The Politics of Gender Representation in Charles Bukowski’s Poetry: Between Ambivalence and Misogyny

The German poet and novelist Charles Bukowski has always been surrounded with controversy throughout his life. However, interestingly, it is his politics of gender representation that mostly triggers feminists and researchers together to condemn him for being misogynist, showcasing a degrading image of female characters in his prose writings. The latter genre is seemingly insufficient to directly accuse Bukowski and his literary works of misogyny. While some of his novels attest to a demeaning yet controversial representation of women, his poetry offers a nuanced version wherein heterogeneous portrayal of women becomes prevalent and therefore allowing the space for readers to encounter poems with an amalgamation of positive representations of women—being independent and intellectual. Because the misogynistic representation in Bukowski’s works is open to various interpretations, rushing into a compilation of hateful judgments concerning the author himself lacks justification and argument. In line with this background, the present paper discusses the limitations of the conclusions drawn with regard to Bukowski’s gender politics, arguing that there is a space in-between worth exploring in his literary works. Through a close reading method of textual analysis, the paper concentrates on selected poems from Bukowski’s collection Love is a Dog from Hell (1977) in order to contrast the positive and negative depiction of women. The paper, in other words, strives to bring into question the extent to which misogyny and ambivalence take roles in Bukowski’s gender representation of the female characters. The analysis undertaken has revealed significant results, in which Bukowski’s poetry comes to expose a more ambivalent and realistic approach towards gender—a reading which is highly needed in order to consider the different perspectives and possible interpretations of an author’s work before limiting it, or the author in person, to a set of stereotypical judgment.

Representations of the French language / culture among Qatari students enrolled in the minor of French at Qatar University

This research is interested in the representations that Qatari students, enrolled in the French minor at Qatar University, have toward the French language/culture. The objective of this research is to analyze these representations as well as their influences on the motivations and attitudes of these students towards learning French. To achieve this goal, we conducted a survey among these students. The results this survey show that French generally receives positive representations, which should develop attitudes favorable to its learning.

Challenging Stereotypes through Visual Narratives: The Figure of the Grandfather in Children's Picturebooks and Graphic Narratives

Positive attitudes towards older people can be developed over time, and it is of paramount importance to build realistic perceptions from an early age. This article focuses on the figure of the grandfather portrayed in children's literature, comics, and graphic novels, which may all successfully contribute to avoiding cultural stereotypes related with ageing. The selected narratives have a high emotional impact on their readers, enhancing more positive representations of intergenerational relationships.

Immigrant faceism: documentation statuses evoke racialized mental representations

Politicized U.S. immigration discourse has spurred interest in characterizing who illegalized immigrants are or perceived to be. What are the associated visual representations of migrant illegality? Across two studies with undergraduate and online samples (N = 686), we used face- based reverse correlation and spatial arrangement to capture representations of illegalized immigrant men and their differentiation from U.S. citizen or documented immigrant representations. Documentation statuses were differentially racialized. Immigrant representations were dark-skinned and classified as non-white, while citizen representations were light-skinned, evaluated positively, and classified as white. Legality further differentiated immigrant representations: documentation conjured positive representations, illegality conjured threatening representations. In a similarity task, participants used faces’ pixel luminance (e.g., skin color) and perceived American-ness to sort unlabeled faces by documentation status, confirming their representational distinctions. Illegalized immigrants were uniquely racialized as dark-skinned un- American threats, highlighting the continued impact of U.S. imperial projects and colorism in shaping representations of migrant illegality.

Thoughts on the Ageing Body

Recent studies have taken into account the fact that the lives of older people have changed drastically in the past fifty years. Older people today engage more with society and are also expected to maintain an active role in their communities. In order to maintain a positive social status, todays older adults need both to challenge negative stereotypes and also to achieve the “unachievable” positive representations in the media. Society plays a complex game of bodily images: the artificial image of the human body in the media, the image that individuals try to project, and the image that society reflects back to the individual. When the three don’t coincide, the collision creates a distancing effect. To truly understand the lived experiences of older adults in contemporary society we must explore the changing perceptions of the body. This review will illustrate the arguments both classical and contemporary through an exploration of the ageing female body, which remains the focus of most of the literature.

Los estereotipos sobre los músicos en Guadalajara: la percepción de los profesionales de la música y la incidencia en sus carreras.

In this article, we will question stereotypes regarding musicians and the influence that they may have in the development of a professional career. In order to do this, we will try to answer three questions: Which are the prevailing stereotypes about musicians in Mexico and particularly in Guadalajara? How do these harmful stereotypes affect their career? Which strategies do musicians implement in order to face these stereotypes? Based on a sociological perspective, we have implemented a qualitative method, directly interviewing the actors involved in this process. It is inferred that, despite the presence of positive representations, negative stereotypes may strongly affect the career of musicians, causing a direct impact that, according to them, derive in a poor appreciation of the trade. The consequences may go from the family´s imposition to study a better appreciated major to the dropout of the current studies. In certain situations, it may even have a direct effect on employment conditions.

Imagining the Border-City Relationship

Many alternative visions of the border-city relationship between San Diego and Tijuana circulate among local actors. Some visualize an egalitarian, integrated future. Others have various stakes in reinforcing a bordered imaginary that exaggerates asymmetries and obscures complex economic realities on the ground. Bordering can create local opportunities for profit and contribute to the availability of marginalized labor on both sides of the line. Bordering discourse also provides an identity foil for San Diegans who have come to define themselves as superior, in contrast to a Tijuana stigmatized as impoverished, disorderly, corrupt, dirty, and dangerous. The place images of these cities are intertwined, such that more positive representations of Tijuana will require a reimaging of San Diego. Ultimately, this chapter examines the promise of and constraints on developing a more equal shared regional future, a reduction in Tijuana’s place stigma, and a less bordered imaginary.

The Shame of Which We Shall NeverNow Speak

The ongoing controversies over homosexuality’s shameful representation in African culture and literature. An analysis of cultural, legal, and literary commentary and “homophobic classics” of African literature as well as more recent, positive representations of homosexuality such as Mariama Barry’s La Petite Peul, Frieda Ekotto’s Chuchote pas trop, Jude Dibia’s Walking with Shadows, and some of Chimamanda Adichie’s short stories.

From “Unbelievable Stupidity” to “Secret Clues for Staying Healthy”: CAM Landscape and Boundary-Work in Estonian and Finnish Mainstream Media in April 2020

Based on a one-month (April 2020) comparative observation of media content in three Estonian and three Finnish mainstream media sources (two daily newspapers and one weekly women’s magazine) along with some examples from an earlier period, the authors analysed the representation of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in the media. The analysis showed that the media from the two countries presented CAM both in its various mainstream and more fringe forms, and that pejorative as well as complimentary and attracting undertones were present. The authors conclude that CAM topics were present in the selection of sources as methods for wellbeing and healing but also as entertaining, exoticising, warning, and mystical-metaphorical allusions along with different levels of boundary-work, especially science. The authors also noted interesting differences between the chosen media both within one country and between the two countries in terms of how much CAM was present as well as in which ways it was treated. In the Estonian material, the scale of tones was broader: the texts presented highly sensational, exoticising and othering angles towards approaches that were considered extreme and dangerous but mainly entertainment-oriented, and they positively described healing and wellbeing practices, sometimes with a mystic touch. The Finnish media was more low-key in its representations and tone: the mentions were shorter and less frequent. Although the Finnish material had more positive representations, this does not suggest that CAM is more tolerated in Finland – the Finnish media presented less extreme forms of CAM, which gave less ground for journalistic opposition.