The reification of celebrity: global newspaper coverage of the death of David Bowie*

This paper examines global English-language newspaper coverage of the death of David Bowie. Drawing upon the concept of reification, it is argued that the notion of celebrity is discursively (re)produced and configured through a ‘public face’ that is defined, maintained and shaped via media reports and public responses that aim to know and reflect upon celebrity. The findings highlight how Bowie’s reification was supported by discourses that represented him as an observable, reified form. Here, Bowie’s ‘reality’, that is, his authentic/veridical self, was obscured behind a façade of mediation, interpretation and representation that debated and decided his ‘authenticity’ as a cultural icon. Such debates, however, were engagements with a reified image, enveloped in continual (re)interpretation. As a result, Bowie’s reification was grounded in a polysemous process that allowed numerous versions of ‘himself’ to be aesthetically reimagined, reinvented and repeated.     

Courage in the Telling: The Critical Rise and Fall of David Leavitt

Openly gay American fiction writer David Leavitt, who had received positive reviews for his previous novels and short story collections, was sued in 1993 over his novel While England Sleeps by English poet Stephen Spender, who claimed that Leavitt plagiarized an episode from his own 1951 memoir World Within World, and grafted pornographic fantasies onto his biography. The accusations created a homophobic backlash against Leavitt, whose career has yet to recover fully. The result is that Leavitt, who had once been viewed as the one gay writer to find a footing in the mainstream literary community, is now firmly positioned in the gay literary subgenre and his work categorized as such. This essay examines book reviews in order to illustrate the difficulties that a writer who deals with gay life frankly and unapologetically finds in being accepted by the mainstream literary establishment, no matter how normal or assimilationist he or others might perceive his work to be.     

A model of the Canadian global exchange rate: A test of the 1970s

This comment points out some methodological weaknesses in the Canadian global exchange rate model and the associated efficiency tests of Marwah and Bodkin. The model is found to be inadequate for policy analysis.     

性爱与情感的灵魂——劳伦斯和他的散论

劳伦斯在文艺思想和创造方法上提出了介入性爱和情感及主观感受真实性的观点。他从这种艺术的观点出发主张要深入到男女的性、爱和血意识中去。本文介绍劳伦斯的《恋爱中的女人》、《查太莱夫人的情人》、《儿子与情人》等小说和《看我们如何漫游》、《不朽的散文选》、《失落的诗章》、《劳伦斯的爱情》等散文中的有关性、爱、情感等的文艺观点     

论《大卫·科波菲尔》中的人物素描艺术

马车夫巴基思是狄更斯自传体小说《大卫.科波菲尔》中的一个微不足道的小人物,但却给人们留下了深刻的印象。狄更斯通过对其言语特征的临摹和复制,用简洁、明快的手法,深刻揭示了其丰富的内心世界,将这个人物栩栩如生地展现在读者面前,有力地渲染、烘托了小说的主人公,凸显这位小说大师的人物素描艺术。     

忧患于天地之间的“思想织物”——评王大卫的长篇纪实游记《天地无极》

长篇纪实游记《天地无极》的作者王大卫以缅怀洛克半个世纪以前的献身考察的事迹为初衷,并沿着洛克当年的路线一一探寻和思考,再加上千万年不变的自然山川与“百年不变”的“人文生态”,使得两条以时间为界的单线归并成了一条以空间为缘并纵贯全书的深沉复线,叙写如行云流水,在过去、现在和未来的情境撞击中生发出多少随缘、随观、随感、随思、随想的心灵火花,有如不同色彩的横线来回穿梭于这块“思想织物”之上,让读者思考着多少世纪以来一直在缓慢地改变着思想颜色的伟大运动在不远的将来仍将继续么?是否会出现倒退、阻碍进步、甚至毁弃已经取得的成就呢?在全球化语境下的忧患意识充分地显示了一位知识分子作家所拥有的时下愈益难能可贵的正直品格。     

麦克利兰需要理论对高校引进高层次人才的启示

戴维·麦克利兰(David Mc --Clelland)需要理论是人力资本研究中的经典理论。高等院校引进具有高成就需要的高层次人才是办学的关键。在具体的人才引进工作中,要善于发现具有高成就需要的高层次人才;着力营造人才实现高成就的环境;高度重视高成就需要者的归属需要和权力需要。