Towards the creation of 'quality' Greek national cinema in the 1960s

In the field of Greek film studies, the 1960's are widely seen as the heyday of the 'Old Greek Cinema' (PEK), while the binary model 'Old/mainstream' versus 'New/artistic' still dominates historical, theoretical and critical discourse on Greek film. The contribution of this thesis is that, on the one hand, it considers the 1960s under the light of the rise of 'New Greek Cinema' (NEK) and, on the other, complicates the relationship of PEK and NEK by focusing on the culture surrounding Greek cinema of the time and by exploring the continuities and interrelations between the 'Old' and the 'New'. Particular emphasis is given to the debates about 'quality' national cinema, including issues of realism, Greekness' and 'popular authenticity', the crucial contribution of state policies and institutions such as the 'Week of the Greek Cinema' in Thessaloniki and cine clubs, the establishment of international art film in the domestic market, and the emergence of a young generation of film critics and cinephiles who promoted the idea of an indigenous art-house film culture. This thesis highlights also the 'Old Greek Cinema's' attempts to raise the cultural status of commercial film and address international audiences and its subsequent openness to formal, thematic and artistic experimentation normally associated with NEK. The rise of history as a thematic concern of Greek cinema of the 1960s is another main focus of this thesis, which attempts to reveal how the Civil-War trauma, and oppositional historical perspectives (typically associated with NEK) found way in disguised forms in the narratives of mainstream films. Finally, through a close examination of the thematic and stylistic concerns of short films made in the 1960s (which include the early works of some of the major NEK figures) it demonstrates the continuity between the cinematic developments of the 1960s and the 1970s

Independence of face identity and expression processing: exploring the role of motion

According to the classic Bruce and Young (1986) model of face recognition, identity and emotional expression information from the face are processed in parallel and independently. Since this functional model was published, a growing body of research has challenged this viewpoint and instead support an interdependence view. In addition, neural models of face processing (Haxby, Hoffman & Gobbini, 2000) emphasise differences in terms of the processing of changeable and invariant aspects of faces. This article provides a critical appraisal of this literature and discusses the role of motion in both expression and identity recognition and the intertwined nature of identity, expression and motion processing. We conclude, by discussing recent advancements in this area and research questions that still need to be addressed

The Hedgehog Goddess Abaset

The egyptian goddess abaset was a minor hedgehog-deity. her presence was attested only in the 26th dynasty (656-525 bc). She was solely venerated on the eastern fringe of el-bawiti, the capital of bahariyya oasis, which is situated far from the nile Valley. This paper aims at presenting a reliable interpretation for the name of the goddess abaset. It focuses on the history and the development of her cult. The ancient egyptian depicted abaset in an anthropomorphic form. The crown of hedgehog was specific to abaset; it is a key element in the identification of the goddess, especially if the scene was not labelled with her name. The exact reason for this iconography is unclear. The occurrence of the images of abaset and the use of her legends was restricted to specific location, i. e. el-bawiti

The eastern regions of Al-Andalus before the conquest by Catalonia-Aragon: An overview

This article sets forth a highly schematic synthesis of current knowledge on the history of the eastern regions of Al-Andalus, particularly Tortosa, Valencia and the Balearic Islands, before they were conquered by the Crown of Aragon between the 12th and 13th centuries.After presenting the informational records on this region, we shall describe the main features in the construction of a society and a political order grounded on Arab-Berber immigrants and the creation of a new agrarian ecosystem. Finally, we shall offer observations of the nature of the legal power and the forms in which authority was exercised

Rhiz|comics: The Structure, Sign, and Play of Image and Text

This dissertation combines Gregory Ulmer\u27s post-criticism with multimodal composition resulting in a work that critiques the medium of comics in comics format. Six traditional text chapters forge a theoretical and practical foundation; punctuated within and without by occasional visual interludes and three comic sections. I advocate teaching multimodal composition through comics\u27 interplay of image and text

EECOLOGY: (pata)physical taoism in e. e. cummings’s poetry

Using an approach rooted in deconstructive close-reading and branching into pataphysics, this thesis studies, with and through the poetry of American modernist E. E. Cummings, ethical cultivations of aesthetics. First, a lover-beloved paradigm is unearthed in Cummings’s poetry, where love, a response to flaws, is the creative actualization of the world, others, and selves. Second, this love is extended (back) into poetry, using Cummings’s figures of birds—his “ornithopoeia,” the double movement of figuring the flesh and enfleshing the figure. Third, the ethico-aesthetic growth of the poet-reader, lover-beloved, and bird-figure is traced to a Taoist responsivity and eecological responsibility, using Cummings’s metaphor of the blossoming flower, or petalody. Cummings’s aversion to the nascent New Criticism allows this thesis to forage for an alternative to New Criticism’s sedentary offspring: namely, deconstruction and ubiquitous contemporary post-structuralist theory. It hybridizes Cummings’s poetry with ecocriticism, ancient and contemporary philosophy of love, ethics and theology, and biology. It holds binaries in suspension through Taoism and bends metaphysics back to physics through pataphysics, a science of exceptions and a poetics of vital matter. It explicates his entire oeuvre from poetry to personal correspondences, its inspirations and aspirations, its inventions and conventions, and its relevance on a still-modernist earth in the oily shadow of ecocatastrophe

The Eastern regions of Al-Andalus before the conquest by Catalonia-Aragon: an overview

This article sets forth a highly schematic synthesis of current knowledge on the history of the eastern regions of Al-Andalus, particularly Tortosa, Valencia and the Balearic Islands, before they were conquered by the Crown of Aragon between the 12th and 13th centuries. After presenting the informational records on this region, we shall describe the main features in the construction of a society and a political order grounded on Arab-Berber immigrants and the creation of a new agrarian ecosystem. Finally, we shall offer observations of the nature of the legal power and the forms in which authority was exercised

The Effable and the Ineffable

‘What is the criterion of truth?’, asks Christos Yannaras in The Effable and The Ineffable: The Linguistic Boundaries of Metaphysical Realism. Christos Yannaras is a Greek philosopher, Eastern Orthodox theologian and author of more than fifty books which have been translated into many languages. He is a professor emeritus of philosophy at the Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, Athens. Of The Effable and The Ineffable, Archbishop Rowan Williams says: ‘Christos Yannaras is one of the most original and revolutionary thinkers of modern Europe, and in this arresting, demanding book he sets out his vision of how a post-truth society might rediscover the reality of shared meaning and the hope of authentic life. Bringing the Greek Fathers into dialogue with the foremost thinkers of modernity, he gives us a comprehensive picture of what “logos” really means and why it matters.’ Rowan Williams The Effable and The Ineffable: The Linguistic Boundaries of Metaphysical Realism is a title in the Winchester Modern Orthodox Dialogues. Modern Orthodox Dialogues examine the theological and cultural conversations currently taking place within the Orthodox Christian world. Modern Orthodox Dialogues also examine conversations between Orthodox Christianity and Western Christianity. The series aims to facilitate additional conversations and avenues of communication between the East and the West. For this reason, the series presents and highlights established Orthodox Christian thinkers whose thought is not known in the West. Winchester Modern Orthodox Dialogues promote new approaches and new voices to contribute to continuing conversations within Christianity. The Dialogues are edited by Andreas Andreopoulos