John Ford’s The Searchers1

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirsten Day
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Male Honor ◽  
Alter Ego ◽  
Scholarly Attention

John Ford’s 1956 The Searchers has attracted more scholarly attention than any other Western, including that of receptions scholars who have noted its kinship with Homeric epic. This chapter enlarges on the most important of these arguments – Martin Winkler’s study of John Wayne’s Ethan Edwards as an Achilles figure and the author’s own analysis of the film as an Odyssean journey – recognizing the psychological identification between protagonist and enemy-as-alter-ego long noted by Western scholars as an important parallel with the dynamic found in ancient epic and expanding on the importance of women’s sexual fidelity to male honor and identity. This chapter then brings the Aeneid into the conversation, demonstrating that like Virgil’s epic, The Searchers is a self-questioning, multi-layered reflection on heroic achievement, offering a problematic hero and extolling the glories of empire while acknowledging the sacrifices inherent in its establishment. Finally, this chapter considers this film as a commentary on racial and Cold War tensions in 1950s America, reflecting on how this fits in with the larger comparison with ancient epic.

The Dialogical Dimension in the Diary of Chaim Kaplan: 1935–1942

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 227-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
Batsheva Ben-Amos
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Value System ◽  
Inner Voice ◽  
Hebrew School ◽  
Alter Ego ◽  
Scholarly Attention

Abstract Chaim Kaplan (1880–1942), principal and owner of a private elementary Hebrew school in Warsaw, wrote a personal diary from 1933 to 1942. So far, only the WWII years have drawn scholarly attention. However, the interpretation of the diary also requires reading his available unpublished entries. An internal dialogical structure dominates his diary where he engages “the other” that interacts with his own inner voice. His pre-war identity is constructed of different and contradicting facets of Zionist ideology, traditional Jewish value system and way of life, and Polish citizenship. When the war broke out, the diary’s range of voices decreased with Kaplan’s position. His rhetoric displays a clear split between “we” and “them” following the ‘dichotomy’ of congregation and segregation. He expresses a greater empathy toward the Jewish “other” as a fellow sufferer, yet his concern with representing truth remains. To maintain this duality, Kaplan developed a literary ‘alter ego.’

The Trial for High Treason of the “Burma Surgeon,” Gordon S. Seagrave

2012 ◽  
Vol 81 (2) ◽  
pp. 245-291 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenton Clymer
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Ethnic Minorities ◽  
Diplomatic Relations ◽  
American Missionaries ◽  
Early American ◽  
Mission Hospital ◽  
Scholarly Attention ◽  
At Home

This article explores the trial in Burma for high treason in 1950–1951 of a saintly American figure, Gordon Seagrave, who operated a remote mission hospital. Neither Seagrave nor the trial has received adequate scholarly attention. The trial provides a window into the revolutionary conditions then existing in newly independent Burma and into Burmese views of American missionaries who they thought supported the ethnic minorities who were in rebellion. The trial reveals much about early American Cold War attitudes at home and abroad, as well as about justice in non-white countries that had recently been colonies. Seagrave's trial also complicated U.S. diplomatic relations with Burma. Finally, an examination of the trial allows some preliminary judgments about Seagrave's own iconic reputation.

Britain, the Cold War, and the Baor

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Speiser
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Military Strategy ◽  
British Occupation ◽  
British Military ◽  
Postwar Europe ◽  
British Policy ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Scholarly Attention

This chapter traces the development of the BAOR in Germany during the Cold War in terms of size and organization, before analyzing its role in British policy toward Germany. When considering British occupation policy and the German reaction to it, both British and German publications cover the period between 1945 and 1949 generally in far more detail than they do the first half of the 1950s. The chapter also examines the broader context of the Cold War, British military strategy, and the BAOR's role. Despite the obvious importance of Anglo-German relations in the context of the making of postwar Europe, the coverage of the bilateral political and cultural cooperation between 1948 and 1957 is relatively sketchy and has only recently begun to attract wider scholarly attention.

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