scholarly journals Saving the Environment: Environmental Lessons in Colin Thiele’s February Dragon

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 935-941
Author(s):  
Burhanuddin Arafah ◽  
Herawaty Abbas ◽  
Nurul Hikmah

This article explores the relationship between humans and nature in February Dragon and elaborates on the environmental lessons conveyed in Colin Thiele's February Dragon. This article utilizes the concept of ecocriticism by Glotfelty. Ecocriticism explains human-nature interconnectedness. The portrayal of human-nature relation reveals several values of environmental education that readers, both children, and adults, could learn. Three environmental lessons such as respect, responsibility, and empathy towards other living beings were found in the story. Based on the elaborations, the characters in the novel show their respect, responsibility, and empathy towards other species by protecting the animal and the environment from bushfire’s dangers.

2019 ◽  
Vol 51 (4) ◽  
pp. 466-479
Author(s):  
Aliona Yarova

Abstract Holistic ecology considers nature and society as a whole, viewing humans and the environment as interdependent and interconnected. This article takes the lens of holistic ecology to examine the representation of human–nature relationships in Patrick Ness’s A Monster Calls (2011) and explores how the novel guides the child reader to an environmental mind-set beyond overt didacticism. The article focuses on two aspects of the bond between the magical tree and the human characters in the novel: how the powerful tree empowers humans and how the human characters contribute to the tree’s expressions of power. The eternal Green Man—as the tree introduces itself—embodies this bond by being simultaneously tree-like and human-like, a complex merger of “the Green” (nature) and “the Man” (humanity). The monster-tree fulfils several powerful and empowering roles, such as monster and storyteller, destructive force and powerful healer, savage and philosopher, nightmare and escape. Importantly, it always keeps the shape of a yew tree. As such, A Monster Calls can contribute to children’s environmental education by illustrating the connection between the natural environment and humans: the eternal bond between “the Green” and “the Man.”


2019 ◽  
Vol 64 ◽  
pp. 323-333
Author(s):  
Wei WANG

The German female writer Charlotte Kerner has created a series of works on the theme of science and technology to explore the relationship between people and technology and nature. One of the most striking features of his work is the frequent appearance of the "double" motive. This phenomenon is most evident in the book Blueprint. This article explores the "double" motive in the novel Blueprint from the perspectives of "mother-daughter doubles" and "person-painting doubles". This paper analyzes the aesthetic effect of its performance, and then studies the relationship among the motive, the author's aesthetic strategy and the theme of the work. In addition, it is concluded that "double" is full of dialectical philosophy of opposition and unity. It not only highlights the author's aesthetic strategy of paying attention to the dual combination of character and dialectical movement in character shaping, which makes the character of the character more full and contradictory conflict more intense, but also endues the work with the depth of human nature.


2020 ◽  
pp. 91-106
Author(s):  
Tatiana Szulik -Opala

The article points to the advantages of utilizing books chosen and read by students during lessons of Polish. As illustrative example here serves Tajemnicza śmierć Marianny Biel written by Marta Matyszczak, a contemporary detective novel, published in 2017, partially narrated from the perspective small invalid mongrel. The novel’s structure is conducive to discussion of detective stories in didactic work, showing the “Silesian” features of the novel’s characters, and analyzing their seemingly superficial characters. On the basis of the novel, the subject of animal studies may be raised: the animality of the relationship between humans and animals. The article draws attention to the importance of the animal issues in humanities, going beyond the understanding thereof as “the animality of human nature.” It emphasizes the essence of giving voice to the animals and empowering them, without trying to “humanize” them.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Wykowska ◽  
Jairo Pérez-Osorio ◽  
Stefan Kopp

This booklet is a collection of the position statements accepted for the HRI’20 conference workshop “Social Cognition for HRI: Exploring the relationship between mindreading and social attunement in human-robot interaction” (Wykowska, Perez-Osorio & Kopp, 2020). Unfortunately, due to the rapid unfolding of the novel coronavirus at the beginning of the present year, the conference and consequently our workshop, were canceled. On the light of these events, we decided to put together the positions statements accepted for the workshop. The contributions collected in these pages highlight the role of attribution of mental states to artificial agents in human-robot interaction, and precisely the quality and presence of social attunement mechanisms that are known to make human interaction smooth, efficient, and robust. These papers also accentuate the importance of the multidisciplinary approach to advance the understanding of the factors and the consequences of social interactions with artificial agents.


Author(s):  
المختار الأحمر

الملخّص يتناول البحث علاقة الفطرة بالشريعة في التفكير الإسلامي، وما تطرحه هذه العلاقة سواء على مستوى بيان الجوانب المتعلقة بخَلْق الإنسان وما فُطِر عليه ابتداء، وهذا البعد يمثّل الجانب التكوني في مفهوم الفطرة، أو على المستوى المتعلق بالشريعة وفطريتها، أي أنها جارية وفق ما يدركه العقل وتشهد به الفطرة، وهذا البعد يمثّل الجانب التشريعي الذي يطرحه مفهوم الفطرة. لقد زخرت أغلب الكتابات بتناول جانبا واحدا مما يتيحه أو يعكسه مفهوم الفطرة، لكن البحث في العلاقة التناسبية بين الفطرة والشريعة، وما يتيحه هذا النظر المتلازم بين المفهومين على مستوى الإمكانات المتعلقة بقدرات الإنسان الفطرية في فهم وتعقّل الخطاب الشرعي والأحكام التكليفية، والوقوف على غاياته ومقاصده، يبقى في حاجة إلى البحث والاستقصاء. ولذلك تأتي هذه الدراسة لتسليط الضوء على الجانب التشريعي والتكويني في علاقة الشريعة بالفطرة، باعتبارهما نظامين متلازمين يتيحان فهم طبيعة الشريعة وأحكامها ومقاصدها من جهة، وتحديد جوهر وماهية الإنسان الفطرية وإمكاناته في تعقّل هذه الشريعة من جهة ثانية.                  الكلمات المفتاحية: الفطرة، الشريعة، الدين، التكاليف، العقل. Abstract This research addresses the relationship between premordial human nature (fitrah) and Islamic law (SharÊÑah) within the frame of Islamic thought, while exploring the questions it raises at two levels. The first level explains the aspects related to the creation of man and what has initially been bestowed upon him, which represents the evolutionary aspect of the concept of fiÏrah. The second level is related to SharÊÑah and its nature, which evolves according to what is percieved by reason and witnessed by fiÏrah; this represents the legislative aspect presented by the concept of fiÏrah. The majority of studies to date address a single aspect of the illustrations of the concept of fiÏrah. However, research on the dialectic relationship between fiÏrah and SharÊÑah and what its relevant concurrent view provides at the level of potentials related to human innate capacities in understanding and realizing SharÊÑah discourse and mandatory provisions as well as understanding its objectives  remains scarce and requires further research and investigation. Therefore, this study intends to shed light on the legislative and evolutionary aspects of the relationship between SharÊÑah and fiÏrah as two interconnected systems that allow for the understanding of the nature of SharÊÑah, its provisions and purposes, as well as identifying the essence of human innate nature and its potential in perceiving SharÊÑah. Keywords: human nature (fiÏrah), Islamic law (SharÊÑah), religious mandates (TakÉlif), religion, intellect (ÑAqal).


2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (9) ◽  
pp. 1084-1101
Author(s):  
Tingjuan Wu ◽  
Xu Yao ◽  
Guan Wang ◽  
Xiaohe Liu ◽  
Hongfei Chen ◽  
...  

Background: Oleanolic Acid (OA) is a ubiquitous product of triterpenoid compounds. Due to its inexpensive availability, unique bioactivities, pharmacological effects and non-toxic properties, OA has attracted tremendous interest in the field of drug design and synthesis. Furthermore, many OA derivatives have been developed for ameliorating the poor water solubility and bioavailability. Objective: Over the past few decades, various modifications of the OA framework structure have led to the observation of enhancement in bioactivity. Herein, we focused on the synthesis and medicinal performance of OA derivatives modified on A-ring. Moreover, we clarified the relationship between structures and activities of OA derivatives with different functional groups in A-ring. The future application of OA in the field of drug design and development also was discussed and inferred. Conclusion: This review concluded the novel achievements that could add paramount information to the further study of OA-based drugs.


Author(s):  
Caroline Franklin

This chapter studies the novels of sensibility in the 1780s. The philosophy of John Locke, Anthony Ashley Cooper, third Earl of Shaftesbury, Adam Smith, and Francis Hutcheson had influenced the first wave of epistolary novels of sensibility beginning in the 1740s. These explored the interaction between emotion and reason in producing moral actions. Response to stimuli was minutely examined, especially the relationship between the psychological and physiological manifestations of feelings. Later in the century, and, in particular during the late 1780s when the novel enjoyed a surge in popularity, the capacity for fine feeling became increasingly valued for its own sake rather than moralized. Ultimately, sensibility should be seen as a long-lasting literary movement rather than an ephemeral fashion. It put paternal authority and conventional modes of masculinity under question.


Author(s):  
Émile Zola

Did possessing and killing amount to the same thing deep within the dark recesses of the human beast? La Bete humaine (1890), is one of Zola’s most violent and explicit works. On one level a tale of murder, passion and possession, it is also a compassionate study of individuals derailed by atavistic forces beyond their control. Zola considered this his ‘most finely worked’ novel, and in it he powerfully evokes life at the end of the Second Empire in France, where society seemed to be hurtling into the future like the new locomotives and railways it was building. While expressing the hope that human nature evolves through education and gradually frees itself of the burden of inherited evil, he is constantly reminding us that under the veneer of technological progress there remains, always, the beast within. This new translation captures Zola's fast-paced yet deliberately dispassionate style, while the introduction and detailed notes place the novel in its social, historical, and literary context.


Author(s):  
Elizabeth Gaskell

‘It's the masters as has wrought this woe; it's the masters as should pay for it.’ Set in Manchester in the 1840s - a period of industrial unrest and extreme deprivation - Mary Barton depicts the effects of economic and physical hardship upon the city's working-class community. Paralleling the novel's treatment of the relationship between masters and men, the suffering of the poor, and the workmen's angry response, is the story of Mary herself: a factory-worker's daughter who attracts the attentions of the mill-owner's son, she becomes caught up in the violence of class conflict when a brutal murder forces her to confront her true feelings and allegiances. Mary Barton was praised by contemporary critics for its vivid realism, its convincing characters and its deep sympathy with the poor, and it still has the power to engage and move readers today. This edition reproduces the last edition of the novel supervised by Elizabeth Gaskell and includes her husband's two lectures on the Lancashire dialect.


Author(s):  
Cristina Vatulescu

This chapter approaches police records as a genre that gains from being considered in its relationships with other genres of writing. In particular, we will follow its long-standing relationship to detective fiction, the novel, and biography. Going further, the chapter emphasizes the intermedia character of police records not just in our time but also throughout their existence, indeed from their very origins. This approach opens to a more inclusive media history of police files. We will start with an analysis of the seminal late nineteenth-century French manuals prescribing the writing of a police file, the famous Bertillon-method manuals. We will then track their influence following their adoption nationally and internationally, with particular attention to the politics of their adoption in the colonies. We will also touch briefly on the relationship of early policing to other disciplines, such as anthropology and statistics, before moving to a closer look at its intersections with photography and literature.


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