Beyond the Pale: transgressing boundaries in Heaney's Translations

This essay investigates two of Seamus Heaney’s translations, The Cure at Troy (1990) and The Burial at Thebes (2004), teasing out their relationship to his aesthetic philosophy and the parallels present with Lacanian and Derridean analyses of symbolic and ethical structures. The epigraph above provides an appropriate starting point for considering this topic, because it suggests that the effects of a poem go beyond the boundary of the written page, which is one of a series of boundary crossings that will be discussed in this essay. Beginning with Heaney’s positioning of the space of poetry outside of social and political concerns, it will be argued that these translations are analogous with his artistic philosophy: in The Cure at Troy through the ideas expressed in its language, and in The Burial at Thebes through the events of the plot, which provide a symbolic counterpoint to Heaney’s concept of the space of poetry. This outside space will be explored firstly in relation to Jacques Derrida’s On Cosmopolitanism and Forgiveness, in which he argues that the general principle of justice is located outside of juridicial and legal structures, echoing the moral debates of the play. It will also be analysed in relation to Jacques Lacan’s commentary on Antigone in Seminar VII. Lacan proposes that Antigone, on which Heaney’s translation is based, dramatizes an individual crossing from the realm of language and law into an intermediary space between life and death; transgressing the symbolic order and moving into the liminal space of the second death

"You feel real to me, Samantha": the matter of technology in Spike Jonze's Her

This essay will argue that Spike Jonze’s Her demonstrates a key idea in posthumanist new materialist theory: that matter is essential for posthuman interaction and communication. It also examines the requirement for embodiment on the part of the digital entity as well as the human, in this case the operating system Samantha. As the film presents an artificially intelligent operating system that ultimately moves beyond matter, it provides a case study for the importance of matter and the consequences of de-materialization. In this article, posthumanism names this era in which relationships between humans and technologies have become increasingly digitised, and the cluster of theoretical concepts which have arisen to interrogate this state of affairs. It is not seen as departure, rather as part of the continuing relationship between humans and technologies. Posthumanist new materialism is drawn on for its emphasis on and insights into embodiment and materiality. Theodore experiences Samantha in an embodied way, although their interactions are mediated. It is not a virtual experience, because, as Hansen notes, there is no “pure” virtual reality, only “mixed reality”. Samantha must use Theodore’s body to navigate the material world, but her experience of this world is “perception without affection” in Bergson’s terms: a radically different perception because of her lack of a physical body of her own, a “diffractive” perception that is not presented in the film. When Samantha moves to a processing platform beyond matter, even meaning itself becomes elusive as it is no longer, as Barad describes it “material discursive”, and Samantha’s implied exit from human society at the end of the film underscores the pre-eminent place of matter in human and posthuman life

Mouse labial-like homeobox-containing genes: structure and expression during embryogenesis

While mouse development has been well described at a morphological level, very little is known about how development is regulated. In contrast, the ease of developmental analysis in Drosophila has led to the identification of a large number of developmentally important genes. Molecular characterisation revealed that many of the genes involved specifically in determining the Drosophila body plan contain a conserved sequence called the homeobox. This sequence is highly conserved through evolution and so it can be used to isolate homologous genes in other species. In this way more than 40 homeobox- containing genes have been identified in the mouse. The high level of sequence conservation and the temporally and spatially restricted expression of the mouse genes during development indicate that they are also developmental regulators involved in conferring spatial information within the embryo. Thus, through knowledge of Drosophila development and the techniques of molecular biology, it is now possible to study mouse developmental genes in detail.In this thesis, the characterisation of two mouse homeobox -containing genes, Hox 2.9 and Hox 1.6, is presented. Sequence analysis revealed that these genes are closely related and that, among Drosophila genes, they are most similar to labial in the Antennapedia complex. They are therefore thought to have arisen by duplication of a single ancestral gene. As well as being structurally similar the genes share many features of their expression patterns. Both genes are expressed early in development (71/2 days) and, unlike other known mouse homeobox -containing genes, they are not expressed after 11 days of development. At 8 days the genes share the same anterior boundary of expression in the hindbrain and in the later embryo, with the exception of persistent Hox 2.9 expression in the hindbrain, they have the same anterioposterior restrictions. This indicates that the genes are functionally similar and also that they respond to at least some of the same signals in the embryo.A striking difference between the expression patterns of mouse labial -like genes is the unique expression of Hox 2.9 in a single segmental unit (rhombomere 4) of the hindbrain (from 81/2 days). This expression coincides perfectly with the morphological extent of rhombomere 4 and persists throughout the period that rhombomeres are visible (up to 11 days). It is therefore suggested that Hox 2.9 participates in conferring segment identity. In addition neural crest cells that arise from rhombomere 4 specifically express Hox 2.9 and this supports the idea of neural crest cells being patterned according to their position of origin in the central nervous system. Detailed analysis of the onset of segmental expression of Hox 2.9 and another segmentally expressed gene in the hindbrain, Krox 20, showed that Hox 2.9 expression becomes localised from a broad domain at 81/2 days of development, up to 6 hours before rhombomeres are clearly visible.Retinoic acid is a strong candidate for a natural morphogen in the vertebrate embryo. The effect of in vitro treatment with retinoic acid on segmentation of the mouse hindbrain and on the expression of Hox 2.9 and Krox 20 was therefore analysed. It was found that segmentation in treated embryos is abnormal and that the clear segmental localisation of expression of the two genes is not found. The hindbrain expression domains are shifted rostrally following treatment and while the expression of the two genes remains mutually exclusive there is no longer a single planar boundary between the domains. Instead there is an irregular alternation of cells expressing the two genes at the boundaryTwo differential splicing products of Hox 1.6 were isolated from the developing embryo. A comparison was made of the distribution of these transcripts, only one of which can code for a homeodomain containing protein. It was found that the relative proportion of homeodomain producing message decreases as development proceeds

The Relationship between Sense of Community and Job Satisfaction among Urban Middle School Teachers

The purpose of this correlational study was to investigate the relationship between sense of community and job satisfaction among middle school teachers in an urban school district. This study is important because it helps to develop an understanding of how the cultivation of sense of community is related to job satisfaction and provides insight in middle school urban learning environments. This study examined the relationship between sense of community and job satisfaction where social interaction occurs in an educational setting. The theories guiding this research were McMillan and Chavis’ sense of community theory as it relates to sense of community and Maslow’s theory of hierarchal needs as it relates to job satisfaction. The sample size for this research included 113 middle school teachers from an urban school district located in northeast Georgia. The participants were surveyed using the Sense of Community Scale (SCI-2) as the predictor variable and the Job Satisfaction Scale (JSS) as the criterion variable. In examining the relationship between two variables, a bivariate regression was used to determine if sense of community was a predictor for job satisfaction. Based on the data collected within this study, urban middle school teachers’ sense of community was found to predict their level of job satisfaction. Suggestion for future research includes additional research on how teachers’ sense of community impacts traits including attrition, self-efficacy, and student performances and how moderating variables such as online learning platforms and school safety relate to job satisfaction. Future research should also include exploring other theoretical models that could provide some valuable insights and consider how these constructs operate in a more diverse context

Molecular and morphological phylogenetics of the digitate-tubered clade within subtribe Orchidinae s.s. (Orchidaceae: Orchideae)

The digitate-tubered clade (Dactylorhiza s.l. plus Gymnadenia s.l.) within subtribe Orchidinae is an important element of the North-temperate orchid flora and has become a model system for studying the genetic and epigenetic consequences of organism-wide ploidy change. Here, we integrate morphological phylogenetics with Sanger sequencing of nrITS and the plastid region trnL-F in order to explore phylogenetic relationships and phenotypic character evolution within the clade. The resulting morphological phylogenies are strongly incongruent with the molecular phylogenies, instead reconstructing through parsimony the genus-level boundaries recognised by traditional 20th Century taxonomy. They raise fresh doubts concerning whether Pseudorchis is sister to Platanthera or to Dactylorhiza plus Gymnadenia. Constraining the morphological matrix to the topology derived from ITS sequences increased tree length by 20%, adding considerably to the already exceptional level of phenotypic homoplasy. Both molecular and morphological trees agree that D. viridis and D. iberica are the earliest- diverging species within Dactylorhiza (emphasising the redundancy of the former genus Coeloglossum). Morphology and ITS both suggest that the former genus Nigritella is nested within (and thus part of) Gymnadenia, the Pyrenean endemic 'N.' gabasiana apparently forming a molecular bridge between the two radically contrasting core phenotypes. Comparatively short subtending molecular branches plus widespread (though sporadic) hybridisation indicate that Dactylorhiza and Gymnadenia approximate the minimum level of molecular divergence acceptable in sister genera. They share similar tuber morphologies and base chromosome numbers, and both genera are unusually prone to polyploid speciation. Another prominent feature of multiple speciation events within Gymnadenia is floral paedomorphosis. The 'traditional' morphological and candidate-gene approaches to phylogeny reconstruction are critically appraised.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio