Theme (narrative)

About: Theme (narrative) is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 13050 publications have been published within this topic receiving 159511 citations. The topic is also known as: narrative theme.

Academic life in the measured university: pleasures, paradoxes and politics

Abstract: The theme of academic life in the measured university has felt especially pressing to us. As co-editors, we have aimed to work together in ways that matter to us while still meeting numerous deadli...

Angels and Absences: Child Deaths in the Nineteenth Century

Abstract: What is the difference between public and private feeling, and how far can we deduce past feelings from the words that have been left us? Why do child deaths figure so often and so prominently in the literature of the nineteenth century, and how was the theme of the death of a child used to elicit such poignant responses in the readers of that era? In this fascinating new book, Laurence Lerner vividly contrasts the contempt with which twentieth-century criticism so often dismisses such works as mere sentimentality with the enthusiasm and tears of nineteenth-century contemporaries. Drawing examples from both real and literary deaths, Lerner delves into the writings of well-known authors such as Dickens, Coleridge, Shelley, Flaubert, Mann, Huxley, and Hesse, as well as lesser known writers like Felicia Hemans and Lydia Sigourney. In the process, he synthesizes fresh ideas about the thorny subjects of sentimentality, aesthetic judgment, and the function of religion in literature. Lerner's forthright and evocative prose style is enjoyable reading, and he excels in teasing out the moral implications and the psychosocial entanglements of his chosen narrative and lyrical texts. This is a book that will illuminate an important aspect of the history of private life. It should have wide application for those interested in the history, sociology, and literature of the nineteenth century.

Inventing America: A History of the United States

Abstract: Representing a fresh approach to the teaching of American history, this textbook takes innovation as its theme. The book is a chronological survey, highlighting the ways in which the constant invention of ideas, the impulse to improve, the renewal of old practices in areas as diverse as the American railroad and the rise of jazz, have all animated the progress of American history. The text links the theme of innovation to political, economic, social and cultural developments.

An Educator's Primer on the Gender War: Retraining Gender Equity to Include Boys Could Result in Making Schools Fairer and More Humane Environments for All Students

Abstract: [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Several recent books, a seemingly endless series of television and radio talk shows, and a number of newspaper columns have painted a disturbing picture of schools mired in a surreptitious war on boys. In such books as The War Against Boys (Sommers 2000) and Ceasefire! (Young 1999), readers are introduced to education using war metaphors and are informed that boys are daily casualties of zealous efforts to help girls. These "schools-at-war" authors also call for more "boy-friendly" education, including increased testing, frequent classroom competitions, and the inclusion of war poetry in the curriculum--all measures intended to counter feminist influences. They also argue that sections of Title IX, the law that prohibits sex discrimination in education, be rescinded. Teachers are informed that giving extra attention to boys in classrooms and building up school libraries that are dominated by books about male characters are useful strategies to improve boys' academic performance. As one book warns, "It's a bad time to be a boy in America." After over a quarter century of researching life in schools, I must admit that at first I thought this "gender war" was a satire, a creative way to alert people to the difficulties of creating fair schools that work for all children. Certainly boys (like girls) confront gender stereotypes and challenges, and teachers and parents must work hard every day to make schools work for all children. But these recent books and talk shows were not intended as satire; they purported to present a serious picture of schools in which girls ruled and boys were their victims. The irony of girls waging a war on boys reminded me of a "Seinfeld" episode that featured "Bizarro World." For those of you not versed in the culture of Bizarro World, it is a Superman comics theme in which everything is opposite: up is down, in is out, and good is bad. When the popular sitcom featured an episode on Bizarro World, Kramer became polite and discovered that doors were to be knocked on, not stormed through. George went from nerdiness to cool, from dysfunctional to popular; he was rewarded with two well-adjusted parents. Elaine's self-absorption was transformed into compassion, a change that would probably lead to a hitch in the Peace Corps and stardom in her own "Seinfeld" spin-off, "Elaine in Africa." In this topsy-turvy transformation, the entire "Seinfeld" gang became well-adjusted, with their ethical compasses recalibrated to do the right thing. What would schools be like, I thought, if such Bizarro World changes came to pass? What would school look like if "misguided feminists" were actually engaged in a "war against boys"? And then I thought, what if girls really did rule? [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The statute of Alice Paul at the entrance of the school has become a student talis-woman. Students rub Alice's big toe before taking the SAT or on the eve of a critical soccer match with their cross-town rivals, the Stanton Suffragettes. Although Alice Paul died in 1977, she remains a real presence on campus. Once inside Alice Paul High School, images of famous women are everywhere. Pictures of Jeannette Rankin, Mary MacLeod Bethune, Margaret Sanger, Carry Nation, and Mia Hamm gaze down on students as they go to their classes, constant reminders of the power and accomplishments of women. There are few if any pictures of men, as if in confirmation of the old adage, "It's a woman's world." Trophy cases overflow with artifacts trumpeting women's role in ending child labor, reforming schools, eliminating domestic violence, confronting alcoholism, and battling for healthcare reform. It is the same story in the technology and math wing of Alice Paul High, where the influence of such computer pioneers as Ada Loveless and Grace Hopper can be seen everywhere. Few images of males can be found anywhere in the hallways--or in the textbooks. The typical history text devotes less than 5% of its content to the contributions of men, a percentage that actually shrinks in math and science texts. …

On the Margins: The Art of Exile in V.S. Naipaul

Abstract: This study explores the theme of exile in the literary career of V.S. Naipaul, approaching the subject from two perspectives: as an idea that recurs in Naipaul's writings and as a personal experience that has shaped his vision of the world. Informed by the theoretical insights of Mikhail Bakhtin and Tzvetan Todorov, ""On the Margins"" offers readings of Naipaul's major works, from ""Miguel Street"" (1959) to ""India: A Million Mutinies Now"" (1990). Timothy F. Weiss reads Naipaul critically yet empathetically, examining his writings in chronological order and situating them in the cultural contexts in and about which Naipaul wrote. Weiss tries to show how the experience of exile, though alienating and divisive for Naipaul, has also been a transformative source of creative power. By turning his exile into art, the author explains, Naipaul the colonial Trinidad Indian has been able to reconcile the disparate elements of his hybrid identity and to connect his stories with a broader colonial and postcolonial history. In Weiss' view, what distinguishes Naipaul's often controversial works is the author's continuing struggle to look back and remember the past while moving forward toward a new identity and a new vision of society. At their best, Weiss argues, Naipaul's works face in two directions: they are at once ""commemorative and contemporary.