scholarly journals The Feminine Other: Monsters and Magic in Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 55
Author(s):  
Hana Ghani
Keyword(s):  
Critical Analysis ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Female Characters ◽  
Binary Opposition ◽  
Sir Gawain ◽  
Monster Theory ◽  
Courtly Romance ◽  
The Feminine ◽  
Female Monsters

Monsters are perceived as humanity’s enemy that should be eradicated. However, based on Jeffrey Cohen’s Monster Theory (1997), monsters play an important role in understanding humanity’s fears and anxieties. Monstrosity hinges upon the binary opposition of the Self and the Other, in which the Other is seen as a threat to the Self. With this in mind, this article addresses the female monsters of two medieval texts: Beowulf and Sir Gawain and The Green Knight. This paper aims to examine the female monsters, Grendel’s mother and Morgan the Fay, as a cultural reference to unravel the patriarchal anxieties of the time. Grendel’s mother represents a threat to the homosocial hierarchal bonds of Medieval society. Meanwhile, Morgan the Fay signifies danger to knighthood, chivalry, and courtly romance. At the same time, this paper also aims to continue the critical analysis and literature of the female characters in both texts with a heavy emphasis on their Otherness.

scholarly journals The Hysteric Belongs to Me: Helen Oyeyemi’s The Opposite House

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 45-63
Author(s):  
Noémi Albert
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Female Characters ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Feminine ◽  
Long Time

The term hysteria has undergone several substantial changes throughout its history. A charged concept, deemed for a long time as pejorative and offensive to womanhood, it has lately been re-appropriated for literature under the concept of the “hysterical narrative.” This new trend purports to redeem hysteria and, together with it, redeem the feminine and show all its complexity. Helen Oyeyemi’s 2007 novel, The Opposite House, conflates the private and the public in two female characters, one human, the other divine. Through this double perspective the work self-reflexively re-evaluates hysteria both in the self and in the community.

Keeping Company with Sondheim’s Women

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stacy Wolf
Keyword(s):  
Musical Theater ◽  
Married Couples ◽  
Feminist Perspective ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Female Characters ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The One

This chapter examines the eight female characters inCompany, what they do in the musical, and how they function in the show’s dramaturgy, and argues that they elicit the quintessential challenge of analyzing musical theater from a feminist perspective. On the one hand, the women tend to be stereotypically, even msogynistically portrayed. On the other hand, each character offers the actor a tremendous performance opportunity in portraying a complicated psychology, primarily communicated through richly expressive music and sophisticated lyrics. In this groundbreaking 1970 ensemble musical about a bachelor’s encounters with five married couples and three girlfriends, Sondheim’s female characters occupy a striking range of types within one show. From the bitter, acerbic, thrice-married Joanne to the reluctant bride-to-be Amy, and from the self-described “dumb” “stewardess” April to the free-spirited Marta,Company’s eight women are distillations of femininity, precisely sketched in the short, singular scenes in which they appear.

scholarly journals Ethno-Religious Conflict and the Quest for Peace in a Plural Society in Africa

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 613-622
Author(s):  
Kemi Anthony Emina
Keyword(s):  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Religious Conflict ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Human Consciousness ◽  
Religious Conflicts ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
Plural Society ◽  
Ontological Dimension

This article examines the elusive search for peace in a plural Society in Africa, amid persistent ethno-religious conflicts and violent attacks in eminent. The central thesis of this article focused on why existing theoretical perspectives on the nature and management of ethnoreligious conflicts in Africa have disappointed expectations, and what is required to achieve peace among plural African societies. This article used Nigeria as a case study. The research argues that conflict resolution has an ontological dimension and that achieving peace in plural societies requires a process of genuine orientation that reworks the human consciousness to accept the inevitability of the 'Other' both to the self and its aspirations for survival. This research employs the method of textual and critical analysis in carrying out this research.

A critical analysis of the theories and models of self-education

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-14
Author(s):  
Bogusław Śliwerski
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Individual Activity ◽  
Psychological Issues ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Oriented Activity ◽  
Individual Self

Human behaviour researchers argue on self-education matters, which accumulate the complex of unsolved contentious problematic issues, referring to classical antinomies: freedom, socialization, and self-consciousness. There are many controversies concerning the interpretation of the self-education notion in social sciences and corresponding theories. The author of the paper presents those theories and explains approaches to self-education, as they have inspired countless pedagogical and psychological issues. Concurrently he underlines different activities, which illustrate two contrasting theoretical standpoints. The first one treats self-education as perfectio prima. It happens when the striving to perfection is realized by Socratic (“self-oriented”) model. Such an approach is the only motivation of individual activity and the aim in itself. On the other hand, the second perspective understands self-education as the Promethean (“out-oriented”) activity. In the light of its assumptions, it is a kind of spontaneous, nonintentional man’s activities aimed to transform reality out of oneself, the surrounding world, and the environment of life. Here, self-education is the perfectio secunda category, which means that the individual self-educates itself by reaching excellence per accidens. Such distinction is crucial for project constructing and empirical research questing.

scholarly journals Deconstructing the Archetypal Self-Other Dichotomy in William Shakespeare’s The Tempest

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 139
Author(s):  
Marwan Harb Alqaryouti ◽  
Hanita Hanim Ismail
Keyword(s):  
Data Collection ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Binary Opposition ◽  
Discussion Section ◽  
Narrative Technique ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
The Tempest

Shakespeare’s The Tempest (1610-1611) is one of the controversial plays regarding whether to be placed in the purview of colonialism or anti-colonialism. The bard sketches two antithetical characters in the course of the play, Prospero and Caliban, who form the two extremes of the self against the other dichotomy. This study aims at proving Shakespeare’s proclaimed presuppositions at the realm of colonialism through his attempt to deconstruct the dichotomic discourse of colonialism via these two characters. The study also explains how the play starts with structuring two binary-oppositional spheres to lead readers eventually to question the very purpose of colonialism, which dehumanizes the colonized people. The data used in this study are generated through both primary and secondary sources of data collection, (i.e. the paly and other studies that give input to the discourse of the study). The paper moreover, focuses on Abdul R. JanMohamad’s concept of Manicheanism allegory to examine the backdrop of postcolonial view of self/other dichotomy. A critical discourse narrative technique is employed in the discussion section of the study based on the deconstruction apparatus, such as binary opposition, Manicheanism allegory and symbolism. The study also refers to Shakespeare’s symbolism of Prospero as a character who can be perceived as Columbus himself, and consequently as the representative of the colonial enterprise. At the end of the play, therefore, the language of Prospero becomes noticeably less hegemonic, as he realizes that the individuals on the island should be emancipated from his dominance. In this way, Prospero becomes the mouthpiece of Shakespeare himself, who conveys counter-colonial beliefs, such as the confusion of the biological and the cultural, and the colonizers’ claim of their superiority, over the colonized; and thus, their right to dominate.

scholarly journals The Use of Liminality in the Deconstruction of Women’s Roles: Rudolfo Anaya’s Bless me, Ultima

2018 ◽  
pp. 149
Author(s):  
Isabel Gil Naveira
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Feminist Movement ◽  
Women's Roles ◽  
Female Characters ◽  
Virgin Of Guadalupe ◽  
Rudolfo Anaya ◽  
Women’S Roles

ABSTRACT During the 1970s Chicana feminist movement, Chicanas rejected the widely established image of the Virgin of Guadalupe vs. Malinche, which limited the liminal position they were claiming. In this essay I will examine Rudolfo Anaya’s treatment of female characters in his novel Bless Me, Ultima (1972), bringing to light the latent disruption of this duality. It is my contention that Anaya’s aim is establishing a dialogue between the self and the other(s) through liminal practices, spaces and times, which leads to a transformation of liminality into new opportunities for female characters in novels and hence to a deconstruction of Chicanas’ roles in society.KEYWORDS: liminality; deconstruction; Virgin; Malinche; Chicanas; gender rolesRESUMENDurante el movimiento feminista de las chicanas en los años 70, las chicanas rechazaron la ampliamente establecida imagen de la Virgen de Guadalupe frente a Malinche, que limitaba la posición liminal que reclamaban. En este artículo examinaré el tratamiento de los personajes femeninos de Rudolfo Anaya en su novela Bless me, Ultima (1972), sacando a la luz la latente alteración de esta dualidad. En mi opinión el objetivo de Anaya es establecer un diálogo entre el yo y la otra/las otras a través de prácticas, espacios y tiempos liminales, lo que lleva a una trasformación de la liminalidad en nuevas oportunidades para los personajes femeninos de las novelas y por ello a una deconstrucción de los roles de las chicanas en la sociedad.PALABRAS CLAVE: liminalidad; deconstrucción; Virgen; Malinche; Chicanas; roles de género

scholarly journals A FEMININE OF NO ONE’S OWN IN CHARLOTTE TÁBUA RASA

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 0137-0147
Author(s):  
Eider Madeiros ◽  
Letícia Simões Velloso Schuler ◽  
Mariana Pinheiro Ramalho ◽  
Hermano de França Rodrigues
Keyword(s):  
Female Body ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Lacanian Psychoanalysis ◽  
Inductive Approach ◽  
Constructive Dialogue ◽  
The Feminine ◽  
Brazilian Politics

This paper aims to essay an open and constructive dialogue between the very rupture that the trans female body evokes and the recent concept of “feminine of no one”, through an inductive approach that the latter could make it possible to be kept in a state of infiniteness, of openness, of incompleteness, of non-wholeness, the aspect that characterizes the surrounding and expressive territories of each one of the specific bodies that allow themselves to be situated more leaned onto the feminine. Based on the contributions of Bento (2008), Jorge and Travassos (2018), from the brief precepts of Lacanian psychoanalysis, and on an interview with Leonardo Valente, the author of Charlotte Tábua Rasa (2016), we intend to discuss insofar how the body of a trans woman in a Brazilian politics fictional scenario would be able to draw the difficult boundaries on the discourses, possessions and the domains of language between the self and the other towards the trans-sexualities which dedicate their efforts to reinscriptions and the fissures that are celebrated through the transgressive resilience of the feminine.

scholarly journals OTHERNESS IN NABOKOV’S HERMANN, HUMBERT AND KINBOTE

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (9) ◽  
pp. 211-223
Author(s):  
Slađana Stamenković
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Theoretical Concept ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Binary Opposition ◽  
Postmodern Theory ◽  
Artistic Experience ◽  
Different Levels

As one of the key notions in postmodern theory, Otherness is defined as a quality of being different and separate from the Self. Within the postmodern theory, it is defined within the center-margin binary opposition discussed by theoreticians such as Linda Hutcheon. Yet, long before the theory, three of Nabokov’s novels depicted the concept of Otherness in their respective protagonists. Hermann in Despair, Humbert in Lolita and Kinbote in Pale Fire are assigned the role of the Other in their communities on different levels, all of which lead them to construct their own alternative realities where the margin is the center. This paper discusses the occurrence of the theoretical concept of the Other in the novels that predate the official theory of Otherness. The reoccurrence of the concept of the Other in literature, (especially in the period before the theoretical framework officially appeared) testify to the high relevance of the theory and the concept for discussing different phenomena of the human spirit and artistic experience.

Ideological Representation of Women's Oppression in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (138) ◽  
pp. 15-22
Author(s):  
Huda Aziz Muhi Al-shammari ◽  
Nidaa Hussain Fahmi Al-Khazraji
Keyword(s):  
Research Paper ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Female Characters ◽  
Self Presentation ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Global Issue ◽  
The World ◽  
Abuse Of Women

The abuse of women is an issue that persists throughout the ages till the present time because people are still living in a world of a dominated idea which is known as man is the self and woman is the other. So the objective of this research paper is to argue this global issue using Van Dijk's Ideological Square (1998) as a framework so as to examine the ideologies that underline the use of language in The Handmaid’s Tale. It is hypothesized that the ideology of oppression is exposed in the novel throughout using the ideological strategies of positive- self presentation and negative-other presentation. Ultimately, it concludes that the novelist employs both, male and female, characters to consistently ridicule and offer negative coverage about women and to increasingly align and offer favorable comments about men to present the world of patriarchy from a different perspective.

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