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A Reading of Ian McEwan’s Saturday: Approaching the Ethical Self by Extending Empathy and Care to the Other in the Post-9/11 Age of Anxiety
Issue:
Volume 9, Issue 2, March 2021
Pages:
46-54
Received:
24 February 2021
Accepted:
5 March 2021
Published:
17 March 2021
Abstract: Ian McEwan’s representative novel Saturday, set on 15 February 2003, the day of the largest protest march against the imminent war on Iraq in London, presents one day in the life of Henry Perowne, a 48-year-old neurosurgeon, holding up to a troubled time in the post-9/11 age of anxiety. From Henry’s consciousness the rich narrative weaves the story of his contented and paradoxically happy life together with his anxiety about the terrorism implied in his over-interpretation of the burning airplane in the early morning, his encounter with Baxter in a minor car accident and later Baxter’s intruding into his house to endanger his family. Henry Perowne, the privileged neurosurgeon, complacent, and arrogant in his framing life with selected empathy and care for his loved ones, finally awakens to approach his ethical self with responsibility for the Other through extending his empathy and care to the Other represented by Baxter. What Ian McEwan explores in Saturday is an ethical attempt for privileged Westerners to reflect about the deep causes of international terrorism and to sort out the conflicts between self and the Other in an ethical way through extending empathy to more diverse others with the prospect of experiencing profound happiness in the post-9/11 age of anxiety.
Abstract: Ian McEwan’s representative novel Saturday, set on 15 February 2003, the day of the largest protest march against the imminent war on Iraq in London, presents one day in the life of Henry Perowne, a 48-year-old neurosurgeon, holding up to a troubled time in the post-9/11 age of anxiety. From Henry’s consciousness the rich narrative weaves the story...
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Brother or Broader: Marginalisation in Mbuh Tennu Mbuh’s The Oracle of Tears
Gilda Nicheng Forbang-Looh,
De Noumedem Peter Caleb
Issue:
Volume 9, Issue 2, March 2021
Pages:
55-62
Received:
18 February 2021
Accepted:
13 March 2021
Published:
22 March 2021
Abstract: This article seeks to analyse Mbuh Tennu Mbuh’s depiction of the Anglophone problem in Cameroon in his poetry collection, The Oracle of Tears. Mbuh’s poems indicate that this problem is caused by the duplicity of the Francophone leadership in the country. This leadership, from 1961 till date, has not treated the Anglophone as a brother but has instead devised strategies to broaden its power through the erosion of Anglophone identity and the corrosion of Anglophones’ political weight in the state. This state of affairs has nurtured a sentiment of marginalisation in many Anglophone Cameroonians. Marginalisation in this paper is understood as a series of political actions undertaken by Cameroon’s Francophone leadership to stifle effective self-governance in Anglophone regions and reduce the latter’s identity to a varnish for decreed national unity. Though both Francophone and Anglophone identities are admittedly colonial, this article argues that it is biased to use this argument only when the preservation of Anglophone identity in the nation is evoked. Since Francophones gladly use their colonial bequests (French language, educational and judiciary systems), the same freedom ought to be conceded to Anglophones without any attempts at annexation. Hence, this paper underscores the responsibility of Francophone leadership in causing a generalised sentiment of frustration in Anglophones. It also emphasizes the need for Anglophones (like all dominated people) not to miss the target of their struggle. Postcolonialism is used in this paper to discuss the central issue of marginalization with which Anglophone Cameroon poetry grapples for decades. This theory helps analyse the fragmentation of formerly colonised nations like Cameroon – fragmentations which still make perceptible the shadow of French and British colonisation over the country. The study arrives at the conclusion that Mbuh’s poetry is a reminder addressed to Anglophone consciousness about the need, not to fight themselves, but reason with the divisive sexagenarian Francophone Establishment.
Abstract: This article seeks to analyse Mbuh Tennu Mbuh’s depiction of the Anglophone problem in Cameroon in his poetry collection, The Oracle of Tears. Mbuh’s poems indicate that this problem is caused by the duplicity of the Francophone leadership in the country. This leadership, from 1961 till date, has not treated the Anglophone as a brother but has inst...
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Dogs and Cats and Their Relationships with Humans as Depicted in Picture Books
Hinako Shimatani,
Naoko Koda
Issue:
Volume 9, Issue 2, March 2021
Pages:
63-69
Received:
25 February 2021
Accepted:
23 March 2021
Published:
13 April 2021
Abstract: Attitudes toward animals are influenced by childhood experiences with animals. One source of such experiences is provided by picture books. Because the representations of animals in picture books affect attitudes toward animals, it is important to examine how animals are depicted in picture books in order to improve human-animal interactions. Since dogs and cats are particularly familiar to children, it is easy for children to apply representations in picture books to real dogs and cats. This study quantitatively investigated how dogs and cats are depicted in picture books. Several elements were extracted from the pictures in the picture books and their state was recorded. The analysis included comparisons of depictions of dogs and cats, human presence and absence, and story settings in 2040 picture books that contained depictions of dogs or cats. The results revealed that dogs and cats were anthropomorphized or humanized much less often in picture books in which humans appeared than in those in which humans did not appear. Dogs were often drawn on the ground outside, and cats were often shown in elevated positions or indoors. For dogs, there were many depictions of walks, often in urban settings. In general, the analysis of the depictions suggests that children may feel boundary between human and dog/cat based on the picture books. The analysis of the walking scenes suggests that the reality of dogs may be conveyed to children. In addition, the analysis of the positions of dogs and cats suggests that traditional representation of them and their relationships with humans may be conveyed to children in such books.
Abstract: Attitudes toward animals are influenced by childhood experiences with animals. One source of such experiences is provided by picture books. Because the representations of animals in picture books affect attitudes toward animals, it is important to examine how animals are depicted in picture books in order to improve human-animal interactions. Since...
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Enclosed Self-introspection and Camouflage: Interior Monologue in Republican Chinese Women’s Epistolary and Diary Writing
Issue:
Volume 9, Issue 2, March 2021
Pages:
70-78
Received:
21 March 2021
Accepted:
31 March 2021
Published:
13 April 2021
Abstract: In Republican women writers’ works, the diary and epistolary modes are two common styles to reveal characters’ interior monologue (IM) and the flow of consciousness in fiction. The women writers often attempt to convey the self-introspection with female awareness through both narrative forms; in particular, women writers use it to express the narra¬tor/characters’ IM in a private enclosed situation. Through the specific textual analysis, it can be seen that the authors attempted to imply something through both of these narrative forms; in particular, women writers used this as a way to express the characters’ IM in private situations; for another thing, the usage of epistolary or diary forms could enable women writers to avoid possible criticism or blame when they tried to express their feminist feelings or thoughts. To some extent, this private narrative form provided an existential space for their discourse. No matter for the diary or the letter, seemingly it is merely a personal expression of thoughts and emotion, however in fact this was women writers’ intentional choice. They clearly knew that female writing was not yet the established norm, so most of women writers showed cautiousness in their creative writing. It achieves a more effective negotiation with a patriarchal society.
Abstract: In Republican women writers’ works, the diary and epistolary modes are two common styles to reveal characters’ interior monologue (IM) and the flow of consciousness in fiction. The women writers often attempt to convey the self-introspection with female awareness through both narrative forms; in particular, women writers use it to express the narra...
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Representation of the Impulsive Temperament in Arts, Literature and Science: From the Middle Ages to the Present
Hendrik Marten Koolma,
Adila van Dreven
Issue:
Volume 9, Issue 2, March 2021
Pages:
79-93
Received:
19 March 2021
Accepted:
9 April 2021
Published:
16 April 2021
Abstract: In this contribution, we intend to review the way in which personality is typified and represented through the centuries in arts, literature, and science. The scope ranges from primitive paintings in the Middle Ages to reports made by means of questionnaires developed by psychological scientists. During the centuries, the leadership temperament has been shifted from the choleric toward the sanguine temperament. The resulting extraverted character and personality have come into the picture and thus, have raised new problems for explication and interpretation. Further, there is a remarkable similarity between the medieval representation of the four temperaments and trait dimensions in recent neurophysiological and biological research. In contrast, the questionnaires show a stepwise development of increasing negligence of elements of the impulsive personality, or, in medieval terms, the choleric temperament. This tendency in mainstream personality test design is criticized by some researchers. In this article, we suggest that this development is caused by a romantic hankering after an ideal of leadership. There is a symbolic layer in the verbal reasoning through which the steps to impulsivity-free personality representations have been made. Surprisingly, this tendency is absent in a personality representation derived from adjectives in the English language. Finally, we raise the question of whether it is sensible to shut our eyes for the presence of the choleric temperament in our contemporary society.
Abstract: In this contribution, we intend to review the way in which personality is typified and represented through the centuries in arts, literature, and science. The scope ranges from primitive paintings in the Middle Ages to reports made by means of questionnaires developed by psychological scientists. During the centuries, the leadership temperament has...
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Communicating COVID-19 Uncertainty: Lessons from the Past
Issue:
Volume 9, Issue 2, March 2021
Pages:
94-100
Received:
15 December 2020
Accepted:
29 December 2020
Published:
26 April 2021
Abstract: This article examines the global response to the Covid-19 pandemic in the era of the risk society. It employs literature-based analysis and study of legal sources. The first part of the article presents the crucial role of communicating information during a pandemic and the role of WHO in the area of infectious diseases. Confidence, public trust, and public involvement are according to Urlich Beck critical for the acceptance of risk related policies. This article, through the paradigm of a pandemic of the past, (the case of the bubonic plague in Ionian islands), argues how crucial is the communication of the uncertainties, the involvement of the public and the information networks. Furthermore, it supports that during the covid-19 crisis, health risk communication and management of the crisis were not sufficient. Some of the reasons were: the unclearance of the message transmitted, limited public and community participation in the decision making process and in shaping the health policy, crisis of public confidence, inadequacy of implemented policies, e.t.c. It concludes that collective and just solution, harmonized global action, access to information, international solidarity, and the involvement of the locals are of paramount importance.
Abstract: This article examines the global response to the Covid-19 pandemic in the era of the risk society. It employs literature-based analysis and study of legal sources. The first part of the article presents the crucial role of communicating information during a pandemic and the role of WHO in the area of infectious diseases. Confidence, public trust, a...
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