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Jack Spicer’s Impossible Quest for the Holy Grail
Wilhelmus Johannes Lukkenaer
Issue:
Volume 9, Issue 4, July 2021
Pages:
147-154
Received:
24 May 2021
Accepted:
30 June 2021
Published:
9 July 2021
Abstract: The American poet Jack Spicer (1925-1965) called, in his second lecture for students in Vancouver, his serial poem The Holy Grail (1962), ‘fairly simple’. Readers will undoubtedly find it not simple at all. ‘Cryptic’ would be a better characteristic. But Spicer does not want to be more explicit. Is he concealing something? The poet did not, however, leave us without some clues, two of them being references to authors, namely Jessie Weston and Hans Jonas. The editors of his lectures did give some, but in my view not sufficient, attention to these references. Through this article I intend to correct this shortcoming. Weston’s medieval studies, especially those pertaining to Arthurian Literature, contain many elements also present in Spicer’s serial poem, thus providing a possibility to examine his poetics more closely. In addition, Hans Jonas’s book The Gnostic Religion (1958), subtitled The message of the alien God and the beginnings of Christianity, helps us gain a deeper understanding of Spicer’s poem; moreover, it explains his reluctance to write plain language. The knowledge Spicer intends to make known should at the same time remain somehow hidden, because, as an ancient tradition demands: only initiates have a right to know, to obtain access to gnosis.
Abstract: The American poet Jack Spicer (1925-1965) called, in his second lecture for students in Vancouver, his serial poem The Holy Grail (1962), ‘fairly simple’. Readers will undoubtedly find it not simple at all. ‘Cryptic’ would be a better characteristic. But Spicer does not want to be more explicit. Is he concealing something? The poet did not, however...
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Beauty in the Eyes of the Akan People of Ghana: A Sociolinguistic Analysis of Alex Konadu’s Song “Asianawaa”
Cynthia Elizabeth Osei,
Emmanuel Yaw Appiah,
Emmanuel Antwi Fordjour
Issue:
Volume 9, Issue 4, July 2021
Pages:
155-160
Received:
18 June 2021
Accepted:
2 July 2021
Published:
13 July 2021
Abstract: Beauty is a universal concept and has many facets. But the standards of measuring beauty are arbitrary and differ from one culture to another. The variations in the ideals of beauty show what is expected of women in any society. In the Western world, the standards of beauty do not extend beyond the physical appearance of a woman. In the African cultural setting, particularly in the Akan culture, the standards of beauty are not limited to only the physical appearance of the woman. How language is used in exploring the standard of beauty in the Akan has received a little attention. This paper seeks to focus on the use of language used in expressing beauty in the Akan society. Using data based on the song entitled “Asianawaa”, by Alex Kwabena Konadu, a well-known Ghanaian musician, this study examines the Akan concept of beauty as reflected in the use of language. Konadu captures the notion of beauty, through the female physical features, non-physical features and the social capital of beauty. The metaphor, allusion and symbolism are the main language tools that help to conceptualise the concept of beauty in this Akan song. The findings reveal that Konadu’s lyrics highlight the metaphorical concept of beauty with its connotations. It draws conclusion that Konadu’s idea of beauty is demonstrated in understanding the relationship between the language and the socio-cultural experiences of the Akan of Ghana.
Abstract: Beauty is a universal concept and has many facets. But the standards of measuring beauty are arbitrary and differ from one culture to another. The variations in the ideals of beauty show what is expected of women in any society. In the Western world, the standards of beauty do not extend beyond the physical appearance of a woman. In the African cul...
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Medical Themes and Metaphors in Urhobo Oral Song-Poetry
Issue:
Volume 9, Issue 4, July 2021
Pages:
161-167
Received:
9 June 2021
Accepted:
26 June 2021
Published:
22 July 2021
Abstract: The discourse on the therapeutic function of literature has, in recent years, been given critical attention in Nigeria. However, little interest has been paid to the representation of illnesses and healing in the field of African oral literature. Oral texts like songs, folktales, myth and incantation, foreground physical and mental conditions. In such autochthonous societies, the totality of the people’s belief about different ailments, social disorders, death, life and the afterlife, constitute the entire gamut of the ingredients of their oral and artistic productions. They represent an essential aspect of the people’s indigenous knowledge system handed down from generation to generation. This is because the African people express the depth of their feelings and emotions in their oral composition and cultural practices. The aim is to help younger generation to be conscious of their mental health and spiritual wellbeing. This work is therefore motivated by the need to interrogate the nexus between oral poetry and medicalisation, which falls within the domain of the medical humanities. It undertakes a close investigation of the diverse spheres of metaphorical representations, allusions and themes inherent in selected oral texts in connection with Psychiatry, ill-health and well-being in Urhobo oral song-poetry. The work relies on the sociological approach to literature that emphasizes the extrinsic relationship between art and society to determine the formal structure, themes, and images of ill-health, disease, pathological disorders and wellness that have endeared the people to their environment for many decades. The work argues that the mental health of the individual relates significantly to the overall wellbeing of the society; it engenders the maintenance of the cosmic order, the relationship between the individual and other segments of the psychic environment – the physical and spiritual.
Abstract: The discourse on the therapeutic function of literature has, in recent years, been given critical attention in Nigeria. However, little interest has been paid to the representation of illnesses and healing in the field of African oral literature. Oral texts like songs, folktales, myth and incantation, foreground physical and mental conditions. In s...
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Brief Analysis on Hunting Procedures and Culture of Liao Dynasty Through Zhuoxie Figures
Issue:
Volume 9, Issue 4, July 2021
Pages:
168-172
Received:
1 July 2021
Accepted:
14 July 2021
Published:
23 July 2021
Abstract: The object of this paper is Zhuoxie Figures, a painting scroll handed down by Hu Gui, a painter from the Khitan period. Hu Gui, the most representative man of "Northern Grassland Painting School". He had a lot of painting works, at present, Zhuoxie Figures must be the largest, the most representative and most abundant one in content. This picture can be roughly divided into three parts. It depicts the hunting life of the Khitan nobles. "Zhuoxie" means to set up a tent and take a rests. Based on historical documents, this paper explores the hunting procedure and culture of Qidan (also known as Khitan, an ancient nationality in China) in Liao Dynasty. In this paper, by means of analyzing the picture scroll content and historical data, the basic procedures of hunting in Liao Dynasty have been sorted out and summarized. In this way, further analysis of the role of hunting in Liao Dynasty has been carried out. Also, the influence of hunting culture in Liao Dynasty on the customs of northern ethnic groups in later ages has also been preliminarily investigated. The results have shown a duality of culture in Liao Dynasty: It has characteristics of incorporating ethnic cultures and other advanced cultures of diverse nature that were absorbed and accepted.
Abstract: The object of this paper is Zhuoxie Figures, a painting scroll handed down by Hu Gui, a painter from the Khitan period. Hu Gui, the most representative man of "Northern Grassland Painting School". He had a lot of painting works, at present, Zhuoxie Figures must be the largest, the most representative and most abundant one in content. This picture c...
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Research on the Inheritance and Development of Linear Skills in Guzheng Performance
Issue:
Volume 9, Issue 4, July 2021
Pages:
173-176
Received:
8 July 2021
Accepted:
19 July 2021
Published:
24 July 2021
Abstract: As a member of plucked stringed instruments, Guzheng, with its granular sound characteristics, constitutes the melody and lines with a strong Chinese national style. The Guzheng playing technique is made up of 4 point like sound in the early spring and autumn period, such as “Tuo”, “Muo”, “Gou”, and “Da” (transliterate), and later developed and innovated linear music skills such as “Tuopi”, “Yaozhi”, “Lunzhi” (transliterate), etc. Guzheng art has a long history, and its playing techniques are constantly innovating. These innovations in linear techniques give the Guzheng, which is a traditional plucked instrument, the opportunity and possibility to better express linear music. In order to explore the meaning and effect of the linear technique of Guzheng performance on the art of Guzheng performance, this study systematically analyzes the development status, performance effects and training methods of the three Guzheng playing techniques, Tuopi, Yaozhi, Lunzhi. This study further analyzes the technical characteristics of the three techniques of Tuopi, Yaozhi, Lunzhi in guzheng playing, and draws conclusions about the importance of “linear” art in the development of Guzheng. It not only provides references for the performers in the acquisition of the three skills systematically, accurately and scientifically, but also helps the performers to improve their performance levels.
Abstract: As a member of plucked stringed instruments, Guzheng, with its granular sound characteristics, constitutes the melody and lines with a strong Chinese national style. The Guzheng playing technique is made up of 4 point like sound in the early spring and autumn period, such as “Tuo”, “Muo”, “Gou”, and “Da” (transliterate), and later developed and inn...
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Dramatic Art, Medical Ethics and Rehabilitation: Patient-Centred Therapeutic Relationship in Omobowale’s The President’s Physician
Issue:
Volume 9, Issue 4, July 2021
Pages:
177-182
Received:
10 May 2021
Accepted:
7 July 2021
Published:
24 July 2021
Abstract: Literature, over the years, has become a potent instrument in humanizing medical practice, which manifests in different forms. Scholars in the domains of literature and medicine have identified the significance of literary knowledge in clinical or medical experiences. From consultation, diagnoses and treatments, humanistic tools constitute the hallmarks of medical practice, which are evident in the therapeutic relationship that involves the patient and care-giver. Literary writers, the world over, have consciously or unconsciously created human health awareness by representing medical episodes and therapeutics as central themes; in such texts, biomedical experiences like illnesses, diseases and ethical issues of medicine are foregrounded. A significant layer of literature and medicine is the exploration of ethical standards in the medical profession, where characterization and dialogues are used to emphasize physician-patient relationship in the therapeutic process. In Nigeria, where medical practice is predominantly doctor-centered, one encounters how physicians and healthcare professionals consistently contravene the Hippocratic Oath, the official and/or sacred document that contains the ethics of medicine. This article examines the appropriation of the patient-centered therapeutic relationship in Emmanuel Babatunde Omobowale’s play, The President’s Physician, highlighting the import of medical ethics in the rehabilitative process. The play is given a close-reading and subjected to qualitative, literary analysis, identifying patient-centered ethical principles like non-maleficence, patient autonomy, beneficence and justice that should form the bedrock of medical practice. Omobowale, in his play, explores the need for medical doctors and other healthcare givers to provide care that is respectful of, and responsive to the preferences of their patients. The analysis is anchored on Stephen Kekeghe’s Pathotextualism which underscores the interplay of illness or disease (pathos) and text (literature).
Abstract: Literature, over the years, has become a potent instrument in humanizing medical practice, which manifests in different forms. Scholars in the domains of literature and medicine have identified the significance of literary knowledge in clinical or medical experiences. From consultation, diagnoses and treatments, humanistic tools constitute the hall...
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The New Philology of Michele Barbi and the Edition of Popular Texts
Issue:
Volume 9, Issue 4, July 2021
Pages:
183-192
Received:
29 April 2021
Accepted:
2 June 2021
Published:
4 August 2021
Abstract: Michele Barbi (1867 - 1941) can be considered the founder of the new Italian philology, based on a revision of Lachmann's method whose results are entrusted to the critical edition of De Vulgari Eloquentia, to the studies on Dante's Canzoniere and to the contributions later collected in the volume The new philology and the edition of our writers from Dante to Manzoni (1938). Using correspondence with other scholars and theoretical statements, the article investigates the contribution given to the birth of the new philological method from Barbi's interest in popular poetry, which constitutes the second 'horn' of Barbi’s studies, alongside Dante's. At first they are taken into consideration the scholar's training at the school of Alessandro D’Ancona (1835-1914), who was also an important scholar of popular literature, as well as of Dante, and was able to initiate a whole generation of his pupils to investigate folklore. After considering the main aspects of Barbi's studies on Dante, we examine, also in connection with the studies of other folklore researchers, the project, to which Barbi's fame as a scholar of popular poetry is linked: that is to say the Raccolta di canti popolari e melodie (‘Collection of popular songs and melodies’), which remains the largest and most important corpus of Italian popular literature. The Collection, the result of gathering and arrangement of the materials carried out over a period of 50 years, was never published by Barbi or by his students, except for a few samples. Third, attention will be paid in the speech to the methods that Barbi used in the collection of songs and to the theoretical problems he faced (how to publish a popular text, the relationship of the text with the music), that are still today the guiding criteria of research on folklore poetry.
Abstract: Michele Barbi (1867 - 1941) can be considered the founder of the new Italian philology, based on a revision of Lachmann's method whose results are entrusted to the critical edition of De Vulgari Eloquentia, to the studies on Dante's Canzoniere and to the contributions later collected in the volume The new philology and the edition of our writers fr...
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Speaking Truth to Power: How and Why Cathedrals Touch Lives
Issue:
Volume 9, Issue 4, July 2021
Pages:
193-196
Received:
19 July 2021
Accepted:
7 August 2021
Published:
18 August 2021
Abstract: In an age where cathedrals continue to attract and inspire many, a powerful, persuasive argument for their success story is often cited in their beauty, grandeur, independence and immense historical and architectural importance. With great power though comes great responsibility and the temptation for its misuse, for which cathedrals by virtue of their size, status and spheres of influence are particularly susceptible. This article attempts a re-evaluation of the source of that power. Through a reflection on personal experience, an exploration of liturgy and a theological assessment of the relationship between the border and the centre, it recalls the Gospel imperative that real power resides in the first being last, and the Kingdom of God belonging to the poor. It argues that the very thing which gives the cathedral its authority, influence and responsibility- the cathedra- concerns the frailty and vulnerability of a bishop which, through her apostolic ministry centered and emanating from the ‘mother church’, brings true meaning and relevance to the cathedrals’ task of drawing alongside and giving theological and spiritual meaning to people’s own frailty, vulnerability and pain. It concludes with the suggestion that, consequently, cathedrals can be places which envelop all of us.
Abstract: In an age where cathedrals continue to attract and inspire many, a powerful, persuasive argument for their success story is often cited in their beauty, grandeur, independence and immense historical and architectural importance. With great power though comes great responsibility and the temptation for its misuse, for which cathedrals by virtue of t...
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A. Siloti, a Piano Player and Music Teacher: Emigration from Russia and Peculiarities of Creative Activity in the USA (1921 to 1945)
Issue:
Volume 9, Issue 4, July 2021
Pages:
197-206
Received:
2 August 2021
Accepted:
16 August 2021
Published:
23 August 2021
Abstract: The purpose of the study is to reveal three key vectors of activity of A. Siloti as an outstanding representative of the Russian emigre community during his residing in emigration in the USA. These are concert, teaching and editorial activities. A. Siloti belonged to the first, so-called post-October wave of emigration when arrived in the USA in 1921. The main reasons of his emigration were dangerous problems with Bolshevik`s power. He emigrated firstly to Finland, then were European counties, which were famous for Russian emigrants. After three years of wandering, which were marked by A. Siloti`s only concert activities he, at least, began his creative way in USA. So, this article specifies the contribution A. Siloti made both to the cultural environment of the USA at the beginning of the twentieth century, and to the performing and teaching activities of musicians of the first wave of emigration. The relevance of study is due to insufficient research on the activities of A. Siloti in emigration, and especially during his activities at the Juilliard music school. In this educational institution A. Siloti has begun working in 1925. Therefore, the first official information about his activities appeared only in connection with teaching activities at Juilliard. He cooperated with such famous concert collectives as New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Symphonic Orchestra in Sent-Louis, in Philadelphia and so on. That`s way, in this article were classified principles of A. Siloti`s pianism, which influenced on his pedagogical style. It is known from a small number of retained posters that some revisions were included in A. Siloti's concert programs, however they have not been considered as part of performing and interpretive analysis. According to analyze of A. Siloti`s concert posters and memoirs of his colleagues and students, the most part of his repertoire consist of his own editions. So, for making full picture of his emigration activities in this research is presented a detailed analysis of his editorial style on the such examples as Fantasia c-moll by J. S. Bach. Description of reasons for emigration, interpretive analysis of concert activities, as well as determination of the peculiarities of A. Siloti's teaching style in emigration and introduction of unpublished revisions of A. Siloti into scientific circulation provide for the relevance of research carried out in the framework of this article.
Abstract: The purpose of the study is to reveal three key vectors of activity of A. Siloti as an outstanding representative of the Russian emigre community during his residing in emigration in the USA. These are concert, teaching and editorial activities. A. Siloti belonged to the first, so-called post-October wave of emigration when arrived in the USA in 19...
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The Integration of Post Theory and Philosophy of Event and Its Progressive Significance
Issue:
Volume 9, Issue 4, July 2021
Pages:
207-211
Received:
8 August 2021
Accepted:
21 August 2021
Published:
31 August 2021
Abstract: So far, there are three ideas in the study of post theory. These three existing ideas are enlightening to a certain extent, but the common shortcomings are also obvious. They all put the vision of the post theory in the Anglo-American scope, that is, they directly give the Anglo-American position to the theory, but do not aim at the European continent from the internal academic road, which is the center of the theoretical culture. This does not really prove where the theory needs to be improved. The intention of this paper is to overcome this existing limitation and try to put forward a new way of thinking, that is, the philosophy of event is used to connect and activate the post theory. In Europe, the philosophy of event is mainly manifested as a rebellion against the mainstream linguistic theory represented by Saussure. Therefore, when the Anglo-American scholars in the same period began to pay attention to “after theory”, because theory is based on the mainstream linguistic theory, post theory which is mainly popular in the Anglo-American academic circles naturally introduces the philosophy of event as a further promotion. This also makes the post theoretical research go beyond the Anglo-American paradigm which is slowly falling into a certain bottleneck, and get involved in the European dynamics, obtaining the internal intermediary and new growing point. This constitutes a new train of thought of the research of post theory.
Abstract: So far, there are three ideas in the study of post theory. These three existing ideas are enlightening to a certain extent, but the common shortcomings are also obvious. They all put the vision of the post theory in the Anglo-American scope, that is, they directly give the Anglo-American position to the theory, but do not aim at the European contin...
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