“Flying Round Her, Across Her, Towards Her in a Pattern”: Towards a Materialist Historiography of Virginia Woolf’s Short Fiction

Cet article présente une analyse du récit bref “In the Orchard,” de Virginia Woolf, revenant tout d’abord sur ses premières apparitions (dans les revues Criterion et Broom) avant d’étudier sa dimension visuelle. En liant le récit de Woolf au mouvement surréaliste, cette contribution propose un point de vue alternatif sur les nouvelles de l’écrivaine, telles qu’elles ont été étudiées jusqu’à présent, et revient plus spécifiquement sur leur appartenance au genre. L’étude se base sur les concepts de Walter Benjamin d’historiographie matérialiste et de constellation – qui ont eux-aussi été influencés par les pratiques et les stratégies esthétiques surréalistes – afin de suggérer la possibilité d’établir de nouveaux rapports entre les textes de Woolf lorsque l’on introduit des cadres historiques et culturels différents pour étudier son œuvre

Virginia Woolf and the work of the literary sketch: scenes and characters, politics and printing in Monday or Tuesday (1921)

This thesis foregrounds Virginia Woolf’s 1921 volume of short fiction, Monday or Tuesday, examining its aesthetic qualities and formal strategies through the lens of the literary sketch. ‘Sketch’ is a term that has been invoked in criticism of Monday or Tuesday since its publication, but the provenance of the sketch as a literary genre and its centrality to Woolf’s aesthetic practices have not yet been fully examined in Woolf studies. The idea of the sketch is most often raised in analysis of her unfinished memoir, ‘A Sketch of the Past’, and as a descriptor for the general plotlessness of her short fiction; yet, the historical specificity and formal strategies of the sketch as an established literary genre have largely been elided in such discussions. Attending to the frequency and precision of Woolf’s own use of the term ‘sketch’, and particularly to her declared intention to ‘keep the quality of the sketch in the finished and composed work’ (D II 312), this thesis elucidates the sketch as a key mode of writing for Woolf. It argues that she achieved her desired combination of the sketch and the finished work most fully in the first Hogarth edition of Monday or Tuesday. A set of texts more usually encountered in anthologies or integrated with Woolf’s other short fiction, Monday or Tuesday has itself occupied a relatively marginal place in the critical construction of Woolf’s oeuvre. Although there has been a recent surge of work on the short fiction, Monday or Tuesday has yet to be foregrounded as the sole object of a monograph, or to appear as a scholarly edition. This thesis reads Monday or Tuesday in its entirety, in the specificity of its original publication by Woolf’s Hogarth Press, and considers what is at stake in reading this work as a collection of literary sketches. The analysis performed is grounded in the material qualities of the first UK edition, where the woodcuts by Vanessa Bell and the uncorrected mistakes made in the hand-printing of the book contribute to the effects of the sketch as it appears in print. In these aspects, the thesis builds on the substantial body of scholarship on the Hogarth Press and Bloomsbury aesthetics to discuss Monday or Tuesday as a printed sketchbook. It shows how the sketch manifests in Monday or Tuesday’s material appearance, where it combines the ‘evanescent’ and ‘engraved’ qualities later formulated alongside ‘the life of Monday or Tuesday’ in Woolf’s manifesto for ‘Modern Fiction’ (1925). Utilising Woolf’s own terminology throughout, the thesis explores the simultaneous ephemerality and permanence of the sketch, as something which can project into a future moment of writing, and whose significance can be realised belatedly; as something which works explicitly with the surface impression but which also layers moments of making. The thesis begins by drawing on recent scholarship to outline a history of the sketch as a literary genre which was popular throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in Europe and America, and identifies examples of this tradition with which Woolf was familiar. Woolf’s deployment of the term ‘sketch’ is discussed in detail, from her early journals and juvenilia to her memoir, and the thesis proceeds to study the ways in which the sketch is at work in Monday or Tuesday. It examines the book’s contents under some conventional categories of the sketch: the scene, the character, and the political sketch. The central chapter of the thesis discusses the poetics and narrative strategies of scene-making and character-sketching, and Chapter Four highlights the feminist political inflections of Woolf’s use of the sketch. These readings show how the literary sketch is not defined simply by its fragmentary, ekphrastic or unfinished qualities, but also utilises narrative strategies of suggestion, deferral and interruption. The thesis reaches for finish in the final chapter by examining the material qualities of the book, including an examination of key variants between the first British and first American editions. While it makes serious strategic claims for the sketch as one possible genre through which to approach Monday or Tuesday, the thesis does not claim to definitively categorise these texts as sketches once and for all. Rather, in the attempt to treat these texts in broad-stroke but incisive detail, it acknowledges the procedures of the sketch itself – its representative provisionality, its potential to function as a detailed study, and its creation of a basis for re-working. It takes the idea of the sketch as a critical apparatus by which to perform the experimental reading that Monday or Tuesday’s own narrative strategies invite. The thesis ultimately seeks to foreground the work of both Monday or Tuesday and the literary sketch in Woolf’s modernist aesthetics, and to prepare the ground for future study of their significance for modernism more generally

Multivalent helix mimetics for PPI-inhibition.

The exploitation of multivalent ligands for the inhibition of protein-protein interactions has not yet been explored as a supramolecular design strategy. This is despite the fact that protein-protein interactions typically occur within the context of multi-protein complexes and frequently exploit avidity effects or co-operative binding interactions to achieve high affinity interactions. In this paper we describe preliminary studies on the use of a multivalent N-alkylated aromatic oligoamide helix mimetic for inhibition of p53/hDM2 and establish that protein dimerisation is promoted, rather than enhanced binding resulting from a higher effective concentration of the ligand. This journal i

Neurodevelopment of babies born to mothers with epilepsy: A prospective observational cohort study

Objective: Despite widespread monotherapy use of lamotrigine or levetiracetam during pregnancy, prospectively collected, blinded child development data are still limited. The NaME (Neurodevelopment of Babies Born to Mothers With Epilepsy) Study prospectively recruited a new cohort of women with epilepsy and their offspring for longitudinal follow-up. Methods: Pregnant women of <21 weeks gestation (n = 401) were recruited from 21 hospitals in the UK. Data collection occurred during pregnancy (recruitment, trimester 3) and at 12 and 24 months of age. The primary outcome was blinded assessment of infant cognitive, language, and motor development on the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development (3rd edition) at 24 months of age with supplementary parent reporting on the Vinelands Adaptive Behavior Scales (2nd edition). Results: There were 394 live births, with 277 children (70%) completing the Bayley assessment at 24 months. There was no evidence of an association of prenatal exposure to monotherapy lamotrigine (−.74, SE = 2.9, 95% confidence interval [CI] = −6.5 to 5.0, p =.80) or levetiracetam (−1.57, SE = 3.1, 95% CI = −4.6 to 7.7, p =.62) with poorer infant cognition, following adjustment for other maternal and child factors in comparison to nonexposed children. Similar results were observed for language and motor scores. There was no evidence of an association between increasing doses of either lamotrigine or levetiracetam. Nor was there evidence that higher dose folic acid supplementation (≥5 mg/day) or convulsive seizure exposure was associated with child development scores. Continued infant exposure to antiseizure medications through breast milk was not associated with poorer outcomes, but the number of women breastfeeding beyond 3 months was low. Significance: These data are reassuring for infant development following in utero exposure to monotherapy lamotrigine or levetiracetam, but child development is dynamic, and future follow-up is required to rule out later emerging effects

Convalescent plasma in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised controlled, open-label, platform trial

SummaryBackground Azithromycin has been proposed as a treatment for COVID-19 on the basis of its immunomodulatoryactions. We aimed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of azithromycin in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19.Methods In this randomised, controlled, open-label, adaptive platform trial (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19Therapy [RECOVERY]), several possible treatments were compared with usual care in patients admitted to hospitalwith COVID-19 in the UK. The trial is underway at 176 hospitals in the UK. Eligible and consenting patients wererandomly allocated to either usual standard of care alone or usual standard of care plus azithromycin 500 mg once perday by mouth or intravenously for 10 days or until discharge (or allocation to one of the other RECOVERY treatmentgroups). Patients were assigned via web-based simple (unstratified) randomisation with allocation concealment andwere twice as likely to be randomly assigned to usual care than to any of the active treatment groups. Participants andlocal study staff were not masked to the allocated treatment, but all others involved in the trial were masked to theoutcome data during the trial. The primary outcome was 28-day all-cause mortality, assessed in the intention-to-treatpopulation. The trial is registered with ISRCTN, 50189673, and ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04381936.Findings Between April 7 and Nov 27, 2020, of 16 442 patients enrolled in the RECOVERY trial, 9433 (57%) wereeligible and 7763 were included in the assessment of azithromycin. The mean age of these study participants was65·3 years (SD 15·7) and approximately a third were women (2944 [38%] of 7763). 2582 patients were randomlyallocated to receive azithromycin and 5181 patients were randomly allocated to usual care alone. Overall,561 (22%) patients allocated to azithromycin and 1162 (22%) patients allocated to usual care died within 28 days(rate ratio 0·97, 95% CI 0·87–1·07; p=0·50). No significant difference was seen in duration of hospital stay (median10 days [IQR 5 to >28] vs 11 days [5 to >28]) or the proportion of patients discharged from hospital alive within 28 days(rate ratio 1·04, 95% CI 0·98–1·10; p=0·19). Among those not on invasive mechanical ventilation at baseline, nosignificant difference was seen in the proportion meeting the composite endpoint of invasive mechanical ventilationor death (risk ratio 0·95, 95% CI 0·87–1·03; p=0·24).Interpretation In patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19, azithromycin did not improve survival or otherprespecified clinical outcomes. Azithromycin use in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 should be restrictedto patients in whom there is a clear antimicrobial indication

Tocilizumab in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial

Background: In this study, we aimed to evaluate the effects of tocilizumab in adult patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 with both hypoxia and systemic inflammation. Methods: This randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy [RECOVERY]), is assessing several possible treatments in patients hospitalised with COVID-19 in the UK. Those trial participants with hypoxia (oxygen saturation &lt;92% on air or requiring oxygen therapy) and evidence of systemic inflammation (C-reactive protein ≥75 mg/L) were eligible for random assignment in a 1:1 ratio to usual standard of care alone versus usual standard of care plus tocilizumab at a dose of 400 mg–800 mg (depending on weight) given intravenously. A second dose could be given 12–24 h later if the patient's condition had not improved. The primary outcome was 28-day mortality, assessed in the intention-to-treat population. The trial is registered with ISRCTN (50189673) and ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04381936). Findings: Between April 23, 2020, and Jan 24, 2021, 4116 adults of 21 550 patients enrolled into the RECOVERY trial were included in the assessment of tocilizumab, including 3385 (82%) patients receiving systemic corticosteroids. Overall, 621 (31%) of the 2022 patients allocated tocilizumab and 729 (35%) of the 2094 patients allocated to usual care died within 28 days (rate ratio 0·85; 95% CI 0·76–0·94; p=0·0028). Consistent results were seen in all prespecified subgroups of patients, including those receiving systemic corticosteroids. Patients allocated to tocilizumab were more likely to be discharged from hospital within 28 days (57% vs 50%; rate ratio 1·22; 1·12–1·33; p&lt;0·0001). Among those not receiving invasive mechanical ventilation at baseline, patients allocated tocilizumab were less likely to reach the composite endpoint of invasive mechanical ventilation or death (35% vs 42%; risk ratio 0·84; 95% CI 0·77–0·92; p&lt;0·0001). Interpretation: In hospitalised COVID-19 patients with hypoxia and systemic inflammation, tocilizumab improved survival and other clinical outcomes. These benefits were seen regardless of the amount of respiratory support and were additional to the benefits of systemic corticosteroids. Funding: UK Research and Innovation (Medical Research Council) and National Institute of Health Research

Convalescent plasma in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised controlled, open-label, platform trial

Background: Many patients with COVID-19 have been treated with plasma containing anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. We aimed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of convalescent plasma therapy in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19. Methods: This randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy [RECOVERY]) is assessing several possible treatments in patients hospitalised with COVID-19 in the UK. The trial is underway at 177 NHS hospitals from across the UK. Eligible and consenting patients were randomly assigned (1:1) to receive either usual care alone (usual care group) or usual care plus high-titre convalescent plasma (convalescent plasma group). The primary outcome was 28-day mortality, analysed on an intention-to-treat basis. The trial is registered with ISRCTN, 50189673, and ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04381936. Findings: Between May 28, 2020, and Jan 15, 2021, 11558 (71%) of 16287 patients enrolled in RECOVERY were eligible to receive convalescent plasma and were assigned to either the convalescent plasma group or the usual care group. There was no significant difference in 28-day mortality between the two groups: 1399 (24%) of 5795 patients in the convalescent plasma group and 1408 (24%) of 5763 patients in the usual care group died within 28 days (rate ratio 1·00, 95% CI 0·93–1·07; p=0·95). The 28-day mortality rate ratio was similar in all prespecified subgroups of patients, including in those patients without detectable SARS-CoV-2 antibodies at randomisation. Allocation to convalescent plasma had no significant effect on the proportion of patients discharged from hospital within 28 days (3832 [66%] patients in the convalescent plasma group vs 3822 [66%] patients in the usual care group; rate ratio 0·99, 95% CI 0·94–1·03; p=0·57). Among those not on invasive mechanical ventilation at randomisation, there was no significant difference in the proportion of patients meeting the composite endpoint of progression to invasive mechanical ventilation or death (1568 [29%] of 5493 patients in the convalescent plasma group vs 1568 [29%] of 5448 patients in the usual care group; rate ratio 0·99, 95% CI 0·93–1·05; p=0·79). Interpretation: In patients hospitalised with COVID-19, high-titre convalescent plasma did not improve survival or other prespecified clinical outcomes. Funding: UK Research and Innovation (Medical Research Council) and National Institute of Health Research

In amorous dedication: the phrase, the figure and the lover’s discourse

No abstract available

Introduction

No abstract available