'A jaw for a tooth' - a biased report

Re: Your Editorial in Vol 99, No 3, March 2009 SAMJ . Dear Dr. I take the strongest exception to your unashamed, political diatribe against Israel. The SAMJ is NOT a forum for political articles masquerading under the guise of humanitarian medical concern. You could have found more truthful and pertinent examples closer to home

Der Eherne Reiter: Politischer Barock und russische Revolution zwischen Puškin, Belyj und Benjamin

The essay links the symbolic spaces of the Russian imperial capital St. Petersburg, canonized by the literary tradition known as the "Petersburg text of Russian literature", to the semantics of historical catastrophe explored by Walter Benjamin in his studies of German baroque and revolutionary Paris. Focusing on various literary appropriations of the "Bronze Horseman", the equestrian statue of the city's founder Peter the Great, the essay explores its evolving allegorical relationship to political crises from A. S. Pushkin to Andrei Bely, from the 19th century to the revolutionary era. As a symbolic language of the state of exception, the baroque was revived by avant-garde artists and made to resonate with the political aesthetics of their own time

BUGROV K.D., KISELEV M.A, Estestvennoe pravo i dobrodetel´. Integracija evropejskogo vlijanija v rossijskuju političeskuju kul´turu XVIII veka [L’intégration de l’influence européenne dans la culture politique russe du XVIIIe siècle]

Совместная монография двух екатеринбургских ученых об истории политических и общественных идей и дискурсов в России XVIII в. замечательна и сама по себе, и в связи c обрамляющими ее методологическими тенденциями. В последние годы история идей, давно ставшая самостоятельной сферой изучения для историков западной культуры благодаря трудам Р. Козеллека, Кв. Скиннера, Дж. Покока и других, утверждается в качестве плодотворнейшей парадигмы для исследования русской культуры имперского периода. Это н..

The Question of Questions: What is a Gene? Comments on Rolston and Griffths & Stotz

If the question “What is a gene?” proves to be worth asking it must be able to elicit an answer which both recognizes and address the reasons why the concept of the gene ever seemed to be something worth getting excited about in the first place as well analyzing and evaluating the latest develops in the molecular biology of DNA. Each of the preceding papers fails to do one of these and sufferrs the consequences. Where Rolston responds to the apparent failure of molecular biology to make good on the desideratum of the classical gene by veering off into fanciful talk about “cybernetic genes,” Griffiths and Stotz lose themselves in the molecular fine print and forget to ask themselves why “genes” should be of any special interst anyway

Barnacles, barrier loci and the systematic building of species

Commentar

Из материалов для комментария к «Капитанской дочке» (26–42) [Notes and Queries on _The Captain’s Daughter_ (26–42)]

The following notes highlight some of the structural patterns and textual fragments of Alexander Pushkin’s Captain’s Daughter overlooked by previous scholarship. Thus, I address the narrative strategy of shifting a character’s attributes so that the character’s initial connotations are seamlessly transformed into their opposites. This corresponds to the novel’s overall narrative principle of relativizing the seemingly obvious and stable. Additionally, I explore some of the narrative formulas specific to the historical novel, and comment on some of the historical information on the everyday life and social realities of 18th-century Russia contained in The Captain’s Daughter (the various forms of currency used by the different classes; Pugachev’s military equipment, etc.).KEYWORDS: Gabriel Superfin at 80, 19th-Century Russian Literature, Alexander Pushkin (1799—1837), The Captain’s Daughter, The Minor (Nedorosl’) and his education, Yemelyan Pugachev’s rebellion (1772—1774), Monetary System in 18th-Century Russia, Narrative Formulas, History of Literature

Из материалов для комментария к «Капитанской дочке»: 9–11 [Notes and Queries on _The Captain’s Daughter_ (9–11)]

There are three sections in this article, all concerning The Captains Daughter (Kapitanskaia dochka, 1836) by Alexander Pushkin. The first section reconstructs the hidden yet crucial train of thought launched by the elder Grinev’s reading of The Court Almanach for 1772, which comes to drive the novel’s plot in a surprising direction. The second section investigates the protagonist’s failed military career. The third section discusses Pushkin’s linguistic lapse (na son griadushchii instead of na son griadushchim), a distortion of a liturgical phrase well known to Orthodox Christians.Keywords: 19th-Century Russian Literature, Alexander Pushkin (1799—1837), Kapitanskaia dochka (1836), Russo-Turkish Wars (1736—1739, 1768—1774), Military Careers, The Orthodox Prayer Book, In memoriam:  Larisa Georgievna Stepanova (1941—2009)

Le cabinet de Saint-Pétersbourg face au marquis de Custine : une réfutation inédite de La Russie en 1839

During the first half the 19th Century, France 's perception of Russia was mainly through Custine's book, Russia in 1839. This scathing text did not however remain unrefuted in Russia, linking the personnal strategies of dignitaries such as Nesselrode, Ouvarov and Bloudov, to the ambition to defend Russian society and the press' analysis of the French System. Vera Miltchina and Alexandre Ospovat have reproduced and analysed some unpublished documents that illustrate the setting-up and action of an anti-Custine committee.La Russie de la première moitié du XIXe siècle a principalement été perçue en France à travers le livre de Custine La Russie en 1839. Mais ce texte très acerbe n'est pas resté en Russie sans réfutations. Celles-ci allient les stratégies personnelles de dignitaires comme Nesselrode, Ouvarov et Bloudov à l'ambition de défendre la société russe et à une analyse du système français de la presse. Vera Miltchina et Alexandre Ospovat reproduisent et analysent des documents inédits qui illustrent la mise en place et l'action d'un comité anti-Custine.Miltchina Vera, Ospovat Alexandre. Le cabinet de Saint-Pétersbourg face au marquis de Custine : une réfutation inédite de La Russie en 1839. In: Romantisme, 1996, n°92. Romantisme vu de russie. pp. 9-22