A personal quest: Travel writing as self-exploration in Eddy L. Harris’s Native Stranger: A Blackamerican’s Journey into the Heart of Africa

2016 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 363-378 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicklas Hållén
Keyword(s):  
Travel Writing ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Double Consciousness ◽  
The Past ◽  
Social Narratives ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The World ◽  
The One

In Native Stranger: A Blackamerican’s Journey into the Heart of Africa (1992), Eddy L. Harris explores what it means to be the person he is. What, if anything, connects him to Africa? What is the relation between the person he knows himself to be, and the person others see? Searching for answers to his questions, he finds himself caught between his attempts to remain open to new ways of seeing and understanding the world, on the one hand, and succumbing to the pressures of monolithic narratives about African otherness, race, belonging, roots and the past, on the other hand. This tension gives rise to an ambiguity and a number of contradictions which make the text fold back on itself. His literary project therefore ultimately serves to raise questions not only about his own identity and place in the world, but also about the conditions of writing about the self. Central among the contradictions that permeate the text is a doubling of epistemological perspectives, which can be described as an effect of what W. E. B. Dubois famously termed double-consciousness. While Harris is able to use the contradictions that arise from his writing to explore and represent the complexity of the questions that are foregrounded in his text, he is unable to answer them. His project is in other words a kind of failure, but as this article argues, this failure is the price that Harris pays to access the full complexity of selfhood, beyond political and social narratives about collective identity and how the present is shaped by the past.

scholarly journals PSYCHOBIOGRAPHY EXPERIENCE OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE POST-WAR GENERATION

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (18) ◽  
pp. 16-30
Author(s):  
B.V. Markov ◽  
◽  
A.M. Sergeev ◽  
Keyword(s):  
New Technologies ◽  
Historical Memory ◽  
The Other ◽  
Russian Philosophy ◽  
Early 21St Century ◽  
The Past ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The World ◽  
Post War ◽  
The One

The Philosophical Dialogue is dedicated to the analysis of the historical development of Russian philosophy over the past half century. The authors investigated the attitude of ideas and people in the conditions of historical turning point in the late 20th and early 21st century. Philosophy in a borderline situation allows us to compare and evaluate the past and the present. On the one hand, archetypes, attitudes, moods and experiences, formed as a reception of the collective experience of the past era, have been preserved in the minds of thinkers of the post-war generation – in the consciousness, and may be in the neural networks of the brain. On the other hand, the new social reality – cognitive capitalism – radically changes the self-description of society. It is not to say that modernity satisfies people. Despite the talk about the production of cultural, social, human capital, they feel not happy, but lonely and defenseless in a rapidly changing world. Not only philosophical criticism, but also the wave of protests, which also engulfed the "welfare society", makes one wonder whether it is worth following the recipes of the modern Western economy. On the one hand, closure poses a threat to stagnation, the fate of the country of the outland outing. On the other hand, openness, and, moreover, the attempt to lead the construction of a networked society is nothing but self-sacrifice. Russia has already been the leader of the World International, aiming to defeat communism around the world. But there was another superpower that developed the potential of capitalism. Their struggle involved similarities, which consisted in the desire for technical conquest of the world. The authors attempted to reflect on the position of a country that would not give up the competition, but used new technologies to live better. To determine the criteria, it is useful to use the historical memory of the older generation to assess modernity. Conversely, get rid of repeating the mistakes of the past in designing a better future.

Kenosis as a Model for Interreligious Dialogue

2005 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 211-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martha Th. Frederiks
Keyword(s):  
Interreligious Dialogue ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Human Being ◽  
The Past ◽  
Religious Person ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Shared Humanity ◽  
Pros And Cons ◽  
The One

In the past Christians have used various models in relating to people of other faiths. Most are still in use. Four dominant models immediately come to mind: those of expansion, of diakonia, of presence, and of interreligious dialogue. This article discusses the pros and cons of these models and then proposes a fifth model: the model of kenosis. The model of kenosis calls for imitation of the self-emptying act of Jesus in his Incarnation in relation to people of other faiths, based on a shared humanity. Kenosis demands, on the one hand, a total openness for the other, as a fellow human being and a religious person, while, on the other hand, it offers the possibility to be authentically different from the other, in religion, culture, etc. Thus is seems to offer a model for interreligious living and relating, which honors religious differences, give guidelines for relating to each other, and is firmly based in a shared humanity.

scholarly journals Contemporary Topics In The Suppliant Women, by Aeschylus. The Multiplication of Sin and Redemptive Differentiation

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 176-189
Author(s):  
Ioana Petcu ◽  
Teodora Medeleanu
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Past ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The World ◽  
The One

AbstractOne looks, on the one hand with a slight amazement, and on the other hand with the confidence of a temporary master of the European cultural thesaurus, at how tragic poem, more than two thousand years old, vibrates under the directorial wands in the present times. One analyses the Ancient verse, the plots of the founding mythologies or the figures that seem turned into stone by the passing of time and witnesses, through the scenic hypostasis of today, that the voices of the past, singular or united in a Chorus, reach them, generating, in a single spectator or in an entire wave of interception, the feeling of nexus. But also the inquisitiveness of encountering the peculiar. Due to the fact that cultural identity, and also the conducting threads of the universalis arise like a fascinating, rich, high terrain, and one cannot see them from afar, in this century. If, thematically speaking, The Suppliants, by Aeschylus resonated with directors such as Olivier Py, Silviu Purcărete, Ramin Gray or Jean-Luc Bansard, one can notice how cultural identity is reflected in the Ancient writings, which are also multiplied on the stages of the World in minimalist of theatrical (re)interpretations. The performance of one that becomes multiple and, eventually, restrains itself, closely looked at, becomes fascinating.

scholarly journals Between History and Universality: Understanding Identity in the Public Sphere

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-36
Author(s):  
Nisar Alungal Chungath
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Human Being ◽  
The Public ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The World ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The One

Identity is not a fixed and frozen prison-house for the self, but a liquid continuum, affected and shaped by the ‘outside’ or the world. The self, which is situated and which undergoes revisions and transformations, keeps identity as a frame within which it makes sense of things. On the one hand, there is a ‘history’ within which an identity is rooted and through which meaning-making is made possible, and on the other hand, every person aspires to be a ‘universal’ and recognition-worthy human being. Both inherent identity and inherent universality of the self should be considered in their interactions in the public sphere, which has been traditionally viewed as a space of discrete individualities. The ontological force of this argument aside, the paper demonstrates that reduction of an identity without crediting its aspiration for universality and consideration of universality without crediting the historical underpinnings of identity are both acts of violation. 

From Economic History to Cultural History in Ottoman Studies

2014 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 376-378
Author(s):  
Cengiz Kırlı
Keyword(s):  
Cultural History ◽  
Social History ◽  
Economic History ◽  
The State ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Past ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The World ◽  
The One

Reflecting on the state of Ottoman social history poses a paradox. On the one hand, it is impossible not to appreciate the great strides accomplished over the past three decades. Earlier approaches have been challenged, topics that were previously untouched or unimagined have been studied, and the foundations of a meaningful dialogue with historiographies of other parts of the world have been established. On the other hand, the theoretical sophistication and methodological debates of Ottoman social history still look pale compared to European and other non-Western historiographies in the same period.

scholarly journals Stumbling upon places and cultures: An involuntary ethnography in researching the Australian ‘ndrangheta

2021 ◽  
pp. 263380762110406
Author(s):  
Anna Sergi
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Global Markets ◽  
Anthropological Perspective ◽  
The Past ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The World ◽  
The One ◽  
Made In ◽  
Global Reach

In the past decade, the attention to the Calabrian mafia, the ‘ndrangheta, has been rekindled everywhere in the world. On the one hand, Italian attention to the phenomenon has increased; on the other hand, the mobility of the Calabrian clans has been the object of scrutiny in view of the clan’s wealth and ability to commit transnational criminal activities. This has also fed the presumption that (alleged) offenders of Calabrian origins around the world must belong to, and replicate the structure of, the ‘ndrangheta clans, also down under. This contribution will be a reflection on the difficulties and the complexities of a journey into researching the ‘ndrangheta in Australia from a criminological–anthropological perspective, in consideration of—but in contrast with—the mythical figures associated with the Calabrian mafia and its illicit global markets. Some of the difficulties, as well as some of the mistakes that I have made in this research, because of the involuntary (and disorganized) nature of the ethnography, directly question the narrative of the illegal global reach of this mafia and provide methodological reflections and lessons for criminological ethnographies.

Just Nationalism: The Future of an Illusion

1996 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
pp. 345-363
Author(s):  
Andrew Levine
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Recent Work ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Past ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The World ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Face ◽  
The One

Until quite recently, political philosophers routinely ignored nationalism. Nowadays, the topic is very much on the philosophical agenda. In the past, when philosophers did discuss nationalism, it was usually to denigrate it. Today, nationalism elicits generally favorable treatment. I confess to a deep ambivalence about this turn of events. On the one hand, much of what has emerged in recent work on nationalism appears to be on the mark. On the other hand, the anti- or extra-nationalist outlook that used to pervade political philosophy seems as sound today as it ever was, and perhaps even more urgent in the face of truly horrendous eruptions of nationalist hostilities in many parts of the world. What follows is an effort to grapple with this ambivalence. My aim will be to identify what is defensible in the nationalist idea and then to reflect on the flaws inherent in even the most defensible aspects of nationalist theory and practice.

Stories and the Self

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 47-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Krause ◽  
Markus Appel
Keyword(s):  
Meta Analysis ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Lower Degree ◽  
Contrast Effects ◽  
Self Perception ◽  
Self Perceptions ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The One ◽  
Implicit And Explicit

Abstract. Two experiments examined the influence of stories on recipients’ self-perceptions. Extending prior theory and research, our focus was on assimilation effects (i.e., changes in self-perception in line with a protagonist’s traits) as well as on contrast effects (i.e., changes in self-perception in contrast to a protagonist’s traits). In Experiment 1 ( N = 113), implicit and explicit conscientiousness were assessed after participants read a story about either a diligent or a negligent student. Moderation analyses showed that highly transported participants and participants with lower counterarguing scores assimilate the depicted traits of a story protagonist, as indicated by explicit, self-reported conscientiousness ratings. Participants, who were more critical toward a story (i.e., higher counterarguing) and with a lower degree of transportation, showed contrast effects. In Experiment 2 ( N = 103), we manipulated transportation and counterarguing, but we could not identify an effect on participants’ self-ascribed level of conscientiousness. A mini meta-analysis across both experiments revealed significant positive overall associations between transportation and counterarguing on the one hand and story-consistent self-reported conscientiousness on the other hand.

Keeping Company with Sondheim’s Women

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stacy Wolf
Keyword(s):  
Musical Theater ◽  
Married Couples ◽  
Feminist Perspective ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Female Characters ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The One

This chapter examines the eight female characters inCompany, what they do in the musical, and how they function in the show’s dramaturgy, and argues that they elicit the quintessential challenge of analyzing musical theater from a feminist perspective. On the one hand, the women tend to be stereotypically, even msogynistically portrayed. On the other hand, each character offers the actor a tremendous performance opportunity in portraying a complicated psychology, primarily communicated through richly expressive music and sophisticated lyrics. In this groundbreaking 1970 ensemble musical about a bachelor’s encounters with five married couples and three girlfriends, Sondheim’s female characters occupy a striking range of types within one show. From the bitter, acerbic, thrice-married Joanne to the reluctant bride-to-be Amy, and from the self-described “dumb” “stewardess” April to the free-spirited Marta,Company’s eight women are distillations of femininity, precisely sketched in the short, singular scenes in which they appear.

scholarly journals Two Conceptions of Second Nature

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 68-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georg W. Bertram
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Open Future ◽  
Second Nature ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The World ◽  
Cognitive Activities ◽  
The Open Future ◽  
The One ◽  
First Nature

AbstractThe concept of second nature promises to provide an explanation of how nature and reason can be reconciled. But the concept is laden with ambiguity. On the one hand, second nature is understood as that which binds together all cognitive activities. On the other hand, second nature is conceived of as a kind of nature that can be changed by cognitive activities. The paper tries to investigate this ambiguity by distinguishing a Kantian conception of second nature from a Hegelian conception. It argues that the idea of a transformation from a being of first nature into a being of second nature that stands at the heart of the Kantian conception is mistaken. The Hegelian conception demonstrates that the transformation in question takes place within second nature itself. Thus, the Hegelian conception allows us to understand the way in which second nature is not structurally isomorphic with first nature: It is a process of ongoing selftransformation that is not primarily determined by how the world is, but rather by commitments out of which human beings are bound to the open future.

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