title: Anime: Fear and Anxiety in Texhnolyzed Worlds

authors: Ohlson, Alaric Francis Hanes

subjects: Anime

abstract: This is a study of primarily post-millennial Japanese Anime texts, drawn from the science-fiction genre of the medium. The key interest of this study is the prevalence of the dystopian attitude toward technology that has prevailed in sci-fi for several decades now, and is a key marker within Anime, notable for its fetish for cathartic destruction and apocalypse. This study addresses a gap in academic literature on Anime which is largely focused on key 1980s and 1990s sci-fi texts. To this end, three key examples of post-millennial sci-fi Anime television series are examined alongside other significant and similarly themed texts for their continuities and innovations to the themes and style of the genre. Of particular concern are nuanced changes in technological attitudes that can be seen occurring in the apocalyptic mode that the key texts make use of (which is a well-established premise within sci-fi Anime), as well as an increase in supernatural and fantasy elements. The key texts are as follows: Wolf’s Rain is a shamanistic and bio-technological fantasy epic. Texhnolyze is the spiritual successor to Serial Experiments Lain with heavy themes of cyberization, evolution and ideological diversity. Ergo Proxy is by far the most complex, being a post-cyberpunk text that embodies concepts of artificial intelligence, genetically engineered societies, psycho-analysis, the technological deity and much more. These texts are reflective of the somewhat limited but convenient dichotomy that divides the many socio-political camps that oppose and promote technology into bioLuddites and Transhumanists. The concept of 'hybridity' draws these divisions under a unified umbrella, describing humanity's destabilizing and redefining amalgamation with the technological 'Other'. It also represents the fusion of science and technology with religion and spiritualism which affects the post-human hybrids of Anime. The hybrids that are portrayed are the cybernetic entity and the genetically engineered life-form. This study intends to reveal how several post-millennial sci-fi Anime, following on from their predecessors, act as a metaphorical, social, and ideological critique of the continued technological encroachment upon the human body and psyche, expressing both revolutionary theories and cautionary tales in its narratives.

text: Anime: Fear and Anxiety in Texhnolyzed Worlds This is a study of primarily post-millennial Japanese Anime texts, drawn from the science-fiction genre of the medium. The key interest of this study is the prevalence of the dystopian attitude toward technology that has prevailed in sci-fi for several decades now, and is a key marker within Anime, notable for its fetish for cathartic destruction and apocalypse. This study addresses a gap in academic literature on Anime which is largely focused on key 1980s and 1990s sci-fi texts. To this end, three key examples of post-millennial sci-fi Anime television series are examined alongside other significant and similarly themed texts for their continuities and innovations to the themes and style of the genre. Of particular concern are nuanced changes in technological attitudes that can be seen occurring in the apocalyptic mode that the key texts make use of (which is a well-established premise within sci-fi Anime), as well as an increase in supernatural and fantasy elements. The key texts are as follows: Wolf’s Rain is a shamanistic and bio-technological fantasy epic. Texhnolyze is the spiritual successor to Serial Experiments Lain with heavy themes of cyberization, evolution and ideological diversity. Ergo Proxy is by far the most complex, being a post-cyberpunk text that embodies concepts of artificial intelligence, genetically engineered societies, psycho-analysis, the technological deity and much more. These texts are reflective of the somewhat limited but convenient dichotomy that divides the many socio-political camps that oppose and promote technology into bioLuddites and Transhumanists. The concept of 'hybridity' draws these divisions under a unified umbrella, describing humanity's destabilizing and redefining amalgamation with the technological 'Other'. It also represents the fusion of science and technology with religion and spiritualism which affects the post-human hybrids of Anime. The hybrids that are portrayed are the cybernetic entity and the genetically engineered life-form. This study intends to reveal how several post-millennial sci-fi Anime, following on from their predecessors, act as a metaphorical, social, and ideological critique of the continued technological encroachment upon the human body and psyche, expressing both revolutionary theories and cautionary tales in its narratives.

year: 2010

title: Insanity, gender and empire: women living a 'loose kind of life' on the colonial institutional margins, 1870-1910

authors: Coleborne, Catharine

subjects: Insanity

abstract: This article examines how female immigrants were characterised inside the Yarra Bend Asylum in Melbourne, Victoria (Hospital for the Insane after 1905), once they slipped into the world of the institutionally ‘hidden.’ Forms of social difference inside colonial institutions for the insane were embedded in patient case records. This article argues that through a closer examination of cases of female immigrants, we might find out more about gender relations in colonial situations. In particular, this article returns to ideas about women patients and constructions of these women through case records to uncover new interpretations of this material in the Australasian context. To do this, it sets out specific ways of reading patient cases and teases out the importance of these frameworks for making some kind of synthesis of the ways in which institutionalised people—already at the margins of society—were further marginalised inside institutional populations through specific practices. It examines immigrant women in the hospitals for the insane; the cases of women designated as living so-called ‘loose’ lives who also ended up inside the institution for the insane; and finally, concludes with a commentary about the descriptive power of cases and the production of concepts of gender, class, and race difference within their pages.

text: Insanity, gender and empire: women living a 'loose kind of life' on the colonial institutional margins, 1870-1910 This article examines how female immigrants were characterised inside the Yarra Bend Asylum in Melbourne, Victoria (Hospital for the Insane after 1905), once they slipped into the world of the institutionally ‘hidden.’ Forms of social difference inside colonial institutions for the insane were embedded in patient case records. This article argues that through a closer examination of cases of female immigrants, we might find out more about gender relations in colonial situations. In particular, this article returns to ideas about women patients and constructions of these women through case records to uncover new interpretations of this material in the Australasian context. To do this, it sets out specific ways of reading patient cases and teases out the importance of these frameworks for making some kind of synthesis of the ways in which institutionalised people—already at the margins of society—were further marginalised inside institutional populations through specific practices. It examines immigrant women in the hospitals for the insane; the cases of women designated as living so-called ‘loose’ lives who also ended up inside the institution for the insane; and finally, concludes with a commentary about the descriptive power of cases and the production of concepts of gender, class, and race difference within their pages.

year: 2012

title: He ara whakaora i whaia e atahi wahine i tukinohia = Long term effects of childhood sexual abuse among Maori women: A healing path for abused women

authors: Hippolite Wright, Debbie

subjects: Sexual abuse victims

abstract: He Ara Whakaora I Whaia E Etahi Wahine I Tukinohia: A Healing Path for Abused Women is a qualitative study of long term effects of Childhood Sexual Abuse among Maori women. Thirteen Maori women of diverse ages, sexual orientations, socioeconomic, religious, and tribal backgrounds shared their life experiences in a series of semistructured interviews. The women describe the physical, social and emotional impact the sexual abuse had on them. lndepth case studies are used to explore how these women rallied their personal, interpersonal, and social resources to survive the abuse, and ultimately find a way of healing. A theoretical synthesis comprising Tikanga Maori, Ecological Psychology, Social Systems theory, and Feminist theory is used to shed light on the participants' narratives. They also identify characteristics of their perpetrators, most were male and all but one was a trusted individual. A culturally competent model of healing for Maori survivors of sexual abuse was generated from the collective survival and healing strategies described by the participants.

text: He ara whakaora i whaia e atahi wahine i tukinohia = Long term effects of childhood sexual abuse among Maori women: A healing path for abused women He Ara Whakaora I Whaia E Etahi Wahine I Tukinohia: A Healing Path for Abused Women is a qualitative study of long term effects of Childhood Sexual Abuse among Maori women. Thirteen Maori women of diverse ages, sexual orientations, socioeconomic, religious, and tribal backgrounds shared their life experiences in a series of semistructured interviews. The women describe the physical, social and emotional impact the sexual abuse had on them. lndepth case studies are used to explore how these women rallied their personal, interpersonal, and social resources to survive the abuse, and ultimately find a way of healing. A theoretical synthesis comprising Tikanga Maori, Ecological Psychology, Social Systems theory, and Feminist theory is used to shed light on the participants' narratives. They also identify characteristics of their perpetrators, most were male and all but one was a trusted individual. A culturally competent model of healing for Maori survivors of sexual abuse was generated from the collective survival and healing strategies described by the participants.

year: 1998