Revisiting “The Art of Being Fragile”: Why cultural psychology needs literature and poetry

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 417-433 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olga V. Lehmann ◽  
Svend Brinkmann
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Human Development ◽  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Cultural Psychology ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
Work Of Art ◽  
The Core

Writers devote their lives to find words that faithfully resemble what is at the core of human experience and existence. Thus, psychologists interested in understanding human development in everyday life could turn toward writers and poets with humble curiosity. In this article, we illustrate how a narrative analysis of a work of art can be done, taking “ The Art of Being Fragile. How Leopardi can Save your Life” by the Italian writer and teacher Alessandro D’Avenia as a case. In addition, we reflect upon the mastery with which the author sheds light on aspects that theories in cultural psychology have tried to unveil. Such aspects are: (a) poetic activism: a revolution of the poetics of everyday life; (b) the poetics of human development; (c) the beauty within the fragile as a master; and (d) the intuition of the spirit as an invitation.

scholarly journals Images of War in Opera

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 25-34
Author(s):  
Anastasia Siopsi
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
Human Activities ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
The Political ◽  
Total Work ◽  
Work Of Art ◽  
The Core ◽  
Western European

The main aim of this article is to raise questions with wars seen as part of cultural history attempting, thus, to provide a cultural reading. As such, I attempt to show operatic responses to war, to the meaning of violence, and to the ways they illustrate emotions that are at the core of such destructive activities (that is, patriotism, heroism and so forth) and depict wartime ideologies, practices, values and symbols. This paper is a critical and selective overview of images of war in opera mainly up to the twentieth century. There is no aspect in human activities which is not related, more or less, with the issue of war. War has been part of the total human experience. Subsequently, my paper is about the various ways of projecting images of war in opera. In more detail, it is about the ways that opera, since the era of its birth, responds to human conflicts, named wars, and bring on stage an interpretation: an illustration of a hero, a context of values related to the necessity or the avoidance of war, a message to humanity to make us look at our civilization in either positive or negative ways. A cultural contemplation is not about “truths” of the war but raises the question as to how different “truths” inhabit the political and cultural Western European world by means of the total work of art of opera. Opera has had a fundamental role in privileging some ideals of “truths” from others. The main aim is to raise questions with wars seen as part of cultural history attempting, thus, to provide a cultural reading. As such, I attempt to show operatic responses to war, to the meaning of violence, and to the ways they illustrate emotions that are at the core of such destructive activities (that is, patriotism, heroism and so forth) and depict wartime ideologies, practices, values and symbols.

Untimely Development, Ugly History:A Drama in Muslinand the Rejection of National-Historical Time

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-183
Author(s):  
Mary L. Mullen
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Nation State ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Historical Time ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
The Core

This article considers the politics and aesthetics of the colonial Bildungsroman by reading George Moore's often-overlooked novel A Drama in Muslin (1886). It argues that the colonial Bildungsroman does not simply register difference from the metropolitan novel of development or express tension between the core and periphery, as Jed Esty suggests, but rather can imagine a heterogeneous historical time that does not find its end in the nation-state. A Drama in Muslin combines naturalist and realist modes, and moves between Ireland and England to construct a form of untimely development that emphasises political processes (dissent, negotiation) rather than political forms (the state, the nation). Ultimately, the messy, discordant history represented in the novel shows the political potential of anachronism as it celebrates the untimeliness of everyday life.

Scoping Social Entrepreneurship in India: Organisation, Technology, and Collaboration

GIS Business ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-47
Author(s):  
Sunita Kumari ◽  
Bino Paul G.D.
Keyword(s):  
Social Development ◽  
Human Development ◽  
Social Entrepreneurship ◽  
Social Stratification ◽  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
The Core ◽  
Lock In

We explore emerging contexts of social entrepreneurship in India. Social entrepreneurship is emerging as an important option in poverty reduction and social change wherein organizing societal responses to scenarios like entrenched deprivation, cumulative disadvantages, long extant institutional lock-in, and vulnerabilities enmeshed in social stratification, hiatus emanating from segmentation of labour market and inadequate coverage of social protection form the core of strategies/collectives/organisation. In this paper, first, drawing cues from the literature, we outline basic typology of social entrepreneurship while delineating pivotal role technology and collaboration play in social entrepreneurship. Second, we provide a glimpse of not profit organisations in India, based on the secondary data. We juxtapose select patterns from the data on non profit organisations with human development. Third, we discuss select cases of social entrepreneurship that diverge in characteristics and contexts, in particular how these initiatives work towards poverty reduction and social development.

Dialecticism across the Lifespan: Towards a Deeper Understanding of the Ontogenetic and Cultural Factors Influencing Dialectical Thinking and Emotional Experience

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Igor Grossmann
Keyword(s):  
Human Development ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Cultural Psychology ◽  
Emotional Experience ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Developmental Models ◽  
Empirical Inquiry ◽  
Cultural Processes ◽  
Dialectical Thought

Before dialecticism became a topic of empirical inquiry in cultural psychology, scholars in related disciplines has discussed dialecticism as a model of human development, as an essential component of maturity and wisdom. This review chapter bridged these two perspectives, comparing conceptualizations of dialecticism in developmental and cultural psychology. After reviewing historical portrayals of dialecticism in various philosophical traditions, this chapter provides comparison of historical characterizations with the contemporary treatment of dialecticism in human development and cultural psychology. Both streams -- developmental and cross-cultural -- are proposed as essential for an integral understanding of the construct. Subsequently, the chapter discusses the emerging developmental models of dialecticism across the lifespan and reviews the accompanying empirical evidence, situating it in a cross-cultural context. It concludes with an outline of future directions of research on dialectical thought, with attention to psychological and socio-cultural processes engendering dialecticism across the lifespan.

Dialecticism across the Lifespan

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Igor Grossmann
Keyword(s):  
Human Development ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Cultural Psychology ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Developmental Models ◽  
Empirical Inquiry ◽  
Sociocultural Processes ◽  
Dialectical Thought

Before dialecticism became a topic of empirical inquiry in cultural psychology, scholars in related disciplines had discussed dialecticism as a model of human development, as an essential component of maturity and wisdom. This chapter bridges these two perspectives, comparing conceptualizations of dialecticism in developmental and cultural psychology. After reviewing historical portrayals of dialecticism in various philosophical traditions, the chapter provides a comparison of historical characterizations with the contemporary treatment of dialecticism in human development and cultural psychology. Both streams—developmental and cross-cultural—are proposed as essential for an integral understanding of the construct. Subsequently, the chapter discusses the emerging developmental models of dialecticism across the lifespan and reviews the accompanying empirical evidence, situating it in a cross-cultural context. It concludes with an outline of future directions of research on dialectical thought, with attention to psychological and sociocultural processes engendering dialecticism across the lifespan.

Mystery in the poetics of romantic tragedy genre (“The Spaniards” by Mikhail Lermontov)

2021 ◽  
pp. 67-81
Author(s):  
E. V. Golovenkina ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
Mikhail Lermontov ◽  
Inner World ◽  
Loss Of A Child ◽  
Moral Choices ◽  
Ideal Sphere ◽  
The Ideal ◽  
Tragic Conflict

This paper focuses on the role of the poetics of mystery in the formation of the romantic trag-edy genre. “The Spaniards” by Mikhail Lermontov is considered as a characteristic example of this genre, manifesting “melodramatization” of tragedy and tendency towards genre-generic synthesis. The action of “The Spaniards” is based on events related to the sphere of the mysterious, which are exceptional in life and common in melodrama. Central to the plot is the motif of the loss of a child. The secret of Fernando’s birth and “ignobility” form the con-flict and organize two storylines (love and family) and two (everyday life – melodramatic, and existential – tragic) levels of conflict. Mystery also plays an important role in revealing the inner world and expressing the romantic ideal of the hero. The ability to comprehend the mysterious, to pass beyond human experience and logic is not only the motivation of his ac-tions, but it also connects the hero with the ideal sphere. The study examines how the charac-ters’ anticipation of the “terrible” motivates their moral choices. Analyzing the interaction of lyrical motifs, the author suggests the motif of mystery as important for implementing the main (tragic) conflict, unlike melodrama, where the functions of mystery are plot-forming, stimulating the spectator’s interest and maximizing the dramatic tension. Mystery in the plot and the lyrical concept of the tragedy contributes to the understanding of the essence of the romantic conflict, has a suggestive impact on the audience, and deepens the psychologism.

The Buddha's Path of Peace

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Gombrich
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Personal Experience ◽  
Environmental Concern ◽  
Human Relationships ◽  
The Core ◽  
World Today ◽  
Introductory Overview ◽  
The World ◽  
The Buddha

The Buddha’s Path of Peace sets out the basic instructions for the life-changing way of the Buddha (the so-called “Noble Eightfold Path”) wholly in the context of contemporary and everyday life, personal experience, human relationships, work, environmental concern and the human wish for peace. In this book, the core of the Buddha’s teaching is comprehensively cast in modern models of thought—borrowed from science and philosophy—and informed by contemporary concerns. The reader, who may be completely new to Buddhism, is accompanied along the Path with practical exercises that are fully explained. The Path begins with an introductory overview and then proceeds through Right Speech, Right Acting, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Concentration, Right Mindfulness, Right Understanding and Right Resolve, and concludes with a short chapter on the relevance of the Path to the multiple crises facing the world today. The reader is mentored throughout by practical meditational and contemplative exercises, with tables, diagrams, analogies and stories. Gradually the reader who has followed this handbook with commitment will feel the benefits of growing peacefulness, wisdom and compassion.

scholarly journals Små barns medvirkning i samlingsstunder

2012 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brit Johanne Eide ◽  
Ellen Os ◽  
Ingrid Pramling Samuelsson
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Circle Time ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
The Core ◽  
Rights Of The Child ◽  
Children’S Participation ◽  
Children's Participation

Title: Young children’s participation during circle time. Abstract: In day schedules of early childhood education, circle time has traditionally been one of the core situations. According to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, children should be given opportunity to influence their everyday life. This article presents an analysis of circle time in 8 toddler groups. The focus of the analysis is children’s opportunities to participate and take part in the process of decision-making during circle time. The results indicate that the toddlers take part in community of the group, but their opportunities to influence are limited.

The Mausoleum of Youth: Between Experience and Nihilism in Benjamin's Berlin Childhood

Paragraph ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 313-330 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael W. Jennings
Keyword(s):  
Human Experience ◽  
The Moon ◽  
History Of Photography ◽  
Work Of Art ◽  
Modern Media ◽  
Siegfried Kracauer ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Relationship

Key sections of Walter Benjamin's montage-text Berlin Childhood around 1900 figure the relationship between human experience and modern media, with the sections that frame the text, ‘Loggias’ and ‘The Moon’, structured around metaphors of photography. Drawing on the work of Siegfried Kracauer, and especially his seminal essay ‘Photography’, Benjamin develops, in the course of his book, a theory of photography's relationship to experience that runs counter to the better-known theories developed in such essays as ‘Little History of Photography’ and ‘The Work of Art in the Age of its Technological Reproducibility’, theories that are part of the broad currents of technological utopianism and, as such, emphasize photography's transformative potentials. In the Berlin Childhood, Benjamin instead emphasizes photography's role in the mortification and annihilation of meaningful human experience. Photography emerges here as the mausoleum of youth and hope.

scholarly journals MODERNIDAD INVIABLE

2017 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 497
Author(s):  
Pedro Trigo
Keyword(s):  
Human Development ◽  
Vatican Ii ◽  
Human Life ◽  
El Paso ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Church

RESUMEN: Ponemos el núcleo de la modernidad en el descubrimiento de la individualidad, entendido como un proceso emancipatorio respecto de las co­lectividades que pautaban su vida. Sus dos modos básicos, en pugna constante, serían desarrollar su individualidad autárquicamente o entenderse como un ser humano, autónomo y único, pero referido a la única humanidad. Parecería que se ha impuesto el individualista, objetivando su dominio en los sistemas económico y político, pretendidamente autoconstruidos y autorregulados. Siempre hubo cristianos modernos, pero debieron soportar la contradicción de la institución eclesiástica. El Vaticano II discernió que el ser humano es histórico y que al hacer la historia se hace a sí mismo; reconoció que los bienes civilizatorios propician la vida humana, pero no equivalen al desarrollo propiamente humano. Sólo éste es escatológico. La responsabilidad ante los hermanos y la historia, que se ejerce en la encarnación solidaria, es el nuevo humanismo. La superación de la modernidad se da en el paso del individuo solo o en relación, al ser humano constitutivamente relacional, que se hace persona al actuar como hijo y hermano desde su insobor­nable individualidad.ABSTRACT: We put the core of Modernity in the emerging phenomena of indi­viduality, understood as a process of emancipation from the ruling groups. Its two ways, always in tension, would be to develop an individuality autocratically or to understand the individual as a unique and autonomous human being, but only in reference to humankind. It looks like that the individualist model has imposed itself dominating the economical and political systems, supposedly self-made and self-regulated. Modern christians have always existed, but they had always to deal with the contradiction of the Church as institution. The Vatican II discerned that the human being is historical and while making history we form themselves; rec­ognized that the civilizing benefits propitiate human life, but they do not equate to true human development. This is only eschatological. The responsibility towards brothers and history, that we perform in our caring incarnation, is the new hu­manism. We go beyond modernity when we pass from the individual alone or in relation to humankind intrinsically relational, that becomes a person by acting as a son and brother while anchored in indelible individuality. 

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