San Antonio Spurs

When working on Portia my instinct was initially fire and I’m happy to say that my instinct was right. Portia’s journey in Julius Caesar led me to believe that she was in fact fire. In an intense proclamation of love for her husband, Brutus, Portia stabs herself in the leg. Act 2 Scene 1, “I have made strong proof of my constancy, Giving myself a voluntary wound Here, in the thigh: can I bear it with patience, And not my husband’s secrets?” In this case Portia chooses action into order to prove…

Hegemony is a process of coercion and consent. What does this mean, and how useful is it in explaining the role of culture in maintaining dominant ideologies? The expression ‘hegemony’ can be considered in a number of ways, the first and most apparent definition: a leader or representation of a certain ideology with the ability to gain control over another, weaker power. An example of this shown through history is the Soviet Union’s expansion over Eastern Europe, through the use of dictatorial…

A critical review: The Culture Industry The term culture industry, which created by those in power to maintain the status quo in terms of standardization and commodification was first developed by Ardono and Horkheimer based on the economic structure in the western society. It could be comprehended through the operation of cultural hegemony (i.e. how culture industry operates with the consent from the mass by the “dominant fundamental group”) that introduced by Gramsci. The following three…

Journey of a Changed Heart Enlightenment generally comes in increments and rarely with the flash of the proverbial light bulb switching on. Scripture portrays truth as coming “line upon line, here a little, there a little” (The Holy Bible). Within Antonio Machado’s poem “Last Night As I Was Sleeping,” the reader travels through one person’s journey of religious awakening through the use of metaphor, diction, and symbolism. The poem describes baptism, conversion from wickedness to righteousness,…

A brand takes the most idealized version of societally bound standards and commercializes a privileged race, class, or gender to increase momentum of hegemony and racial capitalism. This, as both philosophers Antonio Gramsci and Cedric Robinson would explain, is a direct effect of the formation of prioritizing a particular race and class thus manipulating our culture’s beliefs and values. In Black Marxism, Professor Cedric Robinson traces the concept of competition…

Despite all of his achievements, Vivaldi is best known for four concertos collectively known as The Four Seasons (Le Quattro Stagiorni). Paul Everett says the following: “For many people, the very name ‘Vivaldi’ is synonymous with The Four Seasons, to the exclusion of all else.” (Everett, xi). Being perhaps the most popular and frequently performed works of Vivaldi, The Four Seasons are a highlight in the history of program music. (Everett, xi) This work, taken from Op. 8, a collection of…

In light of the recent turmoil that has engulfed the Middle East recently, one may think that a new Middle East is emerging, however, due to recent setbacks, one may think the opposite and that the “old” Middle East is making a comeback. Both might be right, on the one hand it can be said that the region is in the throes of a transitional period to a more democratic future, while on the other hand it can be seen that the new rulers installed after the Arab Spring appear to be backsliding into…

Antonio Vivaldi was an Italian composer born in Venice, Italy. He was the oldest sibling of nine children. In 1703, Vivaldi was ordained to the priesthood and because he had a red hair, he was well known as the red hair priest. He was trained to play violin…

As evident by the influence of education in forming class structure, the pigs (here Bourgeoisie), take advantage of the fact that the other animals are not as learned as themselves and they make sure that they remain like that. As Antonio Gramsci also puts in his essay, “There is no unity between school and life, and so there is no automatic unity between instruction and education” (qtd. Gramsci, 52) The pigs who understand that practical education can cause other animals to cause…

The play M Butterfly, by David Henry Hwang, is an extremely complex piece of literature and a fascinating dissection of the East versus West mentality as well the gender binary. Examining Gallimard’s behavior under these lenses leads to many insights to his motivations and provides reasoning for his rather strange actions. These ideas which permeate the play are all grounded in the fundamental concept of ideology and the interpellation of the “subject” by said ideologies. As well as Althusser’s…