http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/authors/567/david-w-synyard 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 Thu, 14 May 2026 13:30:24 -0400 Thu, 14 May 2026 13:30:24 -0400 http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/730/the-apparition-of-fading-apartheid-racialized-vision-khaya-mthethwa-and-idols-sa By David W. Synyard - This essay examines the first black winner in 2012 on Idols SA, Khaya Mthethwa (Appendix 1), the TV format of the Idol brand, and the social construction of racialized vision in the context of South Africa as a post-colonial nation from a visual culture perspective. Theoretically, this essay presents an interdisciplinary approach of Marxist political economy, Debord’s concept of the spectacle (1983, p. 13), and Foucauldian biopower (2013, p. 134). Although somewhat contradictory, these theories present a nuanced understanding of how Mthethwa’s spectacle is encased in a racialized form... Tue, 12 Mar 2013 09:40 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/730/the-apparition-of-fading-apartheid-racialized-vision-khaya-mthethwa-and-idols-sa http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/609/fate-fortune-and-timon-of-athens-reinterpreting-the-senecan-chorus By David W. Synyard - In Seneca's tragedies, the Roman playwright and philosopher employed the concept of fate and fortune to structure the outcome of characters' lives. Frederick Kiefer notes in Fortune and Elizabethan Tragedy that the Senecan chorus primarily discusses the characters’ actions and world in relation to the paradox of Stoicism. In this paradox, two oppositional forces comprise the universe: fate structures one part with logic, meaningfulness, and organization, which the chorus requires man to adhere with, while fortune structures the other part with volatility, danger, and change, which the chorus... Wed, 25 Jan 2012 08:05 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/609/fate-fortune-and-timon-of-athens-reinterpreting-the-senecan-chorus http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/590/the-two-gentlemen-of-verona-a-satiric-perspective-on-courtly-love By David W. Synyard - In Plautus’ Roman Comedies, the stock character of the slave employs mistaken identity or a disguise to deceive his master and others to invert the social order of the play, characterizing the slave as intelligent, cunning, and deceitful. Michael Shapiro writes in Gender in Play on the Shakespearean Stage: Boy Heroines and Female Pages that English playwright John Lyly expanded upon the Plautine slave to create the Lylian page, who appears in subplots to create “tonal contrast” with an ironic perspective on the main action by satirizing their masters and authority figures through... Thu, 03 Nov 2011 08:44 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/590/the-two-gentlemen-of-verona-a-satiric-perspective-on-courtly-love