term paper, winter semester 2007/2008, Potsdam University by Lars Dittmer
Preservation in all its facets in the United States stretches back over more than hundred years and over large parts of this period has enjoyed considerable support by public and politics. However, two decades after World War II, „as the nation shifted from an industrial to a postindustrial (or postmaterialist) society“ (Vig and Kraft: 9), national environmental groups have redefined their societal position. Organisations that had started as sometimes lose associations of anglers, hikers or birdwatchers, like the Sierra Club or the National Audobon Society, now formulated political stances taking into account a globalising world; after sometimes narrow-minded “Not in my backyard” projects and local initiatives of all kinds now consciousness for global issues like rain forest deforestation and climate warming arose. Preservation became environmentalism. (…) Also the scholar Rik Scarce reports skyrocketing membership figures in the environmental organisations during the Reagan years, a fact that will be highlighted later in this paper (22).
flag of the militant environmental NGO "Sea Sheperd" (source: Wikipedia)
It now could seem reasonable to argue that these new conditions were ideal for the movement – a clear enemy, topics that were neglected by the government and a seemingly consistent support from the public – but is that so easy? This term paper wants to find out if patterns of relationships between environmental groups and presidents in the United States exist. The points I will elaborate on in the body of my paper will include membership of the groups, foundation of new groups, radicalisation of the movement and public and financial support. I am basing my research on several assumptions – if a Presidency X fulfils the requirements Y, Z will happen to environmental groups. In the first part I will introduce some of the major organisations and their profiles, also some of the radical associations will be addressed. Also the presidencies and their environmental achievements will be part of my study, however only stretching back until the 1970s. Not all of the presidents will be scrutinised the same way; my focus will be especially on those administrations, whose elections marked clear turning points as to the environmental policies, politics and polities of the United States.
1. General Introduction
1.1 Introduction and problem identification
1.2 Assumptions
1.3 Other factors and influences
2. The two variables facts and backgrounds
2.1 Green organisations in the states
2.2 US-Presidencies and their green record
3. Results: organisations and the presidencies
3.1 Membership of the groups
3.2 Number of groups
3.3 Radicalisation of the groups
3.4 Support and Green giving
4. Conclusions
5. Bibliography
The movement feared for the worst, as Reagan’s victory could have indicated a falling sense for environmental topics in the society the result could have been a slump in membership and financial support and finally the dissolution of many groups. Their fears proved to be unfounded. „Paradoxically, Reagan actually strengthened environmental forces in the nation. Through his lax enforcement of pollution laws and prodevelopment resource
policies, he created political issues around which national and grassroots environmental groups could organize“ (Vig and Kraft: 14).
Also the scholar Rik Scarce reports skyrocketing membership figures in the environmental organisations during the Reagan years, a fact that will be highlighted later in this paper (22). It now could seem reasonable to argue that these new conditions were ideal for the movement a clear enemy, topics that were neglected by the government and a seemingly consistent support from the public but is that so easy?
This term paper wants to find out if patterns of relationships between environmental groups and presidents in the United States exist. The points I will elaborate on in the body of my paper will include membership of the groups, foundation of new groups, radicalisation of the movement and public and financial support. I am basing my research on several assumptions if a Presidency X fulfils the requirements Y, Z will happen to environmental groups. In the first part I will introduce some of the major organisations and their profiles, also some of the radical associations will be addressed. Also the presidencies and their environmental
achievements will be part of my study, however only stretching back until the 1970s. Not all of the presidents will be scrutinised the same way; my focus will be especially on those administrations, whose elections marked clear turning points as to the environmental policies, politics and polities of the United States.
term paper abstract, winter semester 2007/2007, Potsdam University by Lisanne Dorn and Lars Dittmer
„Britain has had the same foreign policy objective for at least five hundred years – to create a disunited Europe. (…)It was necessary for us to break up the EEC,(…) now that we’re in, we were able to make a pig’s breakfast out of it.“ (The Complete Yes Minister, qtd. In Otte 1)
The essence that this sarcastic quotation transports, brushing away all party politics, great leaders and platform commitments, suggests that Euro-scepticism has always been in Great Britain’s political culture and it is here to stay. Intrinsic motifs and reasons for the British Euroscepticism will be dealt with in part I of this paper and indeed, they constitute strong evidence that the rejection of Europe – not only of the EU as a political instrument – is firmly entrenched in major parts of the UK’s society. To assume however that this sentiment has been equally present in all the political phases and parties in post WWII Great Britain is scientifically unsustainable. It becomes obvious especially if one considers the pro-European mood in the devolved Scottish Parliament and the parties represented in it, eg. The Scottish National Party and the Liberal Democrats (Watts/Pilkington 222, 243).
Roosevelt and Churchill aboard the U.S. S. Augusta, off the coast of Newfoundland, August 1941
Also on UK level the political approach towards the EU and its institutions has changed with the political personal in charge, intergovernmental relations and constellations; it is true especially in regard of the UK that the lines of approval and rejection of the EU are not congruent with party loyalities. t is therefore the task of this paper to distil ideological determinants and mind-sets and the crucial phases in British policies towards the European Union after World War II. Focus in part one lies on Britishness and its surrounding ideological patterns; part two at its core examines the last three governments of the United Kingdom, that is the administrations of Margaret Thatcher, John Major and Tony Blair.
It will be one of the statements of this work that both of the subsequent governments in many respects can be seen in the tradition of the first mentioned, although it was then indicated in another way and hoped by many pro-Europeans that this would not be the case. Furthermore one aim will be to isolate a tendency that enables the percipients of this academic work to venture an outlook on the future relations between Europe and the UK, which is especially vital in regard of the sustainability of the Union: It has now enlarged to 27 members with some more countries in the waiting loop and its constitution is still on hold. It must be emphasized that the UK is a major player in European politics and by no means just a by-stander.
2
Table of Contents
1
General Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 3
1.1
Introduction and approach of this paper………………………………………………………….. 3
Cultural identity…………………………………………………………………………………………….. 4
2.2
Britain and the EMU ……………………………………………………………………………………… 5
2.3
Britain and the European Constitution ……………………………………………………………. 6
3
Special Relationship………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 7
4
The Euro-sceptic Press in Great Britain …………………………………………………………. 10
5
The „Awkward Partner“ enters the union ……………………………………………………….. 12
6
Margaret Thatcher: Alone against the Superstate ……………………………………………. 15
6.1
Margaret Thatcher and the BBQ ……………………………………………………………………. 15
6.2
The Late 1980s Struggle Over Europe …………………………………………………………….. 17
7
John Major: A phase of transition …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 18
8
New Labour: Old Wine in New Bottles? …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 21
8.1
Hopes for a pro-European approach………………………………………………………………. 21
8.2
New Labour and the Euro…………………………………………………………………………….. 22
9
Evaluation and outlook………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 24
10
Works Cited…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….26
To support the above-mentioned
tendency this paper will repeatedly recur on figures of surveys among the UK’s people and
Seite 5
4
examine if Euroscepticism was shared on both levels, in the governments and in the population or if classical patterns of bottom up or top down politics can be established. As Julie Smith and Mariana Tsatsas in their work The New Bilateralism point out,
there are many factors that determine bilateral relations (5). This term paper is incorporating the points that are important in the examination of the topic; it names the treaties that shape
the European interactions on a transnational level and provides the necessary terminology in the respective historical contexts. It is however also determined to not neglect the relations
between the people who govern the countries; it is thus not only party platforms, bi- and multilateral treaties and assumed political alliances within the political left/right pattern that
shape European relations, but also the chemistry between the leaders: „…good personal relations are extremely important in building effective bilateral relations between states
(Smith/Tsatsas 7).
These relations often do not adjust to political affiliations; for example although Tony Blair was usually associated with a „catch-all“ politics slightly tending to the left, however
with the former conservative Prime Minister of Spain, Jose Maria Aznar, he got warmer than with many of „his fellow European Social Democrats“ (Smith/Tsatsas 31). Margaret Thatcher
however could not conceal her disliking for her conservative counterpart in Germany: „she thought (Helmut) Kohl boring, clumsy and provincial…: „My God, that man is so German“
(Campbell 304). It has become common to declare Margaret Thatcher the greatest anti-European in British history after WWII – it is however necessary to take a look back into the early years of the community to understand that also the Iron Lady’s policies were in some measure in line with those of her predecessors.
2 Britishness
2.1 Cultural identity
Britain’s sense of itself is a strongly encouraged self-perception by its imperial past and its geographical and linguistic isolation of the rest of Europe. As in most western democracies, a strong sense of cultural identity and a concept of what Britain means is deeply rooted in Great Britain. Here Robbins offers a traditional view of cultural identification:“ identification is constructed on the back of a recognition of some common origin or shared characteristic with
another person or group, or with an ideal, and with a natural closure of solidarity and allegiance established on this foundation“ (Robbins 282). Thus there are two factors: identification – here clearly seen as a construct – is based on either some common origin
and/or shared characteristics; this could be historical events from the shared imperial past or, as stated above, the geographical and linguistic isolation from continental Europe.
The second and most likely more vital factor stated by Robbins is „the natural closure of solidarity“. This concept of closure is strongly associated with the topic of cultural/group identity by many
socialists. It describes the unconscious intention of a specific social group to not only form this group for reasons of shared origins and characteristics, but to then defend it and its perceived status from an external threat. This external threat is often referred to as „the
Other“, which shows that it can appear in various forms and always starts as an imagined or at least perceived threat, long before it can be grasped and named factually. In the beginning the only thing that the specific social group might be certain of, is that there is a difference between their supposedly homogenous group and the external other. The manifestation of this difference rapidly turns „the Other“ into an external threat against which the shared traditions and values of the group have to be defended. Thus according to contemporary social theory, it could be plausibly argued, that one element at least of recent expressions of Euro-scepticism in Britain „stems from the presence of and perceived threat from an external „Other“, namely continental Europe“ (Robbins 285).
term paper abstract, Wintersemester 2006/2007, Potsdam University by Lars Dittmer
online gaming has become a standard feature of most games that are put on the market. As a result, online communities and new „social relations“ – the phrase is put in quotation marks with a clear intent here – are established on a permanent basis in these realms with after-effects that seem to be barely controllable by the societies. The people who participate in such games, mostly boys and men between 13 and 25, are confronted with a completely new type of social pressure – online obligations. They are grouped in online „guilds“ that meet and play at certain times of the day, there are special events in which they are expected to join, and if they are not investing a certain span of time daily into their online-characters – which need to be advanced – they are outdone by other guilds or members of their own groups.
Indeed they are spending days of their lives in these realms, which allows for the statement that these places have become anthropospheres, spaces that are filled with human life and everything it entails. The potential to lose contact with real life (rl as it is called among players) is massive. Early the culture industry has been fascinated with living in alternative or simulated realities and its „perpetual oscillation between utopia and dystopia“ (Durham 5). Many visions, as I shall point out in this term paper, presage today’s developments to an astonishing degree – sure enough the ones I deal with are rather dystopian. Notably, the most prominent in recent years has been the 1999 film „Matrix“ by the Wachowski brothers, which has been extended to a trilogy. Also science has come up with certain models that can be employed to conceptualize these spaces – I will outline some of these and try to put them in the context that serves my problem.
It is, in my view, necessary to view today’s colonisation of and living in these spaces that I have outlined above and will further detail in the course of this paper, in front of a background of media production of the period since WWII. The idea that informs this undertaking is, that there have been numerous accounts who predict what is being made accessible to computer users at the moment – Cyberspace is no longer a room that can be inhabited in the future, but it is right now open to everyone; the Cyborg has come into existence.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction and problem identification. 3
2. approach of this term paper 6
3. Welt am Draht and its derivates. 7
4. Stephen Lisbergers „Tron“. 10
5. Peter Weirs „The Truman Show“. 12
6. Early cyberspaces and their spatiality. 14
7. Entering cyberspaces by avatars. 16
8. Structures in cyberspaces – non-places or simulacra. 19
9. Power in imaginary spaces. 22
10. Second Life et alie: my personal Dystopia?. 24
Works Cited. 27
1. Introduction and problem identification
After a relatively noiseless online-launch in 2003, the computer Game Second Life has seen an incredible increase in users within the last few months and therefore has attracted the attention of international media. The game provides for an online-world in which numerous activities –chatting, flirting, shopping etc. are being made possible to the users. The players take part in the form of avatars, pixel-figures that can be created and designed according to the wishes of the members.
While in October 2006 the one millionth avatar has seen the light of the virtual world, by now (early April 2007) more than 5 million users roam the places and spaces of the alternative realm of Second Life. The idea behind the game is by no means new and merely marks the latest step in a development that can be traced back to early primitive computer games like flight and sports simulators.
Whereas in most simulation games however only parts of „reality“ where isolated and converted into programs that were mostly played alone, in the late 1990s and the early years of the first decade after 2000 a whole new generation of games flooded the shelves of the games retailers which came as a result of spreading fast broadband internet connections and the possibility of real-time chatting. In Massive Multiplayer Online (Role-Playing) Games (MMO(RP)Gs) like World of Warcraft (WOW), in some aspects a predecessor to Second Life, a confined fantasy realm which is permanently online waits for the young players to be liberated of evil or good forces – depending on the side one aligns with.
Here it becomes real what many authors tend to call „the end of geography“ and „the triumph of technology over space“ (Mosco 38). Heros from all countries in these games are thanks to the internet able to team up in Guilds and Clans and share „valuable“ items like swords and armours that can be found throughout these worlds and thereby improve their avatars. They are of course able to choose their identity – inter alia dwarves, humans, night elves and other races and classes can be deployed in the online-battles that are waged in the game twenty four hours a day.
Second Life is not informed by a fantasy story like WOW – it however addressed itself to the task to deliver its users a complete living space with a broad variety of possible actions and, what is even more important, social interactions designed to attract more and more users. Both games – Second Life will be dealt with in detail later in this term paper – are just the most successful top of the iceberg; online gaming has become a standard feature of most games that are put on the market. As a result, online communities and new „social relations“ – the phrase is put in quotation marks with a clear intent here – are established on a permanent basis in these realms with after-effects that seem to be barely controllable by the societies.
The people who participate in such games, mostly boys and men between 13 and 25, are confronted with a completely new type of social pressure – online obligations. They are grouped in online „guilds“ that meet and play at certain times of the day, there are special events in which they are expected to join, and if they are not investing a certain span of time daily into their online-characters – which need to be advanced – they are outdone by other guilds or members of their own groups. Indeed they are spending days of their lives in these realms, which allows for the statement that these places have become anthropospheres, spaces that are filled with human life and everything it entails. The potential to lose contact with real life (rl as it is called among players) is massive; China has due the rising amount of highly addicted young players reduced the runtime of the servers, there have been even reports about deaths in front of the screen due to dehydration and lack of nutrition (Wikipedia, the free Encyclopaedia). If actually true, online worlds are not only places to live, but also to die.
term paper abstract, Winter Semester 2005/2006, Potsdam University by Lars Dittmer
„…and for three years it was the most talked-about, written-about and shocked-about venue in the universe. Everyone wanted to go to Studio 54 (Jones/ Kantonen 1999: 246)”. “A lot of people thought that at the door was a better show than inside…people would try anything to get in (“Shane” in Studio 54)”. When Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager in the late April 1976 started their nightclub Studio 54, a legend came to life. On the floors of this unique party shangri-la, celebrities like Andy Warhol, Liza Minelli, Bianca and Mick Jagger, Brooke Shields and Truman Capote mingled with business people, politicians, soap opera starlets, drag queens and chosen few from the “grey people”, as nightlife guru Rubell called the normal people.
Never before, a discothèque had caused such a public stir. Paparazzi jostled beyond the velvet ropes to illustrate their gossip columns with pictures of the socialites – it was the “first time ever that celebrity photos would appear on the front page of the tabloids for no other reasons than they were there (Jones/ Kantonen 1999: 249)”. But by far not everybody came to know the true promise of the club – door policy at Studio 54 was probably one of the toughest in the history of nightlife. Rubell himself was eager to make sure that of the many different groups that made up the audience of 54, none should dominate the other, a type of “social engineering he called “tossing the salad”” (Shapiro 2005: 201). He himself supported his doorman Marc Benecke selecting the people who could pass the velvet ropes, whilst scores of people shouted Rubell’s name begging him to be admitted into the club. On one hand, there were certain criteria, but on the other hand, there was enough leeway for arbitrariness, indeed, it was a highly undemocratic procedure that precisely reflected its place, its period and social circumstances.
Disco in the ‚uncanny 1970s‘ not only served to escape reality but also epitomised an increasing drive towards individualism that replaced the ideas of participation and community of the sixties. The doors at 54 were instruments to form a new world with new social ladders and in their radicalism marked a peak in this development.
Table of Contents
1. General Introduction 3
1.1 Introduction and problem identification
1.2 Approach of this term paper
2. The Seventies – need to escape? 5
2.1 The faceless decade
2.2 The economic downturn – stagflation and unemployment
2.3 Repercussions of Vietnam
3. Disco – feared and sneered at 9
3.1 Countercultural phenomenon or foofaraw?
3.2 Home of the Disenfranchised
4. Studio 54 – Queen of Manhattan 12
4.1 Steve Rubell, Ian Schrager and their dream
4.2 Drug supply at 54
5. Escaping the “grey people”: door policy at Studio 54 14
5.1 The “right mix”
5.2 Tossing the salad
5.3 The inner-sanctum
6. Conclusion 18
7. Bibliography 20
1. General Introduction
1.1 Introduction and problem identification
„…and for three years it was the most talked-about, written-about and shocked-about venue in the universe. Everyone wanted to go to Studio 54 (Jones/ Kantonen 1999: 246)”.
“A lot of people thought that at the door was a better show than inside…people would try anything to get in (“Shane” in Studio 54)”.
When Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager in the late April 1976 started their nightclub Studio 54, a legend came to life. On the floors of this unique party shangri-la, celebrities like Andy Warhol, Liza Minelli, Bianca and Mick Jagger, Brooke Shields and Truman Capote mingled with business people, politicians, soap opera starlets, drag queens and chosen few from the “grey people”, as nightlife guru Rubell called the normal people. Never before, a discothèque caused such a public stir. Paparazzi jostled beyond the velvet ropes to illustrate their gossip columns with pictures of the socialites – it was the “first time ever that celebrity photos would appear on the front page of the tabloids for no other reasons than they were there (Jones/ Kantonen 1999: 249)”.
The place for this unprecedented spectacle was 254 West 54th street in Manhattan, New York. As to grandeur and pomp, Studio 54 easily dwarfed all other night clubs, the interior was lavish in every respect, the decor sometimes changed from weak to weak. Besides alcohol, drug abuse was rampant – be it cocaine or MDA, Rubell and his team left nothing to be desired for Studio 54’s fastidious clientele. Disc Jockey Richard Kaczor, “who by 1979 was earning $50,000 a year and thus was the world’s highest-paid DJ (Shapiro 2005: 204), was a luminary in his field. But the frenzy was not about technical details or size of the club, not even about the latest in music – it was about seeing and being seen on the highest level conceivable.
By far not everybody came to know the true promise of the club – door policy at Studio 54 was probably one of the toughest in the history of nightlife. Rubell himself was eager to make sure that of the many different groups that made up the audience of 54, none should dominate the other, a type of “social engineering he called “tossing the salad”” (Shapiro 2005: 201). He himself supported his doorman Marc Benecke selecting the people who could pass the velvet ropes, whilst scores of people shouted Rubell’s name begging him to be admitted into the club. On one hand, there were certain criteria, but on the other hand, there was enough leeway for arbitrariness, indeed, it was a highly undemocratic procedure that precisely reflected its place, its period and social circumstances.
Scholars often describe the Seventies in the United States as a dreary, unsteady and uncanny period – a decade that has started with the trials and tribulations of Vietnam War, continued with the Watergate scandal and experienced the first post World War II economic downturn with skyrocketing unemployment rates, stagflation and a melting welfare state. Repercussions of these events were especially felt in New York City of these days, which Peter Shapiro reports, was felt by many to be a “cesspool of moral and spiritual degradation, a playground for drug dealers, pimps and corrupt cops (2005: x)”. Disco in this time not only served to escape reality but also epitomised an increasing drive towards individualism that replaced the ideas of participation and community of the sixties. The doors at 54 were instruments to form a new world with new social ladders and in their radicalism marked a peak in this development.
1.2 Approach of this term paper
This term paper wants to examine the new hierarchies that were established at Studio 54, especially at its front doors in the late Seventies and examines the cultural and historical context that determines this phenomenon. The paper evolves around two poles: Disco, which is treated herein as a trend towards escapism, hedonism and individualism with Studio 54 as its most extreme excrescence, and the United States, which in the Seventies delivered a setting with most attributes of a deteriorating industrialised country and New York as a city in which these attributes culminated. Disco herein is a term that labels a style of dance music as well as the movement with all its fashions and conventions. The distinction made between the two concepts will be clear from the respective context it is used in.
In order to manifest the above-mentioned society internal drive towards individualism the second point of this paper deals with the Seventies as the decade that enabled the success-story of disco. The pictures this paper delivers about the decade are not pleasant but it has to be considered that history is a concept that in its broadness is impossible to capture. Personal remembrances of the decade might vary from person to person. This paper therefore delivers texts of scholarly assessments and commonly-acknowledged views of the Seventies as a decade, trying to explain what triggered the public desire to escape reality and the sense of hedonism and decadence that characterised disco.
term paper abstract, summer semester 2005, grade 1,3, Potsdam University by Lars Dittmer
Chacko told the twins that though they hated to admit it, they were all Anglophiles. They were a family of Anglophiles. (Roy 1996: 52) In establishing the two-egg twins Rahel and Esthapen (Estha) as main characters in her 1996 masterpiece “The God of Small Things”, Arundhati Roy has set up postcolonial prototypes in the area of conflict between British and Indian identity and culture.
The body of the story focuses on the childhood of the twins, playing in the late 1960s; they are born to an upper middle class family in Kerala, South-Western India, and grow up fatherless. Their family to a large extent cultivates a British attitude – mainly due to grandfather Pappachi alias John Ipe, an Entomologist and former government official under the British colonial administration, his sister Baby Kochamma, and his son Chacko, who used to be an Oxford Rhodes Scholar. Until his death in the first part of the book, John Ipe drives a big Plymouth, he wears stiff English suits and it is inconceivable to him that any Englishman could misbehave; Chacko assumes the air of a British intellectual, he almost exclusively speaks English and often indulges in citing from English and American classics. The family has a high reputation in their home town Ayemenem, most members of the family profit from their Anglophile air in one way or other. The rest of the family more or less adapts to their way of life or finds a way to deal with the situation. The plot of the novel is balanced along cultural and social areas of friction within the Indian society, such as caste, class, religion, culture, clout, customs and traditions.
It is one of the main tasks for the characters in the novel to find their place in this complex social structure. Though the twins are educated in English, their situation is particularly difficult and they receive some degree of alienation also from within the family. Of course, the twins mostly do not articulate these sorts of feelings and assessments explicitly; it has to be considered that they are children of the age of seven – but they are given a much more subtle means of communication by the author: language. Not the content of their sentences, but the way they apply the English language in various situations. It conveys a lot about how they assess their position and how they engage themselves in certain situations the novel fronts.
Table of Contents
1. General Introduction
1.1 Introduction and problem identification
1.2 Approach of this term paper
2. English and other languages in India
2.1 General facts and figures
2.2 Indians in blood, English in taste and intellect
2.3 Enmeshment between religion and language
2.4 English as social indicator
3. Constellation in Roy: The God of Small Things
3.1 Social position and arrangement of the family
3.2 Anglophile Tradition
4. The twins and their communications system
4.1 Rahel and Estha – two egg misfits
4.2 Their way of using English
4.2.1 English as everyday language
4.2.2 English as a means of joking
4.2.3 language as a means of rebellion
5. Conclusion
6. Works Cited
1. General introduction
1.1 Introduction and problem identification
Chacko told the twins that though they hated to admit it, they were all Anglophiles. They
were a family of Anglophiles.
(Roy 1997: 52)
In establishing the two-egg twins Rahel and Esthapen (Estha) as main characters in her 1997 masterpiece “The God of Small Things”, Arundhati Roy has set up postcolonial prototypes in the area of conflict between British and Indian identity and culture. The body of the story focuses on the childhood of the twins, playing in the late 1960s; they are born to an upper middle class family in Kerala, South-Western India, and grow up fatherless. Other family members besides the two-egg twins include their mother Ammu, their Uncle Chacko, grandparents Mammachi and Pappachi, their grandaunt Baby Kochamma, their cousin Sophie and her mother Margaret, the divorced wife of Chacko – she is an English native and lives with her daughter in London.
The family to a large extent cultivates a British attitude – mainly due to grandfather Pappachi alias John Ipe, an Entomologist and former government official under the British colonial administration, his sister Baby Kochamma, and his son Chacko, who used to be an Oxford Rhodes Scholar. Until his death in the first part of the book, John Ipe drives a big Plymouth, he wears stiff English suits and it is inconceivable to him that any Englishman could misbehave; Chacko assumes the air of a British intellectual, he almost exclusively speaks English and often indulges in citing from English and American classics. The family has a high reputation in their home town Ayemenem, most members of the family profit from their Anglophile air in one way or other. The rest of the family more or less adapts to their way of life or finds a way to deal with the situation.
The plot of the novel is balanced along cultural and social areas of friction within the Indian society, such as caste, class, religion, culture, clout, customs and traditions. It is one of the main tasks for the characters in the novel to find their place in this complex social structure. Though the twins are educated in English, their situation is particularly difficult and they receive some degree of alienation also from within the family. Of course, the twins mostly do not articulate these sorts of feelings and assessments explicitly; it has to be considered that they are children of the age of seven – but they are given a much more subtle means of communication by the author: language. Not the content of their sentences, but the way they apply the English language in various situations. It conveys a lot about how they assess their position and how they engage themselves in certain situations the novel fronts.
1.2 Approach of this term paper
To give the usage of the English language, as it is done by Rahel and Estha, a meaning, it is necessary to set up a scheme that clarifies the social standing of the twins and their family – some historic facts and postcolonial aspects will be highlighted to promote this in point two and three. This is especially vital to make clear why the twins and their family speak English at all, and not only Malayalam, which is the original vernacular in the Kottayam district of Kerala. The scheme serves as a theoretical fundament and it is also designed to highlight one of the main problems involved in this topic; namely that the concept of “identity” in postcolonial societies is a complex field that needs a careful approach for “westerners” who have not dealt with this topic before. The theoretical scheme set up in point two will also support the finding that they way how Rahel and Estha use language involves some degree of systematisation. Indeed, often postcolonial statements circulating around “identity” are at play in this system – three functions of this “communications system” will be dealt with in part four. This term paper does not analyze major parts of the novel; it is neither a historical nor a linguistic work. Indeed, it deals with language, but it wants to establish language not in a linguistic sense but as a symbolic arrangement that serves functions in the plot of the book and in the fictional lives of the twins.
term paper abstract, summer semester 2006, Potsdam university by Lars Dittmer
this paper is building up on postmodern patterns of fragmentation, loneliness and disorientation. The Quest is a central storytelling technique – in times where traditional ways of living and social constellations fade and the grand narratives have lost their guiding functions, people have to „mind-map“ their own routes through a fagmentary world. The paper establishes the quest form in the 1966 book by Pynchon and draws lines of tradition to Jarmusch’s 2005 Browken Flowers.
Table of Contents
1. General Introduction 3
1.1 Overview: The two stories 3
1.2 Approach of this term paper 5
1.3 From modernism to postmodernism 7
2. Social fragmentation as a postmodern determinant 8
2.1 Oedipa Maas: “They are stripping away, my men” 8
2.2 Don Johnston a.k.a. Don Juan 10
2.3 Drugs and unreliability 11
3. To slow for a globalizing/ globalized world? 2
3.1 Miss Maas and Mass Media 12
3.2 “I was in computers” 13
3.3. The United States as a setting 14
4. Me against the system: anxieties and paranoia 16
4.1 mind-mapping against the machine 16
4.2 The non-solution to nothing 18
5. Conclusion: Internet and Postmodernity 19
6. Bibliography 20
1. General Introduction
„Hey”, said Oedipa, “can I get somebody to do it for me?”
“Me”, said Roseman, “some of it, sure. But aren’t you even interested?”
In what?”
“In what you might find out.” (Pynchon 1966: 12)
“I prepared the strategy. Only you can solve the mystery” (Winston in Broken Flowers).
1.2 Overview: the two stories
There is hardly a novel that outlines a cultural epoch as precisely as the 1966 published book “The Crying of Lot 49” (COL 49) by Thomas Pynchon. On barely more than one hundred pages probably every concept that has ever attributed to the set of ideas we today refer to as “postmodern”, can be identified. The book, that many describe as one of the most important post World War II novels, is a challenge in every respect: Pynchon’s dense and intricate style of writing with its often loose and disconnected sequences leave many readers baffled – what on the first glance seems a humorous and easy read on the second requires profound knowledge of American and European history and sketches a sometimes bleak and dreary picture of human isolation and paranoia. Nevertheless connoisseurs describe “The Crying of Lot 49” as his most accessible book.
Thomas Pynchon as a person remains as mysterious as his novels – the fact that he never appears in public and discusses his books, leaves literary theorists room for interpretation and speculation. This is reflected in literature about Pynchon – there is hardly a self-respecting scholar of 20th century American literature that has not elaborated on his work: “Pynchon’s novels have lured literary theorists and critics to such an extent that they have spawned an industry” (Coale 2005: 135). But also to other artists he is a constant source of inspiration – as we will see, not only to writers like Paul Auster, Don DeLillo or Susan Sontag, but also to movie artists. Filmmakers like David Lynch, Quentin Tarantino or last but not least Jim Jarmusch constantly process postmodern elements and sujets – what started as “independent cinema” has – thanks to blockbusters like “Kill Bill”, “Jackie Brown” or “Mulholland Drive” – gradually entered the mainstream and is now being received by major audiences.
But though postmodern elements in these movies can be isolated and discussed – sure enough, literature has dealt with most of them – a direct comparison with “The Crying of Lot 49”, one of the archetyps of postmodernism, would be barely fruitful, as the latter’s appearance equals a mystery novel. However, the 2005 Jim Jarmusch production Broken Flowers, starring Bill Murray, is arranged following a “Pynchonesque” quest pattern and can be therefore directly placed in this context; there are obvious parallels as to structure, story and background setting between the two pieces. To discuss the elements that qualify Broken Flowers as a movie in this tradition will be the task of this term paper.
At first it is necessary to deliver short synopsises of the two stories – many of the elements will be dealt with in-depth in the course of this term paper. The protagonist in COL 49, Oedipa Maas, “a suburban housewife and English major from Cornell” (Cornis-Pope 2001: 104), receives a letter saying that her ex Pierce Inverarity died and that she “had been named executor, or she supposed executrix,” (Pynchon 1966: 5) of his estate. She accepts the challenge that takes her “from her suburbanite home in Kinneret-among the Pines to the Echo Courts Motel in San Narciso, the housing estate at Fangoso Lagoons, the aerospace company Yoyodyne, the Berkeley campus, and the Greek Way bar in San Francisco. (Cornis-Pope 2001: 105).
term paper abstract, summer semester 2005, Potsdam university by Lars Dittmer
„There is nothing so American as our national parks. The scenery and wildlife are native. The fundamental idea behind the parks is native. The parks stand as an outward symbol of this great human principle”. These sentences are not extracted from the platform of the American Green Party – they are from a quote of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd President of the United States, a Republican. In his thinking, “conservation was closely tied to American Values” (Sussman/ Daynes/ West 2001: 169). During his governing period, environmental care was directly incorporated in governmental action – various agencies and bureaucracies were established to deal with this topic.
FDR memorial in Washington with dog Fala
Today, the United States reject major international environmental treaties such as the Kyoto Protocol, requiring participants to reduce green house gases below the 1990 level by 2012. The Bush administration has presented plans to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a swathe of land in northeast Alaska, populated by migratory birds, wolves and caribou. The House of Representatives had already approved these plans, the Senate rejected them. In voting George W. Bush their 43rd President, a majority of the American people made their cross for a candidate with a green record tending to zero. But not only does environmental policy seem to have left the political agenda on a larger scale, observers more and more get the impression that the American people seem to care lesser for environmental aspects than ten or twenty years ago – only considering, among many other factors, the increasing number of polluting light trucks and SUVs on American roads.
So can we conclude that, considering the fact that the parties fight for the support of the American mainstream, both Democrats and Republicans have banned environmental politics from their platforms? This paper is to figure out to what extent the field of environmental policy still is a factor in the American political landscape and what ideological and sociological factors are at play in this process and in the party-internal treatment of the topic.
Table of Contents
1. General Introduction
1.1 Introduction and problem identification
1.2 Approach of this term paper
2. Environmental policy in the American discourse
2.1 Ideological determinants
2.2 Areas of Tension
2.2.1 Economic efficiency vs. Ecology
2.2.2 Sociogeographical variances
2.2.2.1 Traditional labour versus modern production
2.2.2.2 Translation into politics
3. Parties and Positioning in the field
3.1 Republicans: home for anti-environmentalists
3.2 A “green” voting record in Congress: the Democrats
3.3 The Green Party and environmental organizations
4.1 “The Green Decade”
4.2 The Eighties: Reagan and Bush
4.3 Clinton and the 104th Congress
5. Conclusion and outlook
6. Bibliography
I. General Introduction
1.1 Introduction and problem identification
„There is nothing so American as our national parks. The scenery and wildlife are native. The fundamental idea behind the parks is native. The parks stand as an outward symbol of this great human principle”. These sentences are not extracted from the platform of the American Green Party – they are from a quote of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd President of the United States. In his thinking, “conservation was closely tied to American Values” (Sussman/ Daynes/ West 2001: 169). During his governing period, environmental care was directly incorporated in governmental action – various agencies and bureaucracies were established to deal with this topic. Today, the United States rejects major international environmental treaties such as the Kyoto Protocol, requiring signatories to reduce green house gases below the 1990 level by 2012. The Bush administration has presented plans to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a swathe of land in northeast Alaska populated by migratory birds, wolves and caribou. The House of Representatives had already approved these plans, the Senate rejected them. In voting George W. Bush their 43rd President, a majority of the American people made their cross for a candidate with a green record tending to zero.
But not only does environmental policy seem to have left the political agenda on a larger scale, observers are increasingly getting the impression that the American people seem to care less for environmental aspects than ten or twenty years ago – only considering, among many other factors, the increasing number of polluting light trucks and SUVs on American roads. So can we conclude that, considering the fact that the parties fight for the support of the American mainstream, both Democrats and Republicans have banned environmental politics from their platforms? Indeed, it is the needs of American public that party platforms should address, as a part of the identification of a problem or issue of salience and the formulation of a policy. If such a tendency becomes obvious, do the parties react in that way?
1.2 Approach of this term paper
This term paper is to figure out to what extent the field of environmental policy still is a factor in the American political landscape – putting special focus on the political parties. It is not concentrating on the various aspects of which environmental policy constitute, such as air and water preservation, energy politics and consumer protection, but it will make the differentiation if a certain issue requires it. In fact, environmental policy herein is treated only as a political subject, focussing on which party concentrated on it, when, to what degree, and what ideological and socio logical factors are at play in this process and in the internal party treatment of the topic. It starts with an attempt to elaborate a scheme of various areas of tension that are inherent in environmental politics in the United States, then it continues deducing how the parties fit within this texture. In the final part the paper takes a look in history, trying to find out if the scheme established in the middle part is confirmed by how the parties actually occupied this political area in the past and what their role was.
2. Environmental politics in the American discourse
2.1 Ideological determinants
In comparison to most of the European countries, taking into consideration values and attitudes of the United States, the constellation of the political parties in the congress and the voting behaviour of the citizens, the United States can be called a conservative country. Socialism has been almost eradicated from the political map – only some left wing Democrats or small splinter parties nobody takes seriously still fancy with socialist ideas. Values like patriotism, family and religiousness have become mainstream attitude in the States – “moral values” for most Americans were the motivation to elect George W. Bush their President, who previously had been known as a Republican hardliner from Texas. “The environment is an issue without any obvious political home” John E. Bliese quotes Frances Cairncross of the Economist (2001: 10) – indeed, a statement from a theoretical point of view. However, in the environmental discussion in the USA, often sociological and ideological aspects are mingled into the debate. In the heads of most Americans, environment has a political home – it is a topic of quixotic anticapitalists, socialists and intellectuals. It has become mainstream thinking that somebody who cares for trees or animals has no idea of the problems of ordinary people.
term paper abstract, winter semester 2004/2005, Potsdam university by Lars Dittmer
the Nordic cross in Great Britain – the unofficial flag of the Orkney Islands arouses astonishment in the watcher and gives him an idea of how Orcadians feel – being a Scandinavian, and being British. The flag shows the red Norwegian cross on a yellow background, symbolizing the Scottish Royal flag (cf. Towrie 1996-2005: FAQ). Scandinavian culture and self-image still constitute a part of identity in parts of Scotland – especially in Shetland and Orkney, collectively named the Northern Islands. Here, this cultural background has over centuries found expression through a Scandinavian language, called Norn, Icelandic norœnna, the Norwegian language (Fenton 1997: 617).
This term paper is to document the historical and cultural circumstances in which a Scandinavian language could develop in Northern Scotland, its nature and prevalence during its era, and finally, its demise and the remains of Norn in today’s language in Orkney. The paper attaches importance to the fact that it is on the one hand power constellations and politics that produce linguistic changes such as the death of a language, but on the other hand also requires “the active participation of its former speakers” (Barrett 2003: 98). The paper almost exclusively focuses on the development on the Orkney Islands, taking into consideration that history as well as the language itself differs to some extent on the Shetland Islands.
Development and Demise of Orkney Norn – a peace of
Scandinavian Culture in Great Britain
Table of Contents
1. General Introduction
1.1 Introduction: the Nordic cross in Great Britain
1.2 General facts about Orkney
2. History and Language
2.1 Pre-Norse Orkney
2.2 The Pictish-Norse transition
2.3 The Vikings and their language
2.4 Norn
2.5 “Scottization” – the demise of Orkney Norn
3. Language in Orkney today
3.1 The remnants of Norn
3.2 The Orcadian dialect
3.3 discussion/ outlook
4. Bibilography
1. General Introduction
1.1. Introduction: the Nordic cross in Great Britain
The unofficial flag of the Orkney Islands arouses astonishment in the watcher and gives him an idea of how Orcadians feel – being a Scandinavian, and being British. The flag shows the red Norwegian cross on a yellow background, symbolizing the Scottish Royal flag (cf. Towrie 1996-2005: FAQ). Scandinavian culture and self- image still constitute a part of identity in parts of Scotland – especially in Shetland and Orkney, collectively named the Northern Islands. Here, this cultural background has over centuries found expression through a Scandinavian language, called Norn, Icelandic nor(?)nna, the Norwegian language (Fenton 1997: 617).
This term paper is to document the historical and cultural circumstances in which a Scandinavian language could develop in Northern Scotland, its nature and prevalence during its era, and finally, its demise and the remains of Norn in today’s language in Orkney. The paper attaches importance to the fact that it is on the one hand power constellations and politics that produce linguistic changes such as the death of a language, but on the other hand also requires “the active participation of its former speakers” (Barrett 2003: 98). The paper almost exclusively focuses on the development on the Orkney Islands, taking into consideration that history as well as the language itself differs to some extent on the Shetland Islands.
1.2 General facts about Orkney
Orkney1 is an archipelago of about 70 islands lying ten kilometres off the north coast of Scotland in the North Sea. The 2001 census provided a total number of 19, 245 people inhabiting less than one third of the islands. The major part of the population lives in the two main towns Kirkwall, the administrative centre of Orkney, and Stromness, both being located on “Mainland”, the largest island of the archipelago. Of further importance are the islands Hoy and South Ronaldsay in the south of Scapa Flow, and some minor islands in the north such as Sanday or Westray. People are mainly employed in agriculture and tourism. Since the 1970s, North Sea oil contributes to the income of the Orcadians. Since the 1990s, however, flows from this industry have decreased (Leyden 2004: 11).
2. History and language
2.1 Pre-Norse Orkney
Today, there is no exact knowledge about the question when first human life came to Orkney. Nevertheless, there is evidence that the islands have provided human habitat for at least five and a half thousand years (Ritchie 1990: 36). Preserved constructions from these days such as the Ring of Brodgar, a large stone circle, and Maes Howe, a chambered tomb on Mainland, show that people in the Neolithic era were skilful stone-builders (Ritchie 1990: 39). Identity and language of the Picts, a tribe that settled in mainland Scotland and the Northern Islands from around 300 BC to the Norse settlements, have remained subject to dispute until today.
„Das Schöne am Winter ist ja, dass man wetterbedingt schöne lange Fernsehabende genießen kann“ – auf andere Länder mag dieser Satz zutreffen. Doch was mussten wir die letzten Monate alles über uns ergehen lassen: Erst schickt man eine drittklassige Riege Stars in den Dschungel, was ja wirklich in Ordnung wäre, aber man filmt sie und zeigt uns Tag und Nacht ihre unappetitlichen Stunts. Umschalten zwecklos – hier wie dort wurde gecastet was nicht bei drei auf den Bäumen war, und in Sibirien konnte man – zur allgemeinen Erheiterung – zwei Familien bei ihrem Überlebenskampf im Permafrost beobachten. Da hofft man auf baldige Plusgrade, um endlich wieder draußen an der frischen Luft sein zu können. Und falls nicht: Lassen Sie sich einfach in die Südsee casten – vielleicht hat man da seine Ruhe. Ihre PNN
LEUTE IN POTSDAM Der 21-jährige Ukrainer Igor Lysenko wohnt seit zwei Jahren am Schlaatz (19.02.04), von Lars Dittmer
„Als ich hier her kam, verstand ich kein Wort“, erinnert sich Igor Lysenko an seine erste Zeit in Deutschland. Vor zwei Jahren kam der 21-jährige von Odessa am Schwarzen Meer nach Potsdam, damals noch mit seinen Eltern – nicht widerwillig, wie er sagt, aber „gefragt wurde ich auch nicht.“Artikel in den Potsdamer Neueste Nachrichten vom 19. Februar 2004
Sein Vater arbeitete für ein amerikanische Firma und sah in Deutschland bessere Chancen für seine Karriere. Dennoch arrangierte sich Igor schnell mit seiner neuen Situation, nahm sich mit seiner Freundin Julia, einer jungen Russin aus St. Petersburg, eine Wohnung am Schlaatz, und absolvierte einen 6-monatigen Pflicht-Deutschkurs am Urania Schulhaus. „Da wurde allerdings auf Russisch unterrichtet – viel brachte das nicht.“ In Odessa hatte er bereits einige Semester Wirtschaft studiert, konnte sein Studium allerdings damals in Potsdam nicht fortzusetzen.
Dazu muss man als Ausländer mindestens das „Mittelstufenzertifikat“ vorweisen, eine Qualifikation, die man nur in einem Fortgeschrittenenkurs erlangt. Also blieb Igor für weitere sieben Monate an der Urania. „Die sind zwar etwas unorganisiert, tun aber wirklich viel für Ausländer“, sagt er über das Institut.
Neben intensiver Sprachschulung standen auch Fächer wie Sozialkunde und Politik auf dem Lehrplan des Intensivkurses. Vergangenen Freitag konnte er sich dann mit den anderen Absolventen sein Zeugnis abholen (PNN berichteten). Igor parliert jetzt fast problemlos auch über schwierige Sachverhalte in Deutsch. „Der Kurs hat mir echt geholfen – ich versteh jetzt sogar die Tagesschau“ strahlt er. Das lässt ihn leicht optimistisch in die Zukunft schauen, auch wenn er derzeit keine Arbeit hat und Sozialhilfe-Empfänger ist. Immerhin hat ihm die Universität Potsdam „gute Chancen“ auf einen Studienplatz eingeräumt.
„Wenn ich hier einen guten Job finde, kann ich mir vorstellen, länger in Deutschland zu bleiben.“ Und das Leben in Potsdam? Igor überlegt kurz. „Eigentlich wollte ich erst nach Berlin.“ Der Unterschied zwischen dem Leben in der 1,5 Millionen Metropole Odessa und Potsdam sei schon krass. Dennoch mag er die vielen Grünflächen hier in der Stadt und bescheinigt den Potsdamern „große Freundlichkeit“. Zum Ausgehen ist er allerdings meistens in Berlin unterwegs – „da geht“s dann auch erst spät los, wie in Odessa“. Denn, wenn Ukrainer feiern, schmunzelt Igor, „feiern sie immer als wäre es das letzte Mal.“ lad
