scholarly journals Sites of memory in the Irish landscape? Approaching ogham stones through memory studies

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 1284-1304
Author(s):  
Sarah Künzler
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Identity Formation ◽  
Cultural Memory ◽  
Cultural Geography ◽  
Memory Studies ◽  
Complex Relationship ◽  
Textual Evidence ◽  
Archaeological Material ◽  
The World ◽  
Potential Benefits

The nexus between landscape, identity formation(s) and cultural memory has long been of interest to archaeology, cultural geography and various disciplines in the humanities. This article suggests that in medieval and early modern Irish texts, the depiction of monuments addresses precisely this complex relationship. On the basis of close readings of textual evidence and a critical engagement with Pierre Nora’s idea of lieux de mémoire, it will be argued that the cognitive interplay between literary-imagined and archaeological-material monuments enabled the medieval Irish literati to situate themselves within the world they inhabited both spatially and culturally. The article thus contributes substantially to our understanding of the material aspects of social remembrance and advocates the potential benefits of including the extremely rich Irish textual and archaeological sources into broader, interdisciplinary discussions.

Conclusion and Epilogue

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ulrike Strasser
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Identity Formation ◽  
First Century ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Women's Agency ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
The World ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
A Site

The conclusion summarizes the main findings of this book’s exploration of the transgenerational and transregional Jesuit chain of influence in the early modern world. It stresses the simultaneously mimetic and individualistic manifestations of missionary masculinity and the role of media in reproducing it. While Jesuit masculinity left traces on societies around the world, the men and women whom the missionaries believed to have converted in turn also reformed European Catholicism. An epilogue takes the story to today’s US-controlled Guam where Chamorro Catholicism provides a site for anti-imperial critique and identity-formation, reflecting a process that began with the events narrated in this book. Notably, twenty-first-century Chamorro death customs still show vestiges of early modern matrilineal traditions and indigenous women’s agency.

scholarly journals Carnival Anthropocene: Myth and Cultural Memory in Monique Roffey's Archipelago // Antropoceno Carnaval: El mito y memoria cultural en Archipelago de Monique Roffey

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 41-55
Author(s):  
C. Parker Krieg
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Cultural Memory ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
Memory Studies ◽  
Natural World ◽  
The Novel ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World

      This essay examines the role of myth in and as cultural memory through a reading of the novel, Archipelago (2013), by the Trinidadian-British author Monique Roffey. Against conceptions of the Anthropocene as a break from the past—a break that repeats the myth of modernity—I argue that Roffey’s use of cultural memory offers a carnivalesque relation to the world in response to the narrative’s account of climate change trauma. Drawing on Bakhtin’s classic study of the carnival as an occasion for contestation and renewal, as well as Cheryl Lousely’s call for a “carnivalesque ecocriticism,” this essay expands on the recent ecocritical turn to the field of Memory Studies (Buell; Goodbody; Kennedy) to illustrate the way literature mediates between mythic and historical relations to the natural world. As literary expressions, the carnivalesque and the grotesque evoke myth and play in order to expose and transform the social myths which govern relations and administrate difference. Since literature acts as both a producer and reflector of cultural memory, this essay seeks to highlight the literary potential of myth for connecting past traumas to affirmational modes of political engagement. Resumen     Este ensayo examina el papel del mito en y como memoria cultural analizando la novela Archipelago (2013), escrita por la autora trinitense-británica Monique Roffey. Frente a la idea del Antropoceno como una ruptura con el pasado—una ruptura que repite el mito de la modernidad—este trabajo argumenta que el uso de la memoria cultural de Roffey ofrece una relación carnavalesca con el mundo en respuesta al trauma del cambio climático detallado en la novela. Basando mi argumento en la teoría clásica de Bakhtin sobre el carnaval como una ocasión para la contestación y la renovación, así como la llamada de Cheryl Lousely por una “ecocrítica carnavalesca,” este ensayo amplía el reciente giro de la ecocrítica hacia el campo de los estudios de memoria (Buell; Goodbody; Kennedy) para ilustrar cómo la literatura media entre las relaciones míticas e históricas con el mundo natural. Como expresiones literarias, lo carnavalesco y lo grotesco evocan el mito y el juego para revelar y transformar los mitos sociales que gobiernan las relaciones y gestionan la diferencia. Ya que la literatura actúa tanto como productora y como espejo de la memoria cultural, este ensayo busca destacar el potencial literario del mito para conectar traumas del pasado con modos de compromiso político más afirmativos.

Berkeley, Expressivism, and Pragmatism

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 435-456
Author(s):  
Piotr Szałek
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Moral Language ◽  
Textual Evidence ◽  
First Order ◽  
Moral Rightness ◽  
Theory Of Meaning ◽  
Meta Level ◽  
The World ◽  
Do So

There is a long‑standing dispute among scholars concerning Berkeley’s supposed commitment to an emotivist theory of meaning as the very first (and an early modern) instance of non‑cognitivism. According to this position, the domains of religious and moral language do not refer to facts about the world, but rather express the emotional attitudes of religious or moral language users. Some scholars involved in the dispute argue for taking Berkeley to be an emotivist (non‑cognitivist), while others hold that we should not do so. This paper puts forward an interpretation that lends support to the non‑cognitivist reading of his stance, but in expressivist rather than emotivist terms. It argues that the label “expressivism” does more justice to the textual evidence concerning his understanding of moral language, as what is distinctive where this philosopher is concerned is his interest in explaining the nature of our practice of employing moral language (i.e. how we come to formulate moral statements as expressions of our non‑referential attitudes, and the meta‑level considerations pertaining to morality associated with this), rather than whether morality is just a matter of our emotions or feelings (i.e. such first‑order considerations about morality as whether moral rightness and wrongness correspond merely to our emotional states).

Walls and Gates, Windows and Mirrors: Urban Defences, Cultural Memory, and Security Theatre in Song Kaifeng

2014 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-118
Author(s):  
Ari Daniel Levine
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Cultural Memory ◽  
Urban Form ◽  
Modern China ◽  
Open Approach ◽  
Textual Evidence ◽  
Personal Security ◽  
Southern Song ◽  
Northern Song ◽  
City Walls

Kaifeng, the capital of the Northern Song (960-1127) dynasty, boasted sophisticated siege defence installations, which were ultimately breached by the Jurchen invasion of 1126-1127. According to both the archaeological and textual evidence, its concentric city walls and militarized gates with barbicans and bastions represented a crucial stage in the militarization of urban form in early-modern China, as well as a more open approach to planning. While Kaifeng’s urban defences evoked imperial majesty and personal security for Northern Song residents who described them, diasporic literati of the Southern Song (1127-1279) invoked the violation of this defensive perimeter as a metonym for the invasion of their lost homeland. The concept of security theatre explains how Northern Song Kaifeng’s city walls and gates could simultaneously function as efficacious siege defence installations and be perceived as symbolic defences.

Locke and Cartesian Philosophy

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Modern Philosophy ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Philosophy Of Mind ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Theory Of Knowledge ◽  
Complex Relationship ◽  
Family Resemblances ◽  
The World ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
Epistemological Debate

This book is a collection of twelve critical essays, by leading French and Anglo-American scholars on Locke’s relation to Descartes and to Cartesian Philosophers, such as Malebranche, Clauberg, Arnauld, and Nicole. The essays, preceded by a substantial introduction, cover a large variety of topics from natural philosophy (cosmology) to religion, philosophy of mind, metaphysics, and epistemology. The volume underlines Locke’s complex relationship to Descartes and Cartesianism, where stark opposition and subtle family resemblances are tightly intertwined. Since the turn of the twentieth century, the theory of knowledge has been the main locus for the comparison of the two authors. According to an influential historiographical conception, Descartes and Locke form together the spearhead in the ‘epistemological turn’ of early modern philosophy. In bringing together the contributions to this volume, the editors advocate for a shift of emphasis. A precise comparison of Locke’s and Descartes’s positions should cover not only their theory of knowledge, but also their views on natural philosophy, metaphysics, and religion. Their conflicting claims on issues such as cosmic organization, the qualities and nature of bodies, the substance of the soul, God’s government of the world, are relevant not only in their own right to take the full measure of Locke’s intricate relation to Descartes, but also as they allow a better understanding of the epistemological debate that is still running between their heirs.

scholarly journals Curiosity, youth, and knowledge in the visual and textual culture of the Dutch Republic

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-236
Author(s):  
Els Stronks
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Learning Style ◽  
Travel Literature ◽  
Traditional Model ◽  
Textual Evidence ◽  
Experimental Learning ◽  
New Learning ◽  
The World ◽  
Textual Culture

ArgumentThe imitation of adults was the dominant educational early modern model, as it had been from the classical era. Yet, from 1500 onward, this traditional model clashed with new pedagogical ideals that explored if and how the youthful mind differed from the adult. To investigate this clash, I examine individual and aggregate cases – taken from the Dutch (illustrated) textual culture – representing conceptualizations of what has been labelled “the curiosity family” (concepts such as curiosity, inquisitiveness, invention). As previously established, during the seventeenth century, curiosity turned from a vice to a virtue among adults. Textual evidence suggests that for the early modern Dutch youth, docility, long valued, remained the guiding ideal. Shortly after 1700, however, two changes can be detected: for youth, travel literature and travel as a metaphor became a means to explore the world without adults; and for adults, the experimental learning style of the young became a new learning model.

Living (with) Things: Relational Ontology and Material Culture in Early Modern Northern Finland

2009 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 388-397 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vesa-Pekka Herva
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
General Theory ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Local Mode ◽  
Human Relationship ◽  
Relational Ontology ◽  
Folk Beliefs ◽  
Archaeological Material ◽  
The World

This article discusses relational ontology and its significance for interpreting archaeological material from post-medieval contexts. The general theory of the relational constitution of the world is first introduced and some of its implications discussed in relation to the ‘meaning’ of artefact biographies. Second, by drawing from folk beliefs, the article considers how people in early modern Finland recognized the relational constitution of the world, which in turn provides new insights into the local mode of perceiving and engaging with the material world. The case of household spirits and human relationship with buildings is taken as an example. The archaeological material discussed in the article derives from the seventeenth-century town of Tornio in northern Finland.

“All in a Garden Green”: Shakespeare's Staging of Garden Imagery

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 227-252
Author(s):  
Deborah Solomon
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Literary Tradition ◽  
The Public ◽  
The World ◽  
Audience Interaction ◽  
The Many ◽  
Green World

This essay draws attention to the surprising lack of scholarship on the staging of garden scenes in Shakespeare's oeuvre. In particular, it explores how garden scenes promote collaborative acts of audience agency and present new renditions of the familiar early modern contrast between the public and the private. Too often the mention of Shakespeare's gardens calls to mind literal rather than literary interpretations: the work of garden enthusiasts like Henry Ellacombe, Eleanour Sinclair Rohde, and Caroline Spurgeon, who present their copious gatherings of plant and flower references as proof that Shakespeare was a garden lover, or the many “Shakespeare Gardens” around the world, bringing to life such lists of plant references. This essay instead seeks to locate Shakespeare's garden imagery within a literary tradition more complex than these literalizations of Shakespeare's “flowers” would suggest. To stage a garden during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries signified much more than a personal affinity for the green world; it served as a way of engaging time-honored literary comparisons between poetic forms, methods of audience interaction, and types of media. Through its metaphoric evocation of the commonplace tradition, in which flowers double as textual cuttings to be picked, revised, judged, and displayed, the staged garden offered a way to dramatize the tensions produced by creative practices involving collaborative composition and audience agency.

Speculative Realism and Science Fiction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Willems
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Identity Formation ◽  
Cormac Mccarthy ◽  
Doris Lessing ◽  
Speculative Realism ◽  
Neil Gaiman ◽  
The World ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Quentin Meillassoux

A human-centred approach to the environment is leading to ecological collapse. One of the ways that speculative realism challenges anthropomorphism is by taking non-human things to be as valid objects of investivation as humans, allowing a more responsible and truthful view of the world to take place. Brian Willems uses a range of science fiction literature that questions anthropomorphism both to develop and challenge this philosophical position. He looks at how nonsense and sense exist together in science fiction, the way in which language is not a guarantee of personhood, the role of vision in relation to identity formation, the difference between metamorphosis and modulation, representations of non-human deaths and the function of plasticity within the Anthropocene. Willems considers the works of Cormac McCarthy, Paolo Bacigalupi, Neil Gaiman, China Miéville, Doris Lessing and Kim Stanley Robinson are considered alongside some of the main figures of speculative materialism including Graham Harman, Quentin Meillassoux and Jane Bennett.

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