"Libussa" in der Gründerzeit : Grillparzer zwischen Kürnberger und Heine

Am Beginn der siebziger Jahre des 19. Jahrhunderts schrieb Ferdinand Kürnberger zwei Feuilletons zu Franz Grillparzer. Diese Feuilletons aus der 'Gründerzeit' verdrängen die entscheidenden Fragen, die Grillparzer mit Heinrich Heine und Rahel Varnhagen verbunden haben: die Frage der Marginalisierung der Poesie in einer von Naturverwertung und instrumenteller Vernunft bestimmten Welt, die Frage einer gleichberechtigten Beziehung der Geschlechter zueinander und das Schicksal der Liebe in einer Zeit umfassender Rationalisierung und Verwertung

Pictures in Words - Words in Pictures. Entangled Mnemonics in Kyoto in the Late 15th Century

Beatrice Höller carefully analyzes the distinct and multivalent word-image relations rendered on three inkstone cases created in late fifteenth century Kyoto. The exquisitely designed cases are not only well known; with each one designated as an “important cultural property,” there has been research by lacquer specialists in terms of stylistic, material, technical or poetic and historical aspects. The author focuses on the multiple socio-cultural layers of meaning by employing a number of notions, concepts and paradigms, including “cultural memory”. The inkstone cases were all created during or after the rule of Ashikaga Yoshimasa (1449-1473, d. 1490), the eighth shogun of the Ashikaga House, who is known for his penchant for cultural pursuits rather than military prowess or political cunning. His rule and legacy is also characterized by one of the most devastating civil wars in Japan, the so-called Ōnin War (1467-1477), which destroyed the capital of Kyoto completely. It marked the beginning of a vast and destructive civil war that ended only after roughly one-hundred years towards the close of the sixteenth century. This era of martial strife caused unprecedented social upheaval and saw the construction of new cultural centers outside Kyoto, as well as novel forms of performing, visual and martial arts. It is the latter aspect of the fifteenth century, along with retired Shogun Yoshimasa’s taste and cultural pursuits, and an approach that involves processes of identity formation through poetic allusions and their material re-interpretations with which this book is concerned. The author describes, analyzes, contextualizes, and historicizes the inkstone cases in each of her chapters from a new angle, digging ever deeper into layers of meaning, interpretation and contextualization whilst addressing and exploring different concepts. At the same time, she delves into material and visual properties, the poetics of the intricately rendered classical poems and their multiple levels of interpretations, along with the local and spiritual dimensions of the iconographies rendered or implied, which constitutes an immensely important aspect during this period of military and political conflicts

Network perspectives on epilepsy using EEG/MEG source connectivity

The evolution of EEG/MEG source connectivity is both, a promising, and controversial advance in the characterization of epileptic brain activity. In this narrative review we elucidate the potential of this technology to provide an intuitive view of the epileptic network at its origin, the different brain regions involved in the epilepsy, without the limitation of electrodes at the scalp level. Several studies have confirmed the added value of using source connectivity to localize the seizure onset zone and irritative zone or to quantify the propagation of epileptic activity over time. It has been shown in pilot studies that source connectivity has the potential to obtain prognostic correlates, to assist in the diagnosis of the epilepsy type even in the absence of visually noticeable epileptic activity in the EEG/MEG, and to predict treatment outcome. Nevertheless, prospective validation studies in large and heterogeneous patient cohorts are still lacking and are needed to bring these techniques into clinical use. Moreover, the methodological approach is challenging, with several poorly examined parameters that most likely impact the resulting network patterns. These fundamental challenges affect all potential applications of EEG/MEG source connectivity analysis, be it in a resting, spiking, or ictal state, and also its application to cognitive activation of the eloquent area in presurgical evaluation. However, such method can allow unique insights into physiological and pathological brain functions and have great potential in (clinical) neuroscience

Leadership Practices in the Fashion Industry: Aligning the creative and commercial aspects within a fashion company context

This thesis explores leadership practices, which align the creative ability of the fashion designer with the commercial goal of the fashion company, without the risk of suppressing the artistic motivation. In addressing this agenda, this study draws on both creativity and leadership literature to outline the emergent creative leadership concept and does answer to the call of De Fillippi, et al. (2007) which asked for more empirical studies in different cultural industries about the leadership of creativity. The importance of the study is given to the rising need for creativity for all industries to support the impertinent need for constant innovation. The Thesis is divided into two main parts, a theoretical and an empirical part. The theoretical part consists of an extensive literature review about the definition of creativity, the fashion business, leading creativity in cultural industries and the leadership-as-practice view. The empirical part examines the leadership practices of three successful Finnish fashion companies, by interviewing the leadership team of the companies and evaluating the interviews in a cross-case analysis. Both parts have been used to determine three leadership practices in fashion companies that allow the alignment of creative and commercial aspects within a company: “structured milestone meetings and informal communication”; “counterbalance and mutual decision making”; “a structured freedom space for the designer”. In addition, further practical implications and guidelines are elaborated in the discussion part which could not be identified as leadership practices