Epiphany - Journal of Transdisciplinary Studies

5

Authors: Eliza Quincey

Robert L. Oprisko’s book, “Honor: A Phenomenology” challenges ones of the most obvious social norms in contemporary society. The concept of honor is one that the “generic” as Sergei Prozorov would say, simply cannot comprehend, nor even make efforts to define. Though fluently used in infamous works such as “The Iliad”, honor has yet to be so explicitly dissected until now. Dr. Oprisko’s book takes a promiscuous and brutally honest approach to “Honor” en generale as well as the many facets associated with such. Similar to fine cuisine and wine, there are many literary accompaniments that serve as wonderful pairings to broaden the kaleidoscope perspectives presented in the book. The contested novel by J.D. Salinger, “The Catcher in the Rye”, although by no means consists of any political or metaphysical theory, contains a stark personification of what is actively presented in every chapter of Dr. Oprisko’s book. Holden Caufield serves as a terrific litmus test for the concepts defined in Oprisko’s work. Holden is by no means a likeable character in the literary world, but however he is raw enough to be able to internalize and beholden things like, “honorableness”, “dignity”, and most importantly for Holden, “face”. Though to the naked eye and untrained mind these “things” which Holden can in fact internalize may seem fairly simple; it challenges the reader to humble oneself and accept that which is the raw. There is no space for semantics and lies in Oprisko’s work. In fact it is so shockingly explicit, one may find themselves utterly offended. Holden Caufield offended readers for years after Sallinger brought him to life over the span of 200 or more so pages, so much that the book was condemned in certain places. Robert L. Oprisko’s, “Honor: A Phenomenology”, in my utmost opinion, contains this same potential. By critically engaging in Oprisko’s spar with “honor”, one may find themselves on the defense of their very own identity and subsequent reality. It is on this defensive edge, that one can only truly engage with the subjects in Oprisko’s radical work.

11

Authors: Almasa Mulalic

Towards the end of 1960s there was a huge hippie movement which was marked as Turbulent Decade. In Britain the labor party gained power in 1964, in France the protests in 1968 forced president Charles de Gaulle to leave the country. For some people in Europe, May 1968 meant the end of traditional collective action and the beginning of a new era to be dominated mainly by different social movement emerging at that time throughout the world (Brinkley, 1997; Erlanger, 2008). Harold Pinter’s The Caretaker (1960) and Martin Amis’ Money: The Suicide Note (1984) are embedded with violence and mistreatement among the main characters. With an attempt to reflect social dimensions of the society of that time, both novels deal with violence between very close people who have family or very close friendship ties. The Cartaker is the play in which people are portrayed as living on the edge, and are ready to accept any possibility at presented in order to fulfill their individual psychological needs. The Money is a novel about John Self, a film director, a man who makes deals, spends a lot of money, abuses alcohol, tobacco, pills, pornography, and as a result he is portrayed as extremely violent. This paper attempts to analyze the question of violence that is presented and described in these two works. More importantly, this paper uses socio-psychological approaches and the historical context in analyzing violence in these two works. An analysis of absurd and satirist worlds presented by Pinter and Amis is especially valuable because of their relevance for describing and tackling present-day violence in our societies.

13

Authors: Nasser Maleki

Morrison’s The Bluest Eye (1970) stands as an outstanding novel of character regarding the destroying effects of Negrophobia among the black on themselves. Pecola Breedlove’s agony over blue eyes arises from an undeveloped Negritude, and the discord within the black society towards Negrophobia, and a strong fear of her own race. Pecola’s non-reconciliation with her black identity, inflamed by domestic violence and the black societal indifference, craves for blue eyes, the paradigm of whiteness and white beauty. Consequently, she develops an anti-black neurosis because of a feeling of nonexistence both within her community and the white society, although she remains entangled within the interstitial space of blackness and whiteness as in a purgatory of suffering. Her final madness is the culmination of a black human being who is unable to neither accept and defend her Negritude, nor able to transcend to a seemingly higher, but fake, state of being.

17

Authors: Kate Birdsall

This article deconstructs the events surrounding the initial deletion of Richard Drew's "Falling Man" photograph from the archive of September 11. Via such philosophers as Paul Ricoeur and Georges Didi-Huberman, it explores the ethical implications of examining the photograph, both by itself and in montage, and investigates American views of death and dying in that context. The testimonies and images that followed the collapse of the World Trade Center brought to the fore several prescient, though often ignored, philosophical questions which surround the nature of the image, its role in shaping the narrative of an event, and whether an image of a man in the last seconds of his life, directly following his decision to die but preceding his death, functions as a reminder that we might carefully interrogate what it means to deem something unimaginable, unfathomable, unrepresentable.

18

Authors: Marco Morini

American vice presidential candidates are chosen for several reasons. Some of these rationales are easy to be recognized, while others belong to the cockles of the heart of the presidential candidates. Social scientists and journalists agree about the factors that are more essential: the vice presidential (VP) nominee’s capacity of balancing the ideological and personal characteristics of the presidential candidate and the “native son” effect, namely the guarantee that the VP nominee would carry his/her own state. These strategies are often combined and they work at different electoral levels: the first one has usually a national or macro-regional significance while the second is crucial in the battleground states. This research is divided into two sections: the first one investigates the “balancing the ticket” strategy, offering an overview of about one century of presidential races. The second aims to verify the VP nominee’s effect in his/her home state. The results will confirm that there have been several running mates who have been selected in order to “balance the ticket” but also that the vice president nominee’s effect in the home states has been quite poor.

21

Authors: Titus Olusegun Stephen

Performance is one of the major arts in most African countries. Among the Yoruba in Nigeria several genre of oral performance has been researched and documented. These include the ijala, iwi, oriki ekun iyawo, Iyere Ifa, iwure , among others. However, very little attention and studies have been committed to oral performance of Ìrègún chants and songs in Yagbaland. This paper, therefore, focuses on the evaluation of oral performance of Ìrègún chants and songs among Yagba people in Kogi State, located in North central of Nigeria. Primary data were collected through 3 In-depth and 3 Key Informant interviews of leaders and members of Ìrègún musical groups. In addition to 3 Participant Observation and 3 Non-Participant Observation methods from Yagba-West, Yagba-East and Mopamuro Local Government Areas of Kogi State, music recordings, photographs of Ìrègún performances, and 6 chants were purposefully sampled. Secondary data were collected through library, archival and Internet sources. Although closely interwoven, Ìrègún performance is structured into preparation, actual and post-performance activities. While chanting, singing, playing of musical instruments and dancing forms the performance dimensions. Iregun music serves as veritable mirror and cultural preserver in Yagba communities.