Calculations are reported of the eigenvalue spectrum and thermodynamic properties of the spin Ham... more Calculations are reported of the eigenvalue spectrum and thermodynamic properties of the spin Hamiltonian H=2 | J | ∑ i=1N/2(S2i·S2i−1+aS2i·S2i+1)+gβH ∑ i=1NSiz, where SN=SN+1, for the case of spin ½. Exact eigenvalues were obtained corresponding to N=4, 6, 8, and 10 and alternation parameter a=0.2, 0.4, 0.6, and 0.8. Ground‐state energies, energy gaps, and absolute‐zero magnetizations are discussed as a function of N and a. Infinite chain behavior as a function of a is inferred, and compared with various approximate calculations including perturbation theory results for small a and the Hartree‐Fock calculation of Bulaevskiǐ.1The zero‐field internal energy, entropy, specific heat, magnetic susceptibility, and short‐range order at absolute zero are calculated and compared with the well‐known results for uncoupled pairs (a=0) and the regular chain (a=1) calculations of Griffiths2 and Bonner and Fisher.3Experimental data on solid organic free radicals are compared with these theoretical results.An expanded v...
Since its development in the first half of the twentieth century, Milman Parry and Albert Lord's ... more Since its development in the first half of the twentieth century, Milman Parry and Albert Lord's theory of "composition in performance" has been central to the study of oral poetry (J. M. Foley 1998:ix-x). This theory and others based on it have been used in the analysis of poetic traditions like those of the West African griots, the Viking skalds, and, most famously, the ancient Greek epics. 1 However, scholars have rarely applied Parry-Lord theory to material other than oral poetry, with the notable exceptions of musical forms like jazz, African drumming, and freestyle rap. 2 Parry and Lord themselves, on the other hand, referred to the works they catalogued as performances, making it possible to use their ideas beyond poetry and music. The usefulness of Parry-Lord theory in studies of different poetic traditions tempted me to view other genres of performance from this perspective. In this paper I offer up one such genre for analysis-professional wrestling-and show that interpreting the tropes of wrestling through the lens of composition in performance provides information that, in return, can help with analysis of materials more commonly addressed by this theory. Before beginning this effort, it will be useful to identify the qualities that a work must possess to be considered a "composition in performance," in order to see if professional wrestling qualifies. The first, and probably most important and straightforward, criterion is that, as Lord (1960:13) says, "the moment of composition is the performance." This disqualifies art forms like theater and ballet, works typically planned in advance and containing words and/or actions that must be performed at precise times and following a precise order. Second, while works composed in composition are created and performed at the same time, they are not invented extemporaneously. The subject and structure of works composed in performance are Oral Tradition, 29/1 (201X): 127-148 12 Virtually every scholar to discuss professional wrestling mentions kayfabe, with McQuarrie (2006:227) providing a particularly clear definition of the term. The concept of kayfabe is typically used to refer to a wrestler or promoter's behavior outside of the confines of the ring, but it has been used to describe their in-ring performance (R. Smith 2008:162-64), or, in McQuarrie's case, the entire corporate history of World Wrestling Entertainment.
While Medusa, like many monsters from Greek Mythology, has multiple origin stories, the one argua... more While Medusa, like many monsters from Greek Mythology, has multiple origin stories, the one arguably best known to modern audiences is the one related in Ovid's Metamorphoses 4.773-803, in which Medusa is raped by Neptune in Minerva's temple and subsequently punished by the goddess by being turned into the monster we all know. This means that Medusa is, in modern parlance, a survivor. Furthermore, Medusa's experience after her violation echoes common elements of the survivor's experience even millennia later. This suggests that many of the institutional responses to sexual assault that bedevil survivors today existed in some form centuries before European culture had defined the issue. Monster, snake-haired woman, weapon of gods and heroes: all of these are words used to describe Medusa, arguably the most famous monster of Greek Mythology and an object of interest and study to hundreds of societies. 1 However, there is one word that should be added to the list: survivor. By the 1 st century BCE, and likely before, one strand of the Medusa tradition included an origin story in which she is sexually assaulted by the sea god Poseidon (Neptune in Roman texts). 2 This story also reveals that Medusa's trauma was followed by further marginalization and punishment. Ovid's Metamorphoses 4.799-802 has the most famous account: Hanc pelagi rector templo uitiasse Mineruae dicitur. Auersa est et castos aegide uultus nata Iouis texit; neue hoc inpune fuisset, Gorgoneum crinem turpes mutauit in hydros. The ruler of the sea is said to have violated her Duffy: Medusa as Victim and Tool of Male Aggression
Pausanias’ debunking of the necklace of Eriphyle at Amathus at Pausanias 9.41.2–5 provides eviden... more Pausanias’ debunking of the necklace of Eriphyle at Amathus at Pausanias 9.41.2–5 provides evidence about one of the key elements of his writing style: his use of the Homeric epics. Pausanias rests virtually his entire argument about the necklace on a single line of the Odyssey , despite the existence of more developed alternatives. This confidence in the exact wording of Homer is consistent with examples from elsewhere in the Periegesis . However, it is fundamentally different from the approach other Roman-era Greek writers and other Greek historians and geographers. Pausanias may therefore have had a unique approach to the Iliad and Odyssey.
The women of Mary Zimmerman's 1998 drama, The Metamorphoses (mostly adapted from Ovid's classical... more The women of Mary Zimmerman's 1998 drama, The Metamorphoses (mostly adapted from Ovid's classical poem) are hungry, powerful, fragile—fulfilled. In her work, Zimmerman presents and comments upon the advancing stages of love utilizing classical feminine archetypes in a series of theatrical and poetical vignettes. Zimmerman's staging of Ovid's myths upon the commercial Broadway stage (2002) updates these tales for postmodern consumption. The meta-narrative quality of each mythic rendering also serves as the contemporary voice commenting upon its past: a psychoanalytical / lyrical examination of its own poetic creations in theatrically real time. In The Metamorphoses the act of interpretation becomes performance itself and the mythos of love is endlessly interpreted. Zimmerman's sequence of isochronal vignettes leads her mythic women through the varying degrees of romance: naïve attachment, passion-filled eros, devastating loss, and finally, mature union.
Parry and Lord’s interviews with Serbo-Croatian guslars reveal a disconnect between the realities... more Parry and Lord’s interviews with Serbo-Croatian guslars reveal a disconnect between the realities of oral-formulaic composition – where variability and adaptability are built into the “text” – and the poet’s own understanding of his performance. Whereas observation revealed performances to be unique retellings of traditional tales, the poets maintained that they had given word-for-word reproductions of previously witnessed performances. Similarly in the Greek epic tradition. While the epic poems were characterized by multiformity over centuries of oral transmission, the poets professed to have “received” the text in fixed form: indeed, the poet often claims to be simply the mouthpiece for the Muses, who function as guarantors of the tradition. Given that the oral tradition served in Greek society as a repository for history and belief – and could be used as justification for action – trust in the consistency and accuracy of that tradition was of paramount social importance. But in view of the nature of oral-formulaic performance, how was the tradition able to represent itself as anything but mutable and shifting and thus unreliable?
In this paper, we analyze the metalanguage of epic poetry from a cognitive linguistic perspective, demonstrating that a constellation of conceptual metaphors in Greek delivers a view of the tradition as rigid, immovable, and unbroken. Specifically, we show that metaphors drawing on concepts of physical uprightness, ordered sequences, linkage, and building construction, though recruiting images from different domains and so failing to provide a consistent overall image to conceptualization, jointly portray the tradition in these terms. This metaphorically defined understanding of the tradition can be contrasted with the view of performance captured by derivatives of ῥαψῳδ- which portray the poem as “stitched together” extemporaneously from “stock” elements, as well as with ancient descriptions of epic composition which noticeably omit reference to formulaic structure. In this sense, these metaphors function as a “hidden ideology”, obfuscating the true nature of the oral-formulaic tradition, and permitting it to take on a degree of social authority that it might not otherwise possess.
Since its development in the first half of the twentieth century, Milman Parry and Albert Lord's ... more Since its development in the first half of the twentieth century, Milman Parry and Albert Lord's theory of "composition in performance" has been central to the study of oral poetry (J. M. Foley 1998:ix-x). This theory and others based on it have been used in the analysis of poetic traditions like those of the West African griots, the Viking skalds, and, most famously, the ancient Greek epics. 1 However, scholars have rarely applied Parry-Lord theory to material other than oral poetry, with the notable exceptions of musical forms like jazz, African drumming, and freestyle rap. 2 Parry and Lord themselves, on the other hand, referred to the works they catalogued as performances, making it possible to use their ideas beyond poetry and music. The usefulness of Parry-Lord theory in studies of different poetic traditions tempted me to view other genres of performance from this perspective. In this paper I offer up one such genre for analysis -professional wrestling-and show that interpreting the tropes of wrestling through the lens of composition in performance provides information that, in return, can help with analysis of materials more commonly addressed by this theory.
In the Iliad the Greater Aias has a complicated relationship with the gods. His interactions with... more In the Iliad the Greater Aias has a complicated relationship with the gods. His interactions with Zeus are markedly inconsistent, and no god physically intervenes on his behalf, although he spends more time on the battlefield than any other Greek hero. A close look at these ...
Calculations are reported of the eigenvalue spectrum and thermodynamic properties of the spin Ham... more Calculations are reported of the eigenvalue spectrum and thermodynamic properties of the spin Hamiltonian H=2 | J | ∑ i=1N/2(S2i·S2i−1+aS2i·S2i+1)+gβH ∑ i=1NSiz, where SN=SN+1, for the case of spin ½. Exact eigenvalues were obtained corresponding to N=4, 6, 8, and 10 and alternation parameter a=0.2, 0.4, 0.6, and 0.8. Ground‐state energies, energy gaps, and absolute‐zero magnetizations are discussed as a function of N and a. Infinite chain behavior as a function of a is inferred, and compared with various approximate calculations including perturbation theory results for small a and the Hartree‐Fock calculation of Bulaevskiǐ.1The zero‐field internal energy, entropy, specific heat, magnetic susceptibility, and short‐range order at absolute zero are calculated and compared with the well‐known results for uncoupled pairs (a=0) and the regular chain (a=1) calculations of Griffiths2 and Bonner and Fisher.3Experimental data on solid organic free radicals are compared with these theoretical results.An expanded v...
Since its development in the first half of the twentieth century, Milman Parry and Albert Lord's ... more Since its development in the first half of the twentieth century, Milman Parry and Albert Lord's theory of "composition in performance" has been central to the study of oral poetry (J. M. Foley 1998:ix-x). This theory and others based on it have been used in the analysis of poetic traditions like those of the West African griots, the Viking skalds, and, most famously, the ancient Greek epics. 1 However, scholars have rarely applied Parry-Lord theory to material other than oral poetry, with the notable exceptions of musical forms like jazz, African drumming, and freestyle rap. 2 Parry and Lord themselves, on the other hand, referred to the works they catalogued as performances, making it possible to use their ideas beyond poetry and music. The usefulness of Parry-Lord theory in studies of different poetic traditions tempted me to view other genres of performance from this perspective. In this paper I offer up one such genre for analysis-professional wrestling-and show that interpreting the tropes of wrestling through the lens of composition in performance provides information that, in return, can help with analysis of materials more commonly addressed by this theory. Before beginning this effort, it will be useful to identify the qualities that a work must possess to be considered a "composition in performance," in order to see if professional wrestling qualifies. The first, and probably most important and straightforward, criterion is that, as Lord (1960:13) says, "the moment of composition is the performance." This disqualifies art forms like theater and ballet, works typically planned in advance and containing words and/or actions that must be performed at precise times and following a precise order. Second, while works composed in composition are created and performed at the same time, they are not invented extemporaneously. The subject and structure of works composed in performance are Oral Tradition, 29/1 (201X): 127-148 12 Virtually every scholar to discuss professional wrestling mentions kayfabe, with McQuarrie (2006:227) providing a particularly clear definition of the term. The concept of kayfabe is typically used to refer to a wrestler or promoter's behavior outside of the confines of the ring, but it has been used to describe their in-ring performance (R. Smith 2008:162-64), or, in McQuarrie's case, the entire corporate history of World Wrestling Entertainment.
While Medusa, like many monsters from Greek Mythology, has multiple origin stories, the one argua... more While Medusa, like many monsters from Greek Mythology, has multiple origin stories, the one arguably best known to modern audiences is the one related in Ovid's Metamorphoses 4.773-803, in which Medusa is raped by Neptune in Minerva's temple and subsequently punished by the goddess by being turned into the monster we all know. This means that Medusa is, in modern parlance, a survivor. Furthermore, Medusa's experience after her violation echoes common elements of the survivor's experience even millennia later. This suggests that many of the institutional responses to sexual assault that bedevil survivors today existed in some form centuries before European culture had defined the issue. Monster, snake-haired woman, weapon of gods and heroes: all of these are words used to describe Medusa, arguably the most famous monster of Greek Mythology and an object of interest and study to hundreds of societies. 1 However, there is one word that should be added to the list: survivor. By the 1 st century BCE, and likely before, one strand of the Medusa tradition included an origin story in which she is sexually assaulted by the sea god Poseidon (Neptune in Roman texts). 2 This story also reveals that Medusa's trauma was followed by further marginalization and punishment. Ovid's Metamorphoses 4.799-802 has the most famous account: Hanc pelagi rector templo uitiasse Mineruae dicitur. Auersa est et castos aegide uultus nata Iouis texit; neue hoc inpune fuisset, Gorgoneum crinem turpes mutauit in hydros. The ruler of the sea is said to have violated her Duffy: Medusa as Victim and Tool of Male Aggression
Pausanias’ debunking of the necklace of Eriphyle at Amathus at Pausanias 9.41.2–5 provides eviden... more Pausanias’ debunking of the necklace of Eriphyle at Amathus at Pausanias 9.41.2–5 provides evidence about one of the key elements of his writing style: his use of the Homeric epics. Pausanias rests virtually his entire argument about the necklace on a single line of the Odyssey , despite the existence of more developed alternatives. This confidence in the exact wording of Homer is consistent with examples from elsewhere in the Periegesis . However, it is fundamentally different from the approach other Roman-era Greek writers and other Greek historians and geographers. Pausanias may therefore have had a unique approach to the Iliad and Odyssey.
The women of Mary Zimmerman's 1998 drama, The Metamorphoses (mostly adapted from Ovid's classical... more The women of Mary Zimmerman's 1998 drama, The Metamorphoses (mostly adapted from Ovid's classical poem) are hungry, powerful, fragile—fulfilled. In her work, Zimmerman presents and comments upon the advancing stages of love utilizing classical feminine archetypes in a series of theatrical and poetical vignettes. Zimmerman's staging of Ovid's myths upon the commercial Broadway stage (2002) updates these tales for postmodern consumption. The meta-narrative quality of each mythic rendering also serves as the contemporary voice commenting upon its past: a psychoanalytical / lyrical examination of its own poetic creations in theatrically real time. In The Metamorphoses the act of interpretation becomes performance itself and the mythos of love is endlessly interpreted. Zimmerman's sequence of isochronal vignettes leads her mythic women through the varying degrees of romance: naïve attachment, passion-filled eros, devastating loss, and finally, mature union.
Parry and Lord’s interviews with Serbo-Croatian guslars reveal a disconnect between the realities... more Parry and Lord’s interviews with Serbo-Croatian guslars reveal a disconnect between the realities of oral-formulaic composition – where variability and adaptability are built into the “text” – and the poet’s own understanding of his performance. Whereas observation revealed performances to be unique retellings of traditional tales, the poets maintained that they had given word-for-word reproductions of previously witnessed performances. Similarly in the Greek epic tradition. While the epic poems were characterized by multiformity over centuries of oral transmission, the poets professed to have “received” the text in fixed form: indeed, the poet often claims to be simply the mouthpiece for the Muses, who function as guarantors of the tradition. Given that the oral tradition served in Greek society as a repository for history and belief – and could be used as justification for action – trust in the consistency and accuracy of that tradition was of paramount social importance. But in view of the nature of oral-formulaic performance, how was the tradition able to represent itself as anything but mutable and shifting and thus unreliable?
In this paper, we analyze the metalanguage of epic poetry from a cognitive linguistic perspective, demonstrating that a constellation of conceptual metaphors in Greek delivers a view of the tradition as rigid, immovable, and unbroken. Specifically, we show that metaphors drawing on concepts of physical uprightness, ordered sequences, linkage, and building construction, though recruiting images from different domains and so failing to provide a consistent overall image to conceptualization, jointly portray the tradition in these terms. This metaphorically defined understanding of the tradition can be contrasted with the view of performance captured by derivatives of ῥαψῳδ- which portray the poem as “stitched together” extemporaneously from “stock” elements, as well as with ancient descriptions of epic composition which noticeably omit reference to formulaic structure. In this sense, these metaphors function as a “hidden ideology”, obfuscating the true nature of the oral-formulaic tradition, and permitting it to take on a degree of social authority that it might not otherwise possess.
Since its development in the first half of the twentieth century, Milman Parry and Albert Lord's ... more Since its development in the first half of the twentieth century, Milman Parry and Albert Lord's theory of "composition in performance" has been central to the study of oral poetry (J. M. Foley 1998:ix-x). This theory and others based on it have been used in the analysis of poetic traditions like those of the West African griots, the Viking skalds, and, most famously, the ancient Greek epics. 1 However, scholars have rarely applied Parry-Lord theory to material other than oral poetry, with the notable exceptions of musical forms like jazz, African drumming, and freestyle rap. 2 Parry and Lord themselves, on the other hand, referred to the works they catalogued as performances, making it possible to use their ideas beyond poetry and music. The usefulness of Parry-Lord theory in studies of different poetic traditions tempted me to view other genres of performance from this perspective. In this paper I offer up one such genre for analysis -professional wrestling-and show that interpreting the tropes of wrestling through the lens of composition in performance provides information that, in return, can help with analysis of materials more commonly addressed by this theory.
In the Iliad the Greater Aias has a complicated relationship with the gods. His interactions with... more In the Iliad the Greater Aias has a complicated relationship with the gods. His interactions with Zeus are markedly inconsistent, and no god physically intervenes on his behalf, although he spends more time on the battlefield than any other Greek hero. A close look at these ...
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Papers by William Duffy
In this paper, we analyze the metalanguage of epic poetry from a cognitive linguistic perspective, demonstrating that a constellation of conceptual metaphors in Greek delivers a view of the tradition as rigid, immovable, and unbroken. Specifically, we show that metaphors drawing on concepts of physical uprightness, ordered sequences, linkage, and building construction, though recruiting images from different domains and so failing to provide a consistent overall image to conceptualization, jointly portray the tradition in these terms. This metaphorically defined understanding of the tradition can be contrasted with the view of performance captured by derivatives of ῥαψῳδ- which portray the poem as “stitched together” extemporaneously from “stock” elements, as well as with ancient descriptions of epic composition which noticeably omit reference to formulaic structure. In this sense, these metaphors function as a “hidden ideology”, obfuscating the true nature of the oral-formulaic tradition, and permitting it to take on a degree of social authority that it might not otherwise possess.
In this paper, we analyze the metalanguage of epic poetry from a cognitive linguistic perspective, demonstrating that a constellation of conceptual metaphors in Greek delivers a view of the tradition as rigid, immovable, and unbroken. Specifically, we show that metaphors drawing on concepts of physical uprightness, ordered sequences, linkage, and building construction, though recruiting images from different domains and so failing to provide a consistent overall image to conceptualization, jointly portray the tradition in these terms. This metaphorically defined understanding of the tradition can be contrasted with the view of performance captured by derivatives of ῥαψῳδ- which portray the poem as “stitched together” extemporaneously from “stock” elements, as well as with ancient descriptions of epic composition which noticeably omit reference to formulaic structure. In this sense, these metaphors function as a “hidden ideology”, obfuscating the true nature of the oral-formulaic tradition, and permitting it to take on a degree of social authority that it might not otherwise possess.