scholarly journals The role of the Avant Garde in linguistic diffusion

2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Labov
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Inner Speech ◽  
Strong Tendency ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
It Diffusion ◽  
Linguistic Patterns ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
English Speaking World ◽  
The City

AbstractThe spread of the new quotative be like throughout the English-speaking world is a change from above for each community that receives it. Diffusion of this form into Philadelphia is traced through the yearly interviews of the Philadelphia Neighborhood Corpus, beginning with young adults in 1979 and spreading to adolescents in 1990, a generation later. The first users of be like form the Avant Garde, young adults with extensive awareness of linguistic patterns within and without the city. The use of this quotative in Philadelphia is favored by constraints that are found elsewhere, particularly to introduce inner speech that is not intended to be heard by others and to cite exemplars of a range of utterances. Not previously reported is a strong tendency to be favored for quotations with initial exclamations, prototypically expressions of surprise and alarm such as “Oh” and “Oh my god!”.

Walter Benjamin

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Walter Benjamin ◽  
Student Interest ◽  
Children's Theater ◽  
Youth Movement ◽  
Language Play ◽  
Childhood Play ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Political Philosopher ◽  
English Speaking World

Cultural theorist and political philosopher Walter Benjamin (b. 1892–d. 1940) reflected on the thought processes and imaginative life of the child both in dedicated writings and, tangentially, in his major works. As a young man Benjamin wrote essays critical of high school education, and he was a supporter of the German Youth Movement until he became disillusioned with its nationalist tone. Subsequently Benjamin’s engagement shifted toward early childhood and took many forms: he collected antique children’s books; recorded the sayings and opinions of his infant son; made radio broadcasts for children; composed a memoir of his own childhood years in Berlin; and devoted a number of prose fragments to aspects of drama for young people, play, toys, and the numinous qualities of childhood reading. Influenced by the German Romantic view of the purity of a child’s vision that removes the subject-object barrier, Benjamin suggests in these works that in the course of developing an intense relationship with its immediate locality the child simultaneously absorbs and animates the innate qualities of the natural or manufactured object. Benjamin also regarded language play, witnessed in the utterances of his young son and the magical resonance of his own childhood misunderstandings, as essential to the formation of memory images and the imagination. He does not, however, present an idealized vision of childhood, since children are engaged in a cycle of destruction as well as renewal, and play with the detritus of daily life is essential to the growth of the child’s autonomy—as indeed are acts of mimesis and an immersion in the imaginative world of the book and its illustration. Alongside these observations on the child’s intellectual and imaginative development, Benjamin assumes the role of mentor in broadcasts for children that seek to encourage a historical and political consciousness in the young. He returns to his student interest in education in essays on the nature of colonial and proletarian pedagogy, and in a manifesto on proletarian children’s theater. Initially, little critical attention was paid to Benjamin’s writings on childhood in the English-speaking world, partly because of their gradual appearance in English translation. It is only in recent decades that the significance of Benjamin’s illuminating reflections on childhood, play, and education has become apparent, and that the autobiographical Berlin Childhood around 1900) has gained recognition as an expression in serial “thought-images” of the speculation on memory and materialist historiography that is essential to his philosophy.

When was Melaka founded and was it known earlier by another name? Exploring the debate between Gabriel Ferrand and Gerret Pieter Rouffaer, 1918−21, and its long echo in historiography

2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 175-196
Author(s):  
Peter Borschberg
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Early History ◽  
Port City ◽  
Place Names ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
English Speaking World ◽  
The City

A century ago, research on the Malay world was experiencing major breakthroughs on several fronts, but the greatest achievement at the time was without doubt George Coedès’ ‘rediscovery’, based on Asian sources, of a forgotten kingdom named Srivijaya. His book, published in 1918, saw a wave of publications follow in its wake. Sources were trawled in the hope of finding answers to unresolved issues and unidentified place names. Attention invariably also fell on Melaka. In a long article published by the French academic and diplomat Gabriel Ferrand in the same year, the question of Melaka's founding date came under the spotlight. What do the different surviving sources tell us? What about Gaspar Correia's claim that Melaka was a thriving port city for centuries before the arrival of the Portuguese? Was the city — just as in the case of Temasek (Singapore) — known by a different name in earlier times? Ferrand's publication provoked a response from the Dutch academic Gerret Pieter Rouffaer, director of the KITLV. What he planned to be a 20-odd page response to Ferrand swelled into a multifaceted argument running into hundreds of pages. The debate between Ferrand and Rouffaer that touched on Melaka and Temasek-Singapura's early history probably eluded most of their academic contemporaries who were not proficient in both Dutch and French, especially in the English-speaking world. The present article reconstructs the main points of this debate together with their echo in historiography. It makes a contribution to the ongoing discourses, especially in Malaysia, concerning the founding date of Melaka.

scholarly journals Celebrating Culture - Literary Communities of Practice in Doha

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naqaa Abbas ◽  
Hend Taher
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Creative Work ◽  
Arts And Culture ◽  
Performative Space ◽  
Literary Communities ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
The City ◽  
Literary Circles

Our paper focuses on the role of arts and culture in Doha. More specifically, we examine literary circles in Doha (both Arab and English speaking) and regard them as ‘communities of practice.’ According to Etienne Wenger, communities of practice are “groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.” Moreover, such communities are seen as promoting innovation, developing social capital, facilitating and spreading knowledge within a group, and spreading existing knowledge. Recently, there has been a surge of active literary communities presenting their creative work in both English and Arabic attracting a variety of audiences and fans. For instance, young authors such as Kumam Al Maadeed, Eissa Abdullah, Buthaina Al-Janahi and Abdullah Fakhro not only have a huge online following, but they also have a significant fan base attending their events throughout the city. Besides these communities, there are also numerous organizations with which these celebrity authors are associated such as Qalam Hebr, Qatari Forum for Authors, and Outspoken Doha – we argue that such organizations can also be regarded as communities of practice. Our contention is that these ever-growing communities provide a performative space in which poets, singers, authors and artists can experiment with the fluidity of their assigned identities, cultures and traditions.

scholarly journals Interview with David McLellan July 2018

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-104
Author(s):  
Larry Ray ◽  
Iain Wilkinson
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Karl Marx ◽  
Contract Law ◽  
The Political ◽  
World Peace ◽  
Emeritus Professor ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
English Speaking World

David McLellan, interviewed here, is a Fellow of Goldsmiths College, University of London and Emeritus Professor of Political Theory, University of Kent. Since the 1970s he has been one of the leading biographers, translators and commentators on Marx in the English-speaking world. He is the author of several books on Marx and Marxism, including The Young Hegelians and Karl Marx; Karl Marx: His Life and Thought; Karl Marx: Selected Writings; Marx before Marxism; and Marxism and Religion. He has also published a biography of Simone Weil, books on the political implications of Christianity, and a lengthy article on contract law and marriage. He lectures widely around the world on these topics, frequently in China, and in 2018 addressed a conference in Nairobi on religion and world peace. In this interview, or conversation, with Larry Ray and Iain Wilkinson, in July 2018, David discusses the origins of his interest in Marx, the development Marx’s thought and his critique of the Hegelians, Marx’s critical method, Marx and religion, Marx on Russia, the role of violence in social change, the relevance of Marx’s work today, and offers comments on some recent biographies. David has spent much of his intellectual career engaging with the meaning and legacy of Marxism and these reflections should generate reflection and debate on the significance of Marx and the possibilities of radical political change today.

Practices of resistance: The Antwerp fashion scene and Walter Van Beirendonck’s subversion of masculinity

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 51-72
Author(s):  
Nicola Brajato ◽  
Alexander Dhoest
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Creative Resistance ◽  
And Gender ◽  
A Site ◽  
Fashion Designers ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The City

The existing literature on the evolution of the Antwerp fashion scene is mainly concerned with the development of the Fashion Academy pedagogy from tradition to avant-garde, the role of the famous ‘Antwerp Six’ in putting the city under the international fashion spotlight, and the making of a specific cultural heritage which up to today continues to inspire young fashion designers. However, less has been said about its contribution to the redefinition of gender, and more specifically of masculinity. Consequently, the aim of the article is to contextualize Antwerp as a site for ‘creative resistance’ against the middle-class ideas of fashion, body and identity through the figure of Belgian designer Walter Van Beirendonck, articulating his contribution in deconstructing the normative understanding of the relationship between fashion and masculinity, providing a new metaphor to think about the process of body fashioning in everyday life. Therefore, Van Beirendonck’s creative practices as a sartorial form of resistance against the bourgeois understanding of masculinity and sexuality will be investigated through a qualitative analysis of visual and audio-visual archive materials generously provided by MoMu, the Antwerp fashion museum, showing how his creations are successful in stretching bodily borders and forming non-conventional masculinities. Far from offering an exhaustive overview of the field, the article constitutes a starting point for the understanding of a particular way of seeing the relationship between fashion, body and gender identity in the Antwerp fashion scene. Furthermore, it aims to stress the urgency to analyse the relevance of fashion in tackling issues of masculinity and the clothed body.

Alexander’s Apostasy: First Steps to Jerusalem

1992 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 363-371
Author(s):  
Brian Taylor
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Laying On Of Hands ◽  
English Speaking World ◽  
City Of London ◽  
The City

The synagogue in Bevis Marks in the city of London, 1700-1, is the oldest in this country. The second is in Plymouth, in Catherine Street. It was built in 1762, and is the oldest Ashkenazi synagogue in the English-speaking world. It is noteworthy for its original furnishings, which are mainly austere—the deal benches, and plain turned balusters for the enclosures, with the eight brass candle-sticks, now electrified, round the bimah. The exception is the ornately carved wooden ark, towering almost to the ceiling, with large urns on the entablature, which is supported by Corinthian columns. It is mortifying to the Hebrew congregation that its existence is mostly known not for its historic and architectural importance, but in connection with the defection of one of its ministers, Michael Solomon Alexander, in 1825. A little more than sixteen years later, Alexander was consecrated for the newly constituted Jerusalem bishopric, on 7 December 1841, in Lambeth Palace Chapel. Archbishop Howley was joined in the laying on of hands by Blomfield of London, Murray of Rochester, and Selwyn of New Zealand, who had been consecrated in the same chapel three weeks before.

scholarly journals L’altro non sono io

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicola Montagna
Keyword(s):  
Identity Politics ◽  
Salman Rushdie ◽  
White Identity ◽  
The Third ◽  
Satanic Verses ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
English Speaking World ◽  
And Diffusion ◽  
Academic Debate

Through the analysis of some texts recently published in English, this chapter aims to analyse the recent academic debate in the English-speaking world on the role of identity in the growth of consensus and diffusion of populist parties and movements. The first part of this study reconstructs the origins of the so-called identity politics, starting from the movements for the recognition of the 1980s and in particular from protests against the publication of the book The Satanic Verses of Salman Rushdie; the second part analyses the meaning of identity and the related concept of identity politics; the third part deals with some aspects of identity politics today and how the academic debate uses the category of white identity in relation to current populist politics; the chapter concludes with some critical reflections both on the use of the category of identity politics and on an interpretation of identity as a monolithic and homogeneous entity.

scholarly journals Silent hero. The metaphorical role of the ruins of Warsaw in Polish fiction films from 1949 to 1960

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (31) ◽  
pp. 55-64
Author(s):  
Barbara Giza
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Strong Tendency ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
World War ◽  
Feature Films ◽  
The City

The article is an analysis of the image of ruins of Warsaw in Polish feature films after World War II. There is a strong tendency to connect this image with the current political (and psychological) situation, from the enthusiasm of rebuilding Warsaw just after the war to the depressive moods of the late fifties and sixties. The ruins of the city are depicted as a symbol of political and social changes in Poland in this article.

Talking to Carlos Gimenez, Creator of the Rajatabla in Caracas

1986 ◽  
Vol 2 (7) ◽  
pp. 243-249
Author(s):  
Glenn Loney
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
South America ◽  
Political Change ◽  
Theatre History ◽  
Cambridge University ◽  
The Public ◽  
Return Visit ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
English Speaking World ◽  
The City

knowledge of the theatre of South America tends to be shamefully scanty in the English-speaking world: yet the forces of rapid political change, both revolutionary and repressive, often provoke innovative theatrical responses. NTQ intends to pursue the study of theatre in this huge continent. The following interview was conducted by Glenn Loney with the young director Carlos Gimenez – a refugee from Argentina presently working with his Rajatabla troupe in Caracas, Venezuela – whose production of Bolivar was brought to the Public Theatre in New York last summer, with a return visit planned to include The Death of Garcia Lorca, both discussed in the following conversation. Glenn Loney is a widely published American drama critic, teacher, and writer, presently teaching on the doctoral theatre programme of the City University of New York, and working on the American volume in the Documents of Theatre History series for publication by Cambridge University Press.

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