Search

Access to the right information at the right time enables managers and the organizations for which they work to stay one step ahead of their competitors. Like any other hot [...]

We argue that the HBO series Deadwoodreflects post-9/11 angst regarding the domestic and international scenes by simultaneously exploiting and subverting the narrative comfort and cathartic closure characteristic of the traditional American Western. In doing so, we contend, Deadwoodfunctions as a ritual of disquiet that poses three key challenges to the conventions of the American monomythic formula that informs the traditional Western genre. First, there is no Edenic community to redeem. Second, the morality, practicality, and psychological satisfaction associated with retributive justice are called into question. And third, there is the felt loss of a clear moral compass, and with this loss doubts are raised regarding conventional mythic notions of the hero, and indeed of heroism itself.

This paper argues that, since the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II), there has been a significant shift in the rhetorical stance of the Roman Catholic Church toward homosexuality in which the pre-council rhetoric, which condemned both act (i.e., homosexual behavior) and actor (i.e., the homosexual) has been replaced by two distinctly different rhetorics:a moral rhetoric, which continues the Church's long-standing condemnation of homosexual acts as sins, and apastoral rhetoric, which argues that homosexuals should be ministered to and embraced. A Burkean pentadic analysis is used to define how the two rhetorics differ from each other and from the earlier rhetoric. The three major influences (i.e., Scripture, Tradition, and Catholic theology/philosophy) that have shaped, and continue to shape, the Church's position regarding homosexuality are described. Some of the socio-political implications of this shift are emphasized.