China and Germany : a study of images and influences of China in German literature

[Introduction]: Whilst the theme of the influence of one culture upon another has always been regarded as a legitimate subject of literary study, that of the image of one culture reflected within the literature of another culture has not. M-F. Guyard appears to have been the first critic to draw attention to the significance of this aspect of comparative literature. However, his claim that this constituted a serious aspect of literary research was not widely accepted. Critics, most notably R. Wellek, dismissed the subject as trivial:"One cannot be convinced by recent attempts ... to widen the scope of comparative literature in order to include a study of national illusions, of fixed ideas which nations have of each other."Wellek considered such a widening of the scope of comparative literature as 'dissolving literary scholarship into social psychology and cultural history'. These remarks, made in 1958, reflect the then fashionable New Criticism. The conviction that literary study should be divorced from all reality that exists beyond the bounds of the literature studied has been superceded in more recent times by a wider view of the function of literary criticism. With this has emerged a greater readiness to regard such comparative themes as a valuable contribution to literary research.The themes of images and influences are in fact complementary aspects of the same area of study, since it is through influences that an image emerges. A negative image is the result of negative influence on either an individual author or a particular culture.The study of the image of another culture and the influence of that culture is a parallel to the study of the reception, within anyone culture, of older traditions of that same culture. The latter is regarded as a valid subject of literary research, therefore the same must be true of the former.The particular theme of Oriental influences in German literature has received little critical attention. Studies have been made of the image and influences of India and Indian thought in German literature, but China has been neglected almost entirely. There are exceptions: Hermann Hesse, the most obvious example of the assimilation of Chinese thought, has been the subject of two detailed studies. Adrian Hsia's Hermann Hesse und China considers the whole of Hesse's life and work, and documents the latter's interest in Chinese literature and philosophy, whilst Ursula Chi's Die Weisheit Chinas undrDas Glasperlenspiel, demonstrates the application of Chinese thought in Hesse's writings. The existence of these two studies precludes Hesse from the present work, since it is not now possible to make any further contribution to this aspect of the problem. However, these two studies do not consider other authors, and do not place Hesse in the wider context of Sino-German literary relations. The present study does not, therefore, duplicate anything contained within these works but, rather,indicates that Hesse is not the exceptional figure that these isolated enquiries would appear to make him.Apart from these two works on Hesse, one can refer only to Rose's introductory article and investigations of individual authors, and to Chuan Chen's Die chinesische schone Literatur im deutschen Schrifttum of 1933. The latter is a study of translations of Chinese literature. It does not discuss works that are based upon Chinese motifs and only briefly examines German works that are adapted from Chinese originals. M. Davidson's uncompleted bibliography is of only limited value and contains many inaccuracies. More recently, Brecht has been the subject of anumber of investigations that fall within the scope of the present thesis, as indicated in my discussion of his work. The fact that a single study has appeared dealing with Brecht's adaptation of twelve Chinese poems serves to indicate the neglect that earlier adaptors of Chinese poetry have suffered.The present study is intended to make a contribution to the investigation of the image of China by examining the role of Chinese themes in German literature. In doing so, it attempts to document the frequency of such themes and to explain their popularity whilst also considering the influence of China, and Chinese literature and thought on German authors. The main part of this study deals with twentieth-century German literature written before the end of 1945, the latest work being Brecht's Der kaukasische Kreidekreis. It is felt that 1945 is a significant point at which to halt the present study since post-war German literature, whilst possessing such obvious examples of Chinese influences as Hermann Kasack's Die Stadt hinter dem Strom of 1947, would require a separate approach. In order, however, to give an historical perspective to the literature of the twentieth century and to highlight the peculiarities of the modern response to China, a chapter is included surveying the historical development of the image of China in German literature and thought from earliest times to the end of the nineteenth century. Whilst a number of brief individual studies of various aspects of the historical image of China do exist, no single work covers the overall development. It is felt, therefore, that this chapter constitutes a necessary part of the present investigation.It is the intention of this study to isolate the features of the German literary response to China by examining works that use Chinese originals as a source, works that are adapted from or styled on Chinese sources, works set in China, works of a literary nature that discuss China, and works that, in the broadest sense, exhibit Chinese influences. The authors examined are not intended to be an exhaustive catalogue but, rather, representative of the various aspects discussed. Thus, in each case, the more popular authors are dealt with in detail, whilst works by other authors are included to demonstrate the popularity of such themes.The present work is not intended as a sinological study and does not attempt to criticise the accuracy of the work of sinologists. The majority of the texts discussed are free adaptations or imaginative creations. Where the accuracy of works is discussed, it is their accuracy to the source used by any particular author. However, where obvious discrepancies arise between a source used by a German author and a more accurate European translation of the original, this is pointed out. The discussion is not intended as a philological investigation of the works in question, but as a general literary enquiry into the use of certain themes and motifs. Nevertheless, the frequent distortion of original works presented in free German form does require comment, which is validated by reference to the work of recognised sinologists.Since a certain section of the discussion turns around the influence of Taoism, and since this philosophy is, by its very nature, elusive, obscure and barely distinguishable from other forms of religious mysticism and philosophical Idealism, an excursus is added which uses philosophical or pseudo-philosophical discussions and free adaptations of Taoist writings to support the thesis of the popularity and influence of Taoism in the twentieth century. Again, this is not intended as a sinological investigation, but as an attempt to ascertain the significance that Taoist thought gained during the period studied.The themes of influence and image merge within the various works discussed. These influences range from the poetic, through the religio-philosophical to the overtly political. No strict division between these various images and influences is attempted except where they fall into one clear category. The conclusion does, however, attempt to distinguish between these three categories, which often co-exist in the work of individual authors.Much of the literature discussed is of a trivial nature and belongs to the often neglected area of popular literature. Discussion of such works is necessary, since they constitute a large part of the material by which images and influences are communicated within cultural groups. Whilst one may be critical of the quality of these works, the literary critic must not ignore the existence of such literature which can help to qualify the cultural climate in which more valuable objects of literary interest are produced.Since it cannot be expected that the reader is familiar with the works that are discussed, it is often necessary to give a brief indication of the contents of these works in order to illustrate certain aspects of style and tone which typify the author's attitude towards China. Similarly, though the present author does not wish to burden his reader with facts on Chinese history and philosophy, certain details are indispensable for an understanding of particular works, and are included accordingly

El perro que no ladró: el caso de Juan Carlos Rodríguez

The extensive body of research associated with the name of Juan Carlos Rodríguez has failed to receive the attention it deserves. The reasons commonly adduced, by way of explanation, focus upon factors external to the texts themselves. In this article I review two recently published books by Rodríguez and a celebratory volume with an eye to foregrounding other, internal barriers to Rodríguez’s reception. These include a cyclical style of argumentation, of the kind associated with symptomal reading; the absence of a clear exposition of the Althusserian problematic upon which Rodríguez’s seminal texts are otherwise based; and a critique of Althusser’s alleged historicism, which, while it scores some useful points, was less than attentive to the philosopher’s complexities. More damagingly, this same critique also fuelled the scurrilous distortions of Althusser’s work still circulating throughout the bourgeois academy and so threatens Rodríguez’s own work with premature closure

Metabolomics and lipidomics reveal perturbation of sphingolipid metabolism by a novel anti-trypanosomal 3-(oxazolo[4,5-b]pyridine-2-yl)anilide

Introduction: Trypanosoma brucei is the causative agent of human African trypanosomiasis, which is responsible for thousands of deaths every year. Current therapies are limited and there is an urgent need to develop new drugs. The anti-trypanosomal compound, 3-(oxazolo[4,5-b]pyridine-2-yl)anilide (OXPA), was initially identified in a phenotypic screen and subsequently optimized by structure–activity directed medicinal chemistry. It has been shown to be non-toxic and to be active against a number of trypanosomatid parasites. However, nothing is known about its mechanism of action. Objective: Here, we have utilized an untargeted metabolomics approach to investigate the biochemical effects and potential mode of action of this compound in T. brucei. Methods: Total metabolite extracts were analysed by HILIC-chromatography coupled to high resolution mass spectrometry. Results: Significant accumulation of ceramides was observed in OXPA-treated T. brucei. To further understand drug-induced changes in lipid metabolism, a lipidomics method was developed which enables the measurement of hundreds of lipids with high throughput and precision. The application of this LC–MS based approach to cultured bloodstream-form T. brucei putatively identified over 500 lipids in the parasite including glycerophospholipids, sphingolipids and fatty acyls, and confirmed the OXPA-induced accumulation of ceramides. Labelling with BODIPY-ceramide further confirmed the ceramide accumulation following drug treatment. Conclusion: These findings clearly demonstrate perturbation of ceramide metabolism by OXPA and indicate that the sphingolipid pathway is a promising drug target in T. brucei.No Full Tex

The XMM-LSS survey. Survey design and first results

We have designed a medium deep large area X-ray survey with XMM - the XMM Large Scale Structure survey, XMM-LSS - with the scope of extending the cosmological tests attempted using ROSAT cluster samples to two redshift bins between 0<z<1 while maintaining the precision of earlier studies. Two main goals have constrained the survey design: the evolutionary study of the cluster-cluster correlation function and of the cluster number density. The results are promising and, so far, in accordance with our predictions as to the survey sensitivity and cluster number density. The feasibility of the programme is demonstrated and further X-ray coverage is awaited in order to proceed with a truly significant statistical analysis. (Abridged)Comment: Published in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physic

A renovação estética do espetáculo teatral no Brasil: 1920 a 1950

In Brazil, the reception of modern trends on Theatre was a work of amateur groups. The new ideas about mis-en-scène, that had been conceived by Adolphe Appia (1862-1928) and Edward Gordon Craig (1872-1966), before I World War (1914-1918), arrived in Rio de Janeiro in the 1920’s. This article is a brief history of some theatrical groups that tried to modernize Brazilian, in the forties of the last century.No Brasil, a recepção das tendências modernas no Teatro foi obra de grupos amadores. As novas ideias sobre encenação, que tinham sido concebidas por Adolphe Appia (1862-1928) e Edward Gordon Craig (1872-1966), antes da Primeira Guerra Mundial (1914-1918), chegaram ao Rio de Janeiro nos anos vinte. Este artigo é um breve relato histórico sobre alguns grupos teatrais que tentaram modernizar o palco brasileiro, nos anos quarenta do século passado

Time reparametrization group and the long time behaviour in quantum glassy systems

We study the long time dynamics of a quantum version of the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick model. Time reparametrizations of the dynamical equations have a parallel with renormalization group transformations, and within this language the long time behaviour of this model is controlled by a reparametrization group (R$_p$G) fixed point of the classical dynamics. The irrelevance of the quantum terms in the dynamical equations in the aging regime explains the classical nature of the violation of the fluctuation-dissipation theorem.Comment: 4 page

Features of 20 133 UK patients in hospital with covid-19 using the ISARIC WHO Clinical Characterisation Protocol:prospective observational cohort study

Objective: To characterise the clinical features of patients admitted to hospital with coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) in the United Kingdom during the growth phase of the first wave of this outbreak who were enrolled in the International Severe Acute Respiratory and emerging Infections Consortium (ISARIC) World Health Organization (WHO) Clinical Characterisation Protocol UK (CCP-UK) study, and to explore risk factors associated with mortality in hospital. Design: Prospective observational cohort study with rapid data gathering and near real time analysis. Setting: 208 acute care hospitals in England, Wales, and Scotland between 6 February and 19 April 2020. A case report form developed by ISARIC and WHO was used to collect clinical data. A minimal follow-up time of two weeks (to 3 May 2020) allowed most patients to complete their hospital admission. Participants: 20 133 hospital inpatients with covid-19. Main outcome measures: Admission to critical care (high dependency unit or intensive care unit) and mortality in hospital. Results: The median age of patients admitted to hospital with covid-19, or with a diagnosis of covid-19 made in hospital, was 73 years (interquartile range 58-82, range 0-104). More men were admitted than women (men 60%, n=12 068; women 40%, n=8065). The median duration of symptoms before admission was 4 days (interquartile range 1-8). The commonest comorbidities were chronic cardiac disease (31%, 5469/17 702), uncomplicated diabetes (21%, 3650/17 599), non-asthmatic chronic pulmonary disease (18%, 3128/17 634), and chronic kidney disease (16%, 2830/17 506); 23% (4161/18 525) had no reported major comorbidity. Overall, 41% (8199/20 133) of patients were discharged alive, 26% (5165/20 133) died, and 34% (6769/20 133) continued to receive care at the reporting date. 17% (3001/18 183) required admission to high dependency or intensive care units; of these, 28% (826/3001) were discharged alive, 32% (958/3001) died, and 41% (1217/3001) continued to receive care at the reporting date. Of those receiving mechanical ventilation, 17% (276/1658) were discharged alive, 37% (618/1658) died, and 46% (764/1658) remained in hospital. Increasing age, male sex, and comorbidities including chronic cardiac disease, non-asthmatic chronic pulmonary disease, chronic kidney disease, liver disease and obesity were associated with higher mortality in hospital. Conclusions: ISARIC WHO CCP-UK is a large prospective cohort study of patients in hospital with covid-19. The study continues to enrol at the time of this report. In study participants, mortality was high, independent risk factors were increasing age, male sex, and chronic comorbidity, including obesity. This study has shown the importance of pandemic preparedness and the need to maintain readiness to launch research studies in response to outbreaks. Study registration: ISRCTN66726260

Comparison of CATs, CURB-65 and PMEWS as Triage Tools in Pandemic Influenza Admissions to UK Hospitals: Case Control Analysis Using Retrospective Data

Triage tools have an important role in pandemics to identify those most likely to benefit from higher levels of care. We compared Community Assessment Tools (CATs), the CURB-65 score, and the Pandemic Medical Early Warning Score (PMEWS); to predict higher levels of care (high dependency - Level 2 or intensive care - Level 3) and/or death in patients at or shortly after admission to hospital with A/H1N1 2009 pandemic influenza. This was a case-control analysis using retrospectively collected data from the FLU-CIN cohort (1040 adults, 480 children) with PCR-confirmed A/H1N1 2009 influenza. Area under receiver operator curves (AUROC), sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive values and negative predictive values were calculated. CATs best predicted Level 2/3 admissions in both adults [AUROC (95% CI): CATs 0.77 (0.73, 0.80); CURB-65 0.68 (0.64, 0.72); PMEWS 0.68 (0.64, 0.73), p<0.001] and children [AUROC: CATs 0.74 (0.68, 0.80); CURB-65 0.52 (0.46, 0.59); PMEWS 0.69 (0.62, 0.75), p<0.001]. CURB-65 and CATs were similar in predicting death in adults with both performing better than PMEWS; and CATs best predicted death in children. CATs were the best predictor of Level 2/3 care and/or death for both adults and children. CATs are potentially useful triage tools for predicting need for higher levels of care and/or mortality in patients of all ages

Utilisation of an operative difficulty grading scale for laparoscopic cholecystectomy

Background A reliable system for grading operative difficulty of laparoscopic cholecystectomy would standardise description of findings and reporting of outcomes. The aim of this study was to validate a difficulty grading system (Nassar scale), testing its applicability and consistency in two large prospective datasets. Methods Patient and disease-related variables and 30-day outcomes were identified in two prospective cholecystectomy databases: the multi-centre prospective cohort of 8820 patients from the recent CholeS Study and the single-surgeon series containing 4089 patients. Operative data and patient outcomes were correlated with Nassar operative difficultly scale, using Kendall’s tau for dichotomous variables, or Jonckheere–Terpstra tests for continuous variables. A ROC curve analysis was performed, to quantify the predictive accuracy of the scale for each outcome, with continuous outcomes dichotomised, prior to analysis. Results A higher operative difficulty grade was consistently associated with worse outcomes for the patients in both the reference and CholeS cohorts. The median length of stay increased from 0 to 4 days, and the 30-day complication rate from 7.6 to 24.4% as the difficulty grade increased from 1 to 4/5 (both p < 0.001). In the CholeS cohort, a higher difficulty grade was found to be most strongly associated with conversion to open and 30-day mortality (AUROC = 0.903, 0.822, respectively). On multivariable analysis, the Nassar operative difficultly scale was found to be a significant independent predictor of operative duration, conversion to open surgery, 30-day complications and 30-day reintervention (all p < 0.001). Conclusion We have shown that an operative difficulty scale can standardise the description of operative findings by multiple grades of surgeons to facilitate audit, training assessment and research. It provides a tool for reporting operative findings, disease severity and technical difficulty and can be utilised in future research to reliably compare outcomes according to case mix and intra-operative difficulty