Hopeful Monsters: A Queer Hope of Evolutionary Difference

Somatechnics ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 154-173 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donna McCormack
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Representations ◽  
Contemporary Culture ◽  
Hopeful Monster ◽  
Visual Texts ◽  
Political Consequences ◽  
Hollywood Film ◽  
Species Survival ◽  
Film Series ◽  
Theories Of Evolution ◽  
Richard Goldschmidt

This article explores how contemporary literary and visual texts create a scientific imaginary haunted by the work of the discredited evolutionary biologist Richard Goldschmidt. Goldschmidt's theory of the hopeful monster placed that which is different, changing and monstrous at the heart of evolution. The aim of this article is therefore to examine how macromutation (also known as saltational theory) makes manifest an anxiety, but also an exciting potentiality, about the human's interrelational existence with plant, animal, inanimate and technological life. It moves between Goldschmidt's theories of evolution and cultural representations that resonate with his work to suggest that the hopeful monster questions the dehumanisation of and violence towards different others by bringing monstrous difference to the centre of species' survival. The focus here is how Goldschmidt's ideas reverberate in contemporary culture, particularly how these resonances invite a questioning of the supposed threat of difference to imagined individual and national security and unity. Engaging with the Hollywood film series X-Men and Hiromi Goto's collection of short stories Hopeful Monsters, this article explores how these texts make manifest the ontological anxieties of facing (our) monsters, and thus the environmental and socio-political consequences and potentialities of being of, with and next to difference.

Dead Pledges

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annie McClanahan
Keyword(s):  
Economic History ◽  
Credit Scoring ◽  
Cultural Analysis ◽  
Microeconomic Theory ◽  
Contemporary Culture ◽  
Popular Entertainment ◽  
Political Consequences ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Irrational Behavior ◽  
Cultural Texts

Dead Pledges is a study of our contemporary culture of debt. Examining novels, poems, artworks, photographs, and films produced in the wake of the financial crisis of 2008, this book aims to show how US cultural texts have grappled with the rise and fall of the financialized consumer credit economy. It argues that debt is such a ubiquitous yet elusive social form that we can most clearly understand it by looking at how our culture has sought to represent it. Whether popular entertainment or avant-garde art, post-crisis cultural texts allow us to map the landscape of contemporary debt: from foreclosure to credit scoring, student debt to securitized risk, microeconomic theory to anti-eviction activism. Across this range of sites, this book offers an account of the theoretical and political consequences of debt: how it affects our ideas of personhood and morality; how it deploys a language of irrational behavior and risky excess; how it transforms our relationship to property and possession. Bringing together economic history, debt theory, and cultural analysis, Dead Pledges demonstrates how our understanding of the economy can be illuminated by culture. What is at stake in our contemporary culture of debt is not just our measures of economic credibility but also the limits of our imaginative credulity; not just our account of economic character but also our literary characters; not just the money we see but also the way we see money; not just how we pay but also how we imagine getting payback.

scholarly journals Illness of the Soul, Body or Culture? Postpartum Depression as a Theme in Contemporary Literature

2020 ◽  
pp. 85-99
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Gawron
Keyword(s):  
Postpartum Depression ◽  
Contemporary Literature ◽  
Cultural Representations ◽  
Contemporary Culture ◽  
Strong Connection ◽  
Cultural Determinants ◽  
Existential Dimension

This article describes the characteristics of postpartum depression (PPD), its etiology and reasons for making this phenomenon a taboo in contemporary culture. The author analyses cultural representations of postpartum depression, which she sees as one of the most important factors contributing to the phenomenon of removing the masks of motherhood (S. Maushart), growing in force at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries. Referring to selected examples from contemporary literature, and contextually also to film (including E. Şafak, N. Fiedorczuk, M. Susdorf, D. Barker,E. Atef), the author discusses the psychological and socio-cultural determinants of PPD, emphasising not only biological, but the mainly existential dimension of this experience and its strong connection to the contemporary norms of femininity and motherhood.

scholarly journals The grammar of visual design

2006 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Roberts ◽  
Robyn Philip
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Critical Thinking Skills ◽  
Visual Design ◽  
Online Resources ◽  
Contemporary Culture ◽  
Visual Texts ◽  
Support Students ◽  
Scaffolded Learning ◽  
Over Time

<span>The ability to interpret information from any source, and increasingly visual sources, is a vital skill for all graduates in contemporary culture. The development of the skills to read visual texts and communicate that understanding requires a certain level of critical thinking and reflection, skills which can only be developed over time, through practice and dialogue. This paper reflects on the evaluation of two websites. These resources support students in two units of study which aim, amongst other things, to develop visual literacy and critical thinking skills using the functional systemic concepts developed by Kress and van Leeuwen (1990, 1996). The challenge for the authors was to create two online resources for distance students that exemplified the theory itself and scaffolded learning as students developed their own level of skills in this area.</span>

scholarly journals Usain Bolt. A “hopeful monster”? A descriptive case study (Usain Bolt. Un "monstruo esperanzado"? Un estudio de caso descriptivo)

Retos ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
pp. 535-548
Author(s):  
José Augusto Rodrigues dos Santos
Keyword(s):  
Developmental Plasticity ◽  
Sport Performance ◽  
Genetic Profile ◽  
Sporting Events ◽  
Hopeful Monster ◽  
Descriptive Case Study ◽  
Current State ◽  
Genetic And Environmental Factors ◽  
Theories Of Evolution

Usain Bolt's stunning sportive achievements sparked admiration from around the world and raised the question of the genesis of his sport excellence. In the light of the various theories of evolution, we try to understand whether there are evolutionary grounds for considering Usain Bolt a “hopeful monster”, i.e. a transgressive phenotype beyond the range of parental phenotypes. This hypothesis would call into question the gradualism defended by Darwin and would give room to saltationism by which profound changes can occur in one or a few generations. It seems that the saltational hypothesis is not scientifically adequate to justify Usain Bolt’s sport performance. Not knowing the genetic profile of Usain Bolt and his ancestors, we can hypothesize that his sporting excellence is the result of a given polymorphism or phenotypic changes induced by ecological determinants, among which training and nutrition stand out.We can admit that Usain Bolt is a rare case of developmental plasticity that enables his genome to generate a phenotype associated with a specific competence for sprinting.In the current state of scientific knowledge, there is no way to associate any polymorphism with performance in sporting events related to strength and speed but a challenging field is open for science. Aware of the difficulties in characterizing Usain Bolt, he is undoubtedly the result of an extraordinary combination of genetic and environmental factors. Resumen. Los impresionantes logros deportivos de Usain Bolt despertaron la admiración de todo el mundo y plantearon la cuestión de la génesis de su excelencia deportiva. A la luz de las diversas teorías de la evolución, tratamos de comprender si existen bases evolutivas para considerar a Usain Bolt como un "monstruo esperanzado", es decir, un fenotipo transgresor más allá del rango de fenotipos parentales. Esta hipótesis pondría en tela de juicio el gradualismo defendido por Darwin y daría lugar al saltacionismo mediante el cual pueden ocurrir cambios profundos en una o pocas generaciones. Parece que la hipótesis saltacional no es científicamente adecuada para justificar el rendimiento deportivo de Usain Bolt. Sin conocer el perfil genético de Usain Bolt y sus ancestros, podemos plantear la hipótesis de que su excelencia deportiva es el resultado de un determinado polimorfismo o cambios fenotípicos inducidos por determinantes ecológicos, entre los que destacan el entrenamiento y la nutrición. Podemos admitir que Usain Bolt es un caso raro de plasticidad del desarrollo que permite que su genoma genere un fenotipo asociado con una competencia específica para correr. En el estado actual del conocimiento científico, no hay forma de asociar ningún polimorfismo con el rendimiento en eventos deportivos relacionados con la fuerza y la velocidad, pero hay un campo desafiante para la ciencia. Consciente de las dificultades para caracterizar a Usain Bolt, es sin duda el resultado de una extraordinaria combinación de factores genéticos y ambientales.

scholarly journals Advertisements and Depiction of the Woman Image: A Critique on Feminism

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 871-875
Author(s):  
Shubhangi Jarandikar
Keyword(s):  
Present Status ◽  
Effective Means ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Contemporary Culture ◽  
Cultural Changes ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Visual Texts ◽  
Equal Status ◽  
Revolutionary Movements ◽  
The Media

By promulgating the principle of equal status for the women, the movement of feminism has questioned, criticized, and protested against the conventional images of woman. By re-defining the existence of woman it compelled both men and women of the society to comprehend the identity of the woman from a different, hitherto neglected perspective. However, with the rampant socio-cultural changes due to the globalization, feminism has been trapped in new trauma. In this post-capital, post-post-modern world, all the revolutionary ideas are swiped away. Amidst this, several rejected values are re-nurturing their roots. This revival has made many revolutionary movements and thoughts dead. By watching the media that is the complete product of globalization  and especially the advertisements that are the effective means of communication and manifesting tools of the contemporary culture one is sure to ask whether like all other disciplines there is the death of feminism.              The present research paper intends to probe into the philosophy of feminism and its present status in the light of some select advertisements. Many times the audio-visual texts of ads may not use an overt manifestation of women, however, the pretext to the text and the cross referential world it creates through the text do communicate the new stereotypes of women image.   

Playing with culture: Nigerian stand-up comedians joking with cultural beliefs and representations

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-124
Author(s):  
Adesina B. Sunday ◽  
Ibukun Filani
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Beliefs ◽  
Relevance Theory ◽  
Cultural Knowledge ◽  
Cultural Representations ◽  
Personal Beliefs ◽  
Collective Knowledge ◽  
Contemporary Culture ◽  
Cultural Assumptions ◽  
Performance Space

Abstract In interactions, the culture of the participants influences their contributions and interpretations. Stand-up comedians articulate contemporary culture by making mutually manifest cultural beliefs and representations within the performance space, and teach the audience how to use them. This paper investigated how Nigerian stand-up comedians employ cultural assumptions and representations in their performances. Using relevance theory for analysis and seven routines from seven Nigerian stand-up comedians as the data, this study explored how Nigerian stand-up comedians bring shared cultural knowledge into their performances. Nigerian stand-up comedians joke with culture by manipulating shared cultural representations, distorting collective knowledge, manipulating stereotypes and projecting personal beliefs. By joking with cultural beliefs and representations within the performance space, Nigerian stand-up comedians mediate and negotiate what “contemporary culture” should be.

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