Abstract This six-page undergraduate paper discusses the work of Honore Daumier, the French caricaturist and lithographer who shot to fame in the 19th century with his satirical caricatures. The artist is known for his caricatures that ridiculed the political figures and highlighted the social injustices prevailing in France during his time.
Abstract In this paper, the writer states that caricaturist, William Hogarth was able to achieve with his prints and caricatures, what his contemporaries strive to attain through their writings and poems. It looks at how his political agenda was served through his cartoons and engravings, as they depicted a very real picture of the life and society in the 18th century. It looks at how his work influenced Fielding's writings - also filled with a political agenda.
From the Paper . It is commonly believed that, ?In his masterpieces - "A Harlot's Progress," "A Rake's Progress," "Marriage A-la-Mode" and "Gin Lane" - he created an image of society so resonant and enduring that the adjective "Hogarthian" has come to define 18th-Century England.? (Smith, 9) Henry Fielding was another famous name of those days. He wasn?t just a contemporary of Hogarth's but was his close friend and staunch supporter. Together they fought against the immorality persisting in their society by highlighting its weaknesses in their works. Smith (1997) adds, ?Hogarth, along with writers like his friend Henry Fielding, pioneered a vigorous, assertively British esthetic that proudly declared its independence from the oppressive weight of classical tradition and unthinking reverence for continental art.?
Fielding was deeply impressed by Hogarth's courage and brilliance and thus took inspiration from his works for his own writings. Fielding's famous works include Shamela, Joseph Andrews and Tom Jones, all three of which show prominent signs of Hogarth's influence."
Abstract This paper explains that, although Henri Matisse and Picasso are noted as two of the greatest artists of the 20th century, Matisse, whose career spanned many decades, was always humble about his art especially his origins as an artist. The author points out that his work did not show natural items; instead, he attempted to capture emotions, sensations and the experience of his subjects, which very often took on a life of their own and looked more like caricatures rather than real subjects. The paper relates that Matisse is know for his vivid colors and one-dimensionality as seen in his paintings "The Blue Nude" and "The Red Studio".
From the Paper "In "The Red Studio," Matisse's use of color, imagination, and freedom of expression are all abundantly clear. In the one-dimensional work, detailed paintings clutter the walls, giving a sense of space and yet seeming closely confined at the same time. That is one very interesting aspect of Matisse's work throughout his career. His work was all flat and one-dimensional, and yet it did not seem flat or uninteresting at all. Critic Danto continues, "In 'The Red Studio' we see a corner, but the color of the walls, which meet at right angles, is uniform, as if they stood in the same plane."
Abstract This paper discusses "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens. It discusses whether or not the characters depicted in "A Tale of Two Cities" lean toward rich, detailed individuals or simply caricatures of Dickens' larger goals in the novel. The paper examines the text of the novel, as well as existing critical theory on the subject and suggests that the latter is more likely to be true.
From the Paper "Dickens' characters in A Tale of Two Cities lack their own lives, instead serving as "mere vessels of transport for the essential elements of genuine behavior" (Davis and Womack 299). Rather than providing characters like Carton, Darnay, Lucie, and Defarge to live "lives" replete with extensive internal contradictions and complications, Dickens imagines these characters as idealized and stylized versions of ideals and values that are central to the story that he is telling. Lucie becomes the caring woman, while Defarge the spiteful one. Carton is identified through his occupation and stability, while Darnay represents the ethical dilemma inherent in the historical events leading up to the French Revolution. Dickens characters, thus, are caricatures whose presences are indicative of a level of understanding Dickens intends to grant his readership about the historical events that took place during the scope of his novel."
Abstract This paper examines the minstrel show and its negative images of black Americans that enforced commonly held white prejudices or mistaken cultural characteristics.
From the Paper "The images of blacks as presented in the minstrel performances remained embedded in the minds of audiences after they left the show (Anderson, 24). Due to their lack of frequent contact, many whites had nothing else to base their perceptions off of. Minstrel shows were not only entertaining, but they presented a foreign culture. It did not matter whether the characters were accurate or not; the audiences looked at the singing and dancing black-faced actors and expected all blacks to be like this."
Abstract This paper examines the way in which "Goodbye Pork Pie" reflects the social and political climate of New Zealand in the 1970s. The author investigate the "Kiwi" culture as portrayed through the film. The author writes that New Zealand is presented as distinctive through iconographical features of the culture and countryside through which the journey takes place, as well as the time period. Women are sidelined as the narrative is engineered around the comradery of two kiwi 'blokes', John and Jerry. Furthermore, the paper describes that the film criticizes the right-wing government of its time and focuses on two antiheroes.
From the Paper "Goodbye Pork Pie, directed by Geoff Murphy, and released in Cannes in 1980, is a distinctively New Zealand interpretation of the popular American road movie: a derivative of the buddy-western genre. The buddies, John and Jerry, are propelled by circumstance into a chance meeting and a consequential life of running from authority that seems to have nothing else to do, but to pursue (and pursue?) a little stolen yellow mini."
Abstract The "American" public has always had an interest in the lives of Native Americans. During the early 1800, this curiosity blossomed in a fascination. The paper shows that unfortunately, most Americans were content to relegate all Native Americans into this caricature of the "noble savage", dehumanizing them, and few settlers sought to understand the culture of the Natives whose land they were occupying. Fortunately two nineteenth century artists, Edward Sheriff Curtis and George Catlin did not share the same view. This paper discusses how these men dedicated their lives to the study and preservation of Native American tribal culture for posterity by creating imagery based on the Native American people. Although their methodology, content, and style were dissimilar, (Curtis used the camera and Catlin worked with oil paint), their goal was the same, to capture and record the essence of America's indigenous people through art.
From the Paper "Countless numbers around the globe have benefited from the information gathered during the 1800's by Edward S. Curtis and George Catlin.
Without these records many of the customs and heritage that we know of as "Native American" might be lost today.
It is easy to be critical of Catlin's paintings when judging it against the realism of Curtis? photographs, but the goals of the two men were the same. The sincerity, accuracy, and honesty of the collections that were compiled by the ethnographists transcend their work from the category of mere art to the palate of life."
Abstract This paper reviews the film "What Women Want" and in particular looks at why society imparts so many gender roles on men and women. It examines how the film is not a film about an attractive throwback to the Stone Age, but how it certainly portrays what a large group of men still believe about women, even today when there is supposed to be more "equality" between the sexes. It evaluates how Mel Gibson's over the top caricature of the hopelessly chauvinistic male at the beginning of the film is not actually as far-fetched as it might seem, which makes it all the more appalling. Today, many men still see women only as sex objects and even the most liberated man still believes he should head up the household and bring home the major portion of the bacon.
From the Paper "Society looks at men and women differently, despite the advances women have made in women's rights. Women as leaders are viewed differently than men as leaders; it is that simple. In "What Women Want," Helen Hunt is viewed with skepticism, especially by Mel Gibson, when she first takes over the leadership role in the agency. The old adage "she slept her way to the top" is often the only way men can justify a woman's rise to prominence in business or government. Men simply do not want to admit that a mere woman might be more talented or qualified than they are, and so must make up personal reasons for professional results. This is not that unusual either, and the statistics of women who serve at the head of major corporations bears this out. There are far fewer women in positions of importance in large companies than men, the percentage is somewhere in the teens, rather than the sixties or even seventies."
Abstract This paper discusses the transformation of the novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin", by Harriet Beecher Stowe into a cultural icon. It looks at how the creation and recreation of the text by its readers, adapters and its foremost opponents, helped to polarize the abolitionist debate. The paper suggests that the responses to and adaptations of the text of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" provided a means by which the novel assumed a principal role in American culture through various media--the theatre, film, posters, paintings, follow-on writings, essays and press coverage. Finally, the paper suggests that the articulation and reconstruction of the text by its readers brought on a range of social and political meanings and results.
Background: The Origins of a Living Document
Introduction
North and South Polarized
Critics Respond
The Abolitionist Debates
The Tom Caricature The Greatest Impact
From the Paper "In what way did this text change the traditional relationship between reader and the novel? The reader became the author, interpreter, director, actor, witness and part and parcel of the story. The story, instead of being about life, became life, and life in turn became its own version of the story. In this context of slavery, religion, melodrama, and family crisis, Uncle Tom's Cabin can be viewed as a cultural pattern instead of an isolated work. Almost as soon as it was published as a novel, Stowe's story was adapted for the American stage; from 1852 until well into the twentieth century, adaptations of Uncle Tom's Cabin were among the most popular productions that a theater company could stage. Stowe, however, never condoned nor participated in developing the productions, nor did she earn any money from these adaptations."
Abstract Beth Henley's plays "Crimes of the Heart" and "Miss Firecracker" both very much reveal the theme of how humor can camouflage human suffering and tragedy. "Crimes of the Heart" examines the plight of three young women who are betrayed by their passions. Each woman suffers a certain tragedy in her own life, which is directly related to a certain form of mental sickness, yet at the same time a certain humorous angle exists in that life. The same can be said about "Miss Firecracker," as the main actor appears to be a humorous caricature of her very self.
Abstract This paper discusses the attitude towards women in the Middle ages. It shows that women were considered to be inferior to men and that they were also believed to be the cause of the humanity's downfall. Much of this caricature of women was rooted in the Church's attempt to control the human body. More than anything else, this effort was founded on a deep discomfort that the Church felt with sexuality.
Abstract Chess is an important theme in "Through the Looking Glass". The rules of the game, as well as the characteristics of the pieces, are Carroll's metaphor for society in Victorian England, particularly in caricaturing governmental and public figures. The game is also Carroll's way of conveying that social relations in the Victorian era were an arbitrary, but deadly serious game.
Abstract This thesis argues that Holocaust denial is simply the craving for another Holocaust. It is a craving that basically pursues its objective via different tactics. The author feels that by erasing memory and employing moral relativism, combined with the same anti-Semitic caricatures that led to the Holocaust, holocaust denial institutes a certain social and political mind-set which, in turn, can facilitate the possibility of yet another Holocaust. In order to understand what Holocaust denial is about, it is mandatory to understand what the Holocaust was and why it came about. This essay examines both the Holocaust and the phenomenon of subsequent efforts to deny its historical reality.
Abstract This paper examines how the Elizabethan dramatists Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare were contemporaries and how, for the latter part of Marlowe's dramatic career, they were rivals as well. It looks at how Marlowe's career as a playwright was cruelly cut short after the author was murdered in a tavern brawl, probably the result of his political intrigues. The paper shows that regardless of the reasons for Marlowe's untimely demise, the difference between the older Marlowe and the young Shakespeare had already become manifest in the characterization of the main protagonists of the two men's plays. It explores how Marlowe clearly influenced Shakespeare's early writings and how, while Marlowe used broad character brushstrokes to create a vivid narrative and caricature of human character and morality, Shakespeare created a new way of dramatically rendering the human character in shades of gray. In particular, it examines how both men used similar themes, such as the presence of "Jewish" values in a money-grubbing 'Christian' society.
From the Paper "All of Marlowe's protagonists are larger than life, from Barabas to Faustus and lastly to Tamburlaine, in the scope of their desires. They are both sustained and destroyed by their respective evils. Barabas? poisoning reflects the Jewish dietary laws that Shylock merely tacitly refers to, ?I will not eat with you,? in Act I of ?The Merchant of Venice.? Faustus is destroyed by his love of knowledge and power, just as Tamburlaine is destroyed by his desire to conquer the world.? All of these men stand outside of their societies, and reflect what is wrong with their societies?an over emphasis on money, scholasticism, and power respectively."
Abstract Women have always had to battle views that they are not significant members of society and should stay at home. In some cases, women have taken great strides forward towards equality and status. Oftentimes, however, women lose these battles and become inferior again. The position of women in Islamic society is a complex and frequently misunderstood issue. This paper argues that it is certainly true that Muslim and Western views of the role of women show sharp cultural differences, but the stereotype of Muslim women as uneducated, with no rights and with no opportunities is a caricature born of ignorance or malevolence.
From the Paper "The Muslim woman does not feel the pressures to be beautiful or attractive, which is so apparent in the Western cultures. She does not have to live up to expectations of what is desirable and what is not. Superficial beauty is not the Muslim woman's concern; her main goal is inner spiritual beauty. She does not have to use her body and charms to get recognition or acceptance in society. It is very different from the cruel methods that other societies subject women, in that their worth is always judged by their physical appearance. There are numerous examples of discrimination at the workplace where women are either accepted or rejected, because of their attractiveness and sex appeal. (MWL)".
