The Ethics of Narration in Helen Demidenko's The Hand That Signed the Paper, 1994 and 2017

AJS Review ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 368-383
Author(s):  
Peter Morgan

During the mid-1990s the Australian literary scene was shaken by controversy over issues of antisemitism and Holocaust representation in Helen Demidenko's debut novel, The Hand That Signed the Paper. In 2017, Darville reissued the novel. At a time when debate is raging over the nature and limits of freedom of expression and the status of words and facts, this was a provocative move. This article revisits The Hand in order to resolve the issues of literary antisemitism and freedom of speech that it raised in 1994 and continues to raise today. I apply Avishai Margalit's notion of an “ethics of memory” to the autofictional text in order to develop a theory of an “ethics of narration” in literary fiction. This narrative ethics enables distinctions to be made in relation to truth claims and fictionality, which were opaque in Demidenko's original autofiction and remain unresolved in the reissued version.

2008 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 213-214
Author(s):  
Ed King

Freedom of Speech in Early Stuart England, David Colclough, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005, pp. 314.The rhetorical lynchpin of this fascinating book's central argument is the concept of parrhesia, which is a Greek term that began life as a catch-all expression for the quality of speech belonging to citizens of the polis (6). Colclough implies that the tradition of parrhesia took a circular route via the freedom of expression inherent in the group rights of Greek citizens to the need for frank expression of unpleasant truths by courtiers to their rulers. This transition required that “frankness” be elevated to the status of a virtue once it became apparent that rulers did not always make decisions in the best interest of the state. After the Reformation in northern Europe this virtue evolved into a religious imperative in the face of sectarian persecution and in England, especially, this imperative naturally extended itself to the admonition of monarchs who encroached on their citizens' religious freedoms. Religious conflict led to war, war required economic investment and soon the religious imperative to oppose the wrong-headed heretic blended with a protestant parliament's right to admonish the monarch on purely secular matters. Thus, under the Stuarts, parrhesia eventually came to resume its original sense as the right and duty of a free subject to speak out in public without fear that his desire to preserve the common good would be prosecuted under laws aimed at the seditious and libelous. It is but a rising sense of the secular that enables us to recognize the change in values that led an onerous religious duty to become the unimpeachable liberal right we so casually assert today.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 142-149
Author(s):  
Murugesan M ◽  
Dr. A. K. Muthusamy

The concept ‘the Other’is a literary theory, which defines one’s identity among others. It explains the state of a person who is neglected or subordinated and displays how one feels as an alien by gender, caste, religion, culture, appearance, geography, ideology and so on. Doris Lessing’s novels are mostly concerned with human race and criticize the patriarchal society, where female does not get the recognition she is due. Instead of taking care of women, appreciating their talents and providing them freedom of expression and movement, the society makes them feel ‘the Other’. Lessing has crafted the novel, The Summer Before the Dark as to expose the fate of women, who are always submissive and unassertive to their husbands and children, thereby becoming insignificant to the society. This paper examines the status of Kate Brown in her family and in the society, where she is neglected and deprecated by her ungrateful husband and children by the frame of ‘The Other’/ ‘Otherness’.


Author(s):  
Amir Ullah Khan ◽  
Sana Ullah ◽  
Muhammad Haroon Khan

Freedom of speech and personal freedom are the natural and constitutional rights of every citizen in a society. However, the interpretation of these rights is varied from society to society according to their respective socio-cultural, politico-constitutional principles, and religious teachings. Human beings are confronted with paradox of blasphemy and freedom of speech. The misinterpretation of blasphemy and right to freedom of expression of opinion has created great stir in the circles of scholars at different periods; and also resulted in the persecution of prominent scholars and other people. This paper highlights the status of freedom of speech, and its critical evaluation in Islamic Law so as to understand its concept of blasphemy, its teachings on freedom of speech, and on personal security.


2021 ◽  
Vol 03 (03) ◽  
pp. 270-280
Author(s):  
Skouri HASSAN ◽  
Hajar NMIRACH

Since the emergence of social media, they have become the most common worldwide platforms of information and exchange. They did not only make the world smaller and access to information and news easier but they also provided a safe ground for people to express their ideas, share their thoughts and voice out their opinions. Throughout the past few years, social media have given out voices to millions of people with no boundaries. The main aim of this research paper is to study the current web regulations in Morocco and the status of the freedom of speech on social media in Morocco. To approach to the subject empirically, a survey was undertaken for a total number of 100 respondents. The paper puts together findings on people’s attitudes towards free speech, the limits of freedom of expression, and in which areas limitations of freedom of expression might be acceptable. Overall, the majority of the people supports the principle of the freedom of speech. Yet, at the same time they support the existence of some restrictions for various reasons. Hence, they are with a free speech as long as people’s integrity is protected.


Jurnal KATA ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 336
Author(s):  
Yulia Pebriani

<em>Local culture is very diverse Indonesia became an honor and challenge to maintain and inherited to the next generation. Local Indonesian culture is very proud because it has a very varied diversity and unique. As time, lead to changes in lifestyle a more modern society. As a result, people will prefer the new culture that may be considered more practical than the local culture. Views on kinship, treasures, and wander in the novel Tenggelamnya Kapal Van Der Wijck Hamka works and novels Bulan Susut works Ismet Fanany changes and cultural shifts. Kinship, treasures, and wander in the novel Sinking Ship Van Der Wijck Hamka's work is described explicitly, whereas kinship, treasures, and wander in the novel Month Losses Ismet work Fanany described implicitly. Changes in people's lives has implications for social Minangkabau culture in Minangkabau society. A leadership that is both functional mamak transformed into symbolic leadership. Mamak originally as straps tribesmen, has changed the status and intrinsic meaning.</em>


Author(s):  
Chris Armstrong

The status quo within international politics is that individual nation-states enjoy extensive and for the most part exclusive rights over the resources falling within their borders. Egalitarians have often assumed that such a situation cannot be defended, but perhaps some sophisticated defences of state or national rights over natural resources which have been made in recent years prove otherwise. This chapter critically assesses these various arguments, and shows that they are not sufficient to justify the institution of ‘permanent sovereignty’ over resources. Even insofar as those arguments have some weight, they are compatible with a significant dispersal of resource rights away from individual nation-states, both downwards towards local communities, and upwards towards transnational and global agencies.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-4
Author(s):  
Anders Björklund

In two recent postmortem studies, Jeffrey Kordower and colleagues report new findings that open up for an interesting discussion on the status of GDNF/NRTN signaling in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD), adding an interesting perspective on the, admittedly very limited, signs of restorative effects previously seen in GDNF/NRTN-treated patients. Their new findings show that the level of the GDNF signaling receptor Ret is overall reduced by about 65% relative to non-PD controls, and most severely, up to 80%, in nigral neurons containing α-synuclein inclusions, accompanied by impaired signaling downstream of the Ret receptor. Notably, however, the vast majority of the remaining nigral neurons retained a low level of Ret expression, and hence a threshold level of signaling. Further observations made in two patients who had received AAV-NRTN gene therapy 8–10 years earlier suggest the intriguing possibility that NRTN is able to restore Ret expression and upregulate its own signaling pathway. This “wind-up” mechanism, which is likely to depend on an interaction with dopaminergic transcription factor Nurr1, has therapeutic potential and should encourage renewed efforts to turn GDNF/NRTN therapy into success, once the recurring problem of under-dosing is resolved.


1995 ◽  
Vol 347 (1319) ◽  
pp. 21-25 ◽  

Over the past three or four years, great strides have been made in our understanding of the proteins involved in recombination and the mechanisms by which recombinant molecules are formed. This review summarizes our current understanding of the process by focusing on recent studies of proteins involved in the later steps of recombination in bacteria. In particular, biochemical investigation of the in vitro properties of the E. coli RuvA, RuvB and RuvC proteins have provided our first insight into the novel molecular mechanisms by which Holliday junctions are moved along DNA and then resolved by endonucleolytic cleavage.


2014 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 10-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharon Q. Yang

Purpose – This study aims to ascertain the trends and changes of how academic libraries market and deliver information literacy (IL) on the web. Design/methodology/approach – The author compares the findings from two separate studies that scanned the Web sites for IL-related activities in 2009 and 2012, respectively. Findings – Academic libraries intensified their efforts to promote and deliver IL on the web between 2009 and 2012. There was a significant increase in IL-related activities on the web in the three-year period. Practical implications – The findings describe the status quo and changes in IL-related activities on the libraries’ Web sites. This information may help librarians to know what they have been doing and if there is space for improvement. Originality/value – This is the only study that spans three years in measuring the progress librarians made in marketing and delivering IL on the Web.


1993 ◽  
Vol 02 (03) ◽  
pp. 507-546 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.K. MOE

Substantial progress has been made in double beta decay experiments in the past few years, including the beginning of sensitive new searches for neutrinoless double beta decay, and several additional positive detections of the two-neutrino mode by geochemical, radiochemical, and direct-counting techniques. This review discusses the recent experimental activity.


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