The Literary and the Political in the Fifteenth Century

Author(s):  
Pankaj Jha

Historians rarely write about the fifteenth century in north India. When they do, it is within certain set frames, for instance, as an interregnum, or as part of ‘regional’ histories. Occasionally, they write about the ferment of the bhakti ‘movement’ during the period. Tracing the narrow lanes of this historiography, the chapter also points to recent researches that raise some interesting questions. These relate to military labour, literary cultures, vernacularization, multilingualism, and so on. Apart from taking a critical stock of this historiography, the chapter explores how literary history might be fruitfully linked to ‘mainstream’ political history. It analyses meanings of, and the relationship between, literature, history, and power. Texts are not just innocent sources and repository of information. They are also seen as interventions in an ongoing conversation with other texts in the same and related themes and areas.

2016 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 322-350 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pankaj Kumar Jha

The making of the imperial subjects is as much a matter of historical process as the emergence of the empire. In the case of the Mughal state, this process started much before its actual establishment in the sixteenth century. The fifteenth century in North India was a period of unusual cultural ferment. The emergence of the Mughal imperial formation in the next century was intimately related to the fast congealing tendency of the north Indian society towards greater disciplining of itself. This tendency is evident in the multilingual literary cultures and diverse knowledge formations of the long fifteenth century.


2019 ◽  
Vol 72 (2) ◽  
pp. 457-491
Author(s):  
Luka Špoljarić

This article analyzes the “De Bellis Gothorum,” a long neglected and misunderstood history of the ancient Goths written in 1472–73 by Nicholas of Modruš, the leading Croatian-Illyrian bishop at the papal curia. By placing the work in its proper context, this article reconstructs a previously unknown episode in the political history of the fifteenth-century Adriatic. It is argued that the “De Bellis Gothorum” was in fact a national history that was meant to provide a trans-Adriatic network of Croatian and Bosnian nobles and churchmen with support from Naples and the papacy for their border wars against the Ottomans and reestablishment of their national kingdom.


Author(s):  
David Francis Taylor

This book explores how the works of William Shakespeare, John Milton, Jonathan Swift, and others were taken up by caricaturists as a means of helping the eighteenth-century British public make sense of political issues, outrages, and personalities. The first in-depth exploration of the relationship between literature and visual satire in this period, the book explores how great texts, seen through the lens of visual parody, shape how we understand the political world. It offers a fascinating, novel approach to literary history.


1989 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
John L. Bullion

The effects of the intense personal and political relationship between the young George III and his “dearest friend,” the earl of Bute, are well known to scholars of eighteenth-century Britain. The prince's affection and respect raised Bute, an obscure though well-connected Scottish nobleman, to the highest offices of state and to the absolute pinnacle of power. The earl's instruction and advice governed George's reactions to men and measures from 1755 until 1763. Even after Bute's influence waned following his resignation as First Lord of the Treasury, the lingering suspicions at Whitehall and Westminster that the king still listened to him in preference to others complicated relations between George III, his ministers, and Parliament.This article examines the origins of the friendship between the king and the earl, and the features of it that strengthened and preserved their attachment during the 1750s. These are questions that have not engaged the attention of many students of the period. The long shadow the relationship cast over politics during the 1760s has intrigued far more historians than its beginnings. They have been content to leave efforts to understand that subject to Sir Lewis Namier, who was inclined toward making psychological judgments of eighteenth-century politicians, and John Brooke, who was compelled to do so by the demands of writing a biography of George III. Both of these men asserted that the personal and affectionate aspects of the connection between the prince and Bute far outweighed the political and ideological during its early years. Their arguments have evidently convinced historians of politics to pass over what made Bute “my dearest friend” and press on to matters they assumed to be more relevant to their interests. The concern of this essay is to demonstrate that this assumption is incorrect. It will show that political and ideological considerations were in fact utterly crucial to this friendship at its inception and throughout its development during the 1750s, with consequences which profoundly affected the political history of the first decade of George III's reign. A mistaken reliance on works by Namier and Brooke has prevented scholars from perceiving these realities. Thus it is necessary to begin by pointing out the serious flaws in their interpretations.


2020 ◽  
pp. 2111-2139 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Subramanyam Raju ◽  
Nagarajan Balasubramaniam ◽  
Rajamanickam Srinivasan

Governance matters (Kaufman, et al, 1999) for growth is now an accepted dictum. However, there are as many hypotheses as to what constitutes governance 'as there are researchers in the field' (Bressers, J.T.A. & Kuks, S.M.M., 2003). Apart from econometrics, political science provides important insights on factors that influence governance and facilitate growth. This chapter examines the political history and economy of South Asia to determine the features that shaped governance and affected economic growth. It finds that governance in South Asian context evolved through three phases. Using a comparative perspective of GDP growth rates and World Governance Indicators in South Asia and Brazil, it analyzes the relationship between political history and economy in each phase. The findings indicate that political ideologies, stability of regimes and policy continuity hugely influence the institutions of government and economic growth. The chapter also finds that people's participation in governance would enhance growth and distributive social justice.


1998 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. S. L. DAVIES

The English occupation of Tournai has recently generated far-reaching claims about its importance; allegedly Tournai provided a foretaste of certain developments of the Henrician Reformation. This article argues that Tournai was treated as an integral part of Henry VIII's ‘kingdom of France’ and its status consistently distinguished from that of the English kingdom. It was not, as has been suggested, granted representation in the English parliament. The argument that advanced ideas of ‘sovereignty’ derived from fifteenth-century French thought entered into English political discourse through Tournai is also countered. Important jurisdictional points were raised, notably over the administration of the bishopric, involving three powers, England, France, and the Habsburg government of Flanders. But Henry's insistence on his rights as a sovereign prince were directed against France, not, as has been claimed, against the papacy. Nothing in Henry's dealings with Tournai transcended well-established English doctrine and practice about the relationship between the political authority and the church. Nor did Henry's treatment of the conquered town evoke novel doctrines of royal power; it followed closely precedents set by Henry V. The conquest of Tournai increased the self-confidence of Henry VIII's government in both domestic and international affairs; but largely through Henry's belief that he was successfully emulating the military achievement of Henry V, not through any input of novel political doctrine.


2019 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 73-103
Author(s):  
Emily O’Brien

This contribution charts a new pathway in the correspondence between Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini (1405–64) and Juan de Carvajal (1399?–1469) by focusing primarily on the relationship between the two men. It argues that each sought to adjust their relationship to fit the political demands of the moment, and that they used it, or tried to use it, as a tool to navigate and even resolve the conciliar crisis. This article enriches our understanding of a critical moment in church history, sharpens our grasp of the roles of both Piccolomini and Carvajal, and suggests new ways that humanism contributed to the fifteenth-century church.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 75
Author(s):  
Ong Argo Victoria

This paper examines the political history of the relationship between Malaysia and Singapore, focusing on the notion of citizenship and its ethnic, civic and political dimensions. It analyses the extent to which the merger of Singapore with Malaysia redefined the citizenship boundaries of the Malaysian national political identity. The incorporation of Singaporean citizens into the Malaysian political community was controversial, as it was closely related to electoral stakes. The ruling People’s Action Party and the Alliance Party attempted to delineate the political sphere of the population of each political unit through the demarcation between ‘citizenship’ and ‘nationality’. However, the citizenship crisis continued to trouble the relationship of these states to the point that both parties breached the perceived agreement not to interfere with the other’s political sphere of influence. This sphere of influence was delineated on the basis of race, thus cutting across political territory rather than territorial attributes. The ideological clashes over the meaning of citizenship that arose during the political merger of Singapore and Malaya, show that a truly Malaysian citizenship could not be developed-only a Malaysia of citizens.


French feminisms were central to the theory and culture of Second Wave feminism as an international movement, and 1975 was a key year for the women’s movement in France. Forty years on, this book offers a critical review of the political activism and the cultural creativity of that moment, from the perspective of both preceding and subsequent ‘waves’ of feminism. It explores the importance and the legacies of 1975, and their strengths and limitations as new questions and new conjunctures have come into play. Edited and written by an international collective of feminist scholars, the book represents both a critical re-evaluation of a vital moment in women’s cultural and political history - and a new analysis of the relationship between Second Wave agendas and contemporary feminist politics and culture.


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