Macbeth in the Multidimensional Narrative of the Unnecessary Woman

No text is an isolated island. This basically indicates that every text may share a relationship of interaction with other texts, even though this relationship is not always recognized. The new created text out of the mating relationships between texts is what Graham Allen (2011, p.35) describes as “a practice and productivity”. The new created text can be the product of the interaction between different social texts, or between a social text on the one hand and a literary one on the other hand, or between different literary texts. The process of intertextuality, however, often conveys some sort of significance and purpose in its new context, whether it is to emphasize the meaning or importance of a specific occurrence, to invoke comparison between the two texts, or even to create humor by, for example, ridiculing the original text. Within this context Rabih Alameddine’s An Unnecessary Woman is a literary encyclopedia that is crowded with many allusions to different literary texts through the story of Aaliya, the aged woman and the translator who are preoccupied with translating literary works from English and French into Arabic. When each book is translated Aaliya packages it carefully and places it in the maid’s room where it will lie, with the other translations, unread. Alameddine’s narrative style which includes many allusions to many literary references may remind the reader of T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land. Like Eliot, Alameddine refers to many literary texts, including Shakespeare’s Macbeth. This paper aims at analyzing the historical background, characters, symbols, themes, and motives of Alameddine’s An Unnecessary Woman in order to explore how the text meets Shakespeare’s Macbeth in certain points of similarities.

Oriental Pearls: Adaptation of Ghazals in Modern American Poetry

Ghazal poetry is a poetic genre which expresses the pains of loss and separation as well as the beauty of the beloved. The form is ancient, originating in Arabic, Hindu and Persian poetry. Ghazal poetry has been introduced into modern American poetry since the midst of the twentieth century after translating some Ghazal poems by the Urdu poet Mirza Ghalib. This paper examines the American adaptations of Ghazal poetry by outstanding modern American poets since the second part of the twentieth century. It argues that “transcultural Orientalism”, which is the product of integration between orientals and occidentals in cross-cultural societies, is a key factor that illustrates the reason behind the American adaptation of Ghazal poetry. Adaptation of Ghazal poetry, by modern American poets intensifies an attempt to dominate the “other” through revisiting the literary trends of its exotic culture. These poets also attempted to create a cultural dialogue through imposing a cross-cultural poetic genre. They introduced Ghazal poetry in a new context which suits more the contemporary issues. However, many American Ghazal poets fell in the trap of infidelity since they viewed it through an outsider’s eyes, ignoring its artistic value and its intellectual substance

The Dynamic Interplay of Intertextuality and the Anti-Colonial Discourse in Rhys’ Short Narrative The Day They Burned the Books

In his The Art of Fiction, David Lodge tackles the concept of intertextuality from a structuralist point of view. He articulates the referential relationships that link texts to each other. Lodge identifies intertextuality as one of these relationships. Within the context of post colonialism, making numerous references to other texts reflects a writer’s quest and his perpetual struggle for power—a matter that echoes Foucault’s idea of the interdependence between power, knowledge, truth and discourses. This essay aims at analyzing Jean Rhys’ short narrative The Day They Burned the Books under the rubrics of intertextuality that highlights the dialectic relationship between Rhys’ text on the one hand, and Shakespeare’s The Tempest on the other hand. The essay identifies the way Rhys’ short narrative is a writing back that is unconsciously motived by Shakespeare’s colonial discourse in his The Tempest. Moreover, it clarifies certain elements that bring together Shakespeare’s The Tempest and Jean Rhys’ The Day They Burned the Books.

The Influence of Water Injection on Two - Shaft Gas Turbine Performance with Regeneration

A two-shaft gas turbine type GT-85-2-H has been modified and convertedinto a research unit. The main modifications consist of incorporating regenerationsystem and water spray system in the inlet air duct of the GT-85-2-H gas turbine.The influence of regeneration and water injection in the air intake on gas turbineperformance has been studied. The results show that regeneration improves thethermal efficiency by about 56% due to reduction in the fuel consumption, andreduces the power output due to back pressure losses that occur because of theregenerative system by about 20.67%.The brake specific fuel consumption isreduced by about 59%.Water injection strongly affects the power output. Water injection tends toincrease the brake power output by about 47%.The thermal efficiency is alsoincreased by about 30%.The specific fuel consumption is reduced by about 29%

Advancing tendencies? PR leadership, general leadership, and leadership pedagogy

What are the best ways to advance PR leadership? In exploring answers, we consider the last two decades of PR literature and identify two main tendencies. We link those two with general leadership literature and practices, as well as with literature on leadership pedagogy. We conclude that, rather than recent moves to look within the field, without self-reflection, to existing PR perspectives and figures for solutions, looking outwards has greater potential to transform not only the PR leadership literature, and PR practice, but also to create less hierarchical, and more democratic and "leaderful," PR workplaces. © 2014

Is It Still Just a Women’s Issue? A Study of Work-Life Balance Among Men and Women in Public Relations

This study examined how work-life balance is perceived by male and female public relations professionals. Eight focus groups were conducted. Findings revealed a fluid and complex work-personal continuum affected by such factors as societal norms; organizational contradictions; new technology; professional identity; and parenthood. Practitioners expressed blame and guilt narratives. Several challenges to work-life balance were discussed, and various strategies for attaining balance were detailed

Sex, Gender and Work Segregation in the Cultural Industries

This chapter addresses work ‘segregation’ by sex in the cultural industries. We outline some of the main forms this takes, according to our observations: the high presence of women in marketing and public relations roles; the high numbers of women in production co-ordination and similar roles; the domination of men of more prestigious creative roles; and the domination by men of technical jobs. We then turn to explanation: what gender dynamics drive such patterns of work segregation according to sex? Drawing on interviews, we claim that the following stereotypes or prevailing discourses, concerning the distinctive attributes of women and men, may influence such segregation: that women are more caring, supportive and nurturing; that women are better communicators; that women are ‘better organized’; and that men are more creative because they are less bound by rules

‘It is not fair that you do not know we have problems’: Perceptual distance and the consequences of male leaders' conflict avoidance behaviours

This study investigates perceptual distance in terms of managers' conflict avoidance behaviour and its consequences for subordinates. We argue that perceptual distance, or the disagreement between a manager's perception and that of his or her subordinates of his or her conflict avoidance, is a genuine phenomenon. We examine the extent to which the perceptual distance regarding managers' avoidance behaviour influences a team's justice climate as well as the role of gender. The data collected from three multinational companies in China show that the perceptual distance of a male manager's avoidance behaviour exists and that it is associated with a negative justice climate within the team. These findings provide evidence of gender's effect on leadership and highlight the benefits of female leadership

The need for meaningful health communications: Female audience interpretation analysis of mass media health messages

This is a feminist, cultural interpretation analysis that explored how women from different backgrounds made meaning of mass media health messages. Hall\u27s encoding- decoding model and Grunig\u27s situational theory of publics serve as context for this study. Four research questions are answered through focus groups and in-depth interviews: (1) What are primary health concerns? (2) What sources of information do women use? (3) How do they read or interpret mass media health messages? (4) What influences their interpretations? The women were asked to choose a main health concern of theirs, which guided part of the discussions. To note other patterns one health issue currently in the mass media today--breast cancer--was also given special emphasis. The focus groups were held first, and comprised mothers from low income neighborhoods; heterosexual African American professionals; heterosexual college students of color; European American heterosexual college students; and lesbian European American graduate students and working class women. The interviews then filled some gaps, with European Americans who were middle-class and educated, Latina women at poverty level and an educated Korean woman. Findings reveal few differences between interpretations of messages about primary health concerns and about breast cancer. In general, women express a lack of concern about health, use personal experiences as frameworks for meaning, combine media with professional information sources, and use negotiated readings for messages. In addition, a grounded theory emerged as to the factors that play a role in how women make meaning of health messages. Women engage in conscious thought about how health messages related to everyday life, self-identity, opinions of the media, sense of how important health is, and cognitions about the message itself. More sporadically, the women consider society, the medical establishment, cultural and family beliefs, and previous knowledge in order to make sense of messages. Technological access is a practical barrier for some participants. Public relations practitioners and campaign planners can use findings to better tailor health messages to the specific needs and lifestyles of different women