Beyond biopolitics: reading Bolaño's human fragments

This is the final version of the article. It was first available from Liverpool University Press via http://dx.doi.org/10.3828/mlo.v0i0.61The fiction of Roberto Bolaño is filled with images of bodies in extremis: in situations of violence, sexual activity, illness and death. While bodily experience in Bolaño’s work has not received great critical attention, some of these bodies have achieved paradigmatic status, particularly among those critics who draw out the biopolitical implications of his writing. Chief among these are the corpses of the murdered women in Santa Teresa that litter the pages of ‘La parte de los crímenes’ in the posthumous novel 2666. Many critical accounts of this section of the novel view the corpses as evidence of the deadly power of the neoliberal order. These biopolitical readings of Bolaño's work are undoubtedly of value, and cannot be disregarded. Nonetheless, what follows here is born of a suspicion that the bodies in Bolaño's fiction provide, at best, precarious conduits for biopolitical reflection. Following the influential definition of biopolitics proposed by Michel Foucault, as ‘the entry of phenomena peculiar to the life of the human species into the order of knowledge and power’ (History of Sexuality 141), I will suggest that Bolaño in fact demonstrates the difficulty of maintaining the body within any order, and particularly within that of representation.This work was supported by the AHRC

TB myositis in a patient with dermatomyositis post immunosuppression

55-year-old African female with a history of initially refractory TIF1-y antibody positive dermatomyositis, with progressive proximal muscle weakness with difficulty swallowing, requiring regular inpatient admissions with the administration of IV steroids and IVIG. The patient was started on immunosuppression with mycophenolate as a steroid sparing agent. The patient slowly improved after initiation of immunosuppression, with a significant reduction in her rash, weakness, and dysphagia. After a few months of therapy, the patient noted pain in the right axilla and proximal right lower extremity with swelling and pain limiting her mobility. There was a concern for underlying malignancy for which PET scan was done, which showed hypermetabolic edema and swelling of musculature involving right thigh, right pectoral minor and left scapularis consistent with infectious or inflammatory myositis. Concern for focal dermatomyositis was raised and the patient received pulse IV steroids over 5 days with initial improvement. The patient later developed fevers, night sweats and chills, for which the patient was seen in ED. Initial vitals were concerning for sepsis, due to which patient was started on broad-spectrum antibiotics. CT scan of the chest and right lower extremity were done which showed, no pulmonary infiltrates, 5 cm right pectoralis minor and 9.4 cm right gluteus minimus fluid collection consistent with abscess.Interventional radiology was consulted, and abscesses were aspirated, aspirate from chest wall was positive acid-fast bacilli, concerning for mycobacterium. Cultures were sent to the health department and were noted to be positive for TB. At this time, it was noted that the patient had a prior diagnosis of latent TB when she moved to the United States. The patient was started on Myambutol, Nydrazid, Levaquin, Rifampin, and Bactrim.Tuberculous infections continue to be one of the deadliest infections around the world, with a significantly low incidence rate (2.8/100000) as compared to developing countries. Even with a low incidence rate, there is always a concern for reactivation of latent TB with the initiation of immunosuppression. Tb myositis is one of rare presentation and that can be difficult with diagnosis, especially in a patient who has an underlying autoimmune condition that could have a similar presentation. We recommend getting prior workup to rule out tuberculosis prior to the initiation of immunosuppression

Rhetorics of Chilean Cinema (Pablo Corro, 2014)

Pablo Corro‘s 2014 book Retóricas del cine chileno (Rhetorics of Chilean Cinema) is a wide-ranging examination of the style and concerns that have come to characterise Chilean film-making from the 1950s to the present day. Corro demonstrates how ideas of national cinema are always to some extent dependent on transnational currents of cinematic ideas and techniques, as well as on local political contexts. The chapter presented here, Weak Poetics, adapts Gianni Vattimo‘s notion of weak thought to discuss the growing attention paid by Chilean films to the mundane, the everyday and the intimate. Corro‘s dense, allusive writing skilfully mirrors the films he describes, in which meaning is fragmented and dispersed into glimpsed appearances and acousmatic sounds. Corros historicisation of this fracturing of meaning allows the cinema of the everyday to be understood not as a retreat from politics, but as a recasting of the grounds on which it might occur.</jats:p

New Constructions of House and Home in Contemporary Argentine and Chilean Cinema (2005-2015)

In the open access version of the thesis, all images have been redacted in order to prevent copyright infringement.This thesis explores the potential of domestic space to act as the ground for new forms of community and sociability in Argentine and Chilean films from the early twenty-first century. It thus tracks a shift in the political treatment of the home in Southern Cone cinema, away from allegorical affirmations of the family, and towards a reflection on film’s ability to both delineate and disrupt lived spaces. In the works examined, the displacement of attention from human subjects to the material environment defamiliarises the domestic sphere and complicates its relation to the nation. The house thus does not act as ‘a body of images that give mankind proofs or illusions of stability’ (Bachelard), but rather as a medium through which identities are challenged and reformed. This anxiety about domestic space demands, I argue, a renewal of the deconstructive frameworks often deployed in studies of Latin American culture (Moreiras, Williams). The thesis turns to new materialist theories, among others, as a supplement to deconstructive thinking, and argues that theorisations of cinema’s political agency must be informed by social, economic and urban histories. The prominence of suburban settings moreover encourages a nuancing of the ontological links often invoked between cinema, the house, and the city. The first section of the thesis rethinks two concepts closely linked to the home: memory and modernity. Analysing documentary and essay films, Chapter 1 suggests some political limitations to the figure of the fragment which dominates scholarly discussion of memory in Latin America. Chapter 2 studies films which explore the inclusions and exclusions created by modernist domestic architecture. The second section focuses on two human figures found on the threshold of the home: the domestic worker and the guest. Chapter 3 analyses unorthodox representations of domestic work, and explores how new materialist approaches can enhance readings of the political potential of ‘art cinema’. Finally, in Chapter 4 I examine films depicting household visitors that upset urban class divisions, and question the possibility of ‘domestic cosmopolitanism’ (Nava 2006) in contemporary Latin America. My comparative analysis of these films explores a rupture between physical dwelling and imagined home that points towards new political practices in a neoliberal, post-dictatorship context.PhD research was funded by an Arts and Humanities Research Council Doctoral Training Partnership studentship

Comparative Case Study of U.S. And U.S.S.R. Environmental Policies and How They Relate to Trans-boundary Pollution Issues Facing the Commonwealth of Independent States

Environmental Science

Vessel noise prior to pile driving at offshore windfarm sites deters harbour porpoises from potential injury zones

Acknowledgements We thank the BOWL and MOWEL teams for facilitating fieldwork and data collection during windfarm construction and providing details of the construction programmes. We also thank the members of MFRAG for their participation in a workshop dedicated to the last section of the discussion and for their valuable advice. We finally thank the two reviewers for their constructive comments.Peer reviewe