scholarly journals Jafta Masemola’s Master Key

Theoria ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 68 (168) ◽  
pp. 160-195
Author(s):  
Athi Mongezeleli Joja
Keyword(s):  
Vantage Point ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Political Prisoner ◽  
Cultural Praxis ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Robben Island

Jafta Kgalabi Masemola is the longest serving (1963–1989) anti-apartheid political prisoner in South Africa’s notorious Robben Island. Although Masemola is well known in the struggle narratives, not much has been written about him and his practices as a political organiser beyond biographical and anecdotal narratives. This article considers, with a certain degree of detail, an even more unthought aspect of Masemola’s life, his creative productions; in particular, the aesthetic logic that underwrites the master key that he cloned from a bar of soap while jailed in Robben Island. Looking from the vantage point of aesthetic and critical discourse, the article attempts to open up new vistas and interests in Azanian cultural praxis.

Revisiting the relationship between art and industry in nineteenth-century Britain from the manufacturer’s perspective

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-52
Author(s):  
Ann Compton
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Industrial Sector ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Drawing Board ◽  
Public Exposure ◽  
Production Practices ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Two Sectors

The mid-nineteenth century critical discourse compartmentalized art and industry by crediting each with specific powers. Manufacturing was identified with the development of technologically advanced processes, materials and products, while fine artists were given authority over the aesthetic aspects of industrial design. The idea that the two sectors had separate areas of responsibility has proved extremely enduring, and continues to influence our perceptions of Victorian manufacturing. This article contributes to the wider task of re-evaluating the relationship between art and industry in nineteenth-century Britain by examining the role of design in potteries and art metalworking firms from the manufacturer’s perspective. It shows that contrary to the picture painted by Victorian critics, design was central to the ambitions and commercial operations of manufacturing businesses. Crucially, decisions about the recruitment of design staff were shaped by the close connection between the creation of new products at the drawing board, and their fabrication in the workshop. Since each branch of manufacturing had its distinctive characteristics, there were significant practical, aesthetic and commercial advantages for manufacturers in employing experienced designers who knew the trade, and were fully conversant with production practices. Unless a professional sculptor joined a firm, they were unlikely to have this inside knowledge, which made commissioning one-off designs from artists a riskier proposition. Manufacturers found that one of the best ways to get around this was to make reductions of sculptures, and initial demand for statuettes in Parian suggested they would be profitable for all concerned. In the end, the market did not live up to its early promise, but the publicity given to Parian statuettes compensated manufacturers and sculptors. Overall, it was this increased public exposure for art manufactures that was the prime benefit of the mid-nineteenth century critical discourse for the industrial sector.

scholarly journals КОМУНІКАТИВНІ СТРАТЕГІЇ ДМИТРА ДОНЦОВА

2020 ◽  
pp. 42
Author(s):  
V. Kolkutina
Keyword(s):  
Public Speaking ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Semantic Level ◽  
New Meanings ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Communicative Strategy ◽  
Rhetorical Questions ◽  
Literary Phenomenon ◽  
Communicative Processes

<div><em>Dmitry Dontsov’s communicative strategy is explored in the article, taking into account the national and philosophical ideas inherent to his thinking. Grounding on the material of the literary-critical essays of the publicist, it turns out that Dontsov’s communicative strategy according to the content is ethosophysical and holistic. It’s a national-existential phenomenon in the history of Ukrainian literary studies of the twentieth century. The communicative processes reflected in the essays «Crisis of our literature», «Our literary ghetto» are formed in a single communicative paradigm and include: the event, communicative situation, intonational tone, axiological author’s commentary and a special national-centric and hermeneutical way of representation of the situation.</em></div><p><em>The nationalist interpretation of the thinker is essentially national-philosophical (national), but at the same time it is literary with typical for this kind of experience, with the predominance of coherently-semantic level of cognition and evaluation over the formal-aesthetic. As a result of cognition happends the transcoding of an idea from the language of art into the language of philosophy in the search of the national-philosophical equivalent of a literary phenomenon. In most cases, this is based on two intentions: the search for protection and assertion of one’s own national identity, and the cultural and political realization of the national idea. At the same time, the aesthetic level of a literary phenomenon is evaluated. </em></p><p><em>The following characteristics of the literary-critical text are highlighted and substantiated: the text as a receptive expression that can be interpreted freely, conceptually transforms information, constructing new meanings through interesting dialogical models, rhetorical questions, pre-planned line of speech behavior, public speaking behavior, which is necessarily intended to avoid any one-sided narrative or ambiguity of perception, openness and comprehension.</em></p><p><strong><em>Key words:</em></strong> <em>communicative strategy, text, literary-critical discourse, communicative processes, national philosophy, hermeneutics.</em></p><p><strong> </strong></p>

scholarly journals 'Always think of the objects': Ekphrasis as aesthetics in the contemporary novel

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Lucy Eleanor Alston
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Infinite Jest ◽  
Contemporary Novel ◽  
Critical Attention ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Temporal Qualities

<p>It is a commonplace that ekphrasis – the description in literature of a visual work of art – brings to the fore questions of representation and reference. Such questions are particularly associated with the ‘postmodern’; ekphrasis is thus often subsumed under the category of metafiction. There has been little critical attention, however, to how the ekphrastic mode might be understood in aesthetic terms. This thesis considers the nature of ekphrasis’s referential capacity, but expands on this to suggest a number of ways in which the ekphrastic mode evinces the aesthetic and ontological assumptions upon which a text is predicated. Two case studies illustrate how the ekphrastic mode can be figured to different effect. In comparing these two novels, this thesis argues that the ekphrastic mode makes clear the particular subject-object relations expressed by each. If Lukács is correct in asserting that the novel mode expresses a discrepancy between ‘the conventionality of the objective world and the interiority of the subjective one’, ekphrasis provides a fruitful but under-explored avenue for critical inquiry because, as a mode, it is situated at the point at which subject and object must converge. The first chapter of this thesis is concerned with Ben Lerner’s Leaving the Atocha Station (2011), a novel that includes both traditional ekphrastic descriptions and embedded photographs and references to critical theory that function ekphrastically. David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest (1996) provides a contrast: the novel makes continued reference to film – a medium defined by its temporal qualities – but as used in the novel the ekphrastic mode implies a fixed, ahistorical schema. The implications that such differences have on the novel mode and critical discourse are explored in the final section of the thesis.</p>

Dam Epilogue: The Textual Person

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tony Crook
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Vantage Point ◽  
Knowledge Practices ◽  
Aesthetic Form ◽  
The Aesthetic

Angkaiyakmin notions of a person's efficacy circulating beyond themselves and combining with others is used in this chapter as a vantage point on anthropological interpretative artefacts, and the section argues that these contemporary aesthetics of anthropological knowledge-making produce interpretative forms after a particular understanding of subjectivity and personhood. The chapter specifically compares the capacities of Bolivip and anthropological knowledge-practices, and considers how each form of knowledge adheres to a powerful aesthetic that is taken for granted by the respective practitioners. Recognition and currency for artefacts – the capacity to animate analytic and social relations in others – is governed by exhibiting this demanding aesthetic form. The chapter then addresses the insights from Bolivip knowledge-practices to anthropological knowledge-practices: by adopting the vantage point of ‘the textual person’, the aesthetic principles through which anthropological knowledge is given form are outlined, and the means by which anthropologists circulate parts of themselves to others – their efficacy and ‘relations’ – are examined. The ‘textual person’ figure makes explicit the form of subjective relationality that informs anthropological interpretation.

scholarly journals Analysis of Critical Discussion in The Article "Different Fate: THR Civil Servants In This Week, THR of Livers Postponed and Installed" (Kompas, 11 Mei 2020)

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 19-26
Author(s):  
Muhammad Misbahul Huda
Keyword(s):  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discussion ◽  
Civil Servants ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Discursive Practice ◽  
Discursive Practices ◽  
Library Research ◽  
Circular Letter ◽  
Cultural Praxis ◽  
The Government

Abstract: The focus of this research is (a) describing the dimensions of the text, (b) describing discursive practices, (c) describing socio-cultural praxis, and assumptions of social irregularities through obstacles and how to overcome these obstacles, based on Kompas 11 May 2020 Edition. with the title "Difference in Fate: THR PNS Liquided This Week, THR Labor Delayed and Installed. This type of research uses library research, while data collection uses documentation, and Norman Fairclough's Critical Discourse Analysis (AWK) as a tool for analysis. Based on the research, the following results were obtained: (a) the dimensions of the text. The text in the Kompas report seems to speak of a clear caste difference between civil servants and workers. (b) dimensions of discursive practice. Besides the existence of Covid-19, Circular Letter about the THR of workers that can be postponed or paid in installments and the news about the THR PNS immediately disbursed, explicitly indicates that there are social irregularities that occur. (c) socio-cultural praxis dimensions. With this news, it triggers the reaction of the workers / laborers to launch a demonstration, either through the leadership of workers throughout Indonesia or even there will be a demonstration going down. While the assumptions of social irregularities can be seen in the inequality and discrimination of workers / laborers caused by the government. The government seems to favor the civil servants and company owners. This can be prevented by ensuring that the THR of workers is controlled up to the hands of the workers, and that the Circular Letter will instead be used as a weapon for company owners so that they do not meet the workers' THR, this requires the supervision of the government.

Appraising the Poetic Power of Children's Video Games

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma Reay
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Video Games ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Media Ecology ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Children's Media ◽  
Aesthetic Value ◽  
Open Dialogue ◽  
The Aesthetic

To date, most studies of video games by children's literature scholars have been ‘child-oriented’ rather than ‘text-oriented’, focusing on the needs and capabilities of child-players rather than on the literary and artistic potential of the games themselves. This essay proposes that in-depth textual analyses of children's video games will not only illuminate the aesthetic value of specific texts, but also refashion and redirect scholarly debate about the medium itself. What is more, an open dialogue between games scholarship and children's literature scholarship is likely to yield the kind of rich, flexible and nuanced critical discourse necessary to navigate a rapidly evolving, increasingly diverse children's media ecology. Here the case is made for both a strong interdisciplinary alliance between children's literature scholarship and games scholarship, and for modelling a style of close reading that attends specifically to the visual, auditory, tactile and performative elements of children's video games. This method of close reading is called ‘critical ekphrasis’, where ‘ekphrasis’ denotes the careful and creative transcription of the supralinguistic, non-verbal signifiers of video games for the purpose of critical analysis. Critical ekphrasis is offered as a bridge between disciplines that enables children's literature scholars to bring their unique expertise to bear on the complex, varied and exciting body of texts that constitutes ‘children's video games’.

“Rituals of the Ordinary”: Marilynne Robinson's Aesthetics of Belief and Finitude

PMLA ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 132 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ray Horton
Keyword(s):  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Religion And Literature ◽  
Marilynne Robinson ◽  
The Aesthetic

Marilynne Robinson, the author of Housekeeping, Gilead, Home, and Lila, has garnered attention for her sustained engagement with religious themes. Yet for all its robust participation in the theology of a distinctively Calvinist Protestantism, Robinson's fiction is invested in religious forms that are less propositional than phenomenological. It imagines belief as both a perceptual background and a system of thought that activates concentrated aesthetic attention to quotidian moments of temporal contingency and worldly ephemerality. Consequently, Robinson's work intervenes in the burgeoning critical discourse surrounding religion and literature, offering an alternative to methodologies that prioritize the ontology of belief over the aesthetic modes of perception that belief makes available.

scholarly journals WHERE HAVE ALL THE REVOLUTIONARIES GONE? HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE REINVENTION OF REVOLUTION IN REBIYA KADEER’S DRAGON FIGHTER

eTopia ◽  
2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katharine Lu
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Vantage Point ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Prisoner ◽  
Departure Point ◽  
Amnesty International ◽  
Rights Discourse ◽  
Human Rights Discourse ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Unique Vantage

For five and half years, Rebiya Kadeer was imprisoned as a political prisoner in China and was finally released in 2005 after Amnesty International campaigned for her release. Today, she now campaigns as a human rights activist against what many Uyghurs consider Chinese occupation of their homeland, Xinjiang. Although many organizationswork on human rights violations against the Uyghurs, Rebiya Kadeer has emerged as the primary symbol of Uyghur resistance in China, much like the Dalai Lama for Tibet.Her simultaneous position as both a human rights activist and resistance symbol offers a unique vantage point in exploring the relationship between memory, women, and nationalism. In sketching out these connections, this paper will analyze the agency and representation in the process of memory making and the gendering of resistance in relation to the life and memoir of Rebiya Kadeer. The political project of witnessing through representation offers a practical departure point for better understanding the formation of a feminine revolutionary subjectivity in contrast to the romanticized icon of the masculine, revolutionary hero. In proposing the relationship between memory, women and nationalism, this paper aims to ultimately understand whether the revolutionary subject has in effect become the human rights activist. And if this is the case, what then are the conditions for revolution, and is revolution possible within the logic of human rights discourse?

Robben Island: Ten Years as a Political Prisoner in South Africa's Most Notorious Penitentiary

1983 ◽  
Vol 61 (5) ◽  
pp. 1212
Author(s):  
Jennifer Seymour Whitaker ◽  
Indres Naidoo
Keyword(s):  
Political Prisoner ◽  
Robben Island

scholarly journals The practice of “de-genrification” of the Turkish film criticism in the late 1950’s: The critical receptions and the aesthetic analysis of melodramas like Three Friends (1958) and Port of the Lonely (1959)1950’ler sonu Türk sinema eleştirisinin “türsüzleştirme” uygulaması: Üç Arkadaş (1958) ve Yalnızlar Rıhtımı (1959) melodramlarının eleştirel alımlamaları ve estetik çözümlemeleri

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 3181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tunç Yıldırım
Keyword(s):  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Critical Reception ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Film Criticism ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Multiple Primary ◽  
Turkish Cinema ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Film Genres

This article focuses on two similar examples of melodramas which are representations of the general aesthetic tendency during the genesis of Yeşilçam period (1948-1959) of the Turkish cinema. This work aims to prove that in the aforementioned era, critical discourse which categorizes, names and classifies movies, imposed the practice of de-genrification for Three Friends and Port of the Lonely. To accomplish this aim, an analysis of comparative critical reception should be done in the first stage. Secondly esthetics analysis for those two movies of the same hybrid genre (melodrama), must be presented.    The hypothesis of the article is that, traditional Turkish cinema historiography which based on the repetition of director centered critical discourse will become outdated, if a new approach   that focuses on film genres is approved. Analyzing those two melodramatic and realist movies which are chosen as samples from an historical perspective, and placing them rightly in the tradition of Turkish Cinema, will only be possible with a developed method which cross-reads multiple primary sources and contextualize the critical discourse on the melodrama genre.   ÖzetBu makale, Türk sinemasının Yeşilçam döneminin oluşum aşamasında (1948-1959) genel estetik eğilimi temsil eden tür sineması içinde hâkim konumda olan melodram türünün iki benzer örneğine odaklanır. Çalışmanın amacı sinema türlerini isimlendiren, tasnif eden ve ayırt eden dönemin eleştirel söyleminin Üç Arkadaş ve Yalnızlar Rıhtımı melodramları söz konusu olduğunda türsüzleştirme uygulaması yaptığını kanıtlamaktır.  Bunun için ilk aşamada söz konusu filmlerin karşılaştırmalı eleştirel alımlama çözümlemeleri yapılır. İkinci olarak da, aynı melez türe (melodram) giren bu iki filmin estetik çözümlemelerine yer verilir.Makalenin varsayımı, ancak tür sineması gerçeğini temel alan yeni bir yaklaşımın onaylanması halinde eleştirel söylemi genel hatlarıyla tekrar eden yönetmen merkezli geleneksel Türk sinema tarihyazımının aşılacağı yönündedir. Örneklem olarak seçilen bu iki melodramatik gerçekçi filmin tarihsel açıdan açıklanıp Türk sinema geleneği içindeki yerlerine oturtulması ancak çoklu birincil kaynakları kesiştiren ve melodram türü hakkındaki eleştirel söylemi bağlamlaştıran gelişkin bir yöntemle söz konusu olabilir. 

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