Alldredge, A. 2009. Review of Chasing Science At Sea: Racing Hurricanes, Stalking Sharks, and Living Undersea with Ocean Experts, by E. Prager.…
She defined to Ian that Greeks had three goals to marry Greeks, make more Greeks and to feed Greeks. When Toula is sitting between her parents watching TV it is priceless, there are the parents protecting their baby girl. The furniture covered in plastic is symbolic not of just Greeks, but of recent immigrants and people of certain ages. When Costa blames Toula’s education as her downfall of loving a non-Greek is a stereotype. Another priceless stereotype is the cultural differences between the Millers and the Portackolis’.…
However, one of the main points of this book was primarily on everyday life and interactions between signares and other individuals; including their effects on the island’s economy, social and diplomatic relationships and ceremony. When Goree Island was a high traffic port for trading, the most important activities surrounding a ship’s arrival would be centered around the signares. When word of an incoming English ship came in to Monsieur de Drouin, he was extremely concerned about the incoming shipmen’s impressions of their signares. Without the involvement of these signares it is unknown how the transactions would have gone, but what is known is the length of preparations that were made to ensure their visitors were pleased and in return were generous in trade. Sasha and Helene-Marie, both Mothers of the signares at different times, were given the privilege of slave labor to build a stone parlor for their entertaining purposes. This was completely out of the ordinary for French society, however exceptions to the French rules were made daily for the signares, as shown by Andre Bruie’s conversation with a newly arrived factor. “They have the connections [signares]. So, if the rules don’t provide for them, then the rules must at least give them room to do what they do best” (115). The importance of signares was not underestimated in Goree Island…
When most people think of the Roma the image that comes to mind is one of fortune tellers and palm readers. Even I thought that they believed in the supernatural forces they would claim to use when telling the future. But in truth they use either as a way of taking small amounts of money or items they need from the non Roma as well as making fun of them (pg 55).…
Female desire in Le Fanu’s short story is understood as demonstrating the confined gender roles at the time. In the short story Carmilla represented vampirism and female desire through the way she seduced her female victims, both ideas were portrayed as threatening to society. The adaptation’s version of Carmilla demonstrates how the theme of female desire represents more accepting social values and attitudes in modern society. The web series promotes and embraces independent women and female desire, whereas the short story seeks to suppress it through the death of…
The painting includes figures who would have been expected by viewers to be slaves which are painted as the darker skinned men and women dancings with others of higher social status who might be free women of color which are the womens who are painted as the lighter–skinned women wearing more European-style costumes. The clothing’s style painted also show the combined European and African elements with turbans and headwraps in combination with corsets and shirts, and all the figures barefoot. This is important to notice because of the European clothing which showed that they had money but also was a key in identifly they afriacan or caribban tradition of head wrappingsThe small band which looks the pre-Lent carnival traditionally known as a Masquerade or Mas’ which is still performed in Dominica.…
Generally speaking, travelling abroad in the ancient world is not as safe and comfortable as it is in today’s world, especially for a seafaring people like the Greeks. Therefore, Homer, the earliest and perhaps the greatest of all Greek poets, emphasizes the importance of hospitality in the epic, the Odyssey, by describing how travelers and their hosts should treat each other with respect so as to avoid any undesirable result on both…
Throughout the text, there is extensive description on the appearances of the people and sometimes architecture of the differences places the protagonist visits, depicting the differences of culture and national identity. “They wore high boots, with their trousers tucked into them, and had long black hair and heavy black moustaches... very picturesque, but do not look prepossessing.” These descriptions give clues to their context and when the appearance shifts rapidly, there is a clear understanding that the protagonist is travelling to new places quickly. This travelling is another clue to his context, with the existence of travel writing and trains.…
Ari’s description of the four sections of the city interlace demographic information with personal affect. Sex, drugs and alcohol will ease the strain on Ari’s groin, that will take away the burning compulsion and terror of his desire. But here at the novel's space of endpoint and stasis he does not identify any independent capacity for pleasure. Ari exposes the under-belly of the city by charting trajectories and spaces of the city's excess: forbidden desires, sexual transgression, waste and decay. If the map of the city is the governance of culture and language, this dynamic tour offers the possibility of an individual activity and expression.…
Eliza Haywood’s “Fantomina: or, Love in a Maze” is written to illustrate a woman’s curiosity of love, affairs, and sexual satisfaction using deception, while trying to conceal her identity with fear of damaging her true self if she was not in full disguise. The title of the story tells us something about the perspective of story that describes the course of action. During the 18th century at the time of the short story, women’s rights were greatly limited socially. They could not socialize and be seen with people from different social classes. A man controlled every aspect of a woman’s life. Men were perceived to be the dominant figure and women as virgins, wives, or widows. The main character is an inexperienced noble woman, whose name is not revealed, who visits London. Up in the balcony with her wealthy class at a playhouse, she curiously realizes that prostitutes below at the main floor with the lower class are attracting and controlling men better than she is. Through disguising herself as a prostitute at a playhouse, she gains the newfound ability without restraint. She attracts men on the main floor and meets a man by the name of Beauplaisir who does not recognize her even though they have met before. While in disguise, she learns that the freedom of this disguise allows her to have power that she never had as a “Lady of distinguished Birth” (Haywood, 1).…
Putting aside this embarrassing rift in my education, and my aforementioned distaste for history, I actually tolerated The Travels of Marco Polo. I would be lying if I claimed that, at any time of my life, at any point in my education, I viewed required reading with anything but revulsion, the intensity of which bordered on something remarkably like hatred. This default attitude indeed applies to many parts of The Travels of Marco Polo: notably its unfortunate described time period, almost seven centuries before any date I care to think about, and the fact that I was forced to read it. I was surprised yet again, though, when I discovered aspects of the book that I actually enjoyed, specifically its description of foreign locations and lifestyles – which, as a psychology and sociology oriented student, I have a weakness for where it applies to the modern world; and apparently, when pressed, the historic world.…
One of the greatest and most influential books of its time, The Celestina broke all the social boundaries of a typical fifteenth century text. Coined as the first ever-Spanish novel, Fernando de Rojas’s tragic comedy is the story of a young nobleman named Calisto who seeks help from the town procuress, Celestina, to win over the beautiful Melibea. As the tale goes on, it becomes easier to see the false notion that each character has of love. The central theme of The Celestina is love, which is portrayed as a powerful force in the novel that produces lust, greed, and despair.…
One of the foremost themes of the novel is the concept of belonging to a place, in particular the connection to a homeland. A disturbance in the main environment signifies as the stimulating factor for the disruption of the man’s sense of belonging. There exists an fragmented sense of existence in the old land, something that is established primarily by the ominous, malicious serpent like figures that force the man’s departure and his search for a new way of life. Tan’s symbolic representation of the serpents as the threatening and severe influences in the early pages of the novel drives the man out of his homeland as it is is a source of unease and discomfort for his family. Upon entering the unknown land the man feels alienated from the new way of life that he is faced with. The author highlights this through the use of various shades of grey which are evidence of the shared melancholy of the migrants. Furthermore the positioning of all the migrants huddled up together reinforces the turmoil and hardship that they have collectively encountered. The use of dark and malicious tones and the overshadowing images of the technologically averse boat that towers over the migrants furthers their insignificance and defencelessness. The commonality with fellow migrants is carried throughout the novel and it soon becomes a source of solace for the man who is otherwise alien to the new world. Tan uses flashback scenes to illustrate the man’s opportunity to connect with his fellow migrants. Tan uses darker tones in the flashback scenes and the tumultuous journeys of the other migrants are elicited. Our protagonist is able to relate to their…
He begins with imagery of adventure and the Wild-West, describing the “bison and grizzly bear, mustang and big-horn, [and] Blackfoot and Pawnee” that saturated his childhood thoughts. The author references these images to describe the storybook nature of his past goals —fantastical but ultimately childish and unreasonable, more like an Indiana Jones story than a reflection of reality. He furthers this image through the metaphor of himself as an eagle, “swoop[ing] away over land and sea, in a rampant and self-glorifying fashion.” Through the conscious search for glorification, the author was unable to experience the genuine adventure found in everyday life. When wondering whether England was “[his] prison or [his] palace,” he could not come to a consensus because his life was defined by moments whose worth was dictated by stories and peers. However, the author does not blatantly condemn youthful romanticism, describing that perhaps “the thirst for adventure and excitement” so characteristic of young men and woman “ought to be in all at twenty-one.” Through a rhetorical question he displays both the selfishness and drive of inspired young people — “why should not I?” When drowning in a social climate punctuated with descriptions outlandish stories of adventure in mountains and relaxation in Italian countrysides, the illusion of their attainability pushes young men and women out of their comfort…
Marrero, Teresa. “Sexual Tourism: Fusco and Bustamente’s “Stuff”, Prostitution and Cuba’s Special Period.” Theatre Journal 55:2, 235-249. 2003…