Abstract This paper discusses and compares the Apollonian and Dionysian dichotomy of two 20th century poems - Frank O'Hara's "Homosexuality" and Stephen Dobyns' "Counterparts." The paper uses these poems to show how a dichotomous conception of Apollo and Dionysus is rather limiting from the standpoint of literary analysis. It discusses how considering the intertwining of Apollonian and Dionysian tendencies is the only way we can adequately grasp a poet's mythical conception of the universe.
From the Paper "At first glance, O'Hara's poem seems to have nothing whatsoever to do with the subject of homosexuality. As one penetrates below the surface of the poem, however, it becomes readily obvious that, without making any explicit references to homosexual practices, "Homosexuality" is in fact an homage to the Dionysian celebration of life that has traditionally been an integral part of the gay lifestyle. Dionysus has traditionally been aligned with the idea of joyful excess, drunken revelry, and, in art and literature, formlessness. The speaker in the poem feels unable to contain his own soul, and so he lets it drift off and intends to follow it on its unpredictable journey."
Abstract This paper reviews part of the vast literature exploring the dichotomy of our gender system as a means of disrupting a paradigm that can no longer be upheld. It begins by evaluating a feminist reading of ancient philosophy that purports to show that the male/female dichotomy is analogous to the philosophical mind/body split. It then shows how such a dichotomy can be readily shattered in the case of intersexual infants and how such instances, as they manifest themselves in the real world, effectively show that the gender dichotomy is a social construct. The paper then explores gender's intersections with key issues of sexuality, as they emerge in the work of such authors as J. Butler and E.K. Sedgwick. Finally, the paper looks at the autobiographical narratives of a number of women who have had lived experience of the problems posed by the gender dichotomy.
From the Paper "While Spelman argues against the conceptualization of women as being on the inferior end of the mind/body dichotomy, she nevertheless ends her argument by asserting that the mind/body split can still be a useful intellectual paradigm. This conclusion is shattered by the analysis of such writers as Fausto-Sterling (2000). Fausto-Sterling explores the subject of intersexuality - that is, infants who are born with ambiguous genitalia that poses a direct threat to the socially constructed norms of gender. These infants are neither female nor male, and often become the subject of corrective surgeries at a young age to "normalize" their bodies and transform them into one of the properly (i.e. socially) defined genders. "
Abstract This paper discusses the medieval Irish Dierdre story, "Longess Mac nUislenn." It specifically looks at the dichotomies of male and female, king and people, the cultivated and the wasteland within the story and discusses their significance. The paper describes the roles of the significant characters in the story and the dichotomies that they represent.
Table of Contents:
The King and His People
The Dichotomy of Male and Female
The Un-Culture of the Feminine
Conclusions
From the Paper "Once born, Deirdre remains separated from Ulaid society. She is raised in a separate court, as discussed earlier, and perhaps it is this that explains her forwardness toward Noisu. After learning that a man existed in Ulster who fit her image of beauty, she quickly approaches him and exchanges some suggestive banter. If one compares this to Tochmarc Emer, the gender roles are reversed. Just as Cu Chulainn admired the fair country in which he wished to lay his spear, Deirdre tells Noisu of her need for a young bull. As a woman requisitioned by Conchobor, this in inappropriate, but it is in her character to act outside social norms, not being a part of Ulster society."
"This role seems tied to her gender, especially because the female satirist Leborcham acts in a similar way. Leborcham visits Deirdre because no one can prevent her. She is a satirist, so like Deirdre, she possesses powerful words--perhaps more honest than the words of the king. And Leborcham ignores social mores by telling Deirdre exactly where she can find her desired man, with his "hair like the raven, and a cheek like blood, and a body like snow." She too is a character working against "culture", ignoring Conchobor's decisions Deirdre's home and future."
A discussion of religious iconography and the virgin-whore dichotomy in pre and post Elizabethan England using Elizabeth I. and Hamlet's Gertrude as examples of the virgin and whore characterization.
2,285 words (approx. 9.1 pages), 5 sources, 1998, $ 70.95
Abstract A discussion of religious iconography as it relates to the Catholic Queens of England, Elizabeth I. and Hamlet's Gertrude. This paper contains a discussion of the virgin-whore dichotomy as it relates to the depictions of the Catholic Queens of England and Elizabeth I. in comparison to Gertrude. It also deals with an interesting change in religious iconization as England made its movement in support of the Protestant faith. The argument defines and discusses three areas in which queens are compared to religious icons and how their success and failure in these areas establishes their places in the virgin-whore dichotomy.
From the Paper "To give the queen the desired position in the dichotomy as the virgin, queens were often equated with religious icons, making their legacies almost saintly. These images of holiness defined both the queen's positions in the monarchy and the standards to which the future queens were held. After the fall of Catholicism in England, the iconizsation of the queen changed. Elizabeth in particular wasn?t associated by allegory alone to the Virgin Mary, but rather became the Virgin Mother of England in body as well as by allegory. This strengthened both her political position and her position in the virgin-whore dichotomy of the time. By comparing Queen Elizabeth, who was seen as a saintly, virginal figure, to Shakespeare's character Gertrude, who was seen as lusty and betraying, the major virgin-whore dichotomy of the Elizabethan and post-Elizabethan age can be exemplified."
Abstract This paper discusses how the characters and the city of Savannah in John Berendt's "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" exhibit dichotomy. The paper maintains the dichotomies that pervade the novel are used to reinforce the mystery that remains behind in the wake of James Williams' shooting of Danny Hansford.
From the Paper "In John Berendt's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil we are pulled into a murder mystery in Savannah. The title of the book is important as is the statue in the garden that graces its cover ..."
Abstract This paper is a comparison of the two pieces of music. The author examines the way the social discontent at the time is portrayed in these writings. A look at the way American culture impacted the making of these at the time.
From the Paper "In 1965, Woody Guthrie's most apparent heir turned his back on the folk community and, in his desertion, remarked that he didn't want to write "fingerpointing" songs anymore. He wanted to turn the focus inward. But as he did so, Bob Dylan left his spurned constituency with some parting words of advice. With the release of the landmark collection, Bringing it All Back Home, Dylan unleashed a sneering, visceral ode to the American Dream in "Subterranean Homesick Blues." And in a fashion only befitting of Bob Dylan, he was not simply passing the entrance exam into the world of rock and roll with this jarring electric riot. Rather, he was initiating rock to its new path, opening an as yet undiscovered gateway both lyrically and musically. Clocking in at a wheezy and exhausting two minutes, twenty-one seconds, it has been most aptly described as Chuck Berry's "Too Much Monkey Business" on amphetamines. And if that's true, than the punk movement that would snarl out of London in the late seventies may just be Bob Dylan on Bass Ale and heroin. Where Bob Dylan pioneered the sneer, The Clash wore it on their sleeve. On their self-titled debut in 1977, the quartet took rage to a level rivaled at that time only by the Sex Pistols, and Iggy Pop of course. In doing so, they also forged a blueprint for the punk aesthetic with the furious thrash of "I'm So Bored With the USA."
The paper analyzes John Ford's movie "The Searchers" (1956) by using the ideas of feminist film theorist Laura Mulvey from her famous essay, "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema".
Abstract The paper explains Mulvey believes that the dichotomy between narrative and spectacle echoes the division between men and women such that men control and forward narrative and women exist as spectacle or objects of visual pleasure at which to look. The author points out many examples where John Ford's "The Searchers" sometimes simultaneous adherence to and subversion of Mulvey's observation and theory. The author finds that the film itself suggests the link between the pleasure of sight and power.
From the Paper "In examining the film with Mulvey's structure in mind, what are we to make of the fact that the female characters in the film are infrequently spectacles? Mulvey writes that, ?Traditionally, the woman displayed has functioned on two levels: as erotic object for the characters within the screen story, and as erotic object for the spectator within the auditorium, with a shifting tension between the looks on either side of the screen.? Although the whole movie is about Ethan Edwards? obsession with avenging the rape and murders of female kin, as well as rescuing one of them, the camera barely lingers on the women. Their relevance is not as visual objects of pleasure either for the camera's masculine gaze or for the male characters (which presents a stark contrast to the work of Hitchcock that Mulvey dissects as empirical evidence for the structure she describes)."
Abstract This paper discusses the theme of the dichotomy between appearance and reality, and how it is an old and crucial theme throughout literature. The paper explores the works of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe and Charlotte Perkins Gilman to demonstrate this theme operating in different ways.
Abstract This paper is a review of Bengt-Erik Borgstrom's article "The Way the World is Going: The Society-Nature Dichotomy in Development Rhetorics." The focus is on definitions of eco-development.
This paper discusses "Democracy in America" by Alexis de Tocqueville, which focuses on America's socio-political landscape during the early 19th century.
Abstract This paper explains that the most essential discussion in de Tocqueville's "Democracy in America" establishes that the country's culture determines the "practical philosophy" of American politics, as well as the establishment of a more egalitarian than libertarian society. The author points out that the social conditions of governing American politics are based on gender, religion, and even the dichotomy and differences that de Tocqueville raises between the Americans and Europeans. The paper relates that de Tocqueville's thesis posits that people or Americans govern the country, and this socio-political order has both advantages and disadvantages that result in the development of a government that is called ?the tyranny of the majority.?
From the Paper "Social institutions are also an important force that forms the core of American politics. With stronger power and influence in politics, social institutions and groups in America have the authority to determine whose power will become dominant in the country. By studying the role that the mass media, particularly the press institution, plays in enforcing the authority of the majority in American politics, Tocqueville argues that in a country where mass media is a powerful institution affecting public opinion, ?Means must then be found to converse every day without seeing one another, and to take steps in common without having met. Thus hardly any democratic association can do without newspapers.? These, in general, are the forces that determine the nature of American politics as determined by Tocqueville in "Democracy in America"."
Tags: majority, egalitarian, dichotomy, europe, media
This paper discuses Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein", not as a romantic condemnation of science but rather as a condemnation of man's desire to know and control the supernatural.
Abstract This paper explains that "Frankenstein", written by Mary Shelley in the first decades of the nineteenth century, is the story of man's desire to transcend his own limited and fallible nature and a warning of the suffering and punishment that comes from that effort. The author points out a dichotomy in "Frankenstein", the division between the natural and the unnatural, between what is possible to man and what is impossible--if Victor represents the unnatural, then his creature embodies the natural. The paper relates that the conflict within Victor and between the creator and the creature, is brought most sharply into focus during the creation of the she-creature. When the creature wishes for nothing but love and companionship, it demands a help-mate and threatens to unleash its fury on all those dear to Victor if its desire is not met.
From the Paper "Clearly, Shelley's warning is against meta-humanistic and not scientific knowledge. Even if we were to assume that her understanding of science had been so naive as to equate it with supernatural omnipotence, her understanding of recent history could not have been so fragmented. It is likely that Frankenstein's creature represents the chaos and turmoil that sprang from the French Revolution. It is significant that Shelley's novel takes place during the 1790's and yet there is no mention of this major event. Still more important is her brief allusion to the English revolt a century and a half earlier."
Abstract This paper discusses the characters of John and Jane in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper." The paper shows how the characters can be seen to represent a clear dichotomy of practicality and imagination. The paper gives examples from the book to illustrate this theme of practicality and imagination coexisting in a state of a fragile balance.
From the Paper "Whether or not these two opposite interests exist within the same mind or within the same house, the message is relatively clear. This message is that practicality and imagination coexist in a state of a fragile balance. If that balance is disrupted and one side begins to win over other in a dramatic fashion then a serious struggle will ensue. Both traits must give way to the wisdom of the other without overwhelming it--very much like the classic yin-yang symbol. If only Jane were allowed to write, it could have operated as a release valve in her mind. Just as a hyperactive child will run himself ragged and collapse into a sleeping heap when the energy has run its course, imagination will eventually be spent and the capabilities of practicality will resume. "The Yellow Wallpaper" shows us that this is not a reciprocal process, however, and that practicality must allow the hyperactive child of imagination run wild on occasion or else it will lead to spontaneous mental combustion."
Looks at Gershom Gorenberg's "The End of Days: Fundamentalism and the Struggle for the Temple Mount", which concerns the Israeli-Palestinian conflict over the Temple Mount.
Abstract This paper explains the relationship of the leftist versus the rightest dichotomy to the secular versus the spiritual views on conflicts over religion. The paper reviews religious scholar Gershom Gorenberg's book "The End of Days: Fundamentalism and the Struggle for the Temple Mount" in which he agrees moderately with the rightist view that religion's force is basically ambivalent. The paper concludes that to better understand the origins and ways to find solutions to major religious issues, like the Israel-Palestinian conflict, a more balanced understanding of religious (rightist) impulses and secular ideas is necessary. The paper end notes instead of a bibliography.
From the Paper "How the temple is to be rebuilt remains unclear to messianic Jews (who want to fulfill the prophecy and bring the first coming of the Jesus/the apocalypse). During the Israeli-Egyptian 6 Days War (1967) Israel conquered the old city of Jerusalem thereby taking into possession the third most important religious site of Islam and most notably the emerging symbol of a nationalist Palestinian state, the Temple Mount. This area is also where the prophet Muhammad (founder of the Muslim faith) ascended to heaven and met God. This will also be the location for the final judgment."
Tags:dichotomy, evangelical, rebuilt, muslim, symbol
Abstract This essay shall approach this challenge with reference to two of Hawks' films: Only Angels Have Wings and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Both films will be interpreted according to the critical schematics of Peter Wollen and Jacques Rivette. It will be argued that while Rivette's thematic analysis of the dichotomy of Hawks' films implies a bi-polar opposition between order and chaos, Wollen's focus on the characters as exemplifying the dramatic and the comic allows us to more closely perceive the workings of gender that underlies the comic/dramatic dichotomy in Hawks' work. In this analysis, it will be shown how Hawks' dramas are definitively male, with the masculine gender representing the dominant order, and the feminine a threat to that order. Conversely, it will be seen that in Hawks' comedies order has given way to chaos, and the landscape is dominated by women with males being - in general - figures of impotence and powerlessness.
Abstract The growth of the concept of a strategic approach to managing people can be attributed to rapid environmental changes that have taken place over the last two decades. This paper first examines the dichotomy between two human resource management approaches to overall employee management. It then examines the difficulties in implementing the current management model into modern companies. The two models examined are the "hard model" of human resource management and the soft model that has replaced it in most modern organizations, especially in the services and technology sectors. The paper includes a graph and table.
Table of Contents
Introduction
The Dichotomy Between Soft and Hard Models of Human Resource Management
Divergence and Rigidity Within Soft and Hard Models of Human Resource Management
Human Nature and the Employee
The Language and Reality of New Careers
Implications for Establishing the New Career Paradigm
Conclusion
Bibliography
From the Paper "Soft HRM models focus on empowering employees and management to take charge of the organization, to continually learn and grow in their jobs as well as in their careers and to be willing to take risks and be innovative in their approach to their jobs. It has become almost part and parcel with today's new information and services based economy, where older centralized command and control type management would be too unwieldy to respond to the demands of the new market place. The second effect of companies adopting the soft HRM approach is the narrowing of organizational structure. Where previously older organizations have had a vertical, highly compartmentalized management structure, those companies who have adopted the soft approach or those who start off with it, see their management structure become narrower and more responsibility for decision making rests in the hands of the employees and frontline management."
