scholarly journals Ethnic Irony in Melvin B. Tolson's “Dark Symphony”

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 224-245
Author(s):  
ELIZABETH NEWTON
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
White Supremacy ◽  
Black Writers ◽  
Black Music ◽  
Musical Language ◽  
Racial Uplift ◽  
Musical Symbolism ◽  
Multiple Meanings ◽  
European Standards ◽  
A Site

AbstractThis article historicizes musical symbolism in Melvin B. Tolson's poem “Dark Symphony” (1941). In a time when Black writers and musicians alike were encouraged to aspire to European standards of greatness, Tolson's Afro-modernist poem establishes an ambivalent critical stance toward the genre in its title. In pursuit of a richer understanding of the poet's attitude, this article situates the poem within histories of Black music, racial uplift, and white supremacy, exploring the poem's relation to other media from the Harlem Renaissance. It analyzes the changing language across the poem's sections and, informed by Houston A. Baker Jr.'s study of “mastery and deformation,” theorizes the poet's tone. While prior critics have read the poem's lofty conclusion as sincerely aspirational toward assimilation, this article emphasizes the ambiguity, or irony, that Tolson develops: he embraces the symphony's capacity as a symbol to encompass multiple meanings, using the genre metaphorically as a mark of achievement, even as he implicates such usage as a practice rooted in conservative thought. The “symphony,” celebrated as a symbol of pluralistic democracy and liberal progress, meanwhile functions to reinforce racialized difference and inequality—a duality that becomes apparent when this poem is read alongside Tolson's concurrent poems, notes, and criticism. Such analysis demonstrates that “Dark Symphony” functions as a site for heightened consciousness of racialized musical language, giving shape to Tolson's ideas as a critic, educator, and advocate for public health.

Introduction

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Mary Augusta Brazelton
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Health Campaigns ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Mass Immunization ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Ideas ◽  
Concepts Of Disease ◽  
The Individual ◽  
A Site

This introductory chapter provides a background of how mass immunization programs made vaccination a cornerstone of Chinese public health and China a site of consummate biopower, or power over life. Over the twentieth century, through processes of increasing force, vaccines became medical technologies of governance that bound together the individual and the collective, authorities and citizens, and experts and the uneducated. These programs did not just transform public health in China—they helped shape the history of global health. The material and administrative systems of mass immunization on which these health campaigns relied had a longer history than the People's Republic of China itself. The Chinese Communist Party championed as its own invention and dramatically expanded immunization systems that largely predated 1949 and had originated with public health programs developed in southwestern China during the Second Sino-Japanese War from 1937 to 1945. The nationwide implementation of these systems in the 1950s relied on transformations in research, pharmaceutical manufacturing, and concepts of disease that had begun in the first decades of the twentieth century. These processes spanned multiple regime changes, decades of war, and diverse forms of foreign intervention. Most important, they brought with them new ideas about what it meant to be a citizen of China.

A Splendid Failure?

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vijay Phulwani
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
White Supremacy ◽  
Black Politics ◽  
Economic Power ◽  
Racial Uplift ◽  
Alternative Strategies ◽  
Du Bois ◽  
Political Agitation ◽  
The Subject

In this essay, Vijay Phulwani posits that Du Bois uses the language of tragedy in 1935’s Black Reconstruction in America to emphasize the constraints and limitations created by white supremacy and subvert the tragic legend of Reconstruction. Informed by his changing understanding of the role of slaves and freedmen in the Civil War and Reconstruction, Du Bois’s ideas moved from an emphasis on internal racial uplift and external political agitation to a theory of economic separatism and a strategic embrace of segregation. Du Bois returned to the subject of Reconstruction many times throughout his career, using it to rethink and further develop his ideas about the form and content of black politics. Phulwani argues that by continuing to analyze Reconstruction, Du Bois was able to simultaneously narrate its history and model alternative strategies for building black political and economic power.

Human epigenetics prematurely born(e)?

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Wastell ◽  
Sue White
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Policy ◽  
Natural Disasters ◽  
Public Health Policy ◽  
Social Deprivation ◽  
Early Infancy ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Thought Style ◽  
A Site ◽  
The Impact

This chapterr shifts the focus from animals to humans, and examines the extant literature on the human epigenome. It reviews seminal work on the impact of natural disasters (such as the Dutch Hunger Winter) on the epigenetic profile of those subject to these calamities. It describes how gestation and early infancy are reconfigured as a site of risk. It interrogates the nature of the claims made within the literature and also examines the thought style and presuppositions, particularly in those studies which seek to translate findings from laboratory to the clinic and public health policy. The small size of the effects on human populations is also highlighted, compared to other influences such as social deprivation.

scholarly journals Un-noticed infections that affects public health: A brief study

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 1343-1347
Author(s):  
Vijayasarathy S ◽  
Suneetha V
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Moisture Content ◽  
Microbial Growth ◽  
Opportunistic Infections ◽  
Biological Fluids ◽  
Physical Contact ◽  
Affected Person ◽  
Contaminated Food ◽  
A Site ◽  
The Impact

Human body is a perfectly designed and the most effectively functioning bio-machine. When there is no proper care microbes enter our body and lead to septicemia and makes us asthenic. Much of the pathogens gain entry into our body by contaminated food, water and physical contact with the affected person or material. Pathogens are biological fluids which disrupts homeostasis. The pathogens could be viral, bacterial, nematodal, prional or fungal. The impact of the infection depends on the pathogenicity of the infected pathogen. We are always concerned about the places that we see regularly and we hear frequently. We rarely thimk of certain sites that may cause us an infection. Not only drainages or an unclean surrounding is a place where pathogens grow; even nosocomial sites like catheters, ICU’s or operation theaters can be a site of infection. We never even think of these sites but we need to be cautious about such sites. Our own unclean habits lead us to various opportunistic infections from unnoticed sites like toothbrushes, currency notes etc.Our daily usage things like toiletries must be kept moisture free and clean. Moisture content in such things readily promote microbial growth. The reviewed article gives a brief outline of such unnoticed sites of infection.

scholarly journals Musical symbols of good and evil in “Psalms of Repentance” by Alfred Schnittke

2021 ◽  
pp. 139-157
Author(s):  
Nadezhda Velerovna Shirieva
Keyword(s):  
Instrumental Music ◽  
General Concept ◽  
A Cappella ◽  
Musical Language ◽  
Analytical Perspective ◽  
Musical Symbolism ◽  
Alfred Schnittke ◽  
First Time ◽  
Good And Evil

This article is dedicated to determination of the system of musical-expressive means used by Alfred Schnittke to symbolically reflect the ethical opposition of good and evil in the “Psalms of Repentance”. The relevance of this research is substantiated from the perspective of heightened attention of the composers of the XX century to the musical symbolism that replaced programmability. The study is based on the method proposed by E. M. Akishina for determining the symbols of good and evil in different layers of timbre and texture arrangement of instrumental compositions of A. Schnittke. Application of this method to “Psalms of Repentance” for a cappella choir allows tracing the manifestation of these symbols on the timbre, phonism, melodic arrangement, musical language, and composition. The novelty of this article consists in the fact that unlike instrumental music of A. Schnittke, his compositions for a cappella choir are viewed from such analytical perspective for the first time. The following conclusions were made: the choral and instrumental compositions of A. Schnittke contain a ramified system of musical-expressive means, which clearly distinguishes the symbols of good and evil;  these symbols outline the logic of dramatic development of each part of the “Psalms of Repentance”; their interaction within the framework of general concept of the cycle contains the ultimate ideological message – human choice, which determines his path along the line of sin as eternal Evil or through repentance – on the way towards God as the highest Good.

Critical Perspectives Toward Cultural and Communication Research

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua F. Hoops ◽  
Jolanta A. Drzewiecka
Keyword(s):  
Power Structures ◽  
Mediated Communication ◽  
Disadvantaged Communities ◽  
Critical Scholarship ◽  
Critical Theories ◽  
Social Positioning ◽  
Multiple Meanings ◽  
Race Ethnicity ◽  
A Site ◽  
Critical Perspectives

Critical perspectives toward culture and communication address how power and macro historical, institutional, and economic structures shape and constrain interpersonal, intergroup, and mediated communication. Scholars critique forms of domination and examine how oppressed communities resist and subvert power structures to identify possibilities for change and emancipation; some strive to become public intellectuals engaged in activism in solidarity with disadvantaged communities. Analyses uncover multiplicity and fluidity of meanings and dislodge essentialist and ideological closures in interactions and discourses. This approach has been shaped by critical theory of the Frankfurt School, European poststructural and critical theories, British cultural studies, and postcolonial theories. Critical scholarship is diverse, interdisciplinary, and multimethodological. Critical scholars are self-reflexive of their own social positioning in relation to research topics and participants. Culture, the key concept, is conceptualized as a site of multiple meanings and differences that are loci of power struggles and contestations amidst daily practices and power structures. Culture is a site of mixing and fusions across borders as groups struggling for power attempt to restrict meanings, categories, and practices. Identity and its categories, such as race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, etc., have multiple and shifting meanings that are nevertheless contingently fixed within structures supporting domination of some groups. Concepts such as diaspora, hybridity, and intersectionality address indeterminacy of belonging. Other main concepts include difference, articulation, ideology, hegemony, interpellation, and articulation.

Creating a Socialist Feminist Cultural Front: Women of China (1949–1966)

2010 ◽  
Vol 204 ◽  
pp. 827-849 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wang Zheng
Keyword(s):  
Visual Culture ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Official Journal ◽  
Historical Process ◽  
Socialist State ◽  
Class Hierarchies ◽  
Multiple Meanings ◽  
The Creation ◽  
A Site ◽  
Gender Conflicts

AbstractThis article is a study of socialist feminist cultural practices in the early PRC. It investigates stories behind the scenes and treats the All-China Women's Federation's official journal Women of China as a site of feminist contention to reveal gender conflicts within the Party, diverse visions of socialist transformation, and state feminist strategies in the pursuit of women's liberation. A close examination of discrepancies between the covers and contents of the magazine explicates multiple meanings in establishing a socialist feminist visual culture that attempted to disrupt gender and class hierarchies. Special attention to state feminists' identification with and divergence from the Party's agenda illuminates a unique historical process in which a gendered democracy was enacted in the creation of a feminist cultural front when the Party was consolidating its centralizing power. The article demonstrates a prominent “gender line” in the socialist state that has been neglected in much of the scholarship on the Mao era.

Post-Postracial America

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 198-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alison Landsberg
Keyword(s):  
Social Order ◽  
Cultural Landscape ◽  
White Supremacy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Washington Dc ◽  
White House ◽  
Political Work ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Us ◽  
A Site

A seismic shift in the racial landscape of the United States occurred in 2016. The prevailing discourse about a “postracial America,” though always, in the words of Catherine Squires a “mystique,” was firmly and finally extinguished with the election of Donald J. Trump. Race, in the form of racial prejudice, erupted in Trump’s political rhetoric and in the rhetoric of his supporters. At the same time, the continued significance and consequences of racial division in America were also being asserted for politically progressive ends by the increasingly prominent #blacklivesmatter movement and by the newly opened National Museum of African American History and Culture on the National Mall in Washington, DC, not far from the White House. This article tracks the resurgence of race in the US cultural landscape against the racially depoliticized myth of the “postracial” by focusing first on the HBO television series Westworld, which epitomizes that logic. The museum, which opened its doors against the backdrop of the presidential campaign, lodges a scathing critique of the very notion of the postracial; in fact, it signals the return of race as an urgent topic of national discussion. Part of the work of the museum is to materialize race, to move race and white supremacy to the center of the American national narrative. This article points to the way the museum creates what Jacques Rancière calls “dissensus,” and thus becomes a site of possibility for politics. The museum, in its very presence on the Mall, its provocative display strategies, and its narrative that highlights profound contradictions in the very meaning of America, intervenes in what Rancière calls “the distribution of the sensible” and thus creates the conditions for reconfiguring the social order. In part, it achieves this by racializing white visitors, forcing them to feel their own race in uncomfortable ways. The article suggests that this museum, and the broader emerging discourse about race in both film and television, offers new ways to think about the political work of culture.

The Myth of Nature’s Nation

2018 ◽  
pp. 60-81
Author(s):  
Richard T. Hughes
Keyword(s):  
White Supremacy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Thomas Jefferson ◽  
Black Writers ◽  
First Century ◽  
People Of Color ◽  
Natural Order ◽  
Early Date ◽  
David Walker ◽  
The World

The American myth of Nature’s Nation claims that the United States, and especially its founding documents, owe nothing to human history but reflect the natural order as it came from the hands of the Creator. Accordingly, the Declaration of Independence speaks of “self-evident truths,” rooted in “Nature and Nature’s God.” But the founders read into the natural order the long-standing myth of White Supremacy. In this way, the myth of Nature’s Nation became a tool for exclusion and oppression of people of color. In his “Notes on the State of Virginia,” Thomas Jefferson even argued that black inferiority was nature’s own decree. From an early date, blacks fought back. David Walker led that charge with his 1829 book, Walker’s Appeal . . . to the Coloured Citizens of the World. In the twenty-first century, other black writers—especially Toni Morrison and Ta-Nehisi Coates—unmasked the ways in which the myth of White Supremacy is embedded in the American myth of Nature’s Nation.

scholarly journals ‘If Your Hair Is Relaxed, White People Are Relaxed. If Your Hair Is Nappy, They’re Not Happy’: Black Hair as a Site of ‘Post-Racial’ Social Control in English Schools

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (11) ◽  
pp. 219 ◽  
Author(s):  
Remi Joseph-Salisbury ◽  
Laura Connelly
Keyword(s):  
Social Control ◽  
White Supremacy ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Black Hair ◽  
White People ◽  
Surface Level ◽  
It Impacts ◽  
Growing Body ◽  
A Site

A growing body of literature examines how social control is embedded within, and enacted through, key social institutions generally, and how it impacts disproportionately upon racially minoritised people specifically. Despite this, little attention has been given to the minutiae of these forms of social control. Centring Black hair as a site of social control, and using a contemporary case study to illustrate, this article argues that it is through such forms of routine discipline that conditions of white supremacy are maintained and perpetuated. Whilst our entry into a ‘post-racial’ epoch means school policies are generally thought of as race-neutral or ‘colorblind’, we draw attention to how they (re)produce and normalise surface-level manifestations of anti-Blackness. Situating Black hair as a form of ‘racial symbolism’ and showing Black hairstyles to be significant to Black youth, we show that the governance of hair is not neutral but instead, acts as a form of social control that valorises whiteness and pathologises Blackness.

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