Visions of Tsafendas: Literary Biography and the Limits of “Research”

Abstract

Research seminar, research cluster, research output. The word is almost a fetish within the contemporary academy—but what does “research” actually mean in a discipline like literature? And what happens when a research project overspills its bounds, or pushes up against disciplinary limits and protocols? In this piece, I explore such questions via the figure of Demetrios Tsafendas, the "mad Greek" who assassinated apartheid Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd in 1966, supposedly acting on instructions from a tapeworm inside him. It is one of the strangest facts in South African history; it is also, of course, a kind of fiction, and one that has been refracted into a range of literary and artistic works. Reading across both official and “creative” archives, I address a range of methodological problems that I encountered in attempting an academic treatment of Tsafendas and his (as the presiding apartheid judge put it) “useless life”.     

Sibling incest: A literature review and a clinical study

Abstract

Few previous studies have explored the characteristics and dynamics of adolescent sibling incest. The objectives of this paper were twofold: first, to conduct a literature review that accounts for earlier research in the area, and secondly, to conduct a clinical study to explore differences regarding the characteristics of a group of adolescent sibling incest offenders (n=21) compared to a group of adolescent non-sibling offenders (n=24). Comparisons were made regarding variables such as family dysfunction, the offenders' prior victimization and offending behaviour. The data were derived from intake assessment files and semi-structured interviews with 45 adolescents who had sexually offended. The sibling incest offender group had grown up more often in dysfunctional families. Moreover, the results indicated that the offending behaviour in the sibling incest group was more severe. The study gives some empirical support for the possibility that sibling incest can be one sign, among others, of maltreatment during childhood.     

雷锋精神的当代传播——以丽水职业技术学院为例

丽水职业技术学院以“爱的教育”为载体,探讨怎样用学雷锋常态化培育和实践社会主义核心价值观,将学习雷锋精神与校园文化建设相融合,实现学雷锋活动“校为基地,四化联动,五方助力”的常态化机制化,取得精神文明和物质文明,立德育人和服务社会的“双丰收”。     

Veni,vidi, vici: postcolonial studies comes of age

This review article offers a critical assessment of Ato Quayson's Cambridge History of Postcolonial Literature (2012), engaging in passing with a debate between postcolonial theorists that appeared also in 2012 in the New Literary History (43.1 & 2). It posits that the History presents postcolonial literature, and indeed postcolonial studies, as much too settled fields, a view clearly at odds both with their genesis and with that reflected in the essays in NLH.     

Issues in teaching terrorism as cultural artefact

From a humanities course on terrorism that focuses on how terrorist ideology and acts are transformed into cultural artefacts, several pedagogical–theoretical issues have emerged: the incongruity of viewing terrorist violence as art; 9/11 as an ahistorical event; the impossibility of defining terrorism; the infiltration (trivialisation?) of terrorism into popular culture; subgenres of terrorist works, each with its own paradigm; and the iconoclastic potential of many terrorist texts and films. These issues have implications for the curricular design of terrorism courses and for the role of instructors – in academia and in the larger community.     

Emergence and equivocal autonomization of a Kurdish literary field in Turkey

Drawing on field theory, this paper aims to shed light on the development and functioning of the Kurdish literary world in Turkey, characterized, in particular, by the use of a non-official language. It argues that this “small literary world” is to be understood in relation to a “double macrocosm”: the sphere of Kurdish politics and the national Turkish sphere, which provide specific constraints and resources. The paper argues that in such a context the emergence of a literary field, autonomous from other social fields and independent from political stakes, follows an unpredictable path, and will not always be achieved political dimension of the literary act stresses its dependency on political stakes and the field of politics. This however does not impede the emergence of autonomous literary institutions. The multilingualism of the actors involved drives also toward another heteronomy: this small literary world is also to be understood in relation to the Turkish literary field. The paper first presents the macrocosms in which Kurdish literary activities developed. It then examines the progressive integration of a field freeing itself from political constraints. Lastly, it focuses on the trajectories of a few writers, the analyses of which show the intertwining of the different worlds.     

Fezzes in the river: identity politics and European diplomacy in the Middle East on the eve of World War II

This article analyzes how the Poles and Jews who disappeared from the western Ukrainian city of L'viv as a result of the Second World War are remembered in the city today. It examines a range of commemorative practices, from monuments and museums to themed cafes and literature, and analyzes how these practices interact to produce competing mnemonic narratives. In this respect, the article argues for an understanding of the city as a complex text consisting of a diverse range of mutually interdependent mnemonic media produced by a range of actors. The article focuses in particular on the ways in which Ukrainian nationalist narratives interact with the memory of the city's “lost others.” The article also seeks to understand L'viv's memory culture through comparison with a range of Polish cities that have faced similar problems with commemorating vanished communities, but have witnessed a deeper recognition of these communities than has been the case in L'viv. The article proposes reasons for the divergences between the memory cultures of L'viv and that found in Polish cities, and attempts to outline the gradual processes by which L'viv's Polish and Jewish pasts might become more widely integrated into the city's memory culture.     

邓小平政治体制改革构想的辩证观及其当代价值

邓小平关于政治体制改革构想蕴含着丰富的辩证法思维,它构成着邓小平政治体制改革思想和理论的内核。具体体现在:在对经济与政治关系的辩证把握中统筹推进政治体制改革;在人与制度的互动中推进政治体制改革;辩证把握政治体制改革中的根本原则与制度变革;改革党的领导体制与加强党的领导的辩证以及制度自信与学习借鉴的辩证。学习邓小平政治体制改革的辩证思维对于指导当今处于攻坚阶段的政治体制改革具有重要意义。     

召公为政思想的当代启示

召公,西周初年的重要历史人物。在辅佐周天子的过程中,召公通过总结历史,并结合当时实际,提出了"敬德"、"勤政"、"保民"等思想,对周初的政局产生了深远的影响,并为后世所效仿。对于当今各级领导干部来说,召公的敬德思想启示我们要加强细节修养,以德正民,以德待民;召公的勤政思想启示我们要能够居安思危,节制欲望,勤俭节约;召公的保民思想启示我们要密切联系群众,解决群众实际问题,赢得群众拥护。     

召公的廉政思想及其当代价值

召公的廉政思想是周初社会转型期总结殷商灭亡的沉痛教训的产物,它继承了前人的廉政思想,并进行了一些创新。召公的廉政思想体现在"爱国"、"保民"、"敬德"等方面。"劳己,不劳民;为民,不扰民"和"得民和"是其思想的精髓之所在,甘棠遗爱是其廉政思想的具体体现。作为廉政之鼻祖,召公的廉政思想是当代人反思借鉴的一面镜子,是中国共产党反腐倡廉工作的源头活水,对当前的廉政文化建设有一定的现实指导意义。