Lena Finkle’s magic arc: hybrid influences in the Russian American graphic novel

ABSTRACT

The article examines Anya Ulinich’s graphic narrative Lena Finkle’s Magic Barrel and the novel’s use of visual culture from both the author’s Russian and US American backgrounds. The article interrogates the use of history and timelines, Russian art history and Russian art education in Ulinich’s text. It also analyzes other literary constructs that influenced Ulinich’s novel: US American comics/graphic novels and their use of stereotype, and novels by Russian-speaking Jewish American writers, with their thematized Jewishness.     

Fighting words? Joning as conflict talk and identity performance among African American preadolescents

This study examines how preadolescent African American students in Washington, D.C., used a linguistic practice called ‘joning,’ a style of verbal play similar to ritual insults, in peer interactions. Sociolinguists have focused on how children socialize each other into vernacular styles appropriate for peer group use but often assume that they disalign with social and linguistic norms for classroom behavior. Drawing from a nine‐month ethnographic study that the author conducted in an after‐school program, this article analyzes the structure and function of joning as a vernacular style of African American Vernacular English and its uses in constructing classroom identities. Joning often facilitated student learning, but it was perceived as a socially and physically risky linguistic practice because of its uses as conflict talk in the local community. Focusing on preadolescence as a key stage of language socialization, this article shows how minority students modify peer‐learned linguistic practices to pursue academic success on their own terms.     

机器中的幽灵 ——解读文本内外的《宣叙》

莫里森的批评论著《在黑暗中演奏：白色与文学想象》是作家对美国经典文学长期审视和反思的结果。通过分析白人经典作品中的非裔在场,我们可以揭示出“美国性”的本质和美国“文学白色”神话的炮制过程。如果将短篇小说《宣叙》与《演奏》并置,我们可以看到故事中的麦基其实是对后者所评述的美国经典文学中非裔在场的影射。麦基这个人物的再现是反射性的,与美国经典文学对非裔人物的再现如出一辙。二者的不同在于,故事揭示并最终反拨了人物再现的内在机制。《宣叙》对美国经典文学的观照,实质上是以隐晦的手法介入美国文学的经典辩论,传达了作者文化修正的愿望。     

Impact of support networks for breastfeeding: A multicentre study

Background

The rates of breastfeeding worldwide are slowly improving since 1996. Europe is still trailing behind the global breastfeeding incidence and prevalence rates. Thus, breastfeeding promotion, protection, prolongation and support have become an important challenge as breastfeeding sharply decreases in the first six months of life.

Varieties of political support in emerging democracies: A cross-national analysis

Political support is a multidimensional construct encompassing evaluations of political leaders and institutions (specific support) as well as adherence to basic regime principles (diffuse support). Scholars have traditionally assumed that diffuse and specific support are driven by different forces and evolve largely independently. Prior empirical work, however, has struggled to untangle the two support dimensions and focused predominantly on cross-national differences, ignoring their dynamics. This paper develops an analytical and empirical approach to examine the levels and dynamic interplay of both support dimensions and estimate their determinants, applying it to South American democracies between 1996 and 2015. Contrary to received wisdom, we show that both dimensions are quite volatile and closely linked in this region. In particular, negative economic shocks not only undermine support for government actors, but also fuel democratic disenchantment. Nonetheless, while regime support is rather fickle in South America, it can be ultimately resistant to performance fluctuations.     

Toward professional standards for media transparency in the United States: Comparison of perceptions of non-transparency in national vs. regional media

This article reports the results of the national survey of 287 Public Relations Society of America members regarding current media transparency practices in the United States. The purpose of the study was to understand the forms of media non-transparency that exist in the United States, levels of non-transparency at the national and local/regional media, and perceptions of non-transparent practices by the public relations practitioners in the country. The project builds on previous research on global media transparency (Tsetsura & Kruckeberg, 2011) and uses Tsetsura’s (2005) framework to study media transparency. The survey results showed that direct media bribery is not a pressing issue in the United States; however, indirect media pressures that involve new forms of content creation, including native advertising and content marketing, are worrisome. Specifically, forms of indirect media bribery are common at the local and regional media levels in the USA. Research findings demonstrate that U.S. practitioners experience particular non-transparent challenges when working with the media and recognize financial pressures that U.S. media outlets face today.The results provide a basis for creating standards in U.S. practice to ensure that new forms of content creation, including native advertising and content marketing, are not acceptable at any level when sources of content are not disclosed. The study concludes with the discussion about the importance of understanding how new forms of sponsored content relate to media transparency in the USA and why U.S. practitioners should understand how media non-transparency relates to the issues of native advertising and brand journalism.     

美国未成年人案件保密性原则及其松动

美国未成年人案件保密性原则在司法实践中比较复杂。基于"双轨制"现实,未成年人身份过错、偏差及轻微犯罪案件通常由少年法院审理;而对于较严重的未成年人刑事案件,则会移送至刑事(成人)法院审理。对于后者,因其刑事性质,被移送受审的未成年人将被视为成年人受审,其案件庭审及记录除特殊情形外原则上不予保密。而对于前者,此类案件大体上适用保密性原则。不过随着对儿童利益最佳原则及防卫社会的双向反思,对在少年司法体系内的较严重犯罪案件与虐待、遗弃及照管不良等案件,少年法院保密性原则亦有较大松动。     

Single Parenting in the African American Community: Implications for Public Policy and Practice

The percentage of female-headed African American families has increased significantly since the 1960s. It is now estimated that over half of all African American children will grow up in a female-headed household. This article examines factors related to the formation of these households as well as the challenges associated with these households. Policies and programs that have been implemented to treat these families are examined.     

Dating Violence,Young African American Males,and Risk and Protective Factors: A Review of the Literature

This report examines the extant literature on dating violence, young African American males, and risk and protective factors. Studies have shown that correlates exist between community factors, parental discipline, and gender role beliefs in young African American males that place them at risk for dating perpetration. Studies have also shown that protective factors such as adequate adult supervision, social support, and problem-solving skills exist and can mitigate risk. Implications for research and programming are also discussed.     

Troubling the ‘Happy Family’: US Liberalism and Narratives of Transnational Adoption and Immigration from China

This essay connects adoption and immigration from China by considering the relationship between the adoptee and the Chinese nanny hired to care for her. I examine news media alongside Wendy Lee’s 2008 novel, Happy Family, which portrays the adoptive family through the perspective of a Fujianese immigrant domestic worker. Transnational adoption from China emerged in the early 1990s as undocumented immigration from the Fujian province rose, representing a major shift in Chinese immigration. These practices have been apprehended divergently in mainstream discourses. This essay approaches the family as a site of neoliberal privatization that frames adoption in terms of inclusion into US national ideologies of race, gender, and class, while undocumented immigration from China has been framed through exclusion. I argue that the nanny destabilizes the construction of the family as a space of depoliticized inclusion through her labor, revealing the neoliberal inequalities that shape both adoption and immigration.