...Cordelia’s Silence in King Lear Cordelia’s silence in King Lear by Shakespeare can be analyzed through different views. Here in this essay I try to criticize this matter through the principles of Kate Millet, Louis Althusser’s hegemony, Jacques Lacan, Roland Barthes, and Michele Foucault’s epitome and language. Although Cordelia’s presence in this play is not much frequent in comparison with the rest of other characters, her silence can reveal exciting information about the historical roots of renaissance. In order to provide a comprehensive approach toward the revelation of the Cordelia’s behavior, I have tried to add historical perspective to all the above mentioned critical thinkers. Kate Millet in her eminent book The Sexual Politics (1969), declares that our sex is determined at the moment of birth by biology and our sexuality is determined by social conventions. For instance, the society decrees that boys must be aggressive and active whereas girls are supposed to be humble and inactive. Now let’s see how far Kate Millet’s claims can be extended to Cordelia’s silence during Renaissance era. Well as we know, Renaissance was a patriarchal period in which men attained the highest jobs such as King, Earl, Minister, and the rest. But women usually had the lowest or the most humble jobs such as cooking and taking care of children. In such a society men used to control women. King Lear was not an exception during his own time. He was the king and had full power over the others...
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...Silence is a brings forth a controversial topic discussing whether it is a mechanism for control or a vehicle for liberation. Throughout the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, supports both arguments with a myriad of examples. An unknown voice narrates Janie's story, which has many dominating influences that are able to use the power of speech to take control. Consequently, Janie remains reserved for most of the novel, and she pays the price for her silent consent. When Janie was vocal with her opinions, she was able to determine her own future. Speech is the most influential tool to determine power, and Janie was able to liberate herself of her misery when she was vocal, yet her silence was taken advantage of, so she was a pawn in her own life. Upon being given orders to move a manure pile, Janie had come to the end of her patience with her marriage to Logan Killicks....
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...to overcome employee silence as if it is not overcome throughout the organisations growth, many underlying problems concealed by the silence will appear out of the blue. With the growing culture of intimidation in the workforce there is also the growth of employee silence, and “the only consequence of their (employee) silence is that the blind (employer) lead the blind,” (Heffernan, 2011) this is further supported by Detert and Birrous’ statement that chances are employees are withholding valuable intelligence (2016, p. 85). Regardless whether it is intentional or unintentional from their employers the damages that an employee’s silence only promotes detrimental factors for an organisations’ future. Although employers do not purposely create a fear factor for the employees, the most frequently mentioned reason for remaining silent was the fear of being viewed or labelled negatively (Milliken, 2003 p.2). With the employees supressing of information it can lead to the rise of poorly planned projects and the loss of potential innovation that could drastically benefit the organisation. Furthermore, employee silence not only negatively affects the organisation but also affects the employees, causing the development feeling unvalued, a lack of control and a cognitive dissonance (Jacobsen 2014) from the workplace and a sensation of autopilot, these could produce slack and disregardful behaviour. (danaghey et al, 2011). A contributing factor to employee silence is the widely used closed-office...
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...nature of power and its relationship to the individual, notions of justice, and guilt. The choice of a trial scene also allows an examination of the entrapment of the individual at the hands of a ruthless state. From the start of the extract the playwright's language and register seems to befit the setting of the scene in terms of its historical context and being in a court of law, with phrases such as "betokened" and "traitorously". This provides a convincing scene for the audience, in which Bolt can explore more universal political ideas. First, Bolt examines the nature of power through the language he chooses, particularly with regard to the power invested in the prosecutor. For example, Cromwell's charge against More includes three examples of tautology: "traitorously and maliciously", "deny and deprive" and "undoubted certain". The use of excessive emotive language and rhetorical devices demonstrates Cromwell's ability to launch an emphatic and powerful charge revealing his bullying and perhaps also his lust for power. The fact that Bolt gives the prosecutor in a court such a facility with language gives Cromwell power and authority in the court, leaving the defendant in some ways at a disadvantage. Indeed, directors staging this scene could emphasise Bolt's stage direction of 'formal' to indicate how the words should be delivered to show the linguistic strength Cromwell has. Bolt packs Cromwell's speech full of rhetorical devices. Much is made of the word 'silence', upon which...
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...In Asian American literature, or in any genre of literature, silence has often been associated with repression, submission, and an absence of voice. It is often misunderstood as being imposed on a certain group of people. (For the purpose of this class, we will only be focusing on Asians and Asian Americans in the United States.) Many female Asian American writers, however, demonstrate in their work that there can be multiple usage and interpretation of silence. This class hopes to show that silence is not necessarily imposed; it can be voluntary. Silence is not simply a sympathetic characteristic of the victims; it can also be a sign of resistance and, possibly, a threatening force to the inflictor. In the exploration of silence in writings by female Asian American authors, students will consequently consider the relationship between gender, race, and national identity. Silence is more common caused by an intersection of politics, culture, and gender, but the resulting silence can also be a defense or weapon Asian Americans use to protect themselves. They will discuss how silence is an essential part of the process where these authors regain their voice in mainstream politics and enunciate the part of their history or culture that has been overlooked or distorted. The first book students will be reading is We, the Dangerous by...
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...They were at the top of the social pyramid. “‘Silence, silence,’ whispered a loud speaker as they stepped out at the fourteenth floor, and ‘Silence, silence,’ the trumpet mouths indefatigably repeated at intervals down every corridor. The students and even the Director himself rose automatically to the tips of their toes. They were Alphas, of course, but even Alphas have been well conditioned. ‘Silence, silence.’ All the air of the fourteenth floor was sibilant with the categorical imperative.” (2.67). The other castes, Deltas, Gammas, and Betas, were considered “lower society”. The government ensured that no one would go outside of their individual intelligence by controlling all fertilizations. "For of course," said Mr. Foster, "in the vast majority of cases, fertility is merely a nuisance. One fertile ovary in twelve hundred—that would really be quite sufficient for our purposes. But we want to have a good choice...” (1.65). The government wanted "Community, Identity...
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...Assessment of silence and the notion of commons In her essay, silence and the notion of commons, Ursula Franklin discusses the influence of technology on silence and the values of silence we have lost sight of. She claims that before we had “a technologically mediated society” sound was ephemeral and silence was once taken for granted(375). However, advancements in technology have made it possible to multiply sound and make sound permanent thereby proliferating the amount of sound in the environment. Now silence is now seen as a common good because it has become scarce. She writes that silence is important because it creates an “enabling environment” for “unprogrammable and unprogrammed things” to happen (376). She says it also helps to maintain our “collective sanity”. There is also a power in collective silence that tends towards the spiritual. “It is an enormously powerful event”, she says. She illustrates that the Quakers (a christian faction) upheld the tradition of collective silence and in their meetings and they experience a kind of parapsychological event in which one person speaks what’s in another's mind. She calls it an “uncanny thing”(376).She also admonishes us to beware of programmed silence, that is, silence that allows a planned event to take place because this silence is enforced and unreal. She believes that programmed sound is manipulative and imposed on us. The music in shoe stores or restaurants as imposed on us and they try to manipulate us to patronize...
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...by controlling one’s mind, it may open doors to unimagined ways of spiritual learning. Maun Vrat has been highly recommended in Ancient Indian literature. Motivation for the experiment: I came through an article on the power of silence while browsing on internet. I was awestruck by the benefits that the article claimed silence could have. However, I remained skeptical about the validity of the advantages the article claimed merely keeping silence would have. Therefore, I decided to perform the experiment on myself and check the validity of the article on the basis of first hands experience. It also challenges you to control your mind and urge to speak what is going on in your mind. Challenges with Experimentation: I tried Maun Vrat of 6 hours daily for three days continuously. Initially I found it difficult to suppress my urge to speak up but I tried hard to keep going on with the Maun Vrat. Thoughts kept rushing to my tongue and I had to swallow them with great difficulty. A couple of hours later, all those thoughts were still arising in my mind but their intensity to come out as words had reduced. A couple of hours more, and there were hardly any thoughts arising in my head. This was the state I wanted to achieve through the exercise. Thus, silence of tongue can result in peace of mind....
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...today, there is a lack of representation, along with voices that go unheard and unspoken. Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, delves into the significance of silence, and the ways that the protagonist, Janie Crawford, has had her voice silenced. This resonates with many people of the Black community, who feel as though even with the progression we’ve made as a society, that their lives and struggles matter less than a white person’s. With movements such as Black Lives Matter, and many other African-American protesters, there has been a cultural outcry from the Black community who want to be heard, who want to be represented, who want to matter as people. Many women in particular among...
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...though the focus of both articles are different, yet they share characteristics of remembrance, counter-memory symbolism, state and power structures. In this essay I will demonstrate the relationship in narrative and substance, which both authors are discussing. Aysi Gul Altinay is focused on the Armenian Genocide of 1915 by the hands of their Turkish rulers and the following historical counter-memory provided by Turkish nationalist historiography, specifically on the implications on the ‘un-silencing’ of the ‘Armenian question.’ Turkish nationalist history has largely accepted the silence on the events of 1915 as the historical norm, not to be questioned. In a way it is worse that this discussion, which has only surfaced recently in mainstream Turkish society, is not one of responsibility for the massacre of an estimated 2 million Armenians but rather one of the very existence of these atrocities. What few pieces of archived information that exist from 1915-1920 do not give specifics on the fate of so many Armenian women and children but do point to the survival of large numbers of women and children through Islamization. Ataturk’s own biographer gave reason and definition to the reason behind the organized historical silence of all things Armenian genocide by calling the period ‘a time best left forgotten’ thereby demonstrating the use of silence as an historical eraser. Until only as recently as the 1970’s the republican state defense narrative gained momentum and attributed...
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...INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION Introduction Communication is the process of creating and sharing information with one another. Rapid changes in technology, transportation and immigration are making the world into a small-intersected community, where understanding how different cultures communicate is extremely important. In order to achieve effective intercultural communication we have to understand how different cultures communicate. Communication styles differ by how power is distributed within an organization. There are essentially two types: hierarchical, and democratic. In a hierarchical structure the most power is held by the highest ranking individual, where as in a democratic structure, power distribution is uniformed among the individuals. The classification of high-context versus low-context cultures based on the amount of information that is implied versus stated directly in a communication message. In high-context cultures, the meanings of the messages are found in the situation and in the relationships of the communicators, or are internalized in the communicator’s beliefs, values, and norms. In low-context cultures, less emphasis is placed on the context. Instead they rely on explicit verbal messages. Understanding these differences is essential to accurately decoding the message. Communication specialists estimate that three-fourths of our communication is nonverbal and takes place through our behavior. Nonverbal cues serve as the markers of ones’ identities...
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...Blue codes, as they are referred to in police organizations, are more problematic because they place loyalty over integrity. Extensive research conducted in 2000 by the International Association of Chiefs of Police determined that a police code of silence does exists. The law enforcement code of silence is more dominant and influential than most other professions because officers do not fear getting caught or being punished. When they are allowed to operate in this culture, they become more tempted to keep operating outside the boundaries of the law and ethics (Rothwell & Baldwin, 2006). The research also concluded that it is impossible for law enforcement agencies to determine how extensively the code of silence exists within its own organization (Trautman, 2000). Researchers suggest that the code of silence can be controlled by making loyalty to principles a higher priority than loyalty to fellow officers. This can be achieved through a variety of enforced measures. For example, it is recommended that law enforcement agencies conduct ethics training at the training academy as well as the workplace. Background recommendations are recommended as a high priority in the hiring process. Training in this area will ensure that the investigations are conducted appropriately...
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..."Regeneration" captures the misery soldiers are accustomed to. Dr. W.H.R Rivers and the patients at Craiglockhart allow us to see the bigger picture of how war can have detrimental impact on a person. Patients want to be able to speak about what is causing them pain but are instead silenced. They lose their voices to commanding forces and are deprived of their voices. Sassoon and Prior's silence shows the degree in which people will endeavor to silence soldiers. Sassoon is silenced by the Medical Board to prevent him from speaking about his anti-war agenda. Sassoon wanted to be court-martialed...
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...INTRODUCTION In the text, language and Igbo Philosophy, Fr. Dr. Chukwuelobe .M. explored the deep contribution of language to Igbo critical thinking via a tasking presentation on the phenomenology of Igbo language taking Igbo proverbs on “okwu” as his point of reflection. It shows the originality and pure nature of Igbo philosophy thereby, aborting the false view that Igbo philosophy is philosophizing in western concepts or dressing Igbo philosophy with western garb; Since, language as we know is ‘an experience that a thinker undergoes with the view to uncovering nature. This work is going to critically analyze and evaluate the author’s argument in this essay. TEXT EXPOSITION The author began by affirming the validity of Igbo philosophy when he argued that Igbo philosophy like every other philosophy ‘sets its goal to question the tradition from which it arises and to transcend it through an interpretive and critical activity of the Igbo thinker.’ Tracing the origin of language in the Igbo philosophy, he maintains that our experience with language is something historical because it relates to man who is historical in nature. Consequently, to understand the Igbo and discern what has come to language in his thought requires that a philosophy listens attentively to the sayings of the historical language; which is yet to be known and remains to be seen. He asserts that the Igbo traditional thinking derives essentially from oral transmission, which predates the advent of western...
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...According to Barsam and Monahan, silence can also be used as a form of sound. “When so used, silence frustrates our normal perceptions.” (para. 3, 383). Jean-Pierre Jeunet used silence as a way to make the “Speechless Kiss” scene more profound and poetic. The scene begins with Nino entering Amelie’s apartment. The only diegetic sounds are their footsteps and their respiration. The silence is then interrupted with a loud noise occurring from the closure of the front door. “With carefully interplay between sound and silence, a filmmaker can produce a new rhythm for the film” (para. 3, 383). Silence speaks louder than words and this unique scene represents that both have gained the courage to be together despite not speaking to each other. Silence...
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