Showing papers on "Theme (narrative) published in 1980"

Max Weber's types of rationality: Cornerstones for the analysis of rationalization processes in history

Abstract: Rationality has been recognized as perhaps the major theme in Max Weber's oeuvre. The commentators who have addressed this theme have generally constricted its polymorphous character. This article inventories Weber's usage of "rationality" and "rationalization" in "Economy and Society" and the "Collected Essays in the Sociology of Religion." Four types of rationality are identified and compared with one another: practical, theoretical, substantive, and formal. Only "ethical substantive rationality" introduces methodical ways of life. All four types become manifest in a multiplicity of rationalization processes orchestrated at all levels of societal and civilization process. Long-term rationalization processes are seen to be rooted in values rather than in interests. The dominance of practical, theoretical, and formal rationalization processes in modern Western societies implies immense consequences for the type of person likely to live in these societies.

Psychobiological Aspects of Life Stress

Abstract: The main theme of this paper is the study of psychological mediators of neuroendocrine response patterns in relation to psychosocial conditions. Our recent approaches to these problems will be reviewed against the background of earlier studies from our laboratory (cf. reviews by Frankenhaeuser, 1971, 1976, 1979a, b) and relevant work from other laboratories.

The Problem of Pragmatism in American History

Abstract: In 1950 Henry Steele Commager saw no reason to doubt that "pragmatism" was a central theme in American life, flowing naturally out of American experience and becoming, in the twentieth century, "almost the official philosophy of America. " 1 Being pragmatic was so essential to being American, observed the Amherst pamphlet on "Pragmatism and American Culture" in the same year, that to debate the merits of pragmatism was to place "American civilization itself . .. on trial." 2 Indeed, people seeking to identify what was wrong with America-or what was so splended about it-had been dissecting the writings of pragmatists for years.3 The indispensability of the concept of pragmatism for the study of American history was implied across the board, from the narrowest of scholarly monographs to the most sweeping assessments of the American character, from the gushiest patriotic tract to the most embittered denunciation of American shortcomings. In 1980, "pragmatism" is a concept most American historians have proved they can get along without. Some nonhistorians may continue to believe that pragmatism is a distinctive contribution of America to modern civilization and somehow emblematic of America, but few scholarly energies are devoted to the exploration or even the assertion of this belief. The space devoted to

Darwin's Botanical Arithmetic and the Principle of Divergence, 1854-1858

Abstract: The story of Charles Darwin's intellectual development during the years 1837 to 1859 is the most famous and extensively documented story in the history of biology. Yet despite continued interest in Darwin's papers, there are many problems and novel topics still to be explored that will indubitably add to such an account. It is the purpose of this paper to describe a little-known aspect of Darwin's researches during the pre-Origin period and to place this in the larger frame of his developing theories. The subject is what was then known as "botanical arithmetic" and its object, so far as Darwin was concerned, was to discover quantitative rules for the appearance of varieties in nature. These arithmetical exercises supplied the context in which Darwin discovered his "principle of divergence." I propose that Darwin's botanical arithmetic also provided a great deal of the content of that principle, or, to speak more precisely, provided the information that disclosed problems which could only be solved by the intervention of an extra "force" in evolutionary theory. On these grounds I make a case for Darwin's moment of discovery during the year 1857 - not, as is often suggested, in 1852. That Darwin's botanical arithmetic has been neglected by historians is partly his own fault. In On the Origin of Species I he barely referred to his botanical statistics or the long sequence of calculations which he had undertaken from 1854 to 1858. He compressed and simplified these into a few meager paragraphs, giving his readers only six pages of statistical data to fill out the discussion of "variation under nature" in Chapter 11.2 By contrast, he had originally devoted over fifty tightly written folios, with further supplementary notes and tables, to the same theme in the "big species book," Natural Selection.3 The topic must

Texts and readers

Abstract: The interaction of readers with fictional literary texts is explored. Such texts must be constituted by readers themselves during a dynamic process of creating both the text‐sense and the larger contextual background. That process includes such tasks as: adopting a viewpoint, creating ideations, images, or integrative gestalts, dealing with empty slots or negations, and co‐ordinating foreground with background, theme with horizion, and current perspectives with previous or anticipated ones. The dynamics of reading are explicated as a continual evolution, modification, and shifting of viewpoint, perspective, and ideation as the text is progressively understood. Since fictional discourse need not reflect prevailing systems of meaning and norms or values, readers gain new detachment from their own presuppositions and expectations; by constituting and formulating text‐sense, readers in effect are constituting and formulating their own cognition and becoming aware of the operations for doing so.

Poststructuralism and the "Paraliterary"

Abstract: Last fall Partisan Review conducted a two-day symposium under the general title "The State of Criticism." Although various sessions were designed to treat a variety of topics, most presentations were dominated by one continuing theme: structuralist and poststructuralist critical theory and the threat that it somehow poses for literature. My own role in these proceedings was limited to that of discussant; I was to comment on the main paper, written by Morris Dickstein and delivered as the substance of a session dedicated to the influence of recent critical theory on the vehicles of mass culture. As will become obvious, Dickstein's paper was yet another statement of the general sense that literary criticism (understood as an academic discipline) had fallen hostage to an invading force, that this force was undermining critical practice (understood as close reading) and, through that corrosive effect, was eating away at our concept of literature itself. My comments had, then, a very particular point of origin. But the views against which those comments were directed are extremely widespread within the literary establishment-both inside and outside the academy-where a sense of the pernicious nature of poststructuralism has led to more recent projects devoted to "How to Rescue Literature."' Thus, despite the specific occasion that gave rise to my discussion of the "paraliterary," I believe this is of much wider conceptual interest. I therefore reproduce in full my remarks.

Question and answer game employing chance-taking means

Abstract: A question and answer game includes a book of questions and answers divided into separate categories, as well as a chance-taking device for determining in random matter questions to be asked of participants. The categories of questions are related to a common theme, such as television shows, and each category deals with a separate item within the common theme, such as game shows, situation comedies, westerns, and the like. Each item is further broken down to include a number of shows classifiable within that item. The chance-taking device includes a selector having relatively movable portions and a set of guide cards for directing operation of the selector. The game apparatus also includes a plurality of cards displaying different items within a given category such as television personalities, television shows, and the like. Answers to questions posed by the cards are contained within the book. During play of the game, players may gamble on whether they will succeed in answering questions about to be posed to them.

On “Discernment of Spirits” in the Early Church:

Abstract: THE TERM "discernment" is used frequently—some might think too frequently—in contemporary spiritual theology. It is itself a biblical term and has a long and somewhat complex history. In modern usage it is found in three different phrases: "Ignatian discernment" or simply "discernment," "communal discernment," and "discernment of spirits." The first has been studied by (among others) John C. Futrell. He writes that "there is no more central theme in Ignatian spirituality or, for that matter, in Christian spirituality itself than that of discernment." He describes this discernment as a "conception, which involves choosing the way of the light of Christ instead of the way of the darkness of the Evil One and living out the consequences of this choice through discerning what specific decisions and actions are demanded to follow Christ here and now." He later describes the goal of discernment as arriving "at the choice of authentic Christian response to the word of God in each concrete situation in life." As Futrell presents it, discernment is an act of choosing among morally good possible actions under the guidance of grace, and presupposes both the existence of divine providence and an obscurity in the manifestation of the divine will. The second phrase is "communal discernment," defined by Jules J. Toner as "a process undertaken by a community as a community for the purpose of judging what God is calling that community to do." The term is apparently a recent one. The practice is generally traced by Jesuit authors to the "Deliberatio primorum patrum," a short account of deliberations conducted by Ignatius Loyola and others at Rome in 1539 which led to the formation of the Society of Jesus. The distinguishing charac-

The concept of spirit in Akwapim Akan philosophy

Abstract: Studies of African religions almost invariably include detailed discussions of various categories of spirits. Rarely, however, is spirit considered in the abstract; spirits are described, but not the spiritual. This paper will explore the concept of sunsum, ‘spirit’, as it is employed throughout Akwapim Akan philosophy. Sunsum will be shown to be the central, unifying theme which integrates the various domains of Akwapim Akan thought. The distinction between the exclusively spiritual (ye sunsum) and the inspirited (wo sunsum) figures prominently in the ontology, epistemology and theory of causality and constitutes a major premise of the philosophy. The paper will conclude with the assertion that the universe in traditional Akwapim Akan thought is not divided into separate spiritual and material worlds but is most accurately regarded as one inspirited universe.

Antebellum North and South in Comparative Perspective: A Discussion

Abstract: EDWARD PESSEN HAS PROVIDED ANOTHER of his very useful surveys of literature relevant to an important theme, this time a comparison of antebellum North and South, to suggest that the two sections "were far more alike than the conventional scholarly wisdom has led us to believe" (page 1147). Forrest McDonald and Grady McWhiney have offered a sectional comparison only by implication-a "lazy" South versus an industrious North. Both "How Different from Each Other Were the Antebellum North and South?" and "The South from Self-Sufficiency to Peonage: An Interpretation," although quite different in approach, attack fundamental and long-held assumptions about the character of Southern life and the nature of Southern society in the years before the Civil War.

Lessons of the Holocaust

Abstract: The recent impact of the American television drama "Holocaust" in the Federal Republic of Germany provides the occasion to discuss a theme that has always if not explicitly been present in this journal. Although we have not dealt extensively with the Nazi genocide, or with the problem of historic relations between Germans and Jews, they have often provided a touchstone for many of our discussions, and certainly have informed the work of many of our contributors. For this reason we have chosen to devote this and the following issue to the Holocaust and its consequences. The present issue is largely concerned with the West German response to the tv film "Holocaust," while the next will investigate the impact of the real event for Jewish selfconsciousness in the post-Holocaust epoch. This has resulted in two distinct approaches. While this issue emphasizes sociological analysis and criticism of the broad response to a single cultural phenomenon, the next issue is more subjective, relying on personal commentary, interviews and autobiography to analyze the way that Jewish intellectuals of different generations have come to terms with a collective tragedy. Of course, Jewish concerns have been evident in NGC in another regard. This is the unmistakably Jewish element in Critical Theory which is apparent, not only in the Frankfurt School's concern with anti-Semitism, discussed by Martin Jay in this issue, but in the essence of its concept of social theory. The idea that dialectics is secularized hope, the translation of the desire for transcendence into history, and the identification with the suffering of past generations that are characteristic motifs of Critical Theory owe a great deal to the Jewish Messianic idea. The Messianic impulse, with its emphasis on redemption, utopia, and the radical negation of the existing order was, as Gershom Scholem points out, the "anarchic breeze" in Jewish orthodoxy. It is no less true that Critical Theory, with its similar emphasis, was the "anarchic breeze" in Marxist orthodoxy as well. In his appreciation of Walter Benjamin, Herbert Marcuse provided a cogent characterization of the

The inscriptions on the vehicles of Ghanaian commercial drivers: a sociological analysis

Abstract: Throughout Ghana many commercial passenger vehicles bear mottos and names, boldly written on their bodies, usually at the front. The widespread nature of these inscriptions would seem to suggest that they are a part of the occupational sub-culture, namely the distinctive pattern of behaviour, norms, and customs which serves to identify commercial transportation. A general theme running throughout the present study is that this sub-culture reflects not only the unique needs of the drivers, but also the socio-economic and cultural environment within which they operate.

Citizens for the fatherland : education, educators, and pedagogical ideals in eighteenth century Russia

Abstract: The book features the ideas of individuals and groups of people who made direct contributions to projects initiated by their monarchs, above all those of Catherine the Great. A special theme of the book is attention given to the theory and practice of educating young women in Russia.

Grids : Format and Image in 20th Century Art

Abstract: On the occasion of an exhibition of works by 34 international artists, Krauss takes up the theme of grids, relating this structural device to the mythic. 10 bibl. ref.

Dimensions of semiotic space in narrative

Abstract: The observation and interpretation of spatial relationships in narrative texts is a significant recurrent theme in recent semiotics. Binary oppositions such as high/low, near/far, enclosed/open have been interpreted as systematic textual realizations of fundamental categories of mythic thought by Levi-Strauss, Toporov and Ivanov, of moral or cultural codes by Toporov and Lotman, and in terms of psycho-analytic oppositions by many post-Freudians. Lotman and Barthes, among others, have attempted to relate spatial oppositions in literary narrative to the dynamics of plot and point of view or the delineation of character. One semiotic system, space relations, has been regarded as a kind of metaphor for other semiotic systems in a text. A purely binary opposition, however, while giving us direct and valuable insights into indicial relations in a narrative, especially in terms of myths, rites and moral values, may blur our perception of other aspects of semiotic space, for example, the extent to which it may have no spatial correlates at all, and the extent to which its dimensions are measurable, i.e., perceived in our reading as themselves consisting of graded relationships. Our title is a pun on both the key words: under "space" we do include spatial relations as perhaps one of the most clearly structured and recognizable dimensions of meaning in a text - a semiotic system that models the world of the narrative. But we also use "space" in its more general sense as used by mathematicians (Lotman reminds us in passing of the concepts "chromatic space" in optics and "phase space" as used by electrical engineers, but he does not look more closely at the implications of this analogy [Lotman, 1968, 1970]). Under "dimension" we include both the notion of cross-section, assuming that the art work can be "cut" at many different levels and angles and that many of

Toward a Hierarchy of Skills in the Comprehension of Literature.

Abstract: I was recently approached by a publisher who requested that I develop a scope and sequence outline for tenth grade literature anthology. I was given a list of thirty-five "elements" of literature which the anthology should establish in the minds of the students. The first eight elements were character, theme, setting, plot, conflict, climax, suspense, and foreshadowing. In addition, I was given a list of genres: short story, essay, novel, play, epic poetry, lyric poetry, narrative poetry, and so forth. The proposed anthology should teach students how the various "elements" of literature operate within the genres. From the point-of-view of a text salesman, such lists make perfectly good sense. They reflect precisely what is to be found in course syllabus after course syllabus for tenth grade English (or for ninth grade English, or eleventh, or twelfthstudents never seem to learn their elements). Apparently, the assumption is that if the elements appear at every grade level they must be "basic" and thus in keeping with the back-tobasics movement.

Composition and Paronomasia in the Book of Jonah

Abstract: LITERARY STUDY OF THE BIBLE has traditionally centered on theme and the strategies of narrative construction. In the 1960 'sand 1970 's, however, scholars lent considerable dimension to their enterprise by focussing increasingly upon compositional techniques, including word-play, inclusio, chiasm, and the whole gamut of rhetorical, structural and generic devices available to the Israelite author. What has long been familiar to the scholar of Dante or Shakespeare has only of late assumed general interest for the biblical critic, namely, that artistry is manifest no less in the structure that houses meaning and content than in the meanings themselves. As a result, scholars have begun to explore the interaction between the formal, literary characteristics and the content of the materials they study. 1 This interrelationship-between intended content (which must be distinguished from meaning) on the one hand, and the dictates of form on the other, of plot-element or message, and genre, seems in much of biblical literature to have determined the final presentation of the work (note Hirsch, 1978, pp. 68-126). Replete with word-play, the book of Jonah affords a unique example of the contribution that formal artistry makes to the impact of the final work. Jonah's

Fools' Plays: A study of satire in the sottie

Abstract: Preface Introduction 1. The plays 2. The origins and players of the sottie 3. The sottie as drama 4. Satire in the sottie 5. The theme of social hierarchy in the sottie 6. The importance of folly in the sottie Appendix Notes Bibliography Index.

William Carlos Williams : the critical heritage

Abstract: This set comprises of 40 volumes covering nineteenth and twentieth century European and American authors. These volumes will be available as a complete set, mini boxed sets (by theme) or as individual volumes. This second set compliments the first 68 volume set of Critical Heritage published by Routledge in October 1995.

Liberation Theology and the Social Gospel: Variations on a Theme:

Abstract: THE LATIN AMERICAN liberation theologians are at pains to emphasize that they are theologizing out of and for a very particular social and cultural context and that in some sense this context provides a unique perspective from which to view and interpret the gospel. They feel, and I think rightly so, that their theology is more firmly rooted in the historical reality of Latin America than was (or is) what they call \"academic\" theology, by which they usually mean the European theology in which most of them were trained not too long ago. The liberation theologians are acutely aware that any theology is conditioned by its social context, and they warn us against trying simply to transpose Latin American liberation theology to a North American or other localized context. I could not agree more, although, as I have pointed out previously, I think we in North America have something to learn from their methodology. Not only should we recognize the fact that theology is necessarily conditioned by its social situation, but I wish to affirm that it ought to be so conditioned. A theology that does not take sufficient account of the \"plausibility structures\" of the society in which and for which it is intended to function will be literally incredible. If theology is to be vital, it must be responsive to the social, economic, and political factors which are \"real\" for that society. This implies that theology is, to some extent, determined or conditioned by those social factors. This affirmation of the particularity of every theology needs to be balanced by a historical awareness which is wider than the particular social context. That is to say, no theology and no social context is so unique, so particular, that it has nothing in common with any other theology or any other experience of the Christian community through the ages. Is the liberation theology emerging from Latin America so unique, so particularized, that it defies comparison with any other previous Christian experience or previous theology? The North American theologian who studies Latin American theology seriously cannot help but be reminded of an earlier movement in North America: the \"Social Gospel\" movement of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. At least prima facie there are enough similarities to warrant a closer look. As a step in that 1 T. Howland Sanks and Brian H. Smith, \"Liberation Ecclesiology: Praxis, Theory, Praxis,\" TS 38 (1977) 3-38.