From Collective Amnesia to Shared Responsibility: Bridging Trauma in Haruki Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore

In Kafka on the Shore (2002/tr.2005), Haruki Murakami explores the ambiguities surrounding Japan’s traumatic history and its lingering impact on contemporary generations. In the form of two parallel narratives, Kafka on the Shore juxtaposes the story of Kafka Tamura, a fifteen year-old runaway searching for his mother, with that of sixty year-old Satoru Nakata, a man who lost his memory in a strange episode during WWII. Initially isolated, both characters leave Tokyo for Shikoku (the smallest of Japan’s main islands), only arriving at their destination after accepting the support of others. Reaching across generational shores, friendships are used in the text to bridge the gap between past and present, personal trauma and collective amnesia. As affective gestures established outside traditional communities of belonging, these friendships teach characters new ways of interpreting their painful past, while allowing readers to reflect on their own sense of shared responsibility

The Gandarela Mountain Range and the “resistance space” against iron ore mining threat: a focus on the contrapositions

Full Text / Article completAnalyzing a clipping of Lefebvre's space theory and its dialogue with the doxa from Pierre Bourdieu as the theoretical basis, this research aims to build the concept of the “resistance space”. This is a qualitative study characterized as a metaphilosophy by which the knowledge is linked to the practice. This analysis on empirical object is based on the environmental conflict in the Gandarela Mountain Range, located in Brazil, in the state of Minas Gerais. Brazil is a giant supplier of iron ore exports for the world economy, and the state of Minas Gerais is where Vale – a very large transnational mining company - started its operation in the 1940s. Gandarela is the last mountain range environmentally well protected in the heart of Minas Gerais, holding a huge aquifer, but it has iron ore underground. An environmental-social movement has arisen to protect the place. For more than two years, participant observation was carried out and also in-depth interviews were applied to people belonging to the Movement for the Preservation of the Gandarela Mountain Range, who fights to block an iron ore mining activity proposed by “Vale”. The resistance movement proposed the creation of a National Park as an instrumental strategy, and the movement goes beyond conservationism, it opposes the actual social metabolism of the world economy and believes in a different society. Inspired by Lefebvre’s space theory I developed a spacial analysis of the Gandarela case. My hypothesis is that the “resistance space” transits between the abstract space and the differential space. The notion of the “resistance space” contributes for understanding the dimensions from the resistance struggles, their thoughts, and glimpses which guide their actions in the name of territories and communities. This research reached three dialectic representations of the resistance space: the “instruments”, the “contrapositions”, and the “utopia”. The focus of the paper is on the “contrapositions” of the resistance space, the arguments against mining and the current pattern of economic development, thoughts that go beyond development and economic valuation.Cette recherche vise à construire le concept de d'«espace de résistance". Elle se fonde sur une étude qualitative caractérisée comme une métaphilosophie par laquelle la connaissance est liée à la pratique. Cette analyse est basée sur le conflit environnemental dans la Cordillère Gandarela, située au Brésil, dans l'état de Minas Gerais. Le Brésil est un fournisseur géant d’exportations de minerai de fer pour l'économie mondiale, et l'état de Minas Gerais où se situe Vale - une très grande entreprise transnationale minière - a commencé son opération dans les années 1940. Gandarela est la dernière chaîne de montagnes protégée au coeur du Minas Gerais, possédant un immense aquifère, mais avec du minerai de fer souterrain. Un mouvement écologiste-social a surgi pour protéger le lieu. Depuis plus de deux ans, une observation participante a été réalisée et des entrevues en profondeur ont été faites auprès de personnes appartenant au Mouvement pour la préservation de la chaîne de montagnes Gandarela, qui se bat pour bloquer une activité d'extraction de minerai de fer proposé par "Vale". Le mouvement de résistance a proposé la création d'un parc national comme une stratégie instrumentale, et le mouvement va au-delà du conservatisme; il oppose le métabolisme social réel de l'économie mondiale et croit en une société différente. Inspiré par la théorie de l'espace de Lefebvre je développe une analyse spatiale de l'affaire Gandarela. Mon hypothèse est que l '«espace de résistance" est un transit entre l'espace abstrait et l'espace différentiel. La notion d'«espace de résistance" contribue à la compréhension des dimensions à partir des luttes de résistance, leurs pensées, et des aperçus qui guident leurs actions au nom des territoires et des communautés. Cette recherche a abouti à trois représentations dialectiques de l'espace de résistance : les «instruments», les «contrapositions», et l’«utopie». L'objectif de cet article se focalise sur les "contrapositions" de l'espace de résistance, les arguments contre l'exploitation minière et le modèle actuel de développement économique

Focus on interaction: a communicative approach to learning in the first phase english course

Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, 1983

A focus on learners' metacognitive processes: the impact of strategic planning, repetition, strategic planning plus repetition, and strategic planning for repetition on L2 oral performance

Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Comunicação e Expressão. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Letras/Inglês e Literatura CorrespondenteThe present study, carried out under an information-processing perspective, investigated the impact of four metacognitive processes - strategic planning (Foster & Skehan, 1996), repetition (Bygate, 2001b), strategic planning plus repetition (D'Ely & Fortkamp, 2003), and strategic planning for repetition (D'Ely, 2004) - on 47 L2 learners' oral performance of a video-based narrative task. The participants of this study, registered in the Licenciatura, Secretariado, and Extra-curricular courses of the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, were divided into 5 groups: (1) the control group (2) the strategic planning group, (3) the repetition group, (4) the strategic planning plus repetition group, and (5) the strategic planning for repetition group. Following Foster and Skehan (1996) and Fortkamp (2000), learners' oral production was examined in four dimensions of speech: fluency, complexity, lexical density, and accuracy. Post-task questionnaires were administered for the purpose of assessing learners' appraisal of task type, their oral performance, and the conditions in which they performed. In general, statistical analyses revealed that repetition, strategic planning plus repetition, and strategic planning for repetition exerted a positive and significant impact on some of the dimensions of oral performance such as fluency, lexical density, and accuracy for the repetition group, lexical density for the strategic planning plus repetition group, and accuracy and lexical density for the strategic planning for repetition group. The strategic planning for repetition group also obtained significant gains in complexity. The strategic planning condition, for participants in the strategic planning group, had little impact on participants' oral performance. Overall, these results may be taken as evidence for the trade-off effects among the different dimensions of L2 learners' oral performance. Furthermore, the multifaceted results signal that learners' approach to different experimental conditions is idiosyncratic and that a series of variables interact in different ways when learners perform orally in L2. These variables include the nature of the task, learners' focus of attention during performance, and learners' effectiveness in implementing and retrieving pre-planned ideas. The findings of the present study might contribute to theory building in second language performance as well as to L2 pedagogy

Aspectos arquitectónicos de los clubes de Salvador en el siglo XX

El artículo trata de un tipo específico de arquitectura de recreación, que se propaga en Salvador durante el siglo XX: la de los clubes. Se pretende presentar y valorar sus usos, características y aspectos arquitectónicos, además de señalar sus actuales circunstancias, aunque consciente de que se trata tan solo de un texto introductorio. Para tratar del tema, se recurre a la utilización de las pistas voluntarias y de los rastros involuntarios. Las pistas voluntarias son aquellas que se dejan en los documentos de una forma clara y repetida, con la intención de que perduren e indiquen determinados relatos de los hechos que deben repetirse indefinidamente, con tendencia a apuntar siempre las mismas historias. Los rastros involuntarios son aquellos que se presentan en los documentos de un modo discreto y disperso, sin la intención de perdurar o de consolidar ninguna historia. También existe la posibilidad de que las pistas voluntarias se conviertan en rastros involuntarios. Aunque los clubes tengan un importante papel en el cotidiano de los ciudadanos y en la ciudad, sus precarias circunstancias actuales demuestran la dificultad de manutención de sus estructuras físicas y de sus memorias.This article deals with specific types of architecture for recreation prevalent in Salvador in the 20th century: that of the clubs. It aims to present and assess their uses, characteristics and architectural features, as well as to reveal their current circumstances, understanding that this is an introductory text. To address this issue, we resorted to intentional clues and unintentional traces. Intentional clues are those left in documents in a clear and repeated manner, with the intention of making lasting accounts of events, for indefinite repetition and with a tendency to recount the same stories. Unintentional traces are those left within documents in a discreet and disperse manner, without the intention of enabling a particular history to take shape or endure. It is also possible for intentional clues to transform into unintentional traces. Although the clubs play an important role in the daily life of local citizens and the city, their current precarious circumstances demonstrate the difficulty of maintaining both their physical structures and their memories.O artigo trata de um tipo específico de arquitetura de recreação que se difunde em Salvador durante o século XX: aquela dos clubes. Pretende-se apresentar e valorar seus usos, suas características e aspectos arquitetônicos, além de apontar suas circunstâncias atuais, tendo-se consciência de que se trata apenas de um texto introdutório. Para tratar do assunto se recorre à utilização das pistas voluntárias e dos rastros involuntários. Pistas voluntárias são aquelas deixadas nos documentos de uma forma clara e repetida, com a intenção de perdurar e indicar determinados relatos dos acontecimentos que devem ser repetidos indefinidamente, tendendo a apontar sempre as mesmas histórias. Os rastros involuntários são aqueles que se apresentam nos documentos de um modo discreto e disperso, sem a intenção de perdurar e de consolidar alguma história. Há ainda a possibilidade das pistas voluntárias se transformarem em rastros involuntários. Embora os clubes tenham um importante papel no cotidiano dos cidadãos locais e na cidade, suas precárias circunstâncias atuais demonstram a dificuldade da manutenção das suas estruturas físicas e das suas memórias.

Asthma Mortality Inequalities in Brazil: Tolerating the Unbearable

Asthma is responsible for a high morbidity, resulting in hospitalizations, recurrent asphyxiation, and eventually death. In Brazil, where asthma is the third cause of hospitalizations for clinical illnesses and the fourth cause of death from respiratory diseases, some 20% of the population present wheezing. We evaluated the asthma mortality rates in the period between 1998 and 2009, using linear regressions, using the National Mortality Database (Ministry of Health of Brazil). The annual mortality rate (per 100,000 inhabitants) ranged from 1.68 in 1998 to 1.32 in 2009 (mean : 1.49). Brazil presents a slight tendency of reduction in asthma mortality. Asthma mortality rates trends declined in the most developed regions of the country:  Midwest, South, and Southeast, but it increased in the underprivileged regions: North (not statistically significant) and Northeast. This terrible sort of inequality requires urgent reaction from the public health authorities