scholarly journals MOLECULAR INCOHERENCE, CONTINUITY, AND THE PERFECTION OF THE LAOZI

Early China ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
pp. 237-319
Author(s):  
David J. Lebovitz
Keyword(s):  
Relative Abundance ◽  
Ancient Text ◽  
Manuscript Culture ◽  
Rhetorical Patterns ◽  
Warring States ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Chinese Texts ◽  
Commentarial Tradition

AbstractThe Laozi is a well-loved and oft-translated ancient text, whose popularity with interpreters and translators seems to have hardly ebbed in over two thousand years. This is attested in part by the number of bamboo and silk manuscript versions of the text unearthed in recent years from the Warring States (475–221 b.c.e.) and Western Han (221–206 b.c.e.), such that few transmitted Chinese texts have so many corresponding manuscript versions. The Laozi's popularity and relative abundance have also made the text instrumental in shaping theoretical approaches to book formation in early Chinese manuscript culture. In particular, the Laozi has been central to the study of how books were assembled out of pre-existent, stable, coherent molecules of text, or zhang 章 (chapters). Emerging from a case study of Laozi chapter 13, in which interpretive problems of the written commentarial tradition are shown to be continuous with those in manuscript culture, this article re-examines the theory of molecular coherence in the Laozi's formation, showing ultimately that the textual and rhetorical patterns by which zhang cohere internally are created by the same forces that deposit zhang in proximity to one another. Moving from the molecular to organismic level, the article also examines the use of conjoining phrases in Peking University's Laozi manuscript to demonstrate how editors, compilers, and interpreters may sacrifice coherence at one level of organization to achieve perfection at another.

scholarly journals Enacting alternatives to nationalist essentialising in language learning: Students’ voices

2021 ◽  
pp. 001458582098650
Author(s):  
Gloria De Vincenti ◽  
Angela Giovanangeli
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Innovative Teaching ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Alternative Approaches

Researchers examining nationalistic conceptions of language learning argue that nationalist essentialism often shapes the way languages are taught by educators and understood by learners. While numerous studies focus on how frameworks informed by Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and intercultural education offer alternative approaches to national stereotyping, these studies tend to focus on theoretical approaches, teacher perspectives or innovative teaching and learning resources. The literature to date, however, does not provide case studies on student responses to activities designed by the teacher to open up the classroom with opportunities that move beyond essentialist representations. This article responds to the need for such scholarship and presents a case study involving a focus group with tertiary students in an Italian language and culture subject. It reveals some of the ways in which students enacted and reflected upon alternatives to nationalist essentialising as a result of language learning activities that had been informed by the discursive processes of CDA. The findings suggest that students demonstrated skills and attitudes such as curiosity, subjectivities and connections with broader social contexts. Some of the data also indicates student engagement in critical inquiry and their potential for social agency.

scholarly journals Human security as biosecurity

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Craig Albert ◽  
Amado Baez ◽  
Joshua Rutland
Keyword(s):  
International Security ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Human Security ◽  
The United States ◽  
Security Threat ◽  
Global Security ◽  
Case Study Analysis ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
The Individual

Abstract Research within security studies has struggled to determine whether infectious disease (ID) represents an existential threat to national and international security. With the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19), it is imperative to reexamine the relationship between ID and global security. This article addresses the specific threat to security from COVID-19, asking, “Is COVID-19 a threat to national and international security?” To investigate this question, this article uses two theoretical approaches: human security and biosecurity. It argues that COVID-19 is a threat to global security by the ontological crisis posed to individuals through human security theory and through high politics, as evidenced by biosecurity. By viewing security threats through the lens of the individual and the state, it becomes clear that ID should be considered an international security threat. This article examines the relevant literature and applies the theoretical framework to a case study analysis focused on the United States.

Synthesis and Experimental Studies on Supramolecular Synthons of Aminoguanidinium Carboxylates: A Case Study of π-HoleBonded Carbon Bonding via Theoretical Approaches

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (35) ◽  
pp. 10032-10048
Author(s):  
Govindarajan Radha ◽  
Baskaran Vijaya Pandiyan ◽  
Palanisamy Deepa ◽  
Subbiah Govindarajan ◽  
Ponmalai Kolandaivel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Supramolecular Synthons ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Carbon Bonding

The “Doctrine of Love” in ʿAbd Allāh al-Anṣārī’s Manāzil al-sāʾirīn with Critical Paraphrase of ʿAbd al-Razzāq Kāshānī’s Commentary

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 140-155
Author(s):  
Mukhtar H. Ali
Keyword(s):  
English Translation ◽  
Guided Reading ◽  
Classic Work ◽  
Key Topics ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Commentarial Tradition ◽  
Profound Insight

This article represents a preliminary inquiry into a little known and understudied commentarial tradition upon ʿAbd Allāh al-Anṣārī’s classic work on the stations of Sufism, the Manāzil al-sāʾirīn (Stations of the Wayfarers). After briefly taking stock of the considerably late commentarial tradition which this important text engendered, we will take as our case study one of the Manāzil ’s key topics, namely its sixty-first chapter on the station of love. This pivotal section on love gives profound insight into early Sufism and into the minds of two of its greatest exponents. Anṣārī discusses the station of love in detail, as he does with every chapter, in three aspects, each pertaining to the three types of wayfarers: the initiates, the elect, and the foremost of the elect. Then, we shall turn our attention to perhaps the most important Sufi commentary upon this work by an important follower of the school of Ibn al-ʿArabī, ʿAbd al-Razzāq Kāshānī, offering a guided reading of his commentary upon Anṣarī’s chapter on love in the Manāzil. A complete English translation of this chapter will be offered and appropriately contextualized.

scholarly journals Challenges in Translating Chinese Classics into English: Example of Biography of Huan Tan and Feng Yan from Book of the Later Han

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 115
Author(s):  
Qu Jingyi
Keyword(s):  
English Translation ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Literary Value ◽  
Modern Chinese ◽  
Classical Chinese ◽  
Interdisciplinary Knowledge ◽  
Dynamic Growth ◽  
Chinese Texts

As one of the Early Four Historiographies, Fan Ye’s Book of the Later Han preserves significant works of both historical and literary value. This is something increasingly significant in response to the dynamic growth in popularity of classical Chinese texts among Western sinologists. Through reading the English translation of the “Biography of Huan Tan and Feng Yan” from the Book of the Later Han, the following<br />three issues are arguably noteworthy for the translator’s consideration. Firstly, the English translation may involve an<br />interim step of intralingual translation from classical Chinese to modern Chinese, before a subsequent interlingual translation from modern Chinese to English. While this facilitates the process of translation,<br />the vernacular translation also involves further risks in misinterpretation. Secondly, translation of such historiographical work which consists of literary works by various writers with numerous historical references,<br />not only requires the translator to conduct additional analysis and write explanatory notes, it also makes the English output inaccessible to most readers. Thirdly,<br />the highly interdisciplinary knowledge in relevant historiography not only demands a high quality of competency in translators, but also arguably acts as a catalyst for further academic research in the process of close reading and research. This paper intends to analyse the above three issues through a case study on the “Biography of Huan Tan and Feng Yan”, thereby demonstrating how the translation of Chinese classics is an<br />arduous yet meaningful challenge.

scholarly journals “Parks Not Parkways”: Contesting Automobility in a Small Canadian City

2016 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 399-424
Author(s):  
Jim Conley ◽  
Ole B. Jensen
Keyword(s):  
Urban Development ◽  
Green Space ◽  
Environmental Preservation ◽  
Causal Mechanisms ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Orders Of Worth ◽  
Canadian City ◽  
Temporal Structures ◽  
Physical Attributes

This case study of a dispute over a project to construct a road through green space in a small Canadian city brings together two hitherto separate theoretical approaches to mobility disputes: "culture stories" and "regimes of engagement". The stories opponents tell, in interviews and documents, concern their mobilization against the project, the value of environmental preservation, and the costs of expanded automobility, culminating in contrasting visions of urban development. The culture stories approach examines how stories varied on a narrative dimension of informational formats, temporal structures, causal mechanisms, and plot institutionalization, and a place dimension of relational geography and physical attributes. The pragmatic conditions of the different narratives of contestation, and of the challenges faced by opponents are analysed in terms of the relation between regimes of engagement: a regime of familiarity based in slow mobilities, a regime of planned action based in automobility, and the clash of industrial and green orders of worth in a regime of justification

scholarly journals Small States and the Struggle for Power in the Arctic Region: A Case Study of Denmark

Politologija ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 94 (2) ◽  
pp. 81-108
Author(s):  
Gabija Lukšaitė
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Arctic Region ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Small States ◽  
Small State ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
International Environment ◽  
Foreign Policy Strategies ◽  
The Arctic Region

This paper examines the specifics of foreign policy strategies used by Denmark as a small state in the Arctic region. Based upon a number of theoretical approaches in terms of analyzing small state foreign policy, this study is primarily focused on how small states manage to pursue their goals in an international environment typically dominated by large powers.

scholarly journals Approaches to Studying Intermediality in Contemporary Cinema

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 165-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ágnes Pethő
Keyword(s):  
Media Studies ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
Approaches To Studying ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
European Cinema ◽  
Expanded Cinema ◽  
New Type ◽  
Contemporary Cinema

Abstract The article attempts a brief overview and evaluation of the main theoretical approaches that have emerged in the study of cinematic intermediality in the last decades since intermediality has become an established research term in media studies. It distinguishes three major paradigms in theorizing intermedia phenomena and outlines some of the directions of change in the intermedial strategies of recent films. It identifies in contemporary cinema a tendency to add new dimensions to the relations of in-betweenness regarding both the connection of cinema to reality and its inter-art entanglements. Finally, the article describes a new type of intermediality, which integrates elements of trans-textuality, creating a format of expanded cinema within cinema. This strategy is presented in the context of Eastern European cinema through a short case study of Cristi Puiu’s film, Sieranevada (2016).

scholarly journals THE HAN RIVER AS THE CENTRAL AXIS AND THE PREDOMINANCE OF WATER: QUESTIONING THE CLAIM OF “NO CHU-RELATED TRAITS” IN THE VIEW OF TERRESTRIAL SPACE IN THE RONG CHENG SHI MANUSCRIPT (FOURTH CENTURY B.C.E)

Early China ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
pp. 143-235
Author(s):  
Vera Dorofeeva-Lichtmann
Keyword(s):  
Wide Spectrum ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Central Axis ◽  
Spatial Concepts ◽  
Warring States ◽  
Han River ◽  
Bamboo Slips ◽  
Visual Aid ◽  
Chinese Texts ◽  
Manuscript Description

AbstractThe description of the “Nine Provinces” (Jiu zhou 九州) found in the Rong Cheng shi 容成氏 (Mister Rong Cheng?, late fourth century b.c.e.) manuscript from the Shanghai Museum Bamboo Slips Collection (Shangbo cangjian 上博藏簡) is the only manuscript version of it known to date. Its discovery immediately raised the question of its relation to the cluster of descriptions on the “Nine Provinces” transmitted from the late Warring States to the early Western Han periods. There is general consensus that the manuscript description of the “Nine Provinces” has close affinity with the transmitted descriptions, as well as with a wide spectrum of transmitted early Chinese texts in general. It is distinguished by the eclectic combining of known spatial concepts, rather than manifesting any radically new or specifically Chu traits. In this study I reassess this impression with respect to the reference to the Han River in the manuscript, which up to now has been noted only in passing as an unsolved puzzle. I argue that the Han River is referred to here as the central axis that divides terrestrial space into southern and northern halves, something that implies a shifting of the mapped area to the South and thus conveys a Chu view of space. Together with philological analysis of the descriptions of terrestrial space, I apply an innovative method of investigation of these descriptions through landmarks, using as a visual aid traditional Chinese historical maps. In addition, I explore the predominance of waters as the distinguishing feature of the representation of terrestrial space in the Rong Cheng shi manuscript and demonstrate its difference from the structuring of terrestrial space proceeding from mountains to waterways to be seen in the majority of transmitted early Chinese texts.

Apodictic Irony and the Production of Well-Structured Uncertainty: Tosafot Gornish and the Talmud as the Political after Kant

Other Others ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 105-138
Author(s):  
Sergey Dolgopolski
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Second Step ◽  
The Political ◽  
Ancient Text ◽  
Early Modernity ◽  
Structured Uncertainty ◽  
Multistep Process ◽  
Aristotelian Tradition

This chapter addresses an early modern instantiation of the effacement of the interpersonal political in the Talmud by conceptions of universal (inter)subjectivity and logical-apodictic reasoning. This process first tacitly erases the interpersonal political in the late ancient Talmud by reducing it to dialectical irony. In a second step, the erasure advances from irony, a Platonic concept, to logical-apodictic reading of it in the Aristotelian tradition. Only when viewed through a post-Kantian lens could it become clear that this was not merely a Platonic interpretation of the late ancient Talmud in early modernity, followed by an Aristotelian interpretation, but rather a complex and multistep process of the effacement of the interpersonal at the advent of intersubjective. The chapter arrives to that result through a case-study of staging and analyzing of a fourteenth century logical commentary on the thirteenth century rhetorical interpretation of a discussion in a late ancient text in the Talmud.

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