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Seventeenth-century literature in the Holy Roman Empire has rarely been discussed in general cultural histories about the European Baroque. The dramatic achievements of Shakespeare, Calderon, and Corneille, the inimitable poetry of the Metaphysicals and Marino and the mischievous adventures of the Spanish picaro have long overshadowed the literary accomplishments of the German Baroque. Even today many scholars are still content to dismiss the German seventeenth century as derivative while, in the opposite camp, loyal Germanists currently defend its uniqueness. As is generally known, literary developments in the Empire were slowed by a number of unfortunate circumstances. Geographical, confessional, and linguistic disunity strongly contributed to the parochialism of German Baroque letters. Local literary societies were widely scattered throughout the Empire from Silesia to the Rhine and communication between them was greatly hampered. The lack of a main cultural center similar to the artistic hubs of Paris or London further isolated the writers from each other. In addition, confessional differences not only segregated Catholic and Protestant poets, but also resulted in the simultaneous development of a Batoque Latin and German literature.

ACTION MEANS ACTION WITH RESPECT TO TEXTS. ON OCCASIONS WHEN ONE CAN SENSE OTHER INTERESTS AT WORK, THE EFFECT IS VERY CURIOUS. IN A POLEMICAL EXCHANGE, FOR INSTANCE, BETWEEN A MARXIST CRITIC AND A POSTSTRUCTURALIST, ONE MAY KNOW WHAT SORT OF EVENT IS BEING STAGED; BUT, AS ONE LISTENS TO THE PRESENTATIONS, AND COMPARES THE ELOQUENCE ON BOTH SIDES WITH ITS APPARENT SUBJECT, ONE SEES THAT CRITICISM IS NOT THE POINT AT ALL. THEY ARE REALLY ARGUING ABOUT SOMETHING ELSE-A SOCIAL QUESTION OF SOME KIND-THOUGH NEITHER KNOWS IT YET. SKEPTICS LIKE TO REPLY THAT THE UNDERGROUND QUALITY OF SUCH ENCOUNTERS IS A SIGN OF A HOPELESS CULTURAL MOMENT.

In the search for meaning which its conclusion provokes, a life, inevitably, is scrutinized for patterns, symbols, and general themes; it is read, in short, as a text. Suicide becomes a bloody signature on the bottom of a ragged page, the final and incontrovertible assertion of authorial control over one's own life. At the same time, however, the suicide relinquishes all future control over everything, including future interpretations of his or her life-as-text. As a Pyrrhic means of giving the planned, narrative structure of a text to life, suicide functions as an uncanny fulcrum between "meaningful" life and "meaningless" death; hence its fascination. The supreme instance of human will triumphing over cruel nature's whims is also the moment of greatest surrender to death's lack of meaning. Witnesses and analysts rush in to provide interpretation and theory.

This paper discusses some general issues relating to limitations upon the use of software for control of hazardous contingencies. The approach taken considers how far a given piece of software can be regarded as having the properties of a literary 'text', a fairly abstract discussion which leads on to quite practical implications, for example, in current studies of the malfunctioning of computer‐controlled machines used for medical radiation treatment. Successful accident avoidance relies upon control, but the degree of control possible within a software package is limited because the meaning of any particular section of software is not absolute, but is understood in relation to its context. When the context changes, meaning may shift and control may lapse. The question is also raised of how far similar analyses and similar limitations might apply to analyses of systems of technology and to systems of management considered as text‐like systems.

In Mexican colonial history, the night the Aztecs of Tenochtitlán massacred Cortés's troops, 30 June 1520, is known as la noche triste. In Mexican contemporary history, the night of 2 October 1968 is known as la nueva noche triste, a night that saw the deaths of numerous student protesters in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas (Tlatelolco) in Mexico City. It is also referred to as la noche de Tlatelolco or merely as Tlatelolco '68. Some writers contend that the events at Tlatelolco and the emergence of the student movement of 1968 leading to the confrontation are among the most important occurrences in Mexico since the revolution and that Mexico is profoundly different today because of them. It is therefore not surprising that a significant portion of the Mexican literature written since 1968 reflects in various ways the impact of these events on the Mexican national consciousness. A variety of texts, both fictional and nonfictional, appeared immediately after the incident, and others have continued to appear in contemporary Mexican literature in the ensuing years. These texts either address or refer to the dramatic occurences in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas and are collectively known as "Tlatelolco literature."

Interprets the text of Orwell's last book Nineteen Eighty-Four. Shows what Orwell had in mind when he outlined it, sketches his political and theoretical positions and tries to account for why the political and analytic lessons of the novel undermined those he was offering in his essay and journalism. Orwell complained his political views were distorted by the book's reviewers. (JLN)

Abstract Literary narrative theory offers robust conceptual frameworks for understand-ing the act of writing, the act of reading, the configuration of plot, and the narrative contract that binds writer and reader together. This article applies some current theoretical approaches used in studying literary storytelling to the storytelling that takes place in the doctor's office, conceptualizing the patient as the writer or teller and the doctor as the reader or listener. By inspecting clinical medicine as a narrative enterprise, shot through with the ambiguities and language-borne allusiveness of the fictional text, this study demonstrates ways in which patients and doctors may better understand their complex and often unsuccessful attempts to hear one another to the end.(General Internal Medicine and Literature)