Performative Acts in Elizabeth Gaskell’s Cranford

Elizabeth Gaskell's Cranford presents the lives of Cranford ladies consisting of old maids and widows living in a provincial town, Cranford. This study is aimed at analyzing the performance and performative acts performed by the Cranford ladies. This study shows that the performance and performative acts institute not only their gender but also their class identity as middle-class women. Therefore, gender and class identity intertwine and are constituted by stylized repetition of acts. Key words: performance, performative acts, gende

Abortion and Violence in Jane Martin’s Keely and Du: Pro-Choice, Pro-Life, or Merely Provocative?

Abortion and violence are global issues, yet different culture might respond to the issues somewhat differently. This study aims to reveal the abortion and violence issues in Jane Martin’s Keely and Du in terms of pro-choice and pro life movements and see how Indonesian students reading the play respond to the issues. In the United States of America, the discussion of abortion issue can be grouped into two major categories: the pro-life and pro-choice. In Indonesia, the majority of people would be against abortion when it is not for medical reasons. The students reading Keely and Du find the play challenging their beliefs as religious people still keeping hold of eastern values. Having discussed the nature of pro-life and pro-choice movements, it is difficult for them to decide whether they are proponent of either one. Keely and Du is successfully provocative in offering insight on how abortion and violence issues cannot be judged in a black and white manner. Key Words: abortion, violence, pro-life, pro-choic

Gender and Power Relations in David Henry Hwang’s M. Butterfly: The Challenge to the Binary Opposition Between the East and the West

David Henry Hwang’s M Butterfly tells about a French diplomat, Gallimard, who has a 20 year relationship with his Chinese lover, Song, who turns out to be a male spy. Gallimard, representing the West, has the western rape mentality toward the East represented by Song, who is positioned as the submissive other. M. Butterfly plays with the notion of gender by presenting the relationship between Gallimard and Song that destabilizes gender and the binary of not only masculinity and femininity but also power and susceptibility. It also challenges the binary opposition between the East and the West. Key words: gender, the other, western rape mentality, the East, the Wes

The Shifting of Power in Jean Genet’s The Maids: Unsuccessful Rebellion of the “Other”?

Claire and Solange are the maids in Jean Genet’s The Maids. Having no life outside their servitude, the maids are “the other,” the submissive and subordinate. The maids invented a make-believe world in which they play roles as being a mistress and a servant. In the absence of the real Madame, Claire and Solange exercise a ritual of Madame humiliating her servant who in turn is supposed to murder her. The shifting of power is seen as the maids who are socially powerless threaten to murder Madame and take the power. However, the ritual never comes to its ends; Claire is never able to kill Madame played by Solange. Not being proud of themselves, the maids do not have a compelling basis for their rebellion. As the oppressed, the maids tend to be reactive, and their values are accordingly weaker, while Madame, representing the ruling class, actively controls their destiny with stronger values. Having been tried but unable to conduct the crime of killing Madame, both in the make-believe world and in reality, Solange finally seeks an escape in the illusory criminal world in which she is already the famous criminal. Having tried too long to come to term with being the “other,” Solange finally breaks down and becomes everyone else. Key words: the other, make-believe, the oppressed, the ruling class, shifting of power

D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover: The Changing Perspectives on Obscenity and Censorship in England and the USA

First published in 1928, D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover was banned for thirty years because of its use of until-then taboo sexual terms. This study aims to analyze the novel’s obscenity and censorship in England and the United States of America. The obscenity trials both in England and the USA resulted in “Not Guilty” verdict, and the novel gained its freedom to publish. While censorship of Lady Chatterley’s Lover prohibited the novel from legal appearance in the U.S.A. and the U.K. for more than thirty years, it helps to promote its literary reputation, constructs the social meaning of the novel, and provides an example of the changing perspectives on obscenity in literary works. Key words: obscenity, censorshi

Exclusive Hadronic D Decays to eta' and eta

Hadronic decay modes $D^0\to(\bar K^0, \bar K^{*0})\eta,\eta'$ and $(D^+,D_s^+)\to(\pi^+,\rho^+)\eta,\eta'$ are studied in the generalized factorization approach. Form factors for $(D,D_s^+)\to(\eta,\eta')$ transitions are carefully evaluated by taking into account the wave function normalization of the eta and eta'. The predicted branching ratios are generally in agreement with experiment except for $D^0\to\bar K^0\eta', D^+\to\pi^+\eta$ and $D_s^+\to\rho^+\eta'$; the calculated decay rates for the first two decay modes are too small by an order of magnitude. We show that the weak decays $D^0\to K^-\pi^+$ and $D^+\to K^+\bar K^0$ followed by resonance-induced final-state interactions (FSI), which are amenable technically, are able to enhance the branching ratios of $D^0\to\bar K^0\eta'$ and $D^+\to\pi^+\eta$ dramatically without affecting the agreement between theory and experiment for $D^0\to\bar K^0\eta$ and $D^+\to\pi^+\eta'$. We argue that it is difficult to understand the observed large decay rates of $D_s^+\to \rho^+\eta'$ and $\rho^+\eta$ simultaneously; FSI, W-annihilation and the production of excess eta' from gluons are not helpful in this regard. The large discrepancy between the factorization hypothesis and experiment for the ratio of $D_s^+\to\rho^+ \eta'$ and $D_s^+\to\eta' e^+\nu$ remains as an enigma.Comment: 15 pages, 1 figure, to appear in Phys. Rev. D. Form factors for D to eta and eta' transitions are slightly change

η−η′\eta-\eta^{\prime} mixing

The $\eta -\eta^{\prime}$ mixing mass term due to the derivative coupling $SU(3)\times SU(3)$ symmetry breaking term, produces an additional momentum-dependent pole term for processes with $\eta^{\prime}$, but is suppressed in the $\eta$ amplitude by a factor $m_{\eta}^{2}/m_{\eta^{\prime}}^{2}$. This seems to be the origin of the two-angle description of the pseudo-scalar decay constants used in the literature. In this paper, by diagonalizing both the mixing mass term and the momentum-dependent mixing term, we show that the $\eta -\eta^{\prime}$ system could be described by a meson field renormalization and a new mixing angle $\theta$ which differs from the usual mixing angle $\theta_{P}$ by a small momentum-dependent mixing $d$ term. This new mixing scheme with exact treatment of the momentum-dependent mixing term, is actually simpler than the perturbation treatment and should be used in any determination of the $\eta -\eta^{\prime}$ mixing angle and the momentum-dependent mixing term. Assuming nonet symmetry for the $\eta_{0}$ singlet amplitude, from the sum rules relating $\theta$ and $d$ to the measured vector meson radiative decays amplitudes, we obtain consistent solutions with $\theta=-(13.99\pm 3.1)^{\circ}$, $d=0.12\pm 0.03$ from $\rho\to\eta\gamma$ and $\eta^{\prime}\to\rho\gamma$ decays, for $\omega$ , $\theta=-(15.47\pm 3.1)^{\circ}$, $d=0.11\pm 0.03$, and for $\phi$, $\theta=-(12.66\pm 2.1)^{\circ}$, $d=0.10\pm 0.03$. It seems that vector meson radiative decays would favor a small $\eta-\eta^{\prime}$ mixing angle and a small momentum-dependent mixing term.Comment: LaTeX, 11 pages, v2, text and references added, to appear in PR