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.

Surviving Trench Warfare: Technology and the Canadian Corps, 1914-1918

Abstract: On the surface, it seems that the history of science and technology in Canada suffers from a lack of heroes and drama: after all, most world - altering inventions and discoveries seem to have occurred elsewhere, as ground - breaking change seems to have been imported rather than indigenous. Yet this misses the point. Much recent British and American scholarship de - emphasizes concepts of "discovery" and "invention" in favour of new models in which scientific and technological change is a gradual, socially conditioned transformation with few actual points of revolutionary change. One writer disputes the occurrence of intentional discovery, arguing instead in favour of a strict process of natural selection: all ideas or hypotheses are serendipitous, mere random generation; unfit variations are eliminated, for example, within the scientific community; fit variations become discoveries through confirmation by the community. As such, "individual scientists do not, in fact, cannot, make a scientific discovery," he argues; "scientific knowledge is a socially produced knowledge."(f.1) The real drama, it could be argued, is in the interplay between scientific concepts and society and how both are mutually transformed.As the essays in Science, Technology and Medicine in Canada's Past indicate, science and technology in Canada have been profoundly shaped by their social, cultural and economic contexts. Science, Technology and Medicine in Canada's Past is a sampling of essays drawn from the first 10 years of the journal Scientia Canadiensis, aimed at high school and university readers. As with other such collections, the quality of papers varies: some are marred by prosaic writing and analysis, but others are more exciting while most have the virtue of introducing readers to prevalent themes among historians of Canadian science and technology.Discussions of the influences of nationality and colonialism are especially prominent within the collection. In his paper"Between Two Empires: the Toronto Magnetic Observatory and American Science Before Confederation," Gregory Good contends that national values shaped the institutional character and purpose of the Toronto observatory. English staff used the observatory to seek scientific fellowship with their American neighbours, but for Americans, the observatory primarily offered opportunities for observations on British territory. In his paper, "Colonialism and the Truncation of Science in Ireland and French Canada During the Nineteenth Century," Richard Jarrell repeats familiar themes, blaming "internal colonialism" for making French Canadians and Irish "inward - looking societies," financially and socially unwilling to imbed science within their culture. However, in his study of the French - Canadian botanist Louis - Ovide Brunet, the entomologist Leon Provancher and the geologist J.C.K. Laflamme, Raymond Duschene suggests that "colonial" dependence, and Quebec's place on the periphery internationally, had far less impact on these scientists' status than accidents of personal career and the differing characteristics of research and publication within varying fields.Canada's technological performance has been a favourite theme among historians of technology. Douglas Baldwin's all too brief account of technological innovation in the Cobalt mining region disputes contentions that technological development in Canada has been a history of failed opportunities. Chris de Bresson uses the emergence of the mass production Bombardier snowmobile as an exceptional case study in analyzing Canada's failure, despite economic prosperity, to develop an energetic, capital - intensive high technology sector. De Bresson rejects traditional explanations such as capital shortage, Canada's vast geographic distances, domination by foreign multinationals, timid banking practices and Canada's small market size. He instead targets failure to move beyond custom and batch - oriented manufacturing to mass production, and crucially, the tendency towards Canadian adoption of technical systems from abroad, thus resulting in limited "indigenous manufacturing know - how" and vulnerability "to quick imitation by low cost producers" (192). …

The Adultery Mime

Abstract: Of all the themes treated by the mimes, perhaps the one that gave the most delight to their audiences throughout the centuries was that of adultery. References to it, from various parts of the ancient world, are found from the first century before Christ to the sixth century of the Christian era, and in many cases it is spoken of as a theme typical of the mime as a whole. There does not seem to be satisfactory evidence of its existence in a genuinely dramatic form at an earner date. It is reported that the μαγῳδoί, among other impersonations, mimicked the behaviour of μoιχoί, but their performance, so far as can be discovered, was purely a piece of imitative buffoonery. When the theme of adultery was treated by Greek mimes of a later date, the approach seems to have been rather a psychological study of the adulteress than an attempt to bring out the dramatic possibilities inherent in the situation. This is certainly the case with Herondas' fifth mime, which portrays a lady jealously in love with a slave. Evidence from sources bearing a close relationship to the mime is equally negative. Thus a well-known Egyptian papyrus contains a song, written perhaps in the third or second century B.C., in which Helen complains of Menelaus' indifference to her after bringing her back from Troy; but this is far from constituting a variant on the adultery theme. The wall-song in Marissa, which was composed in the middle of the second century B.C., does indicate a situation in which a woman is trying to keep her lover's presence outside the house from the knowledge of another man with whom she is consorting inside.

Prédication seconde et structure informationnelle: la relative de perception comme construction présentative

Abstract: Knud Lambrecht, Predication seconde et structure informationnelle : la relative de perception comme construction presentative ; This paper proposes an analysis of the sentence type « Je vois le facteur qui arrive » ("I see the mailman coming") and « Voila le facteur qui arrive » ("There's the mailman coming") within the information-structure framework of Lambrecht 1994. It is argued that this sentence type belongs to a general presentational construction which is also instantiated by sentences like « J'ai mon beau-frere qui fume » ("My brother-in-law smokes") or « Y a le telephone qui sonne » ("The phone is ringing"). In this construction, the main clause introduces a new discourse entity (semantic role "theme", pragmatic role "focus") by situating it in relation to an explicit or implicit reference point (semantic role "locative", pragmatic role "topic"), while the relative clause expresses some hitherto unknown property of this new entity via secondary predication. The possible coding of the theme argument in pronominal form, as in « Je le vois qui arrive » ("I see him coming") or « Le voila qui arrive » ("There he is coming") is explained in terms of the possible passage of a given discourse entity from an internal to an external discourse world. clause expresses some hitherto unknown property of this new entity via secondary predication. The possible coding of the theme argument in pronominal form, as in « Je le vois qui arrive » ("I see him coming") or « Le voila qui arrive » ("There he is coming") is explained in terms of the possible passage of a given discourse entity from an internal to an external discourse world.

The Ethiopian Jewish Exodus: Narratives of the Journey

Abstract: 1. Introduction 2. The Context of the Journey 3. Interviewing and Interpreting in Cross Cultural Research 4. The Theme of Jewish Identity 5. The Theme of Suffering 6. The Theme of Bravery and Inner Strength 7. The Impact of the Journey: Psycho-Social Issues 8. Ethiopian Jews Encounter Israel

Forts, Curriculum, and Ethical Relationality

Abstract: I begin with reference to the conference theme that inspired this chapter: “An Uncommon Countenance: Provoking Past, Present, and Future Perspectives within Canadian Curriculum Studies.” I find the concept of “an uncommon countenance” as suggested by William Pinar (2008)and subsequently picked up by the conference organizers, to be an extremely important, timely, and a provocative problematique for us as curriculum scholars to engage with together. However, I’m also simultaneously curious and cautious about how the suggestion of an “uncommon countenance” for Canadian curriculum is interpreted and understood. What is at stake indenoting uncommonness in our curricular considerations? My concern isthat the condition of being “uncommon” might be misunderstood as affiliated with celebrations of diversity, difference, and cosmopolitanism that sometimes operate in an axiological void, and thus provide little meaningful guidance on how to proceed.1