A Feminist Plunge into Sea Knowledge

PMLA ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 134 (2) ◽  
pp. 372-377
Author(s):  
Margaret Cohen
Keyword(s):  
The City ◽  

As her epigraph to manhattan beach, Jennifer Egan chooses one of ishmael's typically abstract musings in moby-dick: “Yes, as every one knows, meditation and water are wedded for ever.” Yet more relevant is his observation in the opening paragraphs of Melville's novel: [T]here now is your insular city of the Manhattoes, belted round by wharves as Indian isles by coral reefs—commerce surrounds it with her surf. Right and left, the streets take you waterwards…. Circumambulate the city of a dreamy Sabbath afternoon…. What do you see?—Posted like silent sentinels all around the town, stand thousands upon thousands of mortal men fixed in ocean reveries. (795)

2013 ◽  
Vol 68 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-179
Author(s):  
John Cyril Barton

This essay is the first to examine Melville’s “The Town-Ho’s Story” (Chapter 54 of Moby-Dick [1851]) in relation to W. B. Stevenson’s then-popular-but-now-forgotten British travel narrative, Twenty Years’ Residence in South America (1825). Drawing from suggestive circumstances and parallel action unfolding in each, I make a case for the English sailor’s encounter with the Spanish Inquisition in Lima as important source material for the Limanian setting that frames Melville’s tale. In bringing to light a new source for Moby-Dick, I argue that Melville refracts Stevenson’s actual encounter with the Inquisition in Lima to produce a symbolic, mock confrontation with Old-World authority represented in the inquisitorial Dons and the overall context of the story. Thus, the purpose of the essay is twofold: first, to recover an elusive source for understanding the allusive framework of “The Town-Ho’s Story,” a setting that has perplexed some of Melville’s best critics; and second, to illuminate Melville’s use of Lima and the Inquisition as tropes crucial for understanding a larger symbolic confrontation between the modern citizen (or subject) and despotic authority that plays out not only in Moby-Dick but also in other works such as Mardi (1849), White-Jacket (1850), “Benito Cereno” (1855), Clarel (1876), and The Confidence-Man (1857), wherein the last of which the author wrote on the frontispiece of a personal copy, “Dedicated to Victims of Auto da Fe.”


2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (March 2018) ◽  
Author(s):  
S.A Okanlawon ◽  
O.O Odunjo ◽  
S.A Olaniyan

This study examined Residents’ evaluation of turning transport infrastructure (road) to spaces for holding social ceremonies in the indigenous residential zone of Ogbomoso, Oyo State, Nigeria. Upon stratifying the city into the three identifiable zones, the core, otherwise known as the indigenous residential zone was isolated for study. Of the twenty (20) political wards in the two local government areas of the town, fifteen (15) wards that were located in the indigenous zone constituted the study area. Respondents were selected along one out of every three (33.3%) of the Trunk — C (local) roads being the one mostly used for the purpose in the study area. The respondents were the residents, commercial motorists, commercial motorcyclists, and celebrants. Six hundred and forty-two (642) copies of questionnaire were administered and harvested on the spot. The Mean Analysis generated from the respondents’ rating of twelve perceived hazards listed in the questionnaire were then used to determine respondents’ most highly rated perceived consequences of the practice. These were noisy environment, Blockage of drainage by waste, and Endangering the life of the sick on the way to hospital; the most highly rated reasons why the practice came into being; and level of acceptability of the practice which was found to be very unacceptable in the study area. Policy makers should therefore focus their attention on strict enforcement of the law prohibiting the practice in order to ensure more cordial relationship among the citizenry, seeing citizens’ unacceptability of the practice in the study area.


2017 ◽  
Vol 72 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-111
Author(s):  
Florian Mazel

Dominique Iogna-Prat’s latest book, Cité de Dieu, cité des hommes. L’Église et l’architecture de la société, 1200–1500, follows on both intellectually and chronologically from La Maison Dieu. Une histoire monumentale de l’Église au Moyen Âge (v. 800–v. 1200). It presents an essay on the emergence of the town as a symbolic and political figure of society (the “city of man”) between 1200 and 1700, and on the effects of this development on the Church, which had held this function before 1200. This feeds into an ambitious reflection on the origins of modernity, seeking to move beyond the impasse of political philosophy—too quick to ignore the medieval centuries and the Scholastic moment—and to relativize the effacement of the institutional Church from the Renaissance on. In so doing, it rejects the binary opposition between the Church and the state, proposes a new periodization of the “transition to modernity,” and underlines the importance of spatial issues (mainly in terms of representation). This last element inscribes the book in the current of French historiography that for more than a decade has sought to reintroduce the question of space at the heart of social and political history. Iogna-Prat’s stimulating demonstration nevertheless raises some questions, notably relating to the effects of the Protestant Reformation, the increasing power of states, and the process of “secularization.” Above all, it raises the issue of how a logic of the polarization of space was articulated with one of territorialization in the practices of government and the structuring of society—two logics that were promoted by the ecclesial institution even before states themselves.


1919 ◽  
Vol 39 ◽  
pp. 110-115
Author(s):  
D. S. Robertson
Keyword(s):  
The City ◽  

In the discussion of Greek dramatic origins, a curious passage of Apuleius has never, so far as I know, been mentioned.In the second book of the Metamorphoses the hero Lucius describes a feast given at Hypata in Thessaly by his rich relative Byrrhena. After the feast Byrrhena informs him that an annual festival, coeval with the city, will be celebrated next day—a joyous ceremony, unique in the world, in honour of the god Laughter. She wishes that he could invent some humorous freak for the occasion. Lucius promises to do his best. Being very drunk, he then bids Byrrhena good-night, and departs with his slave for the house of Milo, his miserly old host. A gust blows out their torch, and they get home with difficulty, arm in arm. There they find three large and lusty persone violently battering the door. Lucius has been warned by his mistress, Milo's slave Fotis, against certain young Mohawks of the town—‘uesana factio nobilissimorum iuuenum’—who think nothing of murdering rich strangers. He at once draws his sword, and one by one stabs all three. Fotis, roused by the noise, lets him in and he quickly falls asleep.


1982 ◽  
Vol 72 (3) ◽  
pp. 841-861
Author(s):  
Hojjat Adeli

abstract On 28 July 1981 at 17:22 UTC, the Kerman province of southern Iran was shaken by the largest and the most destructive earthquake in its history. Its surface-wave magnitude was about 7.2. The epicenter of the earthquake was located about 45 km southeast of the city of Kerman, the capital of the Kerman province. The shock killed nearly 3,000 people, left more than 31,000 homeless, and destroyed virtually all buildings in the epicentral region within a radius of 30 km. The hardest hit place was the town of Sirch where about 2,000 people died out of a population of 3,500. Surface fractures were observed in several areas, and the earthquake was apparently associated with a fresh surface normal faulting. The maximum vertical displacement was about 1 m. The maximum width of the fracture was 0.5 m. Also, extensive landsliding and numerous rockfalls were observed within the area of maximum damage. Most houses in the epicentral area are of adobe construction, made of sundried clay brick walls, and heavy domed roofs or vaults with clay or mud mortar. Most casualties were due to the collapse of these adobe buildings. However, the performance of unreinforced or reinforced brick buildings, historical monuments, steel buildings, and other types of structures during the earthquake is also discussed in this paper.


Author(s):  
Román Quijano-García ◽  
Luis Alfredo Arguelles-Ma ◽  
Fernando Medina-Blum ◽  
Mario Javier Fajardo

The remainance and development in the market depend, among other factors, on the quality of sold products or provided services, which is a situation of concern in sectors such as tourism where globalization demands first level services, as is the case in the city of Campeche, where businessmen are investing in hotel infrastructure according to the colonial characteristics of the town. The research´s objective is to identify the incidence of leadership in the quality of services under the perception of hotel managers as responsible for the operability results. This research is a descriptive type with non-experimental transversal design, with a enumerated population; the results obtained through the quality and leadership indexes indicate that, contrary to expectations, managers consider that the provided services don´t have an adequate level of quality, and the design of new strategies is needed to improve the processes under the transformational leadership which must face problems with opportunity in order to innovate in the services of the market where they participate.


Author(s):  
Pavel Blokhin ◽  

Introduction. In 1275, two drafts of town law of Freiburg im Breisgau were created. This article presents an analysis of one of these texts, namely the short draft. Methods and materials. The main research method is comparative historical analysis. The contents of two charters are compared, namely the 1218 Rodel draft and the short draft of 1275. Analysis. There are 6 thematic clusters uniting the laws by branches of law: 1) privileges of citizens and rights of the Town Lord; 2) criminal procedure law; 3) civil law; 4) town administration; 5) trade law; 6) various laws. The first part of the laws from the short draft is a translation of the Rodelian laws, the second one represents reformulated Rodelian norms, while the last one contains new laws in the legislation of Freiburg. Results. Though the document did not become an official town charter, it manifested the changes in the town law of the 13th century, compared to the previous 1218 Town Charter. In addition, the laws in the draft reflected the political struggle for power between the Town Lord of Freiburg, the City Council of 24 and the town community. The Town Lord regained his previously lost rights, in particular the legislative initiative. However, at the same time, the short draft significantly limited Lord’s arbitrariness towards the property of citizens as well as Freiburg citizens themselves. According to the short draft, the City Council of 24 strengthened and expanded its power in the town, becoming a full-fledged legislative and executive body of the town administration. The town community, on the other hand, was losing its privileges and rights, for example, it lost the opportunity to elect some of the civil servants and members of the Council of 24.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Ferman ◽  
Miriam Greenberg ◽  
Thao Lee ◽  
Steven C. McKay

Over the last fifty years, institutions of higher education have served as anchor institutions in cities’ broader neoliberal efforts to generate new economic sectors, attract the creative class, and build amenities that stimulate market-oriented redevelopment. These activities, combined with universities’ own neoliberal restructuring, including diminishing housing support for students and staff, have contributed to gentrification and displacement in neighborhoods surrounding universities, creating the context for interrelated struggles for the right to the city and the right to the university. Using Temple University in Philadelphia, and University of California Santa Cruz as case studies we examine how students, faculty, and other university actors are joining with organizations and movements in surrounding communities to resist restructuring and displacement. In doing so, these emerging coalitions are transcending the more divisive town/gown narrative, forging new solidarities that are reimagining more just and equitable futures for both the city and the university.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Alicia Lawrie

<p>Whangarei City has a dying Commercial Centre. This has resulted from population shifts that have occurred over time. Significant issues have driven movement of people toward much larger cities (seeking better economic, cultural and social outcomes) and more spacious urban fringes (seeking improved environmental outcomes). The Whangarei CBD incorporates both the dying Commercial Centre and a thriving Town Basin which is the centre for Arts and Recreation within the city. The two areas are a juxtaposition. The investigation reveals reasons why two such contrasting areas exist and defines a design solution that seeks to resolve this and leverages the success of the Town Basin to revive the Commercial Centre. The aim of this thesis is to investigate ways that architecture can be used to invigorate Whangarei’s dying Commercial Centre by creating a place of activity, engagement and informal learning and by re-establishing the important connection Whangarei has with its river as well as other positives within the city.   Thesis objectives:  • Identify the reasons for the decline of the Commercial Centre and the success of the Town Basin and how a connection can be established between the two.  • Establish a beating heart within the dying Commercial Centre and provide a life source in the form of people movement into the centre from all parts of the city.  • Provide dynamic spaces which encourage informal learning, social interaction, playfulness and creativity that will engage the people of Whangarei including youth and children.  • Use the natural environment as a means of engaging people of all ages by weaving together water, a restored ecology and architecture.</p>


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