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.     

War museums as agonistic spaces: possibilities,opportunities and constraints

ABSTRACT

Following the theorisation of museums as agonistic spaces and drawing on a comparative analysis of war museums located in various European countries, this paper argues that these institutions play complex and multi-layered roles beyond their obvious educational function. These not easily reconcilable roles act as major constraints upon the form and content of exhibitions and work against the adoption of an agonistic approach. However, the paper also argues that war museums are especially apt to become sites of political contestation able to engage with agonistic memory and unsettling counter-narratives. This is due in large part to the nature of the subject matter they deal with, as war and conflict lend themselves to being represented in ways that emphasise patriotic consensus but can also highlight dissent, contestation, multiple perspectives and alternative visions of society. Agonistic practices emerge when windows of opportunity open through a combination of top-down and bottom-up agency able to take advantage of particular socio-political circumstances or cultural developments. The paper also discusses a new exhibition on war memory planned for late 2018 in Essen, Germany and conceived as a strategic political intervention, which aims to communicate in an agonistic fashion with its audiences.     

Cross-cultural interaction on Wuvulu Island,Papua New Guinea: the perspective from use-wear and residue analyses of turtle bone artifacts

Recent studies have emphasized the importance of Indigenous producers and traders in the formation of ethnographic museum collections, but have found difficulty in finding concrete evidence for their active roles. A use-wear and residue study of turtle bone cleavers from Wuvulu Island, Papua New Guinea provides the opportunity to test whether objects that comprise a significant component of early collections were made specifically for sale, as hypothesized by contemporary observers in the late 19th century. Comparative studies of used and unused turtle bone artifacts from the Caroline Islands and Papua New Guinea identified differences between wear traces resulting from manufacture and use. Analyses of the Wuvulu turtle bone cleavers showed they had been heavily used prior to sale. Rather than produce artifacts to meet the high demand from German traders, the local people sold old, worn-out objects, many of which had been repaired. The study demonstrates that archaeological approaches to ethnographic museum collections can trace Indigenous agency within cross-cultural interaction. It also showcases the potential of use-wear and residue analytical techniques for the analysis of bone tools and the utility of digital, hand-held microscopes for the analysis of large artifacts.     

Three Methods for Detecting Past Groupings: Cultural Space and Group Identity

Grouping techniques employ similarities within data to create new entities, which lend themselves to the interpretation process. This article presents three different grouping approaches, each originally developed independently, and applied to a common dataset of archaeological finds. The aim is not to search for the right approach or results, in a competing way, but rather to present the methods as complementary. It is also our intention to stress that a tight connection between theory and statistical modelling is indispensable. Indeed, the use of a particular methodology must be supported by an adapted theory; similarly, a theory without a proper methodological realisation will often not have any actual utility. The integration of theory and method is exemplified in the three case methods. The first method uses metal objects as cultural indicators. The study area is divided into a set of identical geographical units, characterized according to the type and proportions of indicators and grouped using hierarchical clustering. The second approach deals with cultures as standardisations between individuals, using ‘Typenspektrum’ as significant data for identifying different cultures. Groups are defined through kernel density estimation and a cluster analysis, followed by internal and external validation techniques. A third method characterizes the funerary ritual and grave-goods, using a similarity algorithm coupled with clustering procedures to compare the graves with one another. The outcome is validated with exploratory methods and compared to patterns from different contexts. The complementarity of the results shows that each approach sheds light on a certain facet of the same whole.     

Historical Archaeo-Geographies of Scaled Statehood: American Federalism and Material Practices of National Prohibition in California, 1917–1933

This paper discusses the ways that a more explicit engagement with the discipline of historical geography could contribute to archaeologies of the recent and contemporary past. Scholars working in this time period must consider multiple scales of connectivity between people and places through time and would benefit from political geography’s recent theorizing on scale and the state. We present a preliminary case study of what we term a historical archeo-geography drawing upon archaeological materials from late nineteenth to mid-twentieth century sites to demonstrate how state and federal legislation is enacted at the household level.     

Engendered and Feminist Archaeologies of the Recent and Documented Pasts

Engendered and feminist archaeologies in historical archaeology have developed in complementary ways to those in nonhistorical archaeologies but with distinct methodological issues and sources of data. This article discusses the development of engendered and feminist archaeologies that use textual sources, the continuing themes that characterize this body of work, and the state of the field today. The article concludes with a discussion of future directions for practitioners to pursue.     

Book reviews

THE STUDY OF POLITICS: A COLLECTION OF INAUGURAL LECTURES. Preston King (ed). London, Cass, 1977, pp 322.

JAPAN AT THE POLLS: The House of Councillors Elections of 1974. Michael K. Blaker (ed.), American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, Washington, D.C. 157 pp. ISBN 0–8447–3213–3, $US3.00.

MANKIND'S FUTURE IN THE PACIFIC. R.F. Scagel (ed.), Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1976, $10.50 paperback.

THE EEC AND AUSTRALIA. J.D.B. Miller. Nelson, in association with A.I.I.A., Melbourne, 1976. pp. x, 137.

UNEQUAL ALLIES. AUSTRALIAN‐AMERICAN RELATIONS AND THE PACIFIC WAR. Roger J. Bell. M.U.P., 1977, 278 pp.

WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION AND THE ENVIRONMENT. Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Taylor & Francis Ltd., London, 1977 pp. 95. L5.