Shakespeare and the Genre of Comedy

Traditionally in the field of aesthetics the genres of tragedy and comedy have been depicted in antithetical opposition to one another. Setting out from the hypothesis that antitheses are aspects of a deeper unity where one informs the construction of the other’s image this thesis questions the hierarchy of genre through a form of ludic postmodernism that interrogates aesthetics in the same way as comedy interrogates ethics and the law of genre. Tracing the chain of signification as laid out by Derrida between theatre as pharmakon and the thaumaturgical influence of the pharmakeus or dramatist, early modern comedy can be identified as re-enacting Renaissance versions of the rite of the pharmakos, where a scapegoat for the ills attendant upon society is chosen and exorcised. Recognisable pharmakoi are scapegoat figures such as Shakespeare’s Shylock, Malvolio, Falstaff and Parolles but the city comedies of this period also depict prostitutes and the unmarried as necessary comic sacrifices for the reordering of society. Throughout this thesis an attempt has been made to position Shakespeare’s comic drama in the specific historical location of early modern London by not only placing his plays in the company of his contemporaries but by forging a strong theoretical engagement with questions of law in relation to issues of genre. The connection Shakespearean comedy makes with the laws of early modern England is highly visible in The Merchant of Venice, Measure for Measure and The Taming of the Shrew and the laws which they scrutinise are peculiar to the regulation of gendered interaction, namely marital union and the power and authority imposed upon both men and women in patriarchal society. Thus, a pivotal section on marriage is required to pinion the argument that the libidinized economy of the early modern stage perpetuates the principle of an excluded middle, comic u-topia, or Derridean ‘non-place’, where implicit contradictions are made explicit. The conclusion that comic denouements are disappointing in their resolution of seemingly insurmountable dilemmas can therefore be reappraised as the outcome of a dialectical movement, where the possibility of alternatives is presented and assessed. Advancing Hegel’s theory that the whole of history is dialectic comedy can therefore be identified as the way in which a society sees itself, dramatically representing the hopes and fears of an entire community

Creating a Learning Environment with Shared Responsibility for Assessment

The author focuses on her work with her Introduction to Linguistics course. She shares her journey as she discovered that her goals were best served when she maximized the possibilities in her classes for partnership through inviting discussion about the focus and purposes of key assessment in the course

How Reading Recovery Teaches the Five Essential Elements of Reading Instruction and More

In 1997 Congress called for the director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), in consultation with the Secretary of Education, to convene a national panel to assess the status of research-based knowledge, including the effectiveness of various approaches to teaching children to read (NICHD, 2000a, p. 1). The resulting 14- member National Reading Panel (NRP or Panel) included reading researchers, representatives of colleges of education, educational administrators, a classroom teacher, a parent, and a medical doctor (Yatvin, 2002). The work completed by the NRP involved identification and meta-analyses of the experimental and quasi-experimental research literature pertaining to selected topics of beginning reading instruction. Their goal was to glean implications for beginning reading instruction based on scientific evidence

Scoping Review of Experience of People living with Inherited Cardiac Conditions and Congenital Heart Disease. The experience of individuals with inherited cardiac conditions and congenital heart disease and their families throughout the life course: impact, difficulties and resilience

This was a scoping review of the experiences of people with inherited cardiac conditions and congenital heart disease and their families. The Irish Heart Foundation is trying to investigate the issues which these individuals and their families might face throughout the life course. It is hoped that this scoping review will highlight current knowledge, inform potential future studies and also inform the supports provided by the IHF to people with inherited cardiac conditions and their families. As stated, the aim of this report was to explore the experience of individuals with inherited cardiac conditions and their families throughout the life course. Due to the very limited literature available on inherited cardiac conditions (Part I), this report also explored the broader area of congenital heart disease (Part II), which has a lot more literature available. Part I of this report therefore identifies more specific detail in relation to common cardiac conditions which are inherited while Part II provides a summary of the (larger) literature available on congenital heart disease which includes inherited (Brugada syndrome, Long QT Syndrome and Progressive Cardiac Conduction Defect) and other cardiac conditions (i.e. not all congenital heart disease is inherited). Some of the main themes which emerged as important in the literature were: Genetic testing and screening of family members, transition for younger patients, exercise/physical activity, stress and psychological adjustment of individual and their family, feeling normal, education concerning contraception and reproduction including genetic counselling, insurance and employment. There is virtually no Irish research on inherited cardiac conditions and congenital heart disease and the literature on inherited cardiac conditions is in general limited. Many areas of interest in relation to the social consequences, psychological experiences and quality of life associated with inherited cardiac conditions could not be addressed by this review as they simply have not yet been addressed in the literature itself. These knowledge gaps highlight the need for further research in this area. Research in this area might also be limited due to the sometimes invisible nature of these conditions. Not all inherited cardiac conditions are apparent from birth and in some cases the first symptom can actually be sudden death (1). In other cases a condition may go undiagnosed until a relative experiences symptoms or is lost to sudden cardiac death and it is only then that diagnosis is made following screening. Therefore for some, living with inherited cardiac conditions does not affect their lives at all in that they are unaware they have it. The common inherited cardiac conditions included are also quite different and therefore studies tend to look at each individually rather than exploring the experiences of individuals with inherited cardiac conditions as a whole. The exception to this is individuals who have received implantable cardioverter defibrillators. These people are sometimes looked at as a group and therefore different inherited cardiac conditions can sometimes be combined in these studies

Trying to see, failing to focus:near visual impairment in Down syndrome

The majority of individuals with Down syndrome (DS) do not exhibit accurate accommodation, with the aetiology of this deficit unknown. This study examines the mechanism underlying hypoaccommodation in DS by simultaneously investigating the ‘near triad’ – accommodation, vergence and pupillary response. An objective photorefraction system measured accommodation, pupil size and gaze position (vergence) under binocular conditions while participants viewed an animated movie at 50, 33, 25 and 20 cm. Participants were aged 6–16 years (DS = 41, controls = 76). Measures were obtained from 59% of participants with DS and 99% of controls. Accommodative response was significantly less in DS (p < 0.001) and greater accommodative deficits were associated with worsening visual acuity (p = 0.02). Vergence responses were as accurate in DS as in controls (p = 0.90). Habitual pupil diameter did not differ between groups (p = 0.24) but reduced significantly with increasing accommodative demand in both participants with and without DS (p < 0.0001). This study is the first to report simultaneous binocular measurement of the near triad in DS demonstrating that hypoaccommodation is linked to poor visual acuity. Vergence responses were accurate indicating that hypoaccommodation cannot be dismissed as a failure to visually engage with near targets, but rather is a consequence of underlying neurological or physiological deficits