Private Self Research Articles

Cultivating the Therapeutic Self in China

ABSTRACTFacing intensified market competition and rapid social change, many Chinese are experiencing increased mental distress. In this article, I examine how psychological training and interventions play a vital part in cultivating a new self among urban middle-classes. I ask how the Chinese notion, ziwo (self), is turned into an object of intense inquiry and how therapeutic techniques are deployed for self-development. The new forms of the self, however, continue to intersect with and complicate the existing social nexus, cultural sensibilities, and notions of personhood. My ethnography explores how this therapeutic work contributes to intricate forms of subject-making that challenge such conceptual binaries as the private versus social self, the inner versus outer life, and psychological versus social problems. Thus, what is emerging is not a usual “neoliberalism” story of self-advancement, but a more complicated picture based on assemblages.

Investigating Political Types, Part II: A Study of “Cole,” the Political Administrator

In Part II, a case study of “Cole,” a political administrator, is undertaken. A prolonged life history interview is conducted, and a two-phased Q study carried-out. In the first phase, Cole performs 17 Q-sorts with a set of statements drawn from the interviews (and augmented with statements from other sources), which were tied to the life history. Two factors result, described as Private and Public selves revealed by Cole. In the second stage, Cole performs 20 Q-sorts with a set of statements about political and social issues drawn from the interviews (and augmented with statements from other sources). Again, two factors are produced: one that describes a moderate/ Libertarian view and another that is a conservative Republican view.

The Relation between Integration and Differentiation of Public and Private Selves and Subjective Well-being in Women

The Relation between Integration and Differentiation of Public and Private Selves and Subjective Well-being in Women

His own kind of honour: reluctant celebrity chef Michael Van de Elzen

ABSTRACTAustralasian chef Michael Van de Elzen provides a valuable Antipodean insight into chef celebrity. Within an emic perspective, this article explores his antinomic celebrity experiences. Michael’s contradictions and anxieties emerge within the dilemma he experiences in being a chef celebrity yet not wanting to be a celebrity chef. Language nuance reflects his dilemma. We explore Michael’s lived celebrity experience using an adapted version of a well known celebrity framework. Michael’s celebrity is revealed as he negotiates the antinomy between his ‘culinary self’ and his ‘celebrity self’. We extend this binary to include Michael’s ‘private self’. Michael Van de Elzen’s antinomies are embodied within his celebrity chef status. This triptych simultaneously motivates and detracts from his celebrity experience. Consequently, our article illuminates a domain that is often ignored in the ‘scramble’ of celebrity: celebrity reluctance, anxiety and avoidance. Within a qualitative framework, the article presents his career, illuminating his struggle. Our work contributes towards a wider understanding of how celebrity chefs negotiate celebrity’s negative aspects, and extends Rockwell and Giles’ celebrity framework.

Concept analysis: lack of anonymity

To re-examine and expand understanding of the concept 'lack of anonymity' as a component of rural nursing theory. Early healthcare literature reports lack of anonymity as part of social and working environments, particularly rural nursing. Rural nursing theory included the first published concept analysis on lack of anonymity but lacked empirical referents. Workforce, societal and rural healthcare changes support an updated analysis. To further understand lack of anonymity, its present day use and applicability to diverse environments, research from multiple disciplines was reviewed. Concept analysis. A literature search using eight terms in eleven databases was conducted of literature published between 2008-2013. Walker and Avant's concept analysis methodology guided the analysis. The previous concept analysis is supported in part by current literature. The defining attributes, 'identifiable', 'establishing boundaries for public and private self and interconnectedness' in a community were updated. Updated antecedents include: (i) environmental context; (ii) opportunities to become visible; (iii) developing relationships and (iv) unconscious or limited awareness of public or personal privacy. Consequences are: (i) familiarity; (ii) visibility; (iii) awareness of privacy and (iv) manage or balance of lack of anonymity. Cases were constructed and empirical referents identified. The concept of lack of anonymity was updated; portions of the original definition remain unchanged. Empirical referents reveal the defining attributes in daily life and may guide future research on the effect of lack of anonymity on nursing practice. This analysis advances the conceptual understanding of rural nursing theory.

일본인 쇼핑 관광객의 여행지에 대한 자아 이미지 일치성이 쇼핑 관련 기능적 일치성과 여행지 만족에 미치는 영향에 관한 연구

The purpose of this research is to increase shopping tourists’ destination satisfaction by investigating the impacts of tourists’ destination-self congruity and shopping- related functional congruity on destination satisfaction, moderated by the self construal level. The Tourists’ destination-self congruity construct has been divided into two sub-constructs, namely private (actual and social) self congruity and public (social and ideal social) self congruity. It was hypothesized that the two types of self-congruity affect destination satisfaction directly, and indirectly through shopping-related functional congruity. It was also hypothesized that the tourists’ self construal level (independent and interdependent) moderate the relationship between the two types of self congruity and destination satisfaction. We conducted a survey of 300 Japanese tourists visiting Korea throughout October of 2015 who had a shopping purpose for their travel. Results from a structural equation modeling analysis using Lisrel and moderated regression analysis show that most of the hypotheses were supported. Specifically, the results show that private destination-self congruity and shopping-related functional congruity affect tourists’ destination satisfaction. Also, the two types of self-congruity affect functional congruity. According to a moderation analysis of the self-construal level, the results show the following: 1) Independent self-construal magnifies the impact of private self-congruity on destination satisfaction. 2) Interdependent self-construal magnifies the impact of public self-congruity on destination satisfaction. Theoretical and managerial implications are also discussed.

The Theater of Anamnesis: The Spaces of Memory and the Exteriority of Time in Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre

When Wilhelm suffers his first great loss in the Lehrjahre, that of Mariane, he recovers his spirits on his travels by re-immersing himself in the natural world. He is revived by the rejuvenating power of nature, but also by the animating power of memory:alle erduldeten Schmerzen waren aus seiner Seele weggewaschen, und mit volliger Heiterkeit sagte er sich Stellen aus verschiedenen Gedichten . . . an diesen einsamen Platzen scharenweis seinem Gedachtnisse zuflossen. Auch erinnerte er sich mancher Stellen aus seinen eigenen Liedern, er mit einer besondern Zufriedenheit rezitierte. Er belebte Welt, vor ihm lag, mit allen Gestalten der Vergangenheit, und jeder Schritt in Zukunftwar ihm voll Ahnung wichtiger Handlungen und merkwurdiger Begebenheiten.1[all the pains he had suffered had been washed away from his soul, and in complete cheerfulness he recited to himself passages from various poems . . . and these passages swam in shoals into his memory in these lonely places. He also remembered many passages from some songs of his own which he recited with especial satisfaction. He enlivened the world which lay before him with all sorts of figures from his past, and every step that he took into the future was full of presentiment of important actions and strange occurrences.]2This passage illustrates what Novalis, partly on the basis of this novel, identified as one of the central hallmarks of Romanticism: the mysterious play of memory and premonition: Nichts ist poetischer als Erinnerung und Ahndung oder Vorstellung der Zukunft3 (Nothing is more poetic than remembrance and premonition or imagination of the future).4 For Hardenberg, the sense of presence proper to the poet is not a punctual now ordered within a linear series of nows. The poet's geistige Gegenwart (spiritual present) is rather a present die beide [Erinnerung und Ahnung] durch Auflosung identifiziert- und diese Mischung ist das Element, Atmosphare des Dichters (Novalis 2: 468, n. 123; that dissolves [memory and premonition] into an identity- and this mixture is the element, the of the poet). In creating the atmosphere of Poesie, the pre-rational communication between past and present, present and future, becomes a distinctive feature of Romantic interiority.My argument in this essay, however, is that Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre not only evokes the Romantic temporal subject, but also radically undermines its elusive interiority. The novel's manifest aim in this regard is to communicate and publicize the temporal interior, thereby exposing the hidden exteriority of that interior. It reveals the soul's temporal depths to be an effect generated by the interplay of its manifold surfaces.In order to contextualize this reading, however, it is first of all necessary to situate the novel's memory-thematic within what is generally recognized to be its fundamental conflict-namely the conflict between self and other, or between the authentic, private self and the inauthentic, socialized self. Wilhelm's many reveries and reminiscences are the expressions of his ostensibly authentic self, and as such they signal Wilhelm's deep affinity with Mignon and the Harper. Through their common sensibility toward the deep past and distant future, these figures together form what Friedrich Schlegel appropriately designates die heilige Familie der Naturpoesie5 (Holy Family of natural poetry). The Tower then stands for the socialized self, or the self that has developed beyond the sphere of narcissistic self-reflection. The literature on the novel also tends to take sides along these lines. The classical line of Lehrjahre-interpretation established by Schiller and continued by Dilthey generally aligns itself with the Tower as the standard-bearer for social reality. Giuliano Baioni, for example, reads the novel against Mignon, as a representative of formless bourgeois interiority, and posits that the novel's goal lies in the education of the Sturmer und Dranger to reality. …

Privacy in the Age of Shakespeare by Ronald Huebert

Reviewed by: Privacy in the Age of Shakespeare by Ronald Huebert Frank Swannack Huebert, Ronald, Privacy in the Age of Shakespeare, Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 2016; cloth; pp. 352; 11 b/w illustrations; R.R.P. CA $65.00; ISBN 9781442647916. Ronald Huebert begins the introduction with Sir John Harington's The Prayse of Private Life. He argues Harington's prose treatise reveals that privacy has renewed importance in 'the age of Shakespeare', which he defines as the period 1516–1667 (p. 4). This range refers to Sir Thomas More's challenge to privacy in Utopia, and John Milton's spiritual privacy in Paradise Lost. In Chapter 1, Huebert investigates what privacy means to Shakespeare. In Hamlet, Huebert finds a dichotomy between private and public spaces. He examines the invasion of private thoughts through overhearing Hamlet's soliloquies, and of space such as Ophelia's closet. In Twelfth Night, Huebert analyses the anxiety of misinterpreting the inner self, in particular, Olivia's veil and Malvolio's attempt to protect his privacy from Feste, Sir Toby Belch and Sir Andrew Aguecheek. Chapter 2 charts a spiritual interiority for both Protestants and Catholics. Huebert examines the prayer closet to argue that the dichotomies of 'Protestant and Catholic, male and female, body and soul' are dissolved(p. 61). He shows this through a close analysis of Christ's agony in the garden, and the spiritual allegory positing Christian souls as Christ's bride. The chapter ends with an investigation of John Saltmarsh's private devotions. Saltmarsh privileges the soul to the point where his flesh is superfluous to private spiritual needs. Chapter 3 focuses on voyeurism. Through the story of Diana and Actaeon in Ovid's Metamorphoses and the History of Susanna in the Apocrypha, Huebert demonstrates how the male voyeur's intrusion of female privacy ends in his death. After examining poetic striptease, Huebert delivers an inspired reading of Much Ado About Nothing. He argues persuasively that Claudio is a voyeur through the way he observes and discusses Hero. Huebert reads Beatrice's passionate command to Benedick to kill Claudio as following the same pattern. Chapter 4 has an experimental, even voyeuristic, tone as Huebert analyses commonplace books. His fascinating rationale is that texts in manuscript form reveal more of the private self than their published counterparts. These less well known works capture a sense of undisturbed private thoughts, as they are not shaped by a history of critical reading in the public domain. With Chapter 5, Huebert investigates whether early modern men and women share a similar understanding of privacy. Lady Anne Clifford's diary reveals a woman who endured a privacy of isolation. Her husband is frequently absent and, when at home, he often retreats into his private study. In contrast to her husband, Clifford's reading of literature and needlework are constantly monitored and interrupted. In a diary by John Ramsey, he is always on the [End Page 217] move and rarely with his family. He only mentions one of his eight children. Huebert concludes that early modern women occupy a shadowy exposed privacy, while men enjoy travelling and private meditative retreats. Chapter 6 examines utopic privacy. In More's Utopia, Huebert discovers an exposed society where privacy is seen as encouraging abusive practices. He then examines Adam and Eve's bower in Milton's Paradise Lost. The Garden of Eden allows intimate privacy for a sexual relationship free from the sin of voyeurism. Chapter 7 investigates if privacy protected early modern heterodoxy. Christopher Marlowe's Edward II reveals the king's desire for privacy to spend time alone with Piers Gaveston. Huebert then examines how Galileo's discovery of a heliocentric universe led to enforced privacy. John Donne's Roman Catholic background and public position as Anglican priest are scrutinized. His poetry published posthumously reveals he considered God's love universal, not subject to affiliation. Huebert establishes that early modern privacy meant cooperating superficially with authority through textual ambiguity. Chapter 8 examines privacy in Andrew Marvell's poetry and prose. Huebert argues that Marvell needed privacy for his dubious erotic tastes, though he finds complexity in Marvell's poetry he terms 'the grammar of supposition and surmise...

Connected by the Ear: The Media, Pedagogy, and Politics of the Romantic Lecture by Sean Franzel

Reviewed by: Connected by the Ear: The Media, Pedagogy, and Politics of the Romantic Lecture by Sean Franzel Ellwood Wiggins Connected by the Ear: The Media, Pedagogy, and Politics of the Romantic Lecture. By Sean Franzel. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2013. Pp. 292. Paper $39.95. ISBN 978-0810129337. Lectures are cool again. After decades of detraction from opponents of passive learning and teacher-centered education, the lecture is experiencing a revival. Online tools, podcasting technology, and social media are allowing this authoritative, top-down mode to become a more interactive form of pedagogy. The revolution is everywhere: iTunes U allows millions to audit lecture courses from elite universities free of charge. Giving a TED Talk is a badge of success in any field. Anonymous student bloggers calling themselves the “Münkler-Watch” at the Humboldt University in Berlin have paralyzed a respected professor and created a public furor by posting what they consider objectionable comments from his classroom lectures. This rediscovered aura of the lecture hearkens back to the heyday of a similar media revolution around 1800, when the idea of education and the institution of the university were undergoing radical transformation. Sean Franzel’s book provides an insightful, engaging history of this important shift in the culture of knowledge, while always remaining critically alive to the implications for contemporary issues in media and pedagogy. It will be of high interest to historians, philosophers, and literary scholars. It tells its gripping tale in clear and accessible language that people outside the academy will appreciate. The book complements other valuable studies of the history of learning cultures, such as William Clark’s Academic Charisma and the Origins of the Research University (2006), but in choosing to view this pivotal era through the lens of the lecture, Franzel’s monograph achieves a focus that more sprawling histories lack. This focus is by no means limiting, however, as the lecture proves to be a convergence point for the most pressing cultural and intellectual issues of romanticism. The well argued book consists of six case studies. The first three chapters outline the changing relation of scholar to the state in Kant, Karl Philip Moritz, and Johann Gottlieb Fichte. Chapters 4–6 then explore the “dialogic” ideal of lecturing in August Wilhelm Schlegel, Friedrich Schleiermacher, Adam Müller, and Fichte. Each of the chapters traces the development of four “inflationary concepts and/or metaphors [that] define the Romantic lecture as such” (9). These four themes distinguish the axis around 1800 from previous attitudes toward knowledge, and persist in some form today. 1) The cult of originality and the expectation that scholars should produce new knowledge were perhaps the most salient features of the era. 2) The desideratum for popularity was a particularly complex and fraught shift. Franzel convincingly ties this to an upheaval in the conceptions of public/private and shows how it imbricates and compromises the processes of national identity formation in Germany. 3) Franzel critiques the idealized metaphor of dialogue as an essential principle of the lecture. [End Page 183] 4) He also demonstrates how the ephemeral lectures were monumentalized in print and other material forms of memorialization with sometimes dire cultural and political consequences. The book’s first chapter lays out Kant’s surprising conceptions of public and private. The rest of the book shows how Kant’s romantic followers were largely responsible for our modern ideas of the dichotomy, which have become so entrenched that we now find Kant’s notions counterintuitive. For Kant, the private sphere refers to an individual’s personal duties to the state. Hence a university professor’s teaching syllabus and lecture schedule are functions of her private self. Her research agenda and publication of new knowledge, in contrast, are public concerns. Kant argued that the scholar should be entirely free and uncensored in her public person (after all, he reassured the Prussian king, the majority of people will have no desire to read or capacity to understand the technical and theoretical arguments of public discourse). In her private capacity as a teacher, however, the lecturer is bound by what the state prescribes to educate useful citizens. For this reason, Kant never disseminated his own...

The Voice, The Body, and "Letting it all Fly": Neo-Slave Narratives and the Discursive Framing of Urban America

The Voice, The Body, and "Letting it all Fly"Neo-Slave Narratives and the Discursive Framing of Urban America Leila Kamali (bio) This essay explores the role of voice and embodiment in the claim to citizenship made in contemporary narratives addressing conditions of state surveillance in urban America. I discuss Barack Obama's Dreams from My Father (1995), hip hop/spoken word piece "Return to Innocence Lost" (1999) by The Roots featuring Ursula Rucker, and Louis Theroux's television documentary Law and Disorder in Philadelphia (2008). I read these texts as contemporary variants upon the neo-slave narrative. Each of these texts makes acute commentary upon conditions of state surveillance and the policing of the black body in ways that bear comparison with the practice of narrative "framing" that historically formed the site of the slave narrative's production. Just as "(Neo)Slave narratives emerge from the combative discourse of the captive as well as the controlling discourse of the 'master' state," what I call "voice" emerges against the dominance of what Toni Morrison identifies as a "statist language" which is "censored and censoring [and] cannot form or tolerate new ideas, shape other thoughts, tell another story, [or] fill baffling silences" (James xxii; Morrison). Voice is defined here, in part, by way of Kamau Brathwaite's "nation language," as a black nationalist strategy and a liberatory poetics, where "sound explosions" may form part of a distinctive interplay between reported speech, silence, bodily contortion, and inarticulate sound (Brathwaite 13). Voice thus reflects some dysfunction in a surveillance society, as it works within the compromised relationship with speech and the body that is shaped by surveillance and its insidious entry into individual interiority. Speech, and even self-knowledge or interiority, I suggest in this essay, are made especially difficult for those who lack privilege in the context of the surveillance state, a parallel to the situation of the slave in the slave narrative. In the classic slave narrative form, the narrative account is usually "verified" by the white patron or publisher, so that "These formal attestations present . . . the black narrative voice to the imagined audience, [and] the patron will claim that the narrative voice, if not identical, is a credible approximation of the ex-slave's speaking voice" (Phillips 52). Citizenship exists then, in the context of the slave narrative, as a problem of articulation where "the clash of voices, between the well-intended prefatory or appended attestations of abolitionists about the author's integrity (or indeed his or her intelligence) and the voice of the slave subject, can be . . . clearly overheard" (Davis and Gates xii). Milette Shamir shows that the persona articulated by the slave narrative was constructed wholly according to the desires and definitions of an abolitionist publication framework and readership, and that the slave narrative's very legibility depended upon a virtual erasure of "individual interiority": [End Page 137] The slave narrative . . . exposed privatized stories and introduced embodied voices into the public sphere, but, in order to authorize and authenticate these stories and voices, it filled the space of individual interiority with performative, conventionalized narratives of socially-defined identity. The black private self constructed by the abolitionist narrative was wholly alienable, an object for public consumption, fully legible and ultimately safe. (Shamir 137) In this process, individual interiority as Shamir describes it becomes subject to a network of contradictory impulses: the "privatized" is at once "exposed," and the "embodied voice" is at once "authorized." The site of interiority, where the subaltern subject might speak her own feelings, is rampantly colonized by the abolitionist narrative process. In the texts discussed below, the possibility for the black individual to be represented as "legible" and "safe" exists more than ever in contemporary society as a sly means of policing the black body; the surveillance mechanisms of the state, experienced with a particular intensity in urban contexts, perform the same functions of invasion, dehumanization, and control of the individual's interiority as do the framing of the slave narrative. As individual interiority is shown in the chosen texts to be violated by a surveillance culture akin to the governing structure shaping the slave narrative, I identify in this essay a discursive territory that...

Right to Private Defence in India

Before advent of human civilization, ‘might is right’ was rule of society but advancement of society brought institution of State which was assigned job to protect each and every individual’s life, liberty and property. At same time, it has to be noted that how much State is powerful and resourceful, it is not possible to depute policemen to supervise and observe every activities of each individuals and provide security them everywhere and at every point of life which necessitated right of private defence or self defence. The Latin term ‘se defendendo’ is used for 'self-defence. Hari Singh Gour in his celebrated book on Penal Law of India has aptly observed that self-help is first rule of criminal law. It still remains a rule, though in process of time much attenuated by considerations of necessity, humanity, and social order. Bentham, in his book `Principles of Penal Laws', has observed that the right of defence is absolutely necessary. It is based on cardinal principle that it is duty of man to help himself. The present paper deals with laws relating to right of private defence available under criminal laws of India.

Building identity in online environments: An information science perspective

ABSTRACTThe research presented in this poster is concerned with the ways in which people use information to build identities for themselves online with reference to the themes of personal reputation management. To date these two themes have been under‐explored together in the research literature, both in general and from an information science perspective. The poster content shares findings related to three areas of identity building: (1) the creation and use of online personas and identities; (2) the use of anonymity and pseudonyms through information sharing – or concealment – practices; and (3) the blurring or merging together of participants’ private and professional selves. This study used participant diaries and in‐depth, semi‐structured interviews with 45 UK‐based participants. The main finding presented here is that individuals present elements of their online persona or personality using online information, but that they do not do so with the intention of building identity. The findings explored in this presentation are contextualised with reference to identity building in the more formal setting of academic reputation management, i.e., through the use of citations.

In Memoriam: Shari Benstock (1944–2015)

In Memoriam: Shari Benstock (1944–2015)

Linking safety climate perception to types of behavior.

Certain behavior types can drive the emergence of an unsafe act at the workplace which may be reflected by workers' perceptions toward safety climate. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between workers' safety climate perceptions (NOSACQ-50 questionnaire) and their behavior types (based on DISC personality traits: Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Conscientiousness). NOSACQ-50 and DISC assessment questionnaires were distributed on employees of four different companies (N = 755) working at hazardous workplaces in different occupational fields: fertilizer, coal mining, and oil & gas. Four of the 48 correlation coefficients were statistically significant in which the strongest correlation was found between safety commitment and Influence (I) trait in public self (r = -0.119, p < 0.01). There were two groups of DISC's profile that have a lower perception toward safety climate. The first group was indicated by high scores on Influence (I) trait in public self (17.2% of respondents), and the latter was characterized by low scores on Dominance (D) trait and high scores on Conscientiousness (C) trait in private self (2.8% of respondents). Lower perception toward safety climate was found to be correlated with two groups of DISC's profile. Workers characterized with these two profiles are considered to have priority needs for training or to be assigned to less a hazardous workplace.

The Black Women’s Gathering Place: reconceptualising a curriculum of place/space

ABSTRACTThis article de-centres imperialist, capitalist, patriarchal traditions of critical approaches in Curriculum Studies via an examination of experiences shared at The Black Women’s Gathering Place (BWGP), a non-traditional space where a diverse, intergenerational group of Black women engage with each other through the sharing of stories. In the BWGP, we enact components of Pinar’s [2004. What is Curriculum Theory? Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum] concept of currere, simultaneously re-entering our collective and individual pasts and re-imagining our futures in an effort to reconcile our public and private selves. Taking up tenets of Black feminist theory, theoretical framings of hidden curriculum, and components of Ng-A-Fook’s [2007. An Indigenous Curriculum of Place: The United Houma Nation’s Contentious Relationship with Louisiana’s Educational Institutions. New York, NY: Peter Lang] ‘Curriculum of Place,’ we reconceptualise a curriculum of place/space that negotiates dominant norms expressed in social environments. In this space, we validate traditional knowledges upheld in communities of Black women across the Diaspora. The BWGP allows us to argue for a re-presentation of extant knowledge by and about Black women.

Dynamic self-representation of interdependent Chinese: The effect of bicultural experience.

The process of globalisation has increased the opportunity for Chinese individuals to utilise influences from other cultures that differ from their own collectivistic culture. The explorations of the impact of acculturation on Chinese individuals' self-construals have become intriguing. Thus, we recruited German-Chinese (N = 192) people who live in Germany and had direct bicultural experiences, as well as Mainland-Chinese (N = 192) people who live in Mainland China and had internalised a second culture through more indirect means of exposure. We investigated their accessibility to both interdependent and independent cultural frameworks using temporal self-construal priming. The results showed that priming effects were observed in both cultural groups. However, the self-construals of the German-Chinese participants were more flexible than those of Mainland-Chinese under self-construal priming. Also, the results suggested that women were easier to be influenced by direct bicultural experiences, due to their private and collective self were different between the two cultures. These findings provide evidence regarding the opinion that individuals could use influences from more than one culture. More importantly, these results suggest that the acculturation induced by direct bicultural experiences facilitates cultural frame switching.

Tragicomic presentations of self: starring Phil Silvers as Bilko: the incomplete comic human

ABSTRACTWhen a performer becomes over-associated with a particular, celebrated comic character, can this lead to problems, not merely in terms of type-casting, but in creating confusions for the actor's own perception of self? In instances where a comic creation is perceived to be an extension of the performer's actual ‘self’, what dissonances in self-construct may arise between the comic actor's created persona and his/her own presentation of self? This article considers the nature of tensions created through the permeation of persona and person which can beset comedians who become closely identified with their particular mediated role. Can, indeed, over-association with their successful ‘signature’ comic role be seen to prove psychologically destabilising for certain performers whose own fragile, sense of identity becomes further compromised by presentation of their own most familiar and definitive, comic creations? Drawing specifically upon the career and comedy of Phil Silvers (aka ‘Sergeant ‘Bilko’), this article attempts to evaluate the forms of crises of identity that can arise between presentations of public and private selves for those performers who become, in effect, ‘public comic property’.

Performative trolling: Szubanski, Gillard, Dawson and the nature of the utterance

In 2012 the Australian public witnessed three important examples of trolling play out in the public sphere that are the focus of this paper: the trolling of Julia Gillard’s Facebook page when she attempted to discuss education policy, the anonymous trolling of Charlotte Dawson’s Twitter page, and the trolling of Magda Szubanski on YouTube after she came out on The Project. These attacks may seem similar in that a public persona has been ridiculed and denigrated in flamboyant onslaughts. However, we will argue that there are important differences in the effects of these attacks, and that underpinning these are differences relating to the individual persona, the social medium and the nature of the utterance. The attacks on Gillard and Szubanski are primarily descriptive attacks on a deliberate and somewhat stage-managed public performance of identity, not a call to action. On the other hand, the anonymous trolling of Charlotte Dawson, which led directly to her attempted suicide, is clearly a performative utterance from the start, meant to have consequences on the object of attack. In Dawson’s case, the separation between her public persona and her private self is far less distinct than in the case of Gillard or Szubanski. These instances demonstrate that trolling exists on a performative continuum, engaging in constant disruption, but also lending itself to the production of social action. The kind of impact trolling will have depends, thus, on the affordances of social media, the persona under attack, and on the very nature of the utterance itself.

Linking Dress and the Public, Private and Secret Self model to coming out

Abstract This theoretical article examines how dress and the Public, Private and Secret Self (PPSS) model is linked to the coming-out models of LGBTI individuals, specifically gay men. The PPSS model is a taxonomy for categorizing dress based on social situation (reality, fun/leisure, fantasy) and the level of self-expression (public, private, secret). Coming-out models are developmental stages of expressing one’s sexual orientation, otherwise known as ‘coming out of the closet’. By examining existing academic literature on gay men and comparing coming-out models with the PPSS model, we posit two directions that link the two models.

… And Starring David Foster Wallace as Himself: Performance and Persona in The Pale King

ABSTRACTWhen viewed alongside Wallace’s interviews and publicity materials, multiple texts by Wallace—The Pale King, “My Appearance,” and the annotations in his personal library—present a different and deeper understanding of authorship and authenticity in contemporary literature. Taken together, these texts by and around Wallace portray the fiction writer more as the stage actor, a figure who is always in the process of presenting a persona, whether he or she knows it or not, to the extent that his or her private self becomes conflated with the inauthentic public persona. The Pale King appears to say that the fiction writer finds himself or herself in a Wallaceian double bind in which any sincerity to be achieved is possible only through the artificial means of performance.