My Writings : Cultural & North American Studies

Intellectualism

2011-02-13T02:05:00.000-08:00

An American Model for Intellectualism

Do you hear any thing about the term of intellectualism? Absolutely yes!
This term accompanies with so different value judgments between elites and also ordinary people. Although, the time is an inflectional element to define this term; for example an especial political or cultural condition can change the position of intellectuals in a country. The United States is one of these examples when “McCarthyism aroused this fear that the critical mind and intellectuals can be a threat for national unity and security” (Hofstadter 3).
It seems good to define this critical term which tries to criticize itself. One definition which is more popular about intellectuals is who are separated from popular and low culture and belong to high culture. Morris Dickstein defines an intellectual as “someone concerned with general principles, devoted to thinking things through, beyond the confines of a single field” (Dickstein qtd in Edward and Goldman 3). Intellectualism gets its trace from the “Russian intelligentsia of the mid-nineteenth century and the French intellectuals of the late nineteenth century” (Arguing the World). But French thinkers have more important role to shape this concept; some influent ional thinkers such as Emil Zola, Anatole France and Marcel Proust.
World events such as great wars, revolutions, cultural evolutions and so on would be made responsive to the intellectuals. It should be noted that the intellectualist process usually begins in concern with political affairs such as French one (Dreyfus events), but ends to cultural and social affairs. Then, the history of American intellectualism was shaped by American Founding Fathers. They don't just as politicians but they are creator of the American civilization and culture. Rather these political elites and intellectuals, the American intellectual tradition was effected by a generation of reviewers, essayists and poets during early-mid nineteenth century such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau and Walt Whitman.
The twentieth century was the time for emerging new kinds of intellectualism in America. The New York intellectuals who were settled in Greenwich Village had chosen an especial way of life which “the bohemian and the bourgeois were all mixed up”(Brooks 10). They had selected the cosmopolitan way of urban life and sexual radicalism as well as artistic modernism as hippie’s way of life.

American intellectualism transformed to a kind of anti-intellectualism 1950s decade and with rising McCarthyism. However, this was not as a decline for American tradition of intellectualism, but had main impact in it.

References:

Edward, X. Gu, and Merle Goldman. Chinese Intellectuals Between State and Market. 1 ed. London: Routledge, 2004.

Brooks, David. Bobos in Paradise, The New Upper Class and How They Got There. New York: Simon and Shuster Paperbacks, 2000.

Hofstadter, Richard. Anti-Intellectualism in American Life. New York: Vintage Books, 1963.

Arguing the World -- About the Film | A Brief Historical Background." PBS.., n.d. Web. 14 Apr. 2010. .

The World of Sociology(1)

2011-01-21T10:21:00.000-08:00

Note: Sociology is part of my identity and literature as well. Then, I'll try to speak about these fields in some posts

Sociology of literature & literary sociology

As a branch of general sociology, sociology of literature is concerned with transtextuality, or anything that is outside the domain of the text itself. This field might include the process of production and distribution of the literary work, the audience, the author, critics, literary institutions, etc. On the other hand, literary sociology, as a branch of literary studies, is concerned with the text and its meaning, and aims to improve understanding of the text or its interpretations, and interprets the text linguistically from the perspectives of morphology, grammar, semantics and semiotics. Main figures of this field are Jacque Derrida, Michel Foucault, Roland Barthes and Luis Althusser.
Two main approaches can be distinguished within sociology of literature, both of which are subject to criticism: the materialist approach and the idealist approach. Materialists see the connection between literature and society to be reflexive and mechanical, where literature is reduced to its representations of social and especially economic issues of society. This approach adopts a unilateral view toward literature and neglects the aesthetic autonomy of literature and literary phenomena. According to many critics, this view does not allow a proper interpretation of complicated literary phenomena. Idealists, on the other hand, believe in the perfect autonomy of artistic and literary products. Idealists ignore the complicated relation between social facts and literary works. They deal with literature in a purist and idealist manner, detaching it from social fact in order to reach its pure spirit. They reject any connection between literature and social and historical phenomena.
The three indivisible parts of sociology of literature are the book, the literary work, and reading, each of which are individually studied in the sociology of the book, the sociology of literary production, and the sociology of reading.
In sociology of book the sociologist studies the process of book production and distribution and asks why a book sells well in a certain time span and not in others, why does a special group read a particular book, why do some books not find their audience in spite of the literary value they enjoy, and why are the sales rates of books low in some societies. To find the answers to these questions the sociologist of literature studies the function of institutions such as universities, cultural centers, libraries, literary circles, organized censorship, and literary prizes, all of which are supposed to have much influence on the production, distribution, and even creation of the book.
Sociology of the literary creation, which goes back to the author and concentrates on thoughts and language, is closely connected to social reality while not being confined to it. Analysis of the form/content relationship is one of the issues in the study of literary creation. Erich Köhler sees the literary work as “the inseparable unification of form and content. The agreement between form and content can be considered a criterion for evaluating a work of art” (Timori Fasle No Journal).
Today, one of the influential and complex fields in sociology of literature is “reading the text”. Reading is a dialogue between the text and the transtext. In sociology of reading, what the reader does is as creative as the work of the author. Reading is an active process between the text and the mind of the reader; a close connection between the production and the perception of the literary works. Sociology of reading aims to answer such questions as: How is it that different readers have different interpretations of a single text? How is it that a single text has various interpretations in different eras? What is the relationship between textual structure and the mind of the reader? Do expectations of the reader influence his or her reading of a text? To what extent do a person’s education, mentalities, social status and class influence his or her reading and understanding of the text?
In fact, the literary work does not have a single structure so as to be interpreted in a single manner by all readers. Rather, the text has a multi-layer structure which results in multiple readings and consequently multiple interpretations of the text. The reading of a text is not limited to the reception of the message the text intends to communicate. The reading of a text is the ability of decoding through transtextuality. The reader does not have a passive mind; rather, the reader deals with the text according to his or her mental background, ideology, dreams and expectations. Therefore, any reader's reading of a text is unique to him or herself, and a text might have as many meanings as its readers. The author of a text might be only one of the elements or agents. The hypertext is as influential in the creation of a text as its author. Society, people, history, culture, current events, and the readers play parts similar to the author's in the formation of a work of art.
Jacques Derrida regards “reading as a kind of deconstruction. He believes in two types of reading. Classic reading which results in understanding the pretense of the text, and deconstructive reading which penetrates deep into the text” (Caputo, Derrida 76) . In the second type, reading is a kind of hermeneutic interpretation. In hermeneutics meaning is relative. There is no single and constant meaning. Any text possesses various meanings according to the various readings that there is of it, none of which is the definite meaning.
Jacques Derrida remarks in this regard that “a text has as many writers as its transtext and as many meanings” (G.Allen 103).

György Lukács Writer of Sociology of Novel

The other point is “the difference between sociology of literature and sociology of the novel. Although the novel is a literary genre, it is unique. According to Lukacs it can be seen as the epic of the modern era” (McKeon 179). If we consider the epic to be a replacement for myth (traditional rather than modern) then the novel can be seen as the modern replacement of the epic, and even as a complement that goes along with myth. Sociology of the novel is a recent form of sociology of literature which found its material (novels) from the Renaissance onward with the creation of Cervantes' Don Quixote.

Bibliography:

McKeon, Michael. Theory of the Novel: A Historical Approach. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000.

Timori, Abbas. “An Introduction to Sociology Of Literature.” Fasl-e No. Version 5. Faculty of Social Science, University of Tehran, n.d. Web. 24 Jan. 2010. .

Lukacs, Georg. The Theory of the Novel. Trans by Hasan Mortazavi, Tehran: Nashr-e- Ghesseh, 1381.

Allen, Graham. Roland Barthes. Trans by Payam Yazdanjoo, Tehran: Nashr-e Markaz, 1385

Caputo, John. Deconstruction in a Nutshell: A Conversation with Jacques Derrida (Perspectives in Continental Philosophy). New York: Fordham University Press, 1996.

When Writers Fall in Love with Cities

2011-01-13T11:49:00.000-08:00

A Book Review for An Anthology

However I believe that" Writing New York City" is more than a literary anthology, but this is a name which is chosen by its writer: Phillip Lopate. He is is the author of many essays such as Against Joie de Vivre, Bachelorhood, Being with Children, Portrait of My Body, and Totally, Tenderly, Tragically, and the novels The Rug Merchant and Confessions of a Summer. He also has worked as an editor of The Art of the Personal Essay, the Library of America's Writing New York, and the series editor of The Art of the Essay. His film criticism appears regularly in The New York Times and other publications. He lives in Brooklyn, New York. This post is my review on this book.

Writing New York City

However, New York City was not always a big city, but now it is too big and complicated a city to be described well by just one writer. Writers who have lived in New York for some time have written some lines describing it, and Phillip Lopate, the editor of this book, has tried to collect them in Writing New York City.
Phillip Lopate , in book's preface, noted that “many popular American writers who are not necessarily from New York have a phase of this city in their collection. According to many, no one is able to describe this city within literary texts such as novels, diaries, and poems, for example as James Joyce has done regarding Dublin” (xvii). He mentioned that “New York's essence, literary or otherwise, grows out of the street experience” (xvii). Streets are a main concept in literary works which are about New York. Lopate gives an example in this way from Henry Miller. As he noted, “In the street you learn what human beings really are; otherwise, or afterwards, you invent them. What is not in the open street is false, derived, that is to say, literature” (xviii)
It can be said that Walt Whitman had a great impact on describing the city, particularly on peripatetic poets such as Frank O’ Hara. In addition, as Lopate states, “ some of best novelists, such as E.L.Doctorow, Toni Morrison, Don DeLillo, and Oscar Hijuelos, have invested considerable energy in stories about the New York of their youth” (xxii).
This anthology includes 132 texts that collected materials can be categorized thus:
1. The literary descriptions and explanations of New York City.
2. Poems
3. Diaries
4. Historical fictions and autobiographical writings.
Finally, Lopate has concluded that “the making of anthologies is a hard activity” (xxii); especially when you try to do it about New York. He says: “it has not been possible, for example, to include excerpts from all the great novels about New York” (xxii).

Lopate, Philip, ed. Writing New York City. New York: Publication of the Library of America, 2008.

The Myth of Paris...

2011-01-13T10:56:00.000-08:00

Note: This post is part of my MA dissertation which was about city and myth."Paris, a Modern Myth" is a theory by Roger Caillois. Here, I tried to explain this theory and applied it for my approach about "The Myth of New York City".

Paris, a Modern Myth

Being concerned with the diminishing presence of myth in modern human life, Roger Caillois begins his essay, Paris, a Modern Myth, by claiming that what causes myths to be less considered is that they do not meet the needs which they previously fulfilled. However, it is not really clear how by what powers those needs are fulfilled in today’s mechanized world. Since myth is an imaginary concept, the first option may be literature and it is literature which can fulfill those mentioned needs. Perhaps, this is the meeting point of modern myth and literature.
After stating the relationship between literature and myth, Caillios speaks of a power which literature may have: “And the problem is brought forth in collective scale, without considering myth as a specific concept. Literature does achieve the same power as that of the media, but in the realm of imagination” (Caillois 66).
When literature achieves a considerable power in the realm of imagination it has an indirect and even more important influence than myth, while having effects that are similar to those of myth. It is a kind of sociology of literature which pays attention to both popular and elitist literature. Regarding the issue of sociology of literature, it can be said that a subjective image of the metropolis has been made in this view, a city which has such a strong effect on imagination that it does not consider the correctness of that effect.
This is the point at which we can understand the imaginative features of mythical representation. “The historians of literature have not overlooked the elevation of the city to an epical status or the sudden praise of the city. This event can be observed in the first half of the 19th century, when writers began depicting Paris with a laudatory tone” (67).
These are the end results of the presence of imagination aspects of life. The surrounding world is no longer remote and out of reach; it is a world in which everyone can live and imagination is a part of it. To Caillois, who wants to present the myth of Paris as a modern myth, the most obvious form of this phenomenon which has coincided with the emergence of great industries and the urban proletariat, is the transformation of adventure stories into detective novels. In other words, we can see a change in literary genres in relation to the increasing development of modern societies. This transformation is surely the result of the fact that the locations of the novels have been displaced from jungles and meadows to cities and as a result, the adventurous novels have been turned into detective novels. One of the pioneers in this respect is James Fenimore Cooper, to whom Balzac always points to his debate. Some novels such as Mohicans de Paris emerge in this era.
The mythical structure grows fast, so with the presence of metropolises in the novels and stories, the mythical hero comes into them to conquer the modern metropolis. This is a hero who differs substantially from previous heroes in these novels. City life is a new phenomenon. There are few works in French Romanticism which do not address the capital: the voice of the hero in Balzac’s novels, from Rastignac to novels by Ponson du Terrail, addresses the “Modern Babel” (la Babel Moderne) which is Paris. His novels treat Paris as a character within the novel. Rastignac says: “Hereafter, you and I are Paris!” In Le Club des Valets de Coeur, Sir Williams exclaims: “oh, Paris, Paris! Thou are the real Babel, the real battlefield of the wise men…” (Ponson du Terrail 58) these works are continuously created whose main and ambiguous character is the city and the name of Paris is almost a part of the book title. It is clear that the readers accepted this kind of work. The hero in the Paris novel is also transformed to a modern hero. This hero can be the hero of Pierre Very’s detective novels. The new hero in detective novels which take place in the capital causes a great development in the mythical description of the capital and bridges the deep split between a mysterious Paris and a mythical or modern Paris.
Roger Caillois notes: “At first myth-making resorted to facilities such as the darkness and the mysterious districts of city and occupied overcrowded places. The Louvre, police stations, cafés, etc. And the myths captured the reality everywhere” (74). “The inspector -the hero in the story- travels the city stealthily and during this trip omnibus seems to act as mythical ships” (Chesterton 11) .
The elevation of city life to a new level of myth has undoubtedly been influenced by modernity. Those who know Baudelaire understand the position of the concepts related to modernity in his mind and recognize him as a decisive and vigorous supporter of the modern moral. Regarding the mythical portrayal of the city, Baudelaire praises Balzac and believes he has explained the myth of Paris better than any other. Following this procedure, Victor Hugo joins this movement and writes Les Miserables which is mostly the myth of Paris.
Developing his argument, Baudelaire begins to analyze the modern protagonist of the novel and believes that this protagonist has specific features. Baudelaire and Balzac’s concern “about modernity develops to the extent that they look for it in any trifling thing such as makeup, fashion and the selection of a shirt” (78). Roger Caillois notes: “It is certainly necessary for a mythical city –which is the origin of passions, and motivates even experienced people– to have a powerful and determined hero, who has a mythical authority” (Caillois 79).
According to Caillois’s approach, the modern city, which has become mythical, is the origin of passions and corrupted places which mislead humans from their right path. Caillois states: “For the sake of illuminating the mind, elevating the city to a mythical level means indisputable support for modernity” (75). In a historical overview of French literature, Caillois concludes that Romanticism in the works of Balzac and Baudelaire has been able to make the myth of the city and this might have been the reason for the non-existence of the myth of Paris. Before the 1840s, Romanticism had just begun and the world had not yet experienced modernity, which originated from and emerged in the advancements that took place after the Industrial Revolution. At that time Paris did not have the capacity for becoming a myth in French literature. The circumstances for its transformation into myth were created alongside the emergence of literature mingled with imagination, which was a result of the progress of modernity. Writers like Baudelaire and Balzac turned to this form of imagination and as a result, mythical appearances emerged in their works.
Briefly, “in 1840, a great change took place in the outer world, particularly in the city view. At the same time a mythical concept of the city emerges, which leads to a change in the protagonist of novels and paves the way for a revision of Romantic values” (81).
Paris, a Modern Myth develops Caillois's discussion of Romantic individualism regarding second-generation Romantics, such as Baudelaire and Balzac. “Roger Caillois and his friends established the College of Sociology as an attempt to explore the questions raised by surrealism and the political events during the postwar era. The founders believe that under those circumstances mythology can be defined as an interface between blind social demands and certain obscure needs of the human soul” (Frank 173). There was the question “what is the counterpart of archaic myth in modern society?” Paris, a Modern Myth offers a double answer: it might be literature or it might not.
Caillois “offers a historical, sociodemographic explanation for the general shift in representation of Paris around 1840, for what he calls the poeticization of urban life. He argues that “the elevation of urban life to a mythical status immediately meant a keen commitment to modernity”, that is, to reality, instead of the escapist strategies of previous writers” (174).
Roger Caillois concludes that “the myth of Paris indicates the strange powers of literature and this is a meaningful conclusion” (Caillois 86). According to Baudelaire, “literature as an imaginative concept tries to translate the outer world into mythical language” (86).
Before turning to Sattari’s Myth of Tehran, it is good to refer to Sattari’s opinion on Paris, a Modern Myth, since he has translated it into Persian. Sattari believes that “we can say that Paris as a powerful capital with its s past, no longer has a place in France literature; instead, people’s action and reaction, their judgment, their feeling, the manner of their makeup, and their freedom in expressing their taste have become mythical. It is their total interactions which Sattari calls Parisinaism” (Sattari 246).

Bibliography

Caillois, Roger Paris, a Modern Myth, Trans by Jalal Satari, Tehran: Nashr-e Markaz, 1384.

---. Paris, Mythe Moderne, Le Mythe et I'homme, Paris: Galimard, 1938.

Chesterton, Gilbert Keith. The Defendant. London: Dent, 1901.

Sattari, Jalal. The Myth of Tehran. Tehran: Cultural Research Bureau, 1385.

Engels & City

2010-03-10T12:36:00.000-08:00

Engels and the English City

Another person who had concerns about the city and was very close to Marx regarding his views on this matter was Friedrich Engels. His book, The Condition of the Working Class in England is internally connected to concerns related to the city. This book, which is a result of his nightly wanderings through streets, alleys, and poor districts of Manchester, links matters such as capital accumulation and class movements to city life. His studies on Manchester show that it has grown into two completely separate areas after the industrialization of Europe: the ghettos, where workers live, and the city center, where the bourgeois class live. Engels’ view toward the city is very similar to Marx. Engels describes the city as a “war against all” (Engels 24). Engels is only mentioned here because his research on Manchester is considered important in urban studies. In other words, his work is seen as part of writings about the city in the social sciences.

Engels, Friedrich. The Condition of the Working-Class in England in 1844: with a Preface written in 1892. Charleston, SC: Bibliobazaar, 2007.

Marx & City

2010-03-08T11:16:00.000-08:00

Regarding to my interests about city and urban studies, I review some theories about city. In this post , I reviewed Marx's approach about city:

Marx and the city/countryside opposition

It can be claimed that Marx is the first prominent philosopher to think and write seriously about city life. Like his other theories, his ideas about city are heavily influenced by the industrialization process. To Marx, the most important consequence of industrialization, which resulted in an increase in the population of the cities and the emergence of the working class, was the division of labor phenomenon. Based on this new phenomenon other divisions were also created, among them, the city/countryside division. The City became the place for intellectual labor, accumulation of capital, pleasure, new experiences, new facilities, and countryside became the place for physical labor, loneliness and isolation, lack of thought and creativity, lack of pleasure and experience, and the like.
When opposing the bourgeoisie division of labor, Marx criticized the opposition of city and countryside as well. Marx’s perspective regarding city issues was a completely dialectical view. He knew that dismissing the advantages of the city and blindly praising nature and the simplicity of people in the countryside is not based on reality.
Marx has written on human isolation, self-alienation and similar issues which are the difficulties of city life, but he believes that “the solution to these problems can be found in the city” (Aryan 46). It should be noted that although Marx celebrated the modern dominance of the city over the countryside as a historically progressive development, he was more concerned with the phenomenon of the separation between town and countryside as an expression of Man’s alienated “pre-history” under the social division of labor. For Marx, moreover, the resolution of the problem was not the urbanization of the countryside in the present, but the abolition of the distinction between town and country in the socialist and communist future.
Marx believes that “the most important achievement of city life is the possibility of establishing close relationships, going through new experiences, and new ways of interaction. Marx himself hated the countryside and loved the city. Marx spent all his life in big cities” (47).

Aryan, Amir A. “City in the Hands of Theorists”. Kheradnameh, 35(1388): 46-48.

Brief History of New York City

2010-02-17T05:33:00.000-08:00

Brief History of New York City
After around one year, I finally decided to bring my blog up to date. This post is part of my dissertation about The Myth of New York City in Paul Auster's works. this post is a brief history of New York City . and I finally decided to choose my field of work as a researcher in American Studies. This field is Urban Studies. This dissertation was the first step in my way.
New York As a City
As E.B.White mentioned, “in New York the changes are endless” (25); according to this quotation, it can be concluded that talking about New York’s conditions and characteristics during the history is a kind of undue work. Because many things in the city has been disappeared. But as he mentioned in the foreword of his book, Here is New York, “the essential fever of New York not changed in any particular, and I have no tries to make revisions in the hope of bringing the thing down to date. To bring New York down to date, a man would have to be published the speed of light” (17).
Clearly, it is not possible. Because of those unchangeable things in New York City, knowing history of the city is as much important as wandering through the streets in 2010. To approve this claim, it can be quoted form Lankevich who introduce New York as an important center of American life and a template of American society. He says: “The main characteristic of New York, from its origin as a small Dutch town to the dominant urban complex of modern times, has been continuous and rapid change. Because of importance of this city, by examining its history or one of the aspects of its history or society, we may be able to understand better what America was, is, and, might become”(Lankevich 1)
Europeans found New York, as the city is known today, in 16th century. “In 1524 the great sails of Giovanni Verrazano, the Italian sailor-explorer who had been hired by the King of France appeared in New York Bay, it was the first known European to sight what today we call the Narrows at the entrance of New York Harbor” (Mushabac & Wigan 3)
Before entrance of European invaders, New York City belonged to Native Americans known as the Lenape. They live in this area 11, 000 years before Giovanni Verrazano sailed through the Narrows. They were fragmented and lost their lands. For the new comer who had taken possession of these lands, this is the time to choose a name. As Maeder narrates in his book, Big Town, Big Time, Dutch’s coined this city:
The new land might have become New France or it might have become New Spain when the sailor Gomez was fleetingly interested in the place. Instead, once the canny Dutch merchants who had dispatched Henry Hudson to the land across the sea, the place at the mouth of Hudson’s great river became New Netherland and in May 1623 the first permanent European inhabitants of New Netherland arrived abroad a Dutch vessel named the New Amsterdam. (Maeder 2).
But this name had not an eternal destiny. In 1664, Charles II decided to present this colony his brother the Duke of York. As Lankevich narrates: “Stuyveasand, governor of New Amsterdam, learned that king Charles II of England had granted to his brother James, the duck of York and Albany, a vast tract of land” (20). Stuyveasand was the loser of this battle. “The English had taken “the whole of New Netherland” and immediately called the same by the name of York” (21).
In contrast to Dutch era, English men involved with colonists’ protests. British taxation made colonists angry and this cause to tensions in New York. These tensions were the preface of American Revolution in 1776. New Yorkers were won this time. After revolution, Hamilton began to rebuild the city as Georg Washington’s secretary of the treasury. “In 1788, New York City served as the new nation’s first capital from 1785 to 1790. Even after moving government to other cities, New York was to remain an important economic and social center of the country. It would eventually overtake Boston as America’s largest City”(Kupperberg 47).
The decade of 1800 was the time for constructing. Central park was built in 1855; German-born engineer designed Brooklyn Bridge. The population raised and the city needed to an efficient transportation system, thus Grand Central Terminal was built. Immigration is another phenomenon in 19th century. In this time, “successive waves of immigrants from Europe led to a very rapid population increase which remains one of the dominant themes of American history” (Cannon and Fletcher 40).
The process of constructing continued to 20th century.
New York’s shape was hardly changed in 20th century. The reason was a urban planner, Robert Moses. The life of many New Yorker was influenced by his work. Marshal Berman describes his impact on city in his book, The Experience of Modernity, and portrait his works in Bronx. New York in the ’60s was the kingdom of intellectuals who were located in Greenwich Village. New York was an island for Avant-gardism; Bob Dylan, Abstract Expressionism and people who known as Homosexuals belongs to this decade of New York History.
In second decade of this century, New York experienced an economic shock. Lankevich argues that “during 1960s and 1970s the economic tide was running against a city that still earned 10 percent of all the money made in America and was home to ninety-six of the fortune 500 corporations” (214).
In last years of second millennium, a famous New York mayor, Rudy Giuliani, tried to fight with crime. He wanted to record New York City as safest city in the world. But September 11, 2001 attack disappointed him.

Bibliography:

Cannon, G., & Fletcher, E. J. Canada. Clermont-Ferrand: Michelin, 2007.

Kupperberg, Paul. A Primary Source History of the Colony of New York (Primary Sources of the Thirteen Colonies and the Lost Colony). New York City: Rosen Central, 2005.

Lankevich, George. New York City: A Short History. London: NYU Press, 2002.

Mushabac, Jane, and Angela Wigan. A Short and Remarkable History of NYC. First Edition ed. New York: Fordham University Press, 1999.

Maeder Jay. Big Town, Big Time. Champaign: Sports Publishing Llc, 1998.

White, E. B. Here Is New York. New York: Harper& Bros, 1949.

The Influences of US Double Standard in Human Rights on Present World

2009-03-08T03:24:00.000-07:00

The Influences of US Double Standard in Human Rights on Present World
As a
Full Metal Jacket

Introduction
In terms of foreign policy, exceptionalism in the post-cold war era has created some troubling dilemmas:
First: the selection multilateralism as an option in foreign policy, not an
Obligation.
Second: it has second dilemma is that exceptionalism as a key concept in American cultural studies that means, "American exceptionalism has been historically referred to as the perception that the United States differs qualitatively from other developed nations, because of its unique origins, national credo, historical evolution, and distinctive political and religious institutions"1, as you know, may bread arrogance, because it been constantly repeated to the inhabitations of the US.
Third: is that exceptionalism may encourage the view that the ends are more important the means, which in turn many promote hypocrisy and double standards.
Lipset as an American exceptionalism expert has said: "In a country that stresses success above all , people are led to feel that the most important thing is to wine the game , regardless of the methods employed in doing so such as Guantanamo By and Abu- Guriab.
When "Amnesty International" in May 2005 access the us of " serious human rights violation " because of Guantanamo prison, vice- president Dick Cheney expressed his disbelief that the United states could be described as a violator of human rights, as though such a charge was simply unthinkable". (These cases is selected of class argument by Dr. Saeedeabadi)
After this summery , I want to start my main argument about US Double Standard policy in human rights especially after that president Bush took power in the Republican Party of the US. In this way, I want to describe the image of American pro- human rights in the media around the world. In fact, I want to present two different images of American political activities through warfare photographers that crystallize the reality of wars. My data in this analysis is the image of American soldier that embraces an wounded Iraqi child in the battlefield that is as American gift to Iraqi children.

Iraq Abuses as a End of American Narrative

Most of the Guantanamo prisoners were and also are deprived of their nature rights and the order and law of Geneva Conventions were not executed about them.
The Bush administration says that those men were all combatant, but has refused to treat them as the laws of require.
"Under the Geneva Conventions, combatants captured in an international conflict must be treated as prisoners of war unless and until a ‘‘competent tribunal determines that a specific prisoner is not entitled to that status. The U.S. government chose not to convene such tribunals for the Afghanistan war captives even though it has routinely convened them in past hostilities ".2
But, the United States said that no number of the Taliban group was entitled to POW and most experts in international law opposite with this claim and found it as a untenable speech.
And in other war that means Iraq war the United States insisted that no members of Al Qaeda deserved Geneva Conventions protection.
Some of these Guantanamo detainees were released but hundreds remain for long time and held without charges.
It seems good that is talked about three categories of Prisoners at Guantanamo are unlawfully and untenably detained:

"1. The first group is Taliban soldiers. In the war between Afghanistan and America, the Geneva Conventions permitted the United States to hold as prisoners without charges members of the Taliban government's armed forces. But that war ended in June when the Hamid Karzai government assumed power in Kabul. The laws of war do not permit the continued detention of those soldiers unless they are being prosecuted for war crimes or other offenses. They should be released and repatriated. 2. The second group consists of civilians who — according to news reports quoting unnamed U.S. intelligence officials — were mistakenly sent to Guantánamo. The laws of war permit the internment of civilians in a war only when such detention is imperative for security reasons. If there are indeed civilians at Guantánamo who have no connection to the Taliban or Al Qaeda and who are not being prosecuted, they too must be released. 3. At least some suspected Al Qaeda members apprehended far from Afghanistan may have been brought to Guantánamo. Six, for example, were picked up in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The laws of war do not apply to persons who were not captured on a battlefield and who have no direct connection to an armed conflict ".3
President George W. Bush has repeatedly said that the war against terrorism is a war of values. This speech has published by President Gorge W. Bush as starter of Middle East wars, in the time that all of people around the world observe the manifest breaking of human rights even rights of nonmillitaies and also without any anxiety and worry about is result.
"The mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners by US soldiers was an inevitable outcome of the United States' long-term exertion of hegemony and power politics in the world," said Dong Yunhu, vice-chairman and secretary-general of the China Society for Human Rights Studies.

"Human Rights" as an objective concept conflict with the principle of moral autonomy, and from an excuse and hegemony justification for oppression. Any oppression and interference to other people can be justified by claiming that it is necessary and useful to respect and establish certain rights and in other word , " Human Rights" even the other people don't want it. This is as a gift that it wasn't asked for that.
The things that west especially the United States thinks that is owner of them, similar to Democracy, Liberty and other things ; they are seen as a gift as I said , which the west must bring to the rest of the world that again named " threat" with out any logical reason.
In contrast with the policy - Double standard – that American governors and administration in different times confirm and follow them, it must be said universal human rights and sovereignty that is collected by way of military intervention or each kind of intervention which is a kind of intervention in countries internal affairs, are two separate issues. But this was and also is the standard view among foreign policy elites that it is possible to believe in universal human rights, but also in national sovereignty.
But it is clear to all that a justification of intervention does not logically follow from human rights, even if those rights are violated. The superpowers in the world use of various propaganda ; for example there is the assertion that military intervention is necessary in the face of clear human rights violations that is a kind of emotional propaganda. Some of the events are very clear and don't need to more than explanation; for instance, the children that were death because of ethnical disputes around the world for example in Bosnia , this is wrong and it doesn't need to read the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that has said:

" Free and equal personhood: all human beings are born free and equal.
Equal dignity: free and equal in dignity, free and equal in dignity.
Equal creation or endowment: they are endowed with reason and conscience.
Equal brotherhood: a spirit of brotherhood.
Human agency: endowed with reason and conscience". (Ignatieff, 2001, 6)4 to know it is wrong.
Even, in one country will be observed some behaviors as the torture that it's automatically reason of intervention such as military intervention and each of these countries including the US owns that entitlement.
Each area needs to separate moral justification. I should add it that human rights interventionism is in any case historically recent.
"Human rights may be universal, but support for coercive enforcement of their norms will never be universal. Because interventions will lack full legitimacy, they will have to be limited and partial, and as a result, they will be only partially successful". (Ignatieff, 2001, 43)5

Conclusion
It must be said, in media age that world goes toward "dual-globalization" and that divides to two parts: one is real world and two is virtual worlds. The role of media as a tool of virtual world is very important and also, the role of cinema is more important too. Cinema with its instruments and opportunities justifies and also establishes an other invention that named: post- colonialism and in present time, all of the social scientists should study on this field around the world especially social scientists in third world. This method and way is best one to know American empire that grows more and more.
"American human rights policy in the last twenty years and in beginning of twenty-first century is increasingly distinctive and paradoxical: it is the product of a nation with a great national rights tradition that leads the world in denouncing the human rights violations of others but refuses to ratify key international rights convention itself. The most important resistance to the domestic application of international rights norms comes not from rogue states outside the western tradition or Islam Asian societies. It comes in fact; from within the heart of the western rights tradition itself, from a nation that, in linking rights to popular sovereignty, opposes international human rights oversight as an infringement on its democracy". (Ignatieff, 2001, 93)
Finally, I should say that world society especially super powers that in present day is only includes one country that means the United States of America needs to stop thinking of human rights as trumps and being thinking of them as a language that creates the basis for deliberation.

References
1. http:// en. Wikipedia.org /wiki/ exceptionalism
2. http://hrw.org/english/docs/2003/03/31/usint12996.htm
3. Ibid, p 2
4. Ignatieff Michael, human rights, Princeton university press (2006, the United States of America)
5. Ignatieff Michael, Ibid, p43

celebration

2009-02-28T06:11:00.000-08:00

4th July Celebration
This year marks 233 years since American founding gave them the National Birth Certificate.
Only July 2, 1776 congress voted to approve a complete separation from Great Britain. Two days after wards -4th July- the early draft of the Declaration of Independence was signed, albeit by only two individuals at the time: John Hancock 'president of congress' and Charles Thompson 'secretary of congress.
Four days later' on July 8 members of congress took that document and read it aloud from the steps of Independence Hall' proclaiming it to the city of Philadelphia 'after which the liberty bell was rung.
There is one question:
What was the basis of American Independence?
John Adams said" the general principles on which the fathers achieved Independence were the general of Christianity.
He cautiously noted: this day will be the most member able epic in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebration by anniversary festival.
Also ' John Adams believed that the fourth of July should become a religious holiday a day when we remembered God's hand in deliverance and a day of religious activities when they committed themselves to him in "solemn acts of devotion to God almightily ".
There's no room for doubt! That this dialog _John Adams have had remarkable effectiveness. And brand importance of Independent and importance of religious at it on some bodies' memory.
Toadies 'in US and other countries in each year celebrated 4th July.
Yes' even in other countries that American people live in; such as ' Denmark and south American countries …
And this process shows the importance of this event.
Remarkably ' Oliver stone that who is famous director in American cinema's directed by the movies that named:
"4h July borned"
and in next note 'I describe it _because I very like the movies wourld_and I define this director.
I glad to read their viewpoint.
Writhed by saeedeh

clash of culture

2009-02-28T06:04:00.000-08:00

If ask you about clash of culture what is your answer?
You can think about it for few minuets,
……
It needs to description
Culture Clash is indisputably the premiere Chicano comedy trio in the country. The troupe was inaugurated at La Galeria de la Rasa in 1984.the works focused on theater and especially comedy .this group Founded on May 5th, 1984 (Cinco de Mayo) in San Francisco's Mission District, Culture Clash is Richard Montoya, Ric Salinas and Herbert Siguenza.
This approach to art looks at cultural affairs & various in cultures.
This approach has critical viewpoint to the cultural affairs and addressee miss_ informed of cultures of nations.
At the time a miss informed of a culture may continue for many years and lack of an awareness reference is a great danger for human history.
In this way, I can refer to a reputation example in science history that perhaps you hear things about it:
Who does say the" Earth is spherical"?
In this approach, there are many view, the Muslims were the first groups that said it.
Because there are many biases against Muslims, a large number of Scientifics don't accept this thrust.
In here, I can speak about one of them:
Richard Pearle argued that Muslims had said that the earth is flat, although many of experts reject his approach.
One of them is" George Galloway".
He says: "the audacity of Richard Pearle to suggest that Muslims believe in a flat Earth, when the Europeans were torturing Galileo for suggesting the Earth was spherical, the Muslim scientists already knew that the Earth was spherical."
It is only one example about misunderstood of many cultures that in world wild uncounted to gather.
And the culture is secure that uses of suitable ways and don't forget present continued in world culture era.

Anti_arabism after September 11 attack

2009-02-28T05:56:00.000-08:00

Anti_arabism after September 11 attack

Introduction
When I was very small child and didn't understand completely meaning of colors …my chi dish's mind should understood that red alarm means danger and white alarm means pace but for very short time…
My childhood's years linked with war's years, the years that should linked with light and happiness were the years with silence's hours, because attacks of our neighbor continuously companion in the way with us alike shadow.
After many years when I became bigger than, in beginning of 21st century our neighbor itself breached out in the similar happen that imposed for us.
The war that called "war on terror" and after attack to Afghanistan and following al-Qadir forces all over the world.
This happen was backlash of the US against attack to worldly tradition center in New York in september11, 2001.
The happen that had a bigger than reaction of itself event…
This article considers position of Arabs and Muslims in the US after september11 attack that their ethnic and religious appearance caused damage and harm for them.
In now I have many questions:
1- When does civil connection take place instead racial connection?
2-Does racial intolerance still dominant upon human society?
3-Is it funny to say,"Golobalization" and establishment of worldly village in the time that race and ethnic still are very important?
4- and, Is the reaction of the all nations disproportion and primary as well against such a disaster?

I start my argued with my perspective about race and racism:
I believe that race is a social construction and not universal

Does racial intolerance still dominate upon human society?
And is it Funny to say that concepts alike "globalization" and establish of world village in this that race and ethnic groups still are very important?
And, is the reaction of all nations disproportion and primary as well against such a disaster?
I start my argument with my perspective about race and racism.
I be live that race is a "social construction and not a universal or essential category and of biology race formation has been inherently racist for involves forms of social, economic and political subordination that are lived through the categories and discourses" (barker, 249)
In other hand, "the concept of radicalization refers to those instances where social relations between people have been structured by the signification of human biological characteristics in such a way as to define and construct differentiated social collectivities". (Miles, 75)
And my reason to say that race is a social concept and influenced of political and economic connections is eruditeness that achieve after September 11 attack about hate crime backlash of Arab and Muslims in the United States.
There is great difference between violence data about Arabs and Muslims after and before September 11 attack specially in its united states and I will talk about this data to demonstrate racialization concept in this article. This great difference addresses that social positions stimulate racial emotional.
the violence included murder, physical assaults, arson vandalism of place of worship and other property damage, death threats and public harassment.
Both official and community – based organization and so newspaper talked about the violence after September 11 backlashes in some of states in the US. In here I refer to many official data about it to highlight argument:
1. "The FBI reported that the number of Anti-Arabism and Anti-Muslim hate crimes rose from 28 in 2000 to 481 in 2001, a 17 fold in crease". (www.FBI.gov)
2. "the ADC reported over six hundred Sep 11 – related hate crimes committed against Arabs, Muslims and those perceived to be Arab or Muslim, such as Sikhs and south Asian" (www.adc.org)
3. "CAIR reported one thousand seven hundred and seventeen in cidents of backlash discrimination against Muslims from SP-11 through, February 2002". (www.cair-net.org)
4. "In Chicago the police department reported only for anti – Muslim or anti – Arab hat crimes during the year 2000 :
In the there months of Sep through November 2001, in Chicago county the number of these violences were fifty-one". (www.ci.chi.il.us)
5. "in Los Angeles county, California, there were 12 hate crimes against person of middle Easton descent in the year 2000, compared to 188 such hate crimes in 2001". (humanrelations.co.la.ca.us)
There was the big size of these data in many of county in creasingly, the people was most vulnerable after September 11-related had crimes specially the men who wear turbans and women who wear hijabs.
This contact with women who were hijabs was repeated in other countries in Europe and women who were Muslim encountered with obscene behavior in this period.
The different organizations for example CAIR during this time presented many data about Muslim Americans how Murder duding the years 2000 and 2001.
"In July 2002 CAIR polled 945 Muslim Americans and how September II and its after math affected them. The poll found that 98 percent believed their lives had changed for the worse since September 11". (www.eeoc.gov)
The reasons of this murder are very different that I can not refer to those. And it is proper that many of murderess even after trial pride oneself on themselves. And believe that were hero.

I stand for America all the way! I'm American. Go a head. Arrest me and let those terrorists run wild!
- Frank Roque, after being arrested for murder a Sikh.

After this information about violence growth after Sep11 attack for Arabs and Muslims should discuses this point that there were many stereotypes in American culture about ethnics Specially Arabs and completely aliens those same times shows off.
There are concepts that describe very depth meaning for Example:
1. "Arabs are primitive / dirty
2. Arabs are sub – humans / non – humans
3. Arabs are murderess and terrorists
4. Arabs are brutal
5. Arabs are untrustworthy and treacherous
6. Arabs are fanatics / uncompromising
7. Arabs support terrorism". (www.wikipedia.com)
And Arab Muslims remain a source of anxiety and danger for the U.S state and its political and economic activities at home and around the world". (Slocum, 3)
Once in a while the meaning of Arab Muslims unifies with concept of terrorist with eyes wide closed.
"Renderings of Arab Muslims as "terrorists" can not be understood fully with out considering public de bates about multiculturalism that took place in the U.S in the late 1980s and into the 1990s." (Slocum, 4)
This stereotypes cause that who have come to the U.S seem to have clustered in certain jobs in cluding:
Driving taxi, running gas stations, convenience stores and motels.
And you know that job of every person shows the his/her status and position in social life and more description about this concept isn't necessary for repition.
I go back to major argument:
Then I can discuss the concept to analysis it.
We can use of schama theory for expansion of this argument and to highlight the dark point:
The schema theory has four parts:
1- Early Malad aptive
2- Schema domains
3- coping styles
4- schema modes

In concept of "coping styles" we have three parts:
ØDelivery
ØPause
ØChallenging
The reaction of American people after Sep11 attack was a kind of "challenging" that examples of violences and murders in 2001 and other years address this thrust.
In continue I go back to my primary questions: "Is the reaction of all nations disproportion and primary as well against such a disaster?"
I point to the response this question to connections between Arabs and Persian during the history.
I should say Iran is a multi – ethnic society and Arabs are therefore aone of the ethnic groups that live in Iran.
Persian encountered with Arabs during the Arab entrance to Iran for acceptance of Islam by Persians. In 7th century.
Persian tried to adapt with this culture that entred to their country.
Scientific movements in Iran is an example for it for example "the shu ubiyah movement intended to reassert Iranian identity and resisting attempts to impose Arab culture". (www.wikipedia.com)
Just as was said in later lines I decide to use of schema theory to analysis this argument and this theory was described about American people and in here. I use this theory for Persian.
The connection of Persian and the method for this connection during the history was "pause" while, we have many crash and connection with Arabs during the history but don't resert to violence and vandalism with Arabs. Instead added their cultural elements to our culture without that forgotten our own culture and language and other factors in culture.

Conclusion:
In here, I can answer the questions. The American biased against racial concepts in flounces their socialization.
The socialization that reins forces stereotypes in their mind.
And bout globalization:
The meaning of this concept is widely unilateral. The process that wants to melt the other cultures and nations in itself with protection American culture and reinforcement of its racial identity is a high – time process.
In other hand, to day and after to arise important events in all over the world Arab Americans decided to develop and protect their culture.
we can refer to establish social organization by Arab American women that try to change the image of Arabs in the after math of September 11 attacks.
In present – world that speak about globalization the cultures must make known so for as possible combine them together and with out this process, the concept of Globalization don't have any meaning.

Reference:
1. Barker, Chris (2000), cultural studies theory and practice, London, Second Edition, sage.
2. Slocum, J David, Terrorism as way of seeing: us media and the war on Terror", institute for North American and European studies university of Tehran, 2006.
3. http://www.cair-net.org/asp/article.asp? Articled = 895 and article type = 3.

4.http://humanrelations.co.la.ca.us/our-publications/pdf/2001 HCR.pdf.

5. http://www.ci.chi.il.us/community policing/statistics/Reports/Hate crimes/Hate crimes 01.pdf.

6. http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/01 cius.htm.

7.http://adc.org/ndex.php

8. http://www.cair-net.ogr

BOOKS

2007-08-01T04:03:00.000-07:00

If you want to take a step in anyway , you need to have enough information and it is clear that in present day , there are so many way to take necessary information and knowledge such as book , magazines , thesis and finally and most important in new world : internet.
In this post, I will define some books that help you to study about war: in theories and practice.
Certain that , there are a lot of books that I don’t know them , if you are companion in the way with me, help me and add them to this list. This blog belongs to its observers:
The book’s list:
1- A.J.Barker, Famous Military Battles (London, New York, Sydney and Toronto: Hamlyn, 1947).

2- S.Martin Navias, and E.R.Hooton, the 900 Days: The Siege of Leningrad (London & New York: I.B.Tauris Publishers, 1996).

3- Carl von Clausewitz, on war, ed. And trans. Michael Howard and Peter Part (Princeton & New York: Princeton University Press, 1976). [ this book was translated to Persian and was using as a academic resource for the course of sociology’s war in some university ]

4- Quinty Wright, A Study of War, 2 vols. (Chicago & London: The University of Chicago Press, 1942, 2nd edn 1965).

5- William Eckhardt, Civilization Empires, and war : A Quantitative History of War ( Jefferson, North Carolina& London : Mcfarland & Company Inc. Publishers, 1992)

6- Encyclopedia of Conflict since World War II, ed. James Ciment (Chicago & London: Fitzory Dearbon Publishers, 1999).

7- Adrin Gilbert, the Encyclopedia of Warfare: From Earliest Times to the Present Day (Chicago & London: Fitzory Dearbon Publishers, 2000).

8- Kaith McLachlan, and Richard N. Schofield, A Bibliography of the Iran-Iraq Borderland (Cambridgeshire: Middle East and North African Press, 1987).

9- IKKA Taipale, etc (eds.), War or Health? A Reader (Dhaka. Etc: University Press, etc, 2002).
….

I 'll add some other books in this way

Photo Gallery

2007-07-31T12:56:00.000-07:00

In this belog , I will have some photo about and around the United States every week , look , enjoy and think about reality and image in present world