Journal articles on the topic 'Karo (African people)'

Some decades ago, the Brazilian scholar Paulo Freire wrote his Pedagogy of the Oppressed to indicate the rationale for social change and the place of education in that affair. This study takes a leaf from Freire’s work to dialogue how authentic and people-centered social change can be attained in Africa. In contemporary African political scholarship, scholars are divided over the methodology of attaining social change. Some take inspiration from the thoughts of Karl Popper who maintains that there are two approaches toward social change: The Piecemeal and the Utopian. It is also the case that Popper puts trust and emphasis on the former when he doubts and opposes the latter, which appeals mostly to Marxists in Africa. Since it has become a dominant locus for almost all of African scholars to take a Marxist approach in their articulation and struggle for social change, this study intends to serve as a caution. Caution because, it is an open secret that Marxists of African descent have been very critical and bitter of Popper’s version of social change for being reactionary; that it is a viewpoint which aims to preserve an exploitative status quo. When the onus of this study is to defend Popper against such uncharitable misrepresentations, it forays into George Orwell’s classic Animal Farm, for succor. Orwell’s fable is a revelation of the dangers that may emanate from Utopian social engineering in real life scenario. The unfortunate totalitarian era that greeted the animals in the aftermath of their violent and bloody revolution in Manor Farm is not only a lesson but serves to initiate the discourse regarding the intention and integrity of those leading social change and struggles across Africa. It is precisely for this reason that this essay beckons on Africans to initiate a platform for social change that will be void of violence and bloodshed. By taking a pedagogy approach to education, this research would have been able to explore the ways through which education can contribute to the plight of social change and social stability in Africa.

News from afar sometimes seems to bear an uncanny resemblance to one's own remembered past. This is not because of the banal redundancy of events, but because of memory's inclination to refurbish itself in contemporary designs and novel images. In 1994 I was in northern Sumatra collecting stories from Karo veterans of the Indonesian war of national independence. Every night the television news offered more horrifying pictures of ethnic violence from around the world. In central Africa, roadways were filled with thousands of starving, desperate people traveling toward unknown destinations. This made a big impression on my Karo informants. “That's exactly how it was here,” they told me over and over. “I saw it on TV last night. I told the kids, ‘We were just like that during the evacuation.' Nothing to eat. No clothes. We were living like animals.”

Many measures such as multi-sectoral National Coronavirus Preparedness Group and social interventions were instituted by Nigerian governments before and after the first case of COVID-19 was recorded on February 27, 2020. Impacts of these intervention measures on COVID-19 transmission were assessed within the first 82 days in Nigeria and in the first 38 days in Kano state. These approaches toward containing the spread of COVID-19 include nonpharmaceutical intervention measures, multi-sectoral Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) was activated at Level 3, expansion of labouratories, RRT deployment etc which resulted in the slow transmission trajectory and low COVID-19 burden and death burden on the people. The analysis of the COVID-19 data obtained between February 27 and May 20, 2020 (82 days period) showed that Nigeria recorded lower death burden of one (1) per million population compare with other African countries like South Africa with death burden of 6 death per million population each and other countries, death burden increases (> 1) as COVID-19 cases increases. Similarly, COVID-19 burden of Nigeria is 33 cases per million which is also very low compared to other African countries and other highly affected countries like US and UK. By 20th May 2020, 6,677 confirmed cases and 202 deaths and 1,860 recovered from COVID-19 have occurred in Nigeria. At day 82, the exponential growth rate calculated was 0.05. The result of this study also provides epidemiological analysis of the first 40 days of COVID-19 outbreak in in the most populous state in Nigeria-Kano. Using this logistic model equation [y= 1.5*(1.3)x] generated from the curve, a total of 31,158 infections was averted in Kano state by the federal and state government intervention measures and citizen level of compliances as well as additional effort of WHO official which altogether brought the total infections to 900 as against 32,058 infections predicted by logistic model. Simulation of the same model predicts total infections of 6,092,642 by 9th of June more than half of state population in the absence of aforementioned interventions while by 11th of June 11,435,884 infections (state population). The results show COVID-19 positive cases are higher in the states with high population densities

This article 1 underscores the key role that Tom Coffee, an ethnic Kru migrant from Sasstown, Liberia, played in founding the Soudan Interior Mission (SIM). Coffee journeyed with Walter Gowans and Thomas Kent up into what is now northern Nigeria in 1894 to help establish SIM. Gowans and Kent died before they reached their destination, the walled city of Kano. SIM's other co-founder, Rowland Bingham, did not travel with his friends, and thus lived to tell his version of their story. By using materials written in the 1890s and secondary sources published more recently, this work provides new insights into SIM's first trip to Africa. The article begins by giving background information about the Kru and Sasstown and the impact that the Methodist Episcopal Church had on some of the people who lived in Sasstown after it established a mission there in 1889. Coffee's likely connection with the Methodist Church would have helped him understand the goal and strategy of his missionary employers. The article then discusses the journey Coffee and the two SIM missionaries took up into the hinterland. The fortitude that Coffee showed as he travelled into the interior reflects the ethos of his heritage and town of origin. Coffee represents just one of millions of indigenous peoples – the vast number whose stories are now not known – who worked alongside expatriate missionaries to establish Christianity around the world. It is fitting, during SIM's quasquicentennial, to tell this story about this African who helped the three North American missionaries establish SIM.

Introduction Racial disparities are known in the occurrence of kidney disease with excess risks found among people of African descent. Apolipoprotein L1 (APOL1) gene variants G1 and G2 are associated with kidney disease among HIV infected individuals of African descent in the USA as well as among black population in South Africa. We set out to investigate the prevalence of these high-risk variants and their effects on kidney disease among HIV infected patients in Northern Nigeria with hitherto limited information despite earlier reports of high population frequencies of these alleles from the Southern part of the country. Methods DNA samples obtained from the whole blood of 142 participants were genotyped for APOL1 G1 and G2 variants after initial baseline investigations including assessment of kidney function. Participants comprised 50 HIV positive patients with no evidence of kidney disease, 52 HIV negative individuals with no kidney disease and 40 HIV positive patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) evidenced by persistent proteinuria and/or reduced eGFR, who also had a kidney biopsy. All the HIV positive patients were newly diagnosed and treatment naïve. Results The distribution of the APOL1 genotypes among the study participants revealed that 24.6% had a G1 risk allele and 19.0% a G2. The frequency of the High Risk Genotype (HRG) was 12.5% among those with CKD compared to 5.8% in the HIV negative group and zero in the HIV positive no CKD group. Having the HRG was associated with a higher odds for developing HIV Associated Nephropathy (HIVAN) (2 vs 0 risk alleles: OR 10.83, 95% CI 1.38–84.52; P = 0.023; 2 vs 0 or 1 risk alleles: OR 5.5, 95% CI 0.83–36.29; P = 0.07). The HRG was also associated with higher odds for Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) (2 vs 0 risk alleles: OR 13.0, 95% CI 2.06–81.91; P = 0.006 and 2 vs 0 or 1 risk alleles: OR 9.0, 95%CI 1.62–50.12; P = 0.01) when compared to the control group. Conclusion This study showed a high population frequency of the individual risk alleles of the APOL1 gene with higher frequencies noted among HIV positive patients with kidney disease. There is high association with the presence of kidney disease and especially FSGS and HIVAN among treatment naive HIV patients carrying two copies of the HRG.

African Animal Trypanosomosis (AAT) is a debilitating disease that hinders livestock productivity in Nigeria and sub-Saharan Africa. Numerous strategies have been developed over time to fight this devastating disease, which are emphasized mostly on containing the spread of its causative agent and principal vector. However, very little has been done to include livestock marketers in decision making, planning and implementation of control programs. Therefore, this study was carried out to fill that void, by evaluating the knowledge of this group of people on Tsetsefly and Trypanosomosis in Wudil Cattle Market. Questionnaires were developed to collect relevant information, and were administered through ‘Standard Focus Group Discussions’. The results revealed that tsetse fly was known by all respondents (100%), who significantly reported that they were most commonly found in the forests (95%), during the wet season (85%). Respondents also reported that these flies prefer to bite animals (71.25%). Similarly, a majority of respondents (97.5%) reported to being cognizant of trypanosomosis disease, while also stating that it had infected their animals at some point in time. Respondents believed infection was most prevalent during the wet season (60%) than the dry season (40%). Respondents had mixed views when it came to perceived causes of the disease, as some associated it with bite from flies (53.75%), while others linked it to transhumance (38.75%). In terms of signs and symptoms, 80% of respondents were able to identify with at least four symptoms of the disease. In essence, this study further intensifies the need to engage livestock marketers in tsetse and trypanosomosis control programs, in addition to emphasizing the need to create awareness campaigns that can further limit the spread of the disease and ensure vector control.

When Bamileke women in urban Cameroon give birth, older women often recall the ‘troubles’, the period between 1955 and 1974 when the UPC (Union des Populations du Cameroun) waged a battle of national independence, as a way of teaching their daughters about the hazards of reproduction and threats to Bamileke integrity as a people (Feldman-Savelsberget al.). Slightly to the north-west, in the Nigerian city of Kano, Igbo talk constantly about their memories of the Biafran war, using them to forge a sense of Igbo ethnic distinctiveness that reinforces patterns of patron-client relations critical to the maintenance of transregional connections (Smith), while further to the south many Yoruba are reassessing the meaning of the old practice of pawning children (Renne). Meanwhile in Botswana, where the AIDS epidemic exacts a high death toll, members of an Apostolic church create distinctive practices of remembering what caused a person's death. In so doing, they counter the attenuation of care and support that often occurs when people interpret death as due to illnesses transmitted through blood and improper sexual relations (Klaits). By contrast in a Samburu community in Kenya, the cultural practice ofntotoi, a complex board game, reproduces a male-dominated history of kinship, while systematically erasing a female narrative of adulterous births and forced infanticide. And among rural Beng in Côte d'Ivoire, beliefs and practices that structure infant care serve as an indirect critique of the violence of French colonialism and of its aftermath that continues to interfere in Beng lives in the form of high rates of infant mortality (Gottlieb). As these examples taken from this volume indicate, the papers gathered together in this special issue examine the complex and often contradictory ways in which the reproduction of memories shapes the social and biological reproduction of people.

Any nature-related occurrence can be seen as a security threat as it puts under the risk the human lives, their well-being as well as the entire infrastructure. The natural disasters and pandemic events are by many classified as the threats and they can seriously make harm to the majority of people and their assets. In the practice, the recent pandemic occurrence such as the Ebola is recognized by the Interpol as a bio-terrorism. That illness has taken the lives to so many people in Africa and wider, but with the discovery of the vaccine the pandemic has been put under the control. Even now the similar situation is with the COVID-19 pandemic as such a biological threat is not fully manageable due to the lack of the immunization. However, there are some empirical indications suggesting that with the appearance of the critical situation so many people will show the solidarity and willingness to support those being in the need. On the other hand, not any appeal for a help will be honest and so many fraudsters can try to take advantage over the people's weaknesses. Those persons deal with the entire psychology of the victim and they can accurately choose the moment to attack and which strategy to use. Basically, what we talk about is the criminological challenge and it does not appear in the physical environment only but also in the cyberspace as the skillfully planned hacking operation. The reason why so many people get hooked with such a criminality is that the donations are symbolic, so the number of victims can increase as the majority will be willing to give the money away. In other words, so many victims will be in deception and the criminals will take only several dollars from each of them, so if the minority of the victims even report about such an event they will signalize that someone took the very small amount of the money from them and in such a case the punishment is so weak or even does not exist. The different schemes are present regarding the cybercrime as those criminal groups could try to avoid the severe punishment doing the camouflage in the virtual domain. Finally, the role of this effort is to provide a comprehensive insight into the challenges of such scams as well as analyze their impacts to communities.

Malaria is one of the tropical diseases popularly known all over Africa. It is caused by the female Anopheles mosquitoes which transmit Plasmodium falciparum into human blood and result in high fever or sudden death. Based on this study, people from the less developed region have poor hygiene and sanitation that contributed to the spread of the vector causing malaria. In this study, geospatial techniques were applied to collect the samples, about 125 samples were collected. The GPS capture was employed using the satellite image to georeference the area study. The data obtained are of four types; the National Health Management Information System (NHMIS, National Malaria Elimination Programme; Malaria Health Product-Daily Consumption Register, Minjibir General Hospital (Federal Ministry of Health), Sample Field Survey (Questionnaire) and Kano State Contributory Healthcare Management Agency (KSCHMA). The results indicated that over 26.4% of children are vulnerable to malaria, 24.8% of infants and 24% of adults. The overall analysis of the 5 villages including minjibir Gari surveyed have 84% of people tested positive with plasmodium falciparum in their blood and a few over 16% were tested with a negative reaction.

The average household access to electricity in Nigeria is estimated at four hours per day. This paradoxical energy crisis in a top oil and gas exporting country makes an interesting case for local and global players in the sustainable energy agenda. The current study showcases experiences of households that installed and use solar photovoltaic (PV) technologies in urban Africa. It identifies the key sociotechnical transition issues that shape the households’ solar energy adoption strategies. To get a clear picture of the situation, the study focuses on the Kano urban agglomeration—a densely populated city with high economic activities. To answer the research question, the sampled respondents shared their experiences via questionnaire and interviews. Similarly, field observations guided the research team to identify patterns of household solar energy use, and how urban planning, building, and roofing types inhibit solar energy utilisation. From the results of the study, it appeared that households use solar energy for lighting, energising rechargeable appliances, and cooling of houses. Nevertheless, none of the respondents use solar photovoltaics (PVs) for cooking—the biggest consumer of fuelwood in Nigeria. Finally, this study is optimistic that despite the challenges identified, the transition to clean energy security in Africa is achievable through coordinated efforts of people, industry, and governments. The transition to renewables by households promises significant changes that can lever the mainstreaming of the UN Sustainable Development Goals-SDG no. 7.

Nigeria from 2016 to 2023 has been facing new security challenges, including kidnapping of people for ransom, sporadic shooting of inhabitants, and the rustling of livestock. There is a rich history of how cities in Nigeria, erected defensive walls or fortifications to protect the inhabitants and their property against invaders, criminals, or rustlers centuries before the arrival of the European colonialists to Africa. The incessant attacks on rural communities, highways and urban centres have compelled criminologists and security experts to rethink and revisit the security strategies adopted in the past and worked effectively in protecting the populace and their belongings. Kingdoms and Empires, as well as Emirates in different parts of Africa, had developed or erected defensive walls or fortifications which if replicated in the 21st century, will ease neighbhourhood watch and community surveillance and policing. This paper has helped to identify cities in Nigeria with defensive walls and restrict entrances (gates) in places such as Kano, Katsina Sokoto, Zaria and Benin City. These are some of the cities known for prehistoric warfare and their people were brave and famous in intercity and inter-community battles. The study found that towns and cities in Nigeria and other parts of the world used defensive walls or fortified their jurisdiction against enemies or invaders. The strategy proved effective in protecting their people and property. Building defensive walls or fortifications of towns and cities that are facing acute security challenges in Nigeria can enable the Government and community members to protect the residents. The use of defensive walls will make the use of different mass surveillance tactics much easier because the areas are cordoned-off hence patrol, searching and arrest of criminals. Therefore, the researcher recommended that instead of spending huge amounts on the procurement of weapons by the Federal Government of Nigeria, the Government should erect or build fences that make criminal investigation more effective hence combat crime and criminals.

Meningococcal disease is a contagious disease caused by the meningococcus (Neisseria meningitidis), a Gram-negative bacterium. Today epidemic meningococcal meningitis is a major public health problem affecting tropical countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, it causes considerable morbidity and mortality. Frequent epidemics and control measures have met with limited success. This study analyzes the incidence, and influencing factors of meningitis in Kano metropolis, Nigeria. The study made use of both primary and secondary data. Primary data was collected using questionnaire while secondary data was obtained from hospital records. The study adopted systematic sampling to select four Local Government Areas. Purposive sampling technique was employed to select houses for the administration of 384 copies of questionnaire. Data was analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics as well as GIS-mapping such as: line graph, percentages, kernel density estimation and regression. The result showed that out of the 8724 cases of meningitis recorded from 2008 – 2017, LGA recorded the highest incidences (37.3%), where population is high and estimated density shows very high cluster. Also, incidence of meningitis, though with fluctuating pattern, appeared to be increasing from 2014 to 2017. Factors like overcrowding of people sleeping in the same room (0.0674) and increase in temperature (0.0641) were the most significant factors of meningitis in the study area. Awareness should be made on the need for a ventilated housing especially during the high temperature season (March to April) in the area

Recurring drought stress cycles and widespread striga (Striga hermonthica (Del.) Benth) infestations are two of the major constraints of sorghum production in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) where they cause a crop loss of about 60 billion US dollars and affect a population of about 100 M people annually. Plant breeders continue to employ conventional and molecular crop breeding strategies in the search for durable genetic resistance/tolerance mechanisms or for germplasm with genes against these two constraints. Crop wild relatives and landraces remain valuable resources of resistance/tolerance genes and have been utilized in the past to improve tolerance to drought stress and resistance to striga. The aim of this study was to assess the stability of performance of 64 sorghum wild relatives, landraces and progenies from some generation of crosses under striga infested and drought stress conditions in agroecological environments endemic for these two stresses. The performance of the genotypes under drought stress was assessed in well-watered and in water stressed conditions at the Kenya Agricultural Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) Kiboko Research Centre whereas the same set was evaluated under striga artificially infested field and potted trials at the KALRO Alupe Research Centre during 2018/2019 rainy seasons. Genotypes, B35 × ICSV III N, Macia, N13, ICSV 111 IN, F6YQ212 × B35, SRN39, GENO47293, ICSV 111 IN × B35, IS9830, Framida, GENO 45827, F6YQ212, B35 × AKUOR ACHOT were found to maintain stable high yields in both striga and drought conditions. The results here, showed that Genotype, Genotype × Environment (GGE) interaction partitioned genotypes in two of the four mega-environments according to their stability and mean grain yield (GY) and identified representative genotypes of the two traits that could be exploited to develop superior sorghum varieties adapted to drought and striga prone environments.

Malaria has been the focus of multiple declarations, and a range of targets has been set since the beginning of the millennium. Poor people are at increased risk of both becoming infected with malaria as well as becoming infected more frequently. Malaria is also a major contributor to deaths among hospital inpatients in Africa. The purpose of this research is to employ geospatial techniques to map out areas that are vulnerable to malaria breeding vectors using weighted multi-criteria decision analysis to determine the risk levels within the study area and to determine the factors influencing the population at risk of malaria with a view to providing an effective malaria management. Malaria incidence records were used to determine the incidence rate of the disease from 2014 – 2016 and the rate of severity and total confirmed cases of the disease occurrence during the study period. Malaria risk map, which was produced through the integration of malaria hazard map, vulnerability map and elements at risk map, was used to determine the most susceptible areas to malaria attacks in the study area. The results showed about 87% of the entire study area being at high risk of malaria attack. It is observed that there is an increasing trend of malaria cases in the study area despite its variability over the years. It can be concluded that the study area as a whole is prone to malaria infestation and this requires immense attention in order to mitigate the scourge of the disease and its vector. It will be cost effective if GIS and remote sensing could be integrated in monitoring and early warning system in the ongoing malaria control and prevention activities especially in Nassarawa and Kumbotso local government areas that have a very high risk of malaria attacks. There is also the need to research more on the relationship between malaria prevalence and some key socio-anthropogenic factors such as literacy level, income level, HIV status, pregnancy status and meteorological factors. Keywords: Malaria Risk, Vulnerability, Hazard, Weighted multi-criteria decision analysis.

Nigeria leads the world in the number of cases of sickle cell disease (SCD). An estimated 150,000 babies are born annually in Nigeria with SCD, a heredity disorder, and 70-90% die before age 5. Only a small portion of affected infants and children in sub Saharan Africa (SSA) reach adolescence. Over 650 children die per day in sub-Saharan Africa from SCD. These dismal statistics are in sharp contrast to outcomes in high-income countries (HICs) where more than 90% of SCD patients reach adulthood. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 70% of deaths could be prevented with a low cost diagnostic and treatment plan. Meaningful preventive care and treatment cannot be implemented without a structured plan for early diagnosis and patient tracking.Early diagnosis requires improved access to parents and guardians of children with SCD, and gaining this access remains a challenge in most of SSA. In 2015, Nigeria's Kano state government, with support from foreign partners, established a community-based program for newborn registration. This platform provides unique access to newborn babies in one of Nigeria's most populous cities, but still lacks a functioning patient testing, tracking, and monitoring system, which we plan to address in our ongoing study. This study will introduce mobile health in a low-income country with low literacy rate and hopefully accustom that segment of the population to more varied mobile health applications that will ultimately improve their health in the long run. Our current operational platform in Kano, Nigeria provides access to a large population with a high prevalence of SCD. We have previously completed pilot testing of 315 subjects for SCD using our microchip electrophoresis test. We are planning to test up to 4,500 additional subjects less than 5 years of age at Murtala Muhammed Specialist Hospital. The hospital staff includes 97 physicians and 415 nurses and outpatient clinics serve about 30,000 patients monthly. The maternity department has a 200-bed capacity and the antenatal clinic performs about 1,000 deliveries and serves an average of 3,000 mothers monthly. Enrollment is planned to start on September 15, 2019 and medical staff are currently being trained to run the tests. Our study is registered in the United States National Library of Medicine's ClinicalTrials.gov (Identifier: NCT03948516). Our technology is uniquely paired with an automatic reader and an Electronic Medical Record (EMR) and patient management solution to record POC test results, register new cases, and track patients for follow-up (Fig. 1). The reader enables automated interpretation of test results, local and remote test data storage, and includes geolocation (Global Positioning System) (Fig. 2). The system will generate reports for all cases of SCD, track hospital visits, appointments, lab tests, and will have mobile and dashboard applications for tracking patients and samples. The application will be installed on mobile devices provided to users. The proposed system will be compliant with the existing privacy standards to handle medical data (e.g., HIPAA in the US and GDPR in the EU). All communications between the parties will be secured via end-to-end encryption as a safeguard. We anticipate that our project will increase the rates of screening, diagnosis and timely treatment of SCD in Kano State of Nigeria. The project's broader impact will likely be the ability to track and monitor screening, disease detection, diagnosis and treatment, which can be scaled up to the whole nation of Nigeria, then to sub-Saharan Africa. The data obtained and analyzed will be the first of their kind and will be used to inform the design of programs to improve access to, and availability of, effective care for this underserved populations. The importance of increased access to diagnosis and treatment should not be underestimated - it is crucial for realizing effective management of people with SCD. The impact can be enhanced by complementing diagnosis and patient tracking with education for the families so they can provide or seek the necessary preventative treatment. Identification of the location of the patients in need would help identify the areas where family, parent, caregiver education should be provided. Disclosures Fraiwan: Hemex Health, Inc.: Equity Ownership, Patents & Royalties. Hasan:Hemex Health, Inc.: Equity Ownership, Patents & Royalties. An:Hemex Health, Inc.: Patents & Royalties. Thota:Hemex Health, Inc.: Employment. Gurkan:Hemex Health, Inc.: Consultancy, Employment, Equity Ownership, Patents & Royalties, Research Funding.

The Maitatsine ‘Revolution’ in NigeriaThe spate of disturbances which had the appearance of Islamic fundamentalismin Nigeria in the early eighties can be viewed as a passing phase ofunderdevelopment. This symbolizes the realities of the Third World countriesespecially the African continent, where subsequent inefficient administrationshave created a people at odds with itself, hampered by theunderdevelopment of its economy, and socio-political lives, large turn-overof regimes and governments, all of which are engaged in governmentalmismanagement, military autocracies, and democratic dictatorship. Such disturbances,if not promptly nipped in the bud, can lead to a more serious disturbancereminiscent of the war in Chad and Ogaden desert or the revolts in Shaba.Of interest here is the series of riots which took place in some states ofNorthern Nigeria spanning specifically from Kano (1980), Bulumkutu (1982)and Jimeta Yola (1984). There were scares in 1982 of the same riots in majortowns in the North including Bauchi, Jos, Zaria and Sokoto. There were alsoclashes with the police in Kaduna, the headquarters of the former NorthernRegion, where an Assistant Police Commissioner was captured by the riotersand killed!Since then, there has been an avalanche of comments by the general public,many of them trying to find the cause(s) of the unrest. These various commentsassumed such a divergent outlook that it is not easy to group them neatlyunder any general heading(s). They range from the trivial and grotesque tothe most serious; from the possible and plausible to the absurd. While somedubbed the riots as sheer religious fantacism, others thought that it was politicallymotivated; and yet athers believe that the disturbances were caused byfaceless illegal aliens; while there are also those who think they were causedby outside interests like Mossad or Al-Mafisa ...

-Philip D. Morgan, Marcus Wood, Blind memory: Visual representations of slavery in England and America 1780-1865. New York: Routledge, 2000. xxi + 341 pp.-Rosemarijn Hoefte, Ron Ramdin, Arising from bondage: A history of the Indo-Caribbean people. New York: New York University Press, 2000. x + 387 pp.-Flávio dos Santos Gomes, David Eltis, The rise of African slavery in the Americas. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. xvii + 353 pp.-Peter Redfield, D. Graham Burnett, Masters of all they surveyed: Exploration, geography, and a British El Dorado. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000. xv + 298 pp.-Bernard Moitt, Eugenia O'Neal, From the field to the legislature: A history of women in the Virgin Islands. Westport CT: Greenwood Press, 2001. xiii + 150 pp.-Allen M. Howard, Nemata Amelia Blyden, West Indians in West Africa, 1808-1880: The African Diaspora in reverse. Rochester NY: University of Rochester Press, 2000. xi + 258 pp.-Michaeline A. Crichlow, Kari Levitt, The George Beckford papers. Kingston: Canoe Press, 2000. lxxi + 468 pp.-Michaeline A. Crichlow, Audley G. Reid, Community formation; A study of the 'village' in postemancipation Jamaica. Kingston: Canoe Press, 2000. xvi + 156 pp.-Linden Lewis, Brian Meeks, Narratives of resistance: Jamaica, Trinidad, the Caribbean. Kingston: University of the West Indies Press, 2000. xviii + 240 pp.-Roderick A. McDonald, Bridget Brereton, Law, justice, and empire: The colonial career of John Gorrie, 1829-1892. Kingston: University of the West Indies Press, 1997. xx + 371 pp.-Karl Watson, Gary Lewis, White rebel: The life and times of TT Lewis. Kingston: University of the West Indies Press, 1999. xxvii + 214 pp.-Mary Turner, Armando Lampe, Mission or submission? Moravian and Catholic missionaries in the Dutch Caribbean during the nineteenth century. Göttingen, FRG: Vandenburg & Ruprecht, 2001. 244 pp.-O. Nigel Bolland, Anton L. Allahar, Caribbean charisma: Reflections on leadership, legitimacy and populist politics. Kingston: Ian Randle; Boulder CO: Lynne Rienner, 2001. xvi + 264 pp.-Bill Maurer, Cynthia Weber, Faking it: U.S. Hegemony in a 'post-phallic' era. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1999. xvi + 151 pp.-Kelvin Santiago-Valles, Christina Duffy Burnett ,Foreign in a domestic sense: Puerto Rico, American expansion, and the constitution. Durham NC: Duke University Press, 2001. xv + 422 pp., Burke Marshall (eds)-Rubén Nazario, Efrén Rivera Ramos, The legal construction of identity: The judicial and social legacy of American colonialism in Puerto Rico. Washington DC: American Psychological Association, 2000. 275 pp.-Marc McLeod, Louis A. Pérez, Jr., Winds of change: Hurricanes and the transformation of nineteenth-century Cuba. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001. x + 199 pp.-Jorge L. Giovannetti, Fernando Martínez Heredia ,Espacios, silencios y los sentidos de la libertad: Cuba entre 1878 y 1912. Havana: Ediciones Unión, 2001. 359 pp., Rebecca J. Scott, Orlando F. García Martínez (eds)-Reinaldo L. Román, Miguel Barnet, Afro-Cuban religions. Princeton NJ: Markus Wiener Publishers, 2001. 170 pp.-Philip W. Scher, Hollis 'Chalkdust' Liverpool, Rituals of power and rebellion: The carnival tradition in Trinidad and Tobago, 1763-1962. Chicago: Research Associates School Times Publications and Frontline distribution international, 2001. xviii + 518 pp.-Asmund Weltzien, David Griffith ,Fishers at work, workers at sea: A Puerto Rican journey through labor and refuge. Philadelphia PA: Temple University Press, 2002. xiv + 265 pp., Manuel Valdés Pizzini (eds)-Riva Berleant-Schiller, Eudine Barriteau, The political economy of gender in the twentieth-century Caribbean. New York: Palgrave, 2001. xvi + 214 pp.-Edward Dew, Rosemarijn Hoefte ,Twentieth-century Suriname: Continuities and discontinuities in a new world society. Kingston: Ian Randle; Leiden: KITLV Press, 2001. xvi + 365 pp., Peter Meel (eds)-Joseph L. Scarpaci, Jonathan Benjamin-Alvarado, Power to the people: Energy and the Cuban nuclear program. New York: Routledge, 2000. xiii + 178 pp.-Lynn M. Festa, Keith A. Sandiford, The cultural politics of sugar: Caribbean slavery and narratives of colonialism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. 221 pp.-Maria Christina Fumagalli, John Thieme, Derek Walcott. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1999. xvii + 251 pp.-Laurence A. Breiner, Stewart Brown, All are involved: The art of Martin Carter. Leeds U.K.: Peepal Tree, 2000. 413 pp.-Mikael Parkvall, John Holm, An introduction to Pidgins and Creoles. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. xxi + 282 pp.

Background: The declaration of COVID-19 as a public health emergency by the World Health Organization necessitated countries across the globe to implement response and mitigation measures. We aimed to assess the Nigerian government's response following six months of detection of COVID-19 in Nigeria. Methods: A narrative review of existing literature on the topic was done. The authors' opinion as experts supporting the COVID-19 pandemic response was included. The review and opinion were summarized, covering six months of the outbreak response in Nigeria. Results: Contact tracing commenced after identifying the index case of COVID-19 in Nigeria but has been faced with challenges such as inadequate equipment and shortage of funds. School closure was implemented barely three weeks after detecting the index case, but the resumption of terminal classes has been announced recently. The Nigerian government implemented restrictions on gatherings involving up to 11 people after three weeks following the detection of the index case of COVID-19. The lack of enforcement and supervision of gatherings and public events made many individuals disregard the restriction measures. Lockdowns on religious gatherings and public events have been recently eased nationwide, and regulatory measures have been put in place. The Nigerian government implemented bans on international travel from all countries, especially high-risk countries. However, the existence of porous borders limited success, which could have been obtained from the travel ban. Conclusion: COVID-19 mitigation measures should be implemented and reinforced as required nationwide and get provided the needed support. References World Health Organization. COVID-19 public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) global research and innovation forum, 2020 February 12. In: WHO 2020. Available from: https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/covid-19-public-health-emergency-of-international-concern-(pheic)-global-research-and-innovation-forum [Accessed on 26 August 2020].] European centre for disease prevention and control. COVID-19 situation updates worldwide, as of 26 August 2020. In: ECDC 2020. Available from: https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/geographical-distribution-2019-ncov-cases [ Accessed on 26 August 2020].] Nigeria centre for disease control. COVID-19 outbreak in Nigeria situation report. Abuja. In: NCDC. 2020 Contract No.: S/N: 001. Available from: https://covid19.ncdc.gov.ng/ [Accessed on 26 August 2020]. Ogundele K. UPDATED: FG places travel ban on China, Italy, US, UK, nine others. Punch Newspapers, 2020 Mar 18. Available from: https://punchng.com/breaking-fg-places-travel-ban-on-china-italy-us-uk-others/ [ Accessed on 26 August 2020] Presidential task force on COVID-19. Available from: https://statehouse.gov.ng/covid19/ [Accessed on 26 August 2020]. Okunola A. 5 Challenges facing health care workers in Nigeria as they tackle COVID-19. On 9 June 2020. In: Global citizen. Available from: https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/challenges-for-health-care-workers-nigeria-covid/ [Accessed on 26 August 2020]. Sessou E. COVID-19: Why we provided testing kits in Kano- ADF. 2020 May 8. In: Vanguard. Available from: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2020/05/covid-19-why-we-provided-testing-kits-in-kano-adf/ [Accessed on 26 August 2020]. Ilesanmi OS, Afolabi AA. Time to move from vertical to horizontal approach in our COVID-19 response in Nigeria. SciMed J. 2020; 2:28-29. https://doi.org/10.28991/SciMedJ-2020-02-S1-3. Olisa C. Covid-19: FG orders immediate shut down of all schools. 2020 March 20. In: Naira Metrics [Internet]. Available at: https://nairametrics.com/2020/03/20/covid-19-fg-orders-immediate-shut-down-of-all-schools/ [Accessed on 26 August 2020]. Adejayan G. COVID-19: Lagos decontaminates schools for partial resumption. On 1 August 2020 [cited 26 August 2020]. In: Within Nigeria. Available from: https://www.withinnigeria.com/2020/08/01/covid-19-lagos-decontaminates-public-schools-for-partial-resumption/ [Accessed on 26 August 2020]. Oyetimi K, Adewakun A. E-learning: How COVID-19 is reshaping education in Nigeria. On 10 April 2020. Publish In: MSN. Available at: https://www.msn.com/en-za/news/other/e-learning-how-covid-19-is-reshaping-education-in-nigeria/ar-BB12pMEd [Accessed on 26 August 2020]. Hale T, Webster S, Petherick A, Phillips T, Kira B. Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker, Blavatnik School of Government. 2020 March 21. In: Our World in Data. Oxford COVID-19 government response tracker. Available from: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/public-gathering-rules-covid?year=2020-08-26&time=2020-01-01.2020-08-04&region=Africa [Accessed on 26 August 2020]. Lagos police command enforces ban on social gatherings to prevent spread of coronavirus. On 22 March 2020. In Vanguard. Available from: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2020/03/lagos-police-command-enforces-ban-on-social-gatherings-to-prevent-spread-of-coronavirus/ [Accessed on 26 August 2020]. Donohue JM, Miller E. COVID-19 and School Closures. JAMA. 2020;324(9):845-847. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2020.13092 Sahara Reporters. Nigerian government lifts ban on religious gatherings, reduces curfew hours. On 1 June 2020. In: Sahara Reporters. Available from: http://saharareporters.com/2020/06/01/nigerian-government-lifts-ban-religious-gatherings-reduces-curfew-hours [Accessed on 26 August 2020]. COVID-19: Lagos reels out guidelines for reopening of Mosques, Churches. On 6 August 2020. In: Vanguard. Available from: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2020/08/covid-19-lagos-reels-out-guidelines-for-reopening-of-mosques-churches/ [Accessed on 26 August 2020]. Vanguard. Porous borders, cause of rise in COVID-19 cases — FG. On 3 April 2020. In: Vanguard [internet]. Available from: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2020/04/porous-borders-cause-of-rise-in-covid-19-cases-fg/ [Accessed on 26 August 2020].

In African spiritual exercises, there is so much talk about the menace of demons or evil spirits. These spirits are conceived of as the antithesis of God or as the spiritual opposition to the benign activities of God. Modern African religion sees them as the causes of sicknesses and any form of catastrophe in the lives of people. The paper takes off from Karl Barth's conception of evil and demons as nothingness and argues that when correctly understood, the so-called evil spirits or demons are nothing but the active agents of God in His relationship with humans. Since African cosmology sees the world as a universe of forces held in harmony by God, it seems that the African idea of the deities and spirits as subordinates of God better captures the idea of the evil spirits or demons as nothingness outside the purview of God than the Barthian conception.

For years, abattoir solid waste disposal in many developing nations has been a major problem. Many abattoirs in Sub-Saharan Africa especially Nigeria deposit their wastes within the immediate locations or dispose them into water bodies which causes effects to the people living close to abattoirs. On the other hand, locating abattoirs in urban center furnishes many advantages to the people therein. Though, the impact of abattoir practice poses threat to the physical and man-made environment. The aim of this study was to determine the environmental as well as socio-economic effects of location of abattoir to the neighbouring people. A mixed method of quantitative and qualitative approach was employed. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to sample 400, 44 and 44 of respondents living proximity to abattoir, traditional head of butchers (Sarakunan-Pawa) and chairman of butchers’ association respectively. Quantitative data were collected from people neighbouring abattoir. While the qualitative data were derived from in-depth interview conducted to traditional heads of butchers (Sarakunan pawa) and Chairman of butchers’ association. This research used statistical tools, frequency count, bar and pie charts for data analysis and presentation. Findings of this research revealed that more than 25% of people living very close to abattoir do not been disturbed by bad odour produced by the abattoir. It is also revealed that there are both positive and negative effects of abattoir set by locating abattoir in an area, but the negative effects outweigh its positive ones. This research concluded that appropriate planning should be put in place to avoid encroaching by people close to abattoir or establish new abattoir close to residential area. And also proper drainage and modern methods of abattoir solid waste management should be designed

Karl Barth was a leading thinker within an influential theological direction that arose in Europeafter the First World War, known as dialectical theology. Comprehensive introductions to thelife and work of Barth in the South African theological journals, written in Afrikaans, eitherdoes not exist, or are difficult to trace for the Afrikaans readership. This article on Barth aims tofill the gap by offering a lexicographical contribution on the life and work of Barth. The focus ofthis article is on Barth as a Reformed theologian. The theme of the New Testament and systematictheology is essentially the same, namely to explain the concept of Christian self-understandingas an eschatological event in which faith is expressed for the sake of faith in God and only inGod. Barth explained the same theological concepts with his theology as those that wereexplained by the church reformers of the 16th century, but under radically new circumstances.The so-called modern and postmodern people of our time not only broke ties with the past, butin the process they also lost their ability for using historical-critical patterns of thought that triesto bridge historical distances, and therefore, sacrificed all efforts to think systematically on thealtar of relativism. We can learn from Barth what systematic reformed theology really is.

Tuberculosis (TB) remains the world’s deadliest infectious disease that affects a third of the world’s population and newly infected an estimated 10 million people in 2018. The number of TB infected Nigerians ranks sixth in the world and first in Africa. Kano State has the highest Nigerian TB prevalence. I aimed to identify Paediatric TB care challenges as perceived by Kano Medical and DOT health care providers. The study design was prospective, descriptive and cross sectional involving structured questionnaire interviews of 43 healthcare providers, during TB supervision visits of 10 Health facilities in Kano. Generated data was entered, validated and analysed using the STATA 13 statistical software package. The sample size was convenient, since it is the number of all the health providers working in the facilities assigned to the author for supervision under a supervision contract with KNCV in 2017. Of the 43 respondents, there were 26 males, with a M: F ratio of 1.5: 1. Those health workers aged from 30 and 40 years constituted 58% of respondents. The staff cadre of respondents comprised of Community Health Extension Workers [CHEW] (40%), doctors (30%) and nurses (3%). Up to 51% of respondents had over 10 years health worker experience and greater than 36 months Child TB DOT care provision. The most commonly identified challenges to paediatric TB care included poor health knowledge (97.7%), poor health seeking behaviour (95.4%), poverty (95.4%), the inability of children to cough up sputum 95.4%, late presentation (90.7%), contact tracing logistics (90.7 %), patient and community factors of stigma and discrimination (86%) and poor health worker paediatric TB knowledge (70%). Perceived health worker challenges to effective Paediatric TB care were the adult orientation of the TB programme and its contact tracing logistic challenges, inadequate health worker Paediatric TB knowledge, children’s inability to cough up sputum, poverty, poor patient TB health knowledge, community stigma and discrimination, poor health seeking behaviour and late presentation.

he debut of colonialism along with the consequent de facto supremacy of the Western world did not only<br />negatively impact on the economy and polity of the Muslim world. It has also, to some reasonable extent,<br />polluted the social system, particularly the structure and form of cities. Human scale is gradually diminishing<br />as a yardstick for construction and is being replaced by a mathematical one. Collectivism, which used to<br />characterize Muslims' social set-up, is now being over-shadowed by stark individualism. The Islamic social<br />values which used to be the binding force that held Muslims together are now being crushed by moral<br />relativity. The situation becomes so chronic that many people begin to assume that Islam has a very negligible<br />role to play in the formation and construction of modern cities. Kano, a predominantly Muslim state in NorthWestern<br /><br />Nigeria, inherited a thousand year-old Islam-oriented building architecture which made it a model<br />Islamic city in pre-colonial Africa. Of special reference is the residential structure which no doubt reflects<br />Islamic culture. Unfortunately, this age-old heritage is now being pushed to the brink of extinction by the<br />almighty modern architecture. This paper explores the Islamic in the Kano traditional residential structure and<br />attempts to comparatively bring into light the extent to which it is diminishing in the modern building<br />architecture. The paper suggests blending the two for a peaceful and harmonious co-existence. <br /> <br /><br />

Cholera is still a problem in the world today. A huge population of deaths due to cholera disease still occur in Sub-Saharan Africa (Nigeria most especially), Asia, the Americas and other developing countries, where approximately 1.7 billion inhabitants are still served by faecally polluted water sources. Approximately, 2.4 billion inhabitants of these areas of the world lack the majorly required sanitary conditions of living. Legros, asserts that, as of 2019, about forty-seven countries of the globe, are still affected by cholera. Raw or undercooked, contaminated seafood, serves as a vehicle for the transmission (especially to non-endemic areas). A Case Fatality Rate of 4.87% was recorded from 34 Local Government Areas of Bauchi, Borno, Kaduna, Kano and Zamfara state in Nigeria by the 34th week, in 2018, while 298 confirmed cases and 38 deaths (CFR 1.5%) were recorded from three Local Government Areas in two States (Adamawa & Borno) by Epidemiological week 41 in 2019. Cholera in some cases is regarded as a “disease of the poor” because the populations most affected are those that cannot afford to provide the basic health facilities for themselves. For example, waste management systems, and good accommodation with toilet facilities (the living and health conditions of the people) are wanting. In 2017, A Global Roadmap to 2030 was launched by the Global Task Force on Cholera Control (GTFCC Ending Cholera) to decrease the death rate due to cholera by 90%. By so doing, the disease can be eradicated from at least half of the 47 cholera-affected countries. The objectives of this roadmap are: to fortify health systems, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), and to coordinate different ways by which cholera can be controlled in these countries by 2030 (ensuring early detection and prompt response to contain outbreaks). This review aimed to understand the epidemiology of cholera in Nigeria, Africa and the world at large, to access the level of spread, management and preventive measures so far implemented in the endemic regions.

It has been two years since the European migrant crisis. In autumn 2015, Europe was flooded by a refugee wave that people neither expected nor imagined. It was a surprise in every way. Modern technology, reputable institutions, and leading global experts from different fields did not anticipate what happened. The European legal order, human rights, the Schengen regime, and the ideas of the West dissolved quickly and left people faced with a naked reality. Where are the refugees now, how many are there, and how do they feel? How did the refugee crisis affect the national security system and the common European defence and security policy? The media rarely reports on this now, two years later. Instead, there is much talk of terrorist attacks in European cities, the UK’s exit from the European Union, the US President, Donald Trump, and the Korean rockets that ruffle the Japanese sea. Years ago, Samuel P. Huntington wrote a book The Clash of Civilizations. It was published in Slovenia in 2005. His assumption was that the main reason for the clash of nations in the future would be their cultural and religious identity. He predicted that the greatest threat would be extreme terrorism. Different ideologies would be replaced by self-oriented individuals, who would no longer be concerned about the common good, but focused on themselves and their benefits. The absence of ideologies would be replaced by a return to ancient traditions. Responses to Huntington's work were very different; some were enthusiastic, others sceptical. We can, however, conclude that his theory, first presented in 1992, was confirmed in the case of the war in the Western Balkans. When the ideology of former Yugoslavia died, the nations and nationalities returned to their roots, which resulted in a war that claimed the lives of many people. Robert D. Kaplan also wrote about the fact that the Western Balkans is a crossroads of different cultures. The most famous of his works is Balkan Ghosts, in which Kaplan examines in detail the historical and cultural turbulence in the immediate neighbourhood of the cradle of Western civilization, which has been the driving force behind the development of the West for the past two thousand years. This issue of Contemporary Military Challenges is therefore interested in what is new on the Old Continent, emphasizing security, defence and the military. In his article Geostrategic Shifts in Contemporary Europe, Uroš Tovornik examines the geostrategic significance of the relationships between France, Germany and the United Kingdom, the countries that shaped the fate of Europe in the past. With the UK's decision to leave the European Union, the former classic geostrategic triangle can now turn into other decisive geostrategic links which could greatly change the Old Continent. József Kis Benedek writes about the consequences of events in North Africa and the Middle East. In the recent past, some authors have wondered whether the Arab Spring would be followed by Arab Winter; however, what followed was the European migrant crisis and the escalation of terrorist attacks in Europe. In his article Challenges Posed to the European Union by the Iraqi, Syrian and Libyan Crises, the author focuses on the participation of foreign fighters in crisis areas, coming from Europe to aid. Economic Intelligence: an Inevitable Choice is the title of an article written by Laris Gaiser. It stresses the urgent need for Slovenia to devote greater attention to this area in order to ensure greater benefits for its citizens. Slovenia has come a long way since 1991, but modern security guidelines stipulate that, besides classic tasks in the intelligence and security field, economic intelligence is also important. What is the situation in Slovenia and what else should we do? For several years, the Slovenian Armed Forces have been involved in the international operation and mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Slovenia is accompanied by many other European Union member states, ensuring peace and order in the country. How long will this go on, and how successful are the international security forces in the area? It is this and some other questions that the authors Ivana Boštjančič Pulko, Johanna Suhonen and Kari Sainio try to answer in the article Assessing the Planning and Implementation of the EU Missions and Operations: Case Study of EUFOR Althea in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Cybernetics, cyberspace and cyber attacks are commonly known terms of which much has been heard and read about recently. How well do we really know these terms? Is there a legal basis at the national level and how is this field regulated in the international environment? This is a challenge requiring strategic and concrete answers. One of the possible answers can be found in the article Legality of Low-Intensity Cyber Operations under International Law by Pika Šarf. Military aviation is an integral part of the modern armed forces. Slovenian military aviation is relatively young and has, in its short history, experienced several development phases, both in the field of aeronautics and in the organizational military sense. The quality of cooperation of Slovenian military pilots in international operations, missions, and international military exercises testifies that we are on the right track. But how to proceed? In his article, Characteristics of the Slovenian Armed Forces Air Force: Now and 20 Years in the future, the author Mitja Lipovšek refers to the idea that history is a debate of the past with the present for the future. We wish you an interesting read, and invite you to also participate as authors of articles.

IntroductionNew digital technologies hold promise for equalising access to information and communication for the Deaf community. SMS technology, for example, has helped to equalise deaf peoples’ access to information and made it easier to communicate with both deaf and hearing people (Tane Akamatsu et al.; Power and Power; Power, Power, and Horstmanshof; Valentine and Skelton, "Changing", "Umbilical"; Harper). A wealth of anecdotal evidence and some recent academic work suggests that new media technology is also reshaping deaf peoples’ sense of local and global community (Breivik "Deaf"; Breivik, Deaf; Brueggeman). One focus of research on new media technologies has been on technologies used for point to point communication, including communication (and interpretation) via video (Tane Akamatsu et al.; Power and Power; Power, Power, and Horstmanshof). Another has been the use of multimedia technologies in formal educational setting for pedagogical purposes, particularly English language literacy (e.g. Marshall Gentry et al.; Tane Akamatsu et al.; Vogel et al.). An emphasis on the role of multimedia in deaf education is understandable, considering the on-going highly politicised contest over whether to educate young deaf people in a bilingual environment using a signed language (Swanwick & Gregory). However, the increasing significance of social and participatory media in the leisure time of Westerners suggests that such uses of Web 2.0 are also worth exploring. There have begun to be some academic accounts of the enthusiastic adoption of vlogging by sign language users (e.g. Leigh; Cavander and Ladner) and this paper seeks to add to this important work. Web 2.0 has been defined by its ability to, in Denise Woods’ word, “harness collective intelligence” (19.2) by providing opportunities for users to make, adapt, “mash up” and share text, photos and video. As well as its well-documented participatory possibilities (Bruns), its re-emphasis on visual (as opposed to textual) communication is of particular interest for Deaf communities. It has been suggested that deaf people are a ‘visual variety of the human race’ (Bahan), and the visually rich presents new opportunities for visually rich forms of communication, most importantly via signed languages. The central importance of signed languages for Deaf identity suggests that the visual aspects of interactive multimedia might offer possibilities of maintenance, enhancement and shifts in those identities (Hyde, Power and Lloyd). At the same time, the visual aspects of the Web 2.0 are often audio-visual, such that the increasingly rich resources of the net offer potential barriers as well as routes to inclusion and community (see Woods; Ellis; Cavander and Ladner). In particular, lack of captioning or use of Auslan in video resources emerges as a key limit to the accessibility of the visual Web to deaf users (Cahill and Hollier). In this paper we ask to what extent contemporary digital media might create moments of permeability in what Krentz has called “the hearing line, that invisible boundary separating deaf and hearing people”( 2)”. To provide tentative answers to these questions, this paper will explore the use of participatory digital media by a group of young Deaf people taking part in a small-scale digital moviemaking project in Sydney in 2009. The ProjectAs a starting point, the interdisciplinary research team conducted a video-making course for young deaf sign language users within the Department of Media, Music and Cultural Studies at Macquarie University. The research team was comprised of one deaf and four hearing researchers, with expertise in media and cultural studies, information technology, sign language linguistics/ deaf studies, and signed language interpreting. The course was advertised through the newsletter of partner organization the NSW Deaf Society, via a Sydney bilingual deaf school and through the dense electronic networks of Australian deaf people. The course attracted fourteen participants from NSW, Western Australia and Queensland ranging in age from 10 to 18. Twelve of the participants were male, and two female. While there was no aspiration to gather a representative group of young people, it is worth noting there was some diversity within the group: for example, one participant was a wheelchair user while another had in recent years moved to Sydney from Africa and had learned Auslan relatively recently. Students were taught a variety of storytelling techniques and video-making skills, and set loose in groups to devise, shoot and edit a number of short films. The results were shared amongst the class, posted on a private YouTube channel and made into a DVD which was distributed to participants.The classes were largely taught in Auslan by a deaf teacher, although two sessions were taught by (non-deaf) members of Macquarie faculty, including an AFI award winning director. Those sessions were interpreted into Auslan by a sign language interpreter. Participants were then allowed free creative time to shoot video in locations of their choice on campus, or to edit their footage in the computer lab. Formal teaching sessions lasted half of each day – in the afternoons, participants were free to use the facilities or participate in a range of structured activities. Participants were also interviewed in groups, and individually, and their participation in the project was observed by researchers. Our research interest was in what deaf young people would choose to do with Web 2.0 technologies, and most particularly the visually rich elements of participatory and social media, in a relatively unstructured environment. Importantly, our focus was not on evaluating the effectiveness of multimedia for teaching deaf young people, or the level of literacy deployed by deaf young people in using the applications. Rather we were interested to discover the kinds of stories participants chose to tell, the ways they used Web 2.0 applications and the modalities of communication they chose to use. Given that Auslan was the language of instruction of the course, would participants draw on the tradition of deaf jokes and storytelling and narrate stories to camera in Auslan? Would they use the format of the “mash-up”, drawing on found footage or photographs? Would they make more filmic movies using Auslan dialogue? How would they use captions and text in their movies: as subtitles for Auslan dialogue? As an alternative to signing? Or not at all? Our observations from the project point to the great significance of the visual dimensions of Web 2.0 for the deaf young people who participated in the project. Initially, this was evident in the kind of movies students chose to make. Only one group – three young people in their late teens which included both of the young women in the class - chose to make a dialogue heavy movie, a spoof of Charlie’s Angels, entitled Deaf Angels. This movie included long scenes of the Angels using Auslan to chat together, receiving instruction from “Charlie” in sign language via videophone and recruiting “extras”, again using Auslan, to sign a petition for Auslan to be made an official Australian language. In follow up interviews, one of the students involved in making this film commented “my clip is about making a political statement, while the other [students in the class] made theirs just for fun”. The next group of (three) films, all with the involvement of the youngest class member, included signed storytelling of a sort readily recognisable from signed videos on-line: direct address to camera, with the teller narrating but also taking on the roles of characters and presenting their dialogue directly via the sign language convention of “role shift” - also referred to as constructed action and constructed dialogue (Metzger). One of these movies was an interesting hybrid. The first half of the four minute film had two young actors staging a hold-up at a vending machine, with a subsequent chase and fight scene. Like most of the films made by participants in the class, it included only one line of signed dialogue, with the rest of the narrative told visually through action. However, at the end of the action sequence, with the victim safely dead, the narrative was then retold by one of the performers within a signed story, using conventions typically observed in signed storytelling - such as role shift, characterisation and spatial mapping (Mather & Winston; Rayman; Wilson).The remaining films similarly drew on action and horror genres with copious use of chase and fight scenes and melodramatic and sometimes quite beautiful climactic death tableaux. The movies included a story about revenging the death of a brother; a story about escaping from jail; a short story about a hippo eating a vet; a similar short comprised of stills showing a sequence of executions in the computer lab; and a ghost story. Notably, most of these movies contained very little dialogue – with only one or two lines of signed dialogue in each four to five minute video (with the exception of the gun handshape used in context to represent the object liberally throughout most films). The kinds of movies made by this limited group of people on this one occasion are suggestive. While participants drew on a number of genres and communication strategies in their film making, the researchers were surprised at how few of the movies drew on traditions of signed storytelling or jokes– particularly since the course was targeted at deaf sign language users and promoted as presented in Auslan. Consequently, our group of students were largely drawn from the small number of deaf schools in which Auslan is the main language of instruction – an exceptional circumstance in an Australian setting in which most deaf young people attend mainstream schools (Byrnes et al.; Power and Hyde). Looking across the Hearing LineWe can make sense of the creative choices made by the participants in the course in a number of ways. Although methods of captioning were briefly introduced during the course, iMovie (the package which participants were using) has limited captioning functionality. Indeed, one student, who was involved in making the only clip to include captioning which contextualised the narrative, commented in follow-up interviews that he would have liked more information about captioning. It’s also possible that the compressed nature of the course prevented participants from undertaking the time-consuming task of scripting and entering captions. As well as being the most fun approach to the projects, the use of visual story telling was probably the easiest. This was perhaps exacerbated by the lack of emphasis on scriptwriting (outside of structural elements and broad narrative sweeps) in the course. Greater emphasis on that aspect of film-making would have given participants a stronger foundational literacy for caption-based projectsDespite these qualifications, both the movies made by students and our observations suggest the significance of a shared visual culture in the use of the Web by these particular young people. During an afternoon when many of the students were away swimming, one student stayed in the lab to use the computers. Rather than working on a video project, he spent time trawling through YouTube for clips purporting to show ghost sightings and other paranormal phenomena. He drew these clips to the attention of one of the research team who was present in the lab, prompting a discussion about the believability of the ghosts and supernatural apparitions in the clips. While some of the clips included (uncaptioned) off-screen dialogue and commentary, this didn’t seem to be a barrier to this student’s enjoyment. Like many other sub-genres of YouTube clips – pranks, pratfalls, cute or alarmingly dangerous incidents involving children and animals – these supernatural videos as a genre rely very little on commentary or dialogue for their meaning – just as with the action films that other students drew on so heavily in their movie making. In an E-Tech paper entitled "The Cute Cat Theory of Digital Activism", Ethan Zuckerman suggests that “web 1.0 was invented to allow physicists to share research papers and web 2.0 was created to allow people to share pictures of cute cats”. This comment points out both the Web 2.0’s vast repository of entertaining material in the ‘funny video’genre which is visually based, dialogue free, entertaining material accessible to a wide range of people, including deaf sign language users. In the realm of leisure, at least, the visually rich resources of Web 2.0’s ubiquitous images and video materials may be creating a shared culture in which the line between hearing and deaf people’s entertainment activities is less clear than it may have been in the past. The ironic tone of Zuckerman’s observation, however, alerts us to the limits of a reliance on language-free materials as a route to accessibility. The kinds of videos that the participants in the course chose to make speaks to the limitations as well as resources offered by the visual Web. There is still a limited range of captioned material on You Tube. In interviews, both young people and their teachers emphasised the central importance of access to captioned video on-line, with the young people we interviewed strongly favouring captioned video over the inclusion on-screen of simultaneous signed interpretations of text. One participant who was a regular user of a range of on-line social networking commented that if she really liked the look of a particular movie which was uncaptioned, she would sometimes contact its maker and ask them to add captions to it. Interestingly, two student participants emphasised in interviews that signed video should also include captions so hearing people could have access to signed narratives. These students seemed to be drawing on ideas about “reverse discrimination”, but their concern reflected the approach of many of the student movies - using shared visual conventions that made their movies available to the widest possible audience. All the students were anxious that hearing people could understand their work, perhaps a consequence of the course’s location in the University as an overwhelmingly hearing environment. In this emphasis on captioning rather than sign as a route to making media accessible, we may be seeing a consequence of the emphasis Krentz describes as ubiquitous in deaf education “the desire to make the differences between deaf and hearing people recede” (16). Krentz suggests that his concept of the ‘hearing line’ “must be perpetually retested and re-examined. It reveals complex and shifting relationships between physical difference, cultural fabrication and identity” (7). The students’ movies and attitudes emphasised the reality of that complexity. Our research project explored how some young Deaf people attempted to create stories capable of crossing categories of deafness and ‘hearing-ness’… unstable (like other identity categories) while others constructed narratives that affirmed Deaf Culture or drew on the Deaf storytelling traditions. This is of particular interest in the Web 2.0 environment, given that its technologies are often lauded as having the politics of participation. The example of the Deaf Community asks reasonable questions about the validity of those claims, and it’s hard to escape the conclusion that there is still less than appropriate access and that some users are more equal than others.How do young people handle the continuing lack of material available to the on the Web? The answer repeatedly offered by our young male interviewees was ‘I can’t be bothered’. As distinct from “I can’t understand” or “I won’t go there” this answer, represented a disengagement from demands to identify your literacy levels, reveal your preferred means of communication; to rehearse arguments about questions of access or expose attempts to struggle to make sense of texts that fail to employ readily accessible means of communicating. Neither an admission of failure or a demand for change, CAN’T-BE-BOTHERED in this context offers a cool way out of an accessibility impasse. This easily-dismissed comment in interviews was confirmed in a whole-group discussions, when students came to a consensus that if when searching for video resources on the Net they found video that included neither signing nor captions, they would move on to find other more accessible resources. Even here, though, the ground continues to shift. YouTube recently announced that it was making its auto-captioning feature open to everybody - a machine generated system that whilst not perfect does attempt to make all YouTube videos accessible to deaf people. (Bertolucci).The importance of captioning of non-signed video is thrown into further significance by our observation from the course of the use of YouTube as a search engine by the participants. Many of the students when asked to research information on the Web bypassed text-based search engines and used the more visual results presented on YouTube directly. In research on deaf adolescents’ search strategies on the Internet, Smith points to the promise of graphical interfaces for deaf young people as a strategy for overcoming the English literacy difficulties experienced by many deaf young people (527). In the years since Smith’s research was undertaken, the graphical and audiovisual resources available on the Web have exploded and users are increasingly turning to these resources in their searches, providing new possibilities for Deaf users (see for instance Schonfeld; Fajardo et al.). Preliminary ConclusionsA number of recent writers have pointed out the ways that the internet has made everyday communication with government services, businesses, workmates and friends immeasurably easier for deaf people (Power, Power and Horstmanshof; Keating and Mirus; Valentine and Skelton, "Changing", "Umbilical"). The ready availability of information in a textual and graphical form on the Web, and ready access to direct contact with others on the move via SMS, has worked against what has been described as deaf peoples’ “information deprivation”, while everyday tasks – booking tickets, for example – are no longer a struggle to communicate face-to-face with hearing people (Valentine and Skelton, "Changing"; Bakken 169-70).The impacts of new technologies should not be seen in simple terms, however. Valentine and Skelton summarise: “the Internet is not producing either just positive or just negative outcomes for D/deaf people but rather is generating a complex set of paradoxical effects for different users” (Valentine and Skelton, "Umbilical" 12). They note, for example, that the ability, via text-based on-line social media to interact with other people on-line regardless of geographic location, hearing status or facility with sign language has been highly valued by some of their deaf respondents. They comment, however, that the fact that many deaf people, using the Internet, can “pass” minimises the need for hearing people in a phonocentric society to be aware of the diversity of ways communication can take place. They note, for example, that “few mainstream Websites demonstrate awareness of D/deaf peoples’ information and communication needs/preferences (eg. by incorporating sign language video clips)” ("Changing" 11). As such, many deaf people have an enhanced ability to interact with a range of others, but in a mode favoured by the dominant culture, a culture which is thus unchallenged by exposure to alternative strategies of communication. Our research, preliminary as it is, suggests a somewhat different take on these complex questions. The visually driven, image-rich approach taken to movie making, Web-searching and information sharing by our participants suggests the emergence of a certain kind of on-line culture which seems likely to be shared by deaf and hearing young people. However where Valentine and Skelton suggest deaf people, in order to participate on-line, are obliged to do so, on the terms of the hearing majority, the increasingly visual nature of Web 2.0 suggests that the terrain may be shifting – even if there is still some way to go.AcknowledgementsWe would like to thank Natalie Kull and Meg Stewart for their research assistance on this project, and participants in the course and members of the project’s steering group for their generosity with their time and ideas.ReferencesBahan, B. "Upon the Formation of a Visual Variety of the Human Race. In H-Dirksen L. Baumann (ed.), Open Your Eyes: Deaf Studies Talking. London: University of Minnesota Press, 2007.Bakken, F. “SMS Use among Deaf Teens and Young Adults in Norway.” In R. Harper, L. Palen, and A. Taylor (eds.), The Inside Text: Social, Cultural and Design Perspectives on SMS. Netherlands: Springe, 2005. 161-74. Berners-Lee, Tim. Weaving the Web. London: Orion Business, 1999.Bertolucci, Jeff. “YouTube Offers Auto-Captioning to All Users.” PC World 5 Mar. 2010. 5 Mar. 2010 < http://www.macworld.com/article/146879/2010/03/YouTube_captions.html >.Breivik, Jan Kare. Deaf Identities in the Making: Local Lives, Transnational Connections. Washington, D.C.: Gallaudet University Press, 2005.———. “Deaf Identities: Visible Culture, Hidden Dilemmas and Scattered Belonging.” In H.G. Sicakkan and Y.G. Lithman (eds.), What Happens When a Society Is Diverse: Exploring Multidimensional Identities. Lewiston, New York: Edwin Mellen Press, 2006. 75-104.Brueggemann, B.J. (ed.). Literacy and Deaf People’s Cultural and Contextual Perspectives. Washington, DC: Gaudellet University Press, 2004. Bruns, Axel. Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life and Beyond: From Production to Produsage. New York: Peter Lang, 2008.Byrnes, Linda, Jeff Sigafoos, Field Rickards, and P. Margaret Brown. “Inclusion of Students Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing in Government Schools in New South Wales, Australia: Development and Implementation of a Policy.” Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 7.3 (2002): 244-257.Cahill, Martin, and Scott Hollier. Social Media Accessibility Review 1.0. Media Access Australia, 2009. Cavender, Anna, and Richard Ladner. “Hearing Impairments.” In S. Harper and Y. Yesilada (eds.), Web Accessibility. London: Springer, 2008.Ellis, Katie. “A Purposeful Rebuilding: YouTube, Representation, Accessibility and the Socio-Political Space of Disability." Telecommunications Journal of Australia 60.2 (2010): 1.1-21.12.Fajardo, Inmaculada, Elena Parra, and Jose J. Canas. “Do Sign Language Videos Improve Web Navigation for Deaf Signer Users?” Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 15.3 (2009): 242-262.Harper, Phil. “Networking the Deaf Nation.” Australian Journal of Communication 30.3 (2003): 153-166.Hyde, M., D. Power, and K. Lloyd. "W(h)ither the Deaf Community? Comments on Trevor Johnston’s Population, Genetics and the Future of Australian Sign Language." Sign Language Studies 6.2 (2006): 190-201. Keating, Elizabeth, and Gene Mirus. “American Sign Language in Virtual Space: Interactions between Deaf Users of Computer-Mediated Video.” Language in Society 32.5 (Nov. 2003): 693-714.Krentz, Christopher. Writing Deafness: The Hearing Line in Nineteenth-Century Literature. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2007.Leigh, Irene. A Lens on Deaf Identities. Oxford: Oxford UP. 2009.Marshall Gentry, M., K.M. Chinn, and R.D. Moulton. “Effectiveness of Multimedia Reading Materials When Used with Children Who Are Deaf.” American Annals of the Deaf 5 (2004): 394-403.Mather, S., and E. Winston. "Spatial Mapping and Involvement in ASL Storytelling." In C. Lucas (ed.), Pinky Extension and Eye Gaze: Language Use in Deaf Communities. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press, 1998. 170-82.Metzger, M. "Constructed Action and Constructed Dialogue in American Sign Language." In C. Lucas (ed.), Sociolinguistics in Deaf Communities. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press, 1995. 255-71.Power, Des, and G. Leigh. "Principles and Practices of Literacy Development for Deaf Learners: A Historical Overview." Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 5.1 (2000): 3-8.Power, Des, and Merv Hyde. “The Characteristics and Extent of Participation of Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Students in Regular Classes in Australian Schools.” Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 7.4 (2002): 302-311.Power, M., and D. Power “Everyone Here Speaks TXT: Deaf People Using SMS in Australia and the Rest of the World.” Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 9.3 (2004). Power, M., D. Power, and L. Horstmanshof. “Deaf People Communicating via SMS, TTY, Relay Service, Fax, and Computers in Australia.” Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 12.1 (2007): 80-92. Rayman, J. "Storytelling in the Visual Mode: A Comparison of ASL and English." In E. Wilson (ed.), Storytelling & Conversation: Discourse in Deaf Communities. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press, 2002. 59-82.Schonfeld, Eric. "ComScore: YouTube Now 25 Percent of All Google Searches." Tech Crunch 18 Dec. 2008. 14 May 2009 < http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/12/18/comscore-YouTube-now-25-percent-of-all-google-searches/?rss >.Smith, Chad. “Where Is It? How Deaf Adolescents Complete Fact-Based Internet Search Tasks." American Annals of the Deaf 151.5 (2005-6).Swanwick, R., and S. Gregory (eds.). Sign Bilingual Education: Policy and Practice. Coleford: Douglas McLean Publishing, 2007.Tane Akamatsu, C., C. Mayer, and C. Farrelly. “An Investigation of Two-Way Text Messaging Use with Deaf Students at the Secondary Level.” Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 11.1 (2006): 120-131.Valentine, Gill, and Tracy Skelton. “Changing Spaces: The Role of the Internet in Shaping Deaf Geographies.” Social and Cultural Geography 9.5 (2008): 469-85.———. “‘An Umbilical Cord to the World’: The Role of the Internet in D/deaf People’s Information and Communication Practices." Information, Communication and Society 12.1 (2009): 44-65.Vogel, Jennifer, Clint Bowers, Cricket Meehan, Raegan Hoeft, and Kristy Bradley. “Virtual Reality for Life Skills Education: Program Evaluation.” Deafness and Education International 61 (2004): 39-47.Wilson, J. "The Tobacco Story: Narrative Structure in an ASL Story." In C. Lucas (ed.), Multicultural Aspects of Sociolinguistics in Deaf Communities. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press, 1996. 152-80.Winston (ed.). Storytelling and Conversation: Discourse in Deaf Communities. Washington, D.C: Gallaudet University Press. 59-82.Woods, Denise. “Communicating in Virtual Worlds through an Accessible Web 2.0 Solution." Telecommunications Journal of Australia 60.2 (2010): 19.1-19.16YouTube Most Viewed. Online video. YouTube 2009. 23 May 2009 < http://www.YouTube.com/browse?s=mp&t=a >.

Biology teaches us that organisms adapt—or don’t; sociology claims that people adapt—or don’t. We know that ideas can adapt; sometimes even institutions can adapt. Or not. Various papers in this issue attest in exciting ways to precisely such adaptations and maladaptations. (See, for example, the articles in this issue by Lelia Green, Leesa Bonniface, and Tami McMahon, by Lexey A. Bartlett, and by Debra Ferreday.) Adaptation is a part of nature and culture, but it’s the latter alone that interests me here. (However, see the article by Hutcheon and Bortolotti for a discussion of nature and culture together.) It’s no news to anyone that not only adaptations, but all art is bred of other art, though sometimes artists seem to get carried away. My favourite example of excess of association or attribution can be found in the acknowledgements page to a verse drama called Beatrice Chancy by the self-defined “maximalist” (not minimalist) poet, novelist, librettist, and critic, George Elliot Clarke. His selected list of the incarnations of the story of Beatrice Cenci, a sixteenth-century Italian noblewoman put to death for the murder of her father, includes dramas, romances, chronicles, screenplays, parodies, sculptures, photographs, and operas: dramas by Vincenzo Pieracci (1816), Percy Bysshe Shelley (1819), Juliusz Slowacki (1843), Waldter Landor (1851), Antonin Artaud (1935) and Alberto Moravia (1958); the romances by Francesco Guerrazi (1854), Henri Pierangeli (1933), Philip Lindsay (1940), Frederic Prokosch (1955) and Susanne Kircher (1976); the chronicles by Stendhal (1839), Mary Shelley (1839), Alexandre Dumas, père (1939-40), Robert Browning (1864), Charles Swinburne (1883), Corrado Ricci (1923), Sir Lionel Cust (1929), Kurt Pfister (1946) and Irene Mitchell (1991); the film/screenplay by Bertrand Tavernier and Colo O’Hagan (1988); the parody by Kathy Acker (1993); the sculpture by Harriet Hosmer (1857); the photograph by Julia Ward Cameron (1866); and the operas by Guido Pannain (1942), Berthold Goldschmidt (1951, 1995) and Havergal Brian (1962). (Beatrice Chancy, 152) He concludes the list with: “These creators have dallied with Beatrice Cenci, but I have committed indiscretions” (152). An “intertextual feast”, by Clarke’s own admission, this rewriting of Beatrice’s story—especially Percy Bysshe Shelley’s own verse play, The Cenci—illustrates brilliantly what Northrop Frye offered as the first principle of the production of literature: “literature can only derive its form from itself” (15). But in the last several decades, what has come to be called intertextuality theory has shifted thinking away from looking at this phenomenon from the point of view of authorial influences on the writing of literature (and works like Harold Bloom’s famous study of the Anxiety of Influence) and toward considering our readerly associations with literature, the connections we (not the author) make—as we read. We, the readers, have become “empowered”, as we say, and we’ve become the object of academic study in our own right. Among the many associations we inevitably make, as readers, is with adaptations of the literature we read, be it of Jane Austin novels or Beowulf. Some of us may have seen the 2006 rock opera of Beowulf done by the Irish Repertory Theatre; others await the new Neil Gaiman animated film. Some may have played the Beowulf videogame. I personally plan to miss the upcoming updated version that makes Beowulf into the son of an African explorer. But I did see Sturla Gunnarsson’s Beowulf and Grendel film, and yearned to see the comic opera at the Lincoln Centre Festival in 2006 called Grendel, the Transcendence of the Great Big Bad. I am not really interested in whether these adaptations—all in the last year or so—signify Hollywood’s need for a new “monster of the week” or are just the sign of a desire to cash in on the success of The Lord of the Rings. For all I know they might well act as an ethical reminder of the human in the alien in a time of global strife (see McGee, A4). What interests me is the impact these multiple adaptations can have on the reader of literature as well as on the production of literature. Literature, like painting, is usually thought of as what Nelson Goodman (114) calls a one-stage art form: what we read (like what we see on a canvas) is what is put there by the originating artist. Several major consequences follow from this view. First, the implication is that the work is thus an original and new creation by that artist. However, even the most original of novelists—like Salman Rushdie—are the first to tell you that stories get told and retold over and over. Indeed his controversial novel, The Satanic Verses, takes this as a major theme. Works like the Thousand and One Nights are crucial references in all of his work. As he writes in Haroun and the Sea of Stories: “no story comes from nowhere; new stories are born of old” (86). But illusion of originality is only one of the implications of seeing literature as a one-stage art form. Another is the assumption that what the writer put on paper is what we read. But entire doctoral programs in literary production and book history have been set up to study how this is not the case, in fact. Editors influence, even change, what authors want to write. Designers control how we literally see the work of literature. Beatrice Chancy’s bookend maps of historical Acadia literally frame how we read the historical story of the title’s mixed-race offspring of an African slave and a white slave owner in colonial Nova Scotia in 1801. Media interest or fashion or academic ideological focus may provoke a publisher to foreground in the physical presentation different elements of a text like this—its stress on race, or gender, or sexuality. The fact that its author won Canada’s Governor General’s Award for poetry might mean that the fact that this is a verse play is emphasised. If the book goes into a second edition, will a new preface get added, changing the framework for the reader once again? As Katherine Larson has convincingly shown, the paratextual elements that surround a work of literature like this one become a major site of meaning generation. What if literature were not a one-stage an art form at all? What if it were, rather, what Goodman calls “two-stage” (114)? What if we accept that other artists, other creators, are needed to bring it to life—editors, publishers, and indeed readers? In a very real and literal sense, from our (audience) point of view, there may be no such thing as a one-stage art work. Just as the experience of literature is made possible for readers by the writer, in conjunction with a team of professional and creative people, so, arguably all art needs its audience to be art; the un-interpreted, un-experienced art work is not worth calling art. Goodman resists this move to considering literature a two-stage art, not at all sure that readings are end products the way that performance works are (114). Plays, films, television shows, or operas would be his prime examples of two-stage arts. In each of these, a text (a playtext, a screenplay, a score, a libretto) is moved from page to stage or screen and given life, by an entire team of creative individuals: directors, actors, designers, musicians, and so on. Literary adaptations to the screen or stage are usually considered as yet another form of this kind of transcription or transposition of a written text to a performance medium. But the verbal move from the “book” to the diminutive “libretto” (in Italian, little book or booklet) is indicative of a view that sees adaptation as a step downward, a move away from a primary literary “source”. In fact, an entire negative rhetoric of “infidelity” has developed in both journalistic reviewing and academic discourse about adaptations, and it is a morally loaded rhetoric that I find surprising in its intensity. Here is the wonderfully critical description of that rhetoric by the king of film adaptation critics, Robert Stam: Terms like “infidelity,” “betrayal,” “deformation,” “violation,” “bastardisation,” “vulgarisation,” and “desecration” proliferate in adaptation discourse, each word carrying its specific charge of opprobrium. “Infidelity” carries overtones of Victorian prudishness; “betrayal” evokes ethical perfidy; “bastardisation” connotes illegitimacy; “deformation” implies aesthetic disgust and monstrosity; “violation” calls to mind sexual violence; “vulgarisation” conjures up class degradation; and “desecration” intimates religious sacrilege and blasphemy. (3) I join many others today, like Stam, in challenging the persistence of this fidelity discourse in adaptation studies, thereby providing yet another example of what, in his article here called “The Persistence of Fidelity: Adaptation Theory Today,” John Connor has called the “fidelity reflex”—the call to end an obsession with fidelity as the sole criterion for judging the success of an adaptation. But here I want to come at this same issue of the relation of adaptation to the adapted text from another angle. When considering an adaptation of a literary work, there are other reasons why the literary “source” text might be privileged. Literature has historical priority as an art form, Stam claims, and so in some people’s eyes will always be superior to other forms. But does it actually have priority? What about even earlier performative forms like ritual and song? Or to look forward, instead of back, as Tim Barker urges us to do in his article here, what about the new media’s additions to our repertoire with the advent of electronic technology? How can we retain this hierarchy of artistic forms—with literature inevitably on top—in a world like ours today? How can both the Romantic ideology of original genius and the capitalist notion of individual authorship hold up in the face of the complex reality of the production of literature today (as well as in the past)? (In “Amen to That: Sampling and Adapting the Past”, Steve Collins shows how digital technology has changed the possibilities of musical creativity in adapting/sampling.) Like many other ages before our own, adaptation is rampant today, as director Spike Jonze and screenwriter Charlie Kaufman clearly realised in creating Adaptation, their meta-cinematic illustration-as-send-up film about adaptation. But rarely has a culture denigrated the adapter as a secondary and derivative creator as much as we do the screenwriter today—as Jonze explores with great irony. Michelle McMerrin and Sergio Rizzo helpfully explain in their pieces here that one of the reasons for this is the strength of auteur theory in film criticism. But we live in a world in which works of literature have been turned into more than films. We now have literary adaptations in the forms of interactive new media works and videogames; we have theme parks; and of course, we have the more common television series, radio and stage plays, musicals, dance works, and operas. And, of course, we now have novelisations of films—and they are not given the respect that originary novels are given: it is the adaptation as adaptation that is denigrated, as Deborah Allison shows in “Film/Print: Novelisations and Capricorn One”. Adaptations across media are inevitably fraught, and for complex and multiple reasons. The financing and distribution issues of these widely different media alone inevitably challenge older capitalist models. The need or desire to appeal to a global market has consequences for adaptations of literature, especially with regard to its regional and historical specificities. These particularities are what usually get adapted or “indigenised” for new audiences—be they the particularities of the Spanish gypsy Carmen (see Ioana Furnica, “Subverting the ‘Good, Old Tune’”), those of the Japanese samurai genre (see Kevin P. Eubanks, “Becoming-Samurai: Samurai [Films], Kung-Fu [Flicks] and Hip-Hop [Soundtracks]”), of American hip hop graffiti (see Kara-Jane Lombard, “‘To Us Writers, the Differences Are Obvious’: The Adaptation of Hip Hop Graffiti to an Australian Context”) or of Jane Austen’s fiction (see Suchitra Mathur, “From British ‘Pride’ to Indian ‘Bride’: Mapping the Contours of a Globalised (Post?)Colonialism”). What happens to the literary text that is being adapted, often multiple times? Rather than being displaced by the adaptation (as is often feared), it most frequently gets a new life: new editions of the book appear, with stills from the movie adaptation on its cover. But if I buy and read the book after seeing the movie, I read it differently than I would have before I had seen the film: in effect, the book, not the adaptation, has become the second and even secondary text for me. And as I read, I can only “see” characters as imagined by the director of the film; the cinematic version has taken over, has even colonised, my reader’s imagination. The literary “source” text, in my readerly, experiential terms, becomes the secondary work. It exists on an experiential continuum, in other words, with its adaptations. It may have been created before, but I only came to know it after. What if I have read the literary work first, and then see the movie? In my imagination, I have already cast the characters: I know what Gabriel and Gretta Conroy of James Joyce’s story, “The Dead,” look and sound like—in my imagination, at least. Then along comes John Huston’s lush period piece cinematic adaptation and the director superimposes his vision upon mine; his forcibly replaces mine. But, in this particular case, Huston still arguably needs my imagination, or at least my memory—though he may not have realised it fully in making the film. When, in a central scene in the narrative, Gabriel watches his wife listening, moved, to the singing of the Irish song, “The Lass of Aughrim,” what we see on screen is a concerned, intrigued, but in the end rather blank face: Gabriel doesn’t alter his expression as he listens and watches. His expression may not change—but I know exactly what he is thinking. Huston does not tell us; indeed, without the use of voice-over, he cannot. And since the song itself is important, voice-over is impossible. But I know exactly what he is thinking: I’ve read the book. I fill in the blank, so to speak. Gabriel looks at Gretta and thinks: There was grace and mystery in her attitude as if she were a symbol of something. He asked himself what is a woman standing on the stairs in the shadow, listening to distant music, a symbol of. If he were a painter he would paint her in that attitude. … Distant Music he would call the picture if he were a painter. (210) A few pages later the narrator will tell us: At last she turned towards them and Gabriel saw that there was colour on her cheeks and that her eyes were shining. A sudden tide of joy went leaping out of his heart. (212) This joy, of course, puts him in a very different—disastrously different—state of mind than his wife, who (we later learn) is remembering a young man who sang that song to her when she was a girl—and who died, for love of her. I know this—because I’ve read the book. Watching the movie, I interpret Gabriel’s blank expression in this knowledge. Just as the director’s vision can colonise my visual and aural imagination, so too can I, as reader, supplement the film’s silence with the literary text’s inner knowledge. The question, of course, is: should I have to do so? Because I have read the book, I will. But what if I haven’t read the book? Will I substitute my own ideas, from what I’ve seen in the rest of the film, or from what I’ve experienced in my own life? Filmmakers always have to deal with this problem, of course, since the camera is resolutely externalising, and actors must reveal their inner worlds through bodily gesture or facial expression for the camera to record and for the spectator to witness and comprehend. But film is not only a visual medium: it uses music and sound, and it also uses words—spoken words within the dramatic situation, words overheard on the street, on television, but also voice-over words, spoken by a narrating figure. Stephen Dedalus escapes from Ireland at the end of Joseph Strick’s 1978 adaptation of Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man with the same words as he does in the novel, where they appear as Stephen’s diary entry: Amen. So be it. Welcome, O life! I go to encounter for the millionth time the reality of experience and to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race. … Old father, old artificer, stand me now and ever in good stead. (253) The words from the novel also belong to the film as film, with its very different story, less about an artist than about a young Irishman finally able to escape his family, his religion and his country. What’s deliberately NOT in the movie is the irony of Joyce’s final, benign-looking textual signal to his reader: Dublin, 1904 Trieste, 1914 The first date is the time of Stephen’s leaving Dublin—and the time of his return, as we know from the novel Ulysses, the sequel, if you like, to this novel. The escape was short-lived! Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man has an ironic structure that has primed its readers to expect not escape and triumph but something else. Each chapter of the novel has ended on this kind of personal triumphant high; the next has ironically opened with Stephen mired in the mundane and in failure. Stephen’s final words in both film and novel remind us that he really is an Icarus figure, following his “Old father, old artificer”, his namesake, Daedalus. And Icarus, we recall, takes a tumble. In the novel version, we are reminded that this is the portrait of the artist “as a young man”—later, in 1914, from the distance of Trieste (to which he has escaped) Joyce, writing this story, could take some ironic distance from his earlier persona. There is no such distance in the film version. However, it stands alone, on its own; Joyce’s irony is not appropriate in Strick’s vision. His is a different work, with its own message and its own, considerably more romantic and less ironic power. Literary adaptations are their own things—inspired by, based on an adapted text but something different, something other. I want to argue that these works adapted from literature are now part of our readerly experience of that literature, and for that reason deserve the same attention we give to the literary, and not only the same attention, but also the same respect. I am a literarily trained person. People like me who love words, already love plays, but shouldn’t we also love films—and operas, and musicals, and even videogames? There is no need to denigrate words that are heard (and visualised) in order to privilege words that are read. Works of literature can have afterlives in their adaptations and translations, just as they have pre-lives, in terms of influences and models, as George Eliot Clarke openly allows in those acknowledgements to Beatrice Chancy. I want to return to that Canadian work, because it raises for me many of the issues about adaptation and language that I see at the core of our literary distrust of the move away from the written, printed text. I ended my recent book on adaptation with a brief examination of this work, but I didn’t deal with this particular issue of language. So I want to return to it, as to unfinished business. Clarke is, by the way, clear in the verse drama as well as in articles and interviews that among the many intertexts to Beatrice Chancy, the most important are slave narratives, especially one called Celia, a Slave, and Shelley’s play, The Cenci. Both are stories of mistreated and subordinated women who fight back. Since Clarke himself has written at length about the slave narratives, I’m going to concentrate here on Shelley’s The Cenci. The distance from Shelley’s verse play to Clarke’s verse play is a temporal one, but it is also geographic and ideological one: from the old to the new world, and from a European to what Clarke calls an “Africadian” (African Canadian/African Acadian) perspective. Yet both poets were writing political protest plays against unjust authority and despotic power. And they have both become plays that are more read than performed—a sad fate, according to Clarke, for two works that are so concerned with voice. We know that Shelley sought to calibrate the stylistic registers of his work with various dramatic characters and effects to create a modern “mixed” style that was both a return to the ancients and offered a new drama of great range and flexibility where the expression fits what is being expressed (see Bruhn). His polemic against eighteenth-century European dramatic conventions has been seen as leading the way for realist drama later in the nineteenth century, with what has been called its “mixed style mimesis” (Bruhn) Clarke’s adaptation does not aim for Shelley’s perfect linguistic decorum. It mixes the elevated and the biblical with the idiomatic and the sensual—even the vulgar—the lushly poetic with the coarsely powerful. But perhaps Shelley’s idea of appropriate language fits, after all: Beatrice Chancy is a woman of mixed blood—the child of a slave woman and her slave owner; she has been educated by her white father in a convent school. Sometimes that educated, elevated discourse is heard; at other times, she uses the variety of discourses operative within slave society—from religious to colloquial. But all the time, words count—as in all printed and oral literature. Clarke’s verse drama was given a staged reading in Toronto in 1997, but the story’s, if not the book’s, real second life came when it was used as the basis for an opera libretto. Actually the libretto commission came first (from Queen of Puddings Theatre in Toronto), and Clarke started writing what was to be his first of many opera texts. Constantly frustrated by the art form’s demands for concision, he found himself writing two texts at once—a short libretto and a longer, five-act tragic verse play to be published separately. Since it takes considerably longer to sing than to speak (or read) a line of text, the composer James Rolfe keep asking for cuts—in the name of economy (too many singers), because of clarity of action for audience comprehension, or because of sheer length. Opera audiences have to sit in a theatre for a fixed length of time, unlike readers who can put a book down and return to it later. However, what was never sacrificed to length or to the demands of the music was the language. In fact, the double impact of the powerful mixed language and the equally potent music, increases the impact of the literary text when performed in its operatic adaptation. Here is the verse play version of the scene after Beatrice’s rape by her own father, Francis Chancey: I was black but comely. Don’t glance Upon me. This flesh is crumbling Like proved lies. I’m perfumed, ruddied Carrion. Assassinated. Screams of mucking juncos scrawled Over the chapel and my nerves, A stickiness, as when he finished Maculating my thighs and dress. My eyes seep pus; I can’t walk: the floors Are tizzy, dented by stout mauling. Suddenly I would like poison. The flesh limps from my spine. My inlets crimp. Vultures flutter, ghastly, without meaning. I can see lice swarming the air. … His scythe went shick shick shick and slashed My flowers; they lay, murdered, in heaps. (90) The biblical and the violent meet in the texture of the language. And none of that power gets lost in the opera adaptation, despite cuts and alterations for easier aural comprehension. I was black but comely. Don’t look Upon me: this flesh is dying. I’m perfumed, bleeding carrion, My eyes weep pus, my womb’s sopping With tears; I can hardly walk: the floors Are tizzy, the sick walls tumbling, Crumbling like proved lies. His scythe went shick shick shick and cut My flowers; they lay in heaps, murdered. (95) Clarke has said that he feels the libretto is less “literary” in his words than the verse play, for it removes the lines of French, Latin, Spanish and Italian that pepper the play as part of the author’s critique of the highly educated planter class in Nova Scotia: their education did not guarantee ethical behaviour (“Adaptation” 14). I have not concentrated on the music of the opera, because I wanted to keep the focus on the language. But I should say that the Rolfe’s score is as historically grounded as Clarke’s libretto: it is rooted in African Canadian music (from ring shouts to spirituals to blues) and in Scottish fiddle music and local reels of the time, not to mention bel canto Italian opera. However, the music consciously links black and white traditions in a way that Clarke’s words and story refuse: they remain stubbornly separate, set in deliberate tension with the music’s resolution. Beatrice will murder her father, and, at the very moment that Nova Scotia slaves are liberated, she and her co-conspirators will be hanged for that murder. Unlike the printed verse drama, the shorter opera libretto functions like a screenplay, if you will. It is not so much an autonomous work unto itself, but it points toward a potential enactment or embodiment in performance. Yet, even there, Clarke cannot resist the lure of words—even though they are words that no audience will ever hear. The stage directions for Act 3, scene 2 of the opera read: “The garden. Slaves, sunflowers, stars, sparks” (98). The printed verse play is full of these poetic associative stage directions, suggesting that despite his protestations to the contrary, Clarke may have thought of that version as one meant to be read by the eye. After Beatrice’s rape, the stage directions read: “A violin mopes. Invisible shovelsful of dirt thud upon the scene—as if those present were being buried alive—like ourselves” (91). Our imaginations—and emotions—go to work, assisted by the poet’s associations. There are many such textual helpers—epigraphs, photographs, notes—that we do not have when we watch and listen to the opera. We do have the music, the staged drama, the colours and sounds as well as the words of the text. As Clarke puts the difference: “as a chamber opera, Beatrice Chancy has ascended to television broadcast. But as a closet drama, it play only within the reader’s head” (“Adaptation” 14). Clarke’s work of literature, his verse drama, is a “situated utterance, produced in one medium and in one historical and social context,” to use Robert Stam’s terms. In the opera version, it was transformed into another “equally situated utterance, produced in a different context and relayed through a different medium” (45-6). I want to argue that both are worthy of study and respect by wordsmiths, by people like me. I realise I’ve loaded the dice: here neither the verse play nor the libretto is primary; neither is really the “source” text, for they were written at the same time and by the same person. But for readers and audiences (my focus and interest here), they exist on a continuum—depending on which we happen to experience first. As Ilana Shiloh explores here, the same is true about the short story and film of Memento. I am not alone in wanting to mount a defence of adaptations. Julie Sanders ends her new book called Adaptation and Appropriation with these words: “Adaptation and appropriation … are, endlessly and wonderfully, about seeing things come back to us in as many forms as possible” (160). The storytelling imagination is an adaptive mechanism—whether manifesting itself in print or on stage or on screen. The study of the production of literature should, I would like to argue, include those other forms taken by that storytelling drive. If I can be forgiven a move to the amusing—but still serious—in concluding, Terry Pratchett puts it beautifully in his fantasy story, Witches Abroad: “Stories, great flapping ribbons of shaped space-time, have been blowing and uncoiling around the universe since the beginning of time. And they have evolved. The weakest have died and the strongest have survived and they have grown fat on the retelling.” In biology as in culture, adaptations reign. References Bloom, Harold. The Anxiety of Influence. New York: Oxford University Press, 1975. Bruhn, Mark J. “’Prodigious Mixtures and Confusions Strange’: The Self-Subverting Mixed Style of The Cenci.” Poetics Today 22.4 (2001). Clarke, George Elliott. “Beatrice Chancy: A Libretto in Four Acts.” Canadian Theatre Review 96 (1998): 62-79. ———. Beatrice Chancy. Victoria, BC: Polestar, 1999. ———. “Adaptation: Love or Cannibalism? Some Personal Observations”, unpublished manuscript of article. Frye, Northrop. The Educated Imagination. Toronto: CBC, 1963. Goodman, Nelson. Languages of Art: An Approach to a Theory of Symbols. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1968. Hutcheon, Linda, and Gary R. Bortolotti. “On the Origin of Adaptations: Rethinking Fidelity Discourse and “Success”—Biologically.” New Literary History. Forthcoming. Joyce, James. Dubliners. 1916. New York: Viking, 1967. ———. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. 1916. Penguin: Harmondsworth, 1960. Larson, Katherine. “Resistance from the Margins in George Elliott Clarke’s Beatrice Chancy.” Canadian Literature 189 (2006): 103-118. McGee, Celia. “Beowulf on Demand.” New York Times, Arts and Leisure. 30 April 2006. A4. Rushdie, Salman. The Satanic Verses. New York: Viking, 1988. ———. Haroun and the Sea of Stories. London: Granta/Penguin, 1990. Sanders, Julie. Adaptation and Appropriation. London and New York: Routledge, 160. Shelley, Percy Bysshe. The Cenci. Ed. George Edward Woodberry. Boston and London: Heath, 1909. Stam, Robert. “Introduction: The Theory and Practice of Adaptation.” Literature and Film: A Guide to the Theory and Practice of Film Adaptation. Oxford: Blackwell, 2005. 1-52. Citation reference for this article MLA Style Hutcheon, Linda. "In Defence of Literary Adaptation as Cultural Production." M/C Journal 10.2 (2007). echo date('d M. Y'); ?> <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0705/01-hutcheon.php>. APA Style Hutcheon, L. (May 2007) "In Defence of Literary Adaptation as Cultural Production," M/C Journal, 10(2). Retrieved echo date('d M. Y'); ?> from <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0705/01-hutcheon.php>.

The Walt Disney Company has been creating magical fairy tales since the early 1900s and is a trusted brand synonymous with wholesome, family entertainment (Wasko). Over time, this reputation has resulted in the Disney brand’s huge financial growth and influence on audiences worldwide. (Wohlwend). As the largest global media powerhouse in the Western world (Beattie), Disney uses its power and influence to shape the perceptions and ideologies of its audience. In the twenty-first century there has been a proliferation of retellings of Disney fairy tales, and Kilmer suggests that although the mainstream perception is that these new iterations promote gender equity, new cultural awareness around gender stereotypes, and cultural insensitivity, this is illusory. Tangled, for example, was a popular film selling over 10 million DVD copies and positioned as a bold new female fairy tale character; however, academics took issue with this position, writing articles entitled “Race, Gender and the Politics of Hair: Disney’s Tangled Feminist Messages”, “Tangled: A Celebration of White Femininity”, and “Disney’s Tangled: Fun, But Not Feminist”, berating the film for its lack of any true feminist examples or progressiveness (Kilmer). One way to assess the impact of Disney is to look at the use of shape shifting and transformation in the narratives – particularly those that include women and young girls. Research shows that girls and women are often stereotyped and sexualised in the mass media (Smith et al.; Collins), and Disney regularly utilises body modification and metamorphosis within its narratives to emphasise what good and evil ‘look’ like. These magical transformations evoke what Marina Warner refers to as part of the necessary surprise element of the fairy tale, while creating suspense and identity with storylines and characters. In early Disney films such as the 1937 version of Snow White, the queen becomes the witch who brings a poison apple to the princess; and in the 1959 film Sleeping Beauty the ‘bad’ fairy Maleficent shapeshifts into a malevolent dragon. Whilst these ‘good to evil’ (and vice versa) tropes are easily recognised, there are additional transformations that are arguably more problematic than those of the increasingly terrifying monsters or villains. Disney has created what we have coined the ‘princess bubble’, where the physique and behaviour of the leading women in the tales has become a predictor of success and good fortune, and the impression is created of a link between their possession of beauty and the ‘happily-ever-after’ outcome received by the female character. The value, or worth, of a princess is shown within these stories to often increase according to her ability to attract men. For example, in Brave, Queen Elinor showcases the extreme measures taken to ‘present’ her daughter Merida to male suitors. Merida is preened, dressed, and shown how to behave to increase her value to her family, and whilst she manages to persuade them to set aside their patriarchal ideologies in the end, it is clear what is expected from Merida in order to gain male attention. Similarly, Cinderella, Aurora, and Snow White are found to be of high ‘worth’ by the princes on account of their beauty and form. We contend, therefore, that the impression often cast on audiences by Disney princesses emphasises that beauty = worth, no matter how transgressive Disney appears to be on the surface. These princesses are flawlessly beautiful, capable of winning the heart of the prince by triumphing over their less attractive rivals – who are often sisters or other family members. This creates the illusion among young audiences that physical attractiveness is enough to achieve success, and emphasises beauty as the priority above all else. Therefore, the Disney ‘princess bubble’ is highly problematic. It presents a narrow range of acceptability for female characters, offers a distorted view of gender, and serves to further engrain into popular culture a flawed stereotype on how to look and behave that negates a fuller representation of female characters. In addition, Armando Maggi argues that since fairy tales have been passed down through generations, they have become an intrinsic part of many people’s upbringing and are part of a kind of universal imaginary and repository of cultural values. This means that these iconic cultural stories are “unlikely to ever be discarded because they possess both a sentimental value and a moral ‘soundness’” (Rutherford 33), albeit that the lessons to be learnt are at times antiquated and exclusionary in contemporary society. The marketing and promotion of the Disney princess line has resulted in these characters becoming an extremely popular form of media and merchandise for young girls (Coyne et al. 2), and Disney has received great financial benefit from the success of its long history of popular films and merchandise. As a global corporation with influence across multiple entertainment platforms, from its streaming channel to merchandise and theme parks, the gender portrayals therefore impact on culture and, in particular, on how young audiences view gender representation. Therefore, it could be argued that Disney has a social responsibility to ensure that its messages and characters do not skew or become damaging to the psyche of its young audiences who are highly impressionable. When the representation of gender is examined, however, Disney tends to create highly gendered performances in both the early and modern iterations of fairy tales, and the princess characters remain within a narrow range of physical portrayals and agency. The Princess Bubble Although there are twelve official characters within the Disney princess umbrella, plus Elsa and Anna from the Disney Frozen franchise, this article examines the eleven characters who are either born or become royalty through marriage, and exhibit characteristics that could be argued to be the epitome of feminine representation in fairy tales. The characters within this ‘princess bubble’ are Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, Tiana, Rapunzel, Merida, Elsa, and Anna. The physical appearance of those in the princess bubble also connects to displays around the physical aspects of ethnicity. Nine out of eleven are white skinned, with Jasmine having lightened in skin tone over time, and Tiana now having a tanned look rather than the original dark African American complexion seen in 2009 (Brucculieri). This reinforces an ideology that being white is superior. Every princess in our sample has thick and healthy long hair, the predominant colour being blonde. Their eyes are mostly blue, with only three possessing a dark colour, a factor which reinforces the characteristics and representation of white ethnic groups. Their eyes are also big and bulbous in shape, with large irises and pupils, and extraordinarily long eyelashes that create an almost child-like look of innocence that matches their young age. These princesses have an average age of sixteen years and are always naïve, most without formal education or worldly experience, and they have additional distinctive traits which include poise, elegance and other desired feminine characteristics – like kindness and purity. Ehrenreich and Orenstein note that the physical attributes of the Disney princesses are so evident that the creators have drawn criticism for over-glamorising them, and for their general passiveness and reliance on men for their happiness. Essentially, these women are created in the image of the ultimate male fantasy, where an increased value is placed on the virginal look, followed by a perfect tiny body and an ability to follow basic instructions. The slim bodies of these princesses are disproportionate, and include long necks, demure shoulders, medium- to large-sized perky breasts, with tiny waists, wrists, ankles and feet. Thus, it can be argued that the main theme for those within the princess bubble is their physical body and beauty, and the importance of being attractive to achieve success. The importance of the physical form is so valued that the first blessing given by the fairies to Aurora from Sleeping Beauty is the gift of physical beauty (Rutherford). Furthermore, Tanner et al. argue that the "images of love at first sight in the films encourage the belief that physical appearance is the most important thing", and these fairy tales often reflect a pattern that the prince cannot help but to instantly fall in love with these women because they are so striking. In some instances, like the stories of Cinderella and Snow White, these princesses have not uttered a single word to their prince before these men fall unconditionally and hopelessly in love. Cinderella need only to turn up at the ball as the best dressed (Parks), while Snow White must merely “wait prettily, because someday her prince will come" (Inge) to reestablish her as royalty. Disney emphasises that these princesses win their man solely on the basis that they are the most beautiful girls in the land. In Sleeping Beauty, the prince overhears Aurora’s singing and that sets his heart aflame to the point of refusing to wed the woman chosen for him at birth by the king. Fortunately, she is one and the same person, so the patriarchy survives, but this idea of beauty, and of 'love at first sight', continues to be a central part of Disney movies today, and shows that “Disney Films are vehicles of powerful gender ideologies” (Hairianto). These princesses within the bubble of perfection have priority placed on their physical and sexual beauty (Dietz), formulating a kind of ‘beauty contest motif’. Examples include Gaston, who does not love Belle in Beauty and the Beast, but simply wants her as his trophy wife because he deems her to be the most beautiful girl in the town. Ariel, from The Little Mermaid, looks as if she "was modeled after a slightly anorexic Barbie doll with thin waist and prominent bust. This representation portrays a dangerous model for young women" (Zarranz). The sexualisation of the characters continues as Jasmine has “a delicate nose and small mouth" (Lacroix), with a dress that can be considered as highly sexualised and unsuitable for a girl of sixteen (Lacroix). In Tangled, Rapunzel is held hostage in the tower by Mother Gothel because she is ‘as fragile as a flower’ and needs to be ‘kept safe’ from the harms in the world. But it is her beauty that scares the witch the most, because losing Rapunzel would leave the old woman without her magical anti-aging hair. She uses scare tactics to ensure that Rapunzel remains unseen to the world. These examples are all variations of the beauty theme, as the princesses all fall within narrow and predictable tropes of love at first sight where the woman is rescued and initiated into womanhood by being chosen by a man. Disney’s Progressive Representation? At times Disney’s portrayal of princesses appears illusively progressive, by introducing new and different variations of princesses into the fold – such as Merida in the 2012 film Brave. Unfortunately, this is merely an illusion as the ‘body-perfect’ image remains an all-important ideal to snare a prince. Merida, the young and spirited teenage princess, begins her tale determined not to conform to the desired standards set for a woman of her standing; however, when the time comes for her to be married, there is no negotiating with her mother, the queen, on dress compliance. Merida is clothed against her will to re-identify her in the manner which her parents deem appropriate. Her ability to express her identity and individuality removed, now replaced by a masked version, and thus with the true Merida lost in this transformation, her parents consider Merida to be of renewed merit and benefit to the family. This shows that Disney remains unchanged in its depiction of who may ‘fit’ within the princess bubble, because the rubric is unchanged on how to win the heart of the man. In fact, this film is possibly more troublesome than the rest because it clearly depicts her parents to deem her to be of more value only after her mother has altered her physical appearance. It is only after the total collapse of the royal family that King Fergus has a change of patriarchal heart, and in fact Disney does not portray this rumpled, ripped-sleeved version of the princess in its merchandising campaign. While the fantasy of fairy tales provides enthralling adventures that always end in happiness for the pretty princesses that encounter them, consideration must be given to all those women who have not met the standard and are left in their wake. If women do not conform to the standards of representation, they are presented as outcasts, and happiness eludes them. Cinderella, for example, has two ugly stepsisters, who, no matter how hard they might try, are unable to match her in attractiveness, kindness, or grace. Disney has embraced and not shunned Perrault’s original retelling of the tale, by ensuring that these stepsisters are ugly. They have not been blessed with any attributes whatsoever, and cannot sing, dance, or play music; nor can they sew, cook, clean, or behave respectably. These girls will never find a suitor, let alone a prince, no matter how eager they are to do so. On the physical comparison, Anastasia and Drizella have bodies that are far more rounded and voluptuous, with feet, for example, that are more than double the size of Cinderella’s magical slipper. These women clearly miss the parameters of our princess bubble, emphasising that Disney is continuing to promote dangerous narratives that could potentially harm young audience conceptions of femininity at an important period in their development. Therefore, despite the ‘progressive’ strides made by Disney in response to the vast criticism of their earlier films, the agency afforded to their new generation of princesses does not alter the fact that success comes to those who are beautiful. These beautiful people continue to win every time. Furthermore, Hairianto has found that it is not uncommon for the media to directly or indirectly promote “mental models of how a woman should look, speak and interact with others”, and that Disney uses its pervasive princess influence “to shape perceptions of female identity and desirability. Females are made to measure themselves against the set of values that are meted out by the films” (Hairianto). In the 2017 film Beauty and the Beast, those outside of the princess bubble are seen in the characters of the three maidens from the village who are always trying to look their very best in the hope of attracting Gaston (Rutherford). Gaston is not only disinterested but shows borderline contempt at their glances by permitting his horse to spray mud and dirt all over their fine clothing. They do not meet the beauty standard set, and instead of questioning his cruelty, the audience is left laughing at the horse’s antics. Interestingly, the earlier version of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast portrays these maidens as blonde, slim, and sexy, closely fitting the model of beauty displayed in our princess bubble; however, none match the beauty of Belle, and are therefore deemed inferior. In this manner, Disney is being irresponsible, placing little interest in the psychological ‘safety’ or affect the messages have upon young girls who will never meet these expectations (Ehrenreich; Best and Lowney; Orenstein). Furthermore, bodies are shaped and created by culture. They are central to self-identity, becoming a projection of how we see ourselves. Grosz (xii) argues that our notions of our bodies begin in physicality but are forever shaped by our interactions with social realities and cultural norms. The media are constantly filled with images that “glorify and highlight some kinds of bodies (for example, the young, able-bodied and beautiful) while ignoring or condemning others” (Jones 193), and these influences on gender, ethnicity, sexuality, race, and religion within popular culture therefore play a huge part in identity creation. In Disney films, the princess bubble constantly sings the same song, and “children view these stereotypical roles as the right and only way to behave” (Ewert). In The Princess and the Frog, Tiana’s friend Charlotte is so desperate to ‘catch’ a prince that "she humorously over-applies her makeup and adjusts her ball gown to emphasize her cleavage" (Breaux), but the point is not lost. Additionally, “making sure that girls become worthy of love seems central to Disney’s fairy tale films” (Rutherford 76), and because their fairy tales are so pervasive and popular, young viewers receive a consistent message that being beautiful and having a tiny doll-like body type is paramount. “This can be destructive for developing girls’ views and images of their own bodies, which are not proportioned the way that they see on screen” (Cordwell 21). “The strongly gendered messages present in the resolutions of the movies help to reinforce the desirability of traditional gender conformity” (England et al. 565). Conclusion The princess bubble is a phenomenon that has been seen in Disney’s representation of female characters for decades. Within this bubble there is a narrow range of representation permitted, and attempts to make the characters more progressive have instead resulted in narrow and restrictive constraints, reinforcing dangerous female stereotypes. Kilmer suggests that ultimately these representations fail to break away from “hegemonic assumptions about gender norms, class boundaries, and Caucasian privileging”. Ultimately this presents audiences with strong and persuasive messages about gender performance. Audiences conform their bodies to societal ‘rules’: “as to how we ‘wear’ and ‘use’ our bodies” (Richardson and Locks x), including for example how we should dress, what we should weigh, and how to become popular. In our global hypermediated society, viewers are constantly exposed to princesses and other appropriate bodies. These become internalised ideals and aid in positive and negative thoughts and self-identity, which in turn creates additional pressure on the female body in particular. The seemingly innocent stories with happy outcomes are therefore unrealistic and ultimately excluding of those who cannot or will not ‘fit into the princess bubble’. The princess bubble, we argue, is therefore predictable and restrictive, promoting female passiveness and a reliance of physical traits over intelligence. The dominance of beauty over all else remains the road to female success in the Disney fairy tale film. References Beauty and the Beast. Dirs. Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise. Walt Disney Productions, 1991. Film. Beauty and the Beast. Dir. Bill Condon. Walt Disney Pictures, 2017. Film. Best, Joel, and Kathleen S. Lowney. “The Disadvantage of a Good Reputation: Disney as a Target for Social Problems Claims.” The Sociological Quarterly 50 (2009): 431–449. doi:10.1111/j.1533-8525.2009.01147.x. Brave. Dirs. Mark Andrews and Brenda Chapman. Walt Disney Pictures, 2012. Film. Breaux, Richard, M. “After 75 Years of Magic: Disney Answers Its Critics, Rewrites African American History, and Cashes in on Its Racist Past.” Journal of African American Studies 14 (2010): 398-416. Cinderella. Dirs. Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, and Hamilton Luske. 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