“We Had the Experience But Missed The Meaning”: On The Relevance of Lacanian Categories in the Analysis of Fiction

After having shown the three paradoxes of literature (the master being mastered by his literary tools, the reader’s identification versus her critical stance, the text combining thematic unity and vital inconsistencies) we look at how several Lacanian concepts have their impact on a narrator’s style: the twofold psychic system, three phases that mould our perception, the function of the father figure, the notion of the Other, the others and the “objects o”. It is in the relationship to the object o, where the two different energies of our psychic system meet, that we find out which type of person we are: neurotic, psychoticor perverse. As it is mainly the hysteric neurotic and the paranoiac psychotic type who figure most often as narrators in literature, we look at how the former type is realized in Banville’s The Book of Evidence and in Deane’s Reading in the Dark while the latter, the psychotic type, permeates the narrative of Banville’s Mefisto. Indeed, the protagonist’s pathological narcissism which steers him now into megalomania, now into a death wish (unification with the Other he lost at birth), make himutterly confuse inner and outer worlds, literal and metaphorical meanings

The Importance and Development of Catastrophe Models

The Importance and Development of Catastrophe Models I thought this was a very interesting project to work on. I was intrigued by catastrophe models and how the insurance industry will be able to use them to better predict natural disasters moving forward. From my research, I found that these models are quite effective, and will only improve as time goes on. As more data is gathered and input into the models, the quality of output will only improve, helping insurers and all of us, in the form of more accurate insurance rates. I was surprised to see just how devastating some of these natural events could be, which further illustrates the need for an effective way to be able to predict how likely these super storms are to occur. From my data analysis I found many storms that caused billions of dollars of damage and widespread devastation in just the last few years. Obviously, catastrophe modelling won’t be able to prevent these events, but they will help everyone have a better understanding of the risks and be more prepared for them when they do unfortunately occur

Banville and Lacan: The Matter of Emotions in The Infinities

Banville e Lacan são intérpretes freudianos do mundo pós-moderno. Ambos substituem a dicotomia físico-metafísica clássica pelo foco na materialidade da comunicação em um mundo emofísico. Ambos traçam a diferentes maneiras pelas quais os fluxos libidinais combinam partes do eu e vinculam o eu a outras pessoas e objetos. Essas interações ocorrem em três larguras de banda da percepção, que são reorganizadas pelo objeto misterioso a. Esse “objeto” desperta os afetos do inconsciente que infundem as formações identitárias com nova energia. Neste artigo, veremos brevemente como o objeto a é percebido em The Book of Evidence, Ghosts e Eclipse, a fim de focar em como ele funciona em The Infinities, especialmente nas relações entre Adam Godley Júnior e Sênior, Helen e Hermes.Both Banville and Lacan are Freudian interpreters of the postmodern world. Both replace the classic physical-metaphysical dichotomy with a focus on the materiality of communication in an emophysical world. Both chart the ways in which libidinal streams combine parts of the self and link the self with other people and objects. These interactions take place in three bandwidths of perception, which are re-arranged by the uncanny object a. This ‘object’ reawakens the affects of the unconscious which infuse the identity formations with new energy. In this article we look briefly at how the object a is realised in The Book of Evidence, Ghosts and Eclipse to focus on how it works in The Infinities, especially in the relations between Adam Godley junior and senior, Helen and Hermes

Fatal Fathers and Sons in Tom Murphy’s A Whistle in the Dark

Under this general title I want to discuss several instances of “filicide” throughout twentieth century drama. As W.B. Yeats was a great advocate of the importance of the unconscious, I would start with Yeats’s idea of the father, as he goes from Cuchulainn’s slaughter of his son in On Baile’s Strand (1904) to that other infanticide (or rather adulticide) in Purgatory (1939), whereby his two Oedipus plays Sophocles’ King Oedipus (1928) and Sophocles’ Oedipus at Colonus (1934) yield important material to understand the complications inherent in father-son relations. Then I would move to Tom Murphy’s A Whistling in the Dark (1961), where the father has his rival son killed in more contemporary circumstances, to end with the very complex picture of the father-son relations Frank Mc Guinness offers in his Mutabilitie (1997), both in the colonist’s and the colonised households. I would hereby use a Lacanian approach, since this would allow for na in-depth analysis of the problems at stake. This approach, however, has already a respectable tradition, which means that the obvious works like Deleuze and Guattari’s L’anti-Oedipe, capitalisme et schizophrénie (1973) will first have to be nuanced by more recent studies like Philippe Julien’s Le manteau de Noé (1991). While the latter offers an excellent status quaestionis, this can be refined by remarks made by Didier Anzieu in his analysis of father-child relations in Créer détruire (1996), as well as by new representations of the concept of identity and desire by Philippe van Haute (Tegen de aanpassing, 2000).Under this general title I want to discuss several instances of “filicide” throughout twentieth century drama. As W.B. Yeats was a great advocate of the importance of the unconscious, I would start with Yeats’s idea of the father, as he goes from Cuchulainn’s slaughter of his son in On Baile’s Strand (1904) to that other infanticide (or rather adulticide) in Purgatory (1939), whereby his two Oedipus plays Sophocles’ King Oedipus (1928) and Sophocles’ Oedipus at Colonus (1934) yield important material to understand the complications inherent in father-son relations. Then I would move to Tom Murphy’s A Whistling in the Dark (1961), where the father has his rival son killed in more contemporary circumstances, to end with the very complex picture of the father-son relations Frank Mc Guinness offers in his Mutabilitie (1997), both in the colonist’s and the colonised households. I would hereby use a Lacanian approach, since this would allow for na in-depth analysis of the problems at stake. This approach, however, has already a respectable tradition, which means that the obvious works like Deleuze and Guattari’s L’anti-Oedipe, capitalisme et schizophrénie (1973) will first have to be nuanced by more recent studies like Philippe Julien’s Le manteau de Noé (1991). While the latter offers an excellent status quaestionis, this can be refined by remarks made by Didier Anzieu in his analysis of father-child relations in Créer détruire (1996), as well as by new representations of the concept of identity and desire by Philippe van Haute (Tegen de aanpassing, 2000)

Conjuring and Conjecturing: Friel’s Performances

Though most critics were negative about Performances I believe this is a vintage Friel play, first in its theme: (1) its interaction of different languages (whereby music is more important than ever) and (2) its illustration of epistemological questions (especially the question of performativity), but also in its components: (1) the seemingly fruitless journey, (2) the opposition Dionysiac-Apollonian forces, (3) the communication which fails, due to the strong narcissism of one of the protagonists. As Performances is really the staging of the epistemological journey of a PhD student, Anezka, who probes into the force of Janacek’s passionate desire for his muse Kamila Stösslova, desire will be a key concept in the play. This interaction between the student and the dead author’s work is represented by a live Janacek. Though Friel used this device before (in Faith Healer) it is more to the point now, as it allows the playwright to stage the postmodern awareness that “the author is dead”: it is his work that is alive, and challenging both readers and performers. It is interesting that a pronounced division between two kinds of reading is sustained throughout the play. On the one hand, Janacek appears as a self-centred figure who refuses to have his authorial position challenged, and sees language as a representative-imitative tool. Anezka, on the other hand, looks at expressions in a more Deleuzian way, not focusing on the product but on the production, its heterogeneity and inconsistenties. Though Janacek keeps turning Anezka’s interpretations down, she will turn out to be the more convincing, as she discovers the maestro’s discordant desires, not only in his social relations and in his poetics but also in the way he maintains his authorial position. His own solipsistic stance will be unmasked by the echoes in his own text, by his use of shifters and by the “general iterability”Derrida considers essential to language as such, but which is exacerbated in the quoting practice which is even more visibly effective in research work as well as in music performances.Though most critics were negative about Performances I believe this is a vintage Friel play, first in its theme: (1) its interaction of different languages (whereby music is more important than ever) and (2) its illustration of epistemological questions (especially the question of performativity), but also in its components: (1) the seemingly fruitless journey, (2) the opposition Dionysiac-Apollonian forces, (3) the communication which fails, due to the strong narcissism of one of the protagonists. As Performances is really the staging of the epistemological journey of a PhD student, Anezka, who probes into the force of Janacek’s passionate desire for his muse Kamila Stösslova, desire will be a key concept in the play. This interaction between the student and the dead author’s work is represented by a live Janacek. Though Friel used this device before (in Faith Healer) it is more to the point now, as it allows the playwright to stage the postmodern awareness that “the author is dead”: it is his work that is alive, and challenging both readers and performers. It is interesting that a pronounced division between two kinds of reading is sustained throughout the play. On the one hand, Janacek appears as a self-centred figure who refuses to have his authorial position challenged, and sees language as a representative-imitative tool. Anezka, on the other hand, looks at expressions in a more Deleuzian way, not focusing on the product but on the production, its heterogeneity and inconsistenties. Though Janacek keeps turning Anezka’s interpretations down, she will turn out to be the more convincing, as she discovers the maestro’s discordant desires, not only in his social relations and in his poetics but also in the way he maintains his authorial position. His own solipsistic stance will be unmasked by the echoes in his own text, by his use of shifters and by the “general iterability”Derrida considers essential to language as such, but which is exacerbated in the quoting practice which is even more visibly effective in research work as well as in music performances

A Study of How Different Incentive Systems Can Impact Criminal Defense

This dissertation examines how different payment methods affect the behavior of criminal defense attorneys. In particular, I study the impact of switching from an hourly rate to a flat fee affects attorney behaviors across several measures. In my first paper, I begin by looking at how the switch affects the number of hours being reported. I identify the casual effect of switching from an hourly wage to a flat fee by exploiting a policy change that the South Carolina Commission on Indigent Defense instituted for private attorneys who handle indigent defense cases. I find that defense attorneys report 48\% less hours when they are paid a flat fee compared to an hourly wage. Additionally, I look at how the attorney\u27s in-court behavior changes. In-court behavior is a better measure of effort because in-court hours are observable by other members of the court. I find that attorneys are 25\% less likely to go to court under the flat fee system; then, conditional on them going to court, they reduce the number of hours in court by about 30\%. Next, I study how the change in payment methods affect the outcomes of criminal cases. Theoretically, neither payment method provides an incentive for the attorney to protect the client\u27s interests. Thus, it is empirical question as to which method does a better job at protecting the client\u27s interests. I construct a new data set on court outcomes using information on the South Carolina county web pages. The outcomes that I focus on are the sentence length that the defendant receives, the probability of the case being resolved with a guilty outcome, and the probability that the case is resolved at a lesser included charge. Although not statistically significant, I find that defendants receive a sentence length that is, on average, about 3 months shorter under the flat fee system compared to the hourly rate. This represents about a 10\% reduction in sentence length. On the other hand, there does not seem to be a difference between the two systems in the probability of being found guilty or in the probability that the case is resolved at a lesser included charge. My second paper looks at how the payment method could affect the plea bargaining process. I develop a model where the defense attorney is an imperfect agent of the defendant. This model shows that, holding all else constant, defense attorneys are willing to accept a plea with a longer sentence length for the defendant when they are paid a flat fee compared to an hourly rate. I also show that introducing an incentive where effort in the current case affects the probability of receiving future cases may offset the payment method effect. I then empirically test the model by taking advantage of a policy change by the state of South Carolina. Using a difference-in-difference model, I find that the sentence length is not statistically different when paying the attorney an hourly rate and paying him a flat fee where effort in this case affects the probability of receiving future cases

21st Century Javelin Catchers: White House Organization and the Chief of Staff

This research discusses the impact that White House organization has on the roles of chief of staff. The paper begins with an overview of the major models of White House organization and the roles typically performed by chief of staff. By examining the impact of organizational difficulties faced by the chiefs of staff in the presidencies of George W. Bush and Barack Obama through case studies, this research seeks to situate the major roles of chief of staff within White House organization to examine the impact of organization on chief of staff performance. The findings of the case studies suggest that the formalistic model of White House organization best serves the roles of chief of staff by providing clear, delineated lines of organization with specific tasks for White House staffing. The paper concludes by examining the presidency of Donald Trump and the organizational difficulties faced during the first year of his administration

Interband Light Absorption at a Rough Interface

Light absorption at the boundary of indirect-band-gap and direct-forbidden gap semiconductors is analyzed. It is found that the possibility of the electron momentum nonconservation at the interface leads to essential enhancement of absorption in porous and microcrystalline semiconductors. The effect is more pronounced at a rough boundary due to enlargement of the share of the interface atoms.Comment: LATEX, 19 pages, 4 PostScript figure