2,949 research outputs found

    Democracy Sausage with Mark Kenny: Full circle with Scott Ludlam

    No full text
    On this episode of Democracy Sausage, Scott Ludlam, former Greens Deputy Leader and author of the new book Full Circle: A search for the world that comes next, joins Mark Kenny to discuss what he learnt from his time in politics and Australian climate policy. What role do corporate and private interests play in shaping Australian policy-making? Will the country make changes to political donation rules to make the system more transparent? And how can Australia make meaningful progress on climate policy? On this episode of Democracy Sausage, Professor Mark Kenny speaks with former Greens Senator Scott Ludlam about Australian politics, his new book, and Section 44 of the Constitution

    Democracy Sausage with Mark Kenny: Saving the Australian dream

    No full text
    Mark and Marija discuss Scott Morrison's exit from politics, before housing affordability campaigner Maiy Azize joins us to propose solutions to Australia's housing crisis. Will Australia's political leaders have the ambition and ability to sell substantial housing policy changes to the public? What might a fairer system look like? And how will Scott Morrison fashion his career post-parliament? On this episode of Democracy Sausage, Maiy Azize, author of a new report recommending changes to tax and investment policies for housing, joins Professor Mark Kenny and Marija Taflaga to discuss the policy and politics of Australia’s housing crisis. Maiy Azize is the Deputy Director of the Anglicare Australia and spokesperson for Everybody’s Home, a national campaign that aims to fix the housing crisis

    The sense of a beginning : Bakhtinian dialogic criticism on 'the gospel' in Mark.

    No full text
    Contemporary literary approaches have caused paradigm shifts in Biblical Studies in the last two decades as it appears in a great deal of Markan studies using narrative, reader-response, deconstructive, feminist, and new historicist approaches. However, literary studies on the Gospel of Mark have not taken into account theoretical questions underlying those approaches. As a result biblical critics are driven by new trends without ever having a chance to examine the critical baggage of the approaches. Consequently, there is a gap of communication between the old and the new one. Therefore this thesis is an attempt to meet the need of enhancing the quality of critical endeavour in biblical studies. In the light of most recent competing critical theories of literature, the first contribution of this thesis is the methodological finding that Bakhtinian dialogic criticism contains the most profound philosophical and practical foundations for solving some crucial theoretical problems in contemporary literary theories. It is a critique to a Saussurian linguistic system of language which becomes the very foundation of modern and postmodern literary criticism. Bakhtinian literary theory shifts the foundation of literary criticism on linguistic signs into the creative activity of the socio-cultural production of human communication. The shift into socio-cultural reality of language communication makes the notion of 'genre' very important to unlock the problem of text and context in literary studies. Since the Gospel of Mark has fascinated most literary critics in Biblical Studies, the problem of 'genre' of this gospel is chosen as the focus of this study. Secondly, as no agreement is reached as to what 'genre' the Gospel of Mark belongs, this thesis makes its contribution to the discussion by locating the problem of 'genre' of Mark in the context of genre theories and argues that the Bakhtinian suggestion to find genre in the socio-cultural sphere by analysing artistic intercourse between narrative agents in Mark has freed the competing analysis from the unresolved problem between the kerygmatic (content oriented) approach and the analogical (form oriented) approach. To achieve finding 'genre' in the socio-cultural sphere, this thesis focuses on Bakhtinian analysis of the process of artistic intercourse between narrative agents. The narrative communicative interrelationships between narrative agents is constructed in this thesis as a 'stereophonic' Bakhtinian model of dialogic communication. This model is an original contribution of this thesis for revising the traditional two dimensional model of narrative communication. Based on this dialogical model of communication, a special role is given to the Bakhtinian 'author-creator' in the realization process of genre through the interaction of polyphonic voices. Through the interaction of voices of the author-artist and the hero we are led to discover a relatively stable type of portraying and controlling reality in Mark, known as the genre of Roman 'satire'. The closest literary affinity is Satyrica by Petronius. This narrative strategy of 'satire' in Mark has its root in the prophetic discourse of the Old Testament which is saturating the speech of the narrator, John the Immerser, the centurion, the people, and even Jesus. Finally, the whole search for Markan 'genre' culminates in the analysis of the realization of genre through the analysis of Bakhtinian chronotope. The reality of the genre of Mark is its social reality that is in its role as dpxrj/ 'beginning'. As the Gospel of Mark proclaims itself as 'a beginning', it defines its claim of socio-cultural 'authority' in early Christianity. It is this 'sense of beginning' which enables the narrating and the narrated world of Mark to interact dialogically

    Democracy Sausage with Mark Kenny: The accidental prime minister with Annika Smethurst

    No full text
    On this episode of Democracy Sausage, journalist and author Annika Smethurst joins Mark Kenny to discuss political accountability and her new biography of Scott Morrison, The Accidental Prime Minister. Not expected to win the 2019 election, Scott Morrison has been Australian Prime Minister during a time of great uncertainty. But how did he come to be selected, then elected, for top political office? Might an aversion to scrutiny come to be his Achilles’ heel? And what does his ‘daggy dad’ persona reveal about his leadership style, but also about what the Australian public expects of their political figures? Annika Smethurst, state political editor at The Age and former member of the federal press gallery, joins Professor Mark Kenny to discuss her new biography of Australia’s 30th prime minister

    The Gospel on the Margins: The Ideological Function of the Patristic Tradition on the Evangelist Mark

    No full text
    In spite of the virtually unanimous patristic opinion that the evangelist Mark was the interpreter of Peter, one of the most prestigious apostolic founding figures in Christian memory, the Gospel of Mark was mostly neglected in the patristic period. Not only is the text of Mark the least well represented of the canonical Gospels in terms of the number of patristic citations, commentaries and manuscripts, the explicit comments about the evangelist Mark reveal some ambivalence about its literary or theological value. In my survey of the reception of Mark from Papias of Hierapolis until Clement of Alexandria, I will argue that the reason why the patristic writers were hesitant to embrace the Gospel of Mark was that they perceived the text to be amenable to the Christological beliefs and social praxis of rival Christian factions. The patristic tradition about Mark may have little historical basis, but it had an important ideological function in appropriating the text in the name of an apostolic authority from the margins or periphery

    Belonging and not belonging : understanding India in novels by Paul Scott, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and V.S. Naipaul.

    No full text
    PhDThis thesis is essentially about the "how" and "why" of the Indian experience as documented in novels by Paul Scott, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and V S Naipaul. The study points to the difficulty of arriving at any conclusive definition of the country and its people. I show that differences in attitudes, responses or behaviour are both overt and subtle, and depend upon whether the writer or the character identifies with the situation or community with which he or she interacts. It is the individual's sense of belonging or not belonging to his or her own group - be this along racial, cultural or gender lines - that accounts for the differing perspectives evident in these novels. The points-of- view of the outsider and the insider can therefore be seen as mutual comments upon the other. Since the struggle between belonging and not belonging becomes acute when the old meets the new, focus is centred on communities experiencing change. These include the British in India, West-Indian Indians and westernised Indians. Despite their differences, all three communities share similar reasons for either an acceptance or rejection of the 'Other'. The thesis argues that the need for emotional stability compels allegiance to the traditional group, while the desire for individuality encourages surrender to the new. The former nurtures a sense of belonging while, it is argued, that the latter is perceived as the hallmark of those who do not belong. Tensions arise when both these needs demand to be met. What I show to be ironic in this struggle between belonging and not belonging is that those things which individuals overtly reject are often unexpressed parts of their personal pysche. The barrier between "them" and "us" is therefore very fragile

    Incomprehension or resistance? : the Markan disciples and the narrative logic of Mark ‎‎4:1—8:30‎

    No full text
    The characterization of the Markan disciples has been and continues to be the object of ‎much scholarly reflection and speculation. For many, the Markan author’s presentation of ‎Jesus’ disciples holds a key, if not the key, to unlocking the purpose and function of the ‎gospel as a whole. Commentators differ as to whether the Markan disciples ultimately ‎serve a pedagogical or polemical function, yet they are generally agreed that the disciples ‎in Mark come off rather badly, especially when compared to their literary counterparts in ‎Matthew, Luke, and John. This narrative-critical study considers the characterization of the Markan disciples ‎within the Sea Crossing movement (Mark 4:1–8:30). While commentators have, on the ‎whole, interpreted the disciples’ negative characterization in this movement in terms of ‎lack of faith and/or incomprehension, neither of these, nor a combination of the two, fully ‎accounts for the severity of language leveled against the disciples by the narrator (6:52) ‎and Jesus (8:17–18). Taking as its starting point an argument by Jeffrey B. Gibson (1986) ‎that the harshness of Jesus’ rebuke in Mark 8:14–21 is occasioned not by the disciples’ ‎lack of faith or incomprehension but by their active resistance to his Gentile mission, this ‎investigation uncovers additional examples of the disciples’ resistance to Gentile mission, ‎offering a better account of their negative portrayal within the Sea Crossing movement ‎and helping explain many of their other failures. In short, this study argues that in Mark 4:1–8:26, the disciples are characterized as ‎resistant to Jesus’ Gentile mission and to their participation in that mission, the chief ‎consequence being that they are rendered incapable of recognizing Jesus’ vocational ‎identity as Israel’s Messiah (Thesis A). This leads to a secondary thesis, namely, that in ‎Mark 8:27–30, Peter’s recognition of Jesus’ messianic identity indicates that the disciples ‎have finally come to accept Jesus’ Gentile mission and their participation in it (Thesis B).‎ ‎“Chapter One: Introduction” offers a selective review of scholarly treatments of ‎the Markan disciples, which shows that few scholars attribute resistance, let alone ‎purposeful resistance, to the disciples. ‎“Chapter Two: The Rhetoric of Repetition” introduces the methodological tools, ‎concepts, and perspectives employed in the study. It includes a section on narrative ‎criticism, which focuses upon the story-as-discoursed and the implied author and reader, ‎and a section on Construction Grammar, a branch of cognitive linguistics founded by ‎Charles Fillmore and further developed by Paul Danove, which focuses upon semantic ‎and narrative frames and case frame analysis. ‎“Chapter Three: The Sea Crossing Movement, Mark 4:1–8:30” addresses the ‎question of Markan structure and argues that Mark 4:1–8:30 comprises a single, unified, ‎narrative movement, whose action and plot is oriented to the Sea of Galilee and whose ‎most distinctive feature is the network of sea crossings that transport Jesus and his ‎disciples back and forth between Jewish and Gentile geopolitical spaces. Following William Freedman, “Chapter Four: The Literary Motif” introduces two ‎criteria (frequency and avoidability) for determining objectively what constitutes a ‎literary motif and provides the methodological basis and starting point for the analyses ‎performed in chapters five and six. ‎“Chapter Five: The Sea Crossing Motif” establishes and then carries out a lengthy ‎narrative analysis of the Sea Crossing motif, which is oriented around Mark’s use of ‎θάλασσα (thalassa) and πλοῖον (ploion), and “Chapter Six: The Loaves Motif” does the same for The ‎Loaves motif, oriented around Mark’s use of ἄρτος (artos). Finally, “Chapter Seven: The Narrative Logic of the Disciples ‎‎(In)comprehension” draws together all narrative, linguistic, and exegetical insights of the ‎previous chapters and offers a single coherent reading of the Sea Crossing movement that ‎establishes Theses A and B.

    Dental Microwear Texture and Anthropoid Diets

    No full text
    Dental microwear has long been used as evidence concerning the diets of extinct species. Here we present a comparative baseline series of dental microwear textures for a sample of 21 anthropoid primate species displaying inter- and intra-specific dietary variability. Four dental microwear texture variables (complexity, anisotropy, textural fill volume, and heterogeneity) were computed based on scale-sensitive fractal analysis and high-resolution three-dimensional renderings of microwear surfaces collected using a white-light confocal profiler. The purpose of this analysis was to assess the extent to which these variables reflect variation in diet. Significant contrasts between species with diets known to include foods with differing material properties are clearly evident for all four microwear texture variables. In particular, species that consume more tough foods, such as leaves, tended to have high levels of anisotropy and low texture complexity. The converse was true for species including hard and brittle items in their diets either as staples or as fallback foods. These results reaffirm the utility of dental microwear texture analysis as an important tool in making dietary inferences based on fossil primate samples.Peer reviewe

    Graduate Sessions 10: Preston Scott Cohen

    No full text
    Preston Scott Cohen, founder of Preston Scott Cohen, Inc., is the Chair of Architecture at Harvard University Graduate School of Design. He is the author of Contested Symmetries and numerous theoretical and historical essays as well as the designer of several significant cultural institutions, urban plans, and residences for which he has received awards and honors including the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Architecture
    corecore