scholarly journals Towards a Miltonic Mariology: the word and the body of Mary in Paradise Regain’d (1671)

Sederi ◽  
2012 ◽  
pp. 29-50
Author(s):  
Joan Curbet Soler

It is a recurring critical topos that John Milton’s Paradise Regain’d (1671) is a revisionist poem, one that works towards reframing and redefining the epic tradition; what has certainly been less noticed is the central function played by the character of Mary, the mother of Christ, in this revisionist process. This article will try to prove that Mary’s appearances in the poem are, though limited, essential to its content and to its perspective on the interrelated subjects of the revelation of God in history and the individual confrontation with historical forces; and it will try to do so by bringing together theological discussion and a gender-oriented approach. There have certainly been approaches to Paradise Regain’d that have explored some of the gender issues brought about by the poem’s modification of the heroic function: almost unanimously, these approaches have concentrated on the character of the Son. My intention here, however, is another: I will try to show how the function and voice of Mary in the poem set in motion a complex, rich network of implications (both ethical and theological) which are at the core of the poem’s discourse and ideology. This focus on the maternal in Paradise Regain’d will not be carried out from a psychoanalytical perspective (though it is by no means incompatible with such an approach), but rather through reading the text via literary and theological categories that are recurrent throughout Milton’s work. It should thus be possible to start working seriously towards establishing the presence of a serious and original Mariology (clearly not a Mariolatry) in Milton’s last epic poem. Overall, this will lead us to a reconsideration of Paradise Regain’d as an essentially innovative text, and one which is strongly heterodox in terms of its theology and gender discourse.

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Yuniar Fatmasari

AbstractBasically, the body of the black woman slaves have experienced an immensely oppression whether from the economic, politic, and ideological dimensions; nevertheless, it is the ideological strategy which is believed in contributing the biggest and furthest effect so that the oppression still exists even the slavery has been abolished. During the slavery, the black woman slaves are forced to give birth as many as possible for the profit of the master. This shows that there is a control over the womb of the black woman slave. One of the strategies that the writer wants to convey in this article is the regulation on the maternal role of the black woman slaver. The individual maternal role is considered as a good strategy to conquer the body of the black woman slave so that they and the post-slavery black women are placing a disadvantage position in the social structure. Racism, sexism, class, and gender issues are assumed as the causal factors of this kind of social inequity.Keywords: individual maternal role, communal maternal roleAbstrakPada dasarnya, tubuh budak perempuan kulit hitam telah mengalami opresi secara besar-besaran baik dari dimensi ekonomi, politik dan ideologi; namun demikian, strategi ideologi-lah yang dipercaya memberikan efek paling besar dan dalam sehingga opresi tetap ada bahkan meski perbudakan itu sendiri telah ditiadakan. Selama perbudakan,budak perempuan kulit hitam dipaksa melahirkan anak sebanyak mungkin untuk kepentingan profit sang majikan dan hal tersebut menunjukkan adanya kontrol terhadap rahim budak perempuan kulit hitam. Salah satu strategi yang penulis ingin kemukakan di dalam artikel ini adalah regulasi terhadap peran maternal budak perempuan kulit hitam. Peran maternal individu dianggap strategis untuk menguasai tubuh perempuan kulit hitam sehingga budak perempuan kulit hitam dan perempuan kulit hitam pasca perbudakan menempati posisi yang tidak menguntungkan di dalam struktur sosial.Wacana rasisme, seksisme, kelas dan gender diasumsikan menjadi faktor penyebab ketimpangan sosial semacam ini.Kata kunci: peran maternal individu, peran maternal komunal


Author(s):  
Oluwatoyin Bukola Chete

Aims: This paper reviews the body of evidence on gender and agriculture and gender and enterprise (including farm enterprise) development in developing countries. Results: The resurgence of interest on the influence of gender and its subsequent mainstreaming into social and economic programmes and in particular, agricultural policy and practice, is largely a development of the 1990s and beyond. The extant body of literature on gender and agriculture is dominated by the liberal feminist construction that women are the disadvantaged group regarding resources such as time, assets (particularly land and credit) and household burden,Agricultural development would be facilitated if both men and women have equal access to resources for use in agricultural work. Conclusion: There is no unique pathway for bringing this about nor are there singular notions of success. Indeed, gender issues should be integrated into the agricultural enterprise from the beginning on the back of broad-based needs assessment schemes. Recommendation: The range of gender issues requiring intervention should include progressive identification and systematic dismantling of socio-cultural, ideological, institutional and legal barriers to equal participation of men and women in agricultural enterprise, orientating and skilling extension workers on gender issues and developing women and men cadre in extension services to cater to the specific needs of each gender and creating equal opportunities in education, employment and politics taking account of the realities of both gender.


Author(s):  
Kira Sanbonmatsu ◽  
Kathleen Dolan

This chapter analyzes a series of questions related to citizen's attitudes about gender issues. These items are included in the 2006 Pilot Study. The examination of gender stereotypes suggests that many people see few differences in the traits and abilities of women and men, but that those who do perceive differences tend to do so in predictable ways. These new items also demonstrate that gender stereotypes transcend party, although gender and party interact in meaningful ways in some circumstances. The examination of voters' gender preferences for elected officials reveal the importance (or lack thereof) of descriptive representation to voters and the potential for women candidates to mobilize women in the public to greater political involvement. Finally, the analysis of these new items clearly indicates that while they are related to other gender attitudes, gender stereotypes and gender preferences are distinct attitudes held by voters.


Author(s):  
Tine Tjørnhøj-Thomsen

The article addresses the theme of "masculinities" from the perspective of infertile men and their partners. It argues that experiences of infertility should be understood as disruption in relation to the body and in relation to the narrative of life that is informed by cultural notions of kinship and gender. These notions are closely connected to a culturally specific story of coming-into-being, which gives symbolic priority to biological procreation and genetic connectedness. Being a real father and a real man depends on procreative abilities. In order to come to terms with infertility, infertile men try to redefine such ideologies of authenticity. The article illustrates how infertile men are confronted by strong cultural associations between fertility, sexuality and masculinity, and how these notions are related to other ideas of masculinity such as independence of the individual, ability to be a provider and a conception of the "intact" body. Finally, the article demonstrates how men and women differ in coping with infertility, childlessness and fertility treatment, and their longings for parenthood. However, gender is not the only difference, which makes a difference in the world of infertile and childless people. The ideas of masculinities unfold through men's relations with other men and through generational differences and similarities.


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 66-81
Author(s):  
Fabio Belafatti

Existing literature on gender and nationalism has postulated that nationalist narratives tend to convey patriarchal and restrictive views of gender roles, with women’s domesticity and subordination at the core of such interpretations. This paper tests this theory by looking at three examples of state-sponsored or state-produced communication in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, arguing that the simple existence of a regime’s nationalist ideological orientation is not per se sufficient to explain or anticipate the kind of gender narratives a regime will adopt. Instead, the paper calls for an analysis of internal political mechanisms and incentives in order to explain and anticipate the specific forms that discourses around gender will take in a given political environment. In order to do so, it tries to combine the rational choice-based “Selectorate Theory” (Bueno de Mesquita et al., 2003) with existing literature on nationalism and gender, to define a connection between political systems on the one hand and discourses on the other.


1984 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 413-448 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clemens Knobloch

Summary The paper recaptures, on the basis of one of the central issues of the discussion, namely, the relationship between thought and speech, the psychlin-guistic controversy between Wilhelm Wundt (1832–1920), Hermann Paul (1846–1921), and Anton Marty (1847–1914) at the turn of this century. The basic tenets of all three theories are presented, their assumptions analysed, and their respective fruitfulness (or lack of it) put forward. After redressing the distorted picture of Wundt’s position in the recent historiography of psycholingu-istics, it is shown that Wundt’s model of an expression-oriented approach, which in effect identifies categories of linguistic surface structure with those of an inner psychological nature, remains circular and not amenable to further development. Hermann Paul, though making use of a similar procedure, is opposed to Wundt’s (as well as Heymann Steinthal’s (1823–1899) social psychology or Völkerpsychologie), favouring instead the individual as the locus of linguistic events (and hence linguistic analysis), thereby playing down the importance of linguistic intercourse and communication in language acquisition and historical development. Finally, in Marty’s theories the contradiction between his reliance on 19th-century event-directed psychology and a rather modern functional conception of language is most evident. Marty wants, unlike Wundt and Paul, to distinguish clearly between genetic and systematic questions. But while recognizing the complementarity of event expression and control of comprehension on the part of the hearer, he does not do so in the case of the linguistic representation of ‘objects and events’. In an attempt to escape from the naive homology of thinking and grammar, Marty argues in favour of a complete separation of the two mental activities. The paper argues that the common psychological premisses of these authors must be considered if the differences between them are to be understood, since it is just these particular premises that lie in the way of an adequate comprehension of problems of semantics and of communication.


1993 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 397-412 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juha Heikkala

In the practical discourse of sport the focus is on the individual athlete as the autonomous and independent locus of action. This discourse is deconstructed from a, poststructuralist perspective. It is argued that in sport the disciplinary techniques of the body and self, as depicted by Michel Foucault, are both an instrument and an effect of competing. Disciplinary and normalizing practices such as bodily exercises or filling in a training diary are instruments for athletes to transcend their current performance, which is the core of the logic of competing. Furthermore, disciplining is the outcome of this “rationale” to excel. Giddens’s notion of structure is used to explicate the structure of competing. Yet his Cartesian conception of agents as knowledgeable is qualified, that is, within the practices of training and the structure of competing, some consequences of these practices escape athletes’ intention. The constitution of athletes’ subjectivity and even the consequences of the process of competing may be beyond their control.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (S2) ◽  
pp. 831-847
Author(s):  
Nguyen Anh Quoc ◽  
Nguyen Minh Tri ◽  
Nguyen Trinh Nghieu ◽  
Pham Thi Dinh ◽  
Dinh Van Chien ◽  
...  

Liberty, and necessity are the premise for the perception of the relationship between man and nature. When objects exist in nature, individuals exist in people. Nature and man are a unity between the body and the individual in behavior. The successive act of liberty to fill the temporal gaps in the exercise of the right to life and the pursuit of happiness is the object of human science. Liberty is in itself, due to it, but depending on historical circumstances and conditions, liberty depends on different objects, knowledge, and needs of individuals, making behavior about necessity become liberty about responsibility. Individuals are acts of knowledge, with a will, and liberty is acts of intelligence and reason. When private ownership comes into being, liberty about the property becomes liberty about norms. Organizations become a means of subsistence that makes standards false. To submit to falsehoods in the course of living is a slave. The abolition of slaves is the subject of liberty. In the condition that there is no more antagonistic division of labor, diversity of occupations, an abundance of sexual orientation, and false standards are fully discovered, work and gender are equally noble and equal. 


2021 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
pp. 105-122
Author(s):  
H. Jansen

Arguments for excluding women from church office are often grounded in the theologies of creation and ministry. Creation theology rightly preserves the differences between male and female, as does scientific reflection on the dynamics of gender identity. Reflection on gender issues and ministry in New Testament texts, however, provides strong arguments against headship as the core element of ministry and as the divinely intended destiny of a baptized male. This essay argues that Galatians 3:28 does not preserve but transcends identity differences in the new community of love in Christ. That is, the Bible’s patriarchal thought should be understood from within its own socio-cultural context, and the church’s ministry should express this anti-patriarchal characteristic of the body of Christ.


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