Communication Commons^™

Schizophrenics, Cyborgs And The Pitfalls Of Posthumanism, Angela Woods

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[Editors' Introduction]

In Schizophrenics, Cyborgs and the Pitfalls of Posthumanism, Angela Woods invites us to revisit two canonical analyses of the postmodern: Fredric Jameson's Postmodernism, or The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism and Donna Haraway's A Manifesto for Cyborgs: Science, Technology and Socialist Feminism in the 1980s. Jameson and Haraway introduced to contemporary cultural criticism two posthumanist icons: the schizophrenic, a pathologized victim of postmodernity, and the cyborg, a vision of strategic posthuman subjectivity. In her timely and critical analysis of these articles, Woods challenges the established notion of an oppositional relationship between the schizophrenic and the cyborg. She turns …

Toward A Posthuman Ethics, Dongshin Yi

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[Editor's Introduction]

Setting a posthuman ethics as a goal toward which the collaboration of posthumanism and ethics must move, Yi in his essay, Toward a Posthuman Ethics, points out that the collaboration is detained because current debates on the cyborg harbor on the question of representations and consider how political, social and cultural problems of the human are reconfigured, and possibly resolved, by the cyborg. Thus, the debates are bound to be retrospective in approach and circular in direction, as they fail to recognize new possibilities that the cyborg may present. Arguing that the failure indicates the cyborg is being …

The Infinite Plasticity Of The Digital: Posthuman Possibilities, Embodiment And Technology In William Gibson's Interstitial Trilogy, Tama Leaver

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[Editors' Introduction]

Ever since William Gibson coined the term cyberspace in his debut novel Neuromancer, his work has been seen by many as a yardstick for postmodern and, more recently, posthuman possibilities. This article critically examines Gibson's second trilogy (Virtual Light, Idoru and All Tomorrow's Parties), focusing on the way digital technologies and identity intersect and interact, with particular emphasis on the role of embodiment. Using the work of Donna Haraway, Judith Butler and N. Katherine Hayles, it is argued that while William Gibson's second trilogy is infused with posthuman possibilities, the role of embodiment is …

Post·Hum·An·Ous, C. Jason Smith, Geoff Klock, Ximena Gallardo-C.

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

The Death of the Human is in many ways one of those characteristic intellectual bids for attention, in the vein of Lacan's Woman does not exist or Baudrillard's the Gulf War never happened. Flashy and rhetorically misleading, such assertions nevertheless create a discursive space in what otherwise appears to be a closed, natural(ized) system. Posthumanism, like any other movement or -ism, is difficult to introduce, first and foremost, because of this kind of rhetoric: its first infiltrating tactic is to call the time of death on the current age. Perhaps the most salient example of this self-defined loss …

Idiomatic Expressions And Marital Relationships Over Three Stages Of The Family Lifespan, Meredith T. Raynor

Institute for the Humanities Theses

In interpersonal communication language shared between two people becomes important in the everyday life of relational participants. Even more so, the language shared between married couples is vital because of their "unique relationship". Part of that language involves the symbols, gestures and words called idioms that have specialized meaning for the marital dyad.

This thesis sought to discover what idioms are identified among married couples at three stages of the family lifespan, newlyweds, couples with children and empty nest couples as they seek to maintain a system of "personalized communication" as it relates to their marital satisfaction (Breuss & Pearson, …

A Cross-Cultural Study Of Children’S Development As Reflected In Their Artwork: An Investigation Of Children’S Drawings From The African Country Of Benin, Elizabeth Anna Smead

EVMS School of Health Professions Theses & Dissertations

This research adds to the body of knowledge related to the human figure drawing as a useful tool in assessment and to art therapists’ understanding of children who depict the human figure in cross-cultural settings. This researcher obtained a sample collection of 148 human figure drawings from African children in rural Benin, West Africa to study in comparison to a set of human figure drawings collected under similar conditions in Hampton Roads, Virginia.

In this quantitative study, five of the Formal Elements Art Therapy Scales (FEATS) were modified and used to tally the formal elements of each of the 148 …

International Art Therapy Program Development: An Exploratory Cultural Encounter In Ayacucho, Peru, Haley Johnstone

EVMS School of Health Professions Theses & Dissertations

Humanitarian aid organizations, both domestic and international, provide health care, mental health services, education, and community development for traumatized children worldwide living in regions affected by political violence. Sparse information exists regarding the role of an art therapist within these organizations. The profession of art therapy lacks research specific to the benefits of intervention and program development within the context of an international humanitarian aid team. This thesis reviews the ethnographic research of an art therapy graduate student who explored the opportunities for art therapy within such a team.

Cultural competency was an essential component of the researcher’s success while …

In Medias Res: An Ordinary Revolution, Part Ii, Davin Heckman

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

A series of relatively recent events has forced me to reconsider the practice of publishing and the art of media-making. As Reconstruction approaches the completion of its fourth year of publication and begins a massive editorial reorganization [2], I have been undergoing a reorganization of my own -- a job search, manuscripts in search of publishers, a virtual conference to help plan, a dissertation defended, and a new baby at home. In addition to this, there are journal issues to complete, submissions to review, edits to make, reviews to write, and, now, an editorial to create. I am, …

The Photocopied Self: Perzines, Self-Construction, And The Postmodern Identity Crisis, Steve Bailey, Anita Michel

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

Mike Gunderloy, creator of Factsheet 5, and co-author of The World of Zines, offers the following definition of perzines:

A personal zine, or perzine, is the most intimate kind of zine. It allows the editor/writer many freedoms, not the least of which is spouting off about anything or nothing-in-particular without worrying about editorial policies and other rules of regimented periodicals. It's also a way of corresponding with any number of people simultaneously while maintaining an aura of intimacy and friendship. And something else to remember when you're reading (or writing) a perzine -- because this intimacy …

Plato Means Business In The Republic: A Human Resource Management Critique Of The Philosopher-King, Anton Karl Kozlovic

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

Exploring the interface between 20th century management principles and the classical world is innovative and relatively new, but not unheard of in the recent past. For example, Greg Latemore and Victor Callan (1998) used Homer's The Odyssey to illustrate leadership lessons. Charles Handy (1995) used four Greek gods (i.e., Zeus, Apollo, Athena, Dionysius) as role models to show managers how to run their own businesses more effectively. While conventional histories of management thought routinely examined the ancient world for its insights, contributions and other ideational antecedence that underpinned their discipline (George Jr., 1972). However, the value of this …

On Power And Equity: Toward A Working-Class Rhetoric, Omar Schwartz

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

The working-class in the United States has been, and continues to be, systematically excluded from normative political representation and is allowed little opportunity to contribute to the terms and conditions of its social existence (Henwood, 1987; Moberg, 1992). While few workers today resist such marginalization, this has not been always the case. During the formative period of U.S. labor consciousness (from the end of the Civil War until the First World War), the political alienation of labor was routinely challenged by workers who relied extensively (and illegally) on collective self-help in their pursuit of economic justice. With this …

Review Of Art And Fear, By Paul Virilio, Davin Heckman

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

No abstract provided.

Review Of Religion And Rationality, By Jurgen Habermas, Nicholas Ruiz Iii

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

No abstract provided.

From Butler To Buffy: Notes Towards A Strategy For Identity Analysis In Contemporary Television Narrative, Rob Cover

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

Given the increasing significance of questions of identity, subjectivity and selfhood in contemporary postmodern western cultures, it is important to begin acknowledging how these questions are reflected in contemporary media and television and to develop new strategies by which to analyse television characters in terms of identity and subjectivity. The scope for analysing television series' characterizations through recent postmodern and poststructuralist theories of non-essentialist, non-foundationalist subject/identity performativity has not yet been considerably explored. It is my contention here, however, that such a method both reflects the representation of self and identity transformation in new television series as well …

On Misa, Brey, And Feenberg's Modernity And Technology, Davin Heckman

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

In the course of my own research on culture and technology, I have marveled at the vast pool of valuable resources available in both Cultural Studies and Science and Technology Studies. And I have been equally amazed by the disciplinarity that seems to keep each of these approaches from interacting with each other, in spite of the fact that they share common ancestors like Marx, Heidegger, and Mumford. And so I found myself intrigued by the arrival of Misa, Brey, and Feenberg's edited volume, Modernity and Technology -- a deliberate effort to reconcile the theoretical question of Modernity …

Cultural Literacy And The Field Of The Media, Tony Schirato, Jen Webb

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

This paper is concerned with the notion of cultural literacy, specifically with regard to the media, and focuses on two interrelated questions. First, what do we mean by the term cultural literacy, and how can this term be extended and applied to the field, texts and practices of the media? Second, what is it about the place and function of the media in the contemporary world that requires us (as citizens, educators or audiences) to be culturally and media literate?

Contesting Identities: Sports In American Film [Book Review], Marc Ouellette

English Faculty Publications

Aaron Baker's Contesting Identities: Sports in American Film is an indictment of the key American myth that anyone can succeed through self-reliance. Baker finds that sports films, in general, comprise a site in which the myth is represented and reproduced. Baker's focus, though presented from multiple analytical perspectives, is singular in its purpose. That said, Baker does concentrate on what he considers the four core American sports: football, baseball, basketball and boxing. Approximately ninety movies, from the silent era to the present day, provide the content of the analysis, but several are exemplary and are cited repeatedly in the book's …

Reel Baseball: Essays And Interviews On The National Pastime, Hollywood And American Culture, Marc Ouellette

English Faculty Publications

The editors of Reel Baseball begin by acknowledging the roots of their collection, which explores the intersection between movies and baseball. Since 1989 the National Baseball Hall of Fame has hosted the Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture. Since 1997, McFarland has published all papers presented at the symposium. Reel Baseball, then, functions both as a document and as an artifact of the "integral" place of baseball movies in American culture. Indeed, the book not only includes essays presented at the symposium, it has two foreword sections: one written by Hall of Fame President Dale Petroskey and the …

"Two Guns, A Girl And A Playstation™": Gender In The Tomb Raider Series, Marc A. Ouellette

English Faculty Publications

This article considers the combination of game play and narrative which combine to produce cross-gender identifications in video games, a previously underexamined potential for the production of alternate genders, one which calls into question the stability of gender, particularly masculinity, as a construct.

A Review Of Cyberactivism: Online Activism In Theory And Practice, Kevin Eric De Pew

English Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

On Aaron Baker's Contesting Identities: Sports In American Film And Stephen C. Wood And J. David Pincus's Reel Baseball: Essays And Interviews On The National Pastime, Hollywood And American Culture, Marc Ouellette

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

Aaron Baker's Contesting Identities: Sports in American Film is an indictment of the key American myth that anyone can succeed through self-reliance. Baker finds that sports films, in general, comprise a site in which the myth is represented and reproduced. Baker's focus, though presented from multiple analytical perspectives, is singular in its purpose. That said, Baker does concentrate on what he considers the four core American sports: football, baseball, basketball and boxing. Approximately ninety movies, from the silent era to the present day, provide the content of the analysis, but several are exemplary and are cited repeatedly in …

Reconstructing The Fables: Women On The Educational Cyberfrontier, Jim Dwight

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

Computer technology and the Internet inspire narratives based upon modernist tropes. The frontier narrative stands out as one of the most intriguing tropes. Often the language for the Internet regulation and administration of computers, particularly in education, plays on tropes of the Wild, Wild West. Sojourners brave the untamed expanses of cyberspace laying claim to virgin territories. Often, writers represent the frontier as a pure form of woman, the object of masculine desires for conquest such as Natty Bumppo's symbolic marriage to the disappearing frontier in James Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans (1981 [1826]), Odysseus' conquest of …

Of Technology And Apocalypse, Or Whose Independence Day?, Christopher Keep

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

The scene is now familiar. The cities of the world are in ruins. The Empire State Building obliterated. The White House reduced to rubble. The remnants of humankind gather in the desert, scrounging together what remains of their air defence systems for one last effort to repulse the alien invaders. Haggard but determined, the last American President prepares to lead his motley crew of resistance fighters into the fray. He takes the hand mic, tests it once or twice, and his voice crackles over the speakers. In less than one hour, he announces, aircraft from here will join …

On Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho, Andrew Miles Jacobsen

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

No book since American Psycho has created as much of a scandal. And few books have been as misunderstood. In 1990, months before it was set to be released, certain violent passages were leaked to the press that, taken out of context, made the book seem like a depth-less celebration of sexual violence. Right after Simon & Schuster canceled the book, an employee of the publishing house said, The most unfortunate thing about this whole controversy is that the book is a piece of shit. It's hard when something like this becomes an issue of censorship, because you …

New And Now: A Plea For Historiography And Technology, Haidee Wasson

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

Throughout the late 1980s and 1990s, the word new was persistently attached to the term technology, a coupling intended to reference a vast range of phenomena -- computers, the internet, wireless telecommunications, satellite cinema and so on. Throughout this period, these technologies were widely heralded as global panaceas. In the pages of glossy hi-tech magazines and academic annals alike, the obliteration of racism, homophobia, sexism, and the great class divide became subjunctive to the problem of connecting everybody everywhere to emergent digital networks. Decentering old-world imperial powers and creating alternative cultural formations became battle cries for the new …

Review Of G4m3rs, By Kiyash Monsef, Bryan-Mitchell Young

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

No abstract provided.

Reading Over The Shoulder Of The Future At The Library Of Congress, Samuel Gerald Collins

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

It is 2003 and I am doing some research at the Library of Congress, the de facto national library for the United States and the largest library in the world. Next to me sit some articles I've printed off of online journals on the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency's Total Information Awareness Project, a plan, still in its formative stage, to throw a panopticon net of surveillance across the United States through a combination of language translation technologies, data search and pattern recognition technologies, and advanced collaborative and decision support tools (DARPA). But I am also doing research …

Endless Enlightenment: Eye-Operated Technology And The Political Economy Of Vision, Michael Gardiner

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

Despite a residual popular temptation to see the posts of cultural analysis as signs of temporal closure, the logic of global visual media is strengthening, not weakening, metaphors of visibility which remain intact from the Enlightenment. Here I describe a stand-off between post-Enlightenment critiques (as in some sectors of Cultural Studies) and a narrow power base which is defined by producing light and managing the very conditions of visibility. For the world's most powerful state, still strongly bound to its original Enlightenment foundations, intervention into other states' sovereignty is increasingly justified by evidence from spy planes (rather than …

Aircraft Picture Postcards As A Tool For Influence Through Images, Daniel Martel

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

The era in which we live at the turn of the millennium is defined by most scholars -- depending on their specialisation -- as the era of worldwide economic integration, adoption of technologies of western origins, internal harmonization of institutions and working procedures, and cultural standardization. The roots of this can be traced back to the Renaissance, as well as the industrial revolutions and economic liberalism. Their driving forces are successful economic transactions and permanent innovation. According to this worldview, the ultimate goal of any such activity is the optimised individual situation of any human being or economic …

A Body Of Her Own: Cultural Constructions Of The Female Body In A.S. Byatt's Strange Stories, Sabine Coelsch-Foisner

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

Byatt's short fiction, from her first collection Sugar and Other Stories (1987) to Elementals (1998) is marked by a continuous preoccupation with the body: the body as the product of social signifying practices, the body as the site of desires, fears, and anxieties, the body as the source of experience, the body as creator and created. In brief, the body is treated as the centre of existence, consciousness and identity. Yet, these are constantly called into doubt in Byatt's stories, which depict heroines trapped between asserting their identity and submitting to cultural dictates of beauty and behavior. In …