scholarly journals Literature and Fascination_Introduction

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sibylle Baumbach
Keyword(s):  
William Shakespeare ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Joseph Conrad ◽  
Mary Shelley ◽  
Oscar Wilde ◽  
Don Delillo ◽  
Bram Stoker ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Detailed Case ◽  
Ian Mcewan

Exploring literary fascination as a key concept of aesthetic attraction, this book illuminates the ways in which literary texts are designed, presented, and received. Detailed case studies include texts by William Shakespeare, S.T. Coleridge, Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, Oscar Wilde, Joseph Conrad, Don DeLillo, and Ian McEwan.

Dandies and Decadents

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine Maxwell
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Identity ◽  
Oscar Wilde ◽  
Lyric Poetry ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Dorian Gray ◽  
With Memory

This chapter examines the decadent olfactif as represented by Oscar Wilde and the poet and critic Arthur Symons, who understood how perfume helped shape their identities as dandies and sophisticated men about town, with both of them alluding to new synthetic scents. Wilde’s use of perfume as a sign of decadent sexual identity, explored in Dorian Gray, is rudely interrupted by his imprisonment in 1895, but the idea of perfume abides with him during his incarceration as an important ideal and consolation. In Symons’s poetry and prose strong or recognizable perfumes of the period are evoked for scrutiny or contemplation or permeate the memory, calling attention to themselves as markers of decadent modernity. For Symons, perfume identified with memory does not fade, an idea borne out by his critical appreciation of the perfume of particular literary texts, lyric poetry especially, and celebrated in his own verse.

Myths of the Underworld in Contemporary Culture

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith Fletcher
Keyword(s):  
Short Stories ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Joseph Conrad ◽  
Ezra Pound ◽  
Border Crossing ◽  
First Century ◽  
Contemporary Culture ◽  
Cinematic Adaptation ◽  
Narrative Tradition ◽  
Wide Range

Stories of a visit to the realm of the dead and a return to the upper world are among the oldest narratives in European literature, beginning with Homer’s Odyssey and extending to contemporary culture. This volume examines a series of fictional works by twentieth- and twenty-first century authors, such Toni Morrison and Elena Ferrante, which deal in various ways with the descent to Hades. Myths of the Underworld in Contemporary Culture surveys a wide range of genres, including novels, short stories, comics, a cinematic adaptation, poetry, and juvenile fiction. It examines not only those texts that feature a literal catabasis, such as Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series, but also those where the descent to the underworld is evoked in more metaphorical ways as a kind of border crossing, for instance Salman Rushdie’s use of the Orpheus myth to signify the trauma of migration. The analyses examine how these retellings relate to earlier versions of the mythical theme, including their ancient precedents by Homer and Vergil, but also to post-classical receptions of underworld narratives by authors such as Dante, Ezra Pound, and Joseph Conrad. Arguing that the underworld has come to connote a cultural archive of narrative tradition, the book offers a series of case studies that examine the adaptation of underworld myths in contemporary culture in relation to the discourses of postmodernism, feminism, and postcolonialism.

Explanation Beyond Causation

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Science ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Philosophical Study ◽  
Accurate Information ◽  
Contemporary Philosophy ◽  
Causal Information ◽  
Causal Explanations ◽  
Turn On ◽  
Detailed Case ◽  
Wide Range

Explanations are very important to us in many contexts: in science, mathematics, philosophy, and also in everyday and juridical contexts. But what is an explanation? In the philosophical study of explanation, there is long-standing, influential tradition that links explanation intimately to causation: we often explain by providing accurate information about the causes of the phenomenon to be explained. Such causal accounts have been the received view of the nature of explanation, particularly in philosophy of science, since the 1980s. However, philosophers have recently begun to break with this causal tradition by shifting their focus to kinds of explanation that do not turn on causal information. The increasing recognition of the importance of such non-causal explanations in the sciences and elsewhere raises pressing questions for philosophers of explanation. What is the nature of non-causal explanations—and which theory best captures it? How do non-causal explanations relate to causal ones? How are non-causal explanations in the sciences related to those in mathematics and metaphysics? This volume of new essays explores answers to these and other questions at the heart of contemporary philosophy of explanation. The essays address these questions from a variety of perspectives, including general accounts of non-causal and causal explanations, as well as a wide range of detailed case studies of non-causal explanations from the sciences, mathematics and metaphysics.

scholarly journals Implicational generalizations in morphological syncretism: The role of communicative biases

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-41
Author(s):  
BENJAMIN STORME
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Probability Distributions ◽  
Detailed Case

Cross-linguistic generalizations about grammatical contexts favoring syncretism often have an implicational form. This paper shows that this is expected if (i) morphological paradigms are required to be both as small and as unambiguous as possible, (ii) languages may prioritize these requirements differently, and (iii) probability distributions for grammatical features interacting in syncretic patterns are fixed across languages. More specifically, this approach predicts that grammatical contexts that are less probable or more informative about a target grammatical feature $ T $ should favor syncretism of $ T $ cross-linguistically. The paper provides evidence for these predictions based on four detailed case studies involving well-known patterns of contextual syncretism (gender syncretism based on number, gender syncretism based on person, aspect syncretism based on tense, and case syncretism based on animacy).

scholarly journals ‘Your duplicitous point of view’: Delayed revelations of hypothetical focalisation in Ian McEwan’s Atonement and Sweet Tooth

2021 ◽  
pp. 096394702110097
Author(s):  
Naomi Adam
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Possible Worlds ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Possible Worlds Theory ◽  
Ian Mcewan

Framed by cognitive-poetic and possible worlds theories, this article explores two 21st century novels by the British postmodernist author Ian McEwan. Building upon Ryan’s (1991) seminal conceptualisation of the theory in relation to literature and using the novels as case studies, possible worlds theory is used to explain the unique and destabilising stylistic effects at play in the texts, which result in a ‘duplicitous point of view’ and consequent disorientation for the reader. With reference to the stylistically deviant texts of McEwan, it is argued that revisions to current theoretical frameworks are warranted. Most significantly, the concepts of suppositious text-possible worlds and (total) frame readjustment are introduced. Further to this, neuropsychiatric research is applied to the novels, highlighting the potential for interdisciplinary overlap in the study of narrative focalisation. It is concluded that the duplicity integral to both novels’ themes and texture is effected through artful use of hypothetical focalisation and suppositious text-possible worlds.

scholarly journals Variety of Economic Share of Tourism on Tropical Islands

2010 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 303-314
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Podhorodecka
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Correlation Coefficient ◽  
Spearman Correlation ◽  
Tropical Islands ◽  
Chi Square ◽  
Tropical Island ◽  
Positive Correlation ◽  
Detailed Case ◽  
Chi Square Test

Abstract The author seeks an answer to the question whether a higher intensity of tourism movement is connected with a higher share of tourism in the economy in selected tropical island territories. With the use of the Spearman correlation coefficient, the existence of the average positive correlation between the intensity of tourism movement and the share of tourism in the economy has been determined. In the second part of paper, the author looks at the conditions which affect the role of tourism in the economy in proportion to the intensity of tourism movement. For this purpose, the Chi-square test and detailed case studies of chosen tropical islands are discussed.

scholarly journals Postcolonial Resistance of Western Imperialist Ideology: Constructing Identities of Others as Violent Savages

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Menia Mohammad Almenia
Keyword(s):  
William Shakespeare ◽  
Charlotte Bronte ◽  
Postcolonial Theory ◽  
Daniel Defoe ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Jane Eyre ◽  
Hegemonic Discourse ◽  
The Tempest ◽  
Dominant Society ◽  
Binary Division

This paper examines how hegemonic discourse, or the ideology of a dominant society has essentialized, fixed, and divided identities through the construction of binary division of Western’s ideology as civilized and Others as savages. The development of postcolonial theory will be introduced with special consideration to Said’s (1995) theory of Orientalism and Spivak’s (1988) concept of “silencing the Others.” Sample Western literary texts will show a concerted expression of colonial ideology supporting the concept of binary divisions. These will include The Tempest by William Shakespeare (1990), Robinson Crouse by Daniel Defoe (1899), Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (2001), and Passage to India by E. M. Foster (1985). In contrast, literary works by minority authors, mainly postcolonialists, will be examined and considered according to how effectively they resist Western imperialist ideology.

scholarly journals Deconstruction of the Construction: Derridean Study of Selected Shakespeare’s Comedies

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 90-120
Author(s):  
Seyyedeh Zahra Nozen ◽  
Pegah Sheikhalipour
Keyword(s):  
William Shakespeare ◽  
The Other ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Cultural Norms ◽  
Merchant Of Venice ◽  
Twelfth Night ◽  
The Merchant Of Venice ◽  
As You Like It ◽  
Historical Figure ◽  
The One

Since it was first introduced by Jacques Derrida in the late 1960s, deconstruction, as a method of reading, has been applied to literary texts by critics to reveal the hidden messages of texts and provide opportunities to rethink textual and cultural norms and conventions. While the western tradition has always prioritized tragedy over comedy due to its elegance and graveness, this research tends to focus on comedy as an entity in itself. Tragedy, especially in the Shakespearean sense of the word, has been considered by critics as a “construction” that is well-wrought and perfect in nature. Comedy, on the other hand, is notable for laughing at the laughable and mocking the unfit. Put differently, there has always been a latent, freewheeling “deconstruction” within comedy, especially the Shakespearean. There is, thus, an attempt here to prove, on the one hand, how comedy can be put forth not as an inferior genre but as a supplement to tragedy and, on the other, how comedy moves toward deconstruction and how it tends to subvert or deconstruct the constructions. Investigating a selection of Shakespeare’s comedies including As You Like It, The Merchant of Venice, and Twelfth Night, this study compares and contrasts Shakespearean comedy in light of some Derridean concepts. Along with it, Shakespearean ideas and concepts which are interconnected with those of Derrida are introduced and are buttressed through some meticulously chosen excerpts. Bearing in mind that Derrida is in a habit of deconstructing the so-called established creeds, Shakespeare’s texts are exposed to a deconstructive reading to examine how deceptively simple ideas are dealt with in his selected comedies. Also, as numerous enigmas have for years revolved around the personality of William Shakespeare, this study also aims to take up certain critical idioms of the Derridean canon, elaborate on them and then relate them to the selected plays from the Shakespearean oeuvre in order to disclose some personal aspects of Shakespeare’s personality as a historical figure.

Case Studies of PTC-Preventable Accidents

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dave Schlesinger
Keyword(s):  
Control System ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Human Factor ◽  
Transportation Safety ◽  
Train Control ◽  
Detailed Case ◽  
Train Control System ◽  
Safety Improvement ◽  
Positive Train Control

A 1969 collision of two Penn Central train resulted in four fatalities and forty-five injuries. This accident could have been prevented, had some type of train control system been in place. After this accident, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) asked the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) to study the feasibility of requiring railroads to install some type of automatic train control system that would prevent human-factor caused accidents. Over the next almost four decades, a number of additional accidents occurred, culminating in the January, 2005 Graniteville Norfolk-Southern accident and the September, 2008 Metrolink Chatsworth accident. A little more than one month after the Metrolink accident, Congress passed the Rail Safety Improvement Act, which requires Positive Train Control (PTC). To better explain the positive train control requirements, this paper traces each to a detailed case study. Four different accidents are studied, each being an example of one of the four, core positive train control requirements. Included in the case study is a discussion about how positive train control would have prevented the accident, had it been present. This provides positive train control implementers and other railroad professionals with a better understanding of the factors that have caused or contributed to the cause of the positive train control preventable accidents studied.

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