Islamic aesthetics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Islamic aesthetics - Essay Example As art is meant to be within the limits set by traditional norms, there is very little room for being radical. As a result, artists rarely tried to produce something totally new and original. Instead, they continued relying heavily on their culture, and art mainly involved interpreting and commenting on each other’s work. Thus, until very recently, critical discourse on art in the Islamic world was not explicit as is the case with the Western art. Instead, the criticism lied within the art work. In other words, â€Å"one thinks or comments about an artwork through another art work† (Erzen 69). The reason, according to Erzen, is that in cultures where tradition is dominating, artists fail to introduce new and radical innovations. Instead, they continue interpreting the same norms and knowledge of tradition in different ways through their art. The underlying claim is that one can see the expression of Islamic culture and tradition in Islamic art and that they are not mere decorative pieces. In fact, as a result of this heavy dependence on tradition, the Islamic world failed to analyze its own arts and aesthetic approaches, and even when tried, the studies were descriptive, not analytical or conceptual. In order to support this claim, the scholar points out the fact that until early twentieth century, there was no effort to document Turkish architecture and its history. Though the Orientalists tried to understand the cultural meaning of Islamic aesthetics and art, the effort was in vain, as they tried to interpret the same using Western values and concepts. Most of the time, the efforts involved comparing Islamic art with Western art for similarities and dissimilarities and analyzing the narrative or figurative content. Thus, they failed to analyze or understand the cultural meaning of Islamic art and ended up focusing entirely on history, style and technique. The article is rather

Gender Variation in Racial Discrimination as a Factor in Academic Literature review

Gender Variation in Racial Discrimination as a Factor in Academic Achievement - Literature review Example Teachers and related school officials are human and subject to discriminatory feelings that can affect their relationships with the children that they are charged with nurturing intellectually. Those children they affect can be permanently affected by negative discriminatory practices either on gender or racial level. Adolescents are no exception. Aspects of the identity and the self are compromised when social differences mean that there are discriminatory experiences that place the concept of inferiority within the experiences that help to form the identity when in a school atmosphere. Gender and Racial Identities Cogburn, Chavous, and Griffin (2011, p. 25) created a study in which gender discrimination experiences that African American adolescents who were in the 8th grade were examined to see if gender was a factor in discrimination experiences that were associated with an academic and psychological function. Girls and boys had no significant variation in the frequency of experie nces, but boys reported that they were discriminated against more frequently because of their gender. Aspects of the race were more significant in affecting self-esteem while aspects of gender were more important in predicting grade point average and academic achievement. This study shows that how children are treated in regards to identifying factors has an effect on future achievement and their sense of self. Cogburn, Chavous, and Griffin (2011, p. 26) used a series of conceptual frameworks through which to address their topic. One of these frameworks is the double jeopardy hypothesis. This asserts that Black females will have double marginalization because they belong to two lower status social groups that are considered minorities: female and Black. This means that they are subject to both racial and gender-based discrimination. The alternative perspective which applies to Black males is that they suffer from both racial discrimination and discrimination based on their subordina tion as Black males in order to diminish them as a threat in the male world. Between the two social groups, Black males have a higher level of discrimination experiences because they are perceived as a higher threat. Cogburn, Chavous, and Griffin (2011, p. 26) also discuss the ethnic-prominence hypothesis which asserts that the racial/ethnic membership has a higher value where discrimination is concerned that the gender membership value.