Finding Lollius : empathy, textual knowledge, and the ending of Troilus and Criseyde

textThe ending of Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde has been a frequent source of dissatisfaction and confusion. After five full books centered on a doomed love between pagans, the final stanzas suddenly shift to an orthodox Christian rejection of worldly desire. Whether damning or praising the ending, critics generally recognize it as radically different from the lines preceding it. This report seeks to identify the root of that difference, and to explain its effect on the reading experience. The narrator of Troilus and Criseyde, a character in his own right, manipulates his putative source text--Lollius--to highlight the gaps left in his narrative. These gaps, in turn, constrict our perspective on the poem, preventing us from adopting either the Godlike Boethian viewpoint the Troilus appears to recommend or the melancholic attitude of the titular lovers. Instead, our point of identification is the narrator, who has read, as he persistently reminds us, a book that we cannot. Thus, even when the Troilus is read to the end, it feels incomplete. I ground this reading in both narratology and cognitive science, and illustrate it by examining two early printed "completions" of Chaucer's text: Wynkyn de Worde's colophon and Robert Henryson's Testament of Cresseid.Englis

Editorial: Relevance Theory and Intercultural Communication Problems

This editorial to the special issue of RiL dedicated to relevance theory and problems of intercultural communication addresses the general requirements that a theory of communication must meet to be applicable to the analysis of intercultural communication. Then it discusses criticism levelled against Grice’s theory of conversational implicature and Brown and Levinson’s theory of politeness on the grounds that these theories were not universal enough to be applied to all data. Finally, it offers some remarks on the applicability of relevance theory to intercultural pragmatics

Na Lònia Guiu de Maria-Antònia Oliver: la profanació d'un espai literari en català vedat a la dona

Comunicació «Na Lònia Guiu de Maria-Antònia Oliver: la profanació d'un espai literari en català vedat a la dona», presentada en el «II Seminari Internacional d'Estudis Transversals: D'objecte a subjecte, la dona a través de l'art i de la literatura en les cultures mediterrànies»; organitzat pel Grup d'Estudis Transversals (Universitat d'Alacant) i Traverses Équipe de Recherche (Université Paris 8); celebrat els dies 15 i 16 de desembre de 2007 a la Seu Universitària Ciutat d'Alacant

Recompte hivernal d'aus aquàtiques i limícoles a les Balears, gener 1993

Winter census of Wildfowl and Waders in the Balearic Islands, Januarv 1993. The census was carried out from the 13th to the 26th of January. The coverage was good, with 52 places visited. The resulting figure is 15.142 birds. belonging to 52 species. Most common species were Fu(rca atea, with 3.227 individuals; Anas platyrrh ynchos, with 2.046; Vanellus vanellus, with 1.919; Gullinula chloropus, with 1.046; Anas crecca, with 912; Podiceps nigricollis, with 685; and Altas clypeata, with 677. Most important arcas were s'Albufera (Mallorca), with 6.396 birds. s'Albufera des Grau (Menorca), with 2.420 birds, and Salobrar de Campos, with 1.935

Joan Puig i Ferreter: Ressonàncies d’un exili

Comunicació «Joan Puig i Ferreter: Ressonàncies d’un exili», presentada en el «Congreso Interdisciplinario Discurso sobre fronteras – Fronteras del discurso: Literatura, pensamiento y cultura del ámbito ibérico e iberoamericano»; organitzat per l’Institut Cervantes de Varsòvia/Cracòvia i el Dept. de Filologia Romànica de la Uniwersytet Im. Adama Mickiewicza; celebrat els dies 22, 23 i 24 de novembre de 2007 al Collegium Jowita de la Universitat Adam Mickiewicz de Poznan (Polònia)

Bienes comunes, nuevos cercamientos y economía política popular

This paper discusses the growing importance that the so-called “commons” are gaining in the sphere of cultural creation. To do so, it critically analyses two important analogies that have appeared during the recent years: the first one, between the “natural” and “digital commons”, and the second, between the “old” and the “new digital enclosures”. The paper demonstrates that their similitudes are prominent, although both comparisons have to be carefully studied. The main goal is to present the “digital commons” as those devices capable to shape a sort of “Popular political economy of pro-common”. Throughout a double approach (the technicallegal and the political-economical one), the paper highlights the need to have an institutional environment robust enough to prevent the effects of new enclosures in contemporary creation and the dissemination of culture.Este artículo discute la creciente importancia que están adoptando los llamados “bienes comunes” en el ámbito de la creación cultural. Para ello se discuten críticamente dos importantes analogías que han emergido en los últimos años: la primera, entre los “bienes comunes naturales” y los “digitales” y la segunda, entre los “viejos” y los “nuevos cercamientos digitales”. El artículo demuestra que, si bien es cierto que ambas comparaciones deben abordarse con cautela, las similitudes entre ambas son notables. El objetivo es presentar los “bienes comunes digitales” como aquellos dispositivos capaces de conformar una suerte de “Economía política popular del pro-común”. Para ello, y a través de una doble aproximación (la técnica-jurídica y la política-económica), el articulo remarca la necesidad de contar con un contexto institucional lo suficientemente robusto como para limitar los efectos de los nuevos cercamientos sobre la actual creación y difusión cultural