“Un nodo avviluppato”. Rossini’s La Cenerentola as a prototype of multimodal resemiotisation

ABSTRACT

Since its early beginnings in Italy in the sixteenth century, opera has always been a multimodal text, integrating verbal, musical, and stage resources. Verbal resources can be unpacked in lyric verse for vocal pieces in closed form, narrative verse or prose for recitative, and stage directions; musical resources include instrumental and vocal music, whereas stage resources incorporate stage design, singers’ and dancers’ kinesics, and set and costume arrangements. However, opera has been rarely studied in multimodal terms, as it has been mainly explored from musicological standpoints, hence prioritising music and barely taking into account the interplay of other resources. As a case study, epitomising the Golden Age of opera, La Cenerentola by Rossini has been selected, as it exemplifies how the theatrical and compositional conventions of the genre work concurrently with its metatextual components. Stage adaptations will be also analysed in two film operas, that is, Jean-Pierre Ponnelle’s La Cenerentola (Germany, 1981) and Carlo Verdone’s Cenerentola, Una favola in diretta (Italy, 2014). Opera will be interpreted as a prototype of multi-level resemiotisation, also in a critical light, as the libretto is resemiotised (1) as a musical composition; (2) as a mise-en-scène, and (3) as a film opera.     

Enhancing Precision and Clarity in the Study of Policy Narratives: An Analysis of Climate and Air Issues in Delhi,India

The study of policy narratives is challenged by inconsistencies and a need for more precise definitions and measurements. The goals of this article are to build precision and clarity in the study of policy narratives by developing a network‐based approach—the ego‐alter dyad—for coding characters and their interactions around a policy issue and then to illustrate this approach in the analysis of air and climate issues in Delhi, India. The empirical results show that (1) the same actors are often heroes and villains, (2) heroes and villains are associated with different actions but with similar victims or beneficiaries, (3) narrators differ in their propensity to tell hero‐heavy or villain‐heavy policy narratives, and (4) the proportion of hero‐heavy or villain‐heavy policy narratives changes over time and differs across subtopics. The article concludes with a research agenda for further theoretical and methodological advancement in studying policy narratives.     

女性学与女性研究的原创性、时代性探析

在学习和理解习近平总书记在哲学社会科学工作座谈会上重要讲话精神的基础上,对女性学和女性研究的原创性与时代性问题展开讨论。研究结果表明,尽管女性学和女性研究在原创性与时代性建设方面取得了一定成绩,但仍然存在学科地位边缘化、原创性力作偏少等不足,需要进一步提高对这些问题的思想认识,并建构新的评价与激励机制。     

The “killer of the cane fields”: The social construction of the Australian coastal taipan

This paper makes an original contribution to human–animal studies through the application of social construction theory to an iconic species of Australian snake, the coastal taipan. Little research attention using this approach has been focused on reptiles, and this study addresses this gap in the literature. The taipan has achieved a high level of notoriety in Australia. This paper seeks to understand why and how this has occurred. Drawing on a range of data derived from analysis of newspaper articles, popular magazines and books, and the scientific literature, four dominant narratives are identified: the taipan as an object of science and natural history, as social problem, as object quest and as celebrity. The insights gained from this study support the contention that the meanings made of Australia's fauna are fluid, historically contextualised and socially constructed. In the specific case of the taipan, key individuals, including scientists, popular natural historians and snake men contributed greatly to the species’ construction, as did popular cultural forms such as newspapers and natural history books.     

Animal liberation,American anti-terrorist culture and Denis Hennelly’s Bold Native

Since its birth in the last quarter of the twentieth century, the animal liberation movement has attempted to expose the transnational, global character of speciecism and institutionalised forms of exploitation. Within the American panorama, however, the “war against terror” following 9/11 had such a profound effect on (radical) activism at a legal and legislative level that the movement found itself in the position of having to reassess their focus, leading to theoretical and aesthetic responses to anti-terrorist rhetoric. The aim of this article is (1) to examine the manner by which anti-terrorist rhetoric affected the movement and how the movement appropriated such rhetoric to reinvent their own discourse, and (2) analyse the audiovisual semiotics employed by Denis Hennelly in his 2010 film, Bold Native, so as to address how issues central to the movement’s current struggle and assimilation of concepts such as “terrorism” and “patriotism” translate at an aesthetic level.     

European Law Beyond ‘Ever Closer Union’ Repositioning the Concept,its Thrust and the ECJ's Comparative Methodology

The article investigates competing understandings of European law. It supports, against the prevailing EU‐centred understanding, an ecumenical concept that embraces EU law, supplementing international instruments, the European Convention on Human Rights and, importantly, various domestic laws enacting or responding to such transnational law, as well as European comparative law. To keep the concept in sync with European politics, it posits a new idea that binds the parts together: to provide for a European legal space rather than further European integration (the ever closer union). This idea can also serve as European law's functional equivalent to forming one legal order. European law thus conceived grasps the puzzling complex of interdependent legal orders, sets a common frame for corresponding reconstructions (European composite constructions, legal pluralism, network theories, federalism or intergovernmentalism) and allows forces with diverging outlooks to meet in one legal field, on one more neutral disciplinary platform. Within this framework, European comparative law finds a new mission as well as a sound legal basis.     

男性研究对性别平等教育的意义

实现性别平等是男女双方共同的责任。父权制的性别文化对女性不公的同时也使男性受到了伤害。本文在探讨男性研究的兴起、定位与内涵以及性别平等教育相关概念的基础上,反思男性研究与性别平等教育的内在联系,指出男性研究视角在教育领域的介入,有利于推动性别平等教育的深入发展和开拓新的实践可能,如深化性别角色社会化研究,拓展性教育的多元文化取向,丰富与再现校园中的性别文化等。     

The Evolution of the Theoretical Foundations of Punctuated Equilibrium Theory in Public Policy

Punctuated equilibrium theory in public policy replicated from biological punctuated equilibrium theory has concluded that public policies alternate between stasis and punctuation. However, recent research on Pacific Northwest forest policy, U.S. state tobacco policy, and U.S federal auto efficiency policy have found no punctuations despite an attempt to do so. What is the efficacy of using biological punctuated equilibrium theory to also explain punctuated equilibrium in public policy? Significant differences exist between biological and public policy punctuated equilibrium theory including time frames for change, what constitutes outside disturbances of equilibrium, venues of punctuated equilibrium, levels of analysis for change, and patterns of change. Most policy research on punctuation has focused on the “tone” of media coverage related to change. Some recent studies concluding no punctuation occurred have focused on government action or inaction. Proving strong inference in scientific research requires a clear and viable syllogism linked to appropriate methodology. Both of these crucial elements are now in question in punctuated equilibrium research in public policy.     

Twenty years after 1989: moving on from transitology

This article sets within a qualitative framework part of the social sciences research that has been carried out on Central and Eastern Europe since 1989. This qualitative study relies upon quantitative data from journal monitoring carried out on a number of thematic journals on post-Communist Europe. What the article demonstrates is that political science research on post-Communist Europe has advanced from the stage of transitology to methodological approaches more deeply entrenched within the European whole. Sociological research, on the other hand, has recently started to position the East European regional inside the European or global more emphatically.     

化痰降气胶囊对慢性阻塞性肺疾病模型大鼠影像学的影响

目的:探讨慢性阻塞性肺疾病(COPD)模型大鼠及化痰降气胶囊治疗后影像学的变化.方法:采用气管内注入脂多糖加熏香烟复合刺激法复制大鼠COPD模型.治疗组4周后给药,6周后各组摄片.结果:呼吸频率各组相比,差异有显著性(P<0.05或P<0.01);各组横膈前肋、横膈后肋、肋间隙积分比较,差异有显著性(P<0.01);横膈前肋积分,模型组与治疗组相比,差异有显著性(P<0.05).结论:COPD大鼠有明显的肺气肿影像学表现,化痰降气胶囊对COPD大鼠的影像学有较为明显的改善作用.