scholarly journals Pandora’s Tongues

2007 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karin Littau
Keyword(s):  
Jacques Derrida ◽  
Female Sexuality ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Tower Of Babel ◽  
Creation Myth ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
And Gender

Abstract Pandora's Tongues — This paper looks at translation not from the perspective of Babel, the "male god" as Jacques Derrida and George Steiner do, but from the perspective of Pandora, the first woman of the Greek creation myth, in order to offer a feminized version of the primal scattering of languages. The aim is to pose through the figure of Pandora questions about language and woman, and by extension, the mother tongue and female sexuality. Whilst the myth of the tower of Babel makes visible the filiations of translation and the word of the Father, the myth of Pandora allows us to uncover the matrix between translation and the mother tongue, presents us, in other words, with new possibilities for translation and gender.

The Primal Scattering of Languages

1998 ◽  
pp. 51-56
Author(s):  
Karin Littau
Keyword(s):  
Jacques Derrida ◽  
Female Sexuality ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
The Other ◽  
Tower Of Babel ◽  
Accidental Release ◽  
Creation Myth ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Point Of Departure ◽  
Positive Light

In After Babel, George Steiner recounts ‘two main conjectures’ in mythology which explain ‘the mystery of many tongues on which a view of translation hinges.’ One such mythic tale is the tower of Babel, which not only Steiner, but also Jacques Derrida after him, take as their starting point to approach the question of translation; the other conjecture tells of 'some awful error [which] was committed, an accidental release of linguistic chaos, in the mode of Pandora’s Box' (Steiner). This paper will take this other conjecture, the myth of Pandora, first woman of the Greek creation myth, as its point of departure, not only to offer a feminized version of the primal scattering of languages, but to rewrite in a positive light and therefore also toreverse the negative and misogynist association of Pandora with "man’s" fall. But, rather than exposing the entrenched patriarchal bias in mythographers’ interpretations of Pandora, my foremost aim is to pose, through her figure, questions about language and woman, and, by extension, the mother tongue and female sexuality.

Miscegenated Whiteness: Rebecca Harding Davis, the "Civil-izing" War, and Female Racism

2002 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Knadler
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
New England ◽  
White Women ◽  
Female Sexuality ◽  
White Female ◽  
Sentimental Fiction ◽  
The Public ◽  
Racial Ideologies ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
And Gender

This essay examines Rebecca Harding Davis's resistance to the Civil War discourse in the Atlantic Monthly in order to complicate the relation between nineteenth-century racism and sentimental fiction. While much revisionary work has been done on nineteenth-century women'sfiction and how it reinforced racial ideologies, the misleading question often asked is whether white women did or did not participate in the public arena of race. Yet this initial framing of the question denies the alternative possibility: that white women might have engaged in their own gendered forms of racial activity, or in a "female racism" (to use Vron Ware's term), that did not correspond to or act in complicity with a racism that is by default seen as public and masculine. By imagining her heroine as a "woman from the border" inWaiting for the Verdict (1868), Davis works to oppose and overturn a particular regional and gender-based inscription of whiteness that was being disseminated amid the war crises as an emergent New England-based national identity. In contrast, Davis creates a particular feminine and liminal version of white racial power, or a "miscegenated whiteness." But this fantasy of an imagined national community based on the "white mulatto" finally undoes itself in the novel's moments of narrative crises about a free and open female sexuality, and Davis'snovel seeks to restore the white female body to its "purity."

Transforming the label of ‘whore’

Pragmatics ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Skapoulli
Keyword(s):  
Gender Identity ◽  
Identity Formation ◽  
Female Sexuality ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Peer Culture ◽  
Cultural Groups ◽  
Global Media ◽  
Gender Ideologies ◽  
Teenage Girls ◽  
And Gender

This article examines how gender ideologies linked to global processes such as migration and the spread of youth popular culture pose certain challenges for teenage girls who live in patriarchal social contexts. Drawing on a corpus of ethnographic data at a multiethnic middle school in Cyprus, the article focuses on the ways in which language practices mediate this experience and the possibilities that language envelops in the process of gender identity formation in globalizing times. At the intersection of contradictory ideologies ranging from the school’s religious gender discourse, which promotes modesty and chastity, to the predominant media discourse of femininity, which highlights female sexuality, girls’ gender identity claims become fraught with moral implications. In the local peer culture, girls are placed on a fabricated and culturally widespread “virgin-whore” continuum along which different cultural groups – which are often equated with ethnic groups – are evaluated. Paradoxically, girls who embrace sexual freedom (either in practice or rhetorically) may in fact exercise agency and become empowered precisely because of early adolescents’ fascination with sexuality. These girls draw largely on the dominant discourse of femininity abundantly marketed by global media and the pop culture. They thus manage to explore alternative ideas about agency and gender in a locally rebellious manner that defies the traditionalist female roles that school and church promote.

scholarly journals The Seduction of the Name: Universal Marranism and the Secret of Being-in-Language

Religions ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 359
Author(s):  
Adam Lipszyc
Keyword(s):  
General Theory ◽  
Jacques Derrida ◽  
The Other ◽  
Tower Of Babel ◽  
Primal Scene

The author combines Walter Benjamin’s speculations on language, naming, and horror with Jean Laplanche’s general theory of seduction and his notion of the enigmatic signifier in order to reconstruct what he identifies as the primal scene of initiation into language. Further, the author develops this construction by linking it to a similar structure which he extracts by means of interpretation from Jacques Derrida’s commentaries to the Biblical stories of the Tower of Babel and of the Binding of Isaac. Finally, the author shows how the primal scene thus reconstructed should be seen as the transcendental condition of being in language as described by Derrida in his seminal essay on Monolingualism of the Other and how this very condition should be understood as a universalized form of the Marrano condition. The most far-reaching conclusion of the argument is, then, that at least for Jacques Derrida, every subject of language is a Marrano.

scholarly journals The influence of mother tongue and gender on the acquisition of English (L2). The case of Afrikaans in Windhoek schools, Namibia

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1210997
Author(s):  
Jacolynn van Wyk ◽  
Maria Louise Mostert ◽  
Sammy King Fai Hui
Keyword(s):  
Mother Tongue ◽  
And Gender

scholarly journals A qualitative study of young Nigerian family physicians’ views of their specialty

2017 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
pp. 56
Author(s):  
Kenneth Yakubu ◽  
K Hoedebecke ◽  
L Pinho-Costa ◽  
O Popoola ◽  
I Okoye
Keyword(s):  
Primary Care ◽  
Quantitative Research ◽  
Care Management ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Text Messages ◽  
Theory Approach ◽  
Identity Crises ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Research Assistants ◽  
Primary Care Management

Background: In Nigeria, the specialty of family medicine (FM) has endured its own share of identity crises. This study was aimed at generating hypotheses about what describes a practising family physician (FP) and the specialty, according to young Nigerian FPs. Methods: Using the online platform for young African FPs alongside text messages and emails from volunteer research assistants over an eight-week period (March 3 to April 30, 2015), a purposive sample of young Nigerian FPs were asked to describe their favourite aspect of FM in a single word/phrase. Responses were provided in English/individual’s mother tongue. Translation of the words was performed by respondents and additional collaborators fluent in these languages. Thematic analysis using the grounded theory approach was performed. Results: Twenty-four responses were received consisting of four themes: Scope, Family, Skills/Feelings/Values, and Professional Fulfilment. The resulting data portrayed the FP as one who possesses a unique skill-set, enjoys fulfilment in the profession, deals with undifferentiated diseases and is able to provide holistic care for patients (irrespective of age and gender) from a family-centred perspective. When compared with accepted domains of FM for Africa and Europe, roles of the FP in community-oriented care and primary care management were absent. Conclusion: While this showcases the young Nigerian FPs’ acceptance of their role in providing comprehensive primary care, it suggests a lesser acceptance of their role in community-oriented primary care as well as primary care management. This study provides a basis for future, quantitative research describing attitudes and competence in these areas. (Full text of the research articles are available online at www.medpharm.tandfonline.com/ojfp) S Afr Fam Pract 2017; DOI: 10.1080/20786190.2017.1292694

scholarly journals Nationwide study on stress perception among surgical residents

2021 ◽  
Vol 108 (Supplement_4) ◽  
Author(s):  
L C Guglielmetti ◽  
C Gingert ◽  
A Holtz ◽  
R Westkämper ◽  
J Lange ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Perceived Stress ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Multivariable Analysis ◽  
Visceral Surgery ◽  
Residency Programs ◽  
Surgical Residents ◽  
Orthopedic Surgeons ◽  
Stress Levels ◽  
Male Sex ◽  
And Gender

Abstract Objective Declining number of applicants and high attrition of residents are a dire reality. Surgeons in training are confronted to various stressors which interfere with their performance and may promote burnout. This study measures stress levels of Swiss surgical residents while considering age, gender, specialty, position, native language, and experience. Methods Swiss surgery residents taking the Surgical Basic Exam from 2016 to 2020 completed the Perceived Stress Scale 10 (PSS). The PSS measures how unpredictable, uncontrollable, and overloaded respondents evaluate their work life. Scores up to 13 are normal and scores around 20 are highly pathologic. High subscores of helplessness (PH) and lower subscores of self-efficay (PSE) indicate distress. Results 1694 questionnaires were evaluated (return rate 95.7%). Resident median (m) age was 29 years, 56.5% were male and 43.5% female. 72.7% of the residents were in their first 2 years of training, aiming for orthopedic (24%), general surgery (23.8%), urology (6%), or plastic surgery (5.6%). Residents reported a high PSS (m = 15), a high PH (m = 9), and an ordinary PSE (m = 5). Females reported worse PSS (p < 0.001), PH (p < 0.001), and PSE (p = 0.036) than males. Visceral and orthopedic surgeons had significantly better PSS, PH, and PSE. In multivariable analysis, male sex (p < 0.001), aiming at orthopedic (p = 0.017) or visceral surgery (p = 0.004), and French as a mother tongue (p = 0.037) predicted lower stress levels, while graduating from a country not adjacent to Switzerland led to higher stress (p = 0.047). Similarly, male sex (p < 0.001), visceral surgery (p = 0.032), French mother tongue (p = 0.018), and more than 5 years in training independently predicted lower PH. Last, PSE was not influenced by gender, while residents in training for orthopedic (p = 0.004), visceral (p = 0.007) and urology (p = 0.014) specialities, as well as Italian native speakers (p = 0.017) reported less PSE. Conclusion Perceived stress levels are high in both genders in this large, prospective and representative cohort study of Swiss surgical residents. Females endured significantly worse stress and helplessness levels than males. These figures are worrisome as they may directly contribute to the declining attractivity of surgical residencies. Detailed and gender specific analysis of stressors during residency are urgently needed to improve residency programs.

scholarly journals Traduire C'est Trahir—Peut-être: Ricoeur and Derrida on the (In)Fidelity of Translation

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Keith Putt
Keyword(s):  
Jacques Derrida ◽  
Paul Ricoeur ◽  
Tower Of Babel ◽  
Paul Ricœur ◽  
Semantic Transfer

Paul Ricoeur and Jacques Derrida agree that translation is a tensive activity oscillating between the possible and the impossible with reference to the transposition of meaning among diverse systems of discourse. Both acknowledge that risk, alterity, and plurality accompany every attempt at paraphrasing language “in other words.” Consequently, their positions adhere to the traditional adage that “the translator is a traitor,” precisely because something is always lost in the semantic transfer. Yet, Derrida notes an important disagreement between their respective approaches to translation and accuses Ricoeur of harboring a nostalgia for unitive meaning and of promoting the possibility of a transcendental signified that could produce a “pure” translation. In this essay, I critique Derrida’s interpretation of Ricoeur specifically by examining their individual interpretations of the Tower of Babel myth. I argue that Ricoeur’s theory of Babel as a non-punitive celebration of diversity and the open play of meaning “out-deconstructs” Derrida’s own notion of dissemination.

scholarly journals Mapping B. R. Ambedkar Within the Matrix of Manu’s Patriarchy, the Mentoring of Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad and the Dynamics of Agamben’s Homo Sacer

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-43
Author(s):  
Neeti Singh
Keyword(s):  
Social History ◽  
Social Reform ◽  
Giorgio Agamben ◽  
State Laws ◽  
Homo Sacer ◽  
Nonviolent Resistance ◽  
Research Scholarship ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Gender Categories

On the 125th birth anniversary of Dr B. R. Ambedkar, this essay acknowledges the great leader’s life, vision and contributions to the cause of marginalized humanity in India. It attempts to examine Ambedkar’s agenda for social reform and his efforts towards the empowerment of the abused caste and gender categories through intense satyagraha (a form of nonviolent resistance), widespread education and supportive state laws. The article concludes with a review of caste and gender issues in the present times and argues for the need to revamp the education system. This essay begins with Ambedkar’s early life and education facilitated by the patronage of the philanthropic reformer and King of Baroda Province, Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III. Second, it examines Ambedkar’s endeavours to educate and empower the women and depressed castes of India through his research, scholarship and rewritings of the Indian social history. And third, the essay attempts to understand the concept of the untouchable Dalit as a category that comes close to the Greek phenomenon of the homo sacer—a Greek concept synonymous with the rational of the Dalit/Ati-shudra. Through the ancient concept of the homo sacer, Giorgio Agamben explores agencies that conspire to draft, long-drawn statements of abuse and exploitation of the ostracized social and political underdog.

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