《金色笔记》与莱辛的女权主义思想

《金色笔记》中的女主人公们具有强烈的女性意识,渴望独立与自由,但处于以男权文化为中心的社会中,她们会不可避免地陷入某种生存困境;男女间的世界其实不应对立,而应是相辅相成的;妇女解放是全世界进步中的一个问题,只能随着其它问题的解决而逐步解决。作者多丽丝.莱辛不能说是旗帜鲜明的女权主义者,但确是一位有着独特的女权主义思想和明确的女性意识的作家。     

The Sale of Two Cities: A Semiotic Comparison of Disneyland with Marriott's Great America

Much is revealed through the contrast of two related but divergent forms. In this essay, Elizabeth Mechlingand Jay Mechlingcontrast Disneyland with a later but more loosely themed park, Marriott's Great America in Santa Clara, California. Using the perspectives and methods of semiotics in Louis Marin's Marxist reading, this essay asks, “What are the stories that Disneyland and Marriott's Great America tell?…the ways in which popular culture both teaches and evokes stories that ‘think themselves’ in our minds.” These two parks, though allied in the theme format and rooted in a common bourgeois capitalist culture, are found to promote very different attitudes and values.     

The experiences of youth serving as caregivers for mentally ill parents: a background review of the literature

Young caregivers of mentally ill parents are a vulnerable population. These vulnerabilities include risks for developmental issues, poor socialization, and poor school performance. The purpose of this background review of the literature is to explore the experiences of young caregivers of mentally ill parents and detect the gaps in the literature. The guiding research questions were: What is the experience of young caregivers of mentally ill parents? and What is the experience for those who witness or must assist their parent during a crisis? The majority of research has been conducted outside the United States, primarily in the United Kingdom, and studies have focused mostly on young caregivers of parents with physical rather than mental illness. No studies focused on young caregivers who witnessed or assisted their mentally ill parent in crisis. Information gained through this review will add to the body of knowledge for child mental health and build a case for additional research.     

Peter L. Berger's Novels of Precarious Vision

Peter L. Berger's two novels, The Enclaves (1965) and Protocol of a Damnation (1975), are more than mere diversions from his discursive sociological writing. An examination of both his fiction and nonfiction reveals the homology Berger sees between sociology and literature as forms of consciousness, as complementary versions of "the precarious vision." Berger uses his fiction to experiment with the cracks that reveal an "other condition" lying behind the ordered, taken-for-granted reality of everyday life. The novels also serve as suggestive treatises on how one may "cheat" fictive social reality in order to pursue an authentic existence.     

Aging and inactivity—capitalizing on the protective effect of planned physical activity in old age

The paper discusses two parallel biocultural trends—aging and inactivity. The principle of economy in movement in modern society versus the dependency of human beings on movement for their development and health is described. The results of inactivity are sometimes mistakenly considered irreversible losses caused by aging, but in actual fact, inactivity accelerates the irreversible losses caused by the aging process. The paper then describes the contribution of physical activity in terms of increasing positive aspects or decreasing risks: increasing life expectancy or decreasing risk of mortality, increasing cardiovascular fitness or decreasing risk of cardiovascular disease, increasing muscle mass or decreasing falls and instability, improving cognitive performance or reducing cognitive decline and neurological disorders, and improving well-being or reducing depression. The optimal dose of physical activity is then described, followed by recommendations for further research on mechanisms determining physical activity behavior.