...动物化与自然回归 ——对《百种神秘感觉》的生态解读 Animalization and Return to Nature An Ecological Reading of The Hundred Secret Senses By QIN Yuanyuan A Thesis Submitted to the School of English and International Studies Beijing Foreign Studies University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Chinese American Literature Course Supervised by Professor Pan Zhiming June 2014 Animalization and Return to Nature A Ecological Reading of The Hundred Secret Senses I Introduction Amy Tan, born in 1952, is acclaimed for her lyrically written tales of sensibility and conflicts in Chinese-American mother-daughter relationship, in which generational and cultural divergence is highlighted. Themes of loss and reconciliation, hope and failure, friendship and familial conflict, added with mystic oriental flavor and healing power, have made Tan’s writing emblematic and well-received. Following the publication of The Joy Luck Club (1989), The Kitchen God's Wife (1991), Amy Tan’s third novel The Hundred Secret Senses (1995) again enjoys a high popularity and evokes strong responses from both readers and critics. Despite the fact that The Hundred Secret Senses still exhibits Tan’s trademarks of “a strong sense of place, a many-layered narrative, family secrets, generational conflict, Chinese lore and history”, unlike the previous two that are generally praised, this novel gets mixed opinions. Most reviewers receive the...
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...Clement Greenberg and Harold Rosenberg were the critical rivals of their times. With action, event, and the moment of creation at the center of importance, Rosenberg's stand found no place in the land of Greenberg's formality and rationalism. One man had found value in the psychological, while the other found it in the retrospective. However, despite having diametrically different views, Greenberg and Rosenberg supported the movement of Abstract Expressionism with equal vigor. Rosenberg's view of what a canvas actually represented was described as “an arena in which to act.” He thought of it as a space for an artist to create an “event” instead of an image, which was the result of an “encounter” with the artist and his medium. These concepts were the basis of Rosenberg’s most famous and timeless notion, that which he called “Action Painting”, which would later be described as Abstract Impressionism. It was the avant-garde work of artists that abandoned the object oriented goals of painting and painted “just to paint”, and not to make anything else but a painting, in it's most basic essence. For Rosenberg, these works of art revolved around expression of the inner man, and were thus purely self creation. These ideas of the artists perspective being looked through to criticize art was much more than a stones throw away from the narrow and intolerant path of Greenberg’s criteria. Rosenberg was an existentialist. He believed that, when represented in a piece, the human condition...
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...Bryan Savage HY 102-016 Essay #1 The Age of Enlightenment refers to the sprawling intellectual, philosophical, cultural and social movement that spread through England, France, Germany, and other parts of Europe during the 18th century. The Enlightenment is often thought of as a time of change but also of tradition. Toward the middle of the eighteenth century, Enlightenment thinkers began to apply the ideas of Bacon, Locke, and Newton, to their newfound perspective of life. Locke argued that human nature was mutable and that knowledge was gained through accumulated experience rather than by accessing some sort of outside truth. Newton's calculus and optical theories provided the powerful Enlightenment metaphors for precisely measured change and illumination. Scientific rationalism, exemplified by the scientific method, was the hallmark of everything related to the Enlightenment. Near the end of the Renaissance, thinkers believed that the advances of science and industry foreshowed a new age of egalitarianism and progress for humankind. The intellectuals, also known as the philosophes, hoped they could create a new society in the belief that education could create better human beings and a better human society. Such philosophes as Montesquieu, Voltaire, Diderot, Hume, Quesnay, Smith, Beccaria, Condorcet, and Rousseau attacked traditional religion as the enemy, advocated religious toleration and freedom of thought creating a new science of man. In doing so, the philosophes...
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...English 3 20 March 2015 Proud Puritans! An essay on Elements of Theme in N.H. The Minister’s Black Veil The standards to which we hold ourselves decides how we pass on judgment or criticism to others,which sometimes leads to lost lessons due to judgemental tendencies and premature judgement. Such things are examined in the Puritan text The Minister’s Black Veil through the use of location,time of setting,and what is visually described. All these elements materialize into the overall theme of the piece. Puritan society was driven by religious beliefs and restricted acceptance of other religions or beliefs that tried to coexist with their own. The puritan text establishes its story in a church;,to the Puritans it was the purest place where only God could judge them.The Puritans took pride in believing that they were sanctified due to how strictly they followed the bible and prayed to God.When the Minister arrived to church with a black veil covering his face they feared and hated him for it. Yet they still held the name Puritans and “purity” so close to their society. They contradict things like the aforementioned throughout the text seen by how they judge the Minister profusely. “Something must surely be amiss with Mr.Hooper’s intellects”... (Hawthrone pg 241) “How strange.” said a lady…(Hawthrone pg 241) The people of the church socially exile the minister instead of seeing the lessons of his actions, a lesson they do not learn until he passes away. The time period...
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...Early American’s Challenges with Diversity in Religion, Gender and Ethnicity Life was not easy for the first Americans to set foot upon our wonderful country; individual freedom was challenged daily. In the early years, religion dominated daily life; strict religious observance was not a choice but a mandate. Gender diversity was a grim struggle for most women and children; women were treated as objects, belonging to their husbands. White women were awarded a few more freedoms than black women. Likewise, ethnic diversity was a challenge for Africans and Native Americans; wars were fought over the destiny of an individuals right to be free. Immigrants flocked to the United States to avoid persecution and strict religious worship guidelines; persecution and worship...
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...your own abilities to reason then the truth will come out (Goodwin, 2008). “Descartes identified the ‘thinking thing’ or mind, with the human soul or consciousness; the body, though somehow interacting with the soul, was a physical machine, secondary to, and in principle separable from, the soul” (The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide, 2009, p. 1). For centuries philosophers and psychologist have tried to figure out what the connection between the mind and body is and they have also tried to find out if the mind and body can function on their own their own. One of the western philosophers was John Locke. Lock was important to psychology because of ideas he expressed in two of his books, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding and Some Thoughts Concerning Education. The first one explains his thoughts on how knowledge is received, and on how we...
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...The Age of Enlightenment The self-proclaimed Age of Enlightenment, also known as the Age of Reason, was a period notable for its substantial cultural and scientific developments, that took place mainly during the eighteenth century. It was a time when the scholarly class of Western Europe left behind Church dogma in the process of formulating philosophical ideas as well as scientific theories. It was substituted with reason. Notably, political ideas that were extremely radical for the time propagated throughout Europe and eventually led to the revolutions of France and the United States. Also, modern science further implanted itself into the mainstream. The roots of the entire movement date back to the time of the great Ancient Greek philosophers and scientists, specifically to such great thinkers as Aristotle and Plato. In Western Europe, from the time of the Middle Ages until then, Aristotelian science had remained the extent of scientific knowledge. It had long been lost due to the chaos of the Dark Ages, but it was “rediscovered” in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries through contact with Muslim influence and Byzantine scholars. During the late years of the Renaissance and the Age of Enlightenment, scholars set out to improve upon Aristotelian and Platonic ideas. [1] The Renaissance gave a basis for the Age of Enlightenment to continue on. The Humanist movement during the Renaissance started to slightly move away from the Church. Although most Humanists were...
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...Transcendentalism took off in the 1800’s with a little help from Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Emily Dickenson. These transcendentalists expressed their beliefs through writings such as poems and essays. These few transcendentalists went out of their way to represent their ideals and beliefs. Only a number of people understood the idea of transcendentalism because it is so complex and involved a much deeper thought process. It was this complexity within Transcendentalism that makes it stick out in history still to this day. Transcendentalism is an idealistic philosophical and social movement that developed in New England. Transcendentalism was developed in reaction to rationalism in 1836. It taught that divinity pervades all nature and humanity. The transcendentalist members held progressive views on feminism and communal living. Ralph Waldo Emerson, one of the better known transcendentalists, became a transcendentalist in 1832 which lead to the writing of “Self-Reliance” and “The American Scholar.” He later became the central figure of his literary and philosophical group, known as the American Transcendentalist. In the 1840’s he founded and co-edited the literary magazine The Dial. In 1841 and 1844 he published essays, including, “Self-Reliance,” “Friendship” and “Experience.” In “Self-Reliance” Emerson writes: A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the luster of the firmament of...
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...jychoi@owu.edu Abstract This article examines major debates between rationalism and constructivism. It presents that there are politically significant motives of social actions, including norms and identity, which cannot be completely subsumed by the concept of instrumental rationality. These ideational or social-psychological motivations are governed primarily by thymos or affect (the moral or emotional part of the human personality) and/or valueoriented rationality. We need more flexible assumptions about main actors and their motives than those of rationalism to explain appropriately the politics of anger, loyalty and a sense of justice at international levels. However, constructivism’s emphasis on ideational motivations cannot totally replace rationalism in explaining international political life. Constructivism maintains that identity or norms are causally prior to actors’ interests. Yet when there is conflict between pursuit of interests and maintenance of identity or norms, actors’ strong and well-defined self-interests can overrule their contested or unstable identity or norms. In short, causal arrows can flow in either direction between identity or norms and interests. This implies that rationalism and constructivism are complementary rather than competitive in explaining international political life. International Politics (2015) 52, 110–127. doi:10.1057/ip.2014.41 Keywords: rationalism; constructivism; rationality; norms; identity; international relations...
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...Name Instructor Course February 12th 2013 17th Century European Witch craze Abstract The 17th century was the height of witch craze in Europe, where many were executed and persecuted for witchcraft. Approximately eighty five percent of those executed for witchcraft were women and this frenzy continued in Europe all the way to the early twentieth century. The loss of life was so severe that it has been referred to some researchers as a holocaust. Did this hysteria against witchcraft reduce their numbers? No. The more violently they were executed, the more in number they became. Most of those executed were women and this form of massive attack on women signifies a type of genocide; one that focuses on gender rather than on a religious or ethnic group. In Reformation Europe, women were overwhelmingly tried as witches. In France and Germany, more than eighty percent of those executed as witches and in England, ninety two percent of those executed for witchcraft were women and in Russia, approximately ninety five percent were also put to death (Trevor 214). The practice of witch hunts subsided by late seventeenth century and by early eighteenth century, witchcraft trials were rare. The causes for the decline of witch hunts are numerous and complex. This paper will attempt to analyze the witch craze phenomenon concentrating on several questions: why did women suffer the majority of the executions? Why did the witch craze end in the seventeenth century? Why was there...
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...character of medieval romances. II ORIGINS AND INSPIRATION By the late 18th century in France and Germany, literary taste began to turn from classical and neoclassical conventions (see Classic, Classical, and Classicism). Inspiration for the romantic approach initially came from two great shapers of thought, French philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau and German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. A The Romantic Spirit Rousseau established the cult of the individual and championed the freedom of the human spirit; his famous announcement was “I felt before I thought.” Goethe and his compatriots, philosopher and critic Johann Gottfried von Herder and historian Justus Möser, provided more formal precepts and collaborated on a group of essays entitled Von deutscher Art und Kunst (Of German Style and Art, 1773). In this work the authors extolled the romantic spirit as manifested in German folk songs, Gothic architecture, and the plays of English playwright William Shakespeare. Goethe sought to imitate Shakespeare's free and untrammeled style in his Götz von Berlichingen (1773; translated 1799), a historical drama about a 16th-century robber knight. The play, which justifies revolt against political authority, inaugurated the Sturm und Drang (storm and stress) movement, a forerunner of German romanticism. Goethe's novel The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774; translated 1779) was also in this tradition. One of the great influential...
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...Running head: IWT1* HUMANITIES ASSIGNMENT RIWT Task 1 Tracy Amerson, RN Western Governors University Abstract This paper will discuss and analyze creativity as the continuation of, or as a reaction to, an earlier historical art period. We will be looking at the Romanticism period and the Neoclassicism period. We will discuss the relationships between the two periods as well as the differences and how one period originated in reaction to the other period. ASSIGNMENT RIWT Task 1 Art has revolved around all different eras and periods of time. Art has been around since the beginning of time and has branched off into many sectors. Works of art vary from genres and time periods to specific types. I chose to compare the Romanticism Period and the Neoclassicism Period. The term Neoclassicism refers to the classical revival in European art, architecture, and interior design that lasted from the mid-eighteenth to the early nineteenth century. This period gave rebirth to the art of ancient Rome and Greece and the Renaissance as an opposition to the ostentatious Baroque and Rococo art that preceded the movement. Neoclassicism emphasized courage, sacrifice, nationalism and tradition. Neoclassical artists incorporated classical styles and subjects, including columns, pediments, friezes, and other ornamental schemes into their work. They were inspired by the works of Homer and Plutarch and John Flaxmann’s illustrations for the Illiad and Odyssey. Also...
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...Philosophy Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as reality, existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Discussed in this paper will be the most prominent individuals in each time period and their ideas, starting with the “Pre-Socratic” philosophers and ending in the era of post modernism. The time period in ancient Greece between the end of the seventh century B.C. and the middle of the fourth century B.C. is what is known as the “Pre-Socratic Era”. The thinkers known as the “Pre-Socratic Philosophers” used the four basic elements (water, earth, fire, and air) as their foundations for their ideas. Thales and most of the other Pre-Socratic philosophers limited themselves mostly to inquiring the nature of existence, being, and the world. They were mostly Materialists, believing that all things are composed of material and nothing else, and were mainly concerned with trying to establish the single underlying substance of which the world is made up. They used this idea of “Monism” without resorting to supernatural or mythological explanations. To these men even the commonest of phenomena like lightning, water freezing to ice, and natural disasters would have appeared miraculous. Empedocles, first of the pluralists, who proposed that reality, is composed of an irreducible plurality of elements. He also documented the first theory of evolution. Democritus developed the extremely influential idea of Atomism (that all of reality is actually...
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...Part 1 1. What is Philosophy? Quite literally, the term "philosophy" means, "love of wisdom." In a broad sense, philosophy is an activity people undertake when they seek to understand fundamental truths about themselves, the world in which they live, and their relationships to the world and to each other. As an academic discipline philosophy is much the same. Those who study philosophy are perpetually engaged in asking, answering, and arguing for their answers to life’s most basic questions. To make such a pursuit more systematic academic philosophy is traditionally divided into major areas of study. Source: http://philosophy.fsu.edu/content/view/full/36588 2. What are the benefits of Studying Philosophy? Studying philosophy improves reasoning and critical skills. Skills gained by philosophy majors are useful in almost any career. * The ability to think logically * The ability to analyze and solve problems * The ability to assess proposed solutions * The ability to write and speak clearly, attending to details Students learn about questions. How to ask good questions and distinguish the worthwhile from the worthless questions. How to divide, prioritize, and simplify questions. Students are affected by learning about questions. * Studying questions liberates us from prejudice * It helps us to think independently, thus, promoting autonomy, self-government, and individuation * It broadens our perspective on life The study of philosophy benefits students intellectually...
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...contemporary Africa's greatest writers. He is also one of the continent's most imaginative advocates of native culture and of the humane social order it embodies. Born in Western Nigeria in 1934, Soyinka grew up in an Anglican mission compound in Aké. A precocious student, he first attended the parsonage's primary school, where his father was headmaster, and then a nearby grammar school in Abeokuta, where an uncle was principal. Though raised in a colonial, English-speaking environment, Soyinka's ethnic heritage was Yoruba, and his parents balanced Christian training with regular visits to the father's ancestral home in `Isarà, a small Yoruba community secure in its traditions. Soyinka recalls his father's world in `Isarà, A Voyage Around "Essay" (1989) and recounts his own early life in Aké: The Years of Childhood (1981), two of his several autobiographical books. Aké ends in 1945 when Soyinka is eleven, with his induction into the protest movement that during the next decade won Nigeria's freedom from British rule. The political turbulence of these years framed Soyinka's adolescence and early adulthood, which he chronicles in his most recent autobiographical work, Ibadan, The Penkelemes Years, A Memoir: 1946-1965 (1994). At twelve Soyinka left Aké for Ibadan to attend that city's elite Government College and at 18 entered its new university. But in 1954, his ambition focused on a career in theater, Soyinka traveled to England to complete a degree in drama at Leeds, under the well-known...
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