Zuckerman’s "Blah-blah Blah-blah Blah": a blow to mimesis, a key to irony

Philip Roth’s American trilogy is indeed a poignant description of seminal periods of contemporary America. Reading these three outstanding novels, one feels entitled to use the fictional data included to improve or modify one’s knowledge of crucial events such as the Vietnam War, McCarthyism or Clinton's peculiar second term. And this is roughly how this work has been depicted in most reviews, as a powerful "mimetic feast." Today, Roth's talent seems to lie mainly in his ability to create a ..

Introduction. Chronicles of the End of the World: The End is not the End

It seems that after all, the end is not the End. This seeming paradox is perfectly encapsulated by the word “chronicle”; contrary to an overpowering narrative, such as the one of a whole world about to die, causing the demise of millions of people, a chronicle is a factual record of daily events. As opposed to canonical and macro-narratives of major apocalypses, chronicles of the end of the world offer micro-narratives of daily lives, of their mundanity and physicality; they depict the way th..

Narratological Praxis

In this article, I would like to comment on three aspects developed by Raphaël Baroni in his article “L’Empire de la narratologie, ses défis et ses faiblesses” (The Empire of Narratology, Its Challenges and Weaknesses), namely narratology’s historical background, borders and influence within (mostly French) universities. First, it is my contention that, rather than being geographical, narratology’s historical evolution is bipolar: since its origins, it has oscillated between two poles that determine its existence: formalism and reader-response theory. I then suggest that the reader-oriented narratology pole has led the discipline to extend its boundaries to import new analytical tools from other fields, such as cognitive studies. However, to maintain a certain cohesiveness, narratology must not stray away from the practice that established its existence: the close reading of the text. Lastly, I demonstrate that for structural reasons, as mentioned at the end of the article, the influence of narratology in the French humanities has never been so precarious, and is threatened by the “geographical logic” structuring literary studies in France.Je reviens sur trois aspects développés par Raphaël Baroni dans « L’Empire de la narratologie, ses défis et ses faiblesses » : l’histoire de cette discipline, ses frontières et sa place à l’université (principalement française). Dans un premier temps, je m’efforce de démontrer que plus que géographique, sa logique historique est bipolaire ; selon moi, la narratologie est définie par les deux pôles qui déterminent sa cohérence disciplinaire depuis plusieurs décennies : elle oscille en effet, selon l’approche que l’on revendique, entre le formalisme et la théorie de la réception. J’avance ensuite que ce pôle appelé par les américains « reader-oriented » est celui qui a mené la narratologie à élargir ses frontières afin d’intégrer des outils d’analyse provenant d’autres champs, telles que les sciences cognitives. Néanmoins, afin de ne pas perdre sa cohérence disciplinaire, la narratologie ne doit pas perdre de vue la praxis qui la sous-tend, l’analyse étroite du texte. Enfin, je démontre que, pour diverses raisons structurelles, la place de la narratologie française à l’Université n’a jamais été aussi fragile, et reste menacée par la « logique géographique » qui structure les études littéraires en France

Cognition et Hybridité. Le lecteur dans la zone grise

Il s’agit dans cet article de poser la question de l’ambiguïté générique inhérente à l’autofiction d’un point de vue cognitif. En effet, dans le sillage du long débat consacré à la nature même de l’autofiction, il semble maintenant nécessaire d’envisager ces textes tout simplement du point de vue de leur réception. Par exemple, quelle est la réalité cognitive du panfictionalisme, approche dominante en ce qui concerne l’hybridité générique ? Nous tenterons de démontrer dans cet article que l’absence de cadre proposée par le panfictionalisme n’est pas de l’ordre du possible, puisque le cadre (schémas narratifs, types cognitifs, habitudes perceptuelles…) est la structure minimale qui nous permet d’appréhender le réel (même textuel). Pour que la « zone grise » devienne une réalité, le lecteur doit adopter une position indéfinie entre crédulité et incrédulité par rapport à ce qu’il lit, mais cette position est souvent très éloignée de la réalité de la lecture. De plus, la notion d’hybridité surestime notre flexibilité herméneutique ; tout porte à croire qu’assez tôt dans la lecture d’un texte, nous choisissons une option générique et, la plupart du temps, nous nous y tenons.The aim of this article is to reassess the generic ambiguity inherent in autofiction from a cognitive point of view. Indeed, in the wake of the recent debate on autofiction, we would like to examine, not the nature, but the reception of these ambiguous texts. For instance, what is the cognitive basis of panfictionalism, the dominant approach when it comes to hybridity ? It is our contention that panfictionalism’s dismissal of generic frames remains unrealistic since the notion of frame (narrative schemas, cognitive types, perceptual habits…) is the necessary structure to get to grips with reality (even textual reality). For the “grey zone” to become tangible, the reader must suspend both belief and disbelief, but this indefinite position seems far removed from the reality of reading. What’s more, the exponents of hybridity overestimate our cognitive flexibility : there is every reason to believe that quite early in the process of reading a text, we opt for a genre or at least a specific horizon of expectation and, more often than not, stick to it

La pratique narratologique

Je reviens sur trois aspects développés par Raphaël Baroni dans « L’Empire de la narratologie, ses défis et ses faiblesses » : l’histoire de cette discipline, ses frontières et sa place à l’université (principalement française). Dans un premier temps, je m’efforce de démontrer que plus que géographique, sa logique historique est bipolaire ; selon moi, la narratologie est définie par les deux pôles qui déterminent sa cohérence disciplinaire depuis plusieurs décennies : elle oscille en effet, selon l’approche que l’on revendique, entre le formalisme et la théorie de la réception. J’avance ensuite que ce pôle appelé par les américains « reader-oriented » est celui qui a mené la narratologie à élargir ses frontières afin d’intégrer des outils d’analyse provenant d’autres champs, telles que les sciences cognitives. Néanmoins, afin de ne pas perdre sa cohérence disciplinaire, la narratologie ne doit pas perdre de vue la praxis qui la sous-tend, l’analyse étroite du texte. Enfin, je démontre que, pour diverses raisons structurelles, la place de la narratologie française à l’Université n’a jamais été aussi fragile, et reste menacée par la « logique géographique » qui structure les études littéraires en France.In this article, I would like to comment three aspects developed by Raphaël Baroni in his article “L’Empire de la narratologie, ses défis et ses faiblesses”: narratology’s historical background, its borders and its influence within (mostly French) universities. First, it is my contention that, much more than geographical, narratology’s historical evolution is bipolar and is defined by the two poles that determine its existence as a discipline: indeed, it has always oscillated between formalism and reader-response theory. I then claim that the pole called reader-oriented narratology has led this discipline to extend its horizons in order to import new analytical tools from other fields, such as cognitive studies. However, to maintain a certain coherence, narratology must not stray away from the praxis that established its existence: close reading. Eventually, I demonstrate that for structural reasons mentioned at the end of the article, the influence of narratology in the French humanities has never been so precarious, as it is threatened by the “geographical logic” structuring literary studies in France

Partying Critics: A Dual Take on Duality in Graham Greene’s “The End of the Party”

In this article, two French scholars look back on their practices as critics via a double, reflexive analysis of Graham Greene’s short story, “The End of the Party.” While they belong to the same generation, they were influenced by different theoretical backgrounds: French classical narratology and French theory on the one hand, post-classical narratology and cognitive poetics on the other. This approach was a means for them to assess the nature and relevance of their critical tools, figure out how these tools impact the reading of a selected text and what they reveal about their respective academic practices of literature. From a practical point of view, they worked on the same short story, each writing an independent analysis, and then produced a joint commentary in order to see what the process revealed about their respective approaches to literary theory. The purpose of this strategy was to better understand their critical methods but also the stakes inherent in literary interpretation at the beginning of the twenty first century. Eventually, they hope that this dual analysis will contribute to renew their respective methods.Dans cet article, deux universitaires français reviennent sur leurs pratiques en tant que chercheurs en littérature par le biais d’une double analyse de la nouvelle de Graham Greene « The End of the Party ». Bien qu’appartenant à la même génération, ils ont été influencés par des champs théoriques différents : la narratologie classique et ce qu’on appelle la French theory pour l’une, la narratologie postclassique et la poétique cognitive pour l’autre. Cette analyse fut l’occasion pour eux de faire un bilan de leurs outils critiques, d’interroger la nature et la validité de ces outils et ainsi de comprendre dans quelle mesure ceux-ci influencent leur lecture d’un même texte, et ce qu’ils révèlent de leurs méthodes herméneutiques en général. D’un point de vue pratique, ils ont travaillé sur la même nouvelle, en ont proposé chacun une étude, et produit en dernier lieu un commentaire commun, en tentant de mettre en évidence ce que cette façon de travailler révèle de leurs approches respectives de la théorie littéraire. Cette stratégie visait à mieux comprendre leurs méthodes critiques mais aussi les enjeux inhérents à l’interprétation littéraire au début du vingt-et-unième siècle. In fine, ils espèrent que cette double lecture contribuera à renouveler la méthode de chacun

A deep XMM-Newton X-ray observation of the Chamaeleon I dark cloud

Methods. The northern-eastern fringe of the Chameleon I dark cloud was observed with XMM-Newton, revisiting a region observed with ROSAT 15 years ago. Centered on the extended X-ray source CHXR49 we are able to resolve it into three major contributing components and to analyse their spectral properties. Furthermore, the deep exposure allows not only the detection of numerous, previously unknown X-ray sources, but also the investigation of variability and the study of the X-ray properties for the brighter targets in the field. We use EPIC spectra, to determine X-ray brightness, coronal temperatures and emission measures for these sources, compare the properties of classical and weak-line T Tauri stars and make a comparison with results from the ROSAT observation. Results. X-ray properties of T Tauri stars in Cha I are presented. The XMM-Newton images resolve some previously blended X-ray sources, confirm several possible ones and detect many new X-ray targets, resulting in the most comprehensive list with 71 X-ray sources in the northern Cha I dark cloud. The analysis of medium resolution spectra shows an overlapping distribution of spectral properties for classical and weak-line T Tauri stars, with the X-ray brighter stars having hotter coronae and a higher L_X/L_bol ratio. X-ray luminosity correlates with bolometric luminosity, whereas the L_X/L_bol ratio is slightly lower for the classical T Tauri stars. Large flares as well as a low iron and a high neon abundance are found in both types of T Tauri stars. Abundance pattern, plasma temperatures and emission measure distributions during quiescent phases are attributed toa high level of magnetic activity as the dominant source of their X-ray emission.Comment: 10 pages, 11 figures, accepted by A&

X-ray study of HLX1: intermediate-mass black hole or foreground neutron star?

We re-assess the XMM-Newton and Swift observations of HLX1, to examine the evidence for its identification as an intermediate-mass black hole. We show that the X-ray spectral and timing properties are equally consistent with an intermediate-mass black hole in a high state, or with a foreground neutron star with a luminosity of about a few times 10^{32} erg/s ~ 10^{-6} L_{Edd}, located at a distance of about 1.5 to 3 kpc. Contrary to previously published results, we find that the X-ray spectral change between the two XMM-Newton observations of 2004 and 2008 (going from power-law dominated to thermal dominated) is not associated with a change in the X-ray luminosity. The thermal component becomes more dominant (and hotter) during the 2009 outburst seen by Swift, but in a way that is consistent with either scenario.Comment: 10 pages, accepted by MNRAS. Corrected LZ's affiliation and updated 1 referenc

On the Iwasawa-Taniguchi effect of radio-quiet AGN

The existence of an anti-correlation between the Equivalent Width (EW) of the neutral narrow core of the iron Kalpha emission line and the 2-10 keV luminosity (the so-called `X-ray Baldwin' or `Iwasawa-Taniguchi' effect) has been debated in the last years. We aim at testing this claim on the largest catalogue of radio quiet AGN high-quality X-ray spectra ever published. The final sample comprises 157 objects. We search for a relation of the iron line EW not only with the X-ray luminosity, but also with the Black Hole mass, the Eddington ratio and the cosmological distance. The data presented here were analyzed homogeneously, all spectra are from the same instrument and with high Signal-to-Noise Ratio. A linear censored fit on the EW versus 2-10 keV luminosity is highly significant and yields $\log(EW_{Fe}) = (1.73\pm0.03) + (-0.17\pm0.03) \log(L_{X,44})$, where $EW_{Fe}$ is the EW of the neutral iron Kalpha line in eV and $L_{x,44}$ is the 2-10 keV X-ray luminosity in units of $10^{44}$ erg s$^{-1}$. The anti-correlation with the Eddington ratio is also very significant, while no dependence of the iron EW on the BH mass is apparent.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics Letter

Coronal abundances from high-resolution X-ray data: The case of Algol

We discuss the determination of elemental abundances from high resolution X-ray data. We emphasize the need for an accurate determination of the underlying temperature structure and advocate the use of a line ratio method which allows us to utilize, first, the strongest lines observed in the X-ray spectra, and second, lines that span a rather wide temperature range. We point out the need to use continuous emission measure distributions and show via example that modeling in terms of individual temperature components yields errors of more than 50%. We stress the need to derive differential emission measure distributions based on physical assumptions and considerations. We apply our methods to the Chandra LETGS spectrum of Algol and show that nitrogen is considerably enhanced compared to cosmic abundances by a factor of 2 while carbon is depleted by at least a factor of 25. Iron, silicon, and magnesium, are all depleted compared to cosmic abundances, while the noble gas neon has the relatively highest abundance.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures, A&A accepte