Artists often criticize; they interpret the world within a new light; they portray a point through imagery. The Hunger Artist by Franz Kafka portrays a figure who is so obsessed with his own art and artistic interpretation, he takes it upon himself to torture his own body in order to criticize his onlookers, almost as the … Continue reading For the Love of Art, and Verfremdung
Category: Essays
Moving Forward Requires Balance
In order for humans to learn a language they must acquire basics of phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and of course vocabulary. Language is a method of communication; a way of conveying wants, needs and thoughts with other people. Second language students do not need to be taught how to learn a language because they already speak … Continue reading Moving Forward Requires Balance
Idioms in cross-linguistic language acquisition
“Don’t let him get your goat.” What does that even mean? One theory attains that the term actually stems from horse racing. Racehorses were stabled with goats to keep them calm. If someone wanted to sabotage a horse they would steal the goat the day before the race, and the horse would become so agitated … Continue reading Idioms in cross-linguistic language acquisition
Hindsight Verboten? Kafka’s Reflections on Food
“The question throughout is much the same; lack of food, lack of clothing, and disease of every kind.” ~New York Times 1919 “The population has seen and felt so much of suffering that it has become calloused to hardship and to want, but the spectacle of hundreds of starving children, of women in the bitter cold … Continue reading Hindsight Verboten? Kafka’s Reflections on Food
A Theory of the Art in Life
“The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.” “He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past.” George Orwell from 1984 Are we all really a blank canvas? Critical Theory as I understand it, applies rules and structures to the … Continue reading A Theory of the Art in Life
