Magazine created by students of the Department of English and American Studies at Masaryk University.

Category archive

Views - page 2

Gender Roles in The Umbrellas of Cherbourg

in Reviews/Views

by Arya Dixit

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (dir. Jacques Demy), was met with mixed reviews when the film premiered in 1964, during the French New Wave movement, but has steadily grown in both popularity and appreciation for its timeless, artistic vision. In Umbrellas, Demy infuses his cinematography with a fairy-tale-like quality. The musical numbers, bold use of colors, and choreographed movements make the visuals and storytelling dream-like. Fairy tales come with stereotypes: the audience expects happy endings, an other-worldly, pure romance, a knight in shining armor who wins over the girl he loves, and the girl who slowly grows to love him back. Similarly, in Hollywood cinema, as Backes states: “everything was larger than life. From the large scale sets, soaring visuals, and grandiose love that always ended with everything in its place”. Demy manages to break almost all of these preconceived notions of fairy-tale (and Hollywood rom-com) cinema and brings to light the inherent class structures, gender roles and expectations, and the reality of romance without losing the brilliancy and charm of a dreamy world. He carefully uses settings, colors, and dialogue to work together and illustrate the complexities of society, especially when gender norms come into play.

Keep Reading

Happily Ever After?

in Reviews/Views

by Alena Gašparovičová

And they lived happily ever after is undoubtedly a well-known phrase that can be found at the end of many a romantic fairy tale. It rounds up the story and suggests that after a period full of struggle, the protagonist(s) are finally getting to a period of peace, prosperity and marital bliss. 

Shared by Willgard under Pixabay License via pixabay.com

The conception that marriage is a state of ideal bliss that is perpetuated in romantic fairy tales is not without issues. The phrase and they lived happily ever after suggests that with marriage, all the problems that the protagonists have faced in the course of the story will come to an end, and no new problems will arise up until they die. The aim of this paper is to discuss the theme of marriage in Naomi Novik’s novel Spinning Silver, focusing on the main female protagonist, Miryem, to show how the author demonstrates that marriage does not necessarily mean that one will live happily ever after. 

Keep Reading

Water Problem in the United States

in Views

by Linda Krajčovičová

Olya Kobruseva, Pexels, CC BY 4.0

 

Although access to drinking water is virtually unlimited for the majority of people, a significant part of the world’s population is not so lucky. The misleading consensus that the lack of safe drinking water is exclusively the problem of developing countries has been present in western societies for many years, and it can be argued that such conviction has made these societies quite careless and negligent. This article focuses on one of the most progressive countries of the world – the United States of America, and shows examples of the problems that such an attitude can lead to.  Keep Reading

Emotion: A Gateway to Intercultural Ethics

in Views

by Salim Mustafa

The philosophical and sociological literature shows that there are three major approaches to intercultural ethics. Absolutist approaches try to impose an absolutist view on other cultures; these approaches are impractical as there is no wide agreement as to what is absolutely religiously authoritative, natural, historical or reasonable. Further, the problem worsens when absolutists try to claim their own culture and values are “universal”. It favours a unilinear model of cultural and ethical development. This is one of the major problems of absolutists approaches as it presumes all cultures pass along a single ray of development and meet on an absolute set up of norms and values. The next conception, i.e., cultural relativism, holds that different cultures have their own beliefs and norms which are incommensurable and, therefore, it is not possible to formulate any ethical principles that are acceptable and valid across all the cultures. It holds that different cultures follow a multi-linear and separate model of ethical conduct and development which cannot be united (Evanoff 3). But, all these approaches are insufficient in dealing with cultural differences and in establishing a cross cultural ethical principle. There are loopholes in each of these theories as shown above; their principles turn out to be incompatible with cultural plurality and universal ethical standards. When particulars are considered, universal ethics becomes impossible and when absolute criteria are formulated the diversity is ignored. Hence, these approaches fail to promote an ethics valid across cultures which do not ignore but respect diversity. Keep Reading

Nicki Minaj, Cardi B, and Megan Thee Stallion: Female Sexuality in Hip-Hop in the 21st century

in Views

by Jana Záhoráková

This article analyses sexually explicit lyrics.

This article will look at how the depiction of women in hip-hop has transformed over the years. First, in the historical origins of hip-hop, the misogynistic portrayals in songs and music videos by male artists were abundant. Later on, the 1990s belonged to female rappers like Lil’ Kim, Missy Elliott, or Queen Latifah and now it is not only people who listened to rap from its infancy, but the whole world that engages in this culture. I will focus on two songs: “Anaconda” by Nicki Minaj and “WAP” by Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion. I will first introduce each singer, then analyse the lyrics in these two songs. I will then focus on each song’s reception and the controversies they caused. Keep Reading

Tracing the Figure of Snow-White in the Works of Neil Gaiman

in Views

ANDREW GUSTAR, FLICKR, CC BY-ND 2.0

By Alena Gašparovičová

Fairy tales are an important part of our cultural heritage. Although these stories were originally primarily aimed at the adult audience, in time they came to be considered children’s literature. Since the genre of folk tales is popular across all kinds of audiences, it has been subject to rewritings by numbers of authors. The idea of adapting fairy tales to make them more appealing to a modern audience is not a new one. Already well-known fairy tale collectors like Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm or the French collector Charles Perrault adapted fairy tales in their collections to make them more appealing to the intended audience. Therefore, it is hardly surprising that contemporary authors would do the same and rewrite fairy tales to make them more appealing for modern audiences.  Keep Reading

Language of the Future as Imagined by British Novelists

in Views

by Jana Záhoráková

Many novelists resort to creating dialects and languages to enrich the worlds that they make up. Probably the most famous instance of this was J.R.R. Tolkien with his detailed languages and whole cultures in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and more recently George R. R. Martin in Game of Thrones. It adds another dimension to the characters and their history. This article, however, concentrates on British novelists who do not create a new language, but rather envision the world in the future and invent ways in which present-day English might develop. They usually choose dystopian futures and with said use of the English language highlight the impact of totalitarian would-be eras. The novels discussed below are George Orwell’s 1984, Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange and David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas.  Keep Reading

#StayWoke Because #BlackLivesMatter: From the Tweets to the Streets

in Views

Vitaly Vlasov, CC BY 4.0, pexels.com

by Lucie Tomaňová

 

Since its emergence, social media has been the target of criticism from older generations as well as an unexplainable fascination for the younger generations. Through a very short time, it has transformed society and created significant differences between those who can use it and those who cannot. The ability to immediately share anything worldwide has created opportunities to share news as it is happening and to make content go viral and seen around the globe. Moreover, the use of hashtags as active links to posts with a similar topic has made it easy to navigate the sites to find specific content.

When the Black Lives Matter campaign emerged in 2013, it was social media like Twitter and Facebook that helped the movement grow from a one-city affair into a nation-wide network of collaborators and representatives of the issues of racism and social justice. Sharing of news, videos, and details about demonstrations, marches, and happenings has made the Black Lives Matter movement an unprecedented sensation. An online community of “social warriors” has built a network that the authorities have been unable to take down. Keep Reading

Vegans’ Milky Way: The Rise of Dairy Substitutes in UK Context

in Views

by Linda Krajčovičová

Dietary restrictions in today’s world are partly a result of advanced medical knowledge of numerous food intolerances, and partly a result of people’s interest in trying out different lifestyles. The popularity of various diets is largely a result of the great availability of resources, such as substitutes like tofu or gluten-free bakery products. Dietary restrictions nowadays are primarily concerned with omitting animal products, either completely, or to some degree. The concept of veganism has slowly become a stable conversation topic in recent years and has influenced many people since its origin. This article focuses on the most common vegan food eaten by both vegans and non-vegans i.e. plant-based milk, and provides a brief characterisation of the most accessible types. Keep Reading

BTS and Parasite, or How Korea is Going Far

in Views

by Mariia Minaeva

Korean popular culture has always been very distinct from what can be seen in the US or Europe. Korean music and TV shows were considered childish, and not taken seriously by Western viewers as they were too different. So why are Korean songs now topping the international charts? And how is it that American TV shows are desperate to have Korean groups as guests? Why do their clips on YouTube get millions of views in less than a day? What is this emerging Korean phenomenon? And more significantly, why is it so important for humanity?

Keep Reading

1 2 3 4 … 8
Go to Top