Donnalee Dox

Dancing Around Orientalism

The performance of belly dancing in the West embodies a central paradox: while invoking Orientalist tropes in its appropriation of Middle Eastern dances, it is cast as a celebratory form of womens empowerment that destabilizes Western patriarchy. Exploring these contradictory claims, the author situates the predicaments of gender and interculturalism that surface in discourses about Western belly dance.

Spirituality, fan culture, and the music of Jerry Joseph & the Jackmormons.

ABSTRACT This article presents findings from a qualitative study with passionate fans of the rock and roll band, Jerry Joseph & the Jackmormons. The study looked at how fan involvement in the music scene enhanced quality of life through the ability to access a personal sense of spirituality. While the majority of participants (87%) had been raised in religious households, most of those (93%) had intentionally abandoned religious affiliation only to come to embrace a language of spirituality and religion to describe their attraction to the music. This study fills a gap by exploring how aspects of spiritual language and sensations can be embraced in a secular context after departure from a formal religious upbringing.

The Eyes of the Body and the Veil of Faith

Liturgical allegory, as a genre of medieval writing, is often thought to indicate dramatic or theatrical tendencies in medieval worship practices. This article compares the liturgical allegories of Amalarius of Metz (ninth century) and Honorius Augustodunensis (twelfth century). The comparison shows that medieval ideas about theatre operated very differently in the writings of Amalarius and, three centuries later, Honorius. These differences suggest both different modes of representation in medieval ceremonies and the transformation of ancient theatre from a negative to a positive model for Christian worship.

Flesh of the World: The Art and Practice of Dunya McPherson

Literature, music, the passions, but also the experience of the visible world are... the exploration of an invisible and the disclosure of a universe of ideas. The difference is simply that this invisible, these ideas... cannot be detached from the sensible appearances and be erected into a second positivity. (on Proust, p. 149)