Reading a Work in its Materialist Essays - Afro-Caribbean History

Reading a Work in its Materialist Reading a Work in its Materiality: C. L. R. James' Toussaint L'Ouverture / The Black Jacobins This seminar paperas part of a broader project of theorizing the materiality of language, literature, reading,...is a consideration of a particular literary work in its materiality. Specifically, the paper reads C. L. R. James' play The Black Jacobins, an earlier version of which was staged in 1938 as an intervention in the debates around the Ethiopian crisis. That first version of the play, under the title Toussaint L'Ouverture, was performed in London in 1938 with Paul Robeson in the title role. The revised and re-titled version is included in The C. L. R. James Reader, published in 1992. I am interested in explaining the play's materiality. I believe that this is neither merely a matter of the experiential impact of that particular run of performances by a Black actor legendary for his stage presence and powerful voice, nor a matter of the use of the various theatrical devices to achieve particular effects. These matters will be discussed, but as I regard materiality to be a matte r of the material relations, this paper's reading of the play will emphasize the social relations of labor, both those depicted in the play and those which conditioned its very production as a cultural work. My two-fold aim in this paper, then, in reading the play in its context, is to critically discuss what it means to read a work (that is, a text, a play, a performance, a discursive intervention, a cultural production,...) and its context materially, and thus to begin to develop an effective theory of materiality and reading. The paper begins with a definition of the context of the play, taking into account that to define "context" is already to read. This is true of all reading, of course, but as I try to show, such context-reading is necessary for developing a coherent and reliable understanding both of the text which is read and of the context in which reading has emerged as a social possibility. The question of the emergence of the historical context of reading (that is, of education, literacy, printing,...) is important to consider in postcolonial studies, as it has always been a field for reading and theorizing the relationships among various forms of discourse. For example, the difference(s) between orality and literacy, or speech and writing, are familiar and important points of discussion and debate in postcolonial studies specifically and in cultural and literary studies generally. After providing historical context and reading the play in some of its detail, I will address these points of discu ssion as a means for clarifying further what reading materially means and why it is important. Anna Grimshaw, editor of The C. L. R. James Reader, a project on which she consulted with James, writes that Toussaint L'Ouverture was staged at London's Westminster Theatre as "an intervention in the debates surrounding the Ethiopian crisis" (5). What was the nature of this crisis? The crisis had to do with the Italian annexation of Ethiopia (or Abyssinia) in 1936. W. E. B. DuBois characterizes the relevant events in his historical work The World and Africa: When the British seized Egypt [in 1874] to secure the Suez Canal they occupied the Sudan [...]; they had designs on Ethiopia, but hesitated to follow up their victory over the Emperor Theodore. When the Sudan revolted, the British egged on Italy to annex the highlands of Ethiopia. Italy tried this but was soundly beaten by Menelek at Adowa on March 2, 1906 [...]. The allies promised Italy to give her Ethiopia after the First World War, but failed to do so. Italy, affronted, attacked Ethiopia in 1935. The League of Nations failed to restrain her and Britain and France refused Ethiopia arms. Italy annexed Ethiopia, with Churchill's approval. The Emperor, Haile Selassie, took refuge in England. (268-269) The crisis, which like all crises is a manifestation of contradiction, is succinctly expressed by DuBois in these last two sentences, which portray England as both the supporter of the Italian annexation of Ethiopia and the refuge of its emperor-in-exile. How can one country, England, or indeed the League of Nations to which all nations involved

Geography A2 Exam Question Essay Example

Geography A2 Exam Question Essay Example Geography A2 Exam Question Essay Geography A2 Exam Question Essay Discuss the impacts of storm events in the British Isles and evaluate the responses to them (40 marks) - - - The British Isles has a cool temperate western maritime climate including four seasons and various weather conditions. Storms come and go some so weak they are unnoticed and some bring in heavy winds and torrential rain and thunder. Depressions are areas of low atmospheric pressure which produce cloudy, rainy and windy weather.These low-pressure systems often begin in the Atlantic, moving eastwards towards the UK. They are responsible for the UKs changeable weather. A storm event we will look at in the British Isles happened in 1987. The storm struck the South West amp; South East of England which devastated buildings and left 12 people dead. This global location is prone to depressions. The storm was initially directed towards northern France and Europe but veered up to the U. K. The sea water from the surrounding ocean flooded people’s homes causing people to flee their homes and evacuate.This cost England thousands of pounds including insurance claims. The surrounding tide from the sea was said to have raised by around 2 to 3 meters. : Approximately 40 mm of rain and hail fell in the course of a few hours. The main cause of deaths was mainly from flooding and high wind speeds – up to 108mph. Anything loose was flying around including roof tiles and debris. - - The main primary impacts were homes damaged by strong winds and flooding of properties.The National Grid sustained heavy damage during the event, as crashing cables began to short circuit and overheat the main system. Many windows of houses were also broken. Slates from roofs of buildings came crashing down which resulted in everyone trapped indoors. Another primary impact was the damage and uprooting of thousands of trees, An estimated 15 million trees were lost. The sewers and sewage systems were flooded, creating dark colored flood waters. This also lead to water contamination and diseases being spread more easily. - We can see how great the impact of the 1987 storm was by comparing it to Hurricane Katrina. Hurricane Katrina formed over the Bahamas on August 23rd, 2005 and crossed southern Florida as a Category 1 hurricane, causing some deaths and flooding there before strengthening rapidly in the Gulf of Mexico. The hurricane strengthened to a Category 5 hurricane over the warm Gulf water, but weakened before making its second landfall as a Category 4 hurricane with sustained winds of 125 mph on the morning of Monday, August 29th in Louisiana.The hurricane covered over 500km area and went approximately 160 miles inland. As a result of hurricane Katrina, damage to the U. S was approximately $80 billion nearly triple the damage brought by Hurricane Andrew in 1992. However, in New Orleans 2,000 people died as opposed to 12 in Britain. The structure of the buildings in the area was good with well built concrete housing, this resulted in fewer deaths. The number of deaths could have been far higher as the depression was not as strong as the USA hurricane. The impacts in the USA was far greater than that of the UK.At least 1,800 people died in the hurricane with consequential floods. The hurricane had an 8. 5m high storm surge which resulted in large amounts of widespread flooding across hundreds of miles. This caused surface waves to be amplified and increased the height further. Almost every death was a result from the flooding with a few from collapsed buildings. - - Looking at the responses to the storms of the British Isles, we can see that no evacuation took place.This may be because Britain was not expecting a huge storm such as this. The British Isles did not have a hurricane warning system which on the other hand New Orleans did have such a system in place. The 1987 storm in the U. K was a very rare event and no one was prepared for it. A storm of this strength and power only comes every 200 years. The British Isles had a very poor response with little emergency services and help. Britain is used to constant cyclonic weather for the majority of the time and do not expect extreme weather conditions such as that of the hurricane season in the Gulf of Mexico.New Orleans had sufficient measures in place such as emergency shelters and services. - - How good the response is can be linked to how severe the impacts of the storm were. In the Great Storm of 1987 the response was very fast. The emergency services cleared the area as fast as they could clearing roads and highways. Many people volunteered themselves to clean up rubbish and objects off streets. High community spirit meant that the streets and litter was back to normal in no time.The response was fairly good by the British Isles but if it actually was a hurricane then the UK would have been more severely damaged. The response by the USA was planned evacuating the area before hand as they could see it coming, preparing food and medical supplies. However, it is the response after the hurricane that was extremely impressive. FEMA spent lots of money on rebuilding areas and providing tents, shelter, food amp; medicine to the homeless, preventing diseases. - - - - - - - - These responses greatly outweigh the British capability of responses, but although the British response to storms may not be as high severe as responses such as America, British storms are not as bad one like Hurricane Katrina. - In conclusion British responses are good enough for the size of storms the British Isles receives. The storm gave a valuable picture of what could possibly happen in the future. However, they do not indicate the likelihood of such future events. In order to fully assess the windstorm risk in the U. K, it is necessary to look not just at the footprints and associated losses of historical events, but als o at the losses generated by an exhaustive set of events that assign probabilities of occurrence to different windstorm depressions.

Revisions Thesis Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Revisions - Thesis Example arch has studied if existing immigration and border control systems are enough to prevent illegal immigration, as well as existence of psychological and logical aspects related to the illegal immigrants and immigration to use them as a tool to infiltrate terrorists to the USA Since the discovery of the continent, everyone other than Native Americans, who are living in the US, are descendant from immigrants and slaves. By the late seventeenth century, nonnative individuals formed seventy-five percent of the American population (History of Immigration Law in the USA). At first, the U.S. government promoted wide-open immigration in the pursuit of settling as much territory as possible. However, after the Civil War different states began to adopt their own immigration statues. In 1875, US Supreme court brought the immigration laws under federal jurisdiction. In 1891, US Congress established Immigration Service (History of Immigration Law in the USA) and started implementing immigration laws. Early immigration laws were designed to control US population structure. For example, 1790 Naturalization Act limited European and Caucasian descendent immigration, 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act made immigration from China illegal. Likewise, ethnicity, the government was al so worried about moral composition of the US population. Congress, between 1872-1890 passed laws constraining the immigration of several groups that included prostitutes, criminals, mentally ill, and financially unstable individuals. In the late 19th century, the government became concerned about native laborers. In 1885 and 1887, Congress passed first laws restricting immigration based on economic reasons. Congress during 1900 to 1921 instituted a â€Å"quota system† guaranteeing permission to a set number of individuals from each ethnic group. In 1924, Congress established the first branch of border control to monitor immigration from Canada and Mexico (History of Immigration Law in the USA). In

Les Croix de Bois Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Les Croix de Bois - Research Paper Example Also, portrayed is the courage shown by soldiers in the face of insurmountable odds. Such unwavering commitment is a necessary pre-requisite for success in war. Once commitment wavers, the war is half lost. Even the most accommodating movie can not capture all the realities of the battlefield. Our feature film is; thus, constrained by several factors among them time (Bernard). The film is one hundred and ten minutes long. Among the realities that did not make the cut is the role of women in war. However, they shall at least get a mention in this paper. The paper shall be brought to a close by studying how the inclusion or seclusion of some aspects relating to the war tie up with traditional French customs (Dorgeles 76). Among the most glaring omissions in Croix de Bois is the role of women. This is even starker considering that the status of the modern day French woman is highly elevated relative to that of the male. However, things have not always been the same. At the beginning of the 18th Century, there was the dawn of the Age of Enlightenment. One of its famous authors was the French philosopher, Jean Jacques Rousseau. According to this leading scholar, women had a leading role in family affairs compared to their male counterparts. They had to breastfeed and educate their children. This was hardly a progressive attitude towards gender relations. As a consequence, even in the film Croix De Bois, women are virtually anonymous. The understanding then was that their place was the home and, therefore, they had no business in the battlefield (Rousseau). However, not even in French history has it always been the case that the place of the women is only in the home. A remarkable exception for instance is Joan of Arc. She inherited a lost battle from Charles VII and miraculously managed to do what her predecessor had failed. She drove away the English and secured an important victory at Patoy, in 1429. It might still be argued that Joan of Arc did this with the help of supernatural powers. Conversely, the fact that this supernatural being chose a female figure to accomplish such a huge fete is in itself a confirmation that women can handle the rigours of battlement (Strachan 246). The movie Croix De Bois censures women as far as their role in the battlefield is concerned. All the cast in the movie are male, for example. They include Fouillard, Gilbert Demachy, Sulphart, Caporal Breval, Vieuble, Brouke, and several others. We witness the fact that women can engage as well as men in combat. As a result, the assumption that their place is only the home is not accurate. Another role that has been performed well by women during war is that of nursing wounded soldiers (Strachan). The case of Florence Nightingale is now legend. She ably provided her services to the soldiers wounded in the Crimean war. This challenges the French notion that women were not up to the task of war. Very important in Croix De Bois is the socio-cultural impact of the war. W ar although it happens many miles away can still affect society. Several problems accompany war. One of them is that the young men (Gilbert Demachy in the movie), and increasingly women, who engage in war usually have families to provide for at home. If they die at war, as is the case in the film, their families are left unattended. There shall be increase in cases of single parent families or even orphans. This directly impacts on society. Crime might

Dykeman Article Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Dykeman Article - Essay Example Bureau of the Census, 1996 (Dykeman, 2003, p. 41). No doubt, theses parental divorces can adversely affect the future life of such children; these can negatively affect the psychological health of children and their performance at school. Children are also very much affected by the manner of interaction between their parents both before and after the divorce; children fail to meet academic and social expectations at school and are moved by feelings of anxiety, depression, aggression, lack of emotional well-being and self-esteem (Dykeman, 2003, p. 42). This highlights the role of school counselors and pinpoints the need of introducing primary, secondary and tertiary interventions among these children. The purpose of Dykeman’s study was to observe the effects of pre-referral tertiary-intervention program on such children who were referred for special education assessment due to behavioral difficulties that stemmed from their parents’ separation or divorce. 21 students (even though only 15 of them completed the treatment and follow up) were thus selected and the community agency counselors administered a conflict-resolution model of family-systems intervention on both the children and their respective custodial parents. The treatment focused mainly on the â€Å"cognitions and behaviors operant within the family environment that both preceded and followed classroom misbehavior and the strategies used by the custodial parent to discipline and socialize the child† (Dykeman, 2003, p. 43). The participant children were enrolled either in their seventh or eighth grade and the 15 custodial parents were middle aged, with 13 mothers and 2 fathers. The progress made by t he children were measured using the Conflict Tactics Scale in terms of their reasoning, verbal aggression, and violence. It is worthwhile to attempt a critique of the statistical analysis presented throughout the article. As already mentioned

Effect of Wishing Good Luck on Performance

Effect of Wishing Good Luck on Performance Running head: WHY DOES WISH WORK Does the wish work because of a specific superstitious belief or because the wish is a positive sentiment? Suellen, Hei Lon Kong Abstract The present research examined whether the wish worked because of a specific superstitious belief or because the wish was a positive sentiment. Individuals (N=241) were being put into three different conditions: Good luck with prize draw, Good luck with task and No wish after being informed that they would be entered into a lucky draw. It was hypothesized that wishing participants â€Å"good luck† with the word puzzle will give better performance at the puzzle than nothing. We predicted that their belief in luck (specific superstitious belief) for the prize draw should not affect word puzzle performance. However, if the phrase â€Å"good luck† generates a better mood, a higher level of self-esteem or other factor in the individual, it should be effective. The results indicated that there was no significant difference in the word puzzle score between the three conditions. This research showed that wish did not affect the participants’ performance in the word puzzle test. Introduction Walking under ladders, opening umbrellas indoors and breaking mirrors are all actions that are believed to bring unfortunate; it seems people are just as superstitious when it comes to bringing about good luck too. People also create their own superstitions and rituals in the belief it will change their fortunes. Nearly 6 millions of people in UK admit to being superstitious. Why do people believe in things that cannot be explained and what leads to superstitious behavior? Most conceivable reason is that it is individuals fear of the unknown that drives them to believe in superstitions. External locus of control from own cultural beliefs is another potential explanation to superstitious behaviors. Media also plays an important role in reinforcing superstitious beliefs such as horror movies, it is a powerful source that makes superstition exist in the world, e.g. ghost, supernatural experiences. Superstitious is often defined as excessively credulous belief in and reverence for the supernatural. It can also be defined as, irrational beliefs, especially with regard to the unknown according to the Collins English Dictionary. Professor of the Public Understanding of Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire, Richard Wiseman, once said People can create luck and good fortune by changing their outlook on life, focusing on grabbing opportunities and creating positive expectations. He also believe that some people actually want to be unlucky because it helps them to avoid taking responsibility for their own failings, actions that turn out to be harmful, immoral, or stupid. Superstitious behaviour can also be caused by intuitive thinking that is gained through past experiences. In support to this, researchers had carried out research on pigeons, superstitious actions that are by chance co-occur with the expected outcome, and subjects continue to appear to do so through conditioning process. This shows that stimulus has reinforcing value and can set up superstitious behaviour. (Skinner, 1948) There are negative and positive consequences in superstition. In the traditionally unlucky ghost month (July) in Taiwan, the evidence points to reduced fatalities by drowning. (Yang et. al 2008) It seems that being superstitious can sometimes be a positive thing as some superstitious beliefs prevents fatal accidents like the research I mentioned above (Yang et al 2008). Kevin Abbott, a biologist at Carleton University in Ottawa said, â€Å"From an evolutionary perspective, superstitions seem maladaptive, It plays an important role in human evolution which affects human behaviour. On the other hand, superstitious has its own negative consequences too. In situations over which people have no control (lotteries), superstitious behaviours are a waste of time. However, when some level of control does exist —such as car accidents — the consequences may be more negative than this. There is some evidence for increased car accident rates on Friday 13th relative to other Fridays, though it is argumentative. (Scanlon et al., 1993; N ¨ayh ¨a, 2002; Radun Summala, 2004) It is believed that it is the distraction caused by anxiety as the presumed mechanism. The goal of this research is to test whether wishing participants â€Å"good luck† with the word puzzle will give better performance at the puzzle than nothing. The method of research for this study will be a distribution of a word puzzle generated by the experimenter to the Warwick Undergraduates and their families and friends. The question is whether wishing them â€Å"good luck† with the prize draw will affect their puzzle performance. Gender and age data will also be collected. Looking at the data examined and studied so far are the following proposed predictions: If there is a specific superstitious belief in invoked, it should not be effective: Their belief in luck for the prize draw should not affect puzzle performance. If, however, the phrase â€Å"good luck† affects a more general mood, self-esteem or other factor in the individual, it should be effective. Method Participants For this research, 241 participants took part which included Psychology Undergraduates from University of Warwick and their families and friends( Undergraduates from other departments in Warwick) from 17 through 45 (M= 19.49, SD= 3.15). The participants consisted of 110 females and 131 males. They were not volunteers or getting paid. The department of Psychology in Warwick decided there would be a  £50 Amazon Voucher lucky draw for all participants after they had completed the word puzzle (only for Warwick students outside of Psychology). Designs The independent variable in this research was the condition participants were put in Good luck with prize draw, Good luck with task and No wish. The dependant variable was the number of words they got from the word puzzle. It was an independent Measures ANOVA (Between Subjects ANOVA) with three groups and one condition. Materials An informed consent sheet with Word Puzzle which consisted letters such as: U E P C I I L O S U R T attached at the back. Procedure The study began by gaining the participants consent which they signed and put down their email address and personal information such as age, sex on the consent form. Participants were informed that once they had completed the experiment, they would be entered into a random prize draw with other participants for a  £50 Amazon voucher. As the offer only opened to Warwick student outside of Psychology, the department would use their contact address to check that whether they were eligible and to contact them if they won. In this experiment, participants were allocated to three different conditions: 1: Good luck with prize draw, 2: Good luck with task and 3: No wish. In the first condition, experimenter would wish them good luck on the prize draw before they began to complete task. In the second condition, experiment would wish them good luck on the task and in the third condition, the experimenter would say nothing and let them begin. They were required to complete the word puzzle, to create as many English words as they could from the set of letters: U E P C I I L O S U R T. They were only allowed to use a letter twice if it appeared twice in the list that was in the case: I; they were asked to complete the task within two minutes. Following completion of the task, experimenter would note condition (e.g. 1, 2, 3). The experiment were completely anonymous, instead of names, we used numbers to identify the participants. All data would remain strictly confidential. Participants were then debriefed at the end and were told that they had the right to withdraw any consent given, and to require that their own data such as the score they got from the task, their email, be destroyed. Results The mean and standard deviation of the scores for condition â€Å"Good luck with prize draw† was (M=14.1, SD=7.6), Condition â€Å"Good luck with task† was (M=15.2, SD=8.1) and Condition â€Å"No wish† was (M=14, SD=6.5). There was no significant difference between the three wish groups as determined by one-way ANOVA in the ability of getting higher score in the word puzzle. (F (2,238) =0.682, p > .05). A Tukey post-hoc test revealed that the score gained from the participants have no significant difference in the condition â€Å"Good luck with prize draw (14.1  ± 7.6, p = 0.616) and the condition â€Å"No wish† (14.0  ± 6.5, p = 0.536) course compared to the condition â€Å"Good luck with task† (15.2  ± 8.1). There was no statistically significant differences between the condition â€Å"Good luck with prize draw† and the condition â€Å"No wish† (p = .990). Discussion Our hypothesis was that wishing participants â€Å"good luck† with the word puzzle will give better performance at the puzzle than nothing. The data obtained did not support our hypothesis as there was no significant difference in the score from the three conditions. In this study, we used the one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) to determine whether there are any significant differences between the means of three independent variables (the three conditions). Although the one-way ANOVA could not tell us which specific groups were significantly different from each other, it tells us that at least two groups were different. Age differences was an issue in this research, the fact that the participants’ age ranged 17-45. As we grow older, we would know more words than we did when we were younger. Age of the respondents seemed to better explain some ethical differences among respondents in some situations. This is in line with earlier research that found that people tend to be more ethical as they grow older (Weber and Green, 1991;Terpstra et al., 1993). It is not appropriate to use participants that have a large range in age. Our findings can be generalised to the whole populations as there is no significant difference in the score in the three conditions. In this research, we would say that the wish does not affect the puzzle performance because of a superstitious belief as proved by the results. In the future research on this topic, researchers should use participants that have similar age to make it an ethical test and that wish does not work of a specific superstitious belief or because the wish is a positive sentiment. References BBC. (2010). Superstitions: Friday 13th unlucky for you? . Available: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/newsenglish/britain/superstitions.shtml. Last accessed 9th Feb 2014. Berrill,A. (2012). Isnt it all pants? One in six superstitious Brits refuse to walk under ladders, while over 800,000 admit to having lucky underwear. Available: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2230328/Britons-superstitions-Walking-ladders-breaking-mirrors-opening-umbrellas-indoors.html. Last accessed 9th Feb 2014. Landrum, R. Eric. (2008). Undergraduate writing in psychology : learning to tell the scientific story. Washington, D.C. : American Psychological Association. p.57-p160. Mills, C. (2011). Superstitions Have Evolutionary Basis. Available: http://www.livescience.com/14504-superstitions-evolutionary-basis-lucky-charms.html. Last accessed 10th Feb 2014. Sidani,Y., Zbib,I., Rawwas,M.,Moussawer, T. (2009). Gender, age, and ethical sensitivity. Gender, age, and ethical sensitivity: the case of Lebanese workers. 24 (1), 211-227 Tavris, C., Aronson, E. (2008). Mistakes were made (but not by me) : why we justify foolish beliefs, bad decisions, and hurtful act. Orlando, Fla.: Harcourt. p1-57.

Mary, Where are U :: essays research papers

The debate over whether or not the United States government should grant tuition vouchers to the parents of children who attend private schools has gone on for many years, and has included many powerful arguments on both sides of the issue. Those who support the private school vouchers believe that they are beneficial to everyone because they promote productivity in both public and private schools alike, and they also give low-income families the chance to give their children a quality private school education. Those in opposition to the vouchers say that they will drain money out of the public schools, and that they only truly help a small population, mainly the wealthy and advantaged. Opposers also believe that the vouchers interfere with the Separation of Church and State, since many private schools have a religious affiliation. This issue has truly been a controversial one, with many people fighting arduously. After reading through the various arguments for each side, one can not help but come to their own conclusion about private school vouchers. There have been many school voucher programs proposed in the past, but they all seem to share one common theme. This similarity between them is that they all promote giving households that send their children to private schools a tax dollar-funded voucher that would cover all or most of the cost of the school's tuition. Many of the proposals also include the right for parents to chose which private school their child will attend. The vouchers allows students to use the money that would be subsidized for them in a public school to go toward a private school education. This system redirects the flow of educational funding, bringing it to the individual family instead of the school district. The idea of school vouchers first became popular after Milton Friedman, an economist, released two publications, in 1956 and in 1962, that supported the voucher plan. In his 1962 book, Capitalism and Freedom, when Friedman discusses education, he turns to public education criticizes it for being "unresponsive" because it has been free from competition (Lieberman, 120). Vouchers would provide this much needed competition, since public schools would now have to contend with the private schools that were receiving the same payments they were. Friedman believes that, "most dissatisfied parents have only two options. They can enroll their children in private schools, in which case they have to bear the costs in addition to paying taxes to support public schools. Or they can resort to political action, an option Friedman regards as ineffective." (ibid.) After Friedman publicly showed his support for school vouchers, a debate began