Becoming the Other: The Mimesis of Metaphor in Douglass's My Bondage and My Freedom

PMLA ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 111 (3) ◽  
pp. 435-450 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter A. Dorsey
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political Action ◽  
The United States ◽  
Frederick Douglass ◽  
United States Constitution ◽  
The Other ◽  
Binary Logic ◽  
Limited Role

In his Narrative (1845), Frederick Douglass constructs a self based on conversion rhetoric and binary logic. In the greatly expanded My Bondage and My Freedom (1855), he complicates this textual self by both imitating and criticizing tropes conventionally used in the slavery debate, such as metaphors related to animals, Christianity, and manhood. Emphasizing the constructed nature of mimesis and metaphor, Douglass demonstrates his ability to escape the bondage of reductionist language even as he claims the power associated with linguistic mastery. This revision of self emerges from his experience of northern racism, manifested in his limited role in William Lloyd Garrison's organization. Douglass's renunciation of Garrisonian dogma and his entry into political action—including his striking textual reinterpretation of the United States Constitution—coincide with the stylistically “modernist” self of the second autobiography.

A Note on Treaty Ratification

1953 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 1130-1133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carl Marcy
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
The United States ◽  
United States Constitution ◽  
The Other ◽  
Treaty Ratification ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Voice

On June 13, 1952, with two senators on the floor, the Senate of the United States gave its advice and consent to the ratification of three treaties which thereby became a part of the supreme law of the land. One of the senators did not vote. The other voiced his “aye” while serving as presiding officer.The conventions approved by the voice vote of one senator were the Consular Convention with Ireland; a Protocol Supplementary to the said Convention; and the Consular Convention with the United Kingdom.Article II, Section 2 of the United States Constitution provides that the President shall have power “to make Treaties, provided two-thirds of the Senators present concur….” Even though, under Article I, Section 5, Clause 2, “Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings, …” how, as a matter of law, was it possible for the Senate, with but two senators on the floor, one of whom did not vote and the other of whom was in the chair, to give its advice and consent to a treaty? And as a matter of policy was the Senate in this case properly discharging its responsibilities?

scholarly journals The Engineers Case Centenary: SCOTUS and the Origins of Australia's Scabrous Constitutional Signature

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamen Franklen Gussen ◽  
Sahar Araghi
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Word Length ◽  
The United States ◽  
United States Constitution ◽  
The Other ◽  
Common Denominator ◽  
High Court ◽  
First Case ◽  
High Court Of Australia

AbstractSince the Engineers Case decision in 1920, the role of the United States Constitution in interpreting the Australian Constitution has been diminished, leading to inefficiencies in High Court of Australia (HCA) dealing with constitutional issues. To explain this thesis, the article looks at the 7,657 cases decided by the HCA, from the first case in 1903, to the 31st of August 2020, the centenary of the Engineers Case. The analysis identifies outliers that have much higher complexity (in terms of word-length) than the other judgments. This complexity has one common denominator: comparative analysis with the United States Constitution. The article explains why this common denominator has resulted in such complexity, and concludes with possible research extensions on the roles of the Australian judiciary in embracing SCOTUS jurisprudence when interpreting the Australian Constitution.

Private, Public, Personal: Americans and the Land

1994 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald Worster
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political System ◽  
The United States ◽  
United States Constitution ◽  
The Other ◽  
Good Sense ◽  
Look Back ◽  
Long Time

I Sat down the other night to do something I had not done in a long time: read the United States Constitution. Though a short document, only some twelve or thirteen double-columned pages in most printings, it was writing I had not looked at for over a decade. Yet I am an historian of this country. My excuse is that there is not enough time to read most things even once, and twice or more is out of the question. It is a poor excuse; some things we really ought to read more than once in a lifetime—ought to read every year, like Emily Dickinson’s poetry or Henry Thoreau’s book about that pond in Massachusetts. The Constitution is a piece of writing I would recommend reading no more than once a decade. It hasn’t got much of a plot. The language is clear and easy, but lacks eloquence. Its single great virtue is its plain sensibleness, a virtue that has, with many glaring exceptions, stayed with us and become one of our most attractive national qualities. We like to think we are a level-headed people and that this document epitomizes our level-headedness. In a world that often seems to have gone plumb crazy into one fanaticism or another, the Constitution reassures us with its good sense. We can look back to it with relief that our political system was framed by wise, far-sighted people; and unsure today whether we could improve on their wisdom, we usually leave it alone. Now and then we take the document out and actually read it. There is, however, one glaring omission in the Constitution, so immense and damaging that I believe we ought to try to repair it. Nowhere in all the sections, articles, and amendments is there any mention of the American land and our rights and responsibilities pertaining thereto. I find the word “land” appearing only once, and then it refers to rules governing the capture of prisoners “on Land and Water.”

Working With Interpreters to Support Students Who Are English Language Learners

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (16) ◽  
pp. 15-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henriette W. Langdon ◽  
Terry Irvine Saenz
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
English Language Learners ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
English Language ◽  
First Language ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Other ◽  
Primary Language ◽  
Second Best ◽  
Support Students

The number of English Language Learners (ELL) is increasing in all regions of the United States. Although the majority (71%) speak Spanish as their first language, the other 29% may speak one of as many as 100 or more different languages. In spite of an increasing number of speech-language pathologists (SLPs) who can provide bilingual services, the likelihood of a match between a given student's primary language and an SLP's is rather minimal. The second best option is to work with a trained language interpreter in the student's language. However, very frequently, this interpreter may be bilingual but not trained to do the job.

The Special Perils of Being Old and Sick in Prison

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (5) ◽  
pp. 276-284
Author(s):  
William J. Jefferson
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Medical Care ◽  
Health Care Providers ◽  
The United States ◽  
United States Constitution ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Medical Practitioners ◽  
Medical Needs ◽  
Access To Medical Care

The United States Supreme Court declared in 1976 that deliberate indifference to the serious medical needs of prisoners constitutes the unnecessary and wanton infliction of pain…proscribed by the Eighth Amendment. It matters not whether the indifference is manifested by prison doctors in their response to the prisoner’s needs or by prison guards intentionally denying or delaying access to medical care or intentionally interfering with treatment once prescribed—adequate prisoner medical care is required by the United States Constitution. My incarceration for four years at the Oakdale Satellite Prison Camp, a chronic health care level camp, gives me the perspective to challenge the generally promoted claim of the Bureau of Federal Prisons that it provides decent medical care by competent and caring medical practitioners to chronically unhealthy elderly prisoners. The same observation, to a slightly lesser extent, could be made with respect to deficiencies in the delivery of health care to prisoners of all ages, as it is all significantly deficient in access, competencies, courtesies and treatments extended by prison health care providers at every level of care, without regard to age. However, the frailer the prisoner, the more dangerous these health care deficiencies are to his health and, therefore, I believe, warrant separate attention. This paper uses first-hand experiences of elderly prisoners to dismantle the tale that prisoner healthcare meets constitutional standards.

Armed Violence in the Ideology of Contemporary Islamic Fundamentalism - Study models

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 237
Author(s):  
Laith Mzahim Khudair Kazem
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
United States Of America ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Other ◽  
Islamic Fundamentalism ◽  
Islamic Movements ◽  
Important Means ◽  
Armed Violence ◽  
Goals And Objectives ◽  
At Home

The armed violence of many radical Islamic movements is one of the most important means to achieve the goals and objectives of these movements. These movements have legitimized and legitimized these violent practices and constructed justification ideologies in order to justify their use for them both at home against governments or against the other Religiously, intellectually and even culturally, or abroad against countries that call them the term "unbelievers", especially the United States of America.

James Bryce and the Australian Constitution

2015 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-200
Author(s):  
Stephen Gageler
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Judicial Review ◽  
Constitutional Law ◽  
The United States ◽  
United States Constitution ◽  
Constitutional Development ◽  
Practical Operation ◽  
Responsible Government ◽  
Shed Light

James Bryce was a contemporary of Albert Venn Dicey. Bryce published in 1888 The American Commonwealth. Its detailed description of the practical operation of the United States Constitution was influential in the framing of the Australian Constitution in the 1890s. The project of this article is to shed light on that influence. The article compares and contrasts the views of Bryce and of Dicey; Bryce's views, unlike those of Dicey, having been largely unexplored in contemporary analyses of our constitutional development. It examines the importance of Bryce's views on two particular constitutional mechanisms – responsible government and judicial review – to the development of our constitutional structure. The ongoing theoretical implications of The American Commonwealth for Australian constitutional law remain to be pondered.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document