Signifier

Introduction Collective identity as described by Alberto Melucci (1995) is said to be “an interactive and shared definition produced by several interacting individuals who are concerned with the orientation of their action as well as the field of opportunities and constraints in which their action takes place.” Collective identity, like many concepts begin with an initial idea that forms an understanding and purpose of the forming of a group. Collective identity is the ideology of belonging to…

Setting Physical: There are not many instances in White Teeth that demonstrate physical setting. White Teeth takes place indoors and outdoors. It also takes places it all different types of buildings at different times in the day. Geographical: The story White Teeth takes place in London, England. Specifically, in the suburban areas of Willesden and Killburn near the northern part of London. These places are moderately populated. White Teeth also has many flashbacks to places such as Jamaica,…

The animals in a farm named Manor Farm attempt to assert their Otherness in contrast to the oppressive human interference through a Rebellion. The word Rebellion appears with a capital ‘R’, as if the animals have almost found their harmony with deifying the act of Othering. The capitalized ‘Rebellion’ seems a raw simulation of the anthropocentric deity-figure that appears in grand narratives of the religious kind. The Rebellion of Manor Farm turns bloody and resembles in all its subtlety the…

The Wind that Shakes the Barley (2006) director Ken Loach has repeatedly admitted that The Battle of Algiers (1966) has had a large influence on his own filmmaking career. In Martin Evan’s interview with Ken Loach about the Gillo Pontecorvo film, Evans says “[Loach’s] film-making is committed to a realist style; one that strives to give a voice to ordinary people and their daily lives.” The Pontecorvo film as an early example of postcolonial film is a good place to start when looking at The Wind…

Introduction Reggae as a style of modern popular music expresses feelings and opinions about life, love and religion. It was originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s and rapidly arose as the country’s dominant music (Cooper, 2015). It is widely perceived as a forceful voice for the people under confrontation and struggle. As Reggae often bores the weight of politicized lyrics that addresses social and economic injustice, it helps to raise awareness about social and political issues. Among…

Communist imagery and text appear in two contexts in Cuba, one, satirical and the other, its intended “proper” use in political propaganda. This essay will juxtapose the use of word and image in propaganda art of the Cuban revolution and the post-socialist conceptual art of the 90s that emerged in indirect and sometimes overtly direct response to it. Due to the regime’s strict control over the media, art has become one of the only spaces where critique of the government can sneak through, mostly…

Novels from the Romantic era generally possessed qualities of sentiment and sensibility, a style deemed feminine by many of the movement’s successors. At the time, this was frowned upon, as “writing women [were considered to cross] the borders between the domains of production and reproduction” and “the distinction between the prostitute and the woman writer was so blurred as to be almost non-existent” (Clark 20-21). The underlying thought behind this was that women were “selling” their emotions…

A sudden roar of laughter, followed by the clink of spilling champagne glasses while jazz softly sways through the air, humid with the spirit of the summer of 1922--the roaring twenties are not known for silence. Parties described in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby easily represent this load and rapidly moving time. A mysterious man known as Gatsby welcomes hundreds of strangers, from both West Egg and East Egg, into his home to drink and dance until the next morning. Compared to the…

In Lorain, after getting marriage Pauline begins to miss her people. She has never lived around so many white people. She surprised that the black people living in the North are different than in the south. In the South, the communities were strongly isolated, and whites were over aggressive toward blacks. In the North, the whites and blacks are more integrated and racism is less overt and aggressive but still exists. As a result, outside pressure of white violence and attack does not connect…

Annotated Bibliography: Irony, Identity, and Autonomy in Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying Atkinson, Ted. “The Ideology of Autonomy: Form and Function in As I Lay Dying.” Faulkner Journal 21.1/2 (2006): 15-27. Academic Search Complete. Web. 27 Nov. 2014. Ted Atkinson argues that Cash’s production of his mother’s coffin is a metaphor for Faulkner’s production of As I Lay Dying because they both concern themselves with form and function, as they pursue artistic autonomy despite significant stressful…