/library/oar/handle/123456789/11189 2026-08-09T10:27:10Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/12896 Title: 今日黑料 our contributors Abstract: Short biographies of the contributors. 2015-06-01T00:00:00Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/12895 Title: Oscar Wilde : a Victorian sage in a modern age Authors: Bastawy, Haythem Abstract: This paper assesses Oscar Wilde鈥檚 reaction to the fin de si猫cle and argues against his widely-accepted position as a main figure in the English avant-garde movement, a view which major literary critics such as Peter Gay, Sos Eltis and S. I. Salamensky promote today. Based on Foucault鈥檚 definition of modernity as 鈥榓 break with tradition' rather than a specific time, I argue that Wilde was not the modernist author he is widely perceived as, but a conventional Victorian sage who cleverly adopted, and tailored, the fashion of his time to deliver his thoroughly traditional teachings. The paper is split into five sections. The first of deals with Wilde鈥檚 creation of his dandy self and the influences of Carlyle, Arnold and Christ over him; the second section examines Ruskin鈥檚 influence over Wilde鈥檚 theory of art, and Wilde鈥檚 self-perception; the third section continues to examine the influence of the Victorian sages on Wilde by exploring his criticism of contemporary modernity in some of his works; the fourth and fifth sections deal with Wilde鈥檚 views on the roles of the sexes and his homosexuality respectively, and weigh these views, through further close analysis of his works, against the argument of his modernity. The research ends by asserting that Oscar Wilde was thoroughly Victorian in his views and themes, and that he perceived himself as a sage for his modern age. 2015-06-01T00:00:00Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/12894 Title: What鈥檚 all the fuss about Disney? : narcissistic and nostalgic tendencies in popular Disney storyworlds Authors: Cremona, Maria Abstract: This paper seeks to study the narcissistic and nostalgic desires cultivated in cinematic audiences by modern Disney story franchises. Through its storyworlds, the Disney conglomerate is a key player in the cultural formation and consciousness of global audiences, young and old. The research demonstrates how narcissism and nostalgia are used as a means for personal development and amelioration of the present condition as well as a means of control over the viewers鈥� self-understanding and knowledge of past and present realities. The paper explores Baudrillard鈥檚 concept of controlled narcissism which illustrates how a subject鈥檚 self-development is hampered by media conglomerates that disseminate a fixed formula which becomes their means of exercising control over time, space and identity formation. This paper also considers the use of nostalgia by media and entertainment industries. Using the works of Fredric Jameson, Linda Hutcheon and Svetlana Boym, this study investigates the commodification of nostalgia which promotes a recyclable and romanticized view of the past as well as the prospective use of nostalgia which allows the viewer to critically reflect on past and present times. These theories are applied to two contemporary case studies to understand better how narcissistic and nostalgic tendencies are manifested in the complex and transformative journeys of the flawed protagonists in contemporary popular Disney storyworlds. 2015-06-01T00:00:00Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/12877 Title: Interrupting tradition : now-time (Jeztzeit) in and out of the theatre Authors: White, Joel Abstract: 鈥楶rogress has its seat not in the continuity of elapsing time but in its interruptions鈥攚here the truly new makes itself felt for the first time鈥�. Interruption, as articulated by Walter Benjamin in The Arcades Project, presupposes both the potential continuation of historical time (defined as the sequential movement of history toward its end) as well as its possible cessation. To interrupt, meaning to 鈥渂reak between,鈥� implies a space of allowing that punctures the status quo鈥攂e that status quo the disequilibria of power and material means or otherwise. Where the new ruptures, tradition maintains. For Benjamin this interruption occurs in the present. The present, being the site of interruption, is endowed with a potential to break with the self-positing structures of the past. The time of the present, now-time as Benjamin conceives of it, does not, however, condition itself transcendentally but must, instead, be immanently possible in and of world. The necessity for the metaphorical becoming space of time in the phrase 鈥渟pace of allowing鈥� only reconfirms this. This paper questions how we can think and actualise interruption in both philosophy and the theatre. It argues that the theoretical germ for Benjamin鈥檚 concept of now-time derives from his work on the idea of tragedy found in his essays of the 1920s and in The Origins of German Tragic Drama. Elucidating these texts, this paper reconciles Benjamin鈥檚 aesthetic and political philosophies. 2015-06-01T00:00:00Z