Popular Music and the Modernist Dystopia: Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four

2021 ◽  
Vol 90 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-41
Author(s):  
Alex MacDonald
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Popular Music ◽  
New World ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Popular Songs ◽  
Post Modernism ◽  
Brave New World ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

This essay explores musical references in Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four, including music imagery and allusions to popular songs of the 1920s and 1940s. Huxley used the popular music of the Brave New World as an indicator of its emotional shallowness, represented by such immortal songs as “Hug Me Till You Drug Me, Honey.” Brave New World’s scorn for popular music, and for popular culture in general, situates Huxley’s famous dystopia as a high Modernist work. In Orwell’s case, implicit references to World War II hits such as “We’ll Meet Again” and “I’ll Be Seeing You” reflect ironically upon the relationship of Winston and Julia and their terrible situation at the end of the novel. His treatment of the musical thrush and the singing Prole laundrywoman plays a more hopeful note, and a positive attitude to popular songs and popular culture situates Nineteen Eighty-Four on the cusp of Post-Modernism. With respect to the critical discourse about hope and despair in these dystopian texts, the essay suggests that signs of hopefulness in Brave New World are very slight, although they do exist. The music of Nineteen Eighty-Four, and some other factors, lend support to the view that Orwell’s novel is not so despairing as it is sometimes made out to be.

scholarly journals The Relationship between Dominance and Resistance in the Novel High Fidelity

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (22) ◽  
pp. 283-298
Author(s):  
Aleksandar Živanović ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Lower Class ◽  
Upper Class ◽  
High Fidelity ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Class Member ◽  
Moral Principles ◽  
Successful Business ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

This paper provides an analysis of the relationship of dominance and resistance in the novel High Fidelity. The aim of the paper is to identify the elements of popular culture in the novel and thus determine the nature of possible relationships in a patriarchal, capitalist society. The theoretical framework used in the paper is Fiske’s theory of popular culture (2001) and the analysis is based on regarding the characters as representatives of dominant and resistant forces. Men and the upper class constitute categories which are dominant in the relationship with subordinate ones – women and the lower class. In addition, the protagonist Rob is the prototype of a man who is subordinate to himself, i.e. to his representation of ideal male traits he lacks, according to his own beliefs. The subordinate put up resistance in different ways. Laura is a successful business woman who possesses a strong character, which places her into a better position than that of Rob. The protagonist uses music as one of the ways to express his resistance. As a lower class member (i.e. a poor entrepreneur), the protagonist opposes upper class members (wealthy entrepreneurs) in that he possesses moral principles which they often lack.

The role and relationship of mindreading and social attunement in HRI – position statements of interdisciplinary researchers. Workshop HRI'20

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Wykowska ◽  
Jairo Pérez-Osorio ◽  
Stefan Kopp
Keyword(s):  
Mental States ◽  
Human Robot Interaction ◽  
Human Interaction ◽  
Artificial Agents ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Robot Interaction ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

This booklet is a collection of the position statements accepted for the HRI’20 conference workshop “Social Cognition for HRI: Exploring the relationship between mindreading and social attunement in human-robot interaction” (Wykowska, Perez-Osorio & Kopp, 2020). Unfortunately, due to the rapid unfolding of the novel coronavirus at the beginning of the present year, the conference and consequently our workshop, were canceled. On the light of these events, we decided to put together the positions statements accepted for the workshop. The contributions collected in these pages highlight the role of attribution of mental states to artificial agents in human-robot interaction, and precisely the quality and presence of social attunement mechanisms that are known to make human interaction smooth, efficient, and robust. These papers also accentuate the importance of the multidisciplinary approach to advance the understanding of the factors and the consequences of social interactions with artificial agents.

Humanism and Music

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher M. Driscoll
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Popular Culture ◽  
Popular Music ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Contemporary Music ◽  
Theoretical Relationship ◽  
Rock Band ◽  
Historical Developments ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter explores the relationship between humanism and music, giving attention to important theoretical and historical developments, before focusing on four brief case studies rooted in popular culture. The first turns to rock band Modest Mouse as an example of music as a space of humanist expression. Next, the chapter explores Austin-based Rock band Quiet Company and Westcoast rapper Ras Kass and their use of music to critique religion. Last, the chapter discusses contemporary popular music created by artificial intelligence and considers what non-human production of music suggests about the category of the human and, resultantly, humanism. These case studies give attention to the historical and theoretical relationship between humanism and music, and they offer examples of that relationship as it plays out in contemporary music.

Police Records

2019 ◽  
pp. 797-819
Author(s):  
Cristina Vatulescu
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Detective Fiction ◽  
Media History ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Police Records ◽  
History Of ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter approaches police records as a genre that gains from being considered in its relationships with other genres of writing. In particular, we will follow its long-standing relationship to detective fiction, the novel, and biography. Going further, the chapter emphasizes the intermedia character of police records not just in our time but also throughout their existence, indeed from their very origins. This approach opens to a more inclusive media history of police files. We will start with an analysis of the seminal late nineteenth-century French manuals prescribing the writing of a police file, the famous Bertillon-method manuals. We will then track their influence following their adoption nationally and internationally, with particular attention to the politics of their adoption in the colonies. We will also touch briefly on the relationship of early policing to other disciplines, such as anthropology and statistics, before moving to a closer look at its intersections with photography and literature.

scholarly journals THE MEANING OF INTERTEXTUALITY OF “THE MASTER AND MARGARITA”

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (5) ◽  
pp. 832-838
Author(s):  
E.A. Ivanshina
Keyword(s):  
The Novel ◽  
Inspector General ◽  
The Master And Margarita ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Master And Margarita ◽  
Literary Codes

The article deals with the meaning of intertextual reading of "The Master and Margarita". The text of the novel is considered as a model of counterculture, from the standpoint of which the author chooses those literary codes from which his own model of literary behavior is built. These dominant codes are manifested in the course of decoding as a result of correlation of intertextual borrowings. This takes into account not only external borrowings, but also the relationship within the novel and the relationship of the novel with other Bulgakov’s texts. Special attention is paid to such signs of borrowing as a suit and money. As the keys to the novel, "The Inspector General", "The Covetous Knight" and "The Count of Monte Cristo" are updated, and the novel itself represents the act of retaliation of the author and the implementation of his inner freedom. Besides, the novel affirms the priority of genuine art over reality.

scholarly journals Aku Cinta Lovina: Peran Sastra dalam Mempromosikan Pariwisata Bali Utara

2020 ◽  
pp. 241
Author(s):  
Gde Artawan
Keyword(s):  
Reciprocal Relationship ◽  
Tourist Attraction ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Literary Tourism ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

The development of tourism in North Bali is indebted to literary writers and works, but their contributions are rarely realized. Lovina Beach which was the center of the growth of North Bali tourism was originally introduced in the 1970s by writer Panji Tisna, later by Sunaryono Basuki who wrote several stories set in Lovina. This article analyzes the novel Aku Cinta Lovina (I Love Lovina, 2017) by Sunaryono Basuki to show aspects of the story that promote North Bali tourism. The novel is examined with a literary approach to tourism, with a focus on how the novel portrays the tourist attraction of Lovina and the relationship between the host and guest. The results of the analysis show that the novel Aku Cinta Lovina shows the strong reciprocal relationship between literature and tourism, where writers promote tourism, at the same time writers get inspiration from tourism. Besides being intense in promoting North Bali tourism, this novel also portrays a harmonious relationship of host and guest that reinforces Balinese hospitality which is an important attraction of Bali tourism. Keywords: North Bali, host and guest, Lovina, literary tourism, hospitality

A Judaism of Ethics in a Post-Holocaust World: The Interplay of Literature and Theology in Cynthia Ozick's Messiah of Stockholm

AJS Review ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Claire E. Sufrin
Keyword(s):  
The Novel ◽  
Jewish Literature ◽  
Harold Bloom ◽  
The Past ◽  
Jewish Thought ◽  
Literary Theories ◽  
Literature And Theology ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
Bruno Schulz ◽  
The Relationship

This article suggests that bringing Jewish literature and Jewish thought into conversation can deepen our understanding of each. As an illustration of this interdisciplinary methodology, I offer a reading of Cynthia Ozick's 1987 Messiah of Stockholm. I claim that Ozick has embedded an argument about the relationship of post-Holocaust Jewry to the past into the literary features of her novel. Her argument draws in particular upon Leo Baeck's account of Judaism as focused on the present and future in contrast to the worshipful approach to the past characteristic of other religions. At the same time, I offer a more nuanced take on the fear of idolatry so often noted in analyses of Ozick's work and situate that fear in relationship to the literary theories of her predecessor Bruno Schulz, who plays a key role in the novel, and her contemporary Harold Bloom.

Old Lives

2020 ◽  
pp. 61-88
Author(s):  
Maren Tova Linett
Keyword(s):  
Old Age ◽  
Disability Studies ◽  
New World ◽  
Thought Experiment ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Old People ◽  
World State ◽  
The World ◽  
Brave New World ◽  
Age Reading

Chapter 2 takes a disability studies approach to aging by viewing Brave New World (1932) as a thought experiment that explores the value of old age. Reading the novel alongside Ezekiel Emanuel’s claim that it would be best for everyone to die at around age seventy-five, before their abilities begin to decline, the chapter reads the absence of old people in the World State as an aspect of its dystopia. The chapter first argues that the persistent youth embraced by the society robs life of its narrative arc and thereby of an important aspect of its meaning. It then explores the reasons suggested by the novel that such a sacrifice of life narratives is not worthwhile, even to avoid periods of possible disability or frailty. Brave New World makes clear that the excision of old age has significant political, moral, and emotional costs.

Coda

2020 ◽  
pp. 309-342
Author(s):  
Helen Moore
Keyword(s):  
Don Quixote ◽  
Cultural Work ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Future Direction ◽  
The Many ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

Taking its cue from the Victorian periodical debates characterizing realism as a crocodile and romance as a monster or ‘catawampus’, this chapter examines the role played by Amadis in early discussions of what the novel was, or should be; how it had developed; and where its future direction lay. For literary historians, Amadis constituted a bridge between the newly constructed ‘medieval’ and the emergent ‘modern’. Philosopher-theorists (Bakhtin) and novelists (Nabokov) alike continued to be fascinated by the relationship of Amadis to Don Quixote and its implications for theories of the novel. Novelists themselves (Bulwer Lytton, Ouida, and Thackeray) enlisted Amadis in their critique of modern masculinity. The final iteration of Amadis in English takes the form of chivalric compilations and abridgements for children; this concluding transformation proves to be emblematic of the many varieties of cultural work into which romance can be enlisted.

Womb with a View

2020 ◽  
pp. 187-206
Author(s):  
Ally Wolfe
Keyword(s):  
New World ◽  
Significant Part ◽  
Duty Of Care ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Working Through ◽  
Brave New World

This chapter conducts a close reading of Lois McMaster Bujold’s ‘problem’ novel Ethan of Athos, in which an all-male world, Athos, is posited, reliant for reproduction on the ‘uterine replicator’ or artificial womb. Close reading demonstrates how the novel proves more complex than initial readings might suggest in its careful working-through of the ramifications of the uterine replicator for parenting, motherhood, and the duty of care towards the young. The chapter argues how the existence of Athos with the wider Vorkosigan series is significant, part of an ongoing and series-wide project by Bujold to demonstrate the range of possible futures that the uterine replicator might permit. At various points, Ethan of Athos is brought into conversation with Huxley’s Brave New World to contrast Bujold and Huxley’s visions of reproductive futurities. The chapter shows how Bujold’s saga-length project of creating a diverse science-fictional heterotopia involves a thorough working-through of the ramifications of the uterine replicator, of detaching reproduction from a gestational body, in which Ethan of Athos plays a necessary part.

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