Emergent Representations of the East

2020 ◽  
pp. 181-204
Author(s):  
Gillian McCann

Using The Lamp, a publication of the Toronto Theosophical Society, as its primary example, this chapter examines the ways in which Theosophists advanced their cause both inside and outside the mainstream through their periodicals. The Theosophical journals functioned as platforms for cultural brokers between the East and West and included the exchange of a great number of topics related to the East, including ancient philosophy; sub-continental politics; and debates around cremation, karma, imperialism, and Indian immigration to countries such as Canada and Australia. The chapter demonstrates how the Theosophists in this way consciously participated in the creation of the occult counter-public sphere that helped to introduce new ideas into the mainstream. It was this oppositional sphere that was their key means for engaging with the public.

Author(s):  
Sabyasachi Bhattacharya

The archives are generally sites where historians conduct research into our past. Seldom are they objects of research. Sabyasachi Bhattacharya traces the path that led to the creation of a central archive in India, from the setting up of the Imperial Record Department, the precursor of the National Archives of India, and the Indian Historical Records Commission, to the framing of archival policies and the change in those policies over the years. In the last two decades of colonial rule in India, there were anticipations of freedom in many areas of the public sphere. These were felt in the domain of archiving as well, chiefly in the form of reversal of earlier policies. From this perspective, Bhattacharya explores the relation between knowledge and power and discusses how the World Wars and the decline of Britain, among other factors, effected a transition from a Eurocentric and disparaging approach to India towards a more liberal and less ethnocentric one.


Experiment ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 149-181
Author(s):  
Azade-Ayse Rorlich

Abstract The Great Reform era in Russia, as well as the modernist movements in the Ottoman Empire and other Muslim lands represent the background against which the Muslims of the Russian Empire engaged in the scrutiny of the reasons behind the backwardness of their societies and began advocating the compatibility of Islam with modernity. After 1906, the Muslim press became the most important instrument in the creation of the public sphere where issues of tradition and modernity were debated. This essay focuses on the Tatar satirical journal Yalt-Yolt to explore its contribution to the critique of the old Muslim mentalité, as well as its role as an instrument of modernity.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-127
Author(s):  
Luke Matthews

Heiner Goebbels’s works are examples of “postdramatic” theatre works that engage with the political by seeking to challenge socially ingrained habits of perception rather than by presenting traditional, literary-based theatre of political didacticism or agitation. Goebbels claims to work toward a “non-hierarchical” theatre in the contexts of his arrangement of the various theatrical elements, in fostering collaborative working processes between the artists involved, and in the creation of audience-artist relationships. In offering a reading of Goebbels’s “no-man show” Stifters Dinge, this paper seeks to situate Goebbels’s practice within a theoretical tradition that also encompasses Hannah Arendt’s deployment of the theatre as a metaphor for the public sphere. Within this analysis, I suggest, theatre can be seen to offer the possibility of a participatory democracy through its attention to disappearance and absence.


2010 ◽  
Vol 36 (115) ◽  
pp. 285
Author(s):  
José N. Heck

A moderna concepção de indivíduo justifica-se na esfera pública. O termo publicidade remonta ao modo privado de pensar, no século XVIII, por parte de pessoas que tinham o costume, à maneira iluminista, de ler livros, eram rotineiramente informadas por jornais, criavam associações de leitura e freqüentavam espaços comuns de lazer em cafés, salões e parques, onde à época eram discutidas novas idéias advindas de longe, oriundas dos grandes centros urbanos com universidades centenárias. Esta congruência entre uso privado e público da razão, Kant a contrapõe a um uso específico de razão, privativo a pessoas que exercem funções e cumprem ordens em obediência a comandos superiores, como é o caso dos funcionários públicos; ou seja, na contramão do emprego hoje usual da palavra, o filósofo alemão predica à denominação uso privado aquele que o sábio pode fazer de sua razão em um certo cargo público ou função a ele confiada. Kant estabelece, ao longo de sua obra, o princípio da publicidade como a âncora legitimadora de sua filosofia moral, política e jurídica.Abstract: The modern concept of the individual is justified in the public sphere. The term publicity first appeared in the 18th century to describe the private manner of thinking of those who, following the general enlightenment custom, were used to reading books. These people were kept regularly informed by journals; created reading associations and frequented shared leisure areas in cafés, salons and parks where new ideas coming from afar, originated in the great urban centers with century-old universities, were discussed. Kant opposes this congruency between the public and private uses of reason to a specific use of reason, particular to those who fulfill functions and obey superior orders, as is the case of civil servants. Contrary to the normal usage of the word today, the German philosopher recognizes in the term private use that which the scholar can do with reason in a certain public office or function confided to him. Throughout his work, Kant establishes the principle of publicity as a legitimate anchor for his moral, political and juridical philosophy.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 68-106
Author(s):  
Débora Machado Visini

O presente artigo investiga as intervenções urbanas – pertencentes a um grupo composto por muitas manifestações artísticas realizadas no espaço público – que dialogam com a cidade. Compreendidas como práticas artísticas e socioespaciais, as intervenções urbanas do coletivo lesbiano Velcro Choque (Brasil) são analisadas a partir das potências que surgem com a ocupação das ruas da cidade e da esfera pública, já que tal ato coloca em cheque normas e narrativas históricas, que serão apontadas a partir do viés da crítica feminista da cultura. Conforme mostra a prática do coletivo, o artivismo associado aos feminismos e às dissidências sexuais e de gênero podem oportunizar a criação de subjetividades libertárias e formas de existência e resistência através das produções coletivas nas artes visuais.Palavras-chave: Cidade. Intervenção Urbana. Feminismos. Artivismo. AbstractThis paper investigates urban interventions – belonging to a group composed of many artistic manifestations carried out in the public space – that dialogue with the city. Understanding the urban interventions as an artistic and socio-spatial practice, the production of the lesbian collective Velcro Choque (Brazil) will be analyzed based on the potency that emerges with the occupation of the streets and the public sphere, since this act can put in check historical norms and narratives, which will be pointed out from the bias of the feminist critic of the culture. As the practice of the collective shows, artivism associated with feminism, sexual and gender dissidences can create opportunities for the creation of libertarian subjectivities and forms of existence and resistance through collective productions in the visual arts.Keywords: City. Urban Interventions. Feminisms. Artivism.


2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 307-329
Author(s):  
Carolina Bracco

Abstract The appearance of the character of a femme fatale in Egyptian cinema in the mid-1950s is deeply intertwined with the new social and moral imprint made by the Nasserist regime. At a time when women’s participation in the public sphere was regulated, the portrayal of the evil woman was intended to define how the good woman should behave as well as the terrible fate in store for those who dared to flout the limits. This evil woman was embodied in the character of the Oriental dancer who was to be seen, from that time on, as a fallen woman. This article aims to discuss the mutation of the character of the dancer from a bint al balad (lit. “girl of the country”) to a femme fatale by analyzing three films starring two icons of the time, Hind Rustum and Tahia Carioca.


Author(s):  
Amanda Weidman

Song sequences in Indian popular cinema play a central role in organizing affect and desire through imagery and sound. These songs feature the voices of “playback” singers, so named because their voices are first recorded in the studio and then lip-synced by the actors and actresses on the set during the filming process. This chapter examines how playback singing, which emerged as a professional career possibility in the 1950s, produced new forms of stardom and opportunities for women to enter the public sphere, while serving as a key site for the creation and circulation of ideologies and aesthetics of gender and voice. In particular, it will examine the career and persona of L.R. Eswari, who, although she did not start out as such, came to be branded as a “vampy” singer in the late 1960s Tamil film industry, subsequently made a name for herself in devotional music in the 1970s and 80s, and has recently re-emerged as a playback singer in the last few years.


2014 ◽  
Vol 152 (1) ◽  
pp. 133-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pradip Ninan Thomas

This article explores issues related to the Right to Information movement in India specifically in relation to the public sphere, a concept that is habitually invoked to describe spaces for deliberation and communication. It explores the role played by the jan sunwai (public hearings) in the creation of a counter public sphere based on the local idiom, local means of communication and performative traditions that enabled a balance between speaking, listening and actioning. The article focuses on the Right to Information movement and the jan sunwai as an important indigenous means and pedagogical device used by this movement to mobilise, radicalise and give voice to marginalised people who have traditionally been expected to remain silent, even in the face of the most atrocious atrocities committed by the forward castes and wealthy.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Christian Fuchs ◽  
Klaus Unterberger

This chapter introduces the book’s context. It describes the process that led to the creation of the Public Service Media and Public Service Internet Manifesto. The basic starting point was the insight that the survival of public service media is in danger, that the dominant form of the Internet and Internet platforms undermines the democratic public sphere, and that we need new forms of the Internet and the media in order to safeguard and renew democracy and the public sphere.


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