Getting into the Schwing of Things: Hunter x Hunter’s Progressive Gender Depictions and Exploration of Non-Binary Possibilities

<p>This thesis investigates the depiction of gender in Madhouse’s 2011 television anime adaptation of Hunter x Hunter; a commercially successful ongoing manga (comic) series with a multitude of incarnations. The thesis examines three groups of characters across three chapters, respectively: androgynous men who embody conflicting attributes of hegemonic and homosexual masculinities; masculine women who defy traditional stereotypes via their association of domesticity with violence; and gender ambiguous characters who potentially challenge the established gender binary model by demonstrating loyalty to neither category. These characters are studied in relation to both Japanese and western gender norms to highlight cultural differences, however emphasis is placed on western interpretation through the application of western theories to the text and incorporation of western fan discourse into my own textual analysis. I assess the characters with an understanding that gender is not a biological prescription but a social construction and observe how characters are easily able to adopt masculine and feminine qualities regardless of their implied sex. I additionally aim to shed light on how Hunter x Hunter (2011) refreshingly tests the notion that mainstream shōnen (boys’) series are necessarily conservative in their alignment with normative gender ideals; on the contrary, Hunter x Hunter (2011) fearlessly challenges its viewers to question established gender norms and encourages discussion about the legitimacy of binary gender categories. Overall, I posit anime is an important area of study due to its growing popularity in the west, signalling a need to better understand the texts in relation to our own ideological perspective.</p>

Getting into the Schwing of Things: Hunter x Hunter’s Progressive Gender Depictions and Exploration of Non-Binary Possibilities

<p>This thesis investigates the depiction of gender in Madhouse’s 2011 television anime adaptation of Hunter x Hunter; a commercially successful ongoing manga (comic) series with a multitude of incarnations. The thesis examines three groups of characters across three chapters, respectively: androgynous men who embody conflicting attributes of hegemonic and homosexual masculinities; masculine women who defy traditional stereotypes via their association of domesticity with violence; and gender ambiguous characters who potentially challenge the established gender binary model by demonstrating loyalty to neither category. These characters are studied in relation to both Japanese and western gender norms to highlight cultural differences, however emphasis is placed on western interpretation through the application of western theories to the text and incorporation of western fan discourse into my own textual analysis. I assess the characters with an understanding that gender is not a biological prescription but a social construction and observe how characters are easily able to adopt masculine and feminine qualities regardless of their implied sex. I additionally aim to shed light on how Hunter x Hunter (2011) refreshingly tests the notion that mainstream shōnen (boys’) series are necessarily conservative in their alignment with normative gender ideals; on the contrary, Hunter x Hunter (2011) fearlessly challenges its viewers to question established gender norms and encourages discussion about the legitimacy of binary gender categories. Overall, I posit anime is an important area of study due to its growing popularity in the west, signalling a need to better understand the texts in relation to our own ideological perspective.</p>

An 1853 Map of the Yoruba Country

This paper examines an 1853 map of Yorubaland that reflects the evangelisation discourse of the American Southern Baptist Convention. Starting from 1845, the SBC began an evangelical drive towards the ‘saving’ of Africans in West Africa as a form of self-compensation in their attempt to prove that they were not against ‘Black Africans’ in the United States. Yet there were geographical notions of distinguishing Africans to be converted but these views of the white Southern Baptist brethren were reframed owing to field experiences of the missionary-explorer in the early 1850s. Drawing on a critical cartographic approach, this article argues that this map was culturally constructed. This study explores the map construction within the contexts of evangelical zeal, the preconceived geographical theories of West Africa, and exploratory accounts of Thomas Bowen. Consequently, the article reveals the interconnectedness of the church, the missionary-explorer, African informants and the mapmaker in geographical knowledge production. As a result, the study concludes that an ideological perspective reflects in cartographic knowledge presented on the map.

Ambiguity as Discursive Strategy: A Critical Analysis of Pakistani Political League’s Selected Discourse Regarding Covid-19

This study unearths the ambiguities found in the discourseof prominent Pakistani political league during the outbreak of the pandemic covid-19 from the perspective of critical discourse analysis (CDA). CDA is an approach to the analysis of discourse which considers language as a social practice and takes particular interest in the ways in which ideologies and power relations are expressed through language (Fairclough, 2015). This paper presents a reflection to unveil the discursive strategies which are being used by the major Pakistanipolitical parties’ leaders as they did not come up with any plan of action pertaining to covid-19 yet. These statements are merely based on criticism only for the sake of criticism without any systematic planning and logical way out to get rid of this critical situation. This analysis is guided by the framework of Fairclough’s model of CDA (2015) which consists of three inter-related processes of analysis tied to three inter-related dimensions of discourse. This paper highlights the ideological perspective of Prime minister Imran Khan, opposition leaders i.e., PML-N leader ShahbazShareef, Chairman Pakistan People’s Party, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and MolanaFazal-u-Rehman. This study found out that the statements which are given by the major political parties on different political forums are full of vague ideas and uncertainty about Coronavirus outbreak which is, in a way,an evidence regarding their failure to understand and tackle the dire situation.

The Prevalence and Purpose of the ‘Assyria-Egypt’ Motif in the Book of Hosea

This paper examines the occurrence of the ‘Assyria-Egypt’ pair in the MT of Hosea. On a literary plane, the paper introduces two new definitions: Assyria-Egypt is defined as a correlative pair in this book, and based on the recurring meaning of the pair and its diverse application, the pair is defined as a motif. This motif consistently serves to describe distance from God. From an ideological perspective, the paper discusses the perceptions that emerge from the application of the motif in the units with regard to God’s description, and to the relationship between Israel’s two central sins in Hosea: idolatry, and turning to foreign nations for assistance. Based on this, the paper addresses the motif’s contribution to mirroring the relationship between God and Israel. The paper’s insights evolve from each other, altering the perspective on the motif, on the units’ contents, and on the relationship between the units.

Indo-Pak Relations in Ideological Perspective after 9/11: Critical Discourse Analysis of Nawa-i-Waqt; A Pakistani Urdu Newspaper

The objective of this work was to utilize the critical discourse analysis in the reporting and coverage of Indo-Pak relations from an ideological perspective after 9/11. The critical discourse analysis of local, international, and business news, editorials, articles, columns, and letters to the editor published in Nawa-i-Waqt, a Pakistani Urdu Newspaper, is carried out. The overall purpose of the study was to critically analyze lexical choices, rhetorical devices and the dominant themes reported after 9/11 from August 1st, 2008 to January 31, 2009, the peak time of terrorist attacks in Pakistan. In the present study, it has been noticed that the Urdu newspaper Nawa-i-Waqt reports and publishes more news, editorials, columns, and articles regarding this hot aspect. The CDA of lexical items reported and published in the daily Nawa-i-Waqt revealed the use of victimization and generalization in the coverage of Indian Occupied Kashmir. Similarly, Nawa-i-Waqt newspaper also exclusively focused and reported the historical narrative of the government of Pakistan and its efforts to convey the frightful condition of Kashmir and Kashmiris to the nations of the world and engage them to resolve this longstanding dispute.

IMPLEMENTATION OF PROSOCIAL EDUCATION THROUGH EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING IN THE SUBJECT OF KEMUHAMMADIYAHAN

Prosocial education is an educational program to increase motivation and skills of the student to help, care for others in need. This article is aimed at analyzing the implementation of prosocial education in the Kemuhammadiyahan subject. Using experiential learning method, students not only learn about Muhammadiyah from an organizational, historical and ideological perspective, but also experience and practice al-Ma'un theology in carrying out da'wah empowerment of the duafa family. This research design was a descriptive qualitative. The data were collected by making observations during the activity, interview, and documentary studies. Using content analysis, this study found that this da'wah for empowerment of the duafa family was in line with the objectives of prosocial education, namely increasing empathy and concern for the mustad'afin group

The Effect of Ideology on the Form and Content of Edward FitzGerald’s Translation of Khayyam's Rubaiyat

The present study attempted to examine Edward FitzGerald, who would translate Omar Khayyam's Rubaiyat (1859), was interested in Persian poetry. Translation deals with power and authority and most of the time the ideology of source text changes in favor of the dominant ideology of target text. Victorian people‘s scornful outlook toward East led to ideological manipulation of source texts by translators such as Fitzgerald. His strange reduction in his translations, especially in Khayyam's Rubaiyat results in the necessity of investigating his translation from ideological point of view. Surprisingly translation of Khayyam’s Rubaiyat has never been studied from ideological perspective and is unknown for many literary scholars. Victorian issues had a strong effect on FitzGerald‘s selection of some Khayyam's Rubaiyat.