Prosody and ideology

The focus of this paper is on the role choices in phonological systems (Brazil 1997; Halliday & Greaves 2008) play in the ideological work of a text. Using an instance of news reporting of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, we show how prosodic choices – both those shared with other texts in this register, and those specific to this instance – contribute to the ideological force of the text. The ideological effects of prosodic choices in this text, we argue, include projecting a very particular interpretation of the invasion as if distant and objective, and giving prominence to claims that the invasion was measured and targeted, and by implication in accordance with international law.

Caroline Carvalho and Her World

By practicing and extending the art of coloratura singing, Caroline Carvalho (née Marie Félix-Miolan, 1827–1895) became the French soprano par excellence of the mid-nineteenth century. In her early career, the Parisian press compared her vocal prowess to the instrumental pyrotechnics of Paganini and Liszt. This chapter illustrates how engaging with Carvalho and her contemporaries uncovers interesting intersections between mid-nineteenth-century vocal and instrumental idioms. In the first half, I explore Carvalho’s watershed moment in her creation of the title role of Victor Massé’s La Reine Topaze, which was a product of a complex mixture of circumstance, shrewd role choices, and genre. I investigate how that moment led to two different kinds of competition: between the soprano’s vocal agility and instrumental virtuosity, and between Carvalho and her coloratura competitors. By claiming a vocalism at least equal to the virtuosity of instrumentalists, Carvalho carved out a new space for the coloratura soprano.

Roles and their three facets: A foundational perspective

Roles remain nebulous entities, notwithstanding their extensive interdisciplinary research. This paper argues through a meta-ontological conceptual tool of grounding that there are three key facets of roles: a role position, a role specification, and a role potential. A foundational perspective on roles can be specified by “role choices” as to which facet of roles is primary. Role choices are illustrated with theories of roles that are built in compliance with four well-known upper ontologies: GFO, DOLCE, BFO, and UFO. The relationship between such three facets of roles and the GFO-based three kinds of roles (relational, processual, and social) is closely examined. These three facets are also comparatively studied from linguistic (e.g. ‘have a role’ versus ‘play a role’) and methodological (realism versus conceptualism regarding ontology design) perspectives. Furthermore, the family resemblance view of roles as “epistemic trackers” is proposed: the general notion of role is merely (partially) unified by its three facets and helps to keep track of some entity with respect to its role-related aspects. Finally, defining characteristics of roles in conceptual modeling are considered in terms of the three-facet theory. This work provides the grist for future practical development of an ontological module for generic role representation.

JUDI DENCH AND SHAKESPEAREAN PERSONAS IN THE TWENTY FIRST CENTURY

Dame Judi Dench’s twenty-first-century theatrical career has defied the expectation that her performance as the Countess in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s 2003 All’s Well That Ends Well would signal the culmination and conclusion of her stage acting career. This article draws on scholarship on the use of retrospection and persona-building to redirect attention from Dench’s conspicuously ‘late’ success in film to map how Dench has led, collaborated in and resisted public constructions of her persona. Shakespeare has been consistently key to this process. While enlisting persona-building strategies inherited from her Shakespearean forebears, Dench has resisted the overt appointment of any kind of Shakespearean ‘successor’ and thus the continuation of Shakespeare performance genealogies. Simultaneously, her role choices have contributed to her persona’s accrued significance as an avatar of moral virtue and authenticity – augmented by her association with the ‘national poet’, Shakespeare, as England’s most prestigious playwright. The article also examines Dench’s persona specifically as an ageing actress, and her significance for discourses of aspirational ageing, ageism, and national investments in the ageing female performer as a public persona.

When men choose to be childless: An interpretative phenomenological analysis

A growing number of individuals expressly choose to remain childless, yet research exploring these intentions in men remains scarce. This study examines the experiences, subjective reasoning, and decision-making processes of voluntarily childless Australian men near the median age for first-time fatherhood. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 Australian-resident men (28–34 years; M = 31; SD = 1.48). Participants were selected from the Men and Parenting Pathways longitudinal cohort study ( N = 609) based on having stated they did not want to have children “at all.” Data were collected and analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Analysis identified a superordinate theme; Fatherhood: The door is still ajar, which was marked by the men’s reluctance to unequivocally commit to a childless future. Subordinate themes were The Realization, The Talk (or lack of…), The Rationale, and The Pressure. At the normative age for transitioning to parenthood, role choices are salient. Overall, men’s decision-making process to not have children appears to be fluid and influenced by intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Despite changing social trends and acceptance of divergent life trajectories, these men are acutely aware that their intentions place them outside the norm. In policy and practice, it is important to recognize the changing norms around fatherhood timing and support voluntarily childless men and couples in constructing their identities, life course, incongruent decisions, and relationships.

UK POLICY OPTIONS AND THE SOUTH ATLANTIC

This article utilises International Relations role theory to analyse a number of potential roles for the United Kingdom as an actor with vested interests in the South Atlantic. It assesses the contemporary context of the UK’s trading relationship with the South Atlantic in light of the ongoing dialogue between the EU and the UK with regard to BREXIT. It also recognises the strategic realities of the South Atlantic and the UK’s Overseas Territories in the region. It posits that the UK, as a strategic actor in the South Atlantic, is limited in its role choices and that the role of ‘Opportunistic Partner’ in terms of its relationship with Argentina, offers the most scope as the basis for future mutually beneficial trading relations to normalise further political relations between the two countries.