Retrieving fin-de-siècle women poets: the transformative myths, fragments and voices of Webster, Blind and Levy

The critical recuperation of late nineteenth-century women poets, most still waiting in the margins of the literary canon, has owed significantly to the renovated interest and study of the poetical works of Augusta Webster, Mathilde Blind and Amy Levy (1860-90) by the postmodern reader. One of the reasons for this ‘salvage’ may be that they represent and embody the profound and extraordinary changes encompassing the British fin-de-siècle, in which the transition from the Victorians to the Moderns implied the transformation or reconfiguration of certain myths or (hi)stories and the critical re-use or ‘recycling’ of major literary forms. If, for Webster and Blind, involvement in radical politics (namely, feminism and socialism) certainly implied a stance as outsiders, Blind and Levy were even more set apart by their foreignness, with Levy’s different religion and sexuality increasing the distance even further. With recourse to close reading and cultural critique, this paper will analyse how these three women poets re-use fragments (‘verbal ruins’) of national and international history, as well as classic myth, in order to question and transform the images and representations of man and woman in their respective connections with the world. It will demonstrate that while Webster’s poetry (Dramatic Studies of 1866 and Portraits of 1870) is firmly grounded on social demands and the exploration and dramatization of the nature of female experience, Blind’s epic and dramatic verse (The Ascent of Man of 1889 and Dramas in Miniature of 1891) creates new myths of human destiny, reclaiming the Poet’s role as the singer of the age’s scientific deeds, and Levy’s lyrics (Xantippe of 1881 and A Minor Poet of 1884) signal the New Woman poet’s role as victim of the pressures of emancipation. With the support of critics as Isobel Armstrong, Helen Groth and Angela Leighton, the paper will furthermore discuss the way in which these poets explore the selves that women inherit and create and the languages that re-define them, often through the expansive, public forms of dramatic and narrative verse; through these hybrid and fragmentary forms, Webster, Blind and Levy literally give voice to unspeakable feelings and situations, in which the anomalous and marginal are made central.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Brain data:Scanning, scraping and sculpting the plastic learning brain through neurotechnology

Neurotechnology is an advancing field of research and development with significant implications for education. As 'postdigital' hybrids of biological and informational codes, novel neurotechnologies combine neuroscience insights into the human brain with advanced technical development in brain imaging, brain-computer interfaces, neurofeedback platforms, brain stimulation and other neuroenhancement applications. Merging neurobiological knowledge about human life with computational technologies, neurotechnology exemplifies how postdigital science will play a significant role in societies and education in decades to come. As neurotechnology developments are being extended to education, they present potential for businesses and governments to enact new techniques of 'neurogovernance' by 'scanning' the brain, 'scraping' it for data and then 'sculpting' the brain toward particular capacities. The aim of this article is to critically review neurotechnology developments and implications for education. It examines the purposes to which neurotechnology development is being put in education, interrogating the commercial and governmental objectives associated with it and the neuroscientific concepts and expertise that underpin it. Finally, the article raises significant ethical and governance issues related to neurotechnology development and postdigital science that require concerted attention from education researchers

Governing emotionally vulnerable subjects and ‘therapisation’ of social justice

In numerous countries, pessimism about enduring social and educational inequalities has produced a discernible therapeutic turn in education policy and practice, and a parallel rise in therapeutic understandings of social justice. Focusing on developments in England and Finland, this article explores the ways in which radical/critical conceptualisations of social justice privilege attention to psycho-emotional vulnerabilities. Extending older forms of psychologisation, therapeutic understandings of social justice in many contemporary radical/critical accounts resonate powerfully with the wider therapisation of popular culture and everyday life. Using theories of discursive power, we explore the new forms of governance, subjectivity and agency in mainstream therapeutic programmes, and evaluate their implications for pedagogies rooted in radical/critical notions of social justice

Introduction: Geographies, Histories and Practices of Informal Education

This extract is taken from the author's original manuscript and has not been edited. The definitive, published, version of record is available here: http://www.palgrave.com/gb/book/9781137027726#otherversion=978134943972