http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/authors/3788/conner-r-hayes Inquiries Journal provides undergraduate and graduate students around the world a platform for the wide dissemination of academic work over a range of core disciplines. en-us Wed, 30 Sep 2026 14:42:27 -0400 Wed, 30 Sep 2026 14:42:27 -0400 http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1644/aristocratism-and-authoritative-politics-in-behns-oroonoko-the-existential-and-socio-political-semiotics-of-death-and-torture By Conner R. Hayes - Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko offers a complex representation of the semiotic and socio-political meaning of seventeenth-century torture and death and the intersectional manner in which physical agony coincides with authoritative colonial politics. The novella’s protagonist, Oroonoko, is hyperbolically described in terms of his Eurocentric physicality and aristocratic traits; this descriptive treatment reinforces his singularity from his slave peers and objectifies him as the subject of their mass spectatorship. His sharp physical, cultural, and ideological divergence from the collective slave... Tue, 30 May 2017 09:28 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1644/aristocratism-and-authoritative-politics-in-behns-oroonoko-the-existential-and-socio-political-semiotics-of-death-and-torture http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1641/the-psyscholinguistic-semiotics-and-metanormative-ethics-of-suicide-and-death-in-shakespeares-king-lear By Conner R. Hayes - The fascination with death and the sensationalizing of suicide are prevalent metaphysical themes which traverse all Shakespearean tragedy. These brooding themes, despite their ubiquitous portrayal, take on an idiosyncratic ethical meaning in King Lear. Though naturally nihilistic and bleak, these sentiments serve as more than mere evidence of the existential longing plaguing the psyches of many of Shakespeare’s characters. The yearning to die, and moreover, one’s ability to die, explicates the very metaethical framework and normative ethical epistemology of the play. The characters... Tue, 02 May 2017 12:30 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1641/the-psyscholinguistic-semiotics-and-metanormative-ethics-of-suicide-and-death-in-shakespeares-king-lear