Traditionalism Versus Modernism At Death

Describing two differing concepts of death and death rituals - modernism and traditionalism - this text depicts, through the medium of the story, how they wrestle for pre-eminence at funerals.

Modernism vs. Traditionalism: Art in Paris 1888-1889 considers questions surrounding artistic developments at the end of the nineteenth century in Paris. Students will debate principles of artistic design in the context of the revolutionary changes that began shaking the French art world in 1888-1889. Images from the 1888 Salon and the tumultuous year that followed provide some of the "texts" that form the intellectual heart of every reacting game. Styles include conservative art espoused by the Academy, as well as more avant-garde art created by artists such as Van Gogh and Gauguin. Also included are the Impressionists and American artists in Paris. Students must read paintings as texts and use them as the basis of their positions in advocating for the future of art. In addition to these visual texts, students will read art criticism from the period, which will help form the basis of their own presentations in favor of one art style over another. These discussions are complicated and enriched by secondary debates over the economics of art, the rise of independent art dealers, and the government's role as a patron of the arts. The game culminates at the 1889 World Exposition in Paris.

Western literature has become more influential in Africa since the independence of many of that continent's countries in the early 1960s. In particular, Greek tragedy has grown as model and inspiration for African theatre artists. This work begins with a discussion of the affinity that modern-day African playwrights have for ancient Greek tragedy and the factors that determine their choice of classical texts and topics. The study concentrates on how African playwrights transplant the dramatic action and narrative of the Greek texts by rewriting both the performance codes and the cultural context. The methods by which African playwrights have adapted Greek tragedy and the ways in which the plays satisfy the prevailing principles of both cultures are examined. The plays are The Bacchae of Euripides by Wole Soyinka, Song of a Goat by J.P. Clark, The Gods Are Not to Blame by Ola Rotimi, Guy Butler's Demea, Efua Sutherland's Edufa, Orestes by Athol Fugard, The Song of Jacob Zulu by Tug Yourgrau, Femi Osofisan's Tegonni, Edward Kamau Brathwaite's Odale's Choice, The Island by Fugard, John Kani, and Winston Ntshona, and Sylvain Bemba's Black Wedding Candles for Blessed Antigone.

This is a study which aims to uncover the role played by African agriculture during the Great Depression of the 1930's with particular emphasis on innovation and change. The volume investigates the development of the goverment's program, the agricultural experimentation and the effects of encouragement on the provinces of Coast, Nyanza and Central. It examines the factors that prompted the colonial administration to take action to alter the nature of African farming in Kenya.

Scholars from the United States, Canada, Europe, and the Middle East combine their talents and expertise to honor George Lenczowski, whose studies of the Middle East over two generations have made him a foremost expert on contemporary affairs in this most volatile and complex region.

The study of curriculum, beginning in the early 20th century, first served the areas of school administration and teaching and was used to design and develop programs of study. The field subsequently expanded and drew upon disciplines from the arts, humanities, and social sciences to examine larger educational forces and their effects upon the individual, society, and conceptions of knowledge. Curriculum studies now embraces an array of academic scholarship in relation to personal and institutional needs and interests while it also focuses upon a diverse and complex dynamic among educational experiences, practices, settings, actions, and theories. The Encyclopedia of Curriculum Studies provides a comprehensive introduction to the academic field of curriculum studies for the scholar, student, teacher, and administrator. This two-volume set serves to inform and to introduce terms, events, documents, biographies, and concepts to assist the reader in understanding aspects of this rapidly changing, expansive, and contested field of study. Key Features Displays different perspectives by having authors contribute independent essays on the nature and future of curriculum studies Presents a unique and in-depth treatment of the Twenty-Sixth Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education (NSSE), a 1927 publication that has taken on legendary dimensions for the field of curriculum studies Contains bibliographic entries which feature specific publications by curriculum leaders that helped to define the field Helps readers to learn unfamiliar terms and concepts, to become more comfortable with specialized phrases, and to understand the many significant and perplexing concepts and questions that characterize the field Key Themes Biography and Prosopography Concepts and Terms Content Descriptions Influences on Curriculum Studies Inquiry and Research Nature of Curriculum Studies Organizations, Schools, and Projects Publications Theoretical Perspectives Types of Curricula The Encyclopedia of Curriculum Studies offers the careful reader a surprisingly revealing depiction of the conventions, mores, and accepted research and writing practices of the field of curriculum studies as it continues to expand and change. Availability in print and electronic formats provides students with convenient, easy access, wherever they may be.

Soyinka's representation of postcolonial African identity is re-examined in the light of his major plays, novels and poetry to show how this writer's idiom of cultural authenticity both embraces hybridity and defines itself as specific and particular. For Soyinka, such authenticity involves recovering tradition and inserting it in postcolonial modernity to facilitate transformative moral and political justice. The past can be both our enabling future and our nemesis. In a distinctive approach grounded in cultural studies, Postcolonial Identity in Wole Soyinka locates the artist's intellectual and political concerns within the broader field of postcolonial cultural theory, arguing that, although ostensibly distant from mainstream theory, Soyinka focuses on fundamental questions concerning international culture and political identity formations - the relationship between myth and history / tradition and modernity, and the unresolved tension between power as a force for good or evil. Soyinka's treatment of the relationship between individual selfhood and the various framing social and collective identities, so the book argues, is yet another aspect linking his work to the broader intellectual currents of today. Thus, Soyinka's vision is seen as central to contemporary efforts to grasp the nature of modernity. His works conceptualize identity in ways that promote and modify national perceptions of 'Africanness', rescuing them from the colonial and neocolonial logic of cultural denigration in a manner that fully acknowledges the cosmopolitan and global contexts of African postcolonial formation. Overall, what emerges from the present study is the conviction that, in Soyinka's work, it is the capacity to assume personal and collective agency and the particular choices made by particular subjects at given historical moments that determine the trajectory of change and ultimately the nature of postcolonial existence itself. Postcolonial Identity in Wole Soyinka is a major and imaginative contribution to the study of Wole Soyinka, African literature, and postcolonial cultural theory and one in which writing and creativity stand in fruitful symbiosis with the critical sense. It should appeal to Soyinka scholars, to students of African literature, and to anyone interested in postcolonial and cultural theory.