Science - Page 2

Discursive Sites of Production and Opposition: Post World War I Popular Music Scene in Britain

168 views

Samraghni Bonnerjee, Independent Researcher, Kolkata, India

Download PDF Version

Abstract

The post World War I British music scene was varied, spanning several genres, from croon, swoon, jazz, blues, to swing – with influences both home-grown as well as imported. New dances, jazz music, and cocktail parties were continuously being imported from America, aided by the popularity of American cinema, which shaped the form of leisure activities of Britain throughout the Twenties and Thirties. However, the conservative response to these forms of music was strict, and post War society was involved with means of trespassing the restrictions and legislations. This paper intends to look at the genres of popular music and their spatial sites of performance – dance halls and ball rooms in England as well as the English colonies – as discursive sites of production and resistance. Keep Reading

You might be interested in

What is Performance Studies?

Richard Schechner Tisch School of the Arts, New York University  Download PDF Version Because performance studies is so broad-ranging and

The Concept of Crisis in Art and Science

497 views

Eleni Gemtou,  University of Athens, Greece

Download PDF Version

Abstract

The concept of crisis in art and science is to be investigated through two approaches: a historical-sociological and a philosophical-ontological one. In the framework of the historical-sociological approach, the crisis that has been affecting both the scientific and the artistic community, has been due to external sociological causes or to the psychological inabilities and personal ambitions of their members. The traditional notions of pure science and high value-laden art have been often neglected, as both scientists and artists deviated from the ideal principles of their working codes. This approach reveals common structures and behaviors in human communities, independent from the differences in subjects, methodologies and purposes they serve. The philosophical–ontological approach to art and science and to the course of their development leads, however, to the opposite conclusion: both art and science as rational systems are incompatible with the concept of crisis due to different reasons in each case. Keep Reading

You might be interested in

What is Performance Studies?

Richard Schechner Tisch School of the Arts, New York University  Download PDF Version Because performance studies is so broad-ranging and

Editorial: Special Issue on Performance Studies

//
81 views

In this edition of Rupkatha we have the privilege of incorporating an introductory essay by Richard Schechner, in which he once again valorizes the anthropological foundations of performance studies and goes on to refer towards the infallible necessity of observing behaviour as a kind of transbiological agency and of tracing its effects in theatre and other kinds of representations. Schechner belongs to a tradition of performance scholars who believed in a kind of large, scientific ontology for the arts, a tendency which is evident when he quotes a New York University scholar. Perhaps the objective vision of a performance continuum is instructive for the future, as it creates an immediate stance, of both engaging as well as transcending the flow of experience in our lives which are organized and controlled  by means of mimetically emerging actions. The performer acquires, in Schechner’s scheme, as a liminal activist, so wonderfully described by anthropologist Victor Turner, and analysed in the scientism of Geertz’ observations of culture as an influential medium in which the arts and performances get endowed with signification. Keep Reading

You might be interested in

What is Performance Studies?

Richard Schechner Tisch School of the Arts, New York University  Download PDF Version Because performance studies is so broad-ranging and

Call for Reviewers and Copy-editors

168 views

Peer-ReviewReviewers

We invite applications from established scholars to act as Reviewers for the Rupkatha Journal (www.rupkatha.com). Reviewers  familiar with OJS (Open Journal System) and/or other platforms for online review will be preferred as we will introduce new system of online review in 2014. Interested scholars need to send the following in their CV:

  1. Institutional affiliation details along with associations with other journals;
  2. Areas of specialization and expertise;
  3. List of published works.
  4. A small photograph.

Preferred Areas of Specialization: Aesthetics, Cultural Studies, Cultural Anthropology, Visual Arts, Music, Digital Humanities, Electronic Literature, French Literature, Spanish Literature, Latin American Literature, Animal Studies, Classical European Literature, Classical Indian Literature. (We are not looking for specializations in the areas like Indian English Writings, Postcolonial Literature etc) Nature of the work: All the submitted articles and book reviews go through Double-blind Peer Review process. A reviewer gets only one article for anonymous review for any issue and s/he needs to submit the report within one month. The Rupkatha Journal is a non-profit open access initiative and so nobody associated with the journal gets paid. This is a non-monetary voluntary service for the academic community. No remuneration: Since the journal is a non-profit academic initiative, reviewers will not be paid any amount. They should consider it a voluntary academic service. However, we can provide them with Experience Certificate if needed. Please send your CV to editor@rupkatha.com.

Copy-editors

Candidates should have the following essential skills:

  • An excellent command of the English language
  • Good knowledge in literature for spotting factual errors
  • Logical skill to recognize inconsistencies or vagueness
  • Love for perfection
  • Passion for Open Access
  • Aesthetic sense
  • Time to meet deadline
  • And finally, good command over any of the Word Processors, MS Word or Open Office

Educational qualification: Postgraduate in English literature or Linguistics No remuneration: Since the journal is a non-profit academic initiative, Copy-editors will not be paid any amount. They should consider it a voluntary academic service. However, we can provide them with Experience Certificate if needed. Please send your CV to editor@rupkatha.com.

You might be interested in

What is Performance Studies?

Richard Schechner Tisch School of the Arts, New York University  Download PDF Version Because performance studies is so broad-ranging and

Black Feminist Discourse of Power in For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide

192 views

Lamia Khalil Hammad, Yarmouk University, Jordan

Download PDF Version

Abstract

This paper discusses black feminist discourse of power in Ntozake Shange’s choreopoem For Colored Girls Who have considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf. The work depicts the struggle of black women through a rainbow of experiences. At the end, the girls arrive at ‘selfhood’ by finding God in themselves. This paper focuses on how the patriarchal discourse lead to their suffereing and how they were able to claim back their identities as black females who only need to be loved and appreciated. Keep Reading

You might be interested in

What is Performance Studies?

Richard Schechner Tisch School of the Arts, New York University  Download PDF Version Because performance studies is so broad-ranging and

Editorial, Volume 3, Number 1, 2011

//
73 views

Download PDF version

This issue is dedicated once again to a more definitive exploration of the interdisciplinary question in humanities, in the inquest which characterizes modern science and a corresponding investigation of the nature of artistic and imaginative pursuits. The essays in this collection bear evidence of the scientific temperament, to say the least, but more importantly an attempt to explain certain creative tendencies on the basis of findings in evolutionary studies and psychology. The concern in academy for a mechanics of perception has taken a turn. This is a very “philosophical” question. We cannot circumscribe its importance.  Keep Reading

You might be interested in

What is Performance Studies?

Richard Schechner Tisch School of the Arts, New York University  Download PDF Version Because performance studies is so broad-ranging and

The Astronomer’s Palace: an Instrument for the Observation of the Sky

302 views

Maria Elisa Navarro Morales, McGill University, Canada

Abstract

As a result of the improvement in observational astronomy in the seventeenth century, particularly with the advent of the telescope, astronomical observatories started to be built to house the instruments for the observation of the heavens. With Tycho Brahe’s Uraniborg as precedent in the XVI century, the astronomical observatories of the XVII century were mainly institutional buildings with a political agenda. In contrast, the project for an Astronomical Palace by Juan Caramuel de Lobkowitz (1678-9), was neither a building to contain instruments, nor did it follow an institutional program.  In Caramuel’s project, the building serves as an instrument for the observation and measurement of the celestial movements, integrating the instruments traditionally housed in the building and the building itself into a single structure.  The present paper will look at the Astronomical Palace as an instance of architecture as an instrument to inquire into the natural world.  Keep Reading

You might be interested in

What is Performance Studies?

Richard Schechner Tisch School of the Arts, New York University  Download PDF Version Because performance studies is so broad-ranging and

Paradise Lost and the Dream of Other Worlds

178 views

Hrileena Ghosh, Jadavpur University

Download PDF Version

Abstract

The doctrine of plural worlds is an ancient concept which received a new lease on life as a result of developments in astronomy in the sixteenth century. In his epic Paradise Lost, John Milton repeatedly references this idea. Milton uses the concept of plural worlds in two distinct forms: at the literal level, he invokes the possibility of plural worlds within the created universe of the poem, and on a more metaphorical level, he invokes the possibility of the existence of several distinct but overlapping worlds. This paper seeks to consider how and why Milton uses this idea in the ways he does. Keep Reading

You might be interested in

The Function of Scientific Metaphor in Thoreau’s Walden

1.7K views

Robert Tindol, Shantou University

 Download PDF Version

Abstract

Henry David Thoreau’s Walden has often been lauded for its philosophical advice “to simplify” and for its energetic response to the question of how human beings fit into the natural world. In terms of language, the very manner in which the author describes and metaphorizes nature in the microcosm of Walden Pond furthers the theme of simplification, and further contributes a novel approach to the very concept of seeing and understanding. Walden is not simply about reducing life to the barest common denominator of existence, but also about understanding how to debride just enough of the superfluities to provide insights into how amalgamating nature with human language can lead to a new humanistic vision of renewal. Thus, the employment of scientific metaphor in Walden is linked to the humanistic quest for guidance in the conduct of life. Keep Reading

You might be interested in

Autopoiesis and Cummings’ Cat

164 views

Aaron M. Moe, Washington State University

 Download PDF Version

Abstract

Cummings shattered language, but he did so with precision. The result is a visual poem marked by extreme linguistic upheaval permeated with mathematical and pictorial order—a poem, in other words, that epitomizes linguistic chaos.  One such poem explores the acrobatics of a falling cat, “(im)c-a-t(mo).”  Because of the tension between order and disorder in the poem, the concepts of autopoiesis and fractals from chaos theory provide helpful language to illuminate the poem’s textual dynamics, which then provides a foundation to look deeper into the ideas Cummings explores.  Keep Reading

You might be interested in

What is Performance Studies?

Richard Schechner Tisch School of the Arts, New York University  Download PDF Version Because performance studies is so broad-ranging and

1 2 3 4