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Matices

[email protected] Virtual

DIS(PLEASING) THE PUBLIC IN A PUBLIC INSTITUTION

Last March 31st, the institutional program BicirrUN started functioning on the campus. It is a project that includes the free provision of 400 bicycles for pedestrians to move around the campus faster, taking into consideration the long distances people have to cover from extremes within the 121,3 hectares that comprise the area of the university. The aim that guided this initiative was to facilitate the life of students, teachers, administrative staff and the public in general, based on the promotion of community values and the respect for public property. The initiative used the talent of young designers from the Industrial Design School together with their tutors who have filled the campus with two models: The Asimetrik and the Extensor.Nice as it may seem, the community received the initiative with enthusiasm, not exempt however from criticism. Some have said: A nice effort. Others have claimed: We need more books in the libraries, why don't they spend the

REFLECTIONS AND LITERATURE

The university and the individual seen through reflections and literature

Students of the university and members of the academic community at large have taken advantage of this space in order to share with you feelings, thoughts and ideas coming from their perceptions of university life, individual and existential preoccupations and academic interests. Most of them take the form of critical reflections and literature manifestations such us poetry or storytelling, even though you will find texts of other kinds as well.

This time, as always, Capital Letter comes back aiming to fulfill its essential objective: Being a channel of communication among the academic community, one that holds a multitude of joys, worries, and ideas very deep inside. Thus, in this Number 8, Capital Letter continues to offer everybody a chance to let those feelings and ideas flow outside.

money on that? Reality has shown us that it isextremely difficult to please all publics at all times. Whatever the action taken at the Universidad Nacional, it is exposed to the public eye and open to debate. No doubt about it, even more considering the context and the nature of the participants. But what have the results of this experiential situation exposed so far? Is it that public property can be mistreated because it is public, and because it is public it belongs to nobody, and nobody cares about anything? Is it that we need to be reminded that public property belongs to everyone and as such it should be treated the way we deal with our private property? Is it that we need control over the actions we exercise over reality to guarantee the life of an idea? Are we prepared to behave publicly in benefit of the individuals and the academic society we serve and receive benefits from?

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Cap a e er8FOREIGN LANGUGES DEPARTMENT, UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL DE COLOMBIA

BOGOTÁ D.C., COLOMBIA - 15th JUNE 2006

FREE

Editorial

El Trabajo de grado

Philologhy and philosophy

Representations of the World

Philosophy and Religion

Symbolism

Aesthectics

Poetry

Short Stories

Reflections

Events

The Department's publications

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THE DEPARTMENTS PUBLICATIONS

PROFILE Journal

Foreign Languages Department, Universidad Nacional de Colombia

First of all, the PROFILE editorial team would like to thank Professor Claudia Nieto, Capital Letter Editorial Director, for this opportunity of approaching all the members that make up the academic community of the Foreign Languages Department, and kindly invite you to read our publication and to keep on spreading the classroom innovations and research, areas that have gained credibility and relevance all over the world.The latest issue of the journal, PROFILE No. 6, includes articles written by professionals from Brazil, India, Iran, the United Kingdom and Colombia. Due to the variety of its topics, PROFILE No.6 offers to its readership a wide scale of information that will surely enrich our knowledge and help us examine the local conditions of our education, contrasting them with what happens in other places.On the other hand, the editorial team of the PROFILE journal is delighted to share the honor that it has been indexed in category B by Publindex Colciencias, the national indexing system for Colombian journals. This recognition is based on the revision of scientific and editorial quality criteria for academic journals as well as our journal's stability and visibility internationally recognized by indexing systems like MLA International Bibliography and Educational Research Abstracts online (ERA). The journal is also included in the Ulrich's Periodicals Directory, an international catalogue for scientific journals.

For more information:[email protected][email protected]

www.humanas.unal.edu.co/profile

Editor:Prof. Melba Libia Cárdenas B.

Head of the Foreign Languages DepartmentUniversidad Nacional de Colombia - Bogotá

Phone. (571)3165000 Ext.16780 /16773

MATICES DE LAS LENGUAS EXTRANJERAS JOURNAL


Matices de las Lenguas Extranjeras is a Virtual Journal focused on the publication of articles related to the field of languages from the didactic perspective, pedagogy, research on language and culture, and translation.

Languages: Spanish, German, French or English.

For the presentation of articles to Matices de las Lenguas Extranjeras, please follow the MLA format (Modern Language Arts).

For further information write to:[email protected]

CONVOCA: A estudiantes de Ciencias Humanasinteresad@s en trabajar en los comités de redacción de español, inglés, francés y alemán. Además, los invita a participar enviando sus textos para el próximo número: Tecnología.

Mayor información:[email protected]

www.humanas.unal.edu.co/anonyma/1 Encuentre el último número en la fotocopiadora del

Departamento de Lenguas Extranjeras

PEARSON

EducationTHOMSON

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CONFERENCE NINTH NATIONAL ELT

Conference “english: a window on the world”September 14-16 Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá In partnership with a group of British publishers, the Centro Colombo Americano, ASOCOPI and Universities in Bogotá, the British Council is organising this event. The Conference seeks to be a forum for policy makers, researchers, teacher trainers, academic co-ordinators and practitioners in order to have a critical and constructive assessment of current research and practice on the teaching of English.

For further information about how you can participate in this event, you can visit: www.britishcouncil.org/colombia-eltconference

www.bilinglatam.com




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Head of Human Sciences Faculty:Professor Germán Arturo Meléndez AcuñaAcademic Vice-dean:Professor Olga Restrepo ForeroDirector of Vicedecanatura de Bienestar,Human Sciences Faculty Professor Zulma Cristina SantosDirector of Academic and Cultural Events:Professor Francisco Montaña IbañezHead of the Foreign Languages Department:Professor Melba Libia Cárdenas Beltrán

Editorial Co-ordination:

Director and EditorProfessor M. Claudia Nieto CruzStaffLina María Conde A. Camilo Morales NeisaJavier Augusto Rojas SerranoProofreadingProfessor Patricia SimonsonLiterature Department- Universidad NacionalGraphic Designer: José Gabriel Ortiz [email protected] Alejandro Ariza MontañezRonnall Castro QuinteroChristian Camilo CuervoEl DesapercibidoimpLa VozDiego Germán Mejía Lemos Juan Carlos Merchán Arenas José Vicente Monzón RomeroCamilo Morales NeisaLuz Mery Ramírez

Also collaborated:Verónica BermúdezJenny CastelblancoLoloJavier MartínezAlba OlayaJosé SalgadoJairo VelandiaXatlí Zuleta

Printed bySección PublicacionesEngineering School- Professor Guillermo Martínez P.

SponsorsDirección de Bienestar de SedeUniversidad Nacional de ColombiaVicedecanatura Bienestar Universitario

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Mission: to be a channel of communication among the members that make up the academic community of the Foreign Languages Department.

Vision: to grow as a publication, as individuals, as a group, and as members of the academic community.

E-MAIL

[email protected]

GREETINGS

We are very pleased to present to you this eighth edition to you, made with very hard,yet rewarding team efforts. This product comes as a result of the of the contributions made by members from the our Humans Sciences community which wants to share their varied interest with you.

The articles, texts and opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect the position or policies of Capital Letter.

After a short but unavoidable break Capital Letter started working again this semester. And it resumed its activities with more enthusiasm than before. This semester Capital Letter worked with the whole Human Sciences Faculty in the events concerning the “Señal que Cabalgamos” interchange. The first exchange had a great impact on the community and Capital had to carry it out more than once in order to satisfy our faculty's demand for activities like this. And this is part of the purpose of Capital Letter, to be a communication channel among students of the whole faculty. This interchange was useful as an excuse to integrate students from different programs and other members of the community under the same roof. Students from several programs shared with Capital some of their time and knowledge, and in this way, Capital became more than a publication of the Foreign Languages Department. Now Capital is a publication recognized by other students of the faculty, and the purpose of integrating and becoming a means of communication among the community has been achieved.

But this is not the only or best thing concerning this number of Capital Letter. In this edition we have great works that show that our writers were waiting for the opportunity to show some of their best productions. It is good to see that there are philologists doing their work, not only in classes, but taking advantage of the knowledge given by the university in order to explore their own interests. There are really interesting articles in our classmates' minds, and it is the duty and pleasure of Capital to socialize these productions with the entire Department and the Faculty. We congratulate all the writers for their worthy contributions. You showed that the academy is not only made of theory and formal knowledge about the language, but it also has expressive and reflective dimensions that make our students integral members of the society. This is what you are about to find in this 8th number of Capital Letter: the expression of our students' knowledge and wisdom applied to topics vital to the university but with a lot of personal reflections and expressions that made this number something special. You will realize this due to the length of many of the articles included this time. Then, prepare to enjoy and discover the interesting productions of the writers of the Department.

However there are also issues that are not as pleasant as those mentioned before. This time we lack articles in languages different from English and Spanish, and we hope that our partners from the other languages will be present in the following issues of Capital Letter. Anyway we thank all the people that have participated in the events and the writing of the articles; you are the central force that makes all this possible.

EDITORIAL RECENT EVENTS

UPCOMING EVENTS

41ST ASOCOPI ANNUAL CONVENTION

“Language Policies and Classroom Realities:

Bridging the Gap”October 13-16 Colegio Champagnat, Ibagué.

The Colombian Association of Teachers of English cordially invites the ELT Community to its annual convention, which has become the most important academic event in the area of English Language Teaching in the country. All information for participants (teachers and students), presenters and sponsors, can be found on the web site

for more specific information.

www.asocopi.org. You can also send an e-mail to [email protected]

BILING LATAM

International Simposium on Bilingualism and bilingual education in Latin America

LugarBogotá, Colombia, los días 5, 6 y 7 de octubre de 2006 en la sede de La Universidad de los Andes y del Centro Colombo Americano.Objetivo Promover el intercambio de conocimientos en los campos de la investigación y de la enseñanza y aprendizaje acerca del bilingüismo y la educación bilingüe entre aquellos que trabajan en contextos de mayorías y minorías lingüísticas en América Latina.TemáticasModelos, programas y prácticas pedagógicas en la educación bilingüe.Políticas lingüísticas y educativas para la educación bilingüe o multilingüe.Formación y desarrollo profesional de docentes en contextos bilingües.Para más información ver la página web del simposio:

PRIMER FESTIVAL DE LA CANCIÓN ALEX 2006

El pasado primero de junio del 2006 se llevó a cabo el Primer Festival de la Canción del programa ALEX en el auditorio Virginia Gutiérrez del edificio de Postgrados de Ciencias Humanas. Dicho evento tuvo como objetivos principales integrar a los estudiantes del programa con toda la comunidad universitaria y destacar una vez más la estrecha relación entre lengua y cultura a través de la música ya que la música es un

Este evento brindó a los estudiantes la oportunidad de poner en práctica dos de las modalidades fundamentales del programa ALEX: el autoaprendizaje y el trabajo en equipo a niveles académico y personal. Los estudiantes, profesores y administrativos del programa participaron y colaboraron en la realización de dicho evento. Es importante resaltar que las presentaciones fueron hechas en las siguientes lenguas: Inglés, Francés, Alemán, Portugués, I t a l i a n o , R u s o , J a p o n é s , C h i n o y obviamente Español.

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No queremos con esto decir que los problemas alrededor de la tesis en el nivel de pregrado deberían seguir así, sino que, más aún, coincidimos en varios puntos expuestos en el documento 'La reforma: ¿en qué va el debate?'. Sin embargo, la superficialidad tomada al desarrollar soluciones que responden únicamente a la coyuntura de una problemática (el 'estancamiento' que sufrían los estudiantes -especialmente de Ciencias Humanas-) y no a cambios Radicales en el desarrollo de competencias investigativas a lo largo del pregrado, hace que nos preguntemos si en realidad el 'núcleo' del problema se encontraba en la extensión del texto, o si precisamente deberíamos dirigirnos a la propia formación del estudiantado.

Bibliografía

ACUERDO NÚMERO 037DE 2005(Acta 19 del 13 de septiembre de 2005), en http://www.unal.edu.co/reforma/documentos/A0037_05S.pdfCalsamiglia Blancafort, y Tuso Amparo, Las cosas del decir: Manual de Análisis del discurso, Editorial Ariel S.A., BarcelonaJurado Fabio, “Investigación, Escritura y Educación”, Plaza y Janes, Bogota, 1999.Voloshinov Valentin, El estudio de las Ideologías y la filosofía del Lenguaje, En “El Marxismo y La Filosofía del Lenguaje”, Ed Alianza, Madrid, 1992 .Reforma Académica ¿en que va el debate?, Universidad nacional de Colombia, Junio del 2005.

1. Revisión del requisito de grado (junio de 2004), en Reforma Académica ¿en que va el

debate?,Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Junio del 2005, Pág. 43.2. Ibíd., Pág. 433. Para los siguientes datos de este documento, ver: ACUERDO NÚMERO 037DE 2005(Acta 19 del 13

de septiembre de 2005) “Por el cual se definen y reglamentan los programas curriculares de pregrado y de

postgrado que ofrece la Universidad Nacional de Colombia”, en

http://www.unal.edu.co/reforma/documentos/A0037_05S.pdf.4. Voloshinov Valentin, El estudio de las Ideologías y la filosofía del Lenguaje, En “El Marxismo y La

Filosofía del Lenguaje”, Ed Alianza, Madrid, 1992, Pág. 33.5. Jurado Fabio, “Investigación, Escritura y Educación”, Plaza y Janes, Bogota, 1999, Pág. 69. 6. Jurado Fabio, “Investigación, Escritura y Educación”, Plaza y Janes, Bogota, 1999, Pág. 73 7. Calsamiglia Blancafort, y Tuso Amparo, Las cosas del decir: Manual de Análisis del discurso, Editorial

Ariel S.A., Barcelona, Pág. 2948. Ibíd., Pág. 294. 9. Ibíd., Pág. 43

ENDINGS ELTRABAJO DE GRADO

Vladimir Alejandro Ariza MontañezEstudiante VII semestre de Sociología

[email protected]

Hace unos meses, con el Acuerdo 037 de 2005 del Consejo Superior universitario, se estableció que el sistema de Tesis, como una de las evaluaciones fundamentales de las diversas competencias del pregrado, se presentaba como un obstáculo que limitaba en muchos sentidos la preparación de los estudiantes para grados superiores, para un ingreso efectivo a la profesionalización o para el ingreso al 'mundo del trabajo'. Este obstáculo se basa en diversos factores, entre los que cabe nombrar:- Una falla en el carácter bipartito de compromiso entre profesores y alumnos. Así, por ejemplo: “Cuando los profesores invitan a los estudiantes a escribir, no realizan un seguimiento adecuado que les permita identificar aciertos y desaciertos en su proceso de aprendizaje”.- Fallas dentro de la formación del pregrado: “Tampoco se enseñan las técnicas mínimas de indagación que de manera tortuosa adquieren solos, los que cuentan con un mayor capital cultural de origen, en el momento de elaboración del Trabajo de Grado. Los estudiantes de menor capital cultural quedan excluidos (…)”

Aunque estos factores problemáticos fueron directamente encontrados y establecidos por la actual institución, el cambio que ésta llevo a cabo, es decir, la transformación de la Tesis por un trabajo final, podría llegar a no resolver en gran medida estos mismos problemas, debido a que su enfoque de resolución se concentra en problemas superficiales y no de contenido (tales como extensión del trabajo y una disminución del valor de este en el plan de estudios entre 10 y 20 %-).

En esa medida, los otros factores (los compromisos bipartitos, los problemas de enseñanza en técnicas) quedan seriamente relegados a una segunda instancia donde, entre muchas cosas, no se llevan a cabo transformaciones en la formación pedagógica (que logren resolver estos problemas capitales de investigación), ni tampoco en los fines que se persiguen en dichos trabajos. De igual manera, tampoco en dicho acuerdo queda establecida la articulación entre el fin del pregrado y __su evaluación. Pero exactamente, ¿cuáles son las competencias que son ignoradas, excluidas, o anuladas?

Escribir es Investigar.“La propia conciencia sólo puede realizarse y convertirse en un hecho real después de plasmarse en algún material sígnico” Valentín Voloshinov.

Tal vez, uno de los primeros enfrentamientos (sin negar el desarrollo de la totalidad de las actividades académicas) del estudiante universitario como investigador se encuentra en la tesis de grado. En efecto, en esta etapa de formación todo el acontecer de los saberes académicos a la vez que del acervo de conocimiento de la vida cotidiana (que se enraízan como un conglomerado de capitales culturales y simbólicos adquiridos por el individuo), se encuentra directamente a través del hacer. Este hacer, en tanto que se considera que “todo lo ideológico posee una significación sígnica”, es la escritura.

Sólo en la escritura se desarrolla un proceso en el que existe una superación de un estado pasivo a un estado activo de investigación; en él, el enfrentamiento tiene una consistencia de encumbramiento en el que “(...) el sujeto empírico queda suspendido, para dejar mirar al sujeto cognitivo-epistémico (sujeto simbólico)”. Éste último es formado con las diversas competencias adquiridas en una relación de compromisos bipartitos entre alumno y profesor. Pero no en una relación autoritaria unidimensional, sino en una relación de mutuo aprendizaje.

Sin embargo, este sujeto cognitivo ha llegado a un estado potencial, y únicamente éste es investigador activo:

“sólo desde el momento en que se atreve a registrar por escrito lo observado, cuando privilegia el dato autentico y cuando organiza a través de la escritura las conjeturas (...) materializada en la textualidad escrita, porque definitivamente no hay investigación, o no hay investigadores sin escritura”

Esto último, teniendo en cuenta que la textualidad presente de la tesis de grado posee una naturaleza de discurso argumentativo la cual “es una practica discursiva que responde a una función comunicativa: la que se orienta hacia el receptor para lograr su adhesión”. Esto tiene lugar por el desarrollo en las competencias investigativas adquiridas en la universidad como son las técnicas, los procedimientos y otros cúmulos que intentan penetrar en la 'demostración lógica', es decir “con instrumentos o armas más orientadas a la racionalidad (exhibiendo razones)”.

Sin embargo, es de considerar que este discurso argumentativo, aunque apoyado en investigaciones concretas (empíricas), nunca se presenta en un estado 'puro' e 'ideal' y que, más aún, se encuentra mediado (si no apoyado) por todo un acervo de conocimientos anteriores que a la vez están vigentes en la vida cotidiana (donde éste tiene mayor raigambre), tales como es el discurso narrativo y el discurso descriptivo. Si repasamos las acepciones del concepto de competencias, encontramos entonces que estos niveles de discurso se hallan suscritos a éste, y que por tanto (al encontrarse en las tesis de grado) también son posibles de evaluar.

De acuerdo a lo que anteriormente esgrimimos, la tesis de grado, al convertirse en Trabajo Final, podría en muchos sentidos dejar de lado algunos de los incentivos que tenia directamente el estudiante al explorar sus competencias (tanto académicas como de 'la vida cotidiana) como investigador, ya que si bien 'la extensión de la tesis no implica necesariamente la calidad de ésta', el estudiante tenía de por medio la responsabilidad de buscarlas, desarrollarlas y explotarlas, aunque éstas sean “técnicas mínimas de indagación que de manera tortuosa adquieren solos”.

LA REFORMA Y LAS EVALUACIONES: DE LA TESIS AL TRABAJO FINAL

In some way, virtú is regarded as the male power which must prevail over fortuna, a female force, according to the tradition prior to the author. In fact, Machiavelli said, at the end of Chapter XXV, that the fortuna was like a woman and that the Prince was compelled, in order to achieve his goals, to impose on her his will, even in a rude way, as she prefers the one who acts bravely and dominates her audaciously.

Finally, necessità corresponds to the situation or reason that impels the Prince to decide without regarding any other kind of rule, such as a religious or moral one. This concept underlies the socalled “reason of state” or “raison d'état”. According to this concept, the Prince has to decide without taking into account any consideration concerning justice or religion. The only pattern that he must bear in mind at the moment of deciding is the need of the government, a concept that comprises the necessary actions in order to preserve political power.

ii. The second topic to be treated here is the application of the concepts above explained on areas other than politics.The concepts of fortuna and virtú seem to be different to necessità, in terms of their application. In fact, necessità has to do with the need for taking a decision in order to preserve the political power. For this reason, it is not applicable to areas other than politics, at least in the terms originally proposed by the abovementioned author.

On the other hand, the first set of concepts could be applied to a broader field in comparison with the concept of necessità. In fact, the concept of virtú corresponds to a set of abilities enabling the individual possessing them to perform a certain number of roles, and, in consequence, to achieve a given goal. It must be remarked that this concept has to do with the capacity of a person to deal with a given problem, and, of course, to solve it.

Secondly, the concept of fortuna, regarded as a set of circumstances surrounding the individual and determining the extent of his freedom by imposing restrictions to the conditions in which he performs his roles, expresses in an accurate way the idea of the boundaries of the freedom of a given individual. These limitations are the conditions underlying the possibility of behaving in a certain way.

For these reasons, the concept of virtú comprises the capacity of an individual who can act according to the extent of his freedom, determined by a set of conditions, here explained by the term fortuna. In consequence, virtú enables a certain individual who possesses it to achieve a certain goal available to him, given the extent of his freedom, whose degrees have been determined by fortuna.

In conclusion, the concepts of virtú and fortuna could be considered as ideal constructs in terms of which a series of phenomena underlying the patterns of human behavior, not only concerning political affairs but aspects of human life other than the achievement of political power, could be understandable. These concepts enable us to understand ourselves.

BibliographyMaquiavelli, N. Discorsi sopra la prima decada di Tito Livio.Machiavelli, N. El Príncipe, Madrid, Editorial Alba, 2000.Diccionario Ilustrado Latino-Español Español-Latino, Barcelona, Ediciones Spes, 2000, octava edición.

Me encuentro supuestamente dormida, él cierra la puerta tras de sí, escucho sus pasos rechinando sobre el piso de madera; se sienta de nuevo en la cama, se quita su ligero abrigo y se recuesta a mi lado, pero por algún motivo lo siento mas lejano que de costumbre.

Minutos después algo tibio y espeso alcanza mi brazo; enciendo la luz de mi lámpara, levanto la sábana y siento, llena de profundo terror, que aquella sustancia tiene el mismo olor que en mis sueños. Una ola de furia escéptica cruza por mi mente y me hace arrancar de un solo tirón el resto de cobijas que reposan sobre mi compañero. Hilillos escarlata recorren su rostro inerte dibujando tétricos caminos que salen de su boca y terminan en cualquier lugar. Su cuerpo desnudo, terriblemente pálido, parece como iluminado por ese extraño brillo lunar. Sus gélidas manos sostienen orgullosamente un machete veteado de sangre en el filo. La sonrisa macabra aún se mantiene en sus atractivos labios morados.

El horror llena todo mi ser y lo atormenta con terribles visiones del pasado y del futuro, sé que debo hacer algo pero mi cuerpo está inmóvil. Lo primero que atino hacer es cubrir la deprimente figura del yerto cuerpo en mi cama. Lo segundo, es acercarme a su mesa de noche en donde reposa el teléfono, su reproductor de cintas y el booklet de una de sus bandas. Descuelgo el auricular y tomo el folleto que pertenece a un álbum de una banda con un nombre completamente ilegible, y cuando lo abro mi atención se centra inmediatamente en la letra de una de las canciones. El auricular cae de mis manos mientras leo incrédulamente las líneas que allí se encuentran:

POSSESSION

Mournful memories take place in my mindNarcotic fumes perception sensitizeNon-dimly lit visions fil1 in my sightIs world also clear when night came at last?

IIUtopian dark-dreaming enlarge my smileOf ancient barbarie I was taking vengeanceUseless heads of tyrants fell onto the groundNeo-pagan natives had at last won

IIIFantasy is over, what have I done?Am I still dreaming or is it a joke?Blood running down the blade in mi handBucolic sharp weapon machete it is called

IVSilver sphere, enrapturing wineUnavoidable doom 1 do not denyMajestic white shape I did sacrificeCrimson filthy end of fake live

I want to highlight the images the poet uses through the whole poem. In the first stanza he uses three metaphors to personify 'the threefold terror of love.' 'The terror of all terrors' is represented, first, by 'a fallen flare,' (the Virgin received the word through the hollow of an ear) second, by the 'wings beating about the room,' (they are the angel's wings and she is in her room) and third, 'the Heavens in my womb' (she is pregnant, waiting a son, the God's son). In the third stanza, 'the Heavens in my womb' is personified with other metaphors, which underline 'the terror,' being accompanied with extraordinary sufferings: 'this flesh,' 'this fallen star,' 'this love.' The poet makes irony in two ways: first, contrasting 'love' and 'terror.' To become Mother of God is 'the terror of all terrors,' and uses the 'supernatural' images as terrifying ones, and second, contrasting the first stanza with the second and third one, using rhetorical questions that bring the terror out. He does not want to show the miracle as a miracle but as a terror. How a woman can be pregnant without a man contribution? The fact that the poetic voice is in first singular person is to stress the irony. It is the same Virgin who lives the Annunciation as a terror. She is a victim. In the poem no one asked her if she accepted. The second and the third stanza are written in rhetorical questions. The poet uses them to reinforce the irony, the complaint: this love is a terror, is a suffering. What has happened? I think Yeats' irony underlines how life expresses itself as an insoluble contradiction, as a conflict between dream and reality; definitely love coexists with pain. The word 'terror' is emphasized by Yeats by the fact that he uses it twice: once, in line 1, 'threefold terror,' and twice: in line 4, 'the terror of all terrors.' In the first line 'threefold terror' seems to be referring to the Trinity: Father, Son an Holy Ghost, as the three persons that generate the terror. Each is responsible for the pain but, at the same time, is referred to 'love,' as if 'love' conveyed pains in itself. The Trinity symbolizes 'love.' In line 4, 'the terror' is the maximum one. Which is 'The terror of all terrors?' 'The Heavens in my womb.' They, as symbols, are faced. 'The Heavens' symbol means the 'supernatural,' and 'my womb' symbol means the 'natural,' the flesh; they are confronted each other. 'Heavens' and 'earth' are being joined in a woman's womb. Who caused that 'terror of all terrors?' 'Wings beating about the room,' referring to the Angel. How that 'terror of all terrors' was generated? As the Annunciation text says and the painting reflects, the conception is preceded by 'A fallen flare / Through the hollow of an ear, / Wings beating about the room;' (“The Mother of God,” 1-3) As I said before, the second stanza seems to talk about the humanity, the 'natural' life, and the third stanza appears to refer to the results of the first one. Yeats employs the juxtaposition of contraries to make his thoughts into unity. There are two forces fighting between themselves. At the end, the feeling that I kept was: maternity conveys happiness, but at the same time, sufferings. This is the reality. Sources:Biblia de Jerusalén. Bilbao: Desclee de Brower, S.A., 1975.Broddy, W. B. Yeats: Selected Poetry. London: Pan Books Ltd., 1978.Hardyng, Adrian. English Literature. The Twentieth Century. París: Dunod, 1992.Rosenthal, M. L. Selected Poems and Two Plays of William Butler Yeats. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1962.Ussher, Arland. Three Great Irishmen Shaw, Yeats, Joyce. London: The Camelot Press Ltd., 1952.Yeats, W. B. Antología Bilingüe. Madrid: Alianza Editorial, S.A., 1990.

VIRTU YEATS ROMÁNTICAviene de la pág.4 viene de la pág.7 viene de la pág.11




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PHILOLOGHY AND PHILOSOPHY

Required to meet the conditions for performing the activities that would allow him to satisfy his desire.

It must be remarked that the Italian word virtú comes from the Latin substantive virtus. This stood for the set of qualities belonging to the condition of man, such as the energy, the merit, and the talent to perform a given task. This term was directly associated with the substantive vir, which meant “man”, in its condition of bearer of male qualities, and, in consequence, it was opposite to any female or even childish quality. It explains, for example, the fact that Latin used the word virago to mean heroine. On the other hand, Latin not only used these similar terms to define the energy associated to the male condition, regardless of the gender of the individual concerned, but to describe the force underlying every phenomenon or thing. In effect, the term vis comprehended violence (vim facere), the force of nature (vis fluminis) or of one's enemies (vim hostium sustinere), the essence of a relationship such as friendship (vis amicitiae), or, used in plural, the forces, in general terms (agere aliquid pro viribus). Even terms as vita, which meant life, or verbs such as volo, i.e., “to want”, or viresco, which meant “to become splendid”, seem to be closely associated to the abovementioned terms. In fact, virtú allows the individual who possesses it to exert his power over the things surrounding him as well as to rule the lives of the people placed under him in the society. In this sense, the virtuous man does not allow fortune to shape his destiny, as he himself is able to determine the path of his life, due to the fact that he has qualities such as intellectual vigor and courage, with which he can face circumstances, measure the resources at his disposal and react to daily challenges in the most appropriate way.

Secondly, fortuna is the set of circumstances that determine to what extent an individual may exercise the capacities that he possesses. This concept was not clearly defined by Machiavelli, as were many others. However, we may arrive at the definition established above if we take into account several affirmations contained in The Prince. On the other hand, it must be taken into account that, in spite of the fact that Machiavelli represents the return to the Greco-Roman Culture accomplished during the Renaissance, he meant by fortuna neither the Roman goddess who altered the course of human events, nor the instrument of the divine will, as Dante did.

In fact, Machiavelli considered that fortuna was not the exclusive element determining the history, but a restriction imposed upon freedom. In this sense, fortuna partly shapes human behavior, and, as a consequence of this, the individual is able to exercise his capacities within the boundaries established by fortuna.

In order to illustrate this concept, Machiavelli compared fortuna with the force of a river. People may impose restrictions on a river with the aim of preventing inundations or any other consequence. In consequence, as a given river shows its strength when no one attempts to control it, fortuna determines history completely in the absence of individuals able to impose their will.

On the other hand, fortuna also plays the role of providing virtuous men with conditions enabling them to realize their desires. According to this way of understanding fortuna, it does not seem to be everywhere and at every time an opposition to the projects conceived by human beings, but a source of opportunities to accomplish them. And, considered as a source of opportunities, fortuna explains to what extent the suitability of a given behavior for a particular occasion determines either its success or failure. This was the association, pointed out by Machiavelli, between the way of behaving and the qualità de tempi.

Because of this, one of the main rules precribed by Machiavelli was that the prince has to change the way in which he behaves according to the changes of the conditions in which he lives. And, given this prescription, any discord between the way of behaving of the prince and the conditions at the moment during which he performs his role may carry him to disaster.

VIRTÚ, FORTUNA AND NECESSITÀ

By Diego Germán Mejía Lemos English language student

[email protected]

A short introduction to the fundamental concepts of The prince of Machiavelli

The main object of this paper is to explain the importance of the concepts of v i r t ú, f o r t u n a and n e c e s s i t à in Machiavelli's work and to demonstrate to what extent they may be applied to areas different from politics.

i. The Prince, the most important work of Machiavelli, has been appreciated as well as rejected. In fact, after its publication, the Catholic church condemned it, and, within Protestantism, the reaction was not very different. But, nowadays, it has been considered as one of the most original works of the Renaissance, concerning political science.

The work of Machiavelli aims to establish, in a systematic and accurate way, logical relations among a series of historical facts concerning the political life of societies in order to draw conclusions from them and to express these in terms of general statements, or “laws”. In consequence, it would be possible to predict the future actions of political men with a certain degree of probability. In fact, for Machiavelli, whoever aims to know the future has to take into account what has happened, for everything in the world at every time is similar to what has taken place before. This principle, according to his works, is also applicable to human behavior and, for this reason, the facts of human history must be explained in terms of the eternal relation between the umori, the passioni and men's unsatisfied dessideri. It must be taken into account that, according to the Discorsi, the term umori, which is taken by Machiavelli from the medical tradition of his time, is applied in order to explain that laws in every Republic are the result of the conflict, or disunione, between the umori of mighty individuals and ordinary people.Given this, it is possible to examine in detail the role played by the concepts of virtú, fortuna and necessità in The Prince.

Firstly, the term virtú stands for a man's ability to accomplish his desires in spite of circumstances. This ability enables the virtuous individual to place himself above the mediocrity of average people and to achieve the goals that are not available to the common individual, who does not have the abilities

We should discuss the funds to be used in this project: Are they going to charge us for making the University beautiful? The more beautiful we want it to be, the more expensive it will become. We should discuss the real intention of this scheme: Is it just an attempt to make our University better for us? Or is it the first step in the (probably very short) road towards University privatization? We also should discuss the future of the country: Are we going to live and work in a very sophisticated and eye-catching country, with high skyscrapers and fashionable cafeterias that “crash the creeping beggars down”, as Osbert Sitwell said, or are we going to enjoy a country where everybody thinks critically?

I do not expect that people turn against this project. I do not expect that students stop this either. I would rather think and then discuss, which can bring a great, unified opinion about this. Although it can be a very hard, strenuous labor, we have to keep in mind that what really matters nowadays is the future of our University as our second home.

REFLECTIONS

GREAT CHANGES ASK FOR GREAT DECISIONS

By Juan Carlos Merchán ArenasEnglish Language [email protected]

For about three semesters, we have seen Architecture students going back and forth with their meters and similar stuff measuring each corner within the campus. At first, I thought they were taking an exam (a field exam) or something like that. But I was wrong. They were measuring everything, even trees, to conform and create virtual data about the University. Besides the “virtual UN”, one can see the many changes that the campus will experience in ten years and, certainly, they are really very big changes.

Sparing the details, the project is basically based on the embellishment and redesign of specific areas of each faculty, which the architects and engineers think can improve and seem better. New bathrooms, modern-pretty amazing auditoriums, huge food centers and an overwhelming Transmilenio stations´ linking path, are the main outstanding ideas. With these and other changes, the campus will not be the same as today it is. It will seem different, I think, better. The university will be “more beautiful” in a certain sense. We will find it more useful for us, and perhaps many will be proud of it because of its “beauty”.

Of course everything seems O.K. But beyond the profits and “good image” that the project can bring, we should think and then discuss. We should think if we prefer a pretty-free of dust University which many can be proud of, instead of a University where, besides great architecture pieces and food centers, we can find both great professors and students and huge knowledge centers. We should also think if we prefer to spend the money on a big and large path at the expense of reducing the amount of subjects and having fewer discussion spaces. We should think if we are capable of giving up the name “the best Colombian University” for “the most beautiful and livable University ever”.




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REFLECTIONS

REFLEXIONES TARDÍAS

De la conciencia del estudiante de la nacional y el colombiano en general una parte de la conciencia humana

LA VOZ17 de abril de 2006

¿Es entonces el hombre, según el estudiante de la Nacional y esto limitándonos en extremo a éste pues este artículo es para ése estudiante, si no, para quien lo escribe un instrumento de las cáscaras vacías que son las filosofías anacrónicas, y de las herrumbrosas máquinas y circuitos puestos a andar por hombres anteriores que, sin lugar a dudas y a la luz de los acontecimientos, se deben estar revolcando en sus tumbas, por lo hecho y no hecho, pero, sobre todo, por aquello que se hace ahora con lo que ellos hicieron?Una pregunta extensa, quizá en demasía, para dar apertura a una reflexión que, aunque ocupara pliegos enteros y tomos, y enciclopedias, foros y seminarios, se quedaría corta en extremo porque ¿por dónde empezar? Y si acaso se logra dar norte a semejante tema como es la conciencia última y verdadera esencial del estudiante de la Nacional y, entonces, del colombiano, reflejo perplejo pero cuasiperfecto de la conciencia humana (ni que no perteneciéramos a grupo tan pintoresco), ¿Cómo desarrollar y reflexionar sobre dicho tema?Por tanto, quizá, esta primera pregunta abra un campo de reflexión simple, aunque ingrato para muchos. Porque eso es lo que refleja la conciencia del estudiante de la Nacional. Entonces, ¿por qué no preguntarse uno por esta tendencia? Ya se dirá que de dónde se sacó esto, lo que vendría a ser una pregunta bastante conveniente, pero inútil, pues haría falta ser ciego como para ignorar que el estudiante de la Nacional permanece aletargado y deslumbrado por la luz viciada y crepuscular que filosofías como el Comunismo o el Socialismo le proyectan, o que, en otros casos, sólo sigue los pasos pre-establecidos y sistematizados en las áreas de investigación de cualquier tipo, como si en las profundidades de cada hombre, de cada estudiante, no subyaciera un creador en potencia, un ser capaz de valorar y desarrollar por su propia cuenta, un espíritu capaz de emanciparse de todo paradigma y con su iniciativa desarrollar la fuerza para impulsar una verdadera revolución de la conciencia y el conocimiento.Lo que aquí aparece no es una mentira, es una realidad palpable en el día a día de la Universidad; el estudiante de la Nacional se queja y se queja, y lanza piedras, y grita, y se rasga las vestiduras, pero ¿es en últimas esto una muestra de una conciencia capaz de generar cambio? No. Eso es una quejadera de lo más básica, como bebés que demandan el pecho materno.“¡Ah! entonces uno ya no tiene derecho a quejarse y debe callarse y ser un conformista”, estarán diciendo, como siempre dicen. Conformismo es la palabra más enemiga pero más usada por el estudiante de la Nacional y por el colombiano promedio , pero es muy conveniente porque somos inconformes como todo latinoamericano. Sin embargo, en cambio, sí nos conformamos con que todo se nos dé y nada aportemos desde nuestra mente y potencial creativo.Aquí no se critica ni despotrica contra el Comunismo, el Socialismo o contra los intelectuales de antaño y contemporáneos (ya más de uno habrá resoplado y se habrá mesado las barbas si las tiene o, si no, se habrá rascado la barbilla diciendo que quien aquí escribe no es más que un Capitalista o un Imperialista o uno de esos que detesta lo tradicional, porque “cuando no están con nosotros, están en nuestra contra”. Qué fácil ¿No?) Aquí se reflexiona sobre el carácter de ganado que tiene el estudiante actual y el colombiano promedio: ambos siguen y siguen por la senda marcada por el vaquero, antiguos preceptos y filosofías que deberían ser dejadas en paz bastante mal ya han hecho y no se preguntan si ellos pueden crear y si el Comunismo o el Capitalismo, o la mezquindad, o los procedimientos creados por otros no están ya mandados a recoger.Esta no es una voz de anarquía; siempre se puede crear algo bello y bueno y útil, sin hacer daño a alguien. Esta es una voz que predica que el hombre, el colombiano y el estudiante de la Nacional son mejores, con creces, que lo que pretenden ser ahora, que el estudiante puede crear su propia luz y no verse eclipsado como esas lunas áridas y egoístas que somos y que sólo brillamos gracias a la luz menguante de un sol ajeno.Y esto que aquí se intenta reflexionar no es ni siquiera el principio de la cuestión.

PROYECTOS Y SEGURIDAD EN LA UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL:

Rompamos el silencio

En los últimos días la Universidad Nacional ha experimentado algunas situaciones interesantes para analizar. Algunas de éstas tienen que ver con demostraciones de rechazo al interior de la misma y otras con proyectos adelantados en beneficio de la comunidad universitaria.

Hablemos un poco acerca de los disturbios que se presentan por parte del estudiantado en el Campus Universitario. Para nadie es un secreto que día por día, aunque haya quienes afirmen que esta mejorando, la situación de la Universidad es un completo desastre. Por ejemplo, fijémonos en lo sucedido hace algunos días, cuando los nuevos enfrentamientos entre la fuerza pública y los estudiantes dejaron como resultado dos heridos y una familia de luto.

Ahora, grupos de estudiantes e incluso padres afectados se dedican incansablemente a buscar culpables de tan execrable hecho dejando de lado la cordialidad y continuando con las faltas de respeto para con el personal de seguridad. Sin herir susceptibilidades, seria bueno entender que para estos señores no es tarea fácil sobrellevar los diferentes cambios de temperamentos de las personas y es necesario dejar en claro que ellos nada tienen que ver con lo sucedido.

Por otro lado, en cuanto al nuevo proyecto de adquisición de bicicletas avaluadas en $187.000 c/u hay que decir que al parecer no fue la mejor inversión porque a pesar de la buena referencia que dieron en cuanto a la calidad, pasada media hora después de su inauguración, la mayoría ya se encontraba en mal estado ¡que desperdicio! Uso el termino “desperdicio” porque aunque el proyecto es muy novedoso y bueno para facilitarle a usuarios y visitantes en general un medio de transporte dentro del Campus Universitario, a algunas personas les hace falta mucha cultura para asumir responsabilidades con esta clase de bienes que se dan en calidad de préstamo. No hagamos lo que dice el dicho “lo que no nos cuesta hagámoslo fiesta”.

Otra situación problemática en la universidad tiene que ver con la Carta Universitaria edición #11, de marzo de este año. En este comunicado, el señor Hugo Acero pone en tela de juicio, como siempre, la capacidad de la Seguridad Privada, ya que de acuerdo a su criterio personal no es suficiente la presencia de grupos reactivos (ésta es la forma como el señor Acero cataloga a los representantes de la seguridad privada) porque al parecer este personal no le da buen trato a los estudiantes, funcionarios y visitantes en general. No obstante, por el contrario algunas veces es la comunidad misma la que a diario, con su comportamiento poco amigable y con términos soeces y poniendo en tela de juicio su gran nivel educativo, incita a los guardas a ponerse por un instante a su mismo nivel. Así, cada quien da su pequeño aporte para enterrar cada vez más el buen nombre de la Universidad Nacional.

EL [email protected]

REPRESENTATIONS OF THE WORLD

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

ÿ Õ “ Ê Â œ Ã » « Ë Á Ê Â ‰ „ ‚ · ‡

θ' η' ζ' ς' ε' δ' γ' β' α'

Concerning the use of angles, our A r a b i c numbers are the best example. Our own digital system is based on angles. “All Arabic numbers we use today are ideograms created by Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khowarizmi (c.778 - c.850). Using the abacus notations, he developed the manuscript decimal system. Based on additives angles, he defined the numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4. And using his knowledge about the abacus manuscript notations, he defined the numbers 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, O.”

Though ancient pre/Colombian civilizations have been less described and analyzed than others in this field, we know that the Mayan system used dots and lines for their numerical calculations. This code was related to agricultural and astronomical cycles and it was based on twenty numbers according to fingers and toes. The basis of these numbers is another example of the use of lines and dots for numerical representation. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

The ancient Muiscas used a similar system. They also counted from one to twenty but their graphemes were different. Today we only have vague interpretations of them, but we know the names of those numbers. They were related to agriculture cycles besides other social traditions such as their calendar.

1. ATA 2. BOSA 3. MICA 4. MUIHICA 5. HISCA 6. TA 7. CUHUPQUA 8. SUHUZA 9. ACA 10. UBCHIHICA 20. GUETA

For the numbers between u b c h i h i c a (10) and g u e t a (20) they used the first nine numbers but adding the word f o o t (q u i h i c h a). For instance, when they wanted to say thirteen, the said q u i h i c h a m i c a.

In the philology program we study little about the origin of languages and we know less about the development of numbers. We are even more ignorant concerning the concrete case of our native ancestors' knowledge. This is not the result of students' apathy about the topic, but the consequence of the University's interest in foreign cultures, mainly the dominant ones. And as students of languages we should not study only the formal dimension of tongues but also the social and historical features that give sense to all kind of representational systems within a culture. As explained, languages are not only made of letters. Numbers is another system of representing that is essential for communication no matter cultural differences. This knowledge is of paramount importance to philology studies, and we should not relegate these meaningful elements from language. We present this article as complementary information for our studies, but it is the duty of each student to go deeply into these topics because our curriculum lacks this kind of issues.

RESOURCESBAYER Herman. Llamado calendario azteca: descripción e interpretación- INCOMPLETE REFERENCE, THE SOURCE IS MISSINGCORRIENTE F, Diccionario Árabe español. Herder: Barcelona 1991FARFAN N Enrique, Gramática elemental del hebreo bíblico. Editorial Verbo divino: España, 1998.LLOREDA, Diana. Los Muiscas: pasos perdidos. (1992) INCOMPLETE REFERENCE, CITY AND EDITORIAL ARE MISSING

MORE THAN CYPHERS

By Camilo Morales Neisa and José Vicente Monzón Romero

English Language students

[email protected]

[email protected]

As philology students our main interests have dealt with languages and their written expression. Letters and words have been the principal field of our studies, but they are not the only graphic representation used in our daily and academic life. Grading is a single example of the use of a convention different from letters, though both are related in some alphabetic systems. Money has also had a direct influence through daily business and commerce, and it has helped different cultures to homogenize a convention for numbers and quantities. Nowadays, our career emphasizes pedagogical aspects such as: didactics, methodologies and approaches for teaching languages; but there are other studies proper to philologists that have been left aside. In this article we want to show one of these issues that concerns numbers and how different cultures have represented quantities.

The ways of representing numbers have differed from culture to culture. In some cases, societies have implemented their own alphabetic systems to convey quantities, as in the case of the ancient Arabs, Hebrews, and Greeks.

Gothic Wulfila²

The equivalence between numbers and letters has been a resource used by other cultures like the Romans and Germanic people, but it is not the only way of representing quantities. Other numerical systems are represented by dots, lines and angles. We can find this kind of representation in languages far apart in the world, in Western and Eastern societies.

Chinese

Old Persian

1. This sample only corresponds to the first nine numerals and letters. The other quantities are represented by the rest of the letters of the alphabet.

2. These symbols correspond to an ancient Germanic dead language that was used for the first

translation of the Bible into a Germanic tongue.

Arabs, Hebrews and Greeks¹

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These concepts are reason and faith.Reason is a social property that has been developed inextricably related to WORK and language. It also has a bio-somatic support: The brain and the nervous system of men who live in society. Reasoning consists of the human beings' capacity to create, link and separate meanings - based on their correspondence to objective reality. Besides, reasoning allows us to plan actions in order to satisfy our material and spiritual needs. This planning is accomplished by using adequate resources intended to fulfill objectives that have been set up previously.

All of us use reason not only when we speak about scientific or philosophical matters but also when we get dressed every morning or eat a piece of bread; even when we need to go to the bathroom because our bodies demand it. All these actions are mediated by reason. Notwithstanding, we must distinguish between the rational theoretical thought (philosophical scientific) and the rational ordinary thought (common sense). As I said before, both of them are based on human experience in the material world, but the difference lies in the quality of the reflex of each one of them: The rational theoretical thought is more complex and comprehensive than the rational ordinary one due to the quality of abstractions produced during the thought process in itself. It must be taken into account that thought is not only theoretical or ordinary. Artistic, mythical and fantastic are also ways of thinking that have been developed through the human socialization process. An individual can develop one or many ways of thinking depending on the reflex of the external reality (organic and inorganic) in which he/she has been brought up, the reflex of the socio-historic reality, and his/her psycho-physiological condition.As Rubinstein says “...el objeto reflejado en los fenómenos psíquicos afecta a las necesidades y a los intereses del individuo por lo que provoca en él una determinada actitud emocional y volitiva (anhelos, sentimientos).... La propia actividad del cerebro depende de la INTERACCIÓN entre hombres y mundo exterior, de la relación que se establece entre la actividad del hombre y sus condiciones de vida,

ROMÁNTICA NOCHE DE LUZ SELENA

Escrito por impEstudiante de inglés

[email protected]

Me encuentro en profunda confusión. Confusión agorera y matizada de terroríficos recuerdos que, cotejados, muestran una oscura relación; una profunda relación que espero no tenga nada que ver con la tragedia sucedida días o noches atrás. Ahora que me encuentro sola me he revestido con un elegante manto de depresión que aunque no es muy real, si me cubre por entero en las noches de luna, de luna llena. El dolor es en realidad algo de lo que puedo olvidarme fácilmente cuando pongo mi cabeza a trabajar en las mundanas actividades que él odiaba y por las cuales siempre discutíamos. No es que yo no lo quisiera, solamente quería tener una pareja normal, que se preocupara más por mí y que no me cambiara por los primeros acordes o humaredas que se le atravesaran. Tal vez lo mereciera pero aún así lo extraño.

Él era un tipo extraño. Se la pasaba todo el día escuchando una “música” incomprensible a la cual casi le rendía pleitesía, pero a decir verdad yo nunca le encontré sentido. Terribles sonidos de discos rayados, aterradores gritos de ultratumba y ensordecedoras percusiones a velocidades exageradas eran los elementos de los que se componían las “celestiales melodías” de tas que él parecía disfrutar tanto. Y no sólo parecía disfrutarlas; bajo su influencia parecía entrar en estados de trance en los que, en ocasiones, me asustaba no saber como interrumpirlos o detenerlos. Solo una vez quise intervenir en una de sus sesiones musicales, pero una terrible, profunda e intensa mirada llena de odio me apartó al instante. Por tal razón odiaba su música, era lo único de lo que no le podía disuadir con mis femeninos encantos.

No éramos la pareja ideal, por supuesto, pero a veces la pasábamos bien. Nunca tuve quejas en cuanto a su desempeño de lo mundano y su sensibilidad no tenía comparación. Entendía muy bien mis necesidades, pero poco se preocupaba por mis acciones, lo cual estallaba mi histeria. Se la pasaba hablando de historias antiguas sobre las étnias Muiscas y de cómo éstas tenían una cercana y mística relación con nosotros, o al menos, con él.En cierta ocasión, y por ningún motivo en especial (al menos para mí), él comenzó a comportarse de manera extraña aún más pero nunca me cruzó

por la cabeza que ello terminara así. En una noche cualquiera (eso creí) él despertó de su sueño, apagó su equipo de sonido de reproducción individual walkman y se sentó al borde de la cama. Alguna cosa sacó de su cajón de llave. Luego, dándome por completo la espalda, comenzó a manipular cautelosamente algo entre sus dedos. Yo sabía qué era lo que estaba haciendo pero no me atreví a decirle nada, sabía perfectamente que si trataba de disuadirlo de alguna forma terminaríamos discutiendo. Además, si hubiera podido mirarle a los ojos, me habría hecho retractar de ello inmediatamente. Se levantó, vistió algo ligero y salió de la habitación; minutos después estaba en el patio, con la cabeza inclinada hacia el firmamento, exhalando bocanadas de humo, completamente bañado en plateados destellos lunares. Sus ojos tenían un brillo misterioso. Su boca dejaba entrever una sonrisa macabra. Eran las tres de la madrugada.

Indignada por su indiferencia y por su extraño comportamiento, aseguré la puerta de la habitación y destape una de las cervezas que él guardaba “secretamente” en el contenedor de agua del inodoro. Odiaba tomar la cerveza mantenida en ese lugar, pero a esa hora y en esas circunstancias no era posible otra cosa. Encendí la televisión (él me hubiera pedido automáticamente que la apagara) y comencé a beber en espera de algo entretenido para ver, sin embargo, al cabo de un rato mis ojos se cerraron, la ambrosia de dioses se derramó por el piso y yo empecé a deslizarme hacia los dominios de Morfeo. El televisor sin audiencia proyectaba una vieja serie llamada werewolf.

“Caminaba sin rumbo por las oscuras y vacías calles de la ciudad. El hedor de sangre fresca que alcanzaba a percibir mi nariz me llenaba de júbilo. Era ésta la prueba de mi victoria. Al fin había conseguido regocijarme en tu abrazo, señora del cielo nocturno. Al fin el enemigo había recibido su castigo. Tomo conciencia de mí; miro mi pecho plano, mis piernas robustas, siento el peso de mi larga cabellera; miro mis manos, la derecha ensangrentada. Grito de alegría pero mi voz me parece entonces demasiado ronca...”

Me despierto con un potente alarido que se mezcla con el de aquel hombre lobo del aparato televisivo. El recuerdo del sueño es muy vivido, según parece el TV quedó encendido con volumen muy alto en el silencio de la madrugada e incidió en mis sueños. Estoy un poco asustada y me incomoda de alguna forma estar sola. Tal vez si él estuviera aquí podría contarle mi sueño y escuchar su interpretación de esos elementos oníricos; eso me habría hecho sentir más tranquila, pero su lecho está aún vacío. Me acerco a la ventana y lo primero que veo es un inusual brillo iluminando la noche, busco su fuente de origen y lo encuentro en nuestro satélite natural. La luna llena nunca me pareció tan hermosa antes. Tal vez todas esas historias que él me contaba acerca de los antiguos ritos lunares no eran tan descabelladas, después de todo la luna era maravillosa, y en esta noche en particular parecía tener un atractivo especial.

Reconozco unos pasos familiares acercándose, mi corazón experimenta una aceleración en su ritmo, el miedo y la alegría se mezclan en confusos sentimientos. Cuando la puerta se abra voy a decirle lo bonita que se ve la luna y lo sola que me sentí en su ausencia; no quiero que me vuelva a dejar sola en una noche como ésta. Los pasos se acercan cada vez más, me apresuro a apagar el aparato y a recoger la botella caída el líquido lo seco mañana, me acerco a la ventana para mirar a la luna un vez más pero el ruido de la puerta intentándose abrir infructuosamente me obliga a cambiar de dirección, quito el seguro de la puesta y me acomodo rápidamente entre las cobijas; las decisiones tomadas anteriormente desaparecen bajo la sábana de mi orgullo…

sus necesidades”. Thus, reason (thought) does not depend only on the subject or on the object, but it is the result of the interaction between SUBJECT and OBJECT. We can say that reason is both subjective and objective.

The main feature of the mythical and fantastic thought is that they are produced as a subject reflex; it means that they occur in the individuals' mind without corresponding to objective reality. This subjective consideration of truth is also considered as faith. Consequently we could say that religion is a manifestation of the fantastic thought.

As a subjective reflex, faith is a belief which consists of four basic elements: Confidence, blind acceptance, renunciation, and perpetuation. Confidence is a state in which the subject puts all his / her trust in a kind of knowledge assumed as true. The blind acceptance of this assumption becomes aFundamental premise of faith, since it implies that the subject renounces ant desire to verify, prove, check or examine whether this knowledge has something to do with objective reality or not. The last of these elements is the tendency to consider this knowledge as eternal, beyond time and discussion. In accordance with the explanation of reason and faith, the former specifically concerns to science and philosophy, and the latter is not restricted only to religious beliefs. It means that even scientists can develop a kind of faith. In science, this faith is known as 'scientism'. It is a mixture of reason and faith whose contents are true (objective) but they are considered as eternal, in total opposition to the essence of science which is a systematization of knowledge in constant development, and acquired historically by means of social practice. When it happens, scientific knowledge is used to support false ideas such as the superiority of one race over the others, purity of the blood, superior intelligence or prevalence of one kind of intelligence of one country, some superior cultural features, and so on.Religion corresponds to a specific moment of the human conscience and it is one of the answers to the humans' necessity of explaining the world. Fortunately, scientific knowledge which I consider the most valuable treasure that we possess in order to understand

thand transform the world have increased since the 15 century, and today this increase seems to be unstoppable. We, as participants in this very crucial historical moment, must try to be aware of the importance of rational theoretical thought in order to contribute to the rational progress of our species. The rational fight against all kinds of irrationalism has hardly been carried out up today because the main setting for this fight has been the university. Nowadays, the fight is taking place in all the possible settings of both academic and everyday life. For this reason, our historical commitment is to get involved in this fight against irrational violence and to promote the development of rational theoretical thought within and from within the academy.

By Ronnall Castro QuinteroEnglish Language student

[email protected]

Religion is a neverending topic for humanity. Although thousands of books have been written about it throughout history, it is in this new century that the debate on the nature of religion and its role in modern society gains a real importance.

The influence of this debate resides in the fact that humanity is living its most crucial moment. A moment in which we can destroy ourselves or start thinking seriously about our existence on this planet. A decision has to be made, but this decision must not be made on the basis of irrational beliefs or guided by subjective feelings because global HISTORICAL conflicts require global REASONABLE solutions.

Before beginning to answer the question that I have chosen as the title of this article, I must say that for me it is not acceptable that many people attack reason by using the categories of reason, and simply dismissingall the suffering and the effort of thousands of people who have died trying to understand and transform the universe we live in. Amazingly, this attack has been carried out from within the academic life and the issue concerning the relation between religion and knowledge has been considered only as an academic issue for a long time. However, objective reality shows us the great complexity of this academic issue; a complexity which is a REASONABLE abstraction we make of our daily social relationships. The apparent contradiction between academic life and daily life is no more than the apparent contradiction between philosophy and common sense. Philosophy is supported by the socalled exact and human sciences, whereas religion is a dispersed element of the common sense which is a divided, incoherent and inconsequent conception of the world (even in the different individual brains). Nevertheless, philosophy and common sense share the same point of reference: both take their contents from human experience in the material world. So, what is the relationship between religion, philosophy and knowledge? I think we have to clarify some concepts in order to answer this question. Only then will we be able to determine whether the knowledge is objective or subjective.

TO THINK OR NOT TO BE, THAT'S THE QUESTION

,

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THE PERFECT SONG This story is about three brothers that adored music. For them, it was just impossible to live without this placid energy that transmits the vibrations of sounds, entering through the auditive sense. This calm and tranquility, also fury and relief that produces the vibrations moaning of the depth of the human loneliness transmitted across the sharp instruments, filled them so, that their mind traveled across unimaginable spiritual and psychedelic worlds. The effect of lofty chords was more vivid that an overdose of the more pure drug. Nobody ever understood the importance of this evil noise, and the truth is that they didn't care because this noise was their happiness. (Continue told from the perspective of one of them because it is impossible that the cosmic vision of three persons coincide.) Seven had always been an introverted person; he was reflective and thought very much every word before speaking. He gave extreme worth to the things that went out his mouth, and because of this, he had meticulous care about speaking of interesting subjects and avoided losing in frivolous dialogues like most of the people. Each word he uttered had been previously analyzed, and he tried to pronounce it appropriately and to finish each idea in order to avoid misinterpretation. But almost all this exertion was in vain, since generally, nobody hears anybody. There was a moment in which he tired so much about frivolity and idiocy. He tired of his boring transcendence; he tired of everybody and essentially of himself. He entered in a terrible crisis; the worst depression of his life crushed him like a bug under a flattening. He was immersed in an indeterminate and timeless lapse of darkness of his mind. Like a hermit, he closed into himself, like an autistic. He had an unlimited power of ideas that contrasted his insuperable capacity to transmit them. He felt uncomfortable with the uselessness of his oral words. He tried to communicate through other ways, like painting, sculpture, writing, the movies, and finally he stayed with the way that he liked the most: music. He sought cans, and began to canalize his energy through himself; he hold his fury and interest in transmitting every kind of feelings through his art. He created sounds that plunged him in a trance, a lofty moment of over natural ecstasy. After many practices, and some of study, the melody took shape. His brothers were also getting a bass and a guitar. They shut themselves during a huge lapse (full of wild

exertion, long nights, callus in their hands, wars with the neighbors and the law, uncountable obstacles that couldn't stop such noble mission) in order to create a sublime melody. Like Jimmy Hendrix thought once, they wanted that their music entered through the interstices and cure the tribulations of the planet. One day they disappeared. The legend tells that they were successful. They created a melody able to give instant happiness. The problem was that they did not calculate the immeasurable power of the waves they created through the space. And in the moment that the boundless sounds went across the practice room and introduced through their interstices and ears, the happiness was stronger than what they could bear like normal humans. Finally, they disintegrated in dust and a soft wind dispersed through the universe.

“The Mother of God” The threefold terror of love; a fallen flare

Through the hollow of an ear; Wings beating about the room;

The terror of all terrors than I bore The Heavens in my womb.

Had I not found content among the shows Every common woman knows, Chimney corner, garden walk,

Or rocky cistern where we tread the clothes

And gather all the talk? What is this flesh I purchased with my

pains, This fallen star my milk sustains,

This love that makes my heart's blood stop Or strikes a sudden chill into my bones

And bids my hair stand up?

IS MATERNITY THE TERROR OF ALL TERRORS?

By Luz Mery RamírezEnglish language graduate [email protected]

The main objective of this analysis is to show the reader how the author William Butler Yeats expresses the symbolism through figures of speech, and how he creates beauty and irony in his poem “The Mother of God.”

This poem, written in 1932, corresponds to the last years of Yeats' life. According to Broddy' notes in her book W. B. Yeats: Selected Poetry, referring to the poems catalogued as “From the Winging Stair and other poems,” in This section of his work Yeats returns to the reality life, from the escape he had been seeking. A severe attack of influenza followed by congestion of the lung and a nervous breakdown gave him the realization that perhaps he was near to death. Such thoughts, as Swift suggests, tend to clarify our thinking. As he wrote to Mrs. Shakespear once his hopes were again in the ascendant: 'I did not know how tired I was till this last blessed illness began and now I dream of doing nothing but mystical philosophy and poetry'. (1978: 89)This period is “his most mature and ethically profound, showing a powerful imagination at work on the task of integration a life and its works in full consciousness of the fragmentation, violence and incoherence of modern reality, while avoiding Romantic subjectivism” (Hardyng, 1992: 29). He tries to be more realistic and objective. “He looked for his images in the 'Collective Memory' of the race” (Ussher, 1952: 29). The Annunciation (see Luke, St. 1.26-38) and the symbols the Holy Bible (Biblia de Jerusalén, 1975) transmits are important to Christianity. Seldom correlates most people the 'supernatural' with the 'natural,' and are incapable of understanding the meaning that those images convey. People just keep in their minds the miracle. Therefore, the poet wants to show with a deep irony how human beings are more or less real than they believe to be. 'The use of symbols was for Yeats a kind of discipline as well. They were to be used to 'convey the other what could not otherwise be communicated.' He says: 'A symbol is indeed the only expression of some invisible essence, a transparent lamp about a spiritual flame'”

Detalle de “La anunciación” de Fillipo Lippi

(Broddy, 1978: 10). Yeats uses the figures of speech and symbols to make people think about some contradictions they live. When the poet expresses that conflict, he describes it through images that touches our senses, then our minds, and finally our feelings. The poet also accelerates communication by the use of repetitive words.To better understand the meaning of the poem, Broddy says: “Three verses of five lines each, symbolic of the responses of the Virgin Mary to the miracle: the first verse carrying the association of a painting; the second dealing with her supposed common life; the third with her contemplation of the actual miracle and the disquiet wonder that she feels” (1978: 7). Yeats, telling about the first and second lines, said: “I had in my memory Byzantine mosaic pictures of the Annunciation, which show a line drawn from a star to the ear of the Virgin. She conceived of the Word, and therefore through the ear a star fell and was born” (Rosenthal, 1962: 220). It can be noticed in the poem that “Yeats reaction to the 'supernatural' was always in fact chiefly terror, as his reaction to the 'natural' was only too liable to be hate” (Ussher, 1952: 69). The poem is centered in the terror that a woman experiences when she becomes pregnant without being fertilized by a man. The Bible talks about the dialogue between Mary and the Angel, the Virgin's acceptance. After that, it talks about its consequences: she conceives Jesus in her womb, and has to face loads of sufferings until the end life of her son. In contrast, the poet, intentionally, omits that dialogue; he just tells us through the poetic voice how the Virgin is complaining, what feelings she has; and how she lives maternity as a terror. The poem is a rejection. The author talks, in a real way, without romanticism. He makes an effort to tell the whole truth about human life and human behavior. It is a characteristic of the Contemporary Literature that marks the close of the Great Victorian Period of English Literature. This poem could be questioning some values, such us marriage, morality, or religion. The new generation may feel as if their parents lived in an unreal, sentimental world. All values of the Victorian Age are relative (Harding, 1992). At first, it could be thought that the poem only talks about the Annunciation, how the Virgin Mary became the Mother of God, as the title suggests, and her sufferings, but one's feelings cannot accept how the poet calls this remarkable fact as a 'terror of all terrors,' and why he changed the biblical text. Then, what does the poet want to say? Here there is not dialogue; here there is a complaint; here there is not a miracle; here there is a woman almost run over by God. It is very difficult to understand it. Therefore, we need to examine the images, symbols and figures of speech that the poet uses for a better understanding.

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in his introduction to literary theory, which detaches the “eminently autonomous character” of literary language. That is, the faculty of stationing itself in an alternate dimensional plane, sometimes parallel to our daily language. This characteristic is due to the need to keep the reader's attention; a situation which is satisfied thanks to the inclusion of new words, the manipulation of structures and the application of socalled stylistic resources, which are the main guarantee of the mysticism that involves all the literary complex. Even if we wanted to write in a very colloquial mode, the fact that our work is there, codified, perpetuated in the lines of a text, alters dramatically its profile and mechanisms of interpretation to the receiving eyes, immersing us, in this way, in its own language. At this point we observe another phenomenon that sets us in a plane of divergence of positions: the relation author work interpreter. Not even the author could be sure that the message he intends to communicate is transmitted to the work and through it to the observer. Because, since the moment of its conception, the artistic product starts a rebellious stage. It becomes an “autonomous sign” as it has been called by Jan Mukarovsky (1977). That is why it easily produces distant interpretations, even opposite to what it wants to represent or its author wanted to express.

Did the English writer Jonathan Swift, who had an evident aversion to children, think that his novel Gulliver's travels, a crude and critical satire about his society, would become one of the most important classical works of children's literature?

LITERATURE: AESTHETICS AS AN EXCUSE OR REFLECTIONS ON SUBJECTIVITY

Camilo CuervoEnglish language [email protected]

Frequently, we stumble upon the lying obstacle of definitions, and I say lying because defining seems to be something innocuous, of a very simple nature, but it hides the mysterious faculty of getting complex in an inversely proportional way to the plainness of what we wish to define; if we had to explain what a spacecraft is, even though we knew little about it, we would use more concepts and in a more adequate manner than if we had to define the word “human”. No doubt, defining is a process that gets difficult because of our common lack of intimacy with language and often, it frustrates our longing to talk about the world with total command.

In order to overcome this disadvantage and/or mask our incompetence, we have decided to define by using examples, substitutes, descriptions, etc. Devices which finally reach their objective, or at least, get close to it.

Although this previous introduction seems to be decontextualized, it aims at showing the complexity of existing in a world in which, despite being in a reality, belonging to it and, at the same time, being made up of other realities, we know little about them and we can't do much to be able to know. Why don't we reflect rather than define? In this way, we could escape from that verbal jail which has been imposed on us by the detestable conceptual restrictions.

Having exposed the position between definition and reflection and having established the convenience of the latter as the most appropriate medium to carry out the task that concerns us here, we can reflect about one of those realities we don't know enough about, but which we pretend to know, a reality you are taking part at in this moment. A reality which we are not able to define, but that we use irresponsibly to pigeonhole and establish discriminatory judgments. That reality is Literature, as it has been called throughout time by the founders of history; a title which has been forged little by little and slowly ennobled at the expense of the seed that gave it life: Writing.

To determine the importance of writing in its most primary and pure conception, before it was vitiated with the subjectivist doctrine of aesthetics, we must look at the historic moment of its appearance or perhaps we should say protohistoric, because it was its birth which marked the rupture of the, in that instant, uncertain path of the human intellectual creation and which, likewise, fixed the initial frontier of the definitive period we call history.

Seventy centuries ago, with the transmutation of sounds to a physical, concrete and partially imperishable shape, the most important step to the construction of a truthful human collective memory was given. Thanks to it, myths, laws, facts would not be mutilated or rarefied by mouths or the times or vanish as simple waves in thin air. A society with solid bases and projections started to be built. There, the world formally starts its transformation; man does not only think of his present or near future, but even visualizes beyond what his own existence allows him. It is there, when he needs an alternate memory which immortalizes him.

That was what man did: He got eternal life by setting his thought in a series of symbols, created from his own mind. If thought makes man, catching his thought is catching man himself. It is becoming immune to time, in spite of being unconscious of this realization.

About the concept of literature, when did we start to use it? It is almost impossible to know. But what we do know is where it comes from: the Latin word litteratura, derived from littera: letter, and how it is defined: the artistic disposition of letters. Now, what is art? According to any academic dictionary, it is the expression of feelings through beauty. Now, we must define what beauty is: the complete harmony of shapes. In this way, we could continue tediously sinking more and more in the confusion, and confirming again, the inconvenience of trying to understand through absolute definitions.Literature, independently of being or not the embodiment of beauty in letters, has tried to be explained in hundreds of manners, but all of them quite vague. From those which take into account different peculiarities and features of its “appearance”, to those which defend its exclusively fantastic existence, a thesis whichlogically lacks any kind of argumentative value: Is medical literature supported by fictional statements? If this were true, humankind would have already perished. A significative contribution to the attempts to understand literature which must be mentioned here is that one given by Terry Eagleton (1983)

This contribution, although marked by subject ive apprecia t ions , has val id argumentative roots which support our position. Literature is no more than an arbitrary concept or as Eagleton (ibid) declared “…it constitutes a kind of hollow definition, just formal”. We don't have to understand literature as a semantic challenge, because it is not. It is only another product of our subjective raw material. The real challenge would be trying to unify the millions of interpretations about it.

Not being able to answer interrogations such as what a soul is or why man is on earth, we fervently hope that this brief opinion could be used by humankind to, someday, decipher the “ambiguous and cryptical enigma” that surrounds literature, and, once and for all, dissipate the unjustified controversy grown in its misconceived being.

Eagleton Terry. Literary Theory: an introduction. U.M Press. Minneapolis. 1983.Mukarovsky Jan. Escritos de estética y semiótica del arte. Gustavo Gilli. Barcelona.1977

From our perspective of appearances we are not able to uncover or perceive the faces of the literary component. We don't know in what way reality and fiction affect each other or in what sense the subjective judgments intervene in the making of its being. We have not comprehended yet how transcendental is that singular condition that emerges when relating to the literary work, a rupture suffered by the author, the work and especially the reader. A rupture, so multiple that it is capable of happening thousands, millions of times; as many times as there could be interpreters or encounters the same individual repeats. In addition, we are not conscious enough about the social, cultural, psychological and almost therapeutic functions that can be identified in literature. A work of this kind can show without any problem the image of a society; by imitation or by contrast. It could generate collective mental states, so persuasive to settle ideologies and manipulate reality. Our present world would not be the same if the evangelists, Diderot and D´Alambert or Marx had not written.

In terms of the individual universe, we can distinguish literature as a filter that helps us to escape from reality. The best perhaps, for many the only possibility for reaching their longings or recovering their memories. The French author Marcel Proust with his novel In Search of Lost Time is a good exponent of this. When we write, we are allowed to be the other. We can undress our mind under the protection of someone else's identity, and in this way, be able to unveil our truth, although in a symbolic sense. A similar process takes place when we read due to our interest, which usually pretends to make us think we belong to something we wish, but which in real life has not been granted us to satisfy.Now we know nothing about the future, what implications literature will have and how much of its confusing essence could be uncovered, but, what we can and must- do is to clarify our contribution to that profound search which fights to determine comprehensibly and finally what literature is.

By Camilo Morales NeisaEnglish Language [email protected]

Body moves and answers to material requirementsNobody notices the emptiness

Of the fleshy vessel

It goes here and thereTalks to people, fulfills its duties

Eat, sleep, laugh, but…Is it alive?

Minuscule part of enormous machineryStill-born son of mundane interests

Particularities deluged into commonnessJourney far away from the real essence and source…

Of everything

Restless soul wandering by forbidden dimensionsGoing back and forth

Aimless…

What is that core that still struggles?There is ethereal motion

In parallel realities

But who knows…

Untouchable substances are waiting…The reign of light is coming

If it is not total darkness?

SOUL DEMISE







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in his introduction to literary theory, which detaches the “eminently autonomous character” of literary language. That is, the faculty of stationing itself in an alternate dimensional plane, sometimes parallel to our daily language. This characteristic is due to the need to keep the reader's attention; a situation which is satisfied thanks to the inclusion of new words, the manipulation of structures and the application of socalled stylistic resources, which are the main guarantee of the mysticism that involves all the literary complex. Even if we wanted to write in a very colloquial mode, the fact that our work is there, codified, perpetuated in the lines of a text, alters dramatically its profile and mechanisms of interpretation to the receiving eyes, immersing us, in this way, in its own language. At this point we observe another phenomenon that sets us in a plane of divergence of positions: the relation author work interpreter. Not even the author could be sure that the message he intends to communicate is transmitted to the work and through it to the observer. Because, since the moment of its conception, the artistic product starts a rebellious stage. It becomes an “autonomous sign” as it has been called by Jan Mukarovsky (1977). That is why it easily produces distant interpretations, even opposite to what it wants to represent or its author wanted to express.

Did the English writer Jonathan Swift, who had an evident aversion to children, think that his novel Gulliver's travels, a crude and critical satire about his society, would become one of the most important classical works of children's literature?

LITERATURE: AESTHETICS AS AN EXCUSE OR REFLECTIONS ON SUBJECTIVITY

Camilo CuervoEnglish language [email protected]

Frequently, we stumble upon the lying obstacle of definitions, and I say lying because defining seems to be something innocuous, of a very simple nature, but it hides the mysterious faculty of getting complex in an inversely proportional way to the plainness of what we wish to define; if we had to explain what a spacecraft is, even though we knew little about it, we would use more concepts and in a more adequate manner than if we had to define the word “human”. No doubt, defining is a process that gets difficult because of our common lack of intimacy with language and often, it frustrates our longing to talk about the world with total command.

In order to overcome this disadvantage and/or mask our incompetence, we have decided to define by using examples, substitutes, descriptions, etc. Devices which finally reach their objective, or at least, get close to it.

Although this previous introduction seems to be decontextualized, it aims at showing the complexity of existing in a world in which, despite being in a reality, belonging to it and, at the same time, being made up of other realities, we know little about them and we can't do much to be able to know. Why don't we reflect rather than define? In this way, we could escape from that verbal jail which has been imposed on us by the detestable conceptual restrictions.

Having exposed the position between definition and reflection and having established the convenience of the latter as the most appropriate medium to carry out the task that concerns us here, we can reflect about one of those realities we don't know enough about, but which we pretend to know, a reality you are taking part at in this moment. A reality which we are not able to define, but that we use irresponsibly to pigeonhole and establish discriminatory judgments. That reality is Literature, as it has been called throughout time by the founders of history; a title which has been forged little by little and slowly ennobled at the expense of the seed that gave it life: Writing.

To determine the importance of writing in its most primary and pure conception, before it was vitiated with the subjectivist doctrine of aesthetics, we must look at the historic moment of its appearance or perhaps we should say protohistoric, because it was its birth which marked the rupture of the, in that instant, uncertain path of the human intellectual creation and which, likewise, fixed the initial frontier of the definitive period we call history.

Seventy centuries ago, with the transmutation of sounds to a physical, concrete and partially imperishable shape, the most important step to the construction of a truthful human collective memory was given. Thanks to it, myths, laws, facts would not be mutilated or rarefied by mouths or the times or vanish as simple waves in thin air. A society with solid bases and projections started to be built. There, the world formally starts its transformation; man does not only think of his present or near future, but even visualizes beyond what his own existence allows him. It is there, when he needs an alternate memory which immortalizes him.

That was what man did: He got eternal life by setting his thought in a series of symbols, created from his own mind. If thought makes man, catching his thought is catching man himself. It is becoming immune to time, in spite of being unconscious of this realization.

About the concept of literature, when did we start to use it? It is almost impossible to know. But what we do know is where it comes from: the Latin word litteratura, derived from littera: letter, and how it is defined: the artistic disposition of letters. Now, what is art? According to any academic dictionary, it is the expression of feelings through beauty. Now, we must define what beauty is: the complete harmony of shapes. In this way, we could continue tediously sinking more and more in the confusion, and confirming again, the inconvenience of trying to understand through absolute definitions.Literature, independently of being or not the embodiment of beauty in letters, has tried to be explained in hundreds of manners, but all of them quite vague. From those which take into account different peculiarities and features of its “appearance”, to those which defend its exclusively fantastic existence, a thesis whichlogically lacks any kind of argumentative value: Is medical literature supported by fictional statements? If this were true, humankind would have already perished. A significative contribution to the attempts to understand literature which must be mentioned here is that one given by Terry Eagleton (1983)

This contribution, although marked by subject ive apprecia t ions , has val id argumentative roots which support our position. Literature is no more than an arbitrary concept or as Eagleton (ibid) declared “…it constitutes a kind of hollow definition, just formal”. We don't have to understand literature as a semantic challenge, because it is not. It is only another product of our subjective raw material. The real challenge would be trying to unify the millions of interpretations about it.

Not being able to answer interrogations such as what a soul is or why man is on earth, we fervently hope that this brief opinion could be used by humankind to, someday, decipher the “ambiguous and cryptical enigma” that surrounds literature, and, once and for all, dissipate the unjustified controversy grown in its misconceived being.

Eagleton Terry. Literary Theory: an introduction. U.M Press. Minneapolis. 1983.Mukarovsky Jan. Escritos de estética y semiótica del arte. Gustavo Gilli. Barcelona.1977

From our perspective of appearances we are not able to uncover or perceive the faces of the literary component. We don't know in what way reality and fiction affect each other or in what sense the subjective judgments intervene in the making of its being. We have not comprehended yet how transcendental is that singular condition that emerges when relating to the literary work, a rupture suffered by the author, the work and especially the reader. A rupture, so multiple that it is capable of happening thousands, millions of times; as many times as there could be interpreters or encounters the same individual repeats. In addition, we are not conscious enough about the social, cultural, psychological and almost therapeutic functions that can be identified in literature. A work of this kind can show without any problem the image of a society; by imitation or by contrast. It could generate collective mental states, so persuasive to settle ideologies and manipulate reality. Our present world would not be the same if the evangelists, Diderot and D´Alambert or Marx had not written.

In terms of the individual universe, we can distinguish literature as a filter that helps us to escape from reality. The best perhaps, for many the only possibility for reaching their longings or recovering their memories. The French author Marcel Proust with his novel In Search of Lost Time is a good exponent of this. When we write, we are allowed to be the other. We can undress our mind under the protection of someone else's identity, and in this way, be able to unveil our truth, although in a symbolic sense. A similar process takes place when we read due to our interest, which usually pretends to make us think we belong to something we wish, but which in real life has not been granted us to satisfy.Now we know nothing about the future, what implications literature will have and how much of its confusing essence could be uncovered, but, what we can and must- do is to clarify our contribution to that profound search which fights to determine comprehensibly and finally what literature is.

By Camilo Morales NeisaEnglish Language [email protected]

Body moves and answers to material requirementsNobody notices the emptiness

Of the fleshy vessel

It goes here and thereTalks to people, fulfills its duties

Eat, sleep, laugh, but…Is it alive?

Minuscule part of enormous machineryStill-born son of mundane interests

Particularities deluged into commonnessJourney far away from the real essence and source…

Of everything

Restless soul wandering by forbidden dimensionsGoing back and forth

Aimless…

What is that core that still struggles?There is ethereal motion

In parallel realities

But who knows…

Untouchable substances are waiting…The reign of light is coming

If it is not total darkness?

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SHORT STORIES POETRY

THE PERFECT SONG This story is about three brothers that adored music. For them, it was just impossible to live without this placid energy that transmits the vibrations of sounds, entering through the auditive sense. This calm and tranquility, also fury and relief that produces the vibrations moaning of the depth of the human loneliness transmitted across the sharp instruments, filled them so, that their mind traveled across unimaginable spiritual and psychedelic worlds. The effect of lofty chords was more vivid that an overdose of the more pure drug. Nobody ever understood the importance of this evil noise, and the truth is that they didn't care because this noise was their happiness. (Continue told from the perspective of one of them because it is impossible that the cosmic vision of three persons coincide.) Seven had always been an introverted person; he was reflective and thought very much every word before speaking. He gave extreme worth to the things that went out his mouth, and because of this, he had meticulous care about speaking of interesting subjects and avoided losing in frivolous dialogues like most of the people. Each word he uttered had been previously analyzed, and he tried to pronounce it appropriately and to finish each idea in order to avoid misinterpretation. But almost all this exertion was in vain, since generally, nobody hears anybody. There was a moment in which he tired so much about frivolity and idiocy. He tired of his boring transcendence; he tired of everybody and essentially of himself. He entered in a terrible crisis; the worst depression of his life crushed him like a bug under a flattening. He was immersed in an indeterminate and timeless lapse of darkness of his mind. Like a hermit, he closed into himself, like an autistic. He had an unlimited power of ideas that contrasted his insuperable capacity to transmit them. He felt uncomfortable with the uselessness of his oral words. He tried to communicate through other ways, like painting, sculpture, writing, the movies, and finally he stayed with the way that he liked the most: music. He sought cans, and began to canalize his energy through himself; he hold his fury and interest in transmitting every kind of feelings through his art. He created sounds that plunged him in a trance, a lofty moment of over natural ecstasy. After many practices, and some of study, the melody took shape. His brothers were also getting a bass and a guitar. They shut themselves during a huge lapse (full of wild

exertion, long nights, callus in their hands, wars with the neighbors and the law, uncountable obstacles that couldn't stop such noble mission) in order to create a sublime melody. Like Jimmy Hendrix thought once, they wanted that their music entered through the interstices and cure the tribulations of the planet. One day they disappeared. The legend tells that they were successful. They created a melody able to give instant happiness. The problem was that they did not calculate the immeasurable power of the waves they created through the space. And in the moment that the boundless sounds went across the practice room and introduced through their interstices and ears, the happiness was stronger than what they could bear like normal humans. Finally, they disintegrated in dust and a soft wind dispersed through the universe.

“The Mother of God” The threefold terror of love; a fallen flare

Through the hollow of an ear; Wings beating about the room;

The terror of all terrors than I bore The Heavens in my womb.

Had I not found content among the shows Every common woman knows, Chimney corner, garden walk,

Or rocky cistern where we tread the clothes

And gather all the talk? What is this flesh I purchased with my

pains, This fallen star my milk sustains,

This love that makes my heart's blood stop Or strikes a sudden chill into my bones

And bids my hair stand up?

IS MATERNITY THE TERROR OF ALL TERRORS?

By Luz Mery RamírezEnglish language graduate [email protected]

The main objective of this analysis is to show the reader how the author William Butler Yeats expresses the symbolism through figures of speech, and how he creates beauty and irony in his poem “The Mother of God.”

This poem, written in 1932, corresponds to the last years of Yeats' life. According to Broddy' notes in her book W. B. Yeats: Selected Poetry, referring to the poems catalogued as “From the Winging Stair and other poems,” in This section of his work Yeats returns to the reality life, from the escape he had been seeking. A severe attack of influenza followed by congestion of the lung and a nervous breakdown gave him the realization that perhaps he was near to death. Such thoughts, as Swift suggests, tend to clarify our thinking. As he wrote to Mrs. Shakespear once his hopes were again in the ascendant: 'I did not know how tired I was till this last blessed illness began and now I dream of doing nothing but mystical philosophy and poetry'. (1978: 89)This period is “his most mature and ethically profound, showing a powerful imagination at work on the task of integration a life and its works in full consciousness of the fragmentation, violence and incoherence of modern reality, while avoiding Romantic subjectivism” (Hardyng, 1992: 29). He tries to be more realistic and objective. “He looked for his images in the 'Collective Memory' of the race” (Ussher, 1952: 29). The Annunciation (see Luke, St. 1.26-38) and the symbols the Holy Bible (Biblia de Jerusalén, 1975) transmits are important to Christianity. Seldom correlates most people the 'supernatural' with the 'natural,' and are incapable of understanding the meaning that those images convey. People just keep in their minds the miracle. Therefore, the poet wants to show with a deep irony how human beings are more or less real than they believe to be. 'The use of symbols was for Yeats a kind of discipline as well. They were to be used to 'convey the other what could not otherwise be communicated.' He says: 'A symbol is indeed the only expression of some invisible essence, a transparent lamp about a spiritual flame'”

Detalle de “La anunciación” de Fillipo Lippi

(Broddy, 1978: 10). Yeats uses the figures of speech and symbols to make people think about some contradictions they live. When the poet expresses that conflict, he describes it through images that touches our senses, then our minds, and finally our feelings. The poet also accelerates communication by the use of repetitive words.To better understand the meaning of the poem, Broddy says: “Three verses of five lines each, symbolic of the responses of the Virgin Mary to the miracle: the first verse carrying the association of a painting; the second dealing with her supposed common life; the third with her contemplation of the actual miracle and the disquiet wonder that she feels” (1978: 7). Yeats, telling about the first and second lines, said: “I had in my memory Byzantine mosaic pictures of the Annunciation, which show a line drawn from a star to the ear of the Virgin. She conceived of the Word, and therefore through the ear a star fell and was born” (Rosenthal, 1962: 220). It can be noticed in the poem that “Yeats reaction to the 'supernatural' was always in fact chiefly terror, as his reaction to the 'natural' was only too liable to be hate” (Ussher, 1952: 69). The poem is centered in the terror that a woman experiences when she becomes pregnant without being fertilized by a man. The Bible talks about the dialogue between Mary and the Angel, the Virgin's acceptance. After that, it talks about its consequences: she conceives Jesus in her womb, and has to face loads of sufferings until the end life of her son. In contrast, the poet, intentionally, omits that dialogue; he just tells us through the poetic voice how the Virgin is complaining, what feelings she has; and how she lives maternity as a terror. The poem is a rejection. The author talks, in a real way, without romanticism. He makes an effort to tell the whole truth about human life and human behavior. It is a characteristic of the Contemporary Literature that marks the close of the Great Victorian Period of English Literature. This poem could be questioning some values, such us marriage, morality, or religion. The new generation may feel as if their parents lived in an unreal, sentimental world. All values of the Victorian Age are relative (Harding, 1992). At first, it could be thought that the poem only talks about the Annunciation, how the Virgin Mary became the Mother of God, as the title suggests, and her sufferings, but one's feelings cannot accept how the poet calls this remarkable fact as a 'terror of all terrors,' and why he changed the biblical text. Then, what does the poet want to say? Here there is not dialogue; here there is a complaint; here there is not a miracle; here there is a woman almost run over by God. It is very difficult to understand it. Therefore, we need to examine the images, symbols and figures of speech that the poet uses for a better understanding.

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PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION SHORT STORIES

These concepts are reason and faith.Reason is a social property that has been developed inextricably related to WORK and language. It also has a bio-somatic support: The brain and the nervous system of men who live in society. Reasoning consists of the human beings' capacity to create, link and separate meanings - based on their correspondence to objective reality. Besides, reasoning allows us to plan actions in order to satisfy our material and spiritual needs. This planning is accomplished by using adequate resources intended to fulfill objectives that have been set up previously.

All of us use reason not only when we speak about scientific or philosophical matters but also when we get dressed every morning or eat a piece of bread; even when we need to go to the bathroom because our bodies demand it. All these actions are mediated by reason. Notwithstanding, we must distinguish between the rational theoretical thought (philosophical scientific) and the rational ordinary thought (common sense). As I said before, both of them are based on human experience in the material world, but the difference lies in the quality of the reflex of each one of them: The rational theoretical thought is more complex and comprehensive than the rational ordinary one due to the quality of abstractions produced during the thought process in itself. It must be taken into account that thought is not only theoretical or ordinary. Artistic, mythical and fantastic are also ways of thinking that have been developed through the human socialization process. An individual can develop one or many ways of thinking depending on the reflex of the external reality (organic and inorganic) in which he/she has been brought up, the reflex of the socio-historic reality, and his/her psycho-physiological condition.As Rubinstein says “...el objeto reflejado en los fenómenos psíquicos afecta a las necesidades y a los intereses del individuo por lo que provoca en él una determinada actitud emocional y volitiva (anhelos, sentimientos).... La propia actividad del cerebro depende de la INTERACCIÓN entre hombres y mundo exterior, de la relación que se establece entre la actividad del hombre y sus condiciones de vida,

ROMÁNTICA NOCHE DE LUZ SELENA

Escrito por impEstudiante de inglés

[email protected]

Me encuentro en profunda confusión. Confusión agorera y matizada de terroríficos recuerdos que, cotejados, muestran una oscura relación; una profunda relación que espero no tenga nada que ver con la tragedia sucedida días o noches atrás. Ahora que me encuentro sola me he revestido con un elegante manto de depresión que aunque no es muy real, si me cubre por entero en las noches de luna, de luna llena. El dolor es en realidad algo de lo que puedo olvidarme fácilmente cuando pongo mi cabeza a trabajar en las mundanas actividades que él odiaba y por las cuales siempre discutíamos. No es que yo no lo quisiera, solamente quería tener una pareja normal, que se preocupara más por mí y que no me cambiara por los primeros acordes o humaredas que se le atravesaran. Tal vez lo mereciera pero aún así lo extraño.

Él era un tipo extraño. Se la pasaba todo el día escuchando una “música” incomprensible a la cual casi le rendía pleitesía, pero a decir verdad yo nunca le encontré sentido. Terribles sonidos de discos rayados, aterradores gritos de ultratumba y ensordecedoras percusiones a velocidades exageradas eran los elementos de los que se componían las “celestiales melodías” de tas que él parecía disfrutar tanto. Y no sólo parecía disfrutarlas; bajo su influencia parecía entrar en estados de trance en los que, en ocasiones, me asustaba no saber como interrumpirlos o detenerlos. Solo una vez quise intervenir en una de sus sesiones musicales, pero una terrible, profunda e intensa mirada llena de odio me apartó al instante. Por tal razón odiaba su música, era lo único de lo que no le podía disuadir con mis femeninos encantos.

No éramos la pareja ideal, por supuesto, pero a veces la pasábamos bien. Nunca tuve quejas en cuanto a su desempeño de lo mundano y su sensibilidad no tenía comparación. Entendía muy bien mis necesidades, pero poco se preocupaba por mis acciones, lo cual estallaba mi histeria. Se la pasaba hablando de historias antiguas sobre las étnias Muiscas y de cómo éstas tenían una cercana y mística relación con nosotros, o al menos, con él.En cierta ocasión, y por ningún motivo en especial (al menos para mí), él comenzó a comportarse de manera extraña aún más pero nunca me cruzó

por la cabeza que ello terminara así. En una noche cualquiera (eso creí) él despertó de su sueño, apagó su equipo de sonido de reproducción individual walkman y se sentó al borde de la cama. Alguna cosa sacó de su cajón de llave. Luego, dándome por completo la espalda, comenzó a manipular cautelosamente algo entre sus dedos. Yo sabía qué era lo que estaba haciendo pero no me atreví a decirle nada, sabía perfectamente que si trataba de disuadirlo de alguna forma terminaríamos discutiendo. Además, si hubiera podido mirarle a los ojos, me habría hecho retractar de ello inmediatamente. Se levantó, vistió algo ligero y salió de la habitación; minutos después estaba en el patio, con la cabeza inclinada hacia el firmamento, exhalando bocanadas de humo, completamente bañado en plateados destellos lunares. Sus ojos tenían un brillo misterioso. Su boca dejaba entrever una sonrisa macabra. Eran las tres de la madrugada.

Indignada por su indiferencia y por su extraño comportamiento, aseguré la puerta de la habitación y destape una de las cervezas que él guardaba “secretamente” en el contenedor de agua del inodoro. Odiaba tomar la cerveza mantenida en ese lugar, pero a esa hora y en esas circunstancias no era posible otra cosa. Encendí la televisión (él me hubiera pedido automáticamente que la apagara) y comencé a beber en espera de algo entretenido para ver, sin embargo, al cabo de un rato mis ojos se cerraron, la ambrosia de dioses se derramó por el piso y yo empecé a deslizarme hacia los dominios de Morfeo. El televisor sin audiencia proyectaba una vieja serie llamada werewolf.

“Caminaba sin rumbo por las oscuras y vacías calles de la ciudad. El hedor de sangre fresca que alcanzaba a percibir mi nariz me llenaba de júbilo. Era ésta la prueba de mi victoria. Al fin había conseguido regocijarme en tu abrazo, señora del cielo nocturno. Al fin el enemigo había recibido su castigo. Tomo conciencia de mí; miro mi pecho plano, mis piernas robustas, siento el peso de mi larga cabellera; miro mis manos, la derecha ensangrentada. Grito de alegría pero mi voz me parece entonces demasiado ronca...”

Me despierto con un potente alarido que se mezcla con el de aquel hombre lobo del aparato televisivo. El recuerdo del sueño es muy vivido, según parece el TV quedó encendido con volumen muy alto en el silencio de la madrugada e incidió en mis sueños. Estoy un poco asustada y me incomoda de alguna forma estar sola. Tal vez si él estuviera aquí podría contarle mi sueño y escuchar su interpretación de esos elementos oníricos; eso me habría hecho sentir más tranquila, pero su lecho está aún vacío. Me acerco a la ventana y lo primero que veo es un inusual brillo iluminando la noche, busco su fuente de origen y lo encuentro en nuestro satélite natural. La luna llena nunca me pareció tan hermosa antes. Tal vez todas esas historias que él me contaba acerca de los antiguos ritos lunares no eran tan descabelladas, después de todo la luna era maravillosa, y en esta noche en particular parecía tener un atractivo especial.

Reconozco unos pasos familiares acercándose, mi corazón experimenta una aceleración en su ritmo, el miedo y la alegría se mezclan en confusos sentimientos. Cuando la puerta se abra voy a decirle lo bonita que se ve la luna y lo sola que me sentí en su ausencia; no quiero que me vuelva a dejar sola en una noche como ésta. Los pasos se acercan cada vez más, me apresuro a apagar el aparato y a recoger la botella caída el líquido lo seco mañana, me acerco a la ventana para mirar a la luna un vez más pero el ruido de la puerta intentándose abrir infructuosamente me obliga a cambiar de dirección, quito el seguro de la puesta y me acomodo rápidamente entre las cobijas; las decisiones tomadas anteriormente desaparecen bajo la sábana de mi orgullo…

sus necesidades”. Thus, reason (thought) does not depend only on the subject or on the object, but it is the result of the interaction between SUBJECT and OBJECT. We can say that reason is both subjective and objective.

The main feature of the mythical and fantastic thought is that they are produced as a subject reflex; it means that they occur in the individuals' mind without corresponding to objective reality. This subjective consideration of truth is also considered as faith. Consequently we could say that religion is a manifestation of the fantastic thought.

As a subjective reflex, faith is a belief which consists of four basic elements: Confidence, blind acceptance, renunciation, and perpetuation. Confidence is a state in which the subject puts all his / her trust in a kind of knowledge assumed as true. The blind acceptance of this assumption becomes aFundamental premise of faith, since it implies that the subject renounces ant desire to verify, prove, check or examine whether this knowledge has something to do with objective reality or not. The last of these elements is the tendency to consider this knowledge as eternal, beyond time and discussion. In accordance with the explanation of reason and faith, the former specifically concerns to science and philosophy, and the latter is not restricted only to religious beliefs. It means that even scientists can develop a kind of faith. In science, this faith is known as 'scientism'. It is a mixture of reason and faith whose contents are true (objective) but they are considered as eternal, in total opposition to the essence of science which is a systematization of knowledge in constant development, and acquired historically by means of social practice. When it happens, scientific knowledge is used to support false ideas such as the superiority of one race over the others, purity of the blood, superior intelligence or prevalence of one kind of intelligence of one country, some superior cultural features, and so on.Religion corresponds to a specific moment of the human conscience and it is one of the answers to the humans' necessity of explaining the world. Fortunately, scientific knowledge which I consider the most valuable treasure that we possess in order to understand

thand transform the world have increased since the 15 century, and today this increase seems to be unstoppable. We, as participants in this very crucial historical moment, must try to be aware of the importance of rational theoretical thought in order to contribute to the rational progress of our species. The rational fight against all kinds of irrationalism has hardly been carried out up today because the main setting for this fight has been the university. Nowadays, the fight is taking place in all the possible settings of both academic and everyday life. For this reason, our historical commitment is to get involved in this fight against irrational violence and to promote the development of rational theoretical thought within and from within the academy.

By Ronnall Castro QuinteroEnglish Language student

[email protected]

Religion is a neverending topic for humanity. Although thousands of books have been written about it throughout history, it is in this new century that the debate on the nature of religion and its role in modern society gains a real importance.

The influence of this debate resides in the fact that humanity is living its most crucial moment. A moment in which we can destroy ourselves or start thinking seriously about our existence on this planet. A decision has to be made, but this decision must not be made on the basis of irrational beliefs or guided by subjective feelings because global HISTORICAL conflicts require global REASONABLE solutions.

Before beginning to answer the question that I have chosen as the title of this article, I must say that for me it is not acceptable that many people attack reason by using the categories of reason, and simply dismissingall the suffering and the effort of thousands of people who have died trying to understand and transform the universe we live in. Amazingly, this attack has been carried out from within the academic life and the issue concerning the relation between religion and knowledge has been considered only as an academic issue for a long time. However, objective reality shows us the great complexity of this academic issue; a complexity which is a REASONABLE abstraction we make of our daily social relationships. The apparent contradiction between academic life and daily life is no more than the apparent contradiction between philosophy and common sense. Philosophy is supported by the socalled exact and human sciences, whereas religion is a dispersed element of the common sense which is a divided, incoherent and inconsequent conception of the world (even in the different individual brains). Nevertheless, philosophy and common sense share the same point of reference: both take their contents from human experience in the material world. So, what is the relationship between religion, philosophy and knowledge? I think we have to clarify some concepts in order to answer this question. Only then will we be able to determine whether the knowledge is objective or subjective.

TO THINK OR NOT TO BE, THAT'S THE QUESTION

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REFLECTIONS

REFLEXIONES TARDÍAS

De la conciencia del estudiante de la nacional y el colombiano en general una parte de la conciencia humana

LA VOZ17 de abril de 2006

¿Es entonces el hombre, según el estudiante de la Nacional y esto limitándonos en extremo a éste pues este artículo es para ése estudiante, si no, para quien lo escribe un instrumento de las cáscaras vacías que son las filosofías anacrónicas, y de las herrumbrosas máquinas y circuitos puestos a andar por hombres anteriores que, sin lugar a dudas y a la luz de los acontecimientos, se deben estar revolcando en sus tumbas, por lo hecho y no hecho, pero, sobre todo, por aquello que se hace ahora con lo que ellos hicieron?Una pregunta extensa, quizá en demasía, para dar apertura a una reflexión que, aunque ocupara pliegos enteros y tomos, y enciclopedias, foros y seminarios, se quedaría corta en extremo porque ¿por dónde empezar? Y si acaso se logra dar norte a semejante tema como es la conciencia última y verdadera esencial del estudiante de la Nacional y, entonces, del colombiano, reflejo perplejo pero cuasiperfecto de la conciencia humana (ni que no perteneciéramos a grupo tan pintoresco), ¿Cómo desarrollar y reflexionar sobre dicho tema?Por tanto, quizá, esta primera pregunta abra un campo de reflexión simple, aunque ingrato para muchos. Porque eso es lo que refleja la conciencia del estudiante de la Nacional. Entonces, ¿por qué no preguntarse uno por esta tendencia? Ya se dirá que de dónde se sacó esto, lo que vendría a ser una pregunta bastante conveniente, pero inútil, pues haría falta ser ciego como para ignorar que el estudiante de la Nacional permanece aletargado y deslumbrado por la luz viciada y crepuscular que filosofías como el Comunismo o el Socialismo le proyectan, o que, en otros casos, sólo sigue los pasos pre-establecidos y sistematizados en las áreas de investigación de cualquier tipo, como si en las profundidades de cada hombre, de cada estudiante, no subyaciera un creador en potencia, un ser capaz de valorar y desarrollar por su propia cuenta, un espíritu capaz de emanciparse de todo paradigma y con su iniciativa desarrollar la fuerza para impulsar una verdadera revolución de la conciencia y el conocimiento.Lo que aquí aparece no es una mentira, es una realidad palpable en el día a día de la Universidad; el estudiante de la Nacional se queja y se queja, y lanza piedras, y grita, y se rasga las vestiduras, pero ¿es en últimas esto una muestra de una conciencia capaz de generar cambio? No. Eso es una quejadera de lo más básica, como bebés que demandan el pecho materno.“¡Ah! entonces uno ya no tiene derecho a quejarse y debe callarse y ser un conformista”, estarán diciendo, como siempre dicen. Conformismo es la palabra más enemiga pero más usada por el estudiante de la Nacional y por el colombiano promedio , pero es muy conveniente porque somos inconformes como todo latinoamericano. Sin embargo, en cambio, sí nos conformamos con que todo se nos dé y nada aportemos desde nuestra mente y potencial creativo.Aquí no se critica ni despotrica contra el Comunismo, el Socialismo o contra los intelectuales de antaño y contemporáneos (ya más de uno habrá resoplado y se habrá mesado las barbas si las tiene o, si no, se habrá rascado la barbilla diciendo que quien aquí escribe no es más que un Capitalista o un Imperialista o uno de esos que detesta lo tradicional, porque “cuando no están con nosotros, están en nuestra contra”. Qué fácil ¿No?) Aquí se reflexiona sobre el carácter de ganado que tiene el estudiante actual y el colombiano promedio: ambos siguen y siguen por la senda marcada por el vaquero, antiguos preceptos y filosofías que deberían ser dejadas en paz bastante mal ya han hecho y no se preguntan si ellos pueden crear y si el Comunismo o el Capitalismo, o la mezquindad, o los procedimientos creados por otros no están ya mandados a recoger.Esta no es una voz de anarquía; siempre se puede crear algo bello y bueno y útil, sin hacer daño a alguien. Esta es una voz que predica que el hombre, el colombiano y el estudiante de la Nacional son mejores, con creces, que lo que pretenden ser ahora, que el estudiante puede crear su propia luz y no verse eclipsado como esas lunas áridas y egoístas que somos y que sólo brillamos gracias a la luz menguante de un sol ajeno.Y esto que aquí se intenta reflexionar no es ni siquiera el principio de la cuestión.

PROYECTOS Y SEGURIDAD EN LA UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL:

Rompamos el silencio

En los últimos días la Universidad Nacional ha experimentado algunas situaciones interesantes para analizar. Algunas de éstas tienen que ver con demostraciones de rechazo al interior de la misma y otras con proyectos adelantados en beneficio de la comunidad universitaria.

Hablemos un poco acerca de los disturbios que se presentan por parte del estudiantado en el Campus Universitario. Para nadie es un secreto que día por día, aunque haya quienes afirmen que esta mejorando, la situación de la Universidad es un completo desastre. Por ejemplo, fijémonos en lo sucedido hace algunos días, cuando los nuevos enfrentamientos entre la fuerza pública y los estudiantes dejaron como resultado dos heridos y una familia de luto.

Ahora, grupos de estudiantes e incluso padres afectados se dedican incansablemente a buscar culpables de tan execrable hecho dejando de lado la cordialidad y continuando con las faltas de respeto para con el personal de seguridad. Sin herir susceptibilidades, seria bueno entender que para estos señores no es tarea fácil sobrellevar los diferentes cambios de temperamentos de las personas y es necesario dejar en claro que ellos nada tienen que ver con lo sucedido.

Por otro lado, en cuanto al nuevo proyecto de adquisición de bicicletas avaluadas en $187.000 c/u hay que decir que al parecer no fue la mejor inversión porque a pesar de la buena referencia que dieron en cuanto a la calidad, pasada media hora después de su inauguración, la mayoría ya se encontraba en mal estado ¡que desperdicio! Uso el termino “desperdicio” porque aunque el proyecto es muy novedoso y bueno para facilitarle a usuarios y visitantes en general un medio de transporte dentro del Campus Universitario, a algunas personas les hace falta mucha cultura para asumir responsabilidades con esta clase de bienes que se dan en calidad de préstamo. No hagamos lo que dice el dicho “lo que no nos cuesta hagámoslo fiesta”.

Otra situación problemática en la universidad tiene que ver con la Carta Universitaria edición #11, de marzo de este año. En este comunicado, el señor Hugo Acero pone en tela de juicio, como siempre, la capacidad de la Seguridad Privada, ya que de acuerdo a su criterio personal no es suficiente la presencia de grupos reactivos (ésta es la forma como el señor Acero cataloga a los representantes de la seguridad privada) porque al parecer este personal no le da buen trato a los estudiantes, funcionarios y visitantes en general. No obstante, por el contrario algunas veces es la comunidad misma la que a diario, con su comportamiento poco amigable y con términos soeces y poniendo en tela de juicio su gran nivel educativo, incita a los guardas a ponerse por un instante a su mismo nivel. Así, cada quien da su pequeño aporte para enterrar cada vez más el buen nombre de la Universidad Nacional.

EL [email protected]

REPRESENTATIONS OF THE WORLD

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

ÿ Õ “ Ê Â œ Ã » « Ë Á Ê Â ‰ „ ‚ · ‡

θ' η' ζ' ς' ε' δ' γ' β' α'

Concerning the use of angles, our A r a b i c numbers are the best example. Our own digital system is based on angles. “All Arabic numbers we use today are ideograms created by Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khowarizmi (c.778 - c.850). Using the abacus notations, he developed the manuscript decimal system. Based on additives angles, he defined the numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4. And using his knowledge about the abacus manuscript notations, he defined the numbers 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, O.”

Though ancient pre/Colombian civilizations have been less described and analyzed than others in this field, we know that the Mayan system used dots and lines for their numerical calculations. This code was related to agricultural and astronomical cycles and it was based on twenty numbers according to fingers and toes. The basis of these numbers is another example of the use of lines and dots for numerical representation. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

The ancient Muiscas used a similar system. They also counted from one to twenty but their graphemes were different. Today we only have vague interpretations of them, but we know the names of those numbers. They were related to agriculture cycles besides other social traditions such as their calendar.

1. ATA 2. BOSA 3. MICA 4. MUIHICA 5. HISCA 6. TA 7. CUHUPQUA 8. SUHUZA 9. ACA 10. UBCHIHICA 20. GUETA

For the numbers between u b c h i h i c a (10) and g u e t a (20) they used the first nine numbers but adding the word f o o t (q u i h i c h a). For instance, when they wanted to say thirteen, the said q u i h i c h a m i c a.

In the philology program we study little about the origin of languages and we know less about the development of numbers. We are even more ignorant concerning the concrete case of our native ancestors' knowledge. This is not the result of students' apathy about the topic, but the consequence of the University's interest in foreign cultures, mainly the dominant ones. And as students of languages we should not study only the formal dimension of tongues but also the social and historical features that give sense to all kind of representational systems within a culture. As explained, languages are not only made of letters. Numbers is another system of representing that is essential for communication no matter cultural differences. This knowledge is of paramount importance to philology studies, and we should not relegate these meaningful elements from language. We present this article as complementary information for our studies, but it is the duty of each student to go deeply into these topics because our curriculum lacks this kind of issues.

RESOURCESBAYER Herman. Llamado calendario azteca: descripción e interpretación- INCOMPLETE REFERENCE, THE SOURCE IS MISSINGCORRIENTE F, Diccionario Árabe español. Herder: Barcelona 1991FARFAN N Enrique, Gramática elemental del hebreo bíblico. Editorial Verbo divino: España, 1998.LLOREDA, Diana. Los Muiscas: pasos perdidos. (1992) INCOMPLETE REFERENCE, CITY AND EDITORIAL ARE MISSING

MORE THAN CYPHERS

By Camilo Morales Neisa and José Vicente Monzón Romero

English Language students

[email protected]

[email protected]

As philology students our main interests have dealt with languages and their written expression. Letters and words have been the principal field of our studies, but they are not the only graphic representation used in our daily and academic life. Grading is a single example of the use of a convention different from letters, though both are related in some alphabetic systems. Money has also had a direct influence through daily business and commerce, and it has helped different cultures to homogenize a convention for numbers and quantities. Nowadays, our career emphasizes pedagogical aspects such as: didactics, methodologies and approaches for teaching languages; but there are other studies proper to philologists that have been left aside. In this article we want to show one of these issues that concerns numbers and how different cultures have represented quantities.

The ways of representing numbers have differed from culture to culture. In some cases, societies have implemented their own alphabetic systems to convey quantities, as in the case of the ancient Arabs, Hebrews, and Greeks.

Gothic Wulfila²

The equivalence between numbers and letters has been a resource used by other cultures like the Romans and Germanic people, but it is not the only way of representing quantities. Other numerical systems are represented by dots, lines and angles. We can find this kind of representation in languages far apart in the world, in Western and Eastern societies.

Chinese

Old Persian

1. This sample only corresponds to the first nine numerals and letters. The other quantities are represented by the rest of the letters of the alphabet.

2. These symbols correspond to an ancient Germanic dead language that was used for the first

translation of the Bible into a Germanic tongue.

Arabs, Hebrews and Greeks¹

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PHILOLOGHY AND PHILOSOPHY

Required to meet the conditions for performing the activities that would allow him to satisfy his desire.

It must be remarked that the Italian word virtú comes from the Latin substantive virtus. This stood for the set of qualities belonging to the condition of man, such as the energy, the merit, and the talent to perform a given task. This term was directly associated with the substantive vir, which meant “man”, in its condition of bearer of male qualities, and, in consequence, it was opposite to any female or even childish quality. It explains, for example, the fact that Latin used the word virago to mean heroine. On the other hand, Latin not only used these similar terms to define the energy associated to the male condition, regardless of the gender of the individual concerned, but to describe the force underlying every phenomenon or thing. In effect, the term vis comprehended violence (vim facere), the force of nature (vis fluminis) or of one's enemies (vim hostium sustinere), the essence of a relationship such as friendship (vis amicitiae), or, used in plural, the forces, in general terms (agere aliquid pro viribus). Even terms as vita, which meant life, or verbs such as volo, i.e., “to want”, or viresco, which meant “to become splendid”, seem to be closely associated to the abovementioned terms. In fact, virtú allows the individual who possesses it to exert his power over the things surrounding him as well as to rule the lives of the people placed under him in the society. In this sense, the virtuous man does not allow fortune to shape his destiny, as he himself is able to determine the path of his life, due to the fact that he has qualities such as intellectual vigor and courage, with which he can face circumstances, measure the resources at his disposal and react to daily challenges in the most appropriate way.

Secondly, fortuna is the set of circumstances that determine to what extent an individual may exercise the capacities that he possesses. This concept was not clearly defined by Machiavelli, as were many others. However, we may arrive at the definition established above if we take into account several affirmations contained in The Prince. On the other hand, it must be taken into account that, in spite of the fact that Machiavelli represents the return to the Greco-Roman Culture accomplished during the Renaissance, he meant by fortuna neither the Roman goddess who altered the course of human events, nor the instrument of the divine will, as Dante did.

In fact, Machiavelli considered that fortuna was not the exclusive element determining the history, but a restriction imposed upon freedom. In this sense, fortuna partly shapes human behavior, and, as a consequence of this, the individual is able to exercise his capacities within the boundaries established by fortuna.

In order to illustrate this concept, Machiavelli compared fortuna with the force of a river. People may impose restrictions on a river with the aim of preventing inundations or any other consequence. In consequence, as a given river shows its strength when no one attempts to control it, fortuna determines history completely in the absence of individuals able to impose their will.

On the other hand, fortuna also plays the role of providing virtuous men with conditions enabling them to realize their desires. According to this way of understanding fortuna, it does not seem to be everywhere and at every time an opposition to the projects conceived by human beings, but a source of opportunities to accomplish them. And, considered as a source of opportunities, fortuna explains to what extent the suitability of a given behavior for a particular occasion determines either its success or failure. This was the association, pointed out by Machiavelli, between the way of behaving and the qualità de tempi.

Because of this, one of the main rules precribed by Machiavelli was that the prince has to change the way in which he behaves according to the changes of the conditions in which he lives. And, given this prescription, any discord between the way of behaving of the prince and the conditions at the moment during which he performs his role may carry him to disaster.

VIRTÚ, FORTUNA AND NECESSITÀ

By Diego Germán Mejía Lemos English language student

[email protected]

A short introduction to the fundamental concepts of The prince of Machiavelli

The main object of this paper is to explain the importance of the concepts of v i r t ú, f o r t u n a and n e c e s s i t à in Machiavelli's work and to demonstrate to what extent they may be applied to areas different from politics.

i. The Prince, the most important work of Machiavelli, has been appreciated as well as rejected. In fact, after its publication, the Catholic church condemned it, and, within Protestantism, the reaction was not very different. But, nowadays, it has been considered as one of the most original works of the Renaissance, concerning political science.

The work of Machiavelli aims to establish, in a systematic and accurate way, logical relations among a series of historical facts concerning the political life of societies in order to draw conclusions from them and to express these in terms of general statements, or “laws”. In consequence, it would be possible to predict the future actions of political men with a certain degree of probability. In fact, for Machiavelli, whoever aims to know the future has to take into account what has happened, for everything in the world at every time is similar to what has taken place before. This principle, according to his works, is also applicable to human behavior and, for this reason, the facts of human history must be explained in terms of the eternal relation between the umori, the passioni and men's unsatisfied dessideri. It must be taken into account that, according to the Discorsi, the term umori, which is taken by Machiavelli from the medical tradition of his time, is applied in order to explain that laws in every Republic are the result of the conflict, or disunione, between the umori of mighty individuals and ordinary people.Given this, it is possible to examine in detail the role played by the concepts of virtú, fortuna and necessità in The Prince.

Firstly, the term virtú stands for a man's ability to accomplish his desires in spite of circumstances. This ability enables the virtuous individual to place himself above the mediocrity of average people and to achieve the goals that are not available to the common individual, who does not have the abilities

We should discuss the funds to be used in this project: Are they going to charge us for making the University beautiful? The more beautiful we want it to be, the more expensive it will become. We should discuss the real intention of this scheme: Is it just an attempt to make our University better for us? Or is it the first step in the (probably very short) road towards University privatization? We also should discuss the future of the country: Are we going to live and work in a very sophisticated and eye-catching country, with high skyscrapers and fashionable cafeterias that “crash the creeping beggars down”, as Osbert Sitwell said, or are we going to enjoy a country where everybody thinks critically?

I do not expect that people turn against this project. I do not expect that students stop this either. I would rather think and then discuss, which can bring a great, unified opinion about this. Although it can be a very hard, strenuous labor, we have to keep in mind that what really matters nowadays is the future of our University as our second home.

REFLECTIONS

GREAT CHANGES ASK FOR GREAT DECISIONS

By Juan Carlos Merchán ArenasEnglish Language [email protected]

For about three semesters, we have seen Architecture students going back and forth with their meters and similar stuff measuring each corner within the campus. At first, I thought they were taking an exam (a field exam) or something like that. But I was wrong. They were measuring everything, even trees, to conform and create virtual data about the University. Besides the “virtual UN”, one can see the many changes that the campus will experience in ten years and, certainly, they are really very big changes.

Sparing the details, the project is basically based on the embellishment and redesign of specific areas of each faculty, which the architects and engineers think can improve and seem better. New bathrooms, modern-pretty amazing auditoriums, huge food centers and an overwhelming Transmilenio stations´ linking path, are the main outstanding ideas. With these and other changes, the campus will not be the same as today it is. It will seem different, I think, better. The university will be “more beautiful” in a certain sense. We will find it more useful for us, and perhaps many will be proud of it because of its “beauty”.

Of course everything seems O.K. But beyond the profits and “good image” that the project can bring, we should think and then discuss. We should think if we prefer a pretty-free of dust University which many can be proud of, instead of a University where, besides great architecture pieces and food centers, we can find both great professors and students and huge knowledge centers. We should also think if we prefer to spend the money on a big and large path at the expense of reducing the amount of subjects and having fewer discussion spaces. We should think if we are capable of giving up the name “the best Colombian University” for “the most beautiful and livable University ever”.




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No queremos con esto decir que los problemas alrededor de la tesis en el nivel de pregrado deberían seguir así, sino que, más aún, coincidimos en varios puntos expuestos en el documento 'La reforma: ¿en qué va el debate?'. Sin embargo, la superficialidad tomada al desarrollar soluciones que responden únicamente a la coyuntura de una problemática (el 'estancamiento' que sufrían los estudiantes -especialmente de Ciencias Humanas-) y no a cambios Radicales en el desarrollo de competencias investigativas a lo largo del pregrado, hace que nos preguntemos si en realidad el 'núcleo' del problema se encontraba en la extensión del texto, o si precisamente deberíamos dirigirnos a la propia formación del estudiantado.

Bibliografía

ACUERDO NÚMERO 037DE 2005(Acta 19 del 13 de septiembre de 2005), en http://www.unal.edu.co/reforma/documentos/A0037_05S.pdfCalsamiglia Blancafort, y Tuso Amparo, Las cosas del decir: Manual de Análisis del discurso, Editorial Ariel S.A., BarcelonaJurado Fabio, “Investigación, Escritura y Educación”, Plaza y Janes, Bogota, 1999.Voloshinov Valentin, El estudio de las Ideologías y la filosofía del Lenguaje, En “El Marxismo y La Filosofía del Lenguaje”, Ed Alianza, Madrid, 1992 .Reforma Académica ¿en que va el debate?, Universidad nacional de Colombia, Junio del 2005.

1. Revisión del requisito de grado (junio de 2004), en Reforma Académica ¿en que va el

debate?,Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Junio del 2005, Pág. 43.2. Ibíd., Pág. 433. Para los siguientes datos de este documento, ver: ACUERDO NÚMERO 037DE 2005(Acta 19 del 13

de septiembre de 2005) “Por el cual se definen y reglamentan los programas curriculares de pregrado y de

postgrado que ofrece la Universidad Nacional de Colombia”, en

http://www.unal.edu.co/reforma/documentos/A0037_05S.pdf.4. Voloshinov Valentin, El estudio de las Ideologías y la filosofía del Lenguaje, En “El Marxismo y La

Filosofía del Lenguaje”, Ed Alianza, Madrid, 1992, Pág. 33.5. Jurado Fabio, “Investigación, Escritura y Educación”, Plaza y Janes, Bogota, 1999, Pág. 69. 6. Jurado Fabio, “Investigación, Escritura y Educación”, Plaza y Janes, Bogota, 1999, Pág. 73 7. Calsamiglia Blancafort, y Tuso Amparo, Las cosas del decir: Manual de Análisis del discurso, Editorial

Ariel S.A., Barcelona, Pág. 2948. Ibíd., Pág. 294. 9. Ibíd., Pág. 43

ENDINGS ELTRABAJO DE GRADO

Vladimir Alejandro Ariza MontañezEstudiante VII semestre de Sociología

[email protected]

Hace unos meses, con el Acuerdo 037 de 2005 del Consejo Superior universitario, se estableció que el sistema de Tesis, como una de las evaluaciones fundamentales de las diversas competencias del pregrado, se presentaba como un obstáculo que limitaba en muchos sentidos la preparación de los estudiantes para grados superiores, para un ingreso efectivo a la profesionalización o para el ingreso al 'mundo del trabajo'. Este obstáculo se basa en diversos factores, entre los que cabe nombrar:- Una falla en el carácter bipartito de compromiso entre profesores y alumnos. Así, por ejemplo: “Cuando los profesores invitan a los estudiantes a escribir, no realizan un seguimiento adecuado que les permita identificar aciertos y desaciertos en su proceso de aprendizaje”.- Fallas dentro de la formación del pregrado: “Tampoco se enseñan las técnicas mínimas de indagación que de manera tortuosa adquieren solos, los que cuentan con un mayor capital cultural de origen, en el momento de elaboración del Trabajo de Grado. Los estudiantes de menor capital cultural quedan excluidos (…)”

Aunque estos factores problemáticos fueron directamente encontrados y establecidos por la actual institución, el cambio que ésta llevo a cabo, es decir, la transformación de la Tesis por un trabajo final, podría llegar a no resolver en gran medida estos mismos problemas, debido a que su enfoque de resolución se concentra en problemas superficiales y no de contenido (tales como extensión del trabajo y una disminución del valor de este en el plan de estudios entre 10 y 20 %-).

En esa medida, los otros factores (los compromisos bipartitos, los problemas de enseñanza en técnicas) quedan seriamente relegados a una segunda instancia donde, entre muchas cosas, no se llevan a cabo transformaciones en la formación pedagógica (que logren resolver estos problemas capitales de investigación), ni tampoco en los fines que se persiguen en dichos trabajos. De igual manera, tampoco en dicho acuerdo queda establecida la articulación entre el fin del pregrado y __su evaluación. Pero exactamente, ¿cuáles son las competencias que son ignoradas, excluidas, o anuladas?

Escribir es Investigar.“La propia conciencia sólo puede realizarse y convertirse en un hecho real después de plasmarse en algún material sígnico” Valentín Voloshinov.

Tal vez, uno de los primeros enfrentamientos (sin negar el desarrollo de la totalidad de las actividades académicas) del estudiante universitario como investigador se encuentra en la tesis de grado. En efecto, en esta etapa de formación todo el acontecer de los saberes académicos a la vez que del acervo de conocimiento de la vida cotidiana (que se enraízan como un conglomerado de capitales culturales y simbólicos adquiridos por el individuo), se encuentra directamente a través del hacer. Este hacer, en tanto que se considera que “todo lo ideológico posee una significación sígnica”, es la escritura.

Sólo en la escritura se desarrolla un proceso en el que existe una superación de un estado pasivo a un estado activo de investigación; en él, el enfrentamiento tiene una consistencia de encumbramiento en el que “(...) el sujeto empírico queda suspendido, para dejar mirar al sujeto cognitivo-epistémico (sujeto simbólico)”. Éste último es formado con las diversas competencias adquiridas en una relación de compromisos bipartitos entre alumno y profesor. Pero no en una relación autoritaria unidimensional, sino en una relación de mutuo aprendizaje.

Sin embargo, este sujeto cognitivo ha llegado a un estado potencial, y únicamente éste es investigador activo:

“sólo desde el momento en que se atreve a registrar por escrito lo observado, cuando privilegia el dato autentico y cuando organiza a través de la escritura las conjeturas (...) materializada en la textualidad escrita, porque definitivamente no hay investigación, o no hay investigadores sin escritura”

Esto último, teniendo en cuenta que la textualidad presente de la tesis de grado posee una naturaleza de discurso argumentativo la cual “es una practica discursiva que responde a una función comunicativa: la que se orienta hacia el receptor para lograr su adhesión”. Esto tiene lugar por el desarrollo en las competencias investigativas adquiridas en la universidad como son las técnicas, los procedimientos y otros cúmulos que intentan penetrar en la 'demostración lógica', es decir “con instrumentos o armas más orientadas a la racionalidad (exhibiendo razones)”.

Sin embargo, es de considerar que este discurso argumentativo, aunque apoyado en investigaciones concretas (empíricas), nunca se presenta en un estado 'puro' e 'ideal' y que, más aún, se encuentra mediado (si no apoyado) por todo un acervo de conocimientos anteriores que a la vez están vigentes en la vida cotidiana (donde éste tiene mayor raigambre), tales como es el discurso narrativo y el discurso descriptivo. Si repasamos las acepciones del concepto de competencias, encontramos entonces que estos niveles de discurso se hallan suscritos a éste, y que por tanto (al encontrarse en las tesis de grado) también son posibles de evaluar.

De acuerdo a lo que anteriormente esgrimimos, la tesis de grado, al convertirse en Trabajo Final, podría en muchos sentidos dejar de lado algunos de los incentivos que tenia directamente el estudiante al explorar sus competencias (tanto académicas como de 'la vida cotidiana) como investigador, ya que si bien 'la extensión de la tesis no implica necesariamente la calidad de ésta', el estudiante tenía de por medio la responsabilidad de buscarlas, desarrollarlas y explotarlas, aunque éstas sean “técnicas mínimas de indagación que de manera tortuosa adquieren solos”.

LA REFORMA Y LAS EVALUACIONES: DE LA TESIS AL TRABAJO FINAL

In some way, virtú is regarded as the male power which must prevail over fortuna, a female force, according to the tradition prior to the author. In fact, Machiavelli said, at the end of Chapter XXV, that the fortuna was like a woman and that the Prince was compelled, in order to achieve his goals, to impose on her his will, even in a rude way, as she prefers the one who acts bravely and dominates her audaciously.

Finally, necessità corresponds to the situation or reason that impels the Prince to decide without regarding any other kind of rule, such as a religious or moral one. This concept underlies the socalled “reason of state” or “raison d'état”. According to this concept, the Prince has to decide without taking into account any consideration concerning justice or religion. The only pattern that he must bear in mind at the moment of deciding is the need of the government, a concept that comprises the necessary actions in order to preserve political power.

ii. The second topic to be treated here is the application of the concepts above explained on areas other than politics.The concepts of fortuna and virtú seem to be different to necessità, in terms of their application. In fact, necessità has to do with the need for taking a decision in order to preserve the political power. For this reason, it is not applicable to areas other than politics, at least in the terms originally proposed by the abovementioned author.

On the other hand, the first set of concepts could be applied to a broader field in comparison with the concept of necessità. In fact, the concept of virtú corresponds to a set of abilities enabling the individual possessing them to perform a certain number of roles, and, in consequence, to achieve a given goal. It must be remarked that this concept has to do with the capacity of a person to deal with a given problem, and, of course, to solve it.

Secondly, the concept of fortuna, regarded as a set of circumstances surrounding the individual and determining the extent of his freedom by imposing restrictions to the conditions in which he performs his roles, expresses in an accurate way the idea of the boundaries of the freedom of a given individual. These limitations are the conditions underlying the possibility of behaving in a certain way.

For these reasons, the concept of virtú comprises the capacity of an individual who can act according to the extent of his freedom, determined by a set of conditions, here explained by the term fortuna. In consequence, virtú enables a certain individual who possesses it to achieve a certain goal available to him, given the extent of his freedom, whose degrees have been determined by fortuna.

In conclusion, the concepts of virtú and fortuna could be considered as ideal constructs in terms of which a series of phenomena underlying the patterns of human behavior, not only concerning political affairs but aspects of human life other than the achievement of political power, could be understandable. These concepts enable us to understand ourselves.

BibliographyMaquiavelli, N. Discorsi sopra la prima decada di Tito Livio.Machiavelli, N. El Príncipe, Madrid, Editorial Alba, 2000.Diccionario Ilustrado Latino-Español Español-Latino, Barcelona, Ediciones Spes, 2000, octava edición.

Me encuentro supuestamente dormida, él cierra la puerta tras de sí, escucho sus pasos rechinando sobre el piso de madera; se sienta de nuevo en la cama, se quita su ligero abrigo y se recuesta a mi lado, pero por algún motivo lo siento mas lejano que de costumbre.

Minutos después algo tibio y espeso alcanza mi brazo; enciendo la luz de mi lámpara, levanto la sábana y siento, llena de profundo terror, que aquella sustancia tiene el mismo olor que en mis sueños. Una ola de furia escéptica cruza por mi mente y me hace arrancar de un solo tirón el resto de cobijas que reposan sobre mi compañero. Hilillos escarlata recorren su rostro inerte dibujando tétricos caminos que salen de su boca y terminan en cualquier lugar. Su cuerpo desnudo, terriblemente pálido, parece como iluminado por ese extraño brillo lunar. Sus gélidas manos sostienen orgullosamente un machete veteado de sangre en el filo. La sonrisa macabra aún se mantiene en sus atractivos labios morados.

El horror llena todo mi ser y lo atormenta con terribles visiones del pasado y del futuro, sé que debo hacer algo pero mi cuerpo está inmóvil. Lo primero que atino hacer es cubrir la deprimente figura del yerto cuerpo en mi cama. Lo segundo, es acercarme a su mesa de noche en donde reposa el teléfono, su reproductor de cintas y el booklet de una de sus bandas. Descuelgo el auricular y tomo el folleto que pertenece a un álbum de una banda con un nombre completamente ilegible, y cuando lo abro mi atención se centra inmediatamente en la letra de una de las canciones. El auricular cae de mis manos mientras leo incrédulamente las líneas que allí se encuentran:

POSSESSION

Mournful memories take place in my mindNarcotic fumes perception sensitizeNon-dimly lit visions fil1 in my sightIs world also clear when night came at last?

IIUtopian dark-dreaming enlarge my smileOf ancient barbarie I was taking vengeanceUseless heads of tyrants fell onto the groundNeo-pagan natives had at last won

IIIFantasy is over, what have I done?Am I still dreaming or is it a joke?Blood running down the blade in mi handBucolic sharp weapon machete it is called

IVSilver sphere, enrapturing wineUnavoidable doom 1 do not denyMajestic white shape I did sacrificeCrimson filthy end of fake live

I want to highlight the images the poet uses through the whole poem. In the first stanza he uses three metaphors to personify 'the threefold terror of love.' 'The terror of all terrors' is represented, first, by 'a fallen flare,' (the Virgin received the word through the hollow of an ear) second, by the 'wings beating about the room,' (they are the angel's wings and she is in her room) and third, 'the Heavens in my womb' (she is pregnant, waiting a son, the God's son). In the third stanza, 'the Heavens in my womb' is personified with other metaphors, which underline 'the terror,' being accompanied with extraordinary sufferings: 'this flesh,' 'this fallen star,' 'this love.' The poet makes irony in two ways: first, contrasting 'love' and 'terror.' To become Mother of God is 'the terror of all terrors,' and uses the 'supernatural' images as terrifying ones, and second, contrasting the first stanza with the second and third one, using rhetorical questions that bring the terror out. He does not want to show the miracle as a miracle but as a terror. How a woman can be pregnant without a man contribution? The fact that the poetic voice is in first singular person is to stress the irony. It is the same Virgin who lives the Annunciation as a terror. She is a victim. In the poem no one asked her if she accepted. The second and the third stanza are written in rhetorical questions. The poet uses them to reinforce the irony, the complaint: this love is a terror, is a suffering. What has happened? I think Yeats' irony underlines how life expresses itself as an insoluble contradiction, as a conflict between dream and reality; definitely love coexists with pain. The word 'terror' is emphasized by Yeats by the fact that he uses it twice: once, in line 1, 'threefold terror,' and twice: in line 4, 'the terror of all terrors.' In the first line 'threefold terror' seems to be referring to the Trinity: Father, Son an Holy Ghost, as the three persons that generate the terror. Each is responsible for the pain but, at the same time, is referred to 'love,' as if 'love' conveyed pains in itself. The Trinity symbolizes 'love.' In line 4, 'the terror' is the maximum one. Which is 'The terror of all terrors?' 'The Heavens in my womb.' They, as symbols, are faced. 'The Heavens' symbol means the 'supernatural,' and 'my womb' symbol means the 'natural,' the flesh; they are confronted each other. 'Heavens' and 'earth' are being joined in a woman's womb. Who caused that 'terror of all terrors?' 'Wings beating about the room,' referring to the Angel. How that 'terror of all terrors' was generated? As the Annunciation text says and the painting reflects, the conception is preceded by 'A fallen flare / Through the hollow of an ear, / Wings beating about the room;' (“The Mother of God,” 1-3) As I said before, the second stanza seems to talk about the humanity, the 'natural' life, and the third stanza appears to refer to the results of the first one. Yeats employs the juxtaposition of contraries to make his thoughts into unity. There are two forces fighting between themselves. At the end, the feeling that I kept was: maternity conveys happiness, but at the same time, sufferings. This is the reality. Sources:Biblia de Jerusalén. Bilbao: Desclee de Brower, S.A., 1975.Broddy, W. B. Yeats: Selected Poetry. London: Pan Books Ltd., 1978.Hardyng, Adrian. English Literature. The Twentieth Century. París: Dunod, 1992.Rosenthal, M. L. Selected Poems and Two Plays of William Butler Yeats. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1962.Ussher, Arland. Three Great Irishmen Shaw, Yeats, Joyce. London: The Camelot Press Ltd., 1952.Yeats, W. B. Antología Bilingüe. Madrid: Alianza Editorial, S.A., 1990.

VIRTU YEATS ROMÁNTICAviene de la pág.4 viene de la pág.7 viene de la pág.11

CONFERENCE NINTH NATIONAL ELT

Conference “english: a window on the world”September 14-16 Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá In partnership with a group of British publishers, the Centro Colombo Americano, ASOCOPI and Universities in Bogotá, the British Council is organising this event. The Conference seeks to be a forum for policy makers, researchers, teacher trainers, academic co-ordinators and practitioners in order to have a critical and constructive assessment of current research and practice on the teaching of English.

For further information about how you can participate in this event, you can visit: www.britishcouncil.org/colombia-eltconference

www.bilinglatam.com




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Head of Human Sciences Faculty:Professor Germán Arturo Meléndez AcuñaAcademic Vice-dean:Professor Olga Restrepo ForeroDirector of Vicedecanatura de Bienestar,Human Sciences Faculty Professor Zulma Cristina SantosDirector of Academic and Cultural Events:Professor Francisco Montaña IbañezHead of the Foreign Languages Department:Professor Melba Libia Cárdenas Beltrán

Editorial Co-ordination:

Director and EditorProfessor M. Claudia Nieto CruzStaffLina María Conde A. Camilo Morales NeisaJavier Augusto Rojas SerranoProofreadingProfessor Patricia SimonsonLiterature Department- Universidad NacionalGraphic Designer: José Gabriel Ortiz [email protected] Alejandro Ariza MontañezRonnall Castro QuinteroChristian Camilo CuervoEl DesapercibidoimpLa VozDiego Germán Mejía Lemos Juan Carlos Merchán Arenas José Vicente Monzón RomeroCamilo Morales NeisaLuz Mery Ramírez

Also collaborated:Verónica BermúdezJenny CastelblancoLoloJavier MartínezAlba OlayaJosé SalgadoJairo VelandiaXatlí Zuleta

Printed bySección PublicacionesEngineering School- Professor Guillermo Martínez P.

SponsorsDirección de Bienestar de SedeUniversidad Nacional de ColombiaVicedecanatura Bienestar Universitario

CAPITAL LETTER

Mission: to be a channel of communication among the members that make up the academic community of the Foreign Languages Department.

Vision: to grow as a publication, as individuals, as a group, and as members of the academic community.

E-MAIL

[email protected]

GREETINGS

We are very pleased to present to you this eighth edition to you, made with very hard,yet rewarding team efforts. This product comes as a result of the of the contributions made by members from the our Humans Sciences community which wants to share their varied interest with you.

The articles, texts and opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect the position or policies of Capital Letter.

After a short but unavoidable break Capital Letter started working again this semester. And it resumed its activities with more enthusiasm than before. This semester Capital Letter worked with the whole Human Sciences Faculty in the events concerning the “Señal que Cabalgamos” interchange. The first exchange had a great impact on the community and Capital had to carry it out more than once in order to satisfy our faculty's demand for activities like this. And this is part of the purpose of Capital Letter, to be a communication channel among students of the whole faculty. This interchange was useful as an excuse to integrate students from different programs and other members of the community under the same roof. Students from several programs shared with Capital some of their time and knowledge, and in this way, Capital became more than a publication of the Foreign Languages Department. Now Capital is a publication recognized by other students of the faculty, and the purpose of integrating and becoming a means of communication among the community has been achieved.

But this is not the only or best thing concerning this number of Capital Letter. In this edition we have great works that show that our writers were waiting for the opportunity to show some of their best productions. It is good to see that there are philologists doing their work, not only in classes, but taking advantage of the knowledge given by the university in order to explore their own interests. There are really interesting articles in our classmates' minds, and it is the duty and pleasure of Capital to socialize these productions with the entire Department and the Faculty. We congratulate all the writers for their worthy contributions. You showed that the academy is not only made of theory and formal knowledge about the language, but it also has expressive and reflective dimensions that make our students integral members of the society. This is what you are about to find in this 8th number of Capital Letter: the expression of our students' knowledge and wisdom applied to topics vital to the university but with a lot of personal reflections and expressions that made this number something special. You will realize this due to the length of many of the articles included this time. Then, prepare to enjoy and discover the interesting productions of the writers of the Department.

However there are also issues that are not as pleasant as those mentioned before. This time we lack articles in languages different from English and Spanish, and we hope that our partners from the other languages will be present in the following issues of Capital Letter. Anyway we thank all the people that have participated in the events and the writing of the articles; you are the central force that makes all this possible.

EDITORIAL RECENT EVENTS

UPCOMING EVENTS

41ST ASOCOPI ANNUAL CONVENTION

“Language Policies and Classroom Realities:

Bridging the Gap”October 13-16 Colegio Champagnat, Ibagué.

The Colombian Association of Teachers of English cordially invites the ELT Community to its annual convention, which has become the most important academic event in the area of English Language Teaching in the country. All information for participants (teachers and students), presenters and sponsors, can be found on the web site

for more specific information.

www.asocopi.org. You can also send an e-mail to [email protected]

BILING LATAM

International Simposium on Bilingualism and bilingual education in Latin America

LugarBogotá, Colombia, los días 5, 6 y 7 de octubre de 2006 en la sede de La Universidad de los Andes y del Centro Colombo Americano.Objetivo Promover el intercambio de conocimientos en los campos de la investigación y de la enseñanza y aprendizaje acerca del bilingüismo y la educación bilingüe entre aquellos que trabajan en contextos de mayorías y minorías lingüísticas en América Latina.TemáticasModelos, programas y prácticas pedagógicas en la educación bilingüe.Políticas lingüísticas y educativas para la educación bilingüe o multilingüe.Formación y desarrollo profesional de docentes en contextos bilingües.Para más información ver la página web del simposio:

PRIMER FESTIVAL DE LA CANCIÓN ALEX 2006

El pasado primero de junio del 2006 se llevó a cabo el Primer Festival de la Canción del programa ALEX en el auditorio Virginia Gutiérrez del edificio de Postgrados de Ciencias Humanas. Dicho evento tuvo como objetivos principales integrar a los estudiantes del programa con toda la comunidad universitaria y destacar una vez más la estrecha relación entre lengua y cultura a través de la música ya que la música es un

Este evento brindó a los estudiantes la oportunidad de poner en práctica dos de las modalidades fundamentales del programa ALEX: el autoaprendizaje y el trabajo en equipo a niveles académico y personal. Los estudiantes, profesores y administrativos del programa participaron y colaboraron en la realización de dicho evento. Es importante resaltar que las presentaciones fueron hechas en las siguientes lenguas: Inglés, Francés, Alemán, Portugués, I t a l i a n o , R u s o , J a p o n é s , C h i n o y obviamente Español.

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[email protected] Virtual

DIS(PLEASING) THE PUBLIC IN A PUBLIC INSTITUTION

Last March 31st, the institutional program BicirrUN started functioning on the campus. It is a project that includes the free provision of 400 bicycles for pedestrians to move around the campus faster, taking into consideration the long distances people have to cover from extremes within the 121,3 hectares that comprise the area of the university. The aim that guided this initiative was to facilitate the life of students, teachers, administrative staff and the public in general, based on the promotion of community values and the respect for public property. The initiative used the talent of young designers from the Industrial Design School together with their tutors who have filled the campus with two models: The Asimetrik and the Extensor.Nice as it may seem, the community received the initiative with enthusiasm, not exempt however from criticism. Some have said: A nice effort. Others have claimed: We need more books in the libraries, why don't they spend the

REFLECTIONS AND LITERATURE

The university and the individual seen through reflections and literature

Students of the university and members of the academic community at large have taken advantage of this space in order to share with you feelings, thoughts and ideas coming from their perceptions of university life, individual and existential preoccupations and academic interests. Most of them take the form of critical reflections and literature manifestations such us poetry or storytelling, even though you will find texts of other kinds as well.

This time, as always, Capital Letter comes back aiming to fulfill its essential objective: Being a channel of communication among the academic community, one that holds a multitude of joys, worries, and ideas very deep inside. Thus, in this Number 8, Capital Letter continues to offer everybody a chance to let those feelings and ideas flow outside.

money on that? Reality has shown us that it isextremely difficult to please all publics at all times. Whatever the action taken at the Universidad Nacional, it is exposed to the public eye and open to debate. No doubt about it, even more considering the context and the nature of the participants. But what have the results of this experiential situation exposed so far? Is it that public property can be mistreated because it is public, and because it is public it belongs to nobody, and nobody cares about anything? Is it that we need to be reminded that public property belongs to everyone and as such it should be treated the way we deal with our private property? Is it that we need control over the actions we exercise over reality to guarantee the life of an idea? Are we prepared to behave publicly in benefit of the individuals and the academic society we serve and receive benefits from?

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BOGOTÁ D.C., COLOMBIA - 15th JUNE 2006

FREE

Editorial

El Trabajo de grado

Philologhy and philosophy

Representations of the World

Philosophy and Religion

Symbolism

Aesthectics

Poetry

Short Stories

Reflections

Events

The Department's publications

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THE DEPARTMENTS PUBLICATIONS

PROFILE Journal


First of all, the PROFILE editorial team would like to thank Professor Claudia Nieto, Capital Letter Editorial Director, for this opportunity of approaching all the members that make up the academic community of the Foreign Languages Department, and kindly invite you to read our publication and to keep on spreading the classroom innovations and research, areas that have gained credibility and relevance all over the world.The latest issue of the journal, PROFILE No. 6, includes articles written by professionals from Brazil, India, Iran, the United Kingdom and Colombia. Due to the variety of its topics, PROFILE No.6 offers to its readership a wide scale of information that will surely enrich our knowledge and help us examine the local conditions of our education, contrasting them with what happens in other places.On the other hand, the editorial team of the PROFILE journal is delighted to share the honor that it has been indexed in category B by Publindex Colciencias, the national indexing system for Colombian journals. This recognition is based on the revision of scientific and editorial quality criteria for academic journals as well as our journal's stability and visibility internationally recognized by indexing systems like MLA International Bibliography and Educational Research Abstracts online (ERA). The journal is also included in the Ulrich's Periodicals Directory, an international catalogue for scientific journals.

For more information:[email protected][email protected]

www.humanas.unal.edu.co/profile

Editor:Prof. Melba Libia Cárdenas B.

Head of the Foreign Languages DepartmentUniversidad Nacional de Colombia - Bogotá

Phone. (571)3165000 Ext.16780 /16773

MATICES DE LAS LENGUAS EXTRANJERAS JOURNAL


Matices de las Lenguas Extranjeras is a Virtual Journal focused on the publication of articles related to the field of languages from the didactic perspective, pedagogy, research on language and culture, and translation.

Languages: Spanish, German, French or English.

For the presentation of articles to Matices de las Lenguas Extranjeras, please follow the MLA format (Modern Language Arts).

For further information write to:[email protected]

CONVOCA: A estudiantes de Ciencias Humanasinteresad@s en trabajar en los comités de redacción de español, inglés, francés y alemán. Además, los invita a participar enviando sus textos para el próximo número: Tecnología.

Mayor información:[email protected]

www.humanas.unal.edu.co/anonyma/1 Encuentre el último número en la fotocopiadora del

Departamento de Lenguas Extranjeras

PEARSON

EducationTHOMSON

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Documents

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