Academic Writing Index

Title, Author, Abstract.

Synaesthesia, Metaphor And Right-Brain Functioning by Patrick Martin

This essay examines the phenomenon of synaesthetic experience, its implication for conventional models of perception and the cognitive structure of the brain. It also proposes that there are similarities between metaphorical expression and synaesthetic perception in their formal deviance and their construction of single "images" by the use of forms drawn from two (or more) distinct conceptual fields.

To Know The Universe: The Articulation Of Philosophy With Physics by Brian Grant

Human history has a character of control. Man has always sought to command ever-greater control of his environs. Long too has he recognised that "knowledge is power", and by now our knowledge is so great as to exceed the capacity of any individual. We are adept, however, at categorising our learning. Two such categories are physics and philosophy.

His Truth Goes Marching On: The Living Legacy of Elvis Presley by Trevor O'Sullivan

Any academic who looks hard at Elvis and his legacy is forever in danger of romanticising him by virtue of the simple fact that Elvis himself was so sensational, and his story so inherently dramatic. In the continuing passion to find out more about the man and assess his enduring legacy, future generations will face snarling problems of historiography and biographical veracity. It is perfectly appropriate that the literature about Presley would be so astonishingly vast and diversified in scope: as full of irony, paradox and contradiction as the man himself.

The Culture Industry Thesis by Brian Grant

The culture industry concept is a thesis proposed by Adorno and Horkheimer of the Frankfurt school. It contends that cultural industries exist to enforce (and reinforce) the capitalist ethos. This essay discusses the specifics and the ramifications of the concept for culture and society, with particular regard to its consequences for the television industry. The key claims of the thesis are as follows:

• The more difficult something is to reproduce, the more is it fetishized and sustained.
• As culture is used by capitalism to control the individual consciousness, so too does it become "industrialized" and commodified.
• Where art was once also a commodity, in a capitalism it is to all extents a commodity, and is often successful through the evocation and manipulation of desires.

Current Trends in Superherohood by Mörten Pedersen

An excerpt: .............In a beautiful resolution Mrs Tate's husband - a former mathematician who renounced his profession and took up alcoholism when one of his equations crippled a ten year old boy - finds redemption when he proves that 223,793 is a prime number and helps his wife to win the contest and save the planet. By virtue of an unexplained associative reaction the crippled child, now 38, finds perfect health and goes on to become the renowned middle distance runner Seb Coe.........

Shin Gin Rui, The New Human Beings by Thomas Kelly

It is ironic that ,in their efforts to be different, to escape the live-to-work environment and above all, to be individual, distinct and oneself , the Shin gin rui are all painted with the same brush and herded into a single personality fold; the X-generation. The fact is, however, general traits are exhibited by all Xers and, though this bears a trace of stereotypage, it is a notion that can be usefully applied to most aspects of the Xer lifestyle and culture thereby yielding some modicum of insight - a pop-explanation, at least - into their character.

Generation X to Generation Next by Laura Slattery

Generation X achieved notoriety in the early 1990s as a media label designed to pigeon-hole American youth into the stereotypical image of the disaffected slacker. The generation of Americans born between 1961 and 1981 - the children of the Baby Boomers - were classified as baby-busters, slackers, twentysomethings, the generation without a conscience, the lost generation, the 13^th generation, the me generation, but most commonly and most enigmatically as Generation X. The popularity of Douglas Coupland's novel Generation X became such that its portrayal of three intellectual underachievers was adopted by journalists as a convenient template drawn to describe the entire post-baby boom generation.

Perceptions Of Female Beauty In The 20th Century by Louise Wood

The 20th century has seen a huge upsurge in the importance placed by Western society on physical beauty, particularly for women. The fashion, cosmetics and plastic surgery industries have thrived on 20th century preoccupation with physical appearance. It is a preoccupation that affects women in every sphere, whether they choose to pander to it or not. This essay examines female beauty in the 20th century in terms of popular culture, in particular fashion, cinema and advertising. before exploring these areas, I intend to deal briefly with basic definitions of beauty. The main body of the essay will then be concerned with an overview of each decade's particular take in female beauty.