Robert Wuthnow
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199730872
- eISBN:
- 9780199777389
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199730872.003.0000
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This introductory chapter begins with a brief discussion of people's responses to peril, and the need to understand both the literature — the editorials and essays, fiction, poetry, personal ...
More
This introductory chapter begins with a brief discussion of people's responses to peril, and the need to understand both the literature — the editorials and essays, fiction, poetry, personal accounts, and reports — that has been generated to make sense of peril and the organizations that produce them. It identifies four crises that humanity currently faces or has faced in recent years: the threat of a nuclear holocaust, weapons of mass destruction, concern about a global pandemic, and the threat of global climate change. The prevailing narratives about these perils concern themselves with defining the problem, discussing possible solutions, and then calling on citizens to live up to their moral obligations to help protect the common well-being and to be good stewards of the earth. Nothing, it appears, evokes discussion of moral responsibility quite as clearly as the prospect of impending doom. The picture of humanity that emerges in this literature is one of can-do problem solvers. Doing something, almost anything, affirms our humanity.Less
This introductory chapter begins with a brief discussion of people's responses to peril, and the need to understand both the literature — the editorials and essays, fiction, poetry, personal accounts, and reports — that has been generated to make sense of peril and the organizations that produce them. It identifies four crises that humanity currently faces or has faced in recent years: the threat of a nuclear holocaust, weapons of mass destruction, concern about a global pandemic, and the threat of global climate change. The prevailing narratives about these perils concern themselves with defining the problem, discussing possible solutions, and then calling on citizens to live up to their moral obligations to help protect the common well-being and to be good stewards of the earth. Nothing, it appears, evokes discussion of moral responsibility quite as clearly as the prospect of impending doom. The picture of humanity that emerges in this literature is one of can-do problem solvers. Doing something, almost anything, affirms our humanity.
Robert Wuthnow
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199730872
- eISBN:
- 9780199777389
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199730872.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter argues that peril has become manageable only to the extent that large-scale organizations are considered capable of managing it. Individuals may imagine that their chances of survival ...
More
This chapter argues that peril has become manageable only to the extent that large-scale organizations are considered capable of managing it. Individuals may imagine that their chances of survival are greater if they have a basement bomb shelter than if they do not; but in reality, few people build such shelters because they know the effect will be minuscule compared to the ability of people in power to start or avoid a nuclear holocaust. Having come to that realization about nuclear destruction, the ordinary person adopts a similar response to other threats. Terrorism, environmental threats, mass disease: all depend on the hope that experts somewhere will provide answers.Less
This chapter argues that peril has become manageable only to the extent that large-scale organizations are considered capable of managing it. Individuals may imagine that their chances of survival are greater if they have a basement bomb shelter than if they do not; but in reality, few people build such shelters because they know the effect will be minuscule compared to the ability of people in power to start or avoid a nuclear holocaust. Having come to that realization about nuclear destruction, the ordinary person adopts a similar response to other threats. Terrorism, environmental threats, mass disease: all depend on the hope that experts somewhere will provide answers.
Robert Wuthnow
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199730872
- eISBN:
- 9780199777389
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199730872.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter focuses on people's responses to the nuclear era. The ebb and flow of public concern has been noted by nearly all historians of the nuclear era. What is more interesting is how the ...
More
This chapter focuses on people's responses to the nuclear era. The ebb and flow of public concern has been noted by nearly all historians of the nuclear era. What is more interesting is how the public came to view nuclear weapons as a problem — not only in the negative sense, but often as a positive opportunity to be exploited — and how rolling up its collective sleeves to work on this problem became the accepted way of coexisting with the threat of nuclear annihilation. Unlike the prospect of one's own death and the death of a loved one, and even unlike the occasional airplane crash or earthquake that takes dozens or hundreds of lives, the possibility of a nuclear conflagration — a holocaust from having unlocked the basic power of the universe and creating weaponry capable of putting the world in danger of sudden destruction — was anything but normal. Yet it became normal. After the initial emotional shock, when Americans inescapably experienced bewilderment, uncertainty, and some level of grief for those who had died, attention turned to more practical concerns. The nuclear era became one of problem solving. People decided that whatever it had taken to produce such powerful weapons could surely be harnessed for other commendable purposes. They looked to government officials to protect them and occasionally searched for better measures to protect themselves.Less
This chapter focuses on people's responses to the nuclear era. The ebb and flow of public concern has been noted by nearly all historians of the nuclear era. What is more interesting is how the public came to view nuclear weapons as a problem — not only in the negative sense, but often as a positive opportunity to be exploited — and how rolling up its collective sleeves to work on this problem became the accepted way of coexisting with the threat of nuclear annihilation. Unlike the prospect of one's own death and the death of a loved one, and even unlike the occasional airplane crash or earthquake that takes dozens or hundreds of lives, the possibility of a nuclear conflagration — a holocaust from having unlocked the basic power of the universe and creating weaponry capable of putting the world in danger of sudden destruction — was anything but normal. Yet it became normal. After the initial emotional shock, when Americans inescapably experienced bewilderment, uncertainty, and some level of grief for those who had died, attention turned to more practical concerns. The nuclear era became one of problem solving. People decided that whatever it had taken to produce such powerful weapons could surely be harnessed for other commendable purposes. They looked to government officials to protect them and occasionally searched for better measures to protect themselves.
Robert Wuthnow
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199730872
- eISBN:
- 9780199777389
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199730872.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter shows that the highly institutionalized response to nuclear peril minimized what ordinary people could reasonably expect to do but also shaped the grassroots response that did occur. ...
More
This chapter shows that the highly institutionalized response to nuclear peril minimized what ordinary people could reasonably expect to do but also shaped the grassroots response that did occur. Although public involvement waxed and waned, there was a noticeable increase over the years in the technical sophistication of advocacy groups. By the 1980s, even though the very survival of humanity remained at issue, most discussions dealt with arms treaties, the merits of particular weapons, a freeze that would keep the nuclear arsenal from growing (but not eliminate it), and questions about the safety of proposed and existing nuclear reactors. With so much of the nuclear debate decided by policy makers and advocacy groups, the residual sphere of moral responsibility assigned to the average person was quite small, and for the most part scripted by officials and other leaders. Focusing on the routine problems of daily life shielded the public from having to accept the more ambitious challenges they may have been expected to undertake, and avoided the disruption that may have occurred.Less
This chapter shows that the highly institutionalized response to nuclear peril minimized what ordinary people could reasonably expect to do but also shaped the grassroots response that did occur. Although public involvement waxed and waned, there was a noticeable increase over the years in the technical sophistication of advocacy groups. By the 1980s, even though the very survival of humanity remained at issue, most discussions dealt with arms treaties, the merits of particular weapons, a freeze that would keep the nuclear arsenal from growing (but not eliminate it), and questions about the safety of proposed and existing nuclear reactors. With so much of the nuclear debate decided by policy makers and advocacy groups, the residual sphere of moral responsibility assigned to the average person was quite small, and for the most part scripted by officials and other leaders. Focusing on the routine problems of daily life shielded the public from having to accept the more ambitious challenges they may have been expected to undertake, and avoided the disruption that may have occurred.
Robert Wuthnow
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199730872
- eISBN:
- 9780199777389
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199730872.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter focuses on the threat of peril driven home to Americans by the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington. Moral responsibility in 2001 reflected how it had come to be ...
More
This chapter focuses on the threat of peril driven home to Americans by the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington. Moral responsibility in 2001 reflected how it had come to be understood during the preceding half century. Government officials, scientists and policy makers continued to be the professional experts who set the agenda for how the public would think about and respond to the attacks. People feared for their safety, thought it likely that terrorists would strike again, and registered doubt that they could do much to protect themselves. The initial sense of loss led quickly to calls for retaliation, as if a stricken nation needed to demonstrate its strength. Within days, public officials turned the response from questions about why the attacks had occurred to plans for retaliation. The Cold War was thus replaced by a new war, a controversial war that dominated public debate and again divided the world into defenders of freedom and purveyors of evil.Less
This chapter focuses on the threat of peril driven home to Americans by the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington. Moral responsibility in 2001 reflected how it had come to be understood during the preceding half century. Government officials, scientists and policy makers continued to be the professional experts who set the agenda for how the public would think about and respond to the attacks. People feared for their safety, thought it likely that terrorists would strike again, and registered doubt that they could do much to protect themselves. The initial sense of loss led quickly to calls for retaliation, as if a stricken nation needed to demonstrate its strength. Within days, public officials turned the response from questions about why the attacks had occurred to plans for retaliation. The Cold War was thus replaced by a new war, a controversial war that dominated public debate and again divided the world into defenders of freedom and purveyors of evil.
Robert Wuthnow
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199730872
- eISBN:
- 9780199777389
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199730872.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter focuses on how the 9/11 attacks merged with and animated the discussion of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). By the first anniversary of 9/11, public officials and commentators were ...
More
This chapter focuses on how the 9/11 attacks merged with and animated the discussion of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). By the first anniversary of 9/11, public officials and commentators were focusing less attention on how or why the World Trade Center and Pentagon had been attacked than on the far more lethal and presumably prevalent danger posed by weapons of mass destruction. The truly terrifying danger that now faced the world, officials argued, was the likelihood that terrorists would use WMDs in order to inflict casualties on a larger scale than ever imagined. Over the next few years, concern about WMDs grew dramatically. WMDs acquired the same kind of cultural prominence as an abiding source of unease that nuclear weapons had gained during the Cold War.Less
This chapter focuses on how the 9/11 attacks merged with and animated the discussion of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). By the first anniversary of 9/11, public officials and commentators were focusing less attention on how or why the World Trade Center and Pentagon had been attacked than on the far more lethal and presumably prevalent danger posed by weapons of mass destruction. The truly terrifying danger that now faced the world, officials argued, was the likelihood that terrorists would use WMDs in order to inflict casualties on a larger scale than ever imagined. Over the next few years, concern about WMDs grew dramatically. WMDs acquired the same kind of cultural prominence as an abiding source of unease that nuclear weapons had gained during the Cold War.
Robert Wuthnow
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199730872
- eISBN:
- 9780199777389
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199730872.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter explores the place of panic in current thinking about peril. Although the actual occurrence of panics is rare, discussions about the possibility of panics are thus rich with cultural ...
More
This chapter explores the place of panic in current thinking about peril. Although the actual occurrence of panics is rare, discussions about the possibility of panics are thus rich with cultural significance. Hardly a year passes without some major threat arising that could potentially be the source of mass death, widespread panic, and ensuing chaos. One year it is the threat of a massive collapse of computers and electrical systems. Another year brings fear that millions will die from an unstoppable illness carried by pigs or birds or insects, or fears of an economic meltdown followed by a contagion of joblessness and widespread poverty. As concern mounts, public officials caution against undue alarm but at the same time promote it by publicizing worst-case scenarios and recalling times of devastation in the past. It is difficult for reasonable people to ignore their warnings. The officials, after all, are trained experts; professionals paid to anticipate danger and guard against it. There is in fact danger, they say. “Better safe than sorry,” the adage goes. At some level, it becomes impossible not to think about the impending peril.Less
This chapter explores the place of panic in current thinking about peril. Although the actual occurrence of panics is rare, discussions about the possibility of panics are thus rich with cultural significance. Hardly a year passes without some major threat arising that could potentially be the source of mass death, widespread panic, and ensuing chaos. One year it is the threat of a massive collapse of computers and electrical systems. Another year brings fear that millions will die from an unstoppable illness carried by pigs or birds or insects, or fears of an economic meltdown followed by a contagion of joblessness and widespread poverty. As concern mounts, public officials caution against undue alarm but at the same time promote it by publicizing worst-case scenarios and recalling times of devastation in the past. It is difficult for reasonable people to ignore their warnings. The officials, after all, are trained experts; professionals paid to anticipate danger and guard against it. There is in fact danger, they say. “Better safe than sorry,” the adage goes. At some level, it becomes impossible not to think about the impending peril.
Robert Wuthnow
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199730872
- eISBN:
- 9780199777389
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199730872.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter focuses on the cultural response to environmental devastation. The debate about environmental devastation in the months preceding 9/11 were both the latest in a quarter century of ...
More
This chapter focuses on the cultural response to environmental devastation. The debate about environmental devastation in the months preceding 9/11 were both the latest in a quarter century of discussions and a prelude to concerns that would ripen in the coming months. In the threat of global warming the fragility of life was evident in ways similar to that of nuclear annihilation and terrorism. Things were neither out of control nor fully under control, but perilously close to endangering all of humanity and thus a source of profound worry. The differences lay more in how immediate, unanticipated, or catastrophic the threat might be. Global warming would not obliterate the world in a sudden flash or wipe out large buildings in a vicious moment. If it was happening at all, as scientists largely agreed, it was a slow burn, like water in a kettle reaching the boiling point sooner than anyone realized. The cultural response to this sort of peril was thus in some ways unique, and yet in others, conditioned by the patterns of thought and relations of power that had become customary in the last third of the 20th century. Fear served both as an underlying current and as a force that could be manipulated. With no single event as pivotal as the bombing of Hiroshima or the attacks on 9/11, interpretations were less frequent, more scattered, and less subject to the agenda-setting influence of government. Yet the same inclination to transcend fear with action, to engage in individual and collective problem solving, was evident, and with it, the same emphasis on seeking technological solutions and debating administrative policies. The cultural response was shaped by the creative use of the imagination and focused decisively on questions of moral responsibility.Less
This chapter focuses on the cultural response to environmental devastation. The debate about environmental devastation in the months preceding 9/11 were both the latest in a quarter century of discussions and a prelude to concerns that would ripen in the coming months. In the threat of global warming the fragility of life was evident in ways similar to that of nuclear annihilation and terrorism. Things were neither out of control nor fully under control, but perilously close to endangering all of humanity and thus a source of profound worry. The differences lay more in how immediate, unanticipated, or catastrophic the threat might be. Global warming would not obliterate the world in a sudden flash or wipe out large buildings in a vicious moment. If it was happening at all, as scientists largely agreed, it was a slow burn, like water in a kettle reaching the boiling point sooner than anyone realized. The cultural response to this sort of peril was thus in some ways unique, and yet in others, conditioned by the patterns of thought and relations of power that had become customary in the last third of the 20th century. Fear served both as an underlying current and as a force that could be manipulated. With no single event as pivotal as the bombing of Hiroshima or the attacks on 9/11, interpretations were less frequent, more scattered, and less subject to the agenda-setting influence of government. Yet the same inclination to transcend fear with action, to engage in individual and collective problem solving, was evident, and with it, the same emphasis on seeking technological solutions and debating administrative policies. The cultural response was shaped by the creative use of the imagination and focused decisively on questions of moral responsibility.
Robert Wuthnow
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199730872
- eISBN:
- 9780199777389
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199730872.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter focuses on the complexity of putting climate change on the national agenda. Like the peril of nuclear weapons and the threat of terrorism, global warming was subject to numerous ...
More
This chapter focuses on the complexity of putting climate change on the national agenda. Like the peril of nuclear weapons and the threat of terrorism, global warming was subject to numerous competing interpretations even among those who agreed it was serious. Facing up to the reality of humanity's impact on the environment brought forth proposals that inevitably reflected the nation's values and revealed the divisions in these values. The struggle showed leaders' continuing faith in science and technology, but also demonstrated wariness of the public about trusting scientists too much. In the short term, the process itself of debating an agenda served as the dominant cultural response.Less
This chapter focuses on the complexity of putting climate change on the national agenda. Like the peril of nuclear weapons and the threat of terrorism, global warming was subject to numerous competing interpretations even among those who agreed it was serious. Facing up to the reality of humanity's impact on the environment brought forth proposals that inevitably reflected the nation's values and revealed the divisions in these values. The struggle showed leaders' continuing faith in science and technology, but also demonstrated wariness of the public about trusting scientists too much. In the short term, the process itself of debating an agenda served as the dominant cultural response.
Robert Wuthnow
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199730872
- eISBN:
- 9780199777389
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199730872.003.0009
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter argues that the peril which poses an undeniable threat to the quality of life that humans can expect in the 21st century and beyond is global warming. While terrorist strikes and ...
More
This chapter argues that the peril which poses an undeniable threat to the quality of life that humans can expect in the 21st century and beyond is global warming. While terrorist strikes and pandemics may well occur, there is no question that climate change has become a reality, possibly inexorable. The call for action in climate change requires doing more than performing random acts of individual good citizenship, such as recycling and lowering the thermostat. It requires supporting green initiatives, and electing public officials who understand the significance of climate change and are willing to address the problem.Less
This chapter argues that the peril which poses an undeniable threat to the quality of life that humans can expect in the 21st century and beyond is global warming. While terrorist strikes and pandemics may well occur, there is no question that climate change has become a reality, possibly inexorable. The call for action in climate change requires doing more than performing random acts of individual good citizenship, such as recycling and lowering the thermostat. It requires supporting green initiatives, and electing public officials who understand the significance of climate change and are willing to address the problem.
Michael Keevak
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691140315
- eISBN:
- 9781400838608
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691140315.003.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
This book investigates when and how East Asians became yellow in the Western imagination. It follows a trajectory that emphasizes an important shift in thinking about race during the course of the ...
More
This book investigates when and how East Asians became yellow in the Western imagination. It follows a trajectory that emphasizes an important shift in thinking about race during the course of the eighteenth century, when new sorts of human taxonomies began to appear and new claims about the color of all human groups, including East Asians, were put forward. It also examines how the “yellow race” and “Mongolian” bodies became important subjects in nineteenth-century anthropology and medicine, respectively. “Mongolian” bodies, for example, were linked to certain conditions thought to be endemic in—or in some way associated with—the race as a whole, including the “Mongolian eye,” the “Mongolian spot,” and “Mongolism” (now known as Down syndrome). Finally, the book considers how the Far East came to be seen as a “yellow peril,” a term coined in 1895 and often attributed to Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany.Less
This book investigates when and how East Asians became yellow in the Western imagination. It follows a trajectory that emphasizes an important shift in thinking about race during the course of the eighteenth century, when new sorts of human taxonomies began to appear and new claims about the color of all human groups, including East Asians, were put forward. It also examines how the “yellow race” and “Mongolian” bodies became important subjects in nineteenth-century anthropology and medicine, respectively. “Mongolian” bodies, for example, were linked to certain conditions thought to be endemic in—or in some way associated with—the race as a whole, including the “Mongolian eye,” the “Mongolian spot,” and “Mongolism” (now known as Down syndrome). Finally, the book considers how the Far East came to be seen as a “yellow peril,” a term coined in 1895 and often attributed to Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany.
Michael Keevak
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691140315
- eISBN:
- 9781400838608
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691140315.003.0006
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
This chapter examines how the discourse of yellow not only became ubiquitous in the West, but also migrated into East Asian cultures during the period 1895–1920, giving rise to “the yellow peril”—the ...
More
This chapter examines how the discourse of yellow not only became ubiquitous in the West, but also migrated into East Asian cultures during the period 1895–1920, giving rise to “the yellow peril”—the notion that East Asians were yellow and perilous. It begins with a historical background on how the Far East came to be seen as a “yellow peril,” a term coined in 1895 and generally credited to Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, specifically in response to Japan's defeat of China at the conclusion of the Sino-Japanese War (also known as “The Yellow War”). The chapter then considers how the Western concept of a “yellow race” was understood in China and Japan before concluding with a discussion of the ways in which yellowness persisted as a potentially dangerous and threatening racial category in the early twentieth century.Less
This chapter examines how the discourse of yellow not only became ubiquitous in the West, but also migrated into East Asian cultures during the period 1895–1920, giving rise to “the yellow peril”—the notion that East Asians were yellow and perilous. It begins with a historical background on how the Far East came to be seen as a “yellow peril,” a term coined in 1895 and generally credited to Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, specifically in response to Japan's defeat of China at the conclusion of the Sino-Japanese War (also known as “The Yellow War”). The chapter then considers how the Western concept of a “yellow race” was understood in China and Japan before concluding with a discussion of the ways in which yellowness persisted as a potentially dangerous and threatening racial category in the early twentieth century.
Grady L. Webster and Robert M. Rhode
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520098305
- eISBN:
- 9780520915930
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520098305.003.0007
- Subject:
- Biology, Plant Sciences and Forestry
Maquipucuna is one of the 61 neotropical protected sites included in the Parks in Peril program of the Nature Conservancy. This chapter reviews the present conservation status of the Maquipucuna ...
More
Maquipucuna is one of the 61 neotropical protected sites included in the Parks in Peril program of the Nature Conservancy. This chapter reviews the present conservation status of the Maquipucuna cloud forests. It describes the preparation of a management plan for Maquipucuna and notes that the preservation of the cloud forests of Maquipucuna would be greatly facilitated by the implementation of the plan for the Chocó–Andean Biological Corridor (CABCOR).Less
Maquipucuna is one of the 61 neotropical protected sites included in the Parks in Peril program of the Nature Conservancy. This chapter reviews the present conservation status of the Maquipucuna cloud forests. It describes the preparation of a management plan for Maquipucuna and notes that the preservation of the cloud forests of Maquipucuna would be greatly facilitated by the implementation of the plan for the Chocó–Andean Biological Corridor (CABCOR).
Isiah Lavender III (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496811523
- eISBN:
- 9781496811561
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496811523.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
Dis-Orienting Planets: Racial Representations of Asia in Science Fiction continues where Black and Brown Planets: The Politics of Race in Science Fiction (2014) left off. This anthology features ...
More
Dis-Orienting Planets: Racial Representations of Asia in Science Fiction continues where Black and Brown Planets: The Politics of Race in Science Fiction (2014) left off. This anthology features essays depicting Asia and Asians in science fiction literature, film, and fandom with particular attention paid to China, Japan, India, and Korea. The collection concentrates on political representations of Asian identity in science fiction’s imagination, from fear of the Yellow Peril and its host of stereotypes to techno-Orientalism and the remains of a post-colonial heritage. In fact, Dis-Orienting Planets engages the extremely negative and racist connotations of “orientalism” that obscure time, place, and identity perceptions of Asians, so-called yellow and brown peoples, in this historically white genre, provokes debate on the pervading imperialistic terminologies, and reconfigures the study of race in science fiction. In this respect, the title “disses” culturally inaccurate representations of the eastern hemisphere. In three parts, the seventeen collected essays consider the racial politics governing the renewed visibility of the Orient in science fiction. The first part emphasizes the interpretive challenges of science fictional meetings between the East and West by investigating entwined racial and political tensions. The second part concentrates on the tropes of Yellow Peril and techno-Orientalism, where fear of and desire for Orientalized futures generate racial anxiety and war. The third section explores technologized Asian subjectivities in the eco-critical spaces of mainland China, the Pacific Rim, the Korean peninsula, and the Indian subcontinent. Clearly, our future visions must absolutely include all people of color.Less
Dis-Orienting Planets: Racial Representations of Asia in Science Fiction continues where Black and Brown Planets: The Politics of Race in Science Fiction (2014) left off. This anthology features essays depicting Asia and Asians in science fiction literature, film, and fandom with particular attention paid to China, Japan, India, and Korea. The collection concentrates on political representations of Asian identity in science fiction’s imagination, from fear of the Yellow Peril and its host of stereotypes to techno-Orientalism and the remains of a post-colonial heritage. In fact, Dis-Orienting Planets engages the extremely negative and racist connotations of “orientalism” that obscure time, place, and identity perceptions of Asians, so-called yellow and brown peoples, in this historically white genre, provokes debate on the pervading imperialistic terminologies, and reconfigures the study of race in science fiction. In this respect, the title “disses” culturally inaccurate representations of the eastern hemisphere. In three parts, the seventeen collected essays consider the racial politics governing the renewed visibility of the Orient in science fiction. The first part emphasizes the interpretive challenges of science fictional meetings between the East and West by investigating entwined racial and political tensions. The second part concentrates on the tropes of Yellow Peril and techno-Orientalism, where fear of and desire for Orientalized futures generate racial anxiety and war. The third section explores technologized Asian subjectivities in the eco-critical spaces of mainland China, the Pacific Rim, the Korean peninsula, and the Indian subcontinent. Clearly, our future visions must absolutely include all people of color.
Steven G. Yao
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199730339
- eISBN:
- 9780199866540
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199730339.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 20th Century Literature
This chapter examines the classical Chinese poetry written by immigrants detained on Angel Island. Composed in almost total anonymity between 1910 and 1940 by largely uneducated Chinese commoners ...
More
This chapter examines the classical Chinese poetry written by immigrants detained on Angel Island. Composed in almost total anonymity between 1910 and 1940 by largely uneducated Chinese commoners attempting to enter the United States, the poems carved into the walls of the Angel Island Immigration Station detention buildings have garnered attention almost exclusively for socio-historic, rather than literary or cultural, reasons. As a corrective to such a tendency, this chapter shows how, coinciding in an almost uncanny way with the period of traditional Anglo-American high modernism, these works at once arise from and reflect an altogether different, and still largely unremarked, dimension of the internationalism shaping “American” culture at the time. More specifically, through their very distance from canonical works of “mainstream” English-language modernism, the “Island” poems dramatize a traumatic encounter with modernity by Chinese commoners that issues in a painful discovery of the social condition of ethnicity in the United States. In doing so, they embody an expressly international version of Asian American literary production, one that bespeaks the need to develop a more complex conception of both “American” and, more particularly, “Asian American” culture that cuts across the boundaries not only between nations but also between languages.Less
This chapter examines the classical Chinese poetry written by immigrants detained on Angel Island. Composed in almost total anonymity between 1910 and 1940 by largely uneducated Chinese commoners attempting to enter the United States, the poems carved into the walls of the Angel Island Immigration Station detention buildings have garnered attention almost exclusively for socio-historic, rather than literary or cultural, reasons. As a corrective to such a tendency, this chapter shows how, coinciding in an almost uncanny way with the period of traditional Anglo-American high modernism, these works at once arise from and reflect an altogether different, and still largely unremarked, dimension of the internationalism shaping “American” culture at the time. More specifically, through their very distance from canonical works of “mainstream” English-language modernism, the “Island” poems dramatize a traumatic encounter with modernity by Chinese commoners that issues in a painful discovery of the social condition of ethnicity in the United States. In doing so, they embody an expressly international version of Asian American literary production, one that bespeaks the need to develop a more complex conception of both “American” and, more particularly, “Asian American” culture that cuts across the boundaries not only between nations but also between languages.
Penny Fielding
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198121800
- eISBN:
- 9780191671319
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198121800.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
This chapter focuses on James Hogg's The Three Perils of Man, one of his more extended analyses of storytelling. The novel, published in 1822, defeats any attempt at categorization; its plot alone is ...
More
This chapter focuses on James Hogg's The Three Perils of Man, one of his more extended analyses of storytelling. The novel, published in 1822, defeats any attempt at categorization; its plot alone is composed of so many strands and individual stories that is not easy to give a coherent account of it. Outwardly a historical novel, Perils of Man tells the story of a Border conflict in which the Scots and the English vie for possession of Roxburgh Castle.Less
This chapter focuses on James Hogg's The Three Perils of Man, one of his more extended analyses of storytelling. The novel, published in 1822, defeats any attempt at categorization; its plot alone is composed of so many strands and individual stories that is not easy to give a coherent account of it. Outwardly a historical novel, Perils of Man tells the story of a Border conflict in which the Scots and the English vie for possession of Roxburgh Castle.
Edlie L. Wong
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781479868001
- eISBN:
- 9781479899043
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479868001.003.0004
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
By the final decades of the nineteenth century, the notion of an Asiatic threat was well established in U.S. culture, in part through “Yellow Peril” propaganda, a product of the Pacific Coast ...
More
By the final decades of the nineteenth century, the notion of an Asiatic threat was well established in U.S. culture, in part through “Yellow Peril” propaganda, a product of the Pacific Coast anti-Chinese movement. Chapter 3 reads sensationalized Chinese invasion narratives alongside the key legal and political contexts that gave them narrative shape to tease out the racial fictions and counterfactual imaginings of this popular subgenre. From legal discourse to the forgotten novels of Pierton Dooner, Robert Woltor, and Arthur Dudley Vinton, the invasion trope dominated U.S.-China relations. The Janus-faced depictions of Chinese labor migrants as abject coolie-slaves and villainous agents of foreign aggression embodied the contradictions of American industrial modernity. In imagining the tragic consequences of unfettered Chinese immigration, the subgenre absorbed and refracted white anxieties over the end of western expansion—American Manifest Destiny—and the changing composition of the national polity after black citizenship and enfranchisement.Less
By the final decades of the nineteenth century, the notion of an Asiatic threat was well established in U.S. culture, in part through “Yellow Peril” propaganda, a product of the Pacific Coast anti-Chinese movement. Chapter 3 reads sensationalized Chinese invasion narratives alongside the key legal and political contexts that gave them narrative shape to tease out the racial fictions and counterfactual imaginings of this popular subgenre. From legal discourse to the forgotten novels of Pierton Dooner, Robert Woltor, and Arthur Dudley Vinton, the invasion trope dominated U.S.-China relations. The Janus-faced depictions of Chinese labor migrants as abject coolie-slaves and villainous agents of foreign aggression embodied the contradictions of American industrial modernity. In imagining the tragic consequences of unfettered Chinese immigration, the subgenre absorbed and refracted white anxieties over the end of western expansion—American Manifest Destiny—and the changing composition of the national polity after black citizenship and enfranchisement.
DIANA JEATER
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198203797
- eISBN:
- 9780191675980
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198203797.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History
This chapter discusses problems of morality and sexual behaviour in the Gwelo District. The absence of lineage control in the towns left few sanctions against sexual violence. The whiff of ...
More
This chapter discusses problems of morality and sexual behaviour in the Gwelo District. The absence of lineage control in the towns left few sanctions against sexual violence. The whiff of ‘perversion’ that the Occupation had introduced hung over the urban streets. Manifestations of sexual harassment and assault that occurred in the town were specific to the social climate of urbanization and occupation. Colonization created ways of thinking about sexuality and sexual stimulation, producing certain new types of sexual behaviour. This chapter also discusses the ‘Black Peril’ issue that became the focus of growing political tensions, as the lives of African men were used as pawns in a power struggle between settler, BSACo, and Crown. In 1916, the Immorality and Indecent Behaviour Suppression Ordinance was passed adding to the legislation on the Black Peril.Less
This chapter discusses problems of morality and sexual behaviour in the Gwelo District. The absence of lineage control in the towns left few sanctions against sexual violence. The whiff of ‘perversion’ that the Occupation had introduced hung over the urban streets. Manifestations of sexual harassment and assault that occurred in the town were specific to the social climate of urbanization and occupation. Colonization created ways of thinking about sexuality and sexual stimulation, producing certain new types of sexual behaviour. This chapter also discusses the ‘Black Peril’ issue that became the focus of growing political tensions, as the lives of African men were used as pawns in a power struggle between settler, BSACo, and Crown. In 1916, the Immorality and Indecent Behaviour Suppression Ordinance was passed adding to the legislation on the Black Peril.
Mollie Gregory
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780813166223
- eISBN:
- 9780813166759
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813166223.003.0002
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Athletic actresses were the first stuntwomen. The freedom to drive cars and the promise of the vote brought big social changes that benefited women and expanded their opportunities. Working-class ...
More
Athletic actresses were the first stuntwomen. The freedom to drive cars and the promise of the vote brought big social changes that benefited women and expanded their opportunities. Working-class women and their children filled the first movie theaters, and movies became a source of social change. Women flocked to Hollywood to be in the movies. The female serial stars—Helen Gibson, Ruth Roland, Pearl White—did most of their own stunts; other women directed, produced, and wrote the scripts. That egalitarian system ended in the 1920s when film production became a profitable and respected business. Men took over all aspects of production, including stunt work.Less
Athletic actresses were the first stuntwomen. The freedom to drive cars and the promise of the vote brought big social changes that benefited women and expanded their opportunities. Working-class women and their children filled the first movie theaters, and movies became a source of social change. Women flocked to Hollywood to be in the movies. The female serial stars—Helen Gibson, Ruth Roland, Pearl White—did most of their own stunts; other women directed, produced, and wrote the scripts. That egalitarian system ended in the 1920s when film production became a profitable and respected business. Men took over all aspects of production, including stunt work.
Neville Kirk
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199731633
- eISBN:
- 9780199894420
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199731633.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, World Early Modern History
This chapter maintains that while the turn to transnationalism among historians in general and labor historians in particular is not new, it has recently developed a popularity and momentum often ...
More
This chapter maintains that while the turn to transnationalism among historians in general and labor historians in particular is not new, it has recently developed a popularity and momentum often lacking in the past. It proceeds to consider the actual and potential strengths and weaknesses of transnational labor history. It argues that the former outweighs the latter. When combined with the adoption of a comparative perspective, and when integrating politico-economic concerns firmly into its framework, transnationalism offers labor historians a welcome opportunity to regenerate their field of study. Above all, perhaps, it requires us to widen our traditional, nationally based terms of reference and to rethink questions of place, space, connections, influences, continuity and change, and similarities and differences across national and subnational boundaries.Less
This chapter maintains that while the turn to transnationalism among historians in general and labor historians in particular is not new, it has recently developed a popularity and momentum often lacking in the past. It proceeds to consider the actual and potential strengths and weaknesses of transnational labor history. It argues that the former outweighs the latter. When combined with the adoption of a comparative perspective, and when integrating politico-economic concerns firmly into its framework, transnationalism offers labor historians a welcome opportunity to regenerate their field of study. Above all, perhaps, it requires us to widen our traditional, nationally based terms of reference and to rethink questions of place, space, connections, influences, continuity and change, and similarities and differences across national and subnational boundaries.
