Conundrums in the House of Wailing

This essay examines widowhood rites and traditions in Northern Muslim Sudan, including those sanctioned by religion (that is, property inheritance and widows’ internment) and those endorsed by local communities. The microhistorical ethnographic accounts in this essay illustrate the deep psychological and physical suffering that narrators experienced as they navigated the labyrinth of socially sanctioned practices in their communities. They also communicate lessons about deep structures of power and the blurred boundaries of religion and ritual. The narratives reveal that despite the tenacity of male governance, female in-laws wield tremendous power in the rites that widows deem discriminatory. While interlocutors in this essay stress the near impossibility of a widow escaping the tentacles of authority and the empathy deficit stemming from it, others who have resisted these widowhood rituals show us how women can conjure the agency to negotiate both the bottlenecks and the thresholds in their paths.

F. M. DOSTOEVSKY AND NIHILISTIC INTERPRETATION OF HOLBEIN'S PAINTING „DEAD CHRIST IN THE TOMB”

Ever since Hans Holbein the Younger completed his painting, The Dead Christ in the Tomb, in 1522, a question has been looming over it, namely, what message does this dead body convey? Having seen the painting in 1847, the Russian classic writer Fyodor Dostoevsky was also intrigued by this question. In his novel, The Idiot, Ippolit Terentyev seeks to give a systematic and direct answer. The article presents a hermeneutic analysis of his position, and classifies it as nihilistic. Nihilism affects all three levels of Ippolit's discourse - the ontic, eschatological and ontological. Nevertheless, the question remains: can such nihilism be justified from the perspective of the painting itself? Posing this question in the context of Alois Riegl’s periodization of European culture has proven to be interesting. He is of the opinion that, following the era of Christian monotheism, the third and the last period of the development of European culture is the natural-scientific period. This particular period, Riegl believes, began in 1520. If we choose to accept this periodization model, The Dead Christ may be seen as one of the first paintings of the modern era, keeping in mind that Holbein painted it in 1521 and 1522. As regards the issue of the body of The Dead Christ being immersed in physical suffering to the extent that the possibility of resurrection is excluded - as Ippolit presumes - this article offers certain reasons of an anatomical nature which may be interpreted theologically and which deny the validity of Ippolit’s modern, nihilistic hypothesis in regard to the meaning of Holbein's Dead Christ.

Pain and the Aesthetics of US Literary Realism

This book examines the cultural pursuit of a painless ideal as a neglected context for US literary realism. Advances in anesthesia in the final decades of the nineteenth century together with influential religious ideologies helped strengthen the equation of a comfortable existence insulated from physical suffering with the height of civilization. Theories of the civilizing process as intensifying sensitivity to suffering were often adduced to justify a revulsion from physical pain among the postbellum elite. Yet a sizeable portion of this elite rejected this comfort-seeking, pain-avoiding aesthetic as a regrettable consequence of over-civilization. Proponents of the strenuous cult instead identified pain and strife as essential ingredients of an invigorated life. The Ache of the Actual examines variants on a lesser known counter-sensibility integral to the writings of a number of influential literary realists. William Dean Howells, Henry James, Edith Wharton, Mark Twain, and Charles Chesnutt each delineated alternative definitions of a superior sensibility indebted to suffering rather than to either revulsion from or immersion in it. They resolved the binary contrast between pain-aversion on one side and pain-immersion on the other by endorsing an uncommon responsiveness to pain whose precise form depended on the ethical and aesthetic priorities of the writer in question. Focusing on these variations elucidates the similarities and differences within US literary realism while revealing areas of convergence and divergence between realism and other long-nineteenth-century literary modes, chief among them both sentimentalism and naturalism, that were similarly preoccupied with pain.

Epilogue

The Epilogue begins with final reflections on the high realist project concerning pain, the validity and limitations of its critique, the relevant historical context, and the lingering impact of its preferred aesthetic response to suffering—which can seem, ironically, like another form of anesthesia whenever it encourages numbing to and distance from the pain of others. It then offers summary comments on the less myopic, more inclusive and imaginative versions of reality envisioned by Twain, Chesnutt, and another contemporary author, W. E. B. Du Bois. After tracing patterns of sensitizing, insulating, and distancing behavior in our current reactions to seemingly intractable suffering that resonate with the high realist aesthetic, the book concludes by suggesting that the simultaneously politically galvanizing and aesthetically complex response to physical suffering that Part Two proves was available to the responsive imagination during the realist era remains available in our own day.

It Is Like a Puppet Show-Experiences of Rheumatoid Arthritis Among Adult Chinese: A Qualitative Study

Rheumatoid arthritis results in progressive destruction of the joints. However, descriptions of patient’s experiences with the disease are limited. This qualitative study aimed to explore patients’ personal experiences with rheumatoid arthritis in Taiwan. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 30 patients from January to May 2019; interview data were analyzed with content analysis. Most participants were female (90%); their mean age was 57 years. Three main categories emerged from analysis of the data: “physical suffering,” “limitations of abilities,” and “coexisting with the disease.” Physical suffering was due to personal lifelong hardships from chronic pain and stiffness. Limitations of abilities occurred from loss of physical function and limited social life, due to participants discomfort with joint deformities and their appearance to others. Participants coexisted with the disease by making changes in their outlook and comparing their lives with others in order to gain a positive perspective.

Why Superman Will Not Save the World: Theorizing the Relationship Between Suffering and DC Comics Superman (Translation into Russian)

The hypothesis that there is an inextricable link between comic book superheroes and suffering would, to anyone with a cursory knowledge of superhero characters found in DC, Marvel, Image, Wildstorm and other houses, and their histories, ostensibly seem valid. This validity depends on which character one is applying said hypothesis to; the psychological and physical suffering of a Batman being more acceptable as such than that of a Plastic Man, for example. However, using DC Comics character Superman as a case study, this paper explores the inextricable link between Otherness, power, and suffering within the remit of the character's mythos. In order to do so, this paper refers to psychoanalytic concepts elaborated by Sigmund Freud in his text Beyond the Pleasure Principle (1922) as a way of demonstrating that despite the character's conventional appraisal as a positivist humanistic symbol of pure altruism, an insuperable, unimpeachable symbol of selflessness and good morality, there is in fact a fundamental link between Superman's 'tridentity' of selves (Clark Kent/Kal-El/Superman), the character's own suffering, and human suffering on a terrestrial scale, as represented within the numerous realities of the DC Comics Multiverse.

“Per tatto di vertù”: il tatto dell’anima e il tocco della Grazia nella Divina Commedia

This contribution aims to identify the notions of “tatto” and “tocco” as main agents for soul health and as vectors of spiritual transcendence in Dante’s thought and in particular in the Divine Comedy. In his path from Hell to Paradise, the pilgrim transforms his physical ability “to touch” and “to be touched” in a form of spiritual sensoriality. In this way, the sensitive phenomenons participate to the intellectual processes, pleasure becomes salvation, and the perception of sweetness allows access to the intangible and ineffable realities of Paradise. We will analyze the functions of tactile feeling and experience in their pathological, pharmacological and finally spiritual aspects. First we show how touch feeling, for Christian thought, corresponds to a general modality through which Grace enters into the intellect and through which the intellect perceives the divine phenomena. In this case, pleasure is synonymous with communication with God and is no more related to a condemnable voluptuousness. From the symptomatic touch of physical suffering of Hell to the ineffable sweetness of Paradise, passing through the acquisition of a new spiritual touch in Purgatory, Dante develops this idea through many similarities. Poetic writing becomes itself the instrument through which the soul could taste the divine “stille” in order to turn back to the “stelle”.

Karakteristik dan Aplikasi Aliran Romantisme Arab

Al-Masa poetry is the work of a famous Egyptian poet named Khalil Mutran. Khalil Mutran (1872-1949) is recorded as one of Egypt's last neo-classical poets. One of his works is the poem Al-zaman, the poem al-masa telling about the suffering of the figure both physical suffering. Meanwhile, the flow of romanticism is a village literary genre that emerged after the flow of classicism which is commonly called the urban literary genre. The purpose of this research is to find out the historical flow of romanticism and its application in the literary work of the poetry of al-zaman Karta Khail Mutran. The method used in this research is descriptive qualitative research method. The results of this study indicate that al-Masa's poetry contains elements of romance. That contains elements of Return to nature, melancholy, primitivism, sentimentalism, individualism and exoticism.

The feelings & perceptions of a Medical doctor after recovery from Corona infection

Aim: To know the core feelings and perception of a medical doctor after recovery from corona infection Study Design: A descriptive cross-sectional qualitative survey Place and duration of study: Akhter Saeed medical and dental college Lahore. Duration of study was two months from 1stJanuary 2021 to 31st March 2021. Methods: A survey questionnaire is formed and sent to different doctors of different specialties both in the public and private sectors. Non-probability conventional sampling technique was used. Qualitative data was analyzed by the SPSS 20. Results: The online survey was sent to three hundred and fifty (350) doctors who were fellows, consultants, assistant consultants and professors. The voluntary response is submitted by 26doctors who suffered and recovered from corona infection. Conclusion: Coronapandemic has physical, psychological, social and economic effects. Everyone who suffered from it has his own insight about disease but unlike other infections, anxiety and uncertainty about future were major psychological effects which added to physical suffering of patients. All recovered patients strongly recommended following of SOPs. Vaccinationwith following SOPs is unanimously only optimistic approachagainst corona to decrease incidence and severity of infection. There is a need for doctor counselling sessions to cope with stress and anxiety issues. Keywords: Corona infection, anxiety, consultant.

COVID-19—Related Assault on Asians: Economic Hardship in the United States and India Predicts Diminished Support for Victim Compensation and Assailant Punishment

Background: There has been an alarming increase in discrimination and violence towards Asians during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic amid reports that the virus was first detected in China. In an incident involving a COVID-19-related physical assault, this study examined whether economic hardship experienced by participants during the pandemic and the race of the victim (Chinese, White) would influence support to compensate a victim and punish the assailant. The study also explored whether the perception that the victim experienced emotional and physical suffering due to the assault would mediate the relationships. Method: Participants in India and the United States reported on their own economic hardship due to the pandemic. They then read about an incident in which an innocent person suffered a COVID-19-related physical and verbal attack, and indicated if they would support punishing the assailant and financially compensating the victim. Results: When the victim was Chinese, participants experiencing a high degree of COVID-19 economic hardship were less likely to support financially compensating the victim or punishing the assailant compared to when the victim was White. Furthermore, when the victim was Chinese, the negative associations between economic hardship and financially compensating the victim and punishing the assailant were mediated by reduced recognition that the victim suffered emotional trauma and pain as a result of the attack. Conclusions: COVID-19-driven economic hardship experienced by participants predicted an array of reactions that reflected reduced recognition of the civil and human rights of a victim of a COVID-19-related assault. These findings have significant implications for mental health, public health, and the justice system, and underscore the pressing need for prompt action to mitigate economic hardship and to address racism and discrimination.