69 research outputs found
Thinking outside the Chinese Box: David Mitchell and Murakami Haruki’s subversion of stereotypes about Japan
No full textJapan has often been portrayed by orientalist stereotypes, as famously framed by Edward Said, that were mainly constituted within Europe and North America. There are two distinct streams of orientalist discourse around Japan: traditional Orientalism and techno-Orientalism. Here the West speaks of the Other/the non-West rather than allowing it to speak for itself. In regards to the discourse of ‘Otherness’, another interesting phenomenon is Japan’s self-Orientalising: through the internalisation of the Western Orientalist discourse, Japan identifies itself and constructs its own subjectivity.
In his literary works, the author David Mitchell attempts to subvert the conventional orientalist approach to describe Japan while concurrently maintaining his position as a British observer. He makes use of Western perspectives to cater to his Western readers’ preference for Japan’s traditional and cultural elements, and yet at the same time attempts to subvert stereotypes. Mitchell’s approach is reminiscent of Japanese author Murakami Haruki’s use of both ‘Japaneseness’ and ‘un-Japaneseness’ in his works. Mitchell also learnt the importance of the use of the subjective narrative voice from Murakami. In this article, I examine how David Mitchell, as a western author, attempts to go beyond orientalist stereotypes, and how his writing is influenced by Murakami Haruki
Stem cell system in asexual and sexual reproduction of Enchytraeus japonensis (Oligochaeta, Annelida)
No full textEnchytraeus japonensis is a small oligochaete species that proliferates asexually via fragmentation and regeneration. As sexual reproduction can also be induced, it is a good model system for the study of both regenerative and germline stem cells. It has been shown by histological study that putative mesodermal stem cells called neoblasts, and dedifferentiated epidermal and endodermal cells are involved in blastema formation. Recently, we isolated three region-specific marker genes expressed in the digestive tract and showed by in situ hybridization that morphallactic as well as epimorphic regulation of the body patterning is occurred during regeneration. We also cloned two vasa-related genes and analyzed their expression during development and in mature worms that undergo sexual reproduction. The results arising form these studies suggest that the origin and development of germline stem cells and neoblasts may be independent. Furthermore, we performed functional analysis using RNA interference (RNAi) and showed that a novel gene termed grimp is required for mesodermal cell proliferation at the initial stages of regeneration. These findings indicate that the stem cell system in E. japonensis is regulated by both internal and external environmental factors
Parental investment in children: differential pathways of parental education and mental health
No full textThis paper examines pathways through which parental characteristics might affect children\u27s cognitive and behavioural outcomes. Using the 2004 LSAC, the author shows that more educated and mentally healthier parents are likely to have children with better outcomes. While educated parents are more frequently engaged in education-oriented activities with their children, mentally healthier parents exhibit more favourable parenting practices. To the extent that these results reflect causal relationships, they suggest that parental education and mental health affect children’s outcomes through different pathways
The politicalness of choreography for families from the perspective of performance as research
No full textThe aim of the paper is to provide a reflection on the choreographic practice in the field of dance performance for families in the context of related fields of politicalness, from the perspective of performance as research. The author describes some important moments in the global and Polish cultural policy concerning dance for children and presents an understanding of politicalness after Ana Vujanović and Mark Franko. The text undertakes reflection on the usefulness of the language of posthumanism (Chikako Takeshita, Karen Barad and Donna Haraway) in research into choreography intended for families. The author gives an insight into the creative practice by analysing the dimensions of politicalness in three performances by the Holobiont collective which she co-founded
The Politicality of Choreography for Families from the Perspective of Performance as Research
No full textThe aim of the paper is to provide a reflection on the choreographic practice in the field of dance performance for families in the context of related fields of politicalness, from the perspective of performance as research. The author describes some important moments in the global and Polish cultural policy concerning dance for children and presents an understanding of politicalness after Ana Vujanović and Mark Franko. The text undertakes reflection on the usefulness of the language of posthumanism (Chikako Takeshita, Karen Barad and Donna Haraway) in research into choreography intended for families. The author gives an insight into the creative practice by analysing the dimensions of politicalness in three performances by the Holobiont collective which she co-founded
Muriel Spark's postmodernism
No full textThis study explores the shifting notions of postmodernism developed through Muriel Spark’s fiction, and thereby clarifies this artist’s own postmodernism. I use Jean-François Lyotard’s definition of the notion in his The Postmodern Condition (1979), that there is no grand narrative, as my starting point, and deploy various postmodernist theories, which can illuminate Spark’s art and can in turn be illuminated by her art, in my arguments. Throughout the thesis, I focus on two of Spark’s most important themes as crucial keys to understanding her postmodernism: the theme of individual subjectivity and the theme of the interplay of life and art.
The thesis begins with the claims Spark makes for her individuality and her individual art through the voice of “I”. Chapter I considers issues about being a woman and an artist, which Spark raises around the narrator-heroine of a fictional memoir, A Far Cry from Kensington (1988). Here I present this heroine as a definition of the strength of Sparkian women who liberate themselves by practicing art. Chapter II discusses Loitering with Intent (1981), a fictional autobiography of a fictional woman novelist, alongside Spark’s own autobiography and her various biographical works. This section illustrates Spark’s notion of the “author” in relation to the “work” - and an author in control in her sense - by investigating the dynamic interplay of life and art in the form of this novel.
Chapter III analyses The Driver’s Seat (1970), the novel which most shockingly elucidates the postmodern condition according to Spark and demonstrates her postmodernist narrative strategies. Her concern with the crisis of the “subject” in the world in its postmodern phase is observed in the figure of the heroine, a woman who has tried and failed to be an author in control. I argue that Spark here theorises the notion of subject, by providing her own version of the psychoanalytical “death drive” and also represents the Lacanian real as the unfigurable with this figure. Chapter IV and Chapter V follow the developments of Spark’s discussion of the crisis of the “subject” in two of her later novels. Chapter IV concentrates on the theme of Otherness in Symposium (1990). Chapter V discusses Reality and Dreams (1996), in which Spark pursues the theme of excess and opens up the contradictions inherent in this notion to bring about a new philosophy of life by art as excess
Self-Shrinkers to the Mean Curvature Flow asymptotic to Isoparametric Cones
No full textWe record work done by the author joint with Professor Joel Spruck[9] on constructing self-shrinking end to the mean curvature flow asymptotic to an isoparametric cone C and lying outside of C. We call a cone C in Rn+1 an isoparametric cone if C is the cone over a compact embedded isoparametric hypersurface Γ ⊂ Sn. The theory of isoparametric hypersurface is extremely rich and there are infinitely many distinct classes of examples, each with infinitely many members
NONLOCAL FILTRATION EQUATIONS AND FRACTIONAL CURVATURE FLOWS
No full textIn this thesis, we record the joint work done by the author and Pak Tung Ho concerning the fractional Nirenberg problem with a symmetric assumption, which is addressed through fractional curvature flows on the Riemannian sphere Sn. Furthermore, we present the author’s work on nonlocal filtration equations related to the Heisenberg group Hn. The classical Nirenberg’s problem is to find a conformal metric of an n-dimensional Riemannian manifold such that its scalar curvature is a given function f. A geometric flow has been introduced to study Nirenberg’s problem by Struwe for n = 2 and has been generalized to n ≥ 3 by Chen and Xu on the sphere Sn. Using the scalar curvature flow, Leung and Zhou proved an existence result for prescribing scalar curvature when the given function f possesses certain reflection or rotation symmetry on the Riemannian sphere Sn in their paper. This led naturally to the study of the prescribing fractional order curvature problem with the same symmetric hypothesis on Sn, which has been proved by the author and Pak Tung Ho. Motivated by the extensive investigations of nonlocal filtration equations, utilizing the integral operators instead of the Laplacian operator on the Euclidean space Rn, we work on the same type of equations on the Heisenberg group Hn. We established the existence, uniqueness and large-time behavior of the corresponding solutions. Furthermore, an interesting result stated that a uniform Hölder regularity, as the function value tends to zero, holds for the porous medium type of equations, which can also be adapted to obtain uniform Hölder regularity on Rn
Heterogeneity in the returns to investment in poor villages
No full textUnder Indonesia\u27s anti-poverty program, IDT, the government provided selected poor villages with grants of the same value, regardless of population size. Exploiting the variation in per household grant value that is caused by this program design, the author estimates the returns to public grants, which are designated for investment loans. Results show that the returns are heterogeneous. Villages with pre-existing market facilities demonstrate increases in male labor supply, per capita income (PCI) and per capita expenditure (PCE). However, villages not accessible by land exhibit few changes in labor supply or PCI and yet an increase in PCE, particularly on festivals. These results suggest that the returns to investment capital are limited without a basic economic infrastructure
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