Essays on Juxtaposition

Video in Opera Stage

Introduction Advances in technology and the corresponding creation of digital technologies have significantly impacted the performing arts (Poole & Ho, 2011). Opera has not escaped the technological advancements and as such, new forms of opera have emerged in both digital and virtual formats (Symonds & Karantonis, 2013). Salter (2010) explains that since the 1990s, the scenography of opera has emerged with technological advancements transforming stages into video and monitor accompaniments. The obvious payoff is an enhanced experiential, virtual reality of the opera’s stage. The new technologies blur the lines between the opera’s stage and the motion picture common in ...

What is your possible topic? Brainstorm five questions about it.

The proposed essay would be on the topic of gender discrimination. Now, there can be no denial of the fact that gender discrimination is one of the major social ills that has the potential of thwarting the holistic development of the human society. As such, the topic in context would aim to scrutinize the social issue so as to achieve a better understanding of the matter. Truly, no problem can possibly be combatted or eradicated if it is not comprehended with all its intricacy. Hence, the essay would work as a major opportunity to delve deep into the topic ...

Literature Review

Abstract Innovations and modifications that produce cost reductions and enhance performance have driven the evolution of the classic solid rocket and the liquid bipropellant rocket into hybrid models that integrate the predominant solid and liquid model features into more sensical, more economical fabrications of design. The commercial spacecraft demands for aerospace propulsion have also evolved to include a market for environmentally sustainable hybrid rocket engines that has yet to fully mature to the Technology Readiness Level (TRL). Numerical modeling has been used as a tool to test the feasibility of new solid fuel types. ABS has been considered as ...

'Midnight Cowboy' is a drama film of 1969 based on the novel 'Midnight Cowboy' by James Leo Herlihy. 'The American Friend' is a 1977 movie by Wim Wenders, loosely basing its themes on a novel by Patricia Highsmith, 'Ripley’s Game.' 'Midnight Cowboy' and 'The American Friend' reflects the events in the society during the time. They both fit perfectly towards the depiction of the ‘counter culture’ film movement of the 1970’s. Through their themes and character representation, the two movies give a strong challenge to genre conventions thus enabling them to successfully depict the counter-culture period in ...

It needs to be reckoned that literature goes on to mirror the society and the culture. Innumerable examples can be cited where the authors have delved into the socio-cultural or socio-economic factors of the world around in their texts through their creative eyes. Now, after the Second World War, the literature of the world saw the responses of the creative artist catering to the needs of the post-war era that encompassed human existence with all its surmounting effect. One can take into consideration the works of the stalwart poet, T.S. Eliot, who engaged in exploring the socio-political dynamics during ...

“A Navajo Monument Valley Tribal school” is a literary work done by Sherman Alexie. The poem displays football as a symbolic activity that facilitates bonding between Indians in this school. Playing football together makes these Indians have the feeling that they are warriors. The act of competing against each other is the one that makes them feel so. Everyone is seen as an important person in the game; that's why the poet says, "everyone's son being the quarterback."(Anderson, Hassler and Coles, P 129). It also means that the person of one person or two in the team, makes ...

Abstract

Salvador Dali can be considered the iconic painter of the surrealist movement. He was cheeky, provocative, ironic, and disrespectful in his attitude to all he came in contact with. He took the foundations of surrealism to their extreme. Dali raised surrealism to a higher artistic level by depicting emotions and thoughts ranging from realism to delirium. His unusual creativity is evocative because of its mysteriousness and uncertainty. This paper attempts to discover a little more about this Spanish artist and takes a look at one of his most famous paintings.

Curatorial Statement The exhibition, “Thirty Years of Dali” has ...

The genre of dark comedy is a fascinating subset of the standard comedy film, combining elements of drama and dark subject matter with comedic elements of the absurd and ironic to create unique works that poke fun not only at the foibles of mankind, but the inherent silliness of extremely serious things. Dark comedy can take many forms, and both American and English sensibilities in particular have their own attitudes and characteristics in their own examples. Two of the most well-regarded dark comedy films of recent years are 1996’s Fargo (directed by the Brothers Coen) and 2008’s ...

Esoteric:

Designed for or understood by the specially initiated alone: “Anime fans have some of the most esoteric interests I know.” (Said by friend in conversation). (Merriam-Webster Dictionary). SYNONYMS: abstruse, deep, profound, recondite. ANTONYM: easy. (Roget’s Interactive Thesaurus).

Verisimilitude:

The quality or state of being verisimilar: “The dense language lends the film verisimilitude, and even lay audiences will be engrossed by the thrill of discovery” (Film review). (Merriam-Webster Dictionary). SYNONYMS: believability, color, credibility, credibleness, creditability, creditableness, plausibility, plausibleness. ANTONYM: falseness, impossibility. (Thesaurus.com).

Evulsion:

A forcible separation or detachment: “I got an evulsion cut on my finger when I tried to open a ...

The world of literature has always intrigued one and all with the sheer quintessence of art and aesthetics. The readers from all the corners of the globe have been immersed in the aesthetic charm and affective appeal of the literary works of the literary artists who have proved their genius though their unparalleled portraiture and content that have left an immortal mark in the very innermost core of thee hearts of the avid readers. The history of literature goes on to document the works of many such stalwarts who have left the readers stirred to the core. James Joyce ...

In Frozen Moment Serves as a Reference Point in a Timeless Land, Emil Sher pens about the days he spent in Africa, away from his homeland, teaching children. He lived in the land of which the world was oblivious. Botswana, between South Africa and Zimbabwe, was his new abode where he lived in a shady hut and looked upon the life around which his keen eyes. The place he was dwelling in was very different from where he had grown up. He gives expression to his memories which he had preserved in the corner of his heart in this writing which was ...

Literature

QUESTION ONE: Love in LA The setting of this story is located at the Freeway in Los Angeles. The protagonist is Jake, an irresponsible, lazy and self-absorbed person. The other character is Mariana, an innocent and naïve woman. Jake caused a careless accident by hitting Mariana’s car. Jake being a dishonest person, he cheated Mariana by giving her fake insurance and phone numbers. The freeway in the story symbolized freedom of Jake to daydream leading to an accident (Perrine, 2002). The themes of this story are deception, lies and fantasy. The irony is indicated by the fact it ...

On one hand, human life seems pegged on the hope that tomorrow is going to be better than today, and every bad experience will be erased by good experiences in the near future. On the other hand, life can be complex and without meaning, leading to a sense of hopelessness. As a result, life is a battle between hope and hopelessness. Nothing brings out this reality better than Waiting for Godot. In the play, Waiting for Godot, there is a thin line between hope and hopelessness, and the characters appear diametrically opposed to each other. At the beginning of the play, scene ...

Political correctness is a growing concern in today’s tender climate, so much so that it seems individuals cannot speak their mind or take a stance on anything for fear of being dubbed too radical or too lackadaisical about an issue. Equality between genders is not immune to this problem, but also a hot-button issue for political correctness. The word “feminist” is a trigger for some, a warning that allows people to understand you are either an enemy, or a friend. It is unfortunate that there is such a divide based on a simple word because feminism’s true goal is only to bring equality among the ...

When it comes to representation through the mise en scene in film, there are a lot of different ways to show the tensions at work between past and present within the horror genre. In fact, it is these tensions that have stood at the core of the horror genre since its very beginning. In the first major work of horror, Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, it is the tension between the time before the creation of the monster and the time after, when Dr. Frankenstein encounters so many vivid reasons to wish that he had never stitched those body parts ...

This article uses a wide range of styles in rhetorical, figurative and structural senses. Entirely, there are examples of the story within a story, irony, juxtaposition, description in a piece that takes a narrative orientation.

Story within a story

William uses one plot to relate other stories that prevent the flow. While his focus is on telling Tompkins endeavors, there are times when reciting other stories in the interest of depicting the Chilean setting and the characteristics of the natives. An instance is when he hires a truck driver to take him to Tompkins residence. The author paints the perception of the natives about Tompkins and his forest ...

English

Aimee Bender’s fictions are symbolic of human emotions and struggles largely analogized and formed through fairy-tale representations. The Girl in the Flammable Skirt is by and large in the same vein and is a collection of short stories that seems to suggest a narration by a teenage girl. On reading The Girl in the Flammable Skirt, in each of the short stories, the one common moral and that is one of trauma interlocked with pittance. The story about a young girl who comes home to find her dad carrying a backpack which seems to resemble a bag made of stones is intriguing. In the ...

The Greasy Lake is a story that dwells upon the details of some young children bad and delinquent in their activities and lifestyle. They presume that the “badness” syndrome is a fashionable trend they keep and develop within them. The plot of the story is interesting and poses a variety of questions quite relevant to the reader response viewpoint of analysis. A journey through the mind of the writer from a psychoanalytic outlook may represent an illusionary destination of choices unique to the reader as the author may wish to reveal. The protagonist may be the dominant factor in this phenomenon where the ...

One child policy in China was formulated in 1979 and took effect on the same year. Officially known as the ‘family planning policy’, one child policy requires couples who stay in urban areas to have only one child. This restriction does not, however, extend to persons who live in the rural areas of China. Other exceptions to the one child policy include persons who are from ethnic minorities as well as twins. Recent research indicates that as at 2010, approximately thirty six percent of the Chinese population lived in urban areas and were thus subject to the one child ...

In any film, the mise-en-scene is important (mise-en-scene being the combination of visual elements that make up the visual space of a film ); Spike Lee’s 2006 thriller Inside Man is no exception. Lee uses varying visual elements to create a slightly unconventional (and even darkly comedic) film about a bank heist, making it equal parts thrilling and hilarious. In one particular scene, in which Dalton (Clive Owen) intimidates the crowd through one hostage who will not give up his cell phone. The use of close-ups, panning and ironic juxtaposition allow the small details in this scene from Inside Man to contribute ...

The Cask of Amontillado is a gripping story by Edgar Allan Poe which explores the realm of human emotions. The author pens the literary work and aptly exudes his expertise though the various devices which are used to enhance the tumultuous influence of the story on the minds of the readers. A close analysis of the characters and the theme along with the other literary devices will make one comprehend the excellence and the paramount influence of the story on the human minds. The author personifies his “hostile feelings and thoughts, symbolizing the repressed instincts of the personality” in the ...

Essay 1

Maya Angelou was born in 1928 in St. Louis, Missouri. Her experience of the brutality and inhumanity of slavery were pivotal in creating a literature giant whose works have continued to inspire generations of readers and writers. In the poem “I know why the Caged Bird Sings” Angelou utilizes stylistic technique to unwrap the themes of freedom and segregation (“Maya Angelou: Global Renaissance Woman”).

This poem is fashioned around the experiences of two birds. One is free and the other is caged. The free bird is able to scale heights and enjoy its unrestricted life. In contrast, the caged bird ...

William Shakespeare’s Macbeth is an engaging play which documents the journey of Macbeth up to the paramount helm and his subsequent downfall. The play portrays the dichotomy of mind, the hunger for power and the brutal clutches of fate that looms over the lives of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth who finally succumb under the onus of their deeds. How life meanders its way through the series of events finally leading to the downfall of the duo is aptly portrayed by the stalwart playwright. Shakespeare uses the protagonist of his play to exude the horrendous effects of ambition and ...

Revenge is one of the most powerful feelings that people can experience in their lives. It is not surprising that writers, film makers and other representatives of the art actively use it in their work. In the past we can find such works as Shakespeare's Othello and Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, and the recent film V for Vendetta continues developing on this theme. By analyzing these stories, we can see how depiction of revenge and, consequently, its perception by people has changed over time. In each of these plots there is a character that is so absorbed by this ...

The theme of The Graduate is the emotional journey of an innocent and confused

recent college graduate who is exploited through an affair with a family friend who is a

married woman. It is satirical and often times comedic in its reflections of the social and

sexual mores of the 1960s.

A tight close up of Benjamin Braddock’s face opens the film, a sharp contrast of

his face against the stark whiteness that surrounds his head, symbolic of a Christ-like

halo. It appears as though he is alone but he is actually on a plane, interacting with no

one - isolated in thoughts and emotions. More symbolism of isolation with no one there

the luggage chute, he ...

The heterotopia is capable of juxtaposing in a single real place several sites that are in themselves incompatible. Use Foucault's Theory of heterotopias analyses the use and representation of space in Charlotte Keatley’s My Mother Said I Never Should.

Foucault’s above mentioned statement in the scholarly article of Other Spaces, discussed the concept of heterotopia or heterotophic spaces (1986). This concept referred to real spaces that could be physical or mental and coexist with the spaces generally acknowledged by the society (1986). He formed six principles to explain this. He observes that although according to the knowledge accumulated ...

Final Film Critique: American Psycho

The film, American Psycho (Harron, 2000) is based on the book of the same name, written by Bret Easton Ellis and is fundamentally preoccupied with the idea of wealth, sex and success as being significant drives behind human behaviour. Its central protagonist, Patrick Bateman is a mass-murdering psychopath whose actions are driven almost singularly by his desire to be the best: the richest, the most successful, the most popular and somewhat bizarrely, the man with the best business card. Set in 1980s New York, the film is a discussion of yuppie culture taken to its absolute extreme and is hugely successful ...

Final Film Critique: American Psycho

The 2000 film, American Psycho is based on the book of the same name, written by Bret Easton Ellis and is fundamentally preoccupied with the idea of wealth, sex and success as being significant drives behind human behaviour. Its central protagonist, Patrick Bateman is a mass-murdering psychopath whose actions are driven almost singularly by his desire to be the best: the richest, the most successful, the most popular and somewhat bizarrely, the man with the best business card. Set in 1980s New York, the film is a discussion of yuppie culture taken to its absolute extreme and is hugely successful in ...

12 July 2011

The Alba Madonna by Raphael Sanzio

Raphael Sanzio’s The Alba Madonna was painted in 1511 and depicts an image of Mary, the baby Jesus and John the Baptist (as a child) sat in a countryside scene. In the painting, John the Baptist is holding up a cross to Jesus who, in turn, grips it whilst all three figures assert their attention towards the cross. The painting appears to be making some kind of prophetic statement with regard to the future of Jesus Chris and the attention of the three figures emphasises this somewhat. The immediate reaction to the painting is that traditionally, Jesus and ...

The poet combines satire with various stylistic elements to explore the moral divide that reflected within the estates of the fourteenth century English society. For instance, the tower of truth is contrasted with the dungeon of immorality to provide a symbolic distinction between good and evil. The poet illustrates the satirical element in the lives of the different classes of people in this dream. For instance, the tramps and beggars are represented as pretenders whose bellies and bags are crammed with bread (Langland, 13). They are also described as gluttons who still aspire to a false sense of godliness. Hermits and ...

One important theme in Ragtime is the difference between the rich and the poor. Discuss how Doctorow illustrates this problem throughout the novel.

The plot of Doctorow’s Ragtime is utilised by the author to vigorously present his views about many turn of the century issues. Most prevalent of these issues is the divide between the rich and the poor and the social tension which this causes whilst also tying in the concepts of race and power into the mix. Through his combination of fiction and history, Doctorow is able to present a realistic sense and feel for how this ...