Reading Of Fantasy Research Articles

MakeAmericaGreatAgain: ideological fantasy, American exceptionalism and Donald Trump

Donald Trump’s unlikely rise to the Presidency of the United States has been beguiling for politicians, pundits and scholars alike. In this paper, I argue that Trump’s appeal is best understood through a Lacanian reading of ideological fantasy. Combining a political logic of ideology and antagonism in combination with a Lacanian reading of fantasy, ideological fantasy suggests that while language is infused with materiality, there is an intractable disconnect between the body and the symbolic order. In order to make this disconnect palatable, fantasmatic narratives are constructed that seek to explain away the presence of lack, principally by reproducing antagonisms positioned as responsible for this discontent. In this regard, the power of Trump’s appeal was that he provided compelling explanations for the disruption of the foundational American myth of exceptionalism by isolating antagonisms that explain its apparent fracture, as well as offering the possibility of overcoming these antagonisms to #MakeAmericaGreatAgain!

Comparing imagery in <i>The Greedy Hippo</i> and <i>Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon</i>

This article used as point of departure the Ngano song-story entitled The Greedy Hippo as developed by Christiaan van der Westhuizen and based on the Tambani embroidery project. This animated interpretation of The Greedy Hippo is used to further the aims of interdisciplinary research as stated by the original project by comparing its fantasy imagery with that of the Chinese film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon by director Ang Lee. The analysis of the images in both works of art has been based on Jungian archetypes, with specific reference to the need for an esoteric and imaginative reading of fantasy in the chosen works of art. Reference was made to the dominant role of realism as style in Western art as opposed to the more esoteric, symbolic, and fantasy imagery of the art of other cultures, with emphasis on China. Chinese landscape painting and even poetry has been briefly contextualised with regards to the chosen works of art. Finally, the different characters of both works of art were analysed within the contexts of their symbolic meanings as based on Jungian archetypes, with particular reference to the scenes where the characters are depicted as flying through the air, which were explained within the contexts of Wu Xia martial arts style films.s.