Staged reality in cinema

The relevance of this subject is related to the development of information technology and new media, which has allowed wide access to cinema as a visual activity. The information media space is increasingly connected to human existence, and the demand for intangible goods and services inherent in post-industrial society is causing increasing demands for intellectual products outside the science and production industry. In this context, the purpose of the study is to identify the plane of the significance of the staged reality of cinema as a dominant form of synthetic art, the attitude between artistic and nonartistic features of staged reality on the example of fiction and documentary cinema, and to outline the transformation of the structure of film reality as a constructor and medium. The principal approaches to the study were structural and hermeneutic approaches to structural analysis in terms of the semiotics of culture of cinema reality sign space and the use of interpretive practices on textual objects. At the level of basic structures, the interaction between meaning and signification and the transformation of the semantic matrix of cinema as a form of art is discussed, at the level of discourse the individual film picture.

Biblical Hermeneutics

This chapter presents a survey of biblical interpretation in the Byzantine world from late antiquity through the late Byzantine period. Literary genres, schools of thought, historical periods, as well as major writers, theologians, and exegetes are covered. Consideration is given to the historical antecedents of Byzantine biblical hermeneutics in Jewish and Greek interpretive practices. Significant emphasis is given to hermeneutical questions, with special attention to allegory. Many of the texts that are surveyed are either unpublished, unavailable in modern translations, or only poorly known by scholars, opening up avenues for new research and study.

FAMILY INSTITUTE IN THE SYSTEM OF FORMATION AND REPRODUCTION OF SOCIAL INEQUALITY

The article reveals methodological guidelines of the scientific study of family relations as a space for the formation and reproduction of social inequality in society. It is proved that the family, despite the nominal transparency of social mobility channels in societies with an open system of social stratification, continues to have a decisive influence on the distribution of status positions. The limitation of the modern concepts of family institute’ role in social differentiation is connected with the reduction of social inequality to objective factors, although it should rather be about the result of influence of the social situation or individual traits, social values, attitudes and cultural predispositions. It is shown that there is a methodological turn from quantitative sociological assessments of socio-economic and educational differences to qualitative interpretive practices in familistic studies that allow revealing the deep socio-cultural factors of inequality. The author comes to conclusion about the methodological pluralism in family sociology as a potential source of ambivalence of the state family policy on eliminate excessive social inequality.

Biblical Criticism

The Bible as a text can be read with or without reference to its compilation as a theologically constructed collection of sacred Jewish and Christian books. When read without such framing concerns, it may be approached with the full range of literary and theoretical interpretive tools and read for whatever purpose readers value or wish to explore. Less straightforwardly, in the former case where framing concerns come into play, the Bible is both like and unlike any other book in the way that its very nature as a “canon” of scripture is related to particular theological and religious convictions. Such convictions are then in turn interested in configuring the kinds of readings pursued in certain ways. Biblical criticism has undergone many transformations over the centuries, sometimes allowing such theological convictions or practices to shape the nature of its criticism, and at other times—especially in the modern period—tending to relegate their significance in favor of concerns with interpretive method, and in particular questions about authorial intention, original context, and interest in matters of history (either in the world behind the text, or in the stages of development of the text itself). From the middle of the 20th century onwards the interpretive interests of biblical critics have focused more on certain literary characteristics of biblical narratives and poetry, and also a greater theological willingness to engage the imaginative vision of biblical texts. This has resulted in a move toward a theological form of criticism that might better be characterized as imaginative and invites explicit negotiation of readers’ identities and commitments. A sense of the longer, premodern history of biblical interpretation suggests that some of these late 20th- and early 21st-century emphases do themselves have roots in the interpretive practices of earlier times, but that the Reformation (and subsequent developments in modern thinking) effectively closed down certain interpretive options in the name of better ordering readers’ interpretive commitments. Though not without real gains, this narrowing of interpretive interests has resulted in much of the practice of academic biblical criticism being beholden to modernist impulses. Shifts toward postmodern emphases have been less common on the whole, but the overall picture of biblical criticism has indeed changed in the 21st century. This may be more owing to the impact of a renewed appetite for theologically imaginative readings among Christian readers, and also of the refreshed recognition of Jewish traditions of interpretation that pose challenging framing questions to other understandings.

Muddled Measurement: A Historical Perspective on Questionable Practices in School Psychology’s Assessment of Learning Disabilities

As school psychologists we are well trained with using and interpreting a variety of psychometric instruments, yet there are several studies that indicate that school psychologist’s interpretive practices veer off the intended path. The application of assessment to the process of identification of specific learning disabilities (SLD) has been noted as one of the more problematic areas in psychoeducational assessment for myriad reasons. While the medical field has begun to focus on de-implementing ineffective practices, the field of psychology has not followed as readily. This article considers the costs of poor decision making in the context of SLD evaluation and seeks to identify evidence-based assessment practices for SLD identification and decision making. After considering historical perspectives, approaches and practices for assessing SLD, actuarial interpretation, and treatment validity will be discussed.

“Beautiful, If You See It the Right Way”

David Lynch’s first feature film, Eraserhead, is considered by many to be his strangest, due to its dark industrial imagery and dissonant sound design. This essay examines the function of audible noise in Eraserhead within the context of 1970s deindustrialization and argues that noise is a key but overlooked element of the film’s overall aesthetic design—an homage to the sounds and imagery of a fading and faded industrialized United States. Listening closely firmly establishes this impression: The sound design contributes substantially to the film’s synchretic surrealism, and its ambiguity through multilayered mechanical sound highlights listeners’ interpretive practices, particularly in comparison to most films’ use of a soundtrack to dictate rather narrowly an audience’s emotional response. Gaps between what audiences hear and what they see in Eraserhead create a void strongly suggestive of loss and longing—an impression Lynch, though often reticent about his work, has indicated in many interviews over the decades. Though many studies address the fact of the film’s innovative sound design, few examine it closely in relation to its narrative and visual elements within any sort of historical context or within Lynch’s deeply idiosyncratic aesthetic sensibility. In so doing, this essay not only highlights Lynch’s remarkably consistent aesthetic but also stresses why and how Eraserhead’s sound design is an outlier, opening up, as it does, the expressive possibilities in an unconventionally noisy soundtrack.

Decoding the Drug War

A set of punitive drug-control policies and militaristic policing practices, commonly referred to as the “War on Drugs,” are intertwined with race, racism, and racial inequality. The War on Drugs debate in digital media allows us to think about an important aspect of racialized media: audience reception. Drawing on Stuart Hall’s theory of encoding/decoding, the author points out that the audience effects of digital media do not straightforwardly reflect the messages encoded by media producers. Instead, they are the product of an active set of interpretive practices that result in different decodings of digital media. The author draws on an analysis of online comments on news articles on the War on Drugs to demonstrate some aspects of the racial politics of digital audience reception, highlighting three forms of racialized decoding: (1) dominant decoding of the racialized social critique, (2) oppositional decoding as racialized othering, and (3) dominant decoding as racialized othering. Through this analysis of online comment sections, the author shows that, in the digital sphere, people not only engage in the decoding of media messages but actively articulate and clarify identities and worldviews. Understanding this process of digital decoding helps illuminate the racial politics of meaning in contemporary society.

Historical Thinking with Avatars in an Undergraduate Course on Early Christianity

History simulations have been shown to promote student learning in classrooms throughout higher education. In an undergraduate course on the New Testament and early Christianity, we sought to foster student learning by having students participate in history simulations that involved the use of fictitious personas known as avatars. In this paper we describe the avatar activities in these simulations, and we examine the effects of our simulations on students’ abilities in “historical thinking”: that is, engaging in the interpretive practices that historians use to reconstruct the past. We argue that our avatar simulations helped our students build upon, refine, and deepen their abilities in historical thinking in small but perceptible ways. We end by noting the extent to which our findings align with research on the use of history simulations and by identifying ways to develop our project moving forward.

Theories in History and Practice

This eliminativist view must immediately face the concern that scientists themselves appear to be committed to the existence of theories. They talk about them, apparently refer to them, argue that they are equivalent or not and so forth. However, here it is shown that when it comes to classical and quantum mechanics, as well as quantum field theory—to give just three examples—what is meant by the theory is hugely contested. Indeed, this meaning is typically constructed retrospectively and promulgated by various means, such as through the use of certain textbooks, for example. Likewise it is contentious whether two putative formulations of the ‘same’ theory should be regarded as equivalent or not and again the role of interpretive practices comes to the fore.