The Personal and the Political

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carl Plantinga
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Responses ◽  
Cultural Influence ◽  
The Political ◽  
Fictional Characters ◽  
Narrative Paradigm ◽  
Fictional Character ◽  
Moral Agents ◽  
Cultural Importance ◽  
Narrative Context

This chapter describes the “personalistic bias” argument against taking characters as moral agents, and argues that although the argument identifies a real concern, to fail to see fictional characters as moral agents does more harm than good. The most salient objection against taking fictional characters as moral agents is that it distracts viewers from politics, institutions, systems, and contexts. The chapter argues that the personal is political, in that the representation of a fictional character can become a “public mythology” with significant cultural influence. Paying attention to characters as moral agents is also important because the representation of individual characters in a narrative context elicits emotions in relation to narrative paradigm scenarios, and those emotional responses have significant cultural importance.

Narrative Paradigm Scenarios

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carl Plantinga
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Responses ◽  
Narrative Paradigm ◽  
Ethical Perspective ◽  
Good And Evil

This chapter examines the revenge scenario, arguing that, from an ethical perspective, screen storytellers should approach the scenario with caution and, when using it, complicate, nuance, and question it. The revenge scenario works because it is a reliable way to elicit the strong emotions that draw viewers. The pleasures of revenge scenarios depend upon Manichaean distinctions between good and evil—the good tribe and the bad tribe, the morally upright protagonist and the vile offender. If humans are tribal creatures, the typical revenge scenario exaggerates tribal feelings through narrative means and uses them to elicit strong and pleasurable emotional responses dependent on clear distinctions between us and them and simplified exaggerations of the Good and the Bad. The chapter examines the revenge scenario as it is employed in Django Unchained, Funny Games, and True Grit.

scholarly journals Bereaved Mothers and Masculine Queens: The Political Use of Maternal Grief in 1–2 Kings

Open Theology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 407-422
Author(s):  
Cat Quine
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Emotional Responses ◽  
The Political ◽  
Royal Power ◽  
Gender Fluidity ◽  
Reproductive Ability ◽  
Gender Performances ◽  
Queen Mothers ◽  
Female Power ◽  
Maternal Grief

AbstractRecent research demonstrates that maternal grief functions paradigmatically to epitomize despair and sorrow in the Hebrew Bible. These literary uses of maternal grief reinforce the stereotype of womanhood, defined by devotion to children and anguish at their loss. In 1–2 Kings, narratives about unnamed bereaved mothers are used politically to create a contrast with named biblical queens who lose their sons but never grieve for them. Although 1–2 Kings names the queen mothers alongside the male rulers, these mothers have no agency or when they do, they act more like men than women. Neo-Assyrian inscriptions attest the masculinity of royal female power, and this article argues that conceptions of royal female power in Judah were similar. By contrasting the masculine queens with stereotyped “real men” and “real women,” traditional gender performances literarily overcome the institution of queenship. While the queens are polemicized, unnamed mothers emerge as the female heroes of Kings. Royal female power is demoted beneath reproductive ability and emotional responses to children, while the gender fluidity of royal power is circumscribed.

Imaginative Desires and Interactive Fiction: On Wanting to Shoot Fictional Zombies

2019 ◽  
Vol 60 (3) ◽  
pp. 241-251
Author(s):  
Nele Van De Mosselaer
Keyword(s):  
Mental State ◽  
Fictional Characters ◽  
Fictional Character ◽  
Interactive Fiction ◽  
Conceptual Tool ◽  
Human Psychology

Abstract What do players of videogames mean when they say they want to shoot zombies? Surely they know that the zombies are not real, and that they cannot really shoot them, but only control a fictional character who does so. Some philosophers of fiction argue that we need the concept of imaginative desires (or ‘i-desires’) to explain situations in which people feel desires towards fictional characters or desires that motivate pretend actions. Others claim that we can explain these situations without complicating human psychology with a novel mental state. Within their debates, however, these scholars exclusively focus on non-interactive fictions and children’s games of make-believe. In this paper, I argue that our experience of immersive, interactive fictions like videogames gives us cause to reappraise the concept of imaginative desires. Moreover, I describe how i-desires are a useful conceptual tool within videogame development and can shed new light on apparently immoral in-game actions.

From Poaching to Pinning

2019 ◽  
pp. 184-220
Author(s):  
Suzanne Scott
Keyword(s):  
Real World ◽  
Culture Industry ◽  
The Political ◽  
Fictional Characters ◽  
Beauty Culture ◽  
Convergence Culture ◽  
Curatorial Practice ◽  
Modes Of Engagement

If the prior four chapters survey the ways in which female fans and their creative practices have been marginalized or contained, then this one contemplates the ways in which geek girls are hailed within the convergence culture industry through fashion and beauty culture. Centrally, this chapter examines the political possibilities of conceptually moving from poaching (as a mode of feminist intervention) to pinning (as a feminine curatorial practice on sites like Pinterest) alongside efforts to route female fans towards postfeminist or neoliberal modes of engagement. The second half of this chapter addresses the growing intersections between fan fashion and cosplay as a fan practice (e.g., constructing costumes inspired by fictional characters and embodying those characters in real-world spaces such as fan conventions) by historicizing and contextualizing “everyday” or “casual” cosplay merchandising trends offered by fancentric retailers (Her Universe, Hot Topic, etc.) and considering these items as a form of fannish “drag.”

The Crafting of Identity and the Division of Political Labour

2020 ◽  
pp. 52-72
Author(s):  
Carolyn James
Keyword(s):  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Cultural Influence ◽  
Political Authority ◽  
The Political ◽  
Masculine Identity ◽  
Renaissance Period

The use of gender as a category of historical analysis has prompted historians to rethink the modalities of politics during the Renaissance period. While women were rarely rulers in their own right, they sometimes exercised a political authority drawn from cultural influence, or directly assigned to their person by virtue of deputizing for absent husbands. This chapter explores the extent to which the political collaboration of Isabella d’Este and Francesco Gonzaga emulated precedents established by their parents and grandparents. The ways in which Isabella exploited gender tropes, or submitted to them, is considered alongside Francesco Gonzaga’s projection of a virile masculine identity, through an analysis of how the pair used art and other forms of cultural patronage to shape their respective identities and political qualities.

The Essential Anna

Philosophy ◽  
1979 ◽  
Vol 54 (209) ◽  
pp. 390-394 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin Radford
Keyword(s):  
Fictional Characters ◽  
Fictional Character ◽  
Anna Karenina ◽  
Real People ◽  
Similar Point

Having distinguished essentially fictional characters from inessentially fictional ones (a distinction I shall examine later) and having identified Anna Karenina as an inessentially fictional character, Barrie Paskins solves the problem I posed in ‘How Can We Be Moved by the Fate of Anna Karenina?’ thus: ‘our pity towards the inessentially fictional is, or can without forcing be construed as, pity for those people if any who are in the same bind as the character in the fiction’. Making a similar point in a footnote, ‘our emotions towards fictional characters are directed towards those real people, if any, who are in essentially the same situation’, he continues in the text, ‘This possibility is neglected by Radford and Weston.’

A Reevaluation of the Absolute Chronology of Cabuza and Related Ceramic Styles of the Azapa Valley, Northern Chile

2014 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 409-426 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antti Korpisaari ◽  
Markku Oinonen ◽  
Juan Chacama
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Influence ◽  
Bayesian Probability ◽  
The Political ◽  
Northern Chile ◽  
Middle Horizon ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Late Intermediate Period ◽  
Intermediate Period ◽  
The Absolute

The nature and extent of the political and cultural influence of the Tiwanaku state (ca. A.D. 500—1100) in the Azapa Valley of northern Chile are debated topics. The absolute chronology of these contacts also remains somewhat unclear. Much of the debate has centered on the origins and chronological position of the Tiwanaku-related black-on-red ceramic style called Cabuza. In order to reevaluate the chronological position of the Cabuza, Maytas-Chiribaya, and San Miguel ceramic styles and associated cultural phases of the Azapa Valley, we obtained a total of 16 new radiocarbon dates for the Azapa-6, Azapa- 71a, Azapa-141, and Azapa-143 cemeteries. All but one sample dated to the Late Intermediate period (ca.A.D. 1000-1450). We compare our results with previously published radiocarbon and thermoluminescence dates and carry out Bayesian probability calculations, establishing the most likely chronological ranges for the three ceramic styles. Based on this research, we argue that the undeniable Tiwanaku influence seen in the Azapa Valley more likely reflects processes set in motion by the collapse of the Tiwanaku state rather than an attempt to colonize or indirectly control the Azapa Valley during the Middle Horizon (ca. A.D. 550-1000).

A Note on Research into the Diffusion of Development

1964 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 123-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Gould
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Social Integration ◽  
Emotional Responses ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Temporal Dimension ◽  
Spatial Perspective ◽  
Economic Behaviour ◽  
Social And Economic Development ◽  
Location Map

Political, social, and economic development take place in space as well as time, but all too often they are written about and studied as though they existed at a point, which, it will be recalled, has position and no magnitude. In a sense, all social scientists are historians, and use the temporal dimension as a framework within which to examine the political, social, and economic behaviour of men. But few feel comfortable trying on the geographer's spatial shoes, and, beyond an occasional location map, hesitate to examine the developments in the dimension that is his particular concern. Part of the trouble, of course, is that the map imposes a stricter discipline upon us than we care to admit: to map anything beyond the merely trivial we have to measure it, while fuzzy but intuitively valid ideas such as economic development, political power, and social integration make us coy, or evoke surprisingly emotional responses that such things are incapable of being measured in any meaningful fashion. But, whether we like it or not, developments of all kinds do take place in space; what, then, can the geographer, with his spatial perspective, contribute to our knowledge of these things?

scholarly journals Situation of Official Schools in Erbil City 1980 – 1991

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 333-372
Author(s):  
Snur Sabah Sidiq
Keyword(s):  
Iraq War ◽  
Scientific Research ◽  
Educational Process ◽  
The Political ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
Political Situation ◽  
Cultural Importance ◽  
The World ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The City

The subject of the official study conditions in the city of Erbil is of great historical and cultural importance, especially for the city that historians have confirmed in historical sources as one of the oldest cities in the world. The subject of the official study conditions in the city of Erbil for the period between 1980-1991 did not have the importance of being mentioned by researchers, and scientific research has not been conducted on it. Therefore, there is a scientific necessity to carry out such research. The reason for choosing the study period (1980 - 1991) is that because of the outbreak of the Iran-Iraq war in 1980, all aspects of life were affected by this war. Although this war ended in 1988, its effects and repercussions continued to affect the joints of Life in Iraq and the city of Erbil, in addition to the fact that political problems and convulsions grew and developed in that period until Iraq entered Kuwait in 1990, which resulted in wars and regional and internal problems in Iraq. Since that date, a new historical era has begun in the region. This study consists of an introduction to the topic in addition to two main axes and concluded with a list of sources and appendices, in the entry a summary of the official study in the city of Erbil for the period between 1970 - 1980 was presented, and the first axis was devoted to the political situation and the educational process for the period between 1980 - 1991, and in the second axis The laws, regulations, and educational curricula for the period between 1980 - 1991 are covered.

scholarly journals On the ontology of fictional characters: A semiotic approach

2017 ◽  
Vol 37 (1/2) ◽  
pp. 82-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Umberto Eco
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
The Other ◽  
Fictional Characters ◽  
Fictional Character ◽  
The Real ◽  
Anna Karenina ◽  
Cognitive Access ◽  
Semiotic Approach

Why are we deeply moved by the misfortune of Anna Karenina if we are fully aware that she is simply a fictional character who does not exist in our world? But what does it mean that fictional characters do not exist? The present article is concerned with the ontology of fictional characters. The author concludes that successful fictional characters become paramount examples of the ‘real’ human condition because they live in an incomplete world what we have cognitive access to but cannot influence in any way and where no deeds can be undone. Unlike all the other semiotic objects, which are culturally subject to revisions, and perhaps only similar to mathematical entities, the fictual characters will never change and will remain the actors of what they did once and forever.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document