Lost in (Trans)lation: The Misread Body of Herculine Barbin

After the twentieth-century’s crise de la langue, it might be considered commonplace to hear the phrase, “the meaning was lost in translation.” However, the twenty-first century has inaugurated a new era in which “linguistic gender bending” among transsexuals has witnessed a recrudescence and the desire to translate the meaning of this identity is at the center of the gender movement. Today, numerous trans-autobiographies attract buyers at Fnac or on Amazon.fr: Né homme, comment je suis devenue femme, Alain transsexuelle and Je serai elle just to name a few examples. Besides their discourses that recount a marginalised social identity, all share a common linguistic denominator: a narrative alternation between genders. However, this modern linguistic heterodoxy may owe more to the past than it seems. Discovered in the 1860’s by Auguste Tardieu and first published under the title Question médico-légale de l’identité, the memoirs of Herculine Barbin might represent the genesis of the practice of trans-subjectivisation through the linguistic manipulation of gender. Herculine’s life, told through h/er memoirs, exemplifies a linguistic attempt to expose a trans-identity relegated to the margins of nineteenth-century French life. This essay will explore the hermeneutic function of narrative gender variation in Mes souvenirs (the memoirs of Herculine Barbin). On the one hand, this essay will attempt to show how, in the French version, Herculine’s trans-discourse produces a narrative subversiveness that transcends social margins and expresses what it means to be between genders. On the other hand, I will expose how the English version of Mes souvenirs, translated by Richard McDougall, pigeon-holes her identity into one of two genders and therefore removes from h/er discourse any possible trans-subversiveness

Petrified passions: bodily rhetoric in architectural sculpture, c.1100–c.1270

This thesis is concerned with the making and workings of the rhetoric of the body in architectural sculpture. An abundance of expressive examples remains from the period that can be considered as the most dynamic in the history of western sculpture. Their communicative power derives from the conceptual modes of rhetoric, adapted by the carvers into the sculpted contexts. Pathos, ethos and logos (the underlying verbal authority of scripture and commentary) are in sculpture conveyed via bodily scale and proportion, spatial dynamics, physiognomies, gestures, and expressions. The analysis of those building blocks of sculpted rhetoric allows us to understand the formal dynamics within the structure of the sculpted performance and provides an insight into the source of its success. Chapter one aims to immerse the reader in the materiality of the sculpted body. The analysis considers the influence of the material and the processes of its manipulation on the form and rhetoric of the sculpted body, its communicative potential and general viewing experience. Chapter two looks at the aesthetic means of communication between the sculpted body and the beholder, as embedded in a network of physiognomic signs. This chapter shows the range of ways in which sculpted figures engaged with the viewer through the shapes and surfaces of their bodies. Chapter three discusses the use of the body language of the Fall, highlighting the range of invented expressions occurring at the various stages of the story, but particularly at the postlapsarian stage. These emotionally-laden depictions of events of crucial impact on the human condition related directly to every believer, implicating the audience alongside the protagonists. Chapter four deals with sculpted depictions of Job. The complexity of Job’s story fed into the ambitions of the artists who embarked on an exploration of the physiognomic and pathognomic language of their figures. While the attendants offer a range of pathognomic reactions, the body of Job became a field for experimentation with bodily form, surface and movement. The thesis aims to clarify how the language of the sculpted body is formed, and how it works to reach the audiences. Contrasting attitudes to the sculpted body not only demonstrate the breadth of its potential as a communicative tool, but offer a primary insight into the genesis of the principles of corporeal rhetoric used to establish a link between the sculpture and its viewer. The thesis challenges the idea of a single trajectory of development of the physiognomic and pathognomic features in architectural sculpture. The refinement of physical mimesis was not intrinsically paired with the rhetorical sophistication of forms. The ubiquitous but complex artistic dialogues, evidenced in the petrified legacy of constant mediation, responding, updating and calibrating, testify to the volatile trajectories of the conception of the form and rhetoric of medieval bodies and medieval sculpture as a whole

Experimentelle Untersuchungen von Stumpfaufbau-Werkstoffen und Adhäsiv-Systemen zu Zahnhartsubstanzen und metallischen Werkstoffen

Ziel der Untersuchung war es, Unterschiede zwischen den einzelnen Feinstpartikel-Hybrid-Kompositen und dem Glasionomerzement festzustellen, sowie Unterschiede hinsichtlich ihres Verbundes zu Schmelz bzw. Dentin und Titan bzw. einer Goldlegierung. Weiterhin sollte herausgefunden werden, inwieweit sich Einschritt-Haftvermittler hinsichtlich der erreichbaren Scherhaftfestigkeit von den Mehrschritt-Adhäsiven unterscheiden und ob die Kombination mit dem jeweiligen produktspezifischen Komposit zwingend ist. Sechs kommerziell erhältliche Stumpfaufbaukomposite, ein experimentelles Stumpfaufbau-komposit und ein Glasionomerzement gleicher Indikation wurden bezüglich ihrer mechanisch-physikalischen Werkstoffeigenschaften untersucht. Bei dem experimentellen Material handelte es sich um ein Entwicklungsmuster (Pocore) der Firma 3M ESPE als Vertreter der Feinstpartikel-Hybrid-Komposite. Als kommerzielle Materialien wurden die Produkte Definite core (Degussa) als Vertreter der ormocerhaltigen Komposite, sowie Rebilda LC, Rebilda D (beide von VOCO), LuxaCore (DMG), Coradent (Vivadent) und CoreRestore (Kerr) als Feinstpartikel-Hybrid-Komposite geprüft. Bei dem Glasionomerzement handelte es sich um Ketac-Molar (3M ESPE)

Shades of Gay: Representations of Male Same-Sex Desire in French Literature, Culture, and Ideology from 1789-1926

"Shades of Gay: Representations of Male Same-Sex Desire in French Literature, Culture, and Ideology from 1789-1926," provides a critical overview of ways of representing homosexuality in France from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth centuries. More specifically, I contend that the emergent nineteenth-century gay subculture influenced not only the way socio-political and medico-juridical sources represented and defined sexual and gender identity but that nineteenth and early twentieth century authors followed suit, contributing to the construction and deconstruction of social definitions of sexual and gender identity through literature. The first chapter of my thesis, titled "Preparing the Palette: Gay Male Literature from 1792-1910," surveys the works of nineteenth century authors who created the framework for a homosexual epistemology that would structure representations of homosexuality during and after the nineteenth century. In the second chapter, entitled "Through the Looking-Glass: Representations of Fin-de-Siècle Homosexuality in the Works of Jean Lorrain," I explore the influence of science on representations of homosexuality, especially with regard to criminal and degenerate images of the homosexual in the works of Jean Lorrain. My third chapter, entitled "Scandalous Sexualities: the Baron Jacques d'Adelswärd-Fersen and the World of Apologetic Impropriety," addresses the relationship between scandal, journalism, and literature in the works of Jacques d'Adelswärd-Fersen. This chapter also questions whether Akadémos, the journal orchestrated by Fersen, can be considered France's first gay journal. The fourth chapter, entitled, "For the Love of Boys: Ephemeral (Homo)sexuality and Platonic Politics in the Works of Achille Essebac" pioneers an analysis of the works of Achille Essebac, the first such study in English. The final chapter, titled "The Trouble with Normal: the Politics of the Closet in the Works of André Gide," analyzes the dichotomies silence/disclosure and desire/restraint in the fin-de-siècle and early twentieth century works of André Gide, contradictory notions that are of particular interest in the context of sexual and gender identity study. Ultimately, I contend that the authors examined in my dissertation pull from social, ideological, cultural, as well as political representations of sexuality and gender to create an antagonistic and pugnacious literature that contributes to the contemporary definition of homosexuality

Acetylsalicylic acid reduces the severity of dextran sodium sulfate-induced colitis and increases the formation of anti-inflammatory lipid mediators

The role of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in inflammatory bowel disease is controversial, as they have been implicated in disease aggravation. Different from other cyclooxygenase inhibitors, acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) enhances the formation of anti-inflammatory and proresolution lipoxins derived from arachidonic acid as well as resolvins from omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids such as docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). In this study, we examined the effect of ASA on murine dextran sodium sulfate colitis. A mouse magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) protocol and post mortem assessment were used to assess disease severity, and lipid metabolites were measured using liquid chromatography-coupled tandem mass spectrometry. Decreased colitis activity was demonstrated by phenotype and MRI assessment in mice treated with ASA, and confirmed in postmortem analysis. Analysis of lipid mediators showed sustained formation of lipoxin A4 and an increase of DHA-derived 17-hydroxydocosahexaenoic acid (17-HDHA) after treatment with ASA. Furthermore, in vitro experiments in RAW264.7 murine macrophages demonstrated significantly increased phagocytosis activity after incubation with 17-HDHA, supporting its proresolution effect. These results show a protective effect of ASA in a murine colitis model and could give a rationale for a careful reassessment of ASA therapy in patients with inflammatory bowel disease and particularly ulcerative colitis, possibly combined with DHA supplementation

Acetylsalicylic Acid Reduces the Severity of Dextran Sodium Sulfate-Induced Colitis and Increases the Formation of Anti-Inflammatory Lipid Mediators

The role of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in inflammatory bowel disease is controversial, as they have been implicated in disease aggravation. Different from other cyclooxygenase inhibitors, acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) enhances the formation of anti-inflammatory and proresolution lipoxins derived from arachidonic acid as well as resolvins from omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids such as docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). In this study, we examined the effect of ASA on murine dextran sodium sulfate colitis. A mouse magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) protocol and post mortem assessment were used to assess disease severity, and lipid metabolites were measured using liquid chromatography-coupled tandem mass spectrometry. Decreased colitis activity was demonstrated by phenotype and MRI assessment in mice treated with ASA, and confirmed in postmortem analysis. Analysis of lipid mediators showed sustained formation of lipoxin A4 and an increase of DHA-derived 17-hydroxydocosahexaenoic acid (17-HDHA) after treatment with ASA. Furthermore, in vitro experiments in RAW264.7 murine macrophages demonstrated significantly increased phagocytosis activity after incubation with 17-HDHA, supporting its proresolution effect. These results show a protective effect of ASA in a murine colitis model and could give a rationale for a careful reassessment of ASA therapy in patients with inflammatory bowel disease and particularly ulcerative colitis, possibly combined with DHA supplementation