L'écriture du corps entre philosophie et littérature: une lecture de "Corpus" de Jean-Luc Nancy

L’objet de cette thèse est le projet d’écriture du corps tel qu’il s’esquisse dans le livre Corpus de Jean-Luc Nancy, qui affirme la nécessité d’une résistance aux tendances, inscrites au sein de la culture occidentale, à intérioriser et, par conséquent, à effacer ce qui, du corps, est son extériorité, c’est-à-dire la matérialité et la fragmentarité mêmes de l’existence, ainsi que l’impossibilité de son assujettissement à un sens existentiel totalisant. Etant donné que Nancy entrevoit ladite tendance tant dans la discursivité philosophique que dans la narrativité littéraire occidentales auxquelles il reproche de transformer systématiquement les corps en signes ou incarnations de principes spirituels, il envisage une écriture du corps qui irait au-delà des deux modes d’articulation en les fragmentant et les privant de toute linéarité et de toute unité. Or, comme Corpus pourrait être considéré comme un certain interzone entre projet d’une nouvelle écriture et sa réalisation, la présente thèse aborde non seulement les implications philosophiques de l’ouvrage (notamment les influences derridienne, barthienne, heideggérienne), mais aussi son potentiel (anti)littéraire.The subject of the thesis is the project of the writing of the body as outlined in Jean-Luc Nancy’s book Corpus. Nancy affirms the necessity of resistance against the tendencies inscribed within the Occidental culture to interiorize and, hence, to erase the exteriority of the body, i.e. the very materiality and fragmentarity of existence as well as the impossibility of its subjection to a totalizing existential meaning. Since Nancy identifies the mentioned tendency both in the philosophical discourses and the literary narratives of the Occident, reproaching them with the systematic transformation of bodies into signs or incarnations of some spiritual principles, he envisages a writing of the body that would go beyond both modes of articulation by fragmenting them and depriving them of all linearity and unity. Now, since Corpus as an accomplished work is a kind of interzone between being merely a project of a new writing and its realization, the present thesis discusses not only the philosophical implications of Corpus (especially the influences of Derrida, Barthes, Heidegger), but also its (anti)literary potential.Die Dissertation hat Jean-Luc Nancys komplexe Überlegungen in Corpus zum Problem der Konzeption und Darstellung des „Schreibens“ des Körpers zum Thema. Nancy meldet seinen Widerstand gegen zentrale Tendenzen in der westlichen Philosophie und Kultur an, die den Körper verinnerlicht konzipieren und daher seine fundamentale Exponiertheit, d.h. die materielle Verfasstheit und Fragmentiertheit der Existenz im Körper ebenso wie die Unmöglichkeit der Unterwerfung des Körpers unter das Regime einer totalisierenden existentiellen Bedeutung, verdrängen. Nancy identifiziert diese Tendenz sowohl in den philosophischen als auch literarischen Diskursen und Narrativen des Okzidents und stellt heraus, wie sie Körper systematisch entmaterialisieren und in Zeichen oder Inkarnationen spiritueller Prinzipien transformieren. Dem entgegen gesetzt versucht Nancy ein Schreiben des und vom Körper zu konzipieren, das über beide Diskurstraditionen hinaus geht und die Fragmentiertheit des Körpers und die Abwesenheit von Linearität und Zentriertheit anerkennt und ihr Ausdruck verleiht. Da nun Corpus gewissermaßen als ein interzone zwischen dem Projekt eines neuen Schreibens und seiner Verwirklichung angesehen kann, diskutiert die vorgelegte Arbeit nicht nur die philosophischen Implikationen von Nancys Werk (besonders den Einfluss von Derrida, Barthes und Heidegger), sondern auch sein (anti)literarisches Potential

The Holocene history of the NE Black Sea and surrounding areas: An integrated record of marine and terrestrial palaeoenvironmental change

Here we present an almost complete and integrated Holocene record of marine and terrestrial palaeoenvironmental change from the NE shelf of the Black Sea. A dinoflagellate cyst record used to reconstruct Holocene sea-surface conditions highlights that the NE shelf was a brackish water environment, with a minimum salinity of 7 psu in the early-Holocene before changing at a gradual rate to a more saline environment with maximum salinities of ~18 psu being reached around 3 cal. ka. A warming phase was detected from 6 cal. ka BP, with warmest conditions between 3 and 2.5 cal. ka BP. A pollen record is used to examine the major climate and land-use changes in the eastern Black Sea region. Biome reconstructions show that the temperate deciduous forest dominates throughout the record, although with an overall decline. From early-Holocene to the first hiatus around ~9 cal. ka BP, Pinus pollen dominates, while taxa representing a mixed oak-hornbeam-beech forest are less abundant, indicating relatively cool and dry conditions. Between ~7.9 and ~6.1 cal. ka BP, a thermophilous deciduous forest established, suggesting an overall warming trend and humid conditions. From 4 cal. ka BP, Pinus dominates the pollen record, accompanied by an increase of herbs, implying an opening of the landscape, which would coincide with the beginning of the Meghalayan Age. The integrated record of the marine and terrestrial climate indicators supports the notion that this change in landscape may have been triggered by a combination of warmer and drier conditions and human activities in this region

Ecological Indicator Values for Europe (EIVE) 1.0

Aims: To develop a consistent ecological indicator value system for Europe for five of the main plant niche dimensions: soil moisture (M), soil nitrogen (N), soil reaction (R), light (L) and temperature (T). Study area: Europe (and closely adjacent regions). Methods: We identified 31 indicator value systems for vascular plants in Europe that contained assessments on at least one of the five aforementioned niche dimensions. We rescaled the indicator values of each dimension to a continuous scale, in which 0 represents the minimum and 10 the maximum value present in Europe. Taxon names were harmonised to the Euro+Med Plantbase. For each of the five dimensions, we calculated European values for niche position and niche width by combining the values from the individual EIV systems. Using T values as an example, we externally validated our European indicator values against the median of bioclimatic conditions for global occurrence data of the taxa. Results: In total, we derived European indicator values of niche position and niche width for 14,835 taxa (14,714 for M, 13,748 for N, 14,254 for R, 14,054 for L, 14,496 for T). Relating the obtained values for temperature niche position to the bioclimatic data of species yielded a higher correlation than any of the original EIV systems (r = 0.859). The database: The newly developed Ecological Indicator Values for Europe (EIVE) 1.0, together with all source systems, is available in a flexible, harmonised open access database. Conclusions: EIVE is the most comprehensive ecological indicator value system for European vascular plants to date. The uniform interval scales for niche position and niche width provide new possibilities for ecological and macroecological analyses of vegetation patterns. The developed workflow and documentation will facilitate the future release of updated and expanded versions of EIVE, which may for example include the addition of further taxonomic groups, additional niche dimensions, external validation or regionalisation

The European Vitis Database (www.eu-vitis.de) – a technical innovation through an online uploading and interactive modification system

The objective of the European Vitis Database is to safeguard and enhance germplasm by monitoring its preservation. Two issues are strongly related to that purpose: (1) participation of collections covering almost all grape biodiversity and (2) assessment of accessions trueness to type. In the scope of the European project GrapeGen06 efforts have been made towards both objectives. The 35 participating grape germplasm repositories are found between the Iberian Peninsula and Transcaucasia, thus covering a broad range of grape diversity. Altogether they maintain 32,410 accessions. However with respect to biodiversity, gaps are still evident and further collections need to be included and trueness to type assessment absolutely needs to be pursued to organize duplication of endangered genotypes. Within the GrapeGen06 project focus was laid on the establishment of a database conferring the collection holders a high degree of responsibility and independence. Hence for the first time in a European Central Crop Database an on-line uploading application and an interactive modification system for data administration was implemented. These innovations disburden the database manager and offer the curators of collections more flexibility. Prerequisites for data import, descriptors applied, access levels, database contents, uploading, export and search functions are described

Vegetation succession and climate change across the Plio-Pleistocene transition in eastern Azerbaijan, central Eurasia (2.77–2.45 Ma)

The Plio-Pleistocene transition marked a key moment in global climate history, characterised by the onset of major glaciations in the Northern Hemisphere. The palaeoenvironmental history of the Plio-Pleistocene transition is not well known for the Caspian Sea region, despite its importance for global climate dynamics. Here we present an independently 40Ar/39Ar dated, high-resolution terrestrial palynological record spanning the Plio-Pleistocene boundary based on a lacustrine-marine sedimentary sequence from eastern Azerbaijan. Despite complex pollen transport pathways and the proximity of closely stacked mountain vegetation belts in the Greater and Lesser Caucasus, the record shows that regional vegetation responded to Milankovitch forced glacial-interglacial cycles, tentatively correlated with global climatic records spanning MIS G8 to 98 (∼2.77–2.45 Ma). The persistence of mesophilous forests during glacial times indicates that some settings in the South Caspian Basin acted as glacial refugia, and that vegetation response to glaciations was muted by increased moisture availability, linked to Caspian transgression. The palynological record shows a relationship with global [delta]18O stacks and specifically to the obliquity record. We anticipate that precise correlation with the global climatostratigraphic timescale will allow better understanding of the nature and timing of important transgressive events in the Caspian Sea and their relevance on a global scale

Long term population dynamics - theory and reality in a peatland ecosystem

1. Population dynamics is a field rich in theory and poor in long‐term observational data. Finding sources of long‐term data is critical as ecosystems around the globe continue to change in ways that current theories and models have failed to predict. Here we show how long‐term ecological data can improve our understanding about palaeo‐population change in response to external environmental factors, antecedent conditions and community diversity. 2. We examined a radiometrically dated sediment core from the Didachara Mire in the mountains of south‐western Georgia (Caucasus) and analysed multiple biological proxies (pollen, fern spores, non‐pollen palynomorphs, charcoal, diatoms, chrysophyte cysts, midges, mites and testate amoebae). Numerical techniques, including multivariate ordination, rarefaction, independent splitting and trait analysis, were used to assess the major drivers of changes in community diversity and population stability. Integrated multi‐proxy analyses are very rare in the Caucasus, making this a unique record of long‐term ecological change in a global biodiversity hotspot. 3. Synthesis. Population changes in the terrestrial community coincided primarily with external environmental changes, while populations within the peatland community were affected by both internal and external drivers at different times. In general, our observations accord with theoretical predictions that population increases lead to greater stability and declines lead to instability. Random variation and interspecific competition explain population dynamics that diverged from predictions. Population change and diversity trends were positively correlated in all taxonomic groups, suggesting that population‐level instability is greater in more diverse communities, even though diverse communities are themselves more stable. There is a continuing need to confront population theory with long‐term data to test the predictive success of theoretical frameworks, thereby improving their ability to predict future change