Howard Gardner and multiple intelligences Research Paper

Howard Gardner and multiple intelligences - Research Paper Example But when it comes to business, the intelligent person can easily detect commercial opportunities, or is good in mastering or avoiding business risks and keep the books balanced. At the advent of the twenty-first century, there is a new intellectual virtuoso: the symbol analyst or the master of change. This is the one who can read numbers and words in the computer screen and make reliable and useful projects. Through the information from the computer, the analyst can solve problems, communicate to other people and adjust easily to the changing times. Francis Galton, one of the founders of the modern psychological measurement in the late nineteenth century, believed that intelligence is hereditary, and so searched for offspring of the leaders of British society. But Galton also believed that intelligence is not confined to hereditary lineages. He devised means to test intelligence. The first intelligence measurements tested the person’s sensory acuity, i.e. an intelligent person can easily distinguish sounds of different loudness, or the brightness of lightness, and objects of different weights. (Gardner, 1999, p. 2) Gardner (1999) presented evidence that individuals have a range of capacities and potentials, and he called this phenomenon multiple intelligences. Individuals can use these intelligences in the different roles in society. An individual with multiple intelligences can perform multiple tasks. Gardner presented his argument on the question scholars and students of intelligence have been arguing about: Is intelligence singular? Or, is there such a thing as multiple intelligences? There is also another question Gardner would like to address: Is intelligence predominantly inherited? Darwin wrote in his time that men did not differ much in intelligence except in their efforts and hard work. The Western notion remains that intelligence is innate in a person. (Armstrong, 2009, p.

Case study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 58

Case Study Example The solution was sensitive to emotional and physical factors. It would improve the firms public image in the end. By allowing the use of the premises, the firm upholds personal values. It would create a hearty relationship between the families of the victims and the firm (Bill 1-2). The solution to the crisis would assist the firm establish the content of the risks. It would draw a framework for evaluating the alternatives for reacting to the crisis. The management will have the time to calculate the probability of success or degree of risks by opening the door to the victims. The solution assisted in determining the certainty or uncertainty of assisting the victims. If it were beyond their reach, they could have consulted the authorities. There were disadvantages of the solution to open the door for the victims. The employees of the firm will be demoralised. They will feel the management did not involve them in deciding on the rationale of opening the door for the victims of the blast. It will reduce the trust of the employees towards the employees. The management did not consider creating the crisis awareness among the employees. The employees did not participate in clarifying the objectives of solving the crisis. In that situation, the CEO should have involved the staff in assessing the situation and involve them in the main decision-making (Archer 289-299). The decision would have caused liability issues. It was necessary for the CEO to consider the legal aspects of the business. Our current society is overly litigious. It requires the businesses to consider regulatory aspects. By opening the door to the victims, it will cause concerns to the shareholders and investors of the firm. The investors may feel the CEO acted against the business regulations and laws. In addition, the firm will experience some degree of indemnification. In addition, the decision to open the door may traumatise the

The Addiction to Online Gaming Essay Example for Free

The Addiction to Online Gaming Essay Tragedy struck on November 20, 2001, when avid online gamer Shawn Woolley was found dead in his room. Found near his body was a . 22 caliber rifle, with his favorite game, EverQuest ® running in his computer. This instantly created the notion for Shawns mother, Elizabeth, that the reason behind her sons act of suicide was his addiction to the said game (Spain Vega, 2004). EverQuest ® has been one of the most popular â€Å"3D Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG)† since its creation in 1998. Originally created by Sony Entertainment, the games popularity has broken boundaries, as it has spread not only in the United States, but all over the world as well. MMORPG is a kind of game wherein there is interaction among gamers through a virtual world (Spain Vega, 2004, p. 82). In the case of EverQuest ®, that virtual world is called â€Å"Norrath† (Spain Vega, 2004, p. 82). First, a player chooses a character, then develops its role in this said world. No one really wins in this game, as the character of the player progresses through time as it is played (Spain Vega, 2004). Jay Parker concluded that EverQuest ® is a highly addictive game. For Parker, â€Å"a chemical dependency counselor and co-founder of the Internet/Computer Addiction Services† in Washington, the game has this powerful effect on its gamers that it distorts their way of thinking, and players are somewhat pressured to play for extensive hours to be able to further develop their respective characters (Spain Vega, 2004, p. 83). However, researcher Sara Kiesler contradicted this claim and said that the gamers have their own issues, and the personality of the players themselves is the one that puts them at risk as he or she uses this as an â€Å"escape from reality† (Spain Vega, 2004, p. 83). Personally, I would go for Kieslers claim. If a gamer is diagnosed with or is likely to develop a personality disorder, a game like this may just aggravate the said disorder. Kwei-Fen Shei and Ming-Sung Cheng (2007) conducted a study that focuses on online gaming and its impact on fulfillment among adolescents. They concluded that, since gaming is highly suitable for the younger people, developers should also take into account not only the marketability of their product, but also the significance of the social aspects of psychological satisfaction that gamers can gain from the game, such as recognition and the desire for self-esteem (Kwei-Fen Ming-Sung, 2007). References Kwei-Fen, S. Ming-Sung, C. (2007). An empirical study on experiential value and lifestyles and their effects on satisfaction in adolescents: An example using online gaming. Adolescence, 42, 199-215. Spain, J. , Vega, G. (2004). Everquest ®: Entertainment or Addiction? In A. Gini A. M. Marcoux (Eds. ), Case Studies In Business Ethics, sixth Edition (pp. 81- 84). New Jersey: Pearsnon Education, Inc.

Comparison of French and German Cinema, 1930-1945

Comparison of French and German Cinema, 1930-1945 Introduction The dissertation aims to analyse the effects of totalitarian politics on the cinematic tradition of two of Europes most cultured nations, Germany and France. The study of cinema during the time period, 19301945 is a highly relevant discussion; one which is infrequently dissected by serious academic debate largely due to the lack of literature on the subject in comparison to studies pertaining to the effects of fascism upon other implements of the state, in particular religion and the military. Perhaps film students of the West still find it difficult to comprehend the fact that the Nazis were such a long way in front of their competitors when it came to the influence of National Socialist propaganda on the German people. As early as 1928 Hitler had come to understand the fundamental power of utilising modern forms of propaganda in paving the way for tyrannical rule, as he outlines in a speech dated 28 November (1999:151). The more one addresses only one social class, the easier it becomes to make promises. One knows from the beginning what each class wants If you are always only addressing yourself to one category, then political propaganda becomes infinitely easy. Certainly, in tandem with pervasive fascist symbolism and the dissolution of democratic political debate, the saturation of all forms of contemporary media was the key factor in Hitlers total seduction of the German nation. As such, the topic is relevant for the twenty first century where dictators still maintain power over illeducated people whose information is pumped into them via state propaganda machines that feed off insecurity, prejudice and paranoia, as modernday Zimbabwe currently illustrates. The study will be split into chapters as cited on the title page with the aim of creating an advanced understanding of how the Nazis used cinema as a tool of tricking the German people into believing concepts such as Lebensraum and the Jewish Question were issues of national urgency. The study will likewise examine the role of the Vichy collaborators in the seduction of French people, citing the essential similarities and differences of the two in terms of filmic content and production techniques. Clearly, as the instigator of right wing cinema as a political tool of mass hysteria, the German model will be first to be discussed, though the point should be made straight away that the Vichy Regime was not merely coerced into collaboration: there was active and passionate interest in France in fascist ideology with plenty of Vichy statesmen wishing to follow the path set about by the Hitler State. At no point should it be believed that Vichy cinema was a symptom of the occupation; it wa s, and remains, a marker for French sociopolitical beliefs at the time. Famous and infamous films such as Jean Renoirs La Grande Illusion, Bertolt Brechts Kuhle Wampe and Marcel Carnes Les Enfants du Paradis will be featured within the dissertation, citing specific examples from the movies to highlight how dissenters managed to voice their disapproval in highly subtle fashions that were unique to the extreme fear experienced in fascist Europe at the time. Comparisons between movie production under the influence of occupation, dictatorship, peacetime and war will provide fuel for the debate within. A conclusion will be sought as to the overall features that appear uniform within right wing film making, in addition to citing the subtle differences in the experience of movie production under the spectre of totalitarianism, as witnessed in Germany and France between 1930 and 1945. Chapter One: The effect of fascism on German Culture, 19301945 The short lived Weimar Republic is a source of great fascination for students not only of history but also of art, culture and society. Its relevance is in its oddity: the strange timeframe it fits into either side of Kaiser Wilhelm II and the Nazi State, two of the most suffocating and frustrating regimes in European history in terms of creative and artistic achievement. The Weimar Republic was responsible for a brief burgeoning of liberal German film making, art, sculpture, music, theatre and culture that was the envy of the western world at the time. Perversely, the strict socioeconomic conditions of the day appeared to ensure that the Republic would be as frivolous as it was unfortunate; as daring as it was politically unstable. Yet, as Elssaesser (2000:151) suggests, Weimar cinema may also have made it easier for Hitler to cast his cinematic spell on the German people. What has become abundantly clear is that the cinema permeated Weimar society as a very contradictory cultural force, at once part of oppositional Modernist avantgardes and in the forefront of capitalisms own modernising tendencies (as technology, industry and fashion) and for this very reason, invested with the hopes of revolutionary changes while susceptible to being used as the instrument for their containment (in the form of specular seduction, nostalgia, propaganda.) Diversity was the key to Weimar Cinema; it was an expression of multicultural Europe that was unfortunately located in the wrong place and time. With the Prussian aristocracy, disillusioned exmilitary personnel and marginalised masses of unemployed, the Weimar Republic was insufficiently prepared to withstand a structured coup from within when it inevitably came. Furthermore, the liberalism of the Republic gave added ammunition to the nascent Nazi State, giving Hitler and his propaganda minister, Josef Goebbels a readymade scapegoat for the deplorable state of German infrastructure during the early part of the 1930s. Indeed, it was Goebbels (1993:159) who highlighted the condition of the German nation before the National Socialists came to power in 1933 the state of the nation according to fascist eyes. Had it not been for the National Revolution, Germany would have been completely swissified, a nation of hotel porters and waiters, a nation having no political sense whatsoever that had lost any idea of its own historical significance. The effect of a onedimensional, intensely political approach to cultural affairs meant a surgical shift in the prism through which German society charted its progress between 1918 and 1933, and 1933 to 1945. Most art and film historians see the change that occurred in German culture after 1933, with the infamous burning of the books (May 1933) and mass emigration of a wealth of indigenous creative talent, as symptomatic of authoritarianism throughout the world. Bland, repetitive instances of film making and culture took the place of innovation and the first seedlings of avantgarde technique. Aesthetics and the human form took on added significance. Heavy handed plot lines guided the viewer of both art and cinema along a straightforward journey to the ideological heart of work without trusting the audience with the even the slightest semblance of individual reasoning. These are the popular images of authoritarian art forms promulgated after the defeat of fascism in Europe. Yet it would be incorrect to assume that German film making after 1933 was merely an exercise in retrospective propaganda studies; as shall be discussed in following chapters, Goebbels was fond of puncturing all genres of movies with National Socialist ideals with the result that a kaleidoscope of imagery is available to the twenty first century film student, each portraying a different vision of the fascist dream. It should come as little surprise to students of history to see a broad similarity between movies made in Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia: both countries relied upon eradicating the opposition and portraying the leader in an invincible light. Censorship at home and at the national borders also meant that fewer foreign films were being shown; those very few that made it past the German borders having to be screened first by the Nazis in order to gain an audience inside of Germany. Furthermore, the considerable risk that a film maker ran of being arrested, taken to concentration camp or even killed because of making a statement that the Nazi hierarchy did not favour was too great for all but the most ideologically driven of artists to bear. The result was an exodus of talent from Germany and a narrowing of vision to the extent that diversity, as a description of German cinema, became a complete misnomer. Art and cinema in the Third Reich were thus reduced to an entity in support of the regime; the hand over of the baton of creativity to autocracy was assisted by the state overhaul of existing cultural ministries. As part of the broader policy of Gleischaltung (coordination) the Reich Chamber of Culture (established in November 1933) oversaw this new breed of politicised movie making and art that presented a ludicrously perfect form of the Aryan man, engaged in the typical German pursuits of sport, work and family, as Seligmann et al (2003:50) detail. Images depicted Germans not just as modern day heroes but also as the heirs to Europes greatest cultural and imperial tradition, that of Alexander the Great and Caesar. As Aryans and National Socialists were elevated to the status of hero, so the Nazis used cinema and indeed every tool of popular culture at its disposal to reenforce the slide of the enemy into the sociological abyss. Over a short period of time, the Jews took over from the Weimar Republic and the Communists as the central target of Nazi abuse as one by one the political enemies of the state were made obsolete, leaving the racial enemies of the state as the sole carriers of the burden of national pariahs. Propaganda and film would play a disconcertingly influential role in the social facilitation of the Holocaust the essential psychological background whereby a nation might be made complicit in mass, statesponsored murder. As the violence and oppression against the Jews (and against gypsies, the handicapped and homosexuals) was increased, so the state began to use film and culture as a means to making the population complicit in their racial crimes. Reichskristallnacht (89 November 1938), for example, was a stateignited campaign of hatred against Jewry that was completed by the ordinary German people, a spontaneous orgy of destruction that would have been unimaginable were it not for the driptap effect of incessant fascist film making and media saturation, as Kershaw (2000:1412) underscores. The scale and nature of the savagery, and the apparent aim of maximising degradation and humiliation, reflected the success of propaganda in demonising the figure of the Jew certainly within the organisations of the Party itself and massively enhanced the process, underway since Hitlers takeover of power, of dehumanising Jews and excluding them from German society a vital step on the way to genocide. Der Erwige Jude (The Eternal Jew), the most extreme example of film utilised as a weapon of war, was a blatant and extreme vision of the life of common Jewry; the degradation of the living condition in the Warsaw Ghettoes providing the inspiration for the movies creator, Josef Goebbels who visited the area in 1940. The film portrayed Jews as vermin, cementing the belief in the viewer (coupled with state newspaper and radio) that the Jews were not only the enemy of the state but, more importantly, subhuman. As with all aspects of Nazi Germany, the murderous end effect can only be understood by taking the gradual desensitisation of the nation into account, a phenomenon that propaganda and film were instrumental in helping to bring about. Chapter Two: Occupied France: Vichy Collaboration in Moulding the Image of Fascist Europe The French experience of film was, until the continentwide rise of fascism, much the same as in Germany even if there were also fundamental differences between the two countries that made the transition from democracy to authoritarianism a more traumatic experience for the French, one that the nation has still not fully come to terms with. To start with, France, more than any other European nation, is synonymous with high culture, art and vision, characterised as the trend setting nation for creativity throughout the western world. Via Marcel Duchamp, for example, France was home to the origination of abstract art, his sculpture, Fountain (1917) often cited as a watershed in art and visual intention in the history of the West. In addition, France had dictatorship thrust upon it in a different way to the Germans. Clearly, autocracy can only arise from it being forcibly imposed on a population, yet in Germany it was Germans taking control of their own people, whereas, after the symbolic signing of the armistice on 22 June 1940, the French were dictated to by Germany from the vantage point of a vanquished nation. Therefore, there was more a sense of cultural partition between France in the 1930s and France in the 1940s that was not the case over the Alsace border into Germany. This starting point of a nation being defeated in war has been, ultimately, the greatest stumbling block regarding a better historical comprehension of the excesses of Vichy both from within and outside of French borders: for as long as the French were willing to rewrite history to paint the picture of a demoralised people who were fundamentally opposed to the right wing ideology of National Socialism, the country would be unable to see its true reflection. However, after the accumulation of two generations of historiography, Vichy was gradually deemed to be an active collaborator in the extremism that was witnessed in French culture and politics between 1940 and 1945 rather than a government coerced into cooperation. Marshall Pà ©tain may have been little more than a puppet figurehead, but he represented a large sector of conservative France that wished to eradicate the achievements of the artistic and philosophical endeavour of the early twentieth century so as to reembrace outmod ed notions of colonial France. Indeed, the right wing bloc who made up the core of the Vichy government were sympathetic to the anti-Semitic views of the Nazis the botched military trial of Captain Alfred Dreyfus for spying in 1894 highlighting a chequered history of a country that had barely bothered to even notice its own deeply resentful views concerning the Jews. The official separation of Church and State by law in 1905 merely paid lip service to a deepseated problem of prejudice in France. Although France had changed geographically, ethnically, politically and culturally between the two decades, a certain sense of continuity is detectable in French cinema of the period, which was certainly not the case in Germany. This was due to a combination of German censorship and genuine Vichy desire to ignore the shameful effect of the Occupation. As JeanPierre Jeancolas attests in his essay on the 1945 Vichy sponsored picture, Les Enfants du Paradis (2000:78), the realism that French cinema was so famous for showed no signs of cracking after 1940. The occupation of France in 1940, the control direct or indirect of its cinema by the German forces, condemned use of the present tense. Fiction films were allowed, at best, to portray a kind of vague present day, a period which had the appearance of the present, but not its singular hardships: the cars or the costumes are of 1943, but the French are depicted in light-hearted romantic entanglements, stories that never show the daily problems of finding food, or the presence of Nazi uniforms. Mention must be made of the division in France after her capitulation in 1940. Put simply, the country was split into half via north and south, whereby Paris, Brittany and the northern shores were deemed to be part of a territory called Free France, while the southern part of the nation, including major cities such Marseilles and Bordeaux (both of which had large ethnic and Jewish communities) was placed under the control of the Vichy Government. Vichy struggled to unite the two divisions until 1943 at the earliest, a time which signalled an increase in French resistance as, after the Battle of Stalingrad (February 1943) the sense of a slow protracted capitulation in the East led to a renewed sense of optimism in the West. It is important, therefore, to recognise the difficulty in defining a singular French brand of cinema after 1940. There were noticeable anomalies in how the Germans treated the two main zones. Newsreel propaganda, for instance, was different: in the Occupied Zone, cinemas screened antiBritish German newsreels, while in the Unoccupied Zone, Vichy largely steered clear of any mention of the war of the German presence in France at all. It is likewise important to recognise that the Vichy propaganda machine was not under the same level of autocratic control as was the case in Germany. There was no allpowerful figurehead to rival Goebbels in France. Pierre Laval was the clearest comparison to him but the Deputy Prime Minister spent much of his time in Paris negotiating with the Germans. In addition, Laval believed fervently in the power of broadcast media as the fundamental tool to seduce a weary population, neglecting largely the cinema and music. Furthermore, Laval delegated control of the propaganda machine to Paul Marion after 1942, which meant a discernible lack of leadership. A comparable model to Goebbels extensive communications system cannot be found in Vichy France. However, this does not mean to say that the Vichy Government was without persuasion or an ideology of its own. Although Occupied France was under the control of Germany, Vichy was given leeway in terms of national reeducation and, as the administration grew more secure in the southern part of the country (coinciding with entire divisions of German troops leaving France to fight on the increasingly demoralising Eastern Front), so a discernibly French model of fascism was seen in all walks of life, extending quickly to the national movie community. Continuity in all areas is the chief characteristic of Vichy cinema. As beforehand, Paris remained the creative hub of wartime France; many of the cast and directors of the films of the thirties remained to star in Vichy pictures. Jean Gabin and Michele Morgan were two big name stars who fled the country, but the rest mostly remained in France and continued to work. The Germans did not permit French films to cross the demarcation line until February 1941 when it became apparent that the same stifling effect of authoritarianism was prevalent in French as well as German cinema: there was no question of antiGerman films being shown because they were not being made. As a rule, movies produced during the Vichy years were unanimously nostalgic. As in the 1930s, many of the movies of the early 1940s were scripted around the French experience of World War One, characterising the recent experiences of the nation in the form of one actor or actress. The core Vichy values of family, la patrie and duty were cited in almost every film of the period, such as La Voile Bleue (1942), an anachronistic view of rural southern France that was the biggest commercial success of the forties in France. However, as Julian Jackson (2001:3201) details and contrary to popular belief, there was not a plethora of explicit right wing propaganda present in films made on the fascist side of the Vichy watershed. Paradoxically, many themes that one might expect to have figured more prominently after 1940, almost disappeared from the screen. Before 1940, many French films contained critical portrayals of British characters; after 1940 the British are absent. Before 1940 films had frequently depicted Germans sympathetically; after 1940, despite collaboration, Germans almost disappear from the screen. In the 1930s, antagonism to foreigners had been a frequent theme; after 1940 it was less present. Most surprisingly of all, whereas hostile depictions of Jews had proliferated in the 1930s, they are almost absent after 1940 As far as feature films are concerned, if they reflect anything different from the films of the 1930s it is Vichys desperate wish to believe the outside world did not exist. If a viewer was unaware of the historical subtext of the films produced during the 1930s and 1940s in France, they would not know occupation occurred at any point. But perhaps this was precisely the point: to cover over the huge dent in national pride at having to endure occupation by pretending that it did not exist. Learning from Goebbels, Vichy would also have been aware that, regarding propaganda, less can often mean more. Chapter Three: Josef Goebbels and the Intervention of Propaganda Cinema Unlike in France where a clear line of cinematic continuity can be traced, in Germany there is little doubt that movies made pre1933 would not be funded under Nazi rule. Kuhle Wampe (1932), for instance, was a decidedly Weimar production. The film was written and coproduced by Bertolt Brecht who was known within Germany to be a left wing film maker and sympathiser, yet one who did not favour the heavyhanded film making approach, as the following excerpt (1996:138) underscores. This way of subordinating everything to a single idea, this passion for propelling the spectator along a single track where he can look neither right nor left, up nor down, is something that the new school of play righting must reject. Betraying such antiauthoritarian views, it is no surprise that Kuhle Wampe turned out to be a socialist classic, an art house production made all the more poignant due to the cusp of the historical wave upon which contemporary Germany was riding. Brechts vision of a utopian community that rejects pricefixing and imperialism has been viewed as the last independent breathe of Weimar culture the final flourish before people such as the writer left Germany forever. Films such as Kuhle Wampe, as well as The Threepenny Opera, Kameradschaft and The Blue Angel all produced between 1930 and 1932 ensured that the shift, when it inevitably came, towards the right was all the more transparent because pictures such as these simply ceased to exist in Germany after 1933. Propaganda and cinema were married in the Third Reich like never before. Deconstruction of the pluralist approach of Weimars brief democratic tradition was the first step the Nazis took in reconfiguring the German nation in their own distorted image, followed inevitably by the edification of a new mythology, built exclusively around the twin pillars of the ubiquitous power of the Fuhrer and the antiGerman predilections of the communists and international Jewry. At first, of the two, the Fuhrer Myth was the most important solidifying effect in the Nazi consolidation of power. Hitler had learnt from Mussolini the herald of Fascism according to Hugh TrevorRoper (1995:174) that a tyrant could exert sole control over a modern, industrial European country but only via eliminating all competing iconography and elevating the leader to a quasireligious status, which could only be achieved by extensive propaganda exercises. As Ian Kershaw (1998:289) explains, the all encompassing image of Hitler portrayed in banners across German cities, in schools and in cinemas throughout the nation was vital not only in securing the stability of the Nazi State but also in making a subliminal connection between himself and the traditional heroes of German history within the broader national consciousness. For Hitler himself, the Fuhrer myth was both a propaganda weapon and a central tenet of belief. His own greatness could be implicitly but unmistakably underscored by repeated reference to Bismarck, Frederick the Great and Luther. Initially, even Goebbels was taken aback by the way in which the Nazis were able to instil their extremism throughout the country. A process that should have been osmotic took place with astonishing rapidity, as the Propaganda Minister (1996:41) himself explained in April 1933. What we are now experiencing is only the transfer of our own dynamism and legality to the state. This is taking place with such breathtaking speed that one scarcely has any time to call his own. Goebbels considered himself to be a man of culture and the filmmakers that he most admired did not come from the right wing stock that one would naturally associate with the Propaganda Minister. For example, Goebbels was a big fan of American cinema and he privately thought that the film making industry in the United States was far ahead of German production to that point. One of his favourite movies, although he denounced it in public, was Gone with the Wind, and he was likewise a great fan of the icon of Soviet propagandist cinema, Eisensteins Battleship Potemkin. Within the broader sphere of German film making during the period 1935 to 1945, Goebbels was the most important man in the country. All of the guidelines pertaining to film production in the postsilent era were rewritten after the Nazis seized power. As ever, culture and film became officially politicised and, as a by-product of Gleischaltung, the movie production apparatus fell into the hands of the Reich Ministry for Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda. Therefore, without Goebbels patronage a film would never make it past the level of script. His control was absolute, even extending to the question of financing production. Whereas under the Weimar Republic censorship and rating were separate bodies, the Nazis held onto both principles offering a tax rebate for positive film ratings, thus exerting considerable financial pressure on production companies that persisted in making unsatisfactory films. Reuth (1993:1945), in his rich biography of Goebbels, details the full extent of his control over movie making in Germany during this period, a description of a cultural power more potent than any available to the leader of each of the German Armed Forces. He had lists prepared of his favourite actors, as well as of Hitlers. He also kept close track of upandcoming talent, which he insisted on seeing for himself producers also depended on Goebbels favour, for he had created a comprehensive apparatus that allowed him to intervene in all phases of film production. The film department in the Propaganda Ministry, whose director Ernst Seeger served simultaneously as head of the office of film standards, oversaw production planning. All screenplays were examined for appropriate artistic and intellectual attitudes He [Goebbels] read film scripts almost every evening, and not infrequently revised them according to his own notions, using a green ministers pencil that became infamous among directors. Only after he had approved a project could the Film Credit Bank respond to a request for financing. Goebbels would even intervene in the shooting, often dropping in on studio, checking the rushes, and rating the finished product. From October 1935 on , he alone determined which films would be banned. Goebbels was the first head of communications anywhere in the autocratic world to understand the power of cinema in seducing a country; combined with his absolute control over all areas of broadcasting, films would see to it that Germans saw no other image of themselves apart from the vision in his mind for over ten years. However, this is not to state that films made in Germany during this period ought to be dismissed as wasteful propaganda, good for nothing but a lens through which to view National Socialist ideals. As will become apparent, a great many German productions of this time were goodhumoured, light hearted affairs that do not conform to the preconceived notion of a nation forced to watch endless versions of Der Erwige Jude and similarly dark depictions of dictatorship. Although many films were made that were instantly recognisable as party political broadcasts, such as Patrioten (1937), there were likewise others that provided a more panoramic view of Germanys splintered cultural psyche during the Third Reich. The following two chapters will examine two polar opposites of Third Reich cinema Heimatfilme and Exilfilme two bookends of the typically Nazi notion of home and abroad. As always when revisiting the ideology of National Socialism, there was very little room for any grey area in between extremes Chapter Four: Heimatfilme 47.8 per cent of the films produced during the Third Reich were comedies, 27 per cent were problem films, 11.2 per cent were adventure stories and only 14 per cent were considered outright propaganda films (Reuth, 1993:283). One of the most cherished German films of all time, Die Feuerzangenbowle (1944) was made during the darkest most desperate days of the war when all but the most closeted and narrow minded of Nazis could see that the war was never going to end in a German victory. The story, involving a mature student who never got to enjoy the hilarity of public school, could not have been, aesthetically and emotionally, further away from the politics of the time. But that was the point all along. By manipulating the mood of the audience, the Nazi propaganda state could change focus as and when external events demanded it. Die Feuerzangenbowle, for instance, might never have been produced if it was created during the honeymoon period of the early years of the dictatorship. Clearly, propaganda can be inserted into a storyline via more subtle camera and plot techniques and this is how Goebbels set about reenforcing core ideals into the German film loving audience. According to Reuth (1993:284), Goebbels and the Nazi propaganda machine preferred a more pervasive approach to political persuasion, especially concerning the most important issue of armed conflict on two fronts. Goebbels saw to it that the war, which became the main theme in films from 1939 on, was linked to the most varied genres, so as to make indoctrination of the audience imperceptible and keep the medium of film attractive. As he expected of all his propaganda ideally, so too in film, one and the same message was to be conveyed over and over again under constantly varied aspects. Of all the creative, cinematic options open to Goebbels, the most popular genre favoured by the Nazi hierarchy was the Heimatfilme, a uniquely German cinematic experience that played on the national obsession with the homeland. Apart from Austria, no other European country has the same nostalgic disposition towards artistic portrayal of the homeland quite like Germany. Because the nation was only unified after the FrancoPrussian War in 1871, successive generations of German film makers consistently looked back to the patriarchal preindustrial period inciting dreamy landscapes and a simple way of life to try to evoke the sense of longing the displaced German people of the countryside may have felt before unification. Manuala Von Papen (1999:12) highlights the reasons why Heimatfilme appealed to the Nazi leadership. This seems to be a genre virtually exclusive to the German-speaking countries and therefore untranslatable. Heimat means home, but also much more than that; it also stands for the entirety of ones cultural, social, ethical and historical heritage and provides an individual, a group of a whole nation with their identity, their Heimatgefà ¼hl. Clearly, the notions of volk (people) and heimat (home) were central concepts to the longevity of National Socialism. By combining the two, Heimatfilme leant the Nazis the opportunity to pander to the broader European taste for nostalgia as well as reenforcing the belief that Hitler was the true defender of German interests abroad. In a revolutionary move in light of the despotism of the regime, the Third Reich severed the equation of dictatorship with brainwashing propaga

Bright Star Essay -- Literary Analysis, Eliza Heywood

Eliza Haywood is a visionary. In her set of love letters, Love Letters on All Occasions, Haywood distinctly uses select words, such as metaphors, to subconsciously drive home the message to the reader. Whether it be re-enforcing the relationship between the two writers, or rather undercutting it, the reader understands their relationship more fully thanks to Haywood’s choice words. In Haywood’s collection Love Letters on All Occasions from her novel Fantomina and Other Works, two letters in particular, â€Å"Letter XXV† and â€Å"Letter XXVII†, Haywood’s use of metaphors and select word choices help to reinforce the sentiment between the writers to the reader. In â€Å"Letter XXV,† Haywood writes a letter from Theano to Elismonda. Reading the letter, the reader can clearly tell that Theano is madly in love with Elismonda. The fact that Haywood ends the letter with Theano writing, â€Å"My most loved, most Ador’d Elisamonda’s Constantly Zealous Votary, Theano† (Haywood 196) might as well be the final decal in the room Theano has built for Elismonda in his heart. Haywood’s use of the phrase â€Å"zealous votary† is one of the occasions where she re-enforces Theano’s love for Elismonda. Apart, the words â€Å"zealous† and â€Å"votary† don’t mean much. The Oxford English Dictionary defines zealous as â€Å"having or showing zeal,† (Oxford 1) which is â€Å"great energy or enthusiasm in pursuit of a cause or an objective† (1). Votary is defined as â€Å"a person, such as a monk or nun, who has made vows of dedication to religious service† (1). Haywoodâ €™s combination of the two terms is a metaphor for Theano’s devotion to Elismonda. He is constantly showing great enthusiasm in pursuit of Elismonda, who he views almost as a religion. He is a â€Å"votary,† but not as a monk or nun making ... ... her and knows he would never cross her. Haywood’s response letter written from Elismonda to Theano uses select language and references to his letters to re-enforce the readers apprehension of the complete and utter love these two writers feel for each other. Haywood uses metaphors and select word choices to help reinforce the sentiment between the writers to the reader in two letters, â€Å"Letter XXV† and â€Å"Letter XXVII† in her collection Love Stories on All Occasions from her novel Fantomina and Other Works. Unlike many works from this time frame, both Theano and Elismonda are madly in love with each other and desire each other greatly. This is a rare case of a happy couple in the age of Seduction Fiction, where most tales often ended in tragedy. Haywood’s account of Theano and Elismonda could be considered one of the bright stars in an otherwise cloudy night sky.

Medieval Morality Plays Essay -- Mystery Plays History Historical Essa

Medieval Morality Plays   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Throughout time, there have been many books, plays, songs, pamphlets, sermons, lectures, etc. written. These writings were all written with some kind of purpose to either inform, persuade, entertain, or teach their audience. One such form of literature not too widely known about is that of the medieval morality plays. These plays were not aimed to entertain, but to teach morals and religion to the uneducated lower classes of people in medieval Europe. The morality plays were also quite necessary to teach and inform the underclass people, through the thoughtful persuasion of play entertainment.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Morality plays, as said above, were most popular and most widely present in medieval times. They were also found in the early times of the renaissance, but in those times they were aimed more for entertainment rather than their original purpose of teaching and informing. (Warren 2). Location wise, most morality plays were written by French and English playwrights, but they can be found throughout Europe at that time. (1). An early predecessor of the morality plays were the mystery and miracle plays of the earlier medieval period. (1). Of the two, morality plays were more similar in the aim of the messages and such to the miracle plays rather than the mystery plays. (1). The main difference between the morality and the miracle plays is that the morality plays were allegorical, not historical like the miracle plays. (1). The morality plays were also known to be more on the entertainment side than the miracle and mystery plays. (1). The content of the morality plays is what played a hand in the persuasion of its audience. They taught their audiences because their main object was both religious and ethical and easy to grasp for the uneducated population whom largely went to its productions. (Warren 1). The plays also often examined the Christian character so that the flaws and strengths can be pointed out. (1). The plays were centered mainly on faith, dogma, and the application of the Christian doctrine to common folk life. (1). The characters of the morality plays were usually abstract qualities such as greed, friendship, love, death, etc. (1). There were many other cases when the characters of the morality plays were not abstract qualities. These alternative roles were ones of angels, devils, priests, doctors, fools (found usua... ...ordinary because they not only taught the uneducated, but they also influenced many forms of western drama down the line. (1). In conclusion, the morality plays of the 14th, 15th, and 16th century medieval periods have a rich history behind them. The morality plays did not only entertain the higher, educated classes of the medieval times, but they taught Christian morals and values to the uneducated lower class of people. Without the morality plays, the underclass people would of never learned about their religion and in result many things in the church may not be how we know it now. The morality plays also persuaded modern drama and that too, may of been very different from what it is today if it wasn't for the medieval morality plays. All in all, morality plays were important for the cultural growth of the western world. Works Cited Dohrn, Lori. Religion and Medieval Literature: A Look at Morality Plays. 14 Feb1999. Hanning, Robert W. "Miracle, Mystery, and Morality Plays." The Encyclopedia Americana.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  1997 ed. Morality Play. 22 Feb 1999. Morality Plays. 22 Feb 1999. Warren, K.M. "Moralities (Morality Plays)." The Catholic Encyclopedia. 1998 ed.

Joyriders – Creative Writing

I had just died by getting trapped and then squeezed to death as the walls closed in on me playing `Tomb Raider Three'. In addition, I had successfully reached the final stage, when I died and then remembered that I had forgotten to save the last stage after being on the computer for hours upon end. At this point, I was agitated and really annoyed when I heard, â€Å"Ah, shut it you over drunk sod! † my parents were at each others' throats again. â€Å"If I were to have a death wish it would be to kill you in such a way that your entrails would ooze out slowly†¦ † replied my disturbingly vexed father. After hearing months of non-stop controversy, I knew that there was only one thing left to say. Moreover, I was meditating about†¦ † I want a divorce, I want a divorce now! † mum bawled down the stairs. Well I knew that I shared a special bond with my mum, but reading my thoughts, she is positively becoming a mind reader, I thought trying to avoid the topic. It could have just have been intuition. There was a silence in the long empty corridor leading up to the stairs, where I sat fed up and angry with my parents. Looking at the bare gloomy walls which stared at me, as if it was my fault that they ere separating, I thought of all the memories they bore. My childhood, which I shared with my parents, both my parents. A tear came to my eye, which I quickly wiped off my freshly tanned, mocha coloured cheeks. When it comes to emotional stuff, I am quite shy and keep things bottled up, whereas usually I am very open and loud, well so my friends have told me. `I have had enough' I thought to myself. With this thought in mind I gave my best friend, Mia, a call, and not very surprisingly she was just as bored as I was. I did not tell her about what had just happened, but I got the feeling that she knew I as not the perky self I normally am, even if I am bored out of my brain! â€Å"Why don't I bring, Kaz, Neil, AJ and myself around yours, in ten? † â€Å"Sure, but we can meet outside my house near the garage. † I slyly said, so that they do not have any encounters with either of my parents. â€Å"Yeah I'd probably get lost around your yard, with it being so big `n' all† Mia laughed back. â€Å"Right then, see ya in ten, bye† â€Å"Bye† and she hung up. I still clung onto the receiver, hoping she was still there, this was because I was afraid to go upstairs, in case they start talking about custody battles. `What am I thinking? they hate me and they are splitting up for spite. I will then probably end up an orphan, because neither of them will want me! `Shut up Neha! ‘. I realised I was going insane just like my diabolical parents. I kept pacing up and down the hall, waiting for Mia and the others to turn up. Which is when I realised, `the neighbours have gone on holiday and have left the house keys and the car keys for the BMW Z3 to mum'. A light bulb went on in my head. And the only word, which was lit up in my head, was `revenge'. â€Å"What's up Neha? † shouted Mia from across the road, wearing as usual, her long black three-quarter-length trench coat. Nothin' wanna go for a ride? † â€Å"You mean in that! † Neil pointed at the BMW, in excitement, which was parked in the garage, with the garage door raised. â€Å"Why not, got nothin' betta to do† I answered surprised that he even had to question me. â€Å"All get in before my parents suspect anything! † I yelled at Mia and the others, who immediately dashed across the road, past the old and fragile granny who lives at number 49, who inherited her mansion after her millionaire husband died last year. Jinita Batavia Page 2 28/04/2007 Kaz, who was sitting in the passenger seat quickly started up the car y turning the key in the ignition. That was when I got into the drivers' seat, and realised how short the top of my body actually is! I could not see beyond the fence, which was only five metres away from us! We sped away as fast as the `bima' could take us. We drove down the Highstreet. However, as it was a bit of a squeeze with the small sporty Z3 cramming two in the front and three in the back, with Neil being quite big, – not offending him, we cut the jaunt short and decided to cruise down small empty alleys, on the outskirts of the town. â€Å"We can make this place our territory, you know like a gang, or even etta a society like the Free Masons who stay anonymous. † Suggested AJ fidgeting around in the back seat. â€Å"That's a brill idea, but your forgetting something cleva clogs†¦ how do you suggest we actually get here, without any wheels? † said Kaz in a sarcastic tone. I was busy trying to tune the radio, when I heard a cry, `ah, it must be an owl or something' I thought, with it being about ten o'clock it was a good presumption. I finally found the `house and garage' station that I was searching for. â€Å"Turn up the base, I mean we are cruzin' in a bima, so might as well cruise in style Neha, innit Mia. AJ also insisted that we wind down our windows so that we are not only seen but also heard. It had only been a few seconds after I thought I had heard a cry, when I heard squeals. â€Å"Here that people? † â€Å"What babe? † â€Å"Oh, do shut up with that babe crap Neil! † â€Å"Fine hear what? † both AJ and Neil said momentarily. â€Å"I hear it now! † replied Kaz. I jolted the car to a halt and then I quickly opened my door to see what was going on, and to my horror, Kenny was lying in the middle of the road a couple of metres behind the car. He was waving his arms around in the air as if he could not breathe! â€Å"Kenny, Kenny, he's †¦ e's†¦ um†¦ dead! I†¦ I†¦ killed†¦ him† I stuttered, in shock. By now I was shivering, then AJ put his arm around me, to comfort me, or so I thought at that time. He brought me back to the car, where everyone were all shaken up and really stiff, peering through the curved windows in shear horror. They convinced me that we should not wait around, because no one saw and now no one except them, will find out. I felt assured and got back behind the wheel, after Mia , who had been quiet throughout the journey slowly came out with, â€Å"I knew it, I knew that this was going to happen, it was written in the stars. Even though she is my best friend, she does come out with bull sometimes, with all that superstitious nonsense that she believes in! After successfully picking our-selves up and returning back to earth, after such an incident had occurred I thought that I should carry on with my original plan. This was to have a minor knock about with the BMW. So we crashed into a lamppost, head on and dented the brand new spoiler on the front of the car. Then finally after a night of laughter, horror and fulfilment I first dropped off AJ, Kaz, Mia and then Neil home, impressing their neighbours in the process, after returning to my never ending ightmare, my house. I parked the car back where it was and then crept in through the back door. I walked up the stairs slowly, so that the stairs would not creek. I then ended up asleep within a minute of lying on my bed. In the morning, it was raining hard, pounding on the roof, above by bedroom. To this I woke up and turned on my radio. Craig David was on, with his recent debut single. I automatically rose from my bed sheets, grabbed my hairbrush, and started to sing and bop along to Jinita Batavia Page 3 28/04/2007 the beat. I was half way through waving my hands around, pretending I as Craig David at a gig when†¦ â€Å"What is this, Adam you prick, what the fuck have you done to the car? † My dad rushed down the stairs with a piece of toast in his mouth as he tied his robe together with his hands. â€Å"What, what? † dad cried, confused. I was sniggering from the corner of the stairs. The innocent face of my dad with mum hurling accusations at him as if they were tennis balls, was a sight to see! After lunch, with mum having hers in the kitchen and dad, being the couch potato of the house, he was flopped out in front of the television set; we heard a knock at the door. I thought it would probably be Mia, so I scampered to the front door to let her in and inform her about the plan that had been successful. But to my dismay there was a woman standing at the front door who went by the name of `Constable Stevenson. ‘ â€Å"Are your parents in darlin'? † she said in a proud PC kind of voice. `Wanna-be PC' I thought to myself and gave out a snigger. â€Å"It is not a laughing matter, now go call your parents†¦ † `Hold your horses woman she's so†¦ uh! ‘ I thought. After hearing a stem, strong deep voice at the door mum came rushing to see what was going on. â€Å"Can I help you constable? † Can I help you constable? † I mimicked. Luckily, no one heard except dad, who was also now at the door, and he gave me that big-eye look to stop it†¦ or else. â€Å"May I have a look at your car? † â€Å"I have a search warrant hear†. â€Å"Sure† said my mum not realising what she had just said then, â€Å"Hold on, why do you want to see our car? † † Well, there has been a murder in the local area, and it was witnessed to have been a hit and run and they said that there was a red car involved. Moreover, I believe that you have a red car sitting in your garage. † â€Å"Yes, well†¦ † mum, at that point gave dad a guilty look, but dad just ooked confused and walked back down the hall with a mug of tea in his hand to watch some television again. Mum thought to herself for a while and then realised that it would be unlawful to lie and with hold evidence, and also she would not have one of those messy divorces if her husband was behind bars, so she decided to spill. Then, mum went over to the car and bent down to show the PC the dent in the car. At this point, I was having a ball, the only thing that could make this better was a nice big tub of popcorn. â€Å"This looks nasty, and yet quite fresh, when did this happen love? † Mum was hesitant in saying â€Å"Last night, I expect† â€Å"OK so who was driving the car at the time of this incident? † the constable's voice was now developing a tone to it. A nasty tone. â€Å"I'll get the forensic team to take a closer look at this†. In saying this she pulled out a mobile about the size of her ego and started to dial. â€Å"Oh† was all that mum could come out with, after this huge enquiry about the car that was not even theirs. She was probably thinking that it actually was dad who killed the boy, ‘that's great' I thought to myself, not realising the charges or sentences dad could be faced with. After the forensic team arrived, about twenty minutes later they were able to come up with a full report. â€Å"I'm sorry to say, that we found some navy fibres attached to the front bumper and some very distinctive blood stains, which are of a person with blood type O, just like Kenny. † `That was strange, because when we hit Kenny there was not a dent anywhere, what can you say, but the police ain't as good as they make themselves out to be. ‘ Jinita Batavia Page 4 18/03/00 â€Å"I'm afraid you're under arrest. † The PC said relieved that this case was over. And it must have been one of the quickest cases ever! We'll have to take you down to the station; anything you do or say will be held against you later in court. † Those lines were just like the ones you here on television programmes. Ah well, dad would not be confused about that then, unlike everything else, as he watches television twenty-four/seven. Now that that was over, I thought that I should celebrate. `Wow' I thought to myself, I never thought I could put someone, especially my own dad behind bars, maybe I should try it more often! In addition, I also now have an extra room, as well as a mum, so I am safe from an orphanage†¦ for now!