Électricité animale, magnétisme animal, galvanisme universel : À la recherche de l'identité entre l'homme et la nature / Animal electricity, animal magnetism, universal galvanism : In search of universal harmony between man and nature

Feminist authors have long been trying to alter the patriarchal structure of the Western society through different aspects. One of these aspects, if not the strongest, is the struggle to overcome centuries long dominance of male authors who have created a masculine history, culture and literature. As recent works of women authors reveal, the strongest possibility of actually achieving an equalitarian society lies beneath the chance of rewriting the history of Western literature. Since the history of Western literature relies on dichotomies that are reminiscences of modernity, the solution to overcome the inequality between the two sexes seems to be to rewrite the primary sources that have influenced the cultural heritage of literature itself. The most dominant dichotomies that shape this literary heritage are represented through the bonds between the concepts of women/man and nature/culture. As one of the most influential epics that depict these dichotomies, Homer's Odysseus reveals how poetry strengthens the authority of the male voice. In order to define the ideal "man", Homer uses a wide scope of animal imagery while forming the identities of male characters. Margaret Atwood, on the other hand, is not contended with Homer's poem in that it never narrates the story from the side of women. As a revisionist mythmaker, Atwood takes the famous story of Odysseus, yet this time presents it from the perspective of Penelope, simultaneously playing on the animal imagery. Within this frame, I intend to explore in this paper how the animal imagery in Homer's most renowned Odysseus functions as a reinforcing tool in the creation of masculine identities and how Margaret Atwood's The Penelopiad defies this formation of identities with the aim of narrating the story from the unheard side, that of the women who are eminently present yet never heard.

Download Full-text

„Raps“

POETICA ◽

10.30965/25890530-05003006 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 50 (3-4) ◽

pp. 282-313

Author(s):

Robert Stockhammer

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Present Article ◽

Subject Matter ◽

Literary Studies ◽

Close Reading ◽

Literary Traditions ◽

Man And Nature ◽

Cultivated Plant ◽

Materiality Of Language

Abstract The recent controversy about the possibility of defining a new geological era called ‘Anthropocene’ has far-ranging consequences. The new notion forces us to rethink the dichotomy between the entities formerly referred to as men and nature and to conceive of their relation as an interrelation. The relevance of these considerations for literary studies is not limited to the anthropocene as a subject matter of literature, or to the possible use of literature as a means of enhancing the reader’s awareness of climate change. Rather, what is at stake is the relation of language to the new interrelation between man and nature, including the poetical and metalinguistic functions that emphasize the materiality of language. The present article explores the relation between the materiality of language and the materiality of things by way of a close reading of a single poem written by Marcel Beyer. Devoted to the cultivated plant rape, the literary traditions which this poem invokes reach beyond nature lyrics into georgic. An excursus recalls this genre of agriculture poetry and distinguishes it from pastoral, especially with regard to its use of language.

Download Full-text

Die Konstruktion von Natur – Central Park neu besichtigt | The Construction of Nature – Central Park Revisited

Schweizerische Zeitschrift fur Forstwesen ◽

10.3188/szf.2005.0288 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 156 (8) ◽

pp. 288-296

Author(s):

Vittorio Magnago Lampugnani

Keyword(s):

New York ◽

Hudson River ◽

The United States ◽

Central Park ◽

Housing Developments ◽

Hudson River School ◽

The North ◽

Man And Nature ◽

The 19Th Century ◽

The Relationship

In the first half of the 19th century scientific philosophers in the United States, such as Emerson and Thoreau, began to pursue the relationship between man and nature. Painters from the Hudson River School discovered the rural spaces to the north of New York and began to celebrate the American landscape in their paintings. In many places at this time garden societies were founded, which generated widespread support for the creation of park enclosures While the first such were cemeteries with the character of parks, housing developments on the peripheries of towns were later set in generous park landscapes. However, the centres of the growing American cities also need green spaces and the so-called «park movement»reached a first high point with New York's Central Park. It was not only an experimental field for modern urban elements, but even today is a force of social cohesion.

Download Full-text

PIOPLE. INFORMATION. DEGRADATION

Биосферная совместимость: человек, регион, технологии ◽

10.21869/23-11-1518-2019-27-3-44-53 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 44-53

Author(s):

Andrey Varlamov ◽

Vladimir Rimshin

Keyword(s):

Information Theory ◽

Mathematical Theory ◽

Maximum Information ◽

Building Models ◽

Man And Nature ◽

History Of ◽

Nature And Society ◽

Relationship Of ◽

Link Information ◽

The Relationship

Considered the issues of interaction between man and nature. Noted that this interaction is fundamental in the existence of modern civilization. The question of possible impact on nature and society with the aim of preserving the existence of human civilization. It is shown that the study of this issue goes towards the crea-tion of models of interaction between nature and man. Determining when building models is information about the interaction of man and nature. Considered information theory from the viewpoint of interaction between nature and man. Noted that currently information theory developed mainly as a mathematical theory. The issues of interaction of man and nature, the availability and existence of information in the material sys-tem is not studied. Indicates the link information with the energy terms control large flows of energy. For con-sideration of the interaction of man and nature proposed to use the theory of degradation. Graphs are pre-sented of the information in the history of human development. Reviewed charts of population growth. As a prediction it is proposed to use the simplest based on the theory of degradation. Consideration of the behav-ior of these dependencies led to the conclusion about the existence of communication energy and information as a feature of the degradation of energy. It justifies the existence of border life ( including humanity) at the point with maximum information. Shows the relationship of energy and time using potential energy.

Download Full-text

De quincey and animal magnetism

Notes and Queries ◽

10.1093/nq/s10-vii.175.345a ◽

1907 ◽

Vol s10-VII (175) ◽

pp. 345-345

Author(s):

William E. A. Axon

Keyword(s):

Animal Magnetism

Download Full-text

Jules Bernard Luys on magnetic pathology

History of Psychiatry ◽

10.1177/0957154x19830955 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 30 (3) ◽

pp. 359-374

Author(s):

Carlos S Alvarado

Keyword(s):

Nervous System ◽

Visual Perception ◽

Animal Magnetism

In the mesmeric movement, one of the phenomena cited to defend the existence of magnetic and nervous forces was the visual perception of them in the form of luminous emanations from people, or effluvia. This Classic Text is an 1892 article by French neurologist, Jules Bernard Luys (1828–97), about the observation of such effluvia by hypnotized individuals. Interestingly, the luminous phenomena perceived from mentally diseased individuals and from healthy ones had particular properties. Luys’s interest in this and other unorthodox phenomena were consistent with ideas of animal magnetism in the late neo-mesmeric movement, as well as with some physicalistic conceptions of hypnosis and the nervous system held at the time.

Download Full-text