“Motley’s the only wear”* : le stylisticien en habit d’Arlequin. La stylistique au risque de la complexité : “The Piano Teacher’s Pupil”** de William Trevor

A l’occasion du quarantième anniversaire de la SSA, ce travail se propose d’ajouter quelques nouveaux instruments d’exploration à la boîte à outils développée par Leech et Short (Style in Fiction, 1981) et de voir comment le paradigme de complexité peut permettre à la stylistique de se développer dans de nouvelles directions, prenant en compte des domaines aussi divers que la théorie du chaos et les découvertes en neurosciences. Cet article se veut également un hommage au nouvelliste William Trevor, récemment disparu ; une lecture de l’une de ses dernières nouvelles, « The Piano Teacher’s Pupil » sera proposée.This paper aims at adding a few tools to Leech and Short’s stylistic tool-box (Style in Fiction, 1981) and suggesting new directions for the development of stylistics, with a special interest for the way complexity, chaos theory and neuroscience might articulate with more traditional tools. Special attention will be devoted to one of William Trevor’s last stories, “The Piano teacher’s pupil”

The Butterfly Effect in Alice Munro’s “Day of the Butterfly”. Chaos, Empathy and the End of Certainty

This paper aims at including in the stylistician’s tool-box possibly less familiar tools, borrowed from the scientific domains of chaos theory and neuroscience to develop a comprehensive analysis of literary texts. A close reading of Alice Munro’s “Day of the Butterfly” reveals the short-story to be a chaotic system, a dynamical, non linear system sensitive to initial conditions – to what is commonly known as the “butterfly effect”. Reading such texts involves tracing precise trajectories that fold and stretch along underlying structures called attractors in chaos theory. Literary discourse analysis leads to analyzing attractors in close connection with empathy, a notion whose infinite complexity is now being further revealed by the recent discoveries around mirror neurons and the role of mirror mechanisms in the way we relate to the “real” world and art. Although following the itineraries of complexity tends to produce more questions than answers, and leave the reader in a challenging state of uncertainty, it meaningfully echoes our experience of Alice Munro’s work

Poème et nouvelle, la différe/ance en partage

Le but du présent article est de tracer les similitudes profondes entre deux formes traditionnellement considérées comme appartenant à deux genres différents, la nouvelle et le poème.The present article aims at showing that, beyond the traditional difference in genre, poems and short stories have more in common than first meets the eye

Entre voix et regards, histoires de DES(équ)I(lib)R(es) dans The Well of the Saints de John Millington Synge

Cet article est une invitation à se saisir des différentes lettres du mot déséquilibre afin de déchiffrer les stratégies mises en place par J.M.Synge dans La Fontaine aux saints pour redéfinir aveuglement et clairvoyance hors de tout a priori évaluatif. Ainsi, la complexité des entrelacs entre « désir », « dire » et « délire » au cœur de l’intrigue dramatique conduit-elle le lecteur/spectateur « éberlué » à concevoir le « lire » comme de subtils jeux d’équilibrages. Le contexte historique révèle en outre la dimension politique et subversive de cette véritable quête de liberté de pensée.This article is an invitation to spell out the different strategies used by J.M.Synge in The Well of the Saints to redefine blindness and clear-sightedness free from all preconceived evaluative framework. The reader/spectator, puzzled by the intricacies of desire, the complexities of telling and the temptations of delirium in the play experiences reading as a subtle quest for balance, a search for intellectual and political freedom made more acutely perceptible and essential by the historical context of the play

The Three S’s of Stylistics

This paper is a free meditation on the methodology of stylistics, inspired by G.Leech and M.Short’s seminal work, Style in Fiction and offering interpretative perspectives on one of William Trevor’s short stories, “Solitude”.Cet article est une réflexion sur la méthodologie stylistique, librement inspirée du travail de G.Leech et M.Short, appliquée à une nouvelle de William Trevor, « Solitude »

Empathy, Mirror Neurons and the Subversion of Certitude: Political Writing and Creative Reading in Short-Stories by Bernard MacLaverty, William Trevor and Colum McCann

This paper aims at bringing together literary discourse analysis and neurosciences to consider the impact the discovery of mirror-neurons might have on our understanding of empathy phenomena and consequently on the power of literature to subvert certitude. Examining short-stories set against the backdrop of The Troubles by William Trevor, Bernard MacLaverty or Colum McCann, we shall see how writers make readers literally experience in their bodies and minds conflicting perspectives, hopefully leaving them no other choice but to discard preconceived ideas. In this perspective, any act of writing becomes a political act. Paul Brennan’s academic works have always seemed to me tireless efforts to develop the understanding of the other. This is offered in resonance with his deep power of empathy.La présente étude vise à faire dialoguer analyse du discours littéraire et neurosciences afin de mesurer l’impact de la découverte des neurones miroirs sur notre appréhension du phénomène d’empathie en littérature. Une lecture attentive de quelques nouvelles de William Trevor, Bernard MacLaverty et Colum McCann nous permettra de comprendre comment ces écrivains obligent leurs lecteurs à remettre en question tout a priori idéologique, sur la situation Nord Irlandaise en particulier, en inscrivant l’expérience de l’autre dans leur chair. Tout acte d’écriture devient ainsi acte politique. L’ensemble de l’œuvre de Paul Brennan se caractérise par cet infatigable mouvement vers l’autre. Cette étude se veut hommage à son infinie capacité d’empathie

"Along the edges": along the edges of meaning

This paper is an invitation to read John McGahern’s short story “Along the Eges” as a mimetic exploration of a hazardous ridge between separateness and togetherness. The narrator settles along the edge of perspective, denying the reader the stability of interpretation. The experience is that of radical Otherness, dark and dazzlin

Multiple and Variable NHEJ-Like Genes Are Involved in Resistance to DNA Damage in Streptomyces ambofaciens

International audienceNon-homologous end-joining (NHEJ) is a double strand break (DSB) repair pathway which does not require any homologous template and can ligate two DNA ends together. The basic bacterial NHEJ machinery involves two partners: the Ku protein, a DNA end binding protein for DSB recognition and the multifunctional LigD protein composed a ligase, a nuclease and a polymerase domain, for end processing and ligation of the broken ends. In silico analyses performed in the 38 sequenced genomes of Streptomyces species revealed the existence of a large panel of NHEJ-like genes. Indeed, ku genes or ligD domain homologues are scattered throughout the genome in multiple copies and can be distinguished in two categories: the " core " NHEJ gene set constituted of conserved loci and the " variable " NHEJ gene set constituted of NHEJ-like genes present in only a part of the species. In Streptomyces ambofaciens ATCC23877, not only the deletion of " core " genes but also that of " variable " genes led to an increased sensitivity to DNA damage induced by electron beam irradiation. Multiple mutants of ku, ligase or polymerase encoding genes showed an aggravated phenotype compared to single mutants. Biochemical assays revealed the ability of Ku-like proteins to protect and to stimulate ligation of DNA ends. RT-qPCR and GFP fusion experiments suggested that ku-like genes show a growth phase dependent expression profile consistent with their involvement in DNA repair during spores formation and/or germination

Novel VPS13B Mutations in Three Large Pakistani Cohen Syndrome Families Suggests a Baloch Variant with Autistic-Like Features.

BackgroundCohen Syndrome (COH1) is a rare autosomal recessive disorder, principally identified by ocular, neural and muscular deficits. We identified three large consanguineous Pakistani families with intellectual disability and in some cases with autistic traits.MethodsClinical assessments were performed in order to allow comparison of clinical features with other VPS13B mutations. Homozygosity mapping followed by whole exome sequencing and Sanger sequencing strategies were used to identify disease-related mutations.ResultsWe identified two novel homozygous deletion mutations in VPS13B, firstly a 1 bp deletion, NM_017890.4:c.6879delT; p.Phe2293Leufs*24, and secondly a deletion of exons 37-40, which co-segregate with affected status. In addition to COH1-related traits, autistic features were reported in a number of family members, contrasting with the "friendly" demeanour often associated with COH1. The c.6879delT mutation is present in two families from different regions of the country, but both from the Baloch sub-ethnic group, and with a shared haplotype, indicating a founder effect among the Baloch population.ConclusionWe suspect that the c.6879delT mutation may be a common cause of COH1 and similar phenotypes among the Baloch population. Additionally, most of the individuals with the c.6879delT mutation in these two families also present with autistic like traits, and suggests that this variant may lead to a distinct autistic-like COH1 subgroup

Social and non-social autism symptom and trait domains are genetically dissociable

The core diagnostic criteria for autism comprise two symptom domains – social and communication difficulties, and unusually repetitive and restricted behaviour, interests and activities. There is some evidence to suggest that these two domains are dissociable, yet, this hypothesis has not been tested using molecular genetics. We test this using a GWAS of a non-social autistic trait, systemizing (N = 51,564), defined as the drive to analyse and build systems. We demonstrate that systemizing is heritable and genetically correlated with autism. In contrast, we do not identify significant genetic correlations between social autistic traits and systemizing. Supporting this, polygenic scores for systemizing are significantly positively associated with restricted and repetitive behaviour but not with social difficulties in autistic individuals. These findings strongly suggest that the two core domains of autism are genetically dissociable, and point at how to fractionate the genetics of autism