Johanna Strong - Profile on Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Johanna Strong

Fantasy is silver and scarlet, indigo and azure, obsidian veined with gold and lapis lazuli. Real... more Fantasy is silver and scarlet, indigo and azure, obsidian veined with gold and lapis lazuli. Reality is plywood and plastic, done up in mud brown and olive drab.

In the scope of things, wide-spread literacy is a new thing. Using drawings made for a new 'langu... more In the scope of things, wide-spread literacy is a new thing. Using drawings made for a new 'language' of communication, something simple that even the illiterate could 'read' and understand, and "the ideas of an intellectual elite could be successfully relayed to the masses" (Backer). Using caricatures turned out to be quite effective "because the images would reach a large amount of people and enjoy the greatest possible amount of comprehension" (Backer). A caricature is an exaggerated image of someone as a satire is an exaggerated text for humor and political change. These political cartoons, therefore, could reach the masses with a political statement that could be understood by a wide audience. This medium allows the artist to "presents possibility, inviting creators and viewers to imagine other representations of reality, opening thought and dialogue and inspiring action. The arts can provoke outrage by being outrageous (Zuk and Dalton) .This was a great strength of the medium and also its greatest weakness. In the immediate time, the signs and symbols in the work spoke to a broad audience, but as time passes, those signs and symbols lose meaning and at best the cartoons are slightly amusing instead of packing the satirical punch and social message they did at creation.

Lilith’s Brood as the Post-Colonial Window Using the lens of post-colonial theory, Octavia Butler... more Lilith’s Brood as the Post-Colonial Window
Using the lens of post-colonial theory, Octavia Butler’s Brood can be seen an example of how an invader removes the selfhood of the invaded as a means of control. Combining race, culture, and gender, Lilith’s Brood examines and attests to dehumanization as a means of restriction of the invaded and supremacy for the invader. Modern studies that focus on race, ethnicity, and region are many times studied at the same time as part of postcolonial studies, encouraging the rethinking of the assumptions of “identity, history, politics, and literature” (Parker 263). This paper explores the way Butler uses the alien invader to control the populace much as the European controlled the invaded peoples encountered by explorers. Like the European colonizers of the past, the aliens do not feel that the human subalterns can possibly understand the enormity of their situation, which is the Earth is dead and the aliens have plans for the creation of a new Earth and a new people to occupy it. In terms of theory, Edward Said argues that the way the West speaks of the East is through a specific discourse (Parker 248). He says that the East is viewed, erroneously, as “sensual, lazy, exotic, irrational, cruel, promiscuous, seductive, inscrutable… primitive, ruled by emotion… and a world where all people are alike and where their actions are determined by the national or racial category they belong to” (248). This is much the same language the Oakali use to describe the humans. ). Said says the West (or the invader) has labeled itself as “rational … democratic … modern, progressive, technological, and the center of the world…” (248). This is how the Oakali portray themselves to the Humans. These two cultures, the invader and invaded, are in direct opposition to each other. When they clash, it nearly destroys one culture entirely. It is only saved through the intervention of one of the invaders, and even then, it is only a token, an act grudgingly done. The hegemony of the invader is the one that wins in the end, and the invaded, the surviving Humans, are left to conform or die.

of UC Santa Cruz, examines John Winthrop as an "antique" to be brought and shown around in the di... more of UC Santa Cruz, examines John Winthrop as an "antique" to be brought and shown around in the discussion between the "liberal individualist and the communitarians(493). In his essay titled "Liberty/Authority/Community in the Political Thought of John Winthrop", Schaar examines not only the sermon "On Christian Charity", but also a speech given by Winthrop in 1645 in the colony that discusses authority. Schaar, while saying he is unsure of the way the

The Tempest and Me I have a confession to make. I, as an English major, have never read or watche... more The Tempest and Me I have a confession to make. I, as an English major, have never read or watched Shakespeare's The Tempest. I couldn't shake the feeling that it would be so difficult to read, since it was written to be seen, not read. There was also the knowledge that language has changed over the years and I was afraid I would not be able to understand the text. I was wrong.

asserts that it is impossible to know if a machine is intelligent, "cognizant? Conscious? Sentien... more asserts that it is impossible to know if a machine is intelligent, "cognizant? Conscious? Sentient?" (414). How do we, as end users at the keyboard, know that the person on the other end of the line, that we have never met, is intelligent? By what standards do we judge that? How do we know if they are indeed human? (414). Does intelligence equal human?

An academic reflection about prayer as it related to CS Lewis.