6,452 research outputs found
The role of credit ratings in the Basle capital adequacy proposals
No full textThe Basel Committee on Banking Supervision is proposing to introduce credit ratings into the regulatory process by linking banks’ capital requirements to the ratings of borrowers. The use of credit ratings for regulatory purposes raises a number of policy issues, including the reliability of ratings as indicators of default risk, the consistency of ratings across agencies and countries, the possible abuse of the ratings process itself through “rate-shopping” for the higher ratings, and the relationship between ratings of external rating agencies and banks’ internal ratings. In this study, Dale and Thomas investigate the role of credit ratings in the Basel capital adequacy proposals. The authors identify the key policy issues and provide empirical evidence on the sources and extent of rating divergencies between credit rating agencies. Their research also provides an analytical framework for examining the case of credit ratings in regulation, a subject of increasing topical importance given the need to calibrate default risk in today’s volatile credit markets
R.S. Thomas and the Problem of Welsh Identity
No full textOne aspect of R.S. Thomas’s work which is perhaps most difficult for Americans to fathom is his relation to Welsh nationalism. This rather arcane issue is complicated even further by the fact that Thomas is an Anglo-Welsh poet, indeed the guiding spirit of what is known as the Anglo-Welsh movement. Tony Bianchi has called Thomas “the dominant voice in the attempt by Anglo-Welsh writers to define an audience.” Throughout his career, Thomas has been faced with the difficult choice of writing poetry in what he considers a foreign language, or committing creative suicide. Having been born in “the capital of a fake nation” (The Echoes Return Slow 4), that is, Cardiff in English speaking southern Wales, Thomas did not learn Welsh until he was thirty, too late for it to be of use for poetry (Selected Prose 182). The resultant tensions in his work are sometimes overlooked by English critics, who would rather welcome Thomas as a distinguished “colonial” contributor to their own literature, and who thus concentrate for the most part on his celebrated movement in later years toward more inward, spiritual, and therefore more international themes. And yet even Thomas’s later religious poetry should be understood in the context of his distinctly national concerns, as indeed many of the pieces in his Selected Prose, as well as passages in his most recent work, The Echoes Return Slow, make clear.A shorter version of this essay was given as a peer reviewed paper at the annual conference of the Modern Language Association (MLA), 1989 (Session on Exile and Language)
Milczące życie liter. O związku języka i przyrody w poezji R.S. Thomasa
No full textJoanna SoćkoSilent Life of Letters. On Interconnections between Language and Nature in the Poetry of R.S. Thomas.The essay sets out to explore R.S. Thomas’ (1913–2000) vision of the problematic relations between the man, the nature and their Creator. In the context of contemporary critique as well as the 20th century, post-husserlian philosophy, the author analyses Thomas’ cosmological poems and represents, on the one hand, the place that both man and God take in the creation and, on the other, the sacramental relationship between the human and the nature. What is important from this perspective is the material existence of both man and nature, which enables mutual infiltration that leads to discovery of imperceptible dimension of materiality, which, in turn, influences both human consciousness and language. This is why the author asks about the role of science in Thomas’ poetry and about the influence that “the machine” has on language and consciousness.Joanna SoćkoSilent Life of Letters. On Interconnections between Language and Nature in the Poetry of R.S. Thomas.The essay sets out to explore R.S. Thomas’ (1913–2000) vision of the problematic relations between the man, the nature and their Creator. In the context of contemporary critique as well as the 20th century, post-husserlian philosophy, the author analyses Thomas’ cosmological poems and represents, on the one hand, the place that both man and God take in the creation and, on the other, the sacramental relationship between the human and the nature. What is important from this perspective is the material existence of both man and nature, which enables mutual infiltration that leads to discovery of imperceptible dimension of materiality, which, in turn, influences both human consciousness and language. This is why the author asks about the role of science in Thomas’ poetry and about the influence that “the machine” has on language and consciousness
Chameleon poet: R.S. Thomas and the literary tradition
No full textFor many decades, R.S. Thomas has been portrayed according to terms that he himself helped to define. Drawing on the poet's status as a passionate defender of the Welsh nation, scholars have followed his lead in emphasising the Welsh credentials and dimensions of his work, tacitly affirming his chosen cultural identity. Chameleon Poet, however, goes against the grain of previous studies by revealing Thomas as profoundly indebted to the English literary canon. Ultimately, Thomas emerges as a classic example of what Keats famously described as the 'chameleon poet', and through this prism S.J. Perry illuminates the various dimensions of his relationship with the literary tradition. Through detailed consideration of Thomas's life and writing and extensive archival research into his reading and correspondence, Perry examines Thomas's early immersion in the work of the English Romantics, through to his discovery of Irish and Scottish writing, his response to key poetic figures, such as Herbert, Tennyson, Edward Thomas and T.S. Eliot, his involvement with the influential journal Critical Quarterly, which inspired a creative dialogue with esteemed contemporaries like Ted Hughes and Philip Larkin, and his late engagement with the traditions of the elegy as conceived within Thomas Hardy's Poems of 1912-13. As well as suggesting new readings and associations, this groundbreaking exposition of R.S. Thomas's art forms part of a wider investigation into the nature of the British poetic tradition and archipelagic identity, showing how Thomas's Welshness was in fact a hybrid construct, emerging from his imaginative interaction with the literary cultures of England, Scotland and Ireland as much as those of his homeland
Rhythm, Composition, Syntax and Semantics in R.S. Thomas’ “No”, “Kneeling” and “Via Negativa”
No full textL’objectif premier de cet article est de proposer une analyse sémiotique de trois poèmes de R.S. Thomas. Ce matériau de recherche permet de 1— mettre au jour l’utilisation idiosyncratique de procédés poétiques, 2— d’illustrer la juxtaposition fonctionnelle de plusieurs unités de composition (comme le pied, l’hémistiche, le vers, la strophe, la phrase, le texte dans son intégralité), et 3— de souligner les tensions paradigmatiques et syntagmatiques à l’œuvre entre les divers niveaux textuels particuliers, et à l’intérieur de ces mêmes niveaux. Plutôt que de se concentrer sur l’interprétation unifiée de poèmes particuliers, cet article se concentre sur la complexité de fonctions attribuées à des unités de composition individuelles. L’analyse fonctionnelle des relations qu’entretiennent rythme, composition, syntaxe et sémantique dans les poèmes de R.S. Thomas y est traitée comme la base d’interprétation de ces mêmes poèmes. L’arrière-plan méthodologique de cet article se fonde sur des écoles de critique littéraire d’Europe Centrale et d’Europe de l’Est, telles que le formalisme russe, l’école de Prague et la tradition structurale polonaise, et la sémiotique de Tartu.The main objective of this article is to present a semiotic analysis of three poems by R.S. Thomas. The research material enables me: 1—to exemplify idiosyncratic employment of poetic devices; 2—to illustrate functional juxtaposition of various compositional units (such as a metrical foot, a hemistich, a line, a stanza, a sentence, an entire text); and 3—to underline paradigmatic and syntagmatic tensions between/within particular textual levels. Rather than focus on a unified interpretation of particular poems, I concentrate on the complexity of functions that are ascribed to individual compositional units. The functional analysis of the relations between rhythm, composition, syntax and semantics in the selected poems of R.S. Thomas is treated as the groundwork for their interpretation. The methodological background for this paper encompasses Central and Eastern European schools of literary studies such as Russian formalism, the Prague and Polish structural schools, and Tartu semiotics
R.S. Thomas: poetic horizons
No full text© 2014 Dr. Karolina Alicja TrappThis thesis engages with the poetry of R.S. Thomas. Surprisingly enough, although acclaim for Thomas as a major figure on the twentieth century’s literary scene has been growing perceptibly, academic scholarship has not as yet produced a full-scale study devoted specifically to the poetic character of Thomas’s writings. This thesis aims to fill that gap. Instead of mining the poetry for psychological, social, or political insights into Thomas himself, I take the verse itself as the main object of investigation.
My concern is with the poetic text as an artefact. The main assumption here is that a literary work conveys its meaning not only via particular words and sentences, governed by the grammar of a given language, but also through additional artistic patterning. Creating a new set of multi-sided relations within the text, this “supercode” leads to semantic enrichment. Accordingly, my goal is to scrutinize a given poem’s artistic organization by analysing its component elements as they come together and function in a whole text.
Interpretations of particular poems form the basis for conclusions about Thomas’s poetics more generally. Strategies governing his poetic expression are explored in relation to four types of experience which are prominent in his verse: the experience of faith, of the natural world, of another human being, and of art. In the process, the horizons of Thomas’s poetic style are sketched, encompassing a lyrical verse which is also a verse given over to reflection. In this study, his poetry emerges as personal and based on individual experience; however, that experience is at the same time accorded a more universal dimension.
By way of conclusion, the present thesis sets Thomas’s writing within the context of literary tradition, highlighting his connections with Romanticism, seventeenth-century poetry, Modernist verse, and other literary movements. This study highlights the fact that Thomas’s literary models are still poorly understood. Examinations of his poetics are important for a fuller understanding of the poet’s achievement in literary history. In offering the first overview of Thomas’s poetic strategies, this thesis lays the groundwork for such future explorations
Versión de Manuel Alvarez de Toledo Morenés Versión bilingüe en verso de una selección de sus ultimos poemas (1972-1982)
No full textR.S. Thomas es un poeta que busca la verdad aunque el corazón proteste.
Busca la honestidad intelectual sin aceptar compromiso alguno. Su poesía contrasta notablemente con la de otro poeta, también llamado Thomas y también de este siglo: Dylan Thomas. R.S. Thomas se hace preguntas sobre el cosmos y su realidad, con ritmos rotos y tonos indignados. Transmite el sentido del dolor y del aislamiento. Analiza la palabra y la espera de lo inesperado y bello.
Thomas encuentra la Cruz en el centro de todos los fenómenos naturales. Parece que la naturaleza, para Thomas, prefiere el dolor al amor. El destino del hombre es la Cruz y la duda. Pero su actitud no es egocentrista sino de una gran compasión por la gente. Para su poesía son fundamentales las vidas de los demás
A proposal for reforming official economic forecasting
No full textPaper prepared for the Treasury Select Committee on Official Economic Forecasting
“Da qualche parte tra la fede e il dubbio”: Otto poesie da Counterpoint (1990)
No full textSi presentano, nella traduzione italiana a cura di R.A. Henderson e Pietro Deandrea, otto poesie tratte dalla raccolta Counterpoint (1990) del poeta gallese R.S. Thomas.Eight poems from the collection Counterpoint (1990) by Welsh poet R.S. Thomas are presented here, in the Italian translation by R.A. Henderson and Pietro Deandrea
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