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This article investigates Alexis Wright’s novel Carpentaria (2006) through the lens of the mimetic theory developed by René Girard, which I combined with Jean Price-Mars’ definition of “collective bovarism” and Umberto Eco’s narrative semiotics. In my close reading of the novel, I explore how the author exposes the detrimental mimetic mechanisms hidden behind characters’ behaviours and relationships to articulate a discourse on the risks of assimilation and the necessity for Aboriginal resistance to neocolonialism. I argue that in Carpentaria the emulation of the dominant society’s values and beliefs by assimilated Indigenous characters results in the social disintegration and vulnerability of the Indigenous communities. Not only do mimetic mechanisms negatively affect the epistemic systems of Aboriginal characters in terms of preparedness to climate change, but they also undermine their social cohesion and physical survival. Furthermore, investigating the text at a semiotic level, I identified some thematic isotopies that Wright uses to emphasise the racial bias and dehumanising attitudes towards black people embedded in the neocolonial gaze. Prioritising the textual dimension of the novel, my approach focuses on how the sociocultural and physical vulnerability of the Indigenous characters is depicted at a philosophical, rhetorical and narratological level. My investigation focuses on four narrative places: the dump, the city, the Pricklebush and the ocean.

This article provides an overview of the field of psychohistory, with an emphasis on deMAUSE's psychogenic theory. It includes an introduction, a discussion of origins, methods—particularly the trauma model, resources, and contact information. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0001113

The aim of this study was to explore longitudinal relationships between organizational factors (workload and procedural justice) and targets and perpetrators of workplace bullying. We compared several causal models (baseline or stability, normal, reversed and reciprocal models). The sample comprised 286 employees from two companies in Madrid, and we used a time-lag of one year. Results of structural equation modeling analyses showed that reciprocal model fit the data the best. We found that T1 workload was related positively to T2 target of bullying, and T1 procedural justice was related negatively to T2 target of bullying. There was a significant reverse effect of T1 target of bullying on T2 workload. Furthermore, we found a reciprocal relationship between being the target and the perpetrator of bullying. Overall, these findings emphasize the need to extend the traditional causal models of workplace bullying to more dynamic approaches.

The aim of this study is to test in a real political context whether or not a change in the beliefs which were fueling the political violence in question is required during the advent of a peace process. Two hypothesis are considered: a) in the case of these beliefs not being modified, there will be difficulties to reach an atmosphere of trust between both parts and the process will fail, and b) if this happens, the groups will develop more extreme beliefs against the opponent. The results obtained through a textual analysis support both hypotheses. During the failure of the peace process, neither the strategy of the delegitimization of the opponent nor the identities in conflict were modified. Consequently, when the process failed, responsibility for this failure was attributed to the opponent, and, at the same time, delegitimization against the opponent intensified.