Marie\u27s Knowing Winks: Ironic Play, Courtly Love, and the Disruption of Generic Conventions in \u3ci\u3eChaitivel\u3c/i\u3e, \u3ci\u3eLanva\u3c/i\u3e, and \u3ci\u3eYonec\u3c/i\u3e

While readers such as M. L. Stapleton and K. Sarah-Jane Murray have devoted time to the courtly and Ovidian play in Marie de France’s Guigemar and Laüstic, less attention has been paid to that within Chaitivel, Lanva and Yonec. In this essay, I argue that Marie slyly mocks the subgenre within which she operates: she both participates in and pushes against the constraints of fin’amors, or courtly love. In her twelfth-century version of Ovidian one-upmanship, Marie pulls tales from Celtic and classical sources, redresses them with the accoutrements of courtly love, and inserts her own wry narrative voice through the means of direct authorial commentary. She gives a final Marian twist to her “assembling” of the lais by making her female characters not merely, as courtly tradition would hold, the distant objects of male desire, but decisive, knowing, and, ultimately, realistic woman. In the process, her courtly tales, probing as they do such fraught topics as Norman colonization and forced marriage, might have created discomfort for some members of her audience. Both in her Prologue and in her lais, Marie reveals herself as simultaneously playful and as a figure of authority, never allowing us to take her tales entirely at face value. In this essay, I first highlight a few relevant moments from the Prologue and discuss Andreas Capellanus’ De Arte honeste amandi before reading Chaitivel with reference to its absurd send-up of courtly components. Next, I examine Lanval as a comical revision of Celtic themes whose only happy ending lies in the exiting of the courtly “game,” and finally read Yonec as including uncomfortable elements that disrupt its apparently courtly plot

The evolution of the warm absorber reveals a shocked outflow in the narrow line Seyfert 1 galaxy IRAS 17020+4544

We present the analysis of grating spectra of the Narrow Line Seyfert 1 Galaxy IRAS 17020+4544 observed by XMM-Newton in 2004 and 2014. In a previous work on these data, we reported the discovery of a multi-component ultra-fast outflow that is capable of producing feedback in the host galaxy. We also reported the presence of a slow, multi-phase warm absorber. In this follow-up paper, we confirm that this low velocity absorber can be modeled by four layers of ionized gas. When crossing our line-of-sight, this gas presents peculiar changes along the 10-yr time scale elapsed between the two observations obtained by XMM-Newton. While two of such components are almost stationary, the other two are found inflowing and outflowing with significant variations in velocity and ionization between 2004 and 2014. The luminosity and spectral shape of the central source remain practically unvaried. We propose that the presence of the fast wind and of the variable warm absorber can be interpreted in the framework of a `shocked outflow', where the peculiar variability pattern of the low-velocity components might arise from instabilities in the shocked gas.Comment: 16 pages, 1 figure, 2 tables, accepted by Ap

The ionised X-ray outflowing torus in ESO 323-G77: low-ionisation clumps confined by homogeneous warm absorbers

We report on the long- and short-term X-ray spectral analysis of the polar-scattered Seyfert 1.2 galaxy ESO 323-G77, observed in three epochs between 2006 and 2013 with Chandra and XMM-Newton. Four high-resolution Chandra observations give us a unique opportunity to study the properties of the absorbers in detail, as well as their short time-scale (days) variability. From the rich set of absorption features seen in the Chandra data, we identify two warm absorbers with column densities and ionisations that are consistent with being constant on both short and long time-scales, suggesting that those are the signature of a rather homogeneous and extended outflow. A third absorber, ionised to a lesser degree, is also present and it replaces the strictly neutral absorber that is ubiquitously inferred from the X-ray analysis of obscured Compton-thin sources. This colder absorber appears to vary in column density on long time-scales, suggesting a non-homogeneous absorber. Moreover, its ionisation responds to the nuclear luminosity variations on time-scales as short as a few days, indicating that the absorber is in photoionisation equilibrium with the nuclear source on these time-scales. All components are consistent with being co-spatial and located between the inner and outer edges of the so-called dusty, clumpy torus. Assuming co-spatiality, the three phases also share the same pressure, suggesting that the warm / hot phases confine the colder, most likely clumpy, medium. We discuss further the properties of the outflow in comparison with the lower resolution XMM-Newton data.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures, 6 tables. Accepted for publication in MNRA

On the relativistic iron line and soft excess in the Seyfert 1 galaxy Markarian 335

We report on a 133 ks XMM-Newton observation of the Seyfert 1 galaxy Markarian 335. The 0.4-12 keV spectrum contains an underlying power law continuum, a soft excess below 2 keV, and a double-peaked iron emission feature in the 6-7 keV range. We investigate the possibility that the double-peaked emission might represent the characteristic signature of the accretion disc. Detailed investigations show that a moderately broad, accretion disc line is most likely present, but that the peaks may be owing to narrower components from more distant material. The peaks at 6.4 and 7 keV can be identified, respectively, with the molecular torus in active galactic nucleus unification schemes, and very highly ionized, optically thin gas filling the torus. The X-ray variability spectra on both long (~100 ks) and short (~1 ks) timescales disfavour the recent suggestion that the soft excess is an artifact of variable, moderately ionized absorption.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

An X-ray variable absorber within the Broad Line Region in Fairall 51

Fairall 51 is a polar-scattered Seyfert 1 galaxy, a type of active galaxies believed to represent a bridge between unobscured type-1 and obscured type-2 objects. Fairall 51 has shown complex and variable X-ray absorption but only little is known about its origin. In our research, we observed Fairall 51 with the X-ray satellite Suzaku in order to constrain a characteristic time-scale of its variability. We performed timing and spectral analysis of four observations separated by 1.5, 2 and 5.5 day intervals. We found that the 0.5-50 keV broadband X-ray spectra are dominated by a primary power-law emission (with the photon index ~ 2). This emission is affected by at least three absorbers with different ionisations (log(xi) ~ 1-4). The spectrum is further shaped by a reprocessed emission, possibly coming from two regions -- the accretion disc and a more distant scattering region. The accretion disc emission is smeared by the relativistic effects, from which we measured the spin of the black hole as a ~ 0.8 (+-0.2). We found that most of the spectral variability can be attributed to the least ionised absorber whose column density changed by a factor of two between the first (highest-flux) and the last (lowest-flux) observation. A week-long scale of the variability indicates that the absorber is located at the distance ~ 0.05 pc from the centre, i.e., in the Broad Line Region.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures, accepted to A&

Explorar el poder predictivo del compromiso laboral y la resiliencia de los profesores de EFL en su desarrollo profesional

The complexities and constant changes of trends in teaching the English language demand teachers to work on their pedagogical knowledge and skills continuously. These are best obtainable in professional development programs. However, the role of teacher emotions in such programs has remained unaddressed. To bridge this gap, this study examined the predicating role of second language (L2) teachers’ work engagement and buoyancy in their professional development. A total of 348 Chinese teachers participated in a survey with three online questionnaires. The results of structural equation modeling (SEM) and regression illustrated that both teacher work engagement and buoyancy could predict L2 teachers’ professional development. In particular, it was found that about 68% and 61% of changes in TPD could be predicted by work engagement and buoyancy, respectively. The study is momentous for L2 teaching and teacher education by calling for the integration of emotions into TPD and pedagogy.Las complejidades y los constantes cambios en las tendencias de enseñanza del idioma inglés exigen que los profesores trabajen continuamente en su conocimiento pedagógico y habilidades. Estas mejoras se obtienen mejor a través de programas de desarrollo profesional. Sin embargo, el papel de las emociones de los profesores en dichos programas ha quedado sin abordar. Para abordar esta brecha, este estudio investigó el papel predictivo del compromiso laboral y la resiliencia de los profesores de segunda lengua (L2) en el desarrollo profesional. Un total de 348 profesores chinos participaron en tres encuestas en línea. Los resultados del modelo de ecuaciones estructurales (SEM) y los análisis de regresión indicaron que tanto la dedicación laboral como la resiliencia pueden predecir el desarrollo profesional de los profesores de L2. Específicamente, el estudio descubrió que aproximadamente el 68% y el 61% de las variaciones en el desarrollo profesional de los profesores pueden ser respectivamente predichas por el compromiso laboral y la resiliencia. Este estudio es transcendental para la enseñanza de L2 y la formación de profesores, ya que aboga por la integración de las emociones en el desarrollo profesional y la pedagogía de los profesores

X-ray high-resolution spectroscopy reveals feedback in a Seyfert galaxy from an ultra fast wind with complex ionization and velocity structure

Winds outflowing from Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) may carry significant amount of mass and energy out to their host galaxies. In this paper we report the detection of a sub-relativistic outflow observed in the Narrow Line Seyfert 1 Galaxy IRAS17020+4544 as a series of absorption lines corresponding to at least 5 absorption components with an unprecedented wide range of associated column densities and ionization levels and velocities in the range of 23,000-33,000 km/s, detected at X-ray high spectral resolution (E/Delta E ~1000) with the ESA's observatory XMM-Newton. The charge states of the material constituting the wind clearly indicate a range of low to moderate ionization states in the outflowing gas and column densities significantly lower than observed in highly ionized ultra fast outflows. We estimate that at least one of the outflow components may carry sufficient energy to substantially suppress star formation, and heat the gas in the host galaxy. IRAS17020+4544 provides therefore an interesting example of feedback by a moderately luminous AGN hosted in a spiral galaxy, a case barely envisaged in most evolution models, which often predict that feedback processes take place in massive elliptical galaxies hosting luminous quasars in a post merger phase.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, to appear on ApJ Letter