ZETEO

“Everything Is Done in Pantomime” – part II of II

July 24, 2014 by William Eaton

The second of two reviews. See part I – click here In Pictures from Italy, Charles Dickens’ description of Napolitanos doing “everything in pantomime” illustrates his unsurpassed skill at animating a scene: …beggars rap their chins with their right hands… the conventional sign for hunger. A man quarrelling with another lays the palm of his right hand on the back of his left, and shakes the two thumbs—expressive of a donkey’s ears — [goading] his adversary. Two people bargaining for […]

Categories: Tucker Cox, ZiR • Tags: travel

All I Want is a Job!

July 22, 2014 by William Eaton

By Moorel Bey Review of All I Want Is A Job! Unemployed Women Navigating the Public Workforce System by Mary Gatta (Stanford University Press, 2014) [print_link] [email_link] The Great Recession that began in 2007 has also been referred to as the “Great Mancession” due to the fact job loss was predominantly in male-dominated fields such as transportation, manufacturing, and construction. At the same time, female-dominated fields, such as education, health services, public administration, and government, saw slight increases in employment. […]

Categories: Review • Tags: jobs, women

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I, too, am America

July 22, 2014 by Ana Maria Caballero

“Langston Hughes, although only twenty-four years old, is already conspicuous in the group of Negro intellectuals who are dignifying Harlem with a genuine art life. . . .” wrote author Du Bose Heyward in the New York Herald Tribune in 1926. Despite such praise, Hughes was derided by his fellow black writers of the time for allowing race to be a main character in many of his works. The Poetry Foundation’s site has a terrific summary of Hughes’s historical relevance. […]

Categories: Ana Maria Caballero, ZiR • Tags: History, literature, poetry, writing

Children’s role as cultural brokers

July 21, 2014 by Alexia Raynal

I met Vikki Katz before I ever knew her writing, but I would equally recommend her work if I didn’t know her. For someone who is interested in the way people see and talk about children (and specifically about children born to immigrant families), Katz’s writing is inspiring. Katz’s most recent book, Kids in the Middle: How Children of Immigrants Negotiate Community Interactions for Their Families, documents children’s roles as cultural brokers. She explains how children of immigrants in the US use their English language […]

Categories: Alexia Raynal, ZiR • Tags: children of immigrants, immigrant families

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A Romantic Interjuxtaposition

July 20, 2014 by William Eaton

[print_link] [email_link] In a spirit of fun, romance, and experimentation, today I am going to interpose and juxtapose reworded extracts of two texts: one a classic adventure novel and the other the script of a well-known romantic comedy. Readers may well guess the titles. Reading the one, I thought it fit neatly with the other, for all more than one hundred years separated them. The two passages seemed in dialogue, two approaches to the same den. The interjuxtaposition I had […]

Categories: William Eaton, ZiR • Tags: literature, loneliness, love, movies

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‘Rude’ Wedding Tradition Turns Sour on You Tube

July 19, 2014 by William Eaton

Part of my fascination with discussing gender and sexuality every week is its inherent interdisciplinary nature. Jumping from sexual violence, to sexual relationships, from women in sports, to pop-culture, may seem a bit scattered, but these topics only scratch the surface of the myriad of ways that we are regularly experiencing and interpreting gender in our lives. While many people are dulled to scenes playing out traditional gender norms, I am like an actor at the theater, words and phrases and […]

Categories: Caterina Gironda, ZiR • Tags: gender, traditions

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Multiple perspectives

July 18, 2014 by Jennifer Dean

Director Rachel Feldman wrote An Open Letter to TV Showrunners this week. It was more than just a plea to television showrunners to hire more women – it was an article chock full of statistics on the lack of women in the industry and full of quotes of why hiring more women matters. She writes: The Geena Davis Institute on Gender and Media has published studies finding that, when woman create media, stereotyping is radically reduced and more female characters appear onscreen. Women […]

Categories: Jennifer Dean, ZiR • Tags: film, women

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A tale of two artists – part I of II

July 17, 2014 by William Eaton

This is part I of II, contrasting Dickens’ and Goethe’s images of Italy. Part II discusses sightseeing along Dickens’ itinerary – click here A rousing contrast exists between Charles Dickens’ Pictures from Italy and Goethe’s Italian journey reviewed last week. Goethe says, “I am not here to enjoy myself… but to improve.” Dickens is on vacation. His travelogue is “a series of faint attractions – mere shadows in the water – of places to which the imaginations of most people are attracted.” […]

Categories: Tucker Cox, ZiR

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Mark Strand in a Colombian Páramo

July 15, 2014 by Ana Maria Caballero

I am writing this week from Roldanillo, Colombia, a tiny town toward the west of the country. I will be here all week attending the Colombian Women Poets Festival for the first time ever. The people I’ve met are astounding in their talent and their kindness. Please check back next week as I plan to share my experience participating in this encounter. For now, I leave you with a poem by former U.S. Poet Laureate Mark Strand, taken a few […]

Categories: Ana Maria Caballero, ZiR • Tags: hiking, literature, nature, poetry, writing

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