Humanities

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Elinor Carucci has phenomenal breasts. Breasts that immediately solicit images of Michelangeloís ìDawnî at the tomb of Medici. Renaissance breasts, ìrebirthingî the intimacy of nakedness in photography. Carucciís breasts are not explicitly pornographic, nor do they speak of violent sexuality; naked, they are fleshy and genuine. So genuine, in fact, that John Berger, author of ìWays of Seeing,î would argue that Carucciís bare body, although undressed, is never nude. Carucciís work confidently approaches the difference between ìnudeî and ìnaked,î as defined in Bergerís book: To be naked is to be oneself. To be nude is to be seen naked by others and yet not recognized for oneself. A naked body has to be seen as an object in order to become a nude. (The sight of it as an object stimulates the use of it as an object.) Nakedness reveals itself. Nudity is placed on display. To be naked is to be without disguises (Berger 45). That is, unless viewed objectively, nakedness is not art. If this is true, the sinuous flesh of a naked woman...(more)

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Kateís speech at the end of Shakespeareís comedy The Taming of the Shrew has led to centuries of continued debate about its implications for gender roles. Adding to the discourse on the matter, Karen Newman presents possible interpretations of the final speech in her article, ìRenaissance Family Politics and Shakespeareís The Taming of the Shrew.î She notes that other literary critics, including John Bean have viewed the speech as: ìërevisionistí for those who would take Kateís speech as ironic and her subservience as pretense, a way of living peaceably in patriarchal culture but with an unregenerate spirit and ëanti-revisionistsí who argue that farce is the playís governing genre responding to ëthe devices of a skilled traineríî (Newman 97). Moving away from these theories, Newman instead proposes a theory which culminates the works of several prominent literary critics, including: Hegel, Simone de Beauvoir, Heidegger, Lacan, and Helene Cixous, as it focuses on Kateís command of language as indicative of her refusal to ìtameî into a subservient female role constructed by 16th century Shakespearean society....(more)

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In Descartesí attempts to derive a metaphysical explanation of the world, he begins by attempting to disconnect his thoughts from their base in phenomenal experience. Indeed, the first meditation is Descartesí response to the problems created by his uncertainty about phenomenon and his perceptions of them. By making this move, Descartes pushes back from the world about him and finds a back door to his explication of the world. The move, however, begs the question: what good is a metaphysical theory not based in experience? That is, of what use is a theory about the world that is apart from the perceived phenomenon of it? Fortunately, Leibniz resists the urge to push back from the bothers of phenomenon. Where Descartes departs from the phenomenal world about him, Leibniz takes it head on. He engages the phenomenon of the world about him, and from these roots he derives logical truths that lead him directly to his metaphysical theory of monads. Given that Leibnizís metaphysical theories stem from the logical truths he roots in phenomenon, his metaphysics are also rooted in the phenomenal world.

Leibnizís metaphysics relies on several elements as precursors for its proof: first are several...(more)

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(Benjaminís project, in ìThe Work of Art in the Age of its Technological Reproducibility,î gives high merit to the large scale social theories of Karl Marx. Marxís emphasis on the Modes of Production, Historical Materialism, and Alienation carry through to Benjaminís work in a less direct and less immediate form, whereas, the historical vision of art is the means for the development of a revolution that will allow a new consciousness of art to take form. Much like Marxís emphasis on the Bourgeois and Proletarian, Benjamin looks at the poles that are created by a consciousness that are the result of a history of struggles and ideologies. There is no question about whether or not Marxist theory is political, but the question of whether or not Benjaminís essay carries on the Marxist political tradition is in need of further exploration. When looking deeply into Benjaminís text it is necessary to point out that Benjamin carries on the Marxist legacy. When interpreted as a continuation of Marxism ìThe Work of Art in the Age of its Technological Reproducibilityî is political because of the political results of the revolution....(more)

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“Scarcely another cultural phenomenon affected as many people or stimulated as much interest as did Spiritualism in the ten years before the Civil War and, for that matter, throughout the subsequent decades of the nineteenth century…. ‘in 1856, it seemed more likely that Spiritualism would become the religion of America than in 156 that Christianity would become the religion of the Roman Empire, or in 756 that Mohammedanism would be that of the Arabian population’” (Moore 4).

Introduction
During the second half of the nineteenth-century, the country was swept off of its feet by spiritualistic phenomena. Broadly defined, Spiritualism is the belief that the dead survive as spirits and can communicate with the living through the use of mediums or people with a special otherworldly perceptiveness or sensitivity that enables them to detect the presence of and communicate with spirits. Although documented happenings of otherworldly communication and paranormal...(more)

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ìA Distant Episode,î first published in 1947 in Partisan Review, launched Paul Bowles from his wide musical renown into the world of fiction. The story is distinctly horrible, and is surely more explicit than much of what Review was used to publishing. ìEpisodeî depicts an unnamed academic who, as the story begins, is just embarking on a journey into an unnamed part of the North African interior under the auspices of making a linguistic ìsurvey of variations on Moghrebi,î which, distantly akin to Arabic, is spoken only in portions of inland Morocco and Algeria, all of which abut or include pockets of the Sahara. More than just venturing into the Heart of Darkness, the protagonist, always known to us only by the cryptic moniker ìthe Professor,î is journeying into the Moroccan Sahara, which will become the stage for most of Bowles most well-known works. The Professor goes in search of a friend,

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As the audience views a tragic play, they must be able to imagine themselves in similar situations as the protagonist, and feel emotion aroused by his or her decisions and their consequences. These emotions can elicit a full spectrum of feelings ranging through sympathy, admiration, respect, distaste, and revulsion. Must the audience feel the very same emotions for the protagonists of different tragedies? This is not the case with Macbeth and Oedipus the King. As both plays progress, the protagonists evoke opposing feelings from the audience; Oedipus gains sympathy and admiration, while these feelings are diminished and lost in the case of Macbeth. Macbethís increasing self-interest, reliance upon equivocal words of prophecy, and loss of moral conscience all contribute to his loss of sympathy and admiration from the audience, while Oedipusí opposite conduct gains him these feelings....(more)

Introduction
In 1119, French nobleman Hugh de Payens founded the Knights Templar in Jerusalem and charged them with the task of defending Christian pilgrims in the Holy Land. Over the next 200 years, the Templars distinguished themselves in battle, capturing and holding territory longer than any other militant body could. When the Crusades ended, the Knights returned to Europe where, enriched by their vast lucrative land holdings, they established Europe‟s first banking system. All appeared well, until, in 1307, King Philip of France arrested all the Templars in France and charged them with heresy. A long trial ensued, culminating in the abolition of the Templar Order and the immolation of its leaders. At first glance, it seems that the trial and consequent....(more)

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