World War One and its Aftermath, Extract from the Treaty of Versailles Essay

World War One and its Aftermath, Extract from the Treaty of Versailles (1919) - Essay Example notes, as does other writers in this field, that the chief architects instrumental in designing this peace deal – a deal which bashed Germany on the face and left her drop on a myriad of problems, acted so on pressure from the electorates of their respective nations. George Clemenceau- the French Prime Minister, Woodrow Wilson-the American President Vittorio Orlando-the Italian Prime Minister and David Lloyd- the British Prime Minister were the four members of council that deliberated on the peace deal. It is important to point out that Germany was excluded from the talks and their fate was determined by the council of four2. Kitchen seems to employ a neutral ground rather than that of criticism in his articulation of facts and opinions. He appears not to be holding belligerent views with other writers on this topic but instead, concurs to a larger extent with what is in other texts. His focus is on a sober audience who intends to find out historical facts free from personal prejudice and judgment, something, which I believe, is the underlying drive for this work. One exception though, he doesn’t seem to agree with those who are quick to blame the Versailles treaty as the direct cause of world war two. He instead has Hitler and his limitless ambitions to blame. The culmination of the bloody war which had far reaching effects on nations and humanity, which defied definitive calculation, came to a halt with the signing of the peace agreement on 28th of June 1919 in Paris, France. This was the peace treaty with Germany.3 Best 1984 p2 ,points out that there were other lesser treaties with Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey. The former, he confirms, was crafted by the four council members while the latter was left to the government officials and inter-Allied agencies. What then were the outcomes of the Versailles Treaty? There is a general consensus in the works of many writers that the end result of the treaty was nothing to be desired by the Germans.

Englishness Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Englishness - Essay Example Lamming continues that Englishness is often defined in its colonizing and expanding terms, as an instrument to demonstrate superiority and class division. Laclau (1985) sees the social differentiation also as geographical one - England and the colonized territories -West Indies, Africa, Australia. The geographical places also create ambiguity in the religious sphere, because if you are different on the bases on religious beliefs, historical background, social class, than one can not be included in the "Englishness" shared by the natives. . Lamming (1984) remarks that there is a linguistic barrier too - well-spoken English versus the broken English. Englishness appeared as an ideology as early as 18th, transforming itself into a modern phenomenon separating colonized people from the industrialized society and well-taught Christians from elite class. The distinguished English attitude establishes boundaries between the white race and the others described as savages and primitive (James 1984). Consequently, the very skin color empowers the people to incorporate certain English attitudes towards the different ones, adding more features into the differentiation. In this way the white people disempower the colonized subject, disparaging both his culture and his human status. Lamming (1984) gives an example of the English writer embodying the Englishness and the West Indian writer which can not be grasped as intelligent and thoughtful as the English one. In this sense otherness is seen "part of his historic contract, the English critic accepts-for what else can he do-the privilege so natural and so free of being the child and product and voice of a colonizing civilization (Lamming 30)." The Englishness doctrine leads to hegemony and postcolonial supremacy (James 1984). Englishness lay paternity claims over the different cultures and renders invisibility so as to minimize their influential contribution to the variety of cultures that Englishness must include. Eagleton (1976) in his chapter 'Ideology and literary form" includes a definition of "ideology" and how the literary form of it has brought it to disarray. "In English literary culture of the past century, the ideological basis of organic form is peculiarly visible, as a progressively impoverished bourgeois liberalism attempts to integrate more ambitious and affective ideological modes (Eagleton 161)."Macherey (2006) in his most pivotal literary theory focuses his attention both on the reader and on the writer. Macherey's (2006) statement is that the very act of reading produces numerous interpretations and meanings in the different readers, which are beyond the control of the writer. Generating a new branch of post-structuralist theory Macherey (2006) argues that contemporary literature announces the death of the author, because it evokes all kinds of interpretations into its reader. Macherey (2006) compares the critical viewpoint of the reader with psychological analyses which aim to discover the hidden meaning behind the text. The text plays on the unconscious of the readers. In his short story "A Sahib's War" Kipling uses the device of the "imperfectly-informed narrator". The story is set during the Second Boer War and is told through Sikh soldier's point of view. Although he reports everything that is happening around