The palimpsestuous face of the other: Homoerotic memory in Alan Hollinghurst’s the Stranger’s child

This paper contends that Alan Hollinghurst’s The Stranger’s Child (2011) revises Sarah Dillon’s renegotiation of De Quincey’s “palimpsest” and Emmanuel Lévinas’s “Face of the Other” to deal with the working of (homoerotic) memory. In joining the palimpsest and the Face of the Other as metaphors of the invocation and resurrection of Cecil Valance - the hero and tutelary spirit of the novel - I argue that the politics of remembrance and representation in The Stranger’s Child shift, and change us as readers as well. From being a closeted gay WWI poet to becoming an early-twenty-first-century relic, Valance works as a “palimpsestuous face” that returns our gaze and forces us to renegotiate our relation with the past and the Other

Transmodern Motion or the Rhizomatic Updated in In a Strange Room, "Take me to Church" and Babel

The article aims at exploring how the concept of the transmodern fits, comprises and helps to understand transcultural events from a wider perspective. To do so, three metaphors will be addressed, namely Enrique Dussel''s ''jungle'', Gilles Deleuze''s and Felix Guattari''s ''rhizome'' and Sarah Dillon''s ''palimpsestuous palimpsest''. In all three cases, issues like multiplicity, connectedness and a sense of motility are present. And, the article proves, they prove valid to render the aesthetic, ethical and political possibilities of contemporary texts that range from literature, Damon Galgut''s In a Strange Room (2010), to music, Hozier''s hit "Take me to Church" (2014), and to cinema, Gonzalez Inarritu''s Babel (2006).(1

Iraq Wars from the other Side: Transmodern Reconciliation in Sinan Antoon's The Corpse Washer

In the last years, more and more literary accounts of recent and current wars in the Middle East have been published. In most cases, they are authored from a Western viewpoint and provide a narrow account of the Muslim world. This article focuses on Sinan Antoon's The Corpse Washer because it opens the scope. That is, it constitutes an alternative to the imagery of the American film industry. Moreover, as Antoon is a Christian, his account of contemporary Iraq is particularly peripheral and hybrid. To analyse the novel, this article makes use of Transmodernity, a concept coined by Rosa Maria Rodriguez Magda in 1989. Yet, instead of Magda's Transmodernity as a neatly Euro-centric phenomenon of worldwide connectivity, Ziauddin Sardar's version of the concept is preferred. Sardar's Transmodernity adds to connectivity a message of reconciliation between progress and tradition, particularly in the context of non-Western cultures. This paper defends that Antoon's novel opens the debate on Islam to challenge the prejudiced Western discourses that have legitimized' war. To do so, Sardar's borders' and Judith Butler's grievability are particularly useful. In a Transmodern context, novels like Antoon's show that humans should never be bare lives

David Alderson. 2016. Sex, Needs & Queer Culture. From Liberation to the Post-Gay. London: Zed Books. 316 pp.

In Sex, Needs & Queer Culture. From Liberation to the Post-Gay, David Alderson defends a humanist conviction whereby “the subject is not merely discursively produced, but a substantial entity in its own right” (18).1 In opposition to the queer perfomative principle, the book is based on the reality principle, mostly through its alignment with cultural materialism and socialist politics. Drawing on Alan Sinfield (1998), Alderson calls for an organic role for the critic, well beyond the straightjacketed limits of academic tradition. That the critic intervenes socially does not convert him into a protagonist, but into a part of a relational community..

Spatio-temporal variability of the zooplankton community in the SW Mediterranean 1992–2020: Linkages with environmental drivers

Variability in the spatial and temporal distribution of the mesozooplankton abundance in the N Alboran Sea (SW Mediterranean) was assessed intermittently from 2010 to 2020, and compared with 1992–2000 historical time series data. Total abundance of mesozooplankton was significantly higher in the coast than in the shelf and slope waters. There were significant differences in mesozooplankton abundance between 1992–2000 and 2010–2020 at the three zones. Copepods dominated the mesozooplankton during winter and spring, but cladocerans and doliolids also became important components of the community in summer and autumn. We found significant increases between the first and the second decadal periods in the abundance of copepods, appendicularians, holoplanktonic gastropods and siphonophores in the shelf. However, in the coast, copepod nauplii, doliolids, gastropods and siphonophores increased, while euphausiids abundance decreased significantly. These trends contrast with the ongoing decline of the sardine stocks in European waters. Increasing temperature and decreasing predation pressure are suggested to be the main drivers of mesozooplankton variability.Versión del editor3,26

Spatio-temporal variability of the zooplankton community in the SW Mediterranean 1992–2020: Linkages with environmental drivers

Variability in the spatial and temporal distribution of the mesozooplankton abundance in the N Alboran Sea (SW Mediterranean) was assessed intermittently from 2010 to 2020, and compared with 1992-2000 historical time series data. Total abundance of mesozooplankton was significantly higher in the coast than in the shelf and slope waters. There were significant differences in mesozooplankton abundance between 1992-2000 and 2010-2020 at the three zones. Copepods dominated the mesozooplankton during winter and spring, but cladocerans and doliolids also became important components of the community in summer and autumn. We found significant increases between the first and the second decadal periods in the abundance of copepods, appendicularians, holoplanktonic gastropods and siphonophores in the shelf. However, in the coast, copepod nauplii, doliolids, gastropods and siphonophores increased, while euphausiids abundance decreased significantly. These trends contrast with the ongoing decline of the sardine stocks in European waters. Increasing temperature and decreasing predation pressure are suggested to be the main drivers of mesozooplankton variability.Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment; Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO, CSIC); Andalusian Government (Consejería de Economía, Innovación y Ciencia de la Junta de Andalucía) and EU (Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional

Role of small-sized phytoplankton in triggering an ecosystem disruptive algal bloom in a Mediterranean hypersaline coastal lagoon

Preprint2,35

Zooplankton Biomass Depletion Event Reveals the Importance of Small Pelagic Fish Top-Down Control in the Western Mediterranean Coastal Waters

The influence of hydrochemistry and trophic conditions on the coastal zooplankton community’s biomass and metabolic activities was investigated along the Spanish Mediterranean coastal waters, from Algeciras Bay to Barcelona, from autumn 2011 to autumn 2012. Two hydrographic regions were differentiated: NW Alboran (ALB) and W Mediterranean (MED). Zooplankton metabolism was assessed from measurements of the electron transport system (ETS) and aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (AARS) activities, as proxies for potential respiration and somatic growth, respectively. Zooplankton showed three to fivefold higher biomass in ALB than in MED during autumn 2011 and spring 2012. However, in autumn 2012, a drastic decrease in biomass standing stock was observed in ALB, with no significant differences between the two regions. This biomass depletion event was not associated with environmental variables, food availability or zooplankton metabolic rates, but coincided with a twofold peak of Sardina pilchardus landings in ALB. A reduced standing stock coupled with high zooplankton growth rates suggests mortality by predation as the main cause for the low zooplankton biomass typically observed in MED, and in ALB during autumn 2012.Versión del edito

Characterization of the plankton community composition in Málaga Bay (NW Alboran Sea) by means of integrative taxonomy.

The Alboran Sea is highly dynamic from a hydrographical point of view. Depending on the strength of the currents and the direction of the wind the surface coastal water masses can be either of Atlantic or Mediterranean origin. This variability affects both the phytoplankton and zooplankton components of the community inhabiting the Bay of Málaga. In addition, fish larvae distribution varies with the diel cycle, affecting zooplankton distribution in shallow waters. In order to provide a first insight into the variability of the planktonic community composition in the area during a 24 hour cycle, we applied an integrative approach combining morphological and molecular tools

Shifts in the protist community associated with an anticyclonic gyre in the Alboran Sea (Mediterranean Sea)

The diversity of protists was researched in the Alboran Sea (SW Mediterranean Sea) by means of high-throughput sequencing technologies based on the amplification of the V9 region of 18S rRNA. Samples were collected at different depths in seven stations following an environmental gradient from a coastal upwelling zone to the core of an oligotrophic anticyclonic gyre (AG). Sampling was performed during summer, when the water column was stratified. The superphyla Alveolata, Stramenopila and Rhizaria accounted for 84% of the total operational taxonomic units (OTUs). The most diverse groups were Dinophyceae (21% of OTUs), Marine Alveolates-II (MALV-II; 20%), Ciliophora (9%) and MALV-I (6%). In terms of read abundance, the predominant groups were Dinophyceae (29%), Bacillariophyta (14%), MALV-II (11%) and Ciliophora (11%). Samples were clustered into three groups according to the sampling depth and position. The shallow community in coastal stations presented distinguishable patterns of diatoms and ciliates compared with AG stations. These results indicate that there was a strong horizontal coupling between phytoplankton and ciliate communities. Abundance of Radiolaria and Syndiniales increased with depth. Our analyses demonstrate that the stratification disruption produced by the AG caused shifts in the trophic ecology of the plankton assemblages inducing a transition from bottom-up to top-down control.Versión del editor3,40