Ideological Camps Research Articles

Fathering Herself: A Source Study of Shakespeare's Feminism

THE COLLABORATION OF CRITICAL METHODS suggested by title of this essay might appear a rather unlikely, even forced, proposition. Source study and are a strange pair: first is largely interested in finding in Shakespeare verbal echoes of earlier texts, second committed to discovering in Shakespeare a foreshadowing of particular political identities. Certainly, in considering feminism (a debatable, and surely anachronistic, construction), prospect of looking to Shakespeare's sources for origins of any political understanding of the woman's part seems to offer little promise; behind critical assertion that finds Shakespeare's portrayals of women remarkable lies unarticulated suspicion of rare if not unprecedented quality of his cultural voice. In other words, assumption of Shakespeare's uniqueness presupposes a differentiating context, and it is in relationship to conception of source as cultural context that I would like to consider Shakespeare. Traditionally relationship between Shakespeare and his literary sources, which source study examines, has been imagined as linear and determinative, an empirical matter of subtractions and additions, in which Shakespeare finds and rejects or accepts details of plot structure, character, or style. I would like to re-imagine this relationship less as a transference of formal ingredients, with sources as sites of mere borrowings, than as a culturally determined reading by Shakespeare of contexts that he found provocative-or not provocative enough. Curiously it is this sense of a source as merely a site of borrowing that feminist criticism has unwittingly adopted in its effort to stake some ideologically consistent claim to Shakespeare. Until recently, feminist criticism of Shakespeare divided itself-and Shakespeare-into two seemingly incompatible ideological camps. Pioneering feminist forays into Shakespeare's canon, while seeking to compensate for bias in a critical tradition that has tended to emphasize male characters, male themes, and male fantasies as well as to develop a uniquely feminist criticism capable of searching out the woman's part, discovered in Shakespeare an apparent commitment to portrayal of liberated female characters, strong in voice and action. Shakespeare here be-

Remodeling British Economic History: A Review Article

Writers of survey textbooks have to serve thousands of masters. Offending major ideological camps can prove costly. To sell their books on many campuses, they must often cite and use some body of literature deserving oblivion because some instructors will hold it sacred. To win reorders year after year, moreover, authors must meet a variety of student needs. Chapter outlines and explanations should be crystal-clear-at least for less capable students. But too clear and simple a book overtaxes the patience of abler students seeking nuances, complexity, and a look at the frontiers of knowledge. Wit, humor, and drama are vital to keep all student readers awake. And everybody demands a broad, up-to-date survey of the whole field of study. When an author or group of authors can face and meet this daunting challenge, readers are treated to a fine overview of what scholars tend to believe and what makes them believe it. Such is the two-volume Economic History of Britain since 1700, assembled under the careful editorship of Roderick Floud and Donald McCloskey. 1 This work is likely to enjoy heavy use in the years ahead. The quality of the contributed chapters is generally high. Editors Floud and McCloskey have given the whole work more unity of style and better cross-references than one usually expects from 28 different authors or pairs of authors. Its appearance provides an occasion to pause and reflect on how we present modern British economic history.

Joint development of offshore petroleum resources: The Persian Gulf experience

The Persian Gulf region is one of the richest parts of the world in terms of oil and gas resources (Fig. 1). In 1979, proven oil reserves in the Persian Gulf amounted to 365 billion barrels, equal to 82% of OPEC’s and 53% of the world’s proven reserves. In terms of proven gas reserves, the Persian Gulf nations’ reserves amounted to 20.4 trillion m3 or 75% of OPEC’s and 29% of the world’s proven gas reserves. In 1979, Persian Gulf exports accounted for nearly 60% of the world trade in petroleum. Six of the major oil producers within OPEC border the Persian Gulf (Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates [UAE]). Despite its importance, the Persian Gulf region is a highly politicized and unstable region. Kuwait, Oman, and the UAE (comprised of seven tiny sheikdoms) are city states or emirates with very small populations. Iran still suffers from the after-shocks of its 1979 revolution and Saudi Arabia and Iraq suffer from domestic political problems. The nations of this region belong to different ideological camps. Border conflicts, claims to each other’s territories and internal political pressures make another political flare-up in the area with consequent impact on oil production and exports a dangerous possibility. Notwithstanding the differences and instabilities, the oil nations of the Persian Gulf have, in most cases, resolved their differences in matters related to oil. In some cases, where diplomatic relations were at the breaking point, the oil ministers, within the OPEC framework, coordinated their policies in a mutually beneficial manner. However, difficulties were a little greater where offshore joint developments of oilfields were concerned.

A Cooperative Effort Between Formal and Informal Education Agencies

There is a strong tendency in American Jewish education to promote the coordination of formal and informal Jewish education. This is not always possible for a variety of different reasons. One factor is the separate nature of the formal educational and informal educational organizations and their institutional goals and directions. Moreover, the formal educational agencies tend to hire staff that are not capable of dealing with informal education. They look at Jewish education as the transmission of cognitive skills; Jewish knowledge is viewed largely as a set of skills which demands long hours in classroom situations. On the other hand, informal educational institutions like the Jewish communal camps (in contrast to the ideological camps such as Camps Ramah, Morasha, Habonim Camps, Young Judea Camps, etc.) are generally social-work-oriented agencies. They do not always perceive themselves as the transmitters of Jewish culture nor as change agents in the complex process of Jewish identity. There is an uns...

Neutrality and War in Italian policy 1939-40

In the summer of 1939 the Fascist government of Italy was not prepared for nor did it wish to go to war. Neither did it wish to break its ideological solidarity with Nazi Germany. Therefore, Italian diplomacy during the period between September 1939 and October 1940 had as its major objective the achievement of a negotiated peace in which a balance of power between the ideological camps of fascism and democracy would be ensured. What follows is a description of the pressures and the processes of thought and action which, paradoxically, led Mussolini to declare war against France and England and, finally, to invade Greece. Italy did not realize that war was truly imminent until the Salzburg Conference. Ciano told Hitler of 'Italy's great surprise at the entirely unexpected gravity of the situation', and he pointed out that no previous indication 'had been given by Germany.. that the situation in respect of Poland was so grave'.1 Hitler depreciated the gravity of the situation by describing the forthcoming German-Polish war as another adjustment in the area of international diplomacy similar in nature to Munich and to Italy's seizure of Albania. He refused to consider it as an event that would precipitate a general war with the democracies. Ciano said that Mussolini believed the Danzig crisis could be solved by an international conference which the Italians would be happy to propose.

Psychiatry and ideology.

Throughout history psychiatric ideas have been shaped by prevailing ideological frameworks. The development of psychiatric theory and practice has not been a simple progression but has oscillated wildly with each change in the cultural climate. Contemporary psychiatry is divided into a number of ideological camps, each reflecting aspects of the fragmented modern zeitgeist. Allegiance to any one system carries the danger of sacrificing the care of patients to attain theoretical consistency. Psychiatrists must accept the uncertainties of the eclectic position and abandon Utopian attempts to resolve the ambiguities of the human condition.

"Chants Democratic and Native American": A Neglected Sequence in the Growth of Leaves of Grass

TN THE BROODING AND FATEFUL DAYS of the spring of i86o Walt A-Whitman issued the third edition of Leaves of Grass. While the political crisis swirled through the nation's cities, Walt Whitman read galley proofs of this new edition in the office of Thayer and Eldridge, his new publishers, in Boston. Though it might seem that the erstwhile Democratic party ward worker was committing an act of gross indifference by sitting back and watching his party crumble and his nation divide into two hostile ideological camps, the truth is that Whitman was now finally working to achieve the goal of a Poet of Democracy, to write his evangel poem of comrades. If tempers flared around him, he would, in his new volume, answer tempers with his own combination of gentle persuasion, anger and superideological reconstruction of the American experience. He referred to this revised and greatly augmented edition of Leaves of Grass as the New Bible.1 The revelation of its scriptures was the ordained Union of States, in themselves a new type of answer to the eternal cry of mankind for the messiah and for the millennium.2 Far from being the work of an aimless and disillusioned village-democrat-turned-sour, Leaves of Grass i86o was

Factors Looking to Western World Leadership

In the world of today, it is not a matter of whether the East or the West should lead. We all face one universal problem—how to live together in peace. The U. S. cannot act alone, and our most natural allies are the nations of the West. The world, however is bigger than the West, and the West cannot face the Communist empires alone. We need the friendship of the non-Communist nations of Africa and Asia. But, because of the nature of nuclear weapons, there cannot exist in the world two polarized ideological camps. A partner ship between Asia and Africa and the West can work. Freedom will not survive in Africa and Asia unless they can achieve a decent standard of living. The U. S. should lead in acting as banker for the underdeveloped countries as the organizer of the surplus wealth of the non-Communist world. In the Near East there is a great opportunity for Asia and the West to work together. The alliance could bring pressure on the Arabs and the Russians to have the Arabs give up their state of war against Israel. The greatest achievement of the alliance would be to compel all nations to join in an attack against war itself. Dis armament will never take place if negotiations are left only to Russia and the U. S. We must bring Asia, Africa, and South America into the discussions. The problems of easing world tensions and controlling war weapons are interrelated. Lead ership, then, is the responsibility of all nations working in concert to eliminate the possibility of a war of total destruc tion.—Ed.