1,720,990 research outputs found
Book review : Walter Lepore, Budd L. Hall and Rajesh Tandon . -
Full text linkThe book is structured across five framing chapters (three introductory,
two concluding) and ten case study chapters. The volume adds to the
body of knowledge(s) through the documentation of efforts in bridging
knowledge cultures, insights into diverse cultures. It also provides a
framework for understanding community-academic engagement,
examples of best practice and challenges, applicable methodologies, and
valuable critical pedagogical insights. It brings together findings from
the work of the Bridging Knowledge Cultures (BKC) project (2020 –
2022), “an international partnered training and research initiative of the
UNESCO Chair in Community-Based Research and Social
Responsibility in Higher Education”, working on UN Sustainable
Development Goals through training hubs located around the world,
and under the auspices of the Knowledge for Change (K4C) Consortium
(Lepore et al, p. 6).peer-reviewe
Law as a game of chance : Rabelais’ Bridlegoose and DC’s two-face
Full text linkThe Batman villain Two-Face and Rabelais’ Bridlegoose in The Third Book of Pantagruel ([1546]1894) are identified with the law – or at least, the law distorted, exaggerated, caricatured. Two-Face decides matters based on the tossing of a double-faced coin, one side of which is defaced; in some respects, he is the successor to Rabelais’ Judge Bridlegoose, who decides the judicial cases before him by a throw of the dice. They both surrender their decision-making to the aleatory, in a manner that prompts us to gaze upon (or askance at) the [im]possible moment of decision. This article takes a comparative approach to draw out how these two characters illuminate broader questions of law and justice, through considerations of parody, satire, deconstruction, and play, having significance for the philosophy of law.peer-reviewe
Cybernetic Irony: Racial Humour from Mecha-Hitler to Nuclear Gandhi
Full text linkThis chapter investigates relations between race and humour in digital games. Registering these complexities, we then focus on irony with particular focus on ‘Nuclear Gandhi’: the widespread gamer meme that an overflow error in Civilization caused Gandhi to appear as a hyper-aggressive character which, ironically, clashed with the historical record from which the game drew design and aesthetic legitimacy. However, Civilization eminence Sid Meier has recently stated that this is false: the humorous Nuclear Gandhi is in fact a complex entanglement of technical, social, and cultural factors. Drawing on Bhabha’s discussion of ‘sly civility’, we theorise Nuclear Gandhi as ‘cybernetic irony’ in which the collective element of humour is mediated by techno-racial claims to objectivity
Stand-up comedy in Malta
Full text linkThere have been several staggered attempts in the past to get a stand-up scene going in Malta, and whether it currently qualifies as a “scene” at all is still open to question. There is, however, clearly something emerging, albeit in its fledgeling stages. Laugh Out Loud Productions, on hiatus since 2014 (but with plans to resume operation in the near future) had taken an initiative in 2004 to invite stand-up comedians from the US, UK, Australia, and elsewhere—going on to organise events on a regular basis and exposing Maltese audiences to live performance of a form rarely seen locally. The turnouts suggested that, while there was, as yet, a dearth of local performers, there was at least a keen demand on the part of audiences which made itself felt. One notable attempt to establish a local unit of performers committed to stand-up—the Wembley Store Boys—had succeeded in building up some kind of base, but was abandoned and failed to take root. Nonetheless, undeterred, a number of venues have since sprung up that have announced themselves willing to host stand-up events, and a handful of performers are becoming recognisable presences on the budding scene. Though its extensions and efforts have been tinged with a degree of tentativeness, a circuit is steadily asserting itself, generating expectations through its systematic insistence. [Excerpt]peer-reviewe
The masks of anarchy : a theoretical study of the intersections between punk and alternative comedy
No full textPunk's place within pop-cultural history is assured, yet in the claims made for its 'serious' and revolutionary role, the part played by the comic in its critical function remains relatively under-explored. This thesis aims to investigate this dimension in greater depth, pursuing the intersections further into punk's own influence on the subsequent growth of alternative comedy. As with any movement that emphasises 'newness' and change, punk and alternative comedy defined themselves against a ' past' and a 'dominant'. The cultural context and their [disengagement [from]with it will be explored through a theoretical analysis which takes in both the parodic aspect, and punk's attempted reconfiguration of the very terms of ' history' and relation to context - space, time, memory, past, future. Punk will be considered as both a 'post modem' phenomenon, and as mounting a challenge to postmodernism. One major area of change, touching upon shifting boundaries of power in performance, is that of the performer-audience dynamic. The techniques available to alternative comedians will be seen to be indebted to the altered dynamic enabled by punk. The deconstruction of hierarchies will be discussed in tandem with the continued struggle for dominance. The interplay of alienation and engagement, violence and play, along with the invocation of the abject, will be considered in relation to comic theory. Notions of honesty in performance emerge throughout as particularly crucial in both punk and alternative comedy's self-construction, and the implications of this for identity and onstage personae will be examined. The move from 'truth of performance' to 'performative fiction' will he considered in relation to attempted contextual reconfigurations, with the entailed question of the 'amateur's' incomplete abdication of responsibility. I will suggest that alternative comedy makes an effort to redress punk's lapses on this point, and thence to restore a sense of political responsibility.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo
‘I do mistake my person all this while’ : blindness and illusion in Richard III
Full text linkIn 1995, David Troughton’s Richard appeared in a jester’s outfit. Richard certainly shares
attributes with the Fool, just as both have common roots in a third figure, the Vice.
Although this is no straightforward case of shared identity, establishing a link may provide a
point of departure for a reading of the play based on the necessarily related notions of
inscription and circumscription, interrelationships of ‘texts’, and the ‘blind spot of the text as
the organiser of the space of the vision contained in the text, and the vision’s concomitant blindness.’ The displacement and replacement of Richard’s corpus by another corpus, one of
self-perpetuating myths and an intricate intertext, further reinforces this enthralling
impression of an extending web around an elusive figure.
It is generally acknowledged that one of the factors that connect Richard, the Vice, and
the ‘Fool’ is their apparent awareness of a meta-theatrical dimension to the ‘text’. The
additional awareness suggested by this meta-dimension may appear to exceed the frame.
Richard himself draws attention to his kinship with the Vice figure: ‘like the formal Vice
Iniquity’ (R. III, III. 1. 82). However, the word ‘like’ poses some difficulty, disconnecting
while it offers similarity. This essay will attempt a deconstruction of the meta-dimension,
exploring both its extent and its limitations. It is my thesis that, within Richard’s meta-awareness,
lies the seed of its undoing: a blind spot. For Richard does not merely stand at the
borders but also casts himself as protagonist in his own script. Already this indicates a split,
opening up a ‘space of writing’. [Excerpt]peer-reviewe
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