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The theories and methods used by Eduardo Casanova in his field work in the northern sector of the Humahuaca Gorge (between Angosto de Perchel and the source of the Humahuaca Gorge, Jujuy) are analyzed. These surveys took place in the 1930s and encompassed the following sites: Pukara de La Cueva, Pukara Morado, Pueblo Viejo del Morado, Pueblo Viejo de La Cueva, Coctaca, Pukara de Humahuaca, and Pukara de Calete. The author’s vision regarding the existence of a culturally uniform “Humahuaca Culture” is reflected on what he published on these sites; I argue that this interpretation persisted for years in other researchers of the same area. In addition, by analyzing these productions we can evaluate the archaeo-anthropological methodologies and techniques used then. The aspects under discussion and analysis represent another contribution to the study of the development of the history of archeology in the Argentine Northwest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This introduction positions the essays in this special issue in relation to Pascale Casanova's model of inequality and value in the world republic of letters. Arguing that the vernacular has been an overlooked or underelaborated concept in subsequent world literary theorizations, the essay then proceeds to discuss the shifting value and nature of the vernacular – a concept that only has meaning if it is understood relationally. Both the vernacular and world literature are therefore utilized as heuristic tools, enabling dialogues across entrenched linguistic, cultural and theoretical boundaries. Hence, the unorthodox combination of South African, North American, Indian, Swedish, Russian, Mozambican and Latin American perspectives presented here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Love has an inherently contradictory nature, whichever form it takes : misogynistic, misandric, narcissistic, romantic, passionate. The realm of love is an arena with a perpetual duel. The characters themselves substantiate a dual, contradictory nature. A paradox exists even in the dual nature of a misogynist: he hates the woman while loving her. Don Juan is in the same sense as the conqueror conquered by femininity, obsessed with possession. Unlike Casanova, a non-dangerous hedonist, Don Juan is temptation which dismays and attracts at the same time, offering the main ingredient of seduction: the power of illusion. Other notorious seducers of literature are fatal seducers, characters like Tristan, Abelard, Don Quixote, etc., passioned lovers, desiring not femininity like Don Juan, but the unique woman. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes a new reading of the relationship between place and symbolic capital, arguing that certain loci are able to consecrate literary works through inspiration rather than reception, publication and circulation. Taking the city of Bruges as an exemplar, it examines its representation by Baudelaire, Rodenbach and Rilke, arguing that Rilke's poetic transformation enables it to transcend its status as a 'dead city' and Decadent trope. By combining the expressive possibilities of Symbolism with elements of the realist chronotope, Bruges can also be read as a future city that performs itself. It thereby provides a different illustration of Pierre Bourdieu's argument that habitus can function as a form of symbolic capital. If, as Pascale Casanova argues, Brussels was the 'capital of Symbolism', in this reading Bruges constitutes an alternative Symbolist capital: another example of the capital and its double. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims at analysing the early reception by the Dutch literary press of Le Roi des Aulnes, the 1970 novel by the well-known French author Michel Tournier (1924). In this case of literary border transfer, the interpretations and qualifications expressed by Dutch critics are compared to those made by their German and French counterparts. As it turns out, early Dutch criticism of Tournier's novel is a hybrid one, oscillating between a more German-orientated, historical interpretation and a psychological, symbolical interpretation, which is typical of French criticism of Le Roi des Aulnes. Moreover, Dutch criticism of Tournier's novel is far from outspoken, lacking any debate or overtly negative criticism, especially in comparison with certain critics in the German press, such as Jean Améry. As such, no attempt is made to evaluate Tournier's novel within a distinct Dutch frame of reference, which might be explained by the fact that Dutch critics know that their literary field is a peripheral one, dominated by literary fields such as those in France and Germany. It is also argued that the Dutch, as a polyglot nation, are able to review Le Roi des Aulnes at a very early stage in its original, French version, which could have created a bias towards French criticism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recognised for his adventurous existence throughout all Eighteenth century Europe but it should be stressed that, besides all of his gallant adventures, Casanova gives in his Memoirs a large place to medicine. Three main chapters will detail this little known aspect of the master seducer: Casanova's diseases, Casanova and Medicine, Casanova and physicians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper utilises the concept of the charlatan in order to analyse the fortunes of two Jewish 'false messiahs', Wolf Eibeschutz and Jacob Frank. As the Encycopedie put it, charlatanry is 'the vice of him who strives to recommend himself, or things belonging to him, as being endowed with imaginary qualities'. While charlatans obviously existed in every age and 'every class had its charlatans,' in some periods charlatanry was particularly prominent and widespread. Thus, charlatanry was especially likely to appear in the periods of social, cultural, and scientific change, in which empirical research out ran theory, and the rapid development of technology eluded the abilities of its conceptualisation, let alone the possibilities of explaining it to the general public. In other words, charlatanry was likely to hold sway whenever the 'fringe of the inexplicable' became especially large, and the gap between those in the know and the rest of the population particularly wide. The mid-eighteenth century was the golden age of European charlatanry. Members of the pan-European guild of the itinerant charlatans drifted from court to court, rotated from salon to salon, exchanging experiences, swapping mistresses, and underwriting each other's false bills of exchange. The most important representatives of this type were contemporaries and often knew each other. The last part of the paper discusses contacts between Jacob Frank and Giacomo Casanova. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Subjugated to the linguistic and literary norms of the Netherlands and, at the same time, confined to the borders of the multilingual state of Belgium, Flemish authors have always had to struggle hard to legitimize their cultural identity. After the Second World War, however, Flemish literature suffered from an existential crisis due to the fact that a small but prominent part of the Flemish Movement had collaborated with the German occupiers. Publishers therefore had to explore new ways in which to turn Flemish literature into a commercially and artistically successful commodity in Flanders and the Netherlands. Introducing a theoretical framework that was conceived of by Pierre Bourdieu and further elaborated on by Pascale Casanova in The World Republic of Letters, this article will discuss and interpret the ways in which Flemish publishers have edited, designed, and marketed literary texts, and explore the positive and negative effects which strategies of assimilation and differentiation have had on the reception of those texts. The reading practices engaged in by literary gatekeepers, both in Belgium and in the Netherlands, are shown to have been a profoundly influential force in the history of Flemish literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the role of magic and its influence on Casanova's myth, and it elucidates a literary problem in Histoire de ma vie that has puzzled Casanovists since the publication of Memoirs.To say that the Enlightenment was the era of reason could be perceived as a truism by literary specialists. Magic and alchemy were very much in vogue among philosophers as well as charlatans. To this effect, the Memoirs of Casanova represents a precious testimony of this dichotomy that was not unusual in the eighteenth century. The cabbalistic episodes play an important role in Histoire de ma vie, but paradoxically the author strongly denies the value he gave to these activities. The analysis of certain excerpts shows that Casanova acts to gain his readers' trust to surreptitiously communicate his capacity to perform the impossible. The ductility he confers to words allows him to present himself as a fake magician as well as a true philosopher. However, after a careful reading, this picture falls apart and reveals a powerful sorcerer who can still remain a philosopher. Magic is introduced as an essential element of the author's destiny and is one aspect of his legend. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On one hand, we have shown in this article how text and meta- text are treated dissimilarly when referred to international best-sellers, that is to say, bestsellers which are made to be translated best-sellers; and, on the other hand, how, through specific features, translated bestsellers follow a systematized pattern to achieve what Venuti calls effect of transparency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In zebrafish, the endoderm originates at the blastula stage from the most marginal blastomeres. Through a series of complex morphogenetic movements and differentiation events, the endodermal germ layer gives rise to the epithelial lining of the digestive tract as well as its associated organs such as the liver, pancreas, and swim bladder. How endodermal cells differentiate into distinct cell types such as hepatocytes or endocrine and exocrine pancreatic cells remains a major question. In a forward genetic screen for genes regulating endodermal organ development, we identified mutations at the shiri locus that cause defects in the development of a number of endodermal organs including the liver and pancreas. Detailed phenotypic analyses indicate that these defects are partially due to a reduction in endodermal expression of the hairy/enhancer of split-related gene, her5, at mid to late gastrulation stages. Using the Tg(0.7her5:EGFP)ne2067 line, we show that her5 is expressed in the endodermal precursors that populate the pharyngeal region as well as the organ-forming region. We also find that knocking down her5 recapitulates some of the endodermal phenotypes of shiri mutants, further revealing the role of her5 in endoderm development. Positional cloning reveals that shiri encodes Med12, a regulatory subunit of the transcriptional Mediator complex recently associated with two human syndromes. Additional studies indicate that Med12 modulates the ability of Casanova/Sox32 to induce sox17 expression. Thus, detailed phenotypic analyses of embryos defective in a component of the Mediator complex have revealed new insights into discrete aspects of vertebrate endoderm development, and provide possible explanations for the craniofacial and digestive system defects observed in humans with mutations in MED12. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In zebrafish development, Nodal signaling is critical for the induction of endoderm and mesoderm. Three transcription factors downstream of Nodal, Bonnie and Clyde (Bon), Faust (Fau)/Gata5 and Casanova (Cas), are required for endoderm induction. However, it is not yet fully understood how the Nodal signaling pathway regulates the decision process of endoderm and mesoderm induction. In this study, we focused on Fgf signaling, downstream of Nodal signaling, during endoderm induction. We found that activation of Fgf signaling decreases the number of cas-expressing endodermal cells. Conversely, inhibition of this signaling increases the number of endodermal cells without affecting the expression of Nodal, Nodal antagonists, bon or fau/gata5. Inhibition of Fgf signaling in endoderm mutants suggests that this signaling negatively regulates cas expression by a pathway parallel to Bon and Fau/Gata5 in the molecular cascade leading to endoderm. Furthermore, activation of Fgf signaling can overcome Cas-mediated abrogation of mesodermal gene expression. Altogether, these results suggest that Fgf signaling negatively regulates endoderm induction, possibly through repression of cas expression and down-regulation of Cas function. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In vertebrates, the embryonic dorsoventral asymmetry is regulated by the bone morphogenetic proteins (Bmp) activity gradient. In the present study, we have used dorsalized swirl (bmp2b) and ventralized chordino (chordin) zebrafish mutants to investigate the effects of dorsoventral signalling on endoderm patterning and on the differentiation and positioning of its derivatives. Alterations of dorsoventral Bmp signalling do not perturb the induction of endodermal precursors, as shown by normal amounts of cells expressing cas and sox17 in swirl and chordino gastrulae, but affect dramatically the expression pattern of her5, a regulator of endoderm anteroposterior patterning in zebrafish. In particular, increased levels of Bmp signalling in chordino gastrulae are associated with a markedly reduced her5 expression domain, that may be abolished by injecting bmp2b mRNA. Conversely, in swirl mutants, lacking Bmp2b, the her5 expression domain is expanded. Thus, a gradient of Bmp2b signalling defines the extension of the her5 expression domain at gastrulation and the allocation of anterior endodermal precursors. A balanced Bmp2b signalling is also required for the normal development of the pancreas, as shown by the sharp reduction of the pancreatic primordium in swirl embryos and its expansion in chordino mutants. In the latter, at 3 days post-fertilization, the increased Bmp signalling does not compromise the endocrine/exocrine pancreas compartmentalization, but the right/left positioning of the pancreas and liver is randomized. Our results suggest that by regulating the expression of her5, the Bmp2b/Chordin gradient directs the anteroposterior patterning of endoderm in zebrafish embryos. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In the zebrafish embryo, the mesoderm and endoderm originate from common precursors and segregate during gastrulation by mechanisms that are largely unknown. Understanding how the signalling pathways that regulate endoderm and mesoderm formation interact is crucial to understanding how the germ layers are established. Here, we have analysed how the FGF and BMP pathways interact with Nodal signalling during the process of endoderm formation. We found that activation of the FGF/ERK pathway disrupts endoderm formation in the embryo and antagonizes the ability of an activated form of Tar/Acvr1b to induce endoderm at the animal pole. By contrast, inhibition of FGF signalling increases the number of endodermal precursors and potentiates the ability of Tar*/Acvr1b to induce endoderm at the animal pole. Using a pharmacological inhibitor of the FGF receptor, we show that reducing FGF signalling partially rescues the deficit of endoderm precursors in bon mutant embryos. Furthermore, we found that overexpression of BMPs compromises endoderm formation, suggesting that formation of endoderm precursors is negatively regulated by BMPs on the ventral side. We show that simultaneous inhibition of the FGF/Ras and BMP pathways results in a dramatic increase in the number of endoderm precursors. Taken together, these data strongly suggest that BMP and FGF-ERK pathways cooperate to restrict the number of endodermal progenitors induced in response to Nodal signalling. Finally, we investigated the molecular basis for the FGF-MAPK-dependent repression of endoderm formation. We found that FGF/ERK signalling causes phosphorylation of Casanova/Sox32, an important regulator of endoderm determination, and provide evidence that this phosphorylation attenuates its ability to induce sox17. These results identify a molecular mechanism whereby FGF attenuates Nodal-induced endodermal transcription factors and highlight a potential mechanism whereby mesoderm and endoderm fates could segregate from each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]