Some say that every text has a use by date and whereas some believe that every text is dateless. The idea that every text has its use by date is incorrect, and in this essay, we will argue against this idea. If a text is written from a long period of time ago it does not mean that it still won’t be interesting today, as the events and themes used in the text can still be relevant to today’s time. And these texts are what we can call universal. A universal text allows us to compare, contrast and also reflect on the themes and context of the past to the current time. Hence, these texts provide us an understanding about a particular time by the themes, context or events mentioned in the text and we can therefore use these concepts as a reflection to the current time. Les Murray’s “An Absolutely Ordinary Rainbow” and “The Mitchells” are examples of texts that do not need a use by date. These two poems highlight major themes and are considered to be of relevance to today’s time.…
* [ch12] "Making up any old thing to suit themselves" - unreliability of the documents of history…
AN EXPLANATORY NOTE In which the origins of this book are clarified. INTRODUCTION: The Hidden Side of Everything In which the book’s central idea is set forth: namely, if morality represents how people would like the world to work, then economics shows how it actually does work. Why the conventional wisdom is so often wrong…How “experts”—from criminologists to real-estate agents to political scientists—bend the facts…Why knowing what to measure, and how to measure it, is the key to understanding modern life…What is “freakonomics,” anyway? 1. What Do Schoolteachers and Sumo Wrestlers Have in Common? In which we…
History has emphasized the significance of written sources. As a result, oral transmission of stories has been devalued and considered unreliable. However, history and written words do not always reflect truth, as things that are deemed “insignificant” by history can be highly valued by certain individuals. Through Ondaatje’s style of storytelling, the reader is able to reinterpret and recognize oral transmission as a valid form of expressing events that adds new layers of meaning to official history. This is demonstrated to compensate for the omissions in official history which have marginalized and disenfranchised the migrant workers, despite their contributions in the construction of Toronto. The dissimilarity between the workers and the rich & powerful is immediately established through the anonymity of the lower class, which is juxtaposed through the use onomastic devices to introduce Rowland Harris as the “Commissioner of Public Works”, emphasizing how history recognized the workers as a collective identity, lacking the…
Excerpts from “The Economic Way of Looking at Life”, Nobel Lecture, December 9, 1992 by GARY S. BECKER ……
Texts emerge from, respond to, critique, and shape our understanding of ways of thinking during a particular historical period, however valuing of the text depends on the reader’s context. Comment.…
An example of thinking economically is deciding whether to go out for the night with your friends or to stay home and study for a test. You are giving up either quality time and memories with friends or how well you do on the test. Thinking economically would be to stay home and study for your upcoming test because doing well in school will eventually bring you more wealth through better job opportunities. What you are giving up better know as the opportunity cost would be time spent with your great friends for the night.…
Literature is among the most important sources of historical and cultural education; it is arguably much more essential to the public before the prevalence of motion pictures. Hence, the core idea, the depiction of background and even the most trivial details in literature can somehow shape the readers’ understandings of a person, an ethnicity group, a nation and a form of culture. Therefore, literature has the burden of being historically accurate.…
A661 Literary Heritage Linked Texts 1 A662 Modern Drama 3 A663 Prose from Different Cultures 11 A664 Literary Heritage Prose and Contemporary Poetry 18…
Thus, society creates literature. It may be described as the mirror of the society. But the quality and nature of the reflection depends upon the writer's attitude of mind, whether he is progressive in his outlook or…
particularly traumatic, historical and economic details which are supposedly suppressed in the literary text or denied by its author, however, has also met with strong objections from scholars of other critical and political allegiances.1 The recent “greening”…
Jauss coins the term ‘horizon of expectations’ to denote that which limits the judgment, valuation and interpretation of literary texts in a particular age – regarding genre or the extent of being literary. The original horizon of expectations does not establish the final meaning of a text. According to Jauss, one’s historical, sociological and demographical scenario ought not to be ignored. Therefore a work is not a timeless monument akin to a platinum-amalgam sculpture; rather it lays out different facets in different ages like a kaleidoscope. It is close to impossible to view the perpetual flow of chronological horizons with a Herculean detached contemplation and to realize the concerned work’s final value or meaning. The change in the outlooks from Ptolemy to Galileo to Newton to Einstein certifies the meandering and relentless course of horizons. Even Jauss recognizes that an author might choose to go beyond the predispositions of his day and emerge as an…
1.3 Culture, Identity and Society Theme Theme 7. Print culture and nationalism (Ch.7) 8. History of Novel (Ch.8)…
The way we read and understand texts is not always effective. Stephen Greenblatt's article “Towards A Poetic of Culture” introduces a new type of literary analysis which he called New Historicism. New Historicism is a more objective way of analyzing texts from the view of the subaltern based on the concepts of Marxism and Poststructuralism. Marxist theory is what Carl Marx created to analyze everything wrong with capitalism and normal society to create an ideology of a new system of social structure that would bring equality to everyone. The Marxist analysis of Capitalism and other social systems can be used for the common good or for the opposite, which is why it is not always effective. Marxism can use the concept of Poststructuralism, which…
"Genetics." Mud Sticks: On the Alleged Falsification of Mendel 's Data. Ed. James F. Crow and…