British References Research Articles

How the past becomes the past: The temporal positioning of collective memory.

Recognizing that the past does not necessarily pass of its own accord but rather is made to pass is crucial for understanding relationships between collective memory, temporality and the past. Analyzing processes of temporal negotiation reveals that changing the ending (or, in some cases creating one at all) requires re-envisioning the entire sequence of events. Thus, the ending (if there is one) depends on the beginning. British prime ministers' references to 9/11 in public addresses demonstrate this process of temporal negotiation about whether and how to create an ending. Tony Blair constructed the attacks as a legacy, thus sustaining the past as part of the present. To unwind this construction and consign 9/11 to the past, Gordon Brown and David Cameron needed to disrupt the flow of contingent incidents in which Blair had embedded 9/11. By redefining the narrative's beginning, they made it possible to bring 9/11 to an end.

Toponymy, Pioneership, and the Politics of Ethnic Hierarchies in the Spatial Organization of British Colonial Nairobi

Toponyms, along with other urban symbols, were used as a tool of control over space in many African countries during the colonial period. This strategy was epitomized by the British, who applied it in Nairobi and other parts of Kenya from the late 1800s. This paper shows that toponymy in colonial Nairobi was an imposition of British political references, urban nomenclature, as well as the replication of a British spatial idyll on the urban landscape of Nairobi. In early colonial Nairobi, the population was mainly composed of three main groups: British, Asians, and Africans. Although the Africans formed the bulk of the population, they were the least represented, socially, economically and politically. Ironically, he British, who were the least in population held the political and economic power, and they applied it vigorously in shaping the identity of the city. The Asians were neither as powerful as the British, nor were they considered to be at the low level of the native Africans. This was the deliberate hierarchical structure that was instituted by the colonial government, where the level of urban citizenship depended on ethnic affiliation. Consequently, this structure was reflected in the toponymy and spatial organization of the newly founded city with little consideration to its pre-colonial status. Streets, buildings and other spaces such as parks were predominantly named after the British monarchy, colonial administrators, settler farmers, and businessmen, as well as prominent Asian personalities. In this paper, historical references such as maps, letter correspondences, monographs, and newspaper archives have been used as evidence to prove that toponyms in colonial Nairobi were the spatial signifiers that reflected the political, ideological and ethnic hierarchies and inequalities of the time.

Waist circumference centiles for UK South Asian children

ObjectivesTo develop waist circumference (WC) centile curves for UK South Asian children, to make comparisons with published centiles for British, indigenous Indian and Pakistani children, as well as to make...

Responding to Freud: A Brief Sketch of Contemporary Shame Studies

Responding to Freud: A Brief Sketch of Contemporary Shame Studies Wenwen Guo Two contrary tales Written in 1903 and opened at the Royal Court Theatre in London in May 1905, George Bernard Shaw's four‐act drama Man and Superman features an intriguing conversation between Jack Tanner, Octavius Robinson, and Roebuck Ramsden early in act one, during which Tanner makes a passionate argument on shame. We live in an atmosphere of shame. We are ashamed of everything that is real about us; ashamed of ourselves, of our relatives, of our incomes, of our accents, of our opinions, of our experience, just as we are ashamed of our naked skins. Good Lord, my dear Ramsden, we are ashamed to walk, ashamed to ride in an omnibus, ashamed to hire a hansom instead of keeping a carriage, ashamed of keeping one horse instead of two and a groom‐gardener instead of a coachman and footman. The more things a man is ashamed of, the more respectable he is. Why, you're ashamed to buy my book, ashamed to read it: the only thing you're not ashamed of is to judge me for it without having read it; and even that only means that you're ashamed to have heterodox opinions. To increase the power of his statement, Tanner prefaces his speech by admitting to be “the most impudent person,” who should be in the best position to “wholly conquer shame.” Usually taken as a comedy of manners, the play does offer a valuable insight into the turn‐of‐the‐century mentality in relation to shame. By Tanner's account, shame is pervasive and fundamental; it interferes with almost everything man does and can be triggered by matters as rudimentary as one's heritage and as trivial as a book purchase. Contained in his confession is a fascinating view that shame is directly correlative to respectability, which gestures at shame's proximity to social norms and collective values. Such contentions are usually made in regard to non‐Western societies and are only starting to appear in cross‐cultural psychological studies on shame in the late twentieth century. Contrary to Shaw's portrayal, when Peter Stearns presents his historicist overview of shame in Western Europe and in the United States, he understands the turn of the century as a part of what he calls a “period of reconsideration,” in which shame, an emotion that “had been ubiquitous at least since the advent of agriculture, as part of both social and personal experience, was now being downgraded, perhaps for the first time.” As a historian who specializes in world history, Stearns gathers major findings from sociology, anthropology, psychology, philosophy, and history to trace shame's evolution in Western societies from the pre‐modern to the contemporary era. Even as he mainly focuses on the United States, he does make sure that this reconsideration of shame applies to the Britons as well. Citing the diagrams generated by Google Books Ngram Viewer as support for his argument, Stearns points out a “fairly steady decline into the mid‐twentieth century” and “even beyond” in British shame references, starting from the late 1880s. By nature of modernity's effects upon traditional values and practices, the “pervasiveness of shame in premodern communities” has been replaced with a prolonged and serious reconsideration in modern societies starting from the early nineteenth century. How do we assess the divergent accounts of shame's presence in modernity across the disciplinary divides? My primary goal in the paper is to outline the differentiated responses to Freud in contemporary shame studies by way of accounting for the seemingly unbridgeable gap between Shaw's and Stearn's mapping of shame. Freud, I argue, is such a seminal figure for shame studies, despite a lack of direct contributions on his part when he was alive. Not only does he remain relevant to the contemporary scholarships on shame, but he has been crucial in generating continued interest among theorists and practitioners precisely because of his “originary” neglect. I also aim to point to the sociocultural context in the decades leading up to the turn of the twentieth century that witnessed a decided “turn” to shame. To some extent...

Mulligatawny Dreams: Encountering the No-Man’s Land Between the Mother Tongue and Post-Colonial Language

Decolonization does not end with the colonizing power being physically removed from the colonized nation. Centuries of cultural hegemony wreaks havoc on the fabric of a state to the point of being unrecognizable from its previous state of existence. The battle to reclaim a national identity post colonization is not an easy one, especially when it concerns a multicultural, multilingual, state like India. One of the most obvious manifestations of deliberate anti-colonial actions is the rejection of colonial rules of language. This becomes especially interesting when the said language is now the global lingua franca, inevitable to functioning in an increasingly globalized world.
 
 Post-colonial writers offer much in the activism against colonial dictates of language. This paper looks at how a colonial language, one that is dominant in a post-colonial society, is encountered by writers. The paper focuses on the poetry of Meena Kandasamy in general as an anti-colonial , language-specific , dynamic narrative tool and specifically on the poem “Mulligatawny Dreams” . Her language deliberately subverts English language rules; often foregoing punctuation, using words from her native Tamil without a footnote or an appendix, culturally specific references etc. All of these deliberate actions making a statement inviting the reader to research and make the effort to learn and understand the poetry and its references, much like the rest of the world and especially Indians have been taught through the centuries to understand British cultural references and history forsaking our own.

Proxy Pasts: The Use of British Historical References in Spanish American Independence Rhetoric, 1808–1828

Abstract In the independence era of the early nineteenth century, Spanish American patriot leaders hoped to find in Great Britain an ally not only in their fight for emancipation, but also in their efforts to become accepted into the family of nations. To do this, they not only cast their eyes across land and sea to study what contemporary Britain might offer as a political model, but they also ransacked the history books for material from its past. Although it is commonly assumed that the American and French Revolutions were the inspirations for Spanish American independence leaders, a strong case can be made for their attraction to the British model and historical experience. Their newspapers and congressional debates were filled with discussions of Magna Carta, the Tudors and Stuarts, the Armada, Oliver Cromwell and the English Civil War, all of which were deployed with great skill to inform contemporary debates on matters such as religious tolerance, the jury system, the relative merits of republics versus monarchies, and the role of strong women in public life. The extensive use of British historical references reveals much about a political model that was attracting serious consideration during the Spanish American independence period.

How to Write about Theatre: A Manual for Critics, Students and Bloggers by Mark Fisher

Reviewed by: How to Write about Theatre: A Manual for Critics, Students and Bloggers by Mark Fisher Allan Davis How to Write about Theatre: A Manual for Critics, Students and Bloggers. By Mark Fisher. London: Blooms-bury Methuen Drama, 2015; pp. 296. How to Write about Theatre is a great source to teach theatre students about the history of criticism as a profession, and about what publishing theatre criticism shares with the process of making theatre. The strength of the book is how Mark Fisher repeatedly frames the act of publishing criticism as a performance. Just as the nascent critic evaluates the performance of an actor, any reader of the critic's work will scrutinize the delivery. Fisher prepares the reader to consider the social purpose and artistic dimensions of their writing so that they see theatre criticism as an art. This book focuses on the fundamentals of crafting an engaging argument and identifying one's potential audience in ways that will resonate with theatre students. Fisher's text will serve them well, because it trains their capacity as writers in fun and creative ways and illustrates how their training in performance can inform their writing. Fisher drills readers to ask three questions when they see a production they will critique: What were the theatre-makers trying to do? How well did they do it? Was it worth it? Throughout the book's twenty chapters Fisher returns the subject he is covering back to at least one of these questions; addressing these questions, he argues, will shape how to structure an argument. Fisher dedicates the final chapters to writing about emotions and cultural or political issues. He frames these topics as important, because they require critics to consider the question of relevance—the relevance of the production and of their criticism. He does not let writers forget that the very questions they are asking about theatre productions should also be used reflexively on their own writing. Fisher literally invites them to practice such reflection in the various exercises, instilling this paradigm by framing each chapter with methods on how to write about specific topics in the production (like acting) or beyond it (like the writer's own bias or the audience's). Students who utilize this book to learn how critics might analyze theatre will be prepared to think more critically about the productions they work on, as well as their own writing. Scattered throughout each chapter practical exercises appear, interrupting the text to invite budding critics to try different ways to write about theatre. These are short assignments that challenge the reader to draft short responses by applying the principles that the author has just covered and also by using the work of other critics or critiquing a performance they have seen. These guided exercises are creative, providing the writer with opportunities to experiment with tones and styles. Most importantly, Fisher asks reflective questions following each exercise, thus challenging the reader to ponder ethically, emotionally, and/ or structurally the writing they have produced. Fisher's writing style is engaging and provides many examples of strong writing by others. These range across historical and geographic periods, from Aristotle to Charles Isherwood. Fisher illustrates his points with stories from colleagues he has known or researched. This book is a crash course in the variety of approaches that critics might take. For example, he contrasts how Ben Brantley distances himself from theatre artists to remain independent, while John Lahr spends time with artists in order to gain perspectives as an insider. Fisher provides a glimpse into the dynamic options available to fledgling critics and the choices they could make as they build their careers. At times, the anecdotes compound to the point of exhaustion, and some British cultural references might not resonate with readers from elsewhere. Overall, however, Fisher is a friendly guide into the world of professional theatre criticism. He succinctly describes the major debates that have shaped the field, and prepares readers to make their own choices and play the role of critic as they feel it should be performed. There is one poor choice Fisher makes. He is clearly aware of the wide-ranging venues that theatre criticism appears...

Book Review: The Language of Journalism: A Multi-genre Perspective, by Angela Smith and Michael Higgins

The Language of Journalism: A Multi-genre Perspective. Angela Smith and Michael Higgins. New York: Bloomsbury, 2013. 152 pp. $29.95 pbk.Angela Smith and Dr. Michael Higgins explore the media's use of language to purposely and inadvertently maintain the societal status quo. Smith, a Reader in Language and Culture at the University of Sunderland, United Kingdom, and Higgins, the Director of the and Creative Writing program at the University of Strathclyde, United Kingdom, use Critical Discourse Analysis to examine how journalistic language reflects and shapes social realities and how it articulates values. CDA's explicitly political agenda seeks to raise awareness of the ideological frameworks that inform language choice, and the construction, representation and positioning of its subjects in discourse. In other words, they look at how language is used in different media outlets and how these choices reflect political values.After outlining their method and framework, they divide the rest of the book by media genre: broadcast, magazine, newspaper, sports, and online. In the broadcast section, for example, they talk about language as a means of establishing informality (e.g., anchors referring to each other by first name) and a close broadcaster-audience relationship (e.g. using the pronoun you when talking to the viewers). They talk about newspapers' lack of space necessitating news headline register-or the American headlinese-which causes headlines to lack the nuance of the articles. Across all outlets, they discuss verb tenses quite a bit, in terms of using present tense to convey a sense of immediacy, while using past-perfect tenses (i.e., had said) to distinguish recently conducted interviews from background information. The book provides a unique application of critical discourse to an analysis of popular media.The Language of Journalism is accessible for seasoned researchers and undergraduate students. The introduction provides clear definitions of terms used in critical analysis for those unfamiliar with them (e.g., discourse, ideology, intertextuality). The introductory chapter could stand alone as a text for introductory students. The chapters also are clearly organized with plenty of subheadings throughout and a labeled conclusion, which, again, could be helpful for students. The book also uses relatively modern media examples, such as references to twenty-four-hour networks, Twitter, and reality television. They also make good use of journalistic artifacts, including broadcast transcripts, newspaper articles, photos, and magazine pages. Although some of the British media references might not be familiar to some, the book has a clear and simple tone that makes it accessible for readers across countries. …

Usage Guides and Usage Trends in Australian and British English

This paper presents a mini-diachronic investigation into the question of whether usage guides (prescriptive or descriptive) affect the evolution of standard written English, using the notions of codification, standardization and hyperstandardization. It examines the commentaries on three variable usage items (-ise/-ize spellings, alright v. all right, and data in singular/plural agreement) in dictionaries, style manuals and usage guides published in Australia and Britain from 1966 to 1995. The treatment of each usage item in terms of prescription/proscription or acceptance is then compared with quantitative evidence of actual usage, using (a) a set of standard corpora (Australian and British) from 1966 to 1995, and (b) twenty-first century data from the internet (Google searches of Australian and UK sites). Changes in relative frequencies of the variants for each pair are then analysed as reflections of the standardization process and/or the putative hyperstandardizing influence of usage commentaries. Despite markedly different treatments in Australian and British references, the trends for the three variable usage items in twenty-first century English are found to be much the same. Hyperstandardization may be seen where prescribed spellings replace the alternatives previously available; but the outcomes for the other variable items suggest they are rationalized by common usage sooner or later, whether the local usage commentary is prescriptive or descriptive.

More or Less on the Mark? Translating Harold Pinter’s The Dwarfs: A Novel

A literary source text demands the translator’s approach for each process of translation. This approach involves a complex and multifaceted analysis of the source text. As Pinter’s novel The Dwarfs provides rich ground for such analysis, I present a selection of translation issues against the backdrop of a more general problem of translatability. Pinter is a master of English dialogue, which makes its translation a truly daunting task. The conversations between the characters are filled with expressions from cricket, dated British cultural references, puns, literary and Biblical allusions, phrases and formulaic expressions characteristic of Cockney, and numerous allusions to Shakespeare as well as his own earlier plays. I examine the translatability of The Dwarfs by discussing three translation codes: lexical-semantic, cultural and esthetic. Although these are closely interconnected and interdependent, I present a choice of issues within each code in order to submit for consideration the challenges facing a Pinter translator as well as to show the complexity of Pinter’s artistic vision in one of his earliest works.

What did the Germans ever do for us? A century of British learning about and imagining modern town planning

This article uses contemporary sources to trace the recurrent ways in which the British planning movement has drawn on its German equivalent from the early twentieth century to the present day. As with most such European links, the resultant learning has varied. In some cases British references to German planning have been merely to inform or more generally to inspire emulation or occasionally avoidance. But often the learning has provided specific ideas, practices or techniques that have been directly adopted or more usually hybridised or synthesised into the British planning repertoire. German influences have been apparent in aspects of British planning such as land use zoning, city extension, regional planning, housing design, motorways, pedestrianisation, traffic calming and sustainable eco‐suburbs. What, however, has made the British planning movement’s long‐term and mainly admiring engagement with German planning so intriguing is that it has evolved alongside major conflicts and long term suspicion of the German nation itself. The prevailing popular and political imagination within Britain has seen Germany as an especially problematic country from which to learn, more so than, for example, the USA or Scandinavia. This makes British planning’s German connection an instructive case study of cross‐national learning and lesson‐drawing and the factors shaping these processes. It shows the limitations of more conventional conceptualisations of them as rational searches for ‘good practice’. This article shows that they also must be seen as explorations in imaginative geography, concerned with real places, ideas and practices, but viewed through particularly powerful ideological and cultural lenses.

Central adiposity in Brazilian schoolchildren aged 7–10 years

Waist circumference (WC) is a measure of central adiposity related to elevated risk factor levels in children and adolescents. The aim of the present study was to describe WC percentiles in 7- to 10-year-old Brazilian children and to compare frequencies of obesity and overweight as defined by BMI and frequencies of excess and at risk of abdominal adiposity as defined by WC to the corresponding age and sex data from British references. A representative sample of 2919 schoolchildren of the city of Florianopolis (southern Brazil) was examined. Smoothed WC percentiles were derived using the least mean square method. Frequencies of overweight and obesity and of excess and at risk of abdominal adiposity were assessed using the 91st and 98th centiles of the British references as cut-off points. WC increased with age in both boys and girls, with higher values for boys at every age and percentile level. Nutritional status categories of children assessed by the 91st and 98th British BMI and WC centiles showed moderate agreement (weighted kappa = 0.58). Overweight was more frequent in Brazilian than British children: 15.1 % of girls and 20.1 % of boys were above the 91st percentile of the 1990 BMI for age British references. About one-quarter (22.0 % of girls and 26.9 % of boys) exceeded the 91st percentile of WC British references. The present data could be used to compare WC in children in other populations and may serve as a baseline for future studies of temporal trends in WC in Brazil.

Halloween, une vieille fête britannique dans la modernité américaine

Today, Halloween seems to be an American holiday. And true, it is a deeply-rooted tradition in the New World. Yet it is a recent tradition. For a long time, while it was much observed in pre- industrial United Kingdom, it was not really celebrated in America. Paradoxically, while in the course, of the 19th century it was disappearing from the British calendar, it developped as a very popular event in Canada and the USA where it was actually picked up for its ancient British origins and especially its British references — so as to make sure the US and Canada, in the context of massive new immigration waves, were to remain of an Anglo-Saxon culture. Likewise, its old rites were selected and adapted to modern, fast-changing industrial America.

Memory Disorders in Psychiatric Practice

Memory Disorders in Psychiatric Practice

Further British Materials in the Pre-War Music Collection of the Staats- Und Universitätsbibliothek, Hamburg

In a recent article, I surveyed the British music holdings of the Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek, Hamburg, prior to the Second World War; details of which derive from the nineteenth-century manuscript catalogue compiled by Arrey von Dommer (1828–1905)—see ‘The Music Collection of the Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek, Hamburg: A Survey of its British Holdings Prior to the Second World War’, RMA Research Chronicle, 30 (1997), 1–138. In addition, I also discussed the history of the collection and commented on its losses and recoveries. I have recently uncovered further British references, and it is with these that I am concerned here.

Longitudinal analysis of growth in children with idiopathic short stature

SummaryIn this study the growth curves of 229 children (145 boys, 84 girls) with idiopathic short stature (ISS) were analysed in three ways: (1) we compared the results of longitudinal modelling by means of Karlberg's ICP model with those of a cross-sectional analysis; (2) we studied to what extent an individual changes his/her height standard deviation score (SDS) position during childhood; and (3) we constructed height velocity curves for children with ISS using Cole's LMS method, and compared these with the British references. During childhood the difference between the average longitudinal and the cross-sectional height curves was less than 1 cm and the spread was almost identical. The average change in height SDS during childhood was not different from zero, indicating that in general growth of children with ISS was well canalized. The individual change in height SDS position during childhood was within 0·6 SDS for a follow-up of 1 year, increasing to 1·9 SDS for a follow-up of 7 years. During childhood mean height velocity was about 1 cm/year lower than that of the British reference. With respect to the pubertal growth spurt the maximum height velocity took place 1 year later, and was 0·6 cm/year lower than the British reference in boys as well as girls. We conclude that spontaneous growth of children with ISS is adequately described by a cross-sectional curve.

The politics of judicial discretion: Rethinking the interaction between national courts and the Eurpean court of justice

The recognition that courts play a significant role in the process of European integration has focused attention on the interaction between national judges and the European Court of Justice. The prevailing theoretical model of this interaction holds that a variety of incentives impel national judges to co‐operate with the ECJ by providing it with frequent preliminary references. This article tests the ability of the model to account for the behaviour of national courts during the period 1972–94. In assessing the utility of the model two central claims are made. First, that the model as currently constructed is incapable of explaining the patterns of references originating from various member states, particularly the consistent lack of references from British courts. Second, that the level of British references, and patterns of judicial co‐operation in general, can be better understood by questioning the model's core assumption ‐ that national judges face powerful incentives to refer to the ECJ. As a first...

Anglo‐German Perceptions of Education

In an analysis of recent British references to the education system of the FRG, we must not only consider the phenomena used for comparison but also pay attention to their context. A comparison of education systems is based on descriptions which must be as accurate as possible; but alongside those descriptions, evaluative criteria have to be adduced-otherwise the comparison remains lifeless and b6ring. This evaluative element must play a stronger part if one is speaking about comparisons already carried out. Such judgement ought also to be allowed by educationists, provided that it is frankly presented and clearly recognisable as such to the reader. The following remarks are written from an evaluative point of view. Perhaps it should be assumed that the British education system is held in high regard in the FRG. A great number of studies and articles (H. Schmidt counted more than 900 titles) have made known principally those phenomena which have been regarded here as exemplary,

Growth of urban schoolchildren in Botswana.

Urban Tswana schoolchildren (721), aged 6 to 14 years, were measured for height, weight, triceps skinfold and upper arm circumference. Boys and girls at all ages exhibited mean heights and weights less than the 50th percentile values of American and British reference standards, with large numbers of children falling into the 10th percentile or lower based N.C.H.S. (National Center for Health Statistics) values. Weight-for-height percentile distributions did not show such large numbers in the lowest percentiles. Triceps skinfolds were smaller than those of British children and changed little in boys over the measured age range. Girls' skinfold values were more variable than boys', and in older girls approached British means. For both boys and girls, skinfolds showed a developmental pattern similar to those of other African children. Arm circumferences also developed as those of other urban African children, and by later ages were similar to those of British references. Differences between Batswana and Europeans may be due to smaller heights and weights of young Tswana adults when compared with their counterparts in developed countries, and also to growth tempo differences. Such tempo differences also exist between Batswana and other African groups.

Library Orientation and Instruction — 1975; An Annotated Review of the Literature

The following is an annotated bibliography of materials published in English in 1975 on orienting users to the library and on instructing them in the use of reference resources. Included are publications on user instruction in all types of libraries and for all types of users from elementary to graduate students. It should be noted that the literature on this subject is increasing and a growing number of the publications listed are concerned with evaluating library instruction and its effect on users and libraries. As in previous years, the library literature also includes many references to publications on user instruction in foreign countries. However, such publications, except for British and Australian references, have been omitted from this annual review.