Our Liberation and the Liberation of Our Images: Friedrich Schiller and the Politics of the Image

In this paper, I will compare the aesthetic philosophies put forward in Friedrich Schiller’s On the Aesthetic Education of Man and Plato\u27s Republic. Using Schiller\u27s more robust aesthetic philosophy and its political import, I will argue that the government of Plato\u27s Republic would not create freedom for its citizens. Then, I will carry Schiller\u27s aesthetics and politics forward to argue, using Freud and a number of thinkers who champion Freud’s work, that economic interests can also limit the freedoms of a nation\u27s citizens. Finally, I will argue that Schiller\u27s aesthetic philosophy can deliver a political freedom free from the state control depicted in Republic and the economic control of modern consumer culture

Balance in Tristram Shandy: Laurence Sterne through Friedrich Schiller’s Eyes

Many critics of Laurence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy see the novel’s narrative elements and structure as a form of narrative play, which reject Enlightenment systems of understanding. In this paper, through the philosophy of Friedrich Schiller, I will argue that the novel’s narrative structure is best understood as a balance of aesthetic impulses. For most scholars, to understand the narrative form, digressions, philosophy of knowledge, and/or history in Tristram Shandy, one must understand how the novel subverts the categorization and systematization of Enlightenment thinking. The patterns of subversion in the text lend themselves to arguments that characterize the novel as one of narrative play. This is understandable, but it ultimately does not do justice to the complexity of the novel. To address this complexity, I turn to Friedrich Schiller, a German poet and philosopher. I argue that the text enacts Schiller’s aesthetic framework by synthesizing the competing impulses he describes in his aesthetic philosophy. Tristram Shandy does not seek the order and systems of Locke and the Enlightenment, nor the overwhelming feeling of the Romantics’ sublimity; instead, Tristram Shandy, setting a precedent for Schiller’s philosophy, seeks the most beautiful aesthetic goal, balance

New Topics, New Powers, and New Spirit: Walt Whitman and Allen Ginsberg and the Power of the Poet

Walt Whitman was an enormous influence on Allen Ginsberg, which Lawrence Ferlinghetti recognized at the first public reading of “Howl” in 1955. Leaves of Grass, first published in 1855, featured untitled twelve poems without rhyme, meter, or traditional line breaks. However, acknowledging a single influential figure for a countercultural writer is a somewhat uncommon phenomenon. Countercultural movements and countercultural artists tend to define themselves by standing against the dominant culture, an understandable instinct that yields important insights. Still the link between Ginsberg and Whitman is unmistakable. By analyzing the complex ties between an example of Whitman’s and Ginsberg’s major work and by exploring the personal intricacy of both men’s lives within their own cultural periods, I will reveal how each poet absorbed his country only to be sorely disappointed. Using Whitman’s “Song of Myself” and Ginsberg’s “Howl,” I will compare the startlingly modern use of free verse, poetic convention, and thematic unity in each poem. In addition, an analysis of each poet’s lived experience will provide insight into how these men, who lived a century part, recognized the artistic value of their time in American history and utilized this cultural awareness to fuel their unique contributions to American poetry. Both men grappled with their sexuality, which made them outcasts; they both had strong feelings about the politics of their times; they both sought the companionship of unsavory people; and they both yearned to speak directly about American life. Whitman and Ginsburg cut against the grain of their respective literary and cultural backdrops, and my investigation of their similarities will reveal how their willingness to pursue what Ralph Waldo Emerson called “new topics, new powers, and a new spirit” challenged what their dominate cultures called poetry

Stigmatized Words: A Defense of Political Correctness

The debate over political correctness and the repression of speech has experienced a resurgence in the 2016 election season. “Political correctness is killing people,” Senator Ted Cruz remarked in December 2015. This thesis explores the liberal justification for the repressing politically incorrect speech and challenges the association of expressive freedom with truth, a position linked to John Stuart Mill’s philosophy of liberty and George Orwell’s denunciation of political speech. Reflecting contemporary postmodern views on language and liberation, I ultimately defend political correctness as a way to reflect social stigmatization, render stigmatized words more visible, and enhance linguistic agency

The Effect of Environmental Service Learning on Empowerment for Responsible Environmental Behaviors in College Students

The purpose of this study was to empirically test whether service learning pedagogy utilized in a general education science course is able to promote locus of control (LOC) for responsible environmental behavior (REB) and intent to act (ITA) upon REB. To measure this, two instruments, the Environmental Action Internal Control Inventory, developed by Smith-Sebasto and Fortner (1994) to test for LOC for REB, and Hsu’s (1997) ITA construct, developed to test for ITA upon REB were administered to two sections of a general education science course for non-science majors utilizing a nonequivalent pretest posttest control group design. This study shows that after participating in a 6-week environmental service-learning project, in general, students with little or no college-level science background showed no significant change in their LOC for REB or ITA upon REB compared to students in a control group, which did not participate in service learning. However there was some positive change noted in students in the service-learning group who had low pretest ITA. Limitations to the present study are considered with the intent to improve future studies relating to environmental service learning. In addition, implications for future research are discussed which include the need for further investigation of environmental service learning outcomes and the effects of service learning on different target groups

Dendron, A Collection of Poems

“Dendron” is the Greek word for “tree.” “Dendrochronology” is the study of a tree’s rings. “Dendrites” are the neural projections that grow like a tree’s branches in our brains so we can learn and respond to stimuli. This collection of poems, Dendron, is a poetic exploration of my growth. The collection—twenty-one poems, one for each year of my life—is a living, poetic memoir. Presented in chronological order, each of the poems is meant to capture a specific year of my life. The poems—of varying styles and sentiments—are not without quick moments of fiction, but for the most part, they coalesce into a poetic autobiography. The poems at the start of the collection are strange and abstract. There aren’t memories to pull from for those years, so those poems capture the indescribable, mysterious early stages of human existence. A sense of place is established as the collection moves on from those first poems, and as it grows, it primarily addresses themes of belonging, family, and trust. Along the way, it makes room for tradition, God, romance, travel, loss, masculinity, and art. Each of the poems features an original, accompanying illustration drawn by Veronica Rosenberger. The cover art for the collection is also an illustration of hers. The drawings were created with the poems in mind, so while the poems are meant to stand alone, the illustrations provide vivid exclamation marks. Each year, I will add a poem to the collection, and like the rings that form as a tree grows, this collection will grow as I do

The ISCIP Analyst, Volume II, Issue 6

This repository item contains a single issue of The ISCIP Analyst, an analytical review journal published from 1996 to 2010 by the Boston University Institute for the Study of Conflict, Ideology, and Policy