Cultural Theme Analysis Research Articles

The Unknown Weininger: Science, Philosophy, and Cultural Politics in Fin-de-Siècle Vienna

OttoWeininger (1880–1903) is a notorious figure in European history.1A Jewish intellectual of Vienna, Weininger committed suicide at the age of 23 after publishing a single book based on his doctoral dissertation,Geschlecht und Charakter (Sex and Character, 1903). The work was admired by some of the greatest intellects of our century—Franz Kafka, Ludwig Wittgenstein, James Joyce, Karl Kraus, August Strindberg. More recently, it has attained virtually legendary status among scholars as an exemplary text of European misogyny and antisemitism. WhileGeschlecht und Charakteris certainly unrivaled as a compendium of turn-of-the-century prejudices, stereotypes, and anxieties, it is not simply a deranged thinker's chronicle of personal nightmares. This fact has been obscured due to the failure of recent scholars to situate Weininger and his work in the intellectual and cultural contexts of fin-de-siècle Central Europe. This paper demonstrates thatGeschlecht und Charakteris an intensely personal analysis of intellectual, political, and cultural themes that were of central importance to contemporary Viennese intellectuals.

School-related problems of Mexican-American adolescents

An attempt is made to explain certain selected aspects of the school problems of some Mexican-American adolescents by an analysis of major cultural themes. The data presented suggest that for some Mexican-American adolescents, school has at least the following four meanings: (1) a place where teachers are frequently perceived and treated as authority figures similar to their fathers and, therefore, are targets of rebellion; (2) a place lacking strict external prhibition of encounters with the opposite sex; (3) a public arena of activity where one can bring honor or shame to one's family: and (4) an institution which expects participating individuals to value individual competition and success. Finally, these problems are discussed with respect to problems that Mexican-American female adolescents have in direct expression of anger.