What Executioners Can—and Cannot—Teach Us About the Death Penalty

Those who work with the condemned often come to reject the death penalty not only in individual cases, and not only on the ground that it is poorly implemented. They tend to conclude that the punishment is wrong. I argue that the perspective of the executioner helps illuminate the debate about whether to abolish capital punishment, and that indeed the perspective of those who work with the condemned raises the troubling possibility that support for the death penalty can survive only at a great remove. Jeffrie Murphy has also argued that the executioner’s perspective can be useful, but I contend that Murphy asks the wrong question. His essay considers whether an executioner may, under some circumstances, take pride in his work. The better question is whether anyone ought to be asked to do such work. On this latter question, the perspective of the executioner sheds important light. Like Murphy, I draw on works by and about Albert Pierrepoint, the “last hangman” of Britain. I also draw on the perspectives of numerous executioners, wardens, chaplains, and other death row personnel. I argue that their perspectives offer a powerful argument against the main rationale for the death penalty: retribution. If retribution is keyed to the offender’s character as well as his wrongful act, then post-conviction character ought to matter. The executioners’ accounts share a common theme: that death row inmates change over time and hold the potential for redemption.     

The Literary Journalism of Guadalupe Loaeza and Cristina Pacheco

Abstract — This article examines the writings of the Mexican literary journalists, Guadalupe Loaeza and Cristina Pacheco. It traces the political agendas of the writers through an analysis of their work in two collected volumes, Las niñas bien (Loaeza) and Sopita de fideo (Pacheco). The paper argues that while each author focuses on opposite ends of the social scale, each piece of writing contains an implicit or explicit attack on the Mexican ruling classes which mismanage the economy, squander its wealth and condemn the majority to economic misery.     

我国劳动关系研究的历史回顾与未来展望： 基于 1949—2021 年的文献分析

从历史维度回顾我国的劳动关系研究,总结具有中国特色的劳动关系管理经验,对于指导中国 和谐劳动关系的构建具有重要意义。研究基于我国不同阶段的发展目标对劳动关系的影响,将 1949—2021 年我 国劳动关系的研究划分为 5 个阶段,并进行分阶段的可视化分析。在此基础上,从政府、企业和劳动者 3 个劳 动关系核心主体回顾每个阶段的研究主题,梳理我国劳动关系研究的演进过程。本研究提出巩固中国共产党在 劳动关系工作中的领导地位、探究政府构建和谐劳动关系的路径、挖掘企业社会责任履行的方式等未来我国劳 动关系的主要研究命题,构建了中国情境下劳动关系的研究模型并提出了劳动关系实践的发展方向。     

Camera,Colony, Künstlerroman: Photography in Three Australian Novels

This article traces the practices of photography that have been portrayed in three Australian artists’ novels: Patrick White’s The Vivisector, David Malouf’s Harland’s Half Acre, and Gail Jones’s Sixty Lights. Photography’s shifting status in relation to art, modes of knowledge, modes of production, and methods of relating to space suggest a growing discomfort in the nation’s literary imagination towards colonial art’s mobilisation of the imagination to authorise “sacred” settler belonging.     

作为话语仪式的忏悔——何其芳延安时期的诗歌话语分析

在延安时期的诗歌话语实践中,何其芳主要运用了一种双重性的忏悔话语策略,以此来认同并超越当时正日趋成型的革命文艺话语秩序。其中隐含了主流权力话语重塑或改造诗人主体的运作机制,即通过排除程序和提纯程序来制约主体的话语空间和话语方式。何其芳的话语困境植根于他的心理困境,也折射了当时面临创作转换的革命作家的普遍文化困境。     

"气象文学"刍议

与中医理论同样是以中国古代气论哲学为基础的气象文学,烙有中国古代先民的自然观与思维模式的印记,是最有中国特色的文学样式。随着魏晋时期主体意识的觉醒,国人的自然观与思维模式由天人合一向人定胜天发展,呈现出题材上以天气现象为主向季候为主,体裁上由神话、寓言发展为诗词歌赋等更为丰富的样式的阶段性变化。面对现代大学教育分科体制及科学意识的冲击,尽管张君励、梁启超等发起科学与人生观之论战,试图坚守艺术、宗教阵地不受科学侵袭终至于落败,中国现代气象文学创作与研究终究被剔除精神内涵,空余形式与技巧的部分偶有表现。如今,过于关注探究人与社会、人与自身关系而日趋狭隘化的中国现当代文学,若要有所突破,传承以人与自然关系为思考重心的中国古代气象文学是重要途径,强化气象文学的创作研究也是传承中国文化的必然要求。     

如何提高高校图书馆文献信息利用率

本文从五个方面论述了如何提高高校图书馆文献信息利用率。从高校图书馆人制定科学的采购原则、提高高校图书馆人的素质、提高读者信息素质、优化图书馆的服务模式和提高读者服务工作质量等方面提出了改进的措施。     

民间文学艺术作品的立法保护

随着社会的发展,我国民间文学艺术作品的保护得到越来越大的重视,拟就内涵、保护中存在的问题及解决的办法予以分析,希望能够为我国民间文学艺术相关制度的出台有所裨益。     

《圣经》对西方文学的影响

《圣经》与西方文学存在着根深蒂固的关系。《圣经》不仅是基督教教义,还是西方文学创作最重要的源泉。《圣经》成为西方文学创作母题的原因在于本身具有很强的文化价值和艺术魅力。