CP – Number 14 (2009)

Issue:

CP, Number 14

Section:

No. 14 (2009)  Editorial

Abstract:

When dealing with organizations, there has been noticed a tendency towards a quantitative analysis about the profit or the discursive materials produced for the stakeholders. But beyond this interface with the external world there lie the employees who make every corporate economic or communication objective turn into reality. This paper deals with the way in which a British company knew how to incorporate its employees/heroes into its 100-year anniversary discourse practices.

Keywords:

Identity, British Petroleum, corporate culture, attribution, framing, iconicity, indexicality, symbolicity.

Code [ID]:

CP200914V00S01A0001 [0002783]

Issue:

CP, Number 14

Section:

No. 14 (2009)  Editorial

Abstract:

The paper is an attempt to circumscribe concepts such as identity and alterity with/of literary texts. It will deal with the dynamics of literary texts as cultural objects, territoriality of text and of discourse, intertextuality and ‘the other’ in ‘culture as text’, having David Lodge’s Small World as a possible answer to the question who is this?/who are all these?

Keywords:

intertextuality, identity, self, cultural memory, textualterity, David Lodge’s Small World.

Code [ID]:

CP200914V00S01A0002 [0002784]

Issue:

CP, Number 14

Section:

No. 14 (2009)  Editorial

Abstract:

The overall purpose of the paper is rather theoretical: it is an attempt to develop an approach to the problem of the sense of identity based on Ernst von Glasersfeld’s version of radical constructivism as well as on Richard Rorty’s philosophy of language and knowledge. The authors will put forward a claim – and try to substantiate it – that such an approach may be formulated when von Glasersfeld’s notion of compatibility and Rorty’s concept of final vocabulary are viewed as complementing each other. It will also be shown how this approach differs from other, most prominent, approaches to the question of identity and how it may enable a researcher to talk about contingency in the processes from which individual senses of identity happen to emerge.

Keywords:

identity, compatibility, final vocabulary, Rorty, von Glasersfeld.

Code [ID]:

CP200914V00S01A0003 [0002785]

Issue:

CP, Number 14

Section:

No. 14 (2009)  Editorial

Abstract:

This paper illustrates the cultural and literary scenery in which Alan Alexander Milne wrote the four Pooh books. It was the interwar period, between 1920 and 1940, and the fiction of those years is usually described as escapist: it was supposed to divert the reader’s attention from an international scenario of political and economic unrest. After showing the relationship between the Pooh books and previous models for animal characters in children’s literature, this study considers the texts Winnie-the Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner as instances of domestic fantasy. Finally, the paper investigates the process of Disnification, which Winnie-the-Pooh has undergone in recent years after his landing in the Disney Studios.

Keywords:

Alan Alexander Milne, Pooh books, animals in children’s literature, domestic fantasy, Disnification.

Code [ID]:

CP200914V00S01A0004 [0002786]

Issue:

CP, Number 14

Section:

No. 14 (2009)  Editorial

Abstract:

Despite the polarity of approach to the problem of metaphysics, both E. Lévinas and J. Derrida saw the main task of philosophy in the resistance to power discourse and support of human freedom. Derrida accepted Lévinas’ critique of ontology, his preoccupation with ethical problems and linguistic methodology developing his deconstruction program. In the last stage of his philosophical career, Derrida followed Lévinas emphasizing the importance of the ethical and political responsibility, as well as the value of the messianic element for the criticism of power discourse and political violence in the globalization age.

Keywords:

Lévinas, Derrida, power discourse, I, the Infinity of the Other, culture, tradition, freedom, philosophical identity.

Code [ID]:

CP200914V00S01A0005 [0002787]

Issue:

CP, Number 14

Section:

No. 14 (2009)  Editorial

Abstract:

A corporation can be also defined as an organization of people whose major aim is to strengthen their position in a market or markets. However, this definition would not be complete without pointing out the driving force which keeps corporations cooperating and achieving their planned goals. It is worth noticing that people come together in such organizations for a number of factors, such as employment, social status, the goods and services offered by a company and social development which it provides. To be more precise they work together because they share exactly the same culture which they, in turn, develop and transform for other generations. The subject-matter of this paper is to prove that corporations as all other human groups have their own culture which is not only the accumulated material and non-material treasury of all employees’ creation but also a phenomenon developed and transformed for next generations.

Keywords:

culture, corporate, beliefs, attitudes, knowledge, behavior, mental.

Code [ID]:

CP200914V00S01A0006 [0002788]

Issue:

CP, Number 14

Section:

No. 14 (2009)  Editorial

Abstract:

The epoch of profound changes in the social and spiritual life of Europe as a result of the French revolution made Romanticists think of the need for human and social spiritual development. They strove to penetrate “the secrets” of history and the nature of what they considered the “fateful” forces, and estimate their power over man. This historical method became one of the major principles of the Romantic writers’ poetics and was reflected in their creative works not only as disappointment with the results of the French revolution, but also as enthusiasm for irreconcilable protest and historical optimism.

This rebellious spirit, rejection of evil and the imperfection of the world find their archetypal reflection in the image of Prometheus, fighter for the progress of man who dared to oppose God himself. The fire, stolen by Prometheus for man, is identified with reason itself. At the same time this image carries the duality of benefactor and criminal, since creation of something new and advanced leads to mutiny against reality itself and rejection of its laws. Nevertheless, through this myth, western civilization has been trying to understand itself in its cultural self-consciousness.

Keywords:

Romanticists, Prometheus, progress, creators, the tragedy of culture.

Code [ID]:

CP200914V00S01A0007 [0002789]

Issue:

CP, Number 14

Section:

No. 14 (2009)  Editorial

Abstract:

Similes represent “containers of culturally received knowledge” (Veale, Hao and Li 2008) and a part of the linguistic currency of a culture. However revealing about the stereotypical projections of concepts they may be, some similes remain opaque even to the native speakers.

Conceptual descriptions that are derived from commonplace similes and clichéd similes are “predictive of ontological structure” (Veale and Hao 2007). Moreover, depending on the cognitive criteria which account for category membership of noun vehicles, there are several identity projections of objects and of people, whose salient properties are universally, regionally or locally acknowledged.

Keywords:

identity projection, cultural stereotype, commonplace simile, clichéd simile, conceptual association, salient feature.

Code [ID]:

CP200914V00S01A0008 [0002790]

Issue:

CP, Number 14

Section:

No. 14 (2009)  Editorial

Abstract:

The expansion of the Internet has brought great advantages to the communication processes that individuals and institutions go through. The way in which an institution reveals itself in the virtual environment is vital in maintaining a trustworthy image for its publics, which will bring an increasing of reputation. Our paper deals with the way in which an (inter)nationally renowned cultural institution, the British Council Romania, communicates with its audiences and strengthens its institutional image by means of the Web page.

Keywords:

British Council Romania, Web page, bidirectional communication, cultural institution, audiences, institutional image.

Code [ID]:

CP200914V00S01A0009 [0002791]

Issue:

CP, Number 14

Section:

No. 14 (2009)  Editorial

Abstract:

Besides Hamlet, Macbeth or Lear, Richard III is one of the greatest protagonists in Shakespeare’s dramas named after their main characters. Richard is the dominant character of the play. He is the central figure to which everything and everyone is related, to a lesser or greater degree. In his presence, no one can be left untouched, including the audience.1 The paper explores some aspects of Richard’s personality viewed through his two soliloquies – the first and the last one. Two radically different speeches, yet delivered by the same man. Is he revealing his true self to us when he takes us into his confidence, or is he wearing the actor’s mask of a reliable narrator to disguise a darker reality? In either case, are we seduced?

Keywords:

Richard III, identity, soliloquy, solitude, Machiavelli, conscience, personality, madness.

Code [ID]:

CP200914V00S01A0010 [0002792]

Issue:

CP, Number 14

Section:

No. 14 (2009)  Editorial

Abstract:

While the current hegemonic ideology claims that the achievement of liberal-democratic multiculturalism consists in both overcoming all forms of racism and in critically opening globalization towards cultural differences and identities by means of its appropriation of the disseminative and inherently pluralizing forces characteristic of the new technologies of communication and information, this paper aims to demonstrate that liberal-democratic multiculturalism does not only rely on a disavowed racism, but is also complicit with global capitalism. This critique of liberal-democratic multiculturalism is articulated via the presentation of central arguments to be found in the works of Alain Badiou and Slavoj Žižek. On the basis of their thought, it then tries to assay the pertinence of their fidelity to the European legacy of a politics of universalization and truth.

Keywords:

globalization, multiculturalism, communication technologies, Vattimo, Badiou, Žižek.

Code [ID]:

CP200914V00S01A0011 [0002793]