Aesthetics and literature : a problematic relation?

The paper argues that there is a proper place for literature within aesthetics but that care must be taken in identifying just what the relation is. In characterising aesthetic pleasure associated with literature it is all too easy to fall into reductive accounts, for example, of literature as merely "fine writing". Belleslettrist or formalistic accounts of literature are rejected, as are two other kinds of reduction, to pure meaning properties and to a kind of narrative realism. The idea is developed that literature-both poetry and prose fiction-invites its own distinctive kind of aesthetic appreciation which far from being at odds with critical practice, in fact chimes well with it

Philosophy and the Lyric

AbstractThe paper surveys and comments on some of the issues that arise about the lyric in philosophical, principally analytical, aesthetics. In brief these are: definition, expression, paraphrase, form-content unity, experience, and truth and profundity. The paper shows in each case why these issues are important from the perspective of analytical philosophy but also why lyric poetry is not always an easy subject matter to accommodate to standard analytical presuppositions. It might be thought that theories of meaning within philosophy of language (be it semantics, speech act theory or truth-conditions) should be applicable to a full range of linguistic usage. But lyric poetry confounds that expectation and yields a context where familiar models of meaning and communication can seem inadequate. Yet analytical philosophers should not simply dismiss poetry as somehow exceptional or aberrant but would gain from looking afresh at basic assumptions to see how their views about language might be broadened and modified.</jats:p

Couplings in parametrically excited inclined cables systems

Cables in stayed bridges are subjected to important dynamic solicitations for which dynamic model are now well established. Due to their design, such structures highlight resonance phenomena and instabilities frequently observed. Nevertheless, some structures exhibit important vibration amplitudes that can not be explained simply. Measurement recently performed on a bridge point a coupling of the cable with the deck or the pillar. The present paper suggests to consider the deck flexibility coupled to the nonlinear dynamic of the inclined cable. Results of previous study are used. The retained nonlinear model of the cable include two degrees of freedom for the in-plane motion. Considering the bridge mass and deck rigidity adds one DOF, assumed linear in a first approach. The excitation is created on the deck, which produce an external force(such as the wind or the car traffic for example). An experimental set-up uses a specific device in order to highlight expected coupling phenomena on the parametric instabilities. It is composed of a flexible blade which represents the deck, and an inclined cable. Both elements are linked to a mass forced to move vertically, and which represent the anchor point and the equivalent mass of a section of the deck. Therefore, the cable has a given initial static tension. An electrodynamic shaker applies a force close to blade clumping. The transmitted force from the shaker to the structure is measured thanks to a piezo-electric sensor. The instantaneous cable tension is measured via a Shape force sensor. And a high resolution laser sensor captures without contact the in-plane motion of the cable. Analytically, the multiple scales method is applied to solve the nonlinear equations of motion. In-plane vibration of the cable and stability in the vicinity of the primary resonance w1 and sub-harmonic resonance 2w1 are computed. The competition between the behaviour at 2w1 and w2 are of particular interest, as it is observed experimentally

Répartition des glossines dans le Nord de la Côte-d'Ivoire

Dans le cadre d'un projet PNUD-FAO/GTZ de lutte contre les tryanosomoses animales pour la mise en valeur des terres libérées de l'onchocercose, des enquêtes sur les glossines ont été conduites dans tout le nord de ce pays en zone de savane sur quelque 145000 km2. Les différents documents cartographiques utilisés sont décrits avec leurs échelles respectives (1/50000, 1/200000, 1/1OOOOOO, 1/3OOOOOO). Les méthodes de prospection et la représentation graphique des captures, illustrée par les extraits de cartes, sont exposées. Les résultats sont ensuite analysés par espèce, sexe et moyen de piégeage et des commentaires sont fournis sur la localisation et la densité de chacune de ces espèces. Enfin, les données fournies sur les répartitions de ces mouches sont comparées à celles des cartes précédentes et leurs variations dans le temps sont soulignée