- Risk and crisis management, Ancient myth and religion, Managing Across Cultures, History, Anthropology, Women's Studies, and 28 moreVernacular Religion, International Studies, German Studies, Venezuelan foreign policy, Polish History, Old Norse-Icelandic Literature and Culture, Migration Studies, Diplomacy, Comparative Literature, Mysticism, Space and Place, Women and Gender Studies, Cultural Diplomacy, Worldview., Wilderness therapy, Education, Social Sciences, Business, Philosophy, Sociology, Narrative Theory, Fairy-tale studies, Folk and Fairy Tales, Fairy tales, Creative Nonfiction, Symbolic Anthropology (Anthropology), English language and literature, and Literatureedit
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Venezuela has for a long time considered itself uniquely blessed, pointing to its scenic, fertile land and its ambitious people. Populist leaders had personal charisma and a sense of humor. This essay showcases a popular political from... more
Venezuela has for a long time considered itself uniquely blessed, pointing to its scenic, fertile land and its ambitious people. Populist leaders had personal charisma and a sense of humor. This essay showcases a popular political from the 1980s -- featuring a Soviet dog.
Research Interests: Cultural History, Cold War and Culture, Myths and Symbols as carriers of unconscious content, National Identity, Jokes, and 5 moreStorytelling and Self-Confrontation: Parables as Communication Strategies, South America, Riddles and Metaphor, Hugo Chávez, and Contemporary Venezuelan and Bolivian Politics
Three giants of cultural studies, dealing with religion, identity, and the art of the bard, went to distant, isolated places to find answers. This paper compares their methods, their premises, and their conclusions.
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A group of Girl Scouts in the 1960s provided an account of their creations and world view at Camp Henry F. Koch in Southern Indiana. Their stories of the crafts and their love of the camp's version of wilderness frame their artistic... more
A group of Girl Scouts in the 1960s provided an account of their creations and world view at Camp Henry F. Koch in Southern Indiana. Their stories of the crafts and their love of the camp's version of wilderness frame their artistic activities. The group remains in touch after fifty years, still friends, still finding adventures and challenges to tackle.
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Hartmann's courtly epic had a not-so-hidden social and religious message -- no matter how great one's sin, redemption is still available if one repents sincerely and atones. My essay unravels the various roles of the narrators in this... more
Hartmann's courtly epic had a not-so-hidden social and religious message -- no matter how great one's sin, redemption is still available if one repents sincerely and atones. My essay unravels the various roles of the narrators in this medieval incest saga.
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Taking two well-known poems, one by Goethe and one by Neruda, and the English translations supplied in dual-language books available in libraries, I furnished a counter-translation of each, to show how far a translation that is otherwise... more
Taking two well-known poems, one by Goethe and one by Neruda, and the English translations supplied in dual-language books available in libraries, I furnished a counter-translation of each, to show how far a translation that is otherwise accurate can differ from another translation -- and provide quite a different view of the original work.
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Kaykay uses cooking to express traditional values in her church-centered life. She constructs her meatloaf with care, using it to express her identity as well as to feed her family and her church family.
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A number of Latin American countries express nationalism via "folkloric" dance and musical troops performing indigenous material. Venezuela does not do this. It uses instead a nation-wide network of youth orchestras, many including... more
A number of Latin American countries express nationalism via "folkloric" dance and musical troops performing indigenous material. Venezuela does not do this. It uses instead a nation-wide network of youth orchestras, many including children living in poor neighborhoods. They play ambitious classical music, including Mahler. One of the young people involved is now conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
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Drawing generic lines between such folkloric standards as legend and folktale sometimes caused the most extreme features of each to predominate. Here is a schematic of how German folklorist Max Luethi saw it in the days when this kind of... more
Drawing generic lines between such folkloric standards as legend and folktale sometimes caused the most extreme features of each to predominate. Here is a schematic of how German folklorist Max Luethi saw it in the days when this kind of exploration was still quite new and exciting.
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Tennyson's short poem THE KRAKEN has intrigued generations of readers, who may wonder what a then-mythical sea monster had to do with Victorian life and the poet's contemplation of it. This is an attempt at an explanation.
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Quintilian, thought by many to be a disciple of Cicero, displays his Platonic orientation with a genuinely Roman slant -- his ideal man, perfect in all things, is an orator, not a philosopher. He participates in politics -- otherwise... more
Quintilian, thought by many to be a disciple of Cicero, displays his Platonic orientation with a genuinely Roman slant -- his ideal man, perfect in all things, is an orator, not a philosopher. He participates in politics -- otherwise known as "life," and can even practice deception in a court case, for a higher cause.
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Lecture-style college courses with term papers are rough on faculty and on students. Learning is most effective when it is interactive. This group-project method, worked out for then-required humanities survey classes, may help both... more
Lecture-style college courses with term papers are rough on faculty and on students. Learning is most effective when it is interactive. This group-project method, worked out for then-required humanities survey classes, may help both sides.
