Documents found
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2681.
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2682.More information
TheMerchant of Venice is, for good reason, considered to be one of Shakespeare's most legal works, alongside Measure for Measure. At the heart of the debate is the famous penalty clause that Venetian ship owner Antonio allows to be imposed on him by Jewish moneylender Shylock. The clause requires a pound of Antonio's own flesh in the event that he defaults on payment of his loan. Generally called to mind is the monologue by Portia, who pleads for the moneylender's mercy. The play is read as an illustration of an eternal trial between the letter of the law and its spirit, between legal formalism and equity. This lecture questions this traditional interpretation by placing the story back into its socio-historical context: the Venetian casino, the games of seduction and power, and the fact that the adventures are necessarily financed by the Venetian Ghetto. Yet, in addition to legal analysis and sociological decoding, an anthropological reading of Shakespeare's work is warranted. The Merchant of Venice can be understood as a clash between radicalized legal passions. For Shylock, the promissory note, containing the famous penalty clause, presents itself as an opportunity to finally quench his thirst for vengeance, fueled by age-old resentment. For Antonio, a diehard gambler, any transaction is an opportunity to go for broke and to preemptively turn misfortune to his advantage. After all, how could a Venetian ship owner lose to a Jewish moneylender?
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2683.
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2684.More information
To the extent that the family constitutes for its members a sphere of freedom and autonomy, it should be protected from State intervention as much as possible. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms provides constitutional recognition of this autonomy. The family is not, however, a specific entity upon which rights have been conferred, but rather an intimate association of a number of individuals, each of whom has his or her own rights as well as those shared with other family members. The State has traditionnally mediated these conflicting interests through legislative and judicial intervention. With the coming into force of the Charter, the courts are assuming more importance and are taking over the role of the legislature in the very development of family law. In this study, the author attempts to assess the impact of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms on Quebec family law by drawing on the constitutional jurisprudence of the United States. Section 7 of the Charter guarantees the “right to life, liberty and the security of the person” and may be invoked by parents and children alike, in order to claim the right to establish a family and to bear children or not, and to guarantee the preservation and integrity of family ties. This section can also be used to protect the exercise of parental authority against undue State interference; however, this authority may come into conflict with the right of children, as they mature, to make important decisions about their lives and futures. Section 15 of the Charter deals with equality rights. Recent legislative reforms have created almost complete equality between spouses and between children. On the other hand, equality between the legal family and common-law marriages is far from being attained. The author also touches upon some of the questions raised by the situation of homosexual couples.
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2685.More information
Could it not be argued that the history of literature by women is indistinguishable from a woman’s sense of shame/modesty (pudeur) and all the prohibitions, transgressions and transformations that go along with it? Although women authors were long limited by a wall of shame/modesty, their acquisition of the rights of citizenship progressively incited certain writers to venture into the “public” sphere, to confront language and experience and to “publish” works. Literature thus became the place where the veil of patriarchal morals could fall so as to lay oneself bare. But would qualifying as “immodest” these new poetics not be like reading them from the perspective of the old female modesty imperative?
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2687.More information
This article documents the emergence of social activism by and for LGBTQ youth by analyzing the stories of eight community activists involved in these issues during the 1990s and 2000s. Victimization experienced by youth and the lack of resources dedicated to them were the main issues. The strategies of action are directed towards the establishment of organizations by and for young people and the gathering of LGBTQ youth organizations. They also include awareness raising activities in schools and direct actions combining art and performance. These activists make a positive assessment of their actions. Organizations formed around issues affecting LGBTQ youth have been able to establish their legitimacy and develop collaborations with community, institutional and government partners.
Keywords: Jeunes LGBTQ, mouvement communautaire, mouvement LGBT, Québec, queer youth, community-based movement, LGBT movement, Quebec
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2689.
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2690.