Glasgow Open Journals
Not a member yet
260 research outputs found
Sort by
Stories Which Transfix Society: A Sociological Analysis of the Cultural Practice of Remembrance Sunday
Get PDFFor the sociologist there is rarely any fixed ‘reality’ which can be uncovered. All theoretical or methodological attempts to understand the social world are recognised as just one of many possible interpretations. However a sociological reading of Remembrance Sunday does have the capacity to highlight the misleading features of the common cultural perception of the practice. Offering in contrast, not necessarily a ‘reality’ to replace these views, but simply an alternative and critical perception
Did Communist rule in the German Democratic Republic live up to its rhetoric regarding women’s emancipation?
Get PDFCommunism in the German Democratic Republic offers an interesting assessment of the reality/perception paradigm. Despite attempts to convey ideas of absolute equality between the sexes, as perceived by the legal and theoretical frameworks created by the state, the GDR remained unable to overcome realities of economics, the ‘double burden’ and entrenched gender roles within East German society to achieve their aims. By examining each of these aspects in turn, this article will illustrate that whilst some improvements regarding female emancipation were made in the public sphere, little progress was made within the private, and as such the reality remained at odds with the idealised perception of communist equality
Back to the Drawing Board: The Effect of Digital Animation Within the Realm of Live-action Cinema
Get PDFAnimation has long occupied the sidelines of cinema. As its essence resides not in the ability to capture the world as it really is but in an artistic representation of reality, conventional animation has often been discarded as an outdated by-product of cinema’s early technological development. However, with advances in digital animation, live-action film is becoming increasingly reliant on computer-generated images as a tool to manipulate the on-screen image, whether to subtly tweak aesthetics or to create entire scenes. The relationship between animation and live-action cinema is therefore changing. Some fear that, as a result, cinema will lose its credibility as an authoritative medium; that the hand of the digital animator will detract from cinema’s ability to effectively showcase the ‘real’. With reference to films containing varying degrees of digital manipulation, this paper will look at the effect that this hybridisation has on both animation and live-action cinema, and will show that, although it may detract from cinema’s authoritative nature, it also frees filmmakers from the constraints of conventional cinematic apparatus, allowing for the creation of new and exciting styles
A Transtheoretical Understanding of the Emotions: On the importance of dialogue between Robert Solomon’s cognitive and William James’ non-cognitive theories of emotions to create a satisfying and applicable theory
Get PDFIndividual theories of the emotions tend to isolate themselves from others and in doing so they necessarily lack the strengths of the other theories. The dogmatic spat between cognitive and non-cognitive theories of the emotions, which I explore here, is symptomatic of this insularity. To have a satisfying understanding of the emotions we must acknowledge the strengths and discard the weaknesses of each theory. As such, I argue that it is only through dialogue between theories that we can achieve a strong conceptualisation of the emotions
Rural African Women: Misrepresentations, Misconceptions, and Towards a Remedy
Get PDFThe history of rural African women has been beset by problems. Traditional academic disciplines, in aspiring to a standard of objectivity and validity, have tended towards broad generalisations which obliterate the experiences of marginalised groups. Scholarly obsession with documentary evidence has inadvertently silenced voices in the non-literate world. Meanwhile the socially ingrained proverbs and folktales of Africa contain flawed representations of women. This situation has given rise to warped perceptions which not only conceal the truth but contribute to the subjugation of women. Oral history offers a remedy: by speaking directly to rural African women about their lives, we can give them a voice, gain insights into their pasts, debunk the myths and fill in the gaps in their history, with a view to changing perceptions in both Africa and the western world
Altered States: Performance and Perception in Form – A Kristján Guðmundsson Retrospective
Get PDFThis retrospective of the art of Kristján Guðmundsson will address how by refining the elements of painting and drawing, while simultaneously engaging the viewer in new and more thorough ways, the artists broadens the capacity to interact with art by confusing the viewer’s own immediate perception. Through unconventional, visual ways of measuring time and altering audio perception, the realm of the art becomes ours as well. By requiring us as viewers to relinquish our senses to fully participate in the work, it broadens one’s perception of art to the essential level of how one perceives the world
Perceptions of an Icon: The Realistic Depiction of Holy Death in Caravaggio’s Death of the Virgin
Get PDFDeath of a Virgin is arguably Caravaggio’s most renowned work, and is one of the most celebrated and recognisable paintings in the world, being one of the main attractions at the Louvre in Paris. The painting was also welcomed by contemporary artists who thought it radical in its naturalism. The painting was rejected, however, by the Carmelites that commissioned it. Catholic perceptions of the Virgin were of monumental perfectionism, an image that was not produced by Caravaggio in his pursuit of a realistic depiction of the holy scene
‘The price we had to pay’: Perception and Reality in the Memories of a Veteran of the Malayan Emergency
Get PDFMemory is never a static snapshot of a past reality, but an organic process of recall; as much contingent on the demands of the present as the prism of each narrator’s perception of the past. A veteran’s perception of the Malayan Emergency sees acceptance of British involvement in Malaysia’s affairs as ‘what we had to do to give them freedom, otherwise they’d be wearing jackboots now’. The testimony a narrator produces is a window into their process of recall; what is remembered, what is forgotten and what is left unsaid: ‘People, whether young or old, remember what is important to them’. Ultimately, memory is a fallible tool subject to mutations over time; the weight of collective and cultural memories limit individual recollection. Personal narrative is a product of subjectivity
Dialogues of Desolate Men: Narrating the Conflicted Self in the Dialogical Poetry of David Lyndsay and William Lithgow
Get PDFLiterature in early modern Scotland was a medium for education which stemmed from the king and court to the wider community. Historically, Scotland’s literature conveys a penchant for moral and social reform in which the king acted as a spiritual figurehead used to represent the self and society as a whole, enabling the literature to centre around an identifiable exemplar. The parallels between David Lyndsay and William Lithgow are few – they wrote in very different times and were very different men – however, their poetry displays the unease they both felt in their kingless Scotland. The monarchical void forced both poets to identify themselves outwith the influence of the King and Court and to resituate their voices within the new political and cultural landscapes. This paper explores the way in which both poets used the form of dialogue to restructure the method of didactic transmission from taking the monarch as the spiritual moorings, to looking to reason and, as they believed to be the moral epitome, God
Transitions in the Avant-garde: Dada to Surrealism as illustrated by Ramón Gómez de la Serna’s novel El Incongruente?
Get PDFWritten on the cusp between two movements, El Incongruente by Ramon Gómez de la Serna eloquently illustrates the transition between Dada and Surrealism. Utilising key Dadaist principles – such as the renunciation of logic, chance combinations of chapters and the juxtaposition of contradictory imagery – combined with Surrealist elements such as a focus on dreams and the passing of time, Gómez de la Serna constructs the puzzling world in which Gustavo lives. El Incongruente breaks with literary tradition eulogizing Dadaist elements whilst still representing the harbinger of Surrealism