Ideological Themes Research Articles

The Endless End of Frontier Mythology: PBS's Frontier House 2002

“The Endless End of Frontier Mythology:PBS’s Frontier House 2002” Leigh H. Edwards (bio) Depicting three families of modern-day "time travelers" who immerse themselves in the rough and tumble culture of 1883 Montana, PBS's Frontier House (2002) series provides a critical, self-reflexive interrogation of romanticized visions of the U.S. nineteenth-century life on the frontier. Not simply a melodramatic retelling of history as escapist fantasy, the series reflects on trends within public history to attempt to represent history with multiple viewpoints.1 As it portrays how modern participants experience discomfort with the gender, race, and familial norms of the Montana territory as they try to reenact, the series explicitly debunks the romance of "Wild West" Hollywood films or TV shows like Little House on the Prairie. Producer Simon Shaw notes these romantic media visions prompted him to launch the series and motivated some participants, and that the harsh living conditions forced everyone to abandon these fantasies.2 Yet at the same time, even while it tries to offer less idealized versions of history based on the cast's lived experiences of material conditions, the show nonetheless ends up reinforcing frontier mythology, specifically an on-going investment in the idea that the American West establishes American exceptionalism by fostering freedom, individualism, and opportunity (just as Frederick Jackson Turner theorized it in the 1890s).3 The series' narrative continually returns to a vision of liberal pluralism, one that privileges an Anglo-American cultural legacy even as it critiques the excesses of Manifest Destiny or the history of racism. The show thus offers an updated version of frontier mythology in the context of television's current dominant ideological mode of address, liberal pluralism, and in the context of recent popular culture versions of what critics have dubbed "corporate multiculturalism." The status of the American family is one of the main thematic cruxes where this process of demythologizing and simultaneously making new, updated mythologies is evident. Utilizing the techniques of literary analysis, specifically attention to text and context, or historicized textual analysis, this article examines these issues in the program's narrative, themes, and character development. The series' form and content both contribute to these ideological themes. Myths Debunked The show's production history and context illuminate the series' recurring narrative focus on debunking myths. The opening tag line of each episode promises to show viewers the "real frontier" behind the "romanticized mythologies." The concept for this most American version of an historical reality series followed upon the success of the British House series on the BBC, a suite of programs including The 1900 House (1999); The 1940s House (2001); The Edwardian Country House (2002), called Manor House when it aired stateside on PBS; and Regency House Party (2004). While those series were joint productions by Channel 4 and Wall to Wall Television, Wall to Wall came to the U.S. and partnered with the PBS station, Thirteen/WNET in New York to produce Frontier House and later Colonial House (2004). Other production companies have used this format, including a CBC series called Pioneer Quest: A Year in the Real West (2000) in Canada and a German series called Black Forest House, both about the nineteenth century. Going into production in 2001 and airing in 2002, the series followed three families for six months as they tried to survive and provide for themselves on their assigned homesteads in the Montana wilderness, securing food and shelter, caring for farm animals and growing crops, and making ready for the winter. The historical focus involves the Homestead Act of 1862, a bill Abraham Lincoln signed into law stating that public land belonged to the people and could be given free to citizens; homesteaders could claim up to 160 acres by filing a claim, living there at least half the year for five years, improving the land ("prove up"), and then getting the deed at the end of that period. The series notes that the filer has to be the head of the family, at least 21 years of age, and a citizen (or about to become one). It cites other restrictions that reflected the social hierarchies of the times, such as the...

Talkin' 'bout my education

A response to Psychoanalysis, Class and Politics: Encounters in the Clinical Setting (Layton et al., 2006), which welcomes the dialogue between analytic and political voices and uses personal material to focus in particular on the themes of ideology and education. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Drama, Theatre, and Identity in the American New Republic (review)

Reviewed by: Drama, Theatre, and Identity in the American New Republic Heather S. Nathans (bio) Drama, Theatre, and Identity in the American New Republic. By Jeffrey H. Richards. (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005. Pp 404. Cloth, $85.00.) In the introduction to his compelling new work, Drama, Theatre, and Identity in the American New Republic, Jeffrey H. Richards notes that "with the exception of Royall Tyler's The Contrast, relatively little has been said in detail about the particular plays and performances that graced—or disgraced—the stages and pages of American theatre . . . in the early republic" (1). Richards's book proposes to address this long-standing gap in scholarship, and does so in a way that historians of early American history, American literature, and American theatre will find invaluable. As Richards observes, scholars have paid considerable attention to Tyler's 1787 comedy The Contrast in a bid to claim a uniquely "American" identity for theatre in the post-Revolutionary period. For many, the paucity of American plays in the early Republican era underscored the need to discover native geniuses and new voices. Richards's study proposes to leave the search for "American-ness" behind, focusing instead on how the concept of "identity" itself shaped what Americans saw both inside and outside the playhouse. Rather than struggling to distinguish the "American" from the "non-American" aspects of the postwar theatre, Richards undertakes an investigation of popular plays and performances that can help scholars unlock the complex process of identity formation in both a larger transatlantic context, as well as a narrowly local one. Richards states, "What I entertain in these pages is the interpretive problem of how to read plays and performances in terms of a world where identity is volatile and where the oppositions that create identity themselves often shift or mushroom or wither in a relatively short time" (7). The book is divided into three parts, each of which examines a different aspect of identity formation in the playhouse. Richards also incorporates a discussion of the popular literature and travel narratives of the period, adding both depth and breadth to his study. In Part I, "Staging Revolution on the Margins of Celebration," Richards maps a broad cultural history for the "staging" of new identities in [End Page 505] the young nation. Part I is divided into six short chapters. Chapters 3 and 4 work particularly well together: one explores how British authors created "American" texts, while the other investigates how difficult it was for American authors to develop a dramatic form that diverged from British models. In Chapter 3, Richards investigates the popular comic opera, The Poor Soldier, which in the 1790s became fodder for Federalist/Republican debates because of its French character Bagatelle, and later became a mainstay at the short-lived African Grove Theatre in the 1820s. Richards questions how a play about an Irish soldier returning to his native village could be accepted by so many diverse American audiences, all of whom seemed to "recognize" themselves in the work. Chapter 4 examines Judith Sargent Murray's The Traveler Returned, a play which Richards argues is essentially a warmed-over version of Richard Cumberland's The West Indian. If Murray eliminates "bawdiness . . . for the affirmation of ideological themes linked to Revolutionary stoicism and republican virtues," her "American" ventriloquism does not wholly conceal that the puppet and its master are of British origin (101). In Part II, "Coloring Ideas: Race, Religion, and the Exotic," Richards studies the complex process of synthesizing identity in a nation already fractured along lines of racial and ethnic tensions. Part II includes four chapters that explore Muslim, Native American, Irish, and African American identity on the national stage. Each uncovers a genealogy of stereotypes, linking the four characters listed above to their transatlantic ancestors. For example, Richards traces Susanna Haswell Rowson's Muslim characters in Slaves in Algiers back to their French and British sources (most notably Voltaire's tragedy Zaire, adapted for the British stage as Zara). Yet he also demonstrates how Rowson "Americanized" her Muslim villain—making Muley Moloc an example of tyranny that "must be combated through a rigorous assertion of virtue" (165). Similarly, Richards exposes James Nelson...

Attitudes towards prescribing rights: a qualitative focus group study with UK osteopaths

Background A range of practitioners allied to medicine have recently acquired limited prescribing rights and there are moves to extend these rights to others. The opportunity for osteopaths to lobby for limited prescribing rights is available. Objectives The study aimed to identify some osteopaths' attitudes and beliefs about the role of prescribing in osteopathy in the UK and to develop a conceptual model to map a range of beliefs that influence attitudes towards prescribing. Methods A qualitative exploratory study was undertaken. Two minimally moderated semi-structured focus groups were run, each comprising a sample of five opportunistically selected practising osteopaths who were also members of faculty at the British School of Osteopathy. Transcripts of the focus groups were analysed using a Grounded Theory approach and constant comparison procedures. Emergent themes were conceptually coded as matters of ideology (principles, philosophy) or of pragmatics, (relating to either clinical practice or professional issues). Further analysis involved taking an overview of the data extracted by coding and synthesizing those data to form coherent thematic structures under the two supra-themes. Results Three ideological and four pragmatic themes emerged. We focused on the three ideological themes and extracted models, representing extreme positions, labelled as ‘Scientific Osteopathy’, ‘Osteopathic Purity’ and ‘Osteopathic Prescribing’. Conclusions Models have been derived that may explain attitudes towards prescribing. Further work is needed to test whether the models identified in this small qualitative study are valid and whether the themes identified in the focus groups represent issues of importance to the whole profession. Further survey work is recommended to inform decision making at a professional and regulatory level.

From Ethnic segregation to impact integration: state schooling and identity construction for rural Tibetans*

This paper examines the context of ethnic identity formation in schools for rural Tibetan children. It reviews rural primary education within Tibet and the secondary education for Tibetans in boarding schools across China. Data are presented on policies, student recruitment, curriculum, teachers and the campus environment, as they impact on students' identity formation. Although there is little that is multicultural about the learning process in these schools, these schools do not strictly deny Tibetan culture to Tibetan children. The school architecture, sculptures, photographs, wall paintings and so forth provide representations of Tibetan culture, albeit selectively and interpreted by the state in terms of the ideological themes of national unity, patriotism, revolutionary traditions, civilised behaviour and love of Tibet. The conclusion points to a make‐or‐break opportunity for state education to support a more even‐handed cultural policy, rather than the dichotomy of segregation and impact integration.

Upstart theories and early American religiosity: a reassessment

Attempts to assess the theory of religious economies developed by Rodney Stark and his associates have generated an enormous secondary literature. For Stark himself, one beneficial effect has been a new paradigm in the study of religion that gives more emphasis to the social than to the psychological. A case is made here that key assertions in the theory have been falsified, that disconfirming evidence has been ‘explained away’ rather than explained and that the theory actually diverts attention from areas that might benefit from sociological scrutiny. But if all this is so, then why does that theory continue to command so much attention? Part of the answer is that the theory is perceived to work so well in particular contexts, and the context mentioned most often is early American religion. For that reason, the bulk of this article is concerned with taking a careful second look at Finke and Stark's The Churching of America. The evidence presented in that work turns out to be far less supportive of their general theory than is generally acknowledged. The final section of this article identifies some implicit ideological themes in the theorising by Stark et al. that likely account for its continuing popularity.

Upstart theories and early American religiosity: A reassessment

Attempts to assess the theory of religious economies developed by Rodney Stark and his associates have generated an enormous secondary literature. For Stark himself, one beneficial effect has been a new paradigm in the study of religion that gives more emphasis to the social than to the psychological. A case is made here that key assertions in the theory have been falsified, that disconfirming evidence has been ‘explained away’ rather than explained and that the theory actually diverts attention from areas that might benefit from sociological scrutiny. But if all this is so, then why does that theory continue to command so much attention? Part of the answer is that the theory is perceived to work so well in particular contexts, and the context mentioned most often is early American religion. For that reason, the bulk of this article is concerned with taking a careful second look at Finke and Stark's The Churching of America. The evidence presented in that work turns out to be far less supportive of their general theory than is generally acknowledged. The final section of this article identifies some implicit ideological themes in the theorising by Stark et al. that likely account for its continuing popularity.

Biography, time and local history-making

This article examines how individuals compose biographical interpretations of their lives. The intention is to explore how individuals make their personal histories within wider history-making local communities. Such historical narratives are composed by families and groups and are also formed within societal narratives (e.g. popular stereotypes, ideological themes). While the connection between narrative and time has commonly been described here there is an attempt to provide a model to aid analysis of individual and social narratives. It is argued that such a model would draw more systematic ­attention to the importance of time in the construction of biography and in history-making. The discussion makes reference to a community study undertaken in south Wales.

Female Romanticism at the End of History

With the slogan "now and again anachronize," Jerome Christensen has suggested that future readings of romantic literature produce interpretive moments designed to threaten the idea of a hermetically sealed telos of ideological evolution that has culminated in liberal democracy (476). Perhaps the most interesting feature of this imperative is that, read into the network of texts issuing from the period commonly designated as romantic, it hardly even seems necessary when one considers the asynchronous perspectives between male and female romantic poets precisely on the subject of historical time and the human individual's place in it. Female romantic poets were committing themselves to anachronism, that is, to moments of time out of the "proper order," in the very inscription of their literary production. Indeed, the example of anachronism exemplified by female romantic writers represents a structural form of intervention into the sphere of political commentary dominated by men. 1 Hence the well noted, and promoted, instructive capacity of romanticism devolves as much on anachronism as a female creative gesture as it does on any particular substantive male ethos generically and stereotypically characterizing the literary period. 2 Moreover, taking seriously the female romantic poet's role as pedagogue, this instructive potential of anachronism clearly speaks to contemporary speculations in post-historical theory, which has recently re-expressed ideological themes common to much male romantic poetry and therefore gives female romanticism a timely relevance.

The Specter of genocide: mass murder in historical perspective

1. Introduction Robert Gellately and Ben Kiernan Part I. Genocide and Modernity: 2. Twentieth century genocides: underlying ideological themes from Armenia to East Timor Ben Kiernan 3. The modernity of genocides: war, race, and revolution in the twentieth century Eric D. Weitz 4. Seeking the roots of modern genocide: on the macro- and micro-history of mass murder Omer Bartov 5. Genocide and the body politic in the time of modernity Marie Fleming Part II: Indigenous Peoples and Colonial Issues: 6. Indigenous peoples genocide: rhetoric of human rights Elazar Barkan 7. Military culture and the production of 'final solutions' in the colonies: the example of Wilhelminian Germany Isabel V. Hull 8. East Timor: counter-insurgency and genocide John G. Taylor Part III. The Era of the Two World Wars: 9. Under cover of war: the Armenian genocide in the context of total war Jay Winter 10. The mechanism of a mass crime: the 'great terror' in the Soviet Union, 1937-1938 Nicolas Werth 11. The third reich, the Holocaust and visions of serial genocide Robert Gellately 12. Reflections on modern Japanese history in the context of the concept of 'genocide' Gavan McCormack Part IV. Genocide and Mass Murder Since 1945: 13. 'When the world turned to chaos': 1965 and its aftermath in Bali, Indonesia Leslie Dwyer and Degung Santikarma 14. Genocide in Cambodia and Ethiopia Edward Kissi 15. Modern genocide in Rwanda: ideology, revolution, war, and mass murder in an African state Robert Melson 16. History, motive, law, intent: combining historical and legal methods in understanding Guatemala's 1981-1983 genocide Greg Grandin 17. Analysis of a mass crime: ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia, 1991-1999 Jacques Semelin Part V. Conclusions: 18. The specter of genocide Robert Gellately and Ben Kiernan.

An Old Theme Revisited: Sociology and Ideology

The main theme here is to combine a sociological perspective, in which we examine how sociologists deal with the concept and realities of ideology, within a historical interpretation. Two major periods in which sociology promulgated ideology are compared. The first period, the age of ideology, is the one in which modernity seems to be defined by the decline of tradition and religion, and by the triumph of Reason and Science. In this phase which extends from the coining of the term ideology to the end of the 1980s, sociology or sociologists either over-valued or under-valued the theme of ideology. The second period, marked by the end of the era of ideology, is one in which modernity seems if not to give way to post-modernity, at least to enter a new phase, in which it tends to be defined as the growing separation between reason and identities – particularly religious ones. In this phase the end of ideology which had been predicted for many years became a "historical truth." Today there are no powerful all-encompassing grand ideologies anymore which might claim to personify at one and the same time, the people, science and progress and with the capacity to dominate and mobilize society. However, even in the second period, the "modest" or "particular" dimension of ideology referring to "false representations" of specific aspects of collective life, should be acknowledged.

Cooperation and conflict in transatlantic relations after the cold war

In the 1990s there was a widespread view that there was a deep, organic transatlantic unity. This view was one-sided, too focused on economic flows and common ideological themes. And it encouraged a misleading perspective on the Bush administration’s strategy as being the product of a narrow political coalition on the American right. It is necessary to note how the collapse of the Soviet bloc created a structural crisis of the Atlantic political system and how this crisis was exacerbated by the regionalist political project through which West European states launched and deepened their programme for the social restructuring of West European capitalism. Both these developments, along with the need for a concerted West European policy towards East Central Europe, encouraged powerful groups in Western Europe to seek to renegotiate the transatlantic alliance and the nature of US leadership. Since the start of the 1990s, successive US administrations have pursued a counter-strategy to reimpose its cold war hegemonic leadership over Western Europe. The resulting conflicts, largely pursued at elite state levels in a closed way during the 1990s, have become more open and confrontational under Bush. The structural sources of this conflict make it difficult to overcome in the short term. And it may be a positive development from a global point of view.

An Old Theme Revisited: Sociology and Ideology

The main theme here is to combine a sociological perspective, in which we examine how sociologists deal with the concept and realities of ideology, within a historical interpretation. Two major periods in which sociology promulgated ideology are compared. The first period, the age of ideology, is the one in which modernity seems to be defined by the decline of tradition and religion, and by the triumph of Reason and Science. In this phase which extends from the coining of the term ideology to the end of the 1980s, sociology or sociologists either over-valued or under-valued the theme of ideology. The second period, marked by the end of the era of ideology, is one in which modernity seems if not to give way to post-modernity, at least to enter a new phase, in which it tends to be defined as the growing separation between reason and identities – particularly religious ones. In this phase the end of ideology which had been predicted for many years became a “historical truth.” Today there are no powerful all-encompassing grand ideologies anymore which might claim to personify at one and the same time, the people, science and progress and with the capacity to dominate and mobilize society. However, even in the second period, the “modest” or “particular” dimension of ideology referring to “false representations” of specific aspects of collective life, should be acknowledged.

Da Orazio a Ovidio: «lezioni di letteratura» a confronto

The article’s purpose is to identify the models of the literary lesson addressed by Ovid to Augustus in Trist. II. The use of ideological themes as statio principis, the «re-reading of authors abov...

The External Pressures on the Internal Governance of Universities

Governance is a means for realising institutional goals and in an ideal world should enable the institution to respond to the demands of the political environment by regulating its internal affairs accordingly. In the case of universities, not only is that environment increasingly differentiated but so also is the ability of universities to access it. Changes in state funding arrangements, accountability mechanisms, the contribution of the private sector, and the public definition of university education have placed numerous and varied pressures on institutions. Yet there is a studied reluctance by institutions to accept that their ability to respond to these pressures is equally variable, that they should tailor their ambitions to their capacities, and that their internal governance should be adapted using the principle of fitness for purpose. In the main, this is because the dominant ideological themes of higher education do not support the idea of distinct university functions of equal status. Rather, they encourage the erroneous belief that all universities are homogeneous in their functions – or, at least, that all have the potential to be homogeneous.

NOVEL SEJARAH INDONESIA: KONVENSI, BENTUK, WARNA, DAN PENGARANGNYA

The five Indonesian historical novels being the object of this research, reveal the western convention of the genre in a variety of forms and colours. Pramoedya’s and Mansur Samin’s use both “real” historical person as heroes and secondary character, while the others present imaginative characters as heros and historical persons as background. Pram’s Bumi Manusia, consisting of four books, shows the most complicated form and tends to be realistic in its narration. Arok Dedes, as complicated as the first, is an ideological one. While Roro Mendut, in a very loose plot preoccupies with the psychological problem of the principal characters, and Subang Zamrud Nurhayati is erotic. The thinnest of the five, Perlawanan Rakyat Sigi is heroic. About the writers: two of them are dead, the rest is above sixty years old. The interview shows that they love history and have received good education, especially in history stuff. They are preoccupied by the poor condition of the Indonesian people and the nation, and most of them supported actively the struggle of the oppressed. Keywords: Historical novels, form, narration of fact—fiction, realistic, erotic, fantastic, heroic, ideological themes, education and the writing of historical novel.

Globalisation and Local NGOs

The globalisation process has brought about the convergence of economic and political decision-making around the twin themes of neo-classical economic doctrine and neoliberal political ideology. Contemporary social service delivery to people in poverty occurs within this context. Non-government Organisations (NGOs) concerned with poverty alleviation cannot ignore how the pursuit of this agenda creates poverty or the international context within which this occurs. However, many local NGOs do not have the economic or political reach to influence international bodies. Consequently, they must turn to their counterparts and allies in the global environment—international NGOs. By interacting with international NGOs, local NGOs can bridge the distance between international forums (such as the UN and its agencies) and grassroots poverty issues. But what sort of interactions create that bridge between local and international NGOs? How is that bridge used to empower people in poverty to take action on their own behalf? These questions guided the South Australian study reported in this paper.

A Moratorium on Suspicion?

One of my colleagues stopped me in the hall recently to explain how happy she was to have reached a moment in her academic career when she no longer had to teach literature. Another colleague buttonholed me at about the same time to tell me he could no longer imagine teaching literature in any context other than cultural studies-that is, in a setting in which the literary text was at most an illustration of an ideological, historical, or theoretical theme, no different from any other cultural manifestation. No wonder undergraduates demonstrate dwindling interest in taking a major in literature. For a host of reasons, they come to the university less interested in studying literature than previous generations of students were, only to encounter on their arrival professors who are more than occasionally apathetic toward or suspicious of literary texts. Student disenchantment can only grow in such circumstances.

Established Pluralism: US elite media discourse about China policy

In the post-Tiananmen and post-Cold War era, China has not only lost its strategic alliance with the US against the Soviet Union, but has stepped in to be seen as the US's imagined enemy. The New York Times 's discourse about China policy from 1990 to 2000 consisted of three "ideological packages": containment, engagement, and globalization, which represented different strategic variations on the same ideological theme of peaceful evolution. The elite media discourse is characterized as "established pluralism". First, it represents a plurality of viewpoints within the established policy contour and the official circle. Second, it tends to domesticate foreign realities in the course of constructing Orientalist discourses. Third, this diversity-within-unity is routinized in the institutionalized structure and practice of the elite press.

Three tenors in perfect harmony: “close readings" of the joint letter by the heads of aluminium giants alcan , pechiney, and Alusuisse announcing their mega-merger plan

Speeches, shareholders’ letters and other utterances by business leaders help shape what is accepted as legitimate discourse in organizations and society. This paper focuses on the joint letter, issued by the CEOs of three global aluminium companies, announcing a proposed unique three-way merger. That letter is read and analysed closely, both in terms of content and context. The themes of ideology, audience and metaphor are employed with the intent to make the cognitive world of the three leaders at least partially visible, and to sustain needed counter-discourse. The analysis of the joint letter reveals an elitist, exclusionary text based upon assumptions that are consistent with the extreme rhetoric of the allegedly “free" market.