Ideological Themes Research Articles

The Perspective of Gender Equality in Francisca Senhorinha

Objective: To reflect on the approach and impact of Francisca Senhorinha's thought and work from a socio-historical perspective, relaunched in the current themes of ideology and gender issues, along with the empowerment at the time in terms of communication of the ideal and formation of women in her time, assessing how she influenced the feminist movement in 19th century Brazil and the impact of her contributions in the fight for the emancipation of women in a very challenging socio-political context. Theoretical Framework: The research is fundamentally centred on relevant studies and references on the author and the issues associated with the subject under study, with particular emphasis on research that the author inspired in the state, in the country and in the world. Thus contributing to a theoretical framework close to that associated with Bárbara Souto's work entitled "Senhora do seu destino: Francisca Senhorinha da Motta Diniz e Josephina Alvares de Azevedo - projetos de emancipação feministas na imprensa brasileira (1873-1894)" (2013). Method: Narrative literature review, seeking to describe and discuss the current state of the research topic, particularly with regard to authors who consolidate and substantiate the author's perspective on which the research is centred. Results and Discussion: A theoretical-discursive approach based on a relational triad between concepts, authors and literary-communicational work in the press with implications (direct and indirect) in the evolutionary framework of the theme adopted in this research. Implications of the research: to constitute, this time and for the future, a set of findings and considerations that can help reflection on history and its makers, in certain subjects and themes of great value in contemporary discourse in the light of current concerns and the demands of modern society. Originality/Value: This study addresses, in a unique way, the originality of Francisca Senhorinha da Motta Diniz's work, which lies mainly in her pioneering and multifaceted work as an educator, feminist and abolitionist at a time when women, especially black women, faced serious social and institutional restrictions. Her inspiring legacy empowers the areas that are central to a world that wants to be democratic and free, essentially aimed at protecting and promoting "Education for All", within a framework of values based on equality and fraternity between peoples, thus helping to build a fairer and more inclusive society.

Cinematic Orientalism: East-West Perception in Netflix's 'Swimmers'

This article analyzes the movie "The Swimmers" using ideological and frame-by-frame film analysis methods. The themes, characters, and locations in the film are evaluated in the context of the critique of orientalism and self-orientalism, analyzing how ideological themes are processed and reinforced. The film associates concepts of faith and hope with Christianity, presenting Christian characters as saviors. While telling the story of Syrian refugees, the film chooses Christian and European-looking heroes, portraying Muslims negatively. Emphasizing the superiority of Western culture, the film depicts the Eastern world as backward and helpless. Countries such as Türkiye are coded as dark and uncanny, while European countries are idealized. The positive portrayal of Greece praises European efforts towards refugees but creates a negative image of the Turkish Coast Guard. The orientalist and self-orientalist elements of the film are attempts to present an attractive narrative for Western audiences. The Muslim screenwriter's distortion of Eastern historical realities under Western producers' influence represents self-orientalism. This approach reflects an endeavor to present Eastern culture in line with Western perspectives to gain Western approval, reinforcing prejudices rather than fostering understanding of cultural and political differences.

Poetry, ideology and heteroglossic realities in language textbooks

ABSTRACT Using literature, more specifically poetry in English as F/L2 has grown over time. However, scholars disagree as to whether it makes any difference to language learning or what functions it serves. The purpose of this study is to examine what discourses poetry embodies, what identities it shapes, and whether it can confront dominant ideologies in English language textbooks in Pakistan. Based on Fairclough’s dialectical-relational approach and Bakhtin’s ideas on dialogism and heteroglossia, we analysed 12 Pakistani English language textbooks. Findings suggest poetry texts embody a variety of ideological themes, including linguistic sexism, nationalistic sentiments, and religious and spiritual ethos. These discourses tend to shape learners’ identities. In addition, we also found references to poems that offer learners alternative perspectives and ways of being. In certain poems, for instance, curiosity, questioning, struggle, and recognising truth as a multifaceted entity are evident, allowing spaces for heteroglossia. Using these insights, teachers, curriculum developers and textbook writers will be able to better reflect on their pedagogical approaches and content embedded in textbooks to ensure justice, equality, and inclusion for students from a variety of socioeconomic, ethnic, and religious backgrounds.

Plastic artist Gheorghe Șoitu, a true honorary citizen of the city of Cahul

Gheorghe Șoitu studied at the School of Arts in Cahul, in the class of Professor Gheorghe Huzun, who gave him the basis for drawing, painting and composition, and later at the Republican School of Fine Arts “Ilia Repin” in Chisinau. After finishing his studies, he worked as a teacher, training generations of young artists at the School of Painting for Children “A. Sciusev”. Returning to Cahul, he continued his work as a painter at the workshop of the city’s Culture Department. Being a nonconformist, Gheorghe Soitu fits perfectly into the evolution of the plastic arts in the second half of the 80s, which is characterized by the easy transition from ideological themes to subjects expressing the human essence, translated into symbols. During this period, Gheorghe Soitu’s creation is characterized by experimentalism. In the compositions of the genre, the invoice, the incision and the contrasting chromatic range dominate, with multiple nuances. Balanced, however, tonally, chromatically and compositionally, they exude perfection. In the 2000s the artist’s work is distinguished by neo-expressionist compositions in which the plastic form is managed by impulsive and spontaneous temperament. This stage is characterised by a particular expressive force, diverse colour range and energetic colour tones. For his entire creation, the Cahul City Hall made an inspired gesture in 2009 to grant him the title of honorary citizen of the city, Gheorghe Șoitu being, rightly, the representative artist of Cahul and the south of the Republic of Moldova.

Analysis of the Role of Urban Communication and Theme Publishing in Shaping National Image

In March 2023, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China called for the whole party to conduct an in-depth study of President Xi's ideological theme of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era. Up against new trends, the publishing industry is guided by the global consciousness of "focusing on and trend and serving the overall development", and its expression and forms are in constant enrichment, with theme publishing and publications integrating various fields emerging one after another. With the deepening globalization, China's opening to the outside world never stops, for which improving China's international image has been a proposition of the times. From the perspective of theme publishing, this study explores the influence of theme publishing empowered by urban communication on the national image from the perspective of the combination of theme publishing and urban communication. Through content analysis, 89 key theme publications are analyzed with following conclusions. 1. Urban communication affects national image through topic selection planning of theme publications. 2. The discourse system of theme publications intermediately influences topic selection planning related to urban communication on shaping national image.

The South Korean Military Ideological Complex: Transcendent Nationalism in Military Moral Education

Abstract Since its inception, the South Korean military, like an Althusserian ideological state apparatus, has served to articulate and disseminate state ideology through what is called the military moral education or ideological training program (chŏngsin or chŏnghun kyoyuk), which instructed soldiers in Korean history, society, and politics. A close reading of moral education textbooks from the Syngman Rhee (1948–60) and Park Chung Hee (1961–79) eras thus shows the content and themes of state ideology, which went beyond simple anti-communism and can instead be summed up as “transcendent nationalism”: a potent, fascistic mixture of ethnic nationalism, anti-communism, and anti-liberal collectivism that emphasized individual loyalty and sacrifice to the supreme representative of the Korean nation, the South Korean state. As part of a larger state ideological complex and as an ideological apparatus in its own right, the military moral education program should be examined to offer a better understanding of South Korean ideology and political discourse and the rise of anti-communist nationalist ideological hegemony during the Cold War. This large-scale effort to indoctrinate South Korean men, in which military moral education played a crucial part, arguably contributed to a significant degree of societal consent behind the Park Chung Hee regime.

A Critical Stylistics Analysis of Sports Commentaries

Drawing on Jeffries’ Critical Stylistics Analysis, the current study was done on the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 commentaries to reveal the discursive strategies used by the commentators that contribute to the ideological themes embedded in their commentaries. Six matches from the tournament were recorded and transcribed. The commentaries were then analysed using Jeffries' Critical Stylistics Analysis toolkits called textual-conceptual functions. Though not prominent, the findings reveal traces of ideologies of representation of races and religion found in the commentaries only by using six out ten Jeffries’ textual-conceptual functions toolkits. The current study helps sports commentators to comprehend how commentaries influence viewers’ perceptions of sports and the world around us. The current study adds to the literature on ideological frameworks to determine distinct frameworks employed in sports commentary. This could be useful for scholars interested in the relationship between language and ideology, as it could give them an excellent grasp of how these frameworks are employed to develop and maintain specific worldviews.

Ideology as a function in Rousseau's Social Contract

AbstractThis paper demonstrates how ideology plays a major, but previously neglected role in Rousseau's treatment of politics in the Social Contract. Specifically, it shows how a number of key elements in his line of argument come close to ideology criticism as it is conceived in Louis Althusser's theory of ideological state apparatuses. This is the case not just in relation to the distinction between general will and particular will, but also in relation to such concepts as property and social contract. However, the paper also demonstrates how this pre‐Marxist understanding of ideology co‐exists in the text with a different and more primitive understanding of ideology which is incompatible with Marxism and which points back to Rousseau's previous discourse on the origins of inequality. The paper concludes that while there are definitely elements in Rousseau's text which point toward a future development of the theme of ideology in Marxist theory, the Social Contract on the whole is characterized by heterogeneity on this topic.

Influence of Ideological Themes in Social Media Political Campaigns on Voters’ Education and Participation in Nigeria’s 2023 General Elections

This study adopted mixed research methods to investigate how ideological themes in social media political campaigns have influenced voters’ education and participation in Nigeria’s 2023 general elections. Through questionnaire and interview research instruments, the study found that in the last 2023 General Elections, Facebook was more often used for political campaigns in Nigeria compared to Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, google+, Facebook, WhatsApp and Blogs. These social media platforms, as the findings demonstrated, were more accessible to the voters thus, have easily became tools for political campaigns and were used to a great extent for that purpose. Unfortunately, as finding indicated, the ideological themes dominant in these platforms (social media) were to a great extent, negative as they were dominated by insults, abuse of opponents, hate speeches, falsehood, blame shifting, ethnocentric and religious undertones, anxiety and apathy among others, thereby, to a great extent, contributing to apathy among majority of voters in participating in the elections. Posting, commenting and sharing were the various ways through which those ideological campaign messages were spread to voters during the period of the last elections. The study concluded that social media has come to stay as platforms for use among stakeholders during political campaigns but its influence is abused by negative ideological construction which to a great extent, affects voters’ education and turn up in elections in Nigeria.

A Discursive Engagement of Ideological Issues in Ilaje Zionist Gospel Songs: Lekan Remilekun-Amos and Debo Ojubuyi as Exemplars

The ideological practices of Christian groups in Nigeria and beyond, as evident in their songs, have received considerable attention from scholars across disciplines, including linguists. However, the songs and music of the Ilaje Zionist Christian movement, which constitutes a major bloc in the Nigerian “white garment” Christian circle, have not received serious scholarly attention. To address this gap in the literature, this article explores ideological issues in Ilaje Zionist gospel songs. Two prominent male artistes within the Ilaje Zionist Christian movement are sampled as case studies. The theoretical framework for this study is critical discourse analysis with emphasis on Fairclough’s analysis on ideology and insights from Odebunmi’s notion of shared cultural knowledge. The study identifies the following ideological themes that reverberate in this Christian movement: life is a battle, human wickedness, life is a matter of time and season, you reap what you sow, and life is vanity. The findings reveal that there are areas of complementarity between the Yorùbá ideological standpoint and the Christian biblical principles about life, as evident in the analysed songs. While the songs of the Ilaje Zionist Christian movement are gospel in nature, they reveal the people’s ideological attachment to their indigenous roots as a sub-group of the Yorùbá.

Saxo Grammaticus's Account of the Viking Age Site on the Danish Island of Hjarnø in Gesta Danorum

Saxo Grammaticus's Account of the Viking Age Site on the Danish Island of Hjarnø in <i>Gesta Danorum</i>

New Rightists or Simply Opportunists? The New Right Parties in Power in Latin America and Europe between 2010 and 2019: An Analysis of Their Ideological Dimensions

AbstractThere is a boom in the power of right-wing parties that are becoming government parties in Latin America and Europe. It has been pointed out that these are distinguished from traditional right-wing parties by their common ideology that transcends national contexts, which is why they have been grouped as New Right-wing parties. This article questions whether these parties share ideological themes or whether they are heterogeneous and obey national interests. This study systemizes the New Right-wing parties’ programs and classifies them to answer the question. This corpus is then studied through frequency, network, and principal component analysis. Two conclusions are reached from this. First, these parties agree on issues such as provider States and nationalist claims, and, second, their programs have diverse themes that do not show the formation of an identifiable transnational ideological agenda in their programs. Consequently, grouping these parties as an ideologically homogeneous phenomenon can make invisible the fact that they are parties that adjust to particular demands of their political environment, in a logic that obeys more catch-all parties than ideological and dogmatic parties.

Populist pragmatism: the nationalisation of local government strategies by the Rassemblement National

Existing studies have explored the territorialisation of the Rassemblement National (RN) in terms of its regional variation in patterns of support and mobilisation strategies. The extent of regional variation in its local government strategies, however, has been neglected. In this article, we make this enquiry through comparison of two municipalities run by the RN between 2014 and 2020. While similar in local demand and central party supply, the municipalities differ in their socio-economic context and political history. We ask if the party has responded to these contrasting contexts with different strategies of governing. We conduct a qualitative analysis of the policies introduced in both towns and draw on semi-structured interviews with government and opposition actors. In addition, we conduct a quantitative text analysis of their policy agendas, using a dictionary-based analysis to measure the extent of populist radical right ideology in each case. Our findings show that, as well as some limited regional variation in the prominence of their core ideological themes, there is a common emphasis from both on a governing style characterised by ‘pragmatism’. We argue that the prioritisation of the national party aim of mainstreaming can be a force for the nationalisation of local governing strategies from populist radical right parties, as shown here in the case of the RN.

The bottleneck and incision of ideological and political theory education in Chinese art colleges

The university's ideological and political theory education is a great soul project to awaken students’ minds and shape character. The successful ideological and political theory education should not only strictly obey the four “circles” positioning of our Party and our country on the theme of ideology, but also highly accord with the three “spiritual” demands of college students. At present, Marxism theory education in colleges and universities poses many problems such as the separation of theory and reality in content, conceptual cognitive and emotional barriers, knowledge disjointed from practice and so on. Therefore, the teaching contents and methods of university's ideological and political theory education should be explored in a targeted way to fulfill the mission of knowledge teaching, character forging, quality cultivating and moral education more effectively.

The Semiotic Method as an Aspect of the Methodology of Social Philosophy: the Experience of S.S. Averintsev

The subject of the study is the correlation of the application of the semiotic method by S.S. Averintsev with social philosophy. The aim of the work is to demonstrate how and to what extent S.S. Averintsev applied the semiotic method and to identify the belonging of this method to the socio-philosophical field. The author identifies and concretizes the specifically semiotic features of Averintsev's methodology. The role of the sign in the worldview of early Byzantine society, the formation of this worldview and its adequate presentation, the sign as a reflection of the life of society and at the same time as a factor influencing it is revealed. The problem of the sign's ability to convey philosophical and theological meaning is considered. The material for the study is the work of S.S.Averintsev "Poetics of Early Byzantine literature". As a result of the work, the specifically semiotic features of Averintsev's methodology were identified and concretized. In his research, Sergey Sergeevich uses the terms "semiotics", "sign", "sign system", "structure", "context", "representation", "meaning", the concept of "word function" with varying degrees of intensity, which are characteristic of semiotics as a science. S.S. Averintsev touches on philosophical and ideological themes. It concerns such philosophical concepts and topics as being, ontology, anthropology, goodness, transcendence, otherness, meaning. The novelty of the research is due to the fact that the semiotic aspect of Averintsev's works has not been investigated, and there are also no scientific texts devoted to the relationship of the semiotic method and social philosophy in Averintsev's works. Averintsev reveals the correlation of the existence of society with the iconic universe. Being itself is a philosophical concept. Averintsev's work shows how meanings affect signs and the life of society, and at the same time, how signs themselves create new meanings.The Christian worldview presupposes such a view of man and society, in which a person in his unity with God is thought of as a being with the highest value and dignity in the created world.

Forms of Discrimination against Woman in Selected Iraqi Proverbs: A Critical Discourse Analysis

The present study investigates discrimination against a woman in the light of critical discourse analysis (CDA) in selected Iraqi proverbs, specifically those used in Baghdad and Basra. It aims to find out the ideological themes implied in the said proverbs about a woman. The significance of this study is to show the different forms of discrimination against a woman in the these proverbs. The proverbs indicating forms of discrimination against a woman are collected from three important reference books, namely, Aldileeshy(1968), Al-Hanafi (1962), Al-Hanafi (1964) in addition to some proverbs taken from Al-Zubaidi (2019). The proverbs selected for this study are analyzed according to their interpretation in the reference books in which they occur. Moreover, these proverbs are selected on the basis that they seem to have not been tackled from the perspective of CDA. Furthermore, to detect the ideological themes implied in the aforementioned proverbs, a qualitative approach is used. In addition, thirty four proverbs are selected and only nine examples are analyzed to reveal the sexist ideologies whether in the structure or the structure and the function of the previously mentioned proverbs. The findings reached at in the present study include the following forms of discrimination against a woman: hating the birth of a girl child, vilifying a woman, violating her, discriminating against her in terms of gender affinity, marital status and beauty, woman inferiority to a man and undervaluing a woman's work. Additionally, most of the proverbs selected convey discriminatory concepts against a woman through the structure and the function whereas a few of them convey such concepts through the structure only. Further, only one proverb referring to discrimination against a woman through the function occurs.

A multi-layered comparative analysis of English-medium instruction in the Netherlands

AbstractThe rise of English in Dutch higher education has been accompanied by a language ideological debate that affects students’ and lecturers’ lives at the micro level, policy and planning at the meso (institutional) level and is related to the macro perspective (national political agenda). This study explores how language ideologies and attitudes play a role in this debate by comparing lecturers’ perceptions of the use of English in higher education to general language ideologies reflected in the Dutch printed press. A thematic analysis was conducted, including a three-dimensional investigation incorporating a vertical approach (macro, meso, micro) combined with a horizontal approach focusing on ideological themes present at the vertical level. Our data consist of 151 news items and 20 interviews with lecturers in higher education. Results show that monolingual language ideologies are the norm in both the perceptions of teaching staff and the Dutch media. Lecturers were generally more positive towards the exclusive use of English than the printed media. The study suggests that the Dutch/English dichotomy and accompanying persistence of a monolingual language ideology contrast with the reality of the Netherlands as a multilingual community. Implications for language policy and practice within EMI are presented.

Popery, Politics, and Prejudice: Anti-Catholic Sentiment during Australia’s Great War Conscription Debates

Historians have tended to treat the anti-Catholicism of the conscription controversies of 1916–17 as a homogeneous phenomenon. Consequently, the sectarian undercurrents of wartime Australian society have been presented as a unified whole, obscured behind an ill-defined characterisation of Protestant bigotry. This article addresses this problem by distinguishing themes within the broader anti-Catholic dynamic. It tracks the expression and consolidation of anti-papal enmities, racial prejudices, and political suspicions as underlying themes of anti-Catholic ideology in the wartime community. Although these prejudicial strands overlapped, by examining each in isolation we get a clearer picture of both the broader sectarian phenomenon and the conscription debates’ sustaining of the issue.

Golden Jewellery of the Vodoslavka Scythian Burial-Ground of the Second and Third Quarters of the 4th Century BC

Abstract The Scythian barrows investigated near Vodoslavka in the Sivash region form a tribal burial-ground for one of the groups of the steppe population dating from the second and third quarters of the 4th century BC. In several barrows of this Scythian burial-ground, which contained burials of representatives of the local élite, a spectacular and most unusual set of gold items was discovered. These items served as decorations on the clothes and headdresses of the men and women buried there. The comparison of materials from Vodoslavka with finds from other élite Scythian kurgans of that time allowed the identification of a group of barrows, in which identical series of plaques and other decorative elements for clothing and headwear were found, including those made using one and the same matrix. The presence of gold in the Scythian burials could be regarded as an unmistakable marker of the high position within their community which the deceased had enjoyed. The specific range of categories of artistic objects made of gold, or decorated with gold, is assumed to have been different for men and women. This includes headdresses, torques and necklaces, rings, decorations for garments, vessels and so on: the combination of such items characterized the place of a specific individual in society. The female burials, which are similar in many respects, not only reflect the centres of power dominated by certain Scythian clans, but also demonstrate the existence of the shared hierarchical system of those clans, based in places far apart but all within the single territorial entity that was Scythia. The selection of images on the plaques of female headwear is worth noticing as well. It includes various mythical beasts: dragons, various types of griffins and sphinxes. Their depiction is virtually obligatory. All this clearly emphasises the specific status of the buried women and illustrates yet unknown themes of Scythian mythology and ideology.

Power and Culture Redux

John Gripentrog’s Prelude to Pearl Harbor: Ideology and Culture in US-Japan Relations, 1919–1941 is a throwback to a transitionary era in the historiography of U.S. foreign relations. On the one hand, it is a traditional, chronological diplomatic history of bilateral interwar relations, with six of its substantive chapters covering the 1930s. On the other hand, throughout the narrative, Gripentrog weaves themes of ideology and culture, the major preoccupations of the field in the last three decades. But the author’s approach to both themes dates to the 1980s, when historians like John Dower and Akira Iriye first started incorporating them into the study of war and peace between Japan and the United States. In Prelude to Pearl Harbor, ideology is how elites view the world, and culture is “the arts” (6). Despite this traditional approach, Gripentrog’s history of “ideology, cultural interactions, and conventional diplomacy” offers a thoughtful reassessment of the United States’ and Japan’s march to war (7).