Mothers and others in Edna O'Brien's The Country Girls

This essay responds to critical assertions that the absence of functional maternity in Edna O'Brien's famous 1960 novel The Country Girls reflects O'Brien's frustration with the cloying myth of ‘Ireland-as-motherland’. While I agree that O'Brien centrally considers the imbrication of femininity with nationality in a culturally conservative post-independence Ireland and enumerates the devastating lived effects of this discourse on Irish women, I argue that The Country Girls offers a potentially productive step beyond lamentation or complaint: namely, a nascent transnational poetics. I contend that the novel hinges on a character heretofore neglected by the criticism – Caithleen Brady's Austrian landlady, Joanna – and suggest that O'Brien slyly positions Joanna as Caithleen's potential surrogate mother, framing a ‘foreigner’ as a source of subversive family ties. Joanna's presence, I believe, indicates an effort on O'Brien's part to negotiate a political response to both gendered oppression and literary parochialism (the much-remarked climate of censorship that marked the newly independent Ireland's intellectual culture): the notion that community and security might be transformatively relocated in strategic ‘translocal’ networks rather than within the confines of the nation-state. Joanna signifies O'Brien's look beyond Mother Ireland – a desire to open the country to both global feminisms and transnational textualities.     

The provenancing of ochres from the Neolithic Temple Period in Malta

Ochres have played an important role in early human societies, and recent studies have shown that these pigments are important tools in establishing trade routes between countries as particular varieties of the material were sought for use by these ancient groups. This paper explores the provenancing of the ancient ochres used during the Neolithic Temple Period on the Maltese islands. Here ICP-AES was employed to establish geochemical trends and ‘signature’ elements present in ochre that had previously been thought to have been imported from mainland Europe. When coupled with statistical tests, data was used to link the archaeological pigments to a geological source. Results revealed a strong link between the Maltese archaeological pigments and local sources, which had never been studied prior to this project. These indicated that, contrary to popular belief, the Maltese archipelago was the most likely source for Neolithic ochre.     

故宫博物院藏哈克文化玉石器研究

故宫博物院收藏有一批早年出土于内蒙鄂温克族自治旗的玉器和细石器,经对出土地点的确认及与考古出土器物的分类对比,确定其归属于新石器时代内蒙呼伦贝尔地区的哈克文化。哈克文化主要是以细石器为代表的史前考古学文化,目前也发现了为数不多的玉器。而故宫所藏的11件玉璧不仅为研究东北呼伦贝尔地区史前玉器的起源提供了更多的资料,而且对中国玉器文明起源的多元化探讨也具有一定的参考意义。     

辽宁朝阳市金代纪年墓葬的发掘

1998年9月中旬,北方航空公司朝阳飞行大队在基建施工过程中,发现一座古墓葬。施工人员揭开墓顶封石进入墓室,并取出了三件随葬品。朝阳市博物馆(现朝阳博物馆)闻讯后派人到现场调查,追回被取出的器物,并对该墓葬进行了抢救性发掘,编     

William Alexander’s Image of Qing China

William Alexander was the official draughtsman of the Macartney Embassy. His pictures of China covered a wide range of themes. Each theme represented a certain purpose. Landscapes, architectural drawings, and portraits constituted the majority of the drawings, which reveal the Embassy’s enthusiasm for obtaining visual knowledge of a variety of aspects in the society of China. The drawings of still life, costume, native species, and religious ceremony occupied the remainder, and provided the audience with a more intricate impression of China. In comparison with other European and some earlier generation artists’ works, Alexander’s pictures convey a peculiar British idea of China at the time, and hint at the potential crisis between the two countries.     

Strict solar alignment of Bronze Age rock carvings in SE Sweden

The Järrestad rock carving site in SE Sweden from the Bronze Age is examined as to the orientation of the individual carvings. A very strict orientation with respect to the main stages in the annual rhythm of the Sun is recorded; 60 feet, 61 shoes and a leading dancer all face the sunrise at Winter solstice, 20 ships face the sunset at Winter solstice, 12 feet point to the sunset at Summer solstice, and one serpent wiggles towards the sunrise at Summer solstice. Obviously, the Bronze Age people kept a strict control of the Sun's annual motions. The sunrise at Winter solstice seems to have been especially important.     

“芮薪”考辨

西北地区所见的汉代简牍资料中有"芮薪"一词,诸家对这个词的解释都不是十分精当。本文主要利用语言学知识和考古材料,对西北汉简中的一些植物进行考察,对"芮薪"一词的词义和具体所指得出了与诸家不同的观点。我们认为"芮薪"应该是材质比较柔软的草类燃料的统称,西北汉简中的"芦苇"、"慈其"在用作燃料的时候都应该可以称为"芮薪","蒲"和"需蓻"也有可能是"芮薪"所指的燃料。     

西汉铸钱工艺中钱币型腔和内浇道对充型过程影响的计算机模拟试验

西汉时期平板范竖式浇注铸钱工艺中有不同的钱币型腔设置和内浇道的形状,本研究通过计算机的流动模拟和凝固模拟技术,研究了钱币型腔和内浇道对充型过程的影响。结果表明:1)钱币型腔的不同设置对充型时间影响不大。2)钱币型腔的不同设置对充型过程产生影响,内郭正置的型腔产生气孔等铸造缺陷的可能性增大。3)内浇道的形状对钱币型腔的液流充型时间和液流在型腔中的流动过程有明显的影响,对凝固特征虽略有影响,但远小于钱币本身几何特征对凝固特征的影响。西汉中期起至晚期已基本采用内郭斜置的型腔设置,表明古代工匠在西汉中期始已明了钱币型腔的设置对充型过程将产生影响,已能通过选择更好的钱币型腔的设置来提高钱币的铸造质量。铸钱时,对缩短充型时间的要求高于对充型状态的要求,西汉中期以后多采用缩短充型时间的内浇道形状以提高平板范竖式浇铸工艺的充满率,从而提高成品率。     

Exchange Rate Policy and Economic Growth after the Financial Crisis in Central and Eastern Europe

In a paper on the effects of the global financial crisis in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), a European Union economist reacts to a companion paper (Åslund, 2001) published in the same issue of Eurasian Geography and Economics on the influence of exchange rate policies on the region's recovery. The author argues that post-crisis corrections in current account deficits in CEE countries do not in themselves signal a return to steady economic growth. Disagreeing with Åslund over the role of loose monetary policy in fostering the region's economic problems, he outlines a number of competitiveness problems that remain to be addressed in the 10 new EU member states of CEE, along with improvements in framework conditions supporting future macroeconomic growth.