Exorcismo fallido: el estatus espectral de Kurtz y su función ideológica en ‘Heart of darkness’ de Conrad

It is quite remarkable how Marlow’s recurrent characterisation of Kurtz as a spectre in Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness’ has passed almost unnoticed in the large body of criticism on the novella. This essay interprets Marlow’s persistent expression of loyalty to Kurtz’s ghost as the last in a series of ideological strategies that endow the imperialist culture in which he is embedded with a minimum degree of consistency that counterbalances the debilitating exposure of its evils. The ensuing pages develop this central thesis concerning Kurtz’s ghostly status by drawing on Slavoj Žižek’s Lacanian approach to the ideological function of the spectre, which allows the author to diverge from other readings of ‘Heart of Darkness’ relevant to this topic. An exploration of the logic of spectrality helps to explain why the novella falls short in its indictment of imperialist ideology, a failure which, in the last instance, amounts to an endorsement.Sorprende el hecho de que la recurrente caracterización de Kurtz como espectro en ‘Heart of Darkness’ de Conrad haya pasado prácticamente desapercibida en la ingente cantidad de trabajos críticos sobre esta novela corta. En este ensayo se interpreta la persistente expresión de lealtad de Marlow hacia el fantasma de Kurtz como la última de una serie de estrategias ideológicas que dotan a la cultura imperialista en la que está inscrito de un mínimo de consistencia que contrapesa el desenmascaramiento debilitador de sus males. En las páginas que siguen se desarrolla esta tesis central sobre el estatus fantasmal de Kurtz tomando como base la interpretación lacaniana que Slavoj Žižek hace sobre la función ideológica del espectro, lo que permite al autor distanciarse de otras lecturas de la obra de Conrad relevantes para el tema tratado. Un análisis de la lógica de la espectralidad ayuda a explicar por qué la novela no acaba de condenar delThis paper was completed under the auspices of the research project Modernism and Postmodernism in the English Short Story (funded by the Consellería de Innovación e Industria, Xunta de Galicia, Cod. INCITE 08PXIB204011PR)S

Apariciones fantasmales en el relato breve de escritoras contemporáneas: Fay Weldon, Janice Galloway y Ali Smith

From the late nineteenth century onwards the genre of the ghost short story has served as a vehicle for the exploration of female concerns. Women’s ghost narratives feature heroines haunted by spectral apparitions that give expression to the characters’ inner tensions with their assumption of socially sanctioned female roles. This essay reads three stories, by Fay Weldon, Janice Galloway and Ali Smith, to show how the potential of the genre to question the norm and to give shape to personal, intergenerational and historical conflicts continues to be deployed by contemporary women writers. As in the stories of their female predecessors, the effects of the literary ghost’s disturbing liminality vary in each of the cases under consideration here. Thus, the apparition in Weldon’s “A Good Sound Marriage” (1991) works as a contested mouthpiece of traditional sexual ideology, the oneiric revenant in Galloway’s “it was” (1991) is the figuration of unconscious desire, while the doppelgänger in Smith’s “The Hanging Girl” (1999), despite her spectrality, inhabits a less empty and more amiable world than that of real flesh-and-blood peopleDesde finales del siglo XIX el género del relato breve de fantasmas ha servido de medio para la exploración de inquietudes femeninas. Las historias de fantasmas escritas por mujeres están protagonizadas por heroínas rondadas por espectros que encarnan tensiones internas relacionadas con la asunción de roles femeninos impuestos por la sociedad. El presente artículo analiza tres relatos de Fay Weldon, Janice Galloway y Ali Smith con la intención de demostrar que las escritoras contemporáneas continúan explotando el potencial del género para cuestionar la norma establecida y para articular conflictos personales, intergeneracionales e históricos. Al igual que en los relatos de sus predecesoras, los efectos de la liminalidad inquietante del fantasma literario varían en cada uno de los casos aquí tratados. Así, el espectro en “A Good Sound Marriage” de Weldon (1991) funciona como una portavoz cuestionada de la ideología sexual tradicional, el fantasma onírico en “it was” de Galloway (1991) es la representación del deseo inconsciente, mientras que el doppelgänger en “The Hanging Girl” de Smith (1999), a pesar de su espectralidad, habita un mundo menos vacío y más amable que el de las personas reales de carne y hueso.This article is part of the Research Project Women’s Tales, funded by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, Government of Spain (Ref. FEM2013-41977-P). It was also completed under the auspices of the Research Group Discourse and Identity, funded by the Xunta de Galicia (Grupo de Referencia Competitiva: GRC2015/002; GI-1924)S

Some Aspects of Terry Eagleton’s Use of Freudian Psychoanalysis

This paper looks at Terry Eagleton’s engagement with Freudian psychoanal-ysis. We start by looking at Eagleton’s increasing interest in psychoanalysis in the late 1970s, particularly in “Marx, Freud and Morality” (1977). We then move on to three cru-cial topics that Eagleton tackles by resorting to psychoanalysis: work, love and reason. In each of these three cases we present the ways in which Eagleton posits psychoanalysis as a plausible complement to Marxism, even where their compatibility is not imme-diately evident. Our reading is intended to be descriptive; however, it does not shy away from pointing out the inconsistencies that we have found in Eagleton’s use and assess-ment of psychoanalysis. In the case of work, we address the relevance of Freud’s view of it as inherently unpleasant in connection with the Marxian concept of alienated labour. Regarding love, we discuss Eagleton’s focus on love understood as agape rather than on the Freudian conception of love as eros. As far as reason is concerned, we deal with Freud’s faith in the intellect and in science as the sole safeguards of humankind against the assaults of the superego.El presente artículo examina el uso que Terry Eagleton hace del psicoanálisis freudiano. Comenzamos analizando el interés creciente de Eagleton en el psicoanálisis a finales de la década de 1970, particularmente en “Marx, Freud and Morality” (1977). Desplazamos a continuación nuestra atención a tres temas fundamentales en relación con los cuales Eagleton recurre al psicoanálisis: el trabajo, el amor y la razón. En cada uno de estos tres casos presentamos las maneras en las que Eagleton postula al psicoanálisis como un posible complemento al marxismo, incluso cuando esta compatibilidad no es inmediatamente evidente. Nuestra lectura pretende ser descriptiva, pero no deja de señalar las inconsistencias que hemos encontrado en el uso y la valoración que del psicoanálisis hace Eagleton. En el caso del trabajo, invocamos la relevancia de la visión que Freud tiene del trabajo como inherentemente desagradable en conexión con el concepto marxiano de trabajo alienado. En cuanto al amor, presentamos el modo en que Eagleton se centra en el amor agape más que en la concepción freudiana del amor como eros. Por lo que respecta a la razón, nos centramos en la fe de Freud en el intelecto y la ciencia como únicas salvaguardas de la humanidad contra los asedios del superego

Algunos aspectos sobre el uso del psicoanálisis freudiano por Terry Eagleton

This paper looks at Terry Eagleton’s engagement with Freudian psychoanalysis. We start by looking at Eagleton’s increasing interest in psychoanalysis in the late 1970s, particularly in “Marx, Freud and Morality” (1977). We then move on to three crucial topics that Eagleton tackles by resorting to psychoanalysis: work, love and reason. In each of these three cases we present the ways in which Eagleton posits psychoanalysis as a plausible complement to Marxism, even where their compatibility is not immediately evident. Our reading is intended to be descriptive; however, it does not shy away from pointing out the inconsistencies that we have found in Eagleton’s use and assessment of psychoanalysis. In the case of work, we address the relevance of Freud’s view of it as inherently unpleasant in connection with the Marxian concept of alienated labour. Regarding love, we discuss Eagleton’s focus on love understood as agape rather than on the Freudian conception of love as eros. As far as reason is concerned, we deal with Freud’s faith in the intellect and in science as the sole safeguards of humankind against the assaults of the superego.El presente artículo examina el uso que Terry Eagleton hace del psicoanálisis freudiano. Comenzamos analizando el interés creciente de Eagleton en el psicoanálisis a finales de la década de 1970, particularmente en “Marx, Freud and Morality” (1977). Desplazamos a continuación nuestra atención a tres temas fundamentales en relación con los cuales Eagleton recurre al psicoanálisis: el trabajo, el amor y la razón. En cada uno de estos tres casos presentamos las maneras en las que Eagleton postula al psicoanálisis como un posible complemento al marxismo, incluso cuando esta compatibilidad no es inmediatamente evidente. Nuestra lectura pretende ser descriptiva, pero no deja de señalar las inconsistencias que hemos encontrado en el uso y la valoración que del psicoanálisis hace Eagleton. En el caso del trabajo, invocamos la relevancia de la visión que Freud tiene del trabajo como inherentemente desagradable en conexión con el concepto marxiano de trabajo alienado. En cuanto al amor, presentamos el modo en que Eagleton se centra en el amor agape más que en la concepción freudiana del amor como eros. Por lo que respecta a la razón, nos centramos en la fe de Freud en el intelecto y la ciencia como únicas salvaguardas de la humanidad contra los asedios del superego

Through the Eye of a Postmodernist Child: Ian McEwan’s "Homemade”

From Romanticism onwards, childhood was constructed as an alternative to the alienating world of modern progress. Though this idealised version of childhood consecrated in Romantic literature was questioned by the end of the nineteenth century, the child’s perspective on the adult world has remained throughout a useful way of exploring social deficiencies and of exposing some of its most unpalatable aspects. In the present essay, the authors trace the transformation in the conception of childhood to then focus on Ian McEwan’s “Homemade”, the opening story in First Love, Last Rites (1975), the collection that marks the author’s literary debut. The particularly evil nature of the child protagonist as well as his frustrated passage into adulthood after his pathetic first and single sexual experience (the rape of his own sister) is related to the major historical transformation of the traditional model of paternal authority in the postmodern period which engenders a cynical and perverse type of subjectivity that is nevertheless marked by its paradoxical inability to enjoy

Modernist (Hi)stories

[Abstract] Chronologically speaking, the rise of the modern short story coincides with the very years of inception of the Modernist movement in England. Formally speaking, aesthetic innovation as carried out by certain writers in their short narratives predates technical achievements in their most renowned novels. This round table will focus on some short narratives by Henry James, Virginia Woolf and Rebecca West, revolving around the idea of the short story as a privileged site for path-breaking literary innovations we normally identify as “modernist”, which encompass new attempts at viewing the literary tradition

SOX2(+) Cell Population from Normal Human Brain White Matter Is Able to Generate Mature Oligodendrocytes

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Cancer stem cells from human glioblastoma resemble but do not mimic original tumors after in vitro passaging in serum-free media

Human gliomas harbour cancer stem cells (CSCs) that evolve along the course of the disease, forming highly heterogeneous subpopulations within the tumour mass. These cells possess self-renewal properties and appear to contribute to tumour initiation, metastasis and resistance to therapy. CSC cultures isolated from surgical samples are considered the best preclinical in vitro model for primary human gliomas. However, it is not yet well characterized to which extent their biological and functional properties change during in vitro passaging in the serum-free culture conditions. Here, we demonstrate that our CSC-enriched cultures harboured from one to several CSC clones from the human glioma sample. When xenotransplanted into mouse brain, these cells generated tumours that reproduced at least three different dissemination patterns found in original tumours. Along the passages in culture, CSCs displayed increased expression of stem cell markers, different ratios of chromosomal instability events, and a varied response to drug treatment. Our findings highlight the need for better characterization of CSC-enriched cultures in the context of their evolution in vitro, in order to uncover their full potential as preclinical models in the studies aimed at identifying molecular biomarkers and developing new therapeutic approaches of human gliomas.Peer reviewe