Loving Family Research Articles

BETWEEN FEELING AND INTELLECT: THE PHILOSOPHY OF LOVE IN THE NOVEL “THE DISEASE” BY YEVHEN PLUZHNYK

The primary aim of the paper is to clarify the main approaches to the philosophy of love, represented in the intellectual novel “The Desease” by Yevhen Pluzhnyk, to outline the sociocultural footing of the issues, raised in the work, as well as to bring to light the relationship of reflections on multidimensionality of love and the characters’ attempts to comprehend the peculiarities of human existence in the world. The methodological premises and theoretical frameworks for the research were provided by the studies on psychoanalysis, hermeneutics, philosophical and literary anthropology. While trying to understand the essence of love, the characters of Pluzhnyk’s novel, like the philosophers from different epochs, distinguish among love-passion, love-friendship, family love, which is developed in the matrimony, and ‘true love’ that is close to the divine one. The ‘true love’ is a willingness to sacrifice as well as realizing the uniqueness of other person; it motivates to feel responsibility for Other and to see him/her not from a selfish but from a values-based perspective.
 However, the relationships between the characters along with their reflections on love in the novel by Pluzhnyk are not an ordinary illustration of the different philosophical concepts. The writer also actualizes the ideological context of the 1920s and encourages his characters to think whether love between the representatives of the hostile social ‘classes’ is possible and whether the ‘new’ human has the right to love at all. Comprehension of the phenomenon of love in the novel “The Desease” is intertwined with the reflections on the identity of the person, on his/her internal crisis, provoked by the rationalistic approach to life, as well as on the peculiarities of the dialogue with the Other. The characters of the novel also seek to understand ‘the science of life’, to solve the problem of separating private and public spaces of existence, to grasp the contradistinction of the value positions ‘to take’, aimed at the self, and ‘to give’, which is laid in the basis of love and appears to be an important feature of the human entity.

66.4 Powerful Conversations Between a Father and a Religious Scholar: Lessons From Islamic Teaching

The role of a Muslim father goes beyond the provision of educational and financial needs to ensuring a loving and peaceful family atmosphere that is conducive to children’s ethical, moral, and spiritual development. A good father is exhorted to guide his children to a joyous, fulfilling, and righteous life path by acting as a role model for love, compassion, empathy, nonjudgment, and forgiveness. The objectives of this presentation are to: 1) develop an understanding of gender uniqueness in Islam and the significance of fatherhood; and 2) utilize practical strategies for fathers to connect with their children by following Islamic teaching.

Uniqueness of warfare in Tamil culture

The voluminous Tamil literary works serve as the mirrors on the social ethics of the ancient Tamils. They are graphic and gravitating in bringing to our memory the distinct dynamism of the Tamil society of yore and the varied facets of their walks of life in different fields like values, art and architecture, commerce etcetera. Every literary work is a clear index of its contemporary social facets and cultural achievements. They are the real measuring scales of man’s achievement in his progress of civility and creativity and development of appreciation of values. The history of the Tamils goes as far back as Tolkappiyar’s period of two thousand years from now. Tolkappiyam and the Sangam literature are profuse with their prevalent social and cultural ethos. The ancient Tamils were concerned; they thought that love (family life) and war (social life) were the two main aspects of life. This paper deals about the war aspects of the Tamils which formed a part of their culture.

Transforming Girls: The Work of Nineteenth-Century Adolescence by Julie Pfeiffer (review)

Reviewed by: Transforming Girls: The Work of Nineteenth-Century Adolescence by Julie Pfeiffer Dawn Sardella-Ayres (bio) Julie Pfeiffer, Transforming Girls: The Work of Nineteenth-Century Adolescence, UP of Mississippi, 2021. It is impossible for me to write a completely objective review of Julie Pfeiffer’s 2021 study Transforming Girls. Over the last two decades, I’ve been a student in Pfeiffer’s girls’ literature classes at Hollins, and have not only seen how her scholarship on this subject has developed in the classroom and at conferences over that time, but how scholarship around girls’ literature in general—including my own, building on much of Pfeiffer’s—continues growing. In Transforming Girls, Pfeiffer examines an illuminating subgenre, effectively demonstrating origins for what would now be identified as girls’ bildungsroman by showing its roots in a specific German tradition, the back-fisch novel. Pfeiffer’s text provides foundation for greater interrogation of books that are often identified today as “girls’ classics,” particularly as they pertain to a fictional heroine’s social role as an adolescent. Most of us can’t separate personal experiences with girls’ literature from this scholarship, including Pfiffer. As she notes, many of us in the field have to take seriously girls’ literature scholarship, as well as these novels and characters, because these books, and the “shared experience of reading” them (13) were integral to our own girlhood. Not only were many of us former girl readers, but former good girl readers, deeply internalizing the books’ depictions of ideal [End Page 334] girlhood and womanhood as “domestic, obedient, quiet” (3). These stories, the collective experiences of reading Little Women or Understood Betsy, of knowing what Katy Carr did, and how Anne Shirley became Anne of Green Gables, connect over generations. These moments construct shared cultures, demonstrate complicated relationships, and in many cases, provide us with friends, either through communal readership, or via our personal connection with the fictional characters themselves, who became like extended family. Accordingly, as adult scholars, we constantly must challenge and even reject some lessons we originally incorporated as child-readers. But we also take these texts seriously because, as Pfeiffer underscores, stories about adolescent girls and how they grow “deliberately, evocatively, called up an experience of transition and marked that experience as significant” (4). These stories have much to communicate today about the shifting roles of girls in society, because these questions and challenges have existed for centuries. Exploring the liminal space of adolescent girlhood in backfisch books allows scholars to explore and understand how contemporary concepts of girlhood, adolescence, gender, and social roles have developed under a variety of international and domestic circumstances. Backfisch books were highly marketable popular novels about adolescent girls published in Germany from the mid-nineteenth century until World War I, and can be considered part of the output of the Golden Age of children’s literature, as well as German Romanticism. Backfisch books can and do overlap, as do other girls’ lit subgenres (orphan stories, school stories, family stories) as well as general sentimental fiction and domestic realism that influenced girls’ literature. The “backfisch” herself is a girl beginning her adventure to womanhood, and while an exciting time, it’s also dangerous. However, Pfeiffer specifically sees this liminal space of adolescent girlhood as one of agency and empowerment for the backfisch heroine. A girl leaves her familiar world behind, including her family, and ventures into a new community, with new contexts and relationships to explore. She usually finds another mentor outside of her childhood community, guidance on her path to womanhood. The backfisch girl learns self-control, and shapes and molds her community, often “into a loving family” (9). Most powerful of all, “she is participating in a long tradition of heroines who must rely on their own resources to decipher the truth of their situation” (9). Men, romance, and husbands are generally not part of the backfisch journey until the very end, and the focus is always on the girl’s adolescent development, experiences, and perspectives. Pfeiffer’s approach includes questions that girls’ lit/girlhood studies scholars ask repeatedly: how are we defining “girl” and “girlhood”? How did these texts/authors/publishers define it? Do these novels...

THE CONCEPT OF MAHABBAH OF ABDUS SHAMAD AL-PALIMBANI IN FACING THE SPIRITUAL CRISIS OF MODERN MAN

Modern man's spiritual crises is a fascinating topic that is constantly pertinent to be discussed nowadays. The promise of a remedy to this modern dilemmas is even more intriguing. Abdus Shamad al-Palimbani is a prominent Sufi figure in the Malay Indoneaian Archipelago, with Sufi mahabbah teaching that is favorable to resolving this spiritual crisis. This work aims to explore the notion of mahabbah of al-Palembani and its significance in overcoming modern humans' spiritual dilemmas. This study is library research using qualitative approach. The data wer collected utilizing documentary techniques referring to boks, articles, and other published materials. The acquired data is then analyzed employing the descriptive-analytical method. This study finds that according to Abdus Shamad, human love is divided into stages, starting with love for others, wealth, family and relations, self-love, and love for Allah and His Messenger. If a man is bound by the four worldly degrees of love, he will suffer a spiritual crisis. Only by achieving the ultimate level of love, mahabbatullah, can he discover his own self, both material and spiritual.

Analyzing The Protagonist Character of Elliot Anderson As Seen In The Film “Black Or White” By Mike Binder

‘Black or White’ described of complains, blames, jealously, selfishness, and understanding about the family love from Elliot Anderson’s character. This research is aimed to know the character of Elliot Anderson as main character by analyzing the evidence from the dialogues and his actions in the film. To know about the character of Elliot Anderson, the writer used the descriptive qualitative method in this paper. The writer employs himself to collect the data by reading script, watching the film and marking them. The writer used the film of Black or White by Mike Binder released in 2014 by Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). The writer focused on the dialogues of the film, and then followed by analyzing the character through conscientiousness and neuroticism of personality. In this analysis, the writer finds out that final result about the protagonist character of Elliot Anderson. Elliot Anderson is a recently widower and visible wealthy grandfather. The writer found Conscientiousness of Elliot Anderson characteristic is ambitious and neuroticism Elliot is irritable or anger, complaining person, blaming person, selfish, and jealous. It’s all happened when on one particularly bad day, in which he loses his wife, he wishes people would recognize how hard he is trying and how good his heart is and just leaving him alone in his big house with its big swimming pool and his Mexican maid to raise his young granddaughter Eloise. Keyword: Black or White Film, Elliot Anderson, Protagonist Character

What Is Man? A Journey through Biblical Anthropology by Fearghus Ó Fearghail and Adrian Graffy

Reviewed by: What Is Man? A Journey through Biblical Anthropologyby Fearghus Ó Fearghail and Adrian Graffy Donald Senior the pontifical biblical commission What Is Man? A Journey through Biblical Anthropology(trans. Fearghus Ó Fearghail and Adrian Graffy; London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 2021). Pp. 366. £19.99. This is the latest document of the Pontifical Biblical Commission (PBC) and may be its longest to date. For those less acquainted with the role of the PBC, it is a commission of some twenty biblical scholars from all over the world intended to serve as a resource on biblical matters for the Vatican Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith and, through the Congregation, for the pope himself. First established under Pope Leo XIII, it evolved under Pius X as a monitor for Catholic biblical scholarship at a time when the church was highly suspicious of the reductionist spirit associated with historical biblical criticism. Over time, particularly under Pius XII, the monitoring role gave way to a more constructive approach. After the Second Vatican Council, Paul VI placed the PBC under the Congregation of the Doctrine of Faith and confirmed its purpose as a Vatican resource on biblical interpretation. In recent years, the PBC has produced a series of expansive statements on such topics as various methods of biblical interpretation, on the key role of the Jewish Scriptures in the Christian Bible, on the moral horizons of the Bible, and on biblical inspiration. Several of these topics were expressly requested by the reigning pope (e.g., on the Jewish Scriptures by John Paul II, on inspiration by Benedict XVI); this latest presentation on biblical anthropology was requested by Pope Francis. These documents derive from the intertwined contributions of the PBC's members. Typically, the work of producing the document takes two or three years, beginning with an agreement on the overall format, and then various members producing papers on specific aspects of the topic, and finally the weaving together of this disparate material into a coherent text. The end result is that the PBC's statements are thorough, more like a state of the question than innovative, and, at times, their style reflects the somewhat patchwork nature of the production. [End Page 506] In this instance, however, the PBC's study of biblical anthropology has a unique and rich format. As stated at the outset, the document takes its cue from the account of human origins in Genesis, particularly chaps. 2–3, but with substantial reference to Genesis 1–11. The focus is, therefore, primarily on OT texts. Basic motifs from the Genesis account that reflect fundamental descriptions of what it means to be human, and the essential relationships that define the human, are described across the major components of the Bible: the Torah, the prophetic literature, and the wisdom traditions (often with particular attention to Psalms). Each segment, however, ends with the exemplification of the motif in the Gospels and in the letters attributed to Paul. The document states that its overriding methodology is that of "narrative theology"; however, this term should be taken in a very broad sense—distinguishing the document's thematic approach from a more systematic or philosophical analysis. The contents of the document are rich and accessible to the broad audience it has in mind: "members of theological faculties, catechists, students of the sacred sciences." Broad expositions of biblical motifs are bolstered (in smaller type) by incisive technical analyses of key texts (e.g., a thorough discussion of the nuance of the term "image" of God in Gen 1:26). The document is arranged in four "chapters" or major sections: (1) The Human Being as Created by God (both frail and of the earth but also in the image of God); (2) The Human Being in the Garden (taking up topics of food, work, and relationship with animals); (3) The Human Family (love between husband and wife, between parents and children, and between "brothers and sisters" understood broadly); (4) The Human Being in History (God's commands; human obedience and transgression; God's intervention in history and ultimate salvation in Christ). The opening "chapter," taking its cue from Genesis 1–11, sets the tone for the entire document and...

Memahami Larangan Kawin Beda Agama di Indonesia (Kajian Filsafat Hukum Islam)

This article explains the ratio legis of prohibition of interfaith marriage in Indonesia. Indonesia has indirectly prohibited interfaith marriage through the marriage law, the Compilation of Islamic Law, and the fatwa of the Indonesian ulama Council (MUI). The research data was obtained from a literature review of theworks of scholars who discussed the wisdom prohibiting interfaith marriage. Althought there are differences of opinion and interpretation in figh discourse regarding the legal statur of interfaith marriage, depending on personal and political situations, this article argues that the state still priotitizes to choose a life partner, which is the argument of advocates of the legality of interfaith marriage. This prohibition is based on views related to personal (theological) and communal (political) beliefs, that the purpose of marriage is to achieves a happy, peaceful, and loving family which is difficult to achieve in interfaith marriage. This overarching narrative is still maintained, although efforts to amend it are made in vatious ways

Nilai-Nilai Religi dan Filosofis Tari Tor-Tor Pada Pernikahan Adat Mandailing Natal (Studi di Desa Huta Pungkut)

Mandailing Natal Regency or often also referred to as Madina is one of the regencies in North Sumatra. In Madina there are several villages, one of which is Huta Pungkut village. Mandailing Natal, especially the village of Huta Pungkut, has a variety of unique customs and cultures that are different from other regions. Among them are crafts, Bagas Godang, lubuk larangan, and arts, including dance. The art of dance is an ancestral heritage that we must protect and preserve, the hope is that it will not be recognized by other nations. One of the Mandailing Natal cultural customs is the tor-tor dance. This study uses a qualitative method, which aims to determine the procession of the tor-tor dance and find out what the religious and philosophical values of the tor-tor dance are at the Mandailing Natal traditional wedding. The purpose of this research was carried out because many people, including the next generation of Mandailing Natal, did not know the meaning of the tor-tor dance. The results of this study are that in the tor-tor dance starting from the elements of movement, rhythm, movement and poetry there are religious and philosophical values, namely praise and gratitude to Allah, advice from parents to children, commendable morals, love for family, developing attitudes mutual help, happiness in life in this world and the hereafter and prayers for safety. The messages of Islamic communication in these tor-tor movements are to protect, ask for and receive luck, respect, honor the elders, protect the family with love, joy, mutual support and help.

New Black Optimism?

For all the opportunistic and/or pathological expressions of black life today, and the celebratory glow which surrounds it, there remains an art that is irreducible to the conflicts of its time, even when it galvanises its urgencies. In this paper I note the exceptionality of Henry Ossawa Tanner, who captured the tenderness and profundity of familial love, and the importance ofmutual care—a deep humanitarian seam which ran counter to the racism of the time. I point to the missteps of Titus Kaphar and Kehinde Wiley, the ingenuity of Kerry James Marshall, the sublimity of Lynette Yiadom Boake. Finally, and fundamentally, I ask you to reconsider the persistently misunderstood and misperceived South African painter Nelson Makamo. If his children possess an oneiric quality, it is not because they are projected fantasies, but because they are dreams realised in this future-present moment—as treacherous as it is generative.

Memorialising COVID-19

Memorialising COVID-19

The History of Devil Education

The history of the educational process on earth has been going on for a long time even before the human race was born, namely since the Jin nation. They interact with each other, socialize, establish marriage ties, promote the spirit of mutual cooperation, live in harmony, peace and prosperity and progress. However, many of them neglect the guidance of educational values taught by Allah SWT. For the arbitrary actions committed by them, Allah sent Iblis and his troops to stop their brutal actions. so that they perished which signaled the end of the life of the Jin nation on Earth. The author does not invite to have the character of Iblis, but how to actualize the educational values of Iblis in life, especially for the advancement of education. There are many good values that have been done by the Jinns. The author hopes that readers will emulate these educational values, including fear of God, honesty, courage and love challenges, critical thinking, independence and love of freedom, prioritizing logic over feelings, loyalty to speech, not easily discouraged, love of family.

Analysis of Family Values of the Two Generations of Godfathers in the Film The Godfather

The Mafia is a secret organization originated in Italy. Despite its notoriety in the world, there still are a great number of people who are interested in it. A large number of cultural works have been produced because of people’s infatuation and curiosity about Mafia culture. Take the film of The Godfather as an example, which is produced in 1972. This film has not only influenced millions of people, but introduced Italy Sicilian’s mafia culture to the whole world.Indeed, people’s stereotype for mafia is blood, cruelty and brutality, however, the mafia also has another rational and warm look. This paper aims to make a more in-depth analysis of the classic film The Godfather from a new perspective of "family values" by grasping the historical background, cultural environment of the film and the life and destiny of Italian immigrants at the end of the WW II. In the process of analysis, this paper focuses on grasping the communication and contact between the main characters in the film, and analyzes the family warmth and love revealed in it.

Love Child's Hotbed of Occasional Poetry: Poems & Artifacts

Love Child's Hotbed of Occasional Poetry: Poems & Artifacts

The Witch in the Closet: Disney's Frozen as Adaptation and Its Potential for Queer and Feminist Readings

The Witch in the Closet: Disney's <i>Frozen</i> as Adaptation and Its Potential for Queer and Feminist Readings

Attributes of Working Children in the Philippines

It is the right of every child to have a healthy environment, formal education, and a loving family. However, poverty forces a child to work even in dangerous streets. In the Philippines, the Child Protection Law defined children as persons below eighteen (18) years of age or those over but are unable to fully take care of themselves or protect themselves from abuse, neglect, cruelty, exploitation, or discrimination because of a physical or mental disability or condition. Despite the existing legislations in the country and with the United Nations declarations promoting the protection of children from exploitation, the problem in the country continues to exist. The paper aims to determine the extent of child labor in the country and describe the conditions of their work. The analysis of this paper made use of statistical data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). Descriptive methods of analysis were utilized in analyzing the data. The results of the study showed that the continued pauperization in the countryside, especially in the urban centers brought about by population growth and capitalism, had increased the number of children joining the labor force. Although progress has been made in promoting and protecting the rights of these children in national legislation and policy, many remain unreached, especially children among the poorest families, who contribute significantly to family income. This limited access of children to basic services further put them into the life of drudgery that would impair their development, hence, their future in general.

Trauma, Love, and Identity Development in Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Persons in the stage of adolescence are eager to know who they are. They are curious about their unique characteristics and identities and how they can start to bring about the self-realization that provides a gateway to adulthood by exploring those characteristics and identities. In this process of self-exploration, adolescents who receive encouragement as they search for an authentic identity, though they sometimes have conflicts with parents and others, are likely to develop a secure ego-identity and a strong sense of independence and self-control. By contrast, adolescents who fail to receive encouragement during the process of identity exploration, for whatever reason, may remain unsure about who they are, and hence feel insecure and confused about themselves as well as their future. The present study uses the fictional character Harry Potter to explore these issues in greater depth, mainly focusing on his early adolescent years—that is, when he is 11-13 years old. The study demonstrates that Harry Potter can manage to resolve conflicting ideas and thereby lay the foundations for a healthy ego-identity despite difficult circumstances. The study uses Erikson’s and other psychologists’ understanding of the importance of self-exploration in adolescence as an interpretive lens to examine the dynamics of trauma, love, and self-realization in Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. More specifically, it considers how family love (or the lack thereof), mentorship, and friendship in adolescence impact Harry’s mental and physical behaviors and influence the development of his identity.

Psilocybin-Induced Mystical-Type Experiences are Related to Persisting Positive Effects: A Quantitative and Qualitative Report.

Psychedelic drugs such as psilocybin have shown substantial promise for the treatment of several psychiatric conditions including mood and addictive disorders. They also have the remarkable property of producing persisting positive psychological changes in healthy volunteers for at least several months. In this study (NCT03289949), 35 medium-high doses of psilocybin were administered to 28 healthy volunteers (12 females). By the end of the dosing day, participants reported the intensity of their acute experience using the 30-item Mystical Experience Questionnaire (MEQ) and an open-form qualitative report from home. Persisting psychological effects attributed to the psilocybin experience were measured using the Persisting Effects Questionnaire (PEQ) 3-months after administration. Using a linear latent-variable model we show that the MEQ total score is positively associated with the later emergence of positive PEQ effects (p = 3 × 10−5). Moreover, the MEQ subscales “Positive Mood” (p corr = 4.1 × 10−4) and “Mysticality” (p corr = 2.0 × 10−4) are associated with positive PEQ whereas the subscales “Transcendence of Time and Space” (p corr = 0.38) and “Ineffability” (p corr = 0.45) are not. Using natural language pre-processing, we provide the first qualitative descriptions of the “Complete Mystical Experience” induced by orally administered psilocybin in healthy volunteers, revealing themes such as a sense of connection with the Universe, familial love, and the experience of profound beauty. Combining qualitative and quantitative methods, this paper expands understanding of the acute psilocybin induced experience in healthy volunteers and suggests an importance of the type of experience in predicting lasting positive effects.

When the Village Sleeps by Sindiwe Magona

Reviewed by: When the Village Sleeps by Sindiwe Magona Sarah Davies Cordova Sindiwe Magona When the Village Sleeps Johannesburg. Picador Africa. 2021. 310 pages. THE VILLAGE THAT sleeps is South Africa in the afterlives of apartheid, thought-provokingly awoken by Sindiwe Magona’s unflinching indictment of graft and government-created dependency, and by her (re)capture of ubuntu (humanity) and of the sustenance and well-being that the elders’ traditions hold. In step with her award-winning feminist and eco-ethical novelistic writing in Mother to Mother (1998), Beauty’s Gift (2008), and Chasing the Tails of My Father’s Cattle (2015), When the Village Sleeps historicizes the quarter-century of inequities, injustices, and consequential social ills that led up to the calamitous 2020 state response to the Covid-19 pandemic for the precariously dependent. As one of South Africa’s honored amaXhosa living legends, Magona’s clear-sightedness and well-tuned ear expose the wounds of colonialism and apartheid that continue to scar the land and abet the collateral damage of self-perpetuating poverty. Offering in their stead the rich rewards born of a shared understanding and transmission of the practices and maxims embedded in the ancestral homeland’s cultural heritage, she situates black South African women at the nation’s hearths where generations of mothers and daughters strive to sow a life of respect for self and other, for one and all. Multilingual, weaving isiXhosa in with English in what Mamphela Ramphele terms Magona’s “unique isiXhosinglish,” textured and plurivocal, When the Village Sleeps unfolds dexterously with intersecting dialogue and insight-filled interior monologues, citing and intertextually borrowing from such timeless South African literary figures as A. C. Jordan and S. E. K. Mqhayi. Memories and teachings in songs, legends, and folktales merge with poems in the lyrical voice of the “Old” of the unfleshed world and through Mandlakazi— the child of strength—their chosen flesh-born who speak in dreams, nightmares, and trances of what has passed and what is to come with harbingers of ever-increasing urgency and premonitory doom-saying. A veritable pharmakon, fastening social and political commentary to didactic analogies and revelatory storytelling, the novel offers remedies to mend and restore body and soul, ones drawn from nature’s medicinal plants and well-tended husbandry that safekeep the environment and support human life, as well as reinterpreted ancestral proverbs that underscore the oneness of all humanity and rites of passage serving as new bridges to contemporary life. When the Village Sleeps sets in motion the proverb “It takes a village to raise a child,” moving from the township to the city and to the village and back and advancing a national narrative highlighting the plight of adolescent children, orphaned or left alone to care for themselves and their siblings while their mothers are away eking out a living with low-paying jobs and child grants. Encompassing four generations of women, the novel first focuses on the grandchild, Busisiwe—honey-graced— on the eve of her thirteenth birthday as she negotiates the bus ride and the pretenses and masks she must wear to pass back and forth from her home life to the world of privilege she encounters at her Capetonian primary school, whose fees Mrs. Bird, her grandmother’s former white employer, pays. Staying at her aunt Lily’s house, she is the caregiver to her half-brothers in the absence of a father and a dependable mother, and her academic success is seen by her family as their way out of poverty. Her flawed decision to beget a child, to harm the fetus with alcohol and drugs in the womb to access a higher-paying child grant, and to build with the sixteen-year-old orphaned Brian “a family where . . . no one will ever be hungry or beg for things they want—a loving family” is an adolescent’s tragic response to the pressures of fitting in and wanting to be loved. Only when Busisiwe visits her beloved maternal grandmother, Khulu, in her village in the Eastern Cape does she discover another way of life, one grounded in the rewards of participatory communal life, the dignity of self-sufficiency, and her ancestors’ observance...

Rare Air: Long Day's Journey Into Night at American Stage

The 2019 production of Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night, directed by Brendon Fox at American Stage in St. Petersburg, Florida, has been explicated and justifiably praised in the Eugene O'Neill Review. Fox gave readers an account of his directing process in a Practitioner's Colloquium from EOR 41.2 (2020), where he discussed, for example, the three key themes that had guided his interpretation: “the pain and cost of truth-telling, the power of the smallest personal choices of each family member, and the surprisingly deep amount of love and investment the Tyrones have for each other.” Fox's approach registered well with Jo Morello. In EOR 42.2 (2021), Morello described the production as a “lively, vigorous interpretation” that “served O'Neill beautifully.” She applauded James Keegan's alternatively imposing and tender Tyrone, highlighted Rose Hahn's heartfelt portrayal of Cathleen, and, above all, praised Janis Stevens's Mary, whose “unspokeneloquence […] resonate[d] beyond the text.”I traveled from West Texas to Florida in July of 2019 to see the production for two reasons. First, I was drafting my doctoral dissertation, which explored and expanded Shakespeare's influence on Eugene O'Neill's Tao House plays. Second, the actor playing Tyrone, James Keegan, is a close friend. James and I worked together for seven years as actors at the American Shakespeare Center in Staunton, Virginia. During that time, we performed in more than forty productions together: I played Hal to his Falstaff, Ferdinand to his Prospero, and even, in one particularly memorable show, a witch to his Macbeth.Being familiar with James's artistic talents, I anticipated an excellent show. But I was taken aback by the joshing humor, familial love, and soft-spoken poetry of American Stage's superb production. Brendon used the intimate playing space at American Stage to uncover new layers of complexity within the well-known characters of O'Neill's most famous play, and Janis Stevens's final moments as Mary left me speechless.In the following conversation conducted via Zoom, I revisited the production with Brendon and the cast. Brendon, who described directing as the process of “bearing witness,” helped me understand how fulfilling directing O'Neill can be. He emphasized the importance of creating a credible “family” of actors to enact the Tyrone family, of staging Long Day's Journey “organically,” and of seeking out unspoken moments and discordant notes in this operatic play. James revealed how an actor can excavate their personal history to truthfully embody an iconic role, and Janis explained how simple—simple, not easy—the task of playing Mary Tyrone can be. As her castmate Billy Finn (Jamie Tyrone) remarked, it only “takes everything youhave.”Joshua Odess-Rubin (Edmund) rounded out a superb cast and participated in the discussion. As I hope you will discover, this was an equally entertaining and edifying discussion that shed new light on one of O'Neill's best-known plays.