent new challenges in the areas of the environment and transport. This paper gives some examples of the changes taking place in some of these background conditions, and discusses their foreseeable future regional impacts in the FRG. In the last 10 years, Baden‐Württemberg in south‐west Germany has been considered as one of the most successful examples in Europe of regional structural adaptation combined with a dynamic innovation system. The characteristics of the economic development of this region and their causes are dealt with.