‘’the Experience of the Great War Stripped Men of Their...

‘’The experience of the Great War stripped men of their masculinity’’explore the ways in which Barker, Sassoon and Owen portray this in their writing. Sassoon and Owen as poets and Barker as a novelist, explore through their works of literature the changing and challenging notions of masculinity experienced as a result of The Great War. Furthermore, all three writers suggest that the often overlooked reality of the conflict was the creation of a subversion of the stereotypical ‘heroic soldier’. Replacing this image through their work, with that of the truth, we see an exploration of the emasculated and dehumanised shell that many men truly became as a result of what they experienced in service. This extends throughout their texts, to†¦show more content†¦Both the scenario explored here by Barker and the closure of Owen’s Disabled with demeaning rhetorical questions ‘And put him into bed? Why dont they come?’ demonstrate a crisis in masculinity and helplessness. However it could be suggested that although society overlooks what is hard to face in Disabled, the reader of Regeneration is expos ed to worse sense of emasculation with the feeling of inadequacy and distance the patients of Craighlockhart experience only being enhanced by their treatment by women. Barker equally uses imagery to evoke emotion focusing closely on his post-war appearance, describing his forearms ‘the groove between radius and ulna was even deeper than a week ago’, not only suggesting that Burns is physically becoming weaker, but also mirroring the ever increased detachment from the man he felt he was- turning into the ‘thin yellow skinned man’ The Great war has forced him to become. Thus we start to realise that this emasculation extends beyond the concept that many men no longer felt physically male in the way they did before the Great War, but largely protracts to the idea they felt they could no longer speak out as a male and their treatment within a society that still strived on pre-war notions of masculine behaviour

The Battle Of The Somme And Waterloo - 1488 Words

Sarah Cooper HIST 101-001 830538724 In â€Å"The Face of Battle,† John Keegan analyzed the experiences of the individuals involved in the battles of the Somme and Waterloo; he thoroughly examined the advancements of industrialization in warfare and battle strategy between 1815 and 1916. The industrialization of modern warfare during the battle of the Somme, while progressive, was very much still in its experimental stages. While the inventions during this time period were later evolved into much more useful products, it seems as though the organized warfare in Waterloo was much more effective; the soldier’s mediocre training for the Somme was obvious in the chaotic events that occurred. While each battle was disastrous in their own ways, industrialization certainly improved means of warfare and the experience that the soldiers had. The warfare in Waterloo consisted primarily of rifles, swords, cavalry, and artillery; these weapons were most effective close range which resulted in the French and British being in close proximity to one another. With immense amounts of training, a variety of battle tactics and formations, the square was ultimately the most effective. However, despite being located a short distance away from the enemy, thick, black smoke obstructed the soldiers’ vision on both sides of the battlefield, creating a less than optimal battle conditions. Due to the lack of effectiveness of their weapons, success in Waterloo often depended on the experience of theShow MoreRelatedThe Face Of Battle : A Study Of Agincourt, Waterloo, And The Somme 872 Words   |  4 PagesFace of Battle: a study of Agincourt, Waterloo, and the Somme† Summary The book â€Å"The Face of Battle: a study of Agincourt, Waterloo, and the Somme† authored by John Keegan is a non-fiction resource dedicated to enlightening the reader concerning the history of the military with the emphasis being between the 1960s and 1970s. Keegan provides a more detailed and accurate representation of combat in three fundamental battles in British history, and these include Agincourt, Waterloo, and Somme. In additionRead More Book Review of The Face of Battle by John Keegan Essay995 Words   |  4 PagesTHE FACE OF BATTLE John Keegan, the author of â€Å"The Face of Battle† is allowing the reader to view different perspective of history, from the eyes of the soldier. Although by his own account, Keegan acknowledges, â€Å"I have never been in a battle. And I grow increasingly convinced that I have very little idea of what a battle can be like.† Keegan scorns historians for pointing the finger of failure after an evolution occurs and not examining the soldier’s point of view while the battle is transpiringRead MoreThe Face Of Battle By John Keegan880 Words   |  4 PagesJohn Keegan describes his book, The Face of Battle, as a personal attempt to catch a glimpse of the face of battle. This personal aspect that Keegan mentions is essential to his book and is excellently articulated, driving home his point. Keegan, who taught at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst for over 25 years, begins by acknowledging his uneasiness with the fact that even though he taught British cadets military history, I have not been in a battle; not near one, nor heard one from afar, norRead MoreJohn Keegan, the Face of War801 Words   |  4 PagesJohn Keegan, The Face of War As Keegan notes how battle is considered - from the movement of platoons to grand imperial strategy - the true question behind this book appears: what happens to the soldier in war? I recommend the first chapter to anyone who is either planning to, or already pursuing, a career in history, because Keegan swiftly and surely examines the different methods, techniques and materials of military history, details which would normally fill a specialised text. This is oneRead MoreThe Day Canada Became a Nation Essay1963 Words   |  8 Pagesstalemate on the Western Front of the Battle of Vimy Ridge. It was â€Å"the Canadians willingness to forgo nationalism in the interests of efficiency and effectiveness that marked a new† (Dickson 40) transition of the ending of war. Through the second battle of Ypres, the Battle of Aras, and observing the previous bloodbath at the Battle of The Somme, the Canadian Expeditionary Force (C.E.F) perfected their defense tactics and techniques to fight in the evolutionary battle that made Canada a nation. Read MoreConvergence of Military Revolutions1409 Words   |  6 Pagesanticipation of the War and Doctrine failed. The military leaders who entered the war made faulty assumptions regarding the strength of the enemy armies and in that caused many avoidable casualties. The techniques of war were those that had been used at waterloo, with a single core commander leading the way. What they did not realize was that the World War would have the entire world as its battlefield and therefore failed to perform and plan accordingly. 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Their presence marked the 90th Anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge and commemorated Canadian soldiers who fought and died on Easter Monday 1917. A patriotic scene to behold, students dressed in replica World War I uniform shirts, proudly waving Canadian flags, spontaneously singing rousing renditions

Bennett And Maffesoli s Theory Of The Blurring Of...

A contemporary example which can be used to illustrate the point of Bennett and Maffesoli’s theory of the blurring of divisional lines, which makes subculture tricky to identify the ‘Fabulus of Unicorns’ (VICE 2015). The polyamorous group are arguably an appropriation of the ‘furries’ subculture, and the imagery has already been part of alternative culture and appropriated into mainstream festival wear for some time. They actively differentiate themselves from the ‘normals’ with fulltime use of glitter, multi coloured hair, animal print in a style reminiscent of the Cockettes (Weisman and Weber 2002) of late 1960s San Francisco, who also lived in a polyamorous commune and used white middle class privilege to facilitate a lifestyle of†¦show more content†¦These scholars theorize deviant behaviour using medical concepts. â€Å"(Blackman 2014: 499). Perhaps the rejection of the term is to shed the negative connotations previously associated with subculture, as an aggressive and disruptive force within society. Which raises the interesting point, off subculture being difficult to clearly identify in relation to the mainstream, once the disruptive element has been pacified and also because of the reinvention of existing culture. The idea that culture has stagnated due to nostalgia, explains why it is difficult for some social and cultural commentators to recognise emerging contemporary subcultures. Petridis (2014) and Moss (2015) both say it is impossible to tell someone’s identity by clothing and there have been no recent new subcultures. Petridis does discuss Haul Girls and Seapunks, but addresses the similarities between Haul Girls and Mods, and likens Seapunks to 1990s Grunge. So, it is not that subculture is no longer a relevant term, but that these contemporary subcultures are a revitalisation of what has gone before, and pose little challenge to society because of their familiarity. However, the binary of Haul Girls and Seapunks still

Market Entry Strategy Of UniCredit Group †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Market Entry Strategy Of UniCredit Group. Answer: Introduction UniCredit is an internationally acclaimed financial institution which has its operations in 22 major European countries. This financial institution has its strategic position in Eastern and Western Europe and thus the company has largest market share. The operations of UniCredit group is found in Ukraine, Turkey, Slovenia, Serbia, Russia, Romania, Poland, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Latvia, Hungary, Germany, Estonia, Czech Republic, Croatia, Bulgaria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Azerbaijan, Austria. The origin of this group dates back to the establishment of an institution in the year 1473, called Rolo Banca. Several specialized business divisions are present in UniCredit Group. This includes investment banking and Corporate Banking division, private banking, families and SME banking. The group also has a CEE division that emphasizes on operations in 19 Central and Eastern Europe countries. Presently the chairman of the group is Giuseppe Vita and the CEO is Federico Ghizzoni (Unicredi tGroup.eu 2018). This study is based on the assignment 1 and 2 which emphasizes on the early market entry strategy, merger of HVB Group and the UniCredit Group and the strategies taken up by these groups. Benefits and drawbacks of the first mover market entry strategy in comparison to the follower or late market entry strategy. First mover can be described as a competitive a business receives when it first tries to capture the market and brings a service or product in to the market before any other competitor does. Thus being the first in a market specifically increases the brand recognition and the loyalty of the customers before the other market competitors that are entering the market later. Another important benefit that a certain first mover company receives is the ample amount of time to improve the service and the product (Boldrin and Levine 2013). The advantages of a company being the first mover are as follows: the company gains the benefit of establishing its product as an industry standard; a long lasting impression is created by the company along with the strong brand image that give boost to the brand image; coming first in to a market provide strategic advantage with respect to the hiring skilled employees, contracts with the vital suppliers, location benefits and resource control; other advantages include less cost of attached to the new product launches in comparison to the new entrants (Vecchiato 2015). The other benefits include: Technology leadership- the first movers get an opportunity to make technology used in the product harder to replicate or copy. The first mover company for example can reduce the cost of the product which will be hard for the late movers to follow. This effectively increases the first mover company to establish an advantageous position in terms of product costs. The other way includes securin g the new products with patents by the first movers; Control of resources- the second benefits arises from the strategic control of resources; Buyer-switching costs- this is an exclusive benefit of the first movers, and the late movers pay a hefty price in order to make the reluctant customers choose their products (Markides and Sosa 2013). Drawbacks of being the First Mover- Although there are several advantages for being a first mover, however there are certain drawbacks that do not guarantee advantage: The first movers have to make additional arrangements in order to persuade the customers to try a new product. Whereas, for the late movers it is easy to establish the business on the lines of the previous entrant because the customers are already informed about a specific product (Loschelder et al. 2014). The late movers make cautious decisions and try to avoid the mistakes made by the first mover. The late movers make use of the opportunity of capturing the market where the first mover has failed to capture the customer attention. There is always a chance of making better products through the reverse engineering. This option is truly lacked by the first movers. The late movers can take the advantage of improving on the sections and areas where the first mover entirely overlooked (Loschelder et al. 2014). There are several examples of companies that were not the first movers and still are now considered to be market leaders: Google- before google came there were previous entrants like Infoseek and Yahoo. However, Google improved their search engine and effectively and Google now control 65% of the search in search engines; Southwest Airlines- this airline was a late mover in to the airline sector, still this company expanded fast and now they are the second largest airlines in the world (van Loon 2012). Retail banking and its entry timing in to a foreign market as a first entrant in a foreign country There are factors that play a major role in deciding the timing of a retail banking entry in to a foreign country. The several factors are listed as below: The capabilities of a firm is decided by its competencies, what areas it is good at and what it does better than the other market rivals. Thus, for a banking company to become have all the better qualities than all its rivals takes time to build. Banks begin to earn a large margin of profit only after a certain period of time, and that too the profit is based on the number of customers it serves. Gaining popularity and faith of the customers as a reliable requires a lot of time. Thus, when a company decides to expand its branches into the foreign countries, its own capabilities must be at a peak position. This timing of foreign market entry comes only after it has gain ample confidence and success in its base country (Kotha, Zheng and George 2011). Characteristics of the host country in to the retail banking firm will enter plays an important role. These characteristics include the market economy size, technological sophistication, industrial market structure. The host country must promote the options of foreign direct investment (FDI) so that foreign institutions can easily enter the foreign market without any hurdles. The timing here also plays a crucial role, the environment within the country that promotes a favorable foreign investment will attract the institutions like retail banks to enter in to a foreign country. Timing of such expansion is vital as it leads to an increase in higher profits by the banking entities. The other vital characteristics that are also important include institutional environment, political stability, taxation policies, price of the natural resources, employment and wage laws. All these factors influence business environment to a large extent and thus the decision of a retail banking entity to en ter in to a foreign country will largely include the an assessment of these factors (Nielsen and Nielsen 2011). Competition is a vital aspect of any business entity that wants to survive and competence with all the rivals in the same market environment. Entering in a foreign market also included a crucial assessment of the presence of the market competition in that country. The presence of the level of competition in foreign country will deter most of the companies to expand their branches. However, if that same country lack the market competition, then it will be easy for a new entrant to open a new branch and introduce new products that will attract the more customers. Economic factors are the sole promoters that push a foreign business entity or a retail banking firm to invest in to a foreign country. If a country provides ample opportunities through its economic services, then the likeliness of investment by the retail banking firms will increase. This again depends on the timing of the economic condition of a country, if a country is willing to open its domestic market for the foreign direct investment. Then, such opportunities can be directly linked with the timing of market entry (Goldfarb and Xiao 2011). Geographic proximity and whether it contributes to the success of market entry Geographical proximity play a positive role in contributing to the success of market entry because close proximity helps in easy conduct and management of the whole business process. The increased availability of the geographic information related to the consumers provides an added advantage and scope for the companies to use such information for the purpose of marketing. It is known fact that the social influences are greater when there is a close geographical proximity. The lack of the social network data implies that the influence of the consumers that are in geographically in close proximity can be effectively distinguished from the social proximity. The geographical and the social proximity are much related concepts and thus for this reason the geographic proximity data can be used effectively when the social proximity is absent. Thus expansion of the business and companies to the regions that are in close proximity can lead to increased compatibility between the people (Meyners et al. 2017). It is seen that due to societal, cultural and legal differences the foreign market which is located geographically close often seem to psychologically distant. The two major issues related to the psychological difference are: it is easier for the firms to enter foreign markets when there exists a close psychological proximity; the perception of psychological differences is sometimes based on the false perceptions rather than realistic belief. Expanding in to countries that are in geographically close proximity helps in reducing the complexities that arise due to the societal and the cultural differences. This makes the management of the operation similar to the management operation in the home country. Considering the case of the UniCredit Group, the company expanded in to the neighboring European countries which was under the same economic group and had similar less cultural and societal differences (Thornton, Ribeiro-Soriano and Urbano 2011). Expanding in to the neighboring country which is geographically in close proximity can be effective to a large extent. The effectiveness can be related to the understanding at the governmental level. Countries that are in close proximity often undergo in to promoting business environment that influences each others market. Due to the increased effect of the globalization, the market economies are open and thus countries often prefer to have foreign direct investment from the foreign institutions. Countries often open their market to increase their annual gross domestic product (GDP) from the foreign institutions that operate in a country. Countries often make special economic zones for the foreign entities and exempt them from the paying extra taxes and labor laws also are also made flexible for these foreign entities. When the neighboring governments are stable, it has a positive impact on all the governments that are geographically in close proximity. Stable governments promote a h ealthy growth environment for the domestic as well as the international players. Thus stable governments create opportunities for business and firm expansion which are otherwise detrimental (Autio and Fu 2015). Firms increasingly depend on the knowledge sourced from the other funds in order to enrich their own capabilities and knowledge base. Thus, engaging into merging and collaborations increases the potentiality of accruing knowledge, which otherwise would not have been possible. More demanding customers, shorter life cycle of the products and the ever-increasing global competitions have made the firms realize that working or collaborating with the others can effectively solve their problem. These mergers and the collaborations effectively make the business entities and firms resilient to the rapid changes occurring in the domestic and the global market. Firms and the institutions frequently undergo collaborations for the purpose of having advantages from the other market rivals and competitors. Collaborations that occur are based on the reducing the time for the development of the innovations, gaining knowledge from the partners, resource and risk sharing, increase the diversified knowl edge base. Inter firm mergers and collaboration are found to occur frequently between the companies that are geographically located in close proximity. The proximity can be broken down to two major types: non-spatial proximity and geographical proximity. The non-spatial proximity includes the organizational proximity, cognitive, technological, social, cultural and institutional proximity. The merger or collaboration generally occur between organizations are entirely based on the technology acquisition, knowledge transfer and knowledge sharing. These are often the primary goals of any merger of collaboration. According to some authors, the degree of geographical proximity is described as the geographical distance between two entities (Berchicci, King and Tucci 2011). Thus, it is seen that geographical proximity is playing a major role in defining the success in relation to the market entry. Knowledge sharing and knowledge acquisition are the sole criteria that pushes firms to enter in to foreign markets that are geographically located in close proximity. It is often seen that when companies want to expand in to the neighboring countries, they often choose to move in to a joint venture or from a collaboration. These collaborations or joint ventures arise between business entities that belong from the same industry (Chetty and Michailova 2011). For example, if a bank wants to expand its branches in to the neighboring country, it will look to form a collaboration with a company which is also a financial institution or a bank. The same is true for the automobile firms. If a foreign company wants to launch it automobiles in to different country which previously do not have any manufacturing base, then it forms joint ventures with the domestic company of that country. Such collaboration are solely based on the technology transfer and also introduction of the product which would otherwise have costed more capital to set up its own manufacturing plant (Killing 2012). Conclusion Thus, from the above discussion it can be concluded that, UniCredit and HVB Group were leading banking institutions before the merger took place. After the merger in the year 2005 the company even soared to new heights made the UniCredit Group one of the best financial institutions in Europe. The study also focusses on the benefits arising from being first mover in to any market. Although there are certain benefits associated with first moving, there are certain drawbacks that tend to help the later movers tremendously. References Autio, E. and Fu, K., 2015. Economic and political institutions and entry into formal and informal entrepreneurship. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 32(1), pp.67-94. Berchicci, L., King, A. and Tucci, C.L., 2011. Does the apple always fall close to the tree? The geographical proximity choice of spin?outs. Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 5(2), pp.120-136. Boldrin, M. and Levine, D.K., 2013. The case against patents. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 27(1), pp.3-22. Chetty, S. and Michailova, S., 2011. Geographical proximity and inter-firm collaboration: The role of knowledge access and knowledge acquisition. Journal of General Management, 36(4), pp.71-87. Goldfarb, A. and Xiao, M., 2011. Who thinks about the competition? Managerial ability and strategic entry in US local telephone markets. American Economic Review, 101(7), pp.3130-61. Killing, P., 2012. Strategies for joint venture success (RLE international business) (Vol. 22). Routledge. Kotha, R., Zheng, Y. and George, G., 2011. Entry into new niches: the effects of firm age and the expansion of technological capabilities on innovative output and impact. Strategic Management Journal, 32(9), pp.1011-1024. Loschelder, D.D., Swaab, R.I., Trtschel, R. and Galinsky, A.D., 2014. The First-Mover Dis advantage: The Folly of Revealing Compatible Preferences. Psychological science, 25(4), pp.954-962. Markides, C. and Sosa, L., 2013. Pioneering and first mover advantages: the importance of business models. Long Range Planning, 46(4-5), pp.325-334. Meyners, J., Barrot, C., Becker, J.U. and Goldenberg, J., 2017. The Role of Mere Closeness: How Geographic Proximity Affects Social Influence. Journal of Marketing, 81(5), pp.49-66. Nielsen, B.B. and Nielsen, S., 2011. The role of top management team international orientation in international strategic decision-making: The choice of foreign entry mode. Journal of World Business, 46(2), pp.185-193. Thornton, P.H., Ribeiro-Soriano, D. and Urbano, D., 2011. Socio-cultural factors and entrepreneurial activity: An overview. International small business journal, 29(2), pp.105-118. UnicreditGroup.eu, 2018. EN. [online] UnicreditGroup.eu. Available at: https://www.unicreditgroup.eu/en.html [Accessed 18 Feb. 2018]. van Loon, S., 2012. The Power of Google: First Mover Advantage or Abuse of a Dominant Position?. In Google and the Law (pp. 9-36). TMC Asser Press. Vecchiato, R., 2015. Creating value through foresight: First mover advantages and strategic agility. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 101, pp.25-36.