6 research outputs found

    Mo Yan in Context: Nobel Laureate and Global Storyteller

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    In 2012 the Swedish Academy announced that Mo Yan had received the Nobel Prize in Literature for his work that “with hallucinatory realism merges folk tales, history, and the contemporary.” The announcement marked the first time a resident of mainland China had ever received the award. This is the first English-language study of the Chinese writer’s work and influence, featuring essays from scholars in a range of disciplines, from both China and the United States. Its introduction, twelve articles, and epilogue aim to deepen and widen critical discussions of both a specific literary author and the globalization of Chinese literature more generally. The book takes the “root-seeking” movement with which Mo Yan’s works are associated as a metaphor for its organizational structure. The four articles of “Part I: Leaves” focus on Mo Yan’s works as world literature, exploring the long shadow his works have cast globally. Howard Goldblatt, Mo Yan’s English translator, explores the difficulties and rewards of interpreting his work, while subsequent articles cover issues such as censorship and the “performativity” associated with being a global author. “Part II: Trunk” explores the nativist core of Mo Yan’s works. Through careful comparative treatment of related historical events, the five articles in this section show how specific literary works intermingle with China’s national and international politics, its mid-twentieth-century visual culture, and its rich religious and literary conventions, including humor. The three articles in “Part III: Roots” delve into the theoretical and practical extensions of Mo Yan’s works, uncovering the vibrant critical and cultural systems that ground Eastern and Western literatures and cultures. Mo Yan in Context concludes with an epilogue by sociologist Fenggang Yang, offering a personal and globally aware reflection on the recognition Mo Yan’s works have received at this historical juncture.https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/purduepress_ebooks/1039/thumbnail.jp

    Mo Yan in Context

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    This is the first English-language study of the Chinese writer’s work and influence, featuring essays from scholars in a range of disciplines, from both China and the United States. Its introduction, twelve articles, and epilogue aim to deepen and widen critical discussions of both a specific literary author and the globalization of Chinese literature more generally. The book takes the “root-seeking” movement with which Mo Yan’s works are associated as a metaphor for its organizational structure. The four articles of “Part I: Leaves” focus on Mo Yan’s works as world literature, exploring the long shadow his works have cast globally

    Threats, Free Speech, and the Jurisprudence of the Federal Criminal Law

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    In these materials, we set out a road map for the task of reforming the jurisprudence of threats and an articulation of its rationale under the First Amendment. In addition, we examine the basic jurisprudence of the federal criminal law, in particular, its traditional roots in notions of individual responsibility based on personal conduct and state of mind. In Part I, we analyze the district court and the Ninth Circuit opinions in the American Coalition litigation. In Part II, we trace the traditional theory and practice of free speech under the First Amendment, rooted in the history and various rationales of the First Amendment. We are interested in putting the question why? to all black letter rules; for only in light of the answer, or answers, can particular rules and practices be intelligently evaluated. The law must remain a matter of reason, not fiat. In Part III, we examine Supreme Court jurisprudence on true threats. We examine each of the major efforts of the Court to grapple with this elusive category. Only then do we make an effort to synthesize the law. In Part IV, we look in detail and in context at the various tests the circuit courts of appeal apply to distinguish true threats from protected speech, and we analyze how these tests and practices in their case-by-case application fit (comfortably or otherwise) into the Supreme Court\u27s general free speech teachings and the general jurisprudence of the federal criminal law. Finally, in Part VI, we analyze the key components of the Ninth Circuit\u27s panel opinion in American Coalition and the en banc dissents to see how they could be refined to conform more closely to the teachings of the Supreme Court in the area of free speech and the jurisprudence of federal criminal law

    Threats, Free Speech, and the Jurisprudence of the Federal Criminal Law

    Get PDF
    In these materials, we set out a road map for the task of reforming the jurisprudence of threats and an articulation of its rationale under the First Amendment. In addition, we examine the basic jurisprudence of the federal criminal law, in particular, its traditional roots in notions of individual responsibility based on personal conduct and state of mind. In Part I, we analyze the district court and the Ninth Circuit opinions in the American Coalition litigation. In Part II, we trace the traditional theory and practice of free speech under the First Amendment, rooted in the history and various rationales of the First Amendment. We are interested in putting the question why? to all black letter rules; for only in light of the answer, or answers, can particular rules and practices be intelligently evaluated. The law must remain a matter of reason, not fiat. In Part III, we examine Supreme Court jurisprudence on true threats. We examine each of the major efforts of the Court to grapple with this elusive category. Only then do we make an effort to synthesize the law. In Part IV, we look in detail and in context at the various tests the circuit courts of appeal apply to distinguish true threats from protected speech, and we analyze how these tests and practices in their case-by-case application fit (comfortably or otherwise) into the Supreme Court\u27s general free speech teachings and the general jurisprudence of the federal criminal law. Finally, in Part VI, we analyze the key components of the Ninth Circuit\u27s panel opinion in American Coalition and the en banc dissents to see how they could be refined to conform more closely to the teachings of the Supreme Court in the area of free speech and the jurisprudence of federal criminal law

    Towards perceptual intelligence : statistical modeling of human individual and interactive behaviors

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    Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2000.Includes bibliographical references (p. 279-297).This thesis presents a computational framework for the automatic recognition and prediction of different kinds of human behaviors from video cameras and other sensors, via perceptually intelligent systems that automatically sense and correctly classify human behaviors, by means of Machine Perception and Machine Learning techniques. In the thesis I develop the statistical machine learning algorithms (dynamic graphical models) necessary for detecting and recognizing individual and interactive behaviors. In the case of the interactions two Hidden Markov Models (HMMs) are coupled in a novel architecture called Coupled Hidden Markov Models (CHMMs) that explicitly captures the interactions between them. The algorithms for learning the parameters from data as well as for doing inference with those models are developed and described. Four systems that experimentally evaluate the proposed paradigm are presented: (1) LAFTER, an automatic face detection and tracking system with facial expression recognition; (2) a Tai-Chi gesture recognition system; (3) a pedestrian surveillance system that recognizes typical human to human interactions; (4) and a SmartCar for driver maneuver recognition. These systems capture human behaviors of different nature and increasing complexity: first, isolated, single-user facial expressions, then, two-hand gestures and human-to-human interactions, and finally complex behaviors where human performance is mediated by a machine, more specifically, a car. The metric that is used for quantifying the quality of the behavior models is their accuracy: how well they are able to recognize the behaviors on testing data. Statistical machine learning usually suffers from lack of data for estimating all the parameters in the models. In order to alleviate this problem, synthetically generated data are used to bootstrap the models creating 'prior models' that are further trained using much less real data than otherwise it would be required. The Bayesian nature of the approach let us do so. The predictive power of these models lets us categorize human actions very soon after the beginning of the action. Because of the generic nature of the typical behaviors of each of the implemented systems there is a reason to believe that this approach to modeling human behavior would generalize to other dynamic human-machine systems. This would allow us to recognize automatically people's intended action, and thus build control systems that dynamically adapt to suit the human's purposes better.by Nuria M. Oliver.Ph.D

    Rethinking aesthetics in the politics of theatre : a road to Edward Bond : the ethical

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    Jacques Derrida contended that Marxism is dead, along with its hopes, and its discourses (1994: 52). This thesis arose from an assertion that the socialist utopia as a paradigm of perfect justice, equality and freedom, has been progressively effaced from most cultural and artistic enterprises, supplanted by economic need, political consensus, and social compromise. Class differences remain acute, yet the notion of class struggle is effectively absent across the Humanities. I propose Edward Bond's philosophical model as a unique route to reclaiming this neglected utopian function of culture. Bond's plays and theoretical writings have been marginalized by the British theatrical mainstream. This study demonstrates that Bond's creative and ideological position is incompatible with any reactionary notion of 'mainstream'. Bond's radical materialism demonstrates an inherent and inevitable critique of most genres of theatre and performance. Through an exploration of key philosophical theories that underpin the work of the dramatist, I reach a re-evaluation of aesthetics as an ambiguous medium of the dominant bourgeois ideology. Art is a repository of cognitive truths, but not of universal cognitive truths. In terms of class culture, it really forms part of a tradition "of the oppressed" (Benjamin, 1999: 248). Habermas proposes a unity of experience in the arts by bridging "the gap between cognitive, ethical, and political discourses". I contend that these discourses are undermined by bourgeois aestheticization, which distorts values and understanding, manifested in the daily delivery of most culture as an industrial enterprise. Bond contends that, "[his] philosophy ... makes ethics an ultimate reality" (Stuart, 2000: 56). Identifying an interaction between Marx's theory of reification and Nietzsche's evaluation on men of ressentiment, I construct a platform for approaching this complicated ethical question. I evaluate the dialectical validity of what Bond calls "the problem"; the "extreme" lives we lead in our liberal democracies, establishing his philosophical position not as provocatively controversial but as logical, realistic, and materialistic. Capitalist reification progressively conceals human meanmg under "the essence of commodity-structure [ ... ] in all its aspects" (Lukacs, 1990: 83). With its emphasis on the meaning of the human self, Bond's dramatic strategy is in a sense the application of Lukacs's prescription against the reified mind. For Bond, drama is crucial because it allows reified individuals to enact human choices that are impossible in their daily lives. I conclude by addressing issues that arise from Bond's involvement in Drama in Education (DIE). Bond's theoretical output is evolving into a discrete, autonomous field and needs to be approached as such. Volume II, a transcribed interview with the dramatist himself, contributes further to the issues arising from this thesis
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