Theory, praxis and puppet plays in Cervantes and Pirandello

Constantly throughout his literary career, the Italian writer Luigi Pirandello (1867- 1936) had always seen in Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547-1616) a precursory inspiration of his own poetics. This paper delves into the complex nature of this literary influence, and particularly into the nature of the theoretical premonitions which Cervantes’ Don Quixote has pragmatically bequeathed to Pirandello’s oeuvre. After a brief glance at various testimonies on Cervantes enunciated by Pirandello himself during his lifetime, this study tackles the meaning of two emblematic passages in Pirandello’s long essay L’umorismo, in which he traces the development of his very own poetics by linking it to Cervantes’ comic element in Don Quixote. Finally, the paper shall embark on a textual and thematic analysis of two emblematic puppet play episodes portrayed in Don Quixote and in Pirandello’s novel The Late Mattia Pascal.peer-reviewe

Joyce and Pirandello’s ‘Foolosopher’ kings and mocking gargoyles : Buck Mulligan and Enrico IV

This paper investigates the affinities between the folly of Buck Mulligan in Joyce’s Ulysses and that of Enrico IV in Pirandello’s homonymous play. After looking at Michel Foucault’s Histoire de la folie à l’âge classique, this paper will postulate that Buck Mulligan and Enrico IV seem to precede Foucault’s destabilizing vision: they are characters who, through various acts of folly, simulate the exterior signs of madness and play the fools to create confusion amidst existing forms of socialization. I shall also be looking into Robert Bell’s Jocoserious Joyce (from where the terms ‘foolosopher king’ and ‘mocking gargoyle’ are borrowed) and at Elio Gioanola’s Pirandello e la follia to prove that these modernist clown prototypes become a mirror of painful truths to other characters. Mulligan, for instance, reveals with irony the true nature of Stephen Dedalus, religion and Ireland, whilst Enrico reveals to his visitors their falsity and the dark realm of life’s masks. In both cases this is expressed with mood swings of mocking irony and effusions of sentiment. Both characters are also portrayed as having no fixed identities: they indulge in a tragicomic ritual of masks and folly with a delight for the ambiguities of self and language. In their words and actions, Mulligan and Enrico seem to be unshaped by history and free from any responsibility; they seem so fulfilled in playing the fools and thus become ‘foolosopher’ kings themselves, which act the part of sceptical jokers of the universe.peer-reviewe

An Experiential Comparative Tool for Board Games

In the field of game studies, contemporary board games have until now remained relatively unexplored. The recent years have allowed us to witness the emergence of the occasional academic texts focusing on board games – such as Eurogames (Woods, 2012), Characteristics of Games (Elias et al. 2013), and most recently Game Play: Paratextuality in Contemporary Board Games (Booth, 2015). The mentioned authors all explore board games from diverse viewpoints but none of these authors present a viable and practical analytical tool to allow us to examine and differentiate one board game from another. In this vein, this paper seeks to present an analytical comparative tool intended specifically for board games. The tool builds upon previous works (Aarseth et al. 2003; Elias et al. 2012; and Woods 2012) to show how four categories – rules, luck, interaction and theme – can interact on different levels to generate diverse gameplay experiences. Such a tool allows to score games objectively and separately in each of the categories to create a combined gameplay experience profile for each board game. Following this, the paper proceeds to present numerous practical examples of contemporary board games and how it can be used from a design perspective and an analytical perspective alike

The Ibsenite Nature of Pirandello's Sicilianita and Joyce's Irishness : the cultures they fled, the contexts and metaphors that inspired them

Joyce's Irishness and Pirandello's Sicilianita (the Sicilian identity) seem to be negative ideas characterized by a sense of evasion and by an Ibsenite realism keen on unmasking the hypocritical Irish and Sicilian middle class society. Even though geographically distant, their Modernist Irishness and Sicilianita reveal quite a curious number of political, religious, linguistic, and social affinities: the stasis of the positive progress of history in Sicily and Ireland; the grudge towards foreign colonial rule (the AngloSaxon rule in Ireland, the neglect of Sicily by the Northern oriented governments in Rome); the self-induced exiles of both writers; the betrayal of their great political ideals (the fall of Parnell , the failed Irish initiatives for independence; the Roman Bank Scandal, the violent repression of the Fasci Siciliani revolution, the failures of the democratic governments); the stifling moral and political implications of a Catholic Ireland and a Catholic Sicily; the dilemmas of the Irish-English language in Ireland and the choice between the Standard Italian and the Sicilian dialects in Sicily. In this context, the cities of Dublin, Agrigento, and the sulphur depot port of Porto Empedocle in Sicily become claustrophobic landmarks which influence ontologically and existentially the two writers and their works. Both cultures attempt to cast over them not only the influence of an archaic heritage -the Celtic culture in Ireland and the Magna Graecia in Sicily -but also literary models which they end up refusing openly: Joyce denounces the Irish Literary Revival as promulgated by Yeats and Lady Gregory; Pirandello discards the position of the Sicilian Verismo masters like Giovanni Verga and Luigi Capuana. These issues are exposed in the Irish and Sicilian identities which Stephen Dedalus (both in A Portrait and in Ulysses), Don Cosmo, and Lando Laurentano (in the enigmatic novel I Vecchi e i Giovani) attempt to flee. Irishness and Sicilianita become not only 'a nightmare' from which Stephen is trying to awaken, but also a reality which 'does not conclude' according to Don Cosmo Laurentano, the exile who 'has understood the rules of the game'.peer-reviewe

Device-Centric Monitoring for Mobile Device Management

The ubiquity of computing devices has led to an increased need to ensure not only that the applications deployed on them are correct with respect to their specifications, but also that the devices are used in an appropriate manner, especially in situations where the device is provided by a party other than the actual user. Much work which has been done on runtime verification for mobile devices and operating systems is mostly application-centric, resulting in global, device-centric properties (e.g. the user may not send more than 100 messages per day across all applications) being difficult or impossible to verify. In this paper we present a device-centric approach to runtime verify the device behaviour against a device policy with the different applications acting as independent components contributing to the overall behaviour of the device. We also present an implementation for Android devices, and evaluate it on a number of device-centric policies, reporting the empirical results obtained.Comment: In Proceedings FESCA 2016, arXiv:1603.0837

Local Integrated Coastal Zone Management in Cuba (Proyecto COSTASURESTE)

Local Integrated Coastal Zone Management in Southeast Cuba (COSTASURESTE, 2010-2015) was a project funded through the University Partnerships in Cooperation and Development Program (UPCD)’s ScalingUp Competition launched in 2008. The Project received funding for the 2010-2013 period and subsequently received extensions by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) in 2013 and Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD) in 2014, with a revised termination date of 30 April 2015. COSTASURESTE extended the results of the base project (UPCD Tier II: Integrated Coastal Zone Management in Cuba, 1999-2004, Project No. 098/S47074-287)

Music in young Maltese women's lives

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.This study explores how young Maltese women give meaning to the music they listen to and how this music is incorporated in everyday discourses and identities within the differing local contexts of their lives. This area of research has not attracted the attention of researchers and this study starts to fill this gap. The research was carried out in Malta, a post-colonial island with a population of approximately 400,000 people. Through purposive sampling and snowballing, 20 in-depth interviews were carried out with young Maltese women aged 16-34, from different social backgrounds. By looking at young Maltese women’s identities through their engagements with music, this study shows how girls experience the tensions between the opposing forces of Maltese traditional music and more modern globalised musical forms. Music was found to be a means of conspicuous leisure as well as a means of maintaining social difference and distinction. Musical taste and the social practices associated with that particular music was found to be a primary indicator of social class for Maltese girls. The significance of this study lies in the exploration of a topic that has not yet been properly researched. It combines the Maltese context and the gendered nature of identity formation in Malta’s music scene. The framework of categorisation of respondents is also significant since rather than categorising respondents according to the music they listen to, it categorises respondents through the ways in which they engage with their music. By developing Willis’s (1978) analytical framework, participants were placed into four categories of Fully Committed, Committed, Active Drifters and Passive Drifters. For each category, the most prominent characteristics of participants’ music identities are analysed. These include their understandings of social and cultural capital, structure and agency, negotiations of social boundaries and identity formation. The idea of distinct music subcultures is questioned as, in their everyday lives, young women in Malta rarely conform with distinct cultural groups but form parts of multiple groups within the contexts of their lives. Moreover, processes of hybridization seem to have erased what might have been understood as a subculture’s distinguishing characteristics. These have often become adopted and eventually absorbed by mainstream culture making distinct subcultures problematic. The findings of the research imply tensions between traditional and modern lifestyles that are, in turn, associated with different strata of social class

Working Paper on the Development of Guidelines for the Implementation of Article 82

This document is an issues paper concerning the implementation of Article 82 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, 1982 (LOS Convention). It was commissioned by the International Seabed Authority (ISA) to assist discussion at an international workshop in Beijing in November 2012

The International Maritime Law Response to Climate Change: The Quest for the Shipping Industry\u27s \u27Fair Share\u27 of GHG Emissions Reduction

This paper discusses the role of international shipping in climate change mitigation, i.e., its emerging contribution to reduce carbon emissions in the wake of the Paris Agreement, 2015 and the expectation that the International Maritime Organization (IMO) will orchestrate the industry\u27s contribution. The adoption of appropriate targets and standards is expected to be a particularly difficult task because of the global and transnational nature of the shipping industry and the difficulty in establishing the basis for a fair contribution for this industry. While considerable progress has been achieved in enhancing technical and operational regulations to improve efficiencies and reduce harmful emissions, there is concern such measures might not be enough to reduce ship GHG emissions sufficiently. It is arguable that market-based measures could make a difference, but this subject has been controversial and to date has eluded consensus. If a credible plan for industry\u27s contribution does not promise a realistic fair contribution, it is conceivable that a future meeting of Contracting Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, 1992, might revisit the decision to defer to the IMO on ship emissions and potentially encourage regionalism in forcing the industry\u27s contribution

Family history in the Aetiology of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus and Type 2 Diabetes

The aetiology of Type 2 diabetes [NIDDM] is assumed to involve a multiplicity of causal factors involving both genetic and environmental, including intrauterine, components. Aim: To identify the relationship of various aspects of family history and hence the possible role of genetic influence in the development of Type 2 DM in the Maltese population. Methods: The family history details of a study population undergoing an oGTT during pregnancy was assessed during pregnancy and at follow-up eight years postpartum. The findings were related to previous national epidemiological studies. Results: The study showed a definite statistical correlation between a maternal and sibling family history of diabetes with the onset of GDM/GIGT and later Type 2 DM. No such correlation was shown with a paternal or grandparent family history. Conclusions: The findings suggest that genetic factors are poor determinants for adult-onset GDM or Type 2 DM, the major role player being apparently alterations in the intrauterine environment of the fetus.peer-reviewe