Tragedy and the Gaze of the Living Dead

2020 ◽  
pp. 182-233
Author(s):  
Kenneth M. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Opening Scene ◽  
Ethical Position ◽  
The Gaze ◽  
Dance Of Death ◽  
Richard Strauss ◽  
Living Dead

The chapter describes how harmonic functional cycles flow strongly in the music of Richard Strauss, demonstrable in the opening scene of Elektra, the harmonies of which surge in an ever-tonicward direction. The chapter further re-examines the concept of hysteria, refuting its applicability to Strauss’s opera, opting for a more detailed Lacanian reading. Strauss’s harmonic progressions support the author’s psychodynamic reading, employing a dynamic in which one octatonic cycle controls a separate cycle. The chapter also examines this from an ethical position, following Lacan’s model of Aristotelean catharsis (in The Ethics of Psychoanalysis), and shows how these functional cycles come to a head in the final dance of death that, like Wagner’s Isolde, shuttles to and fro between the cycles as they are completely dismantled.

Humor in der Therapie. Lachend auf Distanz gehen, Ängste lachend besiegen

2003 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 139-157
Author(s):  
Gudrun Hofmann
Keyword(s):  
Don Quixote ◽  
Miguel De Cervantes ◽  
Don Quijote ◽  
Richard Strauss ◽  
Sancho Panza

Zusammenfassung. Don Quijote und Sancho Panza, von Miguel de Cervantes Saavedras 1605/1612 geschaffene Romanhelden, erfreuen sich auch im Jahre 2003 eines großen Bekanntheitsgrades und sind als komisches Paar berühmt geworden. Beide verstricken sich in Abenteuer, die einzig ihrer Fantasie erwachsen. Im folgenden steht das Komische - aus nicht der Norm entsprechendem Verhalten oder aus wahnhaften Imaginationen erwachsend - in der literarischen Vorgabe wie auch in dem sinfonischen Tongedicht “Don Quixote“ von Richard Strauss im Mittelpunkt. Daran schließen sich Überlegungen zu einer tänzerischen Umsetzung im Rahmen eines therapeutischen Settings an. Es wird analysiert, wie sich Menschen mit unterschiedlichen Persönlichkeitszügen (resp. -störungen) darin wiederfinden können und wie die Charaktere von Don Quijote und Sancho Panza im Sinne einer eigenen Interpretation weiterentwickelt werden können. Aspekte der von Helmut Plessner vertretenen anthropologischen Betrachtungsweise des Lachens beleuchten die nur dem Menschen eigene Fähigkeit komisch zu sein und Komisches wahrzunehmen.

Gaze behavior of pre-adolescent children afflicted with Asperger Syndrome

2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mari Wiklund
Keyword(s):  
Asperger Syndrome ◽  
Conversation Analysis ◽  
High Functioning Autism ◽  
Eye Contact ◽  
Nonverbal Behaviors ◽  
Gaze Behavior ◽  
High Functioning ◽  
The Gaze ◽  
In The Beginning ◽  
Straight Ahead

Asperger syndrome (AS) is a form of high-functioning autism characterized by qualitative impairment in social interaction. People afflicted with AS typically have abnormal nonverbal behaviors which are often manifested by avoiding eye contact. Gaze constitutes an important interactional resource, and an AS person’s tendency to avoid eye contact may affect the fluidity of conversations and cause misunderstandings. For this reason, it is important to know the precise ways in which this avoidance is done, and in what ways it affects the interaction. The objective of this article is to describe the gaze behavior of preadolescent AS children in institutional multiparty conversations. Methodologically, the study is based on conversation analysis and a multimodal study of interaction. The findings show that three main patterns are used for avoiding eye contact: 1) fixing one’s gaze straight ahead; 2) letting one’s gaze wander around; and 3) looking at one’s own hands when speaking. The informants of this study do not look at the interlocutors at all in the beginning or the middle of their turn. However, sometimes they turn to look at the interlocutors at the end of their turn. This proves that these children are able to use gaze as a source of feedback. When listening, looking at the speaker also seems to be easier for them than looking at the listeners when speaking.

The emotional labor of former street children working as tour guides in Delhi

Focaal ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Tore Holst
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Labor ◽  
Street Children ◽  
Ethical Position ◽  
Tour Guides ◽  
Personal Stories

In Delhi, former street children guide tourists around the streets they once inhabited and show how the NGOs they live with try to resocialize current street children. The “personal stories” they perform implicitly advocate simple solutions that conveniently fit the limited engagement of the tourists, whose ethical position is thereby validated in relation to the NGO. But this uncomplicated exchange of guides’ emotions for tourists’ capital is in the guides’ interest, because it allows them to set boundaries for the emotional labor of performing their past suffering. The guides are thus incentivized to work within a post-humanitarian logic, selling their stories as commodities, which then incentivize the tourists to act as consumers, who have little choice but to frame their declarations of solidarity with the children as acts of consumption.

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