scholarly journals The Actor, the Mirror, the Soul and the Sylph

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret A. Doody
Keyword(s):  
Samuel Richardson ◽  
17Th Century ◽  
The Self ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Affective States ◽  
Mixed Emotions ◽  
Graphic Representations ◽  
The Face ◽  
Charles Le Brun ◽  
Moral Defect

The ‘unnatural’ mixed emotions of Chimène, heroine of Pierre Corneille’s Le Cid (1636), almost destroyed the dramatist. The 17th century brought strong new attempts to create a taxonomy of clearly defined and acceptably knowable ‘passions’. Stimulated by Descartes, Charles Le Brun produced his famous graphic representations of individual emotions as physically expressed in the face. Such catalogues of emotions attracted English theorists of acting, such as Aaron Hill whose Art of Acting interested Samuel Richardson. A standard feat of English poets from Dryden to Gray and Collins is to run through the passions, briefly exhibiting the activities and nature of the distinctive emotions. That the passions could be so well noted and imitated produced new problems, rendering representation of the passions doubtful, chicanery lacking in soul, as the acting of Garrick seemed to Diderot. New interest in mixed emotions and more fluid affections turned against the single passion and the encyclopedic list. Literary works moved towards a more dynamic and changeable account of emotional states and possibilities. Innovative large mirrors brought the self more literally to the eye, stimulating reflection on variability; we glimpse the possibility of future emotions and affective states not yet known. Mixed emotions and half shades become more engrossing than grand passions. Pope’s Sylphs, rooted in Paracelsian fiction, proffer new versions of both self and emotions, or emotional states. The mirror becomes not a diagnostic instrument detecting moral defect, but, as in Richardson’s novels, an opening to a possible future self.

Signs of ageing, the lifespan and self-representation in European self-portraits since the 15th century

2005 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-158 ◽  
Author(s):  
PHILIPPE ABASTADO ◽  
GILLES GUIRAMAND ◽  
BERNARD BOUSQUET
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
17Th Century ◽  
Lower Half ◽  
The Self ◽  
Upper Eyelid ◽  
Lower Face ◽  
Average Lifespan ◽  
15Th Century ◽  
The Face

Painters' self-portraits offer the opportunity to study signs of ageing through the centuries. In this paper, we examine 687 self-portraits by 506 European painters from the 15th to the 20th century. To qualify for the analysis, painters had to be unquestionably identified, have known years of birth and death, and the self-portraits had to be dated unequivocally. ‘Age scores’ for the characteristics of the lower face were developed. Ptosis of the upper eyelid, bags under the eyes and the characteristics of beards were also recorded. Among the main findings, the painters of self-portraits that exhibited ptosis of the upper eyelid had a higher actual age than those of portraits which did not (55 versus 38 years). Similarly, those that represented bags under the eyes were older painters (47 versus 33 years). The percentages of portraits with eyelid ptosis and bags under the eyes were similar through the centuries and in three zones of Europe. The age scores of the lower half of the face were also consistent in all centuries, except at ages 40–49 years. The painters' average lifespan significantly increased during the 18th century; and within Europe a north–south lifespan gradient has been evident since the 17th century. We conclude that ageing has had similar facial manifestations over the last five centuries, except between 40 and 50 years of age.

Power of Darkness: Narrative and Biographical Reflexivity in A Series of Unfortunate Events

2008 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 200-212
Author(s):  
ELIZABETH BULLEN
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
Risk Society ◽  
Project Risk ◽  
Young Readers ◽  
The World ◽  
The Face ◽  
High Earning ◽  
Textual Culture ◽  
Children’S Exposure ◽  
Central Claim

This paper investigates the high-earning children's series, A Series of Unfortunate Events, in relation to the skills young people require to survive and thrive in what Ulrich Beck calls risk society. Children's textual culture has been traditionally informed by assumptions about childhood happiness and the need to reassure young readers that the world is safe. The genre is consequently vexed by adult anxiety about children's exposure to certain kinds of knowledge. This paper discusses the implications of the representation of adversity in the Lemony Snicket series via its subversions of the conventions of children's fiction and metafictional strategies. Its central claim is that the self-consciousness or self-reflexivity of A Series of Unfortunate Events} models one of the forms of reflexivity children need to be resilient in the face of adversity and to empower them to undertake the biographical project risk society requires of them.

The Relationship between Seeker and Spiritual Guide as portrayed in contemporary Western Sufi Autobiographies

2011 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 297-332
Author(s):  
Kate Zebiri
Keyword(s):  
Life Writing ◽  
New Age ◽  
The Self ◽  
Individual Autonomy ◽  
Religious Authority ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Continuity And Discontinuity

This article aims to explore the Shaykh-mur?d (disciple) or teacher-pupil relationship as portrayed in Western Sufi life writing in recent decades, observing elements of continuity and discontinuity with classical Sufism. Additionally, it traces the influence on the texts of certain developments in religiosity in contemporary Western societies, especially New Age understandings of religious authority. Studying these works will provide an insight into the diversity of expressions of contemporary Sufism, while shedding light on a phenomenon which seems to fly in the face of contemporary social and religious trends which deemphasize external authority and promote the authority of the self or individual autonomy.

Evaluating Risk-Propensity Assessment Methods: Patterns in Repeated Exposure to Emotional Stimuli

2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 283-287
Author(s):  
Sahinya Susindar ◽  
Harrison Wissel-Littmann ◽  
Terry Ho ◽  
Thomas K. Ferris
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Assessment Method ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Affective States ◽  
Risk Propensity ◽  
Emotional Stimuli ◽  
Comparison Results

In studying naturalistic human decision-making, it is important to understand how emotional states shape decision-making processes and outcomes. Emotion regulation techniques can improve the quality of decisions, but there are several challenges to evaluating these techniques in a controlled research context. Determining the effectiveness of emotion regulation techniques requires methodology that can: 1) reliably elicit desired emotions in decision-makers; 2) include decision tasks with response measures that are sensitive to emotional loading; and 3) support repeated exposures/trials with relatively-consistent emotional loading and response sensitivity. The current study investigates one common method, the Balloon Analog Risk Task (BART), for its consistency and reliability in measuring the risk-propensity of decision-makers, and specifically how the method’s effectiveness might change over the course of repeated exposures. With the PANASX subjective assessment serving for comparison, results suggest the BART assessment method, when applied over repeated exposures, is reduced in its sensitivity to emotional stimuli and exhibits decision task-related learning effects which influence the observed trends in response data in complex ways. This work is valuable for researchers in decision-making and to guide design for humans with consideration for their affective states.

scholarly journals The construction of leadership practice: Making sense of leader competencies

Leadership ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 174271502199649
Author(s):  
Dag Jansson ◽  
Erik Døving ◽  
Beate Elstad
Keyword(s):  
Professional Practice ◽  
Leadership Competencies ◽  
The Self ◽  
Leadership Practice ◽  
Choral Conductors ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Sensemaking Process ◽  
The Face ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Selection Of

The notion of leadership competencies is a much-debated issue. In this article, we propose that how the leader makes sense of his or her competencies is key to leadership practice. Specifically, we look at how leaders reconcile discrepancies between the self-perceived proficiency of various competencies and their corresponding importance. Empirically, we study leaders within the music domain – how choral conductors make sense of their competencies in the shaping of their professional practice. We investigated how choral leaders in Scandinavia ( N = 638) made sense of their competencies in the face of demands in their working situations. A mixed methodology was used, comprising a quantitative survey with qualitative comments and in-depth interviews with a selection of the respondents. The results show that when choral leaders shape their practice, they frequently face competency gaps that compel them to act or adjust their identity. The key to this sensemaking process is how they move competency elements they master to the foreground and wanting elements to the background. The concept of ‘sensemaking affordance’ is introduced to account for how various leader competency categories are negotiated to safeguard overall efficacy.

Political Science as Training for the Information Age

1990 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-5
Author(s):  
Christopher Daniel
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Information Age ◽  
Computer Work ◽  
Mixed Emotions ◽  
Science Courses ◽  
Work Style ◽  
Work Session ◽  
The Face ◽  
Communications Skills ◽  
Central Purpose

Computers inspire mixed emotions among political scientists. Love, hate, fascination, ennui, and frustration sometimes occur during the course of a single computer work session. Individuals come to terms with the beast in varying ways; obviously personal work style and level of computer dependency are each scholar's own business. However, expanded use of information technology in the disciplinary curriculum is a common concern deserving discussion. Like earlier debates between behavioralists and traditionalists, the current discussion raises questions about the discipline's central purpose. This essay reviews proposals to “computerize” political science curricula in light of contemporary theories about information and managerial work.Historically, political scientists' computer involvement has been limited, but it is now intensifying in response to educational, technological, and environmental influences. Political scientists have used computers as teaching tools since at least the early 1970s, when the APSA “SETUPs” began appearing, but as novelty items, diversions reflecting the devotion of idiosyncratic individuals. This publication has disseminated many such “experiments,” as have Social Science Computer Review and the National Collegiate Software Clearinghouse. Even as desktop machines began proliferating in the early 1980s, their use in the classroom was considered to be optional, something peripheral to the discipline which one could attempt if one had the inclination.This laissez-faire ambience may be ending in the face of societal transformations. In the classroom political scientists foster intellectual skills broadly useful to former students. A student may be an activist or an avid pre-lawyer, but his or her future professional development will be built on analytical, and communications skills honed in political science courses. This linkage between political science classrooms and the professional world could weaken if we do not adopt to societal change.

Islamo-nationalism, domestic politics, and Bangladesh’s policy of balancing against India since the 1990s

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 340-364
Author(s):  
Md. Abdul Mannan
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
South Asia ◽  
Domestic Politics ◽  
The Self ◽  
Weak States ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Nationalist Party ◽  
The Face ◽  
Islamic Identity

This article examines the connection between politics of Islamo-nationalism in Bangladesh and Bangladesh’s policy of balancing against India. In response to India’s regional supremacy in South Asia, especially India’s dominance over Bangladesh, policy makers in Bangladesh have constantly faced two options: either ‘bandwagoning’ with India, or ‘balancing’ against the regional hegemon. Interestingly, since the 1990s until 2013, Bangladesh’s response has always swung from one side to another – from bandwagoning to balancing – in connection with the rotation of Bangladesh regime between two major political parties: the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the Bangladesh Awami League (AL). Bangladesh – with the BNP’s hold on power – preferred a policy of balancing against India’s dominance. During the regime of the AL, such policy dramatically shifted towards bandwagoning with India. The BNP’s preference for a balancing policy constitutes a puzzle. Weak states – which are not capable of changing unequal outcomes in the face of a preponderant power – generally pursue a policy of bandwagoning. Thus, the puzzle is as to why Bangladesh – despite being a weak actor vis-a-vis India’s overwhelming regional supremacy – pursued a policy of balancing against India during the BNP’s hold on power. This article asserts that the BNP’s politics of Islamo-nationalism is a key variable that can answer the above puzzle. The ‘self–other’ notion of Islamo-nationalism defines the national ‘selfness’ of Bangladesh in terms of the Islamic identity for its overwhelming Muslim masses, and constructs India, henceforth in this article, ‘Hindu India’, as the ‘enemy–other’ to ‘Muslim Bangladesh’.

The Widow's Tale: Male Myths and Female Reality in 16th and 17th Century England

1978 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 118-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Carlton
Keyword(s):  
17Th Century ◽  
Traumatic Experiences ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Common

Soon after her husband of thirty-three years died leaving her a wealthy widow of sixty-two with an estate worth some £6,000, Anne Elsdon met Tobias Audley, a widower of twenty-five and keeper of a tobacco shop, whom one witness later described as “a most lewd person, and of no worth.” On July 21, 1624, Audley took the Widow Elsdon and her friend, Martha Jackson, to the Greyhound Tavern in London, where they met Mary Spencer, Margery Terry, Frances Holiday, and Nicholas Cartmell. The first two were common prostitutes, the second two ministers, though, presumably, not of the burning puritan brand. For the next three days all of them plied the Widow Elsdon with some £25 worth of liquor, staggering from tavern to tavern and eventually ending up at the Nags Head in Cheapside. In that appropriately named hostelry Anne consented to marry Tobias Audley. A special license was hurriedly obtained, but not before Widow Elsdon had passed out. So, after trying to revive her with slaps around the face, Mary Spencer, the common whore, said the marriage vows for her. The Reverend Cartmell pronounced Tobias and Anne man and wife, and off the widow was carried to a Blackfriars tavern for her wedding night. After stripping her, Tobias Audley proceeded to strip her estate. He took plate from her house worth £140, and bonds and deeds valued at £3,000, and largely as a result of her traumatic experiences the widow died two years later.

scholarly journals Care and the self: biotechnology, reproduction, and the good life

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stuart J Murray
Keyword(s):  
Medical Ethics ◽  
Self Care ◽  
Reproductive Technologies ◽  
The Self ◽  
Consumer Decision Making ◽  
Care Of The Self ◽  
Liberal Politics ◽  
Self In Relation ◽  
Biomedical Technologies ◽  
The Face

This paper explores a novel philosophy of ethical care in the face of burgeoning biomedical technologies. I respond to a serious challenge facing traditional bioethics with its roots in analytic philosophy. The hallmarks of these traditional approaches are reason and autonomy, founded on a belief in the liberal humanist subject. In recent years, however, there have been mounting challenges to this view of human subjectivity, emerging from poststructuralist critiques, such as Michel Foucault's, but increasingly also as a result of advances in biotechnology itself. In the face of these developments, I argue that the theoretical relevance and practical application of mainstream bioethics is increasingly under strain. Traditionalists will undoubtedly resist. Together, professional philosopher-bioethicists, public health policymakers, and the global commercial healthcare industry tend to respond conservatively by shoring up the liberal humanist subject as the foundation for medical ethics and consumer decision-making, appealing to the familiar tropes of reason, autonomy, and freedom. I argue for a different approach to bioethics, and work towards a new way to conceive of ethical relations in healthcare – one that does not presume a sovereign subject as the basis of dignity, personhood or democracy. Instead, I am critical of the narrow instantiations of reason, autonomy, and freedom, which, more recently, have been co-opted by a troubling neo-liberal politics of the self. Thus, I am critical of current trends in medical ethics, often running in tandem with corporate-governmental models of efficiency, accountability, and so-called evidence-based best practices. As an example of such market-driven conceptions of subjectivity, I discuss the paradigm of "self-care." Self-care shores up the traditional view of the self as a free agent. In this sense, self-care is looked upon favourably by mainstream bioethics in its focus on autonomy, while healthcare policy endorses this model for ideological and economic reasons. To contrast this, I propose a different model of care together with a different model of selfhood. Here I develop and apply Foucault's late work on the "care of the self." In this understanding of "care," I suggest that we might work towards an ethical self that is more commensurable both with recent theoretical views on subjectivity and – more pressingly – with the challenges of emergent biotechnologies. I end this paper with a discussion on ethical parenthood, which offers a practical reading of the "care of the self" in relation to new reproductive technologies (NRTs).

scholarly journals On the Selfname and Identity of the 16th–17th century Polish Reformed Churches

2019 ◽  
pp. 17-22
Author(s):  
Margarita A. Korzo ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
17Th Century ◽  
The Self ◽  
John Calvin ◽  
Reformed Church ◽  
Reformed Churches ◽  
Confessional Identity

The article questions the legitimacy of use of the terms “Calvinist” and “Calvinism” as applied to the polish adherents of the emerging Evangelical-Reformed Church in the second half of the16th – at the beginnings of the 17th centuries and their doctrinal writings. The author analyzes various versions of the self-names of these Protestant follows, and the names given to them both by adherents of other branches of Protestantism and by Catholics. The author comes to the conclusion, that the theological legacy of John Calvin exerted its influence only to an insignificant degree on catechisms of the polish Reformed of that epoch, and with much more reason can be said about the existence of many other sources of theological inspirations (from Lutherans, Bohemian Brethren, follows of Johannes Oecolampadius, others), which had a significant impact on the confessional identity formation of the Polish Reformed churches.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document