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Metaphor in Sarah Kane’s 4.48 Psychosis
Get PDFMy purpose in this essay is to discuss the notion of metaphor, and relate it to a specific meaning, which, I will argue, articulates Sara Kane’s play 4.48 Psychosis (hereafter, 4.48). For that reason, the paper is divided in two parts: In the first part, I set out with Aristotle’s definition of metaphor, and then I move to its comparison with Turner and Lakkof’s account. Their theory of metaphor as the mapping of terms onto similar conceptual domains, gives rise to two problems: (1) matching of terms from divergent conceptual domains is impossible when a criterion of correspondence is missing; and (2) the construction of indefinite concepts by abstraction from language registering empirical stimuli. This construction attempts to solve the first problem. However, if the premise of empiricism, on which it hinges, changes, then the account fails. How can metaphor exist between undetermined and determined conceptual domains, if the former is something in its own right, and not merely an abstraction from the latter? The suggested answers are drawn by medieval theories of analogy. The latter provide concepts that add up to an ontological theory of metaphor, which can also operate as an interpretive scheme for the play in question. In the second part of this paper, I turn upon the play itself, and try to interpret it under the aforementioned stipulation. I attempt to back up my interpretation by adducing excerpts from 4.48 Psychosis, biographical information about the author, and several of her theoretical reflections on her life and work
The Woman Construct: An Existential Critique
Get PDFThe presence of women as subjects have been ignored by the patriarchal societies and woman as a category has been constructed according to the male fantasy, the inscriptions of which we find in cultural institutions and the media. The paper revisits the question of woman construction even in this postfeminist or more further in the posthumanist era, from the perspective of the existential school of thought, putting forward some elemental questions regarding the objectification of women in this age of cultural exchanges. With the ‘self’ being already ‘split’, the modern human fails to address the degradation that is wrought not only on the body but also on the psyche of the oppressed, when put to presentation in terms of objects. The same is with the women who are represented in movies, ads, pornographic films and ideologically constructed in ways so as to believe that in such ways they emerge as emancipated women. The paper therefore foregrounds the issues of choice and consent for women which can in true terms establishes them as ‘free agents’ and destabilize the masterslave hierarchical relation
Connection in Richard Ford’s A Multitude of Sins
Get PDFA Multitude of Sins is a collection of short stories. Richard Ford insists he had always planned for them to be included in the same volume; their individuality, however, raises the question of the cohesion and of the coherence of A Multitude of Sins, which depends on how satisfactorily the separate pieces connect. The textual aspect of connection reflects a diegetic universe characterized by fragmentation: the stories involve a very limited number of characters who can hardly communicate and quite often find themselves greatly alienated. Disconnection threatens psychological as well as textual integrity; disruptive as it is, this trend actually makes up a key element in the dynamics at play in A Multitude of Sins. Its fragmented world is one narrative construct that strives to build meaning through a maze of perceptions whose randomness may disorient the characters and the readers alike. This article appraises the fragmented quality of that construct before attempting to define the connecting impulse that provides at once fictional material and literary relevance
Hiding in Plain Sight: False Identity and the use of Space in Akira Kursawa’s The Hidden Fortress
Get PDFWhile often cast aside as merely a commercial film without much substance, The Hidden Fortress (Kurosawa, 1958) actually works within late-1950s Japanese society as a subtle critique on national and individual identity. The film functions as a morality tale, questioning the motivating factors behind character actions. The Hidden Fortress clearly distinguishes between morally pure and morally corrupt characters, yet the judgment is based on similar actions. Each character in the film pretends to be something that they are not. Yet, within the use of false identity lies a deeper purpose behind the action. Makabe (Toshiro Mifune) and Yuki (Misa Uehara) are continually contrasted with Tahei (Minoru Chiaki) and Matashichi (Kamatari Fujiwara) because the motivation behind each character’s façade is different. The former characters fight for nationhood and self-sacrifice while the latter characters are only interested in self-preservation and monetary gain. The importance of identity continually appears within the narrative structure of the film, but The Hidden Fortress also visually represents this theme through costuming and camera technique. Director Akira Kurosawa continually uses off-screen space (even though the film is shot in wide-screen) as a “hiding place,” that allows identity and spatial location to be masked until it becomes surprising and alarming
Financial Inclusiveness: The role of mobile money and digital financial services
Get PDFFor successful digital payments, a robust retail payments system is a necessity. This is required to bring the financially excluded into a formal financial network. For this, a cost-effective network should be in place – and here, mobile phones can be gainfully utilized to access payments either through a Bank account or through a mobile money network. At present, mobile money network is operating in a restricted environment. The significance of the potential of mobile payment in financial inclusion is highlighted by the Governor, RBI when he said, “Mobile payments can be a game changer in the financial sector.” With approximately 840 million mobile phones competing against about 85,000 bank branches and about 1 million POS terminals – this prioritizes the importance of the mobile-phone to accelerate the process of financial inclusion. At present the number of mobile banking subscribers (about 93 million) is very much less than 800 million mobile subscribers, and as the number of transactions made through this mode is contributing very little to the total payments. The focus on digital payments for financial inclusion will change the way of transactions – and here, mobile phones will have a big role to play. This is more important keeping in mind that setting up and operating a bank branch is very expensive. So, the need of hour is branchless banking, the transaction cost is less than10% of that incurred at bank branches.
In the current paper, we will explore some of the important aspects of effective mobile money and digital financial services in bringing financial inclusion
e-Health Services in Supporting Pregnant Women
Get PDFeHealth services include mHealth and eHealth services. mHealth stands for the use of mobile communication technologies such as mobile phones and PDAs for health services and information. eHealth stands for the use of information and communication technology (ICT) devices like computer, mobile phone and communication satellite for the health services and information. With the low cost handsets and the penetration of mobile network globally, persons who do not have access to local landline telephones are using mobile phones on a regular basis. Mobile eHealth services can be personalized because the data collected and the conditions receiving the services are personal to the individual user. Application of mobile technologies and information and communication technology (ICT) to the health sector is a recent phenomenon. Various studies in this arena tried to relate the quality of life of the pregnant women with mobile applications. Thus, mobile eHealth technology plays a vital role to enhance and support independent living of the pregnant women. Moreover, it is found that mobile eHealth services are made user friendly for the pregnant women. This paper is an attempt to show that mobile eHealth services are a perfect companion of the pregnant women in various stages of pregnancy. Thus, it assists them in independent living even while living in the remote areas. Therefore, the necessity to analyse the requirements of the pregnant women and their technological skills as user of the eHealth services arises before deployment of it
The New Sorrows of Young W.: Comments on the Film Adaptation of Ulrich Plenzdorf\u27s GDR Novel
Get PDFEdgar Wibeau is an excellent young student who leaves his apprenticeship in a factory after an argument with his supervisor to move – as a statement of anti-authoritarian rebellion – from the boring town of Mittenberg to East-Berlin where he works as a house painter. In East-Berlin, he lives in a garden shed and discovers, by chance, Goethe’s epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther. The novel becomes for him a cult book which he uses to distance himself from everyday life in the GDR and position himself as a disaffected outsider. In this period, he falls in love with a young kindergarten teacher, Charlie, who is engaged to and later on marries Dieter. He records audio tapes, in which he reflects upon his literary and musical interests, his frustrated love for Charlie, and recites excerpts from Goethe’s Werther. He sends these tapes to his best friend Willi, who, however, cannot make any sense of them. In between his solitary activities in the garden cottage (listening to music, painting, recording tapes), his contact with Charlie, and his job, he secretly starts constructing a hydraulic nebula-free spray gun, which his colleague, brigade leader Addi, had tried in vain to develop. When he tries out the device, he is electrocuted. It remains unclear whether Edgar’s death was an accident or suicide. After his son’s death at age 17, Edgar’s father – who didn’t take part in Edgar’s upbringing – enquires among friends and acquaintances in order to get to know his son and understand the circumstances of his death
Conception of a Dialysis Patient (the Untold Truths)
Get PDFAbout the Book:The words in this book are “Memories of a Dialysis Patient”
Conception of a Dialysis Patient (the Untold Truths) Paperback – April 24, 2014By Fayton HollingtonPaperback: 298 pagesPublisher: Outskirts Press (April 24, 2014)Language: EnglishISBN-10: 147873163XISBN-13: 978-1478731634
About the Author:Mr. Fayton HollingtonPublished Novelist/Award Winning poetSpoken word ArtistSAG-AFTRA
Words from the Author: Battling Lupus at twelve, introduced me to the Nephrology world. Lupus vanishes, but renal damage remains.Seventeen years later, my kidneys fail, and dialysis becomes my world. A donation from a sibling liberates meafter seven months. Seven years afterwards, the transplant rejects, and dialysis pulls me in once again
A Kantian Responds to Santayana
Get PDFIn this paper, I have argued that whatever might be said about his attack on other German philosophers, Santayana’s attack on Kant, despite its subtlety, its force and its intelligence, is fundamentally misguided. Teasing out where Santayana’s attack rests on misunderstandings of Kant’s philosophy is a useful exercise: it is useful for Kantians, for it gives us a chance to show Kant at his best; it is useful for Santayana scholars, for it reminds us that Santayana, for all his brilliance, was not infallible; and it is useful more generally, for the mistakes Santayana makes about Kant are, perhaps in part because of Santayana’s well-deservedly wide influence, still prevalent today
Comparative Poetics Today: Not Global without the Middle East
Get PDFTwo trends played a significant role in the development of Comparative poetics: a movement toward literary theory and a movement toward non-Western cultures in comparative literature studies. In the second half of the twentieth century Western scholars of comparative literature, including Étiemble, Weisstein, Prawer, Liu and Miner, paid attention to literary theory in comparative literary studies. Inspired by the multiculturalism of the 1990s, comparatists made efforts to broaden the canon and include non-Western literatures. Comparatists have followed Miner’s anti-West-centrism and they have also failed to expand the geographical frontiers of his Comparative Poetics. While Far Eastern and Indian critical traditions have played a significant role in the field of comparative poetics, the Middle Eastern tradition and Persian literature have been neglected.The joint efforts of the scholars of Middle Eastern literatures to write in English and/or to translate their works into English will provide that critical tradition with a voice in the not yet global dialogue of comparative poetics. The emergent plurivocal conversation of a comparative poetics that includes Middle East will open new horizons to our cross-cultural perspective