History of Gothic Literature

History of Gothic Literature Composers representations of the Gothic genre havent significantly changed as Gothic characteristics can still be observed in modern texts and films, however, the depiction of these themes have evolved appropriately over time, just as the worldly morals, values and ethical standards have evolved. The social links to the emergence of the Gothic genre, how social and moral standards were being defined and the portrayal of themes that have altered due to changes in attitudes towards the characteristics that define Gothic literature are some aspects of the Gothic texts that can be observed.[G1][G2][G3] The emergence of the Gothic genre was a rejection of the oppressive state and artificiality of the Enlightenment (1685-1815). Edgar Allan Poes text, The Haunted Palace (1839), textually mirrors the effect that the Enlightenment had on the European and Western society. Once a fair and stately palace. But evil things, in robes of sorrows, Assailed ÂÂ   , implies, using visual imagery and personifying robes of sorrows, that the beautiful palace, once filled with joyful spirits, is now home to a hideous throng that laughs without smiling, changing the serene atmosphere into[G4] uncomfortable eeriness. The texts link to the Enlightenment as it was a[G5] core contribution to societys reformation to a constitutional and structured civilisation, governed by scientific thinking and reasoning. However, ethical standards were suffocating, resulting in the establishment of a counter-reformation, the Gothic era. The representation of the Gothic genre is observed through composers relaxed app ropriation of[G6] traditional Gothic characteristics and setting them into modern contexts. Tim Burtons Gothic film, Batman (1989), depicts the social situations of the time, specifically the fear caused by AIDS and juxtaposed hope caused by the fall of the Berlin wall. Its not who I am underneath, but what I do that defines me, textually foreshadows the actions of Batman, however, it also depicts the figurative walls built due to the stigma surrounding AIDS sufferers and the literal wall of Berlin being torn down due to gained liberation for Germany. Society in the 1980s was greatly influenced by the fear of AIDS and the suffocating stigma surrounding it, causing sufferers to be isolated from their community, much like Batman, as the disease itself didnt discriminate, only the people who discriminated against it. However, it was not until 1989, when the fall of the Berlin wall, a symbol of segregation and discrimination since 1961, was torn down. This, like the emergence of the Got hic era, signified the hope for a future where society wouldnt be controlled by misconceptions and stereotypes, consequently isolating individuals from the world around them. Due to the secularism of the Enlightenment, the Gothic movement set about to revive religious and supernatural beliefs. Although Edgar Allan Poe mightnt have been incredibly pious, shown in his texts that are often written from an aesthetic worldview, it can be identified in his works, personal values set upon just morals and righteous ethics. In Poes text, The Raven (1845), Poe enquiries after the existence of a supernatural power,[G7] is there balm in Gilead? , in which the Raven, who symbolises Poes mentality and the impending doom, replies with Nevermore. The refusal to a heavenly cure Poe was seeking, caused the mood of the text to change to that of utter despair as he abandons hope that he may see his Lenore again. During the Enlightenment, the social instability, much like Poes fall into insanity, led to political schisms, religious wars, heresy trials and witch burnings, meaning that the underlying tone of the Enlightenment was really that of chaos and lack of stability and ethics. In contrast, society has converted back to national secularism, separating religion from the state and beliefs from believers. In Burtons film, Dark Shadows (2012), the portrayal of religion is not explicitly mentioned in the film, however, the existence of the supernatural is explored.[G8] You must have faithfor if a man can become a monster, then a monster can become a man, is an allegory of presupposed evil that is not always just found in the actions of monsters, but in the hearts of man. However, if Poe has turned his back on God, and Burton has turned his back on men, what is left for the world to believe in? Secularism, thats what[G9][G10]. The portrayal of the Gothic theme of insanity has changed over time due to the change of attitude. In Poes text, The Tell-Tale Heart (1843), the narrator portrays the recurring Gothic motif of deterioration of ones sanity. such a sound as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton but the noise steadily increased, uses auditory imagery to depict the mental decline of the narrator after committing murder. The perception of insanity and madness was viewed negatively, disconnecting the mental illness from its human counterpart, dehumanising those suffering from mental illnesses and to be ostracised from society, often deemed lunatics. The representation of Gothic themes was changed to depict it into a more humorous portrayal of the dark genre. Burtons film, Batman (1989), depicts characters encased in their own insanity. I am the worlds first fully-functioning homicidal artist, juxtaposes the creativity of an artist and destruction of a murderer to create the dysfunctional[G11][G12] charact er, the Joker. Burton has used this as a means of humour but still portraying the seriousness of mental illnesses that causes an unbalanced psychological state as it reflects Jokers fears of the reality of living between a man and monster. In comparing the two texts, it is evident that the theme insanity has remained relatively constant, disregarding the humour intended in many modern Gothic texts. The Gothic genre was a literary outlet to reject the oppressive state of a society governed by the scientific reasoning and ethics of the Enlightenment.[G13] Poe and Burton both textually represented the state of their society, rejecting social standards by creating fictional worlds drawing a fine line between reality and fiction.

Postmodern Anxiety & the Aesthetics of Destruction Essay -- Aesthetics

Postmodern Anxiety & the Aesthetics of Destruction To borrow a term from the seminal postmodern scholarship of Ihab Hassan, we are living in a moment of indeterminacy. As linearity went the way of modernism, today's culture is one of interconnectivity, webs and networks. We privilege teamwork, democracy, easy and equal access to knowledge above all else. Aesthetics of art and the rhetoric of corporation (that is in turn borrowed from artistic practices) are changing as a result. Formalism has given way to more open creativity. Companies are â€Å"flat† or horizontally-integrated, workers may even be skilled beyond menial tasks. But what gets lost in this tangled utopia of webs and equality is determinable truth. Because of the new corporate rhetoric its easy to forget that we are still undeniably situated in a hegemonic, global, (late-)capitalist culture. And although because of increases in technology, the general public has access to more knowledge than ever before, with these advances also comes unparallel access to a proli feration of useless information. What results from this fetishizing of democratization on all fronts is a tension between revelation and concealment, sense and nonsense. The cultural anxiety, which this in turn creates, has led the United States into a war against a faceless enemy for the second time in only a few decades. The indeterminate form of communism which we once fruitlessly battled has today taken on the amorphous visage of terrorism. Ultimately, this ideology of war, created by the uneasiness of a culture of indeterminacy, is just as transparent as the technological interfaces (computer and television screens) that its images are projected on. Current artistic practices mirror this war-motivati... .... 5 May 2005. Gibson, William. Introduction to Agrippa: A Book of the Dead. . 5 May 2005. Hutcheon, Linda and Natoli, Joseph, eds. A Postmodern Reader . State University of New York Press. Albany : 1993. Jeffords, Susan & Rabinovitz, Lauren ed. Seeing Through the Media: The Persian Gulf War. Rutgers University Press, New Jersey : 1994. Metzger, Gustav.< http://www.391.org/manifestos/1960metzger.htm> 5 May 2005 Nike buys streets and squares: Guerrilla marketing or collective hallucination? 10 Oct. 2003. < http://www.0100101110101101.org/texts/nike_prelease1-en.html>. 5 May 2005. Websites Consulted: 0100101110101101.org. < http://www.0100101110101101.org > 5 May 2005. Etoy:http://www.etoy.com/ 5 May 2005 . Nikebiz.com: http://www.nike.com/nikebiz/nikebiz.jhtml?page=0

Different learning styles Essay

Equality means that we should all have equal access and equal opportunities to learn and be successful regardless of gender, race, religion, and ability. Diversity refers to the fact that we are all different. Some of us are male, some female, some tall, some short, some dark skinned, some light skinned. We come from different cultural backgrounds, different faiths, and different family groupings. And we have different learning styles, different personalities, etc. Because we are all different, or diverse, from each other, every classroom is diverse and every teacher must be prepared to work with a great variety of students. Inclusion is the practice of including differently abled learners into a mainstream classroom of students with primarily standard abilities. Discrimination refers to the practice of treating someone differently due to characteristics beyond their control, or for which they should not be treated in a negative manner. Some people discriminate against others because of their sex, their age, or the color of their skin. This sounds silly, but a lot of us do it without even realizing we are doing it. We need to accept people at face-value instead of judging them based on minor circumstances or superficial characteristics. The Children Act (2004) places a duty on all services to make sure that every child has the support they need to achieve .Inequality and discrimination can stop children from reaching these outcomes, so we have a duty to challenge this. Equality Act 2010 Disability Act 2005 Employment Equality Act I actively encourage and support young children in embracing both diversity and equality. I make sure each child feels a sense of belonging. I observe and listen to children’s play and adult interaction to identify any bias or discrimination then develop methods to deal with issues that arise. Every aspect of the setting comes into play: how children relate to each other, and how language is used, how and what discussions take place, and what activities are undertaken.

The Fight for Womens Rights in the Past and Present

The meaning of womens rights has varied through time and across cultures. Today, there is still a lack of consensus about what constitutes womens rights. Some would argue a womans ability to control family size is a fundamental womens right. Others would argue womens rights fall under workplace equality or the chance to serve in the military in the same ways that men do. Many would argue that all of the above should be deemed womens rights. The term typically refers to whether women are treated as mens equals, but sometimes it specifically refers to special circumstances that affect women, such as job protection when they take time off for maternity leave, though men in the U.S. are increasingly taking paternity leave. While men and women may both be victims of social ills and violence related to human trafficking and rape, protection against these crimes is often described as beneficial to womens rights. The implementation of various laws and policies over the years paints a historical picture of the benefits that were considered to be womens rights at one time. Societies in the ancient, classical, and medieval worlds show how womens rights, even if not referred to by that term, differed from culture to culture. United Nations Convention on Rights of Women The 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, signed by many United Nations member states, asserts that womens rights belong to the political, economic, social, cultural, civil realms. According to the convention text,  which became an international treaty in 1981: Any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex which has the effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by women, irrespective of their marital status, on a basis of equality of men and women, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field. The declaration specifically addresses eliminating prejudice in public education, giving women full political rights to vote and run for public office, as well as marriage and divorce rights that equal mens. The document also called for the elimination of child marriage and sex trafficking while also mentioning equality for women in the criminal justice system and in the workplace. The NOW Statement of Purpose In 1966, the National Organization for Women (NOW) formed and wrote a statement of purpose that summarizes key womens rights issues of that time. The rights outlined were based on the idea of equality as an opportunity for women to develop their fullest human potentials and to put women into the mainstream of American political, economic and social life. The womens rights issues identified included those in these areas of employment and economics, education, family, political participation, and racial justice. The 1855 Marriage Protest In their 1855 marriage ceremony, womens rights advocates Lucy Stone and Henry Blackwell refused to honor laws that interfered with the rights of married women in particular. They advocated for wives to be able to legally exist outside of a husbands control, to inherit and own real estate, and have the right to their own wages. Stone and Blackwell also campaigned for wives to be able to choose their own names and place of residence and to sign contracts. They demanded that married mothers be granted custody of their children and be able to sue in court as well. Seneca Falls Womens Rights Convention In 1848, the first known womens rights convention in the world took place in Seneca Falls, New York. There, organizers of the convention declared that men and women are created equal. As such, the feminists gathered demanded that women immediately be given the rights and privileges due to them as U.S. citizens. In their Declaration of Sentiments, the Seneca Falls participants insisted that women should be able to vote, have property rights, including the right to the income they earned, and to pursue higher education and a variety of professions, such as theology, medicine, and law. Womens Rights in the 1700s In the 1700s, influential women also spoke out about womens rights from time to time. Abigail Adams, the wife of U.S. founding father and second President John Adams, asked her husband to remember the ladies in a letter in which she discussed disparities in womens and mens education. Hannah Moore, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Judith Sargent Murray focused especially on womens right to an adequate education. They used their writing to advocate for women having influence over social, religious, moral, and political decisions. In A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1791–1792), Wollstonecraft called for women to be educated, have equality in marriage, and have control over family size. In 1791 during the French Revolution, Olympe de Gouges wrote and published the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Citizen. In this document, she called for women to have free speech, including the right to name the father of their children and equality for out-of-wedlock children, a demand that suggested that women had the same right as men to have sexual relationships outside of marriage. Treatment of Women in the Ancient World In the ancient, classical, and medieval world, womens rights differed somewhat from culture to culture. In some cases, women were essentially regarded as slaves or children under the authority of their husbands or fathers. Women were largely confined to the home and lacked the right to come and go as they pleased. They also had been deprived of the right to choose or refuse marriage partners or end a marriage. Whether women could dress as they liked was an issue during this time as well. A number of these concerns and others continued to be problems for women in the centuries that followed. They included a lack of custodial rights over children, especially after a divorce; the inability of women to own property, run businesses, and control their own wages, income, and wealth. Women in the ancient, classical, and medieval world also faced employment discrimination, barriers to education, a lack of voting rights, and the inability to represent themselves in lawsuits and court actions. In the centuries since, women have advocated for these rights and more, but the struggle for equality hasnt ended. Women still face employment discrimination and barriers to healthcare, while single mothers are at great risk of falling into poverty.