1,979 research outputs found
Democracy Sausage with Mark Kenny: Departure in the absence of victory?
No full textOn this episode of Democracy Sausage, political correspondent Karen Middleton, diplomacy and Afghan politics expert William Maley, and gender equity advocate Virginia Haussegger join Mark Kenny to discuss Australia’s nearly two decades in Afghanistan. Two years into the war in Afghanistan, United States President George W Bush said it was “mission accomplished”. But nearly two decades after the September 11 attacks, the Taliban has negotiated a favourable agreement with the United States and Australia has closed its embassy, citing security concerns amidst the withdrawal of Australian and international forces. So what was it all for? And, crucially, what does this mean for the Afghan people? On this episode of Democracy Sausage, journalist and author of An unwinnable war: Australia in Afghanistan Karen Middleton, scholar of Afghan politics Emeritus Professor William Maley, and gender equity advocate Virginia Haussegger join Mark Kenny to look back on Australia’s time in Afghanistan and discuss what the future may hold for the country
The sense of a beginning : Bakhtinian dialogic criticism on 'the gospel' in Mark.
No full textContemporary 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
The Gospel on the Margins: The Ideological Function of the Patristic Tradition on the Evangelist Mark
No full textIn 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
The death of William Golding: authorship and creativity in darkness visible and the paper men
No full textIn the seventies and eighties William Golding was deeply responsive to the critical, anti-authorial ethos that followed the publication of Roland Barthes's "La mort de I'auteur" (1968). In Darkness Visible (1979) and The Paper Men (1984) he investigates means by which to reaffirm authorial presence. Working through paradox, he performs the authorial death in these novels, and establishes language’s inadequacy as a means of conveying absolute meaning, authorial "vision," truth or revelation. Having done so he nonetheless gestures towards the divine, towards the possibility of a vatic communication. In this manner the novels work upon principles of contradiction and collapse. What remains is a discourse of hope, promise, desire, without means of substantiating such optimism. Thus Golding might be said to have practiced a form of negative theology, and to have anticipated in this respect some recent trends in literary theory
Well-known trade mark protection: confusion in EU and Japan
No full textIn this thesis concerning the protection of well-known trade marks against confusion in the European Community Trade Mark (CTM) and Japanese trademark systems, the author critically considers the difficulties in comprehensively defining ‘well-known trade mark’ in the relevant international trade mark instruments. After critical analysis of various definitions of both ‘trade mark’ and ‘well-known trade mark’, she undertakes a comparison of the definitions of the parallel concepts of ‘trade mark of repute’ and ‘syuchi-syohyo’, and also undertakes an assessment as to the extent to which these trade marks are protected against confusion and kondo in the CTM and Japanese systems, respectively. It is concluded that the protection of well- known trade marks against confusion in the CTM and Japan cannot be said to be completely clear, and the author identifies some areas for legal refor
Incomprehension or resistance? : the Markan disciples and the narrative logic of Mark 4:1—8:30
No full textThe 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.
Interview with Mark Cox
No full textMark Cox is a professor of Creative Writing at UNCW, and has served as Chair of the department. He is the author of three full-length poetry collections: Smoulder, Thirty-Seven Years from the Stone, and Natural Causes
Children's classics translated from English under Franco: the censorship of the William books and the Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
No full textPhDThe thesis documents the censorship histories of Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom
Sawyer and Richmal Crompton's William books under Franco, and analyses these
censorship histories in terms of the changing character of the regime. Previously
unconsulted primary sources are used, such as censors' reports and translation proofs
held in the Archivo General de la Administración del Estado at Alcalá de Henares.
The censors' reports demonstrate that children's literature and translated literature were
treated as special cases by the regime, and that censorship was particularly harsh in
both areas. These findings demonstrate the crucial importance of attitudes to childhood
and foreignness in the Francoist ideological scheme.
The censorship histories of Tom Sawyer and the William books reveal some
surprising facts. The William books began to be persecuted by the censors in late
1942, precisely the moment when the regime was seeking a rapprochement with the
Allied powers as the course of the War turned in the latter's favour. This prohibition
cannot be understood without exploring the factors which differentiate children's
literature from adult literature in the context of Francoism. The books' peculiarly
English character also had a vital bearing on how they were censored.
The history of Tom Sawyer in Spain demonstrates the effect of literary status
on censorship practice. Early in the regime, the censors generally considered Tom
Sawyer to be a work for adults. From the mid-1950s, however, children's literature was
inscribed as a special category in censorship legislation, and the censors began to view
editions of the work as specifically intended for children. Tom Sawyer thus
encountered censorship problems in the later years of the regime, supposedly more
liberal than the earlier period. Again, these problems would be inexplicable without
examining the evolution of the publishing industry and Francoist attitudes to literature
and the child.
The thesis also provides a detailed analysis of the type of suppressions imposed
on the books studied, under the following headings: religion; love, sexuality and
gender; authority and politics, nation and race; crime, terror and violence
Interview with Professor Mark Brodin about his book William P. Homans Jr.: A Life In Court
No full textBoston lawyer William P. Homans Jr. devoted his fifty-year career to the defense of the poor and downtrodden, the protection of our most basic civil liberties, and the abolition of the death penalty. Descendant of two of Boston\u27s oldest and most prominent families, and combat veteran of both the British and American Navies during World War II, Homans became unlikely guru to the 1960s generation of radical lawyers and antiwar activists. He was on the defense team in the 1968 conspiracy trial of Dr. Benjamin Spock and four other leading opponents of the Vietnam War accused of aiding and abetting resistance to the military draft, and represented Dr. Kenneth Edelin in the 1975 manslaughter prosecution arising out of a lawful abortion performed after Roe v. Wade. The narrative contrasts Bill Homans\u27 storied legal career with a troubled personal life in a balanced but unvarnished manner, testifying to the strength of the human spirit when committed to the pursuit of the common good. About the author: Mark S. Brodin is Professor of Law at Boston College Law School and the author of numerous books and law journal articles in the areas of civil and criminal procedure, evidence, litigation, and employment discrimination. A graduate of Columbia College (1969) and Columbia Law School (1972), he served as law clerk to United States District Judge Joseph L. Tauro and staff attorney with the Lawyers\u27 Committee for Civil Rights in Boston. He has also practiced for brief periods as a public defender in Boston and a prosecutor in Norfolk County
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