פרסומים

This essay reads Roger Laporte’s Une voix de fin silence (A voice of fine silence), the second volume of his idiosyncratic work Une vie (A life), in dialogue with the early volumes of Marcel Proust’s A la recherché du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time).  A constellation emerges from the analysis that allows us to consider the interrrelations and interdependence of Laporte’s text, his work as a critic on Proust, and the Recherche itself. The essay argues that Laporte’s textual engagement with Proust allows us to re-evaluate notions of literary failure so as to redefine what counts as the success of a literary project conceived as a writing about writing and becoming a writer.  Both Proust and Laporte practice a literary writing that evokes mental experience while never being synonymous with it because, as their texts demonstrate, mental and literary experience can never coincide perfectly.  Laporte labels the writer’s search a “listening,” a precarious activity which, like failure, is impossible to summon on command and which can only be recognized as such in retrospect as a motor of literary creation. 

 

August 2023: Joseph Acquisto is Professor of French at the University of Vermont.  His research focuses on literature of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with particular attention to the relations between literature, music, and philosophy. His books include French Symbolist Poetry and the Idea of Music, Crusoes and Other Castaways in Modern French Literature: Solitary Adventures, The Fall Out of Redemption: Writing and Thinking Beyond Salvation in Baudelaire, Cioran, Fondane, Agamben, and Nancy, and Reading Baudelaire with Adorno: Dissonance, Subjectivity, Transcendence.

The subject of literacy in ancient Israel and Judah remains hotly debated among scholars, and the case of the Kingdom of Judah proves especially controversial. To disentangle a complicated issue, this article first draws up a typology of approaches used by scholars to tackle questions such as the population’s rate of literacy, the Judeans’ ability to write down literary texts, and the development of literacy throughout the centuries. Then, it critically examines two quantitative approaches, which have been highly influential and currently promote the thesis that the levels of literacy were minimal in the early monarchic period in Judah (in contrast to the situation in Israel) and considerably increased at the end of this period.

Is there a “basic” meaning to a text? Or is every text ambiguous from the start? Insofar as a foundational work may be considered to be multivalent in meaning, by what principles do interpreters assess its “literal” sense? How broadly do they construe its scope — and what are the conceptual and historical implications of such perspectives? From antiquity to modernity, far-reaching changes in approach to literality are not just efforts to “figure out” words. Aiming to formulate relationships between words and events, they are efforts to figure out the world.

 

June 2024: Prof. Jon Whitman is a medievalist whose work explores the interplay of intellectual and imaginative changes from antiquity to the modern period.  He received his B.A. (summa cum laude) from Columbia University; his B.Phil. from the University of Oxford; and his A.M. and Ph.D. from Harvard University.  Long affiliated with the English Department of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he is now emeritus, he directed for many years the University’s Center for Literary Studies.  His publications include Allegory: The Dynamics of an Ancient and Medieval Technique (co-published in 1987 by Oxford University Press and Harvard University Press) and two collaborative studies under his editorship: Interpretation and Allegory: Antiquity to the Modern Period (published in 2000 by Brill), and Romance and History: Imagining Time from the Medieval to the Early Modern Period (published in 2015 by Cambridge University Press).

 

Sedimentary records of lipid biomarkers such as leaf wax n-alkanes are not only influenced by ecosystem turnover and physiological changes in plants, they are also influenced by earth surface processes integrating these signals. The integration of biomarkers into the sedimentary record and the effects of integration processes on recorded environmental signals are complex and not fully understood. To determine the depositional constraints on biomarker records in a high-altitude small catchment system, we collected both soil and stream sediments along a 1000 m altitude transect (1500 – 2500 masl) in the Areguni Mountains, a subrange of the Lesser Caucasus Mountains in Armenia. We utilize the existence of a treeline at ~ 2000 masl, which separates alpine meadow above from deciduous forest below, to assess the relative contribution of upstream biomarker transport to local vegetation input in the stream. We find that average chain length (ACL), hydrogen isotope (δD) and carbon isotope (δ¹³C) values of n-alkanes are significantly different in soils collected above and below the treeline. However, samples collected from the stream sediments do not integrate these signals quantitively. As the stream drops below the treeline, the ACL, δD and δ¹³C values of n-alkanes preserved in streambed sediments reflect a bias toward n-alkanes sourced from trees. This suggests that there is either 1) minimal transportation of organic matter from the more open vegetation in higher elevations, or 2) greater production of target biomarkers by trees and shurbs found at lower elevations results in overprinting of stream signals by local vegetation. Though this latter observation may preclude using n-alkanes to measure past treeline movement in these mountains, δD values of biomarkers in fluvial deposits in these settings are more likely to record local hydrological changes rather than changes in upstream fractionation differences associated with vegetation turnover.

Attention to information plays a key role in recent macroeconomic analysis, yet measuring it is a challenging endeavor, most notably in terms of covering varying geographical levels and time frequencies. We propose a novel, unconventional measure of public attention, which addresses these limitations, based on individuals’ reports of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP). We document a surprising link between UAP sightings and macroeconomic conditions at the U.S.-county, state, and national levels. Controlling for weather conditions, and external influences, UAP sightings are more common in wealthier regions, but within regions the pattern is counter-cyclical. Thus, variations in attention to exceptional phenomena in the skies implicitly point at more general patterns of variations in the public attention. We further support this interpretation by a quasi-experimental design that utilizes plausibly exogenous regional variations in COVID-19 restrictions and find evidence for a causal effect on public attention. We further show that the UAP sightings measure is highly correlated with conventional measures of attention that are based on expectations data. We then apply our measure in the context of monetary policy transmission. We find that it can account for sizable regional heterogeneity in the response to monetary shocks. Higher levels of attention across U.S. regions, as well as within regions over the business cycle, substantially mitigate the effect of monetary policy.

Magnesium-ion batteries (MIBs) are promising candidates for lithium-ion batteries because of their abundance, non-toxicity, and favorable electrochemical properties. This review explores the reaction mechanisms and electrochemical characteristics of Mg-alloy anode materials. While Mg metal anodes provide high volumetric capacity and dendrite-free electrodeposition, their practical application is hindered by challenges such as sluggish Mg²⁺ ion diffusion and electrolyte compatibility. Alloy-type anodes that incorporate groups XIII, XIV, and XV elements have the potential to overcome these limitations. We review various Mg alloys, emphasizing their alloying/dealloying reaction mechanisms, their theoretical capacities, and the practical aspects of MIBs. Furthermore, we discuss the influence of the electrolyte composition on the reversibility and efficiency of these alloy anodes. Emphasis is placed on overcoming current limitations through innovative materials and structural engineering. This review concludes with perspectives on future research directions aimed at enhancing the performance and commercial viability of Mg alloy anodes and contributing to the development of high-capacity, safe, and cost-effective energy storage systems.