“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

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)

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