Ramuz et les romanciers russes

Le roman russe est pour Charles Ferdinand Ramuz, dès ses débuts, l’occasion d’une réflexion sur le genre romanesque, et sur la nécessité de sa « regénération » dans l’espace francophone. La lecture de Dostoïevski lui donne accès à un modèle dont il s’inspirera, indirectement, dans ses premières tentatives de « révolutionner » le roman, en particulier lors de l’écriture de Jean-Luc persécuté. Mais cette adhésion fervente sera suivie, pendant la maturité de Ramuz, d’une phase de désaffection, à l’issue de laquelle le grand Russe auquel le romancier suisse tendra à s’identifier sera Tolstoï.For Charles Ferdinand Ramuz, the Russian novel was, from the very start, a reflection on fiction and the need for its “regeneration” in French literature. The reading of Dostoevsky offered him access to a model from which he drew inspiration, indirectly, in his first attempts to “revolutionize” the novel, especially during the writing of Jean-Luc persecuté. In later years, however, Ramuz’s passionate admiration of Dostoevsky cooled, and the great Swiss novelist subsequently went on to identify with Tolstoy

Velan comme viatique

Lire de tels textes [d’Yves Velan] avec des étudiants, en discuter avec eux, ce que je suis encore en train de faire au moment où je termine cette contribution, c’est expérimenter en direct le pouvoir de résistance, de rupture, de critique de la littérature au sein d’une société où le bien-être matériel est la principale préoccupation, et où l’exercice de la pensée individuelle est mis à mal

The media accountability of independent regulatory agencies

Independent regulatory agencies (IRAs) are increasingly attracting academic and societal attention, as they represent the institutional cornerstone of the regulatory state and play a key role in policy-making. Besides the expected benefits in terms of credibility and efficiency, these regulators are said to bring about a ‘democratic deficit', following their statutory separation from democratic institutions. Consequently, a ‘multi-pronged system of control' is required. This article focuses on a specific component of this system, that is, the media. The goal is to determine whether media coverage of IRAs meets the necessary prerequisites to be considered a potential ‘accountability forum' for regulators. The results of a comparison of two contrasted cases - the British and Swiss competition commissions - mostly support the expectations, because they show that media coverage of IRAs corresponds to that of the most relevant policy issues and follows the regulatory cycle. Furthermore, a systematic bias in media coverage can be exclude

Paul-Louis Cyfflé's (1724-1806) search for porcelain

Seven unglazed figurines from private collections, attributed to Cyfflé's Terre de Lorraine manufacture in Lunéville (1766-1780), were subjected to porosity and scanning electron microscopic analyses to determine bulk element compositions and the composition and nature of their constituent phases. One figurine bears the mark CYFFLÉ À. LUNÉVILLE, three the mark TERRE DE LORRAINE. The studied samples pertain to four compositional groupings: (1) Two porous (18-20 % water adsorption W.A.) bodies containing milled quartz-rich frit + anhydrite (former gypsum) + phyllosilicate + Ca-rich matrix; (2) A soft-paste (artificial) porcelain body (10 % W.A.), containing quartz + calcic plagioclase (An₈₈₋₉₅) + glassy matrix. The latter is inferred to derive from a former frit. A coronitic, amorphous (as revealed by electron backscattered diffraction analysis) reaction rim is visible around the quartzes. The K-rich and Na-poor composition of the frit is best explained as a mixture of potassium nitrate, alum, calcined gypsum, sand, and moderate amounts of salt and soda; (3) A porous (23 % W.A.), hybrid porcelain body with finely milled particles of quartz, mullite-bearing hard-paste porcelain, Na-Ca-siliceous glass and metakaolinite; (4) Three hard-paste porcelain bodies, some with relict quartz, andesine plagioclase (An₃₇₋₄₅), pseudomorphs of kaolinite and the liquidus phase mullite in a glassy matrix. Well fired figurines have no W.A. due to the pervasive former melt phase, underfired figurines 7 %. These wares can contain small amounts of lead (1.8 wt% PbO) and SO₃ (0.6 wt%), suggesting the use of lead frit and gypsum. The diversity of Cyfflé's production is now better recognized. His trial-and-error experiments made use of a remarkably wide range of paste mixtures, with porcelain bodies in the French (soft-paste) and the German (hard-paste) tradition

Phase and compositional analysis of a Sèvres soft paste porcelain plate from 1781, with a review of early porcelain techniques

Optical microscopy, X-ray diffraction, X-ray fluorescence and scanning electron microscopy analyses were carried out on a typical Sèvres soft (frit) porcelain plate from 1781 in order to determine the chemical and mineralogical composition as well as the microstructure of its ceramic body, glaze, overglaze decoration and gilding. The body is rich in SiO₂ (73 mass%), CaO (16) and alkali oxide (8) and shows acicular wollastonite and tridymite crystals embedded in a glassy matrix consisting of SiO₂ (75), K₂O (12) and CaO (9). The 50–90 µm thick, transparent lead glaze (40.9 PbO) contains 47.6 SiO₂, 6.5 K₂O and 3.5 CaO and shows a 35–75 µm thick reaction zone (50 SiO₂, 30 PbO, 14 CaO) towards the body. The maximum thickness of the different paints is 50 µm, with 15 µm as mean thickness of the individual paint stroke. Two blue colours, for the dentil comb and the flower painting, are chemically distinct (colouring CoO in the dental rim 7, in the flower’s blue 2 mass%) and contain many As- and Pb- rich globules and dendrites. Pseudohexagonal shaped platelets of Pb–Sb–Sn triple oxide crystals, embedded in a colourless glassy matrix, generate the opacity and the colour of the yellow paints. Opaque olive green colours are created by the combination of such yellow crystals with a bluish, Cu and Co bearing glassy matrix. The opaque red overglaze enamel is a mechanical mix of yellow Pb–Sb oxide crystals with an iron- rich (16 Fe₂O₃) Pb–silica glass. Purple is very homogeneous and shows tiny drops of pure gold (max. diam. 0.5 µm) in a glassy matrix (47 PbO, 46 SiO₂, 5 K₂O). Violet is a mechanical blend of flower’s blue and purple. The pure (99.5 Au, 0.5 Fe₂O₃) gilt consists of several folded gold particles. The results of this study are only broadly consistent with the archival documented 18th century technologies. The compositional dissimilarities of the studied enamels suggest that each colour was independently fritted. Consequently, the original colour recipes written down by Hellot in 1753 must have been modified in the 30 years since then

The origin of 18th–19th century tin-glazed pottery from Lorraine, France

Forty-eight tin-glazed ceramic fragments (faiences) from Lorraine, found in excavations or pertaining to objects in collections, were subjected to X-ray fluorescence analysis to determine the bulk, major, minor and trace element compositions. Sixteen superficially clay layers from the surroundings of Lunéville and Saint-Clément were also analysed. The faiences are, with four exceptions, MgO rich. The combination of stylistic and chemical arguments allowed the recognition of 28 objects that were attributable to the important faience manufactory of Jacques II Chambrette in Lunéville. This reference group was used to test the provenance of high-Mg faiences from private collections. The latter are not from the manufactory of Le Bois d'Épense/Les Islettes as commonly assumed, but most probably belong to Lunéville and Saint-Clément. According to archival sources, the potters mixed three clays for the pastes. Some prospected clays are MgO rich due to the presence of dolomite and other Mg-bearing minerals, but not as high as the faiences, a fact that can be explained by the sampling of de-carbonatized layers

Designing Research With Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA): Approaches, Challenges, and Tools

Recent years have witnessed a host of innovations for conducting research with qualitative comparative analysis (QCA). Concurrently, important issues surrounding its uses have been highlighted. In this article, we seek to help users design QCA studies. We argue that establishing inference with QCA involves three intertwined design components: first, clarifying the question of external validity; second, ensuring internal validity; and third, explicitly adopting a specific mode of reasoning. We identify several emerging approaches to QCA rather than just one. Some approaches emphasize case knowledge, while others are condition oriented. Approaches emphasize either substantively interpretable or redundancy-free explanations, and some designs apply an inductive/explorative mode of reasoning, while others integrate deductive elements. Based on extant literature, we discuss issues surrounding inference with QCA and the tools available under different approaches to address these issues. We specify trade-offs and the importance of doing justice to the nature and goals of QCA in a specific research context

The role of independent regulatory agencies in policy-making: a comparative analysis

Abstract Independent regulatory agencies (RAs) are key political actors, which often cumulate several powers: rule-making, monitoring and control, adjudication, and sanctioning. Moreover, they often start domestic legislative procedures, participate in pre-and extra-parliamentary consultations, and are integrated into parliamentary debates. However, at present the role of agencies in national political decision-making processes has hardly been investigated. In this paper I will focus on six cases concerning the revision of a crucial law related to the range of competencies of a specific RA. I selected three small European countries (the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland), and two policy domains (banking and financial sector, competition). I will combine a structural with a reputational approach, drawing from documental and survey information about the participation and weight of each actor in the course of the decisionmaking process under investigation. Then, information on participating actors will be systematized and analysed using the "actor-process-event scheme" , an analytical technique to transform procedural information into structure data, in order to obtain results concerning the position and centrality of agencies in the course of each political decision-making process

Composition and technology of 18th century high magnesia faïences from Fulda

In 1996, archaeological excavations close to the ancient Fulda faïence manufacture site unearthed a rich deposit of faïence wastes (biscuits, faïences, technical ceramics). The manufacture was founded in 1741 by Prince Abbot Amand von Buseck and closed down in 1761. This first archaeometric study of a German faïence manufacture included 31 samples produced between 1742 and 1760. Analytical techniques were optical microscopy, X-ray fluorescence, X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy, coupled to an energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometer. Biscuits and faïences are MgO- (5–13 wt.%) and CaO-rich (9–20 wt.%), easily distinguishable from the two French Mg-rich productions of Granges-le-Bourg and Lunéville that we know today. Three samples show high P₂O₅ (2.6–3.3 wt.%). Such unusual concentrations are not due to the admixing of crushed bones to the clay during processing, or to one of the well-known post-firing secondary contamination processes, but are caused by the presence of sharp edged, rhomboedric grains with sizes around 20–30 μm and an overall chemical composition of apatite. These fragments are interpreted to be remnants of primary phosphoritic elements, present ab initium in the clay, and give some hints as to the origin of the raw materials used. Phosphoritic layers can be found in the German Trias, mostly in dolomitic marls of the Middle Keuper. Such marls form the basement on which Fulda is built and could easily have been extracted by the Fulda manufacture. The high MgO values of the faïences can therefore be linked to the presence of dolomitic grains in the plastic raw material, corroborated by the positive MgO/CaO correlation. Firing temperatures of the faïences were, according to their XRD patterns, mostly between 950 and 1050 °C