Social work and human services Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Social work and human services - Essay Example This research will begin with the statement that child welfare is a social work component that demands genuine compassion and concern for children. In this regard, it can be regarded as a profession that requires passion and dedication to facilitate the attainment of set goals. As part of the coursework, the author acquired a deeper understanding of social work and human services and learned to apply theoretical and practical aspects of assimilating social work concepts. Social theory and practice have enabled me to develop a more holistic view of children, especially their psychology and needs. As a result, the author has an excellent grasp of children’s needs as well as how and why they can be met. Through his comprehension of social theory, the researcher has become inspired to use conceptual rationales to propagate social development by protecting perhaps the most valuable members of the society: children. Through discussions with current practitioners, the author has beco me well-versed in the practical demands of child welfare social work. For example, although he has always been relatively introverted, professionals in the field reliably informed me that the greatest satisfaction will come from getting out of his comfort zone and taking help to children. After interacting with current practitioners for a considerable period of time, the author learned and accepted that without traveling and actively seeking help for troubled, abused, or neglected children, his sphere of influence would be significantly reduced.

Symbolic Interactionism Blumer

Symbolic Interactionism Blumer The essence of society lies in an ongoing process of action- not in a posited structure of relations -Blumer, 1969,(p.71) Although symbolic interaction theory is often applied primarily to the micro level, the structuring of interdependent lines of behavior at the meso and macro levels also involves shared definitions developed through interaction. The overall culture of a society is the objective outcome of these shared social definitions whereby subjective meanings are created, often expressed in material artifacts of various types, and either sustained or transformed through interaction. Symbolic Interaction-Process Versus Structure Many of the core ideas of symbolic interaction theory are grounded in the pioneering work of George Herbert Mead, particularly his perspective regarding the close relationship between the mental processes whereby people make sense of their environment and their interaction with one another. This relationship is manifested in the patterns of collaboration among people as they seek to develop shared interpretations of the situations they face. It is also reflected in how ones self-concept develops through awareness of the perspectives of others. In addition, contemporary symbolic interaction theory draws on Charles Horton Cooleys analysis of how ones feelings about oneself (pride or shame, for example) reflect ones sensitivity to the positive or negative reactions of others, especially in primary group settings. This is consistent with his often-cited concept of the looking-glass self. Symbolic interaction theory is comparable in some ways to Georg Simmels focus on the forms of interaction, but symbolic interaction theory goes deeper than Simmels perspective in emphasizing the symbolic medium through which interaction takes place plus the subjective mental processes that accompany it. This focus on the subjective level may be compared to Webers emphasis on understanding the subjective meanings of individuals actions. But while Weber moved well beyond the level of individual actions and subjective meanings to deal with broad patterns of institutional and cultural change, many symbolic interactionists resemble Simmel in their strong micro-level focus. Human beings relate to one another and to their environment in terms of interdependent roles they create and sustain. At the center of this process are the self-concepts or identities of the individuals involved as they interact and adjust to one another in face-to-face encounters. Human beings are thus transformed into students and teachers, friends and lovers, husbands and wives, team players and college graduates, customers and sales people, celebrities and deviants, soldiers and social workers, lawyers and police officers, members and outsiders, and so on. Social definitions are crucial even for defining the meaning and social relevance of human beings biological characteristics, such as sex, age, and weight, for example. The socially contrived character of large-scale institutional structures may not be as obvious as in small group relationships or childrens micro-level play worlds, but macro level social institutions are also socially constructed through widely shared subjectiv e definitions that are developed and sustained through interaction. This implies that when subjective definitions and interpretations undergo widespread change, institutional transformation may occur, which then changes the context of subsequent interactions at the micro level. The divisions between micro, meso, and macro levels of analysis are not rigid distinctions. From r various micro-level social circles, networks of social relations extend outward, thus providing an opening to meso and macro levels of the social world. The heritage one share as members of society also includes enduring cultural products and artifacts that have been constructed or reproduced by countless other people far beyond the range of ones own limited social circles or personal knowledge. Language obviously transcends personal micro-level social settings, even though language is actually reproduced regularly in the context of face-to-face interaction as well as in mass media communication. Even ones adaptation to the objective physical reality of the natural world (like the food one eats) is mediated through the symbols used to define and interpret it. All symbolic interactionists emphasize the micro-level linkages between the subjective consciousnesses, interpersonal interaction, and identity formation, as well as the symbolic and socially constructed nature of the larger social world. Symbolic interaction theory today differs from the pioneering social behaviorism emphasized by Mead in the early part of the twentieth century. Blumers Theorey: Symbolic interaction theory, under the influence of Herbert Blumer, was in large part a critical reaction to macro level types of analysis, particularly as reflected in functional theory, and the strong emphasis on the notion that peoples behavior is largely determined by social structures. For symbolic interaction theorists, the strong emphasis on culturally scripted norms and institutionalized roles was misplaced. This focus seemed to leave little room for individuals to make choices or to improvise as they interpret and adjust to the specific situations they face. For symbolic interactionists social structures do not exist as an objective reality that is independent of the actions of its human participants. Instead, all aspects of the social world are negotiated, constructed, and reproduced or sometimes transformed through ongoing processes of interaction and subjective interpretation whereby people mutually shape one anothers perceptions, definitions, and responses to their envir onment. Within this general framework, several different areas of emphasis can be identified within symbolic interaction theory. Symbolic interactionist perspective serves as a general framework for role theory, reference group theory, analyses of social perception and person perception, self theory, and dramaturgic theory. Of the various versions of symbolic interactionism, Herbert Blumers (1962) perspective expressed the strongest skepticism regarding macro-level theories such as functionalism. As he put it: By and large, of course, sociologists do not study human society in terms of its acting units, instead, they are disposed to view human society in terms of structure or organization and to treat social action as an expression of such structure or organization. Thus, reliance is placed on such structural categories as social system, culture, norms, values, social stratification, status position, social roles and institutional organization. (Blumer, pp.188-189 in Rose, ed. 1962) Blumer coined the term symbolic interaction and promoted Meads strong emphasis on the interrelated processes of mutual role-taking, interaction, and subjective interpretation that occur as people adjust their actions to one another in dealing with the particular situations they face. This emphasis on the need for people to improvise their responses to their environment and to one another seems to downplay the habits and memories that individuals bring to situations that they encounter over and over. It also seems to push the cultural and institutional framework that might influence their interpretations into the background. Even though social organization, culture, roles, and other structural features of the social world may not determine peoples behavior in a strong sense, such features may nevertheless be taken into consideration, especially in familiar situations. When people repeatedly face similar types of situations, they may employ ready-made responses with only a minimal amou nt of negotiation or reflection. This does not mean that social organization determines peoples behavior as an external force. It does suggest, however, that patterns of interaction and interpretation are not always as fluid as Blumer seems to suggest. People do indeed sometimes face novel situations that are unstructured and ambiguous and so will need to make a conscious effort to make sense of them as they explore with one another how to cope. In other situations, they may each have their own distinctive ideas on how to respond and so will need to negotiate their differences. But in many routine situations they already share an implicit understanding of its salient features and know how to respond. This means that very little negotiation is required if any. Regardless of these variations, patterns of social organization, including written rules and established authority or power structures, are never automatically self-enforcing. Instead, these structural factors become relevant only to the extent that people remember them and decide how to apply them. Sometimes there may be discussion and debate regarding whether or how an established rule or custom should apply. If there are large differences in power and authority, the negotia tion actually may be quite minimal, as those with relatively less power realize the futility of trying to get those with greater power to see things their way. By pushing social organization, culture, and similar concepts that transcend particular situations into the background, and by emphasizing the fluid and indeterminate nature of the immediate social world, Blumers approach makes it difficult to establish principles of social behavior that apply across different situations or to move from the micro to the macro level. However, other symbolic interaction theorists give more emphasis to stable structural categories than Blumer did. These structural influences do not determine behavior from the outside, as external or objective forces, however; instead, they are encoded in individuals subjective consciousness and shared memories and expectations. Although they may be interpreted to apply in unique ways in different situations, they are nevertheless reflected in participants predispositions regarding how to respond to the specific situations they face. The contrast between Blumers view of the fluid and undetermined nature of the social world versus a more structural version of symbolic interaction theory can be illustrated through the process whereby individuals self-concepts are developed, maintained, and changed. The relation between individuals self-concepts or identities, their social roles, and the reactions of others can be traced back to the pioneering work of Mead and Cooley. Contemporary symbolic interactionist theory offers several different strategies for exploring how individuals self-concepts or identities are expressed through the different roles they perform. The following section will deal in more detail with the relation between peoples role performances and their identities. Blumers image of the fluid and negotiated character of the social world implies that identities and social roles are not fixed but instead are largely improvised in each encounter as individuals seek to align their own self-concepts and intentions with the expectations of others. In contrast to Blumer, a more structural version of symbolic interaction theory puts greater emphasis on the standardized and routine expectations and behaviors of various roles. With this alternative focus social life is viewed as having a higher level of predictability than implied in Blumers perspective, especially in routine situations. Although behavior is not determined by social roles, with no room for individual variations, this structural version is closer to the conventional forms of sociological analysis that Blumer criticized. While roles may not be scripted in detail, there are definite guidelines and expectations that people tend to follow. Peoples self-concepts are multidimensional. They may r eflect roles associated with various personal characteristics as well as with the social positions they occupy. These roles include, for example, those associated with gender, age, family status, occupation, race or ethnicity, residential location, leisure time pursuits, general lifestyle preferences, and so on. Such roles are likely to be partially structured by general cultural expectations as well as by specific expectations that develop among people who interact on a regular basis. Even so, there is room for considerable improvisation in most cases as individuals express their own unique individuality and seek to satisfy their current needs and concerns. There are three fundamental premises underlying a symbolic interactionist perspective; and it is to Blumers great credit that these premises receive emphasis in his work. All are in fact central to Meads arguments, even while none of them originates with Mead. The first of these premises holds that an adequate account of human behavior must incorporate the perspective of the actor and cannot rest entirely on the perspective of the observer alone. The second of these premises asserts the priority of social interaction and the derivative, emergent nature of both self and social organization from that social process. The third argues that self, or persons reflexive responses to themselves, serves to link larger societal processes to the social interactions of those persons. The first and last of these premises contain between them the justification for insisting that socially formed meanings that are aspects of the subjective experience of persons are not only legitimately but are necessarily part of observers accounts of the social behavior of human beings. Contrary to Blumers position would be the emergent character of social life as well as ignoring the reality in experience of the dialectical relationship of what Mead called the I and the me. However, working from Blumers perspective on these matters does not require that one must retreat to phenomenologies of individual minds, or forgo attempts to develop theoretical explanations of social life that have some general applicability. If one accepts interaction as the source and substance of society, i.e., accepting the foundational character of the social process, it will surely be the acceptance of Blumers emphasis on the emergent character of self and social organization. This acceptance in turn implies the recognition of some degree of indeterminacy in attempts to foresee what will be from what is at any given moment of that social process. Further, such indeterminacy is principled and not merely a recognition of the incompleteness or inadequacy of present knowledge. The central role of self in mediating the relationship of social process and social behavior, one of the basic premises of symbolic interactionist thought whose emphasis in Blumers work need to be emphasized. Without invoking a concept such as self, attempts to come to grips with obvious variability of persons behavior in the face of apparent constancy of circumstance-biological, ecological, cultural, or social-are likely to founder similarly in a complementary way the concept of self permits dealing with that variability in specifically social terms. Meta-theoretical Conceptions of Blumer: The metatheoretical ideas proclaim the impossibility of general, predictive sociological theory as a consequence of the centrality of meanings and definitions in the production of human behavior. For Blumer, all social life is actively constructed by participants in the very process of interaction itself because this micro-constructivist process is taken to be descriptive of social life in general, it is also taken to be descriptive of the meanings and the interpretations applying those meanings assumed to be critical for each next step in the processes of interaction. Meanings in that sense are truly emergents, subject to literally continuous reformulation on a moment-to-moment basis. If meanings are indeed central, and if meanings are constructed in and particular to the experience of individual actors, emergent from their ongoing experience, it follows for Blumer that the generality required of the predictive, theoretical concepts in terms of which theoretical arguments are couche d cannot exist. Preexistent concepts cannot match the emergent interpretations of actors constructing their lines of social interaction. Given all of this, Blumer concludes, sociology can expect to be able to develop after-the-fact understandings of behaviors that have occurred, but cannot anticipate the development of general explanatory sociological theory in a predictive sense. Methodological consequences of Blumer: His metatheoretical argument has methodological consequences. For one thing, it implies the futility of a research enterprise that is initiated by a priori theory, or that anticipates behavioral outcomes via hypotheses arrived at deductively from such theory. For another, it suggests that research methods that fail to focus directly upon actors interpretations by setting up prior procedural or substantive constraints on how issues are formulated or are attacked-experimentation and survey research methods are cases in point-necessarily lack va1idity and the capacity to generate meaningful data. And for yet another, it underwrites the condemnation of the application of mathematical or statistical manipulations of data in efforts to draw from those data their sociological implications, on the grounds that numerical data are necessarily bereft of the meanings that define the essential character of sociological phenomena. Thus along with denying the possibility of explanatory sociological theory, Blumer severely restricts the legitimate range of investigatory (data gathering) techniques as well as analytic methods.Apparently, in his own mind only participatory observation meets his strictures but even that method would not survive a thorough logical analysis of its fit to Blumers methodological arguments. It is important to note that Blumers ideas which are fundamental to defining symbolic interactionism do not necessarily lead to the metatheoretical and methodological ends at which he himself arrives. Actors perspectives, the definitions of situations they call into play that are critical to the course and the content of interaction, are not unconstrained. Both the meanings those are possible to invoke in the course of defining situations, as well as the particular meanings from the range of possible meanings that are likely to be invoked, are not random events. They are, on the contrary, subject to the constraints of extant social and cultural systems. Further, there is some reasonable stability over time to the meanings attached to social objects. For practical purposes these do not change willy-nilly or from moment to moment in a way that signifies great change in behavioral outcomes. If there were no such stability, if meanings did not in general entail relative constancy from mo ment to moment, from day to day, even from year to year, there is no way that social life could have the predictability that enables people to live their lives as they do. The fact that meanings can change radically and precipitously does not argue that in general they do change radically and precipitously. This implies that one can indeed formulate general statements or theoretical propositions that go beyond the phenomenologies of single individuals, statements or propositions that are not subject to a priori rejection, whatever their fate may be at the hands of empirical evidence. To recognize that social life is constructed via definitional or interpretive processes and that there are few limits on what constructions are possible does not require one to abjure reasonably strong predictions, or to anticipate that predictions, when based on solid theoretical grounds, will lack credibility or validity. Neither does it obviate the recognition that the social process sometimes, perhaps even frequently, crystallizes and stabilizes in a manner that permits the theoretical recognition of selves and social structures that they themselves operate to constrai n and limit the possibilities for emergence in social life, that operate to transform possibilities into probabilities. Substantive ideas in Blumer: In substantive terms, it is Blumers treatment or lack thereof of social organization and social structure are both nonessential and highly problematic. For Blumer, society consists of the congeries of lines of individual action, the fitting together of these lines. Individual action is a matter of persons guiding their own action by interpreting the significance of things for that prospective action; group action is a matter of aligning individual action through a process of role-taking, i.e., searching out the meaning of others acts by ascertaining what they are doing or intend to do (Blumer 1969, p. 8). Social organization and social structures enter action only by shaping situations and providing the symbols used in interpreting situations, only as they enter into the process of interpretation and definition out of which joint actions are formed; and, in any event, they are less important in modern society than in stabilized, settled societies precisely because in the former there are fewer situations calling for previously regularized and standardized actions. Conclusion There obviously exist a number of very different senses of what symbolic interaction is substantively and what it implies methodologically. The problem is not that these different senses exist; the problem rather lies in the artificial and unnecessary oppositions among them created by the polemics that have historically characterized the literature of symbolic interactionism-the polemics of social movements and embattled minorities, the polemics that define orthodoxies and heterodoxies in seeking to recruit adherents to the banner being waved by the pure. The fact of multiplicity of alternative viewpoints in itself is healthy: self-control, choice, freedom and various other good things spring from alternatives symbolically represented in human experience. But multiplicity of views can be unhealthy if there is no communication across differences, if either structural or cognitive barriers prevent the alternatives from in fact entering the experience of persons, for then each person be comes the prisoner of his or her preferred -perspective. One is then used by perspectives rather than using them and the perspectives themselves are likely to ossify, to become unquestioned Truths and not potentially fallible ideas subject to logical and empirical examination and reformulation.

Cloning :: Biology Cloning

For the last few decades, cloning was a fictitious idea that lay deep within the pages of some sci-fi novels. The very idea that cloning could one day become reality was thought to be a scientific impossibility by many experts but on one exhilarating day, what was thought to be "purely fiction" became reality. That fine day was February 22, 1997. A team from the Roslin Institute which was lead by Dr. Ian Wilmut changed the face of history forever by revealing what looked like an average sheep. That sheep was what was going to be one of the most famous if not the most famous sheep in modern day. Dolly was this seven month old Trojan lamb's name and Dolly was the first ever clone of a mammal. She was an exact biological carbon copy, a laboratory counterfeit of her mother. In essence, Dolly was her mother's biological twin. What surprised most thought, was not just the fact that Dolly was a clone but was that the trick to Wilmut and his team's success was a trick that was so ingenious yet so simple that any skilled laboratory technician could master it. Therein, lied a pathway towards a new future. This news shocked the world for Dolly was the key to many new and prosperous possibilities. But Dolly was not the first clone ever. Cloning of a more limited sort had been done before her. Creatures such as mice, frogs and salamanders had been cloned from as early as the 1950's. Then, a different procedure was used. This procedure included the destruction of the nucleus inside the egg cell. Then a new "donor" cell would be brought and injected into the egg cell as a replacement. The egg would then grow into an progeny of the same genetic make-up as the donor. Later on in the 1970's a new technique was developed. This technique included transferring the genes from one organism to another by combining the DNA from a plant or animal cell with the DNA in bacteria. When the bacteria divided the cells were now the clones of both plant/animal DNA as well as the DNA it had originally. This cloning technique allowed for the growth of many endocrine system treatments such as hormone, insulin and interferon. In 1993, researchers in the US began and successfully cloned a human embryo in order to develop new ways to treat human infertility.

Persuasive Speech on Thift Retail

Everybody knows millions of years ago before the manifestation of the global society, man and woman ran around buck naked and fancy-free. However, Nowadays running around naked is somewhat frowned upon society. On a show of hands how many of you are all about living green? On a show of hands how many of you like to save money while giving profit/donations towards a good cause?Good Afternoon class, My name is Pearl Bentum and I shall be discussing with you the mission of different types of thrift retails, How to donate items, and last but not least items you could find at these stores. Let’s begin with the missions of different types of thrift retail. Salvation Army is one of the most popular amongst them all. Due to the fact that it’s the only religious one. Their mission is to use donations to Care for the poor, Feed the hungry, Shelter the homeless, Cloth the naked, Love the unlovable, and Befriend the friendless.Another type of thrift retail is the Good Will. Their m ission is to provide vocational education for people with disabilities, training programs, services based on the needs of the community, and the financial resources of the organization. Let’s move on to how to donate items. There are three steps to take in order to donate your items. Number one, you have to determine whether or not your item/items are useful. Most charities can only make use of items that are new, unused, or nearly new.If you don't have any use for your old, tattered couch, rusty washing machine, or other used item, chances are neither will a charity. Similarly, a timeshare that has turned out to be a bad investment for you won't do much to help out a worthy charity. Number two, Consider selling your items and donating the proceeds to charity. By donating cash instead of goods you allow charities greater flexibility in spending the money so that it reaches the people or animals that need it the most.When you sell the items yourself you also eliminate the for- profit middleman that can take a big cut of the money intended for charity. When you sell the items yourself you also unburden charities of any time and money they would have to spend on selling or refurbishing the items, allowing them to spend more resources directly fulfilling their missions. Finally, by selling the items yourself, you know the exact value of the donation you can report to the IRS and don't have to worry about estimating the amount for your tax returns.Number three, Start locally to find the right charity. In order to avoid transportation costs that can lower the impact of your donation, look first in your local community to find a charity to support with your noncash contribution. Call around and ask charities if they accept the kind of items you are looking to donate, and if they don't find out if they have any suggestions of a charity that does. Lastly, I would like to share with you what you can find at these thrift retails. You can items such as clothes and s hoes.For example this whole outfit I have on today I purchased at the thrift store. You can find items such as couches and decorative pillows such as this one I purchased about a year ago. There is also a wide variety of electronics that you could find. In brief, getting involved in the thrift retail business, weither its thru purchasing items or donating items it goes to a good cause and also helps you to save money and go green. Just know that every little thing counts. And hopefully you will go out and donate or even shop at the thrift stores. Thank you

Assignment Meg 5

Dhvani This word means â€Å"sound† literally, but does not deal with the fhction of sound in the musical sense. The theory was first propounded by Anandavardhana, the ninth century thinker, in his treatise, Dhavanyaloka (Dhvani+aloka). The Dhvani theory considers the indirectly evoked meaning or suggestivity as the characteristic f a e of literary utterance. This feature separates and determines the literary from other kinds of discourse, and is an all-embracing principle which explains the structure and function of the other significant aspects of literary utterance: the aesthetic &e,d or rasa, the figural mode and devices (alamkara), and so on. Related article: Fallacy of Absolute StatementIn Kapoor's words, â€Å"all the subsequent literary theorists in the tradition found the combination of rasa and dhvani theories both adequate and sufficient to analyse the constitution of meaning in Indian literature. † In his treatise I have mentioned before, Anandavardhana has given a detailed description of structural analysis of indirect meanings. According to him, if we can explain how indirect meanings arise systematically, we can claim that all potential meanings inhere in a text. Anandavardhana uses the term dhvani to designate the universe of suggestion. The soul of kmya is dhyani, he says). His preference for the term sprang from the fact that grammarians before him had used the term to denote several concepts. First, to denote the sound structure of sabda or words; second, to denote the semantic aspect of sabda; and third, the complex of the now revealed suggested meaning and the process of suggestion involved. Thus dr vuni theory is a theory of meaning (an Indian hermeneutics or sorts), of symbolism. The thrust of this theory is towards claiming a greater value for the poetry of suggestion.Anandavardhana integrates the theory of the rasa with his dhvani theory; that is, he says that dhvani is the method through which the effect of rasa is achieved. Rasa is the effect of suggestion. Mimesis For Plato (429-397 B. C. ), ‘poiesis' or what we call literary theory or even criticism was an imitation or, ‘mimesis'. (‘Poiesis' (GK) translates into poetry, in English, but the focus of these two term is very different, for the Greeks lyric poetry had a very small part to play as compared to the epic or drama. Plato and Aristotle moreover theorised not about lyric oetry, but about tragedy and comedy, about drama, so Richard Harland suggests the more appropriate use of the terms literary theory/criticism for the Greek ‘poiesis'). Plato called ‘poiesis' an imitation or ‘mime sis' because he believed drama to be a reproduction of something that is not really present, and is therefore a ‘dramatisation of the reproduction' (Richard Harland, p. 6). What he means is that in a play or an epic, what happens is this – the poet recreates an experience, the audience watch that re-created experience, they are in fact encouraged to live through that experience . s if they are physically within the time and space of that experience. Not only this, Plato, also goes on distinguish between ‘mimesis' and ‘digenesis'. â€Å"Mimesis' is the speech of a character directly reproduced,' whereas ‘digenesis' is ‘a narration of doings and sayings where ‘the poet speaks in his own person and does not try to turn our attention in another direction by pretending that soineone else is speaking . ‘ [Plato, quoted in Harland, p. 7). With this distinction between ‘mimesis' and ‘digenesis', it is easy for us to discern that drama is entirely ‘mimet~c' , whereas epic is mi metic only where dialogue is reproduced rii t e%:! t. where the poet t r l l s (lie ~ [ O I, il I ,d i ‘r IV. / $C' . I ! ] . iiurt, this is what larv called ‘ s h c ~111 ~:' , 1 1 1 t i ‘tcllii~g'r e:,pet>l~l; . l1l*zi~h owever disapprt . imitation, and i)1 tit~ln,ltiscdd ~alogue. ‘Mimesis', in Greek thought primarily meant ‘making' of one sort or another. This is well recorded in Plato. Plato gave a new metaphysical and epistemological perspective to mimesis, enlargening its meaning from ‘making' by human hands to ‘making' by universal force.Yet, mimesis, not only in Plato's definition but in the use of the concept in the whole of western tradition, always retained the sense of not only ‘making,' but of ‘making' a copy of some original which was never totally independent of the model. (Gupt 93). In Platonic theory, all art (techne) has been taken to mean some kind of manipu lation close to craft. In the Sophist, Plato has divided techne into acquisitive, productive and creative categories of which the last brings into existence things not existing before.However, the highest art, in the scheme of Plato is not music or poetry, but statecraft, which is compared to the making of a tragedy in the Laws (817B) and to sculpture in the Republic (420C). All production, in a general way, is ‘mimesis'. In the Greek usage, there was not only the term ‘mimesis' but others such as mithexis (participation), homoiosis, (likeness) and paraplesia (likeness) and which were close to the meaning, of mimesis. These terms were also used to show the relationship ‘between an im age (eidolon) and its archetype.Moreover, not only are objects imitated by pictures of them, but the essences of things are imitated also by names that we give to those things. For example, the essence or the dogness of a dog is imitated by the name ‘dog' given to that creature ( Cratylus 423-24). Similarly, reality is imitated or mimetised by thought, eternity by time (Timaeus 38b). The musician imitates divine harmony, the good man imitates the virtues, the wise legislator imitates the Form of God in constructing his state, god (demiourgos) imitates the Forms in the making of Ws world. With Aristotle the concept of mimesis undergoes a major transformation.It retains the condition of being a copy of a model, but the Platonic denigration is reversed. This reversal is based on a metaphysical revision. The permanent reality is not transcedental in Aristotle's opinion. When an artist makes an object, he incorporates certain universal elements in it but he does fall short of any absolute model of dniversality. Because of the universality contained in art, in Aristotle's view, art, as all other imitation leads to knowledge. The pleasure that mimesis provides is on account of knowledge that is acquired through mimesis, even though this knowledge is of particulars: And since learning and admiring are pleasant, all things connected with them must also. be pleasant; for instance, a work of imitation, such as painting, sculpture, Toetry, and all that is well imitated, even if the object of imitation is not pleasant; for it is not this that causes pleasure or the reverse, but the inference that the imitation and the object imitated are identical, so that the result is that we learn something. † (Rhetoric I, xi, 1371 b; trans. Freese qtd. by Beardsley 57) Besides possessing didactic capacity mimesis is defined as a pleasurable likeness.Aristotle defines the pleasure giving quality of mimesis in the Poetics, as follows: â€Å"First, the instinct of imitation is implanted in man from childhood, one difference between him and other animals being that he is the most imitative of living creatures, and through imitation learns his earliest lessons; and no less universal is the pleasure felt in things imitated. Thus the reason why men enjoy seeing a likeness is, that in contemplating it they find themselves learning or inferring, and saying perhaps, ‘Ah, that is he. ‘ Imitation, then, is one instinct of our nature. (Poetics IV. 1-6 ) As a corollary it follows that the artist is no liar, but on the contrary, leads us to Truth. However, Aristotle seems to have limited his vision when it comes to enumerating the objects of imitation. In Plato, all creation was an imitation of Forms, which were transcendental. For Aristotle, though the Form (eidos) of every object existed, it was not a transcendental reality but something within Nature which Nature itself tends to attain. Further, it is said that for Aristotle, Art helps Nature in this endeavour of attaining the perfection of Form.This interpretation of Aristotle's metaphysics has been based upon his two oft-quoted sayings, â€Å"Art imitates Nature† (Physics iii. 2 I94a 21. ) and â€Å"the artist may imitate things as they ought to be† (Poetics XXXV: I ). Amplifying from this Butcher has concluded: † If wekxpand Aristotle's idea in the light of his own system, fine art eliminates what is transient and particular and reveals the permanent and essential features of the original. It discovers ‘form' (eidos) towards which an object tends, the result which nature strives to attain. (150) There is little in the writings of Aristotle that can explicitly sustain such a conclusion. This discovery of the form (eidos) in objects tends to make Aristotle into a shadow of Plato. Aristotle admits that there is something permanent and enduring in art, but that something could be called eidos, is beyond substantiation from Aristotle's writings. Similarly, the dictum, art imitates nature, has given rise to many interpretations over the centuries. â€Å"It has been argued that the irrner principle of Nature is what art imitates.But if we follow out his thought, his (Aristotle's) reply would appear to be something of this kind. Nature is a living and creative energy, which by a sort of instinctive reason works in every individual object towards a specific end † (Butcher 155). The teleological and structural pattern of tragedy seems to have been transferred on to Nature by Butcher. This was a typical nineteenth century view of Aristotelian philosophy. Since the Renaissance, different definitions of Nature have been foisted upon Aristotle's dictum, art imitates Nature.For the purpose of drama, the most disastrous one was that of realism, which having captured fiction by techniques of portraiture, landscape, and caricature, transferred these on to drama. Aristotle was clear that a e purpose of imitation in drama, was to provide proper pleasure by imitating action. Mimesis of men in action was mimesis of all human life. Through music, the artist imitates, anger and mildness as well as courage or temperance (Politics v. viii. 5. 134~1 8) and ethical qualities and emotions. Similarly, he says, â€Å"Dance,'imitate s character, emotions and action† (Poetics 1. 5).We should be content to note that in drama he applied the general theory ef mimesis, which he thought, was both for the s&e of pleasure and knowledge. But even the Aristotelian affirmation of pleasure in art was not sufficient to free art from being constantly compared with its original, that is the worldly objects. This originally Platonic habit, has been strong throughout western criticism which repeatedly gauges art in terms of how truthfully or realistically it represents the world, how much of an understanding of the world can it bring to us, one way or another. , 3. 3 THE MEDIA OF MIMESIS 3. 3. 1 Rhythm, Language, and Haniony After stating that epic poetry, tragedy, comedy, dithyrambic poetry, flute or lyre playing are all ‘modes of mimesis,' Aristotle states that mimesis in different arl forms is achieved differently, and that the object and manner of mimesis is different in each case ( Poetics 1; 2-4 ). He states t hat the three media for all arts are as follows: For there are persons who, by conscious act or mere habit, imitate and represent various objects through the medium of colour and fonn, or again , by voice; so in the arts above mentioned, taken as a whole, the imitation is produced by rhythm, language and harmony, either singly or combined. Poetics 1:4 ) Leaving aside painting and sculpture which use colour and other forms (materials), the arts of performance like music, dance and drama, use rhythm, language and harmony. Flute and lyre use rhythm and notes only, and dancing uses only rhythm. But for Aristotle, rhythm is not a mere beat or a division of time, but movement with regularity, be it theemere movement of the body or that of notes. That is why, dancing, he says, imitates characteG emotion and action by rhythmical movement (15). -Poetry or verse whether creative or informative imitates through language alone, but dithyrambic and elegiac poetry, tragedy and comedy use all thre e means. In dithyrambic and elegiac poetry all three means are used together, but in tragedy and comedy now one means is employed, now Aristotle's Theory of Imitation Classical Cdtkisrn another (15). What is true of tragedy and comedy can be taken as true of all drama, satyr plays included. Aristotle's brevity of plan has prevented him from saying anything further about the manner in which rhythm, language and harmony are employed in drama.About the details of language (lexis) one can gather quite a few things from Aristotle's comments on language which he categorised as one of the six elements of tragedy. But the nature of harmony (which he called melopoiia and enumerated as another element of tragedy) is hardly touched upon by him. So is rhythm never mentioned again in the Poetics. No wonder, then, that one has to look elsewhere to gather information about the use of music in the Greek theatre. Aristotle perhaps took musical employment in drama for granted and, therefore, refraine d from stating anything further about it.But the result of what may have been for him a redundancy, was disastrous for the post-Renaissance readers of the Poetics. The practical art of theatre-music being extinct, the Europeans reconstructed a picture of Greek drama in which there was hardly any place for rhythm or music. Greek drama was envisaged as a primarily rhetorical affair (an impression reinforced by Roman tragedies) far removed from the balance of visual and aural channels of theatrical expression that ancient drama depends so much upon.But if Aristotle left out the details of musical application he was at least explicit in stating it as a medium of mimesis. However, he not only neglected but left out from his description of tragedy the visual content of Greek performances constituted by the physical movements and complex gestures of the actors and the chorus. More than their mask and costume, the Greek actors had a repertoire of highly emotive gestures, just as the chorus members had a repertoire of a variety of dances to create complex visual effects. CatharsisThere has been a sustained attempt to postulate that catharsis could be a common and basic aesthetic experience. But the very meaning of catharsis has been a source of conflicting interpretations. In the nineteenth century one major way of looking at catharsis was to take it as a medical term transferred to poetic criticism. Cleansing (kenosis) in the Hippocratic writings denotes the entire removal of healthy but surplus humours: Catharsis is the removal of the afflictions or excesses (â€Å"ta lupounta†) and the like of qualitatively alien matter (But cher 253). This doctrine of imbalance of vital forces later on called humours, as the primary cause of disease, is of purely Indian origin. As demonstrated by Filliozat, the science was well formulated in India as early as the Atharva Veda and travelled t o Greece through Persia). According to the Hippocratic theory, an imbalance among th e elements of air , bile (of two kinds) and phlegm causes each and every disease. The cure lying in subduing the overswollen element and restoring the balance between the four elements. Besides this well-stated medicinal doctrine, there was also the practice of curing madness through musical catharsis.The patients were made to listen to certain melodies which made them â€Å"fall back into their normal state, as if they had undergone a medical or purgative (cathartic) treatment† (Politics V. viii. 7. 1342 a IS qtd. in Butcher 249). It is further added that not only is catharsis achieved musically but that â€Å"those who are liable to pity and fear, and in general, persons of emotional temperament pass through a like experience; †¦ they all undergo a catharsis of some kind and feel a pleasurable relief' (Butcher 251).The nature of catharsis described in the Politics should be true for the Poetics, as Aristotle himself has stated that his observations are of a general na ture in the former treatise but shall be more detailed in a later work. Therefore, those who presumed that tragic catharsis like musical catharsis restores normally healthy emotional state, were not so wrong. But this rather clinical definition of catharsis does not satisfy the literary theorists. As early as Butcher it was felt there was more to it. â€Å"But the word, as taken up by Aristotle into his terminology of art, has probably a further meaning.It expresses not 6nly a fact of psychology or of pathology, but a principle of art (253). The tragic pity and fear he postulated, â€Å"in real life contain a morbid and disturbing I' element †¦ As the tragic action progresses, the lower forms of emotion are found to have been transmuted into more refined forms† (254). He further postulated that this purification is also a change of the personal emotion to the universal. Purged of the â€Å"petty interest of the self' (261) emotion now becomes a representation of the un iversal, so that the â€Å"net result is a noble emotional satisfaction† (267).It is not difficult to discern that catharsis is equated with aesthetic pleasure in which noble emotional satisfaction is an essential feature, â€Å"But whatever may have been the indirect effect of the repeated operation of catharsis, we may confidently say that Aristotle in his definition of tragedy is thinking, not only of any remote result, but of the immediate end of the art, of the Aristotle's Theory of aesthetic function it fulfils† (Butcher 269). Tragedy -Part IJ In my opinion, to raise the balancing function of catharsis to the level of . universalisation is to stretch the concept too far.CertC,-;rlyt, he restorative function of catharsis may bring relief such as a sick person feels upon recovery. But it is a presumption on the part of Butcher that universalisation takes place because the element purged from the dramatic emotion is that of personal â€Å"petty interest of the self ' (261). The Aristotelian catharsis, or for that matter the whole tradition of catharsis, by music or Dionysian orgies, has personal cure or satisfaction as its end. Inner restoration, but not the enjoyment of a new aesthetic element, can at best be the purpose of catharsis. The factors of enjoyment, of â€Å"oikeia hedone†, are ifferent as stated earlier. . Other than regarding it as purgational, there has been another m~jowr ay of interpreting catharsis. The dual concept of purity and impurity which pervaded the physical, moral, religious and spiritual life of the Greeks was the most deepseated factor governing their daily activities. The duality of pollution (miasma) and purgation (catharsis) was part of the Indo-European belief system. We find that in Greek plays, all tragic action is dependent on acts of transgression such as the murder of a kin, sexual defilement, affronts to deities, and so on.These acts brought pollution (miasma) upon the protagonist and the people ar ound him. In Greek religion there were prescriptions for expiation of such crimes, just as in India rituals were prescribed for purging of pollution. In tragedies, the very ritual of expiation was often enacted, as in the Oresteia. In most plays, the protagonist was expelled from the community by death or banishment; there was expulsion (kenosis) of the sinner and purification (catharsis) of a given location, city, grove or household. Whereas in some plays, as in the Oresteia, this cycle was shown in ,- itP n——. 1, . teness, in other playh it was shown partially. In some other plays as in Hecabe or Women of Troy, there is only miasma and no katharsis. Looked at in this way, tragedy was a depiction of the cycle of miasma and catharsis. To my mind, the annual enactment of tragedy was to reaffm the miasrnacatharsis duality, which was a major cultural value of ancient Greek society. In all ancient societies the purpose of retelling the myths, particularly on festive occasi ons, was many-fold; it was to preserve and transmit the stories, to re-state the beliefs they enshrined, and $0 relive the behaviour patterns sanctified by tradition.The retelling always had a ritual significance even if it took the form of dramatic enactment for the purpose of entertainment. Entertainment and ritual were intertwined in ancient theatre. In this manner, tragedy was a reliving of the pollution-purity cycle by both the actors and the spectators. The community, the protagonist, hisher acts, and the aroused emotions of the audience, all underwent a catharsis. In his analysis,of catharsis, Gerald Else has rightly grasped the spiritual significance that catharsis had for the Greeks, but he restricts the scope of purgation to the acts of the protagonist.For Else, remorse makes the hero eligible to the spectators' pity, and this pity along with the hero's remorse proves that the act of transgression was actually a pure (cufharos) act. Thus catharsis is the process of proving purity. As Else puts it: The filthiness inheres in a conscious intention to kill a person who is a close kin. An unconscious intention to do so, i. e, in intention to do so without being aware of the kinship as Oedipus did not know that he killed his father would therefore be pure, catharos. But purity must be proved to our satisfaction.Catharsis would then be the process of proving that the act was pure in that sense. How is such a thing proved ? According to Nicomachean Ethics (3,2, 11 lob19 and 11 1 la20 ), by the remorse of the doer, which shows that if he had known the facts he would not have done the deed. In Oedipus, the thing which establishes this to our satisfaction is Oedipus' self blinding. It, then, effects a purification of the tragic deed and so makes Oedipus eligible to our pity. (Else 98) From this interpretation it seems that Else does not believe that catharsis enefits the audience and their emotions in anyway. In his reading of the famous passage , in the Poetic s, catharsis is purification of the tragic deed and not of the emotions of the spectators. This goes against all other instances of catharsis as mentioned by Plato and Aristotle. The examples they have givenindicate a change in the mental state of the spectators or music listeners. Besides, it is nowhere indicated by Aristotle that pity in tragedy was aroused for the purpose of regenerating and purifying the sin and the sinner.He is more concerned with showing how we can feel pity for the protagonist. This feeling in us is more capable of providing catharsis to us rather than just providing that the act of the hero was catharos. If the concept of catharsis is to have any general utility, it must be persumed that the cycle of pollution and purgation (miasma and catharsis) effects an emotional catharsis in the audience as well. A harmonious view of catharsis which combines its spiritual, clinical and aesthetic effects is more in keeping with the unified approach of the ancients. Biogr aphia Literaria Biographia Literaria was begun by its author as a literary autobiography but ended up in discussions about Kant, and Schelling and Coleridge's perceptive criticism of Wordsworth's poetry and a comprehensive statement on creative imagination which constitutes his most signal contribution to literary criticism and theory. As was his wont, oler ridge has let his awe-inspiringly powerful mind loose on aestheiics, its philosophical foundations and its practical application in an almost desultory manner.The result is a mine of inexhaustible potential called Biographia Literaria to which critics of all shades of opinion have turned for help and inspiration and very seldom has any one of them been disappointed. Arthur Symons justly described the work as rthe greatest book of English criticism']. Coleridge has sometimes been accused of borrowing from the Germans, particularly from Kant, Sckelli~~angd the Schlegels, but most of his ideas were originally arrived at and, in my c ase. the system into which these ideas were f;tt~A as the creation of his own great mind. Coleridge's whole aesthetic – his definition of poetry, his idea of the poet, and h ~ s poetical criticism – revolve around his theory of creative imagination. From this point of view chapters XI11 and XIV of Biographin Liter~rri~alr e most sign~ticant. The statement of the theory of imagination in Biographia Litercrria is preceded by a prolix and, at time, abstruegn†;losophical discourse in the form of certain theses or propositions whose crs is Coleridge's attempt to define Nature and Self.Nature – the sum of all that is objective – is passive and unconscious while Self or Intelligence the sum of all that is subjective – is vital and conscious. All knowledge is the product of the coalescence of the subject and the object. This coalescence leads to the act of creation, I AM. It is in this state of self-consciousness that [‘object ar. d subject, be ing and knowledge, are identical'] and the reality of [‘the one life in us and abroad'] is experienced and affirmed and chaos is converted into z cosmos. What happens is that the Self or Spirit views itself in all objects which as objects are dead and finite.Coleridge's theory of creativeymagination is essentially grounded ir, ihis perception. Hence Coleridge's view of the . =lagination approximates to the ~riecvso l Schelling and Kant. Like Coleridge they recognise the interdependence of subject and object as complementary aspects of a single reality. Also they all agree about the self conceived 2s a totality: thought and feeling in their original identity and not as an abstraction. Thomas Steams Eliot (1888-1965) is probably the best known and most influential English poet of the twentieth century. His work as a critic is equally significant. l7. S.Eliot's critical output was quite diverse; he wrote theoretical piecesas well as stud~eso f particular authors. â€Å"Tradition and the Individual Talent† (1919) clearly expresses Eliot's concepts about poetry and the importance of tradition. Eliot emphasizes the need for critical thinking –â€Å"criticism is as inevitable as breathing†. He feels that it is unfortunate that the word â€Å"tradition† is mentioned only with pejorative implications, as when we call some poet â€Å"too traditional. † He questions the habit of praising a poet primarily for those elements in his work which are more individual and differentiate him Erom others. ccordingto T. S. Eliot, even the most â€Å"individual† parts of a poet's work may be those which are most alive with the influence of his poetic ancestors. Eliot stresses the objective and intellectual element. The whole of past literature will be â€Å"in the bones† of the poet with the true historical sense, † a feeling that the whole of the literature of Europe from Homer and within it the whole of the literiture of his own country has a simultaneous existence and composes a simultaneous order. † No poet has his complete meaning alone. For proper evaluation, you must set a poet, for contrast and comparison, among the dead poets.Eliot envisages a dynamic relationship between past and present writers. â€Å"The existing monuments form an ideal order amgng themselves, which is modified by the introduction of the new (the really new) work of art among them. † An artist can be judged only by the standards of thepast; this does not mean the standards of dead critics. It means a judgement when two things, the old and the new, are measured by each other. To some extent, this resembles Matthew Arnold's â€Å"touchstone† ; the â€Å"ideal order† formed by the â€Å"existing monuments† provide the standard, a land of touchstone, for evaluation.As with Arnold's touchstones, Eliot's ideal order is subjective and in need of modification from time to time. T. S. Eliot Eliot l ays stress on the artist knowing â€Å"the mind of Europe — the mind of his own country–a mind which he learns in time to be much more important than his own . private mind†. But he does not mean pedantic knowledge, he means a consciousness of the past, and some persons have a greater sensitivity to this historical awareness. As Eliot states, with epigrammatic brevity, â€Å"Some can absorb knowledge, the more tardy New Criticism must sweat for it. Shakespeare acquired more essential history from Plutarch than ost men could from the whole British Museum. † Throughout Eliot's poetry and criticism, we find this emphasis on the artist surrendering himself to some larger authority. His later political and religious writings too valorized authority. It is interesting that Eliot always worked within his own cultural space: religion meant Christianity, while literature, culture and history meant exclusively European literature, culture or history. Tradition, for Eliot, means an awareness of the history of Europe, not as dead facts but as a11 ever-changing yet changeless presence, constantly interacting subconsciously with the individual poet.He wants the poet to merge his personality with the tradition. â€Å"The progress of the artist is a continual self-sacrifice, a continual extinction of personality. † He suggests the analogy of the catalyst in a scientific laboratory for this process of depersonalization. The mind of the poet is a medium in which experiences can enter into new combinations. When oxygen and sulphur dioxide are mixed in the presence of a filament of platinum, they form sulphuric acid. This combination takes place only in the presence of platinum, which is the catalyst. But the sulphuric acid shows no trace of platinum, which remains unaffected.The catalyst facilitates the chemical change, but does not participate in it, and remains unchanged. Eliot compares the mind of the poet to the shred of platinum, which wil l â€Å"digest and transmute the. passions which are its material†. Eliot shifts the critical focus from the poet to the poetry, and declares, â€Å"Honest criticism and sensitive appreciation are directed not upon the poet but upon the poetry. † Eliot sees the poet's mind as â€Å"a receptacle for seizing and stonng up numberless feelings,phrases, images, which remain there until all the particles which can unite to form a new compound are present together. He says that concepts like â€Å"sublimity†, â€Å"greatness† or â€Å"intensity† of emotion are irrelevant. It is not the greatness of the emotion that matters, but the intensity of the artistic process, the pressure under which the artistic hsion takes place, that is important. In this way he rejects the Romantic emphasis on ‘genius' and the exceptional mind. Eliot refutes the idea that poetry is the expression of the personality of the poet. Experiences important for the man may have no place in his poems, and vice-versa. The emotions occasioned by events in the personal life of the poet are not important.What matters is the emotion transmuted into poetry, the feelings expressed in the poetry. â€Å"Emotions which he has never experienced will serve his turn as well as those familiar to him†. Eliot says that Wordsworth's formula is wrong. (Iam sure you would remember Wordsworth's comments on poetry in the Preface to the Lyrical Ballads: â€Å"Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling: it takes its origins from emotion recollected in tranquility. â€Å") For Eliot, poetryls not recollection of feeling, â€Å"it is a new thing resulting from the concentration of a very great number of experiences . . it is a concentration which does not happen consciously or of deliberation. † Eliot believes that â€Å"Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape fiom emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from pers onality. † For him, the emotion of art is impersonal, and the artist can achieve this impersonality only by cultivating the historical sense, by belng conscious of the tradition It is now generally believed that Eliot's idea of tradition is rather narrow in two respects.First, he's talking of simply the poetic tradition and neglects the fact that even the poetic tradition is a complex amalgam of written and oral poetry and the elements that go into them. It was only in later writings that he realised the fact that in ibc making of verse many elements are involved. In his wntlngs on poetic drama he glves evidence of having broadened his scope. Second, Eliot is neglecting other traditions that go into social formations. When he iatrr wrote ‘Religion and Literature', he gives more scope to non-poebc elements of tradition. On these considerations one can say that he develops'his ideas on tradition T.S. Eliot throughout his literary career – right up to the time he wro te ‘Notes Towards a Definition of Culture' in which traditionis more expansive than in his earlier writings. Dissociation of sensibility is a literary term first used by T. S. Eliot in his essay â€Å"The Metaphysical Poets†[1] It refers to the way in which intellectual thought was separated from the experience of feeling in seventeenth century poetry. Eliot used the term to describe the manner by which the nature and substance of English poetry changed â€Å"between the time of Donne or Lord Herbert of Cherbury and the time of Tennyson and Browning. In this essay, Eliot attempts to define the metaphysical poet and in doing so to determine the metaphysical poet’s era as well as his discernible qualities. â€Å" We may express the difference by the following theory: The poets of the seventeenth century, the successors of the dramatists of the sixteenth, possessed a mechanism of sensibility which could devour any kind of experience. They are simple, artificial, d ifficult, or fantastic, as their predecessors were; no less nor more than Dante, Guido Cavalcanti, Guinicelli, or Cino.In the seventeenth century a dissociation of sensibility set in, from which we have never recovered; and this dissociation, as is natural, was aggravated by the influence of the two most powerful poets of the century, Milton and Dryden. † Theory of dissociation of sensibility The theory of dissociation of sensibility rests largely upon Eliot’s description of the disparity in style that exists between the metaphysical poets of the sixteenth and early seventeenth century and the poets of the late seventeenth century onward.In â€Å"The Metaphysical Poets,† [1] Eliot claims that the earlier grouping of poets were â€Å"constantly amalgamating disparate experience† and thus expressing their thoughts through the experience of feeling, while the later poets did not unite their thoughts with their emotive experiences and therefore expressed thoug ht separately from feeling. He explains that the dissociation of sensibility is the reason for the â€Å"difference between the intellectual and the reflective poet. † The earlier intellectual poet, Eliot writes, â€Å"possessed a mechanism of sensibility which could devour any kind of experience. When the dissociation of sensibility occurred, â€Å"[the] poets revolted against the ratiocinative, the descriptive; they thought and felt by fits, unbalanced; they reflected. † Thus dissociation of sensibility is the point at which and the manner by which this change in poetic method and style occurred; it is defined by Eliot as the loss of sensation united with thought. Eliot uses John Donne’s poetry as the most prominent example of united sensibility and thought. He writes, â€Å"[a] thought to Donne was an experience; it modified his sensibility. Eliot’s apparent appreciation of Donne’s ability to unify intellectual thought and the sensation of fee ling demonstrates that he believes dissociation of sensibility to be a hindrance in the progression of poetry. Eliot asserts that despite the progress of refined language, the separation between thought and emotion led to the end of an era of poetry that was â€Å"more mature† and that would â€Å"wear better† than the poetry that followed. Deconstruction Deconstruction has been variously presentehs a philosophical position, a political or intellectual stance or just simply as a strategy of reading.As students of literature and literary theory, we should be interested in its power as a mode of reading; therefore most of the points about Deconstruction in this Block will be made through instances of reading literature and philosophy. Let us begin here with a simple reading of Derrida describing a general strategy of Deconstruction: Every philosophical argument is structured in terms of oppositions and in this â€Å"traditional philosophical opposition we have not a pea ceful co-existence of facing terms but a violent hierarchy.One of the terms dominates the other (axiologically, logically etc. ), occupies the commanding position. To deconstruct the opposition is above all, at a particular moment to reverse the hierarchy†. Deconstruction, Derrida implies, looks upon a text as inherently riddled with hierarchical oppositions. A deconstructive reading uncovers not only these hierarchical oppositions but also shows that the superior term in the opposition can be seen as inferior. When we put together some other strategies of Deconstruction outlined in Derrida's writings, a working definition begins to emerge. To deconstruct a discourse is to show how it undermines the philosophy it asserts, or the hierarchical opposition on which it relies, by identifying in the text and then dismantling the rhetorical operations that produce the supposed ground of argument, the key concept or premise. † This explanation by Jonathan Culler is comprehensive . So, let us treat it as a companion to the description by Derrida cited above in order to advance our working idea of Deconstruction. Broadly speaking Derrida and Culler are making these points: 1. ‘ Deconstruction is a â€Å"searching out† or dismantling operation conducted on a discourse to show: . How the discourse itself undermines the argument (philosophy) it asserts. 3. One way of doing it is to see how the argument is structured/[email  protected], that is investigate its rhetorical status or argumentative strategy. As Derrida argues, this struchkis often the product of a hierarchy in which two opposed terms are presented as superior and inferior. Deconstruction then pulls the carpet from below the superior by showing the limited basis of its superiority and thus reverses the hierarchy, making the superior, inferior. 4. This reversed hierarchy is again open to the same deconstructive operadon.In a way, Deconstruction is a permanent act of destabilization. .So, Deconstruction points to a fallacy not in. the way the first or second hierarchy is constructed but in the very process of creating hierarchies in human thought (which as I have stated earlier, is indispensable to most if not all human arguments or thought. ). Deconstruction does not lead us from a faulty to a correct way of thinking I or writing. Rather it shows us the limitations of human thought operating through I language even while harboring the same limitations itself.Every deconstructive operation relies on the same principle it sets out to deconstruct and is thus open to deconstruction itself. Yet, Deconstruction is not simply about reversing hierarchieMough it is one of the I things a deconstructive analysis achieves. Fundamentally, it is a way of understanding the structure of a discourse, locating its controlling centre and identifying the unfounded assumptions on which it relies to function as a discourse. It may be compared to a probing operation that uncovers fault l ines in a discourse, which may include ideological assumptions and suppositions .

Free Essays on Madness Of Ophelia

The Madness of Ophelia In William Shakespeare’s play, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, each character tends to stand out in different ways. Ophelia’s character shows the reader that she is weak through the complete male dominance in her thoughts and actions. Ophelia’s madness is a result of many factors: her inability to stand up for her self, Hamlet’s cruel treatment, and the death of her father. Ophelia is influenced and controlled by those around her. This is evident in Act I when Laertes tells her to be wary of Hamlet and his intentions. When he speaks with Ophelia he warns her â€Å"best safety lies in fear† (1.3.43.) Ophelia responds to her brother by telling him she will keep his advice â€Å"as watchman to my heart† (1.3.46.) In this scene Ophelia takes her brother’s advice without an argument. When Polonius enters, he begins where Laertes left off. Polonius orders her not to see Hamlet any more, to which Ophelia responds, â€Å"I shall, obey my Lord† [1.3.135.] It is evident in this scene that Laertes and Polonius command her to do things that she does not agree with, but she does them with no argument. Afraid to stand up for herself, she stands back and watches everyone else control her life. â€Å"Motherless and completely circumscribed by the men around her, Ophelia has been shaped to conform to external demands, to reflect others' desi res† (Dane). Here Dane suggests that Ophelia has no motherly influence and is controlled by the men in her life. She is molded to please others’ wishes. Another instance of her being told what to do is when she agrees to speak with Hamlet. She returns all his gifts to help prove Polonius’ suspicion that Hamlet is mad for Ophelia’s love. It is obvious throughout the play that Ophelia is ordered around by Laertes and Polonius, and obeys them without a moment's thought. Polonius and Laertes act as though she has no mind of her own, but she listens and does as they wish,... Free Essays on Madness Of Ophelia Free Essays on Madness Of Ophelia The Madness of Ophelia In William Shakespeare’s play, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, each character tends to stand out in different ways. Ophelia’s character shows the reader that she is weak through the complete male dominance in her thoughts and actions. Ophelia’s madness is a result of many factors: her inability to stand up for her self, Hamlet’s cruel treatment, and the death of her father. Ophelia is influenced and controlled by those around her. This is evident in Act I when Laertes tells her to be wary of Hamlet and his intentions. When he speaks with Ophelia he warns her â€Å"best safety lies in fear† (1.3.43.) Ophelia responds to her brother by telling him she will keep his advice â€Å"as watchman to my heart† (1.3.46.) In this scene Ophelia takes her brother’s advice without an argument. When Polonius enters, he begins where Laertes left off. Polonius orders her not to see Hamlet any more, to which Ophelia responds, â€Å"I shall, obey my Lord† [1.3.135.] It is evident in this scene that Laertes and Polonius command her to do things that she does not agree with, but she does them with no argument. Afraid to stand up for herself, she stands back and watches everyone else control her life. â€Å"Motherless and completely circumscribed by the men around her, Ophelia has been shaped to conform to external demands, to reflect others' desi res† (Dane). Here Dane suggests that Ophelia has no motherly influence and is controlled by the men in her life. She is molded to please others’ wishes. Another instance of her being told what to do is when she agrees to speak with Hamlet. She returns all his gifts to help prove Polonius’ suspicion that Hamlet is mad for Ophelia’s love. It is obvious throughout the play that Ophelia is ordered around by Laertes and Polonius, and obeys them without a moment's thought. Polonius and Laertes act as though she has no mind of her own, but she listens and does as they wish,...

Superbad Essays

Superbad Essays Superbad Paper Superbad Paper I dragged my unenthusiastic parents out to go and see it. After the first 5 minuets I was regretting watching it with my mum and dad. This is a rollercoaster ride of bad language, underage drinking and mad cops. As best friends Seth and Evan try and hook up with there dread girls. This film portrays teenage life accurately but greatly exaggerated with the girls trying to get booze for a party and the lads trying to get laid. When the complete loser and super geek Foogell (Christopher Mintz Plasse) gets knocked down by a man trying to rob a liquor store, which he had unfortunately chosen to try and buy alcohol from with fake ID. He is asked to write a witness statement by two crazed police officers. This simple seeming task turns itself into police chases, arrests and drunken cops. Seth and Even are best mates; Seth is a quiet, unconfident character who knows right from wrong. Even is the confident rebellious character who has got used to being able to overpowering his best. These two contrasting characters make a hilarious couple and will have you in stitches! Superbad is aimed at the older teenager and young adult. I would not advise you to watch this film with your parents as the first 5-10 minuets dwells casually around teenage masturbation and pornography! Superbad is a classic comedy and I would certainly recommend it to you if you liked 40 year old virgin, Knocked up, American pie etc As funny as superbad is it also puts across important points associated with young adults lives. Such as how easy it is to do things you would normally know are wrong when you are drunk such as take advantage of people. In my opinion this makes the film even better. Anybody can make a comedy but to have a serious lesson hidden within it takes real talent and I prays Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg on producing a masterpiece of a film Lights director Shauna Coxsey has really brought the life into this film creating the right moods for the different scenes. For instance during the party the dark shadows and blinding strobe create an atmosphere of hectic partying with a slight sense of danger. I have to congratulate this film on its cinematography. Its amazing! Superbad portrays so many different moods throughout. From sad thought full scenes to hilarious comedy. If you enjoy films where the mood is so good it influences your mood this a great film for you! Not only has Super bad got amazing cinematography, the music accompanying this film is superbly chosen and really enhances the great moods and themes of the film. Songs like Do Me fit in perfectly with the sexy scenes. Although this film rates right near the top of my favourite films everything has its faults. I feel the crazed cops ruin the, otherwise believable story line and although they add some great slapstick comedy to the film they dont really fit in with the rest of the story. However talking to friends they thought that the cops were the best characters so I guess you will have to go and watch it and decide for yourself. Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg have produced in my opinion one of the funniest movies I have seen! Jonah Hill (Seth) and Michael Cera (Evan) go together like Laurel and Hardy. Producing a classic comedy movie!

Aethelflaed, Lady of the Mercians, Saxon Ruler

Aethelflaed, Lady of the Mercians, Saxon Ruler Aethelflaed (Ethelfleda) was the eldest child and daughter of Alfred the Great and sister of Edward the Elder, king of Wessex (ruled 899-924). Her mother was Ealhswith, who was from the ruling family of Mercia. Who She Was   She married Aethelred, lord  (ealdorman) of Mercia,  in 886. They had a daughter, Ælfwynn. Aethelflaeds father Alfred put London in the care of his son-in-law and daughter. She and her husband supported the Church, giving generous grants to local religious communities. Aethelred joined her husband Aethelred and her father in fighting against Danish invaders. How Aethelred Died In 911 Aethelred was killed in battle with the Danes, and Aethelflaed became the political and military ruler of the Mercians. She may have been the de facto ruler for a few years during her husbands illness. After her husbands death, the people of Mercia gave her the title Lady of the Mercians, a feminine version of the title that her husband had held. Her Legacy She built fortresses in western Mercia as a defense against invading and occupying Danes. Aethelflaed took an active role, and led her forces against the Danes at Derby and captured it, and then defeated them at Leicester. Aethelflaed even invaded Wales in retribution for the killing of an English Abbott and his party. She captured the wife of the king and 33 others and held them as a hostage. In 917, Aethelflaed captured Derby and was able to take power in Leicester. The Danes there submitted to her rule. Final Resting Place In 918, the Danes in York offered their allegiance to Aethelflaed as protection against Norwegians in Ireland. Aethelflaed died that year. She was buried at the monastery of St. Peter at Gloucester, one of the monasteries built with funds from her Aethelred and Aethelflaed. Aethelflaed was succeeded by her daughter Aelfwyn, whom Aethelflaed had made a joint ruler with her. Edward, who already controlled Wessex, seized the kingdom of Mercia from Aelfwyn, took her captive, and thus solidified his control over most of England. Aelfwyn is not known to have married and may have gone to a convent. Edwards son, Aethestan, who ruled 924-939, was educated at the court of Aethelred and Aethelflaed. Known for:  defeating the Danes at Leicester and Derby, invading Wales Occupation:  Mercian ruler (912-918) and military leader Dates:  872-879? - June 12, 918 Also known as:  Ethelfleda, Ethelflaed,  Aelfled, Æthelflà ¦d, Aeoelfled Family Father: Alfred the Great (Ælfred), ruled Wessex 871-899.  He was the son of  Ãƒâ€ thelwulf, King of Wessex and his first wife, Osburh (Osburga).  Mother: Ealhswith of the Gaini, daughter of  Ãƒâ€ thelred Mucil  of the Gaini tribe and Eadburh, a Mercian royal.  As was Saxon custom, she was not crowned or titled queen.Brother: Edward the Elder, king of Wessex (ruled 899-924)Sister: Aethelgiva, Abbess of ShaftesburyBrother: Aethelwaerd (three sons with no descendants)Sister:  Aelfthryth, married Baldwin, Count of Flanders (Aelfthryth was the 4th great-grandmother of  Matilda of Flanders, married to William the Conqueror, and thus an ancestor of later British royalty)Husband: Aethelred (Ethelred, Æthelrà ¦d), Earl of MerciaDaughter: Aelfwyn (Aelfwynn, Ælfwynn, Ælfwyn,  Elfwina)

Scotish Heritage Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Scotish Heritage - Essay Example This paper outlines the cultural heritage of the Scottish ethnic group in America. American society views the Scottish group as a group of individuals who actively participate in the political processes of America. Even as election periods may spawn much discussion on the Irish vote or the German vote or the Jewish vote which may affect the turnout of such elections, discussions about the Scottish vote are few and far between. This is not to say however that there is no Scottish vote or that their votes do not have any impact on the turnout of elections; however, it goes to show that the Scottish group has an inherent desire to be a good American. In this sense, the Scottish voter would participate well in the political processes without having to raise a major shift in known and established trends in voting. As proof of their participation in politics, the names of James Beck, a representative from Kentucky, David Henderson, from the state of Iowa, Arthur MacArthur, as an associate justice of the US Supreme Court, and General Douglas MacArthur, have been brought to the table. Their participation in American politics has been exemplary and highly noted by their colleagues and by citizens alike. The essay concludes that the Scottish ethnic group has had a major impact on the political, social, and educational processes in the United States. They have been active participants in politics and governance and have helped in the development of educational and enlightenment processes.

Extra Cridets Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Extra Cridets - Essay Example Extra Credits was first viewed on The Escapist from 2010 to 2011. It was developed in 2008. This was the time when Floyd came up with two video presentations (Harris 118). The presentations were meant for media theory and respective art history classes. The classes were held at Savannah College, a school of art and design. The series of videos in Extra Credit are presented in a loosely modeled style. The director of the video, Floyd, makes use of pitch-shifting technique to come up with a unique and high-pitched voice. Portnow wrote the episode scripts for Extra Credits. Floyd then redefined the scripts for recording. Floyd also edited the video series. The show in Extra Credit is presented in a lecture hall style. The tone of the series in the film is humorous and light-hearted. However, the tone is also didactic since it is aimed at raising discussions on the major subject being presented. The shows in Extra Credit target game designers (Harris

The Rise of Modern America Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Rise of Modern America - Essay Example Owing to these circumstances, the Caucasian populace was in a higher economical placement. However, they put effort, remain critical about their business approaches, and prompt their development. In a contrary analysis, the poor are depicted firstly, as simple-minded. This is because they derive satisfaction from small wages almost as though they are unaware of the exploitative mechanisms through which they earned said wages. Notably, the on the majority of the poor were black people because of the fact that they were on the receiving end of slavery. Riis illustrates them as being unaffiliated with religion. He insinuates that with the conditions under which they lived, no bearing within which to place faith in a higher power. He further on asserts that the poor were intelligent but had no opportunities accorded to them to prove their intellectual capacity. The authors’ perspectives are contradictory. The assessment of the poor man as per each author somewhat contradicts the n ext. Riss terms the poor man intelligent but devoid of opportunities whilst Harpers Monthly portrays them as being satisfied with small wages. In the latter, the insinuation is that the poor remain poor because they do not focus on the bigger picture. This is not a depiction of intelligence and hence contradicts Riis’s point. The democracy and new civilization that had come to America still bore no good for the poor man. This is because they were not entirely compensated for the injustice that put them in that position in the first place.

Power within organization Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Power within organization - Essay Example Referent power originates from being trusted and/or respected. One gains this power when employees in the organization trust what they do and respect them for how they handle various situations. For instance, a manager who uses his power positively to ensure policies are in place for ensuring employees is fairly treated. Sin, this form of power subordinate, comply since one is in authority, for instance, the boss. This power exists when employees recognize the authority of their leader. For instance, the executive manager who determines budgetary needs of the company. His positive or negative consideration boost his legitimacy Many junior workers are motivated by rewards and incentives to be submissive to the superior. This inner motivation is a positive example of reward power. Other examples would include salary increment, job promotion, etc. The role of reward power is to trigger that human feature that appreciates recognition for high achievement. Expert power originates from an individual’s experiences, knowledge, and skills. Whenever an individual gains experience they become thought leaders in those fields and gather expert power enough to get others to help them meet their goals. For instance, the senior engineer who is an expert designing various unique applicants can positively use his or her power to get

International relation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

International relation - Essay Example John Mearscheimer terms China’s rise as un-peaceful and believes that being in position to challenge United States of America, it will definitely give the super power some headache in years to come, and with its neighbors being largely under the influence of America, the dark clouds might well show up in future. The economic race is on, and for now, China has the policy of back burner towards military and arms race, yet it cannot be ruled out that China will engage in race that is directed towards self defense. According to the author, America might well follow the strategy pursued during the cold war against U.S.S.R. China at the same time, is not sitting unaware and is making alliances in Asia and other regions with bid to reduce the X-factor. Hence the author sees it as non peaceful endeavor by China which may trigger in years ahead (Li & Lee, 2011). The entry of china into the World Trade Organization is seen as a mega event in the prospect of world economics and trade affairs. Being amongst the ranks of other nations who are large has large chain of manufacturing around the world. W.T.O is highly boosted by the presence of player like China. It is the third largest player in the incumbent organization. Chinese policy and economic situation is more towards the open end, and would have definite impact on the world economy and this organization. It will increase competition amongst the large exporters of the world. China’s presence may end the monopoly being held by few nations before china’s surge in this domain, but it will definitely bring a spark in the manner in which activities are being held (Panitchpakdi & Clifford, 2002). The classical school of thought circles around the human contribution to the state of affairs and holds it directly responsible for the disorder and peace that may prevail in the world. The classical realism is believed to

Six sigma method Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Six sigma method - Essay Example Firstly, process outputs usually confront variations that are reduced by continuous efforts of the executives, in order to develop the business in an effective manner. Secondly, measurement, analysis, and controlling of different business processes, such as manufacturing, supply, marketing, etc. is done by the people at managerial positions. Thirdly, entire organization should be encouraged to participate in the different business processes, in order to achieve a quality position of the company. In this regard, every employee from the top-level management to the clerk has been emphasized in the Six-Sigma method. In definition, when quality production according to the specifications is acquired by the highly capable procedures and strategies, the ability of these processes has been referred as the Six-Sigma. Particularly, improvement of all the processes involved in a business is the major objective of the Six-Sigma method. In the year 1986, Motorola Company registered the service and trademark, Six Sigma. One of the major achievements of utilization of Six-Sigma method is the savings of more than fifteen billion dollars that was achieved by the Motorola in the year 2006. In addition, some of the major multinational companies have acquired and implemented the strategies of six-sigma method in their practices and have achieved significant results, such as Honeywell International, General Electric, etc. In specific, standard deviation of a population is generally represented by the Greek letter '' in lower case and referred as Sigma. In this regard, every item can be produced and supplied according to the given specifications, is the chief objective and theory of the six-sigma method. However, a number of experts have criticized the practicality of its approach, but this method has been able to achieve implementation in a number of companies around the globe. (Brue, 2002) A business process that implements a six-sigma method usually results in the production of approximate four defective parts out of every million production according to the definition of a six-sigma method, which has been significantly accepted by most of the business companies around the world. In terms of supply, 3.4 products will be supply beyond the specifications in every one million products in a six-sigma method. The process mean and the closest limit of specification share the number of standard deviations that is referred as the sigma in a capability study. The six-sigma method usually implies perfection rather than imperfection; however, the creators of six-sigma method have accepted that this method usually works effectively in short term processes, rather than the long-term procedures that usually produce more products that are defective. Methodology Generally, two important methodologies of six-sigma method have been accepted by most of the businesses around the world. In this regard, W. Edwards Deming was the first person to introduce and inspired others to the two strategies of the six-sigma method. Specifically, DMAIC and DMADV are the two abbreviations of the important methodologies found in the six-sigma method. When efforts are made to improve an existing business process, the efforts under the six-sigma met

International relation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

International relation - Essay Example John Mearscheimer terms China’s rise as un-peaceful and believes that being in position to challenge United States of America, it will definitely give the super power some headache in years to come, and with its neighbors being largely under the influence of America, the dark clouds might well show up in future. The economic race is on, and for now, China has the policy of back burner towards military and arms race, yet it cannot be ruled out that China will engage in race that is directed towards self defense. According to the author, America might well follow the strategy pursued during the cold war against U.S.S.R. China at the same time, is not sitting unaware and is making alliances in Asia and other regions with bid to reduce the X-factor. Hence the author sees it as non peaceful endeavor by China which may trigger in years ahead (Li & Lee, 2011). The entry of china into the World Trade Organization is seen as a mega event in the prospect of world economics and trade affairs. Being amongst the ranks of other nations who are large has large chain of manufacturing around the world. W.T.O is highly boosted by the presence of player like China. It is the third largest player in the incumbent organization. Chinese policy and economic situation is more towards the open end, and would have definite impact on the world economy and this organization. It will increase competition amongst the large exporters of the world. China’s presence may end the monopoly being held by few nations before china’s surge in this domain, but it will definitely bring a spark in the manner in which activities are being held (Panitchpakdi & Clifford, 2002). The classical school of thought circles around the human contribution to the state of affairs and holds it directly responsible for the disorder and peace that may prevail in the world. The classical realism is believed to

How Various Cultural Differences May Affect the Success of Essay

How Various Cultural Differences May Affect the Success of International Business Negotiations - Essay Example In order to understand this aspect more closely, the meaning of the term negotiation has to be understood in an appropriate manner as applicable in international business. The origin of the word negotiation goes back to the Roman word ‘negotiari’, which implies continuing business (Hendon and Herbig, 1996, p.1). As a matter of fact, the word negotiation has a multi-layered structure wherein the common interests and conflicts of business organizations are to be managed for obtaining a favorable situation. How Does Culture affect Business Deals? Thus, an effective business can be compared with a fruit bearing tree and lack of communication suddenly leads to a situation in which this tree stops bearing fruits any longer. In short, communication is a significant part of successful business negotiations. The question that can be raised here is whether culture can be a possible impediment in the way of a successful business? A majority of people are sensitive about their belie fs, values, experiences and knowledge all of which constitute their culture. Therefore, there is a distinct flavor about the culture of different nations.(Silkenat, Aresty and Klosek, 2009, p.48) Arousal of Conflicts during Business Negotiations In fact, the following points establish clearly how conflicts may arise in business negotiations owing to cultural differences (Hendon and Herbig, 1996, p.2): The core of a disagreement primarily erupts due to differences in requirements. Thus, a business might fail to proceed as one of the negotiators may not prefer the opinion of the other side. The misfortune here is that there are no laws or rules for arriving at a consensus in business negotiations until one of the parties agree to change their opinion and break the barriers for better business prospects. Regardless of differences, both parties in a business avoid engaging in a direct business duel and instead prefer to keep quiet for future references. Broadly speaking, the world of bu siness is filled with ironies and the worst of enemies often unite for common benefits. The crux of the matter is that in a successful business negotiation, it is important for both parties to propel each other towards a conclusion. Since, the process involves skilful communications; cultural barriers emerge as an evil particularly when one party tries to establish supremacy over the other. Such challenges inhibit the business process to a great extent, raising its ugly head in the form of traditions and beliefs (Gannon, 2009, p.xiv ) Although, cultural hindrances seem tricky initially, they are nothing more than idiosyncrasies that are to be eliminated through proper and careful planning. In other words, a successful business must have the power to mow down the unconventional aspects of a nation that is more popularly referred to as the culture of the people residing in a country (Hendon and Herbig, 1996, p.4) Communication: The Fundamentals of Business Deals Communication is essen tially cultural whether expressions are verbal or non-verbal in nature. China is one of the most forwarding countries conducting extensive business internationally, which is largely due to the reforms and policies. China has vehemently proved that poor communication leads to diminishing efforts for converting a business into a successful deal and eventually weakens the status of a company in the market. It is no wonder that cross-cultural negotiation training enable a company to score over its competitor and

Hospitality Supervision And Training Skills

Hospitality Supervision And Training Skills After reading the case study of the hotel one can easily find out what are the strength and weakness of the hotel. Some of the strength are that the hotel is situated in center of the city. The hotel is 3 star properties. Which is manly focusing on the business clients? Even though the hotel is situated at the center of the city, the hotel is struggling to maintain the profit margin. From the last few years Because of the 3 new hotel which maintain the national or international standard, opened near by the hotel, that way the courthouse hotel is not able to make profit. The standard of food and service of courthouse hotel is relatively lower than the other hotels. The hotel capacity is 150 bedrooms, a bar, and a carver style restaurant and a room in which marriage and business conferences are held. Some of the weakness of the hotel is, there is no banquet facility, no room service. In this way the hotel lack some of the newer property near by. Most of the people who are employees in the courthouse hotel are on full time or permanent contract, leaving few senior manager and night workers. The staff of the hotel works in to shift either early or late shift. The hotel need staff only a weekend in the month due to the business executive staying there in weekend. 3 month before a business tycoon bought this hotel and his planning to up grade the hotel to a four star properties, giving good services to clients. For upgrading the hotel his planning to make a a-la-carte restaurant, new banquet in the hotel, staffing should be improved. And hotel needs good skills employees. The employees need a good communication skills and coordination of staff is also need. There is a opening of a new convention center is walking distance of the hotels, there will be a trade increase of 60% which is expected so the courthouse hotel standard are to be rise. And also now the hotel will be in the hands of German chancellor, so every world leader having the meeting with the German chancellor for this the hotel should improve the standard of service. 2. STAFFING ISSUES The staff should be change or hotel should hire new employees because the present employees or not accustomed to four star grading needs and requirements and it may be possible that staff may not like this type off behavior fro the management the hotel should appoint new staff because new people work a bit more harder than the older staff. In case of the curt house hotel needs to look after on the major issues of Staffing. It will take care by the upper management of the organization. Management need to looks after on the budget and the staff problems occurring in the middle, when the management planning for the next year summer objective to change hotel from 3 star to 4star property. Its not easy job, they need to organize the training and development programs for the employees. Management needs to hire employees from internal and external source of recruitment. The main thing in this training and development programs the employees need to concentrate on the training so that they can put an effort for the future goals and objectives. Management need to look after on the budget what they are spending on the training and development programs so that they get a better outcome for an organization. The hospitality industry is highly, influenced by the human labour starting right from chefs, to the servers, bartenders, dishwashers, front office personnel or room attendants. (Supervision in the Hospitality Industry, by Miller, Walker Drummond pg-5) It all depends on the employees to bring in guests or loose business. Talking about the case study The Courthouse, a 3 Star hotel has certain drawbacks issue, which the new owner would face while its up gradation. The staffing issues in the months to come, which the hotel will face are as follows (Case study-the Courthouse Hotel): 2.1 Unskilled Staff: According to the author, the hotel up gradation would result in the increase in the profit of the hotel as the city is opening a new convention center, in the upcoming months. The Courthouse would be allotted to the German Delegates who are very particular about the services. The hotel staff though are good experience holders but is unaware of the standards of services to be given in a 4star categorized hotel. The current staff being unskilled unaware of the techniques procedures to be followed in the Courthouse Hotel is an issue that would worry the management. 2.2 Variation in the Shift Timings: The employees of the hotel are not aware of the actual shift timings that is followed in any property, this is a big drawback for the hotel. The introduction to the varied shifts i.e., morning, afternoon, evening, break night shifts would create a chaos amongst the employees which might further lead to staff turnover. Not only this might the staff being used to its own ideologies might not agree to accept the new changes implemented in their working hours. Working only for one weekend out of 4 can again be a point of discussion. 2.3 Improvement in the Standard: With the up gradation of the star categorization of the Courthouse Hotel, the improvement in standard of the services facilities is an important issue in regards to the up-market of 3-star categorized hotel to 4-star standard. The hotel needs to set up certain Standard Operating Principles about which the staff needs to be trained properly. From the case study the author has already mentioned about the maximum percentage of staff being permanent, hence they have been following their own ways of performing their job they may not encourage new changes in their work culture methods. 2.4 Sacking of Employees: According to the case study, maximum staff is employed on a fulltime basis in permanent contract, which suggest that most of the employees are experienced in this situation the sacking of such staff members would be absurd. In the stage of up gradation of the star- categorization of the property sacking of experienced employees hiring of new employees would increase the financial burden on the management, as the new skilled would be required to be paid more. 3 PLAN OF ACTION The new hotel owner should go through the following plans in practice to get the targeted goal of the organization. Customer services / satisfaction Training given to staff Leadership quality Interpersonal skills of staff 3.1 CUSTOMER SERVICES/SATISFACTION:- Business comprises of a sole meaning of how much effort and the measure the company has to make in order to meet the demands of the customer. It is considered to be as one of the key performance indicator within the business. In todays competition intensive market customer satisfaction plays a vital role in providing information about how much effort is being put and how much more is required, that is the sole big reason why it is becoming an increasingly important factor in Business strategy making. This factor is considered to be an abstract concept because the level of satisfaction varies from person to person and between product and services. It also puts a psychological effect on the process and this makes a link with satisfaction behaviors such as return and proposed rates and expectations. A customer has its own factors on which it decides upon which to choose and which not to chouse he can compare the other product with the company product. Customer satisfaction usually is measured with a set of survey measures records by using a scale or Likert technique. Customer is invited to evaluate each and every statements in terms of their own observation and expectations from the use of that product being measured. LEADERSHIP QUALITY:- Transformational leaders always make a strong vision amongst the employees and set examples of a good judgment of mission and strong hospitality organization. Transformational leadership has always been of a vital importance in todays hard fought customer market of hotels where flexibility, determination, willingness to change and modernize are key factors of an organizational success. The work, which is earlier done on leadership, has extracted distinction, transactional and transformational leadership. (Burns, 1978) STAFF TRAINING:- This is an important tool in succession planning, it is used to find suitable individuals for hiring and promotions. It can also be defined as a formal tool in which plans are developed to ensure that replacements can be successfully and gladly be filled with efficient individuals. Succession planning helps continue the pursuit of strategic goals an missions in a relatively competitive way so as to be there in the market place and compete with the rival companies at par. This is always maintained by the training and development staff. 3.4 INTERPERSONAL SKILL OF STAFF:-the employees should trytalk to the peoplethis is the interpersonal skill of a employees. Interpersonal skill can be told as the way of communication in a better way, to meet that standard. Communication helps to reduce theclashes between the employees and the managers in this way the motive can be achived. The person who is having good interpersonal skills can handle difficult situtation in a better way. 4 CHANGE MANAGEMENT Change can be negative or positive in any organization in courthouse hotel staff can it as in a positive way or can put it in a negative way. The mindset of the staff can make them to resist for change or also it can be possible if they like the change they can also welcome it and adopt it as new step to development. The reason for the resistance can be as follows. Freedom- there might be thinking amongst the staff whether they will be under a boss who can resist their freedom to work. Responsibility their responsibility can be divided between the new staff. And their task can be reduced. Authority their position can be lost and power can be shared between others Work condition there work condition can be changed and they have to work under different condition which can further demotivated their moral. Status their responsibility can be reduced. As the management will be hiring more staff so this will be a thread for others staff whether their job title will be same or they have to change. It can be above the level or below the level. There is also a reason amongst other the staffs what the matter with the way the things are now? typically any change in courthouse hotel can be beneficial and management will not face much problems while implicating these changes. Resistance to change can also make staff to go against the management. Management also will have to look the staff members who are welcoming the change and how to sustain them by motivation. If the existing staff is resisting to change this amplifies that they dont have knowledge and trust on the organization and also may be because of lack of understanding about the change. If the staffs doesnt understand the reason for change they makes a distrust over the organization. This distrust can also make others positive staff to go behind the distrust. With the change of standards in courthouse hotel the technology will be upgrading and this will be a main concern between the staffs how to match the standards. A very difficult situation will be there between the staffs is they fail to grab the standards. And this creates a resistance amongst the staffs. Three 3 key elements of Kirkpatricks model for change management. 4.1 Empathy-: (Kirkpatrick, 2001), According to Kirkpatrick manager should put himself in the place of employee, which is, best way to realize the employees feeling. Managers should also refer to the doubts of the employees that they might have in their minds so that they might not resist the change process. . There are some steps by which a manager can know about the employees, first step is looking personal files, second step is asking questions from the employee and the next and last step is listening and observing. According to Robert Bacall empathy is walking in other person shoes. Thus by implying empathy in the courthouse hotel the managers should get to know the problems of the individual employees. 4.2 Communication-: Robert Bacall states that communication is a 2 way method and in this method the hotel management has to communicate the desired wants and new management policies to the hotel staff. In communication after giving instructions the management has to even look for the feedback from the employees. So that the barriers for communication can be over ridden. 4.3 Participation-: (Coch et al, 1948), states that participation is the major step. Participation is the change tends to reduce resistance build on the change and motive people to make the change to work. Kirkpatrick, (2007), states that Participation is technique for use in conducting instructional meetings. The participation has its two basic approached first one is which one is most common form is to have discussion among the participation without any hesitation and leaders gives questions and problems to entire group. Employers answer it to the leader. Second approach is that group is divided into buzz group of 4 or 5 people so that each employee can participate actively. Thus it is suggested that by implying participation the employs tend to feel better and favour the change rather than resisting it. CONCLUSION: After reading the whole study of the courthouse hotel. We get to know the hotel is facing loss in the business through this we get to what are the staffing issues in the hotel. The hotel employees may to react to the change in a favorable point of view. Because they may not like the change due to lack of coronation between the employees. If the employees and the managers are not coordinating in proper way An organization cannot be run in a good way. If the worker are not skilled enough to do there job. Then there will be issues in the organization. Change management can manage staffing issues. In the case study element of change management shows how the empathy, participation, and communication may help in handling the changes in a proper way. The hotels new owner is transforming the hotel to a four star property. and he is trying to make changes in the hotel which favorable for both the organization and the employees working there. If the organization follow the element of the change management goals can be achieved in a much easer way working with the employees and manager.