The Crimean War and (Self-)Sacrifice in Mid-Victorian Fiction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan-Melissa Schramm
Keyword(s):  
Charles Dickens ◽  
Cultural Significance ◽  
Crimean War ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Victorian Fiction ◽  
Two Cities ◽  
War Effort ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Insight Into

Charles Dickens was among those writers who responded to the tragic losses of the Crimean War with renewed attention to the cultural significance of sacrifice. He followed the war effort with care, protesting publicly about the bureaucratic bungling that had cost British lives in Sebastopol. His novels written immediately after the cessation of the war provide us with insight into the aesthetic uses of different models of sacrifice. In Little Dorrit (1856), Dickens explores the vocation of self-sacrifice popularized by feminine service in the war; in A Tale of Two Cities (1859), Dickens depends upon the dynamics of barbaric sacrifice to achieve closure as the Christlike Sidney Carton lays down his life for his brother man on the scaffold. This chapter draws upon the work of the theologians Nancy Jay and Yvonne Sherwood to probe the contradictions inherent in Victorian imaginings of sacrifice—both Protestant and Catholic, male and female.

scholarly journals The Artification of Football: A Sociological Reconsideration of the ‘Beautiful Game’

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 305-320
Author(s):  
John Hughson
Keyword(s):  
Human Activity ◽  
Football Players ◽  
Cultural Significance ◽  
Philosophical Inquiry ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Contemporary Life ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Sociological Explanation ◽  
Insight Into

Football is widely referred to as the ‘beautiful game’. This gives the impression that the sport can be aesthetically appreciated by its human observers. However, while many people might acknowledge that some of the physical movements made by top level football players exhibit grace, even beauty, this does not equate to football being accepted as a form of culture comparable to other areas of human activity described collectively as ‘the arts’. While this article takes an interest in philosophical inquiry into the aesthetic possibilities of football, it is primarily concerned with a sociological explanation as to how football has become ‘artified’. In doing so, the article draws upon the concept ‘artification’ as developed by Roberta Shapiro and Nathalie Heinich. The approach is not concerned with definitions of art according to aesthetic criteria or notions of appreciation, but with ‘how and under what circumstances art comes about’. This requires examining football in relation to discernible ‘constituent processes’ of artification. For reasons explained in the article, the contextual focus is on the artification of football in England. Artification is not a closed and finished matter. In that it can be said to have occurred, artification must be balanced against ‘de-artification’ in the form of potentially countervailing tendencies. Such consideration is taken up in the conclusion, via reflection upon the damaging impact of the excesses of commercial organisational control. Overall, artification is advocated as a sociological model that offers insight into the cultural significance of football in contemporary life.

ASPECTS OF THE ARCHITECTURAL AND URBAN HERITAGE: FROM REGISTERS TO CONSERVATION FOR ADAPTIVE AND MODERN USE AT THE HISTORIC CORES OF SALT AND IRBID, JORDAN

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 190
Author(s):  
Leen Adeeb Fakhoury ◽  
Naif Adel Haddad
Keyword(s):  
Local Community ◽  
Initial Assessment ◽  
Physical Factors ◽  
Cultural Significance ◽  
Community Quality Of Life ◽  
Urban Heritage ◽  
Two Cities ◽  
Conservation Actions ◽  
Historic Cities

This paper attempts to present and discuss the outcome of the results of the key different studies and projects carried out at Salt and at Irbid historic cores.  It focuses on the executed urban heritage projects undertaken mainly by the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities (MoTA) of Jordan in the last two decades. It discusses their different aspects through initial assessment of the loss and degradation of the cultural heritage assets of the two cities; the fragmentation and lack of connectivity between the modern and historic cores; issues of sustainability of architectural and urban heritage projects i.e. tourism planning and conservation; and reuse projects at the historic cores in relation to cultural, physical factors and development needs. It also addresses the behaviour and characteristics of the urban regeneration process in those two historic cities, starting from their documentation to examination of the different aspects of the currently adopted urban practices and policies, and their impact on the existing urban heritage, depending on the specific identity of the respective historic cores. Finally, it aims to define the main constraints and challenges for the reuse of the existing heritage fabric including the local community quality of life, while building on sustainable heritage activities accommodating tourism opportunities. This will give, at least, some indications from which we can identify a use or combination of uses, and practical steps needed for successful heritage conservation actions in Jordan, in order to retain the cultural significance of the place.

Atalanta as Model: The Hunter and the Hunted

1996 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith M. Barringer
Keyword(s):  
Gender Roles ◽  
Rites Of Passage ◽  
Social Roles ◽  
Ancient Greece ◽  
Vase Painting ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Visual Evidence ◽  
Male Perceptions ◽  
Material Record ◽  
Insight Into

Atalanta, devotee of Artemis and defiant of men and marriage, was a popular figure in ancient literature and art. Although scholars have thoroughly investigated the literary evidence concerning Atalanta, the material record has received less scrutiny. This article explores the written and visual evidence, primarily vase painting, of three Atalanta myths: the Calydonian boar hunt, her wrestling match with Peleus, and Atalanta's footrace, in the context of rites of passage in ancient Greece. The three myths can be read as male and female rites of passage: the hunt, athletics, and a combination of prenuptial footrace and initiatory hunt. Atalanta plays both male and female initiatory roles in each myth: Atalanta is not only a girl facing marriage, but she is also a female hunter and female ephebe. She is the embodiment of ambiguity and liminality. Atalanta's status as outsider and as paradoxical female is sometimes expressed visually by her appearance as Amazon or maenad or a combination of the two. Her blending of gender roles in myth offers insight into Greek ideas of social roles, gender constructs, and male perceptions of femininity. Erotic aspects of the myths of the Calydonian boar hunt and the footrace, and possibly also her wrestling match with Peleus, emphasize Atalanta as the object of male desire. Atalanta challenges men in a man's world and therefore presents a threat, but she is erotically charged and subject to male influence and dominance.

Don Quixote, Part I (1605)

2021 ◽  
pp. 86-117
Author(s):  
Edwin Williamson
Keyword(s):  
Don Quixote ◽  
Cultural Significance ◽  
Second Best ◽  
La Mancha ◽  
The World ◽  
Insight Into

When it first appeared in 1605, Cervantes’s great novel Don Quixote de la Mancha became an international sensation. This chapter follows the chronology of the plot in a critical manner providing the reader with important insight into why Don Quixote has become the second best-selling book of all time. Including the famous scenes of the windmill, the liquidation of Don Quixote’s library, the funeral of Grisóstomo and redemption of Marcela, Ginés de Pasamonte and the galley slaves, El curioso impertinente, the famous tale of Cardenio the star-crossed lover, and a commentary on the role of drama and novels of chivalry in society, Don Quixote, Part One sets the hero and his trusty country squire against the world at large. This chapter explores its deep cultural significance and answers the question of whether or not it is merely a ‘funny book’.

Insight into Fetal Androgen Concentrations from Newborn Scalp Hair in Male and Female Rhesus Monkeys

2011 ◽  
pp. P1-308-P1-308
Author(s):  
David H Abbott ◽  
Amber K Edwards ◽  
Andrew T Beine ◽  
Daniel A Dumesic ◽  
Steve Jacoris ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Rhesus Monkeys ◽  
Scalp Hair ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Female Rhesus ◽  
Insight Into

scholarly journals Facebook for Facebook's Sake

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-38
Author(s):  
Kevin Jacobs
Keyword(s):  
Artistic Expression ◽  
Digital City ◽  
Aesthetic Movement ◽  
For Profit ◽  
Take Back ◽  
Facebook Usage ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Art For Art's Sake ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Central Claim

The affective labour debate has become mainstream in communications studies. In this paper, I The affective labour debate has become mainstream in communications studies. In this paper, I suggest the Aesthetic Movement of the late 19th century as inspiration for how users can use Facebook with the knowledge that their data is being used for profit. I present Facebook usage as art, creating an analog with aesthete Oscar Wilde’s essay, “the critic as artist” (1891/2010), where he presents critics as artists. Other theorists, especially Walter Benjamin provide grounding for making the argument that Facebook usage is an artistic expression. I then turn to my inversion of Walter Pater’s “art for art’s sake”, the seminal idea of Aestheticism and propose Facebook for Facebook’s sake as a method for Facebook use. While more advanced remuneration concepts have yet to arrive with such force that they could provide the proper payment to users, Facebook for its own sake is a way to appreciate Facebook’s beauty in the meantime. Baudelaire and Debord’s psychogeographic theories provide methods for navigating cities that I apply to examine Facebook as a digital city. The central claim of this paper is the following: By using Facebook for Facebook’s sake, users take back some of the dignity taken away from them in the exploitation of free labour. Finally, I turn to critiques of Aestheticism and how contemporary software might provide insight into using Facebook in an ethical manner. Users will have to consider each action differently; how would liking something affect users’ artistic expression of themselves? In this way, while the affective labour debate continues, users can use Facebook for its own sake.

scholarly journals “I am rather strong on Voyages and Cannibalism”: The other Dickens and other Victorians in Richard Flanagan’s Wanting

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 161-177
Author(s):  
Bożena Kucała
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Charles Dickens ◽  
The Other ◽  
Public Image ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Moral Norms ◽  
Critical Attitude ◽  
Victorian Fiction ◽  
Inner Self ◽  
Public Persona

Abstract This paper analyses Richard Flanagan’s novel Wanting (2008) as a narrative informed by a revisionary and critical attitude to nineteenth-century ideologies, which is common to, and, indeed, stereotypical in much neo-Victorian fiction. Drawing on the biographies of two eminent Victorians: Charles Dickens and Sir John Franklin, Flanagan constructs their fictional counterparts as split between a respectable, public persona and a dark, inner self. While all the Victorian characters are represented as “other” than their public image, the focus in the novel, and in this paper, is on Dickens’s struggle to reconcile social propriety with his personal discontent. Flanagan represents this conflict through Dickens’s response to the allegations that starving survivors of Franklin’s ill-fated Arctic expedition resorted to cannibalism. The zeal with which the Victorian writer refuted such reports reveals his own difficulty in living up to social and moral norms. The paper argues that the main link between the different narrative strands in the novel is the challenge they collectively pose to the distinction between the notions of civilization and savagery.

scholarly journals The smell of success: Reproductive success related to rub behavior in brown bears

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. e0247964
Author(s):  
Andrea T. Morehouse ◽  
Anne E. Loosen ◽  
Tabitha A. Graves ◽  
Mark S. Boyce
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Success ◽  
Ursus Arctos ◽  
Scent Marking ◽  
Brown Bear ◽  
Parentage Analysis ◽  
Fitness Component ◽  
Brown Bears ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Rubbing Behavior ◽  
Insight Into

Several species of bears are known to rub deliberately against trees and other objects, but little is known about why bears rub. Patterns in rubbing behavior of male and female brown bears (Ursus arctos) suggest that scent marking via rubbing functions to communicate among potential mates or competitors. Using DNA from bear hairs collected from rub objects in southwestern Alberta from 2011–2014 and existing DNA datasets from Montana and southeastern British Columbia, we determined sex and individual identity of each bear detected. Using these data, we completed a parentage analysis. From the parentage analysis and detection data, we determined the number of offspring, mates, unique rub objects where an individual was detected, and sampling occasions during which an individual was detected for each brown bear identified through our sampling methods. Using a Poisson regression, we found a positive relationship between bear rubbing behavior and reproductive success; both male and female bears with a greater number of mates and a greater number of offspring were detected at more rub objects and during more occasions. Our results suggest a fitness component to bear rubbing, indicate that rubbing is adaptive, and provide insight into a poorly understood behaviour.

scholarly journals Is There a Transmedial Dispositif? Aesthetic Epistemes and the Question of Disciplinarity

2012 ◽  
Vol 23 (42) ◽  
Author(s):  
Asbjørn Grønstad
Keyword(s):  
Central Question ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Insight Into

In this article, I argue that one has yet to acknowledge the extent to which the notion of the aesthetic and its content is institutionally negotiated. A central question that we ought to bear in mind is: does the organization of “aesthetic knowledge” that the traditional disciplines facilitate promote or prevent insight into meta-aesthetic and transaesthetic concerns?

scholarly journals An infant burial from Arma Veirana in northwestern Italy provides insights into funerary practices and female personhood in early Mesolithic Europe

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jamie Hodgkins ◽  
Caley M. Orr ◽  
Claudine Gravel-Miguel ◽  
Julien Riel-Salvatore ◽  
Christopher E. Miller ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Young Infant ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Mortuary Practices ◽  
Cultural Significance ◽  
Biological Profile ◽  
Evolution And Development ◽  
Last Ice Age ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
Funerary Treatment ◽  
Insight Into

AbstractThe evolution and development of human mortuary behaviors is of enormous cultural significance. Here we report a richly-decorated young infant burial (AVH-1) from Arma Veirana (Liguria, northwestern Italy) that is directly dated to 10,211–9910 cal BP (95.4% probability), placing it within the early Holocene and therefore attributable to the early Mesolithic, a cultural period from which well-documented burials are exceedingly rare. Virtual dental histology, proteomics, and aDNA indicate that the infant was a 40–50 days old female. Associated artifacts indicate significant material and emotional investment in the child’s interment. The detailed biological profile of AVH-1 establishes the child as the earliest European near-neonate documented to be female. The Arma Veirana burial thus provides insight into sex/gender-based social status, funerary treatment, and the attribution of personhood to the youngest individuals among prehistoric hunter-gatherer groups and adds substantially to the scant data on mortuary practices from an important period in prehistory shortly following the end of the last Ice Age.

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