{"title":"(Un)staþolfæstnes and its Problems: Grounding Minds in Early Medieval England","authors":"Merel Veldhuizen","doi":"10.16995/olh.9560","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.16995/olh.9560","url":null,"abstract":"The Old English text Solomon and Saturn includes a list of materials from which Adam, the first man, is made. A pound of cloud constitutes his modes unstaðelfæstnes [mind’s unsteadfastness / instability]. Various other texts from early medieval England also refer to the mod, or mind, as an intrinsically unstable and changeable entity, using key terms such as staðelfæst [grounded / stable] and staðolian [to ground / stabilise]. In many of these texts, this instability is mentioned as an inherent quality of mind. Instability, contingency and change are regarded as integral and typical features of the mind but equally, there are warnings for the waywardness of the mind. The literature frequently encourages readers to ground and maintain control over their minds. Sources recommend restraining and training the mind to ‘govern’ and ‘steer’ it, and they even refer to the possibility of finding mental stability in another foundation. This article considers these seemingly contradictory portrayals of minds and instructions for grounding them, and delivers a more nuanced conception of what (physical) freedom early medieval people would imagine their minds to have, and what foundations they considered helpful for grounding them.","PeriodicalId":43026,"journal":{"name":"Open Library of Humanities","volume":"8 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136032767","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Briefing Paper: Assessing the Period Products (Free Provision) (Scotland) Act 2021 as Model Menstruation Legislation","authors":"Bettina Bildhauer, C. Røstvik, Sharra L. Vostral","doi":"10.16995/olh.9129","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.16995/olh.9129","url":null,"abstract":"This briefing paper discusses how to include historical perspectives to assess the potential success for current and future menstruation legislation. The case of Scotland provides an instructive example of law-making about free period products and period poverty. While commercial products are perceived as a solution, historical research suggests that cultural attitudes, lingering stigma, and regional differences affect opportunities for passing laws. To predict the likelihood that proposed menstrual product legislation might be adopted in other locations, historical factors related to attitudes about menstruation, including stigma, must be considered and understood to effect lasting change. ","PeriodicalId":43026,"journal":{"name":"Open Library of Humanities","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2022-06-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45989090","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Lost in Fragmentation: On how to deal with Fragments of a special Performance Form from Mali in the Collection KOLK 17 in Lübeck","authors":"Sonja Riehn","doi":"10.16995/olh.6409","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.16995/olh.6409","url":null,"abstract":"On the basis of three selected pieces from a 1991 acquisition documented by both the collector and the museum of Theatre Puppets in Lübeck (now KOLK 17), it is shown that many of the approximately 60 puppets from Mali within the collection KOLK 17 are presumably set pieces from movable animal puppet stages, a special form of costume puppets that only exist in Mali. It is shown that the terms ascribed to the objects often do not do justice to the former performing objects, since they only describe individual elements and do not take the actual performative action into account. Particularly in the case of those puppets that are animated by the physical movement of the puppet player, as is the case with costume puppets, this fragmentary view of the performing objects, which can also be encountered to an extent in the specialist literature, leads to an enormous loss of meaning. The complexity of moving animal puppet stages is demonstrated by the presentation of the versatile performance techniques and stage contexts. How the puppets from Mali within the collection KOLK 17 were actually played could not be conclusively clarified. Nevertheless, the objects could be extended to include possible contexts of use and meaning: these contexts are essential for further research.","PeriodicalId":43026,"journal":{"name":"Open Library of Humanities","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2022-06-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42253650","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Confinement and the Transnational in Emma Donoghue’s Room","authors":"James Little","doi":"10.16995/olh.8774","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.16995/olh.8774","url":null,"abstract":"This article contends that Emma Donoghue’s Room (2010) generates its transnational effects through its approach to narrating elements of the carceral situation which its central characters Ma and Jack survive. Situating Room within Donoghue’s practice as a writer of historical fiction, the article studies the sources she drew on when writing her novel, the spaces the characters inhabit and the things they surround themselves with, as well as the language used by the narrator, Jack. By focalising this narrative of coercive confinement through the worldview of a five-year-old child, Donoghue creates a text that is transnationally mobile in its approach to language, space and things. In this way, Room can be read as part of Ireland’s literature of coercive confinement, while also showing that this literary tradition can be profitably interpreted through a transnational lens. @font-face{font-family:\"Cambria Math\";panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;mso-font-charset:0;mso-generic-font-family:roman;mso-font-pitch:variable;mso-font-signature:-536870145 1107305727 0 0 415 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal{mso-style-unhide:no;mso-style-qformat:yes;mso-style-parent:\"\";margin:0cm;mso-pagination:widow-orphan;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\",serif;mso-fareast-font-family:\"Times New Roman\";}.MsoChpDefault{mso-style-type:export-only;mso-default-props:yes;font-family:\"Calibri\",sans-serif;mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:\"Times New Roman\";mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;}div.WordSection1{page:WordSection1;}","PeriodicalId":43026,"journal":{"name":"Open Library of Humanities","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2022-06-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44478711","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Periods and the Menstrualscape: Menstrual Technology and Economic Imperatives in Scotland and the United States, 1870-2020","authors":"Sharra L. Vostral","doi":"10.16995/olh.6347","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.16995/olh.6347","url":null,"abstract":"The Free Provisions Act is the first national legislation of its kind to provide menstrual products at no cost to women and menstruators throughout Scotland. Yet, this did not happen by accident, and follows historical trends in technoscientific progress and social change. This essay tracks the relationship of women’s acceptance of menstrual technologies with prevailing social and political vectors in United States and Scotland. There are four significant historical moments marking technological change and adoption: the late-Victorian period and the first menstrual product commodities; the modern period marked by World War I through the 1930s that included broadly produced and advertised sanitary napkins; World War II to the mid-twentieth century and the acceptance of tampons; and the 1970s women’s rights movement including the emerging transition to menstrual cups. Within each are differing pressures exerted by both world events and internal societal changes that encourage women to adopt new products. But at moments when wage labor benefits the state, some institutions, heath providers, and educators exert pressure to disregard forms of menstrual stigma and use menstrual products instead. These shifts and movements, along with the prevailing visual culture of advertising and product branding, encompass the menstrualscape. These historical moments and the contemporary menstrualscape signal a current transition in the making, with the promotion of menstrual cups as an environmentally sustainable way to manage menstruation. This aligns with the Free Provisions Act, in which state-sponsored provision of menstrual products serve the needs of the economy, the environment, and concern for gender equity.","PeriodicalId":43026,"journal":{"name":"Open Library of Humanities","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2022-06-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46555731","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"‘A lamp burns on’: W.B. Yeats’s Christ","authors":"Charika Swanepoel","doi":"10.16995/olh.6318","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.16995/olh.6318","url":null,"abstract":"This paper considers the sources that inform the Irishpoet W.B. Yeats’s conception of Unity of Being. Yeats expresses his belief inUnity of Being in religious terms and syncretically aligns his‘Christ’, his Unity of Being, with different forms of belief and philosophy. In this paper, I focus on a triad of influences Yeats frequently pose together: Dante, Blake, and the Upanishads. Through a reading of certain images from ‘Ego Dominus Tuus’ and ‘The Phases of the Moon’, this paper hopes to enrich existing literature on what Yeats considered to be his religion by the time the second edition of A Vision would be published. ","PeriodicalId":43026,"journal":{"name":"Open Library of Humanities","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2022-05-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44312529","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Reading Brexit Backwards: British Eurosceptic Fiction from ECSC to Maastricht","authors":"Kristian Shaw","doi":"10.16995/olh.8840","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.16995/olh.8840","url":null,"abstract":"The post-war years were a period of introspection for Britishsociety as the nation endeavoured to remain fiercely insular yet becameincreasingly troubled by geopolitical relations reshaping the war-torn continent.Britain swiftly assumed the role of the reluctant European; their opposition tointegration hindered by a destructive nostalgia for the past, the perceivederosion of cultural heritage and a sense of English exceptionalism. Beginningwith a brief contextual analysis of the events leading to the 2016 EU Referendum,this article will argue that early warning signs of British antipathy wereevident in literary responses to integration from the creation of the EuropeanCoal and Steel Community (ECSC) to the signing of the Maastricht Treaty whichestablished the European Union. Through a close reading of selected fictions by key figures inthis period, including Kingsley Amis, Nancy Mitford, Angus Wilson and MalcolmBradbury, the article identifies how early warning signs of British antipathyto European integration were clearly evident in post-war literature. By readingBrexit backwards, the article excavates the historical roots of Euroscepticism implantedin the cultural imaginary. ","PeriodicalId":43026,"journal":{"name":"Open Library of Humanities","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2022-05-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48966530","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Writers and Intellectuals on Britain and Europe, 1918-2018: An Introduction","authors":"Ann-Marie Einhaus, Kristian Shaw","doi":"10.16995/olh.8890","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.16995/olh.8890","url":null,"abstract":"Introducing a Special Collection focused on exploring the engagement of artists, writers and intellectuals with Britain's relationship to Europe, this short introduction reflects on common strands and recurring themes in such engagement across a turbulent century. It draws out parallels between three time periods covered by articles included in the connection: the inter-war period, the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, and the period from the 1970s to the EU referendum.","PeriodicalId":43026,"journal":{"name":"Open Library of Humanities","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2022-04-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44771990","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Access to Menstrual Resources as a Public Health Issue in the US and Scotland","authors":"Noelle Spencer","doi":"10.16995/olh.6342","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.16995/olh.6342","url":null,"abstract":"Introduction: Menstrual health is an important and complex topic, one aspect of which is access to menstrual resources. Resources in this case will be understood to mean such factors as menstrual products, education, safe restroom facilities, and appropriate and accessible healthcare. Objectives: The objective of this paper was to answer the research question: \"in what ways is access to resources related to menstruation a public health issue in the US and Scotland?\"Methods: The Social Ecological Model (SEM) was used to structure analysis of the factors related to access to menstrual resources. Applying the SEM offers a novel approach to engage critical menstruation studies, and better understand how access to resources affects menstrual health and the experience of menstruation in the US and Scotland. Results: Factors explored at the four levels of the SEM were: individual (education, socioeconomic status), relationship (stigma and discrimination), community (menstrual leave, access to restrooms and healthcare), and societal (safety, sanitation, tampon tax, and national policies). Discussion: Study of access to menstrual resources through the SEM allowed for exploration of the separate and interconnected nature of factors at all levels. Understanding these interconnections is imperative to work toward equitable experiences of menstruation for all menstruators. Conclusion: The aim of this paper is to begin a conversation into the ways in which the different factors that relate to access to menstrual resources form a collective public health issue. Future research is needed to continue to track and to understand this issue over time. ","PeriodicalId":43026,"journal":{"name":"Open Library of Humanities","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2022-04-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41878706","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Gift of Happy Memories: A World War II Christmas Puppet Play in Ravensbrück","authors":"Cynthia Lisa Dretel","doi":"10.16995/olh.6379","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.16995/olh.6379","url":null,"abstract":"Szopki, Polish musical nativity puppet plays, were a widespread but relatively unstudied artistic response to Nazi occupation among Polish Catholics in Nazi concentration camps. Polish inmates used the szopki as an opportunity to subvert censorship, as the nativity story is only a small portion of a szopki production. The artist Maja Berezowska and Varsovian actress Jadwiga Kopijowska wrote and performed the Szopka Polska in Ravensbrück in 1942, 1943 and 1944. This article examines the adaption of traditional carols and puppets to facilitate a purposeful recreation of happy and comforting prewar memories in the play. Framing the sharing of positive memories as a form of caretaking builds on scholarship that focuses on less visible resistance, as these activities, especially communal activities led by women, are often overlooked in scholarship in favor of more overt or dramatic actions. The Szopka Polska writers drew strength from representations of childhood and motherhood. Parodied traditional songs and stock szopki scenes promoted Polish heritage and normalcy, using Poland's past triumphs as hope for future liberation. Three puppets, the Soldier, Polish Mother, and Inmate, who attend the nativity, directly address the inmates' World War II experiences, a phenomenon that rarely occurred in other forms of concentration camp theater. These three puppets, the nineteenth-century puppet Wiarus, and a skit for two children who address the puppets on stage promote survival and resistance by modeling productive reactions to oppression. @font-face{font-family:\"Cambria Math\";panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;mso-font-charset:0;mso-generic-font-family:roman;mso-font-pitch:variable;mso-font-signature:-536870145 1107305727 0 0 415 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal{mso-style-unhide:no;mso-style-qformat:yes;mso-style-parent:\"\";margin:0in;mso-pagination:widow-orphan;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\",serif;mso-fareast-font-family:\"Times New Roman\";}.MsoChpDefault{mso-style-type:export-only;mso-default-props:yes;font-size:11.0pt;mso-ansi-font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt;font-family:\"Arial\",sans-serif;mso-ascii-font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:Arial;mso-hansi-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;mso-ansi-language:EN;}.MsoPapDefault{mso-style-type:export-only;line-height:115%;}div.WordSection1{page:WordSection1;}","PeriodicalId":43026,"journal":{"name":"Open Library of Humanities","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2022-04-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42699242","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}