scholarly journals Silhouettes of a Silent Female’s Authority: A Psychoanalytic and Feminist Perspective on the Art of Kara Walker

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Angeliza Peres ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Formal Analysis ◽  
Sexual Exploitation ◽  
Antebellum South ◽  
Semiotic Analysis ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
American Artist ◽  
Contemporary Work ◽  
Historically Situated ◽  
Female Slave ◽  
Made In

The focus of my research centers on the contemporary work of Georgia-based artist, Kara Elizabeth Walker. In conducting extensive research on the life of the artist as well as three select artworks which recall the antebellum slave era within the south, I argue the explicit presence of the power of the enslaved prepubescent girl and young woman. The three select works that I intend to analyze are Burn, a cut-paper silhouette on canvas created in 1998, The Invisible Beauty, a mixed media piece made in 2001, and Cut, a paper cut-out silhouette made in 1998. In a time where one’s power and freedom were both stripped away upon entering the prison-like confines of a plantation home, the life of a slave (a female slave in this case) was committed to grueling housework, the rearing of her slave master’s children in the place of her own, sexual exploitation and merciless beatings, humiliation, submission to her white counterparts, and in many cases, the occasion of rape. Walker’s intense, overtly erotic and disturbing life-size (and larger than life size) interpretations of the Antebellum south force a stirred emotion within her viewers, so as to implicate them upon viewing. Utilizing methodologies such as formal analysis, feminist deconstruction, semiotic analysis, and psychoanalytic theory, I will prove that Walker’s work is not only a provocative rendition of the horrors of the slave era, but also a way to deconstruct the notion of the female slave as a powerless individual and counter that thought process with a more powerful, authoritative, aggressive, and sexually autonomous image of a female slave, as well as the authority reflected in herself as a contemporary African American artist. *As a disclaimer and out of personal respect to my readers, I caution that there are phrases in my article that may be considered offensive, given their racial nature. The artist has used these terms as a way to describe the figures in her works of art. While they may be offensive, I feel they are necessary to bolster my arguments of racial stereotypes of enslaved females, which over time have been socially constructed and historically situated.

Making meaning in women’s spiritual autobiography: Language, materiality, and agency in colonial New Granada

Semiotica ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 (207) ◽  
pp. 31-64
Author(s):  
Constance G. Janiga-Perkins
Keyword(s):  
Life Story ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Valuable Insight ◽  
Semiotic Analysis ◽  
Spiritual Autobiography ◽  
Making Meaning ◽  
New Granada ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
The Social ◽  
Made In

AbstractThis article examines the multiple ways in which meaning is made in female spiritual autobiography by studying a specific text, the Vida by the Colombian Poor Clare nun Mother Gerónima del Espíritu Santo, neé Jerónima Nava y Saavedra (1669–1727). First, it analyzes this life story as a socially constructed assemblage of written words that have been shown by critics to create agency (dominant reading). Then, the article discusses how the materiality of its N1 manuscript also makes meaning and creates agency (non-dominant reading). Using the work of Van Leeuwen, Björkvall, and Karlsson, the study offers valuable insight into the meaning-making of Early Modern script in New Granada, an area that until now has not been placed under this particular branch of semiotic analysis. It also studies how the social practices surrounding the penitent/confessor relationship in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and the exigencies of reading and editing today are strong forces in shaping manuscript material into meaning. The article concludes that the materiality of the N1 Vida documents the shades and hues of agency that the language of the manuscript alone cannot.

Strong Integration in bilingual grammar, formalized

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 427-467 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Hsin ◽  
Geraldine Legendre
Keyword(s):  
Formal Analysis ◽  
Production Data ◽  
Proof Of Concept ◽  
Interference Effects ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Wh Questions ◽  
Linguistic Interference ◽  
The Individual ◽  
As Effects ◽  
Made In

Abstract We present elicited production data reflecting cross-linguistic interference effects in the English wh-questions of Spanish-English bilingual children to provide a proof-of-concept for a proposed new formal analysis of such effects across cross-linguistic influence phenomena. The observed interference effects are interpreted as evidence for the Strong Integration hypothesis of bilingual grammatical architecture, in the context of independently documented facilitation and interference effects in a range of bilingual acquisition contexts. Building on an existing Optimality-Theoretic (OT) model of monolingual acquisition and a specific account of the adult grammar of wh-structures across dialects of Spanish, we propose that the individual patterns documented, in particular the sensitivity in child English to distinctions made in Spanish dialects on the basis of an argument/adjunct contrast, find a straightforward explanation in the OT model of acquisition as adapted to bilingual situations. The generalizability of the model as well as effects of exposure and dominance are discussed.

scholarly journals The passage of α- and β- particles through matter and Born's theory of collisions

1932 ◽  
Vol 135 (826) ◽  
pp. 108-131 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Theory ◽  
Theoretical Calculations ◽  
Stopping Power ◽  
Fundamental Significance ◽  
Contemporary Work ◽  
Moving Particle ◽  
Atomic Electrons ◽  
Experimental Values ◽  
Slow Electrons ◽  
Made In

In a recent paper* the present writer considered the relation between the results of observations on various phenomena connected with the passage of β-particles through matter and the requirements of the quantum theory. A close quantitative comparison of the new quantum theory with experiment was, however, not made, because the theoretical requirements were not known with sufficient accuracy. The theoretical estimates were mainly based on calculations made by Gaunt in 1927, and in his calculations the effect of close collisions with impact parameter less than atomic dimensions were not adequately dealt with. These close collisions contribute appreciably to such phenomena as the stopping-power and ionisation, and in order to allow for them in such cases somewhat arbitrary assumptions concerning their effect had to be made. The differences between the theoretical values arrived at and the experimental values were not so large that they could be definitely dissociated from these assumptions, and for this reason no fundamental significance was attached to them. A treatment of collisions more complete than that of Gaunt was given recently by Bethe on the basis of Born’s theory of collisions. Bethe’s calculations deal with the effect of all collisions , and the formulæ obtained by him for the stopping power, primary ionisation, etc., enable us to make a closer comparison of the new quantum theory with experiment than was possible before. This is done in the first part of the present paper. It is satisfactory that the new formulæ, whilst agreeing in a general way with those previously used as a representation of the quantum theory, are in better quantitative accord with experiment. The present position is, however, not completely satisfactory. In some cases there are still large discrepancies. These discrepancies, if real, are, of course, more serious than those found in previous discussions because there is much less room for ascribing them to incompleteness or approximation in the theoretical calculations. The main assumptions made in Bethe’s calculations are that the velocity, v , of the moving particle is large compared with the Bohr-orbit velocity, u , of the atomic electrons traversed, and that it is small compared with the velocity, c , of light ; quantities of the order of u 2 / v 2 , and v 2 / c 2 , being neglected. A third simplification which we must not overlook, especially in dealing with many-electron atoms, is the representation, in Bethe’s calculations, of the atomic electrons by hydrogen-like wave-functions. As regards the first two assumptions, ½ mu 2 being roughly equal to the ionisation potential, J, the corresponding conditions of applicability of Bethe’s results may be formally written u 2 / v 2 ≈ J/½ mv 2 ≪1, (1a) v 2 / c 2 ≪ 1. (1b) These conditions are adequately satisfied in most of the cases considered in the first part of this paper. The test of Born’s theory of collisions under these simplifying conditions is very desirable, especially in view of the considerable contemporary work which is being done on slow electrons which do not satisfy (1a).

Victims of Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation

2010 ◽  
pp. 138-155
Author(s):  
Silvia R. Lucchi
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Exploitation ◽  
Restricted Area ◽  
Video Documentary ◽  
The North ◽  
Emilia Romagna Region ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Made In

This chapter shows the production of a video documentary, realized to deepen the knowledge about actual interventions to assist the victims of a particular crime of international interest, namely the trafficking of women for purposes of sexual exploitation. The video documentary has been made in Italy and especially through a restricted area in the North of the Country, Emilia-Romagna region, where particularly widespread are the phenomenon and the heterogeneity of interventions brought against. The dynamics of trafficking and exploitation are described as well as the legislation on them and the interventions brought about in order to give the victims the chance to redeem from the condition of sexual exploitation. This part is accompanied with the step-by-step explanation of how the video documentary has been made. The relevant objective is to define the modalities used to set up the video, in order to examine part of the actual interventions aimed to defend the victims, and to underline how it represents a useful effective document for teaching the dynamics associated with this particular kind of crime.

A formal analysis of the intonation of modern colloquial Russian (Part II)

1976 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 77-85
Author(s):  
J. R. Baldwin
Keyword(s):  
Formal Analysis ◽  
Testing Hypotheses ◽  
Probability Of Occurrence ◽  
Russian Part ◽  
Small Set ◽  
Functional Units ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Fundamental Requirement ◽  
Made In ◽  
The Way

With the corpus organized in the way described in the first part of this article (JIPA 4.2, December 1974) it was possible to move on to the main objective, namely the extraction of a system of intonation from the corpus. In the present work it was a fundamental requirement of the eventual system of intonation that it should account for all the intonation patterns observable in the corpus. It is suggested that this system provides a very adequate means of describing the intonation of modern colloquial Russian in the broader context, although it is not, of course, possible within the limits of this article to test that proposition. If the system is to be descriptive of the intonation of Russian in the widest sense it seems essential that as few assumptions as possible should be made about what is and what is not functional in an intonation system. The problems involved in setting up and testing hypotheses about the function of intonation are considerable, and the only assumption made in this work is that perceivably different intonation patterns could have different functions in the conversational situation—the definition of those functions is not a necessary part of the task here. Given this approach it follows that an intonation system is not regarded as comparable to a phonemic system, in which a relatively small set of functional units will be realized in a very large number of different but not necessarily contrastive ways. Rather it is viewed here as a very much larger set, graded in terms of probability of occurrence.

Of Great Vampire Squids and Jamming Blood Funnels: A Socially Constructed and Historically Situated Perspective on Organizational Corruption

2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 406-417 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynne Andersson
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Studies ◽  
Financial Services ◽  
Theory Building ◽  
Organizational Corruption ◽  
Historical Perspectives ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
Historically Situated ◽  
Situated Perspective

In this essay, I propose an eventful way to approach corruption as socially constructed and historically situated. First, I describe how deep (socially constructed) and long (processual, historical) perspectives on corruption have been less examined. Then, I build an approach to understanding organizational corruption as a constructed event embedded in scenario, utilizing concepts from history, cultural studies, and the interactionist tradition in sociology. To offer scholars a way to articulate this eventful conception of organizational corruption and inform how it might be approached through interpretive textual reading and narrative, I draw in an example of a highly publicized accusation of corruption by the financial services firm Goldman Sachs. In closing, I present implications for theory building and research.

scholarly journals THE WORLD OF "THE MAN WHO SAVED THE WORLD"

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 23-29
Author(s):  
Mehmet Aziz GÖKSEL ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
High Technology ◽  
Semiotic Analysis ◽  
Research Material ◽  
The World ◽  
Turkish People ◽  
Science Fantasy ◽  
Film Language ◽  
Made In

In this study, a semiotic reading of the famous Turkish science fantasy film “The Man Who Saves the World” has been made from different aspects. This film which constitutes the research material for this article was made in 1982 and became a cult classic by the end of the nineties because of it’s comprehensive deficencies. The Man Who Saves the World must be considered as a project that can assert social and psychological appearenace of Turkish people not entirely but partially in early eighties who lived in a peripheric country such as today. With this respect the idea of reading Turkish societie’s -especially- geopolitical location, percieving and defining levels of high technology in comparison with western societies in a bi-polar world of cold war period via this production is remarkably interesting and therewithal ironic. As this study is a semiotic analysis of the connections of “signifier-signified” relations of film language, the determined significations are arranged in a matched order within a table. By this analysis the attributes of the feature and the film language are discussed in a structural unity and concluded.

scholarly journals USE OF WRITING IN PICTORIAL EXPRESSION

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (76) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Present Status ◽  
Research Method ◽  
Complete List ◽  
Semiotic Analysis ◽  
Qualitative Research Method ◽  
Plastic Arts ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Made In

The purpose of this research is to analyze the reasons for the usage and positioning of writing in the field of plastic arts by using semiotic analysis. Therefore, the purposes for which the writing is used in pictorial expressions has been researched by using literature scanning techniques, and it has been exemplified over different methods of use by elaborating on a few artists. During the research, qualitative research method was used and the works of the artists who used writing in their paintings were examined by examining the research examples made in this field together with the literature review. Research; The use of images in the article is important in order to reveal the present status of the century in Turkey, it is limited by the Contemporary Turkish Painting Artists and their works using text in this important line in the works. While Contemporary Turkish Painting Art constitutes the universe of the research, he uses painting and writing together in his works as a sample; The works of Aylin Beyoğlu, Bedri Baykam, Gültekin Akengin, Kayıhan Keskinok, Özdemir Altan, Rauf Tuncer and Seyit Mehmet Buçukoğlu were selected. Undoubtedly, many artists who used writing in their works could be included in this research. However, the main purpose here is not to create a complete list of artists who use writing in their works; to reveal the existence and usage purposes of writing in contemporary Turkish painting. Keywords: Plastic arts, painting, writing, painting artist, Contemporary Turkish painting art

The international politics of truth: C. Wright Mills and the sociology of the international

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Bryan Mabee
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International Politics ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
The World ◽  
Historically Situated ◽  
International Power ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
Political Commitments ◽  
Structural Determinant

Abstract C. Wright Mills's critical work on international relations is well known, but is often dismissed as being unscholarly, reductionist, and overly polemical. However, seeing the work in the context of his earlier career can allow for a new perspective, with Mills's activist views on war and militarism shaped very clearly by his earlier theoretical and political commitments. Mills developed a distinctive political sociological understanding of international politics, theorising the state as a historically-situated structural determinant of international power: a network of elite power that was contextualised by the influence of the socially constructed realities of the international created by elites. Mills's crucial critical contribution was to see the role of the intellectual as criticising these realities through the imaginative reconceptualisation of the world, which he called the ‘politics of truth’. The article argues the international politics of truth was not only Mills's distinctive theory of the international, but that it was clearly supported by his early theorisation of the international. A revised view of the importance of Mills's international relations work can help to situate Mills as part of a broader tradition of IR scholarship, a lost lineage of the critical historical and political sociology of the international.

Local Response to Forced Adaptation Challenges: Lessons from a Post-flooding School Rebuilding Controversy

2021 ◽  
pp. 193672442110034
Author(s):  
Christopher Plein
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
School Closure ◽  
Community Identity ◽  
Rural County ◽  
Public Records ◽  
The Public ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
Power And Powerlessness ◽  
Made In

This study focuses on school rebuilding experiences in a distressed rural county in the wake of severe flooding. While considering scholarly literature, and making use of relevant public records and media coverage, the centerpiece of this qualitative study is an analysis of 391 public comments made in response to proposed rebuilding plans. The study focuses on how the schools rebuilding debate was socially constructed in response to the flood and in a time of growing awareness of climate change. The findings suggest that the debate was framed along lines familiar to rural school closure and consolidation controversies in general and in context of underlying political and social conditions specific to the county. Themes of power and powerlessness, fairness and justice, and community identity and viability were predominant. Specific discussion of climate change and associated themes was notably absent in the public comments. The findings suggest that existing sociopolitical context and policy domains may shape the consideration of new adaptation choices, whether forced by immediate events such as a natural disaster, or influenced by longer term concerns relating to climate change.

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