The Pícaro as Jester in the Spanish Picaresque

Abstract

Jean Blacker. The Faces of Time: Portrayal of the Past in Old French and Latin Historical Narrative of the Anglo-Norman Regnum. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1994. xv + 263 pp.

Gretchen Rous Besser. Germaine de Staël Revisited. (Twayne's World Authors Series, 849.) New York: Twayne Publishers, 1994. xvii + 181pp. $23.95.

John Claiborne Isbell. The Birth of European Romanticism: Truth and Propaganda in Staäl's 'De l'Allemagne, 1810–1813. (Cambridge Studies in French, 49.) Cambridge University Press, 1994. xiii + 269 pp. $59.95.

Michael Sprinker. History and Ideology in Proust: A la recherche du temps perdu and the Third French Republic. (Cambridge Studies in French, 50.) Cambridge University Press, 1994. xii + 232 pp. $54.95.

William J. Kennedy. Authorizing Petrarch. Cornell University Press, 1994. ii + 301pp.

M. J. Woods. Gracián Meets Góngora: The Theory and Practice of Wit. Warminster: Aris and Phillips, 1995. vi + 120 pp.

Cristóbal Cuevas García, ed. Jardiel Poncela. Teatro, vanguardia y humor. Barcelona: Athropos, 1993. 302 pp.

Roberta Johnson. Crossfire: Philosophy &; the Novel in Spain, 1900–1934. The University Press of Kentucky, 1993, xi + 234 pp.

Kenton V. Stone. Utopia Undone: The Fall of Uruguay in the Novels of Carlos Martínez Moreno. Lewisburg: Bucknell U P, 1994. 217 pp. $35.00

Carol Maier, Roberta L. Salper, eds. Ramón María del Valle-Inclán: Questions of Gender. Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press; London and Toronto: Associated University Presses, 1994. 264 pp.

Walter Mignolo. The Darker Side of the Renaissance. Literacy, Territoriality, and Colonization. University of Michigan Press, 1995. 426 pp. $39.50.

José Raimundo Maia Neto. Machado de Assis, the Brazilian Pyrrhonian. (Purdue Studies in Romance Literatures, 5.) Purdue University Press: 1994. 231pp. $35.95.     

Mechanisms of Failure and Slope Development in Rock Masses

This paper examines the mechanisms of failure in jointed rock slopes. The distribution of discontinuities is a significant control of rock-mass stability, determining the mechanism by which blocks fail from a cliff, and the consequent slope development through time. It is often assumed that the principles of single-block movements are geomechanically similar to those of larger, multiple-block rock-mass failures, under a given set of boundary conditions and controlling variables. Results presented here, based on computer modelling using the Universal Distinct Element Code (UDEC), show that such assumptions are not always correct. After a theoretical modelling exercise, real-world rock slopes were studied from the Portland Limestone outcrop of the Isle of Purbeck, England. There is good association between the theoretical results and model output for the fieldsites. The conclusions are thus useful in enhancing knowledge of jointed rock-mass failure conditions, and improving understanding of rock-slope development.     

An ongoing Austronesian expansion in Island Southeast Asia

The Austronesian expansion into Island Southeast Asia and the Pacific was the last and most far-reaching prehistoric human migration. Austronesian languages replaced indigenous languages over nearly half the globe, yet the absolute number of Austronesian colonists was small. Recently, geneticists have identified large geographic disparities in the relative proportions of Asian ancestry across different genetic systems (NRY, mitochondrial DNA, autosomes and X chromosomes) in Austronesian-speaking societies of Island Southeast Asia and the Pacific. Surprisingly, a substantial genetic discontinuity occurs in the middle of a continuous chain of islands that form the southern arc of the Indonesian archipelago, near the geographic center of the Austronesian world. In the absence of geographic barriers to migration, this genetic boundary and swathe of Austronesian language replacement must have emerged from social behavior. Drawing on decades of comparative ethnological research inspired by F.A.E. van Wouden’s structural model of Austronesian social organization, later codified by Claude Lévi-Strauss as “House societies” (“sociétés à maison”), we propose a two-stage ethnographic model in which the appearance of matrilocal “House societies” during the initial phase of the Austronesian expansion, and the subsequent disappearance of “House societies” in lowland rice-growing regions, accounts for the observed linguistic, genetic and cultural patterns.     

The Atlantic Empires in the Eighteenth Century

Spanish America; John J. Tepaske     

Cold War,Public Opinion,and Foreign Policy Spending Decisions: Dynamic Representation by Congress and the President

Conventional wisdom before the Vietnam War held that public opinion exerted no influence on U.S. foreign policy decisions. Scholars working in Vietnam's aftermath found episodic influence of public opinion on foreign policy, but missing in our understanding were longitudinal examinations of public opinion's influence on foreign policy. A number of post-Vietnam scholars subsequently revealed a long-term relationship between public opinion and defense spending. This study extends that work by analyzing responsiveness to public opinion in different foreign policy arenas by different government institutions, and by accounting for a critical variable not relevant in most previous studies: the end of the cold war. We construct a model explaining the influences of public opinion and the cold war on spending proposals for defense and foreign economic aid by the presidency, the House of Representatives and the Senate. Both public opinion and the end of the cold war exert direct influence on defense spending proposals by the presidency, while the Senate and the House respond primarily to public opinion inputs and the partisan composition of the Senate. In the case of foreign economic aid, the cold war's end gives occasion for increasing spending proposals, contrary to the public's expectation that the end of the cold war minimized the need for the U.S. to provide foreign economic assistance.     

American power before and after 11 September: dizzy with success?

One of the most interesting consequences of the war against international terrorism is the discovery by many analysts of American power. However, if the experts had been more attentive they might have noticed that a power shift in favour of the United States is not just some recent phenomenon arising from US victory over the Taliban or the new Bush military build-up. Rather, it can, and should be, traced back to important trends of the early 1990s. What the war has done is to reveal the extent of America's renaissance in the postwar decade while its position as true hegemon was being consolidated. However, victory in war may not bring order in peace if the United States does not draw the correct lessons.     

Transient fluid flow in and around a fault

We present the results of simple numerical experiments in which we study the evolution with time of fluid flow around and within a permeable fault embedded in a less permeable porous medium. Fluid movement is driven by an imposed vertical pressure gradient. The results show that fluid flow is controlled by two timescales: τ_f = Sl²/κ_F and τ_F = Sl²/κ_M, where S is the specific storage of the porous material, l the length of the fault, and κ_M and κ_F are the hydraulic conductivities of the porous material and the fault, respectively. Fluid flow and the associated fluid pressure field evolve through three temporal stages: an early phase [t < τ_f] during which the initial fluid pressure gradient within the fault is relaxed; a second transient stage [τ_f < t < τ_F] when fluid is rapidly expelled at one end of the fault and extracted from the surrounding rocks at the other end leading to a reduction in the pressure gradient in the intact rock; a third phase [t < τ_F] characterized by a steady‐state flow. From the numerical experiments we derive an expression for the steady‐state maximum fluid velocity in the fault and the values of the two timescales, τ_f and τ_F. A comparison indicates excellent agreement of our results with existing asymptotic solutions. For km‐scale faults, the model results suggest that steady‐state is unlikely to be reached over geological timescales. Thus, the current use of parameters such as the focusing ratio defined under the assumption of steady‐state conditions should be reconsidered.     

Commentary: Martians and Venutians in the new world order

One of the most significant results of 9/11 has been to provoke the most serious crisis in the transatlantic relationship—the subject of Robert Kagan's influential and provocative treatise. Lauded by some as one of the more important contributions to the study of world politics in recent years and attacked by others as possibly the most misguided analysis of European—American relations ever, Kagan sets forth in stark, realist terms why the rift is serious, long-term and unlikely to be overcome by neat diplomatic footwork. However, as this commentary seeks to show, if Kagan is right there is little chance of constructing anything like a 'new world order'. Moreover, if the clash continues, far from enhancing American power in the world, it is more likely to weaken it.