Binary opposition

Henrik Ibsen’s ‘A Doll’s House’ went into production in December 1879 and was a triumph in Scandinavia and Germany. It did not garner the same praise in Europe as the London productions (1889) were criticised, the subject matter was interpreted as offensive and the representation of women was viewed as harmful (Worrall). This final interaction between Nora and Torvald is crucial as it is the powerful denouement. The analysis of this scene will encompass discussions of the elements of…

the role of language and to firmly cement the metafictional novel in the realm of fiction. Through a close examination of The Unbearable Lightness of Being this essay will further argue that authorial intrusions become a vehicle to explore the binary opposition of lightness and weight in the novel. By not only successfully immersing himself in the plot, but also distancing himself from it, Kundera successfully establishes his omnipresence and omniscience - two qualities that contribute to his…

This paper examines the effect of colonialism in Dangerembga’s Nervous Condition. It attempts to investigate the negative and positive effects of imperialism on Dangerebga’s fictional characters and by extension the Zimbabwean society, using the postcolonial critical approach. The work contends that Nervous Conditions is Dangerembga’s attempt to record history for society and not a gender centred work even as the present study distances from it. Introduction Dangerembga’s Nervous Conditions…

scheme— with nations moving along from “backwardness” towards “modernity” . Furthermore, he argues that although early 20th anthropologists rejected social evolutionism, evolutionary discourse was not disposed of. Malinowski, for example kept the binary distinction between “modern” and “primitive” societies and the latter was still considered the primary object for anthropological analysis . Even critical theories of development in the latter half of the twentieth century (Dependency Theory,…

Throughout history the powerful few have at times seized control of a state and exercised their power and influence in a manner that inflicts great damage to a few for the benefit of the many, or so they allege. To further their agenda these dictators vilify a small group in society by alleging that they are subversive and represent a danger to society. This pattern of persecution can be observed as far back as the 1500s in the Spanish inquisition, in the 1700s with the Salem Witch Hunts or more…

motherhood. It is often seen as emasculating to men if in a relationship the woman is more successful than the man. It is interesting to note that there is no feminine terminology or equivalent for emasculate. This is because in the man and woman binary, man is considered to the dominant force. Ifemelu and Gertrude Stein are interesting chracters because they are the complete opposite of the domineering group of people that hold true power, but yet they manage to exert power in their own way.…

stereotype threats. According to the Youth in Transition Survey, statistics revealed that fifty percent of the young men perceived their ability in math as “very good” or “Excellent” compared with thirty percent of young women with positive opinions. This binary thinking that women and men are two total opposites is discouraging girl’s likelihood of cultivating an interest in math and science. It has especially detoured women from pursuing an engineering degree because of its heavy mathematical…

INTRODUCTION Underlying Adams’ quote is the important question as to whether society is progressive and has positive implications for humans, or whether its implications are negative and corrupting. Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Émile Durkheim are two political theorists who battle in their writing to determine what is bad and what is good about society. This essay will consider how progressive or corrupting society is and in what ways, according to Rousseau and Durkheim. The essay will explore…

and the cultural theories of Claude Lévi-Strauss, which hold that cultures, like languages, can be viewed as systems of signs and analyzed in terms of the structural relations among their elements. Central to structuralism is the notion that binary oppositions (e.g., male/female, public/private, cooked/raw) reveal the unconscious logic or "grammar" of a system. Literary structuralism views literary texts as systems of interrelated signs and seeks to make explicit their hidden logic. Prominent…

Retroactive reasoning Krystof Kieslowski introduced this cinematic technique of "retroactive reasoning," in which images that seem uncertain upon first viewing build up greater depth when revisited later on. In doing this, the director coaxes the viewer's subconscious mind into making the association between the images (Insdorf, 2002).This technique, works well in nonlinear narrative structure, as there the filmic flow is disrupted with narration, dreams, hallucinations, flashbacks, and…