"The new American soldier": Patricia Highsmith and the "American" abroad

Discussions of Patricia Highsmith’s representation of American identity and values have largely eluded critical attention, which has tended to prioritise her idiosyncratic representation of criminality. Highsmith, however, was a writer fundamentally concerned with America, and this concern is especially evident in her writings set outside of the United States. Throughout the 1960s, Highsmith moved her fiction out of small, suburban American towns and across the Atlantic. Novels such as The Two Faces of January (1964), Those Who Walk Away (1967), and The Tremor of Forgery (1969) all feature American protagonists displaced in European and North African settings. Current scholarship has yet to address the significance of this change of setting on Highsmith’s representation of “America”, and, more specifically, the “American” figure. Previous readings of these novels have focussed on broader political concerns such as the neo-colonial relationship of Westerners to non-Western cultures, as well as the apparent clash of moral and political beliefs emerging from this dynamic. This paper, however, argues that Highsmith’s displacement of Americans in “foreign” (or non-American) settings represents a sustained critique of “America” and the “American” figure as ideological constructions. Concentrating predominantly on The Tremor of Forgery, I will show how Highsmith employs her characteristic technique of deploying contrasting male protagonists to present competing ideas of America. The discussion will reframe the novel’s interest in the dynamics of America’s overseas politics, arguing that the contrasting attitudes of its characters draw attention to prominent contradictions in the prevailing ideologies of the archetypal “American” figure, such as a libertarian individualism combined with a conformist politics. Furthermore, the paper contends that Highsmith’s displacement of American characters in non-American settings intensifies the focus on everyday “American” practices, such as window-shopping, and the “American” products consumed by her characters, notably Coca-Cola. In doing so, Highsmith satirizes what she perceives as dominant American attitudes towards class, race and consumerism

Modal reflectivity in finite-depth two-dimensional photonic-crystal microcavities

We present finite-difference time-domain calculations of the Q factor for an optical microcavity defined by a slab waveguide and two-dimensional photonic-crystal end mirrors. The effect of the finite depth of the photonic crystal on the cavity s optical modes is examined. From these calculations, we can optimize the performance of the photonic-crystal mirrors and determine the loss mechanisms within optical cavities defined by these structures. The Q of the cavity modes is shown to be strongly dependent on the depth of the holes defining the photonic crystal, as well as the refractive index of the material surrounding the waveguide core

'We are Shepherds, But Not Sheep' : Farmer Protest and Rural Identity in Bulgaria

Rural society in Bulgaria has seen considerable upheaval over the past century, moving from a position of political significance, rural actors were subsequently subordinated under the communist regime (1946-1989). The post-socialist period saw further turmoil as land restitution, privatisation, and depopulation reshaped rural communities, leading to increased marginalisation. Facing uncertain futures, rural producers have engaged in a range of actions to challenge and resist threats to their material interests and rural way of life. This article draws on a unique dataset of protest events by rural producers over the 2000-2019 period to understand how and why they protest. In doing so, it considers how the claims presented can be seen to reflect efforts to protect rural communities in a time of change. The findings suggest that material interests serve as the key mobilising force but that these rest on a sense of collective identity around the importance of rural society to support their claims

‘We want bread and work’:Patterns of labour protest and union involvement in Bulgaria

The end of communism in Central and Eastern Europe resulted in wide-ranging social change, with established practices and relations being overturned in a relatively short period. Labour relations were an area that saw considerable upheaval as unions were released from state control and clandestine worker bodies were able to emerge. This article considers the medium-term effects of these changes by examining the characteristics of labour focused contention in Bulgaria from 2000-2019. This was a period during which the uncertainty that characterised the post-transition decade was settling, with new challenges and opportunities in the form of accession to the European Union, the global financial crisis, and the anti-government protests of 2013-2014 shaping the context for labour relations. This article draws on a unique dataset of labour protests to examine the claims, actors, and actions adopted to identify how the labour movement responded to these changes and the degree of trade union involvement in contentious events. The findings suggest there has been a shift from economic claims to encompass broader rights-based issues. They also suggest that unions have been visible in contentious actions but have been joined by a more diverse group of actors in advancing workers’ claims

Hydrodynamic mean field solutions of 1D exclusion processes with spatially varying hopping rates

We analyze the open boundary partially asymmetric exclusion process with smoothly varying internal hopping rates in the infinite-size, mean field limit. The mean field equations for particle densities are written in terms of Ricatti equations with the steady-state current $J$ as a parameter. These equations are solved both analytically and numerically. Upon imposing the boundary conditions set by the injection and extraction rates, the currents $J$ are found self-consistently. We find a number of cases where analytic solutions can be found exactly or approximated. Results for $J$ from asymptotic analyses for slowly varying hopping rates agree extremely well with those from extensive Monte Carlo simulations, suggesting that mean field currents asymptotically approach the exact currents in the hydrodynamic limit, as the hopping rates vary slowly over the lattice. If the forward hopping rate is greater than or less than the backward hopping rate throughout the entire chain, the three standard steady-state phases are preserved. Our analysis reveals the sensitivity of the current to the relative phase between the forward and backward hopping rate functions.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure