scholarly journals Introduction: Shipboard Literary Cultures and the Stain of the Sea

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-40
Author(s):  
Susann Liebich ◽  
Laurence Publicover
Keyword(s):  
Human Experience ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Experience Of Time ◽  
Literary Cultures ◽  
Richard Henry Dana ◽  
Ocean Environment ◽  
Literary Practices

AbstractThe introduction to the edited volume outlines the topics covered by the essays that follow and places them within historical and academic contexts. Turning for examples to several literary and non-literary texts, most notably the 1820s diaries of Edward Beck and Richard Henry Dana, Jr.’s Two Years Before the Mast (1840), it considers the differences and the continuities that prevail in shipboard environments across time, while also discussing the ways in which the human experience of time itself is complicated by seafaring. Particular attention is paid to the role of literary practices in shaping the experience of seafaring—to how such practices construct and reshape shipboard hierarchies, and also to how they help seafarers come to terms with the shipboard environment and with the ocean itself. While thus shaping shipboard cultures, the introduction argues, literary practices are also themselves affected—or ‘stained’—by the ocean environment.

Gender, Technology and the New Woman

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lena Wånggren
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
New Woman ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Gender And Sexuality ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Gender And Technology ◽  
The New Woman ◽  
Grant Allen

This book examines late nineteenth-century feminism in relation to technologies of the time, marking the crucial role of technology in social and literary struggles for equality. The New Woman, the fin de siècle cultural archetype of early feminism, became the focal figure for key nineteenth-century debates concerning issues such as gender and sexuality, evolution and degeneration, science, empire and modernity. While the New Woman is located in the debates concerning the ‘crisis in gender’ or ‘sexual anarchy’ of the time, the period also saw an upsurge of new technologies of communication, transport and medicine. This book explores the interlinking of gender and technology in writings by overlooked authors such as Grant Allen, Tom Gallon, H. G. Wells, Margaret Todd and Mathias McDonnell Bodkin. As the book demonstrates, literature of the time is inevitably caught up in a technological modernity: technologies such as the typewriter, the bicycle, and medical technologies, through literary texts come to work as freedom machines, as harbingers of female emancipation.

Towards a GIS Analysis of Literary Cultures: The Making of the Slovenian Ethnoscape Through Literature

2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 196-218
Author(s):  
Marko Juvan ◽  
Joh Dokler
Keyword(s):  
Literary Culture ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Spatial Turn ◽  
Territorial Expansion ◽  
Reciprocal Influence ◽  
Discourse Practices ◽  
The Social ◽  
Literary Cultures ◽  
History Of ◽  
National Ideology

This article presents methodological starting points, heuristics and the results of a GIS-based analysis of the history of Slovenian literary culture from the 1780s to 1941. The ethnically Slovenian territory was multilingual and multicultural; it belonged to different state entities with distant capitals, which was reflected in the spatial dynamic of literary culture. The research results have confirmed the hypotheses of the research project ‘The Space of Slovenian Literary Culture,’ which were based on postulates of the spatial turn: the socio-geographical space influenced the development of literature and its media, whereas literature itself, through its discourse, practices and institutions, had a reciprocal influence on the apprehension and structuring of that space, as well as on its connection with the broader region. Slovenian literary discourse was able to manifest itself in public predominantly through the history of spatial factors: (a) the formation, territorial expansion and concentration of the social network of literary actors and media; (b) the persistent references of literary texts to places that were recognized by addressees as Slovenian, thereby grounding a national ideology. Taking all of this into account, and based on meta-theoretical reflection, the project aims to contribute to the development of digital humanities and spatial literary studies.

Writing and Ritual in Deuteronomy 28

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Quick
Keyword(s):  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Comparative Method ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
History Of ◽  
Important Means ◽  
Written Word ◽  
Ritual Process ◽  
Different Cultures ◽  
Ritual Context

This chapter argue that ritual behaviours might be just as good a source as literary texts for the diffusion of traditional cursing and treaty material across different cultures in the ancient Near East. In particular, the role of ad hoc oral Targum in the ritual process could have been an important means by which traditions were shared between different language communities. Recognition of the ritual context of this material also provides insights for the comparative method, the dating and authorship of Deuteronomy 28, and the subversive impetus thought to have stood behind its composition. Ultimately, the function of the written word in a largely oral world is shown to be fundamental to understanding the composition, function and the early history of the curses in the book of Deuteronomy.

How Useful is Bourdieu’s Notion of Cultural Capital for Describing Literary Markets?

2021 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-55
Author(s):  
Nicola Glaubitz
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Capital ◽  
Reference Points ◽  
Conceptual Clarity ◽  
Literary Cultures ◽  
The Status ◽  
Multi Method Approach ◽  
Organisation Structure ◽  
Literary Canons ◽  
Literary Markets

Abstract Bourdieu’s concepts of cultural capital and field, developed in the 1970s and 1980s, still provide systematic reference points for studies interested in literary cultures under market conditions. These concepts have found resonance in studies observing the changing organisation, structure, and social positions involved in the writing, reading, and circulation of literature. While both the conceptual clarity and the historical results Bourdieu achieved (in particular in his study The Rules of Art, originally published in 1992) have come under attack, both his key concepts and his multi-method approach function as a theoretical toolbox for present studies. The article discusses three studies (Childress 2017; English 2005; Guillory 1993) which make use of Bourdieu’s concept of capital in order to describe contemporary US publishing, the role of literary canons in higher education, and the status of literary awards. I argue that Bourdieu’s framework is productive in these cases when it is used in a heuristic way, when the idea of cultural and social capital is considered as processes and practices of valuation, and when it points to the political aspects of economies.

scholarly journals Socio-legal studies and the humanities – law, interdisciplinarity and integrity

2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 243-261 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melanie L. Williams
Keyword(s):  
Human Experience ◽  
Normative Values ◽  
Moral Sensibility ◽  
Hard Data ◽  
Legal Studies ◽  
Psychological Significance ◽  
The One ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

This paper was delivered as a plenary lecture, designed to respond to the one-day special conference focus upon links between socio-legal studies and the humanities.1 The paper focuses in particular upon the relationship between law and the humanities. It may be argued that the role of empirically sourced socio-legal research is well accepted, given its tangible utility in terms of producing hard data which can inform and transform policy perspectives. However, scholarly speculation about the relationship between law and the humanities ranges from the indulgent to the hostile. In particular, legal scholars aligning themselves as ‘black letter’ commentators express strong opinions about such links, suggesting that scholarship purporting to establish links between the two fields is essentially spurious, bearing in mind the purposive role of law as a problem-solving mechanism. The paper sets out to challenge such assertions, indicating the natural connections between the two fields and the philosophical necessity of continued interaction, given the fact that certain aspects of human experience and nature cannot be plumbed by doctrine or empiricism or even by combinations of the two. Law must be understood to stand at the nexus of human experience, in a relationship of integrity, where the word is understood to mean both morally principled and culturally integrated. In particular, the development of human qualities, of character and moral sensibility informing normative values – and, ultimately, engagement with the world of law – is a process of subtle cultural as well as psychological significance, and may benefit from interrogation deriving from the wider fields of human discourse.

Mystery in the poetics of romantic tragedy genre (“The Spaniards” by Mikhail Lermontov)

2021 ◽  
pp. 67-81
Author(s):  
E. V. Golovenkina ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
Mikhail Lermontov ◽  
Inner World ◽  
Loss Of A Child ◽  
Moral Choices ◽  
Ideal Sphere ◽  
The Ideal ◽  
Tragic Conflict

This paper focuses on the role of the poetics of mystery in the formation of the romantic trag-edy genre. “The Spaniards” by Mikhail Lermontov is considered as a characteristic example of this genre, manifesting “melodramatization” of tragedy and tendency towards genre-generic synthesis. The action of “The Spaniards” is based on events related to the sphere of the mysterious, which are exceptional in life and common in melodrama. Central to the plot is the motif of the loss of a child. The secret of Fernando’s birth and “ignobility” form the con-flict and organize two storylines (love and family) and two (everyday life – melodramatic, and existential – tragic) levels of conflict. Mystery also plays an important role in revealing the inner world and expressing the romantic ideal of the hero. The ability to comprehend the mysterious, to pass beyond human experience and logic is not only the motivation of his ac-tions, but it also connects the hero with the ideal sphere. The study examines how the charac-ters’ anticipation of the “terrible” motivates their moral choices. Analyzing the interaction of lyrical motifs, the author suggests the motif of mystery as important for implementing the main (tragic) conflict, unlike melodrama, where the functions of mystery are plot-forming, stimulating the spectator’s interest and maximizing the dramatic tension. Mystery in the plot and the lyrical concept of the tragedy contributes to the understanding of the essence of the romantic conflict, has a suggestive impact on the audience, and deepens the psychologism.

Uniendo lo humano y lo divino. La gramática, la ontología y la forma del lenguaje en la conversación de san Agustín en Ostia (conf. 9, 24)

Augustinus ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-136
Author(s):  
Pablo Irizar ◽  
Guinevere Rallens ◽  
Charles Kim ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Experience ◽  
Second Line ◽  
First Line

The fracturing of language at Babel (Gn 11.1-9) is one of the defining events which, for Augustine, gives language its current fallen characteristics and limitations. But does the fallen state of language necessarily imply that language creates a chiasm rather than a bridge between the human and the divine? And if so, is language used in vain to invoke God? This paper addresses these questions through an analysis of the role of language in Augustine’s Ostia ascent narrative (conf. 9, 24). According to a first line of interpretation, language creates a chiasm rather than a bridge between the human and the divine in the ‘Ostia ascent’. According to a second line of interpretation, though fractured, language does not create a chiasm but rather a bridge between the human and the divine. By identifying and intertextually analyzing three facets of the function of language in conf. 9, 24, namely the grammatical, the ontological, and the modal, this paper aims at substantiating the second line of interpretation. Part one explores Augustine’s use of the expression per uerbum (Jn 1.1-15) to analyze the grammar of human and divine language. Part two analyzes the ontological function of language as a mechanism of mediation by showing that the ascent in conf. 9, 24 is similar to the structure of manifestation evident in the transition from forma dei to forma serui (Phil 2.6-7) in Augustine’s s. 264. Finally, part three shows that for Augustine, the conversion from the schola superbiae of rhetoric pride to the humility of the schola pectoris implicitly requires the mode of language as a precondition for ascent in conf. 9, 24. As such, this paper concludes, the three facets of language, namely the ontological, grammatical and modal, function in conf. 9, 24 to unite, mediate and transform the human experience of the divine.

scholarly journals On the Ethics of Interpretation: are Young Readers to Blame?

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 264
Author(s):  
Indrė Žakevičienė
Keyword(s):  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Original Form ◽  
Young Readers ◽  
Literary Ethics ◽  
Mental Spaces

The author of the article will discuss the problem of validity thinking about the basic statements of Literary Ethics. Though the problems Literary Ethics emphasizes are global and at the same time rather abstract, the efforts of literary researchers to educate readers with the help of novels are understandable but seem ineffectual. Young readers are not capable of understanding complicated texts of the previous century because of the different contents of their mental spaces or the different schemes of thinking. Literary Ethics speaks about the importance of the role of emotions while reading novels, but the spectrum of primary emotions young readers experience while reading complicated literary texts blocks all the ways to deeper understanding and the ability to analyze specific ethical issues encoded in the novels. The theory of emotions explains the situation and in a way rehabilitates young readers. Nevertheless, particular transformations of genres or of the original form of literary texts could evoke the readers’ interest and make them think deeper or extend the realm of interpretations by relating particular “genre markers” and rethinking their codes.

Unsettling Brian Eno'sMusic for Airports

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 305-333
Author(s):  
VICTOR SZABO
Keyword(s):  
Public Administration ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
Dominant Mode ◽  
Air Travel ◽  
Music Listening ◽  
Recorded Music ◽  
Personal Consumption ◽  
Ambient Music ◽  
Commercial Spaces

AbstractIn the liner notes to his albumAmbient 1: Music for Airports(1978), Brian Eno (1948–) defined Ambient music in contradistinction to Muzak's ‘derivative’ instrumental pop arrangements. Ambient music's historians and critics have often followed Eno by describing Ambient music as an alternative to conventional ‘background’ or ‘programmed’ music for commercial spaces. Such descriptions can be misleading, however, given that Ambient music's dominant mode of reception is selective personal consumption, not public administration. This article investigates the aesthetics of Eno'sAirports, and elucidates the organizing role of the Ambient genre, within their primary reception context of personal recorded music listening. A comparison with The Black Dog'sMusic for Real Airports(2010) shows how Ambient music then and now reflexively affords atmospheric use by translating a sense of physical dwelling and passage into mixed musical moods. By expressing ambivalenceaboutthe reality of airports and air travel, these Ambient records characteristically convey apprehension about the technological administration of human experience – a phenomenon that includes personal recorded music listening.

scholarly journals Inculturation and the Guadalupana

Lumen et Vita ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry Shea SJ
Keyword(s):  
Potential Model ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
Our Lady Of Guadalupe ◽  
Cultural Symbols ◽  
Pope Francis ◽  
Popular Piety ◽  
Key Features ◽  
Point Of Departure

In his recent Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis emphasizes “the importance of understanding evangelization as inculturation.  Grace supposes culture,” he writes, “and God’s gift becomes flesh in the culture of those who receive it” (EG 115).  Expressing themes that have recurred throughout his life and ministry, Francis proceeds to lauds the role of popular piety in the life of a people, maintaining that its accessible, incarnate features exemplify the embodiment of an evangelical faith in culture.  Echoing Aparecida, Francis describes popular piety as a “spirituality incarnated in the culture of the lowly” and “the people’s mysticism” (EG 124).It would be difficult to find a more significant example of the convergence of these themes than the celebrated image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, to which Francis himself expresses devotion.  What is it about this symbol that has captivated the hearts of so many?  Using Francis’ words in Evangelii Gaudium as a point of departure, this paper analyzes the Guadalupan image and event as a potential model for inculturation.  It focuses upon three key features of the image from which can be gleaned broader principles for inculturation, namely: (1) its interlacing of cultural and revelational symbols in such a way that the cultural symbols are affirmed as well as transformed, (2) the use of inculturated symbol as a way of maximizing what Rahner refers to as “the overplus of meaning” communicated through “primordial” words and symbols that evoke deeper, transcendental aspects of human experience, and (3) finally the use of inculturated symbol to mediate interpersonal faith-encounters that can be  shared through the renewed culture and the bonds of community.

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