• Title/Summary/Keyword: ethic of novel

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Tar Baby: Search for Identity in Commodity Culture

  • Talukdar, Susmita
    • Cross-Cultural Studies
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    • v.32
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    • pp.63-79
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    • 2013
  • Tar Baby, Toni Morrison's fourth novel re examines the problem that black characters face in negotiatiating a place for themselves within a dominant culture, with respect to their own history and culture. The novel critiques the dominant socio economic and commodifying cultural space from which the black woman seems to have no escape. Jadine is a colonized subject, for as a fashion model she has surrendered to an aesthetics of commodification, and as a student of art history, she has internalized the capitalist ethic of the white culture industry. Though she has ensured her freedom, Morrison's critique of her separation from her family and culture is unmistakable. Interwoven with her narrative is Son's predicament, the stereotype of a black racist and her 'lover'. The novel ends with him at the crossroads of culture, yet signaling his passage to freedom through resistance. The paper arguments how Toni Morrison has envisioned the welfare of African American community by reconstructing the role of new black generation, as represented by Jadine and Son, whose new journey towards their self fulfillment just not only bring their personal freedom but also regenerates African American community by resisting dominant commodifying cultural.

Di-acetyl-nor-aporphines: Novel molecules and a novel mechanism to inhibit melanogenesis

  • Lintner, Karl;Peschard, Olivier;Leroux, Richard;Mondon, Philippe;Lamy, Francois
    • Proceedings of the SCSK Conference
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    • 2003.09a
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    • pp.268-284
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    • 2003
  • Nor-aporphine derivatives have been discovered which interfere with the flux of Calcium into and out of the cell interior. It has been shown that adrenergic antagonists that block the Calcium exchange lead to an inhibition of Protein kinase C activity, thus blocking tyrosinase activation. Di-acetyl-dimethoxy-methyl-nor-aporphine is a semi-synthetic molecule of natural origin with very high potency. On B16 melanocytes as well as in normal human melanocytes the decrease in melanin synthesis reaches -50% at a level of 40 ppm in the culture medium. On a molar concentration basis, this is 50 to 70 times stronger than Kojic acid inhibition. Yet, the cell viability is not affected. Reversibility studies show that after washing out of the active compound, melanogenesis returns to normal levels. Possible mechanisms of the activity are discussed. Tests carried out on SkinEthic(R) three-dimensional models of the epidermis and in vivo clinical studies on Asian population confirm the strong inhibition of melanogenesis. Safety evaluation of these molecules, on the other hand, demonstrates good skin tolerance and absence of toxicity.

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A Study on How Barista's Ethical-Consumption Consciousness Effects to Sale of Fair-Trading Coffee (바리스타의 윤리소비의식이 공정무역커피 판매에 미치는 영향 - 프랜차이즈 커피 전문점 바리스타를 중심으로 -)

  • Kim, Ji-Eung;Jeon, Hyo-Jin;Cho, Won-Young
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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    • v.29 no.1
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    • pp.54-60
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    • 2014
  • The coffee industry has grown very fast ever since international coffee brands were launched in the 1990's. Recently, consumers have begun to focus on coffee produced ethically. This phenomenon is due to ethical-consumption consciousness, which consists of three factors, emotional value, social value and function value. Most studies on this topic have focused on consumers who purchase fair-trade coffee. Thus, this study is novel in its focus on baristas who sell fairtrade coffee in their shops as well as differences from former studies. The three factors of ethical-consumption consciousness of baristas affected the sale of fair-trade coffee, except for the function value. Therefore, the sale of fair-trade coffee could be influenced by ethical-consumption consciousness of baristas. This study shows that education of baristas can promote the sale of fair-trade coffee. However, there are limitations as it only researched coffee brands ranked in the top 5, so further studies will be required in the future.

Darkness at the Heart of Anti-Imperialism: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness (반제국주의 속의 어둠 -『암흑의 핵심』에 나타난 인종주의)

  • Shin, Moonsu
    • Journal of English Language & Literature
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    • v.55 no.1
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    • pp.61-82
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    • 2009
  • This paper aims to reexamine the issue of racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness, especially in the light of Chinua Achebe's critique of the novella as a racist text entrenched with European prejudices of Africa and its people in his 1975 speech at the University of Massachusetts titled "An Image of Africa." While the novella's indictment of imperial exploitation has been noted from an early stage of its critical reception, its racism had hardly been discussed until Chinua Achebe posed it. Achebe offers the canonized status of the text as a modernist classic, "the most commonly prescribed novel in twentieth-century literature courses," as one reason for its obvious manifestations of racism being glossed over. One may add that Conrad's militant denunciation of imperialist enterprises as "a sordid farce," his seemingly radical stance against imperialism, serves as ideological constraints upon his readers, blinding them to its immanent racism. A closer look at the novella's attack on imperialism turns out to be contradictory, for it also shows such liberal-humanist ideas as the civilizing mission, the work ethic, and the superiority of civilized man, all of which served to prop up European imperialism at the end of the nineteenth century. This ideological contradiction also accounts for Conrad's racist attitude, which is betrayed in his portrayal of Africans as obscure, primitive. Euro-American imperialism has frequently justified itself by recourse to racism, but racism has not always been allied with imperialism. Some staunch racists such as Robert Knox and Arthur de Gobineau went against imperialism, and Conrad proves one of such cases whose critique of imperialism is voiced in ways that can be characterized as racist.

A Discord among Individual, Race, and History: Focused on Philip Roth's The Plot Against America (개인, 인종, 그리고 역사의 불협화음 -필립 로스의 『미국에 대한 음모』를 중심으로)

  • Jang, Jung-hoon
    • Journal of English Language & Literature
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    • v.58 no.5
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    • pp.809-837
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    • 2012
  • Philip Roth rejects the narrative unity and singularity of the traditional novel and creates instead a multi-levelled, fragmentary, and repetitive narrative. It is not easy to distinguish fact from fiction in The Plot Against America. As an entertaining and creative work of the postmodern historiographic metafiction, Philip Roth's The Plot Against America interrogates the existence of historically verifiable facts, the validity of authentic and official version of history, and reexamines the narrative conventions of history writing. The aim of this paper is to examine Roth's narrative experiment or 'thought experiment' and to explore the intention of creating alternative history in The Plot Against America. Roth does a 'thought experiment' in The Plot Against America. In this cautionary "what if" political fable, Roth hypothesizes that in 1940 aviation hero Charles Lindbergh, an ardent isolationist who was sympathetic to Hiltler, won the presidency. Jewish communities are stunned and terrified as America flirts with fascism and anti-semitism. Reimagining his children-with considerable fact mixed in with the fiction-Roth narrates an alternative history that has an unsettling plausibility. Roth has constructed a brilliantly telling and disturbing historical prism by which to refract the American psyche as it pertain to the discord of individual, race, history in The Plot Against America. Roth analyzes the life of individual in a historic space, the situation of anti-semitism in world of invisible order, racial conflict between black and white in world of visible order, and the darkest side of national power in this work. Roth's stories argue for the equality of various cultures grounded on the common notion of humanity, for an ethic of mutual respect, and for the peaceful resolution of conflicts.

An Ethic of Global Fiction: David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas and Min-gyu Park's Dinner with Buffett (21세기 소설과 윤리: 데이빗 미첼의 『클라우드 애틀라스』와 박민규의 『버핏과의 저녁식사』)

  • Kim, Soo-yeon
    • Cross-Cultural Studies
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    • v.52
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    • pp.371-392
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    • 2018
  • Beginning with ethical nature inherent in the novel, this paper argues that ethical responsibility of $21^{st}$ century global fiction lies in its invitation to readers to rethink the status quo in a globalized world. While David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas and Min-gyu Park's Dinner with Buffett use international settings, these works exemplify how global fiction fails at, or succeeds in, the ethical task of challenging the contemporary world, respectively. This is because Mitchell's 500-page novel, although a felicitous embodiment of globalization and hybridity, does not challenge dominant ideologies and instead ends up reproducing a conventional humanist ideology against the backdrop of exotic places and diverting literary pastiches. In contrast, Dinner with Buffett, a novella about a Korean average Joe who wins a charity meal with tycoon Warren Buffett, perplexes the reader with counterintuitive turns and, in doing so, uncovers what we believe to be common sense today that serves global capitalism.

A Study on the Religiosity of Filial Piety Ethics in Daesoonjinrihoe (대순진리회의 효 윤리에 나타난 종교성 연구)

  • Cha, Seon-keun
    • Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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    • v.27
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    • pp.171-200
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    • 2016
  • This paper will analyze the filial piety based ethics of Daesoonjinrihoe (大巡眞理會) and the traditional filial piety of Confucianism (儒敎), Buddhism (佛敎) and Taoism (道敎) through comparing and contrasting their unique systems. The traditional Korean ethics regarding filial piety are in great need of reformation as the relationship between the parents and children should not be vertical or unilateral but parallel and reciprocal. However, there have not been sufficient in-depth studies on this specific ideology and alternative approaches. Regarding this prospect, one representative Korean indigenous new religion, Daesoonjinrihoe has emerged and directly engages in the collision between traditionalism and modernity. The modernity of Daesoonjinrihoe, enables the observation of how the filial piety based ethics have developed within a system of doctrine and thereby provides an exemplary model of traditional filial piety reimagined in accordance with modern sensibilities. A brief summary of comparative findings is as follows: First, Daesoonjinrihoe and Confucianism have taken serving parents with respect as an ethic within filial piety, but Confucianism engenders this ideal through the unilateral and unconditional sacrifice of younger people based on patriarchal feudalism whereas Daesoonjinrihoe has rejected such unilateral sacrifice and instead promotes mutual beneficience between parents and children. This difference occurs, in part, due to the filial piety of Confucianism rising in the midst of the feudal order whereas the ideology of Daesoonjinrihoe contains ideals such as "the reciprocation of favor for mutual beneficence (報恩相生)" and "respect for humanity (人尊)," both of which serve as key principles of the new religious world as envisioned by Daesoonjinrihoe. Second, filial piety in Buddhism and Taoism tends to be passive and inactive and is often expressed by praying for happiness and longevity for one's parents while they are alive and later praying for the heavenly rebirth of one's parents after they die. The filial piety of Daesoonjinrihoe also partially contains such ideas, however; they are extended much further and arrive upon novel and profound expressions. The spectrum of the filial piety in Daesoonjinrihoe expands to the extent children perform actions to resolve their parent's sins and pave a new road for their parents. This filial piety requires a cultivation practice from both parents and children. This system of dual cultivation was established because the world-view of Daesoonjinrihoe enables both parents and children to enjoy happiness and wealth both of which are achieved through the completion of religious objectives following cultivation practice. Third, Confucianism and Daesoonjinrihoe hold memorial services for ancestors with sincerity as an expression of filial piety. Filial piety in the Confucian context excludes ideas from Shamanism and thereby memorial services are held for impersonal entities, however; in the Daesoonjinrihoe context, memorial services are held for personal-entities. Accordingly, holding a memorial service for ancestors with sincerity has a greater sense of realism in Daesoonjinrihoe than it does in Confucianism. Fourth, while Confucianism and Daesoonjinrihoe both aim to requite the grace received from ancestors, the contents of grace and reciprocation of favors (報恩) are viewed differently. In Confucianism, since the ancestors existed previously and bestowed the gift of life to their children and indirectly, all of their descendents. Therefore, memorial services for ancestors are held to convey gratitude and filial piety. However, in Daesoonjinrihoe, ancestors not only bestowed the gift of earthly life to their descendents, in the spirit realm, ancestral spirits also spend sixty years accumulating the merit necessary to imbue each of their descendents with spiritual insight. Consequently, filial piety is expressed through memorial services as well as spiritual cultivation. Fifth, in Confucianism, achieving the fame and prestige indicative of success in the mundane world can be an act of filial piety as it would bring pride to one's ancestors, but in Daesoonjinrihoe, succeeding in religious objectives through spiritual cultivation is considered to be a higher form of filial piety. Sixth, Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism all observe filial piety as system of familial ethics based in morality. This is likewise true of Daesoonjinrihoe, however; Daesoonjinrihoe confers greater importance on filial piety as an essential form of ethics for religious redemption. This is due to the Daesoon interpretation that the absence of filial piety was the direct cause which led to the sickened state of the world and its collapse. Forgetting the grace of parents who have given the gift of life or the grace of ancestral spirits who have accumulated merit on behalf of their descendents are acts of ingratitude which are unacceptable during the period of Reordering of the Universe. Judging from these findings, Daesoonjinrihoe embraces parts of traditional filial piety as it exists in Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, but it does so on the ground of its own unique culture. Through re-interpretation and re-creation, ideas regarding filial piety are being further developed. Namely, filial piety in Daesoonjinrihoe is regulations founded upon the reciprocation of favors for mutual beneficence and respect for humanity. Therefore, it is understood as a concept wherein one's own cultivation practice is performed in order to reach religious objectives, the perfection of personal character, and spiritual insight. This requires that even recipents of filial piety (i.e., parents) perform certain cultivation practices to enjoy happiness and wealth. Additionally, filial piety in Daesoonjinrihoe manifests a reinforced religious character and also serves as a system ethics which is soteriologically essential for salvation during the period known as the Reordering of the Universe.