Capitalism, Modernism and Postmodernism

Capitalism, Modernism and Postmodernism Eagelton’s essay, Capitalism, Modernism and Postmodernism, was first published in the New Left Review in 1983 in which his post Marxist analysis of literature is exposed. He accounts for capitalism influence on art and its role. The capitalist and late capitalist areas have seen two new forms of literature appear: modern and postmodern. The modern, Eagleton explains, â€Å"In bracketing off the real social world, establish[es] a critical, negating distance between itself and the ruling social order†[1], while postmodern works accepts the fact that it is a commodity and thus conflicts between its material reality and its aesthetic structure. Capitalism has turned art into a commodity, and after analysing this claim, the characteristics of modern and postmodern genres will be analysed, so as to understand literature’s role. Eagleton explains how â€Å"High modernity [†¦] was born at a stroke with mass commodity culture.†[2] Capitalism, as defined by Marx is the bourgeois doctrine by which they are in possession of the modes of production and manufacture goods, sold for a profit. According to most Marxist thinkers, including Eagleton, art became one of the goods that the bourgeoisie wants to monopolise, produce and sell. Art has become a commodity, dissolved into social life. Eagleton denounces the effects of late capitalism on art: â€Å"if the artefact is a commodity, the commodity can always be an artefact. Art and life indeed interbreed†[3]. Eagleton points out that that the â€Å"performative principle†, which he redefines as the deliverance of goods, also applies to the capitalist conception of art. The use of â€Å"best seller† as criteria of advertisement for literature proves that literature has become a mass commodity good. Art and literature have been influenced by some characteristics of late capitalism, such as virtual reality based on mass consumerism. Our society focuses on commodities sold to and ideologically integrated by the consumer: â€Å"The commodity is less an image in the sense of a â€Å"reflection† than an image of itself, its entire material being devoted to its own self-presentation†[4]. Art has become centred on its own image, role and place within society, because it has somehow lost its utopian role of mirroring the world, as if capitalism has perverted its function: â€Å"If the unreality of the artistic image mirrors the unreality of its society as a whole, then it is to say that it mirrors nothing real and so does not really mirror at all.†[5] Modernism and postmodernism are genres that emerged in the capitalist and late capitalist stages. They seem to have a common point: to focus on their role and concentrate on self identity. Eagleton uses de Man’s deconstructivist theory to define modernism: â€Å"Literature defines and pre-empts its own cultural institutionalisation by textually introjecting it, hugging the very chains which bind it, discovering its own negative form of transcendence in its power of literally naming, and thus partially distancing, its own failure to engage in the real.†[6] Modernism attempts at representing the real, but cannot do so and raises a paradox: it â€Å"resists commodification†[7] but is nonetheless part of it, thus part of the social and cultural superstructure of society, which it denies. Denying being part of the capitalist mass commodity is the very core of modern failure to represent the real. Postmodernism appears as a more cynical genre. Some of its features are the blurring of boundaries, pastiche and grotesque. It does not attempt to represent the world, since it is virtual, and would thus fail to describe it. Postmodernism seems to be very different from modernism on the ground that: â€Å"If the work of art really is a commodity, it might as well admit it†[8] and â€Å"become aesthetically what it is economically†[9]. Eagleton also suggests that postmodersism aims at parodying the commodity production, without adding any meaning in it; if meaning was added in the pastiche, making it parody, it would serve to alienate the self from reality, and according to postmodern thought, there is no reality it can be alienated from. All these features aim at empting the social content of art. Eagleton assessed the features of literature genres characteristic of capitalist stages, in order to draw a critical and theoretical approach of literature. He seems to focus on its ideological role, which is, more than its representational value, its only role left. Modernism deconstructs the â€Å"unified subject of bourgeois humanism, draws upon key negative aspects of the actual experience of such subject in late bourgeois society, which often enough does not at all correspond to the official ideological version.†[10] Indeed, literature acts as an ideology denouncing ideology. Capitalist ideology professes that mass consumption finally fulfils libidinal desires, when in fact, as modernism exposes, takes us away from our self and reality, from the â€Å"unified subject†Ã¢â‚¬â€a harmonious society—that late bourgeoisie claims to have reached. Postmodernism, despite not embracing the reality of society, draws upon ideological inconsistencies of the bourgeois di scourse, thus rendering itself ideological. It shows the incapacity of complying with the capitalist ideology: â€Å"the subject of late capitalism is neither simply the self-regulating synthetic agent posited by classical humanist ideology, nor merely a decentred network of desire, but a contrary amalgam of the two.†[11] The impossibility for the self to comply with all its obligations—familial, consumering, working—in the late capitalist society is denounced by postmodernism. It seems that Eagleton places literature at the centre of ideology, as a resistance to bourgeois ideology. De man explains that â€Å"the bases for historical knowledge are not empirical facts but written texts, even if these texts masquerade in the guise of wars and revolution†[12]; literature is at the heart of our knowledge, ideologically built, and seems to remain so, decades after the end of ideology was proclaimed. BIBLIOGRAPHY Modern Criticism and Theory, a Reader. Ed. D. Lodge. Eagleton, â€Å"Capitalism, Modernism and Postmodernism†. Longman: London and New York, 1988. 1 Footnotes [1]Modern Criticism and Theory, a Reader. Ed. D. Lodge. Eagleton, â€Å"Capitalsim, Modernism and Postmodernism†. Longman: London and New York, 1988. p 392. [2] Ibid. [3] Ibid. p386-387. [4] Ibid. p.387. [5] Ibid. [6] Ibid. p.391. [7] Ibid. p.392. [8] Ibid. [9] Ibid. p.393. [10] Ibid. p.395. [11] Ibid. p.396. [12] Ibid. p.390.

Go Ask Alice Essay -- essays research papers

Go Ask Alice! Alice is fifteen, white, middle, class. She diets, she dates. She loves Roger but the most time he doesn’t notice her. If she would ever sleep with a boy she would sleep with him. Alice hates her look. She wants to be pretty and slim. Lately she loses fascination about all things. School is boring and she doesn’t even go to parties. Her parents want to move. Her Dad is invited to become the Dean of the Political Science at - . Alice is happy and is not hard for her to leave the old school. But she misses her old house and her grandparents who she calls gramp and gran. Alice has a brother called Tim and a sister Alexandria. The two are younger than Alice. At her new school it is horrible for her. Nobody speaks to her the first days. but her brother and sister like the new school. Finally she finds a friend at school. Her name is Gerda, but Alice’s mother and father don’t like her. Alice doesn’t feel happy in her family. She hates his sister and her brother more than she loves them. Tim is intolerable and her mother is constantly Peking at her. Alice gets to know Beth Baum. Beth is Jewish and her father is a doctor. Her mother nags a lot. Alice’s parents like Beth, because she is pretty nice. In the holidays Beth goes on a summer camp for six weeks and Alice stays at her grans. One day she meets Jill Peters and she invites her for a party. Alice doesn’t like taking drugs. She wants to stop it...

Lecturer’s Personality

NATIONAL FORUM OF TEACHER EDUCATION JOURNAL-ELECTRONIC VOLUME 16 NUMBER 3E, 2005-2006 EFFECTIVE TEACHER STUDY Max Malikow Assistant Professor Le Moyne College ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to quantify student evaluated teacher effectiveness in order to ascertain the grade level, subject, and characteristics of exceptionally effective teachers as reported by 361 Le Moyne College students. In this study the students were provide with the following definition of exceptionally effective: showing the ability to go beyond the ordinary in producing desired results. The students were instructed that they could select one of their teachers from any grade level or subject. The distribution of selected teachers is as follows: 315 secondar5y teachers, 34 primary teachers, 11 college professors, and 1 parish priest. Subject areas of frequently selected secondary teachers are: social studies (89), English (89), mathematics (55), foreign language (33), and science (27). Personality characteristics most often cited by the students were: challenging/had reasonably high expectations (82), sense of humor (59), enthusiastic (56), creative (39), caring (39), explains complicated material well (39), and flexible instructional style (33). 1 NATIONAL FORUM OF TEACHER EDUCATION JOURNAL-ELECTRONIC 2___________________________________________________________ _______________________________ Who are exceptionally effective teachers and what are their characteristics? This is a study conducted at Le Moyne College from 1998-2004. I. Introduction A. Statement of the Research Question The purpose of this study is to quantify student evaluated teacher effectiveness in order to ascertain the grade level, subject, and characteristics of exceptionally effective teachers as reported by 361 Le Moyne College students. In this study the students were provided with the following definition of exceptionally effective: showing the ability to go beyond the ordinary in producing desired results. Teacher preparation programs, as part of their accreditation process, are increasingly attentive to any information to assist in making adjustments and modifications to improve the outcome. Formal evaluations of graduates and students are useful. I have attempted to undertake a continual form of information gathering from classes I teach that ultimately may be useful for this purpose. B. Rationale for the Research The value of this study is that the accomplishment of the research question would make a contribution to the Le Moyne College teacher education program. The goal of this department is to prepare effective teachers for tomorrow’s schools† (Le Moyne College Catalog 2004-2005, p. 91). The result of having identified the grade levels, subjects, and common characteristics of over 350 teachers assessed by their students as exceptionally effective serves to better inform the Education Department faculty of the qualities that make teachers memorable as instructors who are effective in their work. Therefore the department members will be better equipped to evaluate their own program in the light of this information. MAX MALIKOW ____________________________________________________________ ______________________________3 II. Methodology A. EDU 215 Writing Assignment EDU 215: Learning in a Sociocultural Context is a required course for Le Moyne College education majors who are preparing to teach at the secondary level (grades 7-12). â€Å"It involves students in examining, analyzing, and developing theories of how students learn within a social, cultural, and political context †¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Le Moyne College Catalog 2004-2005, p. 97). One requirement of the EDU 215 classes I teach is a reflective paper. I encourage the students not to begin this writing assignment early in the course. I explain that they would find the paper easier to write if they first experience at least half of the fifteen weeks of the material. The learning outcome associated with this assignment is for students to organize and articulate their thoughts and experiences concerning the characteristics and behaviors of exceptionally effective teachers. The students are required to select one of their own teachers from any grade or subject who could be described as an exceptionally effective teacher. An in-class presentation to the students elucidates an exceptionally effective teacher as one who demonstrates extraordinary ability in the following areas of teaching: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Communication of material Motivation of students Provision of an environment conducive to learning Maintenance of student interest Classroom management (discipline) Appropriate relationships with students The following is the assignment’s specifications as they appeared in the EDU 215 syllabus. An Exceptionally Effective Teacher The instructions provided to the students is fairly standard, with the paper no less than four and no more than six pages in length, typed, double-spaced, and compositionally flawless. It must include all of the following: 1. 2. 3. 4. The teacher’s name and subject/grade level A synecdoche His/her methodologies (repertoire of instructional strategies) His/her means of testing and evaluation NATIONAL FORUM OF TEACHER EDUCATION JOURNAL-ELECTRONIC 4___________________________________________________________ _______________________________ 5. 6. . 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. His/her teaching environment (physical and psychological-emotional) His/her administration of discipline His/her personality (including a sense-of-humor) Scholarship (i. e. evaluate the selected teacher as a scholar) His/her use of relevancy in instruction His/her preparedness for class (i. e. organization) His/her ability to motivate students An interview with this teacher or someone who is familiar with this teacher (optional) I explain to the students that a synecdoche (specification number 2) is a figure of speech in which a part is used for a whole. The example I use is the phrase to break bread in which bread is used but an entire meal is understood. In the context of this assignment, the students are required to describe one incident featuring the selected teacher that would communicate a substantial understanding of the teacher’s style and philosophy of teaching. A colloquial way of expressing the rationale for the synecdoche is: it is one story that communicates what this teacher is all about. B. Description of the Sample The number of the students in the sample is 361 (n = 361). Since the sample consists of students from classes taught by me this is a convenience sample. Specifically, the students are from sixteen EDU 215 sections ranging from the fall semester of 1998 to the spring semester of 2004. As previously stated, EDU 215 students are preparing for careers in secondary teaching. With few exceptions, the students are sophomores. Also, as previously stated, the writing assignment is a course requirement. Consequently, all students who complete EDU 215 for credit accomplish the assigned paper. In the sample, all of the students addressed the assignment’s specifications sufficiently to have earned a grade of C or better. C. Procedure for Analysis of Archival Data From the fall semester of 1998 to the spring semester of 2004 a total of 361 essays were written by the students in the EDU 215 classes taught by me. This archival was organized by first categorizing teachers by grade level (if K-6) or subject (if 7-12). College teachers were grouped in one category. This distinction is made to accommodate for selected secondary and college MAX MALIKOW ____________________________________________________________ ______________________________5 teachers who students had more than once. For example, some science teachers taught the students in both biology and chemistry. The categorization of the teachers in this manner resulted in a total of 21 subcategories of teachers: seven primary grade subcategories, ten secondary subject categories, three subcategories of college professors, and one parish priest. This data answers the following research question: Of the 361 selected teachers, what is their distribution according to grade level or subject? In-class discussions with the students on the day the assignment is turned in includes the following question: From the assignment’s specifications or your own thoughts, what are the two characteristics that most contributed to your selected teacher’s effectiveness? All students are asked the question with their responses recorded by me. Nine characteristics were possibilities from the assignment. Due to 16 student absences on the days of these discussions, 690 responses were recorded rather than the 722 responses that would have resulted from perfect attendance. The record of the student responses provides the answer to the following research question: What are the characteristics of exceptionally effective teachers most frequently cited by the students in this study? III. Presentation of the Findings A. Textual Presentation The teacher category most frequently selected is an equal number of students (89) who selected either a social studies or English teacher. These two categories combined for 49. 3 percent of the exceptionally effective teachers in this study. Other secondary teachers selected are in the disciplines of mathematics (15. percent), foreign language (9. 1 percent), science (7. 5 percent), physical education (2. 4 percent), health (1. 7 percent), technology (1. 1 percent), art (. 5 percent), and music (. 3 percent). In total, elementary teachers represent 9. 4 percent of the selections. The two grade levels with the highest representation are third and fifth (8). The 11 college professors chosen constitute 3 percent of the sele ctions. The college professors are in the disciplines of English (7), history (3), and mathematics (1). One student selected a parish priest who taught a confirmation class. For a tabular presentation of the distribution of the selected teachers see Table 3. 1. The total number of characteristics cited by the sample was 36. The exceptionally effective teacher trait most frequently expressed by the students was challenging with reasonable expectations (11. 9 percent). The percentage of response was computed by dividing the number of citations for this trait (82) by the total citations in the study (690). Sense of humor is the NATIONAL FORUM OF TEACHER EDUCATION JOURNAL-ELECTRONIC 6___________________________________________________________ _______________________________ second most frequently cited characteristic (8. 5 percent). Three characteristics are tied for third place in the frequency standings: explains complicated material well, caring, and creative (each 5. 6 percent). Other frequently cited traits are: flexible instructional style (4. 8 percent), approachable, available, interested in students, and organized (each 4. 2 percent). For a tabular presentation of the selected characteristics data see Table 3. . B. Tabular Presentation Table 3. 1: Distribution of Selected Teachers Kindergarten First Grade Second Grade Third Grade Fourth Grade Fifth Grade Sixth Grade Grades 7-12 Social Studies English Mathematics Foreign Language Science Physical Education Health Technology Art Music College English History Mathematics Other Priest 5 1 1 8 4 8 7 89 89 55 33 27 9 6 4 2 1 6 3 2 1 MAX MALIKOW __________ __________________________________________________ ______________________________7 Table 3. 2: Cited Characteristics 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Challenging/Had Reasonably High Expectations Sense of Humor Enthusiastic Creative Caring Explains Complicated Material Well Flexible Instructional Style Approachable Available Interested in Students Organized Flexible to Classroom Situations Dedicated Inspiring Practical Made Material Relevant Optimistic About Students Energetic Engaging Exciting Learned/Brilliant/Scholarly Warm Humble Good Listener Patient Authentic/Real/Appropriately Autobiographical Confident Empathic Encouraging Fair Professional Honest Insightful Moral Nonjudgmental Optimistic About Life Protective 82 59 56 39 39 39 33 29 29 29 29 23 21 21 17 13 10 10 10 10 10 9 9 9 5 5 5 5 5 5 4 3 2 2 1 1 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. NATIONAL FORUM OF TEACHER EDUCATION JOURNAL-ELECTRONIC 8___________________________________________________________ _______________________________ IV. Analysis of the Findings A. Limitations of the Study and Implications for Future Research As previously stated, the sample is drawn from a course that consisted entirely of students preparing for a career in secondary teaching. If the sample had been drawn from a comparable course for prospective elementary school teachers the distribution of exceptionally effective teachers might have been different. It would be interesting to see if a sample of students preparing for teaching at the primary level would select more primary teachers as exceptionally effective. The study did not include a reckoning of the intended teaching area of the students and their selected teacher. For example, there may have been a high representation of prospective social studies and English teachers in the sample. It would require an interview with the students to determine if their intended subject influenced their teacher selection. An examination of the cited characteristics demonstrates redundancies. For example, caring is a characteristic cited 39 times and interested in students 29 times. Arguably these two traits constitute a verbal distinction without a meaningful difference. My decision to record the words and phrases actually used by the students’ accounts for perceived redundancies. As with any study that employs a convenience sample, this study’s results cannot be taken as representative of nonparticipating individuals. However, this limitation does not render this study inconsequential. The sample size is substantial and a methodology for future studies has been formulated and tested. Six students in this study stated that their selected teachers are responsible for their decision to pursue a teaching career. These statements were not solicited either as a requirement of the writing assignment or in the class discussions. This implies that there may be more than six students who were so influenced. It would be interesting to know how many students opted for a career in teaching because of a teacher. A future quantitative study could generate the data to address this curiosity. As with many studies, while this study answered questions it gave rise to others: Why were so many social studies and English teachers selected? Is there something about the content of these subjects that accounts for the perceived effectiveness of those who teach social studies and English? Do social studies and English attract individuals with personalities that are conducive to the work of teaching? Is there a gender correlation between the students and selected teachers? MAX MALIKOW ____________________________________________________________ ______________________________9 B. Value and Application of the Study A well known psycho-lexical study reveals that there are 17,953 words in an unabridged English dictionary describing personality characteristics (Allport and Odbert, 1936). Individuals involved in teacher training, hiring, and mentoring are beneficiaries of studies that document the personality traits that correlate with teacher effectiveness. These individuals are engaged in significant work. An awareness of the characteristics that correlate with and contribute to effective teaching should be nurtured in training and mentoring as well as recognized in hiring. Concerning employment, an implication of this study is the use of personality assessment instruments like the M. M. P. I. (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory) as part of the employment process. REFERENCES Allport, G. W. & Odbert, H. (1936):Trait-names: A Psycho-lexical Study. Psychological Monographs: General and Applied, 47, 171-220. (1, whole number 211).

Benefits And Benefits Of Hunting - 1747 Words

Benefits of Hunting One of the most controversial topics in the past and even more so today is hunting. Hunting has been around as long as we know it. Ancient civilizations hunted as a source of food, tools, and clothes. Hunting is the act of one animal pursuing another wild animal and killing it. Humans much like other animals hunt mainly for a source of food, although; humans also hunt as a way of protecting their selves, to remove unwanted animals, and to eliminate predators. Hunting for many has become a challenge; a challenge to kill the elusive game the hunter or huntress is in pursuit of. Many people around the world hunt all different kinds of game. Some animals have become extinct due to over hunting the animals, but laws have been put in place to protect this from happening to other animals. Wildlife conservation foundations have greatly benefited from hunters who have donated billions of dollars to these foundations. Hunters around the world enjoy the pastime, however; to such groups like PET A (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) despise hunting. These anti-hunting groups go as far as condemning those who take part in hunting as a recreational activity of killing animals. Even though many people and groups are against hunting, hunting has boosts local and national economies, improves society, and manages animal populations, which in turn helps the environment. First, without hunting animal populations would be out of control. Even though the naturalShow MoreRelatedHunting : The Benefits Of Wildlife Conservation1237 Words   |  5 PagesThe Benefits of Hunting Conservation is the protection and preservation of nature (Peterson 53). Hunting is an important part of the conservation of wildlife. Hunting is widely considered a crucial part of wildlife conservation. Hunting benefits wildlife by controlling the population, raising funds for wildlife conservation, and protect wildlife. 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