Existing in Time: John Updike´s “The Music School” (1966)
Issue:
Volume 5, Issue 5, September 2017
Pages:
46-51
Received:
28 June 2017
Accepted:
17 July 2017
Published:
11 August 2017
Abstract: The essay addresses issues of existence and time in John Updike´s short story, “The Music School”, which was published in 1966 in a short story collection by the same name. While waiting for his daughter in a music school, the writer Alfred Schweigen reflects on the complexities of life, describing his thoughts and impressions. In his everyday dealings with reality, by way of contrasting materiality to immateriality he attempts to make sense of existence as it comes into view. Especially, time not so much as an objective category but as a matter of subjective experiencing is an important aspect. Time as a musical category of rhythm, and as rhythm of life and of transience, is a topos the narrator makes a draft on, approaching an existential view of real-world issues through life philosophy. Some others of Updike´s stories of the sixties make for a thematic kinship, so that it becomes obvious that existence in reference to time provides a point of departure to gain insight into being.
Abstract: The essay addresses issues of existence and time in John Updike´s short story, “The Music School”, which was published in 1966 in a short story collection by the same name. While waiting for his daughter in a music school, the writer Alfred Schweigen reflects on the complexities of life, describing his thoughts and impressions. In his everyday deal...
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A Survey of the Present Situation and Problem Analysis of College English Writing—From the Perspective of Passive Voice
Li Fengjie,
Tao Ran,
Wang Chaoyang
Issue:
Volume 5, Issue 5, September 2017
Pages:
52-59
Received:
16 May 2017
Accepted:
22 May 2017
Published:
7 September 2017
Abstract: Passive voice is one of the most important and difficult grammatical items both in English and in Chinese. Because of the great differences between passive voices in English and in Chinese, Chinese EFL (English as a foreign language) learners undoubtedly run into a lot of difficulties during the time of learning English passive voice. Different from the previous research, this thesis is a corpus-based study focusing on passive errors made by Chinese EFL learners, especially under-used passive errors, over-used passive errors and malformed passive errors. Based on the three important theories in language acquisition: contrastive analysis, interlanguage analysis and error analysis, this thesis will analyze the data acquired from the corpus set up from one of the classes in one university in China. And the major reasons for these errors will be revealed in this research. The findings in this thesis are hoped to have some influence on English passive teaching.
Abstract: Passive voice is one of the most important and difficult grammatical items both in English and in Chinese. Because of the great differences between passive voices in English and in Chinese, Chinese EFL (English as a foreign language) learners undoubtedly run into a lot of difficulties during the time of learning English passive voice. Different fro...
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A Survey on Profound Cultural Diversities and Distinguishability of China
Aniruddha Bhattacharjya,
Fang Zhaohui
Issue:
Volume 5, Issue 5, September 2017
Pages:
60-76
Received:
26 March 2017
Accepted:
19 April 2017
Published:
23 October 2017
Abstract: Chinese culture is so substantive content-wise, so broad in diversities, and has had so long history, which is so distinguishable from its outsiders. Most significant components of Chinese culture embraces music, literature, martial arts, cuisine, visual arts, philosophy, religion, ceramics and architecture. China’s literature is in black and white in one language for more than 3,000 consecutive years, resulting easy to read those literature by the Chinese nation in all parts of the country, in spite of steady modifications in pronunciation, the advent of regional and local dialects, and alteration of the characters. Confucianism, Taoism and Chinese Buddhism are pillars for compositions of social values. Chinese architecture was bring into being from more than 2,000 years ago, is almost as old as Chinese civilization and has long been a significant hallmark of Chinese culture. Chinese classic texts are enriching the world with a wide range of topics comprising constellations, calendar, astrology, astronomy, poetry and many more. Chinese art encompasses all characteristics of performance art, folk art and fine art. Chinese painting considered a highly esteemed art in court circles incorporating a diverse variation of Shan shui with specialized styles such as Ming Dynasty painting. Drama is an additional old and significant literary form. China has a very antique and rich convention in literature and the dramatic and visual arts like workings of Confucius (551-479 BC) and Lao-tzu (probably 4th century BC). With rich Chinese philosophical, religious, and historical writings, China also produced dramatic writings, novels, and poetry from an ancient. Chinese drama generally combines vernacular language with music and song and as a result it has been widespread and very popular among the general people. In the famous Peking Opera of the present era, a wide range of popular and standard themes are staged, which is undoubtedly the best known of several operatic traditions that developed in China. China is one of the foremost birth places of Eastern martial arts. The arts have also co-existed with a range of weapons comprising the more standard 18 arms. Chinese tea culture is an essential component in daily life of people. China's legendary tradition endures to the present-day, although much 20th-century writing has focused on efforts to improvement or revolutionize or reform China. Under Communism, writers have been anticipated to endorse the values of the socialist state. Regardless of the fact that China has steadily become modernized during the last one hundred years, the naturalistic view of life is still engrained deeply into the Chinese mind of the contemporary era.
Abstract: Chinese culture is so substantive content-wise, so broad in diversities, and has had so long history, which is so distinguishable from its outsiders. Most significant components of Chinese culture embraces music, literature, martial arts, cuisine, visual arts, philosophy, religion, ceramics and architecture. China’s literature is in black and white...
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