2000 word essay which explores the concept of evidence based practice

2000 word which explores the concept of evidence based practice and evaluates its relavance and contribution to practice - Essay Example For instance, depression (American Psychiatric Association, 2000; Lowe, et al 2001) and anxiety disorders (American Psychiatric Association; 2000), particularly obsessive compulsive disorder (Halmi et al., 2003), are among the comorbid conditions found in people with eating disorders. In adolescent-onset anorexia, depression appears to be triggered by the eating disorder, and the individual is put at risk for experiencing future depressive episodes (Ivarsson et al, 2000). Although anorexia affects persons of all ages, adolescence appears to be the developmental period of particular significance in the etiology of eating disorders; hence, identification and clinical intervention during this stage are crucial. This paper aims to synthesise and critically analyse the existing research on the treatment of anorexia nervosa in adolescence from the perspective of evidence based practice, more particularly family therapy systems approach. The term â€Å"evidence-based† is prevalent within the health care setting today. If there is any doubt, a quick glance at the current medical and allied health research literature would remove it. Medical doctors, physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists, music therapists, and many others, have begun to describe their treatment interventions as evidence-based. As with most established theories and concepts, the thoughts and beliefs behind evidence-based medicine have been traced by some to practices of ancient cultures throughout history (Sackett et al, 1996). However, most authors on the subject will credit Archie Cochrane, Scottish epidemiologist, with developing the modern concept behind evidence-based medicine, which was made popular through his landmark text Effectiveness and Efficiency: Random Reflections on Health Services (White, 1997). The most widely known and commonly quoted definition of evidence-based

SAM 342 UNIT 1 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

SAM 342 UNIT 1 - Essay Example They do this through the draft rules, where NBA teams seek amateur college students to join their teams. They are later trained to become professional basketball players. The National Basketball Association is the authority that forms, and enforces these rules. The worst club gets the first choice in picking raw talent. Players pass through rigorous interviews and fitness tests, before admission to a basketball team. Clubs offer huge salaries, allowances and financial endorsements to sustain these players (Chellandurai, 1999). This motivates them, and improves their performance, ensuring loyalty to the club. Footballers such as David Beckham are rich and famous due to the sustainable programs by sports organization. These organizations change the attitudes of their players through the mindset. To enhance good performance, a player needs confidence. Sports and recreational organizations install this virtue through various programs and peer education seminars (Chelladurai, 1999). They hire psychologists to talk to employers, building their confidence level, both at the sports arena, and outside the sports

Privacy Law in the UK

Privacy Law in the UK Definition of Privacy Judge T. Cooley provided the earliest and one of the simplest definitions of privacy, defining it as the right to be left alone.[1] However, throughout the years, many different definitions have come about in a more positive light rather than a negative, such as, the right to be able to communicate information freely or simply, to keep such information to ourselves. The Younger Committee Report[2] followed on from Judge Cooley concluding that there was no satisfactory way of beginning to define privacy, nevertheless, the Calcutt Committee Report went further and mentioned that it would however, be possible to define it legally and went on to adopt this approach in their first report regarding privacy; The right of the individual to be protected against intrusion into his personal life of affairs, or those of his family, by direct physical means or by publication of information.[3] The Calcutt Committee then issued a further Report in response to Lord Chancellors Department for Infringement of Privacy to which had criticised English Law declaring, it had not adequately protected the privacy of individuals to which they called for an immediate need for some sort of privacy legislation in the UK.[4] The UK Government then followed on from previous attempts at defining what privacy consists of, stating; Every individual has a right to privacy comprising: A right to be free from harassment and molestation; and A right to privacy of personal information, communications and documents.[5] Yet, in this day in age, privacy is still perhaps the most difficult to define, as the definitions of privacy can vary depending on the context and environment that it is used in. As in various countries, the concept of privacy has been merged with data protection, which can interpret privacy in the terms of a management of personal information. However, it can also be frequently seen as a way of drawing the line at how far society can intrude into a persons affairs. Robert Ellis Smith, the editor of the Privacy Journal defined privacy as; the desire by each of use for physical space where we can be free of interruption, intrusion, embarrassment, or accountability and the attempt to control the time and manner of disclosures of personal information about ourselves.[6] To which Edward Bloustein to an extent agreed with this, mentioning that privacy is an interest of the human personality, as it can protect the inviolate personality, the individuals independence, dignity and integrity. [7] Therefore, it can be concluded that, though there are various different interpretations of privacy, it can prove difficult to define, and get just one specific meaning for it that can relate to everyone. However, most of the definitions pay close attention to the interests of human personality, as well as, deciding where to draw the line at how far society can intrude into a persons private affairs. Why do we need Privacy? Every person needs some sort of privacy, whether that be for their physical, mental, emotional or spiritual wellbeing. So much so, that it is well established that everyone is actually entitled to a degree of privacy in their lifetime. Although, it has not been a fundamental and enforced right in English law, the need for some sort of individual privacy legislation has been often recognised. However, the Younger Committee concluded that a general privacy legislation would create a mass of uncertainty, so instead of developing a general right for privacy, they took the approach that; [the] best way to ensure regard for privacy is to provide specific and effective sanctions against clearly defined activities which unreasonably frustrate the individual in his search for privacy.[8] However, it can be argued that without central rules on privacy, it would be much easier for individuals to gain private information on various others, as well as, it would also be difficult for prosecutions against individuals that invade the privacy of others. [9] Privacy in the UK There is no freestanding right to privacy in the UK, with the courts repeatedly stating that English law knows no common law tort of invasion of privacy.[10] As an alternative, the cause of action for breach of confidence has been extended to encompass misuse of wrongful dissemination of private information. [11] However, expansion of the law in this area has occurred throughout the years. The earliest example in the UK of protecting an individuals privacy is seen in Thompson v Stanhope,[12] where an injunction was granted by the court preventing and restraining the publication of private letters that were sent from Lord Chesterfield to his son, by his widow. However, this case was followed by various other cases, such as Prince Albert v Strange, [13] where the Prince sought to restrain publication of otherwise unpublished private etchings and other lists of works by Queen Victoria, to which were obtained by an employee to whom Price Albert had trusted. This case provides a good illustration of how the right to confidence protects privacy. Although the right to privacy was not recognised at the time, it was argued on behalf of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert that they had a right to keep private the art works that they had commissioned for their personal enjoyment. Ruling in favour of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, the court held: Every man has a right to keep his own sentiments, if he pleases. He has certainly a right to judge whether he will make them public or commit them only to the sight of his friends. Whereas the court further held that the publication of the etchings invaded the Royal Familys right to privacy, in the sense of a right to control ones possessions and enjoy them. More developments in UK privacy were issued in the case of Malone v Metropolitan Police Commissioner, [14] Malone held that his right to privacy was breached by the Metropolitan Police by means of interception of his telephone calls. He claimed that the police interception of his phone calls had been unlawful on the grounds that it concerned itself with breach of confidence, trespass and an unlawful interference with his privacy. However, the case was dismissed by Sir Robert Megarry, stating: English law did not entertain actions for interference with privacy unless the interference amounted to one of the established causes of actions in tort or equity.[15] Though, Malone appealed to the ECtHR that a breach of Article 8 had occurred, to which the court found in favour of Malone and this decision influenced a response by the UK Parliament in regards to Interception of Communications Act 1985 and Police Act 1997[16] which was introduced to control telephone interceptions. [17] This decision was later echoed in the case of Wainwright Anor v Home Office, [18] where Lord Hoffmann saw a great danged in the courts attempting to fashion a tort based on the unjustified invasion of privacy. He however, preferred the idea that parliament should legislate for such protection since there will invariably be exception and defences. How the Law has developed due to the introduction of the ECHR? What is in the public interest is not the same as what is of interest to the public, to which, in simple terms the court will balance a persons right to a private and family life against the medias right to freedom of expression. This is an area of the law that has developed significantly following the incorporation of the European Convention on Human Rights into UK law in 1998. Bibliography Cooley TM, A Treatise on the Law of Torts, Or, The Wrongs Which Arise Independent of Contract (1st edn, Callaghan 1879) 29 Smith RE, Ben Franklins web site: Privacy and curiosity from Plymouth rock to the internet (Privacy Journal 2000) 7 Crystal G, Protecting your privacy (Civil Rights Movement, 2000) accessed 04 January 2017 [1] Thomas M. Cooley, A Treatise on the Law of Torts, Or, The Wrongs Which Arise Independent of Contract (1st edn, Callaghan 1879) 29 [2] Department of National Heritage, Younger Committee Report on Privacy (Cmnd 5021, HMSO 1972) [3] Department of National Heritage, Calcutt Committee Report on Privacy and Related Matters (Cm 1102, HMSO 1990) 7 [4] Department of National Heritage, Calcutt Review of Press Self-Regulation (Cm 2135, HMSO 1993) [5] Department of National Heritage, Parliament Privacy and media intrusion: The Governments response to the House of Commons National Heritage Select Committee (Cm 2918, HMSO 1995) [6] Robert Ellis Smith, Ben Franklins web site: Privacy and curiosity from Plymouth rock to the internet. (Privacy Journal 2000) 7 [7] Edward J. Bloustein, Privacy as an aspect of human dignity: An answer to Dean Prosser (1964) 39.6 N.Y.U. L. Rev 962 1007 http://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/nylr39div=71start_page=962collection=journalsset_as_cursor=0men_tab=srchresults#> accessed 05 January 2017 [8] Department of National Heritage, Younger Committee Report on Privacy (Cmnd 5021, HMSO 1972) [9] Garry Crystal, Protecting your privacy (Civil Rights Movement, 2000) accessed 04 January 2017 [10] OBG Ltd v Allan; Douglas v Hello! Ltd [2007] 2 WLR 920, [272]. See also Wainwright v Home Office [2004] 2 AC 406. [11] Campbell v MGN Ltd [2004] 2 AC 457; B McDonald, Privacy, Princesses, and Paparazzi (2005-2006) 50 New York Law School Law Review 205, 232. See also Hosking v Runting [2005] 1 NZLR 1, [23]-[53]. [12] (1774) Amb. 737 [13] [1849] EWHC Ch J20 [14] [1979] Ch 344 [15] [16] Police Act 1997 Part III [17] Malone v United Kingdom [1984] ECHR 8691/79 [18] [2003] UKHL 53

El Nino :: essays papers

El Nino This morning, before writing this essay, I spent a considerable amount of time watering my wilting garden. Meanwhile, the New York Yankees have been rained out for their third consecutive game. And out in California? Rain, no rain, rain, no rain... Why are we suffering such severe weather this summer? In case you have not heard, we are experiencing a weather phenomenon called El Nino. What is El Nino, and How Long Will This Last? According to Michael McPhaden, director of the Tropical Atmosphere Ocean Array, an El Nino is born when west-blowing Pacific trade winds relax or reverse. Without the wind at its back, seawater that typically piles up on the jagged western edge of the Pacific -- around Indonesia, the Philippines and Australia -- slides back toward the Americas. The sliding water moves in what scientists call Kelvin waves. "It pushes the cold water down. That causes the initial warming," said McPhaden. At the same time, the Pacific reacts to the lost wind by building another series of waves under water. Called , they roll west toward Indonesia, the Philippines and Australia. Eventually, the series of waves strikes the coasts of those countries. Then, it reverses and heads back toward South America, traveling along the equator. "As it passes," McPhaden said, "it leaves cold water closer to the surface." El Nino normally occurs around Christmas and usually last for a few weeks to a few months. Sometimes an extremely warm event can develop that last for much longer time periods. A strong El Nino developed in 1991 and lasted until 1995. We are apparently experiencing one of these stronger El Ninos, as this one has lasted for nearly six months . But how long will this last? And then what? The Onset of La Nina After an El Nino event, weather conditions usually return to normal. However, in some years the trade winds can become extremely strong and an abnormal accumulation of cold water can occur in the central and eastern Pacific. This event is called La Nina. Where El Nino refers to a body of unusually warm water astride the equator by South America, La Nina describes a sea that's abnormally cool. Two independent computer models that forecast El Nino see on the horizon a pronounced cooling of the same area of the Pacific. Sometimes, the cold water is just enough to return ocean temperatures to normal. Not always. "Sometimes, it overshoots," McPhaden said. "That would bring a La Nina after El Nino." "The models say . . . there will be a cold effect sometime next year --

Comparative analysis of formalist and realist film theory Essay

Current essay provides a comparative analysis of formalist and realist film theories, based on theoretical approaches, innovations, critical findings and film-making practice of such renowned representatives of both currents of the film theory as Eisenstein, Arnheim and Bazin. Before beginning the analysis of the abovementioned subjects, one should point out that the difference between form and real material in genuine film-making is dialectical. In cinematograph ideas and reality juxtapose to create certain synthesis. This effect is produced by means of formal processing of real visual content. Ideas of a director may be realized with the help of formal elements such as montage, focus, as well as additional means like sound and special effects. This means that even those directors that seek to portray objective reality do not merely reproduce it, but put into their films their ideas, thoughts and concepts. As any form of art, cinematograph heavily depends on its technical (instrumental) and artistic (ideal) means, which are realized with the help of the former. Formal elements are necessary means for every creative director to transmit his/her own ideas and vision of reality. This, however, should not overstate the fact that formal elements may be used to deviate objective reality and help construct ideological and biased vision thereof. The contrary may be also true with respect to pseudo-realist films, which pretend to portray objective reality, while in fact create mere copy of it, devoid of any intellectual content. This can be used for justification of existent reality. This is the case for the majority of commercial films and contemporary film-making industry in general, which is centered on using different forms and genres in the view of getting profit. These aspects and meaning of form and reality representation in the film theory should be taken in consideration in this comparative analysis of realist and formalist film theory. There is no denying the importance of the fact that Eisenstein was among the founding fathers of formalist film theory, as he was the first to develop the theory of montage and specific usage of film editing. These elements of cinematograph constitute the first cornerstone of formalist film theory, as it was developed in Eisenstein’s major works Beyond the Shot and Dramaturgy of Film Form. According to Eisenstein, cinema is mainly about montage (Beyond the Shot, p. 13). Using montage is both technical and artistic procedure, since it helps create meanings by means of combination/copulation of different images or situations. Thereby, as Eisenstein constantly states, the artistic effect is created, which is important in the visual type of communication provided by cinema. Eisenstein, for instance, tried to show this phenomenon referring to Japanese hieroglyphs, which often create new meanings by means of copulation (Beyond the Shot, p. 14). The most important thought Eisenstein tried to communicate was that formal elements of film production are central to realization of artistic greater ideas and the work with various materials ranging from historical scenes to innovative scenarios. Montage, according to Eisenstein, is not independent vis-a-vis objective and ideational representation of reality. Besides this, it should be noted that in correspondence with formalist film theory, the inability to use formal elements properly leads to degradation of films as the form of art, and moreover, this precludes realization of director’s ideas – that is ‘intellectual’ film-making. Arnheim, another noted representative of realist film theory, claimed that visual representation of reality in film radically differs from physical perception of reality. This difference, according to Arnheim, gives significance to formal elements of cinema, which create artistic effects. Arnheim’s thorough analysis of these formal features shows that, if properly used, they may produce interesting emotional effects on spectators (Film and Reality, 323). Arnheim claims that creating images in film is neither two-dimensional, nor three-dimensional, but represents golden middle. He provides us with example of the scene from Ruttmann’s film Berlin, where the director creates juxtaposition of the second and the third dimension by making a shot of two trains moving in opposite directions. Film representation of this movement, according to Arnheim, creates certain impression and that is, what differentiates film images from real ones (Arnheim, 324). This vision of form in the film production was often regarded as manipulative by such representatives of realist film theory as Andre Bazin, who claimed that formal elements preclude real communication between spectators and film’s images and plot (The evolution of the language of the cinema, p. 48). However, even so opposed to each other, formalist and realist tradition both criticize positivist realism in cinematograph for its ideological function and positivism. According to Arnheim, documentary genre is not the same as pure reproduction of reality; instead, it is difficult artistic work. Bazin’s great love for documentaries as the representations of objective reality should also be understood considering the abovementioned distinction. Eisenstein’s approach to film production unlike realist school represented by Bazin is based on dialectical theory, which sees the collision of opposites, their simultaneous integrity and negation as a cornerstone of every art. Eisenstein said that shot is not an element, but dialectical cell, which rests in organic unity with entire film. Contrary to that, realist film theory, represented by Bazin, draws on personalist perspective, which believes that a film should be a representation of auteurship. Bazin is deeply opposed to formalist perspectives, because he thinks that it breaks world in many little pieces and prevents genuine and autonomous perception of reality. Instead, Eisenstein puts particular emphasis on dialectical conflicts between shots, counterpoint of music and shot sequence etc. , which makes his formal approach look integral and all-embracing. As he claims, the knowledge of these formal dependencies is the core of genuine film production (Beyond the Shot, 16-17). Bazin in his rediscovery of realism in the history of art ends with a statement of great opposition between pseudorealism (which reproduces illusionary appearances) and realism which distributes the truth among spectators. According to Bazin, formalist film-making exemplified by Eisenstein and others extracts meaning from real images and makes it a product of subjective manipulation with reality, rather than its realist representation. Instead, Bazin claims that realism in film-making is focused on genuine representation of reality, which can be achieved by such technical means as ‘shot-in-depth’, focus or even wide shots (The Evolution of the language of the cinema, p. 49-51). Hence, Bazin does not reject formal elements as such, but transforms them to achieve the purpose of realist representation. The continuity of images and shots should not, however, be interrupted by montage manipulation like in formalist theory; the auteur should follow the unfolding of reality. This means that time and space should not be artificially separated by montage, which is the case with Eisenstein’s formalism, but instead, artistic truths should be found in the articulation of difficult relations between time and space. (As a result, a spectator has more possibilities of interpretation and autonomous understanding). Deep shot, according to Bazin, helps spectator to get closer to the image, which creates ambiguity of interpretation, which is more artistic than subjective manipulation (Bazin, p. 50). Moreover, it helps maintain the integrity of the image and specific elements in it, which is according to Bazin, no less important than montage (Bazin, p. 49). These are the basic similarities and differences between formalist and realist film theories. Main approaches of these theories are essentially exemplified by two famous films: Battleship Potemkin by Eisenstein (USSR, 1925) and Red Desert by Antonioni (Italy, 1964). Battleship Potemkin is a silent film by Eisenstein, which may be considered as practical realization of his formal montage theory. First of all, Eisenstein designed this film to be a propaganda of socialist revolution and, that is why, he put emphasis on emotional messages against repression and for heroism of ordinary people. Eisenstein extensively uses rhythmic and intellectual montage to create certain meaning and emotional effects. This can be best exemplified by famous scene on Odessa steps, where Tsarist forces massacred civil population. Eisenstein uses close-ups and montage juxtapositions of Tsarist’s forces and victims of massacre. The dramatic close-ups of victim’s faces and cold and brutal faces of the soldiers create deep emotional effects, which is the cornerstone of formalist film theory. Wonderful example of shot juxtaposition in the film is the image of baby carriage falling down the stairs and soldiers’ legs going down after it. The montage sequence of this scene has certain artistic meaning: it portrays the brutality of Tsarist regime and its inhuman character and articulates these features by showing the images of its innocent victims. The relations between these two shots are intellectual, that is they help spectators interpret separate images and give meaning to them. Opposite realist theory can be best exemplified by Antonioni’s Red Dessert. The film may be characterized by avoiding manipulation with montage. Instead, author’s realist vision of human alienation, loneliness and ugliness of modern civilization is realized through examining continuity of urban life, its relations and contradictions. Such elements of realist film theory as deep focus, wide shots, and color arrangements. Colors in Antonioni’s film also play formalist function, as he uses different tones and colors for depicting reality. For instance, plants in the film and surrounding objects are represented in red color, which creates certain emotional effects and embeds ambiguity. The result may be described as empathy into the destiny of man in industrial world, which helps poetically describe protagonist’s relations with it. To sum it up, main examples of realist and formalist approach were analyzed, and basic feature of both theories were revealed.

Maxim Gorky

Russian short story writer, novelist, autobiographer and essayist, whose life was deeply interwoven with the tumultuous revolutionary period of his own country. Gorky ended his long career as the preeminent spokesman for culture under the Soviet regime of Joseph Stalin. Gorky formulated the central principles of Socialist Realism, which became doctrine in Soviet literature. The rough, socially conscious naturalism of Gorky was described by Chekhov as â€Å"a destroyer bound to destroy everything that deserved destruction. † LIFEMaxim Gorky whose real name was Aleksei Maximovich Peshkov, was born on March 16, 1868, in the Volga River city of Nizhny Novgorod, which in 1932 was renamed Gorky in his honor. His father, a cabinetmaker, died when Gorky was 4 years old, and the boy was raised in harsh circumstances by his maternal grandparents, the proprietors of a dye works. From the age of 10 Gorky was virtually on his own, and he worked at a great variety of occupations, among them shopkeeper's errand boy, dishwasher on a Volga steamer, and apprentice to an icon maker.At a very tender age he saw a great deal of the brutal, seamy side of life and stored up impressions and details for the earthy and starkly realistic stories, novels, plays, and memoirs which he later wrote. He was self-taught in many areas, including literature, philosophy, and history, both Russian and Western. In 1884 Gorky moved to Kazan, dreaming of entering university. That didn’t come to happen because of lack of money. Instead he enrolled in the â€Å"revolutionary underground school. † He attended gymnasium and university populist clubs, reading the relevant literature and fighting with police.At the same time he earned his living doing menial work. In December 1887 a series of misfortunes led him to a suicide attempt. After that, Gorky traveled around Russia in search of a job and experience. He traveled to the Volga Region, the Don, Ukraine, Crimea, South Bessarabia (now part of Moldova) and the Caucasus. He worked as a labourer in a village, a dishwasher, a railroad guard and a worker at a fishery, a salt-works and a repair workshop. At the same time he managed to get acquainted with people from arts circles, take part in clashes with police and earn an overall reputation as an â€Å"untrustworthy† individual.In his travels, he collected prototypes for his future characters, which can be seen in his early works, where the characters were people from the â€Å"bottom† echelons of society. In 1895 he was appointed at the â€Å"Samara Newspaper† (â€Å"Samarskaya gazeta†), where he wrote daily articles for the gossip column â€Å"By the Way† (â€Å"Mezhdu prochim†), signing them as Iegudiil Khlamida. While at the paper he met Ekaterina Volzhina, an editor, whom he married a year later. In 1897 he suffered from aggravated tuberculosis and moved to the Crimea together with his wife. Later they moved to the vill age of Maksatikha in Ukraine’s Poltava Region.That same year, his son Maksim was born. At the beginning of 1898 Gorky returned to Nizhniy Novgorod and in April 1901 Gorky was detained in Nizhniy Novgorod for having taken part in student unrest in St. Petersburg. Later he was expelled to Arazmus. Gorky was elected an honorary academic of polite literature. However, under Emperor Nikolay II’s order, the result of the election was annulled. In 1903 he broke up with his wife and in 1904, the Moscow Theatre Actress Maria Andreeva became his common law wife. In 1905 Gorky was an active participant in the revolution.He was a close associate of the social-democrats but at the same time, on the eve of â€Å"Bloody Sunday† (a key moment in Russia’s history, which served as a trigger for the 1905 Revolution) he visited Sergey Witte, the author of the October Manifesto of 1905, and together with a group of intellectuals he tried to prevent the tragedy. After the revo lution Gorky was arrested on charges of preparing a coup d'à ©tat, but both Russian and European cultural figures rose up to defend the writer. He was released and at the beginning of the following year, emigrated from Russia.He went to America to collect funds to support the Russian Revolution. In 1913 Gorky returned to Russia. After the 1917 Revolution his position became ambiguous: on the one hand, he was supportive of the new authorities, but on the other hand, he kept to his own beliefs, thinking that mass culture is more important than class struggle. At the same time, he started working at the â€Å"World Literature† (â€Å"Vsemirnaya literatura†) publishing house, founding the newspaper â€Å"New Life† (â€Å"Novaya Zhizn†). Gorky’s relations with the authorities gradually aggravated.In 1921 he left Russia, officially going to Germany for medical treatment, but in fact escaping Bolshevik retribution. He lived in Germany and Czechoslovakia until 1924. During this time he actively wrote articles for German magazines (â€Å"The Acknowledgement of a Poet and the Russian Literature of Our Time,† â€Å"The Russian Cruelty,† â€Å"The Intellectuals and the Revolution†). All the articles show his rejection of what had happened in Russia. Gorky actively strived to unify Russian artists working abroad. In the mid-1920s Gorky moved to Sorrento, Italy, where he started work on the novel â€Å"The Life of Klim Samgin† (â€Å"Zhizn Klima Samgina†).The novel was never finished. In 1928 he journeyed to the USSR and spent the summer traveling around the country. His impressions on the trip were published in the book â€Å"Around the Union of Soviets† (â€Å"Po Soyuzu Sovetov†). Three years later Gorky moved to Moscow. Having seen the results of Bolshevik rule while traveling, he set as his goal the promotion of the new â€Å"cultural construction† of the country. He initiated th e creation of literary magazines and publishing houses. Later he organized and chaired the first all-Soviet meeting of Soviet writers. In May 1934 Gorky’s son was killed.Some suspected the NKVD (the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs) was responsible for the killing. Two years later Gorky died himself. Speculations continued to surround his death for years; one popular theory suggested he was deliberately poisoned. Gorky is buried in Moscow. LITERARY CAREER Gorky rose to prominence early in life and made his mark as a writer, playwright, publicist, and publisher in Russia and abroad. His literary career began in 1892 with the publication of the story â€Å"Makar Chudra. † His articles and stories were soon appearing in provincial newspapers and journals.His ideas of the writer's involvement in the social, political, and economic problems facing Russia were close to those of Leo Tolstoy and Vladimir G. Korolenko, who became his mentor and friend. Some of h is literary works had important political significance, such as the poem Burevestnik (The Stormy Petrel), which in 1901 prophesied the oncoming storm of revolution. While visiting the United States in 1906 on a mission to win friends for the revolution and raise funds for the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party (RSDWP), he wrote the novel Mat (Mother).Gorky's revolutionary ideology lay in his insistence on the inevitability of radical change in Russian society. He started to write for newspapers, and his first book, the 3-volume Sketches and Stories (1898-1899), established his reputation as a writer. Gorky wrote with sympathy and optimism about the gypsies, hobos, and down-and-outs. He also started to analyze more deeply the plight of these people in a broad, social context. In these early stories Gorky skillfully mixed romantic exoticism and realism. Occasionally he glorified the rebels among his outcasts of Russian society.In his early writing career Gorky became friends wit h Anton Chekhov , Leo Tolstoy , and Vladimir Lenin. Encouraged by Chekhov, he composed his most famous play, The Lower Depths (1902), which took much of the material from his short stories. It was performed at the Moscow Art Theater under the direction of Konstantin Stanislavsky. The Lower Depths enjoyed a huge success, and was soon played in Western Europe and the United States. Gorky was literary editor of Zhizn from 1899 and editor of Znanie publishing house in St. Petersburg from 1900.Foma Gordeyev (1899), his first novel, dealt with the new merchat class in Russia. The short story Dvadsat' shest' i odna (1899, Twenty-Six Men and a Girl) was about lost ideals. â€Å"There were twenty-six of us – twenty-six living machines locked in a damp basement where, from dawn to dusk, we kneaded dough for making into biscuits and pretzels. The window of our basement looked out onto a ditch dug in front of them and lined with brick that was green from damp; the windows were covered o utside in fine wire netting and sunlight could not reach us through the flour-covered panes.Our boss had put the wire netting there so we could not give hand-outs of his bread to beggars or those comrades of ours who were without work and starving. † (from ‘Twenty-Six Men and a Girl', 1899) The joy in the lives of the bakers is the 16-year old Tania, who works in the same building. A handsome ex-soldier, one of the master bakers, boasts of his success with women. He is challenged to seduce Tania. When Tania succumbs, she is mocked by the men, who have lost the only bright spot in the darkness. Tania curses them and walks away, and is never again seen in the basement.Gorky became involved in a secret printing press and was temporarily exiled to Arzamas, central Russia in 1902. On leaving Russia in 1906, Gorky spent seven years as a political exile, living mainly in his villa on Capri in Italy. Politically, Gorky was a nuisance to his fellow Marxists because of his insiste nce on remaining independent, but his great influence was a powerful asset, which from their point of view outweighed such minor defects. He returned to Russia in 1913, and during World War I he agreed with the Bolsheviks in opposing Russia’s participation in the war.He opposed the Bolshevik seizure of power during the Russian Revolution of 1917 and went on to attack the victorious Lenin’s dictatorial methods in his newspaper Novaya zhizn (â€Å"New Life†) until July 1918, when his protests were silenced by censorship on Lenin’s orders. Living in Petrograd, Gorky tried to help those who were not outright enemies of the Soviet government. Gorky often assisted imprisoned scholars and writers, helping them survive hunger and cold. His efforts, however, were thwarted by figures such as Lenin and Grigory Zinovyev, a close ally of Lenin’s who was the head of the Petrograd Bolsheviks.In 1921 Lenin sent Gorky into exile under the pretext of Gorky’s needing specialized medical treatment abroad. In the decade ending in 1923 Gorky’s greatest masterpiece appeared. This is the autobiographical trilogy Detstvo (1913–14; My Childhood), V lyudyakh (1915–16; In the World), and Moi universitety (1923; My Universities). The title of the last volume is sardonic because Gorky’s only university had been that of life, and his wish to study at Kazan University had been frustrated.This trilogy is one of the finest autobiographies in Russian. It describes Gorky’s childhood and early manhood and reveals him as an acute observer of detail, with a flair for describing his own family, his numerous employers, and a panorama of minor but memorable figures. The trilogy contains many messages, which Gorky now tended to imply rather than preach openly: protests against motiveless cruelty, continued emphasis on the importance of toughness and self-reliance, and musings on the value of hard work.Gorky finished his trilog y abroad, where he also wrote the stories published in Rasskazy 1922–1924 (1925; â€Å"Stories 1922–24†), which are among his best work. From 1924 he lived at a villa in Sorrento, Italy, to which he invited many Russian artists and writers who stayed for lengthy periods. Gorky’s health was poor, and he was disillusioned by postrevolutionary life in Russia, but in 1928 he yielded to pressures to return, and the lavish official celebration there of his 60th birthday was beyond anything he could have expected.In the following year he returned to the U. S. S. R. permanently and lived there until his death. His return coincided with the establishment of Stalin’s ascendancy, and Gorky became a prop of Stalinist political orthodoxy. Correspondence published in the 1990s between Gorky and Stalin and between Gorky and Genrikh Yagoda, the head of the Soviet secret police, shows that Gorky gradually lost all illusions that freedom would prevail in the U. S. S . R. , and he consequently adjusted to the rules of the new way of life.He was now more than ever the undisputed leader of Soviet writers, and, when the Soviet Writers’ Union was founded in 1934, he became its first president. At the same time, he helped to found the literary method of Socialist Realism, which was imposed on all Soviet writers and which obliged them—in effect—to become outright political propagandists. Gorky remained active as a writer, but almost all his later fiction is concerned with the period before 1917. In Delo Artamonovykh (1925; The Artamonov Business), one of his best novels, he showed his continued interest in the rise and fall of prerevolutionary Russian capitalism.From 1925 until the end of his life, Gorky worked on the novel Zhizn Klima Samgina (â€Å"The Life of Klim Samgin†). Though he completed four volumes that appeared between 1927 and 1937 (translated into English as Bystander, The Magnet, Other Fires, and The Specter) , the novel was to remain unfinished. It depicts in detail 40 years of Russian life as seen through the eyes of a man inwardly destroyed by the events of the decades preceding and following the turn of the 20th century.There were also more plays—Yegor Bulychov i drugiye (1932; â€Å"Yegor Bulychov and Others†) and Dostigayev i drugiye (1933; â€Å"Dostigayev and Others†)—but the most generally admired work is a set of reminiscences of Russian writers—Vospominaniya o Tolstom (1919; Reminiscences of Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy) and O pisatelyakh (1928; â€Å"About Writers†). The memoir of Tolstoy is so lively and free from the hagiographic approach traditional in Russian studies of their leading authors that it has sometimes been acclaimed as Gorky’s masterpiece.Almost equally impressive is Gorky’s study of Chekhov. He also wrote pamphlets on topical events and problems in which he glorified some of the most brutal aspects of Stalini sm. Assessment. After his death Gorky was canonized as the patron saint of Soviet letters. His reputation abroad has also remained high, but it is doubtful whether posterity will deal with him so kindly. His success was partly due, both in the Soviet Union and to a lesser extent abroad, to political accident.Though technically of lower-middle-class origin, he lived in such poverty as a child and young man that he is often considered the greatest â€Å"proletarian† in Russian literature. This circumstance, coinciding with the rise of working-class movements all over the world, helped to give Gorky an immense literary reputation, which his works do not wholly merit. Gorky’s literary style, though gradually improving through the years, retained its original defects of excessive striving for effect, of working on the reader’s nerves by the piling up of emotive adjectives, and of tending to overstate.Among Gorky’s other defects, in addition to his weakness for philosophical digressions, is a certain coarseness of emotional grain. But his eye for physical detail, his talent for making his characters live, and his unrivaled knowledge of the Russian â€Å"lower depths† are weighty items on the credit side. Gorky was the only Soviet writer whose work embraced the prerevolutionary and postrevolutionary period so exhaustively, and, though he by no means stands with Chekhov, Tolstoy, and others in the front rank of Russian writers, he remains one of the more important literary figures of his age.

Free Essays on Poes Masque Of The Red Death

Poe used the setting of â€Å"The Masque of the Red Death† to depict an atmosphere characterized by a sense of inevitability of death and one of somber morbidity. He used the castle, clock of ebony, and the masked figure’s chasing of the prince to express the atmosphere in a detailed analysis. The castle provided a place for the story to unfold. It allowed the reader to interpret a sense of entrapment that carried into the plot. As the prince secured the castle, in an attempt to avert the plague of the Red Death, he was also eliminating any means of escape once the disease infiltrated the area. The prince’s solution to averting death was to seclude himself with his royal friends and celebrate with all of the amenities of being wealthy. â€Å"There were buffoons, there were improvisatori, there were ballet dancers, there were musicians, there was Beauty, there was wine.† However, in his naive attempts to lock himself in, the prince was allowing the deaths of those outside of his realm and locking himself out of the outside world at the same time. Therefore, as Prince Prospero put up the â€Å"gates of iron† and â€Å"welded the bolts,† he became a prisoner of sorts, without refuge. The castle was also depicted as a maze. With the disposition of the apartments being restricted, there was a single way out, through the black room. This disposition was representative of the stages of life. The sharp turns leading to a novel effect were the decisions one must make. Also, each room prohibited a view of the others, with the exception of only the following room. Therefore, one could not see the future, only the next phase of life. Although each room had a large window, one could not see the outside world. Because the view from the windows was of the corridors, again Poe provided a feeling of confinement. Each room, being of a different color, represented the phases of existence, from birth towa... Free Essays on Poe's Masque Of The Red Death Free Essays on Poe's Masque Of The Red Death Poe used the setting of â€Å"The Masque of the Red Death† to depict an atmosphere characterized by a sense of inevitability of death and one of somber morbidity. He used the castle, clock of ebony, and the masked figure’s chasing of the prince to express the atmosphere in a detailed analysis. The castle provided a place for the story to unfold. It allowed the reader to interpret a sense of entrapment that carried into the plot. As the prince secured the castle, in an attempt to avert the plague of the Red Death, he was also eliminating any means of escape once the disease infiltrated the area. The prince’s solution to averting death was to seclude himself with his royal friends and celebrate with all of the amenities of being wealthy. â€Å"There were buffoons, there were improvisatori, there were ballet dancers, there were musicians, there was Beauty, there was wine.† However, in his naive attempts to lock himself in, the prince was allowing the deaths of those outside of his realm and locking himself out of the outside world at the same time. Therefore, as Prince Prospero put up the â€Å"gates of iron† and â€Å"welded the bolts,† he became a prisoner of sorts, without refuge. The castle was also depicted as a maze. With the disposition of the apartments being restricted, there was a single way out, through the black room. This disposition was representative of the stages of life. The sharp turns leading to a novel effect were the decisions one must make. Also, each room prohibited a view of the others, with the exception of only the following room. Therefore, one could not see the future, only the next phase of life. Although each room had a large window, one could not see the outside world. Because the view from the windows was of the corridors, again Poe provided a feeling of confinement. Each room, being of a different color, represented the phases of existence, from birth towa...