A Hunger Artist Essay Example for Free

A Hunger Artist Essay Misunderstanding must be exposed and handled accordingly in order for understanding to occur Throughout the short story, â€Å"A Hunger Artist†, misunderstanding often created a separation of artist from society. Franz Kafka uses various literary elements and devices such as symbols and conflict to demonstrate this theme. One way that Franz Kafka explicitly displays misunderstanding in â€Å"A Hunger Artist† is through his use of symbolism. Throughout the work, the hunger artist was locked inside of a cage to isolate himself from the fickle public. This cage represents alienation from society and also a barrier that prevents understanding. The spectators’ positions outside of the cage prevent them from truly appreciating the hunger artist’s feat and often times causes those to misunderstand the concept of â€Å"art† that the hunger artist is attempting to exhibit. In the artist’s case, being an artist means cutting oneself off from the world and this is reflected in the artist’s conscious choice to sequester, or seclude, himself in a cage. The physical separation of hunger artist and spectator that the cage creates mirrors the spiritual separation of the individual artistic ego and public will. This separation in mindset leads to a critical dividend in understanding in which only the hunger artist realizes the importance of his ambitions and accomplishments. In regard to the artist’s behavior, the impresario would apologize as stated, â€Å"He would apologize publicly for the artist’s behavior, which was only to be excused, he admitted because of the irritability caused by fasting; a condition hardly to be understood by well-fed people† (Kafka 3). Spectators often misinterpreted the point that the hunger artist was attempting to portray. The purpose of the cage was to secure him from those who do not understand him. Another way that Kafka demonstrates misunderstanding is through his use of external conflict. The hunger artist’s troubled relationships with his spectators suggest that the artist exists apart from society and must therefore be misunderstood since the spectators do not perceive art in the same sense that the hunger artist does. This conflict ultimately occurs on more than one occasion throughout the text. The artist does not want to be rewarded with materialistic contributions and/or praise from the public; he finds the greatest reward in others’ understanding of art from his perspective. The public pretend to admire the hunger artist’s accomplishments merely because they do not understand the true concept of art that the artist is striving to convey. Kafka states, â€Å"His public pretended to admire him so much, why should it have so little patience with him; if he could endure fasting longer, why shouldn’t the public endure it? † (2). The fickle public that the hunger artist encounters does not pay him as much attention as he expected. The public are glad to finally see the artist stop his fasting so they are able to proceed on with their lives; they don’t show much interest in the art of fasting. In an article, Ian Johnston translates, â€Å"In the last decades interest in hunger artists has declined considerably†¦Back then the hunger artist captured the attention of the entire city. From day to day while the fasting lasted, participation increased† (Franz Kafka A Hunger Artist). This explicitly expresses the reason why the public show no interest in the hunger artist’s fasting. An art that was greatly appreciated before has now died down and is not trendy. The hunger artist’s attempts to gain the public’s recognition of the true concept of the art of fasting have failed. From reading the short story, â€Å"A Hunger Artist†, one can gain the concept of how important it is to expose misunderstanding before true understanding can develop. Whether it be with an in-depth look at art or simply a misunderstanding between two people, developing an understanding is vital. The reason for misunderstanding must be addressed and handled accordingly prior to proceeding in the process of understanding. Works Cited Kafka, Franz. A Hunger Artist. Prague: Twisted Spoon Press, 1996. N. pag. Print. Yancey, Phillip. Good Reads. N. p. , n. d. Web. 20 Mar. 2013. lt;http://www. goodreads. com/quotes/tag/misunderstandinggt;. Understanding. Def. 2a. Merriam-Webster. n. d. N. pag. Web. 20 Mar. 2013. lt;http://www. merriam-webster. com/dictionary/understandinggt;. Johnston, Ian. Franz Kafka: The Metamorphosis, A Hunger Artist, In the Penal Colony, and Other Stories. Arlington, Virginia: Richer Resources Publications, 2009. N. pag. Web. 11 May 2013. lt;http://www. richerresourcespublications. com/Books/Classic_Books/Philosophy/Kafka/Franz_Kafka. pdfgt;.

Brown vs. Board of Education Art Exhibit :: Art Museum Exhibit Race Segregation

One of Art’s Messages When I first walked into the Krannert Art Museum, I had no idea where to begin seeing that this was my first visit to the museum. So I asked a man who worked there to point me in the general direction of the exhibit known as â€Å"Eight Artists Address Brown v. Board of Education.† The man gave me directions, and showed me into the section for the exhibit. I walked into two small rooms, which I thought was a little small for the work of eight artists. Despite the size, I had no idea where to start. So I took a quick look around the exhibit, which was empty except for the security guard who, upon my arrival, jumped up from his seat. Throughout my time at the museum, this guard was constantly checking me, like a hawk waiting for its prey to make a move before coming in for the kill, as if I were going to do anything other than look at the exhibits. His evil gaze was a little unnerving, however, I persisted in my work. In order to decide where to start, I spun around in a circle, coming to a stop at Pamel Vander Zwan’s and Carrie Mae Weems’ work on Plessy v. Ferguson. This was a series of five photographs in black and white featuring Zwan and Weems, one black and the other white, fighting over a chair in the middle of a checkered black and white room. It did not matter which picture started the series, because the two on the ends were the same picture. If going in a linear order, depending on where you started, the second and fourth pictures showed the two women struggling for the chair with the white women having the upper-hand, and the black women trying to take the chair away. Which ever direction you took, the pictures always ended the same way, with each women back where they started. It was at this point that I found a little book that describes each exhibit, which helped me to understand the pictures. Not knowing the background behind Plessy v. Ferguson, the struggle for the seat didn’t make much sense. The history is written saying that Homer Plessy was a black man who sat in the â€Å"white man only† car of a train, quite a rebellious feat for his time.

Campbell Soup Essay

Company Objectives The company’s objective is to enable business and operational success through integrated world class solutions and development by utilizing the organizational restructure of the Engineering and R&D departments. Having a centralized organization with a decentralized engineering department makes meeting the company objective quite difficult. Also, if the company’s objective does not align with the department specific objectives Campbell Soup is setting their selves up for failure. Sales and Marketing are concerned with increasing market share and gaining profit, while the Plants are worried about operational performance, and Engineering is focused on individual parts of the system. In order to have a successful company objective each department must be working towards the same goal. For example, if the plants are measured based on operating results and performance, when launching a new product line we have to be flexible and put in different performance metrics and set a glide path with a specific timeline. Competing on consistent quality, time/availability (want to be the first) (want to always have it on the shelves), [ARE THEY COMPETING ON PRICE? Having a reasonable price, can’t be an expensive product but people are willing to pay a premium price?] Specific Problem Defined Currently after quite a few years of product development Plastigon is still in the process improvement stage and is not a finished program. The project team is facing difficulties involving people, processes, data, and systems. There is not a clear line of responsibility and ownership for people at the individual and group level. The development team for the Plastigon line was decentralized over the P3 and has suffered a high turnover rate of its developers. If engineers were leaving the company or project because of the amount of travel required the correct engineers were not selected for the project, or the scope of the project was not clearly defined. The knowledge that the individuals on the project possess is one of the most valuable resources, especially during the product development phase. Project management at Campbell is not a clear, identified, well-connected end to end standard process. The data collected and analyzed throughout the program could not be trusted because there were no steps in place to ensure reliability. For example, testing the production line with water instead of  the actual product gives the firm inaccurate results. There are large discrepancies in the viscosity of soup and water, and the issues you run into will be completely different. If the regulations and procedures are put in place so that test products are not shipped to customers by mistake, test products can be labeled as such. A reevaluation of what regulations are necessary needs to take place for the firm to be able to grow. It didn’t seem as though costs were allocated in standard process. The systems that are put in place need to enable people, processes and data to work for the organization. If Campbell had the right tools and methods in place to support the work that occurs in the organization, the Plastigon line would have been up and running. They had this problem because they are not familiar with how to launching a completely brand new product line. This is outside of their comfort zone and therefore it has effectively stalled the product line due to lack of interest, conflicting interests, decentralized teams, and engineering issues. Individuals were not working cross-functionally but instead they focused heavily on their specific issues instead of the overarching strategic goal. There were several communication issues between different departments because there was not a shared vision. Problems – Not having meetings. Plants not being involved. There isn’t any real data analysis in this case. We analyzed the data to prove significance in the other sections. 2. What should Elsner do about Plastigon? Alternative Strategies Elsner has a few options available to him Continue the current development plan that his predecessors have started Scrap Plastigon and move towards a container that imitates proven microwaveable products Centralize the current development plan and roll out the Plastigon line. 2. Each of these options has their pro’s and con’s. Continuing current development as planned has proven to be costly and slow, but is the most obvious route. Scrapping Plastigon will most likely guarantee a successful microwaveable container, but will prove to be unpopular due to the substantial investment in Plastigon. Centralizing the  development is the â€Å"middle option† allowing Elsner to have a more focused approach on the existing plan. This could cause more issues within Campbell because of their decentralized development teams though. Recommendation Campbell has already committed a large amount of human and financial capital, $10M, into developing the Plastigon production line. They want a return on their investment. Although they have lost the first mover advantage to other companies that have entered with shelf-stable microwavable products they still have a superior product and they can steal market share from them. Since they had a radical innovation if they came to market with a less than perfect product they would have been allowed to make changes in the future to improve on their initial product. Their strong quality reputation would not have been ruined. They need to have a batch process for this production line. The beginning of the process will be a flow shop where are the standard processes are performed but then it will be a job shop towards the end of the process where we have the cooker and incubator. In order to compete with other firms they will need to have consistent quality, and finished good inventory. The beginning of the process is the hardest because that is when toy have to program knowledge into the automated machinery but then your costs will go down because you have a low waged and narrow skilled workforce. Launch DRG now and work on Plastigon, do not fund any other programs. Right not the Plastigon margins are horrible, total cost per unit = $1.49-1.59 selling at whole price for $.85, they are not making any money. Need to reevaluate costs. 3. What can the firm learn from its experience with Plastigon? 1. Campbell’s current development process is outdated and unwieldy 2. Campbell’s competitors have more efficient product development and rollout processes 3. Campbell’s business structure (engineering, product roll out, manager incentives) is not geared towards developing the next generation of their products (disruptive technologies) 4. If Campbell is going to be competitive in future product lines it will need to restructure its company’s development process. 5. Campbell is vulnerable to new technologies taking market share away from it. Big Problem- Beyond the case (long-term) The Palastigon program can turn out to be beneficial to the Campbell Soup Company if they take the approach of levering the problems they were faced with during this period and turning them into company solutions, guidelines and safety nets. The project management process needs to be reevaluated and set process steps need to be put into place. Non-value added activities, like developing product lines without first piloting the process. They need to have process owners or strategic project managers that are responsible for project results and integration between the cross-functional team. Process innovation improvement is a key takeaway. Revisit the current state process and identify areas for development. After this new product development initiatives will be easier to launch – Management and Engineering interface Problems can lead to streamlining an effective process for the future and result in potential solutions. Project management at the individual and group level. Take the key learnings from this specific project and launch corporate wide initiatives and procedures, for effective and efficient project management.

Definition and Examples of Lexicography

Lexicography is the process of writing, editing, and/or compiling a dictionary.  An author or editor of a dictionary is called a lexicographer. The processes involved in the compilation and implementation of digital dictionaries (such as Merriam-Webster Online)  is known as  e-lexicography. The fundamental difference between lexicography and linguistics, says Sven Tarp, is that they have two completely different subject fields: The subject field of linguistics is language, whereas the subject field of lexicography is dictionaries and lexicographic works in general (Beyond Lexicography in  Lexicography at a Crossroads, 2009).In 1971, historical linguist and lexicographer Ladislav Zgusta published the first major international handbook on lexicography, Manual of Lexicography, which remains the standard text in the field. Etymology: From the Greek, word write Pronunciation: LEK-si-KOG-ra-fee Beginnings of English Lexicography The beginnings of English lexicography go back to the Old English period . . .. The language of the Roman Church was Latin; its priests and monks needed to be competent in Latin in order to conduct services and to read the Bible . . .. As English monks studied these Latin manuscripts, they would sometimes write the English translation above (or below) a Latin word in the text, to help their own learning, and as a guide to subsequent readers. These one-word translations, written between the lines of a manuscript, are called interlinear glosses; they are seen as the beginnings of (bilingual) lexicography. (Howard Jackson, Lexicography: An Introduction. Routledge, 2002) Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) and English Lexicography I am not yet so lost in lexicography, as to forget that words are the daughters of earth and that things are the sons of heaven.(Samuel Johnson)[Samuel] Johnson was not only innovative in his use of 114,000 citations to prove his definitions and the usage of words and connotations. He also noted the author who had first used a word or collocation and who had last used an obsolete word. He also took the liberty of adding prescriptive commentaries whenever there was doubt about usage.(Piet Van van Sterkenburg, A Practical Guide to Lexicography. John Benjamins, 2003) English Lexicography in the 20th Century In the English language area, the lexical orientation has long remained historical. The first edition of the Concise Oxford Dictionary, by H.W. and F.G. Fowler, dates from 1911 and leans heavily on [James] Murrays New English Dictionary on Historical Principles [later renamed the Oxford English Dictionary]. It was also due to the fact that the first supplement to the OED was published in 1933 and the second was in preparation from 1950 onwards, to be published in four thick volumes under the general editorship of Robert Burchfield. Incidentally, that supplement did include swear words, sexual terms, colloquial speech etc.Innovations in the English lexicography were to be seen in the dictionaries by Longman and Collins, based on contemporary corpora of electronic texts and anchored entirely in a database structure. . . .In 1988, the first edition of the OED was made available on CD-ROM and the second edition in 1992.(Piet van Sterkenburg, The Dictionary: Definition and History. A Prac tical Guide to Lexicography, edited by Piet Van Sterkenburg. John Benjamins, 2003) Crowdsourcing and Contemporary Lexicography Websites such as those for Urban Dictionary and Wiktionary . . . offer what is known as bottom-up lexicography, placing ordinary speakers and writers at the core of the ways in which the dictionaries in question are to be made. The definition of dictionary-making which such sites present can be particularly telling. Lexicography: The art of making a dictionary. Anyone who adds to urbandictionary.com [sic] is a lexicographer, a post on Urban Dictionary proclaims. (Lynda Mugglestone, Dictionaries: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press, 2011)A small thing in the larger world perhaps but Collins, the dictionary publisher, may have set a revolution going. If so its because they just announced the first instance of a dictionary allowing input not only from the usual suspects--staff lexicographers--but from the public, or to use the pertinent language: the crowd.Crowdsourcing . . . is first recorded in 2004. The philosophy of the more the merrier. And more creative. Now that ta sk could include lexicography. . . .For the last couple of months, Collins has thrown open their files to all-comers. Suggest a word that qualifies for their dictionary and wins a prize! Examples include Twittersphere, sexting, cyberstalking and captcha. . . .Such shout-outs are the antithesis of traditional lexicography. . . . If the dictionary-maker is a humble archivist while the lexicon is being created, they become a deity--or at least a cut-rate Moses--once it appears and becomes a source of supposedly trustworthy information. . . .Letting in the street will end no worlds but will it improve the quality of dictionaries? Form as ever faces off content. The form can be democratic as all hell, but in lexicon-land, surely the content is what matters. . . .Reference should be online. The opportunities for presentation, for breadth of information and for sophisticated searches that would be impossible in a print dictionary are too good to miss. But if reference is to remain useful t hen it cannot become amateur hour. (Jonathon Green, Dictionaries Are Not Democratic. The Observer, September 13, 2012) The Lighter Side of Lexicography LEXICOGRAPHER, n. A pestilent fellow who, under the pretense of recording some particular stage in the development of a language, does what he can to arrest its growth, stiffen its flexibility and mechanize its methods. (Ambrose Bierce, The Devils Dictionary, 1911)