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Of all the literary and cultural traditions in the Caribbean, none has produced a body of work as rich, diverse, and challenging as that of the French-speaking islands. Informed by the great French traditions of intellectual inquiry and artistic innovation, the francophone Caribbean tradition has seen the emergence of artists, activists, and theorists such as Aimé Césaire, Léon-Gontran Damas, René Ménil, Suzanne Césaire, Frantz Fanon, Édouard Glissant, Patrick Chamoiseau, Jean Bernabé, Raphael Confiant, Maryse Condé, Jean–Price Mars, Jacques Roumain, Jacques-Stephen Alexis, René Depestre, Frankétienne, Émile Ollivier, Marie Chauvet, Dany Laferrière, and Edwidge Danticat, to name only a few. The French–speaking islands and French Guyana have therefore a long, established tradition of prolific and incisive intellectual and artistic output, and have had considerable influence across the whole Caribbean literary and cultural spectrum. Until ten or fifteen years ago, the départements d'outre mer were in large part the main focus of any analysis of Francophone Caribbean culture. Since then, however, the other important French– and Creole-speaking nation, Haiti, has been the subject of unprecedented attention, both from scholars and the general public. Independent since 1804, the «first black republic» in the New World is at once a symbol of anti–colonial resistance and of postcolonial decay and economic, political, and social problems. At once years ahead of and years behind the rest of the Caribbean, Haiti demands critical attention, and in this article, I will summarize some of the major movements in Haitian literary culture, before focusing on the Duvalier period and the ways in which contemporary artists address the memory of that most traumatic period. ; De las tradiciones literarias y culturales del Caribe, ninguna ha producido un corpus tan rico, diverso y desafiante como el de las islas francófonas. Inspirado por las grandes tradiciones francesas de la búsqueda intelectual y la innovación artística, la tradición del Caribe francófono ha visto el surgimiento de artistas, activistas, y teóricos como Aimé Césaire, Léon-Gontran Damas, René Ménil, Suzanne Césaire, Frantz Fanon, Édouard Glissant, Patrick Chamoiseau, Jean Bernabé, Rápale Confiant, Maryse Condé, Jean-Price Mars, Jacques Roumain, Jacques-Stephen Alexis, René Depestre, Frankétienne, Émile Ollivier, Marie Chauvet, Dany Lafèrriere, y Edwidge Danticat por solo nombrar a unos pocos. Las islas francófonas y la Guayana Francesa tienen por tanto una larga y bien establecida tradición de producción intelectual y artística prolífica e incisiva, y han tenido una influencia considerable a través de todo el entorno literario y cultural caribeño. Hasta hace diez o quince años, los départements d'outre mer eran en gran parte el foco principal de cualquier análisis de la cultura francófona caribeña. Desde entonces, sin embargo, la otra nación de habla francófona y créole, Haití, ha sido objeto de una atención sin precedentes, por parte de investigadores así como del público en general. Independiente desde 1804, la «primera república negra» del Nuevo Mundo es un símbolo tanto de resistencia anticolonial como de declive postcolonial, así como de problemas económicos, políticos y sociales. A la vez avanzada y rezagada en el tiempo respecto al resto del Caribe, Haití merece la atención de la crítica. En este artículo haré un recuento de los principales movimientos de la cultura literaria en Haití, para luego centrarme en el período de Duvalier y en las estrategias que los artistas contemporáneos han utilizado para indagar sobre la memoria de ese periodo tan traumático.

Apocalypse. To most, the word signifies destruction, death, the end of the world, but the literal definition is ""revelation"" or ""unveiling, "" the basis from which renowned theologian René Girard builds his own view of Biblical apocalypse. Properly understood, Girard explains, Biblical apocalypse has nothing to do with a wrathful or vengeful God punishing his unworthy children, and everything to do with a foretelling of what future humans are making for themselves now that they have devised the instruments of global self-destruction. In this volume, some of the major thinkers about the inte

The economic costs of weather-caused natural disasters are discussed as a warning to take seriously the academic community's conclusion that our planet undergoes a man-caused climate change. A list of major hurricanes since 2000 is compiled, noting their seasonal frequency & impact on regions & continents which up to now had little experience with this weather phenomenon. A graph illustrating the rising frequency of natural disasters between 1950 & 2000 is produced, & the growing economic cost of these catastrophes is documented using data from insurance industry sources. The sociodemographic factors responsible for these costs are identified, examining the increased settlement of coastal areas & the growing population of the state of Florida, US. The Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change's (IPCC) third assessment report (2001) is quoted to argue the direct link between global warming & the higher frequency & intensity of extreme weather events. The recent unusual weather patterns in Europe are mentioned as the impact of global warming perceptible not only scientists but lay persons as well. Figures, Plates. Z. Dubiel

Prologue: the end of the world draws nigh -- True and false messiahs of Islam -- The archeology of end times -- The grand masters of the medieval apocalypse -- Avatars of the Mahdi -- Apocalypse now -- The dawn of the fifteenth century of Islam -- Pioneers of the contemporary apocalypse -- The horsemen of apocalyptic jihad -- The beginning of the end in Iraq -- The grand return of the Shiʿi Mahdi -- Diasporas of the apocalypse -- The armageddon of jihad -- Epilogue: through the looking glass-and beyond

A leading Polish novelist, Tadeusz Konwicki is the author of Kompleks polski which came out in Zapis 3 two years ago, after it had been turned down by the censor, and which Farrar, Straus & Giroux will be publishing in the USA under the title of A Polish Complex. When writing his next novel, Minor Apocalypse, an Orwellian tale that takes place in Poland in the not-too-distant future ( possibly even in 1984), Konwicki decided not even to submit it to the censorship but to write it directly for Zapis, the unofficial and uncensored journal. The novel, from which extracts are printed below, then came out as Zapis 10. Its hero, a writer, is visited by two elderly dissidents on the day when the Communist Party leadership puts forward a proposal that Poland should be incorporated into the Soviet Union. His visitors suggest that he protest against this by setting fire to himself in a public place. Rejecting their scheme, he nevertheless acquires a can of petrol and goes on a tour of Warsaw, meeting a number of characters, many of whom are recognisable as the real people the author used as his models ( the film director Andrzej Wajda and the dissident Jacek Kuroń are perhaps the best-known examples). His encounters, and the realisation of what conditions in the country are really like, make the hero change his mind, and he decides to carry out the self-immolation on the steps of the Warsaw Palace of Culture.

Allison, G.: The three "nos" knows. - S. 12-15 Cirincione, J.: Cassandra's conundrum. - S. 15-17 Potter, W. C.: Non-proliferation parody. - S. 17-19 Mueller, J.: Apocalypse later. - S. 19-20

Rezension zu "Geist und Müll. Von Denkweisen in postnormalen Zeiten" von Guillaume Paoli