Les traces vivantes de la perte : La poétique du deuil chez Denise Desautels et Laure Adler

Constatant le nombre considérable de textes de deuil qui peuplent les paysages littéraires québécois et français contemporains, l’auteure se penche dans cet article sur les enjeux discursifs et éthiques d’une telle écriture, tels qu’ils se manifestent dans Ce désir toujours : un abécédaire de Denise Desautels et À ce soir de Laure Adler. Si Desautels emploie entre autres des stratégies analogues à celles de Jacques Derrida dans Chaque fois unique, la fin du monde — l’intertextualité, le discours aux défunts et la citation des paroles de la personne décédée —, Adler fait de son deuil une écriture fragmentée qui incarne l’absence et le manque, se servant aussi de figures rhétoriques et d’un discours métatextuel autoréflexif qui explore les buts de son propre texte. Dans les deux cas, la création s’avère un moyen de survivre à la perte et non pas une façon d’enterrer les morts définitivement.Noting the large number of bereavement texts in the contemporary literary landscapes of France and Quebec, the author examines the discursive and ethical issues involved in this kind of writing as they appear in Ce désir toujours: un abécédaire by Denise Desautels and À ce soir by Laure Adler. While Desautels’s methods include strategies similar to those used by Jacques Derrida in Chaque fois unique, la fin du monde—intertextuality, speeches to the dead and quotations from the words of the deceased person—, Adler makes her bereavement into a fragmented kind of writing that embodies absence and loss, and that also uses rhetorical figures and a self-reflexive metatextual discourse that explores the goals of her own text. In both cases, creation turns out to be a way of surviving loss rather than a way of burying the dead for good.Al observar el gran número de textos de duelo que pueblan los paisajes literarios quebequenses y franceses contemporáneos, la autora analiza, en este artículo, los retos discursivos y éticos de este tipo de escritura, tal y como se manifiestan en Ce désir toujours : un abécédaire (Siempre este deseo: un abecedario), de Denise Desautels, y À ce soir (Hasta la tarde), de Laure Adler. Mientras que Desautels utiliza, entre otras, estrategias análogas a las de Jacques Derrida en Chaque fois unique, la fin du monde (Cada vez único, el fin del mundo) — la intertextualidad, el discurso a los difuntos y la cita de las palabras de la persona fallecida —, Adler convierte su duelo en una escritura fragmentada que encarna la ausencia y la falta, utilizando también figuras retóricas y un discurso metatextual autorreflexivo que explora los objetivos de su propio texto. En ambos casos, la creación resulta ser un medio para sobrevivir a la pérdida, y no una forma de enterrar definitivamente a los muertos

Boron and other trace elements in human tissues and fluids.

The multielemental technique of inductively coupled plasma source mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was used to measure the elemental concentration of boron and 28 other elements within blood and its fractions, saliva, urine, hair, nails, synovial fluid, brain and bone samples. A number of biological standard reference materials were also analysed: IAEA A13 animal blood and H4 animal muscle, NIST 1577A bovine liver and SRM909 human serum, and SINR 0920 Chinese hair. Boron levels were found to be in the order of 30-40ng/mL in saliva and synovial fluid, 150ng/mL in blood, 1mug/mL in urine, 2-4mug/g in hair, bone and brain, and 10mug/g in nails. Other elements ranged in concentration from sub-nanogram/gram (or mL) to percentage (%w/w) levels. Associations of boron with other trace elements, such as boron and calcium in blood, were also investigated in the various tissues and fluids, as were variations due to age and sex. Frequency distribution curves were plotted for trace elements and micronutrients in all tissues and fluids. Since most elements demonstrated a symmetrical distribution in blood, this was thought to be indicative of the amount of homeostatic regulation, rather than the essentiality of the element. The distribution of elements among the various sample matrices, and occurrences of elemental or matrix interdependence, were investigated. Rubidium and caesium, also calcium and strontium, for example, were consistently found to behave in similar ways among the clinical specimens. In addition, alterations in elemental levels due to factors such as age and sex were assessed in the range of tissues and fluids. Full descriptions of the elemental content of brain, bone and synovial fluid samples were obtained. Comparisons were made between rheumatoid arthritic (RA) and control subjects for brain and bone, and between RA and osteoarthritic (OA) patients for the synovial fluid. Boron was shown to be "very highly significantly" depleted in RA bone (at the 0.1% level). Other elements showing variations in bone and brain were lithium and iron. Iron was also at lower levels in RA synovial fluid compared to OA, in contrast to phosphorus, copper and zinc, where increases were seen. Elemental levels were linked with other clinical parameters in synovial fluid, such as crystal content and white blood cell count (a measure of the extent of inflammation), to assess any possible variations. Fluid containing crystals displayed elevated levels of scandium, strontium and caesium. Several elements showed a positive correlation with white blood cell count; these were caesium, magnesium, phosphorus, copper, zinc and rubidium

Soul-blindness, police orders and Black Lives Matter: Wittgenstein, Cavell, and Rancière

What does it mean to see someone as human, as a member of humankind? What kind of call for justice is it to demand that a group be seen as human beings? This article explores a fundamental kind of injustice: one of perception and how we respond to our perceptions. Drawing on Cavell, Wittgenstein and Rancière we elucidate “soul blindness” as a distinct and basic form of injustice. Rancière’s police orders and Cavell’s soul blindness are mutually constitutive; the undoing of police orders entails a politics of soul dawning. Soul dawning entails acknowledging the humanity of others without erasing difference. In the concluding section we consider white obliviousness to the Black Lives Matters (BLM) movement as a case of soul blindness. Part of the political import of BLM is its capacity to illustrate how practices of soul blindness in the U.S. constitute whiteness in a racialized police order

A constitution for the ocean? An agora on ocean governance

This introduction briefly discusses the global constitutional issues raised by ocean governance and introduces the three pieces from our Agora contributors

Climate change and the challenge to liberalism

In this editorial, we consider the ways in which liberal constitutionalism is challenged by and presents challenges to the climate crisis facing the world. Over recent decades, efforts to mitigate the climate crisis have generated a new set of norms for states and non-state actors, including regulatory norms (emission standards, carbon regulations), organising principles (common but differentiated responsibility) and fundamental norms (climate justice, intergenerational rights, human rights). However, like all norms, these remain contested. Particularly in light of their global reach, their specific behavioural implications and interpretations and the related obligations to act remain debatable and the overwhelming institutionalization of the neoliberal market economy makes clear and effective responses to climate change virtually impossible within liberal societies.<br/