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Copyright of Pós: Revista do Programa de POS-Graduacao Em Artes - EBA/UFMG is the property of Pos - Programa de Pos-graduacao em Artes (PPG-Artes) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

What was the 'alt' in alt-right, alt-lite, and alt-left? Tracing these controversial terms' development over the 2010s, this article interrogates the construction, meaning, and utility of the 'alt' modifier in US politics. Contextualizing the emergence of 'alt' among wider debates about how to spatially conceptualize anti-system politics beyond the left-right spectrum, it argues that 'alt' was used to name a tendency that moved beyond traditional ideological questions about what society should look like, and instead signified a preference about how politics should be done: namely, a rejection of the mainstream norms of political conduct, and an embrace of vulgarity, incivility and an extremely adversarial approach to political opposition. It shows how a popular-cultural understanding of 'alternative' was used to give this approach a countercultural sheen, and maps out the cleavages between groups that the alt/mainstream binary opened up. Finally, it considers the legacy of the 'alt' modifier in contemporary politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing research on pavement interlayer bonding has mainly focused on bonding materials and external factors, neglecting the upper and lower interlayer surface characteristics. This study aims to analyze the contact conditions between these surfaces, developing a numerical model to reveal their properties. Five double-layered asphalt systems, including dense-graded asphalt concrete (AC), open-graded friction course (OGFC), and stone mastic asphalt (SMA) mixes, were examined using a nondestructive interlayer separation method and 3D laser scanning. Three indices were proposed to assess interlayer surface characteristics in both 2D and 3D domains. Shear strength tests at room temperature were also conducted, revealing that AC-only systems had lower surface mismatch at the layer interface compared to SMA or OGFC mixes. The study concludes that surface mismatch decreases with greater differences in aggregate coarseness, and systems with significant mismatch gaps have lower shear strength. These findings provide valuable insights for designing durable pavement structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper investigates, from a comparative and cross-cultural perspective, how 'journalators' in English-language and Greek media rendered a controversial statement by French President E. Macron against the non-vaccinated, with the use of the slang verb emmerder. The paper examines how journalators sought to render the verb and re-narrate that particular discursive instance, largely judged as vulgar, divisive and improper for a head of state, in order to save or aggravate the French president's face through selective appropriation and reframing. It draws on narrative theory of translation as developed by Mona Baker (2005, 2006, 2010), and explores the concept of facework (Goffmann, 1967; Brown and Levinson, 1978, 1987; Bull and Fetzer, 2010) and the notion of ethos (Mainguenau, 2002, 2014) to analyze from a critical discourse analytic perspective a corpus of press articles in English and Greek. The results of both quantitative and qualitative analysis indicate that there is an array of lexical choices and strategies to intensify or attenuate vulgarity and offensiveness and save or aggravate Macron's image. The study has also confirmed the role of ideology and ideological positioning in the choice not only of lexical choices but also what is selected or deselected to be translated. • Translating vulgarity and profanity. • Translation as re-narration and facework. • Translating as saving the face of politicians. • Translating and manipulating political statements as a form of face aggravation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent debates on musical taste have centred on the collapse of cultural boundaries between high art and popular culture. This paper examines Chinese hip‐hop as a unique case study to explore taste preferences in a relatively new popular cultural phenomenon in the understudied context of Eastern popular culture. Drawing from 42 interviews with Chinese young hip‐hop followers, the article examines musical taste preferences within Chinese hip‐hop and different modes of appreciation deployed by listeners. The findings reveal that young Chinese hip‐hop fans display cultural openness to foreign influences and genre mobility. The openness is employed as a marker of cultural capital for the Chinese middle class that values hybridity and innovation. However, even the most open‐minded individuals draw thematic hierarchies within hip‐hop through the unanimous rejection of vulgar and violent themes in favour of more serious and wholesome music. This rejection is framed as a strategy to authenticate hip‐hop within the broader popular culture arena while cultivating personal qualities of civility and wholesomeness that are highly valued in contemporary Chinese society. The paper contributes to the literature on musical taste preferences in cultural consumption by shedding light on the social relevance of cultural openness and music in contemporary Chinese popular culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"The Vulgarity of Caste: Dalits, Sexuality, and Humanity in Modern India" by Shailaja Paik explores the intersectionality of caste and gender dynamics in India. The book focuses on the experiences of stigmatized Dalit women, particularly Tamasha and Lavani performers, who are essential to perpetuating caste patriarchy. It examines the historical context of caste society and the control over women's sexuality and reproduction, as well as the challenges faced by marginalized communities in reshaping the idea of India. The book offers a critical perspective on the social, political, and cultural processes that perpetuate caste and gender-based oppression and exploitation. [Extracted from the article]

The spread of modernism to all aspects of human life, as well as its incorporation into the core of reality, has left less room for the transcendental, to the point where no evidence of transcendence can be traced in events. This has squandered the efforts of Islamic philosophers to prioritize the transcendental in all aspects, as well as their endeavors to define the meaning of life based on transcendence. Mulla Sadra's philosophical theories help to resolve this dilemma since his intellectual system is founded on concepts that had previously received less attention as a philosophical framework. Such concepts include the theory of Substantial Motion and the evolution of the inner self (nafs) from the earthly to the heavenly worlds, the theory of Gradation of Existence and the gradational state of the inner self, the status of the world of imagination as a medium between the matter and the intellect, the unity of the inner self with the active intellect, the copulative dependence of phenomena on the independent essence of the Divine, and the principles of knowledge of love. These notions and principles have created a profound influence and a distinct viewpoint on art recognition and the explanation of the process of creating art and artworks and, consequently, have established a distinction between the truth and the vulgar. The achievements of Mulla Sadra's viewpoints include his emphasis on the presence of transcendence at the core of all phenomena, his philosophical explanations for imagination in creating art and its mediating and meaningful status, his interpretation of human identity, his views on resembling God to the human at the level of imagination, his ideas on mutual relations between human love and art, and his perspective on the heavenly nature of authentic art. In this essay, we seek to extract a model based on truth and vulgarity in art, in addition to researching Mulla Sadra's ontological and epistemological principles and their influence on the process of art creation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"The Vulgarity of Caste: Dalits, Sexuality, and Humanity in Modern India" by Shailaja Paik is a well-researched book that explores the history of Tamasha, a theatrical art form practiced mostly by Dalits in Maharashtra, India. The book examines how Dalit performers navigated the violence, exploitation, and disdain associated with Tamasha, and how it was shaped by conflicts over caste, gender, sexuality, and culture. Paik argues that the notions of vulgarity and sexuality in Tamasha contribute to caste hierarchy, class inequality, and Dalit subalternity. The book also highlights the agency and resistance of Dalit women in reclaiming their dignity and challenging societal norms. [Extracted from the article]

The article reveals the process of transformation of national traditions in the conditions of wartime and post-war Ukrainian society, as well as periodic changes in the scientific paradigms of its development. The role and place in these transformations of various forms of social activity, including scientific activity, are determined. The influence of science on the formation of public consciousness is studied, taking into account the influence of objective factors. The processes and methods of governance due to the post-Soviet traditions of voluntaristic lobbying for the interests of certain political groups, industry professionals, regionalists, i.e. stakeholders, are considered. The author analyzes the motives that guide the subjects of scientific interaction, depending on the level of their knowledge of the subject of research, important resources, etc. The sources of growth of the intellectual potential of the modern paradigm of science development and imitation of activities useful for society, stimulation of artificial needs, accompanied by exponential growth, crisis phenomena in a number of important spheres of society's life, are identified. The necessity of changing the paradigm of development, national and scientific traditions formed in the post-totalitarian period and reorienting them to the advanced development of productive cultural capital is established. The importance of defining long-term goals, developing strategies for their achievement and transferring national traditions from a reflexive response to problems and changes in consumer demand to making effective management decisions is actualized. The author proposes the formation the Moral Code of Behavior of scientist as a set of actions in accordance with the fastest possible achievement of the set goal with the most effective result. The article reveals the destructive content of neglecting the development of highly moral, humanistic scientific traditions based on the principles of truth, objectivity, historicism, scientific substantiation and reorientation not only to material goods, but also to the development of people's cultural potential. The characteristic features of manifestations of transformational, destructive and degradation processes in the state are identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article radically reframes Henry James's The Portrait of a Lady in relation to the Underground Railroad, the transatlantic slave trade, US slavery, and racial housing segregation. Focusing on the house in Albany, New York, where Isabel Archer stays in the 1850s, it asserts that Isabel's pursuit of freedom is grounded in her 1850s childhood when the Underground Railroad was particularly active in Albany. It examines the Albany home within the historical context of the 1870s and 1880s, when, respectively, Isabel returns to Albany and The Portrait of a Lady was first published. Taking into account the Supreme Court's 1883 Civil Rights Cases, which facilitated housing discrimination against Black Americans, this article argues that the Albany home, whose door remains bolted to the "vulgar street," protects James's American lady from a vulgarity associated then with African Americans. By examining a critically overlooked function of the Albany house—its spatial representation of the novel's plot—this article shows how narratives of Black people escaping slavery along with late nineteenth‐century definitions of vulgarity centrally define Isabel's pursuit of freedom. Analyzing the plot's architecture, the article reveals how James strategically alludes to two novels about racism—overtly to George Eliot's Daniel Deronda and covertly to Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin—to construct his highly influential narrative about a white woman's transatlantic journey toward freedom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Martin Crimp is regarded as a difficult dramatist to categorise since he does not obey standard theatrical and literary rules. Though his playwriting technique has a misty atmosphere, there is one thing that is definite about his theatre. Throughout his career, Crimp has utilized the horrific impacts of violence to awaken people. Highlighting the grotesque vulgarity and relentless savagery of today's society Crimp, as the dramatist of the new millennium, exposes the terrible repercussions of violence, oppression, torture, power struggle, cruelty, fear, and victimisation on fe/male bodies. Crimp nakedly exposes explicit and implicit components of violence in diverse contexts in Cruel and Tender, his adaption of Sophocles's play Trachiniae to the post/modern world. What is remarkable about adapting an ancient play into the contemporary world is to confront people with violence as a never-changing reality of human civilisations. Cruel and Tender is also notable for depicting images of war against terror in its historical circumstances and emotional violence with the purpose of a revolution and justice. The aim of this study is to examine the representation of violence in Cruel and Tender using Žižekian subjective, symbolic, systemic, and divine violence notions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some philosophers believe that swearing is morally innocent insofar as it is non‐abusive and vulgarities are being used, such as when people exclaim "s**t!" or "f**k!" This article shows this view to be mistaken. I start by arguing that taking offense at non‐abusive vulgar swearing is not irrational, before arguing that, even if it were, such swearing would still not always be justified. The fact that many of us find it hard to overcome profanity‐induced offense, along with the fact that its existence is necessary for swearing to be possible, is sufficient to render even non‐abusive vulgar swearing sometimes wrong. I go on to assess the opposite view, according to which swearing, including non‐abusive vulgar swearing, is never justified, whereby two objections to this activity are addressed. According to the instrumentalization objection, the fact that swearing is possible only if at least some people are sometimes offended by the words that are used means that swearers treat those who are offended by their profanity as mere means. And according to the Ersatz objection, the fact that we can use inoffensive words to raise the emotional content of our speech renders swearing gratuitously offensive. Neither objection is found to be convincing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Critiques of vulgarity, sexuality and class featured prominently in the social, cultural and intellectual life of post-Independence India. This article focuses on the discourse of chumban bandi (banning kissing) in the 1950s and 1960s Maharashtra and analyses how it became a particularly unique index of heightened transgressive pleasure. I situate this discourse within a larger public debate, where dominant caste middle-class elites took upon the responsibility to shepherd supposedly recalcitrant dominated castes and low-class masses towards decency, civilized action and citizenship. Many elites energetically worked on their ideology, which was rooted in high-caste, middle-class and patriarchal values to create Marathi manus and nation. Drawing upon hitherto neglected Marathi language texts, I show how elites policed the kiss to both ban on-screen kissing and paradoxically harness its energy to engage in the politics of Marathikaran (creating Marathi regional identity) and create a new Marathi identity as modern, moral and decent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article attempts to study how the richness of swearing expressions functions in the Chinese vernacular novel Jin Ping Mei (1617) and how it fares in the two English translations: The Golden Lotus (1939) and The Plum in the Golden Vase (2013). Based on the paradigm of descriptive translation studies, the study describes and compares translational strategies adopted by the translators using textual samples drawn from source and target texts. Findings suggest that the earlier translation is oriented to domestication through omission and attenuation of the original swearwords whereas the latest translation exhibits a foreignizing trend by faithfully rendering as many expletives as possible. Moreover, the study demonstrates that swearing in some ways pushes interlingual translation to face the extremes of its capacity and that both domesticating and foreignizing approaches are not effective enough to convey the intended communicative effects of swearwords and vulgarisms used by fictional characters, which negatively influences the novel's discursive representation and characterization. Finally, the article not only sheds some light on the interlingual translation of non-standard language varieties in literary works but also proposes a more cautious approach to domestication and foreignization in the sphere of translation studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While there are refined creations, vulgarised Zimdancehall has been a subject of academic, political and cultural concern. It is widely disparaged as abominable and culturally subversive music. However, vulgar lingo has always been a functional and ornamental component of speech and song in specific contexts of the Shona cultural community. Deploying the aesthetics of vulgarity thesis, this article appreciates the place of raw Zimdancehall in today's society and its representation of the socio-political realities of life. The genre represents a discursive space for artists to expose, interrogate and demystify the hidden dimensions of individuals and societal experiences, perceptions, fallacies, fantasies and aspirations that are often overlooked and avoided by mainstream musicians through the use of nonconformist discourse. This illustrates the reincarnation of traditional art and spaces where vulgar served to create humour, expose, contest and critique existing socio-political veracities in the society. We contend that the criminalization of vulgarised Zimdancehall is a culturally uninformed legally supported verdict that disregards the traditional functions and place of vulgarised performances. The misconduct is not in the composition and production of the music, but in individuals who play the music in wrong contexts without discerning the content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maria Campbell is an outstanding Metis writer and known for her novel Halfbreed (1973). She recounts her experiences being subjected to discrimination from white dominated people and the government. She belongs to the group called Metis who are the mixed people in the society of Canada. They are the combination between the community and group of culture who are discriminated in everywhere in the society. Campbell shows the sorrows of such community through her words and writings. The article gives an idea about Metis people and the vulgarity they faced in the society and in particular, the life of Maria which devastated her dream. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Research in Educational & Human Sciences Arts & Languages is the property of Research & Development of Human Recourses Center (REMAH) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article focuses on a curatorial platform and a contested space through which visuality, cultural aesthetic and commodification, play, vulgarity and the secular coalesce and tangle in an attempt to create a composite festival that produces different layers of historical, cultural, and visual analysis; and considered conceptualize the street as a space of convergence where culture, visuality, creativity, economy, the secular and the vulgar meet and entangle, creating changes, rhythms and movements in cultural, political, leisure and visual aesthetics.

Pygmalion opened in London in 1914 but took almost a decade to reach Paris, where it premiered in 1923. During that interim, Shaw and his French translator Augustin Hamon exchanged countless cross-Channel letters and debated how to translate the play and adapt it to a foreign sociocultural milieu. "Pygmalion has never failed," Shaw boasted to him in 1919. Yet despite their combined efforts at fine-tuning the play to suit the French temperament, it did. While Hamon blamed the Théâtre des Arts manager and what he called a "cabal" of French critics, Shaw blamed Pauline Pax (Eliza), the "tomfoolery and vulgarity" of the production (photos of which he found "appalling"), and "the cretinous imbecile who produced the play." "If theatrical people persist in regarding the play as a love affair between Higgins and Eliza," he told Hamon, "they deserve all they get in the way of failure." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research consists of an experiential and qualitative exploration of the understanding of Venezuelans in migration. First, aspects related to the cultural meanings of concrete life and how these are intertwined with the interpretations produced within the framework of contemporary belonging, mobility and uprooting relationships are addressed by Geertz, Anderson, Maffesolli and Schutz. Next, a reading of the constitution of the gentilicio is formulated through linguistic expression where tonality, vulgarity and metaphorical power are presented as articulating elements supported by Austin, Becker, Nietzsche and Gergen. Subsequently, the constitution of Venezuela is analyzed through life stories of two migrant women who have made Santiago de Cali their destination from 2018 to the present date. It is concluded that Venezuela is presented as an issue that takes shape in the midst of unexpected contrasts and constant reinterpretations. In some cases, the migratory circumstance requires the expatriate to formulate for the first time the question resulting from the abrupt departure from the daily life that constituted him which, it is worth emphasizing, he took for granted in his place of origin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"The Vulgarity of Caste: Dalits, Sexuality, and Humanity in Modern India" by Shailaja Paik explores the cultural practice of tamasha and its significance in Dalit political thought. Tamasha, a form of theater-performance-work, was an inherited caste-occupation of Dalit women and was stigmatized and morally disparaged. The book examines the historical context of tamasha and its relationship with gender, sexuality, and the Ambedkarite-Buddhist movement. It also delves into the complexities of caste-based exclusion, the humanity-vulgarity divide, and the struggles faced by Dalit women performers. Through a feminist and anti-caste lens, the book challenges the determinations of caste, patriarchy, state, and humanity. [Extracted from the article]

Copyright of New Architecture is the property of New Architecture Editorial Office and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Berkeley "argues with the learned and speaks with the vulgar." I use his double maxim to interpret his ethics. My approach is new. The Sermons and Guardian Essays mainly speak to the vulgar and Passive Obedience and Alciphron reason with the learned. The reward of ethics is eternal bliss in a future state: religion and ethics are connected. I study a set of problems: resurrection, eternal life, happiness, benevolence, the goodness of God, and self-love. Divine bliss is unlike any earthly happiness. The idea of law does not support benevolence, even if it is a Christian duty and virtue. God is good, but how to prove it? The learned must study the complex theodicy problem; the vulgar need assurance based on their sensuous experience and fervent hope of eternal bliss. Self-love may be a vital issue to the learned, although the vulgar may not realize their need to overcome it. The main questions concern Berkeley's two approaches to ethical problems: first, how do their topics differ, and second, are they mutually consistent? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the prevalence and correlates of political incivility among Congressional candidates in the 2020 election cycle, focusing specifically on which types of candidates were most likely to use uncivil language in their online communications and the self-reinforcing nature of incivility between candidates. Based on a comprehensive analysis of more than two million tweets sent by major party candidates in the 2020 House and Senate races, we conclude that several individual and electoral factors were influential in driving candidate incivility. Specifically, Republicans, challengers, and candidates in less competitive races were more likely to use uncivil rhetoric. Women, racial minorities, and candidates running in open seat races were less prone to incivility. We also find that incivility begets incivility, with candidates whose opponents used higher rates of incivility also being more likely to use incivility themselves. Uncivil tweets were also found to generate significantly more likes and retweets, suggesting that incivility is a viable means of driving engagement for candidates. These results shed light on the factors behind incivility among political elites, as well as highlight the feedback effects which contribute to a self-reinforcing rise in political incivility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The " Su-style" costume is the most representative fashion in the late Ming Dynasty. It emerged in Suzhou, the economic and cultural center of the time, and constituted a system of fashion communication system in the center of Suzhou radiating throughout the country, causing a great impact on the aesthetic standards and social mores of the country. The rise and popularity of " Su-style" costume reflected the new changes in various social class forces and the fashion pattern in the late Ming Dynasty, and it was a microcosm of social change in the late Ming Dynasty. By sorting out and analyzing historical documents of the late Ming Dynasty, the article incorporates the changes of costume into the social historiography, in order to illustrate the characteristics of " Su-style" costume and investigate the socio, political, economic and cultural changes reflected by the changes in " Su-style" costume fashion. At the same time, the article uses communication theory to analyze and study the modes of communication of the late Ming clothing fashion. This paper draws the following two important conclusions: 1) The replacement of " Palace,style" by " Su-style" became a fashion model imitated by the masses, indicating that fashion discourse power was highly centralized by the ruling class in the early Ming Dynasty and decentralized to the masses in the late Ming Dynasty, liberating " fashion" from the shackles of the feudal hierarchy and the patterns fashion discourse power tended to become diverse. Unlike the top,down " trickle" spread of the " palace,style", costume fashion dominated by " Su-style" was characterized by a mass communication mode. The change in the mode of communication of fashion in the late Ming Dynasty symbolized the decline of the social custom dominated by state’s will and the weakening of fashion driving force in the vertical dimension. The horizontal flow of " new" goods replacing " old" goods was faster than the vertical spread between upper and lower social classes. At that time, people’s pursuit of fashion was driven more by the psychological mechanisms of pleasure and novelty derived from the consumption of fashion. Fashion consumption constituted an important driving force for the spread of fashion in the late Ming Dynasty. Due to the distribution and trading in all directions, commodities, as the carrier of fashion information, act as a communication medium and the mass consumers act as a recipient of fashion information through the purchase of commodities. 2) With the tide of the commodity economy, the gradual rise of the masses in the late Ming period was also a process in which fashion discourse power was gradually diverted. The fashion discourse power, no longer exclusively owned by one class, which was the result of the joint transformation of clothing by different classes. Along with the downward shift of fashion discourse power, the interaction between the elite and the masses was formed at the core of the connotation of clothing. The connotation of " Su-style" was reconstructed, and the traditional definition of elegance and vulgarity was gradually blurred. The " elegance" and " vulgarity" fused together, representing a new trend in the cultural integration of elegance and vulgarity in the late Ming culture. The article focuses for the first time on the change of discourse power behind the evolution of fashion in the late Ming Dynasty from the fashion phenomenon of " Su-style". The evolvement of fashion discourse power not only provides us with a new perspective and a new point of view on " Su-style" costume, but also reveals the inner impetus of fashion development in the late Ming Dynasty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the discussion on discovering an extensive and illuminating report of the Illustrated Lecture on Somerset Folk Songs. Topics include fostering a fuller knowledge of the art, literature, and music of the county; and dealing with fundamentals and realities of life, the folk-song being of course not free from affectation, pretence, and vulgarity.

The article "Valencia, the liberal (Ethopoeia of a city)" written by Javier García Gibert, reflects on the author's relationship with the city of Valencia. The author highlights the different facets of the city, such as the city of parties, the sensitive and artistic city, and the Berlanga-like city. It also mentions the Muslim and warrior origin of Valencia during the Reconquista, as well as its economic and demographic development in the 14th century. The text talks about Valencia's fame in Europe for its free and relaxed lifestyle and customs, especially in relation to the city's brothels. It also mentions the lack of knowledge and pride of Valencians in their own history and culture. The article also analyzes the apparent paradox in Valencian culture, which combines subtlety and rudeness, refinement and vulgarity. It highlights the love for enjoying life and pleasures in Valencian culture, as well as the lack of ambition and desire for enrichment. The text talks about the hedonistic and skeptical mentality of the Valencian people, highlighting their lack of ambition and their enjoyment of the pleasure of the moment. It also mentions Valencia's resistance to radical Catalan nationalism and its lack of tourist interest in the past. Although the city has improved its tourist attractions, the attitude of Valencians remains the same. The author mentions the typical attractions of the city, such as the fireworks castles, but highlights that the true surprise of Valencia is the mascletá, which defines the character of the people and the city. Despite the apparent indifference of Valencians towards visitors, the city defines itself as liberal and welcomes everyone without making distinctions. [Extracted from the article]

The presence of abusive and vulgar language in social media has become an issue of increasing concern in recent years. However, research pertaining to the prevalence and identification of vulgar language has remained largely unexplored in low-resource languages such as Bengali. In this paper, we provide the first comprehensive analysis on the presence of vulgarity in Bengali social media content. We develop two benchmark corpora consisting of 7,245 reviews collected from YouTube and manually annotate them into vulgar and non-vulgar categories. The manual annotation reveals the ubiquity of vulgar and swear words in Bengali social media content (i.e., in two corpora), ranging from 20% to 34%. To automatically identify vulgarity, we employ various approaches, such as classical machine learning (CML) classifiers, Stochastic Gradient Descent (SGD) optimizer, a deep learning (DL) based architecture, and lexicon-based methods. Although small in size, we find that the swear/vulgar lexicon is effective at identifying the vulgar language due to the high presence of some swear terms in Bengali social media. We observe that the performances of machine leanings (ML) classifiers are affected by the class distribution of the dataset. The DL-based BiLSTM (Bidirectional Long Short Term Memory) model yields the highest recall scores for identifying vulgarity in both datasets (i.e., in both original and class-balanced settings). Besides, the analysis reveals that vulgarity is highly correlated with negative sentiment in social media comments.

In his article, "Vulgarity as Springboard for High Art," Derong CAO compares and contrasts Nabokov and Qian's notions of vulgarity. The two authors have similar understandings of vulgarity. Both identify pretense/ affectation and triteness/ mediocrity as its fundamental characteristics. Moreover, both believe that the quintessential feature of vulgarity lies in its downplay of individual consciousness. The two authors' understandings of vulgarity also differ in major ways. Qian's Fortress Besieged, though showing deep social and moral concerns, did not seem to suspect a direct causal link between vulgarity and cruelty. By contrast, Nabokov believes that vulgarity can lead to severe moral or political consequences. Despite the above difference, both acknowledge the great potential of vulgarity to be transformed into aesthetically pleasing artworks. This essay explores the techniques Nabokov and Qian adopted--among them the most important are defamiliarization and irony--to turn vulgarity into a reservoir of materials for serious literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A literary criticism of the "Aesthetic Theory" book by German philosopher Theodor W. Adorno is presented. It mentions appreciation of beauty in art is predicated on the appreciation of natural beauty to highlight the capacity of the aesthetic to illuminate the human relationship to nature. It also mentions consequences of human domination of the natural world.

This article investigates processes and representations of placemaking in Beyoğlu in the thirty years following the 1950s. Through an analysis of two case studies, the Galatasaray High School and the Germanophone Teutonia club, it helps to deconstruct the representation of Istanbul’s central historical district Beyoğlu as a district in decay. This representation frames the district as subversive on the one hand and marked by trauma or loss of cosmopolitanisms on the other. The paper argues that processes of placemaking during this period made the district part and parcel of identity formation for a variety of communities in the city. While considering notions of Beyoğlu as a place of decay and vulgarity are important to comprehend broader historical representations of the area, these representations are contradicted or nuanced by both economic and demographic statistics and qualitative examples. This article shows that for the Galatasaraylı community and a part of the German-speaking community in Istanbul, this district has been of crucial significance as a place of social gathering. The article argues that these cases are symptomatic for broader trends in Beyoğlu as a place of social gathering, commerce and culture in the second half of the twentieth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The negative impact of invasive alien plants (IAPs) in protected areas (PAs) is managed through control programmes, often using area‐based management, where identified IAPs in management units are controlled simultaneously. However, this approach has shortfalls, including the methods used to prioritise management units, spatial grain dependence and spatial interdependence of management units. Species‐based management approaches, though used less frequently, are usually aimed at eradication.We propose using a Commonness framework to reconcile area‐based and species‐based management approaches, viewing the invasion process as a population trajectory from uncommon to common. The framework assigns species to one of eight commonness types at a given scale using three species characteristics: local population size (small/large), geographic range (wide/narrow) and spatial pattern (even/clumped). These metrics were calculated using a comprehensive fine‐scale IAP dataset from Table Mountain National Park, South Africa, at six scales of increasing spatial grain, enabling quantification of the effects of scale and species' range structure on management potential of IAPs.Most species exhibited the Point Source commonness type at fine spatial grains, requiring Rapid Response, Reconnaissance or Sweeping management strategies. At coarser grains, species were mostly classed within wide occupancy ranges, with small population sizes (Dispersed and Sparse types). The Control strategy currently applied in the area (best suited for large populations across a narrow range) should be re‐evaluated given the progress made by historical clearing in reducing commonness. Using a phylo‐tree, we identified adjacent areas that require different strategies as well as changes in species‐specific goals at particular sites with increasing grain coarseness. For example, species generally deemed to be common, for which a Control strategy is applied, may require Rapid Response type strategies for isolated and/or small, clumped subpopulations.Synthesis and applications. We use a Commonness framework to quantify patterns of plant invasion at multiple spatial scales. We demonstrate how different management strategies are appropriate for the same species in different parts of its invaded range, and how these nuances are often obscured through the use of coarse data. The framework enables tailoring management interventions to minimise the spread and impact of invasive alien plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Starting from a recently published memoir, authored by the British pilot Betrand Whitley, recounting his experiences during World War II, the present paper aims to emphasise the role played by the linguistic transfer of such texts from multiple perspectives. As such, in the case of texts originally written in one language, covering the subject of a different cultural space, the translation that pulls the text back into the language of the depicted space raises several issues. Fidelity is given by the negotiation between the meaning present in both linguistic instances, filtered by the style that encompasses an authorial stance on a foreignness that, through translation, needs to be reflected back into the familiar, as foreign. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In every society, each of its components and each of its institutions plays a determining role. The role of the media is vital to sustain socialization, having even come to be called democratizing elements. But today they are operating against their real functions and clearly engaging in unethical behavior. This is not only evident in journalism that is increasingly discredited, it is also operating in different formats and genres in an increasingly accentuated way. Entertainment programs frequently incur vulgarity and with impunity trample Law N° 28278 (Radio and Television Law), in such a way that they have come to generate the intervention of the Judicial Power, evidencing that the media and the communicators cannot self-regulate. But why have we reached this crisis? What happened to the communicators, to the professionals of the truth? It is then when we realize that the communicator, in his different branches, must recover his identity as a professional and not limit himself to being only a search engine for «likes» or ratings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plants vary widely in how common or rare they are, but whether commonness of species is associated with functional traits is still debated. This might partly be because commonness can be measured at different spatial scales, and because most studies focus solely on aboveground functional traits. We measured five root traits and seed mass on 241 central European grassland species, and extracted their specific leaf area, height, mycorrhizal status and bud‐bank size from databases. Then we tested if trait values are associated with commonness at seven spatial scales, ranging from abundance in 16‐m2 grassland plots, via regional and European‐wide occurrence frequencies, to worldwide naturalization success. At every spatial scale, commonness was associated with at least three traits. The traits explained the greatest proportions of variance for abundance in grassland plots (42%) and naturalization success (41%) and the least for occurrence frequencies in Europe and the Mediterranean (2%). Low root tissue density characterized common species at every scale, whereas other traits showed directional changes depending on the scale. We also found that many of the effects had significant non‐linear effects, in most cases with the highest commonness‐metric value at intermediate trait values. Across scales, belowground traits explained overall more variance in species commonness (19.4%) than aboveground traits (12.6%). The changes we found in the relationships between traits and commonness, when going from one spatial scale to another, could at least partly explain the maintenance of trait variation in nature. Most importantly, our study shows that within grasslands, belowground traits are at least as important as aboveground traits for species commonness. Therefore, belowground traits should be more frequently considered in studies on plant functional ecology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article shows that by using hypermasculine language in shock advertising, advertisement creators highlight its aggressive and crude image. Hypermasculine language has been commodified as a marker of impoliteness. This analysis utilises the concept of indexical field and makes two theoretical contributions. First, it shows that one can employ the concept in the analysis of styles, which are broader linguistic resources than individual variables. The analysis thus expands the applicability of the concept. Second, the article shows that advertisement creators are changing the indexical field of hypermasculine language. The analysis thus corroborates the characterisation of the indexical field as fluid. This article also argues that, because many in Japan believe in the importance of avoiding offending others and the prominence of linguistic politeness, hypermasculine language, with its foregrounded meanings of aggressiveness and vulgarity, violates the perceived code of linguistic politeness and serves as a useful apparatus for shock advertising. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The end of British rule in Zimbabwe which happened through a protracted liberation struggle against the white regime was celebrated by many across Africa and beyond. The ascendancy of the late president Robert Gabriel Mugabe to the helm of power brought hope for the economic, religious, linguistic, and socio-political freedoms. The attainment of independence was indeed a moment of celebration after several decades of colonial suppression and brutalities against the indigenous black Zimbabweans. What is most troubling is that the euphoria that was triggered by the attainment of independence in 1980 gradually died as the realities of economic, religious, linguistic and socio-political problems resurfaced. This study seeks to interpret NoViolet Bulawayo's depiction and thematisation of religion and politics in her debut novel We Need New Names. The study mainly focuses on how Bulawayo fictionalises and captures the sordid realities of the religious and socio-political problems that haunt the postcolonial subjects in Zimbabwe under Mugabe's leadership. Postcolonial thoughts from Spivak and Achille Mbembe inform the readings of the text. The fictive landscape that is captured in the selected novel shows the hollowness of flag independence attained in Zimbabwe. The postcolonial period during the reign of Mugabe inscribes conditions of subjectivity and subalternity. The studied text also problematises religion and uncovers charlatanisms of the prophets and traditional healers who are portrayed as the biblical wolves in sheep's cloth exploiting those in distress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We’ll examine the many light-images within Statius’ Silvae (with particular attention to 1.2) which take on a not only denotative but also connotative value. They move from the description of luxurious residences, gleaming with precious materials, to the characterization of their owners whose interior splendour imparts luster to a patent but not ostentatious luxury, deprived in this way of any trace of vulgarity. This light reverberates also onto the poet who at the same time gives and receives shine as he sings so much splendour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The text discusses the loss of elegance and delicacy in Brazilian society, highlighting the vulgarity and incivility that seem to be becoming more common. The author mentions the singing duo Cascatinha and Inhana as examples of natural elegance, emphasizing their rural posture and restrained gestures. The text also refers to Chico Buarque's book "Anos de chumbo" (Years of Lead), praising its simple and confidential writing style, which subtly addresses delicate topics. The author emphasizes the importance of elegance and delicacy, even in difficult times. [Extracted from the article]

This study describes the types of taboo words used by the Acehnese people in Aceh, Indonesia. Ten language informants in the district were interviewed for this qualitative study. The interviews were recorded and then transcribed prior to analysis. The data were then analysed by the procedures of condensation, display, and conclusion drawing. The findings of the research reveal that the most common taboo types used by Acehnese speakers are taboos of vulgarity or obscenity, epithet, and the taboo of disease. This implies that calling people bad names, talk ing about sex, mentioning incurable or 'repulsive' diseases are among the most taboo discussions in Acehnese society. Taboo words related to religion are found the least in the data, which could imply that these words are small in number because the Acehnese people embrace their religion strongly and thus minimise verbal abuse related to it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]