scholarly journals Challenging identity: Lotman's "translation of the untranslatable" and Derrida's différance

2012 ◽  
Vol 40 (3/4) ◽  
pp. 319-339 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniele Monticelli
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Closed System ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Clear Cut ◽  
Political Conflicts ◽  
Race Ethnicity ◽  
Cultural Formations ◽  
Semiotic Self ◽  
Mirror Structure

The concept of "cultural identity" has gradually replaced such discredited concepts as "race", "ethnicity", even "nationality" in the conservative political discourse of recent decades which conceives, represents and performs culture as a closed system with clear-cut boundaries which must be defended from contamination.The article employs the theories of Derrida and Lotman as useful tools for deconstructing this understanding of cultural identity, which has recently become an ideological justification for socio-political conflicts. In fact, their theories spring from a thorough critique of the kind of internalizing self-enclosure which allowed Saussure to delimit and describe langue as the object of linguistics. The article identifies and compares the elements of this critique, focusing on Derrida's and Lotman's concepts of "mirror structure", "binarism", "numerousness", "textuality" and "semiosphere". An understanding of mediation emerges which is not reducible to any kind of definitive acquisition, thereby frustrating the pretences of identity, constantly dislocating and deferring any attempt at semiotic self-enclosure. My comparison suggests that Lotman's "translation of the untranslatable" (or "dialogue") and Derrida's différance can be considered analogous descriptions of this problematic kind of mediation. The (de)constructive nature of culture, as described by Lotman and Derrida, challenges any attempt to view cultural formations as sources of rigid and irreducible identities or differences.

scholarly journals Ideological and political conflicts about popular music in Serbia

2004 ◽  
pp. 271-284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Misa Djurkovic
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Popular Music ◽  
Specific Field ◽  
Political Conflicts ◽  
Musical Heritage

The paper is focused on ideological and political conflicts about popular music in Serbia, as a good example of wrong and confused searching for identity. Basic conflict that author is analyzing is about oriental elements (such as asymmetric rhythmic patterns and melismatic singing) and the question if they are legitimate parts of Serbian musical heritage or not. Author is making an analysis of three periods in twentieth century, in which absolutely the same arguments were used, and he's paying special attention to contemporary conflicts, trying to explain why all of the theories are ideologically based. Author is insisting on role market played in development and modernization of popular music in Serbia. The article is ending with some recommendations for better understanding of cultural identity in Serbia, and for recognizing popular music as specific field of interest and research.

First Contact, March–May 1864

2020 ◽  
pp. 247-270
Author(s):  
Brian Holden Reid
Keyword(s):  
Presidential Election ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Clear Cut ◽  
Operational Level ◽  
Political Views ◽  
The Military ◽  
First Contact ◽  
First Time ◽  
The Way

This chapter details how the year 1864 allowed William T. Sherman to operate for the first time not as a subordinate commander but as director of a series of armies in the field. His contribution to overall Union strategy would be significant and thus he began to exercise command at the level military analysts currently refer to as the operational level of war. Such a level links tactics and methods of fighting with strategy, in the overall scheme. It defines the manner in which armies organize in discrete campaigns and seek to fulfill the object of strategy by winning victories. Sherman’s performance overall needs to be considered by taking all aspects into account. As he began to work at the higher levels of the military art, he began to change the way in which people think and talk about war, and he propounded an individual philosophy of war. The higher he progressed, the more Sherman could not avoid confronting the harsh realities of political life, for his campaigns increasingly had an impact not just on American political discourse but indeed in 1864 on the outcome of the presidential election. Sherman expressed clear-cut political views and expounded them perhaps too forcefully. This complex mix worked as a catalyst in developing his ideas about war and his ability to put them into practice.

Julius Caesar, reception of

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Jeffrey Tatum
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
The Political ◽  
Julius Caesar ◽  
Political Conflicts ◽  
Political Idea ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Established Order ◽  
Literary Reception

The reception of Caesar constitutes, for obvious reasons, an immense topic. As a political idea, Caesar exhibits from the very beginning a tension between his role as dictator and destroyer of the Republic and his standing as the political and military genius who founded the Empire. This contrariety, not least by way of the analytic category of Caesarism, is especially marked in the political discourse of the 19th and 20th centuries. Caesar’s literary reception, though influenced by contemporary political conflicts, is not always tethered to them in straightforward ways. The Caesar of literature is often a reaction to the Caesar of Shakespeare. And there are other important issues: Caesar as a problem in the recovery of authenticity, or Caesar, because he is a canonical author, as a symbol of the conservative claims of the established order. In art, Caesar the god and Caesar the chivalrous king gradually give way to Caesar the slain dictator or Caesar the imperious conqueror. In popular culture, however, Caesar’s manifestations vary wildly: although he continues to register at a political level, he can also signify imperial excess or martial prowess, and he is available as a medium for lampooning the various guises of his own reception.

scholarly journals First Nations Popular Music in Canada: Musical Meaning and the Politics of Identity

2013 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 94-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Scales
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Popular Music ◽  
First Nations ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Musical Meaning ◽  
Politics Of Identity ◽  
Constant Flux ◽  
A Site

The musics of First Nations popular musicians "Wapistan" Lawrence Martin and the Innu group Kashtin are examined as polysemic signs whose meaning is mediated both socially and politically in the ongoing construction of First Nations socio-cultural identity. Musical meanings on individual, local, national, and international levels are dependent on the socio-political positioning of both the performers and the audience. Because socio-political positions are themselves fluid, political meanings are, as well, in constant flux. As a polysemic sign, First Nations popular music is a locus for these various meanings and a site for the construction and deconstruction of political discourse.

Reconciliation as a political discourse in Thailand’s current conflicts

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 251-269
Author(s):  
Wichuda Satidporn ◽  
Stithorn Thananithichot
Keyword(s):  
Political Discourse ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Thai Language ◽  
The Past ◽  
Political Conflicts ◽  
The People ◽  
Reconciliation Process

Abstract Why do Thai governments fail in maintaining peace through conducting a reconciliation process? This article answers this question through an assessment of how the term reconciliation has been defined and used by the Thai governments and political leaders during the past decades. This article finds that the political conflicts in Thailand have never been solved because several times, reconciliation in the Thai language is a term that has been dynamically interpreted and applied by leaders of the conflicting groups as a means to defeat the people of the opposing groups rather that a means of resolving problems and reconciling society.

Political Discourse as Sliding Mode Manifestations

2022 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Ekaterina Yuryevna Aleshina
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Sliding Mode ◽  
Political Rhetoric ◽  
Text Structure ◽  
Complex Nature ◽  
Political Conflicts ◽  
Major Factors ◽  
Constant Characteristics

The article considers the problem of political discourse transformation as exemplified by European (British&Russian) political rhetoric of the 20th century. Considered is the complex nature of political discourse comprising both its variable and invariable aspects reflecting discursive constancy and change which are regarded as manifestations of the sliding mode usually applicable to exact sciences phenomena. The major factors of transformation depend on social change caused by dramatic events in history, namely political conflicts. The invariable part of political discourse is concentrated around the text structure with dicteme as the main information and structure unit of the text and discourse. The variable part is determined by factors of speech regulation including target content of the utterance, status of the speaker and the listener, pre-supposition and post-supposition. Genre and register specificity of political discourse as its constant characteristics reflect the change. Conclusions offer some generalizations Virtual Learning offer for Biologic Informatics aspects

Voluntary simplifiers as political consumers: Individuals practicing politics through reduced consumption

2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Einat Zamwel ◽  
Orna Sasson-Levy ◽  
Guy Ben-Porat
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Lifestyle Changes ◽  
Consumption Patterns ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Clear Cut ◽  
Private Realm ◽  
Consumption Practices ◽  
Political Consumption

This article seeks to contribute to the discourse on the politicization of voluntary simplifiers’ consumption patterns. Some scholars argue that voluntary simplifiers’ consumption practices are individualistic and escapist in nature, and therefore cannot be defined as political, and that they are likely to become such only if they organize for collective action. Conversely, we argue that voluntary simplifiers’ lifestyle is an individual political choice that should be analyzed using theories of political consumption. This article, based on interviews with voluntary simplifiers in Israel, identifies four characteristics of voluntary simplifiers that attest to their political nature: (1) multidimensional political discourse, (2) embracement of a holistic and uncompromising lifestyle of simplicity, (3) lifestyle changes as ongoing political process, and (4) the desire to exert influence. We therefore argue that voluntary simplifiers are not only political, but they represent a clear-cut instance of noninstitutionalized political activity realized through individual practices in the private realm.

Women, Gender and Romantic Comedy in Brazil

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 98-120
Author(s):  
Leslie L. Marsh
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Gender And Sexuality ◽  
Romantic Comedy ◽  
Romantic Comedies ◽  
International Attention ◽  
Race Ethnicity ◽  
Class Status ◽  
Ways Of Being

This essay examines the romantic comedies S.O.S. mulheres ao mar (2014) and Meu passado me condena (2013), which repeat several tropes of the chanchada—a film comedy genre with its beginnings in early twentieth-century Brazil. Both offer a negotiation of changing class status in Brazil during a period of increasing international attention and economic growth (2002 to 2014). Although these films promote new notions of Brazilian cultural identity, they also sustain established hierarchies (of gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality) in favor of promoting neoliberal values and ways of being. In particular they promote consumerism, self-improvement, and the cultivation of personal happiness. Unlike Brazilian popular comedy of the mid-twentieth century, these films do not offer self-deprecating critiques of modernity or the failings of capitalism. Rather, S.O.S. mulheres ao mar and Meu passado me condena celebrate and promote the idea of a new emergent Brazil, making gender and sexuality frameworks for thinking about contemporary Brazilian cultural identity.

The Immobility of Power in British Political Theatre after 2000: Absurdist Dystopias

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Merle Tönnies
Keyword(s):  
Indirect Effects ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
New Labour ◽  
First Century ◽  
Political Theatre ◽  
Unequal Distribution ◽  
Clear Cut ◽  
Abstract Representations ◽  
Theatre Of The Absurd ◽  
Distribution Of Power

AbstractThe paper focuses on the twenty-first-century resurgence of political concerns in British theatre, in the traditional (post-1950s) sense of criticising the unequal distribution of power in society. A key approach combines the seemingly incompatible genre characteristics of dystopia and the Theatre of the Absurd to foreground immobility, and two representative cases of such absurdist dystopias are studied in detail: Mark Ravenhill'sMobility is denied in a number of respects in these works: In contrast to earlier political theatre in Britain, the unjust hierarchies are not portrayed as changeable, and audiences are pointedly not supposed to be ‘moved’ by any clear-cut messages either. Moreover, the system representatives and their domestic relationships are shown to become increasingly static through the corrupting force of power, both literally and metaphorically. On the whole, these curiously abstract representations result in claustrophobic scenes, which can have profound indirect effects on the spectators. As the plays also allude to the developments in political discourse from New Labour onwards, the pervasive immobility on stage can at the same time be read as obliquely mocking the recurrent insistence on ‘change’ in the rhetoric of all major parties in Britain.

scholarly journals Wog Zombie: The De- and Re-Humanisation of Migrants, from Mad Dogs to Cyborgs

1970 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nikos Papastergiadis
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Complex Flows ◽  
Contemporary Debate ◽  
Media Reporting ◽  
The Public ◽  
Homo Sacer ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Sovereign Authority

This essay examines several contemporary articulations of the figure of the migrant, exploring both the stigmatic representations of this figure in the public imaginary, and migrants’ own personal self-identifications. I argue that as today’s increasingly complex flows of capital, people and information continue to erode both the sovereign authority of nation-states and the hitherto dominant codes of belonging, the figure of the migrant has undergone a series of reconfigurations. In its contemporary manifestations, the migrant figure has been imagined variously as a mechanical, animalistic, spectral, zombified, vampiric or cyborg entity. I contend that this series of images reveals a complex set of cultural anxieties around issues of belonging, cultural identity, citizenship and mobility. Drawing on theoretical constructs including Giorgio Agamben’s notion of the homo sacer along with representations of the figure of the migrant that have emerged recently within popular culture, literature, political discourse and media reporting, I aim to examine the forms of dehumanisation that are expressed in contemporary debate on migration.

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