5,494 research outputs found
Whose story is it anyway? The ethics of narration and the narration of ethics in Summertime and Die Sneeuslaper
No full textIncludes bibliographical references.This dissertation analyses and compares the narrative strategies in J.M. Coetzee’s Summertime and Marlene van Niekerk’s Die sneeuslaper and considers the implications of these strategies for the authors’ exploration of the ethics of writing. Much has been written about the literary oeuvres of both Coetzee and Van Niekerk, including studies of the translations of Van Niekerk’s Afrikaans novels into English. There are few “interlingual” comparative studies of contemporary works in Afrikaans and English, however, and certainly none to my knowledge which compares the work of Coetzee and Van Niekerk. My contribution to the conversation about Coetzee’s and Van Niekerk’s work, but also to an increasingly multilingual and interconnected South African literary criticism, will be a comparison of one recent work by each of these two authors, written in English and Afrikaans respectively. I draw on the theories of Bakhtin, Barthes and Levinas to consider the ethical dimension of texts in which “double-voicedness”, a questioning not only of existence, but of the self is fore grounded in the content and narrative structure; where there is a shift in focus from the author to the reader (“the birth of the reader”) and “utterances” are made with the response of “the other” in mind
"The day of the great writer is gone for ever": Author surrogacy in Martin Amis’s Money and J.M. Coetzee’s Summertime.
No full textThis study focuses on the use of author surrogacy in the novels Money: A Suicide Note by Martin Amis and Summertime: Scenes from Provincial Life by J.M. Coetzee. It addresses the connection between their use of author surrogacy and their comments on what scholars classify as the postmodern cultural condition. Both authors have written themselves into their novels with a different purpose but both used strikingly similar themes to incorporate this purpose, although the stress on these themes varies. Authorial power, the distinction between the real and the imagined, and the fading line between high- and lowbrow culture are examples of the topics discussed in this study with regards to author surrogacy and the postmodern cultural condition. This study concludes that, through their use of author surrogacy, J.M. Coetzee mainly aims to critique, while Martin Amis satirises postmodern culture.
Keywords: Amis, author surrogacy, authorial power, Coetzee, fact-fiction distinction, high- and lowbrow culture, postmodern cultural condition
O doświadczeniu obcości języka w twórczości J.M. Coetzeego. Słowo wstępne
No full textThe present foreword refers to the address delivered by J.M. Coetzee on the occasion of conferring upon him by the University of Silesia the doctor honoris causa degree. Particular attention is paid to his thoughts on the role of English in the world of today. The author of the foreword shows that reflection on language in general and its role in moulding one’s identity in present in the Nobel laureate’s works, including his most recent novels. Further into the foreword, the author briefly discusses text reprinted in Śląskie Studia Polonistyczne: the already mentioned address by J.M. Coetzee, the conversation with the Author, and an article devoted to his works written by Robert Kusek.The present foreword refers to the address delivered by J.M. Coetzee on the occasion of conferring upon him by the University of Silesia the doctor honoris causa degree. Particular attention is paid to his thoughts on the role of English in the world of today. The author of the foreword shows that reflection on language in general and its role in moulding one’s identity in present in the Nobel laureate’s works, including his most recent novels. Further into the foreword, the author briefly discusses text reprinted in Śląskie Studia Polonistyczne: the already mentioned address by J.M. Coetzee, the conversation with the Author, and an article devoted to his works written by Robert Kusek
O doświadczeniu obcości języka w twórczości J.M. Coetzeego : słowo wstępne
No full textThe present foreword refers to the address delivered by J.M. Coetzee on the occasion of conferring upon him by the University of Silesia the doctor honoris causa degree. Particular attention is paid to his thoughts on the role of English in the world of today. The author of the foreword shows that reflection on language in general and its role in moulding one’s identity in present in the Nobel laureate’s works, including his most recent novels. Further into the foreword, the author briefly discusses text reprinted in Śląskie Studia Polonistyczne: the already mentioned address by J.M. Coetzee, the conversation with the Author, and an article devoted to his works written by Robert Kusek
The role of the VirB/VirD4/Bep system in "Bartonella henselae"-triggered vascular proliferation
No full textBartonella henselae (Bh) rarely shows any symptoms in its feline reservoir host but is responsible for a number of clinical outcomes during infection of the human incidental host. Bh shares with B. quintana (Bq) and B. bacilliformis (Bb) the remarkable capacity to induce tumour-like vascular proliferations. The study of Bartonella-host cell interactions might not only provide insides into the pathogenesis of Bh but might also serve as a model to investigate general mechanisms involved pathological angiogenesis, which is a hallmark of tumour growth. The Bh VirB/VirD4 type IV secretion system (T4SS) and the thereby translocated Bartonella-effector proteins (Beps) have been shown to be responsible for the subversion of a number of endothelial cell (EC) functions upon infection. This thesis aimed to elucidate the role of the VirB/VirD4/Bep system in Bh-triggered angioproliferation. The first chapter characterizes the Bh VirB T4SS translocated protein BepA as an effector mediating the inhibition of apoptosis in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). Either overexpressed in the effector-less ∆bepA-G mutant or ectopically expressed, BepA was sufficient to promote the anti-apoptotic activity. Delineation of BepA revealed that this activity is confined to the BID (Bep intracellular delivery) domain of BepA. Interestingly, only the homologue BepA2 (corresponding to the BID domain plus C-terminus of BepA) from Bq inhibited apoptosis as well. In contrast to Bh and Bq, B. tribocorum is not associated to vascular proliferation and its BepA-homologue did not show any anti-apoptotic activity. Upon translocation into the host cell BepA was targeted to the membrane. BepA-mediated anti-apoptosis correlated with an increase in cAMP and increased expression of cAMP-responsive genes, pointing to a mechanism involving the regulation of this second messenger. BepA not only inhibited chemically ActD-induced but also CTL-triggered apoptosis. Thus, BepA has the potential to play a role in vasoproliferation in an indirect way by enhancing cell survival. Chapter 2 presents a spheroid-based three-dimensional in vitro sprouting assay established to address the angiogenic potential of Bh. Compared to spheroids from uninfected HUVECs, spheroids from HUVECs pre-infected with Bh wild-type showed an increased sprouting activity, albeit sprout morphology was distinct from the sprouts induced by vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). Formation of those sprouts was in part VirB/Bep-dependent. Overexpressed BepA in the ∆bepA-G mutant strongly promoted sprout formation. Delineation of the domain required for this stimulation indicates parallels to the anti-apoptotic activity. BepD showed a moderate sprout-promoting effect. In contrary, BepG, involved in cytoskeletal rearrangement, displayed a potent interference with sprout formation. This novel in vitro model of Bh-triggered sprouting angiogenesis revealed distinct activities of the Beps in modulating sprout formation and contributing to the regulation of the Bh angiogenic activity in the course of the chronic vascular infection. In chapter 3 the effect of exogenous VEGF on Bh-infected ECs is addressed. VEGF is thought to be involved in Bh-induced vascular tumour formation by promoting EC proliferation in a paracrine manner. Assessing the biological activity of VEGF in assays such as proliferation, wound assay and capillary-like sprout formation revealed an intriguing interference of the VirB/VirD4/Bep system with responsiveness of infected ECs to stimulation with VEGF. Analysis of the VEGF receptor 2 pathways showed that Bh inhibited phosphorylation of tyrosine 1175. In Bh-infected ECs stimulated with VEGF, PLCγ1 was less recruited and phosphorylated and consequently downstream calcium flux and ERK1/2 activation were blocked. These data rather challenge the idea of a VEGF-driven paracrine loop in the presence of an active VirB/VirD4/Bep system and emphasize the modulatory role of the VirB T4SS balancing the angiogenic activity of Bh. The last chapter reports the role of the VirB/VirD4/Bep system in the paracrine-loop model of VEGF production. HeLa cells produced VEGF upon exposure to Bh in a VirB/Bep-dependent manner. BepD elicited a strong stimulation of VEGF secretion in HeLa cells when overexpressed in the ∆bepB-G mutant. A shift in colour of the cell culture supernatant, depending on the cell culture media used, was associated to VirB T4SS translocation activity but not particularly to VEGF production. The shift probably is due to acidification of the supernatant. Hence, in addition to the previously reported BadA also the VirB/VirD4/Bep system, especially BepD, independently is able to trigger the production of an essential regulator of angiogenesis
Skin-Friction Measurements on Mathematically Generated Roughness in a Turbulent Channel Flow
No full textEngineering systems are affected by surface roughness, however, predicting frictional drag has proven to be challenging. The present work takes a systematic approach by generating and manufacturing surfaces roughness where surface statistics, such as rms, skewness and power-spectral density can be controlled. The frictional drag on these surfaces is measured in a turbulent channel flow facility
Autobiography as Autrebiography: the Fictionalisation of the Self in J.M. Coetzee’s Boyhood: Scenes from Provincial Life
No full textJ.M. Coetzee’s Boyhood remains a fundamentally ambivalent work, generically speaking. The author seems unwilling to choose between autobiography and fiction. Whatever truth is attained may, in the last resort, be best expressed as a fiction of the truth
Literature review on the images of the nurse and nursing in the media
No full textThis study concentrates on the images of the nurse and nursing seen most commonly in the media and attempts to trace the images back to their origins and to explain their continued use, despite the rapidly changing role of the nurse in today's world. The images have been derived mostly from the historical roots of nursing and sometimes as a reaction to the increasing influence of the feminist movement. The author takes a look at the four main images of the nurse seen in the media, which are the ministering angel, the battleaxe, the naughty nurse and the doctor's handmaiden and then goes on to take a brief look at the other images commonly perpetuated by the media. The author summarizes the probable effects of the media stereotypes on nurses themselves and the service they provide and also takes a look at attempts to dispel these stereotypes
- …
