“I Know I Can’t Change the Future, But I Can Change the Past”: Toni Morrison, Robin Coste Lewis, and the Classical Tradition

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 339-356
Author(s):  
Grace McGowan
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Classical Tradition ◽  
Intellectual History ◽  
Toni Morrison ◽  
Female Body ◽  
Black Female ◽  
Central Figure ◽  
The Past ◽  
New Generation

Abstract “A central figure in transnational intellectual history” (Roynon, 2013), Toni Morrison’s oeuvre has helped deconstruct the triangulated relationship between a European Graeco-Roman classical tradition, Africa, and America. Morrison’s deconstruction of the classical past and its aesthetics have laid the foundation for the reconstructive work of a new generation of writers, including Robin Coste Lewis. Both writers renegotiate and reclaim a classical aesthetic by recovering its African roots and situating it in an African American context. In addition, the article (1) examines the role of a classical aesthetic in beauty discourse and Robin Coste Lewis’s re-vision of the black female body and (2) addresses what this means for canonicity, linking Lewis’s ambivalence about reclaiming a classical aesthetic to Morrison’s ambivalence in “Unspeakable Things Unspoken” (1987).

Quantifying sources and sinks of trace gases using space-borne measurements: current and future science

2008 ◽  
Vol 366 (1885) ◽  
pp. 4509-4528 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul I Palmer
Keyword(s):  
Trace Gases ◽  
Lower Troposphere ◽  
Biological Interactions ◽  
Satellite Measurements ◽  
Sources And Sinks ◽  
The Past ◽  
Fundamental Understanding ◽  
Earth’S Climate ◽  
New Generation

We have been observing the Earth's upper atmosphere from space for several decades, but only over the past decade has the necessary technology begun to match our desire to observe surface air pollutants and climate-relevant trace gases in the lower troposphere, where we live and breathe. A new generation of Earth-observing satellites, capable of probing the lower troposphere, are already orbiting hundreds of kilometres above the Earth's surface with several more ready for launch or in the planning stages. Consequently, this is one of the most exciting times for the Earth system scientists who study the countless current-day physical, chemical and biological interactions between the Earth's land, ocean and atmosphere. First, I briefly review the theory behind measuring the atmosphere from space, and how these data can be used to infer surface sources and sinks of trace gases. I then present some of the science highlights associated with these data and how they can be used to improve fundamental understanding of the Earth's climate system. I conclude the paper by discussing the future role of satellite measurements of tropospheric trace gases in mitigating surface air pollution and carbon trading.

scholarly journals Beyoncé’s Slay Trick: The Performance of Black Camp and its Intersectional Politics

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 406-416 ◽  
Author(s):  
Constantine Chatzipapatheodoridis
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Female Body ◽  
Cultural Theory ◽  
Racial Politics ◽  
Black Female ◽  
American Artist ◽  
Queer Culture ◽  
Black Queer

Abstract This article pays attention to African-American artist Beyonce Knowles and her performance of black camp. Beyonce’s stage persona and performances invite multiple ideological readings as to what pertains to her interpretation of gender, sexuality, and race. While cultural theory around the icon of Beyonce has focused on her feminist and racial politics as well as her politicization of the black female body, a queer reading applied from the perspective of camp performance will concentrate on the artist’s queer appeal and, most importantly, on her exposition of black camp, an intersection of feminist, racial and queer poetics. By examining video and live performances, the scope of this article is to underline those queer nuances inherent in Beyonce’s dramatisation of black femininity and the cultural pool she draws from for its effective staging. More specifically, since Beyonce plays with tropes and themes that are common in camp culture, her performance relies on a meta-camping effect that interacts with African-American queer culture. This article, thus, traces black queer traditions and discourses in the artist’s praxis of black camp.

Reverberations of the Armenian Genocide

2010 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 106-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natasha Azarian-Ceccato
Keyword(s):  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Armenian Genocide ◽  
Ethnic Communities ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Central California ◽  
The Past ◽  
Diasporic Community ◽  
New Generation ◽  
Point Of Departure

Narrative research has not traditionally examined the intergenerational transmission and reverberation of narratives within ethnic communities, and yet it is through the chain of generations that voices of the past reverberate and testimonies endure which fuel and form present day notions of the past. This article is a call for and an example of the importance ethnographic investigation into communities of memories, for it is through community storytelling that records are set straight as a memorial for victims and survivors. This line of inquiry is pertinent to various communities throughout the world, as we come to see the role of language, and in particular, narrative in the formation of ideas and conflicts, as scholars such as Slyomovics, (1998) have pointed out. This research takes as its point of departure narrative renditions of the Armenian genocide recounted in both public and private venues by the great-grandchildren of genocide survivors in an ethnic enclave in Central California. In this diasporic community we see how communities of memory are formed in a space of mediation which links the new generation with the old, the present with its past as well as with its imagined communities (Anderson, 1983). Through examination of the linguistic reverberations of this historical and familial narrative, I ask what becomes of authorship when collected stories are salient enough to be included in one’s own personal history, and how these narrativizations contribute to one’s sense of self? These questions are answered both by linguistic analysis of pronouns and deixis, as well as through analysis of prevalent themes. The results of this research lend into the historical progression of memory through time by those who did not experience the trauma, but rather were witnesses by listening to the trauma of others.

scholarly journals TRANSITION IN TONI MORRISON’S “CONSOLATA” FROM PARADISE (1997)

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosalía Villa Jiménez
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Gender Identity ◽  
Toni Morrison ◽  
Black Female ◽  
Black Culture ◽  
American Identity ◽  
Female Community ◽  
African American Identity ◽  
And Gender

In her novel Paradise (1997), Toni Morrison portrays one of her main characters, Consolata or “disconsolate”, through a constant journey in search for her African American identity as a complete woman. This journey engulfs Consolata in an eternal fluctuation between hope and hopelessness, which results from being caught up in the so-called liminal/diaspora space in hybridity (Bhabha, 1994; Brah, 1996).The present paper deals with location of culture and gender identity in the marginal, unhomely spaces between dominant social formations by analysing chapter 7 “Consolata”. Consolata may be seen as an illustrative example of the black female community struggling to overcome the hurdles of being victimised as hybrid diasporic women in a patriarchal archaic western [black] culture.

scholarly journals Memory, Historiography, and “Memorial Paradigm”: On the Role of Historical Memory in Specific Situations [Review: The Past for the Present: Historical Memory and Narratives of National Identity: A Collective Monograph. Repina L.P. (Ed.). Moscow, Akvilon, 2020. (In Russian)]

2020 ◽  
Vol 162 (6) ◽  
pp. 227-234
Author(s):  
D.E. Martynov ◽  
◽  
G.P. Myagkov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Great Britain ◽  
Intellectual History ◽  
Historical Memory ◽  
World History ◽  
Integral Image ◽  
Factual Information ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
Academy Of Sciences

The paper reviews the collective monograph published by the Center for Intellectual History of the Institute of World History of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IWH RAS). The reviewers consider the theoretical and factual information presented in the monograph in the context of the analysis of both general and specific characteristics of historical memory. The study of historical memory is possible through the analysis of specific political and intellectual practices of the era of early and mature modernity. The use of J. Rusen’s methodology was justified. According to this methodology, historical memory can be regarded as an “unconscious ideology,” which will inevitably be mythological, because it links the memories of an individual with an integral image of the past. From the aforesaid, it may be seen that the compound term “past – for – present”, which expresses the direction of historical memory, can be introduced. The term is reflected in the title of the monograph under review. The substantive features of strategies for the development of historical memory based on ideologemes were considered by the authors using the example of Russia, Great Britain, Poland (the ideology of Sarmatism), and Bolivia (the ideology of Indianism).

scholarly journals Death and Woman: Comparing the Meaning of the Deaths of the Female Main Characters in the Works of Toni Morrison and Alice Munro

Lexicon ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Achmad Munjid
Keyword(s):  
Toni Morrison ◽  
Female Characters ◽  
Alice Munro ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Set Up

This paper seeks to explore the meaning of death in two important works by two female Noble Prize winning authors, Toni Morrison and Alice Munro. Hagin’s (2010) theory of role of death in storyline is used to analyze the works. The three deaths found in the story: initial death, intermediary death and story-terminating death all have significant meaningful relation to the past and the future. They have epistemological value of revealing and/or exposing the truth from the past. Death is used as technical instrument to reveal the truth, to transform ignorance into knowledge, dishonesty into accountability, to purify the past from falsehood and lies. Death also inserts its demand in the story by removing obstacle or giving opportunity for the living to set up new goal. The demand of the dead is possible since the deceased is “remembered” by the “cult” who may follow or manipulate their legacy. The two authors articulate “feminist voice” through the struggle of the main female characters. Toni Morrison articulates the dehumanizing consequence of racism, whereas Alice Munro voices her concern on the contradictory nature of orderly neat appearance of the modern people versus scandalous dark secret beneath the surface.Keywords: dehumanization, feminist voice, initial death, intermediary death, story-terminating death, racism.

Arthroscopy in rheumatology: where have we been? Where might we go?

Rheumatology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert W Ike ◽  
William J Arnold ◽  
Kenneth C Kalunian
Keyword(s):  
Surgical Procedures ◽  
Arthroscopic Debridement ◽  
Office Setting ◽  
Future Role ◽  
The Past ◽  
Common Diseases ◽  
Biological Compounds ◽  
New Generation ◽  
Excellent Tool

Abstract The aim of our manuscript is to illustrate the past, present and future role of rheumatologists performing arthroscopy. Doctors first began adapting endoscopes to inspect joints to assess synovial conditions that concern rheumatologists. Rheumatologists were among the pioneers developing arthroscopy. Students of the father of modern arthroscopy, Watanabe, included rheumatologists, who taught others once home. Rheumatologists assessed the intra-articular features of their common diseases in the 60s and 70s. Improvements in instrumentation and efforts by a few orthopaedists adapted a number of common joint surgical procedures for arthroscopy. Interest from rheumatologists in arthroscopy grew in the 90s with ‘needle scopes’ used in an office setting. Rheumatologists conducting the first prospective questioning arthroscopic debridement in OA and developing biological compounds reduced the call for arthroscopic interventions. The arthroscope has proven an excellent tool for viewing and sampling synovium, which continues to at several international centres. Some OA features—such as calcinosis—beg further arthroscopic investigation. A new generation of ‘needle scopes’ with far superior optics awaits future investigators.

scholarly journals Commercial Counterhistory: Remapping the Movement inLee Daniels’ The Butler

2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 418-446
Author(s):  
LEIGH ANNE DUCK
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Political History ◽  
Visual Media ◽  
The Past ◽  
Space And Time ◽  
Iconic Images ◽  
The Many

Lee Daniels’ The Butler(2013) might seem an unlikely candidate for intervening in Hollywood's civil rights genre, given both its nationalistic ending and its recuperation of iconic styles and images. This paper argues, however, that the film's pastiche interrogates past cinematic tropes for race and space; in this sense, it provescounterhistorical, a term indicating not a lack of accuracy but a commitment to illuminating the role of visual media in shaping contemporary understandings of history and to encouraging fresh perspectives on the past. Examining the many forms of constraint produced by iconic images of black and gendered personhood, the film also takes on the spatial icon with which many of these figures are associated – the southern plantation. Both exposing and challenging the ways in which spectacular accounts of southern racism occlude the geographic and political reach of African American movements against oppression, the film inconsistently insists on the importance of thinking across conventional demarcations of space and time. At these moments, it suggests possibilities for how even commercial cinema might contribute to new conceptions of black political history and possibility.

Literacy and the Decolonization of Africa's Intellectual History

2011 ◽  
Vol 38 ◽  
pp. 35-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Esperanza Brizuela-Garcia
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Intellectual History ◽  
Intellectual Development ◽  
Complex Nature ◽  
African History ◽  
The Past ◽  
Middle Way ◽  
History Of ◽  
Written Sources

In his book In My Father's House Anthony Appiah made a powerful argument for historians and intellectuals at large to recognize the diverse and complex nature of Africa's cultural and historical experiences. He stated, for instance, that: “ideological decolonization is bound to fail if it neglects either endogenous ‘tradition’ or exogenous ‘Western’ ideas, and that many African (and African American) intellectuals have failed to find a negotiable middle way.”During the past fifty years, Africanist historians have focused much of their efforts on the goals of decolonizing or Africanizing the study of the African past. These have been guided by the need to produce a more authentic and relevant history of the continent. The search for such authenticity has shown that African cultures and societies are often the result of a broad range of influences and that the notions of what is indigenous or authentically African needs to take into account this historical complexity. Intellectual historians, in particular, have faced this question with regards to written sources. The question of literacy and its impact on the intellectual development of Africa is an interesting example of how historians have made some strides towards redefining the notion of a decolonized African history.

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