Unspoken Question Research Articles

The masochistic fantasy made flesh: Michael Haneke's La Pianiste as melodrama

Since its release in 2001, Michael Haneke's La Pianiste has been the subject of conflicting responses and readings from various critical camps. Taking Robin Wood's 2002 critical analysis of the film as its starting point, this article explores how the film might be read as a contemporary take on the melodrama, or ‘women's film’. The two focal points of Wood's analysis—the film's reliance on a musical motif and its foregrounding of bourgeois society—can be used to situate the film within a generic context. While Haneke's film aligns itself in many ways with the melodramatic tradition, the ultimate unspoken question of the film is not, however, the taboo subject of women's sexuality (Creed), nor the capitalist relations of production and class (Kleinhans) but the spectator's relationship to modern society and to the cinematic apparatus.

Scanning the Satellite Signal in Remote Western Australia

Scanning the Satellite Signal in Remote Western Australia

A First‐Day Realia Activity: “Was ist in dem Umschlag?”

The first day of class is in many ways the most important one of the term. Our students come into our classrooms that first day alert to everything around them, eager to piece together clues that will answer their ill-defined yet urgent question: is this course going to be What we say and, perhaps more importantly, we do on the first day of class is crucial, creating a first impression that sets the tone for the rest of the term. We know, of course, the anxieties, uncertainties, and skepticism that often lurk behind the question is this course going to be What our students are really wondering about-beyond how many vocabulary items they'll have to learn each week, when and how often they will be tested, and percentage of their grade the final exam will be worth-are much deeper issues: Will I like my instructor? If the instructor speaks in German, will I understand is going on? What are my classmates going to be like? How will I measure up to the rest of the class? Will I enjoy class time, or will it be the most boring part of my week? If I make an embarrassing mistake, will everyone laugh at me? Will I be able to succeed? My goals for the first class period, beyond matters the syllabus can easily explain, focus on providing an adequate answer to the students' unspoken questions. On that very first day, I want my students to feel invited to enter a community of learners with me and their fellow students; I want them to experience the classroom as a place that will feed their enthusiasm for the German language and culture; and I want them to learn to conceive of themselves as competent, able language learners with a generous fund of knowledge and skills already in place. These goals are not as easy to achieve as communicating straightforward course requirements, expectations, and policies--especially within the space of the average class hour-but it is not an impossible task. One activity I have used successfully on the first day of class ata variety of levels, Was ist in dem Umschlag?, addresses all three of these goals in a natural, efficient, and enjoyable way. When combined with a brief communicative activity in German that establishes the proficiency-oriented nature of the classroom and a somewhat detailed look at the syllabus that takes care of practical matters, I have found this activity to be an effective and enjoyable way of starting the term that gives the students a clear picture of what the course will be like.

Falungong and Canada's China Policy

ZHANG KUNLUN, A FORMER MCGILL UNIVERSITY visiting professor who holds both Canadian and Chinese passports, returned to China on his Chinese passport in 1996 to take care of his ailing mother-in-law. In July 2000, he was detained for one month for performing Falungong exercises in a public park. He was detained again in October, and, in November, he was arrested and sentenced to three years in a labour camp. Luckily for Zhang, family and friends in Canada mobilized, among others, Irwin Cotler, a member of parliament and human rights activist, to lobby Ottawa on Zhang's behalf. Their efforts, and the fact that Team Canada was headed for China in the near future, prompted Ottawa to put pressure on Beijing. Zhang was released, and he returned to Canada in January 2001. His wife, also a Falungong practitioner, who has only landed-immigrant status in Canada, was later permitted to leave China and rejoin her husband in Ottawa.Zhang's case had a happy ending. Nonetheless, it poses thorny problems for Canadian diplomats and foreign policy makers. Back in Canada, Zhang spoke of the torture and the death threats he had endured in the labour camp, and his case is far from unique. Human rights organizations have unanimously condemned China's brutal campaign against the Falungong, and many governments around the world, including Canada's, have expressed their concern.(f.1) Given the number of Chinese-Canadian Falungong practitioners in Canada, there are surely many similar cases among their relatives and friends, particularly if the criteria are enlarged, as in the case of Zhang's wife, to include landed immigrants. More pointedly, many Canadians are uncomfortable with limiting the expression of human rights concerns solely to cases involving Canadian citizens or landed immigrants. If a cause is just, logic suggests, it is surely just for all.But, what if the Falungong is a 'destructive cult,' as Chinese authorities so stridently insist?(f.2) A justifiable concern to see basic principles of human rights respected throughout the world might well be modified were the Falungong found to be guilty of the abuses associated with such groups as the Solar Temple. Doubts about the nature of Falungong allow China's undeniable geopolitical and economic importance to come into play. If the campaign against Falungong occurred in a country of little economic interest to Canada, Canadians could give free rein to their ethical principles without undue concern for the country's commercial fortunes. In the case of China, the unspoken question remains: is defence of Falungong worth the risk of offending China and missing out on the most important market of the next fifty years?This article will not attempt to carry out such complex calculations. Instead, it provides a description of Falungong and the context in which it emerged, which, I hope, goes beyond the summary and highly polarized depictions often found in the media. I write as a specialist in modern Chinese history, with particular expertise in the history of secret societies and popular religions. Since the autumn of 1999, I have been studying Falungong from that perspective, analyzing the writings of the movement's founder, Li Hongzhi, and doing fieldwork among Canadian and American practitioners. This overview may be of some help to those who want to arrive at their own opinion about the nature of Falungong and the Chinese government's campaign against it.My view is that while Falungong teachings contain ideas that may strike some Canadians as strange, even objectionable, there is little in their practice in Canada and the United States that supports the idea that the group is a 'cult' in the general sense of the word. The Chinese government's case against Falungong as a 'cult' is not particularly convincing and will not be convincing until the government allows thirdparty verification of its allegations of Falungong abuses in China. China has essentially reacted out of fear of Falungong's ability to mobilize its followers, an ability demonstrated in late April 1999, when some 10,000 Falungong practitioners came seemingly out of nowhere to surround Communist Party headquarters in Beijing. …

Reading Forgiveness and Forgiving Reading: Antonin Artaud's Correspondance avec Jacques Riviere

❦Could Antonin Artaud ever forgive us? Perhaps this remains, when confronted with the life and work of Artaud, one of the most urgent questions before us. At the very least, it seems to have been the unspoken question which has haunted much of the criticism on Artaud; for, although it rarely manifests itself in any explicit form, an inexorable sense of guilt inhabits the most sensitive commentaries on his work. The brutalities which Artaud suffered at the hands of a psychiatric profession that attempted to treat his schizophrenic condition have long elicited the severe condemnation of the artistic and academic communities alike. Most often, his defenders assert the priority of “Artaud the artist” over “Artaud the schizophrenic,” arguing that psychiatric medicine reduces to a mere symptom the exigence of a thought which, when viewed from the perspective of poetry, reveals Artaud’s power as a writer. For example, in his

Unspoken Questions

Abstract This is a discussion of a case in which the therapy operated largely by unconscious transference feelings. Its apparent beneficial results came about through the transmutative effect of a benevolent transference relationship rather than through any particular set of interpretations or reconstructions. The discussion of the case focuses on the patient's dreams during the treatment. An intimacy develops between therapist and patient in large part through the shared process of associating to material, whether dreams, events or memories. It is entirely appropriate for the therapist to reveal his own associations, provided he does so discreetly and modestly, as it is a way of establishing the dialogue of unconsciousness that provides the basis for real therapeutic relationships. The need for more details of the patient's history is emphasized. A patient's feelings about his sexuality need to be explored since no gay person is ever free of a huge burden of guilt about his sexual orientation. The therapy under discussion is seen as one addressed to lifting massive phallic inhibition, and a treatment that can be considered only the beginning of a larger therapy.

Stadtgestaltung: Architektur und Metabolismus

After a period of tranquillity, building sites are booming again. What are the motivating factors behind it? The demands of an expanding population can hardly be the reason. However the future of towns is being built, confirming the theory that sustainable urban development requires the continual redevelopment of towns (Oswald 1997). Concern for the future builds the foundation for a method to address urban design issues. In this essay we strive to enlighten the situation, hoping this will allow us in the end to ask the key but unspoken question among urban design today: «How do you feel about the good city?»

Unspoken questions: Unsayable answers

Unspoken questions: Unsayable answers

Exercises in Diagnostic Radiology: The Abdomen.

<i>The Abdomen</i>, the second in a series of exercies in diagnostic radiology, follows a teaching technique established by the same authors: that of grouping together two or three cases with the same symptoms-pattern. The reader views the reproductions of roentgenograms of the abdomen; studies the concise, well-written histories; thinks; finds the answers on the following pages; then turns to another group of patients. As I studied the cases, the authors seem to have anticipated my thoughts, observations, and lack of thought or observation. An eerie sensation-hearing a silent reply to my unspoken questions! Perhaps the written material was adapted from a classroom dialogue. Whatever the cause, I relished the audio effect, the impression of personal contact, a communication achievement I have not yet experienced, even in programmed texts. After completing Fig 122, the last case, I regretfully put down this attractive and useful book. Recommended for anyone who looks at

The Future Library

THE regions we are to invade are not necessarily those of everyday routine administration. Of one thing I feel certain: that when we venture together in the quest I shall always be conscious of one unspoken question in your minds: the question that has damned more schemes at their inception than any other. It is this: “Where is the money to come from?”