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How dangerous was the French novel? Throughout the early modern era, the novel evolved in response to the popular conception that it could have a profound impact on the moral constitutions of its readers. Although this influence could be salutary, it could also be corrupting. Whether they sought to alleviate fears or exploit them, all novelists wrote in the midst of this ongoing cultural debate. Where did this danger originate? Traces of suspicion can be found in the earliest works of imaginative fiction, as well as in ancient novels, fables, medieval romances, Renaissance contes, and the pastoral and precious novels of the seventeenth century. The issue of moral danger arose most acutely whenever a work depicted romantic love. This discussion flared into a fierce debate during the last third of the seventeenth century. Although conservative moral critics fought to suppress danger, novelistic works of this period depicted love in a variety of threatening ways. Three experimental genres introduced different forms of danger: the epistolary novel, the historical novel, and the memoir novel. Epistolary works were considered dangerous because of their subtle analysis of passion and because of their play with authenticity. Villedieu's Lettres et billets gallants (1667), which are real letters published by her lover without her consent, might have been composed with eventual publication in mind. Guilleragues's Lettres d'une religieuse portugaise (1669) were thought to be the real letters of a Portuguese nun, but were discovered to be fictional long after they had influenced generations of readers and writers. Boursault's Lettres à Babet (1669) contain the letters of a flirtation the author supposedly had with a young bourgeoise woman. In his fictional Treize lettres amoureuses d'une dame à un cavalier (1699), he orders the raw expression of passion into a narrative arc which charts the inception, development, and end of a love affair. Would readers come to live their lives according to these expressions and plots of pure erotic desire? The historical novel, or nouvelle historique, was thought to be dangerous because of its indistinguishable melding of public history with the imagined passions of private lives—a methodology put forth by Saint-Réal, author of Dom Carlos (1672). Although Villedieu ominously entitled her collection of nouvelles Les Désordres de l'amour (1676) and Bernard echoed the dooming tone in her Malheurs de l'amour (1687), their supposed anti-examples illustrate passion in dangerously alluring detail. If the great figures of history could not escape, and even delighted in such feelings of love, then it was feared that ordinary readers might allow themselves to indulge in similar fancies. Lafayette's La Princesse de Clèves (1678) inspired a literary debate over the danger posed by protagonists of unprecedented psychological realism who exercise their individuality in ways thought to be immoral and extraordinary. The danger of anti-example is felt even more acutely in memoir novels. In Villedieu's fictional Mémoires de la vie de Henriette-Sylvie de Molière (1672–1674), Hamilton's semi-fictional Mémoires du Comte de Grammont (lived in the 1660s, written between 1704 and 1710, and published 1713), and Choisy's authentic Histoire de la marquis-marquise de Banneville (1695) and Aventures de l'abbé de Choisy habillé en femme (lived in the 1660s, written before 1724, and published in 1736), the figures at the center of the works are painted with increasing psychological detail and so become more difficult to categorize under traditional moral headings. Not only are the protagonists brought down in rank to a level closer to that of most readers, but they develop more particularized and engaging personalities. As a result, readers become increasingly implicated in stories of dubious saving moral value. The stories depicted, furthermore, are stories of adventure: of risk-taking, deceit, and sex. These three main genres all contribute to dangerous modes of existence. Epistolary works portray individuals under the sway of excessive, unbounded emotions. Historical novels depict pseudo-historical figures in psychologically compelling detail; their heroines, especially, evince a strength of will and an ability to think beyond the limits of social reality in a way that was considered threatening. Memoir novels and novelistic memoirs illustrate individuals living disturbingly unprecedented and unconventional lifestyles. These different modes will require and violently demand more political space at the end of the eighteenth century. Thanks to the innovations of late- seventeenth and early-eighteenth century authors, the French novel became not only morally dangerous, but also one of the primary means for modern readers to explore the inexhaustible possibilities of life and love.

The fact that she is a woman allows Helen Mirren to infuse the Shakespearean role with a certain kind of strength, writes SUSANNAH CARSON.

In Julie Taymor's film adaptation of The Tempest, Shakespeare's most magical and majestic role -- a role traditionally played by a man -- is played by Helen Mirren. Prospero becomes Prospera. The Tempest is magical in its matter, and it is magical in another sense, too. Generally regarded to be Shakespeare's last play, it is thought to be his farewell to the theater. Because we know so little of Shakespeare beyond his plays, The Tempest is made to do the extra work of metaphorical autobiography. According to tradition and wishful-thinking, Prospero, whose magic comes from his books, stands in for Shakespeare, whose magic is in his plays. The disgruntled slave Caliban says of Prospero: \"I must obey: his art is of such pow'r.\" Similarly, we are moved to say that Shakespeare's \"art is of such pow'r\" because his plays, as Yale University professor Harold Bloom says, have influenced, and even invented, a great deal of our current modes of expression, thought and being. In other words, many of the issues Shakespeare raises for his male characters, and many of the issues Shakespeare himself seems to have confronted, are now just as relevant and interesting to women. When Mirren takes up Prospero's books, she is not making a statement; she is simply speaking the lines of The Tempest. Similarly, when she takes up his staff, she is simply stepping into a role that it now makes sense for her to fill. She is giving us -- all of us, but especially women -- just a little bit more of Shakespeare than we had before.

Generally regarded to be Shakespeare's last play, it is believed to be his farewell to the theater. Because we know so little of Shakespeare beyond his plays, \"The Tempest\" is made to do the extra work of metaphorical autobiography. According to tradition and wishful thinking, Prospero, whose magic comes from his books, stands in for Shakespeare, whose magic is in his plays.

In one of the most highly charged scenes, [RALPH FIENNES] turns a corner in a bombed-out building, his eyes gleamingthrough streaks of dirt-blackened blood, and finds himself faceto-face with [Gerard Butler]. The two glare at each other - hearts racing, muscles tensing, knives in hand - and then lunge with animal savagery. In this fight, the men cannot let go; they grasp each other in a close embrace, as though all the world depended on it. \"I certainly didn't want it to be on the nose,\" Fiennes says of the erotic tension. \"It's there to be sensed, in the way that the men are grappling, locked in the fight. They can't let go of each other.\"

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need for mental health interventions that can be easily disseminated during a crisis. Behavioural activation (BA) is a cost-effective treatment that can be administered by non-specialists; however, it is unclear whether it is still effective during a time of lockdown and social distancing, when opportunities for positive activity are significantly constrained. Between May and October 2020, we randomised 68 UK participants with mild to moderate low mood to either a 4-week online programme of non-specialist administered BA or to a passive control group. Before and after the intervention, we collected self-report data on mood and COVID-related disruption, as well as measuring emotional cognition as an objective marker of risk for depression. In comparison to the control group, the BA group showed a significant decrease in depression, anxiety and anhedonia after the intervention, as well as an increase in self-reported activation and social support. Benefits persisted at 1-month follow-up. BA also decreased negative affective bias on several measures of the Facial Emotion Recognition Task and early change in bias was associated with later therapeutic gain. Participants rated the intervention as highly acceptable. This study highlights the benefits of online BA that can be administered by non-specialists after brief training. These findings can help inform the policy response towards the rising incidence of mental health problems during a crisis situation such as a pandemic. They also highlight the use of objective cognitive markers of risk across different treatment modalities.

BackgroundDepression is characterised by negative views of the self. Antidepressant treatment may remediate negative self-schema through increasing processing of positive information about the self. Changes in affective processing during social interactions may increase expression of prosocial behaviours, improving interpersonal communications.AimsTo examine whether acute administration of citalopram is associated with an increase in positive affective learning biases about the self and prosocial behaviour.MethodHealthy volunteers (n = 41) were randomised to either an acute 20 mg dose of citalopram or matched placebo in a between-subjects double-blind design. Participants completed computer-based cognitive tasks designed to measure referential affective processing, social cognition and expression of prosocial behaviours.ResultsParticipants administered citalopram made more cooperative choices than those administered placebo in a prisoner's dilemma task (β = 20%, 95% CI: 2%, 37%). Exploratory analyses indicated that participants administered citalopram showed a positive bias when learning social evaluations about a friend (β = 4.06, 95% CI: 0.88, 7.24), but not about the self or a stranger. Similarly, exploratory analyses found evidence of increased recall of positive words and reduced recall of negative words about others (β = 2.41, 95% CI: 0.89, 3.93), but not the self, in the citalopram group.ConclusionsParticipants administered citalopram showed greater prosocial behaviours, increased positive recall and increased positive learning of social evaluations towards others. The increase in positive affective bias and prosocial behaviours towards others may, at least partially, be a mechanism of antidepressant effect. However, we found no evidence that citalopram influenced self-referential processing.

Background Kaposi’s sarcoma (KS) is the most frequently occurring cancer in Mozambique among men and the second most frequently occurring cancer among women. Effective therapeutic treatments for KS are poorly understood in this area. There is an unmet need to develop a simple but accurate tool for improved monitoring and diagnosis in a resource-limited setting. Standardized clinical photographs have been considered to be an essential part of the evaluation. Methods When a therapeutic response is achieved, nodular KS often exhibits a reduction of the thickness without a change in the base area of the lesion. To evaluate the vertical space along with other characters of a KS lesion, we have created an innovative imaging system with a consumer light-field camera attached to a miniature “photography studio” adaptor. The image file can be further processed by computational methods for quantification. Results With this novel imaging system, each high-quality 3D image was consistently obtained with a single camera shot at bedside by minimally trained personnel. After computational processing, all-focused photos and measurable 3D parameters were obtained. More than 80 KS image sets were processed in a semi-automated fashion. Conclusions In this proof-of-concept study, the feasibility to use a simple, low-cost and user-friendly system has been established for future clinical study to monitor KS therapeutic response. This 3D imaging system can be also applied to obtain standardized clinical photographs for other diseases.