Change through Tradition in the Work of 'Zulu Sofola Rehearsal Presentation Outline

This paper highlights the struggle Nigerian playwright 'Zulu Sofola underwent to impart her message. She attempted to confront gender oppression through tradition without contradicting herself in her play, 'Wedlock of the Gods.' ‘Zulu Sofola wrote commentaries about social problems and the influence of Western culture. Her goal was to maintain a traditional framework in the face of encroaching Western perspectives. She advocated enacting change through tradition, irrespective of Western ideologies about change. Sofola focused on gender oppression as a social problem. She intended to address gender oppression rooted in tradition by teaching traditional customs to her audience in order for audiences to make informed and progressive decisions about what to change within traditional practices. Thus, her traditionalist approach to change requires cognizance and recognition of tradition as an initial step. Sofola argued against the influences of Westernization that shift the focus of change from confronting customs through tradition to confronting customs through Western ideology.

Grotesque in Dickens

Dickens's use of the grotesque in his novels undergoes a variety of changes. For convenience sake, and to better illustrate the developments of the grotesque, I divide the novels into three separate groups. The first group, the period of experiment, included the novels from Pickwick Papers through Barnaby Rudge; the second group, the period of transition, includes the novels from Martin Chuzzlewit through David Copperfield; and the third, the period of a new vision. included the novels from Bleak House through Edwin Drood. Basically, I see the development of the grotesque involving a change in Dickens's conceptions of society, as well as responding to complex changes in society itself; Dickens's vision loses much of its humor in the end, yet it also reflects a definite maturity.

Dwelling in possibility: aestheticizing identity in African American women's fiction

African American women writers define aesthetics through their negotiation of identity in the politicized loci of space, place and voice. In the balkanization of such issues of voice and space, we can see the ways that the emergent selfis embodied and aestheticized in literature. To do so creates a more tactile and "artfull" representation of the self rather than a representation of identity as a mere abstract concept. To use written language to express the self is to carry processes of selfdefinition for black women into the realm of creative production. For women, especially black women, who are a politically and socially compromised element of society, the written word is a way of expressing the politically and the socially critical voice that is suppressed in other forums of expression. Using theories on "writing in difference" as a skeleton key, this project seeks to outline some of the ways that black women writers use aesthetic elements in their art to express the potential for self-examination, discovery, and emancipation.

A politics of the Dreamtime : destructive and regenerative rainbows in Alexis Wright's Carpentaria

A literary criticism of the book "Carpentaria," by Alexis Wright is presented. It discusses the representation of indigenous knowledge in the novel. It outlines the characters and explores the symbolic significance of these characters. It examines the themes of the novel, including the dreamtime mythology as an alternative form of scientific discourse. An overview of the story of the novel is also given.

Beyond God the father : the metaphysical in a physical world

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Commonsense, manners, guts' : 'manliness' in the English school story 1887-1917

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Econstruction : the nature/culture opposition in texts about whales and whaling

A perceived opposition between 'culture' and 'nature', presented as a dominant, biased and antagonistic relationship, is engrained in the language of Western culture. This opposition is reflected in, and adversely influences, our treatment of the ecosphere. I argue that through the study of literature, we can deconstruct this opposition and that such an ‘ecocritical’ operation is imperative if we are to avoid environmental catastrophe. I examine the way language influences our relationship with the world and trace the historical conception of ‘nature’ and its influence on the English language. The whale is, for many people, an important symbol of the natural world, and human interaction with these animals is an indication of our attitudes to the natural world in general. By focusing on whale texts (including older narratives, whaling books, novels and other whale-related texts), I explore the portrayal of whales and the natural world. Lastly, I suggest that Schopenhaurean thought, which has affinities in Moby-Dick, offers a cogent approach to ecocritically reading literature.

How do detectives make love? : themes of the survival of the child: corruption in relation to innocence

The major component of the thesis is a manuscript of poetry titled How do detectives make love? which includes forty poems written over a period of two years. Many of these; poems have been published in literary journals and magazines both in Australia and internationally as well as being performed at various performance poetry venues. How do detectives make love? was accepted for publication by Penguin Books, Australia in 1994. Also included is a 12,000 word exegesis in support of the manuscript titled How do detectives make love? Themes of the survival of the child: corruption in relation to innocence. The exegesis explores various themes and motifs occurring throughout the work, including the motif of birds and dogs, and the themes of love and the police, guns and weaponry, the outback and parklands, the parents, the change from childhood to adolescence and adolescence to adulthood, and the survival of the child. The current vital social relevance of these themes and motifs is explored in the poems. The literary use of the themes is explored comparatively with the work of other Australian poets including Gig Ryan, Kenneth Slessor and Les Murray. The purpose of the exegesis is to give the reader insights into the poet's intellectual processes and literary concerns throughout the work itself.

Fundamentalism meets feminism : postmodern confrontation in the work of Janette Turner Hospital

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Inspiration and mimesis in Plato's criticism of poetry

Plato criticizes poetry in several of his dialogues, beginning with Apology, his first work, and ending with Laws, his last. In these dialogues, his criticism of poetry can be divided into two streams: poetry is criticized for either being divinely inspired, or because it is mimetic or imitative of reality. However, of the dialogues which criticize poetry in these ways, it is not until Laws that Plato mentions both inspiration and mimesis together, and then it is only in a few sentences. Furthermore, nowhere in the dialogues does Plato discuss their relationship. This situation has a parallel in the secondary literature. While much work has been done on inspiration or mimesis in Plato’s criticism of poetry, very little work exists which discusses the connection between them. This study examines Plato’s treatment - in the six relevant dialogues - of these two poetic elements, inspiration and mimesis, and shows that a relationship exists between them. Both can be seen to relate to two important Socratic-Platonic concerns: the care of the soul and the welfare of the state. These concerns represent a synthesis of Socratic moral philosophy with Platonic political beliefs. In the ‘inspiration’ dialogues, Ion, Apology, Meno, Phaedrus and Laws, poetic inspiration can affect the Socratic exhortation which considers the care of the individual soul. Further, as we are told in Apology, Crito and Gorgias, it is the good man, the virtuous man - the one who cares for his soul - who also cares for the welfare of the state. Therefore, in its effect on the individual soul, poetic inspiration can also indirectly affect the state. In the ‘mimesis’ dialogues, Republic and Laws, this same exhortation, on the care of the soul, is posed, but it is has now been rendered into a more Platonic form - as either the principle of specialization - the ‘one man, one job’ creed of Republic, which advances the harmony between the three elements of the soul, or as the concord between reason and emotion in Laws. While in Republic, mimesis can damage the tripartite soul's delicate balance, in Laws, mimesis in poetry is used to promote the concord. Further, in both these dialogues, poetic mimesis can affect the welfare of the state. In Republic, Socrates notes that states arc but a product of the individuals of which they are composed Therefore, by affecting the harmony of the individual soul, mimesis can then undermine the harmony of the state, and an imperfect political system, such as a timarchy, an oligarchy, a democracy, or a tyranny, can result. However, in Laws, when it is harnessed by the philosophical lawgivers, mimesis can assist in the concord between the rulers and the ruled, thus serving the welfare of the state. Inspiration and mimesis can thus be seen to be related in their effect on the education of both the individual, in the care of the soul, and the state, in its welfare. Plato's criticism of poetry, therefore, which is centred on these two features, addresses common Platonic concerns: in education, politics, ethics, epistemology and psychology.

Constructing the monster : notions of the monstrous in classical antiquity

Focussing on humaniod monsters, this thesis uses insights from Foucault's theory about the "archaeology" of discourses and Derrida's practice of deconstruction to examine how monstrosity was spoken of in antiquity, and how the various "sciences" dealt with anomalous monsters without jeopardising their epistemological credibility. Discussion begins with a survey of the semantic field of teras and monstrum. Since portentousness was central to both terms, the signification of monstrous portents in divinatory practice is next aalysed in the historiography of Herodotus, Livy, and others. Cicero's De divinatione reveals the theory and the problem for that science posed by accidental monstrosities. Chance and novelty are also issues in mythical and scientific cosmogonies < of Hesiod, and Orphism, Empedo-cles, and Lucretius> , where monsters arise and are dealt with while cosmic regularities, reproductive and ethical, are being established. Teleology and the stability of species'forms emerge as important concerns. These issues are further considered in Aristotle's bioogy and in medical writings from Hippocrates to Galen. There, theories are produced about monstrous embryology which attempt to answer the question of how deformities occur if species' forms are perpetuated through repro-duction. Biological and taxonomic--as well as ethical--boundaries are violated also by mythic human-beast hybrids. Narratives about such anomalies clarify the nature of monstrous deviance and enact solutions to the problem. Their strategies have much in common with other modes of discourse. Ethnography iny and Solinus> is posed similar questions about monstrous races' physical and ethical deviations from the civilised norm; it speaks of those issues in terms of invariance of form through generations, geographical remoteness and the codes which situate those races ethically. Finally, Augustine’s discourse on monstrous individuals and races is examined as Christianity’s belief in God’s governance reformulates the ancient’s discussions of chane or novelty and the invariance of species. In all these discourses founded on determinate meaning, the persistant paradox of monstrosity need offer no challenge to rationality provided its indefinable diversity is unacknowledged and the notion is constructed in such a way as to reaffirm the certainties.

Communities of practice in Academe (CoP-iA) : understanding academic work practices to enable knowledge building capacities in corporate universities

A form of voluntary workplace engagement, communities of practice are characterised in literature as providing entities with the potential to harness the multiplier effects of collaborative processes by building on informal networks within entities. As knowledge building and sharing institutions it would be reasonable to presume that communities of practice activities have been embraced to facilitate a level of connectedness and engagement in a university context. However, evidence from the Australian higher education environment suggests that the enlistment of communities of practice processes by universities faces a number of challenges that are peculiar to academe. We suggest that academic knowledge work practices are significantly different from the business/industry related applications of communities of practice and that an understanding of the unique aspects of such practices, together with the impediments posed by a 'corporate university' model, require acknowledgment before the knowledge building and sharing aspects of communities of practice activities in academia can emerge.

A comparative study of banking in China and India, nonperforming loans and the level playing field

It has become common in literature to compare India and China two remarkably growing economies but these comparisons often do not take into account the institutional differences between two countries. We have in this paper done a comparative analysis of banking institutions in China and India taking into accounts the contentious issue of nonperforming loans along with the issue of use of banks to provide countervailable subsidies to exporting organizations. Our research shows that the efficiency differences between banks in these two countries can be directly related to institutional difference between two countries and any comparative study between two countries not taking into consideration these institutional differences may lead to misleading results.

Knowledge sharing in professional accountancy firms : the effects of task complexity and management control system

Numerous empirical studies on knowledge management have focused on effectiveness of enablers such as organizational structure (Bennett and Gabriel, 1999; Gold et al., 2001), technology (Gold et al., 2001; O’Dell and Grayson, 1998), culture (DeLong and Fahey, 2000; Gupta and Govindarajan, 2000), managerial system (Nonaka, 1994; Sveiby, 1997) and strategy (Bierly and Chakrabarti, 1996; Holsapple and Joshi, 2001) on knowledge sharing. These enablers are organizational infrastructure or mechanism for facilitating the sharing of knowledge in a firm. In knowledge-intensive firms, task complexity and management control systems (MCS) can potentially affect the mode and effectiveness of knowledge sharing. However, these two factors have not been distinctly and explicitly investigated and discussed in literature relevant to the domain of knowledge sharing and management. This study proposes to examine how task complexity and the design of MCS could be the key determinants of the mode and effectiveness of knowledge sharing in professional accounting firms or practices.