Dragons in the Drawing Room: Chinese Embroideries in British Homes

Chinese embroideries have featured in British domestic interiors since at least the seventeenth century. However, Western imperial interests in China during the mid-nineteenth and early twentieth century created a particular set of meanings around Chinese material culture, especially a colonial form of nostalgia for pre-nineteenth century China, with its emperors and 'exotic' court etiquette. This article examines the use of Chinese satin-stitch embroideries in British homes between 1860 and 1949, and explores how a range of British identities was constructed through the ownership, manipulation and display of these luxury Chinese textiles

Feminine Invalidism and Creativity in fin de sicle Fiction

This essay investigates how feminine invalidism connects to female creativity in George Fleming\u27s “By Accident" (1898) and Charlotte Perkins Gilman\u27s “The Yellow Wallpaper" (1892).George Fleming ironically depicts a woman\u27s deathbed confession that is incorrectly interpreted by her husband. His misinterpretation reflects contemporary images of women which were constructed to attain promotion and protection of male authority and emphasize female weakness, innocence, and inadequacy. Furthermore, his misunderstanding underlines falsehood of the image of feminine inferiority that Victorian men needed and developed for an idealization of masculine superiority. However, a consequence is that it ironically yet effectively discloses a concealed female sexual desire in spite of male misinterpretations.In “The Yellow Wallpaper", Gilman relates female insanity to female creativity: the madwoman describes the process by which the “rest cure" drives her mad. Gilman created an innovative style for this representation of insanity, and it is considered to be one of the “missing links" between women writers in the Victorian period and such twentieth-century writers as Katherine Mansfield, Virginia Woolf, and Gertrude Stein. Describing female physical and mental weakness, women writers of fin de siècle fiction invented an original art of narrating that connected feminine invalidism with creativity.本論文においては、世紀末の女性作家、ジョージ・フレミング (George Fleming) の“By Accident" (1898) とシャーロット・パーキンス・ギルマン (Charlotte Perkins Gilman) の"The Yellow Wallpaper" (1892) を取り上げ、女性の病弱さや女性の狂気の表象が女性作家の創造性に与えた影響を分析した。男性中心主義的思想が支配的であった19世紀の西欧において、性役割や性別分業を明確にすることは家父長制を維持していく上で重要な要素であり、男性優勢の概念を構築するために、女性の精神的、肉体的、知的な劣勢が文学作品や視覚芸術において頻繁に描かれていた。しかし、既存の性規範が揺らぎだした19世紀末の文学作品には、従来の女性性を覆す無数の女性が女性作家によって創造された。フレミングは女性の死の床における配偶者以外の男性への愛の告白の場面を通し、男性によって捏造された女性性と女性作家が描いた女性性との差異を巧妙に描き出している。一方、ギルマンはモダニズムの作家へとつながる文体によって、女性が狂気へと至る過程を描いている。世紀末における、女性の病弱さ、狂気の表象は女性作家の創造性と密接に関係しているのである

Rereading heterosexuality::Feminism, queer theory and contemporary fiction

Heterosexuality in contemporary novels, re-examined using the frameworks of feminism and queer theory Drawing on feminist and queer theories of sex, gender and sexuality, this study focuses on female identities at odds with heterosexual norms. In particular, it explores narratives in which the conventional equation between heterosexuality, reproductive sexuality and female identity is questioned. - A timely exploration of the dynamic relationship between feminist and queer theory - Insightful close readings of acclaimed novels, including Jeffrey Eugenides' Middlesex, Zoë Heller's Notes on a Scandal, A. M. Homes' The End of Alice, Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, Alan Warner's Morvern Callar and Sarah Waters' Affinity - Topics range from spinsterhood and intergenerational sexuality to transgender and human clonin

Sustainable Ephemeral: Temporary Spaces with Lasting Impact

From the Far East to the Western world, architecture has historically strived toward permanence and monumentality. Recent “sustainable” design practice is likewise concerned with preservation, seeking to maintain quality of life for future generations by conserving both built and natural environments. However, in an age of rapid technological advancement, designed objects and buildings are quickly rendered obsolete, and in effect, our culture has become disposable. Buildings are designed to be replaced or updated according to technological progress, and that which is no longer useful or relevant is simply discarded. An ephemeral architecture has the ability to mediate between aspired permanence and inevitable change, sustaining cultural meaning despite a short existence. Framing a moment in time through construction processes and lingering fragments, a building designed to disappear can foster a potent communal memory. The fleeting experience created by a temporal architecture can serve a didactic purpose within its community. The tectonics of the building will be telling of its mutable nature not only as urban furniure, but also as a dynamic marker of place and time, showcasing the potential sustainable value in impermanence. An amenity for the 2013 America’s Cup sailing regatta in San Francisco will test the sustainable potential of an ephemeral architecture. The building will not only enhance the experience during the race, but also frame a historical moment for the city. Located on a waterfront site, the building will embrace the unique climate of the bay, as well as contribute to a collective coastal identity at the scales of site, neighborhood and city

The World's Oldest Church

Michael Peppard provides a historical and theological reassessment of the oldest Christian building ever discovered, the third-century house-church at Dura-Europos. Contrary to commonly held assumptions about Christian initiation, Peppard contends that rituals here did not primarily embody notions of death and resurrection. Rather, he portrays the motifs of the church’s wall paintings as those of empowerment, healing, marriage, and incarnation, while boldly reidentifying the figure of a woman formerly believed to be a repentant sinner as the Virgin Mary. This richly illustrated volume is a breakthrough work that enhances our understanding of early Christianity at the nexus of Bible, art, and ritual

A Systemic Dynamics Model of Text Production

This paper introduces a quantitative model of text as it unfolds in time. The model conceptualizes text as a functional unit of language. This organization can be difficult to identify because it forms complex patterns of linguistic laws, probability and dynamics. These patterns are covert configurations and need complex methods to be investigated. One such method is to draw from qualitative frameworks derived from the quantitative properties of language. Previous studies (Plum & Cowling, 1987; Rybicki & Eder, 2011; Zhang & Liu, 2017) have shown that covert configurations can be obtained through qualitative frameworks. When dynamics is considered, however, a model of text production including the variable time is needed. This paper therefore aims at addressing this research gap by proposing a dynamics model of text unfolding. It draws from systemic theory and models its categories quantitatively. Time is introduced as variation of choice. The model is applied to a sample of text. Results show how individual choices contribute to text unfolding – describing the amount of meanings at any given moment in text time. In addition, the dynamic accumulation indicates core characteristics of a text, which can be further explored in text behavior and typology

Literature as Cultural Ecology

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. Drawing on the latest debates in ecocritical theory and sustainability studies, Literature as Cultural Ecology: Sustainable Texts outlines a new approach to the reading of literary texts. Hubert Zapf considers the ways in which literature operates as a form of cultural ecology, using language, imagination and critique to challenge and transform cultural narratives of humanity’s relationship to nature. In this way, the book demonstrates the important role that literature plays in creating a more sustainable way of life. Applying this approach to works by writers such as Emily Dickinson, Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville, William Faulkner, Toni Morrison, Zakes Mda, and Amitav Ghosh, Literature as Cultural Ecology is an essential contribution to the contemporary environmental humanities