FULGOR

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FULGOR, Flinders University Languages Group Online Review, is a freely accessible, fully refereed international e-journal, normally published twice a year by the Department of Languages , Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia.

The journal aims to publish high-quality academic work produced by scholars associated with tertiary institutions who are conducting research in the areas of French, Italian, Modern Greek and Spanish Studies, Applied linguistics, Language Education, Migration Studies. Previously-unpublished papers are invited from researchers in both Australian and overseas universities. Postgraduate and Honours students are also encouraged to submit papers. The journal from time to time will publish special issues, e.g. on a particular theme or containing a selection of conference papers. The journal reserves the right to publish invited papers. It is happy to receive reader feedback and to publish news of coming events and conferences.

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Now showing 1 - 20 of 70

The return of an English pluperfect subjunctive?
(Department of Languages, Flinders University, 2002-03) Fennell, Trevor Garth
The introduction of the superfluous morpheme [әv] into past unfulfilled if-clauses in modern English raises serious questions of analysis. How is one to parse a clause like: “If I had’ve known that...”? It is proposed that the intrusive morpheme can be viewed as a marker of subjunctivity, whereby “real” and “unreal” pluperfects can be explicitly distinguished.
Carlo Emilio Gadda's Luigi di Francia
(Department of Languages, Flinders University, 2002-03) Baker, Margaret Anne
The work that Gadda prepared for publication from the series of broadcasts on Louis XIII-XV of France during 1952 has largely been overlooked by critics. It is the aim of this article to show that, although there are certain unusual features in the text of I Luigi di Francia which arise from its origins in radio scripts, the work is recognisably Gaddian in its main stylistic and thematic concerns. In tracing some of the background to the text, due acknowledgement is made of the scholarly work already done on the history of the text by Gianmarco Gaspari, the compiler of the Notes on this text for the Garzanti edition of Gadda's Opere; Gaspari's implied conclusion that this is not the least Gaddian of the author's work, and his important conclusions about the degree to which the work was based on source material, offers the opportunity here for an analysis and explicit statement of the nature of the text and of its reflection of significant points in the span of Gadda's writing.
Alexia: Antigone Kefala's overdue fairytale
(Department of Languages, Flinders University, 2002-03) Tsianikas, Michael
The aim of this paper is to examine the way in which Antigone Kefala constructs her story to become an author. She narrates her experience in her book Alexia (Antigone Kefala"s persona) in a fairytale manner. In the book we learn that Alexia spent some of the most important years of her young life in New Zealand, as a migrant. The most important part of this experience is based on her difficulty to come to terms with, and learn, a new language (English). What begins by being a traumatic experience for Alexia, later evolves into a creative force that guides her decision to become an author. In that way the English language becomes the most powerful, the most creative and the most productive tool in her life. In order to challenge Alexia's process of becoming an author, her experience is compared to that of two famous French authors, Aragon and Sartre, who also decided to become authors in their childhood years. There was an obvious parallel between the French authors’ experiences through their first language, which corresponded in an astonishing way to Alexia's. Therefore, no matter whether one wishes to express oneself in one’s mother tongue or a foreign language, the process of becoming an author is always to consider a language as an unknown field of strange sounds, musicality and scattered grains of meanings.
Matelda in the Terrestrial Paradise
(Department of Languages, Flinders University, 2002-03) Glenn, Diana Cavuoto
This analysis of the enigmatic figure of Matelda, guardian of the Terrestrial Paradise in Dante's Purgatorio, considers both the unresolved question of Matelda's historical identity, in particular whether Dante is alluding to the historical personage, Countess Matilda of Tuscany (1046-1115), and the numerous critical glosses that have emerged over the years, whereby Matelda has been interpreted as a symbolic figure, for example, as the biblical typology of the active/contemplative life, as the representation of human wisdom, or in a variety of other symbolic guises. Whilst alluding to recognisable idyllic poetic images, such as the donna angelicata of the vernacular tradition, Dante's conceptualisation of Matelda is nevertheless aligned to the pilgrim-poet's own development in via of a redemptive poetics in which the writer articulates an urgent message of reform, at both the secular and ecclesiastical levels. The linking of Matelda with the notion of the loss of the prelapsarian state of humankind's innocence and her supervision of the penitential cleansing rites performed on Dante-protagonist, in anticipation of his ascent to Paradise in the company of Beatrice, represent crucial moments in Dante's mapping out of prudential history for his readers and his call for a recovery of Christian values.
Reading in a foreign language: Strategic variation between readers of differing proficiency
(Department of Languages, Flinders University, 2002-03) Bouvet, Eric James
For university language students who are required to deal with literary texts for linguistic or literary purposes, there is hardly any transitional stage between short adapted expository texts, read in the early stages of language learning, and complex literary texts, encountered at university in the literature class. Language readers must then make a substantial mental effort to understand texts intended for a native readership. In challenging reading mode, the quality of reading depends on the efficiency of problem-solving operations, including evaluative and executive strategies, put into place in order to attempt to fill in the comprehension gaps present in complex texts. Although reading strategies used by foreign language learners have been identified and categorised by research, the conditions of their use and their relationships are still unclear. Moreover, to my knowledge, no empirical investigation has focused specifically on comprehension monitoring in the context of foreign language literary texts. Literature instruction would benefit from such a study. Using verbal reports to elicit data, this study proposes to examine how proficient and less proficient university students of French, at intermediate level of instruction, implement problem-solving strategies when reading literary texts. Strategies such as guessing at words, consulting a dictionary, and translating mentally, are studied in relation to their contribution to the overall monitoring cycle. The results obtained indicate that proficient and less proficient readers tend to use the same strategies but with different purposes. The study demonstrates that the major difference between the two groups of respondents resides in ability some readers have to integrate meaning and construct text in a cohesive and synthetic fashion.
The difficulty surrounding the interpretation of the eighth Bolgia of Dante's Inferno
(Department of Languages, Flinders University, 2003-03) Hawkes, Adrian
The final voyage of Ulysses, which is recounted by the Greek hero in the eighth bolgia of Dante’s Inferno, has given rise to much critical debate. An authoritative reading of the episode has been difficult to establish because Ulysses’ monologue appears detached from its context. This occurs as a result of the grandeur of the hero, but also because the voyage seems to have very little in common with what else we hear about the sinners of the eighth bolgia. Depending on whether one looks at the episode of Ulysses, or the episode of Guido – also a sinner in the eighth bolgia – one is likely to come away with entirely different readings of the moral condition of the sinners in this region of Hell. While I do not propose to offer a precise definition of the sin of Ulysses and Guido (for example, fraudulent counsel or misuse of intellect), I would like to suggest that the only manner in which one can approach the sin of the eighth bolgia is through understanding that there is a relationship between the final voyage of Ulysses and the details that we learn elsewhere of the sinners’ lives. It is only through a unified reading of the entire episode that it might be properly understood.
Upgrade Your French. M. Jubb (2002) [review]
(Department of Languages, Flinders University, 2003-03) Mrowa-Hopkins, Colette Marie
A review of 'Upgrade Your French' by M. Jubb (2002) published by Arnold 2002. ISBN 0 340 76345 0. This book was developed out of a need to offer students of French a user-friendly revision manual. Its format is that of a self-learning manual, which aims to provide learners with a systematic revision time of between 30 minutes to one hour every day for thirty days in preparation for the UK "A level" exam.
Is there language teaching after global English?
(Department of Languages, Flinders University, 2003-03) Lamy, Marie-Noelle
This study documents a case of language education decline, and the role that distance-teaching expertise, allied with Information and Communication Technology (ICT) experience, can play in alleviating the problem. In the United Kingdom a number of factors have led to a crisis in the teaching and learning of European Languages Other Than English (ELOTE). One of the main determiners is the dominance of English as a lingua franca for Continental Western European countries, and another the political reluctance of the part of British governments to engage fully with the European Union. In the country where English is the mother tongue, the position of ELOTE is particularly critical. After quantifying the decline in demand for these languages, I will look at different ways in which language-teaching professionals have attempted to fight back, and I will focus on the benefits that may be derived from a strategy that combines ICT capacity with distance-learning methodologies, using the UK Open University (UKOU) as an example. The lessons drawn by that institution in different discipline areas over two decades will be applied to languages.
Spanish Culture and Society: The Essential Glossary. B. Jordan (2002) [review]
(Department of Languages, Flinders University, 2003-03) Martin-Clark, Philip
A review of 'Spanish Culture and Society: The Essential Glossary' by B. Jordan published by Arnold 2002. ISBN 0 340 76341 8 (hardback) ISBN 0 340 76342 6 (paperback). This book is the second in Arnold’s ‘The Essential Glossary’ series and is about contemporary Spain and Spanish. The range of topics the book deals with is as broad as its title suggests and includes entries on seventeen areas of Spanish society and culture: architecture; cinema; cultural life; education; fashion and design; language and nationhood; leisure, consumption and food; literature; media and communications; music and dance; political life; religion; social issues; sport; trade, commerce and industry; visual and performing arts; and writers and intellectuals.
The role of the victim in the plays of Florencio Sánchez
(Department of Languages, Flinders University, 2003-03) Taler, Fiona
Florencio Sánchez was the first major playwright in Uruguay to treat themes relevant to his times and region. His prime concern was the portrayal of social-moral conflict in his society. His plays are divided into two main groups, those involved with rural life and those dealing with conflict in an urban setting. The urban plays expose the conflict seen in both poor and middle-class families and the rural ones expose the destruction of the family unit as old landowners are dispossessed of their land by unscrupulous speculators. This essay argues that although Sánchez’s main concern was to denounce corruption in society and to expose the victimisation of the weak, he enriches the dramatic texture of his plays by making the victims active participants. The victim is always able to articulate his or her dilemma and is given a choice of action, even if this choice is one between two evils. Frequently the survival of the family is pitched against the survival or wellbeing of the individual. Three plays have been chosen, two urban plays, En familia and La pobre gente and one rural play, Barraca abajo. The final conclusion has to be that the greed and corruption in the system are indeed destroying family unity, but that there is strength and energy found among those victimised which in some way contributes to the effect of victimisation. In the end, the choice is made by the victim.
L'email per imparare l'italiano: aspetti linguistici e contenutistici della comunicazione telematica in italiano L2
(Department of Languages, Flinders University, 2003-03) Pais Marden, Mariolina; Absalom, Matthew
The integration of electronic communication into the teaching and learning of languages has opened up new horizons. This paper discusses a project involving the use of email exchanges in the Italian program at the Australian National University. Approximately eighty students participated in the project which consisted of two iterations of a one-to-one email conversation. This article examines the language and content of the messages constructed by students in terms of the following features: -the implications of the physical, psychological and temporal distance inherent in email communication -the differences between email communication of native speakers and learners -the dialogic nature of email communication and its relationship to both written and spoken communication -the importance of “empty” messages -the creativity of expression and the relationship between form and content.
!Te toca! A New Communicative Spanish Course. Richard Pym and Mark Allison (2002) [review]
(Department of Languages, Flinders University, 2003-03) Lorenzin, Maria Elena
A review of !Te toca! A New Communicative Spanish Course by Richard Pym and Mark Allison published by Arnold 2002. ISBN 0 340 74073 6.
Io non ho paura by Niccolò Ammaniti (2001) [review]
(Department of Languages, Flinders University, 2003-12) Glenn, Diana Cavuoto
A review of 'Io non ho paura' (I'm Not Scared) by Niccolò Ammaniti published by Einaudi 2001. ISBN 88-06-14210-0 (Italian), ISBN 1 877008 46 X (English). In the torrid summer of 1978, while the grown-ups take refuge indoors behind drawn blinds, the first-person narrator, nine-year-old Michele Amitrano, is trudging about through the drought-stricken wheatfields in the stifling heat, keeping an eye on his five-year-old sister, Maria, while simultaneously fending off the bullish threats of gang-leader, il Teschio (“Skull”). Michele, now adult, recalls a harrowing episode from a childhood summer twenty-two years earlier.
Erec y Enide by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán (2003) [review]
(Department of Languages, Flinders University, 2003-12) Taler, Fiona
A review of 'Erec y Enide' by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán published by Debolsillo 2003. ISBN 84-9759-445-2 (vol. 511/1). The use of myth to illustrate the malaise of present day society is neither new nor original in contemporary literature, but it is not often attended by analysis of such scholarly splendour as it is within this text. Vázquez Montalbán’s novel 'Erec y Enide' is named after the work of the same name by Chrétien de Troyes (ca. 1175), in which the adventures of Geraint (Erec) are narrated as he drives his unfortunate wife, Enid (Enide) through innumerable dangers in order to prove his love for her as well as his valour as a knight of Arthur’s round table. In Vázquez Montalbán’s novel, Chrétien’s text is the most elaborately worked, but it is not the only Arthurian myth represented.
From Tobruk to Clare: the experiences of the Italian prisoner of war Luigi Bortolotti 1941-1946
(Department of Languages, Flinders University, 2003-12) O'Connor, Desmond John
The paper explores the personal account of an Italian prisoner of war, Luigi Bortolotti (1916-1980), who has left a 300-page diary manuscript that relates his experiences from the time of his capture in Tobruk in 1941 until he was repatriated to Italy in 1946. After being placed in camps in Ismailia and Suez, Bortolotti was shipped to Australia where he spent nearly three years in the POW camp at Hay (New South Wales). Early in 1944 he was sent to work on a farm in Clare, South Australia, a country town to which he would return to settle as a migrant in 1948. The paper follows Bortolotti’s daily, often mundane account of his life as a POW in the context of the events of the time and highlights the mental and physical stress and sense of hopelessness that he and many other Italian POWs felt in the Hay camp during their years of confinement. It re-evaluates what has too easily been labeled the “fair treatment” of Italian POWs in Australia and a wartime experience that has been called “not a bad thing”.
Skilled migration: a theoretical framework and the case of foreign researchers in Italy
(Department of Languages, Flinders University, 2003-12) Todisco, Enrico; Brandi, Maria Carolina; Tattolo, Giovanna
Different solutions are called for in order to resolve the difficulty of finding a satisfactory definition of migration. In this paper the authors propose dividing migratory movements into two distinct major categories: economic migration and non-economic migration. Economic migration can, in turn, be divided into two separate categories: mass migration and skilled migration. Both micro differences (that relate to single individuals) and macro differences (related to the economies of the countries involved) are analysed. In the category of skilled migrants are included people such as scientists and researchers, international consultants, employees of international organisations, managers of multinational businesses, professionals, clergy, artists, actors, tourism operators, athletes, specially qualified workers, military personnel, and university students. The characteristics of each group are illustrated in the paper. Since the traits that identify skilled migration are not generally considered negative, unlike the characteristics of mass migration, but have today become more and more a part of professional life, it is preferable not to talk any longer of “brain drain” but rather of “brain movements” or “brain circulation”. As an illustration of skilled migration, the present paper provides the results of a survey carried out in Italy in public research institutes. In the study, 241 especially designed questionnaires were collected from foreign researchers who were working in these research institutes in 2001. The paper analyses their socio-demographic characteristics, the typologies of employment, the duration of their stay in Italy, their reasons for moving and their return home.
Noticias: An Advanced Intermediate Content-Based Course by Alan Bell, Ana Maria Schwartz (2002) [review]
(Department of Languages, Flinders University, 2003-12) Lorenzin, Maria Elena
A review of 'Noticias: An Advanced Intermediate Content-Based Course' by Alan Bell and Ana Maria Schwartz published by McGraw-Hill 2002. ISBN 007233360X. 'Noticias', es un innovador método de español cuyo estudio integrado de la gramática ofrece interesantes opciones para un nivel que hasta hace muy poco no presentaba muchas alternativas. Su atrayente programa de actividades resulta apropiado para cursos del tercer nivel en los que se quiera incorporar contenidos motivadores para aprender la gramática de forma activa. Para cumplir con este objetivo, los autores introducen gradualmente una gran variedad de textos auténticos tomados de las más diversas fuentes del mundo hispanohablante.
Self-Constructing Women: Beyond the Shock of Baise-moi and A ma soeur!
(Department of Languages, Flinders University, 2003-12) Nettelbeck, Colin
Following the release of the French films Baise-moi (2000) by Virginie Despentes and Coralie Trinh Thi, and A ma soeur! (2001) by Catherine Breillat, the debate surrounding film pornography and censorship in France has escalated to vertiginous heights. This paper aims to situate the work of these radical female film-makers within the context of a changing cultural and social climate in contemporary France. It draws on the theories espoused by sociologist Henri Mendras, who posits the idea that French society has emerged from its “second revolution” as one that is free of fundamental conflict – a society in which women are better positioned than men to resist stereotype and create dynamism both collectively and personally. The argument revolves around the way in which the controversial films of Despentes and Breillat not only inform and challenge the theories espoused by Mendras, but also subvert conventional cinematic representations of heterosexual sex and female sexuality. These ground-breaking films are therefore invaluable for the questions they raise about the role of sex in the cinema in France and the existing boundaries between eroticism and pornography. More importantly however, they represent a rebellion against a male-dominated cultural reality – or in the words of the film-makers themselves, they are effectively a “declaration of war.”
Australian translators: missing in action? CAT and TM awareness over two years of the AUSIT-eBulletin
(Department of Languages, Flinders University, 2003-12) Garcia, Ignacio
How relevant is Translation Memory software for translators in Australia? This paper responds by examining the rich yet under-utilised source of email discussion lists. Following content analysis methodology, data from the Australian Institute of Interpreters and Translators Inc. (AUSIT) eBulletin archive was keyword searched and subjected to computer-aided qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS). The results indicate Australian translators’ awareness of TM and other computer-aided translation (CAT) tools seems limited with respect to that of their northern hemisphere counterparts. The study argues that with near instantaneous communication redefining market boundaries, a failure to engage with what may be termed the new translation paradigm could cost the profession dearly.
De amordazamientos y liberaciones. Clausura simbólica y apertura poética en La noche de Ennio Moltedo
(Department of Languages, Flinders University, 2003-12) Holas, Sergio
Este trabajo estudia la poética de la pérdida de la palabra en La noche de Ennio Moltedo. En este texto Moltedo explora los efectos que la dictadura chilena tiene en el cuerpo y la lengua de Chile de la postdictadura. El argumento está organizado en dos partes. Una que estudia las líneas de captura que reducen los discursos a formaciones molares; y, otra que estudia las líneas de escape a la molarización abriendo un espacio para la recuperación y refiguración del valor de la palabra.

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