(Im)Personal Relationality in Alain Guiraudie’s Ici commence la nuit

Dans son premier roman Ici commence la nuit (2014), adapté à l'écran un an plus tôt dans le film primé L'inconnu du lac (2013), Alain Guiraudie est entré dans le débat sur le sens de la théorie queer aujourd'hui en utilisant la littérature de fantasme afin de réinventer la dynamique du désir homosexuel. Contre la perception asexuée de la théorie queer et les accusations de désincarnation, d'institutionnalisation et de dystopie dont elle fait l’objet, cet article examine comment l'originalité de Guiraudie (littéraire principalement, mais aussi au cinéma) réside dans la façon dont il rend le sexe à la théorie queer en vue de croiser ses modalités dominantes : la relationalité, la monogamie et le narcissisme. M’appuyant sur le concept de relationalité impersonnelle de Leo Bersani (y compris les processus de drague, de renoncement à soi et d'ascétisme) et les théories de Lacan sur la jouissance (castration, féminine et lalangue), je soutiens que Guiraudie revalorise le désir homosexuel au-delà du sexe, la personne et le corps référant à une durabilité du désir homosexuel comme vie future/éternelle

Epidemiology of injury in male Irish secondary school adolescents in one academic year.

BACKGROUND:Establishing the incidence of injury is the first step in initiating injury prevention strategies. There is a lack of research on injury in Irish adolescents and this study paves the way for further injury prevention research, by implementing a prospective cohort study. PURPOSE:To establish the epidemiology of injury in male adolescents in Irish secondary schools in one academic year. METHODS:452 male 4th and 5th year adolescents (aged 15.62±0.70 years) took part in a prospective epidemiology study for one academic year. Any injury sustained during training or competition resulting in restricted performance or time lost from play was assessed weekly by an athletic rehabilitation therapist. An injury report form was completed to ensure standardisation of the injury description. RESULTS:5.16 injuries per 1,000 hours were noted, with 35.6% at risk of injury and 27.9% of injured participants at risk of sustaining another injury that school year. Competition injuries (16.91 injuries per 1,000 hours) were more common than training injuries (2.63 injuries per 1,000 hours). Lower limb injuries predominated (73.1%) with knee (17.9%), ankle (13.5%) and hamstring (11.7%) injuries most common. Strains (29.4%), sprains (20.8%), fatigue-induced muscle disorder (14.5%) and contusions (13.1%) were frequent. Injuries were primarily minor (0–7 days) (41.6%), followed by severe (>22 days) (39.7%) and moderate (8–21 days) (18.7%). CONCLUSION:Injuries are common in adolescents in Irish secondary schools and the development and implementation of injury prevention strategies are required

Rewriting Modernity

This article rereads Paul Virilio, drawing on the distinctionbetween topography and topology to argue a case for Virilio as a rewriter of modernity. Invoking Jean-François Lyotard’s notion of rewriting modernity as an unbroken process of accumulation founded on affective life in “Re-writing Modernity” and “Argumentation and Presentation: The Foundation Crisis,” it enlists topology as a horizontal spatial structure that enables us to rethink space, time,and modernity outside the limits of the “squared horizon,” where the“squared horizon” is viewed as a spatial and textual metaphor for framing perspectives on the past, present, and future. The analysis deconstructs the topography of the “squared horizon” as a relationality in an unfolding continuum, where spaces exist ontologically and where the immaterial forces of the dromospheric and the atmospheric generate a relational and historical connectedness

Phenotypic Responses to a Lifestyle Intervention Do Not Account for Inter-Individual Variability in Glucose Tolerance for Individuals at High Risk of Type 2 Diabetes

Background: Lifestyle interventions have been shown to delay or prevent the onset of type 2 diabetes among high risk adults. A better understanding of the variability in physiological responses would support the matching of individuals with the best type of intervention in future prevention programmes, in order to optimize risk reduction. The purpose of this study was to determine if phenotypic characteristics at baseline or following a 12 weeks lifestyle intervention could explain the inter-individual variability in change in glucose tolerance in individuals with high risk for type 2 diabetes.Methods: In total, 285 subjects with normal glucose tolerance (NGT, FINDRISC score > 12), impaired fasting glucose (IFG) and impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) were recruited for a 12 weeks lifestyle intervention. Glucose tolerance, insulin sensitivity, anthropometric characteristics and aerobic fitness were measured. Variability of responses was examined by grouping participants by baseline glycemic status, by cluster analysis based on the change in glucose tolerance and by Principal Component Analysis (PCA).Results: In agreement with other studies, the mean response to the 12 weeks intervention was positive for the majority of parameters. Overall, 89% improved BMI, 80% waist circumference, and 81% body fat while only 64% improved fasting plasma glucose and 60% 2 h glucose. The impact of the intervention by glycaemic group did not show any phenotypic differences in response between NGT, IFG, and IGT. A hierarchical cluster analysis of change in glucose tolerance identified four sub-groups of “responders” (high and moderate) and “non-responders” (no response or deteriorated) but there were few differences in baseline clincal and physiological parameters or in response to the intervention to explain the overall variance. A further PCA analysis of 19 clinical and physiological univariables could explain less than half (48%) of total variability.Conclusion: We found that phenotypic characteristics from standard clinical and physiological parameters were not sufficient to account for the inter-individual variability in glucose tolerance following a 12 weeks lifestyle intervention in inidivuals at high risk for type 2 diabetes. Further work is required to identify biomarkers that complement phenotypic traits and better predict the response to glucose tolerance

Revisiting Contextualism in Political Theory: Putting Principles into Context

© 2017, Springer Nature B.V. In this article, we articulate and defend a contextual approach to political theory. According to what we shall call ‘iterative contextualism’, context has two important roles to play in determining what is required by justice. First, it is through the exploration and evaluation of multiple contexts that general principles are devised, revised and refined. Second, significant weight should be given to the norms to be found in specific contexts because the people affected by those norms strongly identify with them. Having said this, the application of general principles to particular contexts may still result in recommendations which deviate to some degree from the prevailing norms. In this case, we shall argue thatalthough justice requires something other than what local norms say, what is required is likely to be intimated by the relevant context. Thus, whilst considerations of identification act as significant constraints on iterative contextualists’ thinking, the idea of intimations provides them with an important resource

Lupine and zig-zag lines: queer affects in Alain Guiraudie’s L’inconnu du lac and Rester vertical

In this article I investigate how a theory of becomings-animal operates in a number of contemporary queer French films by director Alain Guiraudie (L’inconnu du lac (2013) and Rester vertical (2016)). In particular I explore how a becomings-animal’s association with a Deleuzian theory of affect enhances our understanding of queer intimacy. The aim of this article is to reposition queer intimacy as an ontology outside – outside synthetic and vertical lines of filiation and kinship and inside the disjunctive lines of the outside (what is irregular, random, rural, cosmic). Drawing at first on intimacy as an ontological non-relationality (Bersani 2008; 2009) and on the idea of separation as an ontological necessity of queer intimacy (John Paul Ricco 2017), I want to rethink queer intimacy as exposure outwards – an intimacy to and towards. Within this exteriorization of intimacy, my methodology will rely on the affective power of a Deleuzian theory of lines

Le retour du sexe dans le queer : Ici commence la nuit d’Alain Guiraudie

En 2014, Alain Guiraudie a publié son premier roman Ici commence la nuit (Prix Sade). Ce roman intervient à un moment opportun dans deux débats qui préoccupent les théoriciens “queer” aujourd'hui. Guiraudie écrit en réaction à l’asexualité ressentie des théories queer et aux accusations d’abstraction, de désincarnation et d’institutionnalisation qui leur sont faites. Il écrit aussi en réaction à la trajectoire principalement dystopique du “queer”, comme illustrée en particulier par le travail de Lee Edelman. Dans ce papier, j’affirme que Guiraudie a un rôle à jouer dans le futur et dans le potentiel de la littérature comme fantasme, pour réinventer les dynamiques du désir et de la pratique “queer”. Je démontrerai que l’originalité de Guiraudie réside dans la façon dont il redonne à l’homosexualité sa part de sexualité en vue de traverser les modalités sexuelles dominantes de relationalité, de monogamie et de narcissisme. À travers la pratique du “cruising”, du sadisme, de la renonciation de soi (rédemption) et de l’ascétisme, Guiraudie explore les contours d’un désir homosexuel durable, au-delà des pratiques sexuelles, de la personne et du corps. Au niveau méthodologique, l’article s’inspire du travail de Leo Bersani et de son concept de relationalité impersonnelle, ainsi que des trois aspects de la jouissance lacanienne : la jouissance comme manque (castration), la jouissance féminine (jouissance comme autre) et jouissance comme lalangue, moteur lacanien de l’inconscient

Le retour du sexe dans le queer : Ici commence la nuit d’Alain Guiraudie

En 2014, Alain Guiraudie a publié son premier roman Ici commence la nuit (Prix Sade). Ce roman intervient à un moment opportun dans deux débats qui préoccupent les théoriciens “queer” aujourd'hui. Guiraudie écrit en réaction à l’asexualité ressentie des théories queer et aux accusations d’abstraction, de désincarnation et d’institutionnalisation qui leur sont faites. Il écrit aussi en réaction à la trajectoire principalement dystopique du “queer”, comme illustrée en particulier par le travail de Lee Edelman. Dans ce papier, j’affirme que Guiraudie a un rôle à jouer dans le futur et dans le potentiel de la littérature comme fantasme, pour réinventer les dynamiques du désir et de la pratique “queer”. Je démontrerai que l’originalité de Guiraudie réside dans la façon dont il redonne à l’homosexualité sa part de sexualité en vue de traverser les modalités sexuelles dominantes de relationalité, de monogamie et de narcissisme. À travers la pratique du “cruising”, du sadisme, de la renonciation de soi (rédemption) et de l’ascétisme, Guiraudie explore les contours d’un désir homosexuel durable, au-delà des pratiques sexuelles, de la personne et du corps. Au niveau méthodologique, l’article s’inspire du travail de Leo Bersani et de son concept de relationalité impersonnelle, ainsi que des trois aspects de la jouissance lacanienne : la jouissance comme manque (castration), la jouissance féminine (jouissance comme autre) et jouissance comme lalangue, moteur lacanien de l’inconscient